Vesperianus rode on, on his now Sentient, and quite talkative, horse, alongside his chosen 1000 legionnaires and 1000 auxiliaries. They don't know who or what lives in that town, and, according to the scouts, some humanoid-looking horse-thing with wings attacked them, so they wanted to be prepared. Soon they exited the woods and marched down the path that ran through the massive orchard of strange fruit. It flanked them on both sides of the road, with a fence surrounding it. Due to the width of the road, the cavalry on the wings had to fall behind the marching infantry, along with the archers, in order to avoid stepping into the artificial forest, just in case the fruit turned out to produce airborne deadly toxins or something. Soon, though, the Legion realized they weren't alone.
After marching into the Farm, they soon saw a large group of about 40 humans picking the fruit from the trees up ahead, and the humans, once hearing the loud synchronized marching of the legionnaires, looked at them with wonder and confusion.

"Halt!" Vesperianus yells as he rides ahead. He is hopeful that the humans here could tell them where they are. That is, of course, if they spoke the same language. "Greetings, do you know where we are?"

"Uhh. W-who are you?" A semi-young male human, presumably the oldest of the group, says as he slowly approaches Vesperianus.

"I am Vesperianus Legio Maximinus, Primus Pilus of the 9th legion," Vesperianus states as if he has recited it thousands of times before. But he then notices the 'clothing' these humans wear. They wear simple strips of cloth tied around their waists, and females around their chest, and look very malnourished. He can see their bones and they look weak and tired, much like slaves back in Rome, but in much worse conditions. He was always against slavery, thinking it wasn't right, but he was often alone in his arguments about it, so he usually never brought it up. But seeing this made his heart sore. "Why are you all so thin, and... so tired looking?"

"W-we don't eat much... we're not allowed to eat the apples.."

"Are you slaves?"

"Y-yes... all humans here are slaves. Don't... don't you know that?"

"I am afraid we come from a far away land, we don't know where we are. Where are we?"

"E-Equestria... More specifically Apple Family Apple farms near Ponyville."

"Thank you for your information. Would... would you like to come with us, we can protect you."

The slaves look absolutely astonished. Here, there is a small human army saying they can help them out of slavery, but... Is it worth it? Thinking back at all the bad things the ponies have done to them, dying for freedom seems a lot better than dying in slavery.

"Yes! I think we would love that. But, can you help us get the rest of us, there are many of us down south near the barn, still picking apples. I don't want to leave them!"

"Calm down, we will rescue them, in the meantime, we will have some of our troops escort you back to our camp. Can you walk long distances?"

"No, we're too weak to go long without collapsing."

"No worries, excuse me for a second." Vesperianus Rides to his men and explains the situation, grabbing about 40 cavalrymen to carry the slaves back to the camp on their horses. He then rides back to the slaves with those 40 cavalrymen. "Here, these men will bring you back to our camp, climb on the back of their horses and they will take you there."
Many of the humans rush to the horses, some needing help to get up, and most grabbing onto the cavalrymen for support, making it very awkward for them. But nonetheless, the cavalry sprint back to camp with the 40 slaves, while the rest of the legion continues to march down the path in search of the rest of the slaves.
Meanwhile, Big Mac is going to check up on the slaves the Romans just took, only to see an army of red armour-clad humans, armed with metal weaponry. He quickly runs back to the barn to tell Granny Smith and Applejack, who had just returned from the hospital...

-Meanwhile with The Royal Guards-

Shining leads the 1000 pony strong platoon of guards toward the apple family's farm. They were going to deal with those humans who injured one of the Elements of Harmony, and his sister's best friend. Armed with his trusty enchanted longsword on his hip, he proudly leads in front of the troops. The gleaming gold armor of the guards and his purple captain's armor glisten in the sunlight. Once they reach the entrance to the farm, however, their mood changes as Applejack rushes up to approach him.

"Hey Applejack, what's wrong? Is it the slaves?"

"Ah wish! Big Mac just came back and told me that at least 40 of our slaves are missing and that there's a small army of humans with metal weapons, who are wearing a lot of red, just like the ones that attacked Rainbow! They're heading this way from that path right now!"
Once hearing this, many of the guards gain confused looks, 'A human army? How absurd, humans can't even protect themselves without help from ponies, they can't form armies!' Go through many of the guard's heads.

