Training in the Clouds

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow Dash knew she had to train more vigorously. After having to do once without her wings, she realized she had to brush up on her training more without them. Despite her speed being her greatest asset, she realized she would have to work hard. After seeing the state of Ponyville destroyed by the diamond dogs, she channelled her anger towards them, even creating makeshift dummies out of clouds, that hovered over the pillows of white below them.

Stamping one hoof on the ground, she let out a snort before charging at the nearest one. Having tied her wings against her back, she took account her slower speed and she feinted to the side of the dummy, moving her weight onto her forelegs before spinning around and landing a powerful slam into the side of the dummy. The cloud burst outward and she landed her hooves down before charging towards the next, this time leaping directly at it, her forehooves slamming into its chest. 

She continued practicing like this, ducking and dodging invisible enemies, her mane and tail rainbow blurs as she trained. She wanted to prove herself as a capable warrior, both in the air, and on the ground.

[Red Charge]

A female with very subtle, lithe features and a sharp, pale aqua, straight mane-style landed on a cloud near Rainbow Dash "Alright, newbie, time to get your gear broken in." She said teasingly, her voice a pleasant mixture of light tones, indicating a minor singing background. The Pegasus was a dauntingly pale shade of tan which brought out her deep amber eyes. Pan, she was called.

Rainbow Dash already had one part of the new gear issued to the Stars, the armor. Now she was getting the GOOD stuff. The other female Pegasus dropped the equipment on her cloud and Rainbow Dash hopped over to look over it. Pan went over each one and gave a short bit about it.

"Mechanized Flying helmet. I wish we had those in the Eclipse Crisis, would have shown those Red Barons what's what. Of course, thanks to our brave commander's engineering of these plans against us we were able to start producing these babies anyway, so it all worked out." She indicated the mostly open faced helmet, instead of a visor, there were goggles secured to the helmet by thick pseudo-leather, she could adjust it using straps and when not needed, lift them up to rest on her helmet's forehead. The forehead had a couple of magnifying glasses that went with the goggles for precision long range attacks, allowing her to spot targets in an almost eagle-like fashion. The snout part of the helmet was closed and regulated the air supply, to allow her to breathe steadily at high speeds and filter out any foreign gasses and moisture from clouds. The ear holes had similar contraptions to prevent high winds at high speeds from deafening her. The top part was open to allow her mane to blow free in the wind, which Rainbow was delighted about, flying her colors was important to her after all.

"Next up, jointed wing blades, traditional Razorwing weapons. Every blade on these things is replaceable, so feel free to go wild. We used to use fixed wingblades, but once they broke off we'd have to replace the whole thing which was costly, not to mention they would often cause wing-breaks and that's just no good." The set was almost like an exoskeleton worn over the wings, with blades spreading out beyond their tips, giving them very sharp edges. However it folded at all the right places, preventing self injury, which was a relief.

"Here's the REAL ticket, hoof-blades, the traditional Stars weapon. These things are the best choice for close quarters, reliable, hardy, can channel electricity and work with almost every aerial technique you can think of. Percheron has four of those, one for each hoof. Since we're not flying gods, however, we use two on our front hooves." These blades fit into the heavy military shoes and could be whipped out at the flick of a hoof and retracted just as simply. They were hardy and reliable and were first made as weapons for the Sky Titan and Blackmane armors.

The only part Rainbow Dash was missing now was the metal unit badge, an insignia that snapped into her chest plate that represented her standing in the elite unit. This Rainbow would receive as soon as she finished training.

"Alright, that's enough drooling," Pan grinned, "Let's see how you wear it."

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow dash was squeeing with excitement on the inside. With each thing she showed, her mind rambled on 'ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!'. But she held in her excitement, her eyes shining with amazement. It took all her self-control to keep from putting on each thing as they were shown off to her, so when Pan gave her the okay to put it on, the pegasus moved like a blur to get the armor on.

She started with the helmet, fitting it over her head and lowering the goggles over her eyes to test them out. She gave a shake of her head and neck to allow her mane to blow through the cool breeze, letting out a contented sigh as she did so.

The wingblades she was much more careful with, but one of the things she was most excited about. They fit snug over her wings, and she tested by opening and retracting her pinions. The blades folded nicely, and Rainbow gave small trot in place to show her excitement.

