Soldiers of the Realm tossed the bruised body of Hitch back into his cage. Sunny and her friends were back on the Barge – her inside the Special Happy Fun Cage, the bars bent back into place by Sir Bastion, and the others in cages newly placed beside her on either side. Sunny had a gag in her mouth, so she could only spit and moan about Hitch’s state. It was still difficult to raise her head.
The Barge kicked into motion as Dame Crusharra crossed back over the gangplank.
“If it wasn’t for Sir Bastion, I would do worse.”
Hitch’s body had been well worked over by the Knight. Scrapes and scuffs marked his body and disturbed his fur, and his breathing was shaky. He forced himself up to his shaky hooves.
“Ahh whatever, Sunny,” he said with labored breath. “Guess I deserve it. What was I thinking…”
He looked down at Sunny, eyes wet.
“This whole thing is a joke. Maybe I should return to Maretime Bay and just accept—” He gritted his teeth and turned away with a grunt. Izzy’s bottom lip shook and she whimpered.
“Oh Mr. Trailblazer, I know how you feel. I mean… sorry, kind of.”
Hitch just sulked to a corner of his cage and Sunny listened from her numb state on the floor of the Barge. Izzy continued.
“My brother hasn’t been the same since we were younger – in a way, it’s sort of like he’s… you know…”.
“No, Hornhead, I don’t know! My brother isn’t dead!”
Izzy yelped and covered her face. Hitch sighed. He looked over at Izzy.
“I’m sorry. I just…”
Hitch lowered his head.
“Halter disappeared about a month ago. Everyearthpony at the Castle wrote it off because of the rule that if an Earth Pony goes missing after leaving the Realm or entering Hornhead territory – y’know, Unicornia, or whatever you call it — well, they just consider them dead.”
Hitch rested his head against the bars of the cage. Izzy’s eyes twinkled with wetness. Sunny listened quietly. Hitch continued.
“I tried talking the Protector into sending a search party, or an investigator, or something! If I went myself I’d just end up the same way – if my brother couldn’t cut the mustard, how could I? But it didn’t work, no matter what I did. No matter if I begged or offered to take on more duties. I just kept asking and asking and I got fed up with her. So, she banished me from the Castle, and now I refuse to perform my duties or anything else until he’s back.”
He opened his eyes and slowly looked up again, at Izzy and then down at Sunny.
“I guess we’re not too different, Sunny and me. Both stupid with stupid dreams.”
Izzy ears flicked. She shook her head.
“No Mr. Trailblazer, I don’t think—” Hitch looked at her, and Izzy covered her mouth. “S-sorry…”
Hitch couldn’t hold back a chuckle and a smile.
“You don’t have to apologize all the time – you make me feel bad and YOU’RE the enemy.” He chuckled again as if it might lighten the awkward mood, but it didn’t help. Izzy looked away – Hitch bit his lip.
“This is weird. You’re a Horn—Unicorn. I thought you’d be snarling at me, or trying to eat me, or casting a spell. Is this really you? Is this a trick?”
Izzy and Hitch locked eyes, Hitch’s determined and Izzy’s glassy. Izzy’s mouth became a thin awkward line – her pupils darted from side to side. She struck a pose with one hoof in the air.
“Ta da!” she cried.
Hitch cringed.
“Yep, that was definitely a sincere gesture… and a corny one.” The two ponies laughed. One of the soldiers came to Hitch’s cage and jabbed him with the blunt end of a spear.
“No merriment among prisoners!”
Hitch fell to his knees and winced. Izzy’s cheeks puffed up.
“M-meanie hooves!” she cried.
The soldier turned and prepared to hit Izzy.
“You want some too, monster?!”
A loud voice from the other end of the Barge stopped the soldier in his tracks.
“Surely, young soldier, you are not disobeying my explicit orders to refrain from injuring the prisoners further?”
Izzy watched the soldier’s pupils grow small and sweat start to drip from his face. He swiveled around, saluted, and shakily replied.
“N-No S-Sir Bastion, sir! Never!”
Sir Bastion pulled out a flask from his armor.
“See that you do not.”
The soldier scurried away to some other part of the boat. Izzy tried to glare at Sir Bastion, like she had seen Sunny do, but had to immediately look away. Whatever Sir Bastion had in his flask, he took a big long swig of it and then returned the flask to under his chest piece.
