Marx: One Of The Three Jesters Of Insanity

Look Before You Sleep

( fade in to the sun shining in a clear blue sky. The view is short-lived, however, as a pegasus maneuvers a gray cloud into view to partially block the light. Tilt down to ground level as others do likewise; in the town square, the area is littered with fallen branches, which are being picked up and carried away. One pegasus is breaking a few out of a tree. Pan to Applejack as she applies her teeth to the end of a suspended rope; there is a snap, and the other end drops to the grass, tied around a tree limb.)

(Farther along, Rarity levitates a broken bough upward and re-attaches it at the point where it came loose. She eyes it with great concentration.)

Rarity: Hmmm…hah!

(A burst from her horn; cut to the bough, whose leaves instantly style themselves into a pair of rearing-filly topiaries.)

Rarity:  Perfect!

(Up comes Applejack’s lasso to snag the end and snap the whole thing loose again. It lands in front of Rarity, who aims a disbelieving gaze as Applejack spits out the rope end. The workhorse is not in good spirits.)

Applejack: Just take the broken limbs down, Rarity. Don’t y’all care about nothin’ other than prettifyin’?

Rarity: Somepony has to. You are making an absolute mess of the town square, Applejack.

(Cut to a close-up of the debris and zoom out/tilt up to frame the two on the next line.)

Applejack: Yeah, well, the storm’s gonna make an even bigger mess if we don’t prune all these loose branches so they don’t tumble down on anypony.

Rarity: I simply cannot imagine—

(Cut to the gloomy gray expanse and pan across as pegasi move more clouds in to plug the holes and block the last of the sun.)

Rarity: (from o.s.) —why the pegasus ponies would schedule a dreadful downpour this evening and ruin what could have been a glorious sunny day. (Back to the pair.)

Applejack: (sighing) Think more practical-like, will you? (bucking the tree; more branches/leaves fall) They accidentally skipped a scheduled sprinkle last week, so we need a doozy of a downpour to make up for it, is all.

(The rain begins; pan to Rarity.)

Rarity: Oh, no! My wonderfully styled mane shall be ruined!

Applejack: You shoulda hurried up and finished the job already.

(The prissy unicorn cries out and tries to duck every raindrop that comes her way.)

Rarity: (between yelps) It’s coming down too fast! …Help me!

(Applejack looks to each side for shelter; cut to her perspective.)

Applejack: Uh… (Stop on a picnic table.) …there! Hunker down to your heart’s content whilst I finish things.

(Back to Rarity, who gallops across the square and skids to a stop by the table, which has a sizable puddle underneath. Tilt down to frame this in close-up during the next line.)

Rarity: Ooh! No, no, no! (Longer shot; Applejack has joined her.)

Applejack: What now?

Rarity: I’d prefer not to get my hooves muddy.

Applejack: (grunting disgustedly) There is just no pleasin’ you, is there? Everything’s gotta be just so.

Rarity: Well, and how does muddying my hooves serve any useful purpose?

Applejack: Y’all wouldn’t know useful if it came up and bit you.

Rarity: (laughing) That doesn’t even make any sense. (Pan from one to the other in turn.)