The Adventure of the Sisters: Appleloosa
Celestia checked her revolver once again. Everything was oiled and in great condition, it could probably pass as new. It still didn’t stop her from checking it one more time. Maybe she will even disassemble it again just to make sure everything would work. She looked at her pocket watch on the bed stand, open. It was just a few minutes before noon.
Luna, her sister and longtime companion, came out of the shower, wearing nothing but a towel covering her upper body and her hat on. She held two outfits, one in each hand.
“Which one would be better, Tia?” She looked at each, then at her sister. “Are you even listening? The train’s gonna arrive soon and I have to look my best for it!” she complained.
Celestia looked up and examined the two outfits, the one of her left was dark blue, with a corset and a semi long skirt of lighter color. The second outfit was a purple shirt with a darker pair of pants.
“Depends,” she started. “If you’re looking to make them blush, definitely the skirt. In case you don’t want to show the entire security force that you go commando on a heist, I’d go with the pants, especially with the wind, it’ll be easier.”
“Very funny. I was going to go with the pants and the shirt anyway, it’s way too hot outside for a corset,” noted Luna, who went back to the bathroom with the second outfit and put it on.”
“Why did you even ask my opinion then, sis?”
“Unlike you, I do value my sister’s opinion, at least a little,” she bantered. “Anyway, you should really stop messing with your gun, it’ll just end up jamming one day if you keep playing with it.”
“Well, unlike you, I prioritize my equipment over my look.”
Luna came out of the bathroom while putting on her last shoe. “I can see that, yes.”
Indeed, Celestia was dressed in an old light blue pair of jeans with too many stains of oil to matter, a way too transparent white shirt and a black duster that was a bit too big for her.
The elder sister got up, took her revolver and put it in its holster. She glanced at the clock again, five past noon. “Cadence’s intel told us the train’s gonna stop through the town at fifteen past noon, we’ll get inside, neutralize security and once it’s moving again, we’ll unhook the car with the gold and ride away in the sunset as usual.”
“Easy as cake, I’m sure.”
“As easy as last time at least. I doubt that the Princess’ suddenly decided to hire capable personnel.”
Luna put a hat on Celestia’s head and opened their bedroom’s door, walking out with her rifle on her back. “And yet, last time, they did put a new hole in your hat.”
“First off, I let them hit something, gotta keep their morale up otherwise they’d stop fighting eventually.”
“Keep telling yourself that, Tia. Let’s go, we have a train to rob.”
The city of Appleloosa was empty this saturday. The sun burned hot that day and most folks preferred to stay inside and save their strength. Only the two sisters walked the city in the direction of the train station. Celestia checked her pocket watch again. Twelve past noon, no sound in the city. She put back her watch in her pocket.
“This is too silent, I do not like it one bit,” said Luna.
“I know, Lu, I know.”
“Maybe Cadence was wrong this time, maybe it’s a trap and her inside man has fed her lies,” she doubted.
“Calm down, Lu. Cadence is never wrong. Maybe they’re just late,” Celestia said just before arriving at Appleloosa’s train station.
The air was quiet, the single track running through the city only had a few trains a week, most were for supplies for the mining companies in town, only one carried passengers. This saturday, no trains were scheduled except for the royal gold transportation. A few thousand kilos of gold from Canterlot meant to go to a new bit melting facility in Dodge city.
Celestia looked west to the tracks from where the train was supposed to go. That’s where she noticed a black heat haze over the tracks that seemed to grow. Then she saw the smoke from the engine.
“It’s here. Time to hide.”
Luna nodded and casted an invisibility spell around the two once they were near the end of the dock.
The train arrived four minutes late, with just the locomotive’s sound breaking the eerie silence of the station at first. As the train stopped in the station, a rough feminine voice started echoing in the station through the speaker: “Appleloosa central, Appleloosa central. Train number two-oh-one for Dodge city on dock one. Depart in two minutes.”
The train was twelve cars long, locomotives included. The last two cars were clearly cargo cars, definitely their objective. They were followed by three passenger cars, heavily modified with the Princess’ crest on them. All the windows were tinted so you couldn’t see the inside. Two cars in the middle were open cargo, almost empty barring a few crates. After that, there were more Princessy cars up until the tender car and the head of the train.
