//------------------------------//
// Operator? Are you there?: Part 2 
// Story: The Quiet Kid: Day by Day 
// by aegishailstorm 
//------------------------------//

White, all white, and bone chilling cold."Ahhh, damnit! What the #### just happened?" Officer Preston had found himself lying facedown in in a snowbank. His bones where seething in agony combination of the cold, and the wave of strange supernatural energy which had slammed into his pickup truck. With sweat dripping from his brow, he pushed himself up to his knees, He opened his eye's, and looked back and forth, his vision was still blurry, but he could make just barely make out the tree's around him, they where tall, and a deep green, the ground was covered in a thick layer of snow. As his boot's dug into it, he spun around in a full circle, searching for any sign of his truck.

"Oh, ####, oh ####" He swore as his breath began to quicken. Franticly, he reached for his Glock, just barely managing to draw it from his holster, he could barely feel his finger's, and his grip loosened enough for the weapon to slide out of his hand, dropping to the snow covered ground. "A-Am I dead?" He asked. The terrified deputy didn't get a response, only the quiet whistling of the chilling wind blowing through the trees. "Damn, no response. Well, this looks real enough, but this doesn't look like California. Not even close. What happened?" He  crawled over to his gun and scooped it up. Waving it around at the tree's as he thought back, "There was that weird glowing thing on the road, I reached for my radio to ask the station for assistance. Then I just...blacked out, and now I'm here, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, ####!" He shouted, he could hear a flock of bird's take off in the distance. Still shivering, he backed up against a tree, and tried to collect himself.
"Don't panic, remember your training, but Preston, your training didn't involve getting teleported by god knows what!" He slammed his fist into the trunk he was leaning behind, but then felt something peculiar just underneath the slow. Curious, he dug down, only to fin-"A bullet casing? 5.56 NATO?" He breathed a small sigh of victory, brass casings meant people, and people meant society. And that meant warmth.  Cursing at the fact that he was wearing only a brown T-shirt and cargo pant's,  he stood up, and looked around again. By now, the fuzziness in his vision had cleared. Allowing him to see full well the nature of his predicament.

"I'm going to have a hell of a story to tell to my buddies back home." He joked, looking down at his watch, which, thankfully, had a small compass built into it. He turned north deciding it would be as good an option, and began walking, hoping he would find salvation, or at least, a source of warmth before he froze to death. Even if he didn't, he didn't want hypothermia.


William awoke in a strange, all white abyss.  His head had no sooner hit the pillow than had he fallen asleep. "Yep, back in a dreamscape." He thought back to what he had said to his friend just before he had left for home, questions flooded his head. Was his friend really capable of that? Would he actually awake a pony? Would he still be able to manifest firearms at will? His train of thought was interrupted when  a jolt went through his body. it wasn't painful, more or less like a static shock, it was more surprising than painful. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck jump from it, but then realized that they weren't hair's at all. He twisted his neck around as far as it would and pulled back his BDU, there, a mane was forming, from there, fur began to sprout all over his body, alongside a tail, wing's, larger eyes, hooves, ect... He was screaming in confusion the whole time, "This is itchy, why did I agree to this!?" He sat down on the ground, or at least, the approximation of 'ground' in his dreamscape. He waited for what seemed like an eternity, while he wasn't feeling much physical pain, his brain felt as though it was on fire from the stress. No matter how many times he had gone through this before in dreams, it was always instantaneous. He clasped his eyes shut. It felt for a moment as though he was falling.

"Ahhh!!!" He shot up in his bed, panting and sweating, the room around him was dark. He could make out the vague shapes of the various parts of his room. Everything seemed normal, with the exception of one thing. His body felt...different. And he couldn't feel his finger's, or his toes. suddenly, as his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, he looked down at his hand's, which were covered by the blanket. He pulled them out, and rather than hand's, he found a pair of tan brown hooves. The look on his face changed to realization, and he felt something odd about his ears, they where drooping down. Experimentally, he clopped his new hooves together. They felt real enough.

