Handy and Gearing continued to talk, even as they descended back down closer to the ground. Handy wanted to be even closer to the ground, especially after finally making it over the mountains, but as the wide open areas of the wasteland stretched on, and the buildings in various areas became more prominent, Gearing wasn't too pleased with the idea.

As they are passing over an area that looks like it used to be another industrial hub, complete with a few taller buildings near the center and surrounded by larger, but shorter, buildings around it. Plus the accompanying single story buildings that might have been cafes and such that would have serviced the working class that had frequented the area every day. There are many piles of rubble all throughout it, and surrounding it. With an area that looks like it used to be a suburb not far away, judging by the road ways, but most of them have collapsed into unidentifiable rubble with only a few studs or frames sticking up out of the architectural graveyard.

Swift flies closer to Gearing and Handy as she points off in the direction they are going. “We’re not too far away now! Maybe an hour? All we gotta do is head in a straight line that way and we’ll be home, finally!”

Handy lets out a sigh as he looks around at the ground below, and for once doesn’t feel as bad as he did before. It’s still uncomfortably high for him, but he’s been testing his restraints and they are sufficiently secure to himself, and Gearing. So he’s trying to think of himself just up in a really tall tree, with vines holding him to the tree. And it helps, a little bit.

Except that the ground under them keeps moving which means whatever ‘tree’ has him tangled up in its vines would be having to run and that just brings up other things for his psyche to fret about.

Gearing nods as he double checks his marker on his PipBuck. “Yeah, it’ll be about an hour, a little more maybe. I’d like to go down to ground level when we get near some ruins close to the stable so we can walk the rest of the way, or at least not be as noticeable about where we’re going. Maybe swing into some ruins and make folks think we we’re bedding down for the night there before carrying on.”

Swift turns and flies upside down as she grins. “Yeah, why not. I’d prefer the extra caution too. We’ve already been gone this long, what’s an extra couple of minutes or so?”

Gearing smiles at her, but then his eyes go wide as he screams, “Incoming!” and he breaks to the side and down.

What Swift didn’t see, because she had decided to show boat by flying backwards while talking to Handy and Gearing, was that someone down in the rubble near one of the semi collapsed warehouses had not only noticed the group flying by, but decided to see what they had. Especially with one of them seeming to carry so much stuff with them. And to satiate their curiosity, they decided to use a LMG that would normally be mounted onto a piece of equipment. So it’s not going to be nearly as accurate as it would normally be if it was mounted onto an armored wagon, tank, or other hardware. But with calibers of that size, they only have to get lucky once.

And they do.

As Gearing had pulled back and cut air to dive back and away from the bullets he saw being fired, he only got so far before he saw, with terrifying clarity, as one of the rounds managed to bisect the leading edge of Swift’s right wing. With the warning, she had started a twirl, trying to make herself a harder to hit target, and planning to drop down to avoid the incoming rounds. And she was successful in avoiding a few shots, but that one shot that had hit, hit in such a way that her right wing bends, arcs backwards unnaturally, and practically implodes against the air itself.

And, as both Handy and Gearing are watching, Swift starts falling out of the air as her colorful feathers scatter out and blood twinkles in the dim cloud filtered sunlight.

Gearing twists back over, watching as another spray of bullets comes up to greet them, and actually kicks Swift up and at an angle, before falling back himself, With the maneuver he manages to dodge the next burst, while keeping Swift out of it as well, as she is falling down completely unable to control her descent.

Gearing dives down with her, trying to match speed as he works furiously on his own equipment.

Handy screams out. “Get closer! Grab her! Don’t let her fall!”

Gearing calls out to Handy, “Hey, Handy.”

Handy looks at Gearing, with panic written all over his face. “What?!”

Gearing gives him a sheepish grin.” You remember what you said about me doing what I thought was right?”

Handy freezes, and his eyes start going wider. “… uh?”

Gearing gives him a smirk. “Do you trust me?”

Handy stares at him, and his pupils shrink to pinpricks before he replies, flatly, from the bottom of his soul, “No.”

Gearing grins at him as he says, “Great to hear!” and then he starts rotating faster and faster as he’s heading down to the ground. And then, when he sees another burst of fire coming from the ruins in their direction, Gearing changes angles a bit, and launches Handy up into the air away from himself, but then he grabs Swift and chases after Handy as he begins the same spiraling maneuver.

