//------------------------------//
// Ch 10. A Visit From The Past 
// Story: Equestrian Knights 
// by HeatherIsBestPlayer 
//------------------------------//

	“BLUEBLOOD! BLUEBLOOD!”
Blueblood felt something shaking him and heard someone yelling his name, bringing him out of his unconsciousness. He groggily opened his eyes to see his whole team standing over him, looking down at him.
“He’s awake!” said Score.
Blueblood felt a throbbing pain in his head. “Guys?” he groaned, holding his head.
“Are you okay?” asked Upper Crust.
“No,” moaned Blueblood. “My leg hurts, and me head is pounding.”
“What happened to you?” asked Trixie.
Blueblood closed his eyes as he thought for a minute. It gradually started coming back to him. “I got blown away in the tornado.”
Lightning Dust rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. “Well… you should have held onto the tree better,” she said.
Blueblood continued to remember. “Then those cloaked ruffians showed up and…” Blueblood’s eyes widened as realization hit him. He quickly looked though his backpack. He searched through it for about ten seconds and then looked at the others with a horrified expression on his face. “Oh no! I think they took the map!”
“No they didn’t,” said Trixie, holding up the map for him to see. “I took it from you back in the cave, remember?”
Blueblood thought back to the cave, and remembered that she HAD grabbed it from him. Then another thought occurred to him. If they had the map this whole time, why did they bother coming to save him?
“You… all came to find me?” Blueblood exclaimed.
“I know. Shocking, isn’t it?” said Gilda.
“Hey, it’s not like you wouldn’t have done the same for any of us,” said Jet Set.
“Of… of course,” Blueblood responded. However, thinking about it in his head, he began to feel guilt growing inside him as he slowly began to doubt if he actually would have done the same for any of them.
He hung his head. ‘Well now I would have,’ he thought to himself.
“Well, what the heck are we standing around here for?” said Hoops. “Lets keep going!”
Blueblood nodded. “Help me up,” he said, knowing he needed help because of his aching leg.
They helped him to his hoofs. He winced from the pain in his hind leg as he got up.
“Pain killer?” Upper Crust asked, holding out a small container of pills for him.
“Thank you very much,” said Blueblood, sitting up and taking two of the pills and popping them into his mouth. “So what does the map say next?” he asked.
“From what I can tell, we only have one more place left to go,” said Trixie, holding the map out in front of her face. “And it’s close.”

….....................................

They arrived at an old castle lying in ruins, sitting in the middle of the forest. Between them and it was a deep ravine in the earth. The only way across was an old, rickety rope bridge.
Iron Will gazed at the ruined castle and let out a whistle. “Talk about your fixer-upper,” he joked.
“This is the place?” asked Flim.
“According to the map,” said Trixie.
“This is the old castle where the Princesses used to live a thousand years ago,” said Blueblood.
“Why did they abandon it?” asked Trixie.
“I have no idea,” he said.
Upper Crust pointed at the rope bridge. “Is that bridge safe?” she asked.
“I’m sure it’s fine,” Blueblood said. His leg was starting to feel better now thanks to the pills he had taken. He turned to walk over to the bridge, only to almost walk right into Surprise, who was suddenly standing there before him.
“SURPRISE!” shouted the white Pegasus.
“GAH!” everyone shrieked at the sudden reappearance of Surprise. Blueblood stumbled backwards away from her.
Surprise began talking. “Blueblood! I went to the vet’s, like you asked, although I wasn’t sure which kind of medicine to get, so I just got them all!”
They noticed a cart attached behind Surprise, filled with various worm medicine products.
“How does she keep finding us?” Upper Crust whispered to her husband.
Blueblood put on a fake smile and walked up to Surprise. “Surprise, good job! Really really good job! I am so proud of you!” he said to her.
“So does that mean I can be part of your quest now?” asked Surprise hopefully.
“Almost, Surprise. Almost. There’s just one more tiny little mission I want you to run-”
“OH, THIS IS STUPID!” Surprise interrupted, suddenly becoming angry. “YOU’RE ALWAYS SENDING ME ON THESE STUPID MISSIONS, AND THEY NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING! AND THEY’RE STUPID! YOU GUYS DON’T WANT ME BECAUSE YOU THINK I CAN’T DO ANYTHING!”
“Surprise! That couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Blueblood calmly.