"Are you sure it was a mob, not an army?"

"Well, Big Mac said they looked organized and professional."

"Hmm... Maybe this is more of a problem than we thought." Shining thought about the repercussions of having a trained human army face his own, but quickly dismissed them due to how silly they were. "Don't worry Applejack, we'll meet this 'army' and deal with them. Right men!"

"YES SIR!" Responds the troops.

"Now, Applejack, do you have a map of the area around that apple field we can use?" Asks Shining.

"Why of course ah do, let me get it for you," Applejack says as she runs back to the barn.

While the Applejack gets a map for Shining, the Legion marches ever closer to the entrance, all the while finding more human slaves. They are always taken back to the camp, each group giving information about the terrain, their captors, and a little bit of history about the land they are in. It shocks every legionnaire and auxiliary within earshot that the slavers are not human, but, as they call them, 'Ponies', who look like colorful versions of their horses, but on two legs... hooves... and with two hands, just like a human's, but covered in fur. Some have wings and can fly, while others have a horn on their head and can use 'magic', as the slaves say. There are also others with neither ability, but are instead stronger than the others. While the legionnaires look straight on with faces of neutral expression, each of their minds swirls with thoughts such as, 'That isn't possible' or 'This can't be real', and even 'Are we even on earth anymore?'. By now about half the cavalry have gone back to the camp with rescued slaves on each horse, leaving the small legion with 250 cavalrymen left. Yet they continue to march down the path towards a red barn in the distance.

"Alright men, we will find those poor souls and rescue them. Now kee-" Vesperianus is interrupted by a centurion next to him.

"Sir, there is something over there. It appears to be a group of... armored men I think. It looks like they are wearing white and gold from here."

"I see... let us see who they are. Now keep marching men."

Eventually, Shining hears the sound of synchronized marching, along with few yells before he saw the Red-clad humans marching towards them. They look fierce, as if they know how to fight. And the fact that they march in sync with each other, something that is difficult to do with an unorganized mob, only furthers his fears. Shining has second thoughts about these humans, and their capabilities, but ultimately thinks that no matter what the humans throw at them, the guards will win the day. Soon the legion stops about 50 yards away, all with large rectangular shields, and some even ride the strange four-legged pony-like beasts, just like the ones that attacked Rainbow. Though they are behind the main armored humans in front, so most of the guard do not see them. The two forces stand there at the ready, looking each other over and trying to find any weakness or sign that the other is scared. A minute of near-awkward silence passes between the two when finally Vesperianus rides up to the front lines and dismounts his horse. He walks halfway between them and the ponies. Shining gets the idea and motions for his guards to stay put as he walks toward the human leader.

"I would like to know what you humans are doing wearing armor and wielding weapons. And not only that, but also attacking one of the Elements of Harmony?" Shining states to the human leader.

"What do you mean by that? Are we not allowed to wield our own weapons? And for attacking an 'element', I'll assume you are referring to your blue... flying 'pony' and my scouts. I would like to state that she attacked first."

"I do not care that she attacked first, humans are not allowed to have weapons of any kind. Where did you and your 'army' escape from?" Shining snarls at Vesperianus.

"I do not understand what you mean, we did not 'escape' from anywhere, we-"

"Bull-spit, all humans are slaves, and nothing more. I don't care where you came from. All I know is that your so called 'army' is a threat to Equestria, and we will end your pitiful 'rebellion'!" Shining interrupts and draws his sword. "I recommend you surrender now or else!"

"We will never surrender to you!" Vesperianus says while drawing his own gladius from its sheath and staring down at Shining.

The two armies suddenly realize that diplomacy isn't going anywhere and ready their weapons. The legionnaires create a shield wall with their massive shields, and draw forth their swords, while their EQ Guard counterparts hold their halberds in two hands, and lower them towards the Legion. The archers grab arrows from their quivers, mages prepare spells, the Roman cavalry prepares to ride around the guards. But neither side dares to make the first move. Then Vesperianus starts slowly walking backward towards his lines, realizing how vulnerable he is without a shield. Shining realizes this, too, and, capitalizing on his longer sword, swings it at Vesperianus. Catching him off guard he manages to get a slice on his left arm. Now the two sides are ready to fight.