"This is sooo cool!" She exclaimed before moving to the boots. She placed her forehooves within each one. Standing on her hind legs, she flicked both of them, revealing the sharp blades, giving a few practice swings before falling back down onto all fours, the blades retracting back in their resting places.

"This...is the most amazing thing...ever!" She turned to Pan with a grin and posed, "So, how do I look?" She asked, grinning from ear to ear.

[Red Charge]

"Alright, alright enough of the school-filly behavior." Pan said, waving a hoof lazily at her, "Alright now straighten out, let me break it down to you. You've been through preliminary training, means you're ready to actually start training with us now. But before we do that, V wants me to go over the types with you." Pan mentioned, at some point someone told Rainbow Dash why they called Valkyrie V. Back in the Eclipse Crisis, Valkyrie had a thing in for Percheron and she couldn't go through a moment without touching it one way or the other. She was hardly liked back then, more ridiculed and hated than respected. So they called her V for Vendetta, or in short, V. Of course, since the Eclipse Crisis ended, she's changed into the sweetest so and so around, still rough on the edges, but a vast improvement over the old one. The nickname V stuck with her though.

"Pegasi have pretty much five main types. The most common ones are Wind and Lightning types, after that there's the Rain type, then the Sun type. There's also the irregular types which are too rare and weird to even include. Anyway, it goes like this, we Stars work with unison so it's important to us to determine our types early on, we'll know who to team you with, how to arrange formations and so on and so forth. You're lucky Horizon's slot got open, that silly colt. Anyway, those are the types - Sun, Rain, Wind and Lightning." She recapped.

"Now we find types based on their affinity, lightning types are naturally better at any lightning or electricity related maneuvers, wind types would obviously be better at any wind related maneuvers and the same thing goes for the others. The sun Pegasi however, seem to have an affinity that's nearly non-existent with others, affinity with the sun and fire. For example, the ability to light an orange lightning, only a sun type Pegasus can actually do that just like that on their own." She explained, "So that's pretty much the basics about types, there's more than just that, but you'll get into that later... Anyway yeah, types, there's more than just that to them." She took a pause to think about what she was going to say next, she seemed awfully bored from having to sit down and explain stuff to the newbie.

"It's kind of like astrological signs, certain types tend to have certain behaviors as a norm. For example sun types are usually very fiery and hot headed, take Spirtfire, or Percheron's sister for example, yikes, wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of their anger. Now sun types are the rarest type, only about one in about thirty ponies is a sun type and that's just going by statistics. They're few and far in between. They're also unique, usually they posses raw power and are very independent. Us wind ponies, we think outside th box, we can be fierce or gentle as the situation requires, making us very versatile. Blackmane's a wind type, if that's any indication." She continued, "Rain types are determined and persistent. they're very dependable, but also very surprising. As for lightning ponies, they tend to be very direct, very quick and forceful, the vast majority of the Razorwing family are lightning types. Yeah that's about it for types I think..." She sneaked a peek at another Star off the side, Sabre Razorwing, in Percheron's absence he was Valkyrie's lieutenant. Must have been the one to put pan into all of this explaining she obviously found boring.

"That's about it, any questions?"

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow dash felt the heat flush to her cheeks in embarrassment. She straightened up and listened well to the information, taking it all in. She was excited to hear about the different types of pegasi. She wondered which one she would be best suited for.

"So...how will I go about finding where I fit best?" She asked, stretching her wings out and getting used to the weight of the blades upon them. She was looking forward to being able to test them out in combat, but for now, she would have to make sure she made her team proud once she would join them. "I guess I have a rather competitive personality. Maybe a bit hot headed." She pondered this, tapping her chin in thought with her hoof. "Where do you think I'd fit in?"

[Red Charge]

"Well, usually one of us would be able to call it," Pan said with a bemused expression, "But you're a toughie. I guess I'll leave it for Percheron when he gets back. He can take one look at you and know what type you are. Did it for all of us." She said proudly.

