Gearing flies in a quick loop over Swift and Handy as they hunker down behind the wagon wrecks for cover. After confirming their status, he loops back around towards the middle of the street. As he’s landing, in the open, he looks sideways to where Sable is still standing behind the building with all of her weapons at the ready. He nods over towards the bridal shop and comments as he starts walking in that direction, “Situation’s been resolved… We can go now… But stay grouped up, I’ll take point.”

The others quickly scramble over to him, with Sable still deciding to cross the street with her minigun aimed down its length just to be sure. After they get inside of the bridal shop, they find Nahlah still bundled up in an old felt sheet, that’d been used as part of the table display, and covered in a few shredded dresses and suits. All of which are smeared with relatively fresh blood.

Swift jumps over to Nahlah’s side as she yells, “Nahlah!” She starts pulling the clothes away as she rambles on, “You’re going to be fine. Don’t worry. We’re here now. You’re going to be fine. Where are you hit? Handy! Gimmie some potions!”

Nahlah bats Swift’s hooves away as she frowns, “Heeeeey! I was just gettin’ comfy, do ya mind?!”

Swift glares at her before sitting back and waving her forehooves around in disbelief. “You just got shot! So yes I mind!”

Nahlah nuzzles down into the clothes as she waves it away. “I’m fiiiine, Gearing took care of me before he left… I’m nice ‘n’ snuggly now.” She smiles widely as she closes her eyes and scoots back under the sheets.

Everyone, but Nahlah, turns to look at Gearing slowly as the tone of conversation strikes them all as odd to say the least. Especially with the obvious change in her speech pattern: much slower and dragged out.

Gearing lets out a sigh as he points over towards Nahlah. “I gave her some basic first aid treatment… though she’s really going to need some surgery. The bullet’s still in there. Probably in pieces. And it’s going to cause some problems if it’s not taken care of sooner than later…”

Handy raises an eyebrow and then asks as he narrows his eyes at Gearing, “And why is she pawing at the dust particles in front of her face?”

Gearing looks over at Nahlah and gives a crooked smile before he replies, “Well… that’d be the chems I gave her… She’s going to be feeling pretty good for a little while. But, after that, it’s not going to be pretty.”

Nahlah opens her eyes wide and smiles at Swift as she leans over and looks at her. “This fabric feels amaaaaazing!” They stare at each other for a few moments before Nahlah waves her off. “Don’t try givin’ me those bedroom eyes… I’m good for a snuggle, but some big ol meanie hurt my booty and I’m just not up for any play time right now.” She waves her paw around as she giggles, “So leave a message and I’ll get back at the tone… BEEEEEeeeeep!”

Swift looks up at Gearing and narrows her eyes as she frowns. “She’s so fucking high right now, what the hell did you give her?”

“Naaaaoooooo… no fuck’n’…my booty already hurt…” Nahlah says with a moan. She starts giggling as she asks, “Unless you wanna give it a kiss and make it all better?”

Gearing waves it away as he chuckles, “A bit of this, a bit of that…” This earns him a pair of dagger stares, and one curious look from Sable. He lets out a sigh and looks at Nahlah as he says, “That shot was no joke. Bullet hit her hip and damaged the pelvis bone, I’m sure.” He shrugs and says softly, “If it had been a bit higher and to the left it would have hit her spine.”

Swift’s eyes dart back and forth before she asks, “Do you think a few more potions would help?”

Gearing shakes his head. “I doubt it, really… What she really needs is surgery… a round through a medical pod, a trip to a medical unit… something…”

“Geaaarrriinnngg,” Nahlah groans as she pulls the sheets closer up to her neck and nuzzles them.

Gearing leans down next to her and asks, “Yeah, Nahlah?”

Nahlah keeps her eyes closed, and reaches out blindly with her paw. She finds his muzzle and starts petting, patting, and caressing his muzzle and cheek. “Gearing… You’re a nice buck. So sweet.” She pats him some more. “Sable’s a lucky mare. You treat her good, ‘kay? She love you stupid amounts.” She frowns slightly as she snuggles into the blanket with her eyes closed. “I’m a lil jealous…”

Gearing snickers and shakes his head lightly. “You shouldn’t be… you have plenty of folks that care about you.” He shrugs. “I wouldn’t have run into incoming fire for somepony I hated, you know.”

