"William?"
"What!?" William roared, dropping the suppressor he had been holding onto his foot. He had been in the process of tinkering with an integrally suppressed M110 designated marksmen rifle. Something that by all account's, was not supposed to exist, but now did. All thanks' to a combination of magic and firearm knowledge. Regardless, that didn't save him from the pain of having dropped the Maglight of a suppressor on his foot. Luckily, he had been wearing boot's when it had fallen, so it didn't hurt quite as bad as it could've. " There's something you might wanna take a look at!" He shook his head, " Fine! " William hobbled downstairs and out the front door. There was Joey, alongside a crowd of other ponies. Looking at, a cart full of boxes?
No, it had to be something else. "What am I supposed to be looking at? Is there something behind it I ain't sein' ?" William put his hands and his pocket's and let out a sigh. Just as he was about to leave a creature stepped out from behind the cart. It was just another pegasus mare, with a grey fur, a light grey mane with red streaks in it, an uncommon color palate? Sure, but nothing to out of the ordinary.
Or so William thought until he realized that it wasn't standing on hooves, it was standing on paws.
It was what appeared to be a wolf- pony hybrid of some sort.
" Holy ####."
He watched as the hybrid unloaded a box from the back of the cart, walked past the crowd without batting them an eye, and right into the house next door to William. About 40 yard's away from his own house. " Look's like you've got a new neighbor William." An earth pony murmured to him, William just buried his hand's in his head, and groaned. " How did this happen?"
Now, William was by no mean's fond of his neighbor's, sure, they'd typically wave to him as he passed by them on the street, occasionally he'd wave back. But he wasn't really, 'friends,' with any of them. Most of the time he kept to himself. New neighbors were even worse. Because he never knew what they'd be like until they moved in. Now usually, Equestrian neighbor's are far more courteous than human neighbors., but there was still the occasional bad apple. The house next door to him had been unoccupied for about the past six month's. But now she was moving in there. Whoever she was anyway. He didn't know of any species that were native to Equestria that looked quite like that. Sure there were the Dimond dogs in the southeast, but this was something else entirely.
"William?" Joey warned, " Don't freak out."
He sighed again, and turned to look at Joey. " Really?" He folded his arms out of sarcasm. " Hey, who knows. Maybe she's really nice?" The alicorn asked.
William watched as a pony bumped into the wolf pony's cart, who actually barked at the pony, who shrank back in fear ant trotted away. It was... Strange to say the least, hearing that noise come out of an equines muzzle. " Yeah, I'm not going near her. Not my problem. " Joey looked up at him and began whistling. "Gah, fine stop looking at me like that!" William threw his arms up in the air and walked down the road towards the hybrid in the most causal way possible. The whole time he was glaring back at his friend.
William stopped about 10 feet away. " Hey there, you new in town?" She didn't even stop to talk, she just said it on the move. " You better not touch my stuff like the last pony that came by. "
William furrowed his brow, " I wasn't going to. I hate it when others' touch my stuff as well. What are you? And what's your name?" She growled again and trotted off into the house, "Isn't it obvious? I'm a wolfpony. I'm from up north." She dropped the last box off inside her house and slammed the door with her right paw. William meanwhile, looked back at the crowd and shrugged. "Whatdya want me do do!?" He shook his head as he walked back to his own home. William had learned to be warry of any sentient creature in this world with paws, or claws. They usually strained his his patience, and his tolerance, and his sanity, ok, he wasn't a fan. " I can't believe y'all made me come out for this. "
"Better you found out now than than when walking through the forest at night!" William wasn't even amused by Joey's quip. He slammed the door behind him, and went back to his rifle. Joey meanwhile, decided to go and try talking with William's new neighbor.
"Um, hello there. My name's Joey-" The door swung open, and standing in the doorway was the wolfpony, with a look of annoyance on her face. " And?" She asked, " Well, I just wanted to see how you were settling in. I apologize for my friend, he was just a bit surprised as all. He may not look it, but he's pretty nice. Bit crazy, like's weapons, he's saved Equestria a few times." She just stood there, with an unamused look on her face, a few second's passed before her face relaxed, " Yeah, he looked like the angry, one creature army type. Name's Crimson Starwatcher." Joey reached out with his hoof, only to be denied a shake. I like my space, get off my front porch." She closed the door. " Uh, ok. I live down the road if you wanna talk more!" No response was given. " Ok..." He bounded into the air and flew off.
"Those 2 probably won't kill each other." He chuckled. William he knew, this, Crimson Starwatcher," He had just met, he was usually open when it came to meeting new creature especially one's moving into his town. This one however, he wasn't so sure about.
Later that day...
