Gearing’s not exactly sure how things have turned out the way that they have. Nor how they escalated so rapidly. And he certainly hadn’t walked into Megamart today expecting to end up surrounded by armed security personnel, all of whom have their weapons trained on him. He’d expected, and intended, on having a long conversation with Lodestar where he’d find out just what Lodestar had in mind and why things went the way they did in the tunnels. At least, from Lodestar’s perspective. He had hoped that he’d have learned that Lodestar was just as shocked as they were about everything that happened to them. That he was super apologetic about the whole thing and that he eagerly was ready to complete their transaction as proof of it. And then, they could all commiserate over how bad the place was, maybe some awkward laughs with morbidly dark humor, and they’d all go about their own business. With Gearing, Swift, and Handy heading off wherever Lodestar would point them to so they could finally pick up the supplies they need, and, ultimately, head back home to Stable 68. And Lodestar, of course, could return to his life of trading and make his small fortune off of the data Gearing would provide. That would have been the best case scenario. That’s what Gearing wanted to happen.

That is not what happened.

According to the plan, in the worst case scenario, and if Lodestar had revealed himself to be a slimy dirtball, someone that Gearing could find no redemption in, Gearing was intending on making the others leave, and then he would stick around shopping for information with Bottlecap. And then, later, at some other time, shooting the lying stinking reprobate right between his eyes the next time he stepped out of Megamart. Letting him die in the dirt like so many had before. Or, if things would have allowed, snatched him for a long intimate conversation. With Swift’s hooves doing the questioning on the trio’s behalf. But somewhere where they could find out exactly who put him up to trying to kill them and why. But, either way, it would have been done in such a way that his relationship with The Finders, and everyone else, wouldn’t have been tarnished. Because ponies dying in the wasteland is a common enough occurrence, and he’d make sure they’d have a good enough alibi for when he met his end. Gearing had spent the whole trip here soothing Swift and Handy’s ego and righteous rage, with promises of eventual justice. That was the plan for the worst case scenario when they were walking into Megamart today. Clean and cut.

That also did not happen.

And, if you would be able to get an answer out of Gearing at the moment, even he wouldn’t be able to tell you what went wrong or how he ended up in this position. After all, it’s not every day that he finds himself standing upright on his hindhooves while holding a stallion up by their neck, using his own brassy forehooves like a noose, and screaming at the hapless buck while those around them have a hard time trying to figure out exactly what’s going on. This is a really strange turn of events and pretty much everyone is left trying to ask themselves the exact same question: ‘What the fuck JUST happened?!’

And most concerningly, if anyone else were to know that is, even Gearing is mystified and asking himself that same question as things are a bit fuzzy for him at the moment. And the little pegasus in his head is no help as he’s still too weak to say or do much, let alone think or offer thoughtful advice.

He’d planned and planned and planned for what he was going to say and how he was going to react in order to get the information he needed to make the decisions he’d needed to make. On the way here he played many scenarios in his head, and practiced what he’d say in response. He had it all scripted. And it worked. At first. He was calm. Collected. The picture of hospitality. But then Lodestar had said something about not expecting them back so soon. There were some jokes about the danger that they’d dealt with. Gearing’s pretty sure there was mention of the place being a death trap. But then Lodestar made a comment about not giving up the location they needed until after Gearing gives him all of the data first. And that was just one callous comment too many.

Apparently that was the last straw for some part of him.

Because somewhere around that statement Gearing stepped forward, wrapped his hooves around the stallion’s neck, and stood up with him. In a flash and before anyone really had time to process let alone react, Gearing ended up dragging Lodestar over the pile of goods he was standing behind and holding him there, up in the air, but with just enough pressure to hold him aloft without strangling him or breaking his neck. But, nonetheless, stringing the trader up in the air by his very skull in the process.

And all hell broke loose around them as the word spread for security as Megamart is supposed to be neutral territory.

A growing number of fully geared security show up, aiming their battle saddles at Gearing with their variety of weapons, and several of them seem shocked at what they discover. But, regardless, the turn of events seems rather obvious as he’s quite blatantly standing in the middle of the aisle strangling Lodestar in broad daylight. So the growing number of security scream out commands to drop Lodestar, to stop fighting, and various threats about shooting if he doesn’t comply.

Yet Gearing doesn’t seem to care, and, in fact, can’t entirely hear them at the moment as he’s focused his entire being on Lodestar. Gearing’s ears don’t twitch nor rotate to hear what’s going on around him, instead they are both trained forward on Lodestar as he continues to snarl out allegations at the helpless buck.

And the dark fumes emanating from Gearing’s nose and mouth give others reason to run as they wonder if he’s about to blow right then and there. Especially as the fumes come out in spurts as he’s yelling at Lodestar with a gruff voice that borders on draconic.

“Who the fuck put you up to it?! Was it Usury? Red Beard?! Tell me!”

“N-no one! I swear I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Lodestar screams as he uses his forehooves to hold onto Gearing’s forelegs and tries to provide himself some relief from the pain caused by his entire body weight being supported by nothing but his skull. He’d tried to pull Gearing’s hooves away from himself, as any reasonable pony would, when he was first yanked up off the ground. But it took a fraction of a second for him to realize the strength difference of fighting living metal and he has instead started trying to mitigate the damage while he pleads his case.

