The Quiet Kid: Day by Day

by aegishailstorm

Alpine Blues

Far from the relatively tame Equestrian heartland, a certain trio of villain's where brainstorming ideas for taking over Equestria. All under the watch of a mysterious talking supernatural goat by the name of Grogar. For the most part, Grogar seemed to be worried about Twilight. But Cozy Glow and Chrysalis knew better, they had both been defeated on multiple occasions by a creature by the name of, 'William. ' Also known as the Quiet Kid. Who struck at them with merciless efficiency and with weapons the likes of which they had never before seen, or even imagined. Chrysalis had lost a significant portion of her hive to him. And Cozy's plot to remove all magic from Equestria had been foiled by, contrary to what the records say. William and William alone. Tirek on the other hoof, was dubious.

Sure, he had seen William, or at least, something that looked like him down in Tartarus, and had watched him blow a hole in the side of a mountain with relative ease, but that was the extent of this creatures powers which he had observed. The things that the devious little pegasus and the former changeling queen were talking about was something else entirely.

As it happens, minotaur's are not the sharpest tools in the proverbial shed. Mentally, that is. Literally, they actually are. Considering that they've been known to be able to tear earth ponies limb from limb if they so desired. Unbeknownst to the other 2, Chrysalis wasn't fully opposed to William. The 2, more or less had a mutual understanding of one another. William knew that she wasn't inherently evil, she was just trying to care for her hive. Which she had lost about a year prior. And Chrysalis understood that William was an all powerful psychopath with the power to wipe who ever he wanted off the face of the planet whenever he wanted. That, and, he was the first creature to ever voluntarily smile at her.

Currently, they were all busy sitting around a table, arguing over... whatever Equestrian villains argue about. War crimes, perhaps? When Grogar trotted in. "I'm leaving, since it's impossible to accomplish the work I need to do here. I suggest the 3 of you come to some kind of accord! I don't care, but you must learn to work together, only then can we accomplish what you so greatly desire, the defeat of Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and.... ugh, the Quiet Kid."

Meanwhile in Ponyville...

"I'm telling you Joey, it's alright. I know it was an accident. " William muttered as he limped along, he had recently found himself in a rather hairy situation, and, had asked Joey to help him out. But rather than doing that, Joey crashed into William, and his left hoof into his unarmored thigh. He was now limping his way through town on the way to the nearest ice cream parlor. You never had to go far in Equestria to find one. " Vanilla, one scoop." William limped his way up to the counter, and slammed the single bit down on the counter. The stallion behind the counter flinched, and took it. Handing him his cone in turn. Which he took outside and began chomping away at.

As he fought to take his mind off the screaming pain in his right leg. He got the bright idea of taking a hike. Out in the middle of nowhere. He was sick of the Everfree forest. He missed high alpine forests, something Rocky Mountains esque would do perfectly. He went home, pulled out a map of Equestria. And started looking. It wasn't long before something new caught his eye.

"Mount Everhoof, huh?" He asked himself, it was in the far north of the continent, right around where the crystal empire was. Perfect for what he wanted, a nice summer camping trip in the middle of absolutely no where. "Joey! I found a place up north, we're going camping. Might wanna pack a jacket!"

later that day...

The train ground to a halt at the end of the tracks, deposited it's only 2 passengers, and pulled away. Leaving William and the alicorn standing on a degrading wood deck in the middle of nowhere. William's brought along a field pack with enough food and water for 4 days. Anything else he could just manifest whenever he wanted. Joey had just brought his saddle bags, and the jacket William had recommended. A gust of wind blew across the deck, causing William to shiver for a moment. Far off in the distance, William could see an lone mountain piercing through the clouds, far larger than the one Canterlot sat atop.

