Once Gearing was able to pull himself back together he got back to work on repurposing the equipment that he’d previously been using as a distraction. This time he focuses on it with purpose. With an almost desperate level of desire. He works as quickly as he possibly can to get the components ready. And, as usual, he uses the time to figure out a plan of action.

He feels like an absolute failure of, literal, historical proportions.

He feels the weight of the world on his back. The shame of not being there when he was needed the most. The unending belief that, had he not made such a monumental mistake, the end could have been avoided. That they wouldn’t have needlessly died. That he could have saved them. Saved them all.

And, above all, he needs to prove that she wasn’t wrong about him all along. That her taking the time on a stupid little clockwork pegasus buck was a good investment. That in the end of all things, she was right.

His own sanity demands that he vindicates Rainbow Dash’s decisions. He feels he owes her that much.

But he can’t do that from the inside of a stable. He’s not exactly sure how best to do what and where. However, he realizes he needs to get this system up and running so he can go. So he can leave. And find someway to make a difference again. There are lots of ponies that need help. Lots of things that need fixing in the wastes of Equestria. But he’s not really sure where to start.

The little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head holds up a map and randomly points out different locations as it constantly offers up suggestions of where to begin.

Sable, for her part, has been as tentative as ever. Staying with him and helping him as he tears through the project with gusto, in silence. Her mere presence had, as planned, helped him recover enough to be functional. Her continued companionship has helped drive him. A constant reminder of the here and now and that, yes, there are still ponies counting on him. Ponies that still need him.

And need him to do better.

Shortly after sunrise, Gearing and Sable begin installing the equipment outside of the stable. He’d done a quick scouting trip around before leading her up, as usual, but in this particular case he really does need her help. He needs someone he trusts to watch his back, and keep an eye on the surrounding area, while he works. It’s hard to focus when you constantly have to look over your shoulder to see if the noise you’re making has drawn any attention. It’s why he waited until daylight, so the sound wouldn’t carry as far. So her presence helps him work faster.

The fact she absolutely refused to let him be alone for now is beside the point.

While Gearing is setting up his array of devices outside of the stable, he stumbles across a large boulder with a variety of graffiti all over it. Blasphemous and immature phrases intermingle with declarations of presence and love. Underneath a particularly colorful comment about somepony’s anal cavity made with etchings and paint, Gearing notices something different. He follows a particular set of etches with his wingtip as he mentally draws it out in his mind. It’s an icon of some kind. A glyph perhaps. Not magical. But Gearing figures, in all likelihood, it is some kind of marker or message.

Upon examining the boulder closer, he finds that one of the lumps of rock jutting out from it, near the back underside close to the hillside, is actually removable. He works on it for a bit but, eventually, figures out the trick to it and carefully pulls out the piece of rock. He examines it closely, and looks inside, wary of some kind of trap.

But, no, this is no trap. It’s a stash of some kind. How long it’s been here, he can’t tell. The fitting is so tight, and placement so well, that no water has gotten into the vacancy. He’s not sure if this is some example of earth pony ingenuity or cheaty unicorn magic. Either way, it’s a moderately impressive feat.

“The fuggliest place in Equestria…” Gearing murmurs as he’s holding the heavily worked stone.

“What was that, my love?” Sable asks as she tilts her head.

Gearing shakes his head as he solidifies the thought in his own head. Something about the stone and how it was made had given him an excellent idea for where he could start his search. For both more information and better equipment.

The little blue pony in his head is put out that he hadn’t accepted any of his perfectly good ideas, but agrees it’s also worth a shot.

“Hoofington,” Gearing replies. “It’s what someone I know used to call Hoofington.” He lets out a sigh and directs his eyes to the ground as he says softly, “Someone I knew, I mean…” He chuckles and looks over at Sable. “She had a point. It wasn’t exactly built for aesthetics… Understandable considering the constant attacks in the area. Place was built as a big ‘Fuck you!’ to the Caesar.” They exchange eye contact for a few more moments as she waits and lets him continue if he wishes. But he doesn’t.

Instead he checks the inside, and pulls out the old canvas bundle that encompasses the true contents. Taking a quick inventory of the items, he still can’t figure out how long this stuff has been here. Anywhere up to and including before the war. The only thing he can rule out is it’s not very recently, as the dirt on the rock hasn’t even been disturbed. So weeks or months at minimum. A pouch containing a collection of random ammunition for various weapons is paired up with a spherical secondary cloth and a pair of ancient Fancy Buck cakes still in their wrapping. He checks the cloth, that turns out to be a kerchief, and finds an easily recognizable faintly glowing ball.

A memory orb. A full one at that.

While he knows full well the potential dangers of information getting into the wrong hooves, and the lengths that had been deployed to prevent that, he’s pretty sure this doesn’t fall into any of those categories. This stash was meant to be hidden. But, with the smattering of ammo, and not much of any one type at that, along with the snack cakes, he thinks this treasure trove is little more than the excess somepony had decided to leave behind in case they were back through the area again. In most cases, memory orbs weren’t much more than novelty items outside of their intended purposes. Might be nothing more than a night light at this point.

