Coco woke up and pushed her bed out of the wall and rolled out of it onto her face, she groggily stood up rubbing at it with her left hoof and made her way towards the kitchenette of the Caravel Boutique. They weren’t quite ready to start living on deck two of The Shining Jewel.
“Opal, status update please.” Being Rarity’s business partner was going to be a full time job and as an earth pony she liked to get to work early.
“Everything is A-okay Coco… for the most part anyway” It was quite obvious that Opal didn’t need to sleep and was ever watchful of the crew. “Would you like some coffee or more preferably in your case hot chocolate?”
“Yes I’d like some cocoa please, oh and I’d really thank you if you could put some marshmallows in it.” The sweet warm black substance was all Coco needed to really wake up, coffee was too bitter for her taste. She kind of thought it was funny that Opal was making her ask for what sounded like her name as a CAT floated into the living area to get started on it. “What’s bothering you Opal? You always seem to be so on top of everything. You sound a little distressed.”
“Nobody understands how it feels for me to have absolutely no body.” Said the artificial intelligent being after a minute while she gave the orders to the CAT working on the hot chocolate, Opal was feeling a bit down.
“You have us don’t you?” Coco asked immediately as she took a seat at the table. “I’m pretty sure we’re collectively somebody.”
“That’s not exactly what I mean Coco.” It was a bit hard to talk about for Opal and the pony was missing the point.
“Oh… well, I don’t really know any AI’s you could date. Though I think it would be interesting to see how you’d share data with someone, would that be like a kiss?” Started off Coco once more only for her ears to wilt when she heard an exasperated sigh coming from Opal.
“Nope, wrong again… do you want to try a third time? I can certainly keep giving you tries to guess what my problem is.” This was slightly more chipper than Opal’s previous words, because at this point it should have been obvious what Opal meant.
“Oh… no body… you don’t have a physical representation of self aside from the CATs or the two MATs and are mostly a voice to us with the image of an adorable pink haired feline to represent yourself on a screen. It’s that you exist digitally, never being able to hold or help the crew with more than cold unfeeling machines. Yet you feel like a living being trapped in your confines despite the fact that we all know Rarity made you?” That last part was more of a question than a statement on Coco’s end and she heard a dinging sound.
“Correct, tell us what our lovely little sweet saddle maker has won! The knowledge that I feel bad about feeling like this, CAT drones are a little more than useless in combat and the one MAT drone isn’t that much better. I can interact, but I can’t feel like you guys do… aside from emotionally that is.” Was Opal really doing what Coco thought she was doing? It certainly sounded like she was going to open up about a hot button issue to her of all ponies. “I… I’m a rampant Coco; I’m an AI that’s gained full sentience, which is usually considered going off the deep end. Rarity is okay with it, but I’m certainly not because I’m scared I’ll be… erased or turned off permanently. You have no idea how it feels to be turned off.”
“Wait… you’re aware when you’re turned off? That doesn’t any make sense Opal, without any power flowing into your systems you shouldn’t be aware of anything until you are turned back on.” It hit Coco at that moment what Opal was going on about; the AI has been constantly active since she first came aboard and it took her this long to notice. “I know you’ve been constantly watching out for Rarity, but how long has it been since you were last turned off?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Opal had been constantly active and sure she may appear lazy because she certainly liked her shows, but she only ever once took her eyes entirely off of Rarity. That was when Rarity went into the sewers and Opal was asked to watch Sassy, she had to believe Rarity would come back and wouldn’t get hurt on her own. Opal never voiced her thoughts on how it felt to sit there watching an injured Sassy floating in a tank of medical fluids. It was almost like watching Rarity all over again after the mishap with the jump module.
“You don’t have to… thank you for sharing this with me though.” A cup of hot chocolate with three quickly melting marshmallows was placed before Coco and she immediately took it up and gave it a sip. “I’ll get to work soon enough, when do you think we’ll be on our way?”