“Don’t give me that fucking shit! You sent us into a gods’ damned death trap!” Gearing roars as a plume of smoke comes out of his muzzle to match.

“I swear it wasn’t that dangerous when I was there last! It wasn’t! I didn’t even see any turrets around it!” Lodestar yells as he tries his best to take over the job of holding his weight up, instead of his skull doing it. Because he can feel the muscles stretch and bones hyper extend and he keeps imagining being held there as his own body weight makes his head come off regardless of what the practical brass dragon holding him up has in mind.

“I’m not just talking about the damned robots and security turrets!” Gearing growls.

Handy sits off to the side and blows his nose as he’s having a hard time breathing and wants enough air, but keeps nodding along with Gearing mindlessly anyway. And when he gets the chance he chimes in, “It was a fucking setup!” He looks around at the security around them and his eyes go wide as he finally notices the guns pointed at them. “Someone was waiting for us and tried to kill us!”

Lodestar’s eyes go wide as he struggles to turn to look at them. “No!”

“Yes!” Gearing roars as he doesn’t take his eyes off of Lodestar’s face. “Whoever the fuck you’re working with waited until we’d split up and got comfortable while we waited on the download. And that’s when they redirected the flood control system to flood the entire section.” Gearing shakes Lodestar with a quick jerk of his forelegs as he screams, “They were watching us the whole fucking time!”

“I didn’t have anything to do with that! I didn’t know!” Lodestar yells as he looks up at the ceiling at Gun and hopes that shooting doesn’t break out anytime soon.

“The hell you don’t know anything!” Handy screams with a cough as he waves his hoof at Lodestar. “You’ve been sketchy as hell since we rescued you, and it’s really got me thinking. Especially all of this. You’ve wanted to keep that location to yourself and gave us that sob story about how you got ambushed. Well I have another idea on how and why things turned out!” He looks over at Happy Trails and scowls as he talks directly at her, “He’s supposedly so great at finding the best route to go places, huh? Don’t you think it’s a little suspicious that the guide marched the whole convoy into an ambush? And then just so happened to be the last one alive from all of that?” He looks over at Lodestar as he snarls. “Is that what really happened?! Did you feed your own friends to those damned raiders to line your own pockets?!”

Poor Happy Trails flops her rear onto the ground as she looks back and forth between all of them as she tries to figure out what’s going on. Things had happened so suddenly and the allegations pouring out of them are not only horrendous but hard to follow along with. She’s known Lodestar for a long time. This doesn’t seem like him to her. But she can’t think of a single reason that not only would they be lying about it, but seem to be burning with anger. Almost literally in the case of the brass buck doing the spot on impression of a coal engine smoke stack.

Lodestar stops struggling and chokes as he groans, “N-no… nooo I wouldn’t do that to them!”

Swift sits off to the side, leaning against a shelf display, absentmindedly nitpicking tiny pieces of dirt and debris from her powerhoof as she says, “Hell of a coincidence then…”

Handy nods as he waves a snotty rag at Lodestar. “We get you out of that, getting pulverized in the process, and even after all of that you said you just couldn’t hand it over, despite what most others would probably do, because of your crew’s sacrifice. And, you know what, that almost sounded fair. But then you sent us to an area with homicidal system admins, murder bot factories, ghoul farms, floods on demand, and the strongest fucking enervation field anyone’s even heard of?!” Handy coughs into the rag before flicking it away and pulling out another one to wipe his nose with. “And you didn’t think to tell us about any of that before sending us into it to get the data?” He blows his nose as he glares at Lodestar over the red fabric. He wipes the end of his muzzle before he says, “Just how fucking dumb do you think we are?” He shakes his head and waves a hoof dismissively at Lodestar. “There’s no fucking way you didn’t know at least some of that, and since you didn’t say anything about it… that makes anything else you have to say pretty damn suspect…”

While they are still berating Lodestar, the green, brown, and gray mottled head of security walks up with another pair of guards from behind Swift and aims her rifles at Gearing. “You?! Why the hell are you in here causing problems?!” She shakes her head and scowls as she says, “Alright, you know the rules, no fighting! This is a place of business and if you’re going to be trying any of that you can stay out!”

Gearing doesn’t even look at her as he’s glaring at Lodestar and they can’t tell if he’s simply frozen in place or thinking.

“H-Hey! Did you hear me?! The hell is wrong with you?!” Keystone asks as her presence isn’t even acknowledged.

Swift finds a tiny piece of a rock in a crevice in her power hoof and slowly starts working it out with her other hoof as she stares at it and comments, “Yeah, I don’t really think he can hear you right now…”

Keystone looks at her and asks, “What the hell’s going on!? He’s always been good about keeping trouble outside of the store. Annoying threats to jackasses that deserve it are bad enough, but just attacking merchants outright?”

