Loyal Ace

"Now hold it steady at 50%," Twilight instructed, looking at another of her contraptions.

It took a lot of effort to keep my magic stable at a specific level, and I was failing miserably. It had been ten days since I started my training and I still struggle with anything resembling fine control. I could give you full power or none at all, but anything in between was off the table.

"Iridian, slow down. You're almost at full power again." I could hear the concern in her voice. Trying my best to keep my magic in check only hastened the process. My magic started flaring again, forcing me to use the breathing exercise Twilight taught me early on. I took a deep breath and focused on 'sucking' my magic back into my body. The tingling feeling on my wings lessened and was gone after a few more deep breaths.

Using the simulator again might be safe if someone is watching you, but I fear your magic might overpower its safety measures, and you must still actively work to prevent your flares.

"Sorry Twilight. It's my fault, I should be able to do this," I tried to placate her.

"Don't worry about it. But this training method isn't working out. I have to come up with something different."

"So what now?" I asked.

"We have to get you actual flight experience. It's only four days until you face Lightning, and you were non-stop training your magic until now."

My eyes went wide. "Oh my gosh, I totally forgot. Learning magic was so exciting. Can we go right now?" I was practically prancing around the room at the thought of it and giving her my best puppy dog eyes to convince her to get right to it.

"It has been a while since I instructed somepony. If you like, I could teach you. But if you want a real flight instructor, I can ask somepony else."

I got right up to her muzzle. "No Twilight, I want you to teach me. How many ponies can say they got trained by one of the alicorns?"

"If that is your reason for it, I'm going to find somepony else." Her stern expression brought me back instantly. She was right. This was not something to brag about. I didn't want her to train me because she was an alicorn. I'm pretty sure the flight instructors on board are just as good as her, if not better if she hadn't done this in years. But she was my friend, and I trusted her.

"I want you to do it because I trust you. You know me; I can't help but brag about it. You, Strafe and Lightning know it's just in good fun. I don't actually mean it."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Fine. I don't have any meetings today. If you want, we can start right away." I nodded in eager anticipation. "Get suited up, and I'll meet you here again in one hour," she said.

"Why not meet at the simulator room?" I asked her, confused.

"Well, I don't fit into them. Just come back here as soon as you're ready."

With a nod, I was off. I was not sure why Twilight wanted me to see her in her laboratory, but she was insistent. After getting into my flight suit I made my way back.

The sight that greeted me after entering the lab again took me by surprise. Twilight was waiting already waiting, but what she was wearing was absolutely breathtaking. Her own flight suit was the same black as all the others with the same uncovered spots but where normal ones had just a few blue lines on them, caused by the magic running through them, hers was covered in purple lines and had strange runes all over it. The amount of magic in that thing must have been mind-blowing.

'I have to admit she looks hot in it as well.' That thought made me blush a little. "You should wear that more often. It looks good on you," I said with a grin on my face. I knew exactly how that comment would make her feel. She wasn't subtle in showing me that she had a crush on me.

She blushed and turned away. "Y...you really think so?"

Oh goddess, if cuteness could kill, I would be dead ten times over now. 'I did make it clear I was not interested in a relationship with another mare, was I? I hope I didn't go too far.' "Sorry Twi, I didn't mean it like that. I'm just teasing you." My blush was impossible to hide.

"I know Iridian. It's nice to get a compliment from time to time, though."

Shaking my head to clear all the thoughts in it, I turned back to her. "Enough of that mushy stuff. Let's get to flying," I said in order to get us back on track.

"Okay, follow me," Twilight said after composing herself again.

We exited the laboratory and entered the room next to it. The Inside looked nearly identical to the simulator room I was familiar with. The two differences were the larger cockpit in the centre and the fact that it had only six individual simulators. It also looked a lot more ragged, with wires and faintly glowing magic flow pipes hanging openly on the ceiling.

Twilight motioned for me to get into one of the cockpits. "How much training did you get before the incident?" She asked.

I gulped nervously as I got comfortable, feeling Twilight's magic wash over me for a moment, and the seat adjusted itself to be more comfortable for me.

She picked up on my nervousness. "Sorry Iridian. I just took your measurements and adjusted the seat for you. I'm sure you didn't get your settings the last time," she said soothingly.