Around Mount Everhoof was a seemingly tame pine forest with rolling hills which progressively got steeper and more aggressive the closer you got to the mountain. The top quarter of the mountain seemed to be perpetually consumed by a massive windstorm. " Hey, William, do think Ponyville will be ok while we're gone?" Expecting a reassuring answer, what he got instead was a flat, "No. " Followed by a laugh. A very, very long laugh. Before slinging his rifle over his shoulder and heading off down the trail. The alicorn followed close behind. Wondering what the hay was wrong with his friend.

"Ah, everywhere I go in this place, it never stops being beautiful. William had paused for a moment at the top of a cliff to gaze out over the forest. " The advantage of hiking out here versus on earth is that there's no planes to ruin the moment. And, you don't need a license to kill the stuff that does here!" There was no response, only the calm whistling of the wind blowing through the trees. He just stood there, admiring it. Until Joey flew past him. And hovered in place off to the side. "Enjoying the view?" He asked. "Yeah, get out of the damn way." William took a knee, and unslung his rifle, peering through his scope, he surveyed the forest, until he spotted a break in the trees right at the edge of a lake. He puled the map out of his BDU cargo pocket, unfolded it, and examined the area. " Joey, see that clearing by the lake about a klick away?" His friend looked down at him with confusion, what? I don't speak military."

" Half a mile away, down there." He pointed to it. Joey nodded, and took off, William just stood there, still mildly in pain from the hoof he had received to the thigh. "It's like he forgot I can barely walk.#### it, I'm only holding on because my ego prevents me from quitting because of something so pathetic." William groaned, and began the trek down to the lake.

As William made his way through the evergreen trees and alpine brush he came across a branching trail. Oddly enough, this one had 3 sets of hoof tracks in it, leading away from him and towards the mountain. Even stranger still, was that he recognized one of them. " Chrysalis, what are you doing here?" He knelt down, and put his gloved hand down next to one of the prints. " And I was just- Actually I wasn't. Honestly, I'm surprised it took this long to go to ####. Eh, I'm to lazy to go out hunting for her and her companions. I'll just keep a look out for her." He got back up, did as quick area sweep with his eyes, and went off on his way. Before long, he found the campsite. A clearing about 25 yards from end to end, and Joey. Who was napping against a rock. " Should I wake him up? Nah. William dropped the gear pack on the ground in front of him. Which he secured with a simple combination lock and a stake to the ground.

Immediately after securing his gear, he snapped his fingers, and an olive green tent appeared in front of him. 3 yards to the left, he set up Joey's tent. Duck taped a sticky note saying not to go looking for him to his tent, and headed off into the woods in search of the former changeling queen.

After about 20 minutes of walking, he had come to another overhand. This one was at a much higher elevation, and small patches of snow were beginning to cluster about, regardless of the weather, he was still determined to find the reason Chrysalis was here. As he reached the very top, and took up a position on a rocky outcropping. He spotted a faint glimpse of a greenish carapace disappearing into the woods about a quarter mile away. He swapped his BDU's for a ghillie suit which, thanks to his powers, was perfectly tailored for the environment. And, as with before, he peered on through the 8 times magnification sight of an M110 marksman rifle for a better look. It wasn't long before he had a clear sight of her. "Where are you going?" He watched a collection of dark figures watch her from from the cover of the treeline. William momentarily debated weather or not to help her by shooting a few of them from here. It was only a few hundred yards, and he had the optic and the stability to do it if he wanted to. But he just lay there and watched.

Sure enough, she dealt with it on her own, muttered something he couldn't hear at this distance, and continued on as though nothing had happened. "Whatca looking at?" William rolled his right eye over, " Damnit Joey, it's classified."

"Oh really, lemme guess, by you?"
"No idiot, by the royals, what do you think? It's Chrysalis, came across her tracks earlier in the woods. And naturally, I started wondering, what could possibly have made her come out here? I wasn't going to put a 7.62 by 51 full metal jacket in her skull!" Joey cocked his head, "A what?" William sighed, " Nevermind, do you mind?" He motioned for the alicorn to go fly away. And went back to the scope, but by the time he had his eye in the optic, she was out of sight. Off to who knows where. Well, he thought he knew. With a sigh he packed up his rifle, and headed back to camp. Walking around all day on a bad leg was beginning to hurt just a little to much for comfort.

