Ace in the Hole

Chapter Seven – Fight and Flight

“I’ll be with you until the end. Let’s walk through the fire together. Disappear in the golden sands…-Bush“

We all had our own specialties in our little group.  I was the hunter and would bring home plenty of small animals that would pay for at least two of us.  Windstorm was the showman of the group.  Windstorm brought in the most money in the group. As he refined his talents and performed in the wealthier areas of town, Windstorm brought in enough money so that we could eat well and could begin saving up bits.  Pearl quickly became the artist of the group and managed our money.  She was able to create Windstorm a uniform that helped his performances.  The surplus money was used to get me a crossbow that felt very natural in my hoofs.

Within a week, we were the richest ponies in the guild and we became an inseparable group.  Tomorrow was going to mark one week after Pearl had awoken.  I was going to break the news of Windstorm’s request to her and see how she reacted.  I had decided that I was going to stay with Pearl even if Windstorm left.  I hoped that Pearl would agree to go with Windstorm, but I realized that she may refuse.  If we left, she would lose all hope of regaining her memory.  That night I approached her alone, while Windstorm was off paying the gryphons.

“Pearl,” I said, “we have to talk about Windstorm.  The day that you awoke was the first day Windstorm and I had done a job together.  After that job, we had had more money than we would need for a while.  He gave me the money to help you and me out.  In return, he asked that I would consider leaving Bastion with him and running away, possibly to one of the kingdoms rumored to be situated over the mountains in the west.  I promised to give him an answer to his question tomorrow.  I have to know, are you going to go or not.  I’m going to stay with you.”

Pearl sighed, weighing the options.  “I’ll go with you two.  I don’t know what my past held but if it nearly got me killed, I’m not sure that I really want to know.”

I sighed.  I was hoping for this answer, but leaving everything that I knew would weigh heavily on me. I awaited the next day to talk to Windstorm.

The next day, our entire group got off to work early.  Pearl and I knew that it was likely to be our last day here, so we were going to have to make the most of the time in the Drudge.  Windstorm also got caught up in the excitement and set off to go perform in the Town Square.  It was going to be Windstorm’s biggest performance yet and was sure to bring in a nice paycheck.  I was excited to go hunting. Now that I had plenty of experience I was able to multitask and think about other things while hunting.  I had moved from hunting ground to hunting ground over the past week and had ended up learning how animals usually moved around.  With my crossbow in hoof, I usually had no problem picking up five kills a day which kept us all happy and fed.  Pearl spent the day scavenging for food that we would probably need as we left the city.

I got home the earliest of our trio and gathered up everything we would need in for our new life.  I had started packing the cloaks, knives, and my hunting equipment when I noticed Pearl running around, looking frantic.  When she saw me she pulled me aside and told me that somebody had recognized Windstorm and now the gryphon guards were after him.  I told Pearl to grab as much as she could and meet me and Windstorm at the Haunted Hollows.  She complied with my demands and ran off with most of our money and a few cloaks.  I grabbed my crossbow and put as much as I could into my saddlebags and ran out.  I was stopped short by Gizmo.  She had her automatic crossbow levitating at eye level and it was loaded.  I stopped short.

“What are you doing Gizmo? I have to go save Windstorm.” I yelled at her.

“Oh sorry, Surefire,” Gizmo stuttered.  “I just wanted you to have this as a goodbye present.” ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.  A goodbye present? How did she know that we were leaving?’ I thought.

“Wait, where am I leaving to…” I began.

“Oh I know enough that when I see you three making plans and hoarding things that you’re going to make a break for it.  I just wanted you to have this,” she said lowering the crossbow into my hoofs and then taking my old one away. “I know I got the balance just right.  I’ve been watching you the past couple of days and I hope you remember me wherever you go.  I’ll miss having you to test my inventions…” Gizmo began to cry.  “I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out the cartridges.  I’ll miss you, Surefire.  You were only friend I’ve truly had here at the guild and I’m glad to have known you.”

