//------------------------------// // -66- // Story: Coarse Diamonds // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// “There was a lot of collateral damage huh?” The EGGS unit Gilda was piloting maneuvered into position and started to burn away the biological matter left behind by the brains death. They were torching every bit of biological mass left behind by the Visitant class Sifter Drifter, the bodies of the twisted and warped dead deserved better than what had happened to them and cremation was the best option for all concerned. “No kidding, we’ve been here for five days and the only thing we can hope for is that the charity event Rarity is working on will go off without a hitch today. It would certainly lend some aid to the situation and lighten the mood. At least the constant stream of SNUGGLES members are going to help the beleaguered people with their mental issues. Even Princess Luna can’t help all the ponies that got caught up in this event. I sometimes wish that space was all sunshine and rainbows.” Sighing Greta continued to burn away the limp and lifeless tendrils not too far away from Gilda in her own EGGS unit, her tone took an upturn. “It was a good thing Opal got a quick handle on the situation or else we’d have more to fix and we don’t necessarily have all the parts to do such a thing, I wouldn’t envy having to improvise parts for the main generator. I’m also not surprised the Boss Lady gave up three fourths of the earnings for destroying the infestation to help the station. At least all our friends survived saving the nearby systems from that threat.” “Yeah, who knew that it started out so small, it certainly became a huge problem. More than half the people on Antilur died to that thing and I can say good riddance that it’s dead. At least Vera will get a break, she has to deal with our insanity enough as it is already. She really can’t handle that many patients and we’re being stretched a bit thin in what responsibilities we can take on. Goodness knows Saffron and her father are trying to feed everyone, which is going much better than all the psychological issues flying around in here.” Gilda had to hand it to Opal, she found out how the infestation started and ended up in the place it did. Opal had even figured out which ship the infestation had even come from, where that ship was now and how the previous owner and crew had died. “As far as I’m concerned we don’t owe these people anything, but I can’t exactly say anything bad about how the money was used given I didn’t directly take part in the action. A bonus for all the grenades we cobbled together would be nice, even if it didn’t really take us that long to synthesize the chemicals for them. In any case, that Ember girl has been sticking around too close for comfort lately; she’s been eyeing most of the crew and it’s honestly creeping me out. I’m okay with Kitten eyeing me, because I know she’s usually doing so in a playful mood or when she wants something, but is a bit too shy to ask. The way Ember is doing it feels entirely off.” It was the start of a long pause. They both acknowledged that while heroic, Rarity’s crew wasn’t supposed to be a military force and as such they wouldn’t follow the lead of where the infestation came from. That would be left up to other people to deal with who are military; they were on a civilian crew with what was admittedly a lot of talented combat specialists. Lightning was kicked out of the military and despite that she obviously remembered her training, Chrysalis was a leader of her people and quite a skilled one at that, Ember is a dangerous bounty hunter with armored skin that could survive a direct impact with something that would destroy a tank, Saffron was a costumed crime fighter that Rarity’s crew knew all about, Sassy was a magical samurai specializing in stabbing attacks and Rarity was a civilian who trained in the use of pistols who had incredible accuracy when she focused her special talent into it. Even Trapeze had her thing with Capoeira style fighting to go along with her acrobatic movements, Coco had an absurd amount of physical strength and even Gilda and Greta themselves were dangerous when given enough reason to be and had something to work with. It wouldn’t surprise Gilda or Greta if even Coriander or Rover were to prove useful in a fight; Bernard didn’t need to be considered since he was a Lagotorphin who shared his kill from Equus with the griffons and diamond dog. It was a matter of principle to not waste any food and some of it was still frozen in storage, Bernard came to Greta on matters of cooking the meat when he felt like he needed to indulge in his carnivorous side. Bernard wasn’t as innocent as he looked and he was just as much a threat as any of the ones who had some form of combat training, even Rover deferred to him as an alpha and he was bigger than Bernard was. “Yeah, I’m getting the feeling that Ember is looking at us differently compared to everyone else. So do you want to catch Trapeze’s show with me? You know, to see what she’s been up to?” It would be the first official show and it would be running as part of the charity event and Greta wanted to see it. She was mostly interested to learn what exactly Rover has been up to as part of the Trapeze Troupe, Bernard and Trapeze obviously had the magic act down to a science and could improvise really well. The diamond dog would be a curious display, only Opal would have any inkling as to what kind of act Rover would be doing in the show. “I’ll buy the popcorn…” “Free popcorn? Sounds legit to me, but