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// -114- 
// Story: Coarse Diamonds 
// by Darkonshadows 
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(Warning: Lots of ‘Dik’ incoming.)

The Vae Dur system consisted and four planets, the only planet that was habitable in this system was the eternal night planet of Nocturne. This system sits on the edge of space that was relatively safe for ponies, not that pony space itself was entirely safe considering all the previous encounters Rarity ran into. Ponies weren’t as wide spread here as the many other space bound races they’ve met were.

This was not a pony run system, but ponies did visit it frequently and the race that were actually the most prominent in the nearest systems to this planet were the race known as the Dik-Dik. The system also had a high number of Plurts, Parascine, Cacceran and Macropussians with scatterings of many other races as the system of Vae Dur was a trading hub where you can find just about anything you’d want.

The planet of Nocturne was in an unusual position in space, it was one of four planetary bodies in the system and it was the fourth from the sun. The other three planets were uninhabitable because of the unbearable heat from how close they were to the sun, the one planet that didn’t have this problem had five moons and that was what made it livable. The five moons around Nocturne kept it from heating up too much and reflected enough solar light and energy onto the world to make it capable of sustaining life, even if it was almost constantly night time. The planet was covered heavily in sweltering jungles outside the cities that had been built with an incredible amount of effort.

The nighttime on Nocturne had two different periods, one that was of the shadowy daytime where the planet received most of its light and the other an almost pitch black of night where the most dangerous predators came out. The cities emplaced upon Nocturne itself needed constant light sources to prevent Nocturnes more dangerous predators from encroaching where they didn’t belong, most of the predatory species didn’t like any amount of light brighter than the shadowy daytime.

Building the cities had taken the knowhow of various races working in concert to build them while the various dangers of the world tried to prevent anyone from settling upon it. Eventually massive sprawling cities both miles wide and high were created. The natural side effect of this was that the nearer to the base of these cities you were, then the more danger you were likely to be in. It didn’t take much to guess where the slums on this world were, but in the same respect maintenance crews were a highly prized commodity provided they got hazard pay for keeping the cities in working order while operating in said slums.

The Dik-Dik were a race that had often enough been confused for a race that came from Equus, mostly because of their appearance. They were small antelope like creatures, which had four legs that ended in hooves that bore some similarities to the many hooved species of Equus. The males of the Dik-Dik species were generally small and had longitudinally grooved or ribbed horns, they only got about as big as a teenage filly or colt Pony of Equus when they become full adults. Whereas the females of the Dik-Dik species were about the size of an average Pony mare or smaller. They didn’t have magic at all, which was a common racial feature for anything naturally coming from Equus, even if said races didn’t actively use any of that magic at all.

Dik-Diks might not have magic and were small herbivorous beings, but they made up for their small size and herbivore natures in other ways. This stemmed from the temperament of the Dik-Dik race and how they got into their technological advancements.

Dik-Diks were what was known as aggressive herbivores, if one were to look up the history of Dik-Diks they’d find the very moment this species snapped and started growing brains because the predators of their home world kept pushing them around too much to a breaking point. The main predators that used to prey on the Dik-Diks no longer exist anymore, which shows how aggressive Dik-Diks got when continually threatened.

Said main predatory species of the Dik-Dik from their home world were both intelligent and sapient, they thought they’d always have the advantage over the DIk-Dik thanks to their natural traits and that it always would be the case. They were dead wrong in the most literal sense, they were now extinct for picking on what at first seemed like a lesser species to them and said species is half their size. It surprised them that said lesser species advanced by leaps and bounds beyond what the predators could hope to handle in their arrogant ways. The predators barely had a chance to do anything to fight back before they were completely wiped out and the Dik-Diks despite their natural size disadvantage were quite capable of brutality beyond anything their predators ever did to them.

As a single being, a Dik-Dik is aggressive, honorable and pragmatic while tending to work mostly towards fair dealings. If you were to absolutely upset that Dik-Dik then you’re going to find that fighting dirty doesn’t even begin to describe the lengths a Dik-Dik will go to over even the smallest of sleights done to them. They prefer clear honesty and openness, they were willing to listen to reason if you were willing to be reasonable with them in the form of a two way street.

