After Gearing and Sable have finished their umpteenth round of fun, they get back to work on getting the R&D department functioning again. Their current goal is modifying the space for Gearing’s plans and schematics for the future hydroponics bays he wants to build. He might not be able to build everything now, and some of the other equipment and supplies may have to be gathered from the wasteland, but he can at least get the framework ready.

The communication relay system is on outright hold until he can get a whole new system’s worth of equipment and parts.

While he’s carrying a freshly built rack made from console panels and wire racks, a familiar red mare pegasus stumbles in through the decontamination chamber and looks around quickly. She watches as he starts setting up the rack in position against a far wall near another and waves a hoof friendlily.

“Hi, Gearing! What are you doing down here?”

“Hiya… Scarlett… right? Well, I’ve finished cleaning up down here, so it should be safe for you organics to be down here.” He looks at her and continues, “You probably shoulda waited for the all clear. Don’t need you getting infected with something then running around trying to eat the others.”

“Oh, sorry, I thought everything was taken care of.”

Gearing waves a hoof dismissively, “Oh, it is, now anyway. I just hadn’t finished repairs, and no one else seemed to want to come down here anyway cuz it’s not exactly safe yet. Radiation, biohazards, chemical leaks, possible monsters… so I just hadn’t sent the news.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself.” She puts a hoof to her chest and gives a bright smile.

“Yeah, I’m sure, just warning ya.” He looks her over for a moment and purses his lips to the side before asking, “By the way, you have any spare plants I could use to test out the Hydroponics bay?”

She bobs her head around. “I’ll have to see which are the strongest, but, yeah, sure. I’ll go check now.”

He waves and grins. “Thanks, Scarlet!”

She grins and gives a dismissive wave of her hoof. “What’re friends for!” She turns and heads back through the decontamination room. Gearing stands there and watches and, at the junction towards the lower levels, she starts turning right. She freezes after taking a few steps in that direction, then shakes her head and looks back and forth. After a quick look she turns back around and starts heading towards the other hallway.

Gearing stands there staring at this for a few moments, pausing work as he thinks. He asks quietly, “Sable… How long has Scarlet… Well… All of Handy’s group been in this stable?”

Sable replies flatly, “I could give exact chronological information if you choose, but I believe what you are looking for is ‘a few months’.”

Gearing nods slowly. “Mmmhmm, I was thinking something like that… And for someone like me, who’s only been here a few days, it could be excused not to know where everything is… but they’ve had this whole area locked down and should know that right path leads deep down below where we haven’t secured yet… Obviously confused… Fuck.”

He quickly taps out a message and requests a channel with Handy. Though Handy’s too busy with Swift and doesn’t reply. After a few moments of tensely staring at the door to the decontamination chamber he sends another request. Which is likewise ignored. A few moments go by and he starts sending them repeatedly, then starts upping the urgency flags of the messages until they finally reach ‘Priority 1’.

The channel opens and Handy’s voice oozes across as thoroughly annoyed. “Yes, Gearing?”

“It’s about damn time! I wouldn’t send an ‘urgent’ message unless it’s really urgent!” Gearing snaps.

“What’s wrong?” Handy asks with more frustration than anger.

“I think Scarlet’s infected with something. She was just down here and seemed to be really confused. She even tried to go back down into the lower levels, but then decided better of it before going back the way she came. She acted like she wasn’t sure where the hell she was going. Should we go on lockdown again? Could this be that ‘raider disease’ as you guys called it?”

“Stand by,” Handy replies flatly, and puts Gearing on hold.

The same music from before plays, the nice upbeat sound that the MoM had been blaring through the speakers not too long ago, as he’s put on hold. He looks over at Sable and grins. She smiles back lightly and tilts her head, wondering what he’s thinking. A moment later, he grabs her hoof and starts swinging around dancing with her to the music. She giggles and steps in time with him, swaying her flank to the beat and following his movements as they hop and bounce around the Research and Development department like they have nothing else to do in the world except enjoy each other’s company.

Meanwhile Handy’s locked down the arboretum and a section of the hallway that leads from the deeper areas to the civilian sector. On his pipbuck he flips between two screens. On the one is the video of Scarlet in the arboretum. She’s hopping around and pouncing on random tiny plants that seem to be trying to grow. A flash of light erupts from her forehooves as she makes contact with the ground, then she rears up on her hindhooves and laughs. Silently. For the audio hasn’t been connected. Then he looks at the other video channel, the one of the hallway that’s been sealed with the damage control doors, and taps a hoof on the ground in frustration at what he sees.