I nodded, still nervous. At that moment, I was so glad nopony else was in the room other than us; I would be the laughingstock if they saw me so scared.

"You don't have to worry about anything in here. This Simulator differs from the other one. I designed it myself to handle my own magic output and to be frank, your magic flare, as powerful as it was, is just a small firecracker compared to an alicorn's magic."

"I trust you. Okay, I'm ready." I said with a nod.

"I want you to brace yourself to the best of your ability. I will try to move you with my magic to make sure you don't hurt yourself during high G manoeuvres. The safety in here will not prevent injury if you don't do it right."

Twilight gave me a few instructions on how to brace myself correctly and, after ensuring I was doing so, went into her own cockpit. This was the first time I could take a good look at it. It was so different from my own, having more in common with the fire control system battle mages operate. The sheer number of buttons, screens, and controls made it impossible for anypony to operate with just four limbs. She didn't envelop a single button or leaver, all the controls were encased in her magic glow at once. It looked impressive, and before I knew it, the simulation flashed online. I was stationary in the hangar again and couldn't see Twilight's or any other ship.

I could hear her voice over the simulator's communicator. "Iridian, did you go through the start sequence with Strafe already?"

"Yes. Wait for the go, full throttle for ten seconds, and then just wait for more orders." I repeated what Strafe told me to make sure I remembered correctly.

"Good. I will give us a little shortcut to that."

I was confused by that statement. 'Shortcut? Is she going to restart the simulation in space?' My ship began to move on its own again. To my surprise, it moved to the centre of the hangar, onto a small square I hadn't noticed before. It was rather unassuming until it started to glow bright purple.

"Teleport in 3...2...1..." I heard Twilight say. It sounded like an automated massage, and not like she was actually talking to me.

A bright flash and I found myself in the middle of space. My HUD didn't show any nearby ships, even the Harmony was out of range. Another purple flash near my location deposited another ship. I had never seen something like this before. It was as big as the shuttle I arrived on with no visible weapons. That was expected; unicorns didn't need conventional weaponry to deliver devastating strikes.

"Actual teleportation will feel a lot stranger, but you get used to it. Before we start, just give me a minute to see if everything still works correctly. Why don't you tell me in the meantime what you already learned?"

I told her what we had been doing before the accident. All the while I could see her go through some basic mobility, shield and weapon tests. It was amazing how manoeuvrable her ship was. It might not keep up with the Hurricane, but for a ship its size, it was pretty good.

After I finished telling her, she continued, "That's not much, then. I'm not gonna lie. Four days will not be enough to get you up to par with Lightning. She will probably win, but I will try my best to get you up to speed, and if you're doing well enough, I might give you a small reward."

I knew that what she said was true. There was no hope of winning. It didn't matter to me anymore; I wasn't competing with Lightning to prove I was better than her. I would like to win, of course, but this was for fun and for us to push each other harder, and that thought excited me even more. The reward was a nice encouragement as well.

"I set up the operating area. I want you to start out like last time. Just get comfortable. Don't use your magic for now," Twilight said.

Our first training day was just me flying around and testing my limits. It went fine for the most part. I was showing off a bit at the end, lost control and slammed into Twilight's ship. It was funny that the simulator showed me the damage that resulted from this collision. What was surprising was that despite my fighter's complete destruction and my death in the explosion, her shield appeared undamaged. It was not unheard of for pirates to ram enemy ships far bigger than them, the exploding magic core dealt significant damage, allowing them to board. 'That's one tough shield.'

On the second day, I was supposed to use my magic in small bursts during manoeuvrers. The lack of control was obvious to everypony. Most of the time, I would fling myself far outside our OA, but I was getting better and better at it as the day progressed. I could feel the immense pressure I was putting my body under during my high G turns. If my magic was getting any stronger, I would run the risk of injury, even if I braced myself correctly. I had to do more core strength training to make sure I could endure it. Twilight explained to me that the Antigrav of the Hurricane itself was at its limit, preventing me from using my full magic potential. According to her estimates, I had to learn to control my magic, or I would reach the limit of what my body could endure in a few years.

