//------------------------------// // The History of Equestria Under Alternia Part 13 (589 AR):The Ardennes Rout, Ch. 10 of the Saddle Arabian War arc // Story: Princess Celestia The Changeling Queen: Stories Behind the Mask // by vren55 //------------------------------// 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: 3,000 2nd division: 3,000 3rd division: 3,000 The Silver Janissaries (Elite division): 3,000 4th 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 ponies The Vanhoofer Artillery Brigade: 1000 unicorns and earth ponies The Fillydelphia Light Infantry: 1500 unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi The 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.