Closing the Barn Door

by David Silver

26 - Which is Worse?

Stan let his gun rest in casual readiness. "Look, let's just pretend they come around, they might. Most of you seemed to be in alright relations with her. It could get a lot worse, depending on your view."

Twilight fidgeted with her glasses, as if getting them in the correct position would put the situation itself to right. "Worse how? You're just being paranoid! We're a family..."

"Maybe. Applejack, you like your life outside your vault, don't you?"

"Hm?" She looked up from her thoughts. "Oh, yeah. I'm not really a 'vault dweller' no more for some time now. Still stings... Put in a lot of work for those ponies... Ah thought half my purpose was supportin' them. Working so their life was better..."

"Anyone that goes in there--" He flicked a finger at where the secret elevator would take one down. "--has a good chance of not being let out again. They are turtling up tight. Maybe the right call, couldn't say." Stan shrugged softly. "But they don't want anyone in going out or anyone out goin' in."

Skyline swung a sword as if to test it. It remained sharp and ready. "I'm no expert in vaults. But it sounds right. Either way, I'm not going in now, even if they invite me. I have business out here, and don't want to carve a path through them to get back to it."

Daffodil stomped with each step in her fretful circling pace. "Good for you! You're used to being out here. Our vault was just a brothel for you, wasn't it?" She glared at Skyline intensely. "And now that you've had your fun with that, you're--"

Skyline crashed into her in a burst of speed, knocking her to the ground. "Shut your face. Even ignoring everything else, that vault has a possible fix for my vision I didn't even know existed. Stop acting like you're the only one annoyed by this."

Applejack swiftly moved between the two. "Let's not get physical here. We're all on the same team, y'hear? We all want to get in... But most of us want to get back out again afterwards... Ain't not a pony that's happy about this."

Twilight sank miserably. "My workbench... my supplies..." She jumped, a flinch, still sank. "Oh... Aunt, I should apologize. It seems that, at current, I am unable to make those modifications I had suggested. Sorry..."

Aunt was quick to pat her on the head. "I know you would have if you could. You shouldn't even feel bad. This isn't your fault."

"Hello?" The door pony was speaking through his intercom. "You still there?"

Applejack was the first back to the windowsill. "Right here. What'd she say?"

"I'm right here." Overmare Mare, speaking over the same intercom. "Applejack?"

"Um, yeah. What's goin' on? Somethin' bad happen while we were away?"

"What did you find?" Overmare Mare asked with no regard for Applejack's question.

"The spot was the right one, but that's about the only good news... They made it to take care of us ponies, as an attraction to show off ferever an' a day. Right nice arrangements if ya don't mind that." Applejack sighed softly. "We promised we'd tell y'all about it. That promise's all nice an' done."

"Lovely. Is everypony there?"

Applejack glanced over her back. "Everypony, robot, and human. The gang's all here. Um, so... can ya unlock the door?"

"What you've found confirms a suspicion of mine. Listen closely, all of you. You can all hear me? I am going to assume you can. That world out there is dangerous... You can't even start to argue that. I've heard the tales, some of them from you directly. We have supplies, and a quiet place to vanish into, and that's what I, Overmare Mare, plan to do. I will protect my ponies."

Twilight hopped up, forelegs coming down next to Applejacks. "How is that better than what the robots were offering? You'll be safe without freedoms or growth. A... attraction, yes, without any visitors. Arguably even worse of a situation."

Daffodil suddenly squeezed in between the other two. "I did what you asked, let me in!"

"I plan to. It's up to you, however. We are watching that room. Drop everything. Everything. Return to us as naked as the day you were born and we'll welcome you back. No weapons, no tools."

Twilight clapped her hooves to the sides of her head. "Even my glasses?! I need those... and we can't even be sure another perfect match is in the supplies."

An exasperated sigh. "You can keep your glasses."

Applejack hiked a brow at the unseen voice. "Now, lookee here. Ah ain't goin' nowhere without my side iron. Ya know I'm trustworthy with it. Only thin' I'll be aiming this at will be what's causin' trouble for me or my fellow ponies."

"Let's make this crystal clear." The voice grew louder, leaning in? "You come in as an unarmed member of the vault, or not at all. If you wish to apply for a guard position afterwards, that's a later concern."

