3. The Jeweled Key of the Pirate Queen
The seas flew beneath Rosedust’s hull as her sails, rose-colored like her name suggested, seemed to catch every stray zephyr and propel her forward towards her destination: The Isle of the Pirate Queen. Dinky nodded in approval at the distant sight of the island as she paced the deck of her ship. “Steady as she goes, Miss Scootaloo!” she commanded. “The waters of these parts are often quite crowded, and full of hidden dangers.”
“Huh?” Scootaloo asked, looking back from the ship’s wheel at her captain.
“We’re in the center of town, we don’t want to hit anypony or crash,” Featherweight explained for his captain, indicating a large number of ships that also occupied the waters around them, and the occasional rocky plinth that would jut from the surface of the sea. Or at least that was how Dinky chose to see it.
“Oh,” Scootaloo said, though she frowned, effortlessly guiding Rosedust through the crowded waters. “I’m a better driver than that – ”
“Thailor, actually,” Twist corrected, then grunted. “Sailor. Since sis is a ship.”
“You said ‘sis’ instead of ‘this,’” Snails observed
“Ugh!” Twist exclaimed, throwing her hooves up in frustration. This caused her to nearly fall backwards off the ship and into the no doubt shark-infested waters of the sea from the speed that Rosedust was moving at, but Dinky and Featherweight both steadied her. Twist barely seemed to notice. “Mom and dad say I’ll grow out of it but it’s taking too long and I don’t want to wait anymore! I hate my lisp! I wish it would just go away.”
Dinky gave Twist a friendly nuzzle – part of being a captain was seeing to the needs of one’s crew, after all. “You just said all that without lisping, though!”
Twist considered what she had just said, and smiled. “Yettthh!” she exclaimed, then realized that the lisp had come back. “Uuuugggghhhh!”
Dinky only chuckled as Rosedust at last began to slow as it neared the shores of the Isle of the Pirate Queen. Many of the Thousand Islands were overgrown tropical jungles, sandy deserts, or glorified atolls, but this wasn’t one of them. The Pirate Queen had claimed it as her own, and used the loot from her years of plunder to build a modest-but-well-appreciated trading stop in one of its coves, the cove itself shielded by tall sea-walls against any rogue waves. Being only a schooner, Rosedust was of shallow enough draft that it could sail right up to the dock that protruded out into the cove’s waters, coming up alongside it easily and stopping precisely where her pilot wanted her to. Scootaloo knew her ship well, and Rosedust appreciated the attention.
The crew disembarked, Dinky taking the lead as they walked down the dock, and to the fine estate that the Pirate Queen had built for herself upon the island. It was part fortress and part mansion, with high walls lined with cannons to fend of freebooters who had no respect for the status of the Pirate Queen. But the structure inside was much roomier than any fortress had a right to be, with large windows, a tower overlooking the sea, and even the personal pirate flag of the queen, a black flag with a stylized S over a pair of crossed, long crystals. Indeed, tastefully placed throughout the estate’s structure were large gemstones, each of which must have been worth a fortune all by themselves.
“Hey, wait, isn’t this your sister’s jewelry shop?” Featherweight asked.
Dinky stopped, inspecting the island’s fortress-mansion that was emphatically not her sister’s jewelry shop. “Hmm…it does look like something my sister would have enjoyed,” Dinky said, as the five of them proceeded through the main gates, which were open, and into the broad courtyard. “But my sister went to sea years ago, before I joined the army. We haven’t seen her in years and years and years…”
The five entered the estate proper, and froze at the sight. The entry hall was like that of any estate they might have expected to enter: large, with broad and tall windows framed by thick curtains, the curtains present as much to keep the heat down in the summer as to ward off the glare of the Sun. A set of stairs was directly in front of them, spiraling left and right to the estate’s second level, while numerous other doors lead deeper into the estate.
The stairs, however, were by and large unusable, because piled around their base was an uncountable number of gemstones, both cut and uncut, fixed into jewelry or left to sparkle and shine by themselves, glittering in the sunlight that came in from the windows and skylight. A bare hoof-full would have been a fine take for any day’s work of piracy, and there was far, far more than a bare hoof-full here.
