The Hispaniola wasn’t built for speed, but its sails were broad and were catching every stray zephyr that the Thousand Isles saw fit to provide her. At the moment she had no course other than away; with both the Rosedust and the Diamond Tiara hunting her, her scurvy crew of ne’er-do-wells needed every league of head-start that they could get.
This was known to the crew. But instead of trying to coax additional speed out of their ship, or set a destination, the crew instead found itself piling around the treasure chest that sat in the hold.
“None of these are keys!” Snips objected, holding a wooden spoon and a black feather.
Rumble shook the ball of lightning, peering into it. “There’s no key in this one, either,” he noted.
Bee Bop had the purple quartz crystal jammed into the lock of the chest. “Not this one either!” she called out. “C’mon, give me the next thing that might fit!”
The feather, rose, and spoon all fit as well as the quartz, but none of them did anything to the lock no matter how hard the pirates tried. The silver apple, blank book, lightning ball, lyre, and cup were all obviously too large for the lock. Finally the scallywags were forced to give up, setting the nine keys down on the floor beneath them and staring, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Maybe…Alula would know?” Applebloom suggested. “Or Dinky – ”
“Belay that!” Pipsqueak said quickly. “After what we pulled I’d like to keep a good league or two betwixt meself and Cap’n Dinky. She’ll be smartin’ about this…”
The other pirates nodded sagely. It wasn’t easy to awaken the anger of Captain Dinky Doo, but once her righteous wrath was roused it was the stuff of legends. The crew of the Hispaniola mostly consoled themselves with the knowledge that at least Pipsqueak would get the worst of it, though it was pretty likely that all of them were going to be getting an earful once this was all over and done with.
Snips chuckled. “It was a good plan, though.”
“Aye aye!” Bee Bop agreed, throwing a hoof around his withers, and her other forehoof around Applebloom, drawing the three foc’s’le hooves into a tight embrace. “And you know why? ‘Cause while Sweetie Belle was betraying Diamond Tiara, and Diamond Tiara and her crew were arguing with Dinky and her crew, we stuck together!”
Applebloom and Snips returned the hug. Rumble rolled his eyes, though he did have a grin on his face. “Yeah, yeah – friendship. Of course you do know that we also betrayed our friends…”
“We’re not friends!” Pipsqueak objected. “Not while we be a band of murderous cutthroats, anyway. We’re pirates. We’re the bad guys!”
“Maybe we could try kicking open the lock?” Snipe suggested.
Applebloom winced. “Ah wouldn’t, we don’t wanna crack our hooves. Ah once stomped a rock hard as Ah could an’, well…Ah don’t ever wanna go through that again.”
Bee Bop rubbed a hoof to her chin. “Got any axes back at the barn?”
“Eenope!” Hispaniola’s figurehead objected immediately.
Applebloom shifted a little, before shaking her head. “Ah mean, we got ‘em, but that’d be cheatin’ somethin’ fierce, an’ dangerous too.”
The scourges of the sea stewed, staring at the nine keys that weren’t keys. Pipsqueak picked up the book key, flipping through its pages, but it was still completely blank. He thought hard. “The Sorceress of the Atoll said that this bein’ blank would make sense one we had all the keys and a full crew,” he said. “Well, we have the keys, me harteys, and a full crew, but they ain’t workin’!”
“So what do we do, Cap’n?” Snips asked.
Pipsqueak thought, crossing his hooves. “I’d say we give the Sorceress another visit,” he said, “but the mare most likely be under the powerful oath of a Pinkie Promise. We’d get nothin’ from her no matter how much we tortured her.”
“Ooh!” Snips said. “But what if instead we visited another sorceress? Maybe she could figure out what’s going on!”
“And where might we be findin’ another spell-slinger the likes of the Sorceress of the Atoll?”
“Easy!” Snips said, getting out their third of the map of Ponyville and putting a hoof down on a certain portion of it. “The Unseen Isle.” He began waving his hooves and speaking in a lower voice, setting the stage. “A mysterious island that appears and disappears like a mirage. Sometimes it’s there, and sometimes it’s not…”
“Ooh! And its haunted!” Bee Bop put in, bumping hooves with Snips. “You can hear the wailing of doomed spirits, and see them too! Weird flashes of light and awful, ghastly singing!” She frowned. “Really bad singing. Ponies shouldn’t be that bad at singing.”
