Deep in the heart of the whispering woods the shadows grew long. Nestled in a bed of pine needles and leaves was a baby earthling pony. She was pure white (as all newborn baby ponies are) and she had no symbol to be seen. A brutal chill wind rippled though the forest as the sun slowly went down. All the ponies gathered around the new baby as Sunrise, her mother stepped forward. Her body was mint green and her hair was green with a gold streak. She spoke to her baby, "Young one, tomorrow will be your big day. You will prove your strengths as well as you weaknesses and then you will be given your colors, symbol and name." The baby pony raised her little white head. Her young blue eyes made contact with older, much wiser blue eyes. She was scared. She had only been in the forest a short time but she learned that to receive a name and symbol was the most important thing to happen to a pony. Sunrise stepped to her child and said "Now get some sleep, Little one. You will need all your strength for tomorrow." She bent down and gently kissed her baby on the forehead. All the other ponies walked by, whispering words of encouragement like "good luck" and "best wishes" to the baby. Soon they had all disappeared into the trees. As the baby closed her eyes, she started thinking about her symbol. The symbol on her rump would be the most important part of being a pony. She started to get excited. "Is my symbol going to be pretty like Mom's?" She thought. "Hers is a pretty picture of a sun shining over a mountain." After a while she fell asleep and began dreaming. She saw herself walking in sand, over a bridge surrounded by fire, swimming in a sea and floating on air.

The sun was rising and the baby pony felt a nudge on her shoulder. She was sleeping so peacefully she didn't want to move. "Wake up, little one. It's your big day." Sunrise said to her baby. The baby stirred, slowly lifted her head, and opened her eyes. She knew she had to get up. Slowly she lifted herself out of her pine needle bed. Her legs were a little wobbly as she staggered over to stand beside her mother. They walked in silence to a clearing in the woods. Sunrise lead baby to a small crystal clear pond. She urged her baby here to drink and she did. When she finished Sunrise said to her "Now follow me carefully we are going deeper into the wood. So deep you have never been there before." With that the baby shadowed Sunrise's every move and step, not wanting to find herself lost.

In the distance baby pony started to see beautiful colors flowing through the trees. They were walking closer to a clearing where the colored light came from. The baby walked very close to her mother as they entered the clearing. In the center of the clearing, large crystal points stood jutting out of the ground and standing within this ring of crystals was the most majestic pony the baby had ever seen. The body of the pony was white with a beautiful shimmering rainbow on each rump that extended past her shoulders and ended on each cheek. She stood there regal like, her iridescent hair flowing in the faint breeze. Sunrise knelt on the ground before the pony. The pony spoke "nice to see you again Sunrise". Sunrise stood and smiled "hello Infinity." The little pony whispered to her mother "Infinity? How did she get that name?" It was Infinity who answered "Little one. I am called Infinity because of my symbol. The rainbow is beautiful but elusive. When you try to find the end it seems to go on and on, like infinity. One can never find the end." She smiled at the little pony and said "today is your turn to find yourself. You will need to go through four challenges. Each one representing an Element: Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. Each one will call upon your instinct and the internal powers all ponies possess. After you complete the tasks you will then be awarded by that element. Your name, symbol, and colors will come from that." The baby looked up at her mother nervously and Sunrise reassured her with a smile. "You will be alright" she said and nudged baby forward to Infinity. Infinity looked down at baby and said, "As you complete each task you will collect an amulet. When you have collected all four amulets a pathway will appear to bring you back here." Infinity stepped aside revealing an opening in the woods. Infinity looked at the opening , then turning to the baby said "through there is where you journey begins. Good luck and we all will be waiting here for you when you return." The baby pony looked from Infinity to the opening and then to her mother. Sunrise nodded and smiled. The baby pony walked slowly toward the opening. When she reached it, she stopped, closed her eyes and walked through.