Swift flicks the rock off then looks at her and shrugs comically as she giggles. “Honestly I don’t know either. All I can tell you, and with all sincerity, was that this was not part of the plan. He was pissed at Lodestar, but he’d spent the whole trip here from the arena getting us to calm down and hear Lodestar out. He wanted us to give Lodestar a chance. But something set him off, I’ve never seen him like this either.” She looks over at Gearing and grins. “Kinda proud of the buck…”

Keystone looks back and forth again before she tilts her head and practically pleads, “Can you please get off your ass and get him to go cool off somewhere?” She glances at Gearing and sighs as she says, “After everything he’s done I really don’t want to shoot him but I will if he doesn’t straighten up.” She looks over at Swift, and Keystone narrows her eyes as she says, “The rules apply to everyone, even those that are helpful. Otherwise this place would just fall apart.”

Swift’s muzzle splits into a wide grin as she asks with a giggle, “You want me to get him to calm down?!”

“You’re friends aren’t you?”

Swift throws her head back and laughs manically before she leans onto the vendor counter next to her and holds her belly. “That’s fucking rich!” She props her head up on her powerhoof and waves her other forehoof at Gearing nonchalantly. “I have never seen him like this. I’m as confused as you are. But what I do know is that because of Lodestar we’ve gone through hell, and Gearing nearly fucking died on us.” She shakes her head. “You really don’t understand the situation.”

“Enlighten me,” Keystone asks as her eyes narrow at Swift.

Swift points her hoof at Gearing and stares at Keystone as she says with a grin, “He’s the cold, calculating, calm one!” She throws her head back and laughs before she points her hoof at Handy, “My husband’s a confrontational ass suspicious of everypony, and right now he’s miserable and sick and just hates the world. And I’m always looking for an excuse to get in some exercise. I don’t even need a reason to fight; fighting is a reason all on its own! Gearing was the one trying to keep us calm, and now he’s completely flipped his bit over here! And it happened so quickly I don’t even know when or how. Frankly I’m impressed!” Her head bounces around as she hoots and laughs at the thought. “And then there’s the other problem.”

Keystone looks back and forth before she practically growls as she knows she’s likely going to have to do something soon, “And what’s that?”

Swift sits down as prim and proper as she can as she stares at Keystone and says matter-of-factly, “Because I can’t make Gearing do shit. You expect me to go over there and pry his hooves off that buck’s neck? Not going to happen. Not unless he lets me. As much as I hate to admit it, he’s far stronger than I am.” She shrugs. “Unless you want me to clock him upside the head with my powerhoof. But… two problems with that too.” She lifts it up and looks at it before she looks at Keystone. “One, I’ve already done that before and he just looked at me and asked ‘Are you finished?’ like I’d slapped him or something. I gave him a bit of a headache at best… And two… if I did, or actually attacked him to stop him…” She looks over at Gearing and frowns as she says, “I really don’t know how he’d react, but somepony’d likely get hurt in retaliation if he feels like he has to defend himself in this state. And it might turn into a real fight. He’s not thinking straight.”

Keystone kicks her battle saddle to change out the ammunition as she groans. “I gotta do something, or somepony’s going to get seriously hurt.”

“Don’t!” Swift snaps.

Keystone waves a hoof at Gearing as she looks at Swift. “I can’t just let him kill that buck!”

Swift shakes her head as she hops up and points at Gearing. “Use your damn eyes! He hasn’t actually hurt Lodestar! Trust me: if he was going to kill Lodestar right here he could have easily already done it. If he can pop a buck’s head like a zit just by stepping on it, that buck’s head is only still intact because he hasn’t made up his mind on killing him. But if anypony attacks him -me, you, anypony else- that might change.” She looks over at Gearing and frowns as she adds, “Words are your best weapons right now. Use those instead of bullets…”

“The hell it wasn’t ‘that bad’!” Gearing roars out and draws everyone’s attention back to the fact that Gearing has pulled the buck’s head closer to him and is staring at him eye to eye.

Fumes continue to spill out from his nose and mouth as he talks while snarling and growling, “Well I’ll tell you what I know for a fact! The flood was just the fucking beginning! They didn’t just have a lot of maintenance bots, they had front line assault drones the EDF used to help secure forward bases! And lots of them! There were ghouls throwing balefire balls that’d melt and destroy entire rooms at once. And the enervation field was so widespread I couldn’t heal on my own. At all! And as bad as that was, that’s to say nothing of the one enervation field I stumbled into!” He shakes Lodestar as he rages, “The field was so strong it was ripping me, me, apart! Every single other creature that went into it with me liquefied while they were still walking! You hear me?! Their fucking flesh melted right off their bones, and their bones were falling out of their bodies while they were still alive! The only reason Swift and Handy made it out alive is because they made it to the surface before the water got them and we got separated! That’s it! I barely made it out as it is but if they stepped hoof in that they’d be dead too!” His eyes go wide as he lets out a long slow plume of smoke. “So tell me how the fuck there was all of that, and you didn’t know anything?!”

Several others around stand agape at the vivid descriptions of what Gearing is ranting about. One buck with a particularly vivid imagination, and weaker constitution, turns and starts vomiting into a trash can as he mentally pictures the scene. A few others that had been rather upset about what was taking place, suddenly aren’t so angry about the fact and start murmuring their own thoughts about the situation. Notably no one is trying to urge security to intervene anymore, not even to get business back to normal.