In that respect the Dik-Diks had at least given their predators an exceedingly fair warning three weeks in advance before they launched a total extermination campaign. The predators didn’t take them seriously or even wanted to settle things peacefully and even ate the messenger that delivered the warning in their hubris.

The messenger in question was stated to have kill at least five of the predatory species before dying of wounds with a smile on their face, said messenger had also heavily wounded forty seven of them. It took a lot of effort to kill the one solitary messenger who knew that they were being sent on this particularly suicidal mission.

The joke was on the predators that ate the messenger in the end. That particular Dik-Dik had contracted a deadly illness only found on the Dik-Dik home world that was caused by a specific strain of bacteria that could survive a thorough cooking process, provided that the predators even bothered or attempted to cook the messenger in the first place instead of just eating the meat raw. There was actually a cure for the illness and the messenger Dik-Dik would have taken it had they managed return home safely from their delivery. This was a rather nasty surprise when any of the ruling predators that had a taste of the messenger suddenly died of a rather volatile and quickly spreading illness that the predators didn’t didn’t know how to cure.

Yes, the Dik-Dik people were quite honorable, why to suggest otherwise without even a shred of proof would get them mildly angry. They wouldn’t act on the behalf of their allies until they were infringed upon personally or their allies actively asked for help.

As unit or family, Dik-Diks were tightly knit together and formed relatively large harems with generally equal numbers in both males and females. Dik-Diks tended to have large families which would eventually form into powerful clans given enough time. They were quite physically social and passionate amongst their own kind. They treated outsiders with more caution, especially if the outsiders were carnivorous or omnivorous leaning carnivorous. If you attack one Dik-Dik with the intent to kill then every Dik-Dik nearby, even if they aren’t of the same clan or family, will join together as one to stop the attacker and outright cripple them without remorse.

As a whole their race were militaristic and they conscripted their people into service for a minimum of three years, so even their merchants had combat training which is why most space pirates won’t touch or board a single Dik-Dik transport ship without caution. Compared to the races of Equus and how they all preferred diplomacy thanks to Celestia’s many years of effort, Dik-Diks were considered excessively savage and violent brutes when that wasn’t entirely true at all.

When it came to hearing about and meeting the Pony race for the first time? Well one would think the Dik-Dik species as a whole would disdain the peaceful existence and poor military quality. They didn’t actually disdain the peaceful existence or even mind it, though they certainly did disdain the poor military quality that the ponies had as a whole and wondered how they survived to be a space bound species. Well they had wondered how Ponies had survived up until their council heard of monarchy that led the Ponies specifically.

The council was the leadership of the Dik-Dik race, they were surprisingly impossible to corrupt or pay off much to the consternation of many who tried to deal with them. They were elected based on merit and republic election where all the clans had to agree with posting someone to councillorship without bias, as such a clan or any close relations thereof by a removal of two couldn’t vote on their own clan member if they put them up for an election into the council position and in complete fairness they could still vote on other possible council members.

The Dik-Diks actually respected most of the races of Equus for being economically capable and decent ship builders, they even respected the sapient and intelligent predators of the world for not eating sapient and intelligent herbivores. Dik-Diks were slightly iffy on the idea of the existence of Hippogriffs or how they came about, otherwise they were mostly alright with it as long as they didn’t have to talk about it.

The respect became especially noteworthy after the races of Equus successfully stopped the Cacceran incursion cold. They also were okay with the existence of goddesses like Celestia and Luna, because it proved the existence of exceedingly powerful beings and the fact that the princesses were mostly herbivorous helped in the dealings between their respective people. Dik-Diks weren’t religious in any extreme and every Dik-Dik believed in whatever they wanted to, some even worshipped Princess Cadence as a muse of love.

Dik-Diks didn’t expand towards the borders of Pony held space or take any aggressive actions, they mostly left the Ponies and their alliances alone aside from some lucrative trade agreements on all sides involved. The Dik-Diks actually wanted the Pony races of Equus to grow and expand beyond the few systems that they currently held.

