Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows


-11-

“Ms. Gollenfer, Gottfrieda, you’re both free to go. The investigation teams have finished checking your claims that you had nothing to do with the deaths of Derringers crew.” Officer Lirutiy had gained Greta and Gilda’s attention as she slithered up to them “You are now allowed to go freely about the station, you will be given back your stuff swiftly. Please check your personal effects for anything missing. While you can stay on the station you can’t stay on or return to the Derringer for the time being. Do you have any pressing matters that need to be attended to? I have an incursion to stop and I’m already preparing to send the fleet out on what can only be a dangerous assault on a MOM.”

“Can I at least hold Rarity’s claim to Derringer by proxy if she can’t make it back from Ewesen within the week, baring events like the MOM getting in the way she still has a lot of stuff to get for her ship. Plus she’s not exactly financially well off at the moment.” Putting her best hopeful smile forward to the slug being as she got up and approached her, Greta could only hope that answer was yes.

“Provided the MOM doesn’t hit the planet near her while she’s on it or the monsters that will inevitably erupt from it don’t kill her first, I can see Rarity living through what is going to be one of the worst incoming disasters to ever befall this sector of space.” Gilda stood up and stretched out her wings. “Glad to know we can get out of here finally, though I’m rather curious as to why it seems like your rushing the investigation.”


“Maybe you can hold the claim by proxy, provided you can prove you’re employed to her. As for the investigation, it was an open and shut case. We found the ships black box logs and got enough data to clear you two of any wrong doing. Though I admit it was a little rushed, we have little doubt as to your innocence in the matter as was Miss Belle’s need to commandeer the ship.” Clearing her throat Lirutiy carried on. “We could find nothing wrong with your information on the previous ship you were on, aside from the fact that they have become derelict or were outright destroyed. In any case, we need all the people we can get working on stopping this incursion, we’re about to let the civilians known about the incoming MOM.”

“Yeah, I bet that’ll go over well. I’m expecting something in the likes of… mass panic perhaps.” With a questioning look Gilda saw that the slug was giving her a frown. Greta was also giving her a flat look. “I call it as I see Greta, you know that.”

“I’m well aware of the panic it’ll cause; evacuating won’t help in the long run because we won’t be able to move the entire population of Ewesen to somewhere else safely in time. I’m going to make sure that everyone does what they can to make sure the planet doesn’t become infested. Nowhere is exactly safe from those planet infesting monsters so running won’t do much of anything really, it’s why the Planetary Protection Patrol exists.” Lirutiy shook her head and sighed which clutching at it with a hand. “I’m also well aware I have a lot of headaches coming my way and this day hasn’t even started yet. You two want anything before you leave, coffee, juice or a snack maybe? I’m buying.”

-

Rarity yawned and slid her bed out of the wall and rolled out of it before approaching the counter, she lit her horn to start preparing coffee only to find the sweet smell of some brew was already made. She had just finished her early morning nap that was to help her get through the day, but she still needed a bit of a pick me up and she saw that Vera had apparently made the pot of coffee.

“Can you pour me some coffee please? I like mine with a bit of cream and two lumps of sugar Vera.” As soon as she finished asking a mug was slid up under her nose at the counter as Vera continued maneuvering about the kitchen.

“Thank you for paying attention to me Ms. Belle. I did make the coffee this morning, thank you for noticing.” Vera liked the novelty of having some pony like Rarity noticing her at all times, the feeling of acknowledgment was never going to wear off in novelty.

“Of course I noticed Vera, thank you for making it.” Taking a sip of hot brewed coffee with a hit of cream and sugar really perked Rarity up, she like her coffee sweet. “It’s really quite good. Opal, list my first scheduled appointment today please?”

“Hold that thought Meowstress Rarity; we’ve got an all important bulletin being spread around the planet like wildfire. It seems like a MOM is inbound for Ewesen, it’ll be here in the less than four days or so and they are already sending out an interception fleet to stop it at two days out.” As Opal spoke she sounded a little exasperated. “This might be bad for business. So chances are we won’t be able to get the things we need before everyone’s bought it all already and leaving like the entire planet was on fire. We also need to be wary of any price gouging coming up soon, I’m already paying attention to the prices of things and whether or not they go up because of this news.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, first order of business today Opal?” Hopefully her clients understood the fact that she wasn’t one to back down just because a threat was on the horizon. That and without a jump module she’d be stuck in system with said threat if it landed on the planet where she’d have to quickly scavenge one if it came to it.

