In the wee hours of the night a bit of movement catches Gearing’s eye every now and then as he sees the security officer’s head bobbing. She sits there, watching him, and every now and then shaking her head as she tries to stay awake. She doesn’t yawn, she doesn’t let herself, but eventually, and despite her best efforts, her head slumps over and she starts to fall sideways as she literally falls asleep sitting up.

Gearing catches her, gently picks her up, and lays her on the bed nearby. He covers her with the provided sheet, the first time it’s been used the entire time, then goes back to sitting in the corner.

The next morning she awakes with a gasp and a soft moaned cry that causes Gearing’s eyes to jump wide open and look at her sideways as his ears turn to face her. That didn’t sound like any kind of nightmare noise. Quite the opposite.

She springs up in bed and looks around. She starts moving her forehooves lower under the sheets as she checks herself in edging panic.

“You fell asleep,” Gearing says from his spot in the corner, causing her to roll over and stare at him. He gives her a mischievous grin as he says, “Sounded like you had a rather sweet dream.”

“Shut up!” She flushes and kicks away the sheet as she quickly looks around at anything but him as she gets out of bed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Gearing smiles wide enough that his eyes close. “Your blushing says otherwise.”

She stomps her hooves around as she tries to think of some retort, but can’t, then walks out as she mutters, “I’ll be right back, I need to use the restroom.”

Gearing waves a hoof at the door. “Help yourself. You know where I’ll be.”

Not long after, she comes back with an appearance like she’d used the bathroom sink to wash her face to help wake herself up. And get rid of the crimson shades from her normally pale gray coat. She sits down and looks at the bed as she shakes her head. She tucks her legs under herself, and lays down, as she looks at him and slowly grows a smile. “I knew it… you were a perfect gentlestallion. Despite a very prominent opportunity.”

Gearing rolls his eyes. “I’m not a rapist…”

She stifles a yawn with her hoof then gives him a soft smile. “I know… I was pretty sure I’d judged you correctly.” She looks at the untouched tray she’d brought in the day before and asks, “You hungry yet?”

Gearing rolls his eyes again and mutters. “Nope.”

She grins at him and tilts her head. “Okay… just checking.” A moment later her stomach begins a rolling rumble that crescendos into a marching band’s drumline. Her eyes jump wide and she flushes as she gives a sheepish grin.

Gearing’s eyes jump wide and his ears point to her, causing her to flush even more. He snickers and pushes the tray towards her. “I think you really need to eat.”

“Nope.” She shakes her head and settles in. “It’s been longer for you.”

Gearing frowns. “I don’t need it though.”

She lets out a sigh. “For you to get out of here, you have to be able to leave when the time comes… You can’t do that if your in some kind of starvation induced coma.”

“For fuck’s sakes,” Gearing says as he rolls his eyes. “I don’t need it.” He waves a hoof towards her. “You do… And, obviously, now!”

She stares at him for a moment then gets a mischievous grin across her muzzle. “I’ll make you a deal… you eat some… and I’ll eat some…”

He frowns and partially closes his eyes. “I told you I’m not worried about poisons.”

She shrugs and looks off to the side as her grin turns practically smug. “I’m not eating until you do… so… you eat something… and I’ll eat something.”

He motions towards her. “You first.”

She grins and shakes her head. “Nope…” She encompasses one of the fresher trays with her silvery levitation field and shoves it towards him as she says, “You eat something, then I’ll eat something.”

He stares at her for a few moments then rolls his eyes as he grabs one of the ‘cakes’ and takes off the packaging. “Stubborn ass mare… Fine.” He looks at her and narrows his eyes. “But one for one, I’m not wasting more than that.” He downs the cake in two bites, barely chewing before forcing it down.

She giggles then tilts her head as she asks rather smugly, “I thought you said you weren’t hungry?” She grabs one of the cakes and starts eating on it, giving it an instant frown as she looks at it after the first bite.

“I’m not…” Gearing snickers. “But you just wouldn’t give it up so I wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.”

