Unshaken

by The 24th Pegasus

Chapter 120

Wanderer: 6 Votes

“Ah, I’ve always wanted to get myself killed in a quarry,” Wanderer joked, volunteering when it was clear neither Roughshod nor Trixie were all that interested in going down into the basin of the quarry alone and risking their lives for the ransom. “I don’t think we’ll have too much to worry about our dear friend trying to slip loose on us when the whole point of this little ordeal is to give her back, and in this scenario, I’d rather we pull things off without Rough breaking somepony’s nose before it’s absolutely necessary.”

Roughshod scoffed and crossed his forelegs. “Breakin’ ponies’ noses is always necessary at some point,” he argued. “Some ponies just cross that to earning a broken nose line faster than others.”

“If you wanna go out there and see how many ponies you can accost ‘fore one of ‘em puts three shots in you, by all means, be my guest,” Tumbleweed said. “But don’t expect us to back you up. We need this whole thing to go smooth and fast. We go in, get our money, and get out. With luck, we’ll be thirty miles away from Hoofston by the end of the day.”

“Hopefully that’ll be enough to shake the Pinks and bounty hunters for a little while,” Kestrel thought aloud. She looked around at her friends, at their small camp with a couple of wagons and supplies, at the quiet little space they’d chosen, hidden away by the lake. It was one of the better places they’d ever made camp at, and Kestrel didn’t know if they’d find anything nearly as accommodating near New Oatleans. From what she knew about the coastal city, it was mostly swamps and bayous, a horribly humid and wet place that would make anypony miserable if they spent too much time out in the wilderness and away from society. Plus there were supposedly alligators out there. The last thing anypony needed to deal with was an alligator trying to drown them when they were taking a bath.

“If they don’t try to jump us at the ransom, they’ll be waitin’ in the bushes nearby, I’m certain of it,” Tumbleweed said. “All the more reason why timin’ is so important. The moment we get the money, assumin’ the deal even goes through in the first place, we gotta be on high alert for an ambush. Truth is, we ain’t gonna rest easy ‘til we get to New Oatleans—and that’s gonna be an uneasy rest at best.”

“Best thing we can do to counter that is to give the place a good look over tomorrow ‘fore we get down and dirty in the meetin’.” Kestrel settled her eyes on Trixie, who seemed to know that she was about to be asked something she’d rather not do. “You’re comin’ with me tomorrow, Trixie, and we’re gonna take a look ‘round the quarry. You knew enough ‘bout the quarry to suggest it as a hidin’ spot for the distraction team to lay low, so I wanna know if you got anythin’ else that’s interestin’ we could use for our advantage.”

“But that’s a long walk away,” Trixie protested. “And we need to be tearing down camp tomorrow, don’t we?”

“Would you rather tear down camp or would you rather go sightseein’ with me?” Kestrel countered. “I’ll carry you on my back if I gotta. I want to go pokin’ ‘round and find the best places to get set up with rifles should we need to use ‘em. It’ll be best to do that while we got some time to ourselves without any worry of stumblin’ into a trap.”

“Good idea,” Tumbleweed said. Then he turned to the rest of the Gang and gestured around the camp. “While they’re off doin’ that tomorrow’, we’ll get this place torn down and ready to go. If we get movin’ ‘fore the two of you get back, I’ll send Silvie off to the quarry to find you and let you know where we’re headin’.”

“It’s a plan, then.” Kestrel let out a yawn which she covered behind her fanned wing. “If we’re all good on the details, then, I’m gonna turn in for the night. Got a busy day tomorrow. I suggest y’all do the same as well.”

There weren’t any objections, and so after finishing off her drink with a few last gulps, Kestrel tossed it aside and made her way to her lean-to to get some rest. It was going to be her last night sleeping by the little lake outside of Hoofston. Might as well make the best of it.

She slept like a rock until morning came.

-----

By the time Kestrel and Trixie made it to the quarry, the sun had been in the sky for only an hour, yet the factories in Hoofston had been churning out their black smoke for much longer than that. The two mares had managed to avoid most of the early risers out on the roads around Hoofston, and those that they couldn’t avoid they merely greeted and kept walking like nothing was wrong. Kestrel would have rathered she just carry Trixie all the way to the quarry, but Trixie had gotten really uncomfortable about flying above the ground, and on top of that, she was heavier than she looked. Kestrel wouldn’t have been able to get high enough off the ground to avoid most ponies’ eyes, and flying only a little bit off the ground with another pony on her back would have been a sure way to draw unwanted attention.

The quarry was easy enough to find, given Trixie’s knowledge of the land and the wooden signs warning that trespassers would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Kestrel only snickered to herself as the two mares ignored the signs and continued on the dusty road toward the quarry anyway. For some reason, Kestrel had the feeling that trespassing would be the least of her concerns if the Law ever managed to get ahold of her.

Does Kestrel and Trixie encounter any unexpected problems while scouting the quarry? No

“Well, here we are,” Trixie proclaimed as they followed the road right to the first descent into the quarry. “All rocks and dust and probably our graves tomorrow morning…”

Kestrel frowned and took wing, getting a little bit of elevation to survey the quarry better. The whole thing was shaped like a lumpy egg pinched in the middle, creating the suggestion of two halves with the deepest point of the quarry placed in the narrow center. The side they approached from, and also the side with the road leading toward Hoofston, was the larger of the two halves, with a wide rim overlooking the center of the quarry. Kestrel figured this would be where the Conglomerates party would set up shop; they’d be arriving from the city, after all, and would quickly lay claim to this half of the quarry. That left the other half for the Gang, as well as some contested ground in the middle.

