Starlight: Redshift

by the-pieman

Dessert is less fun with only one S

The first thing I do is change out Carvanha for Chantlette and Luna for Geodude. I figure the sandy environment won’t agree with Carvanha well, but Geodude would be alright. Thinking for a moment I swap GLaDoS for Ghowl and consider myself ready team-wise.

“Kinda sucks you guys don’t have more pokémon to use, the Desert is likely to be pretty harsh.” I say, sitting down next to the girls. “Let’s buy a few potions, we can pass around reusable TMs and then I say we’re as ready as we’ll ever be. Oh, wait... I have an idea!”

“Oh? What’s your idea?” Twilight asks, as Rarity carefully polishes Glorious, who is humming gently.

I grin. “We get some swim gear from Great Barrier first. Some underwater goggles would really help if we run into a sandstorm. We wouldn’t be able to see, but our eyes would be protected.” I lean back. “How’s that for thinking ahead?”

“Well, darling, we could do that... or I could make us some goggles.” Rarity says offhandedly as Glorious resheathes itself, attaching itself securely to her hip.

I quirk an eyebrow at the suggestion. “How do you plan on making the lenses? Need I remind you we don’t exactly have any laying around and they are the most important part.”

She scoffs. “As if I’d be caught so unawares.” she says, and holds up a hand, six clear gems in her grip. “I’ll just cut and polish these diamonds down to the right size, they aren’t worth much.” she says. Each of them are at least an inch across and clearer than glass.

I forgot their economy is so backwards. “Actually, I have a better plan for those. We sell them and buy some goggles and some of those weather-protection suits.”

“B-but I can make much nicer clothing for us!” Rarity protests, looking unhappy. “And besides, they’re just diamonds, Anthony.”

“Yeah, and need I remind you how much these people payed for your Bits? The economy’s flipped here.” I say, reminding the girls of our large tab we acquired for just one coin. “These things could buy us some serious equipment, and I’d rather buy my equipment than have them made. You’re very talented Rarity but I don’t expect you to know how to make clothes for desert travel.”

“Well, actually, I’ve researched fashions of Saddle Arabians, and the reasoning for them... I’m sure I can make something appropriate and proper for desert traveling.” she says, crossing her arms.

Twilight gets in-between us. “Let’s compromise. We’ll sell the diamonds and if they’re worth as much as Anthony claims, Rarity can use the money to buy any materials she’ll need to make our gear. Sound fair?”

“Fine.” I relent. “Let’s do that. But make sure your fashions also include practicality.”

I get a muttered agreement in return as well as a comment comparing me to Applejack and having no vision. I just roll my eyes. “Come on, let’s get these appraised.”

I’m stopped when I recall I know not one place where we could go to do that. Not the Pokemart, they don’t do that kind of thing. It’d have to be a third-party company or something.

“So who do we know of that could break this diamond into local currency?”

“What about that guild the lady with the hammocks mentioned?” Twi suggests. “She took the Bits, maybe we can find more of them and ask if they can do it?”

I nod in consent. “Yeah, that works. We just have to find a place with that Torterra sign, that’s their symbol. Heck, maybe we can ask around.” I head up to Joy and ask her if the guild has a place in town. “I... can’t recall the exact name, but they have a Torterra and Pokéball as a symbol.”

“Ah, yes, they actually have a trading post a little ways out of town, to the Northeast. It’s along the trail out of town.” she says, smiling brightly.

“Thanks Joy.” I see why everyone is able to just up and trust this family with their pokémon, they’re all really nice and helpful. “Alright girls, we’re off to the trading post. I suppose we can get any extra supplies we’ll need. But first let’s pass around TMs to our teams. I think Geodude knowing Dig will be helpful.”

The three of us check our TM stocks, and use the multi-use ones as much as possible. That Metronome TM is still sitting in my bag, unused.

And it’ll stay that way if I can help it, and Twilight agrees with me, explaining the result of the move being used in the Gym to Rarity.

“Alright, Geodude and Pignite both know Dig and Rock Smash now, and Gulpar has Dive. I think we’re set on field moves. Also, I’d suggest changing back to your travelling gear before we head out Rarity. We don’t want trail dirt getting on that dress.”

