As a vertibuck barely touches down in an artificial underground cavern, a small pegasus in a full-body flight suit jumps from the side door of it, causing the aircraft to noticeably rock midair from the sudden change in load it was hauling. The small pegasus hovers for a moment, giving a friendly hoof wave towards the cockpit as the craft turns and leaves, before flying towards a blue pegasus in a Shadowbolts officer’s uniform that’s busy fluttering from one piece of war machinery to the next. The flight suit the little pegasus is wearing has been tightened down to his form with a few extra belts, crisscrossed like a harness, that helps to eat up the slack as one hasn’t been tailored for him specifically yet. Their wings are kept within little cloth pouches that flap back and forth loosely in the wakes of their efforts. And, even under all of that cloth, is an obvious wet suit that covers his entire body, forming his tail into a solid mass at the end and plasters his mane to his head. His gaze is masked by a pair of large welding goggles that prevent anyone from seeing his eyes, or the upper part of his face, that he’s wearing over the flight helmet that covers up the majority of his head. His muzzle is encapsulated by a flight mask with a rebreather set into it and a speaker for normal communication. The little pegasus in the oversized flight suit hovers over the plating of one of the tank tread’s armor plates and starts landing. But then shakes his head and lands next to the tank before calling up towards his commander.

“Rainbow Dash, Ma’am. Reporting for duty!” Gearing’s voice calls up cheerfully, though his voice comes across rather modulated by the electronics and speakers on the outside of his rebreather mask.

She looks over at him as she runs her hooves over one of the tank’s side machine guns and smiles. “Why’d you decide against standing on the tank? It won’t bite.”

Gearing points at it with a hoof and tilts his head. “I didn’t want to risk breaking it…”

Rainbow Dash starts laughing as she zips over and starts flying over him. “They aren’t that brittle! Go ahead!”

Gearing looks at her, then up at it, and grins before he jumps in the air, and flaps his wings just enough to come in for a gentle landing on the tank’s armor plating above its left tread.

As the tank’s hull sinks just a bit more from the added weight, Rainbow Dash curls up in the air and starts laughing. It could quite obviously take far more than what he was adding, especially in the way he added his own mass, but the fact that the shocks allowed a noticeable dip makes Gearing’s head hang low before he quickly jumps back off to the side of it.

She waves it off before she beckons him to follow her and travels toward a massive service elevator in the side wall behind the tanks. As she’s landing in front of the gate she looks at him and smirks, “We’re going to have to figure out a way to do something about your weight eventually.”

Gearing looks at her and dead pans through his muzzle’s speakers, “As soon as you can, please, Ma’am.”

This just makes Rainbow Dash laugh even louder as she steps into the opening elevator and uses her badge on a glowing ward near the level controls. A moment later the elevator begins descending even further as she says, “Then there’s the matter of your shell… We’re going to have to figure out a few more options for you in general. You’re still up for more testing, right?”

Gearing nods as he grins, though it’s impossible to see behind that mask. “Anything that’d help! Just let me know when and where to be, and I’ll be there, Ma’am.”

A flash of light bursts to life to Gearing’s left as he’s facing Dash, and he instantly swings around, putting himself between the burst of light and her. He snarls at the new arrival while crouching down in preparation to pounce, “Whoa! Who are you!?”

The startled green unicorn mare with smoke trailing off of her blinks a few times, and the smile that was on her face instantly disappears into a look of fear as her eyes jump towards the small pegasus soldier obviously preparing to attack her. “Transportation assistant Canary Three!” she yelps in response.

Dash snickers and waves her forehoof, then taps on Gearing’s helmeted head with it a few times as she says, “I called her. Transportation assistants are needed to get to our next stop… there’s no direct way to get there.” She giggles again and looks at the green mare whose eyes are still quite wide and focused on Gearing’s tensed posture. “Sorry, I should have said something sooner.”

Gearing looks over his shoulder at Dash and asks, “Soooo… she’s okay?”

Dash giggles again and gives him a noogie as she says, “Yes… she’s one of the good guys.”

Gearing instantly relaxes and waves a forehoof nonchalantly. “Oh… okay.” He looks at the green mare and gives her the biggest friendliest smile he can conjure up across his muzzle, which does nothing to help since she can’t see it behind his rebreather. “Sorry for the confusion. Just wasn’t expecting you.”

“R-right…” she nods rapidly before daring to take her eyes off him and looking at Rainbow Dash. “Ma’am… you’re communication said you’d need three of us… but there’s only two of you… Is that really necessary?”

Dash smirks at her and points at Gearing. “See if you can transport him first… just him…”

She nods as she regards Dash with a questioning tone, “Ooookay…” She turns to look at Gearing and her horn glows, enveloping Gearing for only a moment before the light dies out entirely. Her eyes grow larger as she asks, “How can he possibly weigh-”

“Get me there, then have two of the other transportation assistants get him,” Dash interrupts her and gives her a stern glare.

The green mare nods quickly and in a flash both her and Dash disappear.

Gearing looks around quickly, head whipping one way then the other as he tries to figure out what’s going on. A moment later a pair of flashes appear between him and the exit door, causing him to spin around and stare at them.

A peach stallion and a yellow mare unicorn stare back at him. The stallion raises a hoof quickly and says, “Before you say, or do anything… Dash sent us. I’m Canary one, and this is Canary Eight. We’re here to take you to the assembly hall.”

Gearing nods and waves a hoof at them. “As long as Dash is going to be where you’re taking me, I don’t see any problem.”

They both look down at him, then at each other, before the mare unicorn asks, “And… if she’s not there…?”

Gearing looks her in the eyes and narrows his own as he grumbles through the speakers, “Then we will have a big problem…”

She looks over at her companion and asks with a nervous chuckle, “How can such a small pegasus be so intimidating?”

Canary one looks at her and rolls his eyes. “He’s one of Dash’s, so that’s kind of a stupid question.”

Canary eight’s horn flares, causing a similar glow to appear around Gearing and her smile entirely falls off of her face as she says in wonder, “And Canary Three wasn’t joking… it is going to take both of us.”

Canary one looks at Gearing and asks, “You ready?”

Gearing waves towards him with a hoof. “Lead the way.”

Whatever Gearing had thought magical teleportation was going to be like, this certainly wasn’t it.

He appeared just as the pair of Canary named transportation assistants had both promised and intended. Right side up and not far from Rainbow Dash, who was sitting not far away down the length of a hallway that leads off from this large circular room that seems to serve as the teleportation landing zone for the Canary’s to come and go with whomever they wish and allow.

But the process of getting teleported leaves Gearing disoriented and discombobulated as his legs wobble around and he has a hard time readjusting to the world as a whole. He’s not sure what that smell is. The smoke emanating from his body. The blots over his body aren’t exactly scorch marks. They’re something else. Something he’s not exactly pleased with. The world seems to come to him in a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes moving around independently of each other before they slowly coalesce into a single solitary image: reality.

Dash’s smirk fades off her face as she watches him stumble around a bit. “You okay there, Gearing?”

Gearing shakes his head and then looks over at her. “Yes ma’am, Dash, ma’am.”

She trails her eyes over him a bit before motioning with her head behind herself and further down the stone hallway. To which Gearing quickly complies and joins her as she continues to lead the way. “I’m glad you haven’t tried taking those goggles off yet. The rest of you is still a bit rough to cover up. Hopefully we’ll get the synthetic hair figured out sooner than later.” She looks at him and gives a sheepish smile as she asks, “I hope you don’t mind us going through the process of hiding what you are…”

Gearing shakes his head rapidly. “No. Believe it or not I’m actually happy with this. If you can make me look like a normal pegasus, I’ll be even happier.” He hops and skips as he grins. “If you could actually make me a normal pegasus, I’d be thrilled in fact! So no offense taken, at all, Dash, ma’am.”

Rainbow Dash nods a few times as she looks down the hallway. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay with it… It’s always good to keep something hidden up your sleeve incase you need it for later… speaking of which…” She looks at him and nods down the hallway. “I’m going to be introducing you to some folks… and I want you on your best behavior, understood?”

Gearing nods and hops in the air enough to catch up to her as he looks at her and salutes. “Yes ma’am, Dash, Ma’am!” He falls back in stride to keep up with her as he says, “You won’t have any problems out of me, I promise!”

