//------------------------------//
// 47 - Grabbing Small Things 
// Story: Duet in the Dust 
// by David Silver 
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They had to wait another day before Dan or Dim came back, but they did come back, together. An excited clopping on the door was the cue. Vinyl waved a hoof as her glowing horn opened the door to see Dan behind a grinning Dim. "Hey, the double-Ds are here."

Dim blinked at that. "What?" Despite her moment of confusion, she was bouncing into the room. "Octavia! Nice to see you again."

Dan gave a thumbs up as he bumped the door shut on the way in. "She didn't know where you guys were exactly, so I brought her over."

"Thanks." Dim smiled back up at him before bounding up onto the bed next to Octavia. "Now tell me how you got these." She reached for Octavia's wings without a moment of reservation, casually feeling up the new limbs. "Can I get wings?"

Octavia's wings fluttered in place in a ticklish sort of motion. "Be at ease... I would not suggest you try that. They were forced on me by people who wanted me to be something I am not."

Dim's eager little groping suddenly stopped and she flopped onto her haunches. "Oh... Yeah... I know what that's like... Glad you're alright then. I have a question though!"

"Didn't you just ask one?" Octavia smiled faintly. "Go ahead though."

Bullette leaned in close to one of No Name's ears. "If she were engaged in a more friendly profession, friendship points would be awarded."

"I heard that!" Dim bounced up and down on the bed, eyes on Bullette. "A girl has to eat. Hmph."

Vinyl snorted at the display, looking towards Dan. "Thanks for showing her over."

"Ain't no thing." He propped himself on a wall, the beds quite occupied with horse flesh.

"Your question?" Octavia sat up on her haunches. "What did you want to know?"

"Oh, uh, forgot, what was it...?" Dim tapped her hooves lightly together. "Oh yeah, what did Dan tell you?! He was supposed to not tell anyone anything!"

Vinyl suddenly reached past Octavia and booped the incensed little pony on the nose. "He told us that you are an amazing little mare that's had it rough since we first met you."

"He told us--" Octavia set her hoof down on Dim's head, mussing her mane gently. "--that I failed you in ways I would never have known when you escaped me."

Dim shied away from the mussing hoof. "Stop that! I'm alright."

Octavia hiked a brow down at the little pony. "Is that true?"

With gesticulating hooves, Dim shook her head with it. "I'm fine!"

Octavia flicked an ear back. "You lost a child to a stallion that doesn't deserve to draw breath, Dim Flash. I am sorry that I didn't hold on a little tighter."

Dim toppled from the bed as if the statement had shoved her. "What?! I mean... ugh! Dan!" She suddenly clip-clopped in a manic gallop to his side and began beating on his leg with her hooves in a frantic biffing. "You weren't supposed to tell anyone!"

Dan accepted the buffet of little strikes with angry hooves. "They seem to care about you, real care, real talk."

Dim span to face the other ponies in the room. "I'm not a little foal that needs protecting, thank you very much." She glanced away suddenly, voice lowering to barely a whisper, "woulda done the same thing anyway."

Octavia's ears went rigidly erect as her horn glowed, plucking Dim from the ground. "I will tolerate a great many things, but not that. Dim Flash, I had never any intention of such barbarism. If I had... continued to 'own' you, it would have fallen on me to raise you from the position as quickly as possible, so we--" She drew Dim close enough that they were snout to snout, looking into one another's eyes. "--walked side by side."

Vinyl gestured at Octavia in a grand sweep. "You are talking to Angel Octavia here, she isn't lying. Besides, wings or not, I can assure without a doubt she'd never go hurting another pony, especially not like that. That isn't her thing, or mine either, unless you count encouraging someone to drink a little too much at a wild party."

"That counts," suddenly informed Bullette with a knowing nod.

"There's a reason she isn't the responsible adult." No Name's snakes softly chuckled at Vinyl's discomfort.