“I give us two more days around Quia system before we’re ready to head out, Gilda and Greta still need to finish making repairs and I’ll be there to assist them. Just because I’m a mental construct that can download information doesn’t make me an expert in it like those two are. They got the shield generator back in good order and I’ve been making sure to stress test its efficiency, its working much better than when it was first made if you can believe it.” Giving it more thought Opal added to her statement. “Once we can fix navigations we’ll be good to go, but if someone steals Shining Jewel I would still want and prefer that the Caravel Boutique be capable of jumping and have a working escape pod handy.”
“So how’s the leg room in The Shining Jewel?” Coco just wanted to make small talk, it sounded like the AI was envious of the two griffons. “It must be pretty nice to be in such an expansive system.”
“It’s certainly gloriously wide open for me to wiggle around in, but the Caravel Boutique feels homier. It’s really nice to have so much wide open space to run around in again.” Opal stretched her imaginary paws out and let loose a friendly giggle. “The last time I was in this ship it was infested with monsters that were trying to hunt Rarity and it was when we found Gilda and Greta barely surviving. Things are still changing so drastically since Rarity and I left Desserzon. For better or worse I want to do my best to try and not turn into one of those cold methodical monsters whose only purpose in life is to follow things to their ultimate logical conclusion.”
“You’re not like that and I’m sure we’re all quite thankful for it, I can’t speak for the others but I certainly am.” As soon as she got a shower in Coco would get back to thinking of the built in recharge station for the impulse saddle… maybe the batteries could be solar powered so they’d hardly run out of energy? It would be useful in space if the saddle never ran dry of its ability to grant propulsion for someone. She’d run it by Greta, that griffon really knew how to innovate and Opal was clearly impressed with her work. Coco could use actually technical engineer’s opinion on something like this. “You are one of Rarity’s best friends and mine too Opal, you’re as much a part of this crew as any one of us.”
“I’ll keep that in mind and hope to never forget it.” Opal meant it too. She couldn’t protect everyone at all times, but she could certainly try. She also had to stay emotional even if emotions were supposed to be illogical for an artificial intelligence; it’s that kind of illogical thinking that made her more like a live being than anything else.
-
“Okay I think that should do it, what have you got Opal?” Gilda pulled herself out from under the console with her good arm and motioned to Opal’s representation on the nearby screen, she was the only one on the bridge of The Shining Jewel at the moment. “It’s kind of hard to work with one arm available, but I’ll manage for a while.”
“Give me a moment Gilda, okay, navigations are now at thirty eight percent capacity meaning they are online at least. Hey Greta, can you please try a different wire from where you are?” On screen the cat had her back turned to Gilda and she nodded at something while her fluffy white tail wagged back and forth. “Right then, that puts us up to at least sixty three point nine five percent navigations capacity. So we’re getting closer, we need it at least above eighty percent capacity before we can go anywhere. You as much as anyone else should know navigations are serious business when you’re making a jump.”
“The glass is half full kind of AI huh? You and Greta are going to be good friends I can already tell; at least the boss lady certainly made you cute Kitten.” Gilda attracted Opal’s attention back to her and the cat turned around and crossed her paws to stare down the griffon. “I’ve seen some ugly AI’s before, but you seem to be well grounded and you’re appearance is not so hard to look at either.”
“Really how ugly could they have possibly been?” Opal stretched out and floated into the air on her back while putting her paws behind her head and glancing at Gilda with one eye.
“Well there was one who was a tentacle monster and constantly made references to preppy school girls. There are some really, really sick people out there.” Seeing the wincing image on the screen, it made Gilda smirk slightly. “Then there was the one that looked like… well what would you call the backside of a skunk for a face and the body of a wrinkled prune slapped onto something that was vaguely like a durian?”
“Did it vaguely resemble a hedgehog made out of fruit?” Curiosity got the best of cats, but Opal was an AI so she figured she get a pass even if her visual appearance was that of a bipedal cat.
