//------------------------------//
// CH 8: Dog-Fighter 
// Story: Bridging Ages, Bridging Worlds 
// by BlueDWarrior 
//------------------------------//


=== BABW: A New (Old) Magic ===


=== Chapter 8: Dog-Fighter ===




[ October 20, 2080 – Isegawa Laboratory, St. Louis, USA ]


        The customary week passed, and a lot of things were due to change at the Isegawa Laboratory. Mostly because it was moving day -- as the four Ponies and one human were ready to move in the rather large building in back of said Laboratory that was recently completed.

“So whatcha think?” Rainbow Dash asked of the yawning Ethan, as the two of them sat on a bench underneath a covered walkway, the two Pegasi taking in the sun as it rose in the eastern sky.

“Something in particular I should be thinking about?” Ethan responded, as he let out another yawn; having mentally re-adjusted back to getting up whenever he wanted to, he had taken quite a lot of liberty sleeping in.

“Oh come on, the whole becoming a Pegasus thing,” Rainbow Dash replied, teasing tone.

“Well I guess the odds were with me a week ago. As for how I feel, a lot better on my hooves now, though it’s still a bit… strange walking with four limbs instead of two,” Ethan replied, not sure how exactly he should respond.


“And your wings?”

“Oh um, well… I haven’t really had a chance to try them out except for the very basic hovering practice we did.”

Rainbow Dash turned around at looked right at Ethan, her nose to Ethan’s, and smiled a very wide and cat-like grin.

“Guess who your new personal flight instructor is?”

Ethan looked absolutely dumbfounded as he stared at the Pony whose face was as feline as a Pony’s could be (without makeup). “You?!”

“Totally!” Rainbow Dash answered, smiling wide and almost ready to break into a too-loud-for-the-morning laugh.


“OH MY CELESTIA!” they heard a vaguely Romaneian voice shout; yet neither Ethan nor Rainbow could figure out where exactly the voice was coming from.

“Ok I don’t remember anyone sounding Eastern European working here at the clinic…” Ethan said as he continued to look around, and still not seeing anyone or anypony.

“Over here!” the Romaneian voice continued to almost chirp, interspersed with feminine giggling.



“Oh come now, look up just a bit!” the voice called out, now slightly perturbed her little stunt was starting to backfire some.



The two Pegasi on the ground completely turned around… and were met with a rather startling sight (at least for Ethan).

“BAT… PONY?! When did Pegasi have bat-wings?!” Ethan shouted, not caring if he woke up anyone back in the main building.

“Wha? When did the Princesses start hiring from the other side of the world?!” Rainbow Dash shouted, as she couldn’t remember any bat-pony working at any Bureau.

The bat-pony squealed in delight as she flapped down from the eve of the covered walkway and met the other two Pegasi standing on the ground.

“I never thought I’d meet you here! I see what the humans mean by the phrase ‘small world’,” the bat-pony giggled as she hugged Rainbow Dash vigorously.

“Wow, very friendly…” Ethan mused as he looked on at the strange sight of the dark-blue, indigo-maned, and more importantly bat-winged Pegasus hugging Rainbow Dash as if she had found a long-lost sister.


“OK, Ok sister. First of all let’s respect the personal space,” Rainbow Dash groaned as she wriggled out of the bat-pony’s embrace. “Second of all, introduction please, because I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to want me or him calling you ‘bat-pony’ for the next however long we’re sitting here.”

The bat-pony quickly composed herself as she thought for a few moments on how to introduce herself. “Oh yes, I’m sorry. My parents always said I was a bit… clingy, I guess a good word in Equish would be. Anyway my name is Zmeură Spirală.”

The two other Pegasi just looked at each other with a look of mild confusion.

“Oh I’m sorry, that’s how I would say my name back in Romaneia. Sometimes I slip back into my native language. A good translation for it would be… Raspberry Spiral… though Raspberry Swirl is more cute, don’t you think?” the bat-pony said, never seeming to cease grinning the entire time.

“So, Raspberry Swirl, I’d assume?” Ethan asked, as he looked at the dark-blue, and more importantly, cutie-mark-less bat-pony mare.

“Strange name for someone so… blue. Literally…” Rainbow Dash asked, as she cocked her head at the apparently oddly-named mare.

“Oh dear. I was told that this charm would always work even when I wasn’t doing my job,” Raspberry groaned as she took the small crescent-moon charm off her neck. When she did, her coat immediately changed from dark-blue to a rich raspberry red, as well as her flanks being adorned with cartoonish raspberry braid pastries).

