Lifeblooms

Bloom woke up to a strange feeling unlike anything she had ever known before. No that wasn’t true, she could remember this feeling from somewhere. Yes it was the same feeling she had after her family was killed. It wasn’t pain; pain was to physical a feeling, no she felt… hollow. It was like a piece of herself was missing and would never come back. The feeling was almost comforting to Bloom, she had been sure she would be broken beyond recognition after what happened to her soul. And even with the missing pieces of herself she also felt something more, much more. It was Bastions soul, she was filling the gaps in Blooms own and then some. With bastion by her side the pony felt as if she might just make it out of this whole thing ok.

Awake at last I see. I’m glad to see you’re at the very least alive m’lady.

The sudden voice of Bastion in her head startled Bloom from her internal evaluations. It wasn’t just the voice though, the voices of plants just popped into her head all the time. If she didn’t actively block them out they would come through as clearly as if they made physical sound, a side effect of her shamanistic training, and becoming more attuned to the spirits around her. Still even then, even with their words sent directly to Blooms mind it was always clear whose thoughts were whose. This time however Bloom nearly mistook Bastions words for her own thoughts.

Did I scare you? I’m sorry. As Bastion spoke Bloom could feel a tinge of regret coming from the elemental.

No no, don’t worry about that Bastion, I was just surprised is all .I’ve never heard your voice so… internally before, it caught me off guard. It took Bloom a second to realize that she hadn’t spoken a word of that out loud. She had responded with thought, something she had never been able to do, so easily that it scared her a little.

Are you alright?  Bastion had felt Blooms tinge of fear and confusion.

I’ve never been able to do that… this before.

Convenient isn’t it?

Extremely, Bloom said. Then something occurred to her, why is it that it’s still dark? Did the spell not work or something?

It’s nothing like that, Bastion said with a bit of a chuckle. I just have my eyes closed at the moment. I didn’t know what state you would be in when you woke up, and I didn’t want to overwhelm you. You are ok right, she added still a bit concerned.

I won’t say I’m fine but I’m close enough, and I took this risk for a reason. Open them. Internally Bloom was doing her best to prepare for sight again. It had been so long, and she didn’t count that time she overloaded her bracelets. That had been such an intake of information it could hardly be called ‘sight’. When Bastion finally did open her eyes what she saw took Blooms breath away. The colors, the textures, the hues all of them perfect. After a moment more of simply reveling in the wonders of sight, Bloom began to take notice of just what she was looking at.

In front of her sat a pony, relatively small even compared to the zebra sleeping next to her. Her mane and tail were still vibrant red as she remembered them always being. Strands of gray could clearly be seen in both, the type you would find in a pony three times her age. Oddly enough her coat seemed to have avoided the touch of age. Her ribbon though was clearly showing its age and use. The strip of cloth that now covered her mangled eyes had once been as bright as her hair. Now it looked worn and slightly threadbare, its color just a memory of yesteryear. All and all she looked… tired.

Except for her cutie mark, that looked new. No, taking a closer look Bloom found that it was new. She had never seen her old cutie mark herself, but others had told her about it and it was most definitely an apple tree. This one though was not only not an apple tree, but also the largest most intricate mark she had ever seen, or herd of for that matter. The tree was a great oak whose branches and trunk took up most of her flanks. The roots however were the odd part; they stretched down to her knees, twisting down like real trees would. Being an ex cutie mark crusader Bloom knew cutie marks. They didn’t dictate what a pony was good at like what most thought. No they were simply a sign of something that was innately true about a pony, as if it was part of their soul. When a pony learned whatever that was about themselves the mark would appear. Normally as a simple picture that expressed that aspect. The key part of that was ‘simple,’ this looked like it was painted by an artist, as if a breeze would rustle the leaves.

Is… is this your work Bastion? The earth pony was trying to decide if she should be mad or not for the change. After all she had never truly ever seen her old cutie mark, and as such wasn’t too attached to it.

No it is not m’lady, if I had to guess I would say it is because you pinned your soul to mine.

You’re probably right, there’s no telling just how much this binding has changed us both. Speaking of change do you know what’s wrong with me?

