Unshaken

by The 24th Pegasus

Chapter 24

Discuss plans with Tumbleweed for the train robbery: 78%

Kestrel waited until the sun had set and the moon was out over the desert before she decided to try and talk to Tumbleweed again. Hopefully some food would do him good and let him calm down before she did so. In any event, the atmosphere around camp was awkward and uncomfortable for many hours.

Silver had returned around dinner time without Roughshod, apparently unable to find him near camp, but Wanderer had ventured back to town once more and returned sometime later with the burly stallion in tow. He’d gone to town for drinks and other pleasures when Sienna proved less entertaining to threaten and interrogate than he’d anticipated, but thankfully he’d stayed out of trouble while he was gone. Or at least, so he claimed. But Wanderer was able to vouch for him, and Kestrel found herself somewhat surprised. Maybe the past few weeks on the run had given him some common sense and caution.

Was Wanderer able to learn anything more about the train that might be useful? Yes

Wanderer had not been idle after everypony split up in Rock Ridge. He’d gone to the train station and made small talk with the clerk and learned the train’s timetable. It was supposed to pass through Rock Ridge at two in the afternoon, on the dot. It would be stopping there to be refueled, and apparently this was routine enough that the clerk knew something about what the Gang was going to be up against.

How many soldiers are likely to be on the train? 10

“It’ll be simple,” Wanderer had assured Kestrel with a smirk, as if he already knew the robbery was as good as won. “You and Tumbleweed and the others make five good guns. Surprise like we’re planning, five can defeat ten easily. Maybe if you bring some of your new recruits with us, we’ll put the balance even more in our favor.”

That, Kestrel could agree to. Five with the high ground against ten in a canyon was easily in the Gang’s favor. So long as everything went according to plan, they’d be walking out of the canyon much, much richer than they were walking into it.

He soon dismissed himself to help Trixie settle in. Kestrel could tell from looking at the magician that she seemed anxious and out of place. Whatever she had thought the Gang was, this clearly wasn’t it. She might even be thinking about backing out, but Kestrel knew it was too late for her. Tumbleweed had already extracted an oath from her on the way to the camp, the same simple oath that everypony else in the Gang had made, all the way back to the day it first started. It was the rule that kept them together and chained them to each other for life. It was the only way a group of outlaws and wanted ponies could even hope to survive with the weight of the Law pressing down on them:

You turn your back on the Gang, and you die. Kestrel had no doubt those terms were made pretty clear to Trixie on the way to the camp.

She found Tumbleweed by his tent, listening to Miss Irons’ report on everything Sienna had told them. His face remained impassive as he listened, and he only nodded or shook his head to what the elder mare told him. He soon spotted Kestrel patiently waiting a few strides away and pulled out a cigar, lighting it off a candle and smiling at Miss Irons. “Thank you, Miss, that will be all.”

Miss Irons looked around and spotted Kestrel waiting. Her usual scowl that seemed all but permanently carved into her face returned, and she nodded once. “She was the one that let that filly off the wheel,” she couldn’t help but say as she left.

“I’m well aware of that.” Tumbleweed sighed, and then it was just the two of them again. He looked Kestrel up and down and noted the posture of her wings. “Well?”

“Relax, Boss, I ain’t bringin’ nothin’ ‘bout Sienna and Trixie up tonight. Wanted to discuss the train plans with you.”

Though Tumbleweed continued to scrutinize Kestrel with his piercing eyes, he finally nodded toward the edge of camp after a few seconds. “At least that will be productive. Come on.”

The two ponies walked past a few darkened tents and crates of supplies until they found themselves at the cliff overlooking the desert below them. Tumbleweed sat down first on some rocks, and he offered a cigar to Kestrel from his pocket. Kestrel readily took it and lit it with a match struck off her shoe. The taste was powerful and bitter, and it made her tongue feel fuzzy after a few puffs. No matter where the Gang happened to run to, it seemed like Tumbleweed always found a way to find a box of cigars from Hoofanna.

As Kestrel settled down next to him, Tumbleweed raised an eyebrow. “Well? What did you find?”

