Grrr
It was about 6:00 in the evening when Soarin and Rainbow Dash met up in the gym. Since Soarin had promised to teach her all the tricks he used as Weaver in the past, Rainbow was feeling a bit excited.

“So, what’s first?” she asked eagerly after taking off her hot practice uniform.

“Well,” Soarin began, “as you know, on the Wonderbolts, a Weaver is the pony that flies through the obstacle courses, et cetera, et cetera.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Rainbow said impatiently. “What exercises should I do? How do I work on my turns? What time do I have to beat? That’s the kind of stuff I need to know.”

“Well, I’m the trainer here,” Soarin told her, pointing to himself importantly. “*I _decide what we’re doing first.” He thought back to his own training. “I think we’ll start with weight flying.”

“Uh, don’t we do that already?” Rainbow asked. Every day in the warm up, the Bolts flew around with weights tied to their hooves.

“Eh, it’s sort of like that,” Soarin replied vaguely, heading over to one of the weight closets. He came back out, carrying a couple saddlebags. Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

“Saddlebags?” she asked, a little confused. Soarin dropped them on the ground with a loud _thud*.

“Yep. Strap ‘em on!” he said, picking them up. He didn;t look like he was straining much, so when the weight came crashing down on Rainbow’s back, she fell flat on the ground.

“Oof!” she gasped. “What the hay is in those?!”

“Lead,” Soarin said, tightening the belt around her waist. “Stand up, please.” Rainbow managed to climb to her hooves, but it was hard.

“Am I supposed to fly with these?” she asked, incredulous. “I can barely walk with them!”

“You’re not just gonna fly with them,” Soarin told her, walking over to the wall. “You’re going to weave with them, too.” He pulled a lever on the wall and an array of hoops and bars lowered from the high ceiling. “Up you go,” he said, scooping her up and tossing her in the air.

“AH!” Rainbow flapped her wings like crazy, aiming for one of the hoops. She dove towards it, then remembered how heavy she was now as she plummeted past it, banging her head on it. “Ow.” She tried a few of the other obstacles, but had pretty much the same results. “How the hay am I supposed to do this?!” she demanded. “I can barely stay up!!”

“If you practice for a couple hours every day with those, your wings will get much stronger and you’ll have more control over your movements,” Soarin explained. “Keep flapping!”

---

Two hours later, Rainbow landed on the ground, panting heavily. “Are (pant pant) we (gasp) done yet (pant)?”

“Yep,” Soarin replied, landing next to her. He had been flying the course a bit as well.

“Good! These things are killing my hips!” Rainbow gasped.

“Well, they can’t make your hips look bad,” Soarin commented.

“What?”

“Nothing! Ah, I’ll take these,” he said, grabbing the bags and carrying them into the closet. Rainbow watched him.

“How can you carry them sop easily?” she asked in wonder as he returned.

“I’ve been doing weight lifting every day for the past several months,” he explained. “It’s helped me with my flying a lot.”

“Oh.” The two walked out of the gym and headed for the barracks. Rainbow suddenly blinked. “Wait. Did you say my hips-”

“Look, there’s Spitfire!” Soarin galloped away to say hello to his friend, leaving Rainbow in a cloud of confusion.

---

More shipping!!! I really love these two. They’re adorable!

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