By writing these words, we hope that we can honor the spirit of our father, and remember him in the way that he truly was, not in the way that Celeste and Lūn wish to remember him. Long after we die and the world moves on, what really happened will have been forgotten to time, but as long as this last piece of evidence remains, the truth can still be separated from history’s ‘truth’.

May our father, Hurricane, the only Commander Maximus of Cirra, rest in peace, knowing that we remember him and, through us, others may as well.

Ante Legionem nihil erat, et nihil erit post Legionem.

Commander Typhoon and Commander Cyclone.

Twilight closed the ancient book as the train whistled on its approach to Canterlot. Looking out the window, she could already see the towering buildings of white and gold clinging onto the mountain in front of her. With a final check through her saddlebags, the unicorn moved to the aisle of the train car as it began to putter into the station.

The early March sunshine greeted her as she stepped off of the train and into Central Station. Taking a few steps away from the train, Twilight closed her eyes and stretched into the sun, letting the warm, golden rays wash over her coat. After the bone-chilling cold of Saraneighvo just over a month ago, the breezy, low-fifty degree weather felt like the peak of summer. Twilight vowed that she’d never go back to that frozen Domain for any reason whatsoever.

She didn’t even need to glance at her surroundings to gain her bearings, she’d made the trip to Canterlot so many times. In any case, it was hard to miss her destination: the Sisters’ royal palace, clinging onto the side of the Mountain of Dawn in all its elegance. Without thinking, Twilight let her hooves take her towards the stairway to uptown, and from there, to Celestia.

Her mind wandered back to the book in her saddlebag, and the two feathers tucked just inside the cover. She had studied the first page of that journal nearly every day since she managed to get back to Ponyville, but the preface that Commanders Typhoon and Cyclone left behind had stayed her horn from turning it. There was something more going on under the surface, and Hurricane’s children seemed to be blaming Princess Celestia and Princess Luna for it. Reading between the lines, it sounded like they had something against the Princesses. Did she really want to know what it was that Celestia, her infallible idol and mentor, had tried to cover up?

Twilight already knew the answer to her own question, but she hoped that Celestia could just tell her what to do so she wouldn’t have to worry about it. If there was anything that she absolutely feared, it was going behind her teacher’s back. But she’d made so much progress in her research on the mythic Commander Hurricane that the idea of giving up was appalling to her. Still, if the Sisters wanted this bit of Equestrian history covered up, who was she to interfere with it? She’d be perfectly fine knowing there were some things that she didn’t need to know.

Right?

"Urgh!" Twilight grunted, frustrated. "Come on, Twilight, why is it so hard to make up your mind?!"

"Uh… I just asked you a simple yes or no question."

Twilight blinked and took a step back. Standing right next to her was a unicorn clad in the golden armor of the Royal Guard, and right in front of her were the gates to the castle. Laughing nervously, Twilight put a hoof behind her head and ducked away. "Eheheh… uh, what was that again?"

The guard, to his credit, remained entirely unfazed. "I asked if you were here to see the Princess, Miss Sparkle. If you are, I’m more than ready to escort you to her."

"Uh, yeah. I was just, you know, lost in thought for a moment there," Twilight said. Clearing her throat, she stood up straighter and put on a friendly smile. "But yes, is Princess Celestia here? There’s something I need to talk to her about."

The guard nodded and collapsed his spear, a spring-loaded thing made of stratus skysteel, into a casing on the side of his armor with his Arcana. "Of course, Miss Sparkle. Come with me."

Allowing herself to lag a step behind the royal guard, Twilight felt the usual shivers as she entered the opulent and towering mouth of the castle gates. Despite how many times she had made the journey to the castle, those gates had never lost their meaning to her. After her brother’s wedding and the Changeling invasion, she knew what sorts of terrors those gates could keep out—and what sorts of terrors could befall Canterlot if they couldn’t.

Entering the castle proper, the soldier led Twilight up the staircase and to the left. They passed by a pair of guardsponies flanking a hallway filled with stained glass who didn’t so much as blink Twilight and her escort walked by. At the end of the hallway was a door, which the soldier stopped and knocked once upon before nodding to Twilight.

"The Princess is discussing business with the Commander—err, captain of the Honor Guard, but I’m sure she’ll understand if it’s you, Miss Sparkle." Saluting once, the guard turned away and began to walk back to his post.

"Thank you!" Twilight called after him. The stallion only flicked his ears in acknowledgement before disappearing down the staircase again. Taking a calming breath, Twilight placed a hoof on the large golden doors and opened them.

