Gearing runs through a list of his companion’s tags, and finds they all seem to be in the same relative location. When he gets to the area, near the tournament crater, he spots a building that seems to be made primarily out of six stacked metal shipping containers. Three containers side by side and two high with the narrow ends pointing towards the crater. Gearing’s eyes travel over the various fluorescent lights that have been cobbled together from preexisting signs to spell out the new place with mixed colors and fonts. Crater Side proudly glows on the side of the metal above the front door. A front door has been built into the bottom center shipping container in such a way that the metal doors of the shipping container could be closed and sealed up again, to protect the inside set of wooden doors.

He heads inside, with Sable close behind, and is a bit surprised to find the inside has been mostly hollowed out, and converted into some kind of entertainment bar or restaurant. The right side has a bar counter that runs almost the entire length, with a set of liquor filled shelves running just as far along the wall behind it. All around, most of the floor space is cobbled together furniture from an amazing variety of sources. A couple wooden spindles that once were used for wire, sit on their side covered in glasses and bottles. Crates. Boxes. Even a few school desks seem to be repurposed for use as tables. Then, of course, there are a few actual tables present as well. Most of the large dining room variety. And one picnic table. Benches included.

But what really strikes him is how crowded, loud, and generally busy the place is. He hasn’t seen anything like this since strolling through the front doors of some of the seedier speakeasy style dives in Manehatten. Pre-Balefire. Ponies of various ages and colors clamor around talking, drinking, and eating. Though most of the attention seems to be directed towards the back left section where nearly half the patrons are crammed together in some kind of discussion.

A dark blue unicorn mare in an apron walks by floating a tray in front of herself. She pauses to look at Gearing and Sable sideways and shakes her head as she mutters, “More?!” She nods off towards the side opposite the door and calls out to them over the general clamor, “I think there’s still some spots over there. Watch your step, place is packed tonight.” She looks at Sable then at her weapons and frowns. “And keep those out of my butt, please.” Then she scurries off to tend to the crowd.

Gearing starts heading where directed as he looks around. Once enough of the wall of ponies has been sufficiently cleared, most of which politely step out of the way of the heavily armed, and armored, pair, he sees something that he really wasn’t expecting. Half of the back side of Crater Side is dedicated to a small raised platform. While most of the rest of the place looks pieced together, the raised platform looks built with care. Highly polished and not a sign of breakdown. The boards used to make it look like they had either come from a stage that’d been disassembled and brought here, a hard wood floor of some ritzy house, or possibly salvaged from some dance studio.

And, if all of that wasn’t strange enough, given the location and the world as a whole currently, a blur of dark tan fur zips around all over it. And continuously hops up and down as the owner of the fur periodically hangs from the ceiling and tinkers with the lights above the stage.

Gearing walks over and grins up at her as Nahlah plops down again onto the stage with her face still directed to look at the hanging lights above her. “You trying to catch them or something?”

She looks down at him then her grin explodes as she hops back onto her haunches and points at him with both forepaws as she hops back and forth on her hind legs. “Ouu! Ouu! Gearing! Gearing! Just the pony I need in my life so badly right now!”

Sable slowly tilts her head as she stares at Nahlah and lets out a grumble. Not liking the phrasing one bit.

But Nahlah doesn’t care.

She points up with a paw at the array of lights and asks, “Gearing! You fixed the lights in the freezer, can you fix these? I got them orientated right. But I think a couple of them are shorted out, and I keep burning my paws trying to get them fixed, and it’s just not working and I really need them to work like now, and, and, and…” She looks at him and tilts her head as she sits down, and then slowly tilts her head back and forth. “And… what did you do to yourself?” She looks back and forth between Gearing and Sable. “You get in a fight with a flamethrower or something?”

Gearing shakes his head and takes flight as he says, “Soot would just wash off. I needed something that’d last longer.” He starts looking over the lights but doesn’t say anything else about it.

“Riiiight,” Nahlah says as she watches him flutter over head. She gets a goofy smirk across her muzzle before slowly lowering her eyes to meet Sable. “Wasn’t my intention, but that’s a pretty nice view from here.” She points up with a paw and grins widely.

Sable stares at her for a moment, then narrows her eyes as she says with a grumble, “My darling Gearing is mine… Subject Nahlah.”

Nahlah waves it off and smirks. “Right, right… But that view’s, nice, ain’t it?”

Sable walks over closer while staring Nahlah in the eye, and Nahlah’s eyes go wide, as her focus jumps from Sable’s eyes, to each one of the barrels pointed right at her. She gives a sheepish grin before she swallows hard. “Just… just kidding,” she mutters as she looks at Sable.

