CHAPER 4: The Buffalo Wars-A Trial by Fire

I'm back with chapter four, everypony. Listening to "Some Nights" and some of the more morose songs from Greenday's American Idiot album, and MCR's The Black Parade. So is my mood right now. This may be the last chapter of this little pseudo-history, but hopefully not of the entire Drake anthology. I've received multiple PM's and a review all asking for more Drake Chronicles. As I said before, there is literally an entire collection of volumes and short stories written out and ready to be published, but they involve certain OC's in Drake's family who are real-life people in my own family. Because of unforeseen and tumultuous issues brought about by the vicissitudes of this Hell called life, we both decided it would be better to wait to publish these volumes until it remains a fargone conclusion that these immense upheavals will not seek to destroy precisely the manner of relationship between us our two OC's enjoy, and leave us both with an unpleasant literary reminder of that which was, and that which could have been. Forging forth then, here is chapter 4 of Drake's military history. Enjoy and Review.

The Buffalo Wars began the moment the first pony set hoof in the ancient land of the Buffalo tribes. For centuries, the natives of the western and southwestern territories had lived a life of semi-nomadic foraging. Through almost constant battle with neighboring tribes and the nature of the harsh and unforgiving environment in which they lived, the Buffalo were and still are a hardy, fierce and steadfast race of warriors. Once ponies began to settle in their domain, the Buffalo turned every ounce of their martial ability upon the pioneer ponies. To protect the settlers, the Equestrian government requested the army build a series of forts in the frontier lands, roughly a day's walk apart.

The first and better known of these frontier garrisons was Fort Defiance. The fort itself was built in the year 1870 as the first permanent garrison of Equestrian Military in the frontier. The purpose was for a show of force, a trump card that would prove to the Buffalo that the ponies weren't to be trifled with. Showing the army to the enemy had worked during the standoff with the Dragons, and kept peace on the borders, but little did command know the Buffalo were no so easily bluffed. Two years after the construction of Fort Defiance, the Buffalo of the Southern Band attacked a patrol of cavalry three miles from the front gate of the fort. This embarrassed and outraged Major Minor, the commander of the fort, who promptly demanded a full garrison.

By the summer of 1873, there were five companies of the 2nd Royal Equestrian Cavalry and Company A of the 7th Royal Dragoons, along with a small number of armed civilians living inside the fort. This proved to be a logistical problem. The original fort had been built to house up to three companies. It had now become very overcrowded. The garrison added onto the fort starting in 1874, and by 1876, Fort Defiance had grown into a much larger outpost. It had nearly doubled in size, and now became a small settlement unto itself.

Fort Sweetwater was built in 1874 to house a single company of the 2nd Cavalry. The 3rd Company, Royal Engineers, instead of pacing off the distance from Fort Defiance, instead set out from the east with a poorly drawn map, and ended up constructing the fort almost four days' walk from the main garrison. They could not take down the fort and rebuild, so the cavalry decided to make do with what they had, and recommended to new settlers that they build around the small garrison, where they could be protected. The small fort became a settlement, and the small settlement became a small town, Sweetwater, named after the fort in 1887.

Fort Green was constructed in the winter of 1881-82, a day and a half's walk southwest of fort Defiance. As Fort Defiance was quickly becoming a center of trade and social gathering in the frontier, Fort Green struggled to maintain supply and morale as the troopers of companies G and F of the 2nd Cavalry found themselves in one of the most isolated forts in the new territories. The only fort more removed from the trade centers and supply lines in the east was Fort Dragoon, twenty miles to the west of Fort Defiance. Housing companies B, C and D of the 7th Dragoons, the fort was actually positioned on the Western Border of Equestria, and served the Dual purpose of protecting the frontier from marauding Buffalo, as well as guarding the border from any invasion.

During this time, the Buffalo were not quiet and submissive. Attacks against settlers and even cavalry patrols occurred almost monthly. The Buffalo chiefly targeted settlers, whom they perceived as an invading force. Their method of warfare was swift and brutal, especially the Buffalo of the Southern Band. Normally, the Buffalo would attack at night in large numbers of up to 30 warriors. They would descend on a farm or settlement as quickly as possible, and raid, taking food and supplies, before killing the ponies and usually setting fire to houses and barns.

As the War progressed, the attacks became more severe and more brutal. By 1950, the Buffalo had begun a terror tactic of mutilating their slain enemies, and taking scalps as war trophies. They had taken scalps before the Buffalo Wars when fighting rival tribes, but this was a matter of honor, proof a warrior had killed a great warrior or well-known enemy. Against the ponies, the practice of scalping became a macabre way to show how many ponies a warrior had slain in battle. Scalping and mutilation, combined with a rise in attacks frightened the settlers and angered the military, who set about attempting a more complete containment of the territories.

Fort Mesquite was constructed in 1979 to bridge the gap between forts Defiance and Sweetwater, and to help observe and control the movements of hostile Buffalo bands in the area. A small outpost, Fort Mesquite was built to house only a single squad of cavalry, originally a detachment of the 1st Dragoons. When the 1st Dragoons became the 7th Cavalry in 1985, the small garrison held the fort for a few more months before being transferred. They were relieved by a 30 pony detachment from Company A of the 2nd Royal Equestrian Cavalry until the year 2005, when the entire frontier army was revamped.

