June 6th, SET.  Apple Harvest Colony.

Rainbow sat in the makeshift control tower that watched over the converted landing zone for the colonist pilots.  The tower was originally meant to be a fire tower, but its speaker phone and broadcasting equipment proved useful for her to communicate with her pilots. It was four in the morning by Apple Harvest standards and the sun had yet to bring itself to light the sky.

Rainbow was staring over the older fighters that resting in the field below, illuminated by bright light posts.  ‘What can I do to train these ponies in three days?  They know how to fly for themselves, that’s for sure, but you don’t learn teamwork...it is earned through practice’. She remembered her flight instructor telling her that, ‘Earn, not learn.’ A knock on the wooden hatch below pulled Rainbow from her thoughts.  She trotted over and pulled up on the handle and swung the hatch open, revealing a tired looking Applejack.

“Permission to come aboard?” Applejack asked, stifling a yawn as she did.  The orange mare had feint black bags under her eyes, clearly not used to being up this early.

Rainbow chuckled to herself quietly, “Applejack, two things; one, you are the authoritative figure of an established planet.  You outrank me by anypony’s standards and two, you’re my friend, you don’t need to ask permission to do anything.”  She threw in a grin with the explanation.

Applejack replied with a meek smile and said, “Well that’s mighty kind of ya’ Rainbow, but...” She paused for a yawn that she couldn’t hold any longer, “I don’ want ya’ treatin’ me any different because I’m yer’ friend.  We’re all pilots now and, other than rank, we are all equal.  It’s why I asked to come aboard,” Applejack finished with a weak grin.  “So, what’s the plan?”

Rainbow looked over her tired friend a moment before starting, “Well, I just got a transmission from the frigate that is en route to pick us up, the Nighttime Dream.  They said that they were going to be here in three days but...there is a problem.”

“Oh? What might that be?”

“Well, the Dream was actually set to be decommissioned due to its main gun not working properly, so now it is basically an unarmed, undersized carrier.”

“What’s the problem then?”

“The problem, AJ, is that we will be being escorted into combat by a ship with no heavy weapons.”

“Doesn’t seem like a problem to me, considerin’ that we will be pulling guard duty anyways.”

“I somehow doubt that.”

“Why?  Isn’t that what The Diplomat said?”

“I never trust what an ESI operative tells me.  From what I hear there is always an underlying scheme behind all of their plans.  If he wants us on guard duty, then there is a very real possibility that he wants us there for a specific reason.  And I also doubt that the fact that we will be being carried by an unarmed frigate is coincidence either.  Something else is going on, and I wanted you to know so you can be careful.”

Applejack looked out over the fighters below thoughtfully, tiredness leaving her eyes for a moment before being brought back by another yawn.  She resumed looking at her pegasus friend.  “Maybe yer’ right Rainbow, but as ya’ said earlier, he is a superior officer.  We need to at least do what he says, if not trust him.  He has the plan in his scheming head, so let’s let him scheme.  It’s what he’s paid to do after all.”

Rainbow’s face became hard for a moment, deep in thought.  Her face softened after a moment, “You’re right AJ, but let me tell you one thing I have learned.  Up there, in open combat, the life of you and your wingmate’s are priority.  Don’t ever leave anypony behind.”

“Ya’ll know me Rainbow; I won’t leave a friend hangin’ anytime, anywhere!” Applejack replied half enthused.  She was still having a hard time waking up.  Rainbow replied with a large smile and she drew her friend into a tight hug.

“That’s what I like to hear,” she said, releasing the embrace.  “Now, the first thing we need to work on is-” She was cut off by the pounding of hooves and a crash as a brown pony came sprinting up the stairs.

“So are we ready to fly!” The stallion asked, his eyes swinging back and forth eagerly between the two mares.

“Discipline I guess...” Rainbow finished.  Applejack half nodded in agreement.  Rainbow brought herself full bear on the young brown stallion.  “What is your name soldier?”

“Ringed Starr...with two ‘r’s at the end!” He replied, a large smile stricken across his face, not threatened by the bright blue pegasus in front of him.

Worst mistake ever, Rainbow thought to herself.

“Oh, I can’t wait to get up there and kick some rebel tail!”

“Can’t you now?” Rainbow scoffed.

“No way!  A chance to fly with NESC forces and-” he was cut off by the stomping of a hoof.

