//------------------------------// // Eyes Open // Story: Tales of the Battle Foals // by Sirdubya //------------------------------// With a couple trips and falls along the way, Shadow Shroud managed to sneak Greensprout into the same bush that she had occupied earlier. Looking out into the street, Greensprout could see that it was indeed a lively little town. Nopony seemed to pay any heed to their position, so Shroud was easily able to find a chance to send her out. “I’ll be in the shadows in case something happens. Act natural, and don’t be afraid to lie out of a situation if you need to.” Shroud whispered. Greensprout nodded nervously. “Ok.” Shroud put her hoof on Greensprout’s shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Just come back here when you’re done. I’ll know.” Greensprout creased a relieved smile. “Thank you, Shadow Shroud.” With that, Greensprout silently crept out of the bush as per Shroud’s direction and into the street. She looked around to see that nopony was looking at her funny, so she definitely succeeded. She looked back at the bush one more time to give one last subtle nod to Shadow Shroud, but it looked she already disappeared. “My goodness, she’s a clever one.” Putting her trust into her enigmatic friend, Greensprout began exploring Trifectown. Not everypony had an apparent special talent for sports, but ponies such as that were indeed prevalent. Most of the stores and businesses were sports-related; she saw a soccer field surrounded by a running track, a couple baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts, a few gyms, a swimming pool with a schedule of various water sporting events being held, a couple buckball fields, etc. Seeing everypony have fun despite how grueling their activities must have been made Greensprout smile everywhere she looked. How any foal could possibly feel unhappy in a place where every day was as exciting as this made her think that she and the others were wasting their time here, but then again, hearing some of their stories and recent events had taught her to keep an open mind. While she wasn’t looking, Greensprout suddenly bumped into somepony. Both parties nearly fell, but quickly regained their balance. “Oh! Please excuse me.” Greensprout said. When she looked at who she bumped into, she saw that it was another filly. Her coat was a burnt orange, and her mane was purple and styled in a more masculine manner. Her Cutie Mark depicted a pink and white shield-like crest with a lightning bolt on it. She looked at Greensprout as she got up. “My bad.” She was joined with two other fillies with almost identical Cutie Marks, but one was a yellow earth pony with an apple in her shield rather than a bolt, and the other was a white unicorn with a music note on her shield. “You live around here?” she asked. Greensprout was caught a little off guard, but remembered Shroud’s advice to her. “Erm…W-Well, I haven’t been here for very long, but…yes. Why do you ask?” “Well, we’re kinda looking for somepony that might come around here. We came from a town called Ponyville.” The unicorn said. “I’m Sweetie Belle, and this is Scootaloo and Applebloom.” “Howdy!” “S’up?” “Hello! My name is Greensprout.” A thought crossed her mind. “Umm…..if you’re from another town, then why are you looking for your friend here?” The three fillies expressions turned to shallow sorrow. “He…..well…..due to some…..stuff that happened, he….” Scootaloo started. “He ran away from home.” Applebloom finished. Hearing this put a knot in Greensprout’s stomach. It all sounded too much like a certain fiery unicorn she knew. “A-And who exactly is this friend of yours?” she nervously asked. Applebloom pulled out a newspaper and showed Greensprout the headline news. “See here? That’s him. His name’s Fire Fight.” She said as she pointed to Fire Fight’s photo. Greensprout was at a loss as to what to think. Of all the things she had to encounter, friends of Fire Fight’s from his hometown!? It was bad enough that their faces were plastered in the news, but now this!? Greensprout had trained herself to ease her nerves quickly with all the meditation she’d done over the years, so she was able to keep a straight face, but she was as frantic as a deer running away from a pack of wolves on the inside. “Oh! R-Right! I heard about this. But sadly, I haven’t seen any of these foals. I’m sorry.” She felt bad about having to lie for the first time in her life. “Aw, man. Well, we just got here, so we might as well stick around in case we see him come through.” Scootaloo said. The other fillies nodded in agreement. She then looked at Greensprout. “We were thinking about checking out that archery competition that’s going on. Wanna come with us?” These fillies were just full of left field comments. While she probably shouldn’t be interacting with other ponies very much, most of all those who were actively looking for Fire Fight, Shadow Shroud did advise her to act natural, and this apparent competition might prove to be a good opportunity to observe a good chunk of the town’s population. “Oh! Well….I was going there anyway, but I’m new here, so…..if you could maybe help me find the place….” “Sure, Greensprout! We got directions from one of them brochures that were handed out. Come on!” Applebloom said. With that, the CMC led Greensprout through the lively town. She did her best to avoid small talk so as to avoid potentially spilling the beans, but these fillies were anything but shy. She had to lie about recently moving from Hoofington, which prompted the CMC to ask if she personally knew Spiral Galaxy, to which she of course answered ‘no’, but was well aware of how dangerous she was. Greensprout could only imagine how tense Shadow Shroud must