The Quiet Kid: Day by Day

by aegishailstorm

A New Contender: Part 1

William sat where he usually did in the morning. His brown couch, sipping a cup of coffee while fiddling with the internal components of a Nighthawk .44 revolver. Now, as it happens, he had actually never used a Nighthawk .44 up until now. But it was unloaded, and with the recent drop in, well... pretty much all violence in Equestria in the week since his, 'apprehension.' Of Cozy Glow, and the dawn of summer across the lands of Equestria, he had thought it prudent to invest in a slightly less dangerous hobby. Well, so long as it was unloaded, which it was. Currently, he was busy trying to manually mount a red dot sight to the rail along the top. "Fit damnit!" He pulled a tad bit harder, and rather than seating firmly onto the rail, it instead snapped the bracing clean off. With his usual amount of anger and displeasure, he tossed the gun over his shoulder. Smiling once again as it disappeared before it hit the ground. " Never get's old. Does it?"

William swiveled his head around, and looked out his back window. Which he had oh so intelligently replaced with bullet and shatterproof Lexan glass after several... 'incidents.' Most notable being the time a cryptid tried to snatch him up for a snack. He ended the abomination a few minutes later with an anti tank warhead fired from a quarter mile away. "Ah, good times." It was Joey at the window, a former human turned alicorn and one of the few ponies William actually trusted. He trusted him because he had been one of his only friends in high school. As it happens, the Quiet Kid, is not exactly a position where you would find many. " Joey, 'least you had the decency to knock first." His friend rolled his eyes, "Good morning to you to William, Celestia's having a meeting with Twilight and the other's about the fate of Equestria. Wanna crash it?" William set his now empty coffee mug down. " Do California politicians hate firearms? Yes! Well... to both of those things." He stopped to blink, then walked outside. "It's in Canterlot. You wanna fly, or walk?" William had had quite enough of the Equestrian train system. Too many snoopy ponies asking too many questions about him. It gave him both anxiety and a severe case of what he called, " Cut it out before I start humming Pumped Up Kicks." Which usually did the opposite of what William was intending.

" I'm not walking there. I have neither the patience nor the stamina for that." Joey knew this was a lie, as William had trekked across the entirety of Equestria in just over a week at one point. But he just let it go. " What did you mean by fly? You want me do turn you into a pony again? For a day trip?" William shook his head, "Not exactly."
"Balloon ride?" He shook his head again.

"Seriously- Ow!!!" William climbed right up on his friends back who himself was still trying to process the sheer absurdity of what was going on, "Hi ho Silver!!!" He called out, " Dude, really? You actually want me to fly you all the way there, like this?" His friend yanked his right wing away from William's boot. " You're digging into my shoulder! Also, don't you think you're a little, I don't know, big? To be flying around on me?" William patted his mane, "No, now, off we go!" Joey groaned at the prospect of trying to explain this to the 6, or the princesses, or the royal guard. " Please, don't kick me again." William nodded. Then responded with his usual calm statement of, "Knock me off and I'll blow you out of the ####ing sky."

"Agh! William, what did I say about leaning on my wings!?" William sighed, "Hey, it's either you get annoyed, I I fall off." I can't keep you on, if I can't fly!" He called out as he set his hooves down on the stone pathway leading to the main entrance of the sister's castle. William jumped off, and flexed his legs, " Oh, let's both agree to never do that again."

"Uh, sir? Don't mind me asking, but were you just sitting on your friend?" He looked up at the concerned guardspony. "Yes, yes I was. Though I won't be doing it ever again. Whatdya say Joey?"

His friend was in clearly pain, "Deal." The 2 of them took a few seconds to stumble around and regret their decision. After that, they headed into the castle, taking the most direct route possible to the throne room. Leaving the unicorn guardspony to his duties, and with one very strange story to tell to his friends. " Sooo... what were you fiddling with before I knocked on your door?" William frowned behind his balaclava, " Gun. Big gun." He replied, leaving it at that. As was the case 95 percent of the time, he kept his responses vague. It wasn't necessary to do so for this, it was just a habit of his. An, at least as he was concerned, a very welcome one.

