Legends of Equestria: The Legionary

by The Blue EM2

The Edge of Empire

NOTE: This chapter was written before the imposition of a National Lockdown in England.

Tom was headed north, towards the edge of the world. He had a series of things he wanted to visit in the North of England, a part of the world that is especially famous for its Roman remains. Many towns, villages, forts, and supply bases had been unearthed in the counties of Northumberland, County Durham, and Cumbria, all sitting in the shadow of Hadrian's Wall, which had marked the boundaries between the Roman Empire and Scotland, where only barbarians had lived (in the Roman view, at least). So there he was, headed north to do some sightseeing.

He also wanted to get away from something else in his life. Only a few days ago, he had been spat back into this reality from having been Sky Stinger for several months, helping to foil an evil plot to destroy all of Equestria alongside Vapour Trail. He was now suddenly back in the world he had originally called home, and at the worst of times too. It seemed a little awkward to others, and quite hard to explain to those who wouldn't understand, but at the time of being warped back to Earth, he had just become a father.

Vapour Trail had become pregnant not long after their marriage, and she had only just given birth when Tom, as Sky, had been torn from that world and thrown back home. Truth be told, he was still feeling emotional pain from the entire situation and was now heading away from the place he normally called home to get away from that.

He switched on his car radio as he headed north. He was staying in a holiday cottage in Melrose, Scotland, but owing to the current situation he wouldn't be allowed into the property until 5, as the owner had additional cleaning to do. Instead, he was going to visit some places on the way up, and first on his priority list was Vindolanda. As he fiddled with his car radio, expecting yet another report about coronavirus, he was instead rather surprised to hear an archeologist being interviewed.

"We now speak to William Fraser, head archeologist at Vindolanda," said the reporter, who belonged to BBC Radio Cumbria. "Mister Fraser, thank you for joining us."

"It's an honour," Fraser replied. "Thank you for having me on."

"Mister Fraser, please tell us about this remarkable artefact you found."

"We discovered it whilst doing excavation on the northern barracks at Vindolanda," Fraser told the reporter, clearly quite proud of what they had found. "We knew that weapons and other military equipment have previously been found in that area, including the only complete original suit of lorica segmentata in the world."

"Lorica Segmentata?"

"That's the main armour that Roman soldiers wore. This newest discovery came amongst a large pile of broken parts and pieces from pilum and other artillery weapons. I was digging through some of the dirt when my trowel suddenly hit a metal object. I began to clear the dirt aside and found a golden object within the pile."

"And what was the object?"

"It was a shield from the 4th Century AD, so towards the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, but that wasn't what was fascinating about it. The shield was perfectly preserved and incredibly strong. It had not only survived in the ground in perfect condition, but it was completely undented from our archeological work. Later on, when one of the students accidentally scraped it, there was no trace of a scratch anywhere. I would normally be hesitant to say it, but the shield appears to be indestructable."

"Fascinating," said the news reporter again. "Where is the shield now?"

"The shield has had some archological checks done on it, and is now on display in the museum in Vindolanda," Fraser replied. "It's proven to be very popular, I can tell you!"

"Thank you Mister Fraser. Well, that's all we have time for now, but I'm certain many will come to visit the museum to see the shield." The interview ended, and Tom was left thinking to himself.

"On display in the museum at Vindolanda, eh?" he thought to himself. "I'm headed there right now, so I think I'll go and check out this shield for myself." His course was set, his mind was made up. Little did he realise that this was his course with destiny.

---

After arriving at Vindolanda and completing the neccesary temperature checks to be allowed onto the sight, Tom donned his face mask and got his bag ready. His hand sanitiser was in his back pocket, and other supplies were on his person. He went through the main door and along the corridor to access the map room. He studied the map of the camp, and walked onto the preserved ruins to look about. Vindolanda predated the neighbouring Hadrian's Wall, but soon became a supply base for the wall's soldiers. The settlement developed greatly during its nearly 300 years of continous occupation, and many streets and walls had been unearthed to give a sense of what this settlement had once been like. Tom walked through and looked at the many notices and signs, quietly laughing at how a handful had been (poorly) translated into Latin. He then walked down the hill and into the main museum, past the recreated Roman settlement complete with the monument to the Vindolanda tablets, amongst the oldest surviving written documents in the world. Tom turned a corner to see the shield in a display cabinet. The shield was made of bronze, from the look of it, and had a curved shape to it with a ridge at the front to deflect incoming fire. The shield also had a symbol on the centre, consisting of half of a laurel wreath at the bottom, a tall star intersecting it at the centre and running to the midpoint of the shield. Two wings extended off of that.

