Cardinal Spitfire found Unit 17. They were already being harassed by Deke. Most of his jeers were directly at Olive Pit, not the Unit.

“Can you please get him to stop,” Arrow begged. “It is all he does. Poke and poke at Olive Pit and every so often, me.”

Cardinal Spitfire chuckled. “Sorry, you are on your own there. I am just here to make sure Olive Pit is being trained right, and can handle this, assignment.”

Arrow groaned in frustration.

“Yes, this is an official report. And Olive Pit better show his skills. I know how he flies.”

“So does Marble Falls,” Olive Pit shot back. He was doing a good job at masking his frustration.

“Yeah, but she has to deal with Unit 0, so you get me.”

“Now,” Cardinal Spitfire said turning her attention back to Arrow. “What is your plan to fail at?”

Arrow rolled her eyes. “This morning I am leading them in tight, high speed exercises designed around flying and only flying. After lunch, we will begin to work on aerial combat against another Unit.”

“And that Unit is?”

“63,” Arrow sighed. “And I picked them.”

“I don’t know who is in 63,” Cardinal Spitfire stated.

“Flags is leading it and he has a bunch of senior NCOs. They are a Scout Unit. And, like 17, they are missing their second officer.”

“Flags in a solid choice,” Cardinal Spitfire replied. “The difficult part is that you both know each other and personal tactics. Which is why you chose him. So he could thoroughly beat you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Arrow waved off. “Go harass some other team.”

“I can’t,” Cardinal Spitfire grinned. “You are stuck with me.”

“And me!” Deke added. “And I don’t think Cardinal Spitfire will be impressed.”

“If you were not a Lieutenant Commander,” Arrow growled.

“Problems?” Little said joining them.

“No,” Arrow shot back. “I can handle it.”

“You certainly haven’t handled Deke, who is so bored his only entertainment has been harassing your Unit.”

“I can take care of myself,” Arrow hissed. “I am not a filly anymore.”

“Yeah, and you are on a clock,” Cardinal Spitfire stated. “So you better get to improving yourself.”

Arrow grinned. “I hope you can see from here. We need our space.”

“Fuck that. I am a Wonderbolt. I get to be up close and personal when it comes to watching and judging you.”

“Take us with you!” Deke begged.

Cardinal Spitfire laughed. “I have seen you fly. You are not aware enough to be out there. You are a hazard and a danger to yourself out in this sky. At least Olive Pit is working in a team. Training so he isn’t a problem.”

Unit 17 checked into the Flight Deck and waited for their turn to launch. Arrow had switched up teams a bit and Olive Pit was her wingmate at the moment. Cardinal Spitfire was alongside their formation. Arrow rolled her eyes and put them into a proper take off. They took their time, playing it safe until they were clearer from the Squad Barracks and most of the Units in training.

Arrow put them into a bob and then a climb, rolling as they went up. Cardinal Spitfire was safely off to the side, observing. She matched Arrow’s flight pattern better than some of Unit 17’s members.

Arrow kicked them into a higher gear and dove. She rolled them out of the dive and into a tight turn and then cross bank. She was trying to boot Cardinal Spitfire from mirroring her movements like she was apart of Unit 17.

It didn’t work so she split her Unit in a star formations, giving them a count down to reform the Unit. They were flying well and at a good speed. Their response times were solid as well.

Arrow leveled out and slowed down.

“Not bad,” Cardinal Spitfire stated. “But I was expecting more from you. I know your skill level. It was rather slow in the speed department. Are you going soft?”

“Fine,” Arrow huffed. “We were just warming up.”

“Keep telling yourself that lie and you will get nowhere!”

Unit 17 dove. Most of them were late joining her. Their speed picked up by a good amount, but their reaction times were poor. They tightened up and continued to zip and spin.

Cardinal Spitfire continued to stay with them, but backed off. She could read every move Arrow was going to make, but her team was having trouble. Arrow had switched to nonverbal commands and it was showing.