She stops in her tracks, spins, and puts a hoof to his chest as she starts poking him. “No, you don’t understand… I want you at your best… I know how you are. I’ve figured that out with my background checks of you. You normally run around and try to be all humble and meek and as unnoticeable as possible…” She points a hoof down the hallway. “This is not the time for that. This is not the time for humility… They need to know that you are capable of doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done.”

Gearing looks back and forth before tilting his head and asking quietly, “What needs to be done, Ma’am?”

Dash grins at him and shrugs. “I don’t know yet… but they don’t know either…” She shakes her head. “But, that’s not the point… the point is the attitude… the willpower to see it through… Whatever it is… you understand me?”

Gearing looks back and forth before asking, “So… I need to do what it takes to impress them…?”

Dash bobs her head around before saying, “More like earning their respect. Think you can do that?”

Gearing opens his mouth to say something. Pauses. Scrunches up his face for a few moments, then looks at her as he plasters a massive grin across his muzzle, again entirely out of view of anyone despite his best intentions, “You betcha, Commander!”

Dash pops him on the chest with the back of her hoof as she nods approval. “That’s what I’m talking about… Now come along, let me introduce you to some ponies.”

Gearing follows along as she leads him down the rest of the hallway until the thick doors at the end slide into the walls and this side tunnel empties out into a massive artificial cavern with pillars at regular intervals helping support the ceiling. As they are walking across what looks like a smooth landing pad surface towards a collection of ponies milling around a large collection of crates, Gearing can’t help but notice their odd equipment.

A pair, standing off by themselves, are covered from head to tip of tail in their black and gray suit. Not a single hair can be scene. Their faces are covered by some kind of mask with large goggles and the muzzle enveloped by a respirator of some sort. The suit looks like some kind of cross between the combat armor he’s seen on so many Equestrian Defense Force soldiers, and a biohazard suit used to protect ponies from contamination. He’s not sure what their jobs are, but is pretty sure it’s important if they’re that confined.

Off to the left as Gearing and Dash are approaching the main group, a unicorn mare, with a brownish gray mane and a pelt somewhere between an off white and a light gray, hovers a tool and works on a vertibuck with a yellow cream earth pony mare that has her grayish opal mane tucked into her patrol cap as the pair constantly argue among themselves as they seem to have taken the flying contraption almost halfway apart. Or are in the process of putting it back together. It’s hard for Gearing to tell given the number of parts scattered around the device.

Gearing continues at a trot as Dash flies on ahead and begins talking with a few members of this unknown unit. All of them are wearing the same general type of full body suit as the odd pair Gearing first noticed, though most of the others have their helmets and headgear off.

As he gets only a couple dozen paces away, Dash flies back over towards Gearing and lands near him as she motions sideways at him with a hoof. “And this… is the one I’ve been telling you about…”

Every member of the unit turns to look at her, and give her their undivided attention, and then, simultaneously, they all turn and stare straight at Gearing. Including the two mechanics that pause cursing at the broken vertibuck, and each other, long enough to see what the big deal is supposed to be about.

Gearing slowly looks them over and sits down as he gives them a wide grin, though, yet again, they can’t even see his attempts at being friendly thanks to his mask, and waves with a forehoof at the group as a whole.

A large ocher stallion stands up off of an ammo crate, rising even taller than he was before, which is saying something considering his head was already poking out above the others while he was sitting. He steps through the crowd of his squadmates, who respectfully move out of his way to allow his passage, as he asks with a deep rich voice that practically seems to boom out from his chest cavity, “Commander, you have got to be kidding me.”

Dash shakes her head. “Nope. This is what I promised you.”

The ocher buck rubs a hoof through his mane as he groans in deep rumbling tones. “Okay, Dash, come on, let’s be real here.” He starts walking towards her as he doesn’t pay much attention to the small pegasus in the flight suit that was obviously designed for someone much bigger. “This isn’t a place for one of your pranks. You know this is a restricted area… What, are you going to wipe the poor kid’s memory after you’re done? That’s kinda messed up, Commander.”

Dash grins even wider and shakes her head. “This isn’t a prank, Tower. This is your potential new member.”

Gearing has slowly stood up as the ocher buck’s gotten closer. He’d noticed the completely dismissive attitude being directed at his presence rather quickly. And he’s not liking it. Not one bit. He slowly turns his head to look at Dash, who glances at him sideways. After they’ve locked eyes, Dash gives him her smug smirk and gently waves a hoof towards the group as a whole. Yet she says nothing as she looks at Gearing out of the corner of her eye.

In his mind he replays and hears a conversation they just had.

So… I need to do what it takes to impress them…?

More like earning their respect.

Tick.

Tick.

CLICK.

Gearing’s head whips over towards the ocher buck, that’s still walking towards Dash, and proceeds to jump in front of him, placing himself in between the two as he yells, “Hey! You! No neck!”

The ocher buck looks over at Gearing and raises an eyebrow as he momentarily pauses.

Gearing puffs up his chests and ruffles his feathers as much as he can, though the effect is dampened slightly thanks to his wing sleeves, as he yells at the ocher buck, “Don’t just stand there talking down to me because of my size! Dynamite comes in small packages, you know! Don’t underestimate me or you’re gonna regret it.” He starts bouncing around on all four hooves simultaneously as he hops and yells, “You wanna go? Huh?! Let’s go! I’ll rip your head off and shit down your neck!”

He hops up, fluttering and fluffing out his wings as he waves his forehooves around. “I’m not little, I’m almost three feet of pure death! I got lightning in one hoof, and thunder in the other! I will. Fuck. You. Up!!!!”

The other members in the unit start snickering as they look at the pint sized pegasus hopping around, floofing out, and posturing in front of a stallion that’s more than twice his height. One of the pegasi in the group, a light cobalt blue mare hovering above the others, puts her hooves to her mouth and giggles as she says, “That’s so adorable! Look at him trying to be all vicious!” Her chartreuse eyes going wide and practically sparkling at the sight.

The ocher earth pony looks down at his tiny challenger and rolls his eyes as he starts stepping around him and continues on towards Dash. “Come on, Commander. There’s pranks and fun, and then there’s dangerous situations. The little buck could get hurt down here. This ain’t a place for kids you dress up in flight suits.”

“The only one gonna get hurt is you!” Gearing bellows as he jumps over back in front of the ocher stallion. He uses his momentum, and squats down, before jumping up at the large earth pony. He adds extra momentum, and guidance, to himself by giving his wings a timely snap upwards with his leg powered jump.

Gearing’s right forehoof connects with the earth pony buck’s jaw with a full gazelle punch. Causing the buck, who was, all the way until the point where Gearing actually connected, looking at him casually with a raised eyebrow of dismissal, to suddenly shift his gaze, unwillingly, in an odd angle off to the side as the force of the blow spins his head over ninety degrees to his right, and rotated, as the jaw seems to have become slightly unhinged.

The ocher stallion’s eyes go wide and start looking randomly at various things, while simultaneously looking at nothing, as he staggers and wavers sideways. After a few horrid attempts at keeping his footing he falls over and lays there with his tongue hanging out as he lets out a gurgling gasp from his throat.

Gearing zips over quickly. As he’s standing over the stallion’s face, with a hind hoof on each side of their head, he points down at their bewildered eyes with both wingtips as he screams, “You’ve been Thunda struck!”

The others in the unit freeze in place, all mirth gone as they try to process exactly what just happened.

Gearing’s focus jumps over to the rest of the unit as he yells, “Who else wants some?!” He hops off the ocher stallion and starts stomping towards where the other nearly dozen ponies stand around gaping at the scene. They start moving back a bit, preparing to scatter, as he yells, “Gonna talk trash because of my size? Huh?! I’ll show you!”

Dash, not being able to say anything because of the roaring laughter she’s unleashing, zips over and grabs hold of Gearing around his chest with her forelegs to try and pull him back. But, he pulls out of her hooves, after he’s dragged her several feet, and she ends up grabbing hold of the harness of straps around his neck and chest, pulling on the belts holding down his flight suit like a yolk as her hind hooves steadily slide across the ground despite her apparent best efforts.

The group actually jumps back and scatters a bit as they keep an eye on this strange one that Dash seems entirely incapable of physically holding back as he advances into the space where they were all standing just a few moments before.

