//------------------------------//
// 18 - Coming Out 
// Story: Duet in the Dust 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

They had what they came for, and some of what they had not. Their friends adorning their backs and tenuous hope in their hearts, they ascended the stairs. "This is worse than coming down," noted Octavia as they climbed, though she felt certain No Name was handling his burden better. Then again, he was larger, and stronger built on top of that. "I'll just pretend she's a cello."

She smiled at that. "She does like to make music, and sometimes I can succeed at playing her, but she is a finicky instrument. Perhaps she is in need of some gentle tuning to coax the sweet notes from her."

No Name kept his eyes forward even as he chuckled at Octavia's words. "Do you have any idea how wrong what you just said sounds?"

"I await your legal action," huffed Octavia as she drew herself up onto the next platform. "Maybe if you drank a little less, miss 'Rock Queen' you'd be easier to carry." She began up the next set of stairs. "I've lost track, how close are we?"

"Almost there," said No Name without conviction, trundling along beside Octavia."'Sign of a true friend. Anyone can talk kind if'n they want to. Not many will carry your body up a few flights of stairs."

Octavia burst into a melodic fit of laughter. "I needed that, thank you. Yes... Silly mare. If I didn't know she would do the same for me in an instant, I would be far more irate." She gently shuffled Vinyl into a more secure position on her back. "She would move mountains if she thought it would protect me. Silly mare..."

They arrived at the ground floor, the door hanging just a bit open. It hadn't ever had the strength to close itself entirely, whatever function that caused it to close itself given out over time. No Name nudged it open with a hoof and held it open with his bulk as Octavia slipped beneath him and both resumed their trek through the cubicles towards the lobby.

Octavia glanced up at her waking companion. "The plan is to get back to Turves, get treatment for our friends, and after they're both up and being annoying in their different ways, we--"

"You consider me annoying?" asked the stricken voice of Bullette.

Octavia winced. It was so easy to forget Bullette was entirely aware, or at least listening, despite being also completely limp on No Name's back. "That was a joke. That's also part of what friendship can be, somepony who presses you out of your comfort zones and forces you to think in new ways."

"Have I forced this on you?" inquired Bullette, sounding more curious than sad.

"You have, at times." Octavia raised a hoof to her chest. "Though you are not... entirely a pony--" She paused with Bullette gasped loudly, despite not having lungs. "You are something equally as wonderful, and deserving of love and friendship. You have a heart, figuratively speaking, and it can be hurt, or nurtured just the same as anyone else's. Bullette, I am glad, and proud, to call you a friend."

Bullette went quiet. No Name softly snorted. "Yer lucky... Say, uh, nice to meet you two, even if it led here." He brushed into the main lobby, looking around. "Door's still closed, figure that's a good sign?"

"Friendship!" suddenly piped up Bullette in a burst of flowing octaves, breaking her brief moment of quiet. "I apologize that my injuries do not allow me to cry properly. When I am entirely functional and operating within the standard limits of a filly my age, I will do something nice for you."

Octavia accelerated towards the door. "Let's get you both somewhere safe so we can enjoy that." She nudged the bar with her face, depressing the bar. She felt it click, the latch pulling in and the entire thing swinging outwards. "Why can't they all be bars?" She sighed as she emerged from the building entirely. The smell of ash returned swiftly. It was a stark reminder of what world she had been rushing to get back into. "Right."

No Name stepped out as soon as she was through, squeezing himself out easily. "Let's get away from here, don't need people asking questions." He turned and pushed the door securely shut. "Get movin'."

"You don't have to tell me twice." She was already trotting away as he spoke. A gust kicked up the ash in the area. As if emerging from the plume, a worryingly large collection of ponies, humans, griffons and other creatures stood. Some were parked on motorcycles, grinning at them. Most had guns, some had great clubs and other improvised weapons. None of them looked friendly. "Oh, um... hello?"

