Lifeblooms

OK guys before we start this I'm going to warn you that this story is going to start off a little confusing. Just trust me and let me take a few chapters to set it up before you jump ship, it will all come full circle.

<3sy.. .

The birds singing annoyed her to no end. Even after all these years, it still got under her skin. Sighing she focused solely on the tree outside, blocking out all other sound around herself and listening only to the tree. It had taken her weeks to fully understand what she was about to do, and months before she could call herself a master at it. After quickly forming a connection with the tree, she searched through its limbs with her mind to find that infuriating bird. It was sitting on the topmost branch of the tree, chirping its little heart out. Slowly, oh so slowly, she willed the branch to bend backwards. At the point where the branch could take no more bending, she released the tension with a thought, rocketing the annoying bird off into the sky.

With a smile she turned her attention back to her teacher who had ceased his talking and was tapping a hoof on the floor.

"Are my lessons that boring, Bloom?" he asked in an exasperated tone. This was not the first time she had ignored a lesson in favor of something she deemed more important at the time.

"No, Elsrend, I'm sorry about that, but you know how distracting those birds are. I can hardly hear myself think over the racket they so enjoy making."

"You know Bloom, most ponies find their songs to be enjoyable, even calming. Why is it that you hate them so?" Elsrend asked. He had had this conversation with Bloom before, multiple times in fact, and wasn't expecting a real answer. He hadn't gotten one in the nine years he had known the yellow earth pony, and knew he probably never would. Still he asked all the same, more out of habit than the answer he already knew was coming.

Bloom just sighed, and shook her head, not bothering with the rehearsed answer always given to those types of questions. "So you were saying before i got distracted..."

Elsrend gave a small snort but went back to the lesson he had been teaching. "As i was saying, shaman who practice the Forest Walkers Path can utilize their skill with plants and nature to draw sustenance from the world around them. Those few who truly master it do not have to eat or drink at all so long as there is sufficient plant life around." He paused; as if to let what he had just said truly sink in.

"Wait," Bloom said, "Wouldn't that kill the plants to just have everything sucked out of them?" She was having a hard time finding the use in just killing the only weapon of a nature shaman.

Elsrend on the other hoof just chuckled at her question. "You didn't let me finish little Life-Bloom," the nickname was his favorite way to tease the young earth pony. As if on cue, Blooms face turned red with embarrassment as she muttered a soft 'shut up' before looking away. This only earned her more laughter from Elsrend as he continued, "as i was saying, a practitioner of our branch of shamanism can, with practice, live off nothing but the excess magic of plants. So long as you do not overdraw the plants supply of magic, this skill will leave no lasting negative effects on the plants you draw from."

The rest of the lesson was spent discussing the numbers and techniques to achieve the best results, without killing the plants. Bloom found the prospect of needing little to no food or water fascinating, and was already beginning to think of ways the spell could be helpful. According to Elsrend, by simply changing a few focus points in the spell, and shifting the targeted area from the body as a whole to the brain alone. A particularly gifted practitioner could not only delay the body's natural need for rest, but also enhance brain function. In essence putting your brain into overdrive and delaying the negative effects until a more convenient time. The drawback being that when you do feel the effects of your overused brain and, lack of sufficient rest, it hits you all at once and is only compounded on itself for the time delayed. It's a bit of a double edged sword in that respect, still a useful trick to have in ones arsenal.

"So Bloom," Elsrend said as he got to his hooves, preparing to leave for the day, "I have some training I want you to do in preparation for your exams."

This made her ears snap to face him, her exams for graduating from the Axum University of Shamanism were just around the corner, and had been weighing heavily on her mind for some time now. No one knew what this year's exam would be, but everyone knew one thing: it was never easy. The exams always forced the students to their limits, regardless of what path you chose to specialize in. The fact that she was a nature specialist and fallowed the Forest Walkers Path had Bloom even more worried. Forest Walkers weren't known for their destructive ability until they reached an extremely high level of skill, this meant that the exam would have to be more technically inclined to make up for the lack of raw force required. She herself had near prodigious skill when it came to learning new spells, incantations, and the like. But she lacked the patience for true mastery, so far the only thing she mastered was manipulation of nature. And even that was only born from her hate of bird songs, not from a desire or drive to truly master the art.

"Life-Bloom!"

"What," Bloom said, startled from the thoughts she had been getting lost in.

"I swear you have been spacing off more these days, are you sure you're alright?" Elsrend asked, concern in his voice, "you know you can always take a break if you're not feeling up to it."

"No I'm fine, really, just what was it you were saying about the exams? And stop calling me 'Life-Bloom' damn it!"

Sighing Elsrend gave up trying to make her take a break, it was an exercise in futility if there ever was one. "Study the skills we went over today, namely how to turn raw nature magic into something you can live off of. You can thank me later little Life-Bloom," he said with a hint of a smile in his voice. And with that he trotted out of the room.

