Gauge opens the door to the front of the stable and stands there sorting through his bags as it slides out of the way. The default flat voice of the Stable AI comes from a speaker nearby.

“Subject Gauge, would you like assistance with your trip?”

Gauge waves it away. “No. I just want to get away from everyone for a bit, mmkay? There’s a few buildings I wanna check to see if I can find something to add to my collection.”

“Very well, Subject Gauge. Safe journey,” the voice replies.

Once outside he uses the controls and closes it back up before heading out on his trip. As the evening wears on he arrives at a Fixit Bro’s Hardware store and slips in through the broken back door. He’s drawn to the broken tool box in the back hallway and sifts through the contents that have been dumped out in the muddy sludge. He picks up the thoroughly rusted tools and puts them in his saddlebag as he says, “Better than nothing…”

After checking the rest of the building, and not finding a lot of other items worthy of his time, he heads out the front door and trots further down the road towards one of the more intact buildings. As he’s walking towards the three story building the wind changes and he scrunches his nose. “Smells bad, mmkay,” he grumbles before he continues forward. Gauge finds a collection of dead bodies in front of it, somewhat recently dead and getting putrid as they’ve been left in the road to rot. One of which is missing part of their head as they lay in a heap near the front door. Who they were Gauge can’t tell, as they have no items on their person to give away what may have been their origins. His only hope is that whoever did this is long gone from here as he continues inside.

The ground is littered with various spent brass cartridges and shotgun hulls as he walks up the steps cautiously. He walks further through the front and follows the pungent odor to a blackened door on the right. He peeks in and instantly pulls back as he has to cover his nose with a hoof as the entire inside has been blackened and burnt and, by the smell of it, some chemicals were used as an accelerant. “Arson is bad, mmkay,” he mutters.

“Hey! What’er you doin’!” a young filly’s voice yells from his left. He looks over and sees a pink earth pony scowling at him from the door to what seems like the stairs up. “This is our spot, we found it first!”

An orange mare pokes her head out a bit, and uses a foreleg to grab the filly and pull her back into the stairwell as she eyeballs Gauge nervously. “We- we don’t want any trouble. There’s not much here anyway.”

“But Ma!” the filly cries from the stairwell before getting muffled by her mother’s hoof.

Gauge waves his forehooves. “I don’t want any trouble either, mmkay?” He looks around as he asks, “I’m just looking for some Sugar Apple Bomb toys to add to my collection, mmkay?” The mare tilts her head and Gauge smiles as he explains, “For a few months they were giving out collectable toys inside of the boxes of cereal. There’s one hundred and forty four of them in total.”

The little filly’s head pops out as she looks at him and asks with a raised eyebrow, “Are they valuable?”

Gauge shrugs. “They’re kinda rare, mmkay. But most just look at them as worthless toys. But, to the right pony? Yeah.” He grins widely. “I had a spare of a ‘Rarity’s Gem Mine’ and swapped it for a stack of caps. And that was a common one, mmkay!”

The little filly rolls her eyes. “Grown ups pay for the dumbest stuff.”

The mare snickers then nods behind her as she keeps her eyes on Gauge. “Only thing I’ve found upstairs is more bodies and cleaning supplies. But… if you want to look, go ahead, we won’t stop you.”

Gauge shakes his head. “No thanks, I’ll trust ya. I’ll poke around down here; sometimes you find them in that darndest places.” He looks at her and pulls back a bit as he asks quieter, “If that’s okay with you, mmkay?”

She nods and pulls back into the stairwell. “Works for me. Doesn’t sound like we’re in any competition with what we want, so no reason for any friction. Good luck!”

As they head back upstairs the filly’s voice whines, “But Maaa! What if he finds one of those Sugar Apple thingies?!”

Her mother replies softly, “Then it’s his. That’s how scavenging works, dear… You wouldn’t want anyone taking what you work hard to find, would you?”

“Well no,” the filly says glumly. But then says excitedly, “If I find one, think he’ll buy it?”

Her mother’s snicker fades as they get up to the second floor. “Maybe… you’ll have to ask him though. Now come along we have t-“ her voice is cut off as the door to the second floor closes and muffles the conversation.