Scarlet. Standing there looking at the sealed metal door with annoyance written all over her face.

He runs a hoof through his mane and stares at the screen as his anxiety increases. He taps on the pipbuck and says with a sigh, “Hey there, Scarlet. You okay?”

Scarlet looks around quickly then her eyes and face settle on the camera that’s looking at her. “Hey, Handy,” she says with a sigh. She points a hoof at the door and frowns. “I seem to be stuck. The doors closed up on me.”

Handy looks at her a moment and nods, quite unnecessarily, “Yeah. We’ve had a situation with some of the systems. Things keep blowing. Don’t worry though. Me and Gearing are working on it.”

Scarlet sits down and looks at the camera. “Well, could you let me out? Please? I’d rather not be stuck in the hallway.”

Handy says softly, “We’re getting on it. Don’t worry. It should only be a couple of hours. A day at most. Then we’ll have you out of there. Safe and sound.”

She rolls her head as she sighs, “Okay, Handy. Whatever you say.”

Handy waits for a moment then asks, “Oh?”

She points a hoof at the door and says flatly, “Well not like I can go anywhere, now can I? I hope you get me out of here before I have to use the little filly’s room or there might be a mess in the corner for you to clean up.”

Handy replies evenly, “Welp. We’ll take care of that if it happens. We’ll have you out of there when we get the time.”

“Alright, Handy,” she says with a sigh.

He looks back over at the camera of the arboretum, and sees Scarlet walking back and forth like a soldier on guard duty, eyes peeled and staring angrily at everything. Then, something catches her eye, and she pounces through the air and jumps on another barely sprouting plant. He kicks on the audio and listens to her laugh with glee. “Burn weeds! Burn, burn!”

Handy momentarily turns off the audio and opens a channel, “Stable-Tec… activate the fire suppression system in the Arboretum but at only 20- no, make that 10% pressure.”

He clicks it off and looks at the camera, and a few pathetic drops come from above and start tapping on Scarlet’s head in the arboretum. A moment later it seems to sizzle off of her in steam. She looks around, then up at the ceiling, and screams at it, waving her hoof at the sprinkler for having the audacity to get her wet. Then she throws out both of her hooves at it, and a cone of fire hits the offending sprinkler, effectively smelting it into itself as it was only partially opened. He toggles on the audio and hears her muttering out a variety of curses at the sprinkler and the universe as a whole.

He switches over to the camera in the hall and nods as he kicks on the sprinkler system there. But at full power. He watches her jump around in shock. At first trying to dodge and get away from it, then just sitting there looking annoyed and miserable as she’s already become thoroughly soaked. He cuts off the sprinkler then turns on the audio.

“Hey, Scarlet, you still there?”

“Of course, Handy… where else would I be? I’m stuck here, remember? And now I’m all wet!” She hops around and points a hoof at the camera

“Yeah. Oops. Faulty systems, you understand. Wires got crossed or something. Working on getting the doors open,” Handy says in a completely disinterested tone.

She sits down with a soppy flop and glares at the camera. “Handy. Friends don’t do this to each other. If I stay in here too long I’m going to drown.”

“Well, at least you won’t have to worry about the water. There’s drains. But. There’s something else.”

She sighs and looks at the camera. “What now, Handy?”

“Who are you, really? I mean I have a good idea what you are, but not who,” Handy asks flatly.

“I’m Scarlet! Geeze, that thing entirely eat your brain or what? Maybe you should get checked,” she replies with a scowl.

“You might be ‘A’ Scarlet. But you aren’t our Scarlet. Our Scarlet is currently tending to crops in the arboretum…”

She stares at the screen for a few moments before sighing. “Well. I don’t know what else to tell you.”

Handy replies, “Here, I’ll open the door to the lower levels. Meet me down at R&D and we can figure this out together.” He hits a button and the door in the back opens up, letting her go deeper into the stable.

She turns to look at it, then back at the camera. A moment later she gives a shrug and casually gets up. “Okay, Handy… I’d appreciate you bringing me a towel too so I can dry off before I catch cold.”

He watches her disappear deeper into the Stable, then runs out the door and heads that way with his squadron of protectaponies. He only opens the sealed door long enough for him and his team to get through before sealing it behind them then continues on down the long winding pathway. He doesn’t stop, until he comes to the door to the decontamination chamber for the R&D department.

He looks through the multiple layers of glass at Gearing and opens a channel to him. “Where is she?”

Gearing shrugs. “She went the way you just came from. She hasn’t come back.”

