The Battle of Saddle Lake

It was noon, when both armies have completely assembled themselves to meet each other on the battlefield. King Heart stood on the hill and felt the warmth of the sun on his face. Beside him was Lord Clover with several messengers, looking at the map of the battlefield. Lord Clover looked at the king, and King Heart nodded at the strategist to begin the battle.

The horns of the Equestrian army blew, causing the army to advance. The cavalry galloped at a steady pace, and once they were halfway in, the Mark Crusader's cavalry followed by a squadron of royal guards and the cavalry of the Royal Division attacked in a wedge formation at the enemy center. General Grogar saw the cavalry quickly charging at them, and ordered his archers to fire their arrows. The archers fired five volleys at the enemy cavalry, trying to make time for the second line to advance to take the blunt of the cavalry. The arrows missed the front of the cavalry charge, but landed at their middle and rear, causing half of the charge to reduce their speed from trampling onto their fallen comrades.

The second line had four rows of spear men. The first line consisted of four ranks with the first rank making up the defense with their long shields. The cavalry clashed with second line, causing the defenders to fly from the impact of the horses. The second line was quickly overwhelmed, but pockets of soldiers formed a small defense to fight the Equestrian cavalry. Prince Armor and his crusaders and royal guards clashed with the first line, but barely made a dent due to their tight defense.

The Equestrian right made their move and attacked the Chaos left through the marshes. General Glimmer signaled his soldiers to repel the attack. Squadrons of infantry men ran in zigzags to confuse the Equestrian cavalry. This caused the cavalry to reduce their speed. Once they attacked the enemy squadrons, their combat effectiveness was reduced due to the lack of speed in their charge.

In the middle,Equestrian infantry soon found their way to support the cavalry. Captain Bloom was caught in the rear, fighting pockets of the second line. Sir Seed and Prince Armor were struggling to make a hole on the first line of the Chaos army. The royal guards were closely surrounding their prince to protect him from being dismounted and killed. Sir Seed went to Prince Armor.

"Your highness," Sir Seed called out. His face was dirty from the mud, and his sword was drenched in blood. "The infantry has arrived, but Captain Bloom and the rest of the cavalrymen are struggling to fight the second line."

"Tell the infantry to take care of the remnants of the second line, we need to create a dent within this line," Prince Armor commanded.

"Yes your majesty," Sir Seed rode off to meet Captain Bloom.

Captain Bloom was fighting a squadron of Chaos spear men. His horse was caught and three spear men trusted their pole arms into his horse, causing him to fall. Three crusaders saw their captain fall and immediately went to him to protect him. Captain Bloom got up from the muddy ground and approached the spear men. One of the soldiers tried to stab him with a spear, but the captain grabbed the tip of the spear and pulled the soldiers towards his sword. The other crusaders rushed the other two spear men and dragged them to the ground to easily kill them.

"Captain!" Sir Seed called out.

Captain Bloom turned his back to the sound of Sir Seed calling him. They found each other in the middle of the chaos.

"Captain, Prince Armor wants the crusaders to push forward," Sir Seed reported.

"I'll gather the cavalry. Get the infantry and tell them to assist us," Captain Bloom instructed.

Sir Seed immediately rode to the infantry to inform them of their new orders. Captain Bloom assembled the cavalry and they charged the enemy line.

Meanwhile, on the left flank, Lord Stygian began to move his infantry units, hoping to create a hole to flank through in order to support the Equestrian center. His troops were marching at a steady pace. Lord General Shimmer saw that the Equestrians were steadily marching and ordered his heavy shield bearers to be at the front, supported by his pike men. His pike men were four ranks deep and had their pikes pointed at the enemy. He then ordered all of his archers to fire three volley's then an individual fire to maximize the effectiveness of their arrows.

The Equestrian's immediately formed a tortoise formation to defend themselves against the hale of arrows, but caused their speed to reduce. By time, the Equestrians were slowly taking casualties, but they had a tight defense. Suddenly several fireballs were launched at the Equestrian's breaking their formation. General Shimmer looked at his front, and saw several mages casting spells to repel the Equestrian infantry. Lord Stygian saw the magic and commanded his archers to move forward to provide cover for the first wave's retreat. At the same time, he commanded his second wave to advance.

On the Equestrian right, the Equestrian cavalry were trapped in the mud and were being picked off one by one by small teams of Chaos soldiers. Sir Blueblood and five other riders were caught deep in a marsh and a column of Chaos crossbow men fired their bolts at the riders. Sir Blueblood's horse was hit, causing him to fall in the marsh. He was approached by five chaos soldiers, who were sent to pick them off while they were trapped. Sir Blueblood's shield was caught in the mud, and had to use his short sword against his opponents. Two men challenged him, while the other three fight the remaining survivors. A chaos soldier charged Sir Blueblood, but tripped and fell in the mud, the second followed the attack of his comrade and struck Sir Blueblood, but his sword bounced off from the thick armor.

Sir Blueblood violently swung his sword at the two soldiers, hoping that they would be caught within his blade. The first soldier was struck in the neck and the other attempted to tackle Sir Blueblood, but the young knight slit the man's throat. Sir Blueblood and aother rider made their way out of the marsh and withdrew behind a squadron of infantry who were sent to support the right cavalry.

King Heart saw the battlefield. The left was progressing very slowly as mages were preventing the soldiers from attack the pike wall. The cavalry on the right were starting to withdraw, seeing that they have taken moderate casualties and saw that the effectiveness of their horses were hampered by the mud. Meanwhile, the center was at a stalemate with the Mark Crusaders leading the push. Lord Clover was being irritated by several messengers, with the right flank requesting to withdraw, and the left requiring magic support.

"Tell General Hurricane to hold his ground. We can't pull the right flank just yet. Have the left to hold their positions and get Lieutenant Dash to assemble a squadron of Royal Guards to escort the mages to the left flank. Have the rest of the Royal Division to assist with the push on the central field," Lord Clover instructed the messengers.

"Hold those orders!" King Heart shouted. He approached the table and faced Lord Clover. "The left and right flank are suffering too many casualties and cannot advance in their current state. The center is barely making a difference. Have the entire army to withdraw back to their original positions."

"You want to end the battle?" Lord Clover asked.

"Just for the day," the king replied.

Soon the horns from the Equestrian encampment sounded the retreat. The left and right flank quickly withdrew, under the hail of several arrows. The center under the command of Prince Armor, withdrew in order. The Mark Crusaders formed a defensive retreat to safely protect the army from being chased by the Chaos soldiers.

King Discord saw the retreat, but didn't call for his men to chase the Equestrians. He didn't want to risk the change of them reorganizing into a defensive role that would inflict massive losses to his army. As soon as the Equestrians withdrew from the field, the Chaos soldiers were ordered to withdraw as well. By days end, the field was equally littered with dead bodies from both sides. The Equestrian army suffered eight hundred casualties against the Chaos army with a thousand casualties.