Applejack was not a gossip. She didn’t care much for mares giggling behind their hooves at other ponies’ misfortunes, real or imagined. However, there were times that she needed a certain piece of information, and through her years at the market she had learned something quite counterintuitive: the best way to get information is to not ask for it.
Applejack grumbled louder than normal as she walked past Lyra and that other mare. “Ah hate this. First sign of storm and the cannonball’s gonna roll right off and take me with it and then nopony’ll get any cider.”
“I’m sure a big, strong, earth pony like you can handle it,” Lyra teased.
Applejack slowed to a stop and glared.
All according to plan.
The other mare crossed her forelegs and pouted dramatically. “I thought I was your big, strong, earth pony,” she said.
Lyra gave her an affectionate nuzzle. “No, Bonnie; you’re the big, strong earth pony.”
The gag of revulsion that came out of Applejack’s mouth was not entirely scripted in the plan.
“Seriously, though,” Lyra continued, looking back at Applejack. “The captain knows what she’s doing. Nopony has ever fallen overboard while wearing a cannonball.”
And just like that, Applejack had gained information she hadn’t expected or asked for. “Ah’m not the first to wear one?”
Bonnie shook her head. “And I doubt you’ll be the last. The captain always gets what she wants.”
“Y’all seem so calm about this,” Applejack observed.
Lyra shrugged. “It happens every once in a while. We’re kindof used to seeing our VIP prisoners. They all come around eventually. If you get tired of wearing that thing, go ahead and take her offer. The captain is a mare of her word.”
“Ah’m sure,” Applejack said dryly as she turned to leave.
“Hey, now,” Lyra said defensively, sprinting in front of Applejack to keep her from leaving. “Captain Blitz may be a bit out there, but she’s a good captain.” She grinned and gestured at Bonnie. “She lets us stay together.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “That all?”
Both mares paused. Apparently, this was a harder question. “Well, she’s fair,” Bonnie eventually said. “I’ve never seen her kill anypony that didn’t have it coming.”
“Slavers,” Lyra pointed out. “She really hates slavers.”
Bonnie nodded in agreement.
Lyra tapped her chin, thinking of more things to say. “She has us shoot to disable before shooting to destroy,” she finally said. “We usually shoot chainshot first, and we need a special order before grapeshot.”
“We’ve lost like one crew member so far in, what, how many months? Eighteen?”
“Yeah,” Lyra agreed. “She always has us go back for ponies. She’s very loyal.”
Bonnie giggled. “Remember how she freaked out when Moon Dancer died? We turned that ship into matchsticks.” She sighed wistfully, reveling in the past destruction.
Lyra sighed and wrapped her foreleg around her lover. “Good times, Bon Bon, good times. As I recall, somepony fought like a maniac that day…”
Bon Bon nuzzled Lyra back, and Lyra let out a soft purr as Bon Bon slid a hoof over her lover's body. Applejack quickly decided that she wouldn’t get anything else useful out of these two anytime soon, and so she nodded and took her leave.
* * *
Applejack hesitantly walked down the cramped passageway belowdecks. The crew bunks were not technically off limits, but she didn't doubt that she was not welcome here.
Especially when she walked by the little half-cabin thing that was Octavia's bunk and saw her playing darts, and her target plastered on the wall looked suspiciously like a crude drawing of an orange earth pony wearing a hat. Upon hearing her arrival, Octavia looked up and gave Applejack a death glare. Her hoof twitched towards the darts resting on the table.
Applejack lifted a hoof submissively. “I’ll… come back later.”
“Come back never.”
* * *
Applejack poked around a little more below deck, where she found that gray pegasus from before cheerfully cleaning one of the many cannons. This one happened to be quite large, as if a pony could fit inside. At first, she considered passing her by, as she had no love for the mare that had found her bit stash and had probably ruined her ship; but then decided that any source of information was a good source, and swallowed her pride.
“Hey, you,” she said. “What's up?”
“Not much,” Derpy replied. “Just cleaning my cannon.”
“Your cannon?”
“Uh huh,” she nodded. “Captain Blitz assigned it to me, so it is now Derpy's cannon!” She pointed to a row of seven bubbles that had been painted on the side. “See?”
Applejack assumed that that was also her cutie mark, but she couldn't compare the two because, like most pirates, the gray pegasus had covered hers with clothing. That didn't seem to make much sense to her, hiding your cutie mark on you but revealing it elsewhere; but she had larger apples to harvest.