"So, who you hoofin' the kingdom over to?" William questioned as he threw the massive double door's of the throne room aside. Before him sat the princesses, and the 6. " Well, William. My sister and I are retiring." William sighed, put his hands in his pockets, and sighed again, "An-"
"Breaking news! The royal princesses retiring! I have so many questions!"

William froze, and glanced over at his left to find none other than Discord. The infuriating draconequus whom William had lost all fondness for after he had endangered his life more than once. " Ask away Discord. I'm leaving." He spun around, and marched out the throne room. "Er, I should go..." Joey galloped off after him. " Perhaps we should have talked this over with William and his friend before we made the decision to hoof Equestria off to Twilight and her friends." Luna asked her sister.

"Well, he's not a royal, or an alicorn for that matter. And his friend has made it quite clear that he doesn't want anything to do with ruling the kingdom." Celestia replied. "Wait, you're what?" They both looked over at Twilight, "Oh yes Twilight-" She had already fainted. "Besides, I wouldn't dare to imagine what would happen if he took over." She added. Luna stared off into space, "Oh, I've been inside his dreams. You have no idea sister." She shuddered. And Celestia dismissed the six.

" For the last damn time. No, I'm not new here, I don't need a map!" William shooed away a pony on the train deck of Ponyville. Apparently they had started handing out maps to visitors recently. Which would have nice a few years ago. Now, seeing that he had ran every street and alley in this town at least a hundred times. It was more than a nuisance than anything. William waved the creature away and went straight for a small lake on the edge of town. He slumped down against the first tree he could find, and dozed off. It may have been 1: 36 in the afternoon. But he was tired nonetheless. Besides, now was about the time something interesting happened. It was just the way this world worked. If he waited patiently, the violence would come to him. Now, he wasn't one for waiting, but considering waiting meant taking a quick nap with only the distant sound of hoofbeats to keep him company. He shut his eyes and was asleep in an instant.

"Hello, it's me again." A voice called out in through the darkness, it was his own. Yet it sounded just a little bit calmer than usual. William rubbed his forehead and looked down at his feet, but when he looked up he found himself face to face with a mirror. Rather than reflecting his appearance, the image within was cloudy and dark. "This is minorly disturbing. But, ok. I swear to myself it it's a jumpscare-" His voice trailed off as he stared into the mirror. A figure began to take shape, one he recognized with ease at this point. " Oh, it's me." Or rather, it was the pony version of himself. An equestrian alter ego of himself and a welcome one at that. William didn't mind having him around at all, in fact, he loved it. 'Hailstorm,' as he preferred to go by always seemed to brighten his day whenever he got a visit from him. In the past few months visits from him had become all the more frequent. " you know the drill, can't stay long."
"Eh, fine by me, question. When are you gonna visit me in person?" William asked the figure in the mirror. " I visit you every time you grow hooves." William snapped his fingers, " Eh, it's ok. So, what's the news?" Hailstorm smiled, " You got your wish, call it a hunch, but do you know that old shadow pony, Sombra?" William blinked, and toyed with his vest. " Yes? Well-"
"Here's the point, he's launching an attack on the Crystal Empire. You'd be wise to go and... 'have fun,' as you call it." William returned the smile. " Until next time bud."
" Until next time." The dreamscape faded, and William opened his eyes and pushed himself up off the grass below the tree he had fallen asleep on. Looking down at his watch, it read; 3:08. He rubbed his back and checked the slide of his rifle to ensure it was loaded. Even though her would most likely be swapping his M4 for something more suited to taking down eldritch abominations when he got there. It was always comforting to be able to meet deadly force with deadly force at a moments notice. He sprinted down the hill, trying as hard as he could to ignore the muscle sprain which he had received while doing so.

