Shifting Winds and Changing Times

Chapters

The Return
The Funeral
The Instructor
The Training

The Return

It had been a long trip coming home. I was deep in the Griffon Empire when I received the letter from mom.

To My Dearest Daughter Shifting Winds

I know you're out on another adventure and how much you love exploring, but something terrible has happened. You know how your older brother Gale joined Cloudsdale's Guard, or you should if you've been receiving my letters. He's gone. I'm sorry you had to receive the news this way. I would have told you my self, but with the war and I never know where you are. I'd say it's a miracle if these letters get to you, but the mail service is reliable enough even with all the fighting. We need you home now. His funeral is in a couple of weeks. I was able to delay it so you could attend so please come home. With your brother gone now too and the war going on I worry for your safety and your little brother's. I'm getting old and won't be able to care for him myself much longer and with Gale gone I need you more then ever. Please for my sake and your little brother's please come home. Gust misses you too, he's gotten much better at flying and really wants you to see. I'm waiting to tell him Gale won't be around anymore until you get home, you know I've never been good at giving bad news to ponies.

With love

Mom

Mom always did say she was no good with letters or bad news, but her tear stains on the paper gave me all the emotion she was trying to convey. I wish she would have wrote how he was killed, but I knew I would find out when I returned home.

It was surprisingly overcast in Cloudsdale when I arrived. Before I left it was always clear and sunny, but now even the clouds the city was made of were gray. The whole city seemed depressed. I remember passing several airships on my way into the city, almost all of them looked battle worn and scarred. Only one seemed to really stand out. In the port under repairs was a monster of a ship, it must have had at least sixty or seventy guns per side. What caught my attention is it was here in Cloudsdale. When I left only two years ago Cloudsdale only had a few frigates, never anything like a full battleship! It's presence concerned me and raised questions. I had heard the war had heated up, but a battleship? How bad was it here?

I flew to my mother's home. In a big city, a small house stands out. As I landed on the porch of the cloud house I used to call home, I waited. How should I say hello? What would I say? Before I could think of what to say the door opened. Seeing mom in front of me anypony could tell where I got my coat from, her coat was a white as snow just like when I left home, I guess my blue mane came from my father who left before I was born (could be where my adventure lust came from too). She looked me in the eyes and smiled.

“I'm so glad you could make it,” she said as she gave me a near lung crushing hug. “I was worried you didn't receive my letters! Why didn't you ever write back?”

“Mom, I'm sorry, I just never remembered to I guess.”

“You guess? You leave on a dangerous journey leaving all of us behind and never write back, and you guess you forgot is the best excuse you could think of? Honestly, I raised you better than that! If you're going to avoid your family you could at least come up with a better excuse than that!”

Yep, that's the loving mom I remember. She was right though, I never wrote back. I think I just wanted to pretend like I didn't have responsibilities at home I would have to go back to someday.

“I'm sorry it's the truth mom, I just never remembered.”

“Well, I'm just glad you're home now,” Mom answered me with a smile.

I thought to my self, She bought it!

“But you're going to have to learn to lie better than that to get out of answering me. You're lucky Gust wants to see you so badly or I'd give you a lecture you on lying to me and teach you how to actually lie to somepony. I read you like a deck of cards.”

Or not. Looking back on it with a mom like her and a deadbeat dad it's no wonder I chose to adventure instead of staying at home doing normal girly things.

I decided maybe it was time to change the subject. It was bad enough she was right that I lied about why I never wrote. I decided next time my letters where just going to get lost in the mail, she'd buy that for sure.

"So where is little Gust anyway?" I finally asked.

"He's inside playing in his room, I'll go get him. Why don't you make yourself at home, after all you are at home."

"Okay mom, I'll just wait in the living room."

Alright now try to imagine the most boring living room you've ever seen, good, now double it by the bore factor. I'm fine with spartan accommodations, but there was only a couch! No pictures, no tables, no TV, dear Celestia no TV! I travel over a hundred miles to set my rump on the most boring couch in history with out even a Television to distract me from that fact. Infomercials would have been okay after this. Not to forget everything was that same shade of depressing gray the outside was. I didn't even see the couch at first. After what seemed like an hour my mother brought Gust down stairs.

