Commander Tempest had awoken earlier then he would have liked this morning. Not that he would ever admit not really being a morning person to his tribe. But despite the previous day’s foraging run, his prolonged time on rationing wasn’t helping his stamina and sleep alone was a poor substitute for proper nourishment. Knowing that he had slipped one of his rations to Prism again, leaving himself with only one meal for the day, made him wish he could have slept a little longer anyway.

But the commander’s mind was too anxious over the impending signs of a big battle in the war with the harpies. And though the scout he’d run into yesterday hadn’t said what they thought they were good for, the harpy’s response had made it clear that the harpies thought the mountain flowers were good for something. Whether they were right or not was anypony’s guess. And that’s what kept Tempest’s mind running at full speed, all he could do was guess if the harpies knew something about the flowers that he didn’t.

Commander Tempest was staring down at the war map in his office when a low rumble caught his ears. “Oh shut up you just ate your only meal of the day.” Tempest snarled back at his stomach. When he heard the noise a second time he realized it wasn’t coming from him but outside.

Stepping out into the entry room he asked the pegasus at the command building’s front desk, “Lieutenant, did you just hear something? Was that thunder?”

“Yes sir I did. I think so. And it sounded like it came from the west.” The Lieutenant answered, getting up from his spot and following the commander out the front door. “There it is again, sir.” He confirmed as the two stepped outside.

The rumble repeated itself. Commander Tempest thought aloud, “It’s getting closer.” He strained his eyes and was sure he saw a speck of orange color. The same color as the mane of the fastest pegasus stationed at the western outposts. Turning to the pony at his side, Tempest added, “Lieutenant, go wake the reserve soldiers. Tell them to get ready and meet here in front of the command building. I have a bad feeling about this.”

* * * * * * *

It had only taken five minutes before the speck of color was close enough to the home of the pegasus tribe to be identified as a pegasus mare with a deep blue coat and a bright orange mane. It was also easy to see that she was rushing right for the command building of the pegasus tribe.

Commander Tempest looked to the plaza in front of the command building, to the gathering ponies before him. Some of the reserve soldiers were still trickling in. Most were here, but even among them, many had simply rushed out to the plaza with gear in mouth and were still getting dressed.

The pegasus from the western front came in hard and fast, slamming into the clouds at a shallow angle and digging a trench in the clouds as she came skiing right at Commander Tempest. The two soldiers to either side of the commander ducked away as if to avoid being in the mare’s way. However, Tempest didn’t budge and the mare ran out of momentum right in front of him.

“Commander! Harpies! Too many to fight! West outposts abandon. Crews in fighting retreat…” She reported before taking a moment to catch her breath, but otherwise remaining well composed considering how quickly she’d just crossed the miles between said outposts and the pegasus tribe’s home.

“What’s you guess on how many?” Tempest asked, with an eyebrow raised.

“All of them.” She responded, a hint of fear in her purple eyes making it clear she wasn’t joking.

“All of them?” the commander couldn’t help but ask, as he flapped his wings to hover high enough above the clouds to get a decent look west. What Tempest saw to the west was two small gray clouds, from which lightning bolts were being fired into a large gray haze.

“All of the, I’ve never seen so many before. They must have brought their whole flock or something.” The mare responded unnecessarily, as the commander’s eyes had already gone wide at the realization that the haze chasing the two small storm clouds wasn’t a haze at all but a mass of harpies.

Tempest had been expecting a large attack, but nothing like this. In his mind he was rethinking his battle plan as he settled back down on the clouds. Turning to the deep blue mare he asked, “Think you can make that blitz two more times?”

With a bit of a grin she answered, “They call me Lightning Dash for a reason.” Then with a small sigh of concern she added, “I may be a bit too tired to fight well when I get back though.”

“Get back out there and tell your teams that I want the west outpost ponies in full retreat. We’ll have a proper battle line ready for you by the time you get back. You and the others from the outposts will be assigned to the third wave, that should buy you some time to rest before I call you into battle.” Commander Tempest ordered, and with a small nod added, “Better to have the ten of you fight where you have a chance then let the nine still out there get overrun.”

