Long time ago, Equestria was a different kingdom. It was a paradise, a land of harmony, magic, and adventures. It was a huge utopia, where ponies of all kinds – unicorns, pegasi, even the literal down to earth Earth ponies – have all commune together, under the loving and watchful gaze of its two beloved rulers, the Two Sisters of Equestria.
To do this, the eldest sister, Queen Celestia, used her powers of the light to raise the sun at dawn, while her sister, Princess Luna, used her mastery of the dark to raise the moon to begin the night, and to protect her subjects in their slumbers. And so, under their rules, Equestria has prospered. Even their non-pony neighbors – hippogriffs, changelings, yaks, griffins, and the fearsome dragons – wouldn't dare to disrupt such beautiful land.
Unfortunately, it was not meant to last. One day, tragedy befell on this blessed kingdom and beyond. A great cataclysm has struck the land and its people, in the form of a meteor that was sent down by the heavens.
Arose from the bowels of darkness, evil sprang forth in the form of a wicked demon sorceress named Cosmos. From that day on, Cosmos has ravaged the land, with one goal – to subjugate the whole world and to turn into her own empire, full of agony and destructions.
Her evil seemed unstoppable. But at the time, Queen Celestia and Princess Luna have trained three of their greatest and most trusted apprentices at the time of Cosmos invasion.
No one knew what had happened that day, when Celestia and Luna flew into battle with Cosmos, with their apprentices. Needless to say, Celestia and Luna had come to realize too late that they should've trusted only two. In the end, the demon sorceress, Cosmos, was gone, but at the price of the two royal sisters. Leaderless, all of Equestria was thrown into a disarray and discord. The kingdom of Equestria was gone. Now it's nothing more than a distant memory.
With his former mentors gone, the traitorous apprentice rose to power, having seated himself upon the throne that once belonged to the royal sisters and set about to tax the hearts and souls out of his poor people. In this dreadful era, it isn't uncommon to find the people having turned to a life of crimes in order to get by. Common thieves have preyed upon the rich and the pampered. Pirates roam the waters, preying upon the weak, plundering every cities with little to no mercies.
And the most feared of these pirates is the fiendish Storm King. Kingdom by kingdom, ships of all sizes and armada, no one was safe from the Storm King's band of pirates. Like the unpredictable bolt of lightning, the Storm King and his pirate armadas attacked out nowhere, gathering up their spoils, and then they disappeared in a flash of lightning.
But hope's not yet lost. Among the few remains of resistance against the tyranny of the traitor, words were spoken of the treasure that was left behind by the two sisters. Somewhere in Equestria, forever hidden and untouched, even from the Storm King, rests the treasure that contains all the powers of the two sisters before their demise, awaiting the day for when it would be found.
This is the story of the magnificent treasure – the Sisters Heart. For untold generations, countless treasure hunters have sought out its hiding place, in the hopes of restoring Equestria to its former glory, or to make a profit, selling it to the highest bidder for such an invaluable treasure.
The tale of the quest for the legendary treasure, the romance, the Eight Jewels of the Sea, all begins with a young dragon who has started his first step of an adventure of lifetime.
The sea was calm. The sky was dark. The air was coated in a thick blanket of fogs. The only sounds that can be heard are the splashes of the crashing waves. But all of that soon changed when the haunting sound of a female's singing was heard.
(1:15)
"Huh? What?" a the voice of a young male questioned, as he got up, turning his head in every directions, searching for the source of the singing, but found himself floating on a little dinghy. "What the? How did...How did I get out here?"
Then, the voice was heard again, singing:
My Jolly Sailor Bold
(1:30)
Looking up, his eyes finally meet the piercing eyes of three beautiful sirens, surrounded by glowing aura of blue, purple, and gold, thus making their most-distinguishable, if not highly exaggerated features, hard to see. The most common feature is that each siren wore a red gem necklace around their neck.
The gold one sang the song again as she circled around the young dreamer, brushing her hand across his cheek and chin, further enticing and arousing his infatuation.
(1:48)
Suddenly, an amulet of intricate design suddenly materialized. In appearance, the amulet had what appeared to be the image of the moon and stars printed on its face, with a knob in the center. Then, with a turn of the knob, the sun image suddenly shifted to that of the blazing sun. With that, a blazing light of red-orange of the sun shines over the horizon, banishing the fogs, and the sirens slowly fade out of existence in the light.
Just moments before she disappeared, the golden siren cupped her hands around the dreamer's face and sang:
(2:06)
At last, the dreamer's entire world was engulfed in a blinding white light, and he was at last awaken to the waking world, "Ah, that song again," the voice of the young dragon yawned, as the first ray of light, shines through the window to his room.
