Long, long ago, in the distant past, when Celestia was just a young earth pony filly. There was a stallion who liked to tell tales. This is a few of the tales he told.
Celestia ran, her pursuer following closely behind her. She didn't know where Ash was. The last time she saw him, he was being chased by the other one. A flicker of motion to her right allowed her to react in time to avoid being taken by the second one as he dashed in on her from the side. He must have finished with Ash and now she had them both on her tail!
As she rounded a hut, Celestia checked behind her and saw only one of the slobbering beasts still chasing her. Where did the other one go!? Looking ahead, Celestia let out a scream as she saw the second one coming around the hut right in front of her. Desperately, Celestia swerved to the side and bolted as fast as she could, but it was no use; they were now on both sides of her and she had nowhere to go. It was only a matter of time before they got her too.
Ahead of her, Celestia noticed she was closing on the split rock. Smiling, she thought up a desperate idea that might just work. Lowering her head, she bolted for the crack. Her sudden dash for the rock caught her pursuers by surprise and they fell a little behind as she shot into the crack.
Letting out a laugh at her cleverness, Celestia darted out of the crack, free and clear of her chasers. Suddenly, a weight dropped down on her as something pounced from the side. They must have circled around! Letting out a scream, Celestia tumbled onto the ground as her attackers closed in over her.
"No!" Celestia screamed as her assailants moved in for the kill. "No! No! No! Ahh!" A pair of tongues began to slobber and lick at her face as she desperately attempted to defend herself from their relentless assault. It was no use. There was no defense. Not from a pair of merciless puppies.
"They got her!" Tulip shouted.
"They did!? How bad?" Strawberry asked running over.
"Oh, they’re getting her good!" Tulip laughed, sounding like she was thoroughly enjoying Celestia's plight.
"Sentry! Chase!" Ash's voice called out.
Immediately, the two wolf pups broke off and happily ran over to Ash as he approached the scene.
Celestia sat up with a sigh. It was getting too hard to get away from those two now. In three moons, the two had grown so much. Bell had recently weaned them, and now fed them fish and rabbits, with the occasional rodent the pups could sniff out around the storehouse. Already Birch Bark was praising the two pups for pretty much eradicating the irritating pests that had been plaguing him there.
Not all the ponies felt so happy having the wolf pups running around. There were still those that still harbored harsh feelings for the pair. So far, the complaints had been minor and frivolous at best, but that still didn't stop the angry and hostile looks that were directed at the pups as well as at Bell Flower, Strongbuck, and Dove Song for harboring them.
Despite the uncertain feeling many had for the pups, all the foals just loved them. They were as friendly as they were playful. Bell had been reluctant at first to let the pups play with the foals, worrying that something bad might happen, but, after some time, when the pups proved that they had an amazing ability to integrate themselves with the foals as well as easily making friends with them, she found it was a wonderful way to socialize them to others, and to gain a bit of trust with the ponies.
Wiping her hoof over her wolf-slobbered face, Celestia glanced at Ash and saw that his face had also gotten the puppy treatment. Sentry and Chase happily loped around him with their tails wagging as Ash walked up to her.
"I win! Chase got you first!" Celestia exclaimed with a laugh.
"Yeah, but you got it much worse than me!" Ash retorted with a wave at Celestia's extremely slobbered up face.
"That's only because I had both of them on me! You only had the one!" Celestia wiped her hoof on Ash's neck to clean it of puppy spit.
Pine Blossom came dashing over. "Is it over!? Did I miss it!?" she asked breathlessly.
Smiling, Tulip nodded. "Yep. It's all over."
Pine looked disappointed at having missed the play chase. "Aww, I wanted to be here. Why did you all start without me?" she asked. "Who won!?"
"The wolf pups, of course," Strawberry answered with a nod toward Ash and Celestia, pointing out the sloppy state the two were in.
"Come on. Sage Brush promised to tell us another story today," Strawberry said. "Let's go see if he’s there."
"Oh! I love his stories!" Pine exclaimed with a series of excited hops. "I hope he tells us the one about how the mountain fell in love with his own shadow!"
Tulip let out a sigh and tussled up Pine's mane. "He told us that one yesterday because you kept bugging him to. We want to hear a new one today."
"Fine, fine. Let's hear a new one then," Pine muttered, fixing her mussed mane.
Ever since Pine had nearly drowned, the two had grown much closer with each other. During the half moon after her accident, Pine had suffered through a terrible, racking cough that left her weakened and in pain. Staying with her throughout it, Tulip helped to keep her spirits up and to help her pass the time by playing little games with her. Many of the other foals also stopped by from time to time to keep her company until she was fully recovered.
Passing through the settlement, they all headed toward the western side. Sage Brush liked to sit in the shade of a small tree there during the late part of the day to enjoy the breeze. One day, when he was resting there, he called over some of the passing foals to tell them a story. Soon, foals started coming by to hear more from him, with it eventually becoming a semi-regular event.
Arriving at the tree, they found Sage already sitting under its shading branches with Mighty Oak, Toadstool Ring and Glum Drollery, who were apparently also there for a story.