Handy turns around and looks the direction they’d come. There’s no off shoots down this way. He shakes his head. “We didn’t- not possible. She couldn’t just disappear on us. No way we missed her.”

Gearing looks around the room then leans towards the door with his head tilted. “Handy… there’s all kinds of secrets in this place… Stable-Tec, remember? Could there be a hidden door back that way? Around the corner? Somewhere between wherever she was and this section?”

A few moments later and the two protectaponies that had dragged Gauge off to his room and confined him there come to the sealed door carrying multiple buckets of red paint. Handy let them in quickly, then dispenses the paint and orders them to paint the hallway, down both sides, and report any deviations in design. His hope is that they’ll come across an area that has gaps too big for solid bulkheads. Or some other sign.

What he gets is much weirder.

A few minutes into the task one of his protectaponies, then several of them, begin complaining about not being able to paint a certain segment of wall. He gets over to them, and sees that a section of the wall doesn’t have any paint on it. The protectaponies use their brush on the area repeatedly, but in this area the paint simply stops. He orders them to step back, and then tries to touch the wall.

His hoof passes right through it.

He sends a message to Gearing, who dutifully appears at his side a moment later. Gearing looks it over for a few moments as Handy talks plans with his Protectapony.

Gearing interrupts him and shakes his head. “No, you won’t, I’ll go in.”

Handy turns on him and a scowl crosses his face as he really doesn’t like being usurped. “What? Why do you want to go in now?”

Gearing leans over and taps him on the shoulder. “Because the protectaponies only listen to you, and they’re needed to keep the stable safe. If you go in, and something happens, these become useless paperweights.”

Handy starts nodding but, as he‘s about to stop Gearing from going into the unknown area, Gearing comments, “I also don’t have any foals waiting on me…”

Handy freezes, then slowly pulls back his hoof. He nods, begrudgingly giving Gearing the point for this one.

Gearing crouches down, folding in his wings tightly as he quickly flicks on his EFS. Seeing nothing, he kicks it off again and uses the edge of a wing to help find the area of the missing bulkhead. A moment later he slinks in and completely disappears off sensors.

Behind the wall, Gearing sees something he didn’t quite expect. Instead of this being some sort of quickly covered up access hole, with pipes and cables and all other system’s representing their connecting conduits, it’s a hall. A purposely built hall. One that’s been here for a long time. Judging by the work on it, it was built into the stable like this. He scoots down the hallways, slowly, kicking on his EFS every now and then for an added sense, as he scans the hallways for anything out of place. The slightest raised floor plate. A sensor that seems to be watching for movement. Anything. If it would strike a cord as some kind of trap, he’s looking for it. If it doesn’t look like a trap, he checks it two more times just to make sure.

The narrow hall ends rather anticlimactically with a slightly more open spaced end, and a circular pad in the center of it. He checks the systems that he can reach, although he’s pretty sure he knows the answer. The magic smoke smell, that pungent odor that fills the air after technology gives up the ghost, is a pretty strong indicator.

All of it’s burnt out, including the pad in the center. And, judging by some of the still smoldering components, it was done recently. The damage is thorough and complete.

An impressive professional job of destroying intelligence and equipment before exfiltration is the chord that strikes with Gearing.

Gearing heads back down the hallway, and pokes his head through the wall, startling Handy into jumping nearly into the ceiling. Sable is standing there and looks at him with an expression of pure joy before she shoves Handy out of the way and trots up to Gearing.

She nuzzles his cheek with hers and says happily, “Gearing! You are safe! I came running when your id tag read offline suddenly. I thought you had prematurely terminated!”

He nuzzles her back, and even reaches out a hoof to caress a cheek before he kisses her other one. “I’m fine. There’s nothing dangerous in here.”

Handy eyeballs him for a few moments before asking, “So, I shouldn’t go in there?”

Gearing waves a hoof behind himself. “Nah, you can go in. There’s some things you might want to see, but there’s no booby traps or anything.”

Handy tilts his head and eyeballs Gearing. “So you want me to go in there?”

Gearing rolls his eyes then climbs out the rest of the way into the hallway. He waves both hooves towards the door. “Go in. Don’t go in. I don’t give a shit. I have things I have to do. Make up your own mind.”

Handy looks at Gearing and sighs as his mind jumps through one second guessing hoop after another. Then, he gets a mischievous smile on his face, and taps out a message.

Handy looks sideways, and notices Sable’s head slowly turn to look at him then tilt her head. He just smiles back at her.

She shrugs and grins, then hops forward and starts kissing Gearing. She starts pushing him backwards into the wall, an actual segment of wall, then starts making him stand up on his hind legs before flopping down on his rear.