Sable walks right up onto the stage and practically flush in front of her, then directs her gaze upwards, looking at Gearing as he hovers above them and works on the lighting rig. Sable sits down and a grin crosses her muzzle. “Subject Nahlah is correct…” She looks back at Nahlah and smiles. “Subject Nahlah has good tastes.”

Nahlah gives a prim nod and puts a paw on her chest. “I pride myself in seeking out and enjoying the finer things in life…”

Sable grins at her, then leans in and looks Nahlah eye to eye. “You may look… But Gearing is mine, Subject Nahlah…”

Nahlah’s eyes jump wide and she nods quickly. “Right… sure… I’m not a home wrecker.” She points up with a paw repeatedly. “I just need him to fix the lights.”

A few moments later Gearing drops down next to the pair and spits out a pair of pliers into his wing before stowing them in his tool belt. “Should be good. Wasn’t anything serious. Wires just got loose from the contacts… Probably happened when they salvaged and transported the rig from whatever auditorium they got it from.” He points a hoof off to the side. “The controls on the wall seem to work too. They did a good job of putting it back together.”

Nahlah hops back and forth on her hind legs as she claps with her forepaws. “Oh yay! Thanks, Gearing! That’s amazing!” She hops over and gives him a big warm hug before pulling back and grinning. “I’d kiss you! If your marefriend wouldn’t blast me to the moon for it.”

Sable shakes her head. “I would not blast you to the moon, Subject Nahlah.” Nahlah looks over at her and smirks, but it fades quickly as Sable continues. “That would be an exceedingly wasteful use of resources.” A gem tipped laser pops out of it’s hidden compartment on her shoulder as she comments, “Disintegration is far more efficient… and sanitary.”

Nahlah’s crooked smirk twitches a few times as she looks at Sable. She leans sideways towards Gearing and says softly, “I… I can’t tell if she’s joking or not, and it’s bothering me.”

Gearing looks between them and smirks before he leans sideways towards Nahlah while looking at Sable and replies, “It probably should… ‘cuz I can’t tell either.”

They glance sideways at each other and Nahlah giggles before spinning around and starting to hop around the stage. “Great! We’re almost ready. Go grab a table and get comfortable.” She hops up on her hind legs to stretch over the crowd and uses a paw to shield her eyes from the overhead lights as she peers through the dark beyond the stage and mutters, “Now where’d that buck go?”

Gearing looks around to try and see where she’s looking, and then looks back at Nahlah. “What?” He shakes his head. “Whatever. Never mind. Where is everyone else? They should be here.”

Nahlah nods and then starts walking by as she sees her chosen target in the crowd off to the side, near where most of the other patrons have gathered in a practical mob. “Yeah. They’re here. They’re just talking and haggling… Boring stuff.” She turns sideways and pushes his side with both of her forepaws, getting nowhere really, as she says with a scowl, “Go sit already!” Then turns and prowls off through the crowd.

A few moments later the lights in Crater Side dim as most of them cut out except for a few strategically placed can lights that provide a dim, but warm, mood lighting for the majority of the interior. The bar area has a few lights below counter level so they can make sure what they’re doing with the drink mixing without causing a distraction for everything else. Though it gives the waitress running back and forth behind it a strange under lit effect when she’s back there.

A light blue-gray earth pony stallion walks to the front of the stage from the back in a cream colored long sleeve shirt with a red kerchief in the breast pocket. He sets down a microphone stand before giving the microphone it holds a quick tap, causing feedback to come out of some hidden speakers above the lighting rig above himself. The stallion looks around as he adjusts the derby hat on top of his head and chews on the cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth. “Alright, everypony,” his gruff voice echoes out. He grins widely around the cigar and waves a hoof towards the back corner where the large crowd is barely paying him any attention. “Tonight I’ve got a special treat for you at Crater Side, and we’ll be beginning in a moment.”

He looks around and chuckles as he waves off towards the back corner. “And, in case you’ve been under a rock… we’ve got a special guest here tonight… Megamac’s own champion of the crater, Iron hoof, is joining us for the evening with her entourage.” A variety of whoops and hoofstomps of applause rise up from the crowd.

Gearing looks over in the back corner, and can’t help smirking as he wonders just how Swift is handling all of the attention.

“But,” the light blue-gray stallion says with a chuckle, “apparently she’s not the only local celebrity that’s popped in here tonight.” The crowd quiets down a bit and he savors the moment before he says with a wide grin. “Apparently… we’ve had a visit from none other than Fixer himself.”