"Shifty!" He yelled at the top of his little lungs. "You're back! Wait until Gale hears about this! He's gonna be so happy!" He flew straight into me and gave my a rather rough hug for somepony his size. "Mommy, mommy, she's back!"

"Alright calm down," mom pulled him off me and set him down next to me on the couch. "Gust, do you remember what I said before about not jumping on everypony who comes in? You're a Pegasus not a dog. Now there's something your sister has to tell you about Gale."

Wow mom, way to throw this on me. I can't believe you sometimes ask why I left in your letters.

"Well," I began. "You see, Gale's umm, not going to be around anymore." As I said that he looked at me with the biggest eyes I'd ever seen on anything, ever. I could see tears building up in them as I spoke those words. It's like he knew what was coming and was still unprepared, or at least willing to make me feel like garbage saying this. I hate you mom.

"Wh-where is he? Why-why won't he be back. Shifty where is he? He promised he'd come home!" Tears began flowing down his face, I hadn't even said he died, just that he wouldn't be around anymore. I knew I shouldn't lie to him about something like this, but...

"He's out on an adventure like I was."

"Really?" The tears stopped, but only barely.

"Yes really, would I lie to you Gust?" I could feel my mother's gaze even though she was behind me. What was I supposed to say? 'Hey gust I'm home, by the way our brothers dead!' No, this was her fault for pushing it on me.

"Well, okay," Gust finally calmed down. "I'm gonna write him a letter just like I wrote to you! He'll be so happy I can't wait to hear back from him like I did from you!" I'm going to hell aren't I? Wait, I never wrote back to home. After I sent Gust up to his room to play I asked mom.

"Where you giving him fake letters from me?"

"Yes, it's not like you were going to send any anytime soon."

For the first time in a long time I found myself speechless. I had no witty comeback and no smart remark, I was just avoiding my family. Sure we never exactly had the best relationship as a mother and daughter but I should have wrote back for Gust and Gale's sake. I was about to apologize, then I remembered my mom had just asked me to break the news that my older brother died to my younger brother with no time to prepare, hell in the letter she said she's do it. Guilt was replaced by anger and then I made perhaps one of the worst decisions of my life.

"Well if you weren't such a bitch I would have wrote back! I would have visited more! I could have seen Gale again before he died!"

That's right, I shouted for everyone in my house (meaning only my mom and little brother to hear) that I never wrote back, and Gale was dead. It was less than ten seconds before I could hear running down the stairs and crying. My mother turned to me speechless. I'm not sure if it was because I had shouted in her face that she's a bitch or because she also realized both of our lies had just been revealed to my little brother, her son. He came running down the stairs crying his eyes out barely able to speak.

"You..you said he was adventuring and, and, and th-that you'd never lie to me! He's dead? How could you lie to me about that! He, he, he's gone, and you were gonna lie to me about it!"

Now whoever said words can't hurt you was a lair. Each word, each stuttered syllable felt like a bullet to the chest. A colt shaped rifle firing bullets of guilt and regret with a primer made from sadness and betrayal. I was about to start crying myself. No matter how I looked at it or tried to blame my mom, we where both to blame, not just her. My mom tried to calm him down to no avail.

"Now Gust, look it's-" She was cut off by Gust.

"No, you lied too! You said she was writing to me! You made up all of her letters! Why would you do that to me!" He choked out between sobs.

"I just wanted to do what I thought was best for you, you're too young to understand."

"I'm too young to understand? At least I'm young enough to know good from bad. I don't want to be old enough that lying is good. Lying is bad, my teacher said so."

With that he ran up the stairs crying. My mom turned to me.

"Now look what you did," I couldn't believe it when she said that!

"What I did? Like you're free from guilt here."

"I'm not, but I wanted to explain it to him when he was older. Now I'm going to have to try and fix all of this. Look, Gale's funeral is in a few days, I was going to hire a foalsitter for Gust, but I won't have to now. Just try and rest up until then, oh and don't cause anymore trouble for me."

The next few days went smoothly, turns out a sad betrayed colt can forgive just about anything for ice cream and a new video game. I'm sure you've heard enough about my rather dysfunctional family anyway. After the few days had passed of "bonding with family" and catching up with old friends and other family, it was time for the funeral. That funeral would change my life more than I could have ever imagined.

