Rōnin

Legionary Gladius of the fifth legion, Second cohort, sixth century was standing guard outside the camp, waiting for the word to join the rest of the troops in their advance. Gladius was a batpony stallion of a dark red coat and a black mane and pale blue eyes. He wore the standard helm of the legion, a metal cap with hinged cheek plates and an open face, his helm had no tassel or horsehair plume like the higher ranking officers. His armor was a set of steel bands put together and held in place by buckles at the front, one for each band. The shoulder plates consisted of five more bands of metal on each arm, the last two being shorter than the first three and strapped to the arm just above the elbow. He wore hard leather bracers on each hand that stopped just short of the elbow. On his left arm was strapped a large rectangular shield reinforced with iron, and in his right hand was a pilum, a throwing spear with half the shaft being wood, the rest being soft iron the bend on impact. At his waist was a gladius, which as his name suggests, he was rather handy with.

He heard the trumpet call him back to camp and join his century. He jogged through camp, his armor clanking as he went. The camp was abuzz, everyone was moving to find their place in the ranks and did so with practiced efficiency. The centurions were placed at the front left corner of every century, their helmet horshairs going sideways across the helm to show their rank. The Centurion of the first cohort’s first century had a white horsehair instead of a red one, showing he was the highest ranking centurion in the legion. Then in the back was the general, he issued the orders to a trumpeter in the back who would give bugle calls to signal movement of the different centuries.

The trumpeter would signal which century of which cohort would move by first signaling the number of the cohort then of the century, then issue the command. There were ten cohorts in a legion, all but the first cohort had six centuries of a hundred men, the first had five centuries of a hundred fifty men. So each legion was made of six thousand one hundred fifty men. The trumpeter would give one to ten short blasts, then one to six long ones then issue an order, all of which the centurions have memorized and would then issue to the men.

The trumpeter gave the signal to march, with no indication of which cohort or century he was talking to, so the order was issued to the entire legion. They began to step in unison, the legion set along a column with the first cohort centuries at the front and the rest following in order, double filed with their centuries, except for the first cohort first century, they were front and center sandwiched between the second and third centuries of the first cohort. They marched across a large field to where their enemy’s encampment was located. It was a fort that was built well, but not as well as the forts constructed by the legions of the Bat Clans.

The enemy didn’t see them, but they sounded their war horn to challenge them. The trumpeter fired off a long deep note that also signalled the legion to spread out. Every century, except for the first century of the first cohort, turned ninety degrees away from the first cohort first century, that had simply stopped in place, the result was a large line of legionaries across the plain, facing a now rallying but frightened enemy. They had positioned catapults in the forest a few days ago, and bombarded the fort to tell them that their pathetic walls wouldn’t protect them.

The Equestrian militia, which was pretty much all it was, were equipped with varying degrees of quality weapons and armor. They all had roundshileds and spears, some carried swords, axes or daggers as a backup, they had leather or mail armor, the only ones with the good plate armor were their generals and they weren’t too skilled in the first place. They came out to face the legion in vain, readying their weapons, knowing that this would be their last time doing so. Those back in Canterlot may think that the Bat Clans were weak, and unable to win, that they were naturally inferior, but the soldiers on the front knew better.

With no real way out, the Equestrians charged the legion, knowing full well that this would be their final hour. Gladius waited for the command from his centurion to launch his pilum, and when it came all legionaries launched their pila into the air and a cloud of throwing spears came down upon the enemy. Many were killed right then and there, the rest continued their charge. Gladius and his fellow legionaries drew their swords and braced for impact, their rectangular shields made a solid red wall that the equestrians slammed into, right before getting stabbed by the legion’s short swords.

Gladius was on the front line, and never cared when an equestrian was stabbed in front of him, either by his own gladius or his neighbors. His sword was soon coated in blood, and a large pile of enemy soldiers lay in front of the legion. The Equestrians were dumb enough to attack the center of the line, so the other two sides swung in like doors and trapped them inside, killing them off from all sides. The Equestrians fought to the last soldier, and they fought well despite not killing many legionaries if they killed any at all.

