It was so very quiet; then again staring out into space couldn’t have been that loud to begin with. One with what were considered mortal senses might have gone mad hours ago just staring at all the revolving, bouncing and breaking masses floating around. An asteroid field was like an unborn planet that didn’t quite make it, that was kind of sad to think about. There were brown, grey, green and even a red asteroid or two floating around, it was said that asteroids changed colors the longer they floated about.
This asteroid field had been around for a long time to have so many varieties of metal and or rock just hanging around out in space, these asteroids had never been a part of a system of planets. The only thing that kept them from drifting off was the minor amounts of gravitational force some of the asteroids exhibited. Not strong enough to keep any asteroids together, but just so to keep the field cohesive. The field itself was quite massive, Streusel Station was only a short distance in and well protected from those drifting rocks through various means of magnetic repulsion devices, shields and energy turrets.
You could look above, below and all around, you wouldn’t be able to miss seeing a single asteroid. Each one drifting aimlessly until it bounced into another asteroid to change direction, momentum and position, such a thing happened every few seconds in a field like this. The more dangerous version of an asteroid field would be an ice field. While pretty, ice fields were deadly and dangerous in comparison given how quickly things could go badly in one.
Streusel Station was a small space station in comparison to Antilur Station and like said larger space station, it was a self sufficient space colony in being able to sustain a large population for some time, possibly even for hundreds of years. That is provided that the stations residents took good care of it. People who lived in an asteroid field would always have to have a way to protect themselves from the more dangerous aspects of it, such as the humongous asteroids that floated too close to the space station. That wasn’t happening right now, but it was an everyday threat out here.
It was kind of beautiful just watching as each individual asteroid move, each with its own unique shape, size and material. Nobody quite understood how the Pies did it, but they managed to take rock farming to an extreme that nobody could have ever thought of. In a way it was a bit breathtaking to look at and be among. In others it was a bit terrifying and if you didn’t keep constant vigilance, you could incidentally be hit with a large rock shaped problem.
Things were quieting down on Streusel Station; thanks in most part due to Trapeze helping get rid of most of Faxel’s problematic tricks. As of right now Ember was going hand to hand with his mechanical suit, to no one’s surprise Ember seemed to have an edge on it in several ways and Maud was staying nearby looking entirely stoic and calm. Trapeze was on her way back to see what Bernard and Rover were getting up to, if anything. Gilda sadly only managed to procure the very peculiar distortion pistol when Faxel lost hold of it in the bubble's explosion during his escape attempt; she was going back to Rarity’s group slightly ruffled and looked to be a little more grouchy than usual.
“Hey Gummy, do have any small jobs for a mechanical engineer or a repair consultant?” Every little bit helped when it came to wanting to apply some changes to the ship Opal now inhabited. Rarity had mentioned once or twice getting the ships outer hull painted so that it didn’t have so many drab colors, the interior was perfectly fine and surprisingly nice for something that was once a military vessel. Opal herself wanted Shining Jewel to actually shine as much as Rarity did; Rarity’s complaints about how grungy it looked on the outside with its drab colors had her thinking of how to go about changing that.
Opal dragged the larger portion of her attention away from a dragon trying to fight what amounted to a mechanical gorilla piloted by a small alien frog only vaguely bigger than Bernard was, all just to focus more of her multitasking mind on the hull painting problem. She was still paying attention to everything around her, the shields were up, the defensive turrets were primed to be powered and Rarity was setting up shop to sell stuff. All seemed right with the world, though she did note that the only thing that didn’t seem right was Pinkie Pie. The poor pink pony was madly twitching because she wanted to throw a party and was trying really hard to figure out how to get Rarity and all her friends together, especially without breaking any laws.
Idly paying attention to Gummy’s response, she noted that Lightning in medical was coming around and decided to inform the ships therapist, she’d hopefully know how to deal with Lightning.
“Vera, I need you to report to medical. Lightning is waking up and she should be okay for release, but she can’t do anything strenuous for a few days.” Opal was responsible for the crew as much as Rarity was. “Make sure you tell her that she should take it easy and be absolutely clear on that or she might cause more damage to her ribs, irreparable damage at that. If we have to we can and will strap her down for her own good. The plaster keeping her ribs together will dissolve eventually, but until then no chest bumping or rough housing.”
