The Quiet Kid: Day by Day

by aegishailstorm

Operator? Are you there?: Part 4

William and Joey walked down the street away from his house, while William appeared to be in a good mood, Joey wasn't quite as sure. "What was that back there?" He asked the armored pony by his side, William just slipped the ski mask and googles back over his face and responded, "He isn't exactly to fond of ponies, I'm not saying anything more." Joey rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure, was laving him home alone a good idea?" William stopped in place and put his hoof to his head, "Good question, I haven't the slightest. You have to remember, he's technically a Yuba county deputy now, he's not going to go and trash the home of some random alien just for the heck of it. Plus," William drew Preston's Glock 17, examining it before shoving it back into the holster. "I've got his sidearm, effectively robbing him of his ability to harm me in any real capacity. "Joey said nothing, William's ego was at it's highest right now, and he knew that proposing anything else would likely lead to him getting a hoof to the muzzle.

"Alrighty, this looks like a good place!" William exclaimed, stopping at the edge of a snowed in meadow. He took a few steps forward, and extended his wings, Joey spoke up, "Alright, flying 101, try-" His jaw practically hit the ground when he saw William lift off, and do a single loop around the field, coming to a stop where he had began.

"How did you do that?" Joey demanded, he had thought that his friend hadn't had any previous experience, "Same way I picked up walking and magic so easily, practice."

"But, this is your first time as a pony, how the hay did you-" Joey stopped himself, and flew up to William's height, changing the subject, "So, how do you like it?" William pulled the face covering off, as well as his helmet. "Yes." He replied simply, Joey chuckled, his friend's wide, uncontrolable grin said it all. He enjoyed it. "So, cloud hopping?" William nodded, and sped off towards the nearest patch of clouds. Only to find them being moved away by a group of weather ponies.

"Hey, idiots! Gimmie back my clouds!" He shouted. The entire group of pegasi turned to see a very angry pegasi staring them down, with an alicorn in close pursuit. A few of them recognized his voice, "Wait a moment, weren't you the one threatening to blow us out of the sky?" They asked with suspicion, William gave them a nod, "Yeah, I took a little break from being a human, so I could give flying a try. Now, give me the cloud." The group of pegasi looked at each other, and nodded, "Alright, here you go." He blinked, "Thank you, now scram, before I turn this into the battle of Britain!" The group looked at him, confused. They hadn't the slightest as to what he was talking about. But they all figured it would be best to not press the matter further. If this was really the same creature as the one who had repeatedly, and violently disposed of monsters countless times before on behalf of himself and the town. They didn't want to go picking a fight with him. Pony body or otherwise. They flew away, leaving,William, Joey, and a cloud.

"Here goes nothing." He murmured. Cautiously, he descended towards the cloud, planting all fours onto it. Sure enough, it felt stable, like a giant marshmallow. Experimentally, he gave it a kick, breaking off as small piece, which he caught in his left hoof.

"Damn, I'm holding a cloud. This is ####ing amazing." Joey flew down after him, landing a few feet away, "So, what do you think? "William froze for a moment, paced back and forth for a few seconds, then lit his Kirin horn, a hard knuckle combat glove appeared within it's emerald green glow, it's thumb extended upwards. William didn't say anything, instead, he just laughed, and fell backwards. Reclining back on the cloud. Joey followed suit.

"Hey, what do you think our resident deputy is doing?" Joey asked, "Well, he's probably miserable. I mean, you got to think about it from his perspective, one minute, you're minding your own business on earth, the next, you're dropped into a forest in a fantasy world. Then you're captured by magic colorful talking horses, one of whom claims to have been your friend at one point, and you naturally hate things of that nature, how would you react?" Joey shrugged, "I dunno. Probably the same thing, but then again, isn't that what happened to me? "William raised his right eyebrow, "Yeah, except I didn't knock you out, it was your own incompetence. If you had just listened to me, we wouldn't have ended up in the hospital." They both laughed again, at this point, they had both been though so much that they were used to it. At least, William was. And he often times still scared the #### out of Joey. Suddenly, a rainbow colored streak shot past them, went on a good 200 yards, then stopped, turned on a dime, and flew back to the 2.

