Unshaken

by The 24th Pegasus

Chapter 12

A Train Conductor and a Rich Filly

Please see the Author’s Notes for more about the previous chapter’s poll.

“I did,” Kestrel admitted. She could see the faces in the flames now. They were almost as clear as if she was looking into a picture. “And not just once.”

Silver, originally bursting with enthusiasm, noted the somber tone in Kestrel’s voice and quieted down. Her wings slowly folded closed by her sides, and the grin plastered to her muzzle began to droop. Soon, all was quiet, save for the crackling of the logs in the fire.

“There was a train conductor, once,” she said, shaking her head. “His name was Highball. Tumbleweed and me met him way back when. I was just… I dunno. Maybe twenty at the time. But the two of us, we’d just robbed a gunsmith in Dodge Junction, and Dodge ain’t a big town. Sheriff and his colts were on us like white on rice. We managed to lose ‘em by getting’ aboard a train before it left station. Hidin’ in the shadows of a freight car, waiting for the Law to pass.”

She remembered that feeling of terror mixed with excitement. They could hear the hooves of the deputies pounding across the rail yard, tearing open car after car to look for them. She remembered the taste of her revolver’s handle in her mouth when the door opened and a shadow appeared across the floor, and she thought they were done for. And she remembered the quiet look the stallion who opened the door gave her and Tumbleweed, hiding in the corner, before he winked at them and closed the door.

“He found us hidin’ in the back there,” Kestrel said. “Yet he didn’t say nothin’ to the Law. Just started up the train and went on his way. We hid in that car until it stopped at the next station, and that’s when he came back to get us. Brought us food, water, gave us a place to lie low. I didn’t know why he done it. Still don’t, I reckon.”

Kestrel sighed and let happier memories come back to her. “We stayed in that area for a while, Tumbleweed and I. Got to know Highball real well. He was… he was always sweet on me. Maybe he didn’t say nothin’ to the Law because he thought I was beautiful. He certainly called me beautiful all the time. He was gonna propose, get me outta this life once and for all, after about a year of it.”

Silvie covered her muzzle in excitement and dread. “Did… did he?”

After several moments, Kestrel shook her head. “No,” she said. “His company got bought out by the Apple Family conglomerates. They reorganized the rail lines, wanted to send him north. He wanted me to go with, but I couldn’t. I was wanted. Law was hunting me down. If I went north, I woulda been walkin’ right into the jaws of the monster. Wouldn’t be long before they found me and took me down, and Highball with me.”

“He didn’t stay with you, then?” Silver asked, even though she knew the answer.

“He had three little brothers to look out for,” Kestrel said. “He needed the pay. And he weren’t about to bring them all into this outlaw life, ruin theirs for me. So that was the end of it. We met one last time, and he gave me the fetlock ring he was gonna give me when he proposed anyway. And then he was gone. I ain’t ever seen him since.”

Kestrel had to close her eyes as that long-since scarred-over pain clawed at her heartstrings again. She could have been a wife. She could have been a mother. But the world pulled them in two different directions, and love left her like a steam engine down the tracks.

Silver shuffled a little bit closer to Kestrel, sitting just close enough to barely touch the older mare’s back with her wingtip. “I’m… I’m sorry, Kestrel.”

“Don’t be,” Kestrel said with a rough grunt. “It’s in the past.”

Several seconds passed by before Silver spoke up again. “And… the other time?” Her voice was fragile and worried, filled with concern.

Kestrel squeezed her eyes more tightly shut. Those wounds weren’t so scarred over. “Her name was Faith. Faithful Heart.”

Silver seemed somewhat surprised to hear that Kestrel’s second love wasn’t also a stallion, but she didn’t comment on it. Instead, Wanderer took over the story in the ensuing silence. “Sweet Faith was a regular around here for some time,” he said. “She was the daughter of an oil magnate, some fellow by the name of Black Gold. Nice as could be, and plenty pretty, though Miss Irons would have what’s left of my stallionhood if she heard me say that.”

“Her father didn’t like her spendin’ her time with wanted ponies,” Kestrel said. “He didn’t like me the least bit. Thought I was a terrible influence on her, thought I was gonna get her killed. Thought I was gonna ruin her life.” Her wings sagged and her head fell. “Can’t say he were wrong about all that.”

“What happened to her?” Silver asked in a quiet voice.

“Mister Gold made it pretty certain that he didn’t want to see any of us no more,” Kestrel said. “He’s an oil magnate, he’s rich as can be. He could buy the police force of Canterlot if he wanted. He made it pretty clear I was to never see Faith again, or else he’d get all us here arrested and hanged. And he… well, that was it.”

After several moments of silence, Kestrel dug into her duster and pulled out a heart-shaped golden locket. Its surface was scratched and tarnished from wear, but it opened easily at a twist of her feathers. It held only two things: a picture of Kestrel in her duster standing next to a dainty pegasus by the lake, and a single white feather. Kestrel felt her throat begin to seize up with emotion at the memories, so she hastily closed the locket and returned it to its pocket, her other wing wiping at her eyes.

“At this point I… I ain’t lookin’ to do it again,” Kestrel said. “I lost two ponies I loved ‘cause of this life. It ain’t fun and games, no cops and robbers like Faith thought. It’s tough. It’s hard. And at the end of the day, there ain’t no happiness for ponies like us.”

She quietly stood up and rubbed at her eyes some more. By this point, she could hardly keep them open. “I should get some sleep,” she muttered. “Tumbleweed’s gonna want to head down to Rock Ridge at first light, see what we can find. I need to think about where I’m gonna look anyway.”

