//------------------------------// // -30- // Story: Coarse Diamonds // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// “Sister, we have a… what are you doing with Chrysalis?” Luna had run into the conference room to, only to stop when she saw Chrysalis and Celestia tangled up on a mat with their limbs bent at odd angles. “We’re playing Twisty, I bet Celestia wasn’t as flexible as she thought she was and she said she could prove me wrong.” Here Chrysalis giggled a bit as Celestia blushed at being caught in a compromising position with her. The game wasn’t rigged, but Chrysalis used every opportunity to make Celestia’s face go red. It was either frustration born of anger or sexual tension and for once Chrysalis couldn’t tell which it was and she was a particularly well trained empathic creature. “Of course she was talking politically, I was talking physically and then it somehow ended up with us like this. By the way it’s your spin Celestia.” “I really don’t honestly know how I ever let you talk me into doing this again.” Celestia said diplomatically as one of Chrysalis’s rear hooves ran between her hind legs to touch a yellow circle and something else as the annoying bug pony’s tail was currently in an uncomfortable spot. Her magic lit a nearby panel on the floor and the little arrow on it spun until it stopped on something. “You have to put the back of your left front hoof to Green.” “Look at it this way, practicing for your date like this couldn’t hurt.” Chrysalis got an angry glare from Celestia in her awkward twisted position underneath the princess. It quickly turned into a vibrant blush as Chrysalis slowly and sensually slid her hoof across Celestia’s belly before placing the back of it down on a green circle as indicated. “What is it Luna, is it something important? I’ve just about won our game and if it’s an emergency then I’d be willing to forfeit. Okay ten seconds have passed and your still up, your spin Chrysalis.” Celestia turned her head to her sister’s face which seemed rather worried while Chrysalis spun the arrow. “I may not be able to play with the Breach Gel anymore; the creator of the wondrous invention is currently in orbit and is asking about why we haven’t signed off on it sister.” Here a pensive Luna ran a hoof through her star filled mane making Chrysalis stare at her hair as it flowed gently with her touch. The princess even went so far as to air quote with her hooves a rather specific word as she stated. “We cannot lie and say that we haven’t… ‘tested’…. it thoroughly and now she has come asking questions. I have no idea what to tell her or how to respond! We already put it into production and it is proving to be a most sellable product. Which is why she will be a bit cross with us since we are denying her funds earned from her patent, I would be angry too if I had invented such a life saving marvel… that can also make for a really fun toy.” “Okay, that’s slightly troubling, because I think we have been slighting a subject of ours for a while and it’s time to face the music dear sister.” Celestia looked to see what the spinner landed on and Chrysalis grinned at her and waggled her eyebrows, she huffed and moved her front right hoof into position so it went between her opponents rear legs to touch a red circle. “It is, however, not an immediate emergency worth losing my game over.” “It might become one; we have heard that she is currently running a bit poor as of late. I can’t help but feel that it is because of us and our actions.” This led to feeling particularly guilty about her infantile enjoyment of the bouncy gel balls, Luna couldn’t let this drop… also because it’d be a huge delay on her plans to marry Mr. Boom Stick. How did Celestia even keep stalling her plans anyway? She was being very secretive about putting all her plans on the clearly labeled ‘Secretive Shotgun Wedding Bulletin Board Celestia Will Never Look At’ in Celestia’s bedroom after all. How did Celestia keep finding out about her plans if she had such a secretive bulletin board to put stuff on? “The ship she has in orbit could cause our fleet quite some damage if she got creative enough with it. It’s a carrier cruiser hybrid and it is rather quite large. She also brought news of Ewesen in the Quia System so we owe her even more of a debt for telling us of how much our support has aided that poor beleaguered system. It is a sad truth that the casualties to the local Planetary Protection Patrol fleet were very much devastating, our EDF forces have helped pick up the slack immensely. There were also quite a lot of pony deaths as well; we have a list of casualties and MIA people from the Plurt known as Commander Lirutiy come in not to long after Ms. Belle’s on a scout ship. Some of that information was on Rarity Belle’s actions, she has aided with the production of anti-venom for the latest MOM related monstrosity called a Vasp by personally being bitten by one. Thankfully it didn’t go through the suit she was wearing and her Breach Gel preserved the attempted injection of venom. You see the venom quickly breaks down when not affecting a system and they found a few new uses for breach gel at the hospital where one of her friends was infirmed from injuries, so now it is even more important that we don’t delay signing. There’s also a