Stray Gets an Idea 7/19/17

(Day 88)

>It was a humid day as always, and Celestia's summer sun beat down on the small, budding village of Outer Hayven. Stray Shot was in the middle of making his rounds on courier duty, having just left The Mare Juice Galore after delivering an indescript package that Stray guessed was probably new mugs to replace broken or old ones

>Trotting past the woodpile, Stray's eyes briefly notice two white-furred Equestrian Guard stallions who stood watch in front of the yard's entrance

>"So yeah, we were running a patrol out in the swamp when Leafy accidentally stepped on two breeding alligators!" Said one of the stallions, standing there facing forward out from the Wood Yard as he talked to his comrade

>Stray slows down a bit as he walks, taking his time as he gets near to overhear their conversation. He wasn't evesdropping! Just... bored

>"What?! Really? Did the gators get angry?" The other guard asks with wide eyes, his attention just as caught as Stray's
Guard One laughs. "Well I dunno about you but I certainly don’t wanna get stepped on while I'm ‘breeding’! Yes they were pissed!" He picks up his Javelin staked in the ground, holding it level as if he were in practice. “So the male swung his tail and knocked Leafy right on the ground! She rolled away real quick-like, and I was about seven or so meters back. That gator wasn’t happy about losing it’s prey, though! I’ve never seen somethin’ with such stumpy legs move so fast…” Guard One trails off in recollection.

>“So what happened? I just saw Leafy earlier, so she didn’t get eaten,” Guard Two says in curiosity, wanting to know how the situation as resolved.

>“I picked up my javelin like this, see?” Guard One tells Guard Two, holding the javelin in his hooves and acting like he was about to throw it. “The gator had it’s mouth open and teeth bared, it was obviously going in to chomp on Leafy. So I THREW IT!” The Guard actually throws his javelin, and it arches up through the air and drives into the ground a few meters away. It made Stray stop mid-step, and he went and stopped behind a nearby shack to continue listening while he pretended to fiddle with something in his saddlebags.

>Guard Two watches as the javelin is launched and hits the ground. “And did it stop?!” He asks, figuratively on the edge of his seat.

>Guard One shakes his head in disappointment, trotting from his post to go retrieve his weapon. He glanced around the area with a slight blush under his fur, hoping that none of his superiors saw that, before making his way back over to his post next to his fellow soldier. “No, it didn’t.” He says with a frown. He actually looked slightly frustrated. “It just bounced off it’s neck! Luckily, Leafy had a big ol’ hammer and bopped it on the head and knocked it out!” He says, making a hammer swing motion with his hooves

>“Woooaaaah! Leafy’s badass!” Guard Two says in amazement. After he thinks it over for a few more moments, though, he slowly picks up his own javelin and looks down at it in disappointment. “Wow, these things… kinda suck.” He says hesitantly as he stares down at his service weapon.

>Guard One nods in agreement, furrowing his brow. “Oh absolutely. Total crap, dude. I’m tellin’ you, most of these hoo-mins are better equipped than most of us! I told the Cap’n about it and he said there’s nothing better that’s inexpensive enough to be massed produced and ‘work worth a darn’. Can you believe that?!” The soldier complains to his confidant.

>Where he’s sitting on his haunches concealed behind a nearby shack, Stray’s eyes widen. A figurative lightbulb turns on above his head, as the cogs in his brain in start turning.

>Guard Two tilts his head and sits on his haunches. “Well… really we should be thankful we’re not stationed somewhere where we actually have to use these things often.” He says thoughtfully, looking on the bright side as Equestrians tended to do

>“You got that right,” Guard One says with a smile in agreement.

>The two soldiers’ conversation continued to stave off the boredom from their uneventful post, but Stray Shot had darted away before it could continue.

>He needed hurry up and finish his deliveries for the day so he could get back to the Research Wing. He’d need to grab some more pencils and blueprint paper. He had an idea. Somehow, some way, he would invent something to equip his Equestrian benefactors with something effective, simple, and inexpensive enough to stake their life on.