Silver Shoes and Orchid lead the way for Swift and company through the train yard. Minus Gauge, as he’s currently in the clutches of a very large, and very enthusiastic, mare named Glimmer.

The jury is still out on what should be expected of that situation.

As they are climbing the short steps to the old administration building, the set of double wooden doors at the top are already wide open. Freight Cars members loiter around, both inside and out, talking to each other as they drink from various bottles. Sparkle Cola. Beer. Wild Pegasus. Plain water: radiation levels unknown. Something for any taste it seems.

Though, as they make their way inside, the chatter, and other actions, die down rapidly. Until the entryway is dead silent except for the slow hoof beats of Silver Shoes and the entourage following her. They all give the new arrivals their undivided attention.

New arrivals are a curiosity, if nothing else, here. But they’re common enough. Ponies coming to try and join. Ponies paying respects to Conductor. Ponies wishing to negotiate travel rights. All of that is regular fodder for their days, and nothing new.

But this group is different, and every single one of them knows it.

They’d been on the lookout and alert since Big Daddy had stopped by on his way back to the Hoofington arena. And once a single member of Iron Hoof’s group was found, word spread like wildfire through the ranks. And once Iron Hoof herself was confirmed to be in the area, there were nearly fights on who would get to escort her in.

But all of that was quelled by Conductor. They were under strict orders to give Swift, and her group, as much time as they wished to get there. There was no rushing them. If nothing else, it gave them all a sense of anticipation and just made the waiting almost exciting.

For if somepony was special enough to warrant Big Daddy himself to want to see her fight again, the Freight Cars knew it was something not to miss. Many, for various reasons, some obvious, were jealous of the attention. Not in a spiteful way, though. In a very respectful way that’s hard for most to understand. In the kind of way that they have found a new goal to achieve. A rival to try and best.

Because if some nopony out of the wastes can cause enough of a ruckus, in a single fight, to draw Big Daddy’s eye, surely they could achieve the same with enough hard work.

As they are approaching a door on the back left wall, with the old ‘Auditorium’ sign hanging on above it by nothing more than a stubborn nail and a bite of wire, Orchid’s horn glows as she remotely opens the way. Various laughter and chatter pour out of the Auditorium the second the door is open and shatters the silence of the entryway.

“Of all the names you’d pick, I can’t believe you’d choose ‘No Shoes’,” an older mare’s voice rises above the laughter.

“Hey, it’s my name. And soon enough everyone’s going to know it!” a buck retorts.

“It ain’t your given name, I know that much! Why’d you pick it anyway?! Sounds dumb,” another mare remarks.

“Cuz I’m tough enough that I don’t need no shoes. I’ve pummeled everypony dumb enough to challenge me so far. And one more win and I’ll be in!” the buck yells over everyone with more than a hint of pride in his voice. There’s a bit of laughter and cheering as glasses clash into each other as they toast the possibility.

“Yeah, what do ya want, Silver Shoes?” the older mare’s voice asks mid laugh.

Silver shoes nods behind her as she says flatly, “I brought her, Conductor.”

There’s a near hiccup sound, followed by a gagging cough as the same voice, now a bit raspy, yells, “Well don’t just stand there like a fool, bring’er in!”

Silver Shoes steps in and to the side as she motions for the group to follow.

Swift leads the way, taking in the view of everyone in the room quickly, as she tries to figure out who’s in charge. Likewise all of the occupants turn and carefully examine the new arrivals. Several of which spend a lot of time lingering their view over Gearing and Sable. Though, given their armaments, it’s understandable.

What was once an auditorium for the train’s administration building, where large meetings were once held, has been turned into a lounge of sorts. The back wall has a line of shelves full of liquor, and a mare unicorn playing bartender. Everywhere else is a variety of furniture and cushions for those invited to sit and relax.

