Sage Brush's campfire tales.

by Gentlehoof

The Edge of the World

Author's Note:

Here it is, proof that Slice of Life and Adventure can exist with each other.

Little Aurora suddenly jerked awake and started bawling, her little voice piercing the night with her wailing cry. Sage Brush paused his story as Dove snatched the filly up from her basket to croon to to her as she moved off to settle the filly back down.

Sage Brush reached over and tossed another log onto the fire. "Well then, where was I?" he asked, looking back to the gathered crowd of fillies and colts.

Tulip quickly clamped her hoof over Pine Blossom's mouth to keep her from answering with her usual request, while Misty just sighed and shook her head at the two. Celestia glanced over and giggled with Strawberry as they watched Pine struggling with her sister. Mighty Oak was busy quietly plotting a prank with Toadstool while Glum Drollery sat silently, watching the moths fly around the fire. Bumblebee was waiting for her sister, Soft Step, to return from talking to their papa about some idea of hers about safely putting fire into ponies homes.

"You were about to tell us the story of Daring Horizon, and her adventure to find the edge of the world," Journey Stomp quickly reminded the stallion as he leaned forward with intense interest.

Sage thoughtfully scratched at his chin before finally nodding. "Oh, that's right." Clearing his throat, he started his story.

Long long ago, in seasons past, there lived a young mare named Daring Horizon. She was always adventurous and loved exploring the new lands her herd traveled too in their long wanderings. Always, she was driven to see what lay beyond the next hill. One day, she decided that she wanted to see the edge of the world and what was beyond it, so after she said her goodbyes to her mother and all of her friends, she started out on her long journey to see what lay over the world's edge.

For many days, she got up each morning and traveled toward the rising sun until she came to a river that was so broad, she could not hope to swim across. Standing on the shore, she stared out across the river and wondered how she would be able to cross something so wide. It was then that she noticed a group of beavers struggling to move a very large tree they had recently fallen. She noticed that it was lodged against the side of a large rock outcropping and no matter the pushing and tugging the beavers could do, they would have no hope of dislodging it. Moving herself around to the other side of the log, she gave it a mighty buck that shook the tree and dislodged it from the rocks, allowing it to roll free down to the bank.

The beavers were happy, and joyfully slapped the water with their tails in celebration, for no matter how hard they tried, they had been unable to shift the massive log. "Please," Daring Horizon called out to the beavers, "your river is much too broad for me to cross. Would you please use your wonderful tails to paddle me across?"

The beavers agreed that without her help they would never have gotten the log free, so two of them swam forward and offered their backs for her to hold onto. Once she was in place, they used their powerful tails to propel her safely across the broad river. Once she was on the other side, she said goodbye to her new friends and continued on her journey.

Next, she came to a great mountain range that extended to each side for as far as she could see. Daring Horizon gazed up at the massive snow capped peaks and feared that she would not find a way over. For days, she searched for a way through, but without any success. Then she came across a mountain goat that had his horns stuck in a bramble bush. Seeing that he needed help in escaping his plight, Daring used her teeth and hooves to untangle the ram from the thorny bush.

Freed, the ram leapt about in joy for no matter his struggles he was unable to free himself. "Please," Daring called out to the ram, "your mountains are much too tall and steep for me to cross. Would you please show me the way through?" she asked.

The ram knew that if he hadn't have been set free, he would have surely perished. There were paths through the mountain that only mountain goats knew of, and with gratitude for saving his life, the ram showed her safely through one of them. Once on the other side, Daring thanked her new friend for his help and set off to continue on her journey.

Her travels then took her to the edge of a vast desert that stretched far off to the horizon. Studying it for a time, she decided to wait for night before trying to cross. Despite starting out right at sunset, she was still deep in the desert with no end in sight when the sun reappeared in the morning. With no shade to be found, Daring decided to continue on. The sun beat down on her relentlessly as the day wore on, and her throat quickly felt like she had been swallowing sand.

Her hooves were dragging in the sand when she suddenly caught sight of something huddled at the base of a sand dune. It was a little camel calf, and he was crying his heart out.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, concerned as to why he was crying out here all alone.

"I'm lost, and I can't find my mama," the little calf answers her back.

Daring Horizon mused about what she should do. She wanted to help the lost calf, but she wasn't sure how. She was in the middle of a scorching desert. Spying a tall sand dune a ways off, Daring thought of an idea.

Wiping the calf's tears dry, she picked the exhausted calf up onto her back and carried him all the way over to the large dune. Struggling up its slope, Daring managed to climb all the way up to the top where she then gazed all around in the hopes that she would see the calf's mother.

Spinning her gaze about a few times, she failed to spot anything that looked like it could be the calf's mother. She was about to give up and head back the way she came, when the calf suddenly cried out.

"Mama! Mama!"

Fixing her gaze towards where the calf was looking, Daring squinted in the bright sunlight and saw a figure of a camel topping a dune in the far distance. It seemed she saw them too and with a remarkably swift pace, the camel rushed over to them. She was so grateful at getting her lost calf back, the camel showed Daring where a nearby oasis was so she could drink her fill of water. After that, she guided Daring safely across the vast sea of sand back to land filled with grass and trees on the far side. Giving a farewell to her new friends, she once again set off on her journey.

After many days and nights of travel, Daring Horizon finally arrived at something that dwarfed everything she had seen so far in both vastness and scale. Sinking her hooves into the sand, Daring stood on the shore of a great sea and looked out at the endless, rolling waves. It seemed that her journey had come to an end, for she saw no way for her to cross over such an expanse. Suddenly, she noticed a giant sea turtle that had been somehow rolled onto his back. With his great, flippered feet, he flailed helplessly in the air as crabs and gulls gathered around him to start to feast on his flesh.

