Our story begins in a humble little apartment in Cloudsdale. This is the home of a young pegasus stallion named Rumble and his marefriend Wind Sprint. The two of them had first met at flight camp as young foals, where they quickly started seeing each other as rivals. The more they competed, the more they got to know each other better and their rivalry became more of a competitive friendship. When they got older, their feelings for each other developed into something deeper, so they decided to start dating and they were very happy together.
Rumble was currently getting ready to head down to Ponyville to spend the day as a guest at the Cutie Mark Day Camp run by his old friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They had asked him to come by to help inspire some of the young foals who went there by showing them some of his cooking skills. If he was lucky, he might even help a few of them discover that they were destined to be chefs themselves. He was in the kitchen packing a whole bunch of cooking supplies to take with him when Wind Sprint came in to join him.
"You got everything you need, Chef Rumble?" she asked him playfully, noticing how his case seemed to be stocked with just about everything in the kitchen except for the oven.
"I think so. I've got my pots, pans, bowls, knives, spoons, spatulas, mashers, my trusty ladle, all the best ingredients-" Rumble stopped listing when he noticed that Sprint was looking at him with a teasing smirk "-and my trusty wingmare," he finished as he wrapped an arm around her.
Sprint laughed as she leaned into his hug. "Don't forget, I can outfly you any day, so technically, you're the wingpony."
"Whatever you say, babe."
Wind Sprint was a tough athletic tomboy, but she always loved getting romantic attention from her coltfriend. "Thanks for agreeing to come with me, Sprint. Honestly, I'm a little nervous. I hope the campers like me."
"Hey, you've got nothing to worry about," Sprint assured. "You are gonna blow the taste buds right off of those kids' tongues and inspire a whole new generation of chefs. Trust me."
"Aww, thanks."
"Now come on. You don't wanna be late."
"Right." And with that, Rumble finished packing up all his stuff and the two of them headed out the door.
When Rumble and Wind Sprint arrived at the camp, all three of the Crusaders were there to greet them. "Rumble!" they all exclaimed happily as they rushed over and greeted him with a big group hug, which he was glad to accept.
"We're so glad you could make it," said Scootaloo.
"Yeah. We just know you're gonna be a big help," Sweetie Belle agreed.
"I'll be glad to help out in any way I can," said Rumble.
"Come with us and we'll show you where you can set up," Apple Bloom instructed.
"Sounds great."
"AHEM!" Wind Sprint coughed out loud to remind them that she was there.
"Oh, I'm sorry, babe," Rumble apologized. "Girls, this is my marefriend Wind Sprint."
"Nice to meet you, Wind Sprint. I'm Apple Bloom."
"I'm Scootaloo."
"And I'm Sweetie Belle. And we are..."
The girls all got together and struck a pose. "The Cutie Mark Crusaders!" they declared in unison.
"Cool pose," Wind Sprint complimented them. "Rumble tells me you guys tried to help him get his cutie mark when he was a foal."
"Yep. He wasn't interested at first," said Scootaloo.
"In fact, he ended up turning half the camp against us," Sweetie Belle recalled.
"But in the end, we finally found a way to get through to him and help him see how great cutie marks really are," Apple Bloom finished. "And now look at him! He's an accomplished chef!"
"Well, I don't know about accomplished," Rumble said modestly.
"Aw, don't be silly. You got to cook for Princess Twilight's coronation when you were just a colt."
"I was only there as an intern. I didn't actually do that much cooking."
"Well, I hope you're ready to do a lot more cooking today. Come on!" Scootaloo said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him away while the other two followed very closely.
As Rumble followed the three young mares to his teaching station, Wind Sprint noticed that they seemed to be acting a little too friendly with him. The way they kept putting their hands all over him and acting all excited around him just rubbed her the wrong way. She decided to keep a close watch on all of them to make sure they didn't try anything funny.
Rumble ended up spending the whole day reconnecting with his old friends one by one. And each time, Wind Sprint couldn't help but feel a little left out. He just seemed to interact so perfectly with each of them and it made her want to try and join in as well.