William was out back behind his house again again. In the process of finishing the touches on his new rifle so that he could add it to his mental database of firearms and recreate it as many times as he wanted. Just are he zeroed the sight at a target he had placed about 50 yards down range in the forest. He heard a rustling in the bushes, so he took his hand's off the rifle and looked up. Just in time to watch a rubber ball bounce in and out of his field of vision. A moment later, William watched the wolfpony from earlier dash by and grab the ball by her mouth. Then go trotting back into the woods.
" Are you serious?" He demanded, standing up in a fury. He heard a muffled, "It got away from me, won't happen again!" Come from the bushes.
" Damnit world. This is what I'm stuck with?" He muttered to himself.
But just as he began to sit down that same ball came bouncing across this line of sight, and after it came the wolf pony, flying after it. William blinked, rubbed his eyes, and blinked again. "Oh, that's right, it has wings!" He stomped his boot into the ground, grabbed his rifle. Finished the adjustment's to the scope, put the reticle on target, and fired. It hit the direct center. Exactly what he had aimed for. Then, he heard wing's flapping overhead. Followed by a, "What's that?" He looked up from his rifle, that thing was now hovering directly above. Where Joey usually circled. " That's on a need to know basis and you don't need to know. It's a more dangerous crossbow, that's the idiot's explanation." She looked skeptical. "Hey, if I'm gonna keep complaining about you I'm gonna need a name!"
"Starwatcher." She flew off towards her house, William watched her disappear through a bedroom window. "So not only is my neighbor this world's physical rendition of a furry. But she's also nosey, and can fly!" He took a sip of the lemonade by his side. And groaned again in mental agony the more he thought of it.
After the whole fiasco in his backyard he decided to go off into the Everfree and shoot a few cockatrices. Unfortunately, an arrow beat him to the first one he spotted. Though this time, it wasn't just Starwatcher that came out of the woods. Alongside her was a bat pony. Lieutenant Nightshine. With her signature bow and quiver slung over her shoulder. The wolf pony carried the same stuff, just a larger, more decorated bow. " William!" Nightshine exclaimed, " What are you doing out here chasing the same cockatrice as us? Oh, by the way, have you met-" The hybrid creature by Nightshine's side forced a smile. " Yes, I have." William answered. "Why are you out hunting anyway? Pony's don't eat meat. Well, they can. But they never do. And you're a bat pony. So you have an excuse. And you, how did you get here so fast?" He turned to Starwatcher. " Nightshine's here's an old friend of mine. I spotted her out in front of my house with her bow and quiver, so I grabbed mine and asked her If I wanted to go hunting." William facepalmed. "Well, Everfree's off limit's, got it? I don't need to constantly be on the lookout for stray arrow's on top of all the stuff in this forest. I'm ok with with y'all hunting, just, not out behind my house, and not the Everfree. Ok?" The 2 mare's looked at each other, then back at him, and nodded. "Alright." William tossed them the corpse of the demonic chicken hybrid alongside the arrow which had ended it.
" See ya later Nightshine, you..." He wagged his finger at the hybrid. "Not so much." Starwatcher rolled her eyes.
"Go figure."
"Hey, you wanna talk about this now? In the middle of the wood's. Next to a member of the ESF?" Nightshine just shrugged. "Fine by me. I'm not part of this."
"It's not my fault for wanting to keep you away from me when you act like a wild animal! I saw you chasing your own tail in your front yard for goodness sake!" She raised an eyebrow, " There was a spider on it!" William facepalmed, " That doesn't excuse your other behavior!"
"Hey, I can't control my genetics', ok?" William cracked his neck, "Sure you can. Those paw's don't give you an excuse to behave like an idiot in public. That right is reserved for Derpy Hooves. She's the town's mail pony. You probably haven't met her yet though. " Nightshine raise a hoof. "Ok, maybe I can solve this. Starwatcher, this isn't the frozen north. And William, don't be to hard on her." He sighed again. " I stop complaining and you stop acting like a wild animal, or at least keep it within the confines of your own house. Deal?" He reached down with his hand. And, to his surprise, Starwatcher reached up with her paw and shook it. "Yeah, I've shaken hand's with weirder, just so we're clear, this doesn't mean we have to like each other. " She nodded. "Agreed."
That night William was laying on his rooftop looking up at the stars. An uncommon occurrence on account of the effort it took him to get up there most of the time. He would lay facing east, looking out over the town. This time ever, he was interrupted by Joey, fleeing in terror as Starwatcher flew after him with a 2 by 4. Shouting obscenities'. He just leaned back, and ignored it. "He'll be alright." William batted an eye when he heard the screaming devolve into laughter. "I'm gettin' to old for this ####. I think I'll finally go out looking for Grogar's hiding spot, soon. Not tomorrow, but soon." His uneasy calm was interrupted when he heard the sound of hooves crash into and scramble off of his roof. Followed by the sound of galloping.
"Damnit alicorn!!! This town still find's way's to mess things up for me, don't it? Always."