“Spooky wooky…” Izzy said. Hitch breathed in sharply.
“Yeaaaah, I’ve heard rumors - rumors that he has been drinking forbidden potions that give him his freakish strength. I’ve also heard that he trains sixteen hours a day, basically whenever he’s not out capturing Earth Pony traitors or stealing furniture from the locals, but I don’t really now for sure. I don’t know if anyearthpony does. I try to stay away from anywhere Sir Bastion goes, for obvious reasons.”
“R-Right. Forbidden potions?”
“Yeah. Some potions are expressly forbidden from consumption by the Protector because they can lead to ponies going cuckoo bananas.”
“C-cuckoo bananas?”
“Crazy.”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, Meadowbrook was able to make all kinds of potions, even some that she regretted. The ponies she taught must have wrote down some of the recipes and continued to make them.”
Izzy shuddered.
“I heard that that Meadowbrook pony used to forcefeed ponies all kinds of weird things to see how it affected them, and once she even made a zombie pony come alive!”
“That must just be some dumb Unicorn legend. Meadowbrook was a healer and a hero of the Earth Ponies who saved hundreds of lives. And anyway, you’re not one to talk, Ms. Warlock King’s Sister!”
Hitch’s expression shifted from neutral to a glare.
“By the way, if you Unicorns are holding my brother in a cell, you better let him go.”
“H-how should I know, I don’t work with the Border Guard!”
“You’re the Warlock King’s sister” — Hitch squinted at an uneasy Izzy — “You should know who the prisoners are.”
Izzy puffed up her chest and cheeks.
“Well, sorry, I don’t! If prisoners are caught they get ransomed back eventually, if your leaders will pay the price. And my brother is not a warlock or a king, he’s the Voice of the Five Tribes…” Izzy lay down and sighed sadly. “He’s going to be so furious when I go back – if I do go back.”
Hitch turned away, anger still weighing on his brow.
“Ransom? There’s a fat chance of that happening. Guess I’ll have to deal with this myself…”
“Are you sure he’s in Unicornia? Maybe he went to a neutral city, or somewhere else.”
Hitch shook his head.
“My brother wouldn’t just leave. Everyearthpony loves him, and he has a high ranking position. Not to mention he and I are the only family either of us has – there’s no way he would just leave. He was foalnapped, I know it.”
Some time passed. Hitch lay down to rest his damaged hooves and troubled mind, and Izzy squinted at the sun in the sky as she tried to relax and think happy thoughts. A loud noise like a dying animal shook both ponies out of their respective stupors.
“Is that—”
Hitch looked over. Sunny was snoring loudly.
“She’s such a charmer, isn’t she?” Hitch asked with a laugh. Izzy giggled.
“She was like that back in Maretime Bay, too. She’s a snorer. Just like an Ursa Major!”
Hitch cocked his head.
“A whosawhatnow?”
Izzy’s tail wagged like a happy dog.
“An Ursa Major is said to be as big as a mountain and with a snore that can be heard a mile away! No Unicorn has ever seen one for over a hundred years, but I always liked to hear stories about them from my grandma. She said that they used to be more common, but they’ve been disappearing.”
Izzy pouted.
“All the magical creatures have been disappearing. The only ones we have left are Night Owls.”
Hitch readjusted himself as if listening intently. Izzy did a double take and blinked.
“O-oh, you want to hear more?”
Hitch chuckled, hints of a blush flecking his cheeks.
“Well, not like there is much else going on, right?”
Izzy beamed.
“Guess not! Umm, Night Owls. Okay, so…”
* * *
As the sun reached the center of the sky, the Brimstone Barge passed into the Heart of the Realm. Izzy’s head was on a swivel, while Hitch rested his eyes.
“Wowwy…”
On both sides of the river small, grey-stone walls stood right up against the bank. But beyond the walls - and the Barge was tall enough so Izzy could see - were grey stone or wooden buildings of different shapes and sizes, all closely packed together. They reminded Izzy a lot of Maretime Bay – shanty homes, roofs made of scrap or rusty metal, and ponies going every which way about their business with stalwart expressions. Some ponies had Cutie Marks, but many did not. Mountains that appeared bluish-brown touched the sky in the distance.
“So this is the capital of the Dirt Realm—umm! S-sorry, I m-mean, the Earth Realm!”
Hitch shrugged.