This actually draws a few gasps and the attention of most of the ponies that had been practically ignoring him until this point.

Gearing’s eyes go wide and he slips sideways at the partial wooden crate that’s functioning as the table he’s sitting at. Scooting flush with Sable on his right side and pulling his left wing in tightly while angling it to minimize the shine from his crystalline wings.

The stallion nods and looks around over the crowd before giving a shrug. “I don’t see’em, but the evidence speaks for itself.” The crowd looks at him in silence before he points a hoof up above himself. “The sneaky bastard fixed the lights while nopony was looking. How in the hell’s he do that?!”

Several look up at the ceiling and a few actually snicker as they start looking around to see if they can spot the elusive repairpony.

He takes off his hat and holds it to his chest as he says with a smile, “Well… if you’re still within earshot, Fixer, I just wanted to say thank you. Personally. Not for the lights, but for what you’ve been doing to help improve the lives of ponies everywhere.” He looks around waiting for a response, but no one says anything for a while as they wait for some form of acknowledgement.

But Gearing remains silent.

After it becomes clear that no one’s going to fess up, a couple of the townsponies let out another whoop, and start another round of hoofstomping applause. As they’re still cheering, the buck puts his hat back on and says with a smirk, “Well, that’s fine too. I’m sure you know we’re grateful.” He turns and heads over to a piano just outside of the beams of harsh light from above and sits down as he starts looking it over.

As the light blue-gray buck talks with Nahlah next to the piano, and looks over a few pieces of paper she’s laying out for him, Gearing grabs the bottles and cups off his table and takes them up to the bar counter while everyone else resumes talking. Although at a more subdued level. After the waitress has left the bar area, walking right by him as he’s setting down the collection of bottles, Gearing gets a smirk across his muzzle. He scribbles out a quick note, and sets it under the bottles before turning around and moseying back through the crowd to join Sable again.

The rest of the bright lights on the stage drop off one by one until only the one in the dead center is left on. A moment later the microphone stand slowly starts sliding back towards the rear of the stage as the cable is used to fish it back until it’s just on the edge of the illuminated portion of the stage. A quick jerk of the cable sends the stand off-kilter, and the microphone on top disappears into the darkness as the stand starts tipping over, but then stops and stays angled as it’s being held or propped up just outside of the light. The action is accompanied by a soft pop of the live microphone tapping against something.

The microphone appears back into the light as it starts getting set up right and held up by a tan paw. A soft voice grows out of the speakers as a matching tan feline muzzle enters the beam of harsh light, just enough for their mouth to be visible, and sings, “Back hoooome they tried to tell me, what to doooo…”

The piano off in the darkness on the side of the stage strikes up with a quick run of the keys, before falling into a jazzy harmonious tune that begins alternating between supporting the vocals from the background, and playing round robin with what is said.

A hush falls over the crowd as the stage, and the alluring tune, earns the attention of every ear and eye in Crater Side. Just in time for Nahlah to step the rest of the way into the light, with the microphone held gently in one paw close to her muzzle, and the artificial flower, modified with a few small dangling ribbons, adorning next to her left ear. She slowly opens her eyes upon the crowd as she nods lightly and looks them over while continuing the tune, “And let me tell ya fellas it, made me blue.”

She cradles the microphone with one paw as she waves dismissively with the other. “They’re all ‘Why don’t you do liiiike, the other ‘Ess dooo?’”

She rolls her head on her shoulders to look at the crowd on the left side of the stage and shrugs as she continues, “They said, ‘Get back in line, and do some huuuuntin’ toooooooo.” She swings her gaze over the whole crowd as she holds the last note.

The piano begins a few runs and picking up pace as Nahlah begins walking around in the circle slowly, pacing gently to the beat with each step.

She grins out at the crowd and picks up volume with a rich tone as she waves out at the crowd with a spare paw. “If ya sittn’ there wondern’ what I’m,” She shimmies her shoulders and dips down with the line before coming back up, “all abooooout.”

Nahlah turns sideways and starts high stepping back and forth.

“Let me tell ya what made meee, scream and shout.

They say, ‘Why don’t you do liiiike, the other ‘Eeeess doooooooo?’”

She turns abruptly to face the crowd and grins as she shakes her rear and gives her tail a snap with the motion behind herself. “And so off I weeeent,” She gives a wink and uses her spare paw to make a few air quotation motions as she sings, “to do some ‘huntin’ toooooo.”

