//------------------------------// // -105- // Story: Coarse Diamonds // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Coriander Cumin or Mr. Cumin as he was more commonly known set about preparing food for two griffons and a Pegasus. He loved to cook and he had a challenge in keeping various species fed, he wasn’t complaining about where he was. He huffed silently at the fact that his daughter had been run through the wringer again, at least this time she had medical help and didn’t try to just walk the injuries off like she normally would. His daughter learned how to medically treat herself using first aid, but that had never seemed like enough to him and he wasn’t happy that she never got professional help. He was rather proud of his strong and still beautiful daughter, though he will never stop worrying about her secondary occupation of being a heroic vigilante. Whether she settled down or continued to be a vigilant hero didn’t matter, she was his daughter and he was rather proud of her for the many things she’s done. He was happy as long as his daughter was content, happiness was optional and she should pursue that on her own time as he had already pursued his own. As for now, Coriander was happy to just simply make food for a bunch of hungry mouths belonging to his new acquaintances. When they had made the joint decision to join Rarity, it was actually Saffron that needed to be convince and as he wanted to move on as Canterlot had been a very slow venture. Space, the frontier of which Coriander had little experience was more interesting. The zero gravity training was incredible to a stallion of his modest size, he even enjoyed it and was glad he wasn’t feeling claustrophobic being stuck on this rather quiet ship. He found plenty of fulfillment here in food and playing with the absence of gravity, plus he was taking a bit of time on the side to figure out a hobby for himself. Looking over to the infamous Lightning Dust that was acting as a ‘go for’ to the griffons, he could see she was approaching Ms. Saddles who seemed to be fine with tea and a light snack he prepared. He knew Ms. Saddles hadn’t had a very good history, she needed all the friends she could get. The last few days of watching that Changeling Queen flopping romantically with the mare was hilarious if not for the three separate space pirate attacks. Coriander didn’t try to befriend Sassy all too much, he understood her hatred for stallions and couldn’t blame her for any of that vitriol being directed at him. The poor mare had run afoul of less than honorable stallions and survived going through a living nightmare, the fact that she tolerated his presence was enough to at least be congenial. If there was one thing Mr. Cumin wasn’t going to do, it would be antagonizing Sassy Saddles. After seeing some of what Sassy did to the space pirates, he’d rather not aggravate the currently calm mare. Chopping some ingredients, add some spices here or there and he would soon have a stew for some griffons to dig into, now those two girls were always busy and needed a lot of energy and that meant plenty of calories for the lion birds. He chuckled that one was sweet as can be, even if she looked at his daughter with something akin to interest far too much for his taste. As for the other griffon, he could get along with her perfectly because they had a similar personality. He could admit that he was a grumpy small stallion in size, he relaxed a little as he watched his pot start to simmer and it would be a minute before he dumped the ingredients into it. Even while he was waiting it was never boring around all these mares, but it made Coriander miss his wife dearly. He wasn’t much of a fighter, but he could still do things and was learning the ins and outs of the ship that he was now willing to call a home. It wasn’t exactly cozy yet and everyone were still discussing how to remodel the ship or even just throw on a fresh coat of paint, the cost for doing either of those thing would have been staggering and probably why they hadn’t done so yet. While Lady Rarity might be adventurous, she wasn’t exactly big in a business empire sense and wasn’t drawing in as much income as she could be. If it came down to it, Coriander figured he could be something of a business advisor to Rarity and maybe a shoulder to lean on. Goodness knows that masseuse needed one with her problem of being easily forgotten and remember her name was like trying to hold onto a wet bar of soap with your hooves covered in frictionless oil. Even then he didn’t think Sassy would come to him for anything other than a meal or a very short dialogue about a possible need that she could only get through him, he wanted to at least be seen as someone who could empathize with the emotional pain she had as a fatherly figure. Thinking of oil, Coriander needed to add a little more soybean oil to give the stew the kick it needs to satisfy the griffons. He earned his cutie mark by studying his namesake in depth, cumin was both traditionally medicinal, a bit spicy when used in cooking and good for preventing particular fungal infections. In that light coriander wasn’t nearly as interesting a plant, the entire plant was edible and healthy with a nice taste. He could swear by his name sakes in the food he