With a salute and a nod Lightning Dash disappeared in an instant, as a few feet of cloud exploded from the sheer force of her takeoff. She soared off back toward the west, fast enough that she left an orange streak in her wake.

Grabbing the first pegasus he could find in full combat gear Commander Tempest started barking orders, “You, sound the alarm! I need every able-bodied soldier I can get ready to fight in ten minutes!” To another pony with only light armor and no weapons he shouted, “Get the weather teams in gear! I need a cloud line west of town! And don’t forget the snipers’ clouds!” Finally turning to his assistant from the command building the commander added, “Lieutenant, I need two of our fastest scouts to head to the north and south outposts. Have them return home wide to the west, they should get here just in time to serve as flanking attacks on the harpy forces.”

The first two pegasi scattered to fulfill their orders, but the Lieutenant stayed and asked, “What of the morning volunteers to the earth ponies? Should we recall them too?”

Tempest shook his head as he answered, “It’s a forty five minute flight to the heart of earth pony territory. Not counting that the volunteers are going to be scattered about. The harpies will be here in fifteen minutes tops, so anypony down there will need to have already noticed the thunder and decided to return on their own if they are going to get here in time to matter.”

“Right.” the Lieutenant said, as he nodded, saluted and took off to fulfill his orders.

* * * * * * *

Ten minutes latter Commander Tempest was flying the newly formed line of clouds, on which now stood rows of pegasus warriors, and backed by many weather pegasi in lighter armor meant to not encumber their movement.

Surveying the soldiers one caught his eye as out of place. Landing in front of the tan-coated mare with the pink mane, the commander couldn’t help but notice the bandages through the gaps in the mare’s armor. With a sigh Tempest asked, “Lieutenant Cloudshy, what are you doing here?”

“When I heard the alarm being raised I looked outside to see what the fuss was. When I saw all the harpies on the horizon and heard you needed every able-bodied pegasus I answered the call to arms, sir.” She answered.

“Able-bodied being the key words, lieutenant. In your condition all you’ll do is get yourself killed without taken any harpies down with you.” Tempest explained, placing his hoof on his forehead and shaking his head slowly.

“You’re wrong sir. I won’t let them reach my precious Panzee.” She answered, with a sudden flare of determination in her eyes.

“Pansy?” was all the commander could ask.

“It’s a flower, and the name of my daughter.”

“Right… flower, not the first thing that comes to mind when I hear that word.” Commander Tempest said. Then rethinking his the words of the order he had in mind he added, “That’s good that you want to protect your kid, but I need you to do it in a way that will matter. I want you to head back into town and, if it become necessary, I want you to lead and execute operation broken sky.”

The commander’s words drew hushed whispers from everypony in earshot. It was Cloudshy that put the reaction to words, “Do you really think we’ll need to abandon our homes, sir?”

The commander’s answer came in a solemn tone, “The pegasus in me says I know my soldiers and that, even badly outnumbered, we will win the day. But the realist in me, that thought as much as fought his way through the commander’s challenge, tells me that being out numbered ten to one and the possibility of an unknown surprise in store for us means there’s also a change the harpies might win. If that happens, if the battle lines fall, and the town is compromised, there’s no reason for the civilians to die along with the rest of us. Somepony needs to lead the evacuation, to make sure the pegasus tribe isn’t whipped out. You may not be healthy enough to fight out there, but I know you can do that, you can protect your daughter that way. You can be your daughter’s last line of defense.”

Cloudshy took a moment to respond, a tear became visible in her eye when she answered, “Yes, sir. I’ll protect them, all of them, you have my word.” With that she turned and flew back toward the home of the pegasi.

Raising his voice to make sure that everypony that overheard that exchange of words heard him now Tempest added, “As for the rest of you! Let’s make sure that Cloudshy has a boring day!” Noticing the colorful blur of the pegasi from the western outposts zipping by overhead, and the mass of harpies only a few minutes out behind them, the commander shouted, “Get ready, It’s show time!”

