Cardinal Spitfire was flying alongside Team 6. They were doing well in their snub nose formation. At the moment, Team 6 was the most receptive to all of the changes and flying in the combat formations.

It was their first day in the air. Raspberry Lemonade had covered the classroom and ground portion perfectly. Arrow and Flags had instrumental in getting them ready without Cardinal Spitfire. Arrow wasn’t talking to Cardinal Spitfire yet, even acknowledging her existence.

The warning siren went off, indicating they needed to be grounded. Cardinal Spitfire radioed the Squad Barracks for the situation. A Cloudship was coming in, straight to the Squad Barracks.

Cardinal Spitfire had all teams for up on her. They were floating around her, waiting for her instruction.

“We have an incoming Cloudship,” Cardinal Spitfire said, both out loud and over the radio. “We are not landing. Lieutenant Raspberry Lemonade with be taking Second Wing and leading from the right. First wing will be with me. We are going to lead the Cloudship in.”

Several hooves were immediately raised. Cardinal Spitfire pointed to a Pegasus.

“What do you mean lead in?”

“I mean that. We will be leading the Cloudship in. They will be taking all of their cues from us. We have a few more teams than you normally would field to lead a Cloudship in, but we will be leading them in. All the way to the stop, following our speed.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Are we here to sniff the flowers, or are we here to be soldiers? Soldiers in the Aerial Combat Battalion! What will happen if a Cloudship loses it’s navigation systems during a battle? What happens in they have to land in fog, and care barely see in front of their ship?”

“I have been studying up on those tactics and they have real application. And since its coming in, we are taking advantage of the opportunity.”

“So you have never done this before?”

“Oh come on!” Raspberry Lemonade yelled. “This is the Wonderbolt who made Unit 0 better formation fliers than all of you combined! We never had a Cloudship to practice on before. But she knows this stuff and loves it.”

“But it’s dangerous!”

Cardinal Spitfire groaned, he hoof massaging her head. Raspberry Lemonade kept up the fight.

“Are you expert fliers or not! I’ve seen you adapting to new teammates and new flight patterns all morning. If you can handle that, you can handle this. And I know what you meant. If the ship can’t handle it, then they had a dumb captain who will look even dumber. And you better be able to dodge, because I know captains who will expect us to move in combat. The Cloudships have right of way! But I know Officers bright enough to realize we are giving them information. And they will listen."

“Who wouldn't plow us over?” A Captain asked.

“Fuck you!” Cardinal Spitfire shot back. “Lieutenant Commander Deke, who modeled that rank. Commander Little who modeled that rank. They should be promoted now so that Little is Captain. And then Admiral, then Captain, Ruby Snow. All three would. And worse case if they have something that doesn't need us, or don't get it, we can move.”

“We’ve got this!” Team 6 proclaimed. “We need to try at least. They will pick up what we are trying to do.”

“Thank you,” Cardinal Spitfire smiled. “Now everypony shape up. Move out on your Wing Commander. They will be giving you orders. Expect them to ask you question and work it out on your own.”

Cardinal Spitfire pulled her wings in, dropping. She turned so she was in a dive. The others were following after her, Team 6 on point. She pulled up and they fanned out to get organized.

“We will be acting on the port side of the ship,” Cardinal Spitfire said. “Flags, you have B group and the rear.”

“Right,” Flags said to Cardinal Spitfire over their private channel. “Keep them away from the engines, by the ports so they can be seen. High and low, checkered pattern.”

“See, its not hard,” Cardinal Spitfire replied.

“I know,” Flags chuckled.

“You are missing one thing,” Cardinal Spitfire stated. “The rear needs to signal the front for sliding or movement in the aft that will change direction. Missing flaps, damaged engines, etc..”

“Roger!”

“Alright Team 6,” Cardinal Spitfire said sliding up next to them. The conversation would be heard by every team. “If you are leading a ship in, what do you need to do?”

“Get in front of the bridge.”

