The first sign of anything changing in the stable’s dim outer entrance is one of the bucks in combat armor fidgeting with his armor and clearing his throat. He stays sitting on one of the boxes they’d brought down while looking at the stable door and becoming increasingly uncomfortable. This clearing of his throat turns into a few hacking coughs.

A mare earth pony nearby looks him over with a look of disgust. “The fuck’s wrong with you?”

The buck shakes his head. “Nothing. Just that damn dust. Feels like I inhaled some of it or something. Scratchy throat.”

She side steps away from him. “Well keep that shit to yourself. I don’t want any of your taint.”

The mare unicorn from before leans towards Bradoak. “I don’t think they’re going to open up. What’s taking so long?”

The coughing starts to spread to a couple others, and the unicorn mare next to Bradoak turns around and looks at them. “Hey, you bastards better not be coming down with something. Medical supplies aren’t cheap.” She takes a couple steps towards them then starts blinking rapidly. “The fuck’s in my eye?” She sits down and starts rubbing her eyes with the back of her forelegs. A moment later she howls out in a screech, “Fuuuck! My eyes! Why the hell are they burning! Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck! What the hell did I get on me?! I think it’s in my eyes!”

She stumbles a few times, then looks around at her companions, who are in various degrees of coughing fits. She suddenly springs up to her fullest, with her eyes red and streaming water, at the sudden realization. “Gas! It’s gas!” She looks over by one of the lights and sees the green hues moving in the air currents as she screams, “We gotta get out of here!” She runs up as fast as she can, stumbling the whole way, and starts quickly activating the button to the exit. Her horn glows faintly, illuminating even thicker green tinted fumes around her, using her magic to press the button before she even gets there. But nothing happens. She hops on it, and hits the various buttons repeatedly.

But still nothing happens.

Handy looks sideways at Gearing who calmly replies, “Remote override shut down of the control box. It’s ‘Down for Maintenance’.”

The unicorn pulls out her rifle and starts shooting at the doorway, but it ricochets off harmlessly.

An earth pony runs up, spins around and starts hammering away at the doors with powerful bucking kicks. He tries holding his breath, and succeeds for a while, but eventually he has to breath. And when he does, it floods his lungs with such a concentrated fog that he instantly falls over clutching his chest.

Tears form on the edge of Handy’s eyes as he watches the nightmare unfold before him on the screen. He tries not to think of the loved ones that will never know what happened to them, and hopes beyond hope that whatever children they have, if there are any, will have some sort of support and be able to carry on with the loss that they’re inflicting today.

The screams of pain and despair become a symphony of misery as the members of the Gunners mercenaries try to escape. They try to survive. They do everything they can to get away. But fail. And fall. Their bodies losing the strength to fight, way before they’ve mercifully slipped their mortal coil as Gearing’s special mix quickly fogs the entire area.

Except for Commander Bradoak.

While the other ponies thrash around on the ground, foam coming from their mouths as lesions start appearing on various spots of their bodies. Commander Bradoak stands there, staring at the screen, with a scowl on his face as his posture remains, despite the same damage appearing on him that is afflicting his dying comrades.

When the last member of his party finally loses consciousness, and the only noise is foam filled haggard breathing, Bradoak finally comments, “Well that’s just fucking great. You really think you’ve won today, Handy Hooves?”

Handy stares at the screen, his eyes getting ever wider as he comes to a terrifying realization. He looks at Swift, then Scarlet, and says after swallowing hard, “It’s… It’s a synth!”

Scarlet’s eyes go to their widest as she takes an instinctive step back from the Stable door. “N- no… no nonononono.”

Swift hurries over and looks at the monitor. “Are you sure!? How’d they find us all the way out here?!”

Handy throws his hooves in the air before pointing with both of them at the monitor. “It’s the Institute! I don’t know…”

Gearing looks around, and then focuses on Sarge for a while in silence. Sarge returns the awkward stare until he eventually shrugs. Gearing, disappointed, turns to glare at the others as he asks, “And… What’s a synth?”

“A robot pony,” Handy says softly, more of an automatic reply than anything with any real thought put behind it as his mind races on what to do next.

“Like a protectapony?” Gearing points at Sarge before sliding over closer to look at the monitor.

