At first when I stepped down into the courtyard below I was a bit confused. I didn't see any of the normal equipment or prepared areas that I would normally use for my training, at least there was nothing for me. There were plenty of other ponies performing various training routines throughout the yard; a group of earth ponies focused on strength and CQC, some unicorns slinging spells back and forth, and a squad of pegasi standing at attention with a very familiar burst of fiery hair at their front.

"Here he is! Trainee Icarus, form up with the rest of the group." Although we both knew that I wasn't an actual trainee, she still loved to act like I was. She even had me snap to attention and form up with whatever group she was dealing with if there was one when I would show up.

"Alright rookies, I've decided that for this portion of your training our resident human would be joining you. It's about time he started on his flight control anyway."

A bit of understanding crept into my mind when she said this, as for the most part I had been ground bound for most of my training with only short burst of flight focused on going as fast as I could or carrying as much as possible. This is where the intricacies of flying would be introduced, with a higher focus on precision and control. The only odd part was that this was the first time that I had trained with more than one or two others.

"Now, for the first few exercises we will be working on formation flight. Icarus I will give you a position around the main formation that you will try to maintain as we move around, clear?"

"Yes ma'am!" I belted out with a short salute.

At first I would find myself being a bit too close or too far from the formation, nearly brushed wings with somepony a couple of times, but eventually I got used to moving with them and even figured out a way to maintain position if I had to look away. I learned to feel how the air would feel if something was close enough to me and eventually found the sweet spot to the various areas of the formation. The most important things I learned from these exercises was presence and control of my power, as if I was too close or beat my wing to hard others close to me could become unstable.

I couldn't see if Spitfire approved of how I was doing, because I could find her she called out, "Alright trainees! Enough formation flying for right now, time to move on to what your group will be specializing in; Airlifting wounded ponies or carrying emergency supplies. Icarus, you can try your ho- er hand at it too if we can find a way to make it work.

"Now, the main thing to remember when carrying precious cargo is that you can't move too fast and that you must always stick together. In order to properly maneuver as a group you will need a lead, someone who will be directing the rest of the squad in terms of where to go. This will normally be the pony in the front left or right and you should determine who will be lead before setting out so as to avoid confusion during the mission, even if is just a cargo run."

While the rest of the pegasi in the group set out to practice this Spitfire turned to me. "Listen, Icarus. Other than personally holding a small parcel, I don't really see a way for you to participate in this with rest of the trainees. There is just to big of a difference between you and them to be able to balance the cargo properly."

"Actually, I think that I might have an idea if you could give me a minute to work and permission to use the supply shed." I said, jerking my head over towards a shed that contained supplies for building and maintaining various pieces of training equipment.

After she gave me the go ahead I began to work quite quickly, selecting the boards that I needed for my idea. For the first one, I found a beam that was just a bit longer than the distance between my shoulders and knees in terms on running along my back. Next I found two more boards that were slightly wider than my shoulders and nailed them to the beam as if I was attaching an equals sign to it, ending up with something that looked like a double crossed letter ~~T~~.

When I showed this to her, she was confused at first until I showed her how I planned on trying this idea. I would set the device across my back almost like a cross with my arm and legs on top of it while my body was below it. After tying rope to the ends it would keep what I was carrying stable and even provide me leverage as I flew with it. It took a couple of tries to take off correctly with it across my back, but I was able to make it off the ground without my cargo tipping so in the end it was a success. Luckily I was also a strong enough of a flier to properly carry my cargo, even with my wings not being fully mature yet.

I was tough and tiring to pull that little stunt off, but the look of admiration from the other trainees and especially Spitfire made it worth it by loads. It wasn't until I set down the last bit of cargo that I had been carrying that Spitfire decided to speak to the group.

"Alright rookies fall in! Now while that was an impressive idea on Icarus's end that would probably not work for most of you. Trainee Swift, what might you do if you were down a squad mate or two and still had to transport a wounded pony?"

Put on the spot, the trainee began to sputter a bit until she found the right words for her idea, "W-w-well ma'am, if it was just me and another squad mate or two, then the best idea I have would be to use a net or something instead of the standard stretcher. That way we could distribute the weight evenly."

"Very good trainee Swift, you all need to be able to improvise in the field, because you never know what situation you will find yourselves in. Before we carry on with some more basic exercises, have any of you thought of a name for your unit yet?"

The assembled ponies all shook their heads or dug around in the dirt with their hooves, hoping to find an answer there. Then I decided to offer up an idea of my own.

"Why not the Valkyries?" At this I got a lot of confused looks. "Well your main focus would be transporting wounded soldiers right? So Valkyries sounds about right for y'all."

"Care to explain what exactly a Valkyrie is, Icarus?" Spitfire always seemed to enjoy the little stories or ideas that I'd talk about from my world. I've actually been looking for a nice time to tell her about her own name.

"Well the Valkyries were considered by my ancestors to be beautiful war-maidens who would carry the souls of the valiant dead to the halls of Valhalla, and seeing as all the ponies in this unit are girls and everything else seems to line up I thought it was a fitting name."

Spitfire looked over the group of trainees, "Well it sounds good to me, how about you rookies?" A couple were blushing a bit, (not sure why, I hope Valkyrie doesn't mean something else to them,) but all in the group seemed to agree on the name. "Well then, Valkyrie Squadron! Fall in!"

Author's Note

Thank you all for the feedback and support shown so far. Please tell me any ideas or issues that pop into your noggins in the comments.

P.S. if any of you stop by the DFW area in Texas, there is a cool place where you can throw axes at stuff. It's really fun especially when Sabaton is on the speakers.