Gio's Fabulous NPCs

Ancient ponies:

Commander Hurricane

Commander Hurricane was born in Cynisca to a mother, father, and older brother. Because of his opal-colored hair, he was originally named "Fire Rainbow" by his mother, two facts which later grew to be a source of criticism from his father for having and being named for "unmasculine jewelry hair." When Fire Rainbow was still only a few weeks old, his mother was killed after being caught attempting to steal more supplies than she paid for from Earth pony traders. While this lead his father and brother to hold a grudge against the tribe, it largely did not effect Fire Rainbow's own outlooks since he was too young to remember his mother and thus feel personal grief over the incident. His father did not remarry. Like most young ponies, he started the agoge at age seven, and the rest of his life up until the Suicide Crusade was largely unremarkable.

At 19, Fire Rainbow like most other ponies was brought along on an epic campaign to bring about the end of 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 mating and living area deep within the mountain range 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 ambitious quest 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 an unimportant number in the campaign, assigned to a small pony-griffon squadron lead by Major Posey. They were positioned in the far back among high numbers, and it was suspected that they wouldn't even see any action, so the members of the squad largely took the time to relax and bond when the campaign wasn't on the move. Among the squad was also a griffon about Fire Rainbow's age, Gregor, who was eager to prove himself in some way and was secretive about his home life. Fire Rainbow bonded greatly with these two over the course of their journey to the ghouling nest, Major Posey teaching the boys all sorts of songs, stories, constellations, and telling about her 3 year old daughter back home, Pansy. All seemed well.

That is, until the nest was finally reached. The campaign's attempted strategy to overwhelm the ghoulings and make it to the unstable zones had backfired stupendously, as the army was outnumbered and outmatched by the monsters. A bloodbath quickly took place as many pegasi and griffons were smashed, eaten, and skinned alive by the ghoulings, any semblance of order was destroyed by the devastation and soon it was everyone for themselves in a mass, scattered retreat that's chaos wound up claiming even more lives. Fire Rainbow tried his best to save members of his squad and anypony else around him, saving Gregor's life when he held the griffon back from his futile attempt to save the griffon king while he was being skinned and eaten, but earning his hatred and abandonment as a result. He managed to carry a heavily injured Major Posey away from the main battle and attempted to bring her back to the medical units in the safe distance, but was unable to make it before she died of her wounds and he blacked out from his own. During the time he was unconscious, Commander Cyclone came across the two and brought him to safety, as well as left him with a durable hourglass filled with water.

A day later, Fire Rainbow awoke back in a Cyniscan hospital, mysterious hourglass at his side and riddled with PTSD. A few days passed without incident as he healed and the full weight of the devastating defeat was felt on the tribe: hardly a household was without a death, and many of the leadership, including the Commander himself, was dead, leading to vacancies in power which fell on the few remaining Lieutenants. Fire Rainbow's father and brother were dead. Their good diplomatic relations with the griffons were over. There was much anger and resentment felt against Commander Cyclone for sending them on such an unnecessary suicide mission (the incident would henceforth be known as "the Suicide Crusade"), and strangely, within time, Fire Rainbow began to feel much of the resentment focused on him in the forms of whispers and dirty looks. He didn't understand why until in the middle of one night, he was kidnapped from his hospital bed by a gang of young mares, disguised as a female, and smuggled through the streets till they reached the Temple of Butterflies: a community sanctuary and the home of Lieutenant Star Catcher, Cylone's right hand and the current acting regent of Cynisca.

She examined him, asked his name, and asked to see the hourglass gift he'd been given, before informing him that Cyclone, on his deathbed, had chosen Fire Rainbow to be the new Commander (the hourglass was an old possession of Cyclone's he'd passed on to the young stallion to confirm it), and that it was now her job to ensure that he was kept safe and properly trained for the role. 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's successor 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, so it wasn't likely that they were going to treat his chosen successor with much kindness, especially such a radical choice. Knowing this, Fire Rainbow tried to insist to Star Catcher and a few of the other surviving Lieutenants that one of them should be the Commander, but they put their foot down and insisted that this was his fate. Nopony ever knew why Cyclone had chosen Fire Rainbow.

Thus began a political game for survival. The announcement of the next Commander was met very poorly, and one other Lieutenant of equal rank to Star Catcher, Lt. Heat Lightning, stood in opposition to the choice and worked to locate the guarded Fire Rainbow's whereabouts so as to remove him from his fellow Lieutenant's influence until a proper Commander was chosen. 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. Thus was the need to guard him tightly, and one of his few friends during the ordeal as a mare his age by the name of Petite Petunia, and her niece Pansy: he soon figured out that they were the younger sister and daughter of Major Posey, and he attempted to atone for his inability to save the Major by giving them friendship. He also bonded with Lt. Star Catcher during her mentoring of him, coming to appreciate her wisdom and genuine care for his welfare, seeing her as like an aunt or older sister. Ponies were sympathetic and agreed that his situation was not fair, but it just meant he had to work harder and be more dedicated than any leader before him.