While I was grateful for the present time was wasting.  I was going to have to make this one short goodbye though before I could go rescue my friend, again.

“I’m sure that this will be invaluable to me.  I’m going to need it if it comes down to me outshooting the gryphons to save Windstorm.  If I ever come back to town, I will be sure to come and visit you and try out all your inventions.  I have to go now.  Time is wasting and Windstorm needs help.  Goodbye, Gizmo,  I can’t tell you how much you’ve helped me in this short time we’ve been friends, but I know that you can help others too if you just apply yourself.  Good luck, Gizmo.”  I gave her a quick hug and was on my way to save Windstorm.

I ran to the Town Square first.  It wasn’t that hard to tell where Windstorm had flown off to by the path of overturned vendor’s tables on the ground.  Following this path in a straight line was going to be hard, especially since I have no magic powers or any wings.  I decided to go for the second (or third depending on how you count) best way to pursue the pursuers.  I hopped, skipped, and jumped on the overturned market stands until I reached my first roof.  From here it was just like running on the branches in the forest, except much easier.  I caught a glimpse of some of the gryphons over to my right and took a long jump from the marble slab roof of one building to a smooth stone roofing of a building across the street.  The gryphons appeared to be within sight of Windstorm as they were firing their crossbows.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have the viewpoint to be able to see where he was.

As I rushed closer and closer to the gryphons, I began to take count of how many targets I had.  My hunting senses took over me and I began to scout out the best place to net kills from without being seen.  There were five gryphons chasing Windstorm and, from experience, I knew that I had five bolts in each of the cartridges of Gizmo’s crossbow.  I either had to disable or kill five gryphons with one bolt apiece.  I was beginning to get worried until I looked and saw that there were two more spare clips in my saddlebags.  ‘Thank you, Gizmo,’ I thought.  Without those two cartridges, I would have had to take some of my precious time to reload each bolt.  With eighteen shots I was sure that I take most of them out.  If it came to it, I hoped that Windstorm and I would be able to escape from a few injured gryphons.

I got into crossbow range of all of the gryphons and began looking for a spot to set up shop.  From where I was standing, I still could not see Windstorm but I knew where he was from the direction the gryphons were shooting.  I found cover behind some stored hay bales on the top of one of the houses.  I still had the element of surprise on the gryphons because they were not expecting anyone to come in and stop them.  If they didn’t know that I was coming then they wouldn’t be expecting some crossbow bolts to be sticking out of their hind ends.  In my mind, I plotted out where I wanted each shoot to go.  I set up the cartridges beside my right, shooting, hoof.  When I ran out of bolts, I was going to drop the cartridge I had into the saddlebag underneath the handle and pop in another cartridge.  I quickly released the current cartridge from its nesting in the crossbow to make sure it wouldn’t get stuck and took aim.  Apparently, Gizmo had been tinkering with the crossbow.  The crossbow fired at the same rate (which was pretty fast) and now it was also much more powerful.  The recoil forced my aim to waver slightly but I was already taking the next shot and taking into account the increased power.  If the gryphon I was aiming for hadn’t been almost directly above me, I probably would have overshot my target.  With the six bolts in the first cartridge, I was able to hit three of the gryphons with at least two bolts a piece.  I popped the next cartridge into the crossbow and fired the four of the six shots into the other two gryphons.  I shot the remaining two bolts at the gryphons that were beginning to recover. I slipped the empty cartridges into my saddlebag and slid my third and final cartridge into the crossbow.  I quickly threw my saddlebags over my shoulder and hopped across roofs in the direction the gryphons had been shooting.  I caught a glimpse of Windstorm taking off towards the woods.  I decided that know would be a good time to run from the gryphons that were sure to come looking for me. I hopped down from the roof where I had been running and covered myself in one of the dark cloaks Windstorm and I had taken from the hood ponies what seemed like ages ago.  I found a dimly shaded alley and hid myself within the shadows until the gryphons had passed.

