Without Gearing having to put on a show for the others, nor stick to some ridiculously tight time constraints for his convoluted plans, they make incredible time as Gearing directs the rescuees to Megamart. And, thanks to that detour provided by Usury, it’s well and truly dark by the time the herd gets into the groove of traveling. And with Gearing being in his element of overcast night shadows, the groove gets smooth indeed as their pace steadily increases as Gearing rapidly guides them to the relative safety of Megamart. At a certain point, he even starts just flying overhead, just a bit in front of them, as they had emerged from the worst of the rubble and derelict buildings and were close enough to Megamart that Gearing felt it was safe to simply lead the herd instead of constantly scouting and snooping. The fact that they appear at a glance to be a well armed and coordinated group doesn’t hurt matters any as even those that might have tried something if any of them were alone, decide this group isn’t worth the effort and simply too dangerous to even challenge. So some would-be-dangers actively avoided them as well.

But, even so, the ponies Gearing is leading start moving at an even faster clip once Megamart is within sight. Not exactly at a full run, but definitely faster than a casual trot.

Megamart’s security gets alerted by their night spotters about an incoming potential threat they can see through their scopes. The scene is enough that the guards actually get visibly concerned and start taking up defensive positions as this not inconsequential number of ponies comes charging at the store front through the cover of darkness. Given the time of night, all they can really make out is the herd as a whole, moving in their direction. And there are arguments and murmurs back and forth along the defensive line about what they should do, and if they should even wait for the incoming group to start shooting first. All of them start dreading the possibility that some hopped up mob of yellow-eyed raiders has decided to try and grab a meal at Megamart, and all of the horrors that that little nightmare would entail for everyone present should they not be able to stop them.

But, before anyone can really say, or do, anything to the approaching herd, Gearing drops down from above -suddenly appearing from the dark night with not so much as a rush of air to give him away and while the rest of the herd he’s leading is still at a distance behind- and sticks the landing into a rather bright patch of ground with plenty of lighting. As his golden brassy form is standing there with his wings held up high and scattering the light around himself, Gearing grins widely at the startled guardmares. As all of their weapons instinctively get pointed at him, because of his sudden appearance, Gearing comments, “Hey, I’m back! So, I just kicked some slaver ass and got a few folks that need to make a pit stop at Megamart before heading home.”

Keystone comes out from where she’d been getting ready for a fight, looks him over, and then sees the rest of the ponies crowd up and around Gearing as the sweaty equines manage to finally catch up to him. She goes head by head, not twice, but three times, before she asks, with complete bewilderment evident in her voice and expression, “Twenty one?! Seriously?!”

Gearing spins around, stands on his hind legs, and does a quick headcount with his foreleg before turning back to Keystone and nodding. “Yup. Twenty one… Well… twenty two need in, when you count me, but, yeah…” He looks back and forth between the various guards as he asks, “Five caps a head, right?”

The tan guardsmare that comes out to join Keystone absentmindedly nods to Gearing’s statement as she looks over the various ponies standing at the checkpoint entrance. They all look haggard. Worn. Tired to the point of exhaustion. And so covered in sweat that the smell of fresh sweat turns into a miasma around Megamart’s entryway. But, despite all of that and the death march of a pace they kept to get here, they’re all in exceedingly high spirits. Ecstatic even. And it’s not hard to figure out why as the ponies crowd around Gearing with an all time high morale that’s practically infectious.

The unicorn mare that’d ‘escaped the evil clutches of a Red Eye soldier’ steps up next to Gearing and says quietly, “Thank you, really, but… I can’t afford that right now. I didn’t have any caps to begin with and I’m not going to be able to-”

Gearing pulls out a sack from his bag as he says, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll cover it.” He looks them all over and grins as he says, “For everypony, of course. Head in, take a break, and, if you would, share your information about the slavers with the Finders. It’ll help everypony in the end…”

Gearing tosses a small sack of pre counted caps towards the tan mare, then hands her another ten as he says, “Here ya go, one hundred and ten caps…”

The tan mare takes it and smiles as she starts stowing it with the other entrance fees. “Checks out, head on in.”

