Applejack at the Edge of the World

by MagicS

End of the World III

Applejack made it to Sycamore Grove late that same night. She was tired, frustrated, and impatient, but she needed a nice place to sleep where she didn’t have to weather the elements. A full meal to keep her energy up would also be helpful for the inevitable confrontation with Blast Miner. Thankfully she hadn’t arrived so late where everything in the town was closed up, it wasn’t past midnight or anything like that.

Unlike Maple Town, Sycamore Grove was a dense town constructed in a grid-like fashion with several blocks of buildings inside its walls. All of them separated by their own parks and trees to give them their own sort of town within a town. She didn’t have the time nor the desire to really check it out anymore than that though, she just wanted to find a place to stay for the night. That was just a little more trouble than she had been expecting though since Sycamore Grove was noticeably larger than Maple Town. Not as big as Oak City but approaching that.

So many of the blocks and the buildings that made them up looked the same that Applejack really had no idea where to start. It got to the point that instead of looking for an inn she was looking for any ponies out walking the streets that she could talk to. She must have looked like some kind of crazy mare with the way she was running around.

After solving the friendship problem at Elysium’s View she thought everything would be over and she could just relax and go home. Now she was suddenly thrust into something far bigger than anything else with a dang kitchen timer clicking down to zero at the same time.

Her luck in Sycamore Grove wasn’t so terrible though—after running past another block of buildings she saw a mare out for an evening walk so Applejack calmed herself down and went over to talk to her. The mare was more than helpful, giving her careful instructions on where to find an inn that would have plenty of vacancies for her, as well as one that was built right next to a diner. With that information in hoof, Applejack was able to relax and calmly make her way to the inn where she’d be spending the night. All the while her thoughts turned away from Blast Miner, Karza, and the supposed end of the world.

Now she thought about her friends and family. She thought about how long they had been waiting for her to return. She thought about all the trouble they might have gotten up to without her around. She thought about how happy they’d be to see her again. She thought about how much she loved all of them.

And of course, it only took her a moment before she started to think about what was at stake now. The nebulous words of Discord had formed a weight around her neck—no longer just a possibility or something she was hoping was just him pulling her leg. Applejack needed to save the world for everypony she loved and everypony else too. There was absolutely no way she could fail out here. She had been through so much already, what was saving the world one more time?

---

When she woke up in the morning she quickly left her room as soon as dawn broke and the rest of Sycamore Grove was awake. Normally she would have left even earlier but she wanted to stop at the diner next door and get a big breakfast first and they wouldn’t have been open yet. So she sat there, tapping a hoof on the table as she waited for a big plate of waffles while the ice in her glass of water slowly melted. She’d shove those waffles down her gullet and then leave faster than a jackrabbit. Even if she wasn’t reaching the mine today she wanted to get to Spruce City with plenty of time.

While she sat there at her own table she looked around and saw several families also waiting or already eating breakfast.

Just another reminder of what she was working to save. They all had no idea about what was going on. What was occurring right now. How the end of the world might be just around the corner. Applejack took a deep breath and calmed herself down, stopping her incessant tapping. Getting agitated wasn’t going to help. She needed to be at her best for when she confronted Blast Miner tomorrow.

So when her waffles were delivered she didn’t devour them like Twilight with a plate of hayburgers, she ate every last bite but she ate them calmly and chugged down her entire glass of water when she was done. Leaving a more than generous tip on the table, Applejack pushed her chair in and left the diner.

As nice of a place as Sycamore Grove seemed to be she couldn’t stay any longer. It was too bad, each little city-state had its own character and differences to the rest, but there was no way she could socialize or tour it any more than she already had. Applejack made a speedy departure through the many blocks and parks of the city, towards its northern walls where a road would eventually take her further up to Spruce City. Perhaps on her way back after saving the world (not even for the first, second, or third time) she’d be able to stop here for a little longer. The ponies were certainly more polite and down to earth at a glance than the ones in Elmsville.

On her way out, she even had a pony watching the gate give her a nice goodbye.

More reasons to save the world.