Gauge turns around and starts looking around in the office. The entire place is burnt and his nose scrunches as he tries to sift through anything that might be useable. He even goes so far as to pull the metal filing cabinet away from the wall and looking behind it. But, no, whatever accelerant was used had scorched every open surface and the inside of the filing cabinet is full of burnt paper as well.

He lets out a sigh and turns to leave as he grumbles and repeats, “Arson’s bad, mmkay,” as he steps out of the office.

“Oh, I don’t know. I find a little slash and burn to be fucking hilarious at times.”

Gauge’s head whips to the right and he stares right down the barrel of a sawed off double-barrel shotgun being floated in a magical field by a smirking stallion with chains and rubber for barding.

“D- don’t shoot, mmkay!”

A mare steps up from Gauge’s left side as she looks him over. “Ohh what do we have here? Nice clean stallion out in the middle of the wastes?” She looks over at the other raider. “Think he took out our crew?”

The unicorn shakes his head. “Nah. That little pea shooter he has didn’t do all of this.”

An earth pony stallion comes from the back of the building and looks at Gauge from slightly behind the unicorn holding the shotgun. “What do ya wanna do with him? I mean, I have a pair of bomb collars still, could be worth a few caps…”

Gauge’s eyes go wide, and he starts shaking as the unicorn starts grinning and putting way more thought into it than Gauge would like.

“W- wait! Mmkay! You don’t want me!” Gauge pleads

The mare leans in and coos at him, “Ohhhh? Why’s that? Got something better for us?”

Gauge looks between them and his eyes dart towards the stairwell. “I- I-… You said you had two collars right? Well… I know where a pair of fillies are… take them instead! They’d be worth more, right? Mmmkay?”

They regard him for a moment and the unicorn stallion asks, “Where are they?”

Gauge looks over at him and swallows hard. “Promise to let me go?”

The unicorn motions with the shotgun. “Drop your piece. Empty out your saddle bags. And tell us where they are, and you can get out of here.”

The earth pony mare looks at him and frowns. “Awww come on… He’s actually had a bath! I’d love to dirty him up a bit first!”

Gauge quickly starts dumping out his saddlebags as he says, “S- sure… just… just let me go, mmkay?” He starts reaching for the pistol and the mare slaps him with a hoof before pulling it out herself and pointing it at him.

Her eyebrow arcs and she looks down at it as she mumbles around the mouth grip, “Eathan the gunth claan!”

Gauge looks around and holds his forehooves up. “T- that’s all I got, mmkay? Sorry.”

The unicorn looks down at the unopened can of food and partial bottle of water with the mixture of anciently rusted tools still wet from the puddle he’d picked them up from. “Damn you are pathetic.”

Gauge lowers his head and says softly, “S- sorry... Can I go, mmkay?”

The unicorn glares at him and tilts his head. “Where are they?”

Gauge nods over to the door. “They’re upstairs. A mare and her filly scavenging cleaning supplies.”

The earth pony stallion grins widely. “Really!?” He turns his head to look at the door then looks over at Gauge sideways. “They armed?”

Gauge shrugs. “I don’t know. I didn’t see anything. But, probably. She didn’t come out of the stairwell enough for me to see if she was.”

The unicorn moves the shotgun closer to Gauge and says with a smirk, “Yeah… so… you just stay there nice and quiet… Gotta make sure they’re here and this ain’t just some trick.”

The earth stallion turns and heads towards the door. “I’ll check!”

The unicorn rolls his eyes. “I swear you better not try and start fucking them before getting the bomb collars on. I don’t want a repeat of last time you horny bastard!”

The earth pony stallion chuckles as he starts through the door and heads up the stairs, “Yeah, yeah.” A few moments later there’s a metallic squeak from the stairwell and the stallion’s voice saying in a pleased voice, “Well hellllooo there gorgeous!”

The filly’s voice screeches, “Momma! Raiders!” And a loud metallic bang echoes down as the door gets slammed shut. Then loud hoof clops can be heard through the ceiling running down one of the hallways of the second floor.

The earth pony stallion lets out a bit of a pained laugh, “Ow! That one’s feisty! Slammed it right on my snoot.”