Dash finally manages to choke out with tears in her eyes as she’s continuously dragged across the stone floor, “Wait! Stop! Heel! Down boy!” She jerks on the harness like a collar a couple of times as she’s still laughing, “That’s enough, you’ve proven your point!”

Gearing stops mid stride, turns his head to look back at her, then nods and sits down as he says flatly, “Okay.”

The light cobalt blue pegasus mare from before flutters by over head as she looks down at him and comments, “‘Okay’?! That’s it? You go from ready to murder everyone to sitting as pretty as you please at a simple request?!”

Gearing looks at her as she flies over head. “Well, she said stop, so I did. Apparently I achieved my mission objectives.”

A slight squeaking comes from the shadows, but no one really seems to be paying much attention to it. Except Gearing.

His ears twitch around and he looks in the direction of the noise as he tilts his head. “Well, yeah, I’m not going to just lay someone out for no reason…” Everyone stares at him seemingly confused by his statement so he adds, “I was told I needed to make sure my abilities were well known…” He points a hoof at the punch drunk stallion as the raven black unicorn of the group short teleports over to him and starts administering some healing to his head. “He dismissed me as a threat because of my size, so I showed him what I can do…”

They stare at him for a few moments and he adds, apparently entirely out of context, “If Dash orders something, I’m going to do it to the best of my ability…”

A few seconds later he adds, “Yeah, I can hear you, why?”

All of their eyes go wide, and a split second later a poof of black smoke appears among the group as a flying pony hops out of the shadows and looks at Gearing face to face with a grin. The graphite gray stallion with indigo mane would seem like a normal pegasus. Even with his butterscotch yellow eyes that seem to glow in comparison to the rest of him. If it wasn’t for the fact that they have the vertical pupil formations of cats or snakes… Then there was the webbed bat like wings with what looks light strips of leather between the bones, with nary a feather in sight… and, to a lesser degree, the tufts of hair poking out of the points of his ears.

Gearing can’t help thinking they’d probably get away with being a pegasus, easier than Gearing would at least. As, if nothing else, he’s pretty sure this strange fellow has a pulse.

Unlike Gearing.

The tuft-eared stallion tilts his head and continues squeaking and chittering in a high pitch that’s barely even perceivable to the others as Gearing sits and gives him his undivided attention. After a bit Gearing waves at him a bit and says, “Whoa, slow down. I can make out what your saying, but not if you talk too fast.”

A pegasus mare with a bluish gray coat, and her dark gray mane cut short, flies around with the light cobalt blue mare as they examine the new arrival but stops her circling as she asks, “Whoa, whoa, whoa… you can hear him without his medallion?”

Gearing looks up at her and points at his left ear. “His voice is just higher pitch than most… I can make it out pretty fine… I mean it’s not even in the range of annoying like certain electronics I keep hearing and everyone insists I’m making it up.”

The tuft-eared pony nods rapidly, points at Gearing, and looks over at the flying mares before he blows a raspberry at them. He looks over at Gearing, and then stands next to him as he uses his leathery wingtip to measure their relative height.

Gearing rolls his eyes, making sure to do so with his whole head given the goggles he’s wearing, to make it apparent, before he says, “Yeah… you’re taller than me too.” He uses his own wing to test and says a bit quieter, “Though not by much it seems…” He gets a few squeaks in response and Gearing asks as he tilts his head, “Skip, huh?”

The tuft-eared pony nods a few times.

Gearing nods and presents his right forehoof towards him, causing the graphite gray pony to pop away into black smoke and appear a few feet away as he’s staring at Gearing’s hoof. Gearing shakes his head and waves it away. “I wasn’t gonna hit ya, Skip… sorry for the scare.”

Skip hops out and puffs up his chest as he loudly squeaks in defiance and shakes his head.

The bluish gray mare hovering above them all rolls her eyes as she waves a hoof at Skip. “Skip, turn on your damn amplifier if you’re going to talk around us so we know what the hell you’re saying.”

His response, is a full blown raspberry in her direction, followed by incessant squeaky giggling.

Gearing waves it away as he keeps looking at Skip. “Besides, unless you got within hoof reach there’s no way I could touch you, let alone hurt you. You could probably just out run me.”

Skip slowly turns his head towards Gearing and squeaks a few times as he tilts his head.

Gearing bobs his head around. “I’m not fast, but have pretty good reflexes… so... yeah, I think I could.”

Skip grins and taps a button on his chest with a small gem inset into it, then says in the tone of a whisper, but magnified to carry much further than normal, “Up for a challenge?” The voice, even whispered, comes across in a soft spoken musical tone.

Gearing stares right at him and taps on the floor with his forehoof. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

Skip disappears in a puff of smoke, and appears behind Gearing’s left haunch, taping him gently with a forehoof as he says, “Over here”, before popping away again.

The others start backing away as the light cobalt blue mare rolls her eyes and lets out a sigh. “Skip’s at it again…” She looks over at Gearing and waves a hoof at him. “Give it up already; no one’s ever been able to catch him with just a hoof or a wing when he’s on guard. He can pop away quicker than you can turn to look at him.”

But, comically so, Gearing quickly ends up turning this way and that as Skip jumps around him from one puff of dark smoke to the next. Smacking and tapping along Gearing’s flanks and sides to get his attention. All the while giggling incessantly and giving his position away, intentionally, each time.

A light brown buck a bit shorter than the barely conscious Tower shakes his head at the display and heads over to talk with Dash quietly. The others talk among themselves as they watch the display. And, while Tower gets treated for his concussion and dislocated jaw, the pair talk and Gearing tries to so much as touch Skip.

The others sit down and watch. Some amused. Some not so much. But, as time goes on, and he shows no signs of either frustration nor giving up, they get a bit impressed. It normally only takes a few minutes for someone to admit they are no match for someone who can’t be touched.

But Gearing isn’t just anypony. And he’s not one for giving up.

He slows his movements and goes from actively trying to swing out at Skip with a hoof or wing, to simply try and look in the correct direction that Skip is attacking from. And, after a bit of watching his movements, is when Gearing finally decides to make his move.

Seriously.

He turns and looks over towards the direction where Dash is, at his front left, while throwing out his right hoof into the blind area of his front right. And, just as a dark ripple starts appearing in the peripheral vision of his left eye, he snaps his tail around like a whip in the general direction of the blur.

Instantly the large spaced cavern echoes out with the pained, and magnified, scream from Skip. Before he falls out of the air and crumples into a heap, howling the entire time.

“AAAGGHHHHHHHHH!”

Everyone turns to look and watches as he writhes around on the ground and bellows in pain. They start crowding around as Gearing turns towards him and puts his forehooves to his masked muzzle as he apologizes quickly, “Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt him!” He looks around and waves towards him. “I think we need a doctor over here!”

The light cobalt blue mare flies down lower and asks, “Skip, what’s wrong, it didn’t look like he hit you in the butt that hard. What happened?”

He curls up with his hind end high in the air, with his forehooves as far back as he can, cupping his genitals, as he yells out with his eyes closed, “He got me right in the NUGGETS!”

She spits off to the side and starts snickering as they look over at Gearing who’s still waving his forehooves around frantically to try and get the poor suffering buck some aid. She grins at Gearing and points a hoof at Skip. “You’re a real ball-buster, huh?”

The other pegasus mare hovers next to her as she giggles, “Call’em Captain Cashew Cruncher!”

The unicorn that‘d been working on the vertibuck ran over when she heard the scream, but slows to a trot as she asks with a smirk, “Got his documents shredded huh?”

Skip rolls around and moans, loudly, “I think he gelded me… It feels like he gelded me!”

Gearing puts his hooves to his own cheeks as he blurts out, “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to ball tap you!”

“‘Tapped’ hell, you knocked them into next Tuesday! Youchie momma!”

Gearing’s head whips over, and then up, as he looks at the light brown stallion, which had been talking to Dash, practically appear next to him. Gearing sheepishly taps her forehooves together as he says, “This one… this one was an accident…”

The buck looks over for a few long moments in silence as he examines Gearing.

Feeling the silence, except for poor Skip’s constant moaning and scraping of hooves as he rolls around, Gearing adds, “I was just trying to touch him as quickly as I could… not put him down.”

“So,” the light brown buck says as he runs a hoof through his brown mane, “You watched him, figured out a pattern to his movements… and took advantage of it as soon as you figured it out?”

Gearing blinks a few times, even though the buck wouldn’t be able to see it, before nodding. “Uh… yeah, how’d you know?”