She stares at it a moment and smacks her lips before she grabs one of the cups of water and takes a sip to try and wash it down. “I… I can see why.” She takes a few more quick bites then quickly uses the cup to force it down. She shakes her head as she looks at him with a sigh. “Yeah… not exactly the most appetizing… but it’s better than nothing.”

Gearing waves a hoof at her. “Says you.”

She pulls in another tray and pushes a bowl of mushy greens towards him. “Here you are.”

He looks down at it, then at her and waves towards her. “You first. I went first last time.”

She frowns and looks down at it as she sighs. “I guess… that’s fair…” She grabs it and starts moving the dark green substance around. She starts eating by taking a big bite then looks at him with a frown for a few moments without actually swallowing as she debates her life choices. After a few moments of hesitation she succeeds in the Herculean task of swallowing it. She looks down, then at him, before letting out an audible sigh and taking a deep breath before she quickly gobbles down the rest in the bowl.

He props his head up with one hoof as he watches her. “That good, huh?”

She wipes her mouth then smiles. “It’s not bad… like a salad…” She looks down at it and says quieter, “That’s been thrown in a blender…” She licks her lips and smacks them a bit. “Then boiled until even it doesn’t know what the hell it is…” She looks up at him and sees his grin, and then glares at him as she says, “Oh you better eat yours too!”

Gearing shrugs then lifts the bowl and practically drinks it down as she stares at him in disbelief.

She looks at his empty bowl, with even all the fluids gone, and asks wide eyed, “You actually liked that crap?”

Gearing shows the empty bowl towards her and raises a shoulder in a shrug. “I told you before… might as well eat the rocks. It’s all the same to me really. Don’t like it. Don’t hate it. It just is. And what it is, is a waste of time for me to eat.” He looks over at her and asks, “You still hungry?”

She raises a hoof to her mouth and looks like she’s about to puke. Instead she gives a soft soppy belch then shakes her head. “No… Really no.”

Gearing grins and settles in again. “Me neither.”

She rolls her eyes then grabs the empty dishes and puts them out into the hallway. She exchanges looks with a guard that looks at the empty dishes, then smiles, and takes the tray before giving a shrug and turning to leave back to the front desk. The guard says in a whisper over their shoulder as they are walking away, “Was told to tell you there’s been some progress and that someone will be down today to deal with the situation with the prisoner.”

Silver Aura grins widely before turning around and trotting over excitedly. “Gearing. Someone will be down soon to talk with you.”

Gearing mutters and rolls his eyes, “Yeah. I heard.”

The security officer sits down and smiles at him. “I’m sure this whole mess will be over soon.”

Gearing frowns at her. “Soon is a relative term. And I don’t much care for blind optimism.”

She frowns then asks quietly, “What do you care about then?”

Gearing looks at her as he settles back in. “Actions and results… Results are all that matters.”

She shrugs and smiles. “Well… we’ll have results soon too.” She gives a prim nod for emphasis.

Gearing frowns and rolls his eyes before he looks at her. “Negative results don’t count… and unnecessary delays cause negative results… Delays timetables. Gets ponies killed.” He shakes his head. “Blind optimism again, filly.”

The door opens at the end of the hall and draws both of their attentions. The elegant voice echoing down the hall causes the security officer to spring to her feet with joy exploding across her muzzle. “Princess Celestia! See! I bet she came back just to handle this personally! I’ll be right back!” She scampers out of the cell and down the hall, not noticing Gearing’s eyes go wide and him starting to violently shake.

Celestia walks down the hall, looking side to side, then smiling and tilting her head as she greets Silver Aura, “Good morning.”

The security officer dips respectfully and grins up at her. “Good morning, Princess.”

Celestia looks around and asks, “Where is this prisoner?” Her eyes settle on the pile of food outside of the jail cell as Silver Aura leads her back towards it.

Silver Aura follows her gaze then looks back up at her and says sheepishly, “He’s not been wanting to eat…”

Celestia frowns and looks over the pile. “For a while, I presume?”

