//------------------------------//
// 9 - Clear Cut 
// Story: Closing the Barn Door 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

"Just you and me, mutant." The heavily armored leader had his gun directed at stan, a sneer on his face. "The day I go down to a scrawny ghoul--"

He didn't get further than that, a presence behind him. A sword slid against his throat, sliding in from the side with precision, the other threatening to stab downwards at an angle through his armor. "Last words?" asked Skyline, but he didn't even bother to wait for a reply, carving the man up in a shower of life water across the wasteland dirt. "Doubt it was important."

Daffodil thumped a hoof down on the back of a struggling man, a sharp snap of her gun bringing that movement to an end. "I think that's all of them. Everypony alright?"

"Even us not-ponies." Stan let his gun fall back to hanging by its strap. "Where'd--oh." He had found Giddyup, over Applejack.

Giddyup's mouth was open, jaw hanging limply. He was nuzzling in at her side, perhaps a little desperately. A quiet beep sounded as his new system detected a living body, prompting a needle to spring out. He could see the numbers changing. He was losing healing serum, which was perfectly logical. He was using it, to help the injured child.

Twilight blew upwards as if to clear the thin trail of smoke coming from her well-used horn. "Applejack alright?"

"Wha? Ah'm fine," got out Applejack a bit groggily, eyes opening hesitantly as she was administered by the friendly robot. "Shoot... Done messed up." As soon as Giddyup drew back from her, she sat up and had a look around from there. "But it looks like we pulled through. Good job!"

Daffodil tucked her gun away, but her eyes were on Skyline. "You are something... else." She was watching him clean his blades of the mess they had accumulated. "No offense, but there's a lot going on in all of... that." She waved a hoof at the pony cyborg. "Do you even qualify as a pony?"

"I must." Skyline fell to all fours, his blades tucked away. "Giddyup said so, and he's an expert on horses."

"Are you well?" Giddyup was ambling up, inspecting all the children present, which was everyone that wasn't a robot in that grouping. "Were you injured?"

Daffodil pointed to the recovering Applejack. "She's the only one that got hit good. I stayed out of the way. This guy right here?" She resumed wagging a hoof at Skyline. "He dove into the thick end and came out with barely a scratch to show for it."

"It's that, or die." Skyline huffed as he began picking through the bodies. It was a fine time to start looting. "I don't do the ranged thing, so picking them off before they get to me isn't an option."

Stan twirled a needle he had found, the red fluid inside sloshing. "Found a treat for you." He soon had a robotic pony standing in front of him. "Who's a good medic?"

"I hope I have been. Please submit your rating." Giddyup nodded, confident in his logic, and entirely missing the joke.

Applejack snorted softly as she fetched her dropped revolver. "10/10, would recommend in any battlefield situation."

Giddyup emitted a joyful neigh even as Stan pushed the needle into his mouth. With a click, he began to drain it. A snap, and the main body of it fell away, the needle consumed to be used later. "Thank you. Needle supply restored." It was a triumph of efficiency with one needle used and one needle obtained. 

Twilight hopped up onto the log, which dissolved under her, dumping her to her rump. "Oof. Alright..." Well, the log had been shot, a lot... "Um, we did it?"

Stan nodded at that assessment. "We did, now let's find what they took from that town and get it back to 'em."

Skyline hiked a thumb a pony had no business having at the downed leader. "Do you want their armor?"

"Yer kiddin', right?" Stan was walking right past it. "Way too damn heavy. Nice, but ain't fer me. Any of you ponies want it? Have at."

Applejack hiked a brow at the offering. "That ain't sized right for a pony, an' walkin' 'round with a metal shell ain't much mah style. Daffodil?"

"Pass! Twi?" Daffodil waved at it, looking to Twilight.

"It makes me wish we had about a week." She stroked at her chin softly. "I could adjust it to give Giddyup some additional protection."

Giddyup let out a startled whinny. "You are a very talented repair engineer." He tapped at the dead man and his armor. "Can we take it until we have sufficient time for these modifications?"

"Ya don't want that." Stan shook his head, though was still heading down for the camp. "Ya won't look like a pony no more."

Twilight waved the objection away. "Pish Posh! I could make it look like barding, like horses wore in the old old old days! It'll be adorable!" She began to clop her hooves excitedly, visions of engineering bright in her mind.

Daffodil threw her hooves wide. "Is nopony going to comment on how you're all just casually talking about ripping a dead guy out of his suit, then wearing it? Because that's super gross." She had her tongue out a little, a blech of distaste coming. "Also I'm not helping peel it off him."

Applejack marched after Stan. "Yeah, gonna side with Daffodil on this. Ain't helpin' with that."

"Aw." Twilight deflated, left behind with a cooling body and armor she couldn't easily snatch. Something poked her snout. She recoiled, seeing it was a wrapped bit of food, Miss Aunt hovering there. "Thank you, but food isn't always the answer."

"Then you aren't using the right food," countered Miss Aunt, wagging the food at Twilight, but not forcing it on her. "I thought that was a nice idea, helping Giddyup like that. Poor innocent souls like him are in a lot of danger out here."