He leans down towards him and asks, “Think you’re the only observant one?”

Gearing waves it away with a forehoof. “I’m not that delusional… no.”

The buck grins and slowly tracks his eyes over towards the raven black unicorn mare with the midnight blue mane that’s still tending to Tower, “Cross, could you take care of Skip?” He reaches over with a hoof and pokes Skip in the side a few times as he chuckles. “Just a potion or so to get him up off the floor… If he wants anything else he can drag his sorry ass to medical and have them patch his saddlebags for him.”

She gets Tower up into a seated position before heading over and passing a potion from one of her side pouches for Skip to drink, to him. She tilts her head, spilling the midnight blue mane over her other shoulder and, at this distance, her raven black pelt seems to have a bluish shimmer to it’s highlights as she looks at Gearing. “You keep this up, newbie, and we’ll need another medic just to handle the friendly fire accidents!”

“No way!” Bellows Tower. Everyone turns to look at him as he shakes his head and stands up. “We’re not calling him ‘Newbie’… and I’m calling dibs on naming this one!” He grins widely as he steps up next to the light brown buck. “He knocked the shit out of me!” He lets out a deep hearty laugh before he points a hoof over at Gearing and grins even wider as he says, “A lesson I won’t soon forget! ‘Dynamite comes in small packages,’ huh? Well then, this buck’s name’s Nitro!”

After sucking down the potion as quickly as it was offered, Skip’s whimpering falls off as he lets out a sigh of contentment as things back there knit back together.

Cross looks over at Skip, and then at Tower, before she looks back at Gearing. “You know… No one’s ever been able to beat Skip in a game of tag before…” She looks over at the light brown buck and adds, “That’s definitely something…”

The light brown buck looks over his shoulder at Dash. They exchange glances for a bit before she tilts her head. He gives her a light smile in return and bob’s his head before he turns back towards Gearing. He walks right up to Gearing and says, “I don’t know how much you’ve heard about us… But things around here aren’t run, or done, like they are anywhere else in Equestria. Think you can handle that, rook?”

Gearing taps on the ground with a forehoof. “I’m sitting here, aren’t I?”

The light brown buck lowers his head down and gets face to face with Gearing slowly. But Gearing not only doesn’t seem intimidated at all, but he also neither moves to get out of range nor moves in to intensify the situation. Instead he just stares back into the buck’s light blue eyes through his own goggles. The light brown buck smirks as he says, “Well… just to warn you… things around here can get a bit… strange…” As he finishes saying that, a burst of green flame pops up around him in a cyclone, and as it subsides an identical copy of Gearing has taken his place, like Gearing is looking into a mirror. A burst of green fire flanks Gearing’s left and right side as the two ponies that were in full suits also turn into copies of Gearing. All three of them leaning in and grinning at him as they practically surround him on three sides.

The one in front of him examines Gearing’s posture and asks softly, “You’ve got fast enough reflexes to do something… and you didn’t… So you don’t startle very easily… do you…?”

Gearing nods. “It’d take quite a bit to actually startle me… or a potential threat to me or someone for me to even react… But if you’re all a bunch of strange ponies… and we’re all in the army now… I guess then this makes us… Good Company?” Gearing asks with a smirk at his own horrid pun, as he pulls the goggles up onto the helmet over his brow and stares at the lead doppelganger with his true brushed copper eyes. He leans in closer to the copy as the many thin sheets of metal that make up the aperture that functions as his eyes’ irises contract and relax, causing the pupil in the center to mechanically grow and shrink in size rapidly as he looks them over.

The three copies actually recoil from the sight as they try to figure out how to handle this.

But the lead one recovers fastest as he smirks, “Oh… I think this is going to work out just fine…” He looks over at Dash as he changes back into his light brown pelted form he was in originally. He stares at Rainbow Dash as he nods slowly and comments, “With some basic training, and education, first that is… but that’s easy enough given the resources at our disposal.”

The other two flanking Gearing likewise revert to their previous forms of looking like ponies in armored biohazard suits.

The lead light brown buck slowly backs up as he says, “I think introductions are in order…”

Gearing waves a forehoof as he flips the goggles back over his eyes and points a hoof over towards the large ocher stallion. “Well… Just call me Nitro.”

Skip leans over sideways, resting a foreleg elbow across the back of Gearing’s shoulders as he points towards the light brown buck. “That’s not exactly what Hard Hat meant…” Skip comments in the same soft musical voice as he taps Gearing’s face mask over his cheek a few times before getting down and looking in the direction of the light brown buck.

Hard Hat waves a forehoof towards those around him as he yells out, “Stormfront… Who are we?!”

As one, the voices of those around him come together in harmony. Even the two mechanics had abandoned their tasks, to see what was going on, and have started moving in with the group as they join in. The two pegasi mares that had been fluttering around above, have likewise landed among their fellow squadmates. And, as one, they all respond to their commander’s calls.

“We are the first, and last, line of defense. We are the best hope for equinity. We live in the shadows so others may know peace. We are the dark shield that protects and the keen blade that keeps evil at bay.”

“We are that which makes monsters afraid of the dark.”

“And, what are we?” Hard Hat asks as he slowly takes a step forward, with his eyes trained straight on Gearing.

“Swift. Silent. Deadly,” the unified reply answers.

Hard Hat takes another casual step as he asks, “What do we do?”

“We quell the storm, and ride the thunder unto victory.”

Gearing looks around at the others as they have all, each and every one of them, developed a massive grin as they look at their commander and follow his lead as he asks, “And what matters?”

“Deeds, not words,” comes the snap reply of the congregation.

“What is our goal?” he asks as he gets ever closer to Gearing.

“Peace through strength.”

Hard Hat looks around at those around him and Gearing and asks, “So, how far will we go?”

“Where and whatever it takes.”

He takes the last couple steps, closing the distance and stopping in front of Gearing, and asks, “Why?”

“Because the only easy day, was yesterday.”

Hard Hat looks down at Gearing as he asks flatly, “So?”

And in unison, Hard Hat, along with everyone else of the unit, yells out loud enough that the artificial cavern echoes, “Today we fight for a better tomorrow!”

And, like that, all of the other members of the team rear up before erupting in a hoof stomping applause. Synchronized to each other such that it actually causes the rumble to travel much further than it might have otherwise.

Hard Hat grins as he lowers his head down a bit to look at Gearing. “Welcome to Stormfront.”

To this apparently official statement, the others cheer as Tower jumps over and throws a foreleg across Gearing’s much smaller shoulders. “Nitro, you and me are going to have so much fun my friend! I can’t believe you knocked me the fuck out with a single blow! I got so much to teach you!” He starts patting him on the back harder and harder as his rich deep laugh bellows out in amusement.

Hard Hat looks Gearing over and nods at him as he says, “You don’t have to keep those goggles on down here, if you don’t want. There’s no reason to hide. You’re among friends now.”

Gearing looks over at Rainbow Dash as he audibly grumbles. She shrugs and waves a hoof towards him in an expression that, like in many instances, makes it clear she genuinely doesn’t care what’s decided. So Gearing looks at Hard Hat and says with a sigh, “I’m not a fan of the goggles, but they might be needed until they figure out how to fix my eyes.”

Cross pushes the others out of the way as she slides in front of him, actually getting between him and Hard Hat in the process as she asks, “What’s wrong with your eyes? May I see? Maybe I can help?”

Gearing looks up at her and shrugs. “Sure, others haven’t been able to figure it out, maybe you can.” He takes off the goggles and lets them hang from his neck as he looks up at her.

She leans in close as she looks from one of his eyes to the other and asks, “What’s… exactly wrong? I won’t ask about how they got this way… but… what do you need done?”

Gearing actually perks up at not having to explain himself again so soon. “I just need them to not be so… noticeable…” He looks over at the biohazard suit wearing pony next to him and points at his own eye with a wing. “I’m sure you get what I mean… at least you can hide yourself.”

They rapidly nod then look over at Cross for some kind of guidance.

Cross clicks her tongue a few times then nods as she turns around. “I think I can probably come up with something. I just need to go through a few books and see what others have tried already.”

Gearing’s ears perk up as he asks with a wide grin, “Books? What kind of books? Mind if I give them a look?”

Cross grins at him and asks, “Ooohhh? Another bibliophile, huh?”