Silver Aura nods. “Yes, ma’am. I was able to coax him to eat a bit not long ago. But, even so, he’s not had much since being here.”

Celestia walks forward and lets out a sigh. “Well, let’s get this sorted. Where is he?” She looks into the cell, and sees the bed capsized and turned so the mattress and frame is blocking their view to the far back right corner of the room.

Silver Aura looks in and her eyes go left and right as she tilts her head. “He was just… Gearing! Come on out. The princess is here to see you!” Nothing happens, not even a sound. She looks up at Celestia and nervously giggles as she says, “He’s… he’s just being shy… I think…” She looks into the room and hisses, “It’s rude to ignore the princess when she’s trying to talk to you!” Still nothing. She grumbles, “I told you she’d come to see you, but you didn’t believe me, come on out already!” Her horn glows as she yanks the mattress away from the wall and it falls and lays flat on the ground revealing...

More wall and nothing else.

Celestia looks around and raises an eyebrow. “Where- where is he?” She pushes the door open with a hoof and asks, “Did he escape?”

The security officer waves her hooves. “No! No, no, no. He wouldn’t do that. He’s just...” She looks into the room and lets out a long disgruntled sigh. “He’s got some kind of illusionary magic going on and I think he’s using it to hide.”

Celestia nods as she looks back and forth in the room. “I’m aware of that. It was used with his little prank.”

The pale gray mare looks sheepishly at Celestia as she grinds a hoof into the ground but tries to think of what to do. She looks into the cell and grumbles, “Gearing, if you don’t come out of hiding, I’m going to zap you again!”

Celestia’s eyes go wide as she stares at the security officer.

“Have it your way!” Silver Aura says as she starts firing bursts of the blue bursting magic into the room going from right to left and not stopping until she’s panting and sure she’s covered the entire floor. She looks around and sits down. “Just… just where is he?”

A rock falls to the ground from above the door and a slow grind of metal on stone greets their ears.

The security officer leans forward low to the ground and looks up in the corner, above the door, and sees Gearing, in his metallic flesh, wedged with his hooves somehow causing enough friction to keep him stuck in place by sheer force against the two adjoining walls.

Until enough of the stone slides away and he comes tumbling down to the stone floor. Hard. He impacts on his head, then flops over onto his back, half way out of the cell and belly side up.

The hall rings with a metallic clatter as he lets out a moaned, “Ow.”

He lays on his back splayed out with his eyes closed as he rubs his head. Gearing opens his eyes and looks up into the smiling faces of both Celestia and Silver Aura as they lean over and look down at him.

He starts shaking and looks around quickly, then starts using his hind hooves to quickly kick and motor himself back into the cell, where he doesn’t stop until he’s slid back into the corner, as he blurts out, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to escape. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to escape!”

He motors himself into the corner until he actually rises against the corner then flops back over onto his belly and backs his rear into the corner again as he covers his head with his forehooves. “I’m sorry!” He huddles there shaking violently as the two stare in at him.

“Gearing,” Celestia’s voice calls over and silences his blubbering. He opens one eye to look at her and it jumps all over her form as he shakes and tries to figure out what’s going to happen. She maintains a level look on her face then says softly, “Rainbow Dash is in need of your help.” Gearing freezes and Silver Aura can’t help but notice the light switch change as he looks at her.

“Dash called for me?”

Celestia nods and motions towards the front door. “She’s in need of her assistant. The poor dear seems to be in over her head at the moment.”

Gearing looks between her and the security officer and asks, “May… may I go help her?”

Celestia nods. “You may. Consider it an order.”

Gearing looks around and asks, “Do… do I need to come back after?”

Celestia stares at him for a moment then gives a single shake of her head. “No. You do not.”

Gearing looks around and asks, “Am I… free to go?”

Celestia nods and steps back as she points a hoof and a wing towards the front door. “You may.”

