Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows


-42-

Rarity thought about her options fight him and get hurt doing so, possibly raped and killed or get raped and killed anyway. She’d prefer to go down fighting with a knife in her teeth, but she noted a few key problems with this situation. One she was not a very powerful unicorn, it just had to be said as much as thought that Rarity couldn’t put up a fight without levitating a weapon in her magic, he’s already managed to disarm her of two pistols and… wait… she still had the material pistol, but was it even loaded? Not exactly the time to check that with her mind running a mile a minute.

“I’d rather put up a fight thank you very much.” Answered Rarity calmly, she wasn’t about to pull out her last pistol, the other two were a bit far away and she wasn’t going to do a dramatic dive for them. She wasn’t an action movie hero; she knew the limits of her magic and the range of which she can pick up and wield a gun was quite short. Basically this obviously dangerous stallion had the upper hoof in all areas where combat was concerned and it was best if she got away from him as quickly as she could.

“Yes, run, it’s going to make this all the more enjoyable. Of course you know I could probably disguise myself as you and kill someone.” This gangster obviously didn’t know Rarity had a history with some odds being in her favor, Mind Field noticed Rarity backing away from him and it wasn’t often he ran into a illusion immune unicorn. They were a rare breed and he didn’t like them existing in his mind boggling presence and world, which is why he was choosing to take her out of it in his preferred method. He twirled one of his eight floating serrated knives and pointed it at one of the bystanders who continued to peruse the illusionary art. “Even if you do escape you’re still going to be my prey and I can have the whole of Canterlot against you easily enough, even if I am caught nobody would ever trust you again. If I do it right nobody would ever believe your innocence even if the princesses themselves say so, so be a good little mare and lay down. I hope you like it rough.”

“So a thief, a ruffian, a rapist and what is with that rather atrocious accent? I admit I’ve heard some horrible voices in my time, but your voice is one of the absolute worst things I’ve ever heard in all my life.” If this stallion wanted to play mind games Rarity would prefer that to the physical activities he was currently suggesting, it would be best to keep his attention focused on her and stop him from hurting ponies unwary of his presence because he was apparently casting illusions strong enough for them to both be ignored. She stalked to the left and a knife knocked her gun further behind her and then she tried the right and that gun too was knocked away by a launched knife. Exactly what Rarity wanted him to do; now all she had to do was get him angry and focused on her. If she weren’t so generous she would have let him carry out his threat of harming someone instead of keeping his attention all on her. “Also not very sporting as you won’t give a lady a fighting chance. You by far are the ugliest stallion I have ever had the displeasure to meet, inside and out. I swear you also smell quite horrid, what do you bathe in? Rotten eggs, must be popular with the other stallions you poof.”

“Okay, now you’re getting me angry.” The stallion started moving forward at a brisk walk and Mind Field smirked as Rarity continued to back away from him in fear.

“Only just getting you angry? Wow, not only do you happen to be ugly, you’re also dumber than a metropolitan stereotype of a blonde mare.” Okay that made the stallion see red, Rarity kind of figured that this guy has slept with many an airheaded mare before and nothing would make him angrier than calling him out on it.

“Alright, now that… has gotten me pissed off! I am not as dumb as one of those broads you lousy donkey faced dame.” Mind Field still wasn’t doing what Rarity wanted him too.

“Well of course you are, for a girly stallion. I mean how small is that thing between your legs that you need to use illusions or force to even have sex with a mare much less get one within twenty feet of you?” Rarity immediately turned around and ran for it with several knives whizzing by her head, she might have insulted him pretty hard that time but it was worth it as she had maneuvered him into knocked her guns into her path. As she ran by them, she picked them up and stashed one of them away and fired over her shoulder at him and was aiming low. It hit the floor and he pulled his hoof back before it could hit.

“Get back here, nobody insults my Little Mind!” The stallion yelled charging after Rarity.

“Oh you even named it too; well you’re the one that called it ‘little’ not me. So I don’t know why you would be mad at me over it, but it does prove my point that you are a small fry!” Rarity couldn’t fire her energy pistol again around other ponies, she might incidentally hit them while trying to shoot Mind Field and he was keeping himself in the path of shots that would hit someone should he dodge them. He was at least that smart, but not smart enough to avoid being goaded into chasing her. She avoided taking a knife across her face as she galloped away and one grazed the outside of her rear right leg causing her to stumble in pain.