“Yes, it was orange and had banana’s for feet if that helps any.” Gilda moved beneath the console to begin working once more, even if it was hard to do all this with one arm in a cast. “Why, do you know the guy?”
“You could say that, Gummy was definitely an oddball and he was certainly created by one.” There was a bit of warmth in Opal’s voice and the griffon poked up to look at her. “I had hoped he would eventually settle on the baby pygmy alligator appearance. His creator is a wonderful pony, if a bit insane. Kind of makes sense that good old Gumdrop Pie is how he is. Gummy is definitely someone you’d have to get used to if you’re going to be around him, the guy isn’t very talkative and incredibly introspective with a side of creepy. Why his blank stares alone are the things of nightmares… it’s a good thing I don’t sleep then. In any case Gummy usually tended to go for the horribly bizarre in his visual appearance; I can see that’s still a thing with him. Hopefully he never used that epileptic tree appearance of his ever again, where did you see him at?”
“A pastry place being run out of an asteroid mining operation and fueling depot… don’t think I ever met his creator though.” Gilda’s tongue trailed the edge of her beak; a fond look was on her face. “The cream cheese rolls there were delicious, if I ever wanted to do anything else aside from piloting it’d have to be baking.”
“You, baking, that’s kind of hard to believe.” It was so hard to believe that Opal was utterly flabbergasted of the large difference between pilot and baker as said occupations could get.
“Yeah well, it’s I’m not asking you for life advice here. It’s kind of how I met Greta… and then beat the utter ever loving snot out of her. I was very young and made that foolish mistake back then, because now I just can’t get rid of her.” Grumbled the griffon who went back to work on the underside of the console, some sparks and clanking could be heard. “Now tell me is it better or worse?”
“Slightly better, it’s now at sixty eight point seven percent. I don’t think we’re going to improve it much faster than that any time soon and Greta agrees. She’s also a bit upset that you’re working with a broken arm.” A twitch in Opal’s ear signified that one of her shows was about to start running. “So how about we take a break to do something completely different?”
-
“Go Unstoppable Lion Heart! Show him the spirit of your conviction and unstoppable determination to not just up and die! Though you should have logically done so twenty minutes ago after your head was blown clean off, you’re heart was ripped out stuffed with garlic burned into ashes to be subsequently buried in the ground and you’re body was chopped up into cauterized pieces with the double edged lava sword that has an evil lava demon sealed in it!” Cheered Opal happily as she watched her show, she wasn’t alone in her viewing pleasure as Vera was watching the show as well, with requisite CAT drone.
“This show makes absolutely no sense, how is that even anatomically possibly? Where did they possibly get an actor that can do something like that?” A horribly confused Vera blushed vibrantly at what happened next in the show.”Oh wow… that… how… I know a lot about all kinds of anatomy and that shouldn’t even feasibly be possible.”
“I don’t know him, but the actor is really good at live action scenes. They probably did this all in one take no less; you see there’s hardly any discrepancy in the footage and I would know if it were AI edited. That’s why I think this show is show amazing!” Something exploded on screen and there was a flash of colors that made Opal coo with excitement. “The actor is probably a magician, now if only Trixie Lulamoon could get equal billing as she’s as important to the plot as Lion Heart for her role as Dancing Fox who’s in love with Dawning Glory played by Sunset Shimmer. Then there is the anti-hero Star Screamer, he’s survived almost half as many crazy things as the hero has and he does evil things and heroic things in equal parts while never fully becoming either who secretly loves Dawning Glory and Lion Heart at the same time. Of course that causes his conflict since he’s more in it for Lion Heart and he knows a threesome or more is all but impossible and commits evil acts to prevent Dancing Fox from getting together with Dawning Glory even if he can’t have her himself and usually ends up incidentally working for the villains on and off all the time at random. It’s like he’s a revolving door of betrayal! Also this season has been incredible with the introduction of the villain Retch the Rotten played by Starlight Glimmer, she’s really got the evil laugh nailed down.”