Gearing walks towards her, slinking across the ground ever so slowly, watching her closely as he motors his legs in such a way that he stays against the wall tracing the border of the floor as his head stays focused on Celestia and jumps to every micro movement as he slowly makes his way to the jail cell door. He eases out of the cell, watching her carefully, and stepping ever so slowly one hoof at a time. But, his steps start picking up as he gets out of the cell and quickly starts zipping down the hall until he’s at a full run. He runs straight at the guards who are standing there with keys ready to take off his restraints.

But he jumps over, and past, them and he’s already most of the way up the flight of stairs, beyond the door, before the door has even closed behind him.

By the time Gearing gets to the door to where Dash is currently confined, the bindings on his wings and forelegs have been removed and he’s picked up a satchel from the same guard who shows him the rest of the way. Gearing walks past the guards at the door and can’t help but snicker as he sees Rainbow Dash behind a massive desk and surrounded in a mountain of paperwork.

Celestia wasn’t above punishing Dash for her joke, and one good prank deserves another by Luna’s count, but it had to be postponed until the ministry mare could be spared. That took some doing. Celestia’s punishment of choice, it seems? Magically binding Dash’s wings to herself, and making her go to a room with a huge stack of paperwork all over the place. And, worst of all, she’s to be stuck there and not allowed to leave until it’s all sorted.

At least as far as she knows.

Gearing was sent to help because, while ‘terrible’, the punishment wasn’t supposed to last long and she really is needed elsewhere.

Rainbow Dash starts sorting through the paper as she moans and practically cries shamelessly, “This is sooo boring… I can’t even fly!” She holds up a piece of paper and rotates her head back and forth. “What is this even? I can’t even understand this. What does it even mean? Who wrote this?!” She pauses as she turns the paper sideways. “... Oh… I did… Well, it sort of makes sense, figuring out the rest is somepony else’s problem…” Her eyes bug out as she takes in a deep breath and bellows out, “I’m that somepony else! Nooooooo!” She flops down on the floor and puts her hooves over her head before kneeling and throwing her hooves out and to the sides as she yells up at the ceiling, “Of all the worst things that could have happened, this is the. Worst. Possible. Thing!”

Gearing walks by calmly with a stack of papers as Dash has apparently communed with the universe and decided to channel the essence of Rarity to properly express her thoughts on the matter. “My life is oveeerr,” she moans as she sniffles with her shoulders sagging.

Rainbow Dash crawls over to the desk, with her head laying to the side on the top of it and looking at page after page as she tries to figure out where they should go. She groans and looks over at the closed door for a moment before bellowing out, “Geeaaarrring! Heeelp meeee!”

Gearing comes around the stack of papers and offers her a box of tissues for her running nose. “You know I’ll always be there for you when you call.” Rainbow Dash grinds her forehead into the desk as she groans.

Dash blows her nose noisily and sniffles, “This is sooo boring! Help!”

Gearing uses a couple chairs as improvised tables as he starts going back and forth tossing pages between them and starts clearing the neigh-impenetrable fortification of paper around Dash. “No pony left behind! Hang in there, Dash, we’ll get through this by sticking together! I got you covered!” Gearing’s face takes on the super serious scowl normally worn by the royal guards.

Dash waves a hoof dismissively and moans. “You do it…”

“Yes, ma’am!” Gearing says with a salute. “Dismantling of northwest tower in progress, please stay clear.” He grabs a large stack of papers and starts trot marching around as he shuffles out the papers into appropriate stacks.

Dash waves a hoof in the air and yells from her position hanging on the side of the desk, “Show no mercy!”

Gearing salutes again. “Ma’am! Yes, Ma’am! Zero mercy confirmed!”

“I wanna fllyyyyyyyy,” Dash moans as she randomly pushes pieces of paper back and forth on the desk without any real goal to the motion except to maybe move.

Gearing looks around at the various piles on the chairs and finally sets the pile he’s currently working down on the floor. He scrunches down a bit then starts turning around as his visage changes. He waits until the change has finished before he starts moving again.