“And what does that look like?” Cardinal Spitfire asked.

“Cloudship in sight!” Raspberry Lemonade said over all of the coms.

“We need to be visible, but not obstruct their view.”

Cardinal Spitfire smiled at them. At least she had one Team that was smart and not fighting the chain of command. “And that looks like?”

It took them a second before an answer came. “If there was six, we would put a bottom row of three, fanned out. At the corners and at the center. A baseline. And two high, spread out to mark the bridge into thirds. The leader of the formation would be dead center.”

“Good! Now for 7?”

“Similar, but a big change up. We could go three high, three low with a center guide. But I think we need to run a two high, three mid, two low. Fan then out like they were in one row of five, but seven, doubling up on positions 2 and 4.”

“Yeah!” Cardinal Spitfire exclaimed. “That’s it, but I would describe it as two triangles, with points at the wide edge, and then top and bottom. Those cover the outside thirds of the bridge’s view, and then the center guide. That way the center can get real time info on the top, bottom and sides.”

“Make it so!” Cardinal Spitfire ordered.

Cardinal Spitfire began to question the rest of her Wing. She got them talking it through until they had a good coverage on all that the ship was doing, and teams further out to make sure nothing was hit as they guided it in.

Little was at the helm as the seven soldier teams came around the Buttercup. Team 6 slipped into it’s forward position. Even with the small bridge, she could see. But it was nice having them lined up in a target.

Little had never been instructed in lead ins before, or been apart of one. But it was a simple idea. Ruby Snow didn’t say a word. He let her pilot the Buttercup. Deke was below with General Shielded Vengeance. They were going to be at the bottom of the ramp as they came to a halt.

Cardinal Spitfire watched as Team Six led the Buttercup in. She didn’t know why it was back, especially so soon, but she focused on her job of teaching them to lead it in. And she felt better with their officers at the hem. She trusted the Buttercup to not plow them over just because they were in front of them.

Cardinal Spitfire moved around a lot, giving praise and suggestions where due, but always working in positive reinforcement as a whole. Most of the teams were stiff and tense.

When the ramp was lowered, two teams were moved under the ship to be guides to the ramp. They had to heavily rely on their fellow teams for any changes since they were extremely limited in their sight. When Cardinal Spitfire checked below, General Shielded Vengeance and Deke were side by side at the end of the ramp, enjoying the moment to defy regulations, look cool, and taste death.

All in all, the teams did an excellent job guiding the Buttercup in to a smooth, perfect set down. Team 6 chose right behind Spring Jade Hall. There still was room there.

“Great job!” Cardinal Spitfire praised. “Go hit the mess hall for an early start to lunch. Start, not finish. We reassemble at 1300 as scheduled.”

Cardinal Spitfire touched down in front of the ramp.

Deke spoke first. “I got the evening off! We leave in the morning to finally take on the new wings. See you tonight, I’m going to go find Olive Pit.”

“He’s in training seminars,” Cardinal Spitfire yelled after Deke. “As in learning, not leading.”

“Fine!” Deke shouted back. “I’ll wait in his office. I might have copied his office key.”

Cardinal Spitfire rolled her eyes, suppressing a laugh.

“He is really good at what he does,” General Shielded Vengeance commented. “His skill far exceeds his expected abilities from the way he jumps around and his… fragmented professionalism.”

“Yeah,” Cardinal Spitfire chuckled. “Arrogant, a bit distracted, but he brings it hard and perfect every time. You learn to expect nothing less, no matter what his demeanor. When he knows it, he knows it. You know he knows it, even if you don’t feel he knows it.”

“But, who was at the helm?”

“Commander Little was at the helm,” General Shielded Vengeance replied. “If I had known you decided to do a lead in, I would have stayed up there to watch. I also was not aware lead ins were apart of the curriculum.”

Cardinal Spitfire looked at the ground ashamed and chuckled. “They were not, until the siren went off. Then I decided to do it.”

General Shielded Vengeance nodded. “How bad did they fight you?”

