Dealing with Slavers [CLOSED]

Starry's eyes went wide at the mention of the trader, who she had completely forgotten about. She stopped with her goofing around and jumped out of the corner toward Ditzy to speak with her.

"Oh, yeah! He's dead! His body is in the back of our wagon. Hey, could you bury him for us? I would, but we've got a train to catch."

Shutter turned to stare at Techno and Starry with a shocked expression. Sell?! This wasn't what they had agreed on!!!
Quickly, he stopped being the silent pony in the corner, and spoke up.

"Woah woah woah! Hold up! We can't sell these toys!"
Shutter stated, real quick, as he moved up to the counter, to look at Ditzy.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but I'm afraid we're not here to sell those toys...but here to DONATE them, free of charge!"

He said happily, before his face suddenly turned serious.

"One one condition...that they also get handed out freely to all the little fillies and colts that want one!

Oh, also, aside from that? Do you have any bullets for a gun like this that I could trade for? Honestly, the recoil's probably going to be hell on my mouth, but I'd rather bullets for a gun that may not shoot straight, rather then a gun that dosn't shoot at all..."

Shutter said, in a mattle-of-factly tone, as he slipped his 10mm off of his side and set it on the counter.

Ditzy Doo lifted her head up off the floor, and gave a weak smile toward Shutter. "I'd love to give the nice trader's toys to the sweet little fillies and colts in town, and I'll take care of the trader too."

Ditzy trotted over near one of the front corners of the shop, where Starry had been standing. She rummaged through several crates, and pulled some items from them before trotting back behind her counter. "Here! Gifts!" she told him, holding out a stealthbuck and some bobby pins, as well as a screwdriver, "You look like a sneaky pony, now you can sneak really good!"

Ditzy ducked her head under the counter to pull out some ammunition for Shutter from a different box. She gave him several clips of 10mm ammo.

Shutter gave a sad nod when Ditzy mentioned the trader.
"I'm sorry...I wish we'd gotten there in time to help him..."

However, when she went to give him things like the stealthbuch, he felt more then a bit conflicted. Part of him wanted to refuse, since he had just been trying to be generous, but another part of him was telling him that he might need this stuff later on.
Eventually, his brain settled on a compromise.

"Wow...thank you so much! But I insist on at least paying for the ammo..."
Shutter said, as he reached into his saddlebags and pulled out his cap pouch, which jingled with the sound of about 40 caps. He didn't want to take advantage of the generosity of such a nice pony, after all.

"Um...How many of those clips can I afford with this?"

Sky's watched the ammo, in front of her eyes. "Do we really have to pay for the ammo, its a gift from her to us." sky gave a weak smile, she knew full well they needed that ammo and its best to take what you can get. "Free ammo, come on guys. we need this ammo, and she would be happy to part with it."

Ditzy couldn't help but laugh at how practically Sky was thinking, even if it was a bit selfish. "Don't worry about paying. You're a nice pony, just promise to bring something back from Old Appleloosa, and we can call it even!"

Just then, a loud sound came outside. It was a loud whistle, which blew several times. "Oh wow!" Ditzy exclaimed, as she flew over toward the door, opening it wide to peek outside, "time sure flies! The train must be leaving!"

It hadn't been an hour, and everypony knew it, but perhaps the loading crew had finished even earlier than expected. "You should get going if you wanna catch the train!"

Just then, Lucky burst through the door.

"Trading's over, let's go!"

He ran back out the door as quick as possible, and bolted for the train depot. He was sure the rest of the group would catch up, and so he didn't even pause to make sure everyone was behind him.

"Whoa, it hasn't been an hour yet!" Techno shouted as he heard the whistle blow. "We're heading out now Ditzy. It was great seeing you again." he said as he turned to run out the door with Lucky. "Hurry up everypony! Oh, and zebra!"

"Bring something back? Anything in particular?"

However, Shutter apparantly didn't have much time to recieve an answer, as not only did the train let out several loud noises, but Lucky came bursting through the doors announcing the train was about to go.

"Huh? Oh no!"
Quickly, Shutter made sure to stash the gifted stealthbuck, bobby pins, and screwdriver in his saddlebags, as well as the ammo, and also grabbed his 10mm back from off the counter.

"Thank you so much, Miss Ditzy! I'll be sure to try and find you some things at Old Appleloosa!"

Shutter said real quick, ready to chase after the rest of the group.

Starry's eyes went wide at the sound of the train whistle. She had froze in place for a moment, before snapping back to her senses at the sight of everypony making a dash for the train station. She quickly followed suit, and bolted out the door.

Ditzy grinned, and waved goodbye to everypony as they left. "Don't worry!" Ditzy called to Shutter, "You should know what to bring back!"

The train whistle blew again. There was a brown earth pony stallion standing near one of the boxcars, holding the door open. "Cutting it pretty close, aren'cha? Get in, we're about to take off!"

The interior of the boxcar was nothing remarkable. Just a few benches along the walls, and four windows looking out. There was a large empty space in the center. The boxcar was empty.

Lucky, who was panting for what seemed like the millionth time in two days, walked to the back of the boxcar, and threw down an empty bag. He layed down on the burlap, and pulled out his flask and one of the newly aquired bottles of whiskey. He drank everything that was left in the tin, and then tried opening the glass bottle. However, he couldn't get it open, and instead smashed the neck over one of the benches. He grinned with satisfaction.

Lucky looked towards the rest of the group and said, "That'll do it. Anypony want a shot?"

Athanix was rushing to the train with his saddle bags full of mundane items ranging from a half empty bottle of glue, to some more corks for his vials. Hearing the train whistle had stopped him half way through a trading session and he just had to cut it short and bolt for the train. He had finally stopped did what he came here originally for though and this made him happy.

