The General Store: 9 Votes
“Ain’t you a wanted mare ‘round these parts?” Roughshod asked her.
Kestrel rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you saw the poster Wanderer brought back just as I did. Still kinda pissed about the five hundred bits, I’m worth at least ten times that.”
Roughshod snickered. “I’d say that five hundred’s ten times what you’re worth. But at any rate, saloon’s probably too dangerous if somepony recognizes you. We’ll end up in a shootout for sure.”
“’S what I was thinkin’,” Kestrel murmured. Her eyes settled on the general store, and she left the cover of the chicken coop and began to slink her way over in the shadow of the night. “General store’s likely to have a few stragglers spillin’ over from the saloon without gettin’ too much attention. Might be we ask the owner if he seen Wanderer today.”
“Store’s closed,” Roughshod pointedly observed.
“Where you think the owner lives? Next town over?” She pointed with a feather to the glow of candlelight in the second story windows. “I think he’ll be more than happy to help us if we ask politely.”
The stallion behind her cracked his neck from side to side. “Or not so politely.”
“Save it for if his tongue needs loosenin’,” Kestrel told him. Then, pausing by the fence, she looked up and down the dusty ground behind Rock Ridge’s buildings before scurrying into the shadow of the store on light hooves. Roughshod lumbered in after her, and the two outlaws pressed up against the side of the building, next to the back door. Roughshod tried it to see if it was unlocked, but all he managed to do was rattle the door in its frame.
“I’ll break it down,” Roughshod said, taking a step back.
Before he could, Kestrel held out a wing over the wood. “You break that door and we’re gonna have a whole lotta problems,” she said. “Knock and see if we can get him to talk to us. Better we do this quiet and don’t attract the whole town’s attention.”
Roughshod grumbled. “Why don’t you do it, then?”
“You think the pony runnin’ the damn general store ain’t seen the posters yet?” Kestrel scowled at him. “Get him to talk to us, and if need be, get us inside. Quietly.”
“Alright, alright, I get it. You on that time of the month or somethin’?”
“Bickerin’ with you makes me feel like it’s always that time,” Kestrel growled. “Just get on with it.”
The burly earth pony muttered something under his breath, squared his shoulders, and knocked forcefully on the back door. When there wasn’t any response after a few moments, he pounded on the door some more. “Hey, you home, clerk? I’ve got some questions I need to ask you!”
Kestrel, meanwhile, stood in the darkness off to the side, gambler’s hat tilted low to hide her face and ear held close to the thin wooden walls to listen for any sounds of movement inside. At first, she heard nothing, but then she heard the distinct sound of wood sliding on wood up above her as a window opened. “Who is it, and why are you calling on me at this hour?” a stallion’s voice rang out from the window above. “My wife and I are trying to sleep!”
“You sure you’re sleepin’ up there with all them candles?” Roughshod shouted back up to him. “Or am I keepin’ you from playin’ hide an’ seek with your prick?”
Sighing, Kestrel rubbed gray feathers over her brown face. She could already imagine the store clerk scowling down at him. With any luck, maybe he had a shotgun by the wall and would just blast Roughshod’s head away and put him out of her misery. “What do you want?” the clerk spluttered instead. “If you’re up to no good, I’ll have you know I got guns in here, sir, and I know how to use them!”
Not as well as Rough or me, certainly, Kestrel thought. Her feathers played with the polished grips of her revolvers, and she made sure the snaps on their holsters were popped for easy drawing.
“I got somethin’ important I need to talk to you about,” Roughshod said. “I need your help findin’ somepony. You may have seen ‘em. There’s gold involved…”
He trailed off, the unspoken addendum left crystal clear. Kestrel held her breath in the ensuing silence, imagining the clerk’s common sense waging battle against his greed.
Roughshod uses Sweet Talker (4) to convince the clerk to talk: Success
“Gold, eh?” he finally asked. “Who’re you looking for?”
“An old pegasus,” Roughshod said. “Coat that’s red like wet clay. You seen him?”
Has the store owner seen Wanderer? Yes
“Might be I did,” the stallion answered. “He was in here getting some gin and chew earlier. Oatcakes and revolver ammunition, too. Strange assortment, but I’m not one to judge. I’ve seen worse.” A pause. “How does this involve gold?”
