//------------------------------//
// The Battle of The Green Fangs 
// Story: The Fractured Unity 
// by Time Reaper 
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Somewhere in the lands, close to The Frozen North, where the ice can be seen from the distance and the cold wind can reach those living on the plains, there was a small regiment of changeling soldiers. It was morning, so they were all starting to make the proper shifts between the night and day guards; they were all in guard and prepared for an enemy attack, for they were aware of the importance of their position. They were in the frontier between Castleen, ruled by Queen Castis, Minerum, ruled by Queen Luxis, and Visectia, ruled by Queen Visis; they were all aware of how Queen Visis could attack at any moment, since it wasn't a secret to anyone of her desire to invade Castleen's territory and become a Great Queen, and these troops weren't going to allow it, even if they had little resources to fight.

They could feel the cold going through their carapace, as they had little protection against the weather, and they were waiting for the scouts to come back with wood, love and other edibles that could fill their bellies and protect them from the cold, hoping they wouldn't suffer any attack during this war. This was because they didn't have much weaponry avaiable to fight, they didn't have any of those weird gems made by Minerum neither medicines, like the ones from Panacitum. All they had to defend themselves were spears and some blades reserved for the high ranking officers, including their princess, who didn't have much training on the art of war since most of the better trained soldiers were on the other fronts, helping the war effort while their ally, Hive Hidroxia, was fighting on the other side of Equestria.

By this point, what would later be known as the Unification War was at its peak, with the changeling territory hidden within the kingdom of Equestria divided in two parts: on the Eastern side, Valeris was fighting to ensure the other Great and Middle Queens would give up to her demands. On the Western side, Queen Castis was fighting to do the exact same goal but, the difference being, that Castis, despite having more troops and resources than Valeris herself, wasn't gaining many battles and the queens on her side were giving a bigger fight than Valeris's front. Between the two queens, there were many Middle Queens that wanted to get involved on the war, mainly to earn some territory for themselves, and they were only being blocked by Queens like Cerebelis and Lixis, making sure that no queen on either side would manage to fuse their armies and grow stronger, with Queen Luxis, and Princess Fortis, only having to worry for the hives of Visectia and Bizektia.

This were the things passing through the mind of Princess Fortis, as she wondered why she was given the task of making sure Queen Visis wouldn't dare to cross Castleen. It was true that, as a Princess, Fortis had the duty to defend her hive and subjects but she didn't have much training nor enough resources to fight, on the case of Visis taking the offensive, in fact, the more she thought about it, the more it felt to Fortis as if she was given an unfair position.

It's been seven years since Princess Fortis, now 23 years old, was discovered by her sister, Princess Manticoris,  after saving her from being foalnapped by Queen Valeris, and all Fortis has known ever since then its the annoyance of being a royal, the suffering of knowledge and the loneliness of popularity, what a great way of thanking her.

It wasn't enough that she was separated from her family on the plains, but she was also forced to make studies that she had no interest with and, even though she was being told that the drones liked her, she was only surrounded by royals who never seemed to appreciate her while having a very secluded life. It would have been fine if she was given any task whatsoever to practice being a princess but, the problem was, she was never given such responsibility.

Whenever a Minor Queen came to Queen Castis for advice or help, Fortis would be put aside or neglected from this information. Whenever a common drone came for an audience with the queen, either for advice or for help, Fortis was denied of access to this moments. Whenever the Royals were going to debate on the creation of a new law, Fortis was never invited to such events.

Not even when Valeris came to Castleen and negotiated with Castis the plans regarding the war, not even an explanation about that (including the why would Castleen and Hidroxia become allies again) was given to Fortis, but she was still told that she had a duty as a Princess of Castleen, and it was this same excuse what forced her to stay on such a precarious place, preparing for an invasion that she wasn't sure if it would come or if she had the resources to defend against.

It was under this mindset that Fortis was looking at the Frozen North, hoping that, should an attack come, Queen Luxis would follow her promise of aiding Castleen against Visectia or any other hive trying to invade her post. Granted, Luxis was also a queen with very few warriors but just her presence would help. 

