Princess Celestia The Changeling Queen: Stories Behind the Mask

by vren55

First published 6th of December, 2013

These are short stories to the fic Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen. They document the fun stuff, the struggles and the touching moments of a changeling queen in her most challenging impersonation ever.

Well it's not actually a sequel. Here is a collection of short stories and histories detailing the life of Alternia, a changeling queen impersonating the life of Princess Celestia. These are the stories of the ruler under her mask.

Reading the main story: Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen is a requirement if you don't want to be spoiled or confused. I will try to provide background information when I can.

For readers of the main story, there are basically no spoilers if you've read past chapter 8. Enjoy!

Prologue: The Safe

Cracks in the Mask

There is a safe in Celestia's chambers. Made of a dark, unidentifiable metal, it cannot be noticed by normal eyes. That is thanks to the enchantments placed upon it. Nestled underneath a rather tasteless purple and golden dress, the safe stands resolutely, protecting its contents.

The safe has a door and a handle, but no dial or numerical lock. It can only be opened with a drop of blood from its owner. Blood magic, the most sacred and dangerous of all enchantments protects this safe from magic and would curse any being who would dare attempt to break the safe open. And if blood magic wasn't enough, the dark metal would protect the safe from physical destruction and make sure that the safe would be too heavy to be moved.

Of course, one probably would ask: What could warrant this level of security?

If one is able to open the door, they would be initially quite disappointed at the find. Inside the safe are five divided levels. Each partition is packed with scrolls, diaries, journals, papers, all neatly stacked and filed away.

If any thief ever bothered to read the papers though, they'd uncover a secret. A rather surprising secret. A very dangerous secret. A secret that would explain a lot of things and yet would force one to question everything they knew about... well Equestria.

You see, if Celestia tried to open the safe, she would fail. She'd probably escape the magical curse unscathed, but she'd fail to open this safe regardless.

Why? Because Celestia doesn't own this safe.

Alternia, the changeling queen, appointed impersonator of Princess Celestia does.

And these scrolls, speak of her life behind her mask.

Alternia's Nightmare Night

Alternia's Nightmare Night

Author’s Note: Forgive me if I have some grammar errors. This is mainly venting/world building of Alternia’s world and I am in the middle of exams :P

Season 2 Just prior to the events of “Luna Eclipsed”

“LUNA!” I called as I ran down the staircase. My breath coming out in heaves, I tore past statues and down carpeted floors. Despite their best efforts, my poor guards were no match for my speed.

Finally, I skidded to a halt in front of the beautifully polished gothic chariot, its onyx frame glinting menacingly in the night. Honestly, I don’t understand why anypony would be scared of it. This would have perfectly suited me, if I hadn’t been wearing Celestia’s form.

“Sister, art thou alright? Why art thou in such a hurry?” roared Luna. I winced. Despite my attempts, Celestia’s sister never seemed to be able to lose the Royal Canterlot Voice. It was one of the reasons she didn’t attend the Grand Galloping Gala, she’d shatter the crystal glassware.

“Cloak... it’s cold... you’ll need it for your journey,” I panted breathlessly as I extended the thick hooded garment. With a grateful glance, Luna wrapped the cloak around herself.

“Thank you sister, it suits our needs perfectly.” I smiled, but frowned as Luna pawed the ground nervously, eyes averted.

“Art thou sure thou would not like to join us in the festivities?” I shook my head, leaning in close to Luna.

“Sister.” I paused. Luna wasn’t my sister, she was Celestia’s. Yet, in my own way I saw the alicorn as the little sister I had lost. It would not do for her to feel down on her night.

“Are you not the Princess of the Night?” I teased gently. Luna’s brow furrowed, but she couldn’t help, but chuckle. “This is your night, sister. Now go, be confident in yourself.” Gently, I guided the alicorn to her chariot, helping her get onto it. “If you do need help talking to other ponies, go to my student, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Dost thou really believe she will concede to aiding us?” asked Luna, eyes flickering uncertainly. I sighed. It would be some time until Luna would get over her guilt. I only hoped it would be before the true Celestia’s return.

“She was the only one who saw the signs of your return. She cleansed the darkness within you. She will help you, I have no doubt about that.” Luna smiled, comforted by my belief. After another brief hug, which I cherished, I nodded to the two thestrals attached to the chariot and they saluted in return, before flapping their wings.

“Have fun, sister!” I called as Luna’s chariot ascended into the sky.

“What is this fun thou speakest of?” yelled Luna, as her chariot disappeared into the night sky.

“Oh horseapples,” I groaned softly. Luna must have been so concentrated on learning about Equestrian relations, technology and systems of government she probably forgot to relax. I had to introduce her to some ways to have fun before the end of the week. Particularly the new interactive video games.

“Princess!” I spun around, to find Captain Shining Armor and the rest of my escort. The unicorn captain, although not having the stamina of an earth pony, was only sweaty. The rest of my guards though, were sprawled out on the courtyard.

“Please don’t leave us like that again!” panted Shining. Nodding, and apologizing to my captain, I headed back to my chambers. After dismissing my guards, I closed the doors and locked them.

“Philomena, are you ready?” I asked. My faithful phoenix pulled her head out from under her wing and cawed. I swore I saw her wink and knowing my pet, she probably did.

“Let’s get going.” Closing my eyes, I drew upon my reserves of magic. Slowly, a golden-green figure began to appear in the centre of my chamber. As it solidified, it took on Celestia’s features, her tri-colour mane and her ivory white coat. When the golden light finally faded, there was an exact copy of Princess Celestia, down to the golden apparel she wore.

“Pretend to be reading, or gorge on some cake. Don’t leave the room though,” said Alternia to the simulacrum because that was what it was. The simulacrum was detailed clone of magic that could follow simple orders, but was incapable of independent thought.

As the simulacrum picked up a book and ostensibly began to read, I went into my walk-in closet, shutting the door behind me. Temporarily hidden from Philomena, I tossed away my royal armor and drew upon my changeling magic. In a flash of green, I took on the shape of a charcoal-black unicorn. My magically methodically searched through the hangers and took out my costume.

“Just as planned!” I giggled in glee. Quickly using my magic, I teleported the clothes onto myself and showed myself out of the closet.

“What do you think, Philomena?” I asked. My pet cawed in approval as I examined my disguise on the mirror mounted on the door of my closet. All I saw was a black furred unicorn mare with a turquoise-green mane. She wore a ragged black, hooded cloak with a golden skull-brooch. My head was crowned with a menacing spiked helmet. Underneath the cloak, I wore stygian black armour with steel-grey shoulder-guards, and a dull, but decorated sword from the Royal Armory hung at my side. The final piece in my costume were spiked horseshoes. I was the picture of a queen of death.

“Philomena, hurry up, we don’t have much time before Luna returns!” I yelled trotting out onto the balcony. My phoenix squawked good naturedly landed on the balcony floor. Carefully, I surrounded her with the glow of my magic and she began to change. Philomena grew in size and stature, her plumage darkened and began to be replaced by smooth grey skin. Her wings expanded and warped until they turned into massive bat wings. The phoenix’s graceful head was replaced by a maw of teeth. Deftly, I fastened the saddle we had used on so many occasions onto my disguised pet and mounted.

I coughed several times, trying to find the tone I needed. Finally, I pitched my voice into a high, eerie ras and spoke to the night. “I am the Witch Queen of Angmare. Do not come between a Naz’gul and her candy!” Philomena let out an ear-piercing screech that making me flatten my ears and grin evilly at the same time. Flapping her wings, we launched into the cool evening air.

Canterlot...

Nightmare Night in Canterlot is one of the grandest holidays in Equestria. Oddly enough, on this night of fear, there is a lot of love to be collected.

With a terrifying roar that sent young fillies and colts scurrying for cover as I and Philomena passed over the city square. Tucking in her wings, my phoenix in disguise landed in the middle of the city square in the only clear space amidst hundreds of booths.

“Greetings everypony! Black Captain has returned!” I rasped. After their initial shock, the older ponies chuckled or waved their hooves in greeting. It was not the first time I had donned this disguise and its name to join the festivities. The ponies had quickly become accustomed to my annual attendance at the event, even with my entrance.
“Black Captain, did you have to do that?” groaned one of the ponies in the crowd. Inwardly I chuckled as colts and fillies, seeing the lack of fear in their elders, began to crawl out from under stalls.

“Yeessss,” I said, drawing the answer out as long as possible, drawing a couple of chuckles from the adults.

“Go easy on Black Captain, Jet Set, it’s all in good fun.” said a voice. Blinking through my helmet I saw Fancy Pants and Fleur de Lis approach. He had abandoned his customary suit for a pirate’s costume, complete with a roguish gold tooth. Fleur de Lis was a mermaid, her false tail trailing behind her as trotted beside her beloved.

“How are you doing Fancy and Fleur?” I asked.

“It’s Captain Fancy Pants. Arrgh!” said Fancy Pants.

“Oh shush. We are well, Black Captain,” replied Fleur. I chuckled
.
“Then may you continue to have fun on this night of nights. Now lead me to the children! Philomena must feast on them!” I roared.

“Who’s Philomena?” asked an inquisitive foal. Glancing at the large group of foals in their multi-colored costumes watching me warily, but mostly with expressions of curiosity, I realized my mistake. With a groan, I facehoofed and my steel horseshoes clanked comedically against my helmet.

“The name of my Fel Beast, but that’s beside the point! I am coming for you little ponies!” I jumped off Philomena, drew my sword with my magic and marched menacingly toward them, raising my hooves up and down like a giant, but only taking little steps.

“RUN BEFORE SHE EATS US!!!” The foals ran, screaming as I chased them down the square. I noticed some of the parents sigh at my antics, others chuckle, or outright giggle, as I tromped down the street after the children.
Suddenly, one of the foals, dressed in a frilly Princess costume, got too tired and tripped sprawling on the ground. I was beside her in an instant, checking for injuries. Nothing seemed wrong though, and as she squealed in fear.

I took off my helmet. “MUAHAHAHAHA time to eat you up! Nom, nom, nom, nom!” While making the noises I pretended to eat the foal, opening and closing my mouth in front of her. The foal shut her eyes, but after realizing she wasn’t in any danger, she started to giggle at my play-acting. After a second, I stopped and set the filly down on her feet.

“Too thin, you have to fatten up. Here you go!” Drawing out a chocolate bar from the folds of my costume I dropped it into the little filly’s candy bag and patted her head. The filly grinned, and I felt refreshed as I felt her happiness flow into me.

“Thank you! Happy Nightmare Night!” laughed the filly before she scampered away. With a grin, I waved the little foal off to her parents. Then, donned my helmet and went searching for the rest of the foals.

I continued to wander around the carnival, chasing after the foals. The ones I captured I would pretend to eat and give them a treat. The foals that escaped my grasp, I tossed candies to as a reward for ‘escaping’ my clutches. All the while, I felt the love and appreciation they gave me as I handed out treats. Meanwhile, children were having fun, getting candy from willing hooves under the parents watchful eyes. The stalls for games and treats were filled with lineups from willing ponies. Everything was perfect.

I shook my head, silently berating myself. I forced my eyes to pick through my surroundings as I trotted through Canterlot’s streets. There is another, less ‘fun’ reason I attended Nightmare Night in Canterlot.

Rounding the corner, I saw two stallions cornering a pair of mares in an alley, who were obviously uncomfortable with the stallions. One of them, a white coated unicorn with red eyes and electric blue hair, positioned herself in front of her grey coated, pink-eyed, earth pony companion.

“Hey pretty ladies, want me to make your dreams come true?” asked one of the stallions, stepping close up to the mare.
“Want me to make your nightmares a reality?” I hissed. Everypony stared at the black cloaked, armored pony wielding a sword with wide eyes. Pointing my sword at the two stallions, I growled, and the stallions bolted like the cowards they were. The mares stared at me fearfully, but relaxed as I took off my helmet, revealing my smiling face.

“Be careful where you walk. The streets are usually safe in Canterlot, but you can never be too careful.” I turned to go, but felt a tug on my tail.

“Beg your pardon miss, I’m Vinyl, and this is my friend Tavi. We’re trying to find some foals of our friends that went missing. Can lend us a hoof?” asked the unicorn. She tried to appear casual, but I could hear the worry behind her voice. Her friend, the earth pony was trembling and made no effort to conceal it.

For some reason though, their names appeared familiar to me, but I ignored it, my thoughts on the missing foals.
“Of course I’ll help. Have you alerted the guard yet?” I asked.

“We have, but it’s been more than an hour and they haven’t even been sighted,” added Tavi.

“Take me to where they were last seen, and ask them if they have anything that belonged to the children. Quickly, we have no time.”

I winced as I saw Jet Set and Upper Crust crying into each other’s shoulders. I knew they were spoilt, upper-class braggarts, who were occasionally insufferable, but they were truly loving parents. The fact they were crying so unabashedly, ruining their Saddle Arabian costumes was proof of their grief. I knew that right now, every second must be excruciating for them.

We were at one of the many parks within Canterlot. It was surrounded by police ponies combing the scene for clues as well as detectives.

“So they were last seen here?” I inquired. Vinyl nodded. Taking a deep breath, I approached the sobbing couple.
“Jet Set, Upper Crust, do you have anything of your foals for me to perform a tracking spell?” I inquired. The unicorn pair looked up, the tears in their eyes piercing my heart.

“We already gave the police their childhood toys, but the spells aren’t working. How could you do anything better, Black Captain?” sobbed Upper Crust. That little tidbit of information made me raise an eyebrow and turn to Inspector Le Strade.

“What does she mean by not working?” I demanded.

Le Strade, his mustache twitching, glared at me. “I’m not at liberty to tell you miss.”

I snarled. “You. Will. Tell. Me!” I ordered, the sibilant lisp of the Witch Queen of Angmar forgotten, I punctuated every word with all of my authority and power as Princess of Equestria. Le Strade stuttered and swayed, but steadied himself and met my gaze.

“For the safety of the investigation, and as decreed by the laws set forth by Princess Celestia, I cannot tell you our findings. I’m sorry m’am,” said the inspector, almost apologetically. I slapped my hoof to my face, groaning. Oh why did I always seem to trip myself up at the worst possible moments?

“Philomena!” I ordered. My phoenix, still in the guise of a Naz’Gul swooped down, startling all the ponies. My horn glowing, I turned her back into a phoenix and undid my own disguise, expanding my costume to make it fit. In moments, my vision cleared and I found everypony lying on the ground, prostrated at me.

“Your Highness! I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was—”

“That was the point Le Strade. Now bring me the children’s toys,” I ordered. An intelligent police pony brought up a small blue tank engine with red stripes, and a teddy bear in corduroy overalls. Focusing on the two toys, I began to weave together the spell. I put into it the happiness I had seen today, the gratitude I had received, laughter at the wonders of the fair, all the fresh emotions and love for Nightmare Night that I had collected, I used to weave the spell together.
Out shot a beam of green light from the bear and a lance of blue light from the train. The two rays soared into the sky like fireworks, but then halted above the park. Combining together, they turned into a large arrow pointing towards—

The castle! Of course! The anti-perception wards on it would at least partially disrupt all but the most advanced tracking spells! I realized as our group of ponies galloped toward the main castle of Canterlot. The arrow continued to float above us, the flaming form of Philomena close behind it. Guided by the light provided by the spell and phoenix, we charged into the castle proper, following the arrow. It finally stopped, pointing to a balcony high above us.

“How did they get up there?” wondered Octavia.

“How did they get to my chambers?” I gasped. Everypony stared at me, but I was as confused as the rest of them. Slowly, we traipsed our way upstairs and to my chambers.

As I arrived at the corridor leading to my chambers entrance, I noticed the doors were no longer on their hinges. They had been blasted open, warding spells ripped from the wood that was now black as my cloak. My heart filling with dread, I drew the blunt, costume sword of the Witch Queen of Angmar and held it at the ready. It would be better than nothing. Beside me my companions readied themselves. Jet Set had taken up a brass candelabra his wife, Upper Crust, levitated a very sharp hairpin. Vinyl seized one of the blackened pieces of wood, while Octavia gulped and grabbed the remains of the brass doorknob. Le Strade took out his enchanted police baton and Philomena hovered cautiously at my shoulder. Slowly, we trotted forward into the chamber.

I saw the two foals, soundly sleeping in my bed. Luna was humming a lullaby softly to them. I dropped my sword, letting it clatter onto the carpet, which caused Luna to jump and spin around. She recognized me drawing her hoof across her mouth like a zipper.

“Quiet, sister! On our way back from Ponyville, we came across two foals lost in the city and took them back to the castle while our Lunar Guard searched for their parents. When we knocked on the door for advice, thou would not open the door to us and we had to forcibly open it, only to find a simulacrum. The foals began to cry, so we read a story to them and put them to sleep. Where wert thou this evening?” demanded Luna, softly. I wasn’t sure whether I should be surprised that Luna for once, was more quiet than myself or that the foals had been found by her. So I remained slack-jawed, Philomena perched on my shoulder, churring softly. Meanwhile, Jet Set and Upper Crust had crept up to their children, and had gently levitated them onto their backs. After curtseying and bowing to me and Luna, they quietly left, taking their children back home with them.

“I was helping their parents search for their foals along with Inspector Le Strade, Vinyl and Tavi,” I explained, finally having gotten over my surprise.

Luna frowned, eyes looking up and down, examining my costume. However, to my luck, her attention was distracted when she glanced at my companions and gasped. “Art thou not DJPON3 of Everfree Radio and Maestro Octavia of the Canterlot Philharmonic Orchestra?” I stared at the two ponies, and realized where I had seen them before. It should have been obvious, but I had been so concerned about the foals. Not to mention Vinyl wasn’t wearing her glasses and Octavia didn’t have her bow tie

“Yes, your majesty,” said Octavia, bowing politely, and pushing Vinyl down as well.

“We wish to ask thee and Vinyl to introduce us to some of the music that is popular with ponies of this time. How may we contact thee to schedule an appointment?” asked Luna. Vinyl and Octavia’s eyes widened considerably.
“Well, perhaps if you have time princess, we can arrange that now?” asked Vinyl, hesitantly.

“Perfect, perhaps we shall visit Donut Joe’s shop. My sister gorges herself at that place.” I was about to retort, when Luna then turned her unamused gaze on me. Despite myself, I shivered uncomfortably her dark blue stare.

“Thank you, sister for this Nightmare Night,” said Luna, breaking the silence. I gawked as the alicorn bursting into the widest smile. After hugging me, Luna trotted off, gesturing Octavia and Luna to follow her.

“But mark my words, we will talk about your activities, later,” warned Luna. I resisted the urge to sigh, but I knew that Luna could learn the truth about my Nightmare Night activities. Not the whole truth though.

Shaking my head, I turned to the only pony left. “Inspector Le Strade.” The police inspector glanced up nervously.
“Good work. You may return home to your family,” I said with a smile. Gratefully, Le Strade quickly left.

Finally left alone, I cast a spell to repair the doors and restore some of the privacy wards on them. With that done, I took off my enlarged, Witch Queen of Angmar costume, trotted wearily into the shower. After I had cleaned up and brushed my teeth, I trotted to my bed, changed the sheets quickly, and flopped down into the mattress.

“Happy Nightmare Night, Philomena,” I whispered. The last thing I heard before I fell asleep was the answering squawk of my pet.

Philomena smiled, as her mistress settled into comforting sleep. Flying onto the bed, she gently pulled the covers over the sleeping figure. With a final caw showing her satisfaction, she leapt into the special fire-proof nest that was her bed, tucked her head into her wings, and let sleep claim her as well.

Silly changeling, I should let her know that she need not disguise herself in front of me. The phoenix thought before she joined her mistress in the world of dreams.

Author’s final note: Hope you enjoyed that. Chapter 13 is in progress, will be out sooner or later before Season 4 starts for sure.
Lots of references in this one, obscure and not: Witch Queen of Angmare aka Black Captain = Witch King of Angmar from Lord of the Rings.
Le Strade = Inspector Lestrade from Sherlock Holmes
Small blue tank engine with red stripes = Thomas the Tank Engine
Teddy bear in corduroy overalls = Corduroy (from children’s book about the bear)

Changeling Legends: The Unspeakable Times (the account of Chamelia)

Author’s note, this chapter is set before the Changeling Council scene in chapter 8 Equestria’s Changeling Queen and the Abyssal Empress. Well… kinda. Basically, Simulacris, Chrysalis and Belladonna are updating Alternia on some of the changeling lore that she hasn’t had to remember in years. I published it in a blog post before, but I expanded it here.

The Metamorphasia and the Unspeakable Times

According to the account of Queen Chamelia the Great, Second Queen of the Everfree Hive, Daughter of the Great Hive Mother Zagara, The Lady of a Thousand Masks.

Simulacris’s notes in margin: Yes, we know this is astonishing Alternia, but we’re the granddaughters of the great hive mother, Zagara. Chrysalis found out after reading mother’s diary and her will, Belladonna and I found out after we ascended and when our mother gave us our Queens Council Crystals. I also found during my first Queens Council that Chamelia had been the only daughter of the Great Hive Mothers left.

It certainly gave me a new perspective on how powerful our mother was. I mean, our mother must have been… ancient… a queen of immense power and age. She was certainly a force to be reckoned with on the council, and as you know, her name is still invoked by some of the older queens, Sarar and Kagura.

As inscribed by the Daughters of Queen Chamelia: Chrysalis, Third Queen of The Everfree Hive, Queen Simulacris, First Queen of the Shade Stalkers, and Queen Belladona of The Shadow Empire for their sister Princess Alternia of Equestria and First Queen of The Phantoms and Princess of the Equestrian Triumvirate.

The origin of the changeling race is shrouded in shadow and mystery. What we do know is that we were created by one being or entity and that the being was female. The Great Creator, we call her. She gave birth (according to some accounts) or created, the first changelings, who were also the first Queens.

They are now known as the Great Hive Mothers.

The eldest was your grandmother, Zagara the Far-Seeing (chrysalis, green mane turquoise eyes). She was my mother and known for not only her wisdom, but also her vision. I was her youngest daughter and her heir.

Belladonna:Mother was being modest. The fact that Chamelia, youngest of all of Zagara’s daughters was named her heir indicates that she was incredibly talented. \

The second eldest was the first Borte (brown mane, yellow eyes), sometimes called the Black Hammer. The most charismatic of her sisters, she also had an unparalleled grasp of tactics and of the art of battle. All would seek her advice in combat and her book on changeling strategy The Path to Victory is still read by the hives today.(2)

Third was Araneae the Silent Dagger (purple eyes, dark purple (almost black) mane). If Borte was a great general, then Araneae was the most potent huntress, the prime assassin, and the best fighter. Such talents though were directed only to the protection of those she loved, for Araneae was intensely loyal to her family and to her sisters.

Fourth was Theraphosia the Dragon-hoofed (amber hair, amber eyes). The strongest of her sisters, she possessed unparalleled physical strength and stamina. Though she herself admitted to be the least intelligent of her sisters, all the legends attest to her gregarious charm and great heart.

Fifth was Latrodexa (dark blue mane, silver eyes), sometimes known as the Sorceress. She had a grasp of magic beyond any seen and known since the age of the Great Hive Mothers. At times, she was said to be somewhat impulsive, and arrogant, but that was only matched by her intellect, allowing her to succeed against many a challenge. Those she could not, were overcome with the help of her sisters, whom she cared for a great deal.

Sixth was Atracina (white mane, pink eyes), once known as the Shadow Walker. The most cunning of the sisters. Nobody could ever know what she was truly thinking. She was also a very skilled potions master.

Finally, there was Matari the Mischievous, the joy of her sisters and allegedly, of her mother, The Great Creator. Whenever the sisters were hungry or sad, they could always count on Matari to bring them love and joy. However, she was always closest to her eldest sister, our grandmother, Queen Zagara.

