Unshaken

by The 24th Pegasus

Chapter 16

Agree to participate in the show: 61%

Gain progress toward the following Quirk: Showmare (1/4)

“Ah, Tartarus.” Kestrel mustered as much as a smile she could; after all, absurdities like this were hardly her usual affair. “Why not. I ain’t got anythin’ better to do ‘til lunch.”

“Excellent!” Trixie grinned, simultaneously relieved and haughty. “Go wait for Trixie to finish her preparations. Make sure you have a place at the front of the crowd so I can call you up easily. You are in for a treat, humble country bumpkin!”

Then the door slammed shut, and the wagon rocked slightly as Trixie moved around inside. Kestrel could only shake her head and wonder just what exactly she’d gotten herself into.

Something resembling a crowd, but in reality was merely a few curious onlookers, had formed in front of the wagon, squinting at the paint and decorations on the wood. There, Trixie had blazoned an eye-catching headline across the wood, painted in gold letters that would stand out under the sun: Come and see the GREAT and POWERFUL TRIXIE, the MOST POWERFUL unicorn to ever travel the land under Celestia’s blue skies! Be amazed, be stunned, be in AWE!

Kestrel just scoffed and wiped her nose with her feathers. What she’d seen of the mare inside the wagon certainly hadn’t left her amazed, stunned, or awestruck. Maybe amused and confused, but definitely not awestruck. She already had her doubts that this whole endeavor was going to pay much, if anything, judging by the small number of ponies who even seemed remotely interested in the strange wagon’s arrival.

Then something clicked, and Kestrel’s ears perked through her worn gambler hat. Tinny fanfare began to play through speakers built into the wagon, loud enough that the ponies of Rock Ridge collectively stopped what they were doing and turned their heads in its direction. It wasn’t long after that when Trixie’s voice cut into the music, loud, proud, and slightly distorted by the cheap speakers.

“Citizens of… uh… this town!” she proclaimed, and Kestrel could only sigh and cover her face with her feathers. “Come one, come all, and prepare to be AMAZED by what you are about to see. Never before in all of Equestria has anypony ever seen such feats of magic and skill as what you are about to see today! From death-defying stunts, to feats of magic that would make Star Swirl the Bearded blush, to ancient arts thought forgotten for millennia, you will see it all! And now, raise your hooves in applause for the one, the only, the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

An explosion of smoke caught Kestrel off guard, sending her staggering back and coughing as a cacophony of noise assaulted her swiftly-lowering ears. Fireworks exploded in a blast of color and sound, filling the air with the all-too familiar acrid stench of gunpowder. When the smoke cleared, a stage had suddenly sprang forth from the side of the wagon, and Trixie emerged from behind a purple curtain, wearing a stereotypical wizard’s hat and robe with stars and moons sewn into the fabric.

The sight made Kestrel reconsider some of her previous thoughts. Standing up there, surrounded by fanfare, smoke, and fireworks, Trixie certainly did seem great and powerful, like a spellslinger from the days before lead and gunpowder had replaced magic and horns, the days that only lived on in storybooks. It was almost enough to make her forget about the fake bullet tucked away in her pocket.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, mares and stallions, I hope you have come here to be amazed!” Trixie proclaimed, gesturing dramatically with a hoof. “Trixie knows that life out in the middle of nowhere can be hard and boring. Believe me, she understands. That’s why she has taken it upon myself to visit ever town in Equestria, no matter how small, so that you may all be fortunate enough to bear witness to the greatest unicorn who has ever lived!”

More fireworks went off as she raised her forelegs into the air—Kestrel wondered how much of her profits simply went to buying more for her shows. As they died down and fizzled out, Trixie struck another confident pose, the glow from her horn under her hat tugging on the collars of her robe. “Trixie has seen and done many impressive things, too many to count! She has been to the high, lofty spires of Canterlot, a she has plundered forgotten ruins far to the south in search of knowledge and power! She has battled ponies and monsters alike, far across the desert! From colossal dune adders to gangs of murderers, rapists, and thieves, no ne’er-do-wells have stood before the might of the Great and Powerful Trixie and lived to tell the tale!”

It was at this moment that her boasts finally drew skeptical rebuttal. “That’s ponyfeathers!” a stallion with a mangy beard exclaimed from the back. “You’s just another loudmouthed fraud! You ain’t done nothin’!”