“No.” Swift shakes her head. “They’re made by the Institute. They look exactly like a real pony. You normally can’t even tell until after you’ve killed one. They even bleed.” She turns her head to look at Gearing and notices the cold stare before she continues softly, “But they’re robots. Despite being organic.” She sighs as she closes her eyes and looks down. “And very, very dangerous…”

Gearing stares at the monitor for a few moments before asking flatly, “You mean they’re the exact opposite of me?” This draws the attention of every pony in the hallway. “Okay, except for ‘potentially dangerous’, I mean I did just kill a dozen ponies after only waking up about an hour ago…. But, I’m not organic. I was born, not built, yet I’m actually a living creature…” He jabs a hoof at the stable door. “So that thing… is really pissing me off.”

Handy’s eyes jump back and forth. “This isn’t a time for a debate on your status.”

Gearing looks at him in the eye and says, flatly, “Fuck. You.” He walks up to the screen and stares at it as Handy pulls away from him. “It’s just a machine. It can be destroyed. Anything organic woulda already died in that soup I cooked up.”

“Watch yourself there slag heap,” Sarge comments. “I might take that as a personal threat… and enjoy the results.”

The earth pony standing outside has their skin start sloughing off as the gas mixture that Gearing had made continues to eat at their organic form. “Handy Hooves. We’ve missed you. How about you open up this door and we can talk… or I just blast it down. Your choice.” The voice becomes increasingly more gravelly as the voice box continues to be eaten by the corrosive fumes filling the entryway.

Gearing’s eyes jump back and forth between Swift and Handy. “How is it that he knows who you all are?” It didn’t slip past him that Bradoak had said Handy’s full name without prompting.

Scarlet huddles close to herself shaking as her eyes are as wide open as they can go. “They- they’re machines. Once they know of you… they all know of you.” She looks over at Swift. “What are we going to do, Swift? I won’t let them take me again!”

Swift looks over at her and stamps a hoof. “That’s not going to happen, Scarlet.” She looks over at Gearing, appraising him for a few moments before motioning towards the door with her head. “They are far tougher than a normal pony. The gas won’t be enough… especially since… I think it’s a- a hunter.”

Scarlet hunkers close to the ground shaking rapidly.

“Hunter?” Gearing asks semi unnecessarily.

Handy looks down at the ground as he holds onto the monitor with both forehooves. “A souped-up variation. Typically don’t even bother trying to act like a pony.” He looks over at Gearing and adds, “They are faster, stronger, and tougher than any pony could ever be. Just one of these things can wipe out a whole gang of raiders.”

“Even the Steel Rangers’ armor had its chinks…” Gearing says with a slight smirk.

Swift sits down and grins as she puts her hooves together just about a pencil’s thickness apart. “Okay, maybe a bit more.”

“Handy, Handy, Handy,” Bradoak says as he shakes his head, sending pieces of matted fur and sloppy organic material scattering around. “You shouldn’t have left the way you did… We want our property back.”

Scarlet falls down entirely to the ground and starts shaking violently. Swift trots over and holds her, letting Scarlet bury her face into her mane as she tries to comfort the crimson mare.

Handy replies back as he stares at the screen, “We’re not going back… We’d rather die than be in your ‘care’ again.”

Bradoak sighs as he nods his head. “I actually don’t doubt that at all…” He looks around at the bodies around himself before looking at the camera. “The wasteland does things to ponies… You didn’t use to be a murderer… I can see your resolve all around me.”

Handy flinches and his eyes go wide as another tear streaks down his face. He stomps with a hindhoof a few more times as he fights with himself.

“Look, Handy,” Bradoak says before hocking up a massive bubbling bloody loogie that splashes and sizzles on the ground. “I’m going to make this easy for you.”

Handy looks up at the screen, but says nothing. Just watching, examining the synth grinning back at him and feeling the cold eyes even through the display.

“We know you have some oh so lovely little ones… They would make excellent… ‘guests’ of ours… I’m sure we could get allll kinds of information with them. Although we’d prefer the original. The mother would be more preferred. Pure changeling DNA, untainted DNA.”

Swift stiffens and looks at the screen with a look of pure contempt.

“Bradoak, you’re not getting my children,” Handy says evenly as he temporarily clicks the button.

Bradoak sweeps his head around the room he is in and then brings his gaze back to the screen. “Yeah. I’m sure you’d have some kind of fall back plan for that. But, as cold as you’ve become to kill this many… Do you really have what it takes to murder your own children?”