" William, where are you going?" Joey shouted out as William began to board the northbound train. " Call it a hunch, but I think king Sombra's tryin' to take over the crystal empire again!" His friend was confused, "Wait, who's King Sombra!?" William shook his head from a distance. "Look after my house while I'm gone! And keep Twilight in check!" He was already pulling away from the station as he yelled this out. " And not a word about this to Twilight!" as Joey stood there on the wooden deck dumbfounded, William jumped up from his seat, and made his way down the aisle. Straight to the conductor. " Oh, hey William, wait, did I stamp your ticket-" William set his hand on the grip of his sidearm. " Sir, I'm going to need you to head for the Crystal Empire." Just as he said this a message came trough a slot in the wall. "Uh, we've just received new order's. That area's off limit's."
" Do it. Now." The unicorn swallowed hard and switched tracks. The train began to head north, and William went back to his cabin. Relaxing his gun hand as he did. " This is gonna be awesome." He couldn't help but grin at the prospect of what he would be facing. " The Quiet Kid say's yous gonna die Sombra." William said it with a laugh, much to the concern of the other passengers. Whom he had just realized would be following him unwillingly into an active warzone. "####, it's Canterlot all over again." he sat down and buried his head in his gloved hands. " Oh sweet me, what am I doing with my life?" He got up and ordered the train to stop, " Alright. Everypony listen! This train is now under my control, we've changed course for an active warzone. Anypony that does not want to get seriously injured or worse should disembark immediately!" To his honest surprise, the actually did as told. Every last pony on the train got off. "Good, now. Full speed ahead!" He moved up to a seat by the front of the train. He wanted to be able to dismount and start shooting as soon as possible.

"There, there!' William called out, staring out in awe at the collection of enormous crystalline spires that made up the empire. The city itself was located within a oddly temperate valley when compared to the rest of the frigid wasteland around it. A geologists dream come true. The enormous inky black clouds swirling around it and the distant cries and screams were not ideal. At least not for an average equestrian. William was quite literally on the edge of his seat. Watching the carnage from afar. With complete calm he drew an MG 68 and racked it's bolt. At the same time, he swapped his kit out for something a little bit more befitting of urban warfare. The sun had already began to set, and the ominous black clouds were not ideal. So he made sure to mount a set of quad scope night vision goggles to his helmet. He was about 300 yards from the station, " Stop the train." He whispered to the conductor. At the same time, he yanked the side door open and jumped off, " Want me to wait for you?" William shook his head, "No, leave. This is gonna get ugly." The unicorn nodded blankly, and reversed the train.

He preformed one final check to ensure his kit was in order, and slung an M32 rotary over his shoulder and stuffed a hatchet into a loop on the back of his vest, " Here goes something." He casually walked towards the besieged city. His pace quickened by a significant margin when an enormous hunk of black crystal went flying over his head. He ducked into an alleyway, and suffered through a additional 6 attempts at ending him via rock before he made it to the street. He propped up behind a relatively solid looking wall, being sure to keep his gun barrel away from the edge. He peeked out of cover, and saw that the street was empty. He looked the other way, and saw a crystal pony, walking alone. He panicked and ran when he caught sight of William.

" Fine by me, he jumped out, and began making his way towards the spire at the center of the city. there met first resistance. A collection of pegasus gurdsponies with green glowing eyes. Not wanting to harm them, he decided it would be better to try and avoid them. A few minutes of sneaking around later, he felt something grab him by the shoulder. He whipped around to find a pony, but not like the rest, this one was wearing armor that clearly said, "Hello there, I'm evil." That, combined with the black wisps coming off it's fur told William that this was most certainly not friendly. He pulled the creature off him and wrestled with it for a while. " I'm fed up with you piece of ####!" With out another thought William put the LMG to the base of it's skull and fired off a round into it's armored head.

The 6.8 MM round entered the creatures head, tore through it's brain, ricocheted around his helmet, and came to a stop. Leaving the shadow equines skull looking like demonic swiss cheese. He stepped back and took a second to determine weather the thing he had just shot was a pony, or an abomination. Upon kicking the corpse, he had his answer. "Alright."

He peaked out behind the crystal house he had been sitting behind and waved his gun around, pulling down his night vision goggles as he did. The green glow emitted from the possessed creatures eyes made it abundantly clear who was a threat and who was not. "Screw stealth, I'm going loud." He ran out into the open and began firing into anything that looked as though it posed a threat. With, to say, was pretty much the entirety of the creatures at the base of the castle. "Hey, #### you!" He jabbed one with a bayonet. "Hah, I this is awesome!" He yelled it just as a piece of torn up armor flew over his head, " Oh, Sombra, come out come out wherever you are!" He swapped box magazines, and went for his 40 mike-mike.