Arrow never gave the order to fully split since everything was nonverbal. She was able to get them to loosen up. She took that moment to put her and Olive Pit in a very tight barrel roll. Both wings followed suit. After a few seconds and simple roll of the wing the left team did a tight roll, kick starting a wave to the other teams and then back to them.

As they dove, they reformed and continued to work on tight formations until Arrow indicated they were heading back in for lunch. They were a good deal out from the Squad Barracks. They stayed in a tight formations and Cardinal Spitfire took up the rear into a seven pony boat tale configuration. The Unit didn’t show any response to the seventh member. Arrow had done a good job keeping them ready to use the different combat formations.

As they got off the flight deck and to safety, Cardinal Spitfire gave her report.

“That second half was poor and sloppy. But considering that she picked up the speed and dropped verbal commands, not bad. Still a lot of work to do in that department, but the team barrel rolls were impressive. Lieutenant Olive Pit isn’t your weak link when it comes to show formations. I look forward to seeing how you preform in combat after lunch.”

“1300 we need to be in line, ready to go,” Arrow said. “That means this time, put your training vests on before lining up.”

Unit 17 fell out.

“I don’t know what you are worried about,” Cardinal Spitfire immediately said. “17 is a solid Unit.”

“Its been a few more weeks,” Arrow pointed out. “And I got Olive Pit. They still are three Corporals and one Sergeant. Two or Three years in the military and I am close to a year in, going from NCO to officer.”

“You were really good in our officer school.”

“Yeah, but it still isn’t the same as dealing with excited and immature NCOs in an Aerial Combat Unit. They need to settle down. I need an experienced officer. I have submitted my two picks, but both are above my rank.”

“Yeah, leadership of the Units can get interesting,” Cardinal Spitfire admitted. “But rank is the last thing you need to worry about.”

They sat down to eat and Cardinal Spitfire was bumped further down the bench. She almost snapped at the rude interruption except it was Flags and Chocolate.

“You are the talk the Squad Barracks,” Flags stated. It was the first time they had talked since Cardinal Spitfire had gotten back.

“It is good to see you too,” Cardinal Spitfire smiled. “Both of you. I know its been busy.”

“That is an understatement,” Chocolate stated.

“Well, like I was saying you are the talk of the Squad Barracks.”

“She didn’t stop,” Chocolate interjected.

“What is with the symbol on your chest?”

Cardinal Spitfire took a deep breath in and explained the MIA badge.

Chocolate shook his head. “Everypony here knows you are a Wonderbolt and doubt you got it wrong, but I will spread the word about its real meaning. By tomorrow, everypony here will know. And then Arrow and Dipper can move into the spotlight, whenever they do get married.”

Arrow groaned in frustration. “That would be because of my idiot sister. And now the Squad Barracks are serving as a meeting point for some very powerful Admirals, Generals, Colonels, and whoever else needs to be here, for whatever the fuck is going on.”

“It is hard to plan a wedding in the first place. Most of it is falling on my mother’s shoulders, but I still have to approve things. Along with Dipper. And I have no idea what he is doing. I have barely seen him and he suddenly stopped sharing a bed with me.”

“Oh, you didn’t hear,” Flags blinked. “With Lieutenant Razzleberry leading Unit 0’s special new troops, Dipper was tasked with leading Blue Barracks in their aerial combat section of Basic Training. Nova personally assigned him to the task.”

“Doesn’t he have a Unit to be with?” Arrow asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Nope, he is still in 41.”

“Damn,” Arrow swore. “That explains a few things.”

They chatted, catching up. They had let Cardinal Spitfire have some space after hearing about Shadow. She had a job to push through. It was enjoyable for them all to finally catch up.

“Damn it!” Flags said catching the time. “I can’t make it to and back in two minutes!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Cardinal Spitfire shrugged. “You two are the officers. If you are a little late, so be it. You were preparing for these exercises. Together. Just don’t make it a habit.”

“She has a point,” Arrow shrugged. “No point in rushing too much.”

Once the two Units were in the air things were more relaxed. Cardinal Spitfire was still joining them for close observation. Olive Pit was Unit 17’s weak point when it came to combat, but he was still performing much better than he did in Basic Training.