Ethan nodded in apparent acknowledgement. “Ok, now the name makes more sense… though it’s funny your mane is still indigo.”

“Anyway, why were you squeezing me like a fangirl or something?” Rainbow Dash asked of the now red bat-pony.

“To be honest, I kinda am. I was inspired to join the volunteer ‘Air Repair’ Corps when I heard that you, as an Element of Harmony, were helping out here on Earth!” Raspberry replied.

“OH! I totally forgot!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, as she suddenly realized why she hadn’t seen one bat-pony working in any of the Bureaus.

“What did you forget, Rainbow?” Ethan asked.

“OK, I get why she’s here. She helps clean up the air around the bureaus and other places during dusk and dawn, and the charms help them blend in with the night-sky so that they are more or less invisible to anyone that might be living along the edges of the city,” Rainbow Dash explained.

“Makes sense. I mean I guess people would be nervous if they knew Pegasi, bat or bird-winged, were flying overhead all the time,” Ethan reasoned aloud.

“Ohh, this is a nice looking building,” Raspberry mentioned, as she oohed and ahhed at just how big it was, at least from her perspective.

“Well, it’s gonna be where we’re staying at for the foreseeable future,” Rainbow Dash mentioned off-hand, which was apparently news to Ethan.

“So wait we’re gonna be staying in this big dormitory building for now?”

“Yeah, apparently it was built just for us, though at a human-compatible scale should we ever get to a point where we can have normal-sized people over,” Rainbow Dash continued to explain, as she nodded sagely.

“I guess… So um… when is our first lesson?” Ethan asked as he hovered in the air and looked through the small windows in the double-doors.

“Later on today, if you’re up for it!” Rainbow Dash answered with a confident smile.


=== --- ===


"Man Twilight, there has to be a better way than this for moving all your material," Ethan remarked, as he and Andre both pulled a ‘small’ cart piled high with books, binders, and all manners of bound and unbound papers. He was still astonished by the sheer volume of printed paper he was looking at. In fact everyone except Twilight and Dash were trying to figure out just how and where she kept everything back in Equestria.

"Yeah, I guess… I'll have to ask Princess Luna about that sometime. Anyway, you're looking pretty chipper in that new body of yours," Twilight responded before redirecting the conversation to the subject at hand.

Ethan was indeed feeling pretty good in his new Pegasus body. "Truth be told, I feel like I could just take off right now like a rocket. I never felt this energized about, well anything; except for spending lots of alone time with Natasha." He looked lovingly at his beau while perched on and already halved pile of books.

"Down boy, or I might have Dr. Jun deal with you somehow," Natasha said half-jokingly. Truth be told, as far as she thought, being around her live-wire of a boyfriend was making her feel better about her own internal dilemmas.


        As the mock-fight between the Ponified Ethan and still-Human Natasha continued, Kyoko just sat in one of the many couches to herself. Andre trotted over to join her, to see maybe if he could lend a helping hoof.

Andre, however, was just as unsure as ever when approaching Kyoko about anything truly personal. "Um, Kyoko, mind telling me what's up?"

Kyoko could easily read the Pony's nervousness, but she really didn't know how to respond herself. "Well… I dunno. I mean all of this is kinda happening suddenly. I mean it's only been… I think five months since Celestia's speech… and already half of us are Ponies; and by the looks of things, it won't be long until I'm the only Human left of our group."

I dunno who is going through more internal drama, Natasha trying to figure out what to do with Ethan, or Kyoko trying to figure out what to do with herself… Andre thought to himself as he watched the Drones move in more personal items and supplies into the dormitories.


=====

        After getting the terminal set up again, everyone sat as Rainbow Dash began the lesson, or at least tried to.

        "Alright Ethan, since I am your new personal flight instructor, let’s figure what exactly your capabilities are," Rainbow Dash said, brimming with outward confidence, which was in stark contrast to her internal consternation.

Just how am I supposed to ‘teach’ what most Pegasi feel naturally… she thought to herself.

What has Princess Celestia gotten me into… Ethan could only think to himself, not wanting to say anything aloud to insult her or Twilight Sparkle regarding Princess Celestia.

Dash continued, "OK then. I know the Bureau tutors showed you the very bare basics of flight, so I need to show you how to really stretch those new wings of yours."

With that, Rainbow Dash stretched her wings, and began to flap and climbed to about ten feet off the ground. Ethan then did the same, a bit wobbly since he hadn’t done any flight exercises in a couple of days, but he climbed the ten feet.

At least he's better than Fluttershy when she started, then again almost everyone was… Rainbow Dash said to herself inwardly.

