Once upon a time, there lived an eminently sensible earth pony named Clyde. Clyde was the youngest of three brothers, and when their father died, the eldest was given his house, the middle his rock farm and Clyde only his cat.
Clyde, being so eminently sensible, did not dwell on this apparent injustice and went to find work. However, the cat stopped him and said “Do not worry about such things, my good master. If you will but buy me a pair of boots, I will show you how to make more of a fortune than you can imagine.”
Clyde merely shook his head. “That is a generous offer,” he said, “but I would not wish for such excess.” He regarded the cat critically. “However, if I were to sell you to a more ambitious pony, your evident intellect would be of far more use, and the money gained from selling a talking cat would be enough for me to make a living. I will not sell you against your will, of course, but I think this would be better for both of us.”
The cat thought about this proposition, then nodded. “That seems equitable enough. You are to be commended for your self-awareness, if not your ambition.”
Clyde merely shrugged.
He sold the cat to a passing traveller, and used the money gained from the sale to purchase his own rock farm. The farm did modest business, until one day, a contract came from a pony known as the Marquis of Carabas to exclusively supply his region with rocks and gemstones. This contract enabled Clyde to live in comfort for the rest of his days.
The moral of the story is: An ounce of good will can be worth more than a pound of gold.
Looks like the cat helped after all. Put in a good word for him I guess.
Over the following years Clyde also came in possession of some magic beans, a goose that lays golden eggs, a genie's lamp, the key to a dragon's lair, a sword embedded in a stone, and an amulet enchanted with the power of alicorns. And Clyde sighed to himself and said "Great, some more junk that I have to get rid of."
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"In hindsight, this does seem incredibly unlikely that all this can happen to one rather unremarkable pony over the course of a single lifetime."
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Equestria is a fair but frustrated DM who just wants the one sensible guy in the gaming group to get his character involved in the main plot so the DM can tell the story he wants to tell.
6359780 Clyde did right by the cat, only fair that it does right by him. Even cats understand repaying debts, particularly when they can do it without cost to themselves.
The cat and Clyde were both quite smart.
6360017 What are you talking about? Clyde is Most Remarkable Pony! Have you seen any other eminently sensible ponies?
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Except This Is The Family Line Of Clyde's, Not The Same Clyde.
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Clyde is indeed rather remarkable, but he probably does not think of himself as such.
6363018 A lot of remarkable people are that way, I think.
<Does something everyone else was too scared to do.> "Oh, I was just doing what anyone else would have done..."
I'm glad to see I'm not the only person who knows the story of Puss in Boots. It's one of my favourites.
One of my art projects in college was to do a redesign of a fairy tale(we had to draw the redesigned main characters, villain and setting) and I chose Puss in Boots. You would not believe how many people didn't know of this story.