Unit 17 was much more aggressive, often splitting up to dive and harass Unit 63. Flags brought 63 around in strong positions, using speed and their better unit maneuverability to his advantage. He was often able to flip around and shoot down a team trailing them. His tactics typically allowed him to out gun Arrow, but she was able to attack from three ways at once. All in all, they were decently matched.

The combat testing ended mid afternoon. They could only keep it exciting and fresh so long with just two Units.

Olive Pit headed to his office to catch up on some thing. He hadn’t had time to work on a new medical segment for their Unit. He checked his physical in box by his door and found plenty of papers. Almost all of them where from the clinic. Basic reports that were easy to quickly read and then file away.

His terminal had one message. It was from Sunset Fury. It had the name, post and IDs of nine individuals in the medical field. Each individual had a profile with the information that Sunset Fury recommended they teach about. Half of them were Combat Medic School trainers, but one was an ER doctor, another one a surgeon, and two were Emergency Medical Teams Warrant Officers.

Sunset Fury had messaged all of them. All but two of the trainers had responded that they would come if asked. And it had only been a few days since Sunset Fury had been putting together this list.

Olive Pit shrugged and went for it. He looked at his calendar and scheduled the seminars to start two days after they had graduated from ACS. That gave them one free day before they were back to work. Nova was informed of his plans.

It also meant that he had to contact headquarters and extend the coverage of the clinic. They had anticipated Unit 0 needing more time and everything was already ready to go in.

Cardinal Spitfire had spent the time after the combat exercises writing up a report on Olive Pit. She was done well before dinner so she typed up one on Unit 17 and one on Unit 63. She sent them as a message over the terminal to Nova. Marble Falls’ report was hoof written. She wasn’t a fan of terminals for official reports.

Marble Falls read the report while eating dinner.

“Good,” She finally said. “I am glad he is shaping up to be an excellent aerial combatant. Gauging from this report, he will earn his wings and be ready to lead Unit 0. He certainly has improved since Basic Training.”

“Arrow was a good pick,” Cardinal Spitfire remarked.

“Yes, she was. A pity Lightning had to make things more complicated. But she was a phenomenal choice. I know my trainees!”

For acrobatics, Cardinal Spitfire worked them through more hoofstands. They were improving quickly. Several were already able to stay up on their own. As one tried, she fell. Nothing unusual about that except she slammed into another and somehow ended up with a gash along her forehead in the process.

Olive Pit was immediately by her side.

“First Sergeant,” Olive Pit called. “Grab the emergency flight deck med kit!”

Morning Spark, now the only First Sergeant, grabbed the kit and was by their side within seconds. Olive Pit made it obvious that she was Morning Spark’s patient. He cleaned the wound off to see what they were looking at. It was a long gash, but clean. No rips or jagged edges.

“And you do what in this situation?” Olive Pit asked with all the authority of an officer making sure his soldier knew what to do.

“The Clinic-”

Olive Pit cut him off. “Is not in the field during combat.”

“Stitches. Ten, no twelve. To make sure it holds under stress.”

“Wrong,” Olive Pit said. “You want a few less...”

“To allow for the wound to move under the stress of combat, while still being held together to stop the bleeding.”

Morning Spark pulled open the stitching kit and to her horror, and the others, drove the hooked needle into her skin, without any anesthetics. Several ponies vomited and most had to look away. Some even covered their ears in a vain attempt to block out the sound of her pain.

The Clinic had a stretcher and were waiting for him to finish. Morning Spark either didn’t see them, or didn’t care as he finished cleaning the wound and binding it off like he would in the field.

“Fuck,” Cardinal Spitfire said with a shiver. “That was horrible.”

“That, is combat medicine,” Morning Spark confidently replied. “Under fire, we don’t always get to use even local meds to numb the pain. For something like that, it is stitch and go. They have a battle to fight. You can live through pain. You can’t survive bleeding out.”

