POV: Captured Cavalry Captain

Captain Cassius slowly awakes. His limbs sore, Yet they dont apear to be that hurt. Sitting upwards, He looks slowly at his surroundings. Noticing he is lying on the floor in a prison cell. He recalls what he last remembers. The skirmish, The small horses, And falling off his horse and breaking his limbs.

Wait..

He looks at his arms, and notices that, despite scratches and major bruises, they appear to be fine. Dispite the fact he recalls them breaking multiple times over during his fall. But not only are his limbs fixed, his armor and weapons are gone, Wearing only his red tunic that he wore underneath his armor. Checking himself he realizes even his hidden knife was taken. Grumbling to himself, he gets up and examines the lock to his cell. Then looking around for a key or any object sufficient enough to attempt to pick it with, yet finding no such thing, He sits back down. At that exact moment, he begins to hear hoofsteps coming closer. Reverberating on the stone floor.

"-hy did we heal him again?" An unknown voice says

"Cant sell him as a slave if hes broken, Besides no good interrogating him if he will just blabber about being in pain. Not only that but I just hate seeing things in such pain, human or not. He may be a human but we must still be the better pony than them." A feminine voice says back to the first.

A Few seconds later the owners of said voices appear in front of the cell. Two ponies, a black mare and a blue Unicorn in ornate Plated armor, Who looks at him with malice. "Ahh your awake! Perfect saves us the trouble of waking you up, My name is Gilded Lance, Captain of Lady Pumpkin Pen's Personal guard. And you are going to tell us everything you know, and where your little rebel friends are hiding. So we can crush this little rebellion before it can spread." He states and grins and awaits his answer.

"I will not say anything until you tell me where i am and why you attacked us!" Cassius shouts back at them.

"I was hoping you would say that. Now we can do my favorite thing. Good traditional interrogation!" Lance states proudly, causing Black ink to look at the captain with a hint of pity before she steps way.

"I will take this as my cue to leave.. You um do what you do best Lance." Black ink states, walking way before taking one last look back at Cassius as she rounds the corner.

"You will never get anything out of me." He defiantly says as he sits back down on his 'bed'.

"Oh we will see about that you monkey." Lance states before going into a low laughter.

Meanwhile at the Roman Fort.

The surviving ponies taken from the battle remain in a stone prison. Each separated into cells with two per cell. The proportions meant for humans though sufficient for the ponies. Most slept through the night after their wounds were treated with sufficiently by the master of horse. And as morning breaks a small breakfast is given to them made of vegetables and hay.

"This is so humilitaing." a unicorn states as she picks up a carrot and munches on it.

"Which part Ruby? The fact that we were captured by humans, beaten by them in battle even though we outnumbered them, or the fact we were treated by basically a vet?" A pegassi states as she lays down on the bed carefully as to not hurt her wing more.

"All of the above Sky.." Ruby states after she swallows her carrots and looks towards the Guard standing at the entrance to their prison. Looking over his equipment. "Hmm.. Definatly not the same stuff.."

"What are you rambling about now ruby? And why dont you just use your magics to pick the lock?" Weary Wheat the earth pony across from her asks.

"Well 1 My horn is cracked, I cant use magic properly until it heals and two, What confuses me is Their equipment, Its not the same as the ones the humans five years ago revolted with.."

"And you know this how?" Sky Striker says while turning to look at ruby.

"I Fought in the battle of the two sisters, Was a skirmisher for the royal guard since i couldnt afford to get any weapons other than my own horn and a shield. The humans there wore stuff close to the royal guard armor, but with longer spears and smaller round shields. Was more like a spear wall but these humans dont even use spears, They had javelins and swords."

"Yeah that is odd.." Sky mutters as he sits up. "But what are you getting at?"

"Im saying that these humans couldn't be freed slaves, their too well trained for that, but they are also not a remnant of the Lunar Army, Their equipment doesn't match and i doubt they could just replace everything they had out here in the woods."

Their talks are cut short when the door to the prison opens up and in steps in a few legionnaires, Who walk towards the cells and look over them all. Muttering to themselves, they open the cell with Sky and Ruby inside and close the door behind them with two guards inside and two outside. The two legionnaires inside look over the two ponies, Ruby who stands defiantly in front of them and Sky who scoots away from them on his bed.

"Names?" One states while holding a paper against his shield to write on while the other has his sword drawn just in case.

"Ruby and Sky streaker.." Ruby states, looking at the sword the Legionnaire holds and wonders if she can pull it away but remembers her cracked horn.

"We are here to ask you some questions. We recommend you cooperate." The first one states coldly.

