From Here to Home

Flitter yawned as the daylight shone onto her pale blue coat. She moved the wooly blankets aside and rolled, quite literally, out of her bed like she'd seen her sister do from time to time. She spun around and toppled over onto the floor, maybe she wasn't as dextrous as she thought.

“Ouch...” She massaged her head, laying on the carpeted ground for a while. It was comfortable enough. “Stupid me.” She stumbled back onto her hooves, opening up the curtains to let some more light in. Turning around, she saw the colt groggily rubbing his eyes at the doorframe.

“Did something fall, Ms. Flitter?”

Light sleeper, it seemed. “Yeah... That was me. Sorry if I woke you up or anything.” The kid nodded in response. “So uh, when does your school start again?”

“Thunderlane usually walks with me there in half an hour. He makes breakfast by now. He really likes pancakes.”

“Everypony does, I'll just get you something to eat.” Flitter walked out towards the kitchen, as Rumble followed behind.

It was a neater room than it had been previously. Cloudchaser tended to leave things a mess, especially when she got hungry. That happened a lot. She opened up the wooden cupboard and picked up the bag of rolled oats with her teeth. Some breakfast would be ready soon.

Rumble walked closer as Flitter prepared the oats. “Now that my brother's not here, who's helping the weather ponies?”

“We're trying, the ponies at Cloudsdale didn't send us much help to make up for your brother, and my sister... and Rainbow Dash.” Flitter rolled her eyes at that, turning on the electric stove.

Rumble pulled on her leg in an attempt to get her attention. “Maybe they need Thunderlane to help them. He should come back here.”

Flitter sighed. She obviously wasn't going to convince the child in any way, nor was she going to make him any more patient. “Sorry Rumble, things just don't work that way.”

“W-Well, they should!” Rumble pouted.

“Please, just be patient, you can talk to him when he comes back in a couple days.” Flitter picked up Rumble and placed him on a seat by the wooden kitchen table. “And besides, I miss my sister too!”

He quickly jumped off of the seat, and started to Flitter around back to her room. “But, you're a big pony. That's not fair!”

“So you can be a big pony too,” Flitter said as she took a pink hairbrush into her hooves. “No big deal, it's easy.” Thinking about her choice in wording, she rephrased herself, brushing her mane. “Don't you want to spend more time hanging out with your other friends then?”

He rolled his eyes at the question. It was an obvious answer, to him at the least. “But it's more fun to play with my brother. Now it's boring here.”

“How about me, I'm your friend, right?”

“Not really.”

“How can I 'not really' be your- nevermind,” she sighed, a hint of exasperation in her voice. “Uh, why don't you start packing up your stuff? I'll get your breakfast in a minute.”

“Fine.” He kicked the wall on his way out. Big attitude for such a small pony.

Flitter took in a deep breath as she set the hairbrush down. Rumble was going to be a hoof-full to take care of if he'd keep asking these questions. Though Flitter knew him as that shy, happy colt, he'd have to grow up some time.

She noticed the teddy bear that sat on the desk close to her. Snowflake sure loved that bear. Her sister would frequently call him Roid Rage, and Flitter thought it was a funny name too, but refrained from using it, lest she hurt anypony's feelings. From all she'd known from spending time with him, he was such a sensitive pony. He sure loved that bear, but she'd never ask Snowflake to grow up. That's what made him who he was.

Maybe he's having a better day right now...

“Alright, listen up!” Spitfire paced around on the runway, backed by several additional instructors. There were as many of them as there were cadets. It made their eyes widen; it made their skin crawl. They were anxious and aching, but they didn't show it. They couldn't, or they'd never hear the end of it from Spitfire. “To start today off, we're gonna be doing a cross-fit, since you ponies seem to be lacking some muscle! At least one of you's gonna have to be good at this.”

Thunderlane nudged Cloudchaser in the rib, and raised an eyebrow at her. Cloudchaser wrecked cross-fits when she was still in high-school. She was one of the fastest at them, capable of pounding out the intense movements without rest.

“Now, if you think this is gonna be a cakewalk like those high-school cross-fits, you're dead wrong.”  She turned to face her flyers. After a pause, she nudged her head to her left. “Take a look.”

Barbells, plates, bars, boxes, everything. They looked bigger than normal, at least, bigger than they were in high-school. The pegasi started to exchange nervous glances with one another. Spitfire chuckled to herself.

“And yeah, I'm required to give lighter weights for the lighter pegasi, I'd say weaker is a better word... But go ahead, just try to use them.” She walked closer to Milky Way, sweat about to drip from his off-white coat. “I dare you.” His partner, Raindrops continued to stare straight ahead, lest she get singled out herself.

“So, here's how it's gonna be. I want five hundred-metre shuttle flights to the end and back, fifteen power cleans, thirty pull-ups, ten barbell squats, twenty kettlebell swings, and thirty box jumps. All of that, then in reverse.”

“And you!” she continued, pointing at Snowflake. He would have jumped back in shock, had he not been so heavy. “You don't have to do those box jumps, I'm sure they'd break.” He nodded, relieved to get a break for once. “Instead, you're running ten laps on hoof, looks like you could use the cardio.”

