Once the sun finally set, Kestrel lowered her guard. If the Pinks hadn’t found them by now, they certainly wouldn’t find them in the dark of the night.
The Gang had pressed on through the forest after intercepting and annihilating the Pink scouts that had happened across them by the river, and though they’d been on edge and alert as they moved within the shadow of the trees, they hadn’t seen any signs of being followed. Just to be sure, they pushed south into the forest for a mile, then turned sharply to the east and went on for another three miles before finding a small, rocky clearing at the base of a hill to rest. There, the Gang stopped to eat their dinner and lick their wounds. It wasn’t until Kestrel dug into her rations did she realize just how hungry she was, and how much energy she’d spent choosing both options when it came to ‘fight or flight’. At least she could recover some before having to run again, though hopefully, they were done running for the night.
The Gang ate their dinner in silence, the world around them still save for the chatter of birds as they laid low to roost, and the whirring and clicking of Gizmo’s gears as she stood and watched the Gang eat. The robot at least seemed like it didn’t have anything to say unless somepony addressed it or did something that it disagreed with, which was good. Kestrel didn’t know how she’d feel trying to have a conversation with a bunch of metal and crystal pretending to be a pony. How do you hold a conversation with something that’s not alive?
Once dinner was finished and any oozing cuts had been bandaged up, Tumbleweed pulled out a pack of cigarettes he had stashed in his vest and passed them around for those that wanted them. After a day like today, Kestrel wasn’t surprised when nopony refused, and soon, the six ponies had filled the air around their makeshift camp with acrid tobacco smoke. The hit of nicotine did plenty to soothe Kestrel’s frazzled nerves, and she felt herself finally relaxing as it worked its way into her blood. Maybe when she got back to camp, she’d have a cigar with Tumbleweed as well. She generally preferred cigarettes over cigars, but even she had to admit that when it came time to celebrate something, a cigar had that little bit of something a cigarette lacked.
“So,” Tumbleweed said, finally breaking their silence. “How’d we make out? Never got the chance to see how much progress we made.”
“A few coins over ten thousand, eight hundred,” Silver said, setting aside the last bag as she finished counting through it. “Not exactly as much as I was hoping for, but cash is cash.”
“If we’d had more time to loot the place before the Pinks got to us, we woulda had more,” Kestrel grumbled.
“Things could have gone better,” Wanderer agreed. “But then again, they could have gone much, much worse.”
“How we got out of that mess without anypony gettin’ seriously hurt, I ain’t got a clue,” Tumbleweed asked. Then he turned toward Starlight. “Well? That satisfy you for our crusade?”
“It’s a start,” Starlight agreed. “At least the fat cats know we can make them bleed, and hopefully this will empower the workers of Equestria when they see what we accomplished today. Plus, we have her.” She gestured toward Applejack, who still lay slumped unconscious against a fallen tree. “I couldn’t think of a greater hostage to help bring the revolution forward.”
“And what do you have in mind with her?” Kestrel asked. She took one last drag on the stub of her cigarette, then squashed the butt into the dirt to snuff out the ember. “Tartarus, what are we gonna do with her? The Pinks know who we are, and they know we took their employer. That oughta piss ‘em off somethin’ fierce. This could turn into a big problem for us ‘fore too long.”
“I would like nothing more than to string her up by her entrails and place the flag of revolution in her chest,” Starlight growled. But then her eyes narrowed and her expression calmed somewhat. “But she would also be a valuable hostage to ransom. She could be worth a lot, and if we do ransom her, I want half the cut for me and my team. This wouldn’t be possible without us, after all.”
Tumbleweed slowly nodded, and he held up his hooves when Starlight shot him a cross look. “I ain’t thinkin’ ‘bout cheatin’ you, if that’s what you’re worried ‘bout,” he said. “Believe me, the last thing I wanna do is fight a mare who can pause time and kill me ‘fore I even realize she done it. What I am thinkin’ ‘bout, though, is the Apples and the Pinks crossin’ us when we try to collect our ransom. Applejack may value her life enough to pay us whatever we want, but the Pinks and the Conglomerates care more about their pockets than her life, and both have the added motivation of us humiliatin’ ‘em by getting’ into and outta that conference all but unscathed. Ransomin’ her back ain’t gonna be an easy affair.”
“Not that I was expecting it to be,” Wanderer said. He gestured to Gizmo. “Same thing with the robot. If we try to break her down, it might be some time before we can turn those gems into bits. The only cold, hard cash we have right now is in those bags Kessie and Silvie got on them. Everything else is speculative right now.”
“And we have plenty of time to speculate, at the moment,” Tumbleweed said. After thinking for a moment, he nodded. “We’ll take Gizmo with us for now. The robot’ll be easier to sell when we’re not in Hoofston. Maybe somepony’ll pay us more if it’s intact. Applejack, though, we ain’t got as much time to figure that out. She’ll wake up sooner or later, and we gotta know what we’re gonna do with her when she does. So… what are we gonna do?”
1. Take her with us so we can collect a ransom later. Applejack is probably worth her weight in gold, if we ask for it. It’d be foolish to take her all this way just to not get anythin’ from her.
2. Let her go. Let’s leave her here in the forest and let her figure her own way back to Hoofston. If we let her go, the wrath of the Apple Conglomerates won’t come down on us as hard. Plus, she’ll probably put the Pinks outta work, because I can’t imagine how a businessmare like herself ain’t gonna be disappointed in their service.
3. Kill her. Ransomin’ her is too dangerous, and so is lettin’ her go. The only thing we can do now is put a bullet in her brain and leave her body to rot, and hope we can get outta Hoofston ‘fore the Conglomerates and the Pinks sniff us out and throw everythin’ they got at us.