//------------------------------// // -71- // Story: Coarse Diamonds // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// “Ah ha, I’ve caught you two red handed, thought you could get out of…” Pinkie started up as she ran into Rarity and Gilda. “I have hooves Pinkie.” Rolling her eyes, it was obvious to Rarity that Pinkie hadn’t changed very much from when she last saw her. Pinkie was still as hyper as she ever was and Rarity was hoping she could avoid the worst of this mare, she planned everything out preemptively and knew exactly how to deal with her. “I have talons, claws and paws, but no hands here jerk face.” Gilda had finished buying a sufficient amount of supplies and was waiting outside the shop to get some help transporting her goods. “...” Pinkie just silently stared at them intensely and looked to Gilda’s rear paws and front talons and then slowly she slides her gaze along to Rarity’s hooves. “You win this time… so it’s you two. One who’s never been here before and one the other who has enjoyed my pastries before. Only something still does not seem right about all this. It’s nice to see you again Rarity, I’m sure Gummy is having all kinds of fun with Opal. It’s also nice to see you too Gilda, but can you tell me what I’m missing. For some reason I can’t throw a party just for you two, it wouldn’t seem right for some reason.” “In just nine words, we split up our group.” She had said exactly nine words and as such Gilda couldn’t be called out on anything and it seemed that she has left the pink pony speechless. Pinkie paused for a long time and then her left eye started twitching. The junk shop owner, a male Cacceran with mostly dominant fox features, came out and looked to see Pinkie’s eyes twitching. “Okay, what did she do this time? Pinkie is a sweet pony, but she’s a bit crazy to deal with for any stretch of time.” The Cacceran had been getting things in order and he would have Ms. Gottfrieda’s stuff transported to the Caravel Boutique, he would make sure it all gets there too personally. “I believe we have just performed a mental clothesline on her, usually she confuses others with her zany antics. However we just confused her with calm logic and she obviously can’t handle that.” Deciding to expunge further on what she meant, Gilda laid it out for the shop owner she had done business with. “What we’ve basically done is split into three separate groups and knowing how Pinkie works, she won’t be able to get us all in one place for a party and it will drive her nuts. We also sent a friend of ours to act as a decoy to distract her long enough to split into said groups. We’ve made it impossible for her to throw a surprise party, because now she has to actively invite us collectively to come to a party and we can decline. As a side note our friend would have to be a part of the party as she technically counts as a fourth group all her own, so for Pinkie to have her party she’d have to get all of us together. She probably left our friend behind to search for us once she figured out she’s been tricked into missing us while we were grouped up, now she has to deal with the fact that our friend is also now a wandering group herself.” “Thanks for warning me I should tell the important people on this station to watch out for Pinkie going nuts… again…” The Cacceran crossed his arms and stared at Pinkie’s twitching eye. “I hope she doesn’t explode, wouldn’t have that on my conscious.” “I’ll be back, mark my words I will throw you and your friends a big party!” After pointing her pointedly pink party propagating hooves at them, Pinkie dashed off to look for the other groups that these two were a part of that had split up. Mark her words; she would give them a party they would never forget! She mentally noted to get the dragon and her squid in on it as well while she was at it, mostly because Gilda mentioned them as being friends and Gilda was too grumpy to make too many friends. “Well now, I can see Pinkie is certainly as exasperating as she always is.” Rarity turned to Gilda and smiled fondly at her mechanical engineer; she shook her head in amusement and gave off an airy laugh. “Never a boring moment around her is there darling?” “Nope, but if we can avoid her well enough, then we won’t be forced into a party she’s cooking up and I’m quite sure she’s almost willing to start wars over parties. I have a good judgement of her character and the worst she could do is waste our time or be a huge time sink from which there is no escape.” Gilda had a good reading of Pinkie’s personality and she was a lot like Greta, only five times worse and far more annoyingly peppy, at least Greta was tolerable to be around for prolonged periods of time and could take a hint. The one thing Pinkie was really good at was baking tasty nostril attracting snacks. “She’ll basically make us enjoy the party or else she’ll either get horribly depressed or more frantic to make us happy, depends on her mood and right now it’s more likely the latter but could switch over to the former at a moment’s notice if we keep pushing her buttons. At least now we’ve left her with a conundrum of how to get us all in one place when we’re split up and in several different