“And I’m telling you that would be exceedingly stupid to do; it would take up too much space and be way too heavy.” Things had started out alright enough with discussing the base concept of what they were going for, only now Ember was in the midst of arguing over weapons. Ember in particular was a specialist in improvising weapons from her environment and rarely did she need to do that when she was armed with her rifle. “I mean take my rifle for instance. Not only can it shoot materials or create a bayonet made of pure fire that can finely slice steel, but it can also combine the two features to increase my rifles firepower by turning my ammunition molten hot. Rockets, missiles or any weapon that requires ammunition is going to be quite heavy. I would know what heavy is, I’ve dragged a five hundred pound sapient crustacean for several miles!”
“Well we would have to use something else aside from the energy cannon and a built in blade, you said it yourself that there are things that wouldn’t go down to normal means. I’m trying to think ahead here and given who I work for, crazy prepared probably isn’t enough. I’d have to be downright paranoid prepared to successfully counter Rarity’s luck for leading us straight into danger.” While Gilda would agree with Ember on some of her points, a built in missile system would be useful in handling stronger things that a beam or blade wouldn’t take care of. “We’re talking about crew protection here and I’m not a griffon that half asses everything I do! I want at least some idea of what I’m doing before I do it and you can solve just about any problem with enough explosives.”
“Rarity isn’t bad luck. If anything she’s mostly good luck considering how none of her friends, me included in that, have yet to die from any incident she’s been involved in. Sure there were a few serious injuries, but that wasn’t any fault of Rarity’s.” There was a strange quirk in Ember’s face as she defended Rarity. “I still say we could have something a little more subtle, explosives attract a lot of attention and there is also the chance it could injure the user. Do you seriously want some random military breathing down your necks when you start producing more military grade equipment like that tank in the hangar?”
“Yes, because if we got some paramilitary organization to come after us, then that means we can be seen as something too dangerous to mess with when we fight them off. I’m sure I’ve already acquired some notoriety back on Equus by just landing a tank from an orbital drop while under fire, everything else was just icing on the cake.” As a mechanical engineer, Gilda would welcome paramilitary organizations attempting to try and steal their stuff. It would mean that their crew was acknowledged as people you don’t mess with when they succeeded in kicking said organizations ass. “Anyone would be sorry if they messed with us, especially if we took prisoners. We’d just leave any prisoner in a room with Chrysalis for three hours. Heck we don’t even need to tell Chrysalis to torture the poor sod, just to entertain them and then we would sit back to watch the magic happen. I wonder if she can do whole groups all at once.”
“That brings up a number of mental images… why would I suddenly think she could use a doll house like that?” Just like anyone else, Ember had heard of Chrysalis’s ability to torture someone, on purpose or incidentally. If it was on purpose it would be horrific on a number of levels and violently sadistic in ways most wouldn’t be able to cope with. If it was incidental then it was equally horrific and only marginally less vomit inducing. In comparison Ember knew how to interrogate people when she had to; she preferred to be quick and brutal about it.
“Yeah, that mare is pure nightmare fuel sometimes.” Even Gilda had to admit she shouldn’t have brought it up. What could Chrysalis possibly do with a doll house that Ember would think is so… oh… she might need a bucket right about now as. A really deranged thought just came to Gilda’s mind and it was horrifying that she might be able to understand Chrysalis’s thought processes at all. “Can you really do something like that with a doll house?”
Ember and Gilda stared at each other silently for a minute and then their eyes widened dramatically at the implications; they were thinking of the very same thing. Instead of continuing down that line of thought, they decided to go back to talking about safer things like possible weapons and if they could fit Mare-Do-Wells theme into it somehow.
-
While Ember was in a weapons discussion with Gilda, Coco was having her own argument off to the side.
“Would shields really be more efficient than armor?” Even Coco could get into an argument, at least her argument was a bit more civil and Greta was listening to her argument. “Taking energy away from the battery would mean less power to move the suit with and wouldn’t that make it slower?”
“Shields would prevent any projectile from getting through and you better believe you want your power armor to fight things at range. Too much armor and it’ll be too heavy to work efficiently.” Taking a sip of water Greta continued her discussion with Coco. “Since we’re designing with Saffron in mind, she’ll likely want something more agile… though I can see a problem with having shields as that would mean she wouldn’t be able to utilize a built in energy weapon as much without taking from the shields. It would be kind of like the same set up without the ionized energy cannon on the Bombing Peregrine.”
