After coaxing Dandy off of the roof, and into a proper bed, at least as much as you can call one of Megamart motel’s cots a ‘proper bed’, Gearing spends the rest of his nocturnal hours trying to work on his equipment. There’s only so much he can do, and, wanting to use available resources wisely, he spends most of the time working on the helmet and muzzle guard.

As far as armourers are concerned, Patches is fantastic, and Gearing knows it. He fully appreciates her skill, and how she’s more than earned her reputation. But, just as giving credit where credit is due is important, recognizing weaknesses is also important.

And Patches’ skill with electronics is sorely lacking in Gearing’s opinion.

She’s not an inept idiot by his count; far from it. Her skill and knowledge is high enough that she was able to correctly recognize his ridiculous modifications to the electronics for what they were. Which, in doing so, confirmed her own skill to him. But the helmet requires a bit more finesse than most ponies would be able to do. And Patches simply isn’t one of the exceptions. Then there’s the fact that he’s made so many out of standard modifications to it that most, even those who dedicate themselves to the study, can’t figure out how he makes and repairs things the way he does. But, somehow, his ability to use second rate parts and Jury Rigging it all together has never let him down.

And expecting others to try and follow along with his chaotic crafting methods would be too much.

So he focuses his energies on doing the most complicated part of the repair, by piecing the muzzle guard and face mask back together, and leaving the parts that Patches can do, where her particular strengths are, for her to focus on. And he stays on task until he gets a message from Swift asking him to meet her and Handy at the Happy Trails Trading Company’s booth.

Given that Patches seems to be running late to open up for the day, he quickly jots down a note for her and heads out.

Since his armor had been wrecked, again, he’s reduced to wearing his ratty mottled blanket turned cloak, again, to try and hide his ridiculously shiny body. By the time he got back to Megamart, he’d already healed up the damage he’d suffered through during the previous day’s struggles. Thanks to his implants. But with so many holes put in the wing sleeves, lots of green crystal pieces ended up loose and jingling around inside instead of being reabsorbed by being healed back into position.

Resulting in quite a pile of green glass-like fragments spilling out when he finally took the suit off to begin working on it. But, he did a good job of cleaning up after himself. He doesn’t want Patches, or anycreature else for that matter, to get a green splinter in their foot. That’s how you get people really annoyed with you really quickly.

But that’s to say nothing of what might happen if anyone pays more than average attention to it, and actually realizes what it really is. The problems that could unleash are in a realm Gearing wants no part of.

As Gearing is getting close to the booth in question, he can see Swift sitting back watching as Handy seems to have woken up on the wrong side of the cot this morning. Judging by the massive scowl chiseled across his muzzle.

Gearing vectors towards Swift and asks as he steps up next to her, “Hey, Swift, what’s going on? I thought you and Handy were going to take care of the exchange?” He looks around as he adds, “I’d have figured Dandy would be here too…”

Swift waves her hoof away towards the other end of the aisle as she shrugs. “Dandy apparently stopped by earlier and cashed in her contract, but she had to go deal with some stuff for her company. As for this…” She waves a hoof towards Handy, who’d turned around to look at him as soon as he heard Gearing’s voice.

Surprising to Gearing, Handy actually smiles at seeing the mottled ratty blanket and steps back as he waves a hoof towards the inside of the booth. “Great! You’re here! Would you please talk some sense into this buck about going and rescuing him?”

Gearing walks around and next to Handy, eyeballing him sideways as he finds the apparent change in attitude unsettling at best. When he directs his view back into the booth, he sees Lodestar sitting on a pile of fabric turned lounge chair with one of his forelegs held closely to his body with a sling and encompassed with a thick framed metal brace. For the first time Gearing actually looks at him, and sees him as more than just a simple being that needed quick extraction. His identity had already been confirmed by others, so he didn’t spend much time on it. Had he actually thought about it, he would have realized a few of the descriptions did not match up at the time.

Lodestar’s royal blue coat shines with excellent health and care, as does his ridiculous powder blue mane. Previously he’d been covered in so much filth that he’d looked more like soggy bog sediment instead of a pony. Lodestar’s baby blue eyes shift side to side as they go from looking at Handy, to back at the newcomer: Gearing. And the frown across his muzzle just appears to grow even wider as he sees yet another pony seemingly coming up to have the exact same tiresome conversation with him.

Recognizing that, and knowing how much he loathes dealing with Handy himself, Gearing decides to go another route.

“Hey, Lodestar, good to see you finally awake. How are you feeling?” Gearing motions with his chin towards him as he asks, “What’s up with the brace? Bonesaw not able to get it fixed right?”

Lodestar looks over at him as he tilts his head. Then a smile creeps across his muzzle before he shakes his head. “Thanks, but, really, I probably feel even worse than I look. The leg’s pretty bad off. I’m going to need to pay a visit to the Collegiate to have them do some proper surgery on it.” He shakes his head as he frowns with disgust. “I know a hydra injection could probably fix it right up, but I don’t want any of that shit in my system… I’d rather suffer and wait for proper treatment.”

Gearing chuckles before he says, “Yeah, well, at least you have options… Mine are limited to natural healing, or magical. There’s not a chem or shot on Equus that’d do me any good.”

Lodestar looks him over as he says quietly, “Yeah… well… something tells me you wouldn’t need it as readily as I would.”

“You’d be surprised,” Swift comments as she smirks and looks off to the side where a pair of mares, with different colored streaks of paint in their manes and small black boxes sitting in foreleg holsters, chatter with a shopkeeper and haggle over some two hundred year old prepackaged snacks.