you’re paying for everything!” Gilda had to roll her eyes when she heard Greta squeal happily, she moved the right arm of the machine she was piloting and started to repair some wires that had been ripped open by the tendrils. The tendrils had branched out all over the stations, but now they were in the way of repairs and the surviving members of Antilur’s maintenance crew didn’t want to touch them. It was understandable as to why and Gilda wouldn’t fault them for it, but she would still call them big wimps. Gilda was not a wimp for not entering the station when the infestation was ongoing; it was common sense for her to avoid going into what was quickly becoming a dedly ghost station. Just because she was brave didn’t mean she was stupid, which made her wonder about following Rarity around considering she was a little bit of both with plenty of gumption. After a minute to think on it, Gilda had absolutely no problems with following a leader like the Boss Lady also known as Baroness Belle. “Don’t get too excited now, especially not all over the inside of your EGGS unit Greta, because I’m not cleaning ‘that’ up if you do. We’re going to likely have a run in with little miss crazy pants as soon as we get out of these EGGS and board the station properly. We need to report back to Shining Jewel, Opal just sent us a silent message. Apparently she wants us to bake a cake for a special occasion.” “With all those SNUGGLES members coming here, I wouldn’t doubt for a second that Tree will make an appearance. She’ll probably want to talk to you no less about something or other, maybe cuddle with you or me a bit more.” One could almost hear Greta grin slightly at the sound of Gilda’s silence, she wouldn’t mind if Tree Hugger gave her some affection and she probably had to ask for it unlike Gilda. “Also that almost sounded like an egg pun. If we get out of these EGGS, would that meant we’ve been hatched?” “Finish the job and shut up Greta.” Grumbled Gilda in as grumpy a manner as she could manage, the show had better be good and worth a run in with Tree Hugger. She could hear Greta giggling gaily, why did she have to go and encourage her like that? Probably because the situation around them was depressing as all get out and she wanted to do something fun for once, even if she wouldn’t admit to wanting to do so. “You’re just lucky I really like popcorn, I’m getting some with cheddar and extra butter.” - “So can we legally add the battery utility to the EVA suits sales menu?” Things have been calm in the last five days after making the infestation literally brain dead, well from Coco’s perspective things were calm. Rarity was being her generous self again and she was trying to help as many people on the space station as possible, even when some of them didn’t feel like living any more having lost their entire families. Coco was personally trying to get by and make sure Rarity’s business continued, which is why she was consulting Opal and surprisingly enough Ember. Ember had been around a lot lately and the dragon made Coco nervous, at least it wasn’t as bad as before when she was almost drop dead scared of the friendly fire breathing princess. “Well if you want a second opinion then I’d have to go with it, couldn’t hurt. I would at least put a few warnings on the operations of the battery utility, also leave out the electric hooves modification or that such a modification even exists.” Outside of her EVA suit needing to go through major repairs or just make an entirely new one to cut out the middle mare, Ember had only been slightly exhausted compared to everyone else. She was completely fine after eight hours of uninterrupted sleep and hadn’t been injured at all except for three minor bruises that cleared up after she got her sleep in. Being a dragon, Ember was quite hardy and hard to put down for long, which is why Coco was quite wary of her given she healed so quickly. Currently Ember was wearing a pink shirt that had the words baked goods imprinted on it with an arrow pointing upwards, she had been talked out of getting the version with the arrow pointing downwards. The dragon’s pants were a simple affair and she bought several pairs of EVA suit orifice sealing underwear off of Rarity, the underwear was really quite comfortable against Ember’s scales and she was wearing a pair right now. “You’re not trying to run combat hardware here, even I know that wouldn’t go over too well with any authority figures in any system.” “I’m sorry to agree with her Coco, but we can’t exactly sell the defibrillator option you added to your personal suit and not call it a weapon. Even if it wasn’t meant to be one, it could still be misused and we wouldn’t want that on our consciences. Still the prototype battery utility has proven its mettle in a test run and Rarity did give me the go ahead to approve things for sale. Give me a second and…” Opal was on the nearest screen happy to have Ember as a guest and she was nice enough to try and attempt some form of bonding with Coco. It was a bit shaky, but they eventually got themselves together. A menu to Rarity’s Rarities appeared on screen and the utilities list for the EVA suits popped up, the two watching this could even see the words ‘testing phase’ disappear. The battery utility option green lighting and a few warnings about the utility were put up in several easy to read known languages which were clearly marked and if you couldn’t read those languages, then there were illustrations as to what would happen for those with more dyslexic problems. Nobody would complain to them about