She then said, "Ok Ethan, we're going to do some basic flight patterns, just follow my lead. I know you have good flight instincts for your airplanes, we just have to translate that to your Pegasus body."

Ethan replied, now more stable in the air, "Yes Ma'am, Miss Dash!"

Ugh, I am not gonna get used to that… Makes me feel like an old mare… Rainbow Dash thought, clearly not used to the ingrained military formality.

They began what seemed to be a fairly basic flight pattern. Rainbow Dash and Ethan flew at varying elevations in an oval about 300 meters across at its widest; Andre figured that Rainbow Dash had probably internalized the dimensions of an old sports stadium or some such.

Rainbow Dash was all the time shouting encouragement to Ethan, impressed that a Newfoal could fly this well a week and a half or so fresh off the bed. "Hey man you're a natural at this. You're managing to follow my flight path pretty well." They were about 150 ft in the air now.

Ethan replied, "Just following orders…"

Wanting to see just how far she could push her Newfoal student, Rainbow Dash mused aloud with a smirk. "Alright then fly-boy, let's try something a little more complicated!"

She then broke the spiral pattern and began flying over the forest … along a totally random course. She was twisting and corkscrewing all over the place - pretty much being a one-mare stunt pilot show.

Ethan, thought to himself. What… I never learned how to do any of that…

He then had a flash of insight, almost as if something in his head just clicked on.


If she thinks she is going show me up on my first real day back in the air, she has another thing coming…


Ethan, purely on instinct, quickened his pace. If Rainbow Dash was going to be a stunt plane with all the corkscrews and twists, then he was going to be a fighter jet with hairpin turns and raw speed.


Which was not the best idea to picture yourself as when in the middle of a flight with Rainbow Dash…
 

Oh so that's how it's gonna be newbie? Well if it's a dog-fight you want then it's a dogfight you're gonna get…


Andre sat on the ground, trying his best to follow the cyan and gold-yellow blurs in the air, resorting to having to look at the monitors and the feeds from the high-fidelity cameras all over the property. That’s when he noticed some familiar music being played over Kyoko’s personal portable terminal.

“Really Kyoko?” Andre asked with a rather palpable sense of incredulousness.

“Oh come on, it totally fits, right?” Kyoko replied, obviously ignoring the tension in Andre’s voice.

Andre just sighed as he continued to watch.

I really hope Rainbow Dash can keep from doing anything dumb. Ethan might have natural flight instincts, but he’s still only a week and a day into being a Pegasus proper… Twilight thought to herself as she tried her best now to show any outward anxiety.


"See, I told you the cameras planted all around the back of the property were a good idea," Dr. Jun stated, greatly amused at the antics of the two Pegasi.



        Rainbow Dash broke off her seemingly random flight pattern and began to engage in a ‘playful’ chase of Ethan. Ethan was wondering if Rainbow Dash had lost her damn mind, and was trying to hunt him down like he stole something from her. They were easily a several hundred feet in the air; Ethan, for being a Pegasus for all of eight days, was seemingly getting quite adapted to everything below him looking incredibly tiny. They continued the mock dogfight for quite some time; Ethan having already broke off his pattern, and was the one trailing Rainbow Dash. Well at least he was attempting to trail her, now starting to look like a cyan-and-rainbow-striped blur.

Oh she thinks she's going to get away from me…

The flight instincts had taken them both over entirely. Ethan was finding gears he never knew existed in any living thing, let alone something that could take to the air. They were easily going in excess of 270 mph now, and he was looking like a gold streak with platinum-blonde trim to match Dash's cyan-and-rainbow colored blur. The observers on the ground had completely lost visual contact with them, the haze of the upper atmosphere obscuring sight. They were a good thousand feet above ground level now, Ethan only now noticing because of the drop in temperature, and the thinning oxygen… which was a problem.

"Hey Dash, don't you think we oughtta break this off. I mean we are getting really high up and you couldn't have gone this high before, trying to clear the smog and whatnot," Ethan yelled out.

Rainbow Dash, now totally in the groove of the dogfight, was clearly having none of this 'slow-down' talk. "Slow down so you could catch me? … In your dreams!"

Ethan's wings were growing tired and his normal Pegasus mana reserve depleting. As much as a natural as he was in his head and heart, his body was in no way used to this kind of stress; and the pollution wasn't making it any easier. He was thankful that Rainbow Dash had begun to slow down, thinking he could finally run her down and they can get back to 'base'.

"Hey Dash, let's go ahead and get back to base, I think we've done enough for now, and this smog is starting to sting my eyes…"

Dash didn't say anything… and she was slowing down a lot more.

