Equestrian Knights Ch 7. Morning Surprise and Diamond Dogs
Ch 7. Morning Surprise and Diamond Dogs
The morning sun rose above the horizon, illuminating the newly established Empire known as Kickflankia.Captain Lightning Dust, leader of Kickflankia's elite flying warriors known as the Shadowbolts, led a squadron of other Shadowbolts, composed of Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score, across the sky in perfect formation.From the Empire's capital city, from a large window in the capital's great and towering castle, King Blueblood looked out at his growing Empire. He wore a crown, cape, and armor similar to King Sombra's. Beside him, his Alicorn wife, Queen Trixie, was looking out the window with him. She was wearing a golden crown with her cutiemark on it, a golden necklace, which also had her cutiemark on it, and gold slippers upon each of her hooves."Look, Trixie," said King Blueblood, extending a hoof out at all the land out the window. "Everything the light touches... is my kingdom.""You mean OUR kingdom, right darling?" said Queen Trixie."Did I stutter?""No, darling.""That's right. I didn't," said Blueblood. He then turned and looked into a mirror on a nearby wall. He had a lot of mirrors throughout his castle because he could never get enough of his own reflection. "Now, mirror mirror on the wall, who is the handsomest of them all? Why, you are, King Blueblood. Hmmm, yes, I suppose I am." He chuckled to himself.Blueblood looked behind him where all his loyal subjects were standing in his throne room. Flim and Flam, his Directors of Trade, Gilda, the Secretary of Defense, Iron Will, the Treasurer, Jet Set, the Secretary of State, and Upper Crust, the Head of Media."Loyal subjects, is this not the most perfect Kingdom of all?" asked Blueblood."Yes, my King," they all said in unison.Just then, Captain Lightning Dust and her three Shadowbolt Lieutenants, Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score, flew into the throne room. They bowed before Blueblood."Captain Lightning Dust reporting, my King," she said."Your report, Captain?" Blueblood asked as he walked over and sat down in his golden, jewel embedded throne.Lightning Dust straightened up. "Nothing to report, your highness. Everything is running smoothly in your Empire.""Excellent," said Blueblood."Your highness," Upper Crust spoke up. "A letter came for you from the royal family back in Equestria.""Oh! What does it say?" Blueblood asked."It says that they are all extremely jealous of your far superior Kingdom, and they regret ever cutting you off from the family's fortune."Blueblood laughed. "Oh, just like I knew they would be!""Good news, my King," said Flam suddenly. "Trade of the immortality water is going better than we had ever hoped for. Saddle Arabia has said that they will be willing to trade half their military just for a sip from the Goblet."Blueblood felt like he would explode with happiness. "Oh, could this day get any better?"Suddenly, Blueblood felt like his throne was moving back and forth beneath him, like it was floating in water.Blueblood looked out at his subjects. "Um, wait! What's going on!? Why am I suddenly getting sea sick?"But none of them answered him. They just stood there like they had no idea what was going on.Suddenly, Blueblood found himself on his back. He didn't remember falling out of his chair. He was just suddenly lying on his back. And the floor beneath him was still moving like he was on water.Then there was a blinding light..........................................Blueblood opened his eyes. He was staring up at the morning sky. He could feel a cool breeze against his body. He quickly realized he was back in the Everfree Forest on his quest.Blueblood moaned in disappointment. It had all just been a dream, unfortunately. But then he remembered if he completed his quest, then his dream might become a reality. He smiled at that thought.Just then, Blueblood realized that the ground he was lying on was still moving beneath him. Further more, he realized he was outside of his tent for some reason! Blueblood turned his head to look around him. To his horror, he found that he was floating in the middle of the pond on his inflatable tent mattress.He screamed and jerked in surprise, causing him to accidentally fall of his mattress into the freezing pond.On the shore, everyone rushed out of their tents at the sound of the scream, and Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score flew down from their cloud and landed on shore. They saw Blueblood splashing around in the pond in a panic with his mattress floating nearby him."SOMEPONY HELP ME!" Blueblood shouted from the water."WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING OUT THERE!" Trixie shouted in bemusement.Suddenly, they all heard laughing coming from up above them. They all looked up and saw Gilda and Lightning Dust sitting on a tree branch, laughing and pointing at Blueblood as he thrashed about in the water."You were right, Gilda! That was a great prank!" Lighting Dust laughed."Told ya!" laughed Gilda.Blueblood heard