First, Rumble spent some time hanging out with Apple Bloom as the two of them baked a bunch of apple pies for the campers. Wind Sprint watched as the two talked and laughed as they mixed their ingredients together in separate tins.
"So it turns out that there was no Great Seedling. It was just my brother Big Macintosh sleepwalking the whole time!" Apple Bloom said as she finished telling a story.
"Really? He harvested all those apples in his sleep? Boy, talk about working overtime," said Rumble as they both shared a laugh.
Both of their pies were almost ready to go in the oven, but Rumble decided to double check with Apple Bloom just to make sure. "How does mine look?" he asked.
"It looks great," she replied. Apple Bloom then dipped her finger into his mixture and tasted it. "And it tastes pretty great, too."
That's when Wind Sprint decided it was time for her to intervene. "Hey guys. Can I get in on this?"
"Oh, hey Wind Sprint. Sure. Just throw on an apron and get mixin'," said Apple Bloom.
However, Sprint's attempts at making an apple pie proved to be much less fruitful (no pun intended). Rumble and Apple Bloom kept trying to help her, but she kept brushing them off out of jealousy and insisted that she could do it herself. When she was done, all three of their pies went into the oven at the same time and when they came out, Apple Bloom's and Rumble's looked perfect, but Sprint's looked like a flat, crumbled mess. Plus, it tasted like burnt shoes.
"It was a good effort, Sprint," said Rumble, trying to make her feel better.
"Thanks, but I guess I'd better leave the baking to the real chefs around here."
Later that day, Rumble met up with Scootaloo. The two of them were had planned to perform a miniature stunt show for a bunch of other young pegasi who happened to be extreme sports enthusiasts. Scootaloo would naturally be using her scooter while Rumble would use a spare bicycle that she had brought just for him. Of course, Rumble wasn't nearly the stunt pony that Scootaloo was, so he left the more complicated tricks to her while he stuck to performing fairly simple bike tricks on the halfpipe. Even so, the kids seemed to be eating up both their performances.
Once again, Wind Sprint stood there and watched the whole thing, including the part where Scootaloo congratulated Rumble with a friendly shoulder punch and told him he had some 'slick moves.' Her envy took over her again and she barged in while the foals were all cheering.
"Alright, that's enough Amateur Hour. Let me show you kids how a real athlete does it," Sprint said arrogantly as she grabbed a nearby skateboard and made her way to the halfpipe.
"Um, Wind, I don't think that's such a good idea," her coltfriend protested.
"Come on. I may not be a baker, but this is something I know I can do."
"But have you ever actually ridden a skateboard before?"
"Sure I have. Once, when I was a filly. I landed on my face... lost four baby teeth. L-Look, this is happening, alright? So just leave me alone!"
"Well... okay. Good luck."
The young stallion backed away as his marefriend prepared to skate. "I really hope she knows what she's doing," Scootaloo said as she and Rumble watched her from the ground.
"You and me both," he agreed.
As Wind Sprint balanced her board on the edge of the ramp, she looked down at how high and steep it was. She swallowed nervously, but suppressed her anxiety as she pushed off. She managed to hold her balance as she sped down the ramp, but then when she shot up into the air, her board got away from her and she completely lost all composure. She plummeted back down to Earth, flailing her limbs like a ragdoll and remembering too late that she could fly. As a result, she landed hard on her back and sprained her left wing. Everyone watching cringed as she hit the ground.
Scootaloo and Rumble rushed to Wind Sprint's aid as the foals all laughed at her rather embarrassing skating blunder. "Are you okay, Wind Sprint?" Scootaloo asked.
"Ow. I think I sprained my wing," Sprint groaned in pain.
Rumble and Scootaloo tried to help her up, but she insisted that she could do it herself. They pointed her towards the infirmary and she walked away, clutching her injured wing and knowing that she had just made a complete fool of herself... again.
Once Wind Sprint's wing was all bandaged up, she left the infirmary to try and find where her coltfriend had wandered off to this time. She soon got her answer when she heard his voice coming from a nearby tent. It sounded like he was... singing?