“This really is quite the conundrum isn’t it, isn’t there some kind of middle ground we could go for, like limited shielding with tough but thin armor plating?” They were furthest along in thinking of design aspects for the suit itself, a small bit of brilliance shined in Coco’s eyes when she came up with something. “Maybe we could put in a magic amplification device and run some of the systems on unicorn magic or have her weapons run on it!”
“You might be onto something, Rover did say we needed to plan around the particular individual… and Saffron is a powerful unicorn that knows how to teleport.” That actually sounded like a good idea to Greta, the less Saffron had to worry about using her own magic to shield herself and she could go on the offensive with it instead of needing an installed energy weapon. “We’d need to install a lot of safety features in the amplification device if we do figure out how to make one, we wouldn’t want Saffron’s horn to blow.”
“Not like I can play a trumpet anyway.” Saffron decided to join them as they sounded like they had some good ideas running between them. “We already know what colors my powered armor is going to be, but the finer details are still up in the air. Would a cape be a really bad idea? Capes are pretty dangerous in the vigilante business, but they certainly have their uses and I’ve used a cape for many things like a tourniquet.”
“Depends, if we’re adding variable jets, then having a cape would be a liability.” After stating that Greta paused and gave it some thought. “We could just change the jets to give you an energy cape, might dig into the energy supply. I’ve been working on energy jets and though they are not very powerful, at least it would save on having to buy conventional fuel and could be useful for jump enhancement. ”
Their conversation would continue in the vein of armor, amplifier, accessories and slightly experimental personal jump jets for a while. Saffron’s input was invaluable and she would gladly destroy her horn in the process of saving and protecting lives, she’s saved the day so far without making a sacrifice like that and she would continue to do so even if she did lose her horn. Greta would still take every precaution if she did end up making a magic amplifier somehow; maybe she should drop the idea of making a sonic based weapon over to Ember and Gilda’s discussion since amplifying sound into a viable weapon was easy enough and it could be made non-lethal which was what Saffron would prefer. First Greta had to run her idea by Saffron and ask her what she wanted personally. They would then discuss whether or not if what she wanted was viable or even practical; they were going to bells and whistles the crap out of this idea.
-
Rarity was with the three people she hadn’t spent all that much time around. The first of the three was Rover who wanted to go gem shopping with Rarity; he knew quality when he saw it even if Rarity didn’t exactly need him to check for quality. Rarity thought it would be nice to have him tag along. The second was a recovering Lightning Dust. Lightning had gotten her cake and a small modest welcome back from the medical bed party, the party thing was quickly becoming a tradition for the seriously injured on the crew and she needed some relatively fresh air. The last was the oddest one in Rarity’s current Streusel Station group, one of last times they would be here for a while as they only had a few orders to deliver and then they could leave at anytime. It was a little strange that Bernard insisted on coming with them without Trapeze and that was curious enough to warrant Rarity sending him questioning glances, she wondered what he wanted to do on the station as there were no wild predators for him to eviscerate and eat. Bernard and his partner were rather hard to separate even if their stage act has them look like they were at each other’s throat constantly; Bernard didn’t look upset and seemed rather eager to look around.
“Well I can maybe understand Rover wanted to come along, but what about you two?” Rarity’s curiosity was certainly piqued by this and she finally decided to ask. “I can understand Lightning needing to stretch her legs, but she needs to be constantly supervised in case of an emergency involving her ribs. As such we will all be sticking together and there will be no running off on our own.”
“Okay, I did kind of want to do some flying, even if it might mean making my injuries worse.” The Boss Lady certainly had her pegged; Lightning wouldn’t have flown too high in the first place anyway. It would have been just a few feet and she wouldn’t have exacerbated her pasted ribs. Noticing that Rarity was giving her a stare, Lightning gulped. “I’m not going to do it now Boss Lady, honest!”
“Seriously, am I going to end up being called Boss Lady by the entire crew at this rate?” It kind of irked Rarity a bit that she was being called Boss Lady even if she liked the lady part, the boss part sounded way too stuffy and Rarity was nothing like a Canterlot noble. She no longer wanted to be like that, she preferred to be the pony to define glamorous in her own way.
“Yes/Rover is thinking so/Squeak Squeak Snuffle.” The three answered for her in return.
“Just please don’t do anything to embarrass me, I think this was the store that Pinkie said we could shop at.” Rarity stopped in front of a store simply labeled ‘Pies Peddled Pebbles’, the store looked boring on the outside with its stone colored motif. Looking in through the window it looked better on the inside. “How quaint, well let’s go in and see which of the Pie sisters we’ll have to deal with.”