Yes, Rarity figured that he was quite angry as he ramped up his attacks, the knives started coming at her and then curving or suddenly flipping to change directions in the air trying to skewer her. She jumped ducked and avoided taking a knife to her face, she really didn’t want a scar on her perfectly beautiful face, her legs she noted were getting more injuries as time passed as he continued to knick her here and there as she ran. Seeing him move into a safe place to fire she shot twice causing him to reel back a bit and avoid the shots as she turned started going down the stairs towards the exhibits next floor down with Mind Field hot on her tail retaliating with knives flung at a high velocity.

“If anyone can hear me, I could use a little help here!” Rarity yelled as she tried to find a spot on the second floor to hide and knife slide across the left side of her neck causing her to let out a scream and grabbed her neck, her hoof came away covered in her blood and she put it back to keep the pressure on it. He was slowly whittling her down and nobody could hear her screaming for help.

“Nobody is coming, nobody but me that is. If you don’t know who I am, then the name of your killer and soon to be rapist is Mind Field. I’m a pretty big name in the Caballeron Cabal, one of the best enforcers around.” The stallion watch as Rarity continued a three hoof gallop away from him, this was a feisty chase to be sure and she ducked into the next room leaving a knife embedded in the wall where she had stopped to lean against it for a moment. “I was here doing a simple heist and what do I find? A mare that can see through my illusions, now why don’t you come out and play?”

“Oh I’ll gladly return the favor; I am a generous mare after all.” Rarity leaned out from a steel statue of a dragon; she fired several times and ducked out of sight. All except one of her shots missed and the stallion was quite good at dodging them and only took a graze to one of his legs that made him grunt slightly, she tried to silently around in the statue exhibit and tried to get into a good position to disable him.

“A generous mare would sleep with me for no needed reason at all, so you’re not very generous.” It was quiet in the room and Mind Field slunk behind a sculpture looking Rarity, he could see some splotches of blood on the floor, but not enough to tell him where Rarity was hiding.”

“I’m not that generous, but you can have a few shots on the house.” Rarity stated as she popped out behind him and fired, he quickly rolled behind a statue with a line of energy bolts impacting the ground behind him. She ducked and two knives shot overhead and past the curled up sleeping marble giraffe statue. He wasn’t even armed with a projectile weapon and he was handling her with ease, she wasn’t particularly happy about this cat and mouse and her neck was dripping quite badly. He might have hit and artery in her neck, which would be very bad. She knew that if she lost enough blood she would become too lightheaded to fight or even see straight. Quite frankly this well lit museum should be less scary, but there weren’t many people around this exhibit so she should count herself lucky that this Mind Field character wasn’t hurting anyone else. She had to do something, she need to alert someone somehow.

She kept her hoof tightly pressed against her neck and looked about warily, she didn’t hear his hoof steps and she didn’t know where he was. She moved over to a statue of a stern looking Celestia and warily looked about before she was rammed into from the side and sent rolling towards a window, leaving her on her back. Ss she tried to get up a knife dug its way into her leg that wasn’t holding the neck wound and in a small spray of blood the knife stuck it to the floor. Rarity let out a wail of agony and kept her good hoof pressed against her neck, she couldn’t very well concentrate enough magic to try and pull the knife out of her leg. She felt some magic take hold of her rear legs and spread them open. It was here that Rarity realized she was pinned and that the stallion wasn’t giving her a friendly, ‘oh my goodness I’ll immediately get you a medical kit right away’ look. Nope it was pure sadism directed at her pain and suffering.

“Well now… what do we have here, a captured little mouse and the rat that caught her. Oh would you look at that, a virgin. Much more interesting, at least I’ll get to pop you before you get buried in the dirt.” Seven knives held in Mind Fields magic hovered around Rarity’s head, sides and other two legs. “I wouldn’t try anything funny, who knows. My magic might slip and stab your eyes out… fucking a corpse isn’t nearly as fun as doing it with someone who’s alive and breathing. Yes, we most certainly wouldn’t want an accident now would we?”

The stallion levitated the dropped energy pistol and took the other one from Rarity’s saddlebag and tossed them across the exhibit where they landed with a clattering noise and he stood over her with a sadistic smirk.

