//------------------------------//
// 48 - What's Ours 
// Story: Duet in the Dust 
// by David Silver 
//------------------------------//

They marched on the headquarters of the gang, with No Name far ahead of the others, wearing his Bullette armor. This act was less incredible than usual, most of that gang already departed.  Its two primary defenders already neutralized in a sudden display on the street out front.

"Do you know where the sphere is?" Octavia strode into the building, her small turncoat at her side. "The sooner we can get it and leave, the better for all involved I should imagine."

"He keeps it where he can admire it." She pointed ahead and to the right. "Up the stairs, with his other goodies."

Vinyl pranced, veering towards the stairs. "Treasure vault, got it. Is it locked, or do they just assume nobody would be nuts enough to come for it?"

Dim huffed with unclear emotions. "He'd rip anyone that took something from there in half."

No Name was moving in the right direction, clearly hearing them despite the mild distance. "That sounds like the latter." Ascending, they came into what was the bandit equivalent of a living room and display area. It seemed many interesting artifacts had been carefully set on counters or hung on walls to bedazzle and impress those that lounged around on the available chairs and sofas. There was even a pool table there, balls set for a new game.

He didn't care for much of that. The one person in there was more interesting. "Fight or die?" He already had a flamethrower-equipped hoof raised at the human that was scrambling to his feet. "Too late." Without any seeming communication with his suit, the flames began.

His companions came up in time to see the figure crash to the ground, feebly trying to extend their dramatically shortened life expectancy with inarticulate flails and pained screams. Octavia winced away from the sight, turning her eyes across the room in a quick sweep. "Now where is... There." She strode across the area, pointedly ignoring the pain their presence had caused.

"Over here." Vinyl pointed at where their sphere had been used as a decorative base for a flower vase. "Seriously? That thing can do a little more than hold up a vase..."

No Name casually knocked the vase clear with a toss of his head, shattering when it hit the floor and scattering the flowers and water it once held.

"Soft Whisper please guide my friends." Dim had her hooves pressed together and her head bowed. "I know you'll have words for me when it's my time, but don't take it out on them. They deserve your help. Get them to where they need to be."

As Octavia lifted the sphere up in her magic, Vinyl looked to Dim curiously. "Who are you talking to?"

"I'm praying," angrily muttered the little pony. "That's two people I basically murdered... I told them I could handle it, that no one would be stupid enough to make a move. They believed me, trusted me..."

No Name turned as soon as the sphere was tucked into his saddlebag. "Alright, let's get out of here before that count goes up."

"Yeah..." Dim followed behind them, ears downcast, but keeping up with them.

Vinyl nudged into Dim gently from the side. "I'm not going to pretend I know exactly how this feels, but you're not alone, promise."

"I've never been so alone since you killed my last crew." She suddenly laughed, a pained noise. "You are bad luck for my friends. Every time I run into you, I lose them..."

Octavia closed in from the other side. "I'm certain it feels that way... but let's put a stop to that unfortunate pattern right here."

"Yeah..."

It was almost too easy, just taking it. The city was mobilized, and its home was undefended. No Name coiled around the building, coming up towards the still purring generator. "Let's get this plugged in and send you home."

Octavia hiked a fine brow. "Surely you are jesting."

Vinyl snorted powerfully. "What she said. We have a town to save first, or did you forget?"

No Name turned towards them slowly. "I didn't forget, you did. This is my job; get you all home. Now. Saving Turves? Not your problem. Your little adventure? It ends, now. No arguments. No discussion." He drove a metal-clad hoof into the ground in a great stomp. "Plug it in and go."

Octavia grit her teeth and backed away a half step. "I will not abandon Longshot."

"Hey, Belle, what are the odds the sphere gets damaged or destroyed if we go runnin' off to be heroes?"

"60%"

"What are the odds one ah these ponies gets hurt?" He waved an armored hoof at the three of the smaller ponies that were his wards.

"89%"

"What are the odds one ah these ponies dies?"

"46%"

"Yer goin'." He nosed up the flap of his saddlebag. "Plug it in."

"I advise compliance," spoke Bullette in far less cheerful a tone than she usually had. "You have expended many friendship points in previous compliance requests."

Octavia glared at the sphere she could easily see, lifting it in her horn. "So this is how you would end it? We'll never even know if Turves survives, or any of the people there."

Vinyl shook her head. "I... no... We know."

No Name perked an ear towards her. "What do you know?"

Vinyl smiled a little. "We know you two will do it. We know you can do it, and we know you'll make it look good too. I'm just sore I can't be there to watch it, and cheer you on. You're being a real jerk about it, but you're also protecting our crazy flanks, and I get that. I do! Really... You better make it super awesome though. They should sing stories about how much back end you punted across the countryside."

No Name turned to Octavia, watching her examine the sphere. "Belle, she needs your help."

