Applejack Gets Lost

by MagicS

Undying Greed I

The sun was shining, birds were chirping, squirrels darted about on the trees, and Applejack pleasantly trotted on by. The mountain pass was charming and full of life. It gave Applejack a nice feeling as she walked through it even though she’d been stuck in this mountain range for days. She jumped over a small creek that was flowing down from higher up the mountain, watching a spooked rabbit jump up and run to its burrow.

Once again on her journey Applejack didn’t really have an immediate destination in mind, the only thing that really stood out to her around here was one mountain in the distance much taller than the rest. So tall that its peak even went above the clouds. She figured she might as well go towards it, not like there was anything else, she saw no signs of civilization around. No roads or signs or even just a small walking path at all.

Lots of pretty wildflowers bloomed throughout the pass, she took a second to sniff some pretty azaleas before walking around the flower patch. No need to be rude and trample over them. It was nice that the flowers weren’t filled with bees this time either.

Applejack smiled at how nice things were. She knew that eventually the landscape would return to mostly being a rocky pass through the mountains but for now she was enjoying this oasis.

As the sun got directly overhead she made it to a short cliff wall that marked the end of this little valley nestled between the mountains. It didn’t bother Applejack, she’d scaled much worse in the past. All it took was a few minutes of climbing and she was up and over.

The next few hours were spent walking up the sides of mountains along winding paths that carried her around them. Every now and then there were more sheer cliff faces to scale or gaps in the paths to jump across, at one point she came across a canyon full of rock pillars that she had to keep hopping from one to the other to make it to the other side.

Soon the hot sun was setting and its rays fell across her back. One good thing about going east was that the sun wasn’t in your eyes for the last half of the day. That huge mountain was pretty much dead ahead at this point, not that there was likely anything there anyways.

Maybe it was because of how much she’d been doing stuff like this lately but Applejack didn’t feel as tired as she normally would after going over these mountains.

“Not like I need anymore muscle.” She said to herself. Rockhoof may have been an idol to her but she didn’t exactly want his physique. Let Yona do that.

Applejack found herself walking down the side of a mountain, the huge one stood on its own still further ahead on top of a large plateau with a forest along its base. As Applejack got closer to the plateau she saw the first sign of civilization in a while, a ramp had been dug into its side, allowing anypony to go up it. It was wide enough for three or four carriages to go up side by side at once. She saw no wheel tracks or anything else that signified recent or repetitive use though.

Now that she was actually on the plateau she could make out some more detail. A river flowed from some mountains to the south, directly into and through the forest at the base of the big mountain. And there was something… off about that forest.

It was small and “tidy” looking. Like the trees were kept in a specific area or any errant ones had been removed, instead of a forest all around the base of the mountain like Applejack thought it was it turned out to only be a small circular area of forest in front of the mountain. And there were curiously no trees touching the actual mountain itself, in fact, Applejack couldn’t see even the smallest amount of green on it even though the climate was perfectly fine to allow trees and plants to grow on a mountain here.

Really, she had just walked through mountains that had trees growing all over them, what was different about this one? Was it just a big jagged rock that didn’t have any soil on it?

It was still far away with a number of other hills and rock formations on the plateau that she had to get through first so Applejack continued to trudge on. She walked along a large rock wall and then in-between two huge boulders, Applejack stared up at the clear blue sky she could see through the narrow gap in the rocks. The light was weakening as the sun got lower, soon she wouldn’t be able to see much.

Applejack kicked a pebble and had it ricochet off the rocks around her. She was getting a little bored.

“Hope I can find something before sundown.” She had had enough of sleeping outside without any shelter the past couple days.

It was kind of weird to her that the sky above her was completely clear and devoid of clouds when the entire mountain peak was wholly obscured by them. Maybe some pegasus was messing around up there.

Coming out from between the two boulders Applejack found herself in a sparse woods made of pine trees with a green hill on her right going up into a rockier region that led to more mountains to the south. When she first started on the plateau she hadn’t been able to see this area thanks to the huge rock wall and boulders.

Applejack shrugged to herself and walked on. She was sure there had to be something at the base of that big mountain with all the oddities around it. Maybe a town or farm. Or it could always be some horrible monster. Applejack wouldn’t be surprised by that.