Inside was the wide and spacious throne room that Twilight and her friends had visited so many times in the past. Both sides of the hall were decorated with stained glass windows; several of them depicted the accomplishments of her friends and herself. Between columns of marble were the depictions of her friends’ victory over Nightmare Moon, the return of Discord to his stone prison, Shining Armor and Cadance’s defeat of Chrysalis and the Changelings, and, most recently, Spike’s capture of the Crystal Heart from King Sombra’s clutches.

By the throne itself stood two ponies, both familiar to Twilight. The most obvious one was the towering white alicorn herself, Princess Celestia, who seated was still taller than the other pony in front of her. That stallion was a blue-gray pegasus, his aged mane grayed and well-groomed, who was pacing back and forth in front of Celestia with a visible limp in his right rear leg. While Celestia wore her usual regalia, the pegasus wore the black armor of Commander Hurricane, which had been passed down through the captains of the Honor Guard ever since Hurricane himself wore it for the final time. As Twilight stepped closer, she could hear the stallion talking to Celestia in his usual deep, rugged voice.

"—saying that Comte Chevalier wasn’t the first, and won’t be the last. I’m warning you that this assassin, Masquerade, will be a bigger problem in the Domain before the end of the year if something isn’t done."

"I trust you will handle it as you always do," Celestia replied as calmly as ever. Her eyes travelled to the door as its massive hinges groaned and Twilight entered. Casting one quick glance towards the Honor Guard commander, she added, "We will discuss this later, if need be."

Twilight faltered as Celestia stood up and opened her wings. "Oh, I hope I’m not interrupting anything, Princess. If this isn’t the best time, I can always come back later."

Celestia smiled and walked down the steps towards her. "Twilight Sparkle, you know I can always make time for you. The Commander and I were just finishing up some business." At the mention of his ambiguous name/title, the aforementioned stallion cleared his throat and quickly settled his wings, meticulously pulling out a stray blue feather. He turned his eyes towards the Bearer of Magic and sat on his haunches, maintaining a respectful distance from teacher and pupil.

Relieved at Celestia’s assurance, Twilight stepped forward and hugged her mentor. "You have no idea how good it is to be back in Canterlot," the unicorn said after they separated.

"It is nice to see you again as well, Twilight," Celestia responded. "I’m sure my sister would like to see you while you’re here. If you will be staying for dinner, I’m sure I can wake her up early before she takes over for the night."

"I’m not sure how long I’ll be staying, honestly," Twilight said. "I just came to you with some questions about my research."

"Research?" The Commander asked from the back of the room. "What kind?"

Twilight turned towards the pegasus, who only watched her with a lazy expression that barely concealed his own interest. "Well, it’s a little project I’ve been working on about Commander Hurricane for the past four or five months. What I’ve learned is astounding!" Twilight realized she was springing on her hooves and managed to steady herself before it became full-fledged bouncing. "Did you know that Commander Hurricane was actually the emperor of a pegasus nation that existed across the ocean in modern-day Zebrica?"

"No, I did not," the Commander replied. With a grunt, he settled into a casual stance by the Princess. "What got you so interested in one of the most militant pegasi in recorded history?"

Twilight’s ear twitched with visible annoyance. "Perhaps the fact that he really wasn’t as radical or as racist as everypony else makes him out to be!" she protested. Levitating a weathered and worn book out of her saddlebag, she passed it over to the Commander. "This is what got me started on my research: Commander Hurricane’s original, unpublished journal. The pony who wrote this is such a different pony than the one in the pageant."

"Really?" the Commander asked, flipping through the ancient pages with a hoof as carefully as if it were his own diary.

"Well, for starters, he wasn’t some loudmouthed pegasus who saw the world as a chessboard to be dominated," Twilight said, leaning back on her right rear leg as she usually did when she gave lectures. "Though despite that, he still was by far the greatest military tactician of his time—perhaps of any time. He knew how to take things apart and how to proceed in the best interests of his ponies. He also knew what it was like to lose everything," Twilight added, her voice softening, "and it humbled him. He shouted only when he had to, and outside of that he deeply cared for his friends and family."

"I was unaware that Commander Hurricane left his journal with Equestria when he died," Celestia commented, glancing toward the guardspony. "His armor had a legacy of its own, but never as much depth as his written word. Tell me, Twilight, where did you find this?"

