Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 4:12.2 - ...Long Live the Duke

Chapter 4:12.2 – … Long Live the Duke

Word spread fast throughout Fillidelfiyaa about the rebellion in the south; and, even though they were not invited into the private councils of King Robar, the Brave Companions were soon aware of its extent. Baron Hadrian had gone south to the lands granted him after the Seventeenth Trade War and there declared that he would not kneel to a king who did not worship Faust. Others had rallied to his cause, mostly minor lords and ladies whose lands were near his in the south, but he had also gained the support of nearly every sorceress in Fillidelfiyaa. The absences at King Robar’s coronation lined up closely with the nobles in rebellion, but not exactly. The pegasi of the White Mountains had not come to swear before Robar, but neither had they declared loyalty to Hadrian. They were undecided for the moment, though they may just have been waiting to see if Hadrian had any success before throwing in their lot with him.

The Brave Companions would not be welcome for much longer in Fillidelfiyaa, but Twilight Sparkle did not intend to return them immediately to Ponieville. When the letter arrived from Celestia and Luna, she was already preparing to do as it asked: venture south to speak to Hadrian and his rebels. The hope was that such a visit wouldn’t be seen as an endorsement, but that might prove inevitable; they would just have to explain themselves to Robar later. Ascertaining the goals and strength of the rebels was more important than returning home right away, even if it put a burr in Robar’s muzzle.

As the Brave Companions left the city, they saw dispatched messengers galloping hard with orders to raise the levies. Robar would be strongly testing the loyalty of his subjects so soon after becoming king by raising an army, but with a quarter of his lands already in rebellion, he didn’t have much of a choice. It was also an inopportune time of year to do so, with harvests still wrapping up and the winter so near. Hadrian no doubt hoped this would be to his advantage and would deter Robar from attacking, but so far, the strategy didn't seem to be working. As a new king, Robar needed to present a stalwart image, and that meant marching south to crush the rebellion before it spread—no matter the time of year.

There was no delegation to see the Companions off, so they made their way out to an isolated spot alone before Twilight Sparkle opened a portal. If things were busy in Fillidelfiyaa, they were even more so at the heart of the rebellion; to avoid accidentally bisecting somepony, Twilight brought them out some distance away from their destination, upon a beach. The Shimmering Sea roared as they made their way up the strand to where Castle Crosswind stood upon a bluff. Until a few years ago, the castle had been the seat of Marquis Heavyshoes, a vassal of Duchess Seaspray, but he’d died in the Seventeenth Trade War and his lands had gone to Baron Hadrian as a reward for bringing the fight all the way to Balte-Maer’s walls. Much like the Sea Keep, it was a castle that had seen better days, made of rough stone worn and buffeted by the waves and sea winds. Damage had also been done to it by Hadrian’s siege engines during the war, but repairs had already been undertaken to fix it and was ongoing with the help of pegasi. Castle Crosswind had once been a foothold for unicorn crusaders as they crossed the Shimmering Sea but had quickly fallen out of favor compared to nearby Balte-Maer, sheltered as it was by Horseshoe Bay. If Hadrian intended to make this his new seat of power (which seemed likely, given that he’d abandoned Trotston), perhaps a new town would spring up around it. For now, the castle was one of the few permanent structures in the area.

Stairs and ramps carved out of the natural terrain led up from the beach to the bluff, and ponies atop it ran to report as the Brave Companions began to ascend. Emerging out onto the top of the bluff allowed them to see the expansive preparations taking place around the castle. Though the rebellion had just started, there was already a sizeable camp pitched and more tents going up constantly as an army was assembled. Across a tramped-down and roped-off field, a trio of sorceress held open a portal allowing ponies to come from all across the Kingdom of Fillidelfiyaa and beyond. Through one portal filed or flew groups of gryphons. Apart from the rest of the camp, the Brave Companions could see tents of the Griffon Free Companies rising. The last that Twilight knew, they had been encamped near Vanhuv’r, expecting King Hyelliff to eventually break down and pay them for their help in combatting the northern bison as they burned and pillaged their way across the land. Either they’d given up on receiving a contract from Hyelliff or Hadrian had made them an offer they couldn’t refuse, and they were being transported here to fight in the rebellion against Robar.