"Hey Dash, ok seriously I think we need to turn back, this air is way too thin for me and this smog is way too much for you," He yelled, the obvious concern in his face.

"Can't… breathe… too… thick…" Dash barely managed out get out before blacking out from the lack of oxygen and possible poisoning.

Oh God oh God oh God, this is not happening… not on my first day… Ethan thought to himself, but Rainbow Dash had already begun to go into free-fall. Her body had completely given itself over to gravity, and gravity would be a true bitch to run down.

Ethan then began to fly straight down, trying his best to catch up to the plummeting Rainbow Dash, completely unconscious and unable to slow her own descent.

NO NO NO, I AM NOT ABOUT TO LET MY TEACHER DIE HER FIRST DAY ON THE JOB! he yelled in his own head.

They were already down to 800 ft. above ground level, before a gold-colored Magic Circle appeared about his waist. He was so focused on catching his teacher he didn't even notice the hurricane-shaped medallion was around his neck, his only thought was trying to break Rainbow Dash's fall. But he was losing the race against gravity, and starting to lose it badly…

Oh my God I'm not gonna make it… no… NO… I gotta try, gotta push faster, faster… FASTER!


He reached deep within himself, looking for anything that could propel him faster. He got his wish, as the Terran Element of Wind activated, and propelled him straight down like a rocket pointing the wrong way. He had managed to catch up her somewhat, but now they were only 600 ft. above the ground.

Just a little more… please… I gotta catch her…


He did indeed finally catch her. He reached out his forelegs and grasped her as tight as he could manage.

Ok I caught her… but how the hell do I stop?!


He was only 75 ft. above the ground, the gigantic golden contrail giving some idea to Twilight and Andre needed to be as they began running to wherever they could be guess they'd land; hopefully not finding an impact crater when they arrived.

Damnit damnit damnit… how do I stop, how do I stop… Ethan was in a panic and running out of time. He had to find some way to stop both of them without necessarily killing each other. Then he had yet another flash of inspiration. He turned around so that Rainbow Dash would be facing up and out while he faced down.

God, Celestia, someone, please, help me make this work! He prayed as concentrated as hard as he could. He didn't notice Rainbow Dash's Element of Loyalty manifesting at the same time he charged up his Element of Wind.

All anyone could see after was a mixed red and golden flash, and a burst of wind from all directions where the two should have landed.


"Was that a bomb that just went off?! And why is my Element of Water on my neck without me… summoning it or whatever!?" Andre yelled, trying his best to keep up with Twilight’s flash-step-like teleporting.

"I could hear and feel that" Twilight said, her Element of Magic resonating with the sudden outburst of magic.

Suddenly they felt the air-burst from the apparent explosion, and Twilight quickly threw up a shield to protect herself and Andre from the debris and the strong gusts. 

"Well that answers where they landed! Let's hope that they are still in one piece!" Twilight shouted, feeling where the epicenter of the magic burst was. She grabbed Andre by the foreleg and teleported straight to where she felt said epicenter.


        What they found were two Pegasi on top of each other. Both were unconscious, but alive, and still in one piece. The forest around them though, definitely had seen better days. Everything around them for about 50 meters out was blown down completely flat, as if, like Andre figured, a bomb had gone off either ground level or close to it. Twilight walked over, and saw what the cause of this magical explosion most likely was. Both the Elements of Wind and Loyalty had manifested for their respective users, and glowing like they had recently been used. Twilight nor Andre could figure just what happened, other than gigantic contrail of magic and then a sudden explosion.

"Wha… what… happened? How… are we on… the ground?" Rainbow Dash barely managed to stammer out, the combination of nausea and mana depletion making it hard for her to speak.

"You're safely on the ground, more or less, Dash," Twilight responded.

Ethan himself was coming to a bit, "Are we… alive?"

Andre walked up to him and just hugged him as best he could, "Yeah man, both of you. I have no idea how you did it, but you did it."

The heartwarming moment was unfortunately interrupted by the sound of a certain cyan Pegasus throwing up off to the side.

"Well that just ruined the moment…" Twilight said, a bit miffed the heartwarming reunion had to be interrupted.

"Well… by the sound of that… I guess that's everyone… good night." Ethan passed out again, the sudden manifestation of his Terran Element of Wind and the near-death experience rendering him completely spent for energy.

"I… need a nap too… night night…" Rainbow Dash said wearily, passing out for similar reasons.



