Carousel Boutique, 12:30 am
Rarity placed her glass on the sink, planing on washing it in the morning. She casually looked out her window, Luna's night as radiant and inspiring as ever. "Perhaps I should make a line of night time inspired evening wear?"
Caught in though at her newest line, she almost didn't see it. Something moved just out the corner of her eye. Her full attention on the scene outside, she scanned the tree line. There it was again, a figure flying just above the trees, like it didn't want to be seen.
"It's probably just some pegasus out for a midnight flight." Rarity thought to herself. And yet, something still compelled her to take a second look. The, whatever it was, didn't seem to be flying in a strait line, more of an erratic zig-zag.
Knock knock
Rarity almost jumped out of her hooves at the unexpected noise. Perplexed both as to who would be knocking at this time of night, and to the identity of the flier; Rarity trotted to the front of her house/store.
Upon opening her door she was greeted to a mass of rainbow colored mane.the mane rose up to reveal a light blue coated mare.
"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity exclaimed, "You look dreadful." Indeed Rainbow was grabbing her stomach with her hoof and had a look of pain on her face. She was wearing a hastily thrown-on, purple bathrobe. "What happened? What hurt you? Why are you here?" the white unicorn ran off some of many questions that had been filling her head.
"Rare, calm down." The blue pegasus said, "I thought I saw something flying around here, I tried following it, but I lost it when it entered the trees. And this," she gestured to her abdomen, "hurts a lot more than I thought it would."
Rarity helped move Rainbow inside the boutique, and set her down on her fainting couch, before running to her bathroom to grab a first aid kit.
Half a minute later
Rarity came back downstairs with the first aid kit in her magic. Had she stayed up a few seconds longer, she might have heard the sound of a pair of hooves land on her roof.
"Okay, where did you say you got hurt?" Rarity asked.
"Uh, here." Rainbow said with a slight strain in her voice, she pointed with her hoof toward her barrel. Rarity gasped at what she saw. There was a ring of slightly burned flesh and fur around her entire midsection. The bandages that had been put on just that afternoon had been burned black at the edge that was over the seared part of her body.
"Rainbow! What happened? Did anyponyelse get hurt?" Rarity was spouting off questions almost as soon as they entered her mind.
"Woah, Rarity, calm down." Rainbow tried to comfort her friend, until...
"Shh." Rainbow put her hoof to Rarity's mouth to try and silence her, to little effect. "Rarity, Quiet, I thought I heard something upstairs." As if to prove her point, hoofsteps could then be heard from the floor above them, slow, hard, and uneven. Rainbow turned to the purple maned fashionista, who was now perfectly quiet, and gestured for her to follow her.
The two mares began to quietly climb the stair case to the upper floor. Upon reaching the top, Rainbow did a quick check of the area, nothing. She began to make her way to the first room on her left (the room Sweetie belle used when she stayed over) when she was struck with another shot of pain from her burn.
"Hold on darling, I've got you." Rarity moved herself so the blue pegasus could lean against her. Unfortunately, that action and outburst drew the attention of the hoofstep's owner.
Out from the upstairs storage room, came the second most disgusting pony Rarity had ever seen. It was pale grey in color, with no fur or tail to be seen. It's cutie mark appeared to be some symbol that she didn't recognize, and it wore a white loin cloth on it's flank. It's face resembled a bat it had a small patch of white mane on the top of it's head, between two large bat ears. The most striking thing about it was, instead of forelegs, it had two large leathery wings, and it was walking on some sort of claw at wing's joint.
"Well," it said in a voice leathery enough to match it's wings, "what interesting prey I've found." The bat-thing began creeping towards them, tiny, razor teeth could be seen inside it's mouth.
"Rarity, get behind me." Rainbow Dash positioned herself in front of the ivory mare, her wings spread in a defensive posture.
"Rainbow, Darling, you can't! Your injured!" The vampiric kaijin's eyes trailed to the blue pegasi's flank. Indeed, the mare was injured, the thought of exploiting those injures made it's mouth water; however, something familiar about the marks in her fur made the creature hesitate.
