This is the story of BlueStar. A young and complicated Pony. One that’s not quite like all the other Ponies out there, he’s always been different, unique, but he’s always wanted to serve something greater. That’s what his father did, his father was a member of the Royal Guard for several years, but then he was injured and he was forced to drop out. So he devoted his attention to the sciences, and finding ways that he could help out the Royal Guard. Sadly his project didn’t really go anywhere, and was cancelled. He simply retired. But then the tragic day. He took his son boating, and sadly they both capsized, and the father, though usually bright, wasn’t wearing his life jacket. The son survived but he did not.
BlueStar took it very hard. He loved his father very much, and appreciated the things his father had tried to teach him, BlueStar was not like the others. He was blue, and his hair was a slightly brighter color of blue with a bright yellow streak, messy and almost like lightning. He was also smaller. He would never think so, but weaker than the others, and sometimes they teased him, and teased him quite hard. And his father had tried to teach him to do what he can to not let those feelings come and hurt him. And he always trusted his father. So when he was gone it really hurt him, he no longer had someone to tell, but his mother was there. One day, he was being teased by two of the major bullies and he ran off, and just wanted to be alone. He went off, and just had fun doing things on his own, realized that sometimes he could have more fun on his own than trying to be with others. He would never realize it but this was a major turning point for him.
Just as it was when he got his Cutie Mark. It was ironically to protect those same bullies, who had run off into the Everfree Forest, he had somehow, some reason, followed after them to try to get them to come back. The two bullies were being attacked by timber wolves, they were cornered, they were certainly done for. When he saw this, his first instinct was to turn around, and run home. To perhaps get help, but he realized that if he did, they would most likely not be alive when he got back. He was afraid. He knew what he should do, but he had never trained to use his unicorn powers like he should have. He wasn’t afraid of getting hurt, he was afraid of failure, though while he didn’t particularly care for the two ponies who were in trouble, he didn’t want to see them get hurt. He didn’t want them to be killed. And that surprised him. In a way it shouldn’t have, but it did nonetheless.
So when he looked back, and he saw them in trouble, cornered, helpless, he couldn’t run away. He knew what he had to do. So he did. He ran in front of the timber wolves and tried to be strong, brave, and heroic like he knew his father would have. And at first he was. But his fear got the better of him, he stepped back, one, two, three steps, and on the fourth he realized how close he was to the ones he was trying to protect, and realized he couldn’t step back anymore, that he had to hold his ground. He closed his eyes and just tried to find the strength inside to stand where he was.
He tried to remember everything his father had taught him. About what it had meant to be in the Royal Guard, to stand and fight for Equestria, for those he loved, and cared for, for those he would never know, and how much it meant to, and again he tried to think what his father would do. And the answer was simple, to do what he can, so when he opened his eyes, he was still afraid, but he did what he could. He dug deep down inside himself and found where all magic comes from, the heart and he drew it out, forced it out via his horn, and tried to drive away the first timber wolf, his horn glowed with a brilliant yellow, almost golden light, and shot a beam out at the timber wolf, which at first did nothing to it, but a moment later, the timber wolf backed away slightly, but stood still, looked towards its companions, confused, but undeterred, and still, unafraid. And his heart sank. This is the best he had done and all he could was simply annoy the timber wolf.
Fear took hold of him once more, when he looked back and saw the frightened faces of those two bullies who he’d, a few hours ago wouldn’t have lifted a finger to help, he saw their fear. He knew they were depending on him. He knew he couldn’t run away. Not now. It was certainly not what his father would’ve done. So again, he reached inside himself, to find the power and strength, and courage to stand, this time he found it.
This time he found it in the memory of his father, what he had tried to stand for, and for the ponies behind him, who needed him, and in his mind he thought “I will not let you hurt them. I will simply not let you hurt them. You have to go through me first.”
And once again his horn glowed, with that brilliant yellow hue again, but this time it struck the timber wolf so hard that it busted into a million pieces, and one of those pieces struck a timber wolf beside it, it almost broke its leg clean off. This time he felt different, he felt strong, he felt powerful. He let his heart simply guide him, and drive him to where he needed to be. He pointed his horn at a second timber wolf, and shot again, and it too was busted into pieces, while the onlookers could only look amazed, then a third and a fourth, finally he turned to the fifth and final timber wolf, who just looked at him, afraid. He paused, hesitated, he was in his element, he was what he knew he was going to be. But as he looked into the creature’s frightened eyes, he felt compassion and then he fired again, but not at the creature but at the ground before it. He fired again, this time the creature took notice, and simply turned and ran. He had never felt something like this before. He had never been in such control, such power, but not only that, this is who and what he was. A guardian, a protector. This is what his destiny was, to stand and defend those who needed him. That power, felt good.