It was nearly dark by the time I felt safe about leaving the confines of the alley.  It was time for me to head out to the Haunted Hollows and meet up with Pearl.  I doubted that Windstorm would return to the guild and I assumed that he would either run off like he said he would or stay in the fringes of the woods and look for me or Pearl.  I leaned towards the second option because Windstorm wouldn’t want to leave by himself unless he knew that we weren’t going to come with him.  I made it to the edge of the Bastion only to remember that Bastion was walled off and the only exits were guarded.  There was no way I was going to make it out of here through there.

I sat looking at the guards before the portcullis.  There was one pony in plate mail and two gryphons.  It appeared that the pony was in charge.  I considered shooting all three of them and just leaving through the gate but they were too well armored and I don’t know how to operate the gates.  Another flaw with that plan is that I practically tell anyone who wants me captured the way I went.  I sat looking at my surroundings to try to figure out another way out of Bastion.  There is always more than one solution to a problem.  You just have to focus on solutions, not the problem, and something will always come to you.  I continued looking for a solution and it came to me.  The roof of the guard’s tower was high enough for me to climb onto the top of the walls.  I could either wait for the guards to change shifts or distract them enough to climb up to the top of the tower.  Between these two options, option one sounded much safer.  The only flaw with waiting for the guards to change shift is I had no clue when that would happen and I wanted to get to Pearl as quickly as possible.  Option two involved distracting the guards.  To distract someone, you have to make sure that they are forced to look for the source of the trouble.  With guards, this was particularly easy. Guards were responsible for keeping people safe and stop them from killing each other.  If I could cause a commotion, then the guards would be forced to respond and my way would be clear.  Luckily for me, there were still some ponies shopping right before sunset.  I hurried over to the vendor and looked around.  I spotted a stuck-up pony.  He was going to be my victim.

I stole a beautiful jeweled necklace from a vendor.  It had been the centerpiece of his most expensive collection.  With my years of practice, it had been relatively easy to take.  I now had a limited amount of time before the salespony would notice the missing necklace.  I slipped the necklace into one of my victim’s saddlebags.  When I heard the salespony begin shouting that there was a thief, I bumped into my victim, causing him to spill everything he was carrying onto the ground.  The salesperson immediately noticed his precious necklace skid across the cobbled path and he immediately fell into a rage.  I ran away from the scene, but I could still hear the sound of my victim getting kicked and called a thief.  Apparently, I wasn’t the only pony that had heard this.  The guards quickly came to investigate, probably the only commotion they had seen in a long time.  Now I took my chance and slipped into the front door of the guard tower.

I ran up the first flight of stairs and was about to continue going up the tower until I heard voices coming down the stairs from the third floor.  I hopped out of the stairwell at the second floor and hid in one of the closet that appeared to contain janitor’s items.  Through a crack in the closet door, I saw two gryphons joking around and laughing walking down the stairs.  From what I heard, the two gryphons were the night shift going to replace the guards I had sent off.  Well I guess there is no going back now.  After I heard them, leave the stairwell I began creeping out of the closet.  Then I had an idea.  I stepped back into the janitor’s closet and donned the disgusting garb.  I packed the rest of my things into my saddlebags and grabbed a bucket and mop.  I confidently stepped out of the closet and spent a bit of time sweeping the floor around me.  It would give me some credibility if was to get questioned.  I began working my way up the stairs until I reached the third floor.  It was a good thing I hadn’t tried sneaking up the stairs.  The third floor was the guard’s barracks. In my janitor’s uniform, I attracted no attention and was able to slip past the gryphons and other guards before anyone got a good look at me.  The fourth floor was nearly empty and I made it to the fifth floor without any problems.  The fifth floor was devoid of any guards when I reached it.  It appeared that this was just where they stored armor that the guards didn’t need.  I decided to help myself to a spare crossbow and a good amount of bolts.  Those would definitely come in handy in the Haunted Hollows. I opened the window on this top floor and climbed out.