“Well I was right about one thing you are quite small.” Rarity said looking between his legs; she got slapped across the face harshly with a hoof that caused her nose to start bleeding. “Also you’re still quite ugly.”

Mind Field slugged her across the face again and that had shut her up leaving her a whimpering mess on the floor.

“Where’s the bravado now doll face?” The gangster accented stallion said with a chuckle as, Mind Field positioned self right on top of her. “Where’s the rest of that sass before I break you?”

Rarity just looked up at him defiantly, with a bruised face, several graze wounds from the knives, a deep cut in the right side of her neck and one leg pinned to the floor with a knife that was bleeding almost as bad as the neck wound.

“You have nothing to say then? I know your type. All gussied up and trying to look pretty, but you’ll never get a stallion because you’re way too uppity. How about I help you with that a little, maybe give you a few scars on your face before killing you.” HE gripped Rarity’s mane and jerked it upwards causing her to cry out in pain. A knife floated around to frightened mares face and came a few centimeters from stabbing her in her left eye. “Or maybe I can stab an eye out? Do you think I would care to rut a handicapped mare? Eh, no answer for that huh? Well of course I would, but since you’re being so quiet aside from all your pathetic whimpering, I’ll just take you now then. Scream for me will you, I want to hear you gurgling after your raw throat smiles for me when I’m done with you.”

The stallion was about to thrust his rear half forward when the shattering of glass was heard and Mind Field looked up to take took a gloved hoof across the left side of his face and then he was hit with an uppercut to the jaw that made him release Rarity’s mane. This only dazed Mind Field, Rarity took the opportunity to rear back her left leg which was no longer being held in his magic and she buck him with it where it would hurt the most. He only grunt and stumbled back and off of her, what kind of freak was this stallion and what was he made out of that he could take a kick to the nuts without screaming out in pain.

There was also Rarity’s savior who charged forward and made him stagger off of her with a straight hoof that knocked him away from the injured mare and onto his butt. Rarity took in the form, a gallant masked figure in a costume that stood before her not saying a word as they looked back at Rarity who just stared at the suited figure in surprise. They had some really good fashion sense when it came to form and function, Rarity could tell at least that much.

“Well don’t just stare at me, get him! He’s getting back up!” Rarity caused the mask figure to turn around and dodge four knives that blazed through the space that they had been had they not already rolled to the side.

Mare-Do-Well had been thankfully outside the spells effect radius, the spell that kept ponies ignorant that a mare was being mishandled beyond the extreme and when she arrived she was livid to find the bastard about to hurt the mare psychologically as much as he had already physically and it was about to get worse physically too. Thus she busted through the window and gave him a good old one two to the head, but he seemed more resilient than normal unicorn stallion and that was saying something because she saw him take a kick to the crotch by his intended victim.

Now she was frantically dodging knives. With a flick of her hoof her cape fanned out and caught several of them without the cape taking any damage. She then threw them back at the stallion who looked shocked to find his knives back at him with unerringly good accuracy and quite a bit of speed. Knife throwing was an interesting skill that did have some relations to Mare-Do-Wells real special talents, but those talents were used in a far less hostile setting than this. Mind Field was certainly proving himself to be a deadly individual and this fight couldn’t go on for too long or his victim would bleed out and that wasn’t something she wanted on her conscience.

“So somebody playing hero.” Having just dodged the knives Mind Field levitated the seven of them back to himself having taking a few good hits to the legs and harsh one across his face that carved a path under his right eye. He looked towards his victim. “Can you really protect yourself and save her at the same time I wonder?”

Mare-Do-Well didn’t say anything, but she knew what he was going to do and she had a plan for it. She threw herself at Rarity as soon as he sent all seven knives sailing for Rarity’s prone and frightened form. She made sure her cape was covering the poor mare.

The knives sunk into the cape this time and the cape seemed to collapse a bit and the hat seemed to wilt as the figure beneath the cape stopped moving.

“So you’d prefer saving some random bitch that you don’t even know about? All while throwing yourself into the path of those knives, how pathetic of you.” His horn lit up and he pulled the knives out and smirked, but then that smirk died as he noticed something, there was no blood on any of the knives and some of them hadn’t hit Rarity yet. “Wait, what the…?”