The piano picks up again as Nahlah sways side to side to the beat before she slowly sits back and gives herself a hug with her spare paw as she looks out at the crowd and locks eyes with a lone stallion sitting at a table in the center nearest to the stage. She gives him a wink and belts out, “A big strong buck is, what I wanna see.”

Her eyes trail next to him to the unicorn waitress who levitates a beer off of a tray and starts bringing it over to set it on the buck’s table as she watches the show, but the beer stops moving midair as Nahlah locks eyes with her next.

Nahlah starts running her spare paw over her chest and body as she wiggles and licks her lips while maintaining eye contact with the waitress. “Maybe a delicious maaaaaare: a filly fan-ta-sy.”

The waitress’s eyes go wide, and the hovering beer absentmindedly floats back to her. She wraps her lips around the top and takes a pull from the bottle while keeping it sideways, and out the line of sight between her and Nahlah, as she gives the apparent offer some thought. “Hmmmm.”

The buck looks back and forth, then at the beer, and points at it as he asks weakly, “Hey… isn’t that mine?”

“Oh sorry, here,” the waitress says only half interestedly before setting it on the table and walking off.

The buck looks at it for a moment before grabbing it and taking a sip as he shrugs and goes back to watching the performance.

Nahlah stays seated and waves dismissively with a paw as she leans back and sings with a grin that practically travels along with the music. “Forget ‘Why don’t you do liiiiiiiike, the other ‘Eeeess dooooo.’”

She leans forward and cradles and caresses the microphone with both forepaws as she closes her eyes and makes sweet musical love to it. “Cuz I found a liiiiiife, like no other ‘Ess knew-oooou.”

Nahlah opens her eyes and nods as she sings with a softer almost resigned tone, “I fell for this life,” She gives a shrug and a weak smile. “home’s not home for meeee.”

She points out with a paw and bops it to the beat as she motions over the crowd.

“And if ya listen bust-ah, it’s plain to see.”

She shakes her head. Slowly. Sadly.

“I’ll never do liiiiike, the other ‘Ess dooooo.”

A warm smile crosses her muzzle as she gives a sheepish grin that just makes her look adorable up there on stage. “I’m too busy loooviiin’, this world I’m passn’ throouuugh.”

She walks up to the edge of the stage as she belts out with fierce lung power, looking up more at the ceiling and musically challenging the universe itself.

“So why don’t I do liiiiiiiike, some other ‘Ess do?

I’ve crossed the liiiine,” she lowers her gaze to the crowd and smiles again as she shakes her head and gives a shrug of her shoulder. “now I’m huntn’ yooouuu.”

She slowly stretches out her paw towards the crowd as she ramps up her voice. “Too busy huntiiiiiing…” She slowly closes her grip as if holding onto the crowd itself, but leaving one digit pointing out towards them all as she finishes with a long drawn out note that continues to fade, even after the piano already ceases, until it’s completely inaudible. Yet leaves an echoing ring in everypony’s head clearly enough that they aren’t sure if they really heard it originally or if they simply imagined such a sweet note. “Yooooooooooooooooou...”

There are groans from many in the crowd as it’s left a physical ache of desire.

The absolute stunned silence that follows is only shattered, by a beer bottle likewise shattering on the floor of Crater Side. The offending buck looks down at the school desk that he’s sitting behind, and sees how it’s partially lifted and tilted to the side, which caused his drink to fall off in the first place. He quickly puts his forehooves onto the table and pushes it back down with a grunt as he blushes and hopes nopony saw that.

The unicorn mare waitress walks by the bar and tosses her apron on the counter as she looks at one of the regulars. “Hey, Nutty, tell the boss I went out for a smoke break…”

The bar fly waves it dismissively as he sips from his mug and barely looks at her. “Sure. No problem.” A moment later he shakes his head and calls after her. “Hey, you don’t smoke!”

When Nahlah turns and starts walking out of the beam of light, the room erupts into hoofaplause and whistles as the crowd starts cheering for her. She snaps around and leans into the light just enough to blow a kiss with a wink at the crowd in general before slinking back out and going to collect her bag and papers from the piano. A few moments later she makes her way through the crowd, with a variety of ponies complimenting her on her voice and more than a few asking when she’s going to perform again.

She walks up to the table with Gearing and Sable and waves a paw across from them as she asks, “Mind if I join you?”

Gearing waves across from them with a hoof. “Sure.” She smiles, and quickly takes a seat with them, and Gearing takes note of the hair pin by her ear. “I see ya found a use for the flower.” He gives her a smirk. “I was sure you would.”

She smiles lightly and runs a paw up her face to gently caress the flower and play with the ribbons dangling from it. “Yeah. Found the rest of it in a shop nearby. The owner practically threw it at me when me and Swift were in there browsing and I asked about it.”

