Once outside The Ministry of Wartime Technology hub it becomes quickly apparent to Gearing where Breaker Bar is, as almost everypony seems to be at the tournament crater watching the fights. And, from the noise, he easily locates it as he wonders: If Luna were still on the moon, would she send a noise complaint about the racket? He catches some air and flies over the crowd to spot the head of maintenance, which he does eventually after circling a few times like a vulture. Although, he has to land quite a distance from him just to have enough space as the crowd is massive. After touching down he squirms his way through the crowd. There’s some push back, but he’s got the mass to make them futile attempts and the few that turn on him with angry looks at what they think is a line cutter kindly oblige as they see that: one, he’s not headed toward the actual center of the ring, and two, he looks like a souped-up protectapony and it’s probably not a good idea to trigger its rules of engagement. Eventually he finds the stallion in question, who’s completely engrossed in the fight taking place in the center of the crater’s ring.

Gearing taps him on the shoulder with a wing as he steps up next to him. “Hey, there you are.”

Breaker Bar turns to look at him and asks, rather loudly as he has to shout over the crowd, “You taking a break to watch the fight, or you giving up alread- Get’em! Yeah! Wow, that filly’s got a mean jab!”

Gearing looks over at the sudden cause of the rise in uproar and see’s Swift delivering another powerful barehoofed blow that sends her opponent staggering back and sideways. “Oh. Yeah. Swift… I wouldn’t want to be on her bad side. You should see what kind of damage she can unleash with a powerhoof.”

The mechanic turns and gives him his undivided attention. “You know her?! She’s been blowing through the competition.”

“Yeah.” Gearing nods. “And she’s about as talented with her hooves in a fight as I am with tinkering with technology.”

Breaker Bar tilts his head and asks as his eyes jump back and forth between the two, “Then why the hell you working for city maintenance?”

Gearing shrugs. “She didn’t want to spend caps to get in. Need them to buy the supplies we want. She’s earning entry by fighting, and I used my own talents to secure entry… Speaking of which… I got some good news… but first… What was the main thing you were looking for in those systems? I’ll tell ya there wasn’t much… but…”

The maintenance head nods as he sighs. “Yeah. I don’t really have a use for most of that junk anyway. It’s a good thing too. Secrets can get dangerous. What I really wanted was access to the hub’s defense grid. That’ll help keep the raiders and other nonsense out. We traced the control lines that far, but we couldn’t get in, so it’s doing us no good at the moment. We could try to dismantle them, and reprogram each from scratch, but, we don’t have the resources for that either.” He lets out a sigh and grumbles, “Not to mention in doing so we might accidentally trigger the grid to see us as hostile.

Gearing sits back and strikes his patented glorious bastard glittery high-winged pose before he points at the stallion with both front hooves, and his wings. “Then I actually have some amazing news for you…”

Breaker’s eyes go wide as he asks with hope, but a hint of disbelief, “You got in?”

Gearing winks at him and gives him a shiny grin as he leans toward him. “I got in.” He looks around and nods back towards the Ministry of Wartime Technology building. “We need to talk. Privately.”

The head of maintenance nods and quickly follows Gearing back to the maintenance hub. It doesn’t take Gearing long to find out the place is deserted. The popularity of the tournament’s unquestionable. Unlike the highly suspect work ethic of those who were supposed to be working but decided to cut out the moment the boss left.

Gearing spins around and flops his rear on the floor with a loud clang. “Alright. I told you I was good. And I’m ready to deliver. I’ve set up two accounts for you to control the area’s defense grid with. But, before I turn them over, there’s something we need to discuss.”

Breaker Bar frowns as he fully expects to have to pay even more than agreed on, now that Gearing has all the cards. “Uh huh, and what’s that?”

Gearing motions towards the access to the control bunker. “Remember how I said I wanted more pay because this entire place could blow up around me if I screwed up?”

The maintenance pony sits down and nods. “Yup.”

Gearing sits and stares at him with stoic seriousness. “Turns out, I was right. Now. I managed to get around it. And you’ll have access to the defense system like you want. But, you can’t mess around with anything else. I did a lot of digging around, and there’s nothing else you’d find useful. However, the place is rigged to blow. The entire town… okay? So, and this part is non-negotiable, or I walk out of here right now… you stay out of the rest of the systems. Don’t mess with them. Firstly, there’s nothing worth dealing with in the first place. So it ain’t worth the risk. Secondly… if you do, this whole town will go kerblewy… and I’m not helping you kill all these ponies… understood?”

Breaker half closes an eye as he examines Gearing’s face, hoping he’s able to read it correctly. “That’s all we want. Just to be able to defend ourselves better. We won’t mess with it beyond that.”

