And here concludes Platinum’s rise to power and the age of unicorns before the great winter. The great invasion, the return of Star-Swirl the Bearded and Auric d’Orunguille’s fall from grace.
Marchion at last decided to take the fight to Precia. King Cerulean ordered an armada crafted and would take to the Horseshoe Bay, navigate the reefs and land upon Precia almost directly upon the capital.
This was where another of Platinum’s foalhood friends, Wild Goose, came into his element. Wild Goose was a member of what some might call the ‘Nouveaux Riche’. His father, Gadabout, had started as a simple merchant making use of the new trade routes to Mysterica. His expertise was enough for King Calsim to grant him a place in court and his steady profits were too valuable for King Ferric to pass off. Wild Goose, however, had studied naval warfare all his life. He was hoof-picked by Princess Platinum to lead the counter-fleet, assisted by Lord Acanthur Fairsayle who owned most of the ships and the brothers, Sir Washup and Sir Washout of Rinser who designed them.
The Marchic Armada meanwhile was chiefly led by Lord Uvo Danatro. It wasn’t a great choice. Uvo Danatro was a respected politician and a dedicated soldier but he’d never actually commanded a naval battle in his life. He actually hadn’t been supportive of the invasion but he’d been picked to lead it nonetheless.
The Granpastoris wasn’t vocally supportive of the invasion but nonetheless granted Cerulean permission to invade. Blessed on departure, the fleet departed and sailed down the coastline, a fleet of two-hundred ships of various formations. [Twenty galleons, fifteen galleys, fifteen galleasses, a hundred carracks, a hundred hulks and fifty corvettes]The army comprised of around ten-thousand sailors, twenty-thousand marines and five-thousand cannons. The fleet was aided by their Boulettan allies who reinforced them with another fifty ships and three-thousand cannons
The Precian fleet numbered around three-hundred ships, smaller and lighter than the Marchic ships. The Precians outnumbered the Marchics but the Marchics outgunned the Precians, their steel cannons twice as powerful as the brass guns of Precia.

Platinum and Wild Goose devised a strategy.
Wild Goose let his swiftest ships in sneak attack on the ships on the side-lines, plundering them and then having skeleton crews pilot them close to the cliffs. Tricking the Marchic ships into following them, where the Precian land defence bombarded them with rocks and spells. Thirty ships were sunk before Uvo Danatro ordered his fleet centred and forbidden from straying too close to the cliffs.
Given the advantage the Marchics had in close-quarter fighting, the Precian ships utilised their superior speed and manoeuvrability to keep beyond grappling range and bombarded the enemy from a distance with cannons. This distance was too great for this to be effective however and neither fleet lost a ship after the first day of proper fighting.
The second battle was more eventful, if only slightly. Clover and Wild Goose discovered to their horror that their ammunition was dangerously low. Before the fleets could come to blows with cannons, the Precians tested the waters with fire-ships. The Marchic fleet had seen these kinds of tactics before but Uvo Danatro, unexperienced in naval warfare, panicked. As the fleet scrambled, around fifteen of Marchion’s ships burned, though only eight were actually unsalvageable. Marchion had ovine priests on the ship, powerful healers and warders.
On the third day, the court of Precia realised things were going nowhere and so Platinum decided to take charge. She donned armour and took to the head of the fleet to boost morale.
Platinum famously stood aboard the royal warship, Sylvia, and declared thus-