Not long after though, the Great Creator disappeared, leaving only my mother, my aunts, the mates she had created for them, and the changelings she had wrought for them to rule over. No changeling knows where she went, but though the Great Hive Mothers wept, they did not falter. Together, with their great powers and talents, the Great Hive Mothers built their hives, fighting against the windigoes that roamed the land, spreading discord to all, and depriving changelings of love. They destroyed monsters terrorizing all living creatures, pushing them back toward the Everfree Forest and into the Southern Deserts.

Yet, even in this time of strife, first hives the Great Hive Mothers created flourished, and all changelings know of them. Queen Zagara of “The Evergreen”, Queen Borte of “The Horde”, Queen Araneae of “The Blades”, Queen Theraphosia of “The Doomhorn”, Queen Latrodexa of “The Venomous”, Queen Atracina of “The Deathspinners” and Queen Matari of “The Watchers”.

Chrysalis’s note in margins: Changelings can also tell the prestige of a hive by whether they only use one word for their name. The fewer words used in the name of a hive, the more impressive.

Belladonna’s note in margins: Currently, Queen Sarar, leads “the Blades” which was the Great Hive Mother Araneae’s hive. Queen Shebar leads what used to be the Great Hive Mother Theraphosia’s “The Doomhorn.” Queen Borte the Fourth, leads “The Horde.” Chrysalis leads what used to be our mother, Chamelia’s hive, “The Evergreen.”

I was born in the midst of this golden age of changelingkind. I suppose some might tell you the time I ruled was our golden age, but I disagree. At my birth, all seven of the Great Hive Mothers lived and changelings roamed the land, but always in secret, just as it has always been.

My father was Alaric, a changeling chevalier renowned for his ruthless outlook of the world, his intense fighting spirit, and his short temper. I was not that close to him, but I do think he cared about me greatly in his own manner. Not too soon after I learned to walk, he taught me the trade of warfare and combat, and was not above berating me when I made mistakes and punishing me for impudence. He was not a cruel father though. He always bandaged my wounds after our sessions and was a fair combat instructor, giving advice and never expecting the impossible.

Understandably though, given my father’s blunt manner, I always had a more loving relationship with my mother, who was Zagara, eldest of the Great Hive Mothers. To me though, she was simply Zagara, my mother and I was her youngest and if I may be blunt, her favorite daughter. You see, Alaric was her latest husband and I their only daughter. My mother had had many husbands over the years and I had many half sisters who had already started hives of their own. So I was their only child and at the time, Zagara’s only queen daughter.

How to describe Zagara? She was the wisest of all the Hive Mothers, intelligent and far-seeing. She had a vision for changelingkind that astounds me even today. She saw a future, where changelings would not be simply content to stalk the shadows, but to step into the light, as leaders of this world.

While my father trained me in how to make war, she taught me how to forge peace, to take inspiration from the ideas of others, but in a way that would only augment my own vision, to not manipulate other beings, but to guide them to my side.

In essence though, my mother was the greatest of mothers. Perhaps she trusted me and loved me, greater than my half-sisters, but she loved them too, they loved me and I loved them. Artemesia, Gorgo and Amaya being among them. For whatever reason, my half-sisters never bore me any jealousy for being my mother’s favorite. They did have their own hives to lead I suppose.

And most important of all, she taught me the value of trust and of mercy. Such lessons served me well for the times I had to face were dark.

However, while my aunts, the Great Hive Mothers, tried to remain sisters, it was not so easy to teach their children, my cousins, to respect one another. While the Seven Sisters remained loyal to each other despite the distances that often separated their hives, their children, though loyal to their mothers, were never very friendly with each other. They competed and fought, dragging their mothers into their conflicts, causing friction between the original hives. The incidents between the children of the Great Hive Mothers became so frequent, and so divisive, that the once close bonds the seven Great Hive Mothers had, were strained to the limit, until one day, they broke.

What came after is known by all changelings, and should be for all time as:

The Unspeakable Times

It began, when the queen daughter of Queen Araneae of “The Blades,” defeated and killed one of the queen daughters of Queen Latrodexa of “The Venomous” and razed that hive in the process. Queen Latrodexa demanded Aranaea to give her daughter up, but Araneae refused. She loved her daughter too much. In retaliation, Queen Latrodexa and her daughters besieged Queen Araneae’s hive.

Now, I know why, but to this day, I am not sure how it happened. Queen Latrodexa was my aunt and while always had a bad sense of humor, and could be rather awkward, she was altogether a caring aunt. Queen Araneae was more aloof, a bit cooler, but she taught me how to fight as well, assisting in my father’s lessons.

But while my mother continued to send envoys to try to create a dialogue between her sisters, the war only escalated.

Queen Araneae called in her daughters and asked Queen Borte I to help her fight off Latrodexa’s siege. Queen Borte I arrived with her “Horde” along with Araneae daughters and they engaged Queen Latrodexa and her spawn. Despite their magic prowess, Latrodexa and her daughters were defeated in a three day battle, and they fled to her sister Queen Theraphosia of “The Doomhorn”. Together, they conducted a guerilla war against Queen Araneae and Queen Borte I.

Again, I still cannot understand how this happened. Queen Borte a loud, but very charismatic queen who would not hesitate to cheerfully debate with my mother, sided with Latrodexa, while Araneae called upon Theraphosia, whom I can only describe, as the jolliest changeling queen to ever walk the surface. Yet they still fought one another and ferociously.

The violence of this conflict could not be understated. It helped bring the Windigoes to the land that would become Equestria, and on serveral occassions, nearly revealed the hives to the native ponies.

Horrified at the violence between her sisters, Zagara, your grandmother, attempted to put a halt to the violence. She and her brood, which included our mother, was the largest of the Great Hive Mothers. Zagara had four ascended changeling queen daughters with large hives and myself, then in-ascended, but my half sisters also had unascended daughters of their own. On top of this, the youngest of the Great Hive Mothers, Queen Matari of “The Watchers,” sided with Zagara. Together, they approached Queen Atracina of “The Deathspinners” in order to form a coalition that could put an end to the war and the strife between their sisters.

Being my mother’s only hive-less daughter, I had just been appointed my mother’s Shadow, her lieutenant and heir. I was understandably nervous. Queen Matari though, the happiest of my aunts, only welcomed me and agreed wholeheartedly to an alliance with my mother. She soothed my worries and then sent me and my escort off to my next destination, the hive of Queen Atracina.

My aunt Atracina… I hate her for what she did to my aunts, to my mother, to my family and I wish she would rot in Tartarus for all eternity.

At the time though, I was only too delighted by her smile and her warm welcome. She served me some of the love she had hoarded for the winter months as well as the best food and drink, and after hearing what my mother was proposing, agreed and with her silver tongue, proposed I invite my aunts to her hive to seal our alliance. Like a fool I agreed to tell my mother.

Later in my life, I would get over my grief and realize that this mistake was not mine, as my mother and Queen Matari wholeheartedly concurred with Atracina’s invitation and went to their hive, but to this day, I wonder if I could have done something differently.

For Atracina betrayed us. She invited Matari and Zagara to her hive, toasted to them other that evening and then showed them to their own accommodations within the hive. If only they knew what Atracina had in store for them

Belladonna’s Notes: Simulacris and I both remember that when our mother, then Zagara’s heir, told us what happened next, she… she had a haunted look to her eyes Alternia. It was something she had never shown us and I am glad you never saw.

Atracina’s goal was simple. She wanted more power and saw the war as an opportunity to destroy her sisters, and in doing so, pave the way for her brood to be the leaders of changelingkind. And over them she would rule, the unquestionable God Queen of the Changeling Race.

So Atracina personally murdered her younger sister, Matari, in her sleep and had her daughters attempt to assassinate our grandmother.

But not all of Atracina’s daughters were such traitors to their own kin. Thera, youngest queen-daughter of Atracina, only a little older than a foal at the time, snuck into Zagara’s chambers and warned your grandmother of the assassination. It allowed Zagara to lock herself in her chambers and speak to me through our hive link. She was horrified, filled with terror. She had sensed Matari being murdered… butchered to death and Atracina’s daughters were trying to smash her way into her chambers.

And so I rallied her changelings to the rescue and after fighting through tunnel and dirt, rescued my mother.

I did not initially recognize her though. Not because my mother had lost a leg, and not even because she looked half-dead from the grave wounds sustained in the fight for her life, but because of the look in her eyes… My mother, my loving mother, looked broken. Some say this was because of Matari’s death, and they do have a point, as my mother was closest to Matari. Yet, I think that was only part of it. To this day, I believe that Atracina’s betrayal was what shocked her. She never expected her own sister would turn on her like this.

Once I returned with my mother, bearing the news of Atracina and her spawn’s treachery, my sisters, and my cousins, the Daughters of Zagara and the Daughters of Matari declared a blood-feud with Atracina’s spawn. As your grandmother lay in recovery, we turned our weapons against our kinslaying cousins and Atracina. And so, a great host of chevaliers and changelings in an assault that darkened the sky.

Atracina, her daughters, and their followers could not stand against such an onslaught, they fled, leaving many of their number slain in their hive. Their rage briefly sated, we, the Daughters of Zagara, and the Daughters of Matari did not pursue. Our losses were not inconsequential and they were all saddened by the Queen Matari’s death.

Queen Atracina and what was left of her traitorous kindred, fled to Latrodexa and Theraphosia’s camp. No changeling quite knows exactly how Atracina managed to forge an alliance with the rest of her sisters, but she did.

Belladonna’s notes: Mother grudgingly told me that it is her personal theory that Atracina spun a tale that painted Zagara and Matari as the aggressors. She also informed me that Atracina was an exceptionally silver-tongued changeling.

From what I know, the Three Great Hive mothers then launched a counter-offensive on Araneae and Borte’s hives. The battle raged for days, but Araneae and Borte were eventually driven from their homes. Sorely wounded and in despair, the two sisters, their few remaining daughters, and their retainers, fled into a land being slowly beset by winter.

After weeks of trudging through snow and wasteland, the two sisters found the winter camp of our army. The massive host assembled by the Daughters of Zagara and the Daughters of Matari. Welcomed into their midst, Araneae and Borte were stunned at my mother’s tale of Atracina’s treachery and brought to tears by the news of Matari’s death. Declaring vengeance, the pair united under Zagara’s banner, and wintered with her.

Unsurprisingly, that same winter, the villainous Atracina then betrayed her sisters again. During a banquet held to celebrate the Winter Solstice, Atracina served Latrodexa, Theraphosia and their daughters what she said was a wine made from elderberry.

But at the moment the wine touched their lips, Latrodexa, Theraphosia and their kindred found themselves whisked to death’s door. Those that resisted briefly, were only dispatched by the rest of Atracina’s daughters.

Only Theraphosia, thanks to her strength, managed to survive, as did her youngest daughter, who had not been of age to drink the beverage. Together, they managed to escape the assassination with some of their changelings, but Atracina forcibly conscripted the rest of Latrodexa’s changelings as well as Theraphosia’s, partly by lying that Araneae and Borte had murdered their queens.

We didn’t know this at the time. Winter was still on. However, once that ended, I led the vanguard of a great changeling army numbering ten thousand strong, boasting the combined might of my mother Zagara, her daughters, the daughters of Queen Matari, Queen Araneae and her spawn, and the horde of Queen Borte I. We had all recovered from their wounds, gathered all their sisters and brothers from across the world and were ready to take vengeance on the traitor Atracina and whomsoever supported her

That was when our vanguard found a venom-crippled Theraphosia, her youngest daughter, and their few loyal chevaliers.

After listening to their story, I decided to err on the side of mercy and treat them both. It was a good thing I posted a guard on them though, because I then had restrain my aunt, Queen Araneae, who nearly slew the bedridden Theraphosia. It took a lot of begging and pleading for me get Araneae to listen to Theraphosia.

I almost failed, but I had bought enough time for Theraphosia the time to tell her story of woe, of how Atracina had wiped out the line of Latrodexa and most of Theraphosia’s daughters. After that, Theraphosia asked for Araneae’s forgiveness.

Luckily, Aunt Araneae’s heart was moved, and she could not slay her own sister, not after hearing of what she had suffered. Instead, Araneae forgave her sister and asked for forgiveness as well, and so both sisters reconciled, with Theraphosia joining the rest of her siblings.

Though aggrieved by the death of Latrodexa and her line, my mother Zagara and Borte the First were overjoyed to have their sister with them once more, and it was with renewed vigor and ferocity that we marched on Atracina’s camp.

In the devastating campaign that followed, devised by the masterful Queen Borte, my mother and my three aunts battled the forces of Atracina, who had enlisted the wild monsters of the Everfree using hypnosis magic. In tunnel, in the air, on land and over river, ourforces fought each other furiously. And on every field of battle, the Great Hive Mothers triumphed over the demons commanded by their fallen sister.

Belladonna’s notes: Again, mother was being very modest about her war record. She remained the Changeling Army’s Vanguard commander throughout the duration of the war, leading the forward division of about ten thousand changelings. Why did she not tell us this? Well, I suspect the deaths of those she lost weighed on her heavily.

The cost was high, though. Hundreds of our changelings fell. It didn’t help that every one of Atracina’s daughters fought like fanatics possessed. Well… except for Queen Thera, mother of Queen Kagura. She fought desperately, and nearly killed me in several skirmishes, but… well, I’ll explain later.

The battles we won and Borte’s campaign strategy meant that we finally cornered Atracina and her daughters at the place now known as Ghastly Gorge.

We surrounded her from the sky and ground. Our army of the four Great Hive Mothers, against Atracina’s brood and her monsters.

As the commander of the vanguard, I led the final assault. The battle… was the bloodiest in my career and I remember little of it, except for my duel with Thera.

She fought like some… golem. Mechanically, with cunning, but as if dead already, taking my blows as if it didn’t even scathe her. I finally overpowered her, but before I was about to kill her… I… I hesitated. It wasn’t like fighting with the other daughters of Atracina, who would struggle to the death. Thera’s eyes… they were that of an already dead changeling.

So I spared her and had her captured, before pushing forward. Finally, we won.

Victory achieved, my mother and my aunts sentenced and executed Atracina and her daughters. Each daughter was to be executed on the edge of the Ghastly Gorge, their bodies covered in oil, set alight, and thrown into the abyss for the monsters.

As for the betrayer Atracina, the Great Hive Mothers fed her her own poison, pierced her heart and dumped her corpse into the Ghastly Gorge for the animals to feed upon.

Thera on the other hoof was spared. She, like the rest of Atracina’s daughters was tried. Her judge, my mother, her prosecutor, my aunt Araneae and her defender, me.

There was just something I noticed about her… eyes that made me realize that she had no choice in fighting. I cannot go into too much details, but suffice it to say, Thera was one of the few daughters of Atracina who had a conscience. For that though, she was terribly abused by her mother.

As an instance, after she had alerted my mother to Atracina’s murder plot, she was starved of both love and food, had her pet murdered in front of her, and was forced to eat it or die. Her sisters were the ones who held the blade to her throat.

It was also revealed at her trial that she had saved Queen Theraphosia and her remaining daughter’s life, by leading them out of the banquet. For that, her own mother had poisoned her near to death.

Suffice to say, we found that Thera had been coerced to fight for her mother and so spared her life. She was adopted by Queen Theraphosia and so the line of Atracina ended, if not in blood, in spirit. And in time, Thera would recover her spirit, and I was happy to count her as a good friend of mine in the time she had left… she passed on not too long before I wrote this account.

Belladonna’s notes: Kagura of the White Fox is actually Thera’s only daughter.

But I digress. Finally, as Atracina breathed her last, the hive name of “The Deathspinners” was wiped from the list of the Great Hives, and Atracina became known by one title:

“Kinsbane.”

To prevent such a thing from happening again, Queen Zagara, Queen Theraphosia, Queen Araneae and Queen Borte I created the Queens Council. They invented the Queen Stones, ways for all the queens to communicate with each other and so that they could assemble. They also established the Six Changeling Rules, such as the one forbidding hypnotism on beings unless in extreme circumstances.

Never before had my aunts and my mother been so close and they would never drift away. Though they had been torn apart, the loss of so many of their kindred and the war they had fought had wiped away their old petty grievances. They had learned the cost of war.

And yet… my mother and her sisters never fully recovered from The Unspeakable Times. Their strength exhausted, their hearts broken by the death of so many of their sisters and the betrayal of Atracina “Kinsbane.” My mother was perhaps the most affected by this, as she was very close to all of her sisters, but especially Matari, whom she had lost forever.

Author’s Comments:
1. Put it this way, being a badass is in Alternia’s family.
2. Twilight and pony researchers who would later read the Path to Victory would realize that the book in fact predated Equestria’s first strategy book, The Art of War by General Firefly, daughter of Commander Hurricane. Furthermore, The Art of War actually contained similar and at times, identical stratagems, with those dissimilar being Pony evolutions and takes on Changeling strategies.

The History of Equestrian Expansion Part 1: The Early Years

From Bookworm's A New History of Equestria

When Queen Alternia, unbeknownst to all, took the throne in 0 CR (Celestia's Reign), Equestria itself was a fairly small state. There were three, originally anyway, population centers: Manehattan (for the earth ponies), Cloudsdale (then known as Pegasopolis) and Unicornia (located where Hollow Shades currently is). Celestia and Luna had ruled from Everfree Castle, and it had been Equestria's capital, but the alicorns had rather wisely chosen not to overpopulate the dangerous area, choosing instead to just keep administrative staff and their closest advisors there. The Pegasi Exarchs (military governors), Earth Pony Bannerponies and Unicorn nobles would spend time in Everfree Castle, but had a great degree of independence to rule their own polities surrounding Pegasopolis, Manehattan and Unicornia.

Upon the destruction of the Everfree Castle in the battle between Luna and Celestia, Queen Alternia found herself without a capital. Needing to solidify her position and not wishing to offend any of the three races, she ordered the construction of a new capital.

The earth pony architects Duke Golden Triangle of Manehattan and Baron Byzas of Trottingham selected the site over the ruins of the original Canterlot that had been built when the three tribes had come to Equestria. The city, which had been abandoned during the reign of Discord, had fallen to ruin, but Byzas and Golden Triangle quickly realized that this was an excellent defensive position and was fairly well located between Unicornia, Pegasopolis and Manehattan.

Construction quickly began, with the pegasus architect Vaultaire of Stormwrath and unicorn designer Chartres planning the palace. The defenses of Canterlot were designed by the pegasi military architect, Exarch Barbican of Cloudsdale.

However, the castle hadn't even been quarter completed when the Griffon Vikings under Warlord Harald Hardbeak of Griffonia attacked Equestria. He was going to be joined by another Griffon warlord, Blackwing, sometimes known as the Terror, but in a stroke of coincidence, he had engaged a changeling hive en route to Equestria and suffered heavily losses.

Harald’s War Wings initially struck Manehattan, but the defenders led by Lord Barbican's then fiance and later wife, the earth pony Lady White Tower of New Yoke (an earth pony town that was later absorbed into Manehattan) repelled them at the Battle of Stands Fjord Bridge. Smarting from his defeat, Harald joined with Duke Wingtip the Bastard, turned to Unicornia. They overcame the defenders and razed the city to the ground.

Unable to immediately overcome their forces, Princess Alternia and her army, led by Lady White Tower, accompanied by the remains of the Unicorn nobility led by Prince Blueblood the first of his name, and reinforcing pegasi led by Exarch Barbican, thus lured the Viking army southwards to the Badlands through hit-and run tactics. At the edge of the Badlands in the Battle of Hatsings, the Griffon Vikings were destroyed.

Acting to consolidate her position, Alternia had Canterlot Castle finished. From there, she started to encourage the southward of Equestria by earth pony, unicorn and pegasi settlers. According to records at the time, the expansion followed what would become the eastern coast of present-day Equestria, due to the need to cut the Griffons off from gaining any more land on the continent.

By 250 CR, the town of Fillydelphia was founded and it was soon followed by the town of Baltimare. Both were basically outposts for a slowly expanding Equestrian Kingdom, but all were rapidly growing. It was at this point that the 1st Griffon-Equestrian War began.

Princess Alternia had managed to keep the peace for a while due to the fact the chain of castles and outposts that stretched down the eastern coast deterred Griffon expansion. Furthermore, at least during the years 150CR to 211 CR, she had maintained a very close, rumored to be romantic and intimate, relationship with the Viking High King Ironwing the Featherless, the last of the Griffon Viking kings. Ironwing's immediate successor, Sharpfeather the Wise, maintained this peace, but his son, King Bloodbeak the Magnificent was not so inclined.

Bloodbeak launched a massive cross-sea invasion of Equestria across the northern part of the Eastern Sea, which was narrower. His flock of Griffons overwhelmed and conquered the island outpost city of Trottingham before swooping down toward Manehattan. For ten years, the Griffon Army led by Bloodbeak sparred with the Equestrian Army led by Exarch Thunderhead of Cloudsdale also known as the Hammer of Equestria. So fierce was the conflict it turned areas of the Northern part of Equestria into scrubby barren landscape.

(Author's note: Starlight set her village up in one of the more fertile parts of this area).

Thunderhead finally destroyed the Griffon Army at the Battle of Titan's Forest by a combination of deception and skill. Thunderhead had found out that King Bloodbeak taken the daughter of one of his lieutenants, Arctic Wind, as a concubine against her will and that of her family. As such, Thunderhead managed to turn Arctic Wind against the Griffon King and convince Arctic Wind to lead Bloodbeak into the Titan's Forest. Thunderhead then surrounded the forest in air and on land, before setting fire to part of it to drive the Griffon Army into the waiting jaws of the Equestrian forces. Bloodbeak fled, only to be later slain in a duel by Arctic Wind who was hailed as a hero in Griffonia for ending Bloodbeak’s cruel reign and the war that had raged on for ten years. Arctic Wind then signed a treaty with Princess Alternia and ended the war, becoming King Arctic Wind of the Griffon Kingdom.

The experience of the First Griffon-Equestrian war however taught Princess Alternia and the Equestrian lords, that while consolidating the eastern coast had been a good move, their was a need for more farmland, and to grow a larger Equestrian population in case of future conflict. Much fertile farmland in the north had been burned. Thus, Equestrian pegasi, earth pony and unicorn nobility encouraged their heirs to go west to seek new land.

Unfortunately, in 297 CR, as the settlers slowly moved westward and passed the Galloping Gorge, they encountered a new enemy. The Yaks of the Golden Horde. The Yaks immediately attacked these groups, capturing many ponies. Some of these ponies were sent to Yakyakhistan where they were interrogated by the Yak's ruler, Woolis Khan. Upon learning of the riches and fertile lands to their southeast, Woolis Khan prepared to invade and in 303 CR, he led a massive horde that sacked the westernmost Equestrian settlements. He forced Cloudsdale to be moved eastward and finally arrived at the base of Canterlot itself.

The Equestrians had been completely caught off guard and Canterlot's defenses had never been tested in battle. However, the wisdom and foresight of the city's six architects paid off. As Princess Alternia, her captain Blackthorn, and the Canterlot Garrison defended the city, which had been well-provisioned, excellently located and designed in such a way that after the Yak's had painstakingly breached the city's thick walls, it's meandering streets became a pit of traps for their forces. Meanwhile, Prince Blueblood the 7th rallied the spread out Equestrian lords and their forces and went to Alternia's aid. At the Battle of the Foot of Canterlot, Prince Blueblood duelled Woolis Khan in a fjord across the River Canter. Blueblood the 7th was killed, but Princess Alternia sallied forth from Canterlot into the back of the Yak army, finally driving them off the field and sending Woolis Khan running back to Yakyakhistan. So bloody was the battle though that the Yaks were all too eager to settle for peace and the end of the 1st and only Yakyakhistan War.