Derpy grinned and spread her hooves wide, holding herself up with an awkward flap of her wings. “Technically, they're all my cannons; but this one is especially mine. Captain Blitz said so.”
“Captain Blitz, eh? You like serving under her?”
“Uh huh!” Derpy said with an emphatic nod of her head.
“Why?”
Derpy grinned. “She treats me like a normal pony. I mean, she yells at me, but she yells at everypony, not just me. She even let me bring my daughter aboard.”
“How do you have a daughter, anyway?” Applejack asked in shock. Piracy was no life for a filly to be raised in.
Derpy’s one visible eye narrowed. “We don’t talk about that much,” she said icily.
“Sorry,” Applejack said quickly.
“Maybe you should keep moving,” Derpy said coldly, returning to her cleaning.
“Got it,” Applejack nodded, taking a step back--and bumping into a small object. She at first thought it was a small table or a stool or something; but to her surprise, it spoke.
“Morning!”
“Wha-!” Applejack spun around to see a little pimento earth pony colt, smiling broadly through the little gap in his teeth. “Who are you?”
The colt bowed and removed his hat, which was a size too large for him. “Pipsqueak the powder monkey, at your service.”
Applejack was somewhat taken aback. “How many foals are on this ship?”
Pipsqueak straightened up indignantly. “I am not a foal! I am a young stallion,” he corrected.
“...Right,” Applejack said uncertainly. “Isn’t powder monkey a dangerous job?”
Pipsqueak shrugged. “Mayhaps. But it’s important, and somepony’s gotta do it, and Captain Blitz assigned me to it.”
Applejack nodded. “So why do you like Captain Blitz?”
“She took me off the street, actually gave me a chance,” Pipsqueak said with another little shrug. “Not many other captains would give me a chance just by my asking. And I'll serve her ‘til she breaks up the crew, so I will.”
Applejack nodded thoughtfully. Rainbow Blitz certainly had gained the loyalty of her crew. She looked back at Pipsqueak. “Have you had any accidents or anything?” she asked.
He chortled. “Derpy’s nearly blown herself up fifty times, does that count?”
Derpy responded by throwing a wet rag at his face. Pipsqueak ducked and stuck his tongue out cheekily.
Then Derpy threw the bucket, and that one did connect. Pipsqueak stood, soapy water dripping down his now soaked mane. “Well, if that’s how it has to be,” he said, raising his hoof, “I hope you know this means war.”
Applejack decided that three was a crowd, and she quickly scooted around Derpy and continued on her journey, ignoring the sounds of things being thrown that probably had no business being thrown.
* * *
Applejack returned topside, mulling over what she had heard as she paced across the deck. She briefly considered talking to the grotesquely large white pegasus pony steering the ship, but all she had heard him say was “Yeah!” and she didn’t think that would help. She suddenly became aware of added weight on her hind leg, as if her cannonball had suddenly doubled in size. Turning around, she saw Li’l Scoots perched on top with her tiny wings spread to keep her balance, and grinning widely.
“Hi,” Applejack said after a brief pause.
“So I heard you were talking about Rainbow Blitz,” Li'l Scoots said cheerfully.
“Maaaybe,” Applejack said.
“Well, you should! She’s awesome!”
“Is that so?” Applejack asked. “And what’s so awesome about her?”
“Everything!” Li’l Scoots said glowingly. “She’s great with a sword, she’s great with her wings, she always wins in everything! She’s the best captain ever!”
“That’s nice,” Applejack said.
“She’s fast, she’s strong, she’s great at fighting, she can do a Sonic Rainboom! Nopony can beat her! She's the greatest ever!”
Applejack had the sinking feeling that she was going to hear a lot more of Rainbow Blitz’s praises from this young filly.
* * *
That night, Applejack willingly returned to the brig and didn’t even react when Octavia spouted another disparaging remark—she had more important things to think about. So far, most of what she had heard was good (and she had heard a lot of it, especially from Li’l Scoots). Rainbow Blitz was fair and protected the things she loved. She might even have been a decent pony, had she not had an undying hunger for gold and jewels and cider and such.
But her biggest victory today was learning that Rainbow was competitive. The first step in falling in love is respecting your partner, and if Applejack could keep up with her in any given competition, that might get Rainbow’s respect and attention enough to form a chink in her armor, and then freedom would be in her grasp.
Now, she just needed a competition...