Eventually, sentiment cooled down enough for Fire Rainbow to return to the public and take on the ceremony for his new armor and regnal 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 allowed 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. Realizing that this was what was necessary, he gently broke ties with Petite Petunia and Pansy so that they could not be heartbroken by his change of self.

Once a sweet and naive youth, Commander Hurricane had to grow up quick and leave "Fire Rainbow" behind so that he could be the leader his ponies needed and not be interfered with by the insolent. Punishing ruthlessly, staying paranoid, making himself terrifying, but always 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 a Commander of his own legacy. Shortly into his career, he discovered that his former friend Gregor had secretly been the prince of the griffons and now king, and that Hurricane had prevented him from saving his own father when he held him back from the previous king during the Crusade. This lead to Gregor holding a grudge against him, which caused tension more between the pegasi and griffons for several years that almost culminated into war several times. Despite all challenges, Hurricane succeeded in cementing his place as the unquestioned ruler of the pegasi, though for a time, he lost much of what it meant to be understanding of others - leading to the vitriolic personality we see in the Hearth's Warming Eve play (of which he was 33 years old at the time). A miraculous reunion with Pansy, now a Private, and an episode of being frozen by the windigos however made him realize that he still had a lot to learn and could benefit from opening his heart a little again after all those years. Upon the founding of Equestria he began to ease and try to rediscover how to be trusting of new ponies again, though he continued to be a largely isolated pony with only a few close companions.

Despite acting as a willing tyrant, Commander Hurricane was a very humble and chaste pony in his private life, a reminder to himself to never stoop to the level of arrogance that lead to Commander Cyclone launching the Suicide Crusade. His personal quarters were just a bare converted closet big enough to hold a bed, an armor stand, and a desk for paperwork. He prepared his own meals, took care of his own armor, weapons, and clothing, and helped janitor the government building where he lived whenever possible. He didn't enjoy social gatherings and was a functioning celibate till the day he died despite well-meaning encouragement for him to get with somepony so he could be a little less miserable. When not screaming his head off and striking fear into the masses, the Commander was a very reserved and dry-humored pony, very blunt, monotone, unimpressed, and put a lot of effort into not drawing unnecessary attention to himself, though he had a soft spot for the young Celestia and Luna, who quickly earned his respect as the new leaders of ponykind collective and eventually helped him to finally mend his broken friendship with King Gregor.

Based on the canon G4 character.



Lieutenant Star Catcher

Star Catcher was the first born child of a high-ranking officer and his wife, exactly a year before her younger brother, Comet Chaser. Although well respected and admired, her father was secretly abusive toward his wife and sometimes his daughter, though he greatly favored and doted upon his son, whom he wished to mold in his own image. Comet Chaser, however, detested the way his mother and sister were treated, constantly doing what he could to protect them and coming to look up to Star Catcher instead of their father. Star Catcher remained unbroken by the abuse and often threatened to oust her father's behavior to the public, knowing that he would be disgraced and severely punished, but was discouraged by her mother from doing so, who often tearfully accused her daughter of trying to destroy their family. To escape the stress of their home, Star Catcher and Comet Chaser frequently escaped to the ground. Comet Chaser developed an unusual talent for invention at an early and often built prototype weapons such as miniature catapults and even once reverse-engineered a unicorn bow and arrow they found to create the world's first ever crossbow, but was not a very good soldier, something Star Catcher exceeded at (but was rarely acknowledged by her parents). The two often talked about their plans to move out as soon as they were of age and take their mother with them.

As Privates at 15 and 14, they were taken along with their father's squad to do a sweep of the mountainous outskirts, and due to an unforeseen lack of scouts, Star Catcher's father carelessly sent her out in the beyond to scope out potential threats, a task that was far outside her expertise. Comet Chaser secretly followed her to make sure she was safe, ignoring their father's desire to keep him back at base and out of harm's way, and they found themselves accosted by a gang of griffons once out of sight of the camp. The siblings held their own well, but the fight was cut short as all the fliers were suddenly attacked by a ghouling. The ensuing struggle and escape killed many of the griffons and drove away the others, but the pony siblings were violently thrown into the side of a mountain and injured brutally by their slide down the rough terrain into the bottom a slope. They held hooves as Comet Chaser quickly succumbed to his injuries, leaving Star Catcher heartbroken. Once the ghouling had moved on they were discovered by their father. Knowing he could only carry one and that the other would most likely be eaten by the predators of the mountains by the time anypony returned, he left his clearly alive and still conscious daughter to die in favor of saving his son's corpse for a proper burial, ignoring her cries and begging for him to save her as he flew away.

