Centurion Scorpio of the eight legion, first cohort, third century stood in front of the city gates. The Equestrians had marshaled a force to take the border city of Millwood, so named because of the many lumber mills in the city. The force was twice their size and contained three units of two hundred fifty six men for their phalanx infantry. They had developed a very effective way of countering this, they had put up a second wall around the first one, between the two they had dug pits filled with spikes and pitch for burning. The two walls were connected by drawbridges that could be drawn up from the inner wall. They also had a main drawbridge for entering the city so that they would have a difficult time taking the walls, meaning that the main drawbridge was pretty much their only choice.

The legions had developed a unit that used spears instead of the gladius to counter the effectiveness of the enemy spears range even more than their scuti already did. The legionaries would put these units behind the drawbridge, there the back of the phalanx was exposed to the archers on the wall, their ranks would be reduced from behind while they were held at bay by the spear wielding legionaries, thus rendering their phalanx useless in attacks. The legionaries behind the spearwall would use their pila (throwing spears) against the front of the formation and rendering their movements hindered by shafts hanging from their shields or killing them.

Centurion Scorpio had his long spear held in the waiting position, same with the rest of his men. The archers atop the wall began to fire outward, the enemy had been spotted. Scorpio couldn’t see anything, but he heard the gate of the front wall shake when a ram struck it. The gate continued to boom upon contact with the ram, and the three cross beams strained to keep it closed, until they failed. The doors swung inward and the phalanx infantry dropped the ram and began to march towards his century.

He gave the order to lower their spears and ready their shields. Their scuti (Large square shields) had a little cut slot in the upper right hand corner to hold the spear and make it easier on their arms. The phalanx met the shield wall, and the legions archers began to shoot into their back. The phalanx didn’t last very long, their men continued to replace the ones who fell in front of them, but it was not enough. The superior training, equipment, discipline and conviction of the legionaries proved too much for them. The legions marched out of the city and met the rest of the Equestrian force, which ran after some time back to their camp.

The legion did not stop there, they emmediately rallied to march after them. They march to where their camp was spotted, and found it nearly struck. They marched on, the Equestrians fled, disorganized and disheartened they did not care where they ran to, only that they got away. The legion chased them down, and each group was taken prisoner and either crucified or impaled on the main road.

When they returned to where the Equestrian camp was, they found what had become infamous knowledge amongst the legions, the slaves. The mares who had been either convicted criminals or descended from batponies to be sent to the front to relieve the Equestrians soldiers frustrations. The mares were freed and taken to the city, where they were given shelter and food. The legion moved on.

They marched southward, over the frozen mountains and into what was the remnants of the Crystal Empire, now a crystal fortress meant to keep the legions at bay, it was time for it to fall. Unlike the legions, the Equestrians didn’t put their wall foundations forty feet below the ground to prevent tunneling. That was how the legion was to get in.

Thanks to almost all of the legion consisting of batponies, they were able to tunnel easily in the dark. The night fell and Scorpio lead his century into the night, and to the wall. They began to dig, in one row ten ponies wide they dug under the wall, and eventually coming up behind the wall. That was when the rest of the legion came in. They marched down the city streets long before the Equestrian force could martial, and they were defeated quite easily.

Scorpio was assigned to city patrol that night, and his men had brought some liberated mares with them. He was walking along the front of the castle, when he saw a young stallion painting something on the front of the castle. He gestured for his men to stay put and approached the stallion alone. He grabbed the stallions shoulder, making him turn around suddenly his eyes wide with surprise and fear.

“What’s this then?” He asks, then looks at the graffiti. “THESTRALES EUNT DOMUS?! Ponies call “Thestrales they go the house”?!”

The stallion stammered. “It s-says Thestrals g-go home.”

“No it doesn’t.” Scorpio says after a brief pause. “What’s Latin for Thestral?” When no answer came he shook the stallion roughly saying. “Come on.”

Panicked the stallion answered. “Thestralus?”

“Goes like?”

“Alus?”

“Vocative plural of Alus is?”

“Ali?” The stallion guessed.

Taking the paintbrush from the stallion Scorpio corrected his first error. “Thestrali. EUNT, what is EUNT?”

“Uh, go.”

“Conjugate the verb to go.” Scorpio said impatiently.

“Ire, Ero, Is, It, Imis, Itis, Eunt.” He says rapidly and desperately saying the conjugations.

“So eunt is?”

“Third person plural... present indicative. They go!” The stallion says.

“Ah, but “Go Home” Is an order, so you must use the...?” He says twisting the stallion’s ear painfully.

“The Imparative!” He says with a higher pitched voice through the pain.

“Which is?”

“I, I!”

“How many thestrals?”

“Plural! Plural! Ite! Ite!” He almost screams.

“Ite,” Scorpio says correcting the second mistake. “Domus, nominative, “Go home” is motion towards isn’t it boy?”

“Dative?” He says, the result was getting a sword pressed to his throat. “No, No not dative! Not dative! The accusative, accusative sir, “Domum” sir, “Ad domum”!”

“Accept when “Domus” takes the?”

“The locative sir!”

“Which is?”

“Domum!!!”

“Domum,” Scorpio says finally releasing the poor guy from his grasp and correcting his final mistake. “Understand?”

“Yes sir!”

“Good, now write that a hundred times.”

“Yes sir, thank you sir, hail Luna and everything sir!” The stallion said through his relieved pants.

“Hail Luna! If its not done by morning, I’ll cut your balls off.” He says before returning to his patrol.

“Yes sir!”

The next morning, the stallion had finished his sentences and called to the guards at the bottom of the ladder. “Finished!”

“Right,” One of them said. “Now don’t do it again.”

Author's Note

I took that last scene directly from one of my favorite movies, if you can guess what it is tell us in the comments.