//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 
// Story: Finding My Place 
// by Firestar463 
//------------------------------//

I thought that I’d be afraid, walking down that path towards my likely death. But no, I wasn’t afraid. Not really. Nervous would be a better way to describe how I felt. Not quite fear, but similar.

Before I’d arrived, before I’d actually laid eyes on the stone walls that surrounded Everfree, my mission had seemed… distant, almost. Off in the future. But now, the fact that I was really about to plunge headfirst into this suicide mission really hit me. Standing there at the edge of the forest, I could feel my knees shaking underneath me, the sweat dripping down the back of my neck despite the cool autumn breeze, the horrible butterflies feeling in the pit of my stomach, like that time I’d forgotten my science fair project at home. For a long moment, my nerves nearly failed me, and I had half a mind to simply turn and walk away back into the forest

But, no, that wasn’t an option anymore. Any chance I’d had of abandoning this mission had disappeared as soon as I had stepped foot outside of the camp. I sincerely doubted I would be welcomed back if I didn’t have a very good reason. And nervousness is hardly a good reason.

So I forced myself to calm down. I wasn’t exactly wandering in there unprepared. I had a pouch full of scrolls that would help me if it came to blows, though I sincerely hoped that it wouldn’t come to that. I had weapons, meager though they were - a bow with a few dozen arrows and a hunting knife were hardly the best companions going toe to toe with these things. But my best weapon was that of anonymity. The Minotaur had  no idea who I was, who I was working for, or what I was (And more importantly, wasn’t) capable of. In their eyes, I would be a wild card. just had to make it look like I was playing into their hand.

And so, with that thought in mind, I took my first steps towards the city walls.

The journey across the open land between the forest and the walls was rather uneventful. My first obstacle was fairly simple - a large ravine that cut across the landscape. It only took a few seconds for me to notice a large, white stone bridge that crossed the gap, and I made my way towards it. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to be a busy day, for the bridge was deserted as I crossed. Still, I’d rather not be spotted until I was ready, and so I quickly veered off of the main road into the city and angled myself directly towards the city walls.

My next set of obstacles were a pair of farmhouses stood between me and my destination, and near the first one to my right, I could see a number of shapes moving. As I drew closer, I was able to identify them as Ponies - Earth Ponies, more specifically. I swung wide around the building so as not to draw attention, but it didn’t seem to work. One of the Ponies, a large stallion, looked up towards me and locked eyes. He said nothing, but I didn’t miss the fact that he placed himself between me and his family as I walked a hundred yards away from them past their house.

Moving past the second house, I was met with much the same reaction - suspicion and fear were evident in the residents’ eyes as I passed. Not that I could blame them - nothing on this planet, save for the Ponies in the resistance camp, knew of my existence, knew who I was or what I was or why I was here. And for now, I was content to keep it that way.

Making my way past the farmhouses, I began to muse over my potential methods of entry into the city. With the resistance still hiding out, I seriously doubted that the Minotaurs would be allowing free travel in and out of the city. Combined with the fact that I tended to stand out in a crowd of Ponies, and there was no hope of me using crowds to blend in and move into the city without attracting attention. I wasn’t feeling confident enough in my rock-climbing abilities to attempt to scale the walls. I could attempt to find a hidden passage in - a sewer exit of some kind - but again, the aforementioned problems with blending in would become a problem.

And so, I was left with one option - present myself to the guards, and try to talk my way in. Was it a good plan? No, not particularly. But, as I turned and began to make my way towards the gates, seemed to be my only feasible option, given the circumstances. So long as I didn’t present myself as a threat to them, I would hopefully not be in much danger.

Hopefully.

As I drew closer to the gate of the city, I couldn’t help but notice how quiet it was. The sun was up by now, and with this city being the capital of the Kingdom, I had expected to hear at least some hustle and bustle from beyond the walls. But there was none. No sound, nothing to tell me that what lay beyond the walls was anything more than a ghost town.

In fact, it was only when I actually approached the gates that I saw any signs of life from the city. The gate was closed, and on the other side I could see Ponies moving through the streets. But aside from the sound of hooves on cobblestone, I couldn’t hear anything. There was no talking, no signs of trade or business, nothing. Ponies moved with their heads ducked down, walking quickly this way and that, as if trying to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

Of course, that was to be expected with the Minotaurs watching over them.

