The great Canterhorn river is Equestria's largest tributary. Screeching from Canterlot's great waterfalls down to the far southeastern regions of the continent. It was the life source of much of the Equestrian heartlands agriculture and infrastructure. In addition to this, various wild creatures nested and flourished in and around the massive river. It's blue murky waters were adored by all. William was among them. Whilst he had known of the river since his first arrival in Equestria. He had only recently stumbled upon the banks closest to Ponyville when he had decided to trek eastward from Ponyville rather than south. What he had found was, in his opinion. Well worth the somewhat long trek through the countryside.
Whenever William wanted to slip away from life, he'd go someplace that no creature could find him. In this case, it was the bank of this river.
"I'm gonna build a castle-agh!" William grunted as he jammed his shovel into the soft riverside gravel, being sure to avoid his boot. He had stubbed his toe far to many times. It was perhaps the one advantage that hooves had over human feet or even paws. That wasn't the only advantage they had. Hooves were tougher, meaning that you didn't usually need shoes. And pony leg muscles were structured in such a way so that standing fatigued them far less than humans. They could even sleep standing up. An absolutely absurd feat in William's opinion. But nonetheless, amazing. Of course, human feet did have some advantages over hooves, they were more nimble, and made for better propulsion in the water. Plus, you could even occasionally manipulate things with them.
"Gonna build it high..." He took another swing.
"Gonna build it brick by brick, and stone by stone." And another.
" Till it reaches up to the sky." And another.
"When the sun goes down and the wind get's cold, we'll be warm inside." And another.
"The storm with keep 'a brewin', but we'll have a place to hide." William wiped a bead of sweat off his brow and exhaled. His breath slowly dissipated into condensation. He looked down and scooped up some of the gravel. He sharply examined it. Tossing it around with his hands. "Yeah, I think this'll do." He climbed out of the hole, reached into a pack, and pulled a prospecting pan from it. He ran his gloved fingers across the metallic ridges, then scooped the handful of the gravel up and dropped it onto the pan. He clamored out of the hole, cracked his back, and shimmied over to the riverside, there he knelt down by the bank and dipped it in. He raised it out and swished it back and forth.
"It's just like Coloma. Except... I think I like this better." He looked in the pan and chuckled, not a damn thing. Ah, what the hell am I even looking for?" He was panning. For something. Gold, gemstones, whatever was in this river. Sure, he had enough bits stored away at home to keep his way of life going for quite a while. Plus, Celestia was still paying him a modest amount of bits for his actions in protecting Equestria. Gold was used as one of, if not the primary currency of Equestria. Gold itself was plentiful here. And near limitless pockets of gemstones lay buried just under the surface, easily within the grasp of any old idiot with a shovel and a lust for money. Something in oddly low demand when compared to Earth. Mainly because most ponies were satisfied as was.
"Alright, let's this try again." He dumped the contents of the pan out into the stream and went back to the hole. He looked up to see the clouds thickening and slowly turning greyer and greyer. " I'm not normally one for the fall weather. But this is pretty darn good. He went back to the riverside and began to repeat the process. It was at this moment that he began to smell ozone. As almost as if by instinct. He dove out of the creek bed and tore his steel plate carrier off. He made both that and his rifle disappear. William rolled into the hole he had dug and poked his head out.
"Hello, lightning?" Out of the corner of his eye a he spotted a bright flash of light in the direction of Canterlot.
"One, two, three, four, five, six..." He heard the distant rumble of thunder, then climbed back out of the hole. " Guess that's the end of my prospecting for today." He said to himself with a chuckle, redonning his vest and slinging a new rifle over his back.
"Good afternoon William. Nice weather we're having, right?" The armored human heard the familiar voice of Twilight Sparkle behind him. He turned to greet her.
"Would ya'll mind not trying to sneak up on me for a change?" The alicorn emerged from the bushes. "What are you digging for?" He laughed, " I'm not entirely sure. Something interesting, I suppose. As you've probably guessed by the look of things, I was am still am a geologist. It's the only time I actually enjoy looking for things. I mean, have you ever tried looking for a TV remote- You no what? Never mind, have you ever tried to hunt down a book you've lost?" The alicorn though to herself, " Yes, actually. Even with an organization spell-"
"I'm not sorry, were you going to say 'organization spell'? Why have I not heard of this before?" He folded his arms as rain began to drizzle on both him and Twilight. She ignited her horn, and an umbrella of magical energy appeared above her. William sighed.
"To answer you question. It's probably because you never asked about it." She responded.
"What do you- I can't ask about something that I'm not even aware exists!" William protested, folding his arms. "And I'm not about to go asking a bunch of extra questions either, that's just a waste of my day."
"Oh really, what obligations do you have?" She smirked cheerfully. William thought to himself, then raised a finger. " I'm busy making sure that something doesn't come over next hill and eat you all. I'm the... Well, I'd like to think I'm the voice of reason in this place." He looked back out at the river, then back at Twilight.
"So, what'd you come out here for in the first place? I highly doubt that a pony like you would like walks in the rain." She chuckled. "Well William, I came out here because I'd like to ask you to be my honor guard for my coronation." William blinked, and stared at for before looking down at the river bank.
"Well? What is it?" He checked his watch and looked back up.
" Twilight, I've damn well done more for this nation in the past year and a half than the Equestrian Royal Guard has done for it in a decade. You did well asking me. I'll go along. You can save the specifics for later, you're lucky I'm in a good mood." A sharp crack of lightning made both of them jump.
When it was over, they saw that a tree on the far bank of the river had been torn to splinters. Far above them, a hole opened up in the clouds, and Rainbow Dash poked her head out. "Sorry about that one Twi!" They both laughed.
"You're playing with god damn fire up there! Keep up the good work with the cloudscape, but try not to kill us!" William responded callously.