Applejack Gets Lost

by MagicS

Heart of Fire I

Applejack walked through the hazy morning with a concerned look on her face. She could smell it from far away and it just got stronger and stronger as she went on. Burnt wood was a smell she knew very well. There had been a forest fire not too long ago around here, otherwise the smell would’ve lifted already. The sky was still a little smoky too, blocking out the sun and making it look overcast, like it was about to start pouring rain down on her. For now despite how bad it looked the air was still fine to breath but if she went further it might get smokier. Unfortunately there wasn’t really anywhere else to go. The rolling green hills spanned in all directions and it didn’t look any better elsewhere. She knew at least that there were settlements down this way, the trails made through the hills looked like they still saw plenty of recent use and this was the direction Starburst said she got ponies from.

She opened up the saddlebag that Squeaky had given her as a gift and took out a pear. Still nice and ripe and every bit as delicious as the first one she had taken out of the crate. “Here’s to you, mama.” Applejack said as she started chowing down on it.

It was nice that she had a bag and a full stomach again, especially since she’d been walking for a while now. She was hoping now that she could find a stream or something to wash her hat and mane in, the frayed ends of her hair were getting to be a bit much. She didn’t mind keeping tidy as much as some ponies like Rarity but she enjoyed her weekly spa visits a lot too. Just a quick dunk in the water would go wonders to putting her mane and tail into a more manageable state.

Applejack yawned a bit as she kept up her walk, the somewhat smoky air made for a lack of much to look at. Even without that she knew she was just walking up a hill covered in evergreens. If it was a bit different she might’ve gone searching for apple trees but this just wasn’t the type of place they grew. It was probably a bad idea to go wandering off the trail when vision was low too.

Not that she would get lost.

Applejack didn’t get lost.

“I definitely wouldn’t get lost.” Applejack said out loud to herself, glaring at the trail and the forest right around her, half considering actually going off it just to prove herself right.

In the end common sense won out and Applejack continued up the trail. With a big frown on her face but still.

About halfway up the hill the trail stopped going straight up and began to curve around the hill. Fine by Applejack, made it a lot easier to walk. That burnt smell got stronger as she started to round the hill though, it might’ve been that the whole other side of the hill had been on fire. Or if not that then the latest fire was somewhere else very close. There weren’t any birds or critters around, which didn’t surprise Applejack, the fires probably scared them all away. It was a quiet morning.

It might’ve been getting closer to noon though for all she knew, the smoky sky made it impossible for her to see just where the sun was. It didn’t seem like the day had gotten any brighter over the past hours since she had woken up. Her body was telling her that she had woken up at her normal early morning time but if she had overslept even just a little she could be way off on what time it was.

Applejack peeked up at the overcast looking sky. “At least it aint actually raining. Course with my luck now that I said that...” Applejack shook her head and hoped for the best.

As Applejack continued on the sheer quietness was actually starting to get to her. She was fine being on her own, especially more than Pinkie or Fluttershy would be in this situation, but she liked being able to have at least somepony to talk to. And it wasn’t even the lack of a conversation partner but just how unnaturally quiet and still everything was on this hill. There weren’t even any bugs buzzing around. It’s like the forest fire had turned this whole hill into one big dead zone.

The haze that hung around the ground was growing thicker and making it harder for Applejack to see. She grabbed her hat and started using it to clear up some of the air. What a hassle.

Pushing through the heavy air Applejack kept her hooves on the trail. “I should’ve just gone around all these darn hills. Trail or not it couldn’t be worse than breathing all this in.” It was actually coming close to where Applejack might start coughing, she knew there wasn’t a fire actually burning right now but the smokiness was starting to become unbearable anyways.

Maybe there was a fire? For all she knew there was some crazy weather phenomenon going on in these hills and she was about to walk right into a forest fire. But there was no heat, no light from the fire, and not nearly as much smoke as there should be if that was the case.

A few more minutes of battling through that thick, heavy air on the trail and Applejack had reached the back half of the mountain. The wind had begun picking up, she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, maybe it would clear up all the leftover smoke or blow in some more from somewhere else on the hills. Another minute or two of walking and the air was actually starting to thin out, for the first time in a while Applejack could see more than ten feet in front of her.

There wasn’t a very pretty sight waiting for her.

