Ember sat on the rooftop with a pair of binoculars held up to her eyes in her left claw. She had her right hand on the trigger aiming it at the Macropussian, before he went down in a cascade of electricity that fried his body into a twitching unconscious mess that, disgustingly enough, peed itself.
Sighing, the blue dragon stowed her material rifle on her back and was happy that she didn’t need to use up any more ammunition. She really didn’t want to resort to firing rocks again. Regular guns had premade bullets that were fired by chemical propulsion pads at the back of them that were activated by a hammer, said bullets were made to fit the barrel of the gun. Material weapons worked differently, given that they could fire unusual things such as rocks or marbles, which lead to one of the weirder things that have ever been shot from a material weapon being owl pellets. If it was effective, then nobody was going to say anything about the ammunition of choice of the user wielding a material weapon. Though scrap metal was always the preferable, popular and most importantly cheap ammunition of choice that you could just find lying around.
“Let’s see, at least seven hundred rounds spent, at least five dead Ceantirs, two of them wounded enough to be captured, seven knocked out beaten and bloodied Macropussians, one Macropussian electrocuted into unconsciousness by an unknown factor and what do I have to show for all of it?” As she spoke Ember kept an eye on the mare taking the other mares outstretched hoof, it was adorable and the friendliness between them was making her blush. She hit a button on the binoculars to save the image. “A rather cute scene between those two I guess… I wonder what they‘re talking about. I should probably apologize to that mare for getting her caught up in all the crossfire. Wait… weren’t their ten Ceantirs? What happened to the other three? Oh coal! I knew I was forgetting something.”
Diamonds were delicious to dragons, while inversely coal tasted horrible and yet they were practically made of the same thing. As such it was said that dragons had rather refined sense of taste, speaking of, Ember could go for a meal of sapphires and emeralds right about now given how her stomach grumbled.
Standing up from her position on the rooftop Ember started looking around for any sign of the other three Ceantirs. The whole of the Macropussian gang was taken care of, but unaccounted loose ends always had a tendency of coming back to bite you. The pony princesses Luna and Celestia learned that lesson well enough the hard way and Ember was a very smart dragon to learn from their poor history of not taking care of things like that immediately when they had the chance to do so.
Ember was probably the smartest dragon of her millennia and one of the few that went into space looking for adventure. Her race didn’t exactly care about expanding their horizons; some of the dragons her age were probably still idiotically bothering phoenixes back on the planetary home of Equus. Sometimes she actually did miss her volcanic home; she was going to miss the migration again like she did every year. It had never bothered her before since she was an independent and strong dragon, so this time wasn’t any different. For now she had Ceantirs to hunt down before she could safely talk to that earth pony, she’d track her down later after she was finished.
-
The last time Rarity had sleep was when she was knocked unconscious by whiplash, as such it wasn’t a surprise that when she yawned Opal gave her a flat look that said a lot about needing to take care of her own needs. One of those needs were a nice snack and plenty of rest, she already freshened up in a shower and spent ten minutes to make sure her hair looked perfect.
“You really need a good long rest Meowstress... in any case we’re coming in for a landing at hangar seven of Drixsto’s spaceport. Welcome to Ewesen the shining lake planet Rarity, I heard they have some really good ice fishing spots on this world with really tasty fish here. Oh to have a sense of actual taste and not the abstract kind that you gave me.” Appearing on screen, Opal stretched out and lay lazily on her side propping her chin up on a paw as her pink hair flowed down to pool on an invisible floor at the bottom of the screen. “After you get a snack and some tea in you, you’re going straight to bed in the living quarters. No butts about it, we’re not lifting off until we have a new jump module installed and you’re rested. So that’ll take a bit of work given you like to haggle. So while you’re busy haggling with me about how much sleep you need, you can go get your friends to start working on our income. While J modules aren’t expensive, they aren’t exactly cheap either given our current lack of funds.”
“Yes, well, at least we know Coco is okay, the poor dear getting stuck near a firefight and having portions of the city being set ablaze around her must not have done her any favors mentally. I’m still mentally disturbed about killing something and I should probably look into Sassy’s therapist about all of it for the both of us.” Pulling out a mirror Rarity looked at her reflection with a smile, she still looked good despite needing some sleep. “Right then, anything I need to know about customs for this planet?”