Walking in the four immediately walked into a rather vocal amount of shouting.
“Those asteroid eaters are messing with our turf and I’m going to find a way to rip them to shreds and so help me they are not getting another one of my babies!” This was Limestone Pie, the angry aggravated mare who loved her job a little too much. In fact some people think she practically married the asteroid field and her anger was born out of love for it. It was mostly wrong to think that her anger was born out of love for the asteroid field, even if it was partly true, she was angry on the principle that she was rage personified and distilled into a pony. The only thing that could get angrier than her is Maud who stood stoically next to a Changeling with bright brown eyes behind the Counter. “Also did you know your pet rock was a Changeling this whole time, it makes me so angry that he’s been with you all this time and he never told you what he was! If he did, then why did you never tell us?”
“To be fair he told me his name and never exactly lied to me; he just never corrected me on my assumption that he was a rock. He gets me though and he makes for a really good rock impersonator given how many years I’ve had him.” Stopping there Maud turned blankly to the Changeling and threw a hoof around him. “He’s part of the family Limestone, he’s still my pet.”
“I don’t mind continuing being a pet rock.” The Changeling formerly known as Boulder Bottom the rock offered in just as bland a tone as Maud, in fact he didn’t have much of a personality and being a rock for the last five to eight years put a crick in his neck something fierce. In fact it was quite hard for him to even remember that he was a Changeling to begin with, he was just that good at his rock impersonation.
“If you think I’m okay with this, well I’m not!” Some would swear that Limestone had somehow managed to acquire what amounts to a human female period… only it never left to come back once a month, it was ongoing all the time. In comparison Gilda had a sunny disposition despite her grumpy nature. “I’m going to either get Planetary Protection Patrol or at least the Equestrian Defense Force to come out here and help me with this crisis! At least it’s not fucking shamroids, those things are annoying to root out! That would piss me off farther than I already am after we prevented the last three attempts to infest our fields; I’m getting sick of all this crap messing with my asteroids!”
Limestone growled as she stormed out of the shop leaving the blank faced sister and Changeling behind. Rarity and her group moved out of the way of the mare that had a pick axe shouldered across her back. They watched as she stalked off muttering expletives that would have certainly made Pinkie upset. Rarity walked in with Bernard on her back, with Rover and Lighting following behind.
“Hello Maud, how are you and… Boulder Bottom I take it. Why haven’t you turned back into a rock yet, is this because of that thing with Chrysalis? I would like to…” Rarity was stopped by Boulder holding a hoof and looking at her calmly.
“It is the duty of a Changeling Queen to be insane, a jerk, mad with power or disturbing on a number of levels, sometimes all of the above. Do not apologize for my queen’s ways, all Changelings understand our queen on a level most couldn’t even begin to describe. I have impersonated a rock for so long I almost forgot what it was like to breath, it has actually been… nice… to see her again. She is who she is; she seems a lot happier and friendlier than I remember her being though.” Boulder’s flat tone was a little odd, but nonetheless approachable in the same manner as Maud’s was. A rather noticeable feature was his rock hard muscles focused around his rear end. “Maud is a loving and caring individual; I care about her in the same way. So I’m not exactly the rock she expected I was, but I’m sure we can work out our differences.”
“You’re going to be one of my special some ponies.” That didn’t sound like a question and more of a outright demand from Maud. “Along with any other pony I can find that won’t mind your presence.”
“I will agree, as long as I can keep being your pet.” After Boulder said his piece they both nodded to each other in acceptance, the two weren’t very complicated and they complemented each other pretty well from what Rarity could see with that small exchange.
“I didn’t say you could stop being my pet in the first place Boulder. Marble, we have customers.” The mare that Maud was addressing came up from behind the counter shivering, Marble was always a bit scared of Limestone despite the fact that Limestone has never once hurt her sisters in any given way.
“Oh… sorry… welcome to Pies Peddled Pebbles, w-w-what can we do for you? Oh it’s Mr. Magic Bunny!” Clapping her hooves cheerfully Marble’s cowardly countenance flipped gears entirely as she reached over the counter and pulled Bernard into a tight hug. He didn’t fight it; he just cuddled into her and played up his part of being unassuming adorable rabbit that could do tricks. “So fluffy…”
“Pinkie recommended this store to us; it was kind of obvious that it belonged to your family given Pie was in the name.” Hopefully Rarity wouldn’t become too deadpan; she’d turn into Maud and Boulder with their flat emotional range. Hopefully they weren’t contagious, because that would be just horrifying. “I would like a few large emeralds the size of my head, fourteen medium sized sapphires, a box of small topazes in various colors, five moderately sized rubies, a padparadscha sapphire or two, at least eight amethyst of any value, one perfect moonstone, three aventurine, fourteen heliotropes, six spinel and finally at least seven cloudy labradorite if you have any.”