As the Brave Companions made their way toward Castle Crosswind, they were watched by soldiers and guards, but none barred their passage. At the castle’s entrance hung banners hastily erected, evidenced by the fact that they weren’t all evenly spaced. One was the flag of Fillidelfiyaa, a crowned black bear rearing on a field of green with blue waves below its feet. The other banner was a bit of a surprise, but hinted at what they might find inside. It was not the banner of Hadrian’s House Rimmel that hung, but that of Inthrid-Caramon, dimidiated per pale with half of the crossed sword and staff on the left and half of the heron on the right.

After ascending the stairs to the keep’s entrance, the Brave Companions passed right through the great hall where supplies were being stockpiled and into the throne room where planning for the rebellion was progressing. It had become a common occurrence for the group to be allowed to simply walk into the midst of schemes when visiting warring nobles, so much so that it was shocking how little others seemed to care. At least here, though, Baron Hadrian had the sense to motion for the others to cease their conversation, and he rolled up the maps upon the planning table as he spotted them entering the chamber.

“Ah, Brave Companions,” he said, “I was expecting you to show up. I suppose it’s too much to hope that you’re here to help us?”

Standing around the planning table or back in corners of the room were all the missing lords and ladies from the coronation—barring the White Mountains pegasi—as well as Ghunthar zar’Ghrisna. Several sorceresses were also in attendance, including Massif and Billingsbrook.

“Maybe not help in th’ way y’ want,” Applejack replied, “Y’know th’ Brave Companions don’t directly involve themselves in other kingdoms’ wars.”

“No, but I thought perhaps Celestia and Luna might have reconsidered their previous stance,” Hadrian said as a shadow fell across his eyes. “You’re just here to learn and report, then?”

“Yes, and offer advice, if we are able,” Twilight Sparkle said. “Before we can do that properly, though—”

“We need to know your intentions!” Pinkamena cut in.

“Our intentions should be very clear,” Hadrian said, and Twilight noted that he’d avoided attributing them solely to himself. “Regardless of whether Robar is Alhert’s heir or not, no true believer in Faust could rightly swear fealty to such a heathen. And so, we’ve raised our banners in rebellion behind the one who should be king.”

“You?” Fluttershy asked. Hadrian was the most forceful and experienced pony in the room, but the banners outside indicated otherwise.

“No, me,” Ser Gavron said from where he stood next to Hadrian. “As next in line for the throne, the duty to falls to me to stand against Robar and contest his right to rule.”

Gavron’s words were strong, but his attitude was reluctant, and he seemed to be trying to convince himself as much as the Brave Companions as he spoke. Gavron had long desired the throne of Fillidelfiyaa, that was no secret, but there had never been proof that such resentment of the pony before him in line would motivate treason; even at Alhert’s funeral, he’d seemed resigned to Robar taking the throne. Twilight suspected that it was the persistent arguments of the others in the room that had only recently brought him around to the idea of rebellion and claiming the crown. Even if this rebellion succeeded in all of its goals and placed Gavron on the throne, it was likely he’d never rule in his own right. The powerful nobles around him who’d fought for his right to claim that throne would have the real authority.

“Faust willing, one day Gavron will rule from Fillidelfiyaa, but for now survival is our intent,” Hadrian said. “I had hoped that the season might dissuade Robar from attacking us immediately and give us time to prepare for a clash next spring or summer, but the son of Hadish the Rash is moving rapidly. The strategy of King Alhert in the Seventeenth Trade War was flawed, but ultimately sound in its assumption that a key decisive battle would make or break the war, and the same is true in our situation. Robar and Hadish will send an army south soon, and we must crush them to buy some time until after the winter to make our ultimate moves.”

“Not to tell you how to run a rebellion—I am just a Hunter, after all—but wouldn’t it be easier to portal your army to Fillidelfiyaa and take Robar out all at once?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Hadrian looked at Twilight Sparkle, before turning back to answer the Hunter where she hovered.

