//------------------------------//
// Ch 2. The Prince's Scheme 
// Story: Equestrian Knights 
// by HeatherIsBestPlayer 
//------------------------------//

	The following day, Lightning Dust flew to the address that was included in the letter. She was soon flying above the city of Canterlot, looking down at the many building’s below, searching for the right one.
She eventually found it, and her jaw dropped. It was a beautiful large white mansion. In fact it almost looked like a castle to Lightning Dust. …I can’t really think of any other way to describe it. Just imagine Wayne Manor from Batman.
Lightning Dust landed on the front door step and rang the bell. 
After a few moments, the door’s opened, revealing a large white unicorn stallion with a long blond mane and tail. She recognized him to be Prince Blueblood.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m Lightning Dust. I’m here about this…” She held up the letter she had received the other day.
Prince Blueblood smiled broadly. “Excellent! That makes everyone! Come inside and meet the rest of the team.”
Lightning Dust stepped through the doorway into the mansion. She looked around herself at the foyer. It was very big and immaculate, with a shiny polished marble floor, a crystal chandelier hanging from the sealing high up above her, and twin grand staircases leading up to the second floor.
‘Whoa, this guy is loaded!’ she thought to herself. ‘Well of course he is. He’s royalty.’
She heard Blueblood close the double doors behind them with his unicorn magic. “If you’ll just follow me to the living room,” he said, getting her attention again. “Everyone else is waiting for us there.”
He led Lightning Dust through another doorway into an adjoining room. The living room was just as elegant and white as the rest of the house. There was a large picture window with fancy curtains in front of it, another chandelier, a large stone fireplace, and a couple sofas and chairs gathered around a smooth oak coffee table. And several ponies, a female griffon, and a minotaur were all sitting or standing around inside the living room. Of the several ponies, three were athletic looking Pegasus stallions, two were unicorn stallions who were dressed like a pair of ice cream men from Hello Dolly, another two were a stallion and mare unicorn couple who appeared to be snobby upper class, and one was a unicorn mare who was dressed in a purple pointy hat and cape decorated in stars.
They looked up as Blueblood and Lightning Dust entered the room.
Blueblood spoke. “Everyone, the final guest has arrived. Say hello to Miss Lightning Dust.”
“Hi,” they all said uninterestedly.
Blueblood quickly introduced her to all of them. The three athletic Pegasus were named Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score. The twin unicorn stallions were named Flim and Flam. The unicorn married couple were named Jet Set and Upper Crust. The unicorn mare dressed like a sorceress was named Trixie. The griffon was named Gilda. And the minotaur was named Iron Will.
Blueblood looked at Lightning Dust. “Why don’t you go find a seat and we’ll get started.”
Lightning Dust walked over and stood next to the griffon, who was busy nonchalantly preening her feathers.
Blueblood moved over to in front of the unlit fireplace to have everyone’s attention. “Alright, now that we’re all here, lets begin. Now I’m sure you’re all wondering why I’ve gathered you here.”
Hoops raised his hoof. “To complain about how much season 3 sucked?”
“NO!” shouted Blueblood, face hoofing. “Although I think we can all agree that season 3 was awful.”
Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.
Blueblood continued. “My friends, I am about to offer you the opportunity of a lifetime. Something that could make everyone in this room a billionaire! Tell me, have any of you ever heard the story about the famous unicorn wizard, Starswirl the Bearded’s mysterious disappearance?”
Trixie raised her hoof. “I have. It’s said that about a millennium ago, Starswirl the Bearded mysteriously disappeared while searching for the mythical artifact, The Goblet of Life. No pony ever found out what had happened to him.”
Blueblood grinned at the blue unicorn mare with the silvery mane and tail. 'She's rather attractive,' he thought to himself. "You're correct, Ms Lulamoon," he said.
“Egghead,” Gilda muttered silently to Lightning Dust beside her, who chuckled at the griffon’s comment.
“Well what about it?” asked Flam.
