The applicants were all woken up at exactly sunrise the following day, and were expected to be out of bed and presentable for inspection within a minute. Then came physical exercises which they were expected to perform in parallel. Sarah couldn't do wing ups, which left her with a little more breathing room. She became the groups ace in the hole for that reason, being practically the only earth pony in the entire test. Iron Jaw wasn't overseeing the next test. Even though the colts and fillies here, despite their age, had learned to be silent when presenting, some gasped when they saw who strode in. She was a completely dark furred pony, with cat like eyes. At first glance you would have called her a pegasus, except for the batlike wings on her back that marked her as one Luna's Lunar Guards. Was she working for Evodia now? "I am your drill instructor for the next test. I see only half of the groups survived Iron Jaw's tests. I won't be any kinder to you." Her hoofs clacked and echoed in the hall. Before them was a variety of items.
"Those with unicorns in their group. Present!" Three groups stepped forward. One was all unicorns, and was summarily excused from the test and sent to the next one.
"The groups without unicorns will have one assigned to them for this test. In order to beat this, only one of you have to manage to beat the exercise. This test will focus on your ability to handle something you don't have have any expertise in." Rain Cloud and Blitz looked confused, but didn't dare talking. Merely whispering would be found out.
Sarah was breathing hard and sweating, but did not dare complain, nor even mutter a single word. Her eyes widened at the sight of the Lunar Guard, but she maintained composure, difficult though it was. There were many things she wanted to say, many things she wanted to do, but she stayed right where she was. Her group remained in a perfectly symmetrical line, remaining at attention.
Captain Marenaris was her name. She instructed them in the task. They had to levitate objects, put balls through hoops, turn a cube. Very simple stuff. For any unicorn that is. She also explained what would happen; how they in turn would be tied to a unicorn and use that unicorns horn as if it was their own. Since Sarah's team had no unicorn one was assigned to them. Sarah suddenly recognized the white unicorn. It was the filly that had set up some of the tests. She seemed to recognize Sarah as well, but was too nervous about the whole situation to do anything. "At ease, go at it at whatever pace you want, but no more than half an hour will be spent with each applicant." They could talk again. Marenaris hovered in the background. The white unicorn filly turned around.
"Hi! Uhm... I'm Bright from Celestia's School of Gifted Unicorns." She almost stammered. Rain Cloud snorted, this wouldn't work out for them if she was nervous. "I'll be your horn today, I guess. I'm supposed to do the winged ponies first before you, S-" She was about to say Sarah's name.
Immediately, Sarah placed a hoof on Bright's mouth. "I remember you, though it's been a while since we encountered each other. I'm Tumbleweed, remember?" She gave Bright a look indicating that she should keep quiet. She wanted to assure Bright that she had done this test before with her father, but not only did she wager that doing so would immediately disqualify her, she might get Silver in trouble. So she opted to keep quiet about that. "Don't you worry, Bright. We're a team. We'll get through this. I need you to take a few deep breaths and calm yourself, understand?" She said firmly. "You WILL be my horn. Don't guess. Do or do not, there is no try. And I do not accept failure as an option." She said confidently.
Bright was mollified and seemed to compose herself more. It was obviously the military setting which had gotten to her. She nodded. Her order were to do the pegasi first, and this would be done. Rain Cloud was very excited, the very idea of suddenly being allowed to sense and manipulate magic put him on end, however all of them wanted to get through this test. If none of them could do it, they'd all soon be leaving with changed memories. Blitz put herself physically close to Rain Cloud, and soon her horn was crackling with energies while Rain Cloud was partially lost in the sudden burst of sensation he was feeling. Familiar instructions about controlling the flow was given to him. "Are you beginning to see a pattern in these tests?" Blitz asked Sarah quietly, while Rain Cloud tried to levitate an apple. It got squashed. "Physical exercises, gauntlets, sure that's just testing your will. They never fail a pony for not being strong here. And now this test?"