“Good.” Gearing nods with emphasis. “Then I’ll set up the accounts for you. Now… about my pay… you said I could have whatever I wanted… right?”

The maintenance pony’s ears flop down as he cringes. “Yes… that was the agreement.”

Gearing grins a shiny toothy grin. “Great! So… How about I get the rest of the equipment down there? Just the things that won’t interfere with the operation of the defense grid and nothing that’ll make the system go balefire on us. You get your defense grid up and running in a smooth way, and there’s less stuff that could go wrong. Less things for these ‘workers’ of yours to screw around with and accidentally initiate self-destruct with.”

The older buck frowns as he realizes he doesn’t have much of a choice, and doesn’t want to go back on his word either. Though, he silently realizes, the mechanical repairpony has a point about removing potential future headaches. “You got yourself a deal.”

Gearing raises a hoof high in the air. “Great!” He lowers it as he leans in and grins. “I’ve also been in need of some good tools … That’s under your authority too, right?”

The maintenance pony grumbles as he says, “Yeeaahh sheesh… fine.”

Gearing hops up and starts off towards the control bunker. “Great. Meet me downstairs with the tools, and I’ll get your accounts set up then use the tools to carefully take whatever I need out.”

Breaker Bar goes to his personal stash of tools. As a craftsbuck, good tools are a life blood. Not just something to be used. They are an idol. A symbol of their dedication to their craft. For Gearing to be as explicit as he has been, well he must be a craftsbuck of some repute, Breaker decides. His skills are undeniable. And, it would be a shame to force an artisan to improvise. No. His skills deserve to have tools that reflect that, so the tan maintenance pony doesn’t mind as much knowing that they will not only be put to good use, but well taken care of as well.

He heads downstairs with the tools in question, and passes them over, expecting even more demands. Instead he’s greeted with a pleasant surprise. Gearing already had everything set up for the account, and just needed Breaker Bar there for personal information and finishing setting up his login credentials.

Gearing reminds him as he begins taking panels off of the equipment, “Remember, I wasn’t kidding about not screwing around with the rest of the stuff down here. Don’t make me regret this by getting everypony killed.”

Breaker Bar shakes his head. “I’m a stallion of my word. Don’t worry. This place will be sealed off even more once you’re done getting everything you need… How long you think it’ll take you?”

Gearing shakes his head. “I don’t know. There’s a lot down here and I have to be very careful not to damage it and not to set off anything. Lots of back tracing and double checking. But, I’ll get it done as soon as I can.”

The tan stallion goes to the door and heads back upstairs as he comments, “Take your time. No rush. Now that we don’t have to worry about not being able to fend off the next raider attack once the Reapers leave, we’ll be able to rest easier. If you have time, stop by the tournament if it’s still going on.”

Gearing has his front half in a machine and waves the pony away dismissively. “I’ve got too much work to do to mess with that nonsense. You go have fun. I’m sure I’ll hear about it later anyway.” A few moments later Gearing switches on a recording of the song that M.o.M. had been playing and starts bopping to the music as he works. He spends the rest of the day, and the entire night, working in the bowels of the maintenance bunker, growing his pile of loot and happily thinking about what he plans to do with all of it. Realizing that his location is known, and he’s easy for them to find or contact, he gets his head so full of work that he doesn’t even have the presence of mind to wonder where Swift is, what she’s up to, and how she’s doing.

For, how Swift is doing, is rough. And what she’s up to this entire time, defies logic. As she’s been having her own little adventure in Megamac.

After they had entered the town, and split up, Swift went straight towards the fight circle as Pharynx trotted along behind her with his head whipping every which way taking in the sights. She wanted to size up her competition, and try to figure out a strategy. She was excited, even though her powerhoof had been forbidden from being used. This probably isn’t the most common of responses somepony would have with the possibility of jail time hanging over their head should she fail. Even less so with the revelation that she has to beat out thirty one other ponies to achieve her goal. But, this is where she stands. When she gets to the crater, there is already a large crowd. Most of them seem to be locals and regulars at it. Probably just looking for an excuse to fight and blow off some steam. Other’s are truly hoping for the grand prize. Then there are the ones that look like they enjoy nothing more than a good fight. The ponies mingling around and waiting for the tournament to start range in size and age. One stallion is massive and looks to be extremely strong. Of the eating steel beams and spitting nails variety. Someone for her to watch out for, but not the only one. In the group there’s also the tell tale signs of veteran fighters. Ones that are calm. Abnormally calm. Especially the ones that look small and lanky. Swift learned long ago not to judge someone’s destructive power by their size.

Swift’s excitement gets the better of her and she yells out loud, attracting everypony’s attention, “Alright everypony! Who’s this champion I keep hearing about?”

There’s a few chuckles and someone in the crowd yells back, “They ain’t told us.”