With his stamina and patience both spent, he collapsed on a folding camp chair just outside his tent. "Joey, would you mind setting up the campfire ring?" The alicorn trotted off into the woods, and turned with half a tree trunk. " Will this do?" William groaned, and stood up. "Nevermind, just... set it off to the side. I'll do it." He painfully got up, and hobbled off into the bushes, he came back 2 minutes later with an armful of dry tree limbs and pine needles. " Grab some rocks from the lakeside. It's about time someone explains to you the proper way to start a campfire."

Several botched magnesium and steel strikes later...

"...And, there ya go. A nice warm fire, at 7 in the evening." Joey paced back and forth along the waters edge, " What did you mean when you said it was gonna be cold!?" William chuckled as he dropped himself into a chair and crossed his legs. "I asked you to bring that because I thought it would be colder. Wheas it's actually quite nice." As he said that the sun dipped below the horizon, and at the same time, the moon rose. He reached into the kindling pile and gently placed a few small branches on top of the ones that were already burning.

"You hungry?" Joey nodded. " Did you bring food?" William nodded, " Yes, I did, he walked over to his backpack. And pulled 2 bags out of it, one held granola and daisy's, the other beef jerky and pretzels. " Here you go." William handed Joey the bag with the granola. "Did you seriously go out of your way to buy flowers?" His friend asked with skepticism. William shook his head, " Nope, stole 'em out of a flower planter at Twilight's school. They've got plenty anyway. " William's expression went back into a frown as he pulled out a piece of beef jerky and stuffed it into his mouth, and washed it down with a pretzel. He repeated this process until the bag was empty, pausing in between bites to glimpse out at the pristine lake.

As he gradually sloped back into his chair, he began to hear rustling from the bushes, and, being that his friend was right next to him. It was likely looking for food, a fight, or both. In a flash he pulled a set of augmented NVG 18's down over his head and swept the area round the camp with an IR laser mounted to an M4A1. Through the tree's he spotted what looked like a... Slug with bull horns? This place never ceased being weird. He trained the laser on the creatures head, and fired a 3 round burst. Two struck it creatures back, one went high. It let out a screech of pain and slithered off.

Now, even though a pony's vision in the dark is better than that of a human's\\. In this case, the woods and meadow beyond the light of the campfire, were pitch black for Joey. He heard the bushes behind them rustle, then saw was William shoot up from his chair, manifest a set of night vision goggles, and fire into the trees. " What was it!?" He called out, his ears still ringing from the gunshots. The particular suppressor William had screwed onto the barrel of his rifle was still pretty loud. Normally, the decibel range it lowered the gunshot to wouldn't have been a problem. Joey's ears made the gunshots significantly louder than they actually were.

"Monster. "William daeadpanned, "Slithered off into the trees. " Joey's flicked his ears back up, " Did you just say slither?" William nodded, " Yep. Just another day in the Equestrian wilderness, ain't it?" Joey was mildly concerned that William was taking this so causally. William was in fact, quite unhappy that his camping trip had been ruined, and wanted to go charging in after the snake-bull thing that had ruined his calm, and slit it's throat.
"Wait here, this will get ugly."

William disappeared into the darkness, leaving Joey sitting there with a confused expression on his face. " Seriously? You're just leaving me out here, alone!?" He called out, only to receive a reply of, "You're an alicorn, just fly away if anything tries to kill you!" Joey sneered at the darkness. But all he got back was the sound of distant cricket's and owls chirping and hooting. And a faint wind blowing through the trees.

