It was early morning and the commander’s room in the cloud building sat empty. Until a stallion’s head popped up out of the floor. His sky blue coat stood out against the white walls of pegasus cloud architecture. However, his mane blended in just fine. His brown eyes scanned to room to ensure a lack of witnesses as he pulled himself up out of the cloud floor. The black armor he wore stood out even more then his coat as he fully emerged. Certain that nopony knew he was here he quickly smoothed over the unrefined part of the floor to look just like the refined part.
The pegasus stallion’s attention turned to the large cloth map in the middle of the room. Like most things in the pegasus tribe, the cloth was made of the tail or mane hair of pegasi. Even the stallion’s studded armor was made of metal plates wrapped in and sewn together with pegasus cloth. An easy observation to make as pegasus cloth was one of the few things pegasi could make on their own that didn’t fall through the clouds.
If a pegasus wanted to own something other then cloth it usually needed to be set on a pegasus cloth mat. Or in the case of the cloud table before him, the cloth map had several colored stones resting on it, marking important repots on the war map itself. Of particular interest the stallion took note of three red stones on the western portion of the map that marked skirmishes. He gave even more attention to the stone in the northwest part of the map, as a black stone signifying a casualty accompanied it.
He turned his attention to a counter nearby. It too was covered in cloth. Like the map this cloth wasn’t for decoration as it had a long list of names, cutie marks and several empty boxes embroidered into it. The stallion looked over the list knowing that only a few pegasi in the tribe could read the names. Also not surprising considering that writing was a unicorn invention. Even the runic symbols the names were written in were borrowed from the unicorn tribe. Like the map the list of names had colored stones in some of the boxes to mark things. It was a simple system but it allowed even the illiterate pegasi to leave nonverbal reports.
The stallion scanned the list for the two names he knew belonged to the ponies that were on the northwest patrol. He breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted the marker stone in the health status box was of the color that meant ‘injured’. Satisfied that nopony he knew had died overnight he turned back to the map and couldn’t help but wonder. You’re just a scouting patrol. What’s worth fighting over in those mountains?
“Lieutenant, you out there?” the stallion asked.
A stallion poked his head into the doorframe and answered, “Commander Tempest? Heh, one of these days I’m going to figure out how you keep sneaking past me,” the lieutenant said.
“Shoot, if that’s all you want. All you have to do is issue the commander’s challenge, beat me and I’ll gladly show you the commander’s secrets,” Commander Tempest said.
“Not a chance sir. There’s no way I’d make a better commander then you and we both know it.”
“Any chance anypony else issued the commander’s challenge to me?”
“No sir.”
“Are you sure the rules say I can’t just retire?”
“I could always ask again. But I don’t see why the council of elders would suddenly say the rules are any different now then the last hundred times you asked. No commander has ever wanted to stand down before and you know that.”
“Fine. Oh is Lieutenant Cloudshy still at the medical cloud?” the commander asked, lowering his head in defeat.
“No sir. I think the medic just patched her up and sent her to rest at home.”
“Don’t suppose she left a report with you?”
“No she didn’t sir. But I do have a report for you,” the lieutenant said. Seeing the commander raise an eyebrow in interest the lieutenant continued, “The supply group came back this morning and it seems the earth pony tribe has shorted us on the food tribute again.”
“Hmm, that’s the third month in a row.” the commander sighed. “There’s definitely something fishy going on here. I’ll go see if I can figure out what’s going on with the earth ponies. In the meantime keep the current rationing in place.”
“Yes, sir.” The lieutenant answered, before returning to the front room of the command building.
Commander Tempest didn’t have long to ponder the situation before another pony came in the doorway the lieutenant had just left through. “Good morning, commander.” The mare with white coat and prismatic mane greeted him.
“Good morning, Prism. Do I even want to know why a civilian is in my office this early in the day?” Tempest asked.
“Come now. Is that any way to greet your foalhood friend? What’s got you in such a hurry?” she asked in response.
“I was just about to go see why the earth ponies aren’t giving us enough food and thus forcing us to stay on rationing.” Commander Tempest said. Then noticing something unusual about his long time friend, he added, “Speaking of rationing, you’re looking a little plump for somepony who should be on two meals a day. Where are you sneaking extra rations from?”