Lodestar shakes as he actually starts crying and thinking about everything. “I’m- I’m sorry… Had I known I’d never sent you; please believe me!”

“And yet you still won’t give me what we were promised?! What you promised?! Why the fuck should I believe you?!” He yanks Lodestar’s head closer and presses his forehead into Lodestar’s as he looks Lodestar in the eye from only inches away. “You better fucking have it or I’m going to pop your lid off like a Sparkle Cola cap!”

Swift groans, “Oohhh boy…”

“I do! I have it!” Lodestar yelps as the tears stream down his cheeks. “I’ll give it to you as soon as you give me-URK!” Lodestar quickly replies before getting cut off as Gearing actually does choke him for a split second to shut him up before he digs himself any further.

“Oh no… we’re not playing that bullshit!” Gearing snarls as he lets out several growing plumes of fumes from his muzzle and Lodestar starts coughing and gagging in it.

Keystone looks over at the other security members and nods towards their weapons before she says quietly, “Ditch crowd control rounds.” She starts motioning to the other security personnel and they all quickly follow suit as she quickly passes word to open fire, at once, on her signal.

Members of the crowd that either see what’s going on, or are within earshot of the messages being quietly passed around in a circle, quickly turn and hurry off. Others, seeing the turn of events, quickly bolt away as well.

But everyone stops and looks up as Gearing roars out, “Bottlecap! I know you’re here!”

Bottlecap speaks up from behind the security personnel as she continues to wave others to get away from the incident, “I’m over here, and I can’t have you doing this in Megamart.”

Gearing keeps staring at Lodestar as he asks, “You mind playing intermediary?”

Bottlecap frowns before she leans around and looks at him as she asks, “Hostage exchange?”

“Business transaction,” Gearing says flatly. Then adds a moment later, “I don’t fucking trust this buck as far as I can throw him.”

Swift, off to the side, looks at Keystone and grins as she waves at Gearing and interjects quickly, “Which that’s actually a lot farther than you’d think otherwise for most ponies… really…”

“And he won’t cough up the location until he gets the data I have,” Gearing continues.

“What do you have in mind?” Bottlecap asks as she raises an eyebrow.

“Well, we’re apparently at an impasse… and I’m sure you’re eager to get back to normal operations and back to business… so how about you play intermediary for us. He gives you the location we need. You can confirm I have the data, and I’ll give you all of it, and you give him half of it now, and then the other half when we confirm he isn’t lying about that too.”

“That wasn’t the deal!’ Lodestar chokes as he struggles against Gearing’s hold as Gearing re-extends his forelegs and holds him up again.

“Fuck you!” Gearing roars in response. “The agreement was just to get whatever I could find in that computer! There is no set amount! I could give you one fucking stupid ass TPS report and it’d still count!” He looks over at Bottlecap as he says, “But I can confirm that there are at least a couple schematics mixed in with the data dump I got. So it does have some value it just needs to be sifted through more.”

“This wasn’t part of the deal either,” Lodestar groans.

“And neither was ninety percent of what I fucking dealt with!” Gearing yells at him as he finally drops him to the ground. Gearing looks over at Bottlecap as he points at Lodestar and says, “Charge that asshole whatever you want for the hassle. He’s the one being a stubborn ass and suspect as hell.”

Bottlecap’s eyes go wide as she asks, “So… we’re done here?”

Gearing nods as he says, “Well, I’ll trust you. Not him… So if you agree, that’ll help us both out, but if not we’ll have to figure something else out. But I’ve caused enough of a commotion in here.” He closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath as he grumbles, “Sorry.”

The security detail around them quickly looks back and forth between all of them, looking for some kind of signal on what they should do. Even Keystone seems like she’s on hold. But there’s just a bit of hope, from all concerned, that this hair trigger volatile situation won’t progress anymore.

“And if I refuse?” Bottlecap asks flatly as she arcs an eyebrow.

Gearing shakes his head as he says, “I won’t hold it against you. This is a rough situation and I wouldn’t blame you for not wanting to get involved. But either way I’m done with him for now.”

Handy looks over at him and balks before he asks, “Really? Just like that? And what happens when he reneges on his responsibilities again?!”

Gearing looks down at Lodestar, who’s sitting on the floor dejectedly and holding his throat and neck as he tries to focus on his breathing. “Then I’m going to rip his fucking head off and hoofball hurl it straight to the arena to use as a new ball…” Gearing growls as fumes billow out around the edge of his mouth but in a calm flat tone that makes it so much eerier than it would have been otherwise. Causing Lodestar to recoil and stare up at the brass monster looming over him.

Swift hops up and down a few times as she grins and asks, “Oh?! We going back to the arena? Gonna challenge the other Reapers to a skirmish match? Or you just going to try and make a goal from here like a trick shot? You going to get all fancy with an off-the-billboard-through-the-window-nothing-but-hoop kind of thing, or just straight through the hoop with his head?” The others around them look at her absolutely appalled as she describes playing with a pony’s decapitated head. She looks at a few, then sees the questioning look from Keystone before she waves a hoof nonchalantly, “Hey, don’t look at me like that, I’m pretty sure he’d have a decent chance of pulling it off! And these are the important questions in life… ‘Are we playing ball or not?’”

