//------------------------------// // -9- // Story: Coarse Diamonds // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// Rarity quickly jerked awake to find out that she was in a comfy place, safely in a bed. In her hooves she felt something soft and warm. Taking a moment light her horn and pull her sleeping mask off she looked down at the little plush toy she had, it was of princess of the night Luna and she smiled. Shaking her head and setting aside the doll, she reached up with a hoof and hit a button. Her bed sheets were covered in sweat and they looked a bit tangled from the tossing and turning that was caused by the recent nightmare she had about the Xouj. Celestia and Luna the two rulers of the Pony race, the ones who controlled their systems movements through the use of the sun and moon respectively. They were both alicorns, ponies of wings, horns and powers of the earth. In general the two had a beauty about them that equally attracted both mares and stallions to them, though Rarity had always liked Luna for her rather unique personality and for aiding all ponies as they slept no matter where they were. At least Luna’s dream powers were not limited to the Equon System itself. “Opal I’m awake dear, I’m about to get out of bed and start my first day of real work my way to the top. Is Coco sleeping or is she up and about?” It wasn’t that Rarity hadn’t worked a day in her life; it was just that it was now her own business that she was working for. Bussing tables had been relatively easy and she didn’t get too many rowdy customers, plus working as a waitress did have the advantage of getting you to meet new people for making connections. Her last job helped pay for Sweetie Belle quite well when it came to charming tips out of customers, it helped that she learned how to handle people with tact. “I’m also beginning to miss Sweetie Belle, so please have a CAT waiting to slap some sense into me. Just don’t damage my face… body and or anything else with the slap; I don’t mind getting a little bit mussed up. I’m going to take a shower anyway.” With a tug Rarity slid her bed out of the wall of the living quarters and stretched out her spine. She gracefully rolled her way onto her hooves and flicked her magic to grab a bag, her wakeup ritual was about to begin. First was an inspection of looking in a mirror before she did anything. As expected, she just looked like she woke up and rolled off the wrong side of her bed. A wry snort came at the sight in the mirror; this was before she really got going as she held herself up to looking absolutely perfect by her own standards. A CAT floated over to Rarity, who looked at it curiously as it produced one manipulator arm that lightly slapped her across the face before leaving. “You’re welcome by the way. Anyway you know Coco is an earth pony and they do love to get started early when they don’t work themselves to death… sorry Coco, Rarity’s awake and she was wondering what you’re doing. The answer is she’s working on more impulse saddles to attach to the EVA suits. It is currently six in the afternoon of the planets twenty eight hour days; the gravity is still one to one based on pony standards, plus the atmosphere is the freshest you can get. So do you want me to pipe some air in when you need to dry off?” Opal popped up on Rarity’s data pad the moment the mare turned it on, she had her paws behind her head in a reclining position with a friendly smile upon her face. “Other than that you have no new messages Meowstress Rarity, but I have been putting up some advertisements for the locals. We have been getting a few people interested in your business, but not much in the way of orders. The advertisements for made to order high end civilian grade EVA suits is getting some interest, we’re just not well known enough to make a big pull in customers for the price of the suits to make up for all the materials that goes into making them. However we do have a few orders for clothing, surprisingly three are from Parascine with nothing defined as to what their order was, two from Ponies and one from a Cacceran.” “Well Parascine are quite common here. Give me a rundown of what they all want while I shower and get myself in order. Though I’m guessing the Cacceran wants something in the terms of incredibly sturdy, the ponies probably want dresses, eveningwear or something along the lines of… lingerie. As for the Parascine I have no clue what kind of clothing they would want from me, but I will try to accommodate them to the best of my abilities.” As Rarity stepped into the shower, she gave off a happy sigh as the warm water started running down her back. It was good to hear that Caravel Boutique even has as many customers as it did; Rarity would have to eventually make connections to get higher on the social ladder to make more money and to keep the quality materials she used stocked. As such everyone had to start somewhere and Rarity wasn’t turning away any customers no matter their status unless it was apparent that they were of the worst sort. - A Cacceran looked like any cross between a rabbit, fox and cat at three to four feet in height and were omnivorous leaning