As quickly as it came, it vanished just as quickly. His legs couldn’t hold him, his eyes were too heavy to stay open. And he fell, he fell to the ground, collapsed, tired, exhausted. The last of his strength being expended. And the world turned black and cold, but just a moment. For a moment he felt his father reach out to him and tell him how proud he was of him. His father warmed his heart, and restored its power and strength, and just simply stayed there with his son. He knew what it had cost him to save those he did not call friends but ponies he cared about nonetheless. And he stayed and just was there for his son.
Slowly, BlueStar opened his eyes, tired and weak, uncertain of what was real and what was not. He had seen his father before him, but he knew that this was not real. But to him, this would always be a special moment for him. His father was proud of him, not for what he had done, but what he had found inside. He had found what he had been, what he hoped his son would always be. Someone strong, powerful, and loving, and kind. So when he opened his eyes and found the two bullies standing there, he must admit he was surprised, he was surprised they were still there. Not exactly perfectly apologetic, they didn’t want to admit that the very person they had tried to hurt had just saved them, but they were grateful. And BlueStar was grateful that they were alright. Then they pointed to something as they tried to help him up, that something had appeared on his side, on his flank.
It was a simple thing, but it meant the world to him. It was a star. But not like any other star, a star made of three arrows, one pointed up, two pointed down, each one that was down pointed slightly at an angle, so that each star made a triangle, a blue circle in the middle, and around the edge of each of these objects, a yellow, almost golden highlight. This was his Cutie Mark, and when he looked at it he saw him. He saw everything he was, what he wanted to be. He knew what his destiny was, even though he didn’t fully understand it yet. But today was a very special day. So when he went home, showed all his friends and his family, they were all happy for him
That night he went to the spot in the river bend where his father had passed on, and paid his respects, and simply said how much he appreciated him, for helping him find the strength inside. This place would always be special for him, although it was a place of great pain. It was also a place of reflection, discovery, and sometimes of peace. A place where he would come to when he needed a special connection with his father, and just simply to understand some things that he needed to understand. This was the first time he had come here, at such a time. But it would be not the last. The next would be when his mother examined him, and looked into his eyes, and saw a little bit of his father, his eyes, which had once been blue, softer but now they were hard and sharp, and though this, honestly to her displeased her, she understood why it was happening. He was becoming more like his father, the warrior, whose skill in marksmanship and accuracy had been untold, and he had those same eyes. When he competed, his eyes would go hard, sharp, focused, controlled, and she could see that in her son’s eyes, and she knew it was time. BlueStar’s father had left him something, something that he had been forced to abandon a long time ago, and had been locked away, secure and safe. She had always wondered if she should ever show it to him. She never really appreciated or supported what his father did. It had been hard for her to raise their son by herself, his duties in the Royal Guard, even when he was just a scientist often took him away, they would rarely see him, and that made her sad, not only for herself, but for her son, the father that he would never fully know.
Fortunately he had found the time to spend time with all of them when it truly mattered. And so when she opened the box and showed him what was inside, she knew her husband would be happy, but she still couldn’t help but be afraid for her son, because she knew what he saw inside, the mysterious object and what it was meant to do, it would set her son on a path that she could probably never turn him away from.
But his Cutie Mark, the reason why he had been brought into this world, had made it clear to her, that this was his destiny. The object inside might look familiar to some humans, but to a Pony, especially him, it was a strange looking device. It was oval, with a strange looking metal tube in the middle, and a trigger wrapped around a protective guard. Buttons and switches, levers and controls, a simple note on the inside explained what it was. His father left it to him, but he had been forced to abandon the project.
He had been attempting to find a way to store and use magic, to increase a unicorn’s power and capabilities, to find a way to store the magic and be able to release it in a single burst, but he hadn’t been able to find a way to store enough of it to really do the user any good, it only fired once and that really didn’t do anyone any good. So he was forced to abandon the project. But he had every confidence that his son who he knew had just as much capabilities in the sciences and designs as he had, would probably be able to find a way to make it work. And when he did it would mean so much to the Royal Guard. Because it was more than simply a way to increase power, it was a way of changing everything, the guard had remained the same for thousands of years, he knew very well that the threats to Equestria were changing too.
The guard had to change. They had to be able to engage all kinds of threats, and he figured this was the one way to do that. Because with this, they could not only attack targets much further away, but engage multiple targets at once, thus increasing their effectiveness. They were still holding spears, and relying on their basic abilities which, considering the threats that have been apparently made, was no longer enough. And so the son, in time, went to work. He tried to understand what his father had done. And just try to understand what he could do to make it better, to complete his father’s work. He had taken it out, tried it, and saw what it did and that it worked quite effectively, but as his father had said, that it took considerably time to charge it, with his own magic. And that it only fired once. He was still quite young, and had much to learn, and he understood this, so he put it aside for now, and learned, and grew, but he still couldn’t stop thinking about it. And time to time he found himself drifting towards it, thinking of ideas of how he could improve it.
