//------------------------------// // 27 - Cast Out // Story: Closing the Barn Door // by David Silver //------------------------------// "We can't go." Twilight remained facing the shack, even if she wasn't reared up onto the windowsill anymore. She had withdrawn about twenty feet away from it. "Our friends are likely in danger." Applejack hiked a brow. "Whattaya mean? They're safer than you are, ain't they?" Daffodil snorted softly. "I could use some of 'that' danger right about now." Still, she was with them, a step up from the crying mess she had been not long before. Stan let out a suffering sigh. "I can already tell I'll probably hate whatever you say, but tell us." Twilight shrank a moment, but rebounded quickly. "Overmare Mare is unfit to lead. She's sacrificing too much, and for what gain? Security? Her security has never been lower, and she's actively undermining what little security she has. If we were as troublesome as she seems to think, us knowing where the vault is, which we do, is a critical flaw in her plan." Applejack smirked. "Not that we'd do much about it. Ain't gonna blow the door open. But we could." "Which is the problem!" Twilight thumped the dirt, dust kicking up. "Either we're trustworthy enough to not do that, or we are not. If we are, there is no reason to keep us out either. All they can do is watch. Overmare Mare is not behaving rationally, and I'm worried for all of our friends. They did nothing wrong, but will suffer if Overmare Mare continues on this irrational path." Stan shrugged softly. "If ya weren't, there's no reason to let any of you walk away, but I wasn't gonna brin' that up, ya know? Her plan got a few holes in it, but it lets us walk away without a fuss." Applejack peered at the hut suspiciously, as if it had done something wrong. "An' what's yer big idea? 'Sides walkin' away." Twilight sat down. "We attack." Aunt hovered closer on quiet flames. "Twilight, you usually have such clever ideas. That one doesn't sound like you." "What's the other option?" Twilight inclined her dangerous horn towards the hut. "We have the means. We can defeat the lock, get down, and demonstrate quite starkly how lacking the security is. Her bravado will falter when there isn't a wall between us." Stan chuckled softly. "Wow, called that in one... Now, see, I've been around the block, an' heard some stories while I was hikin'. People like that?" He hiked a thumb at the shack. "Once they fall off a cliff, talkin' them down is real tricky. They stopped listenin' to things like 'reason' or 'facts'. 'Bout the only way she'll pause is if you already got a sword to her neck or a gun to her face." Twilight cringed at each described final point. "Well... We do have both of those... I don't want to hurt her! I don't want to hurt anypony!" Skyline patted the blade at his hip. "Yeah, that ain't gonna happen. If we storm in there, people will get hurt. That isn't even optional. The least amount of people getting hurt is likely us, if they put us down before we hurt them. Unlikely... The guards won't call it quits until she does, or we have her pinned. Not blaming them, I'd be the same way back when I guarded the elders. That's being a good guard." Twilight scowled, but it seemed more at herself than anything around her. "There has to be a way... Stan!" She wheeled on him suddenly. "You are experienced. You've been around, by your own words. What do you recommend to safeguard as many ponies as possible?" Stan crouched down to match her level. "Are ya tryin' to hire me? I know you ain't got too many caps, and you need what you got to survive." He reached to pat Twilight and found no resistance in a gentle one-two of patting. "Yer real nice, heart in the right place." Twilight neither advanced nor retreated. "I am hiring you. Applejack, the funds." Applejack raised a brow. "Not to be a thorn, but y'aint got no rank on me no more. We don't belong to the vault. We're just two ponies in the wastes." Giddyup entered the conversation with a thrust nose between Applejack and Twilight. "You are still friends and members of this family. Please do not misbehave or I will inform Aunt of your inappropriate behavior." "And I would be very upset if I heard that." As if she hadn't heard what Giddyup had just said. Applejack pulled down the front of her hat. "Ah swear... 'Course she's still family. I couldn't jus' abandon her." Daffodil curled on herself and pulled out a mouthful of crisp bills. "Do you accept dollars?" Stan cringed at what was being offered. "Shoot... That ain't worth much these days. What a perfectly vaulter thin' to offer... Now I feel bad. Outside of a few vendin' machines, most of 'em broke or empty, ain't not much that cares about pre-war money... Maybe a collector if you keep it nice and fresh, ah guess..." Applejack hurried onto Daffodil. "Don't go insultin' him! Look, fine..." She curled, drawing a heavy bag from her saddlebag. "How much?" Stan held up his hands. "I just finished sayin' you little ponies need the caps more than me. Ah ain't gonna take what ya need for livin'. Giddyup wouldn't let me hear the end of it." "This is correct." Giddyup did not argue the logic. "We have sufficient funds currently." Applejack set the bag down. "Nuh uh. Yer owed for a trip ya jus' finished takin'. You already agreed to get paid for that, so I'm payin'. So there." Stan let out a slow rattle of air, but did reach for the bag, sifting through the bottlecaps. He counted out the amount the overmare had promised and not a cap more. "The rest is still yours." He