Author's Note

Please give me your honest opinion in the comments and point out any errors you see so I can fix them. More of this story is coming soon. Thank you to all of my proofreaders for your help. :twilightsmile: I understand there's not much that's steampunky in this chapter, but trust me that will all come soon. If you didn't like the story please tell me why in the comments as to help me improve on my writing. :pinkiesmile:

The Funeral

Gale's funeral was almost exactly like any other Pegasus' funeral, with the only notable differences being the unnervingly large military presence and surprising lack of family. There were at least twice as many officers as there were family members even including Gust, mom and myself. Like all other Pegasi funerals, he was cremated (how did you think we could put it off until I got home?) because of a lack of places to bury Pegasi in cloud cities. It saddened me that he had passed, however but his passing was the only thing that had brought me home. A dysfunctional family in a country plagued by civil war, why would I want to go home? Sure you could say things like 'family is important' or something like that, but for me it wasn't. Gale was actually the only family member I really cared for, oh, and Gust too. Enough about my beliefs though, you want to hear what happened.

After we all said our goodbyes and spread his ashes, I was approached by somepony I would have had to be blind to not recognize. That pony was none other than Spitfire from the Wonderbolts. At first I was greatly confused as to why a stunt flyer would be at my brother's funeral. Then I remembered that the Wonderbolts were also a branch of the Equestrian military and that they were based in Cloudsdale before the war between Luna and Celestia. Although, most ponies only knew them as stunt fliers, they were in fact part of the Equestrian military forces. She wasn't wearing the trademarked Wonderbolt flight suit, but instead a uniform bearing Cloudsdale's insignia. When she reached me she removed her hat and spoke.

"I'm sorry we had to meet like this, Gale was a fine soldier and spoke highly of you."

Oh Gale, you didn't have to lie for my sake, but it was sweet of you.

"I've been told you're only back home because of your brother's death?"

I wondered for a moment who told her, then I saw my mother watching the conversation. I couldn't prove it was her, but I had a feeling, she never could stay out of my business.

"Yeah," I replied. "I wanted to stay as far away from the war as possible. If Celestia and Luna want to tear each other's throats out, why should I stop them? I just don't get why they want Cloudsdale so badly. Cloudsdale wants nothing to do with the war, it's hard to hold for non-Pegasi, and has no resources that are worth either of their time."

I mentally facehooved, here I was talking to a military officer at my brother's funeral about how it's not my war, not my problem. I don't think I ever did learn how to shut my mouth.

Spitfire gave me a look that practically said "you're about to have a tragic accident" then she just sighed and spoke.

"You're right it's not your problem; it's your family's problem and was your brother's problem." with that she walked away.

Now, as an explorer and dungeon diver I'm familiar with pain, or at least physical pain. Her words hit like a train and echoed in my head. "It's your family's problem and it was your brother's problem. It was then that I made yet another mistake, just one more in a long line of mistakes I would make after returning home.

"Excuse me! Spitfire!" I yelled to after her.

She stopped, without turning around or speaking. I had her attention now, just needed to keep it.

"What do Celestia and Luna want with Cloudsdale anyway? The city can't grow food, doesn't have many factories, and is only able to be occupied by Pegasi. What could the two of them want?"

She turned to me. "Well, what factories does it have?"

I wasn't sure where she was going with this, but I couldn't help but think it was obvious.

"It only has three I can think of. The Clouds in a Can factory, the Weather factory and th-"

"That's the one," she interrupted. "Cloudsdale can control over sixty percent of Equestria's weather at any given point. Since the war began, we've only made it rain once a week in all the usual locations and let the local Pegasi use the rain clouds in those areas, but we can produce hurricanes, tornadoes, and many other disasters if we wanted to. Everypony knows those are uncontrollable after they begin, but imagine sending a tornado into the enemy fortress before you attack? How about sending a hurricane at an enemy air-fleet? That's why they want Cloudsdale."

I was shocked! I had never thought of weaponizing the weather, it was sickening. Awesome, but sickening.

"We can't let that happen! It's horrible!"

"We?" Spitifire's ears perked up.

"You're right; it is my problem. I have a family here whether I get along with them or not. I'm sure they'll understand."