“It’s true we have an abundance of sorceresses, including several powerful enough to open portals, but not nearly enough to transport the army we’d need to seize Fillidelfiyaa in a manner other than assassination, which would just lead to more problems,” Hadrian explained. “There’s also the need to keep our forces nearby and able to move swiftly for the time being. As soon as word arrived that King Alhert was dead, Duchess Seaspray began to prepare her own troops. She anticipated the chaos that would come were Robar to be crowned and seeks to take advantage of it to reclaim these lands for Balte-Maer. Our position, I will freely admit, is precarious. The only comfort we can take is that Duchess Seaspray is even less likely to side with Robar than us. She may come at us from our rear, but she will never join with him in battle. That is why we must have a quick, decisive fight that forces Robar to retreat and leave us alone for now. It is to our benefit that he desires the same thing in order to cement his rule.”

“You certainly seem to have thought it all through, but don’t you think that your rebellion may accomplish precisely what you fear?” Rarity asked.

“How so?” Count Runik grunted.

“Well, if you were Robar’s vassals, he’d have to take you into account in any decision he made and temper any actions he might try to take against sorceresses or non-earth ponies. Now, however, he has a kingdom where those who believe in the Red Faith, as he does, are ascendant; and the very ponies he might want to persecute have proven themselves to be disloyal. You may have made his job easier,” Rarity pointed out.

“It is something we have spent much time discussing,” Countess Dorea said. “We may have tempered Robar’s intentions, for a time, but tempering is not halting. We cannot allow Fillidelfiyaa to be turned into a second Manehattan, no matter how slow the process. We must stand up now and fight, live or die.”

“Will you stay and witness our fight?” Gavron asked.

“No, I think we know what we came to learn,” Twilight Sparkle replied. “Some of us may visit you again, if you wish, but this is your fight, and our place during it is back in Ponieville.”

“As always,” Gavron said with narrowed eyes, though his spite seemed based on instinct alone and his confrontation with the Brave Companions less real than it had been in the past. “Go in peace, Brave Companions, and pray we win out against Manehattan’s expansion—for the sake of Equestria, if for nothing else.”

***

Events proceeded quickly in the aftermath of the Brave Companions’ visit. Neither Robar nor Hadrian (for though Gavron was proclaimed the leader of the rebellion, Hadrian was truly the pony who did all the planning and leadership) were willing to spend the full time necessary to raise, drill, and equip an army ready for war; time was at a premium. Hadrian was counting on the Griffon Free Companies and as the trained household troops of the nobles who’d flocked to his rebellion to carry the fight, and Robar was relying on a similar strategy. Though he would accumulate levies to swell his army as it traveled south, he was mostly trusting in the skill of household troops of those who had remained loyal alongside the token force sent from the Kingdom of Manehattan. Hadish was willing to fight for his son’s new crown, but the size of the force seemed to communicate that he wanted Robar to prove himself and not win merely by the might of his father.

There was also another matter on the mind of the King of Manehattan. The Brave Companions had claimed they would not get involved in Fillidelfiyaa’s civil war, but that was not entirely true. Twilight Sparkle had written to Grigor of Stalliongrad shortly after leaving Crosswind informing him of the situation, and he’d dutifully informed his father Braid. Stalliongrader troops were now accumulating on the border with Manehattan, and Hadish was keeping his eye to the west, mindful that committing too many resources to the south would leave him vulnerable to attack.