cooks and even if Indoneighsian food was mostly his specialty, it wasn’t all that he could cook. There were few things outside his specialty that he wasn’t particularly as good at, desserts was the major one though. Coriander looked up from his preparations in the kitchen and saw the Changeling Queen approaching with the apple mare and the moderately depressed filly. Looks like he had more to do, if the filly was hungry then he’d pick out a few herbs and spices for a quick batch of grilled fruit and vegetable kababs. His daughter loved kebabs when she was younger and he was sure the filly could appreciate good food, as for the mare she looked like she could use a taste of culture and would probably like the same thing. Saffron was far better at making desserts than he was, so in her absence he’d do something simpler like make bean cakes for the filly. His kitchen had the right stock for that and they recently got some personally suggested rewards from the very thankful supply depot for helping them fend off the pirate attacks. As far as Coriander was concerned the Changeling Queen was an oddity of the greatest degree considering normal food doesn’t do it for her. He seriously didn’t know how to cook body hair, ambient love or the other rather distasteful things the oversized dung beetle could consume. Though it would be an interesting test of his skills if he could figure out a dish that the bug would enjoy, it would be particularly hard to figure out her tastes when she’s always tasting emotions instead of physical things. Can one even implant an emotion into food? In any case Coriander Cumin would ask about the possibility of starting a garden onboard the Shining Jewel. It’d give him something to do with all his spare time and it’d be very helpful if he started up something like that in the atmosphere farm portion of the ship where plants would thrive. It’d help him keep a stock of fresh ingredients at the very least. - “So Sass, what’s up?” Lightning sat down and waited for Coriander to finish cooking and she had nothing but time, she’d work up a flight training schedule later. It wasn’t exactly like their lives depended on piloting something at the moment and they were in a perfectly stable orbit at the moment. “I thought it was kind of cool how you moved so fast, you were like a blur! I’ve never seen a unicorn do the things you did to those pirates and you didn’t even kill them when you did all that flashy sword stuff.” The mare was wearing a very visually stunning kimono, she had her mane done up in a bun and her tail was swept around to lay upon her lap as she sat cross legged at the table. Sassy currently looked like the very picture of calm, sipping away at her tea and just giving the curious Lightning Dust across from her a very flat look. Sassy and Lightning weren’t very well acquainted with one another, they also didn’t seem like they wanted to be well acquainted at all. “I’m trying to enjoy my tea in a nice and quiet environment before I decide to attend to one of our guest’s inevitable needs. She’ll definitely need some clothing when she comes out of medical.” Composed as she was Sassy was a bit more talkative when it came to Coco or Rarity, Lightning was more of a rogue in her eyes. One that Gilda deemed worthy of working with them, Sassy also remembered that Coco and Greta were responsible for picking her up in the first place so that offered some leeway to her personal idea of what Lightning Dust is like. Essentially this was a mare with no class and was pretty much a tom colt, this slightly rubbed Sassy the wrong way. “Being forced through something akin to molting every feather on your body is not pleasant, especially when you’re a Parrote.” “Yeah, but Parrote’s don’t exactly fly so it doesn’t really matter that much. Sure they can survive any fall and jump really high, but they don’t really have much in the wing department.” Following that statement was an awkward silence, at least Lightning was trying to work up a conversation with Sassy even if she was being crass. The mare was a real cool magical samurai and new how to kick ass, Lightning didn’t exactly have the discipline or the attention span to learn all that crazy sword stuff. It was hard to find a Pegasus that did have the focus for samurai training, Dust would rather be flying around and exercising her body to get back into the Wonder Bolt level of physique. “The fact that you don’t need a gun is very helpful in responding quickly to invaders. So… do you carry the sword everywhere you go or what?” “No, but I do like to keep it nearby at all times.” It was clear that Sassy was a being a little bit cold to Lightning, she was a lot warmer to the likes of Greta and could talk fashion and beauty with the griffon somewhat. She would have personally preferred talking to Trapeze more given that her other friends were occupied, now there was a mare that new how to do things in style. Still, she would give Lightning at least some chance to say something interesting. It would be several seconds before Sassy said anything. “Is there anything you wanted per chance?” “Well I’m waiting on food and I really haven’t talked to you much since you sliced that fighter in half. That is like, the most awesome thing ever done to a hunk of cobbled together space