“Yeah, one thing, don’t throw trash in the lakes. The Parascine that live here have psychic powers and they will make sure the world stays clean and green, most likely with force if necessary. So be mindful of how you dispose of trash around here Meowstress.” Opal showed a member of the jellyfish race on screen and it was holding a sign that said, ‘don’t pollute or you’ll get the boot’. “Apparently the local ones like a Minotaur named Iron Will. They are big fans because he’s good at strengthening their willpowers so they can utilize their psychic powers better. You’d expect Iron Will to have psychic powers himself, but he doesn’t… what he’s really good at is stopping mind intrusions and is practically immune to mind control from both magic and psychics. Think of all the incredible things you can do when you put your biological mind to it, dresses unlimited!”
“Opal I think you’re getting a little off track… I’m standing outside the ship and you didn’t even notice. Please perform the necessary operations to lock up Opal and deploy CAT one under rudimentary control should I need it to carry something for me. You’re staying in the ship darling.” If it were anyone else Rarity would have said they were really odd, her AI was just being herself and Opal really liked the concept of self when expressed through things such as willpower or friendship. She tended to watch motivational speakers, magician acts, cheesy cartoons and anime when she got the time to do so and now was one of those times. “I’ll be out for a quick snack and then I’ll be right back okay?”
“Right, deploying CAT one, remember it’ll only follow simple commands. Basic stuff of the likes of medical scans, area scans, holding something or operating something, but you’d have to tell it what to do exactly when it’s operating something. Remember rudimentary control is not an AI like me, but an overly simplistic program. I’m connecting to Coco’s data pad and it’s near the west entrances, they’re waiting for you.” Rarity nodded to her floating data pad held in her magic and stowed it away in her saddlebags, turning to the ship the cargo ramp lowered slightly and let out CAT-1 which came over to hover next to Rarity.
“CAT one follow me please.” The CAT chirruped at Rarity’s command as she turned around and started trotting away with the robot hovering behind her.
-
“Come on Sassy, talk to me.” Coco was sitting outside the spaceport with Sassy who looked rather glum; they were waiting for Rarity to show up. Opal pretty much confirmed she was coming to them and that they’d go out together for a nice outing, provided nobody else had the predilection for shooting at ponies.
“All it would have taken was fifteen degrees up and a quarter of a foot forward, three inches.” Seeing the questioning look she was receiving Sassy elaborated on what she meant. “I wanted to kill him. If I had angled the blade fifteen degrees upwards and moved it out by a quarter of a foot, then the tip of my blade would have gone through his jugular and hit an artery. He’d have been dead within minutes and it would have been so easy.”
Coco looked a little alarmed at the admission, she thought Sassy was a bit fragile mentally and hearing her say something like that sent up a few yellow flags in her mind. Despite Sassy’s depressive mood Coco hugged her tightly anyway, Miss Pommel didn’t like the idea of her friend becoming a volatile psychotic and wanted her to be okay.
“It’ll be okay Sassy; we can probably talk to your therapist about this, does she know you’ve been… training? It seems like you can swing that thing really fast, it almost looked like you never pulled it out.” To be fair Coco was a little impressed with her friend’s skill with the blade, if it wasn’t so daunting a thing to know that her friend was training to lethally defend herself. Apparently she hadn’t told her therapist about her training, given how she quietly looking away and winced. “Look if you have to kill someone or something, then at least make sure to do it for the right reason and not because they’re male. I’m here for you and I’m sure Rarity will be too.”
“What happened still haunts me and how do you even think that Rarity-sama will be able to even look at me after...” Sassy stopped talking when another pair of hooves wrapped around her neck and then received a gentle if brief nuzzle.
“It’s okay Sassy, I forgive you. Sorry darling, it just looks like you were having another mental breakdown and could really use a generous touch. How about we all talk over some tea and snacks, then maybe you can introduce me to your therapist.” Rarity pulled away as did Coco who looked happy to see her, Sassy stiffened and had an undefined expression on her face. “I’ve had quite an adventure and I’m so glad to put it all behind me, I’ve got my whole life ahead of me… provided I don’t nearly get myself killed again.”