“Why would they even stop there anyway?” questioned Luna. “It’s not like they need more coal,” she pointed to the train car behind the locomotive, it was full of coal.
“And they clearly don’t want to stay long. Wait, look there,” Celestia pointed to the two armed characters escorting a heavy suitcase to the train. “Whatever they’re carrying probably wasn’t on the manifest that Cadence got. Which means…”
“We’ll steal it?”
“We’ll steal it.”
“Wanna bet on what’s inside?”
Two shots rang out on the platform.
“Watch out,” warned Celestia as she saw their invisibility spell falter due to the sound. “Less talking, more spellcasting for now.”
Luna, having refocussed herself, replied: “Sure thing, easier said than done with this heat. What was that?”
“Shouldn’t have worn dark clothes in the middle of a desert, sis. I have no idea, but it wasn’t us, keep going.”
The two walked slowly on the last car of the train just as the announcer started speaking again. “Train number two-oh-one for Dodge city departing now, all personnel get on board.”
Just like that, they felt the train moving again, eastward, with two new passengers.
They entered the last wagon, it was a postal car. Full of letters and packages with just enough room for the two to walk through it. The next one was a locked car, definitely what they were looking for. They got onto the roof and walked to the next car before going down.
“Looks like the next car is the crew quarter.” said Luna after glancing in the door's window. Both were now on each side of the cars, out of sight of anyone that might have glanced in their direction.
“We could just unhook the gold and be done with it,” responsibly remarqued Celetia.
“But we’d miss out on the mysterious package! And I know you like mysteries just as much as Twilight.”
“I guess I do, I don’t like the risk of it though, what if it’s not worth it and we’d just fight the entire train for nothing?”
“I see you playing with the trigger of your gun since we got on the train, you’re hitching for a fight, and I am too, let’s just have some fun!”
“You know what? Yeah, sure, let’s have some fun!”
"I looked him right in the eyes, all panicked, gun in hand, and told him:’we're under attack! Quick, help me barricade that door!’ All the while Roar was banging on the other side."
"I swear, I never saw a newbie shit himself that quickly, I didn't even have time to shoot a few bullets at him that was already praying to the Princess! '' said Roar.
"Come on guys, that's not even funny, you were just as bad when you were a rookie."
Three men in Soldier's uniform were talking loudly in a common area in the back of the car. They were around a table, playing cards to pass the time. Luna observed the room and saw a curtain separating the compartment in two, probably to give enough privacy for some beds.
Luna dropped her invisibility spell and slid to the side, opposite to Celestia.
"We've got three in the main room, couldn't see the entire carriage, there's probably more on the other side."
"I can definitely take them on but if there's someone farther that can hear us, it'll definitely raise the alarm."
"Nothing we wouldn't be able to take on anyway. If we wanted to do this silently we'd have brought Twilight along."
"We should try at least and worst case, we'll just shoot our way up the train as usual."
"Sounds good. Let's just take care of them as silently as we can and rush once we're discovered."
"I mean, don't get me wrong, pulling pranks is fun, just don't joke about the very thing we're trying to avoid. If that gold gets stolen, Princess knows we'd lose that job."
"Talk for yourself, you're the one that let those thieves rob that bank in Manehattan. You're on your last chance, chief."
"And you're talking as if people would just get on the train, guns blazing yelling "this train is under attack" as if they'd be able to take on the Princess' finest."
"I'm sure nobody would have a hard time taking on you three," declared Celestia, guns pointed in their direction. She closed the door behind her with a kick of her boot.
One tried to get up and grab his gun, Luna, dropping her invisibility spell again, simply pressed her rifle into the man's back.
"Don't try anything dumb and you'll walk out of here alive," she threatened.
"Drop the belts and knives my way, please," gently asked Celestia, guns still pointed at the men.
They complied, their equipment belts dropped to the floor one after the other, and Celestia mentioned to pass them to their direction.
She took their belts with some light levitation and took the munitions for herself, leaving the rest alone. "Now, how many are you?"
"Enough to make you regret being here," threatened one of them.
"We’ll see about that, now, why don’t you answer my sister, with a nicer tone this time.”
He gulped as Luna pushed her rifle a bit harder in his back.