Sabre landed besides her, the Pegasus was calm and inspiring, he seemed gruff but was very disciplined and restrained, very prim and proper. "Alright rookie, give me twenty laps around in your gear, gotta get comfortable in it, because from now on, you're gonna be wearing it almost all day, every day." Pan said with a grin, gesturing for Rainbow Dash to start taking laps around the large obstacle course.

After Rainbow Dash was out of hearshot, Sabre whispered to Pan, "So she's got them all? I've never seen anything like that."

"Me either," Said Pan, "Percheron can make her into a legend, but we have to keep it under the hood, Wonderbolts would put up a lot more fight if they found out she has affinity with everything."

[Rainbow Dash]

"Yes M'aam!" Rainbow said with a salute before taking off into the air. She took off in a multicolored blur, her wings not quite used to the added bit of weight. She kept her hooves out in front of her, the clouds passing her by as she curved around Cloudsdale, not even breaking a sweat. She made sure to change her posture to accommodate the armor as well as the helmet and boots. It took a little bit to get used to, but after the fifteenth lap, she started to get the hang of it, her wings flapping powerfully in the air.

While she flew, she wondered what type of Pegasus she could be. Lightning sounded amazing, as did wind. Heck, they were all awesome to think about, and she just couldn't choose! Not that it was her choice anyway. But she thought about it the entire time she flew, making sure she didn't daydream too deeply and end up smacking into another Pegasus on the way.

[Red Charge]

Pan waited patiently while Rainbow Dash flew, she was fast, unbelievably so. Then again, she could do a sonic Rainboom, she had to be fast. Rainbow Dash felt the weight of the armor, much heavier than without, it must have weighed at least half as much as she did. She didn't slow down because of it, but boy was it a tough warm up.

None of Cloudsdale's military forces could leave the large cloud city for a while now, drakes were constantly flying around them, waiting, assessing... if they spotted weakness in numbers they would swoop in with their dragon and wreak havoc. No one was going to let that happen, so as far as they were concerned, they were grounded until they could locate where the drake mass was and counter-strike.

She noticed after she passed her tenth lap that obstacles started appearing in her way, of course, she did smack into one the first time, mostly because she wasn't expecting it. It was a very thick cloud that zapped her when she smacked into it, frizzling her mane.

[Rainbow Dash]

"Gah!" Rainbow dash was caught off guard, and her flight pattern was a bit thrown off due to the cloud. She shook her head and blinked her eyes, spotting the obstacles in front of her. With a determined look, she shot forward again, this time a little more slow, weaving through the obstacles as effortlessly as a snake would. Occasionally she would feel her mane rise from the electricity as she passed each cloud, some of them grazing her belly as she flew past. Others she nearly struck with her wings, causing her once again to lose balance, but she quickly regained the pattern once more.

"Is that all you got?!" She taunted the clouds, smirking as she gave a little burst of speed. Though she was starting to feel the exhaustion and the heaviness of the armor, she was determined to prove herself. She worked hard to get to this point, and she hoped she could impress the Stars. She didn't want to fail them after all they've done for her.

[Red Charge]

She managed to finish the rest of the laps successfully and pan signaled her down, of course, they have been keeping Rainbow in the dark about what was going on in Canterlot at the moment. They had to, they couldn't go to help and it was obvious a mare like her would speed over there without a second thought. Canterlot could handle what was thrown at her, they will find the drakes and clear them out so they could go and help, until then, they had to keep it hush around Rainbow Dash.

"Not bad, Sabre's spreading some targets in the air, take them out with your wing blades, clean slices, if it's not in half it doesn't count. Our record is all targets in twenty seconds, think you can do better?" Pan asked tauntingly. She gestured up where drake shaped clouds were now floating, some in patterns, some in place, others just moving in a direct line... this wasn't going to be easy and it was just warm up.

[Rainbow Dash]

Rainbow Dash looked up at all the targets and smirked, "Twenty seconds, eh? No problem!" She spread her wings, the wingblades gleaming dangerously in the sunlight. Waiting for the okay to start, she crouched down at the ready.

Given the cue to go, she sped into the air. Shooting towards the first target, she flew around and sped forward, the blades of her right wing slicing through the cloud like butter. She tilted to her left and once again rocketed towards it, her left wing blades skimming through the clouds like hot knives through butter.