Quickly throwing his crap and parcel into the boxcart, he jumped into the barren thing and hoisted his bags over to a nearby bench where he proceeded to flop over. He wasn't the strongest out of all these ponies, and running wasn't his thing.

"Glad I made it this time, eh? I ju-" Athanix stuttered as he tried to catch his breath. "just n-needed to do some, uh... Talking?" With that awkwardly said, Athanix took a little sip from his flask and slouched back on the bench.

Techno ran to the train and jumped into the boxcar, panting. He situated himself on one of the benches around the edges of the car and took a swig from his canteen. He shook his head at Lucky's offer. "Nah. Don't like alcohol." he said, rifling around his saddlebags. Finding nothing of interest, he turned to Starry, who was boarding the train. "Hey, Starry, have any books on ya? I don't want to be sitting here for a day doing nothing, which I'm sure you can empathize with." he asked, hoping to get some new reading material.

Sky like the rest of them, made it just in time. breathing rather heavily from galloping from the shop, and she didn't bother using her wings. Lucky offering drinks to anypony, and Sky was all over that. "Sure, ill take a hit of that flask."

Starry hopped into the boxcar, following behind everypony else. She trotted over to the bench Techno was on and sat on the other side from him.

Hearing his request for a book, she quickly opened her saddlebag and pulled out a book. "How about this one? It's about robots!" Indeed, the front cover of the book featured a clunky looking robot on the cover, firing a mounted submachine gun. "I'm gonna be reading this one, it's about stars!" she pulled out another book, which had a constellation on the cover.

Starry instantly remembered the Zebra on the train, and hid the book in her saddlebag. "I mean, uh, celebrities! You know, stars, celebrities, who doesn't love celebrity gossip? But uhh, maybe I'll just read this swordmares magazine again. You know, because I love sword mares so much! It's... good reading!"

Hopping up on the train with everyone else, Shutter let out a sigh of relief.

"Phew! We made it! But...I wonder what Ditzy meant by that before?"

He mumbled, taking a few seconds to think on her assurance that he would somehow know what to bring back.
He didn't take too long to think though, as he glanced over at Starry upon her mentioning the 'Sword Mares' magazine.

"Yes, apparantly you've been learning alot from it, as you've been all too willing to show me..."

He mumbled with a sigh, remembering the teasing from the wagon.

The train attendant swiftly shut the door on the passenger car, and within moments, everypony could feel the train begin to move. Looking out the window, everypony could see the train pulling out of the station, and leaving the town. Soon it was moving as fast as the ponies could pull it, and rushing across the Equestrian Wastelands. It was going to be a long trip across the wastes and over the mountains to Old Appleloosa, but at least nopony had to endure the labor of walking, or pulling a cart.

"Well, I sure love flaunting it around you, Shutter, since it gets you so embarassed when I mention it around other ponies." Starry grinned obliviously, as she pulled open the Sword Mares magazine and browsed through it's pages.

"Hmm... this mare looks pretty. Maybe I should brush my mane like that, too. It's usually such a giant mess."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I can't really help it if it feels odd to be so...open about stuff like this. It just seems more like the kind of thing you're supposed to keep private..."

Shutter said, as he slipped his saddlebags off and began to actually look through the stuff Ditzy had given to them.
Eventually, he pulled out the Stealthbuck.

"...What IS this thing, anyway? Look like it goes in the pipbuck or something..."

Techno sat and read the book as provided by Starry, but he was still mostly tuned in to the conversation. He stifled a chuckle as Starry began making fun of Shutter's embarrassment once again. "C'mon, Shutter, if you hadn't mentioned that book, Starry would just be harassing me. So I'm not sure whether to say sorry or thank you." he said, making said point known.

"As for that, it's called a Stealthbuck. I can't use one myself since I don't have one o' those fancy Pipbucks, but I've worked with 'em before. Don't do it now, but you just attach it to the... data port was it? That thing where you plug it in to download new stuff."

Lucky passed his flask over to Sky, and then stretched out on his makeshift mattress. He watched Starry pull that cursed Swordsmares' issue out of her bag again. He sighed and opened his mouth to comment.

"Are you EVER going to get tired of reading that thing? I mean, I love my porn as much as the next pony, but we've had it for less than a day and you've read it like twelve times. Doesn't it just get old?"

He then saw Shutter pull a Stealthbuck out of his saddlebags.

Lucky raised his eyebrows and whistled. "Where in Celestia's golden light did you get that?" He creased his brow and gave Shutter a glare. "You didn't STEAL it, did you?"

Starry gave Lucky's comment little attention, and continued conversing with Shutter. "But why should we have to hide it? It's something I enjoy doing, so why not be open about the things I love? Besides, I thought stallions loved to talk about that kind of stuff."

Starry casually flipped another page of the magazine, just before her eyes went wide with a surprising realization. Without uttering a word, her gesture of surprise slowly faded into an expression of incredible amusement, as a grin formed across her face. "This uh, mare on this page. Really shocking." she said.

"Well...yes...but...theres a time and a place, you know?! Besides, I don't think anypony needs to know how you never seem to get tired of it...I mean, you didn't stop once when we were in the wagon!"

Shutter retorted back, before looking over at Lucky.

"What? Of course I didn't steal it! Miss Ditzy gave it to me, along with a few other things."
He said happily, as he slipped out the screwdriver, bobby pins, and the few clips of ammo.

"It pays to be nice, you know? You do good things, and good things happen in return!"

"Hey now! That's not true!" Starry exclaimed, lowering her magazine so she could look straight into Shutter's eyes. "Remember when you got tired? I was hot and sweaty, and working overtime to make us move and you just went and took a nap!"

Starry was, of course, referring to how she was pulling the cart. It was an exhaustive effort on her part, and Shutter had taken a nap toward the latter half of her shift.