But, then again, more information is always better. And he knows a unicorn that might just be bored enough to give it a go.

Gearing uses the empty space in the hole for one of his repeaters, and seals it back up. True, the rock is going to seriously limit it’s range, but that’s fine. It’s still well within the range of where it needs to be. Just for an added layer, he knocks down a few of the loose rocks against the side of the boulder, helping to hide the area where the hole access is from prying eyes.

Once finished they head into the stable and stay in the entry way as he tests the system. He nods a few times and motions to continue inside as he says, “The receiving relays are working, though I won’t know for sure the distance they can listen from without testing.”

“Full testing of the system would be prudent, my love. What would you recommend?” Sable asks as she walks along with him.

Gearing purses his lips to the side for a bit as he thinks. “Well, I still need to take Breaker Bar’s cart back to him, could do a test with that along the way.” He slowly nods as a plan starts solidifying before his eyes. “The sooner the better at that. I’ll go talk with Swift and Handy about it after I take this to Pharynx. See if it’s something he might be interested in.”

“That is kind of you to consider Subject Pharynx’s feelings, Gearing. He’s currently in the Atrium level, shall I show you?” Sable comments as she points with a restraining cable at a side passage ahead.

Gearing nods as he looks down at his PipBuck and starts typing out messages to Swift and Handy. “That’d be amazing. Thank you, Sable.”

She happily bounces around as she trots at his side before leaning over and nuzzling the side of his neck. “I am always happy to help my darling Gearing.” She leads the way down to the Atrium and passed the cafeteria area where Gearing had talked with Gauge the night before.

As they approach a doorway on the other side of the cafeteria area, Gearing takes note of the design and layout of the room beyond.

Had the universe played things out differently, this room would have been used to educate the future generations of foals for Stable 68. The classroom was meant to be the center of all growth and longevity for the stable. But, things didn’t play out that way. The stable died. Though, in a weird twist of events not at all in the original plans for stable continuity, 68 did manage to produce a single foal. But Silver Thorn won’t be using these facilities for some time.

Gearing can’t help but notice the tidy nature of the room. It’s been cleaned. And recently. He wonders if this is more signs of Apple Armor’s group trying to earn their keep. They’ve even managed to locate and bring back most of the student desks and have them collected near a table with a projector. But, as they are entering, there’s only a sole individual in the room.

A very large red unicorn stallion sitting in front of one of the functioning computer terminals along the side wall.

Gearing walks towards him, angling and circling to come up from the side and not from behind, as he looks him over. Pharynx stays focused on the screen, every now and then clicking next to start reading a new page. “Hey there, Pharynx, what are you up to down here all by yourself?”

Pharynx looks over at him, and then returns his eyes to the screen as he shrugs. “I’m looking for something.” He lets out a long annoyed sigh as he says, “I- I just don’t know what…”

Gearing leans over and looks at the screen, taking quick note of some kind of newspaper story of energy generating technology advances. “Anyway I could help?”

Pharynx leans away from him and looks at him before he chuckles and says with a smirk, “I’d have to tell you what I’m looking for in the first place… and I don’t even know that… so, sure… tell me what I’m looking for, and we’ll both know.”

Gearing chuckles and shrugs. “Sorry… one of those ‘know it when you see it’ situations?”

Pharynx nods. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure it is..” He rubs a hoof on the top of his head roughly as he groans. “This is just so frustrating.”

Gearing looks down for a moment then holds the laden kerchief up with a wing. “Well… maybe a fresh perspective could help you figure it out. You know anything about memory orbs?”

Pharynx takes the cloth and unwraps it as he nods. “Yeah. Of course. I’d used them all the time- … before…” He shakes his head and looks down at the orb with a raised eyebrow. “Wait… What?” He rubs both forehooves on his head roughly as he groans, “Dammit, this is so frustrating!”

Gearing reaches over with a wing and gently pats Pharynx on the shoulder. “It’ll be okay. You’ll figure it out eventually.”

Pharynx bats the orb around with his hoof a bit as he stares at it. “I guess. But in the meantime I’m all…” He sticks his tongue out and raspberries the air noisily.

Gearing gives him a reassuring pat on the shoulder before pointing at the orb with a wing. “If you decide to take a look, be careful. Some of those can be dangerous.”

“Yeah, I kno- Dammit!” He rubs his head and rolls his eyes.

Gearing looks him over and says softly, “Well… do it in medical, or in your room with the door locked. That way you’ll be safe at least.”

“Mmhmm” Pharynx mumbles as he stares at the orb.

“Let me know if it’s anything interesting, would ya? Ponies normally kept these for a reason.” He gives Pharynx a wide grin and waves a hoof. “Might be something good, never know.”

Pharynx nods and wraps the orb back up. “I’ll go take a look, now. I’m not making any headway as it is. Might as well try something new. Maybe it’ll jog something.” He looks up at Gearing and lets out a sigh as a wide smile crosses his muzzle. “Thanks, Gearing. I appreciate all you’ve all done for me. Really.” He picks up the bundle and shrugs. “I’m sure it would have been easier to just leave my sorry ass somewhere. But you didn’t. So, thanks.”

