Lifeblooms

“Wait!” Valenia yelled as she ran to catch up with Bloom after recovering from her shock. To her credit she only slightly faltered when the huge wolf turned to look at her, “You can’t just go walking around with that thing, aren’t you going to unsummon it?”

The other members of their group, seeing that the wolf had yet to make an aggressive move, decided it was ok to follow. Still they made sure to keep a good distance from the elemental, not wanting to test just how gentle it truly was.

“That doesn’t look like any of the elementals in our books,” Zin said, his voice shaking a little.

“Oh?” Bloom deadpanned, “And how pray tell am I to know what an elemental looks like?”

“She’s got you there,” Asa giggled, it seemed that with her exams over and done with, Asa was a much bubblier zebra. Her mannerisms reminded Bloom of a more down to earth Pinkie.

“Regardless of that you can’t just walk around with that… wolf.” Valenia said, attempting to regain control of the situation. “Even if it is harmless, it’s liable to cause a panic if you just strolled around the university.”

“What else would I do?”

“Unsummon it?”

“I can’t,” Bloom stated a little shyly, “it’s far harder to unsummon an elemental than it is to make one and I simply don’t have the skill.” She was telling the truth, even if not all of it. She really didn’t have the skill herself to unsummon the wolf; she just never mentioned that she didn’t truly do any of her spells.

“Then we can call Elsrend and have him unsummon it.”

“It’s possible I suppose, the problem is that nature elementals have free will. This one here loves me,” Bloom said placing a hoof on the wolf, “that’s why she listens to me. What she would do to Elsrend if he tried to unsummon her I couldn’t say.”

“What about safety runes? There has to be some in place just in case your spell went wild.”

“About that…” Bloom said, scuffing the ground nervously with her hoof. “I kind of don’t use safety runes… ever.”

“You’re telling me that you summoned an elemental with no safe way to send it back?” Valenia seemed shocked that anypony would be so reckless.

“You make is sound so bad when you say it that way, have a little faith. I’m no good with runes, that’s why there aren’t any, if I can just get back to my dorm ill have Ellennara make some.” Bloom said just a little too cheery. “The sooner I get back to my dorm the sooner this wolf is bound.”

Valenia was quiet for a moment, she was weighing the pros and cons of letting Bloom walk through the university with an unbound elemental at her side. After a few more moments of silent contemplation she came to a decision. “Fine, you can go Bloom. If there was ever a time you could just walk around with that thing it would be during the exams, still keep it close. I don’t want to cause a panic if I don’t have to.”

“And smile!” Asa added as she bounced around. “You can’t look scary with a smile!”

Reluctantly Bloom put on the brightest smile she could muster. “Like this?”

“Don’t smile,” Valenia deadpanned after a second, “it makes you look like you’re up to something.”

“Yah, I’ve never seen anypony with such a natural evil villain smile in my life.” Zin added.

“I know what you mean,” Bloom said, “no matter how hard I try it never quite reaches my eyes.” The rest of the group went quiet at this, not quite sure what to say to such an off-color joke. “Oh come now don’t be like that, I know there gone it’s not news to me. They have been gone for going on ten years now but that doesn’t mean you can’t laugh, I was proud of that joke damn it.”

“I suppose it was funny,” Valenia started, “but I’m not so sure it should have been and that’s the problem.” She paused for a second after this, as if collecting her thoughts. After a few more moments she continued, “Your dark humor aside, you are all dismissed. Your exams are over so feel free to do whatever it is you like for the remainder of today. Tomorrow the pass/fail lists will be posted in the main hall.” With that she turned and walked away from the group, towards the conference room the teachers of the university used for meetings and such.

Everypony remained standing where they were as there instructor left them.  Not a word was spoken as the reality that there final exams were well and truly over began to sink in for the first time. Deciding that somepony should probably break the silence as it was beginning to get awkward Bloom spoke up first.

“Well everypony, it’s been fun, but I have things to do, elementals to bind, you know how it is. I’ll see you around.” With that she turned from the group and began the walk back to her dorm, with her newly acquired timber wolf right beside her.

