//------------------------------// // Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns // Story: Broken Blossom // by BronyWriter //------------------------------// Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Blossom took a few more deep breaths as she stared at the large, ornate door in front of her. Behind said doors was the trio of ponies that would decide whether or not she would be accepted into Celestia's school for Gifted Unicorns. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had insisted that she would get in but they also told her that they would not interfere with the selection process. She had to get in on her own merit. That's not to say that she didn't have help of course. Shining Armor had been spending most of his free time teaching her as much about magic as he could and she was getting a lot better at it. Interestingly enough, her best spell was still her color changing one and it had gotten to the level where on top of changing Shining Armors' coat light green and his mane jet black, she had even managed to change his iris color to bright orange while keeping the rest of his eyes the same color. She had also completely mastered levitation of multiple objects and had even learned a basic shield spell from Shining Armor. It was nowhere near as powerful as Shining Armor's but Blossom had managed to make one that completely encased a book in a protective spell. Now it was time for her test. She was trying the calming breathing exercises that Shining Armor had said really helped him when he was going through his initial tests for the guard. he had her sit down, put her hooves on top of her head, and slowly breathe in and out while imagining what it would be like when she passed. Blossom imagined her mother hugging her after she told her how she had passed and Princess Celestia would be so pleased that she would let the two of them have a moment alone without anypony watching the two of them or listening in on their conversation. She'd get straight As and her mommy would be very proud of her. Maybe she'd even see that neither of them was a danger to society and she'd give her mother her horn back and they'd... No. That was ridiculous. Blossom knew that her mother would never get her horn and freedom back because she had said that she had killed Fire Ruby and Golden Necklace. Blossom took a few more deep breaths, this time to hold back tears instead of nerves. Her mommy was gone and now she was alone in the castle... and it was all her fault. Suddenly, the large doors in front of her opened up revealing what appeared to be a large classroom with only a trio of desks behind which sat three very official looking ponies with stern looks and fancy suits levitating clipboards in front of them, an empty table beside them, and a chalkboard about thirty feet in front of them. The mare in the middle desk looked directly at her and frowned. "You may enter, child," she said. Blossom weakly nodded and shakily trotted into the room. She stood in front of the desks as Shining Armor had told her to do and put on her biggest smile for the judges just like Miss Twilight had said. A confident look was important to getting into the school, she had said. The judges all looked at her with mild interest for a second before the judge in the left desk, a stallion, leaned in next to the mare in the middle. "Isn't she the foal of...?" he whispered. The mare nodded. "Yes, she's the daughter of the mare who killed those two foals and the niece of that serial killer," she replied. Blossom had to hold back a whimper as her smile fell slightly. Even here she could not escape the shadow that had befallen her family. Even here they whispered, talked amongst themselves as if she wasn't there. However, the two ponies cleared their throats and looked up at the frightened filly. "Now then, it says here you received a near perfect score on your written exam, Ms. Blossom," the mare in the middle began. "If you do as well here you should have no problems gaining entry into our fair Princess' school." "Yes ma'am," Blossom said with as much confidence as she could muster. The mare on the right nodded and flipped over a sheet of paper. "Now then, Ms. Blossom, this exam will consist of one portion during which you will need to cast every spell that we ask you to. We will be requesting that you cast five separate and completely different spells, Ms. Blossom. Failure to even produce sparks during any one of the five will result in a rejection of your application. Is that understood?" "Yes ma'am," said Blossom. "Good," said the mare in the middle. She fired up her horn and encased a bag she had next to her in a magical glow which opened up the bag allowing her to levitate a small golden ball out of the bag and place it on the table beside her. "Your first assignment is to change the color of this ball from gold to bright blue. You have thirty seconds to complete this assignment." Blossom turned to the ball, a confident smile on her face. Yes, this would be simple! Color changing spells were her specialty at the moment, though she hoped to expand her repertoire of mastered spells quite considerably. She stared directly at the ball and charged up her horn, causing both it and the ball to be bathed in a light purple glow. She focused a bit more power in her horn and a beam of purple light shot out of her horn and hit the ball directly in the center. The effect was immediate and with a small pop the ball's color changed from gold to bright blue. With a confident smile she turned back to the testers and placed the ball in front of the mare in the middle. The trio jotted down something on their clipboards before looking back up at Blossom. The mare in the middle examined the ball for a moment and then snorted. "This seems adequate. Well done I suppose." She placed the ball back in the bag. "Your next test will be one of dual levitation. You are to levitate both the table beside you and the chalkboard behind you and spin them around the room three times. Failure to complete such a task will result in failure." Blossom nodded, the confident feeling that had faltered slightly when the judge had labeled her color changing spell 