When Swift gets back into Megamart, it doesn’t take long for her to track down Gearing. Although, she didn’t expect to find him sitting on the roof, practically hiding among some crates, in nothing but his golden brassy hide as he carefully mends the blanket turned cloak from where the shotgun blast had put so many holes in it. It’s an odd sight for sure: seeing the repair pony impersonating a sewing machine.

Though the expression on his face: blank, emotionless, with a thousand yard stare as his wings continuously work to mend the blanket, seemingly independently of the rest of him, is particularly disturbing.

To her mind it looks like he’s mostly shut down.

She slowly walks over near him, not even trying to be quiet along the way, as she says, “I knew you were good at fixing stuff, but I didn’t know you were so good at mending clothes. Looking damn near seamless…” She stops a few paces away and sits down as she looks at him, and, finally, sees what Dandy had been saying.

Because he doesn’t even bother replying.

“You learn that at Stable-Tec too? Seems a little weird that they’d teach repairponies that kinda stuff when you’re-”

“No,” Gearing interrupts her.

“Pick it up somewhere else? Maybe I can have ya help me with the kids’ clothes-”

“My mother was a seamstress.”

Swift smiles as she waves a hoof towards him. “That’s awesome; that she taught you. I bet it comes in handy with everyth-”

“What do you want, Swift?” Gearing cuts her off sharply as he doesn’t even look at her.

Swift narrows her eyes and hops up to her hooves in an instant. She quickly closes the remaining distance and gets face to face with him as she scowls at him. “I want you to drop the shit, Gearing. Tell me what the hell is going on with you. This isn’t like you.”

“The only one she hurt was me, and like you said it was up to me. But I’m no bleeding heart and she needed to realize how precious that second chance I was giving her was. She needed to start thinking straight before she did something that really screwed her over. Her and her foal both.”

Swift rolls her eyes and waves it away with a forehoof and shake of her head as she says, “I’m not talking about that fuckwit’s leg you broke, she got off easy. We need to talk about what happened earlier.”

Gearing looks at her sideways and says flatly, “There’s nothing you need to be informed of. Whatever may or may not have happened involving Dandy is none of your concern.”

Swift lets out a sigh as she looks around the rooftop of Megamart. “I’m not talking about miss horny head…” She looks at Gearing and narrows her eyes slightly as she says quieter, “Although you owe it to Sable to say something… it’s not my place. But if you care for her at all, she deserves to at least know.”

Gearing looks her in the eye and says flatly, “There’s nothing Sable needs to be informed of either.” They stare at each other for a few moments before he asks, “What? You think I was unfaithful to Sable?”

“Weren’t you?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but no… Cheaters do what they do for their physical gratification or mental stimulation. Usually in search of something they feel is missing in their current relationship; to fulfill an unmet need or desire. And neither of that applies to me. So, no.”

“So you see no problem in telling Sable whatever may or may not have happened?” Swift asks with a raised eyebrow. She lets out a sigh as she says, “It’s your relationship, not mine. But shouldn’t you at least let her make the call on if she thinks something is relevant or not?”

“It won’t change anything, but I’ll take the suggestion under advisement,” Gearing says flatly and simultaneously makes Swift’s eyes jump wide open at the out of character comment. “Now… you just said you weren’t referring to Dandy. Yet, you’re still talking about related situations… so was that a lie or do you have some other reason for bothering me while I’m working?”

Swift’s mouth drops open as she looks him over. Again, she takes in his eerily blank expression. She’s not sure if it’s intentional, or a symptom of whatever is going on under the hood of his golden dome. But, regardless, there’s definitely something going on here. The cadence of his speech is even off. She steps even closer, slowly, and sits down facing him. Moving ever so slowly as his eyes stay straight ahead and, unlike normal, don’t actually track her movements. But she knows. She can feel it. He’s still very much watching exactly what she’s doing.

He’s just not even bothering to simulate natural movement at the moment.

Another sign of things being awry.

“Gearing… what happened in the building?”

