Applejack Gets Lost

by MagicS

Heart of Fire X

“Talk? You want to talk?!” Green Field brought her fireball down lower to the point where it was making Applejack sweat. The licks of flame could almost reach her head. “There’s nothing more to talk about! You know what happened, you know why I’m doing this!”

Applejack didn’t flinch and continued to look at Green Field. “I heard from others about what happened. There’s a big difference between that and hearing it from you. I don’t think we need to fight anymore. Just talk to me.”

“You stupid little pony!” The fireball flickered and expanded, sparks flying to the ground. “After everything I’ve done to you you think you can still just talk to me?” Green Field shook in anger where she stood, staring down Applejack.

“Yes.” Applejack replied. “Cause when I look at you, when I listen to you, I don’t see some evil pony or monster destroying things for their own amusement or for some other selfish reason. All I see is a sad, upset pony lashing out.” Applejack dropped the Heart of Water to the ground and reached her hoof forward in a placating gesture. “Please. Talk to me. Tell me what happened, tell me how you feel inside.”

Green Field glared down at Applejack, if it wasn’t for her current fiery state her eyes would be bloodshot and her forehead creased in fury.

“Fine! You want to hear about it so bad? Hear about what I went through! Then fine!” The fireball she was hovering over Applejack’s head fizzled away and Green Field walked closer to her till they were only a few steps away from each other. “Do you know how normal my life was?” Green Field gestured to her head of lettuce Cutie Mark with a morose look on her face. “It was just a farm like any other...”

---

The brown filly with her chestnut mane and tail woke up at the first crack of dawn. Yawning wide she tossed off her sheets and hopped out of bed, smiling even wider as she opened up her curtains and looked out at the beautiful morning and bright sun outside.

“Good morning, world!”

Rows upon rows of lettuce spread out from the farmhouse, the leafy greens wet with morning dew and glistening in the sunlight. To Green Field there was no sight more pleasing. Wiping the last vestiges of sleep from her eyes she reached over to her nightstand to grab her sun hat. Right where she left it last night, always making sure everything was in place the night before for the next day of work.

Putting it on and tying the bow under her chin to make sure it stayed in place she opened up her door and merrily trotted out of her room.

She could hear her older brothers stirring in their room and she smirked to herself. She was always quicker to get up and get ready than them. As she walked down the hallway the pleasant smell of soup wafted to her nose, her mother had probably been up a good hour already now to prepare breakfast and everything for the rest of the family. Green Field pushed open the swinging door and walked into the kitchen to see her father sitting at the table spreading butter on a piece of toast while her mother stirred a large pot of soup.

Taking in a whiff of the air, Green Field sighed contentedly. What a great way to start the morning.

She walked over to the table to sit down next to her father, who silently nodded to her in acknowledgment. Green Field smiled back while her mother looked over her shoulder to give her daughter a small smile of her own. Taking a piece of toast from the plate in the center of the table the young filly started chowing down on it. Not bothering with any butter like her father.

“Could you tell if your brothers were awake yet?” Her father absentmindedly asked her, eyes still fixed on his toast.

“Yes sir, I heard them moving around in there.” She beamed proudly knowing that her parents knew she was ready well before her brothers.

“That’s good, it’s gonna be a long day in the field today.” Her father replied, taking a single bite out of his toast.

Green Field’s mother finished up with her soup and blew out the fire in the stove. Hefting the large pot with her potholders she brought it to the counter and began to use a big ladle to serve its delicious contents into five bowls.

A morning as same and as perfect as any other.

The familiar squeak of the swinging door being pushed open announced her brothers arrivals. The twin brothers with their identical gray coats but dark red manes and tails, they even styled their manes into the same bowl cut. It was weird looking. Even as their little sister she could never tell them apart without looking at their Cutie Marks. Her brother Leaf and his wagon Cutie Mark and her other brother Root and his hoe Cutie Mark.

The two of them wordlessly dragged their hooves over to the table and took their seats while their mother put the bowls of soup in front of everypony. The soup was thick and hearty, it needed to be to last them all through their hard labor every morning in season. Green Field’s mother took her own seat and started to drink up too, her portion was notably smaller than any of the others. It was a quiet breakfast as always, the noise made from the farm ponies slurping up soup the only sound in the kitchen. Talking could come later, after their work was done. But until then, from sunrise to sunset, it was all business at the family farm.

Green Field was the first to finish her soup, she sat patiently waiting for her father and brothers to finish so they could get started on harvesting today. Her first major harvest since getting her Cutie Mark. It was starting to become difficult to contain her excitement, she’d been waiting for this for forever. She knew a farmer needed patience but she wished everypony else would hurry up!

