//------------------------------// // Chapter 46 // Story: Unshaken // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Send Roughshod back with Silver: 10 Votes “You’re gonna get yourself killed, you big bastard,” Kestrel said, shaking her head at Roughshod. “Tough or not, you’re spillin’ blood. Get that stitched up first ‘fore you do anything more.” “It’s nothin’,” Roughshod insisted, but when he tried to step forward and away from Silver and toward the saloon, he staggered and nearly fell over. Blood flecked his teeth as he coughed, and red spittle spattered the dusty street. “Silver, make sure he gets to the doctor, and make sure the doc treats him,” Tumbleweed said. “Bribe him or threaten him, I don’t care what it takes. Get Roughshod stitched up then head to the wagons, do you understand?” “Y-Yeah,” Silver said, grunting as she did her best to give Roughshod a shoulder to lean against. “But you two—!” “We’ll be fine,” Tumbleweed insisted. His magic tugged on his suspenders and he glanced sideways at Kestrel. “Kessie and I can handle ourselves, and we got Snapshot in the steeple. But we can’t waste any more time. Go.” “Right away. Best of luck, you too.” Her eyes lingered on Kestrel for a moment, and when the gunslinger nodded, Silver set her jaw and turned around, coaxing Roughshod after her. Kestrel turned her attention back to Tumbleweed as the two ponies hurried off into the night. “Roughshod didn’t see Adder on the ground floor. I was thinkin’ the bastard’d be upstairs settin’ down for the night.” “Who knows if all that commotion made him think better of that,” Tumbleweed said. Rolling his shoulders, he marched toward the batwing doors of the now mostly-empty saloon and beckoned for Kestrel to follow him. “Stay by my side, and keep your eyes peeled. Whatever chances we had at doin’ this quiet-like went up in smoke when the two of you started that fight.” Kestrel nodded and fell in on instinct, though her eyes wandered to her wanted posted nailed by the door. “My face is gonna cause trouble in there…” “We’re past the point of caring ‘bout that,” Tumbleweed grunted at her. “Even I heard that Viper call you out down the street. Some of those ponies that ran off are goin’ for the sheriff without a doubt, so we ain’t got the time to wait around all carefully.” He drew his revolvers with his magic and glanced back to Kestrel. “Anypony stands in our way, gun ‘em down. Whole town’s probably awake already from that fight, anyhow.” “If they ain’t, they’re gonna be when that griffon gets here,” Kestrel admitted. Her feathers slipped into the grips of her revolvers and readied them by her sides, and with one last nod to Tumbleweed, the two outlaws kicked open the saloon doors and marched into the saloon. Does anypony oppose Tumbleweed and Kestrel as they enter the saloon? Yes With the fighting outside, most of the patrons in the saloon had fled for the safety of their homes, leaving behind only those too drunk, too stupid, or too greedy to move. Kestrel wondered which was which when she saw the three ponies standing across from her and Tumbleweed, and she knew at a glance they weren’t moving aside. Tumbleweed stared them down, the barrels of his revolvers still pointed toward the ceiling but ready to flick down and fire at a thought. “Gentlecolts,” he said, red eyes moving from one to the other. “What seems to be the issue here?” One of the stallions, a unicorn with a double-barreled shotgun in his aura, took a step forward. “You a feller by the name of Tumbleweed?” Tumbleweed’s eyes narrowed. “Might be. Might not. Better hope for your sake I ain’t.” “Whipstitch said your friend there’s worth something,” the stallion on his left said, his eyes boring into Kestrel’s face. “Five hundred bits, was it?” “Five hundred bits ain’t gonna be enough to sew you back together again if you don’t step aside,” Kestrel growled back. Do any of the ponies back down? No “Forget five hundred bits,” the last stallion said, his wings fiddling with a buck knife. “Turning Tumbleweed and Kestrel over to the Pinks’ll get us five thousand. Each.” “If you gentlecolts won’t step aside, then… well…” All was still, quiet. All five ponies held still as statues save for their eyes, each flicking over the others in turn. Kestrel felt her wings quiver, and she ran through the motions of aiming and firing in her head over and over again. There wasn’t any room for error in a standoff; the last to shoot would be the first to die. A bottle shattered somewhere down the street, and that little sound set the five ponies in motion. Kestrel was the first