When Swift gets back upstairs she finds Sable and Nahlah off to the side, organizing the various bags Sable had been carrying so the supplies are sorted to make more sense. Instead of simply crammed in as quickly and tightly as she could get them at the time. Handy has likewise obviously finished eating, and is currently occupying his ‘waiting’ time by sifting through the various filing cabinets.

Handy catches eye contact with Swift and asks as he closes the drawer, “You’ve been gone a while… everything okay?”

Swift walks over to him and nuzzles him before she sits down and leans into him sideways. “Yeah… I just had to get some answers…”

Handy lifts his foreleg, slides her so she’s more leaning against his chest than his shoulder, and then pulls her in tighter. “And?”

Swift lets out a sigh as she closes her eyes. She tilts her head and looks him in his eyes as she says softly, “He fought, and killed that buck… to protect our foals…” She shrugs and nuzzles into Handy more as she closes her eyes. “To keep the location of our stable safe.”

Handy raises an eyebrow and asks with a scoff, “Yeah? How’s that?”

“Handy,” Swift says with a sharp tone that demands he takes her seriously. “They wanted Gauge’s PipBuck…” She clearly hears, and feels, Handy’s sudden sharp intake of air. She looks him in the eye and adds, “You know what that means… And Gearing’s only two options were give it to them, or fight…”

Handy’s eyes dart from looking at one of Swift’s to the other. “You’re kidding?! Why’d they do that? Did they know how to use them and wanted it for some kind of double cross?”

“Actually that disgusting buck, the one Gearing quite literally knocked the head off of? Yeah, well, his dumbass just wanted it as a trophy of some kind,” Nahlah chimes in from her position near Sable.

Handy looks over at her while Sable adds, “Subject No Shoes was adamant on claiming Subject Gauge’s PipBuck. My darling Gearing tried to convince him otherwise, but Subject No Shoes simply became more arrogant. My Gearing even went so far as to explain to him why he didn’t want to give it to him, explaining why it would be dangerous to do so and why he just couldn’t.”

Nahlah nods as she frowns and continues, “Yeah, all it did was make him want it more…” Nahlah gets a smug grin as she waves it away dismissively with a paw. “So Gearing beat him at his own game, and killed the pushy bastard.” She closes her eyes and waves a paw around like she’s writing midair. “Dear Diary… Karma’s a bitch… thank yooooou!”

Swift smirks as she looks at Nahlah’s smug display. She nuzzles into Handy a bit more before asking, “We ready to go or do you want to scavenge around some more first?”

Handy waves it away and nods towards the door. “I was just looking around while we were waiting for you to get back. Doesn’t seem like there’s much left here anyway.” He points over to an overturned desk and adds, “Got a bit of glue and a few caps out of there, but the rest was just empty or full of worthless trash.”

Sable stands up as she’s using multiple cables to load up with the newly organized bags. “I am ready to continue at any point, Subject Swift. Should I go inform my darling Gearing of our approaching departure?”

Swift shakes her head and pulls away from Handy as she gets up. “No need. He’s just at the bottom of the stairs. We’ll grab him on the way out.”

They gather up their possessions and let Swift lead the way down. With Handy and Nahlah right behind her, and Sable bringing up the rear with her minigun held loosely to her back.

As Swift is coming down the last of the stairs she calls out, “Hey, Gearing, we’re ready to go. Sable’s got the rest of your stuff so if you need anything ask-” She stops mid-sentence as she gets to the bottom of the stairs. She starts looking back and forth as she asks, “Gearing?”

Handy steps down and over next to her as he asks, “What’s wrong?”

Swift points over to the corner, with the hole in the wall near it, and replies, “He was just there keeping watch over the entrance.”

Nahlah walks around them and looks about as she asks, “Maybe he saw something, and went to investigate?”

Swift rubs her chin for a moment before shrugging. “He’d said something about noticing somepony walking around out front…” She nods and turns towards this office suite’s front door as she says, “I bet he went to the main lobby to look out the glass and see who was actually walking around out there.”

Nahlah follows her quickly as she asks, “You don’t think he got in trouble, do you?”

Swift waves it away dismissively as she opens the door and heads down the hallway to the grand staircase. “If he got into any actual trouble, we’d hear the commotion. I’m sure.”

They continue down and around the winding hallways until they come to the landing where everything converges at the top of the large staircase leading to the ground level. Swift, leading the group, stops short at the top of the staircase and stares down at the large foyer for the office building. Her eyes slowly go wide as she says softly, “I… found Gearing.”

Sable happily trots up, passing the others quickly, as she comes around Swift to see where she’s looking. Instantly her eyes begin glowing red and the minigun whips around, being held aloft by her restraining cables, as she slowly starts making her way down the steps.

Handy stands next to Swift and starts motioning down the stairs with his forehoof as he asks quietly, “Uh… they… they weren’t here when we got here… right? I… I didn’t somehow overlook that, did I?”

Nahlah meanders by, taking in the sight as she confirms, “No, Handy. The entry wasn’t full of dead ponies when we came in… Don’t worry, you’re not that blind…”

Swift starts coming down the steps as well, with Handy close at her side, as they both take in the scene.

A group of five ponies lay scattered around the lobby of the office building. With the closest one being just a few steps away from the stairs up, before apparently likewise being gunned down. Earth pony. Unicorn. Buck. Mare. All equally lay in growing puddles of their own blood. Except one earth pony buck, that’s partially laying over a trash can, where he apparently crashed into it as he was falling and never got back up.

In the center of the area, is a growing pile of salvage that slowly grows larger, as Gearing, with his cowl thrown back, tosses and slides over one item after another to it. He’s currently sorting through the bags of the buck splayed out over the trash can, with his back to the group, as he flicks a small cloth bundle across the floor towards the salvage pile he’s accumulating.

Sable walks up next to Gearing and scans the scene, with both her eyes and the end of her minigun, as she asks, “Did you run into some trouble, my love?”