have been from watching all of this. Finally, they came to a fence with one side crowded by spectators. When they looked over to the other side, it was occupied by a line of seven archers with a 250-yard range in front of them with a wall of targets at the opposite end. Each set of nine targets were set specifically for each contestant and arranged in a 3x3 shape. Judging by how the score board was nearly full and how all but one target on each set had an arrow in it, the fillies guessed that it was about to be decided. “Aw, man! Looks like we missed it!” Sweetie Belle said. “Not really. They’ve all got one shot left.” Applebloom said. Taking a closer look, Greensprout noticed that amongst the group of adult contestants, one of them was a pegasus filly about her age. Her coat was a hunter-green, and her mane and tail were jet-black. Applebloom noticed that she had a tie at the end of her mane much like her sister, and it draped down in such a way that it completely covered her left eye. The eye that was visible was a ruby-red, and her Cutie Mark depicted a bow with an arrow drawn onto its string and ready to fire. She held her bow in such a way that her uncovered right eye was lined up with her bow, so she could easily find her aim. “My! She must be talented if she’s competing against adults.” Greensprout commented. “For sure!” she heard from beside her. She looked over to see a random colt looking at her with fanboying eyes. “That’s Bullseye, and she’s the best archer in Trifectown!” he declared. Another colt beside suddenly popped up. “No way! She’s the best archer in all of Equestria!” he then looked at Bullseye and creased a sheepish smile. “K-Kind of a shame she never talks much…” he stammered as he scratched the back of his head while blushing. Greensprout took another look at her, and then she glanced at her array of targets. All of them had been hit dead center! “Oh my goodness!” she muttered. A loudspeaker then suddenly came on. “Archers, draw your last arrow when you’re ready.” It ordered. As per instructed, each of the seven contestants drew their bows and aimed. Before she did however, Bullseye held the arrow up to her face, and gave it a quick good luck kiss. The crowd seemed to like that. Once her bow was drawn with the rest of them, the announcer gave the order. “Fire!” They let loose their arrows all at once, and watched as their arrows soared towards their final target. A couple of them somehow managed to miss the target blocks entirely while a few others hit the 7-8 point mark. The one arrow that got everypony excited was Bullseye’s, which hit the target right in the center! The crowd cheered wildly and chanted Bullseye’s name as her eight opponents gracefully accepted their defeat. “Fillies and gentlecolts, Bullseye has claimed her eleventh consecutive victory! Can anypony even hope to topple this titan of the bow!?” a commenter announced. Oddly enough, Bullseye simply gave an approving nod to her opponents, not even addressing the crowd or even smiling. The one colt said that she wasn’t much for conversation, but was she so reserved that she’d not get excited over a victory like this? Something about this felt off to Greensprout, and she decided to talk to her when she got the chance. “Whoa……she really is good!” Scootaloo said. “Yeah! I bet she’s gonna be a real star someday!” Sweetie Belle added. “That was fun n’ all, but come on, Crusaders! We better keep our eyes open fer Fire Fight!” Applebloom said. She then looked at Greensprout. “Nice meetin’ ya, Greensprout!” she said as she and the other CMC trotted away, who also said they’re goodbyes. “Farewell!” Greensprout said. She then looked over to see Bullseye handing her bow to an official; it was probably lent to her for the competition. She was then bestowed with a first place medal. Her expression didn’t change, and she seemed to humbly accept the award. Her and the official parted ways without incident, and Bullseye exited the range. Despite being a pegasus, Bullseye seemed content to just walk to wherever she was headed. As she entered the street and got closer to Greensprout, Greensprout could see that the young archer had a rather disgruntled expression about her, which was odd given her clear victory. Perhaps she wasn’t satisfied with her overall performance? She’d gotten…..well, bullseyes across the board, so what was wrong? Greensprout walked to the left of her. “Hello! Are you Bullseye?” For a brief second, Bullseye seemed to ignore her, but she then barely turned her to face her with her unexposed eye. “Yeah? What about it?” she said. Her tone was unfriendly. Greensprout was caught a little off guard at the response she got. Bullseye had an ominous air about her like Shadow Shroud did, but unlike said ninja filly, hers was overtly menacing. “Erm…I just wanted to give you my congratulations. You have amazing talent with a bow and arrow.” Bullseyes faced front again. “Tch. Tell me something I haven’t heard a million f****** times already.” She lowly growled. Greensprout was shocked and appalled at not only her language, but her clear feelings of anger towards something, something that was clearly bothering her. “Hey! There’s no need for-” She was cut off when a sudden gust of wind blew Bullseye’s mane upward, revealing her left eye. To Greensprout’s shock, it was black and swollen to the point where it was forced shut. Bullseye quickly put her mane back down over her eye. “O-Oh my goodness! What happened to your eye!?” she asked as she tried to lift her mane back up. Bullseye forcefully shoved her away. “It was just a stupid accident! Now piss off!” she hissed. She spread her wings and flew away, leaving Greensprout to wonder what darkness could be consuming her heart.