Roughshod: 16 Votes
Trixie: 15 Votes
Snapshot: 9 Votes
After a moment to think about it, Kestrel realized the first two were obvious choices. “Rough and Trixie will make perfect distractions,” she said. “Trixie’s a professional con artist, even if she don’t use them words exactly, and Rough’s a big loud bastard. Ain’t a more perfect pair of fools to go cause a scene where one’s needed.”
“And the third?” Tumbleweed asked.
“Send Snapshot with them,” Kestrel said. “He’s best at range, and if he gets set up on a rooftop somewhere, he can raise hell with one of our scoped rifles. They’ll need him more than we do if they’re bringin’ down the wrath of the Pinks on themselves.”
Tumbleweed rubbed his chin in thought but ultimately nodded in agreement. “Right, and Snapshot might be a quick draw, but we won’t need his rifles inside of the conference. Revolvers’ll cover that just fine.”
“You and me together are as good of a shot as he is,” Kestrel also added. “Though hopefully we ain’t gonna need to shoot our way out of the conference once we start the robbery, but I ain’t gonna be naïve enough to think that’s possible.”
“Trouble is to be expected,” Starlight chimed in. “Especially when we have a message to get across.”
“So long as we ain’t murderin’ folks unnecessarily, then we’re fine,” Tumbleweed said. “You want us to shoot fat cats for the hell of it, I ain’t gonna let that fly. We’re in it for the money, not for some bloody crusade against those on the top. We might be outlaws, but we ain’t bandits.”
Starlight raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware there was a distinction.”
“The same kind of distinction that exists between your political philosophy and all the other ones that’re around that mark on the left.”
“Point taken.” Starlight shook her head and took a few sips of her beer. “I suppose you have a target in mind for the distraction, then?”
“Best I’ve got is the hotel I think the Pinks are stayin’ at,” Kestrel said with a shrug. “Didn’t have a chance to investigate it further to know for sure, but I saw a bunch of Pinks go into there the other day, and they were movin’ some kinda cargo inside. Might be valuable, whatever it is, and might be important enough to draw the Pinks’ attention back to it.”
“It don’t matter much how valuable it is, we just need the Pinks to think that we’re there in force,” Tumbleweed said. “Distraction team’ll have to be loud, that’s for sure. Might be able to have them stage a hotel robbery that we ain’t all that committed to. Nothin’ like real crime to bring on the Pinks, and if the real money’s at this conference, then we don’t need ‘em riskin’ life and limb for pocket change. As soon as they get the Pinks’ attention, they can bail. We’ll just need to time things perfectly.”
Kestrel took a few gulps of her beer and nodded, turning those words over in her head. “Well, we got that settled, then. That’s good,” she said. “That leaves me, you, Silvie, and Wanderer, plus Starlight and her second to take on the conference. I think that’s doable.”
“So long as the distraction works, anythin’s doable,” Tumbleweed assured her. “Though it’s best to figure out exactly what we’re tryin’ to do ‘fore we set out to do it.”
“Well, Starlight gave me the rundown earlier.” Kestrel turned to Starlight and gestured with a wing. “You wanna fill in Tumbleweed on what you told me at the bar?”
“It should be pleasing enough,” Starlight said. “The Apples are showing off a valuable, one-of-a-kind machine inside of their big auction tent on Friday. I don’t know what the machine is, but it’ll be powered by rare crystals. Expensive crystals. If you find a good fence for them, you’d be able to turn a handy profit, I’d imagine.”
“Tryin’ to sell things after you stole ‘em, ‘specially one of a kind things, ain’t always the most straightforward of deals,” Tumbleweed said. “Anythin’ else?”
“Well, it’s taking place in the auction tent, so you can imagine what that means,” Starlight said. “They’re going to be auctioning the thing off after they display it, which means that there will be a lot of wealthy ponies in that tent, with fat wallets at their sides. If you work the crowd, you can probably get several thousand bits in bills alongside that machine.”
Tumbleweed thought about that for a moment, then slowly smiled. “I like the sound of that,” he said. “We can pull ten, maybe twenty thousand out of this if we’re lucky. That’ll get us about halfway to gettin’ enough cash to scram and start a new life for ourselves somewhere else.”
Kestrel let her mind wander a bit as she imagined starting a new life someplace overseas, whether that was in the griffon Confederacy or on some tropical island like the Caymares. Was starting over again even possible for hardened outlaws like herself? Robbing, stealing, and killing were all she’d known for the past twenty-some years. Could a mare just shake that off with a new life and a few thousand bits to her name?
Starlight and Tumbleweed continued their conversation in the meanwhile, oblivious to Kestrel’s thoughts. “Goin’ about the business is goin’ to be the hard part, though,” Tumbleweed thought aloud. “There’s only six of us, and even if the distraction is successful, there’s likely to be some sort of security still present in the tent to protect against miscreants like ourselves. Way I see it, we can go in loud, we can go in quietly, or we can try and disguise ourselves as some of the security and staff and be in position for when the distraction kicks off. Each way’s got its own risks, though.”
