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// 27 - Prepare Your Magic 
// Story: Duet in the Dust 
// by David Silver 
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When Octavia opened the door, Randal was nowhere to be seen. She peeked left and right as Vinyl walked out past her.

Vinyl nodded softly to the beats playing from her returned headphone. "Looks like they trust us to see ourselves back to the house, but if you don't mind, I want to say hey to my friend." She pointed to where they had left the guitar player. "Don't want him thinking I'm still looking like barely warmed dead pony meat."

Octavia's snout wrinkled at the image summoned. "Go on then. I'll report your recovery to the others. Come back after you've finished."

There, they parted ways, one for the inhuman house, the other going through the streets with a smile. Vinyl found her target sitting in a chair, strumming his instrument in a wistful melody. "There you are!"

He perked up at her. "You... better?" His expression brightened. "Good. Hurt?"

"Not anymore." She reared up onto two just to put her forehooves at her hips. "Vinyl's back, baby. Did you miss me?"

He played quietly a moment, perhaps unpacking her quick sylvan words. "Yes," came his eventual reply, his eyes on his instrument however. "Good you not hurt. Friends." He gestured towards the inhuman house.

"I have one right here." Vinyl tilted her head faintly as she fell back to all fours. "Figured I'd say hi while I could. Hey, I didn't plan to leave, by the way, they just kinda dropped me off. Poof, like that." She clopped her forehooves together. "I wouldn't have gone without at least a goodbye if I had known, you know?"

"Randal." He ran is fingers across the strings in a strum. "It alright. Go, before someone is upset. You not us anymore."

Vinyl tilted her head with a little squint. "I was never, uh... you know, human?"

"Us." He raised a hand to twirl it around. "Here." He pointed in the general direction of Turves. "Other."

Vinyl cringed at that. She was literally 'the other'? "Dude... I'll be at the inhuman house. You can come by, you know, if you want. Maybe we can make some music?" She turned away though. "You don't have to."

His fingers began to work the strings, playing an actual song instead of the aimless strumming they had been doing. "You friend, but not here. Not us. Good to see."

Vinyl looked over her shoulder a moment before nodding. "Yeah. Good to see." She smiled a little and hurried off to rejoin her newer friends.





Octavia reached the inhuman house long before her friend. She knocked once, a clop of hoof on wood, then opened the door. "I return."

"Quack!" greeted Duck eagerly. "We were just playing cards."

No Name rolled his eyes. "If you can call what he does cards."

Bullette tilted her head at Octavia. "Vinyl Scratch not detected."

"She paused to visit a local friend." She smiled a little as she kicked the door shut behind herself. "The operation was a complete success. She has full movement and can breathe without impediment. The shaman said she would treat us after she's had some rest."

Bullette perked her metal ears at that. "Good news," she sang out. "Please allow No Name to be next. Though he is strong and tough, he is also too stubborn for his own good."

No Name's snakes hissed as one. "Yer gonna do me like that?"

Octavia raised a hoof. "It's quite alright. Please. You've already given so much for us. You may be next."

No Name huffed softly as he rose to his hooves. "Ah'm barely hurt anyway. You go next."

Bullette raised a lone hoof. "Initiative 7."

No Name frowned at her. "Really, over this?"

"Affirmative." She nodded from her seated position, laying on her belly as she was.

The argument died, just like that. Octavia rubbed at her cheek softly, sitting beside Bullette. "If you don't mind the asking... what exactly is 'initiative 7'?"

"That is confidential." She crossed her forelegs in a clear X. "Access denied. Please continue to accrue friendship points." She took a card in her mouth and her neck extended so she could place it in the middle area between them. "I believe this is a fortuitous play."

Quarter Inch threw down the cards in her hand. "Are you cheatin'?! You can't be that lucky!"

Shiela more calmly set down her own cards. "Her luck has limits."

Bullette gasped in several octaves at once. Shiela's revealed cards were better than what she had revealed. "I am slain." She flopped over and her little metal tongue poked free. "Dead."

