My Little Pony: Friendship has a Dark Side.

Raiden was awake. He had been awake for about seven minutes, but didn't show it. He kept his eyes closed but the light from outside his his eyelids his vision anyway. He felt he had time to rest, so he used that time to regain his energy. But it took him the seven minutes of being awake to realize that just lying here(wherever "here" was) wasn't going to help him any. His recollection of what happened before he was unconscious was fuzzy but good enough to know the first order of business: figuring out where he was.

Raiden slowly rose from his bed. From the softness he felt while lying down, it was clear he was in a bed. He had to use most of his willpower to force his eyes open. He immediately tried to direct his gaze away from the light from a lamp, but he was too slow, and had to wait for his vision to be cleared. Once he could see again he scanned his surroundings.

He was clearly in some sort of hospital, and it was pretty much what anybody would expect a hospital room to look like: lamp light overhead, heart beat monitors, medical supplies, a big window next to his bed, you know, basic. But, much like the village he woke up in, it was too colorf-

A bit of a ping went off in Raiden's head; the village he woke up in! He still had no idea where he was! Could he have been on a part of the world nobody knew about? He's experienced inter-dimensional travel before. Is it possible that he was in another world? Well whatever happened, he needed to get to know his surroundings to figure it out. But to do that he needed to get out of this bed and, for that matter, out of this hospital. The ladder might be a chore, but he's gone through worse.

Raiden slowly got up from his bed and walked towards the door, but stopped. He didn't want to be seen exiting the hospital. No doubt there would be those that would tell him to go back to his bed and let his wounds heal(which, he admitted, might be a good idea, but the faster he got to know his surroundings, the better). Raiden didn't want anyone to get in his way. If anyone did, he would either be made to go back to his bed, or do something stupid and have his actions look like an escape, which would unsettle some of the other patients and make getting out of here a massive pain in the neck. The door was a bad idea.

Raiden looked around for another potential exit and his eyes settled on the nearby window. Raiden hesitated. A jump wasn't exactly the best idea either, but then he remembered that he had survived some pretty harsh falls before. Not only that, but he had no other options. The window would have to do for now.

Raiden walked over to the window and opened it up. He took in his surroundings; the town he landed in was across a fairly big gap connected by a bridge. It was walking distance away and he could definitely make it there. He realized what the tough part was when he looked down. He was at least 4 stories up. Though he had fallen from much higher heights before, his wound had drained much of his abilities. There was no way he could make this jump all on his own. Raiden had to think. How could he get down there safely?

"Derpy! What are you doing!?"

Raiden jumped at the scream he heard behind him, coming from some tomboyish voice. He was impressed by the fact that someone could scream so loudly, and that voice sounded pissed. He took another look out the window.

His eyes fell on two...pegasi. He remembered seeing some pegasi when he woke up in the town. The first he saw was a cyan shade and had a rainbow mane and tail. Rainbow? How unusual. She also had a mark on her flank that looked like a cloud producing a rainbow colored lightning bolt. What was this ones deal with rainbows? She had magenta colored eyes, but they were almost red in annoyance.

The second Pegasus had a less flashy appearance. Most of its color was gray with a blonde tail and mane. The mark on her flank was a few bubbles, and he had no idea what to make of that. But the most distracting part of her was her eyes; this Pegasus was cross-eyed. Normally Raiden would ignore this. Some people were cross-eyed. It sadly happens. But everyone in this world seemed to have unusually big eyes, so even from a distance they stuck out like a sore thumb. This Pegasus had a frightened yet confused look on her face.

Raiden eavesdropped on them as they continued to talk. The angry one - the one apparently in love with rainbows - continued to speak. "Derpy, you are going in the completely wrong direction! Do you want to set off lightning and thunder right in front of a hospital!?"

"Sorry, Rainbow Dash," said the blonde one - Derpy, he noted. "I just don't know what went wrong."

"Rainbow Dash, huh?" thought Raiden. "Well, aren't you subtle."

The cyan Pegasus - Rainbow Dash - started to calm her nerves, though she still looked a bit annoyed. "Yeah, it's a mystery," said Rainbow Dash. "Anyway, bring this cloud southeast this time, and try not to screw it up."

Derpy gave a solute before moving the cloud southeast. Wait a minute, they could move clouds!?" Raiden made a note of that. Any information he could find would likely prove useful.

An idea suddenly struck him. Raiden had walked on clouds before. He had learned to work with the winds at a very young age. Sure enough, that grey Pegasus was moving the cloud fairly close to the ground. Low enough for a safe landing.

Raiden was leaning a bit out the window. This was a dangerous stunt, and he had to time it carefully. He watched the Pegasus get closer...

Closer...

Closer...

NOW!

Raiden leaned his hands against the window sill and flipped out the window before dropping onto the cloud. Derpy squeaked in surprise and was so startled that she fell to the ground. She looked up at Raiden with wide eyes.

Raiden gave a mock smile. "Thanks for the cushion."

And then Raiden jumped off the cloud and ran for the small town

Rainbow Dash was just as surprised as Derpy, if not more so, but managed to stay in the air.