Climbing.  Usually I felt pretty sure about myself while doing it, but it was considerably harder when it was nighttime.  The outcropping on the window wasn’t that large and it was made of stone so my hooves were having a hard time finding purchase.  I had to go about this quietly if I didn’t want the guards below me to notice me and send word into the tower.  If I got caught now, there would be no escape.  I firmly planted my two hind hooves on the outcropping and my front hooves where holding on to the outer frame of the window.  A small railing on the top of the roof was just about a meter away from where I was.  I was going to have to try to grab onto it and pull my body up without falling or making enough noise to alert the guards below me.  To say the least, I was nervous.  I was beginning to sweat and I knew that if I just waited here at the top of the tower with the wind buffeting me, I was going to lose my nerve or get spotted; neither of these were good options.  I began loading all of my weight into my hind hooves, preparing for a jump.  ‘Just a hop, skip, and a jump,’ I thought to myself.  With a burst of energy, I sprang towards the roof. My front hooves made it to the top of the roof.  I couldn’t find any purchase until one of my hooves reached a ledge.  There was a ridge on the end of the roof.  I swung the rest of my body back and forth in an attempt to get the rest of my body up onto the roof.  After swinging my body back and forth a few times, I was able to get onto the roof of the guard tower.  It was just one more hop and I would be over the wall that guards Bastion.  I wound up and jumped.  I caught onto the top of the wall and looked down towards the ground.  I was pretty high up, but it looked like the outside of the wall was in a worse state than the inside of the wall.  Not that I was surprised, everybody wanted an appearance of perfection but didn’t care enough to actually fix the problems.  I slid down the wall, and jumped in between the large cracks.  I made it to the ground safely and now I had to go find Pearl.

I found Pearl still waiting for me where I told her to wait earlier.  I led her into the fringes of the Haunted Hollows and told her what had happened over the course of the day.  She was worried about Windstorm, but I consoled her by telling her that I thought that he would stay in this area for a little while to try to see if we would accompany him.  Tomorrow, I promised, we would go look for him and tell him that we would go with him.

We hunkered down and tried to sleep.  Because we couldn’t risk a fire, we had to sleep close together underneath the cloaks we had.  I found it reassuring to have Pearl’s body warmth next to mine.  She was the only thing familiar to me in this new life that we found ourselves in and we were going to have to depend on each other.  The Haunted Hollows, the place that everypony I knew had ever feared, was now our home and we were going to have to face its terrors to reach the happiness promised on the other side.  I hoped that Windstorm was all right.  He had nobody to sleep beside him and keep him warm and he was smart enough not to use fire to avoid being seen.  Tomorrow, I was going to find him.  The three of us had formed a special bond in the past week at the guild and I wasn’t going to allow it to break apart because of a change in location.  Pearl had more practical thoughts.  She didn’t even consider not finding Windstorm a possibility and was more focused on where we would get our food and water.  She had looked through everything we brought with us and organized everything into things we needed for survival and things that would be nice to have but weren’t necessary.  I admired how calm Pearl could be, even though all hopes of finding her past were gone.  She had lost that life and was again transitioning into a new lifestyle.  She made me feel good with an aura of security and calm.  I knew that I had made the best choice of my life by saving her and that was one decision that I would never regret.

As we lay in the dark, attempting to fall asleep, I could not help but being a bit nervous as to what our future would hold.  Did we have a chance of even making it to the kingdoms in the west?  Would we be killed by the forest like all the stories said, or would we persevere and come out to find a better life?  Who even knows if life is better in those kingdoms to the west?  What if it was just as bad there as it was here?  I felt Pearl roll over beside me and decided that with her and Windstorm at my side, I would face whatever this world threw at us.