Finally after what seemed like an eternity her brothers and father put down their spoons. Bowls as dry as a bone.

“Alright, up and at em. We’ve got a lot of work to do.” Her father pushed out his chair and stood up, leading the way for Green Field, Leaf and Root to follow him outside.

The sun’s bright rays beat down on Green Field and her family as they walked to the endless rows of lettuce. She was pretty thankful for her hat right now and would become even more thankful later in the day when the sun was high and the last little bits of morning chill were gone for good.

The tools and boxes for the lettuce had been set up the night before, now it was time to dig the heads out and get them ready for delivery.

A long repetitive process that took up Green Field’s whole day. She saw the sun moving through the sky as she went up and down each row with her family. Sweat was dripping from her brow despite the hat and she was getting sore all over.

And she loved it.

Smiling the whole time as she got the heads of lettuce and packaged them carefully, what was there to not like? She liked to think of all the other ponies who ate their lettuce, how much her family provided for the ponies around. She took pride in her work, she liked the tough labor, her father made sure to instill good hardworking values in them all. It was a simple life. An exhausting life. But she wouldn’t change it for anything.

The next day she walked down the road from her farm with her brother Leaf, he was pulling a wagon loaded with boxes of lettuce that they would deliver to the other farms around here. Her father and Root meanwhile took another wagon and delivered lettuce to various other towns and ponies in the valley. Green Field from here could see their destination coming up, the wheat farm adjacent to her family’s own. She’d been eating bread made from this farm’s wheat all her life.

She trotted ahead of her brother, but not far enough to leave him behind, she was just excited to get there and deliver the lettuce she harvested personally. The rolling wheat fields swayed in the slight breeze, she had ran through them many times before while playing with friends.

The road took them right in front of the spotlessly painted white house. Mr. Dough was already waiting for them, waving cheerfully. Green Field and Leaf both happily waved back. Mr. Dough was one of the nicest ponies Green Field knew, one time he had taken her and some of the other kids around to the mill so they could see how wheat became dough. After that they had all come back to his farm and his wife made fresh bread for them all, it was just about the most delicious thing she had ever eaten.

“Well how are two of my favorite ponies around doing?” He cheerfully greeted them with as Leaf pulled the wagon to a stop and Green Field happily ran over.

“Great! Yesterday we got through everything!” Green Field smiled up at him, boasting of her accomplishment while Leaf just smiled lightly and nodded. “I packed your box of lettuce myself.” She gestured back at the wagon with her hoof before running to it and hopping on the back, wrapping her hooves around one of the boxes on top and hopping back off.

Only slightly struggling with the weight and size of the box.

Green Field put it on her back and carried it over to Mr. Dough. Hooves trembling only slightly.

“Easy there now, don’t want to hurt yourself.” He picked the box up from her back and winked at her. "Thanks a lot though, I can’t wait to have a salad with the best lettuce in the whole wide world.”

Green Field blushed and rubbed the back of her head embarrassedly. “Aw, you don’t need to go that far.”

Leaf just rolled his eyes. “Come on squirt, there’s more deliveries to make.”

“Now hold on a second you two.” Mr. Dough said to them, grabbing their attention. “Come on inside for a minute, I got a special treat that you’ll love.”

“I really appreciate the offer Mr. Dough but we should really stick to our deliveries, and we couldn’t possibly intrude on you either.” Leaf smiled good-naturedly while shaking his head at Mr. Dough’s offer. Green Field pouted but knew that Leaf had a point.

“That’s real good of you kids.” Mr. Dough closed his eyes and nodded appreciatively. “But are you really telling me you’re gonna turn down some pear pie?” With a grin he opened his eyes a sliver at the two of them.

Both of the lettuce farming ponies jaws dropped.

“Did you say pear pie?” Leaf asked, as if he couldn’t believe his ears.

“That’s right. Won it in a card game last night at Wellpeak. Brought it back for the family but figured it’d be good to share with my favorite neighbors too.”

“We, we can’t accept that.” Leaf shook his head, he really wanted a piece of pear pie but it was such a rare delicacy that it just wouldn’t sit right with him to take some from Mr. Dough.

Green Field wasn’t paying attention to her brother at all though, she just stood there with her mouth watering and eyes sparkling at the opportunity to have pear pie.

Mr. Dough chuckled at Leaf’s unwillingness to impose. “Please, I’m going to be sending over slices of it to your father even if you say no now. Come on inside.” He turned and carried the box of lettuce into his house, beckoning Leaf and Green Field to come in after him.

Leaf looked down at his little sister to see what she thought.

