The Rain Transformed

Raiden ran down the narrow dirt path, occasionally glancing at the peaceful scenery around him; the baby blue sky and its marshmallow clouds, the rolling green hills off in the distance, the clean fresh air and the warm sunshine. It was so surreal for Raiden to even be here.

The cyborg stopped sprinting all of a sudden, inspecting the scenery around him. Something felt wrong to him. He didn’t know why but he sensed a pair of eyes focused on him, watching his every move. The ninja looked to the distant hills and to the sky above. Nothing was there. Warily, Raiden began to walk down the dirt path to the village again; so as not to waste his energy by further sprinting.

“Where the hell am I?” Raiden mumbled as he idly watched his feet crunch the dirt below him. He waved his hand a few inches in front of his face.  A small, holographic menu appeared in front of the cyborg’s face. Raiden brought a finger to one of the visible buttons on the hologram and lightly tapped it. Making several beeping sounds, the small box expanded into a larger version of itself.

This was Raiden’s trusty codec, an advanced piece of communication equipment that allowed video calls, the use of a built in binocular, and other handy tools that usually benefited him on missions.

“Give me a map of the area,” Raiden spoke to the hologram. A line of text appeared on the screen: Area Unknown. The ninja growled in frustration, repeating the same command over and over again.

Area Unknown

Raiden deactivated the codec. It never gave him this problem in the past. Why now? The cyborg continued to walk down the dirt path, the distant village was getting closer and closer. However, he still felt as though he were being watched. Raiden glanced around the area, searching for anything suspicious.

‘How in the world did I get here?’ Raiden pondered. Last time he checked, he was in the concrete jungle of the city of Denver, tearing through the privatized cyborg police forces of World Marshall.

World Marshall…

Raiden remembered the towering headquarters of World Marshall HQ. He was battered and volatile. He remembered how Monsoon broke him and his code of honor. A code he used to shroud himself in a lie. And finally, he remembered Jack coming back…

A cold wind blew across the sunny landscape; the grass was healthy and fresh. Dirt tumbled around the cyborg’s feet as he continued to walk down the beaten trail.

“Damn,” Raiden suddenly felt nauseous. “Jack is back…” mumbled Raiden. The ninja remembered that ghostly limbo where he woke up. Where he fought the Ripper, and got beaten to a pulp. Raiden stopped as a headache surged through his head. Jack had beaten Raiden, saying that he was ‘stronger’ than him.

That was when the Ripper took Raiden’s blade and…

“Eat hoof, monster!”

Raiden snapped into alert mode, immediately turning on his heels to the source of the outburst. The ninja saw a cyan blur speeding directly at him! His eye flashed red as he quickly acted: he ducked below the speeding blur, the thing just mere centimeters from colliding with Raiden’s titanium jaw.

The cyborg flipped into the air, taking out his sword and landing on the ground. Raiden immediately took a combat stance and brandished his sword, getting a good look at the thing that attacked him.

And what he saw was stupefying.

A small, cyan horse with wings turned to glare at the baffled ninja. It’s mane and tail were rainbow.  It pawed at the ground with its hoof, flaring its nostrils and crouching to the ground. Raiden observed the creature with a mix of caution and awe.

“You’re not gonna set one hoof in my town, monster!” the pony yelled. Raiden was a little surprised that this creature spoke, but then again he had previously encountered a vicious, cyborg wolf that could talk too, so this did not bother him much.

“And you are?” Raiden asked casually.

“I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria and the pony whose gonna whip your flank!” Rainbow Dash spread her wings that were unseen by Raiden. She flew towards him in a reckless attempt to damage him, but Raiden easily saw her coming and simply jumped to the side. Rainbow Dash soared past her target and crashed head-first into a tree; her head was lodged comically inside the trunk. The cyborg ninja laughed out loud and sheathed his blade; it was apparent this creature was no threat to him.

“Need some help there? I’ll give you some sugar cubes if you promise not to kick me!” Raiden joked at the pony’s expense. The pony’s body thrashed around in a futile attempt to get free. While the cyan Pegasus was busy, Raiden brought up his codec again, searching through all the options to find out where his current location was.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was having the time of her life. Having embarrassed herself in front of this metal monster, she was now stuck inside a tree trying to free herself as the creature just laughed at her. Fantastic!

“You’ll be sorry when I get outta of here, you hear me!”  Dash threatened. At least, that’s what she wanted to say as her words came out as a series of unintelligible muffles. The pegasus continued to try and pry herself from the trunk of the tree, using all of her pony strength to release her head from its’ prison.

It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining, the wind was blowing gently, and the grass was crisp and fresh.

Area Unknown: Satellite Not Found

Connection to: [Maverick/Boris] Failed

Connection to: [Maverick/Courtney] Failed

Connection to: [Maverick/Wolf] Failed

Connection to: [Maverick/Kevin] Failed

Connection to: [Maverick/Doktor] Failed

Raiden deactivated the codec with a frustrated growl. So far, contacting his support group at Maverick failed as no signal could be found; GPS failed as the codec could not locate any satellites. The cyborg ninja could feel his insides tangle themselves into a bitter, cold knot. He looked to the pony known as Rainbow Dash, her struggling beginning to loosen her cranium from the tree. Raiden remembered his ‘death’ at the hands of his psychotic persona; the experience felt so horrifying and surreal. However, the pain from the Ripper’s beating was as real as the air Raiden was breathing or the grass he was standing on.