"I just don't understand," my mother was saying when we returned home. At least her lack of furniture gave her room to pace. "Haven't I lost enough to this war, Gale died Shifting. Died! Now you want to follow him to the grave?"

"I'll be fine mom I've dealt with worse, you know that."

"That's exactly what Gale said the last time I saw him alive! No, you're not going to war and that is final!"

The recruitment office was rather cramped. It had ample seating and a TV, but it was all the same shade of gray the rest of Cloudsdale was. It wasn't long before my name was called.

"Shifting Winds," the recruitment officer called.

I approached the desk. "Present sir."

"Whoa, hey, easy, you're not a soldier yet. Glad to see you're enthusiastic though, don't see that much."

"I'm just here to make a difference and protect my home," (said every recruit ever) I gave him a cheesy smile that must have yelled "fodder" as loud as it could because he just gave me a blank stare. After a moment he seemed to notice something and spoke up.

"Hey, you're the little sister of captain Winds aren't you? The stallion who died after single hoofedly holding off an entire platoon of Royal Guard so his squad could escape right?"

I mentally screamed. He did what? How is that even possible! A platoon was a lot right? And Royal Guards were Celestia's finest right? Wow, thanks for setting the bar high Gale. I gave a response.

"Well, you know Gale. He always was a tough bastard. I thought he was a sergeant? Why'd you call him a captain?"

"Posthumous promotions. Upon death everypony in our army is given a two rank promotion, and he was a second lieutenant as of two days before his death."

"Oh, well, what do I do now?" I wanted to get of the fact that I didn't know my dead brother's rank, especially after dying how he did. Why didn't anypony tell me he was a badass?

"You have some paperwork to fill out." Yay. "Then you have to meet with the sergeant."

I won't bore you with how the paper work went, however I'd be foolish not to tell you about sergeant Grimly.

"Keep running you maggots! I did not tell you to whine!" One of the recruits running laps beside me responded.

"Yes sir!"

"Sir? Do not call me a sir! Never address me as sir! I work for a living!"

"Yes sir!"

"What was that, maggot?"

"Yes, Sergeant Grimly!"

"That's what I thought!"

Grimly was a caricature of what everypony thinks of when a drill sergeant is mentioned, every stereotype rolled into an overly angry dull gray stallion. We were currently running laps at the base at what used to be a stadium's racetrack. He was flying behind us making sure nopony slacked off, at all. One colt running beside me seemed to be falling behind. Grimly did not approve.

"Everypony stop!"

As though the sarge had just threatened to tear our wings off if we didn't, everypony stopped immediately.

"I want you all to look at this recruit here. What's your name colt?"

"I-It's," he wasn't given time to finish.

"Did I say stutter?"

"No sir!"

"No what?"

"No sergeant!"

"Now answer my question recruit, what is your name?" When you meet somepony who only has an outside voice, not hearing them yell at you is horrifying. Remember that one kiddos.

"It's Turbo Charger sergeant Grimly."

Grimly turned to face us all. "This little runt seems to be slacking off. I don't like slackers in my army."

"No si- sergeant! I'm just out of breath, why can't we fly? It's faster and easier?" Grimly's face turned blood red, as though somepony had just shoved his face in a bucket of red paint. Turbo realized his mistake far too late; he dared question Grimly. From this we all learned not to question anything he said, ever, for any reason. My ears ring to this day remembering what happened next.

"Fly? Fly, huh? Why not fly, because I fucking said so maggot! What happens if one or both of your wings are broken or cut off? Can you fly then? Apparently I need to explain my methods to some lazy out of shape maggot who can't run a few dozen laps! Who do you think you are son? Huh? Answer me!"

"I'm"-

"Wrong answer! You're the lazy maggot who just bought everypony here another dozen laps." We all took our positions, then but he stopped Turbo.

"Not you maggot, you're going to sit down next to me. After all, you look like you need a breather, not like everypony else who's been running for the past hour and a half." We learned to call this 'getting Grimlyed.' By the end of training we all got it at least once, some poor bastards up to four times. Looking back today I learned to respect him more than anypony else in the army. It turns out drill sergeants are assholes to unify everypony by making them all hate him, and I'll be damned if he wasn't good at it.

