To Do List

The alarm clock rang, yanking Big Macintosh out of a dead sleep. His bloodshot eyes opened to reveal a still dark room. The bed creaked as he shot up and grabbed the screaming device, heart pounding. He couldn't figure out how to silence it so he smothered it under his pillow till it died. Four o'clock again for the fifth day in a row. Late nights all. He felt like he'd been run over by a train.

He slapped his own cheek and tried to shake himself awake as he wobbled down the hall to poke his head into Granny's room. He listened until he heard the soft rattle of her snoring in the darkness, the dim moonlight only revealing a featureless dark lump. Still alive. Maybe he was overreacting but it was worrisome. The bug that she and Applejack had was bad. If it could make Applejack housebound for days on end, what could it do to an older mare?

The red stallion sighed and closed the door softly. He pattered respectfully down the hall to the kitchen to make himself toast and a bowl of oats. He lit a work lantern and set it on the table while he ate quickly. Afterwards he brought the light outside and fed the livestock. It was much earlier than they would usually eat but he had to get it done then to have time to harvest and then take the cart into town. He had to do everything now which meant waking up early, going to bed late and rearranging the schedule to make it work.

As dawn was cracking, Big Mac finished apple bucking for the morning and began loading the cart. He returned to the farmhouse and made everypony breakfast, even delivering it to Granny and Applejack’s rooms.

“Ya look real bad,” declared Apple Bloom, mournfully. Her older brother sat across the table from her, haggard and looking through her with a thousand yard stare.

Big Mac tried to lubricate his mouth with spit and grunted in discomfort. “Don’t- don’t you worry ‘bout me,” he said absently.

“Ah think Ah should stay home an’ help ya today,” she argued.

Big Mac shook his head. “No. Ya need ta go to school. It’s important. Finish up an’ hop in the cart.” He went outside and hitched himself in.

“Ah can just walk next to ya, so ya don’t hafta carry mah weight,” proposed Apple Bloom, coming up alongside him.

“Thankyou,” he whispered.

The two walked to the outskirts of Ponyville where Big Mac hugged his sister goodbye and she took the trail to school. He continued on into the market where he set up shop amongst the crowd of other curios.

The morning went by with Big Mac in a daze, barely aware of his own actions. He must have been on some kind of serviceable autopilot because apples were disappearing and bits were coming in.

"Hello, Big Mac," chimed Fluttershy, seemingly materializing from nowhere.

Big Mac blushed, losing whatever cognitive abilities he had left to his bashfulness. "E-eeyup," he stammered.

"I'll just Have one of the sampler-" She gasped when she noticed the sorry state of Big Mac, his pallid complexion, disheveled mane but most notably the dark bags beneath his reddened eyes.

"My goodness, are you okay?"

"Nope," he muttered weekly, getting her order together. "Hafta cover fer Applejack 'cuz she's sick. Been almost a whole week."

Fluttershy's ears dropped. "Oh, dear, I have so many sick animals at home, otherwise I'd come help you. I'm so sorry."

Big Mac passed her the apple sack, the corner pinched in his teeth. "Thanks fer yer kind words," he replied.

Fluttershy made a pouty face before turning to depart with her apples. She cast another pitious look back at him as she left.

Big Mac gawked at her swaying backside until she disappeared into the crowd. Even when he wasn't being crushed under the weight of the entire farm, he still never had time to pursue a relationship with a mare or just… do nothing for once. When he thought about it, he couldn’t even come up with something he liked to do for fun.

He'd lost his presence of mind again for an unknown amount of time until he heard Dr. Hooves clearing his throat to snap him out of it.

“Oh, Big Macintosh, got a sack of the reds?"

"Eeeeeeeeyup," he groaned slowly, turning shakily to the cart.

Hooves furrowed his brow in concern. "Goodness, you look awful. What’s got you so knackered?”

“No sleep,” he mumbled back. “Gotta run the farm alone ‘cuz Granny an’ Applejack‘re sick.”

“Sounds rough,” muttered the doctor, picking up his sack of apples. “Wish I could help.”

“Everypony says that,” sighed Big Mac, disappointedly.

Hooves shifted his eyes away. “Good luck,” he added, turning to slink away but he stopped in mid stride and grunted anxiously to himself. “Well, technically maybe… I could help. But… It’s just.” He paused and scratched his chin, seemingly debating with himself. "When do you leave the market today?" he asked mysteriously.

Big Mac squinted wearily back at him. "'Round two."

"Right, then," he nodded. "I'll be back before then with a proposal for you."

Big Mac stood bewildered as Dr. Hooves left with his bag of apples. What could he possibly mean by that, he wondered.

The rest of the sale went on much the same with Big Mac drifting through the time like a zombie. As he was just about ready to begin packing up to leave and maybe rest a few minutes on a bench before meeting up with Apple Bloom, the doctor reappeared.

