Go exploring: 8 Votes
After taking a few minutes to look around the camp, Kestrel decided to spread her wings and take to the skies. She’d considered finding somepony to talk to until the rest of the Gang got back, but ultimately decided against it. Snapshot wasn’t much of a talker, things with Silver would be more awkward than she was willing to deal with right now, and the last thing she wanted to do was subject herself to more Roughshod. The stallion was best handled in small doses, and with some time before Trixie and Wanderer and Miss Irons returned with supplies, she’d get more than a day’s dose if she ended up getting stuck with him.
But was he better or worse than listening to Starlight Glimmer rattle off about equality and the working class? Kestrel didn’t know. Politics weren’t all that important to her, considering that no matter what Equestria’s government looked like, it would still want her in jail or on the end of a rope. And on top of that, if the Gang did manage to assemble enough money to get away and live out the rest of their days free from the Law’s reach, it wouldn’t matter much to her anyway.
Circling above the camp, Kestrel rose into the waning sunlight of late afternoon. The air was cooler here without the grasses and trees to trap the sun’s heat against the ground, but the lack of clouds in the sky didn’t leave her with any shade to keep the sun out of her face. Rather than burn energy and work up a sweat trying to climb in the face of the sunlight, Kestrel instead held her wings stiff and circled from thermal to thermal, rising ever higher into the sky until she could see for miles around the camp. Once she settled herself into a slow circle a thousand feet or so above the lake, Kestrel scanned her eyes left and right, looking for anything that immediately stood out from her lofty perch.
Kestrel uses Lady Luck (6) to spot something interesting near the camp: Success
After a few minutes, her eyes picked out a thin streak of gray rising into the sky from the south. Frowning, she followed it down to its source, or as close to it as she could get. The fire itself was out of sight behind rocks and trees, but it wasn’t too far away from the camp. Plotting out the distance from above, Kestrel figured it was only about three miles away from the Gang’s camp. Had that been there last night?
She stopped circling and hovered in place as she rubbed her chin with a hoof. No, that was new, and she didn’t see anything around the hills that would warrant somepony pitching up camp so far from the road leading into Hoofston. Maybe it was related to the campfire on the overlook south of the city the day before? She turned her eyes in that direction and didn’t see anything, so whoever had been there was gone now. Or maybe they’d just moved… but in that case, why?
Frowning, Kestrel swooped lower to pick up some speed and began flying south. She had time to kill, after all, and this warranted investigation. If bounty hunters or bandits were camping out within miles of the Gang, then she needed to know. Their safety could very well depend on it.
It only took her a few minutes to close the distance by wing, and she tried to draw a line between the camp and the sun to fly along that would keep her hidden from anypony on the ground looking up. With her back to Celestia’s ball of fire, she quickly scanned the camp for ponies, trying to establish a headcount and to figure out what she was dealing with.
Are there ponies by the fire? Critical Yes
Kestrel’s frowned sharpened as she surveyed the camp from afar. There were only three ponies sitting around the fire that she could see, but she counted twelve tents arranged in a ring around it. Where the rest of the ponies were, she had no idea, but there was a lot more sleeping space staked out than there were ponies by the fire. Most of the tents looked like two pony tents as well. So where were the others?
Chewing her lip, Kestrel stroked the handle of one revolver with the tip of her hoof. That there were only three ponies around the fire was a blessing if she decided to investigate. She could certainly take on three if trouble started. The multitude of additional tents, however, concerned her, and there was no real means of telling what she was dealing with without getting closer. Were they just prospectors looking for gold in the hills? Outlaws lying in wait within striking distance of the roads? Maybe they were even just botanists counting shriveled blades of grass for all she knew. But there was no way of telling from this distance.
She had to decide if it was worth investigating, or if it was better to go back to Tumbleweed now.
1. Get closer but be ready to run if seen. I can fly closer to the camp to get a better look, but the closer I get, the more likely I’ll be seen. It’s hard to stay hidden in the sun’s rays when gettin’ that close, and if I’m spotted, I might as well be ready to flee.
2. Get closer but be willing to talk if seen. I can fly closer to the camp to get a better look, but the closer I get, the more likely I’ll be seen. If they do happen to see me, and if they ain’t gonna start shootin’ at me immediately, then I’ll touch down and see what we’re dealin’ with.
3. Talk to the ponies. There’s only three of ‘em; they ain’t that much of a threat if things go down. I can fly into their camp and see what’s goin’ on, and shoot my way out if things go south.
4. Report back to Tumbleweed. Gettin’ closer’s too risky. But by the time I fly back to camp, I ain’t gonna have the sun behind me anymore, which means no dealin’ with whatever this is until later. By that time, the other twenty-some ponies could show up again, and if they’re up to no good, then we ain’t got a chance of figurin’ out what’s goin’ on here.