Lodestar regards Swift for a moment, before he looks over at Gearing. “Like I was telling your friends, this is two separate issues. Not the same thing.”

Gearing tilts his head for a moment, then sits down and motions for him to continue. “Okay, how about this… pretend I have no idea what you’re talking about, and like I just walked in on the conversation… What two things are you talking about?”

“He’s saying us going and rescuing him has nothing to do with us getting the parts that we need,” Handy says with a scowl as he looks at Gearing.

Gearing looks at Handy for a moment, but redirects his attention towards Lodestar as the royal blue buck clarifies, “You coming and rescuing me was one contract. Its own contract. You’ve completed that, and payment has already been set aside for you. But, that’s all that was agreed on. And I’m not turning everything over just because of that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful. I’d be dead by now if it weren’t for you all. I’m not denying that. But I lost nearly everything getting this information. I can’t just turn it over, or their deaths will have been for nothing.”

“Information?” Gearing asks as he looks back and forth between the two.

“He doesn’t actually have the parts,” Swift chimes in. “All he has is the location of a recently abandoned stable that should have everything we need.”

Lodestar nods as he looks between them. “And it apparently collapsed long ago, but has only recently been actually opened. No one’s touched it yet. So it’s a cap mine just waiting to be harvested.”

“So we’re still going to have to go and get all of the stuff ourselves!” Handy interrupts.

“Yes, you will, but if I go in there with a team, we’re taking everything and you better believe the prices will reflect the added labor and transport,” Lodestar snips.

“So why not just give us the location then, if it’d save you all the work, and we have to do all of that ourselves anyway?” Handy asks as he stubbornly folds his forehooves across his chest and sits down on his haunches.

“Because you’ve already been paid!” Lodestar grumbles as he narrows his eyes.

“Then why not just give us the location, instead of the caps, for the rescue?” Handy asks with a snort.

“Because I didn’t put the contract out, and you’ve already been paid.”

“But the whole purpose we went and got you was to get access to the parts we need!” Handy complains with a near whine in his voice.

“And you have access now! If I died in that place, the stable would stay buried and you wouldn’t get it. But since you got me out, which you’ve already been paid for, we can actually make a deal now,” Lodestar retorts. He looks between them as he adds, “I’m not trying to rob you, but, you have to understand, with everypony we lost, we have to at least make it worth it for them and their family. I can’t just say they died for nothing. Getting this info was the main reason we went all the way down there.” He looks at Gearing and adds, “They wouldn’t be dead right now if we didn’t.”

“They wouldn’t be dead right now if their guide hadn’t led them straight into an ambush,” Handy grumbles as he looks off to the side and snorts. He lets out a yelp of pain a split second later as Swift’s PipBuck comes down and bops him on the head.

“Knock that shit off, Handy,” Swift scolds as she stares at him with not a lick of sympathy.

Gearing can’t help but notice the rollercoaster of emotions cascading over Lodestar’s face at Handy’s remark. It hurts so much because there’s at least some truth to it. At least Lodestar feels that way, given the crushing guilt taking up residence among Lodestar’s features. He lets out a long sigh as he feels a bit of camaraderie with the royal blue buck in the spirit of sucky guilt.

“Handy, Swift,” Gearing starts as he looks over at them. “We need the parts. The only option was Lodestar. We’d waited days… The only reason we took the job to go find him, was to find out the information that he had.” He waves a hoof towards Lodestar. “He’s right. These are two separate issues. Us going and rescuing him, was a job. A job that we did and are being paid for.” He looks over at Lodestar, who nods in agreement, before he continues, “He still has the knowledge we need. And we still need to do something to get that knowledge from him.” He shrugs as he says, “If he’d never been captured, we’d still have to find a way to get it from him. So, yes, they are two separate issues. But, maybe, considering everything, he’d be willing to give us what we need at a discount, or at least work with us.”

Lodestar nods repeatedly as he says, “That’s exactly what I was trying to say, thank you.”

Gearing waves a hoof at Lodestar as he looks at Handy. “Besides, even if not, he lost his entire convoy to get this for us. If we try to take even that from him, I wouldn’t feel like we’re any better than the raiders. That’s really extortiony.”

“M-Melon?” Lodestar asks softly. “Melon Patch? I- I thought she’d made it out?”

Gearing looks at him and lets out a long sigh before he says softly, “I’m sorry Lodestar… but she didn’t make it out alive.” He waves a hoof towards the front of Megamart as he says, “I brought her body back and turned her over to Keystone. So she can be buried or whatever…” He shakes his head. “If nothing else, I wasn’t going to just leave her there for those animals.”

Lodestar hangs his head as he says softly, “So… that’s why Keystone stopped by this morning and Happy Trails took off with her but wouldn’t tell me where she was going…”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Gearing repeats quietly.

Handy lowers his hooves from holding his sore head to cover his face as he mutters, “I don’t know if it’s the concussion my wife just gave me, or what, but… that’s actually making sense…”

Lodestar nods as he’s still obviously lost in thought.

Gearing waves towards him as he leans in. “So, Lodestar, what did you have in mind?” Lodestar looks up at him and raises an eyebrow so Gearing clarifies, “You have the info we need to get the parts we need… So, what were you thinking of doing in trade so we can get what we need? What would be worth it to you?” He tilts his head, revealing his brassy snout as he adds, “If you’d factor in us saving your ass, and how much it cost us to do that, into that equation, it would be appreciated… Some sort of commensurately appropriate discount even…” He waves with a forehoof again. “I’ll leave that up to you to decide what’s appropriate though.”

