Unshaken

by The 24th Pegasus

Chapter 123

It seemed to take years before the sun finally rose.

Kestrel chewed on a sprig of dry grass she’d plucked and stuck between her teeth for want of a cigarette. The nicotine would have greatly easied her anxiety, but she didn’t risk letting the Apples know where the Gang was camped out with cigarette smoke. If everything went well, then the Apples wouldn’t even know there were outlaws overlooking the rocky cliff.

As the first slivers of sunlight touched the rocks of the quarry, the guns the Apples brought along with them moved to the edges at the large end. Kestrel could see the glistening barrels of their modern rifles, including the little dot near the rifle sights that worked the bolt. She didn’t see any scopes like the Gang had on their scoped rifles, so they would hold a slight advantage over the Apples at range, but if things closed to a medium distance where the scopes were too unwieldy, then things could get messy quick. Hopefully, they didn’t get into any shooting at all. That would be the ideal situation.

She lifted her head slightly and looked to the left, where Tumbleweed, Wanderer, and Applejack began to make their way down the side of the quarry toward the center. Kestrel picked up the scoped rifle she’d taken it along and pushed it forward just enough so the barrel was over the cliff, jutting out of the twisted branches of a dried and dead bush. She looked back to make sure that the rest of the Gang had cleared from the area where Trixie had planted the explosives, and gave the magician a curt nod. Trixie nodded back, and her horn briefly glowed as she took the copper wires and twisted them together. The charges were now connected to the blasting machine, and all Trixie had to do was press down on the plunger and the side of the quarry would come tumbling down.

Do the Apples meet the Gang down in the quarry for the ransom? No

But as Tumbleweed, Wanderer, and Applejack descended, Kestrel frowned at the lack of reciprocation from the Apples. Nopony came down the ramp into the bottom of the quarry to meet them. The only thing Kestrel saw was stony faces and cold eyes watching the outlaws descend into the quarry to join Starlight’s band of ponies, rifles at the ready. But nopony shot, and though the Apples kept their guns pointed vaguely into the quarry, none raised their weapons to take aim.

“I don’t like this,” Roughshod growled. “This is a trap. You know it well as I do, Kessie.”

“We ain’t doin’ nothin’ ‘til we got cause to,” Kestrel retorted. “The Apples set the tone of this whole thing, not us. We act in good faith ‘til they break it.”

“And what are you gonna tell Miss Irons to save your hide when they shoot Wanderer up down in that oversized ditch? She’ll pluck you like a chicken and leave your body for the birds.”

“Will you quiet down, fool?” Kestrel glared at him and flicked her tail. “Get your damn gun ready just in case.”

Roughshod wanted to say more, Kestrel could tell, but he just rolled his eyes and scooted forward a little to get a better line of sight into what was happening in the quarry. Tumbleweed and Wanderer had almost gotten to the bottom by the time they could see enough of the other end of the quarry to notice that nopony was coming down to meet them. Instead, Tumbleweed grabbed ahold of Applejack’s shoulder and forced her to stop. Then, pulling his revolver out with his magic, he placed it against Applejack’s temple and raised his voice. “This ain’t a ransom without no money,” he barked up at the Apples watching him from above. “You ain’t gettin’ her back to we get what we’re owed. Try anythin’ funny, and I’ll happily dispose of her myself ‘fore takin’ out the rest of you.”

“You ain’t in much of a position to argue there, partner,” one of the Apples shouted back. He moved forward on the ledge so that he could be seen better, and he pointed the rifle he kept braced in the crook of his foreleg down into the quarry at Tumbleweed. “You can kill her, but you ain’t gonna get outta this one alive if you do. I’ve got fifteen ponies here, and you’ve got two, plus whatever you brought with you. This quarry’ll be your grave. So let her go, and maybe I’ll let you walk on outta here. You did bring her back to us unharmed, after all.”

“Shoot him,” Roughshod growled to Kestrel. “We ain’t gettin’ our fuckin’ money.”

“Not while Tumblweed and Wanderer are down there,” Kestrel growled back. “They ain’t got a chance if the shootin’starts now.”

