Connor
Connor let out a loud yawn as he trudged his way to the usual field he and rainbow liked to practice at. The morning air after yesterday’s trip felt cool against his skin as it slowly helped him wake up from his usual zombified state. The train ride back from Appleloosa had given him ample time to think over the events of the competition and Rainbow Dash. But even with that much time, he still wasn’t sure how to think about it.
On one hoof, Connor really wanted to condemn Rainbow for her behavior and unfavorable sportsmanship. But in the other, there was the fact that Dash watched his back during the bar fight; and that part confounded him. To have somepony watching his back felt weird and foreign and, curiously comforting. Curiosity wanted him to see more of this strange phenomenon, but doing that felt like admitting being wrong in his actions; and Connor knew for a fact that wasn’t true. He gave up trying to dwell over that back-and-forth conundrum in his mind last night. There were other priorities that needed more attention, like his next week of training with Rainbow Dash.
The grass rustled softly under his hooves as a summer breeze blew through the empty fields. Connor closed his eyes and breathed in deeply trying to take in the tranquility that was the early morning hours. That breeze, however, exploded into a ferocious gust of wind forcing Connor to flatten himself against the ground.
“FFFFFFFFF-AWDGE!!!” he swore stupidly.
“You’re LATE!!” a voice yelled over the roaring wind in his ears and he peeked through an eyelid at a familiar rainbow colored hair and a pair of angry magenta eyes glaring at him. “Do you know what time it is!?”
Connor sighed as he peeled himself off the grassy knoll; “Its morning?” his answer came out more as a question rather than a statement.
“Its 9:11 in the morning right now, you’re over ten minutes late!” Dash bellowed, “Do you even know what kind of training we could have been doing in that time?”
“Eh,” Connor shrugged to himself, “Close enough.” He wasn’t too eager to be on time today after what had happened the day before. Though, it didn’t look like Rainbow was too affected from yesterday’s events.
“I’ve got a brand new training program for you that will make you ready to take on any kind of weather they can try to throw at us in Canterlot! You’ll be bustin’ through clouds and kicking through lightning in no time!” Rainbow Dash folded her forelegs proudly.
“Well, good morning to you too,” Connor mumbled out before blearily scanning the rest of the field. He furrowed his brow as an orange blob came into view. “Hey Scootaloo; what’re you doing up this early in the morning? And when did you get here? Last time I saw you was…” He tried to recall through his still groggy mind.
The young Pegasus rolled her eyes, “Since you ditched me after making Paint Wars; and I’ve been standing here the whole time!”
Connor cringed at that jab. “Sorry.”
“Whatever, I know you were busy with it and having to deal with that meanie, Sportsen.” She waved dismissively and smiled. “Rainbow Dash specifically asked me to help out with today’s training and I couldn’t say no to that! I wouldn’t want to miss a single minute of training with Dash!” she bounced energetically.
She leaned in a little closer to whisper to Connor. “Plus, we’re going to Sugar Cube Corner afterwards as thanks!” Connor smirked and shared a hoof bump with her.
Connor turned back his drill instructor. “So what are we practicing today?” Rainbow’s eyes glinted; she coiled up then blasted by Connor again making him slide back a few paces.
“Fffff-ob!!” he grunted a second time as Dash circled back around. “This has got to be one the worst awakening I’ve ever had!” he thought as the roaring and ringing in his ears slowly subsided.
“Today is the first day of Rainbow’s special ‘Worst Weather Patterns’ training, cadet; or WWP for short!” she announced while pulling out a whistle and cap.
“Does it constantly require trying to blow me off my hooves…?!” Connor stuck a hoof in his ear trying to get the last of the ringing to stop, “And did you spend all night trying to come up with that name?”
“Quiet, Connor!” Scootaloo hissed, “I want to hear this part!”
“This is a special program that I came up with to make anypony ready to fly in the worst possible weather in just one week! During your training, you will be put up against the worst storm clouds and winds so strong they will literally throw you all the way to Canterlot!”
“Cool,” Connor sarcastically thought, “It will save me the effort of having to flying there.”
