Flagship

by TroyValice

A Crew of Crazy Ponies

Rainbow Dash walked out of Captain Twilight's office more confused and dazed than when she went in. She kept going over what had happened in her head. Her mom had died, she had gotten kicked out of school, she had somehow become part of a pirate crew. There had to be something she was missing here. Sure, when she woke up this morning she had no idea what she would do next, but if she were to make a list of guesses, this would be right below getting sent to an Appaloosan jail for trafficking donuts across the border. Rainbow needed a reality check, and since she was told to anyway, she decided to talk to West.

"You guys are pirates!?" she shouted as she walked up to him.

"No," he responded as he ate an apple.

He took a bite and waited a moment. Rainbow's fears were put to rest. There was no way these ponies were pirates. Captain Twilight must have just been hazing her. Initiate the new deck hand and all that.

"We're privateers," West continued as he swallowed a bite of his apple. Yelp, so much for hazing.

"That's the same thing as pirates!" Rainbow argued.

"No they’re not," West responded, taking another bite of his apple.

"How is it any different? You attack trade ships and steal their cargo!" Rainbow yelled.

"There is a key difference, Rainbow. What we do is, technically, legal," he said with a smile.

Rainbow Dash facehoofed. "How on earth is any of this legal?"

"We have the paperwork and licenses. Plus all our weaponry..."

West paused for a moment.

"Most of our weaponry has been legally purchased from Equestrian arms manufacturers under government contracts," he finished, matter of factly.

Rainbow was about to respond to how stupid that argument was but was cut off before she could.

"So, West, this our new crew member? She looks... Flashy." The orange mare from earlier said as she walked over to West.

Turning to Rainbow, she quickly added, "Not that there's anything wrong with that, if ya are, that is."

Rainbow choose to hold her tongue and let the orange mare continue. "Well, before you get to any kind of work, y'all better get down to Doctor Fluttershy, make sure you're not a liability and whatnot," she finished.

Rainbow nodded her head and said "Thanks, will do miss...?"

"Oh shoot, look at me, givin' orders like that an I ain't even introduced myself! I'm Applejack!" Applejack said, holding out her hoof for a shake.

Rainbow took it and said, "I'm Rainbow Dash."

Applejack grinned and said, "Pleased to meet ya, sugarcube." They shook and then Applejack continued, "Well, I better let you go. West 'll show to the galley."

Rainbow smiled. "Pleased to meet you, too, Applejack. Come on West, let's go see the doc. Wait, did you say galley?!"

Before Applejack could respond, West grabbed Rainbow and began dragging her towards the hatch in the middle of the ship. Applejack smiled and waved as Rainbow was taken below deck.

Below deck, it was actually very nice. Coming down the stairs lead to a small common area with tables and shelves holding cards and books. It was well lit by windows where you could see the passing landscape below. Behind the stairs were two hallways with rooms on either side. In front of the stairs was another stairway leading down to the cargo bay and sleeping area.

Currently, there were two ponies sitting around one of the tables. One was a white Unicorn with a spiky light purple mane. Rainbow could just make out that his cutie mark was of a music stand, under the large tool belt he was wearing. Sitting on the ground next to him was a small violin case. Across the table from him was a navy blue Pegasus with a black mane tucked under a red bandana. He was also wearing a belt, but attached to both sides of it were two flintlock pistols. They were both engaged in a game of cards and didn't notice West and Rainbow come down until West tapped the white one on the shoulder.

"Hey Perish, you get the gas pump and spark generator running? I'd rather not crash into the ground before we even get to Cloudsdale," West asked him.

The white pony, presumably Perish, leaned back and flashed West a toothy grin. "Lay off, West, that was one time and it's not like any of us died."

West facehoofed and said, "We had to replace the hull and Captain did an emergency teleport to Canterlot hospital to save Miss Rarity. Forgive me for not wanting to repeat that!"

Perish chuckled nervously and said, "Hehe, well, don't worry. I just got back from setting them up. So, who's the new filly?" Perish nodded at Rainbow.

West grinned and said, "Perish, this is our new scout, Rainbow. Rainbow, this is Perish Song, our chucklehead of an engineer."

West turned to the other occupant of the table.

"Haze, you know if Doc Shy is in?" he asked the Pegasus.

Haze looked up and grunted, "She's in the galley. If you need her, I'd hurry. You know how Perish loves to cheat."