The unicorn nods behind him. “Go help him out.” The mare nods then heads up the stairs to join her friend as he starts hammering on the door to the second floor and tries to break the lock. The unicorn stares at Gauge for a few moments then nods over to the front door. “Go on. Get out of here you worthless fuck.”

Gauge nods and slinks over and away from him as he mutters, “Y- yeah… Thanks… mmkay.” Then runs out through the front door, makes a sharp turn, and starts barreling down the road away from the building as fast as his hooves will carry him. The whole time, completely ignoring the exchange of gunfire taking place in the building behind him as he’s making good on his own escape. He maintains his oblivious state to everything in the rest of the world, except his own sweet freedom and safety.

So the gap between the buildings right next to the one he’d fled isn’t even glanced into as he’s running.

Gearing leans out of the shadow between the buildings and glares contempt at Gauge’s retreating form as he mutters, “Fucking coward.” He pulls back and glares at the surprised looking raider standing right next to him. “Oh what are you looking at…” Gearing slaps them with a wing, causing their limp body to fall sideways as he pulls his sword out of their eye socket.

More gunshots come from the second floor and the young filly’s voice screams out in terror, “Momma!”

Gearing looks upwards and his eyes narrow as he flicks off the blood from the sword to the side. “Anope.”

Inside, the orange mare has made use of an apparent barricade that had been erected by the door of a room with a variety of metal cabinets, shelving, and other items. Though the entry door has been blasted away, from this side as far as she can tell, the rest of the room is relatively unscathed from the apparently shaped charge. Thanks to the barricade. Even so, she’s flipped over a couple tall cabinets and a couch a distance from the first barricade to use to hide herself, and her foal, from the raider that pokes their head in every now and then to take pot shots at her. From her position she can make out where she thinks he’s standing, and the dried blood and meaty decaying chunks strewn across the shelving and wall across the hall.

She can hear the stallion chuckle as a couple bullets impact into the wall near where he’s standing and him yell in to her from his position, “I keep telling you, this cabinet’s stopping every one of those…” He chuckles again and dares a quick peek in at her with just one eye before pulling back and avoiding a bullet zipping by him. “Come on, sweetheart. You don’t have enough bullets to keep this up forever, there’s far more of us than there are of you. So why don’t you just give up. We’re not going to hurt you…” He chuckles a bit then says with a lower tone that makes her mane crawl, “We’re just gonna have a bit of fun… then you two can make us a bit more caps when we sell you… Always buyers for a couple fresh fillies…”

The mare snorts as she looks at the guns around her hooves. She’s got quite an arsenal, but he’s right, she’s already running out of ammo for several of them. She does her best to hide the wounds on her left side as she looks to her daughter on the right. She leans towards the little filly and smiles at her as she whispers, “Okay sweetie… I need you to do something for momma. Okay?”

The little pink filly looks up at her and her eyes zip around as she asks softly, “W- what is it, Momma?”

She slides a stack of ammo that she’d pulled out earlier towards the filly. “Take this.” She does obediently and, as she is stowing it, her mother says softly, “Now, honey, this is going to be scary, but I need you to trust me. Okay?”

Her daughter looks up at her and raises an eyebrow as she asks softly, “What, Momma?”

The mare nods behind the filly to a broken window. “I’m going to throw you through the window.” The filly’s eyes shoot wide and before she can say anything the mare puts a hoof to her muzzle. “Don’t scream!” She sighs. “I can get you to the roof of the building next door. It’s not far. I’m sure you could even jump it if you really wanted. But I need you to get over there onto the roof.”

The filly looks over at the window then scrunches her mouth to the other side. “You want me to… shoot them from over there?”

The mare shakes her head, then shoots a couple more rounds at the door blindly as she saw something move out of the corner of her eye and hears the stallion let out a ‘yip’ as one of those got particularly close this time. She reaches over and cradles the filly’s cheek. “I need you… to climb down to the first level, and sneak away, then run.” She shakes her head as she leans into the filly. “And run. And run, and run as fast as you can.” She touches her forehead to the filly’s as she smiles. “And don’t stop running until you get to Megamac… understand?”

The filly looks up at her then blinks a few times before she asks softly, “But… but what about you, Momma?”