The interior of the fortress-mansion was, of course, simply Amethyst Star’s Fine Jewelers, which did not have crystals and gemstones scattered haphazardly about it, but rather arranged them nearly within glass display cases. Fortuitously, being foals, the pirates' perception of reality did not necessarily have to match up with how they wanted to perceive it – even though they were perfectly aware of the real shape of the store, they were also perfectly aware of the shape they wanted to believe it took.
In the center of the pile as a throne, made of glittering crystals in a rainbow of colors that nearly made all the surrounding wealth look like nothing more than a pile of stones. And lounging on the crystal throne was the Pirate Queen herself. Dinky’s eyes widened when they settled on her. “Amethyst Star?” she asked, putting on the best-sounding surprised voice she could. “You’re Sparkler, the Pirate Queen?”
Sparkler – for indeed, that was who it was, Dinky’s older sister – offered a broad grin. She was wearing a pirate’s three-cornered hat, and an eyepatch as well. “Yup,” she said. “I had a visit from the ghost of Dread Quill-pac-tee – ”
“Kee-pac-tilly,” Snails ‘corrected.’
“ – that said you’d be coming.” Sparkler smiled. “I thought I’d weird out a few customers with the eye patch and pirate hat, but most ponies haven’t even batted an eye. Ponyville’s that kind of town, I guess.”
Scootaloo nodded sagely, as did the other foals. Ponyville was indeed a strange town, this was a known fact, even to pirate ponies amongst the Thousand Islands. “So…” the orange pegasus said, taking off her pirate’s hat/scooter helmet and taking out the folded-up piece of parchment that was their third of the treasure map. “This map says that the first key is here. Treasure glitters no matter where you are, but the first key glows brightest by far.”
“Yup,” Sparkler confirmed, one hoof at her eyepatch, rubbing the eye underneath it. After a moment, she decided to switch the patch to the other eye. She really did have a chair behind the counter of her store, though it was just a normal chair rather than a crystal throne. “Pinkie Pie came in here a few months ago and asked me help her set up this big treasure hunt, in case of treasure hunt emergencies.” She grinned. “I’m going to admit, I didn’t even know those happened. But then she showed up this morning with the hat and eye patch.” She adjusted the hat a little, then looked back down to the foals. “Pirate queen, huh?”
Dinky nodded, looking around at the piles and piles of treasure that surrounded her crew. “On account of all the booty you acquired over a long and successful pirate career,” Dinky noted. “Wow, my own sister – Pirate Queen! Or…” Dinky paused, putting a hoof to her mouth. “Wait, though, me and my crew are supposed to have been part of the Equestrian Army. Our fort was sacked, though, and Pipsqueak sold us all into slavery.”
“He did?” Sparkler asked, eyes widening as she sat forward on her throne.
“Pipsqueak gets really into these kinds of games,” Featherweight provided.
“But we escaped, anyway,” Dinky said. “And now we’re trying to find Espada Noche’s treasure so that we can make everything up to Equestria. But if I was part of the Equestrian Army, I don’t think I’d be happy if my sister was a pirate queen!” She finished the last with a bit of indignation, hopping forward to put on the best glare towards Sparkler that she could, though at the same time fighting down a smile.
Sparkler grinned herself, then leaned back on her throne, one hoof to her forehead in distress as she picked up the story where Dinky had left off. “I had no choice!” she exclaimed. “Our family needed money, Dinky! Who do you think paid to put you through basic training and commissioned you as a captain?”
Dinky’s eyes widened. “I thought momma did!”
“She helped,” Sparkler said quickly. “But your mother couldn’t do it on her own, and even though you’re only my half-sister, I love you twice as much to make up for it, and couldn’t bear to see your dreams crushed. So I set out to sea! I thought I’d make my fortune as a travelling…um…gem-cutter?” Sparkler paused at that – something didn’t seem quite right…
“Or maybe looking for a lotht gemthtone mine,” Twist suggested.
Sparkler tapped a hoof on the floor and pointed at Twist. “Right. That’s better. I thought I’d find my fortune in the jungles of Farasi. But I never made it there!” She flopped back on her chair, lying over its arms in dismay. “My ship was attacked by pirates. Everypony on board was captured, including me. But while everypony else was sold in the slave markets, I was kept by the pirate captain – a pony named Northern Lion. He was tall and strong and devilishly handsome and wanted to keep me for himself to be his cabin…uh…” she trailed off again, staring at the foals, then coughed into one hoof. “I mean, um…appraising. Right. I was good at appraisal, so that’s why he kept me. As his…accountant.”