“F-fifty. We’re about fifty,” said another one.
“Good, see, one of you can speak. Luna, take care of the other two.”
“With pleasure, sis.”
Luna dropped her rifle on the ground and put each of her hands on one of the soldiers’ shoulders. Her eyes glowed a deep blue, almost black, as her pupil swallowed her iris, then her entire eye. With a deep voice, mixed with a thousand others, she proclaimed: “Sleep.” and the two fell.
The third soldiers looked with terror at the display of magic. “You’re a spellcaster,” he shuddered.
“Good, so I’m gonna guess you know that’s the nicest of things she could have done to them, I’m sure you don’t want to try her, or me for that matter. Will you cooperate?”
“Y-yes.”
“Good, what’s in the briefcase that you took in Appleloosa?”
“I-I don’t, I don’t know, I swear.”
“What do you know about it then?”
“I-I, I’m not, not really sure.”
Celestia dropped a knife on one of his feet. He tried to cry in pain but Luna put a cord in his mouth before he could make too much noise. “Oops, look at me, my telekinesis really is out of control today,” chuckled Celestia. “But more seriously, my sis is gonna remove that rope from between your teeth and you’ll tell me everything you know about it. Make it up if you have to, just make it convincing.”
After he calmed down, Luna removed the rope and he started:”It’s from the Princess, that’s all I know, she sent her own people to find it near Appleloosa, and we have been ordered to protect it until we arrive in Dodge City.”
“See, that wasn’t that hard. Who did the Princess send?”
“The Princess’ protegé is protecting it,” he finished. “That’s all I know about it.”
“Thank you for all of that, you did good boy.”
And Celestia disappeared. A man entered the wagon from the back, an angry man, belt ready. He looked at the boy, who recognised him immediately. “F-father?”
The man walked forward slowly, before speaking:”You good for nothing, I should just send you to the army but I’m sure you’ll fuck it up somehow. Because that’s what you do, you fuck everything up. You’re no son of mine,” the man continued as he raised his belt and a whip echoed through the eari silent wagon.
Luna dropped her mental link with her sister and the soldier, now agitated on the ground.
“So, fifty guns, at least one spellcaster, all of that for expendable gold and a mysterious briefcase. Thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Yeah, an ice cream does sound great after we finish all of that,” said Luna, rubbing her temples from the spell’s after effects.
“Or some cake,” added Celestia. She glanced at the boy on the floor, Luna’s spells were always really impressive and scary, Celestia was glad she never would be on the receiving end of her sister’s magic.
“What nightmare did you leave the poor soul with?” she questioned.
“Some deep trauma with his dad, I don’t know the specifics, I just stimulated his memory a bit and it comes up with a nightmare all alone.”
“Damn you’re good, I’m so proud of my baby sister!”
“Call me that again and I’ll give you the same treatment.”
“Aw, I’m sure you love me too much to hurt me.”
“Shut up, let’s get going, we have a train to rob,” said Luna as she picked up her rifle and examined it a minute, she really should stop dropping it as much. At least it seemed in working condition still.
“While you interrogated him, I found the layout of the train in his mind. They’ve got a small fortified base in the front, it’s also where they have the briefcase. The men from the front and from the back have to keep separate. He didn’t know much else.”
“Anything in the next few cars to worry about?” asked Celestia.
“Definitely not. We could try taking them silently to not alert the other end of the train too quickly. The presence of a spellcaster changes how much I want to fight the entire train to be honest.”
Celestia nodded. The Princess’ protégé did almost ruin their plans more than once. They were not happy to see her again to say the least. Knowing her flaming temper, she’d probably destroy half the train to stop them at this point too.
“Let us do that then. Should we wait for night first? Just so we have the advantage in case you get into a spellcaster duel.”
“No, we should finish the heist while the sun is still up, we need you at top capacity for fighting and we’ll flee into the night.”
“Sounds good. Need some ammo for your rifle?” asked the older sister, while rummaging through the soldiers’ things.
“No, I'll be good with what I have. Let’s go.”
The second half of the car was full of bunk beds, most of them clean, none of them in use. The sisters quickly continued on their way to the next wagon.
