Spike looked at Garble. "Seriously, why did you think we were actually going to switch sides?"

Garble glared at Spike. "Oh, I don't know, why are you such a great actor?" Asked Garble as he grumbled.

Ember groaned. "Garble, we are not ever going to leave the order."

Spike nodded as he grabbed the contracts from Crows body, he looked them over. "Ok, I'm not so sure of that, look."

Ember and Garble looked at the contract. "500 bits a month, free food, free housing, education, free wings up to 3000 bits, including mods, vacation, training."

Ember and Garble dropped their jaws. "I know, that's really great, but look at the fine print." Said Spike as he pointed to an asterisk at the very bottom of the page.

* only available to officers with 6+ years in the Empire.

Spike shrugged. "Yeah, I knew it was too good to be true." Said Spike as he burned the contract into ash and letting it be taken by the wind. Spike looked at his crew. "Ok, lets head back to the wings and head back to the Flame Wing, Garble this time keep an eye out for umbra, Ember contact Ruby and tell her to get the Flame Wing to the extraction point."

Ember nodded. "Right, I'll get on the coms."

Spike nodded. "Good, we should only be a half mile from the wings, let’s move."

After trekking through the woods that scattered the large island in the sky, the group of dragons reached their wings. Wings are gem powered vehicles that allowed Sky Knights to travel from island to island quickly, and in the academy each knight was given a model of their choosing and given 2 weeks to customize it. Spike got a Paragon class wing, a 2 wheel motorcycle with a 20 foot wing span, at first it was barely able to keep above the clouds for more than 10 minutes, but when Spike was done with it, he changed out the engine for a supercharged elemental converter system that runs best on fire and lightning gems, then he added a twin boost system for when he needed extra speed. Then Ruby added a detachable side car for the team’s scout and Spike's best friend Peewee. Once it was all done, Spike painted the Paragon red, purple and green, to match his and peewee's colors.

Ember had a Hydra class wing. Hydras were mostly hover based that were slower in general but more durable than the Paragons. But Ember kind of said screw that and made it faster and more durable. She exchanged the normal 4 wheel design for a 3 wheel setup, she changed out the engine for the same elemental converter system as Spike, but she got a model that ran best on ice and wind, which made the wing faster and only something she could pilot. Adding a blue paint job and a few elemental cannons for attacking, Ember really made her wing into her own.

Lastly Garble had a Basalis class wing. The Basalis wings were the slowest of all the 8 wing types, but they were built like tanks. They used powerful jets to keep them up, but this had the effect of being cost heavy when it came to fuel. So once Ruby got her hands on it, she knocked Garble out and set to work. She swapped out the fuel system to an experimental bio gem converter, that used plant and water gems to produce a massive jump in power and fuel efficiency. Then Garble, once he was calm about Ruby touching his ride, added a triple gem cannon for defense and attacks. A triple gem cannon utilized the elements of three gems to make a powerful blast of energy, but the only caveat was the gems had to be compatible with each other. Fire can't be mixed with water, but can be enhanced with plant and air, while water can go with air and cold, air can work with lightning and fire, but not with earth. So, this was either for the first attack when the Dragons had the most gems on hand, or the last ditch chance and pray that they had a good combo on hand. But most of the time, thanks to the very vibrant red paint job on the Basalis, it was mainly for the first counter attack when they were spotted by the Empire.

Spike hopped onto his Paragon. "Spike, I'm in position, but you better hurry, I just got word that every Sky Knight squad has been summoned by the council. They want us to meet on Canterlot. Something big is happening, the princesses are even going to be there." Said Ruby as she popped up on the communication screen.

Spike sighed. "Really, why are they calling the Sky Knights, don't the ponies have the Sky Guard?"

Ruby sighed. "Spike, you got to let this go, don't you think 5 years is long enough?"

Spike growled. "What, my mother shipped me to the Knight academy, without a word, I only get a letter on my birthday from her, and she didn't even say goodbye. I'm not sure that can be resolved with just a meeting." Spike sighed. "We're going, but the moment its done, we're going back out on patrol, I don't want to talk to any of them if it can be avoided."

Ruby sighed. "Fine, but the meeting is in two days, and it'll take us just over 1 and a half to get there if we book it."

Spike nodded. "Fine, heading to the extraction point."

Author's Note

Yeah, I know the first two are short, but this is the world building chapters, next one will be short as well, but the one after that is a lot longer and more reveling.