“Yeah,” He proudly stated. “Something like that is minor, and that means you still are going to have to fight. It just is our job to make sure you either live, or are patched up enough to keep fighting. You are in an Aerial Combat Unit. You will be outnumbered and often unable to get better medical care until we are free to carry you out.”

Cardinal Spitfire got them back on track.

“That was well done,” Olive Pit praised Morning Spark. “Just like a First Sergeant should be.”

“But I messed up on the number of stitches.”

“And its training,” Olive Pit smiled. “They are going to cut them and redo them with twelve or so stitches. Your first thought was to act like you were in the clinic, that is all. You do most of your work in the clinic.”

“And if you had put in twelve, it would have been fine. Seven, like you did, was optimal for having to continue to fight. You remember and the rest were reminded of that tactic.”

Cardinal Spitfire opted to not introduce back springs due to the injury. She put them back into dive rolls. Many had not figured them out yet.

The night ended with her examining Shadow’s medals. She still hadn’t removed them from the boxes. It was the second closest she could get to Shadow. The necklace was first, but these were what he had done after the memories stored in the necklace. She couldn't take them out. They were too reverent. They would come out when he needed to put them on.

The morning was no different. Cardinal Spitfire was called out as she was going about her business.

“Lieutenant Spitfire!”

“Yes?” Cardinal Spitfire asked, turning to see who had called her. “Yes Chief, what can I do for you?”

“You are needed in Unit 0’s Office number 5.”

“I will head there,” Cardinal Spitfire replied. “As soon as I do whatever it was that I was doing beforehand. Do you know what I was doing beforehand?”

“No Ma’am, I have no idea.”

Cardinal Spitfire shrugged. “Well, it must not have been that important. I will head there now.”

They parted ways and Cardinal Spitfire remembered what she was heading to do.

“Chief! I was heading to Blue Barrack’s flight deck to harass a friend of mine.”

“Don’t you have soldiers to train?” He asked, suggesting she had her priorities wrong.

“Not yet,” Cardinal Spitfire smiled. “I get to teach Unit 0 combat flight formations. I love flight formations. I have the morning off before I get to spend the next few days teaching them the formations like the Soft Point, Wad Cutter, Spitzer, and my favorite, the Boat Tailed Spitzer. They will also learn how to work in teams of five and seven. Especially seven.”

“Go on,” He said, pointing with his head. “You are needed.”

“Right,” Cardinal Spitfire said with a nod and a chuckle.

She entered the office.

“Sir,” She saluted.

He had no rank, no name and very possibly was not in her chain of command. The Wonderbolts were wanted ponies and with so many high ranking officers around, many of them wanted to at least speak to one. Even just a brief moment was prized.

“Take a seat,” He said, guiding her to the chair.

“You are a Second Lieutenant, correct?”

“Yes Sir, I am.”

“And you didn’t receive a promotion from Wonderbolt training?”

“No Sir. I had just been through an Officer School here at the Squad Barracks before the Wonderbolt testing, so there was no reason to promote me. The impromptu Officer School was done because ACS needed more officers to lead, so those eligible were taught here by senior staff and officers qualified to teach us. We didn’t have time to go to the formal school, and we learned everything they are required to learn, we just didn’t have to leave. Its common enough and was planned ahead of time.”

He gave a nod of understanding an continued. “You have been in training since you first joined?”

“Basically. Basic, to ACS, with a few days off before the special Officer School and then right after that we headed to testing. I technically was in training after I became a Wonderbolt. I had to learn a lot, but it wasn’t like the other trainings that were schools. I was already one of the best. A Wonderbolt. I just had to hone certain skills to be even better.”

“And now, you are here, teaching?”

“And very proud to be here doing that as part of my post. I know that I do not have to teach, but we need teachers as this ACS is happening. It is a big one. They have some NCOs leading the Basic Training’s aerial combat section to compensate. Although an officer rank isn’t required to lead and part of Basic Training. The flight segment is just typically lead by officers, officers here in ACUs.