Lodestar lets out a sigh as he rubs his injured leg with his good foreleg’s fetlock. “I was thinking of an information swap.” He looks up at Gearing and nods. “You go pick up some information for me, that I pretty much already know where it is, and I’ll trade you what I know, for what you find out.” Be bobs his head around. “And then, when you’re done getting whatever parts you need out of the stable, I’d appreciate it if you let me know what’s left, and anything else you find out about it.” He looks around at Swift and Handy as he adds, “Because if you don’t take it, someone else will, eventually, sooner than later I’d wager.”

Handy lets out a sigh as he eyeballs Lodestar. “So, if you already know where this information you want is, why haven’t you already gotten it?”

Gearing waves toward Handy with a hoof and nods as he adds, “Fair point… Well?”

Lodestar looks at Gearing and smirks as he says, “Well, because it’s got some pretty decent security lockouts to get access to the database. I could find and hire someone to crack it for me, eventually…” He grins as he adds, “But considering you broke through the security on a government issued computer to get the motor pool door open as quickly as you did, I bet you’d be a decent candidate for it.”

Handy raises an eyebrow as he asks, “What are you talking about?”

Swift smirks as she looks at Handy, then glances at Gearing out of the corner of her eye as she says, “That computer you used to open the motor pool… it was locked before you got your hooves on it, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Lodestar answers for him. “It’s why they had me under constant guard... They caught me trying to break into it to get out.” He raises his busted foreleg in the brace as he adds, “It’s why they had me chained up so thoroughly.”

“So, I get you whatever information it is, and you give me the location of this untapped abandoned stable, and we can have whatever we want from there? Right?” Gearing asks as he tries to make sure he’s understanding the offer correctly.

As something seems off with this. And he’s not quite sure what.

He leans closer and pushes back the cowl from his face as he stares at Lodestar, and starts paying very careful attention to Lodestar’s eyes. But he doesn’t see any of the yellow madness he’d seen in so many others.

“Exactly, and here’s the details of everything,” Lodestar grabs a piece of folded paper from a magazine sitting on the cloth pile next to him and offers it to Gearing. As Gearing is taking it from him, Lodestar adds, “The sooner you get it, the better. We wait too long and either of the spots might be compromised and we both lose out.”

Gearing grabs the note and flips it open to read it. Instantly he rolls his eyes and frowns as an indicator appears across his vision.

New position added to map interface.

Gearing quickly opens his map on his PipBuck, and starts scrolling around to find out where the marker had been placed. He raises an eyebrow as he looks up at Lodestar. “This is over there by the Hoofington Arena…”

Lodestar nods. “In one of the maintenance access tunnels a bit away from there, but, yeah.”

Swift glances at his map display and grins as she says, “Hey, that works out…” She catches eye contact with Gearing, then taps on a spot on his map display with a wingtip as she says, “I still need to swing by that Chapel place, to talk to Charity, and it’s right over here by the bridge on the Fillydelphia turnpike.”

Gearing glances at her sideways and asks flatly, “Charity?”

In his mind’s eye he sees a bulbously fat yellow mare with more chins than legs, and surrounded by mountains of food, money, and other valuables. Supporting her massive girth are rows of small foals, all practically bowing under the weight as she keeps a tight grip on a collection of chains that leads down to the bomb collars around the children’s necks. She cackles and laughs as she yanks on the chains and directs the children to drag her mass from one location to the next, so she can feed on a nation’s worth of food. She gorges herself like a tick, with food splattering across her muzzle and disappearing down her maw as ooze like spittle dribbles down her many many chins.

All while the kids try their best just to catch any stray crumbs that fall down near her.

“Yeah, Charity?” Swift asks as she smirks at him. “You remember her? The four kids we ran into a few days ago? I need to talk to her about paying off their debts.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Gearing comments flatly.

The little blue pegasus kicks open the door to his mental space and glares at the yellow monstrosity.

“I haven’t forgotten her,” Gearing adds.

In his mental space the little blue pegasus walks forward with a rifle held close and tight as he takes quick precision based shots. After the yellow monster falls back and off the kids she was using as a throne, with her head exploding into chunky yellow and red bits, the little blue pegasus grins around a cigar as he says, ‘Two in the chest. One in the head. Repeat, until Dead.’

Gearing’s muzzle slowly grows a wide smile as he says, “I look forward to meeting her.”

In his mind space a giant Hoofington’s Most Wanted poster rolls down from above and the mare’s disgusting visage covers the center with a smug sneer of superiority. Then the picture of her fades to gray tones before big bold letters appear across her face in blood red ink.

“Oh boy… Charity?” Lodestar asks as he looks between them. “I’d be careful around her if I were you. She’s got a reputation.”

“A well earned one, I bet,” Gearing replies with a smirk. “Don’t worry, I’m pretty good at making sure I know what I’m doing before I do it.”

The little blue pegasus in his head pops the front half of his body out of a mind cloud as he starts scoping the area with a rifle as he says, ‘Yeah… just need a clear line of sight and no one standing behind her long enough to pass out the copper coated candy…’

“Yeah, she’s earned it alright,” Lodestar comments as he snorts in amusement and shakes his head.

“But, we’ll be square after this, right Lodestar?” Gearing asks. He motions between himself and Handy as he asks, “This’ll be worth it to you to give us what we need, right? I don’t want any surprises later.”

Lodestar nods. “I can understand that. And, yes, you bring back the data, and I’ll give you what I have, and you can go get what you want out of the place while you can.”

“Why?” Handy asks as he raises an eyebrow.

