Ser Vincent was not the best archer. He met the basics that all guards did and found he excelled with a javelin and a spear as his weapons of choice (second to his potions and his unarmed combat, of course). A spear was one of the three weapons a guard was trained in, second being swords, third being the bow.

Shrrrrrrrrrk

The knight followed the path of the polearm and had recently mastered its versatility nine months ago. After all, being one of the best in his field of alchemy, and having pinnacle form for unarmed combat took time to achieve. So the bow and the sword saw little in use save when he was testing a resin for sharp blades.

Fwwm!

It made for good money capitalising on his skills and first love, alchemy, but of course, he didn’t charge the guardians of Equestria for things needed for the troops. He had one or two acquaintances that needed special orders and would pay handsomely for. Easy bits to splash out on replacement equipment, ingredients, or to pool with His Majesty’s charity funding. Ser Vincent was happy to help a financially struggling orphanage or two with what he could afford to give; the prince enhanced the lives of Equestrian citizens, the knight merely prolonged them.

Thmp! Tcchhh.

Of course when the Equestrian Games came around then there was bits to be made for those who could manufacture ice arrows, but again, with this being a shipment for the Royal Guard, Vincent would offer it at a heavily discounted price. This was not for defending Equestria but rather representing it in skill, and Ser Vincent had little interest in anything other than duty and making a name for himself in regards to being a part of the Equestrain armed forces. Hence the presence of a bill at all. If they wanted this request free of charge then somepony better have their life on the line.

He stood in the empty backyard of his new abode, looking out towards the acres of apple trees in the distance. A few houses and shops littered the worn path that ran out of town before branching off towards the farm. If he were to take a good look he could spot Miss Rarity’s boutique ten minutes down the road. Instead, however, his aim was on the round target seventy paces away.

Beside him was a wooden box, emptied after being used to move his stuff to this town, and upon that was a tray of sample arrows neatly lined up. They were knitting-needle like but perfectly straight and with thin blades of white crystal fins. These were the samples of batch number four, a total of ten taken from fifty. He’d fired three already and, not that he was surprised, they were adhering perfectly to Equestrian Game regulations.

Whilst his manufacturing of olympic equipment was up to snuff, his aim with the bow was not. He was on average a few rings out from the centre marking, but if he wished for dead-eye accuracy he’d start launching spears.

Another three shots and another pair of explosive, endothermic magic erupted on impact. Heat was absorbed from the surrounding zone, a frosty aura from the imbedded stalk soon freezing the area with a flowery pattern of ice. This was something he loved about alchemy, the ability to change something in an instinct that wouldn’t normally happen. He could instantly freeze boiling water with one of these arrows.

“Hey Vinny!” He almost let fly another arrow at the sound of her raspy voice. He smoothly un-knocked the arrow, holding it in his pony-gloved hand as he looked back. Her wings flapped to steady her as Rainbow Dash came to abruptly land beside him on her hooves. Clip-clop. With her wings folded not a second later she fired a wide grin towards him. “Whatcha up to, big guy?”

He stepped to the side after fitting the bow to hang from his shoulder. He gave her a once over, “Quality testing my new batch of ice arrows with these samples. Now what gives me the honour of having you grace my presence, Miss Dash?”

She snorted and shook her head, a sign he decided was of disbelieving amusement. “Come on Vincent, you can just call me Rainbow, you know? How many times do I have to tell you?”

“Well, I have informed you of my preference to be known by my full title.” This was the only ego inflation he allowed himself on a daily basis, no more, no less. He earned his knighthood and it brought him the common decency he so desired from everypony else. When ponies addressed him they were made aware of how distinguished he was from the very first word.

“So you hate Vinny, huh?” Rainbow said with a smirk and a flick of her mane. “Good to know, good to know,” she said with a sagely nod.

He didn’t mind it at all actually. He would allow his few friends to call it him; he did attend schools after all and before he and his classmates learnt to distinguish between species he had friends that called it him. He had no friends in this town – friendly recurring faces, perhaps-- and he had the feeling that opening that can of worms here would likely start an argument.

“Most members of the guard and knights like their ranks, Rainbow, I myself am one of them.” There. The deal had been accepted.

“Cool, heh, kind of like those arrows, huh?” She leaned towards him with her hands behind her back and a wide smile on her maw.

“Your definition of subtlety has a picture of a picket sign by its side, doesn’t it?” His inquiry earned confused blink before he sighed and handed the bow over to her. “Come on then, I’ve got a few more shots.”