No, but I can feel what you’re talking about. It’s as if a part of you is just… off. It’s a bit difficult to put into words.

I guess it’s no use worrying about it; I’m sure all my new breaks will show up sooner or later. I’m just glad my mind seems to be all right for the most part. At that Bloom got up in search of her bracelets.

With Bastions help it only took a minute to locate where Ellennara had placed the bracelets. The most difficult part turned out to be trying to walk with eyes not on your own face. Bloom quickly gave up on that plan, and with a bit of introspection found the link to Bastions sight and cut it. Everything went smoothly after that and Bloom soon found herself sitting beside the zebra once again. Lightly poking, talking, and even shaking couldn’t seem to wake her sleeping friend. Losing her patience the small pony soon left, only to return moments later with a glass of water.  A few shocked sputters later and Ellennara was once again firmly in the waking world.

“Can’t you *cough* ever just wake me up like a normal zebra?” Ellennara choked as she glared daggers at Bloom.

“I’m neither a zebra, nor normal so no I can’t.”

That seemed to bring the previous afternoons exploits crashing back to Ellennara’s now fully awake mind. “Oh my gosh Bloom are you all right? Do you feel ok, do you know who I am. Do you know who you are?” She would have kept fretting if Bastion hadn’t let out a low growl. Ellennara immediately stopped talking to look at the wolf. As if she just now realized she was in the presence of a large elemental, possibly under the control of an extremely unstable pony.

“Thank you for that Bastion,” Bloom said casually, “to answer your question I’m fine for the most part. I still seem to remember everything about my past, though I can tell that something in me is missing, or at least partly gone. As for what that is, I have no idea, though I don’t think that matters. Ill find out sooner or later.”

“I have one more question the,” Ellennara said, this time a little nervously. “Why are you here Applebloom.”

Bloom froze mid step, and all but forced Bastions gaze to the zebras face. “How do you know that name?” her voice betrayed no emotion as she spoke.

“I had my suspicions for a while now, but once I saw you in your soul there was no doubt anymore. There was also a zebra that showed up a lot in the tapestry of your memories.”

“Zecora…” Bloom said, still staring at Ellennara for a sign. Of what she didn’t know but she wanted something, anything to give the zebras thoughts away. Sadly she was woefully out of practice at reading expressions, she couldn’t tell heads or tails of what she saw on Ellennaras face. That was until she mentioned Zecora, then it lit up like a firework.

“WAIT Zecora, the potions master Zecora?”

“Err, I don’t know…” Bloom was a little taken aback by the sudden shift in mood. “She uhh, spoke in rhymes all the time.”

“Y-you knew Zecora,” Ellennara stammered out, staring at Bloom in complete shock.

“Yah I guess, I would spend the night over there from time to time when I was a filly. I don’t see why this is such a shocker, she’s just a zebra who made potions.”

“Zecora is a genius! She came up with tomes full of potions and spells thought to be impossible. Not to mention she is considered a master in every branch of shamanism. It’s even said that she speaks in rhymes because saying things normally is to boring to her. She is the shaman other shamans dream of being.”

Bloom just shrugged as her friend finished ranting, “she’s just Zecora to me, the weird zebra in the Everfree who rhymes a lot and makes cool potions.”

Ellennara just stared, her mouth opening and closing as if trying to form words. “How… how can you say that about possibly the greatest and most influential shaman in history?”

“If I told you to forget everything you saw in my soul would you do it,” Bloom asked. She was well aware of the inevitable answer but still she had to try. Also she hoped this sudden shift would keep Ellennara from going on another rant about Zecora.

Her plan did work to some extent; Ellennara did drop the Zecora subject. Though it was to pick back up her first question, “only if you tell me why you are here.”

“Because I wanted to, isn’t that all the reason I need?” Bloom knew her answer was weak, but one can always pray it’s enough. It wasn’t.

“Your sister and the other Elements of Harmony are like celebrities even here. Not to mention how close they are to the princesses of Equestria. I’m sure they would have been more than happy to take in the little sister of one of their greatest heroes. So I’ll ask you again, why are you here. And please the whole truth this time, I think I’ve earned that much.”

