Applejack at the Edge of the World

by MagicS

Cops and Robbers II

Fire Vent was being infiltrated. The ponies knew exactly what they were doing, what to look out for, and where they were going. A few deputies patrolling the borders of the town were easily bypassed as they all foolishly kept to the same pattern and schedule. It had taken some observing, but once the infiltrators got it down it was easy to avoid the perimeter guards when it was as dark as this.

The ponies made it into the streets of Fire Vent and started moving to the nearest lampposts. Some of them were carrying small buckets of water that they used to douse the fires with and plunge this part of Fire Vent into total darkness. Nopony would’ve been able to see them gathered where they were without some kind of light source of their own now.

Now the rest pulled out more than just buckets of water.

Hammers. Crowbars. Bolt cutters. Simple rocks. And empty pouches.

“Hit as many places as hard and as fast as possible,” the lead infiltrator said, a middle-aged unicorn with a silvery mane and pale red coat. “It’ll be just like the last couple of times. Don’t get in a fight unless it’s with one of those deputies either.”

“What about you, boss?” One of them asked.

“I’m paying our so-called Sheriff a visit and seeing if he really has the jailhouse as secure as you’ve said. We’ll see if he can keep her locked up for so long...” He finished with an angry growl.

“Good luck, Tephra,” one of the others patted him on the shoulder.

“Thanks,” Tephra nodded. “Now get to it. And make sure you knock over the hotel too—I’m sick of seeing them still keeping that place open for no reason. It’s a waste. I don’t care what you do to it as long as it’s not in any shape to receive guests anymore.”

“Stupid place always refused to give locals a discount anyways,” one of the infiltrators grumbled.

“Well now they’re really going to regret that. Not like there could possibly be anypony who would be coming to stay at it nowadays. I guess this would be irony? Or maybe poetic justice?” Another one said.

“Who cares what it is?” Tephra said. “Enough talking—all of you get out there already! We don’t need a random deputy to stumble upon us and raise any alarms before we’ve accomplished anything.”

“Right!” The others all said and finally the group of infiltrators dispersed deeper into Fire Vent while Tephra made a beeline for one place in particular.

The ponies went to all the nearby houses, businesses, and other buildings (abandoned or not) and as carefully and quietly as they could started to force their way in. The simple locks, glass windows, shutters, weren’t a match at all for the ponies and their tools. Crowbars wrenched open locked doors and bolt cutters cut the locks off of back gates. Others simply used their rocks or hammers to break the panel of a window and stick their hoof in to open it up. As late at night as it was, it would be some time before they were heard or caught and a ruckus was raised that would wake the rest of the town…

And meanwhile five of the infiltrators also ran straight for the Lava Lily Hotel.

---

Applejack was snoozing. Sound asleep. Room 1 of the Lava Lily Hotel was well-furnished, but obviously hadn’t seen any use in a while. It had been dusty when Applejack first stepped in, enough that she had coughed a few times. Her strange arrival at Fire Vent and the behavior of the residents was starting to weigh on her mind even more, but Applejack just wanted some rest. She planned to talk to that sheriff tomorrow and make plans to get out of here as soon as she could. The spa visit would have to come another time despite her promise.

The feather bed was comfortable though. She gave them credit for that.

With Applejack in as deep a sleep late at night like this, no normal sounds of the night would ever wake her up.

Abnormal sounds of the night were different.

The sound of glass breaking immediately shot her eyes wide open and she sat up in bed, looking over to the source of the sound. She was as awake as if a rooster had crowed.

What she saw was… odd, to put it simply. There was only a small light, from a held candle, to tell her what was going on and she stayed there in bed blinking a couple of times to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. It looked like a pony had taken a hammer to the window of her hotel room and was now fumbling around for the latch on the other side while another pony beside him held the candle. There were a few other faces pressed around them as well—and with how much they were all paying attention to the window and getting inside the room they clearly hadn’t noticed it was occupied just yet. That or their light simply didn’t reach far enough to see her on the bed.

Applejack decided to see what they were doing first of all before acting. They couldn’t have known she was in here, right? Anypony would’ve been woken up by that glass breaking.

The pony searching for the latch finally got it and opened the window up. “Aha! Got it!”

“Took you long enough,” the pony holding the candle said. “Bubbles? Hurry up and light another candle so we can get this room lit up?”

“On it,” a mare’s voice said.

The first pony then hopped in through the window, taking a deep breath after a job well done, and then four other ponies came in after him. All of them stumbling through the open window and standing on the carpet of the luxurious hotel room. They still hadn’t noticed Applejack. She though could see them wearing the same robes and sashes that were common in Fire Vent, which just further confused her.

“I told you these rooms would be the perfect way to discreetly enter the hotel,” one of the ponies who hadn’t spoken yet said.

