Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows


-24-

Three days have passed and things weren’t too bad, but being trapped in the hospital was causing some mild cases cabin fever. Over the last few days Rarity has stayed near Sassy’s form, the mare had required surgery for the stab wound in her side and stitches for her side and chest. As for her face there were large bandages entrapping the left half of it, her hair had been untouched and they didn’t have to remove any to get at the wounds so that was something positive for Rarity to think of.

“You know you could do some other things then sit there and mope, though I can understand what you’re going through because she’s my friend too.” Ember dropped on by after once again smelting her armor, except for the helmet, in a room that wouldn’t catch fire with her own breath. She was wearing a new hospital gown and didn’t didn’t smell too bad after having been in the sewers given she had bathed herself every morning for the past three days in extremely hot flames after taking a lobster cooking shower. As for her sewer squid, it was in a nearby tank of water that Ember refused to go near. Sitting down on the adjacent bed she continued to tinker and modify her material rifle, she needed more ammo after the sewer escapades and there currently weren’t any opportunities to go after some. “So… how are the bruises?”

“I’m fine dear, thanks for asking. Well, it looks like I’m not going to make good on my claim to the Derringer.” Derringer was not Rarity’s main worry, but it was bad that she wasn’t going to get a big ship that she could do so much with. It was Sassy who had held all of her attention for the past few days, thankfully she was of a correct blood type out of the several that ponies had for each race and could donate her blood to seeing Sassy recover. “Easy come easy go I suppose, when do you think help will finally arrive?”

“It should already be here, can’t imagine any of our leaders would let this attack go lying down without a response.” Ember looked over to the MAT drone that sat on the floor, it had been constantly active over the last few days and Opal was taking her job of protecting Sassy seriously. She had been ecstatic to hear Rarity and Ember were alright from their escapades a few days ago, now she was focusing almost all her attention on Sassy and a small bit on Rarity. “Hey, Opal can you check the communications channel?”

“Working on it… and done, the forces from the planet Equus arrived here within seven hours of the attack. They’ve just been really busy upstairs and are still in the process of helping cleanup on Geoptis. They’ll start bombing runs on the four cities that are infested with the remnants of the MOM core soon.” After a pause there was some lackadaisical humming from Opal coming over the MAT drone’s speaker. “Do you need me to report on how everyone else is doing Meowstress Rarity? I’m getting a lot of information on Planetary Protection Patrol casualties and I am also picking up a lot of civilian listed as MIA or worse as well if you want to hear the statistics for how lucky you are to be alive at the moment.”

“Oh right, Greta and Gilda, do you think you can call them from here darling?” Rarity didn’t want to hear the bad news if they had perished in the attack on Geoptis, but she would take it with a brave face. Well any news was better than having to wash her EVA suit again, like she has been doing five times every day for the last three days. She got the sewer smell out, but it still didn’t feel clean to her and EVA suits were quite hard to clean given one had to worry about not damaging the internal workings of the suit.

“I’ll try… huh… apparently Greta’s data pad signal is coming from outside the monsters coverage zone, they are located at a salvage yard.” After a moment the MAT drone floated in the air turning to Rarity. “They are in the process of being arrested; it appears they are going quietly so Gilda can get some medical attention. They stole one of the Javelin’s from the hangar they were working at and took it for a joyride into a combat zone. Hold on, Greta or one of the officers must be answering it.”

“Thanks for letting me answer it, Rarity thank goodness you’re alive! I’m so sorry about this boss lady, but we’ve kind of got into a bit of a bind. They’re going to take us up to Geoptis and I was wondering if you could help us out when you’re able to.” Greta trusted in Rarity to bail them out whereas her partner in crime however. “Gilda doesn’t think you’ll come to bail us out.”

“I’ve done the math and the kind of bail she’d have to pay for our release is going to be ridiculous, so I don’t see it happening. She’s having enough problems with money right now as is.” Gilda spoke up over Greta and she sounded a bit depressed. “It’s been fun getting to know you while it lasted boss lady, but we’re guilty of grand theft fighter. Said fighter being a Javelin loaded with devastators and mostly totaled is going to earn us a bit of a large bail. At least they’ll give me free medical treatment since I broke my limb, I ended up crashing after devastating the MOM core to hell and back before it could crash into the planet. Aren’t there any leniency laws for saving millions of lives from a planet wide infestation?”