“I would have had better results with a barracks on their first day on the flight deck. A lot of them resent such a young individual teaching them something they are already supposed to know. They hate it. Team 6 led them in on point, and they are the most receptive. Despite it being two captains in their team.”

Cardinal Spitfire looked the General in the eyes. “They will get over it though. I will break their spirits with a demonstration if they force me too. I will enjoy breaking them if they force me to do it.”

General Shielded Vengeance's lips slipped into a slight smile. “I can tell. And if it gets near that point, let me know. I want to see the demonstration. I want them to be embarrassed. It will only serve to snap them even easier. Then they can be rebuilt.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” The Wonderbolt Colonel said joining them. Marble Falls was there as well. “Crushing and breaking?”

“I did a lead in,” Cardinal Spitfire explained. “It was resisted due to ‘danger’ and shit.”

“Ah,” The Wonderbolt Colonel replied with a nod. “Crush and break away then. But let me know if it comes to that. We might get to make an example out of it for the Officer School.”

Cardinal Spitfire rolled her eyes. “I’m not supposed to want to crush or break them. Now I do.”

All four of them laughed.

The Wonderbolt Colonel didn’t waste anymore time. “Its legit. The site and the message. No doubt.”

“Hmm,” General Shielded Vengeance replied. “Well Sword and Shield went to drop a message off. The… situation gained complexity immediately. No Shadow, no team. But it was solid enough to leave a message with them.”

“You went below?” Marble Falls said shocked. “You actually sent them below?”

“And a message was left,” General Shielded Vengeance replied.

“Great,” Cardinal Spitfire smiled happily.

It was some really proactive, good news for the recovery of the Inquisitors. The first time they have actually done something.

“You went below, and only left a message?” Marble Falls said, soaked with accusation.

“Yes,” General Shielded Vengeance replied. “And we will tell you the full tale later. I need to finish some things with that report. All that actually matters is that we left a recall message. A good one.”

“What about… more!” Marble Falls pressed, getting agitated. “You got your hoof wet, and said it was enough.? It was wet! Why didn’t you actually go in and get them?”

“Uh,” General Shielded Vengeance stalled, unsure how else to respond. “We got a message left for them at Rosemary. What else could we do?”

“Find them!” Marble Falls fired back. “You didn’t even send out a search party?”

“Look Captain, that was a questionable enough move. Only a few outside of us and the skeleton crew on the Buttercup know about. And nopegasus else can know about it! It was a black op task, left for Sword and Shield for a reason.”

“Who is Sword and Shield! Should I even trust them?”

“That’s their secret cover!” General Shielded Vengeance snapped. “You can’t know who they are. That’s why our Black Ops teams are always named Sword and Shield!”

“Falls!” Cardinal Spitfire shouted at her before Marble Falls could speak again. “Drop it. We got messages left. We got so far the past week that we never dreamed were possible after we lost them.”

“I am his wife! I am thrilled we got to do even that. This is a game of messages. Communication in short bursts as we both try and figure out what is happening. He now has a place to check. Shadow doesn’t give up. He will check. Trust him. He reached out first.”

Marble Falls wanted to fight, but Cardinal Spitfire had put her in her place. If anypony should be erupting, it should be Cardinal Spitfire. Cardinal Spitfire rolling with it and Marble Falls not was an embarrassment to her.

“Go do your jobs,” General Shielded Vengeance told them. “I have stuff to do. We need to discuss things with Nova and Admiral Ruby Snow, fleet things. And you Cardinal Spitfire, have Deke and Little for the evening. I don’t know if you hang out with them Marble Falls, since you did train Deke, but they are not leaving until the morning. I will tell you, hopefully tomorrow evening, a tale we learned about the Inquisitors. I warn you now, none of it can be made 100% official. That’s the nature of the way we found out.”

“Eh,” Cardinal Spitfire shrugged. “Its not like they need anymore awards. All four of them must have stacked up a few nice ones since we lost contact.”

