The liaison to the Minister of War had arrived in Port Regal, and met with Spike in the Govenor's mansion. He sat down in the chair before him and asked, "So, you claim that the Valencians are making those mechanical monstrosities again?"

Spike took a sip of his drink and said, "Indeed. I lost my eye because of an attack on Canterlot by the Valencians, and when you hit them on the ear, the Valencian naval officers are disguised Clockworks."

The liaison almost spit out his drink, but calmed himself, "And how does Monquista fit into this?"

"The Monquistans waged war with Equestria because of a personal beef between me and a Monquistan Guard Captain stationed here in Skull Island. I do not know if the Monquistans know that their Valencian allies are actually clockworks."

The liaison thought for a moment, "Monquista has so many problems with their civil war... You really must have angered someone for them to risk a war with Equestria."

Spike cleared his throat and said, "Let's just say things got pretty heated while discussing my views on slavery." The heated part was him trying to hide the fact that he set the captain on fire. "Things got so bad that the Governor of Puerto Rico, the captain's cousin, ordered an attack on my personal ship. That's what started the war."

"I see, I've met with the Puerto Rican Governor, and I must say, he was an absolute nightmare to talk with."

Spike nodded, "Which is why we set up a blockade. You can't even imagine how far South that went. My soldiers were helping the civilians, who were forced to ration everything, even water. Then all of a sudden, I get a report that somebody stole powder kegs from one of the ships and blew the Governor's mansion to kingdom come."

The Marleybonian sounded a bit concerned, what Spike described was terrorism. He could tell Spike had nothing to do with the explosion, and that the people of Puerto Mico were angry at the Governor, but that didn't make it ok to blow up a building. He spoke, "Interesting. Well, I believe Equestria and Marleybone will be powerful allies. I do have one thing I should mention. The treaty between Valencia and Mooshu was never truly absolved. Marleybone was caught off guard by an attack from Hamamitsu instead of Valencia. The delegates of Mooshu haven't been able to talk to officials about ending the treaty."

"And I believe you see why the Valencians avoided repealing the treaty, the war was far from over in the eyes of the remaining clockworks."

The liaison nodded, "Right you are your majesty. I believe this talk has gone on long enough. I've been given temporary permissions, so in place of the Minister of War, Marleybone is now an ally of Equestria and the Monquistan Civil War."

Spike smiled, "Thank you, I pay my dues, and I never leave an ally defenseless. If I can't do something about Mooshu revoking their treaty with Valencia, I'll send ships to protect and blockade the storm gate between Marleybone and Mooshu. Next to pre-war Polaris, Equestria has the strongest navy in the spiral."

The liaison opened his mouth to speak, but then took his pocket watch out and said, "Oh my, look at the time, I'm late for the cricket match! I'm terribly sorry young prince, but I must be going. I'll relay our meeting to the Minister of War to make things official." before leaving the mansion.

Lucy came out from her mother's office and walked down to the ground floor to see Spike, she kissed him on the cheek and asked, "Hello my darling prince. I assume the negotiations went well?"

Spike smiled, "Yes, Marleybone and Equestria are allies now. Although, I don't know what to do next... before we figured out I was going to be a father, my crew and I were on a treasure hunt, and the war is going slowly right now, so perhaps we could return to that."

Lucy's eyes sparkled when Spike mentioned a treasure hunt and said, "That sounds so exciting! Fighting off enemies, the sounds of cannons and guns!"

Spike told her, "I wouldn't get too cheery. Arrogance cost me my hand two years ago, when I first came to Skull Island."

Lucy calmed down a bit and said, "Oh, I didn't know. I think I get the idea, that pirates in real life are nothing like the ones you read about in fictional works."

Spike nodded, "Right, it's not a glamorous job, but I will admit it's the most fun I've had in the past years, even though I lost my hand, if I had to do it again, I wouldn't change a thing."

Lucy giggled, "I'm glad to hear that, since if you decided not to be a pirate, we'd have never met each other." before kissing Spike on the lips, "I'll be getting some cloths ready before I head to your ship." and leaving

"I am one lucky man..."

In Equestria...

The Canterlot PD was in a stir. Blueblood had escaped from his cell by faking a heart attack, and then stealing a guard's gun and shooting him before running off. When Celestia was told about this, she asked the warden, "Why was my nephew in prison in the first place?"

The warden gulped, "With all due respect my queen, we didn't realize who we had arrested until after we were at the precinct. During the festival celebrating the birth of the prince's daughter, we arrested a man for disturbing the peace, the one who was trying to make the prince look bad. We didn't realize it was Blueblood until we'd already put him in jail."

Celestia sighed and thought for a moment, saying to herself, "Blueblood was always jealous of Spike, he won't even accept the fact that he's not royalty, he never was. He believes because his uncle married the queen means he's automatically royalty. Still, I can't have him going after Spike and ruining the war campaign..." and then spoke out loud, "Station officers at every dock and train station in Canterlot, even the castle docks. Hang wanted posters with a reward of 500,000 gold pieces for information that leads to his arrest."

The warden nodded, "Yes your majesty!" before leaving to relay the information to the rest of the Canterlot PD.

And so, Spike has made an alliance with Marleybone, and he is truly considering returning to his treasure hunt, since the war is going smoothly in the favor of Equestria. Will Spike be able to return to the Isle of Doom, or is he still needed in the war effort?

Meanwhile, following his arrest during the festival to celebrate Aurora's birth, Blueblood has escaped from prison. Celestia is setting up guards at every dock and train station in Canterlot, and is offering a massive reward in order to capture him before he does something reckless, or worse, try to harm Spike. Will half a million pieces of gold be enough to get him arrested again?

Only time will tell...

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