>My mates and I had been taking a terrible drumming at the claws of the gryphon raiding forces.
>Since Trottingham was closest  to the Gryphon Empire it was only natural that we had been hit first and hardest when they decided to invade Equestria.
>Even so, you never really expect to hear war declared in your lifetime.
>It's always some far off thing that happened during you father's time, or your grandfather's time.
>I guess no one had bothered to tell that to the bloody birds that had reducing my home town to flaming wreckage.
>Anyway, since I had always been a good flyer I immediately ran out and joined up with the Royal Equestrian Air Force .
>Better than fighting with the ground pounders, right?
>Wrong.
>I had always heard that my pegasus ancestors were supposed to be some amazing tribe of fighters, but you wouldn't have know it looking at us in those early days.
>The first couple of months were... bad.
>We lost a lot of good ponies.
>It was dumb luck that I even survived those first few battles.
>But, slowly, we begin to get better.
>We had a few amazing officers who started to figure out tactics and techniques that could get us kills in the air.
>We still had casualties.
>Too many casualties.
>But at least we were hurting them as much as they were hurting us; maybe we were even hurting them a little more.
>The tipping point came when Canterlot finally got the magic corps mobilized.
>Amazing what you could get snooty unicorn nobles to do when they realized that their precious capital city might actually be in jeopardy.
>Within three months the battle mages and magi-engineers turned the tide and got the birds off our soil.
>But that was only half the war.
>Now the work of the Air Force was doubly important because we were tasked with paving the way for the invasion of the Gryphon Empire.
>Have you ever seen a gryphon defend its aerie?
>You don't want to.
>Anyway, what we had to do now was conduct recon and raids.
>We needed to know their movements and we needed to soften them up for the eventual ground invasion.
>Because heaven forbid some unicorn officer march onto a gryphon field and not know that the ground was muddy.
>So we pushed into the birds territory. 
>And it was bad.
>Almost as bad as the start of the war.
>Which was why we were now all sitting in the briefing hall.
>Apparently we were getting a new liaison officer. 
>According to our CO this chap was going to be training us in new tactics so that we could cut down on our unfortunate habit of dying while on missions.
>We were all curious since as far as we knew all the experienced flight officers were already with us on the front lines.
>"Oy, you fancy it's some 90-day wonder from Canterlot, or sompony that actually knows what he's doing?"   
"I dunno," I grinned. "I guess as long as he knows which way is up."
>We talked amongst ourselves for a little while longer until Lieutenant Northstar came in.
>"Ten-shun!"
>"At ease. Have a seat." the Lieutenant began.
>"As you know, we're getting a new trainer today. I doubt he'll be familiar to any of you, seeing as how he's been working behind the scenes for most of the war." 
>The captain paused to let that sink in.
>"However, I can assure you gentlestallions that his service to the Crown has been no less than your own. You WILL give him your full attention. Any issues and you come see me first. Understood?"
>We looked at each other with a bit of surprise.
>The Lieutenant was laying it on a bit thick.
>Did he think we'd be resentful of an outsider coming into our outfit?
>Taking our bemused looks as the signal to continue he paced over to the door and motioned somepony inside.
>The stallion that followed our CO in didn't seem like much.
>He was kind of wiry with a grey coat and a short curly black mane.
>For some reason though he seemed a bit off...
>When the newcomer turned to face us though we all saw it immediately.
>His eyes were bright yellow and slitted like a dragons.
>And those wings that were almost pitch black and just a little too shiny? 
>They weren't covered with feathers.
>They were hide stretched over long bony pinions.
>"Cor! He's a bloody bat!" someone murmured. 
>Choosing to ignore the outburst, Lieutenant Northstar motioned to our new arrival.
>"Stallions, this is Captain Foxfire. He's going to be teaching you all how to conduct night raids."
>We were speechless.
>I had never heard of a bat pony being in the military before.
>They were all supposed to be descended from the seditionists that had sided with Nightmare Moon so long ago.
>At least that explained the talking to we had gotten from our CO.
>I had never even met a bat pony before, but I knew quite a few pegasi that thought every last fang-faced, web-winged one of them should have been driven out of Equestria long ago.  
>Captain Foxfire gave every one of us a piercing stare.
>Once you had been at this for a while, you could start to tell whether another pony had seen action or if he was green just by the way he looked at you.
>And mate, looking that new officer in the eyes, one thing was certain.
>This captain was no 90-day wonder.