Rarity stood in front of the humming medical bed, one that couldn’t perform surgery on a torn and ripped up dragon. The medical fluids would at least keep Ember from getting an infection, there were so many chemicals in there that bacteria could hardly survive. Ember seriously needed all the medical help she could get.
“Was our friendship that important to you?” After her little fainting spell Rarity decided that their time with Vera was up and thought of a way for Opal to get around until she could do so on her own. When Rarity mentioned they could always spare a CAT drone to carry Opal around, it was long before Opal could now seen riding one of the drones around for mobility. It was still a problem, as her daughter still couldn’t really take care of herself yet and riding a CAT drone was basically a stopgap measure at best. At most Opal could move around and talk, she still couldn’t feed herself, she couldn’t bathe herself and she couldn’t survive like this alone. It was a good thing Rarity was here to be the mother Opal needed.
“I’d think it was, how did the session with… how did it go?” Even if Saffron couldn’t remember Vera at the moment, she was trying really hard to do so. Instead she decided to go for a faster route and just asked how it went. She knew she’d remember the masseuse’s name later when she saw her again.
“I’ve learned a rather disturbing truth about hoards and what they mean to dragons.” It was a little hard for Rarity to believe she was the apple of Ember’s eyes, the centerpiece and a valued representation of the hoard Ember started. “Aside from that Opal made some progress in being able to stand, she’s actually quite helpless personally even if she is keeping so many things on this ship running at the same time. I believe things went pretty well despite the revelation that Ember has her hoard on our ship.”
The hoard was built out of friendship and that much Rarity understood. What she didn’t understand was why Ember chose her to be the center of it, the most cherished piece of the hoard, a piece of the hoard that was practically embedded in Ember’s heart with a philosophical grand importance. She was the representation of what Ember liked, loved or otherwise, she was what Ember thought of as priceless. It was both heartwarming and more than a little bit scary. Ember could have not befriended them and acted like they absolutely belonged to her, but instead she chose to actually care about them. What disturbed Rarity was how much Ember truly cared about her, it was also embarrassing and quite flattering.
“Really, where is her hoard, I’ve never exactly seen a pile of gems and jewels anywhere since I’ve been on the ship and I’ve been to storage a few times to watch Trapeze train a bit.” It would be Saffron that’d take an interesting hearing what Ember made her hoard out of. “I haven’t seen anything worthy of being a centerpiece, I mean dragons really go after some really rare stuff right?”
“That’s because you’re looking at Ember’s centerpiece.” Rarity tried not to make her voice flat and indignant, but it was kind of hard given Ember never talked to her about this.
“You mean… is that even a thing dragons do? You’re the center of Ember’s world?” Tilting her head and thinking about it for a moment, Saffron nodded. “Yeah, I can kind of see where she’s coming from. There isn’t anyone else quite like you Rarity, so I’m guessing she’s made the entire crew her hoard.”
“Yes, though I find it disturbing that she’d make a declaration that she’d do almost anything to protect us or more importantly me like that. She almost died because she came to help me!” It was a bit frustrating for Rarity to learn this. How would you feel if someone declared you more important than all the jewels and gems you can eat, more important than money, gold or even riches of the wildest dreams one could even begin to conceive? Ember placed her on a pedestal and was never going to take her off of it until she ultimately perished, Ms. McFlame would follow her throughout her whole life and would be a constantly companion that would die for her sake and the sake of those around her. Even then, Rarity was beginning to doubt that Ember would ever have another centerpiece as anything else would pale in comparison to what the dragon in question chose. Ember valued life and friendship more than anything. This made Rarity consider how long would Opal live given her nature as an energy being, her daughter would definitely outlive her and if Ember was still in the picture then at least Opal won’t be alone if she continued living for eons. “The reason why she didn’t join my crew was to protect us in case she ever had to do anything disastrous that required she be arrested. She’d protect me even from herself or her actions.”
“Sounds kind of like me, except far more… affectionate. I guess that’s what dragons are like when they have a centerpiece.” Only Saffron didn’t question when Ember would have ever told Rarity about making her the centerpiece the ideal centerpiece of the hoard. From what little she knew of the dragon, the fiery femme fatale was a friendly individual overall and the heroic vigilante just couldn’t think badly of her. “They go to great lengths to protect what they think is important and given she likes you a lot, she likely wants you to be happy too. She’ll get better.”