“Now hold on, I’ll personally come up to Geoptis and will see you and Greta there. Until then please don’t do anything worse than what you are already being arrested for. I’m still in the middle of the hostile zone, but I’m in a safe place and all my friends here are mostly fine.” After releasing a long drawn out sigh, Rarity continued on. “I’ll introduce you to the rest of the crew when we meet up again and we will be meeting up again so I can give you a piece of my mind Gilda. Are you always going to cause trouble like this?”

“Depends on the situation really, I might get into even worse trouble than this but it’ll be for an entirely good reason and by now you already know Greta goes where I do. It’ll get her killed one of these days.” Gilda’s soft chuckling filtered in through the speaker, until she grunted roughly. “Hey watch the arm, injured griffon here! See you later captain if you’re still willing to bail us out. Look the only reason why we cobbled together that distress beacon from bits of wire, gum, a paperclip, an empty soup can, the end of a toilet plunger and a plasma rifle clip wasn’t so you can treat us roughly! We didn’t even shoot at you when you arrive and handed the weapon over immediately, what more do you want from us? At least let Greta finish talking you jackasses, no offense meant to the one donkey among you.”

“I assure that no offense is taken, also lay off the poor griffons.” That must have been the donkey judging by his gravelly voice and sudden answer to Gilda’s words. “They are coming with us peacefully after all and they both could use some medical attention, we’re not savages you know!”

“See you later boss lady, it seems we’ve overstayed our communications limit. See you on Geoptis if you’re still willing to keep us troublemakers around.” Next were Greta’s last words that sounded particularly cheerful as the communications link to her data pad were cut off. “It’s nice to know you’re still alive.”

“Thank goodness that Greta and Gilda are okay… well mostly.” Rarity had no clue what the theft of the fighter was all about or why they would do it in the first place and turned back to Ember. “So what are you going to do when we can get out of here Ember darling? My plan for full spa treatment by Vera is already guaranteed, I’m also going to head towards Equus in the hopes of joining the Grand Galloping Gala.”

“I guess I’m going to go back to bounty hunting and we’ll go our separate ways. Maybe I’ll spend some time on the nearest volcanic planet; I’ll still be around here for a while to help with the mop up operations at least. I’m going to be looking for some commissions while I’m at it.” Ember twiddled her thumbs and looked away from Rarity; she really liked the fashion designer and her friends. Only friendship didn’t put her expensive tastes in food on the table and she was a growing dragon, being violent was something she was particularly good at and it paid well. They both heard a noise and saw the sewer squid poking its head out of the tank and started looking at Ember’s shoulder longingly. “I don’t see how Red Heart can go near that thing to feed it. I’m not going within three feet of that tank… since that’s the exact distance it would need to get back on me.”

“I will admit it’s a vile and disgusting creature, but it certainly does have its own kind of charm.” It was vile and disgusting to Rarity for entirely different reasons. It was vile because it could spew lethal chemicals and disgusting because it could ingest any kind of sewage for sustenance. The squid had its charm with being friendly and cute in its own way, as it waggled its two large tentacles towards Ember. “I could possibly see keeping one as a pet if I didn’t already know how much danger that entails, also that it could be kept clean in some way because otherwise it would be a horrid smelling nuisance. The colors are also a major turn off for me.”

Red Heart walked into the room with Gabby and pointed her to a bed and the griffon planted her rear on it immediately, after which the nurse walked over to the squid’s fresh water tank and dumped shampoo, soap and bleach into the tank. The squid immediately swam over to start feasting on the cleaning supplies; a sewer squid would eat just about anything and didn’t mind the fact that it was becoming a bit cleaner in the process of eating such odd substances.

“What is it, is something wrong? Sewer squids will eat just about anything, so don’t worry as that stuff won’t harm him.” Red Heart took the stares to mean that they were worried about the sewer squid, they weren’t but they weren’t going to correct her on the assumption. “He still needs to consume some form of lethal cocktail if he wants to remain somewhat healthy and that’s what the shampoo is for. I contacted an animal expert named Fluttershy and she said that bleach really makes sewer squids happy and that that this particular brand of shampoo has the right chemicals that can keep him well fed. As for the soap bar, well it’s something for him to play with.”