The mare sits up and glares at the doorway as she tries to keep the filly from noticing the tears breaking through her willpower. “I’ll be fine, sweetie. You get to Megamac, and get help.” She looks over at the filly and sees the horror in her daughter’s eyes. She leans over, wraps a hoof around her daughter’s head and smiles as she says with a choke, “I’m tough, remember? And I’ll be fine. I just need you to be safe… If you’re in Megamac, I can take care of these bad ponies, okay?”

The filly looks up and a moment later bursts into tears as she jumps forward and wraps her forehooves around her mother’s neck. “No, Momma! That’s what Daddy said, and he never came back!”

“Sweetie… sweetie, please!” She starts crying as she nuzzles her daughter. “I can’t lose you too, okay? Please. Just do this for momma.” The filly wails into her neck and holds on tightly as she fiercely shakes her head and refuses to let go of her mother. The mare looks over at the door as she hears a dull thump in the hallway. She wraps the filly in closer as she stares at the doorway and has her rifle pointed right at it. She sniffles and tries to keep her eyes clear as she tries to keep quiet but her voice ends up cracking louder than she’d intended as she not so quietly prays, “Dammit! Luna, protect my little girl… please… She’s all I got.”

She uses her foreleg and wipes her eyes quickly as she stares at the door and tries to figure out how she could throw the filly through the window. A hoofball toss would work, but the little one is as stubborn as her father, and would simply run back in from the first floor to help. She blinks a few times as she stares at the growing puddle of blood creeping across the floor of the hallway.

“I hate to ruin the moment, and I’m damn sure not Luna… But I do make house calls… so, uh… yeah. Save your prayers and ammo.”

The orange mare’s ears perk up and twist towards the door as she tries to place the voice. That’s not one of the ones she’s heard thus far. She chuckles and asks as she sights down the rifle. “Oh? Just like that? Suddenly going to just let us go?” She shakes her head lightly. “Fucking raiders, must think I have stupid written on my forehead.”

The stallion that’s been tormenting and teasing them for the last while’s head bops from the relative safety behind the cabinetry into the middle of the doorway. At the bottom of the doorframe.

Then it rolls more to the side and it becomes quite obvious nothing else is still attached at the moment.

“Well, I’m no raider. And we’re the only three left alive in this building… sooo… yeah… You two okay in there?”

“Who the hell are you?!” she yells back as she keeps twisting her ears trying to hear if anyone else is around. She knows they can’t be coming from above, the only stairs up there is to the right of this doorway and no one's made it past yet.

“Nopony special. Just a repairpony looking for supplies for my latest project.” Gearing’s combat helmeted brass head pokes around the edge as he asks, “Sooo we good? Or you going to try and shoot me too just for helping?”

The mare’s eyes go wide as she stares at him. “F- for real?”

Gearing reaches over and straightens up the head of the stallion so it’s looking in at her. “Well, this damn sure ain’t no puppet…”

“Momma! You’re bleeding!” the filly screeches as she pulls away and notices the blood down the front of both of them.

The mare looks at her and groans as she shakes her head, “I’ll be fine just-“ She zips her head to the left and her eyes go wide as Gearing practically appears right in front of her and lands next to her with his wings still high in the air as he looks her over.

Gearing uses a wing to pull her coat back to look at her gut shot, apparent repeated gut shot at that, and his other wing to keep her rifle pointed towards the door. “No, that needs looked at.” He looks at her as he turns and jumps back into the air. “Just don’t move, I’ll be right back.”

He zips into the hallway then a few moments later he comes back in with a satchel. “Come on, get that jacket off.”

She tries to wave it away, but quickly finds herself pushed back to the ground near the far wall by his overwhelming bulk as he’s pulling her jacket back. Gearing pulls out a bottle with a wing and hands it to the little filly as he says, “Open this and give it to her, slowly, don’t let her choke on it.” He pulls out a few wads of bandages and starts packing the injuries to stem the flow of blood as he starts looking her over. “And you, quit moving around so much, unless you wanna make your daughter an orphan.”

She lays back against the far wall, keeping her eye on the doorway as he tends to her and she grunts in pain. “Y- you sure they’re gone?”

Gearing nods. “Only hostile readings are a stupid radroach next door.”

