" Alright little ones, for those of you that don't know me, my name is William, I'm the town's resident operator. That's military slang for an elite soldier. Your teacher has been pestering me to help with a lesson here for all of 3 whole days now. And, after hearing about some of the nonsense y'all have been learning here. I've decided to intervene." William explained to the crowd of young colts and filly's. He had gone out of his way to have a talk with the youth of this town. He had heard quite a few things coming from them that he wanted to clarify. Most prominent among them, the water cycle. " Alright, Cheerilee, explain your side of things. "
"Well, you see. As is quite well known. All weather comes from the pegasus weather factory in Cloudsdale." William snickered . "Alright, I know for a fact that your statement isn't based in it. How many of you have actually been up to Cloudsdale? 'Cause I went up there one time, visited that, 'factory,' and it sure as hell wasn't big enough to service all of Equestria. " The entire class pondered this, until Cheerilee spoke up again.
"How did you visit it if you're not a pegasus? You don't even have wings." William took a bite out of an apple. " Species change. I got to be a pony for a few days. The rest is classified." A collection of whispers rose up from the class, until the teacher bade them to quiet down. William coughed, and folded his arms. " It's a very simple process. It's not actually that hard to explain this. Now, while some Equestria's weather may come from Cloudsdale. The rest of it comes from the 2 massive oceans on either side of the continent." William unfolded a map of the country and tacked it onto the chalkboard to further his point.
"You see, when the sun's ray's of light and heat hit the water, it warms it, causing it to rise in the same way a teakettle does when it's heated. The water is turned into water vapor, which then condenses into clouds, wind blows it over the continent, with to much moisture in them to stay airborne, the water falls to the ground, and just like that, you've got rain. At least, that's how it worked back on my planet. " Before the class could respond to him, he walked out. Slamming the door behind him to the confusion of everypony there. It had just dawned on him that these ponies were, frankly, idiots. And being young was no excuse.
And as the saying goes, "Do not try to argue with an idiot, they will bring you down to their level and then outrank you by experience." That was all good and all, but the one thing that William really wanted right now was a glass of lemonade and something to shoot at. He tossed his apple core into a bush, and a bird caught it in mid air. " Heh, you have fun with that." He whispered, stomping his way across town to the dinner just by town square. He took his usual booth and ordered an 8 ounce glass. Just as he began to consume it, a bright flash of light illuminated the booth next to him. He was about to draw his sidearm when the light faded. Revealing Joey, quite disorientated.
"What the #### just happened!?"
"Twilight's teaching me how to teleport!" It took all of half a second for the implications of this to sink into him. He sighed, " Joey, nevermind." He got up and left. At the same time, he heard a scream, and when he looked back, Joey was gone. " Hehe, at least he hasn't got the hang of it yet."
William marched out into the Everfree. The path which he had taken out into forest for most of his time here had been trampled down to dirt by now. His frequent visits had made it impossible for it to grow back. Quickly, he made his way through the dark bushes and trees to his personal shooting range. It wasn't much, just a couple of steel targets arrayed at varying ranges in a clearing facing eastward, with a mound of dirt encompassing the whole thing. Again, it may not have been much, but it was his. He built it all on his own. He set a speaker down on the crude wooden table he had built. And had it play some nice 2nd amendment related country/ rock music. And began his daily weapon drills. First up, basic 1-R-1 with his M4.
This one was relatively simply, it was performed by loading a magazine, firing one round, then dropping the mag in quick succession, or swapping it out for another mag, loading that one, triggering the bolt catch, and firing a 2nd shot, before flipping the safety and bringing the gun to low ready. He preformed this drill about a dozen times. And then did this with his M45A1. After this first drill, he took the time to walk over to the targets and check his groupings. As would be expected with someone who's been doing this stuff for years they were pretty good. All within one inch of where he was aiming.