Gearing looks at her sideways and smirks. “Nope. No trouble at all. Why do you ask?”

Sable lowers her eyes towards Gearing and tilts her head. “Is this more of My Gearing’s sarcasm and humor?”

Swift walks around the bodies as she keeps zipping her eyes about the lobby. She says softly, “I didn’t even hear anything… What happened?”

Gearing turns his head and looks at Swift out of the corner of his eye before giving her a smug grin. “They didn’t hear anything either.” He points up towards the hole in the wall that he’d been peeking out of earlier with a wing before shrugging. “Well, actually, that mare by the stairs heard this guy crash into the trash can when he went down, but that was about it.”

Swift looks the scene over again, and the hole he’d been looking through, and, again, is very thankful that there were no hostiles in his previous position when they’d come in. She was right. This group didn’t even make it to the stairs. And she sees no reason why somepony else couldn’t have done the same to them. She shakes her head as she looks over at the growing pile. “Back to building up your stockpile for what was lost when we got shot down?”

Gearing chuckles as he shakes his head. “Actually, I’m wanting to make sure we have enough to trade once we get to Megamart. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how much we’re going to need in order to buy the parts we need for the stable. So the more we can get before getting there the better.”

Handy walks around towards the growing pile as he asks, “There a particular reason you just gunned them down, or was it just for their saddlebag contents?”

Swift shoots him a dirty look, but Gearing replies faster, “They’re more of those Wild Ones that the Freight Cars were fighting and shot me down. Fuckers like that are fair game for an ambush.”

Handy looks over at him and raises an eyebrow as he asks, “How you know they’re Wild Ones? Especially if you didn’t give them a chance to say anything before you blew their brains out over the tile?”

“I could see it in their twitchy ass eyes. No telling what they were hopped up on… And if that wasn’t enough, the amount of drugs they’re trotting around with is absurd.” Gearing chucks over another improvised cloth bag that he’d pulled out from the buck over the trash can, this time without rewrapping it back tighter before doing so, causing the contents to spill out as it tumbles into the rest of the pile.

Handy’s eyes follow the cloth bundle, and go just a bit wider as the contents scatter out. But, despite the variety that comes out, his eyes follow a particular small bottle as it tumbles away towards his hooves. Handy doesn’t say anything else, the conversation forgotten as the little bottle gently bumps against his forehoof, as if asking if he’s their new owner.

“Handy!” Swift yells as she runs over. She quickly swipes up the bottle with a wing, and starts pushing him away from the growing pile, and the other corpses. She keeps pushing him back as she gets in his face. “No! No you don’t! Don’t even look at it! You sit right there and don’t move!”

Handy looks up into her eyes, and opens his mouth to say something, only to close it again. He goes through a few cycles of trying to retort. To say that he’s fine. That he wasn’t going to do anything. Instead he eventually complies. He closes his eyes as he sits down and slowly nods his head.

Swift hops over to the pile of salvage and starts sifting through the contents. She pulls out a couple more containers and grumbles as she heads over to Gearing. She holds them out to Gearing and asks, “Could you do something with these? Please? Don’t let them out of your sight.”

Gearing looks down at the bottles, then over at Handy. He lets out a sigh and leans towards Swift as he asks, “Is it just the Buck that’s the problem?”

“I don’t have a problem!” Handy yells from his seat as he momentarily looks up enough to scowl at Gearing before staring daggers at some poor piece of rubble near his hooves.

Swift looks over her shoulder at Handy, then back at Gearing before nodding slightly. She replies quietly, “It’s just the Buck… He’s okay around the rest… but… he’s just…” She shakes her head and smiles lightly. “He’s gotten better. Really. He has. But I just don’t want him getting tempted into it again.”

Gearing grabs the bottles and lets out a sigh. “I wish ya would have said something sooner, I wouldn’t have been so careless.”

Swift closes her eyes and shakes her head. “It’s not your fault…”

Gearing rattles the bottles with his hoof as he says, “Probably better to just destroy it. Can’t be worth enough, caps wise, to justify the risk.”

Swift looks at him and shakes her head. “Can’t just throw them away, he might try to sneak off and get them.”

Gearing looks at her and smirks. “I didn’t say throw away… I said destroy… They’re just pills after all. Not exactly hard.”

Swift’s eyes go wide and she asks softly, “You know how to do that?”

Gearing nods. “Yeah. No problem.”

Swift pulls out the bottles she’d confiscated from Handy before. “Could you get rid of these too?”

Gearing nods as he looks them over. Then lets out a slow sigh. “Damn... That’s a lot.”

Swift tilts her head. “Too much to do at once?”

Gearing shakes his head and grins. “Nah… not for me.” He tilts his head and wiggles his eyebrows “Have you met me yet?”

Swift snickers then passes them over as she grins. “Alright, smart ass. Well, get to it. Do you need any other equipment or chemicals?”

Gearing shakes his head. “Nah, got everything I need already.” He starts opening up all of the containers and dumping the pills out into a small tin can. Swift watches in curiosity as he quickly fills the can with more pills than any one pony should have in their possession. Handy, despite his best attempts, stares at the can intently. But, to his credit, he manages to keep his own impulses in check and stays seated. Right where he was told. On the opposite side of the lobby. As he watches and practically counts the pills fall into the can in slow motion.

After Gearing tosses the last of the pills into the can, Swift looks up at his face and asks, “How long you think this’ll take?”

Gearing smirks as he looks her in the eyes. “Not long, just a few seconds really.”

She raises an eyebrow as she looks at him, then her mouth drops open as he throws his head back and starts pouring the pills into his mouth like he was drinking a glass of water. She hops over and tries to grab the can away, but doesn’t get it away from him in time before the last pill goes tumbling into his mouth.

He stares at her with one eyebrow raised as his mouth is puffed up like an over ambitious chipmunk. He chews, rather noisily, and quickly starts swallowing down the mass. He uses a canteen and starts swishing around the water in his mouth as he washes the rest of it down his throat.