“You’re right, there’s not going to be anypony here,” the mare—Bubbles—said. She struck a match and used it to light up a second candle.

Both candles were placed on a table near the window and together they provided enough light to sweep over the room.

The stallion who had opened up the window grinned and stepped forwards. “Okay, let’s-”

He stopped. And so did the others as they all finally noticed the current occupant of the room staring back at them. All five of the intruders completely froze up—very surprised that there was somepony in this room at all. They at most glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes. Applejack for her part kept watching for a moment to see if they’d do anything. When it became clear they wouldn’t, she reached over to grab her hat from the nightstand and put it on her head before stepping out of bed.

“Well, I don’t know who you are but y’all really made a big mistake breaking into this room,” she cracked her neck and glared at them.

“A traveler from out of town?!” One of the ponies yelled, no consideration to the late night.

“You have to be kidding me!” The first said.

“What do we do? Maybe she has money...” Bubbles suggested.

“But we’re not supposed to hurt anypony!” Another said.

“What in the blazes are y’all talking about?” Applejack shouted and stamped a hoof on the floor. “You planning on robbing me? Or this hotel or something? Well I’m not letting you do that.”

The pony who had been holding the candle bit his lip. “We don’t have time for this—and she’s only one mare, we don’t need to hurt her or nothing, just grab her and let’s finish our business.”

He charged at her.

And quickly found out that was a bad idea when Applejack pivoted on her front hooves, turned around, and bucked him hard in the chest. He was sent flying backwards into the wall with the impact shaking the entire room and dropping the jaws of his comrades.

“Brisk Wings!” Bubbles shouted and ran over to help him up.

“Ow...” the newly named pony mumbled, stars spinning around his head.

“Y’all gonna calm down now maybe?” Applejack asked the rest of them.

The three stallions instead grit their teeth and ran at her as well to avenge their friend. “Get her!”

“Guess not...” Applejack sighed.

To give them credit—the one holding a hammer dropped it before attacking her. He clearly didn’t have the intention to use it on a pony. But they were still attacking her and Applejack had no idea why. There wasn’t an opportunity to ask right now either with it being three on one. She couldn’t let them take her bits and other items if that was the kind of stuff they were after—and as odd as Fire Vent was she was still a guest here and had been given a place to stay. So letting anything bad happen to this hotel was morally out of the question for her too.

The first stallion who reached her this time just tried to jump on and tackle her. Again she had no idea if they didn’t know how to fight or if they just wanted to detain her without hurting her as much as possible. They still hadn’t totally realized they should be far more worried about themselves.

Applejack leaned down and headbutted him in the gut as he jumped at her before tossing him behind her back. He landed on the floor with a groan while the other two came at her sides and tried to sandwich her. She instead jumped to her right and shoulder-checked the one coming at her from that direction before they could reach her. He collided with the wall and knocked a painting down to the floor. The last one now had a shot at her back and he took it—jumping on her and wrapping his hooves around her neck to try and wrestle her to the floor. Well Applejack was having none of that. She bucked him off her like a bull, so hard he smashed into the ceiling and fell back down painfully.

“Ready to talk? Have you calmed down yet?” Applejack asked the three groaning ponies.

She heard some rustling from behind her and looked to see Bubbles and Brisk Wings had grabbed her saddlebag while she was busy dealing with the others.

Their eyes met and the two intruders paled.

“And that’s another mistake you just made,” Applejack narrowed her eyes.

Before she could take a step though a shrill and very loud whistle came from outside—the broken window making it even easier to hear. Applejack’s ears perked up in confusion while the five others all looked worried and even the three on the floor now attempted to pick themselves back up.

“Darn it… already?” Bubbles grumbled.

“What’s that?” Applejack asked, looking around.

“Come on, l-let’s go, forget the mare and the hotel!” The one she had checked into the wall said. Together he and his friends ran back to the busted window and they all started climbing out while leaving a perplexed Applejack behind.

She got her senses back when she realized that two of them had still taken her saddlebag. “H-Hey!” Applejack yelled and ran for the window just as they were all exiting through it.

She jumped through the window and came out into a dark alleyway, hardly able to see anything but she could hear their hooves clattering over the stone street. Applejack frowned and followed behind them and came out into the main street. And arrived at a hectic situation. For some reason about half the lampposts were unlit and there were sounds of ponies running all throughout Fire Vent around her, along with more whistles, shouting, and the sounds of fighting and glass breaking. It almost felt like a riot was going on or something. Under one lamppost that was still lit she could see two ponies fighting—one of them being a deputy she recognized.