Before Handy can hit the microphone button, Gearing stops him, and gets his eye contact before holding up his pipbuck for Handy to see. Handy’s eyes go wide for a moment, and Gearing nods towards the microphone as he removes his own hoof from protecting it.

[He’s playing you, Handy. He’s fucking with your head. Here’s how to reply…]

Handy looks at the screen and reads out loud flatly, “Don’t do anything that’ll let us all know that answer.” Handy looks at Gearing and raises an eyebrow.

Bradoak sits there a few moments, then chuckles. “Wow… cryptic… and cold… You have changed, Handy Hooves.” He shakes his head then looks at the camera again. “Look. I get it. Family’s always been important. So, I have a deal for you. You get to keep your family, and we get our property back, and we’ll leave you here in this … tomb.”

Both Handy and Gearing look at the screen intently as Handy asks, “What do you want?”

“Well,” Bradoak begins with a rough cough. “There’s that little fire filly you let escape when you left. We want her back… Elementals are so rare these days, haven’t been able to find another specimen… We really need to breed some more. And, for that, we need the real stock.”

Scarlet’s eyes shoot wide and she scrambles to hold onto Swift, holding tighter and tighter. “Don’t let them take me, Swift! Please! Don’t let them take me!”

Swift holds her close, starting to have trouble to breath from the oppressive grip, but continues to try and soothe her as she says softly, “Everything’s going to be okay. Don’t you worry.”

“While we’d prefer to have a living changeling sample… We’d rather not risk losing all of it. So, you just give us some blood and tissues samples, and we’ll just have to make do with replicating and using that. But the elemental isn’t genetic, as far as we can tell, so we need her to understand it better… Once we either find, or make, another sample, you can have her back.”

Gearing looks over at Scarlet and his disposition sours. He can only imagine what she’s been through. From her reaction, he wouldn’t doubt if it was as bad or possibly even worse, if that’s even possible, than what happened to Nettlekiss.

“Oh, there’s also one more piece of property we want back.”

Handy’s head lifts up just high enough to look at the monitor. “What’s that? The moon?”

Bradoak chuckles. It’s a hideous sight, with his face seeming to slowly droop and peal off on one side in some disgusting display of reddish flesh and matted pelt. “It’s just a box. A crate that was sent here before the war.” He waves his hooves around. “If it’s still in there, we want it.”

Handy looks the monitor over and asks softly, “What’s in it? That’s a long time ago. It might have already been opened, if so… I’d need to find it, or whatever’s left of it.”

Bradoak raises his shoulders in a disgusting shrug, his armor sliding to the side over the partially dissolved flesh. “We don’t actually know. That’s why we want it. Someone went to a great deal of trouble to keep the contents out of record… So just hand over that crate, and whatever might have been in it and we’ll be good to go.”

He taps out a few commands at the terminal nearby him that’s locked out, except for the messaging system. A moment later both Handy and Gearing’s pipbucks get the message as it was addressed to the maintenance department.

Handy looks it over for a moment and shakes his head. “I don’t recognize this format. It’s not a standard Stable-Tec inventory code.”

But Gearing recognizes the code, he saw it on the side of a certain faux crate not an hour ago while he lay on the floor hogtied.

Bradoak raises both of his hooves. “What can I say, Handy, it was probably sent to the wrong address. Or, maybe they wanted to keep it safe, and no where was safer than a stable.”

“So, even if it’s just an empty crate, you’ll accept that?” Handy asks as he looks at the monitor.

Bradoak frowns. “I hope that doesn’t mean you’re planning on looting it before giving it to us. But, if that’s the way you find it, we can hardly blame you.” He grins a wide toothy smile with teeth streaked in crimson. “We know you’re an honorable pony, Handy. You’ll do the right thing.”

Handy watches Gearing slowly walk over to Swift and Scarlet. Handy asks, while keeping his eyes on Gearing, “So, the crate, samples, and… your guest… then you’ll leave us be, right?”

“That’s the deal. Told you it was easy,” Bradoak says with a grin.

Scarlet scrambles on Swift, begging quietly, “Don’t please. Swift. Don’t let them do this.”

Handy smacks his lips a few times before asking, “We have a medical bot. It can get the samples you need. Will that suffice?”