Swift looks around at the group and snorts, “You mean to tell me nopony can tell me who’s the reigning champ? Not even who won the last tournament?”

An older stallion walks out of the group and says to her, “That’d a be me, lil lady.”

Swift looks at the stallion and her eyes trail over his form. He’s older than should be allowed, and looks as rickety as any of the other ancient relics in the wastes of Equestria. Especially the burnt out building varieties. He almost looks like a stiff breeze would knock him over, if not kill him out right. However, despite where he’s standing and who’s around him, he seems as comfortable as if he were on his porch enjoying a cold cider.

Swift looks around and asks, “Is this true?”

The stallion nods. “Ayup. That’s me.”

No one else gives any clue one way or the other. So Swift decides to go ahead and take his word for it. For now. After all, she’ll find out one way or the other just how much spunk this old timer has left in him. She offers her hoof towards him as she says, “My name’s Swift. What’s yours?”

The stallion puts his hoof out shakily as he says, “Big Daddy.”

Swift pulls back her hoof a bit as she cringes at the name. “I’m sorry. There’s no way I can call you that.”

“Welp. It’s mah name.”

“Anything else I can call ya? How about Big?”

“Daddy’s my name.”

“I- I just can’t. No way. Big D?”

“Guess that’ll be good enough for now.”

Swift nods and taps hooves with him. “Good to meet you Big D. So, you’re the strongest one here, huh?”

“Ayup.”

Swift nods as she grins. “Well, if that’s the case, see you in the finals then. Assuming we don’t meet sooner. I intend to win.”

“Ayup. I plan on winning too. I won’t hold back little filly.”

Swift grins even wider. “I’d hope you wouldn’t.”

A few moments later the tournament gets started and Swift gets paired up with someone she’s certain falls into the category of ‘local that just wants to blow off steam’. The relatively young stallion bobs around as he jabs at the air and hops around. She sits down on her rear, watching him shadow box in front of her and trying to look intimidating.

After a while of dancing around her he jumps at her with a wide swung right hoof as he screams with all his might.

Swift barely moves as she simply throws her right hoof straight into the stallion’s nose with a skilled jab, while still seated. The stallion’s swing goes limp as blood spurts out of both of his nostrils and his head flies back comically. He staggers and wobbles backwards and sideways as his head seems to meander at the end of his neck unable to right itself. After a few more off balanced side steps, he trips over his own hooves and falls down and to the side, not to get up.

Swift keeps her eyes on him for a few more seconds then directs her eyes towards the announcer. “Sooooo is that it? Or…?”

There’s a roar of laughter, from both the crowd and other hopefuls, as the fight is so one sided. Even more so from the contestants as this stallion had been one of the ones with the bigger mouths shooting off about how they were going to destroy everyone else and take the money easily.

The announcer makes the call and Swift gets up and slowly heads towards the exit as she mutters, “Damn. And here I was hoping for a challenge… Here’s hoping the rest of them aren’t just a bunch of loud mouths and somepony knows what they’re talking about here.”

The rest of the tournament, up until the very final match, goes by rather quickly. A few of the matches are drawn out a bit as the contestants both seem to be veterans and enjoy putting on the show for the audience. But, in the very end, it wasn’t the old stallion that Swift meets in the final match. A few of her opponents had some skill, but still couldn’t keep her hooves from pummeling them into submission in relatively short order. She was still left wanting a real challenge, and was getting disappointed winning the pot so easily. The final act turned out to be something entirely different. And much more to her liking.

Swift stands in the center of the ring, trying to run through her head on all of the fights she’d seen, and who could possibly be left. But she wasn’t prepared for who stepped into the ring from the opposing side.

With a roar from the crowd, and more than a bit of fanfare, the brown earth pony guard from the front gate parts from his friend with the glowing eyes. And her very sponsor for this fight strolls in to meet her as the older buck with the sunglasses watches with a grin.

Swift stares daggers at him and asks with disgust in her voice, “Oh, seriously? What, you didn’t like the thought of me winning so now you’re going to cheat?!”

The stallion grins at her. “There ain’t no cheating, sweetheart. I am the final round. Even if it weren’t you standing here, I’d still be fighting in this round.”

Swift snorts. “Uh huh. I bet.” She stands up straight and grins at him as she grinds her hoof into the ground. “I’m not throwing the match and I’m not holding back. I told you I would win, and if it’s your flesh standing between me and the prize money… Well… You’ve already been warned, so it’s your fault for agreeing to this.”

The stallion starts stretching as he grins back. Without his armor she can see his muscles plainly rippling through-out his body under his pelt. “I ain’t gonna hold back either, filly. I’ve been watching you and, I gotta say, I’m looking forward to this match. Been a while since somepony even looked like they knew what they were doing in here… You want that prize money, you gotta get through me. Come and get it!”

