Fire, Air, Water . . .
by Lady MoondancerBaby Blossom sat behind the Baby Bonnet School of Dance, wiping a teardrop from her eye.
"It's not fair," she sniffled. "Not fair!"
"What's not fair, Baby Blossom?" a soft voice asked.
The baby pony raised her head and saw a familiar pink unicorn.
"N-nothing, Twilight," she whispered.
"Come on, Baby Blossom . . . tell me what's wrong," Twilight coaxed.
"Well," Baby Blossom looked at her hooves. "I w-was playing tag with the other baby ponies, and . . . and . . ."
"Yes?" Twilight said gently.
"An' Baby Moondancer said unicorns can use magic an' pegasi can fly, but earth ponies can't do anything!" Tears rolled down the baby pony's face as the words came tumbling out.
"Oh, she said that, did she?" said Twilight thoughtfully. "She's lucky Parasol didn't overhear her or I know one baby unicorn who would be very sorry! Don't worry about it, Baby Blossom. Those were just the words of an inexperienced baby pony."
"But it's TRUE!" Baby Blossom wailed. "Earth ponies can't do anything!"
Twilight looked at Baby Blossom for a minute.
"Go and find the other baby ponies," she said at last. "And say that I have a story to tell them."
Baby Blossom suppressed a sniffle and went to find the other baby ponies. In a few minutes, she was back.
"A story! A story!" Baby Firefly and Baby Surprise shouted happily.
"Oh boy!" Baby Cotton Candy said, throwing herself onto the ground with a thump.
"Hurry up, Baby Glory," Baby Moondancer said impatiently, unaware of the anguish she'd caused Baby Blossom.
At last, all six baby ponies were sitting in an eager circle around Twilight. She smiled at them. "Now, this happened a long time ago . . ." she said.
Now, this happened a long time ago, before the rivers thundered and the mountains rose--almost before the rainbow. It was during this time that the first pony lived.
The first pony was nameless. She was the only one of her kind and she needed no name, since there was no one to address her. In appearance she was small, symbol-less, and solid green. The first pony was very happy living in the growing world. She loved galloping wildly through the forest and searching for wildflowers and rolling in the grass in the green meadows. She wrestled and played with the forest creatures and ate wild berries until her green face was stained purple. She knew every inch of land for miles around, and she was proud of it.
But the world was still new and changing . . . and one day when she trotted off to find some tasty berries, she found an obstacle where there had been no obstacle before--a roaring river. The pony paused before the river, unsure of what to do. She had never seen this much water before--the biggest amount of water she had seen was in the tiny streams trickling through the forest. She tried walking along the bank for a ways, hoping she could find a place where the river ended or at least calmed down, but the rapids frothed with whitecaps for as far as she could see, and terror filled her heart at the thought of trying to swim across.
At last she sat down on a large rock which stretched over the river. "Water--huh! There was no water here yesterday," she complained to herself.
"The world is still new, friend," a raspy voice by her feet said. Looking down, she saw a weathered old turtle sunning himself on the rocky ledge. Before she could reply, he slipped off the bank and was gone.
As the pony leaned forward to see where the reptile had gone, she saw her reflection rippling in the water. Just as she was about to draw away from the river, her reflection changed . . . and suddenly a blue pony head seemed to burst out of the water in front of her!
The first pony jumped back in surprise. "Who are you?" she gasped in shock.
"I'm a sea pony," the blue pony replied, wiggling her fins. "I live in the water! I race the dolphins and swim with the mermaids and explore the coral reefs. Would you like to play with me?"
"I can't go into the river," the green pony said. "The water's too rough. Anyway, I can't swim."
"Oh," said the sea pony. "What do you do all day, then?"
The green pony pawed the ground. "I . . . roll in the fields. And eat wild berries."
"Oh. Well, I've got to go meet a school of fish right now. Goodbye!" the sea pony said. And with a flip of her tail, she disappeared into the river.
