Chapter 98
Approach the conference from the east: 6 Votes
Kestrel observed the tents dotting the conference grounds from the safety of a ridgeline thick with bushes and undergrowth. She’d seen plenty of activity with ponies moving between tents here and there, and occasionally a security pony would walk the perimeter of the grounds to make sure nopony from Hoofston was trying to sneak in without buying a ticket. From her vantage point, she could spot a big tent that looked like where the wait staff organized and kept any supplies they might need throughout the conference, while a smaller tent just across the grass ‘street’ seemed to be for the security staff. A white tent with a red cross on it stood nearby, plainly marking the infirmary for anypony who might happen to get hurt at the conference. And behind it all, towering above the rest of the tents on the fairgrounds, a massive tent that reminded Kestrel of a circus tent stood, its cloth branded with apples and the words ‘APPLE CONGLOMERATES ANNUAL INNOVATION CONFERENCE – HOOFSTON’.
“Sheesh,” Silver remarked after wriggling into her wait staff uniform. “Guess their brandin’s on point.”
“Well, Starlight’s right ‘bout one thing, at least,” Kestrel said, shrugging. “The fat cats love makin’ sure everypony knows who they are and how much money they got. Guess that means there’ll be plenty of eyes on this place for her grand revolutionary statement.”
Kestrel used her hooves to adjust the collar on her pilfered security uniform, wincing as she tried to get her wings settled flat under the cloth. She wasn’t too keen on being grounded for this whole operation, though she supposed she’d have the opportunity to toss the uniform once the actual robbery began. Still, it was the price to pay for being gifted a rather unique feather and coat pattern, and she’d just have to deal with it for the time being.
“Say, you feelin’ any better?” Kestrel asked Silver. “I know that gunshot you took back in Rock Ridge had you slowed down a good bit for a while there.”
Has Silver healed since the last check? Yes
Silver Wings is no longer injured.
“Feelin’ fit as a fiddle,” Silver said, hopping from hoof to hoof as if to demonstrate it to Kestrel. “I think just bein’ bored ‘round the camp gave me plenty of time to fix myself up. Good thing, too, ‘cause we’re probably gonna get shot at a bunch, right?”
“Hopefully we ain’t,” Kestrel said, looking left and right to make sure the path to the tents was clear. “If things go off the way we want ‘em to, we’ll be good. Now c’mon, let’s get into this thing. Only got ‘bout an hour ‘fore the auction starts.”
The two mares set out from their hiding spot, uniforms as well-fitting as they could make them considering they were working with stolen outfits. Kestrel noted that Silver did a good job of concealing the rope around her midsection, making excellent use of the extra space she had between her shirt and her belly. They and the Gang had gotten about as good a preparation as they possibly could have made; now, hopefully, Lady Luck would be with them and get them through the next few hours alive and in one piece.
Silver Wings uses Lady Luck (7+1) to allow her and Kestrel to enter the conference unseen: Success
Thankfully, it seemed she was, as Kestrel let Silver take the lead and choose a path to enter into the conference. No random security patrols came their way, even though the two entered at barely more than a brisk canter, and after carefully checking around the corners of tents at intersections, the two found themselves inside of the conference proper. Then, and only then, did Kestrel let out a breath she’d been holding in since leaving their hiding place.
Music and the dull roar of chatter and laughter made the two mares’ ears twitch as they stepped into the main circular thoroughfare through the conference. Kestrel looked around, noting ponies of all the shades of the rainbow moving back and forth, stopping at tents, and sharing laughter in the middle of the trampled dirt road. There were food and games tents interspersed amongst the business tents and stalls, where ponies from many different companies all underneath the Conglomerates’ umbrella talked about their latest inventions and how they would revolutionize Equestrian society to anypony that stopped to listen. A stage set not too far away had a band entertaining a sizeable crowd with their music, though Kestrel tuned it out to focus on what the ponies around her may or may not be saying. If somepony recognized her or Silvie, hopefully she’d be able to pick up on the whispers and move to safety before actual security or, Celestia forbid, the Pinks caught up to them.
What does the Pink presence around the conference look like: 1/10 (Extremely Light)
Kestrel took a few moments to survey the surrounding stretches of conference to spot any ponies in pink suits, but thankfully didn’t see any at the moment. It was a momentary relief, but Kestrel didn’t know if she should feel relieved or not. She knew that the Pinks were providing additional security for the conference, and if she didn’t see them out mingling with the crowd or the other security staff, then that meant they had to be somewhere else.
She looked up at the large tent in the center of the conference. All she could do was pray to Celestia that the Pinks weren’t all inside of that tent. Otherwise, things would get problematic quickly.
“Pretty neat setup this place is,” Silver said, looking around. “Shame we ain’t able to come here on our own time. Bet they’ve got some great fair food.” She licked her lips and fluttered her wings. “Been so long since I last had cotton candy…”
“Maybe we’ll nab some on the way out,” Kestrel said, and she nodded toward the tent in the center of camp. “C’mon, let’s get into position. The others’ll be at the tent in a bit, so let’s regroup and get ready to start subduin’ guards.”