“I’ll have you know I’d never steal supplies like that. I’m this way because I’m pregnant.” She defended herself.
“Oh. Umm, congratulations.” The commander said. Then a stray thought forced him to ask, “Wait. You’re not married. Who’s the father?”
The situation seemed odd to Tempest. Prism was considered the most beautiful mare in the pegasus tribe. But as far as the commander knew she had only had eyes for him despite that fact that she never bothered to tell him about said feeling until he had married another, rendering her feelings moot. Also the traditions of the pegasi stressed honor and it was considered dishonorable for a mare to have a foal without marrying first and his foalhood friend didn’t seem the type to dishonor herself like that. It was equally considered dishonorable for a stallion to father a foal without marrying the mother of his child. So, all things considered, the commander was curious to hear whom it was that his long time friend had fallen for and would be marrying.
“Isn’t it obvious? You are.” Prism’s answer made the commander tilt his head aside in confusion.
“I find that highly unlikely considering that would be news to me.” Tempest responded.
“Oh commander, don’t you remember a little while ago when we went to that earth pony tavern with Storm Walker’s wing?” she asked.
“Yes, I remember I won the bet. Earth ponies make their drink way too strong. I was drunk out of my mind after only one mug. I don’t ever remember what happened after that until I woke up next to…” the commander’s voice trailed off as he realized the implications of what he was about to say. Then he remembered another detail and added, “No. You said ‘nothing happened’ when we woke up in that field.”
“Not quite commander. I said ‘nothing unwanted happened.’ And I may have used my idea of ‘unwanted’ when I said that.” Prism said, as she walked passed the dumbfounded stallion, whipping her tail gently across his side.
Commander Tempest couldn’t speak as he tried to think how her words couldn’t be true. If she was bluffing she was doing a dang good job of it. Try as he might, Tempest couldn’t find any flaws in her version of story and the timing fit too. A part of him was impressed that she had played him into a trap and a part of him was ashamed that he’d let his long time friend play him into a trap.
The commander’s stunned silence prompted Prism to continue, “What’s the matter? Did I not wait a respectable time after what happened last time? Is two years not long enough in your mind? Is not two years long enough to deny yourself happiness?”
Terrible echoes of the past rang in Tempest’s mind, voices that hunted his nightmares. When he finally managed a response all he could say was, “I could’ve saved them… if I had just turned my back on the tribe…”
“And yet you chose to protect the pegasus tribe as a whole from those dragons. You sacrificed everything good in your life to protect the tribe. That’s why nopony will ever challenge you for command of the tribe. Nopony can live up to that example.” Prism said, trying to console the emotionally wounded stallion.
“That’s just it. I’m still commander. I chose to protect the tribe over my own family, and the worst part is I know I’d make the same choice again as long as I have this title.”
“That’s no reason to deny yourself happiness. Let me make you happy again. I want to see that stallion filled with hope I use to know. Not just the one driven by duty alone that you’ve become.”
The commander couldn’t look his friend in the eye when he responded, “I won’t lie to you. It would make me happy. But I can’t protect you. How can I be a good husband if I can’t even do that?”
“You won’t have to. I can protect us.” Prism said, sliding a hoof gently over her belly to make it clear who the ‘us’ in question was.
“For all our sakes I pray you’re right. I don’t think I can take that kind of loss a second time,” the commander said. Then opening his wings he plucked the largest, healthiest feather he could find from his own wing and said, “I trust I can skip the usual question.”
“Oh commander! Of course I’ll marry you!” Prism said as if he’d asked it anyway, and way too loud for the commander’s tastes.
“Look, it’s a little busy at the moment, so I’m going to have to leave you to plan the wedding and all. This coming Sunday should be soon enough right? Try to keep it small and simple and let as few ponies in on it as you can. It’ll be hard enough to stop the whole tribe from showing up for the commander’s wedding as is.” Commander Tempest said. Then opening his saddlebag he pulled out one of his rations and added, “Here take your third ration from my allotment until the wedding. Once we’re properly married we can get you on proper full rations like the other expecting mothers.”
By now Prism had fixed the commander’s feather in her mane. She accepted the ration and practically pranced out of the room.