Handy soars through the air, from where Gearing had simply chucked him into the wild blue yonder. He flails around, and has a hard time trying to get oriented as the sky and ground seem to rotate and spin around him so quickly. The world flies by him at an alarming speed. Because he’s spinning in every possible axis and has a hard time getting his bearings. But one thing he does notice is that after the ground seemed to rapidly get smaller and farther away, suddenly it changed its mind and started getting bigger. And it’s coming. At an even faster rate. And the entire time Handy is shamelessly screaming like a filly that just had a spider drop into her mane.

Gearing, after snagging Swift, dodges a few more bursts of fire directed at him, using the distance he’s gaining away from their attackers to give him more response time to act. And, to try and help, he throws Swift away from himself, over and at an angle, as he goes the other direction. But this time, as he does, he clicks on SATS, pulls out the prototype IF-88-M, and unleashes a barrage of shot in the direction of the light machine gun that has been harassing them. Gearing has no real expectations of harming, let alone killing, the operators, but one thing he does know is that ponies simply don’t like getting shot at.

So if he can throw some hot metal in their general direction, it might help throw their aim off even more, and, possibly, could make them seek shelter long enough for them to get away.

And after popping off just a couple rounds, he quickly stows the shotgun again, grabs Swift, dives down towards the ground in Handy’s direction, then spins around and, again, uses the added force of the spin to launch her back up into the air, along with further away from the warehouse. Like this he keeps playing a weird juggling game of keep away as he works on keeping all of them out of the direct fire being shot at them. Then, after he manages to get a larger outcropping of rubble, where a taller building had fallen down yet still stands several stories in the air even as rubble, Gearing catches Swift onto his back. He screams at her, as she’s still screaming in agony about her wrecked wing, “Hang on tight! I still gotta get Handy!” And then dives and catches Handy with his forelegs as they have fallen down to only a few stories above the ground. Gearing holds on tight to Handy, and keeps swerving and diving and bobbing and weaving until he gets a distance away from the entire industrial zone. Gearing yells, “Swift, drink the rest of that potion, I know it’s not going to help a lot, but it’s better than nothing… Drink another one if you got it, especially one of those enervation eaten up potions.”

He gives Handy a squeeze as he asks, “Handy… Handy, you okay…?”

Handy moans and groans as he hangs limply within Gearing’s forehooves. After a bit, Handy replies quietly, “Gearing…?”

Gearing grins as he replies, “Yeah, Handy, I got ya…”

Handy moans as he says, “You threw me… you threw me a lot…”

Gearing smiles sheepishly as he says, “Well. I didn’t drop ya…”

Handy keeps dangling there limply, like a freshly hunted game animal. “Gearing.”

“Yeah, Handy?”

“I told you I’d throw up if you-” his words are cut off as, mid sentence, he begins vomiting uncontrollably. At first it was just a bit of spit up, caused from the nausea of being shaken up so much. But after that first taste of bile hits his taste buds, his stomach decides that that sounds like a really good idea, and the rest comes out as a projectile vomit like a miniature geyser. As they are traveling over the wasteland, and Handy is unleashing what’s left of his breakfast, and lunch, they angle more and more away, keeping as much of the topography as possible between them and the buildings in the distance.

But, as they are traveling, at a height that makes Gearing comfortable, on the ground is a group of mutated hogs. One of which still has bits of brain matter and blood from one of its relatives matted to its fur from the last traumatic experience it had been through. But, as the trio of ponies are flying overhead, with one screaming out obscenities in pain and anger, one sounding like he’s talking underwater, and the other just trying his best not to laugh about the ridiculous situation, the hog looks up.

And just as the hog with the matted hide on its side looks up to see what the noise is about, a shower of bile and other unidentifiable half digested material falls down and splats across the hog’s face and back. There is only a pause of a fraction of second, before the smell strikes the hog’s sensitive nose, before it starts running around and squealing in horror at what had just been done to it. If radhogs had a belief system in a higher deity, it would currently be screaming ‘Whyyyyyyy?!’.

Handy, as he’s finishing purging his stomach, looks back and towards where they’d just passed over, and comments weakly, “I’m sorry, piggy… That wasn’t fair to anybody. You didn’t deserve that…”

Gearing laughs as he asks, “Nice one! You got’em on the move on your first try! How’s it feel to do some aerial crop dusting, Handy?!”

