//------------------------------// // -52- // Story: Coarse Diamonds // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Gilda looked about for any other trouble, fighting could still be heard in the distance, but those were probably the holdouts. Nodding to herself she steered The Bombing Peregrine about and turned it around so that it pointed towards the castle, she flicked a few switches and the walking tank began its conversion process back into a rolling one. Said process involved the rear legs becoming wheels first using the front legs to hold the rear into the air slightly and then the front end would lift itself off the ground while the tank sat on its rear wheels, then the front end changed and gravity did the rest. The tank lowered its two bars covered in variable thrusters flat against its back and then the stretched out mid section closed up shrinking the tank back to its original form, the turret swung around and the main cannon was back in place after the two beam cannon barrels were back in. The two smaller single barreled defense turrets were the last things to come out on the left and right sides of the tank from the belly of the beast. “Right it looks like we’re done here; all that’s left is the cleanup. How you doing up there Lightning? You are a being a bit quiet.” Like oil and fire Gilda got along with Lightning, hearing her being quiet or not being crass made her wonder if her gunner was out cold. “Setting defensive turrets to fire automatically on incoming explosives, but I think we’re all out of action here and are now safe to resume our lazy lives. Well, unless one of those idiots in the guard was tempted to shoot at us with a rocket. Then I’m all game for a game of turkey shoot, provided they play the turkey.” “That was totally wicked. Bar none that was the most awesome thing I’ve ever done! Well I have flown with the Wonder Bolts… for a bit anyway. Yeah I’m good up here Big G, this thing is freaking cool! You don’t see big girl toys like this in the service.” At first Lightning sound flat and then her excitement started ramping up as she spoke. “Sorry, but it just took a while for my brain to catch up with what we just did. Quick question, are you sure this thing is not space capable or meant to be use anywhere outside of atmospheric conditions?” “As fast as it might be on the ground or with the variable bars in the air, The Bombing Peregrine would do poorly in space even if it can make an orbital drop safely. I built it for the express purpose of ground combat, creature comforts and carrying the Boss Lady’s stuff should she ever have a need to sell her wares in dangerous territory. At this point, I really wouldn’t put it past her how often she runs into danger.” Snickering loudly in jovial manner, Gilda steered the tank back on the road leading directly up to the castle. “The current design of the weapons on this baby has the unfortunate side effect of rendering installing an impulse engine a useless endeavor. It is in relation to the reason that the shields drop when firing the main cannon. We’re going to need to figure out how to get it back up into space, because I’m not leaving it down here after working so hard on it.” “What’s the bright side to this thing if it can’t be used in space effectively? You know, where we’re likely to be a lot of the time.” Reclining her seat Lightning put her hooves behind her head and her eyes started to droop, she still needed to catch up on her sleep. She yawned and closed her eyes for a bit. “The bright side is, the reason that I can’t install an impulse engine is the same reason that this thing makes impulse engines on other things quite inoperable. Imagine you’re in a fighter and you’re trying to board the Shining Jewel, get hit with the main cannon of this thing while in tank mode and one of three things will happen to the fighter it shoots.” To Gilda, The Bombing Peregrine wasn’t supposed to be a fighter; it was supposed to be home or internal defense. It couldn’t see action very far away from The Shining Jewel, but it didn’t need to if it was used on the defensive. The griffon yawned as well given their poor wakeup call; they could use some time to finish sleeping after they ran out of adrenaline. “This baby is all about personal home defense and the wheels are made to be magnetized so it can roll along the surface of the Shining Jewel. It’ll disable a fighter’s weapons and flight, knock out its shields or will just plain pulverize the ship. Those three end goals are what the main cannon happens to be all about, making it partly not lethal depending on how it’s used and very much useful as an anti-air weapon that doesn’t rely on target locking weaponry such as missiles. If you couldn’t tell, the four legged or crawler mode is specifically geared for more lethal actions. Especially useful when we absolutely want to kill someone or get more aerial maneuverability in exchange for a large drop in ground speed.” “Okay, leave the egghead stuff to the egghead, got it! Can I get some winks now?” Not waiting for an answer Lightning was already halfway there to begin with. “You might as well, let’s park outside the castle.” The only answer Gilda received was snoring and she shook her head, she slowly moved the tank up to the shield protecting the castle. She called out over the speakers. “Let us in so we can park this thing, we’re tired and we need to finish sleeping. Didn’t get enough of that before we were called down here and you don’t want a cranky griffon to shoot wildly at everything.” They were swiftly let in and things started to quiet down as Gilda crawled into a hammock