Sable nods. “It looks good on you, Subject Nahlah.”

Nahlah scrunches her shoulders up to her ears and smiles widely before looking back and forth and tapping on the table with her forepaws. “So, what did you think?”

“I believe it was a rather pleasing song and, judging by the reactions of the audience, everypony else agrees,” Sable says with a wave of a forehoof.

Gearing nods and leans over the table a bit before he asks, “You going to start singing here regularly? I’m sure you could make some decent money at it.” He tilts his head and asks a bit softer, “And… is that why you started traveling? Wanting to sing and get away from a sucky home life?”

Nahlah snickers and shakes her head slowly. She gives a light shrug and says softly, “I can’t stay. I really need to keep moving… And as for home.” She looks at him and gets a sad look on her face before she forces a massive grin on her muzzle. “Life’s too short to just do what others that don’t care about you want.” She gives a shrug and adds, “I just wanna experience as much as possible, and enjoy life as much as I can while I still can.” She looks over the crowd and says softly, “We’re all living on borrowed time, and it’ll catch up to us eventually.”

He studies her expression for a few moments wondering if she knows that she has a hit out on her. Although, the evidence of that had been removed, hidden, destroyed, and at least one intended perpetrator left for radroach chow.

The little blue pegasus in his head hops around and points off towards the corner of Crater Side as it points out Swift might have told her about it.

Sable raises a hoof and asks as she draws Nahlah’s attention out of her thousand yard stare through the crowd. “Subject Nahlah, I do have one question about the song though… What is an ‘Es’? I am unfamiliar with that term.”

Nahlah opens her mouth to say something and Gearing says flatly, “’Ess, as in Tigress or Lioness… it’s the feline equivalent of ‘Mare’.” He looks around at the crowd, then, feeling the intense stare, turns back to look back and forth between Sable, who nods her appreciation for the information, and Nahlah, whose jaw is hanging open and her eyes wide in bewilderment. He tilts his head and says with a chuckle, “I did a lot of traveling around the world before the war ended… and before I did that I was a reclusive bookworm.”

Nahlah shakes her head then starts laughing. “You?! A bookworm?! No way!”

Gearing shrugs. “Well… When you don’t sleep, and are actively avoiding the rest of the pony race, there’s only so much you can do that doesn’t include equine interaction.”

Nahlah narrows her eyes, not believing it for a moment. “Mmmhmm.”

Gearing stares at her for a moment and asks, “How’s that so hard to believe? How many other ponies you know that read technical manuals and scientific journals like their novels? Everything I know I’ve had to study and learn, you know.” He chuckles and taps on his head. “I’m not a horn head… can’t just magic it up into my skull.”

Sable nods and looks over at Nahlah. “He is quite studious. My darling Gearing’s inquisitive and curious nature leads him to a lot of exploration and experimentation.” She looks over at Gearing and grins widely as she narrows her eyes. “It is how we became… attached? After all.”

Gearing’s eyes bug out and he looks sideways at Sable. His ears start whistling as he doesn’t need any more clues to what she’s referring to.

Swift walks through the crowd, who simultaneously crowd around, but make a respectable path for her to pass through, as she walks up to the table and looks Nahlah over. “Hey, Nahlah... You’ve been holding out on me. I haven’t heard that one yet.”

Nahlah waves it off with a paw and says, “Eh. I wasn’t quite sure it was ready. But when I saw the stage, I just had to ask if I could try it out.” She grins up at Swift. “I’m glad you were here, Ms. Iron Hoof, I don’t think he’d let me use his stage if you weren’t here.”

“Yeaaaah… this might be getting a bit out of hoof… but I’m glad you got the opportunity,” Swift says sheepishly as she rubs her right forehoof on her left upper foreleg.

“Swift, what’s the plan for tonight? You find out where we’re going? And you got a place for the night lined up or we going to just head out and find someplace along the way?” Gearing asks as he looks up at her with a raised eyebrow.

Swift does a double take as she whips over to look at him from looking at Nahlah. She leans in and narrows her eye as she looks him over. “Gearing? What the hell…?”

Gearing grins at her and gently runs the side of his hoof over his own muzzle as he says with a chuckle, “Yeah… I’ve had a bath… Clean up pretty good, don’t I?” She starts opening her mouth to ask an obvious question and Gearing frowns at her then says softly as he cuts her off, “We can talk about it later if ya want, but not here.” He darts his eyes around to a few members of the crowd before looking back at her and tilting his head as he raises an eyebrow.