Swift screams out in frustration as she hits him in the back of the head a few times. “That’s disgusting, Gearing! This ain't the time for that shit!” She throws the bottle she’d drank off to the side, not caring at the moment about trying to save them.

Handy, dangling from Gearing’s forelegs moans, “I take it back… I hate you, Gearing… You’re evil.. Urrrp…”

Gearing keeps looking around as he asks, “”Swift, how’s the wing? Think you can fly?”

Swift carefully stretches her wing and groans. “I drank one and a half and my wing still feels rough. I think I can fly, but nothing fancy.”

Gearing starts gaining altitude as he starts flying in a straight line, after adjusting his heading. “Fine. I can carry you both. But I can’t do anything fancy either. Or I’m liable to drop one or both of you. And if my wings get blown out, we’re all screwed.”

Swift turns back and looks in the direction they’d come from. “When I get my shit together, I’m coming back, finding those fuckers, and pounding their head into the cement!”

Gearing laughs before he asks, “You wanna do that? Okay!”

Swift turns her head and leans to the side so she can see his face. She keeps clinging onto his saddle bags and general hoard of his and tries not to move too much so she doesn’t cause him to lose her. “What?”

Gearing nods back towards where they’d come from. “Those assholes are obviously a threat to everyone. And, in case you haven’t noticed by now, I do not take kindly to folks shooting at me or my friends…”

Swift grins as she asks, “You for real?”

Gearing nods. “Those kinds of assholes hole up in a local area. Let’s get home, get ourselves taken care of, and then, after that, we can come and track them down to give them a solid face blasting.”

Swift scowls as she looks back where they’d come from. “I hate guns…”

After a bit more, Handy asks, “Gearing…”

“Yeah, Handy?”

“You’re not going to just leave without us, are you?”

“Huh?”

Handy wipes his muzzle before grabbing a hold of Gearing’s forelegs that are wrapped around his chest more. “You’re going to let us get some payback against them, right?” He straightens up a bit more before he says, “That asshole shot my wife. And made me throw up all over the place. I want a piece of the fuckers. Sledge to the face, face to the wall kinda way.”

Gearing smirks as he nods. “Sure, Handy. We can do that.”

Swift grins as she gets Gearing’s attention by tapping on his shoulder. “So, you going to let us have some fun for a change?”

Gearing looks back at her and closes his eyes as he gives her a smug grin. “As I recall… you’d said not to start any wars without you… well… if you’re there, then it’s alright, right?”

Swift’s grin turns nearly fanatical as she nods. “Oooohhhh yeah it is…”

Gearing smirks as he says, “Hey, stop breathing so hot and heavy… Your husband’s going to think something’s up.”

Handy smirks as he settles into the grip Gearing has on him. “That’s not the kinda pounding she wants, Gearing… and I’m going to tell Sable you’re trying to start stuff.”

Gearing tilts his head and looks at him. “What?”

Handy grins at him. “You start stuff, and get my wife on me. Well, I’m going to get your marefriend on you.” He grins widely as he says, “I’m gonna tattle!”

Gearing purses his lips to the side before he says, “See, I was just trying to play around with you guys, and you’re trying to take things to a dangerous level… I like having the ability to walk, you know…”

Both Swift and Handy start laughing, and continue as Gearing begins a circular spiral that brings him into a gentle landing in a mostly collapsed building. He flies in straight from above, through the mostly missing roof, past the multiple floors, and lands straight at ground level on the concrete foundation that’s still exposed despite all of the rubble that’s fallen down around it. He lets Handy off, a little roughly, then lands to the side and starts helping Swift off.

Handy looks around, then opens up his PipBuck to double check their location. “We’re kinda a ways from the stable, aren’t we?”

Gearing nods as he starts looking over Swift’s wing without even asking for permission to do so. “I don’t want us drawing unwanted attention. Shit keeps seeing us and thinking ‘oh, dinner!’ so I’d rather we walk in the rest of the way.” He grimaces as he’s looking over Swift’s wing and starts manipulating it around.

Swift looks at him as he carefully manipulates her wing and smirks. “Alright doc, what’s the verdict?” She sees Handy looking over at them and Swift points at Gearing with her powerhoof. “He’s the resident expert on ‘fucked up wings’ so if anyone can tell me what’s up, it’d be him.”