“This is the armory, they’ve got at least two officers managing it and about half a dozen in the middle of some maintenance task. All of them are armed,” Luna described as she peaked inside while invisible once again. From what she could see, the car was equipped with a workshop where gun maintenance was performed. On the front, a kioske with iron bars separated two officers from the rest. They were in a narrower room with pistols, rifles and other weapons lined on the wall. Celestia’s eyes lit up from the description, she couldn’t wait to pick a new weapon from the Princess’ finest.
Finally, a narrow corridor on the left led to the exit and the next carriage.
Celestia took out her guns, finger on the trigger and looked at her sister expectantly.
“Fine. You know, magic isn’t as easy as it looks. I should be keeping my reserves and not indulging in your game right now.”
“You’re no fun Luna. I haven’t shot something in a few hours, we need to do it stealthily and you just happen to know a very handy silencer spell. Just use that and I’ll clear the room in ten seconds flat,” boasted Celestia.
“Fine. This one takes some time to cast, I’ll need to focus so I won’t support you at all, you sure you gonna be fine?”
“C’mon, it’s only like, ten guys, maybe twelve, easy as cake.”
“It better be…”
Luna closed her eyes and once again summoned her magic to the world. Celestia got in front of the door, kicked it open and shouted:”GOOD MORNING YOU MOTHER-”
Her voice was immediately drowned as Luna casted her spell. The lights in the train flickered from the arcane being summoned around it. A veil of thick, dark clouds blocked the windows and creeped around the wagon.
Inside, Celestia got the message and immediately shot two of the men closest to her. The rest started to take cover, shouting words that were never heard. Celestia pushed the desks with all her telekinetic force to the front of the car, to block off the exit. Three men were taken with it all and if sound could be heard in the room, everyone would have heard the sickening sound of bones cracking. A quick analysis of the living showed the two officers, guns in hand, ready to get her and four others trying to get up in the room.
She dove to the right to take cover behind an overturned desk and fired four shots in the officers’ direction, one of them landed in his left shoulder. He dropped from the pain but was probably still alive. On the floor in front of her, two men tried to aim their guns in her direction without getting up, she made quick work of them, returning them to the floor with a third eye socket each.
The officer in the kioske and the last two men standing started barraging her with shots. She wondered if her ten seconds were already up. Celestia admitted to herself that she was kind of in a pickle. Thankfully, she had one more trick up her sleeve, not a good one, but she was out of options there.
Surprising the three, she threw her guns in the air, catching them with her telekinesis and fired six shots at the approximate position of the three soldiers. Their barrage stopped, she got up, took her guns back in her hand, four shots left.
She slid over her cover, saw one soldier peek his head, he didn’t see it coming. She continued in the room, clearing the other soldier who didn’t hear her flanking him. and finally she dove under the kiosk. The officer peeked over the counter and searched for her, he shot a few times near her old position. She briefly wondered how do the Princess even train such dumb soldiers before shoting him in throat. She got up, finished the last officer on the ground, clutching his shoulder and walked to the back of the car.
Outside, Luna saw her sister walk out and dropped her spell. Light came back rushing into the car and the sound of the train was louder than ever for Celestia.
“See? Ten seconds, easy.”
“More like forty or fifty seconds to me.”
“Are you sure? Maybe your spell messes with time because it was definitely less than ten seconds inside.”
“Do you know how hard that would be?” asked Luna. “Nevermind you wouldn’t. Did they give you any trouble?”
“Not much, you should have seen me, I even just used telekinesis to finish them by the end from how easy it was,” she answered, ignoring her sister’s question.
“Yeah, sure.”
"Well, anyway, gotta check that armory."
Turns out the armory didn't have anything that interesting except for an enormous amount of grenades, gunpowder and other explosives that were miraculously not damaged by the shooting. Along with that, the two found a mounted scope for Luna's rifle that she took but didn't install yet as the only other object of interest.
“Last car in the back, you ready to go loud?”
“Always sister, bring it on. I haven’t use Trixie in a while. I’m sure she misses the action too,” said Luna whi,e mounting a bayonet on her rifle.
“You pick out the one in the back, I’ll take care of any that tries to use their fancy sword.”