“Hey, that sounds like one of the books my sister has,” Snails noted, looking up in thought. “Northern Lion, yeah, same pirate that was on the cover. Raindrops says I’m not allowed to read it, though.”
“It’s – boring,” Sparkler said, coughing again into a hoof. “Anyway, yeah. So that’s why I’m Pirate Queen, Dinky. But I’m a good pirate. I robbed from the rich and gave to the needy – keeping a little for myself, of course.”
Dinky looked around at the piles and piles and piles of gemstones scattered everywhere. “A little,” she echoed.
“Hey, I was needy, too,” Sparkler objected, waving a hoof in the air. “But anyway. I guess you want to find the key about now?”
The five foals all nodded eagerly, and Sparkler grinned, getting off of her chair and trotting over to one pile of gemstones, rooting through it with hoof and telekinesis both. After a few moments, she came back to the young pirates, and laid out a series of long, thin crystals in front of them, each a different color – red, blue, yellow, green, purple, orange, silver, and even a black one.
“Okay,” she said. “One of these is the key. The other ones are just regular crystals. You can take one – and only one – with you from my island.”
The five pirates looked between each other. “But what if we take the wrong key?” Featherweight asked.
“And how can we tell which one ith – is – right?” Twist asked as she tapped at one crystal with a hoof, then another. Neither reacted any differently.
Sparkler smiled, but she ran a hoof across her closed mouth – zipping it shut.
The five foals groaned. “Okay,” Scootaloo said, trotting up to the keys and looking them over. “We have to guess what kind of color a key would be, then…”
“Thilver,” Twist said. “That’th the color of the key to my bedroom.”
“But that’s made out of metal,” Dinky observed, though she did push the silver one to the side. “These are crystals.”
“If I was a key, what color would I be…?” Scootaloo wondered aloud.
“Orange,” Snails provided, poking filly’s side. He reached out and held up the orange key. “This one’s what I’d be if I was a key, I guess. Or maybe the yellow one.” He held up the yellow key. “Both of these together.”
“I guess me and Dinky and Twist would be silver,” Featherweight observed, picking up that crystal and looking it over. It was a pale silver, almost white, and so almost matching the coat of Featherweight and Twist “Unless Twist was red ‘cause of her mane.”
“My coat’s got purple in it, though,” Dinky pointed out, holding up the purple crystal in her hooves. She wanted to use her telekinesis, but she didn’t want to risk accidentally breaking what might be a key to a treasure chest, and these crystals looked fragile. “So maybe I’d be this if I was a key.”
“So it might be orange, yellow, red, silver, or purple,” Scootaloo said, nodding as she pushed aside the blue, green, and black crystals. “So which one from here?”
Dinky looked to Sparkler, who shrugged, leaning back in her crystal throne yet again. “Can’t say,” she said. “Pinkie promise. I can’t even tell you if you’re on the right track or not.”
The foals groaned, looking over the crystals and scratching heads or chins as they tried to puzzle their way through the challenge. “This is hard,” Scootaloo said. “How are we supposed to pick between them? We don’t have anything to go by!”
The other foals agreed, or began to. Dinky’s ears perked up after a moment. “Wait, yeah we do!” she said, reaching for the map that they had put on the floor and holding it up, looking it over. She found Espada Noche’s clue for the first key quickly. “Treasure glitters no matter where you are, but the first key glows brightest by far. So we have to find the key that glitters the most!”
“Glows,” Snails corrected.
“They mean the same thing,” Dinky informed the colt, reasonably certain she was correct, as they all leaned down to the crystals they had chosen, examining them closely. Several moments passed by as they looked for any stray sparkle, glistening, or effervescence of any kind. After a few minutes, however, they all leaned back, sighing as one. “Nothing,” Twist said, rolling the purple crystal between her hooves on the floor. “Though, I think purple is the brightest color here.”
“No, it’s this silver one,” Featherweight insisted, holding it next to the purple one. “See? It’s a lot brighter.”
“Paler,” Twist objected. “It’s not glittering brighter.”