With his long time friend gone Commander Tempest was feeling a mix of hope and fear at the unexpected turn of events the morning had taken. With a moments pause he offered a whispered prayer in memory of his first attempt at happiness, “Celestial Pegasus rest your souls.” Then he focused his mind back to the matter at hoof.
As the commander stepped out of his office the lieutenant manning the front desk was grinning ear to ear and said, “Congratulations sir.”
“Breathe a word of this to anypony and I’ll personally have you on the next patrol into dragon territory,” the commander said, not entirely sure if he meant his threat or not.
“Not a word sir. But I don’t think that’s going to help,” the lieutenant said, pointing a hoof out the main doorway of the building. Where Prism was skipping down the street and ponies were taking notice of the stallion’s feather in her mane that was too healthy to have fallen out on its own.
* * * * * * *
Commander Tempest soon found himself at Lieutenant Cloudshy’s home. The tan-coated mare with the pink mane was lying down on a fluffy bed of clouds. And much to the commander’s dismay, she was trying to salute him with a bandage wrapped leg. “You don’t have to do that,” he said.
“I’m sorry.”
“You can stop apologizing while you’re at it.”
“I’m sorry.” She responded on instinct.
“Ugh, can you just tell me how you got injured lieutenant?”
“Oh, yes, sorry. We were on patrol when we saw three harpies picking flowers.” She reported, finally lying back down.
“Picking flowers?” the commander asked, with an eyebrow raised in disbelief.
“That’s what we thought too. So we showed ourselves thinking that we could scare them off without a fight. I mean if they were picking flowers, they couldn’t have been out looking for a fight, right? But we were wrong. They attacked us as soon as we showed ourselves. We killed one of them. But the strange thing is, when the other two fled they made sure to take the bags of flowers they had been gathering with them. Like they were really important or something.”
“Do you know what kind of flowers they were?”
“I think it was those yellow mountain flowers. You know, those really bitter ones that make you sick if you eat too many.”
“That makes no since. Harpies are aggressive, predatory, why would they care about flowers? And ones that can’t even be used as bait for a hungry pegasus no less,” the commander said, thinking out loud.
“I’m sorry sir. But I think that’s what I saw.”
“That’s alright lieutenant. That’s for me to worry about. You just need to worry about healing up.” With that the commander left the lieutenant’s home.
* * * * * * *
Flying through the open sky helped to clear Commander Tempest’s mind but he kept wondering why harpies would want such flowers all of a sudden. “You have a job to do,” Tempest reminded himself, as he focused his eyes on the small village less then twenty minutes of flight time ahead of him.
Technically if you drew the lines on a map, parts of pegasus territory overlapped with parts of the unicorn and earth pony territories. However, since the pegasi only laid clam to the sky while the other two tribes cared who owned the land that had never been a problem. It was even a convenience to the pegasus tribe as it meant they didn’t have to go too far to meet with either of the other pony tribes.
Idle pondering aside, Commander Tempest landed by the earth pony town hall, drawing the attention of every earth pony in line of sight. The commander couldn’t help but notice the lack of a guard by the doors of the town hall. Just like earth ponies to think walls and doors alone are adequate defenses, he thought to himself. Though he pitied the earth ponies for such foolishness, he could forgive them for thinking that way. It was the pegasi that had to fight every threat that faced them, as walls of cloud did little to stop enemy arrows or dragon’s flames. Unlike the tribes of the ground the pegasi didn’t have the luxury of hiding behind sturdy walls and waiting for the threat to pass by on its own. In the sky the pegasi had to fight frequently to keep predators away from the pegasus tribe and to keep their otherwise indefensible patch of sky safe.
Commander Tempest let himself into the earth pony building, and was greeted by a clearly startled assistant, “Oh! Hello, can I help you? I wasn’t expecting you to drop by unannounced.”
Tempest raised an eyebrow to the comment and responded, “You send my courier team home with less food then agreed upon, for the third time in a row, and you didn’t expect me to come see why the whole pegasus tribe has to starve? Forgive me if I find that hard to believe.” Then the commander marched into the chancellor’s office, ignoring the assistant’s protest.
“Have you named the foal yet?” the chancellor asked.
“I think we’re going with Puddinghead, the wife really seems to…” the secretary started to answer and cut himself off when he saw the pegasus commander enter the room.