* * * * * * *

The battle had been raging for over an hour, so far the battle lines had held. Not that the massive aerial dogfight could be called a line, but pegasus warriors had managed to keep the harpy warriors from overrunning the storm cloud lines. And the pegasi kicking lightning from the storm clouds had been able to keep the harpy archery groups from advancing any further.

Lightning flashed with the frequency of falling rain from the pegasus storm clouds, volleys of arrows soared from harpy archery groups, near the storm clouds weather pegasi did their best to shift the air currents to make the arrow volleys miss their intended targets. And in the sky between all of that the harpy and pegasus warriors dove at and dodged each other and the crossfire, trying to land that one critical blow to their opponent.

Most of the harpy warriors fought with only their talons, though some did have weapons like daggers or sharpened wooden sticks that could be call spears. The armaments of the pegasus warriors were more varied, many wielded spears with metal tips, some had earth pony swords that had handles and were held in the mouth. Only s few pegasi had proper pegasus sky swords like the commander’s. Not for the lack of talent though, as the pegasus tribe did have it’s own blacksmith and even a mountaintop forge. The problem was that pegasi were creatures of the sky, so finding ones that would tolerate the art of mining for the ore needed to make the bronze weapons was all but impossible. Hence why most pegasi only did so long enough to have a decent spear-tip made, or skipped mining all together and traded for an earth pony weapon.

The state of pegasus arms was far from Commander Tempest’s mind though, as lightning flashed nearby. Then a looming shadow of a volley of arrows heading his way and backed by a harpy warrior captured the commander’s eye. Tempest brought his wings together, forcing the air to compress until it exploded. The airburst knocked him back but it also knocked the volley aside and all around the pegasus commander.

The harpy had apparently been hoping to face an injured target as it was fully unprepared when Commander Tempest surged forward, dodged its talons and impaled it with his sky sword. The dying, impaled harpy did manage to writhe in such a way as to snap the commander’s sword in two and take most of the blade down with it.

With his favorite weapon destroyed, and having met more then his quota of enemy kills to make up for how badly outnumbered the pegasi were, Tempest took this as a good excuse to back off. He flew backwards to keep the battle in view as he retreated to friendly airspace, looking to see if he needed to shuffle any troops around.

Harpies only seemed to come in shades of gray or blue, but pegasi came in every color imaginable and that eased differentiating the mess of figures darting at each other in the sky a little. Commander Tempest spotted five badly wounded pegasi, falling to their deaths. But another sight made the commander snarl, “Dang rookies, look up.” The sight in question was three more pegasi diving after their falling friends, seeming oblivious to the harpies diving at them.

Too far away to do anything about it himself Tempest turned to face the storm cloud lines, inhaled as deeply as he could and released the breath in a loud whistle while thrusting his hoof downward, repeatedly.

Five bolts of lightning converged on diving harpies. Commander Tempest breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that some of the lightning snipers had figured out his message. Hopefully he’d just saved six ponies by bringing them to the attention of the lightning snipers.

However, it was too soon for the commander to relax his mind. He knew that something bigger was wrong with the battle before him. He knew his soldiers were better then this, even the rookies that made the mistake of turning their back to the enemy had managed to survive the battle this long. How in creation did five pegasi get brought down in rapid succession?

Scanning the battle for clues a shiver ran down Tempest’s spine as he noticed that every pegasus in the air was fighting for their lives, but there were still three groups of harpies hovering in the far back that had yet to engage in battle. And judging from the banners among them it was the harpy elite guard still being held in reserve. Granted the group with the harpy queen was unlikely to engage at all, but even if the other two groups joined the battle it would be bad news for the pegasi.

No, something more was wrong with the sight before him. The pegasus commander counted four unit flags among the harpies still held back but only three groups. One of the harpy elite guard units had engaged, but had left its flag-bearer behind. As nice as it was to realize that, by itself it still didn’t explain the sudden reversal of fortunes in the battle.

