~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Over the course of the next few minutes, and while the two detention guards and security officer stand by helplessly as they try to figure out what to do, the sparking slowly subsides as the arcing energy discharges from Gearing’s body. He’s left there, motionless, laying on the floor of the dungeon cell as smoke trails up from the still smoldering cloth of the wing restraints.

The three in the hallway slowly start walking closer, hearing a mummer, but not quite sure what to make of it.

The mare guard leans close to the bars and twitches her ears as she tries to focus, then her eyes shoot to their fullest as she starts making out what he’s saying. Over. And over. Slowly. Tears form in her eyes as she follows along quietly, “Lieutenant Gearing… Equestrian Defense Force… Sierra Zulu 61357… Lieutenant Gearing… Equestrian Defense Force… Sierra Zulu 61357…”

“You fucking bitch! We’re going upstairs and you can explain this shit to the captain!” She jumps over and grabs Silver Aura by her silver mane as she starts dragging her off towards the door.

Silver Aura screams, “It’s not my fault!” as she cries and gets lead out by her mane.

There’s a sound of a meaty hit echoing down the hall as the guard jack slaps the unicorn with a back side swing of a forehoof. “You nearly killed him!” As she’s opening the door to go up she screams, “We need a medic down here, now!”

There’s a loud commotion as the unicorn mare continuously apologizes through her wails of crying and a growing number of other ponies get involved.

Gearing, through all of this, stares off into space while laying partially sprawled out on his belly, muttering repeatedly, but barely audibly, “Lieutenant Gearing… Equestrian Defense Force… Sierra Zulu 61357…”

The buck guard sits on the ground and stares in at him through the bars as he shakes his head. “Hold on, soldier. Help’s coming.”

An older unicorn comes through the door and continues running down the hall with a bag floating in front of himself as an earth pony mare in a pink and yellow uniform follows behind.

The guard opens the door to the cell and points in at Gearing as he says, “I don’t know what she did to him, but she fucked him up pretty bad.”

The unicorn looks in and shakes his head as he draws up short. “What?” He looks at the guard and points at Gearing as the earth pony mare climbs into the cell with Gearing. “Why did you all call a medical alert for a potectapony? Shoulda just called maintenance.” He looks in at Gearing and tilts his head. “Why is a protectapony even in jail?”

The mare starts setting things aside from her own satchel and seems so focused on following through with her training that she doesn’t bother to stop to ponder the same questions that the unicorn is asking. She looks at Gearing, then leans down with her head near his mouth as she tries to listen. She looks over at the guard and asks, “What is he saying, I don’t understand?”

The guard looks at her and swallows before replying, “He’s giving his name, rank, and serial number.”

The mare tilts her head and then looks down at Gearing as she asks, “Why would he do that? We already know who he is.”

The guard chokes and swallows hard. “It’s what we’re trained to do in case we get captured… To avoid giving up secrets… when… when we’re being tortured…” He looks at Gearing and says softly, “Focus on that and nothing else, so you don’t accidentally say something that could hurt somepony else.”

The mare puts her hooves to her mouth and gapes at the two. She leans towards them and hisses, “Just what happened that would trigger that response?!” She starts running her hooves over Gearing’s body and notices the variety of scorch marks both on the cloth restraints and the visible brass. “Don’t fucking lie to me! I need to know so I can treat him!”

The guard shakes his head as he rubs it with a hoof in frustration. “I- I don’t know. She said she just tried to remove the illusion he had… When I got here he was flopping around and sparks were shooting everywhere… and the screaming… goddesses protect me the screams…”

The mare tries to roll Gearing over, and she grunts and pushes but makes no real headway. “Do you have him bolted to the floor too!?”

The guard shakes his head. “No, just his wings are bound. He broke the manacles on his forelegs on the way down here.”

She keeps leaning against Gearing. “Help me get him to his side. I need to check his chest.”

The guard hops in then starts pushing and grunts as his hooves slide on the stone floor but Gearing’s body does little more than lean. “What the hell, this buck’s heavy!” He looks over at the unicorn. “Hey, horn head, lend us a hoof, would ya?”