"Thanks, we'll leave you two alone now," West said, then motioned for Rainbow to follow him.

As they walked down one of the hallways, Rainbow couldn't help but ask, "So who was that?"

"That was Midnight Haze, our boarding officer. He's a trigger happy bad flank, but you warm up to him as you get to know him," West said with a smile.

West opened one of the inner doors to the galley. It was small with two long tables for eating. At one end was a table with various condiments on top of it. At the other was a serving area where a yellow Pegasus with a long pink mane wearing a mint colored gown and hair net was talking to the baby Dragon preparing lunch.

...

Something was wrong with this picture. Rainbow briefly went back to the idea that this was all a dream. She quickly dismissed that thought, as most her dreams involved eating a life-size cake of Spitfire. No, this was too strange for her dreams. There was indeed a Dragon chatting with a Pegasus while he made sandwiches.

West looked at Rainbow and laughed. "Rainbow, meet Spike, our chef and Captain Twilight's personal assistant. Spike, this is Rainbow, our new scout."

Spike eyed her over and finally said, "So you're the chick who's replacing Rarity. I don't know how I feel about this, West. Don't you think it's too soon to just throw her under the bus and pretend she never existed?"

West deadpanned, "Spike it's been two months. We need a new scout if we're going where I think we're going."

"But shouldn't we honor her memory in some way? We could hang a flag or something!" Spike begged.

"Spike, quit treating her like she’s dead. She damaged her spine and Twilight didn't want her to risk making it worse. She still works for us in Canterlot. Hay, you got a letter from her this morning!" West scolded him.

Spike grumbled something unintelligible and went back to making sandwiches. Dr. Fluttershy turned to Rainbow and gave a sheepish smile. "Oh, don't mind him, he's just upset that he doesn't get to see Miss Rarity anymore. He's a sweetie at heart, you'll see. So, how may I help you, Miss Rainbow?"

Rainbow scratched the back of her head. “Well, Captain Twilight said to come and see you, something about making sure I’m fit for work?”

“Ah, so just a routine physical. Okay, so if you could please just sit down here, I can get started.” Dr.Fluttershy motioned for her to sit on the edge of the table.

“You can’t be serious.” Rainbow said flatly.

“Oh, I wish I weren’t, but the ship just doesn’t have room for a proper medical bay, so we have to make due with what we do have. Now, if you could please sit down so I can get started.” Fluttershy said with a warm, healing smile.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and said, “Fine, lets just get this over with,” As she hopped onto the table.

Fluttershy wasted no time running over to the cabinets on the opposite wall. Opening one of them, she pulled out a rubber mallet from behind some bowls. She then took a stethoscope from underneath a plate. Finally she retrieved some tongue depressors from inside one of the cups.

Rainbow facehoofed, “I’d better not find a syringe in my cereal,” She said.

For some reason, Spike found this funny, “Haha, don’t be silly, we don’t have cereal.” he mused.

“Relax,” West reassured. “Out of all the people Doc Shy has saved, she’s killed more.”

Suddenly, Rainbow was a lot more nervous for this physical than she felt she should have been. They were just teasing her, right?

Half a nerve-wracking hour later, Rainbow Dash was was given a clean bill of physical health. West was walking her out of the galley when they were met with a flash of pink coming out of the room next to the galley. Rainbow suddenly couldn’t move and was finding it hard to breath. Her limbs were locked at her sides and her vision had gone pink. What was happening?!

“OHMYGOSHWESTYOUDIDN’TTELLMEWEHADANEWFRIENDONBOARDWOWHERHAIR ISALLCOLORFULWESHOULDTHROWAPARTYTOCELEBRATEOURNEWFRIEND’SHAIR All
ANDTHENWESHOULDTHROWAPARTYTOCONGRATULATEHERONBECOMINGPARTOFTHE-”

“Pinkie shoosh! Let her breath!” West scolded whoever was spouting off nonsense.

“Oopsies!” The fast talkinging mare said

Rainbow’s body hit the ground with a thud. She gasped for sweet, sweet air. Coughing a little, she looked up to see who this Pinkie was.

She was certainly pink. Seriously, pink coat, pink mane, and a pink bandana around her neck. Her mane was in a state of disarray, tangled with small black oil stains and dark grey flecks thrown into it. She had a cutie mark of three balloons. On her torso, she was wearing a hybrid of an apron and a bandoleer, with it protecting her full front while round spheres with red fuses coming out the tops hung off the sides of it. She had a GIANT smile on her face and was shaking so much it looked like she might explode.