locations throughout the station. We have some free time for until we launch our little surprise and she doesn’t look like she’s going to take no as an answer when it comes to wanting us at the party she wants.” “She hardly ever does accept or even understand that particular two letter word.” There were some fond memories that Rarity had of Pinkie; most of them were when Pinkie was more calm and less like she was a caffeine addict that drank one hundred cups of coffee. “She’s a bit of a brat, but that mostly has to do with her cutie mark and special talent. If it’s alright with you, I think we need to secure your supplies and get them back to the boutique. Remind me again, did we tell the others we were going to ferry supplies over to Shining Jewel several times?” “Yes, we did. Come on Boss Lady, after we secure this stuff we’ve got more shopping to do and maybe in a store you’d appreciate more than I would.” With that they were off with a box loaded with everything Gilda picked up and the Cacceran was personally with them every step of the way to make sure the transaction went as it was supposed to. Rarity did like her shopping, just so long as it isn’t in any grimier looking stores covered in dirt and threatening to ruin her pristine looking coat. Well at least it was cheap, but rather useful junk. Junk that could be made into something by the crafting expertise that Gilda and Greta showed. She would forever prefer a pristine looking store, but she couldn’t say the Cacceran wasn’t a gentleman about helping them move the massive amounts of parts Gilda just bought. As they were going about that, Rarity decided to message Sassy a warning about the pink party pony being on the prowl, positively looking to party them with everything she had. It was unfortunate for the pink pony that Rarity was going to counter her in a surprising way, the surprise would take a while to set up and the other two groups will have to keep Pinkie’s attention. - “This park is kind of nice. It’s been a while since I’ve been around nature, even if it’s on a space station.” Streusel Station had a quaint park and Sassy was sitting off to the side watching as Chrysalis interacted with Babs, they were frolicking through the trees and the grass being grown in a controlled environment. The filly was quite happy to spend some time with the shape shifter, especially after the Chrysalis showed her that she can take on the appearances of others. It was kind of sad that the filly wanted Chrysalis to take on the form of either of her parents just so Babs could pretend they were still there for her in a physical sense. Babs just wanted to spend some more time with them in the flesh while she could, even though the filly knew that the faces of her mother or father were false. “I really needed this; being stuck in medical for as long as I was will have Luna visiting me for quite a while and confiding in the Masseuse is not nearly enough for how traumatizing that was.” Hearing a noise, Sassy levitated out her data pad and looked it over to see she got a message from Rarity. She snorted in amusement at the message and rolled her eyes. Ah yes, Pinkie Pie, Sassy remembered hearing about her and how she was the bane of sanity. The mare gave hyper a bad name and Discord a somewhat good one, because she was more the very definition of those things and she was a known sugar addict. She could distract Pinkie if she saw her well enough, Trapeze could as well if she see’s Pinkie. “I know everyone on Streusel Station and I would definitely remember you if I ever saw you before, so you have to be one of the two other groups… and you’re in a wheelchair…” The pink pony had hopped onto the scene and having come out of an alleyway into the park in the modern city with an excitable grin, Pinkie at least made sure to look both ways before crossing the street of course. She was now addressing Sassy with a bit of apprehension; she had always had a problem with injured or terminally ill people for a number of reasons and she was scared of upsetting this mare she’s never met before. “Are you going to be okay?” “Oh don’t worry about this; I can walk… if barely for the time being. I’m going through rehabilitation, took a material cannon wound or two in the line of assisting my friends. Heard my efforts were quite worth it in the end and I would gladly do it all again if it meant the safety of my friends. Spent a month in a medical bed acquiring nightmares of the experience, considering I’m a med-bed victim. That would be as horrific as you can imagine.” Okay now the pony before Sassy looked a little more wilted, she was just trying to make conversation about why she was in the wheelchair. Maybe she should try to be a little more tactful as the Pinkie wasn’t a bad pony from what Rarity told her. “I’m doing much better now, but I still need a day or two before I’m good to walk on my own, I’m Sassy Saddles and my friend Rarity has told me much about you.” “Well that’s nice to know, I’m Pinkie Pie and it’s nice to meet you!” Pinkie perked up upon hearing Sassy was not really as bad off as her being in the chair looked. She really didn’t like negativity or hospitals, but she still volunteered at a hospital