Applejack Gets Lost

by MagicS

Quiet Hills

It was green rolling hills as far as Applejack could see. Pleasant if not for how muggy it was outside. Overcast but not quite so much that it was going to rain. Just a pinch too cold due to the lack of sunlight, with a slight breeze blowing in, making waves through the grass on the hills. Up and down she walked through them, the small dips between hills not even making enough flat ground to put a table down. It felt lonely outside, the bland scenery and bad weather just made things unwelcoming. And quieter than things had been for Applejack lately. Which again would be pleasant if not for how gloomy everything was.

Applejack crested another one of the small hills and stifled a yawn, it was still early in the morning, hard to tell exactly when since the sun was blocked by clouds but she could tell time well enough on her own to know it wasn’t even past 9 o’clock yet. Wherever Rainbow Dash was she would probably still be asleep for another few hours at least.

The grass was still a little moist as she walked over it, she had almost slipped a couple times. Carefully making her way, half sliding, down the hill she pretty much immediately started her ascent up the next one. It was looking to be a quiet day so far. But of course as she got to the top of that newest hill there was something that caught her eye at the bottom of it.

A sign.

Now, Applejack had not had the best luck with signs lately. Part of her wanted to completely ignore it, she’d go down the side of the hill and walk up the one next to the sign instead of behind it. It was that simple.

But the other part of her had once again forgotten the phrase “Curiosity killed the cat” and so with a mild amount of trepidation she slid down the hill to go read this newest sign.

When she got up to it it was, to put it simply, the most puzzling sign she had seen so far on her little journey. Even more obtuse than the “Right and Left” sign she had destroyed. This new sign read:

WARNING:

HARLEQUIN WHITE SPOTTED IN THE AREA

TURN BACK NOW!

Whatever that meant.

Well either way this wasn’t going to be the first sign she ignored. Applejack walked right on by it and started walking up the next hill. Who or what this “Harlequin White” was Applejack would just deal with it as it came, like every other problem. With how things had been going lately she was pretty confident in her ability to get out of trouble.

Although it would probably be better if she could enhance her ability to not get in trouble in the first place.

At the top of her latest hill Applejack noticed a few daisy’s blooming at her hooves. Well, not much but it was at least something new and pretty to look at. As she took her first step to go down the hill the loose soil broke away under her and she ended up tumbling end over end down the hill until the landed in a crumpled heap at the bottom. She decided to lay there and glower at nothing for a second before picking herself back up.

Now she was wet and covered in grass and dirt. So a pretty typical day. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was a little warmer but now that slight breeze was actually a little chilly to her. She shook herself off before climbing the next hill, if there was a dry spot she might’ve sat down for a second but as it was she just kept walking up and down the green hills.

It was probably closer to midday when the fog started rolling in. Just her luck.

So now it was colder and she couldn’t see worth a darn, she had to carefully feel in front of her to make sure she wasn’t making a wrong step. Going up the hills was still alright, but down was outright dangerous now. She had no idea if she was suddenly going to end up going down a much steeper or higher hill than she was expecting, or if maybe there was suddenly a ravine or rocks at the bottom. If she slipped here it could end up really bad.

So of course she inevitably slipped again and wound up face first in a puddle of mud. Could’ve been worse.

As she sat there wiping the mud off her face she could’ve sworn she heard a pony giggling, but when she stopped to really listen for it there was nothing. Grumbling, Applejack got up and continued to feel her way through the fog, the moisture in the air along with her already damp coat was making her a lot colder. Maybe in one of the last towns or settlements she had been in she should’ve bought a jacket or something.

With money she didn’t have…

After sliding down the next hill and blindly pushing her way through the fog, Applejack realized she was on flat ground. Whether that meant there was more distance between hills than normal or she had completely gotten out of the hills she didn’t know. There was moist grass still under her hooves so the landscape hadn’t suddenly changed too drastically.

Applejack slowly walked forward some more until another sound caught her ears. Running water. It was coming from in front of her, it wasn’t very loud so it probably wasn’t a big river or anything, likely just a small creek.

Her theory was proven correct when she reached it, the muddy ground at the creek’s edge making her hooves sink into it, but the water of the creek itself barely came up to her knees. It was almost ice cold but Applejack had to carefully and slowly wade through it so she wouldn’t slip in the mud or get stuck.

Once she got out she shivered, a towel would’ve been nice to have.

There was a little good to come out of passing the creek though, the fog started to lift. Applejack could start to see in front of herself again, it seemed there really weren’t any more hills in front of her, the grass just went on until it hit a treeline some hundred feet ahead of her. The trees were twisted and gnarled with long grass growing up between them, as Applejack got closer the chirping of crickets and croaking of frogs told her all she needed to know. This was a bog.

The cattails, the scummy pond water and all the lily pads, yep, definitely a bog. Applejack had no idea how big it was but she’d just have to bite the bullet and get it over with. Hopefully there weren’t any gators sitting around. The ground pretty much gave way immediately and Applejack was up to her neck in brown, algae covered water. But there was nothing else to do but go through it.

