June 10th, 2307 SET.  Apple Harvest Colony

Rainbow stood in her control tower that overlooked the small field.  It had been three long and grueling days of hardcore training, and today was the day they would board the Midnight Dream.  She looked at the clock; it was oh-four-hundred.  After the three days of training, she had expected her pilots to be late like they were every day. And for that I'm gonna unload a whole can of whoop-.  To her surprise however, the ponies had begun to trickle in, thirty minutes early.  Huh...maybe they did learn something...  As if to answer her question, a pounding had come from under her feet on the wooden door.  Standing in the small door way were two ponies, each wearing a winged pin, her squad leaders.

“Sweet Tart reporting for duty as ordered ma’am!” Stated the light red mare who flicked up a salute.

“Cottonball reporting for duty ma’am!” Repeated the off-white unicorn to the left, who also held a salute.

Rainbow eyed her squad leaders, smiling proudly on the inside.  She had picked the squad leaders who, while not necessarily the best pilots, held their ground in the face of adversity.  Sweet Tart had held her ground against Rainbow’s onslaught of verbal bombs.  She also later proved herself by asking Rainbow to practice even after the rest of the ponies had been given the clear to go home.  She stayed several hours later then everypony else, practicing the ground drills that Rainbow had the ponies run every day.  Rainbow had seen the determination in this pony, and for that she pulled her aside last night and had offered her the position.

Cottonball, while not nearly as self-driven nearly as much as Sweet Tart, was a natural leader.  She was the one who got the ponies to finally break the minute-thirty mark on their third day of training.  She organized them made them remain calm while still not coming off as bossy.  And for that, Rainbow promoted her to be a permanent leader.  She would have promoted Applejack to squad leader but Applejack was worried that the pilots would think she was picking favorites, so she just made sure Applejack would be in her squad as her wing pony.

“At ease, take a seat,” Rainbow said, motioning towards a small bench.  The ponies relaxed their legs, hooves falling to the ground, and sat next to each other looking at their leader intently.

“Something wrong, ma’am?” Cottonball asked.

“No, actually everything is good.  While I expected you two to be here on time, I didn’t expect the rest to be here for another hour,” Rainbow sighed.

“Well you trained us the best you could in three days, the very least we could do is be on time for our first official send off,” Sweet Tart said with a grin.

Rainbow let a soft smile come to her mouth before becoming serious again.  “Did you create your squad rosters like I asked?”

“Yes ma’am, Sweets and I threw it together like you asked.  Twenty-nine ponies, counting you at the top, ma’am.”  Cottonball opened her bag and floated a paper towards Rainbow for her to see.  “Fourteen Steads and a Lancer.  In my opinion, while not a-hundred percent uniform, it will look cool.”

When she said “cool”, a smile sprawled across Rainbow’s face.  “Or radical or awesome.  So these groups will function well together?”

“We believe so ma’am.  Any pony who didn’t seem to fit as well, we put them in your squad, we figured you could show ‘em a thing or two about teamwork,” Sweet Tart replied, a dark grin appeared on her face.

Rainbow was still scanning the paper, “You know it.  Alright, this looks good.  I’ll take it from here, thanks girls.  Now fall into line, the Dream will be here soon.”  The two ponies in front of her flicked up another salute before trotting out towards the field.  Rainbow looked back across the paper that was now resting on a small table in the corner.  “We are gonna’ need some serious awesomeness to pull this off...”  She ran the possible scenarios through her head.  Her three squadrons of five fighters each on guard duty.  That doesn’t seem too bad I guess. ‘Depending on what we are assigned to guard that is, Rainbow thought to herself.  She hadn’t been able to see how they flew against enemies yet, and that put her a little too far on the uncomfortable side of things.  I will be fine on my own, but I don’t know about them.  Gotta’ make sure they understand the importance of their wing ponies.  She rolled the paper up and slid it into a drawer. I’ll have time for that on the trip out, for now... she looked out over the mass of ponies sliding into position, it’s time to rally the troops.