General Shielded Vengeance sighed. He decided to not keep their hopes up too much. “The contact never met Nor’easter. He had died before then. And as of the last contact with them, it was just Shadow. And that was at least two months ago. She had a stunning story about them and running in their group for a bit. One that you will love. Typical Filly Fooler situation.”

Cardinal Spitfire gave a sad chuckle. “Well, I can’t wait to hear it. I wish family could be notified that the others didn’t make it, but like you said, it can’t be official official. Even if we know its true. They can’t be relied on as a solid source.”

“You can’t tell us now?” Marble Falls pressed.

“No, I need to speak with Nova,” General Shielded Vengeance stated.

“We have a story to tell you too,” The Wonderbolt Colonel said. “The pegasi there have a tale known as the Legend of Kifopiga.”

“This will be interesting,” General Shielded Vengeance chuckled. “But first, Nova!”

“Hey,” Cardinal Spitfire said turning back to them. “You also said Admiral Ruby Snow too, right?”

“Yes,” General Shielded Vengeance nodded.

“And Deke is here, and Little is as well...”

“Little is finding Colonel Nova,” Ruby Snow said interrupting. “What do you need.”

“You have a crew right?” Cardinal Spitfire asked.

“We can’t fly her without one,” Ruby Snow smiled back.

“Can I borrow the Buttercup for the afternoon?”

“Lead ins?” Ruby Snow asked.

“Yep,” Cardinal Spitfire nodded. “That was unplanned, and the first I have ever done. Any of us have ever done. We never get to work so close-”

“Yes,” Ruby Snow said cutting her off. “Go get Deke out of whatever trouble he is finding and I’ll get Little back on board and make sure they play nice together and switch off who is piloting. But, for first time, you guys did amazing work. I know you studied up on it. Otherwise you never would have put them into it.”

Cardinal Spitfire shrugged. “You can’t master the sky without knowing it, at least in theory. I just haven’t had time to ever do it. I should probably have the instructors form up on me and do the next set of lead ins. Think Deke can keep up?”

Ruby Snow chuckled. “I am more afraid of if the crew can keep the Buttercup up with you leading them. Keep away from things and she can’t flip or roll.”

“Right,” Cardinal Spitfire said smiling. “I will. Thanks.”

The Wonderbolt Colonel looked at Marble Falls. “Captain, get Pony Patrol back together to kick start it at 1300. I want your Squad to perform that first run. I want the rest of the afternoon to be spend observing them doing the lead ins. This is a perfect example of leadership available in raw, real life observation while we are in the middle of an Officer School.”

“There are a lot of moving parts to lead ins, which is why we never train it. We will train it more. But we need naval support to do it, and multiple teams. Its full, multi-battalion training. And you know how often they do those.”

“If things go right, we certainly will be,” General Shielded Vengeance added. “But we need to go work that out!”

They broke apart to go do their jobs. Marble Falls didn’t get a chance to talk more with Cardinal Spitfire as she dashed off after Deke. Cardinal Spitfire was making sure of it.

Marble Falls was acting rashly and Cardinal Spitfire was working hard to keep it together. The news was positive. It would have been better if Shadow hadn’t left. But Cardinal Spitfire trusted him. She knew he left for a good reason and that he would be back to check for messages.

The story would be a welcome relief. And they could tell General Shielded Vengeance the tale of Rainbow Dash’s Last Tale, Kifopiga. He would be very interested in that.

After lunch brought a new challenge. Four out of six of Pony Patrol was in Officer School. Teaching it in Marble Falls case. Not many were qualified to teach Officer School. It was going to grind it all to a halt. That was before the order to observe was given.

Cardinal Spitfire found herself in front of almost everypony at the Squad Barracks, assembled on the flight deck. Cardinal Spitfire took off a bit to hover so she could be seen. It was all on her shoulders to kick start it.

“Listen up!” Cardinal Spitfire ordered as loud as she could while maintaining her authority. “Officer candidates, you will be observing. I will need to you organized into a total of, six groups. You will observe in that group at the designated time.”