junk.” It was beginning to get very noticeable that Lighning was just trying to make small talk and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She turned her head and was almost touching noses with Chrysalis, this made her freak out and fall off the bench at the table. “Hi there! The Little Snack needs food to feel happier and her kin is here to talk to her about her future living arrangements.” Someone should really put a bell on Chrysalis, not that it would really help hear or even see her coming. “For some reasons she’s giving off the vibe that she’s terminally upset about something and I have no idea why she’s feeling that particular emotion. Also I would like to say that you look particularly beautiful today Lady Saddles.” “Just to keep you from being clueless Chrysalis, she’s formed a deep rooted attachment to you of all po… Changelings.” Rolling her eyes as if it were the simplest thing in the world Sassy continued on. “She really doesn’t want to leave and she really likes you, mostly because you can look like her parents. She sees you as a surrogate parent.” “Wow… that… is that a thing ponies will actually do? I didn’t think imprinting years after you were born was actually a thing.” This coming from the Changeling Queen who understands the life cycle of a swallow in its entirety, this was what confused her even knowing ponies as well as she does? “I’d make a lousy parent, I’m the deadbeat father type… only I don’t drink alcohol and alcohol has little effect on me because of diminishing returns anyway.” “At what age would you actually start to berate a Changeling physically?” It wasn’t exactly hidden knowledge that regular Changelings followed cruel dictators and Sassy was curious, Ms. Dick had a one of a kind personality. “Only when they stop being cute and mostly at the age of an adult, especially when they’ve done something particularly braindead. If I’m half as clever as I am smart, then the offending Changeling will not forget what they did wrong.” This made Chrysalis stop to ponder things for a moment with a hoof at her chin, it was only moments later when she realized why Sassy was asking this. “Oh, are you asking if I would hurt a foal? I have a good capacity for being cruel, but I’m not exactly heartless in that regard. I would never physically hurt a grub, pupae or nymph. At least not without a really damn good reason for it, so no I’m not a child beater and I’m disgusted at anyone that would hurt a child. I’ve learned that being gluttonous is a large detriment to my species as is overpopulating without proper resources to handle a population boom. As things are now Changelings can actively sustain themselves now far more easily than they could in the past. I will not hurt the future of our most favored food source and allies, I might even want to actually protect ponies from danger.” “Wouldn’t that actually make you a really good person to be around children then?” It sounded to Lightning that Chrysalis was very child friendly from where she was sitting, well once she got back on the bench. “Oh I can play and maybe entertain. I’m just not good for feeding, cleaning and the overall rearing of a child.” Here Chrysalis gained a goofy grin and slapped both her hooves onto the table before thrusting one of them into the air waving it a bit. “Even my own people wouldn’t dare trust me with something like that! I hardly know the first thing about children, even those of my own kind. I was usually too busy as a queen to see to raising a single Changeling personally, now that I have a lot of free time I will eventually get around to having a grub of my own. Little Snack is old enough to take care of herself, watching her really isn’t all that hard to do and I don’t have to worry about the more fiddly bits like that stuff. Though I’m flattered that she likes me, I can’t exactly understand why she would when I’m quite impersonal.” “You actively helped her get her cutie mark!” It was something worth pointing out and Lightning couldn’t help but state the obvious. “That sounds like something important and personal that she’d never forget.” “Yeah that was kind of accidental, or would it be incidental? Honestly though, she got the cutie mark on her own and I just happen to be there to witness it and am tangentially responsible for it at best.” Chrysalis could care less about what the filly thinks, she was more interested in Sassy personally and forming a relationship with said mare. She had yet to say something wrong, Sassy even seemed happy to know she wouldn’t hurt a foal. So what would she say to sour the mood of the mare this time? It was why she was being as diplomatic as possible in her responses. Politics was easy, earning love was a far more challenging endeavor because she had to be aware of how Sassy felt at all times so she didn’t miss something. “I’m pretty sure you know Changelings don’t put as much stock in Cutie Marks except for the fact of possibly making plausible disguises. Whoever has heard of a pony with a cutie mark of a corporation logo on their flanks? Your special talents are more vibrant and noticeable than that, whereas Changelings will always make paler imitations.” “Can you at least tell me you care at least something about her?” It was obvious that this was a loaded and