“I thought we agreed to no killing, or fighting, in Megamart?” Bottlecap asks as she puts a hoof over her eyes.

“That’s only if he is the lying bastard we think he is… But It won’t be here… he’s gotta leave sometime,” Gearing says reasonably. Or, tries to, but the fumes still spilling out of his mouth and nostrils doesn’t help the appearance.

“And I know I asked you to stop threatening those inside of Megamart,” Bottlecap says as she lowers her hoof just enough to glare out at Gearing.

“I’m just stating the terms of the deal…” He looks down at Lodestar and points over to Bottlecap as he says, “If she agrees, I’ll give her the data. After that you have a day, twenty four hours max, to give her the location in exchange for half of it with the understanding you’ll get the other half once your information is verified.” He leans over Lodestar and points at him with a hoof as he growls, “And you have zero excuses for disagreeing… If I don’t have the location within a day, I’ll know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you really did try to get us killed. And after that?” He waves around over their head to the ceiling as he adds, “Megamart will become your personal prison because if you ever step outside I won’t hesitate to remove your shit stain existence from Equestria once and for all.”

Bottlecap lets out a huff as she says indignantly, “You know I still haven’t agreed to this, right?”

Gearing shrugs as he says. “Doesn’t matter. He still has twenty four hours to cough up the location he agreed to give us. If you won’t do it, he has to find some other way. But, he’s got a day.”

Bottlecap clicks her tongue a few times before she asks, “Well if you’re done scaring away customers, can we talk? In private? Maybe go over something that’ll help you put that aggression to good use while you cool off?”

“Sure,” Gearing says with a grin. A grin which looks weird as a light fume still spills around his teeth and out of his nose as he looks at her. He looks around at the group of security around him and asks, “So are we done or are you going to start trying to use me as target practice with those live rounds?”

Keystone’s eyes go wide as she stares at him, and then she starts motioning for the others to stand down as she nods.

Swift leans towards Keystone as she keeps looking at her powerhoof for anything else to clean off from simply walking on it. “His hearing’s actually gotten even better since he got healed up… as scary as that sounds…”

The security detail starts dispersing as Gearing dutifully walks towards Botltecap. But Keystone grabs Swift and asks with a hiss, “What the hell happened? Really?”

Swift looks her in the eye and the smile falls off her face as her ears lay back. “Exactly what Gearing said. He’d held the doors against the flood so me and Handy could get away, but got trapped down there by himself. He spent most of the night trying to escape a living hell. When he finally got out he was literally falling apart in front of our eyes… So, yeah, he’s a little pissed off right now.”

Happy Trails walks over and kneels down next to Lodestar as she asks softly, “Are you okay?”

Lodestar looks at her and sniffles as he says, “I don’t know what happened.”

Happy Trails shakes her head as she says, “I didn’t see that coming either.”

“No. I mean, I’d been there before! There were a few maintenance bots here and there, most of them were on standby. There were turrets around but they weren’t around the terminals and were easily avoidable.” He shakes his head and looks down at his hooves. “I… didn’t do this…” He looks up at her and says with a choke, “Please, believe me… you know me… I didn’t intend for this to happen… none of it… Not getting caught… Not everyone getting killed…” He waves a hoof towards Gearing as he’s walking away with Bottlecap and says, “And not for them to nearly get killed just running an errand… This doesn’t make any sense… Where’d I go so wrong?”

Happy Trails wraps a foreleg around him and pulls him into a bit of a hug as she rests her chin on the top of his head. “I don’t know, Lodestar, but if you want to clear yourself you need to make good on this promise…” She leans her head down and whispers in his ear, “Because I can tell from the way a few are looking, they are half-way wishing he’d just went ahead and killed you.”

Lodestar chokes and covers his face as he quietly sobs. “They probably blame me for the caravan… and… I don’t blame them…”

She nuzzles him softly and asks with a groan, “Why didn’t you just give it to him? Why were you so stubborn about it?”

Lodestar shakes his head. “It’s all I got. It’s all that’s left of them… And once he has it, that’s it, I’ll have no leverage and it’ll be out.” He waves a hoof weakly as he says, “They’re probably going to strip the joint… so I had to get something.”

“You gonna give it to Bottlecap?” Happy Trails asks as she raises an eyebrow.

Lodestar nods quickly, but then shrugs. “If she’ll take it. If not I’ll find someone else he trusts…” He throws his hooves up in the air and says with a choked laugh, “I’ll just ask him who else he trusts if she won't… I hope she will though…”

Happy Trails smirks as she gives him one last nuzzle before she starts to pick up the mess that was made from Lodestar getting grabbed and pulled up and over their display counter. “You’re gonna owe Bottlecap a lot for this one. Better start thinking how you’re going to pay her off next.”

Lodestar stands up as he wipes the tears from his eyes. “I’m sure she’ll have some ideas herself… I’ll just wait until she brings it up… Stay out of trouble that way in case she declines… I don’t want to pester her.”

After Bottlecap gets Gearing away from the scene she asks, “Mind filling me in on exactly what that was about?”

