//------------------------------//
// 15 - Sheltered in Metal 
// Story: Duet in the Dust 
// by David Silver 
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Day came in the gentle way of the ashen age. There was no harsh glare of the eager sun, just a soft diffuse glow that came from the sky, casting even and gentle light across the stretches.

No Name snorted as something poked him on the cheek. Bullette was prodding him with the flat of a hoof silently, waking him up. He rolled upright just in time for her to sing out that it was time to awaken to the others. She had spared them knowing that he had fallen asleep.

Octavia was the first to emerge, a brush working through her mane diligently as another ran across her form, soothing all the tangles in her pelt. "Good morning. I trust there were no issues?"

"No dangerous lifeforms detected within acceptable range," agreed Bullette with a happy warble to her words. "Are your batteries recharged?"

Octavia lifted an ear. "I feel... I am within an acceptable range of energy for a mare of my age and health."

Bullette blinked rapidly. "Are you adjusting your vocal routines for my benefit? That is not required." She clopped a hoof on her metal chest. "I will endeavor to speak closer to the standard accepted by those around me."

"Nah." Vinyl slipped free of the tent, already clean, though not as nicely brushed. "Octavia's being silly, and you're being awesome. You do you, Bullette."

"I wouldn't give it no big thinkin'." No Name shrugged as he turned for the factory. "We all talk our own way." His voice deepened into an ominous rumble, "We should prepare. It's time." A snake coiled to look at the others despite his face trained on the building. It spoke in a lighter tone, "Be careful, and stay near me."

Vinyl's glowing horn made short work of the tent, folding it up quickly and stuffing it in No Name's saddlebags. "Breakfirst first, right? Even a rock goddess needs a few cals to get going."

"Affirmative." Bullette's legs extended a little, letting her reach No Name's saddlebags more easily. She rapidly procured the rations and tossed them with a flick of her head, one to each of the mares. The last she held in her mouth as she came around in front of No Name.

As they all munched on their breakfast, Octavia looked over No Name. "You are looking rather energetic for not having slept. You are very resilient."

No Name folded an ear back. "With Bullette, anythin' feels possible. Like wandering into an old, active, building probably filled with war tools like it ain't no big thing."

Bullette shook her head. "While I am pleased that my presence inspires confidence, this activity remains danger level: red and proper caution must be taken. Permission to enter advanced combat mode?"

No Name looked to the building once more, a heavy sigh escaping him. "Ain't no use putting it off more... Go ahead."

"Affirmative," she said, her tone lowering as armor sheets rolled out over her legs. Her eyes began glowing an eerie red shade as targeting reticles in sickly green swept over them, seeming to take in everything around her all at once. The belt of ammunition from before sprout from her side to click into her left arm as the nozzle of her flamethrower poked free of her right hoof. Despite this, she seemed able to walk, though was slowed by it.

No Name grabbed her by the nape of the neck and tossed her up onto his back, ready to be his personal turret.  "Be ready in case of robots."

"Robotic countermeasures: Online." Her large gun popped free of her back as an arc of electricity ran through her from the top to the bottom with the promise of other ways to inflict pain. "Accessing archives. Countermeasure tactics loaded: Robots, Cultists, Spirits, Bandits -- Error."

Vinyl waved up at Bullette. "Error?"

"Tracks match known bandit profile."

No Name rose to his full height, looking towards where the tracks had been. "They won't be inside." He began to walk towards the building in the great steps his form provided. "Let's get moving."

Octavia spared a glance towards where the tracks had been, but that paled before the more immediate threat of the building they were approaching. It seemed wholly unnatural. After seeing nothing but the remnants, skeletons of structures, to see one that stood in outright defiance of the 'natural' order made her skin crawl.

Her brushes floated in front of her, obediently making it known that they were done grooming her. "Anyone else want a brushing?" she asked, knowing the floating would continue for some time.

Vinyl hurried up and pushed her nose against one of the brushes. "Hit me with that classic magic of yours."