Once he had gotten out of highschool, he spent most of his spare time across the California border at the nearest gun range in Oregon. That's where he had taken his force on force and paramilitary training courses. From room clearing to self confidence. There he could train on guns far more efficiently and... realistic than he could in California on account of the state's absurd gun laws. Other than that, he would occasionally go out into the redwoods and do some shooting in the middle of nowhere. The rest he got off of Youtube and internet forums. But that only got him so far, it was only when he came back to Equestia that he had a chance to use his training and skills in the field. Cover was rarely an issue, as most of his opponents could only attack at close range.
Next up was his tactical reloads. Almost the same as the last, except it involved ducking down behind mock cover and exchanging a half full magazine for a full one. And finally, quick draw's with his pistol. This one involved him turning away from the target, and timing himself spinning around, drawing his gun and putting 2 rounds center mass. Before reholstering.
Finally, he got out his M250 squad automatic weapon, set up some very distinct changeling, manticore, and dragon targets. And practiced area denial tactics. Which were a bit harder without a fireteam or machine gun squad to assist. These were especially important to him, the very principal that he had based all of his other tactics around was such that he would be able to confidently engage an enemy force of any size. And they had been proven to work on his foes time and time again. From the changelings to the late Storm King to Sombra.
Last of all, a marksmen test. He set a tin can up on a stool on the far side of the range. Taped a picture of an obnoxious dragon to the front. Then walked all the way to the treeline on the far side of the range. From his time building it, he knew it was about 260 yards out. He manifested up his tired and true M110 rifle. His go to for shooting at anything further than 300 yards away that didn't necessitate a .50 BMG high explosive armor piercing incendiary round. Topped with a 6 times magnification optic and a micro red dot and chambered in 7.62 by 51. With a suppressor on the end because, why not? He set up his bipod, got down on his stomach, zeroed his optic until the center of the photo was in the dead center of his faintly glowing tritium reticle. He took a breath, and fired.
The steel tipped round left the barrel, flew across the range and impacted the target. Through his optic, he could already tell he had hit what, and where he was aiming for. " Oh, this'll never get old." He folded up the bipod and walked over to the targets on the far end of the clearing. He set up another 2 paper targets, walked back about 25 yards. And put 2 rounds in each of them in quick succession, this time with a KSG 25. It had by far the highest capacity of any non magazine fed shotgun William had ever seen, or used for 24 shells in the 2 tubes on either side of the shotgun, plus one in the chamber just as the name implied. The red dot optic above it had been set up with a reticle more reminiscent of a holographic sight. And was such that if he put the target within the illuminated crosshairs and circle, he would hit the target. And sure enough, just as before with his other guns, the armor piecing flechette darts all landed within half a foot of one another. A perfect grouping for him.
"That's about enough for today. Time to go out looking for trouble. The shotgun disappeared, and he left the lonesome shooting range in the clearing.
"Ahhh!!! William!!!" It was Joey, William had heard recognized his scream through the trees. But when he made it to where he had heard it come from, the alicorn was nowhere to be seen. Just then, William heard the iconic sound of a horn casting a teleportation spell above him. He looked up into a nearby tree there he saw Joey. Dangling from a tree limb about 15 feet off the ground. The most absurd part of it was that Fluttershy's pet rabbit, Angel was fighting with him. His booming laughter obscured his worry.
"You're an alicorn, just fly away! What, you think I'm climbing up there!?" He called out to the dangling alicorn. As soon as he had called it out. Joey did just that, only instead of flying away, his horn spontaneously lit up, and her disappeared in a flash of magic. William cursed under and rushed off towards the edge of the Everfree.
As he ran, he began to catch glimpses of his firmed appearing and disappearing in bursts of light. As he turned to look for him, the alicorn appeared in front of, but before he could teleport away. William stopped him the only way he could. "I'm sorry about this." He left hooked him. Which stopped the spell, and also dropped the alicorn. After about 20 seconds, he opened his eyes again., And clutched the side of head in pain. " Ow." William chuckled, " Don't worry about it buddy, alicorns heal faster than normal ponies. You'll be better in no time." Joey laughed.
"I kind of lost control of the teleportation spell." William furrowed his brow, and knelt down. " That's a damn understatement, you were acting like a damn Enderman!"
"Yeah, I don't think I'll be trying teleportation again anytime soon. " The voice in WIlliam's head screamed victory.