With a firm kick, throwing his sheet off of him, the young dragon stood up from his bed, stretching his arms and wings, before he quickly got dressed.
In appearance, the young dragon is coated in purple scales with green spikes protruding from the top of his head, down to the tip of his tail which ends in the shape of an arrowhead, with the undersides of his wings, chin, and whole body colored a lighter shade of green, and piercing jade green eyes. For attires, he wore a black vest over a silky white shirt with baggy white sleeves, dark brown pants, and a belt with a gold buckle.
Turning to his right, picking up a light brown satchel, he swung it around his shoulders, packing what little foods he has left for his meal, before he walked out the door, breathing in the morning air and was greeted to another life in a bleak town that is his home – Dragon Town.
As the name implies, the town district is inhabited by dragons of all shapes and sizes. Like their homeland, it's a huge rocky terrain, with houses and shops built on the side of the cliffs. While most dragons are used to such bleak, if not primitive setting, to the young dragon, it's like waking up to another bleak day in a slum.
"Well, back to the salt mine," with a flap of his wings, the young dragon was on his way to his job, passing by some other dragons who are much bigger, hardened, and aggressive than him.
Wanting to make some small talks, the young dragon greeted, "Hello?" in response, he gets the usual cold shoulders or grunts from the other dragons. "Good talk," with that, the dragon was on his way, until at last, he came to a stop and landed just outside the shop of a blacksmith.
Upon entering, he was greeted by the stench of rusty metals, rotten woods, and coals. And if that wasn't bad enough, there was the foul stench of sulfur, and what can be best described as a rotten skunk basted in expired milk. Turning his head to the corner, drunk and sleeping on a bale of hays is a fat green dragon with grayish persian blue spines, while wearing a blacksmiths apron.
With a roll of his eyes, the young dragon shook his head, "As usual, good morning to you Mister Sludge," the dragon sighed, as he dons up his own blacksmith apron. Then, with an exhale of his green fiery breathe, the young dragon lit up the fireplace before he went to work on forging some metals, creating new objects which he – and his lazy boss – would later sell.
But all the same, it's clear on his face that the young dragon is longing for a higher purpose in life, far more than just being a simple blacksmith, under the employment of a drunk.
"So you hear about that raid in the south?" a voice belonging to a dragon asked, from outside the shop. "I hear that the Storm King had raided the whole place from top to bottom. And once they were done, they just pretty much blasted the whole inhabitants off the face of the earth!"
"Heh, and why do you care?" another dragon asked his friend.
"I don't! I just think it's hilarious!" the dragons all laughed, before the leader of the group mentioned, "And get this! The inhabitants were nothing but scrawny, stuffy, hippogriffs! HA! Guess those turkeys don't know what hit 'em!"
"Hippogriffs? You mean those pussycat bird things? I thought they're supposed to be stronger than ten lions."
"No, no. You must be thinking about griffins. Hippogriffs are different. They're half-eagles, but with the hindquarters of nampy, pampy ponies."
"Ah! That makes sense. Obviously, anything that's a pony, or even half-pony are exactly like their useless and dead rulers Celestia and Luna."
"Ha, tell me about it. I don't even know why those two are rulers to begin with. Because as much as we know, ponies couldn't even hurt a fly. Unlike us dragons."
"Ya damn right. Because unlike those ponies, or all those poor saps who've been robbed the Storm King, we dragons are masters of the air and fire."
"Yeah. So far, no one, not even those desperate pirates would dare go a shot at our loot. The troublemakers know they can't get past us."
"And even if they did, they wouldn't last more than a day without getting a roast end."
"If they can even live through our fires," with that, the dragons all took their leave, laughing heartily and viciously.
The young dragon, on the other hand, doesn't find it funny. Nevertheless, he just continues with his work, picking up a large hammer, and smashes it down on a piece of red hot iron, sending sparks flying in the air.
"Huh? Oh, Spike Scales! It's you!" a half-awakened, low, and obnoxious voice snorted. The young dragon, now identified to be Spike Scales, turned his head to see his boss, Sludge, was finally awake.
"Well good morning, sleeping beauty," Spike greeted, with a twinge of annoyance in his voice.
Sludge, however, paid no mind to it, as he scratched his backside, without any thought of dignity, "Well, I'm gonna go out and run some errands," Sludge yawned. "You're in charge while I'm gone, Spike. Take care of the shop, you hear?" Without hesitation to hear a reply, Sludge was already on his way out.
"Sure, no problem, boss," Spike spat the last word in disgust. "It's not like I haven't been running the shop in your absence for the past ten years, while you go back to your caves to sleep the whole day away!" focusing all his frustrations into his hammer, Spike hammered his blade flat. He nearly hammered his thumb flat.