"I can't believe this is actually happening." He said in amazement, eagerly, he turned to his bedside to reach for the switch on his lamp. Just barely managing to work it with hooves. With the room now lit. He looked down at the rest of his body. The first major thing about it that he noticed; His neck was far, far longer than it had been before, he twisted it around to look at his back, sitting there, where a pair of dormant wings. "Heh, I can't wait to try walking on a cloud! Or, I guess it's trotting now?"  He examined himself further, finding no cutie mark whatsoever, on either side. He gave his leg's, or...blacklegs a kick, sure enough, they worked just fine. "Huh, glad to see my motor functions are still in order, let's give the wing's a try." Just as he had in his dreams, he willed them to flap, and, just as easily as his leg's moved, they flapped once. William smiled, and laid his head back onto his pillow, he hadn't been this happy since his birthday several months prior. Suddenly, the window shutters burst open, flooding the room with light from outside. Joey flew through the gap, landing on the floor in front of his bed. "Hey! William, how you doing!?" He exclaimed, "What do you think of your new body?" The pony lying on the bed slowly pulled his head out from under the blanket, his ears perked up first. Slowly, William, raised his head and neck up, keeping the rest of his body hidden. "Uh, hi Joey...Uh...This is awkward." He managed out a nervous grin.

"Eh, is it the fur? That part kind of bugged me for a while, but once I started having fun, it went away. You look great." William rolled his eyes at the attempted complement, "Yes, uh, would you mind waiting here for a moment?" William ducked back under the sheet's, Joey heard a muffled scream, followed by a dim flash of light. A moment later, a hoof reached out from underneath, pulling the blanket off, revealing William, or at least, it sounded like William. He was clad in what appeared to be a modified pony  version of his usual white multicam winter uniform, with holes for his tail and wings. He rolled off the bed, landing on all fours on the first try, "Much better, so, what do you think?" Joey paused for a moment, and burst out laughing, "HAH! It's just it's hilarious to hear your gruff voice coming out of something so adorable! "William raised an eyebrow, "The hell did you just call me? Adorable?" Joey's laughing stopped, "Go look at yourself in a mirror!" William groaned, and slowly put his left hoof forward first. Feeling it stable, he stepped forward with his back leg, repeating the pattern from his dreams. It was slow going, but he made it to the door without falling a single time. Joey was perplexed by this, "It's your first time, how are you doing so well?" William didn't answer him, he pulled down on the door latch with his hoof, swinging it open on the first try. "I still can't believe this is all happening, me, as a pony. What's wrong with my life?" He asked himself as he stepped out into the hallway. He turned towards the bathroom, opened the door, entered, and turned to look at himself in the mirror.

"Holy ####" He whispered to himself as Joey stood in the hallway, "What is it?" There was a moment of uneasy silence, "You were right, I'm..." Joey could hear William gag, "Adorable." He managed out. It was almost disturbing, the ears, the big eyes. He supposed that since he had asked for it, he would have to get used to it for the time being, at least until he asked Joey to turn him back. He stayed for a few moments  more, turning to his side, and flapping his wings once more. "Breakfast?" He heard his friend ask, "Just a little bit more, I want to enjoy this." He took one more good look at his new body, then turned, and made for the exit. Trotting right past Joey, not even stopping at the stairs. Joey thought this was odd, when he had first came across stairs, it had taken him almost a half hour to learn how to descend and ascend them. William was taking them on as if he had been a pony his whole life. Shrugging it off for now, he followed his friend into the kitchen, who was currently fumbling around with the coffee maker.

"You know, pony hooves are actually quite dexterous, not as much as hands though. Nor are they enough to make coffee." Joey stepped forward and lit his horn, "Hang on, lemme help with that." The coffee bag lifted out of William's grasp, a dark blue aura surrounding it. It was then when he remembered the small, root-like horn concealed by his dark brown mane. As soon he thought about it, he suddenly felt a small pull on his head, as though the horn was a magnet, and the coffee was  a piece of metal, the aura around the bag turned a emerald green, and slowly but surely, he poured it into the coffee maker, and a few seconds later, it was going. Joey was wide eyed in amazement, "No way, you already figured out how to use your horn, also, you have a horn?" William brushed his mane aside, revealing it, "Yep, it's small, but it's there. The reason it looks weird is because it's not a unicorn horn. It's a Kirin horn. Don't bother asking about that." His friend gave a small nod of understanding. The 2 of them awkwardly stood around in the kitchen while the coffee maker did it's thing, nether one of them made a sound. Eventually it finished. William poured some into his mug, as well as a some for Joey. He opened up the fridge and pulled out some milk, pouring a bit into his drink, Before walking it to the back door to cool it down in the snow.

"Like yours cold, or warm?" Joey thought about it for a moment, "I'll have it warm." He waited a bit longer for it to cool down, bringing it back inside, the 2 ponies hopped onto the couch, and sipped their drinks. As they did, Joey brought up an important question, "How do we explain this to the six?" William raised his head away from the mug, "Just tell them I asked for this, and you'll change me back after a while. Other than that, I don't give a single feather about what she thinks about all of...this." The 2 of them laughed. "Question, you figured out walking and magic on your own, how 'bout flight?" William would have given a thumbs up, but due to his hooves, wasn't able to, so he just smiled instead. He downed the rest of the mug's content's, licked his lips, and set it down on the table.