Gearing gently prods along the leading edge of the wing and slowly nods. “I think it’ll be okay. Not a career ending injury at all. Close. The potions seemed to help. But, I’d wager, you just need a round through the medbay’s auto doc.” He lets go, letting her fold her wings at her side. He nods to the side as he says, “Let’s head out. We’ll be there in about half an hour walking it.” He looks over at Handy and nods towards him. “You too. In fact, I think all three of us need a round through the auto doc.” He points back at Swift. “Swift first, then you, and then afterwards I’ll take my turn.”

Handy tilts his head as he asks, “Why me?”

Gearing shrugs. “Handy, after getting shot down and everything else, I’m pretty sure you both have metal and other shit in you that needs to be removed. The auto doc can handle that. Potions are good for a quick fix. But they aren’t the be-all end-all of medicine. They’re a stop gap measure, not a substitute for proper treatment.”

Handy thinks it over for a few moments, then reaches down and holds his abdomen a bit. “You’re probably right. Especially after falling off that building and getting cut up by all that glass.”

Swift looks over at Gearing and asks, “So, when are we going to go deal with these tools then?”

Gearing shrugs as he looks around. “Well, we could either set out as soon as we get patched up, or we could wait until tomorrow morning and try hunting them down?”

Swift scowls as she pounds on the ground a few times. “I’d really like to take care of them now. I’m pissed.”

Handy looks her over and then lets out a sigh before he asks, “How about we plan on doing it in the morning.” He instantly gets a scathing stare from his wife, so he quickly adds, “It’s been a long trip. We’re all tired. We’re still going to need some treatment, and that’s going to take a while anyway. So we might as well get a good night’s sleep before heading out to knock them into the next world.” He gives her a sheepish smile as he adds, “And after we get a nice hot shoooowweerrrr…?”

Swift stares at him, and a momentary glint of moisture shows up on her mouth as she actually drools. She quickly wipes it off, then looks off to the side as she says, “Well. I mean. If you really want a shower that bad… and a warm bed… With centralized air… I suppose we can wait until the morning…”

Gearing laughs and starts leading the way out of the collapsed building. He jumps over the half wall made of brick, where a display window used to be, and heads out into the rubble strewn roadway.

The others quickly follow and, this time, they’re all keeping an eye on their surroundings as they start winding their way through one ruin after another. Then they cross into a more open area and Swift takes the lead as she motors on towards the stable. She recognizes the area from one of her trips out, and helps pick out as many paths that’ll keep them out of sight at a distance as possible. And her excitement at returning home to her children makes her steadily increase speed the whole way as she gets a burst of energy at the thought of their upcoming reunion.

By the time they are reaching the old station where the stable is hidden, it’s already starting to get late. Swift and Handy hurry on inside and down towards the stable door without even pausing.

Gearing, however, makes a quick detour.

He walks over to the stone with the rough engravings on it. He grabs a plastic bottle that had gotten blown up against it, along with a bit of brush that looks like a bush weeds skinny cousin, and tosses them off into the rubble beyond. He sits down in front of it as he says quietly, “Hey. I’m back. I know we never got to talk, in person. But, I thought you just might like to know that I’ve been giving some slavers a real hard time. You’re never going to see them, obviously. You’re free from that. And they’re trapped in hell where they belong. I’ve got a few plans in place that’s going pretty well. So far. But, get ready to throw a party, because there’s going to be a big one kicking off soon.” He starts standing back up as he grins. “I’m pretty sure, wherever you’re at, you’re going to be able to see the fireworks from there. So… enjoy the show…” He turns and walks away as he comments, “Rest well, Figgy.”

By the time he gets to the stable, the door’s already open and waiting for him. And there is a group of protectaponies approaching the front door from deeper inside. As soon as he gets inside, he starts the process to shut the door again, and then looks at the protectaponies and asks, “Why are you guys here?”

“The crea-tor commanded it. You have supplies that need carrying. We shall carry them for you.” One of the protectaponies comments as they start extending out their restraining cables.

Gearing smiles as he looks them over. “Well, that was really nice of him. Yes. Thank you. Here.” He starts taking all of the bags off, except for a couple of the smaller ones, and deposits the metal reinforced leather bags down for the protectaponies to take. “Please take these to the door for the decontamination chamber for the R&D area. I’ll organize them from there.”