The others start passing by, patting Gearing on the back and thanking him again as they head inside.

Keystone looks at him after the last of the sweaty herd is passing her and points at her own forehead as she says, “Uh… you’re looking a little worse for wear… You alright?” She then vaguely waves over her own front before flicking her hoof towards him, drawing attention to his various splotches of blood and bloody pock marks that are still clearly visible on Gearing.

Gearing reaches up and feels the malaligned plates, scuff marks, and other damage still present on him from getting shot so many times that evening. The crystals in his wings had already healed up. But the metal on metal shots are taking a bit longer because of the increased damage they’d done, especially from that one buck that seemed more worried about maintaining his barn door than his life. “Oh, yeah, I’ll be fine… Assholes just using my head for target practice, again… But, they’re dead… so…” he shrugs. “No problem… I feel great!”

The little pegasus in his head lets out a sigh as he says, ‘Getting rid of that filth was good and all… but I really do wish there was another way instead of just killing them. It helped to work off some aggression and frustration, but the emptiness is still there… And it’s not like it was ever going to do anything for how we feel about what we’d done to that poor unicorn couple.’

No… but hopefully we’re doing well enough that even they’d agree is was worth it… I- I think she’d agree. Given what she’d said and her personality. And even more so if she knew everything that’s actually going on and what we’re trying to do… Maybe we’ll get to find her later, apologize, and beg her forgiveness.

The little pegasus in his head grumps, ‘I think giving her permission to buck our head until she’s no longer mad would make us feel better than that though…’

You’re not wrong, Gearing mentally replies.

Gearing’s brought out of his unpleasant mental debate by Keystone motioning inside. Repeatedly. “Yeah, well, good job. But if you’re planning on standing out here getting pats on the back all night, you’re going to start getting on my nerves. In you go. Bottlecap was looking for you again so make sure to hit her up. And take all of that crap in with you too, I don’t want anypony tripping over your garbage.”

Gearing looks where she’d nodded her chin at and sees that the ponies he’d rescued had left a considerable pile of the things they’d taken from the slavers. And they were even courteous enough to have it packed as well as could be in short order before they headed inside. Gearing quickly throws the various bags, sacks, and satchels over his back before grabbing the other items and scurrying inside with his hard won gains carried with his wings. But his plans for finding Swift and having her perform another few circuits of playing merchant mare gets derailed after only a few short steps after making it inside Megamart proper.

The group of rescuees have spread out a bit, but not much, and a rather large commotion has broken out as word of their arrival has spread far faster than Gearing had anticipated.

As more and more ponies start gathering and clogging up the workings of Megamart, a mare’s voice calls out with a startled gasp from the left of the congregation.

“Shoe Smith?!”

One of the bucks that was in the group that was being hauled off to the Red Eye encampment steps out of the crowd, towards the voice, as he asks with clear uncertainty in his voice, “Sweet Pea?”

A Megamart guardsmare with a fully loaded battle saddle takes a few tentative steps towards him as she looks his ragged form over. “I-is that you? Is that really you, Shoe Smith?” He nods as he takes a step towards her, prompting her to let out a small choke, “I- I thought you’d died…”

Shoe Smith lets out a sigh as he says, “Fucking Usury’s goons got me… they’ve had me doing manual labor until they finally decided to sell me to somepony today.” He motions back towards the entrance to Megamart as he says, “Some crazy buck ambushed the transfer and busted us out…” He hangs his head as he tries to think of what he should say to her. Along with a few questions that he’s actually afraid of what the answer might be.

She takes a couple more steps towards him as she asks with tears in her eyes and a cracking voice, “Smithy?”

His head lifts up towards her, as his ears jump to focus on her, and gives her his undivided attention. “Yeah, Sweets?”

The nickname seems to be the final confirmation that she was so desperately searching for. Because, the moment the word is out of his mouth, she bounds at him and pony-piles him into the floor as she starts bawling her eyes out, in between planting kisses all over his face and neck, before the pair even stop sliding across the floor from the sudden massive impact as the bigger mare practically envelopes the sweaty buck.