Everyone looks at Handy, and he points at Lodestar as he looks at Swift. “From the way he’s talking, that’s an uncracked stable. Remember how Bradoak acted?” He shakes his head. “I don’t see how it’s worth it. The stable alone’s gotta be worth more than anything we can be bringing back.”

Lodestar stares at him for a moment before he says, “Funny… a few minutes ago you were ranting that the location alone was worth only being a tip for rescuing me… Now you’re questioning my reasons for bartering it away?”

Gearing smirks as he says, “Don’t try to follow Handy’s logic with some things, you’ll hurt yourself.” Handy shoots him a dirty look, but Gearing just grins at it as he asks, “But, he also makes a fair point. Which is why I asked.”

Lodestar nods as he looks between them. “Fair, I suppose.” He regards Handy for a few moments before he adds, “I can appreciate the caution… but, as you’d know if you’d been in the trading business for any length of time, information is a commodity. Even more so than food in most cases.” He waves his good foreleg toward Gearing as he adds, “The database was a repository of information from a couple companies… If I’m right, it has some schematics mixed in with the data that would be worth quite a bit to the right ponies.” He looks over at Handy and grins. “All without having the added expense and danger of having to excavate and haul mass amounts of salvage… Understand?”

Handy bobs his head and points at Lodestar. “Ah, now, see, that makes sense.” He looks over at Gearing and asks, “So, we going to head out now and get this over with or?”

Gearing waves goodbye to Lodestar as he turns and starts leading the group away from the Happy Trails Trading Company’s booth. “Sooner than later… yeah.” After they’re a few paces away he looks between them as he asks, “You guys restock up on supplies yet?”

Swift shakes her head. “No, when we got back we were all pretty exhausted. Even as roughed up as we were, we had to wait for Bonesaw to stabilize Lodestar before he could even do anything for us.” She points back towards her right hindleg as she frowns. “I still got a piece of something back there that I’m going to have to have Cure dig out of my ass when we get back home.”

Handy looks over his shoulder towards the booth Lodestar is lounging in as he says quietly, “Yeah, he almost didn’t make it himself. We’re lucky we got him back when we did.”

Gearing nods as he looks back at him. “Yeah, we are.” When Handy looks at him he tilts his head and asks, “You do realize he’s the only one with the info about that stable. The rest are dead. So, if he’d died, we’d be screwed beyond belief right now.”

Handy’s eyes momentarily go a bit wider before he shrugs. “Yeah. Gotta point.”

“What’s the plan?” Swift asks as she looks back and forth between them.

Gearing turns around and looks at them as he walks backwards slowly. “I have no idea what we’re going to be heading into. So we at least need to replenish our supplies, and get Handy’s armor fixed.”

Handy waves a hoof towards Gearing. “What about your armor though?” Swift arcs an eyebrow at him at the atypical show of concern as they follow Gearing down the lane.

Gearing shakes his head. “My armor’s trashed and she’s exhausted already from the last couple days. Going to be at least a day before it’s ready. So I’ll just head out without it.”

“And what if we run into another mob like we did yesterday?” Swift asks as she raises an eyebrow in his direction this time.

Gearing shrugs. “Nopony to rescue this time. So get the hell out of dodge, and come back with better supplies if need be.”

Handy raises a hoof to let Gearing know he’s about to back into someone, but, eerily enough, he manages to vector his reversed walking path to avoid running into them. Handy raises an eyebrow as he looks at the mare examining electronic scrap, and still oblivious to the brass rear end collision she was nearly a part of, as he asks, “Okay, so, potions, ammo, and armor fixed… Then we go?”

Gearing nods. “Sounds like a plan.”

Handy looks between Swift and Gearing as he asks, “Well, where to first?” To the confused look Swift gives him he nudges her shoulder and smirks as he says, “Hey, you got an invitation to the Hoofington Arena…” He nods towards Gearing, “And Big Daddy’d like a word with him as well… So we going there, Chapel, or this access tunnel first?”

Gearing hops up onto his hindlegs, and continues walking backwards, almost upright, as he waves his foreleg in the air and says, “If we’re going for votes, I vote we skip the Arena for now. Hit up Chapel, then go from there to the tunnels… If we need more supplies, I’d rather head to a settlement we’ve already been to, than trying to crawl to a place that we don’t even know is safe or not while low on ammo and potions. Just asking for trouble if we do.”

Swift giggles as she says, “Yeah, somehow I just knew that was going to be your suggestion… You’ve been trying to avoid Big Daddy since your bout with No Shoes and…” She purses her lips to the side before she finally rolls her eyes and blurts out, “Okay, what the hell, Gearing?!”

Gearing keeps walking backwards, on just two legs, as he asks, “What?”

Swift waves a hoof at him as she partially closes an eye, “Why are you walking like that? How are you even walking like that… It’s creepy as shit.” She shakes her head before looking at Handy. “And I can’t even explain why…” She nudges Handy as she smirks, “And what’s with you, normally you’d point out his weird behavior instead.”

Handy shrugs as he says, “Well, it’s Gearing so… Everything seems weird with him, doesn’t it?”

Gearing lowers himself down forward, but jumps his wings down to the ground before his forelegs touch. As soon as his wings are on the floor, he drops down with a quick wingup before pushing himself back towards normal height. He clops onto the ground with all four hooves simultaneously a bit back as if he’d jumped with his wings alone, but still in pace with the others, as he asks, “I don’t know what you mean?”

Swift and Handy exchange glances before rolling their eyes and snickering simultaneously.

Swift waves it off as she continues snickering. “I’ll go do some shopping for me and Handy while he gets his armor fixed. You go get what you need, and we’ll just meet up when we’re done.”