The five who had come into her hotel room were trying to sprint away still so Applejack put everything else out of her head and ran after them. Thanks to four of them being a bit hurt they weren’t making very good progress and the one mare among them didn’t seem to want to leave them behind. Brisk Wings meanwhile was still carrying her saddlebag.

“Aint no way you’re outrunning me!” Applejack shouted and put some more power into her legs. Legs built through a lifetime of apple-bucking and doing the Running of the Leaves—they were more than a match for the other five ponies.

She practically just crashed into and tackled the whole group from behind, all of them falling and sprawling to the street right under a lamppost. Two of them quickly recovered and threw a couple of punches at Applejack that she stepped away from. Bubbles tried helping up Brisk Wings and the other stallion to make their escape.

“We’ll hold her off, doesn’t matter if the Sheriff arrests one or two of us!” One of the stallions fighting Applejack said.

“It’s better if you get her valuables!” The other said.

Applejack frowned. “Now that aint happening.”

She stepped forward and threw a haymaker at the nearest stallion, her hoof hitting him across the chin and sending him spinning around before he fell to the street. Knocked out in one. And she had held back too—these fellows may be trying to rob her but the whole time they clearly hadn’t wanted to hurt her. They couldn’t be that bad, right? They at least didn’t deserve any broken bones. The discarded hammer earned them that much.

The other stallion gulped, legs shaking as he stood between her and the others who were now trying to run again.

“I’m giving you the chance to step out of my way,” Applejack politely said to him.

He managed to stop his shaking legs and took a deep breath. “Sorry, can’t do that.”

“Fair enough,” Applejack sighed.

The stallion ran at her and she decided not to do anything fancy, pretty much just stuck out her hoof as he got closer and let him smash his face into it. He grumbled and groaned in pain before his eyes rolled back and he dropped to the street. However, he had given his friends a few seconds. And with how dark it was and all the chaos around her she had lost sight of them.

That wasn’t much of a problem though. Applejack had something else she could rely on in moments like this.

She closed her eyes and focused. The vibrations of all the hooves traveling over the street were easy to pick out as their ripples reached her. The faint differences between mares and stallions, between a pony carrying something and one not carrying anything, the distance and speed they were traveling. Applejack could sense it all. She let a tremor from her heartbeat spread down to her hoof, growing stronger and stronger, and unleashed it through the ground. It spread out in a circle and even with her eyes closed she could see the shapes of everything it hit—where the lampposts were, the buildings, the ponies. All became visible inside her head. Her echolocation was perfect. And it found the three ponies she was looking for. Their own vibrations came bouncing back to her, telling her where they were running and how far they were.

Applejack breathed in and out, feeling her lungs expand, and shot another much more focused tremor into the ground.

A small fissure cracked and broke through the surface of the street as the tremor shot towards its quarry. One stallion in particular the target. They couldn’t see it coming in the darkness and the stallion was taken by surprise when the tremor erupted right in front of his hoof as he was putting it down, a small pothole becoming his downfall as he twisted his ankle in the hole and crashed down with Applejack’s saddlebag. Her aim and timing of the tremor was just as perfect too.

Applejack grinned and opened up her eyes. “Heh, I still got it.”

She may not have had much of a use for Hoof of the Earth in her day to day life back in Ponyville, but a natural was still a natural.

Applejack then ran for them before they could recover and figure out what happened and get away with her bag. She would’ve liked to have potentially chased them down all the way but with everything going on in Fire Vent she would be okay with just making sure her bag wasn’t stolen. Whatever was happening here was bigger than just a few ponies. She had already knocked out two of them, if the Sheriff and his deputies could take them into custody and figure things out that should be good.

She reached them just as Bubbles and the other stallion were lifting up and helping carry along Brisk Wings between them. Their eyes met and Bubbles glanced at Applejack’s saddlebag—lying there.

“L-Leave it! Let’s just get out of here!” Brisk Wings said.

Bubbles clicked her tongue but acquiesced to his demand and the three hobbled away into the darkness together while Applejack picked up her saddlebag and swung it over her side. “There we go.”

She stood there and listened as for a few minutes longer the whistling and sounds of fighting continued—but started to die down as well. A frown stayed on her face the whole time, right up until a sudden revelation hit her and her eyes opened up wide.

“They were wearing the same clothes as everypony else… and they didn’t have masks on or nothing. They were just ponies from Fire Vent weren’t they?” She took off her hat and scratched her head. “Now I’m really just confused.”

Comments

[RoboRed]

Chumps made the mistake of picking on one of the last ponies you'd want to get in a hoof-to-hoof brawl with.
Was wondering if she still had the Hoof of the Earth abilities.

[redmar]

Those thieves really don't know how to fight especially not against somepony like Applejack. I wonder what is going in Fire Vent but Applejack is certainly going to get answer from the sherrif.