The main cause of this restructure of the frontier forces was the massacre of three companies of the 7th Cavalry under the command of Lt. Col. Custard in 1992. The 7th had been tasked with tracking down a large party of hostile Buffalo who had raided a settlement and killed five settlers. Lt. Col. Custard took six companies of the 7th Cavalry and gave chase. After two weeks of following the enemy Buffalo, they came upon the Buffalo encampment. Custard split his forces, sending three companies with Major Ringgold to the east, while Custard took three companies to the west, attempting to sandwich the Buffalo in between two forces of cavalry. Unfortunately, Major Ringgold's force was attacked before he could reach his position, and drawn into a lengthy battle. Custard, unwilling to wait and impatient to attack, or possibly either underestimating enemy numbers or overestimating his own troopers, charged into the encampment. There, 250 troopers met with 400 Buffalo warriors and 200 additional Buffalo willing to fight for their lives. Custard's contingent was forced into a headlong retreat, and tried to hold a small rise nearby. The troopers of the three companies fought valiantly, but within an hour, they were all killed, including Custard himself.

In the spring of 2005, The 12th Royal Equestrian Cavalry, made up of many members of units who had fought on the frontier, along with the 7th Cavalry, who had been active up to that point further north were chosen as the key units to form a new type of task force for the job of policing the wild and wooly frontier. Companies A through G of the 12th Cavalry, and Companies A and B of the 7th, along with Company A of the 6th Royal Unicorn Grenadiers and C Squadron of the 2nd Aerial Reconnaissance Wing were joined together under the title of "2nd Frontier Battalion" The 1st Frontier Battalion was a new unit serving in the Northern Territories, and it was felt that a similar approach could be used in the west. Fort Defiance became the official headquarters for the large force, and the soldiers within the command were stationed at the outposts and forts throughout the frontier.

Peace talks were conducted between 2005 and 2012 between the Army and the Buffalo chiefs and leaders, resulting in a cessation of hostilities with the Northern Band and the Chokeberry Tribes, as well as several smaller bands to the west. Some tribes agreed to work in tandem with the ponies, and others began to settle down and start farms and homesteads of their own. Unfortunately, several other tribes refused peace, including the Southern band and its allies, who remained openly hostile to the cavalry and the settlers. This hostility was to result in a final dark day for the cavalry, and the ultimate end of the hostile bands.

In the year 2012, the frontier Battalion suffered its second-greatest tragedy when over 20 troopers of the 12th Cavalry stationed at Fort Mesquite were killed in a failed attack similar to Custard's ill-fated charge. In the following months, the 7th Cavalry, along with companies of the 12th Cavalry began a policy of no quarter, and swept through the frontier, putting to the sword any Buffalo who would not declare peace. Since 2014, the frontier has been relatively quiet, with all remaining Buffalo tribes in alliance with the ponies, or at least restrained by peace treaties.

The Buffalo Wars, along with the return of Discord, the God of Chaos, and several small raids into Equestria by small outside forces once again showed a need for highly mobile forces that could respond to the worst of situations and conduct the type of hit-and-run guerrilla warfare that had become the vogue among small nations, armies and organizations. In the year 1985, when the army was transitioning from dragoon to cavalry, another unit was developed within the Equestrian Military: The Special Forces. Officially known as Royal Equestrian Special Operations Command, this establishment began as a single company of commandos trained in guerrilla warfare, wilderness survival, sabotage, assassination and lightning-fast raids into enemy territory.

By 1990, RESOC had become a joint military organization made up of some ten independent companies combined into the 1st Special Forces Regiment. Though officially a regiment, there is little command oversight in the companies. In fact, the commandos are trained to fight in six to eight pony squads. Each company was tailor-fitted for specific types of operations, including hostage rescue, training guerrillas in other lands, reconnaissance, waterborne assaults, airborne assaults and antiterror operations. Placed under the command of Princess Luna and positioned throughout Equestria in squads ready to mobilize at a moment's notice, these elite ponies continue to remain as mysterious as they are intimidating.

The Covert Operations Lethal Tactics Squad, known as the COLT commandos is one such unit known for their prowess in unconventional warfare. Masters of camouflage, and skilled at tracking and fighting in almost any environment, these elite soldiers are hoof-picked from the ranks of other Special Forces units. Little is known about their training techniques or operational history, but the unit, which is comprised of a juxtapose of Earth Ponies, Pegasi, Unicorns and Bat Ponies, is heralded only as Equestria's last line of defense, and the shadow warriors who belong to the COLT commandos are all bachelors, widowers and orphans.

The Royal Equestrian Military today is vastly different from the armored and knightly warriors who were the first ponies to defend the fledgling nation over 2000 years ago. As the nation changed, the military had to change with it. As warfare continually changed through the centuries, the military had to constantly gallop to keep up until it became the largest, and most professional army in the world. What does the future hold for the soldiers of Equestria? Time can only tell, but it seems that at least for the time being, The Royal Equestrian Military has done what every group of warriors has attempted to do from the dawn of time; become the living embodiment of martial ability and battlefield perfection. By not just brute force, but inspired intellect have we achieved this, and because of that mixture of strength tempered with will and intelligence, this author does not think we will be loosing that image anytime soon.

-1st Lt. Dragoon Sabre

Royal Equestrian Cavalry

So marks the end of Drake's 'A Brief History of the Equestrian Military'. Did you all enjoy this? I hope so, and I hope you all can patiently wait alongside me to see if Drake's saga can continue. Please leave your comments in the form of reviews or PM's. Thanks for reading.

I dedicate this fic to my little girl, Budder. Don't give up the ship, angel. Remember the Texans at the Alamo, the British at Rourke's Drift and the Spartans at Thermopylae.