Legio IX Hispania (28)

Lyra had already seen at least a little of what the strange creatures of "Rome" were capable of. But to hear it from a changeling, and a bug with no prior exposure to what they were like in their natural state—that was something else entirely.

Lyra had not seen them very closely either, of course. She had her brief encounter with the legion, as a slave meant to carry back spoils for the minotaurs. Instead, she'd been there to help them bring their small number of captives.

Thorax did not know pony things very well, like the differences between cities or exactly which ones had been conquered and which ones hadn't. That meant it took a little translation work from the Equestrians to extract meaning from his words, and realize what it meant.

To hear Thorax describe it, half of Tirek's lands had already been liberated. Real crops now grew from the fields there, and ponies walked through towns without collars or creatures whipping them.

She couldn't know how far that liberation traveled, of course—obviously it couldn't extend all the way to Canterlot itself, where Tirek now held dominion. Even great warriors couldn't face such a creature.

It had taken Thorax so long, because the purple tent was nowhere to be seen. In the end, he had to take on their shape, and ask until he could find where the Legatus was staying.

"I still flew in like you wanted," Thorax reassured, patting Stalwart's shoulder with the short scroll he carried. "It was probably better that way. It would have taken a long time to explain how the change worked."

Stalwart took the scroll from him, unrolling it onto the table. Of course it was much smaller than the maps they had spent the last week pouring over, something small enough for a bird to carry it.

The characters were incomprehensible to Lyra, just as they had been when she watched Stalwart write. His eyes moved over them quickly even so, and he looked up at Starlight.

"My Legatus is dead, replaced by his broad-stripe tribune. I know Marcus well, he is... competent, well-studied. Perhaps a bit eccentric, cares for the knights more than he ought. But in Equestria, that may be an advantage."

He continued reading, attention focused on the scroll. 

"Will he help?" Starlight pressed. "If you think he can."

"Yes!" Thorax exclaimed, bouncing up and down in front of the table. "I found the Legatus riding a pegasus. They spoke to me together, asked about you, Stalwart!"

He was barely listening, instead finishing through the scroll and reading along its reverse side. "The Legatus invites us to bring the princess to their new war-capital at Dodge. He says... the Nameless Goddess confirms she will be necessary to triumph in their campaign. He demands the rescue take place before the first thaw of spring, or they may have to face the one called Tirek without her. He thinks they'll lose if that happens."

He pushed the thin scroll aside to Lyra, as though she could make the slightest sense of the Roman writing there. The letters had a kind of elegance to them, though they would be difficult except by mouth or horn. But when their whole race had those thin paws with long digits to do everything, it probably wasn't an issue.

"Demands," Starlight said, folding her hooves up on the table in front of her. "Does he think we all follow his orders like you? The resistance isn't part of his army."

"No, but maybe you should be!" Thorax exclaimed. "If you saw... it was incredible! Earth ponies in the fields, unicorns in the forges. Pegasi riding. There were even minotaurs fighting on their side, wearing uniforms like them. I didn't feel any magic, they just changed sides. And when he saw what I was, the Legatus didn't care. I didn't disgust him."

I think I know why you like them so much, Lyra thought. She turned the scroll over in her magic, which had remained with her despite her fears. The strange not-spell Stalwart helped her use was not running out of magic until she was helpless again, at least not that she could tell.

Yet there was a sense of something hanging over her, one she felt more clearly as the days passed. There was a... compulsion, lingering just beyond everything she did. It drove her to rest less, and to encourage the rebellion back towards planning and preparation for their upcoming conflict with the changelings.

If she retreated from her goal, if her anger grew cold, would her magic go with it?

She had asked Stalwart in the last week, but he had no answer. In his mind, the oath's only power was meant to be the confidence and focus it granted when one was moving towards a goal.

"We wanted to go by then anyway," said one of the bats. She approached from the shadows there, brushing back a few strands of lavender mane. As far as thestrals went, this mare had been through some awful things, with several scars visible on her coat and a patch over one eye.

She didn't sound much older than Lyra herself. This was the grim fate of those who chose to fight evil, instead of surrender to it.

"His timeline isn't a problem. We hoped to move before Queen Chrysalis returns to restore her supply of Alicorn magic from the princess. That way, she is weakest in the battle that follows."

"I know that," Starlight muttered.

The other unicorn settled at the table beside her. She took one look at Thorax, then back to Lyra. "This... Legatus... if he's so great that he can start taking cities, why does he need our help? Maybe he should get Princess Luna out himself."

"He's only a man," Stalwart said. "A young one, too. Marcus is a skilled rider, an excellent shot with the bow, and a competent general. But the legion does not win on the strength of one man, it triumphs because of the strength of all. We join our weapons together, we coordinate, and we will find victory."

"Sure we will," the unicorn said. Lyra couldn't not know her name, not when she said it half the times she spoke. "Trixie thinks we shouldn't trust them. What if we're giving Equestria from one conqueror to another?"