The only response was an eagerly nodding filly with drool dripping out of her mouth. Leaf sighed and began walking in after Mr. Dough, Green Field quickly speeding past him.

Through the hallway and sitting room and straight into the kitchen, Mr. Dough put the box of lettuces down on the kitchen table, cracking his back he smiled to Leaf and Green Field before walking over to the stove.

And there it was. Green Field could see it sitting there over the stove. A perfectly made pear pie. The lightly browned and flaky crust coming over the pan, the smallest trace of its aroma still drifting off it. It would’ve been big enough to feed their family even without having dinner first, it looked amazing. Mr. Dough reached into a drawer by the stove and pulled out a knife, he grabbed the pie off the stove and carried it into his family’s dining room, Leaf and Green Field mesmerized by it and following closely behind.

“Ten slices will be just about perfect.” Mr. Dough said as he carefully placed it on his dining room table.

“Ten?” Leaf asked. His own family had five members but he knew that Mr. Dough and his wife only had one colt.

“I’ll be giving two to Hoofshot, he can bring one home to his daughter.”

Leaf nodded, Hoofshot was the farmhoof who worked in Mr. Dough’s field. Without him there’d just be too much wheat for Mr. Dough’s family to get through.

“Um, where’s Golden by the way?” Green Field asked Mr. Dough, thoughts momentarily taken off the pear pie on the table.

Leaf glanced at her and saw the faintest bit of blush on her cheeks as she asked about Mr. Dough’s son. He rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath. “Fillies...”

“Oh he’s cleaning things up out back at the moment, I’ll slice this pie up and holler at him to come in so you can all eat together. Me and the missus can have our pie later tonight.” Mr. Dough did exactly as he said. The moment the knife cut into the criss-crossing crust on top the smell of baked pears started to fill the room, Green Field and Leaf breathed in deep through their noses to savor it. A few perfect slices divided the pie into ten pieces, Mr. Dough told them to hold on for a second while he went to fetch his son.

Green Field’s tail was swishing around in anticipation. Pear pie and getting to spend some time around her crush? Could this day get any better?!

Mr. Dough came back in through the back door with his son in tow. Golden had a bright yellow mane and tail with a stark white coat and big, droopy, puppy-dog eyes. Green Field blushed a little when he walked in and waved nervously. Just barely squeaking out a “Hi” to him when he sat down next to her.

“You kids enjoy now.” Mr. Dough said as he brought out three plates from the kitchen and put a slice of pear pie on each. Then he headed out back, maybe to finish the work he had taken Golden from.

“Well, ready to eat?” Golden asked the two of the them. He was looking forward to the pie just as much.

Green Field nodded frantically while Leaf was a bit more reserved.

Picking up forks they all dug in together.

“It’s. So. Good.” Green Field said before even swallowing her first bite, forgetting completely about her manners.

The three ponies ate the rest of their pie in relative silence. It was simply too good and too special to break their meal up with talk. Green Field had never had anything like it, the pears, the crust, it was all so perfect. Even Leaf was silently savoring every last morsel of flavor. The taste made her want to scarf it all down as quickly as possible, but what a waste that would’ve been, instead she slowed herself down. Eating far slower than she ever thought she could just so she could have this slice of pear pie for as long as possible.

Golden finished his and licked his lips clean, rubbing his belly happily. “That was amazing.”

Green Field and Leaf both finished up soon after, Green Field holding her face in her hooves as she let the flavor sit in her mouth, a completely blissful expression on her face.

“Yeah...” She managed to get out, still on cloud nine from the delicious pear pie.

Leaf stood up from the table and wiped off his face. “I really can’t thank your father enough for the pie but the two of us also have to get back to our deliveries.” He nodded at Green Field who just groaned and got out of her chair too. “Thank you for the hospitality, Golden.”

“Was no bother to us at all.” Golden smiled at the two of them, causing Green Field to blush.

Leaf led his lettuce farming sister out of the house and back to their wagon. She was absolutely ecstatic at how the day had gone, she was sure she’d have a big goofy grin on her face till she went to sleep. Leaf was strapping himself back onto the wagon when Golden came out, looking like he was holding something behind his back.

“Hey hold on a second!” He said, looking to Green Field.

She perked up in pleasant surprise and trotted over to him. “What is it?”

Golden chewed on his lip for a second before glancing to Leaf.

Seeming to get what he was asking Leaf rolled his eyes and started walking away to give the two of them some privacy.

“So, I was really happy to see you today.” Golden said to her. “I was glad my dad called me inside.”

“Oh… oh.” Green Field’s eyes went wide and she started blushing harder than before.