Gearing nods as he starts walking off faster. “Sounds like a plan. Though I’m out of rounds for my forty-five seventy, and need to reload more. And that’d take a while. Got a good amount of rounds for my rifle, so I’ll stick with that for now, not that I’m complaining.”

It took far longer than any of them would have liked before Swift, Handy, and Gearing were actually able to get on the road and leave Megamart. One thing after another kept cropping up, and Handy’s armor in particular was being a pain in the flank to get it up to snuff again. At one point Handy swore pieces were growing legs and running off on him the moment he sat them down and looked away.

And then there was the issue of making sure their extra possessions weren’t going to bog them down. Handy, in particular, took some time to convince to part with some items, at least temporarily, and that it was safe for them to do so. It wasn’t the first time, by any means, but it’s still a concern for him. Especially the things they want to take back home to the kids. He was so adamant on it, that he made a point of doing a full inventory of the items they’d left with Happy Trails before, just to make sure everything was there. But, just as advertised, and guaranteed by Dandy, Happy Trails was a mare of her word and their things had been safely stored until their return.

Although Lodestar providing additional assurances, a buck that Handy feels, and arguably quite rightly so, owes them his very life, helped Handy feel better about abandoning their added weight yet again.

But, because of all the time eating gremlin activity, they didn’t actually get going until late afternoon heading into evening. While they were originally hoping they were going to make it there today, and maybe spend the night around Chapel before making the return trip, reality quickly morphed their expectations into a realization that this was going to be a couple day trip. One where they were going to have to sleep outside on the way to Chapel at least once.

Unless they wanted to wait another full day to even start this.

And they aren’t willing to for a variety of reasons. Not least of which being the potential loss of the very items they are seeking as they feel like they are on some sort of invisible timer until they lose it all.

As it starts getting dark out, and the trip has, thus far, been rather uneventful, Swift breaks off from the group’s formation and starts flying around them. They’ve kept a staggered line, with Gearing in the lead for the majority of it, for most of the trip. But with visibility starting to wane, they start grouping up more.

Swift comments as she’s circling around them, “I’m going to find a place to crash for the night. I don’t like the idea of blindly walking into a trap.”

“And I’d prefer not to have to sleep outside in this shity weather,” Handy chimes in and waves at her as she banks and zips off in the general direction of where they’re walking.

But Gearing doesn’t say anything. Simply nodding understanding under his mottled blanket turned cloak as he keeps a lookout on their surroundings.

After they’ve been alone for a few moments, Handy starts paying more attention to Gearing, than his surroundings. In a couple cases this causes him to accidentally step on something he shouldn’t have and swearing under his breath at the rock bruise he knows he’s going to have later.

“Handy, if your eyes were getting that bad, you should have said something sooner. Something’s wrong if your vision’s suddenly turned to shit, and you need to get that checked,” Gearing comments flatly as he doesn’t even turn to look at Handy.

Handy stutter steps as his eyes go wide at the sudden comment, and then he shakes his head as he replies, “They aren’t I’m just… preoccupied, mind’s elsewhere.”

Gearing turns his head enough to peek out at him from under his cowl for a moment as he regards Handy. “Is that what you told Swift about that trip wire in the motor pool?” He shakes his head. “Handy, there’s nothing wrong in admitting when you need help. Don’t let your earth pony rock headed stubborn pride get you killed.”

“T-that was… I mean… I just-” Handy starts then hangs his head as he sighs.

“Didn’t see it,” Gearing finishes for him.

Handy nods as he makes a point of finding a burnt out wagon husk incredibly interesting, with his focus zeroed in on it before he mutters, “Yeah…”

“That’s a problem, Handy.”

“Yeah…”

“Not just for you, but for everyone around you,” Gearing adds as he goes back to watching where they are going and picking out a path that, Handy notes, has even less rubble than they were just walking through.

Handy realizes he’d naturally followed in line with Gearing, staying near and in the same walking path as he is, and it frustrates him that he can’t avoid the realization that, yes, it’s easier to walk this way. But, pride aside, he has some very hard questions he has that need answering. So he picks up speed, comes up to walking side by side with Gearing, but starts looking more at the ground than anything else so he doesn’t embarrass himself by tripping and falling on his face.

Stealing sideways glances at Gearing every now and then, Handy asks, “So, that whole Dandy ordeal… that got complicated and confusing as hell real quick, didn’t it?”

Gearing shrugs as he replies, “That’s a word for it, not nearly strong enough in my opinion though.”

Handy smirks as he asks, “Oh? What’d you call it?”

“A fucking living nightmare cooked up by Nightmare Moon herself,” Gearing replies deadpan.

Handy can’t help but craning his head back and laughing, loudly, despite their unknown surroundings. After a few hoots of amusement he looks at Gearing and replies with a massive grin across his muzzle, “Fatherhood’s not that scary, Gearing. I’m sure you’d do fine.” He shakes his head. “Crashing through concrete buildings, getting shot at, or blown up are far worse. And you handle that just fine, it seems.”

Gearing actually turns his head to look at Handy before he replies, “Different kind of pain, Handy. Physical injuries can heal, if they don’t kill me. And if they kill me it’s not really my problem anymore and there’s no more pain…” He bobs his head around before he says softly as he looks into the gloomy distance, “Sometimes pain’s all you have to let you know you’re still alive. But I’d rather not have any more than I can handle. And fatherhood would be one can of worms I’ve never been tested against.” He shrugs. “The unknown can be scary.”

Handy watches him closely for a few moments before nodding. “Yeah… it can…” He reaches up and rubs his mane with his hoof before he says quietly, “Hey, so… I just wanted to thank you… you know… for the motor pool… ?”