Sassy immediately panicked and started tapping and poking Rarity’s body causing her to grunt a little when the taller pony found the sore spots on her neck.
“Who gave you these bruises?” It didn’t take long for Sassy to find the whiplash bruises under Rarity’s fur; they were healing nicely and were only visible if you actually looked for them. Her voice jumped straight to an accusatory tone as she knew Rarity wanted to eventually find a nice stallion. She’d maul anyone who’d dare hurt or abuse Rarity-sama.
It was Rarity who had saved Sassy from being continually abused in a med-bed; she called the authorities and even came personally to pull her out of the med-bed she was strapped into. Thankfully there was justice in the universe concerning the fact that the criminal was given to Princess Celestia’s custody where she was allowed to judge and sentence him, plus the prosecutor was a female pony named Just Cause who made sure the punishment was quite severe. Even then it didn’t help heal Sassy’s traumatized mind of the event.
“It’s good to see you’re doing better Sassy, though not entirely all too well apparently. Unfortunately for me I ran afoul of some space pirates and got some injuries in the process. It involved the gravity generator and my ships jump module getting hit by a lucky shot fired by one of the three pirate cruisers.” Rarity paused and looked to Coco. “Then I’ve had the dreadful misfortune to find a ship to get me the rest of the way here and its swarming with monsters. You know the kind of monsters that Mr. Gitonir is always telling me about Coco, they are very much real and I had to kill one or else get my head bitten off. Aside from the bruises I’m fine otherwise, really.”
“Are you sure you’re alright Rarity-sama?” Sassy’s cold fury turned to incredible concern in an instant. “Also who is Mr. Gitonir and what is his background?”
“He’s a Plurt and a friend of mine who lives on Desserzon, happily married as well. I just need some sleep since I’m tired from how horrible my trip has turned out to be.” Now it was Rarity’s turn to receive hugs, ponies weren’t known for violence and or killing things. It was nice to take in the comforting touches of two friends, she graciously accepted them and it felt better that she personally forgave Sassy for being a bit too crazy in the past. Pulling back from both of them she pulled out her data pad. “Just making sure Opal is okay. Come now Coco, you know the area best. Where can we find a nice spot of tea and snacks?”
Coco gave it some thought and motioned for them to follow her when she thought of a nice place outdoors to spend some time at. The firefight would slowly become a forgotten memory and eventually a nightmare that peters out of existence. Speaking of, the firefighters were just about done with the fires from that fight as well.
-
“So you are now friends with two griffons and they’ll take a contract with you if you gain ownership of that ship that has the hangar they want to work out of?” The three were at a nice outdoor café; Coco in particular liked the imported chamomile they served and a few scones to go with it. This café was a quiet and down to earth place with a spectacular view of Lake Terwa.
“Yes, well, Greta is actually quite nice to work with and really has a positive outlook on things. Gilda is a bit grumpy and rude, but I can see that she has a good heart. Greta’s technical expertise has helped me with thinking of a few new functions to add to the EVA suits that we can design Coco; she’s exceptionally good at installing utilities without ruining the structural integrity of the suits. EVA suits definitely require function over form.” Pausing to take a sip of tea, Rarity looked at the beautiful scenery of the sparkling lake that the café up on a hillside overlooked. In the distance something exploded and a column smoke started rising into the sky. It was nowhere near them so she didn’t bother with worrying about it as several firefighting vehicles were already flying off in that direction. “The view is simply breathtaking, aside from the explosion that is. Is everything okay Sassy? You haven’t touched your snack.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just… can I come with you two? I’m a good sales manager, among other things.” Sassy moved to take a nibble of her brownie and leaned back, she looked away from Rarity. “Also I would like to commission and pay for an EVA suit of my own, do you think you can add a skirt to it?”
“Why of course you can come with us darling, but you’ll have to clear it with your therapist and introduce her to me. I’m too tired right now to start on an EVA suit right now, but I’ll get to it once you come over to my ship after I’ve had a good nights sleep.” Rarity took a bite out of the locally grown fruit from the platter she ordered and found it had a nice tangy sweetness to it, almost like a peach. She took out her data pad and started magically tapping out things before passing it over to Sassy’s magic. “I can see why you like this planet Coco, the local flavor is divine. Now Sassy, what did you want your EVA suit to be equipped with besides the basics and what color do you want it in. We can also add any decals or images that you like to it that you might have in mind. What you see before you is a current list of utilities that Coco and I can put into the suit.”