She gets the hints.

She waves it off with a hoof and looks at Nahlah as she says, “Yeah, we’re staying here. They got a room for us. Probably going to be here late tonight anyway, so that’ll help. Nahlah, you remember that shop we were in earlier that the buck gave you the ribbons?” Nahlah smiles and brushes the artificial flower by her ear as she nods. “Great. Could you show Gearing where it is?”

Both Gearing and Nahlah tilt their heads as they regard her.

Swift directs her attention to Gearing then waves off towards the door. “We’ve been talking to a few townsponies, and the scrap shop owner has a skywagon on the roof of his place. But, it’s not functional at the moment. Some kind of short with the system or something. They said if we can get it running again we can use it. Handy say’s it’d take a long time to track down whatever’s wrong with it.” She gives Gearing a wide grin and tilts her head. “And I was wondering… if Mr. Best Technician Ever ‘Bar None’ would want to try putting his bits where his mouth is and see if he can get it working.” Swift tilts her head to look at Gearing out of the corner of her eye as she puts a hoof to her muzzle and chuckles. “If you think you can handle it…”

Gearing narrows his eyes and shakes his head as he thinks the obvious manipulation attempt is very obvious.

The little blue pegasus in his head hops around with ruffled feathers as it yells, You have challenged my honor! I demand satisfaction, sah! It picks up the oversized gauntlet that drops on the ground in front of it and throws it back at Swift. Have at you!

“I’ll give it a look and see what needs to be done.” He stands up and starts turning towards the door. “If there’s enough of it there, I’ll get it to fly.”

Swift grins then looks over at Nahlah and motions towards Gearing. “So sure of himself…”

Nahlah hops up and chuckles as she walks around to lead the way. She pauses and looks at Swift as she shimmies her shoulders. “Yeah… but is it really narcissism… if he can really do it?”

Swift rolls her eyes and waves them away with a hoof as she starts turning around to go back and join Handy at the massive table that was reserved for them in the back corner.

As they are reaching the door, the unicorn waitress passes them and starts cleaning off the collections of bottles and mugs on the bar counter. She tilts her head, and uses her levitation field to pick up a piece of paper that she uncovers. Her eyes bug out, and then she runs over to the stage waving the sheet of paper in front of the cigar chewing stallion. He reads it as she holds it aloft and his eyes jump open to their max as he almost drops the cigar out of his mouth.

As Gearing and Sable are exiting the doors, the lights inside kick on fully and the light blue-gray buck grabs the microphone and yells out, “Alright, where are you!?” Everypony stops talking and looks up at the stage to see what the outburst is about. The stallion waves the page around and says with a laugh, “Fixer’s in here everypony! Still in here! He left a note saying ‘You’re welcome’ on the counter!” His head whips back and forth as he starts looking over each pony one at a time. “Is he out of his golden armor? Is that why I don’t see him? Oh, come on, this is ridiculous you sneaky bastard! Come on out and say hello to everypony already!”

Nahlah looks over her shoulder as the door closes and they stand outside. “What was that all about?”

Gearing gives a shoulder shrug and continues down the lane Nahlah was headed towards. “Who knows, maybe somepony skipped out on their tab?”

Nahlah scrunches her nose and partially closes an eye before she shakes her head. “That doesn’t make sense. He said Fixer was in the bar.”

“Oh?” Gearing asks as he keeps walking and casually looking over the buildings they pass.

Nahlah looks at him and grins. “Yeah… Apparently he’d give you a run for your money, Gearing.”

Gearing slowly turns his head and looks at her. “Oh?”

Nahlah starts giggling. “You should see your face right now!” She waves a paw at him dismissively. “Don’t worry. You’re still my favorite repairpony.” She turns and continues leading the way as she says with a giggle, “But apparently Fixer’s as good or better than you at repairing things… and he’s got you massively beat in the body count department.”

Sable looks back and forth and asks, “Body count? What are you referring to, Subject Nahlah?” She glances sideways and sees Gearing’s eyes go wide.

Nahlah keeps looking forward as she blindly waves over her shoulder. “On several different evenings he’s just popped out of the shadows like some kind of demon and wreaked havoc on slavers and raiders alike. Exact numbers are unknown, but he’s credited with taking out a group of raiders and an entire den of slavers.” She turns her head to look back at Gearing and raises a paw as she says with a grin. “In just one night.” She shrugs and continues pattering down the lane towards the salvage shop. She gives a giggle as she runs up to a metal reinforced glass door. “You need to up your game, Gearing!”