Gearing continues working on the cloak heedless of the question, head and focus directed solely at the cloak. Blending in the repair seams by hiding them among additional stitch lines that makes up scrolling vine like patterns along the edges around the shotgun blast damage. A method that’s entirely unnecessary, from a functionality standpoint, and odd to do for a results focused individual.

“Dandy said something happened in there, and she’s worried… And… Now I kinda am too,” Swift says quietly as she watches him mechanically go through the motions of one stitch after another. After a bit longer of him saying nothing, at all, she reaches over and grabs hold of the cloak, preventing him from working any further as she pushes the fabric down towards the roof and the threaded needle stops dead in its tracks as her sudden movement almost made him stab her. “Come on, Gearing. Something’s off… You’re not acting normally.”

After a few more moments of silence, with neither of them talking, Swift asks, “Will you at least talk to Sable when we get back? We can go now if you-“

“What good would it do?” Gearing asks flatly while keeping his head low and pointed towards the cloak.

“Well, if you’re not comfortable with talking to me about it, I know Sable would be more than willing to talk with you… She loves you, Gearing… And no one, not even you, can go through their life keeping everything on their own shoulders. The weight’s too much and will crush you eventually.”

“Nothing good can come from talking about it… to anyone,” Gearing says softly.

Swift leans closer, muzzle next to his, and says quietly, “So something did happen… Come on, Gearing, we’re friends… Just talk with me about it, and I’ll help you sort it out, whatever it is.”

Gearing closes his eyes, his first equine-like motion Swift’s noticed since finding him on the roof. “Swift, no good, at all, can come from me talking about it.”

“We need to go kill somepony? Someone do something fucked up?”

“The offending parties have already been dealt with… thoroughly…” Gearing replies flatly.

“Then why won’t you talk about it? You ignored Dandy, you’re locking me out, and you’re sitting up here hiding from everypony… Something happened and even though you might be trying to act like everything is finished and done, you’re hung up on something. So it’s obviously still a problem. So what do we need to do? What’s going on in that shiny ass head of yours?”

“Nothing further can be done, Swift.”

She leans forward, tilting her head, and invades his personal space as she looks him eye to eye. “How can you be so sure about that, if you won’t talk to anyone about it? You’re a smart ass, that’s for sure. But not even you knows everything.”

“Never claimed to,” Gearing replies lamely.

“Then… what?”

Gearing looks at her and lets out a sigh as he shrugs and repeats, “It’s not something that anyone can do anything about.”

“You sound so sure about that.”

“If I told you the whole situation… All it would serve to do is make you feel like shit too… Sure, there’s times when getting something off your chest helps you, and you can move on from there. Times where talking actually helps. But this isn’t one of those times, Swift. You can’t beat up a reminder.”

Swift shakes her head as she pulls back and asks with an eye partially closed, “A reminder? A reminder of what?”

Gearing slowly looks up at her and says flatly, “A reminder… that evil… real, true, pure, irredeemable evil… actually exists in the world. Not simply greed or desperation or some other explainable and understandable force at work. That there’s not simply differences of opinion or circumstance at play sometimes, but actual evil. A tangible thing that just can’t be explained. Impossible to understand… Or justify...”

Swift looks him over then gives an uneasy smile as she says, “Well… we just pound the evil bastards into the pavement, problem solved…?”

Gearing looks up at her and frowns as he narrows his eyes, “No, Swift… You can stop a plan. A pony. A creature… Maybe even hinder or mitigate the damage of the plans of it… but you can’t kill evil… Evil never dies. It’s a force of nature. Like gravity. And just as inescapable.”

Swift tilts her head as she eyeballs him. “So… what? You’re just going to give up and go hide somewhere?” She looks him over and huffs, “I never figured you for a quitter.”

Gearing stares her straight in the eyes and asks, “Who said I was quitting?” She stares back for a few moments and, when she opens her mouth to say something, Gearing speaks first, “I’m not built that way. But only a fool would ignore reality. I’m not going to give up… I… I just…” He looks down as he lets out a long sigh. “I just don’t know what to do with this… I mean I can only do so much, I know that, but it still feels like Celestia’s using my testicles as speed bags when I run into something like this.”