Surprise sighed in frustration. “Okay. What’s this special mission you want me to do!?
“The special mission is…” Blueblood thought for moment. “Go get me some Iced Tea.” He patted Surprise on the head and then walked past her onto the rope bridge.
Surprise sighed sadly as the rest of the group followed Blueblood across the bridge. She then flapped her wings and flew away into the sky.
Blueblood and the team made it to the other side of the bridge without incident and entered the castle through the giant front doorway, where two massive rotting wooden doors were just barely hanging onto their hinges.
Blueblood poked his head around the doorway to peer into the castles main hall. He had to cover his mouth with his hoof to keep himself from screaming at what he saw. There, lying atop a gigantic pile of treasure, was a fully-grown red dragon. It apparently had decided to use the abandoned castle as it’s new den.
The others all looked as well and had similar reactions to seeing the fire breathing dragon, as well as what it was resting on.
“Whoa! Look at all that treasure!” exclaimed Flam, him and his brother’s eyes lighting up at the sight.
The dragon’s head raised and turned in their direction, having heard Flam’s remark. Quicker then any of the team could say “uh oh,” the dragon was up off it’s hoard and its head was right in front of them, staring down at them all with an angry scowl. Blueblood jumped behind Lightning Dust, cowering from behind her.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY DEN?” the dragon demanded threateningly in a booming deep voice.
“W-we’re j-just l-looking for s-something,” whimpered Blueblood from behind Lightning Dust, holding up the map for the dragon to see. “But we’re not here to steal your treasure.”
The dragon tilted its head. “ARE YOU ALL HERE FOR THAT GOBLET THING?”
The group all looked at each other, and then nodded to the dragon. “Yes?” Blueblood responded.
“Oh,” the dragon’s expression immediately softened. He backed off a bit and pointed to a wooden doorway on the far right side of the chamber. “It’s in there,” he said in an unconcerned voice.
The group was taken aback by the dragon’s helpfulness as the giant beast turned around and crawled back onto its mountain of treasure.
“Oh… Thank you,” said Blueblood, shrugging as he and the group began heading over to the door.
“No problem,” the dragon muttered as it curled up to go back to sleep.
The group tried to open the door, but it was locked. They then proceeded to try and buck it down. After a few tries, they managed to knock the door off it’s hinges and it fell flat on the floor into the room, creating a thick cloud of dust.
As the dust cleared, the Unicorns all lit up their horns to illuminate the dark room. To their disappointment, the room was mostly empty. The only thing in there was a rotting oak table, an empty rotting bookshelf, and an old marble urn sitting in a corner, all of it with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs.
“I think we’ve been had. There’s noting in here!” said Gilda.
“There has to be,” said Blueblood. “Check everywhere.”
With a groan, they began walking around the small room, which they guessed had at one point been nothing more than a storage closet, and searched everywhere they could.
Trixie walked over to the marble urn in the corner and inspected it. There were no markings on it or any writing whatsoever.
“Maybe it’s in here,” she muttered to herself, expecting however to open it up to just find a bunch of old ashes.
Using her magic, she attempted to pry off the top of the urn. Much to her surprise, however, the moment the lid popped off the top, a gray cloud of smoke began pouring up out of the top, swirling around up into the air. Trixie screamed and fell backwards onto the floor, getting everyone else’s attention. They all watched in awe and fear as the gray smoke descended to the floor and began to take form. It formed itself into the shape of a pony.
Then there was a flash of light coming from the cloud and they all squinted from the brightness. When the light faded, they all looked to see a stranger now standing where the smoke had been. It was an aged bearded Unicorn stallion. He was wearing a dark blue cloak and pointy hat decorated in stars, similar to Trixie’s, except his had tiny bells hanging on them. And hanging from his face was a long gray beard.
He turned and looked at them, and for the first time they could see that he was taking deep breaths, like he had been exerting himself. “Thank you,” he said in a dry, gruff voice. “You have no idea how cramped it was in there.”
Trixie was the only one who knew who this Unicorn was, and as she stared at him with her mouth agape, she felt like she might just faint then and there.
“Oh my gosh!” exclaimed Trixie in shock, pointing a hoof at the stallion. “You… You’re… Starswirl The Bearded!”
“I prefer simply ‘Starswirl’, thank you very much!” said the stallion in annoyance.