Handy jumps over from his seat as he waves both forhooves at Gearing, and nearly falls flat on his face for his troubles. “Why he get to do that!? And you complain about me!?”

Swift looks at Gearing, absolutely appalled and horrified, as she screams at him. “The hell are you trying to do!? Kill yourself?! You said you were going to destroy them not take them!” She looks over at Sable and waves a hoof at Gearing. “Sable! Quick! We need to get some healing potions ready and get something to keep him from OD’ing!”

Gearing reaches up, and taps Swift’s hoof as she waves it at him, in a very awkward brohoof, to get her attention. When she looks over at him he snickers and replies, “Swift, I’m fine, I’m not going to OD.”

Her eyes go wide open as she flops down on her rear and points both forehooves at him. “You just ate like six whole bottles worth!”

Gearing smirks at her, then opens his mouth for her to see as he points inside it with his hoof. “See, gone. And no effect.” He tilts and shakes his head as he taps on his chest. “Swift, they’re chemically and magically inert for me. They do nothing for me. And can’t hurt me. They’re just the common standard Buck, so they can’t do anything to me.”

Handy, hyper-focusing so much that he caught the word usage, looks him over slowly as he asks, “There’s other kinds of Buck? Non-standard?” Swift shoots him a scathing stare and he quickly adverts his eyes as he realizes the question would have seemed less suspicious coming from somepony else.

Gearing sighs as he looks at Handy and shakes his head. But, for better or worse, he replies anyway, “There were many experimental versions tested and tried out during the war. Some mixed with other chemicals to make their effects more potent. Some enhanced in other ways. None of them should be taken lightly though… Even short term use can have lasting effects.” Handy looks over at him and frowns, but, after achieving eye contact, Gearing shakes his head and continues, “It has nothing to do with weakness nor willpower. It’s straight science. They can be physically addictive and cause chemical changes and imbalances. Which can lead to psychological changes and addiction as well.” He shrugs as he looks at Handy and finishes quietly, “You wouldn’t feel embarrassed because you bleed after getting shot, and try to deny it. There’s no point in doing it here either.”

Handy tilts his head as he regards Gearing. He gives a slight nod before he turns his focus down and to the side as he mulls it over. It’s a weird way of phrasing it, but he’s pretty sure he understands what Gearing is trying to say.

The rewards for Gearing’s efforts at lowering the overall threat level of the region, by removing these five Wild Ones members from existence, were rather pitiful. The weapons they carry are in typically bad shape for ponies that care more about their next fix than anything else in the world. And as far as supplies go the only thing they really seem to be carrying is ammo and various chems. Not even a bottle of water or can of corn among them. But, to them that seemed to be enough.

Though, for Gearing, it makes decisions for what to take much easier, as the rest of it isn’t even worth his time. The weapons may be in poor shape, but, as long as he can spare the pack weight, he figures he can fix them up and trade them off later. He relieves the Wild Ones of a couple of their more intact saddle bags, then begins filling them up and stowing them on his own harness.

Swift watches him load himself down with the bulging bags as she puts a hoof over her muzzle to muffle her snicker. She smirks at Gearing and asks, “So we going to just fly straight there, or zigzag across Equestria gathering salvage until you can’t walk any more?”

Gearing smirks as he attaches the last bag and shakes his head. He looks over at Swift and raises a hoof as he says, “Actually, we really do need to make a detour on the way to Megamart.”

Nahlah snickers and swishes her tail as she looks at Swift and says, “Oh boy… here we go…”

Swift lets out a sigh then motions for Gearing to continue on with a forehoof. “What else do you need to get before we get there?”

Gearing shakes his head and pulls up the navigation function on his PipBuck. “It’s not what I need to get, but what we need to avoid.” He glances up at them before pointing off to the northeast as he continues, “If we try and go straight there, it’ll be a bad idea.”

Nahlah walks over and sits next to him, leaning into him as she looks at his PipBuck screen. “What’s the problem?”

Gearing draws a line across the map with a wingtip from their current location, to the set marker labeled ‘Megamart’. He traces it back as he says, “If we keep on this route, we’ll be going through this area, right here.” He taps on an empty space on his map as he frowns. “And that’s the problem.”

Nahlah looks at it for a few moments, partially expecting some more information to pop up on the screen, before she looks up at Gearing and says softly, “I don’t get it, what’s wrong?” Swift and Sable likewise walk over to look at his map as they try to get their plan sorted out.

Gearing taps on the area again after he looks the three over. “Right around here is Miramare Air Station.” He looks at them again, individually, as he adds, “A military installation, in case that wasn’t obvious.”

Nahlah smirks as she looks at him. “I kinda figured that out by the name, Gearing.”

Gearing snickers as he shakes his head before he taps on it again. “Short of some colossal luck, Miramare would have been hit. Hard. Judging by all of the prediction maps of damage, it would have been targeted. Whether we fired first or not.” He taps on the screen and closes out of it as he looks them over. “So, even if it’s still standing, which I highly doubt, it’s most likely still highly contaminated with radiation, or worse.” He motions towards Swift and Nahlah. “Which means you three would be dead in short order if we went through there.

Swift pulls her head back a bit and shakes it as she looks at him. “Where’d you see those kinds of diagrams at? I never heard of anything that had listed Miramare as a target.”

Gearing looks at her and grins as he tilts his head. “Have you met me yet?” He snickers before ruffling his wings and turning towards the front door. “There’s a reason the stables were built all over the place and scattered around like they were… And it wasn’t just to make them close and convenient for participants. While the government would never have acknowledged it at the time, they knew, just as well as Stable-Tec, that attacks would be wide spread. That any and every installation would be primary targets.” He points off to the northeast. “And Miramare was a particularly high one.”

Swift and Nahlah look at each other before they look at Gearing. Nahlah motions for him to continue as she asks, “Well… why?”