The chancellor traced the eyes of her secretary and found the commander as well. “Oh, hello commander. What bring you to our humble patch of dirt?” she asked, her nervous eyes doing an even worse job of feigning ignorance then the assistant at the front deck.
“Have my weather teams not brought rain at the request of your farmers? Have we not protected your farms from drought, flood, storm and hail? Have we not fought, bled and died defending the skies over your head so that your walls actually amount to something?” Commander Tempest almost shouted.
“You have done all those things,” the chancellor answered, unable to look the pegasus in the eyes.
“Then what part of our end of the bargain do you feel we have not live up to that you give us less food then agreed upon?”
The chancellor explained, “Forgive me commander, but do not think we are feasting while you suffer famine. We have suffered several attacks from wild animals on the ground. To protect ourselves, now half our farmers have to stand guard at any given time. So we no longer have enough ponies to work all of our fields.”
“Then why not cut back on the food you send the unicorns so you can give us what we are owed?” the commander asked.
“And anger them more then I already have?” the chancellor responded, and on seeing the look in the commander’s eyes she added, “Yes, that’s right, I cut back on what I was sending them at the same time I reduced how much food I was sending you, commander. However, unlike you the unicorns didn’t give us the benefit of the doubt and have been complaining every month. I don’t doubt that their ambassador will be here anytime now, to renew that complaint.”
“All due respect chancellor, the unicorns are even bigger cowards then you earth ponies. For all their supposed magical might they’re always hiding in their castles, playing with every little pointless thing that catches their curiosity like foals that have nothing better to do. Have they ever fought to protect you? I’ve never seen a single drop of unicorn blood on fall your behalf. What do they do that’s so valuable to you?” the commander asked.
“Raise the sun and moon comes to mind.” The chancellor countered.
“Oh? and what happens if they abandon their charge? Would not they freeze under eternal night, or wither under eternal day like the rest of us? How would that help them get more food if they did that? But us pegasi, we don’t manage the weather everywhere. What’s stopping us from deciding that helping you is a waste of our time and flying off to find someplace we can farm for ourselves?”
“Since when do pegasi know how to farm?”
“We may be warriors at heart but don’t think we can not learn. Do you really think there isn’t a weather pegasus that doesn’t know how often each type of plant on your farms should be watered? Do you really think our weather teams have not seen what you do tending your fields? If you won’t feed us then why shouldn’t we go back to looking out only for ourselves? And do you really think your farms will do better dealing with wild weather, dragons, harpies and every other terror of the skies that we currently protect you from?” Commander Tempest argued.
The earth pony chancellor considered the pegasus’ words for a moment before responding, “You make a good argument commander. But the food shortage is what it is. Seeing as you like the role of warrior far more then we earth ponies do. I propose that if you could spare some warriors to protect our most troubled farms. That should free up enough ponies to increase the next harvest. And your extra effort would certainly warrant an increased share in the bounty that would bring.”
“Between the weather teams and the fact that the harpies are at war with us, the pegasus tribe is stretched thin already. But maybe if you could offer a little incentive I might be able to find some volunteers willing to pull an extra shift to come help you defend your lands. Most of the tribe is on two meals a day after all,” the commander said, strongly hinting what would help him gather said volunteers.
“With the rationing we already in place I can’t promise anything, but I will strongly encourage them to consider giving any pegasus who helps protect their farm a little something to eat.” The chancellor said, then turned to her secretary and added, “See what you can scrounge up. Let’s send the commander home with a show of good faith to help his efforts.”
“Yes mam. Commander if you’ll follow me.” The secretary led Tempest back out to the front room and motioned for him the rest on one of the pillows there. “Wait here while I see what I can gather.” With that the secretary headed out into the village, leaving the pegasus commander waiting in the front room of the town hall.
Not long after Commander Tempest sat down, a unicorn mare in a resplendent gown, stormed into the building, much like he had, and marched past the pony at the front desk into the chancellor’s office, also much like he had. Tempest could hear the unicorn ambassador complain about getting less food then expected for the unicorn tribe. The commander couldn’t help but chuckle to himself when he heard the earth pony chancellor repeat his own argument to the unicorn almost word for word.
A few moments of arguing latter and the unicorn mare marched back out into the front room, glared at the pegasus commander and snarled, “You did this. You turned them against us didn’t you?”