Blueblood gasped as he realized that Trixie was correct, and the rest of the group all stared back and forth between Trixie and the elderly Unicorn in confusion.
“Wait! You mean this is the guy who made the map?” asked Hoops.
“That’s him!” said Trixie, still staring at the elderly stallion in disbelief.
“But how is that possible?” asked Jet Set.
Suddenly, Starswirl spoke up. “The war?” he asked, a great sense of urgency in his voice, like he had just remembered something important. “How is the war going?”
“What war?” asked Blueblood, confused and curious.
“The war against Sombra!” said Starswirl.
They all relaxed.
“Don’t worry,” said Blueblood. “That war is long over. We won. Sombra was defeated.”
Starswirl let out a sigh of relief.
“Yeah,” said Jet Set. “In fact, Sombra tried to come back recently, but he was defeated again.”
“Yeah,” said Blueblood. “And this time I heard they killed the bastard.”
Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Killed? Are you sure?”
“That’s what the Princesses said. Completely blown away!”
“Yeah, we don’t have to worry about that guy anymore,” said Hoops.
Starswirl looked skeptic. “I find it difficult to believe that Sombra is truly no more. He is not so easily vanquished. He was always most adept at finding new ways to cheat death.”
“Now I recognize that voice!” shouted Score suddenly, pointing at Starswirl. “It’s Leonard Nimoy!”
They all stared at Score, then at Starswirl.
“Oh my gosh, he’s right! Starswirl the bearded is voiced by Leonard Nimoy!” exclaimed Trixie.
“Okay, this guy just got thirty percent cooler,” said Lightning Dust.
“How the heck did this show get Leonard Nimoy?” asked Gilda.
“Are you kidding?” said Prince Blueblood. “I’m still trying to figure out how they got John De Lancie.”
Starswirl looked at them like they were crazy. “What are you all talking about?”
Blueblood waved his hoof dismissively. “It’s not important. So, Starswirl, why the heck were you in that urn?”
“Sombra trapped me in there long ago. Tell me, how long have I been in there? What year is it?”
“It’s 2013,” said Lightning Dust.
Starswirl stumbled and fell on his rump in shock. “By the ancestors! It’s been over a thousand years!”
“Why did Sombra trap you in there?” asked Iron Will.
Starswirl sighed. “That is a long story. You see, Sombra was once a student of mine. I was most impressed with his gift with magic. I took it upon myself to teach him to be a great sorcerer. I thought I could instruct him just as well as Princess Celestia. But I was so wrong.
“Eventually I began to notice Sombra’s lust for power growing too great. He became arrogant, and began using his magic irresponsibly and selfishly. Appalled by his behavior and attitude, I kicked him out of my teaching, but by then it was too late. Amassing an army of all sorts of dark creatures, he set out to conquer the entire world. First he took over the Crystal Empire, declaring himself King. From his new fortress, he began attacking the rest of the world, and sought new ways of gaining more power.
“At the time, he seemed unstoppable, and eventually he grew so powerful that the only thing he feared was his own mortality. So he set out to find the one thing in this world that could fix this problem. The Goblet of Life, which had the power to grant anyone eternal life. I knew Sombra must never find the Goblet, or else he would truly be invincible! So I set out to find it before he did. And fortunately, luck was on my side. I found the Goblet, and then I hid it in another location, and recruited a team of guardians to protect it.”
“Guardians?” interrupted Upper Crust. “You mean those nut jobs who have been harassing us? We have YOU to thank for that?”
“Yes. I even taught them how to use magic without needing to be a Unicorn. And they in turn would pass this responsibility on to their descendents, so that the Goblet would always be protected. Anyway, when Sombra finally caught up with me, I was ready for him with a trap. I was going to trick him into trapping himself in that magic urn,” he pointed to the opened urn behind him, “but unfortunately, Sombra became aware of my plan, and used the urn to trap me instead! I’ve been stuck in there ever since… until you all came along and freed me!” Then Starswirl cocked an eyebrow. “Wait. Who are you, anyway?”
Blueblood answered. “Oh, I’m Prince Blueblood, and this is my team. We’re looking for the Goblet.”
“A Prince?!” said Starswirl, suddenly bowing his head before Blueblood. “Forgive me. I did not know I was in the presence of royalty.”