Wasn't that the...thing that appeared in Ponyville from a flash of lightning 3 weeks ago? After a couple of days, the whole village, including Rainbow Dash, had forgotten about it and went about their daily lives like it never happened. Well, except for Twilight, who just refused to let it go, the egghead.

But now that she saw it running around, she began to remember everything about that day. She also remembered that she had several questions about the creature. Questions that wanted answering. And this was the perfect time to have them answered. Rainbow Dash gave a command. "Derpy, keep getting that cloud to where it needs to be. And do. Not. Screw. It. Up." Derpy recovered from her initial shock, gave a salute and flew off with the cloud in hoof.

Rainbow Dash flew off after the surprisingly fast creature heading for Ponyville.

Raiden was not going as fast as he normally would.

This annoyed him. Raiden hated running any slower than his usual pace. But this stupid wound was still causing him pain, and it hurt way too much to run to fast. Luckily his practically limitless stamina seemed to be intact, likely due to his long sleep, but he was barely moving faster than any fairly fast car. It was a downright embarrassment, really. Usually he could have made his way to the...oddly...colorful...village in three seconds, easy. Though he was still moving fast, he felt like something could catch up to him at any moment.

"Wow! You move fast for somepony without wings."

...Case in point.

Raiden turned his head to find the cyan Pegasus called Rainbow Dash flying beside him. Just her body language showed that she could easily fly past him in his current state. Her speed might even be on par with Raiden's in good condition.

"But of course," continued Rainbow Dash, "I'm sorry to say that you could never be as fast as me." She kept a cocky grin on her face as she did a loop in mid-air. "The best flyer in all of Equestria: Me! Rainbow Dash!"

Raiden noted the apparent name of the land and thought "Equestria, huh? Again, how subtle. He spoke. "Is that so? Well, isn't this an honor."

Rainbow Dash continued to look smug from her ego being stroked. "I'm glad that you're honored. You'll be even more honored when I talk to you as an honorary Wonderbolt."

Raiden could barely stifle a laugh. "Wonderbolt? Really? Is that some kind of action figure?"

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened and she couldn't hide a gasp. "WHAT!?!?!? You don't know who the legendary Wonderbolts are!?!?!? The most elite of elite fliers in all of Equestria!?

Raiden scoffed. "Well, my fangirl senses are tingling. Kid, I don't even know my location, much less what a 'Wonderbolt' is supposed to be, or who you are. Leave me be."

But Rainbow Dash refused to let up and still had not recovered from her shock. "What about Daring Doo? Please tell me that you've heard of Daring Doo, the bravest, most adventurous pony in all of-"

Raiden began to get annoyed. "Kid! Look! I have things to figure out, and you're a distraction to me. Now take your Daring-dunce stories and leave me be."

Rainbow Dash's eyes widened and she immediately came to a halt. Raiden sighed in relief. She must have heeded my advice. Good, she really was getting annoying. Now I can-"

Wait a second.

Raiden stopped. He thought about something for a minute. Experience taught him that if unless he really pushed his words, nobody just simply stopped if he told them 'stop'. For anyone else, this would have been something to just shrug off. But not Raiden, who grew up in a world where one needed to be cautious about everything. He remembered how Rainbow Dash widened her eyes, but not in surprise. They seemed...angry.

Dammit! Raiden turned around to see one very angry cyan Pegasus flying toward her, hooves raised in a battering ram form. Raiden raised his arms in front of him, with just enough time to block the attack. Even so, it sent him sprawling across the ground a few feet.

Raiden got up slowly to see Rainbow Dash seething with rage. "If anypony insult Daring Doo," she started, with murderous intent practically pouring from her mouth, "That somepony insults me in the worst, and I mean the WORST way!!!"

Raiden was confused. Even for a fangirl she was overreacting. Nobody usually got this angry at a petty insult unless-

Raiden's eyes widened at a possible realization. He looked down at his wrists and, sure enough, his rings were gone.

"Ah, s**t!", Raiden thought. "Look kid - Rainbow Dash, was it - don't get this angry over nothing. I don't want to start something. If you just calm down, I-"

Clearly, Rainbow Dash wasn't willing to listen to reason. She flew high into the air and went into a speedy dive, leaving a rainbow trail behind her. Raiden dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack. Rainbow Dash then tried to punch Raiden in the face. Raiden easily dodged, but to his bad luck his battle instincts kicked in and he delivered a soaring uppercut to Rainbow Dash's chin, which sent her flying back several yards.

Raiden landed on the ground and realized his mistake. "I should not have done that."

Rainbow Dash was crouched over in a battle ready position. Steam flared from her nostrils. Her eyes looked feral. She was furious. Beyond furious. Her energy and rage were radiating from her body. Raiden needed to calm her down quickly.

But Raiden made the mistake of attacking Rainbow Dash with his rings off. Raiden's rings had an odd affect on people. If they were off, people's anger became uncontrollable. Piss them off a little, and they go on a rampage. Calming the Pegasus down was not going to be simple.

He had to subdue her first. Knock her out, then get his rings back. Raiden's eyes widened at the late realization that his rings were probably back at the hospital.

Raiden applied his palm to his face.

"I should have just stayed in bed".