in the main room of the tank. The animals that lived around the castle started to shyly come out after the violence started to peter out all over Canterlot. The defenders had obviously won the day and a good long rest as well. - “The elements of harmony worked on the Changelings with injuries, good to know that the magic of those trinkets is morally sound.” Stretching out her spine with a pop, Chrysalis moved over to Rarity and pulled out something to write on from her carapace. She passed the note over to Rarity who looked at it than at Chrysalis. “Go get some sleep; you’ve had a long night. We’ll do the interview this afternoon when you’re better willing. I’m looking forward to getting off this rock and finding a place for Changeling to set up a colony.” “Right, come along Greta. It appears Chrysalis is offering us a room in the Changeling embassy here at the castle. I would be remiss if I didn’t graciously take it as tired as I am from the horrible night I just had.” At Rarity’s words they left immediately leaving Chrysalis to move over to the trinity wielding the elements of harmony. “So…” Chrysalis started off to get a right hoof to the face by a tired looked Celestia that floored her immediately. She slowly stood back up with a slight wince and rubbed at her face with her left hoof. “You hit like a truck princess, one that can go all night long… which is basically what you did.” Chrysalis obviously had no survival instinct whatsoever or else she would have stopped antagonizing Celestia, said princess summarily hefted the queen up in her magic and started to repeatedly slam her into the floor in a very violent manner at different angles with every slam. “You are likely glad that I’m the element of kindness…” The rather royally raging Celestia muttered maliciously, emphasis on the royal and angry mare with the powers of the three pony races at her beck and call. “Yeah, sure… I’ll go with that.” Chrysalis flicked parts of her body and several bones snapped back into place she brought her hooves up to her head a gave it a jerk and with a loud cracking noise, it almost didn’t look like she had been injured at all. Only the faint bruises lining her body and tough fur covered carapace tells a different story. “You’re being quite kinky I’ll have you know.” “I had almost forgotten that you take any violence enacted against you as a sign that someone has an interest you.” If glares could kill, Celestia’s would have done so with one a long time ago. “I would like to clarify that I’m not happy with you at the moment.” “Understandable, I did make your student immortal, an Alicorn and now you have to live with her for the rest of eternity as the other Alicorn that isn’t your sister that you can cuddle for eternity as the element of loyalty who would willingly marry you at the drop of a hat.” Chrysalis sauntered with a slight limp up to Celestia with a smug smile. “So I’ll take you’re punishing blows as your way of saying thank you, could you maybe buck me in the barrel right about here, my spine could use a bit of realigning.” Celestia did so winding Chrysalis and causing another snapping sound to be heard coming from Chrysalis. The Changeling Queen though tough and quite flexible, could still feel pain and even seemed to take a dark form of joy from it. “Thank you, that was quite agonizing until you popped my spine back into its proper shape. I can see how you are kindness personified; you certainly have a gentle touch and couldn’t cause permanent harm to anyone.” There was a slight pause and a moment of awkwardness between them; Chrysalis didn’t have much else to say at the moment. Luna, Cadence and Shining were busy organizing the clean up already. “So time to start cleaning up and assessing the damage I take it?” “Yes, it is time to assess the damage and the casualties…” Celestia turned to look at a still slightly ragged Twilight who was still having a problem with her new wings. “Not all the damage done tonight was bad, but it came of a bad thing all the same.” “You needed to get laid more than I do; you’re a few thousand years out of practice and needed some cuddles.” Offhandedly stated Chrysalis who took the oncoming slap across the face with pride and a smile, she enjoyed fighting with Celestia. She probably became a bit too perky for the princesses taste when she asked. “Can we wrestle now?” “No, you really know how to take all the fun out of hurting you. A lot of Ponies and Changelings have been hurt, killed or worse last night. Now we need to find out why this happened and what caused this chain of events to occur.” A sullen Celestia trotted off leaving behind a puzzled Chrysalis. “On that note as of right now, I need some cake.” Chrysalis shrugged and started commanding the Changelings to do important things. Thing like picking up the still badly injured from both sides for hospitalization, capture all remaining Hands of Midas people alive if possible, securing the one that was called the leader and they needed to organize a fund to get the city back up on its legs. Some of the repair work could wait, since a major amount of damage was done to a number homes belonging to nobles and the nobles would surely enjoy having to rough it and camp out given that all the hotels were going to be booked for the commoners who lost their homes in the fighting. Why a noble would have to be an absolute asshole to kick those poor people out on the cold harsh street just to take their warm cozy, temporarily paid by the crown, room. In fact the nobles could get their homes back faster if they paid a modest sum into the city repair fund. Chrysalis was