While they didn’t socialize with the Pony safe systems very much or mingle outside the boundaries of their systems too often, aside from the worlds at the edge of their coverage like Nocturne, they were quite willing to defend the Pony safe systems. You can imagine how pissed they were to learn what the Humans had been up to from second hand information coming from Applin Five.

While Celestia hadn’t directed any of the information their way or even thought to do so at all, with good reason mind you considering the bloody history of the Dik-Diks, the Dik-Diks weren’t exactly content to sit aside upon hearing about it and would respond quite eloquently if the Humans tried anything like that in their systems. They were already geared up for war and they would police the entire universe if they had to, genocide was actually something they wouldn’t resort to without a perfectly good reason to do so.

As for technology? Dik-Diks were about on par with any of the other races near their sectors of space, most of their technological progress came from their militaristic background and the ruthless war they started. Their weapon choices were notably different as they tended to lean more towards energy based melee weapons and hoof held physical shields in various designs on top of having a lot of lightweight equipment for moving faster or increasing their ability to move around.

It is said that if you wanted an efficient and effective jetpack, then you’d need to find a Dik-Dik merchant willing to sell one to you. There was a noticeable bias depending on what you ate for a living and while Dik-Diks could tolerate omnivores and carnivores, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t watch their backs around them.  

Dik-Dik ground forces preferred fighting at melee ranges while moving at high speeds, the faster they moved the less likely they were to be hit by something that actually needed them to physically block with their projectile deflecting shields. The Dik-Dik hoof held shields might be medieval in appearance, but when they were activated and while energy coated the outer surface of the shield a Dik-Dik could block continuous laser weapons, most metals used as material rounds and even plasma rounds without issue. They didn’t care about bulky armor or the generally flaky body protecting force field generators that some species used.

As for their space forces they preferred using liberal amounts of explosives or more physical types of ammunition that would explode into dust after a set distance. The reason why Dik-Diks had their ammunition be capable of self-destructing is that they didn’t want to accidentally hit anything with their physical projectiles should they miss and proximity based explosives worked just as well even if they didn’t directly hit their target. They didn’t have space fighters, not even for defense or escort and had plenty of fighter countermeasures to make up for it.

The only race that the Dik-Diks currently loathed at the moment were the Pendaxons, understandable considering the giant five legged frog bastards usual disgusting culinary habits. Not a single Pendaxon has attempted to eat a Dik-Dik yet and the Dik-Diks were actually begging, quite loudly, for a reason to attack them. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say Humans might soon be added to the list of races that the Dik-Diks would become quite hostile to.

What was important about all this was that Opal was about to open discussion with the first Dik-Dik she’d ever meet as she took up her seat at communications on the Shining Jewel’s bridge, hey if she was going to be considered their communications specialist she might as well look the part.

Opal had asked her mother to take accompany her and to help take care of her hair once she got seated. Opal’s straight waist length hair tended to get a bit messy from dragging on the floor while she walked like a quadruped, she was getting better at it and would eventually start learning to walk on her two hind limbs to avoid tripping over her own crowning glory that Rarity was already brushing putting up into a pair of ponytails or the usual unbraided pigtails that was Opal’s usual favored style back when she thought she was an AI. This delighted Opal to no end, even as Rarity calmly planted a communication headset on her head with a soft smile.

Opal wasn’t the only one who would be experiencing Dik-Diks for the first time, Rarity would step in if she was needed. Rarity was going to be standing off to the side and listening into the conversation.

An appropriate question to ask is why the Dik-Diks helped to build the cities on Nocturne in the first place, it was a planet swarming with predatory creatures and Dik-Diks were certainly not predator friendly. Yet, they were prominent on this particular planet why? They weren’t exterminating the predators either if that was your first guess as to their presence.