“Sure.” Bradoak waves a hoof dismissively. “I mean, I’m in no shape to get the samples. I’d contaminate them all.”

Handy looks at Swift, who returns the flat stare, and asks, “How… how can we be sure we can trust you?” He looks at the screen and asks, “You’re cold, calculated, and are a machine without feeling.”

“What about it?” Bradoak tilts his head.

Handy shakes his head. “Prove that there’s something… some kind of FEELING behind this… some bit of goodness that will give me a reason to trust you.”

Instantly Bradoak pulls out a black box from its holster at his side, aims the end at an earth pony that’s long gone silent. A faint click can be heard before the red beam shoots out and hits the pony’s head, after a moment, the entire buck, or what was left of it, glows with a faint yellow and red, before collapsing in on itself as a pile of slightly glowing ash.

Handy hits both hooves against the monitor before he screams, “Why’d you do that?!”

“It’s kinder this way, isn’t it?” Bradoak looks up at the screen and shrugs. “At least giving them a cremation, instead of leaving them to melt into a cesspool that you all will have to clean up.”

Handy groans and asks, “And what about the rest of the Gunners? You can’t go back like that. And they’re going to want to come looking if they know their crew went missing around this area.”

Bradoak waves a hoof dismissively. “I’ll self terminate after the exchange is complete. They’ll never know we were here. We left no notice of our destination… The others didn’t even actually know where we were going. They were nothing more than a means to an end, and you’ve saved me the trouble of having to clean up that loose thread.” He gives a slight bow with one hoof across his chest. “Thanks for the assistance.”

Handy feels absolutely sick to his stomach. He says softly, “I get it. I hear you. We’ll talk about it.”

Outside the stable’s door Bradoak’s eyes, what’s left of them, narrow on the camera. “You can’t simply out last me. This gas isn’t enough to kill me, you know this. These fools brought more than enough ordinance with them to blow open a stable. I made sure of it. Though it was just a precaution, so if you think you can-“

Scarlet’s voice gets louder and louder over the speaker as she shrieks, “Don’t let them do it! Don’t let them do it! No! Swift! Help me, Swift! You gods damned traitors!” The transmission to the outer entryway turns into a loud screech and crackle with the sound of electricity arcing, then goes silent.

Bradoak stares at the camera for a few moments, then at the speaker. “What are you all doing in there? Handy?”

The stable’s robotic mare voice comes out of the speakers a few moments later. “Beginning decontamination protocol. Flushing unknown chemical contaminant from stable entrance. All personnel please stand by for stable door opening protocol.”

Bradoak looks at the speaker and around quickly, wondering what they are getting up to now. Before his gaze returns to his other side, a gust of air blows past him. He trails his eyes from side to side, tracing the air coming in, and smiles slightly as he sees the air slowly clear as the fog that had been thickening in the entryway starts filtering out as it’s ejected into the atmosphere through the exhaust system. “Haaaandy... what are you doing?”

The stable’s robotic mare voice replies a moment later through the speaker near him, “Commander Bradoak. The communication console at the entryway has been damaged by an electrical discharge. The stable door will be opened the moment the contaminants have dropped to a safe level.”

Bradoak sits down and shakes his head. “I’m already dead. There’s no need to flush the air now.”

The voice responds, “We are concerned with contamination of the stable. The stable will be opened once decontamination protocol allows.”

Bradoak sighs and looks around at the bodies around him, the various hairs moving independently by the rushing air. “I’m not going to wait forever, Handy.”

“You are in pain. Is there anything we can do for you, Commander Bradoak?” the robotic voice replies.

Bradoak shakes his head and laughs a throaty bastardization of a laugh. “Now, that sounds like the Handy we know and love… No. That is unnecessary. My function will cease once the exchange has been made. Do not concern yourself with my failing body.”

After several minutes of this circulation of air, Bradoak gets annoyed and asks, “How long are you going to stall?”

The robotic voice replies, “The entrance way has a small air evacuation passage and small pumps. It was meant to slowly cycle air over longer periods of time. Hours. The system was never designed to circulate all of the air in minutes.”

Bradoak looks at the camera and raises a deformed eyebrow. “But you managed to flood the entire room with gas awfully quick.”

“For the same reason this is difficult to remove, is the reason it was easy to add. Pumping in the fumes into an enclosed space is easier than pumping all of the air out in such a way that removes all of the contaminants.”

