Applejack Gets Lost

by MagicS

Race to the Finish

Applejack backed up, she steadied her hooves and took a deep breath, making sure to adjust her hat so it wouldn’t fall off when she made her jump. Nodding, Applejack ran forward, quickly approaching the edge of the chasm. Right as her hooves hit the edge she jumped with all her strength, stretching her body as best she could to make it to the other side. Her hooves luckily found purchase on the hard ground and Applejack skidded to a stop, trying to keep herself from tumbling over with all her momentum. Looking back at the chasm she jumped over Applejack gave herself a smirk.

“Yee-haw! Aint no problem for a mare like me!”

She’d been walking through the mountains all morning now. It wasn’t so bad though, no more trouble than when they had all climbed that mountain outside of Ponyville that that dragon had made home for a bit. Kind of boring though, sometimes she had to jump from rock to rock or climb a small cliff face but besides that it was a quiet road through the mountains. If she was Fluttershy she could at least talk to the few birds she had seen.

Her mane and coat were covered in dirt after she had taken a short spill down a hill earlier. Didn’t do her appearance any favors but she didn’t mind much about that, already hadn’t been looking too hot for a while.

The wind was starting to pick up something fierce though so it would be nice if she could get down these mountains and out of the darn wind tunnel formed in the mountain’s valleys. At least the climate wasn’t bad enough for there to be snow. Trudging through that would be a real pain, she could live with the wind compared to that.

The path she was on now started to spiral around one of the mountains, from what Applejack could tell this should be just about the end of the mountains, once she was on the other side she could descend down to whatever was at the foot of the mountain. Forest? Desert? Who knows, she’d have to wait and see.

“What in tarnation?”

The mountain path led down to a flat plateau coming out the side of the mountain, a long and steep but also smooth slope from the top of the plateau went to the land below it in the direction away from the rest of the mountains. Right where Applejack wanted to go.

What had her so surprised was all the ponies around.

Hundreds of ponies crowded around the slope, up and down it with most of them gathered at the plateau, there were even stands made on the far side of the slope for ponies to sit in. She wasn’t sure what the hay was going on but she was gonna find out whether she wanted to or not. Applejack shook herself out of her surprise and continued her walk down the path. It probably wouldn’t take too long for the ponies down there to see her, if they even paid her any mind at all.

Getting down there Applejack started realizing what was going on. She saw concession stands set up along the plateau, many different groups of ponies wearing uniforms, and she noticed that a big white line had been painted at the top of the slope from one end to the other. But what really tipped her off were the carts.

Wooden race carts, eight of them, each group of uniformed ponies seemed to have their own. They were tending and inspecting every inch of them. Applejack saw that each cart was numbered on its side from one to eight.

It’s a derby, like our own Applewood Derby, they’re racing these carts downhill. Applejack looked at the slope they’d be going down, this race would be a lot more serious than the derby she was used to. Up here on the plateau they were still a good one or two thousand feet above ground level. And this slope was steep.

Taking a look across the way at the stands Applejack saw that most ponies were clearly not wearing any uniforms, they were just fans coming here to watch. Must be a real popular event.

“Wow, well I really got here at a fun time.” Applejack said to herself as she walked through the crowd, looking around at the ponies working on their carts. She walked past a group wearing rainbow colored uniforms that matched the paint job on their cart and another that wore black uniforms with lightning bolts cutting across them. “Heh, really going all out aren’t they?”

There were a few fan ponies taking pictures or slurping on drinks that Applejack walked past, a lot of them wearing the colors of their favorite teams too. She was thinking of making her way to the stands and maybe taking a little rest, depending on when the race started she might actually watch it. Walking down the rest of the mountain right now wasn’t the most appealing thing to her, maybe she could ask the next pony she ran into when the race would start.

As her stomach loudly grumbled she also figured some food would be nice.

But when she turned to walk over to one of the concession stands a gray filly that had been running full speed plowed right into Applejack. Naturally Applejack was strong enough to not be knocked over or harmed or anything like that but the filly wasn’t so lucky. She tumbled backwards with a loud “Oomph!” and the box she was carrying went flying with all the little things in it spilling out onto the ground.

“Ugh! Ow, I’m so sorry!” The little filly picked herself up, shaking her head. “Sorry, sorry!” She repeated to Applejack, but not even looking at her as she frantically tried to gather up all the things she dropped. “Oh this is bad, this is so bad!”

Applejack noticed that the box had a bunch of first-aid supplies in it, gauze, bandages, you name it.

“No need to apologize, here let me help you with that.” Applejack got the box for the filly and helped her fill it back up, while doing this, Applejack saw that the filly was wearing a green uniform with pink flowers printed on it. She must be part of one of the teams.. The filly bowed her head profusely to Applejack over and over in thanks.

“Thank you so much ma’am, I’m sorry for running into you! I’ve gotta go now, bye!” She ran off at full speed again, Applejack could hear her muttering “This is so bad” to herself again and again.

“Huh.” Applejack just shrugged. “Am I old enough to be called ma’am?”

Shaking her head at the thought Applejack started walking over to the nearest concession stand. It had a big sign on it with pictures of hay burgers and fries. Yummy.

“Howdy partner.” She said to the big stallion behind the counter. “What do ya got here for me?”

The big stallion’s face opened up in a salespony’s smile. “Well I’m glad you asked! We make the best hay burgers around, but that’s not all, not even close! We’ve got hay fries, hay sandwiches, hay pies, hay wraps, hay tacos, and hay on the cob! What’ll you be having, sister?”