Rolling her eyes at her own thoughts, Applejack was about to start looking around for any fruit trees when she heard something.

“Look out below!”

Applejack turned to the hill to see a jumbled mess of ponies tumbling down it right in her direction. She played it cool and simply raised an eyebrow, gingerly stepping out of the way as the ball of ponies rolled right past her and smacked into a pine tree, the three new ponies bouncing away from each other and groaning in pain.

“Ohhh, my head… I told you that rock didn’t look steady.” A bright white unicorn mare said as she clutched her head while laying flush on the ground.

“It’s not my fault, I didn’t ask you to try and save me.” A dark blue unicorn stallion said as he sat up against the tree trunk, rubbing his head.

“That was fun, let’s do it again!” A giggly pink unicorn mare said as she laid down on her back, holding her stomach while she laughed.

The thought occurred to Applejack that it might be a better idea to slowly walk away and leave these unicorns before they noticed her. She had had enough silliness lately and these three just screamed silliness. But then again…

“Uh, are y’all alright? That looked like a pretty bad tumble.”

Curse her good nature.

The three unicorns looked to her in surprise. Quickly they picked themselves off the ground, the pink and blue ones looked friendly enough, walking to Applejack with a smile, while the white one looked at her with a thoughtful expression.

“Are you from around here?” The white unicorn asked, she also had a bright and straight yellow mane and tail with an orange streak running through it and a Cutie Mark of the sun peaking over the horizon.

Applejack shook her head. “Nope, and I guess you aren’t either then?”

“This isn’t somewhere ponies would typically travel to.” The white unicorn basically ignored Applejack’s question. “What are you doing out here?”

Applejack frowned. “I’m just passing through on my way home. Name’s Applejack, now what about you?”

Before the white unicorn could respond the pink one, whose mane and tail were a mix of red and purple streaks, spoke up. “My name’s Sugar Spirit! Hi!” She pranced up and down on her hooves, showing off her Cutie Mark of a sparkling swirl.

The white unicorn rolled her eyes but then smiled at Applejack. “Fine, I guess there’s no reason to put on a tough face. I’m Daylight Gleam.”

“And I’m Star Blaze.” The lone stallion said, his short black mane stopping right above his eyes. He had the Cutie Mark of a bright white star on his flank.

“Well okay, nice to meet you all I guess. So you aint from around here either right?” Applejack asked again, raising an eyebrow at the unicorns.

“No, we only recently got here. However, we’re going this way on purpose, I can’t imagine that we’ve stumbled upon another pony going to Greed Volcano at the same time so what are you doing here?” Daylight Gleam asked her.

“Greed Volcano? I don’t know anything about that, I’m just going home and ended up here. Is Greed Volcano that big mountain? I figured it was just a good place to walk to instead of wandering about aimlessly.”

“Figured as much, so you don’t know anything about Greed Volcano then?” Daylight Glean questioned.

Applejack just shook her head.

Daylight Gleam smiled. “Well first off then yes, that big mountain is indeed a volcano, from what we’ve heard those clouds constantly obscure the top so you can’t tell just by looking at it from far off. And why I’m so surprised that another pony would be going towards it is that it has quite the bad reputation. You must really not be from around here.”

Applejack sighed. “Unfortunately yeah, I don’t even know how I might get back on the road to home.” She thought about what Daylight had said to her before looking back over the three unicorns. “So what’s the bad reputation? And why are you going to the volcano too then?”

“Allow me to explain!” Star Blaze stepped in front of Daylight Gleam to speak to Applejack. “Long ago an evil unicorn king ruled these lands, that was centuries ago but a descendant or some other unicorn still currently has control of Greed Volcano and rules the city under it with an iron hoof. Any ponies who traveled to the city, or worse, inside the volcano itself, have never been heard from again. Either enslaved or imprisoned or who knows by the evil ruler. You’re lucky you ran into… or well, lucky we fell in front of you when we did. Or you would’ve ended up in a very bad situation.”

“Thanks then.” Applejack frowned as she heard about what was happening at Greed Volcano, it sounded really bad. “But then why are you going there?”