“You’re not offending me, dollface. I don’t have any particular love for this place.” Hitch glared at his hooves. “In fact, if anything, I hate it. The Protector and the Knights only care about preserving order – they’re not interested in ponies who go missing or who lose their families.” He sighed and readjusted his position so his hooves were under his chin. “I get where Sunny is coming from, and I wish we could have peace, too. It’s just that it’s not going to happen.”
Izzy looked at Hitch and frowned. Hitch continued.
“Sunny has always been that way though. Her parents were always telling her stories about a magic place where all the ponies lived and played together. She would come to school and tell everyearthpony about it, like it was Show and Tell Day every day, and you can imagine how they reacted. How I reacted. But, she never cared about being teased like I—”
Izzy looked with remorseful brows at Hitch. He noticed her staring and blushed.
“A-anyway, her dreams of peace are just that: dreams. You can agree with me, I’m sure. You guys don’t like us any more than we like you.”
“I just don’t know any of you Earth Ponies, except Sunny. She’s super nice, and when she talks, it’s like… don’t you feel like maybe it is possible to have peace? Sunny is so sure of it, it makes me kind of want to believe in it, too. I never thought about it seriously before meeting her…” Izzy looked up at the sun. “Maybe there is a chance.”
Hitch whinnied.
“The only thing there is a chance of is us getting our flanks whipped. A 99.9% chance.”
Izzy grimaced.
“99.9% h-huh?”
Layla Grassroots appeared with a red-faced and sweaty Nate Chivaltarry. The ever-happy mare hummed as she investigated Sunny’s snoring form.
“Looks like this one is still recovering, but otherwise maintaining a non-critical state of health!”
Layla turned to Izzy. The apothecary’s brows drooped and her smile faltered.
“Umm, Hornhead… I have to ask if you’re feeling okay.”
Izzy managed an awkward smile.
“Errr, I’m in a cage and about to be thrown into a dungeon buuuut… yes?”
Layla smiled and quickly turned away.
“Excellent! Good enough for me!”
Layla scowled at Hitch. He looked up and flashed a weary smile, and her scowl became an involuntary sneer.
“You’ve seen some better days, haven’t you, Mr. Trailblazer?”
“Have I seen better days, lovely? Oh yes, I have. But even cuter mares than you? Never. You’re a shining beacon of beauty, if I may be so bold as to say.”
Nate gasped and looked to the apothecary, who forced a smile and closed her eyes.
“Why thank you, Mr. Trailblazer. For that, I will sign off on your good health after all. You are ready to stand before the Judicator and argue your case!” Hitch gulped. “You better make it good because if you don’t convince her, it’s off to the reeducation!”
Layla giggled and winked at Hitch before she walked away, Nate in tow. Hitch let his face fall against the floor. His voice became muffled.
“Oh great. Things just keep getting better and better!”
Izzy hummed sadly.
“S-sorry but… I guess we’re in a tough spot, aren’t we?”
“Ya think?!”
A loud blast of the Barge’s horn shook the boat. Izzy and Hitch looked around. The movement of the paddle wheels slowed to a near halt. Sir Bastion shouted.
“Soldiers! Prepare the prisoners for transport by land - we will be taking the scenic route.”
One soldier saluted.
“Uhh, Sir Bastion? Are we not to go through the river gate and continue right to the Castle Docks?”
Sir Bastion’s smile gleamed in the midday sun and he waved his hoof as he spoke.
“You take the Barge straight through after we get off. Nate and I will escort the prisoners through Castletown to show them off. I am sure everyearthpony will be ecstatic to meet the newest advocate for embracing Hornheads and Featherfreaks!”
Hitch looked from Sir Bastion to Sunny, still fast asleep. His mouth became a slanted line.
“At least she’s not awake to see or hear any of this.”
Izzy swallowed hard.
“Is this gonna be… scary?”
Izzy’s fears were realized not long after landing. Soldiers placed her and Hitch in connected chains and led them away. Sunny, meanwhile, remained on the Barge while Sir Bastion seized another item “for the good of the Realm” – a dockworker’s cart. He returned to the Barge and retrieved a key from under his armor, which opened the Special Happy Fun Cage. Sunny flopped out like a log. Sir Bastion effortlessly tossed Sunny into one of the larger cages and then bucked it and her onto the cart on the pier. It was the perfect size for the cage.