She was afraid to open her eyes, but when she did she was greeted with the sight of a vast wasteland. She turned to see where the forest was. It had vanished. Not a tree to be seen and the ground was nothing but sand. She had to cross a desert. She stepped off the rock that she had been standing on, onto the soft sand. Slowly she walked, hoping to see something. Anything! She stopped for a second to look around again, and to figure out how long she had been walking. Suddenly the sand under her hooves began to shift and move. She was sinking! She struggled to keep her footing as she moved over the sinking sand. She caught a glimpse of another rock just ahead of her. She quickened her pace to get to the rock and as she sped up so did the sand. Her feet were sinking in rapidly up to her knees. With all her might she jumped. Out of the sand she came and landed at the edge of the small rock. She caught her breath, and closed her eyes with relief. When she opened them she saw that the sand had stopped and in front of her was a rock pathway. She walked on the pathway and noticed a necklace dangling in mid air. She walked closer to examine it. At the end of the cord was a green pouch that said "EARTH". She thought "my first amulet." The amulet then lifted and placed itself around the baby pony's neck.

The baby pony then heard a rumble and looked up to see two gigantic stone doors opening. She walked slowly through the doors, cautiously looking around. There was nothing but air around her. She looked off the side of the path and saw blackness. She kicked a pebble off the path to hear it fall, but what she heard was silence. The stone pathway lead to the top of what looked like a mountain. Walking as close to the center as she could, she continued. She thought that the top of the mountain would be better than teetering at the edge of a tall cliff. As she got to the top of the mountain, the pathway disappeared. As she looked around she saw that she was wrong. Ahead of her was a rickety old wooden rope bridge suspended across a hot and fiery volcano. She had no where to turn but to go across the bridge. Slowly and steadily she balanced herself, and took very small steps. She tried not to jump when hot lava sent a spark of fire on each side of her. Keeping her balance was proving to be difficult as the heat increased. She almost stumbled once or twice because of loose wooden boards on the bridge. She was getting closer. She had to be brave. If not for herself, then for her mother. She wanted Sunrise to be proud. She held her head up. Steadily and slowly walked the rest of the bridge without hesitation. She took the last step and felt solid ground. She breathed a sigh of relief. She looked around and once again saw a amulet floating in midair. It was red with the word "FIRE" written on the pouch. Once again it lifted and placed itself around baby pony's neck.

Suddenly a waterfall appeared where the rock had been. She stepped closer to it and the water seemed to part like curtains. She walked into the curtains of water and she felt herself on a very unsteady platform. She was surrounded by water. Never had she seen so much water in one area! The sky started to darken and the wind started to blow. Waves began hitting the wooden raft that she was standing on. Thunder and lightening started crackling in the sky. A large wave hit the raft tipping it and sending her into the ocean. She coughed and spattered, trying to keep afloat. A large bolt of lightening hit and in the corner of her eye she saw an island. Her eyes focused on the island. She turned to paddle in the direction. She tried for many minutes but she couldn't make any progress. The waves kept smacking her back . She couldn't understand how fish could live and swim with all the waves. Then she thought "if I can swim below the water like the fish then the waves up on top couldn't keep me back." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and dove under. She paddled hard with her legs and then risked opening her eyes to look where she was going. The water didn't sting her eyes like she thought it would. The water was crystal clear, almost as clear as glass. She bobbed her head above the water to catch another breath. The storm was still blowing and shoving waves her way. Back down she dove towards the island. It didn't seem so far away now. She looked around and noticed for the first time that fish were swimming around her. Further down deeper were what looked like bigger fish with pony heads and arms. They waved at her as she went past. She waved back. She went back up for air and it seemed that she was nearly there. She was so close she could see the trees on the island blowing in the wind of the storm. Down again she went. This time she was thinking of how nice and peaceful it was underwater compared to the world above. In front of her she started to see the sand of the island. She kept swimming harder and harder until she felt the sand under her hooves. She raised her head out of the was to look at the island that lay a few feet ahead of her. Slowly she stood out of the water as the waves crashed against her legs, and the beach. The wind stopped and within a matter of seconds the clouds dissolved and the sun came out. The sky was blue and the sun reflected off the water like diamonds. She saw as the base of a hill, hanging in mid air was the next amulet. She walked closer and saw that it read "WATER" and was a beautiful shade of blue. It lifted and placed itself around her neck , joining the other two amulets that hung there.

