I send the sword

Commander Hurricane. He was Commander Hurricane.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I feel like I could have done better with the colors and light balance. Oh well. Really like how Hurricane came out thought.

Headcanons? Headcanons. *nod*

Commander Hurricane is best founder.



You want my headcanon? Here's my headcanon. 

Commander Hurricane was born in Cynisca (the original cloud city of the old land) under the original name, Fire Rainbow. He was the younger of two sons, though his mother was unfortunately murdered during a trade gone wrong with the Earth ponies shortly after his birth. His father and brother always held a grudge over this, though because Fire Rainbow was too young to remember, was largely ambivalent toward the incident. His father never remarried, and thus he spent the majority of his early childhood without a familiar female figure. At the age of 7 he was entered into the agoge and lived a relatively uneventful adolescence in military training until the age of 19, when everything took an unexpected turn.

During this era, the pegasus tribe were consistently plagued by a race of monsters called the ghoulings; carnivorous, house-sized beasts covered entirely in long, wiry black hair that smells of corpses, with long, humanoid arms and legs, blade-like claws, and buzzing, bug-like wings. Sometimes they were an issue, other times attacks were at a maintainable level, and during Fire Rainbow's time, the latter was true. However the Commander at the time, Commander Cyclone, was given information by a scouting party that they had discovered the largest nesting area of ghoulings ever known, a large mating and living area deep within the mountains the original cloud city hovered above. The area it was located was known to be unstable, and were it to be disturbed, it was conceivable that the resulting avalanche would kill off enough of the ghouling population that the species would become extinct within a mere few generations. Excited by this prospect, Commander Cyclone ignored the advise of Lieutenant advisers and launched the most ambitious ever seen in pegasus history to overpower the nest, trigger the avalanche, and destroy the ghoulings. He even employed the help of their allies/rivals the Griffons of Griffonstone in their endeavor, with the full support of the griffon king at the time, King Gideon.

Fire Rainbow was just one among countless soldiers brought along on the campaign, assigned to a party lead by a female pegasus soldier named Posey and included a griffon named Gregor. In the short time before the attack Fire Rainbow bonded greatly with those two. Posey told him stories of her adorable young daughter back home, and related to him the great legends of the heroes portrayed in the constellations. Gregor was secretive about his home life, but got along well enough with the two pegasi.

Soon though, everything went downhill. As predicted, the griffons and pegasi were horribly outnumbered and outmatched by the ghoulings, resulting in a bloodbath. Fire Rainbow had never been exposed to anything like this before, and although he desperately tried to protect the lives of his new friends, he could not. He tried to drag Gregor out of a dangerous situation he'd charged into, but lost him in the chaos and presumed him dead. He found Posey with one of her legs cut off and tried to carry her to a medical unit, but got lost and instead had to comfort her as she died. During so, he was stumbled upon by Commander Cyclone himself by some miraculous chance, who helped the young stallion and the body of his friends get to the safety of a base, where Fire Rainbow mercifully blacked out until the campaign was over. When he awoke, he found he was back in Cynisca, and had been left a small gift of an hourglass that flipped water and clouds instead of sand. He soon learned what had happened: Realizing the campaign was a failure, the pegasi and griffons all retreated, and massive blows were dealt. Many important leaders among both species had been killed, including Commander Cyclone and King Gideon, and the relationship between the griffons and the pegasi was destroyed. All that was left was the need to rebuild.

Soon though, Fire Rainbow found himself being forcibly dragged off from the hospital into the night by a group of young mares, who brought him back to the home of one of the top politicians in Cynisca, Lieutenant Star Catcher. She examined him, asked his name, and asked to see the hourglass gift he'd been given, before hesitantly informing him that Cyclone, on his deathbed, had chosen Fire Rainbow to be the new Commander (the hourglass an old possession of Cyclone's he'd passed on to the young stallion to confirm it).

There were quite a few problems with this, the main one being that Fire Rainbow was only 19 years old; de facto Cyniscan tradition stated that the Commander heir should be around 30, and have earned a sufficient amount of merit which, while Fire Rainbow was a good soldier, he had little of due again to his age. Sentiments were also very low and hostile toward the memory of Cyclone, and it wasn't likely that they were going to treat his chosen successor with much kindness, especially such a radical choice.

From there began a political game for survival. Star Catcher and her fellow surviving Lieutenants did everything in their power to protect, guide, and campaign on behalf of Fire Rainbow so that he could take up the position of Commander. They let him know that his situation was an unfair one, but that only meant he would have to work harder and be more dedicated than any other leader before. Times were rough. The pegasi were heartbroken and rebellious over the failed crusade, and many wanted to exact retroactive vengeance on Cyclone by taking it out on Fire Rainbow, and quite a few attempts were made to do just that. Eventually though, sentiment cooled down enough for Fire Rainbow to return to the public and take on the ceremony for his new armor and name: Commander Hurricane.

At first, Hurricane's plans were innocent and optimistic: He wanted to show everypony that he cared about them by helping rebuild the city's broken spirit. Things however were not entirely settled. Hurricane was able to rise to his position, but he still had enemies everywhere. Many ponies he'd taken on to help fill his advisers circle kept him in the dark about important issues, ignored his orders and ideas, made decisions without his consent, and even openly mocked him behind his back. Money he'd saved up to go to orphans and widows got spent on parties (which he wasn't invited to, though that was the least of the concerns), and abuse of power was on the rise. Feeling helpless, Hurricane turned again to Star Catcher and the other Lieutenants, who encouraged him to use his absolute power to strike down hard against those who crossed or betrayed him, and to not be afraid to be a tyrant to those who deserved it.

And so he did. Once a pleasant and adorkable youth, Commander Hurricane had to grow up quick and leave "Fire Rainbow" behind so that he could be the leader his ponies needed. Punishing ruthlessly, staying paranoid, making himself fearsome, but keeping the ponies' best interest at heart, Commander Hurricane sacrificed his former identity and peace of mind to transcend the stained reputation of Cyclone and become the Commander still remembered today in Equestrian history. Although his began to ease after the founding of Equestria, he largely remained an isolated pony with only a few close companions, living a very humble lifestyle and essentially remaining a functioning celibate till the day he died (despite pressure in his thirties to marry somepony, anypony). He abdicated later in life and passed on his title to a female pony named Fairflight, who crowned herself Commander Thundersnow.

Additional notes:
1) Gregor survived the campaign. Secretly the son of King Gideon, he's snuck in among the ranks to prove he was not as worthless a son as his father made him out to be. When Fire Rainbow saved his life, he interpreted it as the pegasus ruining his chance to prove himself before his father was killed by ghoulings, and held a grudge against him in his heart. It became easier to exact this grudge when Gregor, then king, learned that by some twist of fate, Fire Rainbow himself had become "king" of the pegasi (though Hurricane detested being referred to as such, as it was inaccurate). Gregor, as shown in the book, "The Journal of the Two Sisters," became a constant thorn in Hurricane's side until two certain alicorn princesses settled the issue once and for all...

2) Posey's daughter was Pansy, who was later raised by her aunt, Petunia, after her mother died - coincidentally, Petunia was one of the mares Fire Rainbow befriended while staying with Star Catcher. He's basically bound to the whole family by fate.


Pillars credit, Evilbob0.  Two cloud vectors from GuruGrendo.

Hurricane alone vector (made by me)