“My loving ponies. We see the sails of the enemy approaching. We hear Marchion’s guns over our waters. Soon now, we will meet them face to face.
Behold your princess! Clad in the armour of her forebearers!
I have been persuaded by some that fear for my safety to take care how I commit myself to the horde at our doorstep for fear of many things. Among them, treachery. With their princess here, at the head of the conflict to come, they say, surely one among our ranks would seek to exchange me for riches or false ideals or simply to see another day.
But I assure you, I did not come this far to be ruled by distrust for the faithful and loving unicorns who stand by me this day. Let the invaders fear for Precia stands strong, loyal and free. I have always known to place my greatest strength and security in the hearts and willpowers of my subjects. And I am resolved in the midst and heat of the battle to live or die amongst you all. To lay down, for Paradise, for my kingdom and for my ponies, my honour and my blood even in the dust!
I know I have the body of a weak and feeble mare...But I have the heart, stomach and horn of a King! And a King of Precia too! And I spit venom on any prince of Marchion or Boulea or any other lowly domain that thinks to invade the borders of my realm! And like you who feel the same as I do, I gladly take up arms to protect it for no ruler could do less!
I know already, for your sincerity, you deserve much and I assure you, on the word of a princess, it shall be duly paid.
While we stand together, no invader shall pass! Let them come with the armies of Tartarus! They will not pass!
And when this day of battle is ended, we meet again in Paradise or on the field of victory!”

Morale skyrocketed and Precia took the waters to meet the Marchic ships head-on. Using speed, they bombarded the most powerful warships with their remaining cannonballs and on the smaller ships used improvised ammunition on the enemy such as chains, swords, pieces of armour and helms, weights and even cutlery. Forty ships of Marchion were sunk alongside half that number of Precia’s.
Using a strategy Clover had suggested, Platinum and Wild Goose sailed their smallest, thinnest ships through the Marchic navy and allowed several of the warships to catch each other in the crossfire. This was less effective but around twenty-three Marchic ships were sunk or abandoned with Precian losses around equal to that much. The Sylvia flew the flags to regroup and pull around to attack the largest of Marchion’s warships. What caught Uvo Danatro’s eye was that in doing so, the Precian fleet was leaving the way towards land completely undefended. He gave orders, under fire, for the majority of the fleet to break from battle and land immediately. If Precia’s city fell undefended, then Platinum’s authority would be toppled and they could hold out in her own castles.
But this was exactly what Clover was banking on. A great host of Precia’s mages gathered on either side of the great granite archway between the cliffs leading the Precian shores and unleashed a great volley of spells upon the ships. It proved effective but against Clover’s hopes, Uvo Danatro had sent the strongest ships in first which survived most of the spells and continued on, nearing the archway that would guarantee them safe crossing and minimal defence.
That was when they saw him.
Standing atop the archway in his hat and cloak of stars and crescents, his staff gripped in one hoof, his impressive mane and beard blowing in the breeze.
Star-Swirl the Bearded had returned.
All eyes turned as he raised his staff before him and bellowed, his voice carried across the waters, rippling the surface of the sea with a cry of ‘You Shall Not Pass!’
Stamping his staff upon the archway, his eyes and horn lit up with an golden haze and the archway flickered and warped with portal magic. Out of it came a colossal tidal wave. As if the very gates of Precia had driven back its encroachers, the wave drowned every ship entering between the cliffs and erupted out into the main Marchic fleet, narrowly missing Precia’s ships. All but ten of Marchion’s ships were snuffed out in moments and a dismayed Uvo Danatro ordered an immediate retreat. Platinum allowed them to flee and carry the message to King Cerulean that Precia stood strong and he would find it forever impassable.

