The Calm and the Storm

As Celestia's sun rose above the horizon, its light shown down on Rainbow Dash's cloud house as a sliver of light slipped its way through an opening in the window shades of a guest room where a certain crimson pegasus was still sleeping.  As the light from the sun made its way through Temp's room and onto his face, he stirred himself awake and almost immediately got out of bed to begin his morning routine.  As he completed each task, he kept a watchful eye on the clock in his room.  He had just finished when he noticed a sweet, yet savory aroma in the air.  He looked at the clock and noticed that there was still an hour before he was scheduled to meet Rainbow Dash for their morning training.  With that in mind, he decided to investigate the source of the aroma.  He made his way downstairs as the aroma became stronger and noticed a thin cloud of smoke emanating from what looked to be the kitchen.  Temp walked in and saw Dash at the stove cooking breakfast.

Dash saw Temp in the doorway and beckoned him in.  "Hey Temp.  Just in time, breakfast is almost ready.  Just take a seat and I'll bring you a plate when it's done."  Temp seemed to have a confused look on his face as he took a seat at the table.  A few minutes later, Rainbow walked over to join him while expertly balancing a plate on each wing.  She set a plate of pancakes and eggs in front of Temp as well as herself.  She then dug into her food while being careful as to not go overboard.  However, she noticed that Temp had yet yo even touch his food.

"What's wrong Temp?  You better eat it before it gets cold."  Temp looked at dash and then back to his own food.

"Sorry Rainbow.  This food does look very delicious, but I'm just not used to having breakfast prior to working out.  I've come to find it a waste of time."  Temp continued to look at his food with indifference.

Rainbow seemed shocked that an important meal was just being pushed aside.  "Are you nuts?!  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!  If you're gonna be training with me, you're gonna have to build up your strength and keep it up too."  Rainbow nudged Temp's plate closer to him as she went back to her own breakfast.

Temp eyed the plate before finally going into it.  He cut up the pancakes, took a bite, and found them to be very delicious.  He continued eating, but at a slower pace than Rainbow.  Despite that, he still finished his food with a few minutes to spare before training was to begin.  Temp quickly went back to his room and put on his wonderbolt outfit before making his way to the door.  However, before he could get out, Dash stopped him.  "Wait a minute Temp."  Temp turned to face her.  "You don't need your wonderbolt suit for my training.  Go ahead and take it off, I'll wait for you."  Temp flashed a look of minor surprise before obliging and changing out of his suit before meeting Dash outside by her front door.  The two then left the house and made their way to one of the fields outside Ponyville.

Dash led Temp through a few stretches before deciding to start the workout.  Temp was a bit puzzled, but he managed to follow along.

"Alright, we'll start with something a bit basic.  See those clouds up there?"  She pointed up to the sky where quite a few clouds were scattered about.  Temp nodded.  "Okay, bust them all as fast as you can, I'll be timing you.  You ready?"  Temp nodded and took position to take off.  "GO!"  Immediately upon hearing that word, Temp shot into the sky and busted one cloud after another.  Dash looked up at Temp and then glanced at her stopwatch to see that he was making good time.  Seconds later, Temp returned to the ground looking a tad winded as he looked to Dash for his time.  "45 seconds.  Not bad, but I noticed you were slowing down when you hit each of those clouds.  We're gonna have to work on that."

Temp looked at the ground as if he had done something wrong.  "My apologies Dash.  Rest assured, I will be much faster next time."  Dash was taken aback by the tone of his voice, mainly with how serious yet apologetic it sounded.

"Hey, it's fine.  It's only the first day.  Let's move on to the next drill."  The two walked further about the field and came to an area with trees littered about.  "Okay, now it's time to see how maneuverable you are.  I want you to make one lap around these trees while weaving between them.  I'm gonna time you again and every time you hit a tree, one second will be deducted from your overall time.  Got it?"

"Yes ma'am!"  Temp waited for the signal as he took position once again.

"Ready, set, GO!"  Temp was off like a rocket once again as he weaved in and out of the treeline while only grazing his wing once on one of the tree trunks.  Despite that, he still maintained his speed as Dash took note of the tree he scratched.  Soon he landed in front of Rainbow Dash again.  "Good, 32 seconds.  Looks like your curves are better than your sprints.  Might come in handy in a performance one day."

Temp looked to Rainbow apologetically once again.  "Actually Dash, I grazed my wing on one of the trees.  So that means my true time for this exercise was 33 seconds."

Rainbow rolled her eyes and look back at Temp.  "That's okay.  It was only a small graze, so it doesn't count.  Besides, you did good on the rest, so I decided to drop it."

"But I still made contact with the tree.  That means one second should be deducted from my initial time.  You can't ignore the standards that you yourself set.  That's welching."

"Dude, chill out.  So you grazed a tree once on a drill, so what?  The rest of it was still awesome.  I respect you for owning up to a shortcoming, but you shouldn't hold that against you.  Now let's just move on to the next exercise."  Dash walked ahead as she wondered why Temp seemed to be holding himself to that high a standard.

Temp held his head in contemplation before heading off to catch up with Dash.  The two eventually came upon the swimming hole.  "Alright Temp.  This time, we're gonna check out your endurance.  You're gonna run around the swimming hole as fast as you can for as long as you can.  When you stop, so does the clock and that will be your final time."

Temp prepared himself once again.  "Very well, let's begin."  He flared his wings, but Rainbow stopped him.

"Ah-ah.  I said 'run' around the swimming hole.  No wings allowed for this exercise.  If you do use them, the clock will automatically stop and that will be considered your final time."

Temp looked at his wings and then folded them up.  "Very well.  I accept these terms."  he retook his starting position as Rainbow readied her stopwatch again.