As they marched towards the building and their potential harm or death, they would at least do so looking properly cared for.

The entrance was partially obscured, hidden from casual sight until they had practically run into it. Covered with vines and growth, the metal double door seemed intact beneath it. "That's encouragin'," noted No Name. "If you could see it, you'd have to ask who was keepin' it open."

Vinyl waved her shining horn, plucking at vines one by one.

"Initiating defoliant treatment." She raised her flamethrower-equipped hoof and with a great rush of fire began to burn the side of the building and the plants clinging to it. "Incineration complete in 68 seconds. Monitor for uncontained fire."

Octavia winced at that, taking a step back. "What do we do if the fire spreads?"

No Name shrugged from beneath Bullette. "Running works."

"Incineration complete in 40 seconds."

Vinyl tilted her head left and right. "Huh, the vines aren't dead, so they aren't catching as easy as I thought." Her eyes traced where the burning vines withered and died. The fire did not spread eagerly past where Bullette was directly setting on fire. "Hey, BulBul, you can stop now I think."

Bullette blinked her eyes, red as they were. The flames cut off abruptly. "BulBul? That is not my designation."

Vinyl grinned as she pointed at herself. "I'm cashing in some of my friendship points."

Bullette tilted her head with growing befuddlement. "Please state the transaction being performed."

"I know the rules." Vinyl nodded to herself. "It probably takes... maybe 30 points, but I'm giving you a personal nickname, BulBul. I'll earn those back because the name is picked out of, you know, good feelings, not, like, a mean nickname or anything. You'll like it."

As Bullette seemed to grapple with the name being given to her, Octavia advanced on the door. The flames were already dying away, leaving shriveled and charred vines behind. The flowers that had clung to them were basically little more than ash to join the rest. "I should imagine this was not one of the hostile plants, or it would have reacted."

"Wager it would have." No Name reached out and hoofed at the door handle, trying to get it open with little success. "Hey, Vinyl. If you're done confusing Bullette, can you get this?"

"Huh? Sure." Vinyl's horn glowed as she felt around the handle. "There's a catch." A loud click echoed in the area as she pressed it. "And..." She gave a firm pull and the door swung outwards. The inside was dark for only a moment before lights flickered to life, illuminating what looked to be a sizable entry hall of sorts.

No Name scowled. "I don't like that. A fancy lever right there means it was made for unicorns, or bipeds. My money's on bipeds..." He lowered himself and wriggled through the wide enough but perhaps slightly short set of double doors, winning access with his rider. "No way but forward."

Octavia and Vinyl hurried inside. Vinyl pulled shut the door behind them. "If whoever shows up, they're out of luck if they can't find the switch." On the inside, the doors had a clear bar for pushing, which seemed simple enough to operate even for a pony with hooves alone. "Now, just in case." She pulled free her flashlight. "Just because it's all light now doesn't mean it'll stay that way."

Octavia was gaping at the wall, where a poster was hanging, defiant of the years. Its colors were faded and the ink gone in places, but the picture could still be made out. It showed the pony icon of defiance, Sunset Sally, but there was a big red circle around her with a line through it. Words were written, but they were worn with time and not even in proper Ponish, or was that Sylvan? "Your assumption of bipeds feels more likely..."

"Designation accepted!" suddenly cried Bullette in defiance of what was going on around her. "Friendship point total updated."

Vinyl pumped a hoof victoriously. "Alright, BulBul, let's check this place out. What's that about bipeds? Like the bears?"

No Name nodded as he walked slowly across the tiles. "The bears are harmless. Watch out for humans. They were one of the major sides in the war." He approached a metal desk that dominated much of the right side of things, walking along it slowly. "Trans-Tech," he read outloud from a plaque that rested on the desk. "Name of the place?"

Octavia's ears perked. "That sounds like a place that may know how to reach another world," she excitedly noted as she rushed for the desk. "Do you see anything?"

