It was a beautiful day in Ponyville, again, and Pinkie Pie was having a party at Twilight’s Castle, again. It had all of her usual entertainment and refreshments. Sugary treats, punch, party hats, streamers, balloons, games, music, the works. She was bouncing around the entire time, chatting, dancing, smiling, laughing, and just being Pinkie Pie with her four best friends.
“Wait, four?” Pinkie Pie asked, breaking the fourth wall when she counted the ponies that were there to see how many slices of cake she could cut. “Where did Applejack go? Did she not like my party?” The pink pony’s smile that had been present throughout the entire event had disappeared and was replaced by a look of absolute devastation.
“Don’t worry, Pinkie, I saw her go down the hallway toward the bathroom a couple of minutes ago,” Twilight Sparkle reassured.
“Okie dokie lokie,” Pinkie responded quickly, her joyous expression and voice returning, and the conversation being forgotten about as she went over to see what Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were laughing about.
The question was dropped quickly, but little did everypony know that while their sixth was down in the bathroom like they thought, she wasn’t using the bathroom for a usual purpose, but for a more serious reason nonetheless.
Applejack’s vision came back into focus, and she was very confused to find herself lying on a purple and a rather soft surface. She simply gazed at it for a few seconds, not knowing where she was, but assuming she was indoors. As she began to take in her surroundings further, she noticed that the walls were also purple, and shining, with the light bouncing off the surface, and there was a cabinet in the corner with a fluffy towel hanging out of one of the drawers. This made her figure out that she was most likely in a bathroom somewhere, but she still lay there wondering to herself.
“Where am Ah? Whose bathroom is this? Ah...Ah can’t remember anything.”
She stood up, her legs feeling like noodles and a wave of both fatigue and nausea hit her, although the latter subsided after a few seconds, the former remained. “Why am Ah so darn tired all of the sudden? Ah could’ve sworn Ah just woke up a minute ago, right? Ah mean, Ah don’t know how Ah got here or where Ah am, but Ah should probably get to Pinkie’s party before Ah’m late.”
The confused earth pony fumbled her way toward the door and opened it, going down the hallway and trying to find her way into the throne room. Even though she wasn’t very aware of her surroundings, she was almost subconsciously guiding her way through the castle in a daze. She eventually stumbled through a doorway and found the room containing her five friends.
“Howdy gals,” she exclaimed. “Sorry Ah’m a might late to the party, girls, Ah lost track of time.” She smiled nervously, but instead of being met with a warm welcome or a sarcastic comment about her tardiness from Rainbow Dash like she expected, she was instead met by looks of confusion and head scratches. “What?”
“You’re already here, silly,” Pinkie smiled, running over to give Applejack a slice of cake. “You were in the bathroom a long time, though, and I was super worried you thought my party was bad and left.” The cake was placed in her hooves and she looked down to observe it as if she was unsure if it was actually what Pinkie had said it was.
All of a sudden her eyes seemed to realize not only where she was and what had happened before, but also what had caused this confusion. She took a few steps back and sat down on a wooden seat to the side, which was one of the chairs they had used for musical chairs just an hour earlier, but moved off to the side to make space.
“Hey AJ, you know you’re allowed to eat that cake right,” a gruff voice cut through her tired head and she looked up to see Rainbow Dash hovering over her with an amused look on her face.
“Uh, yeah, Ah knew that,” she responded. “Ah’m just thinking right now.”
“Why would you want to do that? It’s a party!”
“You’re just jealous because ya never think, Dash!”
Rainbow rolled her eyes at the joke, waved a hoof at Applejack, and flew away to the rest of her friends, leaving Applejack alone in the corner to eat her cake in peace. But Applejack didn’t eat it, deciding to wait until all of her friends were occupied before running to a nearby trash can to toss the slice in the trash before zooming back to her chair and resting. She wasn’t very hungry at the moment, feeling as though anything she tried to put down would come up just as quickly.
