//------------------------------// // -13- // Story: Coarse Diamonds // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// It was the next morning on Ewesen and Rarity was having Opal listen to the local news for anything important to make note of, she had been informed that Coco hadn’t come back last night and was slightly worried. However Coco’s data pad was close to the spaceport and slowly moving towards the ship. “Rarity I can finally see Coco, may I ask for permission to prepare a med-bed? She looks like she’s had a rough night. The multiple visible wounds caused by material, energy and melee weaponry alone can tell you what I mean.” What Opal was seeing was not anywhere near the definition of pretty. “Who in the world could that sweet little mare have possibly gotten angry?” “Permission granted to do so for all crew members if immediate med-bed action is completely warranted, hopefully you remember my other rules about your usage of the med-beds. Now please send out the CATs to help her aboard this instant!” When Rarity got snappy, she got results and the injuries looked pretty bad once she saw them for herself on a monitor. Thankfully it looked like nothing vital was struck and Coco whimpered as she swiftly strapped into the nearest med-bed for her own good after having limped her way to the Caravel Boutique looking like a sight out of a horror film about a survivor becoming the monster themselves. - “Let’s see, from the scans alone it looks like she’ll make a full recovery, but she’ll definitely be out of it for an entire day and the pain killers we have are definitely going to make her feel good for a while. We probably need more of that stuff given how much you liked it Meowstress. Anyway poor Miss Pommel, who could be so cruel as to shoot at something so adorable looking?” Opal wanted to know so she could personally rip whoever did this apart, not that she could do it physically being a digitally bound entity. “Let’s see lots of flesh wounds around the legs, I’ve already seen to pulling five bits of metal out of them. You’ll probably need rehabilitation seminar Coco since it looked like you used your legs to take the brunt of most of your injuries. The fur on your right ear will grow back with time thankfully your ears are not injured other than cosmetically, no permanent injury to any part of your body aside from the nasty concussion. What did you do to get that one; did you strap yourself to the nearest rocket heading straight for a solid metal wall that’s about eight feet thick and over five tons? The concussion is thankfully the worst of it aside from the legs, the rest are minor injuries that could have been severe if they were an inch lower, higher or even a millimeter to the right. The blow you took to the spine might be sore for a while but I don’t see any fractures on the scans.” “It’s good to know you’re going to be okay Coco.” Rarity put a hoof on the lid of the fluid filled med-bed while looking at the traumatized pony that looked at her sadly. “Don’t worry about work dear, Sassy can cover for you.” “Seriously though, holy fudge girl, how did all this happen to someone like you and how did you make it back here in one piece! Oh and the absolute worst thing of all this and I’m sure Rarity agrees, your mane and tail are an absolute mess from all the blood that you were positively covered in!” To Opal’s moderate surprise, most of that blood wasn’t even Coco’s. “Also your missing a section of mane from your bangs, don’t worry it’s not that much noticeably shorter. Okay, yeah it is, but still it’s not quite that bad. How did you get so much blood from, let’s see… suffice it to say and in quick summation, you have the blood of at least thirty different sentient species coating your body. All of it as recently spilled as the last five hours, yikes, anyway Sassy is up and I’ll have to tell her that she’s on your shift today. Still though the strongest species blood on you is Ceantir, how did that happen? I’m sure you’ll tell us later, because you can’t exactly talk right now. You need to get some sleep so nod if you want the happy drugs.” Coco just moaned sadly in the fluids, she really didn’t want to talk about how her night went later. Days and nights on this planet were longer than usual, so saying she had a long night was accurate and right now she just wanted to sleep everything off. She had loved this planet and still does; if bounty hunters weren’t currently congregating to this planet then things would have been perfectly fine. Thankfully the saving grace of the night for Coco had been when she had incidentally gotten a hold of a bounty hunters spiked metal club, one that was now probably still where she left it. A lot of the bounty hunters had underestimated the strength of a single cute little Earth Pony, now they’d definitely be more wary of cornering the next Earth Pony they met and with good reason. If they saw the previous Earth Pony coming at them again with a very pointy solid metal Kanabo that weighed more than a hundred pounds, they’d probably freak out. Speaking softly and having the ability to wield a big stick really helped out a lot as an intimidation factor, that and the bounty hunters