Sir Bastion rejoined the group.
“Excellent! Nate, get one of those bulls over here and strap him to the cart. Ms. Starscout will be the guest of honor today!” Sir Bastion turned to another soldier. “You, go ahead of us and alert the Earth Ponies of Castletown that I am bringing another believer in peace with the Hornheads and Featherfreaks. Tell them it’s another fool like back then. Also, we have a Hornhead in the flesh.” The soldier nodded and ran two steps forward before Sir Bastion stopped her with a hoof. “Make sure they have lots of rotten vegetables available.”
The soldier saluted and ran off. Nate came back breathlessly, pulling on a rope attached to one of the bull’s harnesses. Sir Bastion looked Nate up and down.
“Don’t just stand there, dear page! Hop to it!”
Nate squeaked and did as commanded, attaching the bull to the cart. Layla Grassroots had joined the group, too — she giggled and watched Nate hurry with his task. Izzy shuffled nervously in place, eyes glued to Sunny in the cage. Hitch was behind her in the chain line and poked her. She looked back.
“Hey. It won’t be that bad. Most Earth Ponies don’t even care about prisoners coming through Castletown — it’s a common occurrence!”
* * *
Another stinky tomato burst against Izzy’s red face. Her big puppy dog eyes were wide and wet.
“Hornhead menace!”
“Monster! Villain!”
“Put her in the pillory! The pillory, Sir Bastion!”
The townsponies of Castletown were wild with rage, though they knew better than to step in front of Sir Bastion and his entourage’s path. The Knight of the Realm was alive with laughter as the barely-kept-at-bay mob shouted and threw things at the prisoners.
“Now, now, dear citizens of the Realm! Leave some of them intact so there is something left for me to punish properly!”
Hitch glared all around.
Castletown was no paradise, certainly not even compared to Maretime Bay. Cramped, crowded, dirty, and filled with the roughest types of Earth Ponies – at least in most of its districts. They were a tough, hard-working folk, for sure, but nopony Hitch wanted to spend his spare time with. As he scanned the faces in the crowd, they were all either snarling with hate or lit up with ill-intentioned excitement. A turnip cracked Hitch on the forehead and he shook it off.
“Hah!” he laughed. “It’s 100 points if you can get it in my mouth!”
An onion soared through the air and corked up Hitch’s mouth. The crowd laughed and Hitch quickly spit out the smelly red vegetable.
“Blah!”
Sir Bastion yanked on the chain and both Hitch and Izzy cried out as their bodies lurched forward.
“Come now, prisoners! Come now!”
The first destination for anypony leaving the Castletown Docks (itself a muddy, soot-smelling affair, with far too many burly sailor types) and heading for the Castle would be the Stone District. Ponies there tended to work with stones, in one way or another – many of them would be recruited for the mining operations in the nearby Smokey Mountains, or even to work with the Sappers. But Sir Bastion always forbade them from actually throwing their stones lest the prisoners become too injured to receive “the proper justice”.
The Stone District, like most of Castletown, consisted of one main dirt path cutting through rows and rows of shanties and some nicer stone buildings, which at many points veered off into some side road or shady alley. On that day, many of the Earth Ponies of the Stone District were lined up and taking part in what many referred to as the “festivities”.
“Three cheers for the Knights for capturing the traitor and the Hornhead!”
And the crowd made their three cheers. Hitch stared defiantly at everypony as he trudged along; Izzy kept her head down, her beautiful mane soaked with rotten vegetable juices. Tears streaked down her cheeks and she sniffled pathetically.
After the entourage left the Stone District through the soldier-guarded district gate, next was the Market District, and it was there that the projectiles were most plentiful. Hitch could have eaten his fill of squash, if they hadn’t yet spoiled.
“Do you ponies just keep piles of gross vegetables around for this?”
Hitch spotted a busy stand over the heads of the crowd with a sigh that read, “Prisoner Presents – 2 bits”. The “Presents” were boxes upon boxes of fly-covered, smelly vegetables. Hitch deadpanned.
“Oh, you do. You literally do.” Another tomato hit him in the forehead. “Sorry Izzy, I guess I was wrong. These ponies really like tormenting prisoners.” He noticed Izzy’s sniffling and that her gait was forced and pained. He shouted at Sir Bastion. “Come on, Sir Bastion! I can take this, but her? She might be a Unicorn but she’s also a mare!”