“I really don’t know what to think, but I can’t really talk to her about it until she gets better. The one main thing I want to know is… why did she choose me? I don’t know if I should feel honored or not that she covets me so dearly, but there are implications to it that don’t sit well with me.” Rarity placed her hoof upon the medical bed where Ember slept in a chemical induced slumber, she closed her eyes and slowly her hoof slid from the lid of what might Ember’s coffin and turned away. “I think I’ve been sitting here staring at a horribly injured friend long enough. I need to see off our guest, give Opal her first taste of cake while recording it on my data pad and then I need to assist Coco and Sassy with the orders we’re getting. I can’t just sit here and let my best friends do all the work.”
Saffron kept her silence in thoughtful contemplation as she watched Rarity leave, she turned to stare Ember’s ripped up body. She didn’t think Ember had any ill intentions by valuing Rarity or the crew like she did. It just meant the dragon thought highly of them and yes there was the mildly disturbing thought that she owned them, but she didn’t think Ember was willing to think of them as slaves.
Of the dragons Saffron met while being a vigilante, Princess McFlame was the friendliest she had ever seen and that she wanted to protect her friends was heartwarming. Being a part of Ember’s hoard felt no different from how things normally were, from Ember’s view it probably looked a whole lot different. She could kind of see where Rarity’s wariness came from, she could imagine another dragon looking at her as an object and not the pony she was. Said dragon would probably use her as slave labor or try to barter with Ember for her.
-
Rarity walked out of the elevator and took notice that the two EGGS units were missing from the hangar, Gilda and Greta were out continuing repairs and earning their keep several times over. She made her way towards Lightning, Applejack and Babs. Why wasn’t Rubis here? She probably needed to talk to Rubis about what she was going to do now, she had been on Applin Three right? Rarity figured she should probably schedule Rubis’s discussion with the EDF later, she was one of the victims of Tempest Technologies after all. Did the Parrote even have anywhere to go? She had to find out about that.
The hangar didn’t look too damaged, then again Rarity would hardly know what a really damaged hangar looked like with her two diligent engineers fixing things. Gilda and Greta would take care of things. As long as Gilda had work to do, then Rarity was assured that the griffon wouldn’t do anything too crazy like build another transforming battle tank in a single week. It was just as weird that they managed to build a cargo loading fortress together in their spare time.
Shaking her head and moving over to address the three waiting for Chrysalis to deliver on her gift, Rarity finally wondered what Chrysalis’s hobby was. She was sure she remembered hearing Vera had recommending one to the Changeling Queen.
“Hello there, I hope your stay here wasn’t too bad Applejack.” Taking in the farm mare, Rarity saw that she still had her rifle, requisite favorite hat and the parka given to her, the parka still had a few holes that needed patching. Aside from that Applejack was still quite healthy for the beating she took during the accidental human facility invasion. It was only the fact that Saffron took a far worse beating for the mare that she was in a decent state of health.
“It’s been okay Rarity, but I prefer to have my hooves on the ground and in some soil. A mare like me isn’t meant to be in space for too long and I would really like to get back to the farm. Nothing against your ship or anything, but I miss my family. If my brother’s wedding carries through, then it would be our family cousin.” It was obvious that Applejack missed working on the farm down below, she preferred the simple quiet life and was prepared to protect it with that rifle of hers. “Don’t rightly know what to do with the agricultural knowledge of how to grow ice apples, but the information is going to become useless when the climate returns to normal.”
“Have you ever thought of maybe having family use that knowledge to see what they can do with it on other planets or at least start growing some of those apples in more mountainous regions around Equestria. Even if it might be useless to you, it surely won’t be useless to other Apples that enjoy weather that is a bit cooler.” This led Rarity to think of Meadowbrook, now there was the mare that knew the cure for swamp fever. Said cure was discovered, but never got spread around at all. This led to hundreds of ponies being turned into swamp fever causing trees and it was only about fifty years prior that a cure was discovered after more than nine hundred years of constant incurable disease and encroaching swamplands. “You never know what information might be worth saving. Babs have you packed your things, are you about ready to go?”
The filly gave Rarity a rather despondent huff, she obviously wanted to stay even if it wasn’t exactly healthy for her personally. They were waiting on Chrysalis to make an appearance and Lightning was doing some light wing stretching exercises.