Rainbow chuckled to herself, "Don't worry Rar's, I've got it all under control." As she said that, her wing tips moved so that they were directly under her midsection. Suddenly, her midsection began to glow, and a large silvery belt appeared out of her burns.
The bat creature, recognizing the belt immediately, retreated a few steps. This mare, this wounded, weak, pathetic mare, had somehow become what all Grongi feared, hated, and despised. "Kuuga," it said with no small amount of loathing.
Rainbow chuckled, "That's what he called himself, guess it's only fair I bare the name as well. Kamen Rider, Kuuga." She began to slowly walk toward the kaijin, a single word escaping her lips, "Henshin."
With each step she took, her hooves seemed to dissolve, like a reflection on a pond; only for a set of gold hooflets to appear. Her torso then also rippled, leaving a large white breastplate with a gold collar. Her wings received a white guard piece over the "arm" of each wing. Finally, a gold crown with three small prongs formed over her eyes, which were then covered by a pair of red goggles. Her transformation complete, Rainbow Dash immediately launched into a wing assisted punch.
The Grongi, on guard the moment she began her transformation, raised it's wing to block her attack. Rainbow used her momentum to launch a high kick to her opponent's jaw. The Kaijin staggered back, stunned, before lunging forward. Rainbow tried dodging it's claws, however the limited space in the hallway made that difficult. So she instead found herself getting pushed backward while also knocking into the walls.
Rarity had gotten over the shock of there being a monster in her house, and that her friend had just grown a suit of armor. So she was able to fully register the fact that two ponies were inadvertently destroying her hallway.
"Rainbow, do you think you could take the fight outside?" she said as another photo fell off the wall.
"Trust me, that's exactly what I'm trying to do." Rainbow's armor absorbed the majority of the bat's attacks, however she was still getting beat up pretty badly. Rainbow began reaching out with her hooves, most of her attacks missing their mark, save for a jab at the kaijin's chest which knocked the wind out of it. "Back downstairs, now!" Rainbow shouted.
Both mares made a hasty retreat back to the lower level. The Kaijin followed suite moments later, spewing curses in a language neither of them understood.
"Okay, round two." Rainbow taunted before launching herself into the air. The Grongi saw the attack coming and sidestepped her attack. Rainbow landed, and was about to spin into the pony equivalent of a roundhouse kick, when she felt a hot pain on her cheek.
The Grongi licked Rainbow's blood off it's claw before turning it's attention to the easier meal in the room. It reared onto it's hind limbs and began flying toward the unicorn, teeth bared. It was suddenly tackled from behind by the Rider.
Rainbow dragged it to the ground, grappled with it for a few moments, "Celestia, this guy stinks." and then launched it off her hooves, and into one of the shop windows.
The kaijin rose off the ground, bloody and tired. "You fight well, Pony. Unfortunately, neither of you will be able to inform your friends of your success." The bat spread it's wings and launched at the mares. Rainbow shifted her weight onto her front hooves, and rotated her flank forward so her left hind leg was stretched outward. Although she didn't try to, she felt energy start to collect in her hoof. When the Kaijin's face collided with Rainbow's roundhouse, the kaijin felt a burning sensation where the mare had kicked him. Milliseconds after the collision, the Kaijin burst into an explosion of flames.
Rainbow and Rarity stood there, dumbfounded at what just happened. Rainbow might have made a bad joke if she didn't suddenly feel like she had been hit by a train. The blue mare collapsed, her armor dissolving around her, and was only saved from falling on her face by the mare who's life she just saved.
Rarity carried her savior upstairs to her bedroom, intending to, once again, nurse her wounds. However, the ivory mare also fell victim to the clutches of exhaustion, and passed out next to Rainbow Dash.
With both mares out, no one saw the pair of golden eyes watching the two of them from the window. "Well Dash," a green figure thought to them self, "you certainly haven't lost your fire. And as for you," she looked at Rarity, who had somehow snuggled under Rainbow's bruised wing and was using it as a blanket, "you've been marked. I'd suggest you watch out, you never know when enemies might be watching." The figure then vanished, leaving the mares to their rest.