A sly grin settled on Trixie’s muzzle; she must have been waiting for some kind of challenge. “Is that so?” she asked him, directing her full attention in his direction. “Would you perhaps like a demonstration of my powers?”

The stallion, taken aback by Trixie’s confident attitude, faltered slightly. “Well… yes, yes I would. Prove it to us all that you ain’t just tryin’ to play us all for fools!”

Kestrel scratched at the seat of her hat with a wingtip. No wonder Trixie needed somepony to play the fool for her so she could play the rest of the crowd as fools.

“Simple! I’ll have you know that I once single-hoofedly destroyed a gang of griffons near Reino. I snatched their bullets out of the air with just a thought! And I’ll prove it to you today—provided somepony is daring enough to stand upon my stage and try to shoot the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

A gasp went up from the crowd, and ponies murmured to each other in disbelief. By now, her antics had attracted a sizeable throng of ponies, and a few began to jostle to the front for the chance to shoot at the unicorn, either to test her skill or to hopefully put a bullet in her face and shut her up once and for all. Instead, Trixie’s eyes fell on Kestrel, and she smiled. “You! You look like a good shot! Think you can best the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

Kestrel quietly sighed and shrugged—she had never fancied herself as much of an actress. “I s’pose. You gotta be pretty fast to catch a bullet.”

“And Trixie is the fastest of them all! It will not be a challenge. Step on up, and show the world what you’ve got!”

A few ponies cheered as Kestrel made her way up to the stage, fluttering onto the wood. Trixie moved to the opposite end and raised her voice, gesturing to Kestrel as she pulled out her revolver. “Watch as this foolish mare attempts to shoot the Great and Powerful Trixie from not even fifteen feet away! For all other unicorns, the chances of survival would be next to none, but not for Trixie! I shall catch the bullet with a thought, and prove to you all that I am the greatest unicorn who has ever lived!”

She turned to Kestrel. “Please, show the crowd the bullet you are going to fire at Trixie. Let them see that it is not a blank, it is not a fake. It is as real as can be. Real lead will cross the stage, faster than the common eye can perceive, but I shall snatch it with pinpoint accuracy!”

Kestrel dug through the pocket of her duster and pulled out the fake bullet Trixie had given her, holding it up so that the gathered ponies could look at it. She saw concern write itself on the faces of a few ponies, but eager excitement seemed to take hold of many more. She didn’t know if those ponies were excited to see Trixie catch the bullet, or excited to see her shot in the face and die. She figured it was probably more of the latter.

Twirling the bullet between her feathers, Kestrel slid it into an open chamber in her revolver and snapped the cylinder closed. She lifted the weapon up and pointed it at Trixie’s face, the barrel staring down her confident expression. But Trixie knew nothing would go wrong, because it was the fake bullet that she had given her. A feather drew the hammer back, and she raised an eyebrow at the magician. “You ready?”

“You gave Trixie a warning. How kind. The bandits she vanquished certainly didn’t.” Her stance widened and that pink glow manifested from beneath the brim of her hat. “Whenever you please.”

Kestrel certainly didn’t want to partake in the farce any longer than she had to, so with nothing more than a shrug, she pulled the trigger. The weapon kicked back with the recoil she would expect from a real bullet, although the barrel spit out quite a few sparks and fire—more than she would have expected, but she supposed it was part of the stage magic. But judging by the way Trixie lurched backwards, angling away from the stage, Kestrel worried that she had actually shot the unicorn with live lead. She lowered her gun in surprise as Trixie staggered backwards—only to blink in confusion when Trixie proudly stepped forward once again, a spent bullet held in her magic.

She turned it to the crowd, who had fallen silent in suspense following the shot, but now cheered at the sight. “The Great and Powerful Trixie has done it again!” she proudly proclaimed, her magic lowering the bullet down to the audience so they could see it. “Witness! Real lead, fired from that mare’s gun, right there!”

She dropped it in a filly’s outstretched hoof and tousled her mane from afar, adding in a wink from the stage. “Keep it as a souvenir,” she said, grinning that haughty grin of hers. Then she removed her hat and let her horn flare up once more, floating it out in front of the crowd to collect coppers. “Fillies and gentlecolts, this has been just one performance of the Great and Powerful Trixie’s! For only a few bits from everypony, I will show you what I have in store next!”