She lays back and carefully drinks the potion offered to her by her daughter. She winces and Gearing says flatly, “Sorry. No Med-X. Just relax.” He pulls out a bottle of water without looking and hands it to her daughter. “Here. This’ll help a bit too. Again, sip on it… need to keep your fluids up.”

She just nods and helps him take off her jacket, as he uses a few items and pulls out a couple pieces of metal from her side, flicking them away before packing the wound. “I thought you Steel Ranger types were only interested in technology?”

The filly shakes her head. “He’s not a Steel Ranger, Momma…” She looks at Gearing and grins widely. “He’s too pretty to be a Steel Ranger. They’re only that nasty gray.” She sticks her tongue out in disgust at the thought as she carefully holds the bottle of water and lets her mother sip from it periodically.

Gearing chuckles, “Well, thank you little one.” He looks at her and grins widely. “I think you’re pretty too.” The mother scowls at him and he lets out a sigh as he rolls his eyes. “I’m not a pervert, I just like kids, okay?”

She looks at him and lets out a sigh. “How many you got?”

Gearing shakes his head as he finishes up the bandage. “None. Probably never will.” He starts pulling down her jacket as he looks in her face and gives a weak smirk. “Not lucky enough for that.”

She reaches over and pulls the filly towards her, kissing her daughter on the head before looking up at Gearing. “Never know. Sometimes it happens when you least expect it.”

Gearing rolls his eyes and looks around as he kicks on his E.F.S. long enough to do a quick 360. “Accidents may happen for others, but not me.”

She lets out a sigh and leans back into the wall as she waves a hoof around. “Alright, Shiny, what’s this rescue gonna cost me? What are you looking for?”

Gearing turns back and looks at her before tilting his head. “Actually, I just came here to grab the shelving from that hardware store across the street.” He points a wing in the direction as he shrugs. “Not like I used any ammo… hell, the potion I just gave you came from their stash too.” He shrugs. “Didn’t cost me anything but a bit of time…” He waves a wing back towards the door. “You can have all of their stuff too. I’m going to be too loaded with shelving to take any of it anyway… But you really should go get some rest somewhere safe.”

She nods and smiles up at him weakly. “Yeah. I’ll do that.”

Gearing feels a tug on his left wing and looks over to see the pink filly looking up at him. “Yes, little one?”

She holds up a small clear plastic bag with some kind of toy and paper inside of it. “Here. You saved my momma. I want you to have it.”

Her mother looks at it and smiles as she slowly shakes her head. She opens her mouth to try and tell her otherwise, but gets cut off as Gearing graciously accepts it with his wings. “Well thank you!” He holds it up and turns it over in his wings a bit before he carefully sets it into his saddle bag. “I’ll treasure it.” He snaps to attention and salutes her with a big smile. “All in a day’s work, ma’am.”

The little filly giggles and sloppily mocks him. “Yeah!” She waves her hoof at the bag and says excitedly, “A stinky gray stallion told me those are worth a lot of caps.”

Gearing raises an eyebrow as he looks at her but then looks over at her mother as she shakes her head lightly and adds, “Just like anything, it’s gotta be to the right buyer… at least that’s what he said…” She frowns and looks up at Gearing. “So, was that gray stallion a scout for the raiders, or did they get him too?”

Gearing shakes his head. “No, they got all of his stuff but he managed to high tail it down the road.”

“Oh… well… good.” She lets out a sigh. “Glad not shooting him didn’t come back and bite me.”

Gearing looks her over again as he asks, “You going to be okay?”

She smiles up at him. “Yeah. I think so. That potion’s done a pretty good job. We’ll hurry up and get whatever we can off these bastards then hole up for the night somewhere. I know a safe spot nearby.”

Gearing nods and starts heading towards the nearby broken window. “Great. Take care you two.” He hops out through it, and takes flight, landing in front of the hardware store before trotting inside.

The filly looks out the window with her mouth hanging open for a few moments before she looks down at her mother. “Momma… He’s definitely not a Steel Ranger… he flew!”

The mother chuckles as she shakes her head. “Repairpony that makes house calls?” She shakes her head and chuckles again. “What’s the wasteland coming to?” She looks up into the sky through the window and smiles widely as her tears resume. “Thank you, Luna.” She grabs the filly and yanks her down into an oppressive hug as she sobs, “Thank you so much.”

