//------------------------------// // Chapter 27 // Story: Unshaken // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Get Silver to help stop the train: 58% Gain progress toward the following Quirk: Daring (2/4) No, there was no way Kestrel was going to let that train roll on into Rock Ridge. It had to be stopped here, and it had to be stopped now. The Gang couldn’t afford to lose the haul, and there was always the risk that the Law would find its way back to them now that Trixie showed her face to the engineer. Nothing good could possibly come out of letting the train steam away now, and that was all the motivation Kestrel needed to spread her wings and fling herself off the edge of the canyon. “C’mon, Silvie!” Kestrel shouted across the gulch to the silver pegasus, who was perched on a rock with her wings half extended. “We’re stoppin’ the damn thing now! We’re the only ones who can!” “Shit!” Silvie cursed, taking wing alongside Kestrel. She’d abandoned her repeater on the rocks like Kestrel, taking only her pair of revolvers with her. “Just the two of us?” “You ain’t gotta come if you’re too scared!” Kestrel assured her, though she knew fully well that it would only motivate the pegasus to stay glued to her side. Sure enough, Silver’s brow lowered and she beat her wings harder. “No way! Just… we got a plan?” “Sure, we got a plan. Get to the engine and stop the damn thing! Now come on!” Both pegasi dived down to the tracks, picking up speed as they did so, and frantically began to flap their wings to keep up with the train. Kestrel briefly noted the rest of the Gang blurring by beneath her, especially Trixie’s upturned blue face as she passed, but swiftly put her attention on the train in front of her. She saw a heavy cloud of coal smoke rise out of the engine in the front, and the train began to pick up speed to leave the bandits behind and flee for safety. She could also hear faint shouting from the cars of the train, and she knew the soldiers were getting ready to defend the military’s property. Train combat dice rolls are listed in the discord server. The train began to chug along the tracks at a fair clip as the engineer shoveled more coal into the engine, and soon Kestrel found herself equalizing with the train’s speed. The caboose loomed just in front of her, armored windows shut, though she wondered how long it would be before rifles appeared through the holes to blast her out of the sky. Silvie, on the other hoof, continued to frantically beat her wings, and she began to edge past the caboose and catch up on the engine. “Watch out for soldiers!” Kestrel shouted her, and she grabbed a revolver out of its holster and began to angle off to the left side of the train. She saw a soldier lean over the edge of the nearest open car, but Kestrel straightened her wings to glide for a second and line up the shot. The revolver bucked between her teeth and the report flattened her ears, but the soldier cried out and fell off the side of the train with a spurt of blood sprouting from their chest. Kestrel didn’t bother to watch him fall, instead focusing on catching up to the train itself and getting some cover. A scattering of gunfire burst out from the other side of the train, and Kestrel’s blood ran cold when she heard Silvie cry out. She saw the silver pegasus stumble below the bridge and out of sight of the soldier’s guns, blood dripping from a grazing wound across her shoulder, and vigorously shaking her head. Kestrel flew a little closer, but Silver quickly regained her composure and waved her off. Then, clutching her revolver in her teeth, she flew back up to return the fire. Silver is Grazed and suffers a -1 penalty to Healthiness until her wounds can be treated. Kestrel flew back up as well, using the slight left turn of the bridge to fly ahead a few cars. She saw Silver spin about to shoot back at a soldier wielding a repeater in his magic, only for the stallion to duck behind a crate and dodge the bullet. Unfortunately for him, that left his back exposed to Kestrel, and a single bullet pierced his spine and sent him tumbling to the floor, choking on his blood. Silver looked up and shared a nod with Kestrel, then resumed her flight up to the front of the train. Kestrel turned her eyes forward as well—she’d flown about three cars forward, with only four to go before she got to the engine. The next one in front of her was armored, and she nearly forgot about the Chatter guns sticking out of the side until she saw one move out of her periphery. She opened her wings to dump speed and fall back moments before the operator fired a hail of lead out the window, and she instead swooped beneath the train to move up while staying out of the line of fire. She popped back up ahead of the armored car, only to feel a biting pain strike deep into her leg. Crying out in pain, Kestrel tumbled back as she momentarily forgot to flap her wings, but managed to catch herself before she drifted too far back. Kestrel is Significantly Injured and suffers a -2 penalty to Healthiness until her wounds can be treated. A soldier leaned out over the edge of the train, rifle in his wings. His feathers pulled the bolt back and ejected the spent cartridge, but before he could shoot again, a bullet went clean through his head and his body tumbled to the earth below like so much dead weight. Though wincing from the shot to her haunch, Kestrel once more managed to push back up to the train car and out of the danger zone of the Chatter guns behind her. Another gunshot rang out over the train car, but this time pointed in Silver’s direction. Silver saw it coming, however, and managed to spin away from the shot without harm. Kestrel took the opportunity to shoot the soldier in the side, and when he fell to the ground writhing in pain, she fired a second shot to finish him off. The train rumbled and rattled as it made it to the far end of the bridge, the dry desert dust rising up to meet the rails. Kestrel cursed as she gained some altitude and tried to move over one of the closed cars for a little bit of cover. They couldn’t fly beneath the train anymore, and so the soldiers left on board would have an easier shot. Hopefully there weren’t too many more… But the train seemed to slow down some after crossing the bridge. Whether the engineer was no longer in a frantic hurry to outrun the bandits as only two pegasi had pursued him across the gap, or whether the engine itself was overheating, Kestrel couldn’t tell. But with a burst of speed, she and Silver leaped forward all the way to the front of the train, even as soldiers below tried to fire up