Dealing with Slavers [CLOSED]

Shutter would have been about to suggest they go search for Starry, when Orange showed up. He let the Unicorn finish speaking before he spoke up. He was not too trusting of anyone in a town that endorsed and participated in slavery...but Starry was missing, and Shutter was starting to get concerned for what may have happened to the Unicorn...so he tried to hide this mistrust and instead act like a naive stable pony. (which wouldn't have been too hard a day or two ago)

"Er...We'd love to...but we've got an issue on our hooves...One of our friends wandered off to check the stores, and we're not sure which one they're in...though I guess they may have headed off to help make the deal quick, since they're the one who's supposed to make it..."

Shutter mumbled, as he put on his best 'confused' face as he talked to Orange...he wanted to gauge his reaction right now, and he was using the few tricks he had learned from his journalism days to try and sort any truth and lies that they may say...if Shutter looked easy to lie to, then they would hopefully slip up a bit more if they tried...

"Oh, you mean your unicorn friend? We-uh," Orange's eyes went wide, as he accidentally let slip an important detail. He fumbled with his words a bit before he could form a coherent sentence.

"Why-she's uh, with us! Yep! We got her! She's uh, talking to the mayor now, and asked us to send for you." He grinned nervously, in what was conceivably the worst poker face of all time.

Lucky could see something was wrong in the way Orange spoke; he was clearly lying about something, he gave off too many tells. 'Heh, I bet I could clean this moron out flat ass drunk with a blindfold on in a game,' thought Lucky mischievously. 'However, I've got better things to do, and this fool isn't helping...'

Lucky eyed Orange up and down, and then said in a cheery voice, "Well alright then, lead the way good sir. I've been looking forward to meeting your mayor for a while now, so the sooner we get there the better!"

Sky just stayed silent as being here was crazy enough, but Starry is gone. And now this pony named "Orange" was taking them to the mayor. Sky just quitely watched lucky ask him to move, and follow them when they go.

Shutter gave a glance over at Lucky, as Orange let slip a rather vital detail.

Unicorn eh? Interesting how they knew that...and I highly doubt Starry would have gone to start the deal without us...What are you pulling?

"Okay then, as Lucky said, lead the way!"

Shutter said...however, the very second Orange would look away, he would give a light gesture towards his gun with his head to the rest of the group, basically trying to say 'Be ready'.

Orange let out a huge sigh of relief. "Oh, wonderful, follow me please!" he said, and began trotting toward the town hall. As the group followed, they managed to catch a few pieces of gossip from some of the bystanders.

One mare was telling her friend that she thinks Snake Oil is a fraud, while a young colt commented on the group's stable 113 uniforms before being hushed by his father, and apparently, if the town drunk is to be believed, the New Appleloosans had traded for a coal car, which they would ride up the mountain. One armed slaver asked Orange how his family was doing, Orange shot him a nasty look.

Fairly soon, they were in front of the town hall. There were two armed slavers standing in front of it, who did not acknowledge the group. "Come on in," Orange told them as he walked inside, "The mayor's waiting for you."

Lucky waited for Orange to continue through the door before he growled to the group in a voice nearly impossible to hear, "Be careful. I don't know what's going on, but there's something wrong here. Keep your weapons ready and your eyes alert."

He then continued through the doors himself, following after the strange buck who was apparently the mayor's assistant.

His only regret was that he didn't have a battle saddle to use the shotgun on. He had to do it the hard way.

Sky did as she was told, She kept her pistol at the ready. she knew something was bound to happen, she noticed something off in the pony that escorted them here. He held something back, now they were going to find out what.

Shutter would follow after the group, looking nervously at the guards who were watching the front of the town hall. An idea struck him, and while noone was looking, he quickly looked in his saddlebags, and retrieved the stealthbuck, concealing the chip inside of his jumpsuit rather then in his bags. He didn't want to be without it right now, especially in a building where anything could happen at any moment...

Once he was done, he quickly chased back after the group, ready for whatever may await them.

Orange led the group down a long, wide hallway. There was a long line of pillars and statues lining the walls, along with expensive looking paintings. The hallway was practically a museum. There were three guards standing near a waste bin close to the entrance, smoking cigarettes.

