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.