“““Affirmative!””” the protectaponies say in unison before grabbing the bags swiftly and starting to trot off.

Gearing watches them go, then smirks. “Man, those guys are helpful… Well, time to get home myself…” He starts trotting down the hallway, following the protectaponies. But, before getting very far, he gets jumped on by a small filly. Gearing turns and twists as he tries to see who just jumped onto his head, and he looks to the side to use the glass in the door’s reflection.

He smiles widely as he says, “Hi, Plum Pie! It’s good to see you too!”

Apple Armor charges up from the side, spins around, and bucks him right in the right foreleg. But the impact causes him to recoil and collapse as he just hurt his own hooves. He rolls over, holds onto his hindhooves with his forehooves, and looks up at Gearing with his eyes glinting like he’s on the verge of tears. Though Gearing’s pretty sure it’s because he just shell-shocked his own hooves.

Apple Armor yells, “You wanker! Looks what you did!”

Gearing smirks as he leans down towards him. “Me? You did it yourself!”

Apple armor scowls before he replies, “You said you weren’t going to be gone long. But you were. You all left. But then Sable came back carrying Nahlah who was so messed up she couldn’t even walk. And dragging along a buncha weird kids, too. And they said you weren’t going to be far behind. But you didn’t come back. Until now!”

Plum Pie squeezes onto Gearings neck from behind as she groans, “You said you’d teach us stuff. But you were gone foorreeevveeerrrr… What happened? Why were you gone so long? Why are you so dirty? Why do you smell so funny? What’s this icky stuff all over you?”

Gearing’s eyes go wide and he looks at himself, and sees that he’s still covered in pieces of giant bat and insects. A good portion of which has been smashed into his gears and plates. He looks over at Apple Armor as he asks, “Well I’m not sure what you want me to say? Shit came up while I was up there. Lot of fuckers tried me. And they found out it was a bad idea.” He points at himself with the bloody viscera embedded into his bags. “And on the way back, a bunch of shit tried us. Again. Didn’t work out too well for them. But, we made it back, didn’t we?”

Apple Armor looks up at him and after a few moments he asks quietly, “Couldn’t you have like… let us know at least? That you’re alive and not like… dead in a raider’s stomach or something?”

Gearing lets out a sigh before he nods. “To a point… but… I’m working on getting that system up. I was just testing its range while we were out too. I’ll talk with Sable about it and see if the system worked or not. There should be several messages waiting for me. It’s not a two way radio, but I’ll be able to send updates at least.”

Plum Pie leans to the side to look at his face before she asks, “Are you okay though? You look baaad… You look like you got beat up pretty bad…”

Gearing looks at her out of the corner of his eye as he says, “Don’t worry Plum Pie. It’s not mine. And, after I get cleaned up, and after Swift and Handy have their turn, I’m going to have the auto doc check me out to make sure everything's okay. Alright?”

She puffs her cheeks up a bit but then gives a quick nod. “Well… okay then… But, you better be okay, or I be mad…”

Gearing tilts to the side, stretches out his wing, and lets her slide off of it back to the ground. He looks at her and sighs as he says, “In fact, you probably need to go have another shower, just from touching me. I don’t know what was up with those bats and bugs but you never know what nastiness they might have been carrying.”

Plum Pie scrunches up her nose, sniffs her own hoof, then sticks her tongue out. “Blech… you’re stinky stinkness is on me…”

Gearing smirks as he says, “Sorry. I’ll go get cleaned up.” He looks between them as his ears perk up. “Oh, about the other kids, how are they getting along with everyone?

Apple Armor scrunches up his face a bit before sticking his tongue out. “The fillies are really annoying, always singing and wanting to play around. The colt’s not so bad. But they’d been getting more than a little annoying about asking when you guys were getting back. At least they’re helpful around the stable. Working with them seems like a game and things get done sooo much faster… And they got along great with Pharynx, at least until he left.”

Gearing smirks as he says, “Yeah, they kinda have that effect on ponies…” He shakes his head. “Wait, Pharynx left? Like? Left left? The stable?”

Plum Pie nods. “Uh huh. He was talkin’ funny about having to go somewhere.”