This feeling wasn’t anything new to the farmer, it was something she had been plagued with since she could remember, but it seemed to get better and better as she got older, going from once or twice a week to once or twice a month. It wasn’t just her who knew about it, though, but it wasn’t like all of Equestria knew about it either. Heck, her best friends didn’t know about it, proving just how good she was at hiding it. Only her close family knew about it, and not even all of them, and the reason for that was that Apple Bloom was too young to fully understand why her elder sister sometimes had to run to the bathroom for no apparent reason in the middle of some activity, no matter how important.
What happened behind that door when she would do it varied between a few seconds of blankness and a few minutes of torture. Either way, it almost always resulted in the feeling arising and her being tired and lethargic for the rest of the day.
She wasn’t embarrassed by this feeling she got since anypony who got less than the recommended eight hours of sleep would probably feel something similar. No, she was embarrassed by what happened before it, something she considered a weakness.
One of her many seizures.
“Why don’t ya just tell all of your friends about your condition, AJ? Ah know that they would never think any less of ya.”
“Ya don’t understand, Mac.”
“Ah know Ah don’t! That’s why Ah’m asking!”
Applejack rolled her eyes and looked away from the big red stallion that was her brother. After she got home looking completely exhausted, he knew right away what had happened, which was very observant of him considering she had just gotten home from a party and would have probably been tired anyway. She had gone up the stairs to rest on her bed for half an hour before the door creaked open and Big Mac walked in to talk to her. They were now sitting next to each other on her bed and having a conversation.
“Ah can’t control them,” Applejack pointed out with her head still turned toward her green walls, “and Ah don’t need any of mah friends causing a big fuss about it. As long as Ah can go somewhere private and let it happen, they’ll never know.”
“Applejack, those gals are more sharp-eyed than ya think, and Ah reckon that once they catch on, they’ll be sorer that ya didn’t tell them.”
“If they haven’t caught on yet, then Ah don’t think they ever will.”
“Ah-”
“Listen,” Applejack said, her head snapping back to meet green eyes that reflected her own, “Ah’m not calling mah friends dumb or nothing, but Ah really don’t think they would find out unless one of them decided to spy on me, and unless Ah go to Sugarcube Corner without saying hi to Pinkie, that won’t happen neither. Ah’ve handled this by mahself, and Ah can keep doing that.”
“But ya haven’t,” Big Mac corrected. “Remember that time ya had a right nasty one in front of Cousin Braeburn? He thought ya were possessed and wouldn’t come out of his room for the rest of his visit, and do ya know why? Because he didn’t know why it happened. Imagine it happens in front of your friends and they already knew. They would still be scared, but not as much as they would have if they had no idea, and besides that Ah reckon that Fluttershy and Twilight would be prepared and know what to do on account of Fluttershy being a caretaker and Twilight being a sharp one.”
Applejack put a hood to her chin and sulked, a rare sight for the stubborn orange pony. “Ah just don’t think Ah can.”
“Well Ah know you’ve got this thing where ya can sense some of your seizures coming, but it ain’t 100% accurate. You’ve had a few close calls with letting Apple Bloom see ya.” Big Mac paused and his eyes widened in realization. “And that’s another thing. Ya haven’t even told your little sister about it, and Ah think at this point she’s old enough to know!”
“Ah don’t need her to worry about me none. Ah’m supposed to care for her, not the other way around, and don’t ya dare try to change the subject!”
Big Mac exhaled a large breath of air before shaking his head and looking sympathetically at his sister. “Sometimes ya just have to put some of that stubborn pride of yours aside and accept that the ponies who want to help ya will when needed.”
Applejack’s eyes lowered to the floor but otherwise did not indicate hearing her brother's words. Big Mac stood up and went to the door, shooting one last look at his sister before leaving.
Alone, Applejack lay down on top of her sheets, still tired from the party compounded with the seizure she had. She figured that the one she had was a moderate seizure, considering the amount of time she had spent in the bathroom, the only minor headache, the pool of drool, and the absence of bruises and scrapes on her barrel. These were tolerable to an extent, but the worst ones were the ones that made her shake on her rickety bed just thinking about them. Fortunately for her, those usually didn’t happen unless there was some kind of trigger, like flashing lights or, for some reason, the smell of coffee, but coffee wasn’t too popular outside of cities, as most of the folks preferred tea in little old Ponyville.
“Ah’ll be fine, as long as there isn’t something like a huge fireworks show coming to Ponyville.”