Daffodil tossed her gun aside. "I only had this because... It doesn't matter. We're done. Can I come in?"

"The others are very armed," Overmare Mare noted in an icy tone.

Stan held up his hands. "Bein' paid would be nice, but that's about the only reason I got for even wantin' to come down there."

Giddyup paced a foot from the window, leaving the sill to the ponies. "Proper payment was promised for Stan and Skyline. Please render payment in concordance with your agreements."

"Is that the robot?" Some papers shuffled. "I agreed to pay when they secured a passageway into the vault, which they did not. I owe them nothing... But I am a generous soul. Skyline, are you there?"

"Yeah?" He wasn't at the window, seated back by Stan a short distance away. "Whattayou want? Clearly not to pay me."

"You enjoyed what we have to offer. Fresh food, clean water, good company--" Skyline rolled his eyes. "Put your weapons aside and you could join us, as a fellow pony."

Aunt's voice lowered to a conspirational hiss, helped by her automaton nature allowing her to literally lower her volume, "Are you mad, Stan? You take your agreements very seriously."

"Reckon ah do... I'd put a bullet through her head, if that was easy to do. Gotta weigh the options. Stormin' that vault would be a lot more trouble than I'd get out of it in teachin' her a lesson. So, the lesson's on me, fer next time." His voice raised, "Back to being a courier. There are things what need deliverin' and not many insane enough to get it done."

"Good good, off with you then. Now, I want to see at least three ponies stripped and ready to enter, or none at all. Twilight. You were always a good pony. Surely this won't be a problem for you."

Twilight reached up for her horn. "Technically... This is a lethal weapon, arguably more so than any firearm present, and I can't divest myself of it, ma'am."

"Seen it," added Applejack with a nod. "Right dangerous pony she is, but loyal to the cause, like most of the other armed ponies out here. Stop bein' a jerk about this!"

Mayor Mare cleared her throat. "Do you mean that horn focusing device? Can't you take it off?"

"Not easily." Twilight's hooves fell, as did she, to her haunches, lost to sight of the window. "It was a feat of minor surgery to install it. It would require the same to remove it."

"Surgery?!" Mayor Mare blurted. "I was told nothing about this. Who performed it on you in the first place? I thought you were the only pony with this knowledge."

Twilight laughed nervously, rubbing behind her head. "Well... I... This is not in compliance with safety regulations..."

"You did it yourself," concluded Mayor Mare suddenly. "You performed surgery on yourself. That is mad! That is incredibly foolhardy! You could have killed yourself... Still, you did it, why can't you undo it?"

Twilight hissed, drawing back. "It would be even more dangerous going the other way. Besides, I don't have a sterilized work place to start from. I don't have antibiotics. I lack all the tools I used the first time, because I don't have access to my workbench."

Applejack slammed a hoof on the sill she was propped against. "Are ya seriously tryin' to get Twilight to do somethin' stupid... again?! Is that what you want, fer her to cut herself open fer you? Now, ya don't trust me? Fine. Ah got a life out here. She's a damn vaulter and you know it."

"I'm sorry, Daffodil. I can't assume they'll let you in without forcing themselves in along the way. The door remains locked. Overmare, out." Hoofsteps could be heard receding.

"Um." The door pony was back. "Sorry... You heard her. I'm not allowed to open anything. Really... sorry... We were always friends."

Applejack smiled at the male voice. "We always were, ya goof... Ain't mad at you. If it were up to you by your lonesome, we'd already be inside."

"Yeah... You know she's watching... I should go, but... Good luck, alright?" A soft click announced that the mic had gone cold. They were kicked out.

Daffodil shoved off the windowsill with a wordless cry of fury. "This is not fair! I was... I did... I did everything right! Why am I being punished for your actions?" She scowled at the rest of them, those she had decided were responsible for her exiling. "I was nice and happy." She tilted her head left and right with each word. "Everything was fine! It had good parts and bad parts, but they were all my parts!" She sneered at Applejack. "Some guard you were. Why didn't we just take the damn robot home without his human 'friend'? He's a robot! Beep boop! He doesn't have emotions worth thinking about!"

"That is correct." Giddyup seemed unbothered by the accusation. "I do not have emotions."

