War of the Pegasus Tribe

by Keeper of time RD

Chapter 2: Calm Before the Storm

It was morning and Commander Tempest now stood before a small gathering of pegasi. He sighed as he looked over the few pegasi here. Tempest knew that the volunteers would come and go in shifts but he could have sworn more then this had volunteered for the morning shift when he was asking around yesterday.

The commander was about to speak when he heard a slightly panicked cry for his name. Looking to the source he saw a scout returning with a worried look on her face. “Please be dragons,” the commander whispered, drawing a few giggles from the volunteers close enough to have heard the joke. Although, the commander was only half joking about the suicidal request to the heavens as he really wasn’t in the mood to deal with another hectic day.

The scout came sliding to a halt, short on breath. Looking the pegasus mare over Commander Tempest thought he recognized her, so he ask, “You’re stationed at the southeast outpost, over unicorn territory, right?”

The mare nodded as she replied, “Yes commander. That’s just it, the unicorn king is demanding to meet with you.”

If Commander Tempest had ever seen the unicorns field an army that news might have bothered him. But as it stood all he could be bothered to tell the scout was, “Then tell his highness that I’m busy today. But I’ll be passing by the field of a thousand hooves in about an hour, so if he’s there when I do I could manage to fit a meeting in.”

The scout saluted and took off flying, returning to deliver the message with all due haste. The commander turned his attention back to the group of volunteers. Spotting a lieutenant that was off duty among them Tempest asked, “Lieutenant, um, Raindrops was it?”

“Dewdrop,” the mare corrected.

“Right, Dewdrop, half these volunteers don’t even have any armor. Can you take them to the armory and see if we can scrounge up some of the old armor for them? Just something to give them the edge in a fight with a wild animal. Hopefully you won’t be fighting anything worse then a wild boar or something on this guard duty.”

“Yes sir. Come on ponies, you heard him, if you don’t have any armor follow me!” the lieutenant said, and then gathered to the ponies in question.

With that little stalling tactic done, the commander felt justified in waiting a little just in case anymore ponies decided to join the morning volunteers to guard the earth ponies.

* * * * * * *

The commander was leading the volunteers on the scenic rout to the earth pony tribe’s main village so he could swing by the field in his promise to the unicorn king. Much to the commander’s dismay there were still only about twenty volunteers for the morning group. Also to Commander Tempest’s dismay he spotted a colorful array of figures in field that could only mean the unicorn king had managed to make the trek to the field between unicorn and earth pony territory. A fairly impressive feat given the unicorns lack of wings, but that didn’t change the fact the Tempest had hoped that the difficulty of getting to that field in under an hour would’ve kept the unicorns home.

Commander Tempest swerved to lead the pegasi following him down to the field. He landed a few feet in front of the unicorn king. As he approached the unicorn, Tempest took notice of the three chariots nearby and couldn’t help but wonder why the king seemed to be the only unicorn not winded by the sudden and hasty journey. The chariots could’ve easily held two ponies each so shouldn’t there be more riders around, or at the very least two more riders then the commander could see?

“Ah Commander, late as always. I trust you know why we are here?” the unicorn king greeted the pegasus.

“Not really. I’ve found you unicorns have always been a hard bunch to figure out. Always talking about this or that and never doing anything.” Commander Tempest answered.

“Well then, seeing as you’ve taken one too many blows to the head to anticipate the obvious, commander, I’ll give you a little reminder. The other day my ambassador to the earth pony tribe returned with a most vexing tale to tell. Namely, that you have poisoned the minds of the earth ponies against us. They tell my ambassador there is so little food they can only give half the usual amount. Then they send you away with a cart full while they send my ambassador home with nothing to show for her efforts.”

“And what ‘efforts’ might you be speaking of? I was in the next room while your ambassador was talking with the earth ponies and I don’t recall overhearing a thing about the unicorns promising to help them in their time of need.” The pegasus commander’s response was mixed with sarcasm and honest curiosity.

The unicorn king scoffed, “Like you pegasus ruffians could offer them anything of true value. We unicorns bring them day and night. Without us they’d have no crops at all. What further efforts need I justify?”