As easy as she tried to make it look, creating the elemental wolf took a lot out of Bloom. Channeling that much magic through herself, and with her body as unaccustomed to the work as it was, took a great deal of effort. Though it took much less now that the wolf was fully formed, it still required magic to sustain itself. Without the runes to allow it to absorb excess magic on its own, Bloom was the one who had to supply the magic. It wasn’t currently a problem but with the strain she had already gone through it would become one sometime soon. Lacking the skill to create such runes herself, and not wishing to see just how long she could remain a magical conduit, Bloom sit off for home with renewed vigor.

To her surprise there were only a few zebras that ran away screaming. Most of the time the zebras she met just quickened there pace, or tried their best to get out of Blooms way. This was preferable to her in any case; it cut the walk that normally would have taken around ten minutes down to six. To anypony who worked up the nerve to ask about the giant timber wolf trailing the blind earth pony, ‘exam’ was the only response needed.

Even with the steady pace she had, it set Blooms mind at ease when the large building she had come to call home came into ‘view’. It was the largest of the dorms, and being the first to be built it was made of stone. Her room tended to get a little cold in the winter, still Bloom was glad for the stone now. It meant that her not so lite elemental could be taken to her room on the top floor without risking it falling through.

With a smile Bloom picked up her pace even more, eager to be getting inside and show Ellennara her elemental. And to a lesser extent eager to stop scaring the poor zebras around her, though as for that she would probably have the wolf with her at all times from now on.

“Guess they will just have to deal with you for a while until we leave wont they,” Bloom murmured to the wolf beside her.

I guess so m’lady, still I feel bad scaring these poor zebras.

“Don’t, they don’t have any reason to be scared yet they are, seems to me that it’s there problem at this point.” The wolf made a sound like a more feral version of laughter at Blooms comments. This however sent any zebras close enough to hear it running in fear.

As Bloom neared the dorms another problem presented itself to her. The quickest way to her room was up the north stairs. These however were located through the student lounge, which was currently filled with students. Not being one to make things harder than they had to be Bloom took the easiest and quickest course of action. She strolled through the front doors and shouted loud enough for everypony to hear her, “The wolfs with me, don’t freak out!” She then continued on her way up the stairs to her room.

This brash decision worked for two reasons. One; Blooms voice was unmistakable, but more than this no pony could ever remember hearing her yell before. She had been very quiet when she first arrived at Axum, disliking her new voice and also somewhat embarrassed about it. Over the years she came to except her new voice, but her quite nature was a habit that wasn’t so easily broken. The second reason her plan worked was much simpler; Bloom had just yelled the strangest thing any of the zebras had ever heard. Between the shock of what she was yelling and that she was yelling, once the wolf walked in with her everypony was too shocked to run and scream.

Of course not everything went as smoothly as the student lounge. Bloom met a group of two mares and a stallion on the stairs to her room. The mares jumped in surprise, but the stallion let out a scream that belonged to a mare half his size. This quickly got rid of the tension as everypony present (and one elemental) broke down into fits of laughter at the sound. A quick explanation and a few flights of stairs later brought Bloom to her dorm room door.

As Bloom entered her room it was clear Ellennara was ready for them, most of her rooms mess was rearranged. She could ‘see’ the clear outline of a mass of runes in preparation for their little plan. Still if Ellennaras strangled scream was anything to go by she was in no way expecting the elemental to be so scary. It took Bloom a good ten minutes to calm the frightened zebra, she was more scared than anypony else had been. Likely due to the fact that she was trapped in a small room and the wolf was sitting in front of the only exit. Still even after she finally calmed down, Ellennara sat as far away from the wolf as there small room would allow.

“You know she isn’t going to bite right?” Bloom asked. She was working very hard to convince the zebra that it was safe to carve the required runes into the wolf’s hide.

“Of course she won’t bite you…” Ellennara had made it painfully clear she didn’t think it was a good idea to take a blade to an unbound elemental wolf.

“You won’t bite Ellennara if she carves some runes into you will you,” Bloom asked the wolf as if she were talking to a puppy. For her part the wolf gave a happy little bark of agreement, somehow this didn’t quell Ellennaras fears.

“I’m still not so sure about your plan, are you sure we have to do this?”

“Ellennara,” Bloom deadpanned, “look around you everything is in place. Don’t tell me you’re going to leave me hanging now.”

“Fine.” Ellennara said after a long silence. “I’ll go get my tools and start on the wolfs runes, but when it bites me I’m blaming you.” She got up and went over to her work bench, grabbing her tools while she muttered about how stupid this idea was to herself.