“Can you girls believe there’s a huge fireworks show coming to Ponyville!?”
Applejack almost spat out the herbal tea that Rarity had given her all over her friends. After the party the day before, Rarity had asked them all to come in so that they could be measured for her latest line of dresses. For once, Rarity managed to finish up early, which meant that they could all sit and talk for a little while, and the first thing that Pinkie had asked when everypony had comfortably sat down was Applejack’s worst nightmare.
“I know, right?” Twilight asked excitedly. “It’s supposed to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of Ponyville!”
“This is going to be so awesome!” Rainbow shouted, jumping out of her seat in pure excitement before snapping out of it and floating back down, her chill persona quickly returning. “I mean, it should be a good show.”
“Oh absolutely,” Rarity said while levitating a teapot to Fluttershy for a refill. “I adore fireworks shows. The colors, the bright vivid lights, and the swirling motions in which they travel are simply divine.”
“Wow Rarity, I didn’t take you to be into that kind of stuff,” Twilight exclaimed in surprise.
“It’s art, darling, and an artist such as myself should be able to appreciate other art, even if it is outside of her scope.”
“What about rap music?” Rainbow giggled as her fashionista gasped in an exaggerated fashion (no pun intended).
“That isn’t art, Rainbow Dash. It is simply computerized rubbish that anypony with decent editing abilities and a rhyming dictionary could do!”
“Whatever,” Rainbow rolled her eyes while still smiling.
“I didn’t know that this was happening. When is it?” Fluttershy asked softly.
“It’s supposed to be in five days,” Twilight answered. “It was kind of short notice, but it’s been the talk of the town since the mayor made the announcement yesterday.”
“Figures Ah wouldn’t know this thing was happening until later,” Applejack thought, “Ah live outside of Ponyville, and don’t hear much of the happenings unless Ah’m selling Apples. It was Big Mac’s turn this week, but the least he could've done was let me know. That also explains why Fluttershy didn’t know about it Ah suppose-”
“Applejack!”
“Wha?” Applejack shook her head to get out of her thoughts. She regained her focus and gazed at the five ponies around the table now looking directly at her. “Oh, Ah’m sorry. What did y’all say?”
Rainbow’s eyebrow was raised slightly in suspicion and curiosity. “Uh, I just asked if you were stoked for the show.”
“Oh, uh right...the show. Yeah, definitely.” It was a lie, and her friends could see it right away. As soon as she saw the disbelieving stares, she knew she was busted. “Dagnabbit! Stupid honesty!”
“Is everything alright, Applejack,” Fluttershy asked. “And stupid kindness!”
“...yeah?”
“Really? Because it sounds like you're answering a question with a question,” Pinkie laughed. Then Rainbow seemed to get an idea.
“You’re not afraid of fireworks, are you?” When Applejack didn’t answer right away, still nervous, Rainbow died laughing. “Oh my Celestia! You are! Equestria’s Best Athlete isn’t afraid of a Draconequuis, but she’s afraid of a few flashing lights!”
“Ah am not-” she paused, seeing a window. “Ah mean, yeah! Ah’m afraid of them. They’re just too darn loud and bright for me.”
Applejack knew she had won, especially considering that her lie was actually the truth but in another way, so her face wouldn’t show the lie too much.
“Wow, Applejack,” Twilight said with surprise in her tone, “I didn’t know that you were afraid.”
“Yeah, so that’s why Ah probably won’t be at the show.” Applejack was cheering on the inside, finding a clever solution to the crisis and being able to get off scot-free.
“But you have to come!” a high and excited voice insisted.
“Darn it!”
“It won’t be near as fun without all six of us here!” Pinkie put on her sad puppy eyes, but she felt a light nudge on her side coming from the yellow pegasus sitting next to her.
“Pinkie, if she isn't comfortable with it then we shouldn’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to.”
“Ah-”
“No way!” Rainbow Dash interrupted the farmer. “Applejack, you have to come! It’s supposed to be the greatest fireworks on this side of Canterlot! You can’t skip out because you’re too busy being a chicken!”
“Well-”
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight’s voice rang out, “That’s not very nice! Whether she decides to go or not is none of your concern.”
