Lifeblooms

Upon waking Bloom found out just how much of a gift her blind eyes could sometimes be. Judging by how badly her head was pounding with every heartbeat. She was sure that the sunlight would have been the most painful of curses.

“You’re finally awake I see.” The voice of the evil zebra, who had cruelly spoken above a whisper sent waves of pain across Blooms skull. Moaning, the poor pony rolled over clutching her throbbing head, and let out a string of curses that would have made a sailor proud.

“Oh I’m sorry my dear,” the zebra said much softer this time, “but could you tell me what happened to you? A few students brought you here saying they found you unconscious under a tree.”

“Do you have my bracelets,” Bloom asked what must be the schools doctor, completely ignoring the question. She made sure to whisper not wanting the pain to come back in force.

“Well,” the doctor said a little unsure, “yes and no. We do technically have them, but they seem to have exploded…” She trails off as if she expected a reaction, possibly a violent one.

“Figures,” Bloom muttered. She had expected as much from the overload of information, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t hoped they were fine. Now she would have to beg Ellennara for new ones. “Hay doc, do you think I could get something for the pain in my head, its driving me mad.”

“Sure Bloom.”

It took almost twenty minutes, and an excess of help from Ellennara for Bloom to get back to their dorm room. The walk back was one of the most frustrating times in recent memory for the earth pony. Without her bracelets Bloom was forced to lean against Ellennara as she guided them back. At first the proud pony tried to navigate by connecting with the plant life, and using them as a guide. Sadly there weren’t enough trees to help guide her, and talking to the grass was an exercise in futility if there ever was one.

In the end Bloom was forced to swallow the pride she held in her independents and rely on her friend to guide her home. By the time the two made it to their room Blooms mood had significantly soured. Regardless of the fact that no pony would judge her for needing a little help ever now and again it, was a blow to her pride to ask for assistance. After all she didn’t work this hard simply to be left asking for others help, even if they were her friends and would freely give it.

“So Bloom, am I invited to the pity party,” Elllennara asked.

“The fuck did you just say,” Bloom snapped. Normally she kept a level head, and kept her tongue under better control. But the time she spent with her gryphon friends had long sense rubbed off on her, and now when she was stressed out her speech would slip. Lucky for her Ellennara wasn’t like most zebras (or ponies for that matter) and didn’t mind the more, colorful language her friend sometimes used. And even if she rarely ever said any curses herself, she wasn’t shocked and appalled like most equines.

“What was that Bloom? ‘Please, please replace the bracelets I blew up, I’m begging you Ellennara.’ Was that what you were saying, you mumbled and I believe I misheard you.”

Bloom couldn’t do anything but sigh, she had lost this one and she knew it. “Yes Ellennara my dear that is exactly what I was meaning to say. I am dreadfully sorry but sometimes I mumble when asking others for things, still I am so glad you understood me through all of that. It would have been simply the worst. Thing. Ever. If you were to mishear me.

Ellennara put up a good fight, but she couldn’t help it as she burst into laughter at the complete one eighty Bloom just pulled. “So Bloom, while I get started on replacing your bracelets, why don’t you tell me how you blew the first ones up,” Ellennara said through her giggles.

Even though she knew this question would pop up sooner or later, Bloom still wasn’t looking forward to it. The main problem was that she herself was still struggling to fully come to terms with all the information of this afternoon. Just thinking of all the implications and possibility’s was starting to bring the headache back. In the end Bloom decided to say the most honest thing she could think of, after all it wasn’t in her nature to lie.

“Well… a tree did it.”

“A…tree?”

“A tree.”

“Like, the big wood things with leaves and sometimes fruit?”

“No the things made of stone and steal. What the fuck were you thinking of?”

“No need to get smart with me,” Ellennara said, “I was just making sure we were talking about the same thing.”

“Wait. You believe me?” Bloom asked surprised. The doctor had just brushed her off saying ‘if you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine.’

“Well yes. You’ve never lied to me before, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever heard you lie as long as I’ve known you. Plus if anypony could get a tree to blow something up it would be you,” Ellennara added with a giggle.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Bloom deadpanned. Though the frustration was quickly draining away, leaving nothing but a small earth pony standing in a room full of plants, equal parts tired and excited.

“So, you mind explaining how a tree blew up your bracelets?”

“Well,” Bloom began, “it all started when I left the library.”

“Well…” Ellennara said once Bloom finished recounting the day’s events. She could certainly see why Bloom had seemed so lost in thought sense the infirmary. The implications alone of having access to the magic of every plant around were huge. Not to mention everything that may or may not be possible with that much magic at hoof. “Does this mean you’re going to study the other branches of shamanism?”