It took Ellennara a few hours to complete the runes for continuous energy absorption, by the end of it the wolf’s left foreleg was completely covered in an intricate pattern of runes. The end result was just perfect though, allowing the elemental to get all the magic necessary to live independent of Bloom.

Another side effect of the process was Ellennara became quite comfortable with the large wolf. So much so that she had even taken to scolding it when it moved as she was working.

“Finally finished,” Ellennara stated as she stretched her stiff mussels. “Now don’t you go wrecking all my hard work by scratching or chewing on that leg, you understand me young lady.”

The large timber wolf nodded vigorously, something about this small zebra left even the elemental frightened to displease her.

“Good, now follow me, “Ellennara said getting to her hooves. “If you’re truly serious about binding your souls to one another then I’ve everything ready. This idea still scares me, but I said I’d help.” With that Ellennara walked to the back of the room she had claimed as her own years ago. It was separated by hanging rugs in an attempt to block out the sun from Blooms sunroof.

As Bloom followed Ellennara into her side of the room, it was almost comical how stark the difference was. There was a soft glow of runes that permeated the space, easily picked up on by Blooms magical sight. Though something was off, the many runes made it seem to Bloom as if everything was hazy. Like she was looking at it all through a smoke filled room, the gentle hum of the plant life around the room was still there, just out of focus. After taking a moment to adjust herself to the ambient magic that seemed to be trapped in this side of the room. Bloom took a seat and was promptly followed by the wolf.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” Ellennara joked, “just let me get everything ready to go and we can get started.”

Bloom didn’t respond, she was too nervous after all thinking of how much work had gone into this. And just how great it would be when it was all over and she could see once again. Of course the other option was still there, but she couldn’t think about that now, not if she wanted to keep her nerve.

“Nervous?” asked Ellennara, “you know you can still call this off if you’re having second thoughts.”

“No.” Bloom said immediately, pausing to compose herself after she heard how desperate her voice sounded. After a second she started again, softer this time. “I mean we have come this far, I want to see how the story ends.”

It took Ellennara almost ten minutes to check and recheck every part of the spell to be sure nothing was out of place. During which time Bloom couldn’t sit quite still, the waiting was driving her nerves crazy. “Do you think we will be all right,” she whispered to the wolf at her side.

I don’t know m’lady; I have no memory of anypony trying something quite like this. I trust Miss Ellennara to do everything in her power to keep you safe though.

“I suppose your right, all I can do now is trust her.”

“Finished,” Ellennara said as she finished double checking the last of the runes. “Now I’m going to need to take your b bracelets so that they don’t interfere with the spell.”

Bloom wasn’t happy about losing her sight, but she was already all in so what’s a little more? With a slight sigh I resignation she removed her precious bracelets, passing them to Ellennara before finding her way back to the wolf. Unsure of just what she was expected to do next, Bloom just leaned against the wolf and waited for Ellennara to instruct her or begin.

“Just sit there and try not to break any of the runes,” the zebra said as if sensing the pony’s dilemma. “Oh,” she added from somewhere behind Bloom, “When we start this you’re going to black out. Will that…” she paused looking for the right name for the elemental.

“Timber wolf,” Bloom finished for her. “She doesn’t have a name yet, going to have to fix that soon.”

“Yes, well will that timber wolf stay still?”

“Well she was originally a tree… so yes I think she can do still.”

“If you say so, I’m just saying if that thing goes nuts we are both doomed.” Ellennara’s voice had more than a tinge of fear in it.

“Don’t worry I trust Bastion, I planted her after all.”

“Bastion,” Ellennara asked.

“Well if we are going to be together until I die she needs a name,” Bloom said a little unsure. “Don’t you like it? I thought Bastion was a fitting name.”

“It’s oddly literal; though considering what we are about to do I suppose it fits quite well. Ok then Bastion, you stay still now or we are all going to have a very bad day.” With that Ellennara walked to the center of the room and placed a hoof on both Bloom and Bastion. “Let’s get started.”

“What do I…” Bloom never finished that though as she was violently thrust into unconsciousness.