“Oh nothing’s wrong; I’m just not going near the tank with him looking at me like that.” Ember was cute in her body shy nature and her fear of a little squid made her look ridiculous. That is if you didn’t know that the squid could actually grievously harm her or anyone else in the room. “It’s one of the most dangerous animals on Ewesen, aside from the monsters currently surrounding the hospital holding us under a siege that is.”

Even as the sewer squid ate it kept shooting Ember longing looks, mostly towards her shoulder and then into her eyes as if asking if he could stay with her. He soon went to start tussling with the soap bar and wrapped his tentacles around it until it slipped free causing him to shoot after it to capture it again; the soap bar proved entertaining as the sewer squid kept trying to get a good grip on it.

“Right then, everything is going well for you Miss Gums. Just stay off the wing for another day or two and you’ll be good to fly. Rarity, you’re almost back in a healthy condition, just keep your exercise regimen up and stay fit. I hope you are all well aware that space can cause a lot of wear on the body if you don’t take care of it. Ember you’re the healthiest dragon I’ve ever met and that’s saying something as I’ve only met one other of your kind before this, he was an adorable little fellow named Spike.” Then the nurse turned to the last occupant in the room and checked her vitals, she hummed a bit and tapped something out on a data pad. “You’re friend Miss Saddles is coming along nicely; her body is taking the surgery very well. She will only need another three hours of time in the med-bed and after that we can let her out and put her up in a regular bed for her to wake up in. I assume that you’ll be here when she wakes up Miss Belle? After what I saw I think she needs her friend to be there for her, be aware that I’m a nurse and not a psychologist even though I do have some training in the general area. She will have scars on her face; the scarring on her chest and side will be less noticeable. Don’t worry about medical bill payments Miss Belle; you and Miss McFlame have already done the hospital a great service to warrant free checkups and some expenses. Not to mention that Miss Saddles has already been paid for as well. As for you Miss Gums, you actually do have to look into payment for services rendered.”

“Of course, I’ll get right on it when I can get access to my bank account. Because we’re still under siege it’ll be a while before I can do that you know. Still it makes me wonder why her medical bill is already paid for. I mean even they would find it unusual, won’t you guys? I can understand why you two are getting free medical service; you’re both among a number of heroes that went into the sewers to seal them off! Of course they’ll just have to open them back up later and it’ll probably make the clog spider population go horribly out of control since they breed more often in enclosed spaces and given enough food and you probably took down quite a few monsters down there. Did you know Clog Spiders will eat their own? I guess they don’t like wasting anything. Ha, wasting, because they live in the sewers you see. If they like enclosed spaces so much yet grow to large sizes does that make them agoraphobic? I’m a bit claustrophobic myself maybe more avoidant than actual claustrophobe. I bet those Clog Spiders certainly cause arachnophobia, because I certainly would go near them unless I had to as a courier. So have any of you ever seen clog dancers? Dancing is fun, but I don’t have enough friends to hang out with on a good night. It’s really hard to tell the time except for the clocks in here and we’re on a Ewesen day based schedule. I have to wonder how my schedule will look in the near future and what I’ll be transporting next.” Gabby could really gab, Nurse Red Heart was slow and methodical in her speech and Gabby spoke all of this almost all at once. “I mean can you imagine what life would be like if no one had to pay for…”

“Sassy’s payment was obviously procured from the fact that she has plenty of witnesses of the kills she made in combat. Given the hot zones around here are currently under hunting season rules that’s to be expected. She probably killed off enough monsters to pay for her medical bill in full.” They turned to Ember when she was the one to voice her thoughts on an answer and to possibly stop Gabby from speaking up again; turning to Red Heart the dragon addressed her mostly. “Everyone who helps out during hunting season and has a lot of confirmed kills recorded gets a certain amount of pay depending on the level of threat dealt with, who assisted in the kill and what level of assistance was rendered at the time of recorded death. While hunting season is active civilian kills count if they can be proven. They can be proven by other people’s recordings or by recording it themselves; some people have tried to abuse this by trying to earn money for falsifying kills and if they are caught doing so they don’t earn any money for that particular hunting season even if they did make quite a few legitimate kills. Multiple people witnessed Sassy bringing down a Vorager with a sword. Vorager’s are high quality targets since they are able command and organize other MOM core monsters, thus they are worth a lot to bring down. I have my helmet, which as you’ve noticed is the only thing I haven’t forged again and that’s why it still looks like it does. Am I right nurse?”

