//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: All Work, No Play 
// by Lord Avon 
//------------------------------//

If a stallion’s worth was measured by the sweat on his brow, then Big Macintosh could be considered the richest pony in all of Equestria. 
From the perspective of most outside of his family, the large stallion seemed to have spent every waking moment on the family orchards. Never once intending to slack off, the earth pony would put all of his effort to tending the crops; making sure the family would get the perfect produce when it came time to harvest them. When Applebuck season came around, Macintosh would be out there all day bucking the apple trees, plucking the carrots from the ground, picking the grapes off the vines, and pulling the ears of corn off the stalks. 
More often than not, the red earth pony would have his younger sister Applejack out there with him, and on occasion his even younger sister, Apple Bloom, would assist her two siblings. However Apple Bloom mainly helped out in livestock, and although Applejack did her fair share of work on the fields, she was more in charge of making the crops ready for the market, leaving Big Mac with the bulk of field work.
He did not mind the grunt work, however. He was always glad to be helping out the family in any way he can. The stallion just so happened to have the large frame and a high amount of stamina that came both from and with working on a farm. Macintosh also appeared to have been born with higher tolerance for getting up at the crack of dawn. The farm pony displayed that tolerance again, waking up before sunrise, putting on his yoke, and going out into the fields to begin harvesting the apples from the numerous trees in the orchards.
The hours passed on as the hard-working horse steadily bucked every tree with one of his hind legs to make every carefully cultivated fruit fell into the buckets scattered around the base of each tree. The farm pony also made sure to pick up any apple that fell onto the ground and placed them into the nearest pail. This continued on throughout the rising of the sun, up until his sister approached him a pair of saddlebags draped over her orange coat and her stetson pushed back to better block the sun.
Big Mac was getting ready to buck another tree until he heard the mare call out to him.
“Mornin’ Big Mac.” The mare greeted.
“Mornin’ Applejack.” Big Macintosh responded as he put his hind hooves to the ground.
“Ah see you're up bright and early.”
“Eeyup.” Big Mac droned, “Gotta get all the apples Ah can get before harvest season ends.”
Applejack gave an appreciative grin before she continued the conversation with her brother.
“Big Mac,” the young farm mare began. “y'are aware of the fact that harvest season started just four days ago?”
“Eeyup.”
“And that we already bucked enough trees to put us three days ahead of schedule?”
“Eeyup.”
“And seeing how the situation allows it, doncha think you should go on and take a couple days off?”
“Eenope.”
“Why not?” Applejack asked, her grin fading into a sterner expression.
“Because Ah can't afford to be slacking off.”
Applejack tripped over her words for a brief moment, tilting her head in confusion as she continued her inquiry.
“Didn’t you hear me when Ah said we was ahead of the schedule by three days?”
“Eeyup, and Ah reckon we should keep the same pace if we gonna be ready for when it’s time to sell the crops.”
Macintosh began to turn around, thinking that was the end of the conversation, only to be stopped by a hoof on his shoulder pulling him back in place so he and his sister were face to face. 
“Listen here Mac.” Applejack said in a strict tone of voice, “You’ve been overworking yourself. For crying out loud! You ain't taken any time off since I've known you, and that's saying something!”
Mac just remained stone-faced as he began explaining himself.
“Ah did take a break during last year’s harvest. Isn't that enough?”
“Not when the break was ‘cause of an injury!”
Macintosh sighed at his sister’s stubbornness, the look on his face indicating that his patience was starting to dwindle.  Applejack did not take notice of her brother’s disdain, and proceeded to speak.
“You're starting to wake up earlier than usual and you're also going to bed later too. You're all frazzled out.”
“What’s your point Applejack?”
“My point is that you never seem to want to take a breather. Ah've been talking to Granny, and she agrees with me.”
“She does?” Big Mac inquired, raising the curious eyebrow.
“Yup. She’s been noticing how groggy y'are during meal time.” The mare explained. “You've been walking all sore-like, you wince every time you sit down, and we all hear you groaning whenever you go up the stairs. Oh, and by the way, it ain't just me and Granny noticing how much your work is taking its toll on you.”