carnivorous. They are able to move as a biped or quadruped with ease and are not particular fast or acrobatic, they are actually puny in physical strength, decent at technology and being decently cunning they made for exceptional lawyers. One thing you should never let this species do is let them alter any laws in your society. This was a species that once tried to invade the planet of Equus, though they failed miserably their race earned the moniker ‘bunny eared lawyers’. Cacceran invasion were quite subtle ones; the species have managed to topple multiple empires using their methods. Fortunately nobody on Equus fell for what they tried to do. Instead of going to outright war for an invasion, the Caccerans did something rather unique. They tried to endear themselves to the ones that they were invading. Caccerans would take all the worst and most unforgiving jobs that nobody liked doing at wages that made things barely livable for them. Given a Cacceran invasion was in it for the long term, they did those jobs without question until the species they subtly invaded forgot how to do those small jobs or had left them all for the Caccerans to do. When they were ready on one particular set day, the Caccerans would stop doing all those jobs that keeps the structure of society held together all at once. It was a rather demented form of starting a world destroying workers union; they usually did it to wreck the economy of their current hosts. Given they put themselves into the situation, all they had to do was make a united complaint worldwide about poor compensation compared to work conditions. They’d always have a lot of support since they’d always have a good point to make, because they set it up to happen that way. In essence pony nobles may snub a garbage pony, but those ponies could find out all their secrets by rummaging through their garbage without question and could blackmail said nobles if they wanted to. A maid could overhear things they weren’t meant to, they could have information that not many others could get a hold of and all they had to do was silently perform their duties no matter how horrible the person they worked for was. Any job that was close to thankless and harsh like that usually attracted a Cacceran as they liked a challenge; they fought wars with crippling knowledge and politics instead of strength or raw power. The Caccerans however didn’t account for multiple things about all the races of Equus when they invaded. Of the things they didn’t account for, a major one was racial traits such as cutie marks, stubbornness to do those jobs themselves or just plain aggressiveness of a particular species to not let anyone undermine them. What was worse is the Caccerans couldn’t even get a good set up going because a species known as Changelings already had a monopoly on doing crap jobs for love and some minor compensation already. Plus the Changelings were already unionized and they liked the way things were, so the Caccerans couldn’t even gain a foothold into any society on Equus. One small noted thing about the Cacceran people, they were highly susceptible to being absorbed into other cultures and going completely native. It was an odd way for them to keep their species alive by becoming symbiotic like a remora to a shark; usually this occurs after a failed invasion. Changelings were pony like bug race that had hives and the like, they fed on love and sometimes other positive emotions like friendship. They had jagged looking horns, insect style wings, fur covered carapaces and legs with holes in them. They had forked tongues and in general had large solid colored eyes with no pupils. After an incident involving Celestia and Luna, the Changeling race decided to join pony society of its own volition after surrendering to the two princesses. They had a special talent for hiding in plain sight given they can change their forms and appearances to look like anything or anyone within reason; they excelled at being spies and or performing counter intelligence actions. It wasn’t a surprise that they didn’t like the Caccerans trying to mess with their incredibly stable source of food or stealing their jobs. Due in part to the widespread use of life sign scanners that can detect what the life sign is if it is a known capacity, Changelings have had a harder time disguising themselves as other beings and getting away with it. - “So let me get this straight, the Cacceran is male and wants a dress and an EVA suit with all the current options I have at my disposal? Well I’m not going to question his need for an EVA suit, but the dress is kind of an odd thing. We’ll need to go into detail over what he wants exactly when we meet.” Shaking her head Rarity sat down to brush her mane and then went on to comb it into shape where it was expertly coiffed. If the guy wanted to wear a dress, who was she to judge really? At least the two ponies seemed normal enough in what they wanted; they seemed to be a popular pair and wanted something for a nice outing. “The ponies assuredly won’t be a problem. As for the Parascine, are you sure they just wish to meet me personally about the order they want? I can already tell that order