//------------------------------// // Shimmering Honor's arrival // Story: Sound Of Thunder: The Calm Before the Storm // by Shimmering Honor //------------------------------// "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" The drill sergeant screamed at the group of trainees as they galloped around the drill square. The day had been grueling enough, but now freezing rain proceeded to beat down upon them as well, drenching their coats fully through. All could see the fatigue that was sneaking up on them – their muscles burnt and their bodies ached – yet the drill sergeant was still pushing them to gallop more. "RUN YOU WORTHLESS LOT! YOU WANT TO BE MARINES!? THEN RUN!" Shouted the drill sergeant, making a certain pegasus's ears shoot up in attention. His stamina boosted, as he galloped faster and faster, getting slightly ahead of the group. A blue trail with a red streak in the middle was left in his wake. The drill sergeant noticed and took mental note as several other ponies followed his lead. Though, try as they might, the unknown pegasus held onto his lead. The drill sergeant finally ordered the trainees to stop. All but the unknown pegasus stopped in a heart beat, but it took another two laps for the aspiring pegasi to grind to a halt. There had been captain who had been walking by when he the pegasus's extraordinary performance of an extra two laps. He halted for a moment before changing directions, making his way towards that exceptional pegasus. "What's your name recruit?" The captain asked. "Shimmering Honor, Sir!" he saluted, The captain levitated a clipboard and quill over, then wrote something down. "Good going son." he said before he trotted away. Sound of Thunder: the Calm before the storm Written By Shimmering Honor Based on the FimFiction Collaboration, Sound of Thunder. Chapter 1, Shimmering Honor's arrival The port was a confusion of different colored ponies, all trying to get to there next stop. Some were in uniforms, others in combat dress, while others wore nothing at all. A section of marines marched down the street with weapon harnesses strapped to their backs. Three large wooden poles overshadowed everything at the end of the street; an obvious sign that a very large ship was docked in that direction. It was the most outstanding sight Shimmering Honor had seen since entering the Royal Guard Academy. He walked down the street, passing by some unicorns levitating crates and trotting under an air patrol of pegasi as they flew overhead.The lone pegasus loved to fly- to have the wind blow across his blue coat and run through his deep blue and red mane- to feel the flapping of his wings. The thrill of it all, he just couldn't get enough of it. The pegasus spread his wings, threw his saddle bags on his back and flew the rest of the way down the street to a long line of ponies all stood in front of a large building, the three massive poles just behind it. All had military saddle bags on. Some wore officer's uniforms, sailor uniforms, or Marine cerimonial dress, and still others wore nothing. Each of them were different shades of color; reds, blues, yellows, greens, blacks, even some pink. The line was moving at a nice speed, and before he knew it, the pegasus was through the door, down a flight of stairs, and onto a covered gangplank. He looked out of windows on either side. There was a massive hole in the ground, some form of dry dock with more gangplanks connecting to a large wooden and metal structure in the middle. He could see pegasi with tool belts, checking over the infrastructure. unicorns moved crates and wooden planks about. He looked the other way and noticed the structure had several holes dotted all over it. Large pieces of wood hung off the side of the ship, shattered from some form of impact, and floors could be seen through the holes. Unicorns and pegasi were moving new wooden planks into position to repair the damage. He moved down the gangplank, and entered the structure to a line of ensigns and sailors awaiting the arrivals "Engineering, down there on your left." "Officers quarters, up those stairs, turn right." "Main Gun, down those stairs and straight ahead." The pegasus walked up to one ensign, the earth Pony looked up, with a smile she said. "Name, Rank and Number please" "Shimmering Honor, Sergeant, 11558967, I have orders to see Gleaming Cutlass." Shimmering Honor said as he stood at attention. Ensign was a low rank, but it was still higher than him. "Head to the stairs behind you then go aft towards the helm, you can't miss him, he will be working on some charts no doubt." She said with a smile. "Thank you!" Shimmering Honor set off. He soon made it onto the top deck, and looked around. The masts were taller than he expected, with massive sails folded up. Pegasi flew around checking rigging, as earth ponies moved heavy loads, and unicorns floated crates, ropes, and other Nautical items about. Shimmering Honor walked along the side, looked across to the other side of the ship. and still couldn't believe how wide it was. He headed aft, like the ensign had said and noticed a yellow pegasus with gray hair and an eye patch staring down at some charts on a table. "Excuse me, I am looking for Sailing Master Gleaming Cutlass." Shimmering Honor asked the pegasus. "Well you've found him." He said not looking up from the charts "Sergeant Shimmering Honor, Second Marine Battalion, reporting for duty sir!" Shimmering Honor snapped to attention giving the pegasus a sharp salute. "Ah, Sergeant, How nice to meet you." He pulled himself away from the papers and grabbed ahold of Honor’s hoof and shook it roughly. "So what do you think of the ship?" he asked. "Well, sir, from what I can see, she is a beauty. But I saw some damage on the gangplank." Shimmering replied. "Drop the formalities sarge. Well, I’m glad you like her. You will be living on her for a few years." Gleaming said, looking out across the deck. "May I ask, why do I need to see you? I have no skill with navigation or charts." Shimmering asked, this had been nagging at him since he got his orders. "Ah, yes, well, the captain has so many new crew joining, they couldn't greet them all so she’s delegated the task to other officers. Also I wanted to get to know you better and maybe talk tactics.” “Tactics? Marines have one tactic, shoot the enemy before they shoot you. What else is there?” Shimmering replied with a laugh. “Oh haha.. no I was talking about how you would board a ship, and how