“I don’t think I will,” Bloom said after a few seconds of thought. “I have little interest in earth magic, and a blind earth pony has no place in the air or the open sea…”

Bloom trailed off after that, but no words needed to be said. They both already knew she was never going to study fire magic in any capacity. Bloom had, had a fear and hatred of fire for as long as the two were together. Once when they had just began to live together Ellennara lit a candle to study into the night. As soon as she smelled the smoke, little Bloom ran and hid under the bed. It took Ellennara an hour to get her to stop crying, and another forty minutes of promises never to burn anything ever again to get her out. Still for the next three days Bloom was overly jumpy and frightened. As she got older that fear slowly changed into hatred, as a few of the students of the Ember Walkers Path found out the hard way.

“Still this solves your elemental problems.”

“Yah,” Bloom said distractedly, “but what tree should I use?” It was a comment more to herself than a true question, still Ellennara answered it anyway.

“Isn’t that obvious? Use the tree you planted, you two are already so close I’m sure if you asked she would say yes.”

“What am I asking her to marry me?” Bloom asked with a chuckle.

“No your just asking her to house and shelter a part of your soul with her own, no big deal.”

“When you put it like that it sounds like so much, what if she says no…”

“From what you’ve told me of that tree, she loves you. I don’t think her saying no will be a problem.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Good, now if you’ll excuse me I have a lot of work to do because of somepony…”

It took most of the night, but Ellennara got all four of Blooms bracelets done. With a smile she placed them all gently into the small tree next to Blooms bed, making sure to tell the tree to inform Bloom of them before heading to bed herself.

The next four days passed in a blur for Bloom, she talked to the oak tree about her plan. Much to her surprise the oak was all too happy to help in any way she could, but warned that she didn’t have the magic Bloom would need.  It would take much more magic than the young tree could hold to transform her from into that of an elemental. So for the rest of their four days, Bloom and the oak practiced taking and holding magic. This time with much less random explosions. The plan they came up with was a simple one, Bloom would take as much excess magic as she could and funnel it into the oak. From there the tree would handle the transmutation and all the other more subtle details. After the creation of the elemental, the two of them would make their way back to Blooms dorm room, from then on it was Ellennaras show…

For once it seemed to Bloom like everything might just go as planned. She woke up extra early on the day of the exams to make sure everything was perfect. Running a bit of her limited magic through all her runes to make sure they weren’t damaged. She had asked Ellennara a few days earlier to make a few runes for her to help regulate and control the excess magic her plan required she use. They all seemed to be in working order, so Bloom continued with her morning routine before she headed down for breakfast.

The atmosphere in the dorms cafeteria was one of silent tension, and Bloom didn’t need eyes to know it was caused by the graduating class. Truth be told, even Bloom was beginning to question just how good of a plan she really came up with. Still it was far too late to back out now, and while a bit more time would have been nice, today was the day.

Quietly like the rest of her class Bloom got her breakfast and sat down, choosing a table at random. All the students at the university knew of Bloom, she was a bit hard to miss given her unique state. So it was quite normal for the earth pony to randomly sit places, as such no one minded when she chose there table.

“So,” she started, “who do I have the pleasure of eating with today?” It was the question she started most of her days off with. Her runes may help her not walk into walls, but everyponys face looked the same when the world lacked detail.

“Umm, we just got here a few days ago. You wouldn’t know us Miss Bloom,” a distinctly female voice stammered.

“No need to be nervous, I don’t bite.” Bloom flashed them a smile before starting on her salad. “Oh, and just Bloom is fine,” she said after swallowing her bite. “’Miss’ makes me sound older and more important than I really am.”

That seemed to do the trick, and soon enough the four were once more chatting excitedly about how great it was going to be to learn shamanism.  With a bit of an argument about what the best path of shamanism was. Bloom just lessened quietly while she finished her breakfast, occasionally offering bits of information when asked. Before long however the headmaster entered the room, calling the graduating class outside to the courtyard. It was time to begin the exams.

The graduating class was fairly small this year, only fifty seven students qualified for the exit exams. So they were split off into groups of five, (and one group of two) and assigned to a teacher. Bloom was assigned to Valenia, a shaman of the Tide Walkers Path. She had always been a kind teacher, if a bit strict, and had a gift for painting. Or so Bloom had been told, having no way to tell for herself just how beautiful her art was.

Valenia greeted the group with the usual pleasantries before leading them off away from the rest of the students. Once she found a place with a bit less noise, she asked if there was anypony who would like to go first. Sense the only thing we were meant to do was impress, Valenia also asked if there was a specific place we needed to be for our spells.

“I guess I could start sense I don’t need to go anywhere.” The speaker stood to Blooms left, and he sounded as nervous as Bloom felt.

“Your name is Zin, correct,” Valenia asked. Shuffling around what sounded like paper.

“Yes ma’am,” Zin replied nervously.

“And what will you be showing us today?”

