Rob the army train: 48%
Gain progress toward the following Quirk: Daring (2/4)
“I think we should look into this train thing,” Kestrel said, scratching an ear with her wingtip. “We can’t sit around makin’ nothin’ but pocket change forever. We’re on borrowed time.”
“The government ain’t gonna be too happy with us if we take down one of their trains,” Silvie said. “Wouldn’t that draw a whole lotta attention?”
“Only if they can trace it back to us,” Tumbleweed assured her. He turned to Wanderer and nodded. “The train’s our best bet. Let’s focus our efforts on it.”
Wanderer nodded. “I’ll do some more snooping around, see if I can find out more information about what we’re going to be up against. I wouldn’t hold my breath on it if I were you, though. If I start asking too many questions, ponies are going to get suspicious.”
“Do you at least know when and where?” Kestrel asked him.
“My drinking friend said it would pass through Rock Ridge by two in the afternoon tomorrow,” Wanderer said. “We follow the rail lines up north a bit and set up an ambush, we should be able to stop it entirely.”
“Our new friend might be able to help with that,” Kestrel suggested. “She’s got enough gunpowder packed into that wagon to level the sheriff’s office.”
“Let’s hope we won’t need to do that after we blow the rail lines, then,” Tumbleweed said. “Guess it was mighty fortunate you crossed paths with her today.”
“Guess so.”
Silver frowned and looked off to the north. “If we’re gonna blow the rails tomorrow, we gotta find a good place to do it. We should take a look, find someplace they won’t see us comin’.”
Tumbleweed grinned and patted Silver on the back. “I’m glad you’re learnin’, Silvie. Keep this up and you’ll have a gang of your own, one day.” The praise made Silver blush, and Tumbleweed nodded along as he thought to himself. “How’s about you and Kessie go and take a look for us, as you’re the two birds here. I’ll handle this Trixie mare, get her onboard cleanly and safely. We can’t know if we can trust her ‘til she breaks the law with the rest of us.”
“Sounds good to me,” Kestrel said. “See you stallions back at camp.”
She spread her wings and took to the skies, Silvie at her side, while Tumbleweed and Wanderer made their way back into the saloon. The thermals rising from the desert sands let them climb to altitude without much difficulty, and soon the two mares were flying north, keeping the two gleaming lines of steel running across the desert to their left.
It would be a long flight to find a secluded spot to safely stop the train, Kestrel knew, so she drifted back a little bit to let Silvie fly by her side. “You been awfully quiet today,” she noted, the accusation surprising the younger mare. “What got your tongue?”
Was Silver able to get a good read of the Mayor during their conversation? Yes
“The Mayor…” Silver said. “Somethin’ rubbed me the wrong way while we was talkin’ to him. Not sure if Tumbleweed felt it too; I don’t think he did. It’s like… he knew we weren’t upstandin’ citizens and the like.”
Kestrel chuckled. “That ain’t too hard to pick out just from the looks of us. Most ponies don’t carry two revolvers unless they get up to some serious shootin’. The Law only cares when they know for a fact you done somethin’ wrong; they’re too tied up in rules and regulations to arrest us otherwise. Praise Celestia for makin’ a land of freedom and all that.”
“It weren’t that,” Silver protested. “It’s just… he looked at me, and I felt like he could see right through me. Like he knew who I was and all, but he didn’t say nothin’. He seemed much more interested in gettin’ us to do what he wanted than figurin’ out who we was.”
They flew in silent thought for a few moments. The news bothered Kestrel; she knew Silvie’s instincts were practically second to none, and if something bothered the young mare, then it was worth taking into consideration. “Well, ain’t nothin’ we can do ‘bout it now,” Kestrel said, shrugging her shoulders mid-flight. “Bring it up to Tumbleweed when we get back to camp. It’s worth talkin’ about. For now, though, I think we’s just about here.”
Silver nodded and drifted back from Kestrel a little bit, her eyes surveying the ground below them. Kestrel slowed down and did the same. They were far enough from Rock Ridge that it was barely a brown smear against the pale yellow horizon, and there were no roads or buildings in sight. Below them, the rail line seemed to stretch on forever to the north and south, though Kestrel immediately spotted several good places to set up an ambush.
“What do you make of it?” Silver asked her, rejoining her at her side. “We’re so far from civilization that I don’t think it matters where we blow the rails.”
“Oh, it matters alright,” Kestrel reprimanded her. “Way I see it, we got three places to set a trap.”
“We do?” Silvie asked, cocking her head to the side.
Kestrel nodded and pointed down to the earth. “See, we could just set the charges in the open, blow the rails and hide behind some of them boulders by the tracks. But see that bridge over the gorge up ahead? We blow the bridge, the train goes plummetin’ down to the ground below. Ain’t many guards on it gonna survive that, ‘part from their pegasi, I reckon’.”
Then she pointed further up the tracks. “And up there, the rails go through that narrow canyon. We stop the train there and get the Gang up on the rocks, it’ll be shootin’ fish in a barrel. Might even get ‘em to surrender. Course, gettin’ all the goods outta the canyon’s gonna be difficult.”
Silver chewed on her lip in thought. “I only joined you guys on the last train job on a stupid whim. I ain’t got no idea what’s best here.”
“Good thing you’re flyin’ with somepony experienced, then,” Kestrel said, winking at her. “Now, let’s see…”
1. Set the charges in the open. Not a whole lotta cover and it’ll be difficult to control a fight, but it’ll be easy to get the haul outta the train and back to camp if we bring a wagon or two. The faster we can hit the train and leave, the less chance of gettin’ caught.
2. Blow the bridge. We take down the bridge, we take down the soldiers with it. We’ll have fewer to fight, but there’s the risk that the haul could get damaged when the train falls a hundred feet to the gorge below. It’ll also be hard to get the haul out fast if we have to bring the wagons down there or fly things up to the top one by one.
3. Set the charges in the canyon. We box ‘em in, we stop ‘em from runnin’, and with the high ground, they ain’t gonna be able to put up much of a fight. We might get ‘em to surrender, but it’s gonna be nearly impossible to get the haul outta that canyon in any hurry, it’s so narrow.
(Confidence Required: 45 Votes)