“That-”
“Well, I believe that you should at least try to go to the show,” Rarity reasoned to Applejack, “because we can help you through it if you need to, and if you need to cover your ears, we won’t think any less of you.”
“Ah mean-”
“That’s a really good idea,” Twilight commented before turning to face Applejack, a calming expression across her face. “Applejack, we’re your friends, and we don’t want you to miss out on this.”
“But y’all let Fluttershy stay home from Nightmare Night a bunch of times!”
“Really? Ah managed to finally butt in and this is what Ah butt in with?”
Fluttershy simply smiled. “But when I decided to, everypony made me feel so comfortable and included me in whatever I felt alright doing.”
“See? We want you to come to see this, it’s supposed to be amazing.” Twilight assured. “Maybe if you told us why you’re so afraid of fireworks so much we would be able to better understand and help you through it.”
Applejack felt her eyes widen, along with the concern surrounding her grow as her hesitation to respond held.
“Ah…Ah...ya know what?” Her exterior dementor changed in an instant, going from timid and scared to happy and determined. She even slammed a hoof on the table to show it. “Ah will go! Ah can pull through this!”
“That’s the spirit!” Pinkie cheered while throwing confetti everywhere. “Now all six of us can be there and have fun together!”
“What time do we have to get there?” Fluttershy asked.
“The show starts at sundown but we can meet before that, preferably an hour so we can get a good spot,” Twilight replied.
Everypony seemed alright with this and within the next ten minutes, everypony had left the Boutique except for its owner. Applejack started on the trek home, wondering if she had made the right decision because while she seemed determined to beat this fear externally, internally it was a whole different story.
“How am Ah supposed to get through this if Ah can’t control what happens? Ah mean, Ah could try faking sick, but Ah’m bad at it. Or Ah could go slow with mah chores so that Ah have to stay on the farm to finish them. Nah, Big Macintosh will kill me for being lazy. Well, Ah can’t back out now, so what should Ah do?” As she walked at a leisurely pace she ran through a large assortment of ideas and plans in her head, but all of the options were either too complicated based too much on specific circumstances. These included her plan to break into the weather factory and release a huge storm throughout all of Ponyville, causing the show to be canceled, and her idea to ask Twilight to tell them about the history of fireworks, which was even more painful than the seizures.
“Ah’ll think of something. Ah do have five days to do it after all.”
“Really? Ah couldn’t think of anything in five days?” Applejack grumbled to herself as she looked out her bedroom window to see the sun hovering a fair amount above the horizon, indicating some time of sunlight still before sundown. It was the day of the fireworks display, and as Twilight had said, Ponyville was buzzing with excitement. Seeing the carts of pyrotechnics come in from Canterlot only seemed to make the public’s anticipation and marvel grow as they waited for the event.
Meanwhile, Applejack had spent those five days thinking of a plan but had struck out, so now she sat on her bed and stared out to the beautiful North Field, her worry beginning to overflow. What would she do if she saw those fireworks and it sent her into a seizure?
A long time ago, Nurse Redheart had given her a few things that she should do to keep her epilepsy at bay as much as possible. First, make sure to take her medication, which she had done every day, although she had been lying to Apple Bloom and calling them vitamins, which almost came back to bite her in the flank when her little sister was close to taking some when she wanted to become stronger.
Second, get the recommended eight hours of sleep each night. This one was tougher considering everypony in the Apple household awoke early compared to the rest of Ponyville. Sometimes Applejack didn’t get enough sleep, but that was usually only if she had things to do with her friends, and she felt that as long as she didn’t go too far under the eight-hour goal, it wasn’t too bad.
Finally, avoid triggers. This was Applejack’s biggest concern about the night for obvious reasons.
According to Nurse Redheart and what she knew from experience, she had to follow all three of these steps to avoid them, and that one missed would make the other two obsolete. Her record for days without a seizure was forty days, and that was because she had religiously followed the regime. Her record for most seizures in a month, on the other hoof, was an unbearable twelve, and that was because she had decided to stop taking the pills. After all, she thought she could live without them.
“Yeah, never again,” Applejack shuttered as she remembered the amount of pain and exhaustion she had suffered through, and after that, she made sure to at least try to keep her seizures under control.
