Closing the Barn Door

by David Silver

4 - You Must Gather Your Party

The mutant grunted in pain as Daffodil got her aim lined up. Not being shot at, she had the clarity to aim properly, peppering the mutant with a rapid volley of angry bullets. A shame it wasn't enough to put it down, the minigun roaring to fresh life, tearing up the ground in front of it. There had been a bat pony there. Where?

Skyline had danced right between the mutant's legs, springing up behind it. With two wet sinking sounds, he plunged his blades into the available back. The mutant howled with pain and threw himself so hard Skyline was sent flying. "Die!" The minigun was turning towards the rolling and suddenly battered pony.

A sharp crack echoed across the field. The mutant fell over backwards, the fight removed from it. Few were the creatures that wanted to fight after a bullet was put in their eye. "Damn it." Stan stood up, still holding his longarm. "There any more of those things? Ah swear!"

"Please do not swear." Giddyup moved towards Skyline. "Are you in need of medical attention?"

Skyline sat up with an equine snort. "I'm fine." He shook himself free of dust and dirt as he made his way back to the mutant and got to heaving against it, slowly rolling it over. "These are mine." He drew the blades free of their bloody sheathes. "You don't get to keep those."

Applejack prodded at the still form of Twilight. "Ya in there?"

"She's wore out." Daffodil was on Twilight's other side. "Fricken unicorns!"

Miss Aunt hovered closer, not punctured in the shootout. "Is she alright? Poor thing. Maybe a snack is just what she needs?"

Applejack perked up at the idea. "Actually, that's 'xactly right. Soon as she wakes up, she's gonna be powerful hungry."

Aunt fired over towards Giddyup, the assigned pack mule, er, pony. "Then we'll get a meal ready for her when that happens. Nothing like a good snack to put a smile back on a child's face."

"Your logic is sound." Giddyup pranced in place, ready to help feed a child. That it wasn't his child specifically didn't matter much. Just a child was being made happy.

Applejack prodded at Skyline as he came closer. "You. Yer a threat as much a defense. Ya didn't mention ya had folks already chasin' ya."

Skyline grunted softly. "It happens. Skilled fighters get attention. On the plus side, once you run into them, you're usually good for at least a week."

Daffodil peered at Skyline skeptically, but didn't speak, instead turning to Aunt. "We're vegetarians if you don't know."

"Of course you are." Out came packets of food from Giddyup's side. "Skyline's the only one I know that likes a bit of meat."

Skyline colored at that. "Don't draw attention to it..."

Applejack raised a brow high. "Yer a carnie?"

Skyline snorted at the notion. "Omnivore. I can eat anything." He thrust a metal finger at Stan. "Like him."

Stan laughed at that. "Oh sure, blame me. Whatever. Gonna guess neither of us want to make a lunch of a pony."

Skyline paled around the snout. "No!"

Twilight roused with a low groan. "Mmmf, what...?" She cracked open an eye to see all the faces above her, watching. "Did I do something?"

Skyline poked the rousing mare. "You did a big something, then passed out. It was kind of impressive, I'll give it that."

Daffodil nodded at that. "Were we even supposed to have that?I wasn't told a thing about it."

"I made it." she raised a hoof to her horn, which appeared entirely normal. "Self defense. It still needs adjustments, clearly. If I lose consciousness every time it's used, that narrows the tactical uses considerably."

Applejack thumped the nerd right in her chest. "Twi, seriously, glad yer alright, but you may be broken, blatherin' all that nonsense. Y'aint wrong, not much good in a weapon that knocks ya out, but why were you testin' it right in the middle of trouble?!"

"Is there a better time?" Twilight lifted both her hooves up. "And it worked admirably and revealed problems in the design. A complete success." But then a tray was poked right under her snout. "Pardon?" Following the tray, she found a Miss Aunt hovering quietly, offering her the tray of food.

"Eat up, dear," she beckoned. "You've been through a lot."

"Thank... you?" Twilight sat up, a loud rumble sounding from her midsection as she colored. "Oh, maybe I'm... Thank you." And she tore open a package in her magic, soon shoving it in her mouth to devour messily.

Applejack smirked at the display. "Soon as Miss Sparkle's all fueled up, we move on. Just wastin' daylight out here."