Rarity would never price gouge and would give everyone the fair cost of her wares. Some people would price gouge EVA suits in a situation like this as they offer some minimal protections against miasmas and the like, not to mention an armored EVA suit would significantly increase the chances of survival for anyone lucky enough to have one. She currently didn’t offer armored Eva suits, but her EVA suits did offer limited protection against some things.

“The Cacceran is coming in the next twenty minutes so do what you need to freshen up, since he already has an idea as to what he wants already I gave him priority in the queue. It’ll be followed by the two ponies four hours later and then we’ll deal with the Parascine last as we don’t know what their request is and it could take a while.” Finishing that Opal went back to watching cheesy anime over the information net. “I’ll keep an extra eye on the situation with the planet infester in case anything changes in the news which seems to be inciting a mild panic across the whole planet.”

“Thank you Opal. I would tell you to go back to what you were doing, but you probably already are.” Shaking her head, Rarity moved on to get her stuff ready. The Cacceran wanted a dress and an EVA suit, that shouldn’t be too difficult right? She had taken classes for making things for various species, though she would probably be better at making designer EVA suits for quadruped based species.

-

The barefoot Cacceran was about three and a half feet tall with grey fur, with the ears, face and body of a rabbit. Aside from that he had a fox tail and cat based arms and hands and his rabbit based legs also ended in more cat feet. What was the oddest thing about him one would ask? He looked ridiculously feminine with the long blonde hair and the eyelashes.

“Well I can certainly see why you want the dress now, but are you sure you’re male?” It was hard for Rarity to see this Cacceran as being anything but female given his general appearance.

“I’m actually a hermaphrodite, kind of comes up in my race often. I prefer masculine pronouns and identifying myself as male. So can you make the suit and dress that I need? I have a habit of unnerving a lot of people with my appearance and voice, so sorry if you don’t want to work with me after hearing my voice for the first time.” Surprisingly despite the feminine form just simply wearing brown pants and a yellow shirt, the Cacceran had a rather deep voice. It was a bit disturbing to Rarity to hear such a manly voice come from such a feminine form. “I just really like wearing feminine things and looking it. Can you do something in the terms of lacy for the dress? Oh right where my manners, I’m Preston Licaley. Most people call my Prestelle, though I’m not actually fond of having a feminine sounding name even if I do have the parts for it.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Licaley, I’m Rarity Belle. Welcome to the Caravel Boutique where everything that we make is sure to be chic, unique and absolutely magnificent.” Rarity took his offered paw and shook it. “I believe I can happily accommodate you with both, if you’re not satisfied with what I can come up with then I will make changes as necessary Mr. Licaley or do you prefer Preston?”

“Call me either Miss Belle and might I say that you are quite a lovely lady.” Preston was rather charming for a feminine looking bipedal fox tailed rabbit with cat paws.

“No, flattery will not get you a discount on the EVA suit.” Rarity’s customer chuckled at her candor. “Though now I’m curious as to what exactly you’re going to use it for?”

“Well, you can’t blame me for at least trying right? How much pressure can the helmet handle and does the impulse saddle attachment work underwater?” Now Preston was asking some rather curious questions.

“Well the helmet is designed to handle as much as the suit, plus it is designed for use in space. Am I to be believed that you are asking me if it can be used underwater?” Seeing a nod Rarity continued on without a pause to understand how ridiculous this request had gotten. “Well then as for the depth at which one of my EVA suits can go… Opal underwater operational depth my personal EVA suit can feasibly reach?”

“It might be pushing things Rarity, but it’ll stay good up until two thousand feet down if that’s what you’re asking.” The answer was swift and to the point, most likely because they were getting to a good part in Opal’s show and she didn’t want to miss anything.

