//------------------------------// // The First Encounter // Story: The Equestrian Honor Guard // by Honored Service //------------------------------// The Equestrian Honor Guard Chapter 6 By Honored Service I tore through the forest fleeing for my life. Another vine tried to slow me down, but was sliced in half with Bad Bertha in one quick swing. "Move you fucking vines! I'm trying to stay alive here!" I had woken up from my temporary camp (me sleeping propped up against a tree) to some horrible monster hovering inches from my face. From there on out it had all been downhill. I have been running through the forest for the last 30 minutes trying to escape my pursuer but to no avail. "Sweet Celestia, just give me a break please." I tripped over another root, one of many this morning, and scrabbled back to my feet. Only to meet that damn creature again as it made another stab at my body. "SHIT FUCK!" I screamed dodging another attack; I slashed at it with my knife, seeing as that was my only weapon. "Fuck me! I’d give all my pop tarts for one goddamn bullet." My guns, which I dubbed 'human magic’, were completely useless without bullets. And with blanks they were just glorified cap guns. My swift attacked missed leaving an opening for my opponent to strike. I nimbly countered it with another dodge and took off through the forest again, still being chased by this fucking monstrosity. "What do you want? I taste horrible, honest!" Actually, I would imagine I would taste really good. Maybe spicy. Or something with a pleasant after taste. Like hot buffalo wings. Shit now I'm thinking like my chaser. I fell onto the ground thanks to another root. Nope, this time it was a rock. The forest wanted to mix things up before I die. I crawled on my back, trying to escape my impending doom. I turned my head to see a raging river behind me, making further escape impossible. My heart was pounding in my chest as I watched the flying creature of death inch closer and closer to me. My breaths came out fast and ragged as I struggled to delay the inevitable; after the run through the fucking shitty forest. "Fine you got me, you sunavbitch. If expect me to go down easy then think again. Come on and get it!" I stood up on shaky legs. If this is how it was going to end, I was going to take it standing. Like a man. "Come on hit me! I want ya to! Hit me. Hit me!" I shouted at the bastard as he came in for the final kill. The biggest fucking mosquito you have seen lodged itself onto my arm and began to drink heavily of my precious life giving blood. SLAP "Ew gross. You were full of me, you little prick." I brushed off the dead insect and looked around the clearing I had ended up in. I was standing next to a river that was raging with rapids. The bank I was near was pretty barren save for a few rocks here and there. "You know this isn't a bad spot for a more permanent camp. Better than sleeping against a tree. Thanks bug for bringing me here, may you rot forever." I shrugged off the back pack and set it on the ground. I moved over to the bank of the river and collected some rocks to create a fire circle in my new camp. I began placing the rocks into a circle to help maintain a fire once I gathered some sticks and twigs. I rolled out my bedroll near the circle and placed my rifle and backpack on it. Walking to the tree line I had come out of during my struggle for survival; I began to collect branches and leaves to start a small fire. It wasn't dark, but the smoke would help keep away the damned monsters that were disguised as Mosquitos. I came back to my new camp and striking to rocks together began to create some sparks to try and ignite some wonderful flames... Skipping ahead to when I made a fire. (Let’s just ignore all the cursing and broken rocks) I sat down and started picking off all the twigs and leaves that were covering me from the romp in the forest. "Oh my. What a quaint little camp you have here!" I feel over backwards; scrambling to grab my rifle and level it at the thing that was talking to me. (I know it was useless but anyone else didn't know that)...(and that shit was loud) Slowly rising out of the river was a purple serpent, with orange hair? How could I have not seen that this river was the very same one from the pilot? This river was home to the fabulous serpent, Steven Magnet; well that’s what the fandom called him. I slowly recovered from my crouched firing position and put the rifle down. No need and make an enemy when I could easily make a friend. "Um hello there. Can you understand me? My name is Johnson." I asked him slowly hoping that English was the same as Equestrian or pony or whatever it's called over here in this world. "Johnson? Of course I can silly. I was having the most wonderful nap, when I heard this screaming of a young filly. Have you seen one around here?" the serpent was pointing right at where I had made my camp. I may have been turning red and shuffling my feet a bit. I also may have screamed when I was being chased by the bug. That thing was like 6.9 inches long. "Ummm nope. Can't say I have sir." "Oh my goodness? What is that abomination you are wearing?" Wow my first experience with sentient life in Equestria and he didn't like what I was wearing. "Oh this? This is my Army uniform." I explained while pointing at the digital camouflaged sleeve. I was a bit dirty, but I certainly wasn't an abomination. "Army? Wait a second, what are you? I thought you were that pony that likes to walk around on her hind legs all the time. But she has some sense of fashion. And I don’t think her name is Johnson. Lyre or something like that." the serpent was tapping a finger to his chin and playing with his mustache, twirling it around his other fingers. "I'm a human. From Earth. And are you Steven Magnet, a serpent right?" I know it was a long shot but maybe; we had been right about some stuff here. We were right about Lyra apparently. "Well you're right about the Serpent, but who is Steven Magnet? My name is Reginald." He ended with a slight bow. Well we Bronies can't be right about everything. Well now I have the potential to make my first friend in Equestria and having a giant serpent as a friend could certainly come in handy while living in this forest. "Oh just a mistake, Reginald. I'm kinda new here. I just dropped in as it were. Like literally dropped in. I'm from another planet and now I'm living here." I'm going to experiment here and try being honest upfront with him. If all goes well, maybe this will be my strategy when it comes time