Commander Tempest finally reached the pegasus forward cloud line. Landing hard he called out to the first captain he laid eyes on, “Something’s wrong! Why are our ponies falling so frequently all of a sudden?”

“Not sure why sir, but I think it started when one of the harpy elite units filtered into their regular archery units.” The Captain responded.

Commander Tempest sighed, while nice to know where the harpy elite unit had gone he’d basically already guessed as much. His ears perked up when he heard another voice call to him, “Commander! Those creatures from the other day are back! What should we do?”

Tempest looked to the panicked pegasus, who motioned to the south end of the battle. A quick look was all it took for the commander to spot three figures of golden-brown and silver-gray, of a size too big to be pony or harpy. The griffins fought with a ruthless efficiency fitting a predator, ripping out throats and crippling wings with their talons and beaks, and claws shredding any foe foolish enough to approach their lion-like hind legs.

Two more observations of the griffins came to the commander’s mind. First, it only took a moment to notice that the griffins were only fighting the harpies. Second, somewhere in the back of Tempest’s mind he couldn’t help but ask himself. Weren’t there four of them before?

Commander Tempest shook his head as he replied, “They seem to be on our side. Ignore them. And tell the our melee warriors to leave them be as well, no since letting somepony pick a fight with them out of panic.”

Tempest turned his attention back to the fight, trying to find the source of the pegasus tribe’s troubles. He spotted two more pegasi falling, long red trails being torn apart into a red mist making it plain that the ponies had already received fatal wounds. But one detail caught the commander’s eye. Both had only a single arrow protruding from them, in places that should be nothing more then nuisance injuries.

The sudden lessening of the sound of thunder to the commander’s right made him glance down the forward lightning kicker’s battle line. Tempest saw a mare fighting to stand, as if on the edge of fatigue, yet only a single enemy arrow had made it through the shifting wall of wind to strike her on the flank.

At first she seemed to be equally confused as her sudden weariness. Then her eyes went wide with fear and revelation as she shouted, “Poison! The arrows are poisoned!”

Tempest’s eyes also went wide at the thought. As far as he knew only unicorns used poison, and even then only every few generations to kill each other to settle arguments over their throne. When the heck did harpies learn to make poison? Distressing thoughts aside there was something wrong with the mare’s report, so Commander Tempest looked back to the battle to confirm his gut feeling.

As he suspected there were several pegasus warriors fighting vigorously despite having several arrows that found their marks in them. Not all of the arrows were poisoned. Tempest’s eyes searched the harpy archery groups until he found what he was looking for. In an instant he took off like a rocket, heading for the back line of storm clouds.

As soon as he was in earshot the commander began shouting new orders to the lightning snipers, “Each archery group has a few harpy snipers! Target the ones dipping their arrows before firing! They’re the ones using poison!”

As Tempest circled back toward the frontline he could see that the precision lightning strikes had moved from supporting the pegasi in the aerial dogfight to picking out targets from the harpy archery groups. He also passed several injured pegasi being ferried back toward town. Reexamining the battle he shook his head. Even with the harpy secret weapon revealed and the unexpected aid of the griffins the pegasus tribe had taken too many losses already. If the harpies fully committed the rest of their forces it would be all over.

In his mind Commander Tempest saw only one solution, so he put the plan in motion. Turning to his own flag bearer (A colt barely old enough to be called a stallion, who’s sole job was to try to stay near the commander with the commander’s flag.) Tempest commanded, “Get into the fray and warn our soldiers of the poison and to prioritize dodging the arrows!”

The young pegasus cringed at the order but after shaking off the shock of having new orders for the first time in his life the flag bearer he pulled up and away, heading for the massive dogfight between the two battle lines.

Commander Tempest came in low and fast over the pegasus front lines, merely shouting, “Borrowing!” as he ripped a regular pegasus tribe flag from the harness of a storm line unit’s flag-bearer.