cackling and rubbing her hooves together, it took her a moment to realize what a villainous cliché she was holding up to. Then she decided to go get a fake mustache and start twirling it with her hoof, the mustache wasn’t attached to her face no, it was attached to a hat she was now wearing. Yes, fun could be had even in times of duress! - Later that day around noon, standing in front of a ruined building on restaurant row was Saffron looking sad with her braided mane spilling down the side of her neck. She cried in front of the building, a building that was now nothing but broken and shattered dreams. “It is okay we will find a way to continue living my daughter. It wasn’t like our business was doing all too well anyway.” Coriander trotted up and watched as his daughter jump holding the mask of Mare-Do-Well in her hooves and the costume on her body. The mare spun around and ran up to him and hugged him for all he was worth and snuggled into him. He gently reached up and hugged her to start patting her back. “There there, your mother would be proud of you Saffron as she was one of a long line of Mauve Mare-auders. You should know, she quit being a hero as soon as she knew she was pregnant with you as you were . It looks like you have picked up the habit on your mother’s side of the family by fighting your cutie mark and doing more than you were ever meant to. Stop crying, I’m fine, it is you who I am worried about. Also you might want to take off the costume before…” “Before someone comes along and finds out your secret identity, I just came over here on a hunch and its proven correct.” Now both the father and the daughter jumped and turned to Rarity who was out of her dress and au natural, she had made a quick stop to get her stitches removed and come to find a restaurant on the row that she happened to like was gone. Then again so were many of the other restaurants. “I just wanted to say thank you, for saving me at least twice Saffron. Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anyone, but you may want to get out of the costume. You don’t want to be confused for the actual Mare-Do-Well trying out a Nightmare Night costume now do we?” Saffron blushed and started to quickly discard her costume, well someone knew her secret and thankfully they were willing to keep it just that. That her father knew all along and didn’t question her about made her doubly embarrassed. “Do you have any place to be or are you both currently homeless?” It concerned Rarity, because she shared a meal with this mare not long ago and they were friends. The food had been delicious and she and Greta had a good time here, now it was all gone. “Though I hate to get my hooves dirty I think we should sift through the dirt to find some things that belonged to you.” “Yeah, that would be a good idea wouldn’t it? I don’t know where we’re going to go from here.” Saffron started forward while undoing her braid and started to piece apart the wreckage of the restaurant she was the head chef of and her father slowly joined in. Then the sound of help came running and it showed it to be Rover, Rarity had personally asked for his assistance in digging out the buried things. When it came to getting her hooves dirty, she’d rather get Rover to do it for her so she didn’t have to worry about getting all icky. “Rover is being here and is finding you okay, what is Rover to be digging to get away from scary alpha predator!” Rover was talking about Bernard as the fake rabbit scared him more than Trapeze’s angry face, if one would remember the rabbit takes down predators at least three or more times his size with ease. “Okay I would like for you to help dig through the rubble and this is a very important thing Rover… you must do it slowly and do not damage anything that might belong to a pony.” Magically grabbing the dog by the ears she pulled him down to eye level with her. “I want you to carefully set said things off to the side in a pile, do you understand me? Do not break anything important. Now help those two find their things! I have an offer to make them and it would go a long way if we could have them onboard, we need someone to cook for the crew as we’re not going to survive on fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches forever. I’m looking to hire these two fine culinary experts who don’t have a place to go at the moment and we could use their cooking skills. We are helping them, the two right there, out of the goodness of our hearts. Do you understand me Mr. Rover?!” “Rover understands boss lady pony wants to build pack from those needing pack!” Here Rover took on a serious look. “I can be being the careful for such important work, I good digger and will dig as asked! Look for items that are not jewels this time, items belonging to two potential pack members after big battle collapsed their above ground cave.” “Good, now, I will personally watch you work to make sure you don’t mess anything up.” Walking over to the rubble, Rarity saw something on the ground that looked like a picture frame. It looked rather important given it had a family of three in it. “Hey Saffron, is this your mother? She’s quite beautiful; I wonder if I will ever look that good when I get to that age.” The two quickly ran over to look at the picture Rarity found, it was a start to getting their lives back in order and Rarity would make her offer to see if they were open to traveling around in space. They were happy to have even that much done for them. After a while of sifting through the destruction making sure her professional digging tool didn’t break any pots and pans, Rarity looked