Ellennara closed her eyes and waited for the pulling sensation the journal had described as the tell that her mind had crossed over. She still wasn’t truly sure how it all worked, only that it did work. When it happened it was less of a slight pull and more like getting forcefully dragged, though that might have been her own fault as she wasn’t fluent in this magic.

Moments later Ellennara came to a stop as the dragging ended, opening her eyes she was greeted with a sight unlike anything in reality.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” came a voice from behind the zebra, looking back she saw a face she didn’t recognize. A small filly with huge golden eyes that seemed to shine as she grinned up at her visitor. Her voice too rang out clear as a bell, what gave her away was her huge red bow. Though it was bright and without any of the wear its counterpart in reality had, it was still unmistakable.

“Bloom?” Ellennara whispered.

The filly just giggled up at her, “who else would be here silly, this is how my soul remembers me as this is how I was the last time I saw myself.” With a smile the filly did a little spin, “this is me the last time I was truly whole.”

For a moment Ellennara was so stunned she just stood there and stared at the upbeat filly before her. Unable to completely come to terms with the fact that her friend had once smiled this much.

“Come on silly don’t just sit there, you’ll run out of magic before long so let’s get to work.”

“Right! Sorry, I’m going to need you to take me to your soul.”

“Wow, did you even read that journal? This is my soul, what you need is me to make it tangible.” With an overly dramatic sigh the little filly closed her eyes, when she opened them again the two were standing before a large tapestry. It was easily two stories tall and just as wide with changing images of Blooms past. There wasn’t any rhyme or reason to the shifting pictures that made up the tapestry.

“Well?” Bloom said.

“Right,” Ellennara replied as she got to work.

It was a long and tedious process to separate a portion of Blooms soul without damaging it in any way. After what seemed to be hours of work Ellennara heard the sound she had been dreading. It was the low ringing of what sounded like a huge bell, but the zebra knew what it meant. Her time was quickly coming to an end. Looking at her work so far she was only three fourths of the way finished taking apart Blooms soul. This was taking too long and was costing the zebra much more magic than she originally thought it would.

“What is that sound,” Bloom asked, her voice betraying her worry much easier because it lacked its usual broken rasp. As she looked away from the sky where the sound seemed to have come from to her friend her heart sank. Ellennara had tears forming at the edges of her eyes, and was muttering ‘fuck’ over and over again to her. “Am I going to die?” The small earth pony didn’t sound scared, there were no tears in her eyes. Her voice was now steady and calm, reflecting the calm feeling that now permeated her soul. She had come into this prepared to join her family if things went south.

“No,” Ellennara said to the surprise of the pony, “But when im done here you might wish you were.” With eyes full of tears she turned to face Bloom, ‘I’m sorry’ she mouthed. If the words were ever truly spoken though Bloom would never know. For at that moment it was impossible to hear anything over the sound of her tapestry of a soul being torn apart.

Bloom watched in equal parts horror and fascination as Ellennara began murmuring words too low to be heard, moments later a hundred of small runes appeared in the air above her now frayed soul. With a wave from Ellennara the runes twisted and warped into silver spikes, before the nailed down all the frayed edges to prevent farther fraying.

“Bring me to the wolf.”

Bloom absentmindedly waved her hoof, instantly shifting the landscape. Having already resigned herself to death, she now was simply interested to see what Ellennara did with her soul. They stood in a vast open space, at the center of which was a massive sphere. It was much more solid than Blooms soul, and seemed to hold the memories of many different trees and there long lives.

As soon as Ellennara began to approach the sphere a horn sounded. “Fuck!” Ellennara yelled as she closed her eyes and started murmuring what Bloom could now tall were incantations. Seconds later runes began to appear all around the chunk of Blooms soul. A hundred or so became the spikes that had pinned the frays down on the rest of her soul; the rest became a number of things. As soon as the spikes pinned Blooms soul to Bastions, a dozen runes became a chain binding all the spikes together. Twenty or so more became needles and thread and began sewing the two souls together. The last seven became thick wire that stitched a rune of sight through both souls, completing the process.

Somewhere in the distance a harp sounded, signaling that she had about a minute left before her magic ran dry. As the darkness slowly began to invade both their vision Ellennara turned to Bloom with sadness in her eyes.

“What now,” the tiny filly asked.

“Now,” Ellennara said her voice catching, “Now we wait and see how much damage I just did.”