Applejack at the Edge of the World

by MagicS

Diamonds to Dust VI

When Applejack left the home of Pretty Petunia and Winter Moon behind she continued to smile for a good deal longer. It was nice to know there were still ponies in this place that could find comfort and happiness. They just had to stay optimistic. That old couple was making the best of what they had, it was a lesson Applejack could take to heart.

For hours more she walked that day until the sun started going down and Applejack thought it would be pertinent to look for a place to spend the night unless she wanted to be stuck out in the cold. Any other old abandoned building would do—if there were more out here. It’s possible that there wasn’t even a farmhouse or windmill from that couple’s repurposed home all the way to that “New Jasmine Leaf Town”. Applejack should’ve asked if Winter Moon knew of any places like his house instead of just if there was another place ponies were living.

At least she had plenty of food and water to last her until she got to that town. That was her major worry before she had found their house. Applejack was pretty sure now that she could make it across the entire kingdom without having to worry about going hungry or thirsty anymore.

She squinted ahead as the road slowly sloped down a little bit across the grassy plains, barely able to see anything now with the sun almost down. This road was probably one of several that stretched across the countryside of the Kingdom of Diamonds before the kingdom fell apart.

At one point she saw the shadow of something in the distance just a little off the road. At first she thought it was a large boulder but as she got closer she could better make it out in the remaining bits of light. It actually was a building—or what was left of one. Compared to the large house that Pretty Petunia and Winter Moon used this was really nothing more than a shack on the side of the road. When Applejack walked up to face it directly she saw that it was broken down and missing part of its roof and own western wall. No door or glass in its windows either, by the look of it, this shack had been in disrepair for years.

It was certainly still better than nothing however so Applejack walked inside and tried to see if there were any flat or comfortable spots to curl up on the floor at. Unsurprisingly the wooden floorboards were all bumpy and torn up, would it really be better than the dirt outside? At least what remained of the walls might block out most of the breeze. There were holes in those walls everywhere though, no carpeting or rugs on the floor either, Applejack found a corner in the middle of the shack where the roof was still mostly supported so she lied down there and tried to just relax. Taking off her bag she placed it in the crook of her body since it was too thin and lumpy to work as a pillow. She had made good progress today.

Tomorrow she hoped the road remained flat and just as easy to travel. No more floods, no big hills, no burned fields, none of that anymore. That’s what she wanted most of all.

One week was what she was looking at. One week at most of still being in the remains of the Kingdom of Diamonds. After that was Equinestan and hopefully a much easier trip where she could find plenty of places to stop.

Where hopefully she wouldn’t have to really worry about anything anymore.

Her trip through the west at the beginning always had the Citadel of Al-Karamaretel hanging over her head. The negative effects of what the Warden had been doing seeped through the lands and created a storm on the horizon. But now after crossing the canyon there wasn’t anything like that anymore. Nopony had said anything worrisome about Equinestan or Elysium’s View. They seemed like ordinary places to visit. While there were still some unfortunate things surely going on in the Far West it was mainly thanks to Al-Karamaretel and now that was all over thanks to Applejack.

The only thing—the only thing—that was worrying her was what Discord had said at the start of her trip.

And if there was something like that, if there was some crazy pony out here, they hadn’t really made any waves just yet.

Applejack could hope that it was all overblown and Discord was pulling her leg. It would certainly fit his style. She’d have a real piece of her mind to give him when she returned to Ponyville if that was the case though. That wasn’t exactly the kind of thing you were supposed to do to your friend, there were okay pranks and there were not okay pranks. Giving her all this anxiety wasn’t something she considered okay. As if she hadn’t been worrying about this mission from the very beginning just when she saw it was her alone going on it and how far away it was.

She grumbled and shifted around on the floor—all this mental complaining was a little too much. She liked to think she wasn’t such a big complainer. Things were the way they were and there was no sense whining about it all. In the end, she just had to do it. It was the same as any other time she was in a hard spot in her life.

It was still a little tough trying to sleep though. Without her old saddlebag to use as a pillow unless she was dead tired it was difficult for her to really get into a comfortable enough position for her to sleep this early. Night had only just started but Applejack still wanted to fall asleep as quickly as possible so she could rise before the sun.

Thinking about her saddlebag brought back some sad memories too… she really needed to make up for losing everything. All her supplies were a bad enough loss but the journal is what hurt most of all.

Applejack would take care of that when the time came. The friendship mission came first.

At least it wasn’t raining or especially windy right now. The weather was still nice and even now at night it wasn’t actually that cold out here. The Kingdom of Diamonds must’ve been a pretty temperate place to live. Or it was just summer. Applejack wasn’t going to take this shack for granted, if the weather was a little worse she would’ve gladly sprinted to spend the night in here.

It was another two hours before she started to yawn, and another hour after that that she finally managed to fall asleep.

Comments

[redmar]

I doubt that Discord was just pulling her leg.