Bloom drew in a deep breath before speaking again. “I’m here to find enough power to rip the horn off the element of magic and the wings from the element of kindness.”

“You’re kidding,” Ellennara said chuckling at the supposed joke. Only Bloom wasn’t laughing, or smiling, she was deathly serious.

“Those two fools are the reason I don’t have a brother or sister or grandmother anymore…” her voice came out as no more than a whisper. She looked as if she would say more, but was never given the chance as the dorm room door slammed open.

Fallowed moments later by an unmistakable voice yelling, “congratulations on passing your exams! Bloom you’re the first pony ever to graduate Axum as a full-fledged shaman!” Nydari, one of Blooms oldest friends here in the zebra lands, and the first gryphon, stood in the doorway grinning. Her grin quickly faded as she noticed the tense atmosphere in the room. As well as the rather large wolf, who was currently lying behind Bloom looking at the strange gryphon.

“What’s with the serious mood,” Nydari asked, “this is cause for celebration.”

“Bloom wants to kill two of the Elements of Harmony,” Ellennara said. Throwing tact to the wind in hopes that the gryphon would help her talk there friend out of this madness.

“I never said that.”

“You’re right I’m sorry,” the zebra stated dryly, “Bloom wants to brutally maim two of the Elements of Harmony.”

Both Ellennara and Nydari looked at Bloom, as if they were expecting an argument. One that never came. “Don’t look at me,” the pony said, “that’s about the gist of it.”

I may not fully understand m’lady, but isn’t what you are planning just a bit insane?

As we are now, yes it’s completely insane. Twilight Sparkle may be trash but she has enough power to level a small town. With some more training though and if we can get the Everfree forest to back us, then it becomes an achievable feat.

I would try to dissuade you, but I can tell it would be pointless. So let’s find a way to maim something at the very least an order of magnitude beyond us.

That’s the spirit.

All was silent in the small room for a long time after that. Bloom was busy talking to Bastion, Ellennara was at a loss for words, and Nydari hadn’t spoken her mind yet. To fill the laps in conversation, Bloom took to looking over her friends for the first time… well ever. Ellennara wasn’t too far from how Bloom imagined her. She didn’t have Zecoras mohawk, and her stripes were a bit different. They had more wave to them, as if they could begin to swirl at any point but never quite did. Her cutie mark was a potion bottle filled with runes, and it looked like part of her coat more than ponies marks did. Her stripes faded into and out of her mark flawlessly, and Bloom absentmindedly wondered what it looked like before she got a mark.

Switching her attention to Nydari, the first thought she had was ‘white’. The gryphons feathers where all the color of freshly fallen snow, her ice blue eyes completed the look. She remembered her friend once saying that she was from the frozen north, which would explain the lack of color. Bloom could tell that the gryphon would all but disappear in falling snow, and with how silent Nydari could be…

Her thoughts were cut short by Nydari breaking the silence with a question. “So what Elements are you going after anyway?”

Ellennaras head snapped around so fast it was a wonder she didn’t hurt herself. “You can’t be seriously considering her idea. Its madness, I’m starting to believe that spell broke her more than she’s letting on.”

This time it was the gryphons turn to look confused, “what spell?”

Now she’s gone and done it.

Somehow I don’t see this going well m’lady, should we do something?

Nah, let Ellennara suffer a bit longer, it’ll be fun to watch her try and fix this. Plus I’d trust Nydari with anything, even this.

…

“Err its nothing,” Ellennara stammered, trying desperately to find a way to turn the conversations course back on track. “Forget I said anything.”

The gryphon stared at the flustered zebra with a deadpan look, “you’re a shit liar Elly and you know it.”

Ellennara looked desperately to Bloom, begging with her eyes for an out. The earth pony just sat there pretending to be blind. It was a struggle to keep the smile from her lips but she managed through sheer force of will. The show must go on after all.“Ask Bloom if you want to know.”

Oh what a cheap way out… I’ll remember this Ellennara.

“Bloom?” Nydari asked, this time a little more concerned than previously.

“Ellennara ripped out a peace of my soul and pinned it to Bastions,” she said tapping on the wolf she was now leaning against.

“What!” The gryphon shrieked, whirling on the zebra who was staring at Bloom in indignation.

“Oh that’s just dirty Bloom, leaving out almost all the information to make me look like the bad guy.”

Bloom just grinned at her friend, “Not so much fun to be on the other side is it?”

The gryphon for her part looked more confused than ever. “Please will you all just slow down and explain…” before Nydari could finish her sentance the door to the dorm room was blown off its hinges. The oddest part about it was that the door was blown out onto the hall instead of into the room.

Settoris ran up the stairs, mentally preparing himself to arrest or kill whatever he might find in that room.  It hadn’t been too long ago, just after the exams were wrapping up that was when he felt it. A ripple in the ether, it was anything but subtle and the headmaster knew just what it meant. Someone had done serious damage to a soul, and it was so close, definitely in his school. It had taken him far longer than he would have liked to track down just where the spell had come from. Now that he had though there was no way he was letting something this illegal get away from him.

With a thought Settoris summoned the wind inside the door, and blew it off its hinges with enough force to toss it all the way down the hall. “Anyone who moves is as good as dead…” the zebra walked into the newly formed hole with a threat. His voice was as cold as ice, a tone he hadn’t used in years. What he found in the room wasn’t quite what he had expected. Staring at him with wide eyes was two of his students and a gryphon he saw around from time to time. An elemental wolf sat behind Bloom, he had heard about it from quite a few students, but Valenia assured him it was harmless.

“Who was it that destroyed a soul?” His tone hadn’t changed, but his confusion had reached a new high. How did these students even know such a spell, and why would they attempt it? Plus everyone seemed to be alive, so just who’s soul was tampered with?

Bloom was the first one to regain her senses and respond to there clearly angry headmaster. Seeing no other option she did something she made a point to never do, she lied through her teeth. “I made Ellennara do it sir, with bastion here.” Tapping the wolfs leg to signal who she was talking about. “She didn’t have much choice but to do as I said, so I had her take part of my soul and place it inside the wolf.”

Settoris had his doubts about that story, after all Bloom and Ellennara were well known to be as close as sisters. Still even though tears were flowing from the other zebra’s eyes, she wasn’t saying a word to contradict Blooms story. And just looking at the small earth pony it was clear she was sticking to what she said. He just had one more question then, “Why?”

At this the pony smiled, just a bit. “So I could see again, why else?”

Settoris let out a sigh, at the very least no one was killed so that was good. “You know I have to take you to jail right Bloom?”

“Wait what,” the gryphon said, finally finding her voice at the thought of her closest friend going to jail. “She did it to herself why would you take her, how long would she be gone?”

“Considering what she’s done is highly illegal I can’t just let her go, and she will probably go away for a long time, maybe forever I couldn’t say.”

“You can’t just take her like that.” Nydari sounded desperate at this point, something Bloom had never heard in her friend’s voice.”

The headmaster just sighed, “there’s nothing that can be done, now come with me Bloom.” However before Bloom could as much as move the gryphon was leaping at Settoris. To say that the headmaster was surprised would be an understatement. He was completely shocked, it had been nearly twenty years sense anyone had, had the nerve to attack him. He was an eight time winner of the Bloodstone Arena. To say his reputation preceded him was like saying wind precedes a storm.

Catching the gryphon in a wind prison Settoris had to ask, “Do you know who I am child!” To punctuate his words, the headmaster summoned the four elements to spin around the grphons wind prison. He didn’t get an answer however, because that was about the time all hell decided to break lose.

Motion in the corner of his eye drew his attention, and what he saw was more startling than the gryphons attack. The wolf, the one behind Bloom, on the other side of the room was now a foot away jaws open wide. He summoned another wind prison at a speed that would make a unicorn jealous, catching the wolf like the gryphon. That thing had no right to move that fast though, nothing that big had any right to move fast enough to scare him. And anyone else, anyone else dies right there…

His thoughts were cut short by the startling sensation of being dragged through the air by his back leg. One of Blooms plants had wrapped around his leg and he was now flying towards the sunroof at a frightening speed. With another burst of magic he summoned the wind at a speed no living shaman could match. Blowing out the sunroof at the same moment he sliced the vine from his hoof. As he exited the building via the new hole Settoris used the wind to not only stop himself, but also catch every shard of glass midair.

Someone had caught him, him! The shaman who was known for his legendary speed, known for being nigh impossible to catch. For just a moment Settoris was no longer the headmaster, and these were no longer his students, they were the enemy.  He almost sent the shards of glass crashing back into the room with deadly speed. But he managed to get back control of himself; these were his students, not enemies. And he wouldn’t be the reason they were sent to the morgue.

Slowly he lowered himself to the roof of the building, still holding the shards of glass around himself like twisting snow. With a bit of effort Settoris seized control of all the air in the room he had just left. With a thought he pulled everything that wasn’t nailed down, and some things that were out of the room to hover before him.

No, he thought as he brought the inhabitance of the room to float at eye level with him, he wouldn’t harm them. But this was his school and this madness ended here and now…

To say that Bloom was a wreck would have been a massive understatement. She had lost control of herself to the fear as soon as the headmaster had summoned the fire. Now she was shaking like a leaf in the corner of a jail cell, trying to regain a semblance of control. Her mind was slowly calming down, making way for rational thought. With it came contemplation over what she had just done, and why. No matter how many times she went over the day’s events, it all came back to the fire. They had long sense stopped having candles or lamps of any kind in the dorm room. So the first bit of fire she had seen after their little spell was from Settoris. Not only that, but her fear seemed to have infected Bastion as well if her reaction was anything to go by.

I think we found one of our broken spots.

Are you alright m’lady? You blocked me out soon after that zebra showed up and I couldn’t get through to you at all.

I seem to be ok now, I think it’s just fire that sparks such a reaction.

You are still clearly shaken from that, I can feel it from here. Let me help you.

Ellennara was about to ask how when she felt a great calmness come over herself. The kind of simple peace that only a tree could know passed through the link between their souls. Thank you. Where are you now?

In a cell, floating in one of those wind spells that zebra casts. It seems he isn’t taking any chances with me.

Do you think that feeling would be enough to counteract my new fear of fire?

Probably not completely, but it might keep you calm enough to think before you act.

Good enough for me. At that Bloom stood and stretched, before calling out for Nydari and Ellennara.

The response came almost imminently from the cell beside Blooms own. “Bloom, oh gods I was so worried about you. You looked so scared when the fight with the headmaster started.”  The worry in her friend’s voice was as clear as day, and it brought a smile to Blooms lips to have such a friend.

“I’m fine now,” she said, “just tell them to keep all fire away from me and I shouldn’t have another… episode. I'm fairly sure fire is one of my triggers.”

“Bloom what the hell are you talking about? I know you never liked fire but you’ve never acted like you did back there around it.”

“If you want all the details ask Ellennara when you get out. That aside do you know when I’ll get to write my letter?” Every prisoner got to send one letter out to anyone they wanted when they were arrested.

“Whenever you want I suppose I could yell for them. But I just attacked the headmaster of Axum University, I don’t think I’m getting out of here for a while.” Nydari sounded defeated.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll see to it that you get out of here. Now if you would be so kind as to call the guard for that letter.” The gryphon wasn’t entirely convinced about her friend’s sanity, with her earlier fear and now her confidence in the face of all her charges. She had overheard the guards talking about the pony's charges, what she had done was seven types of illegal, not counting the attack on headmaster Settoris. Still she called the guard as Bloom asked.

“Here’s your paper, quill, and ink,” the guard said when he arrived, sounding non to enthused about his job.

Bloom just chuckled, “as you can see I’m blind. If you would be so kind as to give that to the gryphon over there she will write this for me.”

“Whatever you say,” the guard said leaving the writing supplies in Nydaris cell. “Call me when you’re done.” At that he left without another word.

“So, how do you want to start this Bloom?”

The earth pony was a bit to cheery for a creature facing life in prison, or worse. What she said however was even more shocking. “Dear Princess Luna...”