"All right," Maple said after a few minutes. "I'm all right. What else do we need to talk about?"
Gerardo turned back to face her, a lone eyebrow raised. "Namely, we need to decide our present course of action. At my last check, you wished to leave my cargo here and explore the city, whereas I would like to see it delivered with all due haste... and splitting up is out of the question. Does that adequately describe the situation?"
"It sounds like it to me," Maple sighed. "So how do we decide who gets their way?"
"A good question." Gerardo began pacing, walking back and forth in front of the spot in the wall where a window would likely be, were they not technically underground. "I'm sure I don't need to relay to you my concerns about vandals and thieves, despite the unlikelihood of such a thing transpiring here. And yet, did you come here solely to work for me?" He shook his head. "We could argue for hours, and attain nothing more than a more strenuous relationship among our team."
Maple hummed. "How were you planning on moving them before me and Starlight joined you? Maybe you could do that, and let us be free?"
"My boat," Gerardo replied with a sad smirk. "I intended to trade it for a cart upon arrival, and use it to haul the crates myself. Then, I was to sell it upon completion of my quest and purchase an airship ticket out of the city. A flimsy plan at best, considering as none of the ponies here have any need for boats, but it was my best... and now outright impossible due to my no longer having a boat."
"Oh." Maple hung her head. "Well... I still don't know how much money I really have..."
Gerardo nodded. "I can't imagine it would be a small expenditure. There's always the possibility we could rent one, but that would provide no return on investment when we no longer need it. And regardless, it was my own carelessness in trusting that buffoon of a stallion that cost me my ship in the first place. I can't rightly ask you to compensate me for that, in addition to everything else you've done."
Maple looked up. "But that still doesn't help with what we do next..."
"You could flip a coin," Starlight offered. "Winner gets their way."
At that, both adults paused... and Gerardo looked levelly at Maple. "Have you any interest in such a solution? I can't say I'm entirely comfortable trusting my fortune to luck, yet it would be fair..."
"I, um..." Maple hesitated, staring distantly. "I'd need something to flip... but that does sound fair."
"I'll do it," Starlight said. "Give me two gems with different colors. Small ones."
Maple deposited two in her hooves, one blue and one green, and got up, moving to stand next to Gerardo so Starlight would have room to work. "Okay," the filly eventually said, "pick a hoof."
"How exactly are you doing this?" Gerardo blinked. "You have one gem under each, and...?"
Starlight nodded. "I like the blue one best, so if you guess it, you win. Who's going to guess?"
"I... might as well..." Gerardo shrugged. He squinted down at the filly's outstretched hooves. The bed around them was too cushy to even tell there was anything beneath them, so it truly would be up to luck. He sucked in a breath... and pointed at her left. "That one. That is my pick."
Starlight lifted her hoof... revealing the green gem beneath. She bit her lip, staring up at Gerardo as if to say sorry. Her right rose too, the midnight-blue winning stone tucked away in its depression.
"Well," Gerardo admitted, drooping, "fair is fair. It seems I must forfeit. Which is very much a shame, but as I did agree..." He glanced forlornly at his crates, sitting in the corner. "I suppose I shall have to trust the hotel staff in their competence at thwarting burglars."
"And trust that nobody would even want to steal them," Maple said with a shrug, moving towards the door. "Even the bandits didn't know what they were. If somepony broke into a hotel like this one, they'd be looking for money, right? Not things that are big and hard to carry..."
"I suppose you are right," Gerardo muttered. "I still shan't stop being on edge until we return, however. That said, I see no further reason to dawdle here. Shall we?"
Maple nodded eagerly, beckoning to Starlight. "We shall!"
Minutes later, the trio stood outside, the hotel to their backs and a host of ponies passing in both directions ahead. The sun had risen over the peaks of the Water District during their time indoors, and now blazed down through a cloudless blue sky, warming their necks and sides against the cool, pleasant mountain air. Starlight had regained her spot astride Maple's back, and Gerardo's crates were nowhere to be found.
"It just occurred to me..." Gerardo announced, watching the wandering crowds. "Before we stray too far from our room for the night, how are we to remember our way back here? I doubt I can carry both of you, and searching by leg could be exceedingly slow. Should we not establish some form of landmark to aid in our return?"
Maple shrugged. "That sounds like a good idea. Maybe you can see something if you fly high enough, like how you found the hotel earlier? Then you could scout again when we're coming back..."
With a nod, Gerardo's wings swept out, and he took off straight upwards. Maple and Starlight watched him ascend, observed as he pivoted and stared about, continuing to climb... and then suddenly faltered as if hitting a wall, dropping several meters before catching himself and returning to the ground.
"Well," he answered upon landing, moderately flustered, "that was some unexpectedly sudden turbulence. I am, however, all right. Additionally..." He beamed. "Not only do I have a good bearing on what to look for to aid in our return, but I believe I've sighted our next destination!"
"Oh?" Maple's ears perked. "Where is it?"
Gerardo pointed a wing further clockwise around the mountain wall. "Should we continue our present course of upward in that direction, there is a significantly large convergence of both roads and equines at the very top of the city, centered around what looked to be an entrance into the mountain. While this is just a hunch, I would give that entrance at least ninety-percent odds of being a route into the Sky District. Would that not suit both our needs?"
"It sounds good," Maple said with a shrug. "If that's where the airships land, and where everypony normally enters Ironridge, there's probably some good things to see there!"
"And it will take me closer to my destination as well," Gerardo muttered. "So long as we're out and about, there's no sense in wasting a potentially informative scouting trip. Onwards and upwards!"