The next day we didn't do much actual flying. Twilight went over all the protocols and rules I had to follow when flying with my Wing. It wasn't that much different from what I was used to in the Academy. We finished that day with landing practice and goddess, did I need it. I expected it to be fully automated, but I was wrong. In order to land safely, I would have to follow a path that was displayed on my HUD and keep inside a small relative speed range to the Harmony. The HUD would then guide me to my landing spot. The last part was easy, just set the ship down gently. The landing platform would move precisely into the right position under my ship. I thought it would be harder to compensate for the artificial gravity in the hangar, but my ship did that on its own. No, the hard part was staying on my flight path. There was a lot of crashing, and Twilight threw random events at me all the time, but in the end, I got landing down.

"That's enough for today. Tomorrow we are going to do a bit of formation flying. This should be familiar to you. I want to make sure you are ready for the day after," Twilight told me.

"Thanks Twi. I know you put a lot of work into this and I'm truly grateful for it."

"That's what friends are for Iridian," she said with that calming smile on her face.

"But this is something you shouldn't have to do. You are still the Admiral, you're in charge. I feel like I'm taking time away from that and I'm not sure the other pilots like that I get special treatment." I truly meant it. She probably had a lot more important things to do.

Twilight giggled at what I said and embraced me into a hug. "You don't have to worry about that. I wouldn't mind teaching more, but the other pilots are too afraid to ask me. I used to be a teacher way back when and it was always fun."

"Okay, and what about your duties? You can't just stop doing them, can you?"

"Unless we are in an emergency, there is not much to do for me other than offer some advice. I would have told you if I was busy."

"If that's true, I'm fine with this. I should get going, though, or there will be no free table left in the mess hall."

We embraced each other in a goodbye hug before I left. That was something we started doing, and it felt kind of nice. I can't figure out why it wasn't done anymore because it was so comfortable to just hug somepony.

The next day, I was a bit early. I was not prepared for another pony to be in the room at this point in time. In one cockpit sat none other than Captain Spitfire herself. I didn't pay her any attention and got seated myself. The simulation started on its own with no imputes from myself, startling me for a moment, and I found myself next to Spitfire's fighter. The wings painted to look like actual flames were unmistakable.

"Ensign Iridian Bolt, you're early. Haven't you learned to be right on time for your appointments?" came her voice over the communicator.

"Sorry, Ma'am. The Admiral gave me permission to come in to train on my own if I wanted to today. She told me she was busy most of the day."

"In that case, you are late for your training session because I saw you eating two hours ago. You should have come straight here. I was waiting for you to show up all this time."

“Sorry, Ma'am. If I knew, I would have come immediately."

"Let's see if you could have used that extra training. Admiral Twilight gave me an overview of your training," Spitfire said. "I'm disappointed with the lack of progress you made. I was told you were a natural. Why do you still need so much training?"

She was getting on my nerves already. I thought I left that attitude behind when Lightning and I made up, but here was another pony insulting me the same way the other cadets at the Academy did.

"I set up a race circuit for you to fly through. The Record is 3:23. Somepony with your talents should finish it in under three. Get ready to start when the light turns green."

I was angry at that point. Who does she think she is? How am I supposed to just beat the record like that? Is she angry with me because I get to train with Twilight personally or because I became her friend? She encouraged us to be friendly with her during our first meeting. There was no point in arguing with Spitfire, so I just did my best and tried to beat the time; I did not succeed.

"You missed so many checkpoints I can't even give you a time. That was the worst I have anypony seen perform on it," Spitfire said with a shake of her head.

I couldn't take it anymore. "What the buck, Captain. You're just trying to get me kicked out, aren't you? Well, guess again, I don't care what any of you say. I just started my training. You can't expect me to beat any records already. And if you're jealous that I get to spend time with Twilight, she can choose her own friends and doesn't need you to baby her."

With that, I stormed off, not looking back or even acknowledging anything Spitfire did. She went just too far this time. 'Looks like my career is over. She's going to kick me out any second now.' You didn't talk to your superior officer like that without consequences.

"Good. It looks like you finally have that massive ego of yours somewhat under control."