The crowd gasped and then shouted profanities at Hitch. Sir Bastion half-turned back with disgust.
“You dare so brazenly use that word?! Hash Trambler, has that former flame of yours made you fall for her traitorous rhetoric already?”
Hitch just growled. Izzy looked back at Hitch. He smiled genuinely at her and urged her on with a flick of his head. Layla Grassroots addressed the crowds.
“Don’t throw anything harder than a tomato or the prisoners may suffer grave injuries!”
After the Market District was the smaller Entertainment District – there were less ponies there waiting to throw things. Izzy dared to look around.
Many open-air pubs lined the dirt road, so that she could see the Earth Ponies inside drinking their ciders and fermented wheat beverages and carrying on with all sorts of rambunctious activities: darts, cards, dice, hoof-wrestling. One such “athlete” took a swig from a vial of red liquid while his opponent looked away, then a second later when the hoof-wrestling commenced, the “athlete” slammed his opponent’s hoof down with such force the table cracked, and the onlookers cheered.
“O-oh hay crackers…”
Hitch whispered from behind.
“That stuff’s called Liquid Power. That’s not the forbidden kind of potion – it gives you a burst of strength for a few minutes, but then you get really tired afterward. The forbidden ones are much worse.”
Izzy gulped and reluctantly continued her trudge through the muddy road.
Finally, upon leaving the Entertainment District out of the larger, more heavily-guarded district gate leading to the Castle, the entourage entered a nicer-looking part of the city with large oaks lining the road. While the road was not paved, it was made up of small grey stones instead of just dirt. The imposing Castle Rockhoof loomed not far in the distance. Izzy closed her eyes.
“It’s like an evil castle from the story books—my teacher was right!”
“Castle Rockhoof, at last…” Hitch lamented.
The enormous stone structure was divided into two parts – one on either side of Rockhoof’s River, which continued past where Sir Bastion had made the prisoners debark and even continued beyond the Castle, although gates on the river prevented unwanted traffic from heading upstream.
Each of Castle Rockhoof’s two “parts” rested on top of a huge cliff-like hill, almost mountainous in their own rights. Izzy looked over to her right where the River widened more like a lake. The Brimstone Barge was up ahead, docked under the Castle at a nicer looking pier than the one they had stopped at.
The outside walls of the Castle were gargantuan, as if a giant had stacked stones to build himself a fence. Hitch couldn’t help but admire the walls, even though he had seen them so many times before. The flag of the Realm hung on both “parts” of the Castle – a brown flag with a green image of an Earth Pony reared onto its hind hooves, ready to strike. As the entourage got closer to the hill that swerved upward, steeper as it got to the very large Western Gate, Sir Bastion called to his page.
“Nate! The bugle! Sound off!”
Nate searched his things and pulled out a small brass instrument. He held the bugle to his lips and blew a few rusty notes in a welcome flourish.
That bugle call, and not the hundreds of other noises before it, finally knocked Sunny out of her slumber. Her eyelids fluttered. The feeling and movement in her body returned. When Sunny realized it, she jumped up and down and moved around in a circle, so much as she could in the cage, larger than the Special Happy Fun Cage, but still not huge.
“Brhhlllhh! Brrrrhhhrrbbr!”
She spat around her gag in an attempt to talk.
“Brlhr!”
Hitch and Izzy noticed and lit up.
“Sunny! Thank goodness—oh but look where we are…”
“Yeah, talk about a rude awakening. Welcome to Castle Rockhoof, Sunny Starscout.”
Sunny looked up, up, up to the very top of Castle Rockhoof. The crenelated walls at the top of the tower on the corner closest to Sunny seemed to touch the clouds. She saw the huge flag of the Realm, the multiple window slits in the stone, and the awesomely huge portcullis and brown, wooden gate that led inside.
Sunny and her friends were not far from where she, admittedly, had feared going those last two days. She swallowed hard (awkward as it was with the gag).
Something caught Sunny’s eye at the top of the walls. It looked sort of like a pony, and when the thing moved and disappeared, she knew it was at least something living. Sir Bastion chuckled his arrogant laughter.
“All set for your reeducation, Ms. Starscout? I am praying that you fail. I will be waiting when you do.”