“And I love teaching. I really want to inspire recruits to be better than they think they can be. Like Captain Marble Falls inspired us in Basic Training. She was tough, but got us to rise to the occasion, above the others. I want to make sure they are taught the best, by the best.”

He gave a short nod. “If things are so stressed, why is Pony Patrol teaching as a whole unit of six, instead of splitting you up more? The other Wonderbolt teams have fully fragmented. There are a lot of new teachers within their ranks and a lot of seasoned instructors helping them better teach. And the Third Degrees are down one due to a grave injury during personal training.”

“That would be Colonel Nova’s call sir. When we landed, it was immediately to Unit 0. We started their ACS two days early. We had begun with 24, but that number was reduced to 17 after the incident. But its tough running lead on them all, so we shift around who is lead and who is support, resting as much as possible.”

“Please elaborate on the incident you mentioned.”

There was nothing hidden about the incident, so Cardinal Spitfire complied with his request.

“The short version, two members of Unit 0 were caught with large amounts of drugs. One was producing and selling cut down doses of Buck to several others, including five members of Unit 0. The dealer was tried and dishonorably discharged into a rehab facility. The other major addict was also found guilty and dishonorably discharged into a rehab facility.

“The five soldiers in Unit 0 who were using Buck to keep up were removed from the unit and sent to rehab. To my knowledge, their careers are still undecided. Several others were caught with drugs as well, and I think they faced the same charges and consequences.

“The entire Squad Barracks was torn apart to deal with the issue and find every stash and user. We had to spend a day, not training, cleaning everything up. The Wonderbolts specifically tore apart the ACS units so it would take all day to reorganize everything to the standards. But all Units and all soldiers were inspected after they had the day to clean up.

“Unit 0 was suspended as a whole from ACS. The drugs were not the only issue. Their performance was sub par. But they were allowed to continue training out of necessity once things had cooled down and the trouble markers removed. With their seven members missing, we have reduced their four squad training matrix to three squads.”

“With less trainees, shouldn’t that mean less of you are needed?”

“We do rotated. I am off this morning because I am about to spend an intensive few days teaching them my favorite thing.” Cardinal Spitfire smirked. “Combat formations!”

Cardinal Spitfire was still beaming. “I love formations. Wad Cutter, Spitzer, Soft Point, Boat Tail, and best of all, the Boat Tail Spitzer. It will take an estimated five days for them to learn each well enough to put into practice as we continue to build their skill set. They will need to learn these combat formations backwards and forwards. It is especially important that they learn to work in groups of seven since they often will be applied as the supporting seventh member.”

His face didn't change. “You took a large number of books out from the Quartermaster at Fort Griffin's Gate. Most of them were about military philosophy and teaching. How have those helped?”

“Well,” Cardinal Spitfire said, stalling as she thought. “The history books helped me better grasp where we are by where we have come from and how we should proceed. The military philosophy books won’t have a direct effect that can be easily seen. It has changed how my mind views the puzzle of combat and other situations. I will react in ways I would not of in early training. My tactics are grounded in better philosophy and tried and true methods which will reduce our casualties and strengthen our position, while maximizing the impact on the enemy. But it isn’t something I can explain or demonstrate.

“The teaching books helped some. I am able to better apply them now that I am in a role that allows me too. But much of teaching recruits aerial combat is learned on the job. How best to present my information to multiple different recruits or trainees who learn differently. How to handle multiple individuals with different goals and different attitudes. And worse, how to learn 50 names at once and make it look easy.”

“With all this teaching, are you ready for combat?”

“I am as ready as anypony else Sir.”

“You were not like every pegasus else when it came to scoring. Top in everything, including the Wonderbolt testing list.”

“Where I rank in training has no actual bearing on how I will react in combat. We all are trained to do the same thing. Being the best at combat isn’t the goal. There are a lot more players in that game as objectives are given or taken. And its on a much wider scale than our testing has ever provided.”

“Your husband, Shadow Flare, has done some remarkable combat actions. Do you believe you will be able to perform like he has.”

