Chapter 133
Head south to New Oatleans: 13 Votes
It was a very quick decision, and Kestrel wasted no time turning to the south and setting her sights on the city on the river. The moonshiners would just be a distraction, and quite possibly a lethal one at that. Kestrel had no idea how they would react to an intruder sticking her nose into their business; probably poorly, if she were to take a guess. And the last thing she needed to do was get herself killed in a misunderstanding with the local moonshiners.
Besides, they were unlikely to yield anything promising, unless they knew something. And even if they did know something, they had no reason to immediately trust an outsider with it, presuming they didn’t just kill her first. Her best bet to find something suitable for the Gang was to poke around the city and see what she could uncover, while hopefully remaining inconspicuous and discreet. A niggling worry in the back of her mind wondered if the Pinks had already gotten ahead of her and started hanging posters around town. If they had…
Well, it was something she dealt with in any town the Gang traveled to; a big city wouldn’t be any different. And, if she was lucky, the density of ponies would help her disappear from sight, another wanderer on the road coming from somewhere and heading to nowhere. Besides, city folk weren’t as friendly as country folk. In the country, where there was only space and little company, ponies wanted to get to know each other and be together. In the city, there were too many ponies and not enough space. Everypony wanted what little personal space they could carve out of their brick and mortar world, and most would rather mind their own business than stick their noses into another mare’s affairs.
Still, even as she approached the city, a growing uneasiness settled in her gut. As the buildings became closer and clearer, so too did the ponies between them. Dozens of pegasi flitted from balconies and rooftops, filling the sky enough that Kestrel actually had to pay attention to where she was flying lest she crash into somepony. It was a far cry from Hoofston, which was mostly an earth pony city, though not quite as bad as Clousdale or Las Pegasus, Equestria’s great sky-cities that the pegasus race called their own. But the pegasi in the air, and the thick crowds of ponies, zebras, and even griffons in the city streets below, meant that there would always be somecreature looking at her. Whether or not they would recognize her face would be a different matter entirely, but the dappling on her coat and feathers certainly wouldn’t help her blend in at a glance.
She picked a spot to land that was out of the way yet also close to a busy intersection to land and quickly slip into the crowd. She made sure her hat was pulled down enough so that nopony flying above her could see her face, and after a moment’s thought, she slipped her wings through the slits in her duster to hide them against her body. It’d take her a second to pop them out again if she needed to fly, but it would help obscure her status as a pegasus, and that degree of separation might be enough to shake some suspicion off her tail if anypony thought she looked familiar. Hopefully it would be enough.
A trolley rang its bell as she stopped at the corner, a few ponies hopping on, a few ponies hopping off. The passengers were dressed nicely, but plainly; robbing a trolley wouldn’t net the Gang more than pocketchange, and they needed a massive score if they were going to get out of the country once and for all. She needed to think bigger, but thankfully, she had an idea of what she was looking for.
She spent the next hour slowly making her way through New Oatleans, doing her best to maintain a low profile while exploring the city. After some time, she was able to spot a large bank dominating a street corner near the town square, with a steady flow of ponies moving in and out. A large branch bank like that would be a lucrative target to hit, but also a risky one, she knew. The sheer number of ponies could make it difficult to control, unless the Gang managed to hit it during slower hours, and the building itself had electricity, which meant it likely had an alarm bell that a teller could trip with the push of a button. But there was little doubt in Kestrel’s mind that robbing the bank would get the Gang the bits they needed to buy their way to freedom, provided that they could pull it off.
Further wandering took her down to the dockyards, where numerous ships steamed into the harbor, offloaded their goods, took on fresh cargo, and set sail once more. There was a chance that there could be something to take here, Kestrel thought to herself as she watched the crew of one ship shove crates onto crane platforms and hoist them off of the ship’s decks. Extremely valuable cargo had to come into and out of the harbor, right? Unfortunatley, the Gang had no way of telling what ships would be moving what, not without getting access to somepony who had that information. It was a plan that they would have to work through later. At the very least, the presence of ships in the harbor opened up an idea in the back of her mind. If the absolute worst came down to the absolute worst, the Gang might be able to stow away on one of those ships and flee the city entirely…
Both options carried a lot of risk to them, especially the bank robbery, but by the time it was time for lunch, they were the only two options that Kestrel had managed to sniff out. They needed something that could yield a payday large enough to get everypony in the Gang safely out of the country and set them up with a new life somewhere else. Anything less than that wasn’t worth hitting, because there wasn’t any guarantee they could slip away from the Pinks once more after what happened in Hoofston.
