Back in Ponyville…
“<yawn> Is their train here yet?” Spike asked groggily. He and Twilight were at the train station late at night waiting for the CMC and Rarity to arrive from Trifectown. It had been a few days since the groups were dispatched, and they were the last to come home, hopefully to some avail unlike everypony else.
“It shouldn’t be too much longer, Spike. I’ve heard that all of the trains stations have been taking extra time to search their cargo before departing in case those foals stowed themselves away, so it’s expected that there’s gonna be a little delay here and there.” Twilight said. “Though it’s started to get kinda cold out here. Brrr!” She shivered a little bit.
“Yeah. It’s a good thing that we got all those newspapers to put all the runaway foals in their headlines. Sure beats the heck outta printing a million and a half ‘missing’ posters, huh?” Spike said.
Twilight giggled. “You sure said it, Spike.” Just then, she saw a light from down the tracks approaching them. “Here they are!” she cheered.
“Ugh, finally…” Spike muttered. The train came to a slow, screeching halt at the dock of the station, and the doors opened to release its only passengers bound for their home here. Twilight and Spike were about to happily greet Rarity and the fillies when they noticed that Scootaloo was holding an ice pack to her left eye. She looked like she was in pain. “Whoa! What happened, Scoots?”
Scootaloo narrowed her other eye in the type of frustration that held back tears. “It was that stupid Bullseye!” she exclaimed.
“Scoots…” Applebloom muttered. She and Sweetie Belle hugged and comforted their friend.
“Rarity, what happened? Who’s this ‘Bullseye’?” Twilight asked.
Rarity sighed and shook her head. “Oh, Twilight, if only you could have been there. The girls were asking around town as we planned, and they decided to talk to one of the fillies that was a talented archer.” She said. “But Twilight, she….Ugh! She was just the most uncouth little demon I think I’ve ever seen! The girls said nothing unkind to her, but she had just the filthiest mouth in all of Equestria! She used the ‘f’ word, Twilight! The ‘f’ word! Her parents ought to give a proper punishment!” Rarity had to compose herself. “Anyway, it ended with Bullseye punching poor Scootaloo in her eye. Oh, it was just awful!”
Twilight found herself appalled by Rarity’s story and looked at the pained fillies. “Is that true, Crusaders?”
“Yeah…..She told us she would hang us on targets with our throats at the center if we talked to her again….” Sweetie Belle said. “I kinda don’t wanna go back there…”
“Me neither.” Applebloom mumbled. Scootaloo’s frustrated anguish spoke for her.
“Whoa….” Spike muttered. “Wonder what her deal is?”
“Maybe I should go to Trifectown myself and try to talk to her. I’ll bet there’s something that’s really bothering her.” Twilight said.
“Tch! Yeah! She must have a lot of problems if she’s gonna freaking punch me in my eye and threaten us like that!!” Scootaloo shouted angrily.
“Darling.” Rarity lightly touched Scootaloo as her friends embraced her.
Scootaloo took a deep breath. “S-Sorry…..Can we just go home already?”
“Good idea. I can definitely see that you all had a hard time.” Twilight said. They all nodded and made their way back home.
*****
Twilight and Spike had retired to their beds for the night. The thought of the CMC encountering such a violent filly made the already looming chill in the air even more bitter. Twilight planned to head out there to see what could possibly be troubling the little archer. “Man, oh man. Poor Scoots…Wonder what’s up with that ‘Bullseye’ filly?” Spike said as he covered his scaly body with his blanket.
Twilight laid in her bed without feeling much less disturbed. “I hope to find that out for myself, Spike. You’ll come with me, won’t you?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Spike asked.
“Well, it’s just….I’d hate it if Bullseye lashed out at you too.” Twilight said.
“Meh. If I can swim in lava, I can take a beating from an angry filly. No need to worry.” Spike said.
Twilight giggled. “You’re a real trooper, Spike.”
“Heh. Yeah, I know.” Spike said. The two closed their eyes and let their minds drift off to sleep. The air might have had a nip, but Luna’s radiant moonlight bathed and caressed the two like a soothing lullaby. Even the heartache they had shared with Scootaloo seemed to fade away in its gentle luminescence.
Twilight suddenly felt a sudden shift in the cold air that startled her awake. She looked around her room, but saw nothing strange…..except…. “Huh?” Beside the jewelry box where she stored her tiara was a small paper wrapping that wasn’t there before. She levitated it over to herself. “What’s this?” She opened the wrapping to find a small black diamond accompanied by a note.
“If this package has been opened, then let it be known that its intended recipient is important and should know what to do with it.”
Twilight found herself unnerved to the point of her breaths becoming shaky at the unaddressed note. Who was this unknown sender, and what was this black diamond that they wanted her to have? Was it for her? If the message in the letter is to be believed, then she should know exactly what to do with it, but she didn’t, so she decided to examine it more closely. “Hmm? It…..has a recording spell enchanted into it. And it looks like there’s a playback.”
Just then out of the corner of her eye, she could’ve sworn she saw a dark silhouette out her window, but when she looked, whatever might’ve been there vanished. Twilight was nervous to play the recording and view its contents. This strange gem just appeared to her. Was it going to show some kind of threat? Was it a trap placed by somepony? Was it…..some inappropriately timed prank by Pinkie Pie? She gulped before using her magic to watch the playback. When she watched what it had recorded, she knew that whoever this pony was had definitely meant it for her…
*****
The Battle Foals decided to move further away from town before calling it a night since Bullseye’s disappearance would be noticed right away, and they’d no doubt look into the woods. They couldn’t help but wonder how much Bullseye’s parents would try to put on a façade just to save face. Speaking of Bullseye herself, she fluttered a short distance away from the other foals, largely keeping to herself. The air around her was incredibly tense, and the foals kept an uneasy eye on her as they all hiked through the dark forest in a tense silence.
