Applejack at the Edge of the World

by MagicS

Bogged Down I

It wasn’t long before she reached a crossroads.

The single large dirt road from the bridge, heading east and west, split into six different roads after only about an hour of walking from the edge of the canyon. One kept going west, one went south, two went north, and two more went southwest and northwest. The problem was there wasn’t really any indication of where they led to or what she would find on each individual road. The ones going directly north and south would certainly hit the mountains eventually but aside from that Applejack was clueless.

Even less helpful was that there was a hole in the ground on the side of the main road where a signpost clearly used to stand in. But whatever sign used to be there had been dug out and was now gone. Applejack didn’t know why anypony would do something like that but all it meant was she still had no idea where exactly she was going.

And since she didn’t have anything else to go on—she was still going to head straight. As long as she kept going west she’d eventually get to Elysium’s View. If there happened to be something blocking the way she’d just have to deal with it the same as the Citadel of Al-Karamaretel. Directly ahead did change slightly from just a flat plains, there were small rolling hills and Applejack could see green meadows further on. At least she wasn’t walking through a wasteland or a desert.

Applejack shrugged and started walking west, the day wasn’t as hot as the last few were on the bridge and she was comforted by the occasional breeze even. So despite her likely still having a lot of walking to do before she hit another town or any sort of civilization it should still be an easier jaunt. She even had clouds floating over her head again to give her a little reprieve from the sun. It would be nice if she saw some birds or animals soon too so it really felt like she was back in the “normal” world. And after having so many others to keep her company for a while she was kind of hoping she’d come across some ponies sooner rather than later too. Applejack liked the peace and quiet and she considered herself decently good at enjoying her private time, but she still loved being around and meeting others. Not to the level of some of her friends but she still could use some company.

“I know there are other cities and kingdoms out here,” Applejack said to herself as she walked. “Let’s hope they’re friendly.”

---

Later that day but still well before the sun went down, and Applejack now found herself walking through a completely different environment. The ground had flattened out once more after dipping below the small hills to the west and the road was bordered by very luscious and thick fields of tall green grass that came up to her chin. Not just grass but healthy flowers and other plants with the occasional tree sprouting up alongside the road. The Far West had become a colorful and pretty darn nice looking place to walk through.

The air had become “wetter” too. Not exactly humid but there was a moisture in the air for sure, the dirt under her hooves squelched with each step she took, just a little bit of extra dampness away from being mud. The grass also was covered in dew and Applejack could both see and hear droplets of water falling off the various leaves.

The further she went the more she saw things like cattails, marigolds, and ferns popping up around her. Glancing up, the sky became covered in a thin but still completely obscuring sheet of graying clouds.

“Rain a lot here?” Applejack wondered. It’d make sense with everything she had seen so far.

Things were cooling down again too, now with it later in the day and the sun mostly blocked by clouds, it was getting chilly and moist almost like a cooled basement. Applejack spied a couple of ponds the further she walked too and the dirt of the road was getting closer and closer to just straight up becoming mud. To add to the atmosphere Applejack started to hear croaking frogs and buzzing mosquitoes come from the wetlands around her.

She sighed, now well aware of what lied ahead of her. “I’m walking right into a swamp, aren’t I?”

She was more than familiar with swamps, enough swamps and bogs existed around Ponyville and spread through the rest of Equestria. How many had she personally been to? Most all of them weren’t pleasant places either so her previous good mood was dampened quite a bit. She just hoped that whatever swamps existed in the Far West didn’t have the kind of big and mean monsters that the swamps of Equestria had.

Applejack picked up the pace a little since she wanted to see if she could at least find someplace a little nicer to pitch her tent at before stopping and there weren’t many hours before dark now. Worse came to worse she’d just have to prop it up right in the road—probably still the driest and most even place around right now.

“Maybe there’ll be ponies out living here though. I mean, there’s gotta be a reason this road exists, right? And there were plenty of ponies back in Equestria that lived in the swamps...” Applejack tried to delude herself.

The further she went the more trees and ponds off the side of the road started to pop up, and a steady mist started to flow in from the west. It didn’t kill her vision or anything like that—it was too close to the ground—but it was a bit troublesome. Beyond the mist she could just now start to see dense trees covering the landscape completely and the tall grass on the ground was giving away to flatter, and far wetter, marshes. She almost slipped on the muddy road a couple of times just walking.

It seemed it was pointless to hope she might find a good spot to set her tent up at. Now she just wanted to cover as much distance as possible.

At least there was still a road at all.

Grass and dandelions were starting to grow up from out of the road beneath her hooves though, everything was becoming overrun by nature. Any rocks and trees she saw were covered with moss and the sound of frogs and mosquitoes only grew louder and louder. With the last bits of light from the sun, Applejack could see the road taking her into the dense trees ahead. While it wasn’t a swamp just yet because of the water level, it was still very wet and the ground off the road didn’t look safe to walk over at all. Surely any spot that looked safe was a trap—you’d put your hoof down and it would sink up to your knee in water and muck.