With a dip, the young dragon douses the hot piece of metal in a bucket of water, creating a burst of smokes that filled the air.
Breathing in the salty, moist steam, Spike was able to calm himself, "Well, at least I've got this whole place to myself for practice," with that, Spike took off his apron and flies over to a wall, where he picks up a sword off its hinges, unsheathing the blade from its scabbard, and stood in the center of the room, holding the sword in one claw, standing with the appropriate foot out to match with the claw holding the sword, with the other for support and balance.
Then, with a step forward, he started thrusting his sword forward, followed by a swing for a parry and a block.
The Eight Jewels of the Sea
Somewhere faraway, sailing in the seas of Equestria is a large ship, painted in a dark blue color that is as dark as cloudy stormy nights, with three masts planted on the bow, hull, and stern, carrying large majestic sheets of sails that catches the winds. From the top deck to the middle, the ship was aligned with a single row of four cannons along the starboard and port sides. Majestically decorated on the bow of the ship is a large figurehead, carved in the shape of a fierce alicorn to match the symbol of the ship's crew – eight jewels of lavender, gold, light turquoise, light baby blue, dark purple, soft pink, blazing red, and orange, surrounding the head of an alicorn, shaped like a sword, with the horn for the blade and the majestic wings as the hilt – decorated on the flag that waved at the top the first mast.
The ship's crew consists members of eight; the captain, the first mate, the navigator, the cook, the tailor, the doctor, the cannoneer, and the carpenter.
In appearance, the captain is a young alicorn mare with beautiful moderate violet eyes, and a coat of lavender, with a long mane of dark sapphire blue with moderate purple and brilliant raspberry streaks. Her attires are a dark night blue coat with yellow trimmings with two pink jewels decorated on the sharp corners of her collar and a black belt tied around her waist, a large matching hat with pink stars decorated underneath, with three large hot pink feathers sprouting from the back, white pants, gray boots with yellow laces.
Standing by her side is her first mate. An orange unicorn with moderate cyan eyes, and fiery hair of red and gold. On her left arm, she has white wrappings that covered from her elbow to her wrist. Her attires are a black leather jacket that is studded with gold jewels, over a purple shirt with the blazing image of a phoenix on the front, and wears a matching leather belt around her waist, carrying a pistol and sword across the top of her dark baggy pants that is decorated with wears and tears to further show her years of fighting, and wears leather boots with purple flames at the toes.
In the ship's cabin, looking at the map of the world's oceans and compass, is the crew's navigator. In appearance, she, too, is a unicorn with a coat of pale, light grayish heliotrope, moderate persian blue eyes, and moderate purple mane with lighter purple and pale light, grayish aquamarine highlights, stylized in loving curls. For attires, she wears a black vest over a turquoise shirt underneath a black vest, a black belt around her waist that carries her sword, with a satchel of gun-powdered weapons wrapped around her shoulder. Baggy gray pants with black boots with golden buckles.
Somewhere on the ship, in the kitchen, hard at work, cooking and making meals for her crew members is the crew's cook. A pink earth pony with light cerulean eyes and bouncy brilliant raspberry mane, and a shining smile that can brighten even the most bleakest of days. She wears a hot pink bandana over her head, with black spots, that resembles a ladybug. She also wears a dark blue indigo sleeveless dress, over a silky white shirt that has a golden emblem at the collar, with a hot pink sash tied around her waist, and walks barefoot, with only a white wrapping on her right leg, with a brown leather shin guard.
Below deck, close to a window, sewing some damaged fabrics is the crew's tailor. A beautiful white unicorn mare, with light cornflower bluish eye shadows painted over her mesmerizing moderate azure eyes and moderate indigo hairs that are stylized in beautiful curls, with an emblem of three sapphire gems placed, close to the left ear. She wears a large blue-purple hat with golden trimmings at the top, with three sapphire gems embedded on the front, with a large scarlet plum sprouting from the back. Furthermore, she wears a purple dress shirt with gold trimmings along the front, which flows down into a large skirt that covers most of her legs, except the front, and a large red ribbon tied around the waist, over white pants that hugged her curves, and a sparkling velvet boots with high heels.
Further below deck, in what looks to be an infirmary, is a yellow buttercup pegasus with silky pink hairs that are braided at the end, with beautiful moderate cyan eyes. She is the crew's doctor. Her attires are a white headband with green stripes, a dark blue vest with puffy trimmings on the collar, over a light brown shirt with puffy sleeves that are tied by a metal band around the end, causing them to flare out. Around her waist, she wears a blue-green belt with a feathery skirt over a light brown pants, with puffy edges. She also wore white bandages around her right knee, with brass wrist bands on her right wrist. Sitting on her shoulder is a little rabbit, dressed like a pirate.