to draw; both revolvers leveled on the pony across from her and the hammers fell before that stallion could ready his own. Two bullets flew one after the other, both striking the bounty hunter’s chest square and sending him toppling backwards. Tumbleweed fanned his revolvers as well, taking down the pony with the shotgun in a flurry of lead. The pegasus with the knife tried to jump across the saloon toward him, but Kestrel pivoted about and brought him down with a well-aimed shot to the neck. Gun smoke wafted through the saloon, and Kestrel’s ears rang from firing in an enclosed space, but Tumbleweed wasted no time by the bodies. Instead, he galloped toward the bar and hauled the bartender out from behind it with his magic. One sooty barrel kissed the bottom of the tender’s chin, and Tumbleweed leaned in close enough until Kestrel was sure the barkeep could smell his breath. “Blue pony named Adder. He get a room here?” Does Adder have a room at the saloon? Critical Yes “Yes!” the barkeep whimpered, flinching away from Tumbleweed’s revolver. He emphatically pointed upwards to a spot somewhere beyond the ceiling. “Up the stairs and to the right! Last room at the end of the hall! He got it for the night, he should still be there!” “He have anypony else with him?” Kestrel asked. Maybe Wanderer was there…? “I-I don’t recall!” the stallion said. “Please, that’s all I know, I swear!” After a second, Tumbleweed nodded. “I believe you,” he said, grinning. He pulled the revolver away from the barkeep’s face, only to drive the handle into the side of his head and send his unconscious body tumbling to the floor. He turned back to Kestrel and gestured toward the stairs. “Shall we?” “Sure thing.” Kestrel quickly reloaded the three bullets she’d spent and returned her revolvers to their holsters for the time being. “How we want to do this? “Bastard’s probably in his room with his guns pointed at the door,” Tumbleweed said. “We kick in the door, he fills us full of lead.” “We got a better plan than that, then?” “Go outside, fly up to the window. The moment you see your chance, take him down while I’ve got him distracted.” Tumbleweed smirked at her. “I know how to keep ‘em talkin’.” “That you do.” Wasting no more time, Kestrel turned around and bolted out the door while Tumbleweed took the steps three at a time. After a quick glance up and down the street to make sure everything was still clear, Kestrel took wing and fluttered up to the roof of the front porch, stalking as quickly and quietly towards the window that belonged to the building’s end room. It was the farthest of the two windows that still had lights on in them that she hadn’t checked earlier, and she got as close to the glass as she dared and put her ear to the wall. Sure enough, she could hear movement inside, along with muttering muffled by the wall. Kestrel eyed up the window. It was probably latched on the inside; ponies wouldn’t keep a window down in a stuffy and hot desert town like this at night unless they didn’t want pegasi getting in. That meant shimmying open the window was likely out of the question. That just left entering by force… “Adder!” she heard Tumbleweed shout, his voice muffled by the door and wall between him and Kestrel. “Adder, open up! I got words I needs to trade with you!” “I ain’t interested!” a coarse voice barked back. Kestrel could tell by the scratchiness that Adder must have been a heavy smoker, and he sounded older than Tumbleweed. “You’re dead, friend. All that shootin’ done woke up the sheriff and his boys, that’s for sure.” “I’d worry ‘bout that too if I were you,” Tumbleweed called back. “Your gang ain’t on the right side of the law either.” “Oh, believe me, I ain’t got nothin’ to worry about…” Kestrel crept forward just enough to peer past the frame. Sure enough, she saw Adder standing with his back to her, a pump-action shotgun held in flickering sapphire magic and trained on the door. If Tumbleweed was stupid enough to open that door, he’d get a belly full of lead in one blast, but Kestrel knew Tumbleweed wasn’t going to dare open it up until he heard her make her own entrance. She fluttered back from the window and put a little bit of distance between her and the saloon, a plan coming to the front of her mind. Well, not so much a plan as it was a grand entrance, but it would work either way. She momentarily paused over the rooftop of the building across the street, lined herself up, and charged for Adder’s room at full speed, leading with her shoulder. Kestrel surprises Adder from behind: Critical Fail Glass shattered