this and instantly became enraged. He began swimming to shore as fast as he could.Gilda and Lighting Dust flew down and landed on the shore with the others."Pretty funny, huh?" Gilda asked the others.Everyone else started laughing at the joke Gilda and Lighting Dust had pulled (Well, except Jet Set and Upper Crust, who just looked at them with appall).Suddenly, a rock hit Gilda in the back of her head. She squawked in pain and fell to the ground."Hey, what the..." Lighting Dust exclaimed in confusion. Then she cried out as she was hit in the back of the head by another rock and fell over. Everyone looked as Blueblood was crawling out of the pond onto the shore, his coat dripping wet with pond water, and rage was written all across his face. He was levitating a couple of rocks around him with his magic.Gilda and Lighting Dust looked up at Blueblood as he approached them; quickly realizing he had hit them with the rocks."WHAT THE HECK, DUDE! YOU COULD HAVE KILLED US!" shouted Gilda angrily, rubbing the back of her head with her paw. She could already feel a bump beginning to form."YOU COULD HAVE KILLED ME!" shouted Blueblood, hurling another rock straight at Gilda's head with his magic. Gilda moved her head just in time and let the rock sail past her. "I COULD HAVE DROWNED IN MY SLEEP!""Oh, please," Gilda scoffed. "No you couldn't have! You would have woken up if you had fallen into the water."But Blueblood wasn't having any of it. "I'VE HAD IT! I'VE HAD IT WITH ALL OF YOU! AND I'VE ESPECIALLY HAD IT WITH YOU!" he pointed at Gilda. "EVER SINCE WE STARTED THIS ADVENTURE, YOU'VE DONE EVERYTHING IN YOUR POWER TO MAKE MY LIFE MISERABLE!""YOU'RE ONE TO TALK!" shouted Gilda, getting right up in Blueblood's face. "All you've done since we came out here is whine and complain about everything! And unlike you, I'm actually useful!""How dare you!?" snarled Blueblood. "I'm probably the most useful pony in this group. I have the map, and I'm the one leading you all to the goblet!""Well, if we took the map from you, then we wouldn't even need you, would we!?" said Gilda.Blueblood gasped. "You wouldn't dare!"Finally, Iron Will had had enough of this. "OKAY, THAT'S ENOUGH!" he shouted, walking up to the quarreling Griffon and Unicorn and picking them both up by the scruffs of their necks, and holding them apart from each other at arms length."HEY!" Blueblood and Gilda both shouted in surprise and anger at Minotaur."IF YOU TWO ARE GONNA ACT LIKE INFANTS, THAT'S HOW I'M GONNA TREAT YA!" Iron Will yelled at them.Gilda pointed at Blueblood. "HE STARTED IT!" she shouted.Blueblood pointed at Gilda. "SHE STARTED IT!" he shouted."BOTH OF YOU, SHUT UP!" Iron Will shouted at both of them. "YOU TWO ARE HOLDING UP MY BREAKFAST, SO I'M GONNA SETTLE THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!" He then looked at Blueblood. "Blueblood, you are a whiny, self centered jerk who thinks he's better than everyone else.""I am not!?" Blueblood shot back.Iron Will looked at Gilda. "Gilda, you're a huge, raging bitch who enjoys picking on others."Gilda bared her teeth and growled at him."Now that we have that settled, lets eat some breakfast. I'm starving!" Iron Will dropped the two on their butts, earning a grunt from both of them, and walked over the camp fire to get it going again.Gilda and Blueblood got up and looked at each other, giving each other a look, as if to say, "This isn't over", and then they walked away from each other.Flim leaned in towards his brother Flam. "I totally ship those two now," he whispered to his brother. Flam smirked in amusement.Still soaked with freezing pond water, Blueblood grabbed a towel and began drying himself off with it.After drying his face, Blueblood removed the towel, only to discover a familiar white Pegasus standing in front of him."SURPRISE!" shouted Surprise.Blueblood cried out in horror and fell backwards onto his back again. Everyone else looked over from the campfire and also gasped in shock at the sudden appearance of Surprise."Surprise!?" exclaimed Blueblood as he got to his hooves. "Wha... What are you doing here?""I found Upper Crust's wedding ring!" Surprise said gleefully."Huh?" said Blueblood, confused. Then he remembered. "Oh, right. Wait... you found it?""Yup! It's right here." She held up a small gold wedding ring in her hoof.Blueblood looked over at Upper Crust, who just shrugged. Obviously she was just as confused as Blueblood was as to how Surprise had her ring.Blueblood looked back at Surprise and faked a smile. "That's... great, Surprise. Good work!"Surprise walked over and gave the ring to Upper Crust. "So can I be a part of your special adventure now?" she asked Blueblood, batting her eyelashes affectionately at him.Blueblood started panicking. "Um... We'd like to have you, Surprise. Really, we'd like to, but, um... there's another special mission I need you to do for us.""Really? What's that?" she asked."Um... uh..." Blueblood looked around him, desperate for anything that might give him an idea. His eyes fell on Gilda, who was busy preening her feathers, and he smiled as