“After this training, you can be ready to rock n’ roll in any kind of weather they might try to throw at us in the tournament! Plus, I wouldn’t mind practicing some new tricks with some of the clouds we’ll be using.”
Scootaloo stared up starry eyed; “Whhoooooaaaaaaa…! So awesome…!”
Connor rolled his eyes at Rainbow’s overenthusiastic idolizer and yawned. “So what is the first training exercise?”
“Today is going to be about heavy winds and random gusts! I’m going to fly around and whip up some nasty winds for you while you try to fly through a few routines that I made.” Rainbow pounded her chest, “Meanwhile, Scootaloo is going to be using this, fan, thingy, here to see how strong the winds you are flying in.”
Scootaloo nodded; “Yep! I’ll be using this anemometer here to keep track of how fast the winds are and writing them down on this paper! Rainbow wants me to keep a record of how fast she’s going and how you’re flying so she can see how well you’re doing during the training.”
“And where did you get the fan?” Connor inquired.
“From twilight’s lab,” Scootaloo stated without hesitation.
“So was it asked for, or ‘borrowed’ without telling?” he pondered to himself.
~~~
Meanwhile in Golden Oaks Library, Twilight was searching her downstairs storage closet where she put all of her small test equipment. She shifted through box after box searching for on particular piece of equipment she was going to use for her current experiment she was studying on her own time. She grumbled to herself as she went through the current box for a third time in a row.
“Spike!” she called from inside the box, “Spike, do you know where the anemometer is!? I can’t seem to find it!”
“The what!?” the purple dragon called back from outside the closet.
“The anemometer! You know, the fan we use to measure how fast the wind is blowing! We used it a long time ago when we had the Wonderbolts come by about needing to use Ponyville to supply the rainbow factory with water from one of our lakes!” She let out another sigh of exasperation and tossed the box back on the shelf to search another box.
Spike poked his head inside. “No, I have no idea where it is. By the way, have you seen some of our quills and paper? I thought we had more than what we have right now?”
Twilight shook her head. “No, but we can always get more from the store. I would just like to find the anemometer.” She scratched her head trying to remember where she might have left it. She left the closet as Spike was finishing up his chore of sweeping the floor. “Come on, why don’t we go shopping for a bit as a break. There are some groceries we need to restock and we can always pick up some more quill and paper. Maybe I’ll remember where I left it when we come back.”
“Awesome!” Spike dropped the broom in his claws and jumped onto Twilight’s back eager to leave some of his chores. A shopping list levitated in front of him to hold on as Twilight’s magic opened the front door.
~~~
Connor hummed to himself for a moment letting the knowledge roll around in his head. He paused as he stared at the instrument next to Scootaloo as a devious thought formed in his brain. “Hey Rainbow,” the hint of a smirk forming on his lips, “How fast was that last wind?”
“Huh?” Rainbow rubbed the back of her neck, “Uuhh, it would be, umm; actually, I might say it was about, uhm-”
“Twenty two flaps per hour!” Scootaloo jumped in like she got the right answer on a quiz.
“Uh, yeah!” Rainbow Dash clapped her hooves, “That’s what it was; Twenty two flaps an hour! It’s so easy to make a wind like that, even Scootaloo could do it in her sleep.” She winked at the little filly who beamed at the compliment.
“Oh really…?” Connor shuffled a little closer to the device. “Okay then, how fast is this?” Connor swung his wing in front of the fan and it whirred quietly as the wind spun its fins. Rainbow Dash gulped as she stared at the wind speed fan for second.
“Well, um, the wind you just blew with your wing was, um, about, probably-”
“Three flaps per hour!” Scootaloo chirped.
“Yeah!” Rainbow brightened, “Three flaps per hour!”
“And how about this one?” Connor leaned down and blew on the fan like a pinwheel. The fan slowly rotated from the force of the breath for a few seconds, then came to a stop. Connor glanced up expectantly.
It was like watching an ill prepared student trying to pull the answers out of test questions through sheer will power. Rainbow Dash was scrutinizing every inch of the fan hoping to find something that might tell her the answer.