Tumbleweed, meanwhile, bared his teeth and looked to Wanderer, who slowly unholstered his revolver with a wing. “We had a deal,” he said, and his magic cocked the hammer of his revolver. Applejack froze in fright, knowing that her death was pressed against her head, the bullet that would end her life sitting just a few inches away from her skull.

“We never had a deal,” the Apple corrected. “Outlaws don’t do deals. They steal and rape and kill. They cannot be negotiated with. They are rabid dogs that have to be put down for the good of the community… even if the cost is great.”

Do the Apples attack? Yes

An Apple takes a shot at Tumblweed: Critical Success

A shot rang out over the quarry, striking Tumblweed through the shoulder and causing the stallion to stumble and nearly lose his hoofing. The sudden impact and pain of the shot caused his concentration to break and he dropped the revolver out of his magical grip without firing it. It landed on the ground, the impact strong enough to jostle the hammer into firing harmlessly into the quarry wall. Applejack immediately bolted for safety, Wanderer snapped his head left as he hopped to the right, and before he could ready his weapon, a second shot rang out, and the pegasus’ red head snapped backwards. Blood sprayed the quarry stone and painted it red, and the Gang’s adopted grandfather fell to the ground in a crumpled pile of feathers.

An Apple takes a shot at Wanderer: Critical Success

Is it only a Critical Injury? No

Wanderer has died.

Kestrel couldn’t help herself. She let out a scream of shock, anguish, and rage. The Apples had killed Wanderer. They had killed the Gang’s most beloved member, the jokester with an endless library of stories from a life well-lived, a pegasus with a kind heart who loved to play the guitar. And he hadn’t even seen it coming. The Apples… they were animals. Ruthless, cold-blooded animals. And she was going to make sure they died like animals.

“Do it!” she screamed to Trixie, and she stood up tall to take a shot. “Now!”

Kestrel fired her rifle, but she had put the scope too close to her face in her anger, and the recoil caused it to leap back and cut into her brow above her eye. She recoiled from the pain and cursed as blood started to dribble down her face, tossing the rifle away and drawing her revolver in its stead. Trixie, meanwhile, hurriedly picked up the blasting machine in her magic, but in her panic, nearly dropped it on the ground. She managed to catch it in her hooves at the last second, and gulping hard, she slammed the plunger down into the box.

Trixie successfully detonates the explosives: Critical Fail

Trixie rerolls using Pyrotechnics: Success

Moments later, the entire quarry shook as Trixie’s improvised explosives detonated. The shockwave immediately threw up a cloud of dust and pelted Kestrel and the rest of the Gang on the cliffs with pebbles and debris, but the effect was immediate. With a groan and a roar, the side of the quarry gave way, turning into a wave of rocks and rubble racing down into the middle of the quarry. Through the smoke and dust, Kestrel barely saw Starlight and her posse running up to Tumbleweed for safety, and Applejack vanishing somewhere beneath the onslaught of rubble. Whether she survived or didn’t, Kestrel couldn’t tell, but that was the least of her worries Her hatred and rage was focused squarely on the ponies that had killed one of her closest friends, and in the heat of the moment, she wanted nothing more than to hunt them down and kill them all one by one.

That sentiment was shared by Roughshod, who roared in fury and hopped to his hooves. “Those sons of bitches killed him!” he shouted. “They killed Wanderer! We can’t let them get away with that!”

“What are you talking about?!” Trixie hysterically shrieked. “We need to leave! I don’t want to die here!”

“We need to make sure Tumbleweed is alright,” Snapshot said, and though his voice was as calm as ever, Kestrel couldn’t miss the worried edge in it. “We can’t abandon him. He could use our help.”

“But then we’ll be sitting ducks!” Trixie yelled. “They’ll come for us next!”

“Let them!” Roughshod bellowed. “I’ll kill ‘em all!”

Kestrel could only angrily huff and puff as the dust cloud expanded and the Apples fired blindly into the quarry. Her blood dribbled down the side of her face, burning her eye before dripping to the ground by her hoof. Her heart demanded that she go out for blood, but her brain tried to furiously remind her that she had other ponies to look out for. But she needed to make a decision quickly—the cloud of dust and debris sheltering the Gang from the Apples wouldn’t last forever, after all.

1. Kill them all. They killed Wanderer. They killed one of my best friends. I’ll kill every last one of ‘em with my bare hooves if I have to.