The others jump and skip out of the way as the pair slide across the ground, earning more than a few chuckles as the mare doesn’t even care about her job or position at the moment. Even Keystone coming in to see what all the commotion is about, just in time to see the emotional glomp and yell at the mare that she’s still on duty, isn’t enough to stop the ecstatic mare from fully enjoying the unexpected reunion.

And while Keystone is still trying to get that embarrassing display under control, and fussing at them to at least go get a room somewhere to get out of traffic, another disturbance flares up not far away.

“Daddy!” a filly’s voice cries out.

The buck wearing the old stetson turns his head in time to see a light purple filly use some scrap as a springboard to bounce off of as she’s barreling straight towards him. She jumps from the scrap pile, onto the back of the unicorn mare that’d came in with him, and jumps straight towards the face of the buck with an oversized grin on her face and a tinkle in her eye.

He catches her as she latches onto his face, and spins around with her as he yells out happily, “Pumpkin!” He spins around in a circle until he actually flops down on his rear and holds her to him as he laughs. “I’m so happy to see you!”

A portly mare bursts through the crowd like a train and slides across the ground on her knees up to and into him as she yells out, “Darlin’!” She wraps her forelegs around him, and yanks him into an oppressive hug as she nuzzles him. “Rebar’d said you’d got got by them bad ponies!”

The stetson falls off his head as he pulls out of the fleshy prison enough to look at her with the filly still covering half of his face. “Rebar’d made it?! I thought they’d killed him!”

She shakes her head and smiles as she practically envelopes the poor buck. “They got him good, but not good enough. He made it back and told us what happened. Doc Bonesaw got him all patched up. We should go see him and-”

The buck reaches up, clamps her muzzle shut, and directs it down towards him. The two stares at each other for a few moments, with her being more than a bit confused, before he says quietly, “Right now there’s only one thing I wanna do, and I swore I’d do it if I ever got the chance again.” And he lets her go just enough to wrap his forelegs around her head and pull her into an oppressive hug as he starts a very aggressive kissing session that quickly devolves into making out right there in the middle of Megamart’s floor.

One of the vendors grabs a box of two century old popcorn from her display, rips it open, and starts munching on it as she shamelessly stares and apparently enjoys the show taking place not far from her booth. Quite a few others do similar, but most of the once captive ponies spend more time talking with others about what they’d been through.

Gearing, stares at the situation as a whole and suddenly doesn’t quite know what to think. Of the various things he’s been a part of, he’s not seen anything like this. Of everything he’s done, he’s always missed this moment: The Joyful Reunion. He’d always drop off folks for others to finish the final leg of their journies, and continue on with his own job while they dealt with it. In whatever condition they were in at the time. Living or not. Him returning the brave mare’s corpse to Roadie and his caravan is in the same vein, but at best it was the bitterest of bittersweet. But he’s not used to being in that position. And he feels really awkward because of it. He knows he did the right things. That saving these ponies was an objectively good pony thing to do. But there’s the taint of using them and making them be part of his own agenda. Manipulating them into aiding his machinations, whether they realize it or not. He feels like he doesn’t deserve this. Not to even be here at this moment. Seeing the outright joy of the reunions, that he facilitated, makes him feel so dirty and embarrassed that he can’t stay still anymore. Because if any of them start dragging him into it, and thanking him for what he did, he feels like he’ll actually lose it. And, what’s worse, over the commotion he’s heard more than one pony use a dirty little ‘h’ word he wants no part of being associated with. So he actually slinks away while they are still absorbed in the show.

So thoroughly does he focus on simply escaping, that he leaves behind all of the surplus that they’d left for him. With all of it sitting in a neat pile next to the wall, kindly out of the way, but without any apparent thought, or care, to if anyone will simply run off with it once they notice it’s unattended.

The only one to notice his departure is the young tan stallion with the wild eyes. And that’s only because Gearing tapped him on the shoulder with a wing as he was passing, and motioned for him to follow.

Gearing, standing in his usual spot near the old photos in Bottlecap’s office, motions towards the side as he says, “This is Ticket Taker. Goes by ‘Tix’. I figured with his past experience The Finders’d find him useful. And, given everything he’s been through since getting nabbed, I’m pretty sure he could use some gainful employment.”