Gearing shrugs. “I just like to learn new things.”

Dash appears above them in a cyan blur as she rapidly crosses her forelegs together demanding a time out. “Oh no! You’re not making him an egghead! He’s mine! Mine I say!”

Cross giggles and looks up at her. “Oh I’m sure I can find enough manuals on weaponry and tanks to keep him interested with sufficiently ‘awesome stuff’ that even you’d approve.”

Dash puts a hoof to her chin as she gives it some consideration. “Yeah… tanks are pretty radical…” She looks over at Gearing. “Okay… well... you go ahead and look through those and… if you find any interesting bits, let me know the good stuff so I don’t have to waste time with the boring parts.”

Gearing grins up at her and gives her a salute as he says, “Yes, Ma’am!” before he continues on across the underground cavern towards an equipment storage area Cross is leading him to.

Gearing, still concealed within his ratty cloak, walks around in the Megamart shopping area very slowly, taking in the sights, smells, and, of course, the opportunities. Such as the opportunity to get blown cleanly in half by Gun, who he learned, just as advertised by that security guard Keystone, is a large turret perched on the ceiling keeping an ever watchful eye on everyone. He’s not sure how they managed to get this practical navel cannon in this one time shopping center. Nor how they got it mounted on the ceiling like they did. But he is rather impressed with the execution of it, especially given their apparent lack of resources. But, if his estimates are correct, they are probably firing solid-round ‘slugs’ out of it. Otherwise the entire place would get demolished by a single high explosive round from that thing if it was ever fired in here. He highly doubts the rows of paletted or piled scrap would do much more than simply act as additional shrapnel for such blasts. Instead of how he remembers such stores being in the past, this one seems more like a flea market. Or maybe a junkyard. A very nicely organized junkyard, but still a junkyard nonetheless. Either way it’s definitely a tinkerer’s wonderland.

And, as he finds out from eavesdropping on every conversation he walks past, it apparently had been fired. Recently. Practically demolishing some poor sods booth in the fight that took place inside just a couple days ago. Some of the conversations don’t really make sense to him. A pair of uppity dressed mares walking around talking about the excitement of their trip slumming it, makes no sense to Gearing. Along with the horde of armed guards around them as they go about their business of being obnoxious. But, as he’s walking down an aisle along the outer wall his nose perks up and he sticks his muzzle out of the cowl as he starts sniffing around.

“Ohhhh yeaaah… I know that smell…” Gearing practically giggles as he starts weaving this way and that as he takes in long snuffs one way or the other. A few of the other patrons give him leeway and get out of the way as he wanders apparently aimlessly down the aisle. A few even turning and sniffing for themselves wondering what he apparently finds so appetizing.

Gearing walks past a salvage booth, sniffing about, and then circles back around to it as he snuffs wildly in the direction, walking back and forth and narrowing his focus as his nose sticks out of the cowl and leads the way to his goal. He rears up a bit, walking forward on his hind legs as he says with an unmistakable groan of desire, “Oh yeah… I know what that is!”

“Weeeeell I’m happy to see you too, but put the mouse back in the house, buck!” a mare’s voice giggles from the other side of the table.

Gearing quickly clamps his hindlegs together and covers himself with his forehooves as he looks down. But, it only takes him a moment to realize that she’s messing with him. Because even if his flag was at full mast, the ratty cloak he’s wearing would have blocked anyone’s view of such potential embarrassment. He gently sets his forehooves onto the metal shipping crates that function as the booths service desk and looks at her from under his cowl as he asks, “So, where’s the good stuff? I know you got it!”

A mare in a mechanic’s jumpsuit puffs on a cigarette that’s hanging out of her mouth as she wipes the other side of her face with a dirty rag, attempting to take off some of the oil from it, and only managing to smear the grease over a wider portion of her muzzle. “Well, unless you’ve completely lost your mind and your nose is broke, I’m going to assume you aren’t talking about a chem fix, otherwise that’s on the opposite side of the mall.” She walks over to the counter as she asks, “So, what are you looking for?”

Gearing leans over the counter snuffing audibly as he rocks this way, and that, earning him a giggling look from the shopkeeper as she puffs on her cigarette and enjoys the quick break. Gearing leans far over the counter then points at a box against the near wall that has a bunch of other equipment taken apart and scattered over the cloth that has it mostly covered. “I bet it’s in that! How much you want for that box?”

She turns sideways and looks at the parts on top of the container, then down at the old metal shipping crate that she’s been using as extra work counter space. “What, that box? Under all of that cra- err… fine merchandise just waiting for the right buyer?” She gives him a wider fake smile that she just can’t hold on her muzzle long enough for anyone to take it seriously. Let alone herself. She leans on the engine she was just working on as she points a hoof at the box. “That thing’s been here since I took the place over. It’s been here practically forever. The buck that had the booth said it came with the place when he got it.”

Gearing looks at it, then back at her as he asks, “Then… uh… how much for it?”

She looks over at the box, then at Gearing and grins around her cigarette as she says, “If you can get the damn box out of here, so it’s not taking up the floor space, I’ll let you have the whole thing for 100 caps… contents and all.” She puffs on the cigarette a few times before she grins. “But I don’t think you can, so consider this a bet… Pay upfront to even get a chance at it… And no trying to blast it open… we already have enough stuff getting destroyed because of those idiots after that bounty.”

Gearing slaps a small bundle of cloth onto the counter, with some pre-counted caps already ready, as he’s jumping over the counter with a grin. He hops over to the box as she looks at him, yelling, while grabbing the caps, “Hey! It’s customary to let somepony count out the caps first!” She quickly sets them out into groups of ten by sliding her hoof over the top of them all and spreading them out. She quickly grabs the cloth and stows it in one of her pockets as she grins. “Yup, were good. Have at, buck!”

Gearing quickly clears off the box of the various salvage as he continues snuffing and sniffing at the box. He carefully sets the items off to the side, in a neat grid pattern, as he lowers his nose over the box and giggles. “Oh you’re just what I need in my life right now!”

The mare lights a new cigarette from the tail end of the last one as she asks, “What’s got you excited? It reeks of motor oil, but that’s about it?”

Gearing giggles as he pulls out some tools and takes a look at the lock. He grabs the box, attempting to check its heft. And, as his hooves starts sliding upwards along the edge of the box, scraping at it as the box refuses to yield, the shop owner giggles as she says, “I told you it’s been here forever…” She smirks around her cigarette as she says, “Some clown wonder glued it to the floor… so good luck with getting it off.”

Gearing looks over at her and scowls before pulling out a few more tools and starting to work on the lock. His tools won’t even fit in the lock and he quickly becomes frustrated as not only does it seem like a difficult lock, but it seems like it’s being intentionally difficult to even work on.

“Oh.. yeah… And you’re not the first one to try to unlock it without the key either… some idiot along the line broke their tools on it and jammed it up pretty good in the process.”

Gearing looks over at her, and her wide smile, before he nods towards the box as he asks, “I bet you’ve made a lot of money from selling this box to a buncha folks.”

She grins widely around her cigarette as she says, “It’s not my fault they can’t take it with them.” She waves a hoof at him as she says, “By the way, if you leave it here, it becomes property of the store.”

Gearing clicks his tongue a few times as he goes back to looking at it. “Well, I’m not stupid enough to try explosives.”

Her eyes go wide as she says, “Hey, this is just a salvage shop, if you wanna blow up something, go hit up one of the weapon shops!”

Gearing gets to work on it and, after a while, he slowly starts pulling out small fragments of metal. And the biggest of them all is a twisted rusted piece of a bobby pin from someone’s failed attempt to pick it long ago. He holds up the fragment as he groans, “Gotta fix the lock before I can even try picking it…” Then he quickly goes to work with his other tools once he’s cleaned out enough of the interior to get access to the tumbler pins again.

The shopkeeper rolls her eyes as she goes about her business, of her business. Every now and then she looks over and watches as Gearing carefully works on the box. Most had given up long ago. They’d made too little progress and wasted too much time and would give up after they realized they’d been had. But Gearing seems especially dedicated to this task for some reason. And then the unthinkable happens.

The tools line up. The lock clicks. And Gearing lets out a squeal of victory.

