Making her way through the boardwalk of the piers in the lower level of Kagutsuchi, Rainbow Dash walked along with Makoto Nanaya at her side. "Uuuuugh! I can't believe this. These things are so weird."
Makoto looked over and noticed Dash staring at something. "What, your hands?"
"No, these things." Rainbow lifted her hands towards Makoto's face and wiggled the ten little digits that stuck out from what she thought were her hooves.
"Those are called fingers Rainbow Dash, and they're attached to your hands. Everyone's got fingers, even me." Makoto shoved Rainbows hands away to show over her own set. "See, ten awesome fingers. Pretty sweet looking digits, right?"
"Uh, yeah, not too bad." Brushing away the other set of palms, Rainbow focused her eyes back on her own and slowly mastered the challenge of wiggling each one individually. "Why do we even need so many? I had no trouble at all when I just had four hooves. Now I've got these… things." Her eyes darted between her hands and feet. "How does Spike manage to move around in these? Ugh… It's bad enough that I can't fly straight in this messed up body, but how am I supposed to gallop."
Makoto raised a brow at Dash as she continued her rant. "Gallop? I think you mean run. You do it like this see." She scurried about the pier for her demonstration, avoiding running into anyone along the away and finally returning to Rainbow's side. "Like that. It's easy."
"Heh, you're right. That does look easy. I bet I'll can do it faster than you did."
"Oh yeah?" Makoto's tail beginning to wag, pumped up by Rainbow's enthusiasm.
"Of course. I'm one of the fastest flyers around after all. Of course that was actually back in Equestria; and it was for flying. Whatever, weird body or not, I bet I'm still fast. Here goes."
Pushing her feet against the ground she pushed one after the other, making her way forward. Unfortunately it wasn't with the speed and grace she imagined she'd have. Teeter tottering with each step, Rainbow lost her balance and tumbled to the ground. Sitting on her rump, she stared disappointingly at her legs. "I don't get it. What went wrong?"
Makoto caught up and helped her to her feet. "Beats me. You were doing fine earlier when it came to walking. I don't understand why you had such a hard time when you tried to run."
"It easy to walk because I didn't really think too much about it… Wait a second…" Realizing what she needed to do, she started attempting to run again. This time not wobbling as before, mainly because she didn't think of it as galloping on two hooves but instead as she normally did. She took off in full sprint, no longer worried over the mechanics of her new figure, her wings spread open and began flapping vigorously.
Makoto look up in astonishment. "No way! Rainbow Dash, hey Rainbow Dash, you're flying!"
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash looked down to see her feet no longer pushing against the ground but instead hovering along with the rest of her a few feet above the piers. "I… I did it! I did it—whoa!" As she raised her arms up in victory, her body veered to the left, crashing into a collection of empty crates along the boardwalk.
Makoto hurried to catch up. "You alright Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow Dash emerged from underneath a pile of broken lumber. "Yeah…" She brushed away the scraps of wood clinging onto her, Rainbow reached up, grabbed hold of Makoto's hand and pulled herself up. "I guess I still need some practice. Moving around in this body is a lot harder than I thought. I need to find some fast way to get used to moving around in this body."
"What, like a warm up exercise?"
"Yeah. Something that'll really get my body moving."
Makoto stood back and eyed Rainbow from head to toe. "Hmm… You know for someone saying she not used to moving her body, as strange as that sounds, you look pretty fit to me. Are there any sports you're into? Like lacrosse?"
"Of course I'm fit. I'm a world class athlete after all."
"Yeah. A world class athlete who can't run without falling over herself."
"I told you already, I'm not used to moving in this body."
"Which is why I wanna know if you did any athletic sport."
"Well, I did take karate."
"Karate? Martial arts huh? That's perfect."
"It is?" Rainbow Dash wondered, staring skeptically at Makoto who took a few steps away while stretching her arms. "How?"
Now a couple of feet away, Makoto turned back and faced Rainbow. "Well you've taken karate, and you wanna get used to moving around in your body so..."
"Uh huh?"
Done stretching, Makoto smiled and put up her dukes. "Ever had a sparring match before?"
Catching on to what the squirrel had in mind, Rainbow Dash took a fighting posed and smiled back at her. "Heh, you sure you can take me on? I'm a black belt after all."
"That's the spirit Dash. This way, you'll quickly get used to moving around." Bobbing up and down with her arm up, Makoto pointed one towards Rainbow and aimed the end of the tonfa strapped to her arm right at her. "Just let me warn you, I don't like to pull my punches."
"That's fine by me. I like a challenge."
In a vacant space in the harbor, surrounded by wooden crates and steel drum barrels, overlooking the rusty structures, rising and falling drawbridges, passing ships and the city of Kagutsuchi in the background, both girls stood ready to fight. They smiled, both excited over their friendly bout. Rainbow recklessly charged in and Makoto answered in a likewise manner while shouting "Asteroid Vision!"