Thankfully, there were steeper walls and a few outcroppings of rock around the smaller end of the quarry. Those would provide cover from around and within the quarry, but not from anypony approaching from the sides or behind. She also noticed some caves dug into the limestone, where a particularly valuable piece of stone had been cut out of the surrounding walls to be hauled off for a building project somewhere else. Those would provide cover from all around and possibly even hide the Gang from observers, but they were halfway down in the quarry, which meant getting out of them and back out in a hurry could be tricky. “Caves and cliffs,” Kestrel said as she considered the two. “One or the other’ll work. Got any suggestions?”

Trixie’s Explorer quirk reveals an additional option at the quarry.

“Well, the last time Trixie was here, they were closing the quarry because the cliffs were unstable,” she said, looking out over the quarry. “Particularly at the middle. See that pile of rocks down at the bottom? That’s where one of the walls gave way. Whoever set this quarry up rushed to the bottom without taking the time to make sure the walls were erosion-proofed. Placing a bomb in the right spot might cause the northern cliff to come tumbling down, Trixie thinks.”

“Hmmm.” Kestrel dropped back to the ground and rubbed her chin with a wingtip. She could see the spot Trixie was talking about; bushes grew out close to the edge, providing a little bit of foliage to obscure anypony hiding up there, and she could see the collection of stones dotting the next level down from the cliff. She even heard the echoes of pebbles popping out of the cracks in the wall bouncing around the quarry. It wouldn’t be too hard to trigger a landslide and fill in the bottom of the quarry, as well as send up a huge cloud of dust and debris, but the ponies up there would be vulnerable to being shot at in the meanwhile, and dropping the cliff face into the quarry during or after the meeting would definitely start a fight with the Apples. Plus, it was close to where the Apples would be set up, and if any of them stumbled across a bomb, the whole ransom would be called off.

“One of those three spots will work,” Kestrel concluded. “We should go tell Tumbleweed about this.”

“Which one do you think is the best, though?” Trixie asked as the two mares turned around and began to walk away from the quarry.

1. The cliffs around the small end of the quarry. Good sightlines and good cover from within the quarry, but if somepony comes up from behind us or ‘round the sides, or even from above, we ain’t got nowhere to hide.

2. The caves within the quarry. Plenty of places to hide while the ransom is goin’ on and we can only be attacked from one angle, but we could end up trapped in ‘em and we can’t see as much as if we were up fully on the cliffs.

3. The cliff walls at the midpoint. If we plan on settin’ up a bomb there, we have to control the area to make sure that the Apples don’t find it. A rockslide could pay off in any number of ways, but the only cover we got there is bushes and grass. We get spotted and shootin’ starts, a few leaves ain’t gonna stop bullets from fillin’ us full of holes.

Author's Note:

Please comment your decision down below. Only comments expressly stating your choice will be considered. You cannot vote for multiple choices. Polling will be considered closed after a few days and a sufficient number of comments.

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

[JustFalcon]

3. Gotta say the unexpected value of using a bomb to collapse something will likely pay off the most, and I particularly don't like the idea of being trapped in the cave system or flanked.

[Quick Fix]

The big question here is how likely it is trouble is going to kick off during the deal, and the description of the quarry implies the routes in or out all join to the same road...I'm gonna wager the likelihood is very high, in which case we need to keep mobile and keep the negotiating party covered. That rules out the second option. The second question now is, how much do we trust Trixie to blow up the canyon wall? Unless...We had Gizmo do it...

Actually that sounds fun and it's not like this isn't gonna go hilariously wrong. Option 3 it is!

[terrycloth]

I'd say 1. The caves sound really terrible and I'm not sure what a landslide is supposed to accomplish.

[RoboRed]

3. Make tha' kaboom

[Hahapie]

Yeah, I gotta go with 1. Being out maneuvered while silver is watching is something that deserves to kill us imo. The best line of sight with the rifles is the better choice.

I also don’t really see a point to causing a landslide besides getting us in a really bad position. If we need to use the rockslide, we’re giving ourselves away and with no cover that seems like certain death.

Finally, the cave seems useless to me beyond getting more of us in the quarry, resulting in more of us entering the line of fire if things go south.

[MrCakeandRice]

3. All the way. This is what I was saying last chapter, Trixie and some explosives would make this ransom go off easy peasy.

[Sane Marbles]

Option 1. The other options are too risky.

[M4Tiger4014]

3.

[Six String]

10479128

[RoboRed]

10479378
Precisely.

[Jaro45]

Option one ( 1 ).

[SolarisLunaris]

3

[V_for_Vodka]

#3, because what could go wrong?

and on top of that, she was heavier than she looked.

Fatty fat fatso McFatterson is fat.

[Blaster M]

3: None of the options available are good. At least this one works for fliers.

[djthomp]

I'm looking forward to the New Orleans portion of the story.

The quarry was easy enough to find, given Trixie’s knowledge of the land and the wooden signs warning that trespassers would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Kestrel only snickered to herself as the two mares ignored the signs and continued on the dusty road toward the quarry anyway. For some reason, Kestrel had the feeling that trespassing would be the least of her concerns if the Law ever managed to get ahold of her.

It's the tax evasion that gets you.

Trixie’s Explorer quirk reveals an additional option at the quarry.

Ooo, fun.

However, I feel like it's probably a bad idea. I'm thinking 1, the cliffs. I suspect it's important that the gang don't get stuck in the quarry.