Closing the Barn Door

by David Silver

10 - Survival

The man was confused, angry, but also unarmed and badly outgunned in terms of people ready and able to mount any real fight. "You killed... all my friends."

Skyline scowled at the man making this realization. "You would have done it to us without a blink, and you know it."

Applejack shrugged softly. "Now, don't be like that. They were plenty happy just takin' everythin' from folks."

Daffodil snorted in an equine way, wandering off. "Not sure that's a lot better, considering."

Stan hiked a thumb at the survivors. "Since you're still breathin', you can help your, uh, community. They need someone to lead 'em, and yer the only one around fer the job."

"Ah ha!" Twilight's horn was glowing as she pulled free a box of stimpacks, about six of them in a pile that she soon hovered into the air. "How full are you, Giddyup?"

"83%," he reported, craning his head at his last patient. "They required a considerable volume for proper treatment. " He clip-clopped in front of Twilight and the needles she had available. His jaw fell limp, revealing his 'mouth'. Twilight was perfectly happy to start feeding them to the robot.

Stan held up a hand at the sight. "Save one of those, give it to 'em." He waved at the motely group left. "They may need it."

Applejack tipped her hat at Stan. "Now that's just a right neighborly thing to do." She grabbed one of the floating needles with a snap of her mouth and brought it over to the still cowering people. "Here ya go, hope ya never actually need it. Now, ya should get movin'."

"Come on." The guard was recovering perhaps, enough to start shepherding his people away from the victors of that battle. "Let's get out of here."

The bandit camp was emptied of valuables, and people, just another abandoned ramshackle settlement dotting the wastes. It also ceased to be their problem as they headed back to the town that had hired them. "Humans are very violent," noted Twilight as they went. "Even the ones that aren't assigned that as a task."

Applejack laughed at her friend's observation. "Sure is easy to say that, being a vault dweller an' all. Bet ponies..." She trailed off, looking at Skyline as he marched. "Huh, suppose ah don't need to bet."

Skyline turned a tufted ear on Applejack with a fresh frown. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothin'!" A moment of quiet. "But ya do make a mighty fine example that even a pony can get real violent if they're in the right situation." Applejack looked perhaps a shade too smug about that.

"As if you didn't fight." Skyline clenched one of his sword's hilts as he walked. "You ended life as well as I did."

"Can't rightly argue that." Applejack shrugged softly. "An innocent snowflake ah ain't." She looked to Daffodil on her other side. "How ya holdin' up? Ya ain't a wastelander."

"The stable's counting on us," Daffodil huffed out with a lash of her tail. "And we're getting it done... even with a little detour... And we weren't as awful as humans can be." She glanced back at the abandoned settlement. "At least we gave them something to restart with."

"After--" Twilight leaned in around Daffodil from past her. "--we made that required. Just to be accurate." She pulled herself upright and instead focused on the robots. "How are you two holding up?"

Giddyup emitted a joyful neigh. "Thank you for asking. 94% capacity. All systems report functioning. Fuel not in need of replacement." A brief pause. "Eight needles."

Miss Aunt laughed gently. "I think our little friend was asking how we felt more than requesting a full diagnostic."

"Is this true?" Giddyup had his eyes focused on Twilight for the truth of things.

"Would you be upset if I said I was open for either?" Twilight nodded in satisfaction. "I'm glad to hear you're in physical working order. How are you feeling?"

"I'm doing just fine," assured Miss Aunt. "But it's almost lunch time for all of you." All of you not including the not-eating robots, of course. "I'm very proud you did right by that town, and weren't completely mean to the people who did it."

Giddyup nodded firmly. "That mission was executed well. Our supplies are now filled." Well, technically, Giddyup was the full one, his metal frame crammed with all the rations they could find. "They could have been adored."

Twilight blinked softly. "That's a sudden side topic. Who could have been adored, by who?"

Giddyup snorted softly. "The bandits could have served as a policing and guard unit and been paid instead of disliked. Why did they not do that?"

Stan threw up a hand. "Well, shoot, there ya go askin' the real questions now ain'tcha? Reckon they could have, but that'd take some doin', and it's faster to just take what ya want and worry 'bout it later. Always later, until it's way too late. Ya get used to how thin's are."

Daffodil frowned softly. "Or, just a crazy idea, but maybe they were a bunch of drug addled jerks that took the easy way out until it took them out. The end."

Applejack swatted at her ally. "Cut that out. We all got our situations an' whatnot. Tryin' to survive out here. Now, they were deservin' what they got, ain't gonna argue. But ah can't rightly say what got 'em where they ended up."

Philosophies were interrupted by lunch. Neither of their automatons would let them skip that.

One lunch and a fair bit of hiking later, the town they had started with came into view, but just as they saw the town, the town saw them. Curious souls emerged from their houses, hope perhaps in their eyes. One of them, a man, nodded upwards as they came closer. "Yer back, and yer not dead. So... ya won, or comin' to tell us ya gave up?" The muttering implied that neither outcome would have been hard to believe in the end.

Twilight raised a hoof. "Before we announce that, we need to know exactly what was stolen from you."