Princess Alternia however, was not so merciful. In a rather uncharacteristic, and seemingly foolish act, she ordered the unicorn Baroness Bardaria to lead an invasion of the wintery Yakyakhistan. Bardaria wasn’t exactly a military commander. She relied heavily on the advice of her military advisor, the pegasi commander, Exarch Rainbow Anvil of Cloudsdale. So it seemed puzzling why Princess Alternia ordered this invasion.

It turned out that what Baroness Bardaria lacked in siegecraft and logistical knowledge, she made up with intrigue. Princess Alternia had long knew that Bardaria had contacts in the city of Yakyakhistan, had established spies and informants from within the enslaved ponies that had been taken to Yakyakhistan. As Rainbow Anvil marched the Equestrian Army northwards through the snow, Baroness Bardaria gave Rainbow Anvil the numbers of the Yaks, the layout of the city, poisoned the garrison’s food, and sabotaged the gates.

So when Rainbow Anvil came, all he had to do was force his way through an open gate, kill sick, starving Yak soldiers, and raise an Equestrian flag high over Yakyakhistan. This allowed Princess Alternia to negotiate a respectful, but firm treaty with the Yaks. The Yaks signed a non-aggression pact, whilst having their claims to a number of northern territories were recognized and trade was formalized as well. However, the terms of the treaty made Yakyakhistan pay a significant indemnity to Equestria not of money, but of wool. Wool that proved incredibly useful for clothing that allowed for the settlement of Vanhoofer, and northwestern Equestria.

More settlers went southward past the Smoke Mountains into the area that would become Las Pegasus, which was when they first ran into the Buffalo tribes in 325 CR.

The Buffalo tribes were incredibly territorial. One of the reasons that Las Pegasus had such a significant portion of its city built in clouds was because the Buffalo would only allow pegasi to settle. Conflicts broke out rather frequently though and war was on the horizon. Luckily in 334 CR, Princess Alternia negotiated a treaty with the Buffalo. In return for the right to settle on their land, the Buffalo were given the entire San Palomino desert in return for the river delta that would become Las Pegasus.

Relations with the Buffalo tribes would always remain rather tenuous however, due to pony settlers wandering ignorantly into Buffalo territory that hadn’t been clearly marked out (the Appleloosan Incident being a pre-eminant case). Furthermore, inter-tribal conflicts within the buffalo tribes meant that treaties had to be constantly renegotiated with different parties.

However, with Equestria’s borders consolidating and the kingdom growing in population, peace settled over the land. Monsters were contained to the Everfree Forest and Equestria was finally able to embark into a high-medieval age of exploration, prosperity and self-discovery. Magic studies flourished during this period. The standards of living increased for all and a new artisanal and entrepreneurial class emerged.

Peace brought its own set of problems though. The nobles of Equestria, the Earth Bannerponies, the Unicorn Lords, and the Pegasi Exarchs, did not take peace particularly well. There were few enemies to fight and too much wealth to go around. The Earth Bannerponies did better in that they focused on funding and exploring Equestria. However, many unicorn lords ended up squandering their fortunes on balls, excessive spending, and on alchemical potions to try to extend their lives. Pegasi Exarchs in the meantime grew discontented, often striking out into the unknown on monster hunts to satisfy their lust for adventure and new skies.

The effect of this was that the Equestrian Crown grew incredibly strong. When unicorn, earth pony, or pegasi lords defaulted on their debts, they often were forced to sell their land, or in the pegasi’s case, their services as fighters, to the crown. Alternia as Celestia thus amassed a huge fortune, which she used rather wisely to maintain and expand her influence. She also maintained a rather sizeable group of supporters and faction members that assisted her in that respect.

Author's Notes:

So this was originally a supplemental information blog post, which I've edited and decided to post where you can find easier. Enjoy!

The History of Equestrian Expansion Part 2: The Equestrian Civil War

The Equestrian Civil War

Other names: The Rebellion of Gladius Greatwing, The Cloudsdale Rebellion

In 470 AR (Alternia Regency, which has since replaced the old designation CR for Celestia's Reign), Alternia decided to reform the government according to the advice provided by the Equestrian pegasus political philosopher, Eagle-Eye. She created a parliament where Lords and representatives from the subjects of Equestria could vote. This was partially due to the fact that the weak and ineffective noble houses still had a disproportionate amount of power over the running of Equestria and the new and highly intelligent bourgeois were growing increasingly frustrated. Thus, Alternia decided to kill two birds with one stone and create a constitutional monarchy that would better assist her in administering Equestria. The administration was getting far too big for her to oversee.

But she unfortunately caused a monster to rear its ugly head. The First Equestrian Parliament worked at first and worked fairly well. Thirty years later though, just after Eagle-Eye died in 500 AR, the parliament had descended into factionalism. Factionalism that would create catastrophe.

The earth ponies and unicorn bourgeois had formed a coalition that opposed the pegasi led by the Carrot earth pony Clan and the Glimmer unicorn Family. They were making increasing demands on the pegasi to assist with their expansion and exploration of Equestria, and continued to ignore the pegasi demands for an increased role in Equestria’s running and military expansion. Since the nobility, which saw eye to eye due to their equal social statuses, lacked influence in a parliament that employed representation by population, the pegasi, unicorn and earth pony lords simply couldn’t oppose this coalition, even with the support of the pegasi delegates. It didn’t help that the pegasi were growing increasingly impoverished in this new Equestria due to unequal rules Earth and Unicorn bourgeois had introduced to assist the growth of their business at the expense of the pegasi.

Alternia and her direct supports were unfortunately, not powerful enough to stop this. The rules of the Parliament curtailed what they could do. They argued constantly and it became very well known to the increasingly horrified public that the Equestrian Crown itself was opposing the motions of the earth and unicorn bourgeois. But this opposition could not overrule the vote of the representatives, politicians that were no longer representing their constituents, and instead voting for the interest of a “party”.

So the pegasi fell back to the only thing they had left. Their military traditions. Under Exarch Gladius Greatwing, the pegasi faction became increasingly hostile and downright disobedient toward Crown rule and the parliament’s resolutions. They also began to rapidly militarize.

Alternia tried to negotiate with Gladius Greatwing. It is widely known he had served in her personal guard and had been a lover of hers for a time, before they had both ended the relationship. It is said that she never fully trusted Gladius for reasons even she later on, had difficulty explaining. Whatever the cause of her mistrust, (this author supposes that it was simply good changeling instincts), Gladius quickly revealed his true loyalties in 501AR, when Cloudsdale rebelled as did Las Pegasus and the old pegasi city of Stormwrath.

A thousand of Gladius’s pegasi launched a raid on Canterlot, causing the Great Canterlot Fire that burned down most of the city, except for the castle, which had been saved by Princess Alternia herself taking the field and putting it out. However, while the castle was saved, the parliament building was burned down and the centre of Equestrian commerce was in ruins, with thousands of civilian casualties. He had also inflicted hundreds of casualties on Alternia’s personal troops, known then as the Canterlot Guard.

Immediately afterward, Gladius Greatwing crowned himself King Gladius of the Appoline Empire, and claimed the Equestrian throne and government for himself.

In response Duke Imperator Carrot and his wife, Duchess Amethyst Glimmer summoned their armies. Despite Princess Alternia asking them not to meet Gladius and wait until they could formulate a united response, the pair marched to meet Gladius’s army on the field. One might think they were simply overconfident, but the recent opening of some of Princess Alternia’s personal diary entries related to the crisis as well as other cabinet documents and memoirs indicate they had a more sinister motive.

By admission of the treaties they signed together (that Alternia’s spies had managed to copy), such as the Imperator-Amethyst Pact, it is clear that Imperator Carrot and Amethyst Glimmer also had aspirations for the Equestrian Crown. They wanted to be the first to defeat Gladius and then after that, march on Canterlot. That way they could remove the two obstacles to their power in one fell swoop.

At the Battle of Neighagra Falls, Imperator Carrot and Amethyst Glimmer brought nearly ten thousand unicorns and earth ponies. Half of them were ponies at arms with good quality weapons and good at sorcery. Gladius Greatwing brought eight thousand of his pegasi. All of them were equipped with relatively out of date weapons, but were incredibly enthusiastic and yet, disciplined.

Moreover, Imperator and Amethyst had already made a key mistake. Their army was camped astride the Neighagra river, split in two halves, linked by the Striding Bridge. Granted, attacking was risky as the forests they were camped in would heavily impede the pegasi’s attempts to swoop in. But Gladius didn’t hesitate to exploit this weakness.

In an unprecedented strategic move, he split his smaller army into two and encircled the Glimmer-Carrot Army, laying siege to their positions. After starving them for nearly two weeks, he launched a simultaneous attack from both sides. In this manner, he drove hundreds of starving earth ponies and unicorns into the river, where the current and their heavy armor drowned them. Imperator Carrot and Amethyst Glimmer were amongst those that were drowned, and legend has it they died squabbling over who got to get on a log as they were thrown down the Neighagra Falls.

Gladius did take heavy casualties though, losing his second-in command, Axe Wind. Three thousand pegasi and five thousand earth ponies and unicorns were dead, wounded, though most were simply missing. Drowned in the Neighagra River. Gladius still retained his army though compared to the unicorns and earth ponies who scattered. As such, he could just march onto Canterlot, but he didn’t.

It’s suspected that Gladius was wary of Canterlot’s defenses thanks to his studying of the Yakyakhistan’s defeat at the Foot of Canterlot Mountain. He was also probably wary of meeting the remaining Canterlot Guard, an army in its own right numbering 5,000 earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi, and possibly Alternia herself in the field. Gladius knew “Celestia” wasn’t a fighter, but her magic was still something to be concerned about. So he spent two months recruiting, while also planning his approach and siege to the city. His subordinates in the meantime took Vanhoofer, Baltimare and Fillydelphia.

Unsurprisingly, Alternia took full advantage of Gladius’s caution to completely reform the Equestrian Army. She disbanded all levies, sending them to either training camps, to farms, or to produce arms, and instead, mostly out of her own pocket, raised a centralized, professional army based on professional infantry regiments. The Royal Guard being the first. It was composed of ponies previously from the Canterlot Guard and pegasi loyalists who had sided with the Equestrian Crown over Gladius Greatwing.

The first battle of this Royal Guard, was a clash between five hundred of its pegasi against six hundred Cloudsdale Pegasi in the Battle of Whitetail Woods. The so-called Dragoon Guard, then the pegasi sub-brigade of the Royal Guard, were led the mare that would become the legendary “Lady” Voulge, First Captain of the Royal Guard. She had limited military experience, having only served in the Canterlot Guard for a time and fought in the Raid on Canterlot. The Cloudsdale Pegasi were led by Gladius Greatwing’s son, Halberd Greatwing, and were all battle-hardened. As such, the Cloudsdale pegasi forced the Dragoon Guard off the field, but it would be the only time they were able to do so.

The reason was Voulge herself. “Lady” Voulge’s life is the subject of many a popular biography, and for good reason. She was born to a earth pony innkeeper in the slums of Canterlot. She also had a rather unusual coloration for a pony at the time, pure, almost bone white with a dark blue mane and bright blue eyes. Most ponies, at the time didn’t have that kind of sharp coloration.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, she harboured a rather large resentment for the Equestrian Crown, the nobility and the bourgeois. She had grown up poor, starving and in the streets where she made a name in illegal fighting tournaments, using her preferred weapon, a sabre. The reason she joined the Canterlot Guard was because she needed the money. As for why she didn’t join Gladius’s rebellion? She was aware that she was actually his bastard and he had abandoned her mother the moment he had found out she was pregnant.

During the Raid on Canterlot though, Princess Alternia (while protecting the city) saved Voulge’s life (amongst many others) and spent hours on the field, healing the wounded, and opening up the castle for residence by ponies from all walks of life. According to Voulge’s personal memoirs, she guarded the exhausted princess for the night and worked closely with her in training and forming the Royal Guard. As the most senior officer that survived the Canterlot Raid, Voulge was made its first captain.

At first, the captaincy seemed like it was going to be a short one. Voulge’s failure at the Battle of Whitetail Woods led to much public and private speculation of her past, which was when everypony found out she was Gladius’s bastard daughter. Somepony had spied on Voulge saying goodbye to her mother on her deathbed.

Voulge expected to be vilified and discarded by the Royals. Her memoir notes she had many admirers in the guard, but few political allies. Her longtime friendship with Blueblood the 10th hadn’t been formed yet. Princess Alternia had asked Voulge to come by regularly to her chambers to chat, but she had always thought this was the Princess just trying to maintain a working relationship with her captain.

Alternia stepped in though and supported Voulge, noting that she had personally wounded Halberd Greatwing and preserved the Dragoon Guard, more than what many of her detractors had done. Voulge indicates that this was when she and her sovereign first recognized each other as friends.

After ensuring Voulge’s brigade was replenished by more troops, Alternia considered which of her generals would command the Royal Guard, but the unanimous declaration by the regiment was for Voulge to lead it. As such, Alternia promoted Voulge to Colonel and put her, and her Royal Guard and Dragoon Guard under Prince Blueblood the 10th, who also led the last unicorn knights and earth pony bannerponies. Their orders were to seize the pegasi fortress of Stormwrath, located near the Foal Mountains east of Canterlot.

Stormwrath’s forces, which had been reinforced by Halberd Greatwing, sallied forth to meet them, numbering 7,000 pegasi. They met the Crown army composed of 4,000 earth ponies, 3,000 unicorns and the 1,500 Dragoon Guard. The discipline of the Crown Army and a surprise flank attack by Voulge’s Dragoon Guard, forced the Stormwrath forces to flee to the city. In the battle, Voulge captured Halberd Greatwing as well. As the earth pony, unicorns and pegasi prepared to lay siege to the ancient cloud city though, the pegasi turned Stormwrath itself into a massive storm in a last-ditch attempt to drown the Royalists. Only the weather-managing attempts by the Dragoon Guard, the magic of the unicorns, and the strength of the earth ponies that threw up levees as quickly as they could managed to save the Royalists. Stormwrath though, was lost and it and the forces that garrisoned it were a huge loss to the forces of the Cloudsdale Rebellion.

Still under the overall command of Blueblood the 10th, the Royal Army marched south to Fillydelphia, seizing it after a lightning siege before proceeding to Baltimare. Here, they were joined by the 88th Manehattan Ranger Regiment (Formerly the Pudd’n head Brigade) under Quintus Valorus and his second in command Titus Puller. Baltimare was a far more difficult siege, forcing the Royal Army to stay in place for nearly three months.

That was when Blueblood 10th got word from Equestria’s Spymaster, Master Littlehoof, that the Apolline Army was making its way to Canterlot.

Immediately, Blueblood took the Royal Guard and the Dragoon Guard, leaving the Manehattan Rangers to maintain the siege, and marched back to Canterlot. This was where they intercepted Gladius’s army at the Battle of Cloudsdale.

For you see, Gladius had decided to move Cloudsdale itself as a massive siege platform to attack Canterlot. It was a bold, and if he had managed to employ it, would have probably been an effective strategy.

We would never know because Blueblood and Voulge’s forces brought Gladius and his son Spatha Greatwing into battle.

The numbers were quite evenly matched. The Royalists fielded six thousand earth ponies, four thousand unicorns, and one thousand five hundred Dragoon Guard. The Apolline forces under Gladius composed of fifteen thousand pegasi, but more than five thousand of these ponies were conscripts from the city itself. Some of them little older than foals.

Voulge’s strategy was quite simple. Gladius wanted to use Cloudsdale itself as a launching platform for the Apolline forces against the Equestrian Army. Take Cloudsdale like a boarding party takes a ship. Change the battlefield into Cloudsdale itself and they could deny the pegasi the mobility they preferred.

Unicorns created arrays that would automatically apply Cloudwalking spells to land ponies. The Dragoon Guard harnessed themselves to chariots that would take two ponies per chariot.

In the cover of darkness, the Dragoon Guard charged in at high speed. They deployed nearly three thousand Royalists onto Cloudsdale in the first hour. Three hours later, six thousand Royalists were in Cloudsdale. Thrown into chaos by the night attack, the darkness highly impeding the pegasi ability to make mobile strikes, and being completely unable to match the earth ponies and unicorns head to head, the Royalists routed the forces garrisoned on Cloudsdale proper.

Gladius, unsure about the number of troops he was facing due to being fed false information by Alternia’s spies, was forced to withdraw from Cloudsdale.

By morning, Gladius could see Royal Flags flying over Cloudsdale and the failing morale of his army, who were already lacking food and now had none thanks to Cloudsdale being captured.

He had two options, which Prince Blueblood presented to him. Surrender and be treated mercifully, or attack and lose his entire army.

Unfortunately, Gladius chose to attack, riling up his troops, he led them in a massed charge at Cloudsdale. Earth pony ballistas that had been spelled and maneuvered onto Cloudsdale the night before, cut down many of the front rankers, whilst unicorn spells stopped those following. The Dragoon Guard kept anyone who did get too close from harassing the Royal Guard.

By battle’s end, the Royalists lost over two thousand ponies. Five hundred of them pegasi.

The Cloudsdale Rebels had lost more than seven thousand ponies. Quite a number of them very young pegasi. Gladius had perished along with his son Spatha Greatwing. His wife Valkyrie Greatwing sued for peace.

So in 502AR Alternia signed the peace treaty with Valkyrie, allowing the rebels to reintegrate back into society. This was going to be incredibly difficult. Alternia’s first step was to disband the First Equestrian Parliament and create the United Parliament, a more complicated system where nobles and elected representatives held equal sway, but the noble representatives had to earn their positions through civil or military service.

This was a big step, but controversial, in that Alternia allowed a number of rebel leaders to maintain their position. Valkyrie Greatwing nee Dust was one of these leaders.

On the other hoof, Alternia also balanced the pegasi nobles with a number of representatives that she picked from loyal subjects, including Voulge, who became Countess of Rainbow Falls and Captain of both Royal Guard and Dragoon Guards.

The compromise didn’t fully satisfy anybody, but kept further thoughts of rebellion to a dull murmur, especially since Voulge and Blueblood, amongst others, still supported Alternia. Granted, it wasn’t too difficult to get Voulge’s support given that by this point, the two were romantically involved. Voulge was courting Alternia openly.

What really buried the resentment that the pony races had for each other was the 2nd Griffonian War that took place only two years after the Equestrian Civil War.

The History of Equestrian Expansion Part 3: The 2nd Griffonian-Equestrian War

The 2nd Griffonian War

Arguably, the 2nd Griffonian War started on the island of Venecia, but it’s roots go for some time back. Still, it’s necessary to explain Venecia’s current state to understand it’s important role.

The island, in the center of the Eastern Sea, was officially charted by Equestria in 305 AR and was then mostly a large sandbar with some bedrock that the sand had caught on. It also was rather well placed at the heart of a series of trade winds. North of the island the winds blow you east, south of the island the winds blow you west.

Alternia had an outpost constructed there, and as time went on, ended up sending a number of Equestria’s less problematic criminals there to build new lives for themselves, whilst ostensibly punishing them by semi-exile.

Here’s the issue, Alternia’s victory over the Griffons in the First Equestrian-Griffin War had resulted in a regime change that had placed the friendly Arctic Wind as king. She had continued to maintain good relations with Arctic Wind and his descendants. In fact, during the Equestrian Civil War, King Hot Beak in 501 AR had declared to his nobles that the Griffon Kingdom would not take advantage of the civil war to strike Equestria.

Promptly before getting stabbed in the back by his wife, Helga Greywing, who crowned herself Queen in his place, as her supporters massacred Hot Beak’s supporters.

The coup that Helga Greywing pulled on the last of the “Wind” dynasty was years in the planning, rooted in old grudges against the Equestrians for their victory in the First Equestrian-Griffin War. Partially driven by a wish to expand their land, and also to rid the Griffin kingdom of any Equestrian influence, Helga’s rebellion was too well planned for even Alternia’s best spies to prevent.

And when Helga did launch the rebellion, Alternia was too immersed with the civil war to fight back. The end result was that Queen Helga managed to seize control of Griffonia a little after the end of the Equestrian Civil War in 502 AR. The remaining Loyalist Griffin exiles under Marshal Gordon managed to escape to Venecia, about ten thousand strong, including their families.

Of course, Alternia, Prince Blueblood the 10th and Voulge weren’t simply going to sit idly by. They knew Helga would want to attack Equestria as soon as she was ready. They needed to make sure they would be ready. The now United Parliament continued the modernization of Equestria’s military and Voulge went on a tour of the world to try to collect new military technologies and doctrines that may be useful to Equestria.

It was far more successful than she expected, but also more dangerous. The dragons nearly roasted Voulge alive. However, a journey to Saddle Arabia in particular proved incredibly impactful.

You see, Equestrians had gunpowder, and some early cannon, as did the Griffins, but neither of them saw it as useful due to the fact that both of them had fliers. Moreover, early Equestrian cannon had a habit of blowing up in battles and so was not a common implement.

However, the Saddle Arabians had perfected a far more advanced form gunpowder than the Equestrians had, and a new design of gun. A brass gun, cast in a single piece, making it stronger, smaller, and more mobile. It could tear down most fortress walls and as the Equestrians tested it on their ships, they realized it was a deadly ship-killer.

In the three years that followed, Equestrians sunk hundreds of gold bits into the purchasing, designing and construction of new cannon carriages for new warships and artillery brigades When they had them produced in sufficient qualities, they drilled with their cannons, marched with their cannons, and performed joint military exercises with their cannons. It was an expensive endeavour, but they were urged by the anti-Equestrian rhetoric and fleeing pony refugees from Griffonia.

The issue was, when the war came, they had only managed to get six months of training with their guns.

Not that it mattered, because the first strike came at Venecia.

Alternia’s spy network had been hard at work, and had many sympathetic Griffin informants within Griffonia and Griffonstone. This meant that they got word of the Griffins first target, Venecia. Helga intended to use the island as a staging ground to dominate Equestrians western coast, which would have allowed the Griffin navy to seriously hinder the Equestrian navy.

The problem was that Helga had done her best to mask her intentions, meaning the message got to Canterlot quite late. Significant naval reinforcements would not make the island in time.

Alternia thus elected to personally lead two hundred of Equestria’s best flyers from the Dragoon Guard to the island as reinforcements. Meanwhile, newly appointed Admiral Salted Apple would take a section of Equestrian Navy numbering ten galleons, and ten lighter fluyts to Venecia and establish a naval base.

Alternia’s arrived on Venecia after a six day flight was shortly followed by the arrival of the Griffin vanguard. It did not look good. The Griffin vanguard was composed of five galleons with twenty guns each, ten troop-transport carracks (predecessors to galleons. Only ten guns each, larger hull). They carried nearly two thousand Griffin troops aside from their crew.

Venecia on the other hand had a professional garrison of one hundred and twelve, unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies equally divided. They had no cannon, only ten ballista and catapults. They did have a well kept citadel. The island’s population was of about five hundred then, with about fifty fillies and colts. They formed a militia. Alternia personally took command of the defense and organized the inhabitants into a battle plan.

When the Griffon fleet arrived and began the Battle of Venecia, Alternia quickly attempted to seize the momentum of the battle by personally launching a devastating attack on the galleons. The Griffons didn’t expect Alternia’s presence, much less a rapidly flying ‘alicorn’ diving on them alone, allowing her to sink one of the galleons and set fire to the sails of another. Immediately though, the Griffon Admiral Ulric concentrated his griffon aerial units on capturing Alternia, forcing her to go evasive.

Unfortunately for the Griffins, this was all in Alternia’s battleplan. The wind was with the Venecians, and so they charged five fireships at the Griffin transport fleet. And as the two remaining Griffin galleons and transport carracks focused their attention on the fireships, The Dragoon Guard dove on the Griffin flagship The Cormorant Triumphant with firebombs made from fish oil, setting the ship’s sails on fire, forcing the Griffin crew and Ulric to flee.