probing question coming from Sassy. “I might miss her a little when she leaves because she’s been pretty delicious, but I’m not about to fight her kin over something trivial as free love in the quantities that filly seems to give off in my general direction.” Saying something neutral was about as much as Chrysalis could manage while not coming off as a monster that has been constantly feeding off of a filly for a while. “So you don’t think it’s a good idea to at least learn a little bit about taking care of children if you’re going to have any in the future?” It was an honest question and not as probing this time, at least Sassy wanted to hear Chrysalis’s odd thought processes on this one. “When and possibly if I ever have a child, it’ll actually be my responsibility and then I’ll start learning. Why should I care about other people’s children unless they have no progenitors or nursery caretakers to watch them?” Chrysalis did eventually want an heir as something might eventually kill her. There were things in space more dangerous than her and she was a bit jealous of those things, she’s only seen a few things that told her she wasn’t as apex a predator as she could be. “I don’t think it’ll be any harder than having to care for an entire hive, now that requires an aggressive drive of the likes you wouldn’t begin to believe even if I were to describe it.” “You’re funeral when you eventually give your future prospective kid sugar then.” Lightning didn’t have any brothers or sisters, but she remembers that a lot of stories from the Wonder Bolts that had children. Foals were actually pretty disastrous judging from the horror stories they’ve told. “Well at least Rarity knows how to raise a child, she raised her sister after all and if things came down to it she or Greta would make good god mothers for whatever spawn you can inevitably cook up.” Sassy went back to her snacks and tea, she was actively ignoring the looks Chrysalis kept sending in her direction. In the background Rover was talking to Cumin about some food and possibly something he can take to Trapeze, the magician mare was spending a lot of time in medical fussing over Bernard’s injuries. Applejack and Babs were looking to be having an uneasy conversation, but things seemed rather peaceful until Chrysalis opened her mouth again. “So Sassy, I can’t help but notice how intricate you look right now. Your hair looks rather lovely shade of reddish orange today and you look good in clothes. What would you think if I said you have a really nice round butt?” Chrysalis was once again trying badly to get on the mares good side and Sassy sighed sadly at the Changelings rather miserable attempts to charm her. In a way it was kind of charming in its own right with how bad Chrysalis was at it, still she was making the attempt to get Sassy’s attention in an affectionate manner and it’s not like Sassy outright hated her guts. Sassy did think the first line was the best one, but her hair was always the same color and looking good in clothes wasn’t exactly the greatest of compliments and the less said about butts the better. It was almost like Chrysalis was trying to wear Sassy down through attrition. So far that tactic was actively working against the Changeling Queen and it was rather obvious she needed help, but was way too proud to ask for it and it would become highly obvious to Sassy when she eventually did ask for help. This was the Changeling Queen that thought kidnapping was a good way to grab the attention of someone you liked. If Crystal actually changed to doing something that was actually more effective, then it wouldn’t be on her own merits that’s for sure. Of course the one stray thought that Chrysalis was actually kind of cute in a disturbing manner actually made Sassy smile faintly. - Rarity’s eyes snapped opened and she looked at her stiff leg, there was a bio cast on and she was floating in a medical bed again. It wasn’t the first time and wouldn’t be the last, she was at least safe and sound. Well not mentally sound, she kind of shot a defenseless person in cold blood even if he was responsible for killing a lot of people including his own. He certainly wasn’t innocent man, but even detestable as he was Rarity didn’t think taking his life was as easy as she made it look or feel. Pausing in her introspection, she could see Trapeze walking up to her tank and smile at her. Reaching into the top hat on her head, Trapeze pulled out a sign that said ‘welcome back’ on it. Rarity rolled her eyes and saw the bandaged Bernard holding up a sign that said ‘to the world of tomorrow’ and he had pulled it from out of nowhere, he wasn’t even wearing his top hat or little coat. Trapeze snorted at that when she finally noticed her favorite companion was alright enough to do little feats of prestidigitation. They all needed a little time to heal and Rarity needed to see someone upon waking up, but she wondered why it wasn’t Coco or Vera as one was a close friend and the other was kind of their medical expert. Well medical expert in so far as being a masseuse, rehabilitator and a psychological stabilizer that Rarity’s crew direly needs if they kept pushing things. A bit of her mane floated in her face and she sighed, her mane needed to be shampooed, brushed and combed back into