"Affirmative." She unfolded from No Name in a great clatter of metal, rapidly becoming her filly self and bounding over to Octavia's side. With a smile, she got to plugging the sphere into the generator.

"Please speak the pass phrase," spoke the familiar tone of the sphere the moment it was connected.

Octavia's sides swelled before letting it out in as slow a sigh. "By Celestia."

"Sleep mode terminated. How can I assist you?"

Dim's torpor broke with a perking of her head. "You really know how to use it?" She took an unsure step forward. "I knew you found it... but I wasn't sure... You really do know how to make it work? To go somewhere... far away?"

"That is the idea..." But how, ah... "If you would, use my companion here." She gestured at Vinyl. "Can you determine what world she came from."

A thin green line swept over Vinyl from the sphere, casually scanning her in some strange way. Vinyl blinked at Octavia. "Why not have it scan you? You were already standing closer and you're the one talking anyway."

"I do not wish to even chance that whatever process put wings on my back altered whatever it may be searching for. You are whole, and I don't think your accessory will change things."

"Dimensional frequency tuning." A soft strange hum emanated from deep inside the orb, tuning higher and lower until Vinyl began to vibrate with it, so very softly. Only she could really notice it, as if it was shaking her from the inside out. "Frequency located."

"Woah, that was a freaky feeling!"

Octavia had not felt it, and said nothing.

Dim's eyes were going a little wider by the moment. "You really can... You weren't just lying to the stupid little pony to get her to do what you wanted... You... aren't looking for a convenient ditch to toss me after this."

Belle tilted her head at Dim. "If that was your belief, why did you cooperate? That is not logical."

Dim rubbed one foreleg with another. "I figured there was, what... maybe 4 out of 5 odds I'd get what I deserved. I'd turn on my friends, then you'd turn on me, and I'd get... what I deserved, and that would be that... Then maybe a three out of five chance you'd ditch me as soon as you could, leave me to rot, alone..."

"Then why did you proceed?" Belle tilted her head off to the left. "It is not logical."

"Being a mom isn't logical..." Dim smiled faintly. "It was a small chance... but if I can give him, I know it's a him, I can feel it! If I can give him a better place to grow up... A chance to never know what I had to know... I had to. I just had to... I failed my first child. I will never know her smile... I failed a lot of people that should have been able to trust me... Please... Tell me I didn't do that this time."

Octavia's eyes were on the sphere. "If you have the frequency, can you use it?"

"Please provide a name for storage."

"Ah, yes." Octavia lifted an ear. "Equestria."

"Equestria frequency stored."

No Name set his hoof on her shoulder. "Hey, before you go on, tell that thin' to let me do what I want with it."

"Hm? Certainly." Octavia perked an ear at the sphere. "If I'm not here, assume he is in charge." She pointed at No Name.

"Registering user. Setting permissions. Complete."

Vinyl was seated next to Dim. "That's pretty heavy, but good on you."

"Good on me? I don't feel 'good' right now."

"You're being super brave for someone who can't protect themselves, sounds good to me." She set a hoof on the small pony's shoulder. "You're totally invited, by the way."

"To?" Dim rose up to all fours. "What am I invited to?"

"Well, first, to my 'welcome back to Equestria' dance blast. I'm going to raise all the roofs in Equestria super high and dance until I pass out. It'll be great, and you can come. We'll keep the drinks clean, for your, uh, you know."

"And second?" Dim perked an ear. "Is there a third?"

"There could be." She leaned in suddenly, touching nose to nose. "Second is a funny movie, maybe with Octavia, maybe separate. Either way, you need some good laughs too."

Octavia's attention was on the sphere. "Alright, can you open a portal using the Equestria frequency?"

"Please stand by... Power: Low. Minimal portal aperture size. Please step with caution. Touching the sides can result in grave bodily harm." The same green line that had scanned Vinyl instead lashed out into the air away from them, forming a circle that was barely a pony wide and tall, going a bright green all the way through before the center fell away, revealing a green pasture with a few idle flowers and a bright blue sky.

It was Equestria. Where on it? Who could say, but its bright colors were almost painful to look at compared to the dull tones of the ashen world they had been forced to dwell on.

Dim drew in breath in a sharp sudden gasp, eyes wide. "It's... so green..."

Octavia scowled at the hole. "It's Vinyl Scratch and Dim Flash sized, you two go on." Her additional stature made her just large enough to not feel confident in trying to pass through it without touching the sides. "Now, before the generator decides it doesn't want to continue working."

Dim did not need to be told twice. She scurried forward, trailing tears in the air. She tossed her gun aside, letting it clatter into the dirt. With a great leap, she was through the portal, landing neatly on the other side of it and turning around rapidly to look at them from the other world. "It's so fresh!" she cried with amazement, breathing perhaps too hard as if rushing to fill her lungs with crisp air that had long been denied her.