Of course the pegasus tribe didn’t make useless things, so their idea of a flag was a spear with the flag tied on just below the spearhead. With the flag wrapped in his front leg Tempest pulled up and powered his wings trying to get above the bulk of the fighting as he headed toward the enemy lines.

Once he’d reached an acceptable altitude the commander did a barrel roll then thrust the flag forward. He repeated the maneuver a few more times before three pegasi came up to join him, falling into formation behind him.

“I’m glad it was you Captain Storm Walker! You’re team is just what I need!” Tempest greeted them.

“I figured it was you when I saw your flag bearer flying alone! What’s the plan?” the captain responded, with a smile.

“We have to end this, now! We’re have to take down the harpy queen!” Commander Tempest yelled over the rushing winds, as he sped up.

The three pegasi behind the commander traded grim glances and nods as they reformed into a line behind the commander. They knew those orders sounded like a suicide mission. And yet they also knew why the commander had hoped they had been the ones to join him on it, they had the best chance of pulling it off, and if they were lucky they might even live to tell the tale afterwards.

“Show time.” Commander Tempest said, just loud enough to be heard above the wind in their ears.

A few scattered arrows managed to make it to their altitude as the pegasi soared above the harpy front lines. Said front lines were far too low to hope to stop the four pegasi intruding on their airspace. However, the three groups further back now saw the intruders and two of the groups began ascending. The two harpy archery groups had started too low to be able to intercept the pegasi outright, but they would certainly have a much closer shot with their bows.

Tempest couldn’t help but frown as he saw every single harpy in the two elite guard groups dip their arrows in something before loading them in their bows. The impending volley wouldn’t just have a few poison arrows, like the ones from the front lines, all of these arrows would have poison on their tips.

The first volley was fired. Commander Tempest brought his wings together, performing his airburst move to scatter the incoming arrows. The backlash from his airburst knocked him upwards and slowed him, forcing him to fall back in formation at the back of the line.

Another volley was fired at the pegasi. Now at the front of the group, Captain Storm Walker rolled forward and brought her wings down in a mighty sweep. An unseen, vertical blade of air came off of the captain’s wings, cutting the volley in half, causing the arrows to pass to the left or right of the pegasi. Not a single arrow even came close to the winged ponies. However, like the commander, the captain’s trick had cost her speed and forced her to slip back in line behind the pegasus commander.

Yet another volley came. Now it was Private Tailwind at the front of the line and she rolled upward, flicking her tail forward. A lance of air punched a hole in the incoming volley, scattering arrows all around the pegasi, much like the way the commander’s airburst had. Like those before her, the private slipped back into formation at the back of the line.

By now the four-pony strike team had passed the two groups attempting to shoot them down and Commander Tempest yelled, “Now!” At that the pegasi dove, aimed at the final group of harpies.

The harpies didn’t flinch. Why would they? The pegasi had one archery group below them and were now diving to put two more groups beside them. They were diving into a perfect crossfire position, how could they hope to deflect that many arrows from two completely different directions, at such short range? The harpy queen screeched and all at once all three groups fired.

Lieutenant Wind Wall put herself into both a spin and a roll. As she did, Private Tailwind performed her air lance technique again, firing it through her superior officers. Lieutenant Wind Wall finished her move by bringing her wings together and the resulting airburst put the commander’s version to shame. In addition to the massive blast of air Wind Wall’s technique also produced two shockwaves of air pressure that shot out from the center of the airburst. The result scattered arrows in every direction except the ones they had been aimed in and also sent Wind Wall spiraling outward from the center of her blast-wave.

With Tailwind’s air lance thrusting him forward and punching a hole in Wind Wall’s airburst, Commander Tempest fought through the turbulence of their own creation, lowing the flag-spear and pumping his wings to surge forward at the suddenly surprised harpies below. Three pegasi shot through the harpy group, three harpies vanished, among them the queen.