With such rapid preparations, it was only two weeks since Alhert was buried that the armies met to fight over the crown he’d left behind. It was the First Day of the Sixth Month, and while the Gauntlet was being undertaken in Cloudsdale (currently floating near Trotstagor in the Hill Kingdoms), the two armies lined up beneath a barrage of freezing rain. Hadrian could have ordered the gryphons up to clear away some of the clouds over his troops, but Robar had abstained from sending his pegasi to do the same, leaving them free to attack the rebels from above if the gryphons were otherwise engaged. It would be a common problem in any conflicts with Robar so long as the pegasi of the Blue Mountains remained loyal: though he had them at his disposal, the True Faith regarded weather modification as hardly less blasphemous than sorcery, so he would not order them up to clear the clouds. The rebel army was outnumbered roughly two to one; but through a combination of scrying, scouting, and harrying, Hadrian had managed to lead Robar to fight in a position advantageous to the underdogs. The hills sloped upwards here in a long ridge, gentle enough to convince Robar that the risk was worth it, but high enough that it would still be a difficult fight uphill, especially as the rain turned everything to mud. The rebels also had sorceresses, which Robar did not, though they’d still been forbidden from using battlefield spells, as was the norm. It wasn’t fear of retaliation in kind that had convinced Hadrian to make such a decision. Battlefield spells, though devastating enough to end a battle instantly, were sometimes unpredictable and just as dangerous to the side using them as their enemy. Also, such an act could sour any chances that yet remained of those fighting on Robar’s side to come over to the rebel cause in the future. This battle wouldn’t determine the war; it would just determine what would become of Hadrian and his followers over the winter.

Lightning cracked across the sky and thunder rolled over the hills as commanders shouted speeches and orders to their followers. Rain plinked off of Hadrian’s upturned visor as he stood silently, listening to the tumult before combat. He stood in the center of the line, but not at the front as was his wont. That spot today was occupied by Ser Gavron—a risky move to place their claimant to the crown in such a dangerous position, but to do otherwise would have been to risk doubts in the legitimacy of their cause. Instead, Hadrian stood with the messengers that usually would have had to force their way forward to speak with him and the sorceresses powerful enough to affect anywhere on the battlefield. Many of the sorceresses who’d joined the rebellion were currently stationed at the border with Balte-Maer, keeping watch on Seaspray and her forces. Even so, there was still a greater concentration here than perhaps any army in memory, enough that they had spaced the lesser sorceress out among the troops to provide protective spells and minimize the need for messages to be carried physically. They didn’t have full coverage of the army, but it was enough that Hadrian was confident they could win a decisive victory even outnumbered as they were.

Cries went up and were answered as Robar’s army drove forward, closing the distance with the rebel troops. Arrows whistled through the air to deter them, but not nearly as many as should have been fired or as well. The constant rain had left bowstrings damaged or put away for their protection, and the archers were unable to mount the defense needed to drive the charge back. Before contact was made on the ground, it was in the air. Gryphons and pegasi crashed into each other and grappled or pulled apart and maneuvered for advantage. Blood and bodies joined the rain falling onto the armies, though for the moment this mostly occurred over the space in-between or over Robar’s charging troops. Beams of light shot through the rain as they neared and the sorceresses began to cast against them. The earth trembled and tripped up the lead ponies, fouling up the charge, but still they came, confident in their numbers. Knights of Fillidelfiyaa leapt over the undulating ground, more accustomed to such tricks of the battlefield than the levies, and a contingent of Manehattanite troops kept pace with them, reaching the Fillidelfiyaan left flank. Sorceresses shifted from attack to defense and shields went up to block the assault, but they couldn’t be fully effective if they wanted to maintain their magical abilities for the rest of the battle, and a fight was inevitable. Troops and knights ran to assist the levies, and it wasn’t long before not just the left flank but the whole line was engaged in fighting Robar’s troops.

It was a grinding, mostly static battle from that point on. Shields were thrust against each other, and pikes ran low, having become shattered or stuck in enemies and unable to be pulled free. Sorceresses shifted their efforts around, trying to provide protection wherever it was most needed at any given moment, but it was all they could do to keep Robar’s troops from cutting through. The lines pulled apart and drew back together as hours wore on, ponies slipping and caked in mud as they battered at each other before drawing back to their own side and leaving the bodies of their comrades behind to fight over when the clash was joined again. It seemed there was always fighting going on somewhere, and there was never a break for long.

This suited Hadrian’s plan just fine, though. They hadn’t advanced, but neither had they been forced to retreat. The rebel line stood, more or less, the same as it had when battle had first been joined, and Robar’s troops had been bloodied far more than theirs. The moment would now soon come when the tables were turned and they could cut the heart out of the enemy army and force them back. Until then, they had to be patient and trust in the soundness of their ground and the protection of their mages.