Agreements were had, and the party resumed their journey. They avoided the road, much as they had the last time Stan had traveled with ponies. "Seriously." He looked from one equine to the next. "How do you get from place to place without bein' spotted?"

Skyline shrugged. "I'm not hiding." He had a reputation to go with it. At least one pony was right out in the open.

Applejack gestured at her friends and herself. "We keep to the bushes and keep to our selves, ya know? With Skyline here--" She pointed at him with a nod. "Ain't as much need to worry 'bout it. Any sightings of him probably won't talk much 'bout us."

Skyline pricked up, tufted ears flicking. "I am providing another service then. That balances out, yes?"

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Ah guess, in a way. Ah already agreed, so get us there in one piece and ya get yer caps."

Daffodil came up alongside Skyline. "You're from the other Stable, right?"

"Yep." He glanced sideways at the mare walking alongside him. "And you're from one, I assume? Must have been different."

"Wanna tell me about it." She smiled brightly. "I'd love to hear about it."

Twilight leaned towards Applejack, voice dropping. "Clever! Intel straight from the horse's mouth is valuable."

"How valuable?" That hadn't been Applejack. Giddyup was looking at the two of them. "Does it have a defined cap value? I would like to hear. Please share this information."

Twilight began to color brightly. "Oh, um..." Caught, she tried to think her way out quickly. "It's way too subjective to easily price like that." She laughed awkwardly. "After all, how can you value a friendship?"

Giddyup stared at her silently a moment, save for the clanks of his metal limbs on the ground and against themselves. "You are correct," he finally allowed. "That is difficult to assign a value to."

Jaunty music cut in on the conversation. Eyes turned to see Stan had something dangling off his hips, belching out lively music from before the bombs dropped. "What? A little radio makes the day go by." He hummed with the tune of the guitar being strummed, his steps following the pattern. He wasn't moving any slower for it, but the fatigue of travel seemed a little more distant, at least for him. Good music was a courier's trusted friend.

With a hiss of static from Miss Aunt, the radio began playing in stereo, coming from within her with better audio fidelity. "Why didn't you just say you wanted to listen to that? I would have gladly helped. You know that."

"Don't like botherin' you." He clicked off his little radio, outdone by the robot's model. "Thanks though. Ah'll let you know if I'm finished with it."

Skyline looked back to Daffodil. "Despite what he looks like, he is a good human, and a friend. I thought he was gone, but I was clearly wrong."

Daffodil perked an ear at Skyline. That was not information on the other vault... "He seems alright... So, about that other vault. Were you friends with the overseer?"

Skyline laughed at the very notion. "No! No... The overseer was a computer that needed to be reprogrammed. It wasn't a friend with anything, apologies to the computers present."

Down came Aunt's grasper, patting Skyline gently. "I can't take offense when truth is spoken, little one. It was his fault we lost the other two giddyups. I have no warmth to spare for him."

"I did not meet them." Giddyup inclined his head, neck going with it. "He is now in dormant mode."

"Like the rest of 'em." Stan shrugged, stepping with the music Aunt was playing. "All the bots down there, minus Aunt here."

Daffodil leaned in closer to Skyline. "All the robots are sleeping? How curious. Do you know why?" She squawked as a metal hand grabbed her by the face.

Skyline was pushing her back a few inches. "It's none of my business anymore. And it never was yours."

Giddyup swung his neck to look to Skyline. "Don't be mean. She is curious. This is factory default behavior."

Skyline smirked at the idea. "Any way I can change those settings then? Factory defaults bother me."

Daffodil frowned at the cyborg of a pony. "I was just asking."

"And I'm just not answering. Sounds even to me." Skyline shrugged softly. "Something comes threatening you, I'll answer that."

Stan set a hand on Twilight's back, to no immediate objection. "Hey, you. That laser trick. That was a laser, right?"

"Not technically." Not that she looked upset to talk about her achievements. "That was a focused beam of aetheric energy, not visual radiation, though it does cause some as a byproduct. It would be even more powerful if I could make it stop doing that, but my attempts have failed on that front." She sighed dramatically at the plight of a mad scientist.

"Ah see." Stan did not see. He did not see at all. "That just a thing you can do?"

"Sort of." She casually plucked his radio off his hip, floating it in front of him, bobbing with the music even if it wasn't playing any. "Unicorns have some innate aetheric manipulation power, but, with science, that can be focused and enhanced! Just like any human can see, but a good set of binoculars or glasses can improve the process."