“Yes, aside from that she also took down quite a few of the new archetypes known as Vasps and plenty of Ant Heads.” Nurse Red Heart nodded confirming it was true. “Once she has recuperated she will be getting the money that’s left over from the costs of treatment deducted from what she is owed.”

“Oh… well that’s certainly makes sense, I mean if common sense were truly a thing you’d think everyone would be smart enough to never get into any kind of trouble ever! Speaking of trouble, are the bombing runs going to damage the hospital? Also can the various governments really afford to pay so many people money like that? I guess you’d have to survive to get the money and be responsible for the kills in the first place to even earn any, so being caught on another person’s visuals certainly helps if it confirms your actions during a hunting season. It almost sounds like it was invented by a griffon! I mean griffons love to go hunting… almost as much as they love greed. I’m not big on hunting personally though. Nope I prefer to do a lot of long distance flying and delivering! Still though, does that mean anyone who’s witnessed gets money even if they themselves are not recording their actions? Sounds neat, even if it’s a convoluted mess. I guess it attracts bounty hunters in droves to show their stuff and get paid like mercenaries. A lot of griffons go into mercenary work; it’s a rather common thing that happens. Statistically speaking, it’s super rare to find griffons that are doing jobs that don’t involve working for someone else for exorbitant prices.” It sounded like Gabby was never going to stop talking, but she eventually would as she couldn’t possibly keep going forever right? “Even more statistics say that people are happier if they meet a happy person and I’m so happy to hear that I’m in good health. It’s all thanks to Nurse Red Heart here! I probably wouldn’t make a good medical professional since I can just keep talking a lot, I’d even likely leave a patient to slowly die while I just kept going off on some long winded tangent that usually leads nowhere and at other times are rather informative in some cases. But the times I’m usually highly informative are usually far between the times when I just keep going on, I do get my moments where knowing a lot of things is really helpful if I weren’t so talkative and I’m aware of this shortcoming even though I can’t actually seem to do anything about it. I just have to talk and speaking of information, I should probably see if any of my contacts are still alive in the city now that help is coming soon.”

“You do that. The rest of the staff assures me that the bombing runs will not directly hit any buildings; they are also having fighters perform strafing runs on targets of interest. The spaceport will be the first thing the Planetary Protection Patrol and allied forces secures, followed slowly by the rest of the city.” Nurse Red Heart turned and started to trot out of the room. “I believe I’m done here, I have other patients to attend to. So please don’t cause any problems and everyone knows where the cafeteria is now. There is still plenty of food for everyone. I’ll be back to let out Miss Saddles in the next few hours.”

After she left there was silence for some time and the only sound was the chirrup coming from the sewer squid that clung to the edge of the tank poking his conical head up over it.

-

Sassy gasped and opened her eye; she looked around in a blind panic and felt something grip her hoof, turning her head to the left she saw a plainly worried Rarity staring back at her.

“It’s okay darling, I’m here for you. You’re going to be okay, just breath and relax.” Rarity spoke softly and tightened her grip on Sassy’s hoof and she gripped her hoof just as hard. “You really scared me by running off like that, how are you feeling Sassy?”

“Did I hurt anyone?” That was what Sassy was more worried about than her aching body. She felt a swelling amount of pain in her face, her chest was burning and her side felt really off but that area of her body was still partly affected pain killers.

“Yes, I can say you were honestly responsible for hurting someone, I won’t speak for our other friends but you’ve certainly hurt me emotionally by getting injured like this. If you’re talking about your actions after you left the safety of the Caravel Boutique. Then I’d say you certainly showed a lot of restraint in your rampage.” Of course Rarity was just being generous; her friend went nuts and carved a bloody path through every single monster that went near her. From what she saw and had heard, Sassy hadn’t exactly been in her right mind when it all happened. “Now again, how are you feeling Darling?”

“Bad, I… I’m sorry I upset you greatly Rarity-sama.” Only being able to see out of one eye was beginning to scare Sassy, she looked away from Rarity’s sad eyes. She just had to ask in a quiet voice. “What happened to my face?”