Practically in the center of it all, closer to the back wall, is a massive pile of cushions, with a pony that Gearing is quite certain is the one in charge. The large maroon unicorn mare, with the largest gut he’s seen this side of the war, lounges backwards on the pile of pillows and puffs on an elongated pipe as she regards the new arrivals. The watermelon pink mane spilling out from her conductor’s hat curls and plays around her foreleg as she uses her hoof to hold the pipe. Notably instead of using her magic to do so. She has her hind legs propped up on what looks like a wheel from a train, and rocks it side to side slowly as she looks them over.

She takes a long drag from her pipe before tilting her head back and slowly blowing it up into the air above herself as her eyes travel from one of the new arrivals to the next. After trailing her eyes back and forth, she locks eyes with Swift and asks, “So you’re this Iron Hoof everypony’s been raving about recently?”

Swift smirks and waves her forehoof dismissively. “I don’t know about raving… but Iron Hoof’s what they started to call me since the tourney, yes.”

The maroon mare grins and blows out the end of her smoke trail before turning to face Swift and taking another long drag from her pipe. Her horn glows and the cloud of smoke above her shifts and forms until it reads like a bubbly banner that declares ‘Welcome!’ on her behalf. As she starts blowing out another burst of smoke from her nostrils she pauses just long enough to reply, “I’m the Conductor, pleasure to meet you.”

Swift nods towards her then her eyes drift over to the couch where a single individual sits, capitalizing the entire thing for himself, and smoking on a cigar. “So, about this fight I was told about?” Big Daddy reclines back into the couch more as he grins at her, but says nothing yet. “I came all this way, when can we get started?”

The Conductor starts laughing as she sputters the smoke from her muzzle. She looks over at Big Daddy and comments, “Spunky gus, ain’t she?”

“She my next fight?” a dark grey earth pony stallion asks with a grin. The voice matches the so called ‘No Shoes’ they’d heard when they were walking in. And, true to his name, he’s not wearing any shoes. Or anything else for that matter as he sits on the stone floor. Rocking out with his mark out.

“Nah, she’s mine. I’m next on the list,” an orange unicorn mare near the Conductor chimes in, and reveals herself as the one that’d been chiding No Shoes about his chosen name when they entered.

“Yup, and one of you two are going to go on to a fight in the Arena, so you’d better make it a good show,” Big Daddy adds as he grins around his cigar.

No Shoes folds his forelegs across his chest and huffs as he leans back and practically uses the buck sitting behind himself as a reclining seat, “Figures. Goldfish gets all the fun.”

Conductor chuckles as she’s exhaling her latest puff from her pipe, giving a very good impression of a train chugging along. And no magic required. “Throw on the breaks, No Shoes, you’ve only got one more wannabe to fight and it won’t be long before someone else challenges ya.”

No Shoes looks over at her sideways and chuckles. “Fat chance of that happening. Would have to be some idiot at this point that’s not from around here.”

Gearing looks sideways at Handy and hopes he doesn’t share in his wife’s ego-stroking self-gratifying desires.

He’s doomed, the little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head comments. And, for once, Gearing can’t entirely disagree with him.

Gearing turns his head and darts his eye back and forth between Conductor and Big Daddy. “So, when’s this shindig going down? I got shit to do. If everything else wasn’t bad enough, now my armor’s fucked, so I’m going to have to fix that as well.”

Big Daddy looks him over and asks as he’s holding the cigar on the end of his hoof, displaying a paragon level of earth pony hoof dexterity, “So what happened to you? Ya look like shit. I said I’d love to watch you fight… Anything that was able to do that to you must have been a sight to see.”

No Shoe’s glances over at Big Daddy and starts rubbing his chin as he looks over at Gearing.

“Oh, that’s easy,” Conductor says as she takes a long drag from her pipe and looks at Bid Daddy. Big Daddy looks over at her expectantly as he starts drawing from his own cigar. And Conductor grins as she takes that exact moment to finish, “He had a fucking building dropped on him.” Big Daddy sucks in a big burst of air and instantly starts hacking and coughing, causing Conductor to start laughing at her perfectly timed prank.