“We found a good spot to lay the charges,” Kestrel told him. “Bit of a ways north, there’s a canyon cut through a mesa. Walls is very narrow. We put the charges there and blow the rails, they’ll be stuck in the bottom while we’re up at the top. Should have complete control of the situation.”

Tumbleweed slowly nodded along. “Probably about the best place we could do it,” he agreed after a few moments of thought. “Wanderer told me that we shouldn’t have too many problems with the guard detail. He tell you that?”

“He did. Still, they’re ten and we’re five. If we don’t keep a tight lid on it…”

“We ain’t gonna be five,” Tumbleweed told her.

Kestrel raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? It’s me, you, Rough, Silver, Snapshot… We’re the best guns, unless you mean to give Wanderer a repeater.”

The end of Tumbleweed’s cigar glowed brightly for a moment, and a cloud of smoke left his lips shortly after. “We’re gonna take your new friends down with us,” he finally said.

Kestrel blinked in surprise. She knew Tumbleweed hadn’t had enough time to come around to the idea yet. “What do you mean? We ain’t broke them in yet, we ain’t got a good measure of their abilities.”

“This will be a good trial run,” Tumbleweed said. “That showmare you recruited, she wanted in anyway. She’s the one with all the gunpowder, so it only makes sense to have her place the charges. And this Viper Gang mare… you want her to join us so badly? Then let’s see how she does in the robbery. It’ll be seven against ten. The odds’ll be more than enough in our favor.”

“That Trixie mare don’t look like she’s so good at shootin’,” Kestrel warned him. “She’s more bluff and bluster than gunslinger material. And I don’t know too much about Sienna. The only time I seen her try and do somethin’, she tried takin’ on me and Silvie by herself. Don’t you think a train job’s too dangerous to break in the new recruits?”

Tumbleweed turned to face her, eyebrow raised. “Now you don’t want your prospects to join us? Well, Kessie, which is it? Are they part of our gang or not?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Listen, Kestrel, I… I trust your instincts. I really do. But we can’t afford to be reckless out here. We only just slipped the Pinks. The more noise we make, the shorter we’ll have before they’re back on us.”

“I know, Boss,” Kestrel said. “We been runnin’ from the Law since day one.”

They both took drags on their cigars, and Tumbleweed’s eyes wandered up to the stars, clear and bright over the desert. “It has been ‘day one’ for you and I, ain’t it?” he mused.

“Ever since that hospital in Canterlot,” Kestrel said with a chuckle.

Tumbleweed chuckled back. “It was even before then,” he said. “Or have you forgotten?”

Kestrel slowly shook her head with a small grin on her muzzle. She and Tumbleweed had first met in Canterlot when she was sixteen and he was twenty-two. Kestrel had thought she could rob the lanky stallion in front of her, only to realize later that that same stallion was trying to lure her off to an alley to rob her instead. Things quickly escalated into a duel, and both ponies had drawn at the same time, shot each other at the same time, and failed to kill each other. “I haven’t forgotten that,” Kestrel said. Then, with a wink, she added, “I got closer to killin’ you, though.”

“I was a larger target,” Tumbleweed said, rubbing the spot on his ribs where Kestrel’s bullet had cracked off of the bone, the lucky deflection saving his life. His laugh redoubled as he recalled those days. “And then the damn nurses had the bright idea to put both of us in the same room!”

Kestrel laughed at that memory as well. Lots of name-calling and insults had been flung across the room at each other for the better part of two days. But as it had turned out, both ponies were wanted by the law, and when they heard the police coming to take them away, they’d managed a daring escape together, slipping out the second-story window and down to the back grounds of the hospital. It had been the Gang’s first escape for its first two members, and after they had finally recuperated someplace safer, the two had decided to combine their talents rather than go it alone.

“We sure came a long way since then,” Kestrel said, watching the flickering lights of Rock Ridge far away.

“We have, through trust and caution.” The mirth slowly bled away from Tumbleweed’s face. “Trust and caution,” he reiterated, looking Kestrel over. “I hope your new recruits work out for us. I do. But if they don’t, I’ll at least know who to point my hoof at before the rope snaps my neck.”