"Let's go out." He stood up, and began walking towards the door. Joey set his drink down as well, and followed. William stopped at the door. "I'm missing something." He pondered for a moment, then a second later, a holster appeared on his side, in it lay his M45A1 sidearm, experimentally, he tried drawing it and aiming it with his magic, he was a bit wobbly, but for now, it was better than no gun at all. On his other side, he slid a K-bar knife. And pulled a ski mask alongside googles down over his face and muzzle. On top of it all went a lightweight ballistic helmet. At first he was worried his horn might've gotten in the way, but no. It fit perfectly. He didn't see the need for a large jacket, or combat boots, given the fur under his regular waterproof fatigues, and his hooves. Last of all, he slung on a fully loaded ballistic vest modified to fit around his wings. At last he was ready.


"Dude, we're just going for a walk around town, not war." William chuckled at this, this is what he had worn every day here, and just because it wasn't the societal norm for ponies to walk around in military fatigues and armor. That didn't mean he intended to throw it to the wind. He swung the door open with his magic, and the 2 stepped out into snow. "I say the edge of town."

If ponies noticed him, they sure didn't show it. Most didn't bat him an eye, although those that did where often curious enough to approach him, "Are you new in town? Or, did the royal guard send you?" They'd ask, William waved them away every time. Eventually, they made it to the edge of town, and , an open, snow-covered field where he could give flying a try. Just as they got there, Joey's ears perked up in the direction of the Everfree.

"What is it?" William asked, "Footsteps, human footstep's." This made his blood run cold. he had been a pony for all of 3 hours, and he was already having to deal with the same everyday nonsense? William growled in anger, "Let's go." The 2 of them galloped off towards the distant footsteps. Without any hesitation, they rushed into the forest. William tripped and fell into he snow several times on the way, moving through the snow with hooves was nearly impossible. They where about a hundred yards into the forest when they found who they were looking for. It was a human alright, wearing a uniform and insignia that the both of them unfortunately recognized.

"Uh, Joey, he's a member of the Yuba county sheriff's department, deputy by the looks of it. And his gun is drawn." Joey rolled his eyes, "So, what do we do about it?" From their hiding spot in the bushes, they watched as the officer stumbled through a thicket of bushes. They could bother tell he was shivering from the cold. "Well...we could go out and try talking to him-" William stopped him before he could say anything more, "We're pastel colored magic talking horses, how do you think he'll react, he got his gun drawn, something probably's got him spooked." Joey stepped forward, rustling the bushes a little hard, getting the attention of the officer, who waved his gun in their direction. "Alright, how about this-you distract him from the front, I'll grab him behind, we get him to go with us, haul him back to Ponyville, discreetly. We get him warmed up, convince him to not tell earth about Equestria, and send him on his merry way. All in time for us to go cloud hopping, sound good?" Before Joey could respond, William was already off, sneaking his way through the bushes. Regrettably, he sighed, and stepped through the foliage, out towards the officer. Who heard the bushes rustling, and turned to face the direction in which it had came. Just in time to see Joey walk out the other side. 


"W-What the hell are you?" He asked in disbelief. Joey groaned, "I can't believe I'm about to do this," He dropped is ears, lowered his neck to half height, gave his best pair of puppy dog eyes, and whined. Immediately, he could tell it worked. The officer lowered his gun, "Heh, let me guess, you're lost just like me?" He slowly raised his head, and gave it a small nod. "You can understand me? "Joey continued with the façade, not giving a response, instead, he whined a second time.


"Oh who am I kidding, of course you can, you can probably speak English as well, you're a pony, aren't you?" Joey was taken back by this, he had hardly expected him to say that. But rather than speaking, he just nodded again. "Huh, what are you supposed to be, some kind of weird unicorn-bird thing?" 

"Actually, I'm an alicorn. Nice to meet you!" He called out in a cheerful tone, this threw the deputy off guard just long enough for William to jab  him in the neck with a stun gun, he fell to the ground. And William gave Joey a wink.

"Can you help me get him back to Ponyville?" Joey rolled his eyes.

"On the count of three, we both grab him with our magic." William cringed for a moment at this.  He was still getting used to the fact that it was, at least for the time being, his magic.