There had to be half a dozen standing with the backs to me on the other side of the gate, each one heavily armored and wielding a weapon of some sort. Anytime a Pony would take a step too close to the gate, one of the Minotaurs would snarl until they stepped back away. It was clear that the Minotaurs weren’t about to let any of the Ponies leave the city.

They weren’t all inside the gates, either. A pair of Minotaurs stood shoulder to shoulder on my side of the gate, both as heavily armored as their companions inside the city. The one on the right was holding a sword and shield, while the one on the left wielded a wicked-looking spear with a hooked blade at the end. They looked tough. Dangerous. Menacing.

And they were both staring directly at me.

I had to force myself to continue at an even pace as the two Minotaurs stared me down. I reached behind my back and stowed my bow away in my quiver, so as to not give the Minotaurs a reason to think of me as a hostile. Every fiber of my being was screaming at me to turn and walk away, but I knew I was in too deep now. Turning away at this point would show weakness to the Minotaurs, which would likely work against my attempts to earn the trust of their king. Besides which, it would also give them the opportunity to attack me, if they so chose.

So I forced myself to keep walking forward until I was a dozen or so paces away from the Minotaurs - A respectable distance, but not too far away. My expression remained neutral, as did the guards. We stared each other down, none of us willing to break eye contact.

It was the one on the right that spoke first. “You walk upon the territory of the Kingdom of Minos, stranger,” he stated loudly, his voice deep and bold. “State your name and purpose.”

“My name is Chris,” I replied. It was a miracle that my voice did not waiver. “And I am here to speak to your King. I bear news for his ears only.”

The Minotaur who had spoken first stared me down. For a brief moment, I thought he was going to deny me. Suddenly, he turned his head and began muttering to his companion. The second Minotaur did not speak, but instead nodded and shook his head in reply.

Finally, both Minotaurs turned their full attention back to me. “We’ve not seen a creature like you before in our lands. Where are you from?”

“I come from far, far away. I can say no more without speaking to your King.”

There was another brief pause as the two Minotaurs began conversing again. Or, at least, the one began speaking quietly while the second remained silent, replying with nods and shakes of his head and the occasional hand gesture. This pause was much longer than the first, stretching on for several minutes as I stood and waited to see what would happen next.

Finally, the two Minotaurs turned back to me. “Hand over your weapons,” The first Minotaur ordered. “We will not let you into our King’s presence armed.

Slowly, I slid my quiver off of my back and grasped it in one hand. I was loathe to simply hand my weapons over, particularly my gifts from Luna. However, it sounded like they were preparing to take me to see Adamant Will, so reluctantly I tossed them the bow and quiver. I unhooked my sheathed knife from my belt and tossed that their way as well before stepping forward towards them. The first Minotaur snatched both of them out of the air as I tossed them his way.

But the first Minotaur held out a hand to stop me from walking past him. “And your bag,” he added. “We must search its contents.”

“Fine,” I sighed, allowing the bag to slip off of my back and fall onto the ground with a soft thud. “I’ve nothing to hide.”

The second Minotaur stepped past me and retrieved my fallen bag. I heard the sound of the zipper being opened, and for a few minutes I could hear him rummaging through my bag. Thankfully, he didn’t seem particularly interested in my pouch full of scrolls - It seemed that he thought it too small to contain anything of any danger, for he didn’t check its contents.
Finally, I heard the zipper closing again, and the Minotaur stepped back around in front of me. My bag was shoved back into my hands, and the guard tapped his companion twice on the shoulder.

“Alright,” The first Minotaur began, handing my weapons to his companion. “Thunderhoof will take you to the palace guards. Tell them that Greystripe let you past. And if they ask, the clearance code is ‘Dawn over the Mountain’. Stay with Thunderhoof until you get there. And don’t even think of slipping away.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Open the gate!” The first guard called. Almost instantly, the demeanour of the guards on the other side of the gate became even more aggressive. They took a step forward and brandished their weapons menacingly, and the crowds walking past on the other side quickly shifted even further away as the gate lurched upwards.

The second Minotaur - Thunderhoof I assumed - quickly stepped past the gate, and I followed after him. Not a second after I had stepped past the metal bars did the gate fall back down, once again sealing the city. Only this time, I was sealed inside as well.

Thunderhoof wasted no time. His large frame made it easy for him to clear a path through the crowds of Ponies, and all I had to do was stay reasonably close behind him in order to not get lost in the crowd. Not that I thought that would be a problem - most of the Ponies seemed deathly afraid to get anywhere near me. Even as I passed, I could feel their gazes as they stared after me. I couldn’t really blame them - after all, unlike the Ponies at the resistance camp, they hadn’t had a couple of weeks to get used to me or the assurances of their Queen that I was a friend - but it was still more than a little annoying.

