The next morning, as usual, the Apple Family was up bright and early. Unusually enough though, Applejack was the last of them up. She had been feeling rather irritable the past few days and just wanted to lay down and rest. She was strong though, and she knew that she couldn’t do such a thing because she was an integral part of the farm. Most of the time when she was in heat she could handle it really well. Other times though… not so much; this was one of those times. By the time Applejack was down the stairs and into the kitchen, she saw that the house was already deserted and knew that the rest of the family must be out working.

Her plate of breakfast was sitting on the table and upon seeing it decided that she had better hurry up and eat and get out before Granny Smith came in and got on her case. It had gotten cold while sitting, but Applejack decided that it would be too time consuming to heat up, so she just ate it cold, making her all the more irritable. She mumbled under her breath and grabbed her hat off of the table rather aggressively and then placed it on her head in the very same fashion. She walked out of the kitchen door and let it close with a slam.

For the past two days she had been bucking apples over in the east orchard. It was the earliest orchard and had been on the farm’s location for nearly two hundred years. Plus, along with being the oldest of the orchards, it was also one of the sturdiest. The years and conditions had hardened the trees, and sometimes even Applejack’s hardest kick would only barely rustle the leaves. Rather dreading the task before her, Applejack walked to outer edge of the orchard and pulled one of the baskets over there with her. Once there, she placed the basket beneath a tree and took a deep breath as she eyed the trees before her and braced herself for the task to come. The east orchard was difficult in that she just couldn’t go from tree to tree to tree as quickly as possible, but rather she would have to focus her time on one tree and try to get as many apples off of it as possible. It wasn’t all bad though, because apples from the east orchard were the biggest, ripest, and best tasting apples in all of Sweet Apple Acres. Still though, it was some task.

All ready to go, Applejack backed away from the tree and then took off into a sprint, and at just the right moment, she whipped her body around gave the tree a hard kick. Much to her surprise, some apples fell from the tree above her and landed in the basket. “Alright Applejack,” she mumbled to herself, “let’s see if ya’ll can do that again.” Applejack backed away from the tree once more and prepared herself to sprint forward once more. Again, she took a deep breath and then took off running; she bucked the tree again and saw some more apples fall down into the basket, completely covering the bottom of it. “Maybe this won’t be so hard after all,” Applejack thought aloud as she smiled to herself.

Surely enough, Applejack was able to tackle the trees without a hitch. She filled up basket after basket and stopped only to swap baskets as Big McIntosh hauled the full ones away. However, the further she progressed, the harder she found the task to be. She didn’t know if it was because she was becoming exhausted or because she was getting into the older trees, but whatever it was it made her so angry. She kicked and she kicked, but no matter how hard she just couldn’t seem to get a single apple to fall into the basket.

Little did she know, across the barnyard Big McIntosh was watching her all while holding back a chuckle. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, but then he had to laugh at the fact that she was getting so angry at something so simple. After one more unsuccessful buck, Applejack cursed rather loudly and flung her hat down onto the ground. She grew huffy and began to feel like giving up when Big McIntosh came over to her. “You need some help there AJ?” he asked with his deep voice. He smiled at her.

“Go away Big McIntosh,” Applejack said as she turned away from him and picked up her hat, “Don’t ya’ll worry about me. I’ve got everything under control.” She was determined to prove herself and show off her determination for him, so she backed away from the tree she was working with, prepared to give it her all. Big McIntosh only watched, hiding a knowing smirk, as Applejack took off sprinting harder than she ever had and then turned to kick the tree with all of her might. Panting, Applejack turned around and looked at the tree with a smile of accomplishment on her face. Her eyes grew wide though, and her smile turned to a surprised gape when she saw only a single apple fall down into the basket.

“Eeyup,” Big McIntosh said, “Everthing’s under control over here,” he said.

Applejack only huffed at his comment, but then she sighed. “Ya got me brother,” she said and looked up at him, “I do need your help. Ain’t no way I can do all of these on my own.”

In the midst of listening to her, Big McIntosh glanced behind her up towards the house and saw that Granny Smith and Applebloom were heading back to the house for a break. Glad to take up the work, Big McIntosh smiled at her and said, “Go get some cold apple cider. I’ll finish up here.”

“Now I can’t let you do that Big Mac…” Applejack started, but was soon cut off by her brother.

“Go rest sis,” he told her, “you deserve it.”

As much as she didn’t want to, and as much as it felt like abandoning her brother and the farm itself, the idea of rest sounded so tantalizing to Applejack. Besides, maybe he was right. Applejack had busted her rump all today, and all yesterday overtime at Winter Wrap Up so maybe she did deserve a little rest. “Well shucks Big Mac... if you’re sure…” she said rather nervously. He said nothing in response but instead waved her off. “Thanks big brother,” Applejack continued and then she smiled, “You’re a real champ, you know that?”

Big McIntosh smiled and agreed with her comment and then watched as his sister ran off towards the house. Once alone, he scaled up what was left to be done. He saw that it would be no easy task, but was sure that it was manageable. He decided first that it would be best to go ahead and finish up with the tree that Applejack had started on. He circled around the tree and scaled it up. Old and sturdy he determined the tree to be; even for him it might prove difficult. He stopped circling around the tree and knocked on it a few times with his great hoof. Just as he suspected, it was solid almost rock-hard all the way through and thus it would absorb even the hardest of kicks. “Hm…” he hummed aloud and circled around just one more time. He stopped nearly halfway around though and backed up just a little bit. There appeared to be a dead spot on the tree and if he was correct he might be able to kick that and have nothing to stop the vibrations from rocking the apples free. He kicked it lightly with his hooves to test the hollowness and decided that that would be his kick spot.

Without even backing up, he flipped around and issued a hard and swift kick to the spot. Surely enough, apples of all shapes and sizes started to fall from the branches above him. Only some landed in the baskets placed beneath while the majority of them landed on the ground. No matter, he would just pick them up and put them in there. As he did so, Big McIntosh couldn’t help but chuckle at how many ponies felt pity for him working so hard. Something they didn’t understand though is that something that might take Applejack one hour to do he can do in just a few minutes. His great size truly was an advantage for him.

So Big Mac continued to buck the apples from the trees and then gather the ones that didn’t land in the baskets. Whenever he would fill a basket he would push it off to the cart, and when there were at least four baskets there he would load them up and take them to the barn, unload them, and then come back for more, all by himself. To him it seemed like a long process, but that might have been because he enjoyed it so much and he seemed to have lost track of the time, for when he was all finished and when the other members of the Apple Family came out he was confused to see looks of surprise on their faces.

“Shucks Big McIntosh!” his littlest sister, Applebloom, said, “You cleared out that whole orchard in just a few minutes. Wow!”

“Eeyup,” Big McIntosh replied in his simplistic way, smiled at her, and then turned to admire his handiwork.

“Gosh,” Applebloom continued, “I wanna be just like you one day.” She skipped off after that, leaving Big McIntosh feeling warm inside. Even though he never really expected to be complimented by anypony on his work, it was still nice to hear one. Not only did it make him feel happy, but it proved to him that he was loved and that’s all that mattered to him.