Commander Tempest had impaled the harpy queen, although he felt a sharp pain in his gut from the dying harpy leader’s counter attack. Tempest saw the life fading from the harpy queen’s eyes, so he pushed her away, leaving her run through with the now bloody pegasus the flag. The pegasus commander looked to his back end to see a dagger protruding from his gut, just below were his armor ended. Yanking it free with his mouth he spat it back at the falling harpy and snarled, “You dropped this.”

Tempest finally opened his wings to pull out of the dive, pressing a hoof down on his wound to slow the bleeding. Turning his attention upward he prepared to dodge the inevitable counter attack by the multitude of enemy archers now above him. A volley of arrows rained down on him like a sudden downpour. Commander Tempest preformed another air burst. It stopped any direct hits but at this range it didn’t deflect the arrows enough and several grazed his armor as they sailed past.

Pushing his wings as hard as he could, Tempest resumed his mad dash for friendly airspace. The absence of a second volley gave the commander a moment’s respite as he saw that the harpy elite guard seemed to figure out that their queen was now dead.

The respite didn’t last as Commander Tempest finally had the time to notice the burning sensation coming from inside him and centered at his gut. “Dang, should’ve guessed the queen’s dagger would be poisoned too.” He whispered to the wind.

A friendly voice called out, “Commander!” Looking to see, Tempest saw the speaker was Lieutenant Wind Wall.

“Lieutenant! Where’re the others?” the commander asked.

“Private took a bad hit diving through the enemy formation. Captain’s helping her stay airborne. You don’t look so good yourself sir, need a hoof?” Wind Wall asked in return.

“Yes please, help me get back to our lines.” Tempest answered, feeling the poison spreading through his system and fearing he wouldn’t be able to make it back on his own. Tempest knew he was a dead pony flying, but he also knew it would be better for the pegasus tribe to see their commander limp back then to see him fall to his doom.

With the lieutenant’s help Commander Tempest made it back to the front line of storm clouds, where he collapsed the moment his hooves hit cloud. He could hear the lieutenant calling for a medic but Tempest didn’t care. It was over. The pressures of being the commander of the pegasus tribe would soon be over. The strike had worked and soon the battle would be over. Tempest had nothing left to worry about, everything was over, and it made him breathe a shallow sigh of relief.

The lead medic of the pegasus tribe came to the commander’s side, she was a mare with a bright yellow coat and silver mane. First she was asking questions, then she was ordering the lieutenant back into the field to try to find the poisoned weapon in the hope of making a cure. Tempest didn’t mind, it was good to see somepony else barking orders for once. Although he wished the poison spreading through his body didn’t hurt so much.

As Commander Tempest lay on the clouds with the medic beside him, laying out her supplies to be ready for the return of the lieutenant, three large figures approached the commander. Sounding more feminine then the one he’d spoken to earlier one of them spoke, “Commander Tempest of the pegasus tribe I presume?”

“Griffin who’s name eludes me I presume? I see you’ve learned our language rather well.”

“Gildar,” she reintroduced herself. Then continuing, “We ran into a unicorn, nice guy, called himself Starswirl. He taught us your language. We saw you strike down the enemy leader. You are a brave warrior, we can respect that.”

“Weren’t there four of you before?” Tempest asked.

“Ah, Von Griff, he is… not the fighting type. He is a map maker, so he’s hiding somewhere, drawing I think.” By now the griffin seemed to notice the way the pegasus commander’s skin was changing color around his wound, so she inquired, “You look unwell. Is something wrong?”

Tempest laughed, of all the individuals he’d expected to waste their concern on him the griffins weren’t among them, when he responded he said, “The enemy leader’s weapon was poisoned.”

The griffins looked to each other, each shrugging in turn before Gildar responded, “Poison didn’t make it into the lessons. What’s poison?”

The commander chuckled again. He was burning up inside from poison and yet here he was spending his final moment giving a griffin language lessons. Fate just refused to let him rest didn’t it? “Hmm, if a normal snake bites you, you live. If a poison snake bites you, you die.” He answered.

“Toxin!” the griffin cheered at having translated the word. “Oh, toxin.” She added grimly, proving she’d translated it properly. Then she asked, “No antidote?”