Nahlah giggles and pats Gearing’s cheek some more. She rubs it gently as she says, “Awwww… are you flirtn’ with lil ol me?” She leans over and nuzzles his cheek, rather sloppily as she adds, “I think you’re swell too…” She frowns and points at him weakly. “But nooooo… not now… my booty hurt… ask later when I feel better ‘n’ maaaaybe you’ll get luuuckyyyy.” She puts a finger to her lips as she noisily shushes him. “It’ll be our lil secret, ‘kaaaaay?”

Swift snickers and shakes her head before she says, “Nahlah… it’s not a secret if everypony already knows.”

Nahlah grins, while still keeping her eyes closed. “Well… jus’ don’t tell Sable then…”

“Subject Nahlah appears to be extremely intoxicated with stupefying narcotics,” Sable comments as she steps up near Nahlah’s outstretched hind paws.

Nahlah slowly opens an eye and looks over at the voice, staring into Sable’s glowing blue eyes for a moment. She closes her eye again and smiles wider as she shrugs. “Welp, I’ma die now… There’s worse ways to go… But I’ma gonna toucha tha Gearing first…” She lifts a paw and pats Gearing on the end of his muzzle. She giggles as she says, “Booooop,” as she presses on his nose.

“No, Subject Nahlah, no ‘toucha tha Gearing’. My Gearing,” Sable says as she uses a restraining cable and pushes Nahlah’s paw off of Gearing’s nose.

Nahlah frowns and weakly paws at the air. “But… But…” She smiles and runs her paw up and down the side of Gearing’s muzzle as she giggles, “Touchy tha Geeaaarrrrring!”

Sable leans closer and pushes Nahlah’s paw away from Gearing with her restraining cable again. “No, Subject Nahlah!”

“Okay,” Nahlah says with a grin.

“No ‘touchy tha Gearing’,” Sable says as she leans over Nahlah.

“Got it,” Nahlah says with a smile and an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Sable keeps staring at Nahlah’s face, waiting for more of a response, but Nahlah’s eyes are still closed as she has a massive grin plastered on her snoot.

Swift and Gearing exchange glances across Nahlah with mutually amused expressions on their faces.

Handy looks on in horror, as his eyes dart back and forth, and he debates on grabbing Swift and pulling her back, just in case the exceedingly jealous robot decides to ash Nahlah, and anyone stupid enough to be in the way.

After a matter of only a few seconds of silence, Nahlah says, “But I’ma touch tha Gearing though…” and goes right back to petting and stroking the side of Gearing’s muzzle.

Sable pushes Nahlah’s paw away repeatedly with her restraining cable as she says, “No. No, Subject Nahlah. No! My Gearing!”

“Okay,” Nahlah nods as she pulls her paw back to herself and leans her head in Gearing’s direction. She angles her snoot towards Gearing and starts flexing her nose as she snuffs at him. “I’ma just smella the Gearing…”

Sable sighs and shakes her head. “That’s fine… but MY Gearing… you can look at him, you can smell at him, just don’t-”

Nahlah interrupts her as she giggles, “And lil touchy Gearing, kay?” as she turns her muzzle to kiss him on his cheek. And makes full contact as she smiles. She opens her eyes and they keep increasing in alertness until her eyes are at their widest open possible.

She stares down her muzzle, across Gearing’s muzzle, and into his brushed copper eyes that are open quite wide as well at the moment. As she’s kissing him full on the lips.

Everyone stops and stares for a few moments as they process what’s happening.

At this point, Handy does grab Swift, and hop back with her to get out of the line of fire. But, to Handy’s astonishment, Sable actually tracks her eyes over towards them as they switch from their soothing blue color to a menacing red.

Handy hops away further as he waves his hooves. “What the hell I do this time!? I’m not the one kissing your buck!”

Sable glances over at him, then back and forth between him and Swift as she asks, flatly, “Is it still customary to dispose of unwanted felines via tying them in a sack and throwing them in a river?”

Nahlah pulls back and puts a paw over each of her eyes as she moans, “I’m sorrrryyyyy! I didn’t mean that! It was an accident! He didn’t even kiss me back!”

Sable turns and glares at her as she’s quite obviously trying to figure out the correct line of action.

Nahlah thrashes around a bit and rolls over out of the improvised bedding before she starts burying her face in the fabric. “I’m sorry, pleeaassse don’t be mad at meeee…” she moans as she tries to hide her face in the fabric.