Applejack's words were starting to have its effects on Big Mac as the stallion started to feel twinges of guilt in his chest. These twinges were enough to make the stallion allow his stubbornness to falter.
“Alright, Ah’ll take a day off.” the stallion sighed. “But just one day.”
Applejack smiled upon hearing those words.
“Good! Now, just to be sure you don't do any work, you‘re not allowed to be on the grounds of this farm ‘til sunset.”
“Sunset?” Big Mac asked his head snapping upward to gape at his sister’s smirking face.
“At the earliest.” The proud mare clarified.
Big Mac was so dumbstruck by his sister’s demands that he did not move a muscle. He just allowed Applejack to take his yoke from him and replace it with the saddlebags she had been wearing. The red stallion was then pushed from behind by the orange mare, his hooves leaving four trenches as he was escorted from the premises.
“Now, Ah packed some bits for you to get some lunch.” Applejack explained. “There’s extra bits for dinner if you feel like staying out late. Just a thought.”
Applejack pushed her brother all the way towards the gate of the Apple farm and gently shoved the stallion onto the dirt road leading to Ponyville. Macintosh turned his head to Applejack but his sister started speaking before the crimson pony could retort.
“Have fun Mac! And don’t you waste your day off doing so-called ‘favors’ for anyone in town.” The mare’s expression went from cheerful to harsh in an instant. “Got it?”
Big Mac swallowed some air before turning his head back forward. With that, he slowly made his way down the dirt road. Applejack looked on as her brother disappeared over the horizon. When the stallion got far enough from the farm, the country mare cleared her throat with an audible cough.
“Okay girls, you can come out now.” Applejack demanded. Three fillies soon appeared from behind one of the apple trees. 
The filly at the front had her red mane bobbing up and down with each step. She was followed by an young pegasus who scuffed the ground beneath her orange hooves. A small white unicorn trailed behind the other two after she brushed some debris off her mane.
“Alright Apple Bloom.” Applejack addressed the yellow filly. “You, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle follow Big Mac and make sure he don't do anything to get out of his day off.”
“Got it sis!” Apple Bloom stated with a salute before turning to her friends. “Ready y’all.”
“Like we need to be! This'll be a cake walk!” Scootaloo boasted.
“I just hope it’ll lead to getting our cutie-marks.” Sweetie Belle said.
“Course it will!” the farm filly stated. “Now come on!”
“CUTIE MARK SNEAK SQUAD, GO!” the three yelled in unison before charging down the same dirt road Big Mac went down, leaving Applejack alone with just one thought.
“Ah hope that brother of mine can learn to relax.”
As the thought lingered on in Applejack's head, the wind began to blow towards the town of Ponyville, where the citizens were carrying out their day-to-day activities. The town square was bustling with numerous patrons visiting numerous stores. Officials in town hall were handling the usual paperwork and making the usual decisions that came with running a small town. Numerous foals ran wild through the streets, enjoying their weekend away from schooling. From a first glance, it seemed that nopony was thinking too much about this ordinary day.
Nopony, that is, except for one unicorn who was pacing inside the Golden Oak Library. Her expression gave off the impression of deep thought as she walked back and forth to the various bookshelves, only to turn around, without grabbing a single book, and walk towards another shelf in the library.
“Spike!” the unicorn called out, signaling over a tiny purple dragon whose green spines wobbled as he hopped down the library’s stairway. 
“Yes, Twilight?” Spike answered.
“Have you been feeling like there’s something…off? As of recently, I mean?”
“Not really.” The dragon replied as he turned his head to focus on some of the books in the library. “Maybe one of our books is out of place?”
“No, I double-checked the entire library, and every book is in its designated space.” Twilight corrected. “I even triple-checked the list of checked out books to see if any were due. There aren’t any late returns and the earliest due date is next Monday at 12:15 p.m. for Trance Dance: Nighttime Exclusion, checked out by Miss Vinyl Scratch. Then I made sure that everything in my lab was in order, making sure all my beakers were organized by shape then size. Then I thought of the minor tear in one of the bedroom curtains, only to check on it to realize that I had already sewn the tear an hour ago. I just don’t know why I feel like something is off. Everything seems to be going normal.”