That got a little more of a reaction. Stalwart stood up, his tail flicking sharply against his back. After a week eating again, he no longer looked starved, but it would take more than that to make him back into the stallion Lyra had first transformed.

"A province need not consider itself conquered," he said. "Ask Aegyptus how much they suffer under the yoke. Ask favorable terms of Rome—ask for citizenship for your patricians, representation in the senate. The Emperor is a wise and reasonable man. Marcus too. Like I said, he loves horses, perhaps more than their contributions justify."

Starlight looked between them, before turning to Lyra and Thorax. "You two saw, the rest of us haven't. Can we trust them?"

Thorax's mouth fell open. Though his eyes could show no expression, Lyra could still hear the shock even so. "You're asking me? A changeling? You hate us."

"I hate Chrysalis," Starlight said. "If I thought every bug was like her, we would've killed you when you found this train the first time. So tell me, because once we agree... we may get things in motion that cannot be stopped. All Equestria will have to live with the consequences."

"Yes," Lyra said, without hesitation. "Stalwart didn't even know I could talk, and he saved my life. If the others are like him, we can trust them."

Did that make Stalwart blush? He looked away from Lyra, his tail slowing enough that it no longer whipped violently behind him, falling still. But he said nothing, watching Thorax next.

"There were minotaurs on their side. Their ponies were not locked in harvesting centers or stables," Thorax said. "I don't know if they're 'good', from one trip. I am not very good at knowing what that means anyway. But I think they are better than the alternative. When I flew over them, I tasted hope. I do not know where else in Equestria you can find that."

"Whether real hope, or the light-trap luring in the moth," the bat pony whispered. "We will soon learn. I do not believe we have another choice."

There was a little more deliberation between the assembled ponies, hushed conversation about what a “province” even was, and how this emperor would interact with the princesses.

Ultimately it could go nowhere, since Stalwart Hope was just one creature, without the authority over these strange Romans. Starlight or maybe Princess Luna would have to see to the negotiations when they escaped into the liberated portion of Equestria.

Before they could do that, they would have to succeed.

"Did you tell him about me?" Stalwart asked, after Starlight had made up her mind, and sent the bat messengers away to bring news to the other hidden cells. "You said he asked."

"Yeah! He wanted to know how you were alive, and what you had done while captive all this time. He didn't seem to realize you were a unicorn now, instead of... whatever they are. But I explained, and he seemed to understand."

"Oh." He slumped, ears falling flat. "I had hoped... not to mention that part until we returned. Too late for that now."

Thorax winced, taking a few nervous steps back. "I'm sorry! I thought... You didn't, uh... didn't say anything about..."

"I know." Stalwart touched his shoulder, then looked back at the scroll. "I still hoped to be restored before returning to the Ninth. Perhaps Princess Luna can do it, when we rescue her."

He didn't sound quite as confident as he had during any of his other brave declarations. When he spoke, his attention remained on Lyra.

"If we rescue her," Trixie said. "We aren't the first ones to try it. I hear the bugs ate the last ones they caught."

"That's... not usually how that works," Thorax said. "We eat love, not... ponies."

"It's what I heard," Trixie repeated, lifting her tail high behind her and turning away from the table. "Trixie hopes we don't find out. There are so many easier ways to die."

It would take a little while longer to move against the prison, of course. They rode with a cargo train, and even with the operator apparently on their side, they could still only travel the ordinary routes, at the typical speed.

While they rode, more messages came in, some good and others bad. There were several other cells preparing to move at the same time they were, while others had not been reachable to begin with, presumed discovered and destroyed by the changelings.

Stalwart remained with Lyra every day. There wasn't exactly a lot of places a pony could go to get away when they were all hiding in the same train car.

Sometimes he exercised, sometimes they spoke about what life was like in their homes. He was much more open with her now than he had been after his transformation.

They shared a bunk too, though this was somewhat less intimate than it could've been. There were so many other ponies in the train, and never a moment where there weren't at least a few of them nearby. Starlight and Trixie almost never left, even if the flying messengers came and went.

Stalwart didn't seem disgusted to be around her, and he wasn't angry either. But the memory of Bon Bon remained sharp in her mind, burning with the heat of a rescue that was too late. Even if they had been apart since the fall of Equestria, Lyra couldn't just forget so soon after learning the news.

Maybe once the queen was dead, but not before.

It must've been another two weeks before the attack came. Lyra knew to prepare, because all the other ponies did, donning armored vests covered in little enchantments that Starlight or other unicorns had made.

"We don't move until we hear the entrance is clear," Starlight said. Their small group lingered behind a rise, listening to the distant sound of violence. Magic flashed, bugs and ponies died—but they lingered, waiting.

Until a high whistle came, and they charged over the hill and through the carnage. The princess was waiting.