is going to be an interesting one; do you have everyone scheduled after Sassy?” “Well of course I do, Sassy is coming over in the next thirty minutes so I’m preparing something to fill your elegant stomach with for a bit Meowstress. The other people who placed orders are coming tomorrow and I’m giving you plenty of time between them to do your work. We need a lot more orders to make enough money to pay for the jump module and we also have to get back to Geoptis within the week, if we want to keep the claim going.” Opal nodded to herself with her eyes closed as Rarity finished styling her tail. “Aside from buying basic supplies such as food, fluids, toiletries and the like, we might want to look into arming Caravel Boutiques four turret ports or look into getting a new escape pod. This ship is starting to get a bit expensive, good thing I double as an accountant. We need to set up a sell of at least thirty more EVA suits or one hundred and thirty seven moderately priced items of clothing to even meet all these expenses, at that point we’d just be flat broke. You’re not likely to become rich in the next few years at this rate.” “I’m certainly glad to have added that function to you Opal, where would I be without you? Have you made any headway into making contact with Flutter Shy or her friend Tree Hugger?” As Rarity asked this she left the medical and cleansing room to head towards the cargo hold where she had her work station set up. “Getting abused by pirates, gasping for air and slowly dying from whiplash wounds or getting eaten by monsters on what was mostly a ghost ship. Yes, I know you were speaking rhetorically, no need to give me that look.” Opal grinned cheekily at Rarity’s angry glare. “I managed to contact Tree Hugger, let’s just say there’s something about her that’s really weird, like she’s super weird! She kept calling me Guardian Soul and gave me a contact for a pony that can help you and Coco out. I did a background search and she’s a SNUGGLES member, unfortunately that’s as much as I got because she doesn’t have much else on her aside from excellent service at spas. Her name is Vera Blossom, a young earth pony mare, for some reason her school records are incomplete and her birth certificate seems nonexistent. It’s like the information on her jumped into a void aside from her membership at SNUGGLES which also doesn’t say much. She’s reputable or at least I think she is, no outstanding warrants or any criminal charges to speak of ever, which is just as strange. It’s like she’s a spook, then again I am only using legally gained information. Do you want me to see if she is currently available to come over? You weren’t exactly sleeping very well there.” The earth pony mare popped up on the data pads screen, as Rarity entered the cargo slash workshop room and saw Coco working on an impulse saddle. On the screen was a mare with rich silky purple hair and an off white coat like Coco’s, her cutie mark was a of a pink lotus flower blossoming and that was about it. “Yes, call this Vera and tell her to come over at her convenience. That’s about all I need for now Opal, when I need a reminder about something please be sure to grab my attention.” Rarity turned to a noise to see Coco sighing happily as she put the finished impulse saddle off to the side. “Already working on the impulse saddles Coco?” “Yes ma’am, I want to get started on this right away. It would be a bit hard to make them any smaller than the ones you’ve already used, so this is the standard size I can make them at. Besides we’re always going to need spares just in case.” It was nice to see Coco already being productive; she held her hoof out to the saddle she was working on a few seconds ago. “I just finished this one, now we’ve got about seven of them in total. They are not easy to make, but they are easy to attach and detach. My special talent is in hats, accessories and making things that go on top of other things after all. This ship is really nice Rarity, good beds, working medical and wash room, stocked kitchen and your work area in here. We could even lower the ramp and set up shop from it. I know this is going to sound odd; the multiple working well cleaned toilets is the best part of it all! You would not believe how hard that is to find convenience like that in space.” “I’m the one that has to clean them with the CATs, so don’t you dare clog them up on purpose!” Opal had to be the one to keep things clean, mostly because Rarity didn’t like to get her hooves dirty. “Well I’m glad you like it Coco, but right now I was wondering if you’d be able to help with stirring up customers?” Rarity’s stomach grumbled and she winced slightly. “Pardon my stomach darling; I’m a bit hungry after having a nice long rest.” “Doesn’t bother me, but I wouldn’t know how to go about drumming up business. We’re accepting all kinds of odd clientele right? I’m sure business will pick up after we get a few of our wares out there. Nice choice of fabric colors and you certainly don’t skimp on the quality of anything.” With a bright cheerful smile Coco threw her hooves into the air. “I’m going to love working for you Miss Belle!” “No, no, no, that won’t do at