"So what do you think Gazelle meant by calling our ship an official embassy?" Maple asked, walking towards the middle of the party as they traversed the docks to the Immortal Dream.
"Depends if he means any official duties to come with it," Gerardo mused. "It could mean we're obligated to serve as a liaison whenever someone wants us to contact Ironridge, but since Amber brought the other sound stone with her, we don't have that line of communication anymore, so it's likely not for that."
"It's to spite someone else," Valey said, not missing a beat. "You heard his tone. Bananas, I did this all the time in Ironridge. You want to mess with someone, you take someone else they want to mess with and make it harder for them. And who knows how many eyes are on us now?"
"Valey sounds right," Shinespark admitted, using her shoulder to support the weary batpony. "As far as we're concerned, though, diplomatic protections are very strong. You remember Herman? If we had killed Yakyakistan's ambassador and that news made it west without the rest of the story, it might really be grounds for a war."
Maple suddenly paled. "You don't suppose..."
"That Gazelle wants something bad to happen to us to increase tensions with Ironridge?" Valey raised an eyebrow. "Nah, I doubt it. How would Ironridge even find out about it, for one? And if they did, their reaction probably wouldn't change at all over some formality like calling us an embassy. Not only that, Ironridge has no standing army except the Stormhoof troops already stuck there, and it's been months since Amber caught a ship going out. I'd be surprised if those dudes aren't on their way back yet. Basically, even if they did start a fight, it wouldn't do anything."
Shinespark bit her lip. "Are we really discussing this? What if someone wanted to make two powers hate each other? Herman might have done that, but it can't be normal for the world. Ponies have to be better than that."
Maple winced. "Sorry. It was just a thought that crossed my mind. I still have bad memories of..."
"We all do," Shinespark consoled. "And they're going to keep getting brought up as long as things like Izvaldi keep happening, but we can't let that get us down."
Gerardo winked. "That's the spirit! And for what it's worth, we do still have a certain something against assaults and ambushes." He nodded at Valey. "But yes, Shinespark has the right of it. While we could mistrust someone and assume that because they can bring us harm, they will, we could assume that of most everyone we meet. And being a paranoid wreck helps no one."
"Yeah." Valey nodded. "Felicity's on our side. If anything really bad goes down up above, she'd help us. We could get some warning, maybe get out of here."
"I was talking about... Never mind. I dearly hope you're right," Gerardo sighed. "You know her best, so I've been trusting your judgement, but if it turns out she isn't for us, we've told her plenty more than enough to land ourselves in trouble."
Before Valey could reply, they turned the final corner, the gangplank to the Immortal Dream mere steps away. "She is," Valey promised as they boarded. "We've got a pretty good understanding of each other. She might work for Gazelle and the Night Mother, but if push came to shove, she'd chose us over them."
Maple hummed in hopeful assent. The ship's door opened, and the party trudged down the staircase and into the library, Valey making a beeline for her bed... only to find the library full of every crewmember sans Crystal. Amber and Slipstream sat proudly together near Nyala, and Harshwater stood in the foreground, flanked by Jamjars and Glimmer. A large sack sat in front of the three, and the two fillies had very satisfied expressions.
"Do I wanna ask?" Valey raised an eyebrow.
On command, Harshwater took the sack and overturned it, sending a cacophonous pile of gold coins big enough to cover Jamjars spilling onto the floor. "We made ourselves useful," Jamjars proudly declared.
Gerardo blinked. "That's a very sizable amount of money."
"It's maybe a quarter of what we got from Kero's vault," Harshwater explained. "So not like our wealth has increased exponentially. But with the way we've been going through expensive resources..." She cleared her throat unsubtly at Valey. "We thought it would be useful to have a fast source of income. Give us several nights, and we can get a lot more."
"Uhh... wow." Valey stared down at the gold. "I mean, I got my back fixed. Sorta. But that's actually really useful." Her wings twitched, the discolored remnants of her burns itching slightly.
"Two questions," Gerardo said. "Is it dangerous, and is it illegal?"
Harshwater shrugged. "It's honest. And amid everything this crew has done, it ranks very low on the danger scale."
"Ugggghh!" Jamjars whined, dancing in place. "Are you going to spill the beans, or can I!?"
Harshwater smirked and patted her head with a wing, Glimmer sharing a similar look. "Go ahead, kiddo."
Jamjars quickly adopted a brash grin. "We turned the ship into a restaurant."
Everyone blinked hard. "You used my ship for what?" Shinespark's pupils shrank in surprise.
Valey was equally stunned. "Wait, Jamjars asks you for permission to speak?"
Jamjars blew a raspberry. Glimmer fell over laughing, Amber and Slipstream clung to each other and even Harshwater got a smile. "It was a trial run. We only had one night and didn't want to go too far, but airships aren't common in the Empire. It turns out Stormhoof has a lot upper-class clients who are willing to answer to exorbitant sums for a chance at dinner in the sky."
"That's..." Shinespark put a hoof to her forehead. "I don't know whether to be mad or impressed. You need to ask before doing that with my ship. But it really worked this well?"
"If you've never worked for nobility before, you'd be surprised," Harshwater replied. "Your ship is fine. They're good at propriety. No noses poked where they don't belong, no damage or messes. With your approval, we'd like to continue."
Valey shrugged. "Hey, as long as I get a nap. I need to crash real bad. This is why you guys were flying around last night, though?"
"Oh, you saw us, did you?" Jamjars grinned, tracing swirls with her hoof in the heap of coins.
Harshwater nodded at both Valey and Shinespark. "I'll need to talk with each of you about this later. But if you're tired, suit yourselves."
"Actually, I'd like a conversation right now," Shinespark decided, taking Harshwater's shoulder in her aura. "My room, please. Valey, go get some rest!"
The noise of conversation in the library was quickly shut out as Shinespark closed her door, leaving just her and Harshwater in her large personal cabin. "Tell me you know what I'm going to say," Shinespark requested after a breath.
Harshwater's eyes shifted. "If I did that, I'd be lying. In most reasonable hierarchical orders, you'd mean trouble. But Valey's been clear this ship operates a little differently. So before you come down on anyone too hard, consider how happy contributing this made your crew. Did you see the pride in their eyes? The B-team, everyone who gets left behind on important missions like testifying overnight to a government panel? I know how things are done by the books, and by them we were in the wrong, but I also know how teams work, and I stand by everything we did." She stared Shinespark straight in the eye.
Shinespark blinked.
"Well?" Harshwater frowned expectantly, breaths even.
"I'm... sorry." Shinespark folded her ears and looked down. "I was about to underestimate you. I'd still like it if you asked before using my ship in the future, but you did well."
"...Thank you." Harshwater bowed, and Shinespark lifted her chin. "It will be up to you if we want to do anything further with this. But you should consider that we have a lot of crew members with a lot of free time. It's good for our morale and very profitable, and it also gives us a good reputation among citizens who have money and influence, but aren't necessarily tied to politics. Hopefully this will be good news amid everything else you're dealing with."
"Right." Shinespark squared her shoulders, glancing at the door. "I won't keep you, then. I'll have to tell everyone else I'm proud of them, too..."