Duck tilted his head at the sight. "Is that all that being dead is? I can be dead too." He flopped over, forcing Dolan to take a brief flight to not be squished. "Now I am dead." He stuck out his tongue. "Bleh."

Dolan folded  his wings forward as if in prayer. "Oh, Duck, we hardly knew ye before fate cruelly snatched ye away. Who's dealing the next hand?"

Octavia looked from card to card. "How does one play this game?"

Before she could be answered, the door swung open. "Guess who's back!" It was Vinyl, grinning triumphantly. "Yeah! Let's get the party going up in here." She kicked the door shut behind herself and ambled towards the cards. "Whatcha playing? Poker?"

No Name lifted an ear. "I hadn't heard that word in a long time... We were playing conquest." He set his cards down and nudged them with a hoof towards the others for shuffling purposes, which Quarter Inch began without prompting. "Wouldn't mind a hand of poker."

Duck suddenly perked up, still laying on the ground but with his head craned  around. "How do you play poker? Do you have to poke her?" He reached and pressed a hoof against the shuffling gnome. "I win!" He burst into happy giggles, the clear champion.

Shiela shook her head softly. "I have not played it myself, but I have heard of it. It does not involve poking, friend Duck."

"Then why is it called poker? Maybe someone forgot the rule with the poking in it. Ever think of that, huh?" He sat up properly, Dolan landing on his head. "Teach me!"

So the rules of poker were explained, some parts of it repeatedly when someone fell behind. The best way to learn the game, as it turned, was to play it. Hands were dealt and everyone present began to play. There were no wagers, simply the limited prestige of winning or the sting of losing a round.

Shiela smiled gently. "We have two masters of deception." She set down a card. "One who need not display any emotion if she does not wish it, and another who has perfected the art." For the first, she looked to Bullette. For the second, Octavia was in her view.

Octavia hiked a brow lightly. "I am not that unflappable." She set down a lone card and got one to replace it. "Since coming here, to Everglow, I've felt anything but that."

Quarter Inch slapped down the vast majority of her hand, apparently trusting in luck to give her a better hand. "Don't sell yourself short. Except the worst parts, you always look fancy and collected. I can't do that." She took up her new cards and her grin widened. "Oh no, what a terrible hand," she lied unconvincingly.

Vinyl nudged up against Octavia. "Stop selling yourself short. You just needed a chance to get out from under me, though you're welcome back any time." She waggled her brows with filthy intents, getting herself a bonk on the head for her trouble. "Worth it. But yeah, the moment I wasn't, you know, there doing it all, you rose up to the challenge like a boss. I'm so proud of you, Octie."

Octavia looked uncertain about the praise being heaped in her direction, but the game continued along.

It only paused when a knock came from the door. "Dinner." It was Sandra. "I've brought enough for our guests. We don't get traders very often, but we won't have them starving on our doorstep either." She opened the door instead of continuing to speak through it. Clutched in her right hand was a large sack of what could be safely assumed to be various dried foods. "Playing cards?"

Bullette bounced up to her hooves. "I am the victor with a 35% win ratio."

Sandra's eyes darted from person to person. "With how many people there are in here, that's quite a feat... uh..."

"I am called Bullette Belle." She gestured up at No Name. "He is No Name." The hoof swung down at Duck and Dolan. "That is Dolan and his ride, Duck."

Dolan seemed pleased. Duck perhaps less so. "Hey! I'm his caregiver and, like, an adopted dad or something? We're friends! Quack!" He waved a wing at Sandra. "Thanks for the food. I'll cook it right up. He advanced on her and the sack.

Sandra wasn't instant in letting it go, looking to the others, but Shiela and Quarter both looked alright with it, so she surrendered it to Duck. "How do you cook already dried food?"

"Carefully." He ambled off, quacking along the way. "Gonna make it extra tasty!" With a happy cheer, he got to work in the kitchen.

Vinyl gave Sandra a little poke. "So, now that I'm not in the middle of dying, what's up with ditching us like that?"