Sable’s eyes trail over her body and stop at her left haunch. Her eyes change back to their soothing blue color before she says softly, “That wound appears quite grievous…”

“My booty still huuuurts,” Nahlah moans as she rubs her face in the sheet of fabric.

Swift takes in the patch of mangled flesh and missing fur as she asks, “You sure more healing potions won’t help, Gearing?”

Gearing shakes his head, casting off the ridiculousness of what’d just happened and points towards Nahlah. “It might help superficially. But she really needs a surgeon.” He tilts his head as he stares at the wound for a moment before adding in a quieter tone, “It’s just not seeming to heal right either… The number of potions I’ve given her should have more than taken care of it. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Swift looks Nahlah over for a moment as she sighs and shakes her head. “We’ll figure something out. There’s gotta be somepony out here that knows something about medicine… Speaking of which.” She raises an eyebrow as she asks, “Gearing, really, what the hell did you give her? Were those drugs we’d gotten laced or something?”

Gearing sits down and taps his forehooves together sheepishly as he says, “No… I don’t think so anyway… I just um… added a bit too much of something… I think…”

They all turn to look at him and, after a few moments of silence longer than Swift is comfortable with, she waves a hoof for him to continue as she’s really not letting him get away without explaining this time.

He lets out a sigh and looks off to the side as he says quietly, “Nepetalactone...”

“What?” Swift and Handy ask in unison.

“Nepetalactone,” Gearing repeats louder. “I mixed in Nepetalactone with the Med-X so I wouldn’t have to use as much to get her to relax.”

“Nepetta-whata? What the hell is that?” Handy asks as he eyeballs Gearing hard.

“Nepetalactone, an organic compound found in the plant Nepeta Cataria,” Sable offers as she goes back to looking at Nahlah. “It is known for its effects on the brains of some species of felines. Namely that it induces periods of euphoria and is a hallucinogen for those susceptible to it.”

Swift tilts her head as she regards him. She narrows one eye as she waves a hoof around. “And you just … happened… to have that? On you? Now?”

Gearing gives a wide smile as he taps his forehooves together. “Not… really… I uh… Synthesized it in the R&D lab a while ago… Just in case it was needed.”

Handy waves his hoof around as he shakes his head. “Wait… you used the lab to make drugs, that only work on cats… When? Why?”

Gearing shrugs as he looks over at him. “Shortly after I got the R&D lab clean and working again… After I confirmed the medical bay didn’t have any on stock.” He shrugs again. “I didn’t expect it to, there’s no point in keeping it in stock in a stable full of ponies, and no one else.”

“But, why,” Handy repeats.

Gearing stares at him for a few moments before pointing over towards Nahlah. “It has medicinal uses you know… It’s an innocuous treatment option that doesn’t have the nasty side effects of some of the harsher chemicals out there. And, for felines, it means you don’t have to use nearly as much of the junk that does have such high risks for dependency, organ damage, etcetera.”

The conversation is interrupted as Nahlah rolls around and wraps her forepaws around Sable’s foreleg. “I’m sorrryyyy… Please don’t be mad… I didn’ mean it… we’re friends, riiiight?” She leans up and starts nuzzling Sable. “You’re not really gonna throw me in a river, are yooouuu?”

Sable looks at her sideways, then over at Gearing and sighs. “No, Subject Nahlah, I’m not going to throw you in a river.”

“Promiiiiise?” Nahlah asks as she’s nuzzling Sable’s leg with her cheek and trailing it up her leg.

“Yes, Subject Nahlah, I promise. Friends don’t tie friends in a sack and throw them in the river.”

“Yay, we’re friends!” Nahlah says happily as she scrunches up her body then trails it up Sable’s leg and shoulder. She starts nuzzling Sable’s cheek with her own as she starts purring. Nahlah wraps her forelegs around Sable’s neck and starts massaging and caressing her as she nuzzles Sable and smiles. “I like you too, Sable!”

But, even as she starts trying to crawl over Sable, everyone can see that Nahlah’s moving awkwardly and keeping her left hind leg more straightened out than looks normal. So much so that it looks very uncomfortable.

Gearing shakes his head and lets out a sigh as he directs his attention from Nahlah’s leg to Swift. “We really should go. Megamart might have a lead on a local doctor or something.”

