Applejack at the Edge of the World

by MagicS

Diamonds to Dust IV

The plains to the west of the abandoned city, beyond the hills that boxed in the valley, were completely flooded. The road and the farmlands that formerly covered these lands had been swallowed up by water—Applejack could see farmhouses and silos that had their foundations covered in a foot of water. Fences that hadn’t been completely washed away were similarly sunk halfway deep into the water. The water didn’t flow like a river, it stayed around like a placid lake, keeping the plains drowned until the water finally subsided.

Applejack was able to easily tell the cause of this flooding with a simple look south. There was a small mountain range far in the distance and built between two of the mountains was a wide dam.

Formerly at least.

The dam was broken right down the middle, all the water it must’ve held back had come spilling out long ago and flooded these fields for miles. Applejack squinted her eyes to get as good a look as she could at the destroyed dam, estimating it was probably about a hundred feet high and a thousand feet across before it had broken. Now a huge gap several hundred feet wide claimed the middle and there was nothing more than a thin strip of water coming down from it and into the flat farmlands.

Sabotage was her first guess but honestly it could’ve happened entirely due to disrepair and ponies leaving it to rust when the kingdom started going down. Whatever happened, the artificial reservoir had destroyed the farms it was likely designed to help out.

Though she hated the idea of it—after just going through that swamp so recently—Applejack knew she was going to have to wade through this water too. For a long, long, distance by the look of it. For miles. There was nothing else she could do but continue on west until she eventually reached non-flooded land. She definitely didn’t want to be stuck here when night came around. Maybe she could stay in a flooded farmhouse or barn if it had a second story but there was no reason to be risky about it.

So Applejack took the plunge and started walking through the flooded farmlands, doing her best to stay on the road until she eventually lost track of it. Thankfully though the water was only about one or two feet deep at most anywhere and she could usually see the ground below it. Even as her hooves plop, plop, plopped through the flood she could both feel and see the stone road. It was cold but it didn’t feel as dirty or difficult to walk through as the swamp—helped that mud wasn’t pulling at her hooves every step of the way.

Walking through the water she stopped by one of the fences that separated the road from one of the farms. What used to be a farm anyways. She could see the barn listing to one side, in danger of falling over thanks to the water. Not just from how it must’ve pushed against the barn but how it was rotting the wood at the bottom as well.

Looking back in the dam’s direction to the south she wondered how many buildings were instantly washed away by the wave of water as it came crashing through the fields. There were probably a lot of destroyed remnants of other buildings floating in these waters. At least this place was likely long abandoned as well before that happened. Applejack couldn’t imagine being caught in a flood like that…

She shook her head and kept walking.

The cold water was a pain but with the weather as nice as it was and the sun bearing down on her she didn’t shiver or anything. It was alright thanks to that.

Applejack could even smile a bit at how nice the sky looked. There were only a few puffy white clouds floating by and even they were the nice kind of cloud that were perfect for cloud-watching if that’s what Applejack was in the mood for. Unfortunately she didn’t have the time for it.

Applejack was going to be all work and no play until she was on her way back from Elysium’s View.

Even then she should probably stay all work and no play until she was safely back in Ponyville. What a long trip this was turning out to be. Even when she saw that the Cutie Map was calling her to some spot literally off the map she didn’t think it would take this long just to get there. And now here she was trudging through acres of flooded farmland. So many things had slowed her down, it was hardly just the great distance from Ponyville to Elysium’s View.

An annoyed thought about Discord once again passed through her head. He could’ve helped her a little. Especially now that she was past Al-Karamaretel and had helped out there. What more was waiting on her journey to Elysium’s View that couldn’t be skipped?

She didn’t know if he could actually hear when she thought about him and read her mind or nothing but right now she was definitely hoping he heard her thoughts when it came to poofing in and teleporting her back home once the Map’s mission was accomplished. That’d be a real big relief. She could almost forgive him for being such a chore and putting all these weird notions about her journey in her head.

For now though it’s not like she expected anything to come up in this forgotten kingdom. It didn’t seem like those supposed vagabonds even existed here either, and if they did that was hardly a problem worth worrying about. Not for her.

While Applejack continued along the road through the flood a plank of wood with nails sticking out of it floated right on by her. Part of a wall somewhere that couldn’t stand up to the tidal wave. It was now adrift with everything else that stayed floating out here. A short while after that and Applejack passed by a large cornfield, the cornstalks still standing up but Applejack knew that wouldn’t be for long. Like most every other sort of crop they were drowning from this much water. It was a waste to see all that corn that was going to be dead sometime soon. Still, she could at least keep it all from going to waste.

Applejack walked over to the nearest rows of corn and pulled off an ear before shoving it inside her bag. Not her favorite vegetable in the world but hardly something she thought tasted bad.

And now she had some more food to last her while she walked west. The only downside was the ears were too big for her to put anymore in her bag, but perhaps she’d get lucky and find something else still edible out in these flooded farmlands.

Comments

[RoboRed]

Ah, there we go. There's a little bit of scavenging.

[redmar]

At least she managed to find some food.