“C’mon! Let’s get movin’!” Kestrel shouted as she charged into the open field. The rest of the Gang followed quickly behind her, save for Wanderer and Gizmo, who lagged behind due to Gizmo’s speed topping out at a leisurely trot. Realizing that they weren’t going to cross the field anywhere near as fast as she and Silver could fly, Kestrel spread her wings and spiraled up to get some height and survey the situation. She could only hope that the Gang could flee across the fields without the Pinks catching up to them, but after all the commotion and gunfire they just caused, she doubted very much that that was going to happen.
The Gang rolls Lady Luck (Average: 6 (-2 for prior gunfire) (-2 for Gizmo’s slow trot and distinct appearance)) to avoid being spotted by more Pinks: Fail
Sure enough, Kestrel saw a whole contingent of Pinks rapidly galloping south, with more not too far behind them. Within moments, seven pink-suited ponies burst forth from the tents on the south end of the conference, guns drawn and searching the area. One pointed to Gizmo trotting away from the conference, and another pointed up in the sky to where Kestrel and Silver flew about. Kestrel barely had any time to shout her warning to her friends below before the shooting started.
All combat rolls are listed in discord
Kestrel was the first to draw, quickly spinning about and firing at the first Pink she saw flying up after her. Her shot missed, but just barely, and as the Pink tumbled to the side, trying to regain his balance, she fired again and clipped his wing. Silver likewise wheeled about and shot at a second pegasus trying to take wing, forcing them back to the ground with a squawk of pain. That pegasus fired a shot up at Silver, but a last-second twirl from Silver saw the bullet clip off two of her gleaming feathers and nothing more.
On the ground, Tumbleweed turned about from galloping just long enough to line up a shot on the leading unicorn galloping out of the conference, and a squeeze of the trigger sent the unicorn’s head snapping back and his body crumpling to the ground. Party Favor likewise turned around to fire, and none of the Pinks dared to shoot at him since he was carrying their employer’s unconscious body on his back. That afforded him the opportunity to line up the perfect shot, and an earth pony in a pink suit fell to the ground, clutching her chest, as his bullet ripped through her heart. Wanderer also took a shot of his own, clipping one of the still-standing Pinks, and a jolt of lightning flying from Starlight’s horn badly singed another.
Then the Pinks responded with their own barrage of gunfire. A shot at Starlight went wide when she ducked down, while a second at Tumbleweed cut a red line across his shoulder, the grazing wound beginning to seep blood. Wanderer staggered as a shot caught him in the shoulder, but with gritted teeth, he powered through it and tried to get a little altitude with his wings. Gizmo, all the while, merely continued at her leisurely trot, but her mechanical features shifted into concern. “This level of violence is appalling,” she stated in her tinny voice. “Please cease before somepony gets hurt.”
“A little too late for that!” Wanderer shouted. “Just pick up the pace!”
Tumbleweed and Wanderer are now GRAZED (Healthiness -1)
“Who needs to pick up the pace when all the lapdogs are dead?” Starlight shouted, and she immediately cast another lightning bolt at the pony she’d hit before. This time, the bolt hit the Pink square in the chest, and the stallion fell to the ground in a spasm of limbs, thoroughly electrocuted from Starlight’s magic. The rest of his companions drew back in horror, and Kestrel could see their nerve wavering even from high up in the sky.
With Starlight’s magic making for a frightening distraction on the ground, Kestrel had no trouble lining up two more shots on the helpless security forces below her. She finished off the first pegasus she’d shot at, and moments after the next Pink fired off a second grazing shot at Tumbleweed, she drilled him between the eyes and sent him to the ground in a puddle of blood. Even despite his two grazing shots, Tumbleweed managed to aim through a wince and fire off yet another bullet, downing a Pink with ease. A bullet sped out of Wanderer’s revolver next to him, and a second Pink fell on top of the body of the first. All it took then was one more bullet from Silver Wings to drop the last, and seven fierce attack dogs of the Pinkie Pie Detective Agency were left dead and dying on the ground, their blood staining their pink suits and seeping into the dry and dusty ground below them.
“What is that, ten or eleven now?” Silver shouted to Kestrel above the noise of the wind roaring in their ears. “When are they going to give up?”
“Pinks don’t give up,” Kestrel said, turning around and flying after the Gang, making sure to drop her altitude some to be harder to see from a distance. “With the kind of bounties they pay out for bringin’ in outlaws dead or alive, there’s enough bits to make the average Pink risk it all even when outclassed.”
“How big are those damn bounties for them to watch us cut down their friends like nothin’ and still come after us?!” Silver exclaimed, incredulous.
“Depends on the outlaw, but after us? I bet they’d get paid ten, fifteen thousand bits for takin’ down one of us. Probably double for Tumbleweed, he bein’ our fearless leader and all.”
Silver whistled and shook her head. “Maybe I should be in for a career change.”
“Yeah, try showin’ a recruiter your resume some time. I’m sure you’ll be a huge hit.”
The Gang had made good progress by the time Silver and Kestrel dropped their altitude, even with Gizmo’s sluggish gait. But they weren’t out of the woods, or rather, fields, yet. Kestrel looked back over her shoulder to see how many Pinks were pursuing them. It was barely a hoofful, but still enough to cause trouble if they managed to catch up to the Gang. And who knew if they had pegasi or magic flares to summon reinforcements. Kestrel knew they had to lose the Pinks somehow, and she flew down to Tumbleweed’s side to talk it over, her glide turning into a trot as her hooves touched the ground.
“Rougher terrain up ahead’ll give us some cover to lose ‘em,” Tumbleweed said. “How many are after us?”
“A lot less than you fear,” Kestrel assured him. “But still enough to put up a fight. And there may be more on the way; I don’t know for sure.”
“Hmph. Well, where there’s one Pink, there’s usually a whole nest of ‘em.” He slowed up as the Gang trotted down a defilade and out of sight from the conference, with a river stretching out in front of them as the land grew more difficult and rough. “Let’s catch our breaths for a second here and get set to move. Lots of options to shake the Pinks. What looks like the best?”
1. Follow the river into the hills to the southwest. Rough terrain’ll give us plenty of opportunity to break line of sight, and we can cover it quickly. We won’t be safe from pegasi in the air, though; they’ll spot us pretty quick if they get close.
2. Cross the river into the woods on the other side. It ain’t a very dense forest, but the trees are close enough together it’ll keep any pegasus eyes off of us, and we’ll have a better chance at hidin’. But crossin’ the river’s gonna take a while, and we can’t move as fast in the forest as we would on open ground, so there’s a chance the Pinks could catch up to us.
3. Stand our ground and place an ambush. There ain’t too many Pinks comin’ after us; a good ambush might be all we need to thin ‘em down some more and really get away for good. Bunch of us are dinged up a bit, though, and I certainly don’t want to take more bullets than I have to.