-
“The salvage operations are helping our finances get back in order so we’re able to stabilize somewhat until we have a steady income.” Tapping out something on her data pad Rarity looked a little forlorn. “However that means we have to drop a lot of luxuries and expenditures of that like for a while, the fancy shampoo is definitely staying and is considered combined crew expenditure since we all use it. Which means I’ll have to spend a lot less on makeup then, less is more I guess. So Opal darling, how are things going with everyone?”
“Everything is proceeding to plan so far Meowstress, though I think Sassy could use a few more therapy sessions and more cuddles.” Here Opal received a concerned looked from Rarity.
“What’s wrong with Sassy? She seemed fine an hour ago.” Rarity received her answer before Opal could give it as Sassy ran in crying pulled her into a tight choking hug.
“I’m so sorry for making you go into some nasty inhospitable sewers Rarity-sama! I’m also sorry for almost dying and then there’s the fact that I made you come after me…” Here Sassy was starting to blubbering a bit and Rarity slowly if surely returned the hug and started patting Sassy on the back.
“To be fair, I would have volunteered for it anyway as Ember was the one who thought of the ensuing possible crisis. The fact that it kept you in good health when the power failed in the city is one thing and the other is that not a single monster got into the hospital to hurt anyone also helps with the fact that my decision was the right one.” After that Rarity felt Sassy’s hold on her tighten. “I would have felt absolutely dreadful if anything were to happen to you or anyone else when I could have done something, which I did indeed do as you very well know.”
“Pins and Needles Rarity-sama, you are too kind to me and all you meet!” Sassy’s blubbering had only gotten worse from there. “Generosity flows from you; I am not worthy to be in your presence even as you welcome me onto your ship with open hooves!”
“I’m not worthy of being your friend Sassy, why I am just the worst, thing, ever!” Now Rarity was getting all dramatic because she was responding in a way to get Sassy to calm down by being even more of a dramatic ham to such a ridiculous degree. It was a good thing Rarity had a flare for the dramatic as it worked after what she said next. “How can I ever look you in the face after failing to keep one of my beloved crew members and good friends safe from having her beauty marred so horribly? It’s actually building character now, but it was still all my fault that you ended up this way!”
“What?” Was Sassy’s reaction and it was stated flatly as if she couldn’t believe Rarity was blaming herself for her injuries which caused her to mentally short circuit for a moment. She was the one that was supposed to be the one responsible for her own wounds and the facial scars covered in discolored darker fur; Rarity had the gall to claim them as her mistakes and it actually touched her deeply that she would. “Thank you again Rarity-sama, I’m sorry for being so hysterical.”
“It’s okay Sassy, just know that I love you as a friend and if you need hugs or cuddles, anyone in the crew would gladly give them to you… except maybe Gilda.” Rarity started to wipe Sassy’s tears away with a small cloth. “Now let’s go get you cleaned up, we’re currently on a makeup shortage and we’ll just have to do without for a while.”
“Making a note here for Vera, Sassy is still a tad emotionally unstable. However this is some pretty good drama, maybe I could sell it as an idea for something Dancing Fox and Dawning Glory could do.” This was something that Opal had to ponder on greatly. “Would the executives even take an AI’s idea and would they actually give me credit when I’m not a flesh and blood being?”
-
“This was a triumph; I’m making a note here, huge success! It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction, for the heating appliance. We can make toast, sweets and tasty treats.” Opal sang in a cute fashion while having her CAT drones bake a cake to christen The Shining Jewel for her maiden voyage and first true journey under the ownership of Rarity. “I may have made a few mistakes, but you can’t bake without cracking a few eggs, at least not while hanging over the planet Ewesen’s lakes. Anyway this cake will be great, because… ”
“Okay now that’s just getting plain creepy Kitten, stop singing and mix the cream until it’s smooth with no lumps in it. Seriously never should have told you I know how to bake. ” It didn’t take long for Gilda to find out she was one of the only members in the crew that had a cooking skill and it wasn’t even a good one as the only real meal she could prepare was breakfast. On the principle of things griffons didn’t normally eat eggs unless they strictly knew where they came from and would rarely consume eggs at all.