She looked over at her clock and saw that Fluttershy would be coming at any moment. The shy pegasus had offered to walk her over before the show, and Applejack accepted due to the calming presence Fluttershy brought. Fluttershy knew how to appreciate silence, something that Applejack couldn’t say about the rest of her friends, except maybe Twilight, and even then Fluttershy was always able to hold a nice conversation.
“Applejack!” Granny Smith’s voice yelled from the bottom of the stairs. “You’re little friend here to see ya off to the big show!”
The orange pony got off her bed, looked in her mirror, adjusted her hat, and opened the door. When she got to the bottom she saw Granny Smith waiting just in front of the door with Fluttershy just behind her on the outside. She smiled and waved to
“Howdy Fluttershy! Y’all ready for the show?”
“Of course,” she replied with a small smile.
“Uh, Fluttershy, was it?” Granny asked the pegasus who nodded in response. “Could ya give us a second? Ah just need to talk to her about something before ya set off.”
“Oh, no problem at all Miss Smith! I’ll just wait out here on the porch.” Applejack saw her turn around and go to the edge so that she would be out of earshot. Granny then motioned for Applejack to follow her and the two went into the kitchen.
“Ya gonna be okay out there?” Granny inquired with her eyes trying to stare into Applejack’s soul somehow.
“Yeah, of course, Granny,” Applejack replied. She was trying to avoid talking about the thing that must not be talked about, but it would soon be talked about anyway as the elder mare opened her mouth to speak again.
“Look, young’un, Ah don’t think you’ll be able to make it through the hootenanny without having one of your fits, so Ah just want ya to promise me that if ya start to feel bad, you’ll come straight back, ya hear?”
Applejack smiled lightly and nodded. “Alright, Granny. If Ah’m not feeling right Ah’ll come straight home.”
This answer seemed to satisfy Granny Smith, who smiled and started to trot to her rocking chair. “Well then, have fun! And if ya run into a handsome stallion out there-”
“‘Don’t forget to give him an apple pie,’” Applejack finished with an amused smile, being reminded once again about how Granny had met her husband a long time ago.
“Darn tootin’! Now move your caboose! That friend of yours is gonna start thinking you’re standing her up!”
“Yes ma’am!”
With an air of confidence, she stomped toward the door, threw it open with a force that startled her friend, and shouted, “Let’s go!”
Applejack and Fluttershy had strolled up the dirt path that led from the quiet and humble farm to the currently hustling and bustling Ponyville, where they observed a few ponies that had already laid out quilts and picnic baskets in preparation for the big show. The silence between the two mares was never broken, and once they had gotten into Ponyville, they started to look around for Pinkie Pie, who was supposed to have found the perfect spot for watching fireworks.
“Are you going to be okay tonight?”
Applejack turned to see Fluttershy looking into her eyes, looking half questioning and half concerned. “Yeah, Ah’ll be alright,” she responded, breaking eye contact under the pretext of looking around for their friends, but in reality, she didn’t want Fluttershy to sense any kind of uneasiness.
“Well, if you need anything, then please don’t be afraid to ask. I just want to help, and I’m sure that the rest of the girls do, too.” Applejack caught a brief look to see that her friend was still looking at her with a calm expression, the smallest little smile confirming her words. Under normal circumstances, Applejack would have returned the smile and thanked her for the kind words, but there was so much on her mind at the moment, so aside from the glance, she gave there was no communication or indication that she had heard Fluttershy’s reassurance.
“Ah think Ah see them over there,” Applejack held up a hoof to point in the direction of a humongous quilt with a picnic basket. It wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary for the scene, except that it had about two dozen balloons surrounding it, a giant cake on top of the picnic basket, a little stuffed pony, and a very bouncy pony on top of it.
“Hey, guys!” Pinkie shouted while waving a hoof. “Isn’t this great? I managed to not only find the perfect spot, but I also baked this entire cake by myself without the Cakes’ help, but I may or may not have added a little too much sugar in it, so I’d be careful.”
Applejack chuckled, “By your standards, Pinkie? It must be chalk loaded with it then.” All three ponies giggled at the joke and then sat down on the quilt, but Fluttershy noticed the doll and picked it up to inspect it.
