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// Chapter 4: The Trials 
// Story: BlueStar: Defender of Equestria 
// by BlueStarBrony 
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Once again the Princesses were waiting for them, and all eyes turned briefly to BlueStar, and the strange devices on his sides. It was certainly unexpected but the other ponies had a range of equipment, some had nothing, some carried other equipment in saddlebags on their backs. But no one had ever seen devices quite like them, except for the two Princesses. Luna looked at him, not surprised, in fact she seemed please. But Celestia however was confused, and looked at him and seemed to suddenly realize, or remember where those devices had come from, and looked at her sister, then looked back at him. For a moment, they had nothing to say, but he could tell that she sensed something personal between Luna and BlueStar, and she did not like it. 

And then Celestia spoke, “Recruits, I am glad that you are here. We have an important task for you, but only one of you can be chosen for this task. The first test is one of skill, strength, determination. Each one of you, will hit as many targets as you can and whoever does the best wins.” 

And they were led to an area to the side, where a number of targets had been set up. BlueStar was confident, this was what he was good at, since this was what he trained for. But something didn’t feel right, there was something else. Then he saw it, something in the sky, he noticed the shield above him for the first time. The others soon noticed as well. 

Celestia spoke, “Don’t worry, Shining Armor is practicing. He will be practicing with each of you later, worry about what is before you, not what is above you.” 

Then she pointed to the first of the candidates and told him to stand at the front of the line. As he did, the others looked at each other curiously, they may not have know who Shining Armor was, but BlueStar did. He had heard of him while researching the Mane Six, and learned that he was Twilight’s brother, that he had a very powerful defensive magic, one that he was pretty certain that his offensive magic would not break, and seriously hope that the next test would not involve fighting Shining Armor. His attention then turned back to the first Pony, who pointed his horn at the first target and fired, and struck it hard, then another, and another, striking each with precision. Then a bell rang, and his score was tallied. He had done well, but BlueStar was confident he could do better. The next came, and he tried as hard, but he did not beat the score of the first Pony, nor did the third, then it was his turn. BlueStar stepped to the line, and closed his eyes, and prepared himself, he saw his Cutie Mark inside of him, glowing, and as it glowed it began to spin, growing as his power increased, ever brighter, until it spun so fast and glowed so bright it was brilliant ball of bright blue. 
And when it was time to begin, he simply let his heart guide him once more, as it always had, and allowed it just to flow to control that power that was his heart, and guided him to where he needed to be. Then he lowered his head and pointed his horn at the first target. At the same time, he used the power of his mind and his heart to turn his Castors forward and pointed at several more, and then fired at three targets at the same time, striking each, then turned his attention to another with his main horn and struck it. And in his mind he saw the targets, feeling with his magic. 
So he closed his eyes and let his heart and his mind guide him. And soon the targets fell, all of them. He couldn’t keep track of how many times he had missed, but he destroyed the targets before the time had run out. But he must admit it had cost him, he was tired, and he had emptied two of his pods, only three more remained on each Castor. He looked back up at the Princesses. Luna was happy, Celestia, a little confused, almost frightened. 
The others, were angry. One spoke that he thought and he had cheated. And the others joined in as well. They protested that he didn’t deserve to have such a high score, and this made him angry. After all he worked so hard for, trained so hard for, they thought it was easy. He assured them that it was not, even after the Castors worked, learning how to control them proved to be very difficult. He had earned each one of those targets and that he would not let them take it away. 
Then Celestia stomped her hoof, so loud and hard that it seemed to shake all of Equestria, silencing them, and said that her sister and her would have to discuss this and decide what to do. Luna was clearly upset at the idea, most likely she thought that he had acted fairly, he was surprised that Luna was so supportive of him. And so the minutes passed, nothing seemed to happen. 
The others just glared at him angrily. He decided not to say anything to them, he knew that there was nothing that he could say. As he waited there were times he felt that maybe he had cheated, maybe it was unfair, he didn’t really know. He didn’t want to win by cheating, he wanted to win in a fair fight. He wanted to prove that he was the best not because of what he had, but who he was. So when Celestia and Luna came back, Celestia looked at him disapprovingly, but somehow sympathetic. Luna was worried, she asked that he took the test again, but without his Castors, and he agreed, believed that he could still do better. And so he took off the piece of armor that held his Castors, and used his magic to lower them to the ground beside him, and stepped forward. And unlike the others he had no armor, just him. 
And once again he summoned the power that was in his heart and forced it out through his horn. This time he trusted completely in his senses, his training, and did not open his eyes, but let himself, his heart his mind, everything that was him, guide him, trusting that he would hit his mark, that who he was would bring him through. One by one, targets seemed to fall, he knew that time was running out, he didn’t bother to count them, but he knew he hit every single one he could, but his strength was waning. He did not know how long he could keep that up for. He tried not to think about how tired he was, how much each shot had cost him. And soon he became exhausted. With his sights set on one more target, the bell rang, and he fired just after, too late. Then he collapsed to the ground, tired, exhausted. The others looked at him, still surprised. But not as surprised as before. 
He looked at Celestia, she shook her head no, he had managed to tie him. One target more, and he would have won. He could only feel despair, like he was back in that black water in the dream, and no longer how hard he struggled, there was no way out, and could only give in. Luna looked at him, sad, disappointed, as though looking at a failure, then smiled. The test was just the first, not the last, and with his Castors he still prevailed. They did not say which results they were going to use. He decided not to give up hope yet, there were still two more tests to go.