tripped over each other with infighting. It allowed Coco to make a run for it after she got in one last blow with the bat. She hopefully didn’t kill anybody, then again what she did was in duress and she was already willing to forgive herself for it. Managing what little consciousness she had left, Coco nodded gingerly. This led to a needle jamming itself into her neck and a brief smile of relief crossing her face, the drugs really were happy to meet her. - Ember was having an odd morning after having no luck finding the Ceantir last night. It was mostly because when she was heading towards a bar to see if there was any information to be heard by word of mouth. Only she basically tripped over the Ceantir she had been looking for after turning a corner, she tripped over its legs specifically and found it lying on its back as she stood up. It looked to have been shot hundreds of times and its armored hide was thoroughly cracked in multiple places, she could still hear a faint rasping sound coming from the four legged limp body. “What the… who would leave a perfectly good bounty lying around?” Not seeing anyone else there Ember looked at the tip of the metal bat as large as her rifle slightly buried into the crustaceous cretins face. Grabbing the bat and with a sharp tug that made a horrible squelching noise that made the dragon cringe squeamishly, she had managed to pull the bloody bat free. After shaking some of the excess colorful blood off it, she looked at the still highly roughed up crab face that was breathing. She swiftly kicked the Ceantir roughly to test something. Nope, it didn’t look like the Ceantir would be getting up anytime soon. “Well, if no one wants this bat or to cash him in then… mine!” Taking this moment of serendipity for what it was, Ember didn’t question the situation and looked the bat over before wiping it on the ground and strapping it to her back. Looking around, Ember didn’t see anyone as she grabbed the still living bounty target and started dragging it away, she really needed to spring for a mode of transportation to carry bounties around with soon. She really didn’t want to give up walking or flying the scenic routes, so a vehicle that could be remotely summoned to her would be a nice purchase if she could find one that suited her tastes. Given she just got a free weapon and a good payout for a live relatively immobilized target. She figure today was probably a good day for splurging a little, should she really complain about the oddity of finding this bounty just sitting here for the taking? She started whistling jauntily in a disturbing manner as she heaved the body and had to dig her feet into the ground to even move it a few feet at a time. She knew where the nearest bounty counter was and dragging this guys butt for three miles was going to be worth it in the end even if it was a lot of trouble to go through. It would be a nice workout at the very least and it was much further distance to go than the Ceantir she took down at the spaceport. She’d definitely buy herself something nice afterwards while calling it a day, maybe find a magazine to look up vehicles she could use or have one custom made with her unique physiology in mind. Ember would find that mare she needed to apologize to later; she was going to be found on Miss Belle’s ship, so she had all the time in the world today after getting this last Ceantir off her back. Around another corner from where Ember started dragging the Ceantir away, there were several groaning piles of bodies. Some were injured bounty hunters that were just coming to and others probably needed immediate medical attention about now. None of the bounty hunters had died that night, but some permanent injuries were incurred and the nearest hospital would be busy for the foreseeable day. - “So you don’t even know what happened to her?” Sassy was upset that Coco went out for a night on the town and ended up like this. The fact that the mare still had all her stuff said to Miss Saddles that Miss Pommel definitely gave better than she got and if she looked like this, then what did the other guy look like? “No, so I would like to ask, could you possibly fill in her shift for me today? Please don’t cause a scene if you agree to this, as I cater to both male and female customers Sassy. If you can keep things professional and provided your therapist lets you, then you can stay on with us and we can work out a plan to continue helping you.” While Rarity would personally like to leave the customers to Sassy, she wasn’t about to leave her alone with any male customers they might come across. “Opal, have anything scheduled for me today, aside from possibly needing to hire a medical professional for Sassy.” “I’ve got a few hits. A human female wants an EVA suit. A male Lagotorphin and two mares want to meet with us personally. We also have… huh… a female Minotaur; you don’t see one of those every day. Preston again and the last one scheduled is… hold on we’ve got an upcoming important news bulletin. Why did they have to interrupt me during customer scheduling?” They could hear Opal groaning as she was interrupted by important news. “I’m putting it on the screen nearest you