“Yes, yes, I suppose...” she says, sadly going off to change clothes.

I mean, sadly, going off to change clothes. And once she’s back we head out, going Northeast like Joy told us, and there is indeed a trail. We follow it for a little while until Rarity points out a building with the symbol on it. The building is a pretty nice, wood-walled house, single story, with a business windowsill at which a young man is leaning, plenty of signs saying that the owners buy and sell goods.

“Let me do the talking as usual.” I tell the girls. I am the unofficial leader anyways. I take one of the gemstones and walk to the window. “Hey, I got something for trading.”

He waves. “Sure, whatcha got?” he asks, looking kinda bored. He also, now that I’ve got a better look at him, appears to be maybe eightteen.

“Well, not sure how much it’s worth, but my friends and I got this.” I hand him the jewel. “And yes, it’s real, it wasn’t easy to get.” Rarity seems ready to mention that it was, but I give her a small hand signal to keep quiet. If he thought it was easy to get he’d think it was a fake.

He picks it up. “What is it? Glass?” he asks, the large chunk of crystal carbon looking rather like glass in its current state.

“Maybe. But it doesn’t feel like glass to me.” I say honestly. “I think it’s a diamond.”

“Of course it’s a diamond!” Rarity says, no longer holding her tongue. “Being able to tell the difference between glass and a jewel is like second nature to me. It is one of my special talents.”

The guy looks it over. “Huh... that’s a big diamond. Lemme go get my grandma, she’s the one who knows about this kinda thing.” he turns towards the inside of the shop, and simply yells at the top of his lungs, “HEY GRANMA! WE GOT CUSTOMERS AND STUFF!!”

My ears kinda hurt a little now. Nevertheless, ‘granma’ seems to get the message loud and clear, as I hear some shuffling from inside the shop.

“Yes, yes, I’m not deaf. No thanks to you shouting all the time...” She looks up at me and Rarity, and asks, “So, what’re you trying to offload?”

“A diamond.” I say simply and Rarity nods, adding “And how much could we get for it, honestly?”

She plucks it out of my hand, and looks it over. “Hmm... well, it’s flawless, its water is excellent... well, not to list off all its qualifications... I’d say it’s very valuable; several hundred thousand poke, that’s for sure. Why’re you trying to get rid of it?” she narrows her eyes at us. “Stole it?”

“No way, we just don’t need it as much as we need supplies, and we’re broke. Trying to go through the desert but the Pokemarts won’t accept that as cash for supplies and gear. Kinda stupid that way, really.”

“Well, makes sense they won’t take it; they prolly don’t have enough money on ‘em. This thing’s probably worth more than most of the stuff in this shop, and I’m pretty sure you don’t need that much Repel and Escape Ropes.

“No.” I sigh. “But we’ve ah... peddled with the guild before, we’ve already used up everything on our current tab though so we’re gonna have to open a new one. As for what we need... yeah some repels and escape ropes would be nice but only three of each for each of us. Rarity knows what we really need. Fabric, right?” The last bit is aimed at the humanized pony to my side.

“That and a few other things. A seamstress like myself uses more than just fabric... though I can do a lot with it anyways, I’m going to need some other things as well.”

I nod. “Yeah, we get it Rares, you’re fantastic with a needle and thread, now just tell her what we need. Hope we can get the rest of the cash from it on credit to use elsewhere.”

“Yes, I’ll have to open an account for you... who’s going to be the registered seller?” she asks, looking at the three of us. Before I can say anything, Rarity steps forward and says she’s the one who found it.

“Yeah, that’s true. Fair enough that she gets the money.” I say and Twilight agrees. Seems she’s still trying to do the calculations of what the conversion rate would be between our worlds. I just nudge her. “Don’t worry about the exact numbers, end result is that you could come down here and turn a hell of a profit with your currency.”

She nods, but absently, and continues to turn her mental gears. Rarity works with the old woman to figure out what she needs, and the young man and I just sort of sit off to the side, him pulling out a GameBoy Color and playing something on it. At least, that’s what it looks like at first, until I see it’s just a case on a smartphone, and he’s playing some sort of app game.