-

“Hello, this Shining Jewel and I’m the communications officer Opal K. Belle, I think everyone needs a little more K. Bell in their life.” Opal started off cheerfully, she was going to do her job like she always did and she was watching the screen from the outside this time and yet she still felt like she was behind it a little bit. This would be her first time acting in her capacity as a visible crew member instead of a lovely little digital creature that happened to run the ship. Sure she loved the attention, but she was a big girl and could still do her many various jobs. “We would like a transmission of local laws and a list of local dangerous creatures to avoid, we would also like to dock with the local station and will be eventually asking for permission to go down to the planet.”

“This is Officer So’Grahd, we have you in sight Shining Jewel. Please do state the nature of your visit at this time.” On the screen in front of Opal was a surprisingly soft voiced female Dik-Dik with a tuft of blonde hair that would never grow out very long, but those tufts of hair could hide extra horns on males. “Because if you don’t, you can probably already see our ships. You likely know what they’ll do to you in response, we will be checking you for contraband of course and will give you a list of items that we consider contraband in nature. None of those items may leave your ship if you do dock with us.”

This Dik-Dik had a bland look on her face and her chocolate eyes were not brokering any nonsense as they stared into Opal’s soul… well if she had a soul or was a soul made physical. The Dik-Diks fur was a bright tawny color and she was well muscled, plus there were a few noticeable minor cybernetic enhancements that were not to be overlooked which were attached to her ears. This was a Dik-Dik that had probably beaten someone into the ground despite her size maxing out to about Coco’s current stature.

The look Opal was getting from the Dik-Dik made her shiver, Opal didn’t think the Dik-Dik would appreciate a phonetic joke about her name sounding suspiciously like ‘So Glad’. Mostly because the Dik-Dik has likely heard it before and knocked out a few teeth over it, how could a creature that small be so intimidating?

Dik-Dik’s didn’t do cybernetic replacements, they only worked basic cybernetic enhancements or very mild augmentations so long as they aren’t invasive to the body as a whole. They won’t even take prosthetics replacements if injured, they don’t do things like replace their eyeballs or any part of themselves as it would be admitting that they couldn’t be strong on their own merits.

“We’re primarily a mercantile and entertainment enterprise vessel, mercantile is our primary form of income as we mostly sell clothing based goods and top quality EVA suits along with various mostly non-lethal utilities for moving around in space or underwater. I say non-lethal because anyone can find a lethal use for said utilities and as such we can’t get in trouble for how people use our products once sold, we’ll be opening our product menu shortly. As for the militaristic view of our ship it’s based in the fact that we cleaned it out of a nasty sifter drifter infestation.” Opal was already receiving the information she asked for and she sent information of their cargo hold, they had nothing to hide. Though if asked about all the hair Chrysalis acquired under dubious means, then Opal was definitely going to be open and honest about that as much as she could be. She really didn’t know whether or not Chrysalis illegally acquired all of it. “We staked a claim on the ship and we’ve been proud owners ever since we acquired it legally, if you want to take it up with anyone then take it up with Commander Lirutiy of Eweson. I’m now sending crew and guests manifest for perusal.”

“Receiving information. I might have a few questions I would like to ask you, give me a few minutes to look over the data.” Officer So’Grahd’s eyes seemed to focus on something off to the side and they narrowed a bit, while Opal stopped Shining Jewel in space and waited patiently to be given an approach vector. So’Grahd eyes seemed to flicker back to some bit of information and then she brought her attention back to Opal. “First off, why do you look so different from normal Caccerans?”

“My mother is a pony and she’s also the captain of the vessel. She is Baroness Rarity D. Belle, she hasn’t done much with her title and she doesn’t advertise it all too much. She is the head of clothing design and production for our particular business of Rarity's Rarities. Don’t ask about my father, I’ve never met actually him.” Well you can’t meet someone who possibly doesn’t exist, Opal didn’t know if energy beings were supposed to have a gender. She definitely like being female and wasn’t about to stop looking feminine any time soon.

“If I ever meet your sire, I would ask that you tell me what to do with him when I do.” So’Grahd’s voice took on a particularly threatening tone, Dik-Diks were heavily family oriented and anyone of the family or clan not helping to raise a child until they were of age was seen as scum if there weren’t provable extenuating circumstance involved. Rarity was completely safe because she was still obviously raising Opal.