Sable walks over next to Gearing and whispers at him, “But, Breaker Bar called my darling Gearing ‘Fixer’… My darling Gearing is Fixer…”

“Uh huh,” Gearing says softly with a smirk as he looks at her sideways.

Her eyes zip back and forth before she says with a smile, “I’m going to tell her.”

Gearing reaches over with his wing and pats her flank. “Don’t you dare.” She looks at him quizzically and he grins at her. “Let’s see how long it takes her to figure it out.”

As they are approaching the door that Nahlah had already hopped through, Sable asks, “Is this a prank of some sort?”

Gearing shrugs as he opens the door for her. “Nah, just an experiment.”

As she’s walking in she leans over and gives Gearing a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you.” Then she grins as she says, “I’ve made a log entry of the time so we can accurately assess the amount of time that passes.”

Gearing and Sable walk through the aisle, with various salvage stacked high on shelves, and approach the counter that Nahlah is leaning on in front of a young unicorn filly. Nahlah waves a paw towards Gearing and Sable as she says, “I’ve brought my friend to take a look at your uncle’s skywagon.”

The filly looks up from reading an old magazine on gardening and landscaping. She looks back and forth between Gearing and Sable and shrugs before she motions off towards the side. “Well, good luck with that. Hasn’t worked for a while and Uncle’s not been able to do anything with it but bitch about it not working.” She shrugs. “He’d probably be just as happy if you threw it off the building, and dragged it out of town, so it wasn’t taking up space up there and he didn’t have to look at it anymore.”

Nahlah snickers then motions with her head as she leads the way around the side and up the various sets of stairs.

Gearing lets Sable go up first, then gingerly tests the metal scaffolding stairs himself one soft hoofstep at a time. It gives a creaking of protest so he decides to give it a pass and flutters up the stairs instead. Better safe than sorry by his reckoning.

Once they reach the roof, he sees and can understand the general frustration of the salvage shop’s owner. The roof has a variety of crates and other extra merchandise, most of which is closed up inside of one shipping container or another. The largest container on the roof takes up the length of the building, and has been modified so the side of it has been removed and propped up to make an awning. Most of the space under the awning is taken up by a skywagon that’s certainly seen better days. With the skywagon there, they can’t close the makeshift awning, and he probably really wants to have more secure storage space that freeing up the shipping container would create.

Nahlah hops off to the side and strikes a pose as she presents the skywagon with both forepaws. “Tadaaaaaaa.” She looks back and forth with her paws still high in the air. “Think you can fix it?”

Gearing shrugs as he walks up. “If it’s fixable… and I have the right supplies. Yes.”

Nahlah waves it off then points back towards the door where they’d come from. “He’d said you could use whatever you needed to ‘get that thing the fuck off my roof’.” She snickers. “But if it’s not up here, it’s probably downstairs.” She cringes and slowly lowers her paws as she says, “He did say that if you need a few certain parts… he’d have to charge. And if you can’t find it in the store, it’s put up, and you’ll have to ask for a price.”

Gearing nods as he starts looking over the skywagon. “Yeah, probably talking about a regulator or a coil. Those things weren’t cheap parts even when they were being regularly produced.”

Nahlah waves with a paw and heads back towards the stairs. “Well, I’ll get out of your mane. I wanna get back to the bar. One of the waitresses promised to make me some kind of scorpion egg casserole and I’ve just got to try that before we leave!”

Gearing waves her off as he says while only partially paying attention, “Sure, enjoy.” He sits down and slowly runs his eyes over the skywagon as he starts sorting out which to look into first. It’s a smaller skywagon. Either a family passenger wagon or small delivery wagon variant. He’s not entirely sure. It’s a generic model. Nothing fancy. One of the ones that was a pain to find in a parking lot because there were so many of the exact same kind around it to blend in with.

Cheaply made. Massed produce. Utterly forgettable in appearance.

However, being rapidly fired off the assembly line means it’s both simple in design, none complicated with its construction, and there are plenty of parts to cannibalize from other wagons.

And, even better, the individual parts could be manufactured with far greater ease than their more obscure, or proprietary, fancier competitor’s versions. Which gives him more room to improvise if need be.

Gearing and Sable lift the wagon onto some crates, and they begin going over it. Gearing quickly finds that, despite his worries of impending loss of caps, the most expensive parts actually all seem intact and functional. Or should be. But he won’t be able to tell until he powers it up.

He puts in a spark battery, and jumps as he sees exactly why they’ve refused to use it. There’s a massive short somewhere in the electrical system bad enough that a few places actually arc with electricity. He quickly yanks out the spark battery and looks it over.

