While western Equestria was very much undeveloped, you’d be wrong to assume there’s nothing there at all. Just as control is ingrained in the minds of ponies, their cutiemarks, along with the desire for open range and need to be free from the bustle of cities, ponies born to be adventurous have indeed traveled into the Undiscovered West and planted down their hearths.

The scant towns that mark the montane forests of the West carry with them rich stories. Stories of their history, their inhabitants, and, most importantly to me:

Their legends.

While the ponies of mainland Equestria seem to only care for the west’s unique obscurity for the sake of tapestrating vague rumors of beasts and the such that lie within it’s landscape to intrigue their young with, the locals know the truths. Well, they know the real rumors.

A small group of foals rushed to meet me at the edge of the settlement, dancing about with their infinite energy. Their cries of excitement alert much of the adults about my arrival as well, slowly gathering up a crowd.

“He’s back! Anon’s back!”

“Did you find that crystal thingy!?”

“You dummy! It’s The Shard of The Water’s Fall! Didn’t your mom ever tell you that story!?”

Though I’d never say it outright, it fills me with an egotistical glee that my own legend will be gaining ground in these lands as well.

“Hmm…” I begin, silently savoring the looks of wonder upon the faces of the ponies. “You mean… this?”

With showman flair, I pull the blue gem from my coat and toss it about it in my hand. The strange rock’s water flow pools at my feet, and the ponies stare in wonder. The locals had told me a few days prior of a great waterfall, one that fed crystal clear freshwater across this area of the mountains. It’s waters fed into a great many number of small streams and brooks, one of which flows through the town of Jamber itself. They spoke of a dazzling blue stone with magical properties, a perpetual thin stream of water that dripped from it’s many small openings, never to deplete.

Apparently, one of the town’s founders spotted the thing while searching for a place to build his home, long before what was now known as Jamber existed. It’s beauty had gotten him sidetracked, but it’s mystical waters had spooked him, and he fled the cave hidden behind the waterfall, thinking it to be something important, not to be messed with.

But I was no stranger to messing with things I probably shouldn’t be, however.

A wrinkled old stallion cobbled his way through the crowd.

“Yeah yeah, I heard the lot of ya, and I tolds’ ya that I’d believe it when I seens’ it-”

I couldn’t contain my grin as the stallion’s face turned from grumpy to amazed.

“... Huh… Tha’s definitely it, alright… “

I approached the old fellow and placed the rock at his hooves.

“You can keep it, if you’d like. I found it’s very easy to fracture. I broke off a small piece and dropped it into my canteen. Haven’t had to refill it since, and that was days ago. With a little more finagling, I’m certain I can fasten it in there somehow and make sure I never swallow the thing, but hey! As much water as you want I’m hoping, right?”

The stallion’s hooves were quickly soaked as he held the gem.

“Guess so… Not that we have need of a new water supply here in Jamber, but… b-but wow! I can’t believe ya found tha’ darn thing! Never thought I’d see it again, thas’ for sure! I-I thought that waterfall was too dangerous to go pokin’ around in anymore, especially since that earthquake crumbled the old trails I made! H-how’d ya do it big fella?”

This was the part I so dearly loved.

“Hmm… Anywhere to eat around here? In my experience, stories are better digested alongside good food.”

…

“... And it was at that point that I reached the final hollow of the cavern. It’s a truly beautiful landscape, by the way. Fitting that even your more dangerous areas keep with that beauty. Anyway, I noticed a shimmering light, illuminating the inside of the cave. The lights danced on the rocks in this most dazzling spectacle, but I didn’t stare for long, no, I knew it meant that whatever was casting those lights had to be underwater…”

The treasure within the belly of the beast is not my motivation, not at all.

“... I snuffed my torch and inspected the bottom of the gentle pool. Now, it’s not so strange to find such things within caves, especially in those that form under waterfalls, but this? I knew this couldn’t be right…”

The story to tell afterwards, that is what keeps me adventuring.

“... And at last, after four days of search and perilous rock climbing on the slippery jagged rocks of those great, raging rapids, I finally had found The Shard of Water’s Fall.”

“But, there was no kelpie?” The foal’s eyes sparkled, enamored at the retelling.

“Kelp- Ah! I had noticed traces of that beast’s presence within those caves, seaweed where none should be, but thankfully, for his sake, he did not cross my path.”

Silently, I took in the appreciable nods of the older stallions and mares in the bar, grateful that fear of monsters should continue to keep their young away from trying to be little adventurers of their own.

…

I kept the folks of Jamber entertained with my stories well into the night. From leaving my mark atop one of Equestria’s few active volcanoes, to my frequent run-ins with griffon pirates somewhere beyond the southern border of the Badlands. In my more humble moments, I fancied myself a storyteller moreso than an adventurer. I also fancy to think myself quite good at both. While it was mainly the young who so loved hearing the tales of my adventures, I often could enrapture the older, more mature crowds as well. In that sense, I was thankful for my uniqueness in this world: If I ran out of stories born from Equestrian mythos, I could default to those from the place I once called home.

That, and it ensured somepony would always have more questions for me to answer.

An older stallion, many of his likes which sat a further distance away from the foals, called out from across the bar “so are all your race the adventurin’ type? You seem well suited for it, but I can’t rightly say I’ve ever seen your kind before. You related to the minotaurs by any chance?”