“Oh so you plan to keep offering them the same thing that benefits you as much as it dose them? Tell me, your majesty, how do you get more food if you let the earth ponies fields freeze under eternal night or wither under eternal day? How do you not suffer under the same yourself if you inflict it on the rest of us? And how does ‘keeping doing what you’ve always done’ help them defend their lands from the attacks they find themselves in now? Do you not see these pegasi behind me? I was leading them to the earth ponies to actually fight their battles for them. So tell me, O great king, were you planing on fighting the earth ponies battles for them to earn what little food they can spare?” Commander Tempest was practically shouting as he finished his retort.

The unicorn king was clearly taken off guard by the reproach and responded to the only part of it he had a ready reflexive answer for. “Fight? Good heavens no. We unicorns are civilized creatures, we’d never stoop to such things as barbaric as that.”

Commander Tempest smiled as he replied, “And that is why the earth ponies will never value you unicorns as much as they do us pegasi. All you do for them is something you benefit from as well. While we pegasi go out of our way to earn what we ask of them. If you stop maintaining day and night you will suffer the same as they would. But we pegasi manage the sky for them, with no benefit to ourselves. After all, what do we care if it rains or snows below the clouds when we live on top of them? We pegasi only manage the weather because it helps the earth ponies. Even now these pegasi behind me are willing to risk their lives fighting for them, bleed for them and maybe even die for them. And yet in all my years I’ve never seen a drop of unicorn blood spilled for the sake of the earth ponies.”

The unicorn king was stunned by the response, although he masked his shock well. Seeing the king had no response Commander Tempest continued, “Moon Fall, Starswirl, Sun Dancer, Morning Light, do these names mean anything to you?”

The look on the king’s face said ‘no’ but, despite clearly guessing, the unicorn responded with certainty in his voice anyway, “Those are the names of unicorns.”

“Yes. But more importantly those are the names of the four unicorn adventurers my scouts have seen actually going out into the world and doing things. Usually alone and despite only pursuing their own pointless curiosities, I’ve seen those four do more good for the ponies beyond your precious castle walls then the rest of the unicorn tribe put together. If you want to earn the respect of the earth ponies then you might want to take some lessons from those four.”

Once more the unicorn king had no answer. He knew the pegasus was right. The unicorns hadn’t offered anything more in services to compete with the pegasi and if the earth ponies needed warriors over scholars then the pegasi were the better source of aid. The unicorn king knew that, logically, he was on the losing end of this argument and all he could so was growl in annoyance under his breath.

Commander Tempest saw a hint of anger in the unicorn king’s eyes and suddenly worried that maybe he’d showed the king why the truth hurts too much. Looking for something to change subjects to he spotted something curious that would do. “What’s with the filly hiding behind you?” he asked the unicorn.

The distraction worked. The unicorn king’s expression softened as he nudged the foal forward so she could be seen and the king said, “This is my daughter, Princess Platinum. By the divine right of kings she will, in time, rule the unicorn tribe in my stead. I brought her out here so she could learn about diplomacy. And… Commander, why are you rolling your eyes?”

Tempest wasn’t sure what to say. The foal in question had seen one, maybe two winters tops, so the pegasus commander couldn’t even conceive that the filly would understand enough of what was going on to get any meaning out of listening in on this argument between leaders. Finally the commander decided to play like it wasn’t a total waste for the foal to be here. He leaned down to the filly and said, “The lesson you should take away from this is: if you want something from somepony else you should bring something worth trading for it.”

Turning his focus back to the king, Tempest added, “Now that you’ve solved the mystery of your less then stellar reputation with the earth ponies I trust there’s no reason for me to linger any longer.” Commander Tempest started to leave before pausing and adding one last thought. “Oh before I go. Do you know of any use for the bitter yellow flowers that grow in the mountains to the northwest?”

“King’s blood? It’s used…” the unicorn king started to say before catching himself. With a smirk he finished, “If the knowledge of the unicorns is valuable to you. Surely you’d be willing to trade for it. Say a cart of food perhaps?”

