Aventail’s disadvantage against the Saddle Arabians? Her lack of numbers. She had a mere 4,000 ponies against the Saddle Arabian 20,400 horses.
Equestrians
2nd Division - Major General - Aventail Armor 4000 ponies
Saddle Arabians
The Saddle Arabian Desert Rats - Brigadier General Ginger, 10,700
The Hammer of Saddle Arabia: 9,700 General Mountague
But what Aventail lacked in numbers, she had in surprise. The Saddle Arabians had an adequate perimeter, but they had no idea that the Equestrians had an entire division behind them. Furthermore, she had planned her raid to be a night attack, which would amplify her element of surprise.
Aventail had three goals with her raid. The first goal was to demoralize and inflict as many casualties as she can with this raid. The second goal was to inflict as much damage to Saddle Arabian supplies and ammunition. Finally, Aventail planned to assassinate Ginger, which should paralyze her army. After that, the Equestrians would make for the city and reinforce it.
Half of Aventail’s division consisted of two brigades of 1,000 (2,000 in total) pegasi of the Cloudsdale Blues, elite melee cavalry with sabres, and shields. The pony general planned for the two brigades to clear the flanks and screen the main charge, which would be led by the Spark Brigade, a unicorn mage brigade, and the Trottingham Light Brigade, a earth pony brigade.
So that night, Aventail’s forces closed on the edges of Ginger’s camp under the cover of darkness. They used the Marye’s Heights as cover, and to survey the camp. Ginger’s camp, to the south of the city, was well organized by brigade, with Ginger’s headquarters in the centre. The arrangement of the camp resembled a rectangle made from six squares. Each division had a square of an area, which was divided by sharpened stakes, with one square being where the supplies were stored. This entire complex was surrounded by a ditch, with a short earthen wall.
But that also meant that Aventail could logically deduce (along with the help of some scrying spells) as to where to attack.
After pegasi and unicorns “encouraged” a fog to form that covered the approach to the camp, at 1am, the four thousand strong column cantered down the heights. Blinded by the fog, the Saddle Arabian sentries had no idea what hit them and were slaughtered by charging Equestrians, who breached the entrance to the supply square and started to burn the living daylights out of the Saddle Arabian supplies. Prioritizing speed over damage, the 4,000 strong column were through the supply square in an instant, and into the square where the 4th division of Ginger’s army was quartered. They burned camps, slaughtered dazed Saddle Arabians and then turned northward, toward the square where the Silver Janissaries were barracked, and where Ginger’s tent was.
By this point though, they were awake, not armored, but they were awake and Aventail’s ponies were getting tired. They ripped through the camp, and Aventail, at the head of the Spark Brigade, actually blasted Ginger’s tent with a firebolt, but the Saddle Arabian general got out of her tent and fled, yelling for her horses to concentrate on the Equestrians.
At this point, Aventail knew that they had to get out, and so she had her Equestrians break out of the camp, and make for the city. They narrowly escaped a pursuit column from Mountague’s camp. The general heard the shouts from Aventail’s raid, and formed a reactionary force to stop her. They weren’t fast enough though.
Aventail’s column were given rousing cheers as they entered the Equestrian fortifications, and for good reason. As dawn broke, the Saddle Arabians could finally count their losses.
A good 800 of them had been killed at the cost of barely 200 Equestrians, with a further 1,200 being casualties, burnt by collapsing tents or even trampled on by their own friends. Their cannon’s ammunition was burnt, their food supplies were damaged. For the rest of the sixth day, the Saddle Arabians were trying to recover from the devastating raid, which meant they couldn’t conduct any offensive operations. All in all, Aventail had achieved almost everything she had aimed for.
The Numbers:
Equestrians:
Supreme Commander of the Equestrian 1st Army: Princess Blueblood
1st Division - Brigadier General - Archmage Elderberry Twist (WIA), 3,300 ponies
2nd Division - Major General - Aventail Armor 3800ponies
Saddle Arabians:
The Saddle Arabian Desert Rats - Brigadier General Ginger, 10,700
The Hammer of Saddle Arabia: 9,700 General Mountague
The Seventh Day
On the morning of the 7th day, the Saddle Arabians were counting their losses and Ginger and Mountague were debating on what to do.
The good news was that they still had a numbers advantage, despite the Equestrians being reinforced, but there was a lot of bad news.
For one, the Saddle Arabians didn’t have much ammunition for their cannon left. That wasn’t so bad, but even worse, Ginger expected the Equestrian Fleet to be arriving soon. They didn’t know when, but Ginger knew that since the Equestrians had dominion of the seas, their navy would not be hindered in supporting their troops.
Still, Ginger was obliged to make one last push, and had her cannon pound the enemy fortifications.
But as the morning dragged to noon, they heard the flap of wings and scouts reported a small band of pegasi flying to Bracken Bay.
As these fliers neared closer though, they were astonished to find Princess Celestia (Princess Alternia) leading them.
The Princess’s weeklong journey with her escort had been hard and she arrived at the city, exhausted. But she was welcomed with ecstatic cheers.
In the Saddle Arabian camp, horror and terror filled the ranks of the troops. They had at this point, become aware of Sea-Tack’s demise at the princess’s hooves and seeing additional reinforcements join the Equestrians further frayed the nerve of the exhausted Saddle Arabian troops.
Ginger could see the change in her army, and decided along with Mountague to withdraw. They could not continue the fight, but they could give the Equestrians one last headache. With their remaining powder, the Saddle Arabians set fire to the port of Bracken Bay and then retreated.
The Equestrians found themselves battling a huge blaze that was consuming the cannon-battered city. Streets that should have once served as firebreaks were useless as a number of timber-framed houses had collapsed in earlier bombardments and now carried the flame.
The efforts of Aventail, Alternia and Princess Blueblood in preventing the Equestrian 1st and 2nd divisions from being consumed by flame cannot be understated. Without Aventail’s hard will, Alternia’s presence serving as a morale boost, and Princess Blueblood’s organizational skills, Bracken Bay would have burned down.
Still, the carnage caused by the flames meant hundreds of Equestrians suffered minor wounds and their forces were in no shape to pursue, which had been Ginger’s goal.
But the fires had also instilled in Princess Blueblood and Alternia, a new purpose. On the eighth day after the Siege of Bracken Bay had begun, after the flames had died down, Alternia, Blueblood, Aventail, the Equestrian War Cabinet under Rapier Apple, and the other Equestrian division commanders had a meeting with their crystal balls.
After the War Cabinet and the other division commanders were debriefed, Alternia addressed everybody and declared this:
“No more splitting up, no more fighting small engagements. The army will march to the Saddle Arabian capital of Breeghdad, take it, and capture King Iosef. We’re ending this war.”