What the Equestrians did not anticipate in their plan, though, was the fact that The Cormorant Triumphant was carrying spare gunpowder for the naval base the Griffons planned to establish. Once the Dragoon Guard’s fire met the magazine, the galleon blew, sending shrapnel that wounded two dozen Dragoon Guard and actually capsized the smallest of the then unmanned fireships, a small ketch.

The explosion was so violent, though, it killed Admiral Ulric and his second in command, and set a third Griffon galleon on fire as well as another transport ship. With the losses mounting and his aerial units still unable to hunt Alternia down, the Griffin captain George ordered a retreat.

Venecia was safe, but Equestria...wasn’t. Helga had ordered a invasion of Equestria across the North Channel, a fairly large stretch of ocean dividing Griffonia and Equestria that could only be crossed by two days leisurely flight, but it was a manageable logistical feat. It helped that while Voulge had gathered the 1st division of the Equestrian Army numbering ten thousand ponies to oppose the Griffins, the Griffonians had mustered an invasion force of thirty thousand.

Under these odds, Voulge obviously elected not to directly oppose the Griffons landing on Equestrian soil. Rather, she used the regiments under her command (the Spark Brigade (unicorn mage group), Manehattan Rangers, the Vanhoofer Engineers and Artillery, and the Cloudsdale Blues) to undertake a scorched earth policy, evacuating inhabitants, torching settlements and seizing property in a controversial, but ultimately effective campaign to deny the Griffons any supplies, or even shelter. She even had her pegasi purposely direct a thunderstorm into the path of the Griffons to delay their advance.

Even that wasn’t enough, though, and so Voulge deployed the several unicorn mages under the direction of Blackfire the Dreadful, as well as elements of the Cloudsdale Blues and Manehattan Rangers to act as a one thousand pony rearguard, The Forlorn Hope. She intended them to do a fighting retreat, but she expected they would all die.

Somehow, Blackfire the Dreadful conducted a nine-day fighting retreat, luring the Griffin army down the steep mountain pass that was the the Flaming Gulch. More like a maze of canyons, the depth and narrowness of the Gulch’s winding canyons nullified the Griffin’s aerial advantage, but prevented them from just going over, as they needed to move the supply wagons through the Gulch. Taking advantage of the terrain, Blackfire managed to keep his forces intact despite some desertions and mounting casualties. In contrast, the Griffins suffered nearly three thousand casualties, unable to overcome the discipline and training of Blackfire’s detachment.

On the ninth day, with less than a hundred ponies able to fight, Blackfire intended to make a glorious land stand. Yet, to the rearguard’s surprise, they were relieved by two thousand of the Vanhoofer Engineers and Artillery regiment. Here, in the narrow chokepoint, they unleashed their new cannon.

The Griffins hadn’t expected the Equestrians to be able to rush cannon into the mountains so quickly, but earth pony strength and well-designed carriages gave the new cannons just enough mobility to be wheeled into the Flaming Gulch. The resultant engagement led to nearly two hundred Griffin casualties to Equestria’s thirty.

Better briefed on the capabilities of the cannon, and having finally figured mapped out the Gulch, the Griffin vanguard’s commander, James Arrowflight, planned an audacious aerial assault. It would flank the Equestrian rearguard and surround them from air, front and rear.

It would have worked, but James had taken too long.

Voulge had used every one of the nine days that Blackfire had brought to bolster her army with Equestria’s 2nd division, composing of the newly formed Las Pegasus Lancers, the Royal Guard, the Dragoon Guard, and The Celestia’s School of Gifted Unicorns Mage Group (now known as The Scorchers). James’s flanking attacks were neutralized by the Lancers and Dragoon Guards, whilst the Royal Guard covered the retreat of the Forlorn Hope.

The Retreat through the Gulch, as the battle came to be known, led to the Griffin Expeditionary Force suffering four thousand casualties to Equestria’s one thousand. Not a promising start to the Griffin campaign, but while a setback, it wasn’t a permanent one. The Griffin army still outnumbered the Equestrians and had been reinforced back up to 25,000. Meanwhile, Voulge and now, Prince Blueblood, who had joined her, still had to figure out how to use their 19,000 ponies to prevent further incursion.

On the other hoof, the Griffins were about to get a major setback.

Marshal Arnold Longwing, commander of the Griffin force and his two division commanders, Generals James Arrowing and Henry Flamebeak realized that if General Voulge and Blueblood were to continue a scorched earth tactic, they were going to be in serious trouble. Supplies were dwindling, and they needed naval support to escort ships to their army.

Queen Helga responded by ordering Admiral Anne Goldeneye of the 2nd Griffin fleet numbering ten galleons (twenty guns each) and twelve carracks (ten guns each) to set sail and deliver the supplies to the Griffin Expeditionary force.

Alternia’s spies were at work, though. Her spymaster, a unicorn named Elektra Crown, managed to receive a communique from Vesperia, an Equestrian earth pony agent working as the maidservant/slave in Helga palace. Tragically, Vesperia blew her cover to get the intelligence to Elektra. She was tortured to death, skinned alive, her body displayed on the castle gates of Helga’s palace.

But she didn’t reveal what she had leaked, and had misled the Griffins to think that she had leaked false information they had planted. In fact, she had managed to get to Elektra, the exact location and disposition of their 2nd Fleet, and that they were sailing with crucial supplies for the Expeditionary Force.

Elektra promptly had the message sent to pegasus Admiral Widow’s Wail (her actual name is Mara Bois Strawberry, but she changed her name after her husband Porcelain Smith was murdered by deserters in the Equestrian Civil War) to get the Equestrian 2nd Fleet to intercept them. Widow’s Wail immediately ordered her ten twenty-gun galleons and accompanying thirteen fluyts to make sail from Manehattan immediately.

The fluyts of Wail’s fleet were particularly deadly as they sported twenty-six cannon, the most cannon put onto an Equestrian warship at that time. She herself commanded from the fluyt, Nemesis, an entirely black ship, from sails to keel, it cut a menacing sight on the horizon.

Unsurprisingly, Anne Goldeneye was not happy to see Widow’s Wail on the horizon. She was escorting twenty cargo vessels that had no cannon. All Wail had to do was make sure they were destroyed and she would succeed. She didn’t even need to destroy the Griffin fleet. Anne planned to charge her fleet at Widow’s command, to divert Wail’s attention away from the cargo vessels. Of course, Wail wanted to avoid Anne’s fleet at all costs and find a way to attack the cargo ships with as few casualties as possible.

Fate… conspired against Wail and Anne though. A massive storm came out of nowhere. A hurricane known only as the “Cursed Cyclone” which started in between the two fleets and drew them together. Water tornadoes coursed through the air as the Anne in the Natalya (named after her adopted daughter) and Wail in the Nemesis realized they couldn’t fight the storm. They were going to have to fight their enemy in this condition and win, no matter the cost.

Needless to say, unlike films where fleets fight during a storm and nothing wrong happens… lots of things went wrong with this battle. The winds were so high that sails were ripped, masts were snapped, waves swamped gunpowders or nearly capsized ships. Most of the Griffin and Equestrian ships exchanged cannonfire, but were more concerned about ensuring that they didn’t capsize.

That was except for the Nemesis which charged straight for the Natalya nearly breaking its bowsprit as it pushed through the massive waves. The Nemesis raked the larger Natalya’s stern before its crew threw grappling hooks and boarded. Vicious hoof to claw fighting ensued.

In an odd coincidence, Wail and Anne found themselves facing each other. Saber in Wail’s hoof, and cutlass and dagger in Anne’s claws. The two duelled, flying around the masts of their joined ships.

Fate again, conspired against both of them. Lightning had crashed throughout the fight and a stray bolt smacked into one of the masts, blasting the two apart with a shower of splinters. Heavily wounded, the pair called a truce and found that the pony crew had managed to subdue the Griffin crew. Thus, Anne surrendered to Wail.

They didn’t have any time to celebrate. The Griffins and pony spent the rest of the night battling the storm, when they had been trying to kill each other a moment before. When it finally ended, well…

The Equestrian and Griffin fleet were in ruins. Every ship was damaged in some form. Seven Equestrian ships: six fluyts and a galleon, had gone down. All but two of the top-heavy, over-weighted Griffin transports had been lost, while they had lost three carracks and three galleons. The scattered ships of both sides limped home to their nearest home ports where both sides finally found out that Anne and the Griffin flagship had been captured.

While a pyrrhic tactical victory, the decisive strategic victory and the capture of Anne Goldeneye allowed Alternia to declare the Battle of the North Cape a victory, bolstering Equestrian morale.

Moreover, in light of the victory, Marshal Arnold Longwing was also faced with a terrible dilemma. Queen Helga demanded he advance. Common strategic sense dictated he retreat as now he had no supplies.

But he knew that if he disobeyed Helga, he would suffer, or worse, his family would suffer, so Longwing decided to go with a third option. He would advance as fast as he could and bring Voulge’s army into battle.

Voulge and co-commander Blueblood hadn’t expected this aggressiveness and was forced to retreat as she found all three divisions of Longwing’s army pursuing her incredible vigour. But after they got over the initial shock, Voulge suggested to Blueblood to let the Griffin army exhaust itself and then counterattack.

That was until an opportunity presented itself.

The story goes that Voulge, Blueblood and their officers, who had been hurrying her army’s retreat, were eating breakfast on a hill. Most of her army was camped behind a ridge, getting ready for another long day of marching. The supply column had already gotten moving in front of her army atop the ridge, and kicking up quite a cloud of dust.

Longwing’s army had been behind, but as the Equestrian army prepared to march, Voulge noticed that he had detached his first division. This worried her initially, as she thought the division would try to attack the Equestrians who were just about to march.

Until that division started marching in the direction for her supply column, which was when Voulge realized that Longwing’s army was pursuing her supply train, not knowing that he was exposing the left flank of his leading division to her entire army, hidden behind the ridge.

She immediately threw the hay sandwich out of her hoof and ordered Blueblood, her 2nd Division’s commander, to make ready for battle.

The Battle of Salamander Ridge began with the 2nd Division attacking the Griffon vanguard’s flank. The Las Pegasus Lancers slammed the Griffons out of the air for the Royal Guard and Dragoon Guard to rout. All the while, the unicorn mages of the Celestia’s School brigade gave supporting fire, which killed Henry Flamewing.

Arnold Longwing obviously didn’t just do nothing. He moved his remaining two divisions to counterattack, but found himself blocked by Voulge and the 1st Equestrian division. Tired from the long flight or march, the Griffon brigades streamed into the battle piecemeal, and were turned back by the Manehattan Rangers, Cloudsdale Blues, Royal Battle Mages and Vanhoofer Engineers and Artillery.

With the 1st Griffin Division routed, the rest of the Equestrian brigades were able to loop around and hit the Griffin army in the flank. This second attack by Blueblood wasn’t as successful. It was halted by James Arrowwing maneuvering various companies and regiments to stop the Equestrians.

Still, Arnold Longwing, realising the danger of his position, withdrew as fast as he could.

Casualties were high on both sides, but the Griffins had lost more. The Equestrians had three thousand casualties. The Griffins had four thousand casualties, but unfortunately, had five thousand more captured.

The Equestrians hadn’t equaled the scales yet, but Longwing, with the death of one of his division commanders, so many dead, and being turned back by Voulge again, had lost his nerve, as had James Arrowwing. They retreated, giving up all the land they had taken, and falling back across the Northern gap. Longwing would be forever vilified for this action, but to be honest, he had little choice. His army was starving, the Equestrian army had taken losses, but was intact and remained a threat.

Helga was furious. But she still held hope for a second invasion. Longwing’s army was still intact, demoralised, but after replacing him with Joseph Eaglefeathers, who began retraining the army and equipping it with field artillery, she was sure that they would be able to mount a second invasion, supported by the navy.

So it was an utter shock when three months later, she received news the Equestrian Army had landed on the Griffonia’s Northern Coast, supported by the navy.

Alternia, Voulge and Blueblood were both on the field, and had assembled at that time, Equestria’s largest army, twenty-nine thousand strong. Divided into three divisions, with one of the divisions acting as a reserve force of nine thousand, the army marched south along the coast, supplied by the Equestrian navy under Admirals Salted Apple and Widow’s Wail.

The griffons were astonished and honestly didn’t know what to expect. They hadn’t been invaded by Equestria, ever. With their depleted fleet unable to sortie against the Equestrians due to the last few battles, Helga personally took to the field and with her supporters, rallied an army of thirty-five thousand to meet the Equestrians.

Just as Voulge and Alternia had planned. They knew Helga had to end the war quickly as Griffonia’s economy was overexerted, and she was facing the capture of her kingdom’s capital. In the first place, the Griffins had initiated the war too quickly, before they were ready to organize the kingdom’s economy to meet it. Equestria hadn’t expected the war, but they didn’t field more armies than they could handle.

So, on paper, Helga’s army was formidable, consisting of seven divisions of five thousand griffons. They also had thirty-five artillery pieces to Equestria’s thirty. The problem was that four out of the seven Griffonia divisions were made up of green recruits, or unwilling conscripts. Moreover, lack of food meant that these griffins weren’t very well fed.

Not to say it didn’t pose a threat to Equestria’s army, because it certainly did. But while Equestria’s army had about eleven-thousand troops that had yet to see a battle, they were at least trained, and well-supplied, and their morale was soaring thanks to their victories.

Nevertheless, Queen Helga prepared to attack the Equestrian Army by the Beaches of Marathon. She and General Grouchy Blackbeak formed up their divisions to attack in three waves. The first two divisions would attack, and then the next three, and then the final two.

There was just one problem, the Equestrians decided to attack instead. Alternia had spied on the griffins (historians are still debating whether she personally snuck into the griffin camp or whether her spymaster Elektra had figured out what Helga planned) and figured out their plan.

So the next morning, before the griffins could form up, they were woken up by cannonfire from the Equestrian fleet moored nearby, followed by a great roar.

The entire Equestrian Army then proceeded to charge. The Royal Guard and Dragoon Guard led the attack and seized the Griffin cannon positions. The Cloudsdale Blues and Las Pegasus Lancers, backed up by the Dragoon Guard , dropped firebombs and grenades on the tents, while also attacking Griffon companies trying to get off the ground.

Meanwhile, the Manehattan Rangers, Vanhoofer Engineers and Royal Guard started to roll the Griffins back. This wasn’t too difficult. With the surprise, the poor condition of the Griffin troops, the confusion caused by the bombardment, Griffin soldiers were either falling back to find a place to regroup, or surrendering in droves.

Helga wasn’t idle though. While her first five divisions were disintegrating in front of her, their numbers were still slowing the Equestrian advance. She ordered her last two divisions to prepare to counterattack, and rally their fleeing troops.

The Griffin counterattack got off to a good start. Bogged down as they pushed off the beach and into the plain adjacent to the beach, the Equestrians were taken aback when Griffin reinforcements threw themselves into the melee in the air and at those on the ground. This halted the retreat of the Griffin divisions that had broke earlier and they regrouped to reinforce the attack.

Until, that is, Alternia herself took to the field. Voulge had anticipated the possibility that the Griffins could rally for a counterattack and had planned with Alternia to use “Celestia” as reinforcements. Escorted by Royal Guard, Alternia unleashed fireballs, lightning, huge spells that no spellcaster could accomplish. It broke the line of the Griffin advance, which eventually halted their momentum. Further reinforced by Equestria’s reserve division, slowly, but surely, the Equestrian Army started to rout the Griffins.

By the end, Alternia, assisted by her Royal Guard had personally captured Helga after smashing her bodyguards with her magical might. Captured, her army in shambles, the generals of her kingdom bickering with each other or surrendering to the enemy, Helga surrendered.

In a surprising show of mercy, Alternia did not imprison Helga or replace her. However, the Treaty of Trottingham, while allowing Griffonia to continue as an independent kingdom, forced onto the Griffins several very harsh demands. Griffonia was to give up any land claims to Venecia, Trottingham and any land that was part of Northern Equestria. They were also to pay back a huge amount of reparations over a long period of time.

But the one that really humiliated Griffonia was Equestria’s taking of several high profile Griffin hostages, which included Helga’s twelve year old son and heir. And there was nothing they could do, because to refuse was to invite Equestrian retribution.

For the long term though, most historians, even Griffonian, agree that the fostering of the future King Horace, was one of the best things to occur to Griffonia, for he brought Equestrian ideals, technology and social structures to Griffonia. He would become known by his title as “The Great Builder.”

As for Equestria, the united front the three pony races had presented against an external enemy helped to unite the races once more, and sooth the divisions caused by the civil war. It would also usher in another boom in prosperity, brought about by the war’s great social mobilization, under the watchful eye of Equestria’s greatest Prime Minister, Rapier Apple.

But that’s another story.

The History of Equestria under Alternia Part 4: Rapier Apple and the Saddle Arabian War Ch.1

Author’s Note: Some have suggested Twilight is the one writing these history section. Actually Bookworm is an author-insert on my part. It’s me writing these histories quite literally :P.

Also, I have drawn from real-life parallels to create this history series, but there is no direct depiction of any real-life empires, events, peoples or people.

When Rapier Apple from Manehattan created the Royal Coalition numbering 40 percent of the United Parliament’s representatives, and won himself the position of Prime Minister, Equestria, for the lack of a better word, shrugged.

Seventy years after the 2nd Griffonian War, Equestria was in a fairly prosperous situation. Nopony was worrying about anything. Colonization of areas in Equestria that weren’t claimed or cultivated was on thr rise and there was this boom of industry and spending that gave everybody a spring in their step. Dodge Junction had also been established, opening the south to colonization.

However, Rapier Apple was worried. He’d come from the Bronks of Manehattan and well, was rather plain-speaking compared to the nobles of Canterlot. With a lot of hard work, he had managed to scrounge himself an education at the University of Manehattan in Economics and Politics and what he saw was that Equestria was heading for an economic collapse. The unchecked spending meant that the nation was going into debt that they weren’t going to be able to pay off. The banks attempted to compensate by printing more money, but that meant inflation of the Equestrian bit was skyrocketing.

Problem was, nopony believed in him. Nopony believed him even when he managed to win a seat as the representative of Manehattan in the United Parliament.

But a few ponies did finally start listening. In 560 Alternia’s Regency, then representative Rapier Apple finally got a meeting with the seventy-eight year old Countess Voulge of Rainbow Falls, now the elderly Princess-Consort of “Celestia”. The only official Princess-Consort of “Celestia” Voulge still wielded incredible influence and had her own series of informants who told her about a radical Member of Parliament (MP) with a doomsday prophecy. Naturally, she researched the issue and decided that it was best to consult with Rapier Apple.

In that meeting, Rapier managed to convince Voulge that his hypothesis was accurate, and that they needed to do something about it. So Voulge quickly put Rapier in touch with Alternia, and he presented his case.

After a rather stirring argument, for Rapier Apple was by all accounts a very fiery stallion and loved a good debate, Alternia was convinced and began loaning her influence and publically supporting Rapier Apple as he moved to assemble a coalition within the parliament to do something about Equestria’s economy.

In the midst of this, Voulge died. Old age had finally overwhelmed her when complicated by pneumonia. Many of my contemporaries wonder if Voulge ever found out about Alternia’s identity before she died. This author suggests that that is honestly beside the point. They clearly loved each other.

Unfortunately, Alternia had little time to mourn. The first signs of a collapse in the Equestrian economy were showing. Inflation had gotten so high in Manehattan that families were being evicted from their homes for being unable to pay rent, by their landlords, who then had to mortgage their property to pay off debts (also caused by inflation), to banks, who suddenly had so much property and a lack of cash they had to make more cash, which made the problem worse and… you get the point, Manehattan was about to fall apart.

And it wasn’t the only city about to go to Tartarus, Canterlot, Fillydelphia, Baltimare, Vanhoofer, Dodge Junction, Cloudsdale, and Las Pegasus… every major Equestrian City was about to collapse as unemployment rose.

Rapier Apple’s analysis was coming true and luckily… he did have a plan. Regulate and Spend Hard. He and his coalition froze the Equestrian bit’s value and passed new regulations for banks and securities, which also helped lock down inflation. He then created the Equestrian Ministry of Public Works to start upgrading the infrastructure of the country in order to put ponies to work.

Because Rapier Apple’s actions managed to halt the falling economy just before it went over, what would have been a steep drop instead reduced to a gentle decline, and then a plateau. Ponies were NOT happy, but considering that they still had work, and could survive, Rapier Apple got actually fairly popular, as he dressed smartly, but ate frugally, like one of the common folk.

It was this humility and intelligence that drew Alternia to Rapier and a few years after Voulge’s death, they began to court each other in secret. From what Rapier’s wife, Jade Glimmer, wrote in her diary, Rapier was blunt and honest with Alternia, and was not afraid to scold his sovereign, but was just as eager to teach her.

Ah yes… spoiler alert. Rapier and Alternia didn’t get married. The pair liked each other and loved each other. He respected Alternia’s drive, her compassion for her ponies, and appreciated her sense of humor.

However, historians aren’t really surprised as to why the pair separated in 580 AR and why Rapier for a whole year, was cold to his sovereign, refusing to attend the Grand Galloping Gala, or ‘Celestia’s’ Summer Tea Party. What seemed to be the problem was that while Alternia respected Rapier’s honest, Rapier could not abide lying. He would spin stories in a positive light, but he would never lie.

“Celestia,” well, Alternia’s life was a lie, and she had far less compunctions about lying. Even if she preferred not to when she could afford it.

And frankly, lies were needed when the Gorgon Crisis hit.

Author's Notes:

Author's MORE Notes. If you haven't noticed, Voulge actually... kinda makes an appearance in Alternia's nightmare sequence in Equestria's Changeling Queen ch. 26. XD

The History of Equestria under Alternia Part 5: The Gorgon Crisis (Ch.2 of the Saddle Arabian War Series)

The crisis got itss name when the SS Gorgon, an Equestrian sailing ship was detained at port by Saddle Arabian authorities.

Across the Western Ocean from Equestria, Saddle Arabia at the time, had a strange relationship with Equestria. Today, we know them as a friendly trading nation, whose main export is fine silks and minerals.

Back then though, Saddle Arabia had a stringent religious-based caste system. At the top, the kopatia - the noble-priests, who taught the religion of the Horse God Lintora and also administered the country. The most powerful of them being the Priest-King, who was both the nation’s ruler, and it’s religious leader. The lowest of them being the priest-mayors, who both taught scripture, and governed villages.

Then there were the harmatiea - the warrior-acolytes, who defended the faith, guarded the temples, and manned the war machines of Saddle Arabia. Foremost of them, was the Ship-of-the-line, a massive leap forward in naval technology that could carry 100 cannon.

Then there were the peloliioi - the servants of the Horse God. The standard Saddle Arabian citizen who got to live in the lands, pay taxes, but deserved protection from the harmatiea and kopatia. They were the blacksmiths, artisans, and carpenters. Most importantly, they oversaw the the jihadani.

And the jihadani were the key reason for Equestria’s hostility toward Saddle Arabia. They were Saddle Arabia’s slave caste. They were ‘unclean,’ the lowest of the low, and weren’t even afforded the courtesy of pets. They could be killed, bought and sold, raped, tortured for amusement… all the other Saddle Arabian classes could do anything to them, but usually, they worked them to death.

This of course, presented a problem for Saddle Arabia in the distant past. The jihadani initially made up a good 40% of the Saddle Arabian population, but at the rate they were working them to death in mines, factories and fields, the Saddle Arabians soon found out that they needed to replenish this group… with captives.

Ponies, Griffons, Diamond Dogs, Mules, Donkeys and Zebras found their way into the jihadani caste and for years, Saddle Arabian corsairs would raid the coasts of other nations for prey, but never targeting any one nation too much. After all, they didn’t want to provoke war.

But in 540 AR, Sultan Faisal I, recently coronated at 17 years of age, stepped up the raids as Saddle Arabia industrialized and jihadani deaths skyrocketed. They were being worked to death in mines and factories as the nation industrialized.