"Nah." He reached out a hoof, brushing old papers aside, but most of them fell apart as soon as he began touching them. "Wanna look behind?"

Vinyl hopped up onto the desk without further prompting, then down on the other end of it. "Oh hey, what's this?" A fattish object floated up and rested on the desk. There was an image on one side of it, and it was not still.

"Welcome to Trans-Tech," it read with a swirly image of a portal icon beneath the worlds, perhaps their logo. It all faded away with a new prompt, "User:" and "Password:".

No Name pointed at the keyboard that wasn't far away. "You have to use that, which I ain't doin'. Typing with hooves these large is just not a thing." He wobbled his mighty hoof for all to see.

Octavia pulled herself up onto the desk to peer down at the keyboard. "It has far too many buttons, and they're too small." She frowned a little with thought. "Fingers, that must be they key to it." She waved a hoof at the board. "Brushytime--"

"--You nicknamed it? Brushytime?" Vinyl was grinning with mischievous joy. "I'm remembering that one."

"Ahem, yes. Well, try it. Hit... that one." The unseen presence that had brushed Octavia was still present and it obediently pressed the key she had indicated. The same character appeared on the screen under the user name. "I see.. It's a 1:1, that's good... Shame I have no idea what... the user would be?"

No Name hiked a brow. "I'm more impressed a human place has things written in sylvan. Humans have lots of names, could be anything. Maybe we don't want to just try random things."

"Affirmative." Bullette raised a hoof as the bullet feed popped free of it. "Exiting combat mode. Please place me within operational distance of the computer."

No Name huffed softly with clear displeasure at the idea, but he looped back on himself, grabbing Bullette and placing her gently down on the desk beside Octavia. "Be careful."

"I will use all standard precautions," assured Bullette, her voice warming as her armor pulled away and she finished exiting combat mode.

"Use some extra ones," urged No Name. "Don't get hurt."

Vinyl clopped her hooves together with  building excitement. "Tell me you're gonna... oh you're doing it! You are earning so many friendship points right now."

Bullette did not reply. Her eyes were on the screen as her hooves divided then divided again and again, becoming a fine weave of wires and hard points that began to click at the keyboard at a dizzying rate. The user name cleared away and filled in only to clear away and fill in before any of the others could even see what was typed. It was a mess of characters forming and vanishing in the blink of an eye.

"Exploit found," sang Bullette. "Accessing backdoor." The sound of a creaky wooden door played from deep inside her.

Octavia leaned towards Vinyl. "Do you have any idea what she's doing?"

"Nope," exclaimed Vinyl. "Doesn't stop it from being awesome. Show that thing who's boss!"

"Countermeasure d-d," her head slumped and the lights of her eyes went out.

The room became still a moment, all three faces locked on the still form of Bullette.

"Gods damn it!" roared No Name in a cacphonous chorus, hisses rolling out between the syllables as all his snakes joined the cry. "Save her!" His hooves trembled, clearly wanting to yank her away, but just as afraid that would cause more harm.

Vinyl held up a hoof straight up, her foreleg bent. "Stop. Wait... Wait for it..." She was watching Bullette along with the other. "Wait for it..."

"Vinyl!" exclaimed Octavia, shaking her head rapidly. "Just... tell me you know something."

"I know I have more friendship points to earn. Have some faith. She's, I dunno, saving all her power to fight. We have to be there for her." She floated her headset up to flip around the headphones, some electronic music starting up. "Go on, we're with ya, promise!"

Octavia took a slow breath. "That... makes no sense, but there is little else we can do. Bullette, if you can hear us, we're here, and we're waiting for you. Come back, please... when you can. Be safe."

No Name rose to his full height. "If she so much as twitches, you let me know." His voice was strained and weak, his rebellious snakes revealing how hurt he was as he turned and walked away slowly. "You can't leave me..."

"Don't be like that. Go on! Get 'em--what was that?" One of Vinyl's ears perked up at the distant but approaching sound of something striking metal in quick click-clacks.

