As Spike made his away to the west end of Sweet Apple Acres, he could hear the familiar sound of a tree being rustled from a strong impact not too far from his position. He was close.
With a calm but purposeful stride to the source of the sound, after a few moments, he found who he was looking for – Big MacIntosh.
Ever since his move to Ponyville with Twilight, over a year ago, Spike and Big Mac have always hit it off when they had the chance too, away from the dramas of life and such. The pair of them became quick friends over their love of similar things such as hoofball, Pony Trek and other pastimes. But, the one thing they both knew about each other and respected about each other was the amount of effort and dedication into what their tasks were. Be it cooking, apple bucking, delivery or anything else – the pair of them gave their all to their work.
Spike, however, has more respect than, he feels, Big Mac does of him. Spike noticed it was the way he seemed to handle things day after day – calmly and confidently, which seemed to baffle Spike. The young drake has had more on one occasion yanked out a few scales because of large amounts of stress but Big Mac, in his eyes, didn't seem to have that problem and Spike was determined to find out his secret.
As Big Mac picked a couple of apples of the grass, that missed the basket, he turned to see Spike coming up to him with a driven demeanour. Placing the apples in the basket he gave his friend a welcome greeting, “Afternoon, Spike.”
“Hey, Big Mac,” Spike began calmly; stopping a few feet away, waving to his large red friend, “How are ya?”
“Doin’ alright, buddy,” Big Mac replied happily, “How ‘bout you?”
“Alright, I guess,” Spike looked to the ground for a moment before looking again at Big Mac, “Can I ask you something?”
“Go for it.”
“You can keep doing your thing, while I ask, you know, don’t want you to fall behind ‘cause of me.” Spike stated plainly. Big Mac gave a neutral nod to the young drake before returning to the task at hand. He positioned his snout underneath the basket and with a strong lift he chucked the basket over his head and, somehow, landed perfectly on his strong back with all the apples perfectly in place. ‘Never ceases to impress me.’ Spike mentally commented with respect.
“So,” Big Mac began, beginning to head back to the ranch with the basket level on his back, “What’s been buggin’ ya?”
Keeping up with his friend, Spike thought over his words for a moment, scratching his head, “Um, the thing is, uhh...” Shaking his head, he began to feel that annoying stress crawl back into his mind, so he decided to spit it out, “How do you do it?”
“Do what, Spike?” Big Mac asked.
“Stay calm all the time.” Spike replied with slight frustration.
“Whaddya mean?”
“I mean, how do you manage to do all this;” Spike motioned with a claw toward the already bucked trees that ranged between twenty to forty, “And stay calm all the time. I've seen you work in the harshest of conditions and you still manage to stay calm and not let the stress of it all get to you. So, again, how do you avoid the stress of it all?” Spike asked with an earnest voice.
As they walked on, Big Mac looked at Spike and could see that the effect of stress was getting to him; the strained eyes and the way he was walking along side him was like he was carrying a ton of weight on his shoulders but had nothing other than the scales on his skin. Taking what he said, he decided to stop and let Spike stop and give him a chance to hear what he had to say.
He kept his neutral calm expression and demeanour and looked at Spike before answering properly, “The truth is, Spike, Ah' choose ta.”
Spike tilted his head slightly with a puzzled look and gave an honest, “Huh?”
“Listen,” Big Mac began, “Stress is a part of every creature’s life. No matter what we do, even the best of moments, we can’t avoid it,” Big Mac looked at the trees behind Spike and the ones beyond, Spike followed his line of sight before he heard Big Mac continue, “Ah’ve worked these fields for years on end, there have been good days like these and bad days when the weather was terrible. Ah’ remember looking at the weather reports, one time, and feelin’ annoyed when findin’ out the rain would be pourin’ it down when the apples would be fresh ta pick. But,” Spike turned to look at Big Mac, who was showcasing a small pleasant smile, “Ah’ just shrugged it off and got on with it.”
Spikes eyebrows furrowed, “But, surely you could've talked to the weather team and asked them to move the time for the rain clouds to drop to another day or something?” Spike inquired unsatisfied.
“Alright,” Big Mac began calmly, “Say Ah’ did that, when out of ma way to get that done, how much stress do ya think that would cause not just for me, but every pony else? And, how much time would've been wasted tryin’ to get that all done?”
Spike tried to think of answer, but stumbled on his thoughts and was left unsure, once more, on what to say to that.
“Spike,” Big Mac put his large left hoof gently on Spike’s shoulder, “There will always be some events in life we can’t control. Sure, you can go and try to talk the weather team to see if ya’ll can change the weather times to suit yerself’. But, think about how much can be done here, getting things done in the amount of time spent wasted on gettin’ into stressful arguments about something that is more than likely not worth causin’ a stir about.”
Spikes eyes’ widened as he began to understand.
“And, yeah,” Big Mac continued, “there will be other things that might get yer’ insides all twisted; like some unexpected delivery or double the work load or an unsavoury customer or summit else entirely out of our control. But, here’s the thing; we can’t control life but we can control how we react to it.”
Spike looked at his big red friend and smiled, “So, that’s how you do it.”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac removed his hoof and placed it on the ground, “At the end of the day it’s simple; ya’ll can either spend yer time complainin’ and arguin’ about it or you can accept it and get on with it.” Big Mac finished with his trademark smile.
Spike nodded multiple times as he took in Big Macs words’ and felt quite satisfied with that answer, “Yeah, you’re right.” He smiled up at his friend, feeling a new found confidence that replaced the stress he felt before. “Thanks, dude.”
“No problem, Spike.” Big Mac chuckled happily for one of his best friends.
“Need any help?” Spike inquired.
“Nnnope, Ah’ got this.” Big Mac replied with a bit of pride, “Thanks, anyway.”
“No problem,” Spike began to turn away giving Big Mac a wave, “I better get back, thanks pal, see ya.”
“Take care, pal.” Big Mac replied with jolly voice as he watched the young dragon dash off with a spring in his step. ‘Glad I could help ya, buddy.’ Big Mac commented happily as he turned toward the direction of the ranch and set off once more with the apple basket still stable on his big back.
Author's Note
Just a little something I wanted to do, as a way of getting back into the swing of things. Big Mac has always been a favourite for me because I feel he and I deal with stress the majority of the time the same way. Sure, I still get unnecessarily stressed out half of the time but I still feel that it's something that wastes people time and I think Big Mac knows that too and I still try and say to friends, family and colleagues; "It's best not to stress about it, just accept it. It saves you from getting a headache."
Thanks for reading. Please, tell me what you think and please give an honest critique, if you have one, of my work. Take care.