Dim pressed a hoof against Octavia's nose, as close it was, that wasn't a challenge. "Then maybe I should have given it a chance, but I didn't, and here we are. You don't get to go back in time or stuff, so whatever."

"Whatever indeed." Octavia set Dim down just in front of her own legs. A brush floated over and began to work through Dim's pelt. "That does not mean I do not regret actions. That does not mean I cannot work to improve the future."

"I did that!" defensively squealed Dim. "Lashtada be praised, I have a new one baking in there, and this one's going to be just fine." She crossed her little arms. "I'm not telling anyone this time."

"Except us?" Vinyl had the most vicious little smirk on her face.

"You get used to that." Dan shrugged lightly. "She doesn't have a filter around friends."

"Am I your friend?" Octavia worked the brush gently across Dim's small form. "I'm glad. You've been dealt some unfavorable cards, but you refuse to fold. Good. You're a special pony, and one I would help, if you let me."

Vinyl nodded softly. "We know a town full of little ponies like you and they're nice folks."

Dim trembled softly. "Not for long," she whispered, fidgeting in place.

"Hmm?" Octavia slid the brush under Dim's chin and raised it so their eyes would meet. "What do you mean by that?"

Dan slowly swept a hand out. "She's talking about the raid everyone's in on. They're going to burn Turves a new one and take everything they can get their hands on."

Bullette raised a hoof suddenly. "Imprecise language detected. Please specify 'everyone'."

"Yeah." No Name's snaked hissed softly. "How many out of this city's marching out on the place?"

"'Bout half?" Dan shrugged softly. "Going to get real quiet around here for a few days, then there won't be a Turves."

Dim nodded towards Dan before turning back to Octavia. "So if you were planning that town with little ponies, forget that."

Octavia went still a moment, slowly breathing and little else before she slowly nodded. "I see... Very well, then you have two things to accomplish, to secure your redemption."

"I don't need no redemption!" She bounced in front of Octavia with a scowl. "Girl you're annoying me. Stop that, because I think you're cool and you're going to ruin that image."

Octavia's careful expression broke with a blink, softening. "Sorry. Still, yes, two things." She raised a hoof. "You will help us take the sphere while most of your gang is gone. Then we will save Turves. Then we will save you."

Vinyl pumped a hoof suddenly with a big grin. "Aw yeah! You heard her, we're going to be heroes!" Her headphones suddenly flopped around, filling the room with lively heroic electronic beats.

No Name grunted softly before two snakes spoke at once.

"We're in."

"We can't do that."

The two snakes looked at one another and No Name appeared baffled himself.

Bullette softly bonked him on the head, as was her singular right. "We will not abandon Turves. They have accrued too many friendship points with us."

Dan pushed off the wall he had been leaning against. "If you don't mind, I'm going to become scarce. I'd rather not even hear about this kind of thing. Not good for your health."

Vinyl lifted her shoulders as she bounced up to all fours. "Hey, you did a lot. Be cool, Dan. Maybe we'll meet again?"

"That'd be nice." He made himself scarce, off to find something less perilous to be around.

That left Dim squinting at them. "They're my gang. Why should I help you steal from them, or hurt them?"

Octavia gently pressed a hoof to Dim's nose, as they had apparently taken to trading the act of. "Because you care more for the life within you than the mockeries of friends you've made there among people who see you as useful, at best, and often not even that. I would give you a better life. More importantly, I would give your child a better life. Don't they deserve it?"

"Anyone can say that." She crossed her arms as she flopped back onto her bottom. "Stop making promises you can't keep."

Vinyl reached over, patting the little pony's shoulder. "Hey, we're not lying. That's what the sphere's for. When we have it, we can figure it out, then skip out of this entire universe." She wibble-wobbled a hoof. "Back to where we came from."

No Name clopped down a great hoof, making the bed squeak in protest. "You are not bringing her there."

"I can and I will," argued Octavia in a tone that implied she wasn't interested in counter arguments. "She will divest herself of all weapons, as will the rest of us, but she is going. Equestria has more than room enough for one more small pony. I've seen ponies her size before, nothing even unusual there."