Gearing sits and stares at him. “You’re right. It would have been easier to just leave you on the side of the road. Or at that farmhouse and fly off… in every possible way… except one.” He raises a wingtip for emphasis and catches Pharynx’s eye on it before resuming eye contact.

“Oh?”

“To live with,” Gearing says softly. “No way in hell would I just abandon a foal on the side of the road like that.” He shrugs. “Not something I could live with. I’m not that kind of buck.”

Pharynx grins widely and bobs his head around. “Which is what makes you a damn sight better than many others.” He looks down at himself then says softly, “And… I’m not exactly a foal anymore either…”

Gearing grins at him. “I don’t know… you’re curious enough to still be one… and I’ve heard you, Apple Armor, and Plum Pie bickering about half burnt comics so don’t go thinking you’re all grown up just because you’ve gotten bigger.”

Pharynx snickers then gives a snort. “Well they started it!”

Gearing reaches over with a wing and pats Pharynx on the head. “See?” He ruffles Pharynx’s mane and says softly, “Take your time. Take it slow. You’ll get there in due time.”

Pharynx smirks and rolls his eyes, but ever so slightly leans into it before abruptly pulling away and walking out of the room with the bundle as he mumbles, “I have plenty of that in here…”

After Pharynx has left, Sable walks up next to Gearing and says softly, “I have been monitoring Subject Pharynx since his return. I anticipated your suspicion, based on your interaction with him in the entry hall when you left.” She shakes her head and looks at the door. “He has done nothing of concern. The only thing of note about Subject Pharynx is that he seems…” She looks at Gearing and tilts her head. “Lost?” She shakes her head. “It is hard to appropriately explain his behavior. But he spends most of his time reading and wandering around. As if he’s looking for something he’s misplaced.”

Gearing lets out a sigh as he looks at her, and then directs his gaze towards the door as he says, “He woke up in a stable with no real idea how he got there. That part I can relate to. But adding in everything else he’s trying to sort out? I feel lost with what I have to deal with. But Pharynx?” He shakes his head before returning eye contact with Sable. “He’s on an entirely different level of disoriented than I am.” He gives a weak shrug of his shoulder. “At least I have a general map of where I’m going.”

Sable nods then look between him and the door. “Speaking of which. Subject Swift and Subject Handy are awaiting your arrival in the Medical bay.”

Gearing chuckles and starts towards the door. “Well I better get to it before Handy starts bitching about waiting on me.”

Sable follows along and says flatly, “I am sorry, Gearing, but I believe the term ‘that ship has already sailed’ qualifies in this instance. As Subject Handy Hooves had already started complaining about you before reaching the medical bay… Oh… you find this news humorous?”

Gearing can only nod as he starts giggling, while the little blue pegasus in his head rolls around in a giggle fit as it says, Some ponies aren’t happy unless they’re bitching about something!

Gearing continues snickering and chuckling to himself the entire way to the medical bay as he tries to wave it off with a wing. He finally manages to compose himself as he’s stepping into the decontamination chamber. And by the time the sequence had finished, and he was allowed entry into the medical ward he’s managed to wipe the results of a joke at somepony else’s expense off his muzzle.

But the scowl across Handy’s muzzle cracks another smirk across Gearing’s the moment he sees it.

Gearing manages to turn the smirk into a friendly grin as he scans his eyes over those present and focuses his attention on Swift. “Hey guys, I finished our communication relay system. So we’re back up with outside communications.” He looks over to Handy and nods as he adds, “Minus the backdoors built into the hardware.” He waves with a hoof as he says, “A completely clean install.” He hops his hoof around as his grin increases. “The array has a series of decoys, with point to point relays, so if anyone tries to triangulate where our broadcasts are coming form, they’ll hit those first, and by protocol our systems will stop squawking so we can evaluate the threats.”

Handy stares at him with his mouth slowly falling open as he thinks it through. He looks up at the ceiling and scrunches his mouth before he shakes his head and looks at Gearing with his eyes open to their fullest. “That’s- I mean- What?! How’d you even manage that?!” He shakes his head hard and asks, “With scraps?!”

Gearing grins and wiggles his eyebrows. “I told you… best Stable-Tec technician.” He waves a wing at an angle as the grin gets wider. “Bar none.” He throws his wings up and bounces the light around himself as he gives Handy a profiled grin. “Have you met me yet?”

Handy rubs his face with a hoof before flicking it out at Gearing. “Where’d you learn that, at that though? That’s not common Stable-Tec communications protocol…”

Gearing smiles and turns his head a different direction, intentionally not looking at him as he gives a smug grin. “It’s proprietary…”

Swift looks at Handy and can’t help but snicker at how completely flustered he seems. She looks over at Gearing and tilts her head as she asks with a near accusational tone, “It has to do with all that crap you ripped out of that bunker and had us drag back here, doesn’t it?” Gearing looks over at her and rolls his eyes a bit but doesn’t really respond. She nods and snorts before she looks at Handy. “That’s why… it wasn’t Stable-Tec hardware…. It was Ministry of Wartime Technology communications equipment… Government grade.”