“Pinkie, why did you bring this?”
“Oh yeah, well you see, I was in my room thinking of ways to make Jackie feel more comfortable while watching the fireworks without getting spooked, so I went through my closet and found my favorite pony that I used to hug and snuggle with whenever I got scared as a little filly.”
“Um, any reason it looks like your sister. Marble I think it was.” She held up the doll to see that it was, in fact, a replica of Marble Pie, Pinkie’s baby sister who was somehow more shy than Fluttershy.
“Exactly! She was always there for me when I got scared, and I was always there for her when she was scared. So when I came to Ponyville, I had Rarity sew me it so that she would still always be there for me!”
“Awww, that’s so cute,” Fluttershy cooed. She turned to Applejack to gauge her reaction but instead found her gone without any sign or warning. “Where did Applejack go?”
“I don’t know. She got up when I was explaining why I brought the doll. She seemed to be in a hurry, so she was probably just going to use the little filly’s room.”
“I hope you’re right. I’m sort of worried about her. I know what it’s like to have to face a big fear, considering I have to do it a lot.”
“Don’t worry, Flutters! Applejack is strong and brave, and she can make it through anything!”
Fluttershy looked around with a foreboding feeling on the inside. “I hope you’re right.”
Applejack sat by herself in the darkened alley on the hard ground, alone with her thoughts.
“Ah just need to calm mahself down,” she thought. Her chest heaved up and down and became slower as her attempts to lower her stress levels appeared to be working to some extent. She knew she couldn’t go out there looking worried or scared and otherwise they would get the wrong idea, and then making a clean getaway was even harder. Besides, she didn’t want her friends to worry about her, and if they assumed her seizures were some sort of mental breakdown caused by an anxiety attack, it would be ten times worse.
“Calm, calm, calm, calm…” The more she said it to herself, the more it became a reality. After a few minutes, she felt that her nerves had subsided, and she got off the wooden bench and went to rejoin her friends. She walked over and saw that the rest of her friends had shown up and were talking in a big circle.
The first pony to notice that she had come back was Twilight, who looked up at her and smiled. “Hello Applejack! Are you ready for tonight?”
“As ready as Ah’ll ever be,” she replied with a weak smile. Rainbow then strutted over with a joking smile.
“Don’t worry AJ. If you start to go all scared on us, I’ll just hold you down until it’s over.”
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight scolded, “You will do no such thing!”
“I’m just joshing you,” Rainbow said in between laughs.
Twilight rolled her eyes and took a few steps toward Applejack so that she could put a hoof on the orange mare’s shoulder. “Don’t listen to her, you’ll be fine, and we will help you through it.”
“Uh, thank ya kindly, Twi’. Ah really appreciate it, but-”
“Applejack!”
Pinkie ran over to her and stuffed the stuffed Marble Pie into Applejack’s hooves. “You forgot your little friend, silly filly!”
Applejack held the little Marble figure in front of her and placed it off to the side. Before she could say anything else, a sharp cough and gag made her turn her head to see Rainbow with her younger hanging out and rushing to get some lemonade from the nearby pitcher. After she poured herself the drink and gulped it down, she angrily turned to Pinkie.
“Are you trying to kill me! What did you put in that cake? It's too sweet!”
“Oh yeah, I forgot to warn you about the cake.”
Rainbow then inspected her glass of lemonade. “And what’s with this lemonade? It tastes really bland!”
“I ran out of sugar while I was baking the cake!”
For the next half an hour the six best friends sat around and talked about news and gossip. Spike was absent because he was cleaning up the library during this time. The reason he didn’t mind was that Twilight had let him hang out with Big Mac and Discord all day, so each felt it was a fair trade-off.
After a little while, the sun had set and was barely visible, and Mayor Mare had just announced that there were about five minutes before the show would start, so everypony who had been standing around talking or trotting around found a place to sit, and waited for the display with high expectations.
However, as the sky got darker and darker, so did Applejack’s determination and optimism. She became less talkative, jumpier, and her pupils had shrunk, but that wasn’t what made everypony worried for her.
