Applejack put out a hoof in front of the other ponies. "That there's a town." Just past the next bit of shrubs, a little wasteland town came into view. "We shouldn't be advertisin' ourselves so easy."

Daffodil stopped without objection. "Good idea. Let's go around?"

Skyline wasn't as easily convinced with a flick of his tail. "I'm not really a secret and we're not that far from where we started. Stan, do you know this place?"

"Can't say I do." Not that the town has a sign posted. Not that most did. "I don't see anyone out and about."

Giddyup turned left and right. "Number detected: 0. Shall we proceed? Our destination is that way." He took a step forward. A little town wasn't much reason for him to stop, it seemed.

Twilight hummed softly. "I don't trust it, if we're being honest. From what I know, humans are not fond of abandoning their nests. Besides, if they did, they should look more degraded."

The houses seemed in pristine condition, possibly more than actually lived in towns. It was as if... Stan shook his head. "They look fresh built... Twilight's right in that bein' kinda strange."

Twilight waved at the abandoned village. "I don't expect much outside a vault to look quite that new."

Applejack tilted her hat forward. "Ah feel like a dope for not noticing that before." She fixed Twilight with a smirk. "Don't go replacin' me as the pony with common sense, ya hear?"

"I'll do my best." Twilight advanced with a little smile as she looked from house to house. "As uncanny as it is... They are still just... dwellings... A house can't hurt us, right?"

Stan raised his rifle even with his chest, fingers clenched tightly on the firearm. "Doesn't mean we shouldn't be on our toes." He glanced around nervously as he pushed forward. "Got all my nerves on edge."

"Ain't arguing it." Applejack was second, at least for a moment.

Skyline went right past her to Stan's side. "I'd keep more an eye out for snipers, if anyone's here at all." His vision went from empty window to empty window. "But I'm not hearing anything moving at all, and hearing's one of my things."

"Glad to hear that." Stan lowered his gun a few inches. "You realize the people who lived here could not be the issue. Somethin' made 'em run. We should be scared of that."

Daffodil reached a new level of stiffness. "What could make a whole town just up and run? Do things like that exist in the wastes? How do any of you live?!" She danced nervously in place, kicking up dirt in her stomping. "Is that a joke? You're messing with me."

Applejack set a hoof on Daffodil's back. "Well, ain't seein' it so far, but could be a, uh, what's the word for a lot of deathclaws?"

"Murder," suggested Twilight with, perhaps, too much enthusiasm.

Aunt shook a grasper. "That can't be right. That's what you call crows. They deserve their own name. What is a deathclaw?"

"I do not know." That didn't stop Twilight's smile. "But I can guess at suitable names. Rampage?"

Stan tightened his grip. "Now that ain't a bad name for a bunch of deathclaws. Only saw one of 'em myself, and that was plenty. One deathclaw's enough for a rampage, let me tell ya. The idea of... a lot of 'em... That would be somethin' else."

Twilight trotted forward and to the side to reach Stan. "So you have seen them? Let's start with their major taxonomical definition. Are they mammals? Most creatures I've seen out here have been."

"Uh..." Stan had been asked a lot of questions over the year, but if a deathclaw was a mammal had managed to not be one of them. "Now, this is hearsay, but I done been told they lay eggs. Mammals don't do that, right?"

"They do not." A floating pen in Twilight's control took notes. "Are they more like birds, or reptiles? Maybe amphibians? Do they show a requirement for water above dietary needs?"

"Anybody out here?" Shouting at the empty town was apparently a better alternative than answering Twilight.

Not this stopped her. "Can you describe it to me?"

Applejack gently pulled Twilight back. "Woah there. Hold yer horses." Only to be snatched up with Twilight into the air, their hind legs dangling. "Uh..."

Giddyup was holding both of them awkwardly. They did not make him for the motion, but he was holding up both ponies. "Horse successfully held."

Daffodil danced away from the clingy robot as she snickered. "Serves you right."

"Reckon it does." Applejack looked up at her captor. "Ya done held yer horses real good. Now put us down kindly?"

Giddyup did just that. "Why did I hold my horses?"

Twilight hummed as she resumed her journey through the town. "I'm more curious why you consider us 'yours'? Have you adopted us as well?"

Giddyup clopped forward with authentic horse walking noises playing from within him. "You are my children temporarily." He looked towards Stan. "That is my permanent child. You are friends with my permanent child, making your wellbeing also a priority for me."

Aunt hovered beside Giddyup. "He knows that if any of you were to be hurt, it'd make Stan terribly upset. Giddyup would rather avoid that, so trying to keep you all safe is the logical course if you think about it."

Applejack tipped her hat at Giddyup. "That's right neighborly of you. I'd be just as upset were Stan to come to harm's way."

Daffodil snorted softly. "Friendship among Wasters? I'm joking... I don't want either of you getting hurt." Her odds of survival went down quite a bit if she lost her group. "I'm getting used to you."

Twilight brushed against Daffodil. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the closest I've detected to an outright compliment."