“Wow you certainly know your gems… are you a miner? You look too refined and clean to be one of our workers.” Marble had set down Bernard as soon as Rarity started going over a list of gems she wanted and immediately pulled out everything Rarity was looking for. “Would you like some onyx with that? Oh and you get a small free statue with your purchase based on how much cash is spent, it’ll just take me a minute to make and you can have anything done. That or you can take a voucher to get it done later when you have a image of who you want to have immortalized in stone provided that you don’t want it to be you. My special talent is sculpting and I’m usually requested to sculpt the customers themselves.”
“Rover is finding all gems to be great quality, how can you afford to sell so cheap?” It had Rover curious and he was a bit slow on the uptake as to the fact that the asteroid field was rich in minerals thanks to the Earth Pony practices. They looked like floating rocks to him and he wondered why anyone would want to own so many floating rocks in the big hole that was space.
“We own all the floating rocks out there; they are full of minerals and gems like this. We can grow absolutely any gem, you want. We’d need a sample of a particular gem and a modest payment for us to grow something for you.” Marble smiled brightly at them as she continued to pull out everything. “The recent problem with the asteroid eaters might eat into our profits though, but I’m sure Limestone will take care of it. She takes care of a lot of things and is always so stressed out.”
“Yes, I’d like at least four onyx with that and I already have an idea as to what I want to do for the statue, how big can it be?” This was another occasion where Rarity wasn’t going to get involved; she wanted to stay away from trouble at the moment. Her inner generosity was practically screaming at her to offer some form of help and she was trying very hard to not get involved. “By the way, no I’m not a miner, despite my cutie mark maybe leading to the assumption and I have done some mining personally. I now run my mining through Mr. Rover here. I specialize in having a great eye for detail and finding beauty in many things.”
“Let’s see… considering the prices of the gems and the Onyx was offered freely on the side, you’re buying enough for a statue made from a three by three foot block of stone to work with.” Marble watched as Rarity inspected every stone she wanted before putting it away in the large bag Marble set on the counter. Marble gently rubbed at Bernard’s belly when she finished, he squealed happily and kicked one of his legs lazily. “Who’s a good bunny, you’re a good bunny! So voucher or do you have an ideal statue in mind right now?”
“Opal, I need your help with something important in the world of fashionable art STAT!” Inspiration came in many forms and Rarity just had an idea, which is why she brought up her data pad and walked off to the side.
“Rover is thinking she wants to do thing now while here, be giving Boss Lady a moment please.” Receiving a curious glance from the pony, Rover returned the glance just as curiously.
“You’re the first Diamond Dog I’ve ever met; surprising considering my family runs an asteroid mining company.” At least Marble would think they’d have some Diamond Dog workers, they didn’t and she was most curious as this was her first time actually meeting one. He looked like a big puppy to Marble and didn’t seem too imposing. “What do you actually do with the gems you mine; do you eat or wear them or what?”
“It is a history story you be asking, Rover is being proud to share it with you. Friends and Boss Lady have yet to be interested in asking, Rover tell you.” He’d happily keep Marble entertained while the Boss Lady was doing whatever she was doing, he’s learned a lot about entertaining from Trapeze and all the forms of it. His entertainment lesson included garden variety social interaction; he even learned a few things about how Diamond Dogs are seen by others. Sure they his race was a bit simplistic, but that didn’t mean his culture wasn’t rich and as a giant bipedal prairie dog he could certainly talk conversationally. “It all starts with Rough Ruff the fragrant, he always smelled like whatever dirt he would dig into. One day while digging deeply he...”
“This is really quite boring I want to hear more about those asteroid eater things.” Lightning turned to Boulder and Maud, one who had returned to being a small rock that Maud carried around. Anything would be more interesting than what Rarity was doing.
“They are giant monstrous insects that fly through space and eat asteroids, hence the name.” Maud didn’t think any of the Pie’s liked the asteroid eaters; Boulder would obviously dislike them too. “They have the whole atmospheric bubble thing that Mass Offensive Meteors are known for, we don’t like them obviously. They tend to burrow into an asteroid and eventually create an atmosphere inside that’s held in by a thin film generated by the bugs, if the asteroid is big enough they end up creating a large cave system and they aren’t aggressive until they build up their numbers. It is best to not let them gain any ground, they are different entities from MOM cores and the monsters generated by such creatures. We know this because asteroid eaters will outright attack and destroy any MOM’s they find. They are more preferable to MOM related activity around planets because they can’t infest planets; they only infest asteroids which is a problem for us considering it’s our livelihood.”