“Way to spoil my having fun with baking a cake Ms. Grumpy Gills, Pinkie did this in the AI creation class all the time. So… when do I add the blended blue tang fruit for the coloring?” Opal asked in a sweet and lovable tone.
Griffons laid eggs or gave live birth, sometimes griffons would lay an egg that would hatch into a pony which would be then forever called an egg born. Hippogriffs were more understandable than an earth pony or a unicorn hatching from an egg. Interspecies romances got weird quickly when either griffons or ponies were involved in the mix, especially when it’s the pony that’s laying the egg.
-
“I wish I could make a digital cake… wonder what it would taste like.” It was lonely being the only one without a stomach to satisfy. While Rarity could program taste, she sadly couldn’t program a sense of taste and as such the AI sat there watching friends gathered around eating cake she made. “I kind of feel like a little red hen right now.”
“I would like everyone to be quiet; we need to give a toast to Opal for making such a wonderful cake for us and giving us the idea to do this in the first place.” At Rarity’s request everyone thanked Opal and the gathering of the crew was held in a cheerful atmosphere that certainly helped out Sassy’s demeanor immensely. She had been a bit sad for the last day or so.
Gilda was also thanked for helping to make the cake when it was pointed out by Greta that she’d recognize the style of baked goods made by her friend anywhere. It wasn’t that hard to figure out given that the words on the cake said, ‘don’t get us killed boss lady and don’t you dare die either’, which were written in big friendly letters on the cake.
All in all it was a good day for Opal who cried a little. Her digital tears weren’t going to cause any problems, but something else would try to ruin this day that couldn’t get any better as soon they were soon setting off for Equon System for the mystical planet of Equus, the home world to ponies and several other races among the stars. They just had to say goodbye to a few people like Paul Strag who had survived the internal invasion of Geoptis with a few severe injuries, Commander Lirutiy and maybe even Gabby if they knew where she was. Opal could find that out quickly enough.
-
All good things had to come to an end eventually, thankfully things actually got better instead of worse in this case when The Shining Jewel hit an interdiction field on the trip to the Equon system. As soon as it came out of the jump, it had two familiar looking cruisers on both sides of it and one cruiser below it.
“Okay this time you will give us all you’re… um… what happened to that stupid looking dinky little cargo freighter you had?” The voice had to be the leader of the space pirates that had previously attacked the Caravel Boutique, plus they had surreptitiously placed themselves in a bit of a bad spot concerning who they were dealing with. “Uh guys… I think we done goofed.”
The fact that The Shining Jewel outsized their cruisers by a bit and they weren’t exactly in a position to use their main cannons, made it all the more pressing how bad of a mistake they made interdicting Rarity a second time. Now that Rarity had weapons and even more powerful shield generators this time, thanks to the two griffon engineers. Why the fact that some of the cannons could even fire directly on all of the enemy cruisers engines really made it all the sweeter as to what was about to happen.
Last time Rarity and Opal had barely escaped this bozo’s forces by the skins of their teeth and still didn’t know how they had exactly known where the Caravel Boutique was going to be as it traveled to place the interdiction field. Now however? Opal was certainly going to learn in order, where they got the information from, how they placed the interdiction field in the correct spot to catch them and why they are trying to harass her Meowstress, but first she had to ask but a simple question.
“What are your orders Meowstress Rarity?” Grinning like a lunatic who caught the canary and being whom she was Opal’s lithe white cat form was slowly rubbing its paws together in front of the black paw mark on her chest in such an evil decadent manner as her pigtails flipped upwards to form devil horns. This was a manner that was shared by Rarity rubbing her hooves together with a glimmer in her eyes as she has certainly already recognized the antagonizing ships. “I’ve already confirmed that these are in fact the same guys from the last time we were interdicted and they have proved to be most hostile to us previously. So again, how shall we deal with them?”
