Celestia's Finest: Old World Blues

[D.KnightSpider]

"It's a heckuva management training seminar, I'll give you that." Sniper said to Cabal. He adds for Star: "More frequent notes might not be a bad idea. I'll try to use those"

The weighing of options gave him a path forward. He moved forward and laid down on his stomach, within her field of view, and tried to modulate any lecture out of his voice.

"I get what you're saying, and... Tartarus was both simpler and different. Our purpose was defined for us and it was much narrower: get from Point A to Point B rescuing hostages along the way. Even then, it wasn't one long string of ad hoc decisions. We stopped to talk things out and get organized, such as right before the final battle with Chrysalis. Out here, it's different. The ultimate goal is defined for us but we all have slightly different variations of what's acceptable in reaching that goal. It's important that we all understand that and be willing to give and take.

"Yes, I'll admit that the written reports have undermined that conversation at times and... that's related to another problem. I'm not trying to pick at an old wound, but I'll have to in order to get through this. I'm not doing anything different. Up until recently, I've acted as the buffer between the Squad and Command, handling all the reports and documentation in the background because that has to get done. It's not to ask permission what to do, it's to tell them what we've done. Back at the Castle, we narrowly dodged a bullet because I was timely on our documentation. Can you imagine what would have happened if the VIP walked into that graveyard without a report being on the record?

"Again, I don't want to reopen old wounds because I'm the one who bucked it up... You're the one who established the requirement that everything go through you which means that I have to send you everything. I'm not trying to make your life miserable but live within the boundaries you set. It, well, seems redundant for me to send you a report and then go over everything verbally. But if it's going to cause this much of a problem, I guess we could do both."

[userpay]

"Maybe we could go with short periodic updates and somethin more detailed later on or if somethin needs clarifyin?" Brazen sighs. "Ah have to admit ah prefer the talkin more than the readin but unlike the Station where we stuck together and could chat without issue we're havin to scatter ourselves around for this mission and handle several issues at once."

"Ah do agree we need to secure the Casino at the very least from Bugbutt, having neutral ground will be important later on in tryin to get the Wasteland to act together but that could all still go up in smoke with what she's doin. She knows the Wasteland aren't willin to trust changelings but she seems more than happy to feed that outlook rather than tryin to fix the source of it."

[DigoDragon]

"Again, I don't want to reopen old wounds because I'm the one who bucked it up... You're the one who established the requirement that everything go through you which means that I have to send you everything. I'm not trying to make your life miserable but live within the boundaries you set. It, well, seems redundant for me to send you a report and then go over everything verbally. But if it's going to cause this much of a problem, I guess we could do both."

"Bah," Rose bleps with a singular wave of her right hoof. "I hereby rescind that requirement. I'm a doctor, not a pencil-pusher, so you can send your reports to RT like you've done before. I'll take the bullet points version Star suggested."

"Ah do agree we need to secure the Casino at the very least from Bugbutt, having neutral ground will be important later on in tryin to get the Wasteland to act together but that could all still go up in smoke with what she's doin. She knows the Wasteland aren't willin to trust changelings but she seems more than happy to feed that outlook rather than tryin to fix the source of it."

Rose continues to study the ceiling, but she does clap her hooves together and then points to Brazen. "Aren't willing to trust changelings. All changelings? How many reformed changelings do we have so far out here in the wasteland? Just the one handsome stallion we met so far. Pastel colors, right? Chrysalis' hive is made up of what? Black carapaces, black carapaces, and... black carapaces. That right there might be a possible selling point for changelings. Reformation changes their colors. Like changing your flag in Bray of Duty III. I know, I'm behind in that game series. So all we gotta do is sell that difference to the public. Oh if only I could speak with the dead. Err, not counting Octavia. I mean Starlight. Anyway, just a thought."


'Damn, why didn't you just shake her hoof Chrysalis...'

[D.KnightSpider]

"I don't know why, but I get the feeling that your posse might be able to help with that. Maybe?" Sniper opined to Rose.

He nodded to Brazen. "That sounds like a middle-of-the-road road solution that works for every pony. We can do that. And at a minimum, we're sheltering the casino. Don't ever doubt that."

A quick look around the room brought him back to Rose. He found a thin smile. "So are we all good now? Everything clear between us?"

Spoiler: If there's nothing else...

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Sniper will gently try to guide Rose upright and give her a hug.

((OoC: Yes. Yes. Yes. I know I'm tempting fate. I'm hoping the predictability will ward off the inevitable.))

[DigoDragon]

"I don't know why, but I get the feeling that your posse might be able to help with that. Maybe?" Sniper opined to Rose.