“Military grade… actually,” Gearing corrects as he holds up a wingtip for emphasis. He waves away the idea with the same wing before looking them over. “And now I need to make sure it’s going to handle the long distance packets. I have a broadcaster module for my PipBuck. So I can give it a test while I take the cart back to Megamac.”

Handy looks between Swift and Gearing and asks, “Why you taking the cart back?”

Swift nods towards Gearing and replies before Gearing does, “Because the cart belongs to the maintenance head. It’s only a loner. Gearing just borrowed it to get the supplies back here.”

Gearing nods and points towards Swift with a wing. “And I try my best to honor agreements I make.” He glances at Sable then adds, “And while I’m out, I was thinking of maybe swinging by a trade hub I heard about over near the Hoofington area.”

“’Swinging by’?” Handy starts

“Hoofington?” Swift finishes for him.

“That’s what I said,” Gearing partially closes his eyes as he looks at them and feels like he’s talking to foals.

Handy shakes his head and throws a hoof out at him as he looks at Swift. “He’s kidding. Right?” He looks at Gearing and tilts his head. “One doesn’t simply ‘Swing by’ the Hoof. You realize how far that is? Over hostile territory?”

Gearing rolls his eyes and waves the idea away. “I’ve been there before. I don’t intend on walking…” He flutters his wings, scattering the light and kicking up a light breeze as he says, “These things work ya know.”

“Gearing,” Swift starts with a sigh. She shakes her head as she looks at the ground and brings her gaze up to meet his as she says softly, “The world isn’t like you remember it. From what I’ve heard, it’s one of, if not the, most dangerous areas in Equestria now. Don’t take it lightly.”

Gearing grins at her. “Well now I really have to go, just to see what all the hubbub’s about.”

Swift and Handy slap a hoof over their eyes, but while Handy groans, Swift actually chuckles. Swift lowers her hoof and waves it around before setting it down. “You know.” She looks over at Handy. “There’s that tournament I’ve been invited to. We could see how that goes.” She shrugs. “And after that we could go to this place Gearing’s talking about and maybe get some more supplies to finish fixing up the stable.”

Handy looks over at Gearing and asks with a frown, “You think they’ll have what we need?”

Gearing shrugs. “Won’t know for sure until we get there. But from what I’d gathered they’re pretty well connected. A whole trading hub network. If they don’t’ have it, they can probably get it, or point us in the right direction.”

Gauge peeks over a medical bed and looks at Gearing wide eyed. “Really? Are you serious, mmkay? They trade in all kinds of goods, or just equipment salvage?”

Gearing notices Gauge seems to have been sitting over there sifting through a couple boxes of toys and frowns. Then his lip curls in a smile as he regards Gauge.

The little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head hops up and down and snaps out a telescopic pointer rod at a drawing board showing a very simple math equation:

Traitor + Dangerous Area = Guilt Free Problem Solving

Gearing nods a bit as the smile broadens and he waves a hoof with a shoulder shrug. “Suuure, from what I gather they’d have a bit of everything… food… ammo… armor… building materials…” He locks eyes with Gauge and partially closes his eyes as he smiles. “I bet they even have whole collections of toys we could browse through for the kids.” Gauge’s ears pop up high and alert as his eyes go wide.

Swift nickers and rolls her eyes. “I’m sure the kids would just love you for that, but what they need is for this place to keep working… so don’t lose sight of the real goal if we get there and we do find someone with every toy known to ponykind.” Gauge’s stare jumps to her and he practically drools at the prospect.

Handy lets out a sigh as he looks around. He bites his lip a bit then bobs his head as he stomps a forehoof. “Okay, we’ll do this.”

“’We’?” Gearing asks as he looks over at Handy. “What are you talking about?”

Handy looks at him and scowls. “Swift wants to try this tournament out. And then if this place is all you say it is, there’s going to be a lot that we really need.” He shakes his head. “I’m not letting her go off on her own. We work better together. And, if we’re all together we can watch each other’s backs better.” He looks over at Swift and nods. “It’ll be much safer that way, and we’ll be able to carry more between us. So nopony’s weighed down too much to run if we need to.”

Gearing raises a hoof and frowns. “Equs to Handy… come in Handy.” He tilts his head. “Hey, earth pony, pegasi don’t need to run… we fly. If we actually have to worry about terrain, that’s going to take longer. You’ll just slow us down.”

Gauge hops up and frowns. “But I wanna go! Mmkay?!”

Gearing stares at him and his mouth hangs open as he tries to think of something.

The little blue pegasus in his head cringes but points at the equation on the drawing board again as it gives a slight shrug.

Gearing hangs his head. “Fiiiine. So us four then?”

“Five,” Sable says flatly. “I am not leaving my darling Gearing’s side. If he wishes to go to this trading hub, than I shall accompany him.”