Gladius helped with the cleanup, meaning they just dragged all the bodies into a tighter pile and burned them. He held no sympathy for the Equestrians, they were responsible for the torture of his kind, his kin. He hated them, and he would kill every last Equestrian soldier he came across.

He and his century were ordered to search the fort for any resources, aside from the metal and leather they took off the corpses of the Equestrian soldiers. Gladius moved to the back of the fort and with him was his decani (Group of ten soldiers, led by a decanus), He found what was essentially a cellar with a great deal of food stores, and something else. He called another decani in to help with the removal of the resources while he and his decani searched further down. Dug beneath the cellar was a prison, where several mares were held. They appeared to be fed very little and had barely any clothes. All were very dirty, and obviously frightened.

“Get these cells open!” He ordered his decani.

The ten soldiers, Gladius among them, began to work on getting the locks open. It took some time but eventually they opened.

“Get the general over here!” He says to one man.

“Yes sir!” Came the reply.

The soldier left, and nine remained. Gladius came into the cell, the mares shrank from him, fear in their eyes.

“P-please,” One mare stuttered, “d-d-dont h-hurt us. P-please.”

He shushes them, “we aren’t going to hurt you. Please, come with us, we will see you fed and taken care of.”

The mares were skeptical, but the thought of food seemed to trump all worry. The mare who had spoken was the first to get up, she managed to stumble over to him on wobbly legs. She just about fell, only to be caught by Gladius. He put her arm about his shoulders and helped her out.

“Help them.” He tells his decani.

They complied, each helping a mare to their feet and supporting them as they stumbled along. When Gladius made it back outside into the middle of the fort he helped the first mare sit down on a barrel, and saw the general marching over when he stood back up. He snapped to attention and saluted the general holding his arm out away from his body.

“At ease, what happened?”

He put the salute down. “Me and my decani found a small prison beneath the cellar, mares were in the cells, no one else. All of them are weak and look starved. This is one of them.”

The general nodded to Gladius, then crouched in front of the mare. “What is your name?”

“Tulip.” She says simply.

“Alright Tulip,” He says. “We aren’t going to hurt you or your friends. We will get you fed and cleaned up, you are in no danger here.”

Tulip nodded.

“Gladius,” He says. “You will be in charge of taking care of these mares.”

“Sir, no disrespect, but I don’t have the authority to do such a thing. I am only a decanus, only a centurion or higher can carry enough command to feed these mares.”

“Then its a good thing there is a place open for one.” He says with a smile. “You’ve just been promoted, centurion.”

Gladius was speechless for a moment, then managed to stutter. “Th-thank you sir.”

The general nodded. Then marched away, while one of the soldiers near him handed him a new helmet, this one with the sideways horsehair plume of the centurion, but it was white. White was the color of the first cohorts first centurion, the highest centurion ranking there was. But that wasn’t the time to be too proud of himself. He strapped the helmet on and moved back below to help the mares come up. There ended up being fifty three in all. Gladius and many of the legionaries brought them to where the camp was set up and put them near the mess tent. Gladius walked in and said that they needed to prepare a meal for fifty three, they did so at once after he told them what they had found.

The mares were fed and clothed, they were given a few tents for three or four to share and some fur sleeping bags. They were put closest to the center of the camp, each with a soldiers tent next to them in the event of them being attacked. Incidentally Gladius was tented right next to Tulip’s tent. When he was walking to his tent he found Tulip waiting there for him.

“Is something wrong?” He asks.

“No, I wanted to thank you, on behalf of all of us. You... saved us.” She says. “And we couldn’t ever repay you.”

“Why were you there anyway?” He asks.

“It’s a long story.” She says. “To put it bluntly, a law was declared that anyone with potent or recent batpony ancestry was to be denied any jobs whatsoever, and fired from their jobs at the time of the decree. Anyone with potent batpony ancestry who owned a business had their assets seized by the royal guard, and were cast to the street. I was a working mare until that time, my great grandfather was a batpony. So I had to steal to feed myself, as is the case with most mares here. I was caught and arrested, they sent me, along with all the mares you saw, here. And they... they.” Her voice broke and was nearly brought to tears. “They raped us, repeatedly.”