over to see Saffron slap her hoof down on a kitchen knife flipping it up into the air where she caught it in her teeth and walked over to the pile to put it down. Yep she definitely looked skilled in knife throwing; maybe she could assist Trapeze from time to time if she joined. Rarity mentally noted that she was building a family and she was beginning to think that something like that was worth more than riches, social standing or even finding her one true love. Maybe her dreams would change with time; otherwise she made some kind of splash in the local social circles which was enough for her. She was still having dinner with the princesses this evening along with an important announcement from Celestia whatever that was. - “So it comes to pass that we found out that the leader of the Hands of Midas was one known hands enthusiast Lyra Heartstrings who led an army of at least four hundred strong against Canterlot. That she almost succeeded in her goals was quite startling. We currently have her in captivity, but she isn’t going to wake up for a while yet.” Celestia turned to Gilda who was digging into some baked salmon. “It seems you’ve managed to injure her quite badly with that last attack, I would like to say that your help was greatly appreciated in bringing down those large machines.” “Don’t mention it, I like piloting dangerous vehicles. I want to get into fighters, but I decided to start with baby steps and build a small transforming tank. It’s only good for short range defensive in space, but in ground combat it excels in a lot of areas.” Putting her ego out there was Gilda, who wasn’t sounding even remotely humble about her accomplishments. “Built that over the entire week knowing that something was going to happen, Kitten was tracking something screwy going on down here and I had a hunch it was going to be big. She didn’t disappoint and neither did the boss lady.” “I guess Opal always has my best interests at heart, then she has everyone else afterwards as an afterthought and that is only mildly worrying.” Rarity was tucking into the pasta, a guilty pleasure to be sure and she’d have to work it off later. “I really do need to eventually get in contact with her before she does something silly, maybe between after I eat and my interview with Chrysalis.” “Speaking of our AI, I have something to tell you later in private Rarity. It’s quite concerning really and I didn’t believe it to be possible as I’ve only heard such things happening in rumors.” Standing behind Vera was a maid constantly pointing at her; Opal couldn’t get the drones this far to keep track of the cursed elusiveness that Vera Blossom had. Only Celestia and Rarity could seemingly see her without losing her in a room with only a single door and nothing else in it. “It is nice to see you again Ms. Blossom, I know for a fact that your sisters are still the best spa workers to ever exist. Lotus and Aloe do wonders for me when I am quite stressed; I even have an appointment scheduled tomorrow if you wish to see them with me.” Standing up Celestia levitated her tea and a spoon to tap the cup. “Everyone, I have an announcement to make… Twilight if you will stop hiding under the table. Good, I would like to properly announce the upcoming crowning of a new princess, for Twilight will be the princess of friendship!” “Yes, friendship, let’s call it that and ignore what really happened. Of course, now that I think of it, she could certainly be the princess of friendship… with benefits.” The last two words Chrysalis blurted out, she quickly received a powerful magic solar beam to the face that was created in a single instant. She sat up and added to the fire on purpose. “Thank you ma’am, may I have another?” Celestia sighed as she cooled her horn; Chrysalis couldn’t very well leave soon enough for her liking and she had yet to get an interview with the entrepreneurial owner of the ship she wants to leave on. Ms. Belle was going to have her hooves full with the queen if she allowed her onboard. “And people call me loony.” Spoke a muffled Luna around a mouthful of a double hay burger, with a loaded paper basket of fries waiting for her to start on and a small foal’s meal toy to mess with. She was currently wearing clown makeup and a jester’s hat to dinner, nobody was bothering to ask her why she looked like a jester and nobody really wanted to know. Also there were several bloodied towels that Luna had dropped as she entered the room for dinner laying on the floor nearby; said towels were the one she had been ironing out when the real attack came in after the attempt on Chrysalis’s life and she went into the city with them after most of the major threats were taken care of. Nobody would even dare ask how they were used and even Celestia was reluctant to voice the question on everyone’s mind about why they were currently covered in blood. Luna could understand how Celestia had been quite shrewd in announcing Twilight’s coronation. They had to announce it to nobles as a law that a new princess was being crowned, but the law never said which nobles or how many were needed to be present. Rarity was the only noble at the table; otherwise they would have announced it to at least Fancy Pants and even Fancy had his closeted skeletons that the princesses were very well aware of. “Is this dinner why you asked Rarity and her people to join us?” “Whoever made this was a hack I tell you, a hack of the worst sort!” Saffron was being dragged out of a kitchen by two guards and forced into her seat; Coriander Cumin just huffed audibly from next to her shaking his head. The two were still on the fence