"In caps," added Stan hastily. "Have a feelin' ya didn't really count everythin' else. Anyway, we beat 'em. Their place is just sittin' there if ya want to loot it, but that's a hike."

Joy rippled through the town in a muted wave. More people came into view. Life was returning with no real fanfare. There was work to do, and it was less dangerous to do it. "Had a good feeling about you." The older matron was in her window, watching them. "Good thing too. They called me a nutter for giving this job to a bunch of waste mutants, but who's laughing now?" She laughed, just to drive that point home. "Now, ya got the stuff? We're a bit low on food and caps since they went and took it all!"

Giddyup turned to present his side as a service hatch opened. A food packet dropped free to the dirt, so much stuffed into him. "We request sufficient supplies to continue."

Miss Aunt hurried up with a fwoosh of flames, grabbing the dropped packet and bringing it to the elderly lady. "Here you are. We found plenty of those bottlecaps too. Do people really trade for those?"

"They do." She took the packet. "Not one of ours, but food's food." She tucked it away there inside the house. "Give me about twenty more of those and two hundred caps and we can figure out the rest."

So the trade was made, leaving the local heroes with plenty more of their own, though Giddyup could move more easily with things not quite as packed in there. The elder nodded at them. "You brought a smile on this side of the wastes. Too much to ask, I know, but if you can lend a hand... hoof? Lend whatever you got to other people in a bind? It'd be real nice knowin' people are out there, making a difference like that."

Applejack tipped her hat. "Aw shucks, glad we could make a few days. The bandits shouldn't cause no trouble no more fer quite a while."

"Until the next batch," sighed Stan. "But that ain't our problem, and it ain't yours, fer a while. Good luck." They moved to resume their journey, to find a child intercepting them, cutting in front of Twilight with a big grin.

Twilight perked an ear at the small immature human. "Hello?"

"Hi!" eagerly greeted the small boy. With greetings clearly out of the way, he grabbed Twilight by the snout, squeezing as he giggled, clearly approving of the horse thing he was holding. "You're a nice color."

"Fank you," Twilight got out, words muffled by the small hands grabbing her. "Leggo, please."

Applejack easily shoved her head under the boy, lifting up to drop him right on her back. "Now be easy on her. She's a delicate little thin'."

"Not like you." He grabbed her ears as if they were the proper way to control a horse's movement. "Bet you're a tough horsie!"

Applejack winced at the rough treatment. "Like to think that's true, but yer a bit much ta handle, gonna have to admit.

Just as suddenly, there wasn't a boy on her back. Miss Aunt had snatched up the eager child and set them down away from the fluffy ponies. "Your father looks like he wants to talk to you."

The boy looked in the direction Aunt had directed, to see his father glaring. "Uh oh... Um..." And off he went, scrambling to avoid any further punishments for rushing out to say hello to the mutants.

"What a delightful child. Now that we've finished that task." Aunt floated along, easily matching the pace of the others. "How far do we need to go to get to your home?"

Applejack pointed ahead. "Just a few days, really. If it did not sidetrack us, we'd already be there! But ah'm still glad we did. These folks needed our help somethin' awful."

Twilight was rubbing where she had been grabbed and squeezed. "Are young humans always so... violent?"

Stan laughed at that. "That weren't violent. That was just careless affection. Figure he loved all the ponies he could see here."

"He didn't grab me," noted Skyline with a raised brow. "Was that a male or female human?"

"Once in a while," sighed Stan. "You remind me that you're really not from 'round these parts. They were too young for that the matter much, but that was a boy. Maybe he likes girl horses, or maybe he just didn't rush the one that's so armed." A finger waggle at the swords worn on either side of Skyline. "Can't blame him too much. Twilight was the least dangerous atta glance, ya know?"

"Shoot, ah got a gun." Applejack tossed her head at the dangling side iron. "But ah grabbed him, not the other way 'round, at least to start, so can't really blame 'em fer goin' for me second."

Daffodil folded her ears back. "My ears still sting just from what I saw. Are you alright, AJ? That little monster was just..."

"Jus' acting like any young varmint'll do," chuckled out Applejack. "As if a foal won't go right fer an ear if they think they can get away with it? The more it wiggles, the better." She showed no ire for being the child's target of rough play. "Considerin' their parents don't even got wriggly ears, no wonder he was so eager to play with mine. Poor human foals."

Stan slapped one hand against the other, dusting off dirt that hadn't collected. "Well, sidestep or not, we can't say it was a waste. We came out of it wit' plenty ah caps an' supplies. Ah, speakin' ah that. We split it even. That fair right." The ponies nodded with hesitation, accepting the offer.

Miss Aunt raised a grasper. "I appreciate the thought, but I will surrender my portion. I didn't take part in the battle, nor wished to."

Author's Note:

Victory completed, karma earned, with a lot of caps and supplies. What's to complain about? Now, we were doin' somethin', right?

Join the special community of folks who like my stories and/or get your own written here at atreon!

Join my discord to chat!

Comments

[Booster Spice]

I really hope Miss Aunt makes it through. Will be sad to see her taken out by a mutant Deathclaw falling from the sky due to a ground clip glitch.

[tsaukpaetra]

Meanwhile the stable must be wondering why the Giddyup unit stopped pinging... 😇