The armoured Princess Platinum returned to court to a city full of cheers and praises. All commanders of the fleet were further ennobled all sailors handsomely rewarded.
At Marchion, the ill news caused King Cerulean’s health to waver drastically. Stumbling to the cathedral to pray for the Lamb’s forgiveness for whatever must have caused such a calamity, he collapsed at the altar and found himself unable to move without aid. Ordering his bed moved to the altar, he spent six days praying non-stop in a fit of panic and confusion and on the seventh day, died leaving his lands in the care of his eldest son, the charismatic Zul Blue-Moon.
Zul Blue-Moon declared that in the wake of such a catastrophe, defence would be Marchion’s best priority. While not yet declaring peace, he formally ended all attacks on Precian harbours and sails.
At court, Clover believed the time was right to bury the hatcher with Marchion and begin peace talks.
Auric meanwhile, believed true victory was opportune and now Precia could seize both Marchion and their colonies in the Mystericos.
Platinum weighed the choices. While Star-Swirl encouraged making peace, many of her other courtiers encouraged taking action against Marchion in retribution. Platinum agreed to grant Auric a large fleet but only to attack Marchic ports and harbours that Precia once owned (Having been ceded to Marchion in Queen Arsenic’s reign) or the ports close enough to Precian borders to pose a threat.
However, Boulea had changed sides after the failure of the Marchic Armada and reinforced the fleet. Auric then asked if he may use his own money to bolster his ranks which he was permitted. However, he in fact paid a scribe to forge Princess Platinum’s signature to acquire more ships and the ponies to crew it as well as override her orders.
With a combined force of seven-hundred-and-fifty ships, he split his fleet his fleet in two, one to attack Marchion directly and the other to take control of Mysterica (Not simply the ports Marchion controlled in Mysterica such as Cenote, Cocrico, Hoazina, East Malba and Northern Tapira but almost every territory no matter its affiliation. It should be noted that both Marchion and Precia had an accordance with Caballera and Susitania who controlled many of these ports)
This act of rashness and self-importance availed Auric nothing. The northern fleet had barely reached the coast of Marchion when the counter-fleet smashed them with the fiercest of their cannons. Uvo Danatro, leading a land army, avenged his comrades and his dishonour upon Auric’s fleet with formidable artillery. The Boulettan reinforcements turned on them and Auric was forced to flee, having lost around three-hundred ships.
Repairing at the neutral Bailairia (Now modern-day Baltimare), Auric received a note demanding his return to court written by a clearly most perturbed Platinum who’d discovered the ruse.
Auric was brought back to court to explain his actions. He denied the charge of treason, claiming the forgery a fraud and assuring Platinum the money he’d used went to hiring privateers and mercenaries rather than duping Precia’s naval commanders sent to their doom. He also promised that the losses would be more than mitigated once his fleet from Mysterica returned laden with riches from the south.
Unfortunately for Auric, Sleeping Dog produced a report of the expedition which had ended in more failure than the northern one. Zul Blue-Moon’s focus on defence more than paid off and no Precian ship managed to make harbour anywhere in Marchion-controlled Mysterica. Caballera and Susitania also had to be compensated for the attacks made on them, which had also amounted to little Precian gain.
Auric discovered, however, that one part of the fleet had landed on an uncharted island and promised that, like the Marchic explorers and those in Stirrope, this island would be teeming with treasures the like of which no pony had ever seen and volunteered to go himself to bring forth the bounties of his venture.
Platinum, against her better judgement, conceded while Clover set about making peace talks with an altogether less-humbled Marchion.

This time, Auric did hire privateers as he’d promised and sailed south. Far-south.
The further he went, the more certain he was that this island would boast wonders never comprehended.
One can imagine his disappointment when he became the first unicorn to land on the island of Degol.
First discovered by pegasi four-hundred years before the founding, the island miles south-east of Gaucha is nowadays the closest area ponies dare to dread upon the far-southern continent of Nogo.
East of the island lies the archipelago known as Visles, pirate-infested waters. Its denizens had attacked much of the fleet that made it thus far, allowing a bare ten ships to land on Degol. Those that considered themselves fortunate to find themselves on the island soon found themselves wishing they’d met death on a corsair’s cutlass.
When the pegasi first chanced upon the island, casting the most advanced far-sight pegasus spells they knew for fear of actually facing what they saw up-close, they believed the island to be cursed. None have offered sufficient proof to the contrary. Despite the curious treasures one might find there (And even they carry ill fortunes for whoever picks them up), the island is a death-trap. Its extreme humidity, high heats, monsoons and abundance of death creates a fetid bed of disease.
[Note: A grim but fascinating tome exists on the matter by Apothecary Syrinx of Bedsyde Manor. She lists with seeming wonder the number and nature of the many horrific and often fatal diseases found on Degol which she gave rather curious names to such as Emerald Fever, Crimson Carbuncles, Prancing Plague, Death-By-Lemonade, Rindskin, Pony-Go-Pop, Bubobeye, the Slurps, the Wet-Woolies, Curdletongue, Chalkhoof and Bubble-Brain.
Please enquire for details. No, really, ask away, it’s really quite interesting.]
[Wagensrol: It’s official! Purple Patch has a nightmare fetish! This guy read the whole thing and he didn’t wince once! He wasn’t even off his food!]
[Note: Oh grow up, Roly.]
And if anypony’s lucky enough to make it through that hell, they experience another beyond imagination. The semi-submerged forests of Degol are home to gigantic alligators, snakes and spiders, all venomous and highly aggressive. Shoals of carnivorous fish swarm the deeper waters that may reduce a pony to a skeleton in minutes. Even the air is prowled by stinging flies with a maddening bite, wasps that lay their larvae under the skins of beasts and pale bats with swollen crimson bellies that drain a pony’s blood, stupefying them and leaving them immobile as they come back again and again for more.
After them comes even worse. Striped raptors on two feet with long curved claws; frilled basilisks with mesmerising eyes, their poison among the most agonising ponies know; ginger monkeys that pull prey up into the trees and cackle to its screams as they pull it apart.
But the worst, the explorers say, are the beasts we would call ‘civilised’ if they lived anywhere else.
Scabrous Hogs, they are known as. The details on them are vague and dubious. But if half the tales about them are true, there are few races that can be compared to them in the field of pure, unbridled savagery.

