Closing the Barn Door

by David Silver

23 - Shots in the Hills

Stan stared down along the iron sight of his gun. "I know I saw you..." He trailed slowly across the tree line. "And you aren't patient." Of all the words he'd use for a bandit, that wasn't one of them.

A flash of movement caught his attention, whipping his rifle towards it, but it was gone. Behind a tree? "We all know how this ends... Let's get it over with..."

Applejack arrived at the tree Giddyup and Skyline were next to. "Alright over here?"

Giddyup raised up to his full height as a needle fell free of his mouth and it snapped shut. "Medical attention administered."

"Thanks." Skyline rolled to his left until his hooves were under himself. "But this isn't over. Shoot, I was sloppy."

Applejack smirked softly as she tipped her hat. "Been there. Easy ta think bandits ain't much a threat after all the other nonsense, but they got guns, and they hurt, so let's keep our wits about us."

A shot rang out, and not from Stan's direction. They all dove for cover, except Giddyup, who watched with the unblinking gaze of an automaton as a sizeable chunk of that same tree exploded in an uneven piece away from the rest. "Location identified." He turned in the direction the bullet had come from.

Applejack clenched on the gun in her mouth. "Thanks kindly, now get to cover!" She and Skyline darted forward.

Aunt swiveled in place, but remained near Stan. "I want to help, I do... but this is all new to me."

"Ain't nothin' to be 'shamed of there." Stan slowly pivoted his sight in search of his target. "We're all new, 'til we're not. 'Sides, right appreciate you guarding my back and sides."

"Really?" Aunt's voice took an upturn. She was helping. "I won't let any of those ruffians bother you, sir."

"Countin' on ya." Stan was, perhaps, not entirely counting on her, but having someone around wasn't a bad thing. "There ya are." He squeezed the trigger, pointing with an index finger along the gun as he fired. The bullet was pushed out at faster than the speed of sound, causing a great bang as sonic booms rippled outwards from it not once but in rapid succession in its rough shoving of the air aside for its speedy travel.

If the bandit wasn't already diving behind a tree, it would have struck, Stan felt certain as he cursed its arrival in the thick trunk of a tree instead of the soft flesh of a man that deserved it. "Know where you are..." He kept his aim steady on the tree, waiting for any figure to emerge.

Applejack skidded around the side of the same tree, revolver raised in her mouth. "Stop right there!" But they didn't stop. They never stopped. One might wonder why one asked. The bandit fled her and collapsed to the ground a few feet away. It wasn't until a few seconds later that the snap of Stan's shot reached her ears. "Oh." That explained that. He didn't look like he had just stumbled or something, just flopping limply as he did. "Told ya to stop..."

Several pops of smaller arms reached her as the surrounding ground exploded in puffs. She was being shot at, more than once by the look of it. "Shoot!" She scrambled around the tree for a more covered spot. "There's more than one of 'em!"

Skyline didn't respond verbally, nor charge straight in. Skyline was up in the trees, jumping from one set of branches to the next with his great bat-like wings carrying him the extra distance. He couldn't fly, just like the pegasi, but he could drift and extend the airtime with a skill no human athlete could match. He could see at least one target, firing a bit wildly with a pistol.

He decided against dropping on them, instead coming closer from above in great leaps. "You have friends," he muttered to himself as he went, arriving just over the guy's head. The bandit wasn't looking up at him, or up in general. Most people didn't if they weren't given a reason to. Pegasi and whatever he was, things with things. They had a reason to look up, often. Was it nice living in a simple two dimensional world much of the time?

The bandit glanced to their right. Skyline followed that line to two others that were facing the same direction and helping to kick up the fury around where Applejack had been. Three bandits. He could trust Applejack to one of them. With long leaps, he arrived over the other two with a feral grin and drawn blades. He had work to do.

Daffodil slammed herself against another tree, Applejack in sight, but not the enemy. She kept her mouth shut. Shouting could give away her position, and more. She just needed a signal to come out firing. But where would-- Oh. A loud set of cries came in the distance. "Wha?" asked the one close to them, and that was more than signal enough. Daffodil charged around the tree to find Applejack doing the same thing, the both firing in a concentrated stream. Pain lanched through her shoulder, proving they could aim at least half a damn, but the bandit collapsed backwards, full of holes. "And stay down!" Daffodil crashed to her haunches. "That hurts! That really... hurts..."

"Stay calm." Applejack shoved her gun into its holster and got to applying first aid to Daffodil. "Ya ever been shot before?"

"No!" Daffodil was shivering in mild shock. "It sucks."

"That's one way to put it." Applejack pressed a hoof to the injury, applying firm pressure to keep things in place. "You'll be alright, promise. Ain't a bad shot, as shots go."

Skyline sliced one gun free of the holding hand, forcing the man to stagger back, disarmed. They still had their arm and hand, but no gun remained in their grip. The other was turning to face him, ready to take their shot, but Skyline was on them in an instant with a dull thud of their bodies making contact and knocking the man backwards. He was stabbed twice on the way down and Skyline vaulted over the bleeding body. "If you're giving up, do it before I get to you." He had no intention of waiting for it as he charged the first bandit.

Stan lowered his rifle. "Ain't seein' any targets."