Cardinal Spitfire narrowed her eyes, her tolerance level dropping significantly. “I do not know what he has been doing. I understand has been doing reconnaissance work. Their combat is not the same as line work and formations. And, it is inappropriate to judge my skill off of who I married.”

“You both performed similar in training. Including how you approached problems.”

“It was training, not real combat. I may freeze.”

He nodded silently. Cardinal Spitfire had knowingly just made herself look weak. But it was the truth. She might freeze, and she knew it. But that would be why she wouldn’t freeze, because she was preparing herself as much as possible for her reactions to not be negative, but positive to their situation.

“You have been on a training rush. How long can you keep this up?”

Cardinal Spitfire smirked. “We will find out. But I am not near running out of steam or coasting yet.”

“Your husband is MIA.”

“Your point?” Cardinal Spitfire asked as she leaned back in the chair, eyebrow raised.

“You have been wearing the MIA badge since you received it.”

“Again, point? Of course I have. He is MIA. He didn’t plan that or purposefully cause it to happen. There is no shame in that and as soon as he gets out of whatever cluster fuck they are tangled up in below, he will have been MIA. And probably move to join as a Wonderbolt instead of reconnaissance.”

“You are optimistic he will be found?”

“Duh! I told him I would wait for him and he said he would be back. He doesn’t break a promise. Especially to me. He will be back. Luck has always favored him, no matter what he attracted. But he will be back and I will wait, however long it takes.”

“It is good to know that you are optimistic about that future.”

Cardinal Spitfire wanted to laugh, but her tolerance was too low to laugh at his stupidity. “It’s not optimism when you know the outcome. And no, I am not in a state of delusion or denial. I just know him and I know the wasteland can’t contain him. Even if the Enclave can’t find him.”

“You have been leading the acrobatic segments after dinner. You are quite good. Who taught you?”

“Shadow Flare, while we were still in Basic Training. We were working to improve each other. Flexibility was one of the areas I needed to improve in. Accuracy was his main concern, but he needed to cinch down on navigation and leadership as well. I had the hard job.

“Leading it in our ACS was an accident, but it turned out to be a good thing and improved the school. Our ACUs will be better prepared for whatever needs to be done.”

“He was quite the shot before he left.”

“Eh,” Cardinal Spitfire shrugged. “He learned from the best.”

“That is a lot of confidence in your skills.”

Cardinal Spitfire finally gave a chuckle. “I mean Captain Marble Falls. She made it so he had to become an expert shot. And he did. Same with me.”

“How do you plan on teaching Unit 0 formations?”

Cardinal Spitfire’s chuckled has a sprinkle of mania. She could do whatever she wanted to teach them formations.

“I will be teaching them by hoof. Move and place on the ground until they get the formation. Then they get to run speed drills to end up in the correct position. After they have things down on the ground, moving them to flight will be a lot safer and simpler. I get to use an air horn to make sure they hear me correcting them as they fly.”

“What do you think of Captain Marble Falls?”

“I don’t want to piss her off, period. She is a close friend, but that isn’t why. I have seen her skills, been taught by her skills and I learned how to pass mine off from her training tactics. She doesn’t teach what she can’t back up with the power of a Wonderbolt.”

“How about the new rank proposal? Open thoughts.”

“Open?” Cardinal Spitfire said as she thought. “Nothing fun comes to mind. It is a good idea to expand and fix a stale area in the fleets. Yes, we in the ACBs are fine with little to no promotions. But there are not the number of teams to be ranking up to Captain and above. We didn’t join to rank up, we joined to do a unique job.”

“Still, the expansion does allow for better officers to shine out and be better prepared to take on new roles as positions open up.”

“I want to highlight an incident you were involved in. Can you guess which one?”

“I could say five or six right now, but I am not stupid enough to guess.”

“You broke into a restricted area and then beat the shit out of a superior office.”

“Superior in what way?” Cardinal Spitfire spat. “No ability to defend himself. No brains to keep himself out of trouble. No ability to respect his chain of command. No humility. No ability to lead soldiers. No tactical knowledge. And he didn’t know when to not fuck with me. I only wish his head was a little squishier so I could put him out of our misery.”