Bradoak thinks about it a few moments and notices the air pushing out from the stable towards the entryway trapdoors. “That makes sense. This area wasn’t designed to house life for long, just to blow out any contaminants from getting into the stable as it’s opened.”

“Affirmative,” the voice replies.

Bradoak walks over to the explosives, and shoves off the sloshy corpse of the buck that first started having the coughing fits. “Well I’m getting impatient. If you think this’ll hold me long enough for you to come up with some escape plan, you’re dead wrong.”

He opens the crate, and starts pulling out blocks as the air cuts off. A moment later the siren wails, and the lights around the stable door start spinning as the prerecorded automatic message plays. “Attention stable residents. The stable door is now opening. Please remain clear of the door until it has come to a complete stop.”

Bradoak turns around and starts trotting up to the entryway as the door begins sliding to the side. The voice surrounding him says loudly, with warm tones, “Welcome, to Stable 68. Safety underground.”

Bradoak grins ever more as the door slides open. “Well hot damn!”

Before the door gets very far open, a dark shape blocks the light a moment and moves in a blur through the opening door. Bradoak’s eyes start opening wide as the zipping shape of Swift, head low and murder in her eyes, comes charging out at him at full speed. He scrambles backwards, pulling out his weapon, but jumps back and away from her as she begins a flurry of hoof strikes at him. His shots go wide, and she ends up disarming him by striking his jaw with her power hoof encased left hoof, following it up by rolling around and swinging all of her legs at him, mostly missing, but catching one of his hind legs in the back of the knee, making him drop down.

The next figure on him, he barely saw approaching as Handy swings down a massive hammer towards Bradoak’s head. Bradoak manages to lean back, avoiding the main strike, but Handy follows through with a quick backswing that does catch Bradoak in the side of the head and sends squishy flesh soaring.

However, it seems to have little effect as Bradoak stops the next swing cold with his hoof, headbutts Handy, making him drop the mallet, while simultaneously bucking Swift in the side, hard with his right hind leg. Swift and Handy stager back, and take positions on either side of him as they circle him.

Bradoak grins at Handy and taps the mallet on the ground with his hoof before breaking the handle. “You really screwed up, Handy. We were going to make this easy on you… And with you out here, there’s no worry about you killing your children before I can get to them.”

Both Swift and Handy jump at Bradoak at the same time, having perfect timing. Their attacks come in from opposites sides, and Swift’s even entirely out of his view range, but it doesn’t matter. Bradoak is still faster. He grabs Handy and spins around, using him to bash Swift into the ground, then flips around and bucks them both a distance away, skidding through the refuse and gore that now litters the entryway.

As he turns his attention towards them, and crouches to jump at them, a glint in the puddle of blood below him catches his attention, he turns his head with unnatural speed to look at its source above and behind him.

But not quick enough to do anything about it.

Gearing’s heavy form crashes into him, with the long black rod he’d pulled out earlier. But, unlike earlier, the rod is alive in his grasp. The end crackles with energy, and Bradoak’s eyes go large in recognition before his entire body starts jerking and spasming involuntarily.

Gearing drives Bradoak into the muddy floor with his own weight, but the high voltage stun rod in his mouth bites in deep, and the electricity that he dumps out of it is absorbed greedily by the synth’s all too willing flesh and the robotic components may be under it.

Gearing uses the prod to pole vault over Bradoak, holding him down and dumping the electricity into him at the highest rate his weapon will allow, while keeping his own distance. He lands on the ground with all four hooves, fanning out his wings with a gush of air to stabilize himself. Gearing stomps down into the ground, kicking up a large rifle that one of the Gunners had dropped while in a coughing fit.

He hops up and back, partially taking flight, as he springs through the air, and plants the barrel’s business end directly against the temple of the synth. As the residual electrical energy arcing through the synth jumps from the twitching body to Gearing, arcing all along his surface and sparking between the various gears as they turned and go about their own business, he pulls the trigger.

BA-DOOSH.

And if that wasn’t enough, he fires a few more times as the electricity causes his body to shake, firing as fast as he can.

BA-DOOSH BA-DOOSH BA-DOOSH.

Handy and Swift get to their hooves and stare at Gearing in disbelief. He looks over at them, twitching erratically with random sparks shooting off as the electricity dissipates. Each spark accompanied with a slight twitch and a monotone, “Ow,” escaping his lips.

