03:17
"Why can't ah stay asleep!" quietly exclaimed Applejack, laying on her bed, starting at the ceiling. She has been awake for about 30 minutes and still couldn't get back to sleep. She just quietly sighs and looks around her dark room, only the moonlight providing the light. The clock on her wall reads 3:20.
"Great! An' ah need t'be awake at five!" complained Applejack, but quietly so as not to awake Granny Smith, Big Mac or Apple Bloom. She has a long day of chores ahead of her and can not afford to do them sleep depraived.
This is the third time this month that she has awoken in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. The last one affected her so badly that she nearly destroyed any chances of Big Mac reproducing in a farming incident that her lack of sleep caused. She was banned from operating heavy machinery until her sleeping problems are cured.
"Ah's sure Big Mac will fo'gimme, it c'd've been worse!" said Applejack to herself, Big Mac still wouldn't let her live it down.
Suddenly, Applejack hears the distant cries of Apple Bloom. Applejack knows that it means she got another nightmare and wants to be comforted. Applejack gets up from her bed, leaving her trademark hat, planning on going back to her room anyways, and walks over to Apple Bloom's room.
"Yo' alright?" said Applejack upon entering her younger sister's room. She sees Apple Bloom hiding under the bed covers.
"Oh, it was horrible! I dreamed I was being chased by an evil statue with sharp teeth!" explained a scared Apple Bloom. "It felt so real!"
Applejack grabs a chair and sits down next to the bed, "It's alright sugar, it was only a dream, ev'rythin' is fine, no evil statues hyar." assured Applejack, rubbing her sister's back thru the bed sheet using her hoof.
Apple Bloom calms down and slowly pops her head from under the covers and looks around the room.
"Can yo' tell me a story?" asked Apple Bloom, knowing that it would make her feel better.
Applejack just smiles at the request, she then starts thinking of a story to tell. "Less see, howsabout th' story about a crazy old man an' his big blue box?" offered Applejack.
"Howsabout a story about ma' and pa'?" proposed Apple Bloom. She hardly ever knew her parents and always wanted to know everything about them. "Like how they met an' fell in love."
Applejack loved that story, ever since Big Mac told her the story after coming back from Manehatten.
"Fine, ah reckon yo'll injoy this story." said Applejack, happy that she gets to tell it to Apple Bloom.
It was a bright summer day at Sweet Apple Acres, and a young red stallion wearing a stentson and yoke is leaving the farmhouse.
He is being sent into town by Mama Smith to get ingrediants for her apple pies. He leaves the farm and walks alone down a small dirt path into Ponyville, it took longer because the town was smaller during the time. He continued to walk until he heard a sweet voice singing. The stallion instantly becomes intrested in what he's hearing, and decides to follow the voice to its source. He finally comes across a very hearwarming sight; a yellow Earth pony mare singing and conducting a choir of birds.
The moment the stallion sees her, he knew he was in love. He slowly walks up to the mare and introduces himself.
"Howdy, ah c'dn't he'p but notice how right purdy yer voice was an'-" before he could finish, the mare hides her face behind her mane and runs off, birds following her. The stallion stands there in shock.
Several weeks pass, as the stallion is now in Ponyville selling some apples.
"Apples, git our wo'ld famous apples fo' a bit per apple!" the stallion announced to potentional customers.
Nopony seems intrested in the apples, until he catches sight of the yellow mare he saw earlier walking by nervously. The stallion quickly sets up an "out to lunch" sign on the cart and quickly runs after her.
"Wait!" yelled the stallion after the her. "Ah's hankerin' t'talk t'yo'!"
The mare just stops and hides her face behind her mane again. "What do you want?" said the mare in a quiet and timid voice.
"Jest wanted t'talk t'yo'!" said the stallion. "Yer thet mare sin'in' wif th' birds, it was right purdy."
"Then you must be that stallion that works on the farm I pass by every morning." nervously said the mare. They both look into each others eyes and nervously start laughing.
This is how they met.
"A year later, they got married." said Applejack, finishing her story. She looks at the clock to see that it is about to be 4 o'clock.
"I miss ma' and pa'." stated Apple Bloom. She doesn't get a response from Applejack, she then sees Applejack slumped on the chair, sleeping. "Insomnia solved!" quickly declared Apple Bloom, she then tucks herself in and goes back to bed, knowing that Granny Smith will let Applejack oversleep a few more extra hours.
An hour later, a wall clock, hanging in Big Mac's room, rings 5 o'clock. Big Mac wakes up, hides his Smarty Pants doll under the bed, gets on all fours and looks out the window to see the sky still dark.
"Let th' day begin." said Big Mac to himself.
05:00