“Working on a cure but I need a clean sample first.” The medic pegasus answered.

“What about unicorns? Their magic seemed to have many uses.” Gildar asked.

“They won’t help, the unicorns have every reason to hate me right now.” Commander Tempest said.

The griffin turned her head askew and said, “Trading a leader for a leader seems like an even trade to me. No side makes it out better like that.”

Tempest smiled as he answered, “That’s were you’re wrong. Harpies are too much of a flock. But the pegasi are more then just a tribe. They are individuals. They don’t need anypony ordering them to protect everything they love. They will keep fighting to protect their homes, their families, and their friends without me. And tomorrow they will hold the commander’s challenge and choose a new commander. Having a leader is a convenience to them. But the harpies, everything is about the will of the queen to them. Without one the only thing that matters is getting a new one. See? Even now they are already fighting among themselves to determine who the next queen will be.”

The griffins joined Tempest in looking back out into the battlefield. The harpy elite guard was in full retreat and even so they were attacking each other in their traditional ways of fighting to prove whom the strangest and most vicious of them was. Most of the harpy front lines seemed to have noticed the absence and were also braking into retreat, many of them being slain by their faster, more agile pegasus opponents.

Tempest breathed a weak laugh as he noticed something different from all infighting he’d seen from the harpies in the past. The harpy elite guard was dropping like flies. Commander Tempest realized that the harpies may have been fighting each other the same way as they always had, but this time they were armed with poisoned weapons, and all of their best warriors were whipping themselves out. The harpies would never be a threat to the pegasus tribe again.

Gildar nodded her head in agreement as she observed the same. “You were truly a wise, brave and noble warrior, it has been an honor fighting beside you.” Bowing her head the griffin added, “I will see to it the stories we bring home will tell the tale of the great and noble warriors of the pegasus tribe.”

“A warrior can ask for no greater honor then that. Thank you.”

With that the griffins departed. A moment later Lieutenant Wind Wall returned, dropping a dagger on the mat the head medic had laid out for her other supplies. Between breaths Wind Wall gasped, “Couldn’t find one… use on the commander… Found queen… had extra… Will this do?”

The medic examined the dagger and noticing a button at the bottom of the handle took the dagger in her mouth, pointed the tip into a bowl and pressed the button with her tongue. A small amount of greenish-yellowish liquid poured out of a hole near the tip of the dagger’s blade. She frowned as she thought aloud, “I’d hoped there’s be more. But it will have to do.” The lead medic then separated the poison into several smaller bowls and started experimenting by adding various herbs to it.

Commander Tempest tried to sigh but it came out as a cough. Feeling his body going numb from the poison, he knew he had to forgive Wind Wall preemptively or she’d never forgive herself. Motioning for the lieutenant to come closer, he told her, “You were fast enough. Don’t blame yourself. Too much poison in my system… never had a chance.” Motioning to the other injured pegasi that had been brought to the medic Tempest added, “They have less poison… they’ll last… you’ll have saved them.”

“Don’t talk like that sir, you’ll live too.” Wind Wall responded, although the forced smile on her face showed she knew the commander’s words were true.

In his final moments Commander Tempest had defeated the harpy queen, saved the pegasus tribe, impressed griffin explorers, and saved one pony’s sprit from needless suffering. If that wasn’t going out in a blaze of glory Tempest didn’t know what was. And yet he had one more gift to give, not to the pegasus tribe, but to his own legacy.

Commander Tempest felt his heart stop, he motioned for Lieutenant Wind Wall to listen close and with his final breath he said, “Tell Prism, I always liked the name Hurricane.”

Author's Note

I meant to describe what the commander's challenge is in the story itself. But every time the topic came up it was between two characters that should already know full well what it was so it never felt right bringing it up.

Anyway if anyone wanted to know. In my mind the commander's challenge was a set of five sport style games. Two to test strength of body, two to test strength of mind and the fifth was a friendly duel, knock your opponent out of the playing field type match.