“Oh don’t worry about that, if mom doesn’t get an explanation from my other progenitor. Should they ever show up, then she might just geld them like she did to a stallion that tried to do untoward things to her.” Opal felt a bit awful about rooting for the Changelings to keep Mind Field alive just so the stallion could continue to suffer. “Can we move on? I’m not exactly broken up about someone I’ve never met, plus my mother’s crew is like family to me already.”

“Yes, let’s. Your crew has an unusually well stocked armory, but that’s not what I want to ask about. Understand that carrying anything for personal protection is completely legal around here, which means even heavy weapons. The legal usage of such weapons is seen to by case to case basis and who did what.” The antelope looking alien paused for a moment to let the information sink in that anyone who comes to Nocturne will likely be armed. They shouldn’t use the weapons without good reason or they’d get in trouble with the local authority. “What I’m more curious about is all the Pony hair on your cargo manifest, surely you don’t use that in the clothing as well. What is the purpose of all that hair?”

“What do you know about Changelings?” It would be easier for Opal to explain what all that hair was used for if So’Grahd already knew about them.

“Admittedly not a lot, but I know that they are native to Equus and have caused problems in the past. It says here that the one on your crew is named Crystal.” It was kind of plain to see that So’Grahd had quirked an eyebrow that was asking various questions and Opal was being prompted to answer them.

“Her name is Crystal Clear Dick, that’s completely true. She prefers to go by her title as a queen, so we’ll be calling her Chrysalis as she has signed on with our crew to perform various jobs. Changelings have three main sources of food, one of which is hair.” This was common knowledge that would be spread around when Changelings started becoming more prominent, so Opal didn’t think it would be too bad to tell two of the three sources of food. “Aside from eating hair or fur, she can also consume ambient or directed love. I’m talking about the emotion and yes it’s a thing they do, they are empathic meaning they can read how you’re feeling emotionally. Note, it is not mind reading.”

“What’s the third thing they can eat and what aren’t you telling me about Changelings?” So’Grahd seemed to focus on the latter half of what Opal said.

“Well if you seriously want to know I’ll tell you about the third thing they eat, but it’s a bit sickening and not really for polite conversation.” Opal received a look that said So’Grahd was going to ask anyway. “As for what I haven’t told you, Changelings are shape shifting beings who can take on various appearances. They can only mimic four legged beings or object, they can’t actually change their mass and technology counteracts their ability to sneak around. We’ll be keeping a tight eye on her to make sure she doesn’t cause too much trouble.”

“You mean to tell me you honestly have a creature that can sneak around disguised as one of my people on your ship and you’re not even going to hide that fact?” Now So’Grahd seemed less content and more attentive, her tone was also a bit sharper. “What else can they eat, also is the emotion eating dangerous?”

“Their third form of eating is coprophagia and yes that is surprisingly healthy for a Changeling, also no the emotion thing isn’t dangerous even in the most extreme cases excepting that you might lose the ability to feel emotions for a while. We prefer that she eat hair or our love for her, instead of having her clean out the toilets and we all know how that would turn out.” Now Opal could see So’Grahd’s face turn a pale shade of green and her cheeks swelled slightly, much to Opal’s surprise So’Grahd actually swallowed the bile buildup in her throat and cleared it. “Also she can’t really successfully disguise herself as one of your people, she’s too big and a big Dik-Dik would be extremely out of place among you’re kind. She can however disguise herself as one of our other crew members if she so chose. Aside from being slightly predatory in nature, Changelings don’t actually outright kill anything unless threatened.”

“I can see why you were reluctant to tell me of her third food source now. So she’s relatively harmless unless provoked? She is welcome then, but I still need to consider the dietary habits of the rest of your crew.” So’Grahd still looked a little sick at the thought of what Chrysalis could eat to stay alive. “It says here you have a Diamond Dog, two Griffons and a… a Lagotophin! How did you find one of those meat eating little monsters and why is it on your crew?”