“Glowing,” Snails corrected.
“Same thing,” Scootaloo said, looking between the two crystals herself. “Come on, one of you is glittering brighter…”
“Glowing – hey!” Snails exclaimed, eyes wide. “I got it! Maybe the crystal is like a glow worm!”
“Huh?” Scootaloo asked, head tilting to the side.
Snails ignored her, dashing over to the large windows of Sparkler’s treasure room and tugging at the voluminous curtains that hung there with his mouth, pulling them closed one at a time. Gradually, the room was plunged into blackness as the light outside was blocked. Dinky instinctively lit up her horn to provide light, but Snails waved a hoof at her.
Dinky quelled her light, and for a moment the room was black. Gradually, however, light began to appear – not from the horns of any of the unicorns in the room, but rather a low but notable glow coming from one of the crystals – the purple one. “Ha!” Snails exclaimed, hopping in place a moment before dashing forward and towards the glow. He bumped into Scootaloo on the way due to the darkness, but the filly didn’t seem to mind as the five of them all crowded around the crystal. “See? All of them glitter but only this one glows! Like a glow worm!”
“That’s great!” Dinky exclaimed, as Snails got a nuzzle of appreciation from each of the rest of the crew. “I knew having an etymologist would be a good addition to the crew!”
“Entomologist,” Snails corrected automatically. It was a common mistake.
Dinky waved a hoof at it, as behind her, Sparkler’s horn glowed and she pulled open the curtains, letting sunlight back in. “Technically I’m still not allowed to say whether or not you found the right crystal,” the Pirate Queen said. “But…well, if you did, good job! I thought the puzzle was too hard for foals, but I guess Pinkie knew what she was doing when she had me enchant that crystal, which may or may not be the right one.”
Dinky smiled, certain that, thanks to Snails, they had the right crystal now. “Thanks!”
Sparkler gathered up the false keys, putting them back in the pile of gemstones where the pirate queen had gotten them from. “Careful with the key, too. It’s kind of brittle – not too brittle, just, y’know, less than your normal crystal.”
The foals nodded, as Dinky looked over the key. “Is it really okay for us to take it?” she asked, glancing around and dropping character for a moment and looking around the store. The prices on most of the jewelry was…intimidating. Sure, Dinky had bought something from here before, when she and Sparkler had first met, but it had taken her a whole year to save up for what she’s bought, and it had been fairly cheap and on sale besides.
Sparkler, however, only smiled and waved a hoof. “It’s quartz. There is literally a field full of it and dozens of other semi-precious stones only about an hour’s trot away from here – it’s part of why I moved to Ponyville. Plus, I couldn’t use that gem for jewelry anyway. There’s some flaws in it…I won’t bore you with the details, but the short version is that I couldn’t cut it any smaller than it is right now without shattering the whole thing. I would have thrown it out along with all the other flawed crystals I end up with if not for Pinkie.”
Dinky looked back to the gemstone. It looked perfect – but then, her sister’s special talent was gem-cutting. She knew what she was talking about. “Okay,” she said. “Well, we’ll be careful with it just the same.”
Sparkler nodded, then waved both hooves at the foals in a shooing motion. “Now get going, you five! You’re in a race, aren’t you?”
Scootaloo reacted first. “That’s right!” she said, turning around an galloping towards the exit of the pirate queen’s fortress-mansion. “We have to get going!”
“Right!” Dinky agreed. The rest of her crew went outside, but Dinky lingered a moment, dashing up to Sparkler and delivering a quick nuzzle, which her sister returned. “Thanks, Pirate Queen Sparkler!”
“Retired,” Sparkler said. “Life of luxury and riches for me now – apparently. I could get used to that.”
Dinky giggled, turning and dashing back out to her crew, who was waiting for her on the pier that Rosedust had docked at. They climbed aboard quickly, Scootaloo getting behind the navigator’s wheel as they took out their treasure map. “Okay, next stop…The Islands of Storm!” She placed a hoof on the map, which indicated a pair of twin islands near the center of the Thousand Islands, said to be where all the mighty hurricanes that ravaged the Southern Sea originated. “And the hint is…look up.”
The other four foals all did, at the somewhat cloudy afternoon sky. “Is that it?” Featherweight asked. “Just…look up?”