"Hmmm..." William thought to himself as he hurried through the dark forest with his gun at high ready. He was following the creature's track's in the mud. " Where are you going?" He looked down at his watch 8: 15, it read. He chased the wounded creature through the woods for all of 10 minutes.

When at last, he found it. Halfway through being cocooned by Chrysalis. That wasn't even the oddest part, what he found far more concerning was the fact that Cozy glow and Tirek were sitting around a campfire just a few feet away from her. He watched them from the cover of the forest, staying as silent and unmoving as he possibly could.
"How did they get out of Tarturus!?"
His mind screamed, his interest in finishing off the monster was gone. Now replaced by the oh so savory thought of executing the 2 right then and there. William had lost his patience with Cozy Glow, her being a pony no longer mattered to him. Last he heard she had been thrown into Tartarus. Chrysalis he was ok with letting walk free. Provided she would either get reformed or seek out some therapy for her... Issues. He would have just gone back to his camp and left it at that. But he still wanted the reason for the being out here. Using his amplified ear protection, he took up a more comfortable spot behind a tree, and listened in on their conversation.

" You cocoon all of your meals?" Cozy glow asked, holding a marshmallow on a stick between her hooves. "Of course," Chrysalis responded, holding up her black hoof as though it was common knowledge.

"So when you when you ponynaped Twilight and the other's, you cocooned them?" William made a mental note to talk with Twilight when he got back home, clearly the end of his first visit didn't end the changeling threat in Equestria. He had heard a little bit about it from the perspective of Chrysalis. He had yet to discuss the defeat of his sworn enemies with Twilight or any of the others.

"Yes, until Starlight Glimmer freed them, corrupted my subjects and stole my hive!" She growled out, William rolled his eyes at that remark, as she most certainty wasn't currently ruling over the reformed changelings. "Those ponies have weaknesses, " Tirek remarked. William fought back a laugh, "Keep talking #### buddy, keep talking ####." He flexed his hand.

"I used that turncoat Discord, tricked him into helping me capture his so called, friends."
"Yeah, Discord was really something until friendship ruined him." Chrysalis added with a depressed sigh. " Hey, what about William? Cozy Glow asked. " What about him, why do you think he sided with Twilight?"
" Don't really know, perhaps it has something to do with that 5th alicorn?" Tirek blinked, " Fifth alicorn, you're telling me there's another one out there?" Cozy nodded, and took her marshmallow out of the fire, " Yeah, his name's Joey. I actually met him a few times, he's pretty nice. I wouldn't lump him in with the same category as the princesses. "

"The first time I ever met him was the cliff face of a mountain overlooking Ponyville. He had just slaughtered the combined forces of my hive, the dragons, and the griffons. And he was perfectly fine with it! No remorse whatsoever! Only a causal recommendation that I schedule a meeting rather than attacking a town the next time I wanted to talk with him. And get this, he had the audacity to scratch behind my ear! And you know what, I actually kind of liked it!!!' She was practically fuming at this point. William just sat there, enjoying the commotion.

They went on to make fun of Twilight and her friends. Chrysalis even transformed into Twilight for a little bit. William just sat there and watched from the shadows, "Damn, she should take up a career as a stand up comedian. She's actually pretty good. William remarked. After a while, it seemed as though the finally came to an accord. They would all cooperate with one another so long as it resulted in the complete antihalation of their enemies. And then, he finally heard it, the reason they were here. They were after something called, Grogar's bell. Which was apparently stashed at the top of Mount Everhoof. The winds up there were far, far to powerful and unpredictable to fly up there. And There wasn't a chance in hell that he was going to try scaling the thing. He may have been a good shot with a rifle. But when it came to climbing, well, he was no Bear Grylls. " Yeah, screw that. I've been out long enough, time to go back to camp. First thing tomorrow we're breaking camp and heading back home... After a lap around that lake, it's been to long since I've swam in water that didn't give me a severe case of thalassophobia. " He turned around, pulled his goggles back down, and head back into the dead of night.