As Gearing walks in through the Stable 68 main door loaded down with a large stack of shelving material, Sable gives him a friendly smile from the control panel. Once he’s through she activates the door and starts it closing again as she asks, “Would you like some assistance carrying that, Gearing my love?”

Gearing smiles and shakes his head as he continues inside. “No. I got it… But.” He gives her a little nuzzle cheek to cheek before he asks quietly, “Is Gauge inside?” She looks at him sideways and, noticing his volume, simply nods. “Has anything… happened?”

She pulls away from him for a moment and looks him over as she says softly, “No.” She stares at him a few more moments and finally asks, “What is wrong, my love? You look… perplexed?”

Gearing starts walking by and whispers in her ear. “Gauge is not to be trusted. Monitor him when he comes and goes, and don’t let him bring in anyone else with him without getting permission from Swift, Handy, or me.”

She looks him over and asks softly, “Should I inform them of the suspicion?”

Gearing shakes his head. “I can’t prove anything right now…” He starts walking away as he mutters, “All I know is he’s a coward.”

After they drop off shelves in the R&D department with the rest of the growing hydroponics supplies, Gearing heads back upstairs. Following his PipBuck he finds Gauge sitting at a table alone in the area that had once been Stable 68’s cafeteria. Gearing slips up near Gauge and watches as Gauge seems to stare off into space, but munches on flakes of the stable’s infamous algae chips.

Gearing stares at Gauge’s mark in silence as he debates on how to go about this. The blue framed steam gauge is an oddity, like Gauge. Most of the dial is red, with only the tiniest sliver of a green zone, and the indicator pointing firmly in the yellow zone. Marks are supposed to be personal. Have some kind of deeper meaning and connection to what a pony’s good at. Gearing doesn’t know what it could be saying about Gauge, but realizes it definitely doesn’t stand for handling pressure well. Not with what he knows now.

“Hey, Gauge, those thing’s any good?” Gearing asks as he steps a few times harder than necessary to let him know he’s entering the area.

Gauge spins around wide eyed and stares at him for a moment. “Oh… uh… Hi.” He looks at the plate then frowns. “Not really, mmkay. But better than nothing, right?”

Gearing waves a hoof. “Yeah, so I’ve heard. Maybe if we can get some of the other plants going there’d be more to eat.” Come on, Gauge, say something.

Gauge nods and grins. “That would be amazing, mmkay!”

Gearing looks Gauge over and takes note of the empty holster. He points at it, trying to give him an excuse. “I hope wherever you left your sidearm is safe. Remember, we have a lot more foals running around now. And quite a few of them have sticky hooves and get into things they probably shouldn’t…” Here’s your chance, bit late but you can still redeem yourself.

Gauge looks at him then down at his holster. His eyes go wide as he looks around quickly then he gives a nervous chuckle. “Oh… No… they didn’t take it… No… It’s safe… away from their hooves… put away… mmkay?” He gives Gearing a cringe-worthy and unconvincing half-smile.

Gearing turns and starts walking away. “Well that’s good. It’s important to be mindful of your actions, and their consequences. Let me know if you need any help with anything.” He keeps looking over his shoulder at Gauge as he walks away. Say something you piece of shit!

Gauge waves it away and takes a bite of algae chips. As he looks at Gearing and talks with a mouthful of the flaky material he says, “Yeah. Thanks. Take it easy.” Then goes back to eating mindfully as he seems to try and hurry up to get through the apparently unpleasant task.

Gearing continues walking, watching him for a while. Then gives him a wave with a wing and a smile as he’s walking through the exit door to go back to R&D. Yup… I’m probably going to have to kill his fucking ass before he sells out the stable to save his own skin. As Gearing makes a turn to go down to the lower levels he snarls at the thought. Fucking traitors!

He continues down the halls as quickly as his hooves can take him, without running, in a straight line towards R&D. He keeps a scowl across his muzzle as he debates on what he needs to do. He knows, without a doubt, he needs time to figure out the correct course of action. And, if nothing else, he needs to give himself something else to do, instead of doing something stupid like he’d very much like to do at the moment.