***

She stood in front of the line of ponies, just like she did three days ago.  She eyed them all, regarding their newly issued flight suits courtesy of The Diplomat.  They were split into pairs, pilot and co-pilot.  On the ground next to each pony rested their helmets, each one shining the in the artificial light of the spot lights.  They had their inner suit pulled up over their heads just like Rainbow had shown them; the unicorns had special suits with holes for the horns.  The pegusi did not, however, and she knew their pain, what with it being as tight inside of a fighter as is without having your wings stuck to you like glue.

They all stood at attention. If Rainbow hadn’t known any better, she would say that they almost looked like trained pilots.  They all bore a somber look, although Rainbow could see some of the younger pilots were eager to go and fight.  She opened her mouth to speak, “Welcome to the end of it all, ponies.  Congratulations, you lived through my three day crash course.  You should all give yourselves a pat on the back, but not now.  Do that on the ship when you finally get some time to relax.  It’s only a small jump from here to the combat area, but, hey, rest is rest, and you are going to want a lot of it, since once the shooting starts, you won’t see much rest anymore.  Now I, unfortunately, did not get to see you fly against an opponent cause of our time crunch.  I’m going to let you know now that these enemies will not sit still like the dummies.  They will fly and fight for their lives, just like you will.  If you want to live, stick with your wing ponies.  I cannot stress that enough, stick to your friends.  Out there, it’s only you and the enemy pilots.  Whoever has the most friends will live to see another day.  Another thing that we didn’t have time for was unit cohesion.  I wanted to try and drill that into as much as I could, but again, our time allowed us very little to work with.  Call out your shots.  Tell others what you are going to do.  You are all too green to try and fly like you know exactly what you are doing.  Let your friends know what is happening, that way they can back you up.  Don’t be a hero either, that’s my job.”  Rainbow halted at the middle of the line, gazing up and down it.  “Our transport will be here in two hours.  Cottonball, Sweet Tart, file em’ up, get them into their squads.”  The two ponies trotted off from both ends of line and surrounded their leader as she turned her back and headed towards her tower.

Behind her, Rainbow heard Cottonball yell, “Alright! In the Commander’s squad will be Applejack, Drop Stick...” She didn’t hear the rest as the sound of her hooves climbing up the wooden staircase drowned it out.  She could barely hear that over the sounds of her own thoughts, even though she wasn’t thinking about anything in particular.  She was worried of course.  She trained these ponies, so she felt that they were her responsibility.

They will be fine, she thought to herself, as long as they stick to their wing ponies, guard duty shouldn’t be too bad.  A knocking on the door shook her from the thought.  She pulled it open and saw Applejack standing in the hatchway, smiling.

“Whew, ya’ know Rainbow, I never thought I would be so excited to leave this planet for a while!”  Applejack said with a grin.

“Yeah, that reminds me, who is gonna’ be the leader while you’re away?”

“I decided to let Rarity and Twilight handle it, what with Rarity’s ability to be perfect and with Twilight’s organization skills, it should be no problem, right?”

“Yeah I suppose you’re right.  Ha, a show pony and an egghead running a colony, sounds boring to me.  I bet it’s way more fun with you in charge AJ.”  Rainbow winked and nudged her friend in the side.

“You know me Rainbow, I do the best I can and try to make it good for everypony.  I’m sure Twilight and Rarity will do the same but...” a snicker seeped out the side of her mouth, “Yur' probably right about that being boring’ for a long time though!”  She started full out laughing and Rainbow was quick to join.

They sat there, laughing for a while, enjoying each other’s company.  After wiping a few tears from her eyes, Rainbow was the first to sober up.  “You see?  This is why I joined the military, so I could protect times like these.  I know there are other ponies that fight, but I just couldn’t sit around knowing that others were getting hurt while I could be out helping.”

