"This is the Wild West! There have to be guns here!" Discord insisted. He searched through his pockets again and produced a tiny deringer. "Hmm. Well what fun is it relying on overwhelming firepower anyway? Much better to use cunning and deceit," He thought for a moment. "I'm fairly sure our goal is to overthrow Trueblood and restore this town to it's former glory, and seeing as this seems to be a classic western, all we probably need to do is Robin Hood that carriage, and run the corrupt sheriff out of town. Possibly tar and feather him too. Oh, and there'll probably be a final showdown with the baron at sundown. Does anyone suddenly feel like they're a crack shot?"
"I can shoot a birdy ten mile a way. I was aiming at a target three feet away." "Inherited your dad's aim." Not that he'd ever seen the giant robot shoot at anything, but Lio did complain about his inability to shoot things. "I'm no crack shot, but I can hit what I aim at. I'm fairly good with moving targets."
Discord nodded. "Duly noted." If it did come down to a gunfight, he didn't want to put Usagi in harm's way anyway; he wasn't sure what would happen if they were hurt in here, but he'd never forgive himself if anything happened to her, and he was sure Lio wouldn't either. He didn't really want to use a gun himself unless he had no choice. They tended to act... unpredictably, around him. But that was a problem for later; right now they had to work on reliving the incoming carriage of it's precious cargo. "Right," He said, clapping his hands together, "We'd better prepare one heck of a welcome for these carriage guards; we want to give them an evening they'll never forget!" He chuckled and rubbed his hands together with glee. He loved scheming.
"Wouldn't it be better if they did forget. Like if they forgot why they were in town in the first place and forgot their carriage. If Kimi was here she could make a forgetfulness drug out of the liqueur." "Kimi?" "Kimitsu, my big sister. She's not really my sister she a clone of one of dad's friends, but well she didn't like being and adult and now she's 13 and she's my big sister."
"Well, if we ply them with enough of it, the liquor should have that effect anyway," Discord said, grinning. "And I know westerns, that shouldn't be that hard."
"How do you know westerns? You live in a reality with no television and ponies that drinks cider rather than beer." This was Discord he was talking to, not Q. Then again if they were the same person as Discord suggested how could he be tied down by the device of Lio's. Then again Lio's tech was odd. Both Barkly and La Forge tried looking at the dream machine and they couldn't open it or scan it.
"Don't question my knowledge!" Discord snapped. The truth was, he didn't know either, and it scared him sometimes, so he preferred not to think about it.
"Right" "I've really only seen Wild Wild West, Maverick, Legend, and Brisco County Jr." Her sister and Mommy didn't like the normal westerns.
"Well, people in them seem to drink a lot, that's the important thing to be taking away from this," Discord said, impatiently. "If we keep them distracted and get them all liquored up, then we should have no problem relieving them of their cargo. All we need to do then is try and find somewhere to hide it." He thought for a moment then looked at the others. "I guess we should go look for a convenient barn, or a cellar or something..."
Usagi thought about something Riker said. He said this was her Bar. So if it was her's certain things should be present. Even if this was Discord's mind her thoughts should have some influence. Like how Discord brought Riker and Octavia. If Octavia was really there. She went over to the piano and played 'Shave and hair cut' A moment later Riker seemed to fall into a hole. She had seen Hogan's Heroes with her mommy. "I think we found our cellar." While the hay at the bottom of the hole broke his fall. It wasn't a fun fall. There was a ladder for him to climb back up, but beyond that he couldn't see much. "Can I get a lantern down here?"
Discord fished through his pockets and threw down a book of matches. "Best I could do. Use that Starfleet training of yours."
Depending on how much influence her mind have the secret cellar should be big enough to house what ever they stole. She'd have to wait for Riker to reply. Riker lit the match and had enough light to find a lantern near the ladder. He was sort of surprised by what he saw. " You want to join me Discord?" [Leaving that open ended in case you want to decide something else about the cellar]
Discord muttered something about having to do everything himself and climbed down the ladder into the basement. He whistled. "I told you westerns were full of guns!" Riker's lantern had illuminated what appeared to be a small armoury. There must have been enough firepower to arm half the town, which worried Discord a little; what were they going to be up against?
Usagi followed Discord down and frowned. It wasn't what she was hoping for, but it wasn't her mind. "Are we going to have to kill people?" Riker climbed up the ladder and left the main character in the cellar. Back behind the counter he looked over at Octavia she'd been quiet except for the playing. "So any imput on any of this?"
Discord looked at Usagi. "I certainly hope not; usually a simple show of force is enough to put people off, but you also have to remember most of the people here are only figments of my imagination, not real people." Octavia shrugged. "I'm a contrabassist; I play music. If I can help get us out of here quicker, I will, but you people seem to know what you are doing, and I just want to get home in one piece, so I'm happy to stay out of it." She looked around the saloon and then down at her body. "Honestly, I think it will be better for me if I can just convince myself it's all just a bad dream."
"Doesn't change things" Killing monsters was one thing... people... that just wasn't something Usagi wanted to do. Even when she acidently killed mommy, she didn't really die, just the body was destroyed. ~~~ "So no hypnotic music? No hidden gun in your instrument?"
Discord nodded. "I understand." He lied. He didn't see the problem with shooting people with an existence no more meaningful than that of the barstools upstairs, but he suspected Usagi was probably right. She seemed to know an awful lot for a six year old... At any rate, he was fairly confident they wouldn't need to shoot anyone, except the Baron himself, but they'd cross that bridge when they came to it. "C'mon, lets get back upstairs; we got some preparations to make!" he said, heading back to the ladder. ------ "Haunting perhaps, but not hypnotic, no." Octavia replied. She felt like slapping him for suggesting that she'd do something so detrimental to her instrument's sound and well-being as hidding a something in it, but she still wasn't really sure who he was, and didn't know how he might react, so she just pouted and gave him a slightly angry look instead.
Riker sighed. "I almost wish Discord brought along Vynal Scratch. Or even Derpy." Usagi was at the ladder when she heard Riker's comment. Derpy was pretty cool when she met her. She really might have been useful.
Octavia had had enough. She did slap him. "And who are you to judge; hmm? I've got a strong feeling that you are the reason I'm here in the first place!" Discord burst out laughing as he finished climbing the ladder and watched the scene unfold. He knew his mind had brought her with them for a reason!
The slap pretty much proved Octavia was simply a product of Discords imagination. It was doubtful the true Octavia would know how to slap a person. When Twilight was turned human it took her time to adapt to being one. There was no learning curve with Octavia she just knew. It was a painful way to find that out. But his curiosity got the best of him. "Definitely would have preferred Derpy." "We could have told her a fake plan and she'd let it slip so we can catch the bad guys by surprise with the real plan." Her mommy like Derpy too. Sometime people who always make mistakes can be agents of fate, that's what mommy said about the blue Pegasus.
