//------------------------------// // Ambush // Story: Sound Of Thunder: The Calm Before the Storm // by Shimmering Honor //------------------------------// ”What… you like me?” The filly blinked, looking away shyly. Shimmering was her best friend, but she'd never considered him anything more than that. Unsure of how to react, she let out a stuttering little giggle. “Whats wrong with that?” Shimmering averted his eyes, pointedly looking everywhere that the filly wasn't. He could feel his cheeks burning up. His heart was pounding. This wasn't right. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. "I'm sorry, Shimmy. I just..." She gulped. "I don't think it'd... Mama always says I can't get a coltfriend until I enlist, and... uh..." The colt raised a hoof, cutting her off. "That's fine," he lied. "It's just a little crush anyways." Chapter 3, Ambush! Shimmering Honor was doing a tour of the ship, Nocturnal Thunder was the biggest thing he had ever seen flying in the skies above Trinity. He was planning out a training regime for the marines, starting at the command deck and working his way down through every inch of walkway and hold that was accessible, taking note of key features. He was just coming back up the command deck to start measuring the length when he bumped into a unicorn and bounced back a few steps. “Sorry.. I didn’t see you there,” Shimmering said to the unicorn, who had his back to him. The maroon unicorn seemed not to have heard him. Either that or he was ignoring him. A thick, deep blue mane ran down the back of his neck and a scarlet aura of magic was surrounding a clipboard and quil. The pony turned and looked Shimmering up and down “It’s alright. Wait, I ain’t seen you before, who are you?” The unicorn asked, suspicion in his blue eyes. “I am Sergeant Shimmering Honor, Second Airborne, Second Squadron. I just transfered on,” Shimmering replied, looking the unicorn in the eye, determined to stand his ground. “I am Lieutenant Commander Ratchet, chief of engineering on this fine vessel upon which we serve,” he replied, looking back at his clipboard hovering between them. “Now, if you don’t mind, I must get back to surveying the pipes.” The unicorn continued, nodding his head towards the copper piping held up on to the ceiling of the corridor by a set of brackets and other pipes. “Okay, sir.” Shimmering looked towards the piping, and nodded towards the large unicorn in front of him before Ratchet turned on his hooves and briskly trotted away down the corridor. Shimmering followed the unicorn with his eyes. Well that was short. He thought to himself before heading back to his bunk. He looked around as he entered the marine mess hall. Lightning Arch was trying some form of card trick. Pinpoint was being ushered away from a barrel of cider that had made its way into the mess. Heavy Weight was checking his Battle harness, and as usual Flank was no where to be seen. Shimmering entered his room and sat at a desk. He pulled out some paper and a pen and started to write plans when a knock at the door surprised him. “Enter!” he shouted with his mouth still grasping the pen. The door opened to reveal Midnight Storm. “Sergeant, Captain Dark Star would like to see you,” she said and walked away, Shimmering walked out of his room and found Dark Star in the main mess with five pegasi “You called for me, Captain?” Shimmering asked. “Ah, Sergeant, these soldiers are going to be under your command for a while. Just until we get back to Pony Island and get the new stock,” he said before walking off. Shimmering looked at the ponies in front of him, his attention drawn to a golden brown pegasus. “Who are you?” he asked. “Private Flash Sentry!” replied the golden brown pegasus. “Spread your wings, all of you" He ordered and the pegasi in front of him did, they all looked like they had good strong wings, then several golden brown feathers fell to the floor, Shimmering inspected Flash Sentry's wings closer....Malting, this early... They were a mess, primaries stuck out at odd angles, others were missing or looked to be held on by a thread and Shimmering could see flesh through the secondaries. "Private, what is wrong with your wings, do you not preen?" Shimmering asked. "I do sergeant, its...just....well, I am an early malter, I tend to start malting before anypony else and it usually takes twice as long as everypony else" Flash replied, looking embarrassed. "With wings like that, you can't fly. I am reassigning you." Shimmering looked around for another Squad leader. “NO!...you can't please...I asked to be assigned to this squadron, sergeant,” Flash replied suddenly, fear in his eyes. “Asked!?” Shimmering was shocked. “Yes sergeant. I am aspiring to join the Royal Guard, and so would like a chance to learn from one,” Flash said as a small blush appeared on his cheeks. “Well you joined the wrong outfit!” Heavy Weight said from across the room. “You won't last long here, boy, not with your wings. Get yourself assigned to a non-pegasi squad!” “I agree with the Lance Corporal, Flash Sentry, I am transferring you to the First Ground Platoon.” Shimmering pointed over to a unicorn sergeant. Flash walked away and looked sad, but Shimmering brushed it off and went back to his room to carry on planning. It had been a few hours since Shimmering had started his planning. He wanted to train the