The New Recruit

Tuesday's show seemed to pass with less incident. Ace was given a better introduction from Skylight and the trumpeters, the fans asking for his autograph were faster and more easily managed, and most importantly, Skylight didn't seem to notice him at all. Sure, being on her good side was preferable, but if his options were to have her glaring at him half the day or to have her pay him no mind, he'd rather she just forgot he was there.

That is, she forgot about him until the end of the day, when she stopped him on his way out. "You'll be dining with me tonight," she demanded.

"He has to stay with me," replied Soarin. "We talked about this."

"We did," agreed Skylight. "You're to keep him out of danger and out of trouble. This is a dinner invitation, not an assassination attempt."

Soarin crossed his wings. "I'm still going to need to go with him."

"Still need a babysitter?" snorted Skylight. "He's in safe hooves. I'm not going to hurt your little friend, here, I just want to talk. And that's an order, lieutenant."

Soarin knew he couldn't refuse, but at the same time, he didn't want to leave Ace completely alone with her. He knew Ace would be physically unharmed, but if she was alone with him, she could make decisions for him that could not be countermanded. "I'll be joining you."

"Suit yourself," shrugged Skylight, walking off. "Come to my trailer at six."

Ace felt a bit uncomfortable as she walked off. "Was that really necessary?"

Soarin took a breath. "Maybe, maybe not. As far as the brass is concerned, I'm following my orders. Perhaps I'm being a little bit overzealous, but I'd rather take the disciplinary action of being insubordinate to having Spitfire breathing down my neck for not doing my job."

"And Princess Luna?"

"And Princess Luna. If I was directly responsible for an injury to you, I'd be out of the Wonderbolts before you could say "ouch.""

"I guess it's better than no protection at all," sighed Ace. "I'd rather you offer too much defense than not enough, I suppose. I'm just not sure this situation called for it."

"Maybe not," agreed Soarin. "Maybe I'm just being paranoid..."

After going back to Soarin's trailer for an hour and a half, most of which was spent with Ace reading his books from the academy so as not to fall too far behind in his classes and Soarin prepping the trailer to be moved, they put on clean uniforms and made their way across the lot for dinner. Ace knocked on the trailer door, and it opened to reveal Skylight, not wearing her uniform.

"You boys decided to dress up, did you?" she chuckled. "I suppose I should be glad you didn't wear your dress blues. Come on in."

Wearing the uniform was Soarin's idea. It was a safe option, given no dress code. If it was a formal event, the Wonderbolt uniform would meet the requirements, and if it was casual, then they wouldn't be too far overdressed. Having the uniform be clean was enough to show professionalism.

Her trailer was not much better than Soarin's. It didn't need to be; they were both meant to house one pony that wouldn't be there particularly often. It wasn't a home, but a bed that could, and would, be loaded up on a train tomorrow morning and unloaded in Trottingham in the afternoon. It wasn't meant to be a true home, just a place to call her own and sleep while touring.

"I had the runners bring in some stuff from the local grill," explained Skylight, indicating the table. It was filled with a decent spread of food, most of which was covered in grill marks, the rest of which was covered in foil. "Help yourselves."

"If I may, ma'am," interjected Ace, "What is the purpose of this visit?"

"To have dinner, and a conversation," answered Skylight. "I have the food, and have invited you to sit and eat. Do you think I would poison you? Here, in my trailer, with thirty other ponies knowing that I called you in here to eat?"

Soarin stepped forward and sat down at the table, and Ace followed suit. Skylight sat across from them and pulled out a very large folder.

"You two can go ahead and eat, I'm just going to talk for a bit."

Ace grabbed a potato and started dressing it up, while Soarin grabbed a cup full of baked beans.

"I've spoken directly with Steelwing about your situation, and it turns out there was a lot you weren't telling me. And a lot he wasn't telling me, either. You see, when I heard you were fresh from the academy, I assumed you had two years of training under your belt, and you were just skilled. It would make sense if you were being bumped up because you were good at a few stunts and were being sent out for your test run. We see hopefuls joining early every two or three years. That's an average, of course.

"So imagine my surprise when I first find out that not only are you an earth pony, but a first year, as well. You've not passed your flight sciences classes, you haven't gone through advanced weather training, you've not done any work with hail, snow or sleet, though it seems as though you were struck by lightning already... and worst of all, you have a DNC as your score for the safety training."

"That training is scheduled," replied Soarin. "The materials are in the trailer, he was going to read them tonight, and he's going to attend the seminar in San Palomino."

"I noticed. There's a signed order from Princess Luna herself waiving your ineligibility for the first week. And then there's this little gem, dated the day before yesterday. It seems that Lance-Captain Spitfire is helping to promote your work. Aside from just having her lieutenant follow you around, she's paid to have somepony else watch you, too."

She sent the page across the table, and it was an expense report signed by Spitfire, to be paid with her own personal funds, but recorded for invoice purposes. She had paid to have his dad brought to four different locations on the tour, the first of which had been yesterday. She'd set him up with transportation, a seat to watch the show, an autograph signing, and up to twenty-five bits worth of merch for each show. She was the reason his dad had come.

"In essence, I'm wanting to apologise for my behaviour yesterday. Nopony had informed me of what was happening, so I panicked. Consider this to be my welcoming you into the Wonderbolts, as well as my personal objection, which has already been overruled."