Wanderer nodded and began to strum his guitar some more. “Take care, Kestrel. Sleep well.”

“I’m sorry if I brought back bad memories,” Silver said in a quiet voice.

Kestrel managed a tired smile and patted Silver on the shoulder. “They ain’t bad memories, Silvie,” she assured her. “They hurt ‘cause they was good.”

With one last goodnight to the pair of pegasi, Kestrel turned away from the fire and sought out the secluded shelter of her lean-to. She could do a little thinking about what she would do in Rock Ridge in the morning before sleep overtook her.

1. Go to the saloon. Everypony talks about somethin’ in the saloon. I’ll find somethin’ good there to bring back to Tumbleweed, and maybe take a few shots of whiskey while I’m at it.

2. Check out the sheriff’s office. Sometimes the sheriffs post good bounties for anypony to take. We’re far enough away from Appleloosa that nopony knows we’re wanted out here, and given the size of that place, they probably pay well for dangerous work like that.

3. Visit the post office. Lotsa news passes through the post daily. Somepony there has got to know somethin’ good, and maybe what they know’ll be better than that wagon we hit today.

4. Walk the streets. Sometimes the best way to find somethin’ interestin’ is to just listen for gossip in town. Rock Ridge ain’t big, but it ain’t small either. Who knows what I’ll find if I just walk and listen?

(Confidence Required: 40 Votes)

Author's Note:

There were a lot of things that happened with last chapter's poll that I'd like to make clear here so you can understand why I went with two options instead of just one.

The issues began when I noted something that seemed like... odd behavior in the middle of the polling. Over the course of roughly five minutes, and maybe less because this happened between checks of the poll, eight votes were added to one option, elevating it from 3rd place to 1st with a barely insurmountable lead given the 30 votes needed I had put to the poll. While this isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility, I found it very unlikely that everybody would abruptly feel like voting for the same option and making it win within a few minutes. I decided to be cautious and let more polling be done to see what the people wanted instead of calling the poll right there, just to be sure.

Things were further compounded where, in a few instances, I was asked by people to change their votes from one option to another. I originally was going to honor these requests, and mentally tallied the changes to the poll as the results came in, despite the fact that I should not be doing this. I have it stated in the usual A/N I copy-paste here that the only thing I will look at is the numbers on the poll, and here I was, breaking my own rule. It was also pointed out to me that, while I'm sure these people asking me to change their votes weren't doing so, people asking to change their votes could be doing so deceptively to take votes away from one option and put it toward another option. So obviously, this can not continue.

But all this combined together to have me awarding the Train Conductor with the victory in the poll, despite the fact that, were those revotes not counted, the Rich Girl would have won instead. I floated several options to try to decide what to do with this dilemma, including having Lady Luck voice in once, but ultimately decided the only way I could make this work without cheating the people in one of two camps was to let both options win. Therefore, I decided to put both the Train Conductor and the Rich Girl into this chapter.

Going forward, I will be making a few changes to the voting procedure.

The first change is that I will be adding numbers to the poll options that correspond with what is listed here. Hopefully this should clarify things for people and lessen the number of accidental votes.

Secondly, I will not, under any circumstances, allow people to change their votes. If you can't take the time to read your selection and make sure that it is what you want, then I will not help you out when you realize later that you voted for the wrong choice. It really isn't that hard, and there will be no excuse for getting things confused once I add numbers to clarify things.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I will not decide a vote until the following day, even if it hits the vote confidence required. From here on out, this number is a MINIMUM threshold that must be hit for the poll to be considered valid, and I will only check the final result when I wake up the following morning. Whatever option I see winning at that moment (assuming the threshold has been hit) will be the final result that I will write the next chapter for. If the threshold isn't hit when I wake up, I will call the polling closed whenever I see that it is.

Hopefully these changes will make the voting more robust in the future, and I apologize for the drama that has been happening in my discord today because of this poll. Thanks for your understanding.

---

This chapter's poll: https://www.strawpoll.me/18069781

Please use the poll for voting. You can discuss options in the comments, but I will not take anything stated there into consideration when determining the vote.

This story is a CYOA comment-driven story, where you, the readers, decide the outcome of the story. Each poll contains several options, each with sub-optimal choices thrown into the mix, with nothing but the prose to clue the readers into what each option entails. The will of the masses, alongside a few unbiased dice rolls, will decide the outcome of the story.

You can find Kestrel's character sheet, along with some key information about her and the Gang, here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xAGDlcd5mlMTAHwexlsrXOffQMMLoQc12u9itAa-io0/edit?usp=sharing

If you want to see the dice rolls in action, check out my Discord server: https://discord.gg/RsVkdDP

Comments

[djthomp]

Hmn, so with how this turned out, there's two possibilities that come to mind. Third time's the charm, or three strikes and you're out. Guess we'll see.

I'm not thinking Post Office. As always I'm a fan of getting more intel.

[platogkrone]

Thinking back, it was probably my request that made people aware that they could exploit your kindness. So, sorry about that.

Anyway, I voted for the sheriff's office. Hopefully taking down other criminals will be a way to increase Kestrel's Honor.

[hypervelocity]

Going with Post Office. Seems like a good chance to get news or gossip from the ponies that handle the important stuff.

[Merula]

Post Office. More intel is always nice

[touileasaso]

I'd like to apologize about last chapter. I never meant for that comment back there to cause so much trouble. I'll be sure to be more careful with my picks in the future.