Against all odds though, Star Catcher survived her ordeal. She managed to summon enough strength to drag and fly, mostly drag, herself back to Cynisca through the night without being detected by predators before making her way to and collapsing inside the Privates' barracks, where she was tended to by the other young ponies. The next morning, much of her strength fully recovered, Star Catcher left the barracks before the other Privates could return with a mentor to question her and made her way back to her house, where her mother was alone preparing for Comet Chaser's funeral. Although her mother expressed relief at her daughter being alive, she also admitted to knowing that her husband had abandoned her instead of finding her dead, and desperately attempted to reassure her that she had planned on coming back to retrieve her herself after the funeral - which she believed Star Catcher would understand as being more important. Unmoved, Star Catcher forced her mother into a closet, retrieved her brother's crossbow prototype, and waited on the front porch of her house. Upon her father returning to collect her mother, she gave him a chance to react to her survival: a very annoyed and disgusted, "What are you doing here?" before she shot him through his eye and into his brain with the crossbow, killing him instantly.

Leaving the body in the street and her mother still locked up, Private Star Catcher wordlessly made her way to her brother's funeral and sat in her father's seat of honor, much to everypony's confusion. She was able to satisfactorily pay her respects and get closure before her mother, having broken free and discovered her dead husband, showed up in a hysterical state screaming about her daughter's patricide. Star Catcher was immediately arrested and put on trial for kinslaying, one of the top offenses in Cynisca, but did not hesitate to finally recall her father's abusive behavior and his abandonment of her, therefore causing a great deal of debate among the judges and observers about whether or not her killing could be ruled as justified retribution. Her own mother primarily railed against her own daughter, calling for the traditional punishment of having her wings sawed off and her thrown into exile in the mountains, which caused what little sympathy Star Catcher had for her mother to completely die. Despite it initially seeming that the ruling would swing in favor of Star Catcher as guilty, at the last minute, Commander Cyclone himself stepped into the trial and used his supreme authority to declare the killing justified and the Private innocent. Though her life was spared, Star Catcher's mother cut her from all her inheritance and banished her from the family home, those who wanted her guilty disdained her, and even those who had thought her innocent avoided her like a plague in order to not be caught up in the stigma associated with her. Cyclone became the girl's only friend, taking her under his wing to make sure she was cared for, protected, and personally trained. Through this, Star Catcher was molded to be a fanatically loyal and superbly powerful warrior, quickly being made a Lieutenant at early adulthood and functioning as Cyclone's right hand.

She was one of the few Lieutenants to survive the Suicide Crusade and one of the even fewer whose loyalty to Cyclone didn't waver. The lone pony at his deathbed, he personally entrusted her with carrying out his will to ensure his radical choice of Soldier Fire Rainbow as his successor was realized, a task she took on without question despite she herself being widely considered a more qualified candidate to be the next Commander. She immediately took Fire Rainbow (future Commander Hurricane) into her custody and campaigned on his behalf, preparing him for his role and protecting him from even some of her fellow Lieutenants. Fire Rainbow's kindness and naivety reminded her of Comet Chaser, making her task more personal, and she came to be like an elder sister or aunt-like figure to the next Commander, resuming her position as right hand once Hurricane officially took power.

Star Catcher is generally considered to be a very warm, intelligent, and graceful pony, having risen above her former stigma as a "kinslayer." Other than being a Lieutenant, she does much work in maintaining the ethical treatment of the youth, personally overseeing much of the agoge and providing charity and shelter for Domestic Mares who have fallen on hard times. Because of her past, she is known to be particularly brutal and unforgiving with child and spouse abusers, once personally slaughtering many of the members of a short-lived movement to introduce pederasty to Cynisca. She is accurately described as the second most powerful pony in the tribe, sometimes even regarded as possessing some authority or expertise in certain areas that Hurricane does not due to her seniority. Hurricane still looks up to her a great deal and asks her for advice even though she is officially his subordinate, and she is the only one (aside from one other obscure old friend) allowed to call him by his birth name, Fire Rainbow. She continues to hold a grudge against her mother, who is still alive, regarding her as having been morally weak and failing as a mother and a pony in general, though those close to her encourage her to be understanding of her mother's state of mind at the time and make amends before the old mare has passed. She still has all her brother's inventions, including the crossbow, and keeps them in one of the few glass cases in Cynisca in her home.

Based on the G3 Pony, Star Catcher.