Applejack stopped for a moment and looked around. The tall grass had completely vanished, leaving puddles and pools of standing water surrounded by mud and rotting vegetation. She saw the road heading into the trees was slightly raised over the rest of the ground, where water could run off it so it wouldn’t become flooded. The muddy ground off it was close to being submerged but for the most part the ground still poked through. If you could see where the trees started then you weren’t really in a swamp yet. It was only when Applejack had to wade through water or find another way to get through here because it was too deep for her hooves that she would really consider it a swamp.

Right now she was staying with flooded forest in her mind and hoping it didn’t really get any worse than this.

Feeling in the mood for a meal before she actually entered the flooded forest she lifted up a hoof and started wiping it clean on her body—not caring if she was dirty but not wanting to get any of that dirt on her food. Applejack was more than used to being all muddy and unkempt anyways. Once the hoof was properly clean, mostly, she reached into her saddlebag and took out her last biscuit. There wasn’t much food left besides the emergency oats she still had with her, along with the metal water bottle. Unfortunately the murky standing water she found herself surrounded by now wouldn’t be safe to drink but maybe if it rained or drizzled soon she could collect some more.

As Applejack ate the biscuit she looked up at the sky, seeing it starting to get truly dark now as the sun went down. But almost right as it did, light from the trees in front of her caught her attention.

Blinking in surprise, Applejack looked as hundreds of tiny lights appeared in the forest. They blinked on and off and flew around in the darkness of the trees, creating a wild and exciting light show.

“Fireflies,” Applejack whispered.

It was pretty to look at, they all flew about in loops and spirals, talking to each other just with their lights. Trying to grab the attention of a mate and just showing off how bright they could be. Applejack was glad she got to enjoy a show like this while she ate. She doubted there would be much anything else nice to look at once she got further into the swamp. Just seeing them all going about their carefree display brought a smile to her face, sometimes a pony just had to enjoy the simple things.

Once she was finished with her biscuit she shrugged to herself and got a move on once more. She’d at least get inside the flooded forest so wherever she stopped for the night she’d have cover from the rain if it started pouring down in the middle of the night. The tent was going to be a muddy mess and probably get her other stuff dirty but it was better than lying unprotected in the mud herself and getting the saddlebag covered completely in muck. After walking a few more feet, leaving hoof marks behind in the mud, Applejack passed by the first line of trees and entered the flooded forest. Above her the tree branches and all the leaves on them created a broken canopy that half-blocked out the sky—something that would change the further she went. If this was anything like most swamps she was sure soon it would be dense enough that the sky would disappear.

At least right now the fireflies were still having their fun and the road was still straight so Applejack could see where she was going. She looked at a pool of water to her right and saw a frog sitting on a lilypad, croaking with his big stretchy mouth going bigger and smaller. When Applejack took another step she must’ve startled it since it jumped right off its pad and into the water. There must’ve been a lot of other frogs and animals in the swamp but they were unsurprisingly staying out of sight. The various creatures probably hadn’t seen a pony come through here in ages.

She still kept her eyes open anyways—hoping she’d see something like a cabin or even an abandoned boat that would tell her there were ponies nearby. Hoping she’d hear the plucking of a banjo coming from deeper in the swamp. But the further she walked the more her hopes seemed to be completely in vain. Applejack was alone in this swamp. Maybe alone for a long time after getting out of it too.

She had no idea if it was entirely because of what had happened at Al-Karamaretel or if the Far West was naturally like this but she didn’t enjoy how empty its first impression was.

A yawn came up out of nowhere and Applejack took that as a sign that she might as well stop for the night. There was clearly nothing she’d stumble across anytime soon, might as well sleep and wait for the sun to come up before continuing. She doubted this swamp would be as big across as the canyon, it didn’t seem possible, so hopefully tomorrow she could get through the entire thing. And then get started on the next leg of her journey to Elysium’s View.

Which was hopefully a nice and easy train ride.

Applejack rolled her eyes, knowing her luck would never be that good.

She checked out the road she was traveling on to see if there was any spot a little drier and sturdier than the rest. Not finding much, she decided to just set up right in the middle of the road so she at least could keep away from the water as much as possible. If it rained, like she was kind of expecting it to, part of the road would almost certainly become flooded. It was good that it was raised slightly and slightly higher again right in the middle. Whoever made it put a lot of thought into keeping it safe and able to travel on.

Everything, her hooves, her tent, her coat, were messy with mud by the time she had the tent set up and ready to sleep inside it.

Applejack shook her head. “Nothing to do about that...”

She tried wiping her hooves off on the canvas of the tent as best as possible before stepping in and resting her head on her saddlebag again. A lumpy and not very soft pillow but a pillow nonetheless. Another yawn came and Applejack closed her eyes, soon drifting off to her first night of sleep in the Far West.

Comments

[redmar]

Hopefully she won't have any other problems than what is normal for a swamp.