As Applejack partially suspected the whole back half of the hill was blackened. The fire here had been fierce and there wasn’t a single bit of green left on this part of the hill, it even spread to the valley in between hills and up the adjacent one. All the dead greenery and charred remains of the hill made Applejack happy that she didn’t get caught up in the fire. But Starburst had said there were multiple forest fires and Applejack didn’t really want to lollygag in an area like this, who knew when the next one would happen. For now she’d walk down the hill and head over to the next one. Hopefully she’d get to a wetter area or at least somewhere with a town where she could hang out for a bit.

Or Ponyville.

Naw, fat chance on that one…

The burnt wood and plants crunched under her hooves as she descended the hill. If there was a trail leading down at one point the fire had done away with it. A log crumbled beneath her, the insides just a gray ash. Shaking off her hoof to get that ash out Applejack slowed down a bit, she didn’t want to suddenly stumble on something weakened by the fire. She’d fallen on her face more than enough lately. And rolling down a hill would probably be a little bit worse than that.

The smell was another thing bothering her. This place didn’t have the smell of nicely burning firewood, that smell that reminded her of home and family, this was just the overpowering smell of a wildfire’s devastating results. Something she could do without.

Applejack grimaced as she kept on down the hill. There was just something unnatural about this fire. Something just felt wrong with it.

Her instincts had never led her astray before, sense of direction maybe, but never her instincts. “Best to get through this place quick.”

It took a good long while but Applejack made it through the burnt areas and was now walking through the forest on the next hill. This hill was much smaller than the one she had just been on, she hoped that meant that it was one of the last ones and she could start traversing level ground again. Even if it was just some boring plains or a wasteland.

It still bothered her how quiet it was even though she had long left behind the areas actually affected by the forest fire. There still weren’t any animals around or even any bugs. Just what in the hay was going on around here that the animals still wouldn’t return to their homes even after the fire was long done with?

Applejack sighed. “Something nuts is gonna happen again soon aint it?” She looked up through the trees at the sky as she spoke, the sun moving just past the noon position. Rolling her eyes she went back to staring straight ahead. “I’m avoiding any kind of craziness that I can. I’m just going home. No more adventures, no more crazy ponies to fight, nothing except walking.”

Instead of going around this hill Applejack just walked straight to the top since it wasn’t that big. Once she got to the top she could see what was in store for her. Unfortunately the top of the hill was covered in trees that obstructed her view so Applejack had to climb up one of the taller ones so she could survey just what was further north now.

Quite a bit as it turned out.

A lush, verdant green valley stretched out right before here. Healthy forests, grasslands, numerous rivers and tiny lakes. It was a beautiful sight for Applejack. To her right a huge mountain jutted out of the ground, almost looking out of place enough that Applejack wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Discord put it there for fun. It looked less like a normal mountain and more like a sheer wall of rock, stretching on the far side of the valley all the way to the horizon. To her left the valley slowly petered out into simple yellow plains that went as far west as Applejack could see. It would’ve been a picture perfect sight but for one thing.

The dark spots.

She could see numerous dots of blackened land from up here, there seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to them. Just a few dozen random spots where wildfires had taken place.

Despite the overwhelming beauty before her, with ninety-nine percent of the land looking perfect, her eyes were drawn to the blemishes. There was something wrong with these fires, Applejack could feel it. But for now all she could do was travel on.

Author's Note:

Arc 5 begins.

This is also the halfway point of the story.

Comments

[Zipp Storm]

will there be a squeal to this?

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

It was nice that she had a bag and a full stomach again, especially since she’d been walking for a while now. She was hoping now that she could find a stream or something to wash her hat and mane in, the frayed ends of her hair were getting to be a bit much. She didn’t mind....(not)…. keeping tidy as much as some ponies like Rarity but she enjoyed her weekly spa visits a lot too. Just a quick dunk in the water would go wonders to putting her mane and tail into a more manageable state.

9351414
Oh wait, you meant a sequel.

[Zipp Storm]

9351442
Yeah. A sequel to the story. Will there be one?

[MagicS]

9351442
I guess that sentence might be a little unwieldy but I'm trying to say that even though Applejack doesn't put much effort into it she still likes looking and feeling nice. By "mind" I mean like, "doing" or "thinking about" rather than being bothered by.

9351414
I don't have any plans for a direct sequel but I have some more story ideas that are in the same vein and world I guess as this one. A Rarity story, a Starlight story, a Trixie story, an Amethyst Star story and a Rainbow Dash story.

[Zipp Storm]

9351496
okay