Scootaloo took a quick glance at the instrument. “Two flaps per hour!” she stuck out her chest confidently.
“Having a little trouble there, Rainbow?” Connor raised his eyebrow even higher trying to maintain his composure.
“Look, it’s not my job to know how fast the winds are going, alright?” she folded her forelegs again and lifted her nose, “I’m just supposed to make sure you can fly in them.”
“So what you’re saying is,” Connor rolled his head to peer at Rainbow with a smug grin and a twinkling eye, “Scootaloo is smarter than you because she knows how to read measuring instruments and you don’t?”
……...
A snort escaped Scootaloo’s mouth.
“Boooom!” Connor laughed and hoof pumped, “Rrrrrroasted!!”
“Sh-Shut up!” Rainbow flattened her ears, “I can read it just fine; I just haven’t done it in a long time! A few quick practice reviews and I could read it no problem!”
“That’s not the only thing you probably need to practice with!” Connor laughed.
“Hey, stop it! That’s not very nice!” Scootaloo gave a weak shove at Connor in defense of her hero, “Rainbow Dash is awesome and can be as smart as she wants to be! How come you can’t read it, huh?”
“Well, I haven’t learned your measurement system yet and I’ve only been here for a few weeks; so I have an excuse.” Connor motioned to Rainbow with his hoof, “She’s been here all her life and still doesn’t know how to measure speed.”
Scootaloo looked at him puzzled; “Only been here a few weeks…? Haven’t learned our measurement system yet? Didn’t you go to school when you were a colt, Connor?”
Connor’s pupils shrank at the realization of what he said. “Uuuuuhhhh-” he fumbled trying to think of a quick cover story.
“Alright, enough talking about egg-head stuff!” Rainbow butted into the argument and to the relief of Connor, “We gotta start training right now! We’re going to start with heavy winds first!” she rocketed off into the skies again leaving a cloud of dust.
“You should probably start studying mathematics while you’re at it too since you don’t know how to count miles per hour either!” he chastised after Rainbow Dash with a laugh. Scootaloo scowled at him which he returned the gesture with one of his own smirks.
WOOOOOOSHCHSHSHCHsshsshshsh!!!
The next gust of wind from Dash’s flyby actually blew Connor off his hooves and onto his back. He choked and hacked as his breath left his lungs.
“Thirty flaps per hour!!” Scootaloo screamed over the wind noise.
~~~
“Mnn-hmn-hmn-hmmnnnn” Connor moaned to himself again for the fourth time that morning. Every time he was training with Rainbow Dash, it felt like he was playing the wheel of misfortune and misery because he never knew what kind of ‘Training’ was going to happen. The last four days seemed especially cruel to him. The day after Rainbow Dash was creating hurricane gusts for him to fly in, she made another obstacle course for him to fly in; with a powerful tornado placed in the center of it.
And the next day, if he wasn’t trying to fly through an obstacle course while a tornado sat in the middle of the field blowing him around, Dash was having him try to fly through a foggy canyon while giant snake monsters popped out of the walls like whack-a-mole; except more deadly. He was wondering if any of this was ever going to show up in a public competition in front of the ruler’s castle, or if this was some kind of revenge plot against him on Rainbow’s part. Regardless if it did or didn’t show up, he needed help training and Rainbow Dash seemed like the only good flier to go to. So the only thing he could do was tough it out.
Today was the fourth day of training and the practice field was currently filled with, nothing. There weren’t any massive twisters dotting the ground or some kind of elaborate set up of clouds, nor were there any giant monsters he would have to avoid. The grassy carpet was bright green and unblemished by any crash landings or fallen debris with a tree or two stretching out their branches to the sky to greet the morning sun. A quiet wind rustled the leaves and grass blades; too quiet.
Something wasn’t right.
“Rainbow Dash!” Connor called out. His eyes scanned the field and the accompanying skies above while his ears swiveled every direction for noises. This didn’t sit right with him; not a single cloud in the sky or a rogue wind roaring by trying to knock him off his hooves? He took a few cautionary steps forward while keeping his head and ears on a swivel.