Kestrel sighed and leaned against the railing overlooking the harbor, rolling her neck from side to side and eliciting several sharp pops from the vertebrae. She was trying to decide between sticking around longer to see if she could find out anything else, or getting out of New Oatleans while she was still unrecognized and reporting back on what little she’d scraped together from her time in the city. Before she could make up her mind, a gust of wind off the sea managed to catch the bottom of her hat when she had her neck tilted to the side and popped it right off her head. She cursed and tried to catch it with her wing, only to remember she’d tucked her wings inside of her duster when she only pushed against cloth. She turned and galloped after it, intending to catch it in her teeth as it rolled along the concrete pier, so close to the water’s edge, only for a quick glow of a unicorn’s magic to catch it before it tumbled into the bay.
“Pardon, miss, you drop this?” a mare’s voice asked, and Kestrel raised her head and looked to the side at the speaker. But her eyes widened and she froze for a split second when she recognized a police officer’s uniform covering the mare’s body, complete with shiny silver badge reflecting the light of the day. The police officer moved to return the hat to Kestrel, but her magic stopped just out of reach as her eyes met Kestrel’s. She blinked, Kestrel blinked, and then the patrolmare’s eyes narrowed. “Soc au’ lait…?” she muttered to herself, before her eyes sparked in recognition a moment later. “Wait, I’ve seen your face on a poster, haven’t I?”
Kestrel rolls Lady Luck (7) to not be recognized in New Oatleans: Critical Fail
Kestrel hesitated a moment longer, the gears in her mind whirring as she tried to figure out a response before the officer could act. She didn’t know if she should fight, flee, or try to talk her way out of the situation. Her only saving grace was that the two mares were somewhat isolated, out of sight and out of earshot save for anypony who happened to already be looking at that far corner of the quay.
1. Fight. If I can surprise this mare and take her down quietly, then our cover ain’t blown yet, and we can get outta this ordeal without nopony knowin’ that we’re near the city. Course, she’s a policemare, and though she ain’t a hardened killer like a Pink, she’s probably got a little bit of trainin’ in a fight.
2. Flee. Tryin’ to take her on is too risky. My best bet’s to get outta here, get back to the Gang, and try to plan a move as quickly as we can. Time is of the essence, and the clock just started tickin’.
3. Talk. It might be difficult, but I might be able to try and sweet talk my way outta this. But that means I gotta relax and try to get her to listen to me, which means I’m givin’ her the advantage should she not want to hear me out.
Stats
Page generated in 0.034 seconds
Total duration
918 users online
511,807 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
...Welp.
1) Silence her. I don't trust the dice to get Kessie to sweet-talk her way out of this and failure will likely end all the same as fleeing: the clock is ticking.
1 is the only way she's going to get out of this situation. Unless someone sees her kill the police officer. Regardless, the Pinks will be after her, and the gang. If she tries to run, the police & the Pinks will follow her to where the gang is & either arrest them, or kill them. She's not Wanderer, or Tumbleweed, so she doesn't have the charisma, or the ability to talk her way out of a bad situation.
Yeah, I’m gonna have to go with 1 based on reasons provided above. Can’t afford to give them the chance of knowing we’re in town either.
Guess she shoulda kept her mouth shut and reported us later.
1) Maybe if it wasn’t Police recognizing then we could run. Hope RNJesus supports our choice!
1 No one must find the body.
Normally, I try to avoid violence and save it as a last option. However, right now, that just became the first option. I really hope this doesn't backfire on us.
Fuck. Option one ( 1 ). Knife her if possible. Keep it quiet.
S h i t
Option 1, and keep it silent. Last thing we need is more attention.
Hoooo boy, this feels worryingly like we just hit the point of GG. Well, as I've been championing since I started joining in, it's go big or go home more than ever. Option 1.
1
Option 1. While I would love to try and have her talk her way out of it, Kestrel's sweat talker is pretty low and with the rolls that have been occurring, it would be too much of a risk.
Wow, that was amazingly bad luck.
3, talk I guess. Not sure I see any good options at this point.
uhhh, uhhh, 3: Oh, I didn't realize those movie posters were already out! Teehee!
1. Sweettalk to close the distance, stab her fast like and leash the corpse in the water under the quay. They'll find the body. All we need is for them to not know who did the stabbing.
In terms of moneymaking, has the gang considered piracy as both a getaways vehicle and possible cash source?