Rose's eyes widen as the idea might actually be a thing. "Huh..."

Spoiler: If there's nothing else...

Show

Sniper will gently try to guide Rose upright and give her a hug.

She didn't fight the guidance because she needed to get up anyway. But the hug surprised her! Rose didn't move for a moment, trying to figure out what the right response was for a Sniper hug. Was there a response? She reaches up to pat his foreleg ad lean into the hug.

"Thanks. It's been a while since I had one of these from anyone."

[Miltonian]

Cabal raises an eyebrow. "Well, I'm still not exactly clear on what we're doing, but I am glad to hear the casino remains free, no matter what."

Star, however, is openly shocked by this blatant PDA.

[Elbeyon]

Love rubs the back of her head at the PDA and looks over to her nearby sitting partner, Cabal.

She sincerely says, "I have a lot of friends here. I wouldn't want anything to happen to them."

Though, she'll smile real big at the hugging duo. "Rose. If anyone is feeling a little short on hugs, I wouldn't mind giving anyone a few!"

[DigoDragon]

"Well, I guess when you're busy trying to save lives and fight evil, you forget personal time," Rose says to Love.

"As for what to do next, well we seem to have to first settle the question if we're letting Chrysalis walk out of here with the gangs. Do we let her run with that plan or not?"

[D.KnightSpider]

Sniper released the hug and stepped back into personal space.

Cabal was up first: "It was a lot messier than it should have been, but that was two friends working through some very large problems without resorting to violence. In the end, no pony got hurt and we're all better for it.

"Now as to the task at hoof, there is a way to short circuit Chrysalis' entire plan to replace every pony. Wire was a paranoid fool but he shared my sense of meticulous documentation. It must have been what made him evil. I have all his records of the Wasteland dealings in excruciating detail. Who killed what where and so forth. It's prime blackmail material.

"If Chrysalis refuses to stop her plan and replaces the gangsters, then Night Sky drops our opposition research on the Wasteland..." Sniper made an explosive gesture with his hooves. "Boom. The Changeling Infiltrators lose their influence and cover. It would throw the entire warlord scene into chaos. But, if we dropped it then the original gangsters would be marked ponies for the rest of their lives."

Sniper looked back to Cabal. "How much would that upset you?"

[Miltonian]

Cabal shakes his head and grins. "Honestly? Screw these guys. They're just as bad if not worse than many of the changelings I've met. I'd love to see them crash and burn. Give others a chance to rise up in their place."

Star clears her throat. "I would like to see Bugbutt's plans crash and burn. But I don't want to risk losing because of it."

[DigoDragon]

Rose nods at the answers. "I think no one would be surprised that I'd let Chrysalis take over the gangs, but nothing further. Scrapping her plan without having one of our own isn't good military policy."

[Miltonian]

Star looks troubled. "I...tentatively agree," she says, "So we need a plan. An actual plan. Not just a big, fat 'no'."

[DigoDragon]

"Well, she's gonna be pissed. So if you're not on the negotiation channel, you need to be on the floor and armed for a possible changeling riot. Dr. Violet has my scanner, so you'll need to go with cunning on figuring out who is who. Knocking 'em out should return a changeling to their original form," Rose advises with seriousness. "Also, we need 2-3 personnel here to guard the camp and protect Emerald."

[D.KnightSpider]

"Here's my proposition, then. Love and Brazen secure the central room. Then they get Night Sky on the horn and secures his cooperation: give him a few choice pieces of information and have him stand by to broadcast it on our signal. If a fight breaks out, then we hold the room at all cost.

"Rose and I can approach Chrysalis through Pins. We begin with the proposition that Chrysalis can have the gangsters or our cooperation, but not both. We have orders to talk her out of infiltration. If she decides on pursuing her plan over taking our cooperation, then we reveal the blackmail and show we're serious by revealing some of it.

"What happens next is determined by how badly Chrysalis needs us. If we're icing on the cake, then a fight may break out. If we're integral then she may back down. I'm hoping that she'll back down. If not, then we dump what we have onto the airwaves to prevent her from taking over the Wasteland and resort to fighting it out. It's a high risk, high reward scenario, but no matter what, we won't have compromised our integrity and we'll have been better than the CPI. We'll have to accept that our job becomes that much harder in the long run if we fail.

"I'll need help developing a counter offer for that scenario.

"If you feel the cost of that is too high, then the other option that I see is to modify our demands so that Chrysalis leaves the casino alone in return for our cooperation. If Chrysalis doesn't cooperate, then we use the blackmail as leverage to keep the casino free. The rest of the operation stays the same. Chrysalis gets the gangsters, we're allied and we're complicit in what she does. If news of our cooperation gets out, then we're in trouble. When we're done, Chrysalis a means to later blackmail us. We could always drop our blackmail later to prevent her from keeping control of the gangs."