Gearing’s head whips over to her and his eyes go wide. “S- Sable… that’s… I mean-“

“Six!” Nahlah says cheerfully as she hops over from the bed after passing Silver Thorn over to Cure. “Swift was telling me about this town you went to. Megamac? If it’s that big it’s gotta have a place or two I’d wanna poke my nose in. I’ve been stuck inside for too long. I wanna get out and get some fresh air and reeaaallly streeeeeetch my luuuuuungs.” She stands on her hind legs and stretches her self up with her forepaws outstretched as she groans with pleasure at the thought.

Gearing’s eyes narrow as he looks around. He walks over to the door to the medical bay, and opens the decontamination chamber. He stands there looking in, in silence, for a moment, before turning around to stand by Sable again.

Swift raises an eyebrow and waves a hoof at him. “What was that about?”

Gearing sits down and lets out a sigh. “I was seeing if anyone else was going to interrupt and invite themselves along… this is ridiculous, I was just going to go on my own and now there’s like six of us going.”

Nahlah snickers. “Don’t worry about it. We’re not exactly helpless, you know? We were traveling around before we became ‘soft stable ponies.’” She snickers and looks over at Swift who gives her a knowing grin before a hard affirmative nod.

Gearing looks between the two and asks, “And what about the foal? Don’t you have to be here to nurse her?”

Nahlah waves it away with a paw. “I’ve been over producing for a while. With the extra cold storage now, we’ve been stocking a bit each day.” She shrugs. “Just in case something happened to me, would have a while to sort out something else… But it’ll last months in the freezer. We won’t be gone long really though, right?”

Gearing shrugs then nods. “A couple days. Maybe a week round trip. I’m not planning on making a vacation of this.”

Nahlah nods and waves it away repeatedly with a paw. “Oh, yeah, we’ll be more than fine then. We’ve got weeks worth saved up.”

Gearing’s jaw drops and his eyes go wide. “Already!? It hasn’t been that long since I got it up and running!”

Nahlah nods and gives a sheepish grin. “Over producing… Waaay over producing… Right, Cure?”

“Nahlah is correct in her estimations,” Cure chimes in. “With current frozen milk reserves there is an adequate amble supply for Silver Thorn to have continued nutritional compliance for another sixteen days. That figure includes a percentage of increased consumption for projected growth as well.”

Gearing looks from Cure over to Nahlah and can’t help but snicker as Nahlah waves a paw towards Cure. “Very… productive.” She looks around between Gearing and Swift as she asks, “When are we going?”

Gearing turns around and starts towards the decontamination chamber. “As soon as I get the cart loaded up. I’d rather not be traveling with a ground bound wagon, during the night, and over rough terrain, that’s just asking for an ambush.”

Handy waves a hoof and says as he looks at Nahlah, “We’ll go in half an hour. I want to make sure that we get to Megamac with plenty of daylight left to do whatever we’re going to need to do, and find a place for the night.”

Nahlah hops up onto her hind haunches and paw pumps both forepaws in the air as she lets out a ‘whoop’. “Great!” She looks over at Cure and points at herself. “Hey, Cure, drain the pony kegs while they’re getting ready. And no more shots until I get back!” She gives the multilimbed robot a scowl and rubs a paw on her rump.

“Affirmative, Subject Nahlah. Please accompany me to the station and we shall add to the stockpiles,” Cure replies as she spins around in mid air and hovers off towards the back far side of the medical bay.

Gearing leaves the others to their own devices for getting their respective preparations ready as he quickly heads towards R&D. As they are entering R&D through the lab’s decontamination chamber, Sable asks, “What will we be taking? I shall begin loading up the wagon.”

Gearing shakes his head and waves it off with a wing as he trots over to the Stable’s growing armory. “A few jugs of chemicals. But, first things first. Let’s get our equipment on.”

Sable pauses walking enroute to the chemical supply closest as she looks at him. She turns towards him and watches him start pulling out equipment as she asks, “‘Our’ equipment?”

Gearing starts putting a variety of armor and weapons on the workbench, and sets a large primarily metal saddle on top of the crate he pulls it out of. “I don’t leave without making sure I’m properly equipped...” He looks over at her and smirks. “And I’m damn sure not going to let you go out without doing the same.”

She walks over and starts looking over the variety of custom made equipment. She’s seen him working on the pieces over a course of time. Some of them he had to custom make and fit towards her own body. So, individually they make sense. Though how it all comes together she’s unsure. She walks over and turns sideways as she comes to a relaxed posture and looks straight again as she says, “I will defer to you for the best course of action, as you have more experience on the surface than I. And, if my darling Gearing will allow me to accompany him, than this is an acceptable compromise.”

Gearing begins putting the special set of combat armor he made for her on her chassis as he mutters, “You didn’t give me much choice in the matter...” She remains silent, and provides no retort.

However, the smile on her muzzle gets a tiny bit bigger.