It was cold, gross, and uncomfortable. It was probably only noon or a little after but the coverage from the trees and the cloudy sky made things much darker than they should’ve been, it was almost unnatural.

And now a bunch of mosquito's were buzzing around her head, she tried swatting them away but they were persistent. It was just a cloud of insects around her head as she trudged through the bog.

She wasn’t sure how many hours it took but she did finally get to the end of the bog. With no more trees around she walked through the last marshy bits of ground until she felt solid, dry dirt beneath her hooves. Applejack was covered in all manner of filth from the expedition, Rarity would faint outright upon seeing her. At least her hat was kept clean and dry.

The sky was still dark overhead but there was no more cool breeze so Applejack carried on. A town soon would be nice. Warm food or coffee even nicer.

Applejack stretched her legs for a second and looked out at what was before her. Mostly just a grassy field but a lot of flowers, all kinds that she couldn’t even tell what half of them were. She went to go sniff one of the pretty flowers when she heard a buzzing noise. Not like the buzzing of a mosquito or a fly but like a…

Bee!

Bees flew up from inside all the flowers around Applejack, their buzzing creating a deafening cacophony of noise. Applejack didn’t hesitate though, she ran through the field as the swarm of bees chased after her. She was fast but the things were keeping up pace with her, a few she was able to swat away with her tail when they got close but more of them were starting to close in on her from the sides. Applejack was lucky the ground was flat so she could keep going full speed ahead but that also meant there was nowhere to really hide or run to escape the bees, she just had to hope they’d give up their pursuit soon.

Tripping over a log was pretty much the worst possible outcome in this situation.

Five minutes later a bee sting covered Applejack got off the ground. Again she swore she could’ve heard giggling but looking around there was nothing there.

Walking through the flower covered grass field, Applejack eventually came to a circular spot that had all of its vegetation cleared away. Just a big dirt circle with a dirt path going from the top, winding throughout the grass. Shrugging, she started down the new path, it must lead somewhere.

The cloudy sky overhead was starting to clear up a little bit and rays of sunlight were making their way to the ground. Looked like there were still plenty of hours of daytime left.

Occasionally as she walked down the path she’d see something out of the corner of her eye but when she turned to look at it she didn’t see anything. Maybe her eyes were playing tricks on her after all the bee stings or her exhaustion was just catching up on her. She’d taken a couple of falls already today too. Couldn’t something fun and relaxing happen to her for once on her way home?

Better not even ask for that, with her bad luck so far on this journey asking for something good was just gonna bring something worse.

“Something worse like me?”

Applejack spun around “Who’s there?!” She shouted.

At nothing.

Her heart was pounding hard in her chest, she calmed herself down and tried to remember what Bedrock taught her about using tremors to locate and “see” things. She had only tried it the one night but if she had a knack for Hoof of the Earth she might as well use it.

The tremor left her body and spread out through the field around her. She found a half buried log, an underground burrow full of rabbits, all kinds of pebbles and rocks in the dirt. And nothing else. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the field, and not even any big predators.

Applejack looked up into the sky, nothing was flying above her, there were no trees where something could hide. There was no more giggling and she didn’t see anything in the corner of her eyes. Applejack frowned and turned back around, continuing to walk down the path. If her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her she’d still do what she had planned earlier and just deal with whatever problems came as they came.

Shortly later she saw more hills in the distance. With a roll of her eyes she sped up her pace, if she wanted to find someplace to rest before dark it was gonna take a little work.

At least the sun was almost completely out now, the clouds had almost entirely gone away. Applejack tilted her hat down a bit for some more shade, she wasn’t sure how she managed to get turned around but it looked like she was heading west now, directly at the sun. Guess it didn’t really matter since she didn’t have a set path in mind in the first place.

Applejack reached the hills as the sun began to set, making a slow climb up she looked from on top of the first one to see if she could see any village or something.

Nothing as big as that but there was a decrepit looking shack that looked about just a ten minute walk away. Better than nothing. Applejack began to walk down towards it so she could have some shelter while she slept. In the end, the day still could’ve been worse.

Comments

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

At the top of her latest hill Applejack noticed a few daisy’s blooming at her hooves. Well, not much but it was at least something new and pretty to look at. As she took her first step to go down the hill the loose soil broke away under her and she ended up tumbling end over end down the hill until the landed in a crumpled heap at the bottom. She decided to lay there and glower at nothing for a second before picking herself back up.

Who's a silly pony? Applejack's a silly pony.

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Ominous.

[redmar]

The Harlequins in your stories are dangerous and given what they did in those stories Applejack could've had things go a lot worse.

[MagicS]

10652622
A couple of them are nice but this one wasn't, so she was definitely lucky.

[RoboRed]

WARNING:

HARLEQUIN WHITE SPOTTED IN THE AREA

TURN BACK NOW!

Oh, hell.