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.