“So find something for Lightning to do that doesn’t involve flying or putting any pressure on her chest at all that would be any worse than breathing, right.” Rolling her eyes Vera was on the move for medical, which wasn’t far from the cafeteria where the girls were spending their time together. Not exactly a slumber party, but the effect was close enough with Coriander playing chaperone parent to all of them. “I bet she’ll be stubborn about that, any Pegasus would be. I hate to be the one to deliver that news, but I’m on it anyway Opal.”
“Recalculating crew life expectancy, cross reference it to their level of sanity and… I’m now increasing funds towards medical fluids and supplies.” Sure they were all various shades of crazy, but they’d survive if Opal had anything to say about it. The chances of injury were high as was surviving them, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
-
Rarity didn’t want to know what was going on with Faxel anymore, apparently Ember was dealing with it and that was good enough for her. Once again Rarity was glad to have Trapeze on board as an entertainer, one who knew how to defend herself and put on a show at the same time. Rarity was glad that most of her friends could handle themselves, even Coco could protect herself when it was more likely that she’d run from danger as the sweet mare didn’t like to be confrontational.
Instead Rarity was going through the motions and selling merchandise, Trapeze Troupe merchandise to be exact. The shirts even had the nifty name of being Trapeze T’s and there was at least one shirt design for each full time member of the troupe. Right now they were selling like hotcakes and Pinkie Pie being right next o her made a comment as to such, Rarity just smiled at her and patted her head.
The two shirts that were really selling well, the first was the Trapeze Troupe Group shirt. It had Rover on the left with three balls in the air and a dopey smile learning to the right, Trapeze on the right holding out her eponymous hat and a bright smile leaning to her left and lastly Bernard was in the middle with a fanned out deck of cards that had a glow that seemed to come from them in the shape of two T’s and a mysterious grin on his face.
The second was the Trapeze Tease shirts. The picture on the shirt was provocative in the way Trapeze was laying on her side with a broad smile, chin on her hoof and her long blue curly hair was out of the three buns she usually kept her mane in. The teasing part came in when her body stopped coming out of her top hat before her flanks could be seen. Trapeze was the one to actually insist on Rarity selling this shirt and she did so with a bit of apprehension, she thought the shirt might have been a bit racy.
Aside from that she sold two Pink Promenade dresses, fifteen EVA suits and had to make three tuxedos, none of which she had any problems with doing with Sassy lending her horn to assist her. While she was selling this stuff Chrysalis was off to the side modeling one of her dresses and advertising the shirts, it left Rarity glad that Chrysalis could at least dial back her weird or awkward personality to help her make sales in a friendly manner. Thankfully Chrysalis found managerial work to be rather easy even if she wasn’t entirely warm to anyone; it was quite time consuming work for the Changeling Queen. Sassy was relaxing with Babs and helping out when she could lend some magic. Gilda was on the lookout for anyone trying to pull a fast one against her Boss Lady and idly fiddling with Faxel’s distortion pistol.
“Can I get two Bernard shirts for my sisters? I think both Marble’s would really like them!” Specifically Pinkie wanted the shirts with Bernard looking adorable and nibbling on a carrot; if only people knew he was predatory omnivore.
“Of course Pinkie my dear and before you say to deliver it to a specific location with all my friends, we’re not nearly that dumb darling.” Smirking when she heard the pink pony stomp her hoof in frustration, Rarity continued to sell the other various bits of merchandise. Though the things were rather tacky, Rarity actually agreed to sell other thing than clothes… at least when it came to the Trapeze Troupe. They were simple knick knacks that Trapeze had somehow procured for her traveling group to sell. “Stick around Pinkie I’m going to have something important to discuss with you at a specific location soon enough anyway, right after I’m done with all these customers. I’ll set these two shirts aside and ring up your order then. How’s it going over there Chrysalis?”
“You’re kidding right? We’re selling a lot of Trapeze Tease shirts and might I add she really sells it well.” Tossing her mane and walking over to Rarity with lazy sway in her hips as she strutted, Chrysalis was in what could loosely be called a disguise. She looked exactly like herself if she was a normal unicorn and that was the entirety of the disguise, she mentally noted every single Pony, Griffon, Minotaur, Parascine and Cacceran that got one look at her rear end and then lost interest in her specifically. “Why, I couldn’t have looked more tantalizing myself… literally, she doesn’t even need a good rear to attract people. What’s wrong with me, I’m freaking beautiful and sexy, I also ooze personality!”
