Unshaken

by The 24th Pegasus

Chapter 108

Take her with us so we can collect a ransom later: 9 Votes

To Kestrel, the choice seemed obvious. “We raised a whole lotta hell runnin’ ‘round that dumb conference, shootin’ Pinks left, right, and center,” she said. “Heat’s gonna be on us now no matter what we do. We gotta get money sooner rather than later, or we’re gonna get backed into a corner with no way out ‘cause we took too long.” She pointed a wingtip at Applejack. “We gotta ransom her, get somethin’ outta this. That money could go a long way toward gettin’ us to safety.”

Tumbleweed didn’t seem too swayed by that, but he nodded regardless. “You’re right ‘bout that, no doubt ‘bout it,” he agreed. “Every day we spend in Equestria is another day closer to the gallows for all of us. We can’t afford to hang ‘round, pickin’ up bits piecemeal ‘til we got enough to get outta here. We gotta be proactive, and that means stickin’ our necks out just a little further. We can only hope that Applejack’s worth enough to her company and the Pinks that they’ll be cautious enough to get her back alive rather than risk it all tryin’ to kill us and free her at the same time.”

“We can only hope,” Starlight agreed. “And so it looks like we’re in this together for a little while longer, at least. We’ll all get out of this richer and closer to our goals than before we met, or we’ll all go down together.”

“Such is the life of the outlaw,” Kestrel mused. Sighing, she leaned back against a tree and looked up to the sky, where a few clouds were beginning to drift over the stars, darkening the earth below. “Silvie, you still got some rope? We need to tie up our guest to get her back to camp with us. She may be a businesspony, but under that suit, she’s got muscles. She probably busted her flank on a farm half her life ‘fore strikin’ it big with the Conglomerates.”

“A tough mare like her will shrug off my stunning spell before too long,” Starlight agreed. “She won’t be unconscious until tomorrow afternoon like the ponies we stole those uniforms from. She’ll probably be awake early in the morning.”

“Good,” Tumbleweed said. “Means we don’t have to listen to her yammerin’ all night long. We can at least get some sleep when we get back to camp.” Even then, he stifled a yawn. “I sure need it.”

“We all do,” Wanderer said. “Especially old geezers like me.”

“We’ll hang out here for a little bit until it’s safe, then we’ll get moving,” Kestrel said. “Maybe take a little nap ‘fore we set off.”

Nopony had objections to that, and once Applejack was firmly bound so she couldn’t flee in the off-chance she woke up earlier than expected, everypony found their own little corner of the makeshift camp to relax in. As for Kestrel, she simply cleaned and reloaded her guns, set them within easy reach of her wingtips, and then pulled her hat down over her eyes to catch a quick nap.

-----

About an hour passed before a gentle nudge woke Kestrel from her nap. She flinched and jumped, feathers reaching for her revolvers, before she flipped her hat back with a hoof and saw Silver standing in front of her. “Time to get movin’,” the younger mare said. “Should be dark enough the Pinks ain’t gonna find us anymore, if they’re even still lookin’ tonight. We move now, we should be back at the camp little after midnight.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kestrel said, slipping her revolvers back into their holsters and standing up. Around the camp, the rest of the Gang was making ready to depart, and it wasn’t long before they had everything in order. Single-file, they slipped out of the camp and off toward the northwest, making their way back to where their actual camp was pitched. It hadn’t even been a day since Kestrel had left that camp that morning, but after everything she’d gone through, it felt like it may as well have been weeks.

Nopony talked as they made their way out of the forest and back across the river. It was almost like the Gang was holding their breath, as if they expected to find a Pink behind every rock they passed, waiting to gun them down. But those were foolish thoughts, Kestrel soon realized. The Pinks weren’t this far south, and even if they were, it was the Pinks who should be worried, not the Gang. There certainly were enough corpses in bloodstained pink suits scattered south of Hoofston to justify that.

After a little over an hour and a half of walking, the Gang once more found the familiar road leading into Hoofston, and backtracked it toward their camp, keeping eyes clear for any ponies on the road in either direction. But the roads were empty, and soon they located the little dirt trail leading off to the trees that concealed their camp. Relieved, Kestrel let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding and struck off down the path, the prospect of warmth and safety putting a little spring in her step.

“Who goes there?” a gruff voice challenged, but as soon as Roughshod stepped out from between the trees and recognized Kestrel and the rest of the Gang, his expression turned from concerned to relieved. “Well, I’ll be damned. You dumb fools got in and outta that thing in one piece? We heard so much shootin’ goin’ on over there we thought you was goners.”

