"I can't believe you're actually doing this," Valey remarked, standing on the deck of the Immortal Dream at sundown and watching Amber and Gerardo drag circular tables into place that had been rented from somewhere in town. "Or that it works. Or that someone came up with it in the first place. Actually, I don't even know which of those is weirder."
Harshwater shrugged, standing beside her and doing her best to look like she wasn't suffering from severely underused muscles. "I got the idea from you, believe it or not."
"Wait, seriously?" Valey screwed up her face. "I have something to do with this?"
"Remember when we yelled at each other the other day?" Harshwater raised an eyebrow. "You said something about friendships burning more quickly here that stuck in my head. It's probably just your group dynamic, but I was thinking about it and wondered what being on an airship would do for normal ponies' relationships. And so here you have it. A romantic, starlit cruise above Stormhoof only the richest can afford."
Valey blinked as the harmony comet shimmered into existence overhead. "Huh."
"Of course, if I was that curious, we'd try to get a better-distributed population sample," Harshwater admitted. "But upper-class ponies are less likely to make a mess of Shinespark's airship, and this amount of money is worth failing to indulge my curiosity."
Slipstream stepped out onto the deck wearing an Izvalden maid outfit, and Valey's eyes widened. "Speaking of indulgences..."
Harshwater shrugged. "That's Crystal's contribution. You'll have to ask her yourself where it came from. I'm not an expert on aesthetics, but it seems better than wearing nothing to me."
"Even she's helping?" Valey tilted her head in confusion. "Huh..."
"It is what it is." Harshwater glanced upward at the sky, then started toward the stairs. "It's getting late. Time to see who shows up."
"How are you even advertising this?" Valey asked, following along. "No one's just going to show up out of the blue, right?"
Harshwater didn't look back. "Jamjars got us in contact with your friends in the underground. A small mare called Grapejuice? She knew how to spread word around quickly and to the right number of ponies."
"What's Jamjars doing knowing-" Valey groaned. "Never mind, she's Jamjars. So this is just going to work? I still don't know what you need me for."
"I still don't know how anyone would react to you," Harshwater sighed. "Being a famous sarosian, and all. Since we're still getting our hooves in the air with this, maybe you can sit things out for a night? Most of the action will be on the deck, but I can't make promises. Could you just stay with Crystal and the fillies and make sure none of them get up to anything?"
"Oh, that's going to be fun." Valey groaned, pausing at the entrance and then heading down. "But if it's making money like this or owing political favors when we have stuff we need, I guess I know which one I'm gonna choose..."
In Crystal's room, Jamjars and a Starlight were already present. Crystal herself was sitting on a stool, leaning over a desk as she worked two pieces of fabric with her wingtips, making delicate, repetitive stitches.
"Uh, hi," Valey greeted, waving lamely.
"Hey." Jamjars grinned. "How is it up there? Things getting heated?"
Valey frowned. "Still getting set up. Bananas, why did I come down here again?"
Glimmer shrugged, showing off her sightless eyes. "Do you need an excuse?"
"I'm making more outfits, thanks for your interest," Crystal said dryly, balanced with her haunches on the stool and her forehooves on the desk. "Since there's little else to fill my time with."
"You should use Valey as a model," Jamjars suggested. "She'd be real good at it."
"Nope!" Valey instantly backtracked through the door, leaning on it and panting momentarily once she was safe. "Aww bananas... Meh. This is going to be a long series of nights..."
Hours later, when the ship had flown and returned again to harbor, Maple lay weary yet satisfied in the kitchen and the customers had come and gone, Gerardo, Shinespark and Harshwater stood on the deck amid the leftovers of the night and counted their reward.
"About as much as last time," Harshwater announced, the gold separated into stacks on a table that had seen its cloth already carted away by Amber. "That's to be expected, since we only tried to serve three couples. If we want more, we're going to have to find ways to upscale."
"Yet it's still substantial, and we've hardly exhausted our tap of customers who would be willing to return another night," Gerardo mused, straightening the collar on his uniform. "How much time pressure are we under? What's the next significant event that's on the horizon?"
"Valey's next tournament match," Shinespark answered. "That's in a few days." She hesitated. "You... mentioned she might not be continuing, though?"
Harshwater looked down. "I counseled her against it. If she hasn't talked to the rest of you about her decision, that's on her. Either way, I don't see a match in the tournament stopping us from doing this and making money."
"But if I'm understanding, we don't have an end goal, either? Just building up finances in case something happens where they'd help?" Shinespark earnestly tilted her ears.
Gerardo shrugged. "Well, large quantities of money can be incredibly handy to have around..."
Harshwater shook her head. "More importantly, you'd be doing something actually productive with yourselves. Acting like you're living real lives, instead of being a loose family who flies around waiting for things to happen and then wondering why it doesn't work. My old company might not have been perfect, but we traveled the world in an airship similar to this one, and just hanging out isn't how we made it work."
"That might be good for everyone else," Shinespark hesitantly admitted. "For me, though, I still have a home to return to in Ironridge. For me, flying away has always been about finding or making something that could help my city and bringing it back. We could do this for a month or two, or even longer if we found a need. But I don't think I can settle down and live the rest of my life doing what we did tonight, if that's what you're asking."
"Of course not." Harshwater nodded. "We can't do this any more than a month or so even if we wanted to. For one, this ship's fuel is a limited resource, and for two, we have Crystal. I don't know if anyone's discussed a plan for what to do once she foals, but if you haven't, you should. This isn't the kind of thing that waits for convenience."
Gerardo drummed his talons and lowered his voice. "As I understand it, her biggest issue was with Chauncey, right? But if no one's seen hide nor hair of him since that explosion, it could be safe to assume he's gone. We could just take her back to her lover, see to it that they retire happily and out of public view... Provided that she's safe on our ship, it shouldn't make much of a difference whether she's had her child or not by the time we see her safely elsewhere."
"If you think so." Shinespark shrugged. "Maybe we should just sleep on this and try for more money tomorrow?"
"Agreed." Gerardo looked up at the leftover scattering of tables and chairs. "...After we've made our ship once more presentable."