you would do air combat. That's what I meant, son.” "Hey, don't go calling me son, you look younger than me, I could probably pull off as your father if I had too." Shimmering joked. Gleam laughed back, a small tear forming in his eye which he managed to wipe away without the Sergeant seeing. "I say son so the lower ranks can get use to me being a higher rank. They still can't get around the fact that I shot up through the ranks so young," he laughed. The two got talking about tactics when a unicorn marine in officers uniform marched up to them. “Sergeant Shimmering Honor I presume?” He asked. Shimmering turned around and noticed the captains stars on his collar. “SIR, YES SIR!” He barked, giving him a crisp salute. “At ease, you have been assigned the second airborne second squadron, they will be wai…..” The captain saw something out of the corner of his eye, he looked around and his face scrunched up as if somepony had squashed it under hoof. “YOU THERE, STOP!” He shouted and galloped off. “Well someponies in trouble, that was Captain Dark Star, he is in charge of the marines till we get to Pony Island,” Gleaming looked over at the running officer, “Bit of a nut-job at times but gets the job done. So lets go meet the second squadron shall we?" Gleaming Cutlass walked off, Shimmering Honor following close behind confused as to what this navigator meant by ‘nut-job’. They descended a flight of stairs and headed for the Marine Mess room. When they opened the door, a deep voice boomed out. "Officer on Deck!" All the marines in the room stood to attention. "No need, its only me" Gleaming stated as he waved a hoof, all the Marines continued on with whatever they were doing. He grabbed a Private, "get Shimmering's Squadron will you," and the earth pony rushed off. "Now then, the squad you are in charge of is called 'Shimmering Glory'." Gleaming said with a smirk "Its been called that for years. Its an all pegasi team and is either a bomber wing or boarding party, you have some very interesting characters in your team." He said as several ponies walked up to them, saluted and the largest spoke first. "Second Squadron of the Second Airborne, Shimmering Glory reporting!" "Very good." Gleaming and Shimmering returned the Salute. "Second Squadron, this is your new Sergeant." Gleaming said, pointing a wing at Shimmering Honor. "I will leave you to get acquainted." He turned to one of the two mares in the team, "and I will see you later," he said with a grin on his face. "Yeah, down the barrel of a my sniper rifle," she replied. Gleaming stood back, blushed and almost rushed out of the room. "So then Sergeant, what's your name?" said a dark green Pegasus with a lime green mane. "Shimmering Honor. I was once a Royal Guard in New Canterlot," he said. "Now then, besides me who is the highest rank, we will start there and work our way down." A Black mare with a red mane and tail spoke up first. "Midnight storm, Corporal, Explosives expert sir!" She blushed as she looked into his eyes and quickly looked away. "Lightning Arch, Corporal, Ready and waiting sir!" Said the green pony. "Lance Corporal Heavy Weight, heavy weapons." Said a larger than normal brown stallion with a black mane. He was obviously older than the others, and Shimmering hoped more experienced. "Pinpoint, Sniper, Lance Corporal." Said the mare Gleaming had tried to hit on. She had a white coat with a brown mane. The last pony just stood there. He was jet black, coat and mane, and he had no cutie mark. "And you are?" asked Shimmering "That's Shadowstrike Flank, we all call him Flank, because we don't know if he has a cutie mark and when you're in the middle of battle he can sneak on to the enemies flank to within a few meters." replied Heavy Weight. "He is a Lance Corporal and he is the team scout. Don't expect him to say much sergeant, he is the strong silent type." Lightning Arch piped in. "This seems a bit small, where is the rest of the squadron?" Asked Shimmering. "You see Sergeant...They are kind of...." Lightning Arch started. "Dead" Came a deep voice, Shimmering looked around, it must have been Flank. "Oh...right, well then...when do we get some more privates then?" Shimmering asked, hoping somepony knew, but an awkward silence fell over the group, uneasy lucks passing between the team. "We don't know." Pinpoint replied. "Right then, I will but in a request for some more then..." and with that the team soon began speaking about themselves. A few hours later a ringing could be heard throughout the ship as some magical announcement system started to talk. "All necessary repairs complete, restock complete. Lift off, ten minutes. All hooves, best dress, line the rails in five minutes!” And it shut off. All the Marines went to their bunks and started to get changed into their best uniforms. "Your bunk is in here Sergeant, with the rest of the Second Squadron," Said Heavy. He motioned to a small side door, the two mares went through another to the mare quarters. Once the whole team was dressed they met back up in the mess, and headed up to the top deck. Ensigns showed them where to stand. By the time lift off was about to start, all the ponies aboard where at the right places, lining the railings on the side facing outwards. "LIFT OFF IN T MINUS TWO MINUTES, DETACH ALL MOORING LINES, GANG PLANKS AND FUEL LINES, OPEN FRONT DOORS!" The dock master voice boomed around the dock through large speakers, The ship shook slightly as all the attached items fell off and slowly moved back into the side of the dock "LIFT OFF IN T MINUS FORTY FIVE SECONDS, ENGINES START!" A rumbling came from the aft of the ship as the engine cones flared to life "Drop sails!" Gleaming Cutlass's voice echoed through the speakers on board the ship. Massive sails dropped down from the yard arms on the masts as sailors undid ropes, then they hung there flapping in what little wind was around the ship "T MINUS TWENTY SECONDS, OPEN REAR DOORS!" Massive doors to the rear of the dock opened up to channel the wind and the massive sails filled with the life they so desired. "T MINUS 10...9...8...7...6...5, RELEASE FINAL MOORING LINES...3...2...1...LIFT OFF!" The engines flared and the ship lurched forward, leaving the dry dock on the floating Island. Cheers from outside the dock started to fill the ears of the crew lining the ship. Each sailor saluted the crowd that had gathered to see the airship take off, to see the Flagship of the Equestrian Navy, to see Nocturnal Thunder.