For the 2nd trial they were led away to another court yard nearby. This time, it was a simple rope, tied on a wall, and a heavy suit of armor, unlike any he had ever seen. It was made of heavy metal, didn’t shine and was not decorated. It simply looked like a piece of heavy metal. And when the first Pony picked it up and tried to put it on, it was clear that that was its intent. The goal was simple, to pull themselves up while wearing that heavy suit of armor. 
The first, the one that was currently his biggest competition, slowly made his way up, struggled, but ultimately prevailed and reached the top, and just held there, then slowly let himself down again when he was told that he could. The others, surprisingly, did better. The second did a little bit better, the third almost went up that rope like it was easy. Then it was BlueStar’s turn. The armor was about the heaviest thing that he had ever worn in his life. It felt so heavy that he felt that if he fell to the ground it would crush him. 
And as he picked up the rope, and looked at how high it was, he was afraid. In his mind, this task was too hard for him. But, again he thought what his father would do, what would his father want him to do, what would his father think of him if he just gave up. He knew he had to do this, he had to give it his best, so after a brief moment, he found what he needed. Then it was time to go, so he climbed, struggling at first to find footing. Bit by bit he managed to climb, slowly, but climbing nonetheless. He tried to go faster, and somehow pull himself up that rope. But his muscles were strained, and he knew that if he pushed too hard he would simply fall off, but he decided to get to that top, and not to fail. So slowly he inched up that rope, closer and closer to the top. He struggled, and as he neared the top, he almost felt his strength would be gone by the time he got there. 

Inside him, he said, “I will not allow myself to fail. I will make it to the top, this is too important to me to give up. I will do what I need to do.” 