Bottlecap looks between the two as the young tan stallion only steals glances at her but, otherwise, doesn’t say anything nor move. And in fact he hasn’t done so since Gearing led him in here. Bottlecap nods as she sits behind her desk and absentmindedly taps her fore hooves together. “We’re always trying to expand and could use reliable help… He any good with guard work? Can he at least take care of himself?”

Gearing nods as he motions towards Tix. “He can more than pull his weight, for sure.”

Tix, while not even looking at Bottlecap, rattles off, “I have experience with a variety of rifles and am a markspony with carbines. I’m also capable of close quarters combat with melee weapons, especially knives or similar smaller bladed implements.”

Bottlecap nods as she seems to like what she hears. But then she looks at Gearing as she says, “Well, this has been a productive day for you. Not in the way I was expecting at all though. One of the guardsmares came running in to let me know you were leading in a herd twenty strong that you’d apparently acquired from slavers.” She gives him a faint crooked grin as she says, “That must have been that lead you were referring to when you left… Your information network must be impeccable to have these kinds of results.”

Gearing grins widely at her as he says, “They are… And my sources shall remain anonymous… of course.”

“Of course,” Bottlecap replies with a warm smile. A moment later she asks, “So, you think he’ll fit? Think he’s trustworthy, given everything?”

Gearing replies flatly, “I trust he hates slavers enough that we don’t have to worry about him selling out caravans to Usury or Red Eye.”

“I’ll kill’em,” Tix says as he slowly lifts his head. He locks eyes with Bottlecap, with the same wild-eyed look he’s had for the last day or so. “If I run into any of ’em, I’ll kill’em. I see’em. They’re dead. They shoot first. Or not. I don’t care. I’ll gut them with a piece of broken glass if I have to.”

The calm even tone of it strikes Bottlecap as more of the eerie sort as she frowns lightly and gives Tix an appraising look.

“Probably wanna keep him away from Usury and her goons,” Gearing chimes in with a slight chuckle. “Or, you know, just have him as a hired contractor, not officially a Finder. I mean, you all hire Reapers for work on the regular, right?”

Bottlecap taps her fore hooves together a bit before she says, “That’s a gray area that can get nasty really quickly… but… you are correct.” She looks at Tix and replies, “As a hired extra guard, you won’t have as many perks and such as a Finders guard would get. The pay is still competitive for the position. Is that what you really want?”

Tix looks at her and asks, “Will being a Finder’s guard tie my hooves if I see one of that bitches goons?”

Bottlecap smirks before she says, “I’m afraid so. At least as far as your apparent intentions are. If they shoot at you first, that’d be fine. You’d be defending yourself and the caravan. But I can’t have any of my people actively targeting them.”

Tix looks her dead in the eye and replies, “Pay me less. I don’t care. Feed me less. I don’t care. But don’t take that away from me.”

Bottlecap actually smirks at his apparent priorities, but still doesn’t seem entirely convinced.

Gearing waves and then points at him as he says, “I’ll vouch for him. He can get the job done. And he won’t backstab anypony. If he even comes close to it, or doesn’t do what he’s supposed to, I’ll deal with him myself.”

To this declaration by Gearing, Tix looks at him, and his jaw drops as his eyes go just a bit wider. In clear fear. Tix says quietly, “I’ma good pony.”

Gearing grins at him and nods a single solitary time. “Keep it that way.”

To this, Tix nods rapidly.

Gearing looks over at Bottlecap and raises an eyebrow. After the two maintain eye contact for a bit longer she bobs her head around and smiles. Gearing dips his head and turns around to leave as he says, “Great. I’ll head out, I got a few other things I need to do tonight. I’ll leave you two to hammer out the details without me being a third wheel.” He looks back and forth between them before opening the door to leave. “Let me know if you need anything.”

Before he can get the door all the way open, Bottlecap starts standing up to go after him as she calls after him abruptly. “Gearing!”

He looks back over at her as he freezes and she continues, “Regarding that little timer you started yesterday, you can kindly stop it. I’ve already spoken with him and we have an agreement, and an arrangement. So, now, we’re all waiting on you to proceed.”