“Sable, you’re such a sweetie, I’m glad we’re friends!” Nahlah giggles before planting a kiss right on Sable’s lips. Then she goes back to nuzzling Sable’s cheek with her own as she continues purring.

The others look over at Gearing for his reaction, including Swift who’s giving him a sheepish shrug.

Sable, with Nahlah still fawning all over her, locks eyes with Gearing for a few moments looking for some form of guidance in this situation.

Gearing frowns as he says, “You’re right, Sable, Nahlah is highly intoxicated at the moment…” He nods with his head towards the open door. “Come on, let’s go. The further along we are before it all wears off, the better.”

As Gearing is picking up all of the equipment and salvage he’d dumped to get around at the snipers easier, the others help redistribute Nahlah’s supplies among themselves. During the whole process, Sable walks around the bridal shop, snooping around the interior while keeping watch for any sign of hostiles.

By the end of it, Nahlah’s load has been reduced to the simple bag she’d left Stable 68 with and nothing more. And, as an extra measure, they use their remaining healing bandages to wrap Nahlah’s left haunch before going ahead and leaving via the backdoor service entrance.

Figuring he’s already caused enough structural damage, Gearing simply unlocks the door to open it instead of bucking it off its hinges. Which isn’t a challenge at all, thanks to already being inside of the building. And both the doorknob and the deadbolt have their twist-turn lever on this side of the door. Though doing it this way does remove some of the fun.

As they are traveling along, Gearing takes his time. He’d intentionally took a while gathering up his belongings in the bridal shop and getting ready to go, to give Dolor time to spread the good word. He’s not one for liking to take risks, but this was a calculated one he felt ‘comfortable enough’ with. Killing Dolor would have gained him nothing at all. Except possibly removing a single solitary threat. Although he’s not naive, he knows there’s the possibility that, instead of keeping to the agreement, Dolor’s using the time to inform his gang that Gearing and company need to be shot on sight, and are setting up additional ambushes further on.

In which case things may get far harder before they get better, and the Halfhearts will earn a ‘kill on sight’ designation. Just like the Wild Ones have been ‘enjoying’ since they made the mistake of shooting Gearing down.

But, if he’s managed to read the situation correctly, especially where Reapers are concerned, he stands to gain tremendously. If Dolor can convince even one other member of his gang not to shoot at them, it’ll be a win in Gearing’s book. And, in fact, leave them in a better position over all. And if he can convince his entire gang, if not others, the potential benefits are limitless.

Their experience with the Freight Cars had solidified that knowledge for him.

From what he’s been able to piece together, Reapers were, in their essence, a group strong enough to be feared, if not respected. Many individuals make the mistake of confusing the two. But Gearing’s not one of them. He’s had the privilege of living among, and indeed even working with, individuals deserving of true respect. Ones that had earned his admiration. That he would follow, not out of some worry of what they would do to him or others if he didn’t, but from a true desire to help them. Because they deserve the aid.

Control by fear only lasts as long as they fear their leaders more than their opponents. So the moment that fear gets trumped, their ‘loyalty’ can shift quite quickly.

It’s another reason why Gearing isn’t too keen on simply trying to enact a change of management in the area. Difficulty of doing that aside, if this group of Reapers has enough pull and strength to keep all of these random gangs under their hoof, removing them would create a massive power vacuum. So, maybe they are doing some good simply by existing. And can be suffered to be allowed to exist. For now. Until the world really doesn’t need their form of control anymore.

With each step they take along the way, they get ever closer to their goal. Gearing can feel it. Though, he knows he could get there in short order by simply breaking off and flying straight there. But he can’t abandon them. Especially now. Gearing can’t help but look back at the others as they travel along a bit behind him. Nahlah’s making okay progress. Remarkable progress if you factored in her injury. But she’s not running around looking at and exploring everything under the cloudy sky like she was before. And, Gearing can tell, by a few of her movements and her just-a-bit-too-big smile, that the meds are wearing off. And she’s mostly faking her enthusiasm now. At least, as much as she can. Her and Sable walk close, side by side, and after a while of traveling further, and Nahlah ending up panting hard simply from the effort of a stroll speed, Sable uses her spare cables and wraps her lower abdomen. Holding up a large portion of Nahlah’s weight for her as they continue down the road.