It was only a few weeks later we were moved out of sergeant Grimly's 'caring' hooves (all fifteen of us got Grimlyed at least once in three weeks, just put that in perspective) and we were given to the pony who would handle the rest of our training. His name was Captain Chance.

Author's Note

If you spot any errors please contact me. Tell me how you liked the chapter, and feel free to leave any and all opinions of what you think so far. And have a peek at the inspiration for Grimly. :moustache:

The Instructor

Captain Chance was our next instructor. After Grimly was finished breaking us down, it was Chance's job to build us back up. His responsibility alone to turn a bunch of factory workers, weather ponies, stunt fliers, and-in my case-explorers into a fighting force capable of taking on two well trained armies over ten thousand strong. I wish I were exaggerating when I say this, but recruitment was low as most who could fight already were and only newcomers and those not brave enough to join before were signing up now. He had less than twenty of us to teach. It wasn't long after Grimly gave his final speech to us that we were given to Chance.

We were in the center of the base's training grounds, a place we were all familiar with now. There was the track we ran around hundreds of times, various equipment for other forms of training and the weather room nearby to simulate flying in dangerous weather under Grimly's watchful and critical eye. Grimly was just finishing up his speech.

"-and you will treat your captain with the same respect you would show me! More even! He will shape you into the force to protect your homes, families, and fellow squad mates. He's responsible for teaching you, and you're all responsible for how much of that soaks in! I want to hear of nothing but obedience and perfection from all of you! Now before any of you decide to take this as a pass to lay back or soften up, I wish to inform you all that I am in charge with dealing with insubordinate and poorly performing cadets. So unless you want to relive all those wonderful weeks we spent together, you'll all give him your utmost respect," Grimly spoke differently than he did before. He was loud, but his tone was different, almost sad? As Grimly finished speaking another pony approached. He was a light tan with a red mane. I couldn't see his mark yet, but we soon would see it was a four leaf clover. This guy was a captain?

"Thank you Grimly, dismissed," the new pony spoke softly, but carried authority in his tone. "All of you are here today to fight for Cloudsdale. Your reasons may be different, but you're all in front of me today to fight for this army," he spoke on for several minutes on how we should keep the weather out of the hooves of those who would misuse and abuse it, how Celestia and Luna have proven to be untrustworthy and so on, but one thing stood out.

"My name may be Chance, but I will accept absolutely no unnecessary risks from any of you, and will do everything by the book myself as well." It seemed like our new captain was a bit quieter then Grimly, but expected just as much. It was rather intimidating to hear a quiet stallion dismiss what I thought was the single most terrifying pony in existence.

Soon we were marching off to the air-docks. He was flying just behind us, watching us looking for even the slightest error, or it at least felt that way. After what felt like an eternity, we arrived.

The Docks were crowded with ponies loading and unloading airships, most of the ponies were soldiers either boarding ships to patrol or returning. Chance pointed to one.

"The airship over there, The Beacon, is where you're all going to be training for ship to ship combat. Get on board, find your bunks, and in an hour report to the deck. Dismissed," Chance finished before flying off to the airship.

The ship was a small interceptor, the crew quarters were cramped and the "bunks" were hammocks with a bag hanging from each one. The bags each had a name on them, it didn't take long to find mine. It looked like Turbo had the bunk below mine. Another pony caught my attention though. I hadn't seen her in training and thought it strange she would be bunking with us. A light blue mare with a fiery red mane. I decided to introduce myself in the most polite manner I could think of.

"Sup, what are you in for?" There was no way this could backfire, all of the recruits had a sort of friendly bond, even from other units.

"First Lieutenant Fly, Thirty Second Aerial Combat Division, Communications Officer. Recruit, how were you instructed to speak to officers?”

Celestia dammit, really? We're bunking with an officer, and a moody one at that.

"S-sorry Lieutenant!" I said, immediately giving a salute. "It's that all the recruits were sent here and-"

"You don't recognize and officer's uniform? Do you need to be sent back to Grimly for basic instructions?" She threatened.

"No ma'am!"

"Good, now get up on deck and prepare for Chance's instructions."

"But that's not for fiftee-"

"That was an order."

I had a good idea about the barrel of sunshine we were going to be spending the rest of our training with. I also knew that if I didn't make a good impression on Chance, I was going to have a rough time. One pissed officer is bad, I can't anger both. So to the deck I ran and I stood at attention until Captain Chance noticed me.