“I’ll get to that,” Roughshod said. “Soon as you tell me where he went.”
“I don’t know,” the stallion admitted. “I don’t tend to follow my customers outside once they finish their business, you know? Just common sense…”
Kestrel uses Instincts (7) to tell if the store owner is telling the truth: Success
Roughshod glanced at Kestrel, eyebrow raised in the moonlight, and the mare slowly nodded her head. The shop keep didn’t have any waver to his voice or hesitation that would have marked him as a liar; he probably thought if he kept cooperating there’d be plenty of gold for him at the end of it all. At least that meant he’d be plenty easy to deal with and ask what they wanted.
“He meet with anypony?” Roughshod asked. “We need to know who he was dealin’ with if we wanna get that gold.”
Did Wanderer interact with anypony else while at the shop? Yes
“Yeah, come to mention it, I think he did,” came the reply. “Blue unicorn, clean shaven, with a snakeskin hat. They talked about something in hushed voices in the corner. I wasn’t paying it too much attention so I don’t know what they said.”
“When was this?”
“Shortly before supper, I think. Might be they went over to the saloon for something to eat afterward; they left together, though neither looked too happy about it.”
Must be one of the Vipers, Kestrel thought to herself. So Wanderer did make contact with them again, most likely. They left the store together, maybe to the saloon, but there was no way to be sure about that at the moment. At least they had the description of the Viper he’d gone with.
“I see.” Roughshod touched the brim of his hat and bowed his head. “Thank you kindly for your time, partner. Now get back to entertainin’ your wife and forget we were here.”
“But… what about the gold?”
“There’ll be gold at the end of it, I’m sure,” Roughshod assured him. “Everypony knows the Vipers are sittin’ on a load of it.”
“Vipers… you a bounty hunter, mister?”
“I’ve done some work in the past. What of it?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Glad to see somepony taking care of the Vipers for once. They’ve been ruining this town for a long time now.”
“We’ll see what we can do.” Roughshod’s eyes found Kestrel, and he nodded with a barely perceptible dip of his head. “You just sit tight with that wife of yours in case things get loud.”
“Loud? Sir?”
“Might wanna keep that window closed and stay down for your own good.” With nothing more than that, Roughshod turned around and walked into the alley between buildings, Kestrel slipping after him. She thought she heard the forceful slam of a window closing as she left.
The two outlaws waited in the shadow of the alley for things to fall completely silent again before they looked at each other. “How much you wanna bet that blue fucker’s still in the saloon?” Roughshod asked Kestrel.
“We don’t know that for sure,” Kestrel said. “Could be he and Wanderer went anywhere.”
“If the Vipers are behind this, then we can beat the tar outta any of ‘em and get what we want.” Kestrel noted the eager way Roughshod watched the saloon down the street, candlelight spilling out onto the dusty ground. There were ponies inside, alright; the noise made that much obvious. But who was in there and how many, she couldn’t tell.
“Easy there,” Kestrel warned him. “We don’t want to get in a fight we ain’t ready for yet.”
Is anypony leaving the saloon right now? Yes
As she watched, a trio of ponies staggered out of the doors, shouting insults back into the building as they all but fell down the stairs to the road. They were grizzled ponies made hard by the San Palomino, that much was obvious at a glance. Dusty and worn clothing covered their bodies, they hadn’t shaved in at least a few days, and Kestrel was all but certain they were armed. There wasn’t a blue unicorn in their mix, but the ratty way in which they dressed left her convinced that they had to be outlaws or miscreants of some kind.
“How about that one?” Roughshod asked her. “Think any of them work for Rattlesnake?”
“Might be,” Kestrel admitted. “Won’t know for sure from here.”
1. Go to the saloon. The store clerk said that Wanderer and that blue unicorn mighta gone to the saloon after meetin’ up in the store. Maybe one or both are still there; might be worth bravin’ any trouble there to get a good look around.
2. Talk to the three drunkards. They look like the rough and tumble sort, though there’s no tellin’ if they’re part of the Vipers from here or just another lot of lawless louts like us. Might be they know somethin’ about Wanderer; might be they know nothin’ at all and we’re wastin’ our time.
3. Try to find Tumbleweed and Silver. Maybe the boss found somethin’ we ain’t found yet at the post office. Could be worth tryin’ to find him and compare notes ‘fore we do anythin’ more.