The morning of the 60th day of the siege on the Roman Fort in WhiteTail Woods dawns as soldiers from both sides rise to do thier respective duties and make sure the other doesn't try anything. For the Romans, the situation looks dire, They are running low on food, have already run out of prisoners to negotiate for food, and moral is starting to drop, partially from the tension from being attacked at anytime, partially from the taunts and propeganda occasionally spewed by the equestrians, but the biggest cause of the morale drop is the worst nightmare of soldiers from any force or time period.... boredom..

"Vesperianus, im not sure how long the men can entertain themselves. Boredom is quite a dangerous thing in a siege." A Centurion says to the Roman Comander

"Yes thank you, I know all about boredom, something called reports for senators. Anyways we are going to run out of food soon and im not sure how long it will be before the Ponies attack, or the men surrender. For the Ponies have all the time in the world to draw this siege out while we have limited time. Not only that but I am hoping the plan works, and if my theories are correct then we should be good, but we should prepare for the worst." Vesperianus says as a Centurion walks in the camp.

"Sir the archers on the walls report the equestrians have finished setting up siege equipment and are bringing up ladders and a ram. We believe they are about to assault the walls, shall I give the order to the archers to fire at will?" A Centurion states while rushing up to vesperianus.

"Wait till they get closer, we only have so many arrows and i want every arrow to hit something. We don't now if these 'ponies' have any bows of their own and it seems they neglected to have shields." Vesperianus states as he looks over the legionnaires and auxiliaries rushing about preparing to fight, seeing Centurions rally their troops together at the gates and prepare in case the gates burst open to the waves of enemies waiting to slaughter them all and perhaps make them into slaves.

Speaking of slaves Vesperianus quickly goes to visit the freed slaves they captured from the tree farm. Much to his surprise he finds them arming themselves with auxiliary spears and bows wanting to help fight despite their lack of training and slight malnurishment.

"While i admire your bravery you do not have to fight. Your weak enough from whatever torture you have endured as slaves." Vesperianus says while looking around at the men and women gearing up.

A Man, most likely the impromptu leader of the freed slaves, walks up to him, wearing a borrowed wolf skin hat and red tunic. "Sir we have been dreaming of freedom for out entire lives, We would rather die free men on the battlefield then live as slaves any longer."

"Well i guess i cannot stop you. Do be careful though, follow orders and try not to get yourself killed." Vesperianus leaves the tent as the slaves finish gearing up and head to the walls to assist the auxiliaries.

Vesperianus looks over the walls in a watchtower, surveying the battlefield ahead of him. Seeing the equestrians move in unison reminding him that these ponies are professionals like him, yet, from what he has gathered from the prisoners they released and the slaves, they are not veterans. Which sets his battle hardened Legion apart from the rookie ponies that array themselves before him. Soon his thoughts are cut off when a strange arrow lodges itself into the wooden pillar next to him, startling him slightly as he looks out towards the pony lines and sees rows of ponies with strange T shaped bows, his eyes widening and ducking quickly as a volley of crossbow bolts rain down upon the fort, screams of pain suddenly ring out as the volley of deadly projectiles hit their targets.

"Archers! Fire at will!" Vesperianus yells as he climbs down from the watchtower and quickly picks up his gladius and scutum. Watching the rows of archers on the walls return fire with their bows, and much to his delight, hearing the screams of ponies from outside the wall.

"Sir their armor seems to be deflecting most of the arrows. Though many of their body parts appear to be unarmored." An Auxiliary tells vesperianus as another volley of arrows is sent out and a volley is received. While another Auxiliary runs up. "Sir they are bringing up battering rams to the east and south gate! along with ladders!"

"Great to know! now keep firing i want you to weaken them as much as possible before they get here! And Legionnaires! Form a shield wall a few meters away from the gate, prepare for them to burst in." Vesperianus yells to his men, ordering individual cohorts to guard the walls to fend off the ladderponies as the auxiliaries throw javelins and fire arrows. Many falling to crossbow bolts while the equestrians falling to the deadly rain of projectiles.

POV Shining Armor..

"Alright send in the battering rams while the crossbowmen keep them busy and prepare the unicorns on the north side!" Shining armor yells out to pegassi couriers to deliver his orders. "Sargent Hard Cloud, any reports on the humans on the large 4 legged pony like creatures anywhere?"

"Negative sir all scouts have either reported nothing or not reported back at all. The pattern makes no sense, its as if they split into multiple groups. Though that doesn't explain how they managed to take out the pegassi unless they had some sort of ranged weapons, and from what little weapons we gathered from them they only had spears and shields." Hard cloud reports as he orders a few pegassi crossbowmen to fly up into the sky and rain bolts down on them.

Shining looks to the forest as if expecting something to jump out before looking back to hard cloud. "Send some more scouts, i do not like worry about being ambushed. And get me Blueblood i need to ask him why hes taking all the mages north instead of supporting out earth ponies and pegassi...

To be continued..

Author's Note

Alright short chapter in order to kick start this story back up. Hope the wait was worth it cause i dont think it was.