//------------------------------// // Legacy Prompt #22: Archery Practice // Story: Ponywatching // by ThunderTempest //------------------------------// Ffwt! “Oh, my darling!” “My love!” “Is she still out there?” asked Octavia. Vinyl chanced a look above the open window. She ducked back down just as a blue magical arrow shot through the space her head had occupied previously. “Yep, she is,” muttered Vinyl, “got any threes?” “Go fish,” said Octavia, and Vinyl grumbled and picked up a card. Ffwt! “I’m sorry to do this today, but I don’t feel the same way about you. I can only hope that you get the stallion that you deserve.” “Oh. I see. Well, we certainly have had some good times, but now I need to go and drown my heartbreak in a lot of alcohol.” “Of course.” “Any princesses, Vinyl?” asked Octavia. “So,” said Vinyl, as she flicked one of her cards at Octavia, “how long do you reckon it will be until she gives up this time?” “Four hours,” said Octavia, sorting through her cards, “give or take about ten minutes.” “Weeks worth of dishes says it’s six?” asked Vinyl. Octavia considered this for a moment. “You’re on, Vinyl.” The two would have shook hooves on it, but that required them to move into the line of fire. Ffwt! “Well, maybe if you stopped using those stupid hooffiles, my hooves wouldn’t hurt so much...I mean, I like it that you do those things for me, but maybe you could remember that my hooves are more delicate than yours.” “Honey, I’m sorry. I just wanted to do something nice for you. I’ll see if I can find one that doesn’t hurt your hooves so much.” Octavia picked up a card, and her face instantly brightened. She laid down a pair of knights, and Vinyl groaned. “Oh, come on, that’s like the fourth match you’ve made in the last five minutes,” she said levitating a card to her collection. “Ooh, pair of wizards!” Vinyl laid down her matching pair of cards. Meanwhile, Octavia pulled out a circle of stiff card, painted with a facsimile of Vinyl on it, and she tossed it toward the window. A second later, it was pierced through with another arrow made of blue magic. “Darn it!” was the exclamation from the opposite rooftop. “Shouldn’t you be doing, you know, Princess stuff?” called Vinyl. “I am! As the Princess of Love, it is my duty to make sure that everypony is happy on Hearts and Hooves Day! And you two have so much unrequited love!” “No we don’t!” bellowed Vinyl. “Denial is the first step on the road to acceptance!” called back Princess Cadance. Vinyl magically slammed the shutters shut, but they were obliterated a second later by a localized storm of magic arrows. Vinyl and Octavia both inched a bit further away from the window. “Come on, I know you two will be perfectly happy together!” called Princess Cadance. Vinyl tuned the slightly-delusional Crystal Empress out, and turned back to Octavia. “So, got any fives?” “Go fish.” Ffwt! “Oh, come here, my love.” “Baaa.” “Whoops I missed I didn’t mean to make you fall in love with a goat and let me reverse that real quick for you!”