“Maybe the ooze part of that sentence is what scares everyone off.” Sassy didn’t have an issue with Chrysalis’s personality, but she did take issue with Chrysalis at the moment. “Also don’t think I didn’t notice you chewing on my mane earlier. Now get back to work!”
Chrysalis yelped at being caught nibbling and went back to work with a blush on her face, next time she would have to do it without getting caught. Sassy was managing Chrysalis well enough and making sure she didn’t do anything inappropriate to the customers… it was a full time job.
“Hey, Rarity, it’s nice to see you again!” A familiar voice spoke up and looking to it one would see Preston Licaley, the feminine Cacceran came up to Rarity and she gave him a big hug.
“Oh it’s so nice to see you too Preston, what are you doing here? I always like seeing repeat customers either way.” He was a friend that Rarity didn’t mind having around, he enjoyed wearing dresses and she had no trouble with that at all. He did look rather fetching in them. “What can I do for you darling?”
“I’d like a Bernard’s Cards shirt and a Rover’s Roving Balls shirt, oh and I’ve confirmed the exact maximum depth an EVA suit can get to underwater before the stress becomes too much. Even sent the info to your AI, I found out on Aquoltos how deep I could go. It’s an ocean planet and I’m doing some exploration there with some other people. It’s in the Kes Vec system and your suit is still serving me perfectly. In fact I’ve recommended you to quite a few people in the marine biology and research community; you’ve impressed a lot of people with your EVA suit design given it can effectively double as a scuba suit.” Preston grabbed the first shirt and looked it over closely; he smiled brightly at what he saw and even looked over the second one. “You’re always top quality even when selling what should be low quality merchandise Rarity. It’s been nice seeing you, but I’ll have to catch up with you at some other time as my three day break ends today and I can’t stick around.”
“It was nice seeing you again Preston and thank you for recommending me to other people!” The cacceran was of the friendliest sort and Rarity enjoyed seeing a friendly face. So he had a job in the Kes Vec system? Rarity would keep that in mind. Well he was obviously doing perfectly fine and taking care of his appearance, now there was a guy that had nothing wrong with getting in touch with his feminine side.
“You too, have a good day or what passes for it on a space station anyway!” Preston waved and walked off with his purchase in hand, he truly enjoyed Rarity’s presence as a friend. She was someone who accepted him for who he was and he couldn’t ask for a nicer pony to run into, especially when he heard that Rarity was the owner of the Trapeze Troupe’s mode of transportation.
“Yeah I remember him, I might have goofed up a little bit when I threw him a party… I didn’t know he was a hermaphrodite until after the… look can I really even go there in this story?” Pinkie questioned audibly while looking off into space, as if expecting the air to respond to her. “I’m not questioning your script or anything Airy, it’s just that. That line is something I really don’t want to say and you kind of owe me for forcing me to turn that guy on that one time… you just made me say something with really poor phrasing on purpose knowing that I can’t very well explain myself didn’t you?”
“Whoever you are talking to, they must be one very amused individual Pinkie. In any case there’s one hour left to peruse my shop before I close up for the day!” Despite her misgivings, Rarity always though Pinkie was good for a few laughs and giggles. She was weird, but who was to say weird was bad? Rarity certainly didn’t complain that she was hanging around even if she couldn’t throw Rarity or her other crew members that party she kept mentioning every once in a while. At least Rarity’s Pinkie Pie Party Pony Plan was going through perfectly, Pinkie was almost the right level of agitated.
“Agitated… why would you want me agitated Rarity?” Pinkie Pie seemed to wilt a bit. “I thought you liked me.”
“Pinkie, need I remind you that you don’t have psychic powers and that I truly do like you as a friend.” Rarity meant it, she was Pinkie’s friend and Pinkie should really learn to trust her unicorn friend even if it’s not her home dimensions Rarity who was used to her antics by now. “Well, aside from the fact that you have precognitive body spasms which they’ve already tested you for, and you certainly don’t get any psychic images from those. At least your body is always accurate and it itself is psychic in a way.”
It was obvious that this Pinkie wasn’t doing a good job of staying in character for this particular universe. Pinkie’s entire body started shuddering up and down, which meant something amazing would happen in the near future and she wondered if that had to do with what Rarity said.
“Oh a doozy… I wonder what it could be.” She gave a rather wide and broad smile at the air as if expecting to learn what exactly her Pinkie Sense was telling her, instead no spoilers were given. “As long as I’m a part of the plot, I’ll find out eventually anyway.”