What wasn’t going as well was the aerial battle. Though the rebels were holding their ground below, the gryphons weren’t as successful above. Gryphons were larger and stronger than ponies, but they couldn’t quite match the speed and flexibility of pegasi (though that was something one would never tell them if they wished to live). This was especially true of the Griffon Free Companies. In their time spent as a mercenary band fighting in pony wars, they’d become quite good at fighting grounded forces, but they didn’t have the same skill in aerial combat. They could take more hits and their own were fatal more often than not, but the pegasi had become accustomed to their fighting style, and the gryphons began to score progressively fewer hits. They were working to adapt, teaming up to corner the pegasi arrayed against them, but it was a costly tactic that let the pegasi take more control of the sky. When bodies fell now, it was almost always upon the rebels. The powerful sorceresses around Hadrian had taken to directing their efforts upward to aid the gryphons, since the lesser mages arrayed throughout the lines seemed to have a handle on that front.

A Manehattanite horn blared over the sounds of ponies pushing and scrambling and stabbing at each other and the pegasi heeded its call, engaging in a fighting retreat. Hadrian looked up and wondered what this could mean. Those still fighting on the ground did not pull back or break, and even seemed to redouble their efforts. Had Robar come up with some new plan for the pegasi? How could he pull them back now when it would leave him exposed to gryphon attacks?

Not all the Manehattanites had come forward to engage in the mêlée, and those who’d stayed back with the supply wagons they’d pulled down from Manehattan had engaged in setting up canopies over them as protection from the rain. From beneath those canopies now came whistling sounds as projectiles shot out from under them at great speed, propelled forward by trails of flame. Fireworks were rarely seen in Equestria, their displays reproducible with less effort and craft by sorcery. The art of rocketry was common only in the eastern reaches of the Zebrikaanian Empire, in the provinces of Zhean Hei and Ilet, or in the unicorn kingdoms across the Yellow Ocean, upon the western coast of Stygra. Without sorcery at his command, King Hadish had taken a cue from these distant lands to counter it—or so he thought.

As the rockets streaked over the battle, the sorceresses scattered throughout the line perceived the threat and turned all their efforts to shielding the rebels. Magical shields shimmered in the air as rain beat against them, covering nearly all the front line from above. The rockets unevenly detonated short of their targets, fragments hurtled in all directions. To the great shock of the sorceresses, the metal bits hurtled through their shields as if they weren’t there, and the magical protection collapsed all down the line as the fragments embedded themselves in ponies. Around Hadrian, sorceresses recoiled as the ponies they’d been communicating with mentally were suddenly cut off.

“Dimeritium!” Massif swore loudly. “Curse Hadish and his spawn a thousand generations!”

Shards of the silvery-blue metal were embedded in ponies all along the front line, leaving bloody gashes in armor and coats. That was the extent of the damage for most ponies, and those who hadn’t been struck in a fatal location were able to stagger on and continue defending, albeit not quite as capably as before. For sorceresses, the consequences were far more dire. Dimeritium could cancel magic, though a great amount was usually required to block a skilled sorceress entirely. With shards embedded in their flesh, however, the mages along the line had no access to their sorcerous abilities until the metal was extracted. Where has Hadish gotten so much dimeritium, and why is he willing to throw so much away at once?

The rebel lines began to buckle without the aid of their sorceresses, forced back one step, and then two as Robar’s forces pressed their advantage. Suddenly, the ground beneath Robar’s right flank shot into the air in spires of earth and stone. Bodies were flung upwards only to be swallowed by the hungry earth as they landed. The calamity spread to the east, tearing through Robar’s troops, and panicking others to leap into the swords and few remaining pikes of the rebels. The spires grew taller and the path of destruction wider, and clods of dirt were flung into the air, knocking pegasi from the sky and dragging them down to be submerged. The earth raged ever wilder and veered back toward the rebels, crossing lines at the center and tearing both sides of the fight to bloody ribbons. Hadrian watched as, almost in slow motion, a body in a set of armor recently painted in green-and-blue on one side and yellow on the other was tossed high into the air before plummeting down into the churning sod.