Meowstress Rarity and it says that it will air the bulletin in a few minutes. It’s probably related to the MOM.” “Please and thank you darling; just be sure to keep Coco perfectly comfortable while you’re at it.” It was going to be another average day and even with Greta and Gilda picking up parts for the Caravel Boutique, she still needed to pick up enough supplies. What was it Rarity needed? Let’s see various rolls of plastic fabrics and wiring for EVA suit construction, she used a lot of fabric on making socks the other day and she had how many mouths to feed? Two griffons and two possibly three ponies including Rarity herself, so a surplus of food supplies in case she ends up taking anymore crew member on was a must. Her ship was rated to carry this many people comfortably, so there wasn’t a problem at the moment. She had to get the variable thrusters refueled, fresh water, plus something to recharge her five energy pistols with along with a greater variety of other weapons for things that energy weapons just wouldn’t feasibly work on. Her near miss with the Xouj and talk with Ember the other day pretty much made her a bit jumpy of what could be in the shadows. Wait a minute, make that three possibly four ponies, Rarity had almost forgotten about the masseuse Vera who sounded like she was sticking around regardless of pay and mostly out of recognition. It was quite disturbing how forgettable she was, even with Rarity’s keen eye for detail pretty much negating the problem that Vera had of being easy to ignore or overlooked by everything. Apparently that didn’t exactly translate to Rarity keeping her in mind. “Sassy, Vera, let’s go see what this bulletin is all about.” Rarity nodded to Vera who smiled at the acknowledgement and followed her out. Sassy frowned, looking back at an unconscious Coco before exiting the medical and cleansing room. - A Lagotorphin looked like an average everyday rabbit, only they had different genetics; they bleed purple and were twenty times smarter than an average bunny. It is yet to be known what will happen should a Cacceran and a Lagotorphin breed. The prospects of that happening were unlikely. Because of their size and general appearance in being mistaken for regular rabbits, Lagotorphins are notorious for being good hunters due in part to confusing carnivores for centuries and leading them into traps. Unlike normal rabbits they are omnivorous and will eat meat when given the chance when they think no one can see them breaking character of looking cute and innocent. They are sentient, but they aren’t as technologically gifted as other races. Still they’ve managed to get off their planet by hitching rides with more technologically gifted species and are observant of how to use said technology. They were eventually discovered when someone realized that rabbits kept popping up and starting homes next to more technologically advanced cities in the oddest of places, that and they were eventually found sabotaging all the efforts to get rid of what was believed to be a massive rabbit based infestation. Since they share so many similarities in appearance with rabbits, rabbits don’t see Lagotorphins as being different from them or a threat and will usually act friendly towards them despite not actually sharing any close form of genetics. In fact a Lagtorphin only shares the barely a two percent genetic similarity to rabbits despite appearances, as with humans sharing genetic similarities to mice and being vastly different things. - “And this is Quia System News, the fleet sent out a while ago to deal with the MOM has returned. However their mission was not entirely a success, the planet infecting monster carrying meteor was heavily ravaged by our forces and in turn so were they by the defenses the meteor presented.” An image of the fleet before, during and after the battle popped upon the screen behind the feminine looking pink Parascine telling the news of the recent assault. Well as feminine as a jellyfish could possibly look. “Having attacked the MOM two days out from Ewesen at the speed it was moving, they have managed to destroy half of its mass. Now what remains of the MOM are two smaller core pieces still heading for Ewesen. The two pieces have been slowed down drastically and are still considered highly threatening, so that section of space is now currently considered under heavy quarantine. The Planetary Protection Patrol plans to intercept them with Geoptis Station and will try to quickly repair the heavily damaged fleet. Now a moment of silence for those who lost their lives and we’ll now show a list of the casualties by ship.” - Greta was watching all this on the monitor in the hotel room and was sitting on the edge of the bed feeling a bit sad as she drank her beverage having woken up a short while ago, the sleep she got after helping Gilda work herself to exhaustion was incredible. Mostly because she had a big cuddly grumpy friend who couldn’t resist her snuggling within the one bed room they shared because she was too tired to push her off, in fact Gilda was still snoring away on the bed looking adorable despite how she acted when she was awake. The list of dead or crippled on the