Tales of the Battle Foals

by Sirdubya


The Trees Have Eyes

The first slivers of the morning sun found their way into Fire Fight’s room. They expanded their reach to his face, gracing his sleepy eyes so they would open. The fiery colt rose from his slumber, and begun his day.

After a nice hearty breakfast of a mushroom omelette, oatmeal, and wheat toast, Fire Fight exited his home with his saddle bags in tow, and begun his walk to school. It would have been a walk had he not decided to make it a refreshing jog. Some nice exercise to compliment his breakfast was always how Fire Fight started his day. It turned into more of a run due to his fitness, but that made little difference to him.

When he finally reached the trail that lead to school, he stopped briefly to stretch, and catch his breath. He then began a slow, easy trot down the path. As he did however, he found himself slowing down to a walk; he didn’t know why, but… It felt like he was being watched. He could feel eyes on him, but there was nopony within a good enough distance to really see him clearly. He closely looked into the trees for whoever might be there. Suddenly, he heard the tree canopy rustle lightly. He looked up, and saw a small shadow leap between trees over the trail quick as lightning, and vanish into the brush beyond. Fire Fight scanned the area that the shadow disappeared in quickly, but carefully for any sign of its presence. “Hey! Who’s there!?” he called, but no answer, no rustles, or anything, as if who or whatever it was just poofed out of existence. Confused, and somewhat unnerved, Fire Fight slowly resumed his trot when he heard a familiar voice call his name.

“Howdy, Fire Fight!” he looked back to see that it was Apple Bloom and the other CMC.

“Oh! Hey guys!” he greeted.

“Who were you talking to just now?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Huh? Oh, nopony. I just… I think I just saw an animal or something.” The fillies must have thought he was a little crazy, and maybe he was, but they seemed to brush it off. They joined each other for the rest of the walk to school. The fillies talked fervently while Fire Fight looked back every now and then for any sign of that mysterious entity.

All the foals got settled in, and Cheerilee got the day started. Fire Fight stood in front of the class with her. “Class, I’m sure you all remember Fire Fight from yesterday’s party?”

“Hi, guys!” The class greeted him back happily. He found a seat next to Button Mash; they brohooved in greeting as Cheerilee began her lecture.

Lunch and recess finally came, and all the foals were outside either playing, or munching on whatever their mothers packed for them. Fire Fight decided to sit with his four new friends under a nearby tree to have lunch. They all had typical lunches of a school pony, a sandwich, a drink, a little snack, and what not. Fire Fight contrarily had something a little more for him; he had a bigger sandwich than the others did, a protein bar, some water, and yogurt. When asked, he simply explained that he loved to exercise, and ate accordingly. Looking at the playground, Fire Fight didn’t see anything that would really challenge him. All the other foals were content to using the slides, monkey bars, and what not, but Fire Fight was much more hardcore. He figured he’d do some pushups, run some laps around the school, and practice his fire magic… well… maybe not so much that for obvious safety concerns. And he definitely wasn’t going to use anything as a hanging bag substitute!

He’d been running laps for a good three minutes when he got that same feeling from before. He came to a stop to the right side of the school, and looked into the nearby woods. He let his fighting instincts kick in a little to help him scan the immediate area. He wasn’t sure right away, but he could faintly make out something that seemed out of place. Squinting his eyes, he could just barely make out what looked to be a pair of eyes looking right at him behind the brush, and then realized that they belonged to something that closely resembled the shadow he saw earlier. Maybe it was! They stared at each other for only a few seconds before who or whatever it was vanished once again.

Fire Fight scanned the area once more, but the entity had indeed disappeared yet again. Now he was certain he was being watched.

“Fire Fight?” he nearly jumped, but managed to keep his cool. It was only Cheerilee. “Is everything okay? You seem startled.”

Fire Fight was still catching his breath a little from the running, and the encounter. “Yeah, just… running some laps is all.” Cheerilee wasn’t convinced that that was it, and Fire Fight could tell, so he decided to inquire. “Ms. Cheerilee, does anypony live in those woods besides that ‘Zecora’ lady I met?” he asked.

Cheerilee was a little surprised at his question. “No, not to my knowledge. Why?”

“I don’t know. It’s just… it feels like I’m being watched by the forest……. Must be my imagination; I’m not used to seeing so many trees.” He answered. Cheerilee looked out into the woods in thought. She smiled when she agreed that Fire Fight’s probably right. She’d seen this kind of anxiety in new students before, especially big city foals like him. The bell ending recess rung, and everypony returned inside. As he did, Fire Fight looked back at the forest once more, and thought to himself, "There's definitely somepony watching me... and I want to know who, and why!"