Gearing shrugs as he says, “Yeah?” He nods. “Well, you’re welcome. But, please, next time keep an eye out or don’t walk into areas you can’t see well.” One of Gearing’s wings slips out and points at Handy’s PipBuck as he adds, “Or at least turn on your PipBuck’s light to help you if you need it.” He ruffles his wings back into their previous location under the cloak before he grumbles, “That shit hurt like hell…”

Handy steps a little faster to get a bit in front of him so he can try and see Gearing’s face under the cowl more. “Yeah, so, about that… Why’d you do that?” He points a hoof at himself. “I mean it was my own fuck up. Then you punted me across the room like you were going for the moon.”

Gearing reaches up a hoof and pulls off his cowl as he looks at Handy, and does Handy the service of actually letting him see his face. His incredulous face that has a carved message across his visage that clearly states, ‘Are you fucking kidding me, or are you that stupid?’

Handy groans as he rubs his hoof over his mane abrasively as he tries to figure out what he wants to say to defend himself.

“Handy,” Gearing comments flatly, and simultaneously earns him Handy’s undivided attention. “I counted no less than three fragmentation explosives being released by that trap. If you were within the kill zone, the concussive force alone would have probably liquefied your insides and brain. And even if your armor wasn’t as damaged as it was, I highly doubt it could protect you sufficiently from the shrapnel…” They stare at each other for a few moments before Gearing continues, “So for you to live, you had to clear the kill zone…” He puts a hoof to his chest and shakes his head. “I don’t have any vulnerable internals that would be susceptible to concussion blasts… and at point blank range, with a standard frag, I had a high probability of survival.” He bobs his head as he adds, “I was going to suffer injury, but not likely fatal. And that heavy tool chest I knocked over helped contain the blast further… I could have simply jumped away myself, and prevented myself from getting hurt, but then, you’d be dead right now.”

Gearing shrugs as he concludes, “Injuries can be healed. Can’t fix a dead pony… Doing what I did had the highest probability of both of us surviving the encounter.”

“So,” Handy asks with a sigh. “Straight math then, huh?”

Gearing bobs his head around before nodding. “Pretty much.”

“I guess it makes it easier to do those kinds of crazy things when you just go by the math and aren’t scared of it,” Handy mutters.

“Are you kidding me?” Gearing asks with a raised eyebrow. “Just because I’m not wailing like a banshee at the time, doesn’t mean I’m not scared as hell in the process.”

“Wait, what?” Handy shakes his head. “Why would you be scared, knowing you’re going to be fine?”

Gearing rolls his eyes as he lets out a sigh. “Handy… it’s a calculated risk. But still a risk. And it still is going to hurt like hell.” To the baffled look Handy gives him Gearing chuckles as he asks, “What? You didn’t think there was shit that actually scared me? Or that I simply can’t do?”

Handy avoids looking at him as he waves a hoof at him. “I mean, you never act like it… and nothing seems to phase you.”

Gearing sits down and smirks as he says, “Oh yeah? Well it does, some of it scares the shit out of me too. I mean… figuratively… you know?”

Handy rolls his eyes as he asks, “Oh yeah? Like what? What could possibly scare you?”

Gearing stares at him for a moment before saying softly, “I can’t swim.”

Handy freezes his whole body as he was in the midst of turning the eye roll into a long neck roll as his eyes go to their absolute widest. Of anything and everything he could have thought of that Gearing might have said. That wasn’t even on the list. He slowly brings his head around to look at Gearing as he asks, “What? Swim?”

Gearing slowly shakes his head. “I can’t. Despite being a pegasus and being able to fly. Something about the water doesn’t work the same way as the air. And normal buoyancy takes over. We can’t simply fly through it. I mean, otherwise, even normal pegasi would never drown.” He shrugs before pointing his forehoof at his chest. “But where as typical pegasi have at worst neutral buoyancy, I don’t. I’m too dense. So I don’t stand a chance. I pretty much sink like a rock.” He shrugs. “Can’t swim for even a second before I’m sucked under.”

“But… it’s… it’s not like you have to worry about drowning, right?” Handy asks as he looks him over. “That’s the only real thing most have to worry about in the water, but you don’t even need to breathe. You could just walk your way out along the bottom, right?” He shakes his head. “Sea monsters trying to eat you aside, I mean.”

Gearing lowers his hoof as he stares at him. “Yeah… Handy… That’s right… I can’t drown. Because I don’t breathe.” He tilts his head as he asks, “But you know what I can do real easily?”

“What?”

“Get stuck in the silt at the bottom of the water, and not be able to get out of it,” Gearing replies sharply.

Handy shakes his head for a moment before he asks, “Wait… what?”

Gearing slowly nods his head before he looks away and avoids eye contact. “I can’t swim, so I sink to the very bottom… Every. Single. Time.” He closes his eyes and lets out a sigh. “And if the silt at the bottom is bad enough, I can get stuck. And not be able to climb my way out.” He looks over at Handy before he asks, “You ever hear about ponies accidentally walking into tar flats, or the like and getting stuck in the mud. And dying if no one comes along and rescues them?” Handy nods slowly. “Same principle… except… unlike them… I wouldn’t simply die of starvation, dehydration, or exposure.” His entire body shivers and clinks and clatters against itself before he finishes. “I would be stuck down there … alone… in the dark… … until someone or something came by and saved me or I finally died of old age.”

Gearing pulls his cloak tighter to himself as he shakes again as he focuses his eyes on the grime at their hooves. “And that scares the ever living fuck out of me.”