“Where is she?” he thought. “Rainbow Dash! Hey, Rainbo- GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH-GI-GI-GI-GI-GAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!”
“GOOOOOOD MORNING, CADET!” Rainbow Dash hovered looking proud of herself as she dropped a now empty water bucket on the ground. “I hope you had a good night sleep, because today we’re going to be working on flying in cold rain!”
Connor shivered dripping wet as he looked up at Rainbow; “Gi-, W-ha, W-has it really ne-necess-cessary to use freezing w-water!? Its summer time!” He shook his body like a dog hoping to shake off the cold still clinging to him. Another powerful shudder rocked Connor’s body as additional sets of hooves approached behind him.
“Morning, y’all!” Apple Bloom called. “Howdy, Connor!”
He turned to see Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle all totting several pails of what looked like water with ice cubes over flowing the rims in a little pull-wagon and on their backs. “We brought as many buckets of water as we could like Scootaloo said,” Sweetie Belle said, “But why do we need all this ice? It’s not going to keep all the buckets cold for long, and it’s just going to melt into water again.”
“It’s not for us, silly!” Scootaloo called on her scooter, “It’s obviously for Rainbow Dash and Connor’s training! Just like why we needed to make all of these water balloons and put them in the freezer; for training!” she hoof pumped.
“And then we all get t’go to Sugar Cube Corner later, right?” Scootaloo elbowed Apple Bloom quiet and gave a scowling Rainbow Dash a wide, toothy grin.
Rainbow Dash groaned, “Fine; we can all go…” The three fillies let out silent cheers and exchanged high hooves. “But everypony has to earn it! You all have to help with today’s training plan of cold rain flying if I’m taking all three of you!”
Connor glowered at an unabashed Rainbow still dripping wet. “Look, we need you ready to fly in anything the competition might throw at you; and rain is definitely a big possibility!” she pointed with her hoof at him while resting the other on her saddle bags.
“Yeah, that’s what you said about the last few natural disasters like tornados, hurricane winds, the canyon eels, the mile-high cloud maze where you threw cloud bits in my face trying to knock me out…!” Connor rubbed his arms and ruffled his feathers for warmth.
“Well, this is the biggest, most important thing that you will have to learn before flying in Canterlot.”
“Well if it was the most important thing to learn, why didn’t we start with that in the first place?!” Connor threw his hoof exasperatedly. “You think that would have been a really important detail.”
“Ah, details, shm’etails,” Rainbow brushed off, “It’s part of your training!”
“And does my ‘Training’ require dumping ice buckets on me?”
“Think of it as a challenge to not get hit,” she smiled menacingly. “ANOTHER BUCKET!”
“Wha-GAAAAAAHHHH-HAH-HAH-HAAAAAAH!!!” He shot daggers at the three giggling fillies behind him holding another frosty bucket. His teeth chattered as he tried to suck air into his lungs while soaking wet.
“Alright, Let’s Get Training!!”
~~~
“Come on; Use the wind to stop the water from fogging your goggles! And focus on me while you’re flying!”
Connor barrel rolled again and broke left as hard as he could as another icy water balloon sailed past his tail. He craned his head left and right trying to keep his opponent in sight, but the water streaking across his lenses were not aiding in his challenge. Coupled with the fact that he was still freezing his butt off in the air, it was making it pretty difficult to focus on anything except himself and how cold he was.
“Alright, that’s enough! Another bucket!” Connor growled at Dash’s command as he dove for the makeshift pit stop for ice water dumping. The crusaders cheered as he skidded into the stop and they went to work.
Squeak, squeak, sqeeeeeaak!
“You can do this Connor!” Sweetie Belle squealed as she wiped the goggles clean with a towel, “Just stay focused on Rainbow Dash and you’ll do great!”
SPLASSSSSHHHH!!!!
Another bucket of ice water was dumped over Connor by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. A growl rumbled from Connor’s throat as he fought through the cold; he had lost count how many buckets had been dumped on him.
“Keep at it, Connor!” Apple Bloom encouraged.