-
“I told everyone to get together for it Ms. Star, I hope everything goes alright… Pinkie can get a little depressive if she isn’t given enough love or attention.” Marble’s quiet voice and hoof circling on the floor was adorable as was the meek mare herself that was Pinkie’s baby sister who hugged a relaxing Bernard. Nobody had to tell Bernard that he gets all the ladies for looking so cute and fluffy. “Limestone won’t come; she’s always too busy or is at least trying to be. I’m surprised my big sister hasn’t had a heart attack with how angry she always is, but I guess she’s the career mare of the family, where Maud is the scholar and Pinkie is the party girl. I’m just the wallflower of the family; I don’t think I’ll ever really amount to anything much really.”
“Hey don’t worry; Rarity will keep her distracted as a good friend will never leave another in the lurch. Why I even heard their stomach acids were dangerous and that leaving my friends in one would be bad for their health.” Trapeze Put a hoof around Rover and hugged him, he smiled a bit. “Like I’d never leave my two good friends here alone if they got into trouble, the last few hours have been pretty fun for me. Losing my traction scared me for a bit out there, but I persevered in front of my audience and came back to do this thing we’re doing triumphant. Now cheer this dour flower up Bernard, I know you have a few tricks that will make frown flop right side round!”
Bernard got out of Marble’s grip and threw a proud salute with a puffed up chest. He didn’t like a single frown in his audience and Marble was currently frowning; now he must get into a kung fu fight and judo that sadness away! He snapped his right paw and started to tap out a rhythm with his left leg, he opened his mouth to sing only to have it clamped shut by two hooves.
“Hey, no singing, you’re horrible at it and you’re always off the correct key as if you were doing it on purpose!” Trapeze was quite correct and Rover nodded in agreement to that assessment. The little bunny shaped being could do magic, but he couldn’t sing to save his life. “Do something other than cheer her up in that specific manner.”
-
Ember took a blow to the face and stumbled a bit, before charging and punching the robots head causing it to spin multiple revolutions. The robot reached up and stopped its head with both hands and there was a sound of vomiting coming from the inside of it. Ember launched an uppercut straight into the machines chin knocking it onto its back; she could hear the Foggre gag on his own vomit as it splattered him in the robot.
As far as design flaws go the gorilla shaped robot didn’t seem to have one, as far as anyone was concerned it didn’t. It however wasn’t made to fight a dragon; much less one of Ember’s strength directly. It was already covered in several gaping rents that her claws left behind and there were more forming with each attack.
Maud just stood off to the side watching this and smiled a little. It was faint, but it was there. The thought of Faxel being covered in his own vomit and then choking on it was something Maud found absolutely hilarious. She was waiting for the right moment to act; all she would need is one solid hoof to put things to a close. She wouldn’t take him off the list until she did so and Maud could punch like a jackhammer.
Ember was almost done ripping the thing apart and despite putting up a good fight, Faxel had yet to actually leave a bruise on her with his robot. It was almost time for Maud to act and she wasn’t going to beat him up nearly as bad as she wanted to, mostly because he was already on his last legs… no wait… Ember just got the leverage to rip one of the legs off the robot and is now beating the other one into a pile of scrap. She looked particularly angry; aggravating a dragon was never a good or safe thing to do.
After another rough smash with the electronic gorilla styled leg, Ember had destroyed the head of the machine. Pulling back both of her arms, she pushed them both down into the machine and then with all her strength she pulled apart the chest, ripping a hole into it to look directly into the pilots seat with a particularly frightened looking vomit covered Faxel looking right back. She took him by the scruff of the neck and held him up to her face.
“You see this… this is my mad face, you have yet to see my absolutely angry face. Pray to your gods that you never do and if you don’t have any, then pray I’ll have mercy on you.” Ember swung her left fist around into Faxel’s jaw dazing him and making a sharp cracking noise as if somebody just broke a window. “You don’t want to see my angry face, so don’t make me come after you again and then really get me annoyed. Maud if you will do the honors, you’re the mediator here.”
“Oh no… no, no, no…” Faxel was held out face first towards Maud who was standing ten feet away, with a blink the last thing he saw was a now close up and angry glare. One that was followed within the fraction of the second later by a hoof coming at him in slow motion and catching fire before it struck his face. His last thoughts were of angelic statues and to never blink around them.