"Hey, mother ####er! I'm calling for you!" He sighed, and looked around at the carnage around him. There was nothing but silence, well... silence and distant screaming from the damage he had caused to the shadow pony's forces. " You piece of ####!!! You better not make me come up there and get you!" A collection of black crystalline spikes shot up from the ground and rushed towards him, which he easily sidestepped. "Damn you coward!" He ran to the side of the spire, and looked straight up, there, in a window near the very top, was Sombra. " Now just what do you think you're doing?" He asked mockingly.
"What? I- I can't hear you from down here! Speak louder!!!" The shadow king rolled his eyes. " WHY ARE YOU HERE!?" He called down from the tower. " Well what do you think!? I'm here to kill you! Of my own accord of course, not because the princesses asked me to!" Just then, a third voice cut through the commotion, " Wait, it that William!? From Canterlot!?" It was Cadence. At first William though she was happy, he was wrong, "Where' Twilight!?" He groaned, "Why does everypony always want he to save the day? I'm standing right here!" He facepalmed, and began to climb the stairwell up to the top. "Oh, please tell me you're not planning on saving us alone!" He screamed out in frustration. "Damnit woman! I am! I'm trying to save you and your husband and your child and your whole goddamn kingdom so will you please just shut the #### up and let me work in peace!?" William roared. He heard a groan of dissatisfaction in the distance, followed by what he assumed was Shinning Armor trying to cheer her up, " Now now sir, there's no need to use such foul language, especially not around children. " How the hell can you even hear me from this distance!?" No response was given, except from what William could clearly identify as evil laughter. "How pathetic, he thinks him laughing will lower my enthusiasm!"

William returned the gesture with his own laugh, Sombra fell silent after he was finished. " Who ya callin' coward now?" He murmured to himself as he climbed the final flight of stairs, and was greeted by yet more of Sombra's possessed minions. With complete disregard for those around him. He charged into the waiting soldiers. And began shooting and stabbing his way through the hallways. "What took you so long!?" Cadence demanded, all eyes in the room went to William, who was standing min the doorway. Panting for breath, he raised a finger, and pulled up his night vision goggles in the now illuminated room. " Shut up. You made me come up here." He pointed at Sombra, then turned to Shining, " your wife is horrible." he snarled at this statement, " So, wh-" He snapped back to Sombra, and unslung the grenade launcher.

" I'm gonna kill you so dead, you'll be reincarnated into an abortion!!!" He switched off the safety, raised it to his shoulder. And fired. The detonation completely leveled the throne, and when the dust cleared, Sombra was oddly enough, still there. Albeit, in pain. Not giving him any time to react, William racked another shell and fired again, and again, and again. 3 more HE rounds later he was finally gone. All that was left was a smoking crater and hell of a lot of those black crystals. And of course, as was typical in situations like this, Twilight and her friends showed up, with Joey at their side. "Where's Sombra?" Joey took one good look at the smoking crater that was once the throne, " William took care of him." Twilight sighed, " Really?" There was no enthusiasm in her voice at all. William slowly nodded. "Yep." He emptied the launcher of it's casings, and systematically loaded a half dozen new ones in. As he did, Cadence leaned in close to Twilight, "Is he always this rude?"
"You have no idea."
"Hey, question. Can I pick out a gift for saving your city?" Cadence groaned. "Sure. Whatever." She and her family trotted away. And all William could do was grin, and carve another notch into his launcher. " I take it you had fun?" Joey asked nervously. William slowly nodded. "Yes, yes I did. Victory snack?"

Later...

"You know, I still don't trust that thing." He eyed the tree of harmony with suspicion from the edge of cave as Twilight returned the elements. Just as she turned away, a cluster of dark crystal's emerged form the cavern walls and smashed the tree. sending the elements flying to the ground. Where they shattered like toys." Sombra. Guess he wasn't so dead after all." William sighed, and drew his sidearm.