from time to time to help those who needed to smile. She tended to stay away from really sick or seriously injured people since she didn’t like the many upsetting thoughts that would course through her head when she looked at those who weren’t going to be around for much longer. “Do you know where you’re other the group is? A friend of Rarity’s is a friend of mine and I’m sure your friends with grumpy Gilda too.” “No, can’t say that I do, but I would like a pony to talk to. My friend over there is making sure the filly that recently lost her parents is doing okay emotionally.” Oh great, Sassy had somehow managed to depress Pinkie somewhat by mentioning Babs situation, she was going to tell Pinkie anyway as it would provide further distraction. “It happened quite recently, the people of Antilur Station are still hurting from it and it has plenty of SNUGGLES members there to help them. Would you like to hear the story? It looks to me like you’d rather avoid hearing me tell it, I wasn’t exactly there at the time and was floating in a tank of chemicals during the whole thing. It’s still an interesting story and I know everything that happened.” “A story sounds nice… it doesn’t end badly does it? I mean if it’s going to be about what happened there, a lot of bad things obviously happened to good ponies and people.” Pinkie wanted to keep this mare entertained and cheerful, because she seemed lonely at the moment and her friend was too busy playing with the filly. Pinkie knew that not all things were happy endings and fairy tales, but beautiful expanding rainbows across the sky were possible and she had seen it before. She was not a little filly anymore, but that one moment where she saw rainbows engulf the sky would stay with her forever. She worked up her courage to hear this story. She was tough enough to handle this tale, though knowing a filly lost her parents it wasn’t going to be a family friendly affair she preferred. “I still want to hear it though.” Pinkie put her hoof on top of Sassy’s and looked into her eyes with determination, Sassy just smiled and patted Pinkie on the head because she was quite adorable for a childish mare. - Ember goggled at the image before her and she turned to the griffon that was showing it to her, in all her bounty hunting history she had never seen anything so… simple. The job looked like it would be ridiculously easy from the outset, but she had to confirm what she was seeing as being the problem they wanted her to deal with. “You’re kidding, you’re having a problem with something that looks so…” Ember was trying to find the right word to say in regards to what Stan Dard was showing her, he was the communications griffon Opal had spoken with. He had just shown her what her target was and what it was currently doing. Mr. Spew gurgled something that sounded like a suggestion. “Well suffice it to say, I can’t exactly to see how this guy is a problem. He’s a Foggre and those guys don’t exactly scream threat.” “You’d think he wouldn’t be, but he definitely is more than he first appears. His name is Faxel and he runs around causing all kinds of trouble, but just because he’s small doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous and he is carrying weapons. He’s only used them to cause distractions so far, but he’s nearly shot several people. One of which was the stations favorite pink mare.” Stan wasn’t wrong. A Foggre was an alien creature that was larger than a Lagotorphin and smaller than a Cacceran, the species looked like frogs and were known for being technologically creative and this one in particular was a blue colored green eyed amphibian wearing a bike helmet and holsters for two pistols. One of the most noted things about the race was just how annoying they could be when they played with their unique inventions, inventions that are often misused in absurd ways when there was clearly a better use for them. “He’s been taking things a little too far lately and he’s starting to destroy public property without paying for the damages like Pinkie Pie always does when she steps a hoof out of line, which is why people like her and not this guy. We need you to try and talk to him first. If you can’t talk him down from his destructive habits, then everyone is willing to look the other way on how you deal with him from that point forward as long as you don’t kill him. He’s been a bit of a thorn in our station’s side, but we don’t want the guy dead… at least not yet, but he’s getting there. Oh and before you go, one of the Pie sisters is going to be a mediator for this and here she comes now.” “Hello… my name is Maud. We should get going.” The flat tone that Maud had was a bit strange, but Ember shrugged that off and followed after the mare to exit the room. Maud had a bluntly cut mane and bangs, violet hair and grey fur. Her choice of dress was blue and it was rather modest looking, something that Rarity would think to be entirely too plain. “Faxel was last seen heading in the direction of Streusel Station Park. He shot at my sister once and if he doesn’t cease his conduct… then I’ll have to do something he will deeply regret.” “Mr. Spew, no spewing anything deadly at all, I want you to let me handle this. Unless I’m dying, don’t do anything unless you think it’s helpful.” The squid tried to look particularly innocent sitting on Ember’s shoulder, but he didn’t make any promises. “If you’re not enough to convince him to stop, then I’ll help to… convince him… to the best of my ability.” The rather monotone demeanor that Maud had seemed kind of off to Ember, but there was something about the way the calm mare looked slightly angry that was making her feel very uneasy. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to Pinkie Pie would you?” A slow gaze turned Ember’s way and Maud opened her mouth to answer that question, in exactly the same tone that she had spoken in several times already. “Yes, nobody almost hurts my sister and gets away with it like he did a few hours ago.” Maud’s eyes narrowed, something about her calm sharpened gaze had Ember shivering. Something was very off about this mare and the dragon couldn’t put a claw on what. “He didn’t feel guilty about it at the time and if he doesn’t agree to apologize to her about almost hitting her, then I will have a few words with him personally… alone. Limestone is too busy with checking the asteroid fields to make sure we don’t have any Shamroids to do it herself.” - “Thank you, thank you, we don’t know how long we’ll be here, but we the Trapeze Troupe enjoy the applause!” Trapeze bowed to her audience, a bunch of fillies, colts, cubs, chicks and what have you were there stomping or clapping loudly in applause. “Rover is enjoying new job quite well Ms. Star.” This time Rover wasn’t juggling, in fact Trapeze was teaching him all sorts of neat skills. Juggling was just his preferred favorite skill as he was quick with his paws and it was like digging into the air itself, he had been assisting Trapeze in an act of acrobatics and tumbling. It was kind of like dancing only a bit more sophisticated in the way Trapeze does it, it’s kind of an art form for the mare and she was a very pretty mare. Rover wasn’t as good as Trapeze, but at least he could keep up with her rolls, dives, lunges and leaps. “I’m glad that you are enjoying it too… now if only we could stop Bernard from trying to upstage us. Then again, it wouldn’t be as fun if that wasn’t part of the act.” Trapeze turned to see Bernard pulling a bouquet of flowers out of his small hat and the flowers were definitely larger than the tiny hat could hold, he was giving them to a shy looking mare. Trapeze smirked a bit and giggled into her hoof at the shy mare’s flustered expression when Bernard tipped his hat to her after giving her the flowers. “So who are you… apparently Bernard seems to like you, but I don’t think he’ll give up show business to stick around.” Bernard waggled his brows at Trapeze, he liked cute mares and he personally was living with the most wonderful one he’s ever met. She showed him the magic of the world and he was now just as magical as she was. “I’m Marble Cheesecake Pie; if you’ve met my sister I’m sorry about her exuberance.” The mare had a grey coat and a dark grey mane with a bit of dark cyan in it; she looked to be shy and was blushing fiercely at the attention the three were giving her. “If you haven’t, then I’m sorry for speaking up.” “You’ve been no problem at all Marble, besides my performance is through and we’ve heard about your sister already. I haven’t seen her yet, but she sounds like the kind of mare I’d get along with, provided that she’d let me start talking first anyway.” Trapeze patted Bernard on the head and nodded to the violet eyed mare. “It’s hard enough to do anything first with Bernard showing off all the time, but then again he’s supposed to do that. He’s my best friend after all and is quite the little jerk, but he’s my little jerk that I love dearly. Did you need anything?” “Mhmmm, for one I want thank you for the flowers Bernard. Aside from that I was wondering if you could get your friends together for my sister.” It was always polite to ask, in this case Marble hoped to stop the problem before it began and Pinkie had yet to get worse about throwing a party for the ones actively avoiding it. Something must have been distracting her sister pretty good to make her not be seen running all over the station leaving images of herself everywhere, her sister was quite scary when motivated and a little too loud. Even then Marble loved her sister dearly. “A really nice junk store owner sent out an emergency notice to us about the newest visitors Pinkie hasn’t managed to terrorize yet and how you came onto this station using a decoy.” “I have no problem with parties, seeing as I’m a magician and kids love me. You guys do love me right!” The kids surrounding Trapeze gave shouts and screams of glee, she even signed her name on some paper for a few of them, as did Rover and Bernard who insisted on signing autographs playing up his false hammy nature as much as he could. Trapeze eventually turned back to a quietly waiting Marble. “The Boss Lady on the other hoof is a business mare and she wants to get business done before allowing Pinkie to get us. I hope you don’t mind, but we’re actually planning to surprise Pinkie by making a party before she can! Which is what me, Bernard