"Rainbow Dash." The both responded. The mare stopped, and dropped onto the cloud," Hi Joey, who's this?" he chuckled nervously, "Uh, Rainbow, I'd like you to met pony William." She stopped, looked at Joey as though he was crazy, then turned back to William, "Is he telling the truth?" Slowly, William raised his head up and winced, "Yep it's me." He couldn't tell if she was mad, or happy, or both, "Uh, ok then. What do you think of flying?"

"Oh, I like it." He responded simply." Now if you 2 don't mind, I'm gonna take a nap...On a cloud. Go away." He left it at that, curling up into a ball, the 2 eyed him with confusion, "Uh, is he ok?" Rainbow asked skeptically, "No, he has never been 'ok', The 2 of them flew off, leaving the angry 21 year old pegasus-Kirin hybrid sound asleep on a cloud. Dreaming of his favorite thing, firearms. Lot's of firearms.

Meanwhile...

"agh! Damnit, I can't believe those monsters left me here, alone, with frostbite!" Preston swore under his breath, he was very clearly in pain, as any person in this situation would be, stranded in another dimension, surrounded by nonsense and so called 'magic', and not a human in sight, except for that one pony which claimed to know him, his still had his doubts about that." He tried to get off the bed, in an effort to get himself some water. But just fell in a heap instead. "I hate my life." He murmured to himself, "Those pieces of #### didn't even have the decency to give him a glass of water before they left. He groaned again in pain as he lay helpless on the floor. "You know what? I'm a deputy of the Yuba country sheriff's department, not some drunken pushover. Up I go!" He grabbed the edge of the coffee table, and began to pull himself to his feet. Just then, he heard a knock at the door. He could hear wings flapping outside.

"Hey, Joey!" He heard a clearly female voice call, "I've got your mail, and some muffins as well! Joey? You there?" He hard another knock at the door, "What am I supposed to do? I can barely walk." He pondered his options for a moment, then responded with, "You can leave the stuff on the doorstep!" Heard fumbling, and finally, it seemed at last as though the creature at the front door was gone, a moment later, he heard the back door open, and turned to lay eyes on Joey, and Rainbow.

"Another human, really? "She asked with disappointment, "Please tell me you're not as bad as William?" He stopped, and thought about it for a moment, "What do you mean by bad?"

"Oh, I don't know, he's angry all the time, he's always walking around dressed in that armor of his. Acting like he's the ruler of the whole world." Preston gave a small grin, "Perhaps I was wrong about William." he decided to leave the rest of that conversation for later, "Who are you?" He asked Rainbow.

"Well, I'm Rainbow Dash, the element of loyalty!" She exclaimed. The deputy facepalmed." What the #### do you mean by 'element'? Actually, please don't answer that. I really don't want to hear about your problems. Why are you here?" She scowled, "Your 'friend' here invited me in, I wanted to see if all humans looked the same." Preston laughed. "Well, fine then, here I am, you happy? Please get me off the floor, also, someone knocked on the door earlier said they had, 'mail and muffins' That for you?" Joey nodded, and motioned for Rainbow to wait by Preston's side. He opened the front door to find a basket of muffins,as well as a stack of mail. "Heh, looks like Derpy's at it again." He said with a chuckle, "Who's Derpy?" Preston asked."Joey turned back around, and troted back to the couch, sitting down. He dropped the mail and basket on the table,"Well, she's one of the more...Unique resident's of this town, you might actually like her." Preston shook his head.Joey grabbed 3 muffins, the first on with is hoof, which he tossed to Rainbow, and passed another to Preston, "Want one?"

