At the sergeant's suggestion, they’d all carried down a selection of tobacco products, some coffee, some tea, a couple of bottles of rum, and, of all things, a basket of avocados from the palace pantry, to serve as a sort of diplomatic lubricant with the Rocks. That canny bat had actually smuggled in some stuff herself earlier, to bribe the musicians in the Grand Hall of Stars! Kind of an underhoofed way of doing business, but if that's what it took to get stuff done among the batponies...