as Kestrel drover her shoulder into it, and in that split-second she closed her eyes right before impact, she lost track of Adder. She quickly figured out where he was, however, when his shotgun clubbed her across the cheek as she entered the room. Kestrel lost her balance and slammed hard into the opposite wall. She managed to duck down and dart for the bed before a scattering of lead sprayed her blood against the wall, and the thunderous BOOM of the shotgun seemed to shake the room. Tumbleweed kicked through the door a moment later and set his sights on Adder while the unicorn’s focus was on Kestrel. One unicorn bowled over the other before the shotgun finished pumping, and the two fell to the ground in a tussle, biting and kicking as they tried to gain the upper hoof. “Kessie!” Tumbleweed shouted as the two struggled on the ground. Kestrel sucked in a quick breath and forced herself to hop back to her hooves, vaulting over the bed to try and join the fight, only for Adder to kick Tumbleweed toward her and forcing her to back off. Tumbleweed wasted no time locking limbs with Adder again and tackling him back to the floor, but the Viper twisted and turned, preventing Tumbleweed from subduing him and warding off his hooves. Snarling, Kestrel jumped back into the fight… Kestrel attacks Adder: Critical Fail …but the Viper rolled just a little bit to the side, and Kestrel’s hoof accidentally found the back of Tumbleweed’s head. The off-yellow stallion cried out, and Adder managed to slither his way free with another blow to Tumbleweed’s snout. Kestrel quickly moved to block his way, trying to restrain the Viper. Adder attacks Kestrel: Critical Fail He tried to take out Kestrel’s legs as he rolled away, but Kestrel fell onto him and managed to restrain him from slipping away, her wings buffeting his face to try and break his concentration and snuff out any glow around his horn. As they rolled across the ground, kicking at each other, Tumbleweed tried to strangle Adder with his magic. The writhing Viper fought and struggled to keep it difficult, but Kestrel managed to flip the unicorn onto his stomach and hook her foreleg under his jaw. Baring her teeth and grunting in exertion, the pegasus held on and on and on, slowly choking the Viper out. Bit by bit, his thrashing subsided, and when his blue hooves finally began to weaken, Kestrel spiked his head into the floorboards and put stars in his eyes. Adder wheezed and coughed, spitting out blood, but the click of a revolver to the back of his head made him freeze. “Shit,” Kestrel growled between panting breaths. “Why you bastards always gotta make it harder than it needs to be?!” Adder didn’t have a response for that; he was too busy sucking in air, a task made all the more difficult by Kestrel’s weight pinning him to the ground. Tumbleweed walked in front of the both of them, rubbing his jaw. A red dribble of blood ran down from his lip where he must have bit it in the grapple, and his eyes bored into the Viper on the ground. “Mister Adder, I believe you know a friend of ours,” he said. Crouching down, he frowned into Adder’s face. “I think you know who I’m talkin’ about.” Will Adder say what happened to Wanderer? No Adder only responded by spitting at Tumbleweed. “Go to Tartarus. I ain’t got nothin’ to say to you. Soon the sheriff’s gonna be on us, and you’re leavin’ here with nothin’ but chains. You’re gettin’ nothin’ outta me.” Kestrel smacked the back of his head with her hoof, making him cry out, and leaned back toward the window, ears twitching for the sounds of commotion from the street below. Has the shooting attracted the attention of the Law? Yes “They’re comin’, soon,” Kestrel said. “What do we wanna do with him?” 1.     Bargain with Adder. Ponies tend to be much more cooperative when you dangle a carrot on a stick, a little glimmer of hope. Maybe we can find somethin’ that’ll get Adder to talk. 2.     Beat it out of him. A little physical violence breaks down most barriers. Adder here might be tough, but beatin’ the piss outta him should loosen his tongue, so long as he don’t accidentally bite it off. 3.     Flee with Adder. We can take him with us, get him somewhere private to get a longer go at him. But he’s like to fight us all the way, and he’ll slow us down if we gotta run from the law. 4.     Stay and fight. Snapshot’s up in the steeple, and Silvie and Rough are on the other end of town. There’s five of us, and we know how to fight. With enough determination and a little luck, we can fight the Law off long enough to get what we want outta this prick.