The course seemed as good as any. Pipsqueak glanced to Rumble, who shrugged. “Set course for the Unseen Isle!” He said for the captain. The Hispaniola kept going straight until Rumble climbed out onto the jibboom and whispered to the figurehead, “Trixie’s house.”
Laughter pervaded the atmosphere around the Unseen Isle. It was cloaked in a vast cloud of fog, and only narrow glimpses of its rocky shores were afforded to the crew of the Hispaniola as their ship sailed cautiously through the rocks and reefs surrounding the island. The wrecks of dozens of ships, staved upon the rocks or sank far below, surrounded them. One of them looked like an old traveler’s wagon that was halfway repaired – this last made for a perfect hiding spot for the Hispaniola, where it wouldn’t be seen if the Diamond Tiara or Rosedust happened on by. The fog parted just enough for the foals to glimpse a shape standing upon one of the rocks, a ragged purple cape and cowl worn around the shape so that her true form was hidden. The shape cackled gleefully as it peered through the hole in the fog, and jabbed a blue hoof at the approaching ship.
“Ha!” the laughter concluded. “You can’t break my window because I broke it earlier trying to put up some new curtains! You’re too late!” She laughed again, then stopped. “Wait, why am I happy about that?”
The pirates, in the process of stowing the Hispaniola’s sails, glanced between one another, then shrugged as their ship coasted to a stop, and they dropped anchor. The mists of the Unseen Isle continued to swirl, and even when it parted in the same place the landscape glimpsed through the fog was never the same, the contours of the island shifting when one wasn’t looking at them.
Pipsqueak climbed up to the top of the main mast so that he could be seen clearly by the speaking form. “I be Pipsqueak, King of the Pirates! I seek out the mistress of the Unseen Isle!”
The cackling, robed form paused. “Huh?”
“We’re trying to figure out how to turn these into keys!” Bee Bop exclaimed, holding up the cup and the feather. The other members of the crew all raised keys as well.
The robed figure was still. “Huh?” she asked again.
“I think they’re playing that pick-up game of pretend,” another voice put in. The gap in the fog widened slightly, and the pirates found themselves looking at a blue unicorn stallion with a long, pointed horn. “And I guess they’ve decided to come here.”
The other pony pouted. “Wait, was that why Pinkie was running around this morning with a crocodile mask? Why wasn’t I invited into the game? I saw her out the window going to the town hall and I think over to Twilight’s…”
“Stop me when I tell a lie,” the stallion said. “If you’d been invited, you would have ignored the pile of papers on your desk, again, for the third day running. You would have gone down to the basement and set up a big fireworks display all across the front lawn. You would have spent all day talking like a pirate, including during your two o’clock meeting with Applejack, which would have started a fight as she’d think you were making fun of her accent but you’d be too ‘in character’ to just explain things. You would have gone through that window there during the fight – ”
“Ha! Stop there. The window was broken at noon.”
“The glass was broken, the window is just fine.”
“…touché.” The robed figure crossed her hooves. “I guess Pinkie thought that my work was more important. That’s responsible of her, I guess. But I’m all done now!” She turned back to the pirates. “Yaaar! I am the great and roguish Corsair Que – ”
“Actually I think you’re supposed to be some kind of witch or something,” Rumble quickly put in. “We need help from somepony who’s just as good at magic as the Sorceress of the Atoll!”
“Who?”
“Twilight.”
The robed figure paused…and then grinned and nodded. “Alright, shâ,” she said, her voice changing. “Ah can do a witch, too. Lemme just send mah zombi to collect ya…”
The mists closed up, though a bit of arguing could be briefly heard through it, then strange scurrying sounds and flashes of blue light from the island hidden in the fog. Eventually, a glow appeared through the mists, and a rowboat bearing a raggedly-clothed stallion with a horn glowing gold approached the Hispaniola. Something seemed off about the stallion, however, in his movement. He sat perfectly, unnaturally still in the boat, which moved under its own power.
The zombi turned and looked up at the pirates, his sunken eyes not seeming to come into focus, his expression completely blank. “Grrr. Argh,” he said, “I’m a zombi sent by Maman Rusée. Get in the boat.”