Vinyl nudged Octavia. "Get your flank through that portal Young Mare, or you're not getting any dessert. You know I'll do it."

"Vinyl, dear... I don't know what happens if you touch the side, and I don't care to find out, to be honest. I will search for better power sour--"

"--No." Vinyl reached for her goggles and pushed them up a little. "Octavia, look me in the eyes, right there, yeah, like that. You reach deep inside you. You find the rock princess that sleeps in there, breathing awesome with every little puff. You find her and you fix this, now."

Octavia looked left and right before noticing something abandoned on the ground. It was Dim's little gun, sized for her small mouth. "Dim, where did you get this from, originally?" She willed the gun up and over.

Dim squinted at the gun from the other side of the portal. "It was a gift... An old short legs gave it to me, said he got it as a gift, said never to throw it away..." She huffed softly. "You had to remind me of one more time I let someone down?"

"No... no... You did not let someone down." She could feel the history gently seeping from the gun. It was an implement she could use. Hidden in it were tricks to change the world. Sure, guns usually changed the world in one very specific way, but through that they protected, fed, and helped other things to change. She could feel that sympathetic magic and she smiled. "It'll be alright."

"Yeah! Now we're talking. Now get through there." Vinyl thrust a hoof at Dim through the portal.

With a look of concentration, Octavia glowed softly as she brought the gun closer. She got her teeth into place, fitting perfectly as she became as small as its original owner. With the little gun held in her jaws, she scampered forward. No matter how dignified she cared to be, her little legs didn't seem to want to allow that, but she hopped through the portal, landing beside Dim.

"Yay!" cried the original small pony. "But you said no weapons."

"And I meant it." Octavia drew out all the bullets from the gun and tossed them back through the portal, leaving her with a mouthful of an empty armament that could hurt no pony.

No Name tossed his head towards the portal. "Go on, they're waiting for you."

"Well, yeah..." Vinyl glanced at them, then back at No Name and Belle. "Hey, thanks, both of you. You two were beyond great people... And... uh, visit sometime? Get this thing plugged in somewhere better, come say hi... We'd love to have you, right?"

"Yeah." He reached for her, patting her back. "Go on."

"This little puppy's going home, but you better save Turves in a super awesome way or I swear I'll come back." She lowered her goggles back into place and with a scampering leap, she was through, tumbling onto the soft Equestrian grass with her friends. She felt something be pulled away from her. "Hey!"

Octavia had snatched her gun and looked ready to toss it bodily back through the portal.

"Just the bullets, c'mon! You kept the other one..."

Octavia raised a diminished brow before nodding. She unloaded the bullets from Vinyl's and her own firearm, tossing them all through the portal. They would enter Equestria without the means to do terrible things.

No Name stood up. "End that portal."

The portal closed with a pop. Their mission was over. They were left in the grey ashes, their puppies returned to their home, mostly intact.

Belle bounced forward. "I will--" She looked ready to grab the sphere. She didn't get the chance, No Name's hoof coming down in a brutal stomp, denting it badly in a fit of sparks.

He didn't stop, coming down again and again, battering it to pieces without pause, tears streaming down his face as he did it.

Belle flopped back on her haunches. "But..."

"It's my turn to ask you to accept this."

Belle had used that friendship command all too recently. She nodded sadly and moved to assume her place atop his back. "We will save Turves now? Permission to fully unlock?"

He smiled a little at that. "I think we'll need every little bit you have. We have a whole army to convince they made a bad decision." He turned away from the thoroughly smashed portal device. "Let's get to it. We have to beat them to Turves first."





Vinyl set a hoof on the head of the two ponies she was with, both smaller than her. "You know, I could get used to this. My little ponies."

Octavia and Dim managed to raise opposing brows in sync, peering at their friend before looking over at one another. Dim smiled softly. "You do look even nicer when we're eye to eye. I didn't know you were that magic. So... This is your home?"

With a moment of concentration, she began to expand rapidly, assuming her larger form. "Yes, this is Equestria, somewhere." She turned in place, looking around. "Ah, there." She pointed to where some rail tracks ran across the plains. "If we follow those, we'll arrive in a town, assuredly."

"Or we could head to the big mountain with the castle on it." Vinyl hiked a hoof towards where Canterlot could be seen above them, though quite some distance away.

"Too far," argued Octavia. "I motion we follow the tracks."

"Hey, Lappie, which way?" She pressed at its buttons, conjuring up the map, but there was no map, just text.



Data file not found for this plane. Please download the correct map file to enjoy map functionality on this plane.



"Uh, what if we are never going to find that file?"



Do you wish to create a new file?



"Yes'm!" She pressed the yes button eagerly.

A map appeared! It had nothing on it, save for a point that was them, in the middle of the nothing. "Good enough." Vinyl set her hoof down. "I can start adding points as I go and it'll keep track of it."

Dim had her nose pressed to a small flower, sniffing it softly. "It's... like a dream..."

Octavia smiled gently on the pony they had delivered from the ashen world. "It is like that, in comparison, is it not? It is not all peace and happiness, I assure. Come, let's find the way."

"I have to try something." She opened her mouth and chomped off the top of the flower, crushing the petals and their base in her teeth as she chewed thoughtfully. "Wow... You really can just eat them..."

Vinyl plucked up Dim Flash in her magic and set the small pony on her back. "You get to ride Belle style. Let's go." Carrying Dim was far easier, that little pony made of flesh and bones instead of steel. It was like carrying an actual filly around, and Vinyl did that with a happy expression. "We did it!"

"We did... Tell me, after all that, do you have any bits?" She walked through the field at Octavia's side, but her eyes were distant, on the future. "I feel I shall need to shop for a few things."

They had appeared close to Our Town. The ponies there were glad to help them. It was there that Octavia found what she wanted in the form of a crystal hanging from a pony's mane. "What is that and where did it come from?" she asked, following the mare, eyes locked on it.

The mare, Night Glider, glanced back at Octavia curiously. "A keepsake, from when Starlight used to be in charge."

"It feels... important."

"It was a piece of the big wall that held our cutie marks." Night Glider turned to face Octavia, looking over the alicorn curiously. "Huh woah, what's with this town and attracting royalty."

Octavia smiled nervously at that. "It must be destiny... Tell me, are you... attached to that?"

"Get your own." She pointed up into the hills. "Should still be some others up there. Big cave, can't miss it. Wall, lots of cubbies, and broken glass."

Octavia wanted that one right there, but... "Very well, thank you. You've been a great help."

"Sure no--" She trailed off, watching Octavia take off in flight for the caves. "Strange mare..."





Vinyl was at the tracks, waiting for the next train with Dim on her back. She smiled as Octavia came in for a landing, only to realize something was off. "How did you... Where are your wings?" Despite that her friend has just landed, there were no wings in sight. No horn either. "I have so many questions!"

"Hidden, not removed," counseled her friend, back to her usual height. "I will perhaps look silly when I duck beneath things that appear large enough for me, but I will not draw as many stares for it."

"Almost back to normal," agreed Vinyl. "Except one little detail."

"Hm?"

Vinyl pointed back at Octavia's cutie mark, altered by her contact with the queen-making magic. The note was still there, but great angelic wings spread from it in either direction, a crown floating just over it.

Octavia put a hoof over her face, knowing magic that tried to hide cutie marks tended to work poorly. "Not much I can do about that... Dim, you look pleased."

"I am... I'm still trying to take it all in. I... All those ponies, they were all happy and smiling and none of them had a weapon. There were no guards. Everything was clean. I can't smell ash. I never thought I'd miss it for even a second, but I'm a little lost without it. No ash, no grit. No... thing but smiles and happy people..."

Vinyl mussed Dim's mane with her magic. "Welcome to Equestria, but trust me, we have attacks, we just don't get stressed about them usually. Scream and run, maybe, but it gets fixed, and you go back to living it up. You'll like it."

The train pulled up gently, parking there at the literal end of the tracks. A conductor leaned out the side. "You coming aboard?" There was no station there, so they had to pay the conductor directly and got hoof-drawn tickets for where they were headed.

They had made it, to Equestria, to safety. They were being borne safely across the countryside. Vinyl watched the scenery pass by. "They better have saved Turves."

Octavia inclined her head faintly. "I thought you had faith in them."

"I do! But they better. With fireworks. I'm tellin' you, if they don't get stories for this, I'll be so mad..."

Dim was seated beside Vinyl, sipping on a can of fizzy drink slowly, unable to withstand a whole mouthful of carbonation due to a lack of exposure to its ticklish effects. "I'll write a story."

"Yeah?"

"About you, both of you, and your adventures..." She sipped softly. "I need a name..." She glanced between her two saviors. "Oh, of course... Of course. I'll call it 'Duet in the Dust'." She nodded with satisfaction.





And so I wrote this tale. I had to ask Octavia and Vinyl so many questions to get the details of the parts where I wasn't there. I hope I didn't make some parts seem... overdrawn or dramatic. They felt like that in the moment, I promise.

I hope you enjoyed this horrific tale. To you, dear reader, this must seem like a tale of dark fascination, of a thing that cannot be. Dear little pony, I assure you it is the truth. I mayyyy have embellished a little, here and there... But the events are true.

Don't believe me? If you dare, try to touch Octavia's back, and you'll feel her hidden wings. Do it gently and quickly, or she'll notice. She can be an angry angel, but also a deeply loving one.

I write this to remind you of what a wonderful world you live in. Thank you for allowing me to join it.

--Dim Flash