It had been a long, long day for all of the ponies in Ponyville. Spring was just around the corner and with the end of the day came the end of the Winter Wrap Up celebration. However, nopony ached and hurt more than the ponies over at Sweet Apple Acres. Yes, it was an Apple Family tradition that they be the first up and the last to go down for Winter Wrap Up. Over at the farmstead, Granny Smith, Applejack, and Applebloom had all retired for the night, tuckered out from the day’s tasks. Big McIntosh on the other hand, as was typical for him, was up much later into the night.

Big McIntosh was a working stallion. It just felt alien of him not to work, so he would be up early in the morning and not go to bed until late at night. Everypony always told him that it wasn’t healthy for him, but he didn’t really care. He firmly believed that a stallion always had duties to fulfill and that it was his sole duty to perform them, and with the female population of Ponyville outnumbering the male population nearly four to one, he felt that that was true more than ever. It was a nobility factor for him, more or less. Big McIntosh, like other male members of the Apple Family, was raised with the mindset that he should always do the work ahead of a mare. This belief was common, and some might say natural, throughout all of Equestria but especially so in the small towns like Ponyville; Big McIntosh certainly clung to it too.

Whenever Applejack should be seen by him pulling her weight around the farm, Big McIntosh would insist that he do it for her, albeit in his own simplistic approach. Of course though, Applejack would refuse and carry about her business. Though very sweet of her brother to be offering to do her work for her, Applejack was a working mare and there was no way that she would just put everything down and let her brother do all of the heavy lifting. “That ain’t how a family works,” she would always tell him, almost every time he offered to do her work for her.

Big McIntosh recalled on these truths on and off in his head as he patrolled around the barnyard and looked for things that needed to be done. Weariness was starting to set in on him, but he just couldn’t cut and quit now when the farm needed him. He silently walked over to a rope which he saw laying in the dirt and picked it up with his muzzle and walked it over to the hanger on the side of the barn where he then placed it neatly. Sometimes Big McIntosh felt like he carried the whole weight and the whole livelihood of the family and the barnyard on his shoulders, but he didn’t really mind. He knew that somepony had to do it. True, the farm worked best when it was a family affair, but then again, Big McIntosh worked best when he was alone. A hard worker indeed, sometimes so hard-working in fact that he would go to bed leaving the others with nothing to do the next day. Everypony always knew it was Big McIntosh, but nothing was ever said.

Tonight though, he thought that it might be OK if he was a little lazy. For him, that meant going to bed at ten past midnight. Big McIntosh walked up to the farmhouse and entered into the kitchen where he tried to creep up to his room as quietly as he could; not an easy task for a stallion of his stature. Somehow though, Big McIntosh finally ascended the old creaky steps without waking the other Apple Family members and walked down the hallway towards his room as silently as he could. When inside, he dropped his great heavy work collar on the ground and then fell down into his bed with a heavy plop that sent creaks running through the bed and the floor which it sat upon.

For some time, Big McIntosh lay awake. He tossed and he turned but he could never seem to get comfortable. Eventually though, he got himself in just the right spot and was able to settle in. Still though, he lay awake and stared out of his window up to the moon in the sky. It was full tonight and truly was a beautiful sight. He thought about how he loved the moon because he could look at it over and over again for as long as he wanted to and admire its beauty whereas he could never do something like that with the sun. Soon though, his weariness began to actually overpower him so he leaned up and pulled the curtains closed, shrouding the room in darkness. After that, and after one measly yawn, Big McIntosh closed his eyes and was out like a light.