cliff note that Rarity helped seal the hospital off to keep the monsters out with several others… she’s looking like quite the hero and I’d be remiss if I ignored her presence now.” “Right, we’ll get to that now while I win this game. Tell this Rarity Belle that we have already signed off on the breach gel an hour ago and that we’re very sorry to have kept her waiting. Quickly forward the necessary amount of money into her account that she is rightfully owed. We’ll use a red tape ruse to cover things up.” Celestia then tipped her head to Luna. “Quickly bring the papers here so we can actually sign together and if she’s angry that it took so long, then offer her some form of recompense.” “That’s not the only thing… Rarity is a close friend with Coco Pommel who is also here; she’s the inventor of the impulse saddles that I have yet to actually get around to.” Luna looked to the floor with her ears wilted and she turned her eyes from her sister’s flat stare. “In fact I have quite a bad backlog…” “Now you see Luna, this behavior is exactly why I hardly let you do anything approaching really important as far as political things go, except when I need a good sledgehammer. You know this is kind of why you became lonely enough to become Nightmare Moon in the first place. If you want to be responsible for more Luna, then you better start putting in the effort to handle the responsibilities you already have.” Celestia stretched out a wing and slowly dragged it across Luna’s backs in a calming manner from her tangled up position with the Chrysalis. “I’ll admit our jobs are impossibly stressful and that I may have contributed a bit to your backlog as did Princess Cadence, who we will now proceed to put a lot of the blame on since she’s not here to deny it at all. Still you should get back to work Luna. Even while I do find the time to schedule in some fun, I at least finish what I’m currently doing for the interim of relaxation that’s not consuming my daily allotment of cakes. If I can make enough time for you even as busy as I am, then you can make enough time to finish your work as lazy as you are.” “Some saint you are blaming my poor, if rather guilty, fake sister like that… because she so totally is guilty of causing you to have so many problems in your backlog Luna. She should really stop distracting you like that.” Chrysalis played along as she twisted her torso somewhat and placed a knee on a blue circle. “It’s a good thing I’m going to get my payment out of her a week before the gala huh? That should be punishment enough, right?” “Oh are you playing Twisty, can I join?” Discord popped in looking like a smiling buff cactus covered entirely in thorns. “No!” Even Luna yelled this at him, alongside Chrysalis and Celestia. Luna pointed an angry hoof at Discord. “Not after what happened the last time you joined in a game of Twisty! We still do not know where my beloved rubber duck even went or what it’s doing at this very moment!” “Gee, no respect I tell you! Either that or you’re all a bunch of prudes. Also I did promise to find and return your rubber duck to you eventually Luna. Though it’s been quite hard to find when it’s off being a super hero and is managing to best even me at every turn. That annoying little thing… at least Cadence will be properly punished for her crimes of holding up Luna’s schedule.” Even Discord was getting in on it and wanted a part in starting the rumor mill. Mostly because it would be funny and it gave the two older alicorns and changeling queen an alibi for the changeling’s rather unorthodox payment, he could get behind this course of action as it sounded positively chaotic. “Can I help in this conspiracy against the Princess of Love?” “Sure go ahead Discord.” Celestia was all smiles as she stretched a hoof over the back of Chrysalis’s quickly failing form to touch yellow while rubbing a particularly sensitive spot on the changeling, meaning Chrysalis was now the one blushing horribly and Celestia had a nasty smirk on her face. “Fair is fair, right Chrysalis?” “You… I like you very much, but I don’t think you’d give me the time of day or the love I need or might truly deserve from someone romantically speaking. A relationship between us wouldn’t work out very well and I’m actually willing to acknowledge that, as much as a relationship between me and Cadence would have. Especially when I tried to get away with disguising Cadence as Shining Armor and placed her stallion underground and fed him kid’s meals from a local fast food restaurant I bought out and then took Cadence’s place as her while disguising him as her in case a part of my plan fell through. Too many convoluted things that could go wrong practically did, so I formally apologize for that incident right here and now given that none of you have ever asked that of me before. As now, I will acknowledge that all of you are the best friends that a changeling queen could ever possibly want.” This was Chrysalis’s wholly unforeseen and rather thoughtful response, completely lacking in anything approaching malice and was startlingly enough, completely unrepentantly sincere. It threw Celestia, Luna and even a dumbfounded Discord himself for a complete loop, maybe even two loops for Discord. “Besides it’d greatly upset your lovely student, who smiled so brightly