In the meantime, Fortis would try to gather resources to keep the morale of her troops up and see if she could increase her strength against any potential invader. Sadly, she wouldn't get more chances to do so as her scouts returned with the companionship of a drone, who didn't belong to her hive or any of the hives in the Great Coalition, and who was holding a saddle bag that looked too well decorated to be a common soldier.

As the drone entered into the post, he took out a scroll from his saddlebag and shouted openly his desires to speak with the post's commander, as he was bringing a message from Queen Visis herself. Worried for this new development, Fortis quickly met the messenger and asked for his intentions.

"Greetings, commander" -, said the messenger, fully aware of Fortis's position as a princess, - "I've come in the name of Queen Visis to ask you to surrender this military command post to her."

Seven years ago, for that rudeness, Fortis would've slapped the changeling right there but, today, she knew better. She, instead, remained calm and ignored the fragrant insult the drone committed by not addressing her by her royal position.

"This is a demand that I cannot concede, for I lack the authority to move on my own but, even if I had the authority, there's also the military importance of this post. It's what marks the frontier between Castleen, Minerum and Visectia, to surrender it, I would be letting our enemies to invade Castleen with no restriction."

The drone kept his calm facade and responded with simplicity.

"Queen Visectia also warns that, should this demand to be denied, she'll then use her might to attack this post and continue towards Castleen. This letter is just a formality towards your soldiers."

"Queen Visis should remember" -, Fortis continued, - "of how Queen Luxis is also sided with Castleen and, should Queen Visis try to invade this post, she would have to fight a queen and a princess together."

"Do not be so confident on Queen Luxis, for she may be too busy dealing with Queen Bizis right now. Should you try to fight back, Queen Visis will be done with this little scrap before Luxis gets even close to defeat Bizis."

As she heard this, Fortis tried to think on the opportunities being given to her.

On one side, if Fortis surrendered, then Castleen would be open to be attacked by the enemy and who knew how much levels of destruction would be made before her mother could take care of her. That isn't even counting the possibility of what would happen to her if she allowed Visis to take her as a prisoner.

She could fight but, if she tried to delay her until Luxis could come to help, it would only be an assured defeat. She was well aware of how little resources she had at her disposal. This only gave her one choice, if she was going to fight, she would have to do so with victory as her objective.

"In that case" -, Fortis replied, - "you can tell Queen Visis to fight Princess Fortis. I'll be waiting for her."

For a brief moment, the drone looked as if he was trying to hold a laugh but his face remained calm and responded with the same attitude.

"Alright then, I'll deliver Her Majesty your response, commander."

He then left the post, leaving Fortis alone with her subjects in order to prepare her plans against Visectia. No defensive plan was going to be made, if she was going to win, the offensive was the best strategy.

A few hours later, the forces of Castleen, lead by Princess Fortis, met the forces of Visectia, lead by Queen Visis, in the plains close to the Frozen North. Visectia had 1500 troops, all of them ready to fight with light armor, blades, spears and even war gems; meanwhile Fortis had 500 drones with no armor and only holding light spears as weapons.

Visis had her army divided into three divisions: one on the left flank, one on the middle and the other on the right flank; Fortis could only have her army united into a simple garrison that would move wherever she ordered them to. Fortis was well aware of how everything was against her, but she would not waver against the army surpassing her, she would fight and win this or die trying.

As such, instead of waiting for Visis's troop to attack first, Fortis waved her blade and signaled her troops to mobilize to the air. She (and what little drones of her knew of spell craft) then started to cast a shield spell that would protect her troops from magical attacks, forcing Visis to try and attack her with a direct confrontation.

Here is where Fortis would start the second phase of her strategy. She started to move her troops around the battlefield and made small attacks against each flank individually, thanks to her shield spell, she was capable of getting close enough to make light attacks against the enemy soldiers and flee before they could properly respond; this, in turn, made each flank to fall in her taunt and started to chase her around the battlefield, creating three groups of masses that were trying to catch up to her.

In the meantime, Fortis would keep her watch on the flank being lead by Visis and try to keep her in the front of her troops, this is why Fortis would keep on moving her soldiers around the battlefield; she had to make sure that Visis's troops would be close enough, so they were on a constant chase, but far enough to stay mobile and outmaneuver her enemy.