Equestria became a renewed target, as unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies could all be used in Saddle Arabian industry for very unique roles.

Of course, Alternia, Voulge and the Equestrian Army and Navy wasn’t going to take this lying down. Many Equestrians were taken in a series of raids during that decade, but the Equestrian Navy inflicted heavy losses on the Saddle Arabian Corsairs.

Two particular battles are rather noteworthy, the Battle of the Yellow Straits being one, where Admiral Hardbeak (a griffon admiral serving Equestria) led his task force of thirty galleons to destroy fifty Corsair ships. He then located a major Saddle Arabian Corsair base on the island of Forhoofsa.

The three-thousand strong Manehattan Rangers under Lt. Colonel Titus Puller and his friend and Legatus (Brigadier General) Quintus Valorus were dispatched to clear the two thousand corsairs out. After an entire day of battle, the discipline and training of the Rangers let them overrun the defenses of the corsairs fort. More importantly, Titus Puller and Quintus Valorus freed nine hundred slaves and captured documents tying the Corsairs to the Saddle Arabian government.

This seizure and defeat allowed the Equestria to force a secret treaty on the Saddle Arabians. The Silks-Pea Agreement. Equestria would not bring evidence of Saddle Arabian involvement in kidnapping its citizens, and Saddle Arabia would halt the slave raids on Equestria… or else.

But the raids had cemented Equestrian opinion against Saddle Arabia and Alternia started giving aid to foreign powers to resist the Corsairs. It wasn’t a violation of the treaty, but it certainly was pushing the boundaries.

If that pissed Saddle Arabia off, Alternia’s creation of the Equestrian Express infuriated them, and this is where we meet the SS Gorgon at the port of Malaga in 580 AR.

The SS Gorgon was ostensibly a civilian vessel. In reality, it was a Royal Equestrian Intelligence and Naval Service (REINS) running the so-called “Equestrian Express.” It’s official name was actually the war-sloop, RENS Gorgon, carrying 18 cannon and a crew of a hundred marines and ponies-at-sea.

The REINS had been established shortly after the 2nd Griffonian War and was already making a name for itself, despite its attempts to keep itself a secret. Alternia had ordered her spymaster Elektra and her two chief admirals: Salted Apple and Widow’s Wail, to combine the semi-formal network of spies, informants and bureaucrats that kept the “alicorn” informed about everything outside her kingdom and within, with the Royal Equestrian Navy. The Navy would drop spies off onto foreign shores, carry their reports, and pick them up, whilst the spies would act as the navy’s eyes and ears. It was a lovely arrangement.

But the reason the REINS had been making a name for itself was because of its operation of the “Equestrian Express,” which essentially was a ring that was smuggling slaves out of Saddle Arabia, and organizing revolts, while providing weapons for said revolts. Of course, most people in the United Parliament knew very little about that as the REINS only needed to report directly to Alterna.

Unfortunately, that list included Rapier Apple, and for good reason. He lamented the slave trade. In fact, he hated it deeply and cursed the Saddle Arabian King quite often. However, he wanted Equestria to have cordial relations with Saddle Arabia and avoid war with the country. The way he saw it, he did NOT want to send ordinary ponies to the horrors of war. All of his grandparents had served in the Equestrian Civil War and the 2nd Griffon War. Two of them never came back, one a victim of the Siege of Baltimare and the other a victim of the final days of Blackfire’s Retreat from the Griffons.

Moreover, he had friends in Saddle Arabia (who had studied in Equestria) and thought that internal change could occur without Equestrian interference. These friends were the peloliioi intellectual, Black Beauty, the harmatiea warrior Mustang and the kopatia noble-priest, Xanthos. Black Beauty and Mustang in particular were young horses who hated the slave trade, and wanted to overhaul Saddle Arabia’s caste system. Xanthos, Rapier knew later, but was more liberal and eager to reform than the rest of his noble caste.

Alternia disagreed completely. She knew the King Faisal I had an iron grip and no horse was ever going to oppose him unless the entire system was brought crashing down. She had considered the losses and high cost in casualties, but to protect her nation from the corsairs that never really went away, she had decided that she would do whatever was necessary to bring change to Saddle Arabia, or if that failed, to crush it. Moreover, a long memory of other broken treaties with other sultans meant she had long made her decision.

History would favour Alternia, and certainly Equestrian public opinion was against Saddle Arabia. While Rapier wasn’t exactly misinformed, he had been fed a more positive view of Saddle Arabia’s society and he primarily saw the burgeoning movement in the castes, that was unfortunately… very, VERY small, not that Rapier knew it. Black Beauty and Mustang were young stallions caught up in a social-political movement and had very little awareness of how little impact they had. Beauty and Mustang also hated slavery with the same passion as Rapier did, which influenced Rapier’s opinion of the situation.

This… is when we get back to the Gorgon crisis. Saddle Arabian authorities had essentially traced escaped slaves running onto the Gorgon at night and wanted to search the vessel.

The captain Gyn Tackle and her first mate, Block of course, refused and produced their false papers indicating they were a merchant vessel chartered by the Equestrian government.

The Saddle Arabians were… not amused. They knew the slaves were on the ship. They suspected the Gorgon had them on board, and while the ponies were very good at keeping themselves calm and confident, they seemed to be in a hurry to get out of port.

Thoroughly sick of the Equestrians getting away from them scott free, the Saddle Arabian naval commander, a noble-priest (kopatia)Tara, did the unthinkable. She blockaded the Gorgon within the port. Tara literally put a Saddle Arabian 3rd Rate, with 74 guns right beside the Gorgon’s berth and refused to move it, citing that the ship had run aground.

Gyn Tackle knew that was just a very flimsy excuse. However, she also knew she was in trouble, and so in the dead of night, sent her pegasus REINS operative and courier, Rainbow Hail to carry a distress message to the REINS. He stole a boat, loaded it with provisions and got to another port. Once he did, he made contact with the local REINS cell, who had a magic crystal ball, which the REINS used to contact Alternia.

Now, normally, situations like these would deescalate with the Saddle Arabians letting the Equestrians go, or the Equestrians releasing the slaves (who would mysteriously vanish out of Saddle Arabian custody a few weeks later)… but Tara and Gyn refused to budge. Gyn would not let the starving slaves go, and Tara refused to let the Equestrians go without imprisoning them.

Into this crisis came Rapier Apple and Alternia. Alternia suggested that they hold firm, and if necessary, threaten the Saddle Arabians with force. Rapier Apple however… wanted to talk it out. He didn’t know the Gorgon had escaped slaves on board and Alternia… didn’t want to tell him. She knew that once he found out, he would insist that the slaves be released in order to prevent an incident with Saddle Arabia.

The pair argued fiercely over what to do, and the intelligent Rapier Apple could tell Alternia was hiding something, so discussions went nowhere, until Alternia suggested that they let the Gorgon be searched, under strict conditions, and the promise that the Gorgon be released if they found no slaves.

Rapier gleefully accepted Alternia’s suggestion and informed the Saddle Arabian embassy. The Saddle Arabian commander Tara searched the vessel to find no slaves. But she did find out that the Gorgon was actually an Equestrian Warship. This displeased the Saddle Arabians, and infuriated Tara, but since there were no slaves… they had to let the Gorgon go.

Everything seemed to have worked out, but then, things hit a snag.

The Gorgon’s crew had hid the slaves by mixing them with their own crew, but also by taking a risk. They had secreted them off their ship and mixed them into the local populace. They had recovered all the freed slaves after Tara searched the ship, but one, a horse, was missing.

And that one missing slave was a spy for the Saddle Arabian Hassassins, their principal spy agency, and he informed his superiors about the Gorgon’s involvement in the Equestrian Express. By chance, he had been thrown into jail when he tried to inform Tara what he found out because everybody thought the scruffy looking horse was just another slave making a nuisance. When Tara finally interviewed the captive, she was furious, both at the horses that had detained him, and at the Equestrians.

Enraged, she took a fast ship, the frigate (40 gun) Halicarnassus and pursued the sloop. A fierce battle broke out between the larger and faster Halicarnassus and Gorgon.

Gyn Tackle and Block were more than up for the challenge though. They brought in their sloop so close, the larger ship was unable to fire down at their smaller ship. Whenever Tara and her horses tried to board, the captain danced the Gorgon out of the way.

But they couldn’t keep up the dance forever. The Gorgon was eventually lashed and boarded by the Saddle Arabians.

Which was when fortune, and advanced planning, prevailed. The Gorgon had been about to rendezvous with another Equestrian vessel, the 36 gun frigate, Cochrane,under Captain Speedy. Closing in on the duelling vessels he announced Tara’s actions amounted to a declaration of war and that the Equestrians would inflict swift retribution.

Tara wasn’t a fool, and so she abandoned the disabled Gorgon and ordered her crew to charge the Cochrane. The tired crew of the Halicarnassus couldn’t keep up with the Cochrane though and Speedy raked the Halicarnassus’s stern and forced the Saddle Arabian ship to surrender.

An uproar spread across both Equestria and Saddle Arabia as the full story, including the part about Equestria actively freeing Saddle Arabian slaves, broke across both continents. The Saddle Arabians were furious the Equestrians had been so duplicitous. The Equestrians were furious the Saddle Arabians had fired upon their ships. The tension between the two nations reached an all time high and continued to rise as events unfolded.

Alternia wasn’t so angry. She knew this clash was inevitable and calmly ordered the return of Tara, her surviving crew and ship, whilst informing her generals to draft war plans. She knew Saddle Arabia would seek reprisals. War would be inevitable and she had long accepted this as a necessary thing if they were to end the Saddle Arabian slave trade.

Rapier Apple was furious though at how Alternia had lied to him, and he was even more incensed when he realized Equestria’s secretive involvement in the Equestrian Express. Historians and political scientists argue to this day whether Alternia was in the right, though, most side with Alternia. The abominable nature of the slave trade that Saddle Arabia engaged in has always been clear to even Rapier’s contemporaries. More importantly, while Rapier’s advocacy of non-interference with other nation’s policies had merit, Alternia’s argument that that pursuit of non-interference should never endanger Equestria’s citizens has pretty much convinced most ponies.

So when the public found out about the full extent of the REINS’s actions, most ponies cheered at the bravery of Gyn Tackle and Block, as well as the skill of Equestria’s navy and spies. The Saddle Arabians meanwhile called Tara a hero for resisting the evil and duplicitous Equestrians and for fighting despite being outnumbered.

Rapier Apple was thus one of the few ponies in Equestria that was angry at Alternia. This dispute effectively ended their romantic relationship. In fact, Rapier nearly resigned as prime minister, but stayed on because he saw himself as the voice of reason against a sovereign who was clearly too ruthless.

But Rapier wasn’t a fool either. He knew that the Gorgon Crisis would provoke a Saddle Arabian reaction whether he liked it or not. However, he believed he had enough influence to restrain the Equestrian government from escalating this further, and his friends in the Saddle-Arabian government told him that they would do their best to restrain their nations. His friend Black Beauty, a peloliioi priest was now a professor at the Saddle Arabians university and a courtier, and was particularly enthusiastic. His harmatiea warrior friend, Mustang, was less so, but promised to do his best. He had become the equivalent of a Colonel in the military and was amassing substantial influence. Rapier’s hopes were on the kopatia noble-priest, Xanthos though, for he was now an advisor to the Saddle Arabian King Faisal I and a friend of the king’s second son, Anwar Sadat, a staunch opponent of slavery.

And… well for a moment, this worked. In 581 AR, an entire year after the incident, Rapier’s work in appointing conciliatory, but firm Equestrian ambassadors meant that the Saddle Arabian ambitions were held in check, but their grievances were mollified, at least somewhat. Sadat and Xanthos ensured that Saddle Arabian ambassadors would be similarly less aggressive, whilst Black Beauty courted the influence of many of the higher ranking pelolliioi and kopatia who wanted to have a more courteous relationship with Equestria.

Alternia wasn’t against these efforts, but privately doubted their effectiveness. Faisal I was still furious at the Equestrians and Rapier, despite his best efforts, was overruled and unable to convince Alternia or her supporters that they should end the Equestrian Express. But while tensions were high, they were stable. Nobody wanted to fire the first shot.

Or at least, that was what Rapier and his friends wanted to think. Alternia and Faisal I were both aware that war was coming.

But nobody quite expected how it would come.

Author's Notes:

If you enjoyed this, feel free to check out the new cover on PCT:CQ and the updated side story Samudra's Journal :)

The History of Equestria Under Alternia Part 6: The Dagger that Blew the Powder Keg 584-588 (Ch. 3 of the Saddle Arabian War Series)

Some argue that the war began with the dagger that was shoved into Faisal I’s throat. Some argue it began long ago with the conflict between Saddle Arabia’s slave system and Equestria’s ideology of Harmony and freedom. I don’t disagree with either, but I think a more moderate view is in order. The foundations of the war were laid by the animosity between Equestria and Saddle Arabia, and it was certainly escalated by the Gorgon Incident. I also agree that it began with Faisal I’s death.

However, I would argue that the war became inevitable when Faisal I took Jade Glimmer into his harem.

All the Saddle Arabian kings had large harems, and their subjects also had harems as well. The king’s harem though was the largest and became institutionalized into the Grand Harem.

Now, most of my Equestrian audience will shrug at having a polygamous harem because they would be aware that Equestrians also has herds which are similar to a harem, and like Saddle Arabian harems, are male or female led. They’ve fallen out of practice, but they are entirely legal. Alternia’s nobles at one point was even proposed to create a harem for their princess in 100 AR. One of stallions and mares.

Saddle Arabian harems were similar to herds in this, and didn’t differentiate between sex at first. They also, at first, had a practical, and humane purpose. The seclusion of fertile males and more often, females, dated back to when Saddle Arabia consisted of a series of warring tribes. When warlords and chieftains couldn’t be sure of their follower’s loyalties. Saddle Arabian mares at that time (and still) had quite a bit of power in their society. If a warrior secretly bedded the right matriarch, she could bear that warrior’s children, and work with the warrior to usurp the incumbent chieftain.

The harems also existed to protect females/males and their children from raids by other tribes. Keeping and secluding all the fertile members of the tribe’s leader with their children in one place made it easier for chieftains to protect their loved ones.

But by 584, the Saddle Arabian cultural-social institution of a harem had changed. The problem was the initial founders of the harem system didn’t anticipate the formation of the caste system and the introduction of slavery. Now, instead of safe havens for Saddle Arabian wives/husbands and children, the harems became specialized groups of enslaved concubines intended to pleasure the Saddle Arabian (male or female) who controlled that harem.

Jade Glimmer became part of the Sultan’s harem in 580 AR, but her story goes back a bit. She was a unicorn descendant of the Glimmer unicorn clan that was destroyed in the Equestrian Civil War and lived in a small town on the Western Equestrian coast with her family. Her family were merchants and so she was educated, eloquent, and very pretty. Paintings from the time feature her having jade-green eyes, and a matching light-green coat, along with a luscious royal-purple mane.

In 578 AR, when she was sixteen, a Saddle Arabian corsair raid killed her father, fatally injured her mother and took her westwards.

She was then sold into the harem of King Faisal’s Minister of Internal Affairs, one Desert Storm. From her personal accounts, we know that he wasn’t unnecessarily cruel, but he was her master and he forced himself on her and made her perform what he saw was her duty..

In the midst of her suffering, she became lifelong friends with one Winding Sheets (real name, Crimson Fan) a lithe purple-colored, red-maned unicorn mare with scarlet eyes. At twenty, she was Desert Storm’s favorite concubine. Having been enslaved when she was a child, and knowing that Desert Storm would eventually tire of her, she took pity on Jade Glimmer and taught her how to move up in Desert Storm’s harem and household. Winding Sheets’s hope was that when Jade replaced her, she’d take care of Winding Sheets.

What neither mare expected was that King Faisal I would take an interest in Jade. At a banquet in 580 AR hosted by Desert Storm, Faisal I was entranced by Jade Glimmer, who was doing a dance/magical act for the guests. This itself would not have been surprising to most. Jade Glimmer’s special talent was in dancing. What was surprising was that Faisal I invoked his privilege as Priest-King and took Jade Glimmer into his own Harem, installing her as the 4th Rank Concubine and giving her the consort name “Roxelana.”

Why was this significant? I’ll briefly digress. You see reader, in order to ensure that the concubines within each harem were fighting amongst themselves and not plotting against the Harem master, Saddle Arabian Priest-Kings had the practice of instituting ranks for the concubines and consorts within their Grand Harems. This created an institution that would apply for both male and female Priest-Kings and had worked for years. At certain ranks, the male or female concubines and consorts would get certain privileges. Concubines of the highest levels even got salaries. New inductees into the harem were also given new names, in an attempt to erase their former identity and to tie their loyalty to the King. Ultimately, instead of uniting to resist the king, the concubines were encouraged to fight one another.

But in Faisal’s lust and overconfidence, he had sealed his own fate. Jade Glimmer’s resentment at her situation, at what she had to submit to to achieve a modicum of independence (and even then a false one at that as it was subject to the Priest-King’s whims and lust) grew as she served in the Harem.

Shortly after she was made a concubine of the King in 580AR, the Gorgon Incident occurred. It was then she became infuriated at Equestria’s Prime Minister, her future husband, Rapier Apple for his staunch anti-war stance. It was also when she realized that Equestria couldn’t, or wasn’t willing enough to overturn the system of suffering that tortured her and so many others. She had to do something by herself.

Thus, even as she satisfied the desires of the King Faisal, she began to plot the downfall of Saddle Arabia. She enlisted the help of Winding Sheets, who, despite her initial fears, proved to be one of the foremost plotters. Slowly, those who knew about the plot grew, until nearly a third of Faisal’s Harem was in on it as well as the concubines of numerous other Saddle Arabian ministers.

But Jade Glimmer knew that if they were to destroy Saddle Arabia, they would need friends in other places. Horses who were in Saddle Arabia’s government and sympathetic to their cause. This wasn’t easy though. Only the slaves had any cause to bring down Saddle Arabia.

A few horses did though. Mustang’s subordinate, Hawkeye, joined the resistance, which soon acquired a name only whispered in the ears of slaves after dark, The Open Circle Resistance.

By 582 AR the movement, galvanized by the worsening conditions of slaves, started to free slaves, slowly started to amass weaponry and when possible, assassinated those coordinating the slave system. They also linked up with existing resistance movements and disseminated propaganda aimed at shaming the Saddle Arabians for allowing slavery to continue.

It was at this point in time that the Royal Equestrian Intelligence and Naval Service started to get in touch. The Open Circle had been ferrying slaves to the Equestrian Express after all. Jade, who was now one of the major players in the movement didn’t trust the REINS or Equestria though. She saw them as self-interested and conducting operations only to appease the Equestrian public, without taking the step to go to war.

She was mostly right and this was frustrating to those in the Open Circle Resistance. Furthermore, slave conditions were in fact, worsening to an insane degree. Hundred were being crippled or dying, worked to death in the fields or in the factories. Jade was also aware that the Saddle Arabians were doing their best to circumvent the Silks-Pea agreement by raiding remote Equestrian outposts and villages. She herself was one of those taken in the raids after all.

Frustration led to more extreme actions. I the late months of 582 AR, the movement started to up their assassination attempts. Many failed and cells within the resistance were destroyed down to the last child as a result.

This got the attention of many Saddle Arabians who began to question the efficacy of the slaves and caste system as the brutal reprisals (hangings, disembowelment, and public torture) by their government disgusted them.

It also horrified the Equestrians, who began to clamor even more for action to be taken against the Saddle Arabians. It was at this point that Rapier, kept informed by an increasingly grim Mustang and a horrified Black Beauty, realized that Saddle Arabia could not change if the current ruling body stayed in power. Black Beauty in particular, became supporters of the Open Circle Movement soon after the reprisals began.

But what shocked Rapier more was his old friend Xanthos, who now was 2nd Secretary for War. Xanthos had completely embraced the caste system and now rejected Rapier’s friendship.

Rapier thus ordered the expansion of the operations of the REINS in undermining the Saddle Arabian government. He also started to support and actively coordinate Equestrian war plans and military buildup, while agreeing with Alternia on the need to make contact and support the Open Circle Resistance.

Jade was enthused, but her movements were becoming much more restricted. She had risen to the rank of 2nd Concubine and constantly had to satisfy the growing debauchery of King Faisal. His wife, Queen Halwat, had died in childbirth and so Faisal was free to turn to his Harem for pleasure. For Jade though, the combination of running a resistance in secret, the humiliation she underwent as a concubine, and the physical toll of now being one of the king’s favorites, was forcing her to the end of her physical, emotional and mental limits.

The only comfort she had was in her friendship with Sadat, King Faisal’s youngest son, who didn’t directly own any slaves as he was an opponent of slavery. Through Hawkeye, she also befriended Mustang and Black Beauty, albeit, in secret.

But that was not to last. In 583 AR, Sadat was purged. Faisal and his eldest son, Iosef, had agreed that Sadat, for his kind-hearted nature and his anti-slavery beliefs, was not worthy to be in the line of succession. So they had him murdered. It was clumsy, bloody, and Sadat’s screams through the palace told everybody who had done it. Iosef himself had taken a dagger and murdered his own brother.

At the same time, the investigation and reprisals on the Open Circle Resistance intensified even further. There were now daily arrests by the Hassassins and even more executions.

Meanwhile, Black Beauty, Mustang and Hawkeye found themselves kicked from their positions for their anti-slavery stances. Shortly afterward, Black Beauty’s property was then seized, whilst Mustang and Hawkeye were nearly arrested by Griffon Hassassins. All three narrowly escaped. Black Beauty by hiding in the Harem, underneath Jade Glimmer’s bed. Hawkeye and Mustang, by hiding in Winding Sheets’s chambers.

But Winding Sheets’s luck didn’t hold. Desert Storm happened on Mustang and Hawkeye and the ensuing fight led to Winding Sheets being badly wounded and forced to flee Saddle Arabia with the two horses. A harrowing journey ensured, where Mustang and Hawkeye had to care for the wounded Winding Sheets, reunite with Black Beauty and the rest of their own supporters, before linking up with Equestrian Express. The group would successfully reach Equestria.

Jade Glimmer knew nothing of that though. She only knew her friends had to flee, and that her best friend, Winding Sheets, the one who had helped her so much, was wounded. Stress and despair - both at the torture that was her life and the loss of the few close friends she had - fuelled a desperate, suicidal plan. One with terrible consequences.

She knew that Faisal’s birthday was soon. It would take place three weeks after the new year of 524 AR. Usually, Faisal would take his 1st Concubine on a private retreat to his richly-decorated lodge at Banoji for a week, a few days before his birthday. In this king’s paradise, nestled in the beautiful lake country of Saddle Arabia, he would feast and enjoy the pleasures of his slave wife. No guards immediately on the premises. Just a few lower concubines to serve as maidservants, or as bed-warmers.

It just so happened that Faisal had dismissed his 1st Concubine, a horse, who had gotten too old to serve in the role. So Jade was now 1st Concubine. Faisal suspected nothing of her, and still thought her to be the skilled, but demure and completely submissive courtesan that she was when she entered the Harem. Besides, Faisal didn’t think his new 1st Concubine would ever try kill him. He had given Jade gifts, lavished her with his attention, and she warmed his bed nearly every evening. Furthermore, if Jade really attempted to kill Faisal, his guards surrounding the private retreat would definitely imprison and then execute her.

It would be his greatest mistake because Jade had no intention of getting out alive, as noted in her secret diary:

Every night, I welcome Faisal into my bed. Every day I smile as I attend to his every need, his every want. Every minute, no, every second, I wonder if he will find out what I have done. Every moment, I live in fear of his displeasure, of his rage. Diary, oh diary. This will be the last time I write in you.