“Darling, you’re ears are folded down,” Rarity noticed, and the other ponies turned to her and saw that they indeed were.
“Ah’m just getting ready for when the explosions go off on account of how loud they can be.”
“Right…” Rainbow said with disbelief.
“It’s the truth!” she snapped, making her friends jump. When she realized how she had said it so loud and with sudden force, she immediately calmed down. “Sorry, y’all. Guess mah nerves are just getting the better of me.”
“It’s okay, Jackie,” Pinkie smiled, her happiness and excitement for the show overlapped both her shock at Applejack’s loud interjection and her worry about the farmer’s mental stability. The other ponies were not so eager to forget about it. They looked at each other with wary expressions but decided to leave it alone.
“Attention everypony,” a voice rang out through the excitement, and it appeared to be one of the technicians, “the Canterlot Pyrotechnics Group is proud to present the fireworks show tonight that will begin in one minute!”
Some of the ponies in the crowd stomped their hooves or clapped or, in Pinkie’s case, jumped up and down while cheering louder than anypony else, as usual. But one pony in the crowd felt her stomach turn inside out.
Applejack knew that one minute before the fireworks started meant one minute before seizure time. She knew that the odds of her getting it were far lower if she closed her eyes, and even more if she turned away as well, but she didn’t want her friends to think she was a scardy pony. The dilemma was that she didn’t want to seem to be afraid, but also didn’t want to expose her weakness to them, so she was trying to figure out which one was worse.
“Applejack?”
If she covered her eyes and ears then at least everypony would know why, but if she did that everypony would want to know why she even showed up. If she had the seizure, though, that would open up another whole can of worms.
“Applejack?”
And she didn’t want to chance getting a big one either because she didn’t want to scare her friends and ruin their evening.
That’s when she felt a hoof latch onto each of her forelegs, one purple, and one light yellow. She looked on either side to see that Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle were trying to comfort her by getting closer to her.
“You can do this,” Twilight told Applejack as if she were her coach or a parent giving her a pep talk, while Fluttershy smiled and squeezed on her leg lightly.
Then she heard the first little firework be shot up.
“No Ah can’t.”
And then she ran.
“Applejack!” she heard her friends shout from behind her, but she was already making her way anywhere she could that wasn’t where they were. Applejack knew it would only be a matter of time before Rainbow would have her tackled to the ground, so she decided to book it to the castle, which was the closest building she felt she could go without being arrested for breaking and entering.
As she ran, she saw the illumination of all different sorts of colors light up the emerald grass as she blared by it, trying to keep her eyes away from the sky as much as possible. After about fifteen seconds she saw the crystal castle and ran as fast as she possibly could, which was pretty fast.
Applejack could still hear the voices of her friends from behind her when she opened the big door and slammed it behind her. She then ran as fast as she could down the hallway and into a random room.
She stopped to catch her breath, thinking that she could stall for time a little bit. After a few seconds she looked around to find that the room was white tiled and had a lot of pans and pots laying around, and she figured that she was in the kitchen. Outside she could still hear the fireworks going off, and she thought she heard the castle doors open and close, so she decided to remain as quiet as a mouse.
“Wait,” she mumbled to herself, sniffing the air. “Is that-“
“Oh, hey Applejack,” Spike greeted with a wave and a warm smile on his face. “How’s the fireworks show? I was just cleaning the kitchen and then got tired. So I decided to make myself a cup of coffee to stay awake. Please don’t tell Twilight. She doesn’t like me drinking caffeine this late.”
That was the last thing she heard before she collapsed to the ground, the world turning dark.
When Applejack woke up she noticed that she was not lying on a very soft surface, which was unusual because she was used to sleeping on her bed, which was harder than most mattresses. That was just how she liked it. She got out of her bed, stretched, and yawned.
“Uh...Applejack?”
The farm pony almost had a heart attack when she heard some other pony speaking to her. She looked around and saw her five best friends and a baby dragon staring at her. Some with horror, some with worry, and some with curiosity, and some with a mix of the three. She didn’t notice, though, she was only focused on why they were in her room.
“Morning, gals. What are y’all in mah bedroom for?” she asked, scanning them up and down.
“Applejack,” Rarity said, “this isn’t your bedroom.”