Then there’s that ever nagging feeling he keeps getting over his entire body. Something gnawing at him. A creepy feeling like he’s being watched. Which, he’s sure he is. But it’s not quite that. It comes in bursts. Almost like it has set boundaries where some places are worse than others. Places where he feels the desire to scratch and hide as if something is clawing at him and going to drag him off at any moment. Only for the feeling to suddenly disappear after a bit more travel. And, the areas just seem to appear more often and increase in frequency the further they travel along the road to the core of Hoofington.

Swift breaks off from the others and joins Gearing at the front as he keeps checking his pace to slow down and watching the surroundings. She asks quietly, “Do you know anywhere around here where we can stop? I don’t know how much longer Nahlah can keep walking at this pace.”

Gearing frowns and gently shakes his head as he replies, “Your guess is as good as mine… Probably better. If it was like the last time I was through here, I would have simply flown her to a Ministry of Peace clinic… Or, hell, even just gone straight to the Fluttershy Medical Center…”

Swift shakes her head as she looks around. “I don’t know the area either… Heard enough about it to know to generally stay away, but nothing specific.” She looks him over and her eyes settle on the glittering piece of gold hanging from the rifle slung over his shoulder. She reaches over and taps the stock, hard enough that she’s sure he can feel it and get the reference, as she asks, “New souvenir?”

Gearing chuckles. “Well, they certainly won’t be needing it anymore…”

“That the one that shot Nahlah?” she asks as she stares at the well maintained weapon.

Gearing shrugs. “Fifty-fifty it was…”

“Fifty-fifty?”

Gearing nods. “This is one of the two that were in a position to do it, not sure which one actually took the shot though.”

“And where are they?” she asks. Gearing turns his head to look at her and she shakes her head. “Stupid question… sorry.” She follows up with, “So where’s the other rifle?”

Gearing points off behind them in the general direction from where they’d come from. “Left it with the third buck that was trying to sight down on everyone.”

Handy walks up from the other side of Gearing as he asks, “A third buck?” He shakes his head. “What? Somepony was trying to kill us and you just let him go? Why?”

Gearing glances over at him and replies with a questioning tone, “Considering our previous encounters, I’d have thought you’d be pleasantly surprised by that fact?”

Handy glares at him and points a hoof at him. “He was actively trying to kill us!”

Gearing looks over to Swift, and notices the concerned expression on her face, directed at Handy, before he turns back to look at Handy and replies, “Yeah… and so was Bradoak… and you literally cried over his corpse.”

Handy stares at him for a few moments as his eyes dart around. “But- That was- I mean…” He trails off then starts looking forward as he scrunches his face up and loses himself deep in thought.

Gearing, deciding to let him figure things out on his own and not push any further, looks over at Swift and adds, “He was also the first one more interested in talking than dying…” He shrugs. “The first two were far more interested in the dying aspect of things.”

Swift frowns as she looks around at their surroundings, not entirely liking the sound of this. “So, if they’re that disciplined… What makes you think the guy was on the up and up on his agreement to stop? What could you have said to make him change his mind on killing us? Or… trying to anyway.”

Gearing slides a wingtip up enough to hold his cowl up and away from his face, just enough to reveal his goofy grin in her direction.

She narrows her eyes at him and asks softly, but with a grumble, “What’d you say…?”

Gearing grins wider as he asks, “Promise not to shoot the messenger?”

Swift slaps a hoof over her eyes as she giggles and shakes her head. “Managed to throw that back at me on the same day, huh?” She shakes her head again and looks at him with a smile. “Alright, what happened?”

Gearing shrugs and drops his cowl again as he says, “Oh… nothing much… I just told him that he and his group were shooting at the Reaper Iron Hoof and her friends… and implied that Big Daddy was not going to be happy with them…”

Swift stumbles a bit before she looks back up at him. “Wait, what?! Why would you say that?! I mean, you’re the one that killed No Shoes. Why didn’t you bring that up instead?”

Gearing keeps looking forward as he says softly, “Because No Shoes was a no bit loser that only just became a Reaper… It’s not likely that anyone would even know who he was… so me claiming that, regardless of how true it is, would just sound like I’m a lying braggart…” He tilts his head to look at her sideways as he grins. “But… Iron Hoof is a name that is already catching on and spreading… If it was just Megamac, that’d be one thing… but that notoriety preceded you all the way to the Freight Cars… because of the Reaper connection.” He holds up a wingtip as he smirks. “Which increases the possibility that it’d just keep spreading and somepony up here would have heard of you.”