marines to the best of his ability, but he felt that he had been thrown in at the deep end. He had no measurement of the marines’ abilities, and no measure of their resolve. Suddenly the ship shook violently with a loud boom filling the air. “What the hay was that?” “Sounded like an explosion!” “Do we worry about it?” shouted several marines. Shimmering Honor jumped up and bolted over to his battle harness. He slipped it on, attached the armored plates, and grabbed his helmet as he dashed for the door. “All marines suit up! goblin ships sighted! All hooves to battle stations!” The speaker system announced. There was a flurry of movement as marines rushed to their bunks and pulled out weapons and harnesses. After a couple of minutes they were formed up in the Ready Room. Shimmering Honor checked gear and made sure his squadron was squared away. More explosions could be heard as cannons opened fire all around them, the ship shaking from impacts. With a loud bang, and a more violent shake, the ship slowed to a stop. “Hull breach in Cargo One! Intruders in Engineering! Engines have taken massive damage!” Came Ratchets voice over the speaker. “Well, I know where we are going,” Lightning muttered to Pinpoint. “Marines to the lower levels!” Dark Star ordered as he entered the Ready Room. Shimmering turned to the marines and stared at them. “Well move out then,” he said and they all rushed forward, grouped into squads and headed down to the lower decks. As the marines made their way down the stairs, the extent of damage became apparent. Pieces of wood flooring had been torn apart, holes had appeared where there weren’t any before, and several ponies had been badly injured. Blood covered the decks, oozing into the seams, and dripping down to lower levels. A few fires had started, but had been put under control quickly. When the marines reached the main hull breach they saw several dead goblins. The filthy creatures had managed to blast a hole in the bottom of the ship where the hull was weakest and were climbing up ladders from a ship below them. The engineering team had fought them off along with a few marines. Shimmering Honor turned the corner and saw one pegasi marine out in the open, firing his MK 10 rifles into a cloud of smoke, screams of dying goblins coming from the other side. “Flash Sentry. Get to cover!” shouted Shimmering Honor. The pegasi turned around. his golden brown coat covered in soot and blood. “Yes, Sergeant.” Flash started to make his way towards a pile of boxes, but a fire had made the floors weaker. Flash Sentry stopped. He looked down at his hooves as he heard a creaking noise, and then back up to Shimmering, fear in his eyes. The floor gave way and fell from under him. Flash Sentry disappeared and could be heard screaming as he fell to the goblin ship below. Shimmering Honor shot forward to dive after him, but bullets zipped past his head and forced him back into cover. He watched helplessly as Flash bounced off the railings into the path of a pegasus dogfighter, taking both of them to their doom. goblins charged out of the smoke wall. Some were unfortunate enough to fall into the hole that Flash had just created, more screams as helpless creatures fell to their doom. “Open fire!” shouted Shimmering as all the marines popped out of cover, and rained bullets down on the advancing goblins. Heavy Weight and his gatling ripped through three goblins and shot the head clean off another as other marines charged the advancing enemy line and engaged in a mass melee. Pinpoint expertly took out several goblins and gremlins with scary sniper precision. Shimmering looked to his left and saw Midnight Storm, a look on her face he had never seen before. What is that look in her eyes? Fear or shell shock…no Just then a goblin got a little bit too close, Midnight’s head shot up and looked at the goblin climbing over her cover. It’s something else… Chills ran down Simmering’s spine. Midnight’s wing blades shot out as she lunged forward pinning the goblin to the ground with one wing and cutting into his midsection with the other. Enjoyment? The blade made a tearing sound as it parted flesh and the goblin cried out in pain and shock. The cries only prompted Midnight to cut into her enemy again. Excitement? He couldn’t place it, and wasn’t sure he wanted to as her blade repeatedly lacerated her victim. ‘Clank!’ The blade made its final destination through the torso of her long dead enemy and reached the grated floor below. Chaos sounded around Midnight, but for a tense moment she looked at the bloody smear on the ground before her and the vacant eyes of the soldier that got a little too close. She must not have liked the look the goblin directed at her, as she whipped around her MK 10 and fired a round into its head, blowing bits of brain and skull onto the floor. Retrieving the blade from the corpse that held it down, Midnight straitened. As she now stood out in the open, all hell going on around her, a smile appeared on her face. She reached around and pulled out several explosive charges from her pouches on the harness. “STOP HER!” Heavy and Lighting shouted, and Shimmering now realized what he had seen on her face…pure ecstasy. He lunged forward and tackled her back into cover and knocked the explosives out of the hull breach, just as they exploded. “What were you thinking!?” Shimmering