//------------------------------// // First impressions // Story: A Marines peace // by Cone of Wonders //------------------------------// Rust began to wake up; the first couple of things he realised was that his head was in great pain as though somebody had tried to open it with a jackhammer and that he had been placed on a small chair in the middle of the same tree house he had entered earlier, before somebody whacked him in in the face. That was the last thing he could remember at the moment. That and the strange looking purple horse that was hiding in the cupboard. “Ah, bloody hell”! He cursed, his head was really hurting. Whoever it was who whacked him was going to pay big time. As he tried to use his hands to soothe his head, he quickly discovered that his wrists had been tied to the chair he was sitting on. “Figures” He sighed. He tried to make an attempt to lift the chair by simply sitting up which resulted as failure as the chair legs remained on the floor. Rust assumed that it had been bolted to the floor which struck him as interesting seeing how the chair wasn’t even in the middle of the room when he first entered the place. How had they managed to bolt the chair to the floor so fast he wondered, Rust hadn’t even been knocked out for long. At least it didn’t feel like it. Rust looked round the circular room, scanning his environment for anything he may have missed from earlier. Hopefully something to help him or at least tell him where he was. Nothing. The only thing that Rust noted as useful was that his equipment was all the way over on the other side of the room. His helmet, the scattershot, even his standard issue army knife laid on its side on top of a wooden table. “Shit”. Rust cursed again. He paused as he heard footsteps coming from the room above him. There was somebody else in the house with him! Rust tried his best to remain quiet just in case whatever it was heard him. No further sounds were heard for a while allowing Rust to go back to his thoughts. Remembering his training, Rust used his fingers to feel the knot which secured the rope round his wrists. Interestingly enough, the knot had not been tied as tight as he thought, giving Rust a glimmer of hope. Hopefully he could untie it with his fingers before the thing upstairs comes down and finds out that he’s awake. Carefully he took the very end of the rope between his thumb and his index finger and slowly forced it through the knot. Even though the knot was not as tight as expected, it still gave some resistance and took some time until the ropes end was successfully pushed through the knot causing it to break apart giving Rust the full mobility of his arms once more. “Thank God” He thought to himself as he stretched his arms in relief. He then began to get off of the small chair just in case it collapsed from his weight. Carefully but quickly, he dashed over to his equipment, glad that everything he needed was in front of him and was in one piece. Without any further hesitation he grabbed his helmet with both hands and gently slid it onto his head trying not to cause any further pain. He attached the grenades onto his belt, slid his magnum sidearm into the holster and grabbed the scattershot which still had three shots in the slot. He also noticed the dogtags from two members of his squad, Nexus and Hammer, and grabbed the both with one hand before giving them a long look and putting them back onto the table for a minute more. Best to be sure, Rust felt his ammo pockets. It seemed that he still had his ammo. Why it had not been taken from him seemed a little strange, but who cares? He still had the remaining shots for the scattershot, three ammo clips for the magnum with one already placed inside of the sidearm and two more ammo clips for the DMR which he lost to the elite from earlier. As he remembered that moment, another thought suddenly sprung to his mind. The object Mech had thrown him before he detonated the jammer! Rust searched each pocket for something new on his person and came across a new object from his back left pocket. He pulled it out and saw what Mech had given him, his Dogtags. They read PVT. SAMUEL B SMITH Service Number 02158-82216 ARROW SQUAD MECH Rust could not help but feel a slight stinging sensation, he gave his life for his team and the sake of the mission. Wasting no time, he put all the dogtags together and put them safely in his pocket. It was time to leave, Find Forest, Contact INFINITY, and call for extraction. Rust crept over to the door, aiming down his sites as he went and reached for the door handle until something hit him. “Wait, didn’t I break this door down”?! He asked himself as he remembered kicking the door off of its hinges. “What the hell is going on”? Nether the less, he grabbed the handle and swung the door and felt the sun shine onto his face. Even though he had been told that Requiems sun was not real, it did not make it any less beautiful. However, natural scenery would have to wait. Rust tore his gaze off of the sun only to stare into the eyes of an white unicorn, with a shitload of makeup and the weirdest hairstyle possible, and a yellow pony with a pink mane who looked terrified beyond comparison. Rust did not take what he saw all too well himself. Unknown creatures standing before him which may possibly try to rip him to pieces or worse. Hell, they may even be some sort of Forerunner A.I. But then again, these things could be sentient and aggressive like the covenant. To him there were three options he could try out. “Okay”. He began in his head. “There are two possible covenant or forerunner visuals right in front of me. Should I try to communicate with them, shoot them or run”? Going over the options, there was no reason to try to provoke them and decided to go with the first option. Rust took a simple step forward and spoke. “I-“ Unfortunately that was as far as he got before the yellow one let out a girly scream. What surprised Rust the most was that it had wings that stretched out from its sides. WINGS! And flew up into the air as fast as it could leaving Rust gobsmacked. He