Gearing shakes his head. “I’m sorry Bottlecap, I don’t know what got into me. I didn’t come in here expecting to start a fight… I came in here expecting to find out if I was going to have a fight on my hooves later, and figure out what to do from there.”

“Well, that’s concerning,” Bottlecap says as she looks sideways at Gearing and watches him casually walk along next to her and pays careful attention to how the fumes from his muzzle do indeed seem to be dissipating. “Do you really think he was trying to kill all of you instead of dealing with you?”

Gearing lets out a groan, which is notably fume free, before he says with a sigh, “I admit, it doesn’t make business sense. Unless he thought we wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, or that we couldn’t afford it, and he decided to get rid of a threat before we did something…” He looks up at the ceiling, staring at the massive gun turret set into the ceiling over them, as he says, “There’s a lot of questionable things going on that makes his actions really suspicious. So many questions that need answering. I can’t prove anything either way now, and I realize that’s a problem.” He snarls as he says, “Him trying to blow off how bad the trip was didn’t help… And flat refusing to give us what we agreed on made it sooo much worse.”

Bottlecap turns to look at him before she asks softly, “I’ve known him for a while, but ponies do change for one reason or another… Do you think he’s a threat? Do you really think he intentionally got his caravan killed so he wouldn’t have to split the profits?”

Gearing lowers his head to look at her and replies flatly, “I can’t say either way. But, I will say that I would not trust him with anything that might get anycreature hurt or killed. Not until this is sorted out.”

Bottlecap frowns as she asks, “And just how do you expect to do that when you already can’t prove anything one way or the other with two separate suspicious incidents?”

Gearing grins as he tilts his head and shows her a gleaming profile view of his muzzle before he says, “That’s easy… If he doesn’t cough it up within a day, we’ll know he’s dirty and was lying about the whole thing the whole time…”

“And if the location is another trap? A better one this time?”

Gearing looks at her and smiles as he says, “Still easy… Because I’m going to give you all of the data-”

“I still haven’t agreed to that,” Bottlecap interjects.

Gearing rolls his eyes. “Okay, fine, but I’ll give somebody the data… and then they can give him half and give me the location. It should only take me a week to check it out… and if I’m not back within two weeks, everyone’ll know. And whoever has the data can keep it and sell it to the highest bidder themselves.” He narrows his eyes as he says, “And I highly suggest you guys get rid of him. Either throw him out or kill him but at that point you’ll know he’s intentionally killing your people and will only be a threat if you let him get away. So your best bet is to have Keystone put a round through his head and throw him out for the radroaches.”

“If you don’t come back,” Bottlecap says with extra emphasis.

“Exactly. Because if I’m not back by then, then either I’m trapped or dead and either way it’ll be his fault,” Gearing says flatly. But then shrugs as he says, “Inversely… There is the small chance that he’s on the level, and all of this has been one huge misunderstanding and string of bad timing and events that had nothing to do with him… In that case you’ll know that as well and we can all get on with our lives.” He squeezes his eyes shut tightly as he says, “I know it’s only a small chance. But I know how shit my luck is… That’s why I don’t want to just kill him. Or punish him. Or anything bad to happen to him unless I know for sure that he’s a bad egg.”

“And grabbing him by his neck and stringing him up like a sack?” Bottlecap asks point blank.

Gearing grimaces and looks off to the side as he says lamely, “He wasn’t giving the conversation as much attention as he should have and I think that’s why I made him… um… ‘hang around’ and give me all of it…”

She slaps a hoof over her eyes before she asks, “If anything like this happens again, would you kindly do me the favor of bringing it to my attention first before you go and confront someone in the middle of my store?” She lowers it and frowns as she says, “You’ve been great at helping get things squared away, but I don’t want to start thinking of you as a problem.”

“I’ll honestly try, that’s all I can say, Bottlecap,” Gearing replies as he shakes his head.

She lets out a groan as she looks away and says softly, “I suppose that’s all I can ask… thanks…”

Gearing taps on his PipBuck with a wingtip and quickly scrolls to an area that he’s already setup in his data storage section. “Well, here’s one of the schematics I found in that computer.”

“I’ll look at it later,” Bottlecap says flatly.

Gearing looks at her and grins as he says, “Does that mean you’ll do it?”

“It means I have something else I’d like to talk with you about at the moment,” Bottlecap replies. And then as they’re walking up to the door to her office she says, “You’ve seemed to have calmed down and are able to talk… Think you’ve got enough control of yourself for a conversation that’ll let you do something more constructive?”

Gearing nods as he says. “Sure. Just let me know what you need.” He lifts up his PipBuck as he grins. “So… about the data job?”

Bottlecap looks at it, then up at him as she gives him a soft smile. “I was always going to help you with that. From the moment you said it. If nothing else it’d diffuse the situation… but… we’ll talk about that… later…” As she says the last syllable, and before Gearing can reply, she opens up the door and steps to the side out of the way as he’s stepping towards the doorway.

But, he stops dead in his tracks as he hears the quiet sobbing of some mare sitting on this side of Bottlecap’s desk, with her face buried in her forehooves on the desk as her whole body heaves.