all dear; you’re working with me, not for me!” It was Rarity’s insistence that made Coco smile all the brighter. She wasn’t about to ask Coco for money, but she could mention that she needed a little financial help. “Anyway the reason I asked is that we need some funds for a lot of things, I’m kind of lacking in them and we’re going to need a lot of it if we’re going get anywhere. I would rather earn my funds than ask you for it, but if you feel like aiding me monetarily then do so by asking me about it first so we don’t waste it any on frivolous things.” - Outside the system in deep space a massive ball of glowing flesh slowly approached the Quia System and it was on a trajectory for Ewesen, it radiated enough heat and atmosphere to prevent it from freezing in deep space. A team of small scout ships from the Planetary Protection Patrol managed to catch sight of it. “OH GODDESSES! We have to call Geoptis Station, we’ve got a situation!” The scout ships started flying away as fast as they could go, there were some things in space that were quite horrifying and those things could travel. - “What! Are you telling me that thanks to those jokers who were paid off to let the Ceantir onto Ewesen, our system wide sensor net was ruined just enough that we wouldn’t have detected that thing coming? Our scanners were made to detect those kinds of threats long before they could get this close, this is unbelievable!” Lirutiy slapped her hands onto the table and looked at the officers around her; they suddenly had all their attentions on her. The Plurt had looked rather worried as she came away from the console. Turning to her fellow officers Lirutiy had a grim look on her face; she then turned back to the console and set it to broadcast to every Planetary Protection Patrol ship around the space station. “All ships we’re going to red alert status, this is not a drill, we’ve got an invasion incoming. It’ll take the hostiles approximately four days to arrive at the rate they are moving, provided that they don’t start moving faster and we’re going to attempt an interception. The danger is a planet infester, MOM classification! Get all ships armed with heavy armaments, we need every fighter and ship available to break that thing up. We can’t let that thing hit Ewesen. All long range communications operators please call in backup; I want a dreadnought here like yesterday! Scout teams four, five and twelve, go to the neighboring systems and have them prepare for possible incursions.” Red lights started blaring and an alarm started running throughout the space station, things were going to get nasty soon and Lirutiy wasn’t about to abandon the planet to that thing. “I repeat we have an incoming MOM! All inactive duty officers are to get back to duty on the double, all current active officers prepare for the onslaught as it’s a pretty big one. We need all ships repaired, fueled and moving people!” MOM meant Mass Offensive Meteor, which was the accurate term for a meteor that was a living ball of flesh that carried enough monsters to infest an entire planet should it crash into it. Planet infesters were horrible to deal with and Lirutiy’s forces were almost caught with their pants down, which would have led to millions dying. Thankfully the redundancy of having space constantly patrolled with scouts helped to mitigate any loss of time had the tampered deep space scanners never picked it up. “Planet infester, MOM situation, I don’t need to be more specific than that to get your stuff in gear! I hate to say this, but we might even need to evacuate the planet.” - “Awesome, it looks like we’re finally getting some action around here.” Mr. Strag looked particularly ready to jump into things feet first. “I don’t think that’s exactly a good thing to be happy about you asshole, especially when a lot of people are going to die soon.” Gilda was in a better mood after Tree Hugger had left, she was never going to be okay around that mare. At least Paul Strag had the decency to immediately look cowed and upset about it. “I wonder how many fighter pilots are going to get shot down in the testing skirmish, those things are mobile fortresses. For the record Paul, I was actually starting to like your dumb ass.” “Planetary Protection Patrol can hopefully take care of it right? I mean they have a space station loaded with weaponry, a battleship, multiple carriers, a lot of destroyers and cruisers.” What was noticeable about Greta at this moment was that her wings were limp and she didn’t seem to particularly believe the casualties would be small. She had to agree with Gilda’s estimates, people were always going to die unless they were immortally young like Celestia and Luna. “I’m sure they can take care of it.” “If they can stop contemplating their navels in time, then yeah, that’s a maybe on the lower causalities. Even if they do succeed in fending it off, there is no doubt in my mind that any nearby space pirates will inevitably try to take advantage of the damage to the local fleet after they’ve dealt with the problem… that is if they even can. All those ships will inevitably incur some kind of damage.” As per her nature Gilda was being the downer