Rainbow threw the first punch. She saw her fist slammed against Makoto's cheek, but somehow it passed right through and Makoto vanished..
"Over here!" Makoto shouted, standing behind her. The quick footed squirrel threw a punch of her own..
Rainbow took one punch after another. Her opponent's rapid jabs combining into a string of blows. Hitting high and low. Makoto made a quick dash forward, "Asteroid vision!" hitting with a strong thrust of her arm that stunned Rainbow. "Perfect strike!" Rainbow Dash couldn't react in time to stop the next barrage of blow headed her way as Makoto struck with strong left and right hooks from her Dempsey Roll. "Infinite rush!" She finished with an uppercut, sending Rainbow flipping backwards and slamming against the ground.
Surprised, but mostly agitated by the attack, Rainbow picked herself up, brushing her hands against her nose. "Wow." She looked over to Makoto standing a few feet away. "I've gotta admit, those were some pretty nice moves." Back upright, she tightened her palms and flapped her wings. "But it's gonna take a lot more than that to beat me."
Rainbow ran in again, aiming her punches for Makoto who raised her arms up to block. One after another, Rainbow's punches pelted against the set of tonfas. She winded up for one last blow and threw her fist forward, watching as Makoto not only angled her arm but jerked it forward into the approaching fist.
Her fist connected against the hard steel of the cross-shaped weapons and was deflected away as Makoto twisted her arm down. her deflected punch left Rainbow wide open, giving Makoto a perfect opportunity for a counter attack. She cocked her right fist back and, with absurd strength, let it fly forward. "Space counter!"
In a flash, she appeared standing behind Rainbow with her fist still aimed straight ahead. At her back, Rainbow Dash was in midair, spinning from the intense blow and dropping to the floor with a thud. She pried herself off the ground for a second time, growling and gnashing her teeth as she flapped her wings to help her stand upright. "Alright! Now I'm getting the hang of this. It's payback time!" With another flap of her wings she charged in and rammed against Makoto, causing them to bounce away from one another and stand ready to go again.
"Looks like you're getting used to using your wings to move around. Impressive."
"Heh, you haven't seen anything yet. I've still got plenty to show you."
"Oh yeah?" Makoto crossed her tonfas together, causing a spark to emerge from their pointed tips. "Let's see how you like…" The energy flowing from her weapons gathered to form an orb of lightning that hovered in place in front of her. "A taste of this!" She punched the orb, sending it flying.
Rainbow yelped in shock, "Whoa!" Caught off guard by the unexpected projectile. She put up her arms and prepared to take the blast. she met the sphere head on, but its power send her flying, "Whaaaaaa!" slamming against a group of barrels,. Fueled by her determination not to lose, Rainbow quickly recovered and saw Makoto coming at her. "Oh no you don't!" She flapped her wings and took to the air, dodging the attack and then diving back down with her foot to counter.
Makoto jumped away, just missing the business end of Rainbows foot as it left a sizable dent on the ground. Despite the close call, she smiled at Rainbow. "You're even getting used to using your wings. That's great! But I'm still not planning on losing."
Distancing herself before Makoto could counter; Rainbow took a moment to catch her breath.
Jeez what's with this girl? No matter what I throw at her, she always has something up her sleeves. I know were only doing this for fun, but I really don't want to lose. There's gotta be something I can do!
Still taking deep breaths, Rainbow started to feel a strange sensation building up inside her. She grabbed at her chest in concern. The sensation began to move out from her chest, down her arms and find its resting point on her hands. She stared at them. They began shaking wildly and emitting light that shine brightly. "What? What's going on?"
The flashing in her palms shined brighter and brighter. Finally something began to form just over her hands. After a few seconds, the practically blinding light faded away and she got her first real glimpse. There, floating mere inches above her hands, were a pair of clouds. Rainbow curiously grabbed hold of them and two uniquely shaped blade popped out from the side of them. She held on to the clouds end of the object tightly and observed the blades. Its shape and color was that of a rainbow-colored thunder streaks. The very one she had on her cutie mark. "What are these?"
Makoto, keeping her eye on Rainbow ever since the bright light began flashing, watched as Rainbow looked down in shock at the objects she held. She forgot all about fighting and ran over to check if friend was alright. "Hey Rainbow Dash, what up with those weird-looking things? I saw that weird light coming off you and then those things just came outta nowhere."
"I-I don't know." Rainbow offered one of the bizarre looking weapons to see. "What the hay are they?"