The unicorn rolls his eyes. “I swear you all are so incompetent here I’ll-” He stops mid sentence as he focuses his horn then has to spread out his feet as he starts sweating and grimacing as his overglow flashes repeatedly over both his horn and Gearing, but makes no real headway either.

The guard sneers at him. “Heavier than he looks, ain’t he?!” Between the three they get him rolled over and the nurse starts looking at the ground where he’d been laying.

“What are these green shards of glass everywhere?” the nurse asks.

The guard shakes his head. “I don’t know; they weren’t in here when he was put in here.”

She starts looking around Gearing’s sides and her eyes go wide as she sees another green piece slip out of a burnt hole in the cloth and join the others on the ground. “Get his wing restraints off. Get them off now!”

The guard doesn’t even question it as he unlocks the wing restraints and lets the metal bars, with what was left of the cloth, fall away.

Along with a large collection of pieces of green shards.

The mare gingerly touches Gearing’s wings and says in shock as she looks over the mangled metal framework, “His… his wings… his wings are broken into…” She looks around at the ground and moans out in dismay, “Millions of pieces.” She looks at the guard and shakes her head. “I’m pretty sure this is beyond what we can do here, he needs a hospital.”

“More like a call to maintenance,” the unicorn says as he rolls his eyes. A moment later he’s laying against the far bars and shaking his head as blood trails from his mouth.

The guard, turning around after jumping out of the cell and bucking him across the hall, screams at him, “Protectaponies don’t get put in jail, don’t feel pain, and they damn sure haven’t been trained to repeat their name, rank, and serial number!”

The mare screams at them, “Quit fighting and help me!” She props Gearing’s head up, looks at Gearing’s thousand yard stare, and feels a shiver as she looks at the vacant expression as she hears him mutter and drone on.

“…Sierra Zulu 61357…”

A few moments later a group of detention guards come running in, a few of which are unicorns. They look into the cell and the one in the lead shoots the guard near the injured unicorn doctor a dirty look. “Little rough… don’t you think?”

The jailer puts his hooves in the air and waves it off. “Oh hell no, Captain, I’m not taking the blame for this! That little dumb ass unicorn mare you all sent down here did this.” He looks in at Gearing and says with a groan, “He’s in bad shape, Captain.”

They try to put him on a stretcher, but he just rips through it, and they end up having to use the wood and metal top of a table to carry him out of the detention block.

The original jailer looks into the prison cell and asks as he rubs the mane on the back of his head, “Should we… I don’t know… take this glass with us? It’s part of his wings, ain’t it?”

The nurse shrugs and shakes her head. “There’d be no way for putting it back together… Either treatment works to regrow what he’s lost or…”

The guard looks at her. “Or what?”

The nurse shakes her and turns to follow the others out. “Or he’s permanently maimed and will never fly again.”

They carry him to the medical ward and lay him on a table with the unicorn in the white robes following behind. As they are stepping away the older unicorn throws his hooves in the air and says in exasperation, “There or here I don’t know what to do about this! In the risk of getting kicked in the face again, it still just looks like a job for maintenance.”

The nurse screams at him, “How about looking up the fucking serial number he keeps repeating and see what his file says!”

The older unicorn motions towards the computer. “Go ahead.” He sits down and folds his forelegs obstinately. “I’m not going to do a damn thing.”

The other guards glare at him and the unicorn throws his hooves up defensively as he balks. “Whoa! Before you start fighting over who gets to kick my ass next. I do not know how to help him. A simple spell caused this. For all I know all magic has that effect.” He glares at them and folds his hooves in front of himself again. “I took an oath… ‘do no harm’… remember? And I don’t want to do any more damage than he’s already been through.”

It may have just been a bit of quick thinking on his part to keep from getting trounced by a group of disgruntled guards but they all realize he’s right.

The nurse quickly pulls up the archive system on the medical terminal then types in Gearing’s serial number to try and pull up his service record. The screen flashes a few times, as it looks like it has temporarily lost connection, and she shakes her head as she stares at it in confusion. Then a moment later she asks in a tone that’s slightly unnerved, “Ummm... What does it mean when it says ‘Access denied. Help on the way. Administer magically infused bandages and potions until arrival’?”