“That’ll work for what I need it for. Can I get my helmet with the built in cameras that can record things and not just give me visuals in case the face plate is obscured? It’s what I’m most interested in.” It seemed to Preston that Rarity was of a respectable sort given she didn’t flinch too much at learning that he was a hermaphrodite with masculine tendencies yet feminine appearance. “How do the compression pouches for my hair, ears and tail work and are they annoying to deal with?”

-

It was approximately two and a half hours later that saw a rabbit like figure moving their fingers in the EVA suit with the impulse saddle attached to their back. Rarity had already had a spark of inspiration and was working away on a dress as Preston stood there admiring the detail and designs he had added to his suit. Sassy had left to go finish more unfinished business and Vera was generally being helpful wherever Rarity needed a present assistant as her AI was off being lazy when she could have been assisting with the CAT drones. Even Coco had started assisting Rarity midway through the creation of the EVA suit and it took less time than a general quadruped suit, since the Cacceran in question wasn’t very big to begin with.

The impulse saddle would work underwater, surprisingly well too at that, even if it was at a fourth the strength while under the effects of gravity being underwater kind of made it a little closer to half strength. So while the impulse saddle couldn’t help you fly around unless you were in space, it could certainly get you around in water. Coco had to work out the operations and controls of the impulse saddle with Preston so he could get acquainted with the new gear he was purchasing.

“This actually feels rather comfortable and it’s in my favorite color.” For Preston, it was a nice, bright and cheery looking yellow. There was room on the suit for a tool belt and places to stash stuff away on around the waist including an energy pistol. “I’ll definitely come to you again if I’m in need of clothing, you can do casual wear too right? Well provided you survive the MOM situation, anything else life might throw at you and the if dress feels as good as this suit does, you’ll definitely have a satisfied repeat customer in me. Oh and before I forget here’s a business card for some cousins of mine if you ever need a good lawyer!”

“Of course I make casual wear; we aim to please after all.” The first customer of the day went surprisingly well for Rarity; the next ones were a little more trying. Making friends with a Cacceran was a little surprising, but Preston didn’t seem like a bad guy.

-

Ember snorted and woke up slapping at her face and blurrily blinked her eyes as the sunlight filtering in through the windows had finally landed on one of her eyelids. Being rather frugal with her money, she found a nice quiet spot to sleep in an abandoned warehouse near the edge of Lake Terwa. She spent most of last night loading her rifle up with rocks. Not that the ammunition was going to perform as good as the higher grade metal scraps she had had upon coming to the planet, but it would do.

“Right, find the last Ceantir and make Crab Rangoon out of him. I can use some more money if he hasn’t been taken down already.” As she pulled her data pad out from the inside of her armor to check on the status of the bounty, she couldn’t help but wonder if she was as bad a hoarder as other dragons were. She had a large bank account and wasn’t exactly poor, but she found it rather hard to want to spend her money on ammunition, anything fancier than the materials used to build her special material rifle so she would have spare parts to fix it with or for keeping her armor in something resembling decent enough shape. Most of her money went into her food budget anyway and with the last few bounties she traded in she now had enough money to last her almost two months and was wondering if she should splurge a little on something. “Nope, he’s still kicking and apparently there are bounty hunters are on the prowl. If this Ceantir is still out to get me then they are going to have a bad time today.”

There was a reason why Ember tried to keep at least enough money to last her a month of feasting on the best jewels and gems she could buy, that reason was called collateral damage and she had to often pay for fire related damage when it could be directly linked to her as causing it. Then again a little collateral damage wasn’t the worst thing in the world to Ember considering the payouts of her bounties, aside from achieving the horrible nickname of ‘Flamethrower’ from it.

Getting up from her position on the floor she walked to the nearby window and popped it open and started climbing her way to the roof of the warehouse with her claws while spreading her wings for balance. Her muscles were sore, most likely from sleeping in her armor again. Maybe she should find a nice place to sleep next time and right now she felt like going to a restaurant for something to eat today that wasn’t gems and jewels; her stomach grumbled its agreement. He mind was saying food first and then the deadliest catch to hunt later. It also pointed out that she was starting to get kind of lonely and that she was badly ignoring the feeling of wanting companionship as she prepped herself for flight.

