//------------------------------// // Chapter 125 // Story: Unshaken // by The 24th Pegasus //------------------------------// Gather the dead and flee: 16 Votes Finally, Kestrel swallowed hard and closed Trixie’s eyes. “No more death today,” she whispered, her voice wavering even over those words. “Nopony else needs to die today. We just gotta take our own and scram. We ain’t got time to go hunt down some mare who even her friends wanted dead. Rough, take Trixie’s body back to the wagons and get set to go. I’ll handle Tumbleweed and get Wanderer back with us. Miss Irons… she’s gonna need her closure.” Roughshod was oddly quiet for a few moments before he stood up and placed his hooves under Trixie’s bloody body. “We should have killed all them bastards from the start,” he growled as he picked her up. “Maybe then nopony woulda died.” “We had to try,” Kestrel objected, though even she knew she was still trying to convince herself of that. “We can’t win ‘em all, Rough.” “No… but we ain’t gonna lose the games we don’t play.” Then the earth pony turned to Snapshot. “Come on, sharpshooter. Let’s get goin’. I’ll need your guns if them damn Pinks pop up outta nowhere and want our heads. The birds’ll catch up to us later.” The two stallions trudged off, leaving Silver and Kestrel alone on the side of the quarry cliff. “‘Birds?’” Silver asked, incredulous. “That’s a new one. Ain’t heard that before.” “Your momma and papa pegasi too?” Kestrel asked her. “Yeah?” “Then that’s why. Ain’t nopony gonna call their aristocrat landlords ‘birds’ when you come from where you do.” Shaking her head, Kestrel spread her wings, doing her best to ignore the sting of pain in one. “C’mon, let’s go. Gotta face the music now.” She launched herself off the edge of the cliff, Silver following her as they glided through the dust still hanging in the air. They found Tumbleweed sitting alongside Starlight and her companions about halfway out of the quarry, where an outcropping of rock that hadn’t been cut provided some cover from the opposite end of the quarry. Tumbleweed flinched and trained his revolver on Kestrel as soon as he saw her shadow flit across the ground, but he lowered it as soon as he recognized his steadfast friend. Still, there was anger in his eyes, and Kestrel cautiously alighted a few feet away from him, with Silver hovering behind her. “Kestrel?” It wasn’t Tumbleweed who said her name, but Starlight. The unicorn stood up and moved closer, flinching whenever rocks popped or rattled down the side of the quarry in the aftermath of the explosion. “Thank goodness you were there to watch our backs. Is everypony alright? Are the Apples dealt with?” Her concern turned into a scowl of disgust. “I knew entreating with capitalists was a bad idea. They’re all scum, and Applejack’s would-be ransomers likely figured it’d be more profitable for them to kill her and all of us with her.” “Trixie is dead,” Kestrel said, shaking her head. “The rest of us are okay. A little dinged up, but fine.” Then she turned her attention to Tumbleweed, who still stared at the ground in front of him. “Boss… we gotta get Wanderer outta here. Rough and Snapshot are already taking Trixie back with ‘em. We’ll bury the two of ‘em and get goin’ to New Oatleans. Hopefully we’ll be in and out ‘fore the Pinks find us… Tumbleweed? You listenin’ to me?” By that point, Tumbleweed had stood up and began to walk over to Kestrel, yet didn’t say a word. In fact, he didn’t do anything until he was right in front of the mare. It was there that, baring his teeth, Tumbleweed drew back his hoof and delivered a sucker punch straight to Kestrel’s jaw. The mare; startled and surprised, fell to the ground in a heap of feathers, though she quickly righted herself and rubbed a fetlock over her now-split and bleeding lip. “I told you we shoulda acted first! We shoulda acted, not let ourselves be caught on the back hoof! They jumped us ‘fore we could jump them, but it didn’t have to be like that! And now where are we? We ain’t got no money, we ain’t got no Applejack, and we ain’t got Wanderer or Trixie to go to New Oatleans with us! Two members of our family died for nothin’! Nothin’ at all!” “Are you really gonna pin what the Apples did on me?!” Kestrel shouted back, quickly hopping to her hooves. “There weren’t no way we coulda figured out what they were gonna do. How was we supposed to know that the Apples weren’t interested in gettin’ Applejack back alive? How was we supposed to know that they’d kill on sight? They’re the ones that broke this deal, not us!” “And now they’re all dead, save for that orange bitch, assumin’ she’s still alive after the rockslide. Ain’t none of them gonna tell the Pinks that they shot first!” Tumbleweed bristled and spat in fury. “We’d have been better off just killin’ ‘em all soon as we got here! It wouldn’t change much for how the public sees us; them Apples is just as dead now as they woulda been had we jumped ‘em when we coulda. But we woulda had Wanderer and Trixie with us! We woulda had ‘em, and we woulda been able to roll on through to New Oatleans with everypony alive and well!” “Don’t play ‘coulda, shoulda, woulda’ with me!” Kestrel growled and opened her wings as her own temper flared over. “I didn’t play it with you when that hotel job in Appleloosa went to shit and back. Don’t play it with me here now!” “Guys!” Silver shouted, landing between the two of them and holding out her wings to the sides, ushering them back. “Quit fighting! Stop it! Just… just stop!” she screeched, and when Tumbleweed and Kestrel fell silent, she swallowed hard and folded her wings back against her side. “Things weren’t good today. Ain’t nopony gonna dispute that. But we gotta go ‘fore they get worse! Them Pinks’ll be here ‘fore we know it; even if the Apples didn’t tip ‘em off, the shooutout definitely did. Everypony in Hoofston probably knows somethin’ went down here! So let’s grab Wanderer and go, or else we’re gonna join ‘em!” In the silence that followed, Kestrel wasn’t sure if Tumbleweed was going to pick a fight with Silver or not; but after several tense moments, the stallion spat in disgust and turned back to the ramp out of the quarry. “Fine,” he said. “You’re right, Silvie. Let’s get goin’. Starlight, I’m sorry we dragged you into this mess; best of luck in your fight; after today, I’m all for you makin’ them Apples pay.” Then he fixed his eye on Kestrel. “And Kessie? You carry Wanderer back to the wagons. It was your plan that got us here.” Kestrel bit down on her tongue and refused to say anything. Tumbleweed was just hurting, was all. Hurting as much as she was. Though instead of bottling it up like she did, the stallion preferred to lash out. It brought back foalhood memories of her mother, and she felt a shiver run down her spine. It wasn’t until he was gone that Silver cautiously approached Kestrel. “Are you… you alright, Kessie? Your lip’s bleedin’ pretty bad.” “Lucky that’s all I got outta this with.” Nostrils flaring, she turned back to the quarry. “See you back at the wagons, Silvie. Me and Wanderer’ll be right behind you.” “Kestrel…” One stern look over her shoulder was enough to send Silver fluttering away. [NO POLL FOR THIS CHAPTER]