Octavia held out a hoof and her unseen presence grabbed her miniature and set it on the hoof. Soon a field of energy snapped into being around her. She was already reaching with her mouth for her gun.

Vinyl floated up her gun. "I'm ready, got the music already going. We have this."

"Have wha--" His question was unfinished. With a crash, a balcony one story up was broken wide, a creature that looked like a great predatory cat version of Bullette had been made. There was no kindness in its dark red eyes.

"Intruders detected, initiating removal," it spoke, though it did not pause to speak it, already jumping down from above and landing with surprising agility, not a mark left for its plummet. Its voice did not modulate wildly with Bullette's energy, instead it was a low monotone. It sprung right off the landing to bound towards No Name, apparently going for the largest available target.

Octavia pushed her tongue forward, the fury of the song flowing through her. For a moment, she couldn't hear the song, but she wasn't actively paying attention to it. Her shot was true, the scrap  bullet digging into the side of the metallic beast and knocking it just off track enough.

No Name roared with fury, catching the beast and its great metal claws. The shot had thrown it off a clean and direct show, half-sliding from No Name as he quickly drew his great pole free into his mouth.

A second bang rang through the cavernous entry hall, Vinyl taking her shot and catching the thing near its mechanical tail. "Buzz off! We got more important things to worry about than a hunk of junk!" The thing barely had time to register the first shot when Octavia fired another, and another, not even pausing between her bullets save for the time it took to draw her tongue back and forth.

Its attention was secured, abandoning No Name for sake of charging the two gunsmares. "Minor damage detected," it noted without pause as it devoured the distance between itself and the two mares frightfully quickly. It leapt into the air as Vinyl's second shot sailed over its shoulder.

With a tremendous crash, No Name came down on it, driving his sign's pole right through its back hard enough to plant in the concrete floor beneath it, shattering the tile that was in the way. "Severe damage detected," it spoke with all the same severity of its last statement. Though a living creature would have been suffering shock or surprise, quite possibly killed outright with the savage strike, the robot had less care for its material form.

It pulled itself free in a shower of sparks, its gait roughened by the severe damage, but it was not stopped. Octavia's gun was clicking wildly, her bullets already spent. "Reload," hissed Vinyl as she squeezed out a third shot, catching it on the rump as it resumed its charge. "Reload!"

"Yes, yes, reloading." She started to release the gun to get it into reloading position, but Octavia could see the mechanical thing would be on them before she finished the still laborious process. "No." She hopped down from the desk. "Not an option." She stepped towards the oncoming cat-machine with only the unloaded gun in her snout.

"Octie!" Vinyl's gun jumped in the air, causing sparks to jump from where it hit the thing's right foreleg to no real effect. "Get back here!"

No Name was charging after it, but it was faster than he was, and it was putting more distance between them with every powerful feline stride. It jumped for Octavia, its jaws wide and claws poised to tear into her and remove one of the intruders of its protected area.

"Protect me!" She slammed a hoof on the ground, the miniature in her pocket growing warm. A ripple of space and time opened between her and the robot. Disgorging from it without delay was a pony. Not just any pony, but what seemed to be the precisely same pony that they had conjured that night when the insects had swarmed them.

The robot crashed into the pony, angrily tearing it apart in a great shower of blood and viscera. The gore was short-lived, fading into the same sparkling aether it had sprung from, its form fading back to whatever realm it had been copied from.

It was enough time for No Name to catch up. With a bellowing hiss, he swung his sign from right to left, catching the mechanical beast in the side. Its clawed paws leaving the ground as gravity was freed from it with the force of the impact. With a mighty heave of his neck, he sent it flying. Though it righted itself as it flew, it crashed against the far wall, hitting the ground with new pieces sparking. "Get behind me,"  he huffed, advancing on the thing.

Octavia dropped to her haunches. "Reload..." She set about reloading, her eyes hazy and unfocused. Vinyl still had shots. Lining up her gun at the thing, she fired twice in rapid succession. 