"A muffin, really?" Joey bit into his, "Yes, you've gotta be hungry after all that wandering out in the Everfree. Right?" Cautiously, Preston edged his hand towards the muffin, snatching it out of the air, and biting into it, "Mmm, blueberry?" Joey nodded, "Hey, I'm usually not one for food made by horses, this is delicious!" Rainbow growled from behind them, "By the way, I should mention, the word horse is derogatory in their world." Preston rolled his eyes, and stuffed the rest of the muffin in his mouth, "Fine."

William stood on the edge of a cliff, rifle in hand, looking down on a valley. Countless demons, cryptids, monsters, and ancient abominations surrounded it. Causally, he fixed a bayonet to the front of his M4,"Come at me mother####er's!" He shouted, diving off the cliff. Suddenly, the scene around him changed, all the monsters disappeared. And his combat boot's hit the ground. Before him appeared the shimmering form of Princess Luna, "Greeting's my little pony." She said, William scowled, and bit back a curse, "Don't you ever call me that again, just because I have the body of a pony now doesn't mean you can treat me like I'm just another of your subjects." She backed off at that, "Whoa, easy there William, I'm just making joke. Or, is it Hailstorm now? I take you've been enjoying your time as one of us?" He nodded, "It's been great. I love flying under my own power. And here at least, Hailstorm is fine. All that, and Joey seems to be less pushy around me now. But..."

"I sense there has been something bothering you, what is it?" She asked, William scratched the back of his neck, and sat down on a nearby rock. "Well, you see, this morning, while out on a walk, Joey and I came across...Well, we came across another human, but not just any. His name is Preston, and he was one of my friends back on earth." She nodded, "I see, and?" William's form changed back to that of a pony,"Well, he isn't exactly fond of ponies. He's acting like I betrayed him, and humanity, just because of...This." William held up his hooves." He wasn't usually one to ask for advice, but this wasn't just anything.

"Well, Hailstorm, that's quite a bit to take in, I don't see any reason for you to be ashamed of yourself. You're still you, correct?" William nodded, holding up his M45A1 sidearm with his magic, "I've seen what you've been dreaming about, you're still terrifying, you're still intimidating , and goodness me, you still have the largest ego of any creature I have ever met. That brings me to my next point, why are you napping in the middle of the afternoon?" William laughed, "There are three times in one's life when you nap often, when you're young, when you're frail and old, and when you're a teenager, old habit's die hard I guess, now, go, you interrupted my slaughter fest!" She chuckled, "I worry for you some time, but I've known you long enough to know that you have everything under control, and, as my sister says, there is no wrong way to fantasize. She said that before she met you." She laughed again, "Farewell." The 2 of them hugged, and just like that. She was gone, the scene around him was replaced by an army of demons. He felt a sickly hand grab him. He turned to see the enormous white, tree-like monster he had executed with a javelin anti tank round.

"Hello there." William responded in a monotone voice." He grabbed one of it's fingers, and snapped it off like a candy bar." This is where the fun begins, for me, not you." He let out a bloodcurdling laugh, and charged into the swarm.

"Ahh, I feel much, much better now." William said, awakening from his short nap, he looked around to find himself still laying on the cloud from earlier. The sky was beginning to darken. He yawned, and uncurled himself. dusting the pieces of cloud off his fatigues. "Well, now I'm hungry, I go home!" He yelled into the evening sky. Extending his wings. He took off towards town. Eventually, his street came into view, then his house. He hovered at the second floor as he pulled open his window. Flying in, he grabbed his laptop. And from there, flew to Joey's house. Kicking the front door open.

"Hey, William, how was your nap?" He growled, and pulled up a chair to the couch, on the table in front of them all. He opened up the laptop. Much to Preston's confusion, "What are you doing?"

"Proving to you that I am, in fact, the same human. I'm thinking AC/DC?" Preston was silent for a moment, he scratched his chin, then nodded, "Yep, you're defiantly the same William. Sorry for the harsh words earlier. "William levitated up a hard knuckle glove, once again extending it's thumb. "Back in Black?"

"What are you guy's talking about?" Rainbow asked. All three of them laughed, "I think you'll like this, Rainbow." Joey said.