And it was on this island that Auric’s treasure hunters met their doom. He landed to find a camp swimming in disease and barricaded himself in his cabin to avoid catching anything himself. He had to pay his mercenaries staggering amounts to convince them to search for those who went into the jungle. Three-hundred mercenaries went in, a mere four returned to Auric, insisting without a shadow of a doubt that there wasn’t a chance in Tartarus’s toilet that any of the crew had survived, let alone with any treasure.
Auric departed, leaving behind anypony showing signs of disease.
He landed at Chryscole where it was discovered that through somepony’s carelessness or sentiment, disease had spread across the ships and onto the harbour. The city had to be blocked off, quarantined and eventually partially burnt.
Dreading the reaction of his Princess, Auric discreetly withdrew his wealth and possessions from his estate and returned to court to pass them off as the treasures he’d found in Degol.
The truth didn’t escape Clover who promptly told the Princess and her court everything.
There was no other word to describe Platinum at that moment other than simply and utterly ballistic!

Auric was stripped of his wealth and titles as recompense as Clover struggled to clean up the mess the stallion had made. By good fortune, Marchion had turned its military attentions to Boulea and was willing to hear peace talks though on costly terms. To avoid factionalism in the court (As he still had the ear of many counsellors) Auric was given the position of Sheriff of the Hollow Shades. While sounding grand, it was in fact a very unpleasant role. The Hollow Shades are home to tribes of Mule Deer who at this time resisted pony rule, attacking any who encroach on the woods. Auric made numerous promises to Platinum that he’d confront the Mule Deer leaders personally and slay them for her.
His first taste of battle in the Hollow Shades sapped his courage. The Mule Deer fought through guerrilla tactics, utilising stealth and shock attacks against Precia’s knights whose armour weighed them down in a pitched battle. Auric wasted his funds on mercenaries, dispersed them into garrisons and fought a series of inconclusive engagements, during which the Mule Deer ventured out of the Hollow Shades and attacked the nearby Precian towns twice. To secure the loyalty of his men, he knighted each commander regardless of their actual reputation. This was likely to ensure he kept a sizable faction in court than anything else. Eventually, he made a truce with the Mule Deer that was seen as humiliating to the Crown then fled with his army.