Dim blinked softly at Octavia. "Are you... an actual angel?"

"Basically." Vinyl shrugged softly. "She is from a really nice place that's not this world where ponies treat each other nicely and the worst fights are usually over who gets the last scoop of ice cream. We do have the occasional big monster, but those get taken care of, so eh. I like it." She shrugged softly. "And so will you."

Bullette whispered something in No Name's ear so quietly even he had to struggle to hear it. "Huh? Oh... Alright." He seemed less tense suddenly. "So, are you in?" His eyes were on Dim. "We proceed either way, not much choice there. You could really make it a lot less painful... for them mostly."

"For them?!" She squinted at No Name. "We've already mugged you once."

"Yeah, with two of us down and the other two worn down." No Name shrugged. "If you make us charge in there on our own... Hmm, maybe half of them won't be there the next day."

Bullette tilted her head left and right. "I estimate only 25% casualty rate required to achieve objectives."

No Name shrugged mightily. "I'm bein' optimistic. I don't like these guys."

Dim cringed back at the numbers being casually thrown. "Some of those guys are my friends!" she squealed. "You can't... Stop it!" She suddenly charged No Name, beating on him as she had once done to Dan, flailing her little hooves at him in a frantic display. "Don't hurt them!"

Octavia gently lifted the little pony and pulled her back. "Then help us. We don't want good people being harmed. That is why we must retrieve that orb, and why Turves must be saved. It's full of good people, just trying to live. They don't deserve to be hurt either."

"That's not fair!" She threw her forehooves wide. "Help you hurt them or don't help you hurt more of them?"

Octavia suddenly smiled. "Think of it this way instead... You could put the people you especially don't like in harm's way, and keep those deserving of mercy out of the path."

Dim blinked softly. "Oh. Ohhhhh. Oh... Huh..." She sank down to all four hooves, rocking in place. "Oh..."

"She is analyzing the proposal," helpfully noted Bullette, smiling from atop her mount.

Vinyl shrugged softly. "She isn't wrong. We have to go in. We will be an incoming storm, you get to decide how bad it'll be and get out of the way before it comes in, if you don't want to, you know, join it."

Dim wrinkled her nose, glancing at where Dan had once stood. "I don't know. Look... I get it. I do... I get it... They're not all... good people. A lot of them are jerks. Jerks with guns." She coiled on herself and drew her own gun just to let it flop to the bed in the same motion. "Just like me."

"You don't have to be." Octavia smiled gently at her would-be ally. "Join the good side. We have cookies."

Vinyl burst into sudden laughter. "You stole that from a show!"

"I refuse to answer that." She pointed at little Dim. "The question remains. You are welcome at our side, or you can simply move to mitigate our passing. I will understand either way. All I ask is that, as a final favor, you do not prepare them to stop us. Do that and our debts are cleared."

"Yeah..." Dim slumped to the floor. "Yeah..." She staggered away, wobbling on her hooves. Vinyl opened the door for her to depart, ears drooping.

No Name huffed softly. "This place ain't safe no more, you realize."

Bullette nodded in agreement. "26% likelihood of location being compromised resulting in attack. 50% likelihood of directional information being given resulting in restructured defense."

Vinyl perked an ear at Bullette. "Yeah? So what are the odds she comes around and helps us burn the place down?"

"6%"

"Huh, that ain't high..." Vinyl hopped down from the bed. "Well, are we moving, or attacking, or what?  We have a whole town to save."

Octavia was soon next to her. "You may be right. While I will hold out hope that she sees the light, we shouldn't assume it to be so."

And so they moved, leaving that inn behind for another, dirtier, place that didn't have the decency to include dinner with the price of the room. That didn't slow their plans. They had all agreed silently that it would soon be time to strike, the moment of the activity of the city began to lower.

A soft knock came from the new door. "Hey." It was Dan's head that poked in. "Just figured I'd let you know--"

"How did you find us?" asked No Name with a frown, rudely cutting off the human.