The first pony remained sitting on the rock, staring at the water. Suddenly rolling in fields and eating wild berries seemed like the most boring things in the world. At last she got up and walked sadly beside the river. "I wish I were a sea pony," she muttered, kicking a rock.
Then she paused; she heard some playful yelping over the roar of the river. Looking across to the other bank, she saw three fox pups wrestling, jumping on each other and ramming into each other. The sight cheered up the green pony; although she couldn't get across the river to play with the fox pups, there were plenty of other playful animals she knew. "I can visit some of my forest friends and have a good rough-and-tumble wrestle," she told herself. "Maybe I'll visit the wolves. They have some cubs I can play with!"
So she trotted away from the river, into the northern forest. But she hadn't gone far when she stopped in dismay. Where there had been towering trees, a huge cliff now stood. Looking at its steep, rocky face, the she knew she'd never be able to climb over it, and it stretched from east to west as far as she could see. "Where did this come from?" the first pony asked, stomping her hoof.
"The world is still changing, changing, changing," came a faint cry from above. Looking up, the pony saw a swallow darting around catching insects. For a few minutes the green pony stared upward, hypnotized by the graceful swoopings of the bird. She started suddenly when she heard the rush of wings behind her.
Turning around, the first pony found herself face to face with a white pony . . . a pony with feathers, a pony with wings! With powerful thrusts of her wings, she hovered in the air a few feet above the ground.
"Who are you?" the green pony gasped in amazement.
"I'm a pegasus," the white pony answered. "I'm light as a cloud and I can fly like my friends, the birds! I play tag with the eagles and chase the clouds and run on the wind! Right now I'm headed off to explore the land beyond this cliff with some swallows and bluebirds. Do you want to come along?"
"I can't fly," the green pony replied sadly. "I don't have wings and even if I did, I'd be too heavy to fly. And it's too steep to climb over here. Unless it's slopes more gently farther along . . ."
"It's doesn't," the pegasus said. "I've explored this cliff face for miles. It's this steep everywhere."
"Oh." said the first pony. "I guess I can't go with you, then."
"I guess not," the pegasus agreed. "What do you do for fun then, if you can't fly?"
"Well, I run through the woods sometimes. And wrestle with the wolf cubs," the green pony said, blushing.
"Oh." The white pony cocked her head. "Well, I've got to get going now. I hear the birds calling. Goodbye!" And the pegasus rustled her wings and soared gracefully over the cliff.
The first pony stared longingly after the winged pony. "I wish I were a pegasus," she sighed. Then she walked sadly into the forest. The cliff blocked her from the family of wolves she knew, and playing and wrestling with the forest animals suddenly didn't seem very fun anyway.
After a while, the green pony began to feel better. She could never stay sad for very long in the beautiful woods. "Besides, I was happy before I ever knew there were sea ponies and pegasus ponies--why should I be sad now?" she asked herself. "And it's such a lovely day--a shame to waste it! I think I'll go visit the fields and find some tasty buttercups to eat. Yum!"
So the first pony trotted off towards off to the rolling fields which she loved so much.
"Ha! At least this is the same as it was before--Oh!" the green pony exclaimed as she saw the great chasm in the earth which separated the field into two pieces. The first pony felt stupid--how could she have missed, even for a second, the gaping canyon that ran for as far as the eye could see?
"And all the best buttercups are over on the other side!" The green pony felt like crying. She knew she would never ever be able to jump the enormous canyon. Feeling depressed, she got up. Just then something appeared by her side with a loud ***WHAM***.
The first pony found herself staring at a dark pink pony . . . a pony with a horn growing from the center of her forehead. "What are you?" the green pony asked the newcomer, gaping.
"I'm a unicorn," the pink pony answered. "Born of fire and starlight, I can manipulate the powers of nature with my horn. I control magic, and it controls me."
"Magic? What's magic?" the green pony asked.
"It's doing things like . . . well, like this," the unicorn replied. She closed her eyes and fire danced around her for a second . . . then she disappeared, only to reappear with another ***WHAM*** several feet away.