“Well… see… told ya you just needed to talk to somepony… cuz I happen to have the answer for ya, and it ain’t that hard,” Swift says cheerfully with a massive grin.

Gearing looks over at her and raises an eyebrow as he says with a snort, “Oh? What’s that?”

“If you can only do what you can do… then… do that… and kick the shit out of whatever evil sumbitch you come across…” She holds her forelegs out wide as if she’s trying to grab the whole world at the same time as she grins even wider and declares, “Problem solved!”

Gearing chuckles. A dark, humorless, laugh as he asks, “Oh? Just like that?” He shakes his head and smirks, “Easier said than done, Swift…”

Swift waves it away with a forehoof as she says, “Pfft… That’s what makes it interesting… If it was easy, it would be boring… and you wouldn’t be up here brooding over your patchwork cloak.”

Gearing shakes his head and looks down at the cloak. “This thing already had enough holes in it when I got it… And getting shot repeatedly ain’t helped matters any.” He narrows his eyes as he grumbles, “I’m really going to have to pay that Redbeard a visit and thank him for all the trouble.”

“Well, as much as I’d love to say ‘Let’s go right now and pound his face into a second asshole!’ that merchant is still missing and they really are asking for help now to find out what happened.” Swift waves off towards the roof access as she says, “Dandy’s over there talking with them now for more information. Seems like she’s getting ready to head out soon.”

Gearing chuckles and shakes his head. “Money’s a very motivating force for some ponies… speaking of…” He looks off towards the front of Megamart before looking at Swift and motioning that way with his chin as he asks, “What happened to the wannabe shanty town? Bottlecap and Keystone get sick of their shit and run them off finally?”

Swift frowns and looks towards the front as she slowly shakes her head. “No… Word came through shortly after you left that that security mare is laid up at Brimstone’s Fall. Apparently she got hurt in a fight and is holed up there.” Swift shrugs. “They all took off and started a stampede with them all trying to hurry up and get there so they could take advantage of her being stuck in place.”

“Fuck…” He grumbles a bit before he asks, “Let me guess, more bullshit thanks to Redbeard?”

“Yeah…” Swift comments as she looks around. “Enough of them heard it that they pretty much all left at once.” She looks at Gearing sideways and grins as she asks, “You wanna head out? I bet it’d be a hell of a fight… We could start a competition on who can crack more skulls before they all give up and run.”

Gearing purses his lips to the side before slowly shaking his head. “Given the amount of time, they’ve most likely gotten there already. So the likelihood of us arriving in time to make a difference is practically nil…”

Swift turns her head and looks him over as she asks, “So, what, you’re not going to do anything at all about it?”

Gearing glares at her and narrows his eyes. “Either Security is going to fight them off, or she’s going to manage to get away… or they’ve overwhelmed her. The only scenario I need to do anything about is the last… and, if that happens, we’ll find out soon. Word of the largest bounty ever getting claimed will spread like a Hoofington downpour: we won’t be able to go anywhere without knowing about it… And if that happens… well… I have a promise to keep, and I’m gonna be gone a couple days while I sort out whatever dumbass got lucky enough to claim the bounty.”

Swift chuckles. “Not really lucky, considering it’s going to put you on their tail… is it?”

“That’s what I keep telling them, but stupidity is terminal it seems,” Gearing replies dryly.

“Well, then what are you gonna do in the meantime?”

Gearing looks down at his cloak and bobs his head around. “I’ll need to work on some things. But we really do need to find out what’s happened to that merchant. Seems pretty clear that if we aren’t going to be able to get the things we need unless we find them, then that’s our first step. Otherwise we should just head back to 68 and figure out our next move.” He looks the cloak over and checks the new seams closely before using his green pinions and snipping the thread free from the cloak, and then stowing his sewing supplies in a small tin.

As he’s slipping the repaired cloak back on he looks over at Swift and says, “I’m pretty sure time is of the essence with this merchant business. So you guys go ahead and head out as soon as you get a good bead on where to go. I’ll catch up as soon as I get the rest of my equipment sorted.”