to meet some ponies. "An alien? Oh my, this is just so exciting! Tell me about your planet. No wait; tell me about fashion on your home world. No wait; tell all about this tacky outfit you're wearing!" Reginald had now propped himself up on his elbows onto the river bank. "Well this is the standard... This isn't tacky Reginald. It is designed to make me harder to spot in wooded areas and urban centers at a distance." I was a little hurt; I liked this uniform very much. Maybe the combat tact vest was a bit much, but it did offer some protection to my chest and back when I was wearing it. Enough to stop a 9mm bullet, so hopefully some claws and teeth couldn't get through it. "Well it certainly doesn't match the woods of the Everfree." The purple serpent flipped his head and ran his hand through his hair. "Ok so maybe it isn't that fashionable, but it wasn't made with fashion in mind. Wait. Why am I talking about fashion with you? I need to know which way is Ponyville please?" I took of the tactical vest and realized that I was sweaty, dirty, and I had a nice stinky smell on me. Reginald also noticed it, and backed off a little ways. "Ponyville is that was down the river; it actually runs through it, just not as wide or deep. It's a quaint little town. Just fabulous. If you're heading that way, stop by a shop called, Carousel Boutique and say hello to a unicorn named Rarity for me." Reginald stood back up to his full height and began to submerge back into the river. "Wait Reginald!" He paused and raised an eyebrow in my direst ion. "Yes Johnson?" "Thanks for your help, but could I trouble you for one more itty bitty thing?" I was thinking about trying something. Something that should work in a cartoonish world. "Could I please have a few of your wonderful scales? You know to try and improve my... Um outfit?" "Of course you can! Anything to help you look more fabulous!" And with that he reached under the water and pulled out 5 shiny purple scales and handed them to me. He then disappeared under the surface of the river and was gone. "Thanks!" I called after the nice serpent. The scales were as long as my arm and were very hard and about an inch thick but with a slight bend to them. Perfect. Pulling out my ops manual, I scratched out two of the three objectives of my current mission in Equestria. Find the way to Ponyville. Check. Find a place to establish a base camp. Check. My watch said it was 3:30. Still had plenty of daylight left. Now to work on number three. Make some real bullets. And these scales would certainly help. I walked to the fire circle and put some sticks over the fire making a small rack. I then put one of the scales over it and waited. I was waiting to make sure that these scales were fire proof. I was going to need them to be to melt some metal into bullet shapes. And then I would have objective three nearly complete. Making me much safer in this forest or at least I could sleep a little better at night knowing I had some real protection near me. I reached down and picked up the end of the scale that wasn’t in the fire. Observing the surface of the scale I noticed it was still in perfect condition other than being pretty hot. “Kick ass! Something is actually going right!” I placed the scale next to me on the ground to cool. I was going to use this one and one more to mold the bullets. Taking the three other scales I began to wonder how I was going to make these into a bowl of some sort, to hold the metal in until I was able to melt metal down into a liquid form. Assuming forging was the same here as it was on Earth. “Brian Blast!” Grabbing some rocks I planted them into the ground creating a small triangle next to the fire. I put one scale in the middle in between the rocks. Then I taking the other two scales I bent them around the rocks creating a make shift bowl on the ground. “Fuck. I won’t be able to move the liquid metal when I need to.”Damn, and here I was thinking that this would be easy. Just when things were going my way, this small problem could ruin everything. “Whatever, I’ll cross that bridge when the time comes. Right now let’s focus on the present. Now I have something to heat up and melt some metal. Now for a mold…” Picking up the other two scales I used my knife to saw one in half. That took at least 10 minutes to do. Fuck these scales are strong. But that’s a good thing. Now comes the trickiest part of this process. “If I use BB to carve out the chape of a bullet… this can work, I just have to be perfect with the mold shape. If it isn’t exact to the millimeter then I can just destroy my gun… FUCK!” Throwing the two pieces of the scale down and picked up my almost empty canteen. I stood up and walked over into the river. Bending over the bank I dipped the canteen into it and began to fill it up. I stopped and almost dropped it into the river. My reflection. I looked like me, but at the same time I was different. Definitely cartoony looking, like color wise, peachy skin and a rough 5’oclock shadow covering my chin and check, I must say I liked that. My shaved head (as was required by my college of choosing) wasn’t shaved any more. Well it was crew cut, but I had hair! Brown hair but it now had streaks of red, orange and red through it. My eyes on Earth were green with gold flakes in them. But here, they were brilliant green with bright golden flecks that looked like miniature stars. Pretty boss. I whistled and stepped back from the river closing up the canteen and attaching it back onto my belt. I moved back to the fire. I knew what I had to do. “Just take your time Johnson. Use a blank cartridge to measure the diameter of the bullet. And use the space left in the magazine to make the length. And guess on the point of the bullet…just try to be perfect.” Taking out BB I slowly and painstaking carved out the mold for the 5.56 bullet using anything I could to make the shape perfect. I checked my watch, it was 5:30. “What the FUCK! Two hours went by already!?” I then realized that I had just finished the 5.56 mold. “That’s great, now just to do the 9mm mold. Fuck. It was going to be another long night without proper protection. Just BB and me and a small fire. Tomorrow I would find some metal to melt and make some bullets. I finally laid down on my bedroll at 10:30 according to watch after completing my 9mm mold. It took longer as well; I messed up twice and didn’t want to ruin my gun. Better be right then fucked. Here ya are, a long chapter (by my definition) just for you. You know who you are. you asked for it.