After getting the extra layer of armor on, Gearing grabs the large saddle and sets it across her back, causing her to turn her head to look at it. As she watches, he attaches a large rifle to one side, and a shotgun with a drum magazine attached to its belly. He looks them over and frowns before he turns his head and locks eyes with Sable. “It doesn’t have the turret based system I had planned with it. But it’s better than nothing.” He points with his wings. “Until I can work out a belt fed system, you’re going to have to change the drums on the shotgun yourself. You can do that with your restraining cables, right?” She extends out a pair of cables on both sides, opening the flaps simultaneously and pulling out a pair of loaded magazine drums before nodding and putting them back.

Gearing smiles and nods. “Great. I’ve marked the side of the drums for their ammo type. ‘O’ for scattershot. ‘One’ for slugs.”

“’O’ and ‘One’? What is the significance?” Sable asks as she tilts her head.

Gearing grins. “One and Zero… two choices.”

Sable smiles and nods. “Ah. Yes. Of course! Thank you for using something easily identifiable.”

Gearing shrugs. “Well, more specialized ammo is typically color coded. But we don’t have any of that anyway.” He shrugs. “We’ll just make adjustments as we go.”

“Affirmative, my darling Gearing… Are you finished dressing me now?”

Gearing snickers and looks around. “Uh… yeah… that’s it for your gear.”

She turns towards him and grins. “My turn then!” She leans in and gives his side a kiss before bringing over the pieces of his armor suit with her cables and beginning her little good luck ritual. After getting read they head straight for the entrance.

As they are nearing the stable’s entrance, Gearing taps Sable with a wing and motions with his head further on ahead a moment after clearing the turn into the final passage. He pauses near a stack of crates and steps back into the shadows on the other side of them before going motionless. A few moments later the little violet filly walks by, at a very slow pace, as she stays low to the floor and sneaks by, but with her rear end high in the air and excitedly swishing her tail. A few steps behind her Apple Armor follows the same pattern of sneaking down the hallway following Sable.

After they’d passed, Gearing steps out a bit, peeking the direction they’d come from, before quickly following in line behind them, exaggeratedly sneaking along with them. They reach a desk near the entry hall and crawl under it as they look at the group gathering beyond.

With Gearing coming to a stop a few steps behind them.

“Plum Pie, how could you have lost’em?” Apple Armor asks with a huff.

The little violet filly shakes her head hard and her shoulders sag. “I don’t knooooow. He’s so sneaky! It’s not fair!” She points at the group beyond with a hoof and says softly, “Sable’s there, he can’t be far...”

“Psst… hey… whatcha guys lookn’ at?” Gearing asks softly as he leans just a bit closer.

Plum Pie points over to where Sable is offloading the plastic jugs she’d brought with her. “I heard Stinky talking. They’re gonna go get some toys… we’re gonna ultra-sneaky, sneaky follow behind them and see what kind they’re getting.”

Apple Armor lets out a sigh. “They’re always going out and having adventures while we’re stuck inside, I’m gonna follow along this time. That way, when they really need help, I’ll be there, and they’ll see they should take me with them more often!” He taps on his chest with a hoof and looks up with his eyes closed as he pictures charging in to save the day.

“Can I come too? Huh? Huh? Can I? Can I?” Gearing asks softly with a grin.

Apple Armor nods but blindly waves a hoof behind himself at the voice’s general location. “Sure. Sure. Just keep it down. Don’t want Gearing to catch us, he’ll never let us go.”

Plum Pie nods and gets an overly serious look on her face. “I don’t see him though… is he in-vizi-boo?”

“I don’t see’em either,” Gearing says softly.

Apple Armor nods. “Well, keep looking. He’s gotta be here somewhere, the sneaky wanker.”

Gearing reaches out with both wings, and starts ruffling the mane on the top of their heads with a wingtip each.

Both Plum Pie and Apple Armor tense up and their eyes go wide. They glance at each other sideways and Plum Pie says softly, “I know that feeling...”

They both turn their heads to look behind themselves, and see Gearing staring back at them, still rustling their manes with a wing, and waving with a hoof, as he grins widely.

Apple Armor springs up in the air, with his mane and tail standing on end, hard enough to clang his head on the desk, and cause himself to spin through the air and land in a metal storage box nearby. “Whatdaforfuckawaka wank-Ow!”

Plum Pie, during this, just locks eyes with Gearing for a few moments. Then, after either overcoming the shock, or coming to a decision, she falls over sideways and sticks her legs up in the air as she flops her tongue out to the side and closes her eyes. “Blaaarrgg… I’z dead… dead fillies don’t get in trouble… blaaarrgg,” she mumbles out before letting her tongue hang out to the side of her mouth.

Gearing snickers and tickles her nose with his wingtip. “Oh noes… Well… Can’t have that. But, I don’t think she’s all dead yet… Maybe I should give her some shots to find out?” He tickles her nose some more as he chuckles, “Not-quite-dead foals get bunches of shots in the rump to make them better.”

Plum Pies eyes zip open and she pull in her tongue as she rolls over and covers her rump with her forehooves. “Nooo! No shots! I’m okay! See! I’m fine!” She stares at him for a bit then gives him a sheepish smile as she says softly, “I think?” She covers her head with her forehooves as she moans, “Please don’t kill me, I’ll be good...”