Night by night, a little of myself disappears. Lost, corrupted, sullied… broken. I can no longer remember the mare I was so long ago. I have long forgotten what it means to live without fear. Every night… I become more tempted to submit. To be his obedient slave. To be Roxelana, not Jade Glimmer.

But not yet, before that happens, I will end it all. I will end Faisal and I will die. But if I cannot free myself… what remains of me anyway… at least I can choose my own death.

Jade told nopony or body in the Open Circle Resistance, which was in full retreat anyway. She just ordered them to make for the Equestrian Express and to get the young away safely. She then embarked with Faisal to Banoji.

After three days of entertaining the king, she waited until he fell asleep, and then, slit his throat with the dagger she had hidden in the dresses she had brought. She was about to turn the dagger on herself, but Scarlet Silk, one of the maidservants, stopped her.

To Jade’s surprise, Scarlet was actually an Equestrian spy and a freed slave, who had volunteered to go back to Saddle Arabia to make contact with Jade and extract her. Her compatriots, an REINS unit commanded by her adopted father, Stalwart Pike, made a distraction on one side of the lodge to allow the mares to escape. It was successful, but the unit took heavy losses.

Even as Jade and her rescuers ran for their lives, the effects of Faisal’s death rippled outward. Saddle Arabians were sent into mourning, and fury. Their king had been murdered by a slave, a member of his own harem.

And two days after, Iosef declared war on Equestria, citing their part in the murder of his father. There were no REINS markings on the weapons they used, but Iosef still accused the Equestrians of ordering his father’s death and that Jade was their agent.

In reality, Iosef was really just waiting for an excuse. He and his father had been waiting for a cassus belli (a reason to declare war) for a long time. Iosef knew that Equestria was probably not responsible, or at least not directly. However, he knew that he could use his father’s death as an excuse to declare war on Equestria, and to unify his country.

Saddle Arabians and Equestrians mobilized and ports across both sides of the ocean became closed to shipping from each respective government. Jade Glimmer, Scarlet Silk and Stalwart Pike just managed to get onto the last ship out of Saddle Arabia.

A naval war of a scale never seen before was started.

Author's Notes:

The References In this Chapter:

Iosef: Josef Stalin

Faisal I: Not based off of the real life King Faisal I. I just borrowed his name. He was the King of Jordan and leader of a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire.

Scarlet Silk and Winding Sheets: For those who have read my cancelled/hiatus's story "Of Swords and Hearts" these characters would be familiar. Since I'm not very likely going to continue that story (i wasn't sure what direction i was going in) I decided they deserved a cameo.

Black Beauty: Oh Come on people, you do know the book "Black Beauty"?

Hawkeye and Mustang: Of course Mustang is a reference to the horse breed, but also the character of Roy Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist (the manga) and thus he has a subordinate appropriately named Hawkeye.

Sadat: After Anwar Sadat, prime minister of Egypt during the Yom Kippur War. The real life person was not as kind as he was in this story. He was a magnificent bastard who did truly want a balanced and permanent peace between Israel and Egypt though. And he was also assassinated.

The Silks-Pea Agreement: Reference to the real life Sykes-Picot agreement, which was a middle-finger move by the British and French Empires to the Arabs they had enticed to rebel against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. This Silks-Pea agreement is very different, but I was thinking of asshole treaties when I was coming up with the idea for the name and went with this one.

Yo people, if you're interested in looking over the backstory of Empress Samudra (a character in PC:TCQ's sequel story) check out Samudra's Journal :) It is a bit dark, but well if you like that kind of stuff ;)

The History of Equestria Under Alternia Part 7 (588 AR): The Early Naval Battles (Ch. 4 of the Saddle Arabian War Series)

The Early Battles for the Western Ocean 588 Alternia Regency (AR)

As Jade Glimmer arrived at the city of Las Pegasus, exhausted from her escape from Saddle Arabia, Rapier Apple was making a speech to the Equestrian’s 1st Western Fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral Grey Hood. Composed of ten sloops of war, ten frigates, fifteen 74-gun 3rd rate warships, five 98-gun 2nd rate and the flagship, Royal Sovereign with 104 guns, the 1st Western Fleet was the most powerful Equestrian in the Western ocean, one of the lynchpins of Alternia and Rapier Apple's war plan.

It was a simple one as things go. Destroy the Saddle Arabian navy, and then land Equestrian troops on Saddle Arabia. The problem was how. And moreover, Alternia, Rapier, and the REINS head, Admiral Whitehead knew the Saddle Arabian King Iosef and his chief admiral, Admiral Erik “Raider” wanted to achieve the same thing.

Equestria had a hundred and twenty eight warships of varying types in the Western Ocean. Saddle Arabia had a hundred and thirty-one. The types of ship and their fleets were as such:

Equestrian Ships:

1st Rates (100 or more guns): 32nd Rates (75-99 guns): 103rd Rates (74 guns): 254th rates (64-73 guns): 15Frigates (typically 38-45 guns): 35Sloops of war and brigantines (18 guns): 40

Formations:

1st Fleet: Commander: Vice Admiral Grey Hood, flagship: Royal Sovereign

1 first rate, 5 2nd rates, 15 3rd rates, 10 frigates, 8 sloops of war/brigantines

2nd Fleet: Commander: Vice Admiral Fair Wind, flagship: Ark Royal

1 first rate, 5 2nd rates, 12 3rd rates, 10 frigates, 8 sloops of war/brigantines

3rd Fleet: Commander: Vice Admiral Warspite, flagship: Princess Celestia

1 first rate, 15 4th rates, 8 frigates, 8 sloops of war/brigantines

Light Fleet/Coastal Operations: Rear Admiral Dreadnought, flagship: Lucky Jack

5 frigates, 16 sloops of war/brigantines

In contrast Saddle Arabia’s fleet was composed as such:

1st Rates (100 or more guns): 42nd Rates (75-99 guns): 103rd Rates (74 guns): 254th rates (64-73 guns): 17Frigates (typically 38-45 guns): 35Galleasses (21 guns, sometimes less): 40

Formations:

Grand Fleet: Grand Admiral Ironsides, flagship: Kings-Hammer

2 first rate, 5 2nd rates, 15 3rd rates, 9 4th rates, 10 frigates, 10 galleasses

Home Fleet: Vice Admiral Sea-tack, flagship: Scylla

2 first rate, 5 2nd rates, 12 3rd rates, 8 4th rates, 10 frigates, 8 galleasses

Raiding Fleet: Grand Admiral Erik Raider, flagship: Golden Hind

13 frigates, 22 galleasses

The Saddle Arabian and Equestrian Fleets were quite evenly matched, though the Saddle Arabians were more concentrated in numbers. And thus, we come to the chiefmost problems with naval warfare at the time.

It was bloody difficult to replace ships lost.

It was bloody difficult to bring ships into battle.

The two problems are interrelated because wooden ships were expensive, and because the sea is a big place. Wood ships needed a lot of timber for one, and specific timber at that. You needed timber that was strong enough to build with (oak, gumwood, teak, and other hardwoods) but also tall, and very old trees (pine, red-oak, etc.) for the masts. Each ship, and especially the larger ships that would form a battleline, require a lot of labour, and a lot of specialized craftsponies or craftshorses to make the rope, sails, tack, pulleys, pumps etc. that a sailing ship needs. There was also all that cannon each ship had. Every ship (even a frigate who “only” had 38 guns) could hold more cannon than an entire army would be using.

Thus, both Equestria and Saddle Arabia actually wanted to avoid a massive battle. If it had to be a big naval battle, it had to be one where one side held all the cards. And avoiding battle with a fleet is fairly easy. All one has to do is to use the open ocean to his or her best advantage.

But how would the fleets actually come into contact then? How would one side provoke the other into a more advantageous position.

Saddle Arabia’s Erik “Raider” planned to launch raids against Equestria’s Western coast to enrage the pony admirals and force them to engage.

Alternia, Rapier and Whitehead were anticipating this strategy and decided their best bet was to destroy the eyes of the Saddle Arabian fleet - the galleasses and their frigates - slowly, through the use of their lighter ships, before engaging the larger Saddle Arabian fleets with at least two of the Equestrian main fleets.

Furthermore, the group also agreed that they should do their best to lure the Saddle Arabian fleets to pursue the Equestrian fleets. To do this, Alternia herself decided to embark on the 1st Fleet.

We know from her diaries that Jade Glimmer was to put it, simply astounded, as she arrived in Las Pegasus. She had listened to Rapier Apple’s defiant speech, and then, she saw Alternia herself take to the podium to speak to her sailors. The “princess” herself, radiant, wise, and yet, firm, encouraged her soldiers and sailors, inspiring them as they watched and listened. It must have been quite a sight.

Later in the evening, after briefly meeting and welcoming a tearful Jade Glimmer back home, Alternia boarded the Royal Sovereign and sailed off on the eveningtide.

The three main Equestrian Fleets and the two main Saddle Arabian fleets then proceeded to jockey for position, trying to whittle each other’s numbers down. Trying to wait for the right moment. It could be when some of the larger ships might be damaged by a gale, or three months. Maybe a ship made a wrong turn. Or perhaps a fleet would run low on supplies. The admirals on both sides were watching and waiting.

It was a tense, boring, and for the officers, high-stressed, standoff. The Equestrian 1st Fleet led by Vice Admiral Grey Hood was shadowed the Saddle Arabian Grand Fleet led by Saddle Arabian Admiral Ironsides. The Saddle Arabian Home Fleet led by Vice Admiral Sea-tack was shadowed by the Equestrian 2nd Fleet led by Vice Admiral Fair Winds. The Equestrian 3rd Fleet led by Vice Admiral Warspite was split, part of it helping to shadow the main Saddle Arabian fleets, the other part of it, mainly the frigates and sloops of war or brigantines, were helping the Equestrian Coastal Fleet (led by Rear Admiral Dreadnought) repel the Saddle Arabian Raider fleet led by Grand Admiral Erik Raider himself.

Most of the action thus took place between the smaller Equestrian and Saddle Arabian ships, at least at first, and thus, Rear Admiral Dreadnought found herself matching wits with Erik Raider.

Dreadnought’s original name was Gentle Seas, but as per many Equestrian admirals, had changed her name to reflect the more militaristic nature of her job. Despite outnumbering her opposing Saddle Arabian fleet though (13 frigates and 24 brigs/sloops of war versus 13 frigates and 22 galleasses and brigantines), Dreadnought knew that Raider could simply split his fleet apart and go up and down the coast with his command, raiding towns or putting down shore parties that could then strike inland. She needed to stop this at all costs.

So she did, by employing better reconnaissance. Dreadnought was a pegasus originally trained in weather management. Although she knew she couldn’t control the wild and untamable winds of the Western Ocean… but she could anticipate, at least to a degree, how they worked and knew how to use the pegasi assigned to her fleet to recon the seas.

Raider was a good commander, but the problem was he had no answer for Dreadnought’s use of pegasi. The pegasi didn’t need to get too close. Just close enough to locate his ships. Then all Dreadnought had to do was concentrate her ships, and make for the location of Raider’s ships.

It didn’t help that back at Equestria, Jade Glimmer was doing her best to completely destroy Saddle Arabia’s ability to protect its secrets.

Glimmer’s diary, which she had kept with her, partly out of sentimentality, partly out of her need to share her thoughts with something, contained a wealth of information about important Saddle Arabian ministers and more importantly, how they thought, which slave assisted them, as well as their roles in government.

Although the slave rebellions had mostly been crushed, the REINS still maintained a few cells within Saddle Arabia, and with Jade Glimmer’s information, they were able to get operatives into the Saddle Arabian admiralty, or at least into the houses of the officers of the Saddle Arabian admiralty.

Furthermore, Raider was being very dedicated in sending his reports back to Saddle Arabia, thus, Dreadnought was given what essentially was live updates on where Raider was, and what his plans were. She wouldn’t act on them immediately, because if she did, she’d compromise the operatives. However, she would use her pegasi to confirm for herself and to the Saddle Arabians, that they had been found out, before issuing her ships orders.

With her far better intelligence, Dreadnought was thus able to ensure that after two months, Raider had nothing to show for. Not a single Equestrian town had been raided. Instead, a series of engagements had occurred between groups of Equestrian ships and Saddle Arabian ships. All were terribly inconclusive, as the Saddle Arabians quickly drew off when they realized that they were outnumbered by Dreadnought’s far better concentrated fleet.

What was more, Eric Raider was getting frustrated, and it was during this moment that he made a big mistake.

Raider decided he would take his frigate, The Golden Hind, five other frigates and eleven other galleasses, and ostensibly pulled back. It was to be a feint, an attempt to trick Dreadnought into thinking that he had given up.

But in reality, he was going to circle around and strike Las Pegasus. He knew the Western Ocean quite well and there were winds blowing south that could take him there very quickly.

Dreadnought was informed about and had had completely anticipated his maneuver though, and decided to turn Raider’s trap against him. She took most of her light fleet, eight frigates, including her frigate flagship, the Lucky Jack and sixteen sloops of war and brigantines, and intercepted Eric.

It was a meticulously planned operation. With her knowledge of the weather and all the pegasi she had available, she couldn’t make cloud cover, but she could make a very light sea mist that would at least mask their approach from the horizon, at least slightly.

And when they were close enough, and the winds in their favour, Dreadnought sent in a pegasus reconnaissance team, just to let the Saddle Arabians know that they actually had found them, and attacked.

Eric Raider was horrified, but he wasn’t a fool. He formed his fleet up into a line and tried to pull his ships away. It was too late of course, but he was going to do his damned best.

Despite his efforts, the two lines of light ships engaged in a battle that would be known as Dreadnought’s Catch, exchanging cannonfire and blasting one another with cannonfire. The Equestrian fleet’s numbers were telling though. Eric found his ships being raked by Equestrian ships free from the broadside engagements.

In the midst of this Dreadnought’s flagship, The Lucky Jack found Raider’s flagship The Golden Hind, the two frigates blasted at each other like mad, and that was when Dreadnought met the first hiccup to her plan.

The Golden Hind was a unique ship, in that instead of being made completely out of the standard white oak, it was made out of two types of oak. A white oak outer sheathing, followed by a live oak inner sheath, and then another white oak sheath.

This odd combination, ended up making The Golden Hind extremely resilient to cannon fire. Try as they might, The Lucky Jack’s gunners found that they were making no impact on the hull of their enemy.

Dreadnought thus improvised and asked for help. After consulting with the captain of the Lucky Jack, Surprise, she ordered her gunners to aim at The Golden Hind’s sails and signalled the sloop-of war The Cocky Rake to rake the stern of The Golden Hind. After that, she forced a boarding action and her Equestrian crew managed to finally subdue the Saddle Arabian crew, forcing Eric to surrender his sword to Dreadnought.

All of the Equestrian ships had suffered moderate to light damage, with two sloops of war sinking. But the Saddle Arabians had lost ten ships sunk (all galleasses), four frigates captured, and only one frigate and one galleass managing to escape. Their raiding fleet had essentially been halved, its leader captured, and was unlikely to pose a threat. What’s more, the Saddle Arabian navy had lost a significant percentage of its lighter ships, and were going to have more difficulty covering the ocean and scouting.

Unfortunately, the Equestrians hadn’t reckoned for Admiral Sea-tack.

Author's Notes:

Hey everybody, hope you enjoyed that. Zerv and I have ran into a bit of a problem. The other side-story I'm writing Samudra's Journal, is in need of a temp cover. We were wondering if you could provide one or tell us where to get one.

The History of Equestria Under Alternia Part 8 (589 AR): The Battle of Blackwake, Ch. 5 of the Saddle-Arabian War arc

Even as the Equestrians were celebrating the new year and the new victory that Rear Admiral Dreadnought had achieved against Eric Raider, head of the Saddle Arabian navy, Vice-Admiral Sea-Tack of the Saddle Arabian Home Fleet was scheming on how to turn the tables on the Equestrian 2nd and 3rd Fleets that were shadowing him.

In hindsight, Sea-Tack should have been a serious concern for the Equestrian forces for the simple fact that he was an unknown to most Equestrians. Admiral Eric Raider had been leading raids on the Equestrian shoreline for years. Admiral Ironsides was a famous veteran of an earlier conflict between Saddle Arabia and the Zebrica. The Equestrians knew next to nothing as to why Sea-Tack had been made Vice-Admiral of Saddle Arabia’s Home Fleet. They knew he was a veteran at sea, having achieved a long career of twenty years in various ships, with ten of those years being as an admiral. He never seemed to be the head commander of any fleet, though, so the Equestrian Navy under Admiral Whitehead didn’t presume much of him.

However, Jade Glimmer and Winding Sheets, finally reunited after months apart, saw Sea-Tack as a dangerous threat that had to be eliminated. They knew Sea-Tack was a friend of King Iosef and one of his most loyal and ruthless subordinates. Despite being highly intelligent and never one to underestimate another species, he was also a patriot and a believer in the effectiveness of the caste system in preserving Saddle Arabian superiority. Furthermore, he was also an excellent naval commander and secretly the mastermind behind numerous the Saddle Arabian victories that most thought his superiors Ironsides and Eric Raider, had achieved.

Jade Glimmer and Winding Sheets thus did their very best to start trying to get the Equestrian government to issue an assassination order on Sea-Tack. The problem was that while coming home certainly meant they were free, and no longer had to be worried about being hunted they had both returned to a world that was decidedly alien to them. It didn’t help that they themselves had been changed by their ordeal

They also had nothing. As valuable sources of intelligence and as excellent propaganda tools, Jade Glimmer and Winding Sheets had food, an allowance and a place to live, but they lacked a job and the friends and connections that had escaped to Equestria now had limited sway over the war’s outcome, and in Equestrian society. The intelligence they gave was up to the analysts that spoke with them. As for these analysts, while they believed the intelligence they told them about the Saddle Arabian Navy, didn’t trust their opinion on Sea-Tack, especially since this was impossible to verify, and only based off of their personal interactions with Sea-Tack. The pity, and sometimes, outright disgust that many Equestrians viewed the former slaves only made it more difficult for Winding Sheets and Jade Glimmer to get their voices heard.

Sea-Tack was thus free to do his best to destroy the 2nd and 3rd Equestrian fleets under Vice Admiral Fair Winds and his second-in-command, Vice Admiral Warspite. Not push back, not outmaneuver, destroy.

The issue was that Sea-Tack was confronted with the largest of the Equestrian forces, and one that was slightly outnumbered his. The 2nd Fleet had been combined with elements of the 3rd Fleet, creating an armada of 2 first rates (100+ gun warships), 5 second rates (75-98 gun warships), 12 third rates (74 gun warships), 15 fourth rates (64-73 guy warships), 10 frigates (38-45 guns) and 8 sloops of war/brigantines (18 guns).

In contrast, Sea-Tack only had 2 first rates, 5 second rates, 12 third rates, 8 fourth rates, 10 frigates and 8 galleasses. The Equestrian Admirals Fair Wind and Warspite had four more fourth rates than Sea-Tack did, and despite only being fourth rates, they were still ships of the line that gave the Equestrians a small, but definite advantage.

But the Equestrian force also had their own problems. Ones that Sea-Tack was quite aware of thanks to his Hassassin informants who were in Equestria, picking up and intercepting some of the messages being passed from Fair Winds and Warspite and back to Equestria.

The main problem was that Fair Winds and Warspite were not getting along. Both were technically of equal rank, but the younger Warspite was expected to report to the older Fair Winds, and yet, this wasn’t in writing, but a naval tradition. Warspite was also of unicorn nobility whilst Fair Winds was a pegasus who had risen through the ranks. It wasn’t that Warspite was dismissing of commonfolk, or that Fair Winds disliked the arrogance of the nobility, but dinners between the two admirals never went well on the account of table manners, habit, ways of speaking, hobbie, and political views.

The two also had very different command styles. Warspite was a disciplinarian. Stoic, unsociable and prone to making sarcastic comments. She was cautious, hated putting her ships and ponies into unnecessary danger and preferred to win engagements through maneuver. And although she didn’t show it in her reprimands, she cared deeply about the welfare of her crew and officers, and they in turn, loved her for it.

Fair Winds was a risk taker and a pony who wanted to win glory and fame for himself, and for his ponies. He wasn’t self-aggrandizing or one to take stupid risks, but he was far more willing to do so, and less concerned about the casualties he might take if the result seemed worth it. His crew and officers praised his friendly nature, loved his glory-seeking dashiness, and swore their loyalty to him.

Thus, the pair had very different interpretations over the order that Equestrian Fleet Admiral Whitehead had given them in 580 AR after Rear Admiral Dreadnought captured Eric Raider at the Battle of Dreadnought’s Catch. Whitehead had amended an earlier order, and now he asked the pair to “continue to shadow and restrict the movement of the Saddle Arabian Home Fleet, but should the opportunity arise to engage the enemy, take it.”

Fair Winds interpreted this as permission to bring the Saddle Arabian Home Fleet into battle. Warspite interpreted it as a simple reminder for them to watch for opportunities. The pair bickered and argued over what to do and their requests for clarification and their arguments as to what to do were what Saddle Arabian Hassassins read.

Sea-Tack decided he could work with this and decided that he could bring the Equestrian Fleet into battle on his terms and in a way favorable to him.

Now, Fair Winds and Warspite expected two different strategies from Sea-Tack and had ideas on how to counter them. Fair Winds thought that Sea-Tack would try his best to lure the Equestrian fleet into a favorable advantage and then turn the tables on him. He expected that Sea-Tack would try to make his line of warships seem like he was fleeing, and then attempt to turn his entire battle-line to cross the T of the Equestrian ships. As the warships of the time mounted most of their guns on the left and right sides rather than the front and back (cause that was the only way to mount so many guns hydrodynamically on a ship), crossing the T of the Equestrian fleet would allow Sea-Tack to inflict considerable damage.

Fair Winds thus planned that if Sea-Tack crossed his T, he would then charge his fleet, all lined up in a long column of ships, through the Saddle-Arabian battle-line, where he could then have his ships rake the front or back of the Saddle Arabians with gunfire. As the Equestrian fleet outnumbered the Saddle Arabian fleet slightly, this strategy would work quite well.

It was for this reason that Warspite didn’t think Sea-Tack would try this strategy. Instead, she expected that Sea-Tack would try to surprise the Equestrians. He would be the one to seize the initiative and launch a surprise attack, probably by splitting his fleet into two and attempting to “double” the line of the Equestrians. This “doubling” was a tactic exploiting the narrow single-line formation that warships used at this time and involved the attacker pulling two lines of ships along part of the single line of the enemy. She thus wanted to actually split the Equestrian Fleet into two parallel lines to prevent this from occurring, which got her into frequent arguments with Fair Wind who wanted to keep the fleet in one column to achieve the breakthrough he wanted.

Sea Tack decided to employ something entirely different in an attempt to exploit the aggressiveness of Fair Winds, and the defensiveness of Warspite.

A feint.

…

Sorry, yes, he decided to try to feint them. And yes, it sounds the most rudimentary of military tactics… but I haven’t explained to you how bloody difficult this is with sailing ships. The warships of the time could move up to 11 knots with a good wind behind their sails and under ideal conditions (calm seas, etc.). 11 knots is 20 kilometers per hour or 12-13 miles per hour. And given that both fleets were staying well out of the maximum range of each other’s guns - which was about 800 meters - they’d be about two kilometers or maybe even further apart.

So that meant it took, if the fleets were stood off at about 2.8 kilometers, at least six minutes minimum to close the distance between fleets, which would give quite a bit of time for the other commander to react and decide if this was a feint or an actual engagement. And this is all under ideal circumstances if the wind is in the direction of the fleet that wants to engage or feint. Most likely the ships would be going at about six or 11 kilometers per hour, which would meant they’d only able be able to engage after twelve minutes of reaction time.