“Combat Formation Practicum participants. We will be in groups of 7 teams. Its going to take time. I know. Working in formation flying leading in a Cloudship, isn’t easy. Its basically a slower, much less agile unit you are working with who can’t verbally communicate with you.”

“Tactics include using other teams to see what the ship is doing so they can communicate it to the forward, leading team. We will work to do this more often, with more ships and crews. Combat may force us to lead in ships, and we are the best fliers, so it falls on our wings. Ships taking off and landing usually have Traffic Controllers giving those orders, typically high up in a tower. Combat, that isn’t an option. So we will have to be that.”

A hoof was raised. It was a young, peppy mare who had corporal stripes on her uniform. Her uniform was marked for heavy troopers. A low rank to be moving to Officer School and an odd place to be coming from.

“Yes?” Cardinal Spitfire asked, pointing to her.

“I’m in the Officer School, so what am I supposed to be looking for?” It was a high, peppy voice to match her peppy look.

“Great question!” Cardinal Spitfire replied. “Officer Candidates should be looking for how we are communicating and leading in the team and in between teams. The team in front of the Cloudship has the lead, but the others will be working within themselves to make sure they are functioning safely. The way these teams should be working together is the same way inside your unit should be working. Each team is like an individual member.”

“On top of that, as I said, lead ins are done when there are no Air Traffic Controllers able to do the job. We will have to do that communication on our own, between Units. Because the Cloudship can’t directly connect up with us easily. Its a lot to go through syncing the two different types of com lines, something we will not have the luxury of.”

“So if they are coming in to drop troops off, take off, or, even coming in to provide fire support, the only ones in the sky outside of the Cloudships, is Aerial Combat Units. And although Cloudships get the right of way, they can’t just fly anywhere they want on the front lines of combat. So all the leading comes down to our ability to communication and function in our units. There doesn’t get any better chance to see leadership in action than what we are doing right here and now.”

“I know we have a lot of new faces here for the Officer School. To start things off, its going to be us six here, Wonderbolt Squad 12, known as Pony Patrol. Our Captain is teaching OS, and three are in OS. Me and our other Lieutenant are leading the Practicums. So we know what we are doing.”

“But we are only half of the exercise. The Cloudship is Third Fleet’s Flagship, the Buttercup. She is a Corvette Class Cloudship, designed for patrolling. A great design, but it never got put into production outside of the Buttercup. Its got the fastest acceleration for a Cloudship and second fastest top speed. She can outrun and certainly can out maneuver a Raptor.”

“At the helm is Lieutenant Commander Deke. We know each other well. The LC and I were in the same Barrack in Basic Training and we were taught by Captain Marble Falls. So we can already read each other. Commander Little is also one of the top pilots the Enclave has. They will be performing all of the maneuvers with us.”

“And I want to be very clear, I do not expect you to do what I am going to do. I’m going to push the LC’s skills and the ship. But I will still be limited by them and have to bring them around and through safely. So when its your turn, don’t try to do all that we do. It’s a crash course today, one that we will be working to follow up on to make sure we are ready to do that duty.”

“We have amazing technicians here, and over lunch, that short time, they have stations set up for us to do the leading to and around. We will be landing here on the flight deck, so we will have to move slowly and with great caution around here. No collisions.”

“Get with your appointed leaders and we will get these trials underway.”

Cardinal Spitfire did a back flip in the air which she used to spring herself into a launch. The others in Pony Patrol quickly followed suit. They all landed in front of the Buttercup. They were working with four other teams, two on either side. The rest of the runs would have more teams, but they were running low for the Squad 12 test.

Cardinal Spitfire had the side units set up in a simple pattern. One team along the top, one team along the bottom. Each team would send a member out wide and they would pair up to make sure they had the side clearance.

“Captain, how do you want us set up?” Cardinal Spitfire asked.