"Oh . . . so that's magic," the first pony said, her eyes as big as saucers.
"Well, it's called 'winking' if you want to get technical," the unicorn said. "It's only one kind of magic. You can do lots of things with magic . . . change shape, talk to people in dreams, make the wind blow . . ."
"Oh," said the green pony, feeling more foolish than ever. "Did you come here to change shape or something?"
"Actually I was going to wink across the chasm. I'm going to practice my magic with some dragons and gryphons. They're other magical creatures," she added, seeing the green pony's confusion. "Would you like to come with me?"
"I'm not a magical creature," the first pony said sadly. "I can't w--w--"
"Wink," supplied the unicorn.
"Uh, right. I can't wink across the chasm and it's too wide to jump . . . unless you can use your magic to get me to the other side . . ."
The pink unicorn shook her head. "I can only use my magic on myself."
The green pony said nothing. She had suspected as much.
"What do you do all day if you can't use magic?" asked the unicorn.
"Oh, not much," the green pony said sadly. "Sometimes I run through the fields. Or I roll in the grass. Or look for wildflowers to eat."
"Oh," said the unicorn. "Well, I've got to go meet those gryphons and dragons now! Goodbye!" Once again fire played around her body, and she disappeared. The green pony heard a faint ***wham*** and the pink pony appeared on the other side of the chasm.
"I wish I were a unicorn," sighed the first pony as she trudged slowly through the long grass of the field.
In the late afternoon sun the fields seemed to blaze with the last slanting rays of light . . . just about the color of the unicorn, the green pony thought. She lay on her back and gazed at white clouds floating as free as a pegasus through a sky as blue as the sea pony she'd met. She watched the sky for a long time, almost in a trance; at last, the sky darkened and the sun faded over the horizon and the first twinkling star appeared in the sky.
"I wish I were special," the first pony sighed to herself. "I wish I were could be a sea pony or a pegasus or a unicorn. What am I, anyway? They all have special names--I'm just a pony. Just a plain ol' pony." She sniffed and wiped a tear from her eyes as she rolled over and fell asleep.
The next day, the pony woke up and sat by herself in the field for a long time--almost all morning. At last she stopped gazing at the bobbing daisies and stood up. She wandered through the forest until she reached the river, then she stared into its churning water.
"I wish I could swim," she said sadly. A fish leapt in the river. "I wish I were a sea pony."
The pony got up and wandered over to the huge cliff. She lifted her head, squinting at a far-away bird silhouetted by the blazing sun. "I wish I could fly. If only I were a pegasus!" the green pony said.
At last she walked despondently back to her field. She stood gazing across the sprawling canyon.
"I wish I could just wi . . . wink across," she sniffed, rubbing her eyes with a hoof. "I could if I were a unicorn. But I guess I'll never be anything but a boring ol' pony."
The green pony thought about the wonderful things the other ponies could do and felt a deep sadness in her heart. At last she decided to follow the river as far as it would go and leave her familiar field forever. So the green pony, the first pony that ever was, left her comfortable home and let the wild river lead her.
She walked for a long time in the scorching summer sun, trying not to think about the friends and places she was leaving or where she intended to go. At last, as the first star appeared once more in the fading sky, the green pony sat down to rest her sore legs. She raised her head once more, looking at the lonely little star.
"I wish," she whispered again. "I wish I was special."
And then she heard something . . . voices traveling on the water. Looking upstream she could barely see something white hovering.
The pegasus, the green pony thought. Who is she talking to? She paused a moment, then shyly crept towards the white pegasus. She spotted the unicorn first and then the blue sea pony, blending in with the flowing river. When they saw her, the other three ponies stopped talking and looked at her silently.
"He-hello," the green pony stammered.
The unicorn spoke first. "Hello," she said. "We were just talking about you."
"Yes," the sea pony confirmed. "You are certainly a lucky pony!"
This was too much for the little green pony. "LUCKY!" she cried. "How am I lucky? You can swim, the pegasus can fly, and you, unicorn--you can use magic! I can't do anything!"