Looking across the sea through a telescope, eager and excited for more adventures is the crew's cannoneer. A cyan pegasus mare with blazing rainbow hair with some of it braided with golden rings, and moderate cerise eyes. She wears a red bandana atop her head, with golden goggles that sports wings on the sides. A white shirt with a brown leather strap across her chest with gold buckle, and golden bands strapped around her sleeves, and golden silks wrapped around her waist, with the bottom half of her shirt flaring out into a dark navy blue skirt with blazing gold trimmings. She also wears a brown metal bracelet on her right wrist, with her left hand and legs wrapped in white sports tape. Further down, she wears a baggy gray pants, with black boots.
Lastly, is the crew's carpenter, an orange earth pony mare with blonde hair, and sap green eyes that are framed by the white freckles on her face. She wears what appears to be a brown stetson hat, but with gold trimmings along the edge, with a large red plume, embedded by a pin that's shaped like an apple. She also wears a brown eyepatch-like goggle over her left eye, with an image of a red apple printed on the lens. For the rest of her attires, she wears a brown jacket, over a white shirt, with the right sleeve cut short, a brown glove with a golden band around the wrist and buttons on her right hand, red pants, a black belt that carries a sword with an apple emblem on the end of her hilt, brown boots with gold buckles, and a green skirt with gold trimmings shaped like leaves that covers her backside.
After sailing for what felt like days of sailing the seas, the cannoneer looked through her telescope and exclaimed, "AHOY!!! Land ho!"
Exiting from the ship's cabin, the navigator walked up to the captain and her first mate, "Captain Sparkle! First mate Shimmer!" She greeted them. "We're coming up on Dragon Town. It's not a friendly place, and–"
"At ease, Starlight," Captain Sparkle replied. "We won't stay there for long. We just needed a place to rest up for awhile, before we can resume our quest for the Sisters Heart. Besides, are there any place in the area where we can moor our ship, without drawing any unwanted attention?"
"Well, there's a cove not too far from the port," Starlight confirmed. "It's a bit too far, but it'll hide the ship."
"Then that's where we'll land," The captain nodded as she sends her navigator away.
Afterwards, the cannoneer ran up to the captain and asked, "So captain? What's the plan of attack this time?"
"We're not attacking anyone, Dash," First mate Shimmer spoke up. "We're just here to stock up on some supplies and then we'll be on our way."
"Snooze," Dash scoffed. "I'm itching for some good ol' fashion brawl. I'm ready to kick ass and take names with anyone who comes our way, especially the Storm King!"
"Careful what you wish for Dash," Shimmer berated. "Remember Cloudsdale?"
"Those cloud gremlins just got lucky, that's all," Dash shrugged. "Besides, at least it wasn't a total loss. I got us the map to the Sisters Jewel, didn't I?"
"A piece of it, you mean," The captain scowled.
"Uh, yeah...but hey, better than nothing, right?" The cannoneer shrugged sheepishly.
The captain, however, looked as if she was about to blow her hat off. Thankfully, her first mate interjected, "Anyway, here's how we're gonna go down in Dragon Town," She began. "Since we're running low on some supplies from our last 'plunder', we're just gonna go there and pass ourselves off as 'civilians.' That is assuming that we don't draw any unwanted attentions to ourselves, like last time. Me and Twilight will go into town to get some of the dragon's gunpowders for our cannons, and get our blades reforged by a metalsmith."
"After all, dragons are known for their fire breath, and their metalworks," Captain Sparkle nodded in agreement.
"Okay fine," Dash rolled her eyes. "But what about us? What can we do?"
"You will stay behind and guard the ship," Captain Sparkle instructed. "You're gonna keep an eye on things, while me and Sunset are in town."
"What?!" The cannoneer exclaimed. "Oh c'mon!"
"That's an order, Rainbow Dash!" The captain stomped her foot.
With a defeated sigh, Rainbow Dash grunted, "Aye aye, captain."
Without anymore arguments, the crew looked up, just as they arrived on land, away from the dragons.
Meanwhile, up on a wall, looking across the sea, a few dragon guards spotted the ship.
"Hey! Check it out!" One of the dragons exclaimed. "It's another one of those wannabe pirate ships!"
"So what?" The other dragon asked. "It's not like they'd be any trouble for us."
"Yeah? Well get a load of this," The first dragon replied. "It's a ship full of ponies! Either they're desperate for our treasures, or they've got a death wish."
"Ha! Yer darn right," The second dragon scoffed. "But, whether there be ponies, their treasures ain't too far behind," The dragon guards all chuckled deviously.