Swift charges at him as she screams with glee in her eyes, “Gladly!”

Hooves, sweat, and blood fly in the middle of the arena as the two duke it out. The crowd is mesmerized, but, even though they aren’t actively fighting, their own stamina doesn’t let most of them stay with the fight. It’s just exhausting to watch.

Some are surprised to learn that, even after leaving, going home, sleeping, and coming back, that the fight is still raging on.

The fight continues over night, with lights and lamps being lit up to illuminate the crater center, and into the next day. Nonstop. As neither one yields and it seems that the audience is viewing some ancient legend. By the middle of the next day, cheering had nearly been all but eliminated, and the audience’s only sounds were from various accounts of surprise or sympathy at the blows. After they had been fighting for over a day, and the day was already coming to a close, both of them were battered and bruised but started squaring off for another round of blows.

The brown buck takes in a deep breath and looks around at the crowd as they circle each other.

The excitement of the tournament was gone. What he was greeted with now, wasn’t the cheering of fans, but faces of complete disbelief. Like they were all watching a train wreck they were powerless to stop. In short: it just wasn’t as fun for anypony anymore. This had dragged on way too long for that. He turns around and starts walking towards the edge of the arena. And then whispers to the announcer over the fence.

Swift looks around with her eyes wild wondering what form of trickery and underhoofedness he was going to play this time. As the gate on the side opens, and a few ponies step in, Swift yells, “This is one on one, if calling in goons to help you ain’t cheating than what is?!”

The guard looks over his shoulder at her and rolls his eyes, “The fights over, filly.”

Swift grinds her hoofs into the ground and feels getting fueled by an even larger burning of rage as she prepares to charge the newcomers. “No it’s not. I haven’t given up. I still wanna fight!”

The brown buck starts laughing then heads to ,and out, the gate entrance. “Yeah? Well, I don’t want to. I got too much to do around here. So, enjoy the win.”

Swift’s eyes go wide in surprise as she asks in a tone that sounds more like a belch than intentional communication, “Wha?”

A pair of assistant ponies come in with water and a medical kit as the announcer comes into the middle of the ring. “Fillies and gentlecolts, we have a winner and new champion! Give it up fooor Swiiiiiiiift!” he bellows into an old beat up metal megaphone.

The crowd absolutely loses its mind cheering. They scream with more gusto than they had even during the beginning of the tournament. This is the kind of excitement that only comes about from something truly new being presented. Their champion was no push over. And, while she didn’t manage to knock him out she did manage to fight him to a standstill, and make him concede defeat. Even if it was only because he had someplace else to be.

It was a war of attrition, against an unseen clock, and she won.

She’s completely bewildered and the next few hours pass by in a fog as she’s tended to and various ponies congratulate her on her feat. She’s earned a level of respect in the town that couldn’t even be bought. But she’s not exactly sure how to feel about it.

She walks around doing a bit of shopping with her winnings, picking up a bit of tool polish for Handy and a few other niceties for the kids. She can’t help but wonder how things are going to go. On one hoof, she likes being acknowledged for her skill. But, post excitement and adrenaline rush, she becomes very aware that becoming famous can be dangerous. Especially with the Institute after them. She also becomes aware of something else that starts instantly bugging her.

Where the hell is Gearing, and why hasn’t he checked up on her?

Gearing, being the workaholic who has the decided advantage of not needing sleep like regular ponies, never took a break during the entire time Swift was fighting. As he’s carefully setting down the very last piece of equipment he could get away with removing, he has a realization. He looks at the pile he’s accumulated and wonders how in the world he’s going to manage to get all this back to Stable 68. As he’s deep in thought he feels a looming presence grow behind him.

He hops away and jerks in such a way to spin and crouches down to look behind himself to see who this potential adversary could be. His first thoughts are of a double cross, or maybe someone trying to steal his hard earned loot from him. After all. With his skill the equipment has come out in pristine shape and would be exceedingly valuable to even the most common pleb.

He looks up.

And up.

And up some more.

There, not far away, is a massive red unicorn. It’s got to be the biggest stallion he’s ever seen. Probably right in line with Big Macintosh himself. He always thought those descriptions were a joke. An exaggeration. But, what’s staring down at him now is no joke. He curses to himself for not bringing some poison darts as he realizes in a head on physical altercation this stallion could possibly trounce him into the ground. Gearing blinks a few times to try and clear away some confusion.

No, that’s not true. Why would I think that? Gearing ponders as even the little blue pegasus in his head shrugs in confusion.

The disheartening thought accompanies him on the journey up the stallion’s face, and to the horn on their head.

