"Mrnnngh!" Applejack bucked a tree.
Thap!
The apples did not fall.
She did a double-take, blinking up at the still-vibrating branches.
Chewing on her bottom lip, the mare stared and stared.
Then, with an even heavier grunt, she spun around and slammed her rear hooves into the tree trunk once again.
Thwappp!!!
Half of the apples fell into the bucket that she had placed beneath the branches.
Her lower legs stung from the impact, and yet she was too preoccupied with catching her breath. She stood in place, squirming. The teenager glanced down at her thin, noodly limbs. A frown crossed her freckled face, and she breathed in tense and tenser waves.
"Rrrrrrr..." She backed up, grind her hooves, and charged the tree with all her might. "Rrrrrr—Raaaugh!"
Thunk!!!
At last, the rest of the apples fell into the bucket.
Applejack heaved and heaved. Aching, she grabbed the basket and slid it towards the nearby wagon.
Gulping, she gave a forlorn glance down the line of orchards.
In the afternoon sun, hundreds of apple trees glistened... waiting to be bucked.
With a shudder, Applejack heaved the basket into the back of the wagon, strolled towards the next tree... and repeated the entire ordeal.
Th-Thunk!!!
Apples fell—but not all of them.
Panting and panting, a young Applejack swung and slammed the tree trunk yet again.
"Rrrrgh!"
THUNK!
At last, the rest of the fruit fell into the basket.
Applejack slumped forward, wincing. Her pigtails flounced in front of her face. Snarling, she batted them away... spitting out errant blonde hairs. In an attempt to catch her breath, the mare leaned into the tree she had just bucked. She panted and panted... waiting for the stinging pain to exit her limbs. She glanced down at her fetlocks to see that nasty whelts had already started to form.
There was a gust of cold wind. Her pigtails flew into her face yet again. Snarling, she batted them away, turned around, and pushed the basket back towards the wagon...
...a wagon that was hardly filled after two hours.
THWAP!
Falling apples.
Stinging limbs.
The sun was blinding. Burning bright. Applejack could scarcely squint at the tree branches above. By this time, she decided to buck the trees as hard as she could and vaguely plan a second pass through the orchards to clean the leftover fruit later on.
At the moment, she was in the process of heaving baskets into the back of the wagon.
She had a hard time seeing what she was doing—but this time not because of the sun. Her pigtails—damp with sweat—were falling across her face again with each physical motion.
"Mrmmmfff..." Applejack grimaced, nearly losing grip of the baskets as their weight threw her off. She gasped, teetered, then flung the containers into the back of the wagon. The mare shuddered, her peripheral flashing with the golden sway of her pigtails. She reached a hoof up, angrily tugging at the offensive manestyle.
The mare clenched her jaw. Then... with a determined breath... she turned around and strutted away from the wagon.
Applejack sat on an overturned basket.
Undoing the first and then second pigtail, she gave her petite cranium a shake.
The teenager tossed her full golden mane loose over her shoulders. Then—with practiced motions that she hadn't utilized since foalhood—she brushed the entire length of her hair back, gathered it all through one ribbon, and formed a single thick ponytail.
Standing up, she turned briskly to the left... then to the right. The combined weight of her mane caused the single ponytail to swing no further than her shoulders. They no longer obstructed her vision... or her work.
With a satisfied breath, Applejack tossed the spare hair ribbon into the back of the wagon, grabbed a heap of baskets, and marched sweatily towards the next line of orchards.