Was it even possible…?

“Guess I’ll have to find out…” Raiden murmured, motioning towards the trapped pony. Grabbing her back legs, the ninja quickly pulled out Rainbow Dash from the bothersome tree as an audible pop could be heard upon release. She shook her head in a daze, she could see stars in her vision before they quickly disappeared. Rainbow Dash tried to fly away but something was holding her back. She looked to her back legs and saw two metal claws wrapped around her legs, and their owner was giving her an unimpressed look.

“Hey, let me go right now! I ain’t through with ya!” the tenacious pony thrashed violently, she used every ounce of strength in her to release her legs from the ninja’s iron grip. To Raiden, it was almost pathetic seeing this poor thing feebly try to escape; he could barely feel a thing. Feeling sorry for it, he let the pegasus go. The pony creature quickly flew in the air, stretching her wings and shaking her head, feeling the warm wind blow through her rainbow hair… before immediately charging at Raiden again.

“This time, I’m gonna-“a metal hand connected with Rainbow Dash’s face, more specifically her mouth.  The cyborg ninja held the pony in front of him, his face evident of irritation.

“I am not in the mood for anymore stunts, whatever you are.” Raiden growled; his tone was low and threatening enough to send a chill down Dash’s spine. Raiden tossed the pony back into the air.

“I have no idea where I am and I was just on my way to that nearby town ‘till you showed up,” Raiden chastised the cyan pony, the latter huffing and rolling her eyes.

“I was resting on my cloud when I saw you waltz outta the Everfree Forest and headed straight to Ponyville! Of course I had to deal with ya!” yelled Dash.

‘Ponyville…? Jesus, what planet did I wake up in?’ Raiden’s eye twitched.

“Besides, you’re lucky I stopped you when I did or else you could’ve given everypony a heart attack.” Rainbow Dash said, hovering back and forth above the cyborg.

Did Raiden hear that correctly?

“Did you just say ‘everypony’?”

Dash nodded.

Raiden sighed heavily, bringing a hand to his forehead as he felt a headache coming on; Ponyville, Equestria, everypony. Those words, those ridiculous words buzzed painfully in his head like an annoying, rainbow-cyan hornet. That was when the cyborg ninja came to a horrifying conclusion:

“…There are more of you in that village, right?”

Dash nodded again.  “Yep, ponies. They come in all shapes and sizes and races.” Rainbow said in matter-of-factly tone. She did a little spin in the air for the hell of it and looked back to Raiden again.

The ninja could feel that headache coming anytime now. Turning on his heel, Raiden continued his trek to the village, now knowing that there is sentient life at the small hamlet. Although, it wasn’t the type of life he was expecting, or wanted to meet.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Rainbow Dash butted in front of Raiden’s way again.   “Where do you think you’re going? I just said that you’ll cause a panic if you step one hoof –or whatever those are- in town.” She said pointing at Raiden’s modified feet.

“As much as it pains me to say, I need someplace to go where I can get some professional assistance. I’m not going to get much done out here.” Raiden walked past the floating pegasus, stopped, and faced the pony.

“Is there anyone in that town that can help me? Anyone at all?”

“Probably. A friend of mine can probably give you a place to crash and you can…”

Rainbow smacked herself.  “Why am I telling you this? I can’t let you into town! Who knows what you will do!” Raiden sighed heavily, tired of hearing the same argument over and over.

“Look here, Blue. I am lost and I really need to gain my bearings and assess given my current situation. I need someone that can provide an accurate description of where I am, and if possible, help me.” Raiden gave the pegasus a serious yet sincere look.  “I promise that I have no intention of hurting anyone over in that town. Hell, it will screw up my chances of going back to where I came from.”

Rainbow Dash huffed and crossed her forelegs. As much as she hated admitting it, this metal thing could seriously hurt her. Yet he didn’t retaliate violently despite her constant brutish advances towards him. And despite his menacing appearance, He didn’t seem to hold any sort of malicious intent. The cyan pony sighed in defeat.

“Ok, I’ll trust you…but try anything funny and I’ll send you to Canterlot’s dungeons myself!” Dash viciously pointed a hoof at Raiden before backed off.

‘Score’ the ninja did a mental fist-pump in celebration of this small but gratifying victory. Raiden turned back towards the village now known as Ponyville.

“Well, we’re not going to get much done here.” The cyborg turned to stare at his destination. Before he could even take a step, his new companion flew in front of him yet again.

“What now?”

“I can take you to somepony that can help but we still have the issue of the entire town going into a panic.” Dash explained.

“I’ll take care of it.” said the irritated ninja.

“Pinkie Promise?” Dash said with a raised eyebrow. Raiden’s eye twitched…

Yep, Raiden could feel that headache kicking in.

“…We’re wasting time here. Let’s get moving already!” Raiden strolled past the awkward pegasus and began his trek anew. Dash grumbled and led the way to Ponyville.