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
2nd Fleet Remnants: Commander: Vice Admiral Fair Wind (deceased, succeeded by Vice-Admiral Warspite), flagship: Princess Celestia
3rd Fleet: Commander: Vice Admiral Warspite, flagship: Princess Celestia
Light Fleet/Coastal Operations: Rear Admiral Dreadnought, flagship: Lucky Jack
Formations:
Grand Fleet: Grand Admiral Ironsides, flagship: Kings-Hammer
Home Fleet: Vice Admiral Sea-tack, flagship: Scylla
Raiding Fleet: former Grand Admiral Erik Raider, flagship: Golden Hind (both captured)
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
Equestrian Foreign Legion: 2000
2nd Division - Major General - Aventail Armor 4000 ponies
3rd Division - Brigadier General Woodstock, 5000 ponies
4th division - Major General Athefled - 5000 ponies
5th division - Brigadier General Argent Defender- 6000 ponies
6th division (reserves) - Colonel Red Plum Blossom - 6000 ponies
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
The Maritime Defence Corps - General Braydley, 14,000 horses
The Saddle Arabian Desert Rats - General Jamil, 14,000
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.