“No!” Hadrian yelled as he found his voice and turned to see Massif nearby with teeth gritted and gums bleeding into his bedraggled beard, his body and robes soaked through now that he’d released the spell protecting him from the rain in order to channel everything he had into this battlefield spell. “What have you done?!”

“It was necessary!” Massif said as he turned toward the baron, his spell continuing to consume friend and foe as it crossed the battlefield.

“No battlefield spells!” Hadrian yelled as he tromped through rain and mud toward the sorcerer.

“They took out our sorceresses! It was the only way to achieve victory!” Massif yelled back.

“You old fool! You’ve killed Gavron!” Hadrian shouted as he struck Massif in the face with an armored hoof, sending the sorcerer sprawling in the mud. “Fillidelfiyaa is lost!”

As Massif looked up in shock that Hadrian had actually hit him, the baron looked out at the chaos around him. Massif’s spell was tapering down, but the battlefield was still a chaotic, deadly place. Ponies from both sides of the fight were breaking and running from the tumultuous earth, and sensibly so, but Hadrian couldn’t let everything fall apart. He and the others who’d rebelled would not be treated mercifully by Robar were they to surrender.

“To me! Withdraw to the forest!” Hadrian yelled, trying to get his army back under control before slamming down his visor.

***

Both sides would claim victory after the Battle for Brenna Wood, but neither could truthfully do so; it had been a loss for both sides. Hadrian had succeeded in his core goal: Robar had been forced to retreat and leave the rebels alone for the time being. The battlefield spell unleashed by Massif had shattered his army that had already been hard-pressed to remain loyal to an unloved king in a battle that saw many more losses than their enemies, and Robar was forced to return to Fillidelfiyaa and the safety of the Sea Keep to plan his next move. The lethal spell had decided the battle, but it had also shattered the hopes of the rebels to see Robar replaced by another. Ser Gavron had been their last claimant with any shred of legitimacy, and though other pretenders were proposed, none would be able to gain the support and authority Alhert’s cousin had possessed, not even other Inthrid-Caramons. The rebels were not willing to turn themselves over to Robar’s mercy, but now they were rebels without a cause; without a claimant to the throne, they were merely traitors to their rightful king.

Hadrian eventually forced them to acknowledge this reality while also keeping them together. They would not be taking the Kingdom of Fillidelfiyaa, except by force to place a new king on the throne, a cause far less noble in their minds (and in the eyes of Equestria) than using somepony who already had a legitimate claim to it. Instead, they agreed to recognize Hadrian as their new liege and form an independent realm in the borderlands of the Kingdom of Fillidelfiyaa and the Duchy of Balte-Maer. The former Baron of Trotston was named Duke of Haatroyaa, a Fillidelfiyaan rendering of Haut Roy’i, a petty kingdom that had once resided in the area ages earlier.

It took longer to make peace than it had to prepare for battle, but King Robar had been forced to acknowledge the reality of his situation. There would be no time before winter to gather a new army, and by spring the rebels would be better prepared to repel attacks. They’d given up (at least publicly) their intention to topple Robar and return the Kingdom of Fillidelfiyaa to Faust-fearing rule, so their threat was less than it had been. Still, it was bothersome to allow a portion of his lands slip away so shortly after taking the throne. Messengers traveled back and forth between Fillidelfiyaa and Crosswind, and by Hearth’s Warming Eve they had an agreement. On the winter solstice, a month after the Battle for Brenna Wood, an uneasy truce was signed between King Robar of Fillidelfiyaa and Duke Hadrian of Haatroyaa. It was a truce that was destined not to last, or at the very least be heavily tested; but it made the Duchy of Haatroyaa a reality by putting the name down on a parchment acknowledged by another sovereign ruler. Another realm had joined Equestria, pushing Celestia’s dream of a unified Equestria even farther away.

Comments

[Xanderfox]

One poorly Aimed AOE spell won the battle but lost the war.