Commander Tempest chuckled with his response, “Heh. There’s another difference between you and me. I’d never part with practical supplies just to satisfy my personal curiosity.”

With no reason to delay the volunteers to the earth ponies any longer Tempest took off and motioned for the other pegasi to follow

“Your loss, commander.” The unicorn king said, as the pegasus flew away.

* * * * * * *

Commander Tempest landed by the earth pony town hall. He then motioned for Lieutenant Dewdrop to come to his side. The commander then whispered to her, “Have you ever led a patrol before?”

“No sir, my captain has always been around when we’ve flown patrol so I’ve never had to lead one.” The lieutenant responded.

“Well congratulations, you’re the highest ranking officer here, so I’m going to leave you in charge of managing the morning volunteers.” Seeing the apprehension in the lieutenant’s eyes Commander Tempest added, “Don’t worry. I’ll get the ball rolling for you. Just try to group the most capable pegasi with the ones you think will need the most help. And whatever you do don’t let the earth ponies thin us out to less then two pegasi per team, I don’t want anypony flying patrol or standing guard without a wingpony.”

Calmed a little by the advice, Dewdrop gave a salute to her commander as she hesitantly accepted the assignment. Commander Tempest turned to address the rest of the volunteers.

“Okay, listen up, everypony! I know I said it yesterday when I was asking for volunteers, but the earth pony’s leader can only encourage, not order, the ponies you help today to give you something for your efforts. So be on your best behavior here and maybe you’ll get something. And remember, we’re here to help free up some ponypower so the earth ponies can grow more food. So even if you don’t get anything here and now. Do your best and you’ll be able to hold your head high come next harvest, knowing that you helped being an end the rationing and your friends and families won’t be going hungry because of what you did over the coming weeks.”

“Also seeing as anything aggressive that flies usually bothers us pegasi first, I’m betting that whatever is bothering the earth ponies is ground-bound. So whatever has these earth ponies in a fuss probably can’t chase you into the air and that also means they will probably be vulnerable to attack from above. And if it all else fails remember we’re pegasi, and there’s nothing in the world more dangerous then a pegasus with a cloud and the knowledge of how to kick lightning from it. So if you come across something dangerous just bring some lightning down on its head. Just for the love of the Celestial Pegasus don’t start any fires in the earth pony’s fields, we’re here to help them increase the food production.”

The commander was just about finished with his speech when he noticed the secretary to the earth pony chancellor had come out of the town hall and was now sitting patiently, listening. So the pegasus commander continued the speech, as much for earth pony behind him, as the pegasi before Commander Tempest. “Lieutenant Dewdrop here will be in charge. So the earth ponies will be working with you through her. So if you have any complaints with whatever you are assigned to do take it to her. She will then promptly tell you to grow up and act like a real pegasus, and then she will bring any complaints she deems of actual merit to me.”

Turning to the earth pony and lowering his voice Tempest added, “I trust that arrangement is acceptable. Now if you’ll excuse me there are other matters I wish to deal with.”

“It is. Thank you Commander Tempest. Now Dewdrop was it? Come inside and let’s sort out…” The earth pony secretary continued to speak with the pegasus lieutenant, but Tempest had already flown too far away to hear the rest of the conversation.

* * * * * * *

By early afternoon Commander Tempest was sitting in his office, and much to his dismay he had been stuck there most of the day listening to soldiers give their reports. At the moment the recently returned Lieutenant Dewdrop was talking his ear off reporting every seemingly pointless detail about how the morning guard duty in the earth pony tribe’s territory had gone.

Though trying to actually hear the mare’s repots, the commander was giving his primary attention to updating the marker stones on the war map to match the reports other soldiers had given him that morning. His ears perked up as they took notice of silence, apparently the Dewdrop had finished her reports.

Lieutenant Dewdrop saw concern on the commander’s face has he looked up from the war map. Fearing that she had bored him with things that didn’t merit his attention, she couldn’t help but ask, “Is something wrong?”

