The New Recruit

Spitfire sighed as she filled out the paperwork. Crop Duster had quit, and with nopony else to take his place without splitting up another team, Ace was struggling and starting to fall behind. She knew that Peregrine would work with him, but Peregrine already had a partner, and it would be unfair to damage his new partner's grade in order to help Ace, especially when Ace was still scoring higher. She could potentially just make Ace the lead for Peregrine's partner, but that would be punishing Peregrine, who had already put in a lot of work.

That's not to say that Ace was really working alone. Peregrine had been warned about assisting his competitors too much, and had reset his focus on completing his own tasks, but he still stepped in to help Ace whenever he could. To that effect, Ace was still managing, but he couldn't just always rely on Peregrine to help him out. The next round of Capture the Flag was fast approaching, and with no partner and Peregrine needing to actively fight against him, Ace was going to suffer.

The door opened, and Spitfire raised her head to bark at the entrant for not knocking, but before she could spit out a single word, she clamped her mouth shut, jumped to her hooves, and saluted. "Lance-Paladin Steelwing, sir. Princess Luna, ma'am. To what do I owe this visit?"

"Be seated," commanded Steelwing. He wasn't her boss. He was her boss's boss, and he did not look happy. Having a princess in attendance, too, made it seem like she was in big trouble. "State your name and rank."

"Lance-Captain Spitfire, sir."

"You're in charge of this facility, Captain?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'll keep it brief, Captain. I'm here because of the rumours that started three months ago. Word has spread that there is an earth pony at this academy. Is this true?"

Spitfire swallowed. She had not released her salute, despite sitting down as commanded. "Yes, sir."

"I hear that he is enrolled as a student."

"Yes, sir."

"You are aware that flight training is a mandatory course at this academy, yes?"

"Yes, sir."

"You are aware that earth ponies do not fly, yes?"

"Yes, sir."

"You are aware that you, Lance-Captain Spitfire, are required to sign off on all students that are admitted to the academy?"

"Yes, sir."

He took a deep breath. This was it. This was going to strike her down. He'd set up all the pieces, and now he was going for the kill. "Why did you allow this to happen?"

There it was. She had allowed this to happen. Her only escape was to claim that she didn't know, but he'd already cut off that escape. Sure, she could say somepony else had filed the paperwork and make them take the blame, but aside from the fact that she was unwilling to make somepony else take the fall for her mistake, she had to sign off on it, meaning that either she had approved of this, fully aware of the facts as stated, or she had not been doing her job, which was even worse.

Her hoof shaking, she decided that her career had gone on for long enough. It was over now. It had been a good run, and she wished Ace the best of luck. "I allowed it to happen because I personally facilitated his enrollment, sir."

"Why, Lance-Captain?"

"I had a few reasons, sir."

"Well, I'd love to hear them, Captain."

She swallowed hard. "At first, I thought he would give up, sir. He would either give up or fail out, and would just show the rest of Equestria why we only accept pegasi."

"He has yet to give up, I take it?"

"That is correct, sir."

"And you haven't failed him because?"

"Because he's passing all of his classes, sir."

"And you expect him to keep passing?"

"I... I don't know, sir."

"You don't know. Well, I do. He can't. He can't do solo flights. He can't do synchronised flight. He can't recover from the dizzitron. He can't pass these classes."

Spitfire furrowed her brow. "With all due respect, sir, your assertion is incorrect."

Princess Luna, who had been silently standing at the back of the room, flicked her ears forward.

"You are telling me that he can fly?" barked Steelwing. "You are under the impression that this pony with no wings is capable of flight through his own power?"

"That is correct, sir."

Luna leaned forward. "That's quite intriguing. I trust that you have evidence to back your claim..."

Spitfire nodded. "I do, your highness." She walked briskly to the corner of her room where she kept her filing cabinets. Ace's grades from the first term were already put away, so while she could show him struggling without a partner, she could also show them proof of his success in the past. "I have here the records from his solo landing from the dizzitron." She opened the file to the proper page and laid it out on her desk for them both to see.

Before Steelwing could lean forward and look, Luna brought the entire file over in front of her with magic, scanning through not just his dizzitron records, but everything he'd done. She kept her face still throughout. When she finished, she returned it to the desk. "Impressive if true."

"Yes, ma'am," nodded Spitfire. "He's very good at flight, despite his race."

"Good at flight," scoffed Steelwing. "I'll believe it when I see it."

That was it. That sentence was her saving grace. A moment ago, Spitfire could have sworn that she was going to lose her job and her rank, but now... Now she had an opening. She could save her job, and she could keep her rank. She'd been cornered, but now there was an opening, straight through to the other side.

"Then come and see it, sir."

Steelwing looked up from the report, glaring at Spitfire through his eyebrows. "Do you dare to order me, Captain?"

"No, sir. I dare to invite you. I invite you and her grace, Princess Luna, to come and see the very student described in this report."

"He's on the field now?" asked Luna, standing up.

Spitfire looked at the clock. "No, he's in his history class right now. But I can pull him out and have him demonstrate his abilities for you. I am still the dean of this academy as of this moment, and I command the respect and admiration of my students and educators. If I walk into that room and tell him to come with me, he will."