Gearing’s quickly caught off guard and his wings fan out sideways along the length of the wall as Sable plops down and sits on the underside of his back legs. As she starts kissing a line up his chest, Gearing looks at Handy and stammers out an apology, “I- I don’t know what’s gotten into her! Sorry! I’ll- Sable! Wait! We- we can’t right now!”

Handy turns around and starts biting his lip to keep himself from laughing. Okay, his suspicion was proven false. Gearing’s the only pony he knows that could have a more than willing mare sitting on him and be more worried about appearances than getting lucky. He coughs into his hoof, while being kind enough to at least keep his back to the disaster he caused going on behind himself, “So, Gearing, what do you think’s going on in there?”

Gearing tries to direct Sable’s hooves elsewhere and plays a weird version of keep away as he stammers, “W- what? Sable! Nooo nonono not that. Hey! Wait! Wait!” He groans out in both frustration and resignation as he wraps his forelegs all the way around Sable, pulling her into an oppressive hug and adds to that with his wings. He’s effectively stopped her moving around. Mostly. But she starts cozying into the embrace and, after a bit, she’s content to simply be held.

Gearing looks at Handy and blurts out, “I’m not sure what the pad is, but judging by the lack of any kind of further residue, I think it may have been some kind of teleporter. Point to point system. There’s no evidence of incineration or anything, but all of the equipment had self-destructed but you can go- go- go see for yourself!” He shoots a glance at Sable and she just grins at him and nuzzles his neck more.

Handy shakes his head, then goes into the hole with two other protectaponies, leaving the rest behind to make sure nothing comes through as he sees to whatever Gearing is talking about.

Gearing releases his grip, and she leans back as she grinds in place and smiles warmly at him. He covers his face with his hooves in pure embarrassment. But, almost as quickly as he’d done that, Sable pulls them away to kiss him. Then she grabs his pipbuck and starts examining it closely, all while not moving from her previous location.

She uses one of her cables, and plugs into the pipbuck, looking off into space as she begins running subroutines.

Gearing looks at it and asks, “What are you doing, Sable?”

“Your pipbuck registered as offline. The area must have had a dampening field around it. However, it made me realize that your pipbuck may not entirely be acting correctly,” she replies as her eyes zip back and forth looking at something that he can’t see.

Gearing groans and closes his eyes. “I don’t think it’s the pipbuck, I think it’s me.”

Sable blinks a few times then looks at him. “Whatever do you mean, my love?”

Gearing shakes his head lightly. “My… body… doesn’t work well with the normal pipbucks’ systems. That’s why mine’s modified. And so am I. They had to put some arcano-technology in me so it could monitor my relative health.” He looks down and sighs. “I think whatever they did to knock me out, messed up the implants. They seemed to have stopped working. All of them.”

Sable looks him over for a few moments, then uses his pipbuck to display a screen. “It appears that at least the interface for your health monitor has come back online. I can confirm that it’s registering your current health.” She uses her hooves and turns his head, looking at the right side of his face. “According to this reading you’ve taken a strong blow to your head. We need to get you to medical and get this taken care of.”

Gearing looks at the readout and notices the slight indent indicator of his general wellbeing estimate, along with the alert of the minor bordering moderate damage received on his head. He smirks and shakes his head lightly. “No. It’s no big deal. Not that serious. It’ll heal in time.”

“But you are injured. The readings are clear now. How did my darling Gearing’s head become damaged?” Sable asks with growing concern.

Gearing looks off to the side and sighs. “It’s nothing.”

Sable gets up off him and stands there looking down at him. “You are correct ‘it’s nothing’… it’s nothing to ignore. Come along. We are going to medical and you can tell me what happened while you are being seen to.”

He argues and tries to hold his ground but ends up losing the argument as he’s lead up the stairs by Sable, who’s using her restraint cables as a leash of sorts with a loop around his neck.

The pair walks into the medical lab with a sour look on his face. His ears start whistling as he notices Nahlah, in her typical bed with the foal, and standing not too far away from her is Swift, who stares daggers at him as he passes, but can’t help but snort a stifled laugh at the sight of him being lead around by Sable. That’s one pony she really didn’t want to see at the moment, given the problems and frustration he’s caused her recently.

Sable releases her restraining cables from Gearing, then trots over and commandeers Cure for a medical assessment. Gearing is directed to sit by the auto-doc medical pod, and the hovering nurse bot begins a series of scans. Cure uses a cable from the pod to connect to Gearing’s pipbuck, then carefully removes one of the tools from the inside of the auto-doc, and begins using it to sweep over Gearing’s head.

