Accept Tin Cup’s offer: 11 Votes
“A fort don’t mean nothin’ if you can’t get the chance to use it,” Kestrel said after some thought. “If we get inside the fort, then their walls ain’t gonna help ‘em. If we draw ‘em out of the fort, then we can forget about it altogether. Twenty ponies is a lot for a couple of guns to handle, but there’s ways to wittle it down.”
“Then it sounds like I should leave the details to the professionals, then,” Tin Cup said with a curt nod. “I don’t particularly care how you go about it, but so long as we don’t have to deal with Murky Glass’ crew undercutting our sales with cheap trash, then I’ll be satisfied. And we’ll hold up our end of the bargain.”
“I would hope so,” Tumbleweed said, and he let that statement hang in the air for a moment while he put the moonshine to his lips and drained the cup. When he put it down, he directed a pointed nod in Tin Cup’s direction. “Five is easier than twenty, after all.”
Tin Cup met his gaze, and a few seconds of uneasy silence hung over the table before Kestrel felt the need to say something to break it. “Where’s this fort at, then?” she asked the two shiners sitting across from her. “We’re gonna wanna have a look ‘round it ‘fore we plan anythin’ out. Need to know the ins and outs, patrols, weaknesses, you name it.”
“I can get you a map sketched up real quick!” Pinpoint called out, thankful that Kestrel had taken the initiative to break the unease between the two stallions permeating the swampy air around them. She hopped to her hooves to go find some paper and something to draw with, but she offered some verbal directions before she left. “It’s a couple of miles southwest of here, on one of the waterways coming in from the bay. You wouldn’t find it less you sailed up the water some, but it was built to control the Maressissippi from the bay. Find the river, and you’ll find it soon enough.”
As she slipped away, Tin Cup directed his attention to Kestrel. “I trust you’ll be able to find it on your wings if you need to. But, if there’s anything else you need to know, then just ask. I would hate to send you there unprepared.”
While Kestrel doubted the truth behind that claim, she didn’t voice those thoughts. Instead, she turned the conversation toward more practical matters. “There are a few of us with guns who can do the job,” she said. “But what ‘bout your crew? You got five ponies here, and capable I would assume. You ain’t gonna help us out? It would even the odds some.”
Tumbleweed quickly seized on that thread and tapped his hooves against the table. “If takin’ these ponies down is as important to you as you make it sound, surely you’d wanna have a stake in it too to bolster your odds of success.”
Tumbleweed uses Sweet Talker (9) to convince the shiners to help with dealing with their rivals: Success
After a moment of thought, Tin Cup leaned back on his stool and looked in the direction Pinpoint had trotted off. “You can take Pin along with you,” he said. “I’m sure she’ll be happy to help. But I’m going to tell her to stay back and not put herself in any more danger than she needs to be in.”
“Only her?” Kestrel asked, raising an eyebrow. “She the only one of you who knows how to use a gun?”
“She’s the one of us I’m least worried about,” Tin Cup said with a frown. “She’s a marksmare, and don’t let that dingy rifle of hers fool you, she’s as good a shot as anypony I’ve ever met. And if you don’t manage to put our rivals out of business, then I can’t afford to let Murky Glass know that we’re behind it. It’s only five against twenty, and he’d likely be able to replace anypony he loses if you don’t thoroughly trash his business. The less involved we are, the better.”
Kestrel and Tumbleweed shared a look; though both ponies knew the other didn’t like it, they also knew that it was as good of a deal they were going to get out of the shiners’ shrewd leader. “We’ll take her, then,” Tumbleweed said. “We got a markspony of our own. The two of ‘em together’ll be a force to be reckoned with.”
“Good.” Tin Cup allowed himself a small smile—the one and only Kestrel had seen him let slip since they started talking with him. “And once again, I assure you that I think I can give you what you’re looking for. It’ll be tough, but well, the best things in life aren’t easy.”
“That is a lesson we’ve learned all too well,” Tumbleweed said, though his words were almost a bitter mutter to himself, and one that Kestrel herself unfortunately understood. “When we make our move on the fort, we’ll swing by here and grab Pinpoint to come along with us. Plan for three days’ time from now. Gotta take some time to scout out the fort and draw up a plan of action.”
He stood up, which Kestrel took as the signal to do the same, and Tin Cup gave them a nod from his seat. “A plan it is, then. Best of luck to your little gang.”