"Here let me check." Makoto reached for one of them. "What the hell?" Her hand immediately slipped right through the cloud as though it weren't there. "Why you…" She swiped her hand again, seeing her hand pass through it again. "Fine, let's see if this works." She reached for it again, this time grabbing hold of the thunder streaked shaped part. "E-e-e-eeeyoow!" A jolt of electricity zapped her on contact. She quickly let go and grabbed a hold of her twitching arm. "What the crap. That thing just shocked me!"
Rainbow Dash looked back down at her twin weapons and grabbed hold of the cloud handles. That's right. Only pegasus ponies can touch and move clouds. That would explain that. But that doesn't explain why I have these. Eying the shape of her new items, she looked over to Makoto's tonfas and a thought crossed her mind. Hey now that I've got these, then maybe I stand a chance against Makoto. I may have gotten used to moving in this weird body, but I was still losing. She closed her palms and firmly gripped her weapons. "But now that I've got these things. Let see what I can do."
Makoto noticed the fire burning in Dash's eyes and readied herself. "So, you still wanna go?"
Rainbow wielded the twin rainbow daggers in her hands and took her stance. "Ah yeah, you know it. Let's go, round two."
They charged, Rainbow Dash leaping into the air as Makoto throw the first punch and let out a battle cry. "Spoon!" Missing her target, she was left wide upon for Rainbow's attack.
"Alright, let's see what these things can do!" Rainbow said to herself, flapping her wings to dive down and strike. She flew past, dealing a pair of swipes from her blades.
"Owowowowow!" Makoto cried out as electricity shot through her body, making her tail unfurl and dropping her to the ground. After a moment, she got back up. "Damn, that thing of yours sure has one hell of a kick. Alright, time for this squirrel to go all out."
Their fevered clash raged on. The clangs of their weapons smiting against each other rocked the pier they fought on, with waves of lighting reverberating from each collision. Both girls were occasionally sent flying by the others' attack. Each one recovering rapidly. Never giving the other room for a followup attack. Rainbow met Makoto's powerfully charged punches with her steadily increasing fast footwork and flying maneuvers. Efficient with her wings and limbs, Rainbow Dash was also getting used to wielding her blades, which made her more creative with her attacks, but Makoto was no slouch.
"Alright Dash, you remember this?" she asked, preparing to fire off another energy sphere.
Rainbow saw her prepare the attack and smiled. "Heh, let's see if this'll work." She put her fists together, connecting the cloud handles of her weapon together. The two merged and began to expand, covering over the blades they contained. After it stopped growing, around the same size as Makoto's orb, Dash grabbed hold of it.
Both girls, with their respective projectiles ready to fire, gave each other one last determined glance and let loose their attacks.
"Take this!"
The set of orbs went rushing forward and collided against each other. At first they started to merged together, growing in size and losing stability.
"Uh oh!" both Rainbow and Makoto said, quickly realizing how bad the situation was. They each ran for shelter, diving behind barrels and crates as their attacks went off in a catastrophic explosion.
After collecting themselves and avoiding the crowd that came to investigate, Rainbow and Makoto slipped away to a quiet part of the pier where they sat atop a risen flat overlooking the rest of the pier and take a break.
"Man that was some crazy fight," said Makoto staring up at the clouds as she lay on her back.
"Yeah," Rainbow replied, lying next to her. "Though I think we went a little overboard back there."
"No kidding. Oh well. One thing's for sure; you've really gotten use to moving around in your body. Seeing as that was the goal, I think a chunk of destroyed land was all worth it, right?"
Rainbow sat up, staring at her hand as she opened and closed it. "Yeah, it was."
Makoto sat up and pointed at one of the cloud tied onto Rainbow's belt. "Plus you got yourself some sweet gear."
"Yup." Rainbow pulled out both weapons and took pride as she admired them. "They're not too bad are they? Though I still wonder where they came from. Ah whatever. Now that I've gotten use to moving around I'll have an easier time finding my friends."
Makoto nodded. "Now all we gotta do is search. If they're anything like you were, we just need to find people who can't run."
"Hey I wasn't that bad was I?"
"No... You just looked like—"
A sudden explosion in the other side of the pier caught their eye. They, along with everyone else in the harbor, look over to the source of the blast.
"Wait a second." Rainbow looked closer at the blast zone and noticed something moving around the smoke. A bright flash of light pale orchid light suddenly shined from the area, one that Rainbow Dash had seen many times before back home. "That light, that look like something Twilight's magic would do!" She started to flap her wings and rise from the ground. Unfortunately she didn't get very far and landed a few feet from the platform Makoto was still sitting on. "Great, I can't fly very far in this body. Guess I'll just have to head over their using my hooves… I mean. Oh you know what I mean!"
"What light?" Makoto quickly hopped of the platform and chased after Rainbow headed for the source of the blast. "Hey, Rainbow Dash, wait up!"