Marble Falls turned to face the Buttercup, away from the watching eyes. “I’m not here enough to take the lead. Its all yours.”

“Come on,” Cardinal Spitfire said, smiling at her. “You are Marble Falls. I know you can handle this.”

“I’m sure I could,” Marble Falls sighed. “But I don’t want to test it right now. Since we do not need to, its on you.”

Cardinal Spitfire let out a low growl. The others were understandably confused and concerned, but didn’t want to ask.

“General Shielded Vengeance came back on the Buttercup,” Cardinal Spitfire quietly said to them. “New info on Shadow Flare. Nothing of consequence.”

“That’s where you went,” Lemon Lime stated. “Something to do with him.”

“Yeah, and its dealt with. Nothing else matters.”

“Please don’t push it,” Marble Falls asked.

“Alright, on me,” Cardinal Spitfire said. “Falls, you take top in the center. We need to watch the bottom because of the design, so Twist and Fountain, bottom. Choke in a bit from the corners. Rasp and Lemon, center row, play it wide, just inside their field of view. We will be taking tight turns, so I need to see the sides. And watch the buildings since we are close to the barracks.”

They all confirmed and set themselves. Cardinal Spitfire took a deep breath in and slowly ascended. She faced the Buttercup’s bridge. Cardinal Spitfire brought her hooves up slowly and the Buttercup fired her engines. It rose with her until Twist gave the all clear on the bottom.

Cardinal Spitfire rolled over and began to slowly turn them around. She was getting fed plenty of chatter from the teams.

“Keep up the communication,” Cardinal Spitfire said over their coms. “You are my eyes and ears. I have blinders on and can only look forward.”

They were finally out and clear. Cardinal Spitfire picked up her pace, doing two slow bobs, signaling speed increase. The Buttercup matched her and Cardinal Spitfire began to turn them. After a while she pulled them back into long S curves.

As soon as Cardinal Spitfire felt they were synced up, she did two deliberate rolls and gunned it. The Buttercup had expected it and was hot on her trail. Cardinal Spitfire pulled up and was followed. She dove down at a strong angle as if she was leading them in and around fire or obstacles.

They were keeping with her perfectly. Cardinal Spitfire decided to have some fun. Deke was handling it fine, and so was the Buttercup. Cardinal Spitfire couldn’t put the ship through rolls or flips, but the Buttercup had better turning and responsiveness than any other ship in the Enclave and Cardinal Spitfire wasn’t going to let the opportunity go to waste.

They were moving at an unknown speed as Cardinal Spitfire put them into a very tight turn until they have made a full 90 degree turn. Then she went the other way, but climbing. The Buttercup followed fine. Cardinal Spitfire dove, with a slight turn. The Buttercup kept up. It felt like she was pulling a wagon with a string. It was a trailer attached to her.

Cardinal Spitfire was unmerciful in the turns and angles. Fast weaves and everything she could think of. She hard to pull back at bit as she made the hardest turn yet and the sides warned the ship was about to skip.

A ship could skip just like they could while flying. The same principle as skating on ice and losing traction, or slicing your hoof along the top of pool of water in an arc. It bounces and doesn’t turn. And a skip would mean her side would be physically wiped out.

But it gave Cardinal Spitfire the breaking point. She kept the pressure up, but softening the angles by 15%. After a good 45 minutes she brought them in to land. Her bottom and sides were very important as the closed in on the buildings.

Cardinal Spitfire knew from the chatter they were expecting to land past the Squad Barrack at the end. But she knew how fast the Buttercup could break. Two quick wing flutters and Cardinal Spitfire called “emergency break” over her coms and pulled hers.

Pony Patrol slid wide, out of the way, since they were the closest to the Buttercup’s nose. As Deke slammed on the breaks, the Buttercup came within a foot of Cardinal Spitfire. She knew it was right there.

Deke did his job perfectly by putting it down softly. They had already gotten him within three feet of the ground. Deke had the ramp dropped.