“Mass Offense Meteors have a natural enemy? That’s a laugh, those things are complete nightmares when their seen around populated systems.” Lightning might have been living out of a cardboard box at the time, but news still travels. “The last one I heard of was exceedingly close to infesting a planet and that it was barely dealt with by the local triple P forces. I even heard that the MOM’s now have their own defense against fighter assaults and long range missile bombardments.”
“That is rather scary.” Maud said blankly, hardly an ounce of emotion crossing her face aside from the tiniest of frowns.
“Thank you for waiting on me, I’ll be sure to pick it up before we leave for the Applon System.” Rarity nodded to Marble and tried to levitate Bernard only for him to start squeaking something and grab onto the counter tightly. “What is it Bernard?”
Bernard did have a reason for wanting to come here; he had just been a little more than distracted by the cute mare and playing up his false adorable nature. He now remembered why he was here and got Rarity to let go of him, he quickly ran off and looked around the isles for something and then he eventually found what he was looking for. He brought it back to the counter and smiled broadly at Marble.
“I guess you expect me to pay for that? Well now… isn’t that interesting shade of blue and yellow swirls, is that a present for Trapeze? I could make a necklace with that for you.” That seemed to earn Rarity an appreciative look Bernard seemed eager to acquire her help as he jumped up and down nodding excitedly. “Well then, add that to our purchases if you will Marble. After we’re done putting this away in my mobile boutique, we’ll go to Sugarcube Galaxy and get some snacks, my treat.”
“Well that will be something at least; it’s been nice talking to you and Boulder, but it’s time for me to get going Maud.” Lightning hurried off after Rarity, Bernard and Rover.
“Thanks for telling about your history of why Diamond Dogs like digging for shiny things and I hope to see you again real soon Mr. Magic Bunny!” All of them waved back at a smiling Marble and her sister with their family pet Boulder the Changeling who was once more rocking his look.
-
“Well this is the place, Sugarcube Galaxy where my friend Pinkie works; well at least I hope it’s the Pinkie I know this time. She’s always doing some really bizarre things.” The building looked like a child fantasy place, a proverbial paradise of sugar treats with a logo that had a galaxy full of jaw breakers. Which reminded Rarity that she would have to brush her teeth later after this, now what to order? She heard from Gilda that the Cheese Danish here was excellent. Rarity did believe Gilda to have a good taste in food, now if she only had some taste for fashion or other things when she wasn’t grease covered and up to her shoulders in machinery. “Well let’s see what Pinkie is up to.”
Walking into the room the place was packed full of beings from all walks of society, the two ponies that ran the place were obviously busy and there was an indistinct pink blur flying around this place of baked goods purveyance. That had to be Pinkie Pie on the job, she didn’t look to be tiring and she was delivering drinks, food and other things everywhere she went and then she disappeared from sight.
“Hi Rarity and welcome to Sugarcube Galaxy, the happiest dessert place in space!” Pinkie had appeared as if out of nowhere and had spooked her entire group. Only Lightning managed to prevent herself from falling onto her back, she really didn’t want to jostle her ribs.
“My goodness Pinkie, can you please not do that. Lightning has pasted ribs and she can’t have too many surprises and I really don’t want to suffer a heart attack.” It took a moment for Rarity to catch her breath from the shock.
“Oh sorry Rarity, but I’m just having so much fun today!” Looking a little bit cowed by startling them, Pinkie rubbed her hoof on the floor in small circles with a shy smile on her face. “I tend to forget that people don’t like to be scared out of their wits by something vibrantly colored as me. So what can I do for you, take out, delivery or oh… are you going to get a booth here? I’ll go grab some menus if that’s the case.”
“We’ll take a booth please.” Rarity hoped that Marble would finish her free commission earned from her purchases; she didn’t want to be stuck at Streusel Station forever even if it was nice to see her friend again. At least she hoped it was her friend this time and not someone disguised as her or another version of her from an alternate dimension, Pinkie was confusing enough already without the possibility of her having dimensional traveling abilities. “Sometimes I think its best that I don’t question her at all and move on with my life.”
Bernard, Rover and Lightning just nodded solemnly at those words of wisdom.