"Okay.  On your marks, get set, GO!"  Temp was off and galloping along the shore as fast as his hooves could carry him.  After a minute, Temp began to slow down as his energy was getting lower.  Soon, he found himself barely able to trot and collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted.

Rainbow stopped her watch and flew over to where he collapsed.  "That was great Temp.  You clocked in at almost ten minutes exactly."  She then pulled a water bottle out from her saddlebags and handed it to Temp.  He took the bottle and drank almost a quarter of the water that was in it before handing it back to Dash.

"I appreciate the compliment, but my endurance is more often than not much more sufficient than this.  I find myself not needing to stop until  approximately 20-30 minutes in."  Temp panted in between breaths as he rose to his hooves again.

Rainbow patted his shoulder.  "Well don't forget that you were going full throttle right from the start.  Heck, if you hadn't already undergone the training you did, your time would have probably been much worse.  Anyway, let's take a few minutes to cool off."  She removed her saddlebags and other garments and immediately dove into the swimming hole.  Upon resurfacing, she floated peacefully in the center as she noticed Temp hadn't followed suit.  "Hey, you coming in or what?!"

Temp put his front hooves into the water and found it to be an adequate room temperature.  He did remember reading that not cooling off after a workout did lead to various physical consequences.  With that in mind, he slid himself the rest of the way in and let out a large breath of relief as his eyes drifted shut.  "My.  I must say that this water is very lovely.  It's almost as if-"  Suddenly his mind flashed images of his mother holding him as a foal and his eye almost immediately shot open.  In a state of panic, he made his way to the shore and shook himself dry and he panted heavily.

Dash quickly joined him and put her hoof around him in an attempt to calm him down.  "Hey there, you okay Temp?  It looked like you were cooling down and then you suddenly bolted.  What happened?"

Temp took a few more deep breaths and calmed down before facing Dash again.  "Please, forgive me Dash.  As I was swimming, I had flashbacks to my childhood.  It was rather sudden and unnerving.  That is why I acted the way I did."

"Hey, don't worry about it.  So, what exactly happened?  Did something happened when you were younger?"

Temp took another deep breath before replying as calmly as he could so as to not make Dash worry anymore.  "Actually, I would prefer to not discuss that topic.  Perhaps someday, but not today."

Dash hung her head in disappointment as she removed her hoof.  "Alright then, if that's how you feel.  I'll let you talk when you're ready."

Temp managed to crack a smile as he looked to Dash.  "Thank you Rainbow.  I appreciate that greatly."  Temp's stomach then grumbled, which caused him a deal of embarrassment.

"Hehe.  Sounds like someone's hungry.  Good thing I brought lunch." She took out two sacks from her saddlebags and handed one to Temp.  In his bag was a peanut butter and banana sandwich along with an apple and a protein shake.  Rainbow Dash had the same, but her sandwich had pasta and potatoes in it and it looked to be on a different kind of bread.  After their lunch, Dash and Temp continued training as they partook in wing-ups, cardio exercises, and more no-wing sprints.

Eventually, the day was drawing to a close as Dash and Temp were laying down side-by-side underneath an apple tree.  As they rested, an orange earth pony mare with a blonde mane and tail and three apples for a cutie mark walked up to their tree and nudged Rainbow awake.

"Hey there Dash, how's it goin' with that new recruit of yours?"

Dash woke suddenly as she located Applejack right in front of her.  "Oh, it's going fine.  (yawns)  He's a pretty strong flier, although he's kind of uptight."

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her statement.  "What do you mean?"

Dash made sure that Temp was still sleeping before turning back to Applejack  "Okay, get this, I had him do a maneuverability drill in the woods and I said that every time he hit a tree, I'd deduct a second from his time.  He got it done, except he tried to get me to deduct a second just for grazing his wing."

Applejack didn't seem to comprehend the statement.  "Well he did hit one of the trees, so was probably trying to honor the agreement y'all made."

"But that's just it.  Most ponies would be knocked off balance and suffer a drop in speed, but this guy powered through.  Not only that, but the tree he hit actually had some of its bark scratched off."

"Whoa!  Are you serious?"

"Dead serious.  There's no doubt in my mind that if he wanted to, he could take out the whole tree if I asked him to."

"But you crash into trees when doing new tricks and you walk them off just fine."

"That's just it.  I might be able to shake off hitting a tree, but it still throws me off.  This guy literally scratched some of the bark off and it didn''t even seem to faze him."

Applejack pondered for a minute before an idea formed in her head.  "Alright, tell you what.  Why don't you and Temp come an over to Sweet Apple Acres for dinner tomorrow.  I'm sure I can help out."

Dash was reluctant to agree, but figured it the best way for the time being.  "Alright.  It's a deal.  But let's try to not be too direct right off the bat, it could get suspicious."

Applejack nodded in agreement.  "Fair enough.  Well, I better take these apples back to the farm.  See you tomorrow RD."  Applejack waved goodbye and started back towards her house.

A minute later, Temp woke up from his nap with a yawn.  "Hello Dash.  I thought that I had heard voices during my slumber.  Were you conversing with another?"

Dash had a small look of worry on her face before taking a breath and responding as casually as she could.  "Oh yeah, that was just Applejack.  She just wanted to know how we were doing.  She even invited us over to her house for dinner tomorrow.  Don't even bother trying to deny this one, dude.  Once Applejack makes a commitment, she will honor it with everything she has."

Temp thought about the offer for a bit before agreeing to the arrangement and the two made their way home.  They soon arrived and Temp walked into his room and was about to get into bed until he looked at his photo again and sighed.  He finally climbed into bed, switched off the light, and went to sleep.