“Yeah!” Scootaloo added, “This is nothing to you! You can make it!”
“RRRRMMM-HMM-HMMMM, mm-hmm!” He growled back before shaking himself off like a dog and taking to the skies again. Another cold water balloon pelted him in the right side as he regained some altitude sending another paralyzing shock through his body.
“Come on! Don’t quit now just because you’re cold! We’re almost done with phase 2; after that we can break for lunch!” Rainbow Dash shouted through Connor’s fuzzy and shivering mind.
Connor gritted his teeth against the cold and water logged wings as he broke the paralysis trying to send him into a collision course with Twilight’s tree house. Whatever Dash was trying to teach him, it was getting ridiculous. What exactly was she trying to teach him here? Was it learning how to trap more heat in his body? Was he forcing his body to learn to start generating more heat within itself at all times for when Connor might fly through some rain? Or was it just simply some tough love and learning how to ignore the cold?
He twisted his head behind him trying to get a bead on where Rainbow Dash was, but she was nowhere in sight. A particularly cold water balloon hit him just above his shoulder blades and his entire body practically seized in midflight. Dash’s familiar cackle rang out above him along with the horrible noise of his teeth chattering again for the umpteenth time that day.
“Okay, that’s enough!” Connor rolled inverted and dove for the crusaders and the pit stop. The sound of Dash’s wings could be heard behind him while the three fillies screamed and scattered in front of him. Just as he was about to hit the ground, Connor pulled back and grabbed a few water balloons of his own.
He looked back again to see Rainbow Dash grinning at the prospective fight coming. Connor barrel rolled again as a second balloon whizzed down the center of his roll. He pulled back into a zoom climb trailing Rainbow behind; he stalled letting Rainbow zoom past him. Now it was his turn to return the icy favor.
~~~
“This has to be the most awesomest training session ever in the history of training sessions!” Scootaloo yelled at the top of her lungs.
“You betcha!” Apple Bloom whooped, “I’m glad y’all asked me to help out yesterday! Otherwise I would have missed seein’ Connor shakin’ in his hooves today!”
“You think that Connor might be getting just a little bit cold?” Sweetie Belle asked the other two with a raised eyebrow.
The others glanced at each other for a second. “Naaaaah…!” The three giggled and laughed at their joke. While they were having a lot of fun helping Rainbow Dash and Connor train, they were also hoping that this might give them their cutie marks as personal trainers. But right now, they did mind having a few fun moments. Plus, they were supposed to get sweets afterwards, too!
Connor and Rainbow had been putting up a great show for them all morning! Scootaloo was loving every moment of watching her idol and personal hero swoop and slice and dive as she trained Connor in extreme weather. That’s not to say it wasn’t fun dumping cold water on him every so often. Even though everypony was encouraging him to keep going, the crusaders were struggling to stifle their laughter at seeing him shake like a poor leaf in a heavy wind desperately hanging onto its branch.
“Look out!!” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked skyward to see a sopping wet, blue Pegasus diving for them. They all screamed as Connor swooped by with Rainbow trailing behind him. The bucket holding all the spare water balloons got knocked over with a few of its contents now missing.
“Everypony okay?” Apple Bloom asked risking to peek up from her prone position on the ground.
“Alright! Another Paint Wars match!!” Scootaloo cheered.
“Huh?” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked up again as the two adult pegasi started trading shots. “Again?” Sweetie Belle exasperated, “But this happened last time when we were doing those super strong winds!”
“Uhh, was this supposed to be part of the training today?” Apple Bloom asked, “Because that was some pretty close flyin’ in my book.”
“Who cares? This is too awesome to stop!” Scootaloo had her eyes glued to the amazing, aerial spectacle above. Connor was on his back trying to lob a water balloon up at Rainbow Dash. The balloon missed by miles and sailed way over head. “Wow, I wish I could fly around like that…” she mumbled.
A yellow hoof wrapped around the orange filly. “Don’t worry, Scootaloo; we’ll get ya up there somehow even if it means we have t’build some kind of contraption to do it!”