“Sweet! Never fired one of these bad boys before.” She grinned excitedly, tightening her grip on the bow as she took his spot and grabbed an arrow. “I thought these would be cold, you know?” She rolled the arrows in her three-digited hand, primary finger and thumb pressing into the shaft. “Feels wooden.”

“If it was cold that would mean that magic was escaping,” Ser Vincent replied from beside the tray, picking up an arrow for his own inspection. “I assure you these are proper ice arrows on par with the Equestrian Game arrows. I’ll be sending the rest back to Canterlot for a few guards to practice with,” he said as he laid the arrow to rest uniformly with the others.

“Wow, you make stuff for the guards?” He bobbed his head from side to side in mute response and she nodded along. “Ah. From time to time.” She knocked the arrow after a third attempt and drew the string back to her shoulder.

“Stop.” At his words her ears perked up and she turned to face him. He was shaking his head and pointing to the bow. “If you shoot now, the arrow will miss and fly out there,” he pointed over and past the ice-speckled targets, “And potentially hit somepony.”

“Come on, you haven’t even seen me shoot yet and you think I’m bad?” she asked, lowering the bow and putting her hand on her small chest. With a sharp eye and catty smirk she thumbed to the target. “Can’t be worse than yours.”

“My goal is to test the arrows, not hit the middle.” He folded his arms and stood with legs shoulder width apart. “Maybe you should try hitting the thing first?”

“Ooooh…” A fire burned in her pink eyes as she glanced to the arrows in front of him. One in her hand, four in the tray… two each. Not enough for a good challenge. “Tell you what, I know that these are pretty expensive.” She then focused her gaze down onto the arrow in her hand, her furred finger tapping the tip as she spoke, “You got any more?”

He slowly tilted his head, a finger lightly tapping against his arm. “One last batch, meaning ten more arrows. Why?”

She shrugged and smirked in a challenging manner. “I say I help you get through them by beating your sorry butt in an archery competition.” She boldly inflated her chest and took aim, her form good enough not to warrant his interruption. She let fly the arrow and it struck in the same zone he had been landing his own shots, if not a bit closer to the bull’s-eye. She then offered him a smug grin, raising her chin.

Oh, she had thrown down the gauntlet, or fired the arrow as the case was. She saw him mechanically turn to face the target, and if she recalled what she and the girls had learnt and pooled together in order to understand his mannerisms, he was now giving the challenge his full attention. Honestly, she didn’t really have any interest in archery – seemed dull, why fire a fast arrow when you could fly faster than an arrow? But ice arrows? That was pretty cool, literally.

“Why?” He finally asked, stunning her momentarily.

“Um, to help?” she replied a little dumbfounded. She scratched behind her ear as her tail swished. “And for fun.” And that was the second reason for the visit. She wanted to get to know Twilight’s new guard since he seemed to follow her wherever she went. Plus, he was a freaking knight! He still needed to tell her a few stories; gotta be better than being cooped up inside his house alone all day, right?

“But I can do this by myself,” he said simply, before back peddling and raising his hands, “Not that I don’t appreciate the offer.”

She scowled at him, ears flattened. “Come on, Vinny-“

“It’s Ser Vincent.” He corrected. It only made her snort.

Then, a second later, she grinned. “Wanna make a deal?” She pointed to him with the arrow tip, “You win and I call you Ser Vincent from now on.” She pointed the arrow to herself, “If I win, I get to call you Vinny.”

“No deal.”

“For a week?”

Her renegotiation landed her a hand-to-the-chin moment of consideration from the knight. “What of my part of the deal, does the duration of one week apply to me?” His inquiry was met with a vigorous shake of the head. “Permanently, then?”

“Yuhuh,” she replied with a nod. “Or at least until you loosen up a bit, right?” Her cheeky smile was disarming so he could let that jab go. “But, yeah, a deal’s a deal.”

Well that would be nice and would work to his favour. Rainbow Dash was a surprisingly busy mare, quickly zipping from place to place whilst working but making time to chat with her colleagues or friends. She did call out to him from time to time and he did politely return a greetings, he simply wished she used his title when she addressed him. That way everypony in ear shot would be reminded that he was a knight. He also found their talks to be somewhat pleasant as he tried to move through ponyville.

“Fine.” He turned to head back into the building that was his abode, “I’ll fetch the next batch.”