"Oh my, a lot of you have come today," Sage commented in mild surprise, looking over at the new group that was approaching him. "Well, there's plenty of room for more. Find a comfortable spot and have a seat, everypony."
Finding a spot, Ash settled in, Celestia sitting on one side of him and Strawberry sitting on the other.
Seeing Strawberry sitting with Ash, Celestia once again felt a stab of irritation and a sudden desire to move over and place herself between the two. Why was she feeling like this? Strawberry was her friend. She should be happy that she wanted to be close to Ash. Who was she to keep him all to herself anyways? Many stallions had several mares in their family herd, so shouldn't she expect the same for Ash as well?
Swallowing her feeling down as best she could, Celestia focused her attention back to Sage Brush, who was looking like he was about to start his story.
With Sentry and Chase curling up next to him, Sage looked around and smiled as he absentmindedly petted the pups. "Well, you all ready?" Seeing them all nod, he started his story.
Long long ago, in seasons past, there once lived a very unusual fox who made a very usual friend. The fox lived alone along the edge of the forest next to a large meadow. He was lonely and wished to make friends, but no woodland creature would trust him, calling all foxes tricky, sly, and altogether not to be trusted.
One day, when the fox was walking along the edge of the meadow, he came across a rabbit that was weeping by herself. Seeing her crying all alone, the fox's heart went out to her and he approached her to see what was the matter.
"What troubles you so?" he asked her.
"I lost my little sister. We were out in the meadow when a hawk chased us away," she explained, wiping at her eyes with her little paw. "We both ran as fast as we could, but, in the confusion, I lost her, and I can't find her anywhere!"
The fox was moved by her plight and wanted to help her. "Please. Let me help you find her. I'm sure that with both of us looking, we will find her."
The rabbit looked up at him with sudden hope. "Thank you," she said gratefully to him.
Together, they searched all about the meadow, from the beaver-pond in the south to the rocky hills to the north. Rabbit was starting to despair that they would ever find her lost sister.
Fox noticed her disheartened look and spoke up. "Don't give up. We have only discovered where she is not. There are still places to search, I'm sure we will find her there," he said in an attempt to lift her spirits.
His encouraging words seemed to help her, and they went over to the west side to search for her sister there. After an exhausting examination of the area it became clear that her little sister wasn't there. Rabbit looked devastated that they had failed, and looked like she was on the brink of crying again. Fox wanted to say something, but could think of nothing to say to make her feel better.
Suddenly, his sharp eyes picked up something. Scuffed in the dirt before him were some rabbit tracks leading out of the meadow. Bending down, he sniffed at them and got the distinct scent of rabbit. Calling out to his companion, he showed her his discovery. With their new lead, they followed the tracks away into the woods. Soon, they came to steep drop-off. Looking down, they both spotted Rabbit's little sister below them, perched precariously on a small ledge of rock. It appeared that, in her panic, she had tumbled off the edge and now was stuck with nowhere to go.
"How are we going to get her up?" Rabbit worried out loud.
Looking down, Fox saw that Rabbit's sister was in dire trouble. She was too far down for him to reach down and lift up, and, if she slipped off the little ledge she was on, she would tumble down the sheer side to smash into the rocks below.
After thinking about it for a while, the fox suddenly came up with a clever, if risky, plan. "If I was to hold onto your back legs and dangle you down, you could grab onto your sister and I can lift you both back up," Fox offered.
The fox's daring plan required Rabbit to trust him with her life as he dangled her down over sheer drop to a certain death if he should release her leg. She struggled with whether she could trust him with something like that. After all, he was a fox and it was always said that you should never trust a fox. Hearing her sister’s fearful cries down below, Rabbit made up her mind and held her hind leg up for the fox to take.
Taking her leg, Fox lifted Rabbit up and lowered her over the edge. Rabbit’s heart hammered in her chest as she felt the fox's teeth biting into her leg, but she held strong to her faith that he would not let her go. She never expected that she would ever willingly let a fox do this to her. Standing right at the very edge of the drop-off, Fox crouched down and held Rabbit as far down as he could. The moment Rabbit came within reach of her sister, she wrapped her little paws around her and held her close as Fox lifted them both back up to the top.
Settled once again to firm ground, Rabbit and her sister hugged each other in happiness. Fox watched them, feeling a warm sense of pride for what he had done to help bring these two sisters back together.
Glad that he had done some good, the fox was about to leave when Rabbit suddenly moved over and surprisingly gave him a hug. "Thank you! Thank you! You have been a good friend to me," she said into his chest as her little paws tightened around his neck.
The fox felt like crying. She had called him a friend.
From that day onward, they remained friends for the rest of their days. A fox and a rabbit, the most unlikely of friendships to ever be.
The End.
At the conclusion of his story, all the foals began cheering and happily stomping their hooves. Sage Brush smiled, happy to see the foals had enjoyed his story.
"Did that story really happen?" Pine asked.
Sage Brush blinked over at the young filly. "Why of course it really happened. I would never tell you a made up story!" he said with a slightly offended tone. "Now, off with you all. It's getting late."
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.