The detention guard captain walks over and leans over her shoulder while looking at the screen. His eyes jump wide then he yells, “Everypony out! All of you! Go! You too, Doc!” He looks at the nurse and says in a softer tone, “Not you, miss.”

The older unicorn looks around and waves his hooves. “The hell’s this about? You can’t just kick me out of here. This is my medical ward!”

The guard captain pulls out his sidearm and points it at the doctor. “Get. Out.”

The nurse backs away with an ‘eep’ and recoils away from him as the other guards grab the doctor and hurry up out the door, closing it behind themselves in the process. The guards stand outside the door in a line, barricading anyone from entering without even being told, as the doctor stands in the hallway and rants about being forced out of his own medical ward.

The guard captain puts his weapon away and looks at the nurse. “Medical bandages and healing potions?”

She nods lightly. “Yes” She looks at the screen again and says, “It explicitly mentions ‘magically infused’ healing bandages.”

The guard captain nods and motions towards Gearing. “Well. Get to it. Something tells me that we don’t have long until all hell breaks loose.”

The nurse runs over and looks Gearing over and then shakes her head as she tries to work out a plan of action. “Help me get these other beds over here. I’m going to need to manually extend his wings out and lay them down.” She lets out a sigh as she looks at the mangled form of what was once Gearing’s personal light catchers. “What’s left of them… anyway…”

The captain jumps over and helps her move two more tables over, one on either side of Gearing and perpendicular to the steel table he’s actually laying on. As she’s carefully extending out his right wing, with pieces slowly falling away, the guard captain looks down at Gearing’s face and asks, “There anything you can give him to put him out? I don’t know how he’s managed to stay conscious through all of this as it is…”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know how any sedative would work on him. I don’t even see how the bandages are going to help, but I’m sure going to try!” She drags over a large metal box and starts pulling out the various medical kits inside, popping them open and laying them out as she starts commandeering the bandages. She looks over his entire form and lets out a sigh as she shakes her head, and then starts gingerly wrapping his wing. “Gods I hope this works. Please let this work.”

The guard captain lowers himself to look in Gearing’s face. “Can you hear me, soldier?”

“… Equestrian Defense Force…”

“Help’s on the way, Lieutenant Gearing,” the captain says softly.

“…Sierra Zulu 61357…”

He looks up at the nurse and asks, “How can we get a healing potion in him?”

The nurse looks at him and then looks around the medical ward before her eyes settle on a cabinet. “I have an idea!” She runs over to the cabinet, grabs one of the IV drip bags from inside, and comes back. She uses the gauze scissors and cuts the connector off the end of the tube and slits open the top of the IV bag. “Here, help me get his mouth open and we’ll try putting this into his throat.”

The guards looks at her. “Aren’t you afraid to get it into his lungs?”

She frowns and shrugs as she smiles weakly. “There’s only two paths… either it goes down his trachea, or esophagus. If he starts coughing we’ll know it’s the wrong one… but... really, I know how to put in a feeding tube and, besides, just getting it into his mouth should be enough for it to start getting absorbed… Just have to control the rate of flow.

The captain opens Gearing’s mouth and finds practically no resistance at all in the action, and, eerily enough, it doesn’t do much to stop his constant mumbling. The nurse puts the tube into Gearing’s muzzle, and rests the end against the side of his tongue before having the captain close Gearing’s mouth again. She stands there, and pours a bit of one of the healing potions into the top of the IV bag and watches as it goes down the tube of the improvised funnel slowly.

After not hearing any coughing, or other negative effects, she dumps the rest of the bottle into the bag, then adjusts the feed button to it before holding it up for the captain to take. “Here, hold this while I bandage his wings.”

The captain does as instructed, and watches carefully. He looks over to the side and lets out a snort of interest, drawing the attention of the nurse. He points over to the side and the nurse lets out a gasp and then starts grinning as she sees the crystals beginning to slowly reform along Gearing’s wings.

“Thank goodness,” the nurse says as she wipes a tear from her eyes. “I was hoping I could help him. I didn’t want to just be useless.” She starts wrapping him up quickly, using magical bandage after bandage.

Before she even gets done with one wing, a commotion starts in the hallway that continues to get louder. The captain passes off the IV bag to the nurse as he says with a sigh, “And here’s the company I’ve been expecting…” He looks at her and says softly, “Do yourself a favor, and talk as little as possible… okay?”