Handy stares at him for a bit before he replies, “Damn… and I thought drowning would be bad enough…”

Gearing gives himself a vigorous shake as he stands back up and starts walking again. “Yeah, well, as much as that would suck, I’d rather be able to drown instead. At least then it would be relatively quick and I wouldn’t have to suffer for decades…”

The comments from Gearing, the entire conversation, isn’t what Handy had been expecting. And it just makes things worse in his mind. So he follows along as he tries to process what he’s learned and he tries to think of some better topic to talk about to get away from such a grim subject that he accidentally brought up.

Handy lets out a long frustrated sigh as he looks down and goes about screwing up his face one direction then the other in sequence. After they’ve walked a bit further, and Gearing starts thinking the conversation is over, Handy looks at him sideways and asks, “So… what do you enjoy doing? Fixing things or whatever?”

Gearing tilts his head as he looks at him. “Well, yeah…”

Handy frowns before asking, “So, what kind of stuff do you like fixing?”

Gearing goes back to looking forward as he bobs his head around. “Well… Things that need fixing have a pretty good rank… Especially things no one else has been able to.” Gearing looks at Handy and grins widely as he says, “Yeah, I’ll admit, my ego has something to say about that, and it just gets bigger each time it happens.” Gearing bobs his head around as he’s hopping over a large chunk of a broken pillar from a collapsed building nearby. “But sometimes just doing maintenance on an already well maintained machine. Something precision based with lots of parts… That has a special place too. It just has this near hypnotic effect watching it work the way it’s supposed to. With all the tiny parts contributing to the greater whole.” He raises a wing and grins at Handy, as Handy is walking around the larger pieces of the collapsed column. “But, there’s also the joy of a really tough problem. You know what I mean?” He grabs a rock and holds it between his forehooves as he examines it closely, then starts grinding his hooves into it and gouges out pieces. “The kind of thing that you spend tons of time on, but then, suddenly, bam! You figure it out!” He tosses the now much smaller rock over his shoulder nonchalantly as he says, “And suddenly you break through and everything comes together. And all of the frustration and everything pays off when it starts working right…” He tilts his head as he asks, “Does that make any sense at all?”

Handy bobs his head around before nodding, but avoiding eye contact as he says, “Yeah, Gearing, I can understand that. It’s frustrating as hell, and you just wish it’d just work like it’s supposed to… Then, suddenly, it does.”

“Yup!” Gearing cheerfully replies before trotting on. But, a few steps on, he comes to a complete stop with one of his forehooves up in the air as he’d paused mid stride. Handy stops as well, looking around to see what had caused Gearing’s frozen stance, but jerks his head over to Gearing as he’s asked, “Sorry, or did you mean outside of work?”

Handy stares at him and slowly rotates his head as he tilts it and tries to figure out the most complicated thing in his life. “What?”

Gearing chuckles as he waves a hoof at Handy. “I mean… you guys still have that now, right? You know… what you do when you’re not on the clock… For fun?” Gearing tilts his head. “You do know what fun is, right Handy?”

“Uh… yeah…?” Handy replies softly as his eyes go wide. “What… what do you do for … fun?”

Gearing tilts his head the other way as the question seems to be questioning itself as much as Gearing. Gearing waves off to the side as he says, “Well, tinkering was always an interest of mine… But, really, reading is definitely one of my guilty pleasures.”

Handy gets close to him, walking side by side with him as he looks Gearing over closely as he asks, “You mean like… technical diagrams? Schematics? Manuals? Those sorts of things?”

Gearing chuckles and looks at Handy sideways. “Well, sure, sometimes… but that’s more of a curiosity type thing. And I definitely don’t need to read those more than once…” He raises a hoof as he shakes his head. “But, not really pleasure reading…usually… As interesting as it is, I’m not always going to grab one of those when I’m trying to relax. When I’m bored? When there’s nothing else to do? Or it’s something I need or want to know? Sure.” He bobs his head around. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, some of the articles in most of the magazines I’ve read are pretty entertaining in their own right. But there’s not usually any use in reading them a second time.”

“So… you read books more than once?”

Gearing looks off to the side, as a sheepish grin crosses his muzzle. “The right kinda books… yeah…”

“Well? Like what?” Handy asks as he starts pulling ahead of Gearing to try and see his face.

Gearing looks over at him and gives him the same crooked smile as he replies, “Comic books… Most comic books, that is…”

Handy pauses walking as his eyes go wide. “You like reading… comic books?”

Gearing rolls his eyes as he slows walking and waves it away with a forehoof. “Yes, alright.” He walks passed Handy, and then turns to look at him as he says, “Go ahead. Get it out. I’m waiting.”

Handy blinks a few times before asking, “What?”

“You were going to make fun of me for reading comics. Weren’t you?” Gearing tilts his head as he says, “Tell me it’s stuff meant for foals, or some other nonsense like that?” Gearing beckons with his forehoof as he says, “Come on, let’s have it already…. Let’s see if there’s been any new insults for nerds in the last two hundred years.” He leans towards Handy as he grins. “Because, really, if there hasn’t, I’ve already heard it all.”

Handy blinks rapidly again before asking, “You used to get made fun of for reading comics?”

Gearing nods as he waves a hoof horizontally between them like he’s sweeping trash off of a table. “Allllll the time.”

“Why would anyone make fun of you for reading comics?” Handy asks with a near whisper as his mind reels from the implications.

“How should I know? I mean, a lot of them had stuff that was too deep for most foals to really understand anyways.” He starts counting off on his pinions as he looks at his wingtip under his makeshift cloak, “Socio-economic issues, power struggles, politics, things like how sometimes the only difference between a friend and an enemy is circumstances and preconceived biases…” He shrugs as he looks up at Handy. “The stories had a lot to offer everyone, so I don’t know why folks got so stuck on them being comics.”