faulty equipment if Opal could help it and they couldn’t complain that there were no warnings. “However I will be including the fact that weight might be a small issue and that we’re working on it, which will be added on top of all the positives to having the utility. Patented by Lady Coco Pommel, a few bells and whistles to attract attention to it and we’re done. Just so you know every sale of this new utility will give you a percentage of the profits made and since we’re our own small country we technically don’t have to go through Princess Luna for testing it. I’m still sending it to Luna with a few ideas for Mind Field that might help get him walking again... provided that he’s okay with violent electrocution. Otherwise I’m hoping for more personalized EVA suit sales, they are our best seller so far.” “Remind me to never piss off Opal, she’s kind of deranged.” Ember was joking of course and she shook her head, Mind Field was a nasty piece of work and she heard of how Rarity got paid for assisting in his apprehension. Wish she could have been there to cave the guy’s skull in, but she didn’t like going near Equus even knowing now that she had a little brother that she should visit at any time. Nobody messes with her hoard… now she just had to tell her hoard that and she was getting cold feet, which was quite hard given a dragon’s general body temperature being quite high. She wasn’t about to call Opal out on being rampant, the word ‘rampant’ seemed like a taboo subject in the crew she was becoming overly attached to. “No offense meant to you of course Opal, but if I didn’t know you as well as I do from what little time we’ve had to talk. I’d you were a little more than a bit loose in the mental department.” “None taken, so I’m a little vindictive.” Opal crossed her paws and sniffed slightly while looking to the ceiling as if she had nothing to do with it. “What do you mean by a little? I saw a recent news report from Equus about Mind Field being poisoned with platypus venom being in the news. Nobody was able to find a suspect, heck I’m not even sure anyone’s looking for one because a lot of people hate him. No one has even bothered to point in the direction of the Changelings and they are the likeliest ones to do it given all the things they were blamed for because of him.” The disbelieving tone in Coco’s voice was quite obvious, the circumstances were rather clear as to what Opal had managed to pull off. Maybe Chrysalis had agreed with Opal’s sense of revenge and set things into motion, if so then Mind Field was going to be tormented until he finally passed away. Coco didn’t know how to feel about it, was it justice or outright cruelty for all the crimes known and unknown that he has committed? “I’m quite sure that there are people out there that can’t possibly hold a grudge nearly as bad as you can Opal, especially after that thing with the space pirates.” “They had it coming; I can’t be blamed if I was a little enthusiastic in protecting the crew after what happened the first time.” It was interesting that Opal worded it that way, considering Rarity was the only crew member at the time for the first attack. At least Opal wasn’t crazy in a bad way. “Yes, they might have had it coming at that.” Tapping a hoof against the floor Coco gave Opal a flat searching look. “Though I’m suspicious about the fact that Mind Field was poisoned, wasn’t that something you suggested?” “What does Mind Field being poisoned have to do with me? I mean obviously the guy has quite a few enemies and nobody would want him to rat out the cabal he was a part of.” Opal stated quite innocently as if she hadn’t discussed platypus venom out loud in front of the crew some time ago with some Changelings she might have contacted or that it came to fruition not too long afterwards. “Anyway, since we’re talking about good news, report to medical! I’m gathering everybody not preparing for Trapeze’s thing together, I’ve already informed Rarity and she’s on her way. Oh and Greta and Gilda have been back for an hour or two, they’ll show up after you two do as I gave them a task they are just about done with.” Coco and Ember looked at each other curiously and shrugged, they might as well see what was up. Coco had set up an administrations room on deck one to be more of a research and production room for Shining Jewel, all they had to do was walk down the right hand corridor and take the nearest elevator down to deck two to be immediately outside medical. Medical was built in section two, deck two, by the previous owners because it was in the middle of the ship and you could get to it from anywhere easily in the case of a medical emergency. When they got there, everyone that wasn’t a part of Trapeze’s show or Chrysalis was already waiting on the news as to why Opal had them all come together. Even the filly Ember brought in two days ago was here looking a little wary at all the crew gathering together, small talk was going around and Rarity was busy hanging a few decorations. They were going to hold a small party here it seemed. - Sassy had heard that misery loves company, but she now had company in the form of a Pegasus Pony and had to watch the surgery from her position. Apparently this new crew member had broken ribs and all of them were cracked, surprisingly she was still alive despite one of her lungs being lightly pierced. The newest member of the medical retreat left Sassy wondering what exactly had happened to cause such an injury and it wasn’t a few hours later that Rarity came in to get bandaged with an injury in her side