The Quiet Kid: Day by Day

by aegishailstorm


The Rules Of Engagement: Part 2 (Finale)

" Alright, teleport me there- Oh. Nevermind." William just shrugged. " You can still fly, right Celestia?" She nodded, " Well, yes I can... What are you implying?" He scratched his neck. " I'd like you to fly me there, on your back. Please?" She thought about it for a moment. And nodded, " Very well then, just, don't kick me." He laughed, and got up on her back. He glanced back at the six. Who were doing their best to keep straight faces at the sight of what was happening. Luna was wide eyed in confusion. " Are you actually ok with this sister!?" She winked back at her sister. "Not normally, but our magic is gone. And as much as it pains me to admit, he's the best chance we have. He's come through for us in the past. " William frowned. " Y'all better have a glass of water and a hot meal ready for me when I get back. 'kay?" They nodded. " Good luck William. Rainbow said to him as Celestia trotted over to the torn railing of the balcony with William on her back. " Hold on William!" She took off towards Ponyville.

"I'll have you know this is a one time thing. " She smiled up at him, " I got no issue with that ma'am. But then again, you can never know what might happen in the feature. " He quipped as the pair sped southwards.

"You're oddly cheerful. For a situation as dire as this one." William looked off the to the side, down at the forest and grassland far below. " What can I say? Grumpiest guy in peacetime. Happiest in a firefight. " She raised an eyebrow. " What an odd philosophy. You know, you've never seemed that grumpy to me." He blinked and rubbed his eyes, and looked though the EOtech sight on his rifle. " I got it from a drill sergeant back on earth." She nodded as though she understood what he was talking about.

"Here. Right dead center of my street." William motioned with a gloved hand for the alicorn to set him down. As soon as her hooves touched the ground he hopped off and gave her a thumbs up. And turned make for Twilight's castle. " Don't you need help!?" William looked back at her. And replied with a flat, "No." Just then he felt the ground shake. And the lumbering form of Tirek came up over the hill just down the road. " William, you're going to pay for what you did to me!!!" Now, normally, that would be worrisome enough, actually. Correction, he wouldn't have been worried about it normally.

But this was different, his house was just a few yards away. And he took the safety of his property very seriously. He raised the 416 and squeezed off a couple 2 round burst's at Tirek. Who howled in pain as the rounds stuck him in the chest where William had struck him with a rock pick prior to this fight. And returned the 5.56 FMJ with a beam of fiery magic, which went high over his head. William ran to the other side of the street and fired off a shot from a pistol grip M203. Which landed at the base of Tirek's hooves. He grabbed his hoof and began stumbling around. William fired again with an RPG 7. This one took off clipped the edge off Tirek's horn. The minotaur fell backwards onto a house, nearly flattening the whole thing, before scrambling off back into the woods behind the town. As he tore his way through the tree's he turned to look back town the road to see Crimson Starwatcher in her doorway with a mischievous grin on her face. He heard a distant cockatrice screech in the forest, followed by Tirek screaming in terror. He winked in her direction. Without saying another word to Celestia. He hurried off towards the school, just as he was off his street he bumped into Joey. Who asked about the minotaur he had just peppered with bullets, why he had just flown into town on Celestia's back, and why that same minotaur was now screaming like a little girl. He waved him away without explaining any of it beyond. " Something important, I've gotta go." And kept running with a death grip on his rifle. Meanwhile Celestia shook her head out of the sheer absurdity of the situation and flew off to explain everything to Joey. And see if she could get him to help.


William arrived at the school just in time to find Starlight Glimmer with Chrysalis who was hovering over the rooftop, he slung his rifle over his should and began scaling the building. "Hey, Chrysalis." She paused for a moment to look behind her, watching as William pulled himself up onto the rooftop. " William- Don't interrupt this! She's the one who stole my hive from me!" She stomped her hoof at Starlight, and smirked back at William. Then went back to looking at Starlight. " No matter, you're just the head mare I wanted to see. "

"You didn't make an appointment." Starlight lit her horn and tackled the changeling right into William. The three of them disappeared in a flash of sky blue light. Leaving only the echoes of William's bellowing roar of anger.