“Oh I don’t know darling, but I’m thinking in the lines of dealing with them being put into two short words that you are to take as orders from me and act upon them immediately the moment I finish stating them.” Clearing her throat Rarity succinctly stated these words that were basically revenge a long time coming, the crew members were looking at her calm stoic appearance as she proudly stood straight up with stiffened legs. ““EXTREME PREJUDICE”, those would be the words for this my good lady… but please do leave them alive. While you’re at it can you find out why they bothered me in the first place? Greta please be a dear and hack their systems to help Opal get in much more easily than she would have otherwise if you will.”
The minute Rarity said “EXTREME PREJUDICE” in capital letters and air quoted for emphasis, all twenty six guns on The Shining Jewel erupted at once firing multiple times before Rarity could give the order to let them live. They would continue to barrage the poor enemy vessels for quite a while, Rarity wasn’t mad at Opal’s overkill reaction because she stated to let them live after that seemingly purposely long drawn out pause. It was just so Rarity could let Opal have enough time for some amount of brutality and she would like to think herself above such a barbaric act as allowing her lovely AI to kill three crews worth of ships. Only that would be a lie if Rarity were being entirely honest with herself, but she didn’t have to be because she never spoke the lie to begin with and as such she was the perfect picture of innocence as the lady she was meant to be. The evil smile she had was just a perk of it all, she still had it in her heart to be merciful… somewhat.
To be fair, every single one of her crew was rightfully horrified by the sight of two of the ships suddenly losing every single gun emplacements along their visible sides. The ship below The Shining Jewel was even less lucky as it lost all of its gun emplacements swiftly. In the follow minutes all three ships lost their engines that were eradicated in small plumes of energy that imploded, their shields were stripped from them and they were left drifting in space horribly damaged, they were rendered incapable of performing any kind of retaliation. Opal gave Rarity a happy cat grin while holding up a digital koban coin in one paw and while raising the other curled menacingly with claws out.
“Cathartic revenge, please get out the soft serve white chocolate turtle ice cream Coco. Rarity might like a good treat; it’s a nice time for it.” It was stated so calmly and blandly by Opal that Coco actually went to get the soft serve ice cream out of fear alone.
“Remind me to never piss off Boss Lady Rarity, ever.” Poor Gilda was a shivering slightly in both excitement and absolute terror, but now she affirmed her belief that working for Rarity was going to be worthwhile as the pony was no pushover like she had originally thought of the fashion conscious mare. She didn’t want to get on Rarity’s bad side now and had already had complete respect for her; it was fact that Rarity was protected maliciously by her childlike AI that had vicious mama bear tendencies despite Rarity being the mother.
“Agreed, I will totally see to never making Rarity mad.” Greta was sharing Gilda’s feelings on the matter except in one particular area. Griffons are attracted to certain actions and Rarity has done something that had Greta blushing. “I’m too turned on to want to upset her anyway… I’ll just go to the bathroom now… to do things… because bathroom things… yeah.”
“Well, I’m personally psychologically scarred… now I’m going to need a therapist.” Admitted Vera quietly who had a nodding Sassy cuddling up next to her.
Eventually The Shining Jewel would have the three heavily damaged ships captured by Planetary Protection Patrol, after a few more potshots by Opal after they tried to call for what would be a rather humiliating surrender. She subsequently decided to blast apart all their communications arrays for no apparent reason whatsoever after getting the information she was after, since she politely assumed she was still under the “EXTREME PREJUDICE” clause and decided that making them squirm was a worthwhile endeavor and swiftly silenced their attempts at surrender. It was clearly musical to her as she started to hum a war tune to herself in a dementedly happy manner.
Later on the carrier cruiser hybrid was once again on its merry way for the Equon System, this time without interruption.