Dash looks at the large dark blue pegasus with the blue mane in front of her. A form that had struck her practically as a bit smaller, and bluer, Big Mac with wings from the first time she’d seen it, though even back then already knowing exactly why it was designed that way without having to ask, and says softly, “Gearing. You don’t need to hide yourself like that.”

Gearing turns towards her and smiles lightly. “I think I’ve caused enough of a ruckus for you and everyone else for now… The more time I have to waste explaining to people what I am, the less time I’m using to get through this mess.”

Dash watches him walk to the door and open it as she grumbles miserably.

“Halt!” a pair of royal guards standing there say in unison and cross lances barring the exit. “None are permitted to leave until the punishment has been completed. By order of Princess Celestia.”

Gearing looks at them and rolls his eyes. “My commander requires more supplies to complete her task… File boxes, labels, here… I’ll give you a list.” He looks down then groans. “Fuck… I forgot I had to take my PipBuck off…”

“We’re under orders not to let anypony out until the task has been completed,” one of the guards stares at him stern faced as he speaks.

Gearing grabs one of the folders nearby and scribbles down a list. He offers it to the guards, but they don’t move and stand there staring at him. Gearing’s eyes narrow on them and he spits the folder at them. Gearing looks between the two and glares down at the smaller pair of pegasi as he seems to puff up more and growls, “Either get the supplies, I don’t care how you do it, or you can explain to Celestia and Luna why you’re hampering one of Luna’s ministry mares from completing a job she explicitly ordered completed as fast as possible.”

The two guards’ eyes jump wide and look at each other for a moment.

Gearing turns around enough to show them his ass before saying, “We’ll be waiting. Don’t take long… You do not want me opening this door and asking again.”

As Gearing is kicking the door closed with a hind hoof Dash, slightly amused, yells out, “Gearing, play nice with the silly guards. They’re only doing their job!”

Gearing trots over to her and grins. “Oh, it’s okay. They’re tough.” He drops the illusion and strikes his standard high winged pose causing the light to cascade around himself. “But there’s only two of them. I can take them if need be.”

Rainbow Dash giggles a bit. “Yeah, you probably could… but then we’d be in even more hot water with Celestia.” She groans and lays her head down again as she moans, “I wanna flyyyy.”

Gearing lays his head down, by resting his chin on the desk, as he looks at her across the desktop. “How about when we get finished with this we go for a nice long flight and get some ice cream?”

Rainbow Dash’s ears perk up, but she doesn’t say anything beyond mumbling.

Gearing snickers, then sets a metallic flask down in front of her, that he’d produced from the satchel at his side, and keeps his hoof on it as he says, “I’ll get you a peanut butter and zap apple jam sandwich for lunch when we’re done to go with the ice cream. Here. This should help keep you till I burn through all of this. Don’t worry, it won’t take me much longer when they come back with the labels.”

“What is it?” Dash asks as she eyeballs the flask with her head still on the desk.

Gearing grins and leans over the desk as he whispers almost into her ear, “Cider. Sweet Apple Acres reserve.”

He starts pulling back over the desk and Dash almost jumps over the desk to grab his forehoof with both of hers. “Gearing! You are the best assistant anypony could ever ask for. You’re smart. You can organize things quicker than anypony I know, and you’re attention to detail is ridiculous… You’d make an excellent administrator.”

Gearing’s right eye twitches as he smiles lightly. But, regardless of the praise and who it’s from, it’s an extremely forced smile. “Yeah… well… I… I just do what I can.”

Dash pulls his hoof back towards her as she asks, “You know why you’re not?”

Gearing tilts his head then shrugs.

Dash uses one hoof to hold his while using the other to gently pat it. “Because this is a soul sucking job, and I’d never wish this on anypony. I’d never do that to you. You’re too good of a friend!” Her eyes practically sparkle on the verge of tears as she stares him in the eyes. Then, in typical Rainbow Dash speed, the next moment she’s pulled back, flask in hoof, and is slowly sucking down the sweet nectar inside.