Cardinal Spitfire flipped around to look into the bridge. Deke was standing right at the front by the glass, wing up with a few feathers flipped out to say “Fuck you.”

Cardinal Spitfire dropped to the ground. The teams in her practicums were already swarming the area in front of the ship.

“LIKE I SAID!” Cardinal Spitfire shouted to quiet them down. “I don’t expect you to do anywhere near to that. I was purposefully pushing the limits. No Sky-tank or Raptor can pull off those turns. And we don’t want to do that on a normal lead in.”

“LC Deke and I know and trust each other. We flew together. So me pushing the limits, it wasn’t unexpected.”

A heavy hoof came down around Cardinal Spitfire and pulled her into the Pegasus’ side.

“Didn’t we say to not flip the Buttercup?” General Shielded Vengeance asked.

Cardinal Spitfire gulped. She hadn’t planned on anypony but Little and Deke being on the bridge. Everypony was listening in. It was a completely public conversation.

“Deke was at the helm, right?” Cardinal Spitfire asked nervously.

“Does it matter?” General Shielded Vengeance followed up.

“Yes,” Cardinal Spitfire slowly replied.

“Why?” General Shielded Vengeance asked.

“Because Deke and I know each other. We both learned from Marble Falls. We know how to communicate strongly with nonverbals and read each other. I trust him and know how he thinks. He knows how I think.”

“And no other pilot can do that?” General Shielded Vengeance prodded.

“Deke is daring, bold, and plainly put, dumb and reckless. He is a fucking good pilot. He knows how to push the limit and will. Little is a smarter pilot. She can do the same thing as Deke, but is smart enough not to. Deke takes it one step too far, even though its still something he can handle. Little can handle it, but doesn’t push her luck.”

General Shielded Vengeance gave Cardinal Spitfire a good squeeze and then let go. “Deke was at the helm. The whole time.”

“Was that a compliment or an insult?” Little asked Deke, loudly.

“I’m taking it as a Compliment,” Deke replied.

Cardinal Spitfire sheepishly turned around to face Deke and Little, and also found herself looking at Nova, the Wonderbolt Colonel and Ruby Snow. She flashed a grin.

“Stupid and daring,” Ruby Snow smiled. “I’m glad we joined and watched. We realized, if we are talking about Third Fleet and ACU pairing up on training and such, we should get a first hoof look at it, while the best was taking a run.”

“I haven’t had to sit down during maneuvers in a long time. And we got reports from the crew on being roughed up, but safe. They learned some lessons on how to handle themselves in combat action maneuvers at their posts. So all in all, a good thing.”

“Well,” Cardinal Spitfire stuttered. “No other teams will be allowed to push it like that. So, they won’t have to worry about being roughed up again.”

“Please,” Deke chuckled. “Its a seasoned crew of veterans. I mean, yeah, its a skeleton crew so we can’t afford an injury, even a minor one, but they have it. Or else I wouldn’t of run things so fast. I would have backed off.”

“More importantly,” Ruby Snow said, taking over the conversation. “We need to address further trainings. Pony Patrol won’t be with us for the rest of the discussion. And I have to get my ship out of here in the morning. We have new wings we can’t put off training anymore. Not for something like this.”

“The Buttercup is perfect for training,” Cardinal Spitfire confidently replied. “She is small. We can run teams on her before we have to tackle the big ones like the Raptors.”

“Okay,” Ruby Snow nodded. “What about deploying on and off her?”

“Yeah, we can work on that. Its easier on her than a Sky-Tank.”

“In what way?” Nova immediately asked.

“The corvette’s design has a heavy battery of guns on the top. The top is flat. Ramp deployment has to be done carefully, which is part of the reason why we do not have them dropped until the ship is set down. Once you leave that ship, you are falling, not flowing with the ship. So if something is behind it, you hit it as it passes overhead.”