and Rover are going to get up to now that we’re done with our light performance. You’re invited of course, but don’t tell your sister since we’re surprising her with this. Can you do that much for us?” “Mhhhmmm…” Marble shyly pawed at the floor with a hoof and let half her face be covered by her hair; she was almost as bad as Coco when it came to being social. At least Coco could look someone in the eyes and be somewhat outgoing. - “I swear these clothing stores are all subpar to my standards, they are also a might bit expensive too.” Rarity wouldn’t stop complaining at the clothing stores they had browsed around at, whether it was stitching, price or coloration of the clothing in general she had a complaint and not once did Gilda get snarky about all of it. “To be fair the standards with which you hold yourself to are really above and beyond what other people would do. It’s really absurd how meticulous you can be.” They’ve already hit several junk shops and Gilda bought a comic book to see if she could get some interesting ideas from it, especially for the Mare-Do-Well powered armor specifically and the Steel Mare comic book seemed like a good buy. The city had a small town feel to it and the people here were all pretty well adjusted, it was almost nauseating enough for Gilda to vomit her lunch everywhere. “Also the clothing you make is far sturdier than some of the stuff we’ve seen. At least you haven’t complained nearly as bad in some of the thrift stores.” “Well you can’t say I’m not getting my money’s worth, besides I’m beginning to think thrift stores have some hidden treasures just lurking about the piles of clean refuse.” When she received a look for her wording, Rarity sighed. “Yes, I’m well aware that what I said is an oxymoron. Still we’ve been having a relatively good time and Trapeze is about to get started.” “So the plan is going perfectly… so where’s the monkey wrench in all this? Usually with you there is something going on that we aren’t seeing yet.” Taking a few steps towards a cross walking and idly eyeing a few of the newer model of hovering vehicles waiting there as she started to cross, she suddenly had to jump back when she was almost hit by what looked like a Foggre riding on thin air. “What the… was that cloaking technology!? Okay there’s the monkey wrench Rarity and I’m gone, I’ll catch up with you later!” Spreading her wings, Gilda went flying after the stations most notorious troublemaker named Faxel. She’d heard Foggre’s had interesting technology, now that she saw some she wanted to get some secrets out of the guy that almost performed a hit and run on her. Why would anyone make an invisible hover bike that didn’t make the rider invisible? It was kind of stupid, but even then Gilda wanted a look under the hood at that tech. She might have a use for it provided it could be used for something that wasn’t as stupid as what the technology was currently being used for. Rarity held up her hoof to say something, but then dropped and sighed and decided to go see what Chrysalis, Sassy and Babs were up to… wasn’t the direction of the Streusel Station Park that way? Rarity paused in her movements and suddenly turned to gallop after Gilda, trouble was brewing and she didn’t want it to affect any of her crew. Hopefully Sassy and Chrysalis wouldn’t run into that ruffian that nearly hit Gilda. - “So what do we start off with?” Coco had Greta, Saffron and Mr. Cumin was with her in medical to keep Lightning from being all alone while her pasted ribs were healing. If they weren’t going to leave Sassy alone, then why would they leave Lightning alone? Opal was still busy with interior decorating and soon would come exterior decorating once she could convince Greta and Gilda to give her autonomous control of the EGGS units. “That is a question, how about we tell each other about ourselves. Like what was the most humiliating thing to ever happen to you Saffron?” The small party on Shining Jewel was just getting started and Greta was happy to spend some time hanging out and getting to know the other people on the ship better. “Oh… or can you tell us the story about what happened with Lead Chunk.” “Well there’s the painful reminder that I came home covered in bruises and I thank you for not asking questions about that dad.” Saffron only received a shrug from Coriander, obviously he knew about her nighttime actions. Which is why Saffron always had more of the evening shifts back when they still had the Tasty Treat, it just took this long for Saffron to realize her father was letting her run around as a vigilante without question. "Well might as well tell you how it all went down, so it started with me teleporting across the rooftops looking for signs of the Caballeron Cabal..." - Faxel was having fun and he didn’t want anyone to ruin it, he heard there was a bounty hunter on the station and it sounded like a challenge. He was going to have some fun and lead whatever poor sap they got to chase him down all over the station on a merry chase. All Faxel had to do was start attracting attention to himself and the mare in the wheelchair looked like a good target to start some trouble. Nobody would be getting rid of Faxel J. Frog!