So when he became older, when he was more on his own, he was able to begin the work again. But he had been unaware that it had cost him dearly, that his focus in time would all be put towards this device. And less and less to his friends. He was still teased and laughed at, he was still weak in the eyes of so many around him, despite what he had shown. He would always be the little Pony who, was never quite fast enough, or strong enough. He was never good enough in their eyes. In his own eyes sometimes he was never good enough. So for a long time this caused him to struggle.
One day he just wanted to give up, but then he knew that that wasn’t what his father would’ve done. He grew, matured, soon, he was an adult. He had gone through many different jobs, but he knew what he wanted, to be a member of the Royal Guard, but so far, it just hadn’t happened. He had tried, but failed to get in. They didn’t let just anyone be a member of the Royal Guard. At first it was his glasses, that caused him the most problems. He did his best to show that, even without the glasses he was able to cope. He had practiced sensing with his mind the target, and hitting it, even when his eyes were closed. It was only after this that they started to entertain the idea of letting him in, after much trial and error and hard work, and quite a few rejections, he finally got in.
He was accepted into what was basically a trial run for new recruits. If they made it they would become members of the Royal Guard. If not they would be sent home. And he was determined to succeed this time. He worked hard, trained hard, it drove him nearly to exhaustion to do so, but this time he made it. Or at least he thought he did. There was one last thing that he had to do. Just about every member of the Royal Guard was either white or grey, but he was blue and yellow. Those Ponies who were not white or grey, there was only one thing, that they had to do. For most, it wasn’t a big deal, but for him, it was one of the hardest things he had to do. Each pony had to walk into, a big pool of white dye, that would dye their coats, the brilliant white of the Royal Guard. Even though it was a temporary dye, it would fundamentally change the way he looked. And some even said the way they acted, behaved, that the dye was not just a dye, but something more. A Pony just had to simply walk into the pool with their eyes closed, weights on their ankles to keep them on the bottom, and simply walk across and allow the dye to penetrate their coats.
They were told simply to not swim, but just to walk, and trust that when they step out the other side that they’ll be a guard. Although it wasn’t an official test it was always considered that a Pony who tried to get out of the pool before they reached the other side would fail, that they would always be looked down upon as being weak or afraid.
And it wasn’t this that BlueStar was afraid of, it was the fact that for the first time he realized that being a member of the Royal Guard meant going along with the crowd, no longer being unique, but just being another guard, and when he stepped into that pool, his color, his mane, his Cutie mark itself, would simply be covered over.
No one would know who or what he was anymore, he would simply be just a guard. But as he stepped closer to that pool, he realized that this was still what he wanted. He still wanted to stand and fight for Equestria. Even if that meant to stop being BlueStar, and just being a guard. This was what his destiny was, this was what his Cutie Mark was telling him, but as it was his turn to step into that pool, he was afraid.
He knew not just because of what would happen to his individuality, but what it meant to walk into that pool, of the commitment that came with it, once he stepped into that pool there was no going back. So they gave him a moment, but just a moment, so when he was pushed closer he was quite scared. But then he thought of his father, what would he do, what would he think, what would he have felt. He looked into the pool, filled with white, and realized that this is what he wanted.
So he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and thought to himself, “I’m ready.”
And as he stepped, each step, he knew he was. Until he got closer to the lowest stage, then the steps started to go away. He knew that that last step would probably be the last he would take as BlueStar, that the next would most likely begin his journey as what he truly wanted to be. A soldier, a guard, someone who would always stand and fight for Equestria. So when he felt that last step fade away to nothing, he held his head up one last time, took a deep breath, and allowed himself to just simply slip under. And he kept walking.
He could see nothing, he could hear nothing. All he could do was feel everything around him and simply trust that with each step he would get closer to exiting the other side of the white, and he kept walking. And soon his lungs ached to return to the life-giving air above. He tried not to panic, he tried to remain calm, but he couldn’t feel the other side. He felt the other side was further than he could go.
He told himself that this was all in his mind. And then he gasped, but held it back, he realized he was in trouble. He realized that he was drowning. And so he stepped faster, harder. Still the side didn’t come. At last he decided that he didn’t want his journey to end here, despite what ridicule he might have, he had to reach up, he had to get to the surface again. So he planted his back hooves into the pool’s edge, and kicked hard, pushed himself up towards the surface above, keeping his eyes shut the entire time.
To his relief, the top of his muzzle broke the surface, and stayed above it just long enough to let in some of that cool air above, before disappearing below the surface again. And as his front hooves came down, they managed to come down on the reassuring hardness of the step of the exit ramp. And so with his front hooves he pulled himself back up, and then bit by bit pulled himself onto the first step and the second and the third until eventually he was out of the pool once more. He didn’t know whether to be relieved or afraid, whether he had failed or passed this final test, a seemingly minor one, but important in his eyes nonetheless.
And as he exited the ramp and stepped onto the side, he heard somepony say, “I want that one.”