"I'm never going to live that one down am I," she asked herself. The nickname had been a gift from Elsrend after her first test in nature magic, a gift that sadly refused to go away. She and the seven other students that were studying the Forest Walkers Path at the time had all been taken out to the gardens. Their task had been to form a connection with a flower, the most basic from of nature magic. The zebras made it seem easy, but when Bloom tried to connect to the flower, it had ignored her. Again and again Bloom attempted to connect to the flower, and every time she was met with cold indifference.  As time dragged on and the other colts and filly's completed the exercise Bloom became more and more frustrated. Finally her emotions got the best of her and she forced her will upon the poor flower, it caved under the weight of her pent up frustration. And over the course of a few seconds it fully bloomed, wilted, and died. Elsrend had jokingly called her 'Life-Bloom' because her flower had been the only casualty that day, sadly the name had stuck and for the last nine years that's what most of her fellow shamans referred to her as. All things considered it could have been worse, the name wasn't that terrible in and of itself, although she could do without the running joke that she killed anything and everything plant related.

With one last heavy sigh, Bloom got to her hooves, muttering lsrm as she did. A single charm on each of her bracelets glowed a gentle white, like ghosts waking from their sleep. Bloom tapped each of her hooves in turn, testing the spell she had just cast. Satisfied that everything was as it should be, she calmly walked out of the room they had used for class that day. Heading for her room across the campus in the dorms, she never broke her pace. At most she would offer a small nod to the students who greeted her on the walk back to her room, not being one to enjoy idle conversations.

Once Bloom reached the dorms, she began the trek up stairs to the fifth story. Living at the University so long had its benefits after all, as well as being the only shaman currently studying to be a Forest Walker. It wasn't a very desirable  field of study to most zebras, unsurprising considering there wasn't much to speak of when it came to trees on the grasslands, let alone any forests. Of all the branches of shamanism, the Forest Walkers Path was the most useless in the zebras homeland. Still Bloom had no plans to live here past graduation, and her Equestrian home had no lack of forests. So it was, as it had always been, simply a waiting game until she could return home a true shaman.

Lost in thought about shamanism and home, Bloom walked headlong into her room's door without opening it. The shocking pain in her nose brought her back to reality rather quickly. Grumbling to herself about how she really should rewrite the rune locks on her door to open on their own, she brought her right hoof to her face and spoke sfsr into it. A rune matching the one carved into the door glowed as the door swung open.

With deft steps Bloom walked around the mess of books and plants strune throughout the room, with ease only the creator of such a mess could achieve. It had taken Bloom nearly three years to convince the school board to allow her to take out the ceiling and replace it with glass, turning her dorm room into a greenhouse. And another four years of constant   pestering of merchants and travelers to acquire the many plants that now grew throughout the room, none of which were native to the zebra grasslands. She always thought it was a shame they would have to be left behind when she left the University; still Elsrend had promised to take care of them when she was gone. After all they were invaluable when it came to teaching nature magic, there was so little of note in the grasslands as far as forest plants were concerned.

"Still walking into doors i see," came a voice from the corner of the room, the only corner that wasn't cluttered with plants. Blooms ears flicked in annoyance at the sound of her roommates taunting, a habit Ellennara never tired of. With a thought she connected to all the plants in the room, forcing their leaves to rustle in a nonexistent breeze. That only earned some giggles from the zebra, "yes yes master Bloom, truly all nature bends to your will."

Try as she might, Bloom couldn't keep the scowl on her face, and soon her lips tugged upward into a smile. "I'm glad we understand each other," Bloom said in her best condescending voice, "I wouldn't want to have to show the true might of the Forest Walkers." With that she turned, her nose as high in the air as possible, and swaggered over to her bed. The day had been a long one for her, coupled with the fact that she hadn't slept much the night before, and she was ready for sleep. Hopping into bed, she murmured lsrm one last time to disable the runes on her bracelets before drifting off to sleep.

Apple Bloom found herself walking through the rows of apple trees that made up Sweet Apple Acres. The sun spilled through the branches of the trees to either side of her, playing tag with the shadows on the path. And the birds filled the air with their gentle song, delivered on the wind that lazily danced through the filly's mane and tail. A pleasant smell of apples permeated the whole scene, providing a perfect backdrop to the ideal summer day. As she approached the house, the sound of laughter reached her ears. A care free sound of joy and ease, it made Apple Bloom quicken her step, wanting nothing more than to join in on that happiness.

But something was wrong. The birds had stopped singing. The wind had died. And the sun was gone. The smell of apples shifted into the smell of smoke. Apple Bloom looked behind her to see Sweet Apple Acres burning. She couldn't move, couldn't speak, this couldn't be happening. It was the laughter morphing into screams that shocked her out of her stunned state. Slowly she turned to see her home aflame as well. She could make out Applejack's screams, as well as what could only be Big Macs. She couldn't ever remember him screaming before, ever. And then as quickly as they started, the screams died. The only sound in the orchard being the cackle of the fire.

Just as she was about to take a step there was a sickening thud behind her. A slightly wet sound like fresh meat hitting the ground. Her blood ran cold. It took everything she had to look behind her. And she instantly wished she hadn't.

There standing behind her, back lit by the burning apple trees, was what the filly could only describe as a monster. She couldn't see its face in the shadows, but she knew it was smiling. Still that wasn't the worst part. Down by its feet, in a pool of growing red, was a near unrecognizable corpse. But that mane, that blond mane was unmistakable.

Apple Blooms head swam as her legs buckled beneath her. The monster just laughed as it reached for her. Its clawed hand cutting into her throat. And as its jagged teeth came closer and closer to her eyes a voice seemed to whisper from memory.

"These eyes are a shamans, they've seen too much. And of all that I've seen, theirs few left I can touch.

Perhaps someday your eyes, will mirror my own. But to have eyes like these, you'll lose all that you've known."