“Uh-huh,” Dinky confirmed. “I guess we’ll figure out more once we get there. Scootaloo! Set sail for the Islands of Storm!”
It was nice to write for Sparkler without having to bring up her dad for a change. 
I also really enjoyed writing the insane troll logic the foals were using to gradually arrive at the right key.
Next Time: The race continues as the RES Diamond Tiara enters the fray - and skips right to the end, seizing the treasure! But wait - what's this about needing keys? Then, Hispaniola arrives at their next destination: The Atoll of Knowing!
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I love how despite the Insane Troll Logic the foals used, they managed to get the right key, what are the odds.
Liking Snails in this
4589224
If there's any logic to Pinkie Games, it's kid logic.
Sparkler playing along with her sister's game is adorable.
Great
You could say Diamond Tiara has a map without a key!
It's so cute that Sparkler even wore a silly outfit to keep in character with their game, even though she thought other ponies would think it was weird.
Cahoooooooots.
What.
Yes, this was great! I really loved how you mixed the two 'realities' and had Dinky taking it the most seriously. She has a little in common with Pipsqueak in that regard. Excited to see DT's crew become frustrated (read: DT throwing a tantrum) when they can't open the treasure once they find it. It was so cute how Sparkler was in on the joke. This whole story is cute and uplifting.
This whole story is just weaponized adorable and I freaking love it! It really is so easy to see the world switching between the Caribbean world of pirates and then....Ponyville.
4589292
Discord would love it! He's a sucker for insane troll logic.
4589845 Oh I'm aware of the time difference, I only noted the later eras ship sizes because those are the ones I'm more familiar with being more of a fan of the Master & Commander series, although one of the primary ships of that book series, Aubrey's beloved Surprise was supposedly launched in the 1760s so around the same time frame as Treasure Island. She may have been more heavily gun compared to others in that age but still would have been a frigate.
Also my apologies for any tone of attempted one upmanship or know-it-allness, this is just points of clarification that I know and thus brought up.
Not to mention having the U.S.S. Constitution in my home state gives a probably unnecessary urge to point out the facts of this era of wooden ships and iron men (er ponies).
I think I've seen this line somewhere else... But Awwwww! anyway
I know I get that all the time!
And going back several brainstorming threads I'm goanna say that pirate was modelled by Braeburn
I like the foals sorting out the puzzle and Sparkler playing along with the game, its nice to see her interacting with her sister.
4590016
Blatantly stolen from Dinky Debates Dexterity, Destiny, and Dinner by CLAVDIVS CAESAR, though there it was Dinky saying it about Sparkler. I've actually used the line before, in I'll See You Soon (with Dinky saying it of Sparkler), but that's not a canon story.
The DDDDDuology, as I call them (Dinky Debates and the original story, Ditzy Doo's Dismally Derpy Day) are my two favorite stories on FiMFiction, and directly inspired Ditzy and Dinky Doo in the Lunaverse.
Arrrr, they be on course, but will Diamond Tiara scupper their plans?
Yes, yes, all that appraising he needed done in his cabin. Appraising emergencies, even.
There we go, clear justification for the pirate
etymologistentomologist.Weee! Suggestions! Take em or leave em!
I think this should be "she'd".
That's it! Another delightful chapter, and I still love your cards at the end. "It was a slow day." had me cracking up. I'm really enjoying this, can't wait for more.
Please keep writing, I'll keep reading!
Gotta agree with everyone, the cute is strong in this one!
Er, couple of typos spotted, though...
I think those are supposed to be plinth (one i) and jut, right?
A hansom is a type of carriage, so unless the Pirate King had a really elaborate wheelchair...
Shouldn't this be Rosedust? & Isn't Hispaniola the Pirate King's Ship?
4598665
Right, oops.
First, some groundkeeping:
Neatly.
Missing word and twice yellow.
Anyway, on to real comments:
D'AWWW!!! Some nice sisterly bonding! Nice!
Also I bet Bon Bon had a lisp as a kid too!
If we ever do flashbacks we have to include that.
And I'm betting the Islands of Storm are the cloud silo and weather team tower! The Atoll of Knowing is obviously the library.
I'm loving this story!!
4590057 They are, indeed, awesome.
Anyway, great chapter. Good riddle, too.