Gilda CYOA part 2

(CHAPTER 2)

>The journey to the train tracks is fairly uneventful

>A nice change of pace to not be fighting for your life for a bit.

>Not that you'd let anyone know that. You had a reputation to maintain after all.

>You frowned. Well... you did. But then you basically threw your life into the gutter when you started drinking.

>Despite all that's happened, on the whole you feel better about yourself than you have in the past few months.

>You're working towards a goal, and most importantly you're not doing it alone.

>You gag a little at that thought. You're still having trouble getting used to that idea.

"You okay there dearie?" Sue looked a bit concerned for you

>You turn your gag into a cough, trying to mask it. "Nothing- *cough* just got something stuck in my throat." You wave her off.

>It's not that you're unthankful for their worry...

>It's just not that easy to get used to it though.

 

>By the time you reach the tracks, Celestia has already brought the sun over the horizon.

>You can tell that your travelling companions are close to their last legs.

>You don't think Clyde and Sue have even slept since you set out from their house yesterday morning.

>And Homely? Well, he looks like the kind of pony that doesn't really get out much.

"Fi-hi-hiiinally" Homely says, collapsing onto the ground.

>You look at him and shake your head. "I'm pretty sure if we had decided to walk to Ponyville Homely's heart would've stopped." You chuckle.

"Well, I still think this is pretty foolish..." Clyde grumbles. "Have any bright ideas for how we're going to do this? 

>"Nothing too complex really." You shrug, "I was planning on just picking you guys up and flying alongside until we find someplace good to board."

"What, you're gonna carry us all at once?" Clyde raises his eyebrows with incredulity.

>You scratch the back of your head, "Well... it'd probably have to be one at a time."

"What if we try to wave and get their attention?" Sue adds, "If we can get the conductor to see us, he might slow down for us!" She closes with a smile.

>You're a bit skeptical of this, but hey, you don't know how ponies think. This could work.

"Why don't we try to find a bend?" Homely suggests. "Gilda here could fly alongside and pull open a cargo boxcar, and when the train slows down enough for the turn we can all jump in."

>You frown. You have no idea what, if any of these ideas, are good. You're not very familiar with trains. The only reason you think you can even fly as fast as one is because one time Rainbow Dash told you about how she did it on a dare and it was easy.

>But you better decide soon so you can have much time to get ready.

 

A. Go with your plan

B. Go with Sue's plan

C. Go with Homely's plan

(C was chosen)

 

>You think for a moment. "Homely has a good point." You see he pumps a hoof at hearing this. You roll your eyes. "Probably the least likely for anyone to get hurt, and we don't even know if they'd actually stop for us if we tried Sue's plan."

>Everypony nods. Clyde mentions he remembers a hill the train has to climb before turning for a straightaway to go under Canterlot mountain. You agree that spot makes the most sense.

>Arriving, you quickly lay out the roles. Once the train is spotted you are going to fly alongside until you find a suitable boxcar you can open. The ponies will be at the middle of the hill and start running up when the train starts ascending and slowing down, preparing to turn. You'll have landed inside and help Sue on first, then Homely, and then Clyde. Until then, you get to rest your weary legs.

 

>You don't long to wait however. A muted whistle blows in the distance, and everyone turns their heads. You can see the smoke rising from the train in the distance.

>"Everyone ready?" you ask.

"As I'll ever be." Cylde sighs.

"Oh cheer up you sourpuss. Just pretend we're those famous pony robbers! You know, Bonnie and Clydesdale! You've almost got his name anyway!" Sue says happily.

"Bonnie was a cow honey."

"Oh who's keeping track anyway." Sue said, poking Clyde with a playful hoof.

>You shake your head to focus on the train. Too much of that lovey dovey stuff made you sick anyway.

"Probably want to get into position Gilda." Homely adds.

>"I know, I'm going." With that you take off. You lazily climb to a good high futher down the track. Just in case the train was going faster than your normal flight speed, you planned to use a bit of a freefall assisted boost.

>Scanning the train you see the passenger cars in the front, and then what you're pretty sure are the boxcars in the back.

>You don't have to wait long before the front of the train passes under you. "Steady..." you murmur under your breath.

>"...NOW!" You yell at yourself, diving towards the train.

>You accelerate so quickly your eyes start to water. You see the train coming up on you and level out.