Sniper stopped to look around the room. This was a monumentous decision with high stakes, but making those decisions was their entire reason for being.

"The rubber is meeting the road, ponies. Which way do we go?"

[DigoDragon]

"It sounds like integrity means more than anything else, so I'm under the impression cooperating with her is gonna make everyone regret later."

[Miltonian]

Star nods to Sniper. "If you two can keep a united front," she says, "I think showing Chrysalis that we aren't going to be pushed around is good. We need to act now. Quickly. Give us as much time as possible. Because something happens in five days and we need to be there to stop it."

[DigoDragon]

"That's the... Andromeda concert?"

[Miltonian]

Star nods. "That's one thing, yes. But the intel we've recovered so far points to something else going on at the same time. The concert's a distraction, I think."

[DigoDragon]

Star nods. "That's one thing, yes. But the intel we've recovered so far points to something else going on at the same time. The concert's a distraction, I think."

Rose scratches her head. "Someone remind what all the intel is that we have. I've had info overload lately."

[DigoDragon]

Rose slowly sinks back down onto the floor and flops on her side. She couldn't fully grasp this odd concept the others had about morality. Her squadmates didn't like the idea of Chrysalis taking over the gangs and use them as a distraction against the CPI, but somehow no one seemed to have lost sleep over the destruction of the Pacification Protocol and the deaths of possible hundreds of ponies therein? Maybe this was more about Chrysalis than pony lives.

"Nevermind, it's not important right now, Star. Seems that we want the bug queen to play the game our way, so let's just focus on that. We' should get some info on the gangs and how to push them to still play the role of distraction. Freeing their leaders from changeling capture and making them think they owe us one would be a start. Then... well heck, the CPI is a threat to their existence. We could use that nagle to give them incentive to work together to be our distraction. Chrysalis is gonna be mad at this change of plan, but maybe we can convince her to let it work if we sell it as wanting her changelings to come with us at Ashtown. After all, her prize is Hyper Thought. Can't claim your prize if you don't get down there to the facility."

She rolls onto her stomach and folds her forelegs together. "So... let's huddle and see who we can tap for 'phase one' of this before we go light Chryssi's butt in phase two."

Spoiler: Huddle Based on Discord Chat Plan

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Phase 1:
Love - Contact Powder Keg for info on the gangs. Find out their motivations and who their leaders are.
Rose - Go see the newsmare in the brig and see what she knows about the CPI. Ask Cabal for directions there.
Sniper - Contact Night Skye and ask about what he knows of the area, the CPI, etc.
Brazen - Accompany Sniper as per command regulations, join in on the discussion with Night Skye.

Phase 2:
Rose & Sniper - Contact Chrysalis and state the terms of the new plan. Push her to decide for it.
Love & Brazen - Prepare office campsite for possible rioting. Check videos and start tracking who's a changeling infiltrator. Map out paths to the room the replaced gang leaders have been stored in in case we need to force their release.

NPCs to be used as guards or informants to relay messages. We should set up passwords and travel using the buddy system for safety.

[D.KnightSpider]

"If we add these other resources to Wire's information, then we might have a chance." Sniper nodded. "For information recon, let's see, Love has some standing with PK that could yield some more information. There's a News in the brig somewhere that might have some more up to date information. Between the two of them, we should be able to find out if this is a workable idea. Rose, you at lease know what she looks like, so can you head up that one?

"I'll contact Night Sky and make sure that he's on board with this. I can give him a Cliff's Note version of the situation. Brazen and Star, why don't you come with me? Star can help coordinate our communications so that none of our plan's moving parts grind to a halt and the main room could use some fortification in case Chryssi gets hissy. We have civilians to protect."

He took a deep breath. "This might be one of the craziest things we've ever done. And that's saying something."

[DigoDragon]

"Rose, you at lease know what she looks like, so can you head up that one?"

"Sure, I'll do it," Rose responds. "Hey Cabal, which way to your brig? I recall that news mare getting carted off to cool in a cell."

"...the main room could use some fortification in case Chryssi gets hissy."

Rose lets off a playful snort. "Oh the queen will be hissy. Because she's like me and gets annoyed when things don't go the way we plan them. Buuut, hopefully she's also like me and is willing to hold her tongue and go with someone else's plan if it still nets us the prime objective we want."

[Miltonian]

"You know," Cabal says, "If this doesn't work, at least we can say we tried to do things the right way."

"If this doesn't work, we'll all probably be dead or enslaved," Star says with a wry smile, "Suppose you could say we'll be 'Starstruck', and not Love's version. At the very least, this is going to bug the queen."