“Well the two of you need to start somewhere; I may as well be your first paying customer. I want an EVA suit with black and gold colors, this design on it in this spot and these utilities. I also want the skirt to have pockets I can put stuff into.” Sassy started tapping out a few things before passing the pad back to Rarity who looked it over. “You can work in anything else you might like to add or think might be useful to me. I would also like to add an order for a red dress kimono with purple colored roses on it.”
“Would you like ornamental hair sticks to go with that order? It’s free of charge.” Rarity thought Sassy’s hair was nice down or up, she was still a stunningly beautiful mare even given what happened to her. Too bad no man would ever touch her again without a threat to their lives.
“Yes please.” Sassy squeaked out and continued to quietly eat her brownie as Rarity smiled at her, the smile left her with a warm feeling in her chest that Rarity was still willing to be her friend.
“Then it’s settled, I’ll get to work on it tomorrow. Come by my ship in hangar seven, me and Coco can get to work on it in the Caravel Boutique. Now tell me about this therapist of yours, this Miss Shy that I’ve heard about.” Staying calm and collected, Rarity looked between Sassy and Coco. “Coco and I could use her services as well.”
“Well Fluttershy… she’s a really gorgeous mare, long pink hair, buttery yellow fur and has a voice that is so sweet and relaxing along with those bright blue eyes. She’s probably the best therapist I have ever met, plus she’s exceedingly good with animals and likes to care for and raise a lot of them. She is the epitome of kindness and really attractive.” Sassy had a blush going throughout her face as she quickly sipped some tea, it had both Rarity and Coco looking at her with curious expressions as she coughed in embarrassment. “Unfortunately she’s not on planet at the moment; she’s up at Geoptis meeting a friend of hers. It was something about introducing her to someone called Sky Child, in any case Fluttershy is the friendliest if shyest SNUGGLES member you’ll ever meet.”
Rarity was about to take a sip of tea when she heard this and stopped, she wondered if Gilda met the one who called her Sky Child yet, much less Miss Shy. It had her wondering what the look on the griffons face would be and she tittered lightly at the thought. SNUGGLES was an organization entirely built around finding a good friend, companion and or buddy, their services primarily focused on giving mental and physical aid to those who think they are completely broken. The organization has certainly done wonders for Sassy Saddles and even if you weren’t mentally or physically broken their members were good at massage or other various forms of relaxation. Which led to Rarity frequenting the spas that were SNUGGLES owned and operated. As the name SNUGGLES suggested, there was a lot of cuddling involved if you needed it.
Fluttershy sounded like quite the charming mare to have acquired Sassy’s interest, given Fluttershy helped her immensely when she was being a lot less sane probably helped.
“Do go on dear; it seems as if you are particularly friendly with this lady.” Watching as her friend tried to find the right words to say at this moment, Rarity sat back and bit into another fruit and smiled a little bit wider. “When can we set up an appointment for me and Coco to meet this mare that you sound rather familiar with?”
Sassy continued floundering for the next minute trying to deny her interest in the mare; her face was getting so red it could match the color of one of the fruits on Rarity’s platter.
-
“Hey you two, you have two visitors.” The five to six foot tall thin being that addressed Gilda and Greta was a human; they were wild cards of great intelligence and impossible stupidity. While humans could be quite cunning at times and overall highly inventive, most species didn’t understand their sometimes odd fixation with waxing, shaving or removing the natural hair off of specific parts of their bodies. This one had a head covered in short brown hair and a beard, two arms ending in four fingers and a thumb connected to his upper torso and his long legs that ended in five toes were connected to his lower. As to his clothing he was wearing a Planetary Protection Patrol uniform and what had to be a matter of personal taste, green boots. “How are you two holding up?”
Humans were really strange omnivores that did really odd things like worry about two griffons they didn’t know a single thing about. There weren’t many of them around where the Equon system was, though a majority of their species enjoyed spending time cuddling with ponies.