Gearing looks over at her and sighs. “It was the staging ground for the Marauders. And, while they weren’t really around anymore, it would have been a blow to morale if nothing else. Taking out the home of one of the most famous units in the E.D.F. would be a sting not easily forgotten…” He looks back at the door and nods as he marks a track in the air with a wingtip as he mentally visualizes the path. “So we’re going to need to go more north, and curve around, and come at Megamart more from the west.” He draws a sloppy over-turned ‘J’ in the air back and forth. “And just hope we don’t run into any more surprises along the way.”

Swift nods as she heads over to the front door and peeks outside. “Sounds like as good of a reason as any to avoid the area to me… But we should get out of here before some of their friends show up.” Swift waves a wing towards the corpses in the lobby as she keeps an eye out through the dirty glass front of the building.

Gearing walks over as he nods. “Well, let’s get to it. I’ll take point.” He throws the hood of his cloak back on and slips out of the door quickly into the early afternoon light.

As the rest are following him out into the street filled with rusting wagon wrecks, Nahlah slinks up next to Swift and asks softly, “Hey, Swift…?”

“Yeah, Nahlah?”

Nahlah keeps walking alongside her as she’s looking around. “So, he just ate like six bottles worth of Buck, right?”

Swift lets out a sigh and nods. “Yeah… he did…”

“Aaaand he’s drank several potions that I’ve seen… along with a few other things…” Nahlah continues in the same tone.

Swift nods as she keeps her eyes jumping from one area to another looking for anyone trying to be clever and ambush them. “Yeah, he went through quite a few when he got shot down, blown up, and crushed.” Swift cringes and blinks a few times as she runs it through her head a few more times. Yes. That really did happen. And she really did just recite it off that casually. She shakes her head again and looks at Nahlah. “What about it?”

Nahlah scans the area quickly before leaning closer to Swift and asking quietly, “Well, where’s he put it?” Swift looks at her and raises an eyebrow so Nahlah frowns and adds, “You ever see him go to the bathroom? I mean it’s gotta go somewhere right?”

Swift opens her mouth to say something, then closes it and scrunches her lips to the side as she thinks it through. It’s not like she pays particular attention to anyone’s bathroom habits, aside from her own foals, but she’s still aware of at least a couple times when everyone else she’s known has excused themselves, at one point or another, to answer the call of nature. Except Sable, understandably why given her origins, and Gearing, less understandably and actually growing into mystifying as she actually thinks about it. It hadn’t even occurred to her that something is off. She’s honestly not even sure if, on some level, it’s because for most of the time with him she’s simply thought of him as another protectapony, or if it hadn’t occurred to her just because it simply hadn’t occurred to her. But, now that Nahlah’s pointed out the inconsistency, she quickly occupies her mind with the mystery. Nahlah’s got a point. He’s consumed, at bare minimum, a decent collection of potions, and a pharmacy’s worth of Buck. Volume wise, it has to go somewhere.

And, for most ponies, the end of that particular journey lays in the latrine.

Swift shrugs as she keeps staring at Nahlah. “Actually… no… I haven’t.”

Nahlah nods then cranes her neck around and yells, “Sable! Hey, Sable!”

Sable trots up next to her, opposite of Swift, and asks as she keeps looking around, “Yes, Subject Nahlah?”

Nahlah waves her paw around as she looks at Sable and asks, “Does Gearing ever go potty?”

Swift stumbles a bit as she can’t believe Nahlah would just ask that. But, then again, it is Nahlah. Queen of Shameless. “Nahlah! Why are you just asking that all of a sudden?”

Nahlah waves Swift away without even looking at her. “What? I figured if anypony would know, it’d be Sable… Well?”

Sable slowly brings her focus over to Nahlah as she continues walking in a straight line. The angle begins looking awkward as her focus is directed to those two, but the rest of her is traveling along at the same steady pace facing forward. After a few moments of silence, Sable replies, “That… is a negative, Subject Nahlah. I am not aware of any instances where Gearing has made use of any bathroom facilities…” She looks back and forth between the two as she asks, “Should I be concerned with his lack of bathroom breaks? Do you believe he is in need of a medical examination to see if he has any ailment impeding normal functions?”

Nahlah shakes her head. “No, I don’t think that’s the problem. He probably just doesn’t eat enough for it to really come up… I’m just trying to figure out where it goes… like… does it get incinerated… magically teleported? What?”

Handy walks up from Swift’s other side and asks with an eye half closed, “Are you three really talking about Gearing’s bathroom habits? This is weird. Even for you, Nahlah…”

Nahlah raises her chin and closes her eyes as she says, “I’m just curious on how somepony could hold it for so long, or go in a way that no one knows it’s happening.”

Gearing walks over from the side, having circled around a few wagon wrecks and come back to join them momentarily. However, having heard the last bit of the conversation, decides on double timing it past them again instead of joining the group. But, as he’s trotting away from them he grins and says with a chuckle, “There’s lots of explanations for it… Snipers wear diapers after all…”

Swift stumbles while walking again as Nahlah just starts laughing loudly. Swift scrunches her nose and shakes her head as she says, “Eeww, Gearing… that’s just… Ewww… Why would you even say something like that?”

Handy slaps a hoof over his eyes as he sighs. “I see I really shoulda just stayed away, and out of this conversation…”

Sable looks at Gearing and tilts her head as she watches him walk away quickly. “But… my darling Gearing isn’t wearing any diapers…” She looks at Nahlah, and then to Swift as she says, “I am afraid I do not get the reference, if there is one being made.”

Nahlah snickers and looks at Sable sideways, “I think he’s just messing with us.”

Swift purses her lips to the side as she crunches her nose in disgust. “I hope he’s just messing with us.”

Handy adds from the other side, “I just hope the conversation’s over now… please?”

