The Kingdoms of Man

“Hey! Get up, Sadiq!”

Startled out of his sleep, a scraggly bearded man named Lord Rahim shuffled and stumbled his way out of his sleeping space. It was crowded in the tent that hung off the side of the great beast that carried them.

"This had better be good, Havash."

"Black smoke rises from Dubale, Sadiq! Come, see!"

Rahim stood up, precariously balancing as the great sauropod made its way across the sands, bouncing the woven side tent with every step. He looked to where Havash had been pointing and gasped.

He indeed saw Dubale in the distance, amid the Great Oasis. He saw the sandstone walls, carved ever so thoughtfully to both protect and beautify the borders of the trading hub. But as he looked on, many flying figures rose up and down the city as several smoke columns rose to clash with the bright blue desert sun.

There are not that many fliers in Saddle Arabia, so to see this many...

Raham turned to Havash and asked, "It is as we feared. We will have to fight."

Havash pointed to their immediate left and said, "See, Sadiq. The rest of the caravan have signaled battle readiness."

Sadiq followed to see the other sauropods of burden with all their gold and red war flags waving.

"Havash, wake up the rest of the tent. We must soon make battle."

"Yes, Sadiq."

"Hold back these traitors! No quarter!"

Camel King Mudai was at the edge of his patience.

How dare the Pony Triumvirate separate themselves from the Equestrian Alliance!

How dare the Pony Triumvirate align themselves with the Dragon-controlled Coalition of Free Beings!

As his rage threatened to boil over, King Mudai screamed down at the city from his palace,

"How DARE they attack us, the Saddle-Arabians!"

King Mudai sighed deeply and turned back to his bedchambers, finally acknowledging the camel servant who had tirelessly insisted he get inside.

"Camel King Mudai! It's not safe out there right no-"

"Get me my armor and my weapons, and rally everyone in the palace! Move!"

"Y-Yes, Camel King Mudai!"

The servant bolted out of Mudai's bedchambers, leaving him to listen to the din of battle and the sound of a city in agony. Mudai simmered as he watched the proceedings. The well-armed and well-trained horses and camels of Dubale's militia and army would not be enough this time. Even with the few pegasi volunteers the King had, the enemy would still be able to achieve air superiority, if not completely control the skies over his city. Lowly camel servants flooded back in, as well as the strong Captain DeHorse, Captain of the Saddle-Arabian Army and a fine black stallion to boot.. He bowed deeply, his gold armor clinking and ready for battle.

"My liege, what would you have us do?"

Mudai beckoned DeHorse rise to his hooves and said, “We keep this city out of desperate hooves, that’s what.”

Horseshoes pounding down the hallway, guards and captains rushed to save the city, and Mudai and DeHorse soon joined the crowd.

“What are you doing?”

Wretched Heart, a dark tan earth pony with an olive mane, got in the face of some grunt who had wandered away from the line in search of Celestia-knows-what.

“S-spoils of war, sir?”

Heart nearly facehoofed, but stopped himself because of his damage that the sharpened horseshoes could do to his own face. Instead, he just screamed,

“Get back in formation!”

The pony, armored with simpler lamellar armor and a bucket helmet, hurriedly stepping into the line that was progressing down the streets towards the Saddle Arabian palace. Heart thought the rest of the troops needed a reminder.

“We must force a surrender at the palace, gentlecolts! We can’t compromise that goal with petty looting of this city!”

A voice cried out,

“But my foals are starving!”

Heart looked over the crowd but couldn’t find the speaker. That would have to wait for later. Instead, he shouted,

“So are mine! Now go! For our foals!”

A new roar rose from the ranks. That would have to do. Wretched Heart sighed. How could it have come to this?

Earlier...

She ran up to Wretched Heart, a big smile on her face.

“Hey, daddy! Where are you going?”

“To get us food, Sunflower.”

Her face lit up, her eyes shining like stars.

“*Gasp* Does this mean we won’t go hungry anymore?”

“That’s right.”

“Does this mean we get to play outside the wall?”

“You remember what happened to Onyx, right?”

She recoiled as if struck.

“Oh...”

“That wall is there to keep the hungry things out, Sunflower.”

She looked up at Wretched Heart, ears folded back and with a pleading look on her young face.

“But... I’m hungry, daddy...”

“We all are, Sunflower.”

Shaking himself from his memories, Wretched Heart focused. This assault needed to succeed. He looked up to see the sparse air cover the Saddle Arabians had sent up get defeated by the proud Pegasi of the Triumvirate.

So the Triumvirate had air superiority. They had a chance after all. Wretched Heart smiled. Perhaps something good would come out of this violence after all.

Then a series of strange horns was sounded. Heart’s eyes widened. Another force had come to this battle.

This had just became much more difficult. A pegasi messager dropped a scroll hurriedly next to Wretched Heart, and he opened the scroll and read it. The commanders wanted this city yesterday, because the Fathuarto humans had raised their banners.

The great wooden gate that would’ve allowed the Fathuarto access to the city was closed to them, occupied by the Triumvirate invaders. Pegasi flew in and out of windows of the gatehouse, denying the sauropod riders access.

“Looks like we’ll have to dismount to open the gate, Sadiq!”

“I know that!”

The rope ladder unfurled from the sides of the beasts, and lightly armored men with bows and short swords ran up to the gate.

“Sadiq, they’re attacking!”

“Then get your bow, Havash!”

“Yes, Sadiq.”