Swift looks him over and a smile creeps across her muzzle as she tilts her head and asks, “You’re not just saying that, so you can sneak off to Brimstone’s Fall, are you?”

Gearing tilts his head and smirks at her out from under the cloak’s cowl. “After we get the merchant sorted? Maybe. We need those components, and sooner than later. We should know by then what’s happened with Security… Because greedy braggarts don’t know how to keep their mouth shut.” He shrugs. “Besides, you’re the better tracker, and I’d just need to be following you anyway.” Gearing shrugs. “You three probably won’t even really need me, but send me a message if you do and I’ll head out as quick as I can.”

Swift chuckles as she asks, “Oh, going to let me have all the fun this time? Sounds fair to me, I really need the exercise!” To the frowning glare she receives from Gearing she laughs and waves a hoof dismissively. “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything too crazy.” She grins at him. “That’s your department, after all.”

Gearing loosely packs up his things and starts heading towards the roof access. “Well, good. Hate for you to try and steal my shtick… I’m gonna go pay Bottlecap a visit, get my pay, and stop by Patches to get started on my equipment. I’ll see ya later.”

Swift follows him down and, at the bottom of the steps, waves at him with a wing before turning to go look for Handy and Dandy. “Sure. Don’t take too long getting all gussied up or you’re gonna miss the fun though!”

Gearing stalks back through the crowds, blending in and stepping through and around the other Megamart customers as smoothly as he can, on his way back towards Bottlecap’s office. When he gets near the end of the aisle where he would make a turn towards her office, he sees Bottlecap trotting across his view heading away from her office. He quickly hops around a few of the customers, earning a few scathing stares as startled ponies suddenly become painfully aware of his presence as he blitzes past them to get to the intersection. He pokes his head around the side and calls out to her before she gets far, “Bottlecap, you got a minute?”

Bottlecap stops and looks over towards him, then looks back the other way to talk to the tan security mare she’d been walking with, “We’ll talk later. Let me take care of something, and I’ll be right with you.”

The tan mare nods and looks past her at Gearing before turning and continuing on her way with her heavily loaded battle saddle.

Bottlecap walks up to Gearing, then nods towards her office as she says, “Come with me. I’ve been meaning to talk with you anyway.” She leads the way to the office, heading straight behind her desk and leaving the door open for him.

Gearing politely shuts the door behind him, and then walks over to the picture of the Marauders and starts looking it over again: courteously spending the time that Bottelcap is getting herself situated at her desk to look for the thing that he feels is missing. But, despite the nagging feeling in the back of his mind, he still can’t find that which is eluding him. The little blue pegasus in his head is even getting a headache as it grumbles in frustration about something being on the tip of its tongue, but just can’t verbalize it. Like trying to remember what a word is that you know well, but just can’t spit it out. He starts wondering if this is some horn headed dirty trick, just to mess with him, cast on the picture. Pictures don’t just fade that rapidly. There’s definitely something else going on here and he doesn’t like it one bit. He flips his cloak back with his wings, then carefully pulls the picture down to look at it closer. He flips it around and rotates it as he gives it a careful examination. But he can’t find any evidence of enchantments. No gems. No glyphs. Nothing. But, still, those hypnotic eyes that keep popping up in wisps of smoke in his mind’s eye don’t appear again in the old photo.

“Fan of history?” Bottlecap asks softly from her desk and breaks Gearing out of his static examination of the picture. He looks over at her and sees that she’s sitting at her desk with a couple small bags of caps lying on her desktop. And, from the expression, and the tingle between his shoulders, he realizes he’d been standing and staring at the picture for some time before she decided to draw his attention. After she’s achieved eye contact with him, she nods towards the picture and says, “We might be able to get someone to make a copy for you. If not find one elsewhere, if you wish.”

Gearing blinks his eyes rapidly as the apertures of his eyes manually zip in and out before he gently shakes his head. He carefully puts the picture of the Marauders and Red Stripes back where it was originally as he says, “No, no thank you… I was just… seeing if I knew any of them.” He looks at it again as he says softly, “Feels like I should.”