And then, to her embarrassment, she burst into tears.
"What are you talking about?" the sea pony asked in surprise, flipping her blue fins. "You can do many wonderful things!"
"I can't swim," the green pony sobbed.
"Well . . . maybe not. But when I met you, you were going to roll in the fields and find wild berries. I can never do those things," the sea pony replied. "I'll never be able to roll in the sweet meadow grass or find a bush of plump raspberries!"
"You see? You can do many things we can only dream of," the pegasus added as the green pony gaped at the sea pony.
"But . . . but you can fly," the green pony said, turning towards her.
"Yes, but at a cost," the pegasus said with a smile. "I can fly because my bones are hollow . . . but I could never rough-house and wrestle with the forest creatures as you do. My bones are not strong enough."
"You are lucky, though you don't seem to realize it," the unicorn added. "I felt a pang of envy when you said you had come to the field to play and search for wild flowers."
"But why?" the green pony asked in bewilderment. "You can do such wonderful things--you can wink and shape-change with your magic!"
"Yes, but I could never spend a day lying in sunny field or looking for bachelor buttons," the unicorn said with a sigh. "We unicorns are born with magic, but if we don't practice almost continually, we begin to weaken and fade away. We control magic, but it also controls us. Our gift is our curse."
"Oh." The green pony sat down, trying to take it all in. Gazing into the darkening sky, she saw one particularly bright star twinkling. "My wish came true," she laughed. "But I guess I never needed a wish at all."
The unicorn smiled. "I can guess what you wished," she said. "But you are very special the way you are, pony."
"There is still one thing I would like . . ." the first pony said. "You all have special names--sea pony, pegasus, unicorn. I wish I had a special, too."
"Well, the shouldn't be too hard!" the sea pony said with a grin.
"I know!" the pegasus added, tossing her mane. "You run through the forests and play with the wild animals and romp in the fields--you're part of the very land! Why don't we call you a . . . an 'earth pony'?"
"Oh! I like that!" the green (earth) pony said, kicking up her heels. And she sat and talked with her friends long into the night.
Now that the four ponies had met, they all shared their talents. The sea pony taught the other three to swim. The white pegasus tossed fresh apples and pears down from the highest branches of trees for her friends. The unicorn performed entertaining magic tricks and kept trying to find a way to let her friends wink with her. As for the earth pony . . . she romped in the fields and played with the foxes and the wolves and gathered berries and wild flowers for her pony friends. And she was happy.
The baby ponies sighed happily.
"I love your stories, Twilight," Baby Cotton Candy said, getting up.
"Yes, thanks!" Baby Firefly said energetically.
"Let's go get some apples for our friends like the pegasus in the story did!" Baby Surprise added.
"Yeah!" Baby Firefly said, and the two baby pegasi zipped off.
Baby Moondancer and her cousin, Baby Glory, also stood.
"Thank you, Twilight," Baby Glory said a little shyly.
Baby Moondancer said nothing for a minute. She had a far-away look in her eyes. "Did the first unicorn ever find a way to take her friends with her when she winked?" she asked at last.
"The legends never said," Twilight said evasively.
"Hmm," Baby Moondancer said. "Hmmm. Come on, guys, let's see if Baby Glory an' I can wink you across the river!"
Baby Cotton Candy and Baby Glory raced ahead towards the river, but Baby Moondancer hung back as the two remaining babies trotted around the Baby Bonnet School of Dance.
"Baby Blossom," the baby unicorn said, shuffling her hooves. "I . . . I'm sorry I said earth ponies can't do anything. I was wrong."
"That's okay, Moondancer," the lavender baby said with a slow smile that grew into a grin. "Hey, I'll race you to the river!"
The two babies ran towards the river, with the young earth pony slightly ahead. Twilight smiled as watched them galloping away in the fading sunlight of the late afternoon. Then she raised her head and searched the sky, as if for a well-known friend. But no one was there to see the pink unicorn wink at a very faintly twinkling star.