Gearing stares at her for a moment before asking, “So you have it now?”

Bottlecap nods. “Yes.” She motions towards her safe. “And I’ll turn it over to you as soon as you provide your side.”

Gearing smiles and takes in a deep breath before letting it out in an obviously relieved sigh. “Well, that’s good. Step in the right direction. You have no idea how glad I am to hear that...”

Bottlecap tilts her head and turns towards the safe as she looks at him. “Would you like to complete the next step now, or?”

Gearing shakes his head before motioning towards Tix. “No, that can wait. You having it is the important part for now. I’ve got to check in with the others, make sure they’ll be travel ready tomorrow, and that’ll give you time to hash things out with Tix here. I’ll come by later and get it from you once we’re done with our meetings. Thanks again, Bottlecap.” Then he slips out without waiting for any kind of further affirmation as she simply waves her acknowledgment.

Gearing doesn’t get far from the door before he recognizes the cotton candy mane of a mare standing off to the side of the walkway who’s currently sipping on some water from a glass bottle. As he starts passing her she tips her hat back and grins at him, with a look of stone cold sobriety on her face for once, as she says, “Twenty-one, huh? I gotta say, that’s way more than I’d expected… you must have taken that tiny seed and planted it somewhere to get that big of a haul.” She gives him a sad smile as she says, “As much as I’d love for my husband and kid to be in that mix… I’m glad I got to help somepony at least… At least someone gets some happiness out of this bullshit...”

Gearing looks over at her and then doubles back. He walks near her, keeping his face pointed in a different direction so no one else can see what he’s saying, before he starts quietly, “Mags, you gave me seeds and wanted a garden, I’m working on a fucking forest…” He pulls back and looks her in the eye as her grin just gets manically large. He locks eyes with her and says flatly, “We’re not done. We need to have a talk later. Tonight. I need to introduce you to somepony… a coworker of sorts…”

She raises the water bottle to him in a toast and grins even wider. “The more the merrier…”

He smirks at her and gives an approving nod before turning and continuing on his way.

As he’s walking down the aisle, Gearing can’t help but notice how busy Megamart still is. It’s not exactly as busy as the peak hours during the day, but it’s certainly more than he’d expect given the time of night. And it’s not simply idle browsing either, the vast majority of ponies he’s passing and walking among are either actively bartering or look like they are looking for something to purchase now. He’s not sure if something is going on, but the increase in weapons transactions definitely gets his attention. And as he and his mental companion continue to debate on the possible reasons for the spending sprees, a group crossing in front of him at the nearby intersection draws his attention.

The manner of speech of the two mares in the center of the group raises a few unpleasant flags with him. Their well kept, and clean, nature automatically puts them on a different level than most other ponies in the wastes. Their clothes were obviously chosen for aesthetics above all else, and they not only don’t seem practical but those dresses would be a detriment to them if they ever needed to actually run. Which marks yet another point of contention with them not being normal. And not in a good way. Even their mannerisms with just walking reeks of being a stuck up noble and Gearing can’t help an involuntary sneer of disgust crossing his muzzle as he sees them. The group of heavily armed personal guards surrounding the pair doesn’t even deter such display from him in the slightest.

Though a pair of guards at the tail end of the procession give him the stink eye as they are passing and seem to notice that he was paying the group just a bit too much attention for their liking.

But, as Gearing is standing next to one of the booths, waiting for the stuck up parade to finish, he gets a whiff of something from somewhere. And the second his conscious brain makes enough of a connection to even ask if that was perfume from the two walking by, Gearing practically freezes as he’s bucked in the head by a bewildering, and painful, case of nostalgia.

The bright sun shines warmly over the nearly clear skies of Canterlot as Gearing -blue fur, Stable-Tech maintenance uniform, and all- walks down the well kept streets. He’s on his way to an appointment to one of the earliest stables that were put in place. Here, in Canterlot. And he’s rather preoccupied as he hurriedly trots down the street while trying to figure out the fastest way to get in and get out. He’s got things to do and a schedule to keep and-

He comes to a dead stop mid stride as he catches a whiff of something pleasant. He looks around quickly as his muzzle breaks into a cheesy grin, before he scampers over to a small gift shop nearby. He snuffs the air, following the scent, until he’s mindlessly walking through the door.