Silver nodded and took the lead at a brisk trot, Kestrel following close behind her as if she was just a security pony helping the wait staff out with some concern of theirs. The two weaved between tents and ropes, passing by other ponies that were actually part of the wait staff hanging out between tents. Kestrel made sure to keep her eyes forward and not make eye contact with anypony else; ponies would be more likely to recognize her if they had a time to study her face, though she doubted that many of these ponies knew of the wanted outlaw named Kestrel and even fewer would actually put the name to her face if she scooted by quickly.
The two mares made it to their meeting spot just a little bit away from the large auction tent, which had already started to allow potential bidders in early to get good seats up at the front. Rounding the corner, they saw Tumbleweed and Wanderer waiting in the shadows of another tent, and the two mares hurried closer. “Good,” Tumbleweed said when they arrived. “Was gettin’ worried ‘bout you two. Wanderer and me had no problems gettin’ in from the south.”
“No problems from the east, either,” Kestrel said. “Pink presence seems pretty low ‘round here to boot.”
“We noticed the same,” Wanderer said with a nod. “They’re likely protecting the most valuable stuff. I hope that the distraction proves successful, because otherwise we’ll have to contend with them inside of that tent.”
“Right.” Kestrel looked around and frowned. “Any sign of Starlight and her companion? I hope they ain’t havin’ trouble gettin’ here.”
“They should have been here the fastest,” Silver said. “They went in through the west gate, through the main entrance. They ain’t wanted like we are. Shoulda been easy for ‘em to slip on through.”
Were the other two teams able to get into the conference without any trouble? No
“Somethin’ must be holdin’ ‘em up,” Tumbleweed said. “But we ain’t got a whole lot of time to work with ‘fore the auction starts. ‘Bout forty-five minutes or so.”
“Do we go without ‘em?” Silvie asked. “Time’s of the essence, right?”
“We have to be careful to not move too hastily,” Wanderer cautioned. “We could go look for them, if they don’t show up in a few minutes. Doing this with anything less than full strength could be problematic.”
“So long as we can do what we gotta do, I’ll take it,” Tumbleweed said. “What ‘bout you, Kessie? Any thoughts?”
1. Continue without Starlight and Party Favor. They might be held up for a little bit, or they might’ve had to go change their approach. Regardless, we can’t sit ‘round waitin’ for ‘em all day. We gotta move now and start gettin’ this place prepped for the auction if we don’t want to miss our chance.
2. Look for Starlight and Party Favor. Doin’ this with anythin’ less than full strength could be disastrous for us. We can afford to spend some time lookin’ for the two of ‘em in case they got themselves into trouble. We just gotta hope that we don’t burn too much time in the process, else we ain’t got any chance of pullin’ this thing off.
Stats
Page generated in 0.025 seconds
Total duration
950 users online
405,134 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Gawd that was just cute. I hope Silvie gets some cotton candy in the end after all this.
1. Stick to the plan.
1. If they're in serious trouble, going looking for them is likely to put you in serious trouble too. If they're not, no problem.
Yeah, I’m gonna have to vote 1. I can kinda see starlight getting mad at us if we do the job and there’s no revolutionary stuff involved, but what do we care about that. We can do the job no problem without them (probably)
Well, two out of three good rolls is better than I anticipated at this point.
I say option 1. Even if Starlight can't get to us in time, she might be able to use the commotion of the robbery as a signal to go loud and force her way to us. If nothing else, it might serve as a second distraction for us.
I'm going to be the odd one out and say option 2. I don't give a damn about her revolutionary ideas, but Starlight can still be useful in a pinch. For example, she said she could freeze time for a few seconds, that could be useful if things go wrong. But, if we can't find them in a reasonable amount of time, then we go without them.
Definitely 1. Even if they can’t have a revolutionary statement, they can still make some money, and if they go searching the Pinks might notice
And I thought this story was inspired by Life of a Wanted Changling. If you say second person stories are bad I would have completely agreed. I used to be normal like everyone and not like it but while reading it I was able to sub concisely in my head make the second person story into a 3rd person story
Tbh, Idk if I can say I still don't like second-person stories when I sub concisely turn them into 3rd person stories. Life of a Wanted Changling is good but only if you're an odd one out and like the second person or don't care if it's the second person. Or if your like me and sun concisely make it 3rd person. Anyways Idc if you don't like the second person because I can sub concisely tune it and while in the process enjoy a good story.
Option one ( 1 ). Get in, get ready. If everyone shows up, great! If not, the plan can still go forward. Starlight can be "promoted" to the distraction team.
Let’s go with option one.
... Kinda suspicious that Starlight has dipped out
Option 1. The money is what matters.
2, we need our full strenght to pull this off
2
2. We need all the help we can get.
2
Hey, that's something at least.
We didn't deserve that win.
Appearances could be deceiving.
1, if it's something Starlight is having trouble with then showing up with more might not be particularly helpful.
1: Starlight and co. are the distraction now.