Gearing stares at it a moment, then brings his eyes back down and asks, with only the slightest bit of hope in his ticking heart, “Pharynx?”

The stallion nods and says, “Yup.”

Gearing flops down on his rear in relief. “Well…” He looks Pharynx over again and comments, “Milks done a body good, I see. You don’t stop growing and you’ll end up being as big as a mountain.”

Pharynx shakes his head hard. “Well, I wouldn’t want that…” He looks over the massive pile of equipment Gearing’s accumulated as he tilts his head. “What’s all this?”

Gearing turns around and says with a sheepish grin,“Well… I did some haggling and I think I may have gotten a bit more than I can carry.” He looks at Pharynx and asks, “Mind giving a lil’ ole clockwork a hoof with all this?”

Pharynx tilts his head. “I can haul a lot, but I can’t fit all that in my saddle bags.”

Gearing slaps a hoof over his eyes with one hoof then raises the other as he says with a self annoyed sigh, “Wait here a minute, I’ll be right back.”

He tracks down the head maintenance pony and practically begins begging as a conversation starter. Breaker Bar is amused, but doesn’t want to cough up any more than he’s already given to Gearing. So he asks with a sigh, “What do you want now?”

Gearing puts his hooves together as he pleads, “I need to get all that junk back to my workshop… but… It’s not exactly going to stow neatly in my saddle bags. Not even with my friends helping… you got a cart I could borrow… I promise to bring it back, and I’ll even give it a Gearing Grade overhaul while I’m at it as thank you!”

The maintenance pony laughs and leads him to the back loading dock. He kicks backwards with his back right hoof on a box made of scrap. “Here ya go… it’s a bit rough looking, but it’ll do ya.”

Gearing bows his head and puts his front hooves together as high as they can go. “Thank you so much! I’ll return it in even better shape than I got it!”

Breaker Bar goes back to work as he brushes it off. “Well it’s just cobbled together anyway. So even if you don’t it’s not a real loss.”

Gearing gives it a quick once over, and fixes a few problems with the wheels that might make it stick along the way. Which would be a big problem if they got on the road and suddenly had to run. He takes the cart, heads back to Pharynx, and shows off their new wheels.

The two fit as much as they can in their respective bags, mainly smaller and more sensitive components, then load up the cart with everything else. This part goes by far faster, and Gearing can’t help but just sigh and get out of the way, as everything gets coated in Pharynx’s red magical aura and just floats itself in rapid succession into the wagon in a nice neat arrangement.

Magic. Gearing likes his wings but, at times like this, he can’t help but being at least a little jealous of the horny bastards.

As Gearing is admiring the horde in the back of the cart, and realizing he actually could fit some more into it, he sticks an item he’d left for dead last into his saddle bag. He didn’t want to risk the particularly valuable circuit board getting damaged with all the hustle and bustle, so it’s only now that he finally packs it up. Though, as he’s headed to the front to hook himself up to his cart of loot, he finds that Pharynx has already helped himself to the harness and has hooked up to the cart.

Gearing looks it all over then up at Pharynx. “You sure, big guy? I wasn’t expecting you to do it yourself. I was going to pull it. It’s mostly my crap anyway.”

Pharynx nods. “Yup. No problem. I can pull way more than this.”

Gearing laughs and looks back at the maintenance center before turning back to Pharynx. “Even if there was anything else I could take out of there, I wouldn’t feel safe hauling that much at once… this is probably a mistake as it is. Bigger haul means bigger target.”

As the two start meandering towards the front gate to park the cart, Gearing asks, “Have you seen Swift? I’ve had my head buried in wires and circuitry for days it seems.”

Pharynx replies with a shake of his head. “It has been days. I don’t know how you could keep at it like that. You and Swift both. It’s crazy. I’ll bet if we ask the guards at the gate, they’ll know where she is. Whole town’s talking about her fight.”

After her small shopping trip, Swift decides she’ll drop by the front gate guard post before heading off to look for Gearing. She’s a little miffed that he hasn’t seen fit to at least check on her. The fact she can take care of herself is entirely besides the point. She hasn’t known him long, and isn’t sure she can completely trust him yet. And this lack of concern for her well-being isn’t helping his case. Not to mention the lack of decency of letting her know he’s okay.

Just before she gets to the guard outpost by the front gate, she’s halted by someone calling her name.

She looks at the side street and sees the older glowing eyed guard from before leaning up against the wall next to his younger brown friend. “Leaving already?” he asks as he tilts his glasses down to look at her with his luminescent eyes.

She walks over, opens her bag, and pulls out a small sack of caps. She drops it at the hooves of the brown guardspony and says with a grin as she looks at him, “Was looking for you actually. Half the pot, 500 caps, as agreed.”