Stan rapped his knuckles against the cold metal of Giddyup. "Y'aint got my emotions, but ain't nobody does 'side me anyway. Don't feed me that 'no emotion' horseshit."

Skyline snorted. "I'd say that's racist, but it came from the right place..."

Applejack lowered the front of her hat. "Well, ah'm ready to get out of here. Twilight, yer with me. Ain't gonna leave ya to rot." Her eyes, hidden by the front of her wide hat, settled on Skyline. "Reckon that means yer free to go wherever yer wantin'. Best of luck to ya."

"You're just leaving?!" Daffodil stormed towards Applejack, each step a heavy fall of her agitated hooves. "You get me kicked out, and then you just... leave me?! What do you expect me to do, just die?"

"That sure is an option." Applejack slid herself slowly to be in the way of Twilight. "But ah did figure you ain't had much interest bein' near me right now."

"Illogical." Giddyup let out an authetic snort, despite having no nostrils or lungs. "Though intelligent, Daffodil is still a variety of equine that strongly desires the protection of a herd. Moving alone will lead to an increase in anxiety."

"Anxiety?! Yeah... like that." She side-eyed the robot. "Not like most humans are all that different..."

Skyline chuckled softly at the situation. "Well... Do you want to be with the ponies that 'got you kicked out?'"

"Not... fair." Daffodil crashed to her belly in place, the tears she had been holding back unable to be held anymore, leaking down her face. "I did everything right..."

Twilight circled around Applejack to get closer, setting a hoof on Daffodil's back. "You did... I know it doesn't feel like it, right now, but we're just as mad... We weren't ready to leave the vault." She swallowed thickly. "But now we have to..."

Stan slung his gun on his back. "More the fool the Overmare is. Whatever. I don't plan on comin' back."

Author's Note:

The cards are slapped on the table, as it were. Some of them take it better than others.

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

Comments

[Booster Spice]

The Overmare is forgetting, if the townbots have collected their location information, when Stan doesnt return with accepted value of goods, then the repo crew goes pick up?

[geomease]

Booooy this makes me steamin mad enough to throw my hat on the floor and stomp! That Overmares a liar and a snake! Daffodile may be a two timer as well, but she was an unwilling accomplice, for the Overmare to throw her to the wolves, especially when she could have let just 1 of them in instead of needing all 3… shes a right rotten apple!

Personally if this were my playthrough I’d be hacking and plowing through security right about now to give her a piece of my mind, but Stan and company are a cut above the common wastelander it seems.

I hope that Overmare gets her comeuppance.

[Lunar-Flare]

We somehow went through that entire conversation without Mayor mare explaining why she no longer trusts the ones who actually live there and wants them to disarm as well. I would have expected her to say "Make stan and the others leave. You three can come in as usual once they are away. Bring Skyline if he disarms". Does she think they have mind control in the wastes now and her engineer and "spy" are going to turn on her with no motivation to do so? She has clearly gone insane with paranoia.

[howard035]

As a courier, Stan should ask the Overmare if she's interested in hiring him to NOT to carry a message to the townbots about the location of this Vault, for the cost of what he was promised for the original mission.
11271151

[Reese]

Okay... that's odd. Divesting themselves of arms from outside is one thing, but why not let Twilight back in with equipment she got in the vault? Why at least three or none at all, if the concern was people forcing their way in with those being admitted? Suppose Stan, Skyline, and the robots were ill-intentioned; exactly what happens when they're still right there, armed, and the other three are disarmed with the door open? And if there's a way to deal with that, why can't it deal with Applejack choosing to stay outside too? I mean, hay, just have Twilight and Daffodil hand the equipment they're leaving off to the others, have those others walk a long way away still in view of the cameras, and once they're far enough, open the door just long enough for Twilight and Daffodil to get in but not long enough for the others to get back.
This does not make sense for the goal of maximizing utility of the vault and satisfaction of its inhabitants. Nor does it make sense for the goal of maximizing preservation of Overmare Mare's power; there's too much information already loose. And she's just created a group of betrayed people outside her control with knowledge of the vault's location and non-inconsiderable resources. She's already putting a certain level of trust in them that they won't turn against the vault.
What is going on here?

I have to say, my suspension of disbelief is now basically just held together by "Maybe there's something I don't know that explains this".

[tsaukpaetra]

Figured. Disappointing, but what can you do?