Orange led them through a door near the end of the hallway. Inside was a very slick looking unicorn sitting behind a desk, with greased back hair wearing a suit. He had two large earth ponies flanking him, each wearing leather armor. The unicorn looked up from the desk at the group, and then looked over at Orange, visibly displeased.

"Orange, what the fuck is this? These ponies are loaded and you brought them straight fucking to me!" he snapped.

Orange looked embarassed. He knew he had made a mistake, as he shied away toward the door. This apparently wasn't his first screw-up, and he knew the protocol. "I-I'm sorry, it won't happen again," he whimpered.

"Like hell it won't! How the fuck do you expect to buy your little girlfriend at this rate?!"

"Sh-she's my wife..."

"I don't care. Now, friends," the unicorn had a visible shift in his demeanor as he turned to address the group. "I heard from your blue unicorn friend that the lot of you are here to make a trade deal. Now, why don't we get down to business? Orange, go get us something to drink." Orange swiftly left the room.

"Don't worry, he'll be back in just a minute. Now then, why don't we get down to business? We've got quite the surplus to trade. What're you interested in? Food? Weapons? Ammunition?"

Lucky made a mental note of how the stallion treated his subordinate, and the reasons behind Orange's apparent indentured servitude. He responded to the query in a pleasant, yet serious, voice.

"Get down to business without formalities? I don't see why we can't be civil about this and hurry through it. Might I ask the name of our host?"

'As if I really cared what this scumbag's name was,' said the voice in Lucky's head. 'Might as well know it though, I'll probably have to carve it into his gravestone at some point in the future.'

The slick looking unicorn let out a short laugh in response to Lucky's question. "The name's Mr. Vine, and these two associates of mine are Chain Gang and Powder Keg." Mr. Vine gestured to the two tough looking ponies flanking him.

"And don't worry, I already know your names. You're Lucky, and your friends are Techno, Shutter, and Sky. Let's just say I heard it through the grape vine. Apologies to your zebra friend there, I can't quite pronounce his name."

Grape Vine leaned forward against his desk. "So, now that formalities are out of the way, what do you good folks feel like talking about? I'm sure you've got some questions."

Athanix tried to keep up with the group as they walked through the hallways. He didn't want to end up in a situation where he was separated from the group. That would be more than enough trouble to last him a week. Or maybe a day or so.

When they stopped and that funny stallion that had led them inside trotted off in search for, Athanix polished off his glasses with a small piece of cloth and ran a hoof through his hair to straighten it out somewhat. He had no idea why he did it every time he came to a stop. He just did.

And after hearing the short exchange of words by the unicorn and Lucky he decided that he should probably wait this out and hear what the well dressed unicorn had to say. The more he heard the better. That meant more things he could use against him!

Shutter looked at Mr. Vine as he rattled off all their names...that was worrying enough, but what really got him was the thought that struck afterwards...

Wait a second...if he's heard from Starry' that we're looking to make a deal, then where is she? And why would she even be talking about deals with this slaver git?

"I have a question...Where IS our blue unicorn friend? You said she's been by to talk about business, so where did she go?"

"You know, I'm glad you ask that. I was actually wondering the same thing, 'what is taking that mare so long?'. Well, let me assure you, she's in good hand. Some of my boys took her down to the local dress maker to see about getting her something classy to wear. Did you see that stable uniform she was wearing? It was a mess! Ah, look, drinks have arrived."

At that moment, Orange stepped into the room holding up a tray with enough wine glasses on it for everypony. He trotted cautiously up toward Mr. Vine, careful not to drop the tray. Mr. Vine took one of the glasses with his magic.

"Anyway, I thought I'd treat the mare to a new dress before starting negotiations. Anyway, go ahead and grab a glass, let's talk business." Mr Vine took a sip of the wine, before setting it on the table and licking his lips. He pulled up a pen and a clipboard, ready to get to work.

Sky soo reluctantly grabbed one of the drinks that was offered to her, It was wine. her not so favorite drink in the wasteland, She drank it slowly, tasting the hard flavor of it.

