Applejack Gets Lost

by MagicS

Greedy Ponies

Morning came quickly. Not in the best of moods, Applejack tossed the bed covers off of her and rolled out. Leaving her room she noticed that despite the size of the building it didn’t seem like any other pony was around. But if what Sturdy Wheel said was true then she figured there wasn’t much reason for them to be either. Yawning greatly she walked down the fancy spiral staircase, so fancy it was out of place to Applejack, though she bet Rarity would think different.

Sturdy Wheel and Fruit Basket were already up, this time Applejack met them down the opposite hallway to the lobby she had first found them in last night. As Wheel had told her this was the part of the building built like a hotel and it had a nice sitting room for ponies to eat in and talk with each other. Even Applejack could appreciate that whoever did the upkeep for this place did a good job, all the chairs and carpets were spotless and the large rectangular table in the center of the room looked like it had practically just been polished.

“Morning, Miss Applejack.” Wheel greeted her with. Him sitting at the close end of the table with Fruit Basket at the far end, drinking what looked like lemonade to Applejack’s eyes.

Applejack chuckled heartily, sitting across from him. “Just Applejack is fine.”

Wheel smiled and pushed a tray of muffins toward her. “Of course. I hope we can help you out today but let’s have some breakfast first.”

---

A short while later and Sturdy Wheel was showing Applejack around town. Passing back through the center of town they went down a wide street that led them the opposite direction of the town hall. The buildings looked a lot nicer than most Applejack had seen in Cross Way, she spotted a nice flower store and a large outdoor cafe where many ponies had gathered for the morning. However she couldn’t help but notice the lack of trees and faint dustiness that seemed to roll in over everything, Clod said they did alright for water but it still looked like the town was halfway in a drought.

“So down this way is the school and the library and at the end of the street is our theater. Mostly it just gets used as a gathering place now.” Wheel explained to her as they walked on. “If you head down that street there.” He said pointing down a side street to their left. “You’ll find most of the houses where ponies live. Go the other way and it’ll take you to the farms eventually.”

Applejack was only half paying attention, she didn’t want to be rude but she kind of already wanted to be on her way. And the apple revelation was still eating at the back of her mind.

“I’d say to mostly stick close to the center of town, the farther away you get the worse things are. A lot of our buildings are falling apart, we’ve just had a steadily declining population for years now, lot of younger ponies just up and left over time. Can’t blame em since there really isn’t much here. But for ponies who are already settled in they like the quietness and how out of the way we are now.”

Applejack could understand that, both the feelings of the ones who left and the ones who stayed.

“Your town is nice, and you’ve all been really helpful even though the guards pointed spears in my face at first.” Wheel sheepishly rubbed the back of his head when he heard that. “But I really do want to get back on the way home, do you know where Ponyville is? The guards hadn’t heard of it.” Applejack asked, more than just a hint of hope in her voice.

Wheel stopped and put his hoof under his chin, eyes looking up thoughtfully as he racked his brain.

“Can’t say I’ve heard of it either. The only place I know how to get to from here now are the Twin Towns. Opposite direction from where you stumbled into town, back the way you came there’s nothing left.”

Applejack sighed. “Well thank ya anyways. Guess my next stop will be these Twin Towns you mentioned?”

Wheel frowned a bit. “Yeah… the problem with that is that things aren’t going so well with them, among other things. Here, let’s take a seat at the cafe and I’ll tell you about it.” He led her to the open air cafe and the two of them sat together at one of the corner tables, a waitress started to come over to see what they wanted but Wheel simply waved her away.

“So, uh, what’s up with those Twin Towns then?” Applejack asked.

Wheel chewed on his lip a second before replying. “Well, so a long time ago a group of settlers came to where the Twin Towns would eventually be built. You see it’s an area right at the edge of a mountain range with a really lush and fertile valley coming out of it. A big river comes down from a mountain lake and runs all the way through the valley. One group of settlers went up the side of the mountain and made their town there, the other group settled in the valley. The mountain ponies mined the mountain, cut down trees, and stuff like that. They made things like tools and building materials and traded it with the valley ponies. Meanwhile the valley ponies made lots of farms and orchards and gave the mountain ponies food in return. Now from what I know they had a lot less contact with each other than you’d think considering they once came from the same group, but they got along well enough. I don’t remember ever hearing about any problems at least. But...”

Always a but. Applejack thought, not wanting to interrupt.

“A few years ago the valley town had a bad harvest, don’t know why, drought I guess, so they hoarded most of what remained and what they did give to the mountain town they asked for a lot more than normal in return. Understandably that made a lot of ponies angry. And the valley ponies made plans so that if there was ever a bad harvest again that most of their produce would be totally off-limits to trading in the first place. Now the mountain ponies still had some crops of their own but not on the same level, so they weren’t starving or anything, they just needed to cut back a bit. But they still wanted to get back at the valley ponies for being “greedy”. So the mountain town constructed a dam, they closed off most of the river, reducing it to barely a tenth its previous size. So after that the valley ponies lost most of their water and their crops suffered for it. The towns have been at each others throats since. No one trading anything, both hurting for food. That’s what I’ve heard from a couple of ponies who have come from there to live here since all that trouble started.”

Applejack sat there quietly for a second, looks like things just couldn’t be simple for once. “Thanks for telling me all this but its still gotta be the next place I’m going. I’ll just have to hope things aren’t too bad there.” She shrugged.

“Yeah, sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.” Wheel sighed before glancing back at his flank. “You see my cutie mark? It’s a mark in keeping things running, making things work and staying organized. Ponies in town always come to me when they have a problem. I wish I could help you with yours.”

Applejack smiled and giggled for a second. “Aint you just the most helpful pony then? Heh, don’t worry about something like that. I know what it’s like to help out everypony that needs it and how exhausting it can be. It’s tough work and you can’t always do it on your own.”

The two of them had a short laugh over their shared experiences before Wheel spoke up again.

“So aside from the towns themselves there are a few other issues, first being that a desert separates us from them. Though it’s not too big and you can find a couple oasis's dotted throughout it.”

“Got it, thanks for the heads up.” Applejack nodded along.

“Now the biggest problem is...” Wheel frowned before continuing. “For the past year or so a group of brigands has been camped out in the desert, every now and then they come raid Cross Way. To be honest I think it’s a very dangerous idea to go through the desert a-”

Wheel stopped as a bell began to ring in the distance, Applejack heard it too, it sounded like a big clock tower bell, the same kind they had in Ponyville.

All the ponies at the cafe started to panic, gasping and screaming and running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Applejack could see many ponies in the street doing the same and the ones that owned shops were quickly locking up.

“What in the hay is going on around here? What’s that bell?” Applejack asked Wheel.

Wheel slammed a hoof down on the table in frustration. “I’m sorry you had to come here at a time like this, but that bell ringing means raiders have been spotted. I’ve got work to do.” He got up and started running east, to the farms as far as Applejack knew.

No way am I sitting down at a time like this.

Applejack got up and ran after him.

Comments

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

If they'd never heard of Ponyville, I'd ask "which way to Canterlot?"
It's the capitol, they MUST have heard of that

[MagicS]

9283318
That's assuming she's still in Equestria. These ponies don't even know what apples are, who knows where she is? She could be going around in circles in the Badlands, or in the Undiscovered West, or accidentally walked through a dimensional portal.

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Those Mountain Ponies sound like jerks.