//------------------------------//
// 2 - Training Begins 
// Story: Bullets of Fire 
// by BlackWater 
//------------------------------//









Eighty...five...eighty..six...” Spitfire counted in heaves as she felt about ready to pass out. In fact, she did. One bucket of cold water later and she awoke to a very skeptical-looking Princess.
“You need to do at least a hundred wing-ups today or else you’ll never improve fast enough,” Celestia commented gravely as Spitfire got back on her hooves. Her wings were shaking from the stress.
“I would have no problem doing a hundred normal wing-ups. How am I supposed to do that many if I’m lifting my whole body?” the pegasus complained even as she continued wheezing from lack of breath. Normally a wing-up was just a push-up using the wings instead of the front hooves. Celestia however had the ‘Bolt lifting her entire body (including all four hooves) using only her two wings. Using them to fly was one thing but using them for pure weight lifting was another. The physical stress was intense and she almost wished for death.
“Well that’s just what it takes to get the necessary thrust for the stunt. Actually, one hundred is just your first goal. It takes about five hundred to ignite.”
Spitfire just stared at the alicorn in both disbelief and horror. Celestia took the cue to wind things down. She did not, after all, want to scare off her latest hobby.
“Well it’s okay if you can’t quite reach that yet. Eighty-six was very good!”
“Ah...thanks, I guess,” Spitfire replied. It felt awkward for her to be praised by the Princess. After all, what greater praise could one get?
“But I can see how tense it made you,” Celestia motioned towards the pegasus’ wings. “We can’t let that knot your muscles or else you will be grounded for a week.”
Spitfire felt her blood chill. The thought of being grounded was horrifying. It would not only take away her job but also her freedom. Thankfully that fear was immediately dissipated by the alicorn’s next suggestion.
        “So we’ll start with some stretching. Copy what I do.”
        The orange mare hesitated at first when she saw her ruler begin to stretch in ways that she didn’t think possible. Celestia had bones in her body, right?
        She didn’t show it on the outside but on the inside the Princess was smirking. She was just showing off. “Well, are you going to follow?”
        “Y-yeah!” Spitfire berated herself. She had to keep up and so far she kept giving Celestia the impression that she was a gawker. After a while, however, she began to feel more relaxed and the stretches were almost soothing.
        “This is a routine that I learned from a pegasus a few hundred years ago. She was a physical therapist and stumbled onto some very effective methods for tension relief.”
        “I don’t think...” Spitfire stopped and watched Celestia stretch her wings to the ground while lifting her rear hooves over her back. It didn’t look right. Joints shouldn’t be able to move in that direction...
        Noticing the mare’s abstainment, Celestia brought her limbs back around and gently grabbed Spitfire’s wings. “You won’t be able to go far until your muscles are more flexible. But you do need to learn this one because it will be crucial to relax your body after you pass two hundred fifty wing-ups.”
        She was being gentle and her voice was still elegant but Spitfire was getting nervous. The ‘Bolt’s orange wings were being guided by the alicorn to the absolute limit of their downward arc. The stretch was beginning to burn.
        “Don’t worry,” Celestia encouraged as she noted the mare’s worried expression. “It may burn a bit now but it won’t tense up your muscles more. Actually, it will relieve them.”
        When Celestia began to lift Spitfire’s rear hooves over her wings, she squeaked in terror. “Something wrong?” the royal asked.
        “Can I be frank with you?” Spitfire asked cautiously.
        “Of course. I thought that’s how I asked you to be when we started.”
        “...I don’t trust you.”
        “Oh?” Celestia giggled.
        “Uh...I mean I don’t trust this stretching. I’m scared my body is going to get stuck in this weird position.”
        “Well, I suppose we can pause here. At the very least you should remember where to stretch your wings.”
        “Celestia?”
        The Princess smiled at having her royal title left off. “Yes?”
        “Thanks.”
        Celestia sighed. Her rare and precious day off had been a surprising success - even if it wasn’t exactly as she expected it to be. It was refreshing to be doing something a bit different than her usual pastimes. Maybe it was nice because it reminded her of the lessons she used to teach Twilight Sparkle when she was still in Canterlot. 
“You feel better now?” the Princess asked in a calming tone.
Spitfire smiled in return. “My body feels like jello.”