The others snicker as they break off. Sable resumes her position bringing up the rear, with her minigun at the ready, and Nahlah meandering around taking in the sights. They end up making good time, despite having to skirt around large collections of rusting wagon wrecks. They emerge from the collection of buildings, and head along the side as they follow Gearing on a practically straight north track. Even after he’s pretty sure they’ve made it out of Freight Cars territory, Gearing regularly slows down his pace as he leads the advancement. He routinely looks around them, and even behind them, as, on some level, he expects someone to show up and demand a challenge fight. Or inform him that he wasn’t supposed to have won that fight, and they are going to fix the mistake by taking him, and the group, out.

Until something draws his attention off to the side, on the opposite side of the crumbling roadway right before the next intersection that opens up going to the left.

Gearing promptly changes direction and heads over to explore the capsized stack of metal boxes. He carefully looks them over, going one box at a time, as he tries to see if this is some sort of trap or distraction. There are only a couple metal boxes, but that’s not exactly what drew his attention. The roadways, and vehicles, have crates and boxes in and around them along the whole way. Over two hundred years worth of scavenging discards.

But this small group of boxes, scattered upon each other, aren’t from around here. The boxes, despite being apparently left out in the weather, are in remarkably good condition. Too good of a condition to have been left out here since the war ended. But, even with them being recently put here, there’s no indication that this is someone’s cache. They’re just left out in the open. For anyone to see.

Which is extremely suspicious to Gearing.

So he waves the others back, who had come over to see what he was up to, and starts checking them over for triggers, explosives, or other such fun toys.

Swift and Handy find a spot under a partially collapsed awning to wait, and Sable stands off and to the back to keep watch while Gearing goes about this task.

Nahlah explores around a bit, circling around as she gets a feel for the area they’ve found themselves in. She stops right before the end of the building, and starts hopping up and down excitedly. She turns to look back at the others as she points a paw across the street at the storefront on the adjacent corner. “Ouuu Ouu! Can we go there?!”

Swift walks over to join her as she asks, “Why? What do you see?” As Swift steps up next to Nahlah, she sees exactly what has Nahlah so excited.

In the storefront across the street is a set of ponaquins. One dressed in a formal tuxedo and looking rather dapper despite the dingy glass partially blocking their view. The other ponaquin is dressed in an elaborate lacy white gown with a variety of sparkling embellishments on it. Cascading over the rump of the ponaquin is a long train that has been set up to coil down and around the floor of the display case. Long enough that it travels over and seems to be encircling the ponaquin in the tuxedo. The name of the shop had been destroyed long ago, along with the display case on the left side of the building. But, for the most part, the store looks rather intact, if that display case on the right side is any indicator.

Swift smirks as she looks at Nahlah and asks, “Ohhh? Planning on getting married, huh? Who’s the lucky buck?” She leans over and elbows Nahlah in the side. “Or are you and Ivy getting that serious?”

Nahlah’s mouth drops open wide as, for once, she’s actually caught off guard. Then she shakes her head and smirks before pointing over at the bridal shop again. “I was just thinking they might have a dress in there or something that’d go with the flower I’d found… or might have a few more that I could add to it.”

Swift snickers then motions over to the building. “Yeah, I’m sure a quick detour would be fine.” She turns and heads back to Handy, who’d gone over to inspect a collection of junk around one of the wagon wrecks. “Handy, we’re going to go check out the bridal shop. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Handy tosses the empty tool box he’d just been looking through over his shoulder and to the side as he says, “I’ll go with ya.”

Sable looks at them and nods. “Understood, Subject Swift. I shall maintain watch of the outside and protect my darling Gearing’s flank.”

Nahlah giggles as she hops and jumps out away from the building, and starts crossing the street towards the bridal shop. She glances down the road that continues on for some distance to the left as she pauses in the middle of the street. She looks over her shoulder and grins. “Well, hurry up already! I can’t wait to find out what’s inside!”

Nahlah turns and takes a few more steps, and then her back legs jerk sideways and stumble as they drag her to the ground by tipping over flank first. A group of cans go flying as an empty bottle in the debris pile with them shatters not far away from her.

Kra-KOW.

The report echoes off the buildings and travels down the street a fraction of a second later.

Nahlah’s eyes go wide as she pushes herself up with her forelegs, looking around as she asks shakily, “Wha- what happened?”

“Nahlah!” Swift screams as she clearly sees the blood splatter around Nahlah. And the growing puddle. She jumps towards her, fanning her wings to take flight, only to get yanked down by Handy as he jumps on top of her and pushes her to the ground behind one of the wagons abandoned in the road.

Gearing had been watching Nahlah hop around, rather amused, as he was opening the container. But the moment her body jerked, and her hind legs gave out from under her from the trauma, he dropped the box as he was opening it and began running in her direction. By the time the report of the rifle greeted them, he was just making it to the intersection. As he’s running out into the street, he screams, “Sniper! Get down!” And runs as fast as he can towards Nahlah.

Nahlah looks around in a daze and back at Gearing as he’s barreling towards her. She’s so out of it she doesn’t even register that he’s on a collision course with her. Until he’s already plowed into her and half grabs, half pushes, her as he carries her the rest of the way across the street and behind a rusted out overturned wagon.

Kra-KOW.

At the moment of contact with Nahlah, when he grabbed her, Gearing let out a grunt of pain and frustration as his right shoulder is impacted hard enough to make his foreleg jerk. A small hole announces where the round entered, but several smaller holes near it betray where the round had shattered on impact but still had enough force to continue going out of his cloak.

It’s at this point, after being bulldozed by such bulk, that Nahlah finally does get enough of her senses back to catch up to reality. At least enough to register the pain she’s feeling as she curls up, starts screaming, and holds her hips.

Gearing fishes around in his bag and pulls out a potion as quickly as he can. He pops the top and is about to give it to her, when he momentarily stops. He eyeballs it for a moment, and his eyes dart around as he takes in the surroundings. He mutters, “What the hell is up with this potion...”