Big Daddy knocks the extra air out of his lungs and looks over at Gearing, with his glasses down. Peering at Gearing with his glowing eyes.

“Not the whole thing. Just the eleventh floor… About half of that really… maybe a bit more,” Gearing corrects with a wave of his hoof.

“Oh, is that all? Only half of an entire floor of an office complex?” Conductor starts chuckling as she repeats her train impersonation with her pipe smoke. She rocks the train wheel back and forth with her hindlegs as she looks at Gearing. “I heard you looked like some Nightmare Moon monstrosity when you climbed out of the rubble.” She temporarily holds the pipe aloft with her magic, and she uses her forehooves to wave and flutter in front of herself, as she adds, “Spider webbed wings of death and all.” She grabs the pipe with her hoof again and finishes with a grin around the mouth piece. “And all it did was piss you off, judging by the mess you made of those Wild Ones dumbasses.”

Orchid scrunches her nose and nods. “I can confirm how messy he can be.”

Silver Shoes starts laughing as she points back at Gearing with a forehoof. “He actually apologized for making a mess!”

The orange mare near Conductor leans forward and covers her face with her forehoof as she asks, “Did… did I just hear that right?” She points and waves the same hoof at Gearing as she looks at Conductor. “He got in a fight with the eleventh floor of that office building… and won?”

Nahlah grins wide enough that her eyes close as she shrugs with both of her forepaws up in the air at her sides. “Sounds like a typical Gearing move, yeah…” The rest of the auditorium erupts into laughter as Gearing slowly looks over at Nahlah and narrows his eyes at her. Nahlah returns his stare, and sticks her tongue out at him before commenting, “Deny it if you want to, won’t change nothing. Hard Head.”

Conductor grins as she asks, “Should I set up a fight for you too, then? Seems pretty unanimous that you’d put on a good show.”

Big Daddy leans sideways on the couch and looks at Gearing. “I think you should. I’d love to see it.”

No Shoes’ head zips over to look at Big Daddy again and he starts grinning as he slowly turns to look at Gearing.

Gearing waves it away and starts letting his eye drift around the room. “Not interested. Like I’d told Big Daddy before, I fight when I need to. Not to show off.”

Big Daddy frowns and lets out a puff of smoke from his cigar. “Well, that’s disappointing.”

No Shoes, likewise, seems disappointed.

Conductor shrugs as she directs her attention to Swift. “Well, we’ll get one of the rings set up for a bout.” She waves over towards a few unoccupied cushions nearby. “Come on, take a load off. Rest. Enjoy yourself… You hungry? Thirsty?” She waves her pipe over towards the bar. “We’ve got plenty, just let Pickles at the bar know and she’ll get you whatever you want.”

“I don’t really drink, but thanks,” Swift comments as she starts walking over towards the indicated pile of cushions. Handy follows close behind as he continuously looks around the room at the other ponies.

“Not my thing. Have fun, Swift.” Gearing comments. He turns and starts heading back out the door as he says, “You run into any problems, just let me know.”

Conductor chuckles and waves it away with a dismissive limp hoof waggle. “She’ll be perfectly fine. Guests, regardless of their own ability, are always protected, and never harmed.” She takes a drag of her pipe and lets the smoke out of her nostrils before she says with a grin, “We have a reputation to keep, after all…”

Gearing looks at her with his one eye sideways. “Uh huh, sure.” His eye darts back over towards Swift. “You know how to get a hold of me.” He continues out with Sable following close at his side.

Nahlah bounds after him as she grins and yells, “Hey! I think I saw a bar on the way in. Let’s go check it out!”

“Why, hungry?” Gearing asks as he watches her run around him.

Nahlah waves it away and frowns. “Pfft, food aside, bars are great for picking up tips and stories. Never know when you’ll find something song worthy!”