Skyline whipped his swords clean of the mess he had made on them, wiping them clean on the clothes of the fallen men. "I didn't think you would." No surrender had come, not that he expected any. "Everything clear?"

"We need Giddyup," called Applejack, pressing on Daffodil. "One shot from him and we should be cleared right up."

Giddyup came closer with a cheery clip-clopping trot playing from his internal speaker. "I am here." He went straight for Applejack and Daffodil. He could see which of them was obviously injured, still... "Are you also injured?"

"Ain't nothin' I can't walk off." Applejack snorted softly. "So get to doin' yer thing with Daffy here. She only has so much blood to share."

"Understood." He swiveled his entire head and neck down and nuzzled gently at Daffodil until a soft beep informed him that his injection software had found a good spot. With a low hiss, he made a connection with the needle, plunging into the yelping Daffodil and administering the lifegiving fluids. "You will recover entirely." Giddyup was trying his best bedside manners. "Please relax."

"I'm doing my best..." Daffodil did relax though as Applejack let up the stong pressure slowly. "Is it looking better? Be honest!"

"Much better." She whipped the rag away and let it drop, covered in blood as it was. "Now, jus' as a warnin', even Giddyup's healin' kiss can only fix what ain't all broken. If yer dead, all his robot tears won't bring ya back. 'Least ya can be sure he will shed 'em, an' so would I! So don't go doin' that."

"It wasn't like I was trying to be shot, Applejack." Daffodil patted her gun with a hoof. "There we go." It was holstered and ready to be drawn in the future. "Thanks, Giddyup."

"You are welcome." He dropped a used needle without thinking of it. That part was entirely automatic. "If you see more medical supplies, please inform me. I want to remain able to assist."

"As if you would stop even without that." Stan was coming up with Aunt. "But good call. Let's loot 'em before we leave 'em."

As it turned out, only one medical needle was on the group, but there was ammunition to go around. Twilight casually laid claim to one of their shotguns. "I could improve on Aunt's weapon systems, if she wants." She angled the shotgun and set it down. "Actually..." She took a rifle up. "You already have short range covered. A long range weapon would be preferable."

Aunt considered the floating weapon, hovering as it was much like herself, though with a lot less flame involved. "There is skill to using that."

"Yes, but one you already have." Twilight set the gun aside and grabbed a little toy one of the bandits had been carrying. "Throw this, there." She pointed at a tree. "Right in the knot."

"I'm not sure how that's at all related..." Aunt grabbed the toy in her grasper. Running the numbers without really thinking about it, she flung it with a smooth toss and it bounced off the knot of wood. "And there. What does that prove?"

"It proves." Twilight grabbed the rifle from the ground. "It proves that you can calculate this sort of thing already. You just haven't tried with a firearm, yet. We'll fix that!"

Stan nudged Twilight with a chuckle. "Ah do like how eager you are, but we just left the place wit' tons of parts. How do you plan to even consider that?"

"Back at the vault." Twilight pointed the way, and she was... mostly right. "Using my personal workshop, ideally. I'll have all the tools I require there to complete this upgrade. Oh! My apologies. Do I have your permission?"

"Good of you to remember that..." Still... "She really wants this."

"I want to help protect you and Giddyup as you two do for me. It's only fair."

Stan threw up a hand. "Look, she may be a robot, but I don't own her. If she wants that done, I don't see much reason to get all in the way. This won't hurt her, but could in the future if people start deciding she's just as dangerous as the rest of us. Ah still think she's safer jus' being a nanny bot without any weapons. But it ain't my decision. She ain't mine."

Daffodil whipped Stan with her tail. "You can stop saying that."

"Stop sayin' what? Ain't said not one thing wrong so far." He crossed his arms with a scowl at the spy-pony. "What would you know, you have a robot before?"

Daffodil rolled her eyes. "Apparently as much experience as you. She gave herself to you, moron. Stop sayin' you don't own her. It's hurting her feelings, um, as much as robots do the feelings thing, which I'm pretty sure her kind does pretty well, so cut it out!"

Applejack pulled down her hat. "She ain't wrong. Sorry 'bout that, Aunt. He's quite a troublesome child, ain't he?"

"But worth the effort." Aunt seemed entirely confident in her place in the scheme of things. "I will watch over him and Giddyup until he formally releases me from that duty, or he becomes an irreconciably bad child, which he isn't."

"Stan is a good child." Giddyup let out a very authentic snort despite lacking the parts. "One of the best I've had, even if he is mistaken."

"What am ah wrong about now?!"

"You own two robots." Giddyup inclined his head. "You accepted the adoption of one giddyup buttercup unit, named: Giddyup. You are my child. I am your robotic companion. Likewise, this remains the case until I am formally dismissed from this task." Or there isn't a Stan to be a companion of, but he left that part off.

Author's Note:

Fight complete, with some family building time! They're so cute, in my view.

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

For such a severe loss of population, there sure is a large number of bandits surviving, even given the removal rates. I mean, even at the best, it takes almost 20 years to make a replacement bandit?

[FridayPie]

11243406
They had around 200 years. Not all areas were hit by fallout. There were other form of shelters. Vaults began to open in range of 40-50 years from war.

[tsaukpaetra]

A longer range weapon would likely be more useful indeed. But offensive capacity in itself is useful too.