The little blue pegasus in his head grumps, They probably bought some cheap ass watered down potions… It’s probably been cut with something…

Hopefully nothing worse than water… he mentally hopes. He sticks his tongue in the bottle just to make sure they haven’t been entirely bamboozled, and is greeted by the same familiar ‘taste’ of a healing potion. Although. Not nearly as strong as he would have expected. But maybe that has something to do with why this potion doesn’t look as opaque as he’s expecting.

Not really having any other choice, he grabs Nahlah’s mouth, and shoves the open end in it as he tries to hold her still and keep her from thrashing about. Having been in the middle of a rather impressive marathon long scream, Nahlah chokes a bit on the potion, but quickly starts drinking it down. Then eagerly takes the next one that is presented to her.

He pushes her down towards the ground as he says, “Stay down, this bastard’s not playing around.” He works his right shoulder and grumbles as he looks around and tries to figure out how to get away. They made it to the wagon. So they have a bit of cover.

Concealment, the little blue pegasus in his head warns him.

Right… concealment. Not cover. Cover would be better, but where?

The rest of the street is rather open. And they have quite the distance to travel just to get to the edge of this building. The display case isn’t far away, but he’s pretty sure they might have a vantage point into there as well.

He grumbles as he realizes they just stumbled across a shooting gallery. Somepony out there, or group of someponies, have this whole street set up as the perfect location for them to get some moving target practice. A nice long street, with little cover: a perfect kill zone.

Gearing looks to the side and starts sizing up the building they are crouched near.

Sable comes up to the corner of the intersection, but stays behind the building with her eyes glowing red, as she yells out, “Gearing, my love! I can provide suppressive fire for you to get away!”

Gearing looks over at her and screams back, “No, don’t! Keep an eye out, they might just be trying to pin us down for another prong to come in and finish us off!”

Sable’s eyes go wide and she whips around about face, scanning back and forth as she regularly revs the minigun. “Understood!”

Swift gets Handy off of her and scrambles near the wagon. She yells over the top, without exposing herself, “How bad is it?! Nahlah?! Gearing!? Where’d those shots come from!?”

Gearing yells back, “Nahlah needs more treatment. Stay away. They might be trying to use us as bait!”

Swift rolls over and peeks around the corner of the wagon at Gearing through the gap between the wagon wrecks. “The hell are we going to do!?”

Gearing laughs and looks back at where her voice came from. “Play a different game, of course!” He takes off his cloak and throws it over Nahlah as he says, “Cover up with this. We don’t want the debris in your wounds.” To which, she complies without complaint. Happy to have something, anything, more between her and the cruel world around her at the moment. He rolls over onto his belly, plants his forehooves, and starts bucking the brick wall behind him. The bricks, despite their quality manufacture, and surviving not only the apocalypse, but two centuries of weather and neglect, were not prepared for the brass hoofed onslaught brought upon them. In short order he’s started knocking out bricks, making, then widening, a hole near the foundation as Nahlah just stares in disbelief.

He turns around and scrambles inside as soon as he’s sure he’s made enough room for himself to do so.

Nahlah looks over at the pile of bricks, and Gearing disappearing inside, as she frowns. “Awww… I wanted to be the first one inside.” She closes her eyes and pulls the cloak closer to herself as she grumbles and snuggles into it more. A moment later she lets out a loud ‘Raaaaooowww’ as she is quickly yanked in through the hole by her shoulders and forelegs.

An ocher earth pony stallion hops and clamors over some rubble as he climbs up into the third floor of this small hotel. The roof of this room is entirely gone, and offers no protection at all from the elements, but that’s fine. He adjusts his wide brim hat as he slinks over to the hole in the wall where a sky wagon had crashed into it and knocked out the bricks before continuing down into the street below. His eyes dart around as he slips his rifle off his shoulder and points it down the road towards the last position of his target.

They hadn’t moved, he’s sure of it. They’ve been thoroughly pinned down. But, with the wagons overturned and blocking his view, he doesn’t really have a clear line of sight at any of them. But, he knows that model of wagon in front of the bridal store. If he can aim the shot correctly, he can punch right through that side panel by the fender, and hit them. Confirming the kill will be another problem.

He bites on the mouthgrip, as he braces the rifle, and sights down the scope as he uses it to look around. Still no sign of movement. It’s been a while and he’s getting increasingly frustrated as he isn’t pleased with whoever this is prancing around in their territory without showing them the proper respects. And those oversized cats never travel alone.

He’s about to go ahead and take the shot, when he tenses up and his eyes go wide. He pulls back from the scope just a tiny bit and slowly directs his eyes off to the left as he tries to look behind himself. He lets out a soft sigh and then a smile starts growing across his muzzle as he gives an indifferent swish of his tail.

“What is it with you guys?” Gearing asks as he steps up behind him. “That first buck was about as interested in how things were going to turn out as a foal would be in financial reports… and that second one looked damn near pleased at the outcome… What’s your story?”

The ocher stallion frowns as he spins around with the rifle to aim it at the unfamiliar voice behind him.

Gearing steps forward, and lifts up his left foreleg, causing the stallion’s rifle barrel to strike against his PipBuck, and come to a complete stop against it, before discharging harmlessly off to the side. Gearing grabs the rifle with both wings and his fetlock, then hits the ocher stallion with a jab to the chest that he actually steps into. The stallion gets knocked back into the corner of the room, in a near seated position, in obvious shock at being handled so roughly. So casually. With such a small amount of effort.

Gearing, wearing his cloak that now has patterns of splattered and smeared blood all over it, holds the rifle up and looks at it as he asks, “You guys part of the same group or something? Is that what this little trinket is for?” He uses his wing and flicks the small golden charm hanging from the stock of the rifle. Gearing eyeballs the stylized partial heart shape and comments, “Looks like one of those ‘Best friends forever’ necklace charms you’d get with a friend and each wear half… Weird.” He looks over at the stallion and says, “You know, if you’re suicidal… there’s far better ways to go about offing yourself, than the stupid shit you just pulled.”