Tempest responded, “Was anything she said wrong? When have the unicorns ever bled or died to protect them? I’ve never seen it. But I have seen pegasi fight to defend the source of our food.”
The unicorn mare glared at him and responded, “Fool, we unicorns shoulder the burden of the balance of all of nature. The sun, the moon, the balance of the seasons all work because of the unicorn tribe.”
“And if you were to abandon that charge you’d suffer the same as all of us,” Tempest pointed out.
The unicorn’s eyes radiated hatred as she gave her reply, “My king will hear of this. Do not think he will take this insult lightly.”
Commander Tempest was contemplating responding once more when the earth pony secretary returned. “Commander, it’s ready.” More then happy to jump at the excuse to leave Tempest got up and followed the earth pony out. Once outside the secretary motioned to a small cart and added, “It’s not much, but I should hope this shows the honesty of our efforts to live up to our obligations.”
The commander took one of the bags of food and feeling its weight guessed it to be enough to feed a pony for about a week. He then placed it at the hooves of the secretary and said, “Congratulations on the young one, make sure the kid eats well.”
The earth pony looked back somewhat bewildered and then asked, “Are you sure?”
“Even I don’t ask the youngest of the pegasus tribe to go without three meals a day. So I can not ask that the young of the earth pony tribe do so. Besides I think it’s in both our interests that your little one grows up into a big and strong farmer.” Tempest smiled.
“Thank you.” the secretary said, as he helped the pegasus commander secure the straps of the cart.
As Commander Tempest flew away he couldn’t help but feel the unicorn ambassador glaring daggers at him.
* * * * * * *
The pegasus commander landed on the clouds and brought the cart to a stop on a rug of pegasus cloth so he could take off the straps without letting it fall through the clouds. Two pegasus soldiers immediately came to aid their commander.
“Lieutenant, take the food to the storehouse and have Captain Wingright assign the extra rations accordingly. Privet, once it’s unloaded give the earth ponies their cart back.” Tempest commanded his soldiers.
As soon as the commander was free of the cart’s harness he noticed another pegasus flying at him. The mare’s armor marked her as a captain. The captain landed and quickly railed off, “There you are! Come quick!”
“Captain Storm Walker, what’s wrong?”
“We found some intruders in pegasus airspace. They surrendered without a fight but they don’t speak our language and we don’t know what to do with them. And three of them look kind of tough sir.”
Commander Tempest motioned for the captain to lead the way and she did. When they arrived at the cloud building the commander found four creatures the likes of which he’d never seen before. The creatures looked like lions except they had the head and wings of an eagle and instead of front paws they had eagle’s talons as well. The creatures seemed to come mainly in shades of golden-brown or silver-gray. The three largest of the creatures looked to have the kind of scars that came from battle while the smallest one seemed to be in pristine health.
The creatures seemed annoyed at first but when they saw the commander and noticed his helmet was more ornate then the other pegasi they seemed to relax a little and began speaking words that meant nothing to Tempest.
Tempest batted his ears, shook his head and said, “Your words mean nothing to me.” That got the creatures to quiet down but they seemed annoyed again at the clear lack of progress in communications.
“What do you think they are?” Storm Walker whispered in the commander’s ear.
Commander Tempest pointed to himself and said, “Pegasus.” He then pointed to the other three pegasi in the room and repeated the word. As soon as he finished that he repeated the gesture of pointing to himself then the other pegasi and said, “Tempest, Storm Walker, Wind Wall, Tailwind.”
The smallest of the creatures stepped forward and pointed to itself and then the others of its kind and said, “Griffin.” It then repeated the cycle of pointing while saying, “Goldwing Von Griff, Gildar Le Beak, Gold Feather, Silver Talon.”
“There you have it, they’re called griffin and I think they just gave us their names,” The commander whispered back to his captain. Then aloud he pointed again to himself and added, “Pegasus.” Then gesturing to all the pegasi in the room added, “Pegasi.”
The griffin repeated the gestures with the responses ‘griffin’ and ‘griffins’.
Commander Tempest then dug his hooves into the floor and pulled the cloud apart until the ground could be seen and said, “Ground.” He closed the hole up and flew up to the ceiling and pulled that apart until he could point to the sky and said, “Sky” He close that hole, landed back on the clouds and asked the griffins, “This pegasus sky. Why are you in pegasus sky?” the commander knew his question would be lost on them but hoped the tone of his voice and look on his face would carry its meaning anyway.