“Now I know you like it here Babs, but you can’t stay. Besides it’s not goodbye forever, we’ll see these folks again real soon.” Applejack pulled Babs into a hug and nuzzled her, the filly really needed a lot of affection in her opinion.
“Yeah, because why would I want to miss the free food at the wedding?” Chrysalis sauntered up to them looking quite calm, she also looked a little smug. If there was true love to be had at a wedding, then the presence of a Changeling would always tell you the truth of the situation depending on how distended their stomachs are. Political or arranged marriages barely garnered any love at all. Getting an invite wouldn’t be very hard for Chrysalis, she was friends with the dress maker and she would be legally attending this wedding. Even if she was going to be taking in love from the wedding ceremony, she’d still tell the two lovers how much they truly cared for each other when she got a taste of it personally. Heck she’d be doing them a favor, so a little compensation wouldn’t go amiss. “Speaking of free Little Snack, I got a surprise for you!”
Applejack rolled her eyes at Chrysalis, surprisingly Changelings were quite deceptively honest about things and she’d be the first to tell you to never take what one said entirely at face value without looking for specific wording or double meanings. Changelings would make for perfect lawyers, because Applejack had never had such a headache just from talking to anyone before she met Chrysalis. Though in this instance she didn’t think the Chrysalis had much of an ulterior motive regarding Babs, aside from making the filly light up brightly and look excited. Chrysalis’s motive might have been just simply acquiring love to eat, her species was an abstract predator after all.
“Really, what is it, what is it?” Babs moody demeanor had turned around in an instant and she was hopping in place in front of Chrysalis.
Babs wasn’t the only one wondering what it was that Chrysalis would give her, but Applejack didn’t seem interested because she already knew what it was.
“I’m actually curious as to what kind of hobby you’ve taken up in your spare time.” Well at least Rarity was now as she watched Chrysalis open up her carapace where she kept her wings and reached her hoof deeply into it. Rarity noted Ms. Dick's hoof was going into it far more than it should be. “How are you doing that, is it anything like what Trapeze does?”
“No this is completely different, what Trapeze does is unexplainable as I swear that’s a normal top hat she’s using. This however is the result of a space expanding enchantment, it has a maximum capacity limit that is exactly a quarter of my body’s weight and I can only have the one on my body.” Pulling out a sickly green looking package with a bright yellow ribbon wrapped around it, Chrysalis smiled as she held it out to Babs and closed up her carapace. The filly took the package from Chrysalis with a barely contained glee humming from the filly in her direction, the emotion tasted like warm cinnamon buns. “The ribbon is also yours too if you want to keep it. Fillies your age like bright colors right?”
“Why would you put a space expanding enchantment in your carapace and isn’t something like that dangerous?” What did Rarity just say to make the Chrysalis look so flustered? In fact the Changeling looked completely embarrassed about something.
“I thought it would expand the size of my butt… it didn’t exactly do what I thought it would.” The minute Chrysalis said that Rarity couldn’t help but let out a laugh, which was swiftly followed by Applejack. As for Lightning she didn’t hold anything back and was full blown hysterical with laughter. “Also yes it’s quite dangerous, possibly more so for ponies, but since when has that ever bothered me? At least I’m making use of it.”
If Rarity had to guess, it bothered Chrysalis greatly that the space expanding enchantment didn’t expand what she wanted it to. Though this kind of confirmed that Chrysalis was always dangerous and never unarmed, she could do quite the literal ass pull with whatever weapons she put in there. Turning to the sound of a gasping filly that now had a yellow ribbon in her mane, one that was obviously going to be cherished forever, Rarity watched as Babs reverently lifted an object out of the box and appeared to immediately like it. Rarity had to admit Chrysalis did a decent job with the gift, the stitch work was at least solid.
“Oh I love it, thank you!” Babs leapt up and got her hooves around a portion of Chrysalis’s neck, one of which was holding on to a plush toy of a Changeling.
“Hey, don’t thank me yet Little Snack, though I don’t mind the free food so please do keep going.” Chrysalis wanted to see if it worked or not. Making a toy version of one of her people just let everyone know how lonely she was for Changeling companionship. “I want you to press on its nose, I want to see if it works!”
