Time to throw a long range pass and hope for the best. Sniper took a deep breath to steady his nerve and then continued.

"Give us the chance to prove you right. Let us try to recruit the gangsters of their own free will. We have outside verification. We know that it's a mix of motivations and egos. The fact that we negotiated their release would help us make inroads with the more pacifist gangsters. That we can take on the CPI will help with the more aggressive ones.

"If we fail, then you're proven right and we'll cooperate with your plans. We can set up a bottleneck outside the holding room so that any ponies who try to leave negotiations are an easy capture for your Changelings. You'll have no interference from our end during the raid on Ashtown. If we succeed, then the attack still proceeds as planned."