Turf War leaned in to whisper to Fire Fight. “You sure dis a good idea, dog? She…..”
“I know…” Fire Fight said. “We’ve only just met her. Give her time to get used to us. She’ll come around.”
“Yeah….Maybe….” Turf War said.
“Her scars run deeper than most.” Zebota said. “And she only remembers hatred rather than love.”
“So we have to show her love if there’s any hope of healing her.” Greensprout said.
“Let us be cautious about it though. We don’t want to set her off. Dodging arrows was something I was admittedly a little rusty at.” Shadow Shroud said. Looking at the black-hearted archer, Shroud knew that she and her weren’t so different. Both were ponies who embraced their inner darkness, but Bullseye never learned how to sublimate it. Even if Greensprout was her opposite that would try to make her whole, Shroud was the one to speak to her on their shared level. Though, she wondered how she saw the world through her blackened eye.
“Hey, Air Slash? Have you given her a medallion yet?” Fire Fight asked.
Air Slash was eyeing Bullseye with contempt. “Hmph. I don’t think she quite considers herself to be one of us, and I don’t feel so inclined to hand her one seeing how she threatened Greensprout.”
“Yeah….She’s gonna take some getting used to, but we have to be there for her now. Who else is she supposed to turn to?” Spiral Galaxy said.
“Indeed. Perhaps not initiating her into our group right away is the best course of action.” Quantum Tech said. “For now, I’d strongly suggest letting her have her space and let her come to us.”
Greensprout sighed. “Very well…” She wanted to help Bullseye any way she could, but the archer’s spiked heart repelled her away without a hint of mercy, and nothing made heart ache more.
Air Slash put his hoof on her shoulder. “We’ll salvage her…..I promise. Just let me know if she lashes out at you or anything, ok?”
Greensprout smiled warmly at the young samurai. She was incredibly thankful to have such a strong heart at her side. “Thank you, Air Slash.” Air Slash nodded and blushed. For a second, he thought he could see a tint of red on her face as well.
“Hang on, y’all.” Kickback said. He pointed out a large tree a few good yards from the river that looked hollow from their distance. “Ah reckon we could crawl into there fer the night.”
“Alright. Let’s go check it out.” Fire Fight said. “You coming, Bullseye?”
Bullseye turned to look at him. Her exposed eye burned through his soul with that same hateful glare. “Yeah…” she hissed.
Fire Fight grimaced as she followed them to the tree. Sure enough the roots of the tree were sprawled out in such a way that it made a room inside about the size of three schoolhouses even though the entrance was too small for Quantum’s mech or Shrapnel to fit through. Of course, Shrapnel didn’t mind staying outside if it meant guarding the foals.
“Well, dis a nice crib to crash.” Turf War said.
“And it’s right by the river too! Why don’t we restock our water while we can?” Spiral said.
“Good idea. We’ll start setting up camp in the tree while we’re at it.” Fire Fight said. It didn’t take the foals too terribly long to refill their water bottles and pick a spot to lay their sewn bedrolls in the space within the tree. Quantum left her mech just outside the entrance where Shrapnel laid down and guarded them. She and the other unicorns helped the others by providing some light in the dark space.
Spiral walked up to Bullseye and handed her a bedroll. “Here, Bullseye. We had one made for you. It should be nice and snug!”
Bullseye eyed her for a moment and then shifted her gaze to the folded grass sack. For a split second, Spiral thought she saw a sparkle of something that wasn’t bloodthirsty hate. Bullseye then forcefully swiped it from her. “Thanks.”
Spiral maintained a smile despite Bullseye’s cold rudeness. “S-Sure!” She had to compose herself for a second. “Look…We know you’ve been through a lot, so…...we’re here for you, ok? We all care about each other, and now you’re with us.”
Bullseye just set up her bedroll, largely not heeding Spiral’s words. “Great. Go care about me somewhere else.”
Spiral lost her smile. It was probably the wrong time. “O-Okay.” She went back to her own bedroll. “Hey, does anypony know where Turf War is?”
“I believe he only decided now that he wanted to refill his bottle, the buffoon...” Air Slash said.
Fire Fight rolled his eyes. “Hang on, guys. I’ll go get him.” He got up and exited the tree, shivering a little in the process. “Brrr…When did it get so cold?” As Air Slash suggested, there was Turf War at the river alone at the riverbank holding his bottle in the river. Fire Fight trudged up to him. “Turf War, you’re filling that thing up now?”
Turf War looked back as he continued to hold his bottle in the water. “My bad, bruh. I ain’t thought I was gonna need to, but I chugged the rest o’ di s*** down ‘fore I knew we was crashing here-” He was cut off when he suddenly felt his hoof in the river begin to chill. “Damn.” He retracted his hoof with his bottle full, but was befuddled to see it clouded with frost. “Da f***?”
Zebota suddenly rushed over to them with Shrapnel, who was growling at the river. “Zebota, what’s going on?” Fire Fight asked.
Shrapnel’s growling suddenly became more guttural. “Shrapnel feels it too. This cold…..It is not natural!” He drew his boomerang and faced the river. “Show your true nature, demon!”
“Hol’ up, dog! What demon?” Turf War asked. His question was quickly answered when the river water began to freeze over as a cloud of frigid mist suddenly formed and began congregating, seeming to condense into something. Turf War drew his hammer-axe and shield as Fire Fight ignited his gauntlets, ready for what might appear…