The Polisians March

While Gregorios and Slate continue to solve their problems, and the Severius Empire pushed in, the ponies attempt to rally their forces to the south.  Commander Hurricane begins to pull the army back from the Draconequess front and position them to the Severian front.  The Draconequess clan holds itself steady, wary of the humans encroaching onto them.

What none of the current belligerents in the war know is another human civilization begins its own descent into the history books.

South of the very country of Equestria itself, the Polisian city-state has begun to mobilize itself.  The Polisian people spoke a different language than the other known humans of the time, Greek, originating from their territory in which they named Grecia.  Instead of being ruled by monarchs or emperors, the Polisian people elect their own rulers through a new process called democracy.

The Polisians began to push themselves to the north, hearing tales of a fertile land beyond the deserts; it would be quite profitable for them to take advantage of their position.

The Polisians marched onward with their glorious hoplites, into the dangers of the Equestrian Badlands, unknowing of the dangers, but all willing to find what is on the other side…

“Proó̱thi̱si̱!”  A voice called into the air, followed by a horn blowing loudly.

The thunderous sounds of marching troops overtook the silent desert as hundreds of Polisian hoplites marched onward.  Hoplites, armed with giant shields made of bronze, along with their bronze armor covering their torso, shins and forearms.  They also wore trademark helmets, also made of bronze.  Each of Hoplite’s shields bearing a symbol of a golden olive branch with a dark blue background, showing that they stand for peace and prosperity.

The Polisians aren’t known for a warlike culture; they mainly try to avoid war if possible, but can amass a strong army if required.  Now their large army marches across the badlands to the new world for them to colonize and utilize for their nation.

The hoplites all march in a line formation, three ranks deep at a steady pace.  At the front of the formation an officer led the march, wearing a large blue plume upon his helmet, and a bright blue cape.

Pelagius Theodoros, an older officer in the Polisian army.  Pelagius is known for his abilities to command from the front, a required ability when it comes to hoplite officers.  Though, he is not all for the military life of an officer, being away from his son -who still resides in Polisia with Pelagius’ sister Korinna-, is beginning to irritate him.

As the army continued to march through the sweltering badlands, many different rock formations dotted the otherwise empty desert.  Each of them a dark shade of red, contrasting with the dark yellow sand the makes up the ground.

Some of the rock formations are covered in holes, creating tunnels leading inside of them.  Inside these tunnels… something deadly lurks.  Inside one of the many tunnels a dark colored creature observes the humans marching outside.

The creature was a changeling…

The changeling survives with one of the older breeds of changelings; -the Cinereus or Grey breed due to them being a dark shade of grey compared to the other breeds- and has never seen these bipedal creatures before.

The changeling’s exoskeleton is a dark shade of grey with contrasted heavily with the changeling’s bright green eyes.  The insect-like wings of the changeling were also a bright shade of green, complementing its eyes as well.  The Cinereus breed is only capable of flying, meaning they have no horns for their magic, making them parasitic in their nature.

A hiss arose from the changeling as it began to back away from the entrance to the tunnel, before unfurling it wings, jumping into the air, and turning around to report to its queen.

Pelagius continued to lead his troops until a loud hiss sounded from a rock formation before them.

“Páf̱si̱!”  He calls out and the hoplites immediately halt.

One pair of green glowing eyes appears in one of the hole followed by another hiss.  Above them another pair appears, larger than the other with a look of aggression upon them.  Another hiss sounds this one significantly louder than the last.

Quickly more eyes appear in the remaining holes as various hisses and growls echo of the rocks.

The hoplites grip their shields and spears tightly as the feeling of danger creeps up onto them.  Pelagius backs up to his position in the formation creating the option of a phalanx if needed.

Suddenly with an insect-like screech, the changelings swarmed out of the rock formation.  Hundreds, if not thousands of changelings quickly dashed towards the formation, screeching and roaring all the way.

“Fálanga!”  Pelagius screams over the loud changelings and immediately the hoplites force themselves into a phalanx formation.  Pelagius takes his stance in the center, shield and spear ready with the other hoplites.

“Kratí̱ste!”  He yelled out and the hoplites held their shields firm, ready for the impact of the changelings.

BOOM!

The changelings slammed into the phalanx with a thunderous crack of kinetic energy.  The hoplites held strong, all of them pushing their weight forward in the phalanx in order to hold off the changelings.  Some changelings flew above the phalanx and attempted to flank around, surprising some of the hoplites.  The changelings swooped down and began to flash and cut up the hoplites.  Some of the hoplites were even dragged out of formation, screaming as the changelings tore them apart.

Quickly the hoplites retaliated by sectioning of that area of the phalanx and began to fight back with their spears, ripping the changelings out of the air and finishing them off on the ground below.

The changelings surrounded Pelagius’ phalanx, but the hoplites held strong with organization and discipline as their specialties.

Pelagius thrust his spear forward, piercing into a changeling’s chest, before ripping the spear back out and bashing forward with his shield.  The changeling was then knocked back to bleed out on the ground as it was trampled by its changeling brethren.

The hoplites continued to systematically wipe the changelings out before a loud screech sounded from the rock formation.  The changelings quickly perked up and disengaged the humans before scuttling back to their hive.

As the changelings retreat the hoplites hold their formation strong after the battering done to them.

Bodies of changelings and humans litter the surrounding area, broken spears lie on the ground along with dented shields and torn capes.  Once the changelings dissipate into their tunnels a deathly silence falls across the area.

“Anasyntachthoún! Prépei na fýgoume!”  Pelagius commands for the hoplites to regroup and exit the area quickly and the follow the command swiftly.

The hoplites uncover their dead and wounded and begin to carry them at the rear of the formation as the hoplites traverse the remainder of the desert.