Handy screams out, “What. Have. You. Done?!” as he slaps his forehooves on the sides of his head before jumping over to check on Bradoak.

Gearing steps away from Bradoak, picking up his electric prod and stowing it as he says, “Destroying it. Wasn’t that the plan?”

Handy shakes his head, tears on the edge of his eyes again as he grumbles, “It was still a life. We could have talked something over while we had him subdued. You didn’t have to kill him like that, you already had him incapacitated!”

Gearing takes a few steps backwards, glaring at Handy, as he growls, “Oh. That is fucking rich!” He thrusts a hoof towards the corpse as he says, “You treat that … that... machine with more consideration than you do me! It tried to kill you, your wife, and steal your children, and there you are crying over it, when you’ve threatened wholesale slaughter of me and all I did was wake up!”

Handy shakes his head and looks at Gearing. “It’s- it’s not like that! You don’t realize what you’ve done!”

Gearing looks at Handy over his shoulder and grumbles, “Yeah, I do, actually.” He spins around and points a hoof at Handy. “Nettlekiss tasked me with guarding her foal. That’s all she cares about. This fucking thing said it was going to kill it… Ergo it had to be destroyed.” He turns around and starts rummaging through the equipment of one of the dead gunners. “I already failed that mare once, I’m damn sure not going to do it again… especially at the cost of a foal’s life.” He looks back at Handy as he spits out some ammo he’d managed to dig out of a pouch onto a cloth he’s laid down. “So go fuck yourself with your bigoted ass.”

Handy’s eyes are directed down as a slight sloshing catches his ears. He looks down and notices the body of Bradoak seems to have started to liquefy again. “No, oh no, no, no. Shit!” He grabs the head, and turns it, directing it to look at himself. He keeps slapping his hooves at it, trying to get the eyes to point towards him as he speaks, “Hey! I know you can hear me! Just… just stay away! That’s all we want! Just leave us alone. We’re not a threat to you, and if you keep coming after us it’s just going to keep getting costly. You guys hate wasting resources, that’s why you stay hidden. So… Just stop already!” His hooves desperately hold onto the head, as much as he can, as it slowly dissolves into a gooey mess between them.

Gearing trots over to the folding trapdoors to leave, and hits the button. Handy hops up and spins around looking at him. “The hell you going to do now?!” Handy’s eyes dart from looking at the metallic pegasus, to looking at the weapon that he seems to be very proficient with, judging by the way Gearing’s cradling it.

Gearing glances over at Handy as he motions with his head towards the surface. “I’m going to confirm if there’s any more threats. If so, I’m going to remove them.” He starts trotting up the stairs and Handy darts after him.

Handy looks at Swift as he passes her. “Get back in the stable, but keep the door open in case we have to make a quick retreat back here.” She nods and runs into the stable, skipping over all over the corpses and doing her best not to slip in the disgusting slime. Inside, Scarlet and Sarge are at strategic positions watching the stable door, and welcome Swift back, who quickly joins their barricade.

Gearing stops near the top of the stairs, and starts slinking very slowly up the last few as he gets as small and as low to the ground as he possibly can. Handy zips up next to him and taps him on the shoulder, not getting as much attention from Gearing as Handy would like, but at least earning him a quick sideways glance before he continues zipping his eyes around.

“Stop a minute!” Handy hisses at him softly.

“I’m not going to give them a chance to kill the foal. If they make it back we’ll have both of those organizations after us.” Gearing keeps his eyes on the one door he can see from the top of the stairs that seems to be the only exit for the room this stairway accesses.

Handy looks at him for a moment then shakes his head. “No. I mean. That’s fine. Just wait up; you don’t know what’s out there.”

Gearing looks at Handy sideways a moment then rolls his eyes. “D’uuuh… that’s what I’m going to go find out… But if you don’t shut up you’ll give my location away.”

Handy looks him over for a moment before he asks, “What’s your plan this time?”

Gearing motions with the rifle at the door. “I’m going to slip out, and get a view from above what’s going on. If I fly high enough they won’t even be able to hit me, even if they can see me.”

Handy’s eyes go big for a moment before he asks, completely out of dumbfounded reflex, “You can fly?!”

Gearing looks at him, and sets the rifle down, before he gently bops his metallic hoof on top of Handy’s head. “I’m a pegasus. It’s kind of our thing.” He waves at Handy with one of his wings.