“Come to poppa you beautiful thing you!” Gearing bellows as the lock flips open and the latch releases. Although, there’s a momentary pause in the celebration as Gearing has to use a miniature nail pulled to crack the seal along the lid of the box top. As it had been closed for so long, and so poorly treated, that it had developed a bit of corrosion along the lip that kept it rusted shut. But, after a deft application of torque, the metallic lid does indeed flip back and reveal its contents.

The shopkeeper turns around, ignoring the customer that had just walked up to the counter, and yells out, “How in the fuck did you get that open!?”

Gearing rubs a hoof on his chest as he grins up at her by poking the end of his muzzle out of the cowl. “Cuz I’m gooooood.” He turns around and sticks his head into the container, shaking his rear excitedly back and forth high in the air as he takes in deep whiffs of the source of the smell from near point blank. He lets it out in a long groan of pleasure as he says, “Well helloooo there…”

The shopkeeper walks over and looks down into the box, and tilts her head as she doesn’t see what the big fuss is about. Gearing looks up at her and his eyes dart back and forth, even though she can’t see it as he keeps his muzzle pointed in her direction and most of his head covered in the cowl. The metal shipping container has a collection of scrap electronics, a few bundles of wires, and a few other bits of things she deems of minor value. But, the thing that Gearing seems most excited about is the waxy cardboard box roughly a foot long, a foot wide, but only about four inches deep. She pulls the cigarette out of her mouth as she asks, “What’s a M183?”

Gearing’s eyes jump back and forth again, and again behind the cover of the cowl, as he sees the still clear to read text across the top of the top box: M183 Assembly.

Gearing raises a hoof and wafts the smell of the box in her direction as he says, “Oh! M183 is the type of Em Arr Ee this is!”

Sooooo we’re hoping for completely stupid or ignorant with this one? Really? The little dark blue pegasus in Gearing’s head asks with his forehooves crossed and a disbelieving look in his eyes.

She looks from the box to him as she raises an eyebrow. “Em Arr Ee?”

Gearing tilts his head. “You know… Meals Ready to Eat? Those prepackaged things that they gave the soldiers to eat while on the front line?” She tilts her head a bit then shrugs and nods, so he adds, “Well each one is different, with different foods and the like.” He waves a hoof as he says, “Bean burritos, spaghetti, red beans and rice, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera… This one, is recipe type number 183.” He looks down at it as he says, “It really wasn’t all that popular to eat because the production process makes it smell like motor oil and most can’t stomach it.”

She scrunches up her nose as she asks with unhindered disgust in her voice, “And you actually like that smell!? I can only imagine how it tastes.”

Gearing shrugs as he looks down at it. “Yeah… it’s a bit oily too. But it’s a bit of a favorite among smaller groups. Despite production limitations.”

She waves it away as she says, “Well, yeah, you can have all of that… blech.” She sticks her tongue out and shakes her head. “I don’t mind the smell while I’m working on it, and some does get in my mouth from time to time, but I can’t imagine wanting to eat a whole meal of it as well. The taste’s gotta be horrible!”

Gearing shrugs as he starts loading the various contents from the shipping crate into his saddlebags quickly. “I don’t know what else to say… I mean it tastes about as what you’d expect.” He shakes his head as he chuckles. “It’s not for everyone… I’m weird I know.”

She entirely ignores him as she starts giving the scavenger at the counter her attention and begins to haggle over a steam gauge assembly.

After Gearing gets everything else into his saddle bags, and only one more box remains in the bottom, he glances back at the counter, to make sure her line of sight is obscured, before he slowly opens the cardboard box while it’s still sitting in the bottom of the shipping container. The smile on his muzzle just gets even wider as he sees the familiar olive colored mylar film coated blocks packed neatly with their bright yellow text across its surface.

The little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head flies around throwing confetti everywhere as he squeals with delight. M183 Satchel charges! Breech charges! Shaped Charges! I got it all baby! I love plastique! Aaawwww yeeaaahhh!

Gearing quickly closes and stows the last cardboard box under the cover of his cloak as he turns his head and calls over to the shopkeeper, “So, you really want this box gone or do you want to keep it and use it for storage?”

She looks at him and at the box as she shrugs. “Well, with it wonder glued to the ground nopony’s going to manage a snatch and grab with it, so it’d be good enough for storage, but nopony’s got the key for it. So it’s not all that useful.”

Gearing rubs his chin as he looks at it, then back at her as he asks, “Well, what if I rekeyed it for you? With the box open now, we can change out the lock or rekey it, if you want?”

She smirks and rests a foreleg on her improvised countertop as she asks, “Why? So you can sell the box back to me?”

Gearing grins at her then looks over at a pile of electronic scrap and wires. “I wouldn’t mind bartering… I could definitely use some more spare bits of wire for some projects that just fell into my lap.”

She chuckles and waves him away as she says, ‘Tell ya what, come back after hours and we’ll work something out. I’ve gotta make some more money now that the puzzles finally been solved.”

Gearing nods as he trots over past her, and jumps up and over the counter. He looks over at her after landing on the other side and asks, “Where would a buck find some decent armor around here?”

She shrugs as she chuckles. “No where?” She laughs and waves around. “I’m kidding. There’s some folks around that have decent bits of armor. Gotta look around though. But I’d start off in the next aisle over, there’s a couple booths that that seems to be all they focus on.

Gearing nods his thanks and quickly trots off as he looks over the stock of each booth as he’s passing by. The mare wasn’t kidding. Some booths seem to have pretty much everything. Others are specially tailored to one area of salvage or another. Some weapons booths have entire piles of grenades and mines just stacked up in crates. If it wasn’t for his recent acquisition he would be paying those particular piles of gold even more attention then he already was. But, he has a goal and a reason he needs to find a decent set of armor. First, his has been pretty much shredded. And it needs to be repaired or replaced entirely. But, he’s hoping to get an upgrade beyond that anyway. Which will require an entirely new suit.

Or, in his hooves at least, new and additional parts.

He heads down the next aisle as he keeps his head zipping back and forth. Around the middle of the aisle’s length, on the right side, Gearing notices a variety of equipment stacked upon itself. Some of it looking like patchwork armor, others looking like salvaged gear from the local police departments. An excellent place to start in Gearing’s opinion.

So he trots over and starts looking over the pile of equipment, when a mare yells from the other side, “Hey! Don’t you be thinkn’ of takn’ any o’ that without paying for it!”

Gearing’s head jerks up and he looks around as he tries to find the source of the voice.

“Yeah, I’m talking about you, you sneaky buck!” the disembodied voice bellows out.

Gearing looks around carefully, and then looks through a gap in the display where an angry looking mare’s eye glares out at him from her side of the display. “I’m not trying to steal anything, I’m just looking for a set of armor.”

She rolls her eyes, well, eye, as far as Gearing can see, and responds in a condescending tone, “Well the whole shop aint nothin’ but armor, so you don’t needa look that close to find a suit of armor!”

Gearing facehoofs as he groans. He pulls the hoof down his muzzle as he says, “I’m looking for a very particular type of armor. Not just any armor.”

Her eyes go wide as she looks around quickly and asks, “An’… you don’t see it out there?”

Gearing takes in the view for a bit before slowly shaking his head. Almost instantly the display rotates inwards and the older mare with a tool belt for a pauldron steps out as she looks at him. “Really now, huh? You don’t look like the Steel Ranger armor type, with all your sneakin’ ‘round… so what are you lookn’ for that I, apparently, don’t have?” she asks as she raises an eyebrow with a tone of indignation.

Gearing looks over at the armor for a bit as he says, “Well, it’s a bit of a long shot…”

Her scowl slowly morphs into a mischievous grin as she asks, “Somethin’ rare? Not really common, then?”

Gearing bobs his head around and nods. “Yeah, you could say that.”

She grins even wider as she beckons with a forehoof. “Well, don’t jus’ waste all day, spit it out. What’s this new an’ excitin’ thing?”

Gearing frowns as he says, “A suit of EDF Combat Engineer fire fighting equipment.”

She tilts her head as she scrunches up her muzzle. “You wanna set o’ firefightin’ equipment?”