about joining Rarity, but they were brought into this lovely dinner all the same. Though it was Saffron who was upset when they couldn’t make an ancestry accurate home cooked meal correctly. “I bet once they taste my food they will come begging for the recipe!” “You’d be right, I’m chef Watched Pot and I would like to have that particular recipe and I’m sorry to say that we as chefs have failed poorly in our duty to provide.” Said chef levitated the food Saffron cooked herself before her, he looked entirely apologetic. “I decided to add a bit to the mix myself; I would like your opinion on it.” “We’ll see if you have what it takes to correct this… okay what did you use?” One taste and Saffron was narrowing her eyes, the mushy brown food before her tasted fantastic. “It’s an improvement if you like it to being a little overly spiced, it would be a bit much for most ponies. Not me in particular.” “Got the idea from a recipe a buffalo once gave me, thought maybe we can exchange notes. I want to make it up to you for sullying your refined sense of taste.” The chef bowed to Saffron and then they started talking. “So where are you planning to go next Baroness Belle?” Celestia dropped out of the blue after stuffing a slice of cake down her throat, vaguely interested in hearing what Rarity planned to do now. “I’m thinking of going along a route to the Applon System where Applin Five is, I’ve always wanted to see the Earth Pony colony and I heard it was quite a quaint quiet place to be. Do you have any need of my services before then princess? I’m going to be here for a few days to take care of a few commissions.” After all this excitement Rarity could use a simpler pace and the friendly planet colonized by Earth Ponies sounded like the right place to take a break. Celestia decided to take Rarity up on her offer and commission something from the fashion pony who was friendly and only just a little bit stuck up, at least it was tolerable compared to the other nobles she had to deal with day in and out. - “So… you’re name is Crystal Clear Dick… and your father’s name is General Asshole… and your mother is… Mobile Dick, if I didn’t know about Changeling names before this I would swear you were doing this all on purpose. Is there something in particular that you didn’t like about your name that involved its change to Chrysalis?” Sitting before Rarity was Chrysalis looking quite attentive of her scrutinizing eyes. “Crystal is kind of a beautiful name.” “Thank you and to answer your question yes, I dislike my middle name of Clear. It is something I never liked too much… it comes from the Jerk side of my family. Any Changeling who takes the title of queen and physically transforms into one, whether they identify as male or female or not, has to take up a secondary name and when it’s a male they are usually referred to as Dragonfly Queens or Drag Queens for short. I chose the name Chrysalis, because a chrysalis has a strong outer shell and the life inside will eventually grow into something more powerful. As you can see, I exited the chrysalis state I went into as a beautiful butterfly of my species, well except for my butt which seems to be my only malfunction on me being utterly perfect.” If anything Chrysalis looked more like a cheese legged moth that would fly towards the nearest flame without pause, but Chrysalis was obviously smart enough to not fly into a bug zapper or a flame like an idiot. “Also nobody actually called my mom Mobile; they instead just chose to call her Moby because her name needed to be more feminine sounding.” “This Jerk side of the family, can you tell me more about them?” For some reason Rarity felt like she disappointed Chrysalis when she didn’t ask about her mother’s name being Moby Dick given the Changelings pouting expression, then again Rarity saw the set up for what sounded like a long winded running joke and decided to not take the bait. “Yeah, I can. There’s Jerk Off, Jerk Wildly, Jerk Around All, Jerk Vigorously and plenty more cousins from that family. Let’s just say I’m not on good terms with those jerks at the moment.” Chrysalis wondered why ponies found the family names she belonged to in particular more interesting than other Changelings. Sure they might have all sounded like innuendos, but Changelings are only now learning of this. “I’m getting a feeling there’s a reason why they are all named Jerk?” This one, Rarity decided, required questioning and more intrigue. “Yeah, there is, they are all Neighponese Changelings so their family name comes first.” The odd look that crossed her reviewers face made Chrysalis wonder if it was something she said. “As I said, I’m not on good terms with them. As such I don’t want to talk about it as it’s a personal affair that will not become a major problem.” “So you come from a family full of Assholes, Jerks and Dicks. I should be more surprised than I am, but I’m not. Though saying that out loud gave me a massive migraine.” The more Rarity heard about Changelings the more she regretted wanting to interview Chrysalis alone, she rubbed at her head with both hooves. It was starting to sink in that maybe Changelings weren’t feared for their general dark bug like outward appearances, oh no, they were clearly feared for their horrible capacity for innuendo and pun based names. Crystal was the most innocent sounding name to date for Rarity, well until you stated Chrysalis’s full name that is. That or even abbreviated Clear to just the letter C. Rarity was afraid that this was going to be one tiring interview... hopefully Chrysalis didn’t have any skills that she couldn't live without.