Applejack woke up with a terrible headache. She groaned and grunted several times, rolling in her bed. She waited a bit for the pain to go away, but it didn’t. Eventually, she sat on her bed, rubbing her head, and decided to ignore it as much as she could. Feverishly, she went to the bathroom. The pain relented a bit, as she splashed her face with cold water. This refreshed her and woke her up completely. Darn migraine. Coming to her wits, she went downstairs. She was late again, tough not too much this time. She forced in some breakfast, and swallowed the last pill of aspirin from the cupboard. To give the pill time to work, she sat down at the table. Where did this come from? Ah wasn’t drinking last night! Still, looks like a trip to the pharmacy… Applejack thought to herself, throwing away the empty box of aspirin.
After the pill the pain was manageable, so she decided to go to the town. Fresh air also helped, so she was getting better and better on her way to pharmacy. Just as she stepped into the center of Ponyville, she stumbled across Twilight.
“Hey there, Applejack!”
“Hey, Twilight.” She said wearily.
“You look tired. Didn’t you get any sleep after the party yesterday?”
“Ah did. Ah’m havin’ a migraine the size of town hall right now.”
“Migraine? Or a hangover?” she thought for a moment. “Although I don’t recall any alcohol yesterday… I hope this isn’t some complications due to your concussion” Twilight said worriedly.
“Nah, probably just too much sugar. Ah’m still recovering after a week of hospital food.” Both mares chuckled. “Still, ah need to get some aspirin from the pharmacy to survive the day.”
“I think I can help you with that. Come with me to the library!”
“Well… okay. Ah hope it will be as efficient as aspirin…”
“Don’t you worry! It’s even better – tust me.” Twilight reassured. “So, how are you doing?”
“Well… Big Mac got on mah nerves yesterday. He’s tellin’ me that ah cheated in the competition.”
“What? Of all ponies, he should be happy for you! Besides, he’s your brother, so he should know best that you’re not the cheating type.”
“Ah know, he’s just telling what he thinks. This must be bugging him as much as me.”
“I’ve told you, get over it! I don’t know what actually happened either, but the Flim Flam’s got their lesson, and I believe you that you didn’t cheat.”
“Thanks Twilight.” Applejack sighed. “And ah’m also sticking to this version…”
“Here we are!” Twilight said, opening the doors to the library. “Make yourself comfortable, while I prepare the concoction! My own recipe, mind you” She gave Applejack a wink.
“You’re not trying to scare me, right?”
“Of course not!” Twilight said with a chuckle. “It was made under Zecora’s supervision, and it works wonders.” She reassured her friend while putting various ingredients in a glass. She mixed them a few times with a spoon and passed the glass to Applejack, who sniffed it cautiously. With a shrug she downed the liquid.
What Applejack felt was like a blunt hit to her head. Her vision blurred and shook only to become sharp and clear in an instant. She shook her head involuntarily and the headache disappeared.
“Wow, Twilight, this sure works miracles!”
“I know, I know. Works for me every time.”
“Every time? Shucks, Twilight, ah wouldn’t expect you to be an expert in headaches. You’re banging yer head or drinkin’ often?”
“Of course not, silly! I’m just studying magic, quite excessively sometimes, let’s say.” Twilight explained.
“So… You read until your head has enough?” Applejack asked, a sound of incomprehension in her voice.
“What? No, of course not! I just use lots of magic at times.” Twilight said, but seeing Applejack’s baffled look she began to explain further. “When you overwork your muscles, they start hurting while recuperation, which is usually the day after. Unicorns have the same thing with their horns.”
“Ah didn’t know that. Thought that ya’all are using magic as ya like.”
“No, it’s not that easy. Magic always takes it’s retribution, and it’s up to training and practice to make yourself stronger. I’ve been training for quite a while now, but it is still straining. After vanquishing the Ursa Minor I felt like my head was about to pop off and run away.” Twilight frowned at the unpleasant memory and took the glass from Applejack. She waved it in the air before putting it down in the sink. “That’s why I started to work on that mixture. With help from Zecora and Supernatural remedies, the recipe was ready within a week, and proved to be successful.” Twilight finished with a proud grin.
“Successful as hay” Applejack replied in wonder. The concoction worked better than any medicine she had ever taken before.
“If you’ll ever have a problem like this, come straight to me.”
“Ah sure will remember that. Thanks a lot, Twilight. Guess ah’ll be going now, ah’ve got something to do.”
“You’re welcome. See you!”
As Applejack returned to Sweet Apple Acres, she headed straight to the barn at the side of the farm. After making sure that nopony was watching her, she went inside.
The barn served mainly as a storage space for farm equipment, but the most frequently used tools had their place in a shed closer to the fields. The barn had only two windows on its sides, and a small, round one above the doors, so the interior was filled with dusty duskiness. Applejack moved past some old plows, a harrow, and a cart that lacked one wheel to reach the other end of the barn. There, set one on another, were about fifteen barrels of various sizes. Applejack rummaged for a while through them and eventually found a barrel signed ‘CIDER’. Its rings were rusty, but that was almost identical barrel as the one that Flim Flam brothers used in the competition. She rolled it to the free space at the center of the barn and set it upright. She inspected it carefully, circling it a few times, and finally stopped in front of the lettering. After a deep breath she said to herself:
“Okay, here goes nothin’”
And with that she closed to the barrel, embraced it with her front hooves and gustily tried to pick it up. The barrel lifted from the ground, but was quite heavy nonetheless, so after a moment of keeping it high, Applejack dropped it back to the floor.
“Uff, there’s no way ah could’ve thrown it so far…” She said to nopony, and looked down at her left leg, which was all of a sudden a source of a very inconvenient feeling.
“Dang it, ah hate splinters!” Applejack murmured as she picked her hoof to her mouth and tried to get the vexing piece of wood out. She intensively thought about giving the unfriendly barrel a strong kick in return, and shot it a hateful glare. To her great surprise, the barrel flew from its place and rolled to the opposite wall of the barn.
“What in tarnation?!” Spitting the splinter from her mouth, she approached the barrel. She rubbed the back of her head to get rid of the itchy feeling and glared at the barrel with alert. Breaking up the stillness of the scene, she held out her hoof and knocked three times on the barrel, awaiting for response. When none came, she shook her head and looked around to see if nopony is pulling pranks on her. But the rest of the barn was as motionless as it was when she came in.
Wondering if she hadn’t just imagined all that, she decided to put the barrel back to its place. Before she could move a muscle, the barrel flew up and placed itself on the top of the other barrels. With a shriek of fear Applejack turned around and, without looking back, run out of the barn, slamming the doors shut behind her.