He sighs and reaches out with his wings, wrapping her up, and pulling her into a hug. “I wouldn’t do that to you...” He ruffles her mane as he asks softly, “You know why you can’t go with us though, right?”

She lets out a sigh and says with a half pout, “Because I’m too widdle.”

Gearing shrugs and says, “I just wanna make sure you can handle yourself while outside. It’s not just about size.” He looks over at the metal crate that Apple Armor had landed in and asks, “You alive in there?”

Apple Armor pops out of the crate, with one forehoof on the edge and the other rubbing the top of his head. “You almost broke my head, you sneaky wanker!”

Gearing grins wide enough that his eyes close as he looks at him. Then continues smiling as he asks, “How about this… you hold down the fort and keep the stable safe while we’re out...” He waves a hoof at Apple Armor. “And when I get back, I take you out for a bit of target practice with a rifle?”

Apple Armor’s ears perk up. “For reals, reals? You’ll show me how to shoot?” Gearing nods and grins at him. Apple Armor half closes an eye. “This isn’t just a trick to get us to behave is it? Swift and them won’t let us near the weapons.”

Gearing shrugs and gives him a wink. “Well I’m not Handy and Swift, now am I?” Apple Armor and Plum Pie both shake their heads. Gearing leans over towards Apple Armor and says, “By your age I was already familiar with a variety of weaponry… Not teaching you how to defend yourself is irresponsible… and fucking stupid.”

Plum Pie raises a hoof while still being held by Gearing. “But Handy said not until we’re older...”

Gearing looks at her for a moment and raises an eyebrow before looking back and forth between them. “What did I just say?”

“You’re not Handy and that’s fucking stupid,” they both repeat in unison.

Gearing grins at them and ruffles Plum Pie’s mane again. “That’s my munchkins!”

Plum Pie sheepishly taps her forehooves together as she looks up at Gearing. “Will ya bring us back something?”

Gearing ruffles her mane again and sets her aside as he stands up and starts walking around the desk that was set up as a barricade. “I promise I’ll try… that’s as much as I can do.”

Plum Pie purses her lips to the side of her muzzle for a moment before giving a ghost of a nod. “Well… okay then...”

As Gearing is walking around Apple Armor keeps his eyes on him and scowls. “Better come back, ya shiny wanker… So you can show me how to use a rifle right...”

Gearing smirks at him, and reaches out with a wing and starts ruffling Apple Armor’s mane lightly. “You can count on it,” he comments as he looks at Apple Armor out of the corner of his eye.

Apple Armor’s eyes zip around, and he scowls hard, as Gearing ruffles his mane. But, at the same time, he leans into it ever so slightly before pulling away quickly and waving Gearing away with both forehooves. “Stop that annoying crap and get out of here already, ya shiny wanker.”

Gearing heads out through the already open Stable 68 front door and starts doing a quick headcount as he looks over those gathered already. He looks at Handy and asks, “This everyone that’s going? Everyone got everything they’re taking?”

Handy turns from talking to Swift and rolls his eyes as he waves his hoof at Gearing. “You’re the last one we were all waiting for. Can we go now?”

Gearing nods and starts using the terminal outside the door to begin sealing the stable up as he says, “Yeah, I’m good, just wanted to make sure so I could hurry up and close the stable back up.”

Nahlah looks back and forth as she tilts her head. “Why? What’s the hurry? Not like you’re trying to run away form Sable, she’s already out here.” She points over at Sable and smirks at Gearing.

Gearing shakes his head but watches the door close completely as he says, “The kids are getting antsy being stuck in there. Just caught two trying to sneak out.” He leans forward on the console and closes his eyes as he lets out a long sad sigh while a recent audio he heard plays through his head.

...And when there’s not a fucking thing else to do besides sit on a stone floor and stare at your hooves, guess what they want to do? They want to play...

He shakes his head and scolds himself. It’s not exactly the same thing. This is a fully functional stable, with way more room, and more ponies to interact with. Friends. Family. It was designed for long term habitation.

The little blue pegasus in his head points a cob pipe at him before puffing on it and grinning as it points out, Idle hooves are the tools of the enemy. We can easily keep them busy. He points the pipe behind himself at a caricatured diagram of procedures for dismantling and cleaning a rifle.

Swift hops over and looks wide-eyed between the closing door and Gearing. “Which ones?! Wasn’t two of mine was it?”

Gearing looks over at her and raises an eyebrow before he says in a long drawn out voice. “Nooooo.” He shakes his head. “Not that I’d recognize them if I ever saw them, considering you’ve never let yours out of your room. But I did know who was trying to sneak out. Apple Armor and Plum Pie. So it wasn’t any of yours.”

Swift looks back and forth as she asks, “You sure it was them?”

Gearing shakes his head and narrows his eyes at her as he says softly, “Yeah, I just said that… why?”

Swift’s eyes get big and she looks back and forth between the door and Gearing. “Well… it’s just…. Ummm” She looks over at Handy and tilts her head as she’s looking for some kind of help at the moment.

