There are two things a knight needs, their armour and their horse.

Sir Thomas didn’t just have a stead, he had a best friend. Old Gilligan had been there for him since day dot, the day he was knighted. He went everywhere with him and the pair grew to trust each other deeply.

That was until one day, the day Sir Thomas showed his true colours.

Lady Emeline was a noble it’s true, but she also had a heart of gold. That’s not a metaphor, she literally had a golden heart due to contradicting Midas’s Disease as a little girl.

People came from near and far to get close to her so that they may either bask in her beauty or harm her in order to steal her priceless heart.

Sir Thomas was the latter.

He came across Lady Emeline trying to escape some assassins through a bog where she ended up getting stuck.

He shielded her from the assassins and ran them all through with his sword.

Once assured they were all dead, he guided Lady Emeline out the swampy water. And as she went to thank him with a kiss he ran his sword through her too.

He cut out her heart and sold it for an ungodly amount of money. Which he used to spoil both himself and Old Gilligan.

But Old Gilligan wasn’t interested in a lifetime worth of hay, or a stable the size of a small town. He was interested in justice.

He got it one day when Sir Thomas jumped off his back and headed down to the edge of the water to have a drink. He called Old Gilligan over and the horse obeyed, trotting up behind him before turning around and kicking him into the water with his back legs.

Sir Thomas laughed thinking it was a joke until he saw Old Gilligan charging towards him.

The horse held Sir Thomas face down in the stream until he stopped squirming.

Old Gilligan trotted away into the woods where he shed his guise and become once more his true Kingly self.

It was a test he had set up for all those he had knighted, many passed, but more than he’d like to admit failed. And Sit Thomas was just one in a long line of those who would learn what happens to you when you forget what the term honour means.