Inside the walls, I could now get a close-up view of the city. The architecture and general layout was very similar to that what you’d see in a movie set in 1800’s-era London. Two-to-three story buildings, all squashed together with no yard to speak of, mostly brick and stone, cobblestone streets. The one difference was that there was no sidewalk to speak of. Which, when I thought about it, made sense, since there were no horse-drawn carriages and carts to be mindful of. It was all pedestrian traffic and Pony-pulled carts. All in all, on the surface, it seemed very similar to how I would have expected a large pre-industrialization city to look like.

But beneath the surface, I could tell something was wrong. No one was talking. The Ponies walking past didn’t look up. They only showed any expression at all when a Minotaur or I passed too close, and that expression was always fear. Otherwise, they moved quickly with their heads bent and their gazes lowered. There was an underlying tension, an undercurrent of discontent and fear. Not surprising, given the current state of the city.

Thunderhoof seemed to pay it no mind, if he noticed it at all. He moved just as quickly as the Ponies, but with his head held high and proud. Occasionally, he would glance over his shoulders to make sure I was still following, but as the minutes passed, these checks became less and less frequent.

It had to have been nearly half an hour of walking and pushing through the crowds before Thunderhoof stopped dead in his tracks as he turned a corner. He said nothing, but instead pointed around the corner he had just turned. I turned as well to see what he was pointing at.

There, not too far ahead of us in the distance, a large castle rose from the ground. Like the buildings surrounding us, this building was made of stone and brick, but each stone comprising this castle was white as fresh snow. A number of towers of varying sizes rose from the main building itself, which was surrounded, along with a large lawn, by a brick-and-metal fence. The entire compound seemed to be built upon the side of a hill, with the other side completely hidden from view by the fence. The street we had turned down lead directly to a large metal gate, which was guarded by no less than a dozen Minotaurs, each one even more heavily armored and armed than the ones guarding the gates to the city.

A pat on the back drew my attention back to my immediate surrounding. I looked up towards Thunderhoof to see him staring down at me. He said nothing, but simply gave a short nod and continued down the street towards the gate.

As Thunderhoof and I cleared the crowds filing past the castle, the guards turned their gazes towards us. I could instantly see the shift in their demeanour - their grips on their weapons tightened, their posture became more rigid, their eyes narrowed ever so slightly. I had no doubt that they would have stopped me dead in my tracks if Thunderhoof hadn’t been escorting me.

We stopped just a few steps away from the row of guards as one of them opened their mouths. “What have you brought to us, Thunderhoof? He asked. “An intruder?”

Thunderhoof shook his head, and made a few quick gestures with his hands, but not once did a word escape his mouth. I caught a few of the gestures - a point towards me, back towards the gate we had entered from, his hand drawing away from his mouth - but some of the motions were too quick for me to catch.

The guard, however, seemed to understand, for he turned his gaze fully to me. “What business do you have here?” he demanded.

I forced my voice and my gaze to remain steady as I returned the guard’s stare. “I come from a land far, far away,” I announced. “I bring news for your King.”

“Who was the guard that permitted you entry?”

“Greystripe.”

The guard’s eyes narrowed even further. “And the clearance code?”

“Dawn over the Mountain.”

The guard snorted once, but seemed satisfied. “Well if Greystripe let you in… he must not think you capable of causing too much trouble,” he huffed. “Alright Thunderhoof, take it to King Adamant Will, and don’t let it out of your sight. Let’s see if this news is worth his time.”

I felt a powerful hand on my left shoulder give me a small push, and I took a few steps forward. The guards stepped to the side, and one stepped out of line. A keyring was produced, and a moment later the gate swung wide open. I stepped forward, followed closely by Thunderhoof, and the gate swung closed and locked behind us, sealing me in.

I could feel the path slowly becoming steeper as we ascended up the hill. The path itself was made of white cobblestone, save for a  wooden bridge that lead across a small stream. Even this bridge was heavily guarded, though the guards made no move to stop Thunderhoof and I as we walked past. Ahead, at the end of the long, winding path, was the castle. The current residency of King Adamant Will. It only took a few more minutes to reach the grand wooden doors that lead into the building. Thunderhoof didn’t hesitate in throwing the doors open with a single swipe of his arm, and I was quick to step into the entrance hall behind him.