“I will be attempting to condense the air in an area to be as solid as stone, and have it hold my weight.” To the poor stallions credit he did try to sound sure of himself, even if the result was questionable at best.

“Well Mr. Zin,” Valenia said warmly, “whenever you’re ready you may begin.”

Bloom didn’t have to wait long for the familiar tingle that told her magic was being used. Judging from the whistles of approval from her group mates, and the fact that he was floating a good five feet off the ground he must have pulled off his spell. Next to go was Asa, a Tide Walker like the teacher. She led the group over to the fountain, and proceeded to make the water in it rain up and form into a cloud about fifty feet up. From the groups reaction it must have been quite a sight to see. The third to go was an Earth Walker whose name Bloom didn’t catch. He made a flowing river out of solid stone that acted just like a river of water. It even splashed and made ripples when a pebble was dropped into it. The last student before Bloom was a student of the Ember Walkers Path. A mare named Pattern, who set a bush on fire without so much as singeing a single leaf. Needless to say Bloom had excused herself for that last demonstration, not wanting to be anywhere near fire of any kind. Still even though she was a ways away, sense this was the only spell involving plants so far, it was the only want Bloom could truly appreciate.

Finally it was Blooms turn to go, and she could help but shift nervously on her hooves. “And lastly Bloom,” Valenia said gently, “what will you be showing us today?

“Umm, about that,” Bloom started, her voice coming out higher than normal due to her nerves, “we will be heading over to the oak tree I planted when I got here.”

“Wont the trees here work?” Valenia asked.

“Well the oak is the only tree large enough that’s mine, and I need a tree that the university won’t mind losing.”

“Wait, you’re just going to destroy a tree,” Zin asked unimpressed, “Anypony can do that.”

“Did I say I was destroying a tree?” Bloom asked, her temper rising at the comment, and her words had more venom in them than was probably necessary.

“Well no…”

“Exactly, so shut up and watch.”

The walk over to the oak was spent in silence after that little outburst. Which was just fine for Bloom, she spent the walk over gathering as much magic as she could from every plant around. Once they arrived at the tree Bloom walked over and sat down right in front of it.

With a sly grin she looked at where Zin stood, “Now don’t look away, you’ll love this.” With that she looked back to the tree and prepared to get started pumping magic into it.

“What are you going to be doing Bloom,” Valenia asked.

“Me?” Bloom asked innocently. “I’m going to turn this tree into a nature elemental.”

The stunned silence was all Bloom needed to start her plan. You ready for this?  She asked the oak.

Let us begin m’lady.

With that Bloom began to pour all the magic she had until now into the tree. At the same time she reached out as far as she could, asking all the plants for any magic they could spare. The gasps that accompanied the cracking sound as the roots pulled themselves from the dirt was like music to Bloom. As she poured more magic into the tree it began to fold in on itself, until there was just a large orb of wood floating in midair. The process was going faster than Bloom thought it would, but judging by the sheer volume of magic she was throwing at the oak it wasn’t that surprising.

Last step? Bloom asked the oak.

Sure is m’lady, now tell me what you want me to look like.

Bloom had thought long and hard about the shape her elemental would take. And after four days of thinking she finally came up with the answer. With a grin she opened up her mind, showing the oak an old image from years ago. And just like that Blooms part was over. The tree had all the magic she would need, and the shape to aim for. Now all Bloom had to do was sit back and watch an elemental take shape before her.

The first thing to appear were the four large clawed paws, each attached to legs reminiscent of a wolves legs. The sphere elongated to form the beasts torso, with a tail made of sticks and branches. Once its face formed it was clear that this was a timber wolf, though this thing made the ones found in the Everfree look like puppy’s. With a growl, the wolf simply tore the wood on its mussel into a mouth. As its mouth form into a grin, a row of jagged and splintered wood formed into teeth. Lastly its eyes opened to show pits of glowing green magic where its eyes should be.

At first it just blinked and looked around, as if trying to get its bearings. Then the great wolf, standing easily as tall as Princess Celestia, turned to face the tiny earth pony sitting before it. Bloom for her part was currently wearing the biggest grin she could muster as she faced the wolf without a shred of fear. The same however couldn’t be said for the zebras behind her. Slowly the wolf lowered its head, a soft growling sound coming from its throat. And once it was eye to eye with Bloom, it opened its mouth and gave the small pony a lick that almost knocked her off her hooves.

“Stop it you dork,” Bloom said through her giggles, “we have to go show Ellennara and tell her I passed.”

This must have broken everypony out of there stunned state, because Zin quickly asked, “How can you be so sure you passed.”

Bloom and the wolf both turned to face him as if he were stupid. “If I don’t pass with this,” she deadpanned, “I fail to see how any of you will manage to pass.”

With that she turned and began to walk to her dorm with a bit of a spring in her step. The wolf following close at her heals.