Blueblood grinned, glad that someone was finally treating him with respect again. “That’s quite alright,” said Blueblood. He then held up the map. “Now could you tell us where the goblet of life is?”
“I assure you, Prince Blueblood. It is perfectly safe where it is,” said Starswirl.
Blueblood nodded. “I’m sure it is, but we kind of need it right now.”
Starswirl looked at them in confusion. “Why, my Prince?”
Hoops spoke up. “Because we’re all in financial trouble, so were going to sell the water for money.”
Everyone looked at Hoops in shock at what he just let slip to Starswirl.
“WHAT?!” Starswirl shouted, staring back at them in disbelief and shock.
Dumbbell covered Hoops’s mouth with his hoof. “Nothing! Nothing! He… he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Starswirl, however, wasn’t fooled. “Am I to understand that you are seeking the goblet for PERSONAL GAIN?!”
“Darn it,” Blueblood muttered under his breath, realizing they were in trouble now.
“Nice going, Hoops!” Dumbbell shouted at his friend.
“Oh, what’s the big deal?” Lightning Dust said, turning to face Starswirl. “We need the money, and what’s the harm? No one gets hurt. In fact, it would probably make a lot of ponies happier!”
Starswirl stared at them all for a long moment, eyes wide with disbelief. “You can not be pure of heart,” he finally said. He then seized the map from Blueblood with his magic. “I created the map so that only the pure of heart could find the goblet,” he said, shaking the map out in front of them with anger, “but all of you…” he looked at each of them again, “no, no, this simply will not do. My test has failed!” He looked at Prince Blueblood and scowled. “And you should especially be ashamed of yourself! This is no way for a Prince of Equestria to behave, if you even truly are one!”
“How dare you!” said Blueblood, taking offense to that statement.
Starswirl ignored him. “I’m afraid I am going to have to do what ever it takes to keep the goblet safe from you now.” He pointed his horn at them.
The group all backed up in fear. “Are you going to kill us?” asked Trixie.
“No,” said Starswirl. “I’m going to make you listen to a long speech about love and friendship!”
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” They all screamed in horror and ran out of the castle as fast as they could.
“COME BACK!” Starswirl shouted after them, but they were out of there.
They ran through the room with the dragon, who didn’t even bat an eyelid as they ran by him, and hurried out the front of the castle. They ran over the rickety bridge and didn’t stop until they were at least a mile away in the forest.
They all stopped to catch their breath.
“That was too close,” said Dumbbell as he panted for air.
“Yeah,” agreed Trixie. “Thank goodness we got out of there alive!”
“If we hadn’t gotten out of there when we had,” said Lightning Dust, “we would had to listen to all that love and friendship bull crap!”
They all shuddered at the thought.
“So where do we go next?” asked Flam.
“Um…” Blueblood opened up his backpack to pull out the map, but it wasn’t there. Then he remembered that Starswirl had taken it from him. “Oh no.”
“What?” asked Gilda.
“Starswirl took the map from me back there!”
They all groaned.
“So what do we do now?” asked Upper Crust.
“Well I sure as heck aren’t going back to try and get it from Starswirl!” said Hoops.
They all shook their heads in agreement. None of them wanted to go back there.
“Then what do we do?” asked Jet Set. “We have no idea where to go next?”
Blueblood sighed. It was hopeless now. Without the map, they could never find the treasure. “I guess we just give up,” he said, disheartened.
“WE CAN’T JUST GIVE UP!” shouted Trixie. “Not after all we’ve went through to get this far!”
Blueblood gritted his teeth in frustration. “WELL WHAT ELSE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?” he snapped at Trixie. “WITHOUT THE MAP, ITS HOPELESS! WE’RE DONE!” He didn’t care if he yelled at them. Everything he had worked so hard for had just gone up in smoke before his eyes, and now he would have to live the rest of his life poor. His family had won.
They were all silent for a long moment, all of them taking in the fact that this entre trip had been for nothing. Until, that is, they heard a deep male voice call out from nearby.
“HALT!”
They all looked up and saw a pony standing a few meters away from them. They all shouted in horror when they saw the giant pyramid shaped helmet the guy was wearing, as well as the huge bloody sword strapped on his back.
“OH MY GAWD! IT’S PYRAMID HEAD!” they all shouted in terror, backing up away from the Silent Hill monster.