"Sorry I took so long," he began. He produced what looked like a stopwatch on a lanyard, holding it out to Big Mac on one hoof. "I have here something which could help you out a great deal. It’s an experimental device which creates a temporal pocket of sorts. When activated, it freezes all of spacetime except for the user.”

“When using it, you'll have all the time in the world to accomplish all you need… or want. Well… technically as much time as you have to live. See, the user will continue to age in real time even as the universe itself is in stasis so don't go in thinking you can just live for all eternity like this. Though I assure you, even a short venture will be more than you care to experience.”

Big Mac blinked in disbelief at the timepiece. How could such a thing exist?

“I'm willing to let you borrow it for as long as it takes you to get back on your hooves,” continued the doctor. “Because I know you're a responsible, fine, upstanding stallion who would never misuse such a power and from my perspective your adventure will be more or less instantaneous.” He cocked his head to the side. “The two conditions are, don't tell anypony else about the device and number two, you give me a detailed report when you return it."

"So Ah'd be a lab rat?" mused Big Mac

Hooves put a leg around the farmer’s neck. "Don't think of it as being a 'lab rat.' Think of it as being a spacetime pioneer."

"How come ya never tried it before?" he asked suspiciously.

The doctor’s eyes narrowed. "I have tried it, twice in fact but only momentarily. I was more interested in proof of concept while… wary of application. This is unlike time travel, my friend, or whatever it is you think you know about such business. Understand that I'd only ever lend it to somepony trustworthy in a dire situation but you certainly don't need to use it if you don't want to."

He honestly felt like he might drop dead of exhaustion if he didn't take the offer which still sounded like an incredible fairytale. Big Mac slowly grabbed the lanyard and placed it around his neck. Then he lifted the stopwatch up to examine it. It was ticking. It only had a second hand racing around the dial and no numbers or gradation markings, making the device pretty useless as an actual stopwatch. It was more a symbolic abstraction of the passage of time, at least that was what a well-read pony might make of it. Big Mac just thought it was weird. He looked back up at Hooves, quizzically.

The doctor leaned in close to explain. "Click the one and only button on the side to activate. Click it again to deactivate and return to real time. Simple. Keep it stopped as long as you need. Never leave it behind. Go ahead; try it right now.”

Big Mac tapped the button. There was immediate dead silence. Big Mac's eyes widened in amazement. The loud murmur of ponies in the market, the clopping of their hooves on the stone streets, the music from the nearby house, all of it was silenced in an instant. The only sound was his own breath. He scanned his eyes over the bustling marketplace and noted that not a single pony was moving. The doctor stood before him frozen like a statue, not even breathing. High above him he could see a pair of pagasi, wings outstretched in mid flight but just hanging there like they were a photograph, a single moment captured and static. It worked. It worked exactly like he said.

Big Mac tapped the button again and sounds filled his ears once more as the market sprang back to life as if nothing had happened.

"I see by your jump cut that you gave it a go," said Hooves. "How long were you in?"

Big Mac shrugged. "'Bout half a minute."

Hooves nodded. "You can use it to get all your necessary work done in time but if I were you I'd go take a long nap first… right now."

"Eeyup," agreed Big Mac with something almost resembling a smile. "Thanks a lot."

"Don't worry about the rest of us," breathed the doctor. "Just be careful."

Big Mac clicked the button again and the whole universe came to a halt just for him. As of now, he had zero responsibilities. He couldn't remember ever feeling this way before. He abandoned his cart next to Dr. Hooves and wandered off a free pony. He didn't even need to pick up Apple Bloom on his way, he just got right back on the road to the farm.

Unburdened as he was, it didn't take long before instinctual anxiety began to set in. His natural state was to be working on something at all times. If he wasn't working, it meant something bad was going to happen. It meant he was running out of time, he was losing daylight, he was losing money, he was falling behind, he was going to let his family down.

Big Mac shook his head "This is just a crazy dream," he chuckled to himself. He'd wake up in his bed soon, feeling like a train wreck before having to tackle another day's chores. Still, he felt exhausted now and couldn't think of anything he'd rather do in his dream than sleep.

Big Mac pushed the front door to the farmhouse open. It felt a bit heavier than usual. He glanced into the open kitchen to see Applejack huddled in a blanket at the table, her face pale and inexplicably scowling intensely. It was like he’d taken a bad photo of her. Curious, he went in for a closer look. She sat without her hat, in front of an untouched bowl of granola. Big Mac just laughed and patted her on the head before climbing the stairs to his room. He looked at his clock which said 1:48, apparently the time he'd stopped time. Couldn't set an alarm anymore. Didn't matter anyway. He wriggled under his comforter and was asleep in seconds.