//------------------------------// // You need a montage // Story: Heart of the storm // by Sebbaa //------------------------------// You need a montage His third breakfast was the hardest he ever had. Three bowls of oatmeal after his enormous second breakfast. He almost threw up. But lucky he, when he was just starting the third bowl, all the while being motivated by Rainbow Dash shouting insults in his ear, they were interrupted. A very classy looking white unicorn mare with the most impossible purple mane came by their table. “Good morning Rainbow Dash. And you must be Stormheart. Good morning to you too.” she greeted them most formal. Storm was at a loss of words. Who was she? And why did she know his name? To his relief, Rainbow spoke up. “Oh. Morning Rarity! What are you up to?” “My, I was just going to the market, when I saw the two of you.” the white mare answered. “I wanted to thank Stormheart here personally for saving my little sister.” she explained trotting over to the still baffled pegasus. Without warning she gave him a big kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for saving Sweetie Belle.” she said. Storm blushed heavily. He could even fell his ears become red. Why did everypony have to thank him for what he did? He let his ears sink and looked away bashful. “It was nothing. Everypony had done the same.” he pressed out, his voice barely more than a whisper. Rarity had to chuckle at his behavior. Young colts were sometimes so adorable. She decided not to make him any more uncomfortable. So she turned too leave. With a mischievous smile she talked to Rainbow Dash while passing her: “Oh how modest he is! A true hero AND gentlecolt I say.” The pegasus mare shot her an angry glare. “You done spoiling my recruit? Because we got some serious Royal Army training to get back to!” she said annoyed. But that only managed to greatly amuse Rarity. “Oh, I bet you do.” she chuckled. “I won't keep you any longer. Have a good day you two!” she said for goodbye more cheerful than anypony had a right to be. That annoyed Rainbow Dash to no end. She gritted her teeth. What was Rarity implying? No matter! There was some bone crushing training to get back into. She was sure she would feel better after shouting a bit more at her new recruit. Stormheart did not fully understand, what was going on, but it was obvious that the two mares knew each other well. He shook his head to clear his stupor and set to motion. Rainbow Dash was preoccupied with her friend. He took the chance and poured the last oatmeal under his pile of hay and sat back on top. He put the bowl to his muzzle, just at the right moment before Rainbow Dash turned around and saw him. He faked a few swallows, than he put the bowl down and patted his stomach. “All done!” he exclaimed. Dash stared at him for a second in disbelieve. Than she shrugged her wings and put on her drill sergeant face. “THATS VERY GOOD RECRUIT, BECAUSE WE HAVE NO MORE TIME TO WASTE ON YOU STARING AT YOUR RATIONS!” she shouted. With a gust of wind she took to the air and hovered a few meters above ground. “SEEING HOW YOUR SORRY WEAK WING STILL HAS NOT RECOVERED FROM YOUR LITTLE ROUGH LANDING, WE START WITH A FORCED MARCH.” Normally Stormheart would be mad being yelled at, but somehow with Rainbow Dash doing it, acting like a drill sergeant from the REA, it was a little fun. He quickly got on his hooves and started cantering in the direction she was leading. “YES MA'AM! GLADLY MAM!” he shouted back and could not help but grin a little. It turned out, he really did not know what he had gotten himself into. At the end of the day they arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, where Rainbow Dash finally let him off. “Good, here we are. Nothing like a thirty mile marsh to get the blood flowing. Your are released for the rest of the day recruit. See you tomorrow.” With that she was off. Storm had barely enough strength left to greet Applejack who looked rather surprised at him arriving with Rainbow Dash. As soon as he had dragged his body into his bed and his head hit the pillow, he was fast asleep. Next morning he was woken by a sharp whistling and fell out of the bed, his ears ringing. “GOOD MORNING RECRUIT! YOU HAVE THIRTY MINUTES TO GET YOURSELF READY, THEN WE HEAD OUT!” sure enough it was Rainbow Dash who had woken him. Somewhere she had found a whistle and a red barrette. She would have looked stupid, her sight making him laugh, had she not had fierce determination burning in her eyes. This way she managed to look terrifying. He