William hit a bank of snow with a hard thump. As his body made contact with the white ground, his uniform changed to match it. "What is this place!?" He heard Chrysalis growl. " What is this place!?" He trudged over to her through the snow, and tapped on her shoulder. " What are you doing?" He demanded, " You do realize she's gonna beat you. Right?"

" What do you propose?" She asked, making circles in the snow with her hoof, William grabbed a clump of snow and whipped her across the face with it. She hit him on the top of his helmet. William grabbed her by the leg and dropped her to the ground, and she kicked him dead center of his vest. " Make it look convincing." He whispered. The 2 fell in a heap as snow began flying up all around them. Starlight blinked in confusion. "Uh, did I miss something?" William was to busy brawling to respond. The pair rolled off a nearby cliff and into another snow bank. "Starlight!" William yelled out over the chaos, " Teleport us back!"

"But if I do that, she'll-" William looked at her, and sighed Just as Chrysalis dragged him back down, and he left hooked her in the face. " Damnit Starlight, do it!!!" She lit her horn and brought the three back. They tumbled out into a grassy meadow on the outskirts of Ponyville. Standing at the top of a nearby hill overlooking the whole scene. Was... Well... Everyone. Every sentient creature which had a connection to Twilight and her friends was there. He glanced behind him and saw a wounded Tirek and mostly intact Cozy Glow with the glowing bell hovering in between them. Chrysalis got up beside him, and glanced around. Uh, William?" He slowly nodded, " No sudden movements." Twilight began to glow, and began what he assumed was supposed to be an important monologue, "The element's showed me and my friends how strong our friendship could be, together we worked together to bring harmony to Equestria... " William groaned, and rubbed his forehead, "Hey, hold up!"

He drew his sidearm and popped one round off into the air, drawing the attention of both sides. " Now just hol' up here! Folk's, some of you may know me, some of you may not. My name's William, I've been living here 'bout 2 years. And let me tell ya." He chuckled, " We don't need no magic of friendship, hell, I've saved your world many times without it. And ok Twilight, maybe you need to tell yourself that so you can feel important. I understand that, but the point that I'm getting at is, you shouldn't be going on and on about this hippie crap and floating around in the air glowin' like you're the next savior of all Equestria!" He checked his watch. And tapped his boot twice.

"And before you go off sayin' that the element's, or the tree of harmony taught you how to be friends. Well, that sure as hell ain't the case either, creatures on this world have been doing it naturally for as long as sentient life has existed here. Plus, how many of you knew that glorified potted plant that was the Tree of Harmony? Now, it may have been good to a few of you, it may have been benevolent on occasion. I can understand that as well, but if you really got to know it. You'd realize just how bad that abomination was!" Joey glared at him from the crowd with a look of, "What the hell are you doing!?" Plastered on his face.

" What are you talking about!?" Twilight shouted down at William from her perch in mid air, completely breaking character in the moment.

"Well, all I'm sayin' Twilight is that, you know me, solvin' it like this is a bad idea. So I'd suggest that y'all get down from 'ere and let me handle this. " William whipped around, and looked back at Tirek and Cozy Glow. Who were eyeing Chrysalis.

"And how, pray tell, how are you going to, as you say, 'handle,' these two. And the Windigos? " Luna gestured up at the sky. William glanced an eye up, an d sure enough. Swirling in the dark clouds above him were the ghostly shapes of horses galloping in circles. "Hmmm... You know, I've been wanting to do this for a while. I'd advise everyone here that's up on that hill to run. Unless you wanna die" His shoulder and left hand began to glow a faint green, and the vague silhouette of an M28 Davey Crockett shoulder fired tactical nuclear warhead began to form.


"Holy ponyfeathers!" Joey called out, recoiling back in surprise. "Alright, you heard the crazy human!" He bounded up into the air. " What's he doing!?" Twilight and Celestia asked Joey over the roar of the windigos. It was Luna who spoke up. "Joey's right, we need to leave, now. I've seen this before in William's dreamscape. "

"Let's see... Ah! Screw the 300 yard minimum arming distance!" William murmured to himself as the glow grew brighter, and the launcher began to take shape. Along with it, an odd silhouette began to form around him. That of his equine self, Hailstorm. "William, what's happening?" Chrysalis asked, her voice full of concern.