“Oh it’s just some scars dear, you’re eye is perfectly fine. Though a bit of your blood did flow into it.” Rarity was trying to play the injury off as unimportant, even if Sassy would eventually find out that it was going be rather noticeable for the rest of her life. “Your side required some surgery; you were in a positively dreadful condition when I caught up to you. You were only wounded three times, but you lost a lot of blood in the process and the wound across your chest wasn’t as bad as the two other hits you took.”

Sassy just put her chin to her chest and looked at the blankets; she didn’t want to look at Rarity. She still felt Rarity’s hoof holding onto hers though, it wasn’t the only one holding onto her as she felt someone else grip her other fore hoof causing her to look up at Ember who gave her an awkward smile. She leaned back and closed her uncovered eye; Ember was here for her too? Having no idea what to say to that or to Rarity to make things better, Sassy just relaxed and tried to sleep.

-

“We still don’t have a jump module, weapons or an escape pod.” Opal reminded Rarity as they prepared for takeoff a day or so later, the triple P and the allied forces from nearby systems help clear out enough monsters that it was safe for them to make it back to the spaceport. There were still monsters around, but it was safe enough for them to take the Caravel Boutique off the planet.

Sassy just sat quietly near Rarity and stared at the floor, she liked the fact that Coco seemed more affectionate and that the claw marks on her face didn’t push her friends away. Vera’s touch still felt nice and comforting, in fact it seemed like everyone was giving her more hugs than usual lately and it felt really good. She didn’t return the hugs as she was afraid to do so.

“I don’t care; prep for launch. We’re going to go up there to bail out our griffons.” Rarity got up from her seat at the bridge and walked back to the airlock and left to go over to Ember’s Pyrrhic Victory. She solidly knocked on the door with her hoof upon arrival. “Ember darling, are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. The mop up went by pretty fast and I personally got a chance to drop a few Voragers.” Ember popped the door to her ship at hearing Rarity’s knocking. The dragon was currently wearing a black shirt with the word ‘bonfire’ written on it in big red letters with a caricature of a smiling ball of yellow and orange fire sitting on two crossed planks of wood below it. The other visible article of clothing Ember had on her was some tight fitting pants that looked good on her. “So, you’re heading out for Geoptis now?”

“I just want to thank you for being there for Sassy, I just came here personally to say goodbye until we meet again.” As of saying that Ember crouched down and scooped Rarity up into a tight hug which Rarity returned. “Are you enjoying the clothes darling? Do they fit okay?”

“They are nicer than anything I’ve ever owned before; the underwear makes me feel secure.” There was a chirping noised and a squid plopped itself upon Ember’s shoulder. She stiffened slightly and glared at the squid. “Rarity, Mr. Spew, Mr. Spew, Rarity, when Red Heart called it chronic shoulder squid she wasn’t kidding. I think it might have even a formed a ‘familiar bond’ with me, if so, I’m certainly not happy about it.”

“It does seem appropriate; you both share a commonality of being equal parts deadly and friendly. The only difference is that it’s a beast and you’re a beauty.” Rarity’s compliment made Ember gain a massive blush and rub at her head spikes in embarrassment. “It’s been a pleasure to see you again and I’ll always be happy to have you as a friend, but I guess this is where we must part ways once again.”

“Thank you… for the compliment I mean. You’re really fluffy and soft too.” Ember managed to squeak out.

Rarity nodded with small blush adorning her cheeks at the compliment given back in return, the pony turned to go back to her ship. The squid looked between Ember and the leaving Rarity curiously after that interaction.

Reaching her ship, Rarity walked up the ramp in through the airlock. Once she got back to the bridge, she found an earnest looking Gabby sitting there with a large package strapped to her back.

“You wouldn’t happen to mind giving me a lift up to Geoptis would you?” Gabby actually kept it short and succinct; it was here that Rarity learned that Gabby didn’t talk nearly as much while on the job as a courier. “I can even pay you for it!”

“I don’t mind at all and you don’t have to pay me for it Gabby, we’re friends.” Taking her seat, Rarity stretched out her hooves and then settled down to look at the pink haired cat waiting to take her orders. Off to the side Gabby perked up as Rarity allowed her to hitchhike. “We have clearance Opal, let’s go!”