        Win some, lose some. That was a saying that was probably used to the point of death. In retrospect, Spitfire hadn’t really lost anything. That was especially true now that she was watching Princess Luna’s spectacular night sky. Why anypony would be disinterested in it was beyond her. Of course, her own opinion might have been biased considering that she was sipping strawberry lemonade while lounging in Celestia’s private outdoor lighted spa. The bias was awesome.
        The keeper of the sun walked over and finally slid into the water. She had been momentarily delayed by some couldn’t-wait papers that needed signing. She let out a sigh of bliss as the spa’s bubble jets massaged away all of the day’s problems. Spitfire’s own sigh had been far greater when she first got in due to the strenuous exercising she had done.
        “Thanks again for letting me hang,” Spitfire grinned.
        “I hardly ever have company so it’s really nice to have somepony over.” Although she didn’t say it, that had been even more the case since she had sent Twilight out on her study of friendship. “The stars are beautiful aren’t they?” she continued.
        “Yeeaaah,” the orange mare’s voice droned out as her back was assaulted by the spa’s bubbling.
        Celestia giggled. She had been doing more of that ever since taking on Spitfire as her personal project and it was a welcome change for the immortal ruler. Although she tried to put on outward appearances, here day-to-day life was almost to the point of depressing. Her true smile returned now that she was thinking of her sister. “The stars are only this beautiful because of Luna. Having her back is...”
        Spitfire only nodded as Celestia trailed off. The Princess was obviously emotional about her family. The pegasus picked up on the mood and thought not to comment on the matter. She didn’t want to have the alicorn crying or anything like that.
        They just relaxed like that for a while and let the bubbles take away all worry. They were probably staying in longer than they should have because Celestia began to nod off. At that point, Spitfire was past relaxation and began getting bored. Thus begged the question, “Where’s the remote for this thing?”
        Celestia just nodded her head in the direction of the remote. Thankfully it was within reaching distance. Spitfire grabbed it and found the control for the bubble jets. “Time to take this baby up to eleven!”
        She cranked the dial.
        Looking back, it had probably been a bad idea. As they say, hindsight is 20-20. But there were sometimes those things in life that were bad decisions on the surface yet somehow resulted in some unforeseen good. Or perhaps that was just the effect of nostalgia.
        The air bubbles exploded into air bombs and the two mares were sent rocketing out of the spa and into the night sky they had admired some moments before. Luna waved at her sister as she passed by but was puzzled when she saw the orange pegasus trailing behind her...holding the remote to their spa.









        “Who built that spa?” Spitfire asked excitedly.
        “If you’re asking about the bubble jets then you can consider me the one,” Celestia replied. “The jets are from UniSpa, but I added my own magic to boost their power. The magic combination is actually something Star Swirl came up with. It was totally unrelated but I adapted it for the spa. Looking back I...can’t remember why I wanted to boost them so much...”
        “I bet it was because it was just plain fun. Now I can actually say that I’ve been launched out of a jacuzzi,” Spitfire couldn’t get over the absurdity of the statement. That and the fact that she survived a spa that Celestia modified with military-grade bomb magic.
        The Princess could only facehoof. “It’s getting late. We should turn in.”
        “Ah,” the ‘Bolt submitted.
        As they walked down the halls of the royal palace, a thought struck the alicorn. “Will you be staying in Canterlot for a while? I just remembered you have performances to continue and your training will take quite some time...”
        Spitfire beamed as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “Yeah, we have another one tomorrow afternoon and then we go over to a nearby town the following day. But we’ll be staying close to Canterlot for quite a while. Besides,” she paused for effect. “I’m the captain so I have a very strong say in where we go. Nobody would question us staying in Canterlot for a while since we have so many fans here - especially if I mentioned training for a new stunt.”
        “Perhaps it would be best not to mention me,” Celestia suggested.
        Spitfire’s expression wilted in response, “Why not?”
        The Princess didn’t want to admit that the news of her training a Wonderbolt would cause complications. She would be drowned in reporters and her latest “hobby” would inevitably take on political implications. In summary, her fun would be ruined. “Others might want to join in,” she decided to say. “I really can’t take on more than one...student.”
        “I...see,” Spitfire mused as she began thinking about what she was going to do. She would have to come up with some excuse as to where she was when Celestia was teaching her. The ‘Bolts had a mostly harmless but bad habit of spilling the beans to each other about what everypony did.
        That’s where they split ways. Celestia retreated into her own royal quarters while Spitfire continued down the hall to her room. It took her a few hours to calm down and settle into sleep. That night her dreams consisted of raging fires, exploding spas, and bad excuses.









        The only notable point for the following morning was that Celestia managed to slip away from her duties long enough to get Spitfire started on another training routine. Unlike the wing-ups, the new routine was purely about rhythm. The Princess had said something about getting the timing of the thrust right and the ‘Bolt captain tried to take her seriously on it. After spending a surprising amount of time on it, Spitfire finally got bored. Doesn’t matter, she told herself. The hours were growing long and she had to meet up with the other ‘Bolts for their afternoon show.
        Everything went exactly as she expected it too when she met up with the others. Misty met her first and practically monologued about what an awesome time she had the previous night.  Something about sneaking off to watch the latest movie from one of her closet-fan series...Spitfire did not share quite her level of enthusiasm on the matter.
        They started to join up with the others and Soarin’ almost knocked his captain down when he spotted her. “Where were you last night?” he asked with a worried tone.
        Fortunately, Misty answered for her and thus saved her from throwing out her barely-better-than-lame excuse. “She was practicing again. Probably did all night. You know Spitfire.”
        Soarin’ just squinted. “You take it easy boss. I don’t want to be stuck with these babies when something happens to you.”
        Fleetfoot, however, caught the jest. “That’s hilarious coming from you.”
        “Yeah,” Fire Streak agreed. “You might as well be one of those fancy restaurants...’cause you’re never short on whine.”
Only Blaze giggled while the others groaned. “You trying to say something?!” Soarin’ countered.
Spitfire took her cue to cool things down and get them on track. It was something she had become rather good at. Silently she thought it was impossible not to have such skills after captaining this bunch for so long. Thus they got started on their warm-up for their impending performance. None of the other ‘Bolts noticed at this point that their captain had a tinge more energy than she used to.