The pirates looked between each other nervously, but did so, taking the nine keys and the treasure chest with them. Once they were aboard, the boat started moving again, floating in through the fog, which slowly parted to reveal a dense bayou full of hissing alligators, deadly snakes, choked waterwas full of bullfrogs and insects, and overall a moody, haunting feeling. Before long, the boat coasted to a stop next to a house built in and around a dead, drowned weeping willow. A sickly greenish-yellow glow emanated from within.
What was particularly unnerving was that this wasn’t the foals’ imagination. They were really seeing this. And while objectively they knew it was just Trixie putting her illusory talents to work, it didn’t change the fact that everything looked, to put it bluntly, scary.
Pipsqueak felt himself swallowing as he and his crew came up to the door to the waterlogged tree house, which creaked open as they got near, revealing a dimly lit corridor that stretched towards a kitchen from which green light and fog poured. The zombi didn’t hesitate to step stiffly inside, then turned and pointed at the kitchen while still staring empty-eyed at the foals. “She’s in there.”
Pipqueak looked to Rumble. Rumble was already looking back, both daring the other to go first. As one, captain and first mate nodded, then turned to the rest of the crew. “You go first,” they said, pointing at Bee Bop.
“Wh-what? Bee Bop asked, wings flaring. “But, shouldn’t the captain go first?”
“Then who’d give the orders?” Pipsqeuak asked.
“What about the first mate?”
“Who’d relay the captain’s orders to the crew?” Rumble countered.
Bee Bop looked to her fellow foc’s’le hooves, lugging the treasure chest between them for backup. Both looked like they were about to come to her defense, but before Applebloom or Snips could speak, a chuckling emanated from within the home.
“Come in, shâs! Come in! We musn’t lurk in doorways…it’s rude.”
The voice had sounded warm and inviting…until the end, when it had sounded offended, and deeply malignant. Steeling themselves and reminding themselves that they were vicious and cruel pirates, the five of them stepped into the hallway, and then made their way to the kitchens. They found themselves looking at a room with a bubbling cauldron, and shelves full of strange and disturbing ingredients.
And they saw Maman Rusée herself, a blue-coated, silver-maned witch dressed in a long black robe and pointed witch’s hat, clutching a broom in her hooves. She smiled when the quintet entered, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes, which seemed to lack a good deal of the shine they should have had.
“Well, shâs, you was lookin’ for me, an’ here I is,” she said. “Now why don’t you tell your Maman Rusée what seems t’ be the trouble?”
Pipsqueak steeled himself, then stepped forward, holding out the book key and opening it. “Maman Rusée,” he said, “The Sorceress of the Atoll said that once we had all the keys and a full crew, this here book key’s blank pages would make sense. But the Hispaniola be fully crewed, and we have all the keys!”
“And the treasure chest,” Snips pointed out, bucking the box slightly. “Maybe you could just open the lock for us?”
“Choooh!” Maman Rusée exclaimed. “Ain’t no way that Maman Rusée is gon’ help you cheat like that! But that book there, maybe there’s somethin’ Ah could do. Give it here.”
Pipsqueak did as he was told, and the witch turned the book over in her hooves, feeling along its cover, shaking it open, peering closely at it. Finally, she set it down on her kitchen’s table and opened and closed it a few times by grabbing random pages. When she seemed satisfied with that, she leaned down and sniffed it.
“Ah thought so,” she said. Her horn glowed, and the flames beneath her cauldron jumped up, real heat now coming off of them and the smell of smoke starting to fill the air. She looked back to the pirates. “Now let me ask somethin’. This all your crew?”
The five corsairs looked between each other. “Aye, it be every one of the blackest-hearted ponies what sail the seas!” Pipsqueak confirmed.
“We’re the bad guys!” Bee Bop added.
Maman Rusée clucked. “I see,” she said. “I only ask ‘cause y’all seem t’ be lackin’. I knows for a fact that Dinky woulda’ figured this one out.”
The five pirates winced. “Uh…” Rumble said, scratching the back of his neck, “Dinky…isn’t in the mood to help us. We kind of stole three of the keys from her crew, and three of the keys from Diamond Tiara’s crew.”