Handy rejoins the conversation as he asks with a low tone, “And he bought that without question?”

Gearing looks over at Handy and replies, “I’m pretty sure he saw the writing on the walls… I took out his two friends without him noticing, and dropped their rifles at his hooves. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew I could have killed him at any point. Looked like he was expecting it. But, as odd as it is, that part didn’t even seem to bother him. Hell, he invited me to at one point.” He looks back over at Swift and adds, “I’m pretty sure he did the math and figured it wasn’t worth it. If I was telling the truth, his whole gang would have to deal with pissing off the Reapers… If I was lying, he’d get the honor of telling the Reapers about it and knowing they’d take care of it. So if he went along with it, either way, it wouldn’t be his problem anymore.” Gearing shakes the rifle on the outside of his cloak. “He even told me to keep the rifle so others looking at us will know who we are.” He chuckles. “At least until he can verify it himself.”

Handy looks at him as he asks, “What’s that mean?”

Gearing shakes the rifle. “It’s a mark… The charm on the butt is their gang symbol… I think… It’ll make the others leave us alone… for now… But if he finds out otherwise, I guarantee you the same rifle would become a bullseye on my back.”

Handy steps away from him as he looks around quickly. “Then why the hell would you bring it with you?!”

Gearing grins as he looks over at him. “Because as long as I’m the target, they’re going to focus on me, and not all of you.” He lifts the cowl enough to smirk at Handy. “And, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I’m far more bullet resistant than you are, earth pony.”

“Speaking of,” Swift starts before lowering her voice. “How’s your back?”

Gearing frowns lightly and shrugs. “Round shattered on impact, but still chipped or cracked a cog.” After a few moments of silence he looks over at Swift and sees a blank expression on her face as if he’d suddenly started speaking in Saddle Arabian. He smirks and tilts his head towards her. “It hurts. Each step hurts. And it’ll keep hurting until it heals… like… a bruised bone or something I guess?”

Swift leans away to look at his back and sees the collection of holes in his cloak, along with a glint of brass through the fabric here and there as he moves. She leans back forward as she asks, “Shouldn’t you drink a potion or something?”

Gearing shakes his head. “No need. It’ll heal in time on its own. It’s not serious enough for a potion.”

Swift frowns as she leans towards him. “You know you don’t need to suffer for days in order to save supplies for the rest of us… Take it if you need to.”

Gearing smirks and shakes his head. “It won’t be days… not unless I get shot up more… Should only be a few more hours at this rate.” He looks over at her and tilts his head. “It’s odd really. I’ve had similar injuries before, this should have healed up already. It’s healing a lot slower than it would normally for some reason.”

Swift taps on his rifle. “Is there something funny with their guns? Or bullets? Could that be the cause of it?”

Gearing comes to a dead stop as his eyes go wide. “You mean like enchanted bullets? Like necromantically enchanted bullets?”

Handy stops a bit further ahead before coming back and shaking his head. “Nah, can’t be... I mean that’d just be crazy, who’d do that… I mean that’d be-”

“Not unheard of,” Gearing comments and cuts him off. He looks between them and nods. “Enchanted bullets were used in the war… Nasty business regardless of enchantment. But I’d never heard of necromantically enchanted bullets...”

Handy waves a hoof. “Why did you jump to that? Couldn’t they just be poisoned or something?”

Gearing shakes his head. “Not if they’re affecting me too. It’s got to be some kind of magical shenanigans if that’s the case.” He pulls the rifle off of his shoulder and starts examining it. He evens starts disassembling it right there in the middle of the road. But, even after a complete breakdown of the weapon, turns up nothing. “I don’t see any glyphs, or anything else that’d indicate it was enchanted… Though that doesn’t necessarily mean anything…”

“What about the ammo?” Handy offers

Gearing pulls out the rounds one at a time and starts rattling them around, by cupping them in his wings, pulling one out at a time to see if he can notice any difference between them. But, again, nothing. He throws the ammo into his saddlebag, loose, and quickly pulls up his inventory sorter on his PipBuck. He shakes his head. “Even the sorter can’t see any difference in the rounds I already had and these new ones that were in the rifle. And I know it has that capability.” He pulls out a collection of the bullets from his bag, right on top where the sorter had placed it for him, and eyeballs them again. He starts sticking them in the magazine again as he says, “I have an idea…”