Alarmed at his plight, Daring rushed over and chased off the gathered scavengers. Turning her attention back to the sea turtle, she saw that he was massive, so Daring thought about what to do. She tried bucking the side of his shell, which only hurt her hooves. She then tried to push him down to the water, but only got her hooves to sink into the soft sand. Lastly she tried to lift him by stacking driftwood logs under the edge of his shell but all to no avail. What was she to do?

Spotting a large clam shell sticking up in the serf, Daring had an idea. Taking the clam shell, she began to dig out one side of the sea turtle and pile the sand onto the other. It was exhausting work but over time she noticed that the sea turtle had shifted down into her hole. Working all through the night, she managed to shift the sea turtle all the way over to its side. Walking around to the hill she had built on the other side of the turtle, Daring reared her hind legs back and bucked into his shell as hard as she could, causing the sea turtle’s whole body to wobble in place for a moment before he slowly toppled over onto his belly.

Once he was righted back into place, the sea turtle scooted himself back to the sea. Daring was happy that she had saved the beautiful creature from a grisly fate and watched him splash his flippers in joy.

Stepping out into the surf, Daring called out to the jubilant sea turtle, "Please, I have come a long way to find the edge of the world. Would you please carry me upon your fine shell across the sea?"

The sea turtle swam back to shore where he then allowed Daring to climb up onto his shell. Once she was in place, the sea turtle set off, and soon the land fell away behind them as they entered the open sea.

Every day, for a full moon, the sea turtle would stop at an island to let her drink and eat before they would continue on. Gradually the water became more clear and warm as they traveled ever onward. Below them, Daring could make out the sandy bottom as well as all the sea life that lived there. One time, a herd of whales passed under her, and Daring had to resist the urge to dive in and swim with them. A curious little whale calf paused for a time next to them to look up at her, probably wondering why a pony was traveling on a sea turtle's shell. When another whale, probably its mother, called out to the calf, he shot off with a splash of his tail to rejoin her.

A few days later, the sea bottom had climbed up so much, she could make out every detail on its pearly, white, sandy bottom. The sea turtle no longer stopped at any islands, for their were no more islands for him to stop at. At first, this alarmed Daring until she discovered that the seawater was no longer salty, but instead tasted sweet and fresh to her tongue, and for food, the sea turtle would dive down to the bottom to nab up sea grass for her to eat.

One day, while sitting on the sea turtle's shell, Daring was eating her morning meal, she gazed down into the clear waters and saw something amazing! Grazing below her in the seagrass was a herd of what looked like ponies! They had fins and swam about the grasses as they grazed. There were stallions strutting their fins at some young sea-mares as they tried to impress them, while older mares with foals tucked up by their sides talked among themselves, likely about the day’s latest sea-gossip, while they nursed their foals. A few of these sea ponies noticed her looking down at them and an unheard alarm was raised. Within moments, they all vanished as they all quickly swam away.

Daring was saddened to see them leave, and continued so search the waters to see if she could see more, but despite staring down into the water for the rest of the day, she never caught sight of any more undersea ponies.

Eventually, the sea bottom rose up to just under the surface, and the giant sea turtle had to skim his shell along the sandy bottom to continue forward. Ahead of them, a shoreline appeared that stretched to either side all the way to either horizon. Coming to a stop, the sea turtle allowed Daring to hop off into the shallows to make her way up to the beach.

The pure-white sand was soft under her hooves as she walked forward up onto the dry land. Behind her, the distant sun was just setting, casting her shadow far ahead into a rising moon that looked like it was close enough to reach out and touch. All around, stars glittered brightly in their multitudes as she stepped ever closer to the edge that was just ahead of her. A star suddenly shot by her as it streaked across the sky. The beauty that lay all about her took her breath away.

Daring Horizon felt her heart hammering in her chest as she drew right up the the very edge of the world. She had made it. At last, she could look over and see what lay beyond her world to the place where stars were born. Taking a deep breath, Daring prepared herself to take the last step forward to look over the edge… and she found she didn't want to.

The answer was there, a mere step away. All she had to do was step forward and look. Gazing out at the breathless beauty that lay about her, a passing comet tickled her nose with its tail. She didn't want to do it. She didn't want to know what lay beyond. She wanted to keep the mystery, and the magic alive in her heart. She had made it this far, and she had made many friends along they way, each a precious memory and experience that added to her life and enriched it even more.

Taking one last breath, Daring Horizon turned and walked back to the shore, ready to find her next adventure.

Sage Brush finished his story and looked around at all the wide eyed fillies and colts sitting around him.

"That's it!? She just left!?" Journey Stomp exclaimed in outrage. "Why did she leave!? She was right there! All she had to do was look!"

"Don't you get it! She did it so she wouldn't know!" Celestia explained with a sigh. Sometimes colts could be so thickheaded.

This seemed to confuse Journey more. "But why wouldn't she want to know? That's why she traveled all the way there!"

"Because, she wanted to keep one thing always a mystery," Strawberry said, "so there would always be something she didn't know."

Journey shook his head. "That's just stupid. I would have looked."

"Oh, really?" Bumblebee cut in. "Then how about you go to the edge of the world and do just that."

Journey stood and confronted Bumblebee. "You know what, I'll do just that! Just you watch and see! I'll go and explore every mystery that is out there!"

A flicker of light appeared on Journey's flank and a wandering trail of hoof prints appeared. Every pony gasped at the sudden appearance of his cutie mark.

"Well," Sage said with a happy smile, "looks like we have ourselves an upcoming explorer, just like Daring Horizon!"

All the fillies and colts rushed around Journey Stomp to congratulate him.

Comments

[Shadow-Aura]

I just noticed this was a thing Yay I like the side tales sage tells