“You mean like… personally know them?” Bottlecap asks with a raised eyebrow. Gearing looks back over his shoulder at her and arcs one of his own in response. She shrugs and says, “I hope you don’t mind, but Dandy let me know a bit about your… condition… when she stopped by to pick up her portion of the bounty payments.” Gearing frowns and Bottlecap shakes her head. “Don’t think ill of her. She simply asked if I had any contacts or information that might help you get the procedures done that you need.” She smiles and folds her forehooves on the desk as she says softly, “She was adamant on me keeping it to myself. Since she was pretty sure you wouldn’t want that kind of information getting out.”

Gearing looks back at the picture and smirks as he asks, “What? That I’m old and falling apart and there’s not a pony left alive that can help me?”

Bottlecap frowns as she replies with a sigh, “Something like that… yes.” She regards him for a bit before she asks, “Is it true though?” Gearing looks at her and narrows his eyes and she nods as she says, “I see…” She looks around her office as she taps her forehooves together. Finally she ends her gaze on the picture that keeps drawing his attention. “Well, Dandy was correct. Your best option would most likely be the Collegiate. They have the most advanced medical centers around that are still active. So that is where I would direct you to go as well.”

“Yeah, that’s not really an option…” Gearing says with a grumble.

“Dandy had stated the same… How can you be so sure if you don’t at least ask them about it?”

Gearing lets out a sigh as he lets his eyes travel over the ancient nostalgia inducing pictures again. “Because even among projects that were kept out of public eye, and compartmentalized into secrecy…What led to me being the way I am was even more so. Compartmentalized practically into oblivion and that’s before the bombs dropped and everything went to hell. And, because the way things are, someone else can’t just start from scratch.” He shakes his head and lets out a sigh as he looks at her. “There is no margin for error left anymore. Either it’s done correctly and flawlessly the first time, or it could very well kill me on the operating table.”

“And you’d rather not take the risk? Even though you know it’ll probably eventually kill you anyway?”

Gearing looks at her and grins. “Oh… it won’t kill me… don’t worry about that.” To the raised eyebrow Bottlecap gives him he rephrases, “Not directly anyway… Besides, I’d rather die on my hooves, fighting to fix what I can, than just die on the operating table and simply become another statistic for malpractice.” He shakes his head. “My implants not working will simply make it easier for others to kill me. If I do die because of their loss, it’ll be because of that. Not because of some critical failure.”

“You sure about that?”

Gearing chuckles and shrugs as he waves it away with a forehoof. “Well, as much as I would like my skin back, and not have to worry about trotting around looking like a golden idol, that alone won’t kill me. Besides, a couple of my implants have come back online on their own. Including, and most importantly, my healing one and the one that lets my PipBuck interface with everything.” He shrugs again with an easy smile. “It’s already doing a good enough job that a shotgun blast to my face was already healing quickly before I even drank a healing potion.”

Bottlecap scoffs before asking with wry amusement. “What is it with you types that seem to like to throw themselves in the meat grinder of the wastes?” Gearing tilts his head and Bottlecap says softly, “Security has a bad habit of getting in trouble and getting hurt too… Too much wasteland at one time can be fatal.”

“Any word? About Security I mean? That Redbeard prick sicked the whole mob on her. The camp’s a ghost town now...”

Bottlecap slowly taps her hooves before she says softly, “No… there hasn’t… but that might be a good sign since I doubt a few certain ponies would be able to avoid bragging about the victory, and loudly at that.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too,” Gearing admits.

“You going to go out to help her?” Bottlecap asks as she gives him an appraising look.

Gearing shakes his head as he looks back over at the picture of the Marauders. “No. I don’t think I will… not directly anyway… I’m already drawing some attention away from her.” He motions up towards the left side of his face before he adds, “It would be a bad idea for us to be in the same area… this way the ones more worried about me won’t even be within line of sight of Security. Hopefully that’ll give her enough breathing room to do what she needs…” He smirks as he nods, “But that Redbeard… that might be a different story entirely... I really need to pay him a visit...”