Let me tell you right now. The movies that you see with castles in them, where they show the main entrance hall? Looks epic, yeah? Grandiose? It pales in comparison to seeing it live. The entrance hall was massive - easily as long as a football field, and that was a lowball estimation. The floor was a white speckled marble, and a rich maroon carpet stretched the entire length of the entrance hall. It also split off to lead towards each of the half dozen side passages that branched off of the main hall on each side. Marble busts flanked each side-passage, showing the head of different Ponies. The hall ended in a staircase that lead to a landing and split off in opposite directions, with a balcony running behind them. A large tapestry hung over the staircase - A silhouette of a bull’s head, complete with glowing white eyes, and a pair of spears crossed beneath it

Somehow, I didn’t think that that had been approved of by Serenity.

Thunderhoof gave me only a few seconds to look around while he closed the door behind us. Afterwards, He strolled past me at his usual brisk pace, forcing me to jog after him to keep up. He made his way to the stairs at the end of the hall, ascended them, and took the staircase to the right, with me directly behind him.

We twisted and turned our way through the castle. At first, I tried to keep track of our route - second left, first right, up a flight of stairs, first left, third right - but it quickly became too much for me to remember. What’s more, I could have sworn we were going in circles - I know I saw the same painting at least three times. Eventually though, we made it to our destination.

As we rounded the final corner, I took a good look around. It was another hall, though not nearly as large or grandiose as the entrance hall. At the other end there was another set of double doors ahead of us, flanked by a trio of guards on each side. The only other items of interest, besides a pair of windows flanked by a pair of paintings each, was a few wooden chairs pushed up against the walls. Thunderhoof gestured towards one of the seats on the right wall, close to the door, and I took a seat as he walked up to the guards.

There was some gesturing, and a few short words. One of the guards stepped into the throne room, and emerged a few short moments later. “A few moments,” I overhead him. “The King’s dealing with one of the prisoners.” That seemed to satisfy Thunderhoof, for he walked over and sat down heavily in the chair next to me - so heavily, in fact, that I thought for a moment that it might break. Thankfully, it seemed to hold. A long, somewhat awkward silence stretched out. I kept looking around the hall - at the paintings, out the windows, at the guards, over at Thunderhoof - but none of them seemed keen on making any conversation.

Well, I was supposed to be staying here for a bit. Might as well get to know a few of them.

“So… how you doing?” I asked, directing my words towards Thunderhoof. I got no response. “Uh… enjoy your job?” I asked. Again, no response. Not even a glance my direction. Meanwhile, I could tell the guards nearby were amused at my attempts at conversation, if their smirks were anything to judge by. “Not much of a talker, eh?” I muttered.

That earned me a bemused look from Thunderhoof, followed by a few snickers from the guards. “Good luck tryin’a talk t’ tha’ feller o’er there,” One of them chuckled in a thick Scottish-like accent. “Ol’ Thunderhoof’s a mute. Lost ‘is tongue a few years back, ain’t been able t’ say a word since.” On cue, Thunderhoof opened his mouth, revealing a set of pearly-white teeth… but no tongue.

It took all of my willpower not to recoil, but it must’ve shown on my face. Thunderhoof let out an amused snort, while the other guards started cracking up. “Ah, if only I had a coin fer e’ry time Tha’s happened,” The Scottish guard laughed. “Get’s ‘em e’ry time.”

As the guards continued to laugh, I became acutely aware of how close I was to Adamant. Will. I’m not sure why it was then that I decided to become so aware - maybe it was me trying to take my mind off of the guards laughing at my discomfort. Either way, I realized that there was only one door between me and the King of the Minotaurs. I checked to make sure the guards were still distracted by their laughter, and quickly undid the tie on my pouch. I reached in to grab one of the intimidate scrolls and stowed it away in my pocket, tying the bag back up as their laughter died down.

And not a moment too soon. The doors behind them swung open, causing the center two guards to step to the side to avoid being hit. Another armored guard stood on the other side. Almost instantly, his eyes locked on me, and a scowl crossed his face. I couldn’t help but gulp as he pointed in my direction.

“You there. Stranger. The King will see you now. No funny business.”

“Sure,” I managed to say as I rose to my feet. Thunderhoof gave me a solid pat on the back as I stepped away from him, past the guards, and into the large room beyond. The doors instantly slammed closed, and the door was barred shut, locking me inside.

“Show time.”