The Elderly Mare in the Living Room
Google Docs version: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Noz8uZRVnKYAvkwNqtfm4RUjniweNa1Iuaim0pejhq0/edit
Sit right there, little filly. Its about time I made things straight.
You listening?
Good.
You see quite a few things when you get to my age. Happy things. Tragic things. Some things that ain’t either of the two. You don’t see as many things as I do if you don’t watch careful-like.
Some folk think that I’m going dumb, deaf and blind. Well, them folk can go buck themselves for all I care. I still got my ears and my eyes, and at least half a brain. It’s right time I passed on some knowledge while I still can.
I still got my memories, that’s for dang-ol’ sure. Seemed like yesterday I was harvesting the apples with my brothers and sisters while my own granny was sitting on the porch. And that’s yer first lesson: Treasure your youth. Soon oneday, you’re gonna end up like me.
You know, I used to buck with the best of ‘em. Go ahead and laugh. From the roosters cockcrow to the sun going down, I’d be out there in those fields you see right outside here. Never once did you hear me complain! Soon as I was old enough, I started working these trees like I had all my life.
Y’see that one out there, next to the pond? The one with the scars in the bark?
I planted that one with my siblings way back when. Never did grow the right shape for a tree house, but we made do.
Sitting in the shade, with some of the finest cider from the cellars, takin’ a noontime nap before gettin’ back to work. And then just like that,
BAM!
My brother would sneak up on me. Start chasin’ me, too! Of course, he never was a fast one. Back in my day, I could run from here to Canterlot and back in less than twelve hours. I ain’t lyin’, or my name ain’t ‘Apple’!
Course, eventually, I’d slow down, just so that he could have the satisfaction of tacklin’ me. That was happiness, right there, let me tell you. Ain’t nothin’ like family.
But then, can’t have no happiness without some tragedy. Brother went under a few years back. Er, well. I suppose it was quite a while, now. Before you were born. Guess these old bones can’t tell the difference between a year and a decade anymore. Ha.
Brother.
Oh, how I miss that old stallion.
He was before your time. AJ might remember him. I’m sure Mac had a chance to talk with him before his mind started to go.
We all knew it was comin’. The winds were blowin’ and we could see where the leaves were bout to fall. Didn’t surprise us one bit when that letter arrived from Appleachian. But it sure did hurt at the time. It hurt bad.
But then, we had our memories. I still have them. That’s good enough. Better to remember him from before he started slippin’. He would’ve preferred it that way. I think.
...It still hurts.
Hmph.
Better fate than my sister, though.
Y’know, a pony can beat you into the ground and stomp on you all they want, but it won’t never be something you can’t recover from. Some scars, though, they’ll hurt you forever.
I hardly knew my brother-in-law. We’d met only a few times, at the marriage, and the few times we visited each others farms. But he seemed like a good stallion. A hard worker, and loyal to his wife, my sister, to the end.
Course, that end came far too soon.
He was too confident for his own good. I kept tryin’ to tell my sister that it wasn’t her fault that pack of wolves got him out in the woods, but she never was good at listenin’ to reason. We kept tryin’ to convince her to move in with us.
One mare running a whole farm out in a place so far from another livin’ soul ain’t no way to be. But she was stubborn as a mule, that one. Insisted on stayin’ put.
And then she lost her leg to the cold the next month. We didn’t even know about it until the mail pony arrived that spring.
I tell you, she never did come back to us; when we went up to visit her, my sister was gone. Something in her just got on up and left. We’d say her name, but she’d just look at us like we were strangers. And then, same day AJ was born...
She wasn’t able to look anywhere at anypony at all after that. She went under, jus’ like her brother. What was in that closed casket ain’t something no pony should ever have to see.
I...
…
…
Hm? Naw, I’m fine. Just... remembering. Some things you gotta keep with you, even if you don’t like ‘em. Ain’t no other way to live. Hope that the future will be better than the past.
Ah, look here, filly. Don’t give me that face. Ya didn’t even know them. Why are you of all ponies gettin’ all pouty?
That’s better.
And there’s yer second lesson: Don’t dwell on the past. Er, wait. Maybe that was lesson three. Something about caring for your family.
Time for lesson six!
You know, I used to buck with the best of ‘em. Go ahead and laugh. From the roosters cockcrow to the sun going down, I’d be out there in those fields you see right outside here. Never once did you hear me--
Huh? Whuzzit? I already said that?
Well, shoot.
Bah. I lost my train of thought.
I tell you what, Apple Bloom. That’s enough lessons for today. Go play with your filly friends. Sweetieloo and Scootabelle, or whatever it was.
What?
Huh?
Two you have any ping?
Oh! Do I need anything? Well, some cider would hit the spot right now. Yes. Yep. Mmhmm. That’s right.
Just get the cider, Apple Bloom.
…
She’s a good kid, that mare.
She’ll be great at working the farm. I know it.
…
Took yer time, hm? Hand that cider over.
Mmmmhmm. I tell you, Big Mac sure does work wonders with that press.
...
...and here I am, the youngest,
Waiting for my turn.
Until then, I just gotta honor them,
by living with the memories of the dead.
…
It’s a hard life.
Remember that, Apple Bloooooooo...
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It isn’t easy, being the youngest.
You get all the time in the world
to collect the burdens of your elders.
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She looks just like how I did when I was a filly. Ribbon and all.
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