Gearing chuckles and goes back to setting the piles in a row. When the door knocks he switches into his blue pegasus persona again and opens the door.

Three Royal Guards glare at him, the one in the back being a unicorn that hovers in a crate of supplies. Gearing grabs the box from the unicorn, whose eyes seem to go a bit wide as Gearing effortlessly, and completely, pulls it out of their magical levitation field, then holds the box aloft with just a hoof and his shoulder. “Thanks. We’ll be finished within the hour.” He turns and closes the door, then sets down the box with a loud crash.

Dash pulls the bottle away and smirks. “Careful. Don’t want to break anything.”

Gearing rolls his eyes. “It’s not like I sat on it.” He rips the crate top off and starts unfolding the boxes inside, filling them with relevant papers, and slapping a label on the side, along with a few sheets on top to function as an index of content.

Twenty-five minutes later he opens the door again, and a large stack of boxes take up half the office as Dash sits in the chair behind the desk and spins around in a circle while licking the inside of the flask.

Gearing looks at the guards and motions towards the boxes. “Mission accomplished.”

The guards look beyond him and look at each other. The one on the left replies, “We’ll send for someone to confirm completion.”

Gearing stares at them for a few moments, and sees neither of them are moving. After a few moments of this stare off Gearing flops down into a seated position, intentionally hard, and causes the two guards to bounce slightly from the micro earthquake. “Go ahead, I’ll wait.” He folds his forehooves and stares at them.

“Gearing,” Dash says with a slight chuckle. “Play niiiice.”

Gearing gives a forceful snort. “Yes, Ma’am.” He continues to glare at them and finally says, “I. Don’t. Blink.” And smirks as he opens his eyes to their fullest and seems to stare a hole through their very soul.

After they finally reach the station, Swift helps them down to the stable door and starts the process of opening it as Pharynx disconnects himself from the cart. Once inside the stable, Pharynx goes off on his own and leaves them to their own devices, feeling that his job is done and he’d really like a rest himself.

Sable stands at the interior of the door, along with a few of the protectaponies, to welcome them back with a wide smile. Her smiles fades as she looks around and doesn’t see Gearing anywhere in the entrance area.

“Subject Swift, where is my love, Gearing? Is he not with you?” she asks with growing concern.

Swift looks at her, rather confused for a moment. This propagation of sentient AIs is an oddity. She shakes her head and can’t help but scold herself. There’s a filly here worried about her lover. She can easily place herself in Sable’s horseshoes. If it had been Handy… Swift locks eyes with Sable and nods back towards the cart. “He’s in the back of the cart. He overworked himself getting the supplies for the stable…” As she passes Sable she says, quietly, “Take good care of him, Sable.” She slowly walks as fast as her hooves will carry her back to her room.

However, once inside her quarters, she gets a burst of energy as she sees her bed… which she proceeds to burn with a bounding flop onto the comfy before her, falling asleep immediately.

Upon hearing Swift’s last comment to her, Sable grins and says happily, “Confirmed!” then she scampers over to the cart to peek into the back. She finds Gearing in the back, crumpled in a heap, in the same position that Pharynx had left him in. She checks him and breathes a sigh of relief, her version of it anyway, as, despite the incomprehensible stillness, he’s very much alive according to his PipBuck.

The protectaponies help fish him out of the back of the cart and hand him off to Sable. Sable, after taking possession of him by gently wrapping him up in restraining cables and carrying him on her back, takes him back down to their room in the lower levels near the Research and Development department. The protectaponies unload all of the supplies that were in the back of the cart, and take them to various places of storage, mostly in the R&D department, as directed by Sable through the stable’s network system.

Gearing stays in an exhaustion, and magically ‘aided’, induced state of unconsciousness for almost two days straight. Sable never leaves his side, and even has Cure come down to double check that her diagnosis is correct. Though she does discover the range of minor and moderate damage all over his body, which she intends to have taken care of after he wakes up as it’s not that serious. After being unresponsive for nearly forty hours, Gearing finally begins showing signs of moving again.