Pulling out her binoculars she made sure the Ceantir wasn’t on any rooftops or in windows with a sniper rifle before she spread her wings and took to the air looking for a nice place to eat, it looked about time for lunch anyway and she made her own hours as a bounty hunter.

-

“I swear Vinyl, what is with your aversion to dresses? One is not going to just jump up and kill you.” Octavia Harmonics Scratch was an earth pony with a light shade of grey fur and a well coiffed and styled raven mane; she looked upper crust and felt like it with her treble cleft cutie mark. The lovely bowtie wearing pony was not the problem as her and Rarity hit it off immediately as friends; the problem was her rather childish mute unicorn wife. “We both agreed to this you know. So what if you were distracted when you agreed, you still did and you’re getting a dressed up for the event Vinyl!”

Octavia’s companion was the exact opposite of Octavia and she was currently flailing her hooves at her wife in some form of communication only Octavia could understand. She looked unruly with her wild spiky electric blue mane and tail. Adding to the rebellious looking appearance was what looked to be shaded glasses that hid her eyes. Her white fur seemed to be a bit matted and it didn’t look like she showered in a while and was causing Rarity no end of frustration when every dress idea she had was shot down by this mare.

“Vera could you please be a dear and detain Misses Scratch Harmonics for me with a massage?” Rarity received a questioning look from Octavia and why wouldn’t she? Vera was practically invisible to both ponies until she grabbed at the muscles on Vinyl’s back with her hooves and started applying pressure. Vinyl Scratch Harmonics caved like a house of cards to the pony with incredible spa training.

“What just happened to my wife?” Octavia looked positively shocked that her wife suddenly collapsed with a gasp of pleasure and she turned to Rarity for explanation.

If Vinyl could talk she’d be telling her wife about the pony she could now feel as much as see on her back that came from out of nowhere like a ghost.

“Oh just a friend of mine, she’s kind of easy to miss. She’s right there.” Rarity pointed at Vera on Vinyl’s back and Octavia’s eyes widened when she finally saw Vera working over her wife’s back. “Just call this a complimentary massage; also it’ll be easier to get her in a dress this way instead of having her fidgeting around so much.”

“I don’t know how, I don’t know when… but I’m assuredly coming back to you again for your quality services since you’re actually willing to deal with my rambunctious knucklehead. I know she was actively trying to get us kicked out of your shop and your response just sold me on coming to you when I need something a bit more sophisticated.” Tilting her head towards her subdued mare, Octavia smiled as her wife moaned loudly. “Provided that I can have what she’s having, she causes me no end of stress even though I love her dearly for it.”

-

Sighing happily that the troublemaker ruffian and her rather friendly wife with a decent social status now dealt with; Rarity looked at the next appointment and decided that it was time to take a little break. It was lunch time and she was going to find a nice restaurant to eat at.

Walking away from the spaceport, Rarity wanted to take in the scenery while it was still there. While she had heard of the triple P stopping things like MOMs before, she’s never personally seen what a planet infester does when it actually hits a planet and all she knew was that it was dreadful. She knew the end results from the documentaries of how long it took to reclaim the planets once they’ve been hit and how many lives were lost in the process, the aftermath certainly wasn’t pretty.

She had no idea what Coco and Vera were going to do for lunch, but she saw a place that looked nice and more importantly affordable. She knew what looked affordable since she had been a waitress for a while. It looked like an average dive, one that served fast food alongside healthy items.

Walking inside the place had quite a few fresh looking booths open and the place was quite clean, so it met her sensibilities and standards at least. She looked around and saw a few odd being here and there enjoying various foods for any specie as she walked up to the counter where several stools were. That was when she saw a familiar face picking up a menu; it was someone Rarity needed to have a little chat with.

“Miss McFlame, you and I have something to discuss.” Rarity stated flatly and the dragon froze a bit before looking to her as she took up the stool next to the dragon and a menu was placed before her. She snapped it up with her magic and looked it over.