Mare-Do-Well, without her cape and hat that showed that she was a unicorn that was only slightly bigger than Rarity, leapt right onto his back from behind knocking him to floor. She quickly grabbed him by the horn and slammed his face into the floor twice before he stood up with her on top of him and started to move erratically trying to shake her off.

As the two struggled, a surprised Rarity moved the protective cape with several holes in it aside with her magic and was biting her lips trying to concentrate despite the pain as her horn flared with magic. This was while Mare-Do-Well struggled with Rarity’s awful assailant. Rarity magically opened her saddlebags up and out floated the material pistol and her data pad; she carefully set the data pad to active video recording and sent it to Opal. The police and royal guard would get here soon, if she knew her AI as well as she did as she set the pad against the wall on top of the shattered glass. She hoped it was getting a good angle on things. She opened up the pistol and she could see it was loaded with three bits. That was good enough for Rarity, despite her vision getting blurry from the blood loss she was going to help out as well as she could and she narrowed her eyes carefully as she closed the gun and took aim at Mind Field.

Mare-Do-Well was slammed into a statue where the back of her head bounced off of it, with the blow she lost her grip along with her focus after wailing on the guys face for a bit intent on making sure this tough guy stayed down. She sat there dazed with her back against the statue as Mind Field looked for a nearby object to hit her with as he couldn’t see his knives. He found one object and it was a very small metal statue of a smiling zebra, he struggled to lift it into the air with his magic. He was planning to bludgeon this costumed cretin to death.

“Heroes like you are just as villainous as the creeps they take in… so don’t feel too bad about…” Mind Field stated as he lifted the metallic object up above himself with his horn and he stopped. His world was in sudden agony and he fell backwards screaming and thrashing with the statue repositioning itself over him following his movements, incidentally the statue dropped and slammed into his neck making it hard for him to breathe even as he thrashed. ‘What had happened to him’ would be the last thoughts on Mind Field’s mind before he passed out.

Mare-Do-Well sat there in her costume lacking a cape and hat as she looked over to the three blood covered bits now embedded in a very low position on the dragon statue she had been bashed up against. She looked down at the floor and just sat there staring at something else other than the criminal whose thrashing beneath the statue was slowing down. In her mind she sighed somewhat in relief, since Mind Field would no longer be able to hurt anyone ever in that particular way again, justice was a long time coming for this asshole and it was served with laser guided karma by a mare that was a really good shot with a material pistol. A twitch in her right ear and she heard the sound of hooves coming, she quickly ran over to the victim to check them over.

“Here you go and thanks… for saving me. Nice hat and cape, I’ll be alright just get going.” Rarity weakly levitated the hat and cape to Mare-Do-Well before she too passed out. Mare-Do-Well put her hat back on, but her cape stayed off as she pulled the knife out of Rarity’s leg and wrapped her cape around the wound and the one in Rarity’s neck after moving her hoof out of the way. Hearing the coming ponies she quickly and carefully climbed out the broken and window and made her way for the roof. She couldn’t be seen without her cape or else ponies would know what to look for, then they would find her and the mysticism of who she was would die. Hopefully the mare she saved wouldn’t talk about what kind of pony she really was, she was also going to need a new cape and she had to find someone that could make it to the exact specifications she needed and hoped that they could be discreet about it.

-

Rarity’s eyes snapped open and she found herself sitting in a hospital bed, she moved her tongue around and tasted medical fluids. She had probably been pulled out of a medical bed and was now resting on a patient bed, which was rather nice of them as waking up in a medical bed tended to cause panic.

“Hey boss lady, how you doing? I picked up your pistols for you, also you’ll need to remind me to never mess with you twice over now.” At her bed side was a smiling apologetic looking beak, it had to be Greta that was smiling at her. “Turn my back on you for a few hours and this happens. At least you got the guy and good.”

“How long...” Rarity asked her voiced slightly gargling due to the fluids she quickly swallowed.

“About eleven hours, you slept the rest of the night and you’ll be able to leave after a few hours and a checkup to make sure you’re good enough to walk. You might need some rehabilitation as your leg was hurt pretty badly when they got there.” Coco propped her hooves upon the bed to give Rarity sad smile, Trapeze walked up to the bed and pulled her hat off and took out a bouquet of some really nice smelling flowers which she sat down next to Rarity. “How are you feeling and why didn’t you try to summon help sooner?”