He’d given Gauge every opportunity to fess up, or, at the very least ask for help with the situation. He’d blatantly offered a blank check for helping, a possible solution and bit of redemption, and Gauge was still not willing to show even an iota of consideration for another pony’s life.

But, no, Gauge was far more content, and apparently comfortable, with setting up some little foal and her mother to a life of abuse, rape, and eventually, but probably not soon enough, death.

By the time Gearing gets to the R&D department, he’s managed to conceal his scowl of disgust behind a mask of deep thought. He walks in through the decontamination chamber, and sees Sable dutifully organizing the supplies and equipment based on the instructions he’d left.

Sable turns her head to look at him as she is moving one of the shelves he’d recently brought in from the neat stack nearby onto the workbench in front of her. “Welcome back, my darling. Shall we work together to finish this?”

Gearing walks over and grabs a terminal that he’d taken from one of the rooms in the residential wing. “Not at the moment. I have something else I need to work on now.” He heads over and takes it into the storage room where he’d originally found the protectaponies and sets it on a shelf just below eye level before heading back out.

Sable watches him as he’s coming out, catching eye contact with Gearing as he’s exiting, and asks, “Would you like some assistance with your new project?”

Gearing shakes his head as he grabs a small box of mixed fasteners from the workbench. “No. Go ahead and keep working on that. I’ll help you once I’m done in here…” He turns around and starts heading back in as he looks over his shoulder at her. “I have a lot that I need to get through, please make sure I’m not disturbed.”

She stares at him with a rigid posture as he enters the once secret room. “Of course, Gearing. If that is what you wish.” He doesn’t respond, and she continues watching him as he turns around the corner and goes out of sight into the back area of the hidden compartment. She stays there. Motionless. Watching the doorway for a few moments longer in silence. Then, after apparently coming to some conclusion, goes back to getting the shelving materials modified so they can make the hydroponics racks Gearing has planned.

Inside the room, and away from the sliding door, Gearing sets up another workspace.

He needs to keep himself busy, and this is the best thing he can think of to do at the moment. While he keeps his hooves, wings, and every other segment of his body that might be able to grab a weapon and put down a traitor busy with manual labor, he diverts his mind as well by trying to learn what’s happened since he was knocked out. On the terminal sitting on the shelf, he loads up all of the written documentation he’d downloaded while in Megamac, and queues up a list of audio recordings based on timestamps on his PipBuck. He organizes all of the information, on both devices, so he can go through it in the order it happened and start putting together a timeline of events with the two.

It still won’t be a complete picture, he realizes this as the databases those MWT terminals had access to were limited, but it’ll be a solid start.

It takes him a bit to get the setup ready, but that’s fine by him. As the entire exercise is meant to be a distraction and time killer as it is. To give him time to think. And cool down. And do something else with his hooves besides pummel some fool whose pressure gauge cutie mark probably directly correlates to the noxious gas he’s full of.

But, the inane nature of most of the repetitive documents from the start of his search doesn’t help his mood at all. He’d hoped to find something about his own disappearance. But no. There’s no mention at all of him going missing. He checks each document for a month’s worth carefully, before starting to simply skim and speed read through.

He spends less and less time on it, being so annoyed that it’s hard to focus. Eventually he starts jumping around and down the lists. He decides he’ll come back later. Maybe have Sable’s help with the documents. But, after getting within two months of the Last Day, Gearing starts going far slower. The documents start getting more detailed, and providing far more information. He skips over the ones that are obviously of the ‘Standard Report’ type, and focuses more on the ones that aren’t.

Even in the basic documents, and despite the form being plain text, the tension comes across clearly. In every word. Even two hundred years later he can feel it. Things had been getting worse, and then something caused a sharp turn for the darker.

And that was before even getting into the audio files.

Gearing wanted something else to think about, and keep his mind focused on. Something else to worry about.

He found it.

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

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

‘credential matrix’ buffering. . .

This chapter reveals a variety of things, including a personality conflict that isn't likely to end well for someone eventually. Leaving the stable always leads to something, and this trip is no different. Also sets a few other things in motion that'll fall into place later.

Thanks for all the help with this project. From the regular interest to my beta readers, the assistance is amazing. Thank you all!

Comments, questions, and critiques welcome as always.

-Quillsy