That being said, feinting was a viable tactic for an admiral. This was because of the lack of communications between ships and their slow maneuverability. While the Admirals on the Equestrian side possessed crystal balls for “task-force to task-force” or “fleet to fleet,” messages they had to communicate to their ships by signal-flags and pegasus couriers.

And so Sea-Tack tacked. He tacked his fleet into the wind and feinted at the Equestrian fleet, making it look as if he was trying to cross the T of the pursuing Equestrian ships. Again, and again, he feinted at the Equestrians. He feinted at night, he feinted at the daytime. He continued to feint at the fleet, and more importantly, he watched.

He couldn’t see it, but he knew what was going on. Fair Winds and Warspite were having a row so large, it was a wonder that the crystal balls they were using to communicate didn’t shatter. Fair Winds was absolutely sure he could break through the Saddle Arabian line, but Warspite was becoming just as certain that Sea-Tack was going to try to attack and double their line.

With the rift between the two Equestrian Admirals a certainty and confirmed by intercepted messages from the Hassassins, all Sea-Tack had to do was wait for his opportunity.

And that was when Sea-Tack realized he might have a hiccup in his plans.

Back at Equestria, Jade Glimmer and Winding Sheets were doing their best to try to get an audience with the Princess and Rapier Apple. They had compiled their experiences with Sea-Tack and that of numerous other former slaves into a large intelligence dossier and planned to use it to convince Rapier Apple and the Equestrian military to stop pursuing Sea-Tack’s Saddle Arabian Home Fleet. Instead, they wanted either Warspite or Fair Winds’s fleet to shadow the Saddle Arabian Grand Fleet that was following the Equestrian 1st Fleet. That way, Sea-Tack would be forced to pursue the Equestrian fleet, but be unable to execute any offensive plans.

The problem, was that they were still being barred by a multitude of Equestrian military and civil service staff who said they needed to make their own appointment, which was going to be months later. Their case was certainly not helped by the fact that the military ponies and the lower intelligence officials kept seeing the pair as mere former slaves at best, and at worst whores.

In their desperation, Jade Glimmer and Winding Sheets considered seducing members of the Equestrian government and military to achieve their goals, but Stalwart Pike and Scarlet Silk talked them out of it.

Instead, Scarlet smuggled Jade Glimmer into a war-bond fundraiser that Rapier was attending, whilst Stalwart introduced Winding Sheets to Marquessa Aventail Armour, Major-General, and commander of the Equestrian 1st Army’s 2nd Division.

Jade Glimmer was nearly unable to meet Rapier privately as he was too surrounded by courtiers and nobleponies for her to even approach. So she smuggled herself into his bedchambers via a rolled up carpet that was delivered by friendly servants, and confronted him before he slept. Luckily she managed to prevent him from calling his guards in surprise, and after a long, tense, but gradually becoming far more friendly discussion, Jade convinced Rapier that the Royal Equestrian Intelligence and Naval Service (REINS) had really miss-stepped and were in danger.

Meanwhile, Winding Sheets had a more complicated time. Aventail was sympathetic, and worried about Sea-Tack’s reported abilities, but wasn’t sure if she could trust the intelligence analysis of a former courtesan. Additionally, she was an army general, not in the navy, and did not want to interfere in another military organization’s activities.

However, Lord Barding, Aventail’s youngest son, was a former REINS intelligence operative who had worked with Winding Sheets to smuggle slaves to Equestria. He vouched for Winding Sheets’s credibility, which convinced Aventail enough to introduce Sheets to the Lieutenant General of the Equestrian 1st Army, Princess Blueblood the Fifth (Yes, Princess, not prince). She took one look at the dossier the two mares had put together and immediately convened an Emergency War Council.

Rapier promptly arrived, backed Princess Blueblood and after a heated debate, Rapier used his executive powers as Prime Minister of Equestria to order Admiral Whitehead to redistribute Vice-Admiral Fair Winds and Vice-Admiral Warspite’s fleets

But it was too late.

With news that elements of Equestria’s navy and government were slowly realizing he was dangerous, Admiral Sea-Tack had decided that he had driven enough of a rift between Fair Winds and Warspite, and embarked on the final part of his plan.

The Battle of Blackwake began when Sea-Tack’s fleet, lined up in a column, pursued by the Equestrian fleet, also lined up in a column, made a hard turn to port (left), all ships following Sea-Tack’s flagship, the Scylla, as they seemed to try to cross the Equestrian line.

Fair Winds ordered his ships to flank speed (full speed ahead), changing his course slightly to try to split the Saddle Arabian fleet between its first quarter and the next three/quarters. The Equestrians responded. However, although Warspite’s command of sixteen ships of the line (1 first rate, 15 fourth rates) followed the head of the Equestrian line, she had ordered her ships to slow down slightly. Her thinking was that she could still support Fair Wind, but she could also prevent what she anticipated as Sea-Tack’s attempt to double the Equestiran line.

As Warspite anticipated, as the column of Equestrian ships headed into the middle of the Saddle-Arabian line, Sea-Tack split his ships. He had been deliberately holding back his ships from going too fast, and now, suddenly, the second half of his line of ships split from the fleet and charged forward.

But they weren’t trying to flank the Equestrians and double the line. They were targeting the centre of the Equestrian column, the thinnest part of the line of ships, weakened by Warspite’s command to slow her ships down. Now, the Saddle Arabians were going straight into the middle of the Equestrians, even as the first half began to engage.

Warspite immediately realized her mistake, and where Sea-Tack was going to break the Equestrian line in the centre, out positioning their fleet and probably managing to rake most of the Equestrian ships. She tried to contact Fair Winds with her crystal ball and signal his ship with her flags, but his command was in the thick of the action and Fair Winds had just been wounded.

Warspite thus did the only thing she could do, she ordered a fleet-wide withdrawal. She herself though led her 100 gun 1st rate flagship, The Princess Celestia to blunt Sea Tack’s pincer, with the two 4th rates Thunderstruck and Blackjack as support, all the while issuing frantic orders by magic crystal ball and by signal flags for all Equestrian ships to disengage.

For a good hour, it began to work. The Equestrian Fleets responded, pulling back, fleeing their disadvantageous position. They regrouped with the 4th rates of Warspite’s command who managed to hold a line formation stable enough for the wounded ships of Fair Wind’s command to withdraw behind.

Then Sea-Tack ordered the first part of his line to collapse on the Equestrian fleet, and led the Scylla and the 2nd rate Charybdis to attack Warspite’s Princess Celestia. At this point, the Princess Celestia’s escorts had long been sunk. The two Saddle Arabian warships were thus able to concentrate their fire on the beleaguered Equestrian flagship. Pounding shot after shot, from the snipers in the high tops on the masts, to the guns in the bellows of the ships, the Saddle Arabian warships cut the Princess Celestia open, even as the ship slowly tried to extricate itself. Warspite was wounded when a well-placed chain shot broke the mizzenmast of the Princess Celestia, carving a bloody scar across her barrel with wood splinters. The Saddle Arabians would have boarded her warship and captured her.

Except, The Ark Royal came barrelling out of the smoke, full sail, crew mostly dead or having evacuated, the dying Vice-Admiral Fair Winds at the helm. He rammed the battered 2nd Fleet’s flagship into starboard of the enemy 2nd rate Charybdis, and lit the fuse he had planted.

As the dazed Saddle Arabians boarded the ship to capture it, the Ark Royal exploded, it’s magazines having been set to blow. The shockwave creaked the sails of nearby ships, sent wood splinters flying everywhere and even set the nearby Scylla on fire. Sea-Tack had to abandon the pursuit to see to his own ship, whilst Warspite used the falling darkness to manage an escape with the rest of the Equestrian fleet.

In total, the Saddle Arabians had lost 2 - 2nd Rate warships, 4 - 3rd rate warships, 2 - 4th rates, 4 frigates and 4 galleasses. All of their ships suffered moderate damage.

But the Equestrians had suffered worse. They had lost 1 - 1st rate, Vice-Admiral Fair Winds’s flagship. They also had lost 3 - 2nd rates, with one to capture, 8 - 3rd rates with three to capture, 2 - 4th rates, 6 frigates and 6 sloops of war/brigantines. More than two thirds of Vice-Admiral Fair Wind’s fleet was lost, and he and Warspite had outnumbered the Saddle Arabians. It also didn’t help that Admiral Fair Winds’s fleet was all heavily damaged and needed time in the drydock and that the Equestrians had lost one of their most experienced admirals, and a number of their best captains and ships.

Suffice it to say, the Equestrian public were in uproar. Such a naval defeat had never occurred in their history. When news came out through rumors and speculation that the Equestrian Admiralty could have avoided this if they listened to information offered by the escaped Jade Glimmer and Winding Sheets, the public began howling for blood, despite their preference for grass and hay.

Even the Princess was not immune to anger. It was said, (and later confirmed to this author by Alternia herself) that the Princess broke her writing desk upon her hearing of how the negligence of her admiralty had contributed to the defeat.

Sea-Tack on the other hoof, was hailed as a hero by Saddle Arabians. When he returned with the captured Equestrian ships and captives, he was welcomed by his friend King Iosef and made the commander of all of Saddle Arabia’s navies.

Equestria… no, Princess Alternia, was determined to ensure that he would not hold the position for long.

The History of Equestria Under Alternia Part 9 (589 AR): The Battle of Bracken Bay, Ch. 6 of the Saddle-Arabian War arc

In the aftermath of the Battle of Blakewake, the dispositions of the two navies were as such:
Formations:

1st Fleet: Commander: Vice Admiral Grey Hood, flagship: Royal Sovereign

1 first rate, 5 2nd rates, 15 3rd rates, 10 frigates, 8 sloops of war/brigantines

2nd Fleet Remnants: Commander: Vice Admiral Fair Wind (deceased, succeeded by Vice-Admiral Warspite), flagship: Princess Celestia

4 3rd rates, 4 frigates, 2 sloops of war/brigantines

3rd Fleet: Commander: Vice Admiral Warspite, flagship: Princess Celestia

1 first rate, 13 4th rates, 8 frigates, 8 sloops of war/brigantines

Light Fleet/Coastal Operations: Rear Admiral Dreadnought, flagship: Lucky Jack

5 frigates, 14 sloops of war/brigantines
Equestrian captures: 4 frigates

Formations:

Grand Fleet: Grand Admiral Ironsides, flagship: Kings-Hammer

2 first rate, 5 2nd rates, 15 3rd rates, 9 4th rates, 10 frigates, 10 galleasses

Home Fleet: Vice Admiral Sea-tack, flagship: Scylla

2 first rate, 3 2nd rates, 8 3rd rates, 6 4th rates, 6 frigates, 4 galleasses,

Raiding Fleet: former Grand Admiral Erik Raider, flagship: Golden Hind (both captured)

9 frigates, 22 galleasses
Saddle Arabia captures: 1 2nd rate, 3 3rd rates

The numbers were not good and there was a rather somber mood over the council meeting between the Royal Equestrian Intelligence and Naval Service (REINS), the Royal Equestrian Army, Princess “Celestia”, Jade Glimmer, and Rapier Apple.

Admiral Whitehead was in disgrace, though, he wasn’t really at fault. Problems in the bureaucracy of the burgeoning intelligence agency, and an unclear chain of command between two senior commanders were the real culprit.

Still, the Equestrians needed a solution to their naval situation. And they were running out of the time, ideas were suggested, some of which were pretty ludicrous. Others were less so. Some even included the involvement of the Princess herself in destroying the Saddle Arabian fleet, the possibility of which Alternia very much agreed to, but her generals suggested they keep that as a last resort.

Which was when Major General Princess Blueblood, the First Equestrian Army’s Commander, asked why did they need naval superiority in the first place?

Rear Admiral Dreadnought, building off of the suggestion, pointed out that they could conceivably escort the 1st Equestrian Army’s transports across the sea without interference, should the 1st Equestrian Fleet keep the Saddle Arabian Grand Fleet shadowed and they be reinforced by the remainder of Equestria’s 2nd and 3rd fleet commanded by Warspite.

Dreadnought reasoned that the Western Sea was huge. Finding the invasion armada would be a challenge in and of itself. So a single, maybe even a number of concentrated convoys wouldn’t have much problem slipping past the major Saddle Arabian fleets. If the Saddle Arabian fleets were spread out to locate them, the convoy escorts could defeat them in turn, and if they were concentrated, the escorts could work as a screen for the convoy.

Author’s Note: Apparently, this theory and doctrine and the concepts was written about in the “human” world that Princess Twilight visited by a man named Mahan.

After some debate, and thought, Princess Celestia agreed, but to avoid the chain of command problems that had plagued the 2nd and 3rd fleet, she promoted Dreadnought to Fleet Admiral, outranking even Vice-Admiral Grey Hood, and just under Whitehead. She would absorb the remnants of the 2nd fleet and have Vice-Admiral Warspite and her 3rd fleet under her direct command, with the 1st fleet also answering to her. Her mission, get the Equestrian First Army to the Saddle Arabian coast, by whatever means necessary.

In the leadup to the invasion, as the ships were repaired and the army got ready to move out, Princess Blueblood, Rapier Apple, Whitehead and Jade Glimmer worked together with Equestrian Intelligence and freed Saddle Arabian slaves to create maps and plans for the resulting invasion. Their selected landing location? The port of Bracken Bay, a Saddle Arabian port with the facilities necessary to allow ships to offload goods, but not one too heavily guarded.

But as summer turned to fall, the supplies were gathered and the troops were concentrated, Alternia raised a point.

What if they could destroy the Saddle Arabian Grand Fleet? Or at least damage it? Wouldn’t they be able to draw even more Saddle Arabian ships from searching for an Equestrian invasion?

The argument raged on and on, and even further more when Alternia revealed she planned to be involved in the battle. Major-General Princess Blueblood and Vice-Admiral Grey Hood agreed with Alternia, but Admiral Whitehead and Rapier Apple voted against the suggestion. Finally though, the pair acceded, especially when Alternia pointed out that they needed the enemy fleet destroyed to equal the scales.

As such, Grey Hood began to try maneuvering his ships into a better position, whilst Alternia prepared her spells.

Her personal diary, which has been partially declassified revealed that Alternia, although not having the power of the sun, chose at this point to bring out her love reserves, which were stored within her own body and store them into her peytral and crown for easy use. Standard mage-crystals for storing extra energy were also used to help the changeling and by the time Hood and his crews were ready, Alternia was arrayed for battle.

But bringing the Saddle Arabians into battle proved tricky. Admiral Ironsides knew the advantage of the Saddle Arabian position and that if he lost, the two fleets would be back at equilibrium. So he wanted to wait for Sea-Tack to reinforce him first.

This didn’t bode well for Alternia and Grey Hood’s plan to engage the Saddle Arabian Grand Fleet, but the it was all well and good for Princess Blueblood and Admiral Dreadnought’s invasion force, which embarked in summer of the year 589 Alternia Regency.

The few Saddle Arabian scouts the invasion force encountered were sunk with all hands, which was confusing for the Saddle Arabians, but not alarming. It was only when the Saddle Arabian sentries on their coast spotted the invasion fleet that they had any idea what had come.

Immediately, the guard commander of the province of Hypatia, where the port of Bracken Bay was, Brigadier General Lancelock, assembled the1st Division of the Saddle Arabian Army, numbering five thousand five hundred horses and fifteen cannon and made for the port. He also sent word to the commander of the Saddle Arabian Maritime Defence Corps, General Braydley to reinforce him with the rest of the forces, numbering a further fourteen thousand horses and twenty guns.

Lancelock was able to entrench two of his brigades (approximately two thousand horses) into the port just as Dreadnought’s fleet began their bombardment of the port’s defensive towers and batteries. Within hours, they silenced the few batteries there were and began to land the troops.

The vanguard of the attack was led by the 2nd Division of the 1st Equestrian Army commanded by Aventail Armour. They were comprised primarily of the First and Second Cloudsdale Blues pegasi brigades, and their attached Wonderbolts elite assault companies. These two thousand pegasi were supported by a thousand Unicorns of the “Spark” Brigade (aka Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns Brigade) and the thousand earth and unicorn Trottingham Light Brigade.

Lancelock commanded his horses highly effectively, and fighting raged in the port for hours. He also managed to destroy several piers before Aventail could actually capture them. However, Aventail had been using intelligence provided by Winding Sheets and her contacts, which gave her a detailed outline of the primary objectives of the port of Bracken Bay, including important structures and fortifications.

This meant that she was able to establish a perimeter inside the port and save enough piers so she could be reinforced from the docks, enabling Princess Blueblood to send in the 1st Division of the 1st Equestrian Army, commanded by Archmage Elderberry Twist. They were composed of six thousand ponies of the Manehattan Rangers, the Royal Guard, the Las Pegasus Hussars and the newly formed Equestrian Foreign Legion, comprised of freed slaves, volunteers from around the world, and defected Saddle Arabian officers and soldiers.

Overwhelmed, Lancelock retreated, with one of his brigades captured, and the other cut to half-strength. He attempted to entrench his division close to the city, but Princess Blueblood quickly ordered Dreadnought’s ships to bombard the Saddle Arabian position, whilst sending the still-fresh Las Pegasus Hussars on a raid of the Saddle Arabian division’s supplies.

Lancelock was thus forced to withdraw from the port, leaving Equestria with only eight hundred casualties, and a supply base they could use to land their invasion. Over the course of the next few weeks, all six divisions of the 1st Equestrian were landed, and reinforced. Comprised of such:

Equestrian 1st Army: Commander: Lieutenant General Princess Blueblood the 5th, 32,000 combat troops
1st Division - Brigadier General - Archmage Elderberry Twist, 6000 ponies

Royal Guard: 1500 ponies, unicorns, pegasi and earth poniesManehattan Rangers: 1500 ponies, earth poniesLas Pegassus Hussars: 1000 ponies, pegasi

Equestrian Foreign Legion: 2000

Colonel Mustang

2nd Division - Major General - Aventail Armor 4000 ponies

First Cloudsdale Blues Brigade: 1000Second Cloudsdale Blues Brigade: 1000Spark Brigade (Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns Brigade): 1000Trottingham Light Brigade: 1000

3rd Division - Brigadier General Woodstock, 5000 ponies

First Canterlot Brigade: 1500 unicorns, pegasi and earth poniesThe Vanhoofer Artillery Brigade: 1000 unicorns and earth poniesThe Fillydelphia Light Infantry: 1500 unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasiThe Hollow Shades Brigade: 1000 unicorns

4th division - Major General Athefled - 5000 ponies

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Equestrian Fyrd Brigades, 1000 ponies each

5th division - Brigadier General Argent Defender- 6000 ponies

The Equestrian Beefeaters 2000 earth ponies and unicornsThe Sherbrooke Rangers 1000 earth poniesThe Eagle’s Brigade 2000 pegasiThe Equestrian Zouaves (light infantry)- 1000, earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi

6th division (reserves) - Colonel Red Plum Blossom - 6000 ponies

The Rockhoof Pioneers: 1000 poniesThe Star Brigade: 1000 poniesThe Flash Brigade 1000 poniesThe Wings of Sonambula: 1000 poniesMeadowbrook’s Combat Medics: 1000Mistmane’s Illusionists: 1000

And fielded against them were all of Saddle Arabia’s army, of fifty-five thousand horses.

Saddle Arabian Army Organization
The Hammer of Saddle Arabia: 19,000, General Mountague

1st Division, Lancelock: 5500 horses, now 3000 horses2nd Division, 6000 horses3rd Division, 5500 horsesReserves: 2000

The Maritime Defence Corps - General Braydley, 14,000 horses

Right Wing: 4,000Left wing: 4,000Centre wing: 4,000Reserves: 2,000

The Saddle Arabian Desert Rats - General Jamil, 14,000

1st division: 3,0002nd division: 3,0003rd division: 3,000The Silver Janissaries (Elite division): 3,0004th division (reserves): 2,000

The Royal Guard - 3000, King Iosef

The problem was that although the Saddle Arabians outnumbered the Equestrians by about 5:3, the Saddle Arabian armies did not have a united command, but was split into several smaller armies. Of all of these armies, only General Mountague’s Hammer of Saddle Arabia and the Saddle Arabian Desert Rats was concentrated. General Braydley’s Marine Defence Corps was dispersed by regiment (400-800 horses a regiment), garrisoning various coastal fortifications.

The smallest of them was the Royal Guard, kept permanently in the capital area by King Iosef. Furthermore, Princess Blueblood was reliably informed that General Mountague and General Braydley had difficulties working with General Jamil of the Saddle Arabian Desert Rats. So, in actuality, the situation was more akin to an army of 32 thousand versus an army of 19 thousand supported by a scattered garrison force of 14 thousand, versus a separate army of 14 thousand, with an additional 3 thousand sitting on the sidelines.

Which was why Blueblood felt confident enough to split her army up.

General Lancelock had retreated away from General Mountague’s headquarters, toward the nearby headquarters of General Braydley of the Saddle Arabian Marine Defence Corps. If he united with Braydley, who would be rapidly concentrating his forces, they could pose problems, so Blueblood sent Brigadier General Aventail Armour and Colonel Red Plum Blossom of the Equestrian Second and Reserve divisions(10,000 ponies), to pursue Lancelock and annihilate his remaining 3,000 horses. They were also to try to prevent General Braydley from rallying his horses together.

Meanwhile, Blueblood sent the Equestrian 3rd, 4th and 5th divisions under Major General Athefled of the 4th Equestrian division (total 16,000 ponies) to defeat General Mountague’s remaining 13,500 horses. The Equestrian 1st Division under Elderberry Twist (6,000) was to maintain the base of operations at Bracken Bay Port.

Author's Notes:

Hey all, Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen got a pretty interesting video review/analysis by Shadow Quill, who just started his fimfic review channel. Check it out and shoot him some feedback :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0CdE6hsT5w

The History of Equestria Under Alternia Part 10 (589 AR): Aventail Armour and Plum Blossom's March North, Ch. 7 of the Saddle-Arabian War arc

Aventail Amour, in overall command of the Equestrian 2nd and Reserve Divisions, pushed her ponies hard in pursuit of Lancelock. That being said, most of her division was quite tired from the earlier Battle of Bracken Bay, so they left the reconnoitering and vanguard duties to Colonel Red Plum Blossom of the Equestrian Reserve Division.

Being the Reserve Division of the Equestrian Army, The Pegasus Colonel, Red Plum Blossom’s, ponies were green, but they were trained and well suited to their duties. The reason the division was called the “Reserve” division was due to its position in the army, and the fact it was drawn from settlements in Equestria that were too tiny to maintain their own brigade or division for that matter. As such, the individual brigades took the names of the Pillars of Old Equestria for their own, depending on their specializations. With Meadowbrook’s Engineers and The Flash Brigade leading the way in scouting and preparing the road for the rest of the army, Aventail’s forces advanced rapidly.

But Lancelock’s forces advanced even faster, albeit, in greater disorder. The Saddle Arabians simply had longer legs. Although, Red Plum Blossom ordered “Sonambula’s Wings” to harass them and disrupt their supply train, Lancelock’s Saddle Arabians managed to keep ahead of Blossom’s forces.

However, as a result of the harassment and their speed of retreat, the Saddle Arabians had lost much of their armor, equipment, and baggage train by the time they reached General Braydley’s headquarters.

The problem was that even though Braydley hadn’t assembled his whole army, he’d mustered 4,000 of his horses and combined with Lancelocks now 2,000, they had a force of 6,000 horses, and more of Braydley’s 10,000 horses were coming to combine with them.

Fully aware Braydley was going to continue to evade their forces, Aventail and Blossom decided on a simple strategy. Split up and push hard, and push fast.

Plum Blossom took her 6,000 Equestrians on a collision course with Braydley’s concentrated 6,000 horse. Aventail and her 4,000 strong Equestrian 2nd Division dashed past what Braydley had managed to assemble, with the intention to go on a search and destroy mission to disrupt Saddle Arabian lines of communication, and prevent the rest of Braydley’s forces from concentrating.

