Galahad answered the question by producing a bottle. "Of course. A proper meal is not complete without a good Griffonstone wine."
"Then I believe I would enjoy a glass, señor." "I'll have a tankord," said Azrael. "If that's not too much to ask."
"Non, it is fine. I brought plenty." Gaston walked into the galley and returned with several bottles of wine and a large tankard. He quickly filled everyone's cups and returned to his seat, where he raised his own glass. "A toast, then. To ancient lands, and ancient treasures!"
"Salud!" Navaja raised his glass, and clicked theirs together. "A multilingual toast? Kenpai." Azrael raised his tankord.
"Sante!" Galahad agreed. He tucked into his own meal, after a quick glance around the table confirmed that everypony was enjoying theirs. After a few minutes, Nightshade brought up something she'd discussed with Nova and Rain earlier. "I've been thinking, we all stand to make a lot of money off of this trip, and we're only staying a few days. So I kinda thought, if there's as much loot to be had as I think there is, we won't be able to carry it all." Gaston nodded. "Obviously. So what, you want us to come back for the rest?" She grinned. "Exactly. And not just one ship. An entire fleet. It'd be expensive. At least five million for a dozen ships and crews. But we could make millions, maybe billions of bits if we can pull it off."
"Hopefully you don't mean as soon as we return," Azrael said before downing his tankord. "I would love to go back home at some point."
She shook her head. "No, of course not. Raven's gonna be eighteen, so we're gonna be spending more time together. Get to know each other more. See where it goes, y'know? Plus, we'll need to get our first haul sold off, round up the ships and crews, do a lot of research on where the best treasure will be... I'm thinking six, eight months. Maybe a year."
She reached under the table for her bag, and withdrew a small orb. Az would probably recognize it as the teleportation device Edmond had given her a few days earlier. "We won't need to worry about that. Flair's gonna rig this to the ship itself when it's time to go. We'll be back instantly."
"The shields on the ship are basically a system of enchanted crystals charged with a basic protection spell," Flair explained. "They're arranged in a way that the magic fields overlap and amplify the spell, to the point that it's powerful enough to protect the whole ship. With a little bit of reconfiguration, I can introduce the orb into the system and override the protection spell with the teleportation energy, and amplify it enough to warp the whole ship." "It's a one-shot deal," Nightshade said, "So we're stuck taking the scenic route to get there."
Nightshade shrugged. "I could always just take her along next time. I think she wanted to go this time, but..." She trailed off before finishing the sentence. They all knew what she would have said. It was too dangerous. Nopony knew what waited for them in the old country, because nopony ever came back from the old country.
"Perhaps nopony ever leaves because it's just so amazing," Navaja theorized. "That's what they keep saying, right? Nopony ever returns?"
She nodded. "Yeah. According to my dad, it's been going on for centuries. Every twenty or thirty years, some explorer or archeologist or treasure hunter will lead an expedition to the old country. Nopony's ever made it back. We still don't know what happened to them, or what's over there. All we have are theories."
Nightshade nodded again. "Exactly. We're better equipped, we have a faster ship, and we have the best mercs in Equestria. If we can't pull this off, nopony can."
"And... we have Cannonball Run and Azrael the Dead Pony." "We would make an amazing tag team," Azrael mused.
Cannonball shrugged. "I got the script for a wrestling movie a few weeks ago. I'll call on you if I decide to take the role."