Gearing slowly looks over at Bottlecap, who’s peeking around the edge of the door and staring at him. They lock eyes for a moment, and then she quickly darts hers towards her office before looking back at him and giving her head just the faintest of tilts.

Gearing smirks and nods before he slowly starts walking into the office.

As the door’s closing Bottlecap says loudly, “I’ll be back later; you just hang out in there for a while and get yourself sorted.”

And that just leaves Gearing in the room with this completely distraught mare.

The little blue pegasus in his head puts a large smoking pipe in his mouth and starts walking around as he comments, ‘I deduce that we were, in fact, intended to speak in here. But our previous assumption about which mare we would be speaking with was wrong as it was intentionally obfuscated. But why?’

One way to find out, Gearing mentally replies.

Gearing slowly walks over and by the mare, before sitting off to the side of Bottlecap’s desk. She doesn’t seem to pay any attention to him. Whether it’s because she simply doesn’t care or doesn’t notice him he can’t tell in the slightest. He leans forward, rests his own forehooves on the desk gently, and rests his chin on them as he looks at her. There’s not much he can tell about her from this position. But, then again, there’s a lot he can tell.

She’s a dark cerise mare with a cotton candy mane that lies particularly well against her head and body which is without a horn or wings. Her hat, a dirty black Stetson, has been cast off next to her, where it was either dropped or simply fell off of her head, he can’t tell which. She’s wearing the same kind of universal traveling clothes that a lot of the caravanners seem to enjoy these days. A combination of comfort, utility, and durability. And she’s pretty road traveled judging by the various stains and dirt. She didn’t even bother to kick the gunk off her boots when she came in, and there’s a bit of it around her on the floor of Bottlecap’s office. Which tells Gearing a bit of her state of mind. And then there’s the variety of smells he’s picking up. Gunshot residue from some kind of recent skirmish. Gun oil that’s still strong enough to let him know she’s got at least one firearm stored in that jacket of hers. And then there’s the alcohol. Apple Whiskey. The cheap stuff. And she’s been at it a while. Long enough that the reek of the bender is actually coming out of her sweat. But, given what he can see of her, he doesn’t think the tears are alcohol induced. Instead, he thinks the alcohol is tear induced and, just maybe, the reason for Bottlecap’s strange introduction.

After looking her over for a few moments and deciding that he’s learned enough, and that she’s not going to just introduce herself to him at this rate, he tilts his head and says softly, “Wanna talk about it?”

She chokes and snorts before she says, “Sure, if you want a laugh. But there ain’t no fixing this.” Her gruff voice cracks as she chokes on her own words as they cut so deep just being said.

Gearing looks her over slowly as he says, “I don’t know… I’m pretty good at fixing things… Why don’t you give it a shot and we’ll see what we can do?”

She starts snorting and chuckling with her head still buried in her forehooves, “Buck, you don’t know shit about shit, I’ll tell ya. If you knew even half of what’s going on you’d just give me another bottle and walk away…”

“Try me.”

She snorts then lifts her head and stares at him with blurry eyes. And it’s not just the alcohol causing the blood red look to her eyes. The tears have done an excellent job of contributing in mangling her aquamarine green eyes into sockets of despair for what is undeniably an ‘ugly cry’ session. Her nose dribbles and drool readily falls out of her mouth. And she doesn’t care. She’s beyond caring. She’s beyond trying to impress anyone. And, as Gearing stares at her, she bears the look of a mare that’s hit absolute rock bottom. But, unlike a lot of others, she can’t seem to grasp why. Like it’s not even her fault.

She narrows her eyes as she looks at him. Then she wipes her eyes with the back of her hoof as she grumbles, “Been drinking too much, ya look fucking shiny.”

Gearing smirks as he says, “It ain’t the booze, miss.”

She leans towards him, and stretches out her neck and muzzle towards him with her ears folded back, as she glares at him and tries to decide what’s going on and if she needs to deck somepony messing with her when she really would rather be left alone.

Gearing reaches over with a wing, grabs the empty bottle by her hooves, from where she’s been keeping it buried under her muzzle, and asks, “How about I fill this with some water for you? You’re gonna need it if you’re going to keep crying like that.”

The glint from his wings draws her attention. She shakes her head quickly, and then her eyes, as blurry as they seem to be, grow to their absolute widest they can go. She locks eyes with Gearing, for so long that he can actually make out the individual spider web of blood veins in her eyes as she leans even closer to him. She reaches over and taps him on the side with her forehoof then lets it fall to the ground limply as she asks, “Green wings? Gold buck? Are you Fixer? You can’t be…”

Gearing waves the bottle around as he gives her a grin. “Well, that’s what a few have started calling me… yeah…” He slowly gets up and walks over to a bucket he’d noticed that’s been catching rainwater, and slowly fills the empty booze bottle up with it.

She spins around, walking around on her forehooves to keep her eyes on him as she doesn’t blink, like she’s scared if she looks away he’s going to disappear on her. “Are you real? Like, real real, for real real?”

Gearing walks back and gives her the bottle of water as he says, “Well if not, then you’re the only one in here… So take a drink of this and tell me what you think.”