And almost as he finished thinking this, his hoof just barely reached the top, so lightly that almost, those looking from the ground didn’t notice, and when he reached for it again he managed to wrap his hoof around the top, and hold himself there. And when they said for him to come down, he slid down the rope, almost too fast, his muscles ached too hard for him to do anything. When he slid to the bottom, the suit of armor collapsed his legs and he also collapsed to the ground. Several of the guard came and helped him and loosened the armor. To his surprise every pony seemed pleased for him, even the competitors, perhaps because the competitors knew how hard it was to climb that rope with that load, and he was grateful. Then, the final test came. They were led away to the courtyard. Shining Armor was waiting for them. He was a large, strong Pony, dressed in purple armor, his mane was covered by his helmet, and his tail showed blue and cyan. 
This was the first time he had ever seen Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guard. Some pony strong and powerful, and if things went well, would probably be his commanding officer. Perhaps a friend definitely someone he looked up to. He was, serious, when he looked at each one of them, his eyes sharp, his eyes clearly indicating a leader, one to be respected, and he respected him greatly. He knew that in an emergency, he was the one who was responsible for protecting Canterlot personally. 
His own shield would be used to protect an entire city of ponies. With his experiences in magic, he knew what a terrible burden that must be. He wondered if there was any pony for him, that would stand by him. He couldn’t imagine doing a spell like that for so long without somepony special to just be there for him. Then he looked and saw her, Princess Cadence, and remembered that they had been dating for several years. It was rumored that they were going to be married soon. He believed those rumors, and he now knew where the power came from. He wondered if the others did. Then each of the recruits stood before Shining Armor and bowed in respect. Then something unexpected happened. Shining Armor pointed his horn at one of the recruits and fired at him. The recruit, unprepared, fell to the ground, stunned. 

And he said firmly, “Your final test, is to fight me. Whoever wins, goes on.” 