Gearing shakes his head. “No, a suit of EDF Combat Engineer fire fighting equipment.” At the blank stare he receives he sighs and waves a hoof. “It’s a set made for the combat engineers to be able to put out fires in the middle of combat… The outer layer is pretty much a fire retardant jacket, like most Fire Department’s used, but it had been enhanced with kevlar and ceramic plates to protect them if anything exploded while they tried to put it out. And, under all of that, were a layer of plates, like a combat armor set, that protected vitals and helped deaden the blow if they were shot while on the job. The helmet was a full tactical variant of the normal combat helmet, with a full face cover and respirator built into the muzzle guard. It allowed them to see through the smoke while working, and had built in radios for communication… then there was the prerequisite oxygen canisters and water talisman operated mini fire hoses… Like a flamer, but spat water instead of fire.” He waves off to the side as he says, “It’s similar to the blast armor the Explosive Ordinance Disposal folks wore, but a lot less bulky and rigid, but not as protective because of it…”

She taps on her muzzle for a bit as she says, “I’ve never even heard o’ that... but it’d make sense considerin’ how the war was goin’ to need to have combat variations o’ the firefighter’s uniforms…” She shrugs as she says, “I definitely don’t have anythin’ like that, but if you can get me all o’ the parts, I’m pretty sure I can put somethin’ together for you.”

Gearing sighs as he looks around. “If I had all of the parts I could just work something out myself…”

She leans in as she eyeballs his cloak and asks, “Ooohh? A bit of an armorer yourself, eh?”

Gearing shrugs. “Repairpony… But a damn good technician at that. Wouldn’t be the first set of armor I’ve modified.” He looks around as he groans. “I just don’t know where to get a set of firefighting gear… That’d at least be a place for me to start.”

“Well you could try talking’ to one of the Burner Boys… but they’re not all that friendly to strangers.”

Gearing looks over at her as he asks, “Burner boys?”

She waves off in the vague direction of the north. “One of the bigger Hoofin’ton gangs… They run around in firefighter jackets and love usin’ flamers and other flamin’ o' explosive weaponry.” She puts a hoof to her chin as she says softly, “You know I can probably work somethin’ out with you to get the parts… just two things…” She motions him closer with a forehoof and he obliges. When he’s closer she wraps a foreleg around his neck and taps him on the chest with her other hoof as she says, “Firs’ I wanna see it when it’s done… And you’re still payin’ for parts, and I’ll make the connections to get what you need, but it’ll take some time and you’ll have to figure out what they want for whatever they have that you need.”

Gearing nods as he chuckles. “Fair ‘nuff.”

She nods then looks around before she whispers in his ear, “But ditch the water talisman part of it… or at least don’t talk about it… because if you get your hooves on one there are others that would seriously ruin your day just to get it…”

Gearing slowly turns his head as he hears heavy hoof falls, and sees a trio of ponies walking past with full suits of Steel Ranger power armor. Gearing turns his head the other way to watch them as they pass and continue down the aisle as he judges their capabilities, quickly taking note of how each of the three has their own unique armaments. A missile launcher on one side with a 40mm grenade autocannon on the other, another has a pair of miniguns. But, still, the third one looks like more than a match for the other two. The third’s armor is far more ornate, with obvious decoration that does not come standard on that model of armor as far as he knows. And then there’s the pair of cannons they are toting. Roughly a 120 millimeter with an auto loader built in to hot swap out a new round after each time it fires. He’s not sure if the long barreled menace came from a modified artillery platform, or if it simply was salvaged from an old EDF naval vessel.

Regardless of its origins, the little blue pegasus in his head starts nuzzling a version of the long barreled weapon, before giddily aiming it around with one hoof like a rifle of one kind or another.

Gearing slowly starts to smile as he starts running through a variety of possibilities of turning a weapon like that into a rifle for him to use himself. Sure, silencing that thing would be impossible short of some kind of talisman or fetish. But with something that big he gets a giddy feeling as he’s pretty sure he could reach out and touch somebody from so far away that they wouldn’t hear the shot by time it landed anyway.

But then there would be the issue of needing to find a magically enhanced magnifier or target locator… the little blue pegasus in his head adds helpfully with a glint in his eyes.

“Hey! Don’t go lustin’ after their cannons, that’s a quick way to get in their scope!” the armor shopkeeper says as she lightly pops him on the head with the hoof she’d had around his neck. “I know it’s sexy n’ all, but keep your sheath out of this or you’re goin’ to be in a world of hurt.” She nods in the direction of the trio without actually looking at them as she says softly, “As far as causin’ bad days over tech, they’re the worst. Generally they’re okay, unless you have something they want. In which case, even the nicest of them can quickly turn on you.”

Could show them the PipBuck master key, and see how they respond, the little blue pegasus in his head offers. He gives Gearing a mischievous grin as he says, If they shoot first over it, that’s just self defense, and a single spark grenade could put an end to it quick. Crash their matrix, take advantage of one of the articulation points along their neck, then we’d have a whole lot of pieces of equipment to use. He hops up and duel wields the massive cannons with one in each forehoof as he screams. And two biiiiig fuckn’ guns!

Gearing groans and shakes his head as he replies, “Yeah, that’s not the first time I’ve heard that…” He looks down then up at her as he raises an eyebrow as she slowly moves the hoof she’d tapped his chest with over his chest is a slow caressing action. He asks in a sweet tone, “Notice anything you like?”

She jerks her hoof away for a moment as she looks around, then chuckles as she pats him on the chest again before stepping away. “Micro articulation points, self lubricatin’, and some stuff even I can’t figure out…” She tilts her head. “Just why do you need another suit of armor?”

The little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head instantly tosses the oversized cannons away to dissolve into clouds of mental space as he flops down and folds his forelegs across his chest as he grumps, Bitch had to go and ruin the moment, didn’t she?

Gearing points at his face through the cloak as he says, “More armor’s always better, and I really do need the face shield and communication equipment aspects of it. Plus the way I run into trouble I’m going to need a few sets of different ones just to have spares.”

She taps on her muzzle a bit as she looks around inside of her little booth. She waves at him without actually looking at him as she says, “Well if you’re good enough to customize that, you can probably handle the job on your own… Stop by every now and then and I’ll see if I got any leads for you.” She turns to look at him as she points at the ground. “But definitely swing by tonight, I should be able to come up with somethin’ by then.”

Gearing shrugs as he turns and starts walking down the aisle again, in the opposite direction the three Steel Rangers had gone, as he says, “We’ve got a lot of trading to do anyway, so we’ll be around a while. Talk to you later.” She waves him off and doesn’t pay him any further attention as she returns to sorting her stock and mutterings to herself.

A few booths down Gearing stops to examine a helmet with a smashed faceguard. He picks it up and carefully starts looking it over, flipping it around to look at it from the inside to see what could have happened. It’s not hard to notice the dent on the inside of the helmet where some kind of spike broke through the front left side of the helmet, and was only stopped by the metal on the backside. Presumably while it had been worn. But, as solid as the rest of the helmet seems to be, and possibly still mostly functional, he’s more interested in the fragments of electronics hanging in the front from where the face guard had been destroyed.

As a matter of principle, and being unable to prevent himself from doing it anymore at this point, he keeps aware of those around him, their positioning, and their conversations. And a particularly rambunctious buck coming down the aisle earns his undivided attention and stops him from interrupting the booth’s owner to check on a price for the helmet.

The group of five bucks walk down the aisle, laughing loudly as the white stallion in the lead regales them with his flights of fantasy for the mass of wealth he seems to be sure he is going to get soon.

The brown buck over his left shoulder laughs as he asks, “And you’re sure you’re going to have enough for all of this? Even with as much as we’re going to get?”

The white buck pauses walking as he laughs and waves a hoof at him. “Oh, I got a plan for that too! I’m going to make soooooo much more money with my plan than anyone else even thought of!”

The black stallion in the brown duster to his right asks, “How’s that even possible?”

The white buck taps on the side of his own head as he looks at them and grins. “Because I use my head!” He spins around, practically prancing, as he giggles at his own cleverness. He leans in towards them, and beckons them in closer before he says quietly, “See… Everyone else is just interested in the bounty… So they’re just going to drop her off at Paradise, collect their pay, and trot off into the sunset.” He waves towards the west with a hoof in a wide sweeping motion, for obvious dramatic effect. “But, that’s short sighted.” He looks around them, and then leans in closer as he says with a giggle, “With all the folks she’s royally pissed off, I figure that a good amount of them would want some serious pay back.” He chuckles a bit more and adds with a grin, “And I bet they’d pay a small fortune to get a chance!”

The black stallion in the duster asks, “So, what, you going to drag her around so folks can kick the crap out of her?”