“Akoumpí̱ste edó̱ gia tó̱ra.  Eímaste sto telef̱taío skélos.”  Pelagius called out for the army to rest as they entered a large canyon area.  The hoplites almost immediately collapsed onto the ground to rest from the marching in the desert climate.  Pelagius himself was exhausted from the marching and he was used to long marches.

As the hoplites continued to settle themselves around a voice echoes out nearby.

“Axio̱matikós Pelagius, vrí̱ka káti!”  One of the hoplites called out from a nearby tunnel entrance.

Pelagius headed over to the hoplite, followed by other interested hoplites.

Pelagius looked at the cave entrance with the one hoplite nearby, waving his arm to the officer, wanting him to come and see inside the tunnel.

The two of them peek inside of the tunnel to see that it split off into multiple directions, each of them glowing different colors.  Red, grey, yellow, and the final one being black.  The tunnel itself is lined with a green gel-like substance that leads down all of the colored tunnels.

“Ti eínai af̱tó?”  Pelagius asked out loud to anyone that could answer, but no one did.

The hoplites continued to look on in awe of the colors until another hoplite called out in a terrified tone.

“Axio̱matikós! Axio̱matikós!”

Pelagius quickly turned his attention away from the tunnel and ran back to the sound of the voice.  There he found another one of his hoplites pointing at something in the distance.  Pelagius looked over to find a bone-chilling site to even the bravest of soldiers…

On one of the high peaks of the canyon, looking down upon them was an enormous scaled creature.

The creature was a dragon…

Red fiery scales, giant wings, and two black eyes stared down upon the hoplites.

With a large roar coming from the other side of the canyon another dragon perched itself above them, this one being a shade of green.  Both of them bare their long teeth to the humans, as a sign of aggression.

The hoplites watched on as one of the dragons reared up into the air before letting a stream of fire combust from its mouth, showing the humans that they were not welcome in the territory.

“Metakíni̱si̱!  Párte to kálymma sto toúnel!”  Pelagius yelled out as he ran across the canyon to grab his spear and shield.

The hoplites followed his orders and grabbed their gear before heading into the cave that they discovered.

“Ti sas, axio̱matikós?!”  One of the hoplites yelled out over the commotion.

“Tha apospásei ta thi̱ría!  Tó̱ra pi̱gaínete!”  He called out to the troops that he shall distract the beasts for them to escape.

With that being said Pelagius charged forward with his shield raised as the red dragon flaps it wings and began to hover in the air above the canyon.  The dragon then inhaled before unleashing a hail of fire down onto Pelagius, heating up his shield, which blocked away most of the fire, the remaining flames only slightly searing his legs.

The green dragon landed onto the ground at the other side of the canyon, cutting of the route of escape and to charge at the remaining hoplites outside of the tunnel.  The dragon quickly swiped its claw across the area, sending the hoplites flying to hit the tunnel and the area above it with such force, that the rock above it begins to shatter and crumble.  The dragon continues to stomp about chasing the humans into the tunnel in which it fails to stop and ends up slamming into the rock causing them to fall down on top of the dragon and cover the tunnel entrance, trapping the hoplites inside.

The humans inside of the tunnel are knocked down from the impact of the dragon as the light immediately dissipates away, leaving only the multi-colored glows in the tunnel to illuminate them.

Pelagius continues his suicidal sprint, unaware of the condition of his hoplites.  The red dragon lands on the ground in front of him and he reacts by raising his shield to block him from the flames once again.  As the dragon remains focused on keeping the flames moving Pelagius ducks underneath the dragon and thrust his spear at the dragon’s underbelly.  The spear barely pierces into the dragon’s scales, not even scratching it.

“Dekára!”  He cusses as his spear almost shatters from the scales of the dragon.

The dragon halts his flames and looks down to try and find the human only to be met with Pelagius’ spear striking it in the eye.

The red dragon screeches in agony from the injury to his eye and quickly falls onto his side as Pelagius runs up to the dragon’s head.  Pelagius stopped at the dragon’s head and readied his xiphos short sword to strike.  If the spear was unable to puncture the dragon’s scales then the short sword definitely couldn’t.  Pelagius began to slash with large swipes of the sword on the dragons head, getting loud roars and screeches in response.

Pelagius then placed his sword back into its holster and grabbed onto his spear lodged in the dragon’s eye.  He began to attempt to rip the spear out with all of his strength as the dragon began to rile about on the ground, flailing its limbs in pain.

Suddenly the spear dislodges from the dragon’s eye, forcing Pelagius off balance and knocking him off of the dragon’s head onto his back.

Blood flowed out of the dragon’s eye as it flailed about on the ground in even more pain.

As Pelagius recovered and rose back up the green dragon released a roar from across the canyon at the officer.

The green dragon began to charge while firing out it flames while Pelagius immediately turned around to run, jumping over the limbs of the now motionless red dragon.

His cape began to catch on fire as he neared the exit of the giant canyon, seeing that the environment began to change into a temperate climate rather than a desert.  Trees began to come into view and rivers along with them.

Right before he exited the canyon Pelagius quickly pulled a one-eighty turn and raised his shield to block the full might of the dragon’s breath.  He stopped in his tracks… the dragon didn’t.

SLAM!

The dragon slammed into Pelagius, knocking him into the air backwards and the dragon slipped and fell over from being pushed off balance from the force.

Pelagius bounced multiple times on the ground, his armor taking a massive beating, right before slamming into a tree.

BAM!

He slowly slid down the tree as his armor rung and quickly slumped down with his back against the tree.

The first instance of the Polisian people coming into contact with Equestria and of human contact with two creatures that can match their dominance over the land.

An eventual turning point in the war…