Applejack’s stomach rumbled again as he listed off his wares. She licked her lips hungrily but there was a tiny problem with all of this. “Uh, well, I’m kind of a little short on cash at the moment. Is there anything I can get for… well, free?” She sheepishly smiled at him.

His expression surprisingly stayed the same. “Oh, well why didn’t you say so!” He said as positively as ever. “I’ve got just the thing for you!”

He reached his hoof under the counter as if rummaging for something and pulled it back up, reaching it out to Applejack.

And only holding empty air.

“It’s nothing! Now get out of here and make way for real customers.” He snorted at her, eyes narrowed and annoyed at her for wasting his time.

“I don’t think you had to be that rude about it.” Applejack frowned and turned away.

It was unlikely that any of the other food vendors would give her food for free so she went back to walking to the other side of the plateau where the stands for ponies to watch the race were. Most of the non-race related ponies seemed to be thinning out and going to the stands as well, she only saw a few still straggling around the carts, teams, and food. She also saw a few ponies in referee uniforms inspecting the carts and setting some of them up along the starting line.

“Are you gonna be okay? Do you think you can still drive?”

Applejack’s ears perked up at the familiar voice. Looking to her right she saw a group of ponies wearing the same green and flowery uniform that that little filly was wearing. They were crowded around a cart that had all kinds of flowers painted on it, but Applejack could see their faces concerned and unhappy about something.

Her curiosity getting the better of her, Applejack decided to walk over and see what was going on.

Walking over to the circle of uniformed ponies Applejack saw one in the center being tended to by the gray filly that had run into her. He had a darker gray coat than the filly and had a sling around one of his forelegs. Applejack saw him try to move it slightly but wince.

“What do we do?” One of the mares next to Applejack said to a pony standing next to her. “Root’s the only one who can drive this course.”

“I don’t know, this is a disaster!”

Applejack’s good nature was also now about to get the better of her.

“Did something happen with your leg?” She walked up and asked the gray stallion, the other ponies in the group looking at her with bemusement. Probably wondering what this random stranger was doing. And really, what was she doing? This was just the kind of situation she shouldn’t get herself involved with, she had her own journey to get done with. But seeing someone in trouble like this, ughhhhh.

The filly looked up at her with a shine in her eyes, recognizing the pony she ran into. The stallion, her father and the pony named Root Applejack was sure enough to bet the farm on, also looked at her but with much more confusion on his face.

“Uh, yeah. I was going to be driving our cart today for the race but one of the crates with our teams uniforms fell right on my leg. No one else can drive the cart like me and the race is too important to forfeit.”

“Well I know this might sound crazy.” Applejack started as she rubbed the back of her neck. “But I could drive the cart.”

The circle of ponies around her gasped and shouted cries of indignation while the filly’s father just looked at her incredulously.

“Can you even? And who are you and why are you even offering that in the first place?”

“My name’s Applejack, actually your daughter here ran into me earlier and then I heard a commotion over here and well, that’s that.” She shrugged.

“And you’re just offering to race for me out of the kindness of your heart?” He looked pretty suspecting of her.

“I think that’s the only reason a pony should need for doing something.” Applejack gave him a big sincere smile… and then blushed deeply as her stomach rumbled. “Um, you can just ignore that. And besides I need to go downhill anyways.”

The filly started poking her dad in the side. “Dad, dad, she’s a nice pony, she helped me pick all this stuff up after I ran into her.”

“I guess.” He looked Applejack up and down. “But can you drive a cart at all?”

“Are you kidding me? You’re looking at a veteran of the Ponyville Applewood Derby, I know more than a thing or two about cart racing.” She said proudly, puffing out her chest. The incident at the most recent Applewood Derby was obviously not worth mentioning.

The other ponies were all muttering to each other, a bit uncertain about the events transpiring.

“I haven’t heard about that but honestly we’re out of options.” He looked down at his daughter. “Squeaky, go get my gear for miss Applejack here.” The filly saluted and ran around the cart to rummage around in a box. Root then turned back to Applejack. “Hope you can handle yourself.”

Squeaky came back around with goggles and gloves for Applejack. She put em on and climbed into the cart, the other ponies on the team started to push her to the starting line. Their cart would be the last one to get into position, Applejack saw they’d be right next to the rainbow team she had seen earlier. Figuring she should remember what number she was, Applejack peeked over the side to see the number 7 on her cart. There were blocks set up at the starting line to keep the carts there that would be removed once the race began, the referee’s had already begun milling about, getting ready for the race to begin.

One of the ponies on Root and Squeaky’s team was sweating a bit, she seemed awfully worried about letting Applejack race their cart.

“I don’t know about this...”

“Don’t worry none, ma’am. I promise I’ll do a great job.” Applejack told her with completely baseless confidence.

Root came up to the side of her cart while a referee with a checkered flag walked to the center of the slope. “Good luck, I hope you’re as good as you think. Just to let you know they added some more pits and rings of fire as obstacles this year.”

Applejack’s pupils shrank. “Wait, what? What did you just say?”

She didn’t get the chance to ask more about that as Root stepped away from the cart and the checkered flag was waved. The blocks keeping the carts in place were yanked away and the eight racers went speeding downhill. Applejack’s derby had begun.

Comments

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

The one that they really need is Scootaloo or at least Apple Bloom

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Nice start to this arc.

[redmar]

You used a very similar concept for Amethyst's story.

[MagicS]

10651111
Yeah that was this idea but expanded upon.

[RoboRed]

Ooh, a race! Awesome!