The ash just to the left of Octavia erupted with a bang as one of the many creatures fired a shot, a short male pony. "You can stop right there," he sneered with a growing smile. "Looks like it was rough for you in there. Why don't you just drop the weights, huh? Put down whatever you found."

"Or we can kill 'em," pointed out a gem gnoll female with a shrug. "That works too." She lifted a frighteningly over-engineered gun at Octavia and wobbled it towards No Name. "Don't like the look of 'em!"

No Name approached, but no closer than Octavia's side. His teeth were clenched, but he did not charge. There were over three dozen bandits, many armed. He wasn't armed, and they had injured.

"Killing them would make this easier," agreed the original male, biting down on the grip of his gun that had too many barrels. "Make it qui--"

"Wait!" A small form burst free of the crowd. "I know her!" It was Dim Flash, the short leg raider. She pointed at Octavia. "Don't wax her. She's alright."

The male short leg frowned at her. "What'd she do that's worth not filling her full of metal?"

Dim shrugged softly. "She had the chance to do me in proper and she didn't. 'Least I can do is return the favor. C'mon, she ain't worth a damn thing dead, and we can take her stuff anyway." She turned to Octavia. "Hey, we're taking your stuff. You ain't gonna stop us, right?"

Octavia considered her options in a flurry. A summoned pony hardly seemed to be the answer. She could scare some of them, perhaps, and be riddled with holes in the next moment. She could try to conjured her armor, and... maybe survive a few seconds longer. "I suppose I cannot..."

The male waved his gun in No Name's direction. "What about him?"

"What about him?" Dim asked with a raised brow. "Who cares, just take their stuff and stop wasting bullets. Like they're free or sumetin'."

The male strode forward, his swagger fit for a pony twice his little size. "Alright, let's get to the chase. What'd you find in there? Give it up."

No Name glanced at Octavia, asking without words. Both knew what they were being asked, and what it meant to either of them. Octavia simply sighed before gesturing forward. "Give it to them."

"You heard her, give it." His attention was on the form of No Name, sneering at him. "Don't think just 'cause yer big it means nothin'!" No Name was four times as wide and tall as the little raider, yet the raider held all the cards. "Nice and slow and we all get on with things."

Dim trot up casually to Octavia, glancing up at the limp form of Vinyl. "Rough time, huh?"

Octavia's ears perked at the visitor. "Are you genuinely trying to strike up a conversation as you rob me of my chance of returning home?"

"Hey, business is business, ya know? Don't mean we have to be bitter about it." She shrugged her little shoulders. "So how are things, ya know, besides the being robbed thing?"

"I've had better days," spat out Octavia through clenched teeth. "And yourself?"

"I found a new gang to roll with." She gestured at the impressive collection of thugs. "They're way more togetha than the last set of knuckle-heads. Hey, uh, really, thanks for not waxin' me when you had the chance." She rubbed her chin softly. "Guess this makes us even."

"That's the stuff," gushed the male was the orb was pulled free. "Put that, whatever it is, down right here." He pointed just in front of himself. "Hey, Swift, take it! We're gettin' out of here."

A human emerged from the crowd and hefted up the orb without challenge from No Name. "Pleasure doin' business."

Octavia reached out and thumped Dim Flashes' chest lightly. "You don't understand what you're doing. That is very important to me. I cannot say we are 'even'."

"Hey, don't be like that." Dim frowned at Octavia sharply. "You were gettin' robbed whether I was here or not. All I did was keep them from filling your pretty hide full of bullets. Show a little appreciation!" She suddenly snorted out a giggle. "Well, whatever. If we meet a third time, then it means something. Take it easy." She turned to return to the bandit group.

The apparent leader rejoined them as well. "Let's get the hell out of here. They ain't got anythin' else worth takin'."

"What about their guns?" asked another bandit, gesturing with a small hoof at Octavia's clearly visible piece.

