Silly Strand giggled happily to herself as she made the final adjustments to her powerful new machine. Weeks of study, waiting, testing and building led up to this exact moment. Carefully placing the apple on the table using her pale green magic she raced back to the controls situated behind a protective radiation shield.

The lever was pulled, there was a harsh snap of electricity and the scent of ozone filled the air. A loud whirring noise began low and started rising in pitch as the machine powered up. The particle thrower raised up slowly on its arm as the neutrona wand extended from the tip. Finally an almost blinding beam of concentrated energy blasted the apple for a five second pulse before going silent.

The green unicorn with her wild orange mane panted on the far side of the shield. Almost afraid to look, she slowly slid the protective goggles up off of her eyes before placing them over the top of her horn, half hidden by her mane. Had it worked? Had she finally accomplished what she set out to do?

She peeked around the shield and there, sitting on the table was the same apple, now the size of a buckball! The mare was practically giddy with delight! This looked promising, but there were still a few more tests to run.

Lifting a scalpel with her magic, she sliced a wedge from the apple and set it on a nearby table. Carefully carving off a paper-thin section, she placed it on a slide and locked it into her microscope.

“Let's see if this did what I hoped it would.” She made careful adjustments to the scope as she hummed to herself. “Yes! It looks like the size increase was due to evenly induced cellular multiplication! Flesh, stem, core and seeds all increased equally, even the leaf on top from what I can see!”

Trotting back over to the slice of apple, she cut off a hunk and set her scalpel aside. She swallowed hard, “Now for the final test...”

Popping the piece of apple into her muzzle, she waited a moment, fearing some awful flavor. Instead, the apple was just as juicy and sweet as it should be. The flesh was pleasantly firm instead of mushy or mealy, the only odd bit was a slight warming sensation in the belly after swallowing, almost like taking a shot of brandy. Grinning, she carved up the hunk and finished it off for her dinner before leaning back, resting her hooves on her belly.

“This, this makes it all worth it.” She smiles, rubbing her belly once more, “Silly Strand, you've found the key to ending world hunger!”

After relaxing for a while longer, she rolled to her hooves and smiled. Exhausted from the day's activities, she glanced over to see that the cut part of the apple had oxidized and turned brown, just as any other apple would. Normally she would be against wasting food, but she could just make another giant apple for further testing in the morning. Lifting it in her magic as she locked up the lab behind her she carried the apple outside and dropped it in the trash can before heading home for a well-earned rest.

Later that night, outside of the lab soft noises began to come from within the trash can. Garbage was pushed upwards from within, the lid popping off and trash scattering on the ground. A loud creaking noise could be heard, then the tearing of metal as the aluminum can began to burst apart at the seam. The red skin of an apple was visible as Silly's experiment expanded to the size of a beach ball, then a boulder before bursting the can and rolling down the hill from her lab into Ponyville, expanding the entire time.

Silly Strand was rudely awakened by a loud crash and blinding sunlight in her eyes. Grumbling blindly, she wondered if she had left her curtains open again. Slowly sitting up, she felt something cracking and crunching underneath her. Had she taken a box of crackers to bed? Finally, she rubbed at her eyes, opening them blearily and blinking a few times. The first thing she saw was an apple the size of a house sitting next to town hall.

As mare froze a moment, wondering why she could see town hall instead of her bedroom wall, she slowly looked down. The remains of her home were scattered around and crushed beneath her now gigantic form. Leftover energy remaining in the apple must have passed into her after she had eaten a piece of it the day before, causing her to grow to a gigantic size!

“Oh dear....”