“I’ve done some research on that goblet and it turns out it really existed!” said Blueblood. “Apparently it had the power to bring the dead back to life and grant immortality.”
“Immortality?!” said Hoops.
“It means you’ll live forever,” said Trixie.
“I know what it means! I’m not stupid!” said Hoops.
Dumbbell and Score both snickered.
“So you want to find it to become immortal. Is that it?” said Gilda.
Blueblood chuckled. “Oh, Gilda. As usual, you’re thinking too small. Of course we’re gonna use it to become immortal, but we’re also going to use it to become rich! Can you imagine how much somepony would be willing to pay just to get a sip of water that would make them live forever. Think about it!”
“Sweet Celestia!” said Flim, Flam, and Iron Will all at the same time.
“We’ll make a fortune!” said Jet Set, him and his wife looking at each other in delight.
“Well make so much money we could buy the entire world if we wanted to!” said Blueblood, glad they were all starting to get what he was grasping.
“But wait, you’re a Prince! Aren’t you already rich?” asked Lightning Dust.
Blueblood looked at the floor sheepishly. “Yeah, about that…”
“Oh, boy,” said Gilda.
Blueblood continued. “The rest of the royal family cut me off. Apparently they thought I was being a… leach. So now I need to find another way to make some money quickly, or else I’m going to loose my house.”
“So instead of getting a job, you decided to go look for buried treasure,” said Gilda.
“Exactly!” said Blueblood.
Gilda shook her head. “You know, Blueblood, you remind me a lot of Daffy Duck, only not as cute.”
Dumbbell spoke. “Look, even if this thing IS real, we have no idea where it is, or how to find it.”
Blueblood grinned. “That’s where you’re wrong.” His horn glowed a blue aura, and a piece of parchment floated up into the air behind him. The parchment appeared to be very old, and it had an old age map of Equestria drawn on it.
“This map was made by Starswirl the Bearded himself. He knew where the goblet was, and he marked the way on this map. You have no idea what I had to go through to find this, and the testing I had to do to make sure it wasn’t a fake! So all we have to do is just follow the instructions on this map, and it’ll lead us directly to the goblet.”
“And let me guess,” said Trixie. “We all have to get dressed up and act like fantasy characters, don’t we?”
Blueblood looked at her. “Trixie, we are all talking mythical animals. We’re already fantasy characters.”
Trixie’s eyes widened. “Oh, right.”
“And you’re sure this is going to pay off?” asked Lightning Dust.
“Look at me!” said Blueblood. “I am a desperate pony who hates the outdoors. Do you honestly think I would risk going out in the wild for who knows how long, surrounded by dirty nature and all sorts of dangerous creatures and things, if I didn’t think this defiantly had a good chance of paying off?”
“Good point,” she said.
“All of you, think about it,” Blueblood said, walking into the center of the room. He then pointed at Lightning Dust. “Lightning Dust, you were kicked out of the Wonderbolt Academy. With this amount of money, you could buy the Wonderbolt Academy if you wanted to.”
Lightning Dust grinned at that thought. She liked the sound of that.
Blueblood turned to the Flim Flam brothers. “Flim and Flam, your apple cider business is failing because you have no apples, and you invested so much into your business. With this money you could buy all the apple orchards in Equestria.”
Flim and Flam grinned and nodded to each other.
Blueblood pointed at Trixie. “Trixie, I know you’re not as great and powerful as you wish you were, as you deserve to be. With immortality and money, you’d have everything you’d need to become the powerful pony you’ve always wanted to be.”
A sly smile appeared on Trixie’s face as she thought about that.
Blueblood looked to the married couple. “Jet Set, Upper Crust, you’re not as popular among the Canterlot elite as you once were. I can empathize, for I too am facing that trouble. With this fortune, you can become the most popular ponies in Equestria. Even more popular than Fancy Pants himself.”