He quickly fills the magazine, loads it into the rifle, and then chambers a round as he kicks on his EFS and starts looking around. “Yup… the little bastards are always around.” He creeps over to the side of the worn path and climbs up onto a rusting shipping container, that’s lying off kilter over the side of the transport that failed to make the delivery before the bombs fell. He stretches out on the top of the container, sighting through the scope, as he looks back and forth through the dead foliage not far away. He sees the tell tale movement of a brown carapace and sneers as he says, “Sorry fucker… Well… not really. For Science!” He pulls the trigger causing the container under him to sound like a large drum had been sounded.

Kra-KOW.

Gearing winces as he looks around into the distance. “Yup… definitely need a silencer for this thing… damn she’s got a lotta kick.” He hops over the edge and flies the short distance to his latest victim.

Swift trots over next to him and looks down as she asks, “A bit overkill… for a roach… don’t you think?”

“There’s no such thing as over-kill… there’s either ‘dead’ or ‘not-dead-yet’.” He starts examining the carcass, what’s left of it anyway after getting shot with such a large round, and carefully looks over the areas that were in direct contact with the bullet. “I don’t think it’s the gun either. There’s no unaccounted for scorching, marring, color change… nothing. Damage just seems to be what you’d expect from a standard ballistic round.” He looks over at Swift as he nods at the blown apart roach. “If there was some sort of enchantment involved there should be some visible sign of the effects in the wounds they make.”

“If you’re done playing with bugs, and letting everyone on Equus know where we are with those gunshots, can we go now?” Handy calls over from the leaning shipping container.

Gearing nods and slings the rifle back over his shoulder as he starts heading back. “Yeah, let’s go. I don’t think it’s the weaponry… We really need to get a real medical opinion on this nonsense. Might find out more at Megamart about what’s going on. It’s helpful to get a local’s opinion about weird pathology in the area.”

They all regroup and continue about their way with Sable still carrying a good portion of Nahlah’s weight for her.

They’d only been traveling for a little while longer, with Swift, Gearing, and Handy in the lead, when a rock comes flying over a rubble pile, in a mostly collapsed brick building, and smacks Gearing on the head, causing a loud klang to reverberate in the local area. Another one that gets tossed at them smacks Handy. It hits his shoulder with a soft ‘paff’ before tumbling to the ground. Not enough to do any damage to either of them, regardless of intent, but was still worrisome.

Is this supposed to be an ambush? the little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head asks as it scratches its chin with a hoof.

Gearing stops where he’s going, then spins around and starts walking adjacent to Handy and Swift, but the opposite direction. He motions over to a pile of rubble next to the collapsed building, and keeps his back to it, as he says, “I saw a bit of fabric over there moving in the wind. I think someone’s wearing a cloak or a coat. It might be an ambush. Or it might be some foalish nonsense. Don’t get too close though, the rocks were pathetic at trying to do damage, and they might just be trying to sucker us in closer. I’m going to swing around and see what’s up. I’ll set up my rifle in case anyone tries anything.” He chuckles, “Well, if they wanna use such foalish tactics, I might as well play along.”

Gearing yells out loud, with an impressively clear whine in his voice, “But ow! That hurt!” He quickly trots off in the direction they’d come from, then crawls down into a small depression that has a lot of vegetation. Once he’s pretty sure he’s out of sight, he stays immobile for a few moments. After being sure that no one’s in direct line of sight with him, he checks to make sure the cloak hood is on and covering his visible brass parts before he crawls out the other side.

He keeps low to the ground, using every bit of cover and concealment he can find, as he keeps trotting off in a large circle. After completing his maneuver he ends up coming close to the area where that cloak behind the rubble had been, and takes up a position outflanking anyone that could be there. He finds a nice group of gnarly vegetation growing out of a depression in the ground where rainwater collects, and lays down inside of the miniature thicket. He sets up his personal rifle, leaving the Halfhearts’ weapon on his back, and begins checking the area from his new vantage point.