I turned around at that and just looked at her blank expression. Was she trying to rile me up to get me to snap? Or did she just try to prove a point? I was about to shout at her again.

"Come on, let's get some combat practice going," she said, pointing her hoof back to the simulator.

After getting my emotions back in check, I asked. "What time did you actually expected me to finish the race?"

"Non. I'm the only one who has ever finished it."

She set me up to fail from the start. 'I hope she does have my best interests at heart.'

We started out by fighting against one another. I didn't stand a chance. If I thought Fire Streak was good, Spitfire was on another level. On more than one occasion, her entire fighter was engulfed in flames in the colour of her magic. It was everywhere, and she used it to attack and defend herself. This was what perfect control over one's magic looked like. 'Is this her way of showing me what there is still to learn for me and what I could achieve one day?'

Still doing our practice fights, I got curious. "Why is that circuit you created so difficult?"

"Already thinking about being the second one? You should focus on practice; you missed a target." I swung my ship around to engage the target I missed, and she continued her explanation without missing a single practice target. "Many of the checkpoints are just large enough to fit your fighter through. Most of the turns are extremely tight. Hazards don't allow you to slow down too much. Every movement has to be perfect to be able to make it through, and without magic to rely on, it's a test of pure skill. I created it to push myself, never intended for other pilots to try it, but it became somewhat of a staple in putting Newby's in their place. I am still trying to beat the very first time I set."

"It didn't feel all that difficult when I flew it."

"All part of it. You missed another target," she pointed out. "The apparent ease forces you to focus and not let your guard down."

The rest of the training went on without anything remarkable happening. I was as good as I was going to get for tomorrow.

"I'm looking forward to you beating my time. Don't keep me waiting for too long." She left me alone with my thoughts. I couldn't figure out her motives at all.

It was the day of my competition with Lightning Blitz. I was on my way to the simulator, and everypony I encountered seemed to be excited about it, making me think we would have a huge audience. Entering, I noticed my friends and Spitfire waiting for me; I was the last to arrive just on time.

"What's this magic orb doing in here?" I pointed at a purple, glowing orb in the room's corner.

"It is going to record the simulation and project it throughout the Harmony," Twilight explained. "A lot of ponies wanted to see your fight. Last I heard, there was a lot of betting going on."

"We have a total of 32386 bits in the pool. You are quite the underdog, Iridian Bolt," Spitfire added. Everypony just looked at her in surprise, and she shrugged. "What? It was bound to happen. I just made the betting official to keep them from going overboard."

"We made a few changes to the scenario. You will not directly fight each other, and you will be alone and not with a Wing of your own," Twilight said.

"Why did we need to change it?" Lightning asked, a little disappointed. "I was looking forward to blowing Crash out of the sky."

There was that stupid name again. But this time, it was just her trash-talking. Something I was very good at. "Yeah, I'm going to be so awesome that the only thing that will crash is the simulation."

Before we could get more creative with our banter, Strafe interjected. "I asked for the changes. It wouldn't be a challenge otherwise because of Iridian's shorter training time. This should be a bit more even."

"You two will fight against me," Twilight said. "Your score will be the number of hits on me. I will fight back, and you will lose points if your ship is destroyed. In order to prevent bias against any of you, I will not be able to tell you apart. This should make it as fair as possible."

I never actually saw Twilight fight. It was as new to me as it was to Lightning, and her look told me she was as shocked as I was the first time hearing that Twilight herself was a trained pilot. A few minutes later, Twilight returned wearing her flight suit. It was fun seeing the expression of the other ponies marvelling at its design. Strafe, in particular, was amazed by it. Being a unicorn himself, he could probably feel the magic in it.

"The match begins as soon as I set up the operating area. If you leave the area for too long, you will start losing points. There will be no warning, so keep track of your own position," Twilight explained.

"Any damage you inflict on each other will be negated and you will lose points. There will be no friendly fire," Spitfire added.

With that, Twilight, Lightning and I jumped into our cockpits, and the simulation started with Lightning and me in the middle of the Harmony's hangar.

"If your ship gets destroyed, you will start here again."

"Teleport in 3...2...1..."

With a blinding light, we found ourselves in space. I quickly checked my HUD and spotted two other ships, Lightning and Twilight. Waiting for the OA to be set up, I tried to focus and get my nerves under control.