“What does it do?” Rarity asked as if she was almost afraid to hear what Chrysalis came up with.
Babs stopped hugging Chrysalis to press the toys nose, it scrunched up a bit and then with a small flash the toy transformed into an appropriately scaled down fluffy version of Chrysalis. Mystified, Babs pressed the nose again and it transformed to look like her mother, another press her father and one last press a Changelings again. The toy looked so completely foal friendly, why didn’t Rarity trust that at all? Oh right, because Chrysalis made something that looked completely benign and innocent.
“Say hello to my shape shifting toy, four preset forms. One of which is of my people, two of them are your parents and the last one is of my incredible form. I don’t quite think it does me justice though, the butt is too small. It’s at least machine washable and is made to be tough so destroying it outright will be pretty hard to do.” Well if Chrysalis ever wanted to give Babs something to remember her by, then that was it. “It’s ninety nine percent safe, with a small margin for error if someone figures out how to make it into a weapon. Its transformations can’t be bigger than the space it already occupies. I’m thinking of marketing it and you know how to ruin your enemies while running a legitimate business Rarity, I was thinking of actually asking for your help with this. Mostly on the ruining my enemies part.”
“I’ll consider it, but I need an outside opinion and for you to send at least one to Celestia or Luna for testing to see if it’s absolutely safe.” Why did Rarity get a sudden sense of dread when she saw Chrysalis brighten up visibly at the mention of sending one of the toys to her… ‘FRIENDS’… back on Equus. “It needs to go through a screening process to make sure it is absolutely fine to sell, otherwise it would be a bad idea to put them on the market without approval.”
“I will use my new powers of sewing and toy making for pure unadulterated evil, thanks for giving me several ideas to that effect Boss Lady.” Chrysalis thought it was a compliment to call Rarity that and decided to do so. All it made Rarity do was shiver at the horror she probably just unleashed.
In the end Babs was allowed to keep the toy Changeling as it was a gift, Chrysalis thought it was humorous like a teddy bear. She wondered why prey always insisted on liking toys based around predators that would maul and eat them, but who was she supposed to question about an unequivocal first success. Chrysalis even knew what presets on the toy she’d be sending to Celestia for testing would be, cruelty thy real name is Crystal Dick!
-
Opal was sitting on the CAT drone and waiting for her mom, she was still a bit challenged as far as using her limbs went, but she could stand in place and even sit up. So it was a work in progress, the CAT drone didn’t have enough intelligence to be angry at her for using it as a floating chair. It wasn’t exactly comfortable to ride around on either.
Still mom wanted her to be here for a delicious snack Gilda had been baking during the meeting. She was a bit excited to know what cake tasted like. Opal had helped make cake before, but she never got a chance to eat it too. After a thought, she giggled about the idiomatic proverb she unintentionally thought of. Her mother came into the mess hall of Shining Jewel looking bothered about something.
“Is something wrong mom?” All Opal had to do was tilt her head and be adorable, she knew she was weaponized cute and would use such power to its fullest.
“I think I may have unfortunately given Chrysalis some good ideas.” Rarity shook her head to get her mind off of the Changeling Queen, she levitated out her data pad and got prepared to record Opal’s reaction. “Come along then, I think we have a cake to share and I asked Gilda to make it special for your first time. I just need to take it out and slice off a piece or two.”
“So I guess her hobby is out in the open then, she’s been trying to make one working toy for quite a while. What did you say to her that makes you think she’s going to do something bad?” Opal had the drone following Rarity walking towards the kitchen, well at least until Rarity pointed to one of the tables while she went to the refrigerator.
“She got a creepy look on her face when I told her to send one to Celestia or Luna for testing.” Once Rarity pulled the decadent dessert from its cold storage confines, she smiled brightly at how it had turned out. Opal enjoyed the grilled cheese sandwich, so some cake with chilled cream cheese icing would be right up her daughter’s alley.
“Maybe she just has a prank planned for either one of them, she’s not really as bad as other people try to make her out to be.” Even then, Opal would still admit that Chrysalis was a complete lunatic if asked. She wouldn’t deny what was fact, infinitely denying something really never solved anyone’s problems.
“Rarity, Sassy sent me to ask you… is that cake.” Coco walked in on the two and her ears perked up at seeing the cake. She bit her bottom lip and looked to be deciding something for herself. “Can I have some?”