The little violet unicorn from before trots up and looks over the action. She purses her lips to the side as she tilts her head and takes in the sight of this new protectapony. Finally she asks, with her typical soft voice, “What happened? Did he get hurt fighting the baddies again?”

Swift’s ears perk up, and she turns her head, and ears, to focus on Sable and Gearing as she looks back and forth between them.

Sable turns to look at the little unicorn and smiles before she shrugs. “Gearing has suffered an injury to the side of his face. His pipbuck only just now started correctly monitoring his life signs. I am unsure of what happened. He has refused to tell me. He’s only agreed to come to medical to have it taken care of, if I agreed to quote ‘stop pushing the issue’ as he put it.”

Gearing can feel the eyes on him, and looks over and catches eye contact with Swift. A moment after he has made contact, he rolls his eyes and looks in a decidedly different direction as Cure uses the small device emitting the weak healing magic it’s capable of doing to try and repair the damage.

“But, do not worry. My darling Gearing is tough. He’ll be fine once Cure finishes with repairing the damage,” Sable says with a wave of her hoof and a smile.

The small unicorn walks up to Gearing and taps on his knee. He looks down at her with just his eyes, as Cure is holding his head with a pair of limbs and using a third to direct the tool. After making eye contact she wraps her hooves around his leg and smiles up at him as she nuzzles his knee. “I’m sorry you got hurt by baddies again.”

He smiles down at her, drawing a frustrated huff from Cure, before he says, “It’s okay. Don’t worry. I do what needs doing. That’s all there is to it.” He reaches out his hoof and blindly ruffles up her floofy mane. “Gotta keep you foals safe, after all.”

She giggles as he messes up her mane, then squeezes his leg harder as she says, “Thank you!” then she gets up and trots back to her friends to report on what she’d learned.

After Gearing’s been sitting there for a while, saying nothing, Swift stops her quiet conversation with Nahlah and asks with a huff, “What’s taking so long over there? I thought you said it wasn’t bad?”

“I apologize, Subject Swift,” Cure starts. “But in the absence of powerful healing magic, this can only be done locally and systemically. It is, unfortunately, a time consuming process.”

There’s a pause before she asks, “You’re not just… saying that... to prolong the process, are you?”

“No, ma’am,” Cure replies flatly.

Gearing brushes a hoof up and tries to shoo Cure away. “Alright. That’s it. Let me the hell out of here. It’s not that bad. I’ll heal eventually.”

Cure pauses but objects, “Technician Gearing. If you continue to use these sections without proper repairs and alignment, you’re going to cause further damage.”

Sable turns back around and gets up flush with Gearing. “You promised me you would get yourself tended to! You are injured, you need proper care!” She rears up and puts her forehooves on his shoulders. “I’ll sit on you if I have to!”

Swift’s eyes jump from Nahlah’s to the sight of Gearing and Sable. She pats Nahlah on the shoulder and says softly, “I’ll talk with you later. Don’t forget to eat.” She casts one last sidelong glance at Gearing and bites her lip before trotting out of the medical ward.

Gearing sees Swift quickly leave, and then raises his forehooves in surrender. “Okay. Okay! You win.” Then he smiles lightly, earning another scolding from Cure as she returns to the task at hoof, and beckons Sable to spin around. She does as requested, and a smile explodes across her face as he pulls her back into himself and holds her there with his forehooves. He sits there, holding her, as she folds her hooves over his that are holding her, and nuzzles his non damaged cheek.

Nahlah waves a paw at her, getting her attention. The two exchange glances and she says with big smile, “I’m Nahlah.”

Sable looks at her a moment then smiles. “I know, Nahlah, I’m Sable. I control the majority of functions in Stable 68.”

“Ohhhhh Okay!” She smiles, and then the smile fades off her face as she looks at Gearing and tries to figure out exactly what that means.

The light gray mare with the rust colored mane that had jumped in to help Gearing with the radroach swarm the other day trots into the medical bay swinging her head back and forth. Once she’s past the door, she bounces and jumps a distance and lands near Nahlah. She leans closer as she partially closes her brown eyes and wiggles her flank. “It’s that time… Ready for another evening wrapped up in Ivy?”

Nahlah grins at her, then leans towards her and the pair kiss. Softly. Sensual in execution. A tease of what’s to come. Then Nahlah pulls back a bit and frowns as she waves a paw at Gearing. “I can’t leave yet. I have to wait for Cure to finish with Gearing so she can watch Silver Thorn.”