“If you are going to fly with NESC pilots, then you need to start acting like one...Starr,” Rainbow sneered.  The pony’s silence was enough to make Rainbow smile on the inside.  “All NESC pilots go through a very, very long training process.  Believe me, I know.”  Rainbow paused for a moment, flinging a hoof up to her new rank badge.  The pony in front of her gulped, Good, now he’s learning.  “You don’t have the luck to go through that life changing training, so all you get to deal with is me!”  She raised her voice at the end, making the stallion shy away a bit.  “I have three days to turn you colonists into pilots.  All the time in the universe wouldn’t be enough, but three days is all I have... So you better be ready. Are you ready, Starr with two ‘r’s?”  The question even made Applejack cringe a bit.  The pony nodded in fear, sweat starting to drip from the side of his head.  “I said, ARE YOU READY?”

“Yes, ma’am!” The pony shouted in shock, flinging a hoof to his head.

“Good, very good.  You are going to hate me for these three days of hell you are going to go through, but you will thank me for it when you aren’t sucking space dust through what used to be your helmet!  Now get out there and wait for the rest of the pitiful excuses for ponies to arrive!”  She slammed her hoof down again, and as fast the brown pony came, he was gone.  Rainbow couldn’t help but chuckle slightly after the pony left.

“Wow Rainbow, don’t cha’ think that was a bit uh...harsh?” Applejack asked, now fully awake by the chastising her friend had just unleashed.

“Applejack, I was half as ‘harsh’ as they were to us in flight school.” Rainbow replied, a smile still on her face.  “Wow, I always wanted to do that.”

“Uh huh...just remember Rainbow, we are colonists, not trained fighter pilots.”

The grin on Rainbow’s face turned into a dark smirk, “No, you’re not...not yet”

***

Rainbow stared down the line of ponies in front of her, there were thirty in all.  The ponies came in all shapes and sizes.  Some small, some large, some blue, some yellow.  They were a mixture of all three types of ponies, although predominately earth ponies.  They all stood at attention, which had surprised Rainbow.  She expected them all to be like that one pony, Starr, but most of them were disciplined enough to understand and take orders without much question, good, considering where it will be coming from... Her thoughts trailed off towards the ESI shuttle on the other side of town.  She shook her head, focusing on the ponies in front of her.  It was now five in the morning, thirty minutes later than what she wanted to start.  That was something she was going to have to work on though, punctuality.

She opened her mouth to speak, “So you want to fly with us NESC pilots eh?  You want fame and glory?  Want the rush of your life?  If any of these reasons are why you are here then you need to leave.  Now.  We are not here for fun or to make a name for ourselves, we are here to fight for our lands.  We are here to drive the enemy back to the space from which it came.”  She started walking down the line, giving her speech as she walked.  She paused in front of a light-red mare and averted her attention towards her, “you!”  The sudden shout made the young mare squeak in fear, but she held her ground.  “Why are you here?”

Her lower lip trembled before starting, “Mah...Mah ancestors were either colonists or pilots.  I’m already a colonist, so I figured I would try to fulfill both paths my ancestors took.”

Rainbow stared down her prey for a moment before verbally assaulting her, “Wrong!  I just said why you are here!  Now, I’ll ask one more time; why are you here?”  The mare looked like she was about to cry, but she powered through.  ‘I’ll have to remember her, she seems strong...somewhat.’

“To...to defend our homes, to protect our families!” She said.  Her voice wavered a bit but she held her ground.

“Very good,” Rainbow pulled away from the verbally beaten mare, who was left panting in fear.  She resumed walking and shouting, “I have three days to turn you backwater fly ponies into true pilots.  This task is impossible; I went through four years of training to achieve where I’m at today.  None of you ponies will have that luxury; instead you will be getting the three day crash course version.  And when I say three day, I mean three day.  I told all of you to be here at oh-four-thirty, and here we are at oh-five-hundred.  You may think that this is oh-dark-stupid, but this is what time we will start every day.  You can sleep on the flight to the combat zone.  Today, I get to welcome you to hell, and you will not enjoy your stay.”  She had reached the end of the line of ponies.  She did an about-face and shouted, “Is this understood?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Was the unanimous reply.  She smiled on the outside, but on the inside she cringed a bit.