Cabal nods. "Yes, yes she is. Follow me and I'll show you."

If Rose has no objections, he will lead her down the hall and a set of stairs to a fortified, metal door. "The brig," he says, nodding to the guard on duty. He slides the window open and peers inside. "Oi! Today's your lucky day, punk. Somepony wants to talk to you and they don't look like they want to kill you either."

A surly voice from inside responds. "Well isn't that nice! And I was just seeing if there's a pattern to how the lightbulb in here flickers on and off. But I guess I can tear myself away to talk to whoever this is."

[DigoDragon]

"If this doesn't work, we'll all probably be dead or enslaved," Star says with a wry smile, "Suppose you could say we'll be 'Starstruck', and not Love's version. At the very least, this is going to bug the queen."

And for once in her chaotic, difficult life of conflict and near-death experiences... Rose had no counter-pun.

Maybe the world just died a little on the inside.

A surly voice from inside responds. "Well isn't that nice! And I was just seeing if there's a pattern to how the lightbulb in here flickers on and off. But I guess I can tear myself away to talk to whoever this is."

"My name's Rose. You might remember me from the casino area when you made a grown stallion cry," Rose introduces herself. "I came to you for answers, hoping you can enlighten me about what you know of the CPI."

[D.KnightSpider]

"If this doesn't work, we'll all probably be dead or enslaved," Star says with a wry smile, "Suppose you could say we'll be 'Starstruck', and not Love's version. At the very least, this is going to bug the queen.

"So it's business as usual, then." Sniper remarked. "Before we can put a buzz in the Queen's ear and tick her off, we need to get our prep work done. Let's head out."

He'll lead the way to back to the room, step into the bathroom and put out a call to Night Sky.

[Elbeyon]

Love grimaces for a second at Rose's wording. "The bosses will hopefully agree to tangling reinforcements, so that with their aid we can knock down the abominable factory that threatens us all."

Love nods to Scope, "I'll talk to PK to try to predict some reactions and really refine the pressure points we'll be applying with the bosses."

"It's pretty risky", she agrees with Scope. Love jokes, "The chances of us literally free-falling within the next few hours is non-existent. In a cruel twist of fate the ground is more likely to fall on us." She chuckles.

At Star's words, Love clutches her heart, "She is a really good singer even if she apparently has zero composition ability. We'll have to see how well she does when we force her off script." She chuckles. "Luckily, my starstruck self is already struck with the most wonderful Star."

---

After the meeting wraps up, Love will head to the elevator shaft to plan/work so the ponies don't get too anxious. They'll be free today if they can hold their shirts! She checks in on the engineers and hopes they appreciated her note and gift. She wants to make sure everyone working finishes on a strong note. They should take a little extra time to perform flawlessly, but they can't hold things up too much. Let Down to the Wire's engineering ability be known! These four engineers can handle anything!

When she gets a clean moment, Love internally radios the base of operations to talk to PK. It's a wonder if she'll even be able to get the mare on the radio.

[Miltonian]

Whether the world did or not, it rolls onwards without comment.

"Ah-ha!" the mare inside says, "So you're the one that...okay. Got it. What can I say? He deserved it. And more. A lot more." Her voice almost drops into a snarl. "Don't worry about it. He doesn't deserve any of your sympathy. None of them do."

--------

"Heh. Right you are!" Star declares, "So let's flutter on over and get to work."

Sniper hears the call being answered, but no words come through. He hears movement and breathing on the other end, but nothing resembling a sentence itself.

---------

Powder Keg is not available, but Red Tape is. "I have a very large appreciation for Star," he says, "Working a radio is harder than it seems. What can I do for you?"

[DigoDragon]

"Ah-ha!" the mare inside says, "So you're the one that...okay. Got it. What can I say? He deserved it. And more. A lot more." Her voice almost drops into a snarl. "Don't worry about it. He doesn't deserve any of your sympathy. None of them do."

"Them?" Rose asks. "I'm new to these parts. What can you tell me about these ponies."

[userpay]

Brazen nods. It was the best plan they had and it would hopefully work, it had to. Even if most of it would be babysitting duty. He follows along behind Sniper and leans against the wall outside the bathroom... Unless Sniper wanted him in there as well.

[D.KnightSpider]

In what must be the second most surreal sentence of Sniper's narration, Brazen is allowed into the bathroom.

"Hello?" Sniper queried over the connection.

Possibilities spun through his mind, alongside a feeling that something might have gone very, very wrong.

If no response comes, then Sniper with continue to probe: "Shadow? Is that you? Give me two clicks if it's you."