"Recruit Winds, what are you doing out here? There's still almost fifteen minutes before training starts." His voice didn't sound intimidating like before, it was almost... casual? I guess even some officers are ponies after all.

"I was instructed by Lieutenant Fly to wait here for your instructions, sir!"

"She doesn't have that authority. You're my recruit, under my authority, and you follow my orders. I'll speak to her later."

Oh great. He does know her bunk is across from mine, right? I still have to deal with her and now she's going to be even more pissed.

"She was recently promoted and needs to learn her boundaries. With rank comes responsibility, she needs to be taught that."

"Umm, Sir, why tell me?" I questioned.

"Because, everypony here needs to understand that. You all have the potential to become officers in this army and you need to be aware of the responsibility that carries," Chance said with a gleam in his eyes I hadn't seen before.

"Yes sir, I understand."

“Good, now wait here, we’re starting soon.”

He had two personalities, almost. He was in charge and running the show one minute then understanding and quiet the next. Was this some tactic of his to keep us paying attention? Maybe the army was desperate enough to have Bipolar officers?

Fifteen minutes passed quickly and soon everypony from my platoon and even Lieutenant Fly was in line standing at attention. Chance addressed us one more.

“You’re all here to train under my wing and to learn to operate as an effective team in even the worst of circumstances. That means respecting each other as well as myself! You’re all recruits under my direction, not even privates in the army yet. I will make one thing clear. You listen to my orders, and only my orders on this ship. I am the captain and there is no officer superior to me on board. You are all equal beneath me.’

He was rambling it seemed like. He kept bouncing around with his speech, however he got his point across. He was in charge, nopony else could give orders. His speech seemed improvised though. I hoped it wasn’t because of me and Fly, but I knew it was deep down.

“Now, on to your training. Recruits who make it this far are put into field training. You’ll see combat, but not with our usual enemy. Ever since the war began pirates have been feeding off of it. Using the calamity as an excuse to disregard order and pray on the innocent. Some of these airship pirates make into the skies around Cloudsdale. You will all be given more training in the use of firearms and basic tactics. Then we will hunt down these blights on ponykind.”

With that we were instructed to go to the on-ship armory where the quartermaster would give us our weapons. The depths of the ship were gloomy as usual, but everypony seemed eager or frightened. We were about to be assigned our own tools of death. It would be less than a week before we were expected to take lives away. Some of us were ready to rid the world of pirates and defend our home from invading armies. Some were terrified that we might never see our families again and that we could all die painfully. Everypony regardless of if they were excited or anxious was adding a feeling of tension to the air. We could all feel it.

The quartermaster had prepared gear for our arrival. We were all assigned an automatic rifle and harness to wear. The harness was similar to a saddle in the way you put it on. The rifle was attached to the right, the ammo box on the left, an ammo belt connecting the two, and a metal cross-hair over our right eye attached to a helmet.

“That there cross-hair is enchanted,” the quartermaster spoke up. “It’s linked to the rifle to compensate for the rifle not being in front of you.”

I did always wonder about that.

With our weapons in hoof, we returned to Captain Chance, who was waiting on the deck for us.

“Good,” he addressed us, “now that you all have your rifles, you’re going to start training. Take good care of them, you each only get one and it’s your responsibility. They’re also expensive pieces of equipment.”

He sounded like my mother when I brought home a bird once, but the bird wasn’t a high caliber, death dealing, automatic rifle. It was a bird.

The next few days were learning how to clean them and perform basic maintenance if needed. He assured us as long as we kept them clean we would never need to actually repair them, but decided to teach us anyway. We were also assigned some protective vests and given pretty much the exact same speech about keeping them in good shape. I imagine that’s hard in the field though when it’s purpose is to stop bullets.

Chance was adamant about doing everything by the book. He reprimanded a few ponies he caught slacking on cleaning their guns. I hadn’t seen him angry before that, and I’m glad I didn’t see it much at all.

“And if I ever catch either of you decide it’s okay to cut corners on weapon maintenance again, I’ll have you both shipped back to Grimly to clean the entire stockpile! That may be one of your most important daily duties! You’re dead if it jams on you, and dead ponies are of no use to me or the army. Now, clean them right, or I swear you’ll be cleaning the hull with your toothbrushes!” He had achieved almost the same level of loud Grimly had, but having the authority to send ponies back to him made him scarier.

