Hey! It looks like you're new here. You might want to check out the introduction.
Show rules for this event
A Tale of Caution
Long ago, before Equestria or Princesses, the world was not so kind to ponies, though it sometimes isn’t even now. In a small village of earth ponies, far to the edge of where ponies dared to settle, there lived two brothers: Chaff and Straw. Their father, Levain, ran a granary for the village, providing it with food and a means to trade for their other needs. His recipe was known far and wide, so it attracted more than enough customers, but it required a special ingredient in order to perfect it.
Every month, Chaff and Straw would travel from their village off to the mountains in the west, to a hut where an old stallion, named Barley, lived in seclusion. Barley and Levain had been friends in their youth, and while Barley enjoyed his solitude now, he was more than happy to lend his friend the crop he loved to tend and perfect as he grew older. The brothers had walked the same path for over a year, but they still relied on the map their father gave them to guide them.
Of the two of them, Chaff was much more studious and strict than his brother, who had been spending less and less time at the granary in order to pursue his artistic talents. As such, Straw often stopped his brother on their trips, to draw the flowers or animals of the mountainous forests, much to his brother’s ire. On this trip, however, two days into their week-long journey, a heavy storm rolled in.
In the brothers’ haste to find shelter from the storm, they lost their path and their father’s map. Chaff blamed Straw, saying that without his distractions, they would be much closer to Barley’s cottage, but Straw noted that they should remember the path by now, even if they had strayed from it. Neither brother wanted to suggest heading back to their village, for fear that it would make their father angry, and leave him without supplies he needed to work for many more days. So, they continued along.
The path was long, going up and down through three valleys, in order to reach the final ascent to Barley’s hut in a large clearing. Straw remembered it clearly, because while his brother Chaff was buried in the map, his eyes were always on the final rise, and the light smoke rising from his cottage. When the storm came, they were in the first valley, and so they followed the path of the sun towards the west.
As they descended into the second valley, both were sure they were headed in the right way, and so they continued up towards the third valley. However, as they made their way down, Straw became unsure of their path. Perhaps it could have been how the sun changed its path with each day, or the storm leaving them confused, but the look of the smoke as they made their ascent worried him. Rather than the calm, welcoming shade it usually had, it seemed dark and cloudy. He tried to warn his brother, asking him to wait, but he was still bitter about the loss of the map and continued up.
Straw stopped, scanning around the edge of the valley before spotting the familiar billow of smoke far to the north. He called out to his brother, but he was too far away. As he raced after him, shouting out, he heard a roar and a scream, before watching a curtain of fire rise up over the edge of the forest, singing a few trees in its wake. Straw quickly ran away, back into the valley and towards Barley’s cottage.
Patience and caution are great tools in a world of danger waiting just out of sight, but so is the comfort of friends and family.
Every month, Chaff and Straw would travel from their village off to the mountains in the west, to a hut where an old stallion, named Barley, lived in seclusion. Barley and Levain had been friends in their youth, and while Barley enjoyed his solitude now, he was more than happy to lend his friend the crop he loved to tend and perfect as he grew older. The brothers had walked the same path for over a year, but they still relied on the map their father gave them to guide them.
Of the two of them, Chaff was much more studious and strict than his brother, who had been spending less and less time at the granary in order to pursue his artistic talents. As such, Straw often stopped his brother on their trips, to draw the flowers or animals of the mountainous forests, much to his brother’s ire. On this trip, however, two days into their week-long journey, a heavy storm rolled in.
In the brothers’ haste to find shelter from the storm, they lost their path and their father’s map. Chaff blamed Straw, saying that without his distractions, they would be much closer to Barley’s cottage, but Straw noted that they should remember the path by now, even if they had strayed from it. Neither brother wanted to suggest heading back to their village, for fear that it would make their father angry, and leave him without supplies he needed to work for many more days. So, they continued along.
The path was long, going up and down through three valleys, in order to reach the final ascent to Barley’s hut in a large clearing. Straw remembered it clearly, because while his brother Chaff was buried in the map, his eyes were always on the final rise, and the light smoke rising from his cottage. When the storm came, they were in the first valley, and so they followed the path of the sun towards the west.
As they descended into the second valley, both were sure they were headed in the right way, and so they continued up towards the third valley. However, as they made their way down, Straw became unsure of their path. Perhaps it could have been how the sun changed its path with each day, or the storm leaving them confused, but the look of the smoke as they made their ascent worried him. Rather than the calm, welcoming shade it usually had, it seemed dark and cloudy. He tried to warn his brother, asking him to wait, but he was still bitter about the loss of the map and continued up.
Straw stopped, scanning around the edge of the valley before spotting the familiar billow of smoke far to the north. He called out to his brother, but he was too far away. As he raced after him, shouting out, he heard a roar and a scream, before watching a curtain of fire rise up over the edge of the forest, singing a few trees in its wake. Straw quickly ran away, back into the valley and towards Barley’s cottage.
Patience and caution are great tools in a world of danger waiting just out of sight, but so is the comfort of friends and family.