“When I took this job I quickly learned that there’s always something wrong somewhere. It took a little longer for me to learn that ninety percent of the problems brought to the commander will solve themselves if you just ignore them. Much like the way it sounds like you managed the morning volunteers just fine on your own. It’s that remaining percent that I actually have to do something about the worries me. Like this.” The commander answered gesturing down to the war map.

The lieutenant looked down at the war map but, knowing she wasn’t much of a war planer, she didn’t know what to infer from the stones marking the map, so she could only raise an eyebrow in confusion. Commander Tempest sighed at the mare’s reaction and continued, “These movement patterns suggest that the harpies are preparing to launch an attack in the next day or two. On top of that I still haven’t had time to investigate their sudden interest in useless flowers and…” the commander was cut off by a growl from his stomach, “…And apparently I’m starving.” He finished, blushing slightly at the thought that somepony had to see that their hero commander was in fact as mortal as any other pegasus.

“Sorry sir, I’ll just, get out of your mane then.” Dewdrop said, as her eyes shifted focus to stare through the floor and into space.

“Don’t take your poor timing the wrong way, lieutenant. You did a fine job this morning.” Tempest said, trying to cheer up Dewdrop and avoid tainting the mare’s memories of her first time in real command.

“Thank you sir.” She replied, as she left the room.

Commander Tempest studied the war map a little while longer. Until he noticed that nopony came in to take Dewdrop’s place reporting something. With the backlog of reports taken care of, the commander felt free to move ahead with his own matters. Another growl from his belly insisted as to what those matters were.

* * * * * * *

The pegasus tribe may have been under the impression that their commander was receiving two meals a day, but with the extra ration he was slipping to Prism he was only getting one. To make up for it he had put together a foraging team to go search for wild fruits or other eatable plants. With the current rationing it hadn’t been that hard to find a decent team of civilian pegasi to come, especially considering that they’d have the commander as their escort.

With two pegasi hovering over head serving as lookouts, the commander and the rest of the team were free to focus on picking apples from the grove of wild trees they had found. While the wild apples tasted sour compared to the sweet, juicy ones provided by the earth ponies, they were filling all the same. Tempest had even taken the time to give some apples to the two lookouts. No since having any member of the foraging team go home hungry, far better that all the apples in their saddlebags be for the pegasi back home.

As Commander Tempest placed another acceptably clean wild apple in his saddlebag he heard a warning cry. “Harpies!”

The commander bolted up above the foliage and headed for the pegasus who had called out. When he pulled up next to the mare all he asked was, “Where?”

“Over there, sir.” She replied, pointing above and to the southwest.

A moment of scanning the horizon latter and Tempest spotted two figures heading their way. He frowned, noticing their distance, and asked the lookout, “Were they headed this way when you first saw them?”

“No sir, they… oh they are coming this way.”

“Yeah, next time don’t shout so loud. I could’ve surprised them.” Tempest lamented. Taking his saddlebags full of apples and presenting them to the mare he added, “Here. Take these and hide in the grove.”

The lookout did as requested and with a nod from the commander the second lookout also dove for cover. Commander Tempest thrust his front right hoof into a sheath, strapped to his armor’s belt, until he felt it hit metal. He then pressed on a crud lever, causing the simple mechanism to squeeze his hoof until it firmly clipped on. Pulling his hoof free of the sheath the commander revealed the bronze sky sword now attached to his hoof. Finally he took the cloth bands attached to the base of the blade and tied them around his leg, ensuring nothing could knock the sword free of his hoof.

The blade was called a sky sword for good reason, as only pegasi preferred to use such weapons. Attaching a weapon to the end of one’s leg like that tended to encumber movement on the ground. But seeing as pegasi were winged creatures of the sky, their legs were always free to use weapons. Not to mention, with the lack of any enchantment on the blade, it could be pressed into a floor made of clouds without any trouble. Unlike on the ground were such a weapon would force the user to move about tripod style.

With his weapon ready, Commander Tempest looked up to the harpies advancing on his position. The harpies were close enough that he could finally tell what he was dealing with. Harpies were some sort of half-monkey half-bird creatures. One was readying a bow and arrow, the favored weapon of the harpies. The other had a dagger grasped in its talons, probably stolen from the earth pony or unicorn tribe given that the harpies weren’t known for making anything other then wooden bows and arrows.