Gearing chuckles and waves a hoof at her. “What? Getting shot out of the air and crash landing isn’t song worthy?”

Nahlah scrunches her muzzle to the side and sticks her tongue out in disgust. “Not really, no. That just sucked.”

Gearing looks over at her and raises an eyebrow. “What are you looking for then?”

Nahlah grins wide and starts pattering away with rhythmic swishes of her tail as she starts humming to herself. “I’ll know it when I hear iiiiit.”

After they’ve left, Conductor takes a long drag from her pipe and snorts it out in Gearing’s direction before turning to look at Swift. “He’s a real pistol, ain’t he?”

“He can be really moody,” Handy says with a frown as he looks at the door they’d left through. “Him and Sable both.”

Swift looks at him sideway and smirks. “You’re one to talk!”

Once outside, Nahlah leads the way back to where she was pretty sure she saw a bar on the way in. Or, at least, bar-like enough with a collection of ponies talking, drinking, and generally having a good time relaxing. Along the way they notice ponies training. Some sparring. Some beating on bags. Others seemingly trying to use the ground itself as a training dummy as they pound away at it with their bare hooves.

Orchid and Silver Shoes follow them at a slight distance. Talking among each other, but generally keeping a look out around them as they continue on.

Gearing curves around, doubling back and coming up to the outside of Orchid as she’s looking the other way and still talking to Silver Shoes. Apparently about some upcoming important fight.

“Just so we’re on the same page,” Gearing starts, which causes Orchid to jump a bit and whip her head in his direction as he finishes. “Are you following us to make sure we don’t do anything screwed up, like steal from you, or what?”

Orchid slaps a hoof over her eyes and groans, “I’d forgotten how sneaky you can be. Damn my heart’s gonna explode at this rate.” She shakes her head then looks at him and smiles. “No. As Conductor said, guests are protected.” She waves a hoof at herself and Silver Shoes. “We’re just tagging along to make sure no one else tries anything stupid.”

Gearing smirks. “It’s nice you’re worried about our welfare, but we can handle ourselves.”

Orchid starts laughing then pokes him in his chest. “Oh, I know that already… but I’ve seen what you’re capable of. And I’d prefer if you’d keep your messes outside of the terminal. Especially if that mess happens to be someone I know.” She waves the hoof dismissively. “I’m tagging along just as much to make sure no one does something that’ll piss you off, as much as pissing off Conductor. Either way. Bad news. For somepony.”

They continue up towards the back end of the old public train station. Silver Shoes waves a hoof around as she says with a smile. “Welcome to The Depot, Freight Cars’ one stop shop for food, drinks, or other refreshments.”

Nahlah wastes no time in prowling around and starting to socialize with the patrons of the bar. First getting a feel for who would actually be amicable to her presence, quickly shying away from those who won’t, and generally making laps and rounds inside of the bar.

Gearing and Sable sit at an unoccupied table near the door, which seems to be intentionally avoided for its proximity to the door, and starts taking in their surroundings. While the ones in the Administration building had outright stopped their conversations when the group had entered, the group here barely lowers the volume. And, what’s more, barely pays attention to the new arrivals. Whether it’s because they don’t know who they are, or simply don’t care, Gearing can’t tell.

Though he does start getting some curious looks when he starts doing maintenance on Sable’s battle saddle right there in the middle of the bar. He takes off the rifle with the bent barrel, and sets it on the table in front of himself. He takes the rifle completely apart, leaving the bent barrel off to the side as he starts going through one spare weapon after another and starts pulling out the best parts he can.

Several Freight Cars watch on with interest as he expertly disassembles the weapons, and ranks parts based on current condition. Bumping off previous contenders for newly found better examples. Even Orchid and Silver Shoes watch in silence as the weapons seem to spontaneously turn into carefully laid out grids of tiny parts.

He’s in the middle of hunting for a better tension spring when Gauge comes running in through the door, panting and wide eyed. He runs around in a circle near the door as he pants, “Water… water… Need… water… somepony… please… water… mmkay?!”