“I know, Rainbow.  I had never questioned yer’ reasoning to join up with the NESC.  I may not have liked it, but I agreed with it.  I just want ta’ make sure that you come back okay, that’s why I’m going up there with ya’.  Somepony has to watch your flank after all.”  Applejack held the smile through the conversation, although her eyes became soft towards the end.  Her eyes brightened again as a thought struck her mind, “Ha, just look at me!  A pilot!  I wish Big Mac could see me now!  What with my shinny badge and fancy looking suit!  Just think of it Rainbow, I am the first Apple to be a pilot.”

“Huh, so no Apples have been pilots at all?” Rainbow asked.

“Nope, just farmers and colonists, although on the Pear side of the family, I guess they had one or two.” Applejack replied.  “But hey, they ain’t Apples, so I’m gonna’ do the family proud!”

“I’m sure you will, just remember what I said earlier, watch your friends’ flanks.  They will return the favor too since they won’t be a smoldering pile of space dust,” Rainbow said, throwing in a smirk.

“I know, I know.  I hear Cottonball and Sweets sayin’ that constantly, like it’s the word of Celestia herself or somethin’.  So, about our carrier, what is it again?”  Applejack’s face turned towards a stack of papers, nosing about through them.

“It’s an old Pegusi-cruiser, the Midnight Dream.  From what they tell me, she has a hallowed out cargo bay meant to hold all of the ships, since normally fifteen ships wouldn’t fit too well inside one.  She doesn’t have a main weapon but, since she is only escorting us into battle, that isn’t too much of a worry.  She still has her point defense lasers so that should be fine.  I’ll go more into it in the briefing room before we get there, but for now, we need to get this stuff packed up and ready to go,” Rainbow stated, shuffling some papers into her bag.  “Gah, as fun and exhilarating it is to be a pilot; the paperwork sure ruins it sometimes.”

“How do ya’ think I feel as the governor?  I have mounds of it every day, it’s a royal pain.  But its worth it right?” Applejack asked, casting a glance over her friend.

“You know it AJ, a little bit of paper never stopped me from flying!” Said a hurried Rainbow.  She kept stuffing papers and other materials into her bag.

“Wow Rainbow, I ain’t ever seen ya’ in such a hurry.”

“I’m as excited as you to fly, always am!”

“Ha, I suppose ya’ are.”

“Yup! I’m just ready to go!”

Applejack paused for a moment and thought.  She dared ask the question, “Rainbow, why are you really in such a hurry?”

Rainbow stopped only for a second before continuing packing up her belongings, “what do you mean? I just want to fly!”

“I can see that, but why are ya’ rushing to leave?  Is something wrong?  Besides, ya’ haven’t even said goodbye to our friends.”  Hearing this caused Rainbow to freeze.  Seeing this, Applejack pressed on, “ya’ didn’t forget them did ya’?”

Rainbow slowly began shoving the last of her stuff into her bag, “of...of course not, it’s just that...why say goodbye when we will be back in a week or two?”

Worry entered Applejack’s eyes, “Rainbow, there is no guarantee that you are coming back, or that any of us will for that matter.”

A sigh slithered out of Rainbow’s mouth, “I know, but I hate goodbyes.  Almost as much as I hate losing.  I rather leave with them remembering the times in the barn instead of me saying ‘well I might not comeback so see ya’ later!’”

“Is that why you only left us with a note with a picture of a party when you went off to flight school?”

The question stung Rainbow’s heart, “yes.”

“Rainbow...that only leaves us with worry, not with fun memories.  Heck, I didn’t stop worrying about you until that phone call, and that was nearly four months later.”  Applejack paused for a breath, “go say goodbye to them, they won’t mind being woken up for something like this.  Cottonball, Sweets, and I can handle the final details here.”  Applejack gave Rainbow a small kick in the flank, “get goin’!”

“Alright, alright.  I’ll be back soon,” Rainbow groaned in defeat.

“No, ya’ take yer’ time.  Remember what you said, nothing is more important than yer' friends.”

“I’ll be back soon,” Rainbow said with a small smirk before opening her wings and heading back for town.