She looks at him and raises an eyebrow, but nods as she holds up the IV bag.

The captain opens the door and sees a group of soldiers arguing with the detention guards who are blocking the doorway. “Step aside and let them through,” he says and the guardsponies look back at him, then do as told and he follows suit motioning into the room as the soldiers pour into the medical ward. After the cream colored older unicorn bringing up the rear comes through the guard captain shuts the door behind them all.

The cream colored unicorn asks as he’s walking over to Gearing, “What has he said?”

“Name. Rank. Serial number,” the captain says with a frown.

The cream unicorn turns back and looks at him over his glasses. “Nothing else? Just that?”

The captain nods. “Since this happened. Yes.”

The older unicorn walks over and starts looking Gearing over as he sighs and winces as his eyes pass over the damage. “And… exactly what was ‘this’ you’re referring to?”

The captain looks over at the nurse as he says, “We’re still trying to figure that out, exactly. Miss?”

The nurse looks back and forth as she tries to think. She looks at Gearing and says with a shake of her head. “According to what the security officer said. All she did was cast an illusion disruption spell on him… however…” She starts pointing around at the scorch marks along Gearing’s hide. “The damage is inconsistent with that. He has a variety of burns and scorch marks scattered over his entire body, which are consistent with the jailer’s report that he was being shocked somehow. I think his wings were shattered as a result from the convulsions he suffered.” She shakes her head as she looks at the older unicorn. “I don’t see how the two are related, but the security officer, Silver Aura, has never had a problem with this before; I don’t think it was intentional. It’s a spell she knows well.” She gently runs her hoof over Gearing’s mane. “By time I got there he was already like this. Catatonic and unresponsive.”

The cream unicorn walks around front of Gearing and looks into Gearing’s eyes. “I have a few theories of my own…” He looks over at the captain and narrows his eyes. “And you’re sure he’s said… nothing?”

The guard captain nods. “And I ordered everyone out when I saw the query response.”

He eyeballs the captain over his glasses for a moment then shrugs. “I’m sure. He’s good.” He waves his hoof. “We’ll take over from here. Thank you, miss.”

The nurse looks around then shakes her head. “This is my patient. I’m not going to just abandon him.”

The older unicorn looks at her over his glasses and asks, “Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?”

The nurse shakes her head. “No. And I don’t want to know because I don’t care. Celestia herself couldn’t order me to abandon one of my patients.”

The captain grins as he looks at the cream colored unicorn. “She’s dedicated. It’s why I had her stay and ordered the doctor out.”

The unicorn frowns then pulls out a tape recorder. “Well… Here’s how this is going to go.” He clicks it on. “We’re going to work on this. With the recorder going… if anything is said that isn’t supposed to be, your memories will be removed… understood?”

“Go ahead.” The nurse shrugs. “I just want to help and make sure he’s safe and well.” She gives a wide warm smile. “It’s what Fluttershy would want of me.”

He smirks and shakes his head. “Alright.”

The captain waves and gets his attention. “Is there anything you can do to knock him out? He’s obviously suffering.”

The unicorn looks Gearing over and shakes his head. “I really don’t want to try it. I know of a few things, but he’s so unstable right now.” He shakes his head again. “Nope. Not risking it.” He looks over at the soldiers then waves his hoof around the room, and they start pulling out equipment and quickly begin sweeping the room. A few pops and puffs of smoke appear as things that either are, or seem like, surveillance devices go up in a puff of magic smoke.

The cream unicorn pulls out a PipBuck from his coat and attaches it to Gearing’s foreleg, holding it there as he shuts it and turns it on. A moment later it begins blaring a variety of alarms and he slowly looks the list over. His face turns bright red and he bucks a cabinet hard enough that the contents scatter halfway across the room.

The captain looks at the older stallion and asks, “Can you even tell us what’s wrong?”

The unicorn sucks on his teeth and shakes his head. “He’s hurt. Bad. And I can’t do anything about it here.” He looks over at the nurse. “And you said it was just an illusion disruption spell? Do you know which one?”

The nurse shrugs then nods as she walks over to a cabinet. She comes back as she holds open the book and points. “This is the one she normally uses.”