Knowing his fate was sealed, Auric took his army and begun the fourth and last attempted coup. He headed to his estate in Tritifer and declared Platinum a love-sick pawn of frauds and schemers. Only a hoof-full of nobles, mostly relations and personal friends, joined him. When Clover came to Tritifer to bring him to court, Auric had her seized and held hostage.
Auric’s associates recommended Clover be used to threaten Platinum (And this likely would have worked) but Auric refused. Clover was tortured and told to confess a plot she, Soda-Water, Sleeping Dog and Wild Goose had been hatching behind Platinum’s back to take the throne. Clover refused again and again, never breaking under the torment.
After three days, Sleeping Dog approached Platinum with news. News that had somehow been brought by a black cat with a sinister grin. News informing Platinum of Clover’s peril.
Platinum once more donned her armour and prepared to storm Tritifer. Soda-Water persuaded her to let him lead, protected by Lancer of Lioncore, as he roused the citizens, informing them of Auric’s treachery and Clover’s torture. The populace turned against their Duke and it was only his house rather than the city that was besieged. Platinum broke down the doors and floored every conspirator she faced, cornering Auric in the cellars where Clover was held and knocking him out cold before he could get a word out.

Clover was immediately taken to Star-Swirl who managed to heal her. Auric and six other conspirators were imprisoned, tried and found guilty within a day. Their execution was not large-scale. Only the court and select members of the gentry and judicial forces bore witness, Platinum not among them.
[Note: The reason for Auric’s seemingly sudden lack of competence or loyalty is curious. Some say he was possessed or swayed into villainy by a Boulean servitor. Some claim he underwent madness through envy or arrogance or even spurned love for Princess Platinum. My personal theory is mundane. He rose high and he let it go to his head. When placed in a situation where he couldn’t fight the way he was used to, he failed and fell far. Unable to lose all he’d acquired, he lashed out and paid for it with his life. Not uncommon. Perhaps it is because it is common that some prefer to romanticise things.]
Princess Platinum underwent a bout of depression. Clover writes in her memoirs that Platinum had always been something of a perfectionist. She’d made a huge mistake putting faith in Auric, perhaps even falling in love with him, and she hated herself for it. For months she would dully agree to any suggestion Clover put forth, not trusting herself with the affairs of the realm.
Star-Swirl would eventually be called to counsel her, reminding her of all she’d been through and how far she’d come and declaring how proud he was of her, his finest student, and how proud her mother would be.
After some while, Platinum returned to court sadder but wiser.
The dangers Marchion posed were cut short as Zul Blue-Moon ended up assassinated a mere two years into his celebrated reign by the Boulettans. He was succeeded by his brother, Roth Redstar, who didn’t at first trust himself with the military prowess of his brother. He re-forged the pact with Precia under fairly equal terms.
[Note: Though beginning on a dull note, Roth would prove to be an able ruler who crushed his brother’s murderers in the Second Marchic-Boulean War and became the longest-reigning monarch of Marchion as well as its last.]
Platinum and Clover thereafter worked to revitalise Precia’s economy. No mean feat.
Order was brought to the Hollow Shades when Clover met with the Mule Deer leaders and threatened, calmly but severely, to burn the entire forest if they didn’t accept the new truce with kept them semi-independent but under supervision.
Sleeping Dog set about hunting down any remaining conspirators who defied Platinum’s rule.
Soda-Water and Wild Goose opened trade peacefully in Mysterica as well as various other parts of the Known World.
And all this hard work paid off as much as it needed to and just in time.
For the cold winds were rising.

6792683
Very interesting as always. Loved that doctor who reference and the tactic to get Close reminds me of lando's tactic against the Death Star

6792706
I might sound stupid but where's the Doctor Who reference? I don't remember intending one.

6793146

All eyes turned as he raised his staff before him and bellowed, his voice carried across the waters, rippling the surface of the sea with a cry of ‘You Shall Not Pass!’

Had to think of that rather than lord of the rings

6793148
Really? The Lord of Rings was what I was going for.
I mean Star-Swirl is basically Gandalf/Dumbledore.

6793154
I know, but for some reason, I had first to think of that doctor scene. Probably due to how he starts

6793156
Fair enough.
What do you think of Degol and the diseases? Some are based off real-life, others made-up.

I'm not sure if half of them are possible but then we did have a poison that turns you into a tree in one episode so I suppose that's not an issue.

6793158
I find that are all good thoughts by you and I don't mind at all.