Gearing looks over at him and raises his eyebrow as he slowly turns his bandaged head to look at Gauge. And that’s when the smell hits him.

Atypical of Gauge’s normal Ode de Mudd-butt he seems to subscribe to, this is markedly different. And draws smirks from a variety of patrons as the musky cloud follows him around. Gearing takes note of his dampened fur and, for a second, wonders if the traitorous sky has unleashed another torrential downpour. But quickly realizes that, no, that’s straight sweat. The kind of sweat a pony normally only unleashes after a day in the desert. Or force marching over thirty miles in basic when somepony was dumb enough to piss off every drill sergeant simultaneously.

Gauge partially sits down, and partially flops at the table that Nahlah is at, holding himself up with his fetlocks on the edge of the table, as he stares at the bottle in her paw and whimpers. Nahlah rolls her eyes and slides it over to him as she says, “You could just order one yourself, you know…”

He hops up with a giant grin on his muzzle as he says, “Thanks, mmkay!” And starts slamming the entire thing. One of the Freight Cars mares sitting with Nahlah seems amused by this circumstance and hands him her bottle as well before going to the counter to order more drinks.

He waves at the kind mare as he’s still drinking from the bottle Nahlah had given him. He hunkers down and his eyes go wide as a musical voice comes in from the outside.

“Ooohh sweeeetnesssss… Where’ve you gone now?”

Gauge grabs the other bottle, then runs over and slides under the counter near the wall behind the front door. Though, Gearing notes, the look in his eyes isn’t fearful. It’s, something else. And despite the fact that Gauge is currently trying to covertly drink the rest of the bottle while in hiding, he’s got the single most goofiest grin on his muzzle while doing it. He genuinely seems to be enjoying himself.

Glimmer walks in through the door, looking back and forth as she calls out again, “Ooohh sweetness…” She sees Gearing and Sable sitting there going over their weapons, and both of them turning to stare at her. “Oh! It’s you two.” She walks over and sits down across from them as she grins. “That little friend of yours is something special.” She shakes her head and smirks as she waves a hoof. “For a little guy, he’s something else.”

Nahlah looks at her with her jaw wide open then points a paw at Glimmer as she partially closes an eye. “You actually like Stinky?”

Glimmer waves her forehoove dismissively. “Eh… so he’s got a little gas when he gets excited. No big deal… He’s actually rather sweet.” She licks her lips while partially closing her eyes and looking at Nahlah with a grin. “Tastes kinda sweet too…”

Nahlah’s fur frazzles as she asks with a tone that’s higher pitched than she normally speaks. “You been huffing Brahmin shit or something?! How can your nose handle that?!”

Glimmer’s grin falls off her face as she says with a scowl, “No, that’s some Wild One’s bullshit, and don’t you dare ever accuse me of that shit again!”

Nahlah doesn’t even react to the obvious threat and waves her paw at Gearing. “Gearing… Gearing… You see this, right? You see this?” She points at Glimmer. “Make a note… Okay?” She sits back and closes her eyes as she waves her paw in front of herself as if she’s writing with a pen. “’Swift is never allowed to say Nahlah has no standards. Again. Ever. See attached incident labeled ‘Stinky Gets a Marefriend’.’” She opens an eye and looks over at Gearing. “Got that? Good!”

Glimmer smirks at her as she puts a hoof to her chin. “Well… I don’t know about marefriend, that’s a bit sudden don’t ya think?” Her grin starts growing as she says softer, “Might be nice though…”

Orchid and Silver Shoes exchange side-glances and simultaneously mouth, ‘What the fuck?’

Glimmer’s head jerks forward suddenly as Gauge jumps onto her back, and wraps his foreleg around her neck. He grins near manically as he tries to hold on, and only manages a few seconds before Glimmer whips around and throws whoever is on her back down, and through, a table next to her. She glances down at Gauge’s upside down visage and smirks. “Ohhh, being sneaky that time, huh?”

