//------------------------------// // Educational Support // Story: The Quiet Kid: Day by Day // by aegishailstorm //------------------------------// William sat in the school's auditorium , surrounded by student's and visitors alike. As usual, he wasn't quite in the mood for something like this. He ran his fingers along his left kneepad. Why he ever bothered to stick around in this place, he didn't know. As usual, it had been Joey who Twilight had sent after him to try and convince him to come back and teach, most of the student's here seemed to treat William with authority, even more so than the six. Personally, he thought it was because they where scared he'd shoot them if they stepped out of line. Well, it was either than or they actually enjoyed his company. Something he personally found laughable. The creatures of this school needed an honest guide to teach them how to survive in the real world, something Twilight, and the other 'teachers' always seemed to either avoid or neglect entirely He watched as Twilight levitated a large wooden chest gilded with gems in front of her. Spike pulled the latch, and from it flew a half dozen items of varying size , a helmet, a cloak, an amulet, a crown, a wand, ect. "Who can tell me what these are?" Twilight asked the students, it didn't take long for William to realize that these weren't exactly normal article's of clothing, or fake props, they where most likely, actually most definitely enchanted. Rather than speaking up, he waited for one of the creatures around him to speak up. "Oh, they're all legendary magical artifacts!" Ocellus responded, "Heh, I read ahead in equestrian culture's and comradery, volume 7." William gave a slight nod of approval, though it wasn't to the changeling's shy answer, he couldn't help but wonder, "Just where and how did these things end up in equestrian hooves?" While he had little to no knowledge of equestrian history outside of what he already knew from his time back on earth. He did know that most of those artifacts where most certainly not equestrian in origin. He stood up from his seat and snapped his finger to get Twilight's attention, "Hey, Twilight, just where did you get these things?" he folded his arms in front of his chest, laying them on top of the 5.56 magazine and 6.8 LMG pouches on his ballistic vest. Which he had recently been toying around with in an attempt to increase it's resistance to magic. Confidently, he awaited her answer. "Well, William, I'm glad you asked, "She responded, seemingly unfazed by his demeanor, "Princess Celestia gifted these to our school, since they each represent one of the culture's our student's come from." William scowled at this ,"And where did she get them? Uhuh, That's what I thought." The crowd momentarily turned to look at him as though he was insane to be questioning something like this. "Facist." He whispered to himself as he sat back down and watched as she began to list off the names of the various items. He had a few questions about them, but decided to save them for a time when he wasn't being watched by an entire auditorium's worth of...less then competent beings. "And well learn all about them, with a spell render hunt!" William groaned and slammed the back of his boot into the wooden seat, cracking it. This was getting real annoying, real quick, he had to find a way to get the alicorn in front of him to wrap it up. A his eyes drifted around the room for a way out, he noticed something, Twilight's 'mark' had begun pulsing with light. "Oi, Twilight, your mark's a-glowing." She stopped mid sentence, and turned to look. He chuckled, "That's one way to get out of lecture hall." He stood up, gave the group of assorted creatures in the stands a thumbs up, and hurried off through the doorway as just Twilight excused herself. "So, what is it?" William demanded the group as he threw aside the doors of the castle of friendship's 'throne room' .To find the six, as well as Spike. "Friendship quest, an important one, and quite far away as well." Twilight explained to him, still panting for breath, William turned and raised an eyebrow at Twilight, "How the hell did you get here first, I was halfway out of the school when you left the auditorium- Oh, alicorn, right...nevermind. Continue." He groaned and rubbed his forehead, " I hate magic. "He looked across the table, on the far side, hovering just above the projection of a mountain, where the 'cutie' marks of the six. He shivered momentarily, he had never liked that term. "Just getting there will take days!" Rainbow shouted out, throwing her hooves in the air. William rolled his eyes at this, albeit, he was annoyed as well, he had no intention of walking that far. He turned to Applejack, "Don't ya know what this means? There won't be any teachers left to run the school!" This got William's attention, they would most likely get somepony to sub in for the few day that they were going to be away, and he would likely be the one to supervise them, well, they'd probably choose Starlight over him, but still, it was his self sworn duty to keep himself from losing his sanity. "Should we send our students home?" Asked Fluttershy. "I say we take them with us, road trip!" Pinkie exclaimed. William covered his ears and spoke up, "How 'bout you just let me sub in for a few day's?" The six looked at each other, and began laughing. William rolled his eyes, smiled, then drew the M45A1 halfway from his holster, all while flashing the stun gun at then end of at tactical flashlight. Ushering the six to shut up. Turning to scowl at Rarity," Oh, but I'm right in the middle of my quilting class-" William cupped a gloved hand around her muzzle, then steppe back, "Shut up! All of you! Can you please, please, just listen to me for once? You know me, I won't put your students in any real danger, plus, if anything goes slideway's, I could always just enlist the help of Starlight, or Joey, you guy's