“Normal troops never need to bail, or at least at high speeds. Aerial Combat Units would need to deploy at a moment’s notice. Off the top is the best way. Safest way. We can speed board from the ramp easily. But leaving, should mostly be done off the top. If guns are blazing, that does complicate things. No other ships have a top deck, so there is no solid access out that way or side decks.”

“We can be back in 6 weeks,” Ruby Snow stated. “Get units ready, that are regular ACUs, not Wonderbolts. There is little doubt in my mind that the Council will not want to see a demonstration. So bring your A game, but have a varied amount of teams.”

“Unit 0 will deploy with them,” Nova said. “That will show them something new. Lieutenant Commander, we are still revamping the ACUs and now exploring options for partnering them with ships like Corvettes.”

“Wise choice,” Cardinal Spitfire said. “I will make sure we have units that are ready, at least in philosophy, to deploy in experimental tactics. Safely.”

“I’ll get Vice Admiral Purple Breeze to send us a task force to add numbers,” Ruby Snow added. “So have plenty ready to roll with a variety of ships.”

“Six weeks?” Cardinal Spitfire asked to clarify.

“Is that a problem?” Ruby Snow asked her.

“No,” Cardinal Spitfire said shaking her head. “I can do that. We should only need four more weeks, tops, for the practicums. I can choose teams for it after that. The Officer School will be done as well, so all Units can be worked with. And there won’t be any Basic Training recruits on the flight decks for a while.”

“Sir!” Arrow said. “Unit 17 will be ready.”

“You won’t get Commander Olive Pit as your seventh member,” Nova warned them.

“Don’t need him,” Arrow smiled. “We can take any of them.”

“Unit 63 will also be ready,” Flags said. “As a Scout Unit we will be a very good mix up to show all different types of deployments and interactions from active Cloudships.”

“Good,” Ruby Snow said with a nod. “Now we have to go solidify all of it, but that is the idea. Get the Buttercup up in the air and your teams training. You have limited time.”

“Right!” Cardinal Spitfire shot back.

After leading it herself, she was much more prepared to get all of her teams experienced in lead ins.

It was a tough afternoon. The teams were pushed to adapt and think differently than they were planning on. And the Officer Candidates were bored, but had to stay active and out of the way. Little and Deke were excellent at their job. Cardinal Spitfire was glad she could really trust the pilots when neither side had ever done it before.

After dinner, Cardinal Spitfire joined up with Deke, Little, and Olive Pit in his office. To her surprise, Arrow, Dipper, Chocolate, and Flags joined them. They were more than welcome, but Arrow hadn’t spoken to Cardinal Spitfire since she had missed the wedding. Dipper had his head buried in Officer School and they hadn’t even caught a solid glimpse of each other.

“Like I said, I am sorry,” Cardinal Spitfire immediately stated, wings open in innocence.

“I know,” Arrow said, stopping Cardinal Spitfire from saying anything else. “It hurt, but I know there was a very good reason for it. I’m assuming it was Shadow Flare business?”

“Of a sort,” Cardinal Spitfire replied, sitting down and sighing. “I can’t speak on it. But little has changed with the situation. The entire focus with the team is recovery. Nothing more. Just getting them back. It doesn’t matter what may or may not of happened, only that they get back safely.”

“Something came up,” Olive Pit stated.

Cardinal Spitfire ignored the words.

“Come on!” Olive Pit said. “I may have been in a seminar all day, learning new field trauma tactics, but I heard that General Shielded Vengeance came back,on the Buttercup. You don’t charter the Buttercup after some of the top ponies leave and expect it not to coincide.”

Little snorted. “You have no idea what we do. We do a lot of random shit. And we only brought him back here. We picked him up from another Cloudship. We are the fastest free Cloudship. We get calls all the time.”

“Enough,” Deke said. “We are here to enjoy each other’s company, not try and figure out what the top brass are thinking. The answer is ‘shiny.’ It is always ‘shiny.’ Shiny is all they have in mind.”

Everypony laughed and settled into a fun evening.

Next Chapter: Chapter 88 - New Wings Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 29 Minutes