"Girls! I just found the coolest tree!"
I rolled my eyes. "What's so cool about a tree?"
Apple Bloom pouted. "Well, it's not just any tree. It's... it's taller than a mountain, I bet! You can probably see forever at the top!"
Frowning, Sweetie Belle scratched her head. "If it's that tall, why haven't we ever seen it before?"
Apple Bloom fidgeted, nervously shifting from hoof to hoof. "Well... it's not exactly someplace I was supposed to be..."
"Is it in the Everfree Forest?" Sweetie Belle blurted, looking horrified.
"What? No, of course not! I wanna explore, not die!"
That had me perking up. I flitted my wings. "So where is it, then?"
Apple Bloom turned to me, eyes big and almost glowing. "Well, I went out in the orchard, waaaaaaaaay out to the back, just beyond the fence--"
"So it is dangerous!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, jumping.
"It ain't that far. You can still see the fence, even from the ground. It's just out in the old part, past where my family is able to keep up."
"So it's an apple tree?" I asked, a little flat. Well, even if it wasn't really anything new, at least we could get an afternoon snack out of it.
She slowly shook her head. "I think it's older than the farmhouse. Older'n Ponyville," she whispered, like speaking too loudly of something so ancient might bring down a curse from time itself.
"That could be true..." Sweetie Belle said, still sounding hesitant.
"Well, c'mon!" Apple Bloom huffed. "I'll show ya! That'll shut ya both up!"
...
Maybe it wasn't actually part of the Everfree, but it felt just as wild, just as primal. It stretched from the ground to the sky, not straight up like most do, but like Sweetie Belle's clumsy attempts at balloon animals. It twisted in on itself, around itself, wrestled by some unseen force until it contorted into a shape that hid whatever intent was behind it. The top had to be somewhere up there, but it was more of a suggestion than a definite thing.
"See? Betcha can't reach the top!"
"Wait! Maybe we shouldn't climb so high?"
The top seemed to teeter, waving in all directions at once, until I blinked and realized I was just going crosseyed. I shook it off. Maybe it seemed impossible, but I had to at least try. What was it Dash said to me once?
"Gotta try it to know," I said under my breath. I hopped onto one of its roots, thick enough to put all four hooves on, and followed it as it wound around the side of the tree. The trunk was wide, far more so than all three of us together, but there were grooves cut across it, like natural hoofholds. I worked my way along them, feeling like Daring Do climbing a cliff face.
"Doin'... better... than I... thought..." Apple Bloom said, starting to pant. The weather ponies gave us a perfect spring day, but sweat beaded up on her forehead like there wasn't a cloud in the sky.
My own grip started to slip, and I pulled myself up onto a relatively flat bough, still only a few ponies' height from the ground. I helped up Apple Bloom, then we both pulled Sweetie Belle up.
As we rested, I looked up, letting out my breath. "Sheesh, I still can't see the top."
"How high do ya reckon it goes?"
Sweetie Belle, of course, thought about it harder than either of us. "Maybe a hundred strides? Or... I guess it could be two hundred? If that's possible."
"I bet you can see clear to Manehattan," I said.
"Maybe," Apple Bloom said. "You think it's higher than pegasi can fly?"
"How high can Rainbow Dash fly?"
"Pretty high." I sighed. If I were just a fraction of the flier she was, I could test that out.
We sat there, quietly thinking for a while, before Sweetie Belle sheepishly asked. "Uh... could you help me down?"
...
School kept up, then summer schemes to get our cutie marks kept us busy. We spent way more time in our treehouse, but I never really forgot about that tree. A few summers later, taller with age and stronger from training with Dash, I found myself at the base of it again, staring up. I still couldn't see the top, but the first groove was a little easier to grab onto, no longer something I had to strain to reach. I couldn't fly anywhere near high enough to reach the top, not all at once, but I fluttered here and there, using my wings to take shortcuts from one branch to another.
I made quick work of the climb, getting steadily closer to my goal. I could see where sunlight poked through the canopy. Surely I must have been most of the way to the top! I looked down to check. Big mistake.
My footing turned shaky as the world spun around me. I gulped, trying to blink back the dizziness as I blindly grasped for the trunk... and missed.
What happened next is a blur. The world rushed up at me as the sky and ground switched places, but I flared out my wings, desperate to catch myself. Once I got turned the right way, I did end up catching myself... on my front hooves. I'll spare you the gory details, but it was pretty brutal. Legs aren't supposed to bend that way.
While I was resting for months, doing my best to get by on just my wings and my back legs, I dreamed about the tree, but those dreams turned into nightmares. Branches, leaves, and boughs stretched on, no matter how high I lifted myself. Every time, I would slip, or a branch would crack, or the tree would just disappear, and all I would be left with would be the falling, impossibly fast, and impossibly long, until I snapped awake right before the landing.
I did not visit the tree for a very long time.
...
Since moving out on my own, I've overcome a lot from my childhood. That fall scared me off from flying with Dash for a long time, even after I healed, but I'm pretty good now. I've flown over all of Ponyville, end to end, with Dash, without having to rest.
I think you see where this is going.
I remembered the Forever Tree, and the stories we told ourselves about it. The girls never went anywhere near the top--not after what happened to me--so there was still one thing left to test.
I flew up, taking my time, resting in the boughs every now and then, just to keep my wings fresh. I keep my eyes fixed on the top. As I learned from the fall, and never needed to be reminded by Dash again, never look down while flying. That sliver of sunlight got closer and closer. Four more boughs. Three. Two. One...
I burst forth from the canopy, pumping my fist as I pushed through the thin branches at the top, shaking loose leaves off of me. I flapped in place, finally looking toward the horizon to soak in the view as my prize.
And... I only saw to Sugarcube Corner, or thereabouts. Fluttershy's house was somewhere, but not on the horizon. The Everfree Forest stretched well out of view to my left and behind me. Of all the things I could see, not one of them was outside of what I grew up with, let alone to Manehattan.
It was a long descent. It's not that I was tired, but my wings felt heavy. I was loathe to stretch my wings as wide as I could. At the lowest bough, I landed, hanging off the side and letting myself drop the last little bit to the ground.
I gave the tree one last look before heading home. It no longer felt any different than all the other trees I had ever seen.
