Applejack Gets Lost

by MagicS

Hired Help

They were staying in a guest suite in the manor, it was already night out as Obsidian stared out the window. Bedrock was eating a bowl of fruit that had been left for them and Marble and Quartz were attempting to teach Applejack some more Hoof of the Earth.

“You felt the vibration last time, now you need to hold it. Amplify it. It should be instinctual.” Marble said.

“Feel as if the heart beat continues to beat in your hoof, let it bounce around inside you and grow stronger each time.” Quartz added.

“Okay, okay.” Applejack did as she was told, again raising her hoof to her heart to capture the vibrations that came from its beating. She was about to attempt what they told her when a thought came into her head.

“Hey wait a second,” She started. “If I’m using my own body to carry and amplify these tremors isn’t that kind of dangerous? What if I mess up and lose control, couldn’t I break the bones in my leg or something?”

“It’s okay, that almost never happens.” Marble reassured her.

“Oh, well that puts me at ease.” She glared at him.

Quartz stepped in. “Don’t worry, first of all an earth pony's body is naturally resistant to such things and your own heartbeat will be familiar. It flows through your bones and muscles naturally. Unlike the tremor from a foreign Hoof of the Earth user. Only in rare cases, or intentionally, can a pony harm themselves with their own tremor.”

Applejack was not completely reassured but nothing was gonna change until she tried it. Again she felt her heartbeat and followed it, not trying to hold onto it yet but just following along as the vibration went throughout her body, just getting a feel for it. Closing her eyes and flattening her ears she tried to calm herself down. Focusing only on that one single sensation. There was no world outside her body. No other ponies, no sound, the only thing that existed was her heartbeat. The rhythm was steady, the beating uniform, any doctor would tell her she had a perfectly normal heartbeat. And that was good, the vibrations all came at the same pace, all taking the same time to spread through her body and then eventually disappearing.

She realized she had enough of a feel for it. Now she needed to capture that vibration and make it stronger. She let her heart beat a few more times with her hoof pressed up against it, the waves of vibration going up her leg, before pulling her hoof away. Furrowing her brow in concentration she imagined flexing her muscle and bottling all those vibrations in.

It worked.

She felt it all staying with her, it was like there was an energy in her hoof now. The vibrations all bounced off each other, going through her bones and muscles but unlike Applejack feared it caused no harm. Instead it just felt right.

Now make it stronger…

She flexed the muscles in her leg. Picturing all the vibrations like actual visible waves bouncing around harder and harder. The energy in her hoof grew and now she felt a steady tingle all along the foreleg she caught the vibrations in. The more they hit each other the stronger they got, and now it was finally time to release them.

Opening her eyes Applejack looked over at the fruit bowl Bedrock was eating from, a cantaloupe caught her attention. She turned around and bucked the coffee table the bowl was on, her expert bucking skills knocking the cantaloupe into the air in an arc over her head. As it passed above her she glanced up and just barely tapped the edge of her hoof against the cantaloupe while visualizing all the vibrations rushing from her body into the fruit.

The results were rather messy.

“Applejack, I’m very happy that you were able to successfully use Hoof of the Earth.” Quartz said. “But I think you could’ve possibly used it on something a bit less… sticky.” Remains of cantaloupe dripped over his face.

“I was going to eat that...” Bedrock whined, the top half of the cantaloupe skin stuck on his head.

“Uh… my bad? Ehe...” Applejack sheepishly rubbed the back of her had, bits and pieces of cantaloupe stuck all over her fur.

“Still that was quite the showing.” Marble told her. “You really do catch on fast.”

Applejack wondered if that was really all there was to it. When she bucked that coffee table she realized something, she had to do it in just the right way to get the cantaloupe to go where she wanted it to. It was easy for her because she’d spent her whole life bucking apple trees, she could perfectly buck a tree and get every single apple to fall right where she wanted it to in her sleep. And the way applebucking worked was kind of similar to Hoof of the Earth wasn’t it? You had to hit something just right with just the right amount of force to send a perfect little tremor through the tree to get the apples to fall the right way. Did she really have a natural talent for Hoof of the Earth or was it easy for her because of all her years on Sweet Apple Acres?

Well whatever, I should probably clean up.