“I’m feeling okay, I’m guessing I’m loaded up on drugs right now so I’ll just leave it at that. Otherwise if I had tried sooner he would have destroyed my data pad and those aren’t as durable as my energy pistols. Plus I didn’t have the time to up to that moment and he didn’t check my saddlebags while he was trying to… have his way with me.” After the Gala, Rarity was going to have a long talk with Vera about this to get it off her chest. “Is Opal alright, she didn’t go ballistic did she?”

“No, but she did threaten to remote pilot the Caravel Boutique so that it crashed into that psycho’s body from orbit if nobody got there to help you fast enough. She kind of wants Mind Field dead and he’s currently topping her list of people she wants gone and he’s the only one on that list so she there’s not going to be much of a wait if she can figure out how to get to him legally.” Greta paused and rubbed at the back of her head. “Goodness knows I feel like ramming the plasma rifle into his rear end and firing it off once… or maybe an entire clip. The guy was certainly worse off than you or that Mare-Do-Well character that only got a few bumps and bruises during that whole fight.”

“What happened to Mind Field?” Rarity couldn’t feel one of her legs and found that it wasn’t moving because it was strapped down, for a second there she had thought… yeah better not to go there. It was probably the drugs making her unable to feel anything.

“Boss lady is very scary, Rover promises to never anger her that badly.” The diamond dog had seen and heard how exactly Rarity managed to finish Mind Field off, her data pad got a good recording of Mind Field becoming a paraplegic with some well timed shots after all. He had never had a boss so ruthlessly efficient before. He was no longer scared of working with a boss who might have been considered soft and girly, especially when that boss can be just as brutal when very upset. So soft and girly was much better in his opinion. “Rover likes having bits still attached.”

“What my associate Rover means is that you managed to pull off three of the most miraculous shots ever seen in quick succession while under the effects of blood loss that should have made your aim go completely wide with how blurry your vision should have been.” Trapeze looked a bit somber as she hugged her hat to her chest, Bernard popped out of the hat and onto the bed to nuzzle against Rarity’s neck affectionately. He liked the boss lady and he thought she was strong in the face of danger, his warrior spirit cried out for him to be cute and cuddly to her. “All three of your shots hit him… and practically neutered him completely. It was gruesome.”

“Yeah, you took off everything that made him a stallion and he wasn’t even much of one to begin with. Oh and the statue made him a paraplegic so it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to ever walk again, probably would have been better had that killed him.” After saying that Greta had a slight frown on her face, it slowly turned back into a sad smile when she looked at Rarity in the eyes. “It is said that he has quite a track record and the changelings certainly want him dead and I think Opal is trying to contact them about making that happen. Last I heard of his medical record despite being paralyzed from the neck down, his pain receptors still work perfectly apparently. They have him sedated on some pretty strong stuff because of it.”

“How do I look?” That was the question of the hour and Bernard gave her the quaint and friendly thumbs up sign while sitting on her chest; well about as well as he could give a thumbs up with his paws.

“Well your face isn’t ruined if that’s what you’re asking, but the rest of you… yeah you have more than a few stitches in your legs and there are a lot in your neck too. Looks like you went to a bar fight and said ‘not in the face’!” After that the Pegasus with her friends gave off a small cackle as she shakily hovered in the air a nurse walked in and looked at her when she landed, she stumbled a bit doing so. “Well you needed a Pegasus; you’ve gotten one boss lady. I am ex Wonder Bolt member Lighting Dust reporting for duty Captain Belle, do you need something of me currently?”

“Not with the way you were flying, you’re malnourished and you look very unhealthy. When was the last time you had a medical exam?” The nurse narrowed her eyes at the dirty and somewhat thin Pegasus that certainly needed medical aid.

“Speaking of, yes, I do in fact need something. Go get yourself a medical exam so that we can be sure you’re safe to go up into space, I’ll pay for it personally if you can’t afford to. After you are considered healthy enough you will be welcome aboard. Coco, please take Trapeze, Bernard and Rover to the Shining Jewel and get them settled in.” Rarity sat up slightly, as Lighting started to follow the nurse out of the room to do just that. “We still need to do an interview, but you’re hired all the same no matter what I ask. I’m not going to be the one that deals with you or your sordid history Ms. Dust. You’ll be working with one of my crew members and she’s a good judge of character. She’s the one who decides if you stay or go, I’m only going to give my opinions on you to her.”