The OA appeared on my HUD without warning, and I immediately started my attack run. Lightning had the same idea of using our superior speed and the initial surprise for hit-and-run attacks. What we didn't expect were the giant magic beams Twilight fired at us. I was able to narrowly avoid being hit, but it threw off my aim.

'Wow, this is what it's like to be on the receiving end of a battle mage. I wonder how much Twilight is holding back.'

She hadn't moved away from her spot; she was still sitting in the middle of the OA. 'If she is just sitting there without moving, I could just fire from far away.' We were scored on hits, not damage, so that was a viable tactic. I lined myself up and fired. This time, Twilight moved to avoid my shots, but she didn't move that far from her original spot.

Closing in, I fired a few more times, scoring two hits while I approached. Our weapons did nothing to her shield, but that was not the goal; I had scored my first two points. I kept going and closed in even more, scoring three more hits.

'Why isn't she moving? It looks like she is just taking the hits.' A massive beam was fired in my direction, answering the question in my head immediately. I was too close this time to evade, and my ship was destroyed with a single hit, and I found myself back in the hanger of the Harmony.

"She lured me in... yes, I got five points, but she just deleted them again. It... is... on..." I had a wicked grin on my face. I was born for this kind of competition. Back into action again, I kept enough range to avoid getting shot this time.

In the distance, I could see Lightning pulling away after an attack run of her own. The space around her was filled with an uncountable number of small beams. Some of which hit her shield and threw her around, but she kept her fighter in one piece until a larger beam fully hit her.

Shaking my head to clear my mind, I continued my attack. I couldn't allow myself to get distracted as Twilight focused her attention back on me. This continued for quite some time. The time limit was twenty minutes, and I didn't know how much of it had already passed. Every time I scored some hits, Twilight would retaliate with overwhelming firepower.

This was not a test of how many points I could score; it was a test of survival. Scoring too many hits meant I got reckless and sent back to the hangar. Only taking a few shots didn't give me enough points to get ahead of my many deaths. Most of my focus was to keep myself from getting blown out of the sky. I didn't use my magic once out of fear that I would hurt myself, but I had to start now if I wanted any chance of getting at least one point to stick.

Lining up for the next attack, I pushed magic into my wings and opened fire. I was hoping to gain enough speed to avoid getting shot at and get outside her range before she could retaliate. At first, it looked like it was working. Twilight didn't fire a single shot at me until I was beside her ship. I didn't realise she fired at me until the familiar sight of the hangar greeted me again.

'Wow, did she just kill me directly through the canopy of my fighter?' Pulling up the report of my destructions, I could see a small beam hitting me right in the head.

"Time is up, ending simulation," came Twilight's voice through the communicator.

I jumped out of the cockpit as soon as the simulation turned off and rushed towards her. “Oh my gosh, how did you do that? How did you hit me so perfectly? Were you aiming for me?”

"Based on your speed, I calculated the perfect time to encase your fighter in my shield to cancel out yours and fire a small beam at your head," she said matter-of-factly. "My calculation was unfortunately off by two centitrot. Looks like I'm a bit rusty."

"Got it, egghead, you were aiming for me... THAT... WAS... AMAZING!"

"Can I ask you a question, too?" Lightning asked, approaching Twilight as well. She nodded, prompting Lightning to continue. "Was that your full power, or did you hold back? I have never seen this much firepower before."

"Yes, I did. I was trying to limit myself to the strength of a normal battle mage."

"You missed the mark by around fifty of them. Never seen a battle mage quite that strong and accurate," Spitfire said, coughing slightly into a hoof. She pulled out a small sheet of paper. "I have your points ready if you're interested." After we nodded, she continued reading the results. "Lightning Blitz, you were able to keep four points. It was an excellent tactic to wait with your attack to the last moment. You scored four hits and were saved by the bell, so to speak. Iridian Bolt didn't manage to keep any of her points. You had three before your last death. Overall, Iridian Bolt hit more of her shots, but her reckless flying got her hit more often in return."

"Well done, Lightning," Strafe said, giving her a hoof bump. "I'm impressed you could keep your magic so controlled under fire. Your practice paid off."