“Excuse me, but Bernard is not a meat eating monster. His primary source of meat will always be unintelligent predators with little or no sapience at all and he hardly eats meat to begin with.” Jumping to a friend’s defense was what Opal’s mother would do and she wasn’t any different. “His main diet actually consists of vegetables, mostly he eats carrots and he’s a close friend of ours. He’s part of the entertainment group who hired us to ferry them around to wherever we end up going. We earn a share of their profits and we also do merchandising for them aside from just being transport.”

“Do ponies seriously try to befriend everything that might eat them? I swear the strange tales from that world are almost too crazy to believe, I mean giant rainbow waves that heal people and peaceful unity between all the intelligent carnivores and herbivores is a little hard to swallow.” So’Grahd stated blithely with a hint of contempt while shaking her head. “Still what do the Diamond Dogs and Griffons eat, for that matter have you ever had meat before?”

“I can honestly say that no, I have never had meat and will remind you that my mother is and has always been a Pony. I like sweet and sugary things personally. It comes from my mom I guess, as she enjoys eating tons of ice cream when she’s really upset and somehow that doesn’t go to her hips. My diet is mostly vegetarian, with the exception of eggs. Speaking of swallows, apparently ponies are in a small war with little birds known as swallows or are apparently working towards a peace treaty with them.” Clearing her throat to hide the slight giggle, Opal looked off to the side at Rarity who had been listening into the conversation, the unicorn shook her head as she didn’t have anything to say and gave Opal a reproachful look for telling someone about her eating habits while thoroughly upset. “The Diamond Dogs dietary habits are rather specific as there are some things he can’t eat without getting horribly sick, he enjoys peanut butter for protein and so do the griffons as well. While we do have fish for the more meat minded of the crew, our chefs are ponies that primarily cook indoneighsian food. It’s not the only food they create, but it’s their related to their special talents. As I said before, we would like to first dock with the local space station and do some business before heading on down to the planet.”

“…. Okay I can actually accept all that and I’m going to give you an approach vector, you can keep your shields active but power down your weapons unless you want to start something we’re going to finish one way or another. I only have a few more question and then you can proceed closer to Selengard Station.” It sounded like Officer So’Grahd was being far more amiable and accommodating now, she even seemed a little less guarded than she did a second ago. “I just wish to know which of your number will be leaving your ship and for what reasons. I also need to know if you are going to dock to the station with a ship of that size to see if we have space for it.”

“My mom Rarity, I, Sassy, Coco and Chrysalis will be departing in the station to do business and look around in the station, I will not be going down to the planet and I will return to the ship when they do head down that way.” Opal didn’t want to get too far away from Shining Jewel, it was her responsibility and the only reason why she wanted to go onto the station is to do some shopping. She gave her mother big cat eyes and a quivering lip, Rarity rolled her eyes and just smiled at Opal. Opal felt gleeful at the prospect of walking around with her mother doing some shopping. “The crew members listed as Trapeze Star, Rover and Bernard will be looking to put on a few performances. Trapeze is a master of acrobatics, magician magic and oddly enough fire breathing, Rover is a juggler and is learning how to clown around and as for Bernard he’s Trapeze’s main assistant who is still recovering from some nasty burn wounds he got while protecting Trapeze. We’ll be docking in one of the stations hangars in a smaller ship called the Caravel Boutique.”

“Okay then, I’m sending you an approach vector and will be setting up both your groups with a minder. Before you say anything, all people on the station need one minder of my species to keep watch of them. Business and trade doesn’t require permits here, we’re open market and the minders are to prevent illegal trading or bad deals. They are also to prevent any illicit actions from happening under our noses.” Dik-Diks weren’t known for being economically powerful, but they at least knew what was fair and So’Grahd continued on looking far more relaxed. “We’re a little more lenient as to what happens on the planet and we know illegal stuff happens down there, we still try to prevent it from happening and will tell you of the safer places you can go to if you want to know. Welcome to Selengard Station, don’t try anything funny while you’re here in Vae Dur.”