The three ponies took a moment to pause and think about which approach would suit them the best.
Kestrel, Tumbleweed, Silver Wings, Wanderer, Starlight, and Starlight’s Lieutenant will perform the job at the conference while the distraction team draws away security.
1. Loud and guns blazing. If we storm the tent and surprise the security inside, we can get ‘em all taken care of ‘fore they can even react. The gunfire might draw attention back to the tent, though, and we’d only have a short time to make things happen before the Pinks muster a response.
2. Silently dispatch security. If we can sneak through the tent and the conference grounds, we might be able to knock out all the security and then take the tent without havin’ to fire a shot. ‘Course, the risk there is in gettin’ caught before everypony’s taken care of, then havin’ to seize the tent when they know we’re comin’.
3. Infiltrate the conference. If we can seize some uniforms before Friday, we can disguise ourselves as part of the security and conference staff, and get ourselves control over the tent without havin’ to fight anypony. However, if they notice that uniforms are missin’ or we get caught snoopin’ around before Friday or, Celestia forbid, we get recognized while wearin’ those uniforms ‘fore the auction, then the plan’s over ‘fore we can even make a move on the tent.
3. There's advantages we have for us to pull this off extremely well, I think: namely, 1) we have Glimmer, and 2) we have prep time.
Both of these can negate the biggest described detriment of the plan (being recognized and forced to heel). While we have some time, we can get mundane dyejobs for the gang, and manecuts - obfuscate our appearances some. Can't do much about cutiemarks but that's what clothes are for (or illusions; it's probably easier to magic away a spot like that than a whole figure).
Hmm, for all we currently know, there might even a similar 'dresscode' for the wait staff - they could be dyed up uniformly to be white/gray/blue to match, like how Celestia's guards are. Seems like the kind of nouveau riche posturing to flaunt wealth that these fat cats would spring for lol.
Coming to the next phase, is it really even necessary to steal a large number of uniforms? If we could nab just one (or two if they're gendered), it might be possible Glimmer could overlay an illusion of it over our normal gear. Raising even less alarms. I have no idea how long sewing takes but maybe Miss Irons could darn up some replicas as well. Ehh. Anyway, there's contingencies there as I see it.
The benefits to pulling this off would be to maneuver cleanly and be able to secure our positioning. Plus, if successful, it'd buy us the most time, as there's going to be a timer above our heads from the moment we gun down the first of the security. Every minute more we put on that timer means more bits for us.
It's tactical - risky, too - but I think it's worth it.
My vote is on 2. Considering how the pinks were hired to protect the event, if they hear about trouble going down in the main tent they’re gonna figure out it’s a distraction pretty easily and rush back, giving us less time. And while stealing disguises might sound good on paper, there are just too many failure points with a “jobs over” failure point where we don’t even get anything. It’s just not worth it.
Option 2 has a failure Point on the sneaking part but we should be able to infiltrate well enough that we can take care of enough security to pacify the rest of them.
3
2 I think. Not likely to work but they're good enough in a fight and it devolves to 1 if it goes wrong at least.
Everything is shit this time. Can't see the good option here.
The Pinks will rush back the moment we start shooting, so while 1 is the one with the least random rolls, it's also the one with the least time.
2 is the middle choice, not as many chances to fuck up as 3, but also just one fuck up and we're back to 1 without the surprise bonus.
And then we have 3. I don't know why, 3 is the one with the most chances for a fuck up, lots of dice rolls I imagine, but I am liking the idea. Not because I think it'll work (probably the least likely to work, actually) but because if it does work, not only will it be cool, but we'll probably get some dialogue (some rich fat cat, the Apples, I don't know) that we wouldn't otherwise see.
The "getting recognized with the uniforms" we can just counter with Glimmer, or maybe 24th will give us a chance to fine tune the plan (only Kestrel and Tumble go while the others are waiting).
Hell yeah, going with 3.
3 definitely
Option three ( 3 ).
I say option 3. The uniforms combined with Starlight's magic, we could go in and remain hidden in plain sight. The trick is having the patience and swiftness to get things done quickly, before we get overwhelmed. Hopefully, we won't.
2.
Sure the sneaking might fail but then the gang can just go in loud.
Number 3 seems to have way too many moving parts and failure points to be viable.
2
Much as I hate to say it, 2. If things go south and we have to go loud, Starlight could serve as a secondary distraction while we make a play for the tent. Of course, there's also the unknown factor of her lieutenant...
Sugarcoatl puts it well. We have prep time, and more importantly, a good unicorn. Starlight might even have some pointers for Trixie. Either way, we'll have good illusions.
3.
Roughshod, Trixie, and Snapshot, with the bonus of a reasonable explanation for the choice. That works.
It's a gatling gun, that's my guess. Exactly the right thing for a major, surprising reveal at a critical moment in a Western.
It's a twofer.
3, let's try the sneaky plan. With Starlight along maybe we can get some good illusions for once.
2 is probably best bet. Ninja that tent.
Option 3. We have magic that we know will hold up this time