shouted at Midnight, shaking her, trying to get her to focus again. Her pupils were so small it was near impossible to see them, and the big grin on her face made even the veteran Royal Guard nervous. “Answer me, marine!” He shouted again but she stared at him vacantly. A goblin was creeping up on the two pegasi, Shimmering not being able to see it as it was behind him. Midnight continued staring up at her sergeant as it got closer. It raised an axe above its head. “Ahhhh…” the goblin was about to bring the axe down on the unsuspecting marine when its head suddenly detached itself from its body and rolled along the floor. Shimmering turned around to see what had made the noise and saw Flank standing just to the left of the goblin, his sharpened wing blades deployed. He looked over to the sergeant then ran into the smoke cloud, a silhouette of the stallion was visible as it tore through the goblins, cutting into them and shooting them with his E-47 and E-42. Midnight still had that look on her face, Shimmering stared into her eyes, they were scarily beautiful. Oh really, Shimmering, at a time like this you notice how beautiful your subordinate's eyes are. Shimmering shook his head and looked back at the marine in front of him. “Midnight Storm…please calm down,” he said in a calm voice. Surprisingly, Midnight’s pupils came back to normal and a blush appeared on her face. “Sergeant? W-w-why are you above me?” she asked innocently. Shimmering blushed awkwardly as he got off of her and looked around. The battle seemed to have died down. Bodies of goblins and a few ponies lay scattered about the floor. Screams of the wounded and reports of cannon fire filled the air. “You're not going to go all psycho on me again are you?” Shimmering asked softly. “It happened again.” Her eyes widened in shock. “I will need to talk to you later, Sergeant!” Midnight said as she turned suddenly and shot a charging goblin point blank. They’re pouring into the engine room, we’re struggling to hold them off! came Ratchet’s voice through the ship’s audio system. “MARINES, TO THE ENGINE ROOM!” Ordered Dark Star. The old unicorn turned to lead the charge, yet stopped. “Captain!” Shimmering ran up to him, a look of shock on the captains face, his eyes were wobbling a bit in their sockets, as if going over bad memories. Dark Star turned his head to look at him, a trickle of blood running down his face from a bullet wound on his forehead. His eyes rolled back and his forelegs gave in. Shimmering caught the captain in his wings, the body was limp. The Captain jerked suddenly as the last beat of his heart gave one final thump, then he started going cold, his greying coat and mane seemed to turn a darker shade as the life drained out of his eyes. “Sergeant…is-is the Captain dead?” Asked a passing marine. “Get to the engine room, don’t worry about it!” Shimmering Honor ordered, he laid the Captain down and closed his eyes in final respect. He got up and looked around. A few marines were fighting off the last of the goblins in the hold and some were shooting down towards the goblin ship below. He saw Midnight drop one or two explosives and fire her R19X Rocket. “Corporal, to me!” he shouted across to her. She looked around, still calm by the looks of it, and flew to him. “Yes, Sergeant?” she asked innocently. Her voice was smooth and peaceful, adding to her beauty. NO! Don’t think like that...combat situation, combat situation! Shimmering thought and looked away, blushing slightly. He turned as he heard a loud explosion and gunfire and headed towards the engine room. He entered the room to see smoke pouring out of the engine. “Don’t touch my engine!” Ratchet was repeatedly hitting a goblin over the head with a wrench. Shimmering looked around and saw Pinpoint with a goblin’s arm in her mouth, hooves on his back, looking like she was…Oh wait, she did just pull the goblins arm off. Lightning Arch and Heavy Weight were busy reloading Heavy’s gatling and again Flank had disappeared in the melee. He turned to see Midnight next to him, her eyes slowly starting to shrink again as the ecstasy returned. “Midnight, calm deep breaths.” He whispered in her ear. This did the trick and she calmed down again. A cog came whizzing between them and implanted itself in a gremlins head. They looked back and saw Ratchet using his magic to pick up more cogs and hurl them around the room like shurikens. The two pegasi took off and landed in the middle of the melee, wing blades out. They cut and shot any goblin, gremlin or hobgoblin in sight. After what felt like forever the marines started to push them back out of the hole they had come though. Some dropping into the watery abyss below, others making it back across gangplanks they had used to get aboard. Shimmering looked out of the hull breach, the cannons on the Thunder were still spitting smoke and death at the goblin ships. Many had caught fire or were slowly going down as the levitation devices had been destroyed. A cheer resounded from the marines as what remained of the goblin ships sailed away, in tatters and disarray. “Sergeant Shimmering Honor and Captain Dark Star to the bridge! Shimmering Honor and Dark Star to the bridge! Marines back to the ready room. All gun crews on alert till 0100 hours after last contact!” Gleaming Cutlass’ voice resounded through the speaker system...