Her excitement and the thrill of the training carried her to each target, where she sped as quick as she could given her oncoming exhaustion. She wasn't sure how much time it took, but she was glad when it was over and she hovered above the massacred clouds.

[Red Charge]

Pan yawned down on the cloud, "I wasn't timing you, who has time for that? Alright, now go with Sabre, he'll work with you on your wing technique." She said, waving a hoof at Sabre lazily before stalking off.

Sabre beckoned her over and began to work with her on using her wing blades effectively as well as disassembling them and reassembling them, oiling them and proper packaging when not in use. Basically he ran her down from bottom to top on how to use the wings, from combat, to maintenance, to explaining in detail exactly how they were made, what they were made of and how the new design was much more effective than before, he even brought an old set for her to wear and train with to show her the differences. He was right, the jointed ones were MUCH better.

"So what do you think about the place so far?" He asked her finally, "You seem excited enough, wait until you meet Percheron, he's a real champion, five times Cloudsdale Dogfighting Tournament Champion earning him the All Time Undefeated Champion title and a ban from any further tournaments, on the claim that he was too good for it to be fair. Single handedly defeated the Red Barons' entire pirate gang with Blackmane to boot and you saw for yourself how he performed when we took down Eclipse. Other than that, he's just a right virtuous pony, as the element of Loyalty, I'm sure you'd get along famously."

[Rainbow Dash]

It was a lot of information to take in. Rainbow Dash listened and was glad that she had the jointed wings to work with instead of the old ones they had. She practiced the training motions, learning the best way to use the wing blades to their full potential, knowing they will be a great asset, especially with her speed.

"This place is perfect!" She said happily, folding her wings and enjoying how the wing blades settled easily against her side. "I'm looking forward to meeting Percheron officially. He seems like an amazing Pegasus." She said with a smile.  "I sure hope I can get along with him. I'm excited to hear everything from the horse's mouth, so to speak." She said with an added chuckle.

[Red Charge]

"You're lucky you didn't say that to Pan, she hates puns, when we want to irritate her we call her Pun, or Punpan, she hates that." Sabre said with a hearty chuckle.

"Alright, on to these babies," he drew out his hoof blades. "Seem awkward to use when on the ground, but in the air, you have three hundred and sixty degrees to strike from in any direction. These are hard reliable blades, they're designed to work well with any weather attack, very conductive. They're hardy and they're easy to manage." He flicked his hoof and they retracted, then flicked it again and they drew out again. He then proceeded to detail the blades themselves, pointing out their aerodynamic structure and their center of mass. Almost any attack with these is useful and what's more that they can block even the heaviest great-swords, so long as the Pegasus puts their own weight behind it. It appeared the blades were indeed hardy and reliable, Sabre said he's rarely seen one break and even so it was usually after a long time of usage. He then proceeded to train her in armed hoof to hoof combat, of course, Rainbow Dash was a black belt karate champ, so it was easy for her to learn, but when she sparred with Sabre she found him to be a lot more graceful and fluid-like than she thought possible. She soon realized that in the air, her options were nearly limitless, as opposed to the ground.

After some more practicing and sparring, Sabre taught her how to properly oil the blades and the mechanism as well as inspect and maintain them, the hoof-mounted device itself served as a whetstone, to sharpen dull blades in long encounters where proper supplies were unavailable. Everything Sabre did, he did patiently, intuitively, he never got angry or frustrated when she asked him to repeat something, he was a sea of tranquility. She knew he was a lightning type, he had told her earlier, but he sure didn't act like it until they sparred. When they were finally done going over the hoof blades, he once again asked her what she thinks.

[Rainbow Dash]

"I think this is amazing." Rainbow dash responded, panting a bit from the vigorous training she was receiving. "I'm loving the gear, it makes me feel a lot stronger, that they give me another advantage when I need them in battle." She smiled and rolled her shoulders. "I'm looking forward to joining a group. I hope I do well enough." She said.

She had a chuckle when he mentioned Pan's annoyances. It seemed like a good group to be around, that they would still joke around even with all the serious goings-on around them.

"There is one thing I'm worried about, though. My type. I haven't really given it much thought to what I could be." She stated as she examined one of the hoofblades. "It seems like such a big important part of who we are, and I really never gave it much thought until today."