He grins up at her and gives a slight shrug of his shoulders, causing pieces of table to fall down more around him.

She smirks down at him. “Do you ever get tired, sweetness?” He simply shrugs and grins up at her again. “Mmmkay…” she practically purrs. “I think I heard the bell… New round…” She leans down and kisses him, then runs a lick from his lips, under his neck, and down his underside. All the way down, continuously, until she reaches his tail.

A few of the others around lean over shamelessly as they try to see where this is going.

Glimmer bites his tail, then turns around and starts trotting out of The Depot, dragging Gauge behind herself, as she high steps slowly away.

Gauge gets a goofy grin on his face again and waves with a hoof as he’s dragged out the door.

Gearing slowly turns his head to look at Orchid and Silver Shoes. And the three share a moment as they all mouth, ‘What the fuck…?’

Deciding that this is something that he really doesn’t want any part of at the moment, Gearing returns his focus on the weapon fragments in front of himself. After locating an appropriate spring, he quickly begins reassembling the weapon using the choicest pieces of what he has available. The rapid fire sound of pieces being locked and slammed into place starts drawing attention from other Freight Cars members as they watch him throw it together with the speed of a cross battalion challenge. After slipping the last piece in place, he lifts it vertically with his wings and racks the action, pulling the trigger, and hearing the satisfying sound of the click as it proves its own functionality.

He immediately starts replacing the rifle on the side of Sable’s battle saddle as she sits next to him patiently. Yet sneaking in gentle cable caresses along his sides regularly as he works.

Orchid watches him make the modifications and asks, “You know your way around rifles, huh?”

“My Gearing is an exceptionally talented repairpony,” Sable comments with a nod.

Gearing bobs his head around as he finishes getting the rifle hooked up to the Battle saddle system. “Regardless of what it is, maintaining your equipment can be the difference between life and death.”

“You work on Iron Hoof’s guns?” Silver Shoes asks as she props her head up on the table with a forehoof.

Gearing shakes his head and looks over at her. “She doesn’t use guns. She prefers using her hooves.” He looks over at her and smirks, “Most I’ve seen her use is her powerhoof.”

“And what about you?” a mare in the Freight Cars’ conductor’s outfit asks from the table next door. Gearing looks over at her, and takes note of the number of ponies that are paying careful attention to the conversation, despite their attempts to appear otherwise.

A slow growing grin crosses his muzzle before he says, without even looking at her, “Whatever gets the job done is good enough for me.”

Orchid lets out a snort as she has her focus aimed at the entry door. “Ain’t that the truth.” She blinks a few times and looks around at a few others as she can feel the stares directed on her. “I’ve seen him fight. And it seems he can ‘get the job done’ with pretty much anything…” She looks sideways at Gearing and finishes quieter, “Or nothing even…”

Silver Shoes shakes her head as she waves a hoof at Gearing. “I still don’t get it though… with your abilities, you’d climb through the ranks quick… you’d be one of the next ones in line to join the Reapers in no time… So why’d you pass up the chance of a bout set up for you while Big Daddy’s here? That’s such a wasted opportunity!”

Gearing carefully goes through the parts left over and stows extras, while putting together a few lower quality weapons where available. As he’s scooping up the last few wayward screws he asks, “Better question…” He looks over at her and frowns. “Why would I even want to?”

A mug drops from across The Depot and every Freight Car in the bar turns to stare at him and his apparent blasphemy. Betraying the fact that every single one of them have been listening in and following the conversation from the very beginning.

Silver Shoes blinks a few times then throws both of her forehooves out towards Gearing. “Because it’s the fucking Reapers!” Gearing stares at her blank faced, and doesn’t even move a single gear in response. She lowers her hooves and says quieter, as she’s having a hard time grasping the fact that somepony really doesn’t seem to care about the situation, “For the prestige? Come on… if nothing else that’s got to give you a bit of a tingle somewhere… right?”