"Hey, we ain't killin' em. Taking that and you may as well be doin' it. Dim asked us not to take 'em out, that means not waiting for the waste to do it fer us." He gestured to the west. "Let's get out of here. I wanna know what that thing does."

The motorcycles and other vehicles were deceptively quiet. Electric or magic, they had no explosions to make the noises one might expect from a vehicle. They simply rolled off with only their excited calls and celebrations of their robbery to announce their passage.

"It'll be alright."

Octavia looked up at No Name when he spoke and only realized at that instant that her eyes were full of tears as things went fuzzy and she couldn't see. She raised a hoof and wiped them clean with her fetlock. "It's not fair..."

"It ain't," he quietly agreed. "Let's get out of here."

"I am sorry," spoke Bullette in a sad downturning octave-shift. "If I were operational, I would have shown them the power of friendship... Did I hear that one of them was a friend of yours, Octavia?"

Octavia pinned her ears back. "That's being generous. She was a bandit last time I met her and I asked that she not be killed. I was going to... own her for a little while. I had hoped to protect her, but she got away from me fairly swiftly, only to show up here and take what we came for..."

No Name heaved a soft sigh. "She weren't all wrong. We were gettin' robbed one way or the other. All she did was stop us bein' killed too." He took a step past her. "C'mon. We ain't getting closer to Turves standing here. Let's get back, then we can think of somethin'."

"Something..." she sighed as she began to follow him, her tail dragging on the ground. "All of that..." She drove a hoof onto the ashen ground. "Why did we... We need to get back." She glanced over her shoulder at her injured friend. "Let's focus on that."

"Yeah..."

The trip back was far more quiet than the trip out. Neither of them were feeling very talkative. In the dark of night, Octavia laid Vinyl gently up against No Name, then pressed herself against her other side, sandwiching Vinyl between them for warmth.

No tent was used. With Bullette being blind, it was up to Octavia and No Name to keep an eye out for trouble.

The male voice of the diagnostics woke them in the morning, "sphincter #3 online."

No Name sat up with a soft snort. "Mmm? What part is that?"

"It means I can speak better!" Her lips were moving with her words, making it much easier to hear her words. "Octavia, are you conscious?"

"I am." She nuzzled under Vinyl and stood up. "And I'm ready to keep walking. The sooner we get back... the better."

No Name grabbed Bullette's limp form and stood up as well, setting her down on his back. "Anything else come back overnight?"

"Negative. Have any of your processes returned to full operation?"

No Name rolled his shoulders as he walked. "Actually, yeah, I do feel a little better. Still burns a little, but less than yesterday."

Octavia smiled thinly, but did not join the good-tidings of healing. "We should go." And they did, resuming their hike. She spoke to her unconcious friend as they went. "I'm sorry, Vinyl. You bled for this, practically died for this... and I let it get away. If you never forgive me, I'll understand..."

"Error!" sang out Bullette in a harsh buzz. "The failure you speak of was communal. We all performed at the optimal of our rated abilities."

No Name softly snorted at that. "Curious way you have of cheering her up. Even our best wasn't good enough."

Bullette quieted, her one working ear pinning down. "That is not what I meant..."

Octavia swerved towards No Name, reaching up to gently poke at one of Bullette's danging hooves. "It's alright, you were fine... You saved us. I can literally not hold any of this against you, Bullette. You're a hero."

"Receiving of friendship points acknowledged." Her cheerfulness was muted, dulled by the downturn of her companions. "You are also working very hard." Her voice suddenly shifted in pitch. "New idea!" she sang. "I wish to spend friendship points."

Octavia quirked an ear at her disabled mechanical friend. "I can't promise to oblige, but I'll listen and decide at least."

"This is acceptable. How many friendship points does it cost to make you smile again?"

Octavia flinched away. "You... can't even see if I am smiling right now."

"Error. A smile can be detected without visual confirmation. You are not smiling."

No Name shook his head. "She has you there."