“That’s right,” Pyramid Head said menacingly, looking away from the group. “And now, give up your quest, or else I will do… what ever it is that Pyramid Head does… to you!”
The group all looked at each other in confusion. They were all thinking the same thing. This Pyramid Head was certainly acting odd, and he wasn’t even looking at them.
“Um… we’re over here,” said Gilda, waving a hoof up over her head.
Pyramid Head looked back over at them. “Oh,” he said. “Consarnit, I can’t see a thing in this helmet!”
The group all looked at each other again, eyebrows raised. Trixie then used her magic on the pyramid shaped helmet the guy was wearing and levitated it of his head, revealing a red stallion with a dirty blond mane. Trixie, Gilda, and the Flim Flam brothers all recognized him.
“YOU!” Flim and Flam both exclaimed, pointing at the big earth pony.
“Um… uh oh,” said the now dumbfounded looking red stallion.
“Well well well,” said Trixie as she levitating the pyramid helmet over to her. “If it isn’t the dumb farm pony’s even dumber big brother.”
“Hey, you can’t talk about my sister like that!” said the red stallion.
“Who’s this now?” asked Blueblood.
“Just another guy from Ponyville,” said Trixie.
“His name’s Big Macintosh,” said Flim. “He was part of the family who we tried to con out of their farm.”
“AND YOU LOST FAIR AND SQUAIR!” shouted Big Macintosh, obviously not happy to see Flim and Flam again.
“So what’s up with this stupid getup?” asked Gilda, pointing at the Pyramid Head helmet.
Big Macintosh scratched at his mane. “Well, my family needs the extra money, so I took this guardian job. And they said I needed to look scary, so I got this costume.”
“Cool,” said Hoops, grabbing the helmet and putting it on his own head. “Wow, you really can’t see in here! Hey, what’s this?” He took off the helmet and reached into it with his hoof. He pulled out a little doll.
“HEY, PUT THAT BACK!” Big Macintosh yelled.
“Well, look’s like someone plays with dolls,” said Gilda mockingly, grabbing the doll from Hoops.
“DON’T HURT HER!” shouted Big Macintosh.
“Her?” Gilda laughed. “Oh, I’m gonna have some fun with this,” she said evilly. She looked at Dumbbell, Hoops, and Score. “Hey, you guys, how about you have a foursome with Big Mac’s girlfriend here.”
“NO!” Big Mac screamed, cringing. “GIVE MISS SMARTYPANTS BACK!”
“I’m not playing with a doll!” shouted Dumbbell at Gilda.
“No, it’s just to tick this guy off,” said Gilda.
Just then, Jet Set took the doll from Gilda with his magic.
“HEY!” Gilda shouted.
Jet Set held up a hoof to her. “Wait! I have an idea,” he said. He then turned to Big Macintosh. “I’ll tell you what, sir. Tell us where the Goblet of Life is, and we’ll give you back your doll.”
Everyone’s eyes widened at Jet Set’s idea and they all became hopeful again. Perhaps there still was a chance they could get the Goblet of Life.
“Hey, great thinking!” said Iron Will.
“ALRIGHT!” said Big Mac immediately. He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and held it out to them. “This says exactly where the goblet is buried.”
Blueblood took the paper in his magic and held it up in front of him. Then his jaw dropped as he read what was on the paper. “Oh, you have got to be BUCKING KIDDING ME!” his voice grew into an angry yell.
The others all looked over his shoulders at the paper as well. Their jaws also dropped at what they saw.
“IT’S RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED!?!” they all screamed in rage.
“Eeyup,” said Big Macintosh. “That was Starswirl’s idea. It was so only the pure of heart…”
“SHUT UP!” they all screamed at Big Macintosh. To think they had come all that way when the item they wanted was right back in that field they were standing in yesterday morning.
“Well, alright,” said Big Macintosh. “I showed you where the goblet is. Now give me back Miss Smartypants!”
Gilda took the doll from Jet Set and looked at it, considering. She then pulled her arm back and threw the doll up into a tall tree, where it landed in a phoenixes’ nest.
“Go get it,” Gilda said to Big Mac with a chuckle, and then turned to her group. “Come on, lets go!”
The group hurried off through the forest, their hopes restored that they will still all get their ‘Happily Ever Afters’ after all. Meanwhile Big Macintosh ran up to the tree his doll was in, trying to figure out how to get it back down.