“I’ll meet you at the gym,” she replied, taking hold of the rest of the arrows in her free hands and flexing her wings. “It’s got a real shooting range at the back, it’s on the other side of AJ’s farm.”

At her statement he paused and slowly turned around. “Wait, what’s wrong with-“ He was too late. She had launched into the air, her lithe form twisting as she darted towards the town, a rainbow blur trailing behind. She had taken the bow with her too. His shoulders slumped as he brought a hand to his mask, stopping in time to prevent an awkward facepalm.

The archery range was behind a sturdy looking building, fenced off and with a safety net hanging behind it. Ser Vincent hadn’t entered the gym but could see remnants of its old school, hard iron roots with workout machines being simplistic in many ways—such as the scraped weights and worn handles.

The crowd stand to the side look fairly modern though, half packed too. Burly stallions and lithe mares sat with mild curiosity on their features, alongside towels across their shoulders and with drinks in their hands. He’d bumped into Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo passing the farm and all three seemed eager to cheer for the event.

He had only seen the tangerine filly once before, when he was exposed at the trainstation and she was still the same as back then: inquisitive about his work as a knight rather than say the fact he was the human. ‘Good kid.’ He liked this filly.

Yes, the ‘cutie mark crusaders’, a small club tartarus bent on discovering their cutie marks, were amongst this crowd and were cheering on both him and Rainbow Dash. She had bestowed a quiver onto him as soon as he had arrived before turning to entertain the crowd. Whilst she was showboating with the bow in her hand, flying by the crowd and earning her cheers, Ser Vincent was pulling out ten ice arrows for the duel.

He had brought a steel bin, as tall as his shin and with a lid that needed three thick clasps to hold the lid down. Mist rolled out when he uncovered the fresh batch of fifty arrows, each equally spaced apart. He sealed the bin as Rainbow came to float by, a cocky grin on her maw.

“Heck, I don’t even bow but I got a pretty good feeling about this, Ser Vincent,” she sniped playfully. He stood up and handed her five arrows whilst she gave him two from the four she had taken before: each archer now had seven arrows each. He tilted his head.

“I doubt it if you say ‘bow’ as a verb and are already referring to me by my title already.” He put his arrows into the quiver and slung it over his shoulder. His voice matched her taunting tone, “It’s understandable that a part of you realises you’re way over your head, Miss Dash. Won’t be long before you acknowledge it.”

She landed silently, wings still flared in challenge as she leant forward, hands on hip and with a toothy smirk pointed up to the taller knight. “I just thought you should at least hear me say it once,” she stated with a prod to his armoured chest. They were face to shadowed mask, him staring her down and her brimming with confidence if not cockiness. “It’ll be the last time for a long time, Vinny.”

“Then, shall the lady begin for us?” he remarked coolly as he gestured to the ice target board. It was a standard affair; black lines divided the board into six and a snowflake occupied the centre, and it was forty metres away.

Dash snorted before walking to her lane. She looked back over her shoulder, “Keep that talk for Rarity, dude.” Her wings pressed to her side, tail drooping as she drew an arrow over her back and knocked on the bow. She drew the string and took aim. “First to cover the board, m’kay?”

“If that’s easier for you.”

“You can do it, Dash!” Scootaloo cheered.

Rainbow grinned. “Thanks, squirt!” she yelled in reply. She then let the arrow fly and the entire crowd shifted their gaze from one side of the range to the other. Thmp! Tcchhh. She hit the edge of the upper right and he noted her ears wilt despite the smile. “Just warming up,” she said as she handed the bow over the knight.

He was silent and swift when he set up his shot, drawing his arrow over his shoulder and aiming it at the centre of the target in one swift motion. He drew the string, pulling back to the cheek of the mask.

“Go Mister Ser Vincent!” Apple Bloom cried. Under any other circumstances he would have been fine, any other distraction would not have possibly disturbed him.

The little filly that failed to call out his name properly had put him off, the arrow flying before he could correct himself. Thmp! Tcchhh. He hit the lower left of the target. Mechanically he lowered the bow and faced the small farmer in the crowd, finding it difficult to scowl at the beaming filly over yonder. He merely sighed as quietly as he could before handing over the bow back to Rainbow Dash.

“Oooh, I like that one,” Rainbow remarked as she withheld a snigger.

“Keep to the deal, Miss Dash.”