Vesperianus runs back to his men and grabs his shield and gets on his horse.

"Men, prepare to throw your pilum!" Vesperianus yells the order as he climbs on his horse and rides behind the front lines. Soon each legionnaire is grabbing one of their two heavy throwing javelins. They prepare to throw them, with the Equestrian guards look at them, confused, as they never seen this tactic before, throwing javelins, as it has never been effective for anyone before. That was, until the Legion unleash their massive volley of over 300 javelins from the closest legionnaires to the front, towards the Equestrians, wreaking devastating havoc as the javelins easily pierce the enchanted golden armor of the guards, killing or brutally injuring over 200 of those in the front-line as the Pilum impale them, and bend in their bodies. With the guard's lines in chaos, the Legionnaires bring out their swords and prepare a charge after the archers fire a few volleys of arrows, which have limited effect due to some sort of shield being cast on top of the Equestrian lines after the first volley. After they are finished, the frontlines of the Legion charge, shields raised and swords ready to stab.

With the Equestrian lines all in chaos from the pilum and arrow attacks, the phalanx-like formation is not ready to be charged by the time the Legion smash into them, stabbing and smashing their shields into the ponies, the long halberds which the guards use cannot be wielded due to the close, face to face fighting. Many unicorns attempt to use magic to shoot bolts at the legion, but most, if not all, were blocked by the shields, and any pegasus that flew above to try and dive bomb or flank the Legion were quickly shot down by the archers behind the front. Soon the lines of the Equestrian guard began to waver, as more and more guards are either killed or too injured to get up from where they lay on the ground, and they start to retreat. Shining, doing his best to keep the moral up, and even brought up the shield that protected them from arrow fire, could not stop the retreat. Soon the guards were running headlong back to town, with only a few still holding their halberds, and most covered in the blood of their comrades that fell before they ran.

As the Equestrian guards were equipped lighter than their Roman counterparts, they were able to run much faster from the one-sided battle, especially since they dropped their heavy halberds. But the Romans weren't done yet. As more arrow fire pelted the guards' backs, The remaining Roman cavalry came crashing into the guards from both sides, as they surrounded them, most were hacked to bits as the retreating column of guards split in two, those who were stopped by the cavalry, and those who got away. Shining was one of those who got away, and feared for his life, much like the other guards.

By the end of it, the battle lasted around 6-minutes, over 734 guards were either killed or wounded on the battlefield, and only 266 Guards remained to run into Ponyville. And as they ran through the streets, the Ponyville citizens, who were preparing a small parade in expectation for their victory, were shocked when the once 1000 strong guard force came back, bloodied and scarred, with only 266 remaining. As such, the ponies ran into their houses in fear of the humans marching on the town, and the remaining guards flocking to the Ponyville guard barracks. A.K.A. The east side of Twilight's Castle.

-Legion POV-

As the remaining guards were either killed, ran, or were captured, the Legionnaires and Auxiliaries cheered at their victory. And with only a few injured, and none killed, the battle had destroyed any fear they had of the Ponies, and any concern of whoever they are, as they just proved they could take it. But the celebrations were cut short by Vesperianus as he ordered everyone to get back in formation, gather the prisoners, and head back to camp, along with ordering for some cavalrymen to gather some of the fruit from the nearby trees as rewards. But it was all clear to Vesperianus, as he saw what this battle may lead to. He had just declared war on this 'Equestria' country that they were in. And not only that, but he didn't even know if he will be able to reach Rome ever again, as they seem to be in another world entirely. But for now, he saves these thoughts for later and joins his fellow legionnaires in chanting battle cries and celebrating on their way back to the camp. With about 43 terrified captured royal guards...

To be continued...

Author's Note

Alright First battle chapter, Sorry that the battle is a bit short but i managed to make this chapter at least over 2500 words, and i plan to slowly increase the number of words per chapter. Thank you all for liking this story, it really helps when i know it is liked by somebody. Also here is a shout out to my buddy Meredith Melody, AKA Zack.