Valey stood on the deck of the Immortal Dream, brushing her wings off after depositing Shinespark and allowing her and the pegasi to go to work. While she wasn't clueless about the technology that empowered the boat, it also wasn't her place, so she was happy to step back and let the experts do the work.
Her hooves took her on a circuit of the ship, figuring that when she needed to talk to the whole crew, anyone she could find would be a good place to start. The library was regretfully trashed again, books laying with bent pages after the rocking the brood beasts had given the ship. She stopped and smoothed a few out, finding it almost therapeutic but with too much to do to sit there and fix them all day.
The cabins... There were five on the starboard side and four on port, Shinespark's taking up the size of two regular ones. Though it was Jamjars' now... Valey made a mental note to only let the filly keep it until they had dealt with enough problems that she could afford not keeping her happy and out of the way. Behind it was the one where they had moved Meltdown and Gazelle, and then Jamjars' old room, and then an empty one where Crystal had once stayed...
The other side had Gerardo's, which she guessed was being shared with Slipstream now. Maple, Starlight and Amber's. Harshwater's. One clearly marked as Felicity's, which had once been Slipstream's. Nyala's. And Grenada slept in the observation room, Howe and Neon Nova were staying somewhere, she didn't even know where Starlight's lookalike had been...
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we don't have a whole lotta room for pegasi," Valey told Nyala's door, thinking out loud.
"I beg your pardon?" The door opened, revealing Howe instead.
Valey instantly reacted, pointing an accusing hoof. "Pancake, what are you doing in the room with my sister's name on it?"
"Hearing something about having no room for pegasi," Howe harrumphed, posturing mildly enough that he might not have meant it. "As well as housekeeping, my scathing madame." His eyes shifted, and his voice fell. "Look, things are still messy from our Empire escape, and I know who'll be the first to walk the plank now that someone's in charge again so please oh please don't throw me stranded out in the hills with naught but my brother to keep me company or worse? We can pull our weight."
Valey watched him with a clear show of disinterest, but this was the job she had volunteered for. "Fine. Alright, Pancake. Give me your best case for why we shouldn't boot you two out like we've been trying to do since Ironridge."
Howe smiled feebly. "Charity?"
"Thanks for making my job easy." Valey turned her back on him. "You don't want to travel with us either, do you? Just not even gonna try?"
Howe shuffled and cleared his throat. "Permission to be frank without re-earning my nickname?"
"Speak up."
"You see..." Howe took a breath. "Your crew has issues. You may have a low opinion of my good brother and I, and we've been nothing but respectful in our own way, but we neither begged nor bothered anyone to be brought along. One moment we were doing our legitimate and unfraudulent jobs, which you should be proud of given how much nonsense pubic speakers-for-hire can be called on for, and the next we were scooped up amid your battle and spirited here without question or comment. Usually when we stick around squads like yours, it's for money, and we don't work for free."
Valey raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "So we ask the guards out there how to take you two back to the border, and everyone's happier for it. Good deal."
Howe's eyes shifted. "You realize we see a lot of tight-knit groups in our line of work, right? Yours isn't unique. There are others who are transient, have this us-against-the-world mindset, have similarities between their issues. Highly charismatic leaders. Enough drive to get resources, and enough resources to do something, which often involves hiring no-questions-asked folks like us, which might I remind you Maple did back in Gnarlbough. And they have some broad and lofty goal that they say binds them together, but is always just an excuse so they don't have to say it's for companionship, because whether they're outcasts or don't fit in, they just have nowhere else to go."
Valey frowned. "Where are you going with this?"
"You're not paying me to be your personal echo chamber, are you?" Howe shrugged. "Then I'm saying what I've always wanted to say to groups like yours before even beginning a job. This is a personality cult, and I can't tell whether you or Starlight is the leader."
"Not very flattering terminology, there, buddy," Valey said neutrally, standing her ground.
"It is what it is." Howe didn't break eye contact. "So if you'll take the best unsolicited advice of my life, listen up: you will never win your war against whatever you see as being wrong with the world. I've seen a few of these groups collapse while I was there, but most of them I just leave exactly the way I found them, plus or minus a few members. Sometimes, I have repeat customers, and they're still fighting, no closer to their goals than they were years and years ago. So please don't be like them. It gets depressing after a while." He turned away. "Your kind might be how I make my living, but it would make my day if one of you actually learned a thing or two."
Valey watched him levelly as he retreated for the stairs in the cargo hold. "Good talk, Pancake. See ya."
When he was gone, she leaned her forehead against a wall, closed her eyes and sighed. "Bananas, even he's giving lectures about how this team's getting driven into the ground. It's obvious enough for Pancake to get on a soapbox about. Bananas."
She stood up and shook her head. "Find somewhere reasonably safe. Settle down. No more adventures. Figure out how to get everyone happy and well-adjusted... No big deal, right?"
The silence didn't bother to refute her.
Setting her jaw, Valey strolled away. There was work to be done if they wanted to be anywhere else than floating in the bay north of Griffonstone, and she was far from tired yet.
"Felicity?" Valey called, dropping from the railing and flipping down the stairs to the dining hall purely for the sake of doing it. "Yo, you still lurking here? I need a talk...!"
Felicity was indeed still present, laying on a cushion at the side of the room and looking torn between getting up and doing nothing, or staying put and also doing nothing. "Oh! Darling, you're... You are?"
"Yeah." Valey trotted over, sitting down in front of her. "So. Crew audit, because the ship is full and I need to know who here I can trust and why, and you and I have had some issues before." There was no subtlety in her voice. "Same deal I gave Pancake: tell me why I should trust you and let you hang around."
Felicity needed no further bidding to lunge forward and grab Valey, practically kissing her hooves. "I'm sorry! I thought I'd never get to say it but I'm sorry...!"
"Huh." Valey stared at her with no idea how to respond. "Well, this is different."