Kestrel and Starlight made their way across the camp toward the lake, with Starlight taking in her surroundings with great interest, as if she was committing every detail to memory. Kestrel wasn’t sure if she was just fascinated with being in an outlaws’ camp or something else, but didn’t let it bother her. Starlight’s goals and the Gang’s goals were roughly aligned, and together, they’d crash the Apple Conglomerates conference and hopefully make off like kings and queens, all while delivering Starlight’s message of revolution to the people of Hoofston.
As they approached Silver and Tumbleweed, the younger pegasus alerted Tumbleweed to their presence with a flick of her ear, and the Gang’s leader turned around with a slight grin on his face and an unlit cigar in his magic. “Ah! Starlight! Welcome to our humble little campsite,” he said, sticking out a hoof for her to shake. “Looks like we can finally talk without any magic or illusions to hide our faces.”
“Only yours,” Starlight reminded him, but she shook his offered hoof. “‘Mulberry’, I take it?”
“Call me Tumbleweed,” the stallion said. “Scourge of the Equestrian government and law-abidin’ ponies from Canterlot to Appleloosa, and soon to be Hoofston. Least, that’s what the Law seems to think of us.”
“Assuming this goes off without any difficulties, you’ll soon be trusted friends of the Revolution.”
“Maybe then somepony’ll erect statues of us instead of gallows.” Tumbleweed offered his cigar to Starlight, who politely shook her head, before he lit it and stuck it in his mouth. “Come on, let’s discuss this by the fire. You thirsty or hungry? We’ve got plenty to share.”
Starlight nodded and followed the stallion toward the center of camp. “I would appreciate that. After all, Kestrel and Silver didn’t give me much time to order anything at the bar for lunch.”
Kestrel breathily chuckled as she dug out a cigarette from her pockets. “That bar food ain’t gonna be as good as some of Miss Irons’ home cookin’. Say, where’s everypony at?” she asked, turning to Tumbleweed. “Camp seems damn empty.”
“Well, Miss Irons and Wanderer are by the chuck wagon, you can see,” Tumbleweed said, pointing off to the side where the two elderly ponies were preparing the next pot of stew. “Snapshot and Roughshod are fishin’ further along the lake. Rough said he found a good spot, though I guess we’ll just have to wait and see ‘bout that. And Trixie, well, figure she’s inside of her wagon workin’ on somethin’. Or maybe catchin’ a few more winks. Never know with our magician.”
Starlight raised an eyebrow. “Is she the one that cast those poorly-done illusions for you?”
“Yeah, sad to say it but she’s the closest thing we got to a mage ‘round here,” Kestrel said. “Tumbleweed just knows how to hold a gun in that magic of his.”
“You don’t give me enough credit,” Tumbleweed said, dragging over the crate of beer while the three mares sat down around the fire. “I’ve got a few more tricks up my sleeve that come out now and again.”
“But what makes the illusions so bad?” Silver asked, holding out a wing to receive the bottle of beer as Tumbleweed passed the first one to her. “They look fine to me.”
“It’s just something you notice if you’ve studied real magic,” Starlight said. “Your illusionist is trying to create illusions from mental pictures and hang it over your bodies like a curtain instead of letting the spell do the work for her, which is what any real trained mage would do. There’s little irregularities in how the light shines on your face, for example, that most ponies wouldn’t really notice unless they took a good, long look at you. Plus, it’s inefficient, so a trained horn like my own can feel the magic if you get too close.”
“Maybe we should team up more after this conference,” Tumbleweed mused. He passed out two more beers to Kestrel and Starlight before sitting down across from them. “If you’re as knowledgeable as you claim, then we might both benefit from such an arrangement.”
Kestrel nodded along at that idea. Having a pony as magically powerful and trained as Starlight could be useful in the future… but that was a thought for the future. At the moment, there were more pressing concerns to be dealt with. “We’ll look back into that after the conference, I feel,” she said. “Right now, we should be thinkin’ out a plan.”
“Right.” Tumbleweed took a drag from his cigar and then washed away the taste with a sip of beer. “So, Silvie gave me the gist of the thing, ‘fore the two of you showed up. Six ponies dealin’ with the auction house, and six causin’ a distraction someplace else. I right ‘bout that?”
“That’s what we have in mind,” Starlight said. “One of my companions and myself will be part of the six taking on the auction house, and three of your seven should join my other three companions in causing the distraction. That should give us a roughly even balance for taking on this task.”
“And your companions, they can fight?” Tumbleweed asked her.
“I plan on taking myself and my right-hoof unicorn to the conference. We can both handle ourselves,” Starlight said. “I have a pegasus, an earth pony, and another unicorn that can help with the distraction. They’re obviously not as experienced in handling weapons as your gang is, but they can handle themselves in a scrape. Depending on how the distraction goes, however, they might benefit from having some more capable ponies accompanying them.”
Tumbleweed rubbed his chin in thought. “Well, whatever we choose to hit to start a distraction, we’re gonna need capable ponies to pull it off. At the same time, though, if the distraction ain’t good enough to draw off lots of Pinks from the conference, we don’t want the team that’s gonna be lootin’ the joint to be without good shots. We’ll have to split our group carefully.”
“Right,” Kestrel agreed. She gave herself a few moments to think, and then nodded to herself. “I think the three ponies we send to the distraction should be…”
[PICK ANY THREE - SEE AUTHOR'S NOTE]
1. Kestrel
2. Tumbleweed
3. Roughshod
4. Silver Wings
5. Snapshot
6. Wanderer
7. Trixie