"Exactly!" Twilight tossed her head, but also stood up and got to trailing behind the others towards the camp. "At least you understand." 

Miss Aunt tucked the food away in the small container she had. "I worry for him at times. He's such a good boy, he'll get himself hurt trying to help other people."

"Like Applejack just did." Twilight set one hoof over her face, adjusting her glasses in the motion. "At least my horn amplifier worked!"

"That's nice, dear." Miss Aunt's desire to talk about weapons was a bit limited. "You're such a smart girl. Have you considered making some nice things with it?"

Twilight twisted an ear at Miss Aunt. "But I am? Oh, do you mean civil engineering?"

"That is one possibility." Miss Aunt hovered alongside Twilight smoothly across the uneven ground. "You seem to be skilled in biotechnology, at least the basics. You could help people live better and longer."

"Hm." Twilight sounded about as excited as Miss Aunt did to talk about the horn amplifier. "I'll consider it." That was not a very good lie. "But that requires a setup I don't have."

Their conversation died as they caught up with the others. Inside the camp was not an abandoned heap of loot waiting to be had. The injured, old, or just otherwise unable to fight were there, glaring at them. A clearly expecting mother had a dagger clenched tightly in a trembling hand.

"Well, shit." Stan considered the scene with an uncertain energy. "Couldn't just give us a win, could ya?"

"Who are you talking to?" Skyline advanced forwards, not at all bothered by the incapacitated humans. "Stay out of our way and nobody gets hurt that wasn't already hurt."

"Back off!" The heavy woman scrambled to her feet as Skyline just kept on coming closer. "I'll cut you!"

"No you won't." Skyline reached back, patting his sword on the left side. "Your boys are dead. Raiding's a tough business, didn't work out for them." He waved wide at nothing in particular. "And left you. Now you want to follow them to the great after, fine, do that, or you can walk out of here."

Applejack suddenly grabbed him, hoof on his shoulder, and yanked Skyline back. "What're ya doin'?! They didn't do nothin'."

Skyline raised a brow at her. "I though you were a wastelander. They're armed. They got their weapons out. If they want a fight, I will end it. What's the other sane option?"

An old man, propped up, his back against the metal of a building, began to laugh. He had a dagger, hanging limply from his weak grip. "Mutants are busy arguing over our sorry hides."

Stan shrugged softly. "Life's odd like that. Still, he's right." He hiked a thumb at Skyline. "Go on, get out of here. Ya just leave and we don't have a beef with ya. Make it a problem, and we'll fix that problem."

Miss Aunt let out a digital gasp at the sight of those that remained. "Horrible... I wish I could help." But those unfortunate souls were not hers to care for, and doing so... "You're not mine." She had assigned herself to Stan and Giddyup. "But are any of you hungry?"

An excited little noise that turned into a laugh emerged as a little boy rushed towards the friendly robot. "Do you have lots of guns?"

Miss Aunt swiveled in place to 'face' the boy, even if she really didn't have a facing if one thought about it. "I don't like fighting, little boy. But here's a snack." She produced the same snack she had offered to Twilight not long before. "Is that your mother?" There was a woman glaring daggers from the direction the boy had come from. "She looks upset. Tell her they're sugar free."

"Okay!" The boy, ignorant of the tension, went rushing back to inform his mom that the snack he was already halfway through devouring was, indeed, free of sugar, as if anyone there cared about that.

Skyline was not impeded as he began the process of looting. "Here we go." He set down a heavy water cooler filled to the brim with bottlecaps. "Probably taken from everywhere for miles in any direction. We can get that town its cash back and keep the rest."

Daffodil rolled a hoof in the air. "I don't owe humans a thing, but this is a bit much." Her eyes wandered over the defeated folk and Skyline casually looting them. "Can we at least leave them something to start over?"

Stan shrugged softly. "They haven't tried to stab us. I'm not against it." His hands were on his rifle despite that. Showing empathy, and showing weakness, did not have to be the same thing.

"Fine." Skyline buried a mechanical hand into the mess and threw out a great chunk of caps in a cone towards the survivors. "Here. Yours. Better luck next time. May I suggest not bandits?" He slapped the lid closed on the case, setting the latch firmly shut before hefting it onto his back. "Got the cash, we need anything else?"

"Reckon that's most of it... Giddyup?" The robotic pony turned quickly to Stan. "Check them out, see if any of 'em are hurt."

"Affirmative." Giddyup approached the first bandit survivor with clip-clop noises playing from inside him. "If you are injured, please inform me." Not that the request slowed him from inspecting the people he could. The children were the most amused by the big metal horse nosing and playing with them. The adults were far more sour about it, but Giddyup wasn't stabbed. He did more stabbing they did, delivering a kiss of healing to one man by the gate of the place.

The man roused with a sharp gasp. "W-what?! Holy hell!" He shoved Giddyup back, scrambling to his feet. "Where...what?" He had gone to sleep defending the gate against attackers. He had awoken to a whole new world. "Shit..."

Stan chuckled at the poor man's realization. "Been there, pal. Calm down and we'll fill you in."