“Thank you kindly,” was all Tumbleweed had to offer to him, and after Pinpoint came back with a crudely drawn map of the area surrounding New Oatleans, the two outlaws said their quick goodbyes and made their way out of the shiners’ camp.
Only when they were about a mile or two away, following the road out of the camp to stay on high and dry ground, did Tumbleweed begin to let loose some of the thoughts behind his pensive expression. “They got the better end of that deal,” he finally said.
“Why’s that?” Kestrel asked him. “They’re gonna give us information to somethin’ that’ll be worth tens of thousands of bits. Enough to get outta Equestria and never look back. If they’re gonna stay here and make even more noise in the shinin’ business, I feel like they’re only gonna get more law attention on ‘em.”
“And isn’t that what we’re doin’, Kessie?” Tumbleweed asked her. “If this Murky Glass feller really is related to New Oatleans’ mayor, and assumin’ the rumor mill is true that the mayor’s lettin’ his operation slide ‘cause of blood, then we might just be whippin’ a sleepin’ bear that’s gonna be mighty ticked off at us.” He shook his head and his pensive expression shifted to a scowl. “On top of that, it’s gonna be a hoofful of us against twenty. All it takes is a lucky shot and that’s another member of the family we’re buryin’. You seen it happen to Wanderer.”
“You don’t have to remind me,” Kestrel bitterly remarked. “But what other choice we got? The only other thing we know’ll have enough money to get us outta the country is that big bank in the city, and that ain’t gonna be an easy prize to take. This might be an even better opportunity than that.”
“And if we lose ponies tryin’ to help these shiners out? What if we ain’t got the strength to even seize upon that opportunity once we know what it is?” Tumbleweed stopped and sighed, stomping his hoof once into the dirt in obvious frustration. “We’re gettin’ put in a box, Kessie, and the walls all got knives lookin’ to stick ‘em in our backs. And the box is gettin’ smaller by the day. Ain’t no more room for slip-ups, and we gotta be careful with how much risk we’re takin’.”
“Waitin’ ‘round doin’ nothin’ ain’t gonna get us outta the box either,” Kestrel countered. “Helpin’ these shiners with their business is the only way forward I see. We just gotta hope we can come up with a good plan that’ll get us through this mess without losin’ anypony.”
But Tumbleweed hesitated, earning a look from Kestrel. “Tin Cup knows somethin’. Either he does, or he don’t,” he said. “We can find out for sure, and we ain’t gotta go through this whole deal with the big group of shiners.”
This time it was Kestrel’s turn to frown. “Yeah?”
“We got you, me, Rough, Snapshot, Silvie, maybe even that robot we picked up,” Tumbleweed said. “That’s six ‘gainst five. And apart from Pinpoint, the rest of ‘em probably ain’t great fighters. I like those odds better than six ‘gainst twenty.”
“You sayin’ we should turn on ‘em? Go back on our word and beat what Tin Cup knows outta him?” Kestrel grimaced at the cold logic behind Tumbleweed’s suggestion. “We ain’t monsters, boss.”
“Our lives are becomin’ ever increasingly them or us,” Tumbleweed countered. He took a step toward Kestrel and poked his hoof into her chest. “If we can get outta here with crackin’ five skulls instead of twenty, I say we need to take it. And what if Tin Cup’s lyin’? He’s just usin’ us to take a shot at his rivals, and he don’t care one way or another if we live or die. He’d probably like it if we wiped each other out. He might tell Pinpoint to put bullets in our brains if we do survive just to make sure we don’t come to collect our debt, especially if he’s full of hot air.”
“And if he ain’t?” Kestrel asked, wary.
“Then we get what we need to know outta him, one leg at a time if we have to,” Tumbleweed said. “But if he’s lyin’ to us, then we don’t risk the Gang for nothin’. It’s a win-win, way I see it.” But he stopped and bit his lip. “I need to know that you’re with me, Kessie,” he told her. “I can’t let this stand to wedge the Gang apart. We need to think ‘bout what’s best for us, not anypony else. But I don’t want this to turn into a case of me and Rough on one side and you and Silvie on the other. We can’t get through this if we ain’t got each others’ backs.”
His eyes met Kestrel’s. “We have to put our family above everythin’ else. Nothin’ else matters. Wouldn’t you say so, Kessie?”
1. Agree with Tumbleweed. It’s us or them. Ain’t nothin’ personal ‘bout that.
2. Disagree with Tumbleweed. We honor our deals and we get outta this with our dignity intact. We ain’t common crooks.