at them. Bullets whizzed back and forth between outlaws and army, but no hits were scored, and Kestrel quickly holstered her first revolver and drew her second as it ran out of ammunition. Yet the engine was all but below them now, and Kestrel wasted no time jumping down into the coal car. Her injured leg slipped out from under her as she hit the coal, sending her tumbling down the black rocks before coming to a dusty stop at the bottom of the car. Silvie hopped down after her, and the engineer whipped his head around in shock as the two outlaws closed in on him. “Stop the damn train!” Kestrel shouted at him, revolver raised. “Stop it or you’re a dead stallion!” Does the engineer recognize Kestrel? Yes But the engineer just gave her a curious look. “Do I… I know you!” Kestrel stepped closer, the revolver never once pointing away from his head. “Do it!” The engineer gulped and turned around, yanking down on the brakes and powering down the steam engine. Kestrel’s ears flattened against her head as the wheels squealed on the rails, and she and Silver both staggered forward as the train began to bleed speed. But shouting behind them turned their attention away, and Kestrel knew the rest of the soldiers would be on them in a second. “Get ready, Silvie!” she shouted, moving to one end of the engine while Silvie took the other side. “We got company!” The first soldier to appear was a pegasus flying over the coal car, but Kestrel put a bullet through his ribs before he could even take aim. Silver leaned out the right side of the engine and gunned down a unicorn trying to make his way to the front, her revolver firing twice before she tossed it away in frustration and drawing her spare. A bullet pinged off of the metal near Silver’s head, sending her ducking for cover, and when Kestrel tried to cover her, the soldier pulled back out of sight. A rifle round bulged the metal next to Kestrel’s head inwards, and she cursed and drew back to safety. But by this point, Silver had drawn her next revolver and taken aim, and that unicorn fell with two shots to the neck. Kestrel took a breath to steady her heart and glanced at the engineer, who merely cowered as far back in the compartment as he could manage. Confident he wasn’t about to try anything, Kestrel leaned back out around the metal wall and at a pony about to line Silver in his sights. Though she missed the snapshot, the grazing shot was enough to ruin the soldier’s aim, and he staggered back as he shot. The bullet ricocheted off of the engine and buried itself somewhere in the coal, and Silver quickly shot at him as he stumbled back. He cried out as the bullet buried itself in his ribs, and his blood soon began to turn the coal dust coating his chest and legs into a brown slurry. But there was one more soldier, and Kestrel didn’t see her until it was too late. A pegasus officer with hair that looked like a rainbow come down to the earth fluttered up from behind the train. In her mouth was a gilded black iron revolver, and she snapped her head over to Kestrel and fired before she could react. Kestrel’s eyes bulged as the bullet struck her in the gut, and she slumped back against the engine controls as she clutched the wound. The pain was so intense, she could hardly move, and her vision went blurry. Kestrel is Critically Injured and suffers a -4 penalty to Healthiness until her wounds can be treated. “No!” Silver screamed as she watched Kestrel slouch back, and she desperately fired off several shots at the rainbow-maned pegasus. But the pegasus was quick, so quick that Silver found her difficult to track, and the bullets went wide. They spun about and fired a shot back at Silver that struck her in the foreleg, making her cry out in pain and lose her focus. Silver is Significantly Injured and suffers a -2 penalty to Healthiness until her wounds can be treated. But as the officer stopped for the kill shot, Kestrel barely managed to snatch her revolver off the ground with her wing and fire all the lead she had left in it. Two of the bullets managed to catch the officer unawares, one striking her leg and causing her to slip on the coal pile, while the other tore a chunk of blue feathers from her wing. Cursing, the officer stood up before Silver could take a shot at her, flung herself out of the coal pile, and took wing. She dashed off so quickly it almost looked like she left a rainbow trail behind her, and the few shots Silver fired in her direction failed to bring her down. Then all was quiet once more, and Silver immediately turned her attention back to Kestrel. “Oh my Celestia, Kessie, no!” Silver cried out, pressing her hooves to the wound in Kestrel’s gut. “C’mon, you’re gonna be alright, you’re gonna be fine Kessie, c’mon, c’mon…” Kestrel tried to say something, but it hurt too much to form the words. Instead, she put her hoof on Silver’s shoulder and gave her a comforting squeeze. As bad as it was, she had no intention of having Celestia judge her soul today. She’d cling on, and that was that. Silver snapped her head over to the engineer, who stood awkwardly to the side. “Get some fuckin’ rags or somethin’!” she screeched at him, and she pointed her revolver in his direction. “Do it or I’ll fuckin’ kill you!” “There’s… t-there’s medicine in one of the cars!” he cried out, hopping back from the engine. But he still hesitated going back, his eyes lingering on Kestrel’s face. Kestrel thought there was something familiar about them… but it was too difficult for her to think about what at the moment. “Is… is her name Kestrel?” “Don’t ask questions,” Silver growled at him. “They’re bad for your health!” To emphasize her point, she put the revolver in his direction again, and he finally scurried off. Silver turned back to Kestrel and hung her head. “Oh gosh, oh Celestia, what am I gonna do?” 1.     Stay with Kestrel and treat her wounds. Oh, Celestia, she’s hurt so bad! I-I don’t know if she’ll make it, but she’s gotta, right? 2.     Go look for medical supplies with the engineer. What she really needs right now are some bandages and maybe a healin’ potion. She’ll have a better chance if I help the engineer find one. The army’s gotta have some of those now, right? R-Right? 3.     Go and get the Gang. Kessie needs the rest of the Gang here, and we need to get this thing unloaded, fast! Who knows how long we have before that officer that shot her gets help, and if we’re still here, we’ll both be dead! 4.     Chase down the officer. The engineer can take care of Kestrel, he seems to recognize her… I-I think. But I can’t let that pegasus get away! (Confidence Required: 45 Votes)