The other recruits, were shocked and surprised. Shinning Armor was simply the most powerful Pony there was, other than the Princesses of course. They didn’t stand much of a chance, even all four of them against him. Then he fired again at another Pony, this time the Guard was able to deflect the attack away. The first Pony who got hit managed to wake up and pull himself back up, but afraid. Each looked at the other, uncertain what to do. It almost seemed as though Shining Armor had gone mad. Then again he fired at another one of the recruits, who turned the attack away, surprised that he had been able to do so. 
Shining Armor turned towards BlueStar, and fear took hold of him. He couldn’t believe this was happening. He didn’t know what to do. When the purple beam of energy came at him, the only thing he could do was deflect it away, not with his magic but with one of the sides of the Castors, which fortunately he knew, when struck by a magic beam of that type, would attempt to store it and cast it away, which is exactly what happened. The beam struck the Castor, absorbed it and fired it out behind him. 
A desperate act that he had done purely on instinct, which had fortunately worked in his favor. The other three Ponies decided to surround Shining Armor, several attempting to move around him. He moved to do the same, but Shinning Armor stood there, undeterred, unmoved, unafraid. The others glanced at each other, some pony said they should fire together, and it seemed to be the right idea. So they all pointed their horns at him and fired together. The shield that had surrounded Canterlot disappeared, and suddenly appeared all around Shining Armor. And each of the beams that had been meant hurt him were deflected away and struck their attackers. 
BlueStar was just amazed to be stuck by his own spell, and he collapsed to the ground as its crippling power came over him. He couldn’t move, all he could do was try to stay conscious. But he failed, and he fell into dream, into memory, into the black. And at first he didn’t know how to get back out again, then a memory came, he was training, a long, long time ago, he was still learning the basics of magic, how to use it most effectively. He had gone to the lake that the river his father had passed away in led to. And he trained, to learn how to use his powers, to use different spells. One of the hardest was to learn how to perform these spells under pressure. Especially the harder, more complicated spells. 
His father had taught him magic. He had taken him to a cliff, not a very high cliff, but a cliff nonetheless, about twenty or thirty feet high, overlooking the water. To his shock, he saw his father jump off and vanish over the edge. A second later, with a flash of light, his father appeared behind him, magically teleported from where he was falling to behind his son. And told him this was a vital lesson he had to learn. But he knew that he wasn’t quite ready yet, but it was important to show his son this lesson. 
Perhaps he knew that he wouldn’t have the opportunity to teach his son when he was ready. And many years later, he stood at that same cliff, and like his father he jumped off, and tried to teleport himself away before he struck the water, and failed. Fortunately he was not hurt but he wasn’t surprised he had failed. The sheer panic broke his concentration completely, it was hard to think about anything but falling. So he tried again, and again, and again, until he felt sore from all the failed attempts. All he could do was just lay down and be glad the day was over. He knew that this was not an easy thing, but it still disappointed him that he could not do it, at least not yet. Then he remembered something else, how his father made it a point to just play at the end of each day, when his muscles ached, they would just play, or rest, or sometimes float in the lake. 
He remembered the special time, his father had taken off his armor and simply put it aside, let it rest on the ground, and they walked into the water and just swam, and played. Just a father playing with his young son. And he said this was an important part of training, that rest and joy were just as important as working hard, because without it there’s nothing left to fight with. At the time he didn’t understand, now he did. 
His muscles ached from all the training already, and wished that he could just go to sleep, he was tired, and in his mind there was nothing else to do, just sleep. He didn’t know what to do now, he knew he had to move, he could not, he was afraid again, he was drowning once again. 
Then he slowly found the strength to open his eyes once more, and came back to consciousness. But his body ached, and was sore, he did not try to move, he didn’t want Shining Armor to see that he was still awake, and feared that he would knock him back into his subconscious again. So he opened his eyes slowly, carefully and tried cautiously to stand up. Two of the other Ponies were still down, one was trying to fight off Shining Armor. He decided to run around Shining Armor, trying to keep away from that powerful horn of his. Shining Armor was doing his best to keep up with him. 
Part of BlueStar wanted to stay down, go to sleep, admit defeat. But he decided this was the last thing he could do. But he didn’t know what to do now. He couldn’t possible fight the powerhouse that was Shining Armor, and he still didn’t understand why, did they really expect them to be able to defeat him? He decided that he had to find out why, so he stood. 	
He just stood and looked Shinning Armor in the eyes, trying to be as brave as he could. Then remembered, what his father had taught him. And inside his head he began to understand, perhaps this was a different test, perhaps it wasn’t his power that would end this test. But he wasn’t sure he could do what he knew he had to, he had never fully mastered the exercise at the cliff. It was only twice that he had come close to succeeding. He stared at him, and Shining Armor noticed him, and looked at him hard, like he was surprised that he was still standing. BlueStar’s eyes were defiant, and he sidestepped a little to the right, and stared at him, still daring him to make a move against him. 
For a moment, Shining Armor’s eyes were no longer hard, they were soft and sympathetic, almost proud, like he liked what he saw. But then in an instant the hardness returned, and his horn glowed, and a beam shot at him again. BlueStar didn’t think, he could only feel. This time instead of fear it was the spell, the spell that he knew he needed to cast. 
He closed his eyes as hard and fast as he could, and focused only on the spell, and he vanished, disappearing for just a moment, and in that moment, no unicorn could only describe how it felt, to be for a moment in nonexistence, and then suddenly reappear. But when he reappeared he saw what happened to Shining Armor. 
The beam that Shinning Armor had shot at him struck a hardened wall behind him and bounced right back at Shining Armor, who was too surprised to do anything but see it strike him. With the power of his own beam weakened him and hopefully his shield just enough that maybe they had a chance to beat him after all. BlueStar pointed his horn at Shining Armor and fired, and again the attack was deflected by his shield, and the other Pony, who had taken notice of what was happening fired as well and still it did nothing. This was a problem… 
The other Ponies began to wake, and Shining Armor was angry, he didn’t like being deceived, so he shot again. This time BlueStar decided to fall to the ground and avoid the attack, which gave him just enough time to pull himself together to teleport away to somewhere else before Shining Armor could fire again. But he knew this wouldn’t work forever. They needed a new plan. Then realized the only way they had a chance of defeating him was together, he remembered what Luna had told him, and realized why they were failing. Each one was fighting for himself, not for each other, and that had to change. He knew he needed all of them. So he teleported himself next to one of the Ponies that was still unconscious, and used his magic to shield them both while he attempted to wake the Pony. 

The other Pony who was trying to stay out of Shinning Armors way, shouted at him, wondering what he was doing. BlueStar said, “We need to fight him together, we need to fight him as one, we need all of them. Do you understand?” 