Shutter looked at the glasses...Wine...to be honest, he probably wouldn't have drank anything offed by this guy anyway, but he knew what happened when he even touched a drop of alcohol, as one night back in the stables had taught him all too well, having woken up with a bleeding and aching forehead, and a badly dented coffeetable.

"Sorry...I can't drink..."

He muttered, as he looked away from the glasses.

'Hah! I knew it! That was too obvious. He's taken Starry somewhere... probably as a slave... but where?'

Lucky took a glass, and smelled the wine. He didn't trust the slaver a single bit.

The wine didn't smell any different than it should have, atleast not to Lucky.

Still, he pretended to sample the wine, and set the glass down.

"An excellent drink you have here," he said in the same pleasant tone. "I would like to get down to business now, but I don't feel comfortable discussing such matters without the entirety of my party present. Would you be so kind as to have her brought here, so we may continue with the negotiations?"

Grape Vine peered dubiously between the members of the group. None of them had seemed too keen on drinking. Naturally, he had backup plans in case they did not trust him, but the pegasus mare had already taken a drink. Already, she was beginning to wobble, she would soon pass out and the entire group would know something was amiss.

Mr. Vine rubbed his eyes, he was feeling a little sleepy. 'It's no matter, a pegasus mare is worth top dollar in this market. Her and the unicorn will net me a fortune, almost as much as the rest of them combined.' Mr. Vine let out a sigh, it was getting difficult to keep his eyes open, but with a sudden realization, they were opened wide.

"Orange, you fucking idiot!" he shouted at him, nearly collapsing on his desk. Sky had already fallen to the ground. "Orange... your little marefriend is going to suffer for this. Keep the pegasus. Kill Orange, and the rest of them," he said, before slumping over on his desk, unconscious.

[sky has passed out]

As soon as the command was issued by the slaver leader, Lucky threw his wine glass at the guard on the left, intending to distract him long enough to grab the double barreled shotgun off of his back.

He aimed the weapon directly at the other guard and fired both barrels at once.

"Somepony grab Sky, and let's get the fuck out of here!"

Athanix had taken the liberty of grabbing two glasses of the supposed wine before the bullets started to fly. He quickly flung the two drinks at the the two guards like Lucky had and then he proceeded to stand up on his hind legs as he swung his forehooves to upper cut the other guard.

''Alrighty then Lucky, ready for a firefight?'' Athanix asked mid swing.

Techno sprang into action, his horn sparking as he hastily threw up a cover shield for the group, levitating Sky behind it to keep her out of the line of fire. He pulled out his 5mm pistol from his saddlebag and readied himself to do some healing, not wanting to have to shoot, not trusting his incompetency with guns.

Shutter quickly went for the 10mm at his side, as he backed up. He may have been ready to draw, but not quite to fire...and he doubted he could disarm these guards the same way as that Raider.

...But then again...that Raider had...probably deserved what they got. Aside from that caravan, how many did they kill before then? And these were slavers, making profit by destroying the lives of innocent ponies!

With this thought running through his head, Shutter suddenly felt it become alot easier to aim for the left guard and pull the trigger.

"'e 'ant i'ght all ov de tow'! 'un!"

He cried out through the gun.

Orange fell to the floor, and covered his face with his hooves. The two guards, Powder Keg and Chain Gang, each pulled out 10mm pistols. The first guard, Powder Keg, was slower to react, and was delayed by the oncoming wine glass. By the time he had pointed his 10mm, Lucky had fired both barrels of his shotgun into him, sending him slamming against the back wall and slumping down toward the floor, leaving a long streak of blood on the wall behind him.

Chain Gang reacted much faster. He barely flinched when the glasses shattered against him. He hastily pulled out his weapon and fired, shooting Athanix before he had a chance to land his uppercut. Athanix still landed his attack, however, and sent Chain Gang reeling back. Shutter was not very skilled with the pistol, and the close quarters made it a little hard to aim with Athanix and the guard so close together. The end result was that Shutter accidentally shot the zebra in the shoulder.

Chain Gang took a step back, aiming his weapon at Athanix again, intending to eliminate him before he could do any more damage.