Visis would, occasionally, try to make attack on a distance along her troops to see if she could hit Fortis's weak army, but Fotis would remain on keeping her troops on the air, despite the cold wind hurting them, to keep on having the advantage on agility. Meanwhile, Fortis would notice how the three flanks would, as the fight kept progressing, merge more and more into a single, massive, unit that was only focused on chasing her around rather than having a solid strategy that would have destroyed her on the long run.

How long Fortis had to stay on this tactic? She wasn't sure, the sun's position was irrelevant to her, but she did take notice of how her enemy was now a single unit, chasing her around and had their queen in the front and center of the massive attack unit. Just as she wanted.

Fortis quickly started to move back to her post, her troops following with no doubt on her leadership, and saw, to her glee, how Visis was chasing her with no question of what could possibly be her enemy's strategy. For all Fortis knew, or cared, Visis probably thought she was a dumb changeling due to her humble origins, perhaps Visis was thinking that Fortis was a coward that was just trying to delay the inevitable, it didn't matter. In the end, all of those were exactly what Fortis was planning to capitalize on in order to win.

As soon as she was far enough from Visis's troops, she activated the spell that rose a wall of green fire between her troops and Visis's, she quickly stopped and shouted the order that would be remembered in Castleen's military history:

"Turn over!"

In that moment, all of her troops stopped their flight and turned back, following her princess's orders, and went straight to the wall of green fire, at full speed, while using their magic to create a small shield that would protect them from the flames. As Fortis managed to get on the front of her troops once more, she gave a great shout that was immediately followed by her troops.

When Visis's troops managed to reach the wall of green fire, the last thing they hoped to see coming out of it were a changeling army shouting with great fury, their fangs, being colored by the green fire, gave off the illusion of being made of the same fire that could harm normal changelings. Neither Visis nor her troops had enough time to properly plan the next move, they immediately stopped their chase and, all the drones in the front of the massive unit of 1500 soldiers, turned around and tried to run away from the furious Castleen changelings.

As the Visectian troops in the front started to run, they quickly clashed with the troops in the middle, who also crashed with the troops in the back, and created a chaos that was made worse by the Castleenian troops that were going through all of them without stopping. In the end, while many historians debate on the exact numbers, it cannot be denied that the chaos generated by Castleen caused most of the casualties inflicted on Visectia.

What originally were 1500 troops of great soldiers capable of standing up to Queen Valeris herself, were reduced to less than 1000 soldiers who fled from the battlefield, with their queen (one of the most promising, and respected, among the hives in Equestria) being defeated, and captured, by a simple princess that was raised by simple, common, drones. Not only that but, as it would later be find out, Visectia put so many resources on the invasion (which were also taken by Fortis's troops) that the hive became bankrupt and most of its workforce was too weak to properly work after the battle.

In other words, Fortis turned a Middle Hive (a hive that was close to be part of the Great ones, such as Hidroxia, Castleen, Piroxia or Logos) into a Minor Hive and, Visectia, was so weakened after its defeat that, in order to survive, it would seen itself forced to accept to become into a vassal, subjected to Castleen's rule.

It didn't help that Bizektia, Visis's ally and sister hive, was destroyed to the ground by Queen Luxis, with not even a queen or inheritor to take the crown. With no ally and surrounded by two powerful regents, Visis became a Minor Queen that would, forever, feel grudge towards Fortis as the princess of Castleen, thanks to her victory, would solidify its position, both among the Castleenian society and the Great Coalition; while Visis, the queen of Visectia, would require Castleen's help to keep her hive afloat and would only show her scorn in the Collective's Palace.

Meanwhile, Luxis would notice Fortis's strategic ability and would have her on her side to fight off the queens causing troubles to Lixis and Cerebelis in what would be known as "the middle campaign" of The Unification War. Fortis would never have the full command of changeling troops again, in the war's duration, but she would always be there in the war reunions that Valeris would make and Fortis's voice would always be listened by the other queens.

What many historians would always find interesting is that, while Castleen have the records of Fortis being the victor of the Battle of the Green Fangs, for some reason, she wouldn't have the same recognition outside of Castleen. It would also be found as "fortuitous" of how Fortis wasn't so well known outside of Castleen until Queen Castis and Princess Manticoris died.