Pegasi flew away from the gates in pairs towards the group of dismounted men, who loosed arrows at them. As soon as they saw the arrows come at them, the Pegasi would back off, lazily circling the men and sauropods. They swooped down and struck at any man who would venture too close to the gate, so an awkward standoff began.

“Havash?”

“Yes, Sadiq?”

“Signal the sauropods to move in closer.”

“That’ll put them in danger, Sadiq!”

“We need to get those men inside the gatehouse so they can get us in the city!”

“Alright, Sadiq!”

With horns sounding, the sauropod formation edged closer to the gates. The Triumvirate forces intensified their attacks, as did the sauropod riders with their arrows. A few errant arrows stuck out of the fallen Triumvirate fliers that collected along the ground, along with the fallen men struck by Triumvirate steel or arrow.

Eventually, satchel-carrying men broke away from the dismounted Fathuarto archers and braved arrow fire to stick their charge to the gate. Having fled, Lord Rahim and Havash waited with held breath.

The gunpowder could fail to ignite.

The force of the detonation might not be enough to grant the Fathuarto entry into the city.

After an eternity, the charges detonated. The big, heavy, reinforced sliding wall gate collapsed under its own crumbling weight after the foundation cracked if not crumpled under the force. Dust and sand kicked up as the masonry fell asunder. Everyone caught in the cloud coughed and covered their faces. Havash finally excitedly patted Rahim’s shoulder, pointed into the cloud of debris, and said, “Look, Sadiq! The gate has fallen!”

Rahim none-too-gently brushed off Havash’s hand and blew into a horn. The signal reached the men, and they surged forward with a battlecry. Everyone who had them drew their cutlasses, brandished their shields and bashed the sides of their weapons against their hardened steel buckler shields. The ringing carried far into the city.

Wretched Heart heard the horns and redoubled his shouting at his troops of, "Move it!"

A weary messenger pegasus sweaty under her armor, landed next to Wretched Heart and said, "Rear Guard Battalion... under heavy assault.... Orders?"

Wretched Heart grit his teeth and said, "Order the Rear Guard to take better defensive positions. Make them fight house by house."

The pegasus mare, grayed with debris through her normally brilliant red coat, raised her hoof in a salute, steeling herself before taking off to relay the General's orders.

Wretched Heart then turned to his grunts. With all the fury of both a general and a father, he shouted energy into the warriors of the Triumvirate.

Hopefully those reinforcements come soon.

____

The Battle for Dubale raged throughout the city and throughout the day. If one were perched atop the city walls as an observer, as a concealed white pegasus loyal to the Equestrian Crown was, they would observe attacks and counterattacks, as scores of ringing metal and shrieks of dying soldiers, the battle cries of the damned, were heard. Pegasi struck suddenly at the massive beasts of burden the men had brought. Unicorns loosed withering spellfire, panicking several of the giants, who swayed their tall, tan heads as colorful beams of magic impacted their hides. Armored earth ponies and sword-carrying men dueled each other in the streets. As the battle lines started to blur and each side flanked the other with skirmishers and squads of warriors, the dueling turned into a flat-out brawl. The thickest of the fighting happened in the central market square, where stalls with bright colors were turned into crude barricades and decorated with a scarlet coating as they were fought over.

A disgusting stench of battle wafted up to Clear Resolution's muzzle, and she heaved again, but nothing came out, as she already failed to contain her nausea just before, witnessing the glorious hell of battle.

She inserted a new roll of film into her camera with practiced speed and adjusted the tripod her camera rested on. She wiped her face with a napkin, then set back to work.

Resolution scanned the city line, now trying to practice professionalism as she zoomed in on certain events that were occurring. One caught her eye.

A squad of men atop one of the sandy dwellings had just been firebombed by a Triumvirate flier, and the camera shutter flickered furiously as men threw themselves off the now burning building. She also caught an image of the pegasus receiving fire from archers perched atop their beasts, who fell with several arrows jutting out from her torso.

Clear Resolution took a moment to catch her breath after she heard the sound of the pegasus hitting the ground, a sharp but faint snapping sound, and then screams as the unfortunate Triumvirate pony was beset by Fathuarto swordsmen. She heard a pleading voice, but the sheer distance didn't permit her to hear what the dying pegasus said before she was cut off as she was undoubtedly cut open.

Resolution tried to distance herself from what was happening, but with each new cry from every new casualty, her resolve wore a bit thinner.

Ultimately, Clear Resolution looked at her bag. 4 rolls of photographs was sufficient, she thought. She adjusted the cap on her head that read "PRESS," packed up her equipment with shaky hooves, then took off for the rendezvous with her representative in the press.

One image she took would never leave her, however.

Clear Resolution would have to contact her mother to let her know one of her daughters had fallen in battle.

____

“Where are those reinforcements?!”

“Sir Heart!”

Wretched Heart turned, battered and bloodied, to a fresher-looking pegasi messenger that had called him out. The pegasi saluted and said, “The Royal Triumvirate Army has arrived, and the War-Council has sent orders for you to redeploy outside the wall.”

Wretched Heart snorted, and then said, “How do you propose we do that? We don’t have enough unicorns, and the pegasi would be hard-pressed to get us out of this city.”

A flash of light answered Wretched Heart. He was immediately humbled by the sight of leather-robed unicorns, who began scanning the battlefield. One of them set his gaze on Wretched Heart and said, “Oh, ye of little faith. We will redeploy and surround both our enemies.”

“The day will yet be ours.”