“So.” I asked, “Any questions?”

A silence remained. In previous training sessions, they had not been permitted to ask questions, only follow orders. It was only recently that they had been given permission to ask anything of me or the other drill instructors.

Lemon Stand was the first to speak up, which was not a surprise. As I had said before, she was a brave pony.

“Flight Admiral”, she asked addressing me by my rank within the ERNG, “Sir, you’ve said that she loved the sky.”

A pause, I nodded and she continued.

“But if I remember right, you haven’t said once in the story that she has expressed concern over losing her home for you.”

I considered it for a moment. Indeed, there had been no real place in my telling where she had really stared up at the sky from the ground wistfully, nor was there any indication that she was really truly in love with the clouds.

“Let me describe flight to you, then, as she described it to me many times. When you hear what she told me, you will understand why I knew that she would miss it so greatly.”

I cleared my throat.

“Flying to me, is like swimming in the deepest sea, freedom of movement being mine to explore and enjoy, the clouds as waves.” the crowd tilted its head as I continued, “It is as relaxing as it is exhilarating, and the sight of the evening sun washing over my town is as beautiful as the stained glass windows of Celestia’s castle in Canterlot. When the moon is full, the soft pillows of cloud make for the best kind of bed a pony can even imagine.”

I stopped there. The crowd seemed satisfied. Lemon Stand was smiling, still keeping her wingmate up and at least LOOKING conscious. In fact… he looked very conscious. I squinted at him, seeing that his eyes didn’t look quite natural. My little squad medic grinned a nervous grin and laughed a silent laugh. She had painted eyes on him. I let it slide. After all, he’d have to clean it off before I “noticed” later.

Fireflight, a bright orange and red young mare spoke up next. Ever the hot-head, and ever lacking tact, she was still a skilled combatant and one of the best in class. She had to be, because half the time I had her doing wing-ups for saying something ridiculous.

“So… you two DID it?”

I played stupid, “What are you talking about, Fireflight?”

She smirked, making lewd motions with her hooves, “You know… did you two really screw in the forest?”

Half the group turned bright red, the other half just stared.

“I’m going to ignore that, and while I do you can do wing-ups. Starting…. NOW.”

Immediately, she was at work, doing wing-ups. I could have sworn she was a glutton for punishment. Then again, she was the type not to forget a failure, and after she had fallen out of the formation near the beginning of training I think she saw it as a weakness, and wanted any excuse to do more exercise so it wouldn’t happen again.

“Any other smart-asses?” I asked pleasantly, belaying a warning undertone in my voice, “No? Next question then.”

Night Sky, a bat pony who was literally as black as the night sky, spoke up next.

“How did you meet ThunderStep and Cold Thorn?” she asked, “How much trouble did you have to get into just to become friends with Ponyville’s Night Police?”

I laughed a little, remembering back.

“Believe it or not, I met them the night I met Aurora.”

“And how did you two meet?” He asked suddenly.

“Interrupt me again, and I’ll have you join Fireflight.” I warned, watching with at least a little satisfaction as he recoiled a little, “I’ll tell you how Aurora and I met later, but just know that our first encounter involved me running from the Night Militia and trying to get her out of some trouble she’d caused.”I laughed and sighed, remembering it with a fondness borne of nostalgia, “In fact, that’s how the Midnight Run got started. When Cold Thorn finally caught us both, we were set free on the grounds that we hadn’t really done anything wrong other than cause some minor disturbance… and the fact that the chase had become such a spectacle that the night-life ponies had insisted on us being set free. After that, it became a bi-weekly thing, and eventually began to attract tourists.” I paused, letting the memories flow freely in my mind, of all the races and all the close-calls, nights we’d spent in the plushest cell in existence, and the conversations we’d all had together, “I’m still… rather glad that Aurora calmed down before the wedding, despite the good times we had with the Night Militia.”

A short pause hung in the air before somone in the back asked rather loudly, “Why’s that, sir?”

I shot a glance at the direction of the voice, but unable to identify the pony in question, I decided simply to answer the question.
“I’ll say this, Aurora was carrying something very important to me just before the wedding. If we’d continued to be as reckless as we had been up until that point, we might have lost it.”

Lemon Stand cast me a glance that told me she understood, desite the cryptic nature of what I’d said. Firelight kept doing wing ups. The other ponies in the group seemed to be eating up the story. I hadn’t thought they’d be as attentive to hear about my life story as they had been, and it surprised me. Then again, I HAD told them that I was the fabled pony to have gained my wings where he had not been born with any.

The story had just begun though. I was somewhat certain they’d grow restless soon, as chow time was fast approaching, and after the exercise I’d put them through earlier that week, they were constantly hungry like baby foals.

“So when did you get your wings?” a red-white-and-blue maned pony with a gray body named Rocket Shot asked, “And how?”

I smirked, “All things in good time, my little soldier. There’s a lot to tell about how I got to where I am now, and even more to tell about how I arrived in the ancient temple of the Skylian Draconis.”

“Skylian Draconis?” somepony asked in the back, “Aren’t they just a myth?”

I nodded, “Partly so, partly not. The Skylians never really disappeared from this world. They left behind a lot of magic that most ponies wouldn’t even recognize.”