Twilight idly waved a hoof. "Believe it or not, one of the new librarians found it on one of the shelves when he was cleaning through the Canterlot Archives. Apparently, nopony had noticed it for eight thousand years, and pegasus documents weather exceptionally well. It was in near-mint condition when I pulled it off of the shelf."

The Commander nodded as he passed the journal back to Twilight. "I’m not surprised. I know a little bit about the ancient pegasi. Once they learned how to mix Empatha and rainwater together, they used it to preserve nearly everything, especially their documents."

The lavender unicorn smiled at the pegasus as she took the journal back. "I’m glad you still remember something from those history books you used to brush up on when I was a filly."

Celestia glanced towards her bodyguard. "Brush up on?"

The pegasus tilted his head in the rough equivalent of a shrug. "When Twilight was younger, she asked me where I got Commander Hurricane's armor. I told her I was Commander Hurricane, and asked her what she wanted for Hearth's Warming. I didn't know she'd take it so seriously or so far. I had to dig up some history books to brush up on my character." Chuckling, he gave Twilight an imperceptible smile. "It was funny enough; she’d believe anything you told her if you had something to stand as evidence." To emphasize his point, he tapped a hoof against the onyx armor of Commander Hurricane, letting it produce a dull ring throughout the throne room.

Twilight glanced away to hide her embarrassment. "I was used to getting all my information from books; I didn’t understand then that grown-ups lied to you when they felt like playing a trick on you."

Celestia chuckled, her laugh rolling off the tongue as smoothly as her flowing ethereal mane. "Believe it or not, I remember when I was young, too." Her eyes gained a wistful glint for a fraction of a second before it dissolved into her pink irises. "Please, Twilight, continue."

"Right," the unicorn said, accompanying the transition with a quick smile. "So I looked through that journal in a few days and learned all about the Cirran Empire during the time of Hurricane—how it rose, how it fell—when I noticed a small sketch in the corner of one of the last pages. It was a map, and it was placed right on top of the mountain range near Saraneighvo, in the Domain of Stalliongrad. Needless to say I… got a little curious."

"I don’t blame you," the Commander said from Celestia’s side. "So that’s where you went during the winter? You had the Royal Guard in a fit when you didn’t return on the train from Stalliongrad."

Twilight rubbed a hoof behind her neck. "Yeah… about that…"

Celestia turned her gentle gaze towards her student, yet she spoke to her bodyguard. "Twilight told me that there were some complications during her visit, although she never specified what they were. Would you care to elaborate, Twilight?"

Twilight sighed, knowing she’d have to go through the whole story sooner or later. "Well, after I found the map, I wrote a letter to you telling you all about it. Then I had Rainbow fly us to Baltimare so we could catch a train to Saraneighvo. When I told her we’d be doing some exploring, she must have thought we’d be like Daring Do or something, and insisted on coming along. It’s a good thing she did, too, because I needed her help later."

"The Empatha locks, if I’m not mistaken," Celestia prompted, deferring to Twilight for explanation.

Nodding, Twilight continued. "Right. It was an ancient Cirran archive built under the spot of Cloudsdale’s original home. Rainbow and I broke in and eventually came to a dead end, which only Rainbow could see as a door. I couldn’t see the door because I wasn’t a pegasus, but something in it allowed Rainbow to. I think the Empatha in her blood unlocked the ward for us so we could enter.

"So what did you find?" the Commander asked. "Another one of Hurricane’s journals?"

"It wasn’t so much Hurricane’s journal as a recollection of events which he and his daughter, Typhoon, wrote. It covered everything that the Hearth’s Warming pageant is about and so much more. The political complexities, the fall of Onyx Ridge, the siege of Cloudsdale—so many things that have simply been missing from our reenactment of events." Digging through her saddlebag, Twilight produced a withered charcoal sketch of a towering alicorn mare set against a mountainous backdrop. "The crystal ponies were even involved at the time, and nopony today knows about it. This was an ancient sketch of their leader, an alicorn by the name of Queen Jade, who put down the crystal warlords and eventually formed the Crystal Union. Legend has it that she’s the one who created the Crystal Heart, although nopony knows when that was, exactly."

"Seems harmless enough so far," Celestia commented.

Twilight nodded. "It was for the most part. The problem came when we went back to Saraneighvo. Apparently the rebellion in Stalliongrad—I didn't even count on running into rebels while I was there—but anyway, the rebellion moved on the town while Rainbow and I were there. Marshall Serp, the pony in charge of the town and one of the Black Cloaks from what I gathered later, used Rainbow Dash to find the inn that we were staying at. I guess his reasoning was that if there were ponies from Canterlot in Stalliongrad, they had to be involved in the rebellion in some way."