As soon as the doors open they hit a little brass bell above the door, a classic mechanical design over the more modern electric tones. And before the tones of the twinkling bell even gets the chance to fade away, a young mare, wearing a white uniform that looks like a tour guide suit, pops her front over the counter and around the corner and smiles at him. As he’s still snuffing the air she cheerfully greets him, “Welcome to Canterlot Gift’s and More! What can I help you find today? Ministry souvenirs? Licensed model dragon eggs or School of Magic memorabilia? Toy royal guard figures?”

“Raspberry,” Gearing says flatly as he keeps arching his head and waving his snoot back and forth as he tries to find the source of what he’s smelling.

“Raspberry?” the clerk asks with a momentarily mentally derailed look of confusion on her face. Then it lights up with recognition as she asks, “Do you mean our line of Forever Flavors scents?”

Gearing takes in a deep slow snuff as he turns his head to look at her before he says, “Whatever that is that smells so strongly of Raspberries.”

She quickly comes around the counter and leads him over to an area of the shop that has small gifts. And among them are a line of racks with tiny glass bottles on them, with little spritz nozzles, and around them are boxes of the same once you decide on which one you want. Her horn glows and a couple boxes come out from the left side shelves as she rapidly goes into a sales pitch so woven together it’s like she’s trying to spit out the entire pony dictionary from her mouth with a single breath. She takes in a deep breath, and pants a few times, before she says, “So which one would you like?”

Gearing looks at them, and sniffs the boxes in turn, with the same unchanging expression, before turning his head to a set of boxes to the right. And, to the clerk’s chagrin, the much cheaper section. He slowly snuffs over the entire row, then comes back, and after a short bit of waving back and forth like a pendulum, he grabs the one bottle and gives the spritz nozzle a quick sniff.

Instantly the tangy sweet scent of raspberries fills his nostrils and just as quickly he gets a giggly grin on his muzzle as he nuzzles the bottle.

The clerk frowns at the vast discrepancy in prices, but lets out a sigh before returning to a professional demure, as she replaces the other boxes to their places. She at least tries to make her customer’s experience the best she can, even if they aren’t the biggest of spenders. “That line uses a blend of all natural oils. While not a very well known brand, it’s of very good quality and made in smaller batches using more traditional techniques instead of more modern mass production methods. Shall I ring you up? Or do you have more shopping you’d like to do?”

Gearing looks at her and gives a sheepish grin as he asks, “You said small batches, right?”

“Mmhmm. Hoof made.”

Gearing gently taps a couple other boxes of the same type. “Would three of these be allowed?”

Her eyes go wide. “Three?”

Gearing’s go back and forth between her and the boxes quickly before he asks, “Five?”

“Uuhh?”

Gearing snuffs the bottle again before he asks, “What’s it take to get a case?”

“A case?”

“A case. A whole case… How can we make that happen?”

The mare gives him an uneasy smile before she says, “Sugar, if you want a whole case of that stuff, I’m more than happy to sell it to you.”

Gearing grins widely as he starts flailing around with both fore hooves. “Great, deal! Let’s do this!” He deftly grabs a box from under the table, where it had been hidden but not quite good enough to evade his snooping, and starts hurriedly heading towards the counter to get the transaction finished before the mare changes her mind. “No need for gift wrapping, or a bag really, I have my own.” He sets the box on the counter and plants a hoof on it, a bit forcefully, as he stares at her with an excited grin on his face.

She’d hurried up after him and as he’s obviously staking claim to the case she can’t help but laugh. “You like that perfume that much, huh? Don’t worry, nopony’s going to take it from you.”

Gearing shrugs as he taps on the box and looks at it. “I just really like the smell of raspberries… Incense don’t do it, just doesn’t quite smell right, potpourri is hit and miss at best. But this smells exactly like what I’m looking for.”

She snuffs the bottle Gearing sheepishly passes to her and comments, “It does kinda have that fresh raspberry tart smell to it, doesn’t it?”