then turned to the White unicorn which was either very brave or frozen with fear. Either way Rust tried again. “As I was trying to-“ Again Rust was cut short as the white unicorn fainted upon being spoken to. “God Dammit”. He muttered. His troubles were not over however as the figure inside had heard something outside, most likely the yellow horse thing screaming, and was heading downstairs. Now was a good time to choose option three as Rust sprinted back the way he came, towards the forest seeing how if he stayed, he would have to deal with more of those things which may prove troublesome, especially since the first two he met did not take even his appearance too well. Five minutes earlier, the purple unicorn was busy upstairs, writing a letter. It seemed that she was trying to inform somebody else about the strange creature that she had tied up no less than a couple of minutes ago. Dear Princess Celestia. Today I was enjoying a normal day with my friends, Applejack and Rarity, learning about spells and the values of friendship when an unknown beast emerged from the Everfree forest and headed straight for Ponyville library. Doing what anypony would have done we hid hoping that we would be safe. We were not as I heard the door break open and hoofsteps were heard. For a minute I thought everything would be fine until the cupboard I was hiding opened and the monster was standing in front of me. If it was not for my friends, I may not have been able to write this letter to you. I have managed to secure the beast in the living room and have bolted the chair just in case. Rarity has gone to fetch Fluttershy to see if she knows anything about this animal as I have never known or seen this creature in my life and Applejack has set out to warn everypony to stay inside until we know what we are dealing with. I now await your response and- In the middle of writing her letter, she jumped from hearing a scream which sounded a lot like… “FLUTTERSHY”! She yelled in fear for her friend. Twilight trotted towards the top of the steps and saw the door, which she had repaired with her magic, open as well as an empty chair. “Oh nononononono! This is Bad”! She panicked before running back over to the letter once more and scribbled furiously, P.S. The monster has just escaped and is roaming round Ponyville! PLEASE HELP US!! Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. As she finished off the letter, she rolled it up quickly and yelled while leaving the safety of her room to help her friends. “SPIKE! WAKE UP AND SEND THAT LETTER TO THE PRINCESS IMMEDIATLEY”! In the corner of the room, a small figure wrapped in bedsheets tossed and turned rapidly, although he may have just been struggling to free himself from the sheets that were nearly constricting him, and moaned. After a minute or so, the small figure, named Spike, wrestled off the sheets, revealing to be a purple dragon, and calmly walked over to the scroll which had been rolled up. He gave a small chuckle before speaking to no-one but himself. “What’s so important this time? Did she leave a book at Canterlot castle, again”? His question was immediately answered with a loud “HOO”. The young dragon turned round seeing a certain brown owl. “Twilight of course”. Replied Spike to the owl before turning to face the scroll once more and opened it up. As spike read on, his cocky smile slowly faded and changed into one of fear and panic. “Oh Man! There’s a monster running amok round Ponyville”!? Spike pondered as he rolled the scroll back up and blasted it with fire before following Twilight. As soon as Twilight left Spike to send the letter, she trotted downstairs, saw the equipment she had placed on the table gone and through the front door where she spotted Rarity lying on the dirt ground but no Fluttershy. “Wait! Where is Fluttershy”? Twilight began to worry when she noticed that Fluttershy was not with Rarity. “Is she safe? Has the monster eaten her?! Did she-“ Her paranoia was quickly thrown aside as she heard a soft moan. She looked down and saw Rarity’s eyes open slowly. Then upon full consciousness, her eyes shot open to their fullest as she got up within less than a second and spoke to Twilight with the most dramatic voice possible. “TWILIGHT! Oh this is awful, simply awful”! She nearly screeched as tears formed in her eyes. “Don’t Worry Rarity”. Twilight assured her while patting her with a comforting hoof. “You’re fine now”. “I am far from it Twilight”! Rarity sobbed loud enough for the entire town to hear. “Look at what that ruffian did”! Rarity turned to the side to show twilight the aftermath of her encounter with the two legged beast. Twilight expected the worst as she cringed slightly expecting to see a scar on her side. However, all she saw was dirt. “Uh, Rarity? That’s just dirt”. “EXACTLY TWILIGHT”! The white unicorn wailed causing Twilight to flinch at her sudden outburst, even take a small step back. “Do you know how long dirt takes to wash out”?! And with that line, Twilight face-hoofed. “What about Fluttershy and the animal”? “Oh, Fluttershy flew away and the beast ran back into the Everfree forest”. Rarity explained simply, more focused on brushing as much dirt out of her fur as she could. Twilight gave a couple seconds thought before coming to a decision. “Then we need to round up the rest of the elements and stop that beast before it comes back and causes harm to anypony else. If that creature tries to attack Ponyville again then we must stop it before it gets the chance”. “Question”? Asked Rarity as she shot her hoof up into the air. “Yes Rarity”? “Can I take a bath first”? She pouted as she stared at her once beautiful white coat. Twilight just simply rolled her eyes and responded. “Fine. You take a bath and I’ll round up the elements”. Both ponies took off in different directions, and just before Spike ran through the front door as fast as his stubby little legs would carry him. “TWILIGHT! WAIT”! Yelled Spike hoping to get Twilights attention. Unfortunately she couldn’t hear her as she kept on running leaving Spike to his own thoughts. “Rats”.