Both the knight and the Wonderbolt recruit (he wasn’t surprised by that) took turns, exchanging the same bow shot after shot, their targets blossoming with ice everywhere but the centre. On one hand, pony or gloved-human’s, Ser Vincent’s batch seemed to be another grand success. Alternatively, the fact that he hadn’t managed to hit the middle showed how rusty he had gotten with the bow. It didn’t help that by their sixth shot Rainbow was beating him by five inches.

The crowd seemed entertained and Ser Vincent had to admit there had been a competitive joy to this little duel. However, when Rainbow wore her trademark, befitting cocky smirk as she handed back to the bow he found the feeling fleeting. Perhaps he was a bad loser, or maybe he didn’t enjoy others gloating. Mind you… he realised he’d been smiling despite it all when his cheeks ached beneath the mask. That was certainly new.

“Last shot, Vin- no!” She stopped herself, handing over the bow with both hands and a serene look on her face. “No, no. I can wait until this next shot.” Her fiery, smug look came back when he took hold.

“I only need one, Dash,” he rebutted, stone cold voice throwing her off his true feelings. He wished he could spare more shots but… not to win the match just prolong it. Hmm, odd.

She scoffed and folded her arms under her small bust, leaning up to him. “You’ve had six, big guy.”

True, and as he took aim he realised an important detail: he wasn’t going to make it. His grouping, though improving steadily, was shifting to the left side of the centre. He had a flower of ice in every sixth of the target but no shaft stuck out in the middle. This was not one of his fortes; it was not alchemy, though it was used; it was not close range combat. In fact the closest thing befitting this moment was-

“Miss Dash?” he said, returning the bow to her. “How about you take the last one?” He reached along his belt and squared pockets as she blinked in reply.

“Uh, sure?” With wary trepidation, and a suspicious squint pointed at the knight, she took the bow and arrow. “What are you up to?”

“Nothing!” His hands flew out and from his sides in his defence, raised and empty as he started to move further away from the targets. “I just need time to prepare for my last shot.” His voice seemed warmer that it had been, and she had noticed. It was hard to tell if he was being honest, what with the mask and all, but she shrugged and readied herself for her final shot.

“Hey, isn’t it Mister Ser Vincent’s turn?!” Apple Bloom yelled.

“He’s just scared!” Rainbow taunted, looking back to the knight who was walking further and further away. Not to the exit but the back of the building amongst racking of weights and sporting equipment. When the crowd jeered she flinched, watching Ser Vincent glance back over his shoulder.

She immediately returned focus to he by knocking the arrow and drawing the string. “Alright!” she began, loudly to gain attention, “Last shot!” She steadied her breathing and positioned her arm into a safer, more comfortable position. A few times the string had snapped back to slap her wrist and wasn’t too fond of the sensation. Her aim zeroed in on the bull’s-eye, her pegasi sight showing that she just needed to lift the bow a liiiiiittle higher.

Fwwm!

Thmp! Tcchhh.

So close! The round of applause certainly made it feel like her best shot yet, but she failed to cover the middle. She took it as a moment to flaunt her wings and bring a free hand to her ear, earning a more appreciative cheer from the stand. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle cheered but she noticed Apple Bloom elbowing her unicorn friend before pointing back towards Ser Vincent.

Turning to look back, she found that the knight had finished applying something to a javelin before he pointed to her to move aside with the tip.

“Hey!” She launched towards him, and with but a few flaps she was beside him. “What do you think you’re doing?” She saw him pocket a small bottle in an outer pocket but her focus fell onto the javelin tipped with a silver slime, with wisps of mist falling from it.

“I’m taking my shot,” he simply stated before turning towards the target, “Oooh, that was certainly one of the best today.” He then looked back to her, tilting his head and smirking with his voice. “But not the best I’m afraid – that one’s next.”

“Dude, you gotta be kidding me!” She looked between him and the target, seeing that he was standing twice the distance he had been from the target previously. “There’s no way you can-“

“What is a javelin if not but a large arrow, Rainbow Dash?” He put a boot forward and had his eyes locked on target.

It was with a whip of the air and a flare of viridian that the knight seemed to snap and twist his entire body. The air was cut by the pointed tip, the javelin whistling momentarily as it was zipped through the air. The crowd watched it’s neat ark, disbelief evident the closer and closer it flew to the target.