"A stupid assumption," the Commander muttered. "Roscherk ought to reign in his pets and put ponies who know what they're doing in charge of Stalliongrad's cities."

Twilight recognized the name only as a connection to the Stalliongradian Tsar, Watchful Eye. That name she knew simply by nature of being present for gatherings of Celestia's Stable of Nobles in the past. The politicking filled the air like a noxious odor whenever two or more of Equestria's upper crust were in the same room, and it was a stench that she learned she'd rather avoid. "Right, well, things became a little heated when Marshall Serp and the rebel leader bumped noses, and next thing I knew, Rainbow and I were running for our lives in the cold and snow away from the burning town of Saraneighvo." She shuffled uncomfortably under the memory. "I was more than a little worried that I'd be caught and tried as a rebel insurgent and that I'd disappoint you."

Celestia touched Twilight with her wing in a comforting gesture. "You were caught in a conflict you knew little about. You and Rainbow did what you had to do to survive. I can't blame you for that."

Twilight's shoulders relaxed at Celestia's touch. "Thanks, Princess. Well, anyways, after we got away from Saraneighvo, we nearly died in the blistering cold, but we managed to find a house along the rail lines that we took shelter in. It's a good thing, too; I think Rainbow said the temperature got down to negative fifty."

"That’s what you get when you visit Stalliongrad in the winter," chastised the Commander. "Otherwise, it's not so terrible. In the summer, it's almost habitable." Looking off towards a stained glass window, he said almost to himself, "When I was younger it wasn't as cold, but those were years ago."

"How did you get out of there?" Celestia asked. The Princess settled down onto her haunches, slowly becoming absorbed in the story.

"Well..." Twilight began, letting the word hang in the air, "we were more or less forced out. There were these things... Vargr, I think they're called. They looked like oversized diamond dogs, but they must have seen the smoke from the fire we made in the little shack and tried to kill us. We only barely escaped, and we happened to meet up with my friend, a unicorn by the name of Safe Haven. He was the innskeeper in Saraneighvo, and apparently he's heavily involved in the rebellion as well."

"And he led you back to Canterlot?"

Twilight shook her head. "No, first he took us to this place in the north... Coltpenhagen, if I remember correctly." When a flash of recognition lit up the Commander's eyes, Twilight turned towards the old stallion. "You know about Coltpenhagen?"

The Commander nodded. "The Honor Guard keeps a close eye on void crystal. Where did you think the Black Cloaks got it?"

The unicorn stretched her neck slightly. "It's where the rebellion is holding out."

Celestia' raised her eyebrows, but the Commander didn't seem to care. "I see," he said, dipping his head. "That's probably the best place they could hide out from the Black Cloaks, but they're also stupid if they plan on staying there much longer. I'm sure you know the effects of prolonged exposure to Sombra's crystals, Twilight."

Nodding, Twilight winced as she felt a ghost pain in her horn. "Void poisoning."

Celestia turned to her bodyguard. "So these ponies are slowly killing themselves by seeking refuge in this town?"

The Commander grunted. "The void dust in the air of Coltpenhagen constricts their access to mana to barely more than a trickle. Eventually, they will die of mana deprivation. The process is slow, but unicorns and other creatures with Arcana are particularly more affected than those that don't.” He reached his hooves up and pulled off his helmet so he could get a better look at it. “Hurricane had his armor plated in void crystal to absorb magic and spells. A unicorn could never wear this armor without being in crippling pain. It would feel the same as void poisoning, in effect.” As he finished saying this, he glanced towards Twilight's horn, noting a tiny, almost invisible black spot near the tip, a scar from her winter’s journey.

"I had my own share of experiences there," Twilight said, "but what was really important about the visit was what I found inside an old castle that had been sealed since the time of the pony tribes." Setting her saddlebag down, Twilight opened it with her magic and pulled out the old book from the train. Levitating it towards Celestia, Twilight nodded as the alicorn took hold of it. "I found another history book, more or less. But this one isn't written by Commander Hurricane. It's written by his children, Cyclone and Typhoon."

Celestia opened the book and looked at the message written inside the cover, along with the two feathers inside, one blond and one crimson. She levitated the two feathers away and out of the book so she could read it clearly. Twilight watched as the Princess' eyes flicked back and forth across the paper before she ultimately closed the book and passed it back to her student.