of the two griffons. “If the MOM hits this station if it’s used to physically intercept it however, that’ll be worse for us personally. Nobody wants a MOM to hit a planet. Heck I’m willing to hijack a fighter to fly like a bat out of hell from that situation. What, it’ll have two seats Greta. Do you guys still use Javelin class fighters? They couldn’t have possibly become obsolete yet in the month or so we spent drifting in space.” - “Is the clingy underwear really necessary for an EVA suit?” Sassy looked at her rear end and the underwear that’s to seal off the orifices of her rear end. “Why of course darling, if a suit breach becomes bad enough then you’ll want your insides to stay insides. The helmet is made to be as reinforced as it can be and has extra breach gel and its own source of air. If the whole helmet is destroyed then the breach gel might create a bubble around your head.” Working on the EVA suit was calming and Rarity had everything in order so far. “I make sure that every orifice is completely sealed off from space to the best of my abilities. Can’t do much for exposure if the gel fails to work, but at least you’re not dying from the fact that you can’t clench said orifices tightly enough. Coco the connectors if you will. The suit could even theoretically work underwater.” “Wait, do you have a patent on this breach gel stuff? If so, then why aren’t you rich? This stuff is absolutely genius!” Sassy was staying still as the breach gel layer of the suit was being constructed. “Oh she has a patent; it’s just that it’s taking a while for them to finish testing it. Why Princess Luna is even seeing personally to it.” At least Coco knew that to be true, though why Luna hasn’t gotten back to Rarity about it was anyone’s guess. She passed over the connectors for the helmet and suit to Rarity who set about installing them so the helmet would lock into the suit, plus it would connect the impulse saddles air stores to the helmet. “I hope that they eventually get around to testing my patented impulse saddles.” - On Equus at this very moment a dark purple pony with wings, horn and a dark blue mane that had bright spots in it like stars in the sky at night was doing something really important, as that’s what alicorns are supposed to do. She was currently playing with a several rubbery balls; she was so distracted by it that she kept forgetting to sign off the testing as complete. Rarity and Coco would have been much richer by now if not for the childish antics of the moon princess who couldn’t stop playing with the breach gel. - “Well in any case we’re just about done here.” Continuing to install the connections and the collar of the suit that overlaps with the neck of the helmet, Rarity had just about finished making the suit when she heard a beeping noise. She’d finish off the suit with the skirt Sassy wanted. “Rarity, the soonest convenience for… darn it why is it so hard to pay attention to her, my scanners are right on her. Anyway I’m letting her in… who was she again? Oh right, it’s Vera.” The quickly dulling sound of Opal’s voice had Rarity slightly concerned that something was wrong with her favorite artificially intelligent being. “Please open up for her then and have her come in through the starboard airlock and run it through its paces as we haven’t used it yet; please direct her to me.” Rarity was checking the suit over looking for imperfections and anything she might have missed. “I’m just about done with Sassy’s EVA suit and I’m going to get started on her kimono since I have her measurements.” A curious mare walked into the room and was completely ignored by both Sassy and Coco, however Rarity turned to her immediately. “Hello there, you must be Vera Blossom right?” For some reason Rarity had caused the pony to look at her mystified as if she were some kind of dream, then the mare latched onto her and started crying. For some reason Coco and Sassy reacted to this as if it were an everyday thing and that had Rarity wondering what was going on. “Someone’s actually acknowledged that I walked into a room, I’m so happy!” Vera buried her face into Rarity’s neck and continued weeping. “You seem to be a bit disturbed, are you sure you’re a member of SNUGGLES?” It was worrying when you needed mental or physical help from someone who had mental issues worse than you. Then again there was that comfort that someone had it worse than her, so maybe that was this mare’s angle. “I… yes, I’m sorry, it’s just that I’m always being ignored. You have no idea how hard it is to keep getting repeatedly ignored by everyone except family, it’s hard to make a living and getting paid is a complete hassle!” Vera started roughly shaking Rarity while pointing to Sassy and Coco talking to each other. “I’m acting completely hysterical and they’re ignoring me like what I’m currently doing is completely normal! You actually looked at me as soon as I walked into a room. Please hire me for something, anything; I need to be around someone who can pay attention to me for more than a few seconds at a time!” What had Rarity gotten herself into by wanting someone to talk out her and Coco’s recently acquired psychological scars with?