She grabs the bottle with a forehoof, and quickly throws it back as if she’s taking a deep drink from a flask. She coughs and looks around before she pulls the bottle away and grimaces, “That’s the most watered down, of watered down hooch I’ve ever drank!”

Gearing grins as he sits down and waves a hoof towards her. “Like I said… you look like you could use some water… So… how about it?”

She slowly sinks to the floor as she lays down and cradles the bottle close to her cheek. “I don’t know what to tell you…”

“Just tell me what you feel comfortable sharing… How about starting with a name?” Gearing says reassuringly as he lies down as well so they can look at each other at the same level.

“Name’s Magnolia… Most just call me Mags. I work the caravans for Bottlecap. Guard duty mostly. I work the trails while my hu-husband minded the h-house,” She snorts and closes her eyes as the pain hasn’t been numbed at all despite how much she’s drank. “Fucking slavers… They- they hit the house while I was out working. Took my husband… and my son…” She brings the bottle around to drink from it. Then gives it a dirty look after she pulls it away from her mouth for giving her water instead of the whiskey she’s craving. “And then the lowlifes in the area looted my house for all it was worth… I’ve lost everyone and everything.”

Gearing grabs the bottle, refills it, and sets it back down in front of her as he asks, “When’d this happen? Do you know which way they went?”

Mags shakes her head and snorts as she says, “It’s too late… I know how long it takes before it’s too late…” She snarls through her tears and snot coming from her nose as she says, “That fucking cunt Usury is really efficient about that… She’s desperate to keep Red Eye happy, so they don’t keep them around long.” She waves her hoof around as she says, “They always need more ‘volunteers’ for Red Eye’s grand vision!”

She slams half the bottle in one pull before she looks at Gearing and snorts. “I told Bottlecap about it. About how Usury intentionally targeted her caravanner’s family. I was hoping for some kind of help but she said she can’t do anything against her sister or it’d probably cause some kind of war or some bullshit.”

The little blue pegasus in Gearing’s head puffs on his pipe before he pulls it out and says flatly, ‘And there’s the answer we were looking for…’

Gearing looks her over for a bit before he says, “I’m sorry I can’t save your family…”

She chokes and looks off to the side as she waves him away with the bottle. “It’s not your fault… You don’t even know where it’s at… You didn’t even live there... I did. I shoulda been home with my family instead of traipsing all over this fucking wasteland trying to turn a cap!”

Gearing leans towards her as he says, “I’m sorry I can’t save your family… but… if you help me… I promise to avenge them… I just need some information…”

She crawls towards him a bit, letting the bottle fall to the side and the water start slowly spilling out in the process. She grabs ahold of his right forehoof and asks, “Are you really Fixer? The buck Roadie was talking about? The one that stampeded over Tower Towing, Killed Cookie, and brought in an arsenal of weapons from raiders you’d killed? Are you that Fixer?”

Gearing brings up a wing and starts counting off on his Pinions. “Yes I am. Yes, that's me. Yes, yes, yes, and yes!”

She glares at him for a moment before she says, “Prove it.”

Gearing grins at her as he lifts his PipBuck, opens up his map, and shows her as he says, “I’ll tell you the same thing I told Roadie’s crew…”

And in sync the pair of them recites: “Gimmie some cords, and I’ll give you some corpses.”

Gearing grins as he gives her a wink and says excitedly, “You got it!”

Her jaw drops as she says flatly, “It is you!”

“Eyup!”

In the next moment she’s pushed him over onto his back and is on top of him and practically mounting him. And for the second time today, Gearing is completely confused about how things have changed from his intentions and how things could have escalated so quickly.

She practically lays on him as she grabs his face with her hooves and looks him in the eye. Tears resume. They resume with a force like a Hoofington downpour as she stares at him and starts yelling at him. But despite the pain and the tears, she wears a snarl across her muzzle. Because as much as this hurts, now is a time for vengeance. For Justice. For her family.

She shakes and tries to smoosh his face with her hooves as she starts talking in rapid fire snippets that are covered in grief, rage, and an iron will to see this through. “I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything! I’ll tell you shit I shouldn’t even know, that I’m not supposed to know! I kept it to myself because I didn’t want to draw any trouble to my family. But fuck Usury! She’s ruined my life and I want you to ruin hers! I know locations, time schedules, routes, you name it!” She leans down and the tears from her cheeks start plinking off Gearing’s muzzle as she says, “I’ll tell you… please… I’ll tell you… I’ll help all I can… Just gut that bitch. Hit her where it hurts. And just keep hitting her until she feels as bad as I do! She took everything from me, so leave her with nothing!” She leans down and starts hugging him as she pleads. “That’s the deal, right?! I tell you what I know, and you get your rocks off kicking their flank. Right? Right?! Please?” She holds on tightly as she completely breaks down and sobs into his neck. “Please… Celestia… Luna… Anypony… please…”

Gearing, wraps his wings around her, and starts patting her on the back with a hoof as he says, “You ain’t gotta bring them into all of this… I’m actually here…” He tilts his head and whispers in her ear. “So tell me what you know and I swear I’ll do everything I can with what you tell me to positively wreck their shit in the worst ways possible…”

---

Footnote:

Please Stand By. . .

Please Stand By. . .

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