Thud! It was with a harsh punch that the javelin did land upon the target, an four inches or so from dead centre. Whereas before the arrows exploded with an expansive blossom of ice, neat and flat along the surface this was something more brutal. Spines and needles of ice erupted around the embedded javelin, completely covering the centre.

There was brief moment of silence. The air still with awe and all eyes upon the board shaking from the impact. Dash let her jaw hang and would have kept it there had it not been for the little orange filly.

“Woah! I think Mister Ser Vincent won!” That was it. The stand erupted with a round of an applause, smiles gracing the gym visitors and they nodded in approval. A cautious few made their way over to inspect the knight’s target, experimental pokes with the ice knocking daggers of frozen water off.

“That’s Ser Vincent!” He yelled back, huffing with annoyance afterwards.

That was when Rainbow fired him a glare. “Vinny, that’s cheating!” His silence earned a harsh prod to the ever-exposed armoured chest. “Don’t think you can wriggle out of this, I thought knight held up their deals and stuff!” He folded his arms and elevated his gaze away from her, and if not for bringing a hand to his chin, she could mistake the ponderous stance for a blatant attempt to ignore her. She spread her wings and hovered in front of his lifted gaze, frowning down to him. “Not cool dude.”

“But… you won.”

“Huh?” Caught off-guard she cocked her head to the side and let her arms hang loose but held the bow firmly. “Wait-what?”

“I’m disqualified, correct? So you win, right?”

“You threw the deal?” She scratched her mane and gave him a curios look, “Why?” Why did he need to do this? Seemed a bit much to avoid earning a nickname. Then it hit her. And as she stared down with a cat-like smirk she took notice of Ser Vincent shifting his gaze away. “You just couldn’t handle losing, could you?” She shifted her hover until she was upside down and eye to mask eye before the knight. It didn’t make her grin any less obnoxious.

“Actually, I don’t mind being beaten.” He offered a sincere shrug. It was true. This wasn’t his field of expertise so obviously somepony was going to better than him. Admittedly he wished it wasn’t a complete amateur. He wasn’t all that competitive but something important was on the line today. A reputation. “It’s just that whilst I’m not good at this, what I am good at, Dash, I am very, very very good at.”

He gestured to the icy barnacle from Tartarus that used to be the target board, noting the one poor fool that had his tongue stuck to an icicle hanging from the javelin. Somepony had even brought a camera.

‘So whilst it may be said that I am inadequate with the bow, it will also be said that I am far more impressive with a spear.’ Honestly, today had turned out better than expected. At least a few more would see him as capable even if they were still hesitant to see or even talk to him.

“Hey, Vinny, there’s a thing me and AJ do called the Iron Pony challenge,” Rainbow began as she self-righted, “I get what you mean by sticking to what you’re good at, so I think that’s right up your alley. I know racing and beating Applejack’s something for me, but this time more ponies wanna join in.” She handed him back the bow, tail swishing. “It’s more track and weight tossing than throwing at bull’s-eyes and stuff. You game?”

He took back the bow and swung the quiver from his shoulder and placed it on the floor. He removed the unfired ice arrow. “I’ll think about it, I won’t deny that this…” he paused to gesture towards the archery range with the bow, carefully selecting his warm words, “was entertaining for the evening.” He then began to migrate towards the entrance, picking up the bin of arrows as Dash followed.

She drifted ahead, rainbow mane catching the light of the day as she smiled. “Awww, come on, Vinny.” She held her arms open, “You gotta try it! It’ll be a blast!”

He simply walked on, slowly tilting his head as he regarded her. He waited and persevered through her persuasion, in both its aggressive and taunting forms. Finally when out of the pointed ear shot of others, he spoke. “I told you I’ll think about it… Dashie.”

That shut her up. She quirked a less than impressed brow, “Err, Vinny, it’s just Dash or Rainbow.”

“Are you certain?” he asked, his voice turning professional, “I believe Dashie is very becoming of an adventurous mare such as yourself, Dashie.”

“Dude, chill.”

“I thought we were sharing nicknames?”

“Vinny, not that one though!” She frowned a tad as she scrunched her muzzle in repulsion. “It’s way too girly.”

He then threw his shoulders back and mimicked her voice, “Aww, come on… Dashie.” It wasn’t a good attempt, his soft baritone of a voice became muffled further when he tried to change the pitch and make it raspy also. “I’ve heard Pinkie Pie say it.”

“She’s the only one that says it. Stop it.”

“But… Dashie…”

“Stop!”

‘I guess nicknames can be fun.’