"So Typhoon and Cyclone left a record of everything that happened after Hearth's Warming?" Celestia asked, a hint of surprise in her voice. "I knew that they didn't like me, but I didn't think they would leave something like this behind my back."

Twilight was taken aback. "Wait... you knew Hurricane and his children? How..."

Celestia giggled. "Luna and I were both around at the time, Twilight. We had ample opportunity to meet Commander Hurricane and the ponies of Equestria after they fled the blizzard."

Opening the book again, Twilight reread the preface for the umpteenth time. "What happened, Princess? You said they didn't like you, and reading between the lines here, I get the same feeling."

The timeless mare sighed and walked back to her throne, urging Twilight to follow her with a wing. "There's a reason for that. Despite what they might say, there was no active attempt on Luna's part or my own to antagonize them. I would encourage you to disregard much of what they say about us in their recollection, or perhaps ignore it completely, if it weren't for one thing."

Twilight cocked her head as she followed the princess. "What's that?"

Celestia settled down on her throne and looked out of the eastern window. "I want to know what they had to say." When Twilight turned her head in confusion, Celestia elaborated. "Many things happened in the twenty years after the founding of Equestria that have been, by and large, almost completely forgotten. Even I find some of the details hard to remember, and I lived through them."

At Celestia's invitation, Twilight climbed up the throne steps and sat on a cushion next to her mentor. "What you have here, Twilight, is possibly the only surviving firsthoof account of what happened in Equestria's first years. Biased as it may be, it still is incredibly valuable. None of Star Swirl's records survived the Shadow War."

The lavender unicorn raised an eyebrow. "The Shadow War? When was that?"

Celestia gestured to the book. "If Typhoon and Cyclone were thorough in their recollection, then it would be covered in those pages. Regardless, what I will say now is that it was a dark time for Equestria."

Twilight looked back to the book and the vast wealth of knowledge and information it held between its dry and cracking pages. Her hooves quivered around the covers, and she barely managed to suppress her Arcana from opening the book so she could dive in. Yet one thought stopped her. "Rainbow Dash wanted to read this as well," she said to Celestia. Looking back at the book, she frowned. "I feel like it'd be unfair for me to read it before she did."

The cream-coated princess pursed her lips as she thought it over. Some inner conflict raged in her mind, but it was quickly resolved in a few seconds. Before she could speak, however, the Commander raised his voice from the middle of the room. "There will be time to fill Rainbow Dash in later, I think. She's in Manehatten on some weather-management shift; it'd be too much of a hassle to take her away from her job and bring her here just to read a book."

"Wait," Twilight noted, her ears perking up. "How do you know that, Commander?"

"The same way I knew to expect you on the train back from Stalliongrad. The Honor Guard try to keep close tabs on you and your friends. Unfortunately, the undercover guards I have living in Ponyville don't do much good when you go running off to the most dangerous domain in Equestria without any warning."

Celestia turned to her bodyguard and seemed to brush his words aside with a wing. “Twilight and Rainbow are both very competent ponies; you needn’t worry about them so much.” Then she refocused her attention back to Twilight and nodded. “Although I will agree with the Commander; Rainbow Dash’s job is more important than bringing her to Canterlot to hear a story.”

The unicorn seemed more than a little crestfallen. "Alright," she began in a defeated voice, "I suppose. I just feel bad because of everything Rainbow and I went through together to get this book."

Celestia draped a magnificent wing over Twilight's back. "I'm sure Rainbow will understand." Glancing at a scroll near her throne, simply titled ‘A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of King Sombra’s Tomb,’ the alicorn then pushed it away with her magic and nodded to her bodyguard. "I know for a fact that there are more than a few things in this book that would be better kept from the public knowledge. Commander, please have your guards make sure that nopony disturbs us while we read. You may stay if you wish; I doubt I need to tell you why this might be interesting to you." Turning to the younger mare at her side, Celestia lowered her head to a more personable eye level. "Twilight, unless I tell you otherwise, what is in this book is strictly between yourself, the Commander, and I. My sister may know as well, but there are things here that I would rather not have floating around Canterlot." With a soft but firm smile, the ruler returned to her regular height. "Can I trust you?"

Twilight wasted no time in vigorously nodding. "Of course, Princess! You can count on me!"

As the Commander took up a position by the door to the throne room and Twilight opened the book, Celestia cracked a wry smile. "Let's get started, shall we?"