“I was going to come help you and Sassy after I got Opal and myself a little snack, so of course you can have some. After Opal gets her slice it’s basically first come first serve for anyone that wants it.” It wasn’t too difficult to add another plate to the mix, Rarity soon placed a slice of cake before Coco. Coco started to demurely nibble at it and make appreciative sounds. Rarity prepped her data pad and forked a chunk of cake and lifted towards Opal’s mouth. Opal actually sniffed it first and smiled, it seemed her daughter wanted to explore many a unique smell and cake was just one of them. “Go on Opal, you know Gilda made it by request and I know for a fact that she’s really good at baking cakes.”
Opal took the cake into her mouth and her pupils shrunk before she closed them as she slowly started to mulch the bits of deliciousness that had been inserted into her jaws with a bright smile, then she swallowed and frowned.
“What’s the matter Opal?” The adventures of taking care of her daughter were not as high octane as blowing up a conspiracy loaded facility, but it sure made life easier for Rarity to move on from it when she had happier memories to remember.
“I regret swallowing it so soon, it’s so unbelievably tasty!” One could tell that she really liked it by the way Opal’s tongue explored her mouth for more of it.
It made Rarity wonder if she had to take care of her daughter’s teeth as well. She would cherish these quiet moments, like Coco suddenly having her entire muzzle covered in frosting and her plate had been licked absolutely clean of any crumbs. Life was an adventure and she was glad she was sharing it with so many friends.
“Is there anything Gilda can’t make?” When no one was watching her Coco couldn’t control herself, she just devoured the cake like Celestia probably would when no one was expecting an ounce of decorum from the princess.
“Yes, a landing in something that was naturally meant to fly.” After that retort Opal opened her mouth wide and tried to gesture with her tongue for more at Rarity.
“Remind me to teach you table manners Opal.” Rarity sighed out, she still moved another fork filled with cake towards the happily waiting mouth.
-
A week had passed by and Rarity had never had so much peace and quiet happen around her before, she got a lot of work done. They’ve managed to make up for all the damage done to Shining Jewel in that time, at least monetarily. There were still repairs to do, but the ship’s hull and all the energy turrets were back in better working condition. Better since Greta and Gilda couldn’t help but tweak things to work more effectively.
She had heard that Coloratura was happy to Applejack from Lightning, a little too happy it would seem as Coloratura bowled Applejack over and got her into a racy sounding lip lock. Rarity wouldn’t know, she wasn’t there to witness Applejack’s return to her farm. Instead Rarity has been busy doing other things.
EVA suits were a popular, and rather time consuming, item to make for the EDF in the area. Rarity's business was also selling regular clothes to the nearby supply depot and most importantly Rarity had a wedding dress to worry about. Sugar Belle was happy to hear Rarity was okay, she was happier that things were actually getting warmer around her new home. Instead of paying any old dress maker to make her wedding dress, Rarity offered to make Sugar’s dress for free. Rarity wasn’t about to charge family, not that she needed to with all the sales she was making on EVA suits.
Speaking of EVA suits, all the damaged EVA suits the crew used were magically patched and ready for action once again. Rarity loved spells for fixing clothing, especially as expensive as making EVA suits tended to be. The unique utilities that can be installed in EVA suits, mostly impulse saddles with Coco’s battery utility option, were earning quite a bit of notoriety with EDF engineers in how useful such features were.
Rarity was taking a few people with her to the wedding, Coco, Sassy and surprisingly Chrysalis. Chrysalis wanted a chance to see Babs again, plus she wanted to see a Puffle for herself after hearing so much about them. Since some of Rarity’s estranged family was going to show up, she might have had a chance of seeing her parents. It didn’t matter, cousin Sugar’s wedding was more important to her than possibly getting saddled with Sweetie Belle again. She still had plenty of time to prepare for that eventuality, but she would not be deterred from her course to help her cousin Sugar Belle.
Opal was still learning to walk at this time and Rarity was there for her daughter every literal step of the way, it was amazing how organic the learning experience was for Opal. Yes, things were going pretty well, except for the fact that Opal didn’t want to sleep alone in a room without anyone around.