Gearing nods a bit as he says, “Ah… see… I think I’ve figured out the communication problem we’re having here.”

Silver Shoes raises an eyebrow as she looks over at Orchid. Orchid, likewise, doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about and shrugs her reply back to her. “What’s that?” Silver Shoes asks as she turns back towards Gearing.

“You are under the false assumption that my darling Gearing cares about notoriety,” Sable offers flatly from her seat next to Gearing. She waves a hoof and limply shoos the idea away. “But, in truth, he does not. Such things hold no value to him.” She looks between Silver Shoes and Orchid as she nods. “In fact, I would go so far as to say that he actually would see such attention as a detriment. Something to actively avoid.”

Sable lets out a giggle and waves her hoof limply at Orchid and Silver Shoes. “Is it any wonder that he wants nothing to do with such a club?”

Another mug shatters as the mare that’d been holding it between her hooves squeezes too hard and crushes it as she huffs in their general direction.

Silver Shoes looks back and forth with her jaw hanging open. She locks eyes with Gearing and partially closes one of hers as she says, “But… you came all the way here… Why would you do that?”

Gearing waves it away with a hoof. “Again… No… Swift, er… Iron Hoof… wanted to come here to try out. I’m on my way to Megamart for parts and maybe some information.”

One of the bucks nearby runs a hoof through his mane, knocking his conductor’s hat off in the process, as he mutters, “That just sounds crazy to me.”

Silver Shoes leans across the table, exploring what little of Gearing’s face she can see as she asks, “Let me get this straight… You came all the way from Megamac… even flew the group up here. Getting shot down in the process… Then blown up… then a fucking building dropped on your head-“

“Half of the eleventh floor,” Gearing corrects.

Silver Shoes waves it away as she continues, “Whatever… had to dig and climb yourself out of the rubble… performed some butcher shop surgery on yourself… just to get here… and you didn’t even come here for yourself?” Gearing looks at her and bobs his head around before giving an affirmative nod. Silver Shoes flops back and asks softly, “Who the hell does that?”

Gearing points at Orchid’s rifle, and she looks back and forth before handing it over with a grin. He sets it down and begins going over it and carefully disassembling it as he continues the conversation. “I think we’re having another communication problem here…” He listens to the rifle’s action, then adds a few drops of oil from a small bottle before starting to work the action harder and harder, making it click and slam loudly. “Different ponies have different motivations. As Sable had mentioned, I see no value in being well known.”

He adjusts a screw holding a spring to lessen the tension before going back to check the action slide repeatedly. “I might not always get along with Swift, or her husband… And she might be a bit impulsive and irrational at times… but… deep down, I’m positive she’s a good pony. And, while we might never be ‘the best of friends’, she’s at least somepony I can respect.” He starts testing the action ever so gently. Creating less and less sound as he moves it and listens carefully with his right ear as his eye darts around.

He lifts the rifle up and checks down the sights as he says flatly, “She may be able to crush somepony’s skull in a few strikes… but she’s also a mother that genuinely cares about foals… not just her own.” He turns the rifle over a few times as he mutters, “So to understand somepony, you need to understand what they actually place value in. That will give you an idea of their core self… Those that value bits and wealth are typically selfish and greedy… Those seeking notoriety are typically vain…”

A buck at a table nearby slams down his now empty mug and glares at Gearing form under his conductor’s hat as he demands, “Then just what do you value, jackass?”

Gearing looks over at him, as he quickly loads in the magazine and racks a new round into the chamber of the rifle before handing it over to Orchid, action open, as he replies.

“Loyalty.”

---

Footnote: Diagnostic in progress… please stand by. . .

Massive Damage Registered… Hydra Matrix on Standby

Next Chapter: 39 Thrill of Victory. . . Estimated time remaining: 40 Hours, 21 Minutes