“Things got a little more heated than we bargained for, but we’re here in one piece,” Tumbleweed said. “How did the distraction go?”

On a scale of 1 to 10, how well did the distraction go? 7/10

“Trixie and that other pegasus, Night Glider, they got dinged up a little bit,” Roughshod said. “Nothin’ serious. Trixie spent about five minutes hollerin’ in the back of her wagon when I had to pull us outta there that she was bleedin’ and gonna die when a gunshot grazed her shoulder.” He scoffed. “Guess the poor thing ain’t never been shot before. Night Glider had to go give her a smack to get her to stop cryin’ and put a damn rag over the graze to get it to stop bleedin’. It woulda been funnier if we didn’t have cops shootin’ at us all the way outta town.”

Kestrel snickered and shook her head. “She’s been shot, now. She’s officially part of the club.” She chuckled. “I’ll have to catch up with her and hear how things went. Sounds like they went pretty well, all things considered.”

“They did,” Roughshod agreed. “How’s ‘bout we compare stories by the fire? Great way to unwind after a day like this.”

“I’d like nothin’ more,” Tumbleweed agreed. He gestured for the rest of the Gang to make their way into camp and get themselves comfortable, and he smirked when Roughshod’s eyes widened at the sight of Party Favor carrying Applejack’s unconscious body into camp. “Oh, yeah, we picked up a new friend,” he said. “I’ll tell you all ‘bout her in a minute. She’s gonna be very valuable to us in the future.”

“You don’t fuckin’ say,” Roughshod muttered in disbelief.

The Hoofston Conference Robbery Summary:

• The Gang’s morale has improved after pulling off a successful job against the Pinks and the Apple Conglomerates despite the odds (Camp Morale is already Maximum)
• Crashing the Apple Conference and foalnapping Applejack has raised Law Attention from 4 to 5 (Extreme)
• Kestrel has gained honor from her actions leading up to and through the conference heist (+20)
• The Gang managed to secure 10,807 bits from the businessponies at the conference
• The Workhorse of Tomorrow, a robot nicknamed Gizmo, is currently in the Gang’s possession
• Applejack is now a prisoner of the Gang, held for ransom
• Bon Bon and Lyra were encountered but not fought
• Kestrel, Tumbleweed, Wanderer, Trixie, Party Favor, and Night Glider are all Grazed
• Crashing the conference has increased the local bounty on Kestrel to $10,000 ($2,000 for crashing the conference * 5 for Law Attention)

Gang Savings: $27,954/80,000

Camp Morale: Maximum

Law Attention: 5 (Extreme)

Kestrel’s Honor: +60

Kestrel’s Local Bounty: $10,000

Author's Note:

An efficient and effective conference job. Lady Luck favored us greatly throughout the whole ordeal, which was surprising, and led to only a few injuries amongst the Gang. Hopefully the luck will hold from here on out, but you never know when it can change...

---

This story is a CYOA comment-driven story, where you, the readers, decide the outcome of the story. Each poll contains several options, each with sub-optimal choices thrown into the mix, with nothing but the prose to clue the readers into what each option entails. The will of the masses, alongside a few unbiased dice rolls, will decide the outcome of the story.

You can find Kestrel's character sheet, along with some key information about her and the Gang, here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xAGDlcd5mlMTAHwexlsrXOffQMMLoQc12u9itAa-io0/edit?usp=sharing

If you want to see the dice rolls in action, check out my Discord server: https://discord.gg/RsVkdD

Comments

[Quick Fix]

Even the distraction party made it out with only grazed injuries (to say nothing of the unspoken possibility they got something as well)? I think this whole sequence could be nominated for the luckiest run in a CYOA ever!

[hypervelocity]

Wow, this did turn out better than I could have hoped.

[Raistlin]

Law Attention: 5 (Extreme)

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Celestia herself is tracking the team :). At the very least it will likely means Canterlot will deploy the military against the gang.

[Gearsmash King]

Okay, we can breathe again. How in the world did we pull this off? Because, I'll admit, my luck in real life sucks half the time. I don't know about everyone else.

[JustFalcon]

Ah 10k bounty... time for Bounty Hunters.

[Merula]

I do not like that Law Attention for even a second. From here on out it is highly likely that we're gonna start encountering military, perhaps even special forces sent specifically after us, as well as high-tier bounty hunters.

Well, at the least we are over 25% to our goal :P

[djthomp]

Dang, so even the distraction team made it back with only a few scratches. Aside from not quite getting as much money as desired, that went better than it had any right to.