The brown stallion scoops it up and tosses them in the air a bit to feel the weight. “Real nice of you to keep up your end of the bargain. Saves me from having to track you down.”

Swift eyes him for a moment before asking, “Who are you? Really? You’re not just some guard. You fight too good for that…” She directs her eyes towards the glowing eyed buck. “And what do you want? Running into you here isn’t a coincidence, I’m sure.”

The brown stallion grins and starts heading down the street as he says, “I’m not the one you need to be talking to right now.” He glances at the glowing eyed older stallion and says with a sigh, “I’ll leave you two to it.” Then he quickly heads back towards the center of town.

The glowing eyed stallion steps away from the wall as he motions towards Swift with a hoof. “You can call me Big Daddy.”

Swift’s face grimaces. “That old geezer stallion?”

Big Daddy waves a hoof towards the arena. “You mean the glue spot? No, he was just some crazy bastard. I’m the real Big Daddy.”

Swift frowns heavily. “Well, you’re going to have to think of something else for me to call you, cuz I ain’t calling you that.”

Big Daddy leans towards her and tilts his head. “Why not?”

Swift practically growls. “It’s demeaning. I refuse.”

Big Daddy chuckles. “Well, it’s my name… but call me Big if you have to.”

Swift nods, feeling far more comfortable with that. “Big. Sure. So… what do you want with me?”

Big Daddy points towards her. “You’re one hell of a fighter… How’d you feel about joining the Reapers?”

Swift tilts her head. “Who’s the Reapers?”

Big Daddy points towards himself, then off towards the vague direction of Hoofington. “We’re the Reapers. Baddest group of fighters around. We’ve got a pretty nice spot in the Hoofington Arena.”

Swift frowns and half closes her eyes as she stares at him. “What kind of gang are you? Are you good ponies or bad?”

Bid Daddy waves a hoof around. “Matter of perspective.”

Swift tilts her head. “Fine then… What do you all do and I’ll figure it out for myself.”

“Keep things in check and make sure anyone that fucks with the system or us gets what’s coming to them.”

“And who do you go after?”

“Other gangs that get too big for their boots. Raiders… cull their numbers every now and then... those crazy Steel Ranger bastards.”

“And what about simple traders that are just trying to get by?”

Big Daddy shrugs. “As long as they don’t fuck with us or cause any problems we don’t bother them, generally.”

Swift still isn’t sure, but it has some possibilities. “And what would my duties entail, if I agreed?”

Big Daddy points at her. “Well, you can pretty much do what you want, as long as you come when you’re called if we’re having a problem and someone needs dealt with… help out your fellow Reaper if they need it... You’ll also need to return to defend your place. Beyond that, you can be your own pony.”

Swift tilts her head. “And what if I can’t make it for whatever reason?”

Big Daddy shrugs. “There’s always room for extenuating circumstances, but don’t make a habit out of it.”

Swift looks down at the ground as she thinks about it. The prospect of having some good fights is very tempting. And if Big Daddy’s their leader, they must have some decent fighters among them… And anyone that can give them problems, has got to be a good fighter as well. She looks up as she says point blank, “I’ll have to think about it.”

Big Daddy motions towards the gate. “Well, come to the Hoofington Arena when you decide… If you change your mind sooner, there’s a local area where wannabes try their hoof at becoming a Reaper. A preliminary of sorts. It’s a bit north of here on the way to Hoofington. It’s in Freight Car gang territory, but they’ll be on their best behavior for the next couple days with us there. After that, you’ll have to deal with the normal wannabe route and fight through a bunch of others at the Arena. I’m not blowing smoke up your tail. You’re good. You also have the right attitude. I could almost guarantee you a place in the top ten from what I’ve seen. You’d still have to earn it though, but you have the potential. It’d be worth it for you to join. But it’s your decision.”

Swift nods then, before she can ask her next question, she sees a large flash of sparkle out of the corner of her eye. She looks in that direction and sees Gearing and Pharynx headed towards the front gate from a different lane. She hops up and starts after them as she says, “I’ll be in touch.”

Big Daddy just waves after her before turning to head down the opposite direction as he re-adjusts his sunglasses. “You do that.”

As Gearing is starting to help Pharynx with the straps to detach him from the cart, Swift runs up and yells, “There you two are! What have you been doing this whole time?!”

Gearing stops and looks at Swift. “Ah! We were just looking for you.” He looks over his shoulder at his horde, then back to Swift as he motions towards it. “Been working off my debt and getting supplies.”

Swift eyes the entire pile and asks in disbelief, “You buy the whole town or something?!”

Gearing chuckles and shakes his head. “Nah, just bartered my skills for spare equipment they didn’t need and we could use. Pharynx here’s helped me load and haul it.”

Swift looks over at Pharynx and asks as she cranes her neck to look up at him. “You’ve gotten bigger… again.”