that looked like it was both sliced open and stabbed. Rarity didn’t look too hurt, aside from some bleeding when they managed to pull the scabbing breach gel away. Several other people including Ember were a bit bruised and she watched them with interest, at some point she fell asleep despite all the activity going on around her. It was several days later of boredom that she woke up with Opal’s smiling face in front of her. - “Today’s the day Sassy, you’re coming out of there and you’ll be able to breathe air again. Hope you didn’t have too many nightmares in there, oh and we’ll be able to get some food in you that aren’t the medical fluids you’re currently floating in.” In particular Opal seemed to be joyous to see her awake, then she looked off to the side with a slight frown. She was probably looking over the other medical room occupant. “Lightning, it’ll still be a day or two more for you, your ribs have been chemically pasted during surgery for a quicker recovery and they require you to rest so that it can settle. Vera will come to check your vitals soon… provided I can even remember where she is at the moment. Commence the random pointing at things! No I don’t want to delete Vera’s name… yes, I’m sure. No you are not going to delete it anyway, what is with this computer system! I’m a part of it and even I don’t understand where these error messages are coming from! I just stopped in to let you know everyone is doing fine Sassy and hopefully Vera can give you a mental evaluation concerning your distaste of medical beds and how you’re living with your worst nightmare right now. You are taking it rather well so far.” The frustrated white cat had Sassy smiling a bit; it looked like staying awake today was going to be a worthwhile endeavor. She wanted to be breathing relatively fresh air, instead of the medical fluids she had been stuck under for a while. How long has she been in this medical bed? She’d be happy to be out of it. “At least you can still smile, that’s a really good sign. Oh, by the way, do you want to keep that large bit of metal I dug out of your flesh?” There was an impish smile to Opal now that she knew Sassy wasn’t feeling too bad. “We kind of put that in a jar and filled it with water, I’d be happy to hear what you want us to do with it.” - “Okay Sassy, you’re talking well enough after your injury healed, but can you walk?” Vera looked up from her clipboard and gave Sassy a quirked brow. Sassy could move her limbs; medically there was nothing wrong with her at the moment aside from some slight atrophy. Sassy tried to stand up and managed to do so for a few seconds before Vera had to run up and steady her before she fell down. “Yeah you’re going to need some time to get your limbs warmed up, but otherwise you can stand so that much is good progress to get you walking again.” “So what happened while I was out of it?” Sassy had been staring at bleak walls and other empty medical beds for at least week or more straight, something to talk or gossip about would be real nice right about now. “Well Gilda built a tank in less than a week and then helped put down a terrorist attack on Canterlot, also Rarity is friends with all three of the princesses and we picked up a few new crew members. Yes there's a new princess and some of the new crew members are male, but I don’t think we have anything to worry about.” Trying to cut off a problem at the past, Vera got it out there that they had male members on the crew. Three to be precise, one was an old stallion, one is a dubious diamond dog who has probably never had a mate and the last one was quite small and possibly the least threatening looking thing imaginable… provided you didn’t know he was a Lagotorphin. “I can’t promise you won’t have to deal with them, but they have yet to do anything untoward towards anyone. I need to know, can you at least keep yourself civil? If so then I can go get a wheel chair and we can see some of our friends together.” “I can do that much at least, because right now I can’t draw a sword to save my life. Unless I use my magic and right now my magic is most likely going to my body.” Sighing as she was helped to the table, Sassy patiently sat down when prompted and waited as Vera checked her body over to make sure she was fit enough for a little excitement. “You know, I think everyone on this ship has forgotten that I’m not a medical doctor, well at least not one for physical ailments at any rate. Hold on while I go get the chair, find your balance while I do that.” Vera walked off leaving Sassy to herself, Sassy just inhaled slowly and then exhaled. A minute or so later saw Vera coming back with a wheelchair. “Surprisingly you’re good enough to almost be walking on your own from what I know and Opal seems to have done a good job with watching over you as much as any of the rest of us. Before I put you in the chair I’m going to give you a nice massage, would you like that?” “I think I would be okay with that.” As noncommittal as the answer may be, some part of Sassy was looking forward to it. “Good now let me tell you about what recently happen, I noticed you were awake while I was wrapping Rarity’s side, we ran into a spot of trouble when we noticed a lot of derelict ships floating around in space outside a dark space station…” Vera would regale Sassy with the tale of the Antilur Station and what was going on currently. - Sassy had her butt in the wheelchair after she was scrubbed down by Vera and left blushing after that, Vera didn’t seem to have a problem with touching her inappropriately and she would have