She saw a big puff of smoke and the mountain turned into a staircase surrounded by a misty haze. She started to walk forward, knowing that she had one more task to complete. The stairs seemed to go on forever. She had to stop a few times just to catch her breath. When she finally reached the top, the mist cleared. She looked back to the stair case and it went so far down that she could no longer see the island. It wasn't a mist she had be walking through after all. It was clouds! She looked a head of her and she could barely make out a star floating. That had to be the end of this task. She was about to step when she saw that there was nothing to walk upon. All she saw were small clouds floating past. She turned around to look at the staircase but it disappeared. She was left standing on a large cloud. She stood there for a while and decided that is she was standing on the cloud then they must be a platform that she could walk upon. The cloud floating by was further than she had expected. She would have to jump. She waited until the next one was in front of her. She closed her eyes and jumped, as fear just raced through her body. She felt her feet thump on something solid. She pranced in a circle in relief as well as happiness. Noticing that the cloud kept drifting away from the star, she thought very quickly and jumped onto another cloud trying to wind her way back in the right direction. She kept jumping and jumping from cloud to cloud. It seemed that the clouds were getting smaller and smaller. She was close to the star. Only a few jumps left. She jumped again. Now there was only one more cloud to jump to and it looked so small. Barely enough room for her feet. She broke a sweat upon her brow as she concentrated and jumped. One of her back hooves missed to cloud but she managed to balance herself with her other feet. She did it! She jumped to the big cloud that the star was hovering on, and landed firmly on all four feet. She walked closer to the star. It didn't move. She nudged it with her nose and it disappeared into a mist. A few feet away hovered a while amulet. She walked up to it and saw that it read "AIR" in golden letters. Once again it lifted itself up and placed itself around the baby's neck.

Now she held all four amulets, EARTH, FIRE, WATER and at last AIR. The amulets started to glow and the clouds parted revealing a path over a rainbow. She stepped on the rainbow. As she walked, the birds were flying by singing and dancing in the sun. Every step was warm and comforting. She followed the path all the way to the end. When she stepped off she found herself in the clearing of the woods where she first left on her journey. She looked around and saw Infinity, Sunrise and the other ponies of the forest. She was so excited to be back home. She was ready to run to Sunrise when Infinity said " young one, it is time to learn your name and symbol. Please step in the crystals." She did what she was told. When she got there she stood and waited. Infinity then said "place the amulets you have collected into the circle of crystals." She nodded and one by one the amulets slowly came off her neck into the center of the crystal. First was EARTH. As it went into the crystal circle the crystals and air within turned green. Then came FIRE. It turned the crystals red. WATER was next and it turned the crystals and air blue. At last there was AIR and it turned the crystals and air a pale golden color. Then all the colors became mixed and turned into a rainbow of colors. Infinity said to the baby "step in the center of the crystal circle and you will receive your name and symbol." Slowly she lifted each foot into the circle and stood facing her mother. The air around her started to swirl. It lasted for only a minute. Then the colors started to disappear. She stepped out. Infinity said "step to the pond and take a look". She walked beside her mother, who was smiling and happy, to the pond. The other ponies as well as Infinity followed. They reached the pond and the baby looked into it. She didn't see herself, she saw a pony that was a beautiful deep shade of blue. She had sparkling stars of all sizes on her rump as well as all over her body. Her hair was a royal blue with a golden streak in the mane and tail. This wasn't her. This pony was beautiful. Infinity said "the blue is for the gift you have for WATER and the stars are for you talents in AIR. Those tasks are what you excelled in. You will be called for this moment on, 'Starry Starry Night'". All the ponies cheered went to her mother and hugged her.

The other ponies have made a feast of different fruits and candies in celebration for baby Starry Night. Starry Night and her mother sat down and started to eat. Starry Night was very happy and she anticipated the day when she would bring her own child here. So they can experience what she did. They way she found her name, symbol and herself.

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