The buck’s eyes go wide as he asks, “What?”

Gearing points a wing towards the end of the street where Nahlah is huddled inside of the bridal shop. “Shooting me is a good way of getting on my bad side, real quick. I don’t take kindly to getting shot…” He tilts his head and glares at the ocher buck from under the cowl as he takes in the simplistic equipment he’s wearing: a bandolier, with the rifle’s ammo filling up most of the length, a hat with even more bullets in the headband, and a solitary cloth bag with hardly anything in it, judging by how it’s mostly collapsed in on itself with only the faintest of lumps. He trails his focus back to the buck’s light brown eyes before he adds with a scowl, “But threatening or shooting my friends thoroughly pisses me off!” He takes a step towards him and asks, “The hell is your deal? You wanting to die or something?”

The buck stares back at him and murmurs, “More than you know.”

Gearing frowns as he stares at the stoic buck. The previous two were about as helpful. And threats, and actual death, did nothing to help Gearing thus far. He’s not entirely sure of how to deal with somepony like this. For whom death doesn’t seem like such a bad thing at all. Gearing can’t help but smile as he gets an idea to do something he’d normally not even attempt. Not in this lifetime anyway.

Name-dropping.

Gearing twirls the rifle a bit, jingling the small metal heart fragment on the butt as he asks, “I don’t know if you know a buck named Big Daddy, but he’s not exactly the kind to piss off. He’s invited Iron Hoof to the arena to make her position official, and he’s really not somepony you want to keep waiting… And we’re really behind schedule already…”

“Big Daddy?”

Gearing nods.

“The Reaper?”

Gearing starts smiling as he pokes his muzzle out of the cowl so they can see it clearly.

“Big Daddy Reaper?!”

“He’s the only one I know.” Gearing grins widely and tilts his head before he asks, “So you’ve heard of him?”

The ocher stallion narrows his eyes at Gearing and lets out a snort. “Of course, who hasn’t?

“So you know how big of a bad idea it is to take shots at a Reaper?”

The ocher eyes, for once, actually show a bit more emotion as he says, “I didn’t shoot at any Reaper!”

Gearing raises a wingtip then points it at him. “True… but you shot her friend, and looked very much like you were going to actually try and shoot her as well… And, as they are both my friend… I hope you can understand why I’d think you just had to be suicidal to try something so stupid…” He looks him over and asks, “So you going to tell me what the hell you three were doing? The other two weren’t very chatty…” He uses a wing and drops two other rifles from under his cloak onto the floor next to himself, their golden charms glittering in the weak afternoon sunlight. The fresh blood splotches, mostly smeared from transport, draw the ocher stallion’s gaze before looking back up at Gearing.

“So they finally found some peace?” the ocher stallion asks as he looks Gearing in the eyes.

Gearing frowns and shrugs. “If you want to call it that… Was nothing ‘peaceful’ about it though…”

“I didn’t hear anything,” the buck comments as he doesn’t take his eyes off of Gearing’s.

Gearing shrugs and points down at the rifles again. “Gotta admit, you were the first one that got a shot off. The others I got their rifles away before they could get a round off at me.”

“Well… go ahead already… What are you waiting for? You already got my rifle.”

Gearing sighs as his hopes for name-dropping to get him to cooperate seem to evaporate. He starts narrowing his eyes at the buck as he says, “There’s far worse things than death.”

The buck frowns as he retorts, “Like living.”

Gearing looks him over for a few moments before sitting down. The comment strikes a chord with Gearing that mentally leads him all the way back to the floor of the hidden compartment in Stable 68’s R&D department. He lets out a sigh as he shamefully remembers everything he’d discovered, and realized, while going through the documents with Billiard’s family’s last days. “Sort of…” He waves a hoof as he says, “Living by itself can be nice and all… especially if you have somepony to share it with… I know that from firsthoof experience.” He shakes his head. “But, I also know the other edge of that sword…” The two stare at each other for a few moments before Gearing continues in a slow and low tone, “I lost everyone. Literally everypony I’d ever known. All of my friends... My family… Anyone and everyone I’d ever cared about, or cared about me, were killed.” He lets out a sigh and closes his eyes before he finishes, “This past month.”

When he opens his eyes he looks into the ocher buck’s eyes and sees not indifference, but a hint of acknowledgement. Of understanding. Though not a trace of pity or sadness. Simply recognition and nothing more.

Gearing nods off towards the bridal shop as he says, “Since then, I’ve made a couple new friends… and have found a bit of a new purpose to my life… It’s not much… and I know I’ll never live down the shame and horrible feeling of failing to protect the ones I cared about before… but I can damn sure do my best to help who I can now… And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” His eyes harden as he glares at the ocher buck. “So you going to tell me what this is all about, or you want me to start using my imagination? Why’d you target us? How long you been following us?”

The ocher buck takes in a deep breath then lets it out in a sigh as he brushes his yellow mane back under his hat. “We weren’t following you… You wandered into our territory and looked like trouble…”

Gearing tilts his head and narrows his eyes at him. “Trouble how? And whose territory are we in now?”

The ocher buck waves his hoof around and says flatly, “Halfhearts have the south Hoof… And the last time I saw a feline traipsing through the Hoof there were a lot more not far behind, bigger, and killing anypony they could get their paws on.”

Gearing stares at him for a moment before saying softly, “Bigger?” and then asks louder, “You mean like a manticore?”

The ocher buck nods. “Yeah. Those damn things.”

Gearing frowns as he looks at him. “Nahlah isn’t a manticore… she’s a Suncat. She’s about as big as she’s gonna get.”

“Well that explains the lack of wings,” the ocher buck says flatly.

“So, now that you know the real score, are we going to have a problem, or is this the end of it?” Gearing asks as he looks the buck over.