Sable looks back and forth then holds up a restraining cable that has a scorch mark on the end as she examines it for damage. “How do you intend on combating this? It seems rather… concerning in its severity.”

Gearing looks over at her slowly and raises an eyebrow. “Do you doubt I can do it?”

Sable looks at him and tilts her head, then grins as she says, “Oh no. My darling Gearing is a capable technician. The best. He can fix anything.” She nods a hard affirmative as she repeats, “My darling Gearing is the best…. But…” She turns to look at the wagon and says softer, “I am just uncertain of how my darling Gearing can… fix it.”

Gearing raises his wings, catching some rays from a few of the electrical lights enough to make his fluttering wings sparkle and twinkle. “Have you met me yet?” He gives her a wink and starts walking towards it as he chuckles. “Watch and learn, Sable my love. Watch and learn.” He hops over to the wagon and bends over, burying his front half under the wagon as he starts exploring the underside mechanics.

Sable’s eyes follow him over with a smile, and then drop down as she watches him bend over. She sits down and starts grinning widely as she says, “I’ll gladly watch my darling Gearing…” She tilts to the side a bit and says softly, “A bit more to the right…”

“What?” Gearing asks as he starts yanking down on the electrical harness and wiggles around to get a better angle.

She swishes her tail happily and just enjoys the show as she replies, “You’re doing fine.” She waves a hoof dismissively, “Carry on.”

He lets out a frustrated sigh then asks, “Sable, mind holding this for me, please?”

“Gladly!” A pair of her restraining cables leap out to happily comply.

Gearing pauses, then tilts to pull his head out enough to look at her as he holds up a junction box still connected to a power cable on one side. “Sable…”

“Yes, darling?”

“I meant this connector… not my rear.” He uses a wing and rattles the junction box until her eyes, and attention, move to it from where it had been previously: firmly planted on his back side.

She looks back and forth for a moment. “Oh.” She looks highly conflicted then grins widely as she locks eyes with him. “I can do both!” And another cable comes out to grab the junction box and hold it out of the way for him.

While keeping the other two firmly planted on each of his haunches.

Gearing rolls his eyes and asks, “So what’s got you so… distracting… tonight?”

“Subject Nahlah expressed her appreciation of the view my darling Gearing presents, and what’s mine.”

“What’s yours?” he asks as he continues working while steadily getting groped from behind. Sable’s cables give his rear a few rhythmic squeezes in response. “Ah,” he says with more amusement than anything.

“Indeed. Subject Nahlah has good tastes.”

As Gearing is jerking on some stubbornly rusted-on parts under the wagon, one of the metal crates suspending it caves in, as a side buckles, and the wagon starts falling down at an angle as it begins sliding off the other crates.

All of Sable’s cables jump over under the wagon and snake across the ground, creating an arc that stops the wagon from falling any further, and then lifts it carefully back up. One of the cables slips over, grabs a military grade ammunition chest, and yanks it back under the wagon to push the scraps of the other crate out of the way and take on the task of holding the weight of the wagon up.

“Got it?” Gearing asks as he remains motionless as she quickly readjusts the load balance.

“Of course, my darling,” Sable says with more than a bit of pride in her voice.

Gearing chuckles, and only goes back to work after the majority of her cables return to her. Sans the one holding the power junction and the other two providing ‘rear support’ for Gearing. “It’s nice to know you take watching my flank so seriously.”

“I am glad you approve.”

Footnote: Error detected: ‘Hydra Matrix’ system corrupted, please stand by. . .

Quest Perk: Local Legend - “Hey, didja hear the latest?!” Your various deeds have become the topic of conversation around campfires and bars in equal measure. Your reputation is starting to outpace you. Those with a positive outlook of your exploits will be more likely to provide favorable rates in trade and divulge information you request or they think may help you. Note: Expect the exact opposite from those you’ve annoyed with your meddling. It’s the price of fame.

This chapter helps set up a few things that are going to start rapidly taking place in the FoE:CwP verse. Also gives a lot of insight into one of the members of the group that, until now, hasn't really revealed much of herself beyond personality. This chapter presented a few issues for me, as I was wanting to capture Nahlah's showmanship side of things, and I hope I managed to get that across well enough to do her justice.

Story marches on with more mission way-points coming active. But only time will tell just how well those turn out.

Thanks again for all of the help, interest, and support! Things are really starting to pick up for me again now that I'm not fighting bio-demons. So look forward to more weeks of steady twice weekly updates coming down the pipe!

As always: Comments, questions, and critiques are welcome and highly encouraged!

-Quillsy