“We’re doing fine Mr. Strag. Who are the two visitors, is it anyone we know?” As Greta assured the human while she exercised on the bench she took up with a bright cheerful demeanor, a grumpy Gilda cross her arms and grumbled something under her breath as she continued to lazily stretch her body out on the floor of the triple P’s holding room.
“Well one of them certainly knows you, okay you two come on in.” The human waved the two visitors over and Greta stopped exercising when she saw who one of the visitors was.
In fact Gilda, hearing Greta flop down to the floor next to her, sat up and took notice. There stood a familiar green mare, with red mane in natural looking thick dreadlocks and the symbol of a tree with a heart shaped out of its leaves on her flank. Her soft purple eyes were already focused on Gilda.
“Hello Sky Child, I’m happy to see you survived your endeavors. I bring blessings to you and to Ever Cheerful again.” It was a mare named Tree Hugger, one of Gilda’s worst nightmares since she set out for space.
Gilda’s adverse reaction was to ignore the other pony and slam her back against the far wall while clawing at it like a cornered beast as Tree Hugger approached in a lazy lackadaisical manner towards her. The mare gave the panicked griffon a gentle hug before kissing her cheek.
“Sky Child, know the big sky loves you as much as you love her. I’m assured you two will meet in a beautiful ballet of bright lights eventually.” Tree Hugger solemnly intoned as she snuggled against Gilda who was clearly having a panic attack. “Peace Sky Child, why do you always treat me like an ill omen? I am of the earth and you are the sky, we are meant to work in concert as friends.”
“Um… Tree Hugger, I think she doesn’t like you hugging her like that o-or kissing her either.” The mare known as Fluttershy squeaked shyly as Greta dove behind her, the griffon was shivering in fear.
“H-h-how long have you been on Geoptis Station?” The green mare was just plain scary to Greta and here she thought she was joking about her making an appearance.
“I have been in the area for two months communing with the nature of Ewesen when given the opportunity. He is a very nice planet; he speaks of the heroic Parascine that keeps his waters clean and healthy, he provides a strong positive environment for all visitors who would bask in his beauty. Please do little to pollute him for he is like a friend to all, unless they prove to be careless with his body.” There was something to be said about Tree Hugger’s sanity, considering she always speaks of talking to and communicating with planets while she’s on or near them. “He would ask you to visit him Sky Child, your friend The Maker is already communing with her friends Reviving Spirit and Sheep Wolf.”
“You… you’ve been waiting here for us haven’t you?” Greta didn’t know whether or not she wanted to understand all the crazy things the mare spoke of, after Tree Hugger kissed Gilda’s cheek again the small smile below the two calm half lidded eyes Greta received spoke volumes. The mare was quite perfectly aware of how insane she came off as to others. Greta clearly remembered what happened when Gilda attacked her for being so annoying and it didn’t end to well for her, which is why her feathered friend was still panicking, sweating profusely and sitting dead still in Tree’s hooves.
“I do many things. One of which is to make sure Sky Child will be able to perform, for the big sky loves her dearly and is sad she has yet to do so.” Tree Hugger snuggled her head against the right crook of the frozen griffon’s neck, while Fluttershy just tilted her head at the odd situation. “Come closer Soul Judger my great friend Fluttershy; this is Sky Child.”
It left Fluttershy wondering why the griffon wasn’t forcing Tree Hugger off of herself if she didn’t like the proximity of her friend cuddling up to her, the griffon obviously had to be stronger than her right?
-
“CAT one carry me, follow designation Coco.” Rarity yawned again and she looked ready to collapse, until the CAT lifted her onto its body with the two manipulator arms. It caused a small problem for the machine as Rarity came close to exceeding its weight tolerance. She tiredly pulled out her data pad and held it out to the cute mare walking along next to her slowly waning eyes. “Coco, please be a darling and call Opal and have her put me in bed with my sleeping mask on.”
“Of course Rarity, Sassy are you going to stay on the ship with us?” Coco looked to the mare that had her inexorably worried.
“No, I’ve got some things I need to take care of first, have Opal watch for me just in case.” Turning away from the two, Sassy started heading towards where she lived.