He looks it over and turns his head side to side as he looks it over and thinks it through. Then his eyes go wide as a sudden realization hits him and he slowly hangs his head. “How’d we miss that?”

“Excuse me?” the nurse asks softly.

He shakes his head. “It wasn’t her fault… It was mine… I didn’t… UHG!” He stomps a hoof on the ground hard a few times. “It’s so damn basic!” He looks over at the captain and nods towards Gearing. “I’m assuming possession of the patient. He needs surgery. Like now.”

The nurse looks back and forth and asks, “Can we stabilize him first?”

The cream unicorn smiles at her then shakes his head lightly. “Best we can do, is get him to the O.R. … He’s not going to bleed to death, but every second we waste is that much longer he’s laying here in agony and, I’m sorry, but the potions and bandages will not fix what’s wrong with him.”

She looks over at Gearing, then back at the unicorn and gives a strong nod. “Understood. Please take care of the lieutenant.”

The unicorn tilts his head. “Lieutenant?” His eyes open wider. “Ah… That’s just what he’s been repeating…” He smirks. “It’s hard to beat old training… he’s been promoted since then…” He looks over at Gearing and smiles. “It’s Colonel Gearing now.”

The guard captain sputters and spits as his eyes go wide. “Oh fuck… Some heads are going to roll for this…”

The older unicorn looks over at him and raises an eyebrow. “I doubt it…” He waves a hoof. “Unless it was intentionally malicious… in which case… very much so, and more literally than figuratively… but…” He looks at Gearing and sighs. “Somehow I get the feeling that, even in this state, he knows it wasn’t intentional and won’t bear any grudges about it.” He uses his magic and gently folds Gearing’s wings back against his body. He starts tucking Gearing’s legs under him, in a more natural and comfortable position, then stops. He looks over at the guard captain and asks with a raised eyebrow, “Mind explaining to me why he’s been manacled?”

The guard captain rubs a hoof through his mane. “Celestia ordered him arrested herself… I don’t know the exact charge yet, all I’d heard was it was something stupid.”

The cream unicorn looks at Gearing and frowns. “That… complicates matters…” He finishes tucking Gearing in and puts a sheet all the way over him as he debates on what to do.

The nurse looks around at their grim faces then chimes in, “There are allowances for a prisoner’s custody to be temporarily transferred to another facility for medical treatment, if the attending physician deems it necessary.”

The cream unicorn looks at her over his glasses as he appraises her and asks, “And…?”

The nurse looks at him, then around the room at the others before waving a hoof and closing her eyes as she tilts her head up and back. “This is beyond the skill of our facility. As the only medical personnel present I ask that you take care of him as expediently as possible.”

The guard captain coughs into his hoof then says softly, “The… doctor’s right outside the door and-”

The nurse glares at the guard captain strong enough to cut him off. “The doctor’s an incompetent oaf! Furthermore, he refused to treat the colonel, repeatedly, and kept telling everypony to take him to maintenance!”

The cream unicorn flinches and looks at Gearing. “Ohhh he might find himself on a chopping block for that one.” He shakes his head. “This is such a nasty mess.” He looks over at the guard captain. “Get whatever paperwork you need filled out for that and I’ll sign for it while they load him up.” He looks over at the soldiers then motions with his head towards Gearing and they immediately grab the wooden table top Gearing is resting on and start carrying him out.

By the time they are loading Gearing into the back of a nondescript skywagon, the cream colored unicorn catches up with them and jumps into the back. He pulls the sheet covering Gearing back to look at Gearing and curses at the vacant stare in Gearing’s eyes. His eyes travel down to the chains, then he looks over at an amethyst unicorn mare in a business suit sitting further inside and watching him through her glasses. He nods towards Gearing and says with a snort, “Get those damn things off him…”

She nods then walks over and starts looking them over as the skywagon takes to the air after everyone’s loaded inside. Before they’ve even gotten to altitude the chains have been unlocked and tossed to the side. She grabs a folded blanket from under a bench and uses her magic to gently slide it under Gearing’s head. She brushes Gearing’s mane and looks over at the older cream colored unicorn sitting across from their non-responsive compatriot. “What the hell did they do to him, Crème ? He’s been shot out of the air and on the way to the hospital he was cracking jokes about being allergic to gravity. What could have reduced him to… this.” She waves a hoof at Gearing as he continues to mutter the same monotoned phrases.