“Going to kill him so he can’t broadcast about her anymore? Surely that won’t stop someone else from picking up his mic?”

Gearing shakes his head and looks over at her sideways, “Maybe, maybe not. I mean…” he chuckles a bit before he turns his head to face her and says, “It’d be entirely justified if I did, I know that… considering he’s put a hit out on me and all… but I might just end up sabotaging his broadcasting equipment or something. Won’t know what’s best until I can actually see and get a better feel of the situation.”

Bottlecap raises an eyebrow. “Well, that’s a first for me… Didn’t realize he’d put a price on your head.”

Gearing shrugs as he says, “Apparently I’ve rattled him bad enough… Although, I can’t help but feeling a little insulted…”

Bottlecap shakes her head a bit before asking, “About what? That he’d have the audacity to put a price on your head?”

Gearing grins at her before he says, “That the price is so low.” She arcs her brow again and he chuckles before he says, “Redbeard said he’d give someone a beer for my helmet… A beer! … Can you believe that? I mean, I don’t know how much that’s worth in the current age… but that seems a bit low… don’t you think? I mean, I killed Cookie in a head on fight, and his bounty wasn’t small change… So where’s he get off insulting me with such a tiny ass bounty?” He puts a hoof to his chest demurely as he closes his eyes and looks up at the ceiling. “Considering what I’d done the last couple days alone I figure it should be at least twice what was on Cookie’s head…” He gives a firm nod before he says, “Apparently I need to be a bit more direct and get his tail good and properly twisted for him to take me seriously.”

Bottlecap snickers before she asks with an amused tone of disbelief, “You actually want a high bounty on your head?”

Gearing shrugs and grins at her. “Not really, it’s just the principle of the matter… I mean, if you’re gonna do it, at least take it seriously!”

Bottlecap covers her mouth with a hoof as she snickers again. She uses her other forehoof to push and separate the bags on her desk as she comments, “Speaking of just rewards… Here is your payment for the Cookie fiasco.” She waves the hoof over them as she says, “What you brought back was sufficient to claim it. Dandy’s already claimed her portion. For killing Cookie, you’re entitled to the five thousand cap bounty. There was a fifteen-hundred cap bonus for taking out the rest of his gang. And finally… the smaller bag is from another outstanding contract the Finders had: looking for information on what had happened to a pair of caravans. One of the brahmin you brought back was able to verify their fate, so you’re credited with bringing back the necessary information for that as well. That netted you another five-hundred caps.” She pushes the bags together then pushes them across the table as she smiles. “Thanks for the help. The roads are going to be a bit safer now.”

Gearing trots over, grabs the bags, and summarily tosses them into his saddlebag without even opening them. He checks his PipBuck and raises an eyebrow as he looks at the item sorter list. After staring at it a moment he says, “Hey, Bottlecap… you’d said Dandy already got her part, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

Gearing pulls out the smallest bag and holds it up as he says, “You gave me too much then. Here. Half of this one should cover the 250 difference.”

Bottlecap smiles and shakes her head. “No. That’s entirely yours.” She waves at it with a forehoof as she says, “Dandy insisted. She said that you two worked together to take out the gang and Cookie, but rescuing the Brahmin and bringing them back here was entirely you. So she didn’t feel right about taking half of the reward for your hard work.” She smirks and shrugs as she says, “Dandy was more than happy with her 3250.” She shrugs again. “Apparently she found the day quite lucrative.”

Gearing stares at the bag held aloft with his wing as he purses his lips to the side and tries to figure out what to do.

You… you don’t think she did that intentionally to pay us for ‘services rendered’?, the little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head asks as he performs air quotations with his blue pinions.

Gearing lets out a groan as the thought gives him mixed feelings and stows the bag away as he comments, “Well, as long as she’s happy I suppose.” He directs his attention back towards Bottelcap as he asks, “Any leads on those items I asked for?”

Bottlecap rocks her head side to side a bit before she says, “Still looking into most of it, for other sources anyway. But for that section you had listed as ‘snake bite’, strange name by the way, you’ll definitely want to talk to Patches. She had a few of the items and, when she found out that it was you that was asking, she made sure to gather up the few missing things. By now I’m sure she has everything you need.”