Kestrel noted with some approval that after her stunt, Trixie’s hat seemed to be filling rather fast with the spare change of the town. However, that didn’t last too long before another shot rang out over Rock Ridge, and Trixie nearly dropped her hat in surprise. Kestrel’s head whipped around to the source of the gunfire, and she saw three burly stallions plodding their way toward the stage. The leader of the three, and also the shortest, had fire in his eyes as they settled on Trixie’s face. “You whore!”

Murmuring broke out through the crowd, and Kestrel looked to Trixie in confusion. Trixie’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks; it was obvious she recognized those three stallions from somewhere else. She had no words as they stomped onto the stage and the lead stallion grabbed her by her cloak, shoving Kestrel aside. “There you are, you fraud!” the stallion holding her shouted, his friends closing in on her from either side.

For what it was worth, Trixie managed to answer him in something resembling her usual bravado. “I would suggest that you release T-Trixie this instant before something bad happens.”

“This mare is a fraud and a liar!” the stallion exclaimed, throwing her onto the floor of her stage. As the crowd gasped and stepped back, the lead stallion pointed to her as she struggled to stand up. “She was at Balderdash not two weeks back, and she cleaned the place out! We found out she got some bumpkin to help her with her stunts; he was drinking away his cut at the saloon afterwards! Everything about this mare is a fake and a lie; you should run her out of town now, or better yet, just shoot her and put an end to it!”

The crowd was in full murmur now, and Kestrel didn’t know which way it was swinging: skepticism towards these sudden claims, or doubt about Trixie’s boasts. She could only raise an eyebrow at the mare lying helpless on the ground. “What did you do to them?” she asked her.

Trixie coughed and fought to raise her head a little bit. “Trixie… may have… made some bets… some expensive bets… which I insist I won, fair and square.”

“Shut up!” the stallion shouted, and Kestrel tensed when he drew a revolver. “I’m getting back what you stole from my Ma, or I’m putting a bullet in you!”

While Trixie blubbered out some excuse, Kestrel realized they weren’t looking at her.

1. Intervene and fight off the three stallions. Trixie’s an idiot and a fool, but she don’t deserve to be murdered like this. Frankly, nothin’ I hate worse than tough punks ridin’ hot in the saddle like these three.

2. Try to negotiate. Nopony needs to get hurt here, maybe I can get ‘em to talk it out. Better than startin’ a brawl in the middle of town.

3. Leave them be. This ain’t my argument; Trixie shoulda been expectin’ somethin’ like this would come back and bite her behind sooner or later. I don’t need to get involved.

4. Rob her wagon while the commotion is going on. If there was ever a distraction to slip into that wagon and take my choice of goods, it’d be now. Fool like her probably has somethin’ valuable back there, I just need to find it before these idiots get to it.

(Confidence Required: 35 Votes)

Author's Note:

This chapter's poll: https://www.strawpoll.me/18112362

Please use the poll for voting. You can discuss options in the comments, but I will not take anything stated there into consideration when determining the vote.

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/RsVkdDP

Comments

[Sir Budginton]

I'm thinking intervene. If she looks like she's trying to help, that'll put her in the sheriff's good books so she can get away with more later.

[Gearsmash King]

These three are passed talking. I say intervene. With luck, the sheirff and the rest of the town will understand if real lead starts flying.

[Jaro45]

Intervene. Trixie hasn't paid up yet.

[Merula]

Intervene. We still need our pay, dammit!

[djthomp]

“Excellent!” Trixie grinned, simultaneously relieved and haughty. “Go wait for Trixie to finish her preparations. Make sure you have a place at the front of the crowd so I can call you up easily. You are in for a treat, humble country bumpkin!”

Remember to not shoot Trixie even though it's Trixie.

That's bullet catching trick would be pretty slick if it could be done with real lead. You might need a real unicorn for it, though.

Well, I don't really want to see Trixie die, and negotiating would probably get Kestrel fingered as the local bumpkin helping with the tricks, so I say intervene.

[alamais]

1) Save waifu.
2) Save waifu.
3) Also waifu owes us our cut.