The first went wide, but was close enough to make the thing jump right into her second shot, striking it across the snout and knocking one of its metal teeth free. "Aw yeah, feel the power of rock flowing through you!" With her cheating unicorn magic, she began to reload quickly, eyes never leaving her enemy.

"Yeah..." He could feel it, Vinyl's music filling him with power and fury in equal abundance. "Gonna tear this thing apart. Stay back." No Name stampeded towards it as it returned the favor. It must have been programmed to leap at its targets, as it did not waver from its tactic, surging at No Name. "Batter up," he grunted out, swinging his sign left to right, catching it with the pole between its teeth as he followed through, sending the thing crashing through the desk into the wall behind it, leaving a mighty crater where it smashed into the concrete.

"Terminal damage detected. Shutting down for repairs." It slumped to the ground and went still, even the sparks ceasing as if it had never moved to begin with.

Vinyl holstered her reloaded gun with a loud sigh. "You hurt? Need a little rock love?"

Octavia nuzzled her gun back closed and looked up, only then noticing that the combat had ended. "We won?"

No Name approached the fallen form of the robot. "Let me... be sure." He prodded at it with his make-shift polearm. "Yeah... it ain't moving. How's Bullette doing? She... she alright?"

Vinyl turned back to where Bullette sat facing the screen. Both it and she were dark and unmoving. "Nothing's going on... that we can see." She floated up her headset and popped it onto Bullette's ears, turned back around to face inwards. "You need this more than us. C'mon!"

No Name walked over to Octavia's side. "Thanks."

"What?" Octavia inclined an ear. "I barely accomplished a th--"

"--You stop that right there." He snorted as a few snakes hissed. "Your little shooting spree got it off of me to respond. Your little summoning trick stopped it long enough for me to get into position, see? You weren't there, things mighta gone bad." He reached a large hoof for her, booping her right on her refined nose. "Accept a compliment, damn you."

Octavia colored faintly, a little smile on her face. "Then... I won't argue that any further. I am glad we were all there."

Vinyl raised a hoof high. "Exactly! All for one and one for all and all that. Now let's all be there for Bullette. She's probably fighting something even worse than that whatever it was." She clopped her forehooves together. "You can do it!"

No Name shook his head. "You're better at cheering than I am."

Octavia rose to her hooves, sliding her gun away. "Be that as it may, you are the one that she knows and cares for the most. Your presence will have the most difference. Please, let her know you're behind her."

"I don't even know if she can hear us..." Despite his reserved words, he came closer to the counter, leaning over the desk to look over Bullette's darkened and still form. "I hate seeing her like this... Like... she ain't alive... I..." A tear spilled from his large eye. "It ain't right... She don't deserve this. Why can't it take me instead?"

"Illogical," suddenly spoke Bullette, without the usual mouth movements to go with it, simply emerging from within her. "You are unequipped for this form of combat." Her eyes flickered to life and her mouth turned to a smile as she sat up. "Operation: successful!" she sang as a victorious jingle played from within her.

"Bulette!" No Name reached over the desk and grabbed her up, yanking her and her wires into a fierce hug. "Don't do that again!"

Vinyl clopped her hooves. "BulBul! I never stopped trusting for even half a second."

"You had doubts for approximately 1.29 seconds," argued Bullette from No Name's hug. "Your recovery and faith are noted. Friend points assigned."

Octavia quirked a little smile. "I wasn't sure, but Vinyl seemed so certain..."

Bullette poked No Name suddenly, though the boop was foiled with all the wires still dangling out of her un-whole hoof. "Why did you not believe in my combat abilities? The power of friendship would not permit me to lose."

No Name looked away shamefully. "Yeah yeah... I mean... You know..."

"I do know." They hugged gently in the quiet, understanding one another's injuries.

Vinyl pointed at the screen that had recovered, showing some sort of interface she did not grasp. "So, uh, can you make it do whatever it does now?"

"Affirmative," sang Bullette. "Please place me within operational distance to resume operation."