Crème shakes his head then leans over and whispers, “I think his implants arced, shorted, and or fried when they hit him with a matrix disruption spell.”

Her eyes go wide and she pulls back the sheet. She puts a hoof to her mouth as she sees all of the various scorch marks across his once shiny body. “Gods…” She looks at Crème and says in a hiss, “That would have killed anypony else.”

Crème nods and hangs his head. “It’s so fucking basic. Why didn’t any of us think of it?” He looks at Gearing and his shoulders droop. “If this puts him out, she’s going to have all of our heads.”

Not long after, they touch down and the back opens, revealing an underground parking lot and they quickly grab Gearing and head inside. They rush through the research facility towards and into a room with equipment everywhere. Besides the various equipment the room is otherwise sterile, except for the variety of magical glyphs embedded on every surface. They set Gearing down on a heavy metal operating table, sliding him off the improvised stretcher, and starting to lay him out as comfortably as they can.

Crème gets around to the front of Gearing and says softly, “Gearing. You’re back. We’ll get you taken care of.”

Gearing continues staring off across the room and, with the absolute quiet of the room, except the soft hum of certain equipment and glyphs, Gearing’s muttering seems magnified, “Equestrian Defense Force… Sierra Zulu 61357… Lieutenant Gearing…”

Crème stands up and shakes his head and then turns to walk away when an alarm goes off on Gearing’s PipBuck. Crème turns and looks at it, then reaches over and hits the notification to turn it off so it wouldn’t annoy Gearing more than necessary.

“Hey, Gearing! How’s the greatest assistant in the whole wide world doing?” Rainbow Dash’s voice comes out of the PipBuck.

Crème stares at it, but quickly jerks his head to the side as he looks at Gearing and takes in the sudden absolute silence of the room.

“If you’re not busy trying to save the world, hop by and pick up those files you know you need to grab for me, would ya?” The message from Dash continues.

Crème’s eyes jump wide open as Gearing asks softly, “Lieutenant Gearing… Equestrian Defense For- Commander?”

“And if you could… like… take care of that boring ass shit for me… that’d be great!” Dash’s voice says from his PipBuck.

“Yes, Commander…” Gearing says with a grunt as he blinks and starts pushing himself up.

“See you at the hub!” Dash’s voice finishes cheerfully.

Gearing drags himself up by his forehooves with his head hanging and his wings crumpled at his sides. “Colonel Gearing...” He brings his intense gaze up from the table as he starts moving forward and is about to climb off the end of the table. “...Reporting for duty.”

The soldiers off to the side, that had helped carry him in, watch the broken and battered clockwork pull himself up and turn to climb off the table in absolute shock.

Crème jumps over in front of Gearing and puts his forehooves on Gearing’s shoulders as he yells, “Whoa there! Gearing! Can you hear me, Gearing?”

Gearing shakes with regular tremors and his eyes move around a bit, but he has a hard time looking at Crème as his eyes seem to involuntarily jump in different directions. “Y- yeah… Crème?” Crème nods and Gearing starts leaning forward again. “Dash… needs me.”

Crème uses his magic and all of his physical strength to keep Gearing on the table. And, as he was already aware would happen before even beginning, he finds even the combination of both sadly inadequate as he screams, “Dash needs you to lay down, Gearing.”

He pauses and looks at Crème for a moment while trying to blink rapidly and sort through his thoughts. “But… She just said…?”

Crème gently pushes Gearing back more forcefully and Gearing actually yields this time as he gingerly lays back down on his side. “Gearing, you’re injured and combat ineffective right now.”

“I can still… fight…” Gearing groans in a near whine of disappointment.

Crème shakes his head as he starts laughing, “Damn she can pick’em can’t she?” He pats Gearing on his shoulder. “Gearing, I’m sure you could still kick can up and down the line. But your implants aren’t as tough as you are. We need to take them out. Replace them.”

Gearing shakes and lays his head down as he looks around with his eyes. “You got to open me up… again?”

Crème nods solemnly. “I’m afraid we do… Do you hurt anywhere, lad?”