“By goading Dinky into getting really mad,” Applebloom added.
“It was Pipsqueak’s idea!” Snips said quickly.
The illusion all around them actually stuttered, revealing that the pot and the fire over it was actually Trixie’s stove, switched on. Trixie looked to Pipsqueak, then walked up to him and put a hoof on his withers while looking at him with a solemn, resigned expression.
“You are already dead, kid,” she said, accent dropping.
Pipsqueak shifted a little. “Uh…y-yeah, I know. But it was a really good plan!”
“Hope it’s really good treasure.” Then the illusion reappeared, and Maman Rusée stepped away from Pipsqueak. “Well then, pirates, Ah’m gon’ take pity on y’all an’ wave my normal fee. But fo’ what it’s worth, Ah don’ think y’all have a full crew. Dinky coulda’ figured this out, an’ Firelock – if she be ploughin’ the seas somewhere – coulda’ helped.”
“Firelock?” Rumble asked. “What do we need to burn down?”
“Not burn down, just heat up.” Maman Rusée lifted the book key again, an then held it close to the fire. As the foals watched, lines started to appear from nothing on the page, slowly starting to draw something.
“Lemon juice,” Maman Rusée explained. “Draw somethin’ in lemon juice, and it disappears. But heat can make it appear again! And what else is revealed but…mah basement?”
The foals all crowded as near as they could to the book to look on. Indeed, gradually, the lines had realized themselves into a roughly rectangular shape that was clearly labeled as “Trixie’s Basement”. Beneath the label was a picture of three balloons, then a smaller note: “Play along! You’re a contingency if they don’t go to Twilight!” In one corner of the basement was an X.
“It’s, um…” Applebloom thought. “A…key you kept hiddin’ yourself?”
“You used your magic to tell the future!” Bee Bop said, “and knew we’d come!”
Maman Rusée considered, then shrugged. “Well, the spirits do work in mysterious ways. An’ Ah’m just happy t’ be included. C’mon, shâs, I take you down below!”
The witch lead the pirates to a door in her kitchen, and opened it and proceeded down the stairs, horn flashing as she went. The pirates followed, bringing the keys and the treasure chest with them. They were treated to the sight of a mist-shrouded cavern, with above-ground stone crypts poking out of the fog and an eerie green light permeating everything they could see. Maman Rusée lead them over to a tall crypt in the back – which if this had been a basement would have been the boiler – and checked the map in the book.
“Mais, here we be,” she said, and smiled. “Now Ah’ll stick ‘round just in case any of mah relatives decide t’ let themselves out a’ they crypts and meet ya.” As she said that, one of the crypts’ lids seemed to shudder, but she quickly put a hoof on it and smiled at them.
The corsair crew wondered if this was a preview of what Nightmare Night would be like this year in the far-away town of Ponyville. It was definitely going to live up to its name if so. But they quickly set that thought aside as they started looking around the tall crypt, which was near where the X on the map was. Snips lit his horn up so that the pirates could see better by his silvery-blue light. Rumble and Bee Bop searched high, while Applebloom and Pipsqueak looked low.
It was the latter two who came across what they were looking for, beneath the crypt, which sat on four legs rather than directly on the ground. Reaching under it, both felt something.
“Got it!” Applebloom called out, pulling whatever they’d found loose with Pipsqueak’s help. Rumble, Bee Bop, and Snips came over, the former two putting their wings to work in clearing the fog. What they’d found was some kind of elaborate square wooden box, only a few inches tall but two feet across and a foot wide. Its surface was covered in indents in various sizes, eight in all.
“What kind of device be this?” Pipsquak asked, head tilting to the side, though his ears swiftly perked up when he locked eyes on the largest intent, perfect circle. “Belay that – I know! Hand me the lightning ball.” Bee Bop obligingly did, and Pipsqueak placed it into the indent, then pressed down slightly. They all heard a click.