quickly gained his hoofs and headed for the bathroom. Thirty five minutes later he was outside. It had turned out, that Dash had let the Applefamily in on her scheme and they had prepared his breakfast at her instructions. Three bowls of oatmeal with apples and nuts, a glass of milk and a whole bucket of water to wash it all down. They were all greatly amused at the sight of the young colt trying to down all that food before his time ran out. It was hard not to laugh. He had somehow managed to eat it all, but he was still five minutes late. He could tell by the dissatisfied look on the face of his drill sergeant. He lowered his ears and prepared for the worst. “RECRUIT, YOU ARE FIVE MINUTES LATE! IF THAT HAPPENS AIGAN TOMORROW, YOU ARE ON LATRINE DUTY FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK! DID I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR” Maybe Rainbow was enjoying the whole drill thing a little too much. It was all she could do not to burst out in laughter but keep an angry face all the time. “YES MA'AM! CRYSTAL CLEAR MAM!” Storm answered saluting with his hoof. Slowly he was getting used to all the shouting. “GOOD! THAN I CAN LET YOU OFF EASY FOR TODAY RECRUIT. A HUNDRED PUSHUPS! NOW! AND PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT!” It was save to say, that the following days had been the hardest in his life. But perhaps the most fun days too. Rainbow Dash had carefully planned out all of his training. That did also include meals and resting times. But Storm could swear, if it had been possible for him to rest more effectively with Rainbow shouting at him, she would have done exactly that. To his happy surprise, the training did not consist exclusively of military drill. No quite the contrary. Rainbow had planned a wagon load of different activities. She must have asked Fluttershy about his medical condition, because there was no flight training as of yet. The training included watering plants at the farm, plowing a field and bucking apples. Later he was horribly bad at. Only on his last day did he manage to actually buck one apple from a tree. It earned him a lot of happy laughter and applause, but he was just not built to buck trees. Sometimes the Cutie Mark Crusaders would join him in his training. Meaning they took over for Rainbow Dash and shouted him down in her place. He didn't know if he should laugh or whine at jumping to the commands of three little fillies. Fillies who were shouting, that he had sorry small weak haunches. Another time a pink earth pony appeared out of nowhere when he was force marching with saddlebags full of stones. To his great irritation she jumped around him and asked what he was doing, if he was new, asked his name and introduced herself as Pinkie Pie. She seemed to be acquainted with Rainbow though. Dash explained to her, that he was training. At that the pink pony giggled and joined in. Out of nowhere she had gotten her own pair of saddle bags, hers full of balloons. Furthermore his training did include flight theory, yoga and meditation. For all of that, they visited the town library. The librarian, also an acquaintance of Rainbow, was a lavender coated unicorn mare named Twilight Sparkle. And she had a bucking dragon as a familiar! Sure, it was just a baby and she called him her assistant. But Storm had read enough stories about Starswirl the Bearded and other famous figures of legend to know that mages kept familiars, creatures that were magically bound to them to do their bidding. And a dragon just happened to be the most powerful familiar he had ever heard about. What kind of super Ursa Major vanquishing mage must the mare be to have a dragon familiar? So he was quite surprised to find her to be one of the most kind and modest of ponies he knew. Truth be told, the lessons with her were the most relaxing in all off his training, because Rainbow kept falling asleep five minutes into them. And he actually enjoyed the meditation lessons. He had the feeling that his senses got sharper and his perception wider, when he managed to clear his mind of all confusing thoughts and emotions. It's way had been long and it had lost even more of it's power. Shed along endless miles of travel. But now it had arrived. A place of ancient magic. A place where the animals fared for themselves and clouds moved on their own. Here they would rest. The land would restore their power. Then the swarm would rise and the world itself would shake from their voice once more. Special thanks to Mobius of the Moon for proofreading.