Once upon a time in the land of Equestria, there resided a village where nothing particularly exciting ever happened--other than the occasional cheater at the monthly bridge tournament. This peaceful atmosphere was largely due to the strong sense of community that was found in its residents. So strong were their bonds that when one of them needed help with anything, the others would do everything in their power to help them.
Thus, when young Snickerdoodle needed to raise bits for a school trip to Canterlot, his neighbor offered him a job tending sheep. Snickerdoodle was not happy with this assignment, but he agreed nonetheless. As anypony who has had any shepherding experience knows, sheep are quite stupid creatures, and thus make quite obnoxious company--their favorite pastimes being chewing grass and discussing how much they agree with the current political leaders. Needless to say, the young colt very quickly lost interest in the task at hand, and began thinking of ways to amuse himself. After considering his options he finally hatched a simple plan that would simultaneously ease his boredom and help wake up the sleepy little village he called home.
"Timberwolf! Timberwolf! A timberwolf is attacking the sheep!" shouted Snickerdoodle.
His shouts panicked the dimwitted sheep who, although there was no timberwolf, soon joined in on his shouting, and quickly began looking for cover.
The villagers soon came running up the hill, armed with rocks to help the young colt chase the timberwolf away. However, when they arrived, they saw that there was no such beast. As the villagers realized that there never had been any danger, Snickerdoodle laughed at the ponies' confused and frustrated faces.
Angered by the situation, but chalking the whole thing up to childish inexperience, the majority of the crowd turned around, muttering under their breath as they walked home. However one pony, an eminently sensible earth pony named Clyde, stayed behind. He waited patiently for Snickerdoodle's fits of laughter to die down, and gave the colt a few moments to collect himself. After a few minutes, the young colt noticed Clyde was still standing in front of him.
"Are you here to scold me?" Snickerdoodle said with a smirk.
"No," Clyde replied, "I'm here to replace you."
The smirk quickly fell away from the colt's face, "Replace me? Why? It was just a prank!"
Clyde stared intently at the colt. "A prank that could have easily led to your death and the death of the sheep under your care. If you had continued to shout 'timberwolf'--which, based on your lack of remorse you had every intention of doing--ponies would have soon stopped believing you. Then, if a real timberwolf came, they could have easily gobbled you and the sheep right up. That is something I absolutely cannot allow."
Thus, the colt left in shame, and Clyde took over the care of the flock. He had brought with him everything he needed to take care of the sheep--including discussion questions on political leaders in order to converse with them. So, when an actual timberwolf attacked, Clyde was prepared. He pulled out a homemade flamethrower and torched it. The sheep were too busy debating Clyde's last question to notice that they were ever in danger.
As for Snickerdoodle, he didn't end up raising enough bits to go to Canterlot, but he did gain something more precious: a valuable lesson. Something he did not appreciate until he was much, much older.
Moral of the story: Don't send a colt in to do a stallion's job.
You're fired
Huh. Well, that's a new twist on an old story, but it still makes sense anyway :-)
Burned!
That is a rather novel variant I haven't seen before. It does make sense to remove a person from a critical job if they prove to lack the motivation to do it properly. (Alternatively punish them appropriately. In the original aesop, the villagers just walked back home without trying to correct the boy's behavior, which led him to decide he had gotten away with it and could do it again. There's a reason real-life emergency services have strict penalties for reckless abuse, after all.)
I agree with 6300449 though that Clyde was quick to write Snickerdoodle off after only one case, though.
6300376
That's what I originally thought! However, it is only in some of the modern day versions of the story that he asked for food. In the original, he never asked.
Fine, except that, as millennia of experience have shown, shepherding really isn't a man's — or stallion's — job; it's entirely practical for youths to manage sheep, especially if all they're doing is keeping watch. So the moral doesn't really work very well.
6300283
And so were the timberwolves.
6302416
Well the moral flows off the tongue better than 'Don't send a twit to do a sensible persons job'.
I think the moral is to always bring your flamethrower. Always!
Mitchell and Webb have also touched on this.
6300456 Buddy, I live in NJ.
Nuff... said...
6300376
Except they wouldn't have enough to feed everyone who contributed. They were a starving town. If they had the food, they could have traded among themselves.
Heh. Also, relevant:
Is this the story of the colt and the timberwolf that Clyde told Pinkie in Clyde and the Xorn?
6765008
I imagined the story in Clyde and the Xorn to be the same as the original Boy Who Cried Wolf; while this fable has an excellent moral, it's not the same moral that Pinkie needed to learn in Clyde and the Xorn.