Cardinal Spitfire was shocked at the confession. She had been doing her best to play it calm and collected. All she was getting was a blank stare from whoever the officer was. She decided to drive the point home.

“I am not sorry for what I did. It wasn’t the first time he had caused serious trouble for me.”

“Good. He was a pain in the ass pinprick who deserved it all. He defiled my fort, made a mess of my Wonderbolts and conducted military actions outside of my authority. Specifically outside of the Colonel’s authority. He never met me before. He is sorry he had to.”

Cardinal Spitfire chuckled. “Still changed shit in the end, but it felt good letting it finally rip on his pretty little face. And you must be General Shielded Vengeance.”

“That I am Lieutenant. I wish I had met Shadow Flare. Golden Dawn was a thrill to have as a student in a special training I conducted. She taught me things because the five of you learned how to excel in a special way.”

“I heard you conducted special training for mechanical and support units, with the odd splattering of combat focused roles. It sounded useful, despite knowing nothing.”

“I have been thinking about a crash course for the Wonderbolts. We will see how things go.

“Now, I need your eyes and honest opinion on designs. With the new ranking system, we break apart from the standard and we need new symbols to show the ranks in the Aerial Combat Battalion and in the Fleets.”

The General pulled out a flight suit from behind the desk. It lacked ranks, but had 3 gold lines on the sleeves and the shoulder, where the epaulets the Cloudship officers used were. As a flight suit, it didn’t have the epaulets but still used the area for the markings.

“We have the new rank below Second Lieutenant, Ensign. That is a full line, which is the thickness of this band. Then One line and a half line is for Second Lieutenant. Two full lines for Lieutenant. A full line, half line, and then full line, is for a Lieutenant Commander. That is this flight suit’s rank. Commander is three full Lines. And then four full lines marks a Captain. After that it is a thick band for a Colonel and then more added lines for the grades of Generals. Or Admirals in the case of the fleets.”

“This is looks great,” Cardinal Spitfire stammered. “A change, but logically constructed. Will it change our dress uniforms?”

“We are trying to figure that out,” General Shielded Vengeance admitted. “Any input would be appreciated. But, this is what a flight suit would look like. Bands at the elbow and the shoulder. We thought about the rear knees, but dropped it because it was just a flight suit and it would be too much.”

“I agree, a little too much gold. But it looks great. What about other uniforms?”

“All Aerial Combat Battalion soldiers no longer have any other service uniform outside the flight suits. You never used them anyway. The Wonderbolts do still have their flight jackets as proper uniform. And the regular ACB Units can earn a slightly different style of flight jackets, but that requires missions, which we never do. I want that changed, somehow, without loosing their prestige.

“In combat configuration, these gold stripes will be more of a gray, so they do not stand out too much. For the armor, the color will be black with dark gray stripes at the same location. We don’t need the enemy seeing any flashes of gold in combat."

“Good call,” Cardinal Spitfire nodded. “On dress uniforms, rank is usually worn on the high collar. Silver vertical stripes would not be a bad substitute. Or gold, depending on how you want them to stand out. Admirals and Generals could move back to the star designation.”

“A good idea,” The General nodded.

“Actually,” Cardinal Spitfire said, taking a second to formulate her thoughts. “No, you can run standard symbols. Gold Bar, Silver Bar, Double Silver, Gold Leaf, Silver Leaf, Colonel Wings, and then stars. More would understand that on the dress uniforms.”

“You are right about the cross branch understanding on the dress uniform, since it is standardized.

“One last order of business before I let you go. I am putting this new system in place and these are your new uniforms. I have the unique ability to promote officers by merit and where I see them heading. To promote officers who embody what I want the other officers to be like. To inspire them.”

The General flipped over the flight suit to reveal it’s chest. It had Cardinal Spitfire’s name on the left breast and the gold MIA symbol on the right breast. It also had another new feature, Squad 12 “Pony Patrol” beneath her name on the left breast. They would get to have their list of Wonderbolt Units they served in on their flight suits.