monitor had a lot of fighter pilots; apparently the MOM had a good defensive screen of some kind. It had to be a deadly space capable biological type of defense mechanism to take down so many fighter pilots on the list. It looked like fifty seven percent of the fighters that were sent out were destroyed, the rest were damaged badly and only a small five to seven percent of them came out of combat only lacking their heavy ordinance. “All those poor ships… and the people on them too of course, it looks like we got our work cut out for us soon. Even if we do manage quite a bit of funds, we still might need some money from Rarity to pay for the materials we need to outfit her ship.” Greta leaned back and continued to watch the report and stretched out her left wing to stroke Gilda’s back to get a saw purring trill out of her best friend. Gilda didn’t enact cuddling sessions, but she didn’t seem to mind being cuddled when she was ‘drop dead’ tired. “I can already tell the coming days are going to be pretty hectic.” “Come back to bed Greta, its cold without all the sunshine that flies out of your ass.” Gilda muttered sleepily not really aware of what she was asking of her friend. Said friend gained a large grin across her beak as she turned off the monitor and its highly depressing display for the opportunity to curl up against Gilda’s back. A little more sleep certainly wouldn’t hurt, as Greta knew she was going to need all the rest she could get and Mr. Welder was going to be getting a lot of use real soon. Oh sure Gilda would push her off the bed when she woke up, but Greta could live with a little pain after enjoying the moment that Gilda had asked for her as a bed warmer. It was odd that they weren’t in a relationship; they were really good friends with very mild benefits. That Gilda let Greta get away with a lot of affectionate gestures like this said a lot about how comfortable the two were with each other. - On Planet Equus it already midday, a tall figure walked down the hallway with a calm demeanor and opened a door to walk into a room of absolute chaos. It was rather adorable what she just walked into, being the friendliest politician on Equus she would say that what she was seeing wasn’t worthy of being called a scandal. Now Celestia, Luna and Cadence having a threesome, that might have been odd but not scandal worthy. What was scandal worthy to the mare that was watching the three at play? A true scandal would be Celestia turning down perfectly good cake, Luna missing her scheduled eating of a banana flavored moon pie thirty seconds after midnight and then there’s Cadence’s rather embarrassing activity that she’d rather not have brought to light. “Hello, heard a rumor that you wouldn’t sign off on something because you’re still testing it?” The accusatory tone the large dark furred bug pony spoke in had suddenly alerted the three alicorns in the room to her presence. Said ponies were busy bouncing breach gel spheres everywhere in a playful manner. They looked like several deer caught in directed light and all their ears wilted at seeing her. She flicked her long teal colored mane and smiled coyly at them. “You know if I was little more anal about things, I could have you sued for already using the stuff in everyday life without signing off on it. Don’t you have plenty of other things to test?” “Oh, it is our dear friend Chrysalis, it so nice of you to join us once more!” It would always be Luna that first greeted Chrysalis with a friendly hug and love based in friendship, Chrysalis could actually taste the difference between romantic, friend and family based love. Chrysalis and Luna became quick friends after some misunderstandings and plenty of other things were hashed out after the changelings surrender. “Do you need any more love?” “No thanks, I haven’t actually touched the stuff for a whole year until just now. Thanks for the taste of vanilla by the way, I kind of missed that.” This shocked the three ponies with horns and wings as she Chrysalis flicked out her own dragonfly styled wings and buzzed them a bit as her own form of secretive laughter. Friendship love tasted like vanilla ice cream, romantic love was obviously chocolate and familial love was rare. Some changelings did marry and crossbreed with ponies, they likened the taste to strawberry ice cream or strawberry syrup covered cheesecake. Chrysalis wouldn’t know, she never married a pony nor has she ever actually had children. Sure she cared for changeling hatchlings and nowadays she did that less and was more of a babysitter when absolutely needed by one of her people to watch the communal daycare, but that was becoming a rare occurrence as changelings were becoming self sufficient due to recent discoveries. “Wait, are you saying you actually found a stable food source, which means you don’t need to eat love anymore?” Of course that would set off Cadence the princess of love, the bright pink mare with gold, violet and magenta hair that was straight until the tips where it ended in curls. “I found a lot of unstable food sources; all that trial and error was quite horrible. Traveling the planet on tour for a year has cooled my jets so to speak. Aside from that, I