First night at the academy, the white filly thought, walking to the enormous building with her foster mom. "Mommy," she said, obviously seeming worried, "what if I don't meet anypony? What if nopony likes me?"
"Don't worry, Blaze, I know at least one filly or colt at the academy will want to be your friend," replied Mrs. Sauna, her short mane blowing in the slight breeze. "Did you remember your lunch?"
Blaze replied cheerily, "Yep! It's in my left saddlebag."
"Class, I have a big announcement for you all! We have a new student!" I walked into the room, my white cheeks flushed a slight shy pink. "Could you tell the class your name, young filly?"
"M...my name is... is Shotsworth. Blaze Shotsworth. Just call me Shotsworth though," I replied, shakily at first, but I grew more confident.
The teacher replied kindly, "Well, Blaze it's nice to meet you. My name is Mr. Fog. You can sit next to Buzz." He pointed to a young colt with a black and yellow striped mane, his saddlebags held closed with a clip in the shape of a bee. Walking to the desk beside him, I smiled. He glared at me, seeming to wish I'd never come here in the first place.
"Hello, Buzz," I said, rather quietly.
A young filly next to me leaned over and said, "Don't worry about him, he's only mad because his best friend moved away a week ago, and that was her seat."
"What was her name?" I asked.
"Night Fury. By the way, my name is Lilly Pad."
I jumped out of the way as a stray arrow whizzed past my ear, nearly cutting it. "That's okay, Buzz, just keep your bow straighter next time," said Mr. Fog, picking up the arrow and giving it back to Buzz. I pointed my own arrow at the foam target, aiming for the red center. Releasing the arrow, it flew to the left and hit near the center.
But not on it.
The arrow rested there before it fell to the ground, a chemical on the tips reacting with the foam and changing it blue. I readied my next arrow, using my magic to draw it back to my cheek. This arrow flew and hit the target almost dead center, just a bit to the right. I groaned lightly, then sent a third arrow without honestly paying attention. The hard thunk of stone on wood drew my attention to the target. The red part of the target started to turn deep violet as the chemical reacted. Mr. Fog gasped, then walked to the target, lifting the arrow out of it's wedge in the wood. "You... You hit a bulls-eye on your first time using a bow and arrow?" He said in astonishment.
"I-I don't know how, I was hardly even p-paying attention on aiming that arrow!" I grasped for the right words, stuttering slightly. Buzz seemed ready to hit me right in the nose.
"How does a FILLY do better than ME?! I have always been the best archer in class! Plus," Buzz was ranting in a major temper tantrum, "fillies don't need to be shooting arrows, they belong in the kitch-"
"That is ENOUGH, Buzz. We all know you are devastated of your loss of Night Fury. We couldn't control her moving since her father had gotten a major promotion in his line of work." Mr. Fog cut off Buzz mid-sentence. Buzz huffed, and stalked out of the room, muttering something to Mr. Fog that sounded like, "I'm going to the bathroom."
It had been two weeks since I got my first bulls-eye in class, and I had been getting better. My aim was straighter, and much more consistent. I was hitting more and more targets, and could actually travel down a line of bows and shoot an arrow out of every one of them - each one being a perfect bulls-eye. Today was special, it was the archery test - our very first. We were to shoot three arrows. If we got two out of three arrows as bulls-eyes, we got a one hundred percent. Now, it was my turn, and I shivered with anticipation. Launching my first arrow, it hit white foam and the area around it turned blue. I huffed slightly, readying my second arrow. This shot was a perfect hit, dead center of the target.
I pulled my final arrow out of the quiver, my magic oddly being shaky, as I was nervous. Slowly I drew the end of the arrow all the way back to my cheek, took a deep breath, and released it, my eyes shut.
All the noise in the room at that point was the splitting of wood.
I slowly opened my eyes, and what I saw was nothing that I had expected. Not only had I split the second arrow I had shot, but I split the target as well. I may have put to much power into that last shot, but my body was unresponsive. A deep blue magic aura lifted up the entire target, pulling it back to the teachers desk. We had a substitute that day, and she looked entirely mortified. She had obviously seen nothing like this in her experience - and the old mare obviously had a LOT of experience. "Y-You, young filly, uh, Shotsworth, come here please."
I walked up to the desk, made of two students desks as a temporary replacement of Mr. Fog's desk, which Buzz had involuntarily broken in a fit of rage one day. "Yes, Mrs. Mist?" I asked calmly, but my insides were doing flips as I was terrified.
"You get not only a one hundred percent on your test, but-" Mrs. Mist cut off her sentence, and levitated a pencil to point at my blank flank. I glanced around and saw a cutie mark, as if another student had somehow drawn it on without my knowing. The small image held a black bow, the color of fresh obsidian, and an arrow with a burning stone tip. I gasped and jumped up and down, finally glad that I was no longer the only blank flank in my class.
A sharp crack filled the room as Blaze launched an arrow from a crystalline bow, the wooden target falling down in two pieces. She noticed the arrow behind the target stand, jutting out of the stone wall. It was rather deep, considering the tip being dull stone. Without resting Blaze lept to another target, readying her bow and pulling out an arrow. With it being her last arrow, she had saved it, since it was by far the best arrow she had.
Blaze's mother - or foster mother, as she had recently discovered - had sent it to her, the tip being made of a very fine silver. The reflection of the light on the arrow could have been blinding to any other pony. But to Blaze Shotsworth, it only sharpened her vision, bringing everything to a more distinct shape. She shot, and the arrow cracked but did not split this target. Purposefully, she made this shot a lighter one, knowing that if it struck the wall behind the target, the tip would either bend or break. If it bent all it would take to fix it would be taking the arrow to a grinder. But she knew better than to use silver on a stone grinder. The sheen of it would become duller, and even though the tip would be sharper, the arrow head itself would always get smaller.
"Thank you, Ms. Shotsworth. You may head back to your classroom," said the instructor. Blaze began the short walk back to Mr. Fogs room, and noticed the door was open, a loud clatter of a desk hitting the ground emitting from the doorway. She hurried to the door, and stopped before walking in, seeing Buzz hugging a young mare. Her enormous braid fell off the resting place of my back, and Buzz stepped aside, hearing the sharp crack of a metal decoration on a ponytail holder hitting the stone floor.
"Oh, hello there!" said the Pegasus with lavender eyes. "My name is Night Fury."