2. Regroup with Tumbleweed and Starlight. Tumbleweed, Starlight, and her posse are still alive, and we can’t just leave ‘em. We’ll head to the other end of the quarry and try to group up with ‘em, even if it means waiting around for them to get out of there and giving the Apples a chance to respond.

3. Retreat immediately. This whole thing is blown wide open, and we need to prepare to leave for New Oatleans as soon as we can. We gotta get back to the wagons and get them ready to move, and hope that Tumbleweed is able to catch up when things are safe.

Author's Note:

Jeez, I know it's been a while since I was last able to update this, but I wasn't expecting THIS for a return to form. It's almost like Lady wanted to end the story for good tonight.

As for future updates, I'm sure you've noticed they have been fairly erratic these past few months. Real life has started to intrude on my writing time, which has made getting consistent updates out very difficult. Expect erratic updates to continue through November and December, and hopefully by the time the new year comes around I can get things back to a regular update schedule again.

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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

[MrCakeandRice]

1.
Screw calculated moves. It’s time to show what happens when you go back on your word.

[Sugarcoatl]

2. This is absolutely fucked. Poor, poor Wanderer... Let's not lose Tumbleweed too if we can help it... Damn. It'll put us at risk, but living to see another day without the crew'd hardly be living at all. Just... Surviving.

[CanadianPony]

2. They are going to pay, just not now.

[Quick Fix]

Welp...

Even I didn't expect it to go this catastrophically wrong from the word go. I think we may have burned the last of our lingering luck from before on Trixie's reroll too. I'd say we can't afford any further risks, but we need to get everyone else out of there ASAP. Option 2.

[terrycloth]

1.
...then go burn down some factories.

[RoboRed]

2. Regroup, and end them.

[UnlimitedPizza]

1

[TheGearChronicles]

1. Kill em all. no more nice outlaws

[N4rwh41]

1. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD BABY!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

[Gearsmash King]

Oh, how I really want to start throwing lead, right now! Wanderer was one of my favorite characters and they killed him, those animals! But, Tumbleweed is still down there. Losing one is hard enough, but losing two? That's unacceptable. Option 2. We rescue the group as best as we can and hopefully take out as many as these vile creatures as possible.

[Jaro45]

Option one ( 1 ). Kill'em all. The Gang honored the deal, and the Apples broke it. Death may be too good for'em, but it's a start. I hope Applejack survives so she can be sent back in pieces. Over a month or so.

[Fireheart 1945]

Abject cowardice! They didn't even care if AJ was killed, they just wanted the outlaws dead.

[JustFalcon]

1. BLOOD. BLOOD. BLOOD. BLOOD. BLOOD. BLOOD. BLOOD.

[M4Tiger4014]

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

Option 1.

[RanOutOfIdeas]

Hmm, does the minimum amount of bits to leave diminish now that we lost a core member? I don't remember if this was informed...

Then again, when we added a member the amount remained the same, so maybe that's the static end-goal.

Option 2.

[Sir Budginton]

The smart decision or revenge? Choices, choices...

Revenge (option 1)

[Blaster M]

2: Regroup, run and gun. Split party is dead party.

[DarkWolf]

Option 2. No other choice in my eyes.

If Tumbleweed dies alongside Wanderer in that quarry, this gang is done. At least from what I have seen of her personality, Kestrel is absolutely not a leader type. She will not be able to keep this gang together after a disaster like that. Miss Irons is already going to be at a level well beyond fury after she hears of this, and no doubt Rough will find a way to blame Kestrel. However, if Tumbleweed survives, he can keep them together. Kestrel alone cannot do it.

[Hahapie]

I vote 2. It’s the smarter option.

I’m not gonna be too sad if we end up with 1, however. Only if it gets us killed.

[alamais]

2. Join with our communist brethren and then destroy these honorless capitalist pigs.

[djthomp]

Well, shit.

Fuck it, kill them all. 1.

[The Gardenhead]

2

[SolarisLunaris]

1

[Stephen brown]

I want to know does kestrel get sick with TB in the story because all I know in these games rockstar loves to kill of characters but are u gonna let kestrel died of TB or is she gonna leave the gang