Applejack looked around and saw the crystal walls, which meant that she must be in Twilight’s castle. She looked at her bed and saw that it was a green couch, not dissimilar to the one Rarity often pulled out to faint on.
“Well imagine that,” Applejack chuckled. “Anyways, Ah better get mah chores done for the day. Ah’ve got to be ready for the fireworks show tonight, right?” Her smile disappeared when she saw the blank looks they gave to her.
“Applejack,” Twilight began, “Don’t you remember? You just ran away from the show. It’s still going on outside.” Applejack perked an ear up to hear the booming explosions outside, along with the oo’s and ah’s of the ponies that they were entertaining.
Then it hit her. Everything that happened, and why she had been so confused, and why her friends were looking at her that way.
But before she could run, Rainbow grabbed hold of her.
“You’re not going anywhere, partner,” Rainbow sputtered as she struggled to hold the earth pony back. Despite the nickname, she sounded completely serious.
Then Twilight stepped forward and stared straight into her eyes. “Applejack, calm down! You just had a seizure. Spike found you in the kitchen and we brought you out here. We’re going to take you to the hospital now. Everything will be okay.”
Applejack struggled, but couldn’t break free of Rainbow’s grasp. When she realized she couldn’t get away, she just went limp and stopped trying to get out, and Rainbow let go of her seconds later.
“That won’t be necessary,” she sighed, her head aimed toward the ground.
“I know that it might be hard to understand, but you need medical-”
“No Ah don’t,” she huffed at Twilight. “Ah know what happened, just let me explain.” She looked up for an instant to see her friends’ attention directly on her, encouraging her to continue. She sighed and closed her eyes to start her explanation. “Ah have epilepsy, meaning Ah get periodic seizures from time to time. Ah have kept it to mahself since Ah can control it, but it has never been dangerous for me, so Ah figured there was no harm in it. Only Big Mac and Granny Smith know about it, it’s no big deal, really.”
“Yes, it is!” Twilight exclaimed. “It’s a huge deal! Ponies with epilepsy can sometimes die when they have a big enough seizure, or if they have one in the wrong place!”
“But usually Ah can tell when Ah get them, so if Ah start to feel tired and nauseous, Ah just dip into some other room where no pony can see me.”
Applejack could hear the gears in Rainbow’s head start to turn. “So that’s why you were afraid to come tonight?” Applejack nodded. “Well, that explains a lot.”
“So, you mean that you’ve been suffering through these horrible seizures alone this whole time?” Fluttershy asked, and received a nod in response. She trotted over with caution and placed her forehooves around Applejack’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry I never noticed.”
“It ain’t your fault, Shy. Ah should’ve told ya that Ah had this problem.” She looked up and looked around at the other ponies. “All of ya. Ah know ah can be a little bit stubborn-”
“A lot but stubborn,” Rainbow interrupted, earning a hoof to the ribs from Rarity.
“-but Ah really did just think Ah could handle this on my own, but Ah guess Ah was wrong in two different ways. Ah can’t handle this on mah own, and Ah was more afraid of you finding out and being scared. Ah’m lucky to have such good friends, and Ah’m sorry Ah wanted to hide this from y’all for so long.”
Within a few seconds, everypony joined the group hug, even Rainbow Dash. Then they all heard a loud explosion outside, followed by loud cheers and whoops.
“Aw shucks, Ah made y’all miss the show. Ah’m mighty sorry everypony.”
“It’s quite alright, darling,” Rarity assured. “You’re more important than some art.”
“Yeah, even rap music.” Rainbow laughed at the glare that Rarity shot her afterward.
“So, y’all forgive me?” She smiled widely at the nods she was given.
“So, what does epilepsy mean for you?” Twilight questioned. “I only know a little bit about the subject, but I do know that it’s different for everypony.”
Applejack smiled, happy to enlighten everypony, and finally tell them how her disorder worked, and how they could help
Author's Note
This is dedicated to my friend and his description of what his epilepsy is like. Please keep in mind that this is a second-hand account of the disorder and that I may have gotten some parts of it wrong. The one I know probably isn't right is coffee as a trigger, but that's the only thing as far as I can tell. Thanks for reading!