Octavia snorted softly at the large pony. "Right, well... it's... not that easy. If it helps, just being asked that, in the way you do... It makes me a little happier. Thank you, for caring about how I feel, but I still feel how I do... I think I need time, a thing this world isn't keen on giving me. Time and a little peace."

"Do you wish me to be quiet?"

"No! No... you're fine, Bullette." Octavia pressed forward a little faster. "And you'll be better once we get you all fixed, just like Vinyl here." She suddenly snorted, smiling a little. "Imagine if she could talk right now? She'd complain the entire way about things. Hey, Octie, I can't see, can you try opening my eyes for me? No? Put my headphones on and turn it to this song. Oh yeah!" She tried to imitate Vinyl's accent and burst into giggles. "I miss you, stupid mare... be alright."

The next day, Octavia woke to the sound of metal crunching into something. She scrambled to her hooves and saw No Name bashing a giant bug with his sign, crushing its shell and forcing it to stillness. "Oh, thank you."

He slung his sign back up into storage. "Thing thought we'd make a good snack. How about we eat it instead?"

Octavia wrinkled her nose at the great roach-like... thing. "I'm not sure I want to try that. We have enough supplies to get back to town."

"Yeah. Come on, Bullette. Let's go." He reached for her and she squealed as he tossed her up onto his back with a twist of his neck. "Huh, can you feel that?"

"Yes, those sensors are operating minimally. Movement can be detected. It is nice to feel you again."

No Name blushed faintly. "That sounds weird."

"Do not make it weird," sang out Bullette. "Are we almost there?"

"Yeah, should be."

They resumed their hike towards Turves. Roads started to emerge from the ash, and the ash itself thinned as they came closer to it. The town was still cleaning itself of any ash that blew in, making it easy to notice as they emerged from it.

"Hey," cried a familiar bear. "You're back, oh..." He noticed the injured swiftly as he approached at a jog. "Crap. Let's get you to the doc's." He gestured a great paw-hand towards the town proper. "We'll save happy welcome-backs until after that."

Octavia's burden was taken from her, the bear gently cradling Vinyl and hurrying off with her. No Name broke off in another direction. "A doctor ain't gonna help Bullette."

This left Octavia alone, wandering into town with an empty heart, a still stinging back, and nothing to do. "I'm stuck here," she sighed out. Though she had less pushing down on her physically, she felt crushed, as if the world itself were trying to force her into the ground with every step. "I'm stuck here..."

"Octavia Melody," came a refined female voice. The sheriff/queen approached with a smile and spread wings. "Just the pony I was hoping to see."

Octavia waved weakly as she crashed to her haunches. "I'm afraid I will not be very good company today."

"I assume your trip did not go as planned... Please, tell me what happened." She flinched, as if the failure of the mission were somehow a personal failing. "Tell me everything." Her teeth clenched, trembling with some intense emotion that confused Octavia.

"You did nothing wrong," assured Octavia. "You've been nothing but k--"

"No." Longshot shook her head. "It doesn't work that way, my precious subject. I told you to do something, and it didn't work. Tell me what happened, exactly. Please."

Octavia sat up at that, her ears perked at Longshot. "We found what would send us home, but it needed more power than we had there. At that point, Bullette and Vinyl were both injured badly. We took the thing with us, to bring back here, but bandits were waiting for us to come out. They took it and went off with it to who knows where." she waved vaguely with a hoof. "And here we are, with nothing but new injuries..."

Longshot set a hoof on Octavia's shoulder. "Unacceptable. You may not have won your way home,  but you are not without a home." She waved a hoof over the town. "We are here, and you are one of us. I know it... doesn't always feel that way, but you are. People talk to me, they ask about that mare that always has that... look. Tell me, what would put a smile on your face, even if just for a little while?"