Apple Armor nods as well. “Yeah. I said he was nuts, but he said he had somewhere to be. He left a note and some stuff for you with Sable before leaving.”

Gearing looks between them as he asks, “How long ago was that?”

Apple Armor shrugs as he says, “Couple days ago.”

“Well, thanks for letting me know.” Gearing frowns lightly before starting to walk past them. “Okay, you two. I’m going to go get cleaned up and check in. I’ll talk to you in a bit.”

Apple Armor rolls over and waves both forehooves at him. “Hey, you wanker, you promised to teach me to shoot!”

Gearing looks back at him and grins. “Sure. We’ll start working on that soon. But I got a few more things I need to take care of.” The crestfallen look on Apple Armor hits Gearing hard so he quickly adds, “I’ll give you things to look over while I’m busy. That way we can go over it. And, yes, it is needed. It’ll help you shoot better and take care of your equipment better. And, with that, it’ll make you a better markspony.”

Apple Armor frowns a bit before bobbing his head around. “Well… okay… as long as you actually show up… I guess…”

Gearing smirks and waves at them as he heads on down the hallway towards the deeper parts of the stable. As he’s coming up to an intersection, Cure comes around the corner at full speed and gets in front of him. Gearing slows his pace, and stares at the hovering robot as he wonders what this is about.

Cure waves one of its limbs as it says, “Subject Gearing. I am here to assist you in sanitizing yourself. If you would follow me we can begin the process of removing the various contaminating filth from your body.”

Gearing smirks, starts angling around it, and waves it away with a hoof. “No thanks, Cure. I’m heading down to the R&D wing. I’ll use the decontamination chamber to get cleaned up.”

Cure turns and starts following him down the hallway as all of its eye stalks are focused on him. “But, subject Gearing, it would be closer to follow me and allow me to do it for you. Thus it would be more efficient.”

Gearing looks at her and smirks as he says, “That’s okay, I mean, I need to go see Sable anyway. She’s always trying to get an excuse to get her hooves on me, so-”

“Subject Sable has already given permission for the cleaning procedure to commence,” Cure suddenly blurts out.

Gearing stops and looks at her. And they stare at each other for a few moments before he asks, “Sable said it was okay?”

Cure’s claw bobs in agreement as she says happily, “Yes, Subject Sable not only gave permission, but actually suggested it.”

Gearing stares at her for a few more moments. Then his eyes widen a bit. “Sable’s passing up a chance to hop in the shower with me?”

There’s a bit longer of silence before Gearing turns and starts walking towards the R&D section. Faster than he had been traveling a moment ago. “Something’s not right…”

‘She wasn’t at the door to greet us this time either,’ the little pegasus in his head comments worriedly.

She’d have known we were back when Handy and Swift walked in and he sent the protectaponies to help carry stuff for me, Gearing mentally agrees.

Cure follows along behind him as she repeats, “Subject Gearing, we need to return to a location where I may aid you in cleaning any contamination from your person.”

Gearing keeps waving her off and, eventually, just outright starts ignoring her. Something’s not right and it’s bugging him more and more. When he gets to another intersection, he has to stop as he hears stampeding hooves. And just as he does come to a halt, a trio of fillies comes sliding out of the cross hallway right in front of him. With a smaller colt coming to stop right behind them a moment later with his own skidding to a stop entrance.

The smallest filly points up at Gearing as she scowls. “Target located!”

Gearing’s eyes go wide as he actually takes a step back. “Whoa, what’s going on with you kids?!”

Adagio Dazzle hops closer as she practically prances and squeals, “You’re back! Is Swift and Handy back too?”

Gearing nods as he points back towards the medical wing. “They’re both getting seen in the med bay. We had a rough trip back.”

The colt rolls his eyes. “Oh, I don’t doubt it, our trip back was rough too.”

Gearing looks at him and tilts his head. “What do you mean, Andante? Were the tunnels collapsed or something?”

Adagio sits down as she lets out a sigh. “That was only the half of it… not even half, really...”

Aria nods as she says, “Yeah. The zombponies were the worst of it.”

Sonata agrees. “Totally.”

The colt nods rapidly as he says, “Those zombponies were crazy! And there were sooooo many of them!” He waves his forehooves around in excitement.

Excitement that really doesn’t seem to fit for a situation where somepony’s talking about cannibalistic creatures trying to end him.