Handy looks up from his PipBuck and points at it before he shakes his head. “We can go, everything’s fine, Swift.”

Swift looks down at her PipBuck then nods and looks over at Handy. “Oh, okay, let’s go then.”

The little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head looks back and forth as it partially closes an eye and puffs on it’s pipe. But Gearing decides not bring up the obvious. Although, now that he’s looking at them, he can’t help but notice their various equipment.

On top of his maintenance barding, Handy has a set of custom-made metal plate armor. Patched together from a variety of sources, but done so with purpose and not simply being small pieces of scrap. In a few locations, there are sewn pockets that Gearing assumes has additional plates, most likely of the ceramic variety if they had any real skill in the design of it. On one side he has a knife of general purpose size, and the other has a pistol resting securely in it’s holster. On his back, but within reach, is an over-sized sledge hammer. Also custom made and Gearing takes note of the larger head on one side with what appears to be a modification that uses the pneumatics from a powerhoof to potentially add extra force with the strike.

Giving credit where credit’s due, Gearing can’t help but thinking that Handy almost looks like he knows what he’s doing.

But, aside from himself and Sable, the rest are far less equipped.

Swift has her powerhoof on her left hoof, and a saddle bag, but that’s practically it as far as what she’s carrying. She’s wearing a set of clothes that seem more like wraps, with certain sashes tied strategically to help keep it even tighter to her body, but he can’t really see any armor value in it at all.

Nahlah’s side bag is rather small for much of anything. There’s a couple small knives attached to the bag in secure sheaths, and a smaller pistol poking out from under the bag. But other than that, she’s traveling light, even foregoing any barding or clothes in favor of natural camouflage. Done intentionally, and primarily with the focus on stealth above all else.

Gauge though, is just an idiot with a bag. Again, he’s not even wearing a maintenance jumper, and is only carrying his saddle bags that, judging by the lack of sag, are practically empty of supplies. He didn’t even bother carrying the empty holster this time.

Whether that’s from intentionally doing it to avoid questions, or just another symptom of his idiocy, Gearing can’t tell.

Sable quickly straps into the harness for the wagon, and starts heading up the service ramp before Gearing can even say anything. He takes a running start and catches some air as he calls out to Handy and Swift, “I’ll check the outside while you get everything closed up. Meet you out front.”

Gearing quickly gets outside and does a quick spiral search pattern out from the station to make sure the coast is clear this time. He even stops by the area where the Gunner had used as a sniping position to shoot Pharynx a few days ago, just to make sure no one else is lying in wait.

That’s not a mistake he intends to ever make again. Distractions or no.

On the way back to the front of the station, as he sees them setting up on the road to leave, Gearing spots Gauge trot over to the back of the wagon and look into the back. As Gearing is landing next to the wagon Gauge yells, “Hey, there’s plenty of room back here, mmkay? I’m going to hop in too!”

Sable shrugs and waves a hoof at the wagon. “Your added mass shouldn’t cause any hindrances with my pulling it.”

“Great! Mmkay!” Gauge says with a grin as he starts hopping up into the back.

“Just don’t get any of those chemicals on you, Gauge… or it’ll likely eat your flesh off,” Gearing comments nonchalantly.

Gauge stops what he’s doing and looks around the wagon at him. “What’d you say?”

“Chemicals… careful with the chemicals… What do you think’s in those jugs? We don’t drink…” Gearing replies with a raised eyebrow.

Gauge leans back and looks down into the wagon. “You… you really have flesh eating chemicals in here? Mmmkay?”

Gearing grins at him. “Why not?”

Nahlah walks over next to Gearing and looks back and forth before waving a paw towards the back of the wagon. “But why?!”

Gearing shakes his head and looks at her as he narrows his eyes at her. “Because I’m going to need them where we’re going? Why else would i make a point of pulling them out and dragging them across Equestria?”

Nahlah scratches her chin for a moment then shrugs. “Yeah. Gotta point… but what you going to do with them?”

Gearing grins wide enough that his eyes close. “It’s a secret!”

Nahlah’s eyes go wide and she starts bouncing up and down repeatedly. “Oh! Oh! I love surprises!”

Gauge carefully pulls away from the back of the wagon and starts walking around the side as he says softly, “I- I think I’ll just walk… Mmkay?”

Sable nods. “As you wish, Subject Gauge.”

Gearing trots off and leads the way to Megamac as he snickers, and Gauge keeps a more-than-respectful distance away from the wagon. It earns him a few questioning looks from Swift and Handy, but they are more interested in watching where they’re going than whatever foolishness Gauge and Gearing are getting up to.

Even so much the better when they manage to get, and stay, upwind of Gauge.

Footnote: ‘credential matrix’ buffering. . .

Stabilizing ‘move assist matrix’, please stand by. . .

Stabilization of ‘move assist matrix’ complete, debugging in progress, please stand by. . .

This chapter focuses on the aftermath of the previous chapter and how a few other characters are dealing with their own problems simultaneously. But, the rest of the world awaits and so do many mysteries.

-Quillsy