'adequate' returning full force. Levitation was another skill that she had become quite adept at. Based on stories she had heard from her mother, her aunt Rarity was quite adept at levitating multiple objects her... Her aunt Rarity. Blossom violently shook her head and focused on the table and chalkboard. She couldn't think about her aunt now. She had a test to pass. Once more she fired up her horn encasing the table and chalkboard in her purple glow. Slowly the table and black board began to rise a few inches in the air and she focused on getting them to move around the room. She only needed to move them three times, but the chalkboard in particular was far heavier than she had anticipated and by the pair's second rotation, she felt a dull ache at the base of her horn that turned into a sharp pain as the rotation continued. She let out a whimper of pain as the magic in her horn began to sputter out. Blossom groaned and focused more magic into her horn. She couldn't fail; she had to do this for her mother! With a final push the chalkboard and table finished their rotations around the room and returned to their places in the room. She had done it! Blossom exhaled sharply as her legs gave way. She collapsed on the floor and began rubbing the base of her horn in an attempt to dull the pain. However, the middle judge cleared her throat once again. "I suppose that was a success," she said. "But now is the time for the third test." Blossom whimpered. "Can I have a moment to recover please, ma'am? My horn hurts." "Absolutely not!" said the mare sharply. "Either get up or get out." "Uh... maybe we can give her a few minutes," said the stallion judge. "We do for most of the other--" "I'm sorry, who is in charge here?" snapped the mare. "It is our job to weed out the ponies unfit to be in Princess Celestia's school and if she cannot complete the final three tests then she will not be accepted!" "She's done a spectacular job so far," said the mare on the right. "We can give her a minute to recover and get a drink of water if she needs one." "And I'm saying no!" barked the lead judge. She rotated her head and looked directly at Blossom. "You heard me before, get up or get out!" Blossom held back another whimper. "Yes ma'am," she whispered. She planted her hooves on the ground and pushed herself up off of the floor with as much strength as she could muster. The sharp pain in her horn had been reduced to a dull ache and Blossom was unsure of how much longer she could keep this up, particularly if the tests got progressively harder. The lead judge snorted and looked back down at her clipboard. "Now then, the next test is transfiguration," she said. She took a small cup out of her bag and placed it on the table. "You have thirty seconds to transform that cup into a plate of equal size or larger. Begin now." Blossom nodded and turned to face the cup. She took a deep breath and fired up her horn once more. Instantly the sharp ache returned and she let out a cry of pain. Her horn sputtered out and Blossom almost collapsed on the ground again. "Ten seconds!" the lead judge called out. Blossom bit her lip and tried to fire up her horn once more but the pain only increased tenfold. Blossom was pretty sure that her horn was about to crack down the middle if she kept it up but she tried to focus more power into her horn anyway in the vain hope that she could transform the cup in ten seconds. "TIME!" shouted the mare. "The cup has not been transformed which means that you have not only failed the test but the entrance exam as a whole. I'm sorry, but you will not be attending Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns." The mare encased the contents of her desk in her magical glow and stuffed them in her saddlebag. "You may leave the testing hall now. We have other foals to attend to." By this point Blossom was sitting on her haunches and rubbing the base of her horn. The pain had dulled to the point where she could likely stand up, but the intensity had taken a lot out of her. Still she couldn't sit in front of them all day and the head judge seemed rather mad at her for not passing the test. She took a deep breath and shakily got to her hooves and walked out of the entrance hall. The doors slammed behind her, causing her to flinch which in turn made her collapse on the ground again. She weakly looked around the entrance hall to see if anypony would be there to help her. She tried to get to her hooves again to leave the entrance hall, but she felt as if her legs had turned to oatmeal. She whimpered and opened her mouth to call out for help, hoping that anypony was in the area who would take pity on her. To her surprise she heard the doors behind her open again. She swiveled her ears around and heard two sets of hoofsteps coming up behind her. It was them again, it was the judges! She weakly tried to drag herself to the door of the entrance hall but she was stopped when somepony gently put a hoof on her back. "I was so stupid," said the voice of the stallion judge. "Why did I just let her torture this filly like that?" "Because she was the one in charge," said the other mare judge, the one who wasn't being cruel to her. "We have subjects lose their strength all the time, but not like this." "I've never seen it this bad," said the stallion. Blossom heard his horn fire up and she felt herself being lifted into the air. Within a few seconds she found herself on the stallion's back. "I should have put a stop to it when she asked her to rotate the chalkboard and table around the room three times." The mare didn't respond. She only walked into Blossom's line of sight and smiled kindly at her. "We're going to help you out, okay?" she said gently. "We're going to take you to the nurse to help you re-charge." Blossom weakly nodded and shifted on the stallion's back so she felt more comfortable. * * * * The next hour saw Blossom in a comfortable bed in a nearby nurse's station with a comfortable blanket laid over her. An empty packet of crackers and a drained glass of water rested on top of a nightstand next to her bed. Blossom was doing her best to fall asleep as per the nurse's instructions, but her sleep was cut short when she heard the door