“How Pinkie Pie isn’t part of some inventor’s guild, I’ll never know,” Maman Rusée said from where she sat. “She could make a fortune…”
The pirates barely heard her – they all started piling onto the box with the remaining keys, now that they could finally be used for their intended purpose. The The crystal key slid into the side. The wooden spoon's handle went into a circular hole. The feather's quill and the rose's stem both pressed down tiny, almost hidden buttons. The apple fit into a similar depression as the lightning ball, while the cup slid into a ring and needed to be turned clockwise. The lyre was applied to the underside of the box. Every key settled into place with comfortable clicks, and when the last one went in, the box’s upper half split open down the middle, and the pirates could slide it open.
Resting inside was a single iron key – a proper key. Pipsqueak snatched it up quickly and ran over to the treasure chest, and found that it fit the lock perfectly. The pirates all let out shouts of encouragement and glee as the lock fell away from the treasure chest, and Snips’ horn glowed brighter than ever as Pipsqueak proudly threw open the chest…
…and revealed, inside, nothing more than rocks. Plain old rocks.
“BLOODY F – !” Pipsqueak exclaimed, and proceeded to go on for some time.
“Pipsqueak!” Maman Rusée exclaimed. Her horn flashed, and all the illusions in Trixie’s basement disappeared as Trixie came up to the cursing foal. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but…well, I am an adult and I really can’t let you just swear like that!”
Pipsqueak turned on Trixie, looking like he was ready to lay into her, but then Rumble let out a shout. He and Applebloom had gone to the chest and started digging through the rocks. Turning to look, Pipsqueak saw that Rumble had dug out a study-looking bottle, in which was a rolled up sheet of paper.
Pipsqueak started forward, ready to break open the bottle, but Snips got to it first and used his telekinesis to fish out the paper without breaking anything. Unfolding it, the pirates found themselves looking at a complete map of Ponyville and its environs – and a red X near Whitetail Wood. Specifically, near the Castle Tree.
“You’re almost there!” A note at the map’s edge read. “The real treasure is right here! Pinkie Promise! – Espada Noche”
“…wait, but wasn’t that Neigh Orleans?” Applebloom asked. “Yeah, over the summer – that’s where we played attack-the-fort, an’ the Castle Tree was Neigh Orleans an’ Dinky an’ her team lost.”
“Of course!” Snips laughed, pointing at the map. “Why couldn’t any pirate ever find Espada Noche’s treasure in the Thousand Isles? ‘Cause he didn’t hide it in the Thousand Isles – he hid it in Neigh Orleans! But why didn’t Pinkie just show that on the original map…?”
“…oh, duh,” Bee Bop said, surprisingly quietly for her. She smiled and fluttered her wings as she looked to her fellow crewmates, and went back up to her normal volume. “Diamond Tiara just skipped to the end and get the treasure, and any crew with her part of the map could have. But there’s no way that Pinkie would have ever just let one crew skip the entire game like that!”
“Although that’s something that you all did,” Trixie noted, picking up the discarded box in her telekinesis and looking over how the keys fit into it. “This was clearly meant to be opened by all you foals all at once. You know, in friendship.”
“Ha!” Pipsqueak exclaimed, and grinned. “Just goes t’ show why it is that Espada Noche was caught! Pirates don’t make friends with other crews!”
“Wait, but Ah’m friends with Twist and Sweetie and Scootaloo,” Applebloom objected.
“Yeah, and Snails is my best friend!” Snips pointed out. “And Firelock and Alula are pretty cool too.”
“I’m definitely friends with Featherweight and Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara,” Rumble added.
“And I’m friends with Truffle Shuffle!” Bee Bop finished. “And Tootsie’s been hanging out a lot as well.”
Pipsqueak looked at the rest of his crew, clearly wondering if now, so close to the end, their resolve was wavering. “What ye do durin’ shore leave be your own business!” he proclaimed. “But right now, we’re in a race for the treasure of Espada Noche! Them all be our enemies!”
“Even Dinky?” Rumble asked. “You and her hang out every recess – ”
“There be no fraternizin’ between crews on the high seas!” Pipsqueak insisted. “Maybe I knock back a glass o’ rum durin’ shore leave with Cap’n Dinky. But she’s our enemy! They all be the enemy, and it’s time we get a move on to the treasure! It be practically in our hooves already!”
Pipsqueak turned on Trixie. “Ye’ve been of great help, Maman Rusée, but it’s time me crew and I get goin’. I’ll be havin’ yer word of honor in the form of a Pinkie Promise that you’ll no be tellin’ any other crew where we be headin’!”