Gearing chuckles as he looks around the room aimlessly. “Yeah, she probably wants to actually see me working on something for once and figures it’d be easier to do if she already has everything she knows I need.”

“I apologize, but no one’s been able to locate that armor set you had been asking her, about either. She’s been trying to call in favors to figure something out, but so far: nothing.” She snickers as she waves her hoof around. “I think she’s starting to take it personally at this point. She’s always been a relentless craftsmare.”

“Well, now I’m pretty sure I can afford to pay her for some of the equipment I need. That should make her happy. I know how frustrating it can be to not be able to find a solution when you really want and need it.” He turns and heads toward the door as he says, “I’ll go pay her a visit now and see what we can work out.” Before opening the door and walking out he makes sure he’s covered again and comfortably concealed under his mottled cloak.

Bottlecap follows him out of the office and shuts the door behind herself as she says, “I’ll get in touch if we hear anything.” She doesn’t even wait for Gearing’s wave of acknowledgement before quickly trotting off on her own business.

Gearing zips through the crowd at his typical stealthy speed, making himself as unobtrusive and uninteresting as possible as he heads towards Patches’ booth. When he gets to Patches’ booth he finds it entirely open, with Patches bent over and snooping under her table and her back to him as she excitedly sorts through her supplies. After standing there staring at her tail whipping in the air above her for a few moments, and there being no sign that she’s going to end any time soon, Gearing steps up to the entrance of the booth and loudly coughs to announce his presence.

Patches turns her neck and sticks her head around the leg of the table to look behind her before jumping back and spinning around in mid air. She lands facing him with a massive grin on her face as she says happily, “Just the buck I wanted to see! I knew you’d be stoppin’ by!” She steps closer and raises an eyebrow as her eyes start darting all over him, then settle on the cowl of his cloak. “What’s with the embroidery? I didn’t think you were the showy type?” She leans in and her horn glows as she whips over a magnifying glass from her work table and gives the cloak a one eyed appraising glare. “Ex’llent needle work though…” There’s a pause before she adds quietly, “Wait… this the same cloak as before ain’t it… What’s up?”

Gearing chuckles as he tilts his head and looks at her from under the cowl. “The embroidery is to hide the repair job from all of the bullet holes.”

“In the cowl?” she asks with a raised eyebrow. He nods so she muses, “But that’d mean you’d gotten shot in the head…” Again, he nods. She lets out a sigh as she looks him over. “You’re right, you do need some better armor…” Her shoulders sag as she lets out a disgruntled huff. “I’m sorry, I still can’t get my hooves on what you’d asked for.” She perks up as her ears shoot up in alarm. “But, I’m tryin’, I really am!”

Gearing waves it away and steps in a bit closer as he says, “Really. It’s okay. It was honestly a shot in the dark question. Don’t kill yourself trying to find something that probably doesn’t even exist anymore…” This doesn’t seem to convince her, so he asks, “Would you be willing to help me out with a few other things though? I just got paid, so I can afford that armor you got me now, I’m sure.” He sits down and taps his forhooves together sheepishly as he says, “But… I’m still going to need to modify it to fit… and I got a couple other projects that I need to do and…well…” He looks off and to the side as his voice trails off.

She leans closer as she asks, “What? What’s wrong?”

Gearing pushes the cowl back enough to look at her and give her a sheepish smile. “I’m really on a time crunch… and I was wondering if you’d be willing to help me… There’s a missing caravan and my friends are already heading out to go track it down, and I need to get ready and catch up to them before they get into trouble.” He reaches out with his forehooves and drops to a lower posture as he grabs her forehoof with both of his and asks quickly, “If I don’t have enough on me, we can work something out. I just really need the help.”

Patches eyes go wide as they practically sparkle, “You need my help?!”

Gearing nods emphatically. “Please! I’d truly appreciate it!”