an idea hit him. He turned back to Surprise. "Gilda has worms!"Gilda's eyes widened at what Blueblood said. "WHAT!?"Surprise gasped. "Oh my! She does!?""Oh, I'm afraid so, Surprise. This is a problem she's been dealing with for years." He pointed over at Gilda, who was glaring at Blueblood with murder in her eyes. "Look at the poor thing, Surprise. Look at the anger on that face. The frustration. That is years and years of pain building up. It's bad. Very bad. And we can't live with it, Surprise. This has to be fixed.""But how can I help?" asked Surprise with a shrug.Blueblood put a hoof on her shoulder. "We need you to go to Ponyville and get some worm medication from the town vet. The strongest medication you can find! Poor Gilda can't hold out much longer."Surprise looked over at Gilda, who was still seething with anger at Blueblood, and then turned back to Blueblood and stared at him for a long moment, narrowing her eyes at him. The way she was looking at him was really starting to make Blueblood feel uncomfortable.Finally, Surprise perked up and smiled. "Okey Dokey Lokey!" she said cheerfully. She then flapped her wings and took off into the sky. "Don't worry, Gilda!" she shouted back to them from the air. "We'll solve your worm problem!"Blueblood let out a sigh of relief as the white Pegasus disappeared over the treetops."You're an ass," Gilda said to him.Blueblood turned to look at her. "Oh, come on. You had it coming after that prank you pulled," he said. "Besides, it got rid of Surprise, didn't it?"Gilda pointed at Blueblood. "You better watch you're back, bub," she threatened, and then walked over to the campfire to get some breakfast.After eating breakfast, which they did so quickly so they could get out of there before Surprise came back, they packed up camp and made their way back to the main trail to the treasure."Okay," said Blueblood once they were on route, the map out in front of him within his light blue magical aura. "According to the map, to get back on the right path, well have to cross a stone bridge around here somewhere, so everypony keep an eye out for that.""Um, Blueblood..." said Trixie, tapping him on the shoulder.Blueblood stopped and looked at her. "Hmmm?"Trixie pointed up ahead of them. Blueblood lowered the map and saw a stone bridge over a river ahead of them."Huh. Well that works," he said.They walked over to the bridge, and Blueblood was about to set hoof on it when a terrifying voice suddenly came from somewhere."GOOOO NOOOO FURTHER!" it boomed.The company all froze, eyes looking around them everywhere, trying to spot who or what had spoken.The voice called out again. "GOOOO NOOOO FURTHER! I AM THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS! I SEE ALL!""Who are you?" shouted Trixie. "Trixie demands you show yourself!""YOU ARE IN NO POSITION TO BE MAKING DEMANDS, LITTLE PONY.""Well why can't we go any further?" demanded Blueblood."ANY MORTAL WHO WISHES TO CROSS THIS BRIDGE MUST ANSWER THREE QUESTIONS TRUTHFULLY. ONLY THEN WILL I LET THEM CROSS! IF NOT, YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES!"The group all looked at each other nervously."What should we do?" asked Jet Set."We can't let this guy push us around!" stated Iron Will."Yeah!" said Lightning Dust, Gilda nodding in agreement."We don't even know who or what this guy is," said Trixie. "It could be another one of those Guardians, or an all-powerful Draconequus for all we know.""Well we can't just stand here and do nothing!" said Dumbbell."Well, I'm not waiting," said Blueblood impatiently. "I say we let it ask its questions. We have to get across!""But what if we answer wrong?" Upper Crust squeaked with fear."I'm confident in my abilities to answer these questions," said Blueblood smugly. "After all, my parents didn't send me to the very best schools in Canterlot for nothing, you know."Blueblood turned and stepped towards the bridge. "Alright, whoever you are. Ask your questions.""QUESTION ONE," said the voice. "DO YOU HAVE ANY GEMS?"Blueblood and the rest of the group all looked at each other in bewilderment at the odd and rather easy question. None of them had been sure what kind of questions to expect, but they hadn't been expecting that.Blueblood looked back at the bridge. "No," he said honestly."DO YOUR FRIENDS HAVE ANY GEMS?""No," Blueblood answered the voice again."IS THERE ANYWHERE NEARBY WHERE YOU CAN FIND GEMS?"Blueblood raised an eyebrow. "Unless you're willing to risk going into a dragon's cave, probably not."Suddenly, three heads popped up from underneath the bridge. They belonged to three Diamond Dogs, and one of them had a megaphone in its paw."Okay. You can all pass," the one with the megaphone said disappointedly, apparently the leader of the three.The group all face-hoofed and rolled their eyes at the diamond dogs and commenced crossing the bridge.As the group passed over the bridge, Dumbbell stopped and looked over at the three dogs. "Does that ever actually work on anypony?" he asked them.The three dogs glared at him. "IT DOES ON PONIES WHO HAVE GEMS!" the lead one screamed.