Trixie crossed her hooves, considering, before grinning down at Pipsqueak. “No,” she said. “Fair’s fair, you’re taking the map to the treasure. They have to have some way of catching up.”
The Pirate King growled an reached for his cutlass, which caused Trixie to raise one brow. Before anything could happen, however, Rumble put a hoof on Pipsqueak’s withers. “We’re in a rush and don’t have time to convince her,” he said. “We need to get a move on while we still have a lead.”
Pipsqueak glared at his first mate, but relented with a nod as he rolled up the treasure map and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. “Cast off!” He called to his crew, heading for the stairs. “We’re goin’ back to where our little tête-à-tête with Cap’n Dinky all began! To Neigh Orleans!”
The pirate crew all piled into the jolly-boat and were brought back to their ship. Once out from the confines of the Unseen Isle and the mists that surrounded it, they spoke in hushed tones as whispers, and guided the Hispaniola as quietly from the shores of the Isle and out into the sea as possible, not wanting the lookouts of other crews to find them.
But they failed, for the moment the Hispaniola lost sight of the Unseen Isle’s docks, a particularly thick patch of mist passed over them…and suddenly standing there were three ponies dressed snout to croup in black, save for around their eyes and, in the case of two of them, their horns. One had a ninja-to across her back, the second a pair of short butterfly swords, while the third instead had heavy metal braces about his front fetlocks.
The three shinobi had heard the initial conversation between the pirates and Maman Rusée, but nothing of import before the pirates and the witch had ventured beneath the domicile. They briefly considered giving chase, using their ninja powers to catch up to the still-near ship, but they needed to know where it was going so that they could inform their comrades-in-arms elsewhere.
So instead, the two unicorns combined their powers into a great jutsu that launched sparkling green and purple light into the sky to alert the lookouts of their comrades’ ships. Then the three slipped into the home of Maman Rusée. Owls could not glide and mice could not scurry as silently as the three moved, darting from shadow to shadow, unseen in the blackness, one with the very darkness itself –
“Oh, hey guys.”
The ninja froze, and saw Maman Rusée’s zombi looking out from within a room containing a pair of desks, a bookcase, and a broken window. The alive-yet-dead stallion waved at them.
In an instant, the ninja were on the attack. The zombi let out a yelp as he was grabbed in the telekinetic auras of the two unicorn ninjas, held in place while the third, an earth pony, charged right at him. The unicorns let go just as the earth pony collided with him, forcing him backwards on onto his back. Then he sat down atop the zombi, metal-clad hoof held back to strike.
“Tell us where the pirates went!” The earth pony demanded.
“It’s no good, Truffle,” one of the unicorn ninjas said as she appeared alongside her compatriot, striking a pose. “He’s just a zombi. He can’t tell us anything.”
“But he’ll blab to Maman Rusée!” The other unicorn said as she appeared on the other side of the earth pony, taking up a pose of her own to channel her ki. She paused and dropped the pose after a moment. “Although I guess we have to go and talk to her anyway to figure out where Pipsqueak went.”
The zombi looked between the two filly ninjas, then to the colt that was still sitting atop his chest. “You three ever think that maybe you get a little too into your games?”
The ninjas looked to the zombi, then at the ninja on top of him. Truffle Shuffle realized his mistake. “Oops! Sorry,” he said, hopping off of Pokey Pierce and allowing him to get back up. “And…yeah, sometimes, I guess. Not as much as Pipsqueak, though. Sorry for knocking you over, Mister Pierce.”
The stallion shrugged, even as Trixie made her way back into the office. “Zut alors, they are going to find that colt in pieces…” she paused at the door, looking at the three black-clothed foals, Sweetie Bell with a long stick in a makeshift sheath across her back, Tootsie Flute with two smaller sticks, and Truffle Shuffle with his forehooves wrapped in extra layers of silver-colored cloth.
Trixie squinted at Sweetie in particular. “Your cutie mark will not be in home invasion and this isn’t how you go about invading homes anyway, you should do it at night when everypony is asleep, or preferably when they’re not even home. I would have thought Cheerilee, at least, could have taught you that.”
