//------------------------------//
// The Episode of Summer Blaze 
// Story: The Mysterious Adventures of Mare-do-well 
// by Commando-Scarecrow 
//------------------------------//

Summer Blaze lay awake in his hospital bed in the middle of the day. He had been faking being asleep for the past few days from exhaustin. Truly, he had put himself in a healing trance the first day of his admittance. His wounds were actually almost totally healed, with the exception of the bruises. He only really needed to mend the tiny cracks in his bones that he got from fighting his little sister and then from almost getting crushed by the complex dropping on him. He luckily made it to the exit just time, but he couldn't simply leave those guys down there. His personal code of honour forbid it.
As he faked being asleep, he accidentally did fall asleep. He dreamed a dream he often had. It was one of the greatest tests that his magical teacher, Blue Flame, gave him. He still remembered it as vividly as it was the day after.

...

Him and his teacher had just finished sparring, and Blue Flame gave him a complement. "Good work, Student Summer. Your reflexes have improved from our last bout." Complements had been somewhat difficult to come by from the old and blue unicorn, but Summer had been able squeeze a respectable amount of the out of the old guy.
"Thank you, Sir!" He beamed with pride to hear his teachers approval. For years, Summer thought he needed noponies opinion but his own. Indeed, that was a part of his own code: you only need the approval of those you decide you need it from.
"But your form is still sloppy," that was how his praise usually went. Summer still took it, though. "Even if you do have excellent raw power at your potential, you can't always rely on natural skill, foal. You must hone your skills to be truly amazing."
"Sir!" He bowed to his teacher. The old colt was the closest thing that Summer had to a father, his own having walked out on him. Summer Blaze still had some daddy issues to work out at that point, to say the least. "I understand."
"Don't coddle the old colt, foal," he walked to his student and lifted him up, or at least, signaled for him to get up with his cane. He was getting up there in years, no doubt about that. In fact, if Summer went full force in any of their fights now, he would have toasted his master, which would have been counterproductive to his training. He remembered when he first walked up mountain pass to his teachers home. It had taken all of two days and he was nearly rejected when he got there. But the old man saw something in his eyes. He agreed to a test bout and left Summer Blaze completely and utterly defeated. When he was told to leave the grounds, Summer refused. For one week with nothing but a sleeping bag, a canteen, and whatever he could find in the woods, he challenged him. Each of the seven more times he lost and was told to leave. It wasn't until the eighth test when Blue Flame saw something in Summer. He began to learn. It was as if each and every one of Master Flames attacks suddenly had difficulty hitting Summer. He even began what looked like a fire spell with his horn. It was at that moment Blue Flame defeated Summer Blaze and accepted him as his student. And now? Now, after four years of training under him, Summer Blaze was nearly ready. "Student Summer Blaze? You are nearly ready."
"For what, sir?" Summer knew almost entirely what he was talking about. For four years he had suffered some of the most ridiculous training concerning some of the most limited magical collections in Equestria. He always did drill the basics, though.
He took a proud smile. "You know very well, Summer. The time has approached for your final test. Should you pass, you will be ready to use the magic I have given you and you will receive your own copy of the Ignus Anthological." Summer was ecstatic to hear that news. The Ignus Anthological was the highly protected tome of magic, not just of fire, but of so many other spells: advanced teleportation techniques, advanced levitation, and even certain techniques involving animals. Hay, it had even been where he learned his healing trance. Legends say that it was first brought down from a mage that rivaled Star Swirl the Bearded himself. "Tomorrow morning, you are to wake up bright and early and take what may be the first step of your destiny."
"Um, Sir? What if I fail?"
"If you fail... well, just don't think about that. You are dismissed, Student Summer… after you gather fifty pounds of fire wood!" He only nodded as he tried to keep a bad poker face. His destiny or something else. Even as he gathered the firewood, his mind wondered to what the test would be and what would happen if he failed. He couldn't go back home, not after he left his mother in tears like that. That night, he could hardly sleep, so he put a sleep spell on himself. It was easy. It was the first real spell he ever actually learned.
The next morning, he woke up as if it were any other, gathered himself and met his teacher in the middle of the practice ring. He looked back at the old log cabin just to take in the nostalgia, and then collected his thoughts. He had to pass. There was no other option. "Student Summer, you have no doubt worried about what this test would entail." Summer gulped. "Well, fear not, for this is not a test of skill but a test of will. Hold still and you feel nothing and everything."
Nothing and everything? Blaze thought the old colt had finally fallen off his rocker. That was, until, he felt his masters horn touch his. In an instant, he knew what he had been talking about and all his fears were laid in front of him as if they were on display. Spiders and heights and so many other things. Failure was one of them, but it had been small. When he saw his greatest fear, though, he did not back down. It wasn't anything so simple as not being good enough to pass. It was far more personal than that. It was a mirror, one large enough to see his whole body.
He doesn't like to remember what was in the mirror, but what he did do to what he saw would forever be branded into his mind. While he looked at it, it was like drinking a cocktail of emotions. Fear, rage, sadness and hatred. He felt all of these emotions and more. It seemed like hours passed as he felt that emotional roller-coaster take him for the ride of his life. He wanted to scream and cry and shout so badly at what he saw, but he didn't. He stayed objective to what his master told him. He didn't know what would happen if he failed, but he didn't want to. No. That wasn't right. He wouldn't fail because he wouldn't let himself fail. Want had nothing to do with it. The last thing he remembered before the terrible illusion ended was simply taking a deep breath and saying the word "no".
His master stood in front of him and wore an incredible smile. "My student." He stopped himself to find a word that better fitted the situation. "No, my peer... you have passed."
"What was that about?"
The teacher placed his hoof on his students shoulder. "Foal, the entire test was to see how would respond to your greatest fear. Each of the four students that came before you reacted either with rage or with cowardice. They either tried to hide from it in the corner like a crying foal or they attacked it without considering the situtation as a whole. You, however, faced it with dignity and bravery. You won not out of hate or spite but because you knew the stakes. You won because you had too. For that, you have passed your final test."
"Sir-"
"Please, Summer.” He lifted up one hoof to silence him. “There is no more need for that." He took out the Ignus and it appeared as though he would give it to him, only he didn't.