trust him...right?" They looked at each other, William could tell that they weren't exactly happy with his decision, after a few moments, they responded, "How about we just make Starlight head mare for now? You can be...uh...backup!" William took his hand of his sidearm, clenching his fist as he did, the flashlight disappeared in the other hand. "Fine, go get her." William was not happy in the slightest. While Starlight might have made a decent councilor, he knew she would flunk this. Either way, he would be sure to keep a close eye on the school for the next couple of days. Several, long, long days later... William trudged his way down the main hallway, his eyes where bloodshot, when he had agreed to take this job 3 day's prior, he couldn't have had the slightest clue that Discord of all creature's, would have been interested in the same position. As so it had been that he had to fight of wave upon wave of insanity, Discord may have been an immortal draconequus, but William was a human quiet kid, and he wasn't about to let him ruin this, he had just barely managed to keep things from falling apart, at least until Starlight Glimmer had been able to get herself together, at least, as much as one could when having to deal with Discord. Now, they where back in the auditorium, waiting for Starlight's next 'teacher' to arrive on stage. The double doors on the far side of the room swung open, only it wasn't the substitute, it was Discord, making another movie reference. "Yo, greetings fellow creatures!" William facepalmed as a blue unicorn wearing a cloak and a wizards hat appeared up on stage. "Welcome class, you may call me the great and powerful professor Trixie-" William looked over at Discord, who appeared to be fumbling around with...a banana phone? No, he had had enough, he stood up, flexing his gloved hands as he did. "Discord, put that thing away before I start humming pumped up kicks. And you," He turned to Trixie," Ya look like a retarded horse version of Miss Frizzle! Curb your ego, or else, my little armalite will." The rest of the creature in the room stopped to look at him with confusion, Discord on the other hand, burst out laughing, go figure. "Hey, Discord, I get it, I'm funny, look around, you're the only one here that got that joke, you can calm down now. He grunted, and crossed his paw/talon in disapproval. William waved Trixie on ahead, "So, what where you trying to do?" She grinned at set her hat down, reaching into it, she pulled out a...pig with wings? "Wait, is that a-" he wasn't able to finish his sentence before Trixie had reached back into the hat and pulled out...Derpy, well, it likely wasn't what she was intending, but it was fine by William, "Hey Drepy! How you doing?" He waved at her, "Oh hi Willi-" Trixie dropped her back into the hat before she had a chance to say anything more. But before William could get up to say anything more, she reached in again, and pulled out a massive glowing bear, with in turn roared at the class. Without a second thought, William dove for cover, and drew his M45A1, putting 5 rounds of armor piercing directly into the creatures nasal cavity, only serving to anger it more, it roared in pain, and swung one of it's claws, demolishing the thankfully empty seats. His sidearm was replaced by his trusty MG 68, training it's reticle on the monsters head, he held down on the trigger, spraying the being with tungsten, at the same time, Trixie lit her horn, causing the monster to disappear, leaving no trace of the monster except for the destroyed seats, and bullet holes in the walls. He looked over to where Discord was, to find that he had already fled the scene. "Damn you." He said in between breaths, he slowly turned to Trixie, waving his LMG at the unicorn, "You...Pack up your things...and go." Trixie could tell from his tone of voice alone, that he wasn't joking around anymore. She nodded, and in a flash of light, she was gone, leaving William alone in the wreckage, still in shook from what had just happened. Starlight and Spike burst into the room a moment later. "Discord?" She asked in a dead tone of voice. William looked up at her with his sweat covered and bloodshot eyed face, "Discord." William stood in front of Twilight's office, with the young six on one side, and Discord, Spike, and Starlight on the other. After quite a bit of negotiating, they had finally come to a deal with him. Or at least, Starlight had, William was still angry at him on the account of having his life been endangered twice. Twilight and the other 5 trotted through the door, covered in mud and branches. Alongside them was Joey, who didn't exactly appear to be in the best mood. "Discord! I can't believe you tricked us into going on a friendship quest that wasn't real!" William chuckled, "He's the lord of chaos, it's highly unlikely that you wouldn't believe it." Twilight ignored him. "Oh, back so soon?" The draconequus asked with sarcasm. The six where not amused by this. "A fake summons's from the map?" Rainbow asked. Turning to Pinkie, who seemed slightly more enthusiastic than the rest, "Hey, at least we got to go spelunking in that really creepy cave with all those eyeless worm creatures chasing us!" William groaned, going on this fake mission would have been a much, much better use of his time than sticking around here to teach ponies what the second amendment was. Or was it? Joey spoke up, "Heh, you would've loved it William, it was dark, and terrifying, and we could've used your...talents." The exhausted look on both of their faces told the whole story. "Yes, yes, I think would've." "Hey, man, if you want, I can show you where that cave is later." William thought about it for a moment, but just shook his head, potential graboid encounter or not, he didn't want to hike for several days unless he absolutely had to."Y'all do what you please, I'm off to bed, and no, I don't care it's the middle of the afternoon!"