A quick scan of the next wagon by Luna showed the cantina, or more like the barest minimum of an open kitchen next to a few tables. About fifteen people were in it, eating or relaxing. Celestia knew without looking that it was almost one in the afternoon, clearly they didn’t have any pressing matters to attend to, such as, for example, two sisters robbing them and killing them one car after the other.
At least they won't have much cover. Celestia once again kicked the door open, surprising the people inside. With her left hand, she deployed her telekinesis and threw the pots and pans from the stove to the middle of the room, burning a number of them.
Right after that, Luna arrived behind her sister, got down on one knee and fired three times. Three soldiers at the end of the carriage didn't have time to reach for their guns as they died.
Finally, Celestia fired once at the soldier closest to the two who had taken a sword but got it stuck under his seat.
Celestia went left and Luna rolled to the right, taking cover behind Celestia's latest victim. There she continued to take them down one by one. She fired two times before yelling to her sister: "Out!" And started reloading.
Celestia, on the other hand, shot down four more soldiers. Five soldiers but only two shots left. She couldn't get them stuck there without cover. Taking the initiative, Celestia moved up the car, fired her last bullet from her right hand gun to the soldier in front of her, his throat ripping open as he fell to the ground bleeding. She holstered her gun and picked the gurgling soldier's sword before charging to the other.
She visualized her plan, got two down with her newfound sword and shot the other two with one bullet.
Figuring she's gonna need more force to use the sword in full capacity, she immediately shot the farthest soldier but missed. Whatever, she put it back in its holster and took the sword in two hands. The soldiers in front of her seemed confident despite their obvious burn and dead comrade. With their swords and attacked her first. She dodged the first swing, blocked the second sword and crushed his nuts with her boot.
The soldier flinched and dropped his sword but before it could reach the floor, Celestia sent it flying to the other assailant who didn't see his death coming and finished the one in front of her with her own.
The last two soldiers were busy suppressing Luna and had avoided Celestia to not risk hitting their now dead friends. Celestia tried to close the gap between them but their attention was on her before she could do so and she tried evading the bullets as much as possible.
One of the shots passed through her left arm, sending Celestia flying to the ground. Luna took her opportunity to get back up and finish one of the two soldiers but the other one was already taking cover.
Celestia was on the ground, she took a second to get her thoughts straight before slowly getting up, angry. She never was much of a spellcaster, most of her magic was natural born and she never really tried to master it. She worked better on instinct anyway.
The soldier peeked behind his cover and wasn't immediately shot down by Luna, who just relaxed and cast some spells to protect herself from the heat. The soldier was scared as he saw Celestia rise, the blood from her arm burning a deep red. Celestia, now floating above the ground, whipped her arm and a rope of fiery blood went straight to the soldier's neck, burning through his flesh, decapitating him on the spot.
Celestia dropped to her knee after another second finally took back control as the metal around her stopped glowing red.
"Good job, do you need something for that wound?" gently asked Luna.
"No, I'll be fine," said Celestia, panting from exhaustion. "I just need a minute to cool down."
After a minute, both got back up, Celestia's wound was cauterized shut and it didn't hurt her anymore. It was unfortunately, one more scar on her body she'll have to cover.
The sisters walked through the car to the exit and opened the door to the outside and the open wagon to see a number of guns pointed their way. The Princess' protégé in the front, in a clean white and blue uniform, watched them closely.
"If that isn't the Sisters, been a minute since I've tasted this much magic in one place."
"Sunset Shimmer." Greeted Celestia and Luna at the same time. "I don't suppose you're here to offer us a brand new briefcase?" Continued Celestia.
"You don't know what you're playing with, you should leave while I give you the chance to."
"I don't think so, we did go through three wagons already and a number of your men to get it, we won't stop now."
"Love the new outfits by the way, cowboys and bandits? I preferred your dress from the gala, honestly."
"Don't be jealous, we tend to make anything work, not like you with that old uniform," remarked Luna.
"And I wear it proudly! Unlike you, I am proud of my nation and will serve and protect it from the likes of you until the end of my life!"
"Say what you want about her uniform, Lu, at least she's already ready to be put in a coffin."
Celestia raised her gun without warning and shot Sunset.
Author's Note
First chapter was written some time ago, pretty much wrote the entire thing to Starbound's ost "I was the Sun (before it was cool)" which used to also be the name of the fic funny enough.