"Oooo, you poked her," came Duck's voice from the other room. "I thought we were taking a break!"

Sandra looked confused a moment. "Your chef friend is very curious... That aside, I was told to leave you there, where you'd be happier." She lifted her shoulders. "Was he wrong?"

Vinyl snorted softly. "He? Who, Randal? Figures..."

Octavia set a hoof in front of the agitated Vinyl. "He was not wrong, in that way, but you could have also simply explained this to us before doing it, as if we were dogs you wanted to leave behind in some forest somewhere, even if it was a nice forest the dog would thrive in."

Vinyl bobbed her head. "What she said. We're not dogs. We're ponies. There's a difference between those two things."

Octavia smiled a little, a faint curl of her lips. "Had you presented it as an opportunity, we may have taken upon it without any hard feelings to be had. In fact, had you offered it to us, quietly, as an act of disobedience against Randal, we may have thought we were being quite clever as we did exactly what you had wanted."

Shiela's brows rose in unison. "As I said, she is a master of deceit, when she chooses it. Be wary with that one. She wields subtle music and a skilled tongue."

Quarter Inch sighed longingly for the most dignified mount she would never have. "Hey, Duck. How's dinner coming along in there?"

"There's lots of it." A rattle of a pan against metal was heard. "Give me a moment!"

"Everything is in order," assured Dolan, with Duck in the kitchen. "He is assembling it into a group dish."

Sandra waved a hand. "Well, I wasn't that clever, alright? I never promised I was a clever woman. I just try to get things done, and I try to be a good person. I was pretty sure you'd like it in Turves, and it sounds like you've made some great friends there... Part of me was jealous." She put a hand on her chest. "You think I'd be sad living with the fey? I wouldn't be, but I can't give up things here, so I had to leave the fey to the fey and go home. I hated it."

No Name tilted his head. "I usually don't stick around anywhere. These two have me here for now." He waved a hoof at Vinyl and Octavia. "Once I'm done with them, we'll probably mosie on."

Bullette Belle nodded rapidly. "Project Lost Puppy!" she cried eagerly, bouncing in place as she did so.

Octavia gestured at the two other humans in the room. "Speaking of that, what about them? Why aren't they allowed to leave if he was so eager to be rid of us? Was it our tails and fur? Too alien and different?"

Sandra waved at Shiela.  "Who, her? The lost elf that barely understands herself? She has nobody else, and the wastes would chew her up and spit out the bones." The same hand pointed at Quarter, a deep scowl on her face. "Or her, Missus Nuts? I think part of it is a gnomish thing, so she has that going for her, though that also explain why there aren't a lot of them. We keep them both safe, alive, and..." The hand fell. "It's a kindness, a little one..."

Quarter folded her arms, looking quite pouty. Shiela did not argue the insult thrown at her.

Duck poked his head out from the kitchen. "It's cookin'. Whatcha all talking about in here all loud and stuff?"

Dolan's wing was visible, reaching out from behind Duck's head to bop him on the noggin. "They are discussing the situation of the others. It's boring adult stuff."

"Sounds important," argued Duck, stepping further out.

Quarter hopped to her small feet and hurried to Duck. "You! I'm taking you as my mount. I promise to take good care of you forever."

Duck blinked softly at the gnome. They could look in one another's eyes easily thanks to her small stature and he tilted his head slowly. "Is that like being friends?"

"That is exactly like being friends," Quarter agreed with a big grin to go with it. "We will be inseparable friends!"

"Yay! Quack." Duck danced in place from hoof to hoof, looking very pleased with the world. "Oh, gotta check the food." He hurried back into the kitchen.

Quarter threw up one hand, the elbow of the same arm held in the other hand. "There. I'll be going, with him. I trust that won't upset anyone, and if it does, too bad."