Dan shrugged softly. "Keeping track of my friends is kind of one of my talents. You also aren't half as subtle as you're trying to be. I mean, really." He pointed up at Bullette. "You." Then down to her mount. "You. And--" He pointed over to Octavia. "You. How hard do you think it is to get someone who noticed this specific combination moving past them? Hard to miss."

Octavia raised a hoof from where she lay on her belly. "What did you come to tell us, Dan?"

"The raid. It starts tonight. By the light tomorrow, half the city will be gone. Biggest raid in the last century I figure. I wouldn't want to be in Turves anytime soon, and I guess I won't have the option afterwards."

Octavia frowned at that. "Once we have secured what we came from, we will move to assist."

"Yeah... I mean, sure, you guys are great, but we're talking thousands of armed people. You aren't that amazing. Still, props on ya." He shrugged lightly as he turned back for the door he had come from. "This place is a shit-brick by the way. Even staying here free is too expensive."

"Halt." Bullette hopped down from No Name. "Your assistance is required, please." She pointed precisely at the base they would storm. "Inform us when they have moved exactly."

He huffed, an exasperated sigh. "Look, people can already connect the dots. I'd like to survive this little show. I've already done too much."

No Name shrugged. "If you already did too much, maybe it's time to get out? We know a nice place."

Vinyl pumped a hoof. "Turves has humans too, and we know a human town not that far off if you don't want to hang around us fuzzy sorts, but that isn't a problem, I don't think."

"Nah..." He suddenly thumped a wall with the side of his fist. "You know it ain't that. Damn it all to every layer of Hell they have. Whatever, wait here." He angrily stormed off.

No Name slowly closed his eyes. "You'd better make sure your guns are ready and loaded."

"Initiating self examination." Bullette's hooves split into pieces as they fell before her. She started looking over all the various bits and pieces that made up her arms, presumably searching for any damage that would cause issues later.

Octavia and Vinyl looked over their own weapons, but neither of them were smiths, so looking for obvious problems was all they could do other than making sure the guns and their spare magazines were filled with all the bullets they could safely contain.

"Another LAP advantage." Vinyl held up an arm. "It shows how much ammo I have, in the gun, in my magazines, how many of those I have, and even what's stashed away. Isn't that neat?"

"Very," agreed Octavia simply. "You realize, when we get back, we will have to have that removed. I feel certain a talented doctor, or wizard, can manage it. Perhaps Princess Twilight Sparkle will do it. She owes us a favor."

"Pfft, that mare's nuts, but she gets things done." Vinyl shrugged softly. "Or, you know, I could keep it?"

"You will have no further need for it." She booped her friend on the nose. "And you know it."

"Need and want are very different things, Octie. Are you going to turn in your wings and awesome unicorn magic?" She raised a brow high. "You do that and I'll give up my LAP."

"Hmph." Octavia floated up her gun and shoved it into its holster. "I am as ready as I ever will be."

"Diagnostic complete." Her various wires and supports drew back into herself as her forelegs became whole as if they had never split in the first place. "Operating at 99.28042%"

"That percentage is a lower than normal." No Name shook out his massive body, but there was no bed to complain about it. That inn had straw mats and little more. "Somethin' wrong?"

"I am nervous," admitted Bullette. "Are you certain you will not stay behind?" Her eyes were set on Octavia and Vinyl. "If you were not present, I could engage fully."

Octavia raised a hoof towards her little metal friend. "There are innocents, even in this dirty town. There are people who aren't on that raid, and maybe never will be, or ever were. They're just trying to survive. Flattening the entire block around what we're after will hurt them."

"You are correct," sighed out Bullette. "This information is inconvenient. Ultraviolet armaments remain locked."

Vinyl flipped her headphones facing outwards, but no music was issuing from them. "I mean Dan's not the only alright person here, just the one we happened to run into. Flattening the city into the dirt isn't the answer."

"Information's inconvenient sometimes," agreed No Name. "But I can wear you today."