"This looks oddly familiar," Tom said, before a bright flash of light occurred. Seconds later, the glass case containing the shield exploded, throwing glass everywhere. Tom was hurled backwards and landed on his back, the room suddenly clearing from the explosion. As the light faded from his eyes, he looked up to suddenly see the shield was bolted to his arm, and furthermore couldn't be released. As he looked on in confusion, his right hand suddenly changed into a fleshy stump, and an iron horseshoe attached itself to that. The horseshoe also garded part of the ankle, and into this the shield bolted itself. Yellow fur suddenly erupted from this arm, soon to become a foreleg, and rapidly spread all over his body, even under his clothing, which made it extremely itchy.

Tom's screams of agony were muffled by his facemask, which he was unable to get off as both his hands had mutated into hooves. His elbows snapped and rotated to form forward knees. The jointing on his former arms had now changed to legs, and the shield continued to furiously glow.

His back and spine shattered in several places, forcing him into a quadrapetal shape and forcing his legs up, before the bones healed in the new position, leaving him in the shape of a horse. His leg joints snapped and broke, ripping through his jeans and revealing yellow furred legs. Backwards jointed legs were now in their place, and his feet were forcibly compressed into hooves.

As he tried to roll onto these limbs and stand, pressure began to build in his shoulders. This was soon of lesser import, as his ears began to stretch upwards and slide up his head. His nose and mouth also began to tingle, and more bones broke and reformed as they began to slide forward, forcing his nose and mouth together into a boxy, angular muzzle, also yellow and furry. Being pulled in multiple directions at once, the straps on the face mask could take no more, and they snapped, the mask falling off and freeing his face.

His eyes grew in size, and turned blue, and his hair turned red, shortening into a neatly cropped mane as the pain in his shoulders reached its climax. Two giant, feathered wings erupted out of them, tearing giant holes in his shirt (which he quickly shook off his body). A red scarf appeared around his elongated, tall neck, and a brown strap appeared looping over his right shoulder, connected into an armoured skirt that now sat upon his rump. Speaking of that, his jeans had long since given up alongside his underwear, and a tail erupted from his ass. It was fairly short, and neatly held in place by a brown cord.

A heavy metal helmet slotted into place atop his head, complete with holes for his ears, that now stood erect like giant radar dishes awaiting a signal. A helmet crest was soon attached into place, alongside red plumage atop it.

As he finally moved off, ditching the ruined socks and tattered shoes, he turned to the signs for the exit, still breathing heavily from what had just happened.

There was a notice above the door. But he struggled to understand it. He got bits of it, but couldn't figure it out. He crashed through the door and flew upwards, before landing amongst the exhibits in the garden. There was another inscription on the temple. Tom had never been especially good at Latin, but when he looked at the inscription, he could understand it perfectly.

"What the fuck is going on?" he asked.

A woman screamed nearby, and Tom turned his head. She shouted something, but he also couldn't understand her. "Are you alright?" he called.

She instead began to run, so Tom tried to follow her, walking being incredibly hard due to the shield. His wings suddenly flared into life as he took to the air, but he was unused to flight and crashed into a tree, before falling through the branches and landing at the bottom.

A mysterious female voice was the last thing he heard before blacking out.

Author's Note:

Salve, my fellow readers! This, the next entry in the Legends of Equestria series, focuses on everybody's favourite Roman pony, Flash Magnus. Per the traditions of our characters, Jimmy assigned female characters to his self insert, meaning that it was Tom's 'honour' to get the male characters.

The adventure continues tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Comments

[JimmyHook19]

Per the traditions of our characters, Jimmy assigned female characters to his self insert, meaning that it was Tom's 'honour' to get the male characters.

Heh... I'm just so lucky. X3

[The Blue EM2]

10511465
I see indeed.

[Ocellus The Changeling]

This story seems nice to read. Like

[The Blue EM2]

10523171
Thanks.