“We ain’t gettin’ our necks snapped,” Kestrel said, waving a wing. “We’ll be fine.”

“I certainly hope so,” Tumbleweed said. “But do you trust them enough to help with this job?”

SIENNA has been added to the Gang’s character sheets.

1. Bring Trixie and Sienna on the train robbery. Tumbleweed wants them to prove themselves as part of the Gang, so they gotta come and help us rob this train. Hopefully havin’ two new greenhooves don’t screw us over if things get dicey.

2. Bring only Trixie. Sienna ain’t fully committed to bein’ in the Gang yet, so maybe it’s best she stay here. Trixie wanted to be here at least, and maybe her penchant for fireworks can help us with the charges.

3. Bring only Sienna. Sienna’s been in a few scrapes before, so she ain’t as likely to lose her head as Trixie might be. If she can prove herself here, that’ll go a long ways to makin’ her one of us.

4. Don’t bring either of them. This job’s too dangerous for two newcomers to bring along. They’re as likely to get us killed as help us out if they don’t know how we operate. They should sit this one out.

(Confidence Required: 45 Votes)

Author's Note:

This chapter's poll: https://www.strawpoll.me/18230216

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

[Gearsmash King]

Bring 'em both. It'll help the get their hooves wet and maybe give Tumbleweed more confidence if they work out well.

[alamais]

I'd say bring 'em both—gotta throw 'em in the deep end.

Trixie is clearly pretty useless with guns (if/when we have time we should get her a bit of practice), but she can help with the splodies and possibly use her magic as an initial distraction, or to run interference if necessary. Give her something close-in for a last resort.

Sienna ain't a bad shot, and we should use that natural camo and stick her somewhere strategic. Maybe down in the canyon itself, back on the tracks a bit, if she can blend enough there—it would give her a unique firing angle on the train and make the ambush a complete surround. It also gives her a tough line of sight on any of the gang, just in case she completely loses it.

I'm actually not sure who I trust less...

As stated, Trixie did choose to be here, but she's still totally new to this life. I'd guess she's the more likely to panic when things get loud, but that's another reason we should let her get a few shots off (and just be around gunfire a bit) if we have the time. I could also see her being the one to have regrets afterwards (seeing the aftermath), buuut on the other hand she may get all sorts of nifty pyro toys to play with out of the deal.

Sienna...well, she did roll that 1 on receptiveness, and get that 'something' in her eyes. Hell, even as slim as her realistic options were, we still may have actually given her the first real choice she's had in life. Actually, with her rashness I could see her going either way in the heat of battle: if she's actually committed in her heart she could end up charging in like a dummy to try and prove herself. Or I guess she could turn tail and run. I suppose this is another reason to stick her in the canyon if we can: it makes a mad rush more effective, and if she runs it makes it easier to track her down afterwards to...take care of her.

And (shippery aside) I do think it would be good to put them together for the night and try to foster a friendship. Sienna would probably prefer female company anyway, and if they form a bond as 'the newbies' it could help keep them stable long enough to start bonding with the gang as well, once they're properly proven.

[djthomp]

“It’ll be simple,” Wanderer had assured Kestrel with a smirk, as if he already knew the robbery was as good as won. “You and Tumbleweed and the others make five good guns. Surprise like we’re planning, five can defeat ten easily. Maybe if you bring some of your new recruits with us, we’ll put the balance even more in our favor.”

Hmn, probably good news.

“This will be a good trial run,” Tumbleweed said. “That showmare you recruited, she wanted in anyway. She’s the one with all the gunpowder, so it only makes sense to have her place the charges. And this Viper Gang mare… you want her to join us so badly? Then let’s see how she does in the robbery. It’ll be seven against ten. The odds’ll be more than enough in our favor.”

Bit of a trial by fire.

“I was a larger target,” Tumbleweed said, rubbing the spot on his ribs where Kestrel’s bullet had cracked off of the bone, the lucky deflection saving his life. His laugh redoubled as he recalled those days. “And then the damn nurses had the bright idea to put both of us in the same room!”

Hah!

1, bring both, make it a party.