Spike just stared at his friend with some bewilderment “Yeah…normal…”
Twilight walked to the center of the room and sat down on the floor. She started to rub her chin as she continued to ponder.
“What could I be overlooking?” The puzzled mare said to herself.
“Well maybe Princess Celestia can help you figure out what you forgot.” Spike suggested.
The proposition made Twilight chuckle “Oh Spike, the Princess is a very busy pony. She has to take care of all the major issues of Equestria, not help one baffled unicorn handle a simple, albeit somewhat frustrating, lapse of memory. Why, it’s a wonder how she has the time to read…my…reports…”
The unicorn stared off seemingly at nothing as she slowly came to a realization, her mouth became ajar as her pupils slowly dilated. Twilight’s trance-like state made her assistant uncomfortable as he started to approach the purple pony. When Spike got close enough, he slowly reached out his claw towards his unmoving friend.
“Twilig-“
“I FORGOT MY FRIENDSHIP REPORT FOR THE PRINCESS!!” Twilight shrieked as she jumped five feet into the air. Spike soon fell over, startled by the unicorn’s outburst.
After Spike propped himself into a sitting position, he watched as Twilight ran around the library at the speed of panic. 
“Got to write that report. Got to write that report. Got to write that report” Twilight kept repeating as she charged throughout her residence. Spike tried his best to keep the unicorn in his sight, turning his head as much as he could.
“What are you worrying over?” Spike asked the frantic mare.
“My friendship report to the Princess.” Twilight started, still running around the library. “I got to write a report about something new I learned about friendship and send it to the Princess by tomorrow morning.”
“...Twilight.”
“I don’t have anything new to write about.”
“Twilight.”
“And I would never make something up. Even if I would I wouldn't know what to make up in the first place.”
“Twilight!”
Twilight stopped right in front of Spike. The dragon noted with a raised eye ridge her disheveled mane and nervous twitch in her watery eyes. 
"Calm down, Twilight." The baby dragon said, looking intensely into the unicorn's eyes. "You've already been through this last month. Remember? When you made everypony in Ponyville go bonkers over a stuffed doll."
The mare looked down at the ground, shuffling her front hooves a bit as she responded.
"...I know"
"Didn't Princess Celestia tell you that it's okay not to send her letters all the time?"
"Yeah, but I haven't sent her any letters since then."
"Because everyone agreed that you needed time to relax."
“Yeah, but that was the problem. Don't you see? I was so focused on trying to heed the Princess' order that I shirked off my main responsibility as her top student. Now I'm in real danger of falling behind, or even coming off like I'm not trying to learn more about friendship. Oh, why did I let myself become so lazy this past month?”
“Well ‘lazy’ probably isn't the best way to put it, Twilight.”
“You’re right. That’s putting it in a nice connotation.”
"TWILIGHT!"
Spike's outburst startled Twilight enough to make the mare refocus her attention on the miffed dragon.
"Don't beat yourself up over this." Spike urged the unicorn, "Just take a deep breath."
The purple mare followed her assistant's advice as she put a hoof to her chest and inhaled deeply. Then she extended her hoof away from her body as she let out all the excess air in her lungs. This calmed Twilight down somewhat as Spike continued giving advice to the unicorn.
"Now I know you're worried about falling behind on your friendship research, but getting yourself worked up over it won't solve anything."
Twilight couldn't come up with an immediate rebuttal in her head so she nodded her head as she let Spike continue talking.
"If you need to have something to write about, go see your friends to see if they have something to talk about, but don't try to create a problem, okay?"
Spikes emphasis on that last part of his suggestion was not lost on Twilight as she nodded her head once more. Standing a little straighter, she soon made her way to the front door of the library.
"You're right, Spike." She firmly stated. "You're absolutely right! I'll just visit the girls, see how each of them are doing, and ask them if they have a problem I can help them with."
Twilight opened the door and started to leave her home when she suddenly turned around to make one last statement.
"And even if none of them need my help with something, I can just write a letter to the Princess about how I'm enjoying my time with my friends. That'll be good enough...I hope."
With that the librarian shut the door behind her, leaving the baby dragon by himself with only one thought going through his mind.
“I wish Twilight would stop stressing out over everything.”