=== --- ===





        Late that evening, Natasha walked into Ethan's room, to check in on her big (or little?) Pony hero. Somehow he had managed to stop his and Rainbow Dash's free-fall with little to no injury to either. No one could really figure out why without tracing out the mana patterns, and only Twilight and the Princesses could manage that, as far as anyone at the Clinic knew. Ethan was just glad all he had to deal with exhaustion, something that could be solved with lots of laying on his bed, and watching some random programming. The only problem was, he couldn't find a damn thing worth watching.

"Ugh T.V. today is so trite. I mean you don't have real actors anymore so I guess it's 'Try random shit until more than 100,000 people decide to watch it',” Ethan said, obviously chafing under the fact that he had nothing to relax with.

"Well why do I just put it on some old music, you probably should be getting to sleep anyway. After what happened I'm surprised you aren't still passed out," Natasha said, trying to get him to relax again; Natasha found it way easier to tell when he was stressed now that he was a Pony.

"Yeah, that'd be great. Anyway how is R.D. doing?" Ethan asked, as he set the holo-display on some atmospheric music.

"R.D.? Oh Rainbow Dash… only a day into being taught by her, and you're already using abbreviations?” Natasha started as she giggled a bit. “Anyway, yeah, she only had nausea from what she breathed in, but given how far up in the air you were that was enough for her to black out and fall like that apparently

She then thought back to something Kyoko said to her a little while after Ethan came out of the exam room post-Conversion…

Ponies really, really like to be brushed, just like real horses. When it looks like he's getting stressed out, just offer to brush him some. Trust me it, it really calms them down.

"Man your fur and mane are all messed up, why don't you let me do something about that?" Natasha said, reaching for Ethan's fur and mane brush on his desk. It had a strap for wrapping around his hoof, not that Natasha needed it necessarily.

"Yeah sure ok, just don't go trying to mess around with my mane too much, I hadn't decided on a style for it yet…" Ethan said, not noticing the devious looking smirk on Natasha's face.

She said silently to herself, Oh I am going to really enjoy this…


As soon as she put the brush to his back, Ethan quickly realized what he was in for. He felt charge go through his entire body. It was something he had hardly ever felt unless they were being particularly frisky or he had just eaten a giant meal back at the Bureau.

Oh God… all over… I… ahhh… he thought to himself, his brain hardly able to form coherent thought.

As she continued along his sides and belly, he was starting to feel a lot more relaxed, almost as if he was going into some kind of pleasure-induced trance.

So good… oh God… she does it so well… he thought, he never felt like this when he was brushing himself. Sure it felt good, but nowhere near the scale of what Natasha doing to him right now.

When she started brushing along his back, he yelped in a rather un-masculine way, and his wings flared out like he was about to take off right then and there. Natasha was briefly startled, but then remembered what some of the brochures that she got second hand from Ethan said about Pegasi:

When Pegasi are sufficiently emotionally stimulated; be it by sexual arousal, pleasure, anxiety, or fear - they tend to involuntarily stretch out their wings. This is part of normal fight or flight response, just in case the Pegasus has to fly away to escape danger.

"S-S-Sorry. But… it felt so good… I couldn't help it…" Ethan said sheepishly; he didn't want Natasha to stop though, it truly felt quite well.

"Oh don't worry… now shall we continue?" Natasha asked, relishing the opportunity to relax Ethan and let him forget all the troubles of the day and in general.

"Yes… yes please…," he said. He was still in a bit of a haze mentally, his normal bravado replaced by a quiet, almost mouse-like demeanor. She sat back down on the bed, and returned to brushing Ethan along his back. Ethan lowered his head on the covers, letting Natasha go along the entire length of his spine. It felt simply divine to him, he just wanted her to go and on and on until he fell asleep. She continued on brushing; neck, back, tail, head.

Rainbow Dash was walking by when she heard the goings on. She was quiet and tried to hide as much of her mane as she could as she peeked past the gap in the door.

She saw Ethan entirely oblivious to the world around him, neck in Natasha's lap, his mind just wanting to soak in the good feelings from the grooming until he dozed off. As she walked off to leave the two lovebirds alone, she thought to herself.

I wonder if Spitfire and Soarin do that to each other… oh what am I thinking, they aren't even an item… are they?



~~ ====== ~~



An eventful day, my new little Pony?


Yes Princess Celestia, about as eventful as I can stand right now honestly.


Heh, I see. Well let me ask you this, Mr. Ethan. Have you considered your Equestrian name?


Hrm… I have… I think I got one that suits me just right.


I would like to hear it then.


Golden Storm, I want to be known as Golden Storm when I get to Equestria.


Alright then, Ethan, your new moniker is 'Golden Storm'. I wish you good tidings, my little Pony.


I wonder how long it's gonna take for me to get used to being called that…