“Uh, I mean… I know you have to get back to work but I just really wanted to talk to you.” Golden was starting to get a blush too under his droopy eyes.

“W-Well, I’m glad you did. I always like talking to you too.” Green Field awkwardly shuffled her hooves.

“Yeah, known you for a real long time now.”

“Mhm...”

There was a pause in the conversation as both of them were a little too nervous to continue. But it only took a second longer for Green Field to realize that Golden was hiding something from her.

“Hey, what are you holding onto?”

“Oh!” He jumped a little, startled. “Well, uh, nothing really.” He nervously pulled out his hoof, showing the daisy he was holding to her. “I just, uh… picked it earlier and thought you might like it.”

Green Field’s mouth opened but no words came out, instead her face just lit up and she tenderly took the daisy from his hoof. “T-Thanks. I really like it.” She sputtered, trying to not act embarrassed and failing miserably. “I-It’s a really nice gift...”

Golden gulped. “Thank you.” His blushing had almost gotten as bad as hers. “So, I said I was happy to see you today… I’d be happier if I could see you even more. If you want.” As Green Field looked at him in shock he kept trying to look everywhere but into her eyes.

“I’d like to see you even more too.” Green Field answered him, heart beating out of control in her chest.

Golden finally looked back at her and smiled wide. “You know I’ve been wanting to ask that for a long time.”

“I’ve been wanting to hear it for a long time.”

Green Field took a step forward, if Golden took one too they’d be close enough to…

The years passed by.

Not in so much of a flash, farm work was difficult and the family was always busy. But time went on as it always did. And once a precocious filly, Green Field had now become a young mare. Her father had more lines under his eyes than he used to and he wasn’t as fast when working but every morning he still got up to tend to the fields just the same. Whenever Green Field wasn’t helping around the family farm she was spending her time with Golden. In short, life was good.

It was late now as she pulled her family’s wagon back to the farm. She’d been strong enough for a while now to take it with her and make deliveries throughout the valley all on her own. The sun was setting right in front of her, casting an orange glow across the top of the cornstalks she walked past. Soon she’d be home and she could make some time for Golden.

Green Field’s ears perked up as she heard something from up ahead. At first she thought it might have been the yelping from some over-active kids playing around, but when she listened harder and heard it again it just sounded like screaming. Green Field furrowed her brow as she kept walking with her wagon, slightly picking up the pace at the worrying noise.

As she got closer she noticed that the orange glow over the fields wasn’t just from the sun, something was burning, she could see the smoke rising in the sky now.

“Fire?! Oh no.” Green Field unlatched herself from the wagon and started running, from where she was it looked like the fire was at Ms. Spring’s watermelon patch.

She got off the path and made a shortcut through the cornfield. It didn't take long for her to make her way through it but as she did the sounds of screaming and panic kept growing louder. It sounded like something else was going on besides just a fire, there was too much noise.

Finally Green Field passed through the last row of corn.

“What is this?” She quietly said as she looked on in horror.

Ponies she recognized, her neighbors and friends, ran throughout the farms in chaos, being chased by mean and rough looking ponies that Green Field had never seen before. Ms. Spring’s house was on fire and so were several others. Absentmindedly looking in the direction of her home, Green Field could see smoke rising from that direction too.

She saw one of her old friends, Parsnips, lying on the ground with a bruise on her head only a few feet away from her. At Ms. Spring’s watermelon patch several of the mean looking ponies were loading up all the watermelon’s they could carry onto a wagon while Ms. Spring was tied up on the ground. Luckily nopony else had seen her yet.

I have to get home.

With all the chaos that was going on Green Field hoped that none of the attackers would notice her as she ran from farm to farm. Hopefully they’d be too busy plundering stuff right now to give some random farm pony any notice.

She was getting closer, running through the tall wheat of Golden’s farm but for once not thinking about him, just trying to make sure her family was okay. She could see her house past the wheat and rows of lettuce now, smoke was billowing out of its windows-

“Get down!”

Green Field found herself pushed to the ground in the wheat field, she tried to scream but a hoof covered her mouth and a familiar voice whispered in her ear.

“Shh! Be quiet.” Golden said to her as he had them lying in the dirt, the stalks of wheat high enough that nopony could see them if they were walking on level ground with them. “We can’t do anything right now, just stay low and don’t make a peep.”

Green Field started to cry as the realization of her own helplessness kicked in. But Golden was right, what could she do? Every time the wheat in front of her waved with the wind she could make out details of what was happening at her farm. Unfamiliar ponies were stealing her family’s lettuce, they were burning down the house she lived in, they were taking any valuables they saw and loading them up in their saddlebags. She saw her brothers beaten up and tied together, helplessly forced to watch as it all happened. Where were her parents? Were they okay? What about Golden’s parents?

