A poisoned apple.

After her little..."experience," Applejack thought she'd be better off selling apples in town at the market as opposed to bucking them that day. "Probably why I had the bad dream in the first place Apple bloom." She said to her little sister as they made their way to the marketplace, hitched to appropriate sized carts of red and golden delicious apples. "I've been working a bit too hard and I just need to take easy, but we still got a business to uphold so what better way to combine both than with a market day right?" Even as she said this to Applebloom; the younger sibling couldn't help but notice how..."exhausted" Applejack looked.

While most of the sleeplessness she had when she woke up had gone down the bathroom sink; she still had a tinge of redness to her eyes, the bags where still (albeit less so) noticeable, her mane, while somewhat restored still had the air of being unmanageable, and every few paces down the road she kept on letting out long drawn yawns. "AJ, I'm really worried about you."

"Aww pony feathers! I'm not lettin one little nightscare get in the way of mah duty so keep your trap shut about it!" She snapped at her and almost immediately regretted doing so. as She gave her sister her saddest eyes and asked.

"Why did you have to be so mean about it, I"m only tryin to help." she said a tear in her eye.

"Oh I'm sorry applebloom, I guess maybe ah do need a day off if the sleeplessness is making me snap at you, but let's just say mah dream made me really consider the the good of the farm...you understand?" She asked bringing the little filly in for a hug to comfort her and make up for the yelling.

"I guess so," She said setting up her smaller cart into a stand to sell from. "Just take care of yourself ok?"

"I know sis, and I will I promise." as the day went by, Applejack began to notice how it seemed like a lot of Ponyville didn't look up to the day from a bad night. Ball-bearing left Colgate's dental office clutching an ice bag to his swollen jaw. Applejack caught some of their conversation on the matter.

"I said sorry BB, I thought I had given you novocaine before I started your root canal." She said yawing hard and shaking her head to concentrate.

"Yeah well Ya sure id good a ob with the rill to realize ya bucked it up." the construction pony said with with a lisp of his swollen cheeks. Aww doesn't matter anyway, I'm gonna call off a ob we had planned today anyway, I'm too tired for this today. he finished and stormed off in a huff only briefly stopping by Applejack's stand for a moment. "you got any applesauce Ms?" he asked before grabbing his cheek and howling a bit in pain.

"Sorry just apples today sir." She said with a compassionate understanding, almost as if she knew why this had happened.

"Uhhh, I had the most awful dream last night, A dreamt a gust of wind blew me off the girders of my site, and I landed on a bunch of rebars, and just to add insult to injury, the cement mixer dumped on me as I was...well...you know." he said running a hoof over his throat. "took it as a warning not to go into work today...a not very subtle hint to not work today."

"Really?" Applejack asked...but he had already left. The first pony to buy from her a few hours later was Lyra, although like her she looked a bit under the weather.  her mane unkempt; her eyes puffy, and she even twitched at the slightest breeze. "Lyra? are you feeling ok?"

"AHH NO! GET AWAY FROM ME VILE THINGS!" She screamed at the top of her voice almost in a trance. "Oh, I'm sorry, I..."

"Had a terrible dream last night?" Applejack finished for the minty green mare.

"Yes, how in Celestia's name did you know?" She asked with a tilt of her head and an inquisitive flick of her tail.

"Isn't it obvious?...look at me Ly" Applejack replied wiping some of the cover up of her face to reveal the tiredness underneath.

"Well buck me running, you two?" She asked getting a simple nod as a reply. "Oh goddess alive; I had this terrible dream that these strange white things like a couple of eyeless crabs in this empty black void wrapped themselves around my neck and no matter how hard I screamed no sound came out. Horrible things they were, I hope I never see them again as long as I live."  She finished with a cold shudder.

"Lyra? just before you woke up; did a voice happen to say "You lose, now Fear takes you?"

"There was a voice, only it said, "and at the end of fear...the void." like this creepy distorted voice that I also never want to hear in my life." The green mare shuddered again and trotted off in a huff. All day ponies went by her stand and while not all of them were open to sharing their dreams, the ones that did, told of them all meeting some terrible fate. Either seeing horrible ways to go, or the livelihoods of their talents going to ruin. Like when Cheerilee spoke of every single one of her student's failing so badly, not only her but also themselves; every test score was a solid F but they didn't even seem to notice because they all appeared illiterate and brain dead.

"No offense Applebloom; I'm sorry, I don't think any less of you ponies no matter what some dream says."

"None taken Ms. Cheerilee. none at all." Applebloom said giving her teacher a comforting little hug.

"Applebloom, I think Princess Luna's due for a little questioning when the day is through." Applejack said with a stern adjustment of her hat and a hearty cow mare spit on the ground. "Run along and play little sis, I can handle the stand on mah own." She said ruffling her sister's mane as she went off to find the rest of the CMC.