She poked her head in through an open window and found him sitting with Sweetie Belle. The unicorn mare seemed to be giving him a private singing lesson as she gave him instructions. "A little slower and don't forget to breathe," she told him.
"Got it," he responded before clearing his throat and singing again.
Wind Sprint knew that Rumble had a decent singing voice, but she couldn't imagine why he would be taking lessons alone with Sweetie Belle without even telling her. She was about to barge in and join them when all of a sudden...
"Better, but you're still a little flat," Sweetie Belle said. "Try it like this." Just then, Sweetie Belle started singing in the most beautiful voice that Sprint had ever heard.
"They all say that you will get your mark,
When the time is really right.
And you know just what you're supposed to do,
And your talent comes to light. "
It was so heavenly that it stopped Wind Sprint right in her tracks before she could even open the curtain. She knew there was no way she could ever compete with such an angelic voice like Sweetie Belle's. So instead, she just walked away quietly in shame.
Later, Rumble found Wind Sprint sitting all alone at a picnic table and looking rather dispirited. "Hey, Sprint. How's your wing feeling?" he asked, trying to carefully ease into a conversation.
"Eh, it's alright. Doesn't hurt that bad," she replied with little interest. "Doctor said it should be all better in a couple days."
"That's good." Rumble tried to smile, hoping that she would smile back, but she didn't, so he decided to just come right out and ask. "Okay, what's the matter, babe? You've been acting weird all day."
"I'm acting weird? You're the one who's been spending all your time with those 'crusaders' the whole day!" she said rather angrily.
"What's so wrong with that? They're my friends and they asked me to come so I could help them. Remember?"
"Oh, please. There's 'friendly' and then there's 'flirty' and what I saw them doing with you was definitely 'flirty.'"
"What are you talking about?"
"The pie tasting? The arm punching? The private singing lessons?"
"Okay, first of all, I was hanging out with Apple Bloom so she could help me improve my baking."
"Wait, what?"
"Yeah. I mean, I am a pretty great cook, but my baking skills could really use some work. That's why I was baking with Apple Bloom so she could give me some pointers on how to back Apple family style."
"Oh... okay." At this point, Sprint was starting feel a little sheepish.
"Also, those kids that Scootaloo and I were performing for are all pegasi who can't fly, just like her. We did all those stunts together to show them that just because they couldn't fly, doesn't mean they can't be amazing athletes."
"I see..." Now Sprint was even more embarrassed for messing up her skateboard trick in front of those kids.
"And as for why Sweetie Belle was helping me practice singing, well... I told her I wanted to sing something special for you on our anniversary date next week."
"R-Really?"
"Yeah. It was gonna be a surprise, but, uh... now it's not."
Wind Sprint sighed in embarrassment, burying her face in her arms on the table. "Oh man, I am so sorry, Rumble. I can't believe I got so jealous. I feel like such an idiot."
"It's okay. Don't worry about it. We all lose our heads every now and then," Rumble reassured her. "I'm sorry if I haven't been paying enough attention to you this whole time. It's that I was such a jerk when I went here as a kid and I thought maybe helping to inspire some of the new campers would help me make up for it."
"It's okay. I was probably being a little too high maintenance anyway. It's just... I worry sometimes that I'm not good enough for you. I mean, I have zero cooking skills when you're an amazing chef, I'm obviously not the athlete I thought I was if I couldn't even outskate a flightless pegasus and I'm nowhere near as girly as Sweetie Belle, which is what I was starting to think you wanted when I saw you with her."
"Aw, Sprint. You don't need to change yourself just for me. You're awesome just the way you are. You're smart, athletic, tough and super hot." Wind Sprint smiled and gave him a playful push for that last part. "And I never want you to be anything other than your perfect amazing self."
Rumble then pulled his marefriend in for a comforting hug, which she gladly returned. She felt very lucky to have such an understanding coltfriend. "I love you, babe," said Rumble.
"I love you, too, dude," Sprint replied.
Then the two of them shared a kiss and Rumble got back to sharing his cooking talents with the campers for the rest of the day. Meanwhile, Wind Sprint happily stood right by his side the whole time, even managing to lend a hand without making a fool of herself again.