She shook her head in frustration when she was out on the road, an angry frown settling on her face. Just why would Blast Miner do any of this? It wasn’t even the how anymore that was bothering her. Why was so much more important. And she sadly realized it was probably going to be so much more disturbing and depressing.

The road to Spruce City was one that was well-traveled and Applejack actually found herself passing or meeting quite a few other ponies either on the way to it or back to Sycamore Grove. The forest around it was also full of evergreen trees that stretched on and on for miles all around. It was as nice of a road to travel down as any in Equinestan was, but much like Sycamore Grove Applejack couldn’t enjoy it. She was not taking a jaunt or a walk through the woods, this was not a casual pace she was going at. Whatever cute animals and pretty flowers were in the forest merely had to watch Applejack jet by.

There was nothing else to be done but run to Spruce City and then run to Blast Miner’s mine the next morning.

She noticed—after a solid two hours of running—that the forest was starting to get colder. She certainly wasn’t far north enough for them to be getting somewhere cold, after all Equinestan was probably just about in the same spot as Ponyville, so it must have been the altitude that was changing. Steady enough that she didn’t notice on her long run, but she had likely climbed up quite a bit. The northern reaches of Equinestan must have been elevated above the rest. Made a decent amount of sense if the mines were in the mountains too.

By the time noon came around Applejack needed to take a bit of a break.

Most anypony, even one like her, would get tired after all those hours of running.

It annoyed her right now to think that Rainbow Dash would’ve gotten to Blast Miner yesterday.

But still, she had to stop for a bit and rest by the side of the road. She had water she had also bought from Sycamore Grove along with some fruit. Everything she needed until she got to Spruce City. The break was more to catch her breath and rest her muscles than to fill her stomach, but it was the one moment Applejack took to just stop and attend to herself between the two cities. She wasn’t going to be stopping again until she reached Spruce City even if it tired her out a little more than she wanted. After this point, when the day was already halfway gone, she wouldn’t be able to relax again until she was there and could see her next destination.

So Applejack rubbed her stomach, took one last stretch to get all the kinks out, and started running north again.

Now that she was aware of it it was easier to notice the incline in the land as well. The chill in the air would’ve been worse if she was walking but with how fast her blood was pumping it wasn’t really a bother to Applejack at all. Her mind was laser-focused on getting to Spruce City anyways.

And when she approached it turned out Spruce City was quite easy to see from a distance, even when it became much closer to night time. The reason for that was it had very tall buildings spread out over quite a distance, they went much higher than the walls of the city-state, much higher than any other buildings she had seen in Equinestan. Even at night a lot of their lights in the windows were on and Applejack was easily guided along the road towards them. The land Spruce City was built on was not level in the slightest, in fact it seemed to be built on a number of hills that stretched into the forest away from the mountains to the northwest.

Applejack could see those clearly now as well. Her true destination.

They were still far off from the city itself, easily several miles before the mountains actually began and she knew the mine was a little further inside them, but she could see them. Some of the taller mountains had snow at the top of their peaks—not surprising after the climate had cooled down on the way to Spruce City. The map she still had would tell her the exact way she needed to go through them to reach Blast Miner’s mine, she’d take a closer look at it once she had a room to stay in at Spruce City.

Unlike the other city-states of Equinestan Applejack had been to though, the gates of Spruce City were actually guarded and she couldn’t just run in. She had to wait in line as a bunch of other ponies were also trying to get into the city at the same time. It sent a whole new wave of agitation through her that she had to fight to stamp out. At least when she finally got her turn the guards were happy enough to direct her to a hotel on the northwest side of the city.

Applejack’s two days of frantic travel were coming close to an end. The third day was just right around the corner.

It was the same when she had gotten to Sycamore Grove though, Applejack only took a passing look at the city and ponies around her with the internal promise to enjoy the city more once this was all over. Her body was aching right now anyways, begging for a soft bed and a night of sleep. Inside her head she couldn’t stop thinking about Twilight, Apple Bloom, Princess Celestia, the other ponies of Equestria, all the other ponies and creatures that existed in the world. It really was a good thing that this wasn’t her first time being thrust into the mission of saving the world or she would’ve collapsed from all the pressure already.

Why’d she have to do this alone?