“Yeah!” Sweetie Belle jumped in, “And we can make sure you have the coolest contraption ever! Whatever that contraption may be.”
Scootaloo smiled sheepishly, “Thanks, you guys.”
“Apple Bloooom!!”
There was a collective moan as the older sister of Apple Bloom strolled up behind them. The three turned around to face Applejack. “Hey there, Applejack! What’re you doing here?” Scootaloo asked.
“I was ‘bout to ask ya the same thing,” Applejack smiled.
“We were just watching Rainbow Dash and Connor practicing for the tournament in a couple of days. Rainbow Dash wanted us to help out with their training!” Sweetie Belle answered.
“Well you can help out a little bit later. Apple Bloom, ya still have some chores t’do before you can come back and play with yer friends.”
“AWWWWWW!!!” The crusaders faces fell to pout at the ground, their ears all lying flat at the mere thought of having to do chores. “But Applejack, I wanna stay and watch! I don’t wanna do my chores right now; can’t I do’em later?”
“No buts, missy,” Applejack stomped her hoof, “You can come back ‘n play once all yer chores are do-”
“Heads Up!!!”
The group glanced up just in time for Applejack to get smashed in the face with the Hail Mary balloon Connor had tossed earlier. There was a collective gasp as everypony froze in terror at the farm pony sputtering and shivering from the cold before glaring up at the petrified pegasi. Rainbow Dash raised a hoof at Connor who gawked and pointed a hoof back.
Applejack opened her mouth to say something when she noticed the balloons strewn across the ground. She smirked; Applejack scooped up two balloons with her tail into the air, twirled around and bucked both balloons. They rocketed through the air and hit both Connor and Rainbow Dash in the face knocking them out of the air.
Everypony started laughing as Dash and Connor peeled themselves off the ground from being shot down. They stared at Applejack looking proud of herself with the three fillies rolling in the grass laughing at her hooves. The two exchanged a silent conversation before turning back with evil grins of their own. Applejack gulped as the two stood up and cocked back their own water balloons to throw.
Applejack dove to the side as two water missiles shot past her. The farmer pony grinned at the challenge and returned fire. Apple bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle screamed and shouted as an all-out, free-for-all, water balloon fight erupted amongst everypony!
~~~
Connor scrubbed at his eye the next morning as he drearily trotted to the field where Rainbow Dash was waiting for him again. He smiled and waved at the mare who returned the wave back as he approached.
“Morning, Connor!” Rainbow called, “You ready for another awesome day of training?”
Connor let another yawn reverberate out of his mouth before smiling; “Actually Dash, I was hoping to take today off to go and visit Canterlot.”
“What?!” Rainbow recoiled, “You want to skip out on today?! But the competition is tomorrow, and we have the most important part of my training routine to do!”
“I know, and I appreciate that. But I feel that I need to visit the city at least one time before the competition to get a feel for the playing field before we have to fly tomorrow; you know, test the corners and see what I might be able to do.” He glanced at the field as a miniature hurricane storm rumbled over the field complete with lightning sparking between clouds and an obstacle course placed in the windiest part of the hoof made storm.
“Come on, what kind of training is that going to be? You’re just going to take a walk around the castle and look at all the sights again; and then when the competition comes, you’ll be wishing you spent that last day training with me instead of touring Canterlot again.” Dash rolled her eyes.
“No, I’ll be testing the streets for opportunities to hit my opponents or make them over shoot; it’s a little something I picked up from Sour Patch.” Connor yawned again.
“Really? You want to go do that?” Connor finished his yawn and nodded. Rainbow sighed; “Fine, but I’m telling ya, it would be better to do this instead of checking the city out.” She motioned at her master piece as lightning struck the ground and thunder roared in their ears.
Connor gulped. “I think I’ll pass; but thanks anyways.”
“Whatever,” Rainbow shrugged. Connor let out a silent sigh and cheer to himself as Rainbow Dash took off to dispel the storm that was spitting lightning more frequently now. Connor waved goodbye and took off to head for the major city of Canterlot and the next playing field in the paint wars tournament.