Ivy frowns then looks over at Gearing with eyes that are narrowing by the second as her evening seems to be getting spoiled. Her eyes settle on Sable and she nods her head lightly. “Hey. I’m Ivy. You new?”

Sable shakes her head lightly. “No. And I know who you are, Ivy. Former raider and reformed as additional security for Stable 68. Currently in a relationship with Nahlah.”

Ivy looks back and forth quickly between Nahlah and Sable and asks as she rocks her head towards Sable, “Do you tell everyone your business the moment you meet them?”

Sable shakes her head. “Nahlah has told me nothing. I’ve been monitoring the systems from the beginning. I’m aware of everything that happens in the stable.”

Ivy sits back and purses her lips then rolls her eyes. “Oh, yeah. Of course you are. Protectaponies built into the security system. Sorry.” She taps on the side of her head. “I don’t know what I was thinking there for a moment.”

Sable looks back and forth between them and offers, “Nahlah, if you would like to leave. I can foalsit until Cure’s free.”

Ivy’s ears perk up as she looks at Nahlah with a grin. “Hey! We’re in luck!”

Nahlah looks at Sable with a crooked smile as she bounces the foal gently in her paws. “I don’t know…”

Sable pulls away from Gearing and holds out her forelegs. “I’m fully capable of holding her.” There’s a delay then Sable asks as she tilts her head, “You are aware that you’re presence is only necessary for nutritional compliance, correct?” Nahlah keeps staring at her blank faced with a crooked grin and an eyebrow raised. So Sable adds, “You only have to be here to feed her.”

“Oh. Oh!” She looks down at the foal and rocks it side to side. “That’s true. Okay. Here you go.” She gets up carefully, and ever so gently passes the foal over to Sable. Sable, the moment she has the majority of control of the foal, spins around and wraps her forehooves around the foal before she flops back down into the same seated position she was before, scooting back and prompting Gearing to hold onto her again.

Ivy lets out a long, “Aawwww… look. It’s like a little robo family that’s just adorable!”

Nahlah climbs out of bed and waves to Sable as she heads towards the door. “Thanks! I’ve been in bed all day, Could really use the stretch!” She stretches out, elongating herself, as even the claws of her forepaws jump out to gain a bit more distance with the pleasurable effort.

The door to the decontamination chamber opens and Nahlah starts stepping in. Before she gets too far Ivy gives her a long lick across her flank.

Nahlah jumps in surprise, further into the decontamination chamber as she lets out a startled, “Mrrrowww!”

Ivy chuckles and follows her in, and before the door’s closed all the way she teases, “Oh, what was that? Don’t worry, you’ll be screaming louder than that soon!”

Gearing asks with his mouth hanging partially open, “Should I be concerned about that?”

Sable gently bounces and rocks the foal, which is still sound asleep, in her forelegs as she comments, “No. Nahlah’s just very vocal during sexual encounters.”

“Ah,” is all Gearing manages to say. Apparently Sable really has been aware of practically everything that’s been going on in the stable.

Though, if that’s true, that brings a lot of other questions to mind. Many problems too. Especially if she’d been here the entire time. She’d have no choice but to watch everything going on in the stable. As it degenerated into its own pocket of hell. Everything that happened with Nettlekiss. How the stable fell to the Raider disease. All of it.

He can’t help but wondering how much of that prolonged trauma is coming into play with her current attitude. It would explain a few things concerning her apparent lack of tact with personal matters. The aggressive aspect of it too. All and all it’s rather overwhelming. But, at least it’ll give them something to talk about. He chuckles to himself morbidly, two centuries of trauma to get through… good thing he doesn’t charge by the hour.

Finally, Cure announces the end of the procedure and replaces the tool back into the medical pod. While she’s doing that, Gearing disconnects his pipbuck from the pod and comments, “That’s why I didn’t want to worry about this. It would have been about the same amount of time even if my entire body was covered with the same amount of damage… Just feels like a waste of time.”

Sable rocks side to side, but turns sideways to look at him as she says softly, “Any injury at all to my darling Gearing is unacceptable. I do not want my love in pain.”

He looks down at her seated and leaning against him and drinks in the sight.

Her mane is partially covering the right side of her face, and her left eye is looking directly at him, but partially closed as she smiles. Her forearms are cradling the foal to her, gently bouncing the little filly up and down, but cradling her protectively to her chest. It gives him his first real view of Nettlekiss’s daughter. Even wrapped up and comfortably bundled in the cloth her sparkling silver coat is hard to miss. He reaches his wing tip around and brushes the hair of her white mane with its shimmering silver streaks off her face gently. Revealing her blissfully asleep expression in the process. Beyond, his forearms are wrapped around Sable, and instinctively pull her into himself even more, causing her to lay her head against his chest and sigh with a smile.