Jet Set and Upper Crust beamed. Upper Crust nearly fainted at that wonderful thought, her husband catching her before she hit the floor.
Blueblood looked at the rest of the group. “And the rest of you, you’d all like to become rich, wouldn’t you?”
Dumbbell, Hoops, Score, and Iron Will all cheered in agreement. Gilda snorted, but she couldn’t deny that she did like the idea of becoming loaded with cash, and rubbing it in her ex-best friend Rainbow Dash’s face, provided this whole treasure hunt didn’t turn out to be a complete and utter waist of time.
Blueblood then turned away from them all and stared off into space. “And I will use the money to not only keep myself from poverty, but I think I might even buy a little nation of my own. A place where I can get away from the Princesses’ rule, and where I shall rule as King! And I think I shall call it… Kickflankia!”
“Nice,” said Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score.
Blueblood turned back to all of them. “So what do you all say? Are you in, or are you out?”
Flim, Flam, Jet Set, Upper Crust, and Iron Will all immediately cheered. Trixie, Lightning Dust, Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score weren’t far behind when they cheered. Finally, Gilda also said she was in.
“Alright,” Blueblood said. “Now everyone go home and pack. We have a long adventure ahead of us, so make sure to only pack everything you need. Now, according to the map, the starting point of the quest is just outside of Ponyville, so lets all meet at the train station at eight o’clock Saturday morning to travel there. If you’re not there in time, then we’ll leave without you. And remember, if you don’t participate in the quest, then you don’t get your share of the fortune.”
The group all left Blueblood’s house. Once they had all left, Blueblood headed upstairs to his bedroom to begin packing himself.
When he walked into his room, though, he was greeted by an unexpected surprise.
“SURPRISE!” a white Pegasus mare with a blond curly mane and tail shouted as she jumped up in front of Blueblood as soon as he entered his room.
“GAH!” Blueblood screamed, falling back onto his rump. As he was catching his breath, he quickly recognized the pony in his room. “Surprise?”
The mare nodded. “Yup! It’s me! Surprise!” She then turned her head to look at the reader. “From the G1 series.”
Blueblood shook off his surprise and got up on all fours. “Um, what are you doing here, Surprise?”
“I got your letter about the quest!” she said, holding up a white envelope.
Blueblood raised an eyebrow in confusion. “But… I didn’t send you a letter about the quest.”
“Huh, that’s strange,” said Surprise, tossing the envelope behind her. "Well, anyway, can I be a part of your quest?” She flashed her adorable eyelashes at him.
Blueblood tried to think of something to say. He really didn’t want Surprise on the team. She would just get in the way and get on all of their nerves. “Um… I’d like to have you on the team, Surprise,” he lied. “Really I would, but, um… if you’re on the team, then that will make thirteen members, and that’s an unlucky number. You know, don’t want to jinx the quest.”
“But Blueblood, you don’t have anypony to represent the element of surprise on your team!” argued Surprise.
“Don’t you think I know that, Surprise?” said Blueblood, placing his front hooves on her shoulders and trying to feign seriousness. “Don’t you think I’d give anything to have you on board?
Surprise looked at the floor. “Um…”
Blueblood continued. “But I have chosen the life that I lead, and you have chosen the life that you lead. I no it sounds complex, even confusing, but trust me when I say that nothing will change that Surprise. Nothing will change that! Will you answerer nothing’s call?”
“Is nothing something?” asked Surprise in confusion.
“It’s everything, Surprise,” said Blueblood.
“Wow!”
“So help me help you help me. Lets do this, Surprise.”
“Yes!”
“Today!”
“YES!”
“Now get out there and show Equestria what you’re made of, you brave little solder!”
Surprise let out an excited whinny and then flapped her wings and flew out the open window that she had apparently come in through.
Blueblood’s horn glowed with blue aura as he magically slammed the window shut with his magic and then locked it.
‘Well, that takes care of her,’ he thought to himself with a sigh of relief.
He then got back to getting ready for his adventure.