The white buck shakes his head and opens his mouth, but then scrunches it up to the side as it actually crosses his mind for a few moments. He shakes his head again. “Nah, fuckers probably kill her… I’m sure Usury wants that pleasure herself… but… no…” He giggles some more before he says, “I’m going to truss her up like a radhog, and get a train going,” He leans in and nudges the other bucks with an elbow as he winks at them. “If ya know what I mean…” He giggles and waves the hoof around again as he says, “Yeah, I figured I’d take the scenic route to Paradise… and let anyone with a cap to spend and a load to blow have a go.” He starts laughing as he taps on the ground with a forehoof. “‘Security Pony Rides! Everyone gets a try!’ How’s that sound for a slogan!?” He laughs some more and the others with him snicker and roll their eyes at the ridiculousness of it.

“You know… that’s pretty fucked up...” Gearing’s voice comes from their side as he puts the helmet back on its display stand.

The white stallion looks over at him as he nickers and sneers. “Aw come on, it’s just a bit of fun. She’s gonna die anyway, what’s th-”

“… and I’m gonna have to shoot you for it,” Gearing finishes, interrupting whatever the buck was going to say as he steps over and flicks the white stallion in the forehead, right between the eyes, with a quick tap of the end of a crystalline feather.

The white stallion recoils a bit and reaches up as he rubs the spot on his forehead. “Hey! What the fuck you trying to do here?! You wanna start a fight?!”

Gearing tilts his head to let the right side of his face poke out of the cowl as he says in a low growling tone. “Being willing to kill someone like that, over a bit of money, is bad enough… But what you’re planning is damn right despicable… And you’re days are numbered…”

The brown buck with him waves a hoof as he says, “He… he was just kidding about that… He wasn’t serious.” He catches eye contact with Gearing, and at this point Gearing’s eye practically glows with menace at him as he rapidly taps on the white buck’s shoulders. “Right? You were just kidding about all of that right?” He turns his head as he says through hissing teeth, “This isn’t a fight we want, especially not here.”

The white buck looks at him, then looks over at Gearing and notices the golden glint shining in his direction as he stutters, “Uh… yeah…” He waves a hoof as he gives his biggest, widest, cheesiest smile. “I was just fooln’ around, ya know… Who’d think of something that screwed up?!” He looks at his friends as he asks with a nervous chuckle, “Right guys?!” They quickly nod in agreement.

The brown buck looks at Gearing and grins as he says, “See… just a joke… he was only kidding.”

Gearing gives a slow single shake of his head as he says, “No. He wasn’t… and neither was I.” He grins as he sticks his muzzle out beyond the cowl. “Let’s see how you like running around with a bullseye marked on your head.”

A pair of Megamart’s security come running down each end of the aisle as the crowds move out of the way and try to stay out of whatever this is. The security mares look back and forth, gauging the body language of the spectators as they try and sort out who’s causing the disturbance. It doesn’t take them long to find, and surround, the six bucks staring each other down. A tan mare with a pair of shotguns on her battle saddle yells out, “What’s going on over here?!”

The white buck points a hoof at Gearing as he yells in a whiney tone that doesn’t match his apparent age, “He threatened to shoot me!”

“No I didn’t,” Gearing says flatly.

The white buck shakes his head before he leans in and yells at Gearing, “Ya did too!”

Gearing tilts his head as he stares back at him. “I didn’t threaten you… I made you a promise… You disgusting waste of oxygen.”

A lemon yellow mare with a blue mane steps through the crowd and passed the security guards as she gains everyone’s attention by calling out, “We’re still cleaning up from the last time someone decided to pick a fight in here. We cannot have you starting a fight, nor discharging weaponry, inside of Megamart.” She looks between the two obvious parties as she says, “This is a place of business and trade, and we will not stand for you disrupting their shopping.”

Gearing glances at her out of the corner of his eye, and then slowly turns his head to actually focus on her after noticing the faded navy blue vest she’s wearing. Now that type of vest he remembers, before it had two centuries of fading applied to it. He even feels a bit of nostalgia as he sees the cheesy name tag on the breast that says:

Hello, my name is:

Bottlecap

Your Megamart Manager.

As she’s turning to look at one of the guards, Gearing notices the trio of bottle caps where her cutie mark should be, and can’t help but wonder if maybe she has a thing for Sparkle Cola.

More likely it’s about the money… The little blue pegasus in his head grumps with folded forehooves.

Gearing quickly waves a hoof as he says, “Oh, I know. The security mares at the front gate already explained that. I have no intention of fighting inside of Megamart.” He looks around and shrugs. “The possibility of hurting innocent civilians is too high.” He looks at Bottlecap as he says, “I’m just here offloading the mound of salvage I picked up from a raider nest… and talk, to pick up some information from somepony…” He points a hoof over at Bottlecap as he says, “You’re just the mare I was told to see, Bottlecap right?”

She nods as she looks him over. “Yes, I’m the manager here. What information were you looking for?” She raises an eyebrow as she says flatly, “Information’s as much of a commodity as anything else…” She smiles lightly as she says, “You can always ask for free… but beyond that expect to pay.”

The white buck looks at her and points a hoof at Gearing as he yells, “He just threatened to shoot me in the head, and you’re going to stand here and talk business?!”

She looks over at him for a split second and asks as she turns back to look at Gearing, “Did you threaten to shoot him in the head?”

Gearing waves a hoof as he says, and repeats, “I promised him I would…” He shakes his head. “Was just stating fact… It wasn’t a threat… just like the fact that I’m not going to start anything while in here.”

Bottlecap shrugs as she looks at the white buck. “Well, as long as nothing happens in here, it’s not our concern.” She looks over at Gearing and frowns as she says, “But kindly do not make such promises in here, please. Those kinds of discussions escalate quickly into actual fights.”

The white buck looks at her as he scowls, “You’re not going to do anything? I crack a joke and he threatens to kill me, and you just ignore it?

“You think train gang raping a mare is funny?” Bottlecap’s ears jump up and her eyes go round at the comment. “Turning her into a sex slave for your own amusement and profit? Well I find that about as funny as you’re going to find the next day,” Gearing quips.

“What… what’s going on over the course of the next day?” the brown buck with them asks as he looks around quickly.

Gearing grins at them as he says, “That’s how long he’s got… and, considering how busy I am and the amount of shopping I still need to do, if he starts running now, he might actually make it a whole day.” He looks over at the white buck and a malicious grin crosses his muzzle as he says, “I hope you have an amazing dinner planned tonight… cuz you aren’t getting another one.”

Bottlecap starts clicking her tongue as she looks sideways at the white buck and obviously starts running numbers of her own through her head. She points a hoof at Gearing without looking at him and says, “I did just ask you to not make threats while inside the store…” She looks over at the white buck and says dryly, “If you’re in the slave trade, you’re at the wrong Finders location. So I suggest you finish getting whatever you were going to buy here, then go about your business.”

The white stallion’s jaw drops as he can’t believe what he’s hearing. Then, in the same whiny tone he had before, he points at Gearing as he looks at her, “Well what about him?!”

Bottlecap looks over at Gearing as she asks, “You did say you had some business with me… What was it again?”

Gearing tilts his head as he says, “Yes, Ma’am. Roadie said I should speak with you, do you have some place we can talk?”

Bottlecap tilts her head as she looks at him. “Roadie?” He eyes open a bit wider as she says, “Ah… Short Road… Yes.” She looks him over as she says, “He did send word that somepony would be stopping by for a list…”

Gearing leans towards her as he sticks his muzzle out of his cowl and grins at her. “That’d be me…”

Bottlecap clicks her tongue a few times before she nods. “Yes, well, come with me to my office and we can discuss the work order.” She starts to turn around before she glances at him sideways and asks, “As long as you’re planning on continuing to behave yourself while here?”

Gearing nods and waves her on to lead the way. “Of course… After you.” He follows her through the crowd and back towards her office as the guards keep the rest of the other party at bay. Thus giving the groups time to completely separate, and get out of line of sight of each other, before they stop blocking the aisle and wave everyone to go back about their own business.

Which, despite what anyone else might have thought given what just happened, they do. With the din of bartering quickly picking up to their normal loud levels.

---

Footnote: Mass Augmentation thresholds set, please stand by. . .

Gravity Differential alignment at 37%

Gravity Differential alignment at 50%

Gravity Differential alignment at 62%

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