He looks at Gearing, or, more accurately, the blood stained cloak Gearing’s wearing, for a few moments before asking, “What? You’re willing to simply drop this, just like that? After we shot two of you?”

Gearing shrugs. “Well, I killed two of you… So I suppose it’s really up to you. Isn’t it? Personally, I’d prefer if we just end it here and leave it at that.”

“You’re just going to let me make the call? Just like that?”

Gearing looks him over and then nods. “What happens next entirely depends on you.” He shakes his head. “I don’t know what else I can say or do to convince you.”

“I could just lie about it…”

“I don’t think you will.”

“I could shoot you in the back the moment you turn around.”

Gearing shrugs. “It’s a risk I’m willing to take… besides.” He uses a hoof and pushes the cowl off of his head as he stares at the ocher buck. He frowns as he says with a sigh, “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’m a bit more bullet resistant than most bucks.” To the unknown buck’s credit, his eyes only darted over to take in the shattered-like pattern of gold on the left side of Gearing’s face long enough to confirm what it was before returning to looking Gearing in the eye.

They sit there staring at each other for a few moments before the ocher buck asks, “Is your friend really a Reaper? Simply claiming it is a really bad idea…”

Gearing shrugs and waves a hoof around as he explains, “I don’t know the official point where she becomes a Reaper… But she fought in a couple matches, and won. And the last one was at the Freight Cars terminal, where Big Daddy said the winner was going to the arena.” He motions towards the end of the street then towards the sniper in front of himself as he says, “So wherever along the line to becoming official that is, is where she’s at.”

“With a personal invite by Big Daddy?”

Gearing nods.

The ocher buck looks him over for a few moments before sighing and motioning towards Gearing as he says, “If it were just me, I’d say do it… but…” He looks Gearing in the face as he asks, “You’re not simply trying to get me to back down, are you?”

Gearing stares him in the eye and ever so slightly shakes his head. “Nope. If you’re not willing to back off, I’ll have no choice but to mark your whole group as a hostile force… Then proceed to eliminate the threat.”

The buck nickers and stares at Gearing. “A whole gang wiped out because somepony was stupid enough to shoot at a Reaper… sounds Reaperish alright…” He waves his hooves around and lets out a sigh. “Regardless how some might actually thank you for putting an end to this nightmare called ‘life’ I wouldn’t feel right making that decision for them…” He tilts his head and asks, “You really willing to let this slide, and not tell Big Daddy about this?”

Gearing nods. “As long as you all keep up your end of the bargain and not just start shooting us, yes. I won’t bring it up, and even if it does get brought up I’ll make sure everypony knows I dealt with it.”

The ocher buck runs a hoof through his mane as he looks around. “Well that’d be a bit of a problem, considering no one knows what she looks like yet…” He looks over at the rifles on the ground and nods towards them. “Keep one of the rifles slung over your shoulder, outside of the cloak. That charm on the stock should give them something to see through the scope. I’ll start spreading the word about you, but that’ll at least get them to ask who you are first. And, anypony asks, tell them to bring it up with Dolor.”

Gearing had looked down at the rifles and was debating on what to do with them as the ocher buck went over his suggestion. But, at the mention of the name, Gearing’s eyes jump up to him. “Dolor? Your name’s ‘Dolor’?”

“Yeah, that’s me… why?”

Gearing looks him over again as he wonders if Dolor knows what that name actually means. But then realizes the buck’s melancholy attitude is probably a big clue that he, in fact, does know. He’s not sure what a buck would have to go through in order to give themselves a name like that. Because, given the language, it’s not likely to be his given name. Gearing goes against the rampant questions streaming through his mind by the little blue pegasus in his head, and decides discretion is the better part of valor. So instead of asking one of the many questions that such a name would bring up, he simply nods towards Dolor and says softly, “Suits you.”

“Don’t I know it…” Dolor says with a sigh. He nods towards Gearing as he asks, “Who should I tell them is passing through?”

Gearing points off towards the end of the street and replies, “Iron Hoof and her friends,” as he’s slinging one of the rifles over his shoulder by its strap. He starts to turn to leave as he adds, “I’ll go and let them know we can get to moving again. Got a schedule to keep.”

“But what about you?” Dolor asks.

Gearing pulls the hood of the cloak back over his head as he shrugs. “Just ‘Iron Hoof and friends’… I’m nopony important, I don’t matter.”

Dolor calls out to him as Gearing is preparing to jump out of the hole in the side of the wall. Gearing turns his head back to look at him and Dolor asks, “Does that really work? That whole, starting over after losing everything bit?”

Gearing looks up at the cloudy sky above as he thinks it over for a few seconds before replying, “Well. It hasn’t been that long yet…” He lowers his focus back to Dolor and adds, “Too soon to tell either way, I think.” Then flares out his wings at the gap. But gets stopped again by Dolor.

“Hey…” Gearing looks back at him again, so Dolor continues, “If you happen to find out that the answer is ‘No’… Before you do anything… permanent… come back and look us up… You might find a new reason.”

Gearing stares at him for a few long seconds, in the exact same posture, before giving a single nod strong enough that he’s sure Dolor could see it even with the cloak. Then he hops off the building and starts flying the relatively short distance to the end of the street where Handy and Swift are still huddled behind the wagon wrecks.

Footnote: ‘credential matrix’, sync failure. Retrying. . . please stand by. . .

Secondary components reinitializing, please stand by. . .

‘gravity assistant matrix’ reinitializing, please stand by. . .

Beginning Gravity Differential alignment, please stand by. . .

New dangers and challenges are hinted at and revealed in this chapter. Along with a very rude awakening of the hazards of walking through certain portions of the wastes. Although there are a couple mysteries brought up within the confines of this chapter. Which will, eventually, be explained in later chapters.

Thanks to my helpers who've been instrumental in helping me get this out, and for my readers for the encouragement to continue despite everything. Thank you all!

-Quillsy