West spoke up before she could open up again, “Rainbow, this is Pinkie Pie, our quartermaster and artillery maintenance mare. I know she can seem like a handful, and that’s because she is, but she’s one of the most fun loving ponies I know. If you’re wondering what she just said it was something along the lines of oh my gosh West you didn’t tell me we had a new friend on board wow her hair is colorful we should throw a party to celebrate our new friend’s hair and then we should throw a party to congratulate her on becoming part of the and then I cut her off because, well, you looked like you could use some air.” He explained, then smiled nervously.

Pinkie spoke up again, “Ya, sorry about the whole suffocating you thing, I hope you can forgive me, I know we’ll be just the best of friends!” She held out her hoof.

Cautiously, Rainbow took it in a shake, then gave a genuine smile back.

West cleared his throat, “Anyways, it’s good we ran into yo, Pinkie. Rainbow here needs a gun!”

Rainbow turned to him, “Wait what! Why do I need a gun!?” She yelled.

“Everyone working directly on deck has to carry a gun at all times, both to ensure boarding a vessel isn’t delayed, and so everyone is ready if we’re boarded we can fight back.” He said, as if reciting a manual, which he probably was considering this was technically a government job.

Rainbow didn’t know how she felt about it, though. It was one thing to work on a pirate, er, privateers ship, but to actually have to kill ponies, that was another matter entirely. West put a reassuring hoof on her shoulder, seeming to know exactly what she was thinking.

“Hey, don’t worry. I not telling you to actively go and hunt ponies down and kill them for some sick enjoyment. We avoid taking lives at all costs. We fire warning shots with the artillery, and after that we only bombard the sides of a ship to force a surrender. As for the guns, we never shoot first, we more use them as intimidation and self defence.” West said, giving her a warm, reassuring smile and putting his hoof on her shoulder.

Rainbow took a deep breath and calmed herself down. “Thanks West, I know this whole Privateering thing will be hard for me, but I’ll try my best and I’m glad you’re being so kind to me. I’ve been through a lot lately, and this job is a new start and new chance for me. I just want to say thanks.” She could feel herself tearing up

“AWWWWWW” Pinkie cooed before grabbing all of them in a big hug “Don’t worry silly, we’re all here for you now, not just West!” She reassured. “Now, let’s go get you a gun!”

Author's Note:

Had a lot of fun writing this one, and helped me see the direction each character will be taking. It's weird having and idea for how a character will be introduced and act, only to have it so once you write them down you either see that they don't work at all and have to change them, or find a way that works better for them with the other characters. Next time Rainbow Dash has her first watch and we learn a little more about the OCs in the story. Comments and Constructive Criticism are encouraged, as always.

Comments

[StormyVenture]

I'm just going to take a moment aside to put about how totally ridiculous it is that mane six somehow happen to all be together in this alternate universe. There had better be a good reason or you've just devalued your story a bit, just saying. It makes sense that they're all in Ponyville (canon wise), but unless you've adjusted their basic dispositions/personalities there isn't a whole lot of obvious reason for why a bunch of theoretically peaceful ponies should all be crew on a privateering ship much less comfortable with guns. Then there's Spike, what the heck is with that? By most ponies' reckoning he's more at the CMCs level than that of the mane six. It really doesn't make any sense why he would be there and unless somehow, Twilight is still Celestia's student or the events of her early life are the same, he shouldn't even be there. Those events lead to her going to Ponyville and meeting her friends in the canon universe. If this is alternate universe then I think some explanation is in order.

Sorry if I come off as overly critical, but on first look some of the basic foundation of this story seems a tad flimsy.

[TroyValice]

4107289 not overly critical at all, in fact, quite timely, as next chapter will be addressing the reasons for why some of the mane six are together on the ship. But to answer some questions that I didn't plan on talking about for a while: Yes twilight is still princess celestia's protégée, but here she began doing "errands" for celestia, instead of going to the academy, until she was given the responsibility of captaining a ship of her own, but more on that later. She still hatched spike from the egg, and that's why he's on the ship as her assistant, but he won't have enough to do with the story to be considered a main character. Also, I do think that them being together can kind of go back to how, in the show, they are destined to become friends, even before they met, but I can see why your feedback is coming from.