Tempest had been ascending the whole time he was getting his weapon ready and yet the harpies had also flown higher, refusing to surrender their altitude advantage. With no choice but to fight from the disadvantage the pegasus commander surged forward.

The dagger-wielding harpy broke into a dive at the lone pegasus, while the harpy archer lined up behind its ally ready to fire its bow.

“Rookies, like I’ve never seen that before,” Tempest whispered to the winds, as he surged forward with a counter plan already in mind.

The harpy with the dagger surged at pegasus commander and swung the dagger wide as it veered to avoid crashing at the last second. Tempest did the one thing the harpy wasn’t expecting. He dodged back into the harpy’s path and swung his sword high.

With a last second attempt to react, the harpy’s dagger skimmed harmlessly along the side of Commander Tempest’s armor. The harpy’s body slammed into the commander’s chest, knocking the wind from his lungs and momentarily halting his skyward charge. However, the harpy’s head continued past Tempest, falling freely on its way to the ground.

Despite being showered in blood from the now headless harpy, Tempest felt something else strike his chest as if he’d just been punched or kicked. Pushing the corpse of a harpy away, he spotted a splintered wooden arrow tip protruding from the dead harpy’s chest. The harpy archer had tried to shoot him through its fallen ally, not surprisingly, the arrow had lost too much force punching through the harpy, so it had no chance to punch through the commander’s studded cloth armor. Although Tempest could feel that one of the metal plates in his armor had acquired a new dent.

The harpy archer knew that, with nothing left to distract him, there was no real chance of hitting the pegasus warrior at range anymore. And given the pegasus’ efficiency in close combat the harpy archer knew it was outclassed by the veteran pegasus, so the harpy fled.

Commander Tempest pumped his wings and chased after his foe. The harpy began firing arrows haphazardly trying to slow him, but to no avail. Dodging another arrow, Tempest surged forward and swung his sword twice. The first swing cut the string of the harpy’s bow, the second he brought down on its back, striking the base of one wing in the process.

With a wing crippled, the harpy had no chance of escape, so Commander Tempest backed off just enough to stay out of range of the razor sharp claws on harpy’s talons. The pegasus commander took the opportunity to shout a demand, “Tell me what you harpies want with those useless mountain flowers and maybe I’ll let you live.”

“Stupid pegasus. You think us featherbrains. But you know nothing. You will know nothing. Until too late.” The harpy squawked back at him, sneering as much as a beaked creature could.

“Suit yourself.” Tempest snarled. Then he dove and thrust his sky sword forward, running the harpy through.

The life faded from the harpy’s eyes and Commander Tempest broke into a hover, letting the weight of dead harpy pull the corpse free from his sword. For a moment he watched the corpse fall and the trail of blood behind it being torn into a fine red mist by the dead harpy’s wake.

Now that he was hovering the sent of the blood staining his coat, blade and armor was able to enter his nose. Tempest shook his head. “I hate the smell of blood,” he whispered to the wind, as he looked about. Spotting a cloud he flew over to it and gave it a whack to force it to start raining. The commander then hovered under the cloud allowing the rain to rinse the blood off.

But not before he was forced to remember why he hated the sent of blood. So many memories played in his mind. At the end of battle the smell of blood was always in the air, and at the end of so many battle he heard the names of those he’d called friend listed among those who’d paid the price of war.

As the crimson stains started bleeding out of his cyan coat, and off his blade and armor, the commander couldn’t help but wonder why it was that so many things in the world seemed hell-bent on forcing the pegasi to fight just for the right to exist. The pegasi had stopped expanding their borders toward the harpies once they first ran into them, and any pegasus in their right mind avoided dragons whenever possible. And yet both creatures seemed to attack the pegasi on sight.

“Commander! Are you alright?” the lookout called out, with a worried look in her eyes, as she approached her tribe’s leader.

“Relax. The blood’s not mine. If being spotted by a couple of harpy scouts who’d never fought a day in their life is the worst thing to happen to me today, then this will have been a rather calm day.” He responded.