moved to stand, but found Skyline getting close and personal. "Need somethin'?" "I want to be paid too." He looked at the still burdened bag. "Only fair..." Applejack frowned. "A fellow pony, doin' us dirty like that..." "Hey." He returned the scowl. "Hey! I'm going to take you to my village. Lots of friendly ponies, safe, secure." Daffodil swallowed thickly. "Are they... um..." "Like me? No." Skyline looked bitter at the reply. "Nice and normal. Pegasi and earth ponies, mostly, a few unicorns to round it out. I don't even live there anymore. I'm a waster now. They're tribals. If you bring knowledge with you, they'll love you." Applejack nudged at the bag with the back of her hoof. "Well, ah ain't the overmare, but you did yer part, so if I can put right a little wrong..." "Nah." Applejack raised a brow. "You jus' asked fer it." "I was seeing if you'd only loosen the coinpurse when you wanted something." He swatted the bag with a wing, knocking it back towards Applejack. "Keep your caps. I'd rather take them from that Overmare." He turned to Stan. "Alright, how do we do this?" Stan chuckled softly. "I like the way you go, sometimes. Twilight?" "Hm?" She perked at her name being called. "Yes?" "Tell me you can make electronics go off with that horn of yers." He waggled a few fingers at that jutting length of alicorn. "If so, got a plan. Even better if it don't hurt the electronics longterm." Twilight peeked up at her horn as it began to glow. "You want me to temporarily disable them? I... can do that, yes." Daffodil raised a brow. "And you didn't just zap all the robots in the way before... why?" "Because I can doesn't mean it's easy. How many things do you want turned off? Hopefully just one or two things... Close together ideally." She brought up her hooves close together. "More than that and we're out of luck." "Perfect." He hiked a thumb at the hut. "I want you to sneak up quietly until you can see the camera and knock it out. They'll get real nervous, maybe send someone up to fix it, or at least have a look at it..." Skyline snapped metal fingers. "I like the way you're going! The rest of us will be ready to ambush, right?" "Not right away!" Stan pushed that thought towards the ground. "We do that a few times, get them used to it happenin', and never seein' us. Only after that do we strike. They'll be bored, thinkin' it's just a glitch or whatever. The first time, they're going to be on high alert, expectin' trouble." Applejack tilted her hat back with a cocky smile. "Brilliant. Twi, you up fer that?" Twilight's horn glowed with potential. "I've fixed that camera a few times myself. I know exactly how to disable it without harming it. I'm on the case." She started to stalk forward. Just to be caught off by Daffodil. "He didn't say to go. We paid him for advice, let's listen." "Thanks for that. Let the rest of us get out of sight. Do you need to be close to keep it off?" Stan was already looking around for good hiding places. "We won't go too far, jus' in case. Don't want you alone." "Right..." Twilight swallowed nervously. "But this is worth it, for them... Those are our friends and family in there. I can't... Anyway! I need to have my eyes on it to start, but once I start, I can move away, even out of sight. Hm, 20'sh meters? That's an approximation. I never tested for an exact value." She took an unsure step back towards the others. "That includes Overmare Mare... She's been a friend for so long. Even if this is a terrible idea, she's a good pony under this... Please try not to hurt her." Daffodil stomped at the ground. "I won't promise I won't be awful tempted to slug her across her snout if I get the chance... Kicking me out like that! I did everything she asked..." Applejack hiked a brow. "Put those aside fer now. We gotta get in, and get to her without leavin' innocent ponies in a heap behind us. Stan?" "There." Stan pointed to a thick bush not too far from the hut. "Looks like you trim the bushes right next to the hut, smart. Can you get to there, hide, and keep the camera off? If it helps, with the camera off, they won't hear or see anything until they come up to look at it." Skyline peered at the hut suspiciously. "Are you sure that's the only camera?" "What?" Twilight turned to him with obvious confusion. "That's the only camera I'm aware of." "If you can put one, you can put two," reasoned the waster mercenary. "Are you sure that's the only one?" Stan applied a hand to his forehead. "More importantly, can you find out if there is one hiding? Good call, Skyline. Didn't even think of that." "I... think so. Alright, with your leave, I'll get in close and try to sweep for any other monitoring devices. Where will you all be?" Stan pointed to the tree line. "I say we make a nice obvious show of leaving. No secrecy, just walk. We have nothing to hide, right? It does mean you'll have to be sneakier getting back in close, Twilight. You up for that?" "There are blind spots in that camera... But there could be another camera." She nervously stepped in place. "At night. They aren't night vision. I'll come at night, quietly, and see what I can see. Fortunately, the magic I'll be using for detection is not visually limited." The party set off, robots, ponies, and a human. They didn't try to hide that they were there. The ponies watching from the shack already knew they were there, after all. They were just going off to do whatever people did in the wastelands. Probably involved dying miserably, even more likely at each other's hooves. Wastelanders were like that.