>You smile, you're actually going a bit faster than the train right now, if it slows down it'll be a cinch to get everyone on.

>You spy a handle on the side of one of the boxcars and latch onto it. You slowly and carefully tilt your wings to create drag to open the door.

>Unfortunately you catch an air pocket in one wing and it unfurls completely.

>"Ffffeathers!" You shout as your wing jerks backwards. You're gonna feel that one in the morning.

>On the positive side, your sudden deceleration yanks open the door completely, and you quickly pull yourself inside.

>Once inside you carefully tuck your wing into your body, you can see a few feathers are sticking out at odd angles, but you don't have time to worry about that right now.

>You turn to see that the ponies are already running alongside the train ahead of you.

>You can't see it from your angle, but you're pretty sure the curve should be coming up shortly.

>Sure enough, you feel the train start to slow and tilt to one side. You look around the compartment quickly, and aside from seeing a bunch of luggage, you spy some rope used to secure it.

>You quickly grab some and curl it around one of your shoulders.

"Gilda!" you hear called from outside the car.

>Rushing back to the open door you see the ponies have come much closer to your car. You frown, you thought the train would have slowed down more than this.

>"Here!" You shout back. You quickly tie one side of the rope onto the closest metal pole you find. You toss the other end out the door and grab onto the middle. "Grab on!"

The ponies turn their heads and see the rope. Sue immediately latches on with her teeth, and you quickly reel her in without much trouble.

>Once you have her inside you toss the rope out once more at Homely. Homely looks upwards at the rope, opens his mouth

>And trips.

"Buck!" you hear him shout as he stumbles.

>Before you have the chance to do anything however, Clyde runs up behind him and in one impossibly fluid motion scoops Homely up on his back and latches onto the rope.

"HHrrnnn!" He yells.

>You have no idea what he said, but the meaning is clear enough. You and Sue yank on the rope, and send Clyde and Homely flying through the air to collapse on a heap inside the train.

>Clyde stands up, straightens his hat, and strikes what you think is supposed to be a pose.

"Still got it." he nods to himself.

>"I'll admit, that was the coolest thing I've seen all day. Aside from the pose. Where the heck did you learn to move like that?"

He smirks at you, "You learn a few tricks here and there raising three daughters."

>You feel like that didn't really answer your question, but you also feel that's all you're gonna get out of the stallion.

"Everyone alright?" Sue asks, trotting over to Homely, who is still crumpled in a heap.

"I'll... I'll be... okay." Homely says in-between wheezes.

>"Do you think they noticed us getti-"

"STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!"

>You turn to see a pegasus in armor staring at all of you.

>"Well that answers that..." quickly, you decide to

 

A. Reason with the royal guard.

B. Knock him out. Easier than explaining anything.

C. Make something up.

(A was chosen)

 

>As much as you want to sock this pony in the face, that would only lead to trouble. If you were alone you'd probably take that route, but you're not alone.

>"Look, I know this looks bad, but I promise you that is a perfectly reasonable explanation for why we're here."

>The guard raises his eyebrow.

"Really? Because it looks to me like we have a train robbery occurring here."

>You sigh, "Look, we're on the run from a bunch of ponies who are trying to kill me and we need to get to Ponyville to talk to the Elements of Harmony."

He looks out of the train to the plains. "I don't see any ponies chasing you. Any why would the Elements of Harmony care what you have to say?"

"Because Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter, ya know? She's my daughter." Clyde buts in, waving his hoof around vaguely.

"And Prince Blueblood is my Uncle."

"Really?" Sue asks.

"No."

>Sue and Clyde frown in sync.

>The guard clears his throat.

"All I see right now is you all trying to get out of trouble after they've been caught. Now you can either come peacefully, or I will be forced to restrain you."

>You frown this doesn't seem to be getting anywhere.

>A hoof jabs you in the side.

"Psst." Homely whispers. "Let me handle this, I got an idea."

>On the one talon you could surrender, and then prove your innocence once you get to Ponyville.

>On the other talon, you could tackle the stallion and try to subdue him. You glance over at the rope, still within reach.

>Or you could let Homely try his idea. He is 2 for 2 right now after all.

 

A. Surrender

B. Tie up the guard

C. Let Homely handle it

(C was choesn)

 

>You give a slight nod to Homely. He looks pretty confident, which is already an unusual sight in itself.