to her room open. The two judges, who hadn't left her side, immediately stood up. "Princess Celestia," said the stallion. "How is she?" asked the distinct voice of the sun-goddess. "She's going to be okay," said the female judge. "Her exam just drained her magic that's all." "Is that it?" asked Princess Celestia. "She looks so weak." "Well, it almost completely drained her magic. She passed out on our way over here." Princess Celestia sighed. "What was she doing that drained her magic? I've seen unicorns with Blossom's talent before and my tests shouldn't be too difficult for them." There was an uncomfortable pause while the two judges exchanged nervous glances before the mare spoke up. "The test started out well enough," she began. "Blossom here aced the color changing portion but the levitation portion is what drained her magical reserves." "Levitation?" said Princess Celestia incredulously. "She should have had no problem with that unless she was moving something far larger than she was for an extended period of time." There was another uncomfortable pause before the stallion spoke up. "Shooting Star...Shooting Star required that she levitate a chalkboard and a table around the room three times and then return them to their starting positions." Princess Celestia gasped. "That is something I would expect students three or four years older than she is to accomplish and you are telling me that Shooting Star asked a seven year old filly with very little magical study under her belt to accomplish such a task?" "And she succeeded," said the mare. Now it was princess Celestia's turn to fall silent for a brief moment. "She succeeded," said Princess Celestia quietly. "Yes," said the mare. "It was clearly taxing for her but she pulled it off. She collapsed not long after and asked for a break for a few minutes but Shooting Star refused her. She then asked her to transform a cup into a plate and it's at that point that Blossom collapsed again and Shooting Star failed her and kicked her out. She walked out of the hall and her legs gave out when she was outside. The two of us came to our senses and rushed out to help the poor dear." Princess Celestia sighed and shook her head. "Very well. I thank you both for coming to her aid. I will be having a talk with Shooting Star about this and if I find out that this had anything to do with her past then she will be let go." "Yes Princess," said the stallion and the mare in unison. "Good," said Celestia. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must return to the solar court. Notify me at once when she wakes up. I feel that there is something that I must do for her." With that the princess walked out of the room leaving Blossom alone with the two ponies. When she figured that she wasn't going to hear anything more about what happened to her, she allowed herself to slip into the warm embrace of sleep. * * * * The next day saw Blossom back in her room in the castle. She had felt far better after the six hour nap that she had gotten at the nurse's station and she was sure to thank the two nice judges for helping her. She wasn't sure what she would have done if they hadn't taken her to the nurse's station. She had only been recently woken up when Princess Celestia had come into her room and asked that she wait for an hour before doing anything as she had a surprise for her. Blossom had been uneasy about it but she remembered what Shining Armor had told her and it helped calm her down. So, she had gotten out of bed and walked over to a nearby mirror to brush her mane and tail. Her horn was still a little sore from the day before but she could levitate small objects with a decent amount of dexterity. Once that was done all she could really do was wait for Princess Celestia to return with whatever she had for her. She had seemed really excited about it which made Blossom slightly less uneasy about the whole thing. If Princess Celestia was excited then it must be good. After another fifteen minutes of waiting, the door to her room swung open once more and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna beckoned her out. "Come along, Blossom, the surprise is only a few minutes from here," said Princess Celestia. Blossom bowed her head slightly and allowed herself to be escorted down the hall to whichever destination the princesses had in mind. To her surprise they passed by the castle entrance so wherever they were taking here was inside the castle. The walk only lasted a few minutes with the final destination being what appeared to be a simple door. Princess Celestia used her magic to open it and led Blossom inside where standing on the opposite end of the room was... "MOMMY!" Blossom squealed in joy and ran up to her mother who swept up her daughter in her forelegs and held her close, nuzzling her head. "Mommy missed you, Blossom," whispered Sweetie Belle. "I missed you too, Mommy," said Blossom, the first traces of happy tears appearing in her eyes. "I've missed you every day." "I've missed you every day too, Blossom," said Sweetie Belle tearfully. "I haven't stopped thinking about you." "Are you in a bad place, Mommy?" asked Blossom. "Do they hurt you there?" Sweetie Belle shook her head and began gently stroking Blossom's mane. "No, Blossom, they haven't hurt me at all. They've been very kind to me there and they really want to help me." Blossom looked up at her mother. "Are they helping you, Mommy?” she asked. "Are they making it so that you're all better and we can go home?" Sweetie Belle fell silent at the question and she turned her gaze to Princess Celestia who could only sigh sadly. "They're trying, Blossom, they really are. We'll see about us going home, okay?" "Okay," Blossom whispered. The room was quiet for the briefest of moments before Princess Celestia spoke up. "It's eleven in the morning now. You have until seven at night. Anything you need to make this day as good as you can don't hesitate to ask. Let us know when you're ready for lunch and dinner or when you want a snack of some sort. The day is yours." Tears of happiness began welling up in Sweetie Belle's eyes and she managed a small smile. "Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you."