that the top of her head might have cleanly popped off when you invited her to the gala, if I were to try and usurp her position as your favorite pony. Oh and it’s your turn to spin, please not purple, please not purple...” - “Well now, this is pretty good.” Trap Bar had taken Rarity up on her offer and bought a few EVA suits. He did some quick training with Coco Pommel and found that the offered massage via Vera to be exquisite. Quite frankly the rest of the crew couldn’t remember a better masseuse… unfortunately they couldn’t remember the masseuse at all, so they figured she must have been incredibly good at her job considering how great their bodies felt afterwards. “You may want to get that new utility product finished. It’d be a sound solution to never having problems out in space while in a system and the impulse saddles are impressive in their specs if a bit heavy otherwise.” “Thank you, if you need anything more don’t hesitate to make an order while Shining Jewel is in orbit.” Feeling happy with all the sales she was making, Rarity continued her talk with Admiral Trap Bar with a skip in her step. “Now I believe you talked to Luna about things?” “Yes, she knew your name the minute I spoke it. Are you someone of importance that I should know about?” To Trap Bar, she seemed like a friendly mare and the ship she ran was running well if barren of crew. In fact, she only had five crew members and was a little too friendly. “Oh no, I’m nothing of the sort! I’m just an average business mare, who got caught up in a few troubles.” A business mare with her own three deck ship that could load some heavy weapons, alongside having several reports of her heroism on Ewesen. “Anyway, it’s been nice meeting a gentle stallion such as yourself, but we will be parting ways as soon as we’re finished making more EVA suits for your engineering team. I’m planning to go down to the planet soon and I need to talk with my crew about who will be joining me… well after Luna gets back to me on a little issue.” “I’ll go wait at my drop ship to for my engineering team to finish getting their suits and I must say that you do excellent work. I’ve confirmed that the payment for your services has already gone through, please finish up quickly so I can be off your ship lady Belle.” As Trap walked away from Rarity he was beginning to think that Rarity might be a secret black ops member, because her account had just jumped a lot and the payment came directly from the crown. At least that’s what one of his technicians watching her accounts just told him. He wouldn’t get in the way of her mission whatever it was, she was being paid a lot to be here and her crew had been suspiciously small. At least he now knew why it was so small, because he came to the conclusion that she couldn’t have been anything other than black ops considering the utilities the suits could come with. “I have much to get back to and I can’t get in the way of your ‘business’, though I assume your EVA suits will be especially popular in the EDF and will recommend some people to your services.” “Why thank you good sir, however it might be a while before I can get to their orders unless my friends can handle it as I’ll be busy with something else.” Yep Rarity just came off as a Black Ops pony working for the crown to Trap Bar and she was technically doing a good job of looking and acting the part of a fashion designer. Her forced posh accent kind of sold it for him as did her next sentence. “I’m just waiting on Luna now to see if I can do what I came here to do, if not then I might need to find some outside help.” “Meowstress Rarity, Luna is calling us personally. It’s actually quite an honor; take it on the Caravel Boutique. It’s closer than going all the way back to the bridge.” It sounded urgent by the tone of Opal’s voice and Rarity set off for her ship leaving a slightly paranoid Trap behind to head back to one of his drop ships. Trap Bar wondered what was going on, but decided to not ask and he went towards one of the three drop ships that boarded Shining Jewel. - Upon reaching the drop ship Trap Bar walked up to his crew members, some of which were heavily armed, without pause and a flat expression on his face. “So what’s the story Trap Bar?” The crew mate known as Smooth Flight asked, the pegasus was the admirals personal pilot and best friend. He had a short green mane, light brown fur and a near constant brazen smile on his face. “I think the six onboard this ship might be a black ops group. It’s irking my paranoia something fierce, but they certainly answer to the crown so their definitely one of ours and are on our side.” It was either a paranoid delusion or the absolute truth; Trap Bar didn’t want to bother with spooks as long as they didn’t try to involve him in any spy games and he’d rather stay as far away from their operations as he could. Apparently they were allowed to sell seemingly civilian gear to anyone. The energy based grappling hooks, advanced EVA suits that were both comfortable and incredibly functional, not to mention the one griffon with what looked to be broken arm in the back of the hangar currently working on a broken Javelin with a drone had set off several flags in the stallion. The drop ship being tuned up by the other griffon really kind of sold some kind of secret