“They came from the plains to the west.” Golden began to whisper to her, probably to keep her from dwelling on anything. “They just started running through all the farms, taking whatever they felt like and attacking anypony that tried to stop them. We can’t fight back anymore, there’s too many of them and they’re vicious. They started setting fires a little bit ago. My dad tried to stand up to their leader and just got a face full of dirt for his trouble. We need to hide for now, it’ll be okay, I promise.”

Green Field nodded, her tears still running down her face and onto his hoof. She trusted him. Things would be okay.

It was hours longer still that they stayed there, until the sounds of evil ponies were gone completely and the screaming had died down. Then they got up and helped put out the fires that were left, Green Field ran to her family to see that they were okay, Golden as well made sure his mom and dad were alright too. There was no time for sleeping that night, even past midnight all the ponies that were in good enough condition gathered at the center of the farms to talk about what happened and what they should do next.

Green Field’s father was among them, he and her mother were having dinner at a neighbor’s when the attackers came. Now Green Field stood with him and Golden among the rest of the disturbed and frightened farmers.

“What do we do?! They told Dough they’d come back and do even worse to us next time!” Ms. Spring shouted at the assembly of ponies, quivering in fear.

“What can we do? We can’t fight.” One of Green Field’s old friends, Bean Sprout spoke up. “Do we just run away?”

“Run from our homes? To where? What would we even do after that?” An older stallion balked at that suggestion. “These farms are our home, we can’t abandon them.”

“Maybe we can get help?” Green Field’s father said. “From one of the other towns like Wellpeak or Slick Rock. Maybe we could even ask the Spirit Shrine.”

There were some mumbles of agreement at that but a lot of ponies were still worried. They had no idea when they might be attacked again. It would take a while for anypony to get to all the various villages in the valley, and especially to get to the Spirit Shrine and back. They stood under the moonlight debating what they should do, so many would still be needed to fix things in the morning and get the farms back and running again. With everything that was stolen and destroyed there might be a food shortage for a while too.

They argued more and more with each other and nothing was getting done. Green Field looked between them all as her temper flared, why were they arguing now of all times? Action needed to be taken no matter what it was.

“Everypony just be quiet!” She finally exploded and shouted out at the gathered ponies. Her father and Golden both dumbly looked down at her.

Green Field stared down the rest of her neighbors and friends. “I’m going to get help. Everypony else here can fix things up and prepare for when those ponies might come back. Make a place to hide or find some way to defend the farms or something.” Green Field’s face softened a bit. “But I promise I’ll be back with help. Even if I have to visit every last little dive in the valley. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

Green Field finished up and turned to run off, even though it was the middle of the night she wasn’t wasting any time. Golden came running after her.

“Hold up! I’m coming too!”

“No, you need to help your parents. I’ll be fine, just help out here and wait for me.” She smiled at him. “It’ll be alright.”

Golden was upset but nodded. “Okay. I’ll handle things here.”

Green Field didn’t say anything more to him, just picked up her pace and ran in the direction of the nearest town. She would save everypony.

But it was the same everywhere.

We’re afraid. We don’t want to get involved. There’s nothing we can do. Sorry. Nopony would help them. It was the same everywhere. Even the Spirit Shrine wouldn’t use its magic to help and protect the farms. Green Field accomplished nothing.

Why? How? How could they just ignore them and keep on going about their daily lives? How could they just have fun, laughing and playing with their friends and families while everypony important to Green Field was in danger. So many of these ponies even knew the farm ponies. Why wouldn’t they help? How could they say it wasn’t their problem? Why did even the benevolent ponies of the Spirit Shrine refuse to lift a single hoof to help?

Why was this happening to her?

She ran back to the farms, ran with all her might, even if she couldn’t find any help she could still be there herself to defend her home and the homes of those important to her. Green Field was past the point of exhaustion but she still didn’t stop, her spirit was stronger than her body.

But when she got closer she saw that same orange glow from before.

And she saw the same smoke rising into the sky as before.

There was something missing this time though. There weren’t any screams. None even from Green Field as she walked through her destroyed world. Only silent tears fell from her eyes to the ground as she stood amongst the flames, and her heart turned to fire inside of her.

Comments

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lyrics+thank+god+i%27m+a+country+girl&&view=detail&mid=B85741A8269B03365F97B85741A8269B03365F97&&FORM=VDRVRV

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Ouch. Lots pf emotional impact here.

[RoboRed]

Poor Green Field. She lost everything...