>He slowly and carefully turns towards the guard.

"Uh, sir?" He waves to get the guards attention.

"What."

"I think we got off on the wrong hoof here. We can say we're not robbers all we want, and you can say we are, but we can't really prove anything until we get to Ponyville. You get me?"

>The guard narrows his eyes at him.

"Your point?"

"Well, the way I see it, you want to make sure we don't do anything bad? And we want to make sure we get to Ponyville and not arrested and dumped at Canterlot."

>You recognized this now. Homely was switching into his 'business' voice. Normally he was a quiet and sort of meek stallion, but when he was trying to sell something. His personality did a complete 180.

"So we'll sit and be quiet and you can watch us and once we get to Ponyville we can prove we are telling the truth."

"And what makes you think I'm willing to trust you?"

>Homely laughs boisterously at this.

"Simple my friend! A gesture of good faith of course."

>And with a flourish all of a sudden a bag appears in his hooves. He gives it a small shake and the bag jingles. You're not quite sure where he was possibly hiding that, but then you realize something.

>Your eyes nearly bug out of your head.

>Was he really?

>Was he really this stupid?

>Was Homely really trying to ~bribe~ a royal guard?

>You started to sweat. That may work on the guardsponies in Trotston and Baltimare, but on Celestia's proudest?

>The guard looks at Homely, at the bag, and back to Homely. Slowly but surely, his hand slowly goes to reach for the bag.

>For a moment you can't believe it worked.

>For a moment...

>The guard suddenly grabs hold of Homely's forearm and flips him over faster than you can blink, scattering bits everywhere. The guard lets out a shrill whistle so loud you cringe slightly.

"You have the right to remain silent!" The guard shouts as he pulls out shackles from seemingly nowhere to clasp them on Homely.

>One day you've gotta figure out how they do that.

>"That was your brilliant idea?!" You yell at Homely.

"Give yourselves up," The stallion says, standing tall now. "The other guards are on their way now."

>You look at Clyde and Sue. You can tell they are really hesitant to do anything against a royal guard. Surrendering would definitely make their lives easier.

>But this is your life at stake. You're making the final call, and you know they'll respect whichever choice you make.

 

A. Surrender

B. Resist

(A was chosen)

 

>You raise up your talons in a sign of surrender. "Alright alright, look, we'll come with you. Calm down."

>He eyes you warily, unsure if you're planning something. You try to appear as relaxed as possible.

"Alright..." he sighs, It almost seems like he wanted you to resist arrest. "Once the other guards get here we'll put you in shackles and escort you to the caboose."

>"The caboose? What's in the caboose?"

"Where the guards reside when we aren't patrolling the train."

>You can't really tell if that's odd or not, so you shrug and sit there.

>It isn't long before two other guard ponies enter the car. A big earth pony and an even bigger unicorn. You're a bit glad you decided to go quietly. Fighting those two would've been a pain in the tail.

"Shimmerwing, report." The unicorn booms.

"Sir!" The pegasus salutes. "I heard some strange noises during my patrol, and upon investigation I discovered these robbers sir!"

>"We didn't rob anything!" You say angrily.

"Silence!" He barks at you.

>You glare at him. "Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty..." you mutter.

>That gets you another glare from the guard, but he at least doesn't have a comeback.

>The massive unicorn looks the group over. He motions for his subordinate to shut the door, and his horn glows for a moment.

>Three more shackles pop into existence. You grumble as one is placed on you, but you don't resist.

>You're trying to be civil.

>For once.

>You can't say you like the results it's gotten you so far. Your way is usually so much easier. Not to mention more fun.

>The unicorn takes place at the front, the four of you in the middle, and Shimmerwing and the other pony take up the rear.

>He starts leading you through the other carriages towards the back of the train.

>Thankfully the boxcar you had gotten on was already near the back, but there were still a few passenger cars you

had to go through.

>It was a bit unnerving being stared at after what you had been through.

>Every pair of eyes that locked onto you you had to wonder.

>Did they just want to stare? Or did they recognize you?

>If they recognized you, was it from some chance meeting? Or because they had been told what you looked like.

>Could there by any knights here? Word hopefully wouldn't have spread yet, but...

>Now that the thought had entered your mind you couldn't get it out.

"Mommy what's going on? Who are they?"