He didn’t seem to agree with him, but after a narrow miss from Shining Armor’s attack, he decided that perhaps it would be better to fight together than alone. And the other Pony moved to protect the other Pony, who was still dazed, confused, and protected him with a shield as well. 

Shining Armor decided that this was a good time to recover and rest, since he had clearly used a lot of energy attempting to fight off these four Ponies, and said defiantly, “You can’t hide beneath your shields forever, sooner or later you have to deal with me.” 

And BlueStar knew he was right. He tried desperately to wake the sleeping Pony, Shining Armor had decided to look only at him, and he was afraid. He was afraid of what he saw in those eyes. Power, power that he knew he couldn’t match on his own. This frightened him. It frightened him a lot more than he would have ever thought. Then with a gentle nudge, the sleeping Pony woke, wondered what was happening. 

BlueStar decided that he need more help than a simple kind word, and touched his horn to his, and gave some of his energy to that Pony, whose strength began to recover, and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I’m helping you. Because, I need you, we all need to fight him together.” 

This Pony didn’t seem to understand quickly, and when he saw Shining Armor staring at them, he asked, “OK what are we going to do?” 

“I don’t know just yet, but I know we can’t win alone.”  BlueStar said uncertain

“So that’s your great plan?”

“It appears so. You got any ideas?” BlueStar asked

The other Pony didn’t understand, “Why are you asking me?” 

“Because I don’t have any ideas either. I just know we can’t win alone.” 

“Hmm, you figured that out by yourself?” 

“Actually no.”  BlueStar said truthfully remembering what Luna had told him.

“Wow, you’re really inspiring confidence in me. BlueStar wasn’t it?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Well, I think you’re crazy, but, I’d rather just stay down honestly.” 

“Me too, but I don’t want to lose.”  

“We can’t beat him. No pony can.” the other pony said sadly as he lowered his head

“I know, but I intend to try nonetheless, and I need your help.” 

“Why should I help you?” 

“Because if I fail, we all fail, you fail, I fail, we all fail. I don’t think this is about you and me, but us.”  BlueStar said

“Hmm, you are crazy. But you know what, let’s give it a shot anyway, I don’t like losing either. If you go down, just promise me we’ll go down fighting.” 

“You got it, what is your name?” 

“Hmm, Shining Star.” 

“Well Shining Star, let’s do this together.”  BlueStar said confidently.

And with that, he helped him up. And they both stood together. Across from them, they could see the other two Ponies standing beside each other. And each nodded to the other, signaling they were ready. And together, they dropped their shields. 
BlueStar and Shining Star ran, they ran faster than they ever thought they could. They tried to run away, so they could escape that powerful beam, and just when it seemed that it would catch them, the other two Ponies fired as well, catching him by the side, but Shining Armor was aware of their presences and deflected their attack. And each turned together at the brief distraction, and each fired their magic. Shining Armor, caught slightly off guard, couldn’t decide which attack to defend against first, and their combined power simply overcame him, and for a brief moment, then his shield came on again. This time, the shield came slamming at them, throwing them against the wall. And each of them collapsed to the ground as the shield came off. 

And Shining Armor walked towards them as each fell, a crumpled heap, eyes still angry and hard, and then he smiled. “Well done recruits, you did well. I’m sorry I had to be so rough on you. Princess Celestia told me how important it was for each of you to show what you all had, and each of you did well. Farewell. I hope to see each of you again.”

And then he simply walked away. And the recruits just couldn’t believe it happened. They didn’t understand just yet, and at the moment they were too tired to really care. It had been clear that Shining Armor had toyed with them, all that time, how easily he brushed them all aside. Apparently, he had seen all he had needed to see in their final attack, and had decided to end the fight. And BlueStar felt hurt, that he could be brushed aside so easily. Then he thought, this was Shining Armor, supposedly the strongest unicorn, second only to the Princesses. What shame is there in being beaten by him? But it still hurt him slightly. Then the two Princesses, one light, one dark, came up to the students, and looked at them. And had compassion. 