“Are you okay, my beloved?”

“Sable?” Gearing asks groggily before opening his eyes and finally returning to reality. When he does, he sees Sable point blank, nearly muzzle to muzzle with him, as she smiles warmly. Again, demonstrating her complete disregard and understanding for personal space. Even more so once Gearing realizes that Sable’s actually half laying on him. Although, in this particular case, he’s actually enjoying being partially smothered.

Sable nuzzles him a bit. “Yes, it is me, my love.”

Gearing wraps his forelegs around her, giving her a squeeze as he lets out a sigh of relief. Which she snuggles into readily. A moment later his eyes jump open to their fullest as he suddenly realizes the change in surroundings. “Sable… How’d I get in the stable?”

Sable snuggles in even more then, as she crawls more onto him now that he’s actually lucid, gives him a lick up his neck to his cheek. “Subjects Swift and Pharynx brought you in. Reportedly you worked yourself into a catatonic state.” She half closes her eyes as she touches muzzles and says softly, “You’ve been gone for days… then when you finally get back I’m still left without your… company.”

Gearing leans into the lick then turns his head to look at her, unable to help the smile growing across his face.

“Feeling rested, my love?” Sable asks.

Gearing nods as he nuzzles her cheek. “Mmhmm.”

Sable reaches up, and asks, “How about a bit of… relaxation… now?” directly into his ear before giving it a light bite.

Gearing chuckles as he rolls over, taking her with him and changing positions with her. “Hmmm it has been a while… hasn’t it?”

Sable nods rapidly. “A week… too long.”

Despite the statement being a slight chronological exaggeration, Gearing gives her neck a little lick before he says softly, “Sorry to make you worry.”

Sable abandons all pretenses and takes control of the growing situation, much to Gearing’s delight. But, before they get too far along, Gearing pulls out of her grasp and stands up as he holds her hoof. She looks at him more than a little confused as he asks, “Where’s my saddle bag?”

She motions over towards a steamer style metal chest as she slowly stands up. “I placed it in the container while you slept. Is there something in there you need?”

He hurries over and starts rummaging through the chest, pulling out a variety of items as he says, “Yes! There’s something I want to show you.” He plops down on the floor and begins tinkering with the variety of supplies he had stowed in his saddlebag and the tools he keeps stashed around.

Sable walks up slowly leaning side to side to see what he’s working on, and trying to figure out what he’s up to. He smiles lightly as she strolls up behind him and starts nuzzling his shoulder. A moment later she’s lovingly licking his neck up to his cheek as she leans into him more.

Gearing can’t help but smile, but raises a hoof. “J- just gimme me a few more minutes. This’ll be worth it… I promise you.”

She sits down behind him with a plop and a disgruntled sigh. “If you insist… It’s mean of you to make me wait like this, you know, Gearing?” She leans in and, finding no reason not to, begins entertaining herself by distracting him. A nuzzle and a lick on the neck here. A nibble on the ear there. The more he shudders and leans into it, the more she actually enjoys herself. Teasing goes both ways. If she has to wait, then he has to put up with her ‘waiting’.

Gearing works as fast as he can as he tries his best to keep his mind on this task. At one point he jerks his head around, looking for a component that he doesn’t seem to have readily available. Then he hops up and scurries over to a set of drawers.

Sable’s grin instantly turns into an oversized frown as he practically runs away from her. She moans at the thought of him putting physical distance between them, and feels bad about being so distracting and making him feel the need to get away to work.

She’s pleasantly surprised, and further encouraged, when he scampers back and plops himself in the exact same position he was previously. Albeit with a bit more lean back into her. Gearing holds up a broken security camera he’d salvaged from one of the lower levels, and goes about expertly taking it apart. “Sorry, I needed the lens from this.”

Sable smiles and partially closes her eyes. “Understood.” She leans into him more, closing her eyes as she trails licks up his neck, to his ear, and gives them little nibbles.