Patches snorts a huff of hot air in excitement as her horn glows. The sign hanging on the side of her booth flips around with the glow of her telekinesis as she flips the ‘Open for business!’ sign over to the side showing ‘Closed, come back later!’ and she practically squeals in delight, “You betcha! Let’s get started!” She grabs him and yanks him into her booth as she closes the outer part of it and starts dropping various cloths, to block the view inside the booth, with her telekinesis magic.

She practically prances in place as she asks, “What goodies you wantin’ to work on now?”

Gearing points a hoof at the box where she’d stashed the old riot gear barding as he says, “Well… First I need to modify the armor to fit me, if you still have it… then I need to make a weapon that Bottlecap says you have all of the supplies for.”

The metal box under the table flips open and things start pouring out and hovering in the air, including the set of riot armor, as Patches stands there and grins with her telekinetic field holding them all aloft for inspection. “Oh, that ‘snake bite’ thing? Yeah, I have everythin’ that was on your list.” She looks at the surgical tubing floating nearby as she says, “I don’t really get what you’re gonna do with all o’ this random junk, but just thinkin’ about it’s getting me excited!”

Gearing grabs the set of armor and starts looking it over as he asks, “And… do you know anything about Shadowbolt armor?”

Patches cringes as she asks, “You mean the pegasi military power armor? Hun, if you’re wantin’ a set o’ that… that’s another monster entirely… The Enclave aren’t gonna just cough that up.”

Gearing stares at her for a moment in confusion before he shakes his head as he looks at her. “No, I don’t need a set, that kind of thing won’t help me anyway… I wouldn’t want it. Can’t wear it. But I was wondering if I could commission you to make me a set of wing covers, like the kind the suit has.” He waves a wing through his cloak as he says, “I really need to keep these hidden as much as possible. I stick out way too much. Having a set that entirely covers them up is okay, but I still need to have something where it can break away in case I need the use of my wings.” As he’s sorting through one of his bags, and pulling out the ruined wreck that used to be his personally modified combat armor before a wagon exploded and a building tried to crush him, Patches uses her telekinesis and lifts up the side of Gearing’s cloak.

Gearing turns his head and looks at her with an eyebrow raised as she slowly trails a hoof over his crystalline wings.

Her eyes dart over to his, then back and forth a few times as she sheepishly smiles and realizes how badly she’s invading his personal space. But, she just can’t help herself as she traces along his wing’s edge carefully. “This is just… astounding… they actually let you fly? Not just for show?” After Gearing nods, Patches asks, “They were able to do somethin’ like this? I haven’t heard anythin’ about this so the experiments on getting’ earth ponies to fly must have been near the end o’ the war…”

“I’m not an earth pony,” Gearing says flatly. He narrows his eyes, and flutters his wings lightly as he says, “I am a pegasus,” with a grumble as the little blue pegasus in his head zips and bashes on random furniture in his mental space as it rages at having to say so yet again.

She pauses pawing at his wings long enough to direct her attention to his glare. “Oh… Oh, I’m sorry!” She returns her attention to his wing as she asks, “Well… isn’t this awkward…” She slowly continues to run her hoof along the leading edge of his wing as she examines it. “Sorry for gettin’ so hoovesy, but I need to figure out how to go about makin’ covers for these that can actually hold up to the edges and not just get ripped apart from the inside while you fly around.”

Gearing gives the faintest smile as he nods. “That’s fine. Go ahead. And, you’re right, it’s going to be a bit more of a problem than it would be for most. You might have to make some kind of support points along the metal leading edge and just bridge it over from point to point.”

She nods absentmindedly as she starts slowly extending out and manipulating around his wing with her hooves and her magic to get a sense of his range of motion as he lets the wing practically go lax. “Thanks… well… don’t worry, I’ll figure somethin’ out.” She fans his wing out entirely, to its max, and as the outer pinions gloriously fan out the smile on her face just gets wider as the colored lights glitter down around them. “I love a good challenge.”

Gearing smirks as he starts disassembling the ruined combat armor that had once protected him from so many dangers. “Well, that makes two of us.”

---

Footnote: Fragmentation errors in ‘credential matrix’ detected . . .

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

Secondary components reinitializing, please stand by. . .

Error . . .

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