operation going on here in Trap’s mind. “Let’s not talk about our suspicions here; especially not when they are producing some really good gear for us and our engineers for an amiable price Lieutenant. Also let’s keep the fact that we’re paying them extra for all the other services that they are doing for us quiet. They all seem to be of keen intellect and I can tell that red head is dangerous by the looks she keeps sending me; she’s got samurai talent written all over her and she didn’t just get those injuries in her first foray into combat. She’s been hurt pretty badly once and I don’t see anyone else here with scars like that. The griffons are definitely the brains; Coco has to be the cute one and the disguise master, while Miss Belle herself is the mastermind. As for their masseuse… can you even remember what she looks like or her name? She must be their scout, hard to keep track of, completely silent and easily forgettable in a crowd. Plus I think their AI is hiding something, mostly likely what their current operation here on Equus is supposed to be.” Sassy was just busy making sure nobody went where they didn’t belong; she was the only other form of security on the ship aside from the one working MAT drone and she didn’t want anyone leaving the hangar as the rest of the ship was still a bit of a mess. Speaking of Sassy, she was talking to Gilda and motioned to their ship about something. Most likely she was disparaging stallions being around and it was riling her up to stay polite as one or two of them had ogled her a bit. Gilda barely paid her rant any mind and was busy directing the drone with concise instructions; she was mostly just cleaning the shell lacking Javelin and prepping it for planned future venture. Coco was undoubtedly cute, but she was no disguise master even as she made some clothing for one of the mares of Trap Bar’s crew and even looked talented in making disguises. She was making dresses, shirts, socks because Rarity didn’t want to go there, along with plenty of accessories like hats, scarves and other similar clothing accessories by hoof. The fact that she did it quickly without magic impressed quite a few ponies almost as much Rarity did when she was assisting her in this endeavor, to serve their customers with a cute friendly smile. Greta was wiring something and had half her body buried into in the trapezoidal drop ship’s innards, as a few sparks flew out from her use of Mr. Welder. She had fix engines on the wings and even cleaned out the variable jets and made sure they were in working order, she was even discussing technical issues that might pop up with this particular model of a Pegasus built Sky Dropper 22-DR with a bewildered engineer who was learning a lot from the griffon just from the few questions asked about what she was doing. Vera just set up a sign that had the words ‘wait here; pay the masseuse for her services upon meeting’ written on a plywood sign and stand. It was easier for Vera to just grab the pony, griffon and diamond dog or whatever when she was ready to work with them. Otherwise it would be annoying to call for them and not have them pay her any attention because they’d completely ignore her presence. At least she was making sure they paid while she was touching them, then she’d work them over and have them on their way exclaiming how good the masseuse was. Even if they couldn’t remember her very well after she was done with them. At least Rarity could see her and say her name, not needing a drone to constantly point at her like Opal did. She appreciated that at least the AI was trying to keep her in mind and went to the trouble of doing so near constantly. Currently all the other drones were busy cleaning up portions of the ship. Except in the one case of the fully functional MAT drone that made Trap Bar’s suspicions of them being a black ops team seem more real. That MAT drone was currently patrolling around the three drop ships that stopped by with a number of Admiral Bar’s crew. Opal really had Trap Bar’s spine crawling with a strange sense of fear. In all Admiral Trap Bar was way off when he thought these people were a black ops team. Quite frankly they, the Shining Jewels crew, were all civilians with no military training whatsoever. Sassy’s training as a samurai didn’t count as she never joined the military to train as one. Rarity’s pistol training wasn’t military taught either, but it was a common form of self protection taught to many who sought instruction in the use of pistols, energy, material or otherwise. Even Gilda and Greta only knew to point and shoot in a general direction with the plasma rifle they had gotten from Tree Hugger, it wasn’t that hard to figure out how to reload and fire the weapon and they were both intelligent griffons strong enough to handle a weapon with very little recoil. Opal wasn’t military hardware, but she was an AI that was a quick learner in how to fire and operate various weapons depending on the resources she had at the time. - “So… care to explain what was taking you so long with the sign off on it Princess Luna?” Keeping a calm attitude towards her favorite princess while she bowed, Rarity looked at the night mare and was internally squealing with delight at being able to get a princess to talk with her personally. However her