“There, he is now off my list… he needs a hospital.” Dully informed Maud who had just looked to have hit Faxel in the face once and only once. The actuality being twenty eight times in a split second to a single point, the center of what used to be Faxel’s poor face and the blood now slowly leaking from it. “What time is it?”
“I’d say it’s getting to be time for…” The light on the ceiling of the Streusel City suddenly went away and now there were pinpricks of white with purple lit ceiling. “The change to night… well I’m tired. Let’s go drop this guy off… say… do you want to come with me to the surprise Rarity has in store for Pinkie and are you okay?”
“So this only took two hours, fifty nine minutes and fifty nine seconds this time… a new record. I’m fine; my hoof stings a bit though.” Maud’s hoof looked perfectly fine and you could tell that the mare was a skilled pugilist by looking at her. Her hoof blows would even hurt Ember badly given all the concussive force she could put out with each individual strike alone, not to mention the hundreds she could possibly throw in seconds with the same exact amount of force. She was a protective older sister and she set the bar for dealing with anyone who so much as harmed her sister, even an alternate dimensional version of her. A little think like friction burn wasn’t going to do much to her at all. “Depends, what kind of surprise? My sister better not be sad by the end of this.”
Maud was a force of nature, one that you didn’t want to mess with unless you want to look like you went through an avalanche. That was the exact thing that the hospital would put down for Faxel’s injuries; he just simply got caught in an avalanche and took a really big boulder to the face and somehow survived long enough to make it to a hospital in a space station away from the planet said avalanche occurred. Nope, there was certainly no insanely strong mortal pony that loved rocks and can punch your face off here.
“Don’t worry; it’ll definitely make her happy. At least from what Rarity told us of her anyway. Got used as a decoy to lure Pinkie away from the preparations, I’m sure they finished getting things together by now.” A beep alerted Ember to her data pad, she was glad she spent the extra money to get the darn thing reinforced with her kind of lifestyle. “Yep that’s them now.”
“Okay.” It was Maud’s only response; she wanted to know what was going on. “First we take him to a hospital.”
“You know, I almost forgot I was holding him...” Ember was a little distracted by how hard Maud had hit the guy she was still holding in her claws.
Again aggravating a dragon was not a good thing to do, aggravating Maud Pie was suicidal, the height of idiocy and worthy of an honorable mention in the Darwin Awards. She hadn’t killed anyone yet and she wasn’t about to start now.
-
“Well Pinkie, I wanted you to come here and talk to you about a few things specifically….” Rarity threw open the door to the room she had rented out earlier and Pinkie stepped into the dark room after her without a trace of fear. Her Pinkie Sense didn’t say anything bad was about to happen to her. “It’s one of the most important things that you keep forgetting because you’re too busy caring about everyone else’s happiness... something I respect as a generous mare myself since I paid for all of… this!”
“Surprise… we all hope you have a happy birthday Pinkie Pie!” The lights flicked on and everyone that was present in this room yelled this out immediately to Pinkie, said pink pony was struck positively speechless and dumb for more than a few seconds. Even Vera was there, even then she kept shooting glances in Rarity's direction entirely afraid of being forgotten.
“Yeah, this is a special birthday party just for you, me!” A second Pinkie yelled from within the crowd and everyone slowly backed away from her and looked between her and the other Pinkie Pie.
There was a lot of shock traveling throughout all of Pinkie’s friends; her family didn’t seem to blink an eye. Not even Limestone who just rolled her eyes as if it was obvious, her sister once again forgot her own birthday to celebrate her alternate reality versions birthday. It seemed her true sister wouldn’t break the record for forgetting her own birthday every year and would usually spend it partying at someone else’s. This year was no different, if even more ridiculous because Pinkie was in a way celebrating her own birthday by proxy.
Rarity slowly turned to look at Chrysalis who hadn’t transformed into Pinkie Pie as a joke and a lot of other people in the room were now a little more than confused about what was going on. Everyone was wondering why there was more than one Pinkie Pie in the room. They were all having a hard time trying to rationalize it or even wrap their heads around it. One Pinkie of whom was helping them celebrate the others birthday.
“Yeah, that’s not a Changeling, I think I would know Rarity. I’m a professional on Changelings and Changeling biology, for I’m basically a Changeling biologist.” Confirmed Chrysalis in as auspicious a manner as she could, her tone was as flat and deadpan as Maud’s usually was. She turned to Maud and looked at the rock on the floor next to her and her mood brightened considerably. “Hey Boulder Bottom, how have things been? Still a silent hard ass as ever I see.”