Not wishing to fight a battle, Braydley continued to retreat, but Aventail had planned for this. As Braydley retreated to the northwest, he found the roads damaged, bridges blown up, and the supply depots he had wanted to use, burnt to the ground. Aventail’s flanking maneuver meant Braydley had to stop and forage for food and supplies.

This bought time for Blossom to catch up and the Equestrian Reserve Division thus confronted Braydley on the plains outside of the city of Saharrah.

Blossom had at her disposal, two thousand earth ponies with ten cannon, two thousand unicorns, and two thousand pegasi. Setting up her earth ponies and their cannon in front, with the unicorns mixed with them, she ordered an bombardment of Braydley’s positions.

Braydley had cannon, but a lack of ammunition. So he decided to engage. Saddle Arabians had a distinct height advantage over the ponies, and he knew that staying at range would just make it easier for the Equestrians to harass and whittle his numbers down. So he ordered a Saddle Arabian cavalry charge.

Six thousand horses with lances set to point forward, thundered at the Equestrians, but in contrast to them, the Equestrians held firm. Cannon fired, repeating crossbows set up on tripods spat out bolts, unicorns launched volleys of spells. But the Saddle Arabian charge still thundered forward.

Too late, did Braydley realize that Blossom had had her engineers set up traps, which had been hidden by the unicorn’s magic. As the Saddle Arabians made contact, they ran into stakes hidden by unicorn magic and earth pony camouflage, as well as pits and ditches. The Saddle Arabian charge was broken, though, it only appeared to be at certain places.

This was completely intentional. The Equestrians planned to counterattack after all. As the Saddle Arabians took advantage of the gaps in the Equestrian traps to rush forward, they were blasted by crossbow-bolts and blasting spells, before charged by earth ponies and unicorns.

To make matters worse, Blossom chose to signal the Equestrian pegasi brigades, the Flash Brigade and the Wings of Sonambula, to attack the Saddle Arabians from the air, dropping a rain of javelins before they started to harass and swarm Braydley’s forces. Outflanked, in disarray, the Saddle Arabians broke and fled.

Braydley had been killed by flanking pegasi who targeted his bodyguard, and so Lancelock took command. He managed to extract about three thousand Saddle Arabians from the debacle, but he left the rest lying dead on the field, or writhing in agony.

In the coming days, his force would keep retreating, attempting to gather and reform with the rest of Braydley’s Coastal Command, but Aventail’s fresh division kept a sword in the Saddle Arabian’s backs and when they were supplemented by Blossom’s still intact reserve division, Lancelock found it near-impossible to reform his command.

The History of Equestria Under Alternia Part 11 (589 AR): Mares El Kabul, Ch. 8 of the Saddle Arabian War arc

Author’s Note: In lieu of Remembrance Day, I dedicate this chapter to the fallen civilian and soldiers who died protecting their families and friends from tyranny, and the living who suffer from the effects of war.

With the understanding that Admiral Sea-Tack was a brilliant tactician, the new Fleet Admiral Dreadnought decided that the best way to fight her Saddle Arabian counterpart was not to fight him at all.

This proved a rather effective strategy. Sea-Tack could not figure out how to engage the new Equestrian 4th fleet, which was made from the remnants of the Equestrian 2nd and 3rd fleet. Furthermore, Sea-Tack’s counterpart, Grand Admiral Ironsides could not force an engagement with Admiral Grey Hood and the Equestrian First Fleet. The opposing naval forces were essentially embarked in two chases. Such chases would only be broken when one fleet had to withdraw to re-supply and re-fit.

It was the need to refit that brought Ironsides’s Saddle Arabian Grand Fleet back to the fortified harbour of Mares El Kabul. The Equestrian 1st Fleet wanted to attempt a pursuit, but they were sorely in need of a resupply and refit as well, and so also disengaged.

Mares El Kabul was the chief naval supply depot of the Saddle Arabian Grand Fleet. The harbour was well-protected, with only one 80 meter wide channel, which opened to a bay shaped like a lightning-bolt, with the widest part narrowing to said entry channel. Said entrance was guarded by twin star-forts, the Thunder-fort and the Lightning-fort, each having about forty cannon between them. There were also numerous other batteries and coastal forts along the land facing towards the sea.

It would be suicide to attack such a blockade, and so, Dreadnought decided not to.

She knew that Admiral Sea-Tack and Admiral Ironsides were not at odds with one another due to Iosfe’s promotion of Admiral Sea-Tack. The younger Saddle Arabian admiral now outranked Admiral Ironsides, but the latter, a career navy-horse, was jealous of Sea-Tack’s friendship with the sultan.

Dreadnought was aware though that when push came to shove, Sea-Tack and Ironsides would work together, but that their animosity would help with her plan.

Thus, when the Equestrian 4th Fleet disengaged from Sea Tack’s Saddle Arabian Home Fleet, Sea-Tack pursued, but the now much lighter ships of Dreadnought’s formation made this impossible. However, Sea-Tack had managed to pursue Dreadnought to the Equestrian Coast and to the port of Vanhoofer. He assumed that the Equestrians had been going for a resupply and so sent a rather low-priority message to inform Ironsides, who didn’t get the news until three weeks later.

Except, Dreadnought had no intention of docking at Vanhoofer.

About a month later, sentries at the Thunder-Fort and Lightning-Fort saw shapes in the dark, obscured by the typical seasonal fog. They fired starshells, but could not identify the unknown ships, which charged forward.

At the same time, sentries on the boats in Mares El Kabul were silently knifed in the back. Even as the Thunder and Lightning forts raised the alarm. The ships in the bay remained unmoving, or their commanders greatly confused as to where their sentries had disappeared to.

Too late, the forts open fired on the unknown ships, five 3rd rates and five frigates, from the look of it, but they kept charging forward, their hulls being blasted, until at the narrowest point in the channel, they sunk, forming a barrier to block the harbour off.

The forts called for reinforcements, but they had more pressing issues. Widespread fires were breaking out. Pegasi had dumped lamp oil onto the ships of the line of Admiral Ironsides fleet and had set them alight. The crews, confused, sleepy and panicking due to the fire, either had to crawl through gunports to get free, or were burnt alive in their flaming ships.

Several of these warships actually exploded, sending flaming wood chips flying into their neighbours, and setting the piers they were moored at alight, addingo the confusion.

In the aftermath every single one of the Saddle Arabian Grand fleet’s ships of the line was either damaged or sunk. Admiral Ironsides had escaped, but his flagship, The Kings-Hammer, a 1st Rate ship of the line, was sitting on the bottom of the ocean, along with another 1st Rate, 3 2nd rates, and 10 3rd rates. The rest of the damaged ships could not even get out of the harbour thanks to the ten block-ships that Dreadnought had deliberately ordered sunk at the mouth of Mares El-Kabul, rendering the port useless for months.

Months that Dreadnought could use to concentrate all her naval assets against Sea-Tack’s fleet.

All in all, Dreadnought had succeeded at an astounding Equestrian naval victory, using the same unconventional tactics that she was so fond of, and had set the stage for the final battle of the Equestrian-Saddle Arabian Naval Theatre.

Author's Notes:

This battle was inspired by the Japanese taking of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese war, which I learnt about during my summer trip to Japan and the pre-ww1 dreadnought IJN Mikasa, a definite treat if you love naval history.

The History of Equestria Under Alternia Part 12 (589 AR): Battle of Stirring Bridge, Ch. 9 of the Saddle Arabian War arc

As Dreadnought was executing the Saddle-Arabian Grand Fleet, the land war continued to favor the Equestrians.

Princess Blueblood had sent the Equestrian 3rd, 4th and 5th divisions under Major General Athefled of the 4th Equestrian division (total 16,000 ponies) to defeat General Mountague’s remaining 13,500 horses. They were advancing southwards toward the Saddle Arabian capital, Breehoofen along the Chariot Road, Saddle Arabia’s chief highway, which was laid over a mix of grassland and hot plainsland, with outcroppings of trees sprouting around oases and rivers.

The vanguard of this army was led by the Equestrian 5th division under Brigadier General Argent Defender, who had assembled her land forces in several columns for better ease of movement, with her pegasi brigades scouting ahead and to their flanks.

3rd Division - Brigadier General Woodstock, 5000 ponies

First Canterlot Brigade: 1500 unicorns, pegasi and earth poniesThe Vanhoofer Artillery Brigade: 1000 unicorns and earth poniesThe Fillydelphia Light Infantry: 1500 unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasiThe Hollow Shades Brigade: 1000 unicorns

4th division - Major General Athefled - 5000 ponies

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th Equestrian Fyrd and Yeomanry Brigades, 1000 ponies each

5th division - Brigadier General Argent Defender- 6000 ponies

The Equestrian Beefeaters 2000 earth ponies and unicornsSherbrooke Rangers 1000 earth poniesThe Eagle’s Brigade 2000 pegasiThe Equestrian Zouaves (light infantry)- 1000, earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi

Opposing the Equestrians were General Mountague’s forces, who were rushing up the road to intercept the Equestrian army. Despite lacking his 1st division under Brigadier General Lancelock, Mountague planned to concentrate his force at the crossing of Stirring Bridge, a strategic location along the Chariot Road. If the Equestrian Army wanted to march to the Saddle Arabian capital of Breehoofen, they had to cross Stirring Bridge. However, the bridge itself was only wide enough for five ponies to cross abreast, or three Saddle Arabian horses. The river also fed a thick bank of trees that provided shade for anybody on either side of the river.

Mountague’s army though was exhausted from a fast march. He had managed to force his army to arrive first at the bridge, in the weaning hours of the day. But not all of his army had arrived. His 2nd division was at the bridge, but his 3rd division and reserves were farther back. That 2nd division had just started setting up camp when scouts of Brigadier General Argent Defender’s Equestrian 5th division spotted them.

Argent Defender immediately realized that if they let Mountague fortify himself, the Equestrians would never be able to cross. So she sent a missive to the army commander Aetheflaed and her colleague General Woodstock to back her up and attacked.

Six thousand Equestrians charged the six thousand Saddle Arabians. The Equestrians managed to get a company of earth ponies and unicorns across the bridge before the Saddle Arabians closed in, and vicious melee fighting ensued. Yet, despite the fact that both sides were tired from a long march, the Saddle Arabians hadn’t set up camp yet and hadn’t put on all their armor. The Equestrians had and had worked themselves into a frenzy.

As a result, the Saddle Arabians were forced to retreat and the bridge was seized by the Equestrians. However, Mountague was fast approaching with his 3rd and Reserve division. He had also rallied the four thousand horses of his 2nd division still in fighting shape.

Argent Defender’s division was mostly in fighting shape due to the surprise they had achieved, but they were now heavily outnumbered. The good news was that General Athelflaed’s division was approaching fast. In fact, 1000 ponies of Athelflaed’s 1st Equestrian Fyrd brigade had just arrived to reinforce Argent.

The Equestrians proceeded to form a cordon around the bridge. They could have retreated behind the bridge, but Argent wanted to encourage the Saddle Arabians to attack her.

Mountague obliged, mainly because he knew that losing the bridge would mean that the road to the capital would be opened. However, he didn’t simply charge his horses at the fortified Equestrians. Instead, he set up cannon on the nearby hills and opened fire.

The bombardment caused hundreds of casualties amongst Argent Defender’s division, but she knew reinforcements were incoming, and so got her ponies to dig in.

After an hour of shelling, Mountague prepared to attack, but then he spotted dust on the horizon. Realizing it was Athelflaed’s reinforcements, Mountague decided he was outnumbered and ordered a withdrawal.

The victorious Equestrians celebrated throughout the night, but Athelflaed and Argent Defender were rather concerned. Together, Argent Defender’s 5000 combat-ready ponies and Athelflaed’s fresh division were now more than a match for Mountague’s demoralized 11,000 horses, but where was General Woodstock’s division?

They wouldn’t find out until it was nearly too late.

The History of Equestria Under Alternia Part 13 (589 AR):The Ardennes Rout, Ch. 10 of the Saddle Arabian War arc

Equestrian Staff had considered that the “Saddle Arabian Desert Rats” of General Jamil to be held in reserve and frankly, the intelligence they had on General Jamil would confirm this.

Jamil was by all accounts, a terrible general. He liked to visit brothels, enjoying the company of both male and female courtesans. He drank barrels upon barrels of wine, and so was constantly drunk.

And the Equestrian staff was right. Jamil was exactly that kind of horse. But because he was that kind of horse, he had actually drunk himself into a stupor, and was then strangled by the courtesans that had served him.

Jamil’s second-in-command, the horse that actually kept his army from falling apart, was Brigadier General Ginger. She was actually competent, intelligent and now that she was in control, she planned to save the Saddle Arabian Kingdom.

Ever since the Equestrian invasion at Bracken Bay, Ginger had been pressing General Jamil to throw his army at the Equestrian landing point and push them back to the sea. She saw it as a weakpoint. If the Saddle Arabians could take the port, then they could starve the Equestrians out, or at least, buy time for them to regroup.

Of course, Jamil had delayed and dallied, and ultimately refused. But now that Ginger was at the head of his army, she could turn it there.

The Saddle Arabian Desert Rats - Brigadier General Ginger, 14,000

1st division: 3,0002nd division: 3,0003rd division: 3,000The Silver Janissaries (Elite division): 3,0004th division (reserves): 2,000

To General Woodstock’s bad luck, his 3rd Division was in the way. His division of five thousand ponies were marching through the Ardennes Forest in four large column formations. The Fillydelphia Light Infantry was in the lead, with the First Canterlot Brigade following up, the Vanhoofer Canterlot Brigade was following and the Hollow Shades Brigade was backing the entire division up.

3rd Division - Brigadier General Woodstock, 5000 ponies

First Canterlot Brigade: 1500 unicorns, pegasi and earth poniesThe Vanhoofer Artillery Brigade: 1000 unicorns and earth poniesThe Fillydelphia Light Infantry: 1500 unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasiThe Hollow Shades Brigade: 1000 unicorns

Ginger’s scouts met elements of the Fillydelphia Light Brigade and after several days of skirmishing, she managed to ensure Woodstock had no idea of her forces (which she had hid in the Ardennes Forest), but she had a pretty good idea of Woodstock’s army.

Woodstock for his part didn’t expect such a large Saddle Arabian Army to be shadowing him. His intelligence placed the Saddle Arabian Desert Rats far far away from his position, back near the Neighgib Desert. He was suspecting something was up as his scouts simply could not outfight the Saddle Arabians in the forest. So he concentrated his ponies and planned to get out of the forest as soon as possible, but that was until he received Brigadier General Argent Defender’s and Major General Ethelflaed’s missives to meet up at Stirring Bridge, which required him to take a route that would keep him in the forest. Putting his forces on high alert, Woodstock marched on.

But any degree of alertness wasn’t enough for Woodstock’s ponies. As they marched, Ginger’s entire 1st Division blocked the road and hit the Fillydelphia Light Infantry. The Brigade retreated in minutes, galloping back down the road into the First Canterlot Brigade.

Woodstock acted quickly, and he could hear the Saddle Arabian trumpets and horns all around him, indicating he was surrounding. Realizing his precarious position, he ordered the Hollow Shades Brigade to about face and advance in the opposite direction, to open up a path back out.

The Hollow Shades Brigade had just finished turning around when Ginger’s elite division, the gleamingly steel-clad Silver Janissaries, slammed into the brigade. They rushed out of the forest into the wide clearing where the brigade had just faced towards.

The unicorns of the Hollow Shades Brigade, outnumbered 3 to 1, opened with a magical barrage that took many of the Silver Janissaries down, but the odds meant they were soon engaged in a brutal melee. Woodstock, now running toward the rear of his division, ordered the Vanhoofer Artillery Brigade to leave their cannon and reinforce the Hollow Shades Brigade. He also ordered the First Canterlot Brigade to hold the now rear of his division, and ordered the remnants of the Fillydelphia Light Brigade to reserve.

Except, Ginger had her remaining 2nd and 4th divisions, a total of five thousand horses, to attack the centre of Woodstock’s division from from the north side of the road. Attacked on three sides, Woodstock ordered a retreat to the south. The ragged Equestrian brigades broke and just ran, abandoning their heavy equipment, supplies, and a lot of their weaponry and ammunition.

The Saddle Arabians slaughtered two thousand of Woodstock’s ponies and captured another thousand. Around a thousand went missing, and Woodstock would limp out of the Ardennes Forest a month later with only eight-hundred-forty-eight ponies.

The more pressing issue though, was that Ginger had scored the most significant land victory the Saddle Arabians had against the Equestrians and now Mountague was rallying his troops to her. In fact, since Ethelflaed and Argent Defender had lost complete contact with Woodstock, the Equestrians were under the impression that an entire division of their army was just… gone.

More importantly, Ginger had opened a route to the key Equestrian supply base at Bracken Bay and planned to march on it the moment she met up with Mountague. To make matters worse for the Equestrians, they didn’t even know Ginger had a shot at Bracken Bay.

And Admiral Sea-Tack had a plan to crush the Equestrian Navy.

The History of Equestria Under Alternia Part 14 (589 AR):The Battle of the Bay of Soylent, Ch. 11 of the Saddle Arabian War Arc

Sea Tack’s plan in the wake of the destruction of the Saddle Arabian Home Fleet was to hit Vice Admiral Grey Hood’s fleet with his entire formation before he could consolidate with Fleet Admiral Dreadnought.

Of course, he expected Grey Hood to not give chase, after all, the Saddle Arabian fleet heavily outnumbered the Equestrians, especially in relative tonnage of ships. However, Sea Tack had a plan for that, and it had everything to do with Cape Solent.

The Bay of Solent was the site of a major holding facility for the survivors of the Open Circle Movement and a number of key Saddle Arabian dissenters. This fortress was called the Malaga, and was actually a pair of castles occupying two hills in the bay. One was called the Alcazaba, the other the Bridalfaro, and they were joined by a wall called a coracha terrestre. However, while these fortifications were great at keeping prisoners in, they weren’t going to stand up against a prolonged cannon bombardment.

Sea Tack was aware from his Hassassin contacts that an Equestrian War goal was to rescue these prisoners, both because they could help in the reconstruction process for Saddle Arabia, and because there were many Equestrians being held here.

Weeks before Mares El Kabul, Sea Tack spread a rumor that the Saddle Arabians had decreased the number of guards there, and then actually decreased that guard by hiding them in the nearby hills. This would seemingly leave the facility open to a naval assault. He was certain that Fleet Admiral Dreadnought, who had served as an Equestrian Marine and had planned the landing at Bracken Bay, would not let this “opportunity” pass.

Once Dreadnought took the bait and went into the Bay, Sea Tack would trap them, like Dreadnought had trapped Admiral Ironsides. He had hidden his fleet in a secret cove, one of many Saddle Arabian supply bases and the moment the Equestrians began their assault, he had ensured that runners would let him know, and they would spring it.

Indeed, on one fall night, with the moon high in the sky, sentries on the coast and on the Malaga spotted the lights of the Equestrian Fleet as they swept into the bay. They retaliated with cannon, but the guns of the Equestrian ships of the line silenced them. Equestrian Marines were then landed by boats, covered by pegasi who harassed the defenders on the walls by dropping grenades.

As planned, even as the Equestrian marines stormed the broken walls of the fortress, Sea Tack went for the bay. In an hour, the bay was completely sealed and Sea Tack was waiting gleefully for the Equestrians to just try to break out, where they would summarily be destroyed by the Saddle Arabian guns.

But the Equestrians didn’t break out. The fighting from the fort died down, no ships attempted to exit from the bay. Night gave way to dawn and there was no attempt by the Equestrians to leave. This greatly confused Sea Tack, and he sent a frigate to scout the status of the Equestrian fleet and ascertain the status of the fortress.

The frigate, the Beagle, manned by Captain Darkcoat skirted the entrance of the bay, which was only ten ship-widths wide and found that the Equestrian fleet had turned around, but were at anchor, sails raised, but not stowed. The fortresses was in ruins and aflame, the prisoners were probably transferred onto the ships, but the fleet remained in position ready to sail, but not.

Beagle’s captain reported as such to Sea-Tack who pondered the question. He realized that the Equestrians were waiting for some signal before they would leave, but what signal?

That was when the Beagle’s captain said there was something odd about the Equestrian Fleet. Sea Tack asked the captain exactly what she had seen and she replied that the Equestrian flagship, a massive 1st rate, was flying a Golden-Colored banner. She wasn’t exactly sure the symbol, but it looked like a tiara with a horn through the centre, and flanked by wings.

Sea Tack instantly realized that he didn’t have Fleet Admiral Dreadnought’s fleet in the bay. He had Vice Admiral Grey Hood’s fleet in the bay. That fleet had Princess Celestia.

He also realized that the tide… well it was about to go out.

Immediately, Sea Tack ordered the fleet to expect an attack by the Princess of Equestria and to ready for the Equestrians breaking out any moment.

According to Darkcoat’s account, that was when Princess Alternia switched her disguise from a crewhorse aboard the Beagle to the Princess of Equestria. As the Saddle Arabians stood, momentarily, stunned at her sheer presence, she wrapped herself in a shield.

Sea Tack valiantly drew his sword and charged Alternia. In response, she unleashed a bolt of magic that punched right through the Admiral’s chest and set the Scylla, Sea Tack’s prided flagship, alight. The cunning admiral staggered, falling to the deck, clutching at the cauterized hole in his barrel and watching as the Princess set more fires onto his ship, and his crew flee. With his last breath, he ordered his second-in command to abandon ship and signal the withdrawal.

Well, that wasn’t all he said though. According to Princess Alternia, all Sea Tack had to say to her, alone on the deck of his deserted ship, before she fled the stricken Scylla was this:

“Celestia… a changeling?… Who would have known...”

Shortly after, the Saddle Arabian flag ship exploded and the Equestrians, signalled by the explosion, loosed their sails and made for the bay’s entrance. Meanwhile, the Saddle Arabian Home Fleet was in utter shock, the death of their beloved admiral having struck them dumb, and the sight of Celestia herself flying above the burning corpse of the Scylla sending terror through their veins.

Sensing that morale had dropped and that the head of the Equestrian line had just made it through the bay, Vice-Admiral Seahorse, Sea-Tack’s second command, ordered a full withdrawal, and the Saddle Arabians fled. But many of their ships were facing in the wrong direction, due to the fact they’d been set up to counter an Equestrian escape. Panic at Sea-Tack’s death also caused a number of ships to run into each other and the Equestrians, harried on by the outgoing tide, took full advantage of this to disgorge hordes of pegasi marines to support their Princess, and unleash broadsides of shot.

At the end of the engagement, the Saddle Arabian Home Fleet was still technically intact. It had only lost 1 first rate, 1 second rate, 3 third rates, 2 fourth rates, a frigate and a galleass. But compared to the Equestrian loss of only 1 second rate, and 1 third rate that had both run aground in the bay (and were summarily scuttled), and 4 sloops which had been destroyed by cannon fire from the fortresses, the combined Equestrian fleets could now dominate the Western Sea. Saddle Arabian hopes for naval dominance had completely vanished.

Unfortunately, that was when Princess Alternia got the news that this naval victory might not have mattered.

The Equestrians were about to lose the land war unless they did something fast.

Author's Notes:

The Malaga fortress in this story was inspired by... well the Malaga, a spanish castle built by the Moors prior to the Reconquista. It did indeed have a passage connecting both castle parts.

Sea Tack... aw man, I wish I could play with him more. He was HEAVILY inspired by Admiral Thrawn of the Star Wars Legends's Thrawn Trilogy (I haven't watched Rebels so I don't quite his character). I of course didn't mean to copy Thrawn, but I wanted a sortof... character that can have that impact and inspire that fear.

Also, please do check out my announcement of a future one shot in the Alternia-Verse