perfection. After doing that she would need to seek out Vera for help getting around and back into an ambulatory state, yes this is how Rarity was truly prioritizing it. At least she wasn’t feeling any pain and the pasting surgery was obviously a success or she wouldn’t be awake right now. She blinked and actually remembered learning the fact that Opal had been acting up before she went under. Speaking of her childish creation, where was the darling little ball of fuzzy coding that warmed up the hearts of the crew considerably with her adorable antics? Nothing would or even should stop Opal from putting in an appearance, yet Opal wasn’t here to greet her with a smiling face even though logically Opal knew she was awake. Yep, something was definitely wrong with Opal if she wasn’t happy to see her well and awake. The coded cat didn’t even show up when Rarity arrived safely from a relatively disastrous situation that kept getting somewhat worse the longer it went on. All Rarity wanted was to call Opal and tell her to set up an appointment with Vera, then start fixing herself up and get back on the bicycle of where she thought her life should be. Yeah that was going to take a while, they had racked up quite a lot of expenses coming to the Applon System. Whether it was money, materials, supplies and the like to fix the damage to the ship and other things, they would be sitting on the edge of being quite poor after all this. Which led to the question, was all this pain and suffering worth saving a planet over? …. Yes… Rarity would go down to that planet and do it all over again if she had too, she’d rather not though. It was hard enough finding a stallion that wasn’t scared of a mare that was slightly high maintenance and knew how to magically sling a pistol around. She would need to make up for the loss of money, supplies and everything else in the debacle they just went through while continuing to be a captain that can be looked up to. At least she had her friends, ones that would hopefully be more worried about keeping the ship together than their next paychecks. That reminded Rarity they hadn’t exactly got a full list of the damages or even knowledge of how much money it would take to get things back in working order. She did eventually want to remodel the Shining Jewel into something more visibly exquisite, but she didn’t think they’d ever have enough money for that. The insides were mostly fine in décor so far, but it could be far better than it was. Hopefully when they went to planet Nocturne in the Vae Dur system for the fashion show things wouldn’t go absolutely nuts. In fact Rarity might just avoid anything that would lead to her generously offering her aid to someone in dire need of it. At least here she could say she saved the Applon System from being stolen from the pony settlers and the planet would return to its normal climate given enough time. It felt good saving the day and all, but a lot of good ponies and other people stilled perished and all these adventures were positively exhausting to the point that Rarity might start whining about it in earnest between adventures. Nobody wanted Rarity to start whining about having a cannon that fires lemon scented material rounds, because life seemed to be tossing lemons at her left and right. At least Streusel Station was a brief reprieve before she tossed her friends into the insanity that was Applin Five, more than half her crew was wounded and Ember was critically injured. When they got to Nocturne, Rarity would not delve into any sort of intrigue whatsoever and would just focus on dresses and fashion. She would not do anything else but those two things, well maybe in the exception of going to see one of Trapeze’s odd shows or spending time with the other people on her ship. “How are you feeling Boss Lady?” The liquids slowly drained from the medical bed and Trapeze immediately showed her concern, it was nice for Rarity to have someone to talk to as soon as she got release from the medical bed. “About as well as can be expected Trapeze, which is to say like dirt Ms. Star and I despise being dirty. If I may inquire, how are Bernard’s burns?” The Lagotorphin chattered a response and for the life of her Rarity couldn’t understand him, but it sounded positive at least that he was exciteable. “Can I get a translation for that, I’m afraid I don’t speak Lagotorphin.” “He says he’ll do better against the next group of guys who would dare fire a shot at any of us or attack us in our home.” The little bunny gave a friendly if demented looking smile at Trapeze’s words and Trapeze paused to think on what she just said. “Okay, I think I might be learning to understand Lagotorphin and that’s considerably strange because it’s not related to my stage magic at all.” The only response the burned and bandaged bunny had to that was to rub his face again Trapeze’s neck and face in an overly affectionate manner, nobody would ever hurt his beloved bait if he could help it. Well she wasn’t so much predator bait anymore, to Bernard she was someone worth falling in love with. In particular he happened to love to her soft blue curls of her mane whenever she had it down, she was kind of intoxicatingly beautiful where before he just saw her as someone to attract danger for him to eat.