Applejack Gets Lost

by MagicS

Heart of Fire V

Much better. That healing magic Sincerity mentioned must really be something for her to be feeling like this after how awful she was just yesterday. Applejack sat up on her bed and carefully removed the wrap of bandages around her hoof. She was a little bit worried about what she might see under it but her fears were unfounded, her hoof looked as good as new. Almost better, like she just got back from a trip to the spa.

“Wow, these ponies really are something.” Applejack jumped off the bed to test things out. No pain, not even any soreness, it was really like she hadn’t accidentally caught her hoof on fire yesterday. Her fever and headache were completely gone too, all in all she felt like a million bits.

Applejack stretched some more before heading out the door of her room, best to get up and at em as quick as possible. She wanted to hear whatever else Temperance and the others had to say about Green Field and that Heart of Fire doohickey. Hopefully they had some advice for her or knew some kind of crazy spell to disenchant it or whatever. Twilight would know what would need to be done with it. Applejack not so much.

She ended up going the same direction down the hallway to find Temperance. The shrine was laid out in a very practical and straightforward manner, her room was situated in the left half of the shrine while the huge room where the Heart of Fire was previously kept was dead center, Applejack was kept in the guest wing and going right out of there would bring her to the center of the shrine. The room where she had initially met Temperance was front and center of the shrine, a second hallway that Applejack didn’t initially see when she first got there led to the right wing of the shrine where the shrine ponies rooms resided. If she had gone left out of her room she would’ve eventually found herself at the exit to the shrine, a large set of stone doors sunk far back into the mountain wall under an overhang with pillars supporting it.

This time Temperance wasn’t in the first room so Applejack made her way back to the larger room on her own, what she figured was the actual “shrine” itself. Coming out into the large shrine Applejack could admire the beauty around her a lot better since she wasn’t feeling sick at all, unlike yesterday. And it was all built right into a mountain, Applejack had no idea how many hundreds of feet of rock were above the ceiling but it amazed her that this place felt so beautiful and natural like it was the gardens of Canterlot castle when it was essentially all in a big cavern.

“Applejack, good to see you well.”

She had been gawking at everything around her that she failed to notice Temperance and two other unicorns walking up to her from a garden at her side. They walked around a fountain displaying two fishes squirting water over each others heads to greet her.

“Good morning to you too, Temperance.” Applejack flashed her a winning smile. “And uh, sorry but I don’t believe I got your names?”

The first of the other unicorns to speak up was a violet colored mare, with a shiny black mane and eyes set back deep in her skull, giving her even more of a gaunt appearance than the other thin ponies here. “I am Resolution, pleased to formally make your acquaintance.” She gave a slight bow of her head to Applejack.

The other was a dull white mare with a straw-blonde mane. “I am Tranquility.” She smiled slightly at Applejack but seemed a bit nervous around the unfamiliar pony.

“Nice to meet the both of ya as well.” Applejack gave out her hoof to shake, which the two did although in Tranquility’s case very gingerly and quickly.

“Well, since our magic seems to have done its work I would like to talk to you about your plans for Green Field now. There are several things I believe are pertinent to discuss.” Temperance said to her.

“Yeah. And just so you know I really meant what I said, I’ll stop her. I can bring that Heart of Fire thing back here for you too.”

“You are too kind.” Temperance smiled at her. “What you are saying is very dangerous but you think nothing of helping complete strangers. Thank you. But before you go to face her again we must give you our aid as well.”

“Giving me aid? I thought you were pacifists?” Applejack asked in confusion.

“Pacifism is not inaction.” Resolution said to her. “We did not allow Green Field to take the Heart of Fire because we knew what she would use it for, but we can help you stop her. It is nothing so direct as a weapon or facing her ourselves, I am sorry to say but that would be stretching our vows too much, but we can give you a magic talisman that will partially neutralize the power of the Heart of Fire.”

“Well I guess I probably would need something like that if I was going to fight her again. The first time didn’t go so good.” Applejack rubbed the back of her neck. “Thanks for doing this for me.”

“No need for that.” Temperance said. “We have a responsibility towards the Heart of Fire as well. The talisman the three of us will prepare for you should expel the Heart from her body if you can touch her with it, it should also work as a shield against the fire she summons.” Temperance’s horn lit up with a light pink glow and a rolled up piece of parchment was drawn out of her cloak. “However, our magic is not near so strong as the Heart of Fire, I do not believe the talisman will be able to withstand her power for long. You must be careful.”

“Don’t worry, I know how she works now and I’ve been in a scrap or two in my life.” Applejack winked at Temperance. “I’ll leave as soon as possible.”

“I thank you again, besides that I must ask that you do not harm Green Field after removing the Heart of Fire from her.”

Applejack stopped a bit at that, not frowning but still a little apprehensive about Temperance asking her that. Sure she wasn’t planning to do anything serious to her, especially since it sounded like she’d be harmless without the Heart, but she had already done so much. Applejack was prepared to do what was necessary if it came down to it. “Is this part of y’all being pacifists?”

“Partially, yes.” Temperance replied. “But I also simply don’t wish such a troubled mare to be hurt anymore, if possible I would like you to bring her back here so we can apologize to her.”