"Oh my..."

"Is that a griffon?"

>If there was one thing you absolutely hated, it was being humiliated. And this was pretty high up there on the humiliation list.

>But you had made your choice and you were sticking to it.

 

>After what seemed like an eternity you make it to the caboose. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes but...

*Thud*

>The sudden noise shocks you out of your thoughts. The unicorn has sat down in front of you, and is looking you over with an unimpressed stare.

>You grimace. You really hated these personality types. He was already looking down on you, and that had a tendency to get your temper flaring.

"Sooooo..." he drawls. "Care to tell me why exactly you are on ~my~ train?"

>'my train' you mouth to yourself...

"Well you see, it all started-"

>You're about to give your best possible death glare at Homely, you think he's already 'helped' enough in this situation when the unicorn booms out.

"I was not asking youuu..." He motions towards you. "I was asking her."

>You narrow your eyes, you're not sure if he thinks you're the most likely to implicate yourself for something or what, but you wonder if it's best to tell this pony the truth. You already tried to tell Shimmerwing the truth and he didn't buy it. Maybe you could emphasize a certain part of your story to make him focus on that?

 

A. Tell the whole truth.

B. Talk about how a bunch of ponies tried to kill you.

C. Talk about how there's this weird cult and the Elements might be in danger.

(A was chosen)

 

>You look behind you. "You may want to all sit down. This is going to take a while."

>You take a deep breath... and you start.

>You start at the beginning. The ~real~ beginning. How you went to Ponyville to visit dash, voices were raised, and you left angrily. How you ended up in Trotston, how you fell into a rut. How these ponies starting showing up in town. The grey unicorn the night before...

>You shudder for a moment.

>But just a moment.

>The grave.

>The grave, the mountains, the endless plains streching before you. The sheer terror and panic you felt.

>The flight, the Pies, the journey back to Trotston, meeting Homely, your freakout (although you do try to downplay it as much as possible), the fight outside the bar, the chase, the boring long walk to Ponyville, and finally, the train.

 

>Without warning the earth pony guard bursts out laughing.

"Hooo my..." He says, wiping a tear from his eye. "I haven't heard a more elaborate try to get out of trouble in a long time."

>You spend your time glaring at him imagining squishing his stupid little head in your talons and just how satisfying that woul-

"I'm not... so sureee." The deep voice of the unicorn draws you out of your fantasy.

"W-what?" The stallion cries, "Sir, you can't possibly believe-"

>The unicorn simply raises a hoof for silence. He motions to Clyde and Sue.

"You claim to be the parents of the Element of Laughter, Pinkie Pie?"

"Shoot, I don't need to claim nothing, we ARE her parents. If you let us go to see her then we can show you." Sue says, matching his intent stare, not backing down an inch.

>You have to admit you didn't expect much out of Clyde or Sue when you first met them, but you suppose being related to a pony who can do the impossible on a day to day basis, you figure you shouldn't be that surprised.

"Hmmmmmm. I don't know if I would say I believe youuu... But I also don't believe you're creative enough to make that up."

>You grin... for a moment. "Hey!"

>The unicorn vibrates as he laughs at your reaction.

"I was originally going to take you to Canterlot... but now I want to see how this plays out personallyyy... a little detour and delay would be well worth seeing if you are in fact telling the truth."

>You would pump your talons in the air and cheer, but the shackles made that a bit hard at the moment. Small price to pay for finally getting to where you were going.

>He stands up and stretches his body, you can almost see his heart working furiously to try to pump blood to his extremities again.

"Well, I believe that is enough of that. For now you will stay here, and Shimmerwing will watch you. I pray to Celestia that you are telling the truth, for if you are nooot..."

>He turns his head back and forth, cracking his neck in multiple places. You hear Homely gulp behind you. You simply nod. You have no reason to be afraid. After all, that ~was~ the truth.

>The rest of the journey thankfully passes in uneventful, and mostly uncomfortable silence. With Shimmerwing watching you while the other two ponies kept alternating patrols, any attempt at talking would be instantly met with a cold glare from Shimmerwing.

>You almost wished for the exciting parts where your life was in danger again. Nothing was worse than this.

>Sighing, you shut your eyes. Might as well get some rest in while you can. Who knows when, or if, you're going to get the chance later.

>And with that, you fall asleep.