About a week later we were ‘combat ready’ as Chance put it. He gave us yet another speech. We all stood on the deck as our airship departed from Cloudsdale. The engines roared to life as we saw a light appear around Chance’s head. His speech amplified above the engine’s noise.

“I’m proud of you all. Your hard work, dedication, and ability have made you all onto promising-looking cadets. In a few hours you will all see your first combat. For some it may be your last. We’ve decided hunting pirates is the most effective way to train you all to fight the royal armies. I disagree, nothing can prepare you to fight trained soldiers except fighting trained soldiers. Do not mistake that for me believing you should go to war now, I believe you all should have had more preparation and training. However, it’s not my decision to make. Pirates are still a dangerous foe. They are unprincipled scum who prey on innocent ponies trying to make a living. They have no pity, feel no remorse, and don’t hold back. They will kill you in a heartbeat if you get in their way. Forget any romances books or adventure movies you’ve seen, these are real pirates, and are a real threat.”

We all waited anxiously below deck for the next hour, steeling ourselves for our first real taste of action. It was nothing like any of us expected.

Author's Note

Thanks to my dear friend Stellar Bubbles for helping me with this chapter. :twilightsmile:

The Training

We were all below the deck in our quarters, then a silence had befallen our entire group. The fear of our first real combat had made even the most confident of our platoon nervous. Only the hum of the engines heard through the hull remained as sound. I looked through the dimly lit barracks at Turbo, the pony I had talked with the most. Even he, who always had a funny comment, looked reluctant to face the pirates.

A red light filled the normally dark room and Chance’s voice could be heard on the intercom.

“Everypony report to your stations! The ship has been sighted and we’re moving to Engage. All right recruits: this is it, it’s time to prove your worth.”

We all marched to the top deck where we moved into smaller groups of four; just like we were taught. For some reason, Chance had put me in charge of my squad. I remembered each of them from training, but we hadn’t talked to any of them much besides Turbo. Our vests were on and the weapons armed and ready, all we needed was Chance’s order to attack. I could see the ship the pirates were using. A small freighter with only a few cannons, but enough to bully any non-escorted merchant ship. Its balloon had its flag painted on it, a griffon with a cutlass and pistol facing forward, with an eyepatch covering its left eye. My guess is it was probably the captain. However I didn’t have to wonder for long as Chance soon blew a whistle and ordered us to attack.

“Attack!”

My squad followed my off the left side of the ship and toward the pirate vessel. Our airship had turned to firing position and cannon shots were ringing out from both ships. Gunfire flew past us, the scent of black powder filled the sky around the battle. A squad of pirates flew to stop us, we had no choice but to fight. Not that we would have avoided it anyway, it was why we were there.

The pirates little band that was coming for us consisted of two griffons and three pegasi. Turbo flew on my right, he was my wing pony. The other two, Cloudy Day and Stormy Skies were one on my left and the other behind me. I fired my first shot of the war right in between the eyes of one of the pegasi, Turbo shot one of the griffons clipping her wing sending her spiraling toward the ground. The other two fired the the pirate squad killing one, leaving two pegasi and a griffon.

Now it was their turn to shoot, not that they had waited patiently. Luckily it seems like pirate training is second rate as shots flew past us missing by mere inches. It was all the time we needed to finish of the remaining three. We arrived at the pirate’s ship.

We landed on the deck and opened fire on the pirates and they wasted no time returning the favor, but something seemed off about them. They seemed scared, cowardly even. I could understand them not being well trained, but to break at the sight of us was obscene. Then I noticed one of the pirate's cutie marks. It was a hoe, tilling some soil.

“Farmers? What are they doing pirating?” I asked myself, not that anypony else could hear over the gunfire.

Three more pirates charged us from the deck, one with a pitchfork, two with spears. We brought two of them down but one with a spear made it to me. I could see in his eyes, a look of fear, desperation and guilt, but not mercy. He thrusted the spear at me, grazing my vest and luckily not going through. At point blank there was no way to miss.

