//------------------------------// // A new, less than welcome face // Story: The Quiet Kid: Day by Day // by aegishailstorm //------------------------------// William paced back and forth in his bedroom, tapping his boot's on the hardwood flor as he went. The 'incident' from last night still fresh in his mind, which he was trying to get out, tough as he had been, that 'thing' had still given him a spook, and was more than glad at the fact that it was now agonizingly residing in Tartarus, currently, as alway's he was bored, and was thinking of idea's to make his day better, his mind drifted back to his time on earth, and then it came to him. "How 'bout home improvement?" He pulled open the dull brown window shutter's open, letting the Equestrian sun in, William shoved the window panes aside, manifested himself up a half dozen 30.06 caliber bullet casings, some paracord, and a power drill, he rushed back to his bedside drawer, reaching in, he pulled out a single steel nail, as for why there was one in in his bedside, well... He wasn't quite sure how it had ended up there, deciding that it had most likely been placed there by him when he had first moved in. He strolled back over to the window. "This is gonna be awesome." He murmured to himself, as he drilled holes through the casing's, and strung the paracord through them, until he had as set of windchimes. "Perfect, why did I not think of this before?" He leaned out a bit further to mount it above, when he was abruptly interrupted by a certain alicorn. "What are you doing?" He heard Joey ask, as he hovered just parallel to William. "Good morning to you to, I'm currently installing a set of windchime's." His friend raised an eyebrow, and squinted closer. "Are those bullet casings?" "Empty ones." William replied. Now, would you mind leaving me alone?" "Eh, ok, see you later I guess?" The look in William's eye's was cold and dead. "Leave me be, I'm trying not to-" Just as William set the chimes in place, he slipped, and plummeted 15 feet, landing in a patch of flower bushes below, oddly, he didn't scream. "Hey, William, you alright!?" Joe called out, flying down to street level, "Oh sweet Celestia, why do I keep making him fall? First it was that while incident at the school, now this, what's wrong with me?" He shook his head, realizing that both of those where partially William's fault as much as his, albeit, he had failed to catch his friend twice now. "Ughh." Joey heard William moan as his slowly saw his friend rise up out of the bushes, and started back towards his front door, he made it 2 step's before Joey heard a crack, and a moment later, his shriek of pain that echoed out across the entire valley. "Don't worry, it's nothing serious, it's just a pulled muscle, take it easy for a few day's, and it should be back to normal. Want something for the pain?" Dr. Horse asked William as he sat on on the examination table in one of Ponyville general's many hospital's, staring out the window as he did. "You sure about that? It hurt's like hell." William asked, still mildly concerned. "Yes, there are some aspects of biology that almost every species possesses, muscle cramps regrettably included." "Well, if you don't mind, not that I care if you do, thanks for figuring it out, I'll be on my way now. I go somewhere...not here!" He shouted triumphantly. Shoving himself off the table, he speedily limbed out the doorway, and down the hallway, much to the surprise of both Twilight and Joey. "Nothing quite like a muscle cramp to make a heavily armed genocidal psychopathy less intimidating am I right?" Joey said with sarcasm, nudging Twilight's shoulder as he did. "You're right about that." The 2 hurried off after William, who had, to their surprise, already made it to the exit. "All this time, all the skirmishes, all the firefight's, all the monster's, and the thing that get's me is a leg cramp, #### you universe." William cursed under his breath as he stumbled his way down the street, inching closer and closer to his detonation, that being the school of friendship. Much to his annoyance, there where actually a few creature's there worth mentoring. They where in need of guidance, and he wasn't about to let them turn to hippie friendship magic. His limp had been noticed by quite a few now, as was the fact that he was obviously in pain. As he entered through the main gates, passing though the gardens, he caught sight of something odd, yet not entirely unexpected, the self proclaimed 'CMC' or Cutie Mark- "Nope, not saying their name out loud, I've had my fill of bull#### today already, my ####ing leg has made sure of that!" He straggled his way over to them, they had formed a stack in an attempt to pear into an upstairs window. "Hey, small children, git'down!" He ordered, the group turned to look at him, causing them to lose their balance and topple to the ground in a heap. He slowly approached them. "Leave, now, I don't have time to put up with this." he waved his bayonet topped M4 at them, then at the archway leading out of the gardens, they franticly nodded, and left. "Heh, looks like they know what's good for them." He swung the door's aside, and walked in, barging down the corridor's, up the nearest stair well, and into the theater room. The only thing more disturbing than the lavish, clearly Equestrian décor was what Pinkie was doing with the young six. "Finish your cupcakes and follow me!" He ordered them, they all stopped what they where doing, and lined up before him. "Listen, I don't care how traumatizing last night might have been, that thing's dead now, I direct impacted it with an anti tank round, and doused it with napalm. I have an important lesson for you all, although I would prefer to give it someplace less...this." He waved out the room around them. "Uh, why are you limping?" Ocellus asked. "Errr, classified, let's go!" He led the group of creatures down the hallway to an empty class room which Twilight had...reluctantly given him access to. "Alright, today's lesson-" He scribbled some words on the chalkboard. "Semper Paratus!" He exclaimed, the group looked at him, confused. "What does that mean?" Gallus asked. "Well, it's the Latin term for always ready, the boy scout moto." he paused for a moment, immediately regretting his decision. "What are the boy scouts?" Ember questioned. "Oh ####, ok, side lesson: What are the boy scouts and why I never enrolled in them, and hate them to this day." One 'quick' explanation later... "Seriously, you hate them because your parents forced you to give it a try?" They asked, given what they knew about William, the way he always acted with such authority, even going so far as to casually speak to the Princesses as though they were just another pony, they had hardly expected them to give them a story about his parents forcing him to tyr it, and him rebelling in turn. "So anyway, that's that, I'm not answering any of your questions about...that topic. Arighty then, back to Semper Paratus- He stopped for a moment when he heard crying, followed by a young pegasus with a curly blue mane go galloping past the room they where in. Mumbling something about 'flunking out'. Most would have felt sympathy, him, not in the slightest, the slight of it all gave him an uneasy feeling. "Keep on running, you piece of ####." he said under his breath. "What was that?" Silverstream mused, William brought his first down on the desk. "Class dismissed! You don't have to go home but ya can stay here!" He yelled quickly, turning to follow that strange pink and blue pegasus, he didn't quite know why, but something about the whole thing just seemed...Off, being as good a liar as he was, he had met enough faker's to know when a person, or creature was one. It was almost enough to take his mind off that damned leg cramp. Which still caused him to limp slightly as he pursued. Eventually leading him to Starlight's office. "Now what are you up to, little monster?"