Gearing looks around and nods lightly but it’s in a jerky motion as he seems to be at war with his very body.

“Where? Can you tell me where?” Crème asks as he looks over Gearing’s whole body.

“E- everywhere, Crème. Everything hurts. My body. My insides. My head. Even my mane. Everything,” Gearing says with a snort as he’s shaking and twitching.

The amethyst unicorn mare in the business suit scrambles over with a tray of potions and pops the top on one of them. “Here you go, sweetie.” She holds his head up in her forelegs as she uses her magic to hold the open bottle to his lips.

Crème looks at her and asks, “How soon until we’re ready?”

She looks at him and frowns. “Everyone’s on the way, but half of the needed staff aren’t even on site yet.”

She feeds him one healing potion after another, stroking Gearing’s mane and trying to comfort him as the scorch marks slowly fade and his wings continue regrowing their crystalline shapes. Even after she’s pretty sure he’s had enough to finish healing up the visible damage, she continues slowly feeding him the potions until the entire tray has been used up. It’s one of the few things he’s actually expressed the joy of tasting and, given the circumstances, she thinks he deserves any bit of joy he can get. Even if it is only in the apparently ‘minty’ flavor of a healing potion.

A yellow unicorn mare wearing a white lab coat trots in quickly from a side door. As she takes in the view she asks, “Crème, are you sure about your assessment? We shouldn’t open him up again unless it’s necessary.”

Crème points at Gearing and sighs. “Well, we won’t know for sure until we’ve opened him up and taken a look, and I’m damn sure not doing that alone… But… I’m pretty sure, yeah. Given the spell that was used, and the fact that all of his implants are no longer responding, I’d say it’s a pretty safe bet. I’ve already ruled out the PipBuck itself being the problem.”

She trots over and looks Gearing over as she says with a sigh, “We knew the implants were risky… But didn’t think about this…” She looks over at Crème and scowls. “What are we doing about little miss spark grenade?”

Crème opens his mouth to says something, and Gearing draws all of their attentions as he says shakily, “N- nothing...”

The unicorn cradling his head massages his mane. “Shhh try not to talk.”

Gearing blinks his eyes rapidly for a moment then says with extreme effort, “S- she did us… m- me a favor.”

Crème looks around then walks over and looks in Gearing’s face. “What are you talking about?”

Gearing looks up at him as he shivers and shakes. “It’s- it’s good we found out n- now…” He looks around at all of them then says, “Better here… than on other side of l- line.” He smiles lightly but it’s twisted and racked with pain despite his attempt at being cavalier. “Z- zebra’s wouldn’t be so k- kind.” He lightly nuzzles the foreleg of the amethyst mare holding his head.

She smirks as she gently caresses his mane. “You’re such a flirt.”

Gearing looks at her and smiles as he closes his eyes and shakes. “H- hey! … Y- you’re the one m- molesting my mane!”

She purses her lips to the side and asks, “Want me to stop?”

“D- didn’t say that.” Gearing grins as his body shakes.

The pair of mares giggle.

Crème chuckles and shakes his head as he says, “You scoundrel.”

Gearing looks over at Crème and asks as he shakes, “Hey… Crème…”

Crème steps close. “Yeah?”

Gearing looks around and snorts a few times then asks, “H- how about a bit of that thunder hoof?”

Crème flinches and looks around before he leans in and asks softly, “Are you sure? You’re already in enough pain?”

Gearing nods shakily. “Y- yeah… Gods yeah… I’d kiss you if it’d convince you.”

The mare holding his head tilts her head and asks, “You going to just offer up kisses like that to him but not me?”

Gearing smirks and looks at her. “Got a- anything to knock me out for a while so I can s- stop shaking?”

The mare lets out a sigh and rubs his mane. “No… sorry.”

He closes his eyes and says with a shaky grin. “Well… There ya go then.” He opens his eyes and smirks. “But. If you wanted a kiss I’m sure that c- could be arranged too.” He gives her a wink.

She smirks and leans down as she puckers up to kiss him on the nose. He tilts his head up at the last second and plants one on her lips. Her eyes jump wide and he just grins wide and flops his head down on the table as he chuckles in a way that’s almost a cough. “Gotcha!”