‘I hate being called ma’am...’  She headed out to the front of the line so that everypony could see her clearly.  “Applejack step forward.”  The orange pony trotted out from around the middle of line and stood at attention.  “Your governor, Applejack is in rank with you to show you that I do not treat anypony better than the one next to him or her.  She will go through this course just like the rest of you, and she will be a better pilot for it.  Fall back into formation, Applejack.” A salute was the reply and the orange mare trotted back into line.  “Now, it is my understanding that you all already know where your ships are and who is piloting and who is on com’s and navigation.  If this is true then to your left, in that small building is where your flight suits are kept.  Is this information incorrect?”  There wasn’t a peep from the line.  Rainbow knew she was right, she just wanted to see if somepony would challenge her.  When nopony did, she pulled a whistle out of her flight jacket’s pocket.  FWEEP! The whistle screamed, “Then scramble ponies!  We are under attack! Go, go, go! Get your suits on and get to your ships!”

As the line turned into a free-for-all of ponies rushing towards the barracks that held their uniforms, Rainbow nodded to Pinkie Pie who was sitting in the fire tower.  Pinkie flicked a switch that started playing audio of gunfire and explosions.  She also flicked a timer on showing how long it took every single pony to get their uniforms on and into their ships.  In Rainbow’s mind, these ponies may as well have been infants, they were pretty much crawling.  She glanced up at the timer, watching it count up to the one minute mark.  She glanced back towards the barracks as the first of ponies began to emerge from the building, sprinting to where their fighters were.  She waited as the clock got closer to a minute and a half.  At the minute and a half mark, around half of the ponies had emerged from the building.  She blew on her whistle, drawing everypony to a halt.

“Fall into formation!” She yelled.  All the ponies bolted back into the line that they were in not two minutes ago.  Once the last pony had reached the line, she had noticed that a majority of them were panting.  “That, fillies and gentle-colts is how fast you must be to even qualify to be a true pilot in the NESC.  My record is thirty-two seconds, getting my suit on and into my fighter, ready for takeoff.  Now, go take your gear off and then fall back into line.  You have two minutes, go!” She blew her whistle again, sending ponies sprawling over each other trying to get to the building and back to avoid being orally assaulted by their new Commander.  Rainbow chuckled to herself as she saw ponies tripping and falling, trying to be the ones to impress her the most, like I care how they do. As long as they don’t die, I’ll be impressed.  That last thought made her frown, but she pushed it from her mind, she needed to focus on the present, not the future.

***

After running the drill for nearly two hours, Rainbow was forced to stop and give the colonists a break.  Two of them had passed out from the exercise and had to be brought to the medical tent.  Applejack trotted over, panting heavily, “Whew...haven’t had a good exercise like that in ages.  Don’t ya’ think that ya’ may have been a little harsh though?”

Rainbow shook her head, “I lied to them, AJ.  A minute in a half isn’t what pilots shoot for, a minute is.  At least, from a ready position like the line that I keep putting them into.  But like I said earlier, you ponies don’t have the luxury of training like I or other pilots do, so I have to make do with what I can.”

“Well ta’ be honest Rainbow, these seems a little pointless, we should be practicing maneuvers n’ such, not a pointless drill.”

“Applejack, you are over stepping your boundaries, you agreed that once we hit the field, I was in control.”

“I know that, it’s just...this seems rather useless in the long run, I mean, we are on guard duty after all.”

Rainbow let out a sigh before continuing, “Applejack listen, and this is the only time I will treat you this way.  You ponies want to be pilots, yes?”  She paused for a response from Applejack who nodded.  “Then you need to actually be flying for that to happen.  Saying that you’re a pilot doesn’t make you a pilot, doing the actual flying does.  Not to mention that guard duty is rather pointless if the target has been destroyed by the time you get there.”

“Right but-,” Applejack didn’t have time start as Rainbow picked her rant back up.

“Not to mention that I have seen your ponies fly, they don’t need lessons in that.  What they need is discipline, but that isn’t something I can drill into them in three days.”

“Alright Rainbow, yer' right.  Ya’ need to do what you think is best for us, and we will do it to the best of our capabilities,” Applejack said confidently.

“Thank you Applejack, now, fall back in line." A smirk crawled across her face as she turned to face a map on the wall, "we are going to restart the drill and then...we move to the actual sky.”