Bluestar was in his room, admiring his Cutie Mark and simply enjoying everything that it represented to him, it represented strength, love, control, and of course himself. This was something that belonged to him, and meant so much to him, and a part of him would never give it up again. He had made that mistake once, he won’t make it again. Still he wondered what it had cost him, to bear this mark. It appeared to have cost him everything he had truly wanted. To serve, to be a Guard, and he didn’t want to place his selfish desires above serving, but he couldn’t stop being who he was.
His Cutie Mark might have been telling him to walk into that pool, but it was also telling him now to not let go of who he was. That this wasn’t the only way, there was a different way, perhaps a better way. This way, he didn’t quite know what that was, he was afraid, afraid that, maybe that path wouldn’t lead anywhere, that his own selfish desires might be his undoing. But, inside he knew to walk this path, and have faith that it would lead where he wanted to go. Where he needed to go.
Then there was a knock on the door, and it brought him back to reality. In the place inside, he was simply playing with his emotions, and letting them wash over him. Now he was back to reality. The door opened and a guard came in, and said that they were ready to see him now. He asked who, and he said the two Princesses, Princesses Luna and Celestia. He shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was.
So he walked nervously out of the room with the guard. He didn’t know where he was taking him, just that it wasn’t quite where he was expecting. It was outside, in the courtyard. There were three other Ponies there, all recruits, all white, with matching armor, it wasn’t gold, just silver. Training armor, given to recruits.
The golden armor that the guard wore still had to be earned. He was told to stand beside them, so he did, and a moment later the two Princesses, one of day and one of night, came out and stood before them. And each bowed in respect and reverence to their leaders and mentors. BlueStar closed his eyes as he bowed, momentarily afraid to look them in their eyes, and as he came back up again, he opened his eyes, and saw them looking at him.
Then, glancing at each of the other three, and then Celestia spoke, “You four are our final candidates for a truly special mission. Each one of you are capable, but I’m afraid only one will be chosen.” She turned to Luna, and paused for a moment, considering,
“Each one of you, is powerful, strong and brave, but we still need an answer. We do not know which one of you will go on to this task, only that today that decision will be decided. Here, now. We have a series of tests for you. Some physical, some mental. Some that will test you in ways you never thought possible. The one that passes will be the one that we choose. You have one hour to prepare whatever you need. Before, the tests were limited for fairness, but now this is a test of you, of your character, of your gifts.” She glanced at BlueStar for a moment, as though she was speaking directly to him, but turned away before the others could realize it. “This is your time to shine. Show us what you can do. Dismissed.”
The two Princesses walked away, leaving the four Ponies to stand there, almost alone. And each looked at the other, not certain, sizing up the competition. Then they turned to him, and looked at him, and realized what had happened. That he was not the same white that they had and as they walked by, some of them were angry, because they had been willing to make the change, but he was not.
At first he didn’t say anything, he felt like he didn’t have an answer for them. He didn’t feel that they were wrong, but he didn’t feel that they were right either. And he had been willing, it just wasn’t him, he just couldn’t be like everypony else. It wasn’t his destiny. And so they were escorted back to their rooms. And each prepared in their own way. And it was here that BlueStar broke out something that he had brought with him, but didn’t expect to use. One of the two devices that his father had constructed, and two more he had made himself.
He had made himself a small piece of armor that each of the devices bolted to, so that one was on each side. Right now they were facing backwards, so they would be out of the way, but when in use they would pivot forwards, and with his mind he would aim each individually, so that his horn and each of the devices could be aimed together, or perhaps at three separate targets. He had practiced this for many, many days, until his mind hurt.
He had found a way to complete his father’s work. It had happened unexpectedly one day. He was out in the fields, depressed, sad. He had been working for so long, and he had no answers. His heart was heavy, and he sat down in the tall grass and just simply wondered why he couldn’t find the answer. He just wanted to give up. For a moment he did, laid his head down between his hooves, and inside just cried, until a tear finally came through and rolled down his face. Still the answer didn’t come. He picked himself up and began the walk home when he saw something in the grass, it was a simple peapod, how it had gotten there he didn’t know. He didn’t pay any attention to it, and kicked it aside, and began to walk away when he saw what was inside. Just the simple round peas contained inside the pod came rolling out.
And at first, he didn’t seem to take notice, but slowly inside his head, something sparked, an idea, a concept, perhaps even an answer. And bit by bit, the answer came. He saw what he needed to do. He saw, something more than a simple peapod, perhaps an answer. As he walked home, he found that he was excited, inside he knew he found something, and he rushed to make it happen.
He pulled out the devices that he had been working on, he had been trying to improve their design, basing them off his father’s first device. Then he realized that he finally had the answer, that it wasn’t possible to store enough magic in a single container, a single pod as his father had called it, it just wasn’t possible. So he had to have multiples of that pod, and find a way to detach it and add a new one. And each one, he knew had to be like the others. It had to contain the cells, round, just like the peapods, and some kind of container. So he made a simple box and placed the cells inside it, and was able to throw it aside when it was spent, and put a new one in that was fully charged with magic. With this he was able to find a way to finally make this device work, to fire more than once, and be able to be continually used, even when the magic inside had been used up.
He built a prototype, it didn’t work. He looked at it, and didn’t understand why it didn’t work, then looked closely and saw a flaw, repaired it, and tried again. It fired twice, then didn’t work, again another flaw, minor, but important nonetheless, then repaired it, and the next, and the next, and the next, and eventually worked out its design. Then he built several of the devices that he simply called the magic pods, that stored the energy that made this weapon work.
He made several, and he made each contain a different kind of magic, one for stunning, one for destruction, he built two of these pods to the side of each of his devices that he simply called Castors, because they Casted spells. Then he built his armor, a simple piece of metal that looped around him, and mounted each Castor on a pair of swivels, that enabled each to be manipulated separately. And it took some practice to get used to lifting back the pods with his mind and placing them into position. After a long hard and difficult struggle, he still found there were still issues to work out, as there always were. But soon those issues were just a memory, and he had finished his work. His father’s work. And he was happy, he had accomplished what he had wanted for so long, he wanted to rush to show some pony.
Then realized there was no one for him to show, besides his mother, who had always been there for him. And this made him sad, but he realized that maybe it just wasn’t time yet. But that his time would come, and he was right. The time had come. He had not been allowed to use these Castors in the original trials because it was unfair, and he agreed, Luna had basically told him that this was his time, this was his time to show what he was really capable of, perhaps they wouldn’t be needed at all. This time, he’d be ready, they’d be ready.
So, he placed the Castors on his side, made sure that each of the pods were charged, that each was secured to his side, ready and waiting, then tried to prepare himself. He knew that whatever tests lay ahead, he knew that they would most likely be the most important of his life. That perhaps everything he had ever worked for would come down to the following tests, the following hours, perhaps the following minutes. And he was afraid, he was scared, he didn’t want to fail. In his mind he was more afraid than he had ever been.
He thought he shouldn’t be, so he relaxed, calmed himself, remembered how hard he had worked and trained, that he was ready for this, he had done all he could, and if he failed it would not be because he did not try, it would be because the others were better. But he would fight with everything he had, and do what he could. The only thing left to do was just to close his eyes, and prepare, and store what strength he had, and be ready to use it when the time came. He did this until a guard knocked on the door again, and summoned him back to the courtyard. Taking a deep breath, he walked out the door to go face his destiny.