Pharynx laughs. “So I’ve been told.”

They start to set out and Swift jumps up into the back of the cart. There’s enough space for it and she’s so exhausted that the hard metal and pointy edges feel like a fluffy cloud. As she cozies in she moans, “I’m sooooo exhausted… feel like I’ve been up forever.”

Pharynx doesn’t seem to care at all about the added weight and simply comments, “Well, it has been almost two days since we left.”

Swift nods lightly, before nodding off. “That explains it.” Then she completely falls asleep.

They continue on towards the stable with Gearing in the lead. He looks at Pharynx and comments, “If you need a rest let me know and I’ll take over.”

Pharynx shakes his head. “Nah, I’m pretty fresh. I can take it the whole way.”

Gearing nods and continues taking point, keeping a keen eye out for any opposition. He looks over his shoulder and says to Pharynx as he makes an abnormal turn, “I’m going to take us through an indirect route. Just in case anyone’s following us. Don’t want to lead them home.”

Pharynx nods and continues trotting behind Gearing. “Sure. You just lead the way and I’ll follow along.

Several hours into the walk Gearing starts looking around and his eyes start focusing weirdly. It’s common knowledge, for those that actually know any of them, that, thanks to the curse, clockworks don’t need to breath, eat, or sleep. They can if they wish, but don’t have to. And, since there’s no real benefit to doing so and most things consumed have little to no flavor, most don’t bother unless they are doing so for purely social reasons. To try to at least seem more pony like. To grasp every tiny thread of equinity they can.

What isn’t so commonly known is that sometimes, if a clockwork overexerts themselves, especially mentally, for prolonged periods of time without doing whatever they need to to recuperate, things start getting wonky for them. It’s as if the mental wiring gets crossed and they start acting weird. Atypical even. Or, possibly, the magic that makes up their body, and confines their soul to their metallic prisons, gets overtaxed just keeping them together and strains their mental connection to the world.

Which may help explain why Gearing starts seeing a disembodied unicorn skull floating in the air not far in front of them.

Although, despite being a clockwork, he hasn’t been in this situation very often. Although, and even worse, like most psychosis, the one in the middle of it doesn’t realize what’s really going on anyway. He continues trotting along for a while as he keeps his eyes on the floating pony skull that seems wreathed in magical energy.

Gearing tilts his head while looking at it as he asks, “Hey, Pharynx, is there another of your kind? How many of you floating skulls are out here?”

Pharynx looks at him and raises an eyebrow. “Floating skulls? What are you talking about?”

Gearing points at the waving skull in the air in front of himself with a wing as he comes to a stop. “That… That’s how you looked when we found you… though… the rest of your skeleton was there too, so this is a bit different.”

Pharynx looks at the vast empty space in front of Gearing and says with annoyance, “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. Is this some kinda joke?”

Gearing blinks a few times and the skull disappears as Pharynx passes him. Gearing quickly whips his head and eyes around as he groans. “Ummm… Crap… Maybe this place is haunted… I’ve heard of that… Those that have violently died coming back to torment the living… and the wasteland’s got to have a few million like that!”

Gearing looks into the back of the cart and sees Swift, sound asleep. But not in a way that would be normal. To his great horror, Swift seems to be burning. She’s completely wreathed in flames and looks like she’s the unfortunate victim of an incendiary grenade as she lays curled up on the pile of goods.

Gearing screams, “Fire! Fire! Stop, Swift’s on fire!” as he takes flight towards the back.

Pharynx is highly alarmed and twists his head back around to look into the back of the cart as he comes to a sudden halt. Gearing bounds up, and jumps onto the back edge of the cart. He starts slapping Swift all over and trying to use his own wings to smother the flames out.

To say that Swift is given a rude awakening, would be putting it kindly. She awakes with a jolt as Gearing half-ponypiles her, then proceeds with, and continues, slapping her all over with both hoof and wing. She’s not the nicest person when she’s first awakened anyway, and getting clopped a thousand times by metal hooves didn’t do anything to help the situation. So, when she sprung up with her powerhoof, catching Gearing full in the jaw and sending him tumbling back off balance on his hindlegs, and off the back of the wagon, it was no surprise at all.

To anyone but Gearing that is.

Gearing picks himself up and shakes his head. He looks at her as he holds his jaw, checking for dents, as he asks, “What was that for?!”

Swift hops up and glares at him practically crouched as she debates pouncing on him. “That’s my line! Why were you attacking me in my sleep, you coward?!” She starts twitching with excitement. She’s slow to trust, and he certainly hasn’t earned hers yet despite all the selfless acts he’s done to help out her and the other members of the stable. He’d definitely been earning points, but this act of barbarism against a defenseless sleeping filly only solidifies her assumption that he’s an unknown variable that needs… checking.