There should not have been much to worry about in the near future as far as the wedding was concerned, but Rarity wasn’t as sure something dangerous wouldn’t happen and was hardly going anywhere without an energy pistol on her for safety out of justified paranoia. Sure Rarity was excited about visiting planet Nocturne to do a fashion show next, but she had her fears that things would go horribly wrong or would be close to doing so as soon as she and her crew arrives at that particular planet. Getting herself embroiled in volatile intrigue was becoming a rather dangerous pastime Rarity could have done without, a planet filled with nightlife related activities was bound to be very dangerous.
“Well let’s get this wedding started.” Crying at a wedding was to be expected and Rarity would cry upon seeing her cousin Sugar in one of her dresses, she made sure it would looked absolutely gorgeous on her cousin and it was tastefully done.
“I’ll bring the rocket launcher.” Nobody was going to ask Chrysalis what exactly she thought a normal Pony wedding entailed.
-
Things had gone fine and they made it to the wedding reception before anything went wrong. Opal was still up in orbit being taken care of by Saffron and hopefully Saffron wouldn’t give into Opal’s begging when it came to food, even if it caused her stomach aches Opal seriously loved to eat. Chrysalis hadn’t done anything too horrible yet, but she was making a nuisance of herself. The Changeling Queen was the one requisite unpleasant being at the wedding and she has only impersonated the bride once, apparently there was a lot of love in the air and Chrysalis couldn’t resist. Coco and Sassy were the very appearance of competent bridesmaids, especially Sassy who was needed to keep Chrysalis under control.
“This has been a wonderful experience Rarity and things haven’t gone wrong at...” Coco was the first sign that something had went wrong when she had a distressed look on her face.
This made Rarity turn towards what Coco was looking at. It was a Puffle, a rather familiar pink one at that. It was standing on the table next to the untouched wedding cake that had yet to be served, it looked rather innocent standing next to the wedding cake like it did.
Fluffy’s revenge was well planned, because Fluff the Puff didn’t even know the meaning of revenge and the gods of stupidity could be exceedingly petty. On this planet nothing was dumber than a Puffle and there wasn’t anything for Fluffle to even get revenge for.
In this case the Puffle just blew a simple sounding raspberry and stared blankly at the space between her and the cake. Then slowly she started to lean towards the cake with her tongue sticking out.
“No!” Rarity made the Puffle stop leaning forward to look at her, then it went back to leaning forward again. “No, bad Puffle!”
It was unfortunate for Rarity that the Puffle didn’t understand words or meaning, she just understood stupidity, rainbows and smiles. Well at least Fluffy understood rainbows and smiles, stupidity was a natural state for her species. The Puffle stopped leaning forward and squeaked at Rarity before blowing a questioning sounding raspberry, Rarity wanted to strangle whoever taught the Puffles to blow raspberries as a form of communication. The Puffle went back towards leaning towards the cake.
“Rarity maybe you should just…” Sugar was about to suggest something from underneath her husbands leg, when Rarity snapped.
“I’m not letting this happen on your wedding day Sugar. No!” Once again, Rarity had stopped the Puffle with the sound of her voice. Fluffy had her tongue an inch away from the cake at that moment, she took a few steps back and then stood absolutely still. She almost looked to think that if she stood still, then she was invisible to Rarity. Fluffy took a few steps towards the cake and started to lean towards it. “No… no, no, no, you are not doing this!”
The Puffle seemed to have agreed with Rarity’s begging and turned away and walked along the table a few steps, Rarity gave off a sight of relief. Then Fluffy turned around real fast and charged for the cake, she leapt at it and belly flopped onto it while blowing a very loud raspberry of inevitable victory. The splattered mess went flying everywhere and everyone nearby was completely caked.
Sugar’s nose scrunched up slightly and Big Mac sent her a worried look, then she burst out laughing and he quickly joined his wife in laughter. The wedding wasn’t good… it was absolutely perfect for them.
“Can we…” Chrysalis started only for Rarity to cut her off, this was her first time seeing a Puffle and it looked positively delicious.
“No, I will not accept having a single Puffle on my ship Chrysalis.” Rarity said with a calm voice filled with venom. “I saw what they did to the Human facility and I will have not have that happen to the Shining Jewel after it has been mostly repaired.”
Chrysalis wisely stayed silent as the cake covered Puffle came up to her and started feeding her massive amounts of love without even really trying. Yep, all Puffles were definitely bound to become livestock for Changelings.