Daffodil shoved Twilight away. "Nerd! You wouldn't understand. Nothing in this place has jumped us, and we're almost out." She could see the last buildings coming up ahead of them. "A creepy place, but it hasn't jumped out and attacked us, so not all bad?"

Skyline flexed the fingers of his right hand. "I was actually kind of hoping. Whatever would make a town this new looking probably has a lot of means. I wouldn't mind seeing more." He peered at a house as they walked past it. "That looks like it. They painted it maybe a month ago."

Applejack squinted at the same house. "Huh... That is fresh lookin'... Ya don't see most places 'round here lookin' that sparkly, um, outside a workin' vault."

Stan chuckled at that. "As nice as a working one is, the not-workin' ones can get really messy, real fast."

Giddyup whinnied realistically. "The last non-functional vault we departed was in considerable disarray. It would have disappointed Yellow and Fend to see the state it was in."

Stan padded Giddyup's back. "That bother you?"

"Should it?" The idea of it seemed to be lost on Giddyup. "They were not upkeep oriented. If so, I would feel obligated to finish their last task." He turned his head with a great swivel of his neck towards Skyline. "You are far closer, and I can lend assistance to you. Besides, their wish for you was your safe return to your home. This was accomplished. That file is settled." All nice and clean, so far Giddyup seemed to handle it.

Skyline swiveled an ear back. "Got home, then took off."

"Assignment completed." That Skyline had left afterwards was of no matter to the thought process. "That the two of you arrived home safely means that they accomplished that objective, even if it resulted in their decommissioning." He moved closer to Stan. "I would rather face decommission than to know I had failed in my task to keep my child safe and happy."

Stan grunted softly. "Yeah..." It was a pretty robotic way to look at things. "That doesn't mean you just throw things away if that's the first thing you see. Good way for both of us to go down when only one of us had to." He thumped his pointer finger right between Giddyup's eyes. "I'd be a bit upset if you went early just tryin' to save my sorry butt. I probably had it coming."

"Cease that negative speech." Giddyup let out an authentic snort. "You are worth a great deal of damage. You are my child, and a good child, in addition. By all calculations, you should continue functioning for 1,621 years. It is my job to help ensure that."

"And keep me happy." Stan wagged a finger. "Which I won't be if you go and get extra brave when that ain't what's called fer, alright?"

Giddyup turned his head forward and marched silently for a time. "Processing," was the only thing he said quietly, lost in the musing thought put to him.

Aunt waved a grasper around. "I don't mean to distract anyone." She clearly knew exactly what she was doing. "But if this is as neat and well upkept as it appears, it might be exactly the right place to conduct robotic adjustments."

Twilight perked an ear. "You've attracted my attention, but what robot are we adjusting how?"

Aunt waved at herself. "I was to be outfitted with weapons, the sort that can be hidden when we're not in trouble. No need to frighten people out of turn. Is this the right place for that?"

Twilight plopped on her haunches and looked around. "Hm! Actually... If these houses are as clean on the inside as they are on the outside... Hm. Hm!" She rose to her hooves and did a circle. "It depends also on how much scrap metal I can find and in what state and configuration they're in. Again, if we go off the state as we see it, it should be quite workable!" She suddenly darted in front of Stan. "Can we?!"

Stan laughed at the grinning unicorn. "Ain't complainin', but when did I become the only person in charge of this voyage and what turns it takes?" He looked instead to Giddyup. "It was him and Skyline that were in charge, last I knew."

Skyline shrugged. "Don't care. My job is to keep us heading in the right direction. If you want to take a break, that doesn't really get in the way."

Twilight snorted softly. "Skyline is a bodyguard. I'm the one, besides Giddyup, that knows the way. Still, both of you are our guards. Checking with you seemed like a good--"

Applejack got Twilight's ear in her mouth, yanking her roughly. "And when were ya gonna ask me?"

"Eee! Sorry! I can only ask one pony at a time." She rubbed at her abused ear as she gave Applejack a half-hearted glare. "Can we? Both of you? Um, all three of you?" She included Daffodil in her pleading looks. "I'll make this as fast as possible, and we have quite the arrangements!" She waved wildly at the surrounding houses.

Daffodil rolled a hoof slowly. "Very comfy... But whatever chased whoever used to live here might still be around. We want to stick around and find out or not?"

Applejack tilted her hat forward. "We can handle it. 'Sides, yer assumin' it was some gigantic monster instead of just humans bein' human. They coulda got into a fight, all internal-like and split after that. Happens at times." She crossed her arms. "They ain't like ponies! We wouldn't ever do that."

Skyline broke into laughter. "You've only met a few ponies. They can and will do exactly that, if you have enough ponies. Pretty sure that's a living thing, not a human thing." He hiked a thumb at himself, a thing ponies weren't supposed to have. "Pretty sure we'll fight, eventually. Happens. Let's try to work it out before we come to blows, though."

Giddyup grinned at Skyline, despite having no genuine expressions. "My child had gotten into zero fights of this variety."

Weapon time?!

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