An Apple Sleep Experiment

The sun’s heat showed no remorse on the day of the zap-apple harvest. Despite the severity of their situation, the Apple family found it difficult to gain any outside assistance. Most of the extended Apple family was tending to their own dying orchards, and Applejack’s friends all had places to be. Still, there were a few kind Ponyvillians willing to lend a hoof; though most of them didn’t last more than a few hours under the sun.

By day’s end, only Apple Bloom and Applejack remained. When the sun finally set over the horizon, Apple Bloom collapsed on the ground, grateful that the heat would finally subside. Although Applejack felt her own looming exhaustion, she was too stubborn to give up the work. She looked at the few bushels they’d collected and then at the remaining zap-apple trees, realizing that despite their hard work more than half of the bucking was left to do.

Soon after sunset, Granny Smith emerged, struggling as she walked with what appeared to be two glasses of lukewarm cider.

“Sis? Aint ya comin’ in?” Apple Bloom asked her older sister warily. “Granny says there’s fresh pie inside…”

“No can do Apple Bloom, Ah was hopin’ we’d get through more trees before sun down. You know as well as Ah that these disappear at midnight.” Applejack replied.

“Now Applejack, we done our best. ‘Sides, I can tell yer about to drop young filly and I’m not about to have another grandchild in the hospital from exhaustion.” Granny countered.

“That aint gonna happen, Granny. Y’all go on ahead, there’s still a few minutes of strength left in these legs of mine and Ah want to make sure we get as many zap apples as we can.” Applejack said, walking away from them.

Applejack knew it worried Granny to see her working this hard, but she also knew she wouldn’t risk letting on how important this was with Apple Bloom around. Thankfully, everypony had kept quiet about their finance problems around the little filly.

As Applejack wandered from one tree to another, she could feel the contents of her saddlebag moving in rhythm to her steps. Somewhere buried beneath her supplies was a little potion vial that hopefully had the answer to her problems. When Twilight produced the sleep preventative potion the previous day it came with a strongly emphasized condition. Applejack had to promise to use this as a last resort; the absolute last option. Twilight was worried that the side effects might cause more damage than it was worth as she hadn’t had the time to truly study them. Applejack could see the genuine concern in her friend’s expression and gladly made the promise, even knowing full well that she intended to use it.

Still, staying true to her word, Applejack gave the zap-apple bucking her best effort without it. It was an hour or so after sunset that she could feel her body threatening to shut down. Her muscles tensed up and her vision became hazy, causing her coordination to suffer. Although the sun was long gone, beads of sweat were still rolling off her cheeks and her breathing became raspy and short. In her rapidly escalating exhaustion, Applejack made a miscalculation in her bucking and ended up being pummeled to the ground by zap-apples. She groaned and put a hoof to her throbbing head, shaking some apples loose from her hat. Applejack heaved a sigh as she carefully pulled Twilight’s potion out of her saddlebag and held it up in the moonlight.

“Ah’m sorry Twi,” Applejack whispered aloud. “But Ah’ve got to save this farm.”

She pulled the cork free from the potion vial and downed it in one gulp. However, the moment she drew the vial away from her lips she felt a wave of unbearable sickness. Clasping her mouth with her front hooves she turned away from the zap-apple trees before the potion and most of her dinner came back up with a vengeance.