I fired, the shot sailing past his head. No way to miss unless you’re me. The saddle like rig that my rifle was on made it hard to aim if I got to close. I fired again not giving him a chance to strike me, this time I hit my mark and the pirate fell to the ground.

I looked around the deck, the other squads had landed as well and any pirates with wings were flying away, the rest were in a panic. It was then the captain’s cabin door swung open, and a angry looking griffon stepped out. He had a resemblance to the one on the flag and side of the balloon.

“What have you done? Look at this!” He screamed at us. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a crew in Equestria?”

I didn’t want to listen to some pirate’s troubles. He was making criminals out of honest ponies! I fired at him before he could continue his rant, bringing him down, but he was still breathing. The rest of his crew had surrendered and he was down. This brought up a valid question. I got on my radio and asked Chance.

“Umm, Captain, do we take prisoners?”

“Prisoners?” The Captain answered. “Yes, we do take prisoners. Make sure the entire ship is secured, we’re flying over now.”

I turned to my squad. “Okay, let’s get below deck and make sure that it’s safe. I don’t want Captain Chance to dock the ships to have some pirates attack again while we’re not looking.”

We trotted to a hatch and opened it. Looking down we could see the cargo, the room was lit up and we could see boxes, barrels, and sacks everywhere. I cautiously flew down with my team, we looked around, but there were no signs of anypony down there. I opened one of the boxes.

“Grain?” One of my squadmates questioned. “Why do they have grain?”

“To sell it of course,” the other squadmate answered. “Food is in short supply with the war going on, destroying farms and such.” Her words had me concerned.

“The war is destroying farms? There’s a food shortage?” I asked, and Turbo gave me an answer.

“Well, yes. Celestia’s Loyalists and Luna’s New Empire have tore the country apart. They started by claiming the farms. Now the war is mostly over farmland areas, but that destroys them usually. It’s strange, it’s like they don’t even care for some reason.”

“I did notice one of the pirates had a cutie mark that looked like one a farmer would have. Do you think that these pirates are just displaced farmers?”

“Could be,” Turbo answered me while opening another box to reveal some potatoes. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pony whose destiny was to be a pirate though. It’s a life choice in the end. They chose this life, now they’ll pay the price.”

He was right, they were still pirates. One almost killed me for goodness sake and here I was feeling sorry for them. We searched the ship finding little and towed it back to Cloudsdale. It all seemed so fast, like it was over in an instant. Was that how fighting Celestia’s or Luna’s armies going to be like? Fast and deadly? It was certainly not going to be like the tales of heroism I had read about. Chance gathered us all together on deck once the ships were docked. He gave us each his thoughts on the capture of the pirate ship.

“You’ve all done a fine job. Because of your efforts, the skies have one less pirate vessel terrorizing innocent cargo and merchant ships. You’ve even secured the Captain of the ship alive and plenty of food as well. All without taking a single casualty. You’re doing much better than my last batch of recruits, however don’t let it go to your head. This was a skirmish against untrained, cowardly, poorly equipped ponies who used to farm for a living. Nothing like what you’ll face when Celestia’s or Luna’s army makes a move on us. For a successful job, I’ll grant you all the weekend to yourselves. Report back to me on monday at six a.m. Dismissed.”

It was Friday? After Grimey worked us everyday straight before he gave us to Chance, the days blurred together. I decided that the best course of action was to talk to my family, let them know how things were. So I flew home and hoped my mother wasn’t angry with me.

I opened the door and walked in, the whole city was still dark and looked like it was going to rain from the buildings. My mother have me a surprisingly happy look as I walked in, she was sitting on the couch in the almost empty room.

“I’m so proud of you Shifting,” she said with teary eyes and a smile. “I was angry before, but, you’re really out doing what’s best for everypony. I was scared of losing you though, just like your brother.” She got off the couch and gave me a tight hug. “Just promise you’ll come home, okay?”

I gave her a strong hug back. “I promise mom, I’ll come home alive and well.”

I had no idea how hard keeping that promise would be. The path ahead of me would be long and dangerous, full of pain and suffering, happiness and love, and life and death.

Author's Note

Thanks again to Stellar for giving it a look over. Any questions or errors please inform me. This is my first time writing action, so please cut me a little slack there and tell me what you think. I know there wasn't much in this chapter, but more is coming. :twilightsmile: