“Well we’ve finished all the commissions here, is there anyone else we needed to see to Coco?” Rarity turned to Coco Pommel and the sweet helpful partner just shyly shook her head. “Right then, I think we should be on our way. Opal, we’re done. Prep for launch, we’re going to leave for the Applon System soon and I think route C will be appropriate for our needs. We’ve already got the extra supplies from Mr. Rich’s store delivered to the Shining Jewel. Coriander, Saffron and Chrysalis are currently acquainting themselves with the ship and Trapeze’s group is practically settled. The only thing we have left to do is get Gilda’s tank back up to the ship.”
-
Chrysalis was sitting innocently in the hangar looking at the vast space and imagined coating the walls with slime to make it homier. Speaking of homier, the Changelings hadn’t had a hive in a long time and wondered what kind of planet would have the right climate. Would she even bother with building a new hive considering how things have been going since Luna and Celestia trashed her previous one? They were in an age where using better building materials was far better than Changeling excrements. Said building materials made for far more sturdy and stable structures.
What the Changelings needed was a warm planet, but not scorching. So that discounted ice and water covered worlds, but even Changelings needed fluids to keep living so it had to have some fresh water. So she would be looking for something like a forest or jungle planet to mark if she ever came across one, maybe tropical. Another planet type completely off the list was a badlands planet; Changelings had had enough of badlands as they didn’t smell too good.
Finally a loud thud brought Chrysalis’s attention back to The Bombing Peregrine being dropped in section three where it was slowly driven into section four for repairs. The Carvel Boutique swiveled around and slowly lowered to the floor. Right, she had to go over the extra supplies she brought onboard with the captain. Would Rarity technically be her captain? She was onboard as a crew member and not a queen; she was already feeling sad that she wouldn’t see the horrible situations she personally left Thorax in.
“Chrysalis, what’s in these extra crates?” Rarity came walking up to Chrysalis while looking a bit tired, there was some moderate profit made today. Not that she wasn’t passively making money due to her breach gel patent already, as such she had a content amount of money that doesn’t exactly hit rich if she was to spend most of it renovating The Shining Jewel and keeping paychecks paid. She was the poorest noble ever, even in comparison to the low born of Equus.
“Some of the left over rockets and launchers from the ones I had my Changelings stockpile before I even knew what those bipedal machines were going to be. Since I took the prophecy as it was, I prepared for the occasion and it paid out pretty well as my people would have certainly had more casualties thanks to the infantry they had to deal with. Other than that there are several kinds of guns and ammunition for the ones you can’t charge. It’s everything from various rifles, pistols and automatics that I thought you could use as well, all of which will fire beams, blasts, explosives, raw heat, liquid nitrogen and just about anything you can put into it if you have a material weapon. As a queen I have a right to bear arms of all kinds, unfortunately they wouldn’t let me mount bears onto the catapults despite the fact that I had to use the bears as ammunition and fortunately for you I couldn’t very well pack my catapult. Right to use living bear arms as weapons my ass.” She pointed at her large container that housed a practical armory of weapons, some of which she picked off the Hands of Midas guys she took down with her bare hooves. Of the two containers it was the smaller one, the other really large container was one that was quite important to Chrysalis. “This other container is full of hair shaved off of various animals… mostly female as I have a biased sense of taste. Plus up to at least two hundred fully shaved mares from a budding exhibitionist colony near Appleoosa and there’s at least as much hair from stallions in there because my taste does wander at times. I’m good for a year or two; I will be able to ration my supplies and might be able to pay a few mares to let me eat their hair at any place we stop at.”
Rarity just stared at Chrysalis blankly and wondered how Chrysalis managed to get so many ponies to agree to shave their bodies hairless, though the exhibitionist thing might not have been a joke and there were a bunch of mares out there that performed what was in her mind such a travesty. Rarity shuddered to think what Chrysalis did to pull off most of this or even get this much food for herself, but she didn’t have to worry about Chrysalis sneaking a bite out of her mane in her sleep. If Chrysalis tried there would be hell to pay and Rarity would certainly think of a more ladylike manner of dealing with the Changeling Queen than Celestia. Speaking of, the last Rarity saw Celestia she was trotting circles with glee to have the Chrysalis out of her hair and didn’t mind that she ended up in Rarity’s.
-
“I really don’t know what to think about this situation.” Thorax checked his butt as he ran a hoof over his antlered head, Chrysalis gave him a message that told him a secret way to becoming a different kind of Drag Queen. He looked less masculine, given his body now came in highly feminine colors and he looked quite girly with only his three horns denoting that he was still male and he was more shiny looking.
“I don’t know about you, but I think you’re a hot item personally!” A pony maid started to rub up against Thorax’s side and the Changeling felt something drop in his gut when she did.
Slowly turning about Thorax realized that he had been cornered in by several maids and servants of Celestia and Luna, his new appearance causing them to lick their lips which worried Thorax.
“Can you transform away those horns and add some long hair?” One of the maids asked with a look in her fluttering eyes that seemed less than innocent. “Because I think you’d look sexy with more Feminine features Mr. Thorax.”
Thorax bravely did what any newly made Dragonfly Queen would do when presented with several hungry looking ponies. He jumped for the nearest window screaming and smashed through it with the force his new size and weight was completely capable of, thanks to his new horns he also took part of the wall with him. He’d soon cause a commotion all over Canterlot while he feared for his life; apparently the servants at the castle were aware that his new stature meant they could torture him all the harder now. Why did he have to be so attractive to ponies for some reason? Was that Cadence coming at him like a missile? She wouldn’t be taking him alive, he’d fight to the last before he’d let that crazy mare try to force him to accept a herd!
Discord was sipping broken glass through a straw made of glass itself out a cup made out of milk, to think people had forgotten he existed and no one aside from his date thanked him for being a hero. He certainly got no respect when he did some good deeds… well at least Fluttershy respected him and he really liked her. His reasons for being here was that the chaos caused by Changelings was always fun to watch.
-
“So you want to know more about my knife throwing skills?” The Shining Jewel was still in orbit over Equus and Saffron was now spending time with Trapeze. They’d met and shook hooves; the Earth Pony magician was interesting to talk to.
“Yes, I heard you were pretty good. Do you think you can hit the target… without using your magic?” Trapeze was told by Rarity that Saffron was an interestingly talented chef.
They were in the training room and some dart boards were set up, the dart boards were entirely for Saffron’s benefit except for the one labeled for playing darts specifically that was meant specifically for unicorn levitation practice. Rarity bought the dart boards in bulk for entertainment purposes.
Saffron took up the offered kitchen knife from Trapeze and tested the weight of the knifed in her hoof as she swung it through the air; she flicked the knife upwards and caught it by the tip of the blade in her hoof. Reeling back with her hoof she flicked it forward and twisted her hoof slightly and the knife flew out and struck an inch to the left of the small red center.
“That’s quite impressive; you obviously know that kitchen knives aren’t meant to be aerodynamic.” Trapeze commented brightly, she had seen knife throwers before, but Saffron had a talent for it even if it wasn’t her special talent.
“Yeah, I’ve trained in knife fighting. Everyone in my family has apparently had a talent for fighting.” That or just plain being heroes to the best of their abilities and even outside of their special talents, but Saffron wasn’t about to drop the fact that she was Mare-Do-Well. “I’m good at throwing kitchen knives, but I would need to practice with actual throwing knives for a few weeks before I can even start practicing for an act. I’m also not exactly sold on the idea of joining your troupe Trapeze.”
“Well then let me have a chance to convince you to perform!” Trapeze threw a hoof around Saffron and smiled as she tipped her hat to the unicorn. “Because you have a talent that can be used in show business and it’s not necessarily your special talent. Though being a chef does have you working with knives every day so you already know quite a bit about that. I believe it would be more of a draw to have a pony not talented specifically in knife throwing performing the art. Do you know how to fight with a knife or have you ever been in a knife fight?”
“Yes I know how to knife fight with one hoof tied to my opponent at the very least, haven’t been injured in the face yet and I hope I never will. I happen to like my face the way it is.” Even if she weren’t very vain Saffron liked having good looks at least, she did eventually want a stallion in her life… that or a mare as she wasn’t that picky as long as she could have a foal. She wanted to be a mother; until she was heavy with a child she was going to be a hero like her mother and most of her ancestors before her.
-
“Trap Bar gave us the okay and we’re just about ready to go with our course set!” Rarity was on the bridge and looking out into space at Equus, it was a beautiful world. Now if only Rarity didn’t have the common misfortune to be in places where bad things kept happening, what has happened to her thus far wasn’t actually very uncommon. It happened to a lot of other people as well, things like sifter drifters, eldritch abominations, mercenaries, space pirates and apparently terrorists now were a common occurrence in the universe. She wasn’t the only pony that got shot and she wasn’t the only pony to get injured, she was just the pony lucky enough to survive most of those deadly occasions.
“I’m ready to set out on your orders mom!” Opal was an eager beaver to get to traveling; controlling the ship was something she could do.
“Hold it, hold everything, I have a request before we go!” Gilda stormed onto the bridge looking about and then made her way over to the communications console. “I have an old friend to call before we leave the area, so give me some time to talk with them. It’s that friend that saved me the trouble of having to repair a lot more on my tank and I wanted to talk to her before we leave.”
“Granted, Opal if you will hold off on that order to cast off from orbit for a moment.” Rarity just leaned back in the captain’s chair; she hoped it was cleaned thoroughly as she thought she knew what happened to the previous captain, blood, guts and gore were certainly hard to get off something once they stuck to it and dried. The sifter drifters that cleaned up this ship previously weren’t very clean eaters. In the back of Rarity’s mind, she was considering whether or not Vera had it right in that Opal was her familiar. “Oh and please do tell the crew to get settled in if you would be a dear Opal.”
“Thanks, I wonder if Rainbow is still slow in the head… as she always is.” With a broad smirk Gilda wondered what Rainbow would say when she heard about Gilda managing to secure the core of a Javelin, which was still sitting in the hangar.
-
Coriander was happy that his daughter survived the fighting in Canterlot, he was quite sad The Tasty Treat was smashed into the ground and was somewhat relieved that he still had a kitchen to work with after all that. He was currently spending time talking to Rover and Bernard. These were the only other males on the crew and they were a somewhat intelligent dog and a Lagotorphin he’d have to be stupid to disrespect. Why had he decided to join this crew with several meat eating creatures? Oh right, his daughter wanted to take a chance with Rarity and he had to admit they didn’t have much money left to do much else with.
“So then Rover was telling boss that maybe stealing chickens be bad idea. He never listened to Rover and then incidentally hurt one too many times, then one chicken lets loose loud crow and hundreds of chickens swarm boss. He is dying from injuries and infections days later; chickens are scary as are cats.” Rover’s stories didn’t go into detail, but they were horribly gruesome and Bernard didn’t bat an eyelash at hearing the end of one of Rover’s previous bosses. Coriander was more curious about the details, but thought better to ask about it as he was busy setting up the kitchen to start serving the crew when they needed to eat. “Rover doesn’t understand why being called chicken or scared feline is insult, both get quite dangerous when they are frightened and cornered. Rover learned to not to trouble those animals unless having dire need to do so.”
“I think I’ve heard enough of your stories, now let me tell you some of my own.” Coriander didn’t hate meat eaters, he was just a little wary as most ponies would be. That didn’t mean he couldn’t share stories with the two, at least they had omnivorous tendencies. “It all starts when my dear daughter insulted a pony who thought himself a champion knife fighter… I taught my Saffron a few things or two and her mother did leave behind some notes. As such my daughter certainly learned how to defend herself and she took to it quite well… so here’s what happened.”
-
Leaving Greta alone with Lightning might have eventually caused some issues, but the two weren’t at each other’s throats or even trying to aggravate one another. Lightning was lying around watching Greta work on The Bombing Peregrine as she had watched Gilda; the two were entirely different in work effort. Gilda was driven to complete her work without sleep, whereas Greta would take a break every now and then.
“Say Lightning, can you put a bean and cheese burrito in the microwave and see if it’s working?” Greta finally turned a smiling beak upon her watcher and didn’t seem at all angry knowing that Lightning has slept with Gilda. Greta didn’t get angry over whoever Gilda wanted to be with, she just wanted Gilda to be happy and eventually do those things with her.
“I guess, things around here are boring now that the action is over with and I could use a snack.” Lightning got up on to her hooves and went to go grab one from the supplies. It took her ten minutes to get back with the requisite burrito and some cleaning equipment in case it burst all over the insides of the microwave built into The Bombing Peregrine. Lightning Dust wasn’t about to question why there was a microwave; these two griffons were both crazy and genius. She wasn’t exactly that bright herself, so she shouldn’t be questioning them about it. “Okay… burrito preparation, time, put into sheath… hah like a stallion sheathe… okay and go.”
The microwave came to life and hummed quietly, after the requisite minute or so the microwave dinged and Lightning pulled out a burrito that was warm all around and it wasn’t even cold in the center.
“Yeah, I think that’ll do it. So how was she, Gilda I mean?” Greta had a long list of Pegasus Pony’s that had slept with Gilda, she knew her friend had an odd inclination for feathered ponies and she was proving that by making Lightning choke slightly on the cheesy goodness in her mouth.
“She’s kind of rough and I don’t think I mind that, in fact I can understand why some ponies want to be with griffons. Nothing like a highly aggressive partner, I’m sure you know that if what I heard from Gilda is true in you being her best friend.” A slight pause was caused by Lightning seeing a flat look cross Greta’s face as she continued to bite into the burrito and chew slowly. Upon swallowing Lightning asked a question that seemed like it was based in divine providence. “You’re one of those passive sexual predators aren’t you? I’m also getting the idea that you’re only entirely interested in mare on mare action. I don’t understand why you can’t have both, before my showboating caused issues I’ve slept with a stallion or two personally and enjoyed it as much as sleeping with a mare. ”
“I would say I’m more likely Gilda centered, but I do like looking at other females in the crew so I can’t deny maybe wanting to spend some quality time with them.” Taking a bag of popcorn out Greta put in the microwave and started it up, she also got some water from the cooler and it was quite cold and freshly condensed. She smiled as she waited for her popcorn. “Though I do definitely hit on other girls, being with Gilda is kind of a desire of mine. I’ve only ever slept next to her and maybe cuddled, but I’ve never exactly done that with her.”
“Oh, so your one of those happy sappy types that smiles even knowing that what you want is only slightly beyond your reach and you’re not willing to force the issue.” Lightning got some water, seeing as Greta hadn’t dropped dead from drinking it five minutes afterwards. She was still quite paranoid she would wake up to find herself living in a cardboard box again. She wasn’t about to lose a good gig like this one by doing something stupid now. “You’re probably a gentle hen of the greatest sorts if you haven’t done anything with Big G.”
“What’s wrong with being gentle? I’ll court Gilda how I see fit to do so, even if she has a predilection for Pegasus Ponies and I have a list of every pony she has ever slept with and how quickly it occurred.” After thinking about it, Greta decided that she needed to add Lightning’s name to the list while showing her all the other names to see if there was anyone she recognized. “Do you want to read it?”
“Sure, why not, I could use a good laugh.” The cheese in the burrito certainly tasted real enough for Lightning, so she might as well see this mythical list of ponies Gilda has been with.
An hour later Lightning found herself recognizing several names on the list, including one Rainbow Dash of whom she had to silently admit was still a pilot with the Wonder Bolts reservist because she was less of a show off than Lightning had been. Lightning knew she screwed up personally and couldn’t really blame Rainbow for saving the day when she did, but it was a surprise to know that Gilda and Rainbow had a history together.
-
Chrysalis was now in medical room aboard The Shining Jewel and was looking at the mare sleeping away in the medical bed, she had learned a lot about all the crew members. Mostly from what information she could scrounge up on each of them that is. Things like how Rarity was a commoner and had been working as a waitress on Desserzon, which is until she became the captain of the Caravel Boutique and eventually Baroness of The Shining Jewel Estate. Rarity was a self made mare and Chrysalis wanted to see where she went with it, even if it was boring she was curious enough to travel around with the mare that was drawing all these weirdoes to herself.
However Sassy Saddles was someone she had learned quite a bit of history about, she kind of felt sorry for the mare and knew of her medical history that led her to being horrified by medical beds like the one she was currently in. She was one of the last crew members Chrysalis had yet to make uncomfortable, she didn’t particularly feel like making Sassy uncomfortable until she could handle it.
Chrysalis had already talked to Coco about how cute her butt was, that mare needed to be complimented more on looking as adorable as she did. Coco was one of those Earth Pony’s who were unnaturally gifted with incredible physical strength despite her being comically meek in appearance, Chrysalis would not make the mistake of going too far with a pony like that again after getting violently beaten to near death by Paneer Masala.
Coriander was stiff with her, she understood that he was around during the Changeling invasion and she knew that they weren’t going to be the best of friends because of that as he was scouting for the location of The Tasty Treat at the time. At least Coriander was amiable enough to not cause problems.
Saffron was more talkative but was mostly interested in history of her ancestors. Given how long Chrysalis had been alive she was glad to talk about the legacy of the mauve heroes. They could be friends, provided that Chrysalis does nothing that could be held against her while they were on the same ship as that would get awkward. She also had a really delicious looking mane, not that Chrysalis couldn’t look or enjoy another mares crowning glory.
Rover was a bit more problematic as she didn’t know where he came from and he didn’t seem to care where he was going, but he wasn’t a threat at the least and certainly didn’t feel as such to Chrysalis. The Diamond Dog did need some combat training and wrestling would certainly suit his build nicely.
Lightning Dust was an iffy one to say the least, but she was apparently digging herself up from being thrown into a ditch she dug for herself. She seemed the most likely candidate to not care about having her mane eaten by a Changeling, which could very well be Chrysalis given that the mare might be willing to part with her hair for a percentage of her personal paycheck as a crew member. Aside from that she seemed to have learned her lesson and Chrysalis was willing to work with her.
Gilda and Greta were quite the pair, Chrysalis was kind of amused about all the emotions flowing between them and yet a little confused about them at the same time. They were geniuses plain and simple and Chrysalis would certainly enjoy their company, especially if Greta was open to a game of Twisty.
Bernard and Trapeze were questionable; Chrysalis could swear she felt the love of lovers between them even if they didn’t smell like they were. Trapeze was a magician in Manehatten, she signed off with the crew to use the ship as a way to tour around while running her shows and her history was known. Bernard’s history was as lost as Rover’s was, but he seemed to be okay for a meat eating false rabbit. Chrysalis wouldn’t mind joining the Trapeze Troupe if she ever got bored as Trapeze always seemed to be doing something. She had yet to figure out the mechanics of that darn hat that Trapeze always had close by.
The most mysterious figure was the one that Chrysalis had a hardest time keeping in mind, Vera Blossom. She would do a lot of things just to have that kind of ability around her butt, and then people wouldn’t notice how lackluster her caboose was. Bernard and Rover didn’t match Vera’s utter lack of information and all she knew was that Vera was the crews psychologist, massage expert and therapy provider. That was not to mention she was a SNUGGLES member who was off the grid because of her… would it really be a disability if about every Changeling would have wanted that ability? Universal ignorance is a useful thing to have in case you angered the wrong person, but not being able to control it is just as bad as it is good.
Chrysalis had to know who she was bunking with, because she had a long road ahead of her if she’s to find a planet to settle down on for her first Changeling Colony. These people weren’t so bad; the only problem is that they didn’t have to acknowledge her regal nature as a beautiful queen that could have a nice butt if she tried a lot harder. For whatever reason Changeling transformation wouldn’t give Chrysalis a good looking butt and that was a pretty important thing to have. It was going to be scary working without other Changelings for a change, but she could handle that or at least she thought that she could.
-
“Call Sign, what are they doing and why haven’t they left yet?” Trap Bar thought Rarity’s ship would have been gone by now. The EVA suits were found to be works of art and were quite functional in space. That much the stallion appreciated. What he didn’t appreciate was that he might or might not have been talking to the best Black-Ops team he has ever seen.
“Apparently one of their crew members is calling a reservist in the Wonder Bolts. Not only do they have Queen Chrysalis with them as a crew member, but they also apparently have an in with the Wonder Bolts according to how you think. Looks like they just wrapped up and are going sir, their course is Antilur Station.” Call Sign looked up to his commander. “Isn’t that the station that went quiet sir? Shouldn’t we warn them about it? I still don’t think they’re a black ops team.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine Call Sign, they are pretty good at this stuff. Check with the other ships and have them report in for any activity from the other sectors.” Trap Bar figured Baroness Rarity and her crew could handle it, the fact that Rarity was a Baroness at all told him Celestia obviously had a great plan in mind and her agents were doing good work.
-
Celestia was trying to play tennis with Twilight and trying not to think of what happened the second time an alicorn has ingested a banana within the last thousand years, this time there was at least some consent given. Now both the mares were having problems focusing on anything other than each other.
Princess Celestia didn’t have much in mind aside from Twilight at the moment and her favorite pony’s oncoming coronation ceremony. The point of the aerial tennis match was to teach Twilight how to use her new wings.
-
“Okay we can go now. I just finished catching up with an old friend and making her jealous that I got to fly a Javelin.” Gilda just spun the communications chair and gave a jaunty salute to Rarity with a cheerful smile on her beak.
“Am I the only one a little freaked out by the smile on her beak, because it kind of scares me a bit on a primal level.” How Opal would know what that felt like would be left up to a later discussion.
“Don’t worry Kitten, I’m perfectly fine.” Yep something was off about Gilda’s smile and tone of voice. “I might even kiss Greta on the beak later.”
“She actually wants to return the signs of attraction from her best friend; it’s the first sign of the apocalypse!” An entirely upset Opal wailed in fear.
“Please, just get us moving Opal.” The no nonsense tone from Rarity snapped the supposed AI out of her panicking. They were immediately on course for their next destination leaving the Equon System behind.