“Um… wow… I didn’t think it’d be this easy to find you and yeah I have a few things to talk to you about as well.” Ember became rather nervous in the face of Rarity showing up out of the blue and her tail twitched erratically at being caught off guard like this. A strange feeling twisted in Ember’s guts and she had little idea as to what was causing it. She was a small dragon that can take on Ceantirs for crying out loud, Rarity was just an average… well admittedly she wasn’t average at all and quite beautiful. “I’ve got some time before I set out to bring down a Ceantir, if someone else doesn’t do it first.”

“You have to talk with me? I’m the one that has to have a word with you about endangering one of my friends!” She kept her tone low, but obviously heated. Ember looked puzzled until Rarity continued. “You were at the hotel that happened to be shot up and then promptly set on fire? My friend happened to be caught near a firefight and she’s rather easy to traumatize. So am I for that matter.”

“I’m guessing Coco Pommel is your friend. Well I’m not directly at fault for the fire and I’m not the one that started the fight.” Seeing that she was getting a raised brow, Ember decided to continue on quickly. “I will however apologize for being there and the reason the hotel is now missing most of its lobby, a few floors and almost all of its walls. The Ceantirs were after me personally, the Macropussians were after my job at the time. You’re kind of responsible for all of that happening.”

“Come again? Oh hold on.” Rarity turned to the Parascine standing near her with a note pad. “I’d like the berry lemonade, the garden special with ranch and a side of fries.”

The waiter wrote that down and turned to Ember, he nodded for her to get an order in.

“I’ll have the locally grown pitaya juice, a garden special heavy on the croutons and feta cheese if you have any. If not then I’ll take cheddar or any other cheese as a substitute. As for a dressing I’ll choose whatever the spiciest vinaigrette you have is. Trust me; I have a taste for the excessively spicy.” The waiter nodded to Ember and moved on not having said a word. The dragon turned to the pony. “Okay to start off you’re tip about the Pendaxon, suffice it to say that was a really big payoff for me. I managed to stop a slave trading ring from forming; downside is I don’t think the people who were starting it liked my interference very much. Hence the ten Ceantir hit squad they sent out against me, but you probably don’t want to hear the more gory details of my surviving a rather brutal three way with me in the middle.”

“No, but I would like to hear why it concerns me and why you would need to talk to me?” Rarity stopped to take a sip from her lemonade as it was set down before her.

“Well it involved your sister almost being one of the first victims of the slave traders.” Ember quickly covered her face as she received a spray of slightly sticky fluids and spittle from Rarity.

“WHAT! What happened to my little sister?” Coughing to clear her throat Rarity was now staring at Ember with worry.

“Oh that adorable little filly is perfectly fine if a little shaken up, as for the guys who tried to kidnap her? Yeah, not so much even before I got a hold of them.” Ember took a quick swig of her drink and swallowed with a happy sigh. “I really love the taste of ice cold pitaya juice. Anyway I came here to track you down and I was going to ask one of your known friends where you went, specifically Coco Pommel. That’s when I was obviously attacked and here we are now. I’m mostly here because your parents asked me to look for you after I rescued your sister Sweetie Belle. Though I really don’t think she actually needed to be rescued, she kind of had things well in claw by the time I burst in and started gunning them down.”

“You didn’t bring my sister with you did you?” Rarity’s eyes narrowed and they started darting around in a panic, the mood flip caused Ember to feel a little out of the loop. “Did my parents pay you to try and make her my responsibility again?”

“Again…? I bet there’s a story there. I told them I was not going to babysit your little sister after the havoc she helped cause, even if it was a rather profitable adventure. Word to the wise, I don’t think you’re little sister should ever become a chef. I didn’t think it was possible to set water on fire without oil being a catalyst and the water was still at room temperature when it happened.” Ember felt a small humor filled smirk cross her face as Rarity cringed and grimaced. “Yeah her kidnappers weren’t exactly of the luckiest sort. Your parents paid me to find you and tell them if you were okay or not, they never said anything about telling them where you were or what you happened to be doing at the time. So, do you want to explain why you don’t seem to keen on the idea of looking after your sister for while?”