Gearing hops up and points at her with both hooves. “You’re on fire! I was just trying to put you out. How can you not feel that?!” He leans towards her and eyes her quizzically. “Is this one of those balefire mutation things? Like you burst into flames when you’re asleep or something? As a defensive mechanism? You coulda warned me about that instead of making me worry, geeze.”

Swift eases up a bit and look down at herself, then starts looking around. She turns and stares at Pharynx as she asks, “What the hell’s he talking about?”

Pharynx shakes his head for emphasis with each syllable he speaks, “No i-dea.”

Gearing looks back and forth, feeling quite hurt that Pharynx isn’t backing him up on this. Swift’s very life was in danger and he wants to joke around. Gearing shakes his head and looks back at Swift.

The fire’s gone, and Swift looks like she normally does. Except even more disgruntled than normal.

He walks up cautiously and reaches his neck out as far as he can as he eyeballs her. He snuffs loudly and sways side to side as he asks, “You’re not hurt?” He doesn’t catch even a hint of the horrible smell that accompanies burnt flesh and singed hair. Which only serves to confuse him even more.

Swift keeps her muscles ready to spring, in case he’s just trying to sucker her into lowering her guard. “Nooo… Except where you beat me up while I slept.”

Gearing flops down as he sighs. “Oh thank god. I was worried some of the equipment burst into flames or something… Handy’d kill me if anything happened to you and it was my fault. And I couldn’t really blame him.” He gets up and continues on the path to the stable as he says, “Well, let’s hurry up and get home.” Gearing is more than a little disturbed by the events going on. He knows what he saw. Maybe it was a spell matrix malfunction. Some kind of trick someone was playing on them? None of the thoughts are very pleasant. At minimum, that means someone else is there and worst of all…

It means someone is following them.

Pharynx exchanges glances with Swift before Pharynx shrugs and follows Gearing. Swift is beyond able to sleep at the moment. Not only has she been attacked in the middle of a much needed rest, ruining her sense of safety, and by a supposed ally at that, now, she has to worry if Gearing’s programming’s on the fritz. Even so, his reasoning showed he has a good heart with pure intentions. It was kind of sweet really. Or would have been if he wasn’t trying to smack her to the far side of the moon. Which makes it even worse as, now, she has to spend the entire night watching him to make sure there’s not another ‘misunderstanding’.

They don’t get very far before Gearing’s paranoia catches up to him and he starts looking back and forth quickly. “Hey. You see anything? Hear anything?” He whispers with a tone that is almost a quiet scream, “I don’t think we’re alone.”

Swift looks at Gearing from her position laying on the pile of supplies in the back of the cart. “Pharynx… can you knock him out? Without hurting him… or… at least without killing him? That horn’s more than just decoration, right?” Her desire to sleep has caught up and surpassed her desire to even appear friendly. She’s reached a mother’s level of ‘done with this shit’ and is so desperate for some good sleep that even Gearing’s potential death doesn’t feel like such a bad idea.

“Ayup.”

Gearing, feeling an overwhelming presence turns quickly, and then jerks his head up to look at Pharynx. “Oh. Hey. Did you see something?”

Gearing doesn’t even notice the giant hoof coming down before he completely blacks out. The giant magical shock that is accompanied with the hoof causes a flash of light that makes the immediate area almost daylight bright momentarily. Gearing flops over to the side, stiff as a board for a few seconds as he lays there and involuntarily twitches as electricity arcs across his outer gears and plating. A moment later, his body relaxes and he collapses down into a heap upon himself. Pharynx picks up Gearing with his magical levitation field, momentarily hanging him in the air like a dead chicken with his crystalline wings hanging down towards the ground limply, then sets him down into the cart behind him.

Pharynx continues on in a direct route towards the stable, with apparently no problem despite the haul that Gearing had managed to accumulate, and the combined weight of the passengers. Along the way Swift lays down, watching Gearing intently. She expects him to spring back up at any moment, and expects to have to clock him with her powerhoof any second. But, despite how she expects him to quickly recover from getting zapped by Pharynx, he stays down.

After a while of this, Swift’s eyelids start drooping and she decides she’s stood watch long enough. If he wakes up and starts anything, they’ll knock him out again. Or she’ll just kill him. Either way, she’s getting some sleep now.

Footnote: Internal component 03 not responding. . .

Internal component 04 not responding. . .

Internal component 05 not responding. . .

This chapter provides a bit more information about a couple characters, and plants a few story seeds for future harvesting. And, as usual, actions have consequences, which some of those will be explained sooner than later. Starting with next weeks post really. I just hope I've planned the format correctly.

As always, comments, critiques and questions welcome and encouraged.

-Quillsy