“Come on y'all, don’t worry about the mess, I’ll get that cleaned up in a jiffy.”

“It’s rather late, we could just let the maid do it tomorrow.” Obsidian said as she flicked a stringy piece of cantaloupe from her hair.

“Nuh-uh, a good pony cleans up after themselves. Keeping busy is keeping good, that’s what I always say! Just let me grab some towels from the wash.”

As Applejack was going to get some things to clean up there was a knock on the door. Wiping the last of the cantaloupe from his face, Quartz went to open it.

Outside was a stallion who looked a bit younger than Applejack, he had a somewhat softer shade of maroon coat than Big Dad Redwood and no mustache. His eyes took in the messy state of the room but instead of questioning them about he just shrugged and entered.

“Hello, I’m Wavy Redwood. As you can probably put together Big Dad Redwood is my father.” He looked all of them over, the cantaloupe was not making this a particularly good first impression. “I… hope being covered in fruit is an unusual experience for you all?”

“Uh yeah, it’s my bad, don’t worry about it.” Applejack said. “Pleasure to meet ya though.” Extending a hoof to him.

“Likewise I guess.” He shook it well enough.

“Your father said you were going to write a letter for… Miss Pepper if I recall?” Quartz asked him.

“That’s right. It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other, but-” He suddenly raised his hoof in the air, looking to the ceiling. “I know our love is still strong! There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her, my princess! She certainly still feels the same way about me as well.” He then pulled out a letter and gave it to Applejack. “This letter contains all of my built up feelings over the past few years, it will surely move her heart and this petty disagreement between our towns can be resolved.”

“Okay then.” Applejack said, blandly ignoring him, she had the practice of ignoring overly dramatic ponies thanks to Rarity. She took the letter and placed it under her hat.

“Now that letter is for Pepper’s eyes only, understand!” Wavy said as he stepped right up to Applejack, eyes practically pushing into hers. “It is absolutely private! My personal feelings are not for others to see, okay?”

“Alright, I get it!” Applejack pushed him away from her. “Look, we’re not the types of ponies to pry into your personal life and we’re here to help.”

“Yes, yes. My apologies.” He dusted himself off.

Applejack frowned. “And I would like to be able to clean up and get some sleep. So thanks for coming by but we need to rest before we head off to Mountain Town tomorrow.”

“Fair enough.” At these words he shrugged and began to walk back out the door. “I really hope things go well, for everypony.” Shutting the door and leaving the room quiet after those words.

Applejack thought about the letter she was now carrying, she didn’t think so much would be put on their shoulders in some town they had just wandered into earlier in the day. Getting home, Hoof of the Earth, this quarrel between Valley and Mountain Towns, a mare just can’t have a simple life anymore, can she?

No sense brooding over it all, at least now I can sleep in a bed again. After the cleaning though.

---

Morning came quickly and the party of five was on their way out of town already, coming back to the redwood forest. It was going to be a long walk all the way to Mountain Town so Applejack wanted to start early. The ponies of Valley Town watched them again as they left, maybe some were wondering just what the outsiders were doing but Applejack figured most wouldn’t give them a second thought. A few more minutes of walking went by before the quiet was interrupted.

“Should we have maybe looked into that sheriff?”

Applejack looked behind herself at Marble after he made his idea known.

“Why? He just thought they needed to be prepared didn’t he?”

“I just think there’s something not right about that fort.” Marble said. “The towns have stayed pretty much the same way for a few years now at least and most of Valley Town was full of happy ponies. Even if they haven’t had much contact with Mountain Town lately could it really be that different from what we saw in Valley Town? Do they really think that Mountain Town might attack them out of the blue?”

“You think the sheriff has something else going on?” Quartz chimed in.

“Either that or he really is just paranoid.” Marble continued on. “When we get back from Mountain Town I think we should go talk with him.”

“Alright, I guess he is somepony we should talk to about all this stuff anyways.” Applejack relented. “But first thing’s first, Mountain Town. Hope there aint anything bad going on but we better be prepared.”

Comments

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Hmm, that fort is rather suspicious. Loved that cantaloupe scene, lol.

[RoboRed]

AJ seems to be catching on quite quickly to Hoof of the Earth.
Wonder if that Sheriff might be at the root of what's going on here.

first of all an earth ponies body

"pony's"