This war has been good to me, she thought to herself as she watched the fruits of her work in the clouds. I was wasted babysitting that pompous ass in Whiteblood Manor.
Her thoughts were interrupted when her first lieutenant came up beside her and whistled. “A few more battles like this and the war will be over.”
She nodded. “It's almost a shame.”
It had been a long road to get here. She had done her time in the wall and file, and almost been killed a dozen times over. She had borne the humiliations of low office patiently. She had seen her share of defeats, of failed plans by senior officers who were still fighting the wars of their youth, and she had learned from them.
She had turned stalemates into victories and defeats into stalemates. When everything fell apart all around her, she had been the one who kept her head cool and had prevented an orderly retreat turning to a rout. She had taken the meager numbers she was given and crafted a well-honed machine, a fighting force of hardened veterans who would follow her through the gates of Tartarus if she ordered it.
She had risen through the ranks to become a Major of the Royal Everhold Air Force by hard work and quiet efficiency, and all of it had come together for this one operation.
A major force of griffon troops and supplies moving down from the mountains to reinforce the spear's point, and break through the battered defenders of Stalliongrad. She, along with every other detached squad and regiment, had been ordered to pull back to reinforce the defenders: a slow death sentence.
Instead, she had taken her troops forward into enemy territory, under cover of night and at dire speed.
Her superiors had scoffed at her plan. Regular troops would not have the speed, or the strength to fight when they reach their destination, and they would be spotted long before then. It was impossible, they all said, to lead a fighting force up into those mountains, in the thin air.
And since it was impossible, not a single griffon was prepared for her when she did it.
Griffon bodies lay scattered across the clouds in every direction, with only a hoof-count of pegasi among them. She had fallen upon an army twenty times as big as her own force, and she had crushed them.
“Word has already made it back to Everhold,” said her lieutenant, who had an uncanny knack for knowing every bit of gossip and every furtive whisper seemingly before they happened. “They're going to make you a general for this.”
She smiled. “General Hurricane,” she said. “I like the sound of that.”
Beneath her hooves, their blood seeped into the clouds, and began to rain.