Something snaps in his chest and he feels a sharp stinging pain radiate out from it. Not from any real damage, but from a suddenly realized ache that’s demanding attention. If there had been any doubt before, there’s none in his mind now. This beautiful creature is the only mare for him. This is the kind of moment that he’s desired deep down, but has been denied by fate and circumstance.

The smile creeps up the side of her face further as they maintain eye contact. After a few moments of this he leans down and kisses her forehead. She leans into it, smiling widely, before turning her head to nuzzle his neck in mutual appreciation.

The moment has its brakes thrown as Cure appears in front of them with her arms outstretched. “Medical services have been complete. Now proceeding with Foalsitting protocols.”

Sable hands Silver Thorn over gently, making sure Cure has already taken the foal and has turned to go about the business of tending to the young filly before Sable feels comfortable enough to lower her hooves. She stands up and looks at Gearing over her shoulder, and can’t help but grin as she catches his eyes darting to her flank for a moment as she rises. “Gearing, my love, shall we go now?”

Gearing hops up and the pair walks out of the medical bay and into the decontamination room. Once inside the sealed room Gearing asks softly, “You already knew how it happened. Didn’t you?” as he keeps his eyes forward.

She leans sideways and nuzzles his neck. “I apologize. I do not mean to come across as deceitful. I enjoy having conversations with you. Even if it is over things I may already know. Ponies recount the same tales repeatedly, I’ve noticed. Even if one already knows the events that transpired. That is the social interaction I was striving for… Am I wrong?”

He shakes his head lightly, “No. Not all. I enjoy talking with you too, Sable.”

She gives his neck a light lick and leans against him as the decontamination cycle comes to an end. “You are a good friend for not turning her in, despite repeated prompting.”

Gearing shrugs. “I don’t think anything positive would come out of it. She’s rash, and emotionally driven, and bringing it up would just cause more problems than it’s worth. She’s not likely to do it again.”

Sable giggles and gives him a kiss on the cheek. “You can try and act as cold as you want. But I know you, Gearing. And you are a good pony and a great friend.” She walks out of the door and looks over her shoulder at him as she smiles. “No matter how much you try to boast that ego of yours and make others think otherwise.”

He chuckles and gives a light shrug with both forehooves high in the air before trotting out after her. They continue down the hall for a while in silence before he asks, “Sable, would you mind meeting me in R&D? I need to go have a word with Handy.”

She nods and continues on. “Of course, my love. But, would it not be easier to simply send him a message?”

Gearing rolls his eyes and waves a hoof. “It would be… if he ever read his damn messages in a timely matter.”

She giggles and the pair split off at the intersection while Gearing heads to maintenance.

Gearing side steps a few of the protectaponies that are zipping around, carrying various pieces of equipment, and looks into maintenance. There are still holes in the walls, but they’ve at least been cleaned up so they don’t look like the walls are melting anymore and simply look like they’re missing cookie shaped cutouts. Gearing announces his presence with a forced cough, and sees Handy turn away from the workbench on the far side. Gearing’s eyes jump to the uncovered device Handy is working on and recognizes at least some part of it as being the pad that was down in the secret side room. Handy raises a pair of goggles he’d been wearing and asks with a sigh, “Crap, what now?”

Gearing nickers as he steps in and waves a hoof. “Yeah, seems like I’m the harbinger of bad news, doesn’t it?”

Handy leans back with his flank on the workbench and he stares at Gearing and folds his forehooves, obviously deciding to let Gearing cut to the chase this time.

Gearing rubs a hoof through his mane as he looks around at the maintenance bay. “Handy. I know I don’t have to tell you this. But the institute knows where we are. And they’ve already successfully infiltrated once. We need supplies to be able to defend ourselves. We also have to check the rest of the stable to make sure there’s no more surprises. The system can’t detect the hidden areas. They were designed into the system. As intentional blind spots. And… well.” He drops his hoof to the ground and looks at Handy. “We need to get a stash together. Enough spare supplies that will last for a while. Nothing too major. But it has to at least be enough food and water, and whatever else we’re going to have to have on the road. You know… in case we have to run. He shrugs and waves a hoof. “We called them a ‘bugout’ bag. It’s the one thing you grab when shit hits the fan or a position is being overrun and you have to make a run for it.”