Octavia nodded softly before looking towards Shiela, who was still reclined on her bed, not arguing, not doing much... "And you?" She pointed at the elf. "Will you--"

"I am staying." She folded her arms across her front. "While her words are harsh, they are the truth... I will remain here, and help where I may, but I have no place out there." She sat up against the headboard of the bed. "I know it can be difficult for you to know, but I am far older than I appear. I was here when there was not a Randal. His predecessor was the one to welcome me, not as a burden, but as a guardian. I gave my word I would always lend my bow to this town and its short-lived people." She extended a hand towards Sandra. "Even if they forget it."

Sandra took a halting half-step back. "I didn't know..."

"{How could you?}" she spoke in the language of elves, which sounded like sylvan with a strange and thick accent. "I remain. This is final." She frowned a little. "<I stay.>" she repeated in the language of the locals, just to be abundantly clear.

Sandra looked confused, reeling from the argument and new information. "You're... older than me? I..." She shook her head, refocusing on Quarter Inch. "You know the world out there's not nice, right? You won't be able to just rush at your problems, no matter how nice he is, and expect them to go away."

"Maybe with that kinda attitude." She called out towards the kitchen, "hey, Duck. We're gonna solve everything with friendship, right?"

"Yes! Quack!" came the enthusiastic reply. "Did you hear that?" he spoke eagerly but less loudly. "She likes friendship too, oooo, this is gonna be fun!"

Sandra put up both of her hands, surrendering to the situation. "Well, fine! Just... don't get hurt, alright?" She gave an unsure smile. "I don't want news of some manic gnome hurling herself into the mouth of some angry beast, alright. I care about you, you nutball."

"That's Sir Nutball to you." she waggled a finger. "Now that I have a proper mount, I can get my adventuring done properly. There'll be no holding me back."

Bullette bounced in place. "The importance of a good mount cannot be overstated." She gestured at No Name. "I had to give up mine for a time. It was terrible." She suddenly threw herself at him, hugging. "Now our adventures can continue!" she sang, her voice modulating wildly with her joy.

Vinyl tipped the hat she wasn't wearing. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to take him from you, but I was really out of--"

Bullette popped a hoof in her mouth, silencing her. "The situation is understandable. Friendship points have been redeemed and earned by different parties. We are still friends." She drew the hoof back and spread it out with the other. "Accept hugs?"

"Hug accepted," replied Vinyl in a faux-robotic tone, half-pouncing Bullette. They fell to the ground, laughing and hugging.

Octavia considered Quarter a moment. "I am fairly certain when a female achieves such a rank, they are not always referred to as a 'Sir'. You would be a 'Dame' or a 'Lady'. However, there is a small matter in the way."

Quarter turned in place, pivoting on one shoe to face Octavia. "What stands in the way of my being a knight?!"

"You need a ruler, of course." Octavia nodded softly with confidence. "A knight must be in service to someone of higher rank. Like a baron or duke or even a princess or king or something of the like. A knight without one of those is hardly a proper knight at all, even with a truly inspiring mount."

"She called me inspiring." A soft quack followed the words from the kitchen.

No Name softly snorted. "It's a hard life."

Shiela noticed his attention and words. "None of us live easily."

"Yeah, more... you know... the specific part."

"You are not an elf."

The conversation died as awkwardly as it began. Sandra shied towards the door. "Well, delivery's done... I'll tell Randal you plan to leave... Good luck, alright? Please don't get yourself killed." She was gone in a moment, door closed gently behind her.

Quarter hiked both of her thumbs at herself. "You heard her! I can go! Now, I need a proper liege, you're right... Who..." Her eyes darted from person to person in the room, skipping past Shiela quickly.

"Dinner's served!" Duck came in with a large tray balanced on his back. Served on it was something of a casserole, a baked dish with everything worked into it into a big rectangular mess. "Everyone gets some and it'll be super tasty, promise!"

Dolan landed beside him. "I talked him out of adding sugar. You're welcome."

Octavia tilted her head faintly at the idea of dusting their dinner with sugar. "That can wait for dessert, should we have any. For now, let us enjoy this fine meal that our friend has provided for us."

"Gladly" Vinyl sprang forward, her glowing horn claiming a plate, carving out a share and floating the mass over to her to enjoy. "Yum yum yum, right in my tum tum tum."