Then it was Celestia who spoke, “Well done recruits, well done. I’m sorry that we had to rough you up so badly. True tests of character are never easy. I am proud of each and every one of you. Now, it’s time for you to go back to your rooms, rest, recover, and in the morning we’ll inform you of our decision. Be proud recurits. I know each of you will serve us well.” 

And then Celestia walked away, but Luna stayed for a moment, and looked at each of the recruits, and felt sorry for each. Then she turned to BlueStar, clearly intending to say something. But, knowing better, joined her sister and walked away. Fortunately none of the recruits were hurt physically, but they had aches and pains that made the walk back to their rooms hard, and difficult. 
The bed of his room never felt so good, so comforting. He collapsed into it and just relaxed, and rested. This time there was little else he could do. He just, once again sunk into dream. Allowed it to carry him, hold him, ease all his pain, fear, and anxiety. He didn’t understand what had happened. Hmm, he never seemed to. It was clear that the Princesses had their own plans, the tests that they had posed the recruits were more than they could understand at first. There was no clear winner, at least not to them. So he simply followed his father’s advice, and just rested. And in his mind played, was back at the lakeside, just floating, letting the water heal everything that was broken, that was sore, that was hurt. And in that moment, that memory, he could rest. And then he fell asleep. This time, he dreamed something different. He dreamed Luna was with him. 

And he knew this was no dream, he knew Luna was here. “Well done. Well done BlueStar.” 

“What did I do?” He said to her. 

Surprisingly, he found himself back on the ground, too tired to move. He just lay there, tired, broken. And somehow, strong, victorious, despite what happened. It felt that he had won somehow. 

“You did well. You truly did. Hmm, I was worried for you. Don’t tell Celestia this, she didn’t want me to pick favorites, I was worried for you. I wanted you to win. The others had heart, strength, but I knew it was you I wanted. Still Celestia was right, they were all worthy. Be proud, regardless of who we choose. You did well. I truly mean that” 

“Thank you Princess Luna. Thank you for believing in me.” 

“Thank you for trusting in me. You’re one of the few that have. Now, go to sleep. You’re tired, you need rest. And I do have much to discuss with my sister. I just wanted to let you know, that your father would have been proud of you. And I’m proud of you. The others don’t have pain, the way you do, the way I do. We’re a lot in common, and one way or the other, I hope to see you again.” 

“Me too, Princess Luna.” BlueStar bowed in respect.

“Thank you, go to sleep. Tomorrow is a big day. Go to sleep.” 

Then she touched her horn to his, and he just fell, peaceful and quiet, despite how his body felt. He just relaxed, and calmed down, just let the black carry him, just let everything go. In his mind he could feel her walking away, disappearing, but he could still feel her presence, as though she wasn’t really gone, just watching over him, calming him. He was surprised by this. It reminded him of his mother, when he was younger, when he was scared, that she would just stay, just be there.
He didn’t know how to respond, except to just relax, and go to sleep, just accept what was the Princess was offering him, whatever she was trying to do for him, he no longer fought. Just relaxed. And just slept, and rested, in the cool reassuring calmness, and peace of the dream. He was happy. He had done what he could. And he was proud. It may not have been the way he wanted, but he had not faltered, he had not given up, he had risen to the challenge. 
Perhaps not passed it, perhaps not win the war, but he had done everything he could to win the battle, and so he fell asleep. Knowing that he did his best. That simple truth, brought joy to his cold and sometimes troubled heart and found it calm and reassuring. And then there was only black, and peace, and thought just went away and he fell asleep. Morning would come, it would come in its own time. For now, he just rested. And was grateful, that he was here, for all he had done, all those he had done it with. He knew, he had done well. He owed those three other cadets something for that. Somehow he knew he couldn’t have done it without them. With that last thought, finally he gave in to sleep. And he didn’t wake until the following morning.