… I buried my contempt for that question within my face. I’d not yet ventured into the minotaur lands of Labyrinthe, but one day I would, and I’d see with my own eyes just how much the bulls resembled myself. Until then however, I’d continue to brush off that ever-persistent, ever-annoying question.

“... Not from minotaur-lands, no. Not from Equestria at all. I hail from lands so distant that none of you would recognize the name.”

It came to that time of the night to tell the story I so dearly hated to recount, both because I had to tell it in each new location I visited, and because, sometimes, a lie is more believable than the truth.

And ponies dislike a story that they cannot believe to be true.

“My land of… Humania… was much like yours. Peaceful. But it lacked your land's mystique and wonder. There were no lost treasures to uncover, no strange beasts to thwart. My people all seemed content with this, but I could not. So, once I became of age, I fled my far away home on a simple sailboat, pledging to ride the waves until I found adventure, or died trying.”

The “ooo” from the foals warmed my heart a bit. My backstory was down to a sort of science in my mind by this point, I’d told so many variations of it so many times. It always left a weak panging in my heart however.

“Indeed, there were many times on that voyage when I did come close to that gruesome end… but it toughened my body and strengthened my resolve. When I finally did reach land, distant Griffonstone, I knew I’d found the means to sate my constant wanderlust…”

I continued in this recounting for far too long. I hate to tell a lie, but it was a necessary evil to me. Past experiences taught me that claims too outlandish were evidence enough to disregard all my others. And, here in these little Equestrian townships, that was the last thing I wanted. Though my coming here to Equestria was circumstance I still do not understand, I no longer share my curiosity. Better for them to admire me in the present, and wonder at my future, than them to speculate on my past; for the questions that lie there, I cannot answer.

…

“I heard Celandine Clover offered you a room at her house for the night, Mr. Anon. Gonna take her up on the offer?”

I cling my coat and shawl tighter around me, thankful for the kind gifts of a seamstress from Vanhoover, her name long forgotten.

“Afraid not. Staying in one place for too long gives me the jitters, and I’d prefer keeping hearts pining for me, rather than have them tying me down in one spot.”

The mare scoffed, her face almost fully concealed in the dark of night, forehooves up and hanging over the weak fencing of Jamber’s outskirts. Had she been expecting I’d leave in the night?

“Psh, I don’t think she likes you that much, big guy. It’s just in most pony’s sensibilities to offer a room to a pony who doesn’t have one, especially one who is gonna be the talk of the town long after he’s gone like yourself.”

“Don’t be so sure Miss, I’ve broke a hundred hearts from here to the Crystal Empire,” my smile faded quickly with the words. “It’s just… I gotta keep going. Find my next story, you know?”

The mare’s disposition had switched from light to a little more serious now, concerned, even.

“Why?”

I took my spot alongside her, leaning against the fence, staring up at the stars that blanketed Equestria’s night. In the distance, a little ways away from the small clearing that marked Jamber’s true border, some nameless forest encroached.

“ ‘Why...?’ ” I bit my tongue, wondering if this stranger would understand. “When I came to this land, I figured it my call to arms in a manner.”

Keep things vague Anon, you know the drill.

“Where I’m from, there was nothing exciting. In Equestria, everything holds a story: The towns, the forests, the mountains… each place I’ve visited, I’ve been showered in legends and rumors. They’re usually small little things, but they’re there all the same, and they hold value in the minds of you all. ‘Suppose I want to hold some of that value too.”

The stranger listened to me graciously, and allowed my words several seconds of contemplation before responding.

“So you like risking your life out there, finding our little legends?”

I picked out the brightest star in the sky I could find, and watched it like they all watched me. I liked to think that was Polaris up there, still looking down on me like it once did on Earth. The fantasy that it had followed me all this way gave me a sense of comfort when thinking about stuff like this. I knew not if the star I’d so often focus upon was Equestria’s brightest star, nor if I was even focusing upon the same star each night. The bad habit of ignorance when it came to astronomy had followed me from Earth into Equestria, and I never kept the company to learn their patterns. Polaris was the only star I knew of, and, these days, the only one I cared for.

“Yeah. It’s exactly what I wanted out of life, and it’s what I couldn’t get back home.”

The two of us enjoyed some quiet company after that. Us, and the stars above. I hadn’t noticed I was spacing out until a yawn from my unknown company made me jump.

“Well… if you ask me, Mr. Anon, I think you’re searching for something more than adventure, and I hope you let yourself find it sometime soon. Life’s too short to go tempting fate all the time.”

The mare’s body gently touched my side, giving me a soothing nicker, before dismounting the fence, turning her head towards her home of Jamber. I was thankful for the darkness now, for a frown had etched it’s way onto my face. ‘Did she not believe me?’

“Stay safe out there, Anon. We all very much liked your stories, and I know we’d all like to hear some more one day. The foals will keep your memory alive, if that’s what you’re after.”

“I will too, okay?”

I’m certain she couldn’t see, through the dim of night, but I nodded my head all the same. As her hoof-falls faded into the distant wind, I remained, only for a little while, staring up at my Polaris.

The moon would reach its perch atop the night sky, before I finally back towards the Equestrian mainland.

Author's Note

I have a very dear soft spot for the 'lone human anomaly' trope, if it wasn't obvious enough. I'm eager to try my hand at more character-focused conflict/drama in this story, something I feel I could've done better on in Twiastasia.