The griffin speaking for the group seemed to understand the question enough and responded with one word. The word meant nothing to Tempest and the gestures the griffin made didn’t help him guess its meaning either. The look on the commander’s face showed the attempt had failed, so the griffin tried another word, “Satchel.” This time the word was accompanied with a gesture across the griffin’s chest.
Commander Tempest asked his soldiers, “Did they have something with them there?”
Lieutenant Wind Wall responded, “The straps of their bags went across their chests like that.”
“So where are they?” the commander responded.
Wind Wall led Tempest back outside and to the next door down. Inside two more pegasi were looking through the bags sitting on a tablecloth. Once they saw the commander one of them spoke up with a very worried tone of voice, “Commander, there’s something you should see.” The soldier then pointed to the contents of the two opened bags.
Commander Tempest only needed a glance to see what the soldier was worried about. Though he wasn’t sure why anypony was surprised to find dried meat. Voicing his complete lack of surprise Tempest said, “They’re half lion and half eagle. Last I checked both of those are predators, so it stands to reason that they would be too.”
By now the commander was opening the flaps of the two unopened bags. Inside one was more dried meat. But the other had parchment and tools that looked like something a unicorn would use. Suspecting the bag of tools was the one the griffin wanted Tempest took it and a spare sheet of pegasus cloth. He then gave the soldiers one last command before leaving, “Repack the rest of their supplies and give them back to the griffins.”
On returning to the building where the griffins were being held Commander Tempest held up the bag and asked, “Satchel?”
The griffin confirmed, “Satchel.”
“Bag,” the commander said. Then he dug his hooves into the cloud floor and pulled part of it up. Tempest then spread the pegasus cloth over it to make a table. Finally he put the bag down on it and motioned for the griffin to try explaining again.
The griffin opened the bag and shuffled through it, finally pulling out one of the scrolls. Laying it on the makeshift table Goldwing smoothed it out to reveal the scroll was a partly drawn map. The griffin then traced a talon from one area through the drawn part, ending a little ways into empty space on the map.
Commander tempest recognized part of the map near where it stopped being drawn. Orienting it in his head he concluded the griffins must have come across the ocean east of pony territory, and had been heading southwest when they ran into the pegasus patrol that brought them here.
“What’s he trying to say?” one of the soldiers, who was bringing the griffins’ other bags back, asked in a whisper.
“I think he’s saying they’re adventures out exploring the world.” The commander whispered back.
“Then what should we do with them, being predators and all?” the soldier whispered back.
“Easy, we’re going to let them go. And you two are going to watch them as long as they’re in pegasus airspace.” Tempest whispered. Then turning to another pegasus he whispered, “Sorry private, but I need a visual aid.”
Private Tailwind tilted her head to the side confused by the commander’s words, until the commander struck her in the side hard enough to send her tumbling and drawing a yip of pain from her anyway. Commander Tempest immediately addressed the griffins with one word after the demonstration, “Hurt.”
Tempest then pointed to the lieutenant in the room and said, “Leave.” Lieutenant Wind Wall then gave a salute and left the room. Turning back to the griffins the commander dug his hooves into the cloud floor and pulled the clouds apart until it was wide enough a griffin could fit easily through the hole. Once the cloud modification was done he addressed the griffins saying, “You griffins leave pegasus sky. And if you hurt any pegasus you’ll know my wrath.” Tempest knew that most of his words meant nothing to the griffins but the look on their faces showed they understood the warning anyway.
The griffin who had identified himself as Goldwing reclaimed his things and then led the others in diving through the hole in the floor. With a nod the two soldiers who had brought the bags in also took flight to follow the griffins.
“Do you think it was wise to just let predators like them go?” the captain asked.
“If harpies were half that civilized we wouldn’t be at war with them. And as long as they don’t think ponies are acceptable prey I really don’t care what they do. Besides with the harpies currently at war with us we’re stretched too thin to be picking fights with anyone else anyway.” Commander Tempest answered.
With that Tempest mended the hole in the floor and then left to the streets of the pegasus tribe’s home town. He still had to see how many volunteers he could find before days end willing to help the earth ponies out with no real promise of any pay for the effort.