Applejack at the Edge of the World

by MagicS

Diamonds to Dust II

The first thing Applejack passed by was an abandoned village in the middle of the woods. She went off the road to check it out and found it completely devoid of life. Along with most anything not nailed down having been taken away. Quite a few windows were broken and things looked to be in disrepair well before they must have been abandoned. By the look of it, this village had been in a bad spot for a long time even when ponies were still living in it. Probably suffering thanks to what was squeezing the life out of the rest of the kingdom.

It was also possible if there were roving bands of vagabonds that had been left behind, that they were responsible for some of what was done here.

Applejack was hoping that wasn’t the case. She’d prefer a quieter trip through the old kingdom.

Another thing that was a little concerning though was a farmhouse she found on the northern side of the village, it had burned down along with the fields for its crops. There was no way that wasn’t intentional. Bad things had definitely gone down in this village…

She took a deep breath and looked up at the sky—the warm sun and the clear blue sky a stark contrast to how things felt down here. At least no matter how bad things got in the former kingdom, the weather was still nice and the sun kept moving in the sky. Applejack would just focus on that. It’s not like there was anything else she could do here. Not anymore.

With a shake of her head Applejack returned to the road and kept walking west.

There hadn’t been a single sign yet telling her the distance to any other cities and towns, but there had been forks in the road. Applejack did her best to stay on the road going as west as possible but even now she was already going a little southwest. Much to her consternation. She wondered if any signs had been destroyed as well during the upheaval. Though she couldn’t imagine what that would accomplish besides petty vandalism.

Coming out of the woods and Applejack found herself up a big hill with the road winding its way from right to left all the way down it. But before she started walking down the hill she took a look at what lied ahead since she had such a great view. And as she stood there, with a frown slowly settling across her face, she thought about how much nicer the view must have looked a year ago.

She could see a large valley surrounded by more hills and then mountains to the north and south, in the middle of the valley a river ran through it with a city built up along its shores. But what was probably a colorful and green valley in the past was now a crisp and dried out wasteland. The city, even from here, Applejack could see that it was the victim of fires and destruction. A decently-sized castle in the middle of it was completely toppled over. Applejack could see large farms on the outskirts of the city that were only fields of dead dirt. In fact the only thing that still looked alive and healthy down in the valley at all was the river, there was even a dusty fog in the air caused by all the devastation and fires in the past that gave the entire valley a yellow sheen. It looked more like a city that had been ravaged by war than simple economic mayhem but Applejack knew the power of money as well. What sort of panic, terror, and desperation had gripped these ponies?

And it still looked this terrible months after it all had to have ended.

Looking down a little bit, Applejack also saw there was a small group of buildings at the bottom of a hill. A little family farm and maybe some other homes for ponies that lived outside the city ahead. She saw what used to be a windmill as well in the middle of it but its blades had fallen off. Either way it was the next place she would reach and stop at once she traveled down this hill. She doubted there’d be any point to checking it out but she still would in case there was any food she could find—or a pony still living there.

The lands around it were just as dead and dried out as the rest of the valley though. If anypony was staying down there they’d probably have to make regular trips up the hill and into the woods she just left to find anything fresh.

Applejack sighed and took a big stretch before continuing on down the zig-zagging road. It was kind of a pain that it didn’t go straight down but the hill was far to steep for that. No wagon could be pulled up at such a steep angle. While walking down it she wasn’t exactly surprised that she didn’t hear nearly as many chirping birds or see them flying in the sky anymore. They had all probably come to avoid the valley.

For more than once Applejack was grateful about how great of shape she was in as she went down the hill, a lot of ponies would probably be feeling it in their joints right about now. But not her. Applejack was as tireless as ever, this might as well have been a walk in the park. Probably weren’t many earth ponies who could boast about being in the shape she was. Helped that she was used to carrying heaving buckets of apples or pulling wagons everywhere. When she was only encumbered by a small draw-string bag she felt lighter than air. Making it to the bottom of the hill and continuing her walk on the now once-again flat road, Applejack took her first few steps into the burnt out and dead valley. She briefly looked behind her and hoped that those green hills, fields, and woods she had passed through weren’t going to be the last ones she’d see in the destroyed kingdom.

Turning her head back west the hazy dust clouds continued to roll by the city.

She didn’t have to walk far before she passed by the small settlement at the base of the hill—the buildings here didn’t look as ransacked as the village up above, not as many broken windows, but they were clearly abandoned for far longer. Vines and moss were crawling up their sides, trying to reclaim them. She could make out what used to be little paths in the dirt but were now overgrown with grass. At one point this would’ve been a vibrant stop on the way to the city down the road but now all it looked like was an abandoned hovel out of an old picturebook.

Applejack spotted a water pump between some of the houses and decided she’d try and see if there was still any water to fetch. Might as well fill up her flask now if she could. Otherwise she’d have to get down into the river somewhere in the city. Like the buildings though, vines had crawled up the metal water pump and covered most of it. Applejack had to pull some of them off before she could actually use the pump at all. Once that was done a few presses of the rusty pump didn’t get anything but Applejack could feel how atrophied it was, she wasn’t giving up just yet, it probably just needed a few big pumps. The dry sounds and squeaking of the metal weren’t enough to deter her.

Ten more minutes of doing that was enough to deter her.

Applejack rolled her eyes and snorted in annoyance, walking back to the road. It wouldn’t shock her if she was getting into one of her unlucky streaks where absolutely nothing went right for her.

She took a last lingering look up at the remains of the windmill before walking back down the road. It was the tallest building here and she wondered how long it would take before the vines crawled all the way up to the very top of it.

If any ponies were still in this place they would’ve heard her trying to pump water and come out long ago. Nothing here for her. It was dismaying to put it bluntly, she would’ve liked to have met some ponies, and she had already covered a lot of ground in the former kingdom.

While walking down the road and leaving the last building behind—Applejack saw something else that really caught her attention this time.

A small sign was propped up in the dirt to the right of the road, standing in front of a few fallen trees and an old fence that had partially rotted away. The sign was shoddily-made with a cracked wooden board tied to a crooked wooden stick. There was a very simple message painted on it with red paint:

DON’T GO WEST
NOTHING THERE

Applejack sighed as she read the sign. Signs have never been good to her.

She looked up at the sky and checked out the sun, judging by where it was it would be dark in a few hours. She could get to the city in that time and then spend the night there where there’d certainly be a nice home and bed to stay in so she could avoid roughing it. Possibly a better chance of food too even if the sign made that unlikely. Definitely where she could get the water she needed.

And most importantly of all—it was still west. No matter what was or wasn’t out there she still needed to go.

Comments

[RoboRed]

That sign...That's...rather concerning. And yet I feel it's sort of familiar...

[redmar]

That sign is definitely concerning.