Sweetie giggled as she pulled down her mask. “I know! We’re ninjas.”
Trixie blinked. “What’s a ‘ninja’?”
“It’s a kind of spice,” Pokey said.
“That’s ginger,” Truffle objected.
“Ninjas are entire clans of spies and assassins,” Tootsie Flute said, pulling down her own mask as she looked at Trixie. “Or at least that’s what some of the comic books me and Truffle read say. They’re from Shouma. They have weird powers and are really stealthy!”
“Also they’re an ancient enemy of pirates!” Sweetie Belle provided.
“Why?” Trixie asked.
The three foals looked between each other, then to Pokey for help. He just shrugged, and looked to Trixie. Trixie glanced behind her, but saw nopony there to ask for help herself. She let out a groan. “Should I be getting into character again?” she asked, rubbing her horn. “I kind of went overboard on the illusions for Pipsqueak, there were a lot of moving parts and I kind of put it together on the fly…”
“It’s okay, you don’t need to conjure up anything,” Tootsie said. Then in an instant she had drawn her butterfly knives from her back, and had the deadly weapons at the zombi’s throat. “Now tell us what we want to know, or we’ll cut up your zombi.”
Maman Rusée laughed. “So’s Ah’ll stich him back together! Word of advice, shâ, you wanna take a hostage, take one that ain’t already dead.”
“Grrrr. Arrrrgh,” the zombi said.
The other unicorn shinobi drew her ninja-to, and pointed it at Maman Rusée. “We can’t leave here without the information we seek. We have a debt of honor to the crews of the Rosedust and Diamond Tiara.” Sweetie clutched a hoof to her chest. “I acted dishonorably and betrayed their trust! And it’s my fault that Captain Pipsqueak and his crew got their hooves on the keys to the treasure. I have to make things right!”
The witch only laughed again, one hoof to her mouth. “Well, as it happens Ah’m willin’ t’ tell y’all…but there’ll be a price! Ah took pity on Captain Pipsqueak, but Ah don’t feel much pity for your own troubles. So Ah’ll want y’all to – ”
SLAM
The zombi, witch, and even the three ninja all jumped at the sound, and as one rushed out into the main hallway of Maman Rusée’s home, where the noise had come from. They were treated to the sight of the silhouette of two ponies. One was a pink earth pony, dressed in the finest, cleanest naval uniform that the Royal Navy had ever issued. Captain Diamond Tiara looked angry.
But next to her was the sun-scorched definition of fury. The gray unicorn was somewhat more haggard-looking, wearing the tattered remains of an Equestrian Army uniform along with bits and pieces of other clothing, cobbled together after a life of rough living that had been forced upon her. A life of rough living that had seemed at its end, if only she could have gotten her hooves upon the treasure of Espada Noche. But at the last moment, Pipsqueak the Pirate King had snatched that all away, and worse, made a fool out of her.
Captain Dinky had slammed open the door to Maman Rusée’s home. She had once gone without a weapon, but now a sharp, heavy cutlass hovered in her telekinesis as she walked right up to Maman Rusée. She kept the blade pointed backwards, away from the witch, but a single twitch could easily fix that. Her yellow eyes were locked with Maman Rusée’s purple ones.
“Where. Did. Pipqueak. Go.” Captain Dinky demanded. There was a slight crack as her telekinesis aura flared up just a bit, an her cutlass developed a crack along its pommel.
“You better tell her,” Diamond Tiara added. “You better tell me. I’ve invested too much time into getting that treasure to not win it now.”
“Hang the treasure!” Dinky exclaimed. “I want Pipsqueak.”
Maman Rusée blinked. “Neigh Orleans,” she said. “The treasure chest had rocks and a map. The real treasure’s in Neigh Orleans. The Castle Tree. Whatever.”
Dinky’s eyes grew wide and her body rigid for just a moment. Then she spun about on her hooves. “Scootaloo! Set course for Neigh Orleans!”
Diamond Tiara was a moment behind Dinky. The three ninja looked to the witch and her zombi. “Arigatou!” Truffle Shuffle said with a bow, then took off after the sailing vessels, Tootsie Flute and Sweetie Belle following.
“…yeah, you better run,” Trixie mumbled under her breath. Pokey laughed.