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.