//------------------------------// // Rainbow Bloom // Story: The Next Lesson // by Bandy //------------------------------// Rainbow Bloom leapt off the cliffside and felt the rush of weightlessness. She tucked her legs in tight and let out a heroic holler just before her cannonball body hit the water. Splash, went the lake. Perfect ten. “Did you see that?” she cried as she broke the surface. She looked up at the shadows of her friends lingering on the top of the cliff. “I was flying!” Summer was special for earth ponies. Their magic surged as the temperatures climbed. The earth had definitively shrugged off the deadwood yoke of winter and taken big, gasping breaths of spring. Now it was alive. It was a first kiss that came every year. It was the strumming of acoustic guitars. It was taking your share of nature’s bounty and barbecuing it over an open fire. It was also the one time of year Bloom got to hang out with her friends without school getting in the way. Their campsite sat a mere twenty yards from the edge of the cliff, swaddled by tall grass and shade trees. Bloom could pick through the winding ascent from the shoreline to the campsite in just under one minute and four seconds. This was her sixth such journey today. She’d timed every one. When she made it back, her friends Sourpuss and Balsam burst out laughing. “What?” “Your mane!” Sourpuss howled. Bloom prodded at her mane. Three out of the four seasons of the year, her hair was a deep auburn. In the summer, it faded to almost orange. Today, it seemed she’d picked up a sizable deposit of brownish silt and twigs. “Big deal.” Bloom shook her head, which didn’t help in the slightest. “This camp’s got a communal shower.” “I was just over there. Trust me. Don’t.” “Then I’ll hop in the lake again.” “The same lake that gave you all that goop?” “Whatever. Is the food done yet?” Sourpuss relented. She glanced at their fire pit and the foil-wrapped vegetables cooking next to the coals. “Couple minutes.” Bloom felt herself being pulled towards the cliffside. There was time for one more leap if she hurried. “Come with me, Balsam,” Bloom pleaded with her friend. “It’ll be fun.” Balsam hid behind her green and brown mane and did her best to blend into the treeline. Her olive-drab fur made it all too easy in the waning light. “I dunno. Someone’s gotta stay here and watch the food.” “Sourpuss can watch the food. She loves watching the food.” Bloom grabbed her friend’s hoof. “It feels like flying.” Balsam’s pegasus wings twitched at her sides. “I’d rather just relax right now.” Bloom found herself eyeing her friend’s feathers the same way other mares might eye a rare diamond pendant. “C’mon, falling can be relaxing. And you get to swim around at the end. Please?” “I’ll cheer you on from the campsite. I promise.” Bloom didn’t really need Balsam to accompany her to the cliff. But it felt important to get her friend in on the action. Maybe it was a crush. That would be alright with Bloom. Balsam was cute. They’d loved and tolerated each other all four years of high school, so that must count for something. And she’d once heard from a school friend that pegasus mares were into free love and polyamory. That’d be pretty rad. Probably. Bloom still wasn’t totally sure what polyamory meant, but it was something earth pony parents typically looked down on, so she was all in. The way Balsam turned beet-red and fled everytime someone brought up dating was not a good sign. But maybe she was embarrassed because she was so into it, and she didn’t want her friends to think she was some kinda weirdo. Anyway, Bloom knew from the look on Balsam’s face there would be no convincing her, so she decided to pull out her ace in the hole. “Actually, now that I think of it I might have seen a Kirtland’s Warbler or two in the reeds at the bottom of the cliff. I couldn’t be sure, though. Hey Balsam, aren’t those on your summer wildlife checklist or whatever?” The ploy was shameless and utterly without merit. But before Sourpuss could muster up a properly snarky response, Balsam spread her wings and shot over to Bloom’s side. “You saw two of them?” she squealed? “Yellow belly, black back, two-ish inches long?” “Sounds about right--woah--” Balsam grabbed Bloom’s foreleg and all but dragged her to the cliffside. “Where did you see them? I can’t believe I forgot my binoculars. I’ll have to make a sketch for the Phillydelphia Natural Observer. I can’t believe our luck!” Her gaze fell on Bloom. The poor earth pony nearly toppled under the weight. “Where’d you see them?” “Over here.” Bloom and Balsam inched up to the cliff’s edge. “They were all the way there at the bottom.” “In those bushes?” A frown wormed its way onto Balsam’s face. “That’s odd. Kirtland’s Warblers usually nest in jack pines. Those are too dense and shrubby. Bloom, are you sure you--” In an instant, Bloom wrapped her arms around Balsam’s barrel and threw herself off the edge. In the two point two seconds it took them to fall, Bloom noticed a few things about Balsam. Firstly, despite her wiry pegasus body, she could kick. Hard. The second was that she could scream to bring the sky down. Right in Bloom’s ears, too. The third was that, gosh it felt good to be this close to Balsam. What a brilliant idea this was. Then they kissed the lake. Perfect ten. They breached the surface in a tangle of manes and legs and smiles. Balsam let out another loud shriek of delight. She scooped up a wave in her wing and flung it over Bloom. Bloom returned the favor in kind. They drew apart, then tangled up again, like foals at play, like birds flitting through air. “You jerk!” Balsam laughed. They drew closer still. The water was warm, but a sudden chill sent a shock through Bloom’s heart. Something was happening between them. They were as close as close could be, but still Balsam drew closer. If they didn’t stop they were going to bump noses. Or something else. No, you idiot, Bloom realized at the last possible moment, right as Balsam tilted her head and closed her eyes. She’s gonna-- A terrified scream cut through the crisp summer air. The two young mares snapped their eyes open and looked around. “Did you hear that?” Bloom asked. Another scream, this one cut short by a strange gurgle. Bloom was about to suggest they ignore it and go back to whatever they were about to do when Balsam’s sharp pegasus eyes snapped towards the middle of the lake. “Oh no,” she murmured. She disappeared beneath the waves in a wash of white water. Bloom hacked and spun and tread water. “Balsam?” she called out. “Hello?” Something flashed beneath the waves a few lengths away. Then the water broke in a spectacular spray. There was Balsam, frozen for a split second in a heroic pegasus pose. Her mane flew back, throwing a line of droplets into the air. Her wings were poised at the apex of their stroke. Her mouth was closed and her eyes were set, radiating intensity. Perfect ten, Bloom thought. Balsam’s wings pumped once, sloughing more water, unintentionally whipping Bloom. Then they were dry, and Balsam took off like a light towards the opposite shore. It took Bloom a moment to realize what had happened. Pegasi were spectacularly buoyant creatures, what with the hollow bones and all. Balsam’s wings might have been too tired and too wet to propel her out of the water by themselves, but diving a few meters beneath the surface had the same effect as holding an inflated beach ball underwater. In the time it took to think all that, Balsam had skimmed to the middle of the lake, plucked a pony from the water, and shot back towards Bloom. “Follow me!” she yelled as she flew over Bloom. Her eyes looked deadly serious. Bloom floundered, found her center, and chugged to shore in a graceless doggy paddle. There was no time to rest on the banks. Balsam dragged Bloom over to the unconscious pony lying in the mud. Bloom started to say something, but Balsam cut her off in her typical soft, matter-of-fact voice. “No time. He’s not breathing. Start CPR. I’m flying for help.” “Balsam, wait a second!” Her wings kicked up sand. She shot up the cliffside and back towards the campsite. The realization taht she was alone with this dying stranger--just a colt, no less--sent a wave of dizzying terror through Bloom’s mind. She’d practiced this a few dozen times in gym class, but that was on a plastic dummy. She remembered her teacher’s voice saying, “Remember kids, if you have to use this, that means lives are at stake. So don’t give up!” “Don’t give up,” she said to herself aloud. “Don’t give up.” She held her hooves up to her face. Then brought them down on the colt’s chest softly. His fur was light brown. It almost matched Balsam’s. “Don’t give up.” She pumped her hooves once. The colt flopped a little like a dead fish. The sight sent tears leaping to her eyes. Everything was happening so fast. “Don’t give up,” she said. She pumped again. Then a third time. Then she remembered the song she was supposed to sing while she was doing CPR in order to maintain an effective rhythm. She started singing out loud, but as soon as she did she felt something crack in the colt’s chest. She let out a whimper and shirked her hooves away. Keep going. Keep going. Please. She fought for control of her own hooves. It felt like forever before she got them back on the colt’s chest. Just then, a ripple in the water caught her eye. She turned her head and saw the skeletal face of Death peering out from the water just beyond the shore. Bloom blinked, and the face sunk back under the water without so much as a ripple. Balsam returned a moment later with an electrical pop, accompanied by two unicorn park rangers. They found Bloom pumping the colt’s chest furiously. Tears streamed down her cheeks. In a panting, hysterical alto she belted, “Ha, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive...” The ranger tried to push Bloom aside. “We’ll take it from here.” "No.” “No?” “If I stop now, he's a goner." Her eyes flicked back towards the water. It was deathly still and so clear she could almost see to the bottom. She saw the shadows all the way down and shuddered. "I got this." "Miss, stop--" "I have to do this." "Bloom!" Balsam shouted right in her ear and broke her panic. Bloom wasn’t able to consider Balsam’s request in the moment. Mainly because Balsam picked her up and flung her off the colt. Where Bloom’s hooves had been, she saw deep black bruises rising beneath the fur. Sickening shame filled Bloom’s heart. Her cheeks burned worse than her aching forelegs. There was the sound of approaching thunder. The smell of ozone. Then there was a great loud pop, and the rangers and the colt vanished. Bloom let out a shuddering breath. All her focus had just lost its target. She reared back and shoved Balsam aside. “Idiot,” she said, more at the lake than anypony in particular. She stomped her hooves in the sand as hard as she could. "There's another ranger at our campsite," Balsam said. She seemed unphased by being tossed aside. "We'll need to give a statement." She took Bloom’s hoof in hers. “It’s over. Everything’s okay.” Bloom glanced back at the lake. The water was still--too still. It looked unnatural, like a mirror pool to some other place. She kicked a hooffull of sand into the water and watched the ripples distort the reflection. Then together she and Balsam picked their way back up the root-choked trail to their campsite at the top of the cliff. Sourpuss’s natural inclinations made her an excellent songwriter. While Balsam and Bloom moped around the firepit, Sourpuss pulled out a guitar and plucked a few notes. Soon, a melody and a few minor chords appeared. Then she closed her eyes and sealed herself away in her own melancholic world. Bloom moved the cold congealed mass of vegetables around in her tin foil bowl. All her mental focus was on remembering the colt on the beach and the bruises on his chest. Earth pony strength was a curse sometimes. Maybe if she’d been born a pegasus she wouldn’t have hurt him so bad. “I’m such an idiot,” she murmured. Balsam sighed with eternal patience. “It happened so fast. It would have happened to anyone.” “What if he hadn’t lived, huh? I’d be a murderer.” Balsam set aside her own untouched food. “We’re not having this conversation again.” “You saw the bruises. I broke the kid’s ribs. He’s--” “Shh.” Bloom shut her mouth. “If you do it right, you’re supposed to break ribs. We did everything we could. You did everything you could.” Bloom turned over her food one last time before giving up and setting it aside. “I think this weekend's shot.” Balsam shared a tired but genuine smile. “Do you really think so? We saved a colt’s life. That’s pretty great as far as Fridays go.” Bloom chuckled a little. “I guess.” “And we’re here now. And maybe after the sun goes down we’ll be hungry enough for smores.” “Maybe.” A thought popped into Bloom’s mind. She hesitated, turned it over like she’d been doing to her food all this time, then spat it out. “What do you think happens when we die?” Balsam examined Bloom’s face. Maybe she was looking for a hint of incenserity so she could shoot the question down. But apparently she found none, because a moment later, she answered, “Pegasi believe in reincarnation. Do you know what that is?” “Yeah, I’ve heard of it. Is that what you believe though?” “I think so. It feels right.” Bloom nodded. “Earth pony lore says once you die, you return to nature. Your body gets eaten by the earth and you go back to the place you were before.” “So, basically like reincarnation.” Bloom was aware of the teasing lilt in Balsam’s voice, but the last thing she wanted was to question her friend’s religious convictions and start a fight. “If all the molecules come together again, then maybe it would be like reincarnation. But that’s so unlikely. Once you decompose, your body gets eaten by worms, which get carried off by birds. Trees can absorb parts of you and send you off in their seeds. The mycelium layer eats you too, and that can carry your nutrients for thousands of miles. It's pretty wild how far you can travel once you're dead. The other races think earth ponies are sedentary, but they’re wrong. We know we’re gonna go far one day, whether we want to or not. So we stick around and admire one place while we still can.” “Oh,” said balsam, looking slightly more green than usual. “That’s... interesting.” “I’m sorry. I’m making this weird. I’m stupid.” Something danced on the tip of her tongue. Almost within reach... so close... “I was just so powerless, you know? I was looking at the colt and thinking, boy, he’s gonna go so far--” Balsam rushed to her side and wrapped her wings around her in a fierce hug. Bloom blinked in confusion only to realize there were tears in her eyes. Stupid. “Sorry,” Bloom said. “I was scared too.” “You didn’t look scared.” “I was terrified. Oh, I was probably such a meanie to you, too.” Balsam squeezed harder. “I’m sorry.” When the two finally broke away, Bloom wiped the last of the tears away and scooted to the edge of the log. “I’m the brawl of the group, y’know?" “I think you mean brawn.” “That’s what I said, brawl.” She shook her head. “I’m supposed to have it all locked down.” She gave a halfhearted flex of her forelegs. "It felt like I didn't even matter. I was just nothing." “You matter.” Balsam fluttered over to Bloom’s log and looked her right in the eyes. “You matter so much.” Bloom leaned forward and kissed her. Sourpuss hit a wrong chord and dropped her guitar. The fire crackled happily in place of a melody. Perfect ten.