'Her voice full of concern.' William turned to her, and gave her a booming laugh of insanity. " Errr... Try not to let this kill you!" Meanwhile, what was left of the crowd looked on in awe and terror at what was going on. For Tirek and Cozy Glow it was even worse. They were just under 200 yards from William. Whatever Twilight and her friends might have done, it likely wouldn't have done much real harm to them. Now, more then ever, they genuinely feared for their lives. Cozy Glow tapped the bell, and a bubble of magic appeared around him. Crackling with energy.

The silhouette around William had become far more visible now. It spun around and looked right at the crowd, and raised up one of it's wing's, extending the most outward glowing feather in the pegasus equivalent of a thumbs up. Then went back to glaring at Tirek and Cozy.

" To whom it may concern, burn in hell!"

The launcher became manifest, and William pulled down on the trigger, letting the most powerful piece of ordinance he had ever created lose on the plains of southern Equestria. It soared across the grassland, and you couldn't tell the difference between the launcher going off and the warhead detonating.


A mushroom cloud blossomed over the area. Annihilating the entire valley in a flash of light and heat. As the mushroom cloud began to dissipate into the air, it soon became clear to every creature there that the crazy operator's plan had indeed worked. The windigos were nowhere to be seen, and the clouds above had begun to dissipate. William however, was nowhere to be found.


About a half second later, a dusty figure appeared from the forest parallel to the valley. It was William, clad in in full battle armor with a fully enclosed helmet obscuring his face. holding the spent M28 in one hand, and a Geiger counter in the other. He walked all the way to the top of the hill, and the launcher disappeared. He held the counter up to the sky, and waved it around for a few moment's, then brought it back down. "Huh, that's way less radiation than I expected. Eh, no Fallout Equestria today." He pulled his helmet off, and looked back down the opposite side of the hill. "Hey Joey! Nice save with the teleport-" He suddenly felt about a dozen fluffy bodies crash against him and wrap their hooves around him. he slowly peered down. " What are y'all doing? Did you think I was dead or something?" He furrowed his brow.

"You can let go now. I'm not exactly big on affection. " The crowd all smiled, and backed away from him. " William!" Joey called out, " That was... Awesome! I can't believe that I was actually able to teleport!"

"Crisis fosters opportunity bud. " Now, I've got one more thing to do. Leave me alone." He spun back around and marched down the hill as though he hadn't just survived his own nuclear detonation. He looked through the smoke, and on the very edge of the crater, he found Chrysalis. Alive. She was immediately approached by a group or royal guards. William ordered them away, and knelt down next to the stunned changeling.

"Well, what now?" She asked, William helped her to all 4's. "Well, Celestia's going to have a few words with you. Typical bull#### political stuff. But you'll get your freedom. And hey, if you can't get your hive back I know a place in Ponyville that'll take you. And, no, it's not me." The cloud of smoke and dust had dissipated enough for William to see that Cozy Glow and Tirek were, by the grace of that damned bell's magic, still alive. Albeit scared to death, a moment passed, then a bolt of lightning hit them, turning the pair to stone. Apparently, the blast had also cracked the bell, allowing the magic contained within to escape.

"Aw, c'mon! You couldn't have let me- Eh, I suppose that's fair. Gotta follow the, 'rules of engagement,' to some degree. Ah, you know I'm just joking with y'all! " He walked over to the statue and knocked on Cozy's forehead. Then looked back at the royals, and the six, and, well... Every other creature that had fled was now returning to see what had happened. "What are you all looking at!? Go back to whatever the hell it was yous was doing before all this happened!" The crowd dispersed.

"And before you go thanking, or grill me for anything I just did, let me remind you that I was promised a glass of water and a hot meal!" Celestia rolled her eyes. "Same old William. You will never change, will you?"

"No, I won't. Now, food! And everyone else that just with me, follow me! I need to have a talk with y'all over said food!"

Twilight stared at the destruction and chaos which William had brought. "How did we get here?" She asked Joey.

"Day by Day, Twilight. Day by Day."