No Name waited patiently, and Duck set a plate before him without asking. "Thanks. Did they figure fer me? That looks like a lot of food."

"I think so." Duck bobbed his head before looking towards Quick. "Oh, if I am the mount, what are you? I mean, besides a friend. Being a friend is good."

"I am a knight," she proudly declared before deflating a little. "But I need a liege..." She took her plate in her hands, sitting beside a bed to try it. "Mmm, you're really talented in this. How many knights can say their mount is a fantastic chef?"

Duck considered that a moment as he pecked at his own food in a messy affair. "You're the only one I know."

Dolan rolled his eyes. "You are also the only knight he is aware of in any capacity."

"Nuh uh!"

Dolan frowned a little. "Who or whom are the others then?"

"The ones that tried to save the egg after it broke." He bobbed his head. "So many of them, but none of their horses could do anything with eggs, so they were not chefs, not like me. I am best mount, yes." He firmly nodded once more.

Quarter threw an arm around Duck, hugging him closer, food in her other hand. "Best mount!" she cried in agreement. "We're gonna have so many adventures."

The food was devoured and savored by all in attendance. There was plenty there, apparently the portions decided on were guessed a little high, likely due to No Name's presence, and the thought that Bullette counted, which she did not.

Shiela gestured to Duck. "I will miss your presence. You made the meals here bearable."

"Aw." He tilted his head. "Your friend's gonna come with us, why don't you come too?!"

"I may not." She crossed her arms. "I acknowledge the kindness of your offer, but just because one frail human dies does not absolve me of my word. I will stay and perform as I must."

Quarter nudged Duck lightly. "The others are due back soon, she won't be alone in here."

"Oh, phew. Just imagining her all alone in here...  That is too sad!" He bounced in place. "I wouldn't want that for you."

Octavia rolled a hoof. "She is an adult, capable of making her own decisions. She seems quite adamant on this point, and it falls on us, as her friends, to respect and support her."

"Well said." She tipped a glass of wine she was not holding. "I will miss you too, wielder of soft music. I hope you find your way to your true home, where such rough thoughts can be set aside."

Quarter was peering at Octavia, looking thoughtful as she gave a soft 'hmm'... "I... think I know what I need to do."

Duck looked over at his new rider. "What's that?"

Quarter marched up to Octavia and crashed to one knee. "Lord and master, will you accept me as your humble servant? Knight me, so that I may serve loyally at your side."

Octavia blinked slowly, stunned a moment. "A female--"

"--Oh, yes! Sorry." Quarter clapped her hands together. "Lady and mistress, will you--"

"--Yes yes, I know--"

"--Excellent!" She sprang to her feet. "I will serve you forever, or until you banish me or something, but you won't need to do anything like that."

Octavia reached out, putting a hoof right over Quarter's nose. "I was not agreeing. If you respect me, you will allow me to finish speaking before interrupting."

Quarter nodded, shivering with nervous energy but managing to be quiet.

"Very good. Now, pray tell, what exactly do you think you are offering me?" She drew the hoof away to roll it at her. "You may speak."

"I will be your loyal knight." she slapped a hand over her heart. "I'll do what you say, heroic things, like facing dangerous monsters or carrying urgent messages, maybe winning a war or two. You know how it goes."

Octavia softly nodded, her eyes meeting Quarter's directly. "But you barely know me. You know not what manner of task I would put before you. Would you be pleased were your 'grand objective' were to escort Miss Scratch home after she's had too much to drink--"

"--Hey!--"

"--, or to assist me with getting my musical equipment into place in time for a performance?" Octavia stood up smoothly. "Would that really be the life you desire? Good knight, you should think long and hard before you pledge yourself like that. It is a vow, an oath, and one not easily dissolved once formed. Even more binding than the promise you made to your loyal steed, you must find the right liege and know it with every bit of your body and soul before you make such an offer again."

The room went quiet, all eyes on Octavia and her would-be Knight.