Mac’s gone to Appleloosa. Gone to stay, Ah hear. Braeburn got him set up real nice! Colt’s got a good job makin’ a load o’ bits, plenty o’ responsibility, an’ everypony in town lookin’ up to him, so Ah don’t blame him. When he heard about Granny, he started sendin’ bits back home - well, mah home, now, Ah guess - but that’s the most Ah hear from Mac these days.
Granny herself ain’t what she used to be. Ah thought when her hips went bad an’ she got confined to her rockin’ chair, she’d go stir crazy. But she’s… Ah don’t know, tired, Ah guess. Always seems tired now, like losin’ her get-up-n-go just took the fire right outta them old bones. Some days she naps so long an’ so hard, Ah gotta poke her to make sure Mac an’ I shouldn’t be performin’ last rites.
AB’s off with her cousin from Manehattan. Her and her Crusader friends took off a while back an’ I ain’t seen the lot of ‘em since. Ah guess they’re havin’ a right nice time, ‘cause they ain’t come to me for help or to borrow nothin’. Usually that’d make me a mite suspicious, ‘cause that there’s a passel o’ ponies ya’ll don’t ever wanna lose track of.
Ah guess it’s all just… quiet now. Too quiet, like eerie-quiet. Ah cain’t remember it ever bein’ this quiet on Sweet Apple Acres. Even after dark, after the last crickets done tucked in fer the night, Ah could always hear Mac snorin’, or AB sneakin’ to the kitchen, or Granny talkin’ to pictures of Momma an’ Daddy like she used to.
Ah asked Shy about it a while back, when it first started botherin’ me. Anything louder’n a mouse fart’ll scare that filly half to death, so Ah thought she’d be right at home when everything’s quiet. Turns out she’s ‘bout the same as me. If’n a pony every loved her animals more’n life itself, Fluttershy’s the one. Some o’ her critters are nocturnal , and all that skitterin’ and flappin’ and clatterin’ around is what gets her to sleep at night. She said one night she woke up in a screamin’ panic, not ‘cause some ruckus woke her up, but because she didn’t hear nothin’. No raccoons, no possums, no mice, nothin’ at all, an’ all she could think of was that somethin’ awful snuck in and snatched away her little friends. Turns out it was Princess Luna herself standin’ in Flutters’ garden, just as calm as you please, as if everypony should expect a midnight visit from royalty every now an’ again. Luna was askin’ Shy’s advice on courtin’ Twilight, if’n Ah remember.
Mah point was, as quiet as Shy is, she don’t like it too quiet around her. Unnervin’ and unnatural, she said, but somehow she always got by. Ah asked her how she could sleep wonderin’ if every quiet moment was somethin’ goin wrong, somethin’ just plain not right. Ah musta’ been shakin’ like a leaf, ‘cause she gave me a big ol’ hug and told me somethin’ that Ah ain’t never gonna forget. She whispered, “Applejack, there are things everypony needs to hear. They’re always there, if we only remember how and what to listen for.”
Well, shoot. That there’s a piece o’ wisdom Ah’ll carry to mah grave. It makes me wanna scoop Applebloom up in mah arms, take ‘er outside one quiet night, an’ just let ‘er listen. That ain’t the way to show her, o’ course, so Ah hope one day she’ll come to me an’ Ah can teach her what Shy taught me, the right way, ‘cause Ah’m hopin’ them few little words might just get me through these quiet nights.
You see, Ah been courtin’ a mare o’ my own. More’n that, Ah guess. We been together a good while now, an’ everypony in Ponyville knows about us, so it ain’t exactly a secret. We ain’t tied the knot yet, but Ah cain’t wait too long. Holy mercy, she’s beautiful! An if she’s perfection walkin’ on the outside, that ain’t nothin’ compared to her heart. Ah guarantee this place’d have collapsed if Ah hadn’t lucked up an’ found Rarity. Ah don’t deserve that mare. Ah told her so, told her to leave this here farmer behind an’ forget it all. Dang if she didn’t show up the next day, set me right, and went on like nothin’ happened.
Rarity don’t stay here every night, o’ course - she’s got a business to run, and them fancy dresses ain’t gonna sew themselves. Sometimes she does, though, and I wouldn’t trade them nights for every barrel o’ cider in Equestria. Most nights she comes over, we have dinner, talk a little, an’ head to bed. More often than not Ah’m so plum tuckered from workin’ that Ah’m asleep afore she’s even in bed. Not every night, mind ya. But when she’s over, she’s over to stay, and when Ah fall asleep next to her, Ah ain’t never once woke up without her. It’s like even in mah sleep, Ah can feel the bed get warmer, feel that snow-white coat in mah hooves, smell her mane, like vanilla an’ lavender, an’ hear her heartbeat. She’s at her place tonight, but’ it’s like she never left - Ah can still smell her on mah sheets, Ah can hear that heartbeat…
Sweet Celestia’s glory, that’s it, ain’t it? That’s what Shy was talkin’ about - the thing Ah need to hear, if only Ah’d remembered what to listen for.
That there’s the one thing Ah been missin’, thinkin’ mah nights’re too quiet. All this time, Ah been frettin’ and fussin’ about not hearin’ the ponies Ah grew up with anymore, and right here’s a pony who don’t want nothin’ more than to grow old with me. An’ no matter what’s goin’ on, if Ah’m buckin’ trees or sittin’ on this here porch like Ah been doin’ all night, over all the quiet or all the din, Ah can still hear that heartbeat.
Ah do remember, Ah told Rarity that if Ah asked her to give me her hoof, Ah’d do it real proper-like. Guess Ah better head into Ponyville tomorrow. Figure Ah’m gonna be needin’ a couple o’ rings.