After a few more minutes of this seemingly endless torture, Gearing holds a box aloft about twice the size of his hoof. “I think I got it!” He spins around and connects his PipBuck to it as he looks Sable in the eyes. “See if you can connect to this.”

Sable looks back and forth between them, then tilts her head. “Confirmed… unknown protectapony core discovered.”

Gearing sits down and leans in as he looks her in the eyes. “Can you control it?”

Sable nods. “Confirmed.”

Gearing gently picks it up and looks from her to the lens on the side of the box. “Can you see me… from it I mean?”

Sable nods and smiles. “Yes. I can see you from both units.”

Gearing cradles it and looks into her eyes. “I… I was worried about losing you. And this is the only thing I can think of to keep you safe. Inside of this box is an exact duplicate of the hardware for your neural net. Storage. Processing power. Everything.” He looks down at the box, tilting it, and looking into it’s camera as he caresses the side of it. “That way if something were to happen… If mantises or an accident or whatever h- happened…”

He leans in and looks her in the eyes, for once displaying a level of sadness he’s never registered across his face to her before. “You would still be okay. You have the ability to control both simultaneously… So if one chassis fails… you’ll still have a backup for you’re system… you. You’re very consciousness would live on.”

Sable looks at him for a few moments, from both perspectives, then says softly, “I’m not going anywhere, my darling Gearing. I won’t leave you alone again.”

There’s a twinge across his features. Ever so slight. But with her ability to detect even minutia, it might as well have been a balefire bomb explosion in its clarity.

She had guessed right.

She leans in and nuzzles his cheek, then gives it a loving, and long, lick. “I’m here for you, Gearing.”

He leans into it, and recomposes himself as he grins his overly enthusiastic grin. “Well. I’d said I had something I wanted to show you. So, here it is… but one more thing.” He gets up, scurries over to the chest, closes it, and sets the control box on the top. He stands to the side, carefully aiming the camera, and sticking his tongue out to the side as he judges the angle because of course that always helps.

Gearing slowly lets go of it as he looks at it and asks, “So… you can see… yourself… right?”

“Confirmed. Connection with core stable and optical equipment operating at peak efficiency.”

“Great!” He turns and starts walking over towards her. “Because… the gift I brought is…” He leans in and bites her ear before he says, “Now you get to watch as well.” And hops onto her, rolling around with her as she giggles and wraps her limbs around him.

Sable stares up at him with her eyes half closed as she runs her hooves up his chest. “Gearing… this… this is.” She grabs him, rolls over, and changes positions with him. As she repositions herself and leans down to kiss him, she leans up and kisses his cheek as she starts excitedly swaying and shaking her flank. “Oh, Gearing… this is just so… stimulating… It’s not like watching through a camera…” She begins rolling around with him, grinding into, kissing, and fondling various parts as she pays very careful attention to angles and makes sure she gives herself the best view of her escapades.

Footnote: Emergency Reboot Protocol Initiated. . .

Critical components reinitializing, please stand by. . .

Stabilizing ‘credential matrix’, please stand by. . .

Loading of ‘Blue Mac credential’ complete. . . awaiting matrix stabilization.

With this chapter the focus is brought back to the present with the return to Stable 68. Though the effects of the past are far from trivial, and not yet fully revealed. This whole sequence proved quite the challenge from a presentation side of things. Had thought of breaking it up, maybe presenting it in smaller pieces, but elected for the continuous bit for a variety of reasons. Namely some of the information from it is needed to be understood by the reader for later events to be fully appreciated, and I was worried it might get muddled if it wasn't presented as a continuous sequence. Though, back in "the present" there's a bit of tension building behind the scenes that some have already started guessing at. Though which way it'll break, only time will tell. ( And future chapters)

Again I'd like to thank everyone for their interest, help, and support with this ongoing project! It's truly appreciated!

As always, Questions, comments, and critiques are welcome and encouraged!

-Quillsy