"Im not saying anything!" Ruby exclaims back.

"We will see about that..."

General Varian

Fort Center

The legionnaires of the fort assemble around the center of the fortress. Waiting for their general to make his speech. Varian stands upon the platform and looks around to make sure most of the army is there. Before looking down at his notes at the podium in front of him and prepares himself for the reveal to his soldiers.

"Attention!" Varian yells out to quiet the men. "Now what i'm about to tell you might sound ridiculous, but what im about to say is completely true. Many of you have already seen this yet most of you have likely only heard it second hand. We are no longer on the Rhine. We are no longer in the empire. How do i know this you may ask? Well yesterday our scouts spotted a village south of us. I ordered a legion to perhaps make contact with anybody living there, unfortunately we were met with a hostile army. Of not men, But small colorful horses." Varian waits for the shock or laughter to end. "Laugh all you want, its true. We have currently a handful of captives with us from the battle, where our legionnaires fought bravely and beat a force much larger than themselves against an unknown enemy. Now many of you will be worrying for your families or friends, Do not worry we will find a way back home. As long as we stay organised and represent Rome properly we can accomplish anything! Dismissed." The crowd talks amongst themselves as Varian steps off the platform and heads towards the prison. Ignoring the questions asks by passing legionnaires and Auxiliaries. Simply telling them to report to their officers.

When he arrives to the prison, he quickly looks for the dungeon master, finding him writing some things down. "Dungeon master, what have you learned from our friends here."

"Ah General, while in the beginning our captive was very very uncooperative, a soldier decided to.. Encourage her, which then caused her to happily agree to give us a great deal of information. I am just finished writing down a copy for you."

"Excellent, Anything important?" Varian states, seeing the odd horn like spike lying on the table nearby.

"Yes, the one told she took part in a battle five years ago when the humans of this land rose up along with one of the royalty amongst them."

"Yes i remember the freed slave telling me of a battle like that, what of it."

"She says that there was a nearby town of 'hoofton' as she said it was called, that would call for re-enforcements from the city down south along the coast of 'Manehattan.' When we asked for estimates of troops she stated at least a few tens of thousands of levies, along with what she called 'knights.' Apparently they are warriors of 'noble' birth and very well trained. We should expect an attack or gathering of forces near hoofton. Depending on how far away this 'Manehattan' is and how quickly they can muster their forces."

"Hmm that is very important indeed. I will need to take this up to the war room, send some scouts around. Anything else?"

"None that important, The rest is just some summaries of the abilities of their species as well as some other species mentioned that may live nearby. Mostly just things for the soldiers to read on, accept for this on the 'unicorns' and 'alicorns'. I suggest you read that part thoroughly." The dungeon master states as he hands Varian the copy of the interrogation transcript.

"Interrogate the rest of them to see if they know anything else. If not keep them alive, we might need them...."

POV: Gilded Lance

Hoofton Dungeon

Gilded lance smiles as he strolls into the main room of the 'castle' area of hoofton. Golden armor gleaming in the sunlight until he walks into the shade of the main building. Transcript of his enlightening interrogation with the human in tow. He quickly walks up to the throne where Black ink is seated.

"M'lady, You will be glad to hear I successfully interrogated the human and got a great wealth of information. Though it troubles me to know that he spoke the truth about this."

"And what is it that he said that troubles you? Was it the location? how many there were? where they came from?" Black ink asks, leaning forward in her seat.

"All of those, Apparently he was an 'Auxiliary Cavalry Captain' of an Empire created by humans. Known as 'Rome'. Him and his colleagues were garrisoned in a fortress on a river when they suddenly all fell unconscious and awakened north of here, Fort and all still there. There is at least thirty thousand of them. Worse is that they are all trained soldiers, some with a decade of experience fighting."

"That explains their organization equivalent to that of royal guards."

"Please i wouldn't put them that high, perhaps of trained militias, They are humans after all."

"What became of The 'captain' we captured?"

"Oh he is fine, It took some.. Special techniques to get this out of him." Gilded begins chuckling. "Oh their fingers are so fragile."

Black ink grimaces and shakes her head. Blowing those thoughts of pity away. "And any word on the lord of Manehattan?"

"Afraid not yet ma'm. Messenger must still be on the way if not already there. Do not worry though, I have the remaining militia begin re-enforcing the walls and stocking the granaries in case of a siege. I doubt that will be necessary but one must always be prepared."

"Good.. I hope the forces from Manehattan come soon.."

To be continued...

Author's Note

Sup readers, sorry for the delay, i had this chapter half finished for like a week and a half and just procrastinated.