Daylight Gleam was about to answer when Star Blaze interrupted her. “For the treasure!” He shouted out, face a bit uncomfortably close to Applejack’s. “For you see, Greed Volcano is named after that old evil unicorn king. King Avarice! His greed knew no bounds, any treasure he heard of he had his minions steal. That volcano is a vault of treasure and all kinds of artifacts!”

“King Avarice?” Applejack scrunched her eyebrows together. “That his real name or did ponies just start calling him that?”

“Records are unclear.” Daylight said while Sugar Spirit shrugged.

“So y’all are looking to find his treasure or something?” Applejack’s impression of the three unicorn’s was waning. She didn’t care much for such materialism. Course not everypony looking to make a few bits was like Flim and Flam, she shouldn’t judge them just yet.

“Yes!” Star Blaze answered again. “The three of us are lifelong friends. We are a trio of treasure-hunters, explorers, and criminals!” As he finished up that last part his eyes widened while Daylight glared at him and Sugar Spirit bit her lip to stop from laughing. “Oops. I keep forgetting to leave that last part out.”

Applejack slowly backed away from the three, fixing them with an uncertain stare. “Okay then...”

“Wait, wait!” Daylight Gleam shook her hooves, trying to calm Applejack down. “Ignore this idiot, we’re not bad ponies. It’s true that sometimes our activities have brought us in conflict with the law but we never steal anything personal or hurt anypony.”

Star Blaze nodded along. “Yes, sorry for worrying you.”

Applejack, despite being tricked and lied to numerous times, still felt she had a pretty good sense for other ponies. She didn’t care much for how these unicorns apparently spent their days but they didn’t seem that bad. She scratched behind her ears for a second as she sized them up.

“Well, okay… I guess you seem alright.” Applejack gave a small and uncertain smile to them.

“Oh, thank you, I really didn’t want another pony getting the wrong idea about us.” Daylight exhaled, holding a hoof to her chest. “It was nice meeting you, the three of us should probably get a move on. You’re welcome to join us for now if you want but you’ll probably want to turn around or head somewhere else when we get close to the volcano.”

It definitely would’ve made sense to do that. Again she had no stake in any of this and it was just another distraction on her long journey home. But if there were really ponies being oppressed…

“Actually.” Applejack said, making Daylight and Star perk up while Sugar Spirit merrily stared at her. “I’d like to come with you all the way. I’m a pretty capable pony just so you know, and I can’t just let some cruel tyrant do what he wants to innocent ponies. I’ve fought against that kind of thing before.”

The three looked between each other, Sugar Spirit constantly shaking like a kid that couldn’t sit still, and looked back at Applejack.

“Well, if you’re up for it. We’re not gonna say no to another pony that can carry treasure.” Daylight said with a shrug. “I guess the danger doesn’t worry you but can you be sneaky? I mean, we’re not heroes you know? We’re not gonna just charge into the city and demand the ruler stop being an evil dictator or whatever.”

“That’s fine by me, I can do my thing and you can do yours. But after what you said there’s no way I’m not going there so I figure it’s better if we at least work together a little.” Applejack said to the three.

They didn’t have a problem with that. And so Applejack, Daylight Gleam, Star Blaze and Sugar Spirit walked towards Greed Volcano. The sun was almost down and night would be upon them soon. What better time to sneak into a city than the dead of night?

Author's Note:

Arc 7 begins.

Comments

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

This'll be fun.

[redmar]

Applejack was told about this mountain but she simply didn't remember or didn't notice this was mountain that was mentioned.

[Mr_Perlimpinpin]

It sounds like the "evil unicorn tyrant" is the epicenter of this adventure, and now we're headed straight to it!

[RoboRed]

The white unicorn rolled her eyes but then smiled at Applejack. “Fine, I guess there’s no reason to put on a tough face. I’m Daylight Gleam.”

Oh hey there, Daylight!

Huh...I don't have a good word for word memory about what all went on in her involved arc in Rainbow Dash Around the World but I thought Rainbow might have mentioned her friends at least once? Or maybe she did but not by name? I can't recall but I'd think it would've triggered a memory from Daylight if she met Applejack already. Maybe she forgot?

...Maybe something happened that made her forget?