“Well, I’ll try to get her to stop being so revenge-obsessed if I can. Uh, no promises though, I’m more of a hooves on kind of gal.” Applejack nervously chuckled after that.

“I trust in you. Now then,” Temperance used her magic to unfurl the parchment, revealing it as blank. “Resolution, Tranquility, if you would.”

The two other unicorns lit up their horns and fired small, concentrated beams of magic onto the parchment. Together they each drew a line that curved together to form a circle, when that was done Temperance fired her own magic at the parchment to draw a six-sided star in the middle of the circle. Then the three of them drew hearts around it all.

Applejack was uncertain if that last part was necessary or just to pretty it up.

“Here, this is all we can do.” Temperance rolled it up and levitated it to Applejack, who placed it under her hat.

“That’s alright, I got this.”

Temperance allowed herself to giggle a little at that. “Indeed.”

“Alright then, now I should really get on out there. I’ve gotta find her before she does any more damage.” Applejack nodded to the three unicorns and turned to leave the shrine room.

“Hold on, we’ll escort you out, there’s a spell we can use to locate the Heart of Fire, that way you won’t have to be searching blind for her. We are situated high up along the great barrier, it has always allowed us to see the large fires and smoke columns Green Field creates.” Temperance walked along with Resolution and Tranquility right behind her. “But there hasn’t been one today so far, so we have no normal way of telling where she might be or where she is going.”

Applejack and the three unicorns walked through the rest of the shrine, she saw Sincerity on her way out and smiled at the mare, thanking her for the great medicine and all that. Soon they came to the great stone doors that led to the outside, they were probable meant to be moved by magic but Applejack had no problem pushing them open on her own. Immediately rays of sunlight poured onto her, she had to squint her eyes shut to avoid being blinded. Getting her eyes used to the natural light she stepped out and admired the view. They looked to be about halfway up the huge mountain wall, it gave them a commanding view of the valley. Right past the pillars a single long stone staircase went to the ground below. Tripping on that would be pretty bad.

“Great view ya got here.” Applejack smiled back at the shrine ponies.

They all smiled back at her but again Temperance was the one to take the lead. “Yes, it’s perfect to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately we can’t simply appreciate the valley’s natural beauty right now.” She walked out in front of Applejack, right to the edge of the stairs and closed her eyes, concentrating deeply.

Her horn started to glow again but the spell seemed to take much more time than the one she had used for the talisman, maybe she was slowly scanning the entire valley for the Heart and that’s why it was taking so long.

Couldn’t the other two help? Applejack thought to herself but wisely avoided saying it out loud.

After a few more minutes Temperance opened her eyes again. “Found it. Her.” She turned to face Applejack. “She’s moving close to a canyon that a group of ponies have made their home, come here and I can show you exactly the way.”

---

And so it was that Applejack was now lightly running through the forest, she wanted to be sure to catch Green Field before she could attack a town again. And she’d probably do even worse than what she did to that double-building town this time. Applejack was worried that she might really go all the way now if she had fully tamed the Heart of Fire like Temperance believed she had.

Again she thanked herself for keeping her body in such great shape, she couldn’t imagine Rarity in this situation. That mare really should take better care of herself. Oh sure, she always kept her appearance up and made sure she was groomed well but a little exercise is great for everypony. Pinkie Pie mentioned once how she had seen Rarity eating entire cartons of ice cream by herself one day when she got stressed out by some fashion thing.

“Where in the hay is my mind wandering now?” Applejack shook her head of the random thoughts and went back to focusing on trying to find Green Field. She knew the general direction of where she was and where she was going but that might not be good enough. If that fire pony was going along slowly Applejack bet she could catch up easy but if not she might not make it in time.

She was farther north than where she first came across Green Field, a couple of times she had to cross a small stream to get where she needed to go. Speaking of streams the canyon the ponies lived in probably had a river at the bottom too. Maybe if Applejack couldn’t get her with the talisman she could still get her to fall in the river? Would that even work? The Heart of Fire was magic so just falling into a normal river or lake probably wouldn’t do anything. Wouldn’t hurt to try though either if it came down to it, Applejack figured.

It’ll probably start getting a little hotter the closer I get to her, or maybe she just made things hotter around her intentionally when she snuck up on me. Ugh, why does this all have to be so annoying?

She saw a flicker through the trees. And again.

Seems she was going the right way.

Applejack sped up, this time she’d take Green Field by surprise. All she needed to do was get the talisman on her and this would be over. She made sure she didn’t accidentally trip, or step on a twig, or do something that would expose her. She was getting closer now, instead of just looking like a fire from far away she could now make out Green Field’s shape as the fire pony slowly walked forward. Applejack narrowed her eyes, this was it.

Author's Note:

All the shrine ponies are named after one of Benjamin Franklin's virtues because I felt like being pretentious.

Comments

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

And so it was that Applejack was now lightly running through the forest, she wanted to be sure to catch Green Field before she could attack a town again. And she’d probably do even worse than what she did to that double-building town this time. Applejack was worried that she might really go all the way now if she had fully tamed the Heart of Fire like Temperance believes she has.

"believed she had" you're shifting verb tenses here.

[MagicS]

9359021
Grammar is annoying.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

9359076
So's Gramper & the rest of my family.