words were cold and cutting, the princess had a right to look a little upset. “I must apologize to you Miss Belle and know that we are most sorry for the delays, but Princess Cadence has kept me quite busy and away from my job far too often. In fact some would say she was incredibly obstructive to me on purpose, so she’s soon to be lightly punished and don’t worry it won’t be anything too bad.” For some reason Luna was sweating bullets and her muzzle looked particularly scrunched up as Rarity narrowed her eyes at her. “There was also a lot of paperwork to work through. Red tape and all that you understand, we signed the documents an hour ago so you have received the money for what we’ve produced and sold of the product in question already.” “Opal, bank account numbers please.” Rarity looked off to the side at the numbers Opal was giving her and blinked, it was quite a good sum. The numbers were high enough so that she could start thinking about renovating the Shining Jewel, maybe even finish fixing everything wrong with Caravel Boutique. She’d have to have Greta and Gilda do a lot of the work to save on money, but with that much money at her disposal she had to think carefully about what she wanted because she couldn’t go crazy with it. After renovations she wouldn’t be rich, but she would still have a sizable fund for many a venture and a stable income as a jumping point to become wealthy. Some of it was Opal’s accounting work on the money they earned from Trap Bar’s people, seemed like they were paying a bit much into her account but she shrugged it off as being normal, his people were buying a lot of stuff and they were going to be in dire need of materials soon at this rate. “Well, that is a sizable boon to my account. Still though, you did take a lot of time getting around to it and I’m quite upset about it. What about signing off my dear friend Coco’s impulse saddles?” “I’m still currently working on it and I have a terrible backlog of things to take care of; I ask you to make an offer as to what I can do to make up for it.” Luna did not want to drag Coco into having to take an offer of recompense as well, that would make things worse from the lunar princess’s point of view. “I am providing this offer on the caveat that it is well within my power of course.” “Then I ask that you make the same offer to my friend as well.” Rarity watched as Luna visibly sulked. “I know it’s asking a bit much, but it would be fair to hear out every pony if they have a small request. You are kind of inconveniencing them after all. Personally I would like to go to the Grand Galloping Gala, what are the chances that I can get a ticket or two? That’s for me; I will not speak for Miss Pommel about what she could ask of you.” “I can easily get you a ticket to the gala. In fact every princess always has six extra tickets they can give away to anyone they see fit to invite, so I will gladly give you one of my tickets. Two is out of the question unless Coco asks for one herself.” The princess visibly relaxed that things were going to be alright, as Luna was afraid that Rarity would ask for something more outlandish or crazy. Instead it was something rather simple and easy to achieve. Luna wasn’t going to the gala anyway and had other things to do, neither was Cadence for that matter as the two alicorns would be busy elsewhere. “Can you put me into contact with Miss Pommel?” “Why of course. Opal, if you would please insert Coco into this conference in a timely manner darling.” After a bit of waiting Rarity saw Coco appear on screen, as did Luna apparently when the screen split to allow for a conference call. “Princess Luna is offering a little recompense for taking so long with signing off on your impulse saddles; do you have any small requests or favors to make of her to make up for it?” “Actually yes, I would like a tour of the castle, if not that than either a hug or maybe just inviting us to lunch.” None of that was bad either and Coco was being completely simple with her requests and that made Luna smile happily. She even bowed to Luna. “That’s about all I would really ask of you as a way to make it up to us Princess Luna.” - “I am willing to do all three, I will make time for your visit and it’ll happen sometime before the gala. I might even allow you a guest room in the castle for a night before the gala. Is that all you will ask?” The two mares on the split screen nodded and then Luna cut the connection; she let out a sigh and turned to a grumbling Chrysalis. “Well that went well. Are you still upset that you lost to my sister in the contest of Flexibility?” “There is almost no feasible way her spine could bend like that without the use of magic! Although I will grudgingly admit that she is as flexible as I am.” Chrysalis had lost the battle, but she would win the war via disproportionate retribution. She was going to drug Celestia with a little known alicorn aphrodisiac later and lock her in a room with Twilight Sparkle to get the last laugh, possibly while helping jumpstart their relationship at the same time. “Seriously though, what kind of yoga training does your sister do and how many partners has she attracted over the last few thousand year with that kind of talent? Seriously she has to be a goddess in… you know that’s actually kind of funny.”