“I get the concept, Gearing,” Handy says flatly then waves a hoof towards Gearing. “Well, what are you suggesting, exactly?”

Gearing tilts his head as he looks at Handy. He’s not used to these exchanges going this way. “We need to raise the priority of an expedition to the lower levels set to the highest. There’s no point in fixing everything up here if we’re walking on eggshells that can collapse at any moment.”

Handy nods slowly. “That’s true.”

Gearing waves his forehooves to one side, then the other. “The way I see it. We have two options with how to do this. To go down there and split up and try to clear it out all at once, a divide and conquer strategy, or to go down there as one big group. Personally, I think the idea of dividing and conquer could work both ways in this situation, so it’d be best for us to go as one big group. This way, we can cover each other easily. Make sure that none of us get caught alone and overwhelmed.” He raises a hoof and points it at Handy before slapping it against his other raised hoof in a loud metallic clop. “If nothing else, we’d be able to execute an effective rolling retreat back to the upper levels. Covering everypony as they fell back, and then having them doing the same after getting in position.”

Handy purses his lips as he stares at Gearing. After a few moment, where Gearing wonders if Handy was just humoring him, Handy starts nodding his head, genuinely impressed. “Damn. I’ve heard great minds think alike, but this is scary. I’d been thinking the exact same thing.”

It takes a moment for Gearing to recover from this apparent acceptance, but once he does the two start carrying on conversations for plans on handling the sub levels. The protectaponies will be the bulk of the support force and lead the charge into any heavily hostile areas. After bouncing ideas off each other and settling on a plan of action, the two split up to go back to their previous tasks and get ready.

However, before he leaves, Gearing makes sure to run by Handy a set of plans and schematics for some battle saddles that he’s designed, including a possible station that will let them get loaded up quicker. He didn’t really need the input, per se, but, seeing how Handy is an individual that likes working with their hooves and making things, he figured it would be a good bonding experiment to at least get his opinion on it.

As he’s leaving though, Handy steps out of the maintenance bay and calls him back. Gearing turns around in time to catch an awkward glance from Handy. “Look, Gearing, I know you and Sable have gotten really close… and we’d already agreed to let the protectaponies take the brunt of the fighting… but…” He looks up at Gearing and gives a slight smile. “I won’t hold it against you if you don’t want her involved in this at all.”

Gearing looks at Handy with a flat expression for a while. He can’t believe Handy’s giving him an out like this. He feels exceedingly guilty about which way his heart and the little pony in his head is dragging him. But, at the same time, Sable’s not just some protectapony. The others can be rebuilt. Have their systems reflashed and reinstalled. Sable’s uniqueness is not so easily multiplied and manufactured. It’s why there’s so few of them. There’s only one Sable.

Gearing grinds a hoof into the metal decking as he raises his gaze from the floor to look at Handy. “How about… she stays at the back covering the entrance? Then she could provide cover for any that have to escape?”

Gearing’s seen what a small group of mantises can do to a protectapony with their ridiculously sharp foreclaws. Granted, her chassis is different than Sarge’s was. Far newer. More durable. But he doesn’t want to press his luck on this. The thought of seeing her in the condition that Sarge had been in crosses his mind and sends a chill through out his system. A genuine fear of losing her starts creeping into his mind, as it hadn’t even occurred to him previously as a possibility.

Handy nods and smiles as he waves any concerns away with a hoof. “That works. Sounds like a good plan, actually. Will help keep us all safer. Make sure we all come home to our someponies.”

Gearing dips his head in thanks and turns to leave. Neither one of them point out that Gearing seems to have no problem diving head first into danger with risk of being permanently maimed or even killed, yet refuses to let his AI companion assume the same level of risk. The hypocrisy of it goes unspoken. As they both seem to share at least this one trait. A trait of fearing a loved one coming to harm more so than fearing being hurt themselves.

Footnote: Reboot of Internal Monitoring component in progress, please stand by. . .

Reboot of Internal Monitoring component completed. . .

Perk Unlocked: Pipbuck Integration Implant – Now that your implant is working again your Pipbuck can monitor your relative health. The implant knows where and how to apply healing to get the most out of it for your benefit: Resulting in magical healing items working 20% faster and are 20% more effective.

This chapter simultaneously provides an answer about what's going on with Gearing's pipbuck (and the footnotes section), along with possibly raising a few more questions about the same. Work on the timeline is going nicely, and I'm anticipating some really decent workflow over the next week or so as i get things sorted out with the Timeline better.

Thanks again to everyone that's been helping me with this!

-Quillsy