She gives him a scowl and ruffles his mane roughly. “Oh you’re going to pay for that, buster.”

He settles down then takes a few forceful breaths before he says softly, “Hey… don’t worry… I’ve had worse. I’ll be back to stealing your mintsticks in n- no time.”

She lets out a sigh and looks around at the others before she looks down at him and shakes her head. She gives a wide smile and says, “I’ll… I’ll make sure to make a fresh batch…” She taps him on the nose with her hoof. “Just for you.”

He grins and goes limp as he nods. “I- it’s a d- date.”

She starts pulling away, then hangs her head. She turns back to look at him, and her eyes trail over his body.

He looks at her as his eyes flutter. “W- what?”

She shrugs as she grins widely. “Fuck it.” Then grabs his muzzle and gives him a deep-tongued kiss as his eyes bug out. She massages his cheek as she pulls back. “That’s not a ‘Goodbye’ kiss… understand? That’s a ‘I’ll see you later so I can tease you about it’ kiss… got it?”

Gearing nuzzles into her foreleg that’s supporting the underside of his head as he smiles lightly. “Y- yeah. I’ll s- see you… later.”

She gets up and quickly leaves, holding the door open for more medical and research personnel as they make their way into the room pushing a variety of metal boxes on carts before making good on her escape.

Crème looks after her and says softly, “I didn’t realize she felt that way about you…”

The yellow mare shrugs. “Well… no time like the present instead of living with regrets…”

Gearing shakes his head. “S- she doesn’t.” They both look at him and he chuckles. “W- we just flirt a lot…” They look at him and frown in a ‘you can’t be that dense way’. He shakes his head, even more so with his body involuntarily shaking. “W- we’re not compatible.”

Crème shakes his head. “Gearing, it’s okay to admit when you like someone… Even in this career, you need to have a normal life.”

Gearing chuckles and jumps on the bed a bit from a combination of the actions and his convulsions before he opens his eyes again and says with a sigh, “Well, if I was a mare it might be possible. But I’m kind of attached to my jewels, so it’s not happening.”

They both stare at him wide eyed and the mare points at the door and asks with her head low to Gearing, “You mean she’s…?”

Gearing nods and smirks. “Yeah… We flirt a lot because we both know nothing’s going to come of it… It’s… nice… s- safe… Don’t have to worry about it getting us hurt.”

Crème shakes his head. “Lad, if something happens to you, she’s still going to hurt.”

The mare keeps looking at the door but her eyes dart down to Gearing’s eyes. “What was with that kiss, then? You guys practice with each other or something?”

Gearing’s eyes go a bit wider. “That was a n- new surprise. I’ll admit.” The mare opens her mouth to say something, but Gearing looks at Crème and asks, “So… how about it, Doc? Gonna keep teasing me with that nap or go ahead and knock me the fuck out?” Crème looks at him and his shoulders sag. Gearing waves a hoof at him weakly. “Come on, D- doc. I’m- I’m dyin’ here.”

Both Crème and the yellow mare’s eyes shoot wide and Gearing partially deflates as he sighs and stops trying to move any more. “M- maybe poor choice of w- words… Maybe n- not.” He looks over at Crème and a smile crosses his muzzle as he asks, “Gonna make me beg?”

The mare jumps back away from Gearing. Gearing’s eyes open wide then he closes them as he grins. “Ouuu prettyyAAAGGHH!” He lets out a short sharp scream and falls silent almost instantly as the bolt of electricity strikes him, along with Crème’s forehoof, on his head. By the time the daylight bright flash of light has subsided his twitching has even stopped completely as he goes unconscious.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Footnote: Internal component 05 not responding. . .

Internal component 06 not responding. . .

Prioritizing Emergency Reboot Protocol. . .

Author's Note

The odyssey of a joke gone wrong continues with this chapter, along with revealing a bit more of Gearing's place in the world during the war, and other's that were with him. There's also a few things, and ponies, that directly correlate with things that are happening in the present. But those questions will be answered in later chapters. Again, I hope this format is working for everyone.

Thanks again for all of the help I've been offered and given so far during this project. It's truly appreciated!

As always, comments, questions, and critiques are welcome and encouraged!

-Quillsy