Sarah shrugged. "I don't know what they're planning. It's clearly not for something conventional or traditional, maybe even something that's never been done before. But that's alright. I'm excited, the prospect of being part of something that's never been attempted before is exciting, and makes me want to be a part of it all the more. Sure its hard, but look at it this way. Some of best rewards are the hardest to achieve. Just like cutie marks," she said brightly. "I'll try my hardest until I can't try anymore, and if I wind up going home with changed memories, at least I tried my hardest, right?" She whispered. "I didn't expect any of this when I signed up, at least not something so strict, but they seem to know what they want to look for."
Rain Cloud failed, much to his own frustration. Ponies were having similar issues all over the place. Blitz turn came up, she was a little more controlled than Rain, but similar problems came up. Bright was constantly giving directions, something the poor unicorn obviously wasn't used to, or she was used to talking to unicorns that were very skilled at what they were doing. "I wasn't sure what she was talking about half the time." Rain Cloud said. Marenaris was watching them for some reason. When Blitz failed it was Sarah's turn. Bright looked nervous again. "I'm sorry, I'm a powerful unicorn and its a lot of power to suddenly be given. I'm really trying as best as I can." She told Sarah. A minor explosion came from the nearby table.
Sarah whispered. "Don't try anything. Don't try to use magic, just relax. I think one of the problems is that the unicorn and their client are both trying to use the magic to do different things at once. Magic doesn't work like that, and we'll never get anywhere. Don't try to cast any spells, just relax, and let me use you. A horn can't handle different commands at once like that." She whispered. "I need you to just relax and trust me, can you do that?" She asked. "It's worth a try."
She nodded and breathed quietly a few times before settling next to Sarah. The mind meld was more subtle than what Silver had done to her. It was more thorough and deeper. Without a fanfare of oncoming energy she almost felt as if a horn now sat naturally at her forebrow. Bright's powers were formidable, raw energy started welling out of the horn and she did nothing to control it. Bright was Sarah's horn now. Blitz and Rain Cloud looked at her expectantly.
Sarah did what she had done with Silver. She closed her eyes, not trying to control the magic, but to let the magic control her. Sarah felt it flow through her, allowing it to become part of her, and focused her thoughts on her horn. She redirected the flow of energy, channeling it, directing it to do various tasks. To float a ball through a hoop, to change a colored cube so that all the sides matched colors, to thread a needle with a piece of thread. She had her eyes closed so she couldn't see if she was doing it, instead she completely trusted her body to react accordingly to her mental commands.
It felt natural and right, there was in her instincts that prevented her from doing it. She was unaccustomed to magic, but it didn't feel foreign to her. Eventually the magic flow was broken, and she felt again that a whole part of her had been severed again. The energies she had manipulated was gone. Opening her eyes she saw that her partners were smiling. They had beaten the test. Marenaris told Blitz and Rain to move on to the next test and with for Sarah there. "Walk with me." She told Sarah and proceeded off to a corridor. When they were away from the others she started talking. "Not bad done.. Tumbleweed." The lunar guard told her in a measured voice. "I did a personal check on your history, but I couldn't find you anywhere. Do you know something about this?" She asked.
Sarah remained at attention, and spoke with respect. "With all due respect ma'am, there was nothing in the application process that said I had to use my real name, and I hope you don't mind, but for personal reasons, I'd rather not be recognized, ma'am." She said confidently. "All my life I've been told what I can't do, and I finally have a chance at finding something I CAN do." She stood up straight. "And with respect ma'am, I'll succeed or I'll die trying!" She said stubbornly, with the tone of somepony who didn't know how to give up.
A smile played on her lips. "If this had been the guard, I would have pt'ed you until your hooves fell off for talking back to a superior officer like that." They turned down another hallway. "Picking youngsters like yourself for a mission. I understand the reasoning but you're undisciplined and I hope you understand this Tumble, because it'll soon be for real." They were in front of a door. The plaque said 'Executive Administrator - Silver Key'. Marenaris opened the door and Sarah found herself face to face with her father. He looked up. Even though she had given herself a fur dye to an orange colour, that wouldn't fool her father. "What?!" He barked. His eyes darting from Marenaris to Sarah and back., she seemed slightly amused by his powerful reaction. "Sarah?!" He practically yelled.
Sarah felt her ears pins back.
"Crap."