"Yay!" sang out the metal filly, bouncing up on top of No Name eagerly. With unfolding metal noises, she seemed to spread out across him, becoming a metal sheath over his massive form, her back-mounted gun becoming his back-mounted gun and small turrets protruding from each of his legs. "You are warm," she sang with happy little tones, despite having no real mouth or face at the moment.

"Yeah, one of my tricks." No Name took a few steps, checking his stride with his living armor. "Now we wait for Dan's word, or we destroy whoever comes knocking. Either way, that's the sign to start moving."

Vinyl whistled at the appearance of the great metal behemoth that was No Name. "I'd run in the other direction if I was one of them. Bad guys are rarely that smart though in the movies."

"This ain't a movie..." He paused a moment. "You have movies? Damn, I remember what movies are... It's been a while."

Octavia looked towards the closed door. "When we get back, I look forward to a movie. Perhaps a silly comedy to drown the sorrows of this world away. I should like an innocent laugh, with the laughter of other ponies around me, many of whom I will never actually see, but I'll hear them, laughing with me at something absurd on the screen... That sounds nice."

"It's a date!" Vinyl grinned as she stepped up beside Octavia. "We'll go see something so stupid we'll have no choice but to laugh for days."

"A date..." Octavia shook her head softly. "There are conversations we must have, later, but for now, I accept your proposal. When we return to Equestria, we will laugh together and rejoice at having weathered this. I think we could both use it."

Vinyl casually leaned against Octavia as they waited, the room going quiet. Time passed with tortuous slowness. She glanced at her LAP, which had a clock, showing its glacial progress.

At 5:03pm, everyone jumped at a knocking at the door.

"Hey, they're buzzing off," informed Dan through the door. They could hear his footsteps leaving. He hadn't even come inside.

No Name took a great metal-thump of a step. "Time to go. By the time we get across town, they'll be nice and far out of the city."

With mutual nods and one auto-tuned cry of joy, they set out. They wove through the alleys of the city and it became obvious immediately that the city was in a torpor. Though it had felt slow during the execution, that was nothing compared to how still it became with half the fighting force out on that raid to wipe Turves off the map.

Those who remained did not dare get in the way of their group. Guns drawn and metal armor worn, anyone with sense used that to not be in the way.

Their target came into view, looming a little larger than the buildings around it and allowing it to be seen from a bit further away. The alleyways were empty, they checked as they went. There were no snipers on the upper floors that they saw on the way in.

It was time to take what was theirs.

There were two people out front. One of them was a small pony they knew. The other was a human in cobbled together armor, a shotgun held in his two hands.

Dim drew her little gun and wheeled on them. "So you did come..."

"You knew we'd be here." No Name approached without slowing down. "I'm more surprised you're here."

"(Friends ah yers?)" The human drew up his shotgun at the oncoming invaders. "(Say bye.)"

"(Bye.)" Dim sounded sad and withdrawn, a faint tremble in her small form.

A shot rang out, loud and echoing across the street.

The human fell to his knees, then collapsed forward, a shot blown into the back of his head. Dim's gun fell from numb jaws and she ran to her friend, the same she had just shot, sobbing wildly.

No Name marched past them towards the building, not even pausing to look at the scene.

Octavia hurried to Dim. "I..."

"Tell me you weren't lying!" hissed Dim. "You owe me now! You... owe us... Tell me you weren't lying!"

Vinyl set a hoof on Dim's trembling shoulder. "Come on. You're one of us now."

"I did not lie... I will see you to safety, where you and your child can be happy." She licked over her lips. "I'm so sorr--"

Dim threw a punch suddenly, catching Octavia's sagging snout and snapping it to the side. "Don't you tell me you're sorry! It's too late for that! He's dead! He isn't coming back. Make that worth it... Please..."

Vinyl cringed away at the sudden violence, but Octavia did not flinch more than the small punch had forced. She forced her head back to face Dim, spitting out a little blood from where she had bitten herself. "Let's."