Gearing slowly sits down as he asks, “Wait, the tunnels had ghouls?”

Adagio rolls her violet eyes before she says, “That’s like asking if there’s any water in the ocean…”

Aria nods as she says softly, “Loooooots of them… lot and loooots.”

Gearing looks them over, and then remembers the conversation with Apple Armor. They’d mentioned Nahlah making it back. And Sable was the one that brought her, so obviously Sable made it as well. And then the four foals are here. So, by his head count, everyone managed to make it back. So the quickly edging panic that had started bubbling up threatening to explode out starts settling down. Because regardless of the trials along the way, they all made it. And he can take solace in that. So he takes in a deep breath before he asks, “So did your songs manage to keep them away?”

In an instant, all four of the children lose their enthusiasm, and out right cringe as they stare at him.

Andante comments. “Not… exactly.”

Gearing looks at him and his eyes go wide again, and the panic he’d been feeling starts bubbling up again. “… How… how not?”

Adagio frowns as she says, “There was just soooo many of them… We sang, and sang and sang… but… the trip was so long-”

“And we had a hard time finding our way through too” comments Aria. “So it took even longer.”

“And there was areas so thick with them that not even the song would work, they had nowhere to go…” Sonata comments as she looks down.

Gearing looks between them before he asks, “So, I guess, Sable had to help you?”

Andante bounces around excitedly as he says, “Oh wow, Sable’s amazing, you didn’t tell us that she was like a super duper monster pony!”

Sonata looks back at him and scowls. “That’s rude! No mare wants to be called a monster!”

The young colt, not losing any enthusiasm as he seems to have gotten on a roll, adds, “She didn't’ take nutt’n from nopony and kicked their flank up one tunnel and down another!”

Aria looks at Gearing and says softly, “Sorry…”

Gearing looks at her and asks, “Why?”

Adagio starts, “Everything was going fine.”

“At first,” Aria comments.

Adagio nods. “Yeah… And we were singing and singing and having fun, and… you know… just walking…”

“But they just kept getting thicker and thicker” Aria filly adds.

“Walls of zombponies” Sonata adds with a frown.

“As far as the eye could see!” Andante says as he bounces around and has way too much happiness in his step for Gearing’s liking for what he’s starting to imagine in his mind’s eye.

Adagio waves towards Gearing. “We kept having to close in to each other. Because the tunnels were so small. And we ended up completely surrounded by the zombponies… but… by that time, our song wasn’t strong enough any more to make them run away, it just made them move.”

“And keep their distance” Aria adds.

The colt deflates a bit as he says, “But… all of that started tiring us out… Never had anything like that before…”

Sonata nods as she says, “So we had to huddle up next to Sable, while she carried Nahlah. And the zombponies were walking with us. Like, they were waiting on something.”

“They were waiting on us to stop singing, of course,” Adagio says with a sigh. She looks at Gearing and waves off to the side. “It got to a point where we had to take turns. And take a break. And by then we just had this tiny little bubble keeping them away from us. It was sooo scary.”

The colt frowns as he says, “And I got so sleepy I could barely move at one point…”

Sonata nods. “We ended up having to go into a small room, that was set up as a break room for maintenance ponies. And while we kept them outside of the door with our song, Sable built up a barricade. And then we were able to try and rest.”

The colt groans. “But the moment we stopped singing, they started trying to get in and break down the barricade.”

Sonata nods. “So we had to take turns again. And it was soooo bad… Because we had to have one of us by the door while the others tried to sleep. And then, we kept having to switch off.”

“But… that worked?” Gearing asks

The children, all of them, instantly cringe again. “No… not really.”

The colt starts bouncing up and down as he says. “That’s when Sable went like… really really scary mode. She was like ‘I’ma dragon, raaaawwrrr’ and just beat up the zombponies so quickly it was hard to see!”

Gearing raises an eyebrow and Aria adds, “She started just shooting them. Before that she had said she was wanting to conserve ammo. In case she needed it. But, well, apparently she was right. Because she did.”

Gearing smirks as he asks, “I take it she let loose with the minigun?”

The colt bounces around as he says, “Yeeeaaaaah! She was all” he stands up on his hindhooves, acts like he’s holding a minigun with his forehooves, and starts rotating back and forth. “Ka ka ka ka ka kaaah! Die zombponies! Die die die!” He hops around as he giggles. “And she started firing her pretty magical lasers and the zombponies started fluttering away in the wind. It was really cool!”

