When Princess Celestia is found dead, a new ruler must take the throne. Without the Princess's leadership, many opportunist factions find themselves free to act as they see fit. Until now, Equestrian politics had often been overlooked, thanks to the benevolent Princess of the Sun wisely presiding over them. Now, betrayal and secret plots run rampant in Canterlot's court. Five ponies are sent to the different corners of Equestria in an attempt to save their broken nation.

Special thanks to Galrion, Coldsilverd, and Striving for Harmony for proofreading everything and helping me brainstorm ideas.
I wanna thank my editor, Derpypaws, who's a great help for grammar and punctuation. He also designed and vectored the Captain Silvermane cutie mark.
The cover art was made by DarkFlame, here is his deviantart. Also, check out his tumblr ask blog.
Cutie Mark vectors by Hawk9mm, you can find his deviantart here. Scootaloo's cutie mark by Lahirien.
Also, I wanna thank Alptraum Mond and Throttlesky for extra tips and proofreading.

A story about how sometimes when we hurt others we also hurt ourselves. Because physical pain isn't the only kind there is.
For the life of me I've been trying to figure out how to improve this description but can't.

This is the first fanfiction I ever actually wrote and as such I sort of holds a little place in my heart. When I first wrote and posted this story is was very rough. (A first draft with little to no editing) Though to my surprise it met with a good reception. As such I decided to put more time into this story to truly make it shine as well as I can. Going back and fixing my mistakes, polishing out the rough bits, and some general revisions to help the story flow better. I do hope you enjoy this story and the work I put into it.

As of 12/01/2014 every chapter has been revised and edited to a new and (hopefully improved) version!
Even one scene from the first chapter has been cut out and moved to its own separate chapter.
I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did creating it.

I'd like to think my editors; sbloom85 and Kraken Hatchling for their help with this. You guys are awesome. An additional thanks to Leoshi for also pointing out and helping me fix errs that were missed.

How far will you go to save your family? Your friends? Your empire? Twenty years before the events of the Hearth's Warming Eve story, long before the pegasi had even met the other two races, Commander Hurricane was a simple farmer in the great Cirran Empire. When the neighboring griffon nation declares war on Cirra and everything it stands for, the young Hurricane finds himself thrown into the middle of a conflict with the fate of his very race put into question. Will he rise to be the pegasus Cirra needs him to be, or will the mighty empire fall to the claws of the griffons?

Officially part of "The Price of Loyalty" storyverse, in collaboration with LoyalLiar.

Now with a side story! Come check out my friend Ruirik's Wind and Stone and follow along with the journey of another legionnaire who struggled through the Red Cloud War at the same time as Hurricane. (*contains references to events in the sequel to OSLF, Snow and Shadows, so be wary*)

Cover art by Ruirik