Sunny glared and spat around the gag at him as the entourage climbed the hill. A few stray soldiers on the way up were hoof clapping or hollering as the prisoners shuffled upward. At the very top, Sunny and friends realized just how big the gate was – many, many times taller than Sir Bastion, who himself was outrageously tall for a stallion.
At the top of the hill were several guards, but also two ponies: a mare wearing the same type of armor as Sir Bastion, and a stallion wearing a lighter variety like Nate Chivaltarry.
The mare, looking far sterner than Sunny had seen even Old Man Withers on a bad day, chastised Sir Bastion.
“Sir Bastion! You are half a day late, which is unacceptable! Are you finally getting rusty? Is that it?”
Sir Bastion’s smile, at the ends, curved down. It was the first time Sunny saw him frown, although it was his own variation of a frown, and it looked like a slightly less happy smile, being Sir Bastion and all.
“Must you pester me as soon as we arrive, Terra? Say what you have come to say so we can be on our way.”
Terra was the same height as Sunny, and for once it was something of a relief to meet a Knight that wasn’t freakishly large. The female Knight appeared to be the same age Sunny’s mother would have been, and a set of crescent-shaped glasses sat on her snout. Two sharp, brown eyes scanned Sir Bastion’s armor and his hooves. Terra had her mane cut into a short brunette bob cut – very proper. Her coat was tan but lighter than Sir Bastion’s.
“Pester? No no no, I am not pestering you, Sir Bastion. I am informing you that you are half a day late, and because you are late, the schedule has been thrown completely off kilter, which is unacceptable!”
She turned back to her stallion companion.
“Cabot, please refer to today’s schedule for Sir Bastion.”
Sunny saw Cabot rife through the pages on a tray connected to a device around his neck. It looked like it was used to read and write documents on the fly, using one’s mouth to turn pages or use a pencil, as the case might have been. Cabot was taller than his mistress, Sunny noticed, but other than that his brown coat and lighter shade of brown mane were totally unmemorable.
“Today’s schedule…”
Sunny laughed at the nasally, whiny voice of Cabot, although around the gag it just sounded like she was making fart noises. Izzy and Hitch looked up at her and giggled themselves. Even Nate Chivaltarry was forced to cover his smile when Cabot spoke.
“… is as follows: The prisoners transported from the River Crossroads were to arrive in the early hours of the morning after only a brief rest at the barracks near Jasperseed. Alternatively, they would arrive in the middle of the night if Sir Bastion did not take a break. And then…”
Sunny drowned out the annoying voice of Cabot. She looked behind her.
The view of Castletown from the cliffs where Castle Rockhoof was built upon was, despite Sunny’s dire situation, quite breathtaking and beautiful. While the individual buildings inside the walls far below looked no nicer than the ones in Maretime Bay (except one portion of Castletown which appeared to be filled with fine brick buildings with little chimneys), there was a definite Earth Pony charm to the vast, walled town.
The town aside, the rest of the landscape was bathed in the afternoon sunlight and reflected on the peaceful, gentle nature of the Heart of the Realm. Fields of grass, flowers, and the occasional tree were seen throughout the valley, being surrounded on two sides by mountains. One set of mountains were taller on Sunny’s left, and she assumed they were the Smokey Mountains she had heard about.
Sunny tasted a gross tomato-y flavor on her lips and rubbed her cheek. Half-dried rotten tomato came off onto her hoof and she blinked rapidly. She tested other parts of her body and, indeed, there was grosser vegetable residue. She rapidly scraped it all off of herself.
The wagon jostled forward as the bull moved again. The imposing portcullis of Castle Rockhoof slowly rose higher and higher, dirt falling from its massive metal spikes as it did. The wooden door just behind it was also creaking open.
“…Yes, yes, yes,” Sir Bastion interrupted his junior Knight, “That is all just great. We have business inside — are you able to walk AND talk, Terra? Can you manage that?”
Terra adjusted her spectacles and furrowed her brow.
“Sir Bastion, you’re unacceptable! And I can, of course, ambulate AND communicate! How rude! Vulgar! Unacceptable!”
Sir Bastion was by then halfway through the Western Gatehouse. He turned back to look at Nate, who hurriedly led the bull and by extension the wagon forward. The entourage passed Terra and Cabot, who quickly caught up to Sir Bastion.
The inside courtyard of Castle Rockhoof’s western half was filled with finely-groomed green grass, aside from areas where a path of rich, brown soil led toward the center of the entire complex. Presumably, the inner keep of the Castle was built where the two “parts” met, so that it would be hovering over Rockhoof’s River.