screamed bloody murder if someone male were to try to do that to her. She didn’t understand why Rarity and the others weren’t here fussing over her, when Vera pushed her chair into the next room she received her answer without having to voice her question. The main question on her mind was why Coco and Rarity weren’t fighting to see her, now she knew they were just waiting for her to arrive at the party held in her honor. “We’re happy to see you’ve made a full recovery Sassy and surprise!” Rarity, Coco, Gilda and Greta were here, they had a small party going and it looked particularly decorated and there was even a cake that had the words ‘welcome back’ written on it. Gilda just gave a lazy wave of her left talons in Sassy’s general direction while blowing on a party horn, she’s as sour as Sassy remembered her being and Greta seemed to be a living ball of sunshine in comparison. “Bless my berets Rarity, it’s nice to see that you’re mostly alright after the stories Vera told me. Did none of the other newer crew members come though?” She thought about it and then Sassy remembered the other infirmed member of the crew that was put next to her not too long ago. “I mean aside from the one that was next to me not too long ago.” “You didn’t tell her about the charity I’m putting together? Well it is going to happen in a few hours and Trapeze is making it her first official debut as it were, she’s an Earth Pony magician.” Rarity trotted right up to Sassy and threw her hooves around her barrel giving her a soft and gentle squeeze that made Sassy grunt a bit. “Most of the newly hired crew members are helping her set things up at the moment, doesn’t account for where Ms. Dick got off to.” “Well it’s good to see you’re alright Sassy, especially after that fracas I heard happened over on Equus from a reliable source.” Ember walked into the room hauling a pot of food, she pulled the lid off to check the food. After nodding to herself with a frown and putting the lid back on, Ember held the pot aloft above her head and breathed a light amount of flames across the bottom of the pot. After checking the lid again she smiled, you could hear something bubbling inside and could see some steam rising from it. “She’s okay to eat solid foods right?” “Whatever that food is, I want some Ember. It smells really good and it is so nice to see you again Ms. McFlame.” It really was, though Sassy had to admit that finding a Bounty Hunter as nice as Ember was would be a pretty hard feat to achieve, also the smell from the pot was making her hungry and she felt ravenous. “Sure, she’s good to eat whatever and it’s her party anyway.” Vera recognized the look Sassy was sending her; she gave a dry laugh as she realized what the problem was. “Though she might need some help getting the food into her mouth, so spoon feeding her for a bit might helpful until she’s more coordinated. I’m pretty sure Nurse Rarity wouldn’t mind, right?” “Oh we have so much to talk about Sassy and I wouldn’t mind at all helping you eat, there are some things you need to know like me being nobility. I’m officially Baroness Belle!” Rarity was happy to have her friend back. Sassy looked a little shocked to hear this news. “I may have missed some of the finer details in my stories; I wasn’t exactly there in the thick of things.” Here Vera smiled at Sassy and gave her a wink. “I’m sure you’ll have a lot to tell her Rarity.” “We should really take her with us when we go to see Trapeze’s act, I’m sure she’d like to get out of the ship and away from medical. She could definitely use something different at least… but first we need to get some cake in her.” Coco’s suggestion was met with a growling stomach, it sounded like a tiger was on the loose and they all turned to Sassy who looked ashamed of herself. “I haven’t had anything to eat in a long time. Medical and vitamin enriched fluids are not exactly what I would call food.” Everything was going to be just fine to Sassy. Though she was curious, where did the filly come from? “Who’s she, she seems to be dourer than Gilda.” “That’s because she lost her family on the space station, needless to say the fan was spinning on full blast when the stuff hit it.” Nobody stated how much of an understatement that was, nobody was going to even correct Gilda that the fan was actually an industrial sized one that filled up the entire station. “Ended up liberating the whole damn station, but now we have a problem with a bunch of sad sacks that have mental issues and Luna can’t exactly help them. It’s a left over side effect of the monster that they killed in there, we’re helping with cleanup because Rarity is such a damn bleeding heart and I wouldn’t exactly have the Boss Lady any other way. More than half the stations population is dead and the rest is borderline mental, this little happy reunion thing won’t last very long when we have to get back to helping the people still alive.” “As to the filly, she’s one of the survivors and her name is Babs Seed. She has family on Applin Five in the Applon system; we’re going to see if her family can take her in. Until then we’re taking care of her, because Rarity offered to help and she doesn’t exactly have anyone else to turn to.” Coco came up to hug Sassy next, she was even crying a little. “It’s where we were going anyway before we got sidetracked with this nasty infestation problem. It’s so nice to have you back on your hooves Sassy.” “It’s so nice to be back, Coco-chan.” Sassy nuzzled Coco and then her stomach grumbled. “It would seem that my stomach still has a few complaints to make.”