Couldn’t anypony else be here to help her right now?

Applejack shook her head—she had to do this on her own and she knew that. She couldn’t complain, she just had to save everypony else. Not like she wasn’t used to sacrifice and putting the needs of others first. Right now she was the only Element of Harmony here and if saving the world fell squarely on her flank then that’s all there was to it.

Thankfully less than an hour after arriving in Spruce City and she was already plopping down on that bed. If it hadn’t been for how much she had been pushing herself her racing mind might have kept her up.

Instead, an exhausted Applejack fell asleep, knowing that when she woke up tomorrow it might be the last day.

---

A glass of water.

A breakfast muffin.

Out the door.

Jogging towards the northwestern exit of Spruce City after double-checking her map.

As soon as she passed by the gate and left the city she saw a red rose growing on the side of the road.

Applejack took that as a good sign.

The road from Spruce City to the mountain mines was much less direct than the one from Sycamore Grove to Spruce City. It winded through the forest and up and around several hills and Applejack even needed to cross an old swaying bridge over a ravine at one point. How ponies were meant to get the metal from the mines to any nearby cities was a complete mystery to her. She could think about it later though, the mountains were still looming ahead.

It was just as Mayor Rooter had said pretty much, her final destination was merely a few hours away from Spruce City even with the more relaxed pace she was traveling this morning. Didn’t want to get tired.

She glanced up at the sky, seeing the sun still rising. It was early, well before noon, and it looked like a beautiful day. Applejack was going to make sure it stayed a beautiful day.

When she reached the mountains she saw that the road split off into numerous branching paths that went up into them. The various mountains had a lot of hiking paths and buildings up through them and Applejack didn’t exactly know which way to travel anymore. Some of the buildings looked abandoned but there were a few that were clearly inhabited—however none of them looked like the entrance to a mine or anything like that. Blast Miner’s family mine had to be deeper in the mountains.

Applejack had to take a few deep breaths to calm herself down once more. Her heart had been pounding hard ever since she woke up and it had nothing to do with how much she had been traveling.

This was it.

She was here.

Where was the mine?

She spotted something along one of the many branching roads that caught her eye—another red rose.

Applejack nodded and swiftly went that way. The road took her into the bowels of the mountains, directly into their center where she started to see quite a few more abandoned buildings and excavation sites. It was as she was told, the mines and resources of these mountains had been tapped and run dry a long time ago. Every now and then she thought she had reached the right mine only to see another red rose further ahead. She kept following them like a trail of bread crumbs for easily another hour.

Ahead the road ended at a dilapidated building constructed at the foot of one of the mountains.

Three-stories high with the roof caving in, normally she never would’ve considered it, with its broken windows, rotting wooden walls, front doors nearly falling off its hinges, as the place she needed to go. Abandoned mining equipment, tools, minecarts, rubble, helmets, old maps, laid strewn around outside it. Along with much bigger things like heavy cranes with their ropes long since broken and huge trailers that a full team of the strongest stallions would’ve needed to been hitched to to pull them when they were full of whatever was being mined.

But what was really important right now and what told her she needed to go inside that building were all the roses growing up its walls. Fresh green vines that looked far more alive than any flowering plant should be in a place like this. They crawled up the walls halfway up the first story of the front of the building, with red roses budding from their tips. Dozens.

“I guess I’m here,” Applejack said and walked into the building, the door creaking and nearly falling off its hinges before it closed back up on her.

Comments

[RoboRed]

Why’d she have to do this alone?

Couldn’t anypony else be here to help her right now?

As soon as she passed by the gate and left the city she saw a red rose growing on the side of the road.

She spotted something along one of the many branching roads that caught her eye—another red rose.

But what was really important right now and what told her she needed to go inside that building were all the roses growing up its walls. Fresh green vines that looked far more alive than any flowering plant should be in a place like this. They crawled up the walls halfway up the first story of the front of the building, with red roses budding from their tips. Dozens.

You're not quite as alone as you think, AJ.

[redmar]

Cauliflower has given Applejack a very clear sign as to where she needs to go. Hopefully Applejack will be able to meet her again before she returns to Ponyville.