Over the past couple months, Apple Bloom was given permission by her school to help her family out on their farm for Apple Bucking Season. Typically this meant that she would only go to school for the first half of the day, then she made her way to the farm. Given that Big Macintosh was busy going back and forth between the farm and the library, the youngest Apple sibling wanted to do all she could to help out her family and her new sister in law (given her ever growing condition). While she was happy her legs had gotten stronger, making it easier for apple bucking (she mainly bucked the thinner trees), she of course was still frustrated by a lack of a cutie mark. Currently, she and her fellow Crusaders were the only ones in their class to not have cutie marks; it seemed Applejack's quip about Apple family members getting their cutie marks last was true. The frustration had begun to take its tole on the little yellow filly, and she started getting a bit rough with the trees. Hearing the commotion, her older brother, Big Macintosh went to see what the noise was about. He was not pleased with the site; she'd even put a tiny crack in the trunk.
"What the hay do ya think yer doin!?" shouted Big Macintosh, a rare thing to hear. "Yer gonna split that poor tree in two!"
"Ah didn't mean ta do it!" shouted Apple Bloom, starting to tear up. "Ah'm just so sick an tired of doin all this work and fer nothin!"
Macintosh realized what the problem really was.
"Ah got a feelin ya aint talkin bout apple buckin," commented Macintosh, now with a calmer tone.
"What gave me away?" joked Apple Bloom, rubbing some tears out of her eyes.
"Pretty easy ta tell," said Big Mac. "Seein how you and yer friends have been tryin so hard to get yer cutie marks."
"Emphasis on hard!" exclaimed Apple Bloom. "We've tried so many different things! All it's gotten us are stuffy noses, scraped knees, sore hooves; poor Scootaloo has sprained her wings a couple times even. It just aint fair! We're the only ones in our class to not have em! What makes all them so special over us!?"
Macintosh motioned his youngest sister to take a seat with him underneath the tree.
"It aint about being special, sugar cube," said Big Mac, not known to often us that term of endearment, so when he did you know knew he was being extra brotherly.
"Then what is it about?" she asked.
"It's bout knowin what yer good at," he said. "Everypony knows that. Ya don't get a cutie mark from just doin some crazy stunts, unless that's what yer good at and wanna do that as a profession of course. You get it when ya realize what it is ya love doin the most. Ah love workin the farm, as does yer sister, and several Apples before us. But it aint fer you."
"But that's silly," she thought. "I'm an Apple! Apples are all about farmin!"
"Not all Apples are farmers," he went on. "Granny Smith is more a baker than a farmer, aint she?"
"Ah spose so," she said. "But who am ah without a cutie mark?"
"Yer Apple Bloom of course," he exclaimed a little chuckle. "A cutie mark don't make ya who you are. What ya do and how ya treat others is what makes ya you. Nobony in the world can take that away from ya, not even Princess Celestia herself."
Big Macintosh then wiped a few years from his sister's face, then messed up her main a little to be playful.
"Still stinks," she commented. "Is it true you and Applejack were the last in yer classes to get yer cutie marks?"
The eldest Apple sibling then let out a huge laugh, leaving his little sister confused.
"What's so funny about that?" she asked.
"Did she tell you that?" he said. "Aw hay, that's an Apple family bluff as old as Equestria."
"But Applejack's a terrible lier," quipped Apple Bloom.
"It aint so much a bluff if she don't know it," he said.
"Huh?" said a clearly confused Apple Bloom.
"Bout every elder Apple has told a younger Apple they was the last to get their cutie marks as a way ta make em feel bettter," he continued.
"Seriously?" exclaimed Apple Bloom.
"Eeyup!" said Big Macintosh. "Ah said the same to Applejack when she just a little younger than you, Pa said the same ta me as a youngin, and Granny Smith said the same ta him, and so on and so forth. It's only till a bit later than any of us learn it was a bluff. Well, cept Applejack of course cuz she could never convincingly tell ya otherwise."
That last remark gave Apple Bloom a good laugh.
"So an Apple is never the lest ta get their cutie marks?" she asked.
"Well ah don't rightly know," he replied. "Ah'm sure there are Apples out there who were the last in class ta get theirs. It just varies from pony ta pony. But it aint important whether yer the first or last or somewhere in the middle. Ya understand?"
"Ah spose so," she answered. "It's just frustratin is all."
"Ah understand," he said. "There are few ponies yer age who aren't frustrated by not gettin their cutie marks when everpony around ya seems ta be gettin them before ya. And ah certainly appreciate the help yer doin fer us here on the farm."
"Least ah can do," she said. "Ah mean, ya'll have raised me an fed me an all that. Helpin ya'll at is the least ah can do."
"An ya can help us out as long as ya like," he replied. "But don't think ya have ta do this fer a livin just cuz of the family ya belong to. The most important thing fer us is that yer happy."
"Thanks, Big Macintosh," exclaimed Apple Bloom, jumping up to give her brother a big hug. "Yer the best big brother anypony could ask for!"
"Well, yer a mighty fine little sister," said Macintosh, hugging her back. "Ya wanna get back ta work now?"
"Ah sure do!" she exclaimed. "Sorry bout the tree."
"Think nothin of it," he assured her. "That small crack won't harm that tree, it'll heal in no time. Sides, every bucker cracks a tree once in a while, no avodin it."
Big Macintosh and his youngest sister go themselves back to work, thankfully Apple Bloom was in much higher spirits.