Octavia's ears flicked back before slowly raising. People talked about her moping about? Figured... "Well..." A ticket home? Longshot didn't have that. "I would... very much like to have a cello. Do you have one of those? I would... very much... like that..." The thought of having her beloved instrument back forced a little smile on her face. Of course, even if another were offered, it wouldn't be her lovely baby, but even another would... "Yes, do you have one of those?"

Longshot inclined her head. "I will see what I can do. Many traders come and go through Turves, and we are certain at least one of them will have this instrument. If it will ease the pain in you, it would be a pleasure to get one. Meanwhile... I will check in on your friends." She took a step past Octavia. "Please, don't forget you are welcome here, even if it is not ideal. You are a Turves citizen, even if you long for your home."

Octavia watched her march off purposefully. "She isn't a bad queen," she decided, shaking her head. "Or sheriff, come to think." Not that either helped her terribly, but she stood up and turned in place, looking for something to distract her from the unfortunate present. Surely there was something she could do, perhaps?





"I specialize in guns."

"Ya don't think ah know that?" replied No Name. Both were speaking common, with no ponies in sight. He gestured a hoof at the prone form of Bullette. "Do what you can, please," he begged the griffon gunsmith.

Lunarquills threw up his hands with a heavy sigh. "And you'll get upset at me if this goes bad. Like the Jester's personal little joke." Despite his words, he turned to the broken filly and grabbed a hanging screwdriver off his tool rack. "Let's see if there's anything obvious I can put to right. If it looks like I don't know what it does, I ain't touchin' it."

"Yeah, that sounds fine..."

"Initiate repairs," sung out Bullette in a happy voice. "I believe in you, Uncle Lunarquills!"

Lunar quirked a smile on his beak. "My guns don't usually tell me I can do it." He pulled up a stool and sat down, starting the slow work of trying to help Bullette's body restore itself. "What'd you do? It looks like you went dancin' out in a thunderstorm."

"That is not an inaccurate report," she agreed, still sounding happy. "I was engaged in combat with the defense systems of a pre-Blaze facility. I was victorious with the power of friendship!"

"Yeah, sure...."





A small stallion leaned over Vinyl's limp form. She had been bandaged up where she needed it, but mostly, she was just laying there, sleeping. "Whatever she experienced, it has taxed her system terribly."

Longshot nodded softly. "See that she's taken care of."

"As if I'd do anything else." The shortleg surgeon smiled brightly. "She's a patient, and I'll be sure she remains that way until she asks me to cut it out." He pat the bed she rested on gently. "I don't think there are any real complications, she just needs time and care, and we'll give her both of those."

"How was her companion, and No Name?"

He perked up. "I haven't seen either of them. They didn't come in. I assumed they were alright, since I wasn't told they... hadn't come back, just that they hadn't come here, specifically, you know?"

Longshot frowned softly. "No Name can be very stubborn when it comes to seeking medical assistance. Damned stallion could be missing a leg and swear he'll sleep it off, then tell you to stop bothering him for bringing it up."

The doctor chuckled softly in agreement. "That sounds like him. He wasn't, uh, that hurt, I hope?"

"We don't believe this is the case, but it would please us if they were both looked at, despite their own lack of care for their health."

"I'll try to be subtle." He hopped up and hung his stethoscope while standing on his desk to reach it. The hook for it was too high for him to reach otherwise. "How about you, your ladyship? You're overdue for a little inspection. Just because you don't feel anything doesn't mean you shouldn't do the usual upkeep."

She smiled gently at the small doctor. "While we have no doubt it would please you to have us at your hooves, our schedule will not allow it..." she paused a moment. "Actually, are you available in four days?"

"For you, I can be without hesitation." He dipped his forebody down, bending a hoof over his front.

"I will arrive at dawn then." She turned to depart. "Check on both of them. We do not want harm to befall either, more than what has already happened. Poor things..." She was gone just after that, leaving the good doctor to his work.

He shook his head softly. "What does she see in you?" He trotted over to Vinyl's bedside. "You're pretty enough, but she's not usually distracted by any one pony..."