...

Everything seemed to go down a literal drain as he woke up and saw the unicorn he recognized as Trixie. She was wearing an sky blue black and scarf. She had been the one who brought him here and she had come to visit for maybe an hour for the past few days. He was faking sleep the whole time and he intended to bring that up today. He felt that he left her hanging enough. Her tenacity actually made him laugh.
He heard her come in and take a seat in the chair next to his bed. It was time he humored her. "Yes?" He asked as he opened his eyes and looked at her.
"So you are awake? Good," she began determined. Summer took a mental smile. He was going to enjoy this immensely.
"I've been awake. Almost the whole time, too. With the exception of night time of course."
"You... you have?" She was confused. Good. That was how Summer liked to keep people that he could potentially trust. Once he knew he could trust her and her friends, he would be more straight forward.
"Yep. Saw you the last few days coming to visit me," he shot her an entertained grin. "Apparently I left an impression on you more than the other two."
He could see the faint blushing in her blue coat. "Please. The great and powerful Trixie is above showing such obvious clues."
He put his arms behind his head, electing to change the topic. "So I assume you came for another reason other than just to say hello?"
She nodded at him. "The great and powerful Trixie wishes to know why you chose to help us the other night."
He closed his eyes as he answered. "Seemed like the thing to do at the time."
"The thing to do?"
"Yep. Also, I happen to be loyal to the princesses. Celestia herself got me out of a jam once." He opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling. "I just had a run of bad luck recently, is all."
For a split second, Trixie almost felt a sense of camaraderie with the rogue unicorn mercenary. "How so?"
"Getting a little interested in the dashing rogue, are we?" He smiled but she didn't. He took a sigh and began a story. "My little sister got into some major problems. I needed to bail her out and it ended up costing me every last bit that I had." He paused as though the drink all of his memories in. "After that, I needed two things. I needed descent paying contracts and I needed to keep an eye on my sister."
"So why the change of heart?" He wasn't sure how far he would let Trixie in, but he knew when he got there. There was something about her that seemed comforting and familiar.
"I decided it was time to leave. Besides that, you and your friends gave me something that I hadn't been prepared to embrace in a while," he looked her straight in the eye for the first time since she got there. "Hope."
"Trixie is confused. You seemed ready enough to abandon your contract when we arrived." She seemed to argue against her good fortune. He didn't mind. He enjoyed the company, regardless of its nature, and a good argument was as good as any other conversation.
"I got enough money from them at that point to get me started again. And with my sister missing, I don't have to keep my eye on her anymore." He ran his hoof through his brown mane with blue streaks. "What became of her after our fight is her problem entirely."
Trixie was once again bewildered by what the orange renegade said to her. Surely a unicorn that lost against this one, with all his vast reserves of magic, wouldn't have the strength to escape on her own from beneath all that rubble. Trixie simply sided the thought of the colt as that of the simple hopeful musings of a concerned brother. "Trixie believes that she has learned enough today."
"Wait!" Now it was him that wanted answers. "Now I have a few questions for you."
"What is it?"
"Why are so interested about why I helped you?" It seemed about as valid as all the questions she'd asked him.
"The great and powerful Trixie said she wanted answers." From the look on her face, he could tell she was lying, but decided not to push any further. He'd find out eventually if he wanted too. "Isn't that enough?"
Fair enough. But he still had one more question, although it was more of a statement. "Well if you planned on coming back tomorrow, you'd be wasting your time."
"And why would that be?"
"Because I'm leaving the hospital later today," he started. He had to tread carefully to get what he wanted. "But, if you still wanted answers, I won't be leaving the general area. I'll be at the library down the street if you want to know more." Nailed it.
"Your offer to share more information piques the interest of the great and powerful Trixie." She walked out of the room as she said her good bye. "Good bye, Summer Blaze."
"Good bye, Trixie." And so she left to do who knows what. There was something he found familiar about that mare. It might have been because they both have similarly arrogant personas, but he thought it was more. Well, whatever it was, he would find out later.