"Which you are." He trailed the hand up to her head, tapping at her horn. That got her to duck away. Horn touching was a step too far. "Ponies sure come in a lot of varieties."

"Compared to humans?" She inclined her head. "I don't think that's true. Even the basic homo erectus has countless sub-species. Breeds, you'd call them in other animals. Each has a variety of physical signs, melanin counts, physical phenotyping... Humans come in a lot of types, but let's move right on to other homonid species."

Stan raised a brow, but didn't stop her from going on.

"There are super mutants. Related to humans, though arguably not a species due to their inability to breed. But that's unfair." She thrust up a hoof, keeping up with the caravan. "Because they do reproduce, they just don't do it sexually. Hardly the first species to lay that claim, just one of the most complex examples. It's fascinating, really. Eventually, it will fail. FEV can't be kept going forever, but what can be?" She shrugged softly. "Until then, something worth studying!"

Skyline looked right past Daffodil, his interest squarely on Twilight. "You know a lot about supers. Do you know how to end them?"

Twilight blinked rapidly. "Why would I do that? I want to study them, and studying a corpse is, by its nature, limited. Besides, they are quite a robust species, and known to violence. Attempts to 'end' them are likely to result in injury, possibly to all parties involved."

"A no would have sufficed." Skyline grumped, no secret method to super mutant extermination clearly coming that day.

"As I was saying." Twilight didn't seem to lack the desire to continue her educational lecture. "Then there are ghouls. Humans genetically, but separated by..." Even she could see Stan was looking at her in a new way. "Oh... No offense intended." She cleared her throat softly. "As I was saying, humans! They come in a dizzying variety. Ponies can't compete."

Author's Note:

Let's talk science! Good scientists don't typo, so do Twilight a solid and report any mistakes in her transcript.

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Comments

[No one is home]

And Stan's eye-brow slowly floats into orbit...

[Booster Spice]

That Aunt unit has self repair capabilities that Twilight should be intrestedin for general robotic survival?

[Reese]

"Your logical is sound."
"Your logic is sound."?

""I did not meet them." Giddyup inclined his head, neck going with it. "He is now in dormant mode.""
Since Giddyup did meet the other two Giddyups, should that be "I did not meet him", using the male gender to refer to the overseer computer as other text in the area does?

"Factory default bother me."
"Factory default bothers me."?

Interesting. So Twilight knew about super mutants previously, but not ghouls, given her introduction to their existence appears to have been in Chapter 2 of this story?

[David Silver]

11099623
Hearing about it and meeting one are different.

[David Silver]

11099623
Singular they is a thing. That is a hill I will die on. Other typos slain.

[Reese]

11099649
Right, I did think it might be that at first, but looking back at the text, it looked to me more like it was indeed a case of not knowing about ghouls, rather than knowing about them but not recognizing that that's what Stan was before Applejack told her. I'm gathering from your answer that it is meant to have been just a matter of recognition?

[David Silver]

11099656
Humans come in so many varieties! How do you even keep track of them?

[Reese]

11099664
Ah, hm.
[looks at text again]
Yeah, I think that makes sense. Sorry about the confusion!

Previously posted as an edit to my previous comment, but I thought you'd be less likely to miss it if I added it to this one instead:
11099655
Oh, I do not disagree about singular they! In this case, though, it's a matter of inconsistent usage in a way that reduces clarity; the overseer computer, from what I recall, is referred to with male pronouns except in that one place, which unfortunately is located where a plural they referring to a different group would be a more natural reading of the text in isolation, with only knowledge of the previous story indicating that's not what was meant. As I recall my interpretation of it being, at least. If you don't want to standardize on male pronouns there -- which sense, and my suggestion for it was because they were already predominating -- I'd suggest standardizing on singular-they pronouns. Though even inverting the inconsistency could work here, perhaps; that seems to me still a bit more confusing, but as a gender-neutral pronoun makes no statement about the gender of the one referred to, referring to the computer with masculine terminology in one place and gender neutral terminology in another is not itself a problem.

[tsaukpaetra]

Casual espionage disguised as conversation. They're going to be very upset to learn the entirety of the stable is no longer located in the vault...