Adagio frowns as she says, “Yeah, but, that only lasted so long…” She looks over at Gearing and frowns even harder. “I don’t know how much ammo she took with her for that minigun, but it wasn't enough.”

Aria groans. “The minigun my butt. She fired everything she had. Everything she found, and then started using other stuff to bash and smash them.”

Andante bounces excitedly as he says, “Yeah, like, this one time, we made it to another maintenance room. And like. We were really really tired. And we just couldn’t sing anymore. So Sable stood at the doorway and beat them up. She kept firing with her laser as quickly as she could, but had to keep stopping because it was getting too hot or something, and then and then, she was all like ‘I’m gonna choke the rivers with your dead!’ and started bashing them with her hooves and a fire extinguisher and a vending machine and and and it was just really kool!”

Sonata looks up at Gearing as her eyes go wide. “She said she’d build walls with their corpses.” She lowers her voice to a whisper as she adds, “She diiiid…”

The colt bounces some more and points at her as he says, “Yeah! She like, clogged up the hallway with dead zombponies. And they just kept coming. But she’d smash their head, stab them, or crush them and after a while it was like an avalanche of dead zombponies so the others couldn’t try and get us anymore. They just stood on the other side screaming and yelling at us, but… you know, that’s fine. They couldn’t get in the room.”

Adagio nods as she points at Andante. “And there was a couple times she had to connect to the grid. A couple of the maintenance rooms had working recharge pods, but others she had to rig something up. She said that’s the reason her laser kept heating up, because she was sucking power straight from the grid to use her magical laser while we tried to sleep.”

Gearing blinks a few times before he asks evenly, “So, she carried Nahlah, used up every bit of ammo she had, switched to lasers, drained her power, kept recharging to get more, and still had to resort to beating others with her bare hooves to keep you all safe?”

They all nod in unison and respond like a chorus, ““““Uh huh~!””””

Gearing quickly gets up and starts walking by them. “I need to go check on her. I’m glad you kids are okay. I’ll talk with you more about it later. But I need to go see if she’s okay.”

Andante hops up and down as he waves after him. “Don’t worry, the zombponies couldn’t bite through the metal, they tried!”

To this sudden extra bit of information, Gearing takes off at a fast trot, just a shy step under a full run, as Cure keeps floating after him and trying to get him to follow her to get cleaned.

And the closer he gets to R&D the more insistent she gets. But, he’s completely ignored her at this point. No matter how concerned her voice sounds as she stalks him. His metallic hair is starting to stand on end and he really needs to see Sable. Now.

He gets to the decontamination chamber and hits the button to open the door. As he’s walking into the room, he comments, “Don’t you dare override this to make it take longer…”

Once the door closes, he starts tapping his hoof, and looking at the far door, as he waits for the process to end. And, despite what he thinks might happen, and what he might have to do to get out of the room, the routine ends. And Gearing looks at himself and notices that there’s more than a few bits on him that need to be removed still, so he’s not actually sanitary at the moment, and needs a full wash.

Which means somepony was listening when he snapped at them walking into the chamber.

Before the door is even open all of the way, Gearing hops through it and quickly starts looking around. He couldn’t see much through the glass. There’s been several things placed over near the glass, and it’s blocking the view deeper into the R&D section. And he starts walking in quickly, looking back and forth, and, after kicking on his EFS, he sees a marker where he didn’t expect it. He goes over to the door into the hidden compartment as he’s calling out. “Sable?! Sable are you here?”

“Gearing, wait! I’m not dressed!” Sable’s voice calls out from the hidden compartment with what can only be described as a mild panic in her voice.

Gearing takes a step into the room, completely ignoring the strange comment, and looks over right where he knows the friendly marker is. His eyes go wide, and his jaw drops as he quickly starts shaking over his entire body. He needed answers when he came down, now he needs them even quicker.

Footnote:

Processing . . . Verifying Matrix Status

Processing . . . Reinitializing, Please Stand By. . .

Processing . . . Decoding, Please Stand By. . .

Processing . . . Unpacking Node . . .

Processing . . .

Author's Note

After an absurdly long detour looking for necessary components, the trio finally make it back home. But not without running through a gauntlet of adversity along the way.

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