He looks with both his naked eyes and through the rifle’s scope as he tries to pick out the individuals that are hiding behind the rubble. Through the scope he can clearly make out the form of three separate ponies, all covered in cloaks and trying to stay out of sight of Swift and Handy. Sable and Nahlah have moved further back into cover given the circumstances. The unknown ponies are completely unaware that their side is entirely open. Nor that the only thing keeping them alive is the fact that they aren’t doing anything more than shouting and throwing small stones, blindly at that, over the wall of debris at Swift and Handy.

This strikes Gearing as odd for a variety of reasons. Not least of which is that they seem to be rather small framed, even with the cloaks.

Probably haven’t eaten in a while and are simply worried about a group of strangers coming up on their camp or… whatever this is… the little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head muses as they watch the scene carefully. Though he can’t quite make out what’s being said, because of the wind whistling through the brush he’s hiding in. So he focuses more on the body language of both parties to determine how things are going.

Handy starts dodging the rocks as he screams out, “Would you stop that nonsense!” One hits him right between the eyes and he lets out a loud snort as he growls, “It’s really annoying! They don’t even hurt! Come on out and talk already, we don’t mean you any harm!”

A voice from behind the rocks screams out, “Nuh uh! You’re not the real Handy! You can’t fool us!”

Swift and Handy look at each other then at the rubble. Swift takes a few steps forward, trying to see around the rubble as she asks, “How do you know our names? Who are you?”

The voice yells out again, “You too, Swift! We’re onto you!”

Swift sits down in the middle of the road and looks at the cloth fluttering around the rubble pile with her head tilted. The voice doesn’t strike her as one she knows. Off the top of her head she keeps coming up with a blank. She’s not sure where it could be from. It seems fillyish, that’s all she can tell. Could this be someone she’s recently met? But, then, why would they think it’s not her if that’s the case. She starts walking closer to the rocks, and casually sways to dodge an empty can chucked in her general vicinity. “Why don’t you come out and talk with us? I’m not going to hurt you. But my name is Swift. How do you know me?”

The fabric pulls back from the edge of the rubble pile and the other side shows up with the hood pulled down so that their face is still obscured. “You stay away from us! You dirty ole synth! We’re not going back!” a decidingly filly voice screeches at her.

Handy and Swift’s ears both perk up and practically jump at the sound.

Swift smiles lightly. “Hun, I’m not a synth. I’m the real deal. How can I prove it to you?”

Another pony pokes around the first one and the two start talking to each other in whispers, rather loudly, then a third shows up and joins the conversation. All three seemingly abandoning their cover entirely as they try and sort out the puzzle.

“Oh, I know!” one suddenly cries out.

The last one to join the group rears up to look over the other two as she yells, “What was that yucky stuff you made the kids eat when you finally escaped the Institute?”

Swift’s eyes go wide as she looks the three over. She glances over at Handy, who seems to be genuinely mystified by the question, even more so at her reaction to it. She gets up and starts walking slowly towards them, curving around to try and get a better look at them as she says, “Spinach… canned boiled spinach.”

“Blech…” one filly moans.

“Yup, that’s the stuff…” a second voice agrees.

The third, still reared up, looks at them and whispers a bit before looking back at Swift. “And who was it that actually ate that nasty gunk?”

Swift covers her muzzle as she giggles. Then pulls it away with a smile as she says, “Andante…”

The one rearing up lowers their head and looks at the one to her right as she mutters, “Yeah… He only did it cuz he’s got a crush…”

They spring up and the one on the far left squeals out, “It is her!”

The three ponies start running at Swift, and Gearing keeps tracking them in his scope. But he blinks as he sees their hoods fall back: revealing a trio of young foals running up to Swift, and pony piling her. Swift seems extremely overjoyed to see them and welcomes them into her awaiting embrace with wide open forelegs and wings.

Gearing, upon seeing the flow of events, turns to the right and starts checking the surroundings. Deciding that the threat has been neutralized, and there’s no more reason to worry about it if Handy and Swift seem to actually recognize, and be happy with finding, this group of children, he directs his attention out towards the unknown wastes to protect this side. With their other side being protected by a mobile bullet hose, that just leaves this section for Gearing to keep an eye on.

---

Footnote: Secondary components reinitializing, please stand by. . .

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

Beginning Gravity Differential alignment, please stand by. . .

Calculating Mass Augmentation thresholds, please stand by. . .

Next Chapter: 45 Song for the Road Estimated time remaining: 36 Hours, 59 Minutes