After pulling himself up onto the cloud with ease, Marcus chuckles as Rainbow Dash gloated about her win. He takes the time to look around, noticing that her house is much bigger than what he remember'd from the show, and notices that there were a couple rainbow fountains around the outside.
"Go figure..." He thought as he walked up to the liquid rainbow. Before he could even kneel, Rainbow spoke up.
"Um.. I wouldn't taste that if I were you, dude. It's pretty spicy." She warned while smirking. Marcus raised an eyebrow and chuckled.
"Really, eh? I'll be the judge of that.." And with that, he cupped his hand and put it under the rainbow fountain, it felt smooth, thinner than, but still somewhat thicker and a bit heavier than water. As he filled his hand, he looked back at Dash, with a look on her face that said 'Are you REALLY this stupid?...'.
"Surley you can't be serious.. I mean, don't you know how HOT pure rainbow is?..." She said hesitantly for some reason.
"I'm serious." Marcus said as he was about to put his cupped hand to his mouth. He stopped mid way and smirked at Dash "And don't call me Shirley."
Marcus then put his hand onto his mouth and drank the rainbow. The first thought that came to him was that, although it was pretty spicy, it had a somewhat sweet flavor. Like the chili-lime Mexican candy powder he ate as a kid. He concluded it was no spicier than a bottle of Tabasco sauce, but still tried not to cough and prove Dash right.
"Hmm.. you were right, it's pretty hot. But nowhere NEAR as hot as a Ghost Pepper." Marcus said with a maniacal grin, which made Dash raise an eyebrow.
"A Ghost Pepper? What's that? I mean, I know what a pepper is, durh, but what does it look like?" She asked.
Marcus internally chuckled "Just be careful next time you eat soup..." Rainbow tilted her head a bit, then looked at him with an unamused expression.
"Yeah, whatever. Let's go inside my house so I can show you where you sleep." She started towards the door. Marcus followed behind her as she opened the door and spoke.
"Welp! Here it is, my radical, huge, awesome house!" She gloated. Marcus was about to retort until he looked around. For starters it was pretty huge, to the point where it could be considered a mansion of sorts. And there were several areas, like your regular kitchen, living room, ect. It also had similar designs someone would see in Greek arcitechture He also noticed a cloud staircase, which was probably where the bathroom was at. The room that caught his attention most was a room filled with weights, pull-up bars, benches for, well, benchpressing, a hanged punching bag, and other exersizing equipment.
Rainbow saw the look in his eyes and smirked "Yeah, it's called a 'work-out' room." She said sarcastically "I'm also a black-belt in karate."
Marcus turned his attention back to her "Really? Nice. How often do you work out?"
Rainbow grinned "Enough to beat you at a hoof-wrestle.." She stated while flexing her right forearm and kissing it.
Marcus laughed. He wasn't gonna lie, she did look pretty strong and a good muscle tone to be considered just right for anyone, and she even looked a lot stronger than Jackson, but being a Marine and living in the ghetto has its perks "Oh really? You wanna go?" He challenged her feircefully, pulling up his right shirt sleeve to reveal his arm. His arm wasn't overly-muscular, but it would make Hulk Hogan give him a pat on the back.
Rainbow's grin and confidence grew "Bring it on.." She stated, accepting the challenge and forcefully slamming her left hoof into the cloud floor. The Marine and Pegasus walked towards the kitchen table and sat down. Rainbow cracked her neck side to side as she put her right forehoof on the middle of the table. Marcus cracked his knuckles loudly and shook his right arm. He then lifted it onto the table and put his hand on her hoof.
"Best two outta three?" Marcus asked.
"Yeah.. you're gonna need it." Rainbow said as she started counting down.
"Three..."
"Two.." Marcus drummed his fingers on Rainbow's hoof.
"One!" She shouted. Marcus was in a state of shock when he felt the full-blown strenght of the rainbow-mained Pegasus hit his arm. He was momenterally fazed before he could recover. It was too late, though. His hand hit the table in no less than two seconds.
"Yeah! See? I warned ya!" She gloated "Ready for the final round? Cause I am!"
Marcus nodded. Since he now knows the strenght Rainbow posseses, he now knew how to win easily.
"Three..." She counted down again.
"Two..."
"One!" She shouted again. Marcus put every fiber of his strenght into his right arm, he could feel the energy radiate before him. And it payed off, he was happily grinning as he heard the sound of a hoof hit the table hard and fast, in 1.5 seconds, but it was immediatley wiped away by a feeling of worry "Oh shit... did I put too much strenght?" He opened his eyes hesitantly to look at Rainbow.
Instead of seeing a face of pain, he saw a face of shock and awe. His worry faded quickly as his grin returned back in full-swing.
"You were saying?" He said. Rainbow glared at him and shook her head.
"I never said I'd stop at a tie. Last one wins all."
Marcus nodded as they readjusted themselves. They both now knew each other's strength and both had a similar idea.
"Three.." They said together.
"Two..."
"ONE!" They both gave every bit of strength they had. Rainbow felt like her hoof was made of iron and had a grip like one. Unfortunately, so did Marcus' grip.
After about seven minutes of teetering and tottering, Marcus finally heard the tip of her hoof touch the cloud table. He let go and sighed loudly in relief. He won, but only within milliseconds of getting his hand compressed like he stuck out his arm in the Mariana Trench.
"I...OW.. gotta say... you'd beat Jackson.. OOOWW... any day... ugh.." Marcus said,as he straightened out his hand.
"Thanks.. about time I meet somepony who stood a chance.." Rainbow said
"... and won." Marcus added, grinning like he got a gold medal.
"I hate losing.. and I hate you." She said bitterly. They looked at each other for a second until they laughed it up and walked to the living room.
"Okay, it's getting pretty late. You can sleep on the couch.. or anywhere really. It IS a cloud house." Rainbow said. Marcus nodded as he jumped face-first onto the cloud and stayed still.
He heard Rainbow chuckle, then let out a long yawn that he could've sworn sounded like Pikachu.
"Alright.. I'm beat. Night Hunter." She said. Marcus made a 'peace' symbol, not wanting to get up from his position. Rainbow chuckled again as she flew upstairs to her room. After a couple of minutes, Marcus was fast asleep, in a dream where he was walking through a park he used to go as a kid.
"If adorablness could kill, her yawn would've given me a heart attack.. wait, what?.." He then heard a cold, familiar, female voice echo around him..Almost non-human...
"We meet again, Sergeant Marcus.."
Almost...