The inner keep shot up toward the sky, higher than the outside walls, like a fat ivory pillar. The stone, painted white, was much more reminiscent of a fairy tale castle that Sunny knew from her foalhood, and seeing it, it forced a smile onto her face. The stark contrast between those fairy tales of her foal days and the reality made her frown though – and then, as she looked at Sir Bastion’s dumb, smiling face, she scowled.
Hitch whispered to her.
“Hey. You okay?”
Sunny nodded. As the entourage passed a huge statue on their right, Sunny inspected it. The path branched out and surrounded the statue, and little stone benches and flower bushes were placed about. It was a statue of Rockhoof, so much larger and nicer than Maretime Bay’s – and painted too! Sunny had never seen Rockhoof in color before. She finally realized that his oval shaped head had a red beard, not a strange, craggy-looking chin. A giant shovel with a triangular head was raised toward the sky with one hoof.
And on the left side, further down the main path, was a giant statue of somepony Sunny had not seen before. The stone mare had her auburn-painted hair done up into a conical style, with a few tiers turning around and around on her head until it ended with a tuff at the top. A beige headscarf kept her mane out of her eyes, which had irises painted a brilliant sky blue. The mare herself was painted a turquoise sort of color, and covered with a green dress. She wore a smile.
Sunny cocked her head. Izzy audibly “Wow’d” when the group passed. Hitch sighed.
“I wish I lived back when Meadowbrook was still around. I bet I could have made her my wife…”
“Silence, fool.”
It was Sir Bastion. He roared with laughter.
“You and the hero Meadowbrook? That is as unlikely as Ms. Starscout’s little plan. Perhaps even more unlikely.”
Terra and Cabot followed Sir Bastion, Cabot hurriedly writing whatever was being said. Terra continued her verbal barrage.
“… you need to explain yourself! The Lady Protector will not be pleased that we had to wait for you! And what’s just as worse, Mr. Hoofield and Mrs. McColt have been made to wait! This isn’t the first time, Sir Bastion, and we cannot—”
Sir Bastion yawned and turned to Layla Grassroots, who had been cheerfully and quietly following along the whole while.
“Dear apothecary, I am positively pooped from our excursion. Could you whip up something to fix that?"
Layla giggled.
“Of course, Sir Bastion, but I am sure there are injured Earth Ponies that need my attention, too. Shall I seek them out first?”
“…no, I believe they will be fine to wait. This is more important.”
Sir Bastion stopped.
“Oh, right. Terra…” He turned to the mentioned mare. “Can you do the judgment on these three?” He referred to his prisoners. “We must stick to the formalities and all.”
Terra scanned the bodies of Sunny, Hitch, and Izzy. Hitch flashed her a smile. Terra sneered.
“That one is guilty. The Starscout is guilty, of course, from what I have heard. And need I say more about the Hornhead?”
Sir Bastion beamed (moreso than usual).
“Splendid! On we go, then.”
Layla turned to Terra as they all walked.
“And I can attest to their clean bills of health! Especially Mr. Trailblazer!”
Hitch protested.
“W-wait! That was it? We didn’t even get to argue our cases!” Sunny protested as well, with a spitting noise and a stomp of her hooves. Terra adjusted her glasses and continued walking.
“Your behavior is unacceptable – that is enough for a conviction.”
“Uhhh, sweetheart, I don’t think the Rule of Law works that wa—”
Terra turned around. She bucked Hitch under his chin and sent him onto his flank, pulling Izzy down as well since they were connected. Hitch rubbed his sore chin as the entourage sans Sir Bastion stopped to watch.
“You… you wretch.” Terra glared at him with an intense hate. Sunny wondered if that was how she herself looked at Sir Bastion. “Everything about you reminds me of your brother, only stupider, less charming, and unsophisticated.” Hitch glared back at Terra and gritted his teeth. “How utterly unacceptable.”
“I. Am. Not. Halter.”
Terra frowned.
“Clearly. Get up. You are your brother’s kin; therefore, I know your constitution would not allow my little tap to incapacitate you.”
Terra addressed Sir Bastion.
“Let’s get them processed with Reeducation. We need to get to the Table Chambers – the meeting of the Stone Table can commence as soon as you are ready.”