didn’t find one, but rather two stable and easy to acquire sources of food for my people from renewable resources. fortunately said food hurts no one and unfortunately if ponies knew what it was that we can eat for sustenance aside from love… it might upset a lot of ponies by quite a bit and they’d probably try to start hoarding our new food source from us if they knew exactly what it was.” After a moment of quiet and before any of the ponies looking upon her magnificent visage could speak up, Chrysalis had to address some issues. “Please, for the sake of my sanity, tell me that you didn’t give the Caccerans any leeway into law making or judicial power while I was gone. I’m also a little upset that they are losing sight of their culture and adapting to everyone else’s, it’s like they don’t have their own culture and if they did they don’t seem to care.” “Holy Buck, you’re actually caring about another species without wanting something in return!” Hearing Cadence’s sentiments caused Chrysalis to start chuckling dryly and for Celestia to stare her niece down. “Please watch your language Cadence! We’re all civilized mares here.” While Celestia would never be as close to Chrysalis as her sister, she was happy that the changeling had worked out her issues over the past year. “It is rather ponderous that you’d be concerned about the Caccerans. Also I would like to think that we are not dumb enough to allow them any form of control over the laws in our governing system. Especially to form loopholes so large that we’d have to pay them fifty bits every time we utter the word banana. Eating sundaes on a sunny Sunday just wouldn’t be the same with bananas costing a leg and a wing. ” “Ponderous nothing, it’s like those guys don’t care at all about having their own culture if they fail at an invasion. When we surrendered to you, at least we kept true to our culture and traditions with a few exceptions so as to allow our races to coexist. Those changes were for the better anyway.” Okay now it was understandable why Chrysalis cared about the Caccerans lacking their own set culture that wasn’t based around unionizing. They did try to muscle in on Chrysalis’s territory and she hadn’t been pleased they tried to rival her plan to do what she already was currently accomplishing. It was a little silly that a race called changelings would even have a problem with changing their ways and attitudes, but their culture actually mattered to them. “Some rivals they are, they fold like a house of cards after Luna randomly hits the caps lock on her voice. It’s just as bad that her caps lock almost always seems to be on when she uses a computer or data pad. Of course with activities like this, I’d think you were the reason that fast food restaurants don’t have pits filled to the brim with balls anymore for the colts and fillies... okay I apologize for that bit of wording, it almost makes the restaurants sound like they either harbor stallion pedophiles or a lot of gelded stallion privates.” “I have actually been working on those things… including the ball pits.” The blushing Luna coughed at the admittance that the thing about the ball pits was actually her fault. The pouting look on her face was cute as could be to the other three in the room of bouncy balls giving her a humor filled smirk. “It is not the fault of me and my sister if balls go flying everywhere when we wish to play while eating out with our subjects… I too am sorry and ashamed of how that sounded. Chrysalis I respectfully ask that you don’t drag us into another marathon of innuendos no matter how fun it would be. Also I enjoy those restaurants unbridled joy meals that come with the toys and will proudly inform you that I don’t care what anyone has to say about it!” “Civilized mares huh? Coming from the mare that invented and secretly runs the annual cake-a-palooza festival?” Well Chrysalis had a good reason to sound vindicated as now the two oldest mares in the room were blushing. “Yes, my sister and I may be a bit childish sometimes, but it’s not exactly a bad form of stress relief to be playful every now and then. It’s either that or we develop even worse quirks than what we have already.” Shaking her head at the talk of spheres, Celestia wanted to get back to more important issues. “Now back to the matter at hoof, you mentioned having two new viable sources of food Chrysalis? I’m rather curious to know what they are.” “I’ll whisper the first one to you and if you can stomach that, then I’ll whisper the second.” Polticians on Equus were always leaders or nobles, Chrysalis made a habit of taking care of political problems for the alicorns when it came to dealing with the annoying nobles they had. Pony nobles were worse than changeling nobles and that was saying something, so Luna and Celestia owed Chrysalis quite a few favors which she would be cashing in right around now. Celestia would hopefully understand the need for discretion about the other things that changelings could consume that wasn’t love. “Then we can get on to the subject of my withdrawal from the political games by leaving a suitable proxy in my stead, I nominate the changeling public relations manager Plentiful Thorax.”