“And… you’d read a lot of them?” Handy asks as he stares at Gearing blankly.

Gearing returns his stare as he wonders what’s going on, but then nods. “Well… yeah… I had a couple friends that’d pick up new comics for me and leave them for me to read since I was usually too busy to stop by on new comic day.” He bobs his head around a moment before adding, “I mean I followed Power Ponies religiously… and, I know what you’re going to say, that that is SOOOOoo mainstream, and everypony already knows about the Power Ponies, but that doesn’t take away from the fact it was a good series. And then there were the spin offs, and offshoots, and crossover stories with other comic creators. But, yeah, I followed a few series. Not just Power Ponies.” He frowns as he looks off to the side. “Sucks that I’ll never get to see the ending of a couple of them… What with the world ending and everything…”

Handy lets out a snort of amusement as he says, “Out of everything, that’s what you’re worried about?”

Gearing looks over at him and scowls. “Not even in the top ten of my biggest concerns… but… yeah… it’s on the list…” He reaches over and pops Handy on the armor of his chest with the tip of his hoof. “For me, that was a bit of normalcy. A bit of an escape. Something I could actually enjoy even though the world was going to hell around me despite what I did to try to help set it right.” He looks down and stares at his forehooves as he slowly flexes his fetlocks. “Some small bit of goodness that I could hold with my own hooves.” He lets out a sigh before looking up at Handy. “So, yeah, I miss it. What the hell you expect me to say? Good riddance? Or complain about food or some other thing that doesn’t actually do anything for me?”

Handy shakes his head as his eyes go wide. “N-no… I just thought… it’s … interesting… that’s all…” He shrugs. “Don’t hear anything like that these days.”

Gearing looks off to the side and sighs. Then he zips his head back over to Handy’s and grins in his face as he starts rattling on. “Oh! Oh! Oh! OHHH!” He waves back towards Megamart as he says, “I managed to pick up a cover from a comic just the other day. It was the last one before the war ended! I never got to read it! It’s in pristine shape. Granted, it doesn’t have any of the actual story in it, it’s just the cover, but that means, somewhere, somewhere, there’s at least one more comic to be read. So, there’s at least that to look forward to!” He waves at Megamart again as he grins. “Remind me when we get back, and I’ll show you. And you’ll see what I mean. The cover art is amazing!”

Handy is so startled he steps back and actually sits down as he stares at Gearing getting, unquestionably, excited.

About.

Comic books.

Handy stares at him for a few moments before asking, “You’re … a complicated buck… aren’t you?”

Gearing bobs his head around as he looks over the rubble around them. “I’ve had a complicated life if nothing else…”

“I bet,” Handy replies as he nods slowly and directs his eyes down towards the ground.

“Hey, Handy…?

“Yeah, Gearing?”

“Correct me if I’m wrong but… that’s uh… that’s the first time you’ve actually referred to me as a buck… as in, a pony…”

Handy lets out a long sigh before he nods, “Yeah, think you’re right.”

After a long silence between them, Gearing finally asks, “That an accidental slip… or supposed to mean something?”

“… intentional… and… I’m sorry,” Handy says quietly.

Gearings eyes go wide as he sits down and puts his hooves up to his own cheeks. “Oh wow! This date in history: Handy Hooves has an epiphany a month in the making! Mark your calendar folks; this is a biggie!”

Handy shakes his head as he chuckles, “Yeah? Well you’re still an egotistical ass…”

“How about you let me in on the secret to what led to this epiphany? More head trauma? Swift knock some sense into you? Or, perhaps, it was something in the water? If that’s the case, share, for the betterment of ponykind, and drink more!” Gearing replies with a mock game show host voice impression and a massive grin plastered on his muzzle.

Handy laughs louder as he shakes his head. “Yeah, sure… but, first, how about you tell me how you’re going to deal with this love triangle you got yourself into?”

Gearing drops his hooves to the ground before he asks, “What love triangle?”

“You… Sable… Dandy…?

“I’m not in a love triangle…” Gearing replies before raising an eyebrow.

Handy stares at him in silence for a full few seconds before commenting flatly, “You can not be that dense.”

Gearing simply tilts his head, but before either of them can say anything further on the matter, Swift returns.

“At first I was worried you two had run into some trouble since you stopped, then I was worried cuz you’re just staring at each other. But now I find you just sitting here and talking instead of trying to kill each other…” While still hovering off to the side she raises both forhooves and shrugs as she adds with a laugh, “What’s Equus come to!” As Handy is opening his mouth to retort, she zips down next to him, and practically crashes into him sideways with an intentional side bump. “Come on, I found a half buried wagon in the side of a building we can crash in for tonight.”

As she’s leading the way she asks, “What were you two boys talking about anyway?”

“Handy simply had a life altering epiphany,” Gearing replies with a smirk as he covers back up with his cloak.

“Yeah, well, Gearing’s in denial,” Handy replies with a grin.

Swift looks between the two quickly and then hops and skips around like a foal for a few seconds as she giggles, “Okay, that’s too rich of a teaser… Gotta fill me in later!”

Both Handy and Gearing point at the other as they say, in unison, “Ask him about it.”

Which only makes Swift giggle even more.

---

Footnote: !!!WARNING!!! Breech detected!

!!!Compartmentalization Protocol Initiated!

!!!Lockdown Commencing!

!!!Freezing ‘Credential Matrix’

!!!’BlueMac.Cred’ Partitioned and Locked

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