Dinky led Applejack down the short stairs to a small room with a tiny window. She pointed down the stairs, a gesture which looked somewhat foreboding and forming a contrast from her bright coat and tiny frame. “Since you tried to run away, you’re now stuck with me; which means you’re now stuck with these.”
Applejack followed, her cannonball sliding along on the deck behind her. It bumped her fetlocks as she stopped. She squinted into the darkness, and her eyes adjusted quickly. “Potatoes?” she asked.
“Yep. I need four piles, about yea high,” Dinky said, gesturing with a hoof. “Need them all peeled.”
Applejack cracked a smile. “Rainbow Blitz is trusting me with a knife?”
“I’m ‘trusted’ with one,” Dinky pointed out, gesturing to her hip. She did indeed have a knife strapped to each of her hind legs. “And you’re using a 'special' knife.” She pulled one from her pocket and tossed it over.
Applejack recoiled and bumped into the wall as the knife just barely missed her foreleg, hit the wall, and clattered to the ground at her forehooves. “Are you insane?” she demanded. “You don’t just throw knives at ponies!”
Dinky shrugged. “It’s fine. It’s really dull.”
Applejack picked it up and examined the blade. Uncomfortably, she realized that it was about as sharp as a coat hanger; it looked as though it hadn’t been sharpened in months. She looked up, and the evil smile crossing the filly’s face made it perfectly clear that this was part of her punishment. Applejack scowled.
“Four piles,” Dinky repeated as she trotted out.
Applejack grumbled under her breath and sat.
It was long, hard work. Most of the potatoes were slimy, sprouting, or moldy. She’d tried to pass most of them up, but had to return most of them to the ‘incomplete’ pile when she realized that being sprouted was far from the worst condition; and if she wanted those four piles, some of the potatoes wouldn’t be as clean as the ones they ate on her island. Applejack made a mental note to skip them for dinner.
Needless to say, Applejack was not happy with this situation in the slightest.
Nearly an hour later, Applejack wiped her brow as she examined the piles again. Deciding she’d done enough to satisfy Dinky’s requirements, she got up and walked out of the scullery, leaving behind her problems and this current job.
At least, she did; until the cannonball she dragged rammed through a pile of potatoes, smashing most against the wall and scattering the rest.
Applejack looked back and slammed her head against the wall repeatedly. Oh, what she wouldn’t do to go home...
* * *
Once again, breakfast was cold by the time Applejack got there. And, oddly enough, Surprise was there again, too. Upon seeing Applejack, her grin widened and she picked up her plate and bustled over to where the earth pony was sitting.
As if this day could get any worse.
“Sorry you got caught,” Surprise said suddenly. “You were trying so hard, too.”
“Th- thanks,” Applejack said, confused. She hadn’t expected that.
Surprise giggled. “Yeah. Anything that knocks Octavia down a peg is good in my book. She’s too uptight in her tight britches.”
That didn’t seem to make much sense, as Octavia wore standard pirate loose clothing; but for some reason, Applejack didn’t feel like arguing that point. “How is she, anyway?” she asked, already certain that her stunt last night was going to come back and bite her in the flank sometime soon.
“She’s mad,” Surprise said simply, “but she’ll get over it eventually. She’s always got a horseshoe nailed on wrong anyway, though, so it prolly won’t make that much of a difference.”
Unbeknownst to either of them, Octavia was currently in her quarters, imagining that the apple in front of her bore Applejack's face, and she was angrily stabbing her dagger repeatedly into it until it more resembled applesauce than an actual apple.
Applejack made a noncommittal grunt. “Ah hope not. Ah’m in no condition to fight her with this thing on my leg.”
Surprise shook her head. “Nope. And now there’s no way you can escape. It’s kindof sad, really.”
“Ya don’t say,” Applejack growled. “Well, Ah don’t care. Mark my words, Ah intend to get off this ship one way or another.”
Surprise giggled. “Until Rainbow Blitz gets her cider, you aren’t going anywhere. What Rainbow Blitz wants, Rainbow Blitz gets.”
“What would it take to get her to want to let me go, I wonder?” Applejack muttered darkly.
Surprise took this as a legitimate question, and answered. “Well, there’s always love. Love makes you do funny things for other ponies. If you became her super special somepony, she might let you go. You know, the whole ‘if you love them, let them go’ thing?”
“Me? With her? That’s ridiculous,” Applejack spat. “It'd take a miracle for anypony to fall in love with her, let alone me.”
“I believe in miracles,” Surprise said simply. “Besides, you're an earth pony mare, and those are her favorite. Hey, she even licked you during your fight, didn’t she?”
“Ah still say that was cheatin’,” Applejack grumbled, burying her head into her crossed hooves. “And there’s no way Ah’d want to love her anyway.”
“Suit yourself,” Surprise shrugged. “But I bet she’s great between the sheets.”
Now with a plethora of mental images she didn’t really want, Applejack slid her bowl in front of Surprise and turned and left.
* * *
Applejack stared out at the ocean once more and absentmindedly tugged on the chain around her hind leg. It was almost noon, but she barely felt the heat, as her mind was elsewhere. She really needed to get home, and Surprise’s idea just wouldn’t work.
Would it?
Applejack had never been much for romance. Working on the farm meant she didn’t have much time for courting, and had spent most Hearts and Hooves days selling heart-shaped apple pies in Port Ponyville. But then again...
What if it did work? She could make Rainbow Blitz fall in love with her, and then, when she had earned her trust and gotten the cannonball off, escape when they stopped at a port for supplies.
Because they would have to, and soon. Applejack was fairly certain that her last biscuit had actually been a rock, and when she had asked Dinky if she could see the flour used, she got basically a bag of dusty weevils. Not appetizing.
Applejack felt a twinge of guilt as she realized that that would be a massive lie, but she suppressed it. She needed to get home. She needed to be back with her family. Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh, Granny Smith. They needed her. And to be honest, she needed them.
And so she started her plan to make the most feared pirate in the world fall in love with her.