In a typical earth pony form of stubbornness, Handy still doesn’t believe it. But, while he wants to try to figure this out, he decides he needs time for that, and now is not that time. “Okay. Well. Don’t fly too high.”

Gearing glances at Handy and chuckles as he rolls his eyes. “Don’t worry, I can’t hit the sun and my wings won’t melt.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Handy shakes his head. “It’s not safe up at cloud level.”

Gearing turns his head and stares at him with a look of complete confusion. “What? Clouds are harmless. They can try to get a bit wild at times, but manageable enough. I lived in the clouds. Cloudsdale ring any bells?” Gearing chuckles. “Clouds. They’re kinda our thing too.”

Handy looks at him a moment then shakes his head. “The pegasi closed up the skies a long time ago. When the war was still going on from what I understand. They have some kind of defense network and anyone that tries to pass higher gets fried. Pegasi or not…”

Gearing regards Handy for a few moments, and shakes his head. “N- no… they wouldn’t do that. I mean… We had entire armies up there. Loyal soldiers. There’s no way they’d just … betray the princesses like that!” He stamps a hoof. “You have to be mistaken!”

Handy looks at Gearing with true sadness and gently puts a hoof on his shoulder, carefully not touching his crystalline wings. “Things change, Gearing. Just… go see for yourself… but brace yourself, because the wasteland’s not a pretty sight.”

Gearing takes in a few deep breaths, not for the need for air, since he doesn’t breathe, but the deep irrational need to snort out his contempt at this thought. The betrayal that would be necessary to abandon the rest of Equestria strikes him in a way that is unconscionable. What about the princesses? He’s afraid to ask. Despite his personal opinions of the nobility, he’d never betray the princesses. But, one horror at a time. He turns his head with a snort and slinks away, quickly slipping through the door, almost silently, and out of Handy’s sight.

Gearing hurries down the hall as quickly and quietly as he can. It doesn’t take him long to exit out of an administrative office, and into the customer section of some sky wagon convenience store service station. He slinks around the counter low and slow, and pauses at the back door. He looks down at himself, covered in the goop from looting the fallen. As bad as that makes him look at the moment, his eyes settle on other parts of himself. He moves his forelegs a bit, testing his shoulders. Yes, they are still acting funny. He’s not positive, but he’s starting to wonder if the stasis weapon has left some kind of lasting effect on him. He just doesn’t feel like himself, and is having a hard time moving around in his own skin. It’s like he feels disconnected almost. From himself.

A disturbing thought clicks through his mind: What if this is all some kind of set up. Some kind of magically induced scenario meant to trick him into thinking it was reality. This whole thing is rather absurd, isn’t it? How could he go from being in an office, surrounded by hundreds of dutiful ponies, to suddenly waking up and the war being over? As unlikely as it may be that it could be a ruse, he can’t discount it. Memory stealing magics aren’t always perfect, so they may have him in a stasis pod somewhere trying to get him to reveal some crucial information. All of this could have been an illusion, faked since, his last trip to a stable? That maneframe data depot? Things have gotten increasingly more strange since that point. Like who on Equus would think an experiment with 1000 ponies locked in a stable, and only one of them being a mare, was a good fucking idea? That’s beyond ridiculous. There’s no way that could be real. Maybe it’s best to just keep fighting. He opens the door, checks that it’s clear outside of anypony, then runs through it and takes flight. Quickly gaining altitude as he flies up and away from the service station.

If this was some kind of hoax, and someone was being paid to get him to believe the world really had ended.

They needed a fucking raise.

Footnote: Please wait, attempting to reestablish . . .

Please wait, attempting to reestablish . . .

Primary Node query timed out. Attempting secondary…

Chapter 3

I think I'm getting the system down better, but will probably still come back and change some things along the way for visual display reasons. Once I figure out exactly how I want it and how I can do it and, more importantly, finding which of the things I want to do, once I decide them, I can actually do with the software limitations.

Story moving right along with introduction of yet another problem and danger to the group. For those wondering, don't worry this isn't going to turn into some sort of Stable Sim where they never leave. Gearing may have worked for Stable-Tec, but he's no Stable pony.

'Have tools, will travel.'

I hope everyone's enjoying the story thus far. Like always, comments, suggestions, and critiques are welcome!

-Quillsy