She walked further away, giving her cadets some much needed space. “So, I'll give you guys five minutes to prepare. Stretch, curl up in a ball, whatever.” As she flew away into the distance, the cadets gathered in a cluster to get ready. There was a brief silence as everypony took in the news. This cross-fit was going to be brutal.

“Not gonna be a problem, I got this,” Cloudchaser reassured herself. “What do you guys think?”

“I think Spitfire's really mean to me,” Snowflake whimpered.

Flowershine interjected, whispering to the group. “I heard she's actually a real softie.”

“Really?” Thunderlane deadpanned. “And who told you that?”

She rolled her eyes, backing up a bit. “I'm just trying to lighten the mood.”

The cadets continued to stretch out, talking about anything other than the workout they were about to do. It helped calm their nerves, and steady their breathing. When they saw Spitfire start to fly back towards them, they all lined up, silent once again. As with any game, race, or match, the suspense started to push them over the edge.

The instructors walked up and paired themselves up with each cadet.  Somepony needed to count reps, and make sure that no cadet would cheat.

“Ten seconds!” Spitfire yelled.

Raindrops peeked her head forward, speaking just louder than a whisper. “Good luck, everypony.”

“Good luck, man.”

“I'm scared...”

Spitfire looked back to her stopwatch, watching the needle click back into place. After starting the stopwatch again, she flicked the whistle up with a hoof, and sounded off for cadets to begin.

In a heartbeat, they were off.

It was a mad scramble towards the start line of the track. Rainbow Dash made it there first, and sprinted down the track faster than any other had planned. Cloudchaser and Thunderlane drafted slightly behind ponies when they found the opportunity. A hundred metres wasn't too much to fly. Then again, a shuttle flight would have them fly back to the start, then repeating this four more times. This one set could be seen as a 'kilometre-long sprint'.

The brown-coated instructor gaped at Rainbow Dash's speed. She cleared the shuttle flights before most cadets had finished their second rep. It was onto the power cleans for her. Grinning from her success at the track, she excitedly sprinted towards the padded area with the barbells. Her instructor struggled to not slow her down.

She glanced around at the assortment of barbells, they looked pretty heavy. Not that they weren't supposed to be, but it looked like too much for anyone that wasn't Snowflake. Shaking the thoughts away, she set herself near the closest one and wrapped her hooves around it. Ripping it from the ground, she stood on her hind legs and heaved it up to her shoulders as her waist dipped a bit lower. She dropped it back onto the ground, exhaling deeply. It was more than she expected, at least for a pony as light as she was.

Whatever. This is nothing... I think.

Once more, she grabbed the bar and heaved it up. Dropped it, grabbed it, lifted it, dropped, grabbed, lifted, drop, grab, lift, drop.

“Five, keep it goin'.”

Rainbow Dash continued, working with the disproportionally larger barbell which would make the most unnerving sound when it hit the ground. Before she knew it, Thunderlane and his spotter had already arrived at the barbells.

She peeked over to see how he was doing. He was winded, panting from the shuttle sprints, but he seemed to be pounding out the power cleans without much struggle. To her, that meant he was catching up.

“Two more to go, what are you waiting for?” Rainbow's spotter asked as she frantically gripped the barbell. “One more.” Grab, lift, drop. She blew out a large breath with that rep. “Good good good, let's go.”

As Rainbow flew away to the pull-up bars, every cadet had at the least, started their power cleans. Snowflake was the last to reach the barbells, which he was relieved, almost happy to see. His spotter burst out laughing as he watched the bodybuilder speed through the reps without any noticeable resistance. He was a monster, the heavy mass was but a toy to him.

“Doing good, keep it up buddy,” he chuckled. Snowflake was relieved to have an instructor not yell at him. He disliked being yelled at more than he disliked cardio.

Ponies gradually phased out towards the pull-up bars where the faster athletes already were. As time passed, Milky Way and Flowershine were the last ones still at the barbells, taking their time in an attempt at pacing.

As Cloudchaser gracefully pulled herself over the bar, she could see Rainbow Dash just having finished her set. Her spotter nodded, and the two took off to the next station. The golden coated pony next to her, Raindrops, she thought her name was, had been doing reps much faster than Cloudchaser would try to. She knew better than to let others throw her off her pace.

“Pick up the pace, let's go!” she heard Spitfire scream in the distance. In just seconds had the two ponies stuck at the power cleans caught up with the rest of the group. Spitfire fluttered closer to the bars. “Getting tired, Cloudchaser?”

“No ma'am!” she shouted. She still had some breath left over, she was set in pacing, at least for a small while.

Spitfire moved on, examining everypony else. “Snowflake! Wider grip, you're bending the bar! I know you're not pushing yourself hard enough Flowershine!”

“Done, keep moving,” Cloudchaser's spotter said. She quickly dismounted and took to her wings towards the next set of barbells. These ones were even heavier. Why couldn't squats ever be easy? She could see a couple ponies already there, but Rainbow Dash was nowhere in sight.

Only the fourth set, and Cloudchaser was already getting winded. At the least, she wasn't the only one. She slowed the flapping of her wings, descending onto the ground next to the barbells. This wasn't like high-school, nothing like it, and with Rainbow Dash on the field, she definitely wasn't going to finish first like she always used to. Still, giving it her best wasn't out of question.

It never was.