“Lieutenant Commander?” Cardinal Spitfire exclaimed. “But I am a Second Lieutenant. There are scores more who deserve the promotions.”

“And they will come as I slowly mold how these ranks will play out. But the Wonderbolts and the ACUs are officer centric. Each officer deserves his or hers rank and can perform the duties of those ranks.

“But I know my Wonderbolts. All of them. It is a symbol. Same with the ACUs. It is what you do. Most of them are average officers at best. Nothing wrong with that at all. I want them. Need them.

“But more importantly, I need to pull out and display the above average officers so the others can see what it looks like to earn the new, higher ranks and rise to the challenge. You are all Wonderbolts and should not back down, especially for something as minor as ranks.

“You, Cardinal Spitfire, embody a strong mind and spirit, holding fast to what is true. Even Shadow Flare being MIA, he said he will be back. He promised. That is enough to hold true to for the rest of your life, if it comes to that. And the others will see that courage. They already do see it.

“They also will see the kind and compassionate teacher, albeit often through a hard exterior, to help the ones she is training be better. And they will see a leader with spirit and fire who won’t back down. Who will stand up at every occasion and get it done, properly. No matter what.

“You, as a Wonderbolt, have individually displayed the tenacity, the cunning and the guts to be a real Wonderbolt. And you can show them the rest of your skill, making a mark in their memories.”

General Shielded Vengeance pulled out a flight jacket and slid it across the table to her. It was using the new rank design. The rank was only on the epaulets. It was almost the exact same as her first flight jacket, but neither of Wonderbolt jackets had their names on the outside. The addition of the Wonderbolt symbol had been skipped as well. You knew them by their flight jackets. There was no need for their symbol. However, this one did add their Squad assignments and the MIA badge was already on. Cardinal Spitfire slipped it on.

“Have you ever done a Sonic Rainboom?”

“No Sir,” Cardinal Spitfire said shaking her head. “Never had the clearance to even try. Neither have I been close to breaking that barrier. It is forbidden outside of special training. And Wonderbolt testing didn’t require it to join the ranks. They had to see that you had the potential for the speed, forcing us to get right up to the barrier and ride it. But the testing focused on other abilities, more necessary to everyday duties.”

“A shame. I half expected you to ignore that rule. I know you can do it. Who is faster; you, Marble Falls, or Shadow Flare?”

“I honestly don’t know. The times Marble Falls has led the three of us on the chases, she finally throws me and just outruns Shadow. So I think Shadow is at the bottom of that list. He still needs to learn some flying techniques he never got at his home flight school. With refinement-”

The General cut her off with a slice of his wing. “What about a dead sprint, you and Marble Falls?”

“I don’t know.”

“You should find out. You really should know, Lieutenant Commander.”

“I will as soon as possible,” Cardinal Spitfire stumbled. “I am still caught up on being a Lieutenant Commander and being an image of what it means to be that.”

“Just be yourself and never give that up,” General Shielded Vengeance smiled. “I am promoting you for who you are right now. You are the first to parade the new rank insignia. Only a few from the Third Fleet are in these new ranks, but most are not here. Lieutenant Commander Deke and Commander Little have their new uniforms, but they wear their Cloudship duty uniforms, not flight suits. Wear them proudly.”

“Thank you Sir.”

“This box,” The General said picking up the large box behind his desk and placing it on the desk. “It holds new flight suits for your rank. Your old flight jacket is in here, unchanged from when you submitted it the other day for work. I see you are already enjoying the new one.

“I know that flight jackets are a special thing. You can add the MIA badge to your first one if you want, but it is from before Shadow Flare went MIA and holds that meaning. I still wear my original one from way back when I became a Wonderbolt, as Staff Sergeant. I am old, it is old, but it is still my first love.”

“Thank you Sir!” Cardinal Spitfire beamed. “I will take these and get them back to my room to change. Thanks for the new jacket, but you are right, it is not my original. We will see how that plays out. This one fits nicely and has a meaning of it’s own. A very good meaning.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 77 - What You Really Want Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 33 Minutes