"Thanks, Strafe. Couldn't have done it without you," she said before turning to me. "Crash, great match; looking forward to the next one."

"That nicknames gonna stick isn't it," I said, slightly annoyed.

"Yep, deal with it. How did you do that last attack run, by the way? Your entire ship was covered in a magenta glow, and you blew any acceleration I ever did out of the water."

"I was just putting my full magic behind that attack. It sounds awesome. It's too bad I couldn't see that myself," I said. "You should see Captain Spitfire do it. Her entire fighter becomes one large flame."

"Now I'm jealous, you got to train with the Angel of Fire herself," Lightning said, playfully pouting to get her point across.

"She let me try out the race circuit she created. Come on, let's try it together, see who will beat her time first."

We just stepped back in the cockpit and started our next competition, ignoring everypony around us. They didn't matter to us at the moment. After a few runs, we exited the simulator again. I was still no closer to finishing the track.

"Iridian, I have to put my hoof down here," Twilight said. "I don't mind your little competition with Lightning, but I cannot allow her into this simulator after this. If I did, others would ask for permission as well, and it is not big enough for so many ponies. It started out as my personal simulator but grew in size because of a few pilots that were too powerful for the other one."

"It's fine, Crash. We can just compare times. We don't have to fly together."

"But what if we want to try other stuff? Ever since we made up, I have been looking forward to competing with you in so many things, but if you can't join me, what are we supposed to do?"

"I'm going to work on it a bit and see if I can connect both rooms together without compromising the safety override," Twilight said.

"No Twi, you don't have to do all that for us. We will find a way." Lightning was looking at me funny for some reason. Even Strafe and Spitfire gave me strange looks. 'Did I say something stupid?'

"I love to tinker. It's been a while since I made any modifications to the ship. It's going to be my own challenge."

While I could believe it, I had to ask. "You build parts of the ship?"

"I designed the entire ship myself and built a few things on my own. From time to time, I upgrade some things here and there."

"That's impressive," Lightning added.

"With enough time, you can do a lot," Twilight said before turning to me again. "Iridian, we need to get going. Your fighter should be ready. And I'll see you tomorrow, Lightning."

We arrived in the hangar and moved down to where Senior Mechanic Drive Shaft was awaiting us. He saluted Twilight. "Ma'am, the fighter is ready. She just needs a few finishing touches."

We moved over to my waiting beauty. 'I should think of a name for her. Another time when I get to know her a little more.'

"We installed the new Antigrav according to your specifications and put the cockpit together using the numbers you gave us," he told Twilight.

I was a bit confused. Weren't modifications like that reserved for more elite pilots?

"Thank you, Drive Shaft," she said, and he returned to his work, leaving us alone again. "What do you think, Iridian?" I looked at it for a moment, taking it all in. "Go ahead, make sure the cockpit is comfortable, and I didn't mess anything up with your measurements."

I entered the cockpit and took my seat. It looked exactly like the simulator cockpit. It was still so surreal to me that I was finally sitting in my own fighter. "What was that about the Antigrav?" I asked after shifting around a bit to get into a good position.

"After your first magic flare and getting your magic readings, I decided to make some improvements to it. It will counteract more G-Forces now without increasing magic consumption. I would say I got around 20% more effect out of it. You are going to be the test pilot for it. If something feels off with it, tell Drive Shaft, and he will try to fix it."

"Twilight, did you design the Hurricane as well? You seem to know a lot about it."

"No, it was designed by Commander Hurricane and named after him. The only input we alicorns had was Luna's design of the Pegasus Drive. She is the reason you can use pegasus magic directly."

"Cool. When can I take this baby outside?"

"There are still a few things you need to learn about your magic, but I think I'm going to put your Wing on rotation for patrol in two weeks," Twilight said. "Vice Admiral Star Bright has the last say in those matters, but she usually follows my advice."

"I can't wait. Does that mean we will train together some more?"

Twilight nodded and smiled at me. Drive Shaft had already made himself scarce when we started our conversation, so it was just Twilight and me going over the fighter's specifications. I already knew about most of it, but it was nice listening to her and watching her bright smile as she explained everything.