Gearing grins wider. “Exactly! It’s more… robust? I don’t know the word to describe it but it really smacks your snoot around and makes you pay attention.” He mindlessly pays as she shows him the amount blinking on the register display and quickly stows the box in his pack.

She giggles at him and waves a hoof dismissively. “Well, just don’t go eating!”

Gearing beams a smile at her and replies, “Wouldn’t dream of it. Smells amazing, can’t possibly taste as good as it smells and that’d be a huge waste!”

She giggles again and dips her head before she replies, “Well, thank you for your patronage. Remember us when you’re in the area again and make sure to stop in if you’d like some more of what we have to offer.”

Gearing heads out the door as his PipBuck starts chiming with angry messages about him being late. “Better believe it!” As he steps out into the bright light he closes his eyes and takes a few deep snuffs of the air, still rich with the scent of raspberries. “That smells divine… I should order a few more cases when I get home… just to be safe…”

Gearing’s eyes stay slightly dilated, with the tiny plates of his mechanical eyes involuntarily sliding to expose more iris, as he zones out and the rest of the world continues to move on about its own business. The disruption didn’t last terribly long in relation to reality, despite how long the sudden memory popping into his head seemed. And as violently flamboyant as that memory is, and it’s rather mundaneness, Gearing feels a deep hit of anxiety from it. It doesn’t make any sense to him. He slowly reaches up and huddles down as he can feel certain parts of himself tightening up to, and beyond, painful conditions. He grunts softly as his chest feels an increasing pressure. Like he’s slowly being crushed from the inside out.

His lungs stop working. Most of him has completely frozen up. And, he knows, if he actually needed to breath he’d probably be on the verge of passing out right now. And it just makes it so much worse because he doesn’t know why. Not even a direct hit from a grenade hurts as bad as what’s being unleashed inside of his own body.

The little pegasus in his head sweats heavily as it curls up on the ground holding its chest and asks, ‘Why? Why’s raspberries causing this? We always liked raspberries!’

No, we didn’t… Gearing mentally replies, and the pain takes a sharp turn for the worst before he adds, I don’t even know when I started getting obsessed with raspberries. Not like we eat them.

The little pegasus stares blankly for a moment before asking, ‘Wait… we haven’t bought any for a while either… when’d we stop liking raspberries so mu- OWOWOWOWOW!’ The little pegasus in his head starts thrashing around alternating between holding his head and holding his chest as the pain absolutely explodes all over his body. ‘What the fuck!?’

Gearing slowly, very slowly, raises a hoof and holds it to the left side of his head, where he’d lost part of it not long ago, and starts holding onto his head and ear as he dips down a bit more. The speed is not from him being careful, it’s because his body has gone to war with itself, and him, with such ferocity that it’s taking extreme effort to move at all.

Gearing groans quietly, “Why do I feel like I left the stove on?”

The little pegasus in his head, dripping sweat and looking extremely panicked looks at him and blurts out, ‘We forgotten something! We’ve forgotten something very important! Fuck! What is it!? Something’s wrong!’ He jumps up and starts waving flags and shaking klaxons. ‘Check ammo, check weapons, check chemicals, check ponies, check body parts, something’s missing! Something important!’

Gearing quickly flops down on his rear, right there in the aisle way, and starts looking through his PipBuck inventory. He starts going item by item, to confirm where everything is or isn’t. He goes from the most problematic, like the various darts he’s had on his person in the last couple weeks, and even sentimental, like mentally verifying that he sent the backup box of Sable with Sable so it didn’t get damaged or destroyed.

‘What’s going on? This pit in my stomach is worse than the feeling of falling after getting shot down…’ the little pegasus in his head comments.

The pit in his stomach makes him keep going through things in extreme minutia, even making a list of things to double check with Handy and Swift, until he’s rather violently saved from his own cyclic thoughts by a mare’s voice nearby drawing his attention.

“Damn, you look like you’ve seen a ghost...”

---

Footnote:

!!!ERROR!!! Synchronization Failed…

Please Stand By. . .

Please Stand By. . .

Please Stand By. . .

Please Stand By. . .

Next Chapter: 87 Keeping Busy to Avoid Thinking Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 59 Minutes