I don’t really have anything to do myself so I just mind my own business and study the region map. Turns out the desert covers most of the northern third of the continent. A notice pops up for something called “Chatter” that has little notes other trainers are saying about various places. Current notes are on the Desert since that’s the selected location. One advises to bring a water or grass type that can filter water out of the air. Another mentions just bringing deep canteens, and a trio of people are swearing that all-terrain bikes are a must-have for the full trip one edge to the other. Whoo, looks like we’re in for a long walk. There’s also a few warnings not to expect just rock, ground, and steel types, but to watch out for sandstorms anyways.

I look up what this ‘Chatter’ thing is and it’s apparently like Twitter but specifically for Pokémon trainers, breeders and coordinators. Cool, a live network for everyone to communicate. Seems like a good idea. I note that the services symbol is a Chatot, hence the name Chatter. I lurk around a few chat rooms and look around profiles for any advice on getting through the desert, but nobody seems to want to share their exact experience to the letter. But it does seem like we’ll be taking the trip alone just the three of us. Most people talking about it are speaking in past tense. Which means I’m behind the crowd. Damnit.

Still, there’s mentions of two cities in the desert, and it’s apparently connected to every town not in the south parts of Otaria. As well, there’s apparently a large ruin... oh, right, Dr. Halsey mentioned it. Something about temporal anomalies. I make a note to check it out when I’m more comfortable with the desert. It takes a while but Rarity, having now made an actual list of what all she’ll need, has received what she could get from the woman. I remind Rarity of the nine-pack repels and ropes. She uses the still-huge tab to pay for those and we’re set for a long trip.

We head back to the place we’d been staying, and Rarity spends the afternoon working on new outfits for each of us. In the meantime, Twilight and I start to have a discussion.

“So yeah, gems work way different here. The clearer a jewel is the more it’s worth.” I say.

“But... the more colorful a gemstone is the better it can hold magic. Clear gems are only for very advanced unicorns, what use could a species that naturally doesn’t have any magical affinities like humans use clear gems for?”

I shake my head. “No, it’s like Bits. You use them as currency because that’s what they are best used for. And since the diamond is rare... well let’s put it another way. How do you determine the overall value of a gemstone in Equestria?”

“Well, by their color, clarity, luster, potency, and complexity.” she says, rattling them off.

“Also by their affinity, size, and cut, dear.” Rarity says, while working on the clothes.

I nod. “Well I’m no expert on gems but since they have no magical applications to us, all we care about is color, opacity, size and cut. Diamonds are worth the most usually because they have little color or opacity. That is to say they are generally colorless and clear. Cut and size are other factors as well, a cleaner cut is preferred as well as a larger size, but size isn’t always a big deal if the other three are sufficient. It’s just that colored gems are so common that they aren’t worth much, but since complex gems as you put them are harder to get they have much higher value. What do you mean by ‘affinity’ by the way?”

“Oh, the elemental and magical affinity of the gem.” Twilight says, “Some gems are better for different types of magic, such as Emeralds being notably useful for enchanting spells because its matrix is similar to the matrix of the spell being cast. Basically, an enchantment put into an emerald and an opal, each of the same size, and with the same amount of power and skill for both spells, the one in the Emerald would be more powerful, because it is in the more efficient vessel.”

“Ah, well... gems don’t work like that here so it’s based entirely on how rare the traits are.” I explain. “Anyways, I know you need to practice with your fingers Rarity but wouldn’t it be faster to use your magic like always?”

“Hmm? Oh, I honestly didn’t notice.” she says, then shimmers and turns into her pony form, and resumes sewing. Huh, guess she’s adapting pretty well. Better than Twilight at least. That said they’re both getting better. Either way it’s another few hours but all of our new outfits are ready. I never really bothered to see what Rarity was doing so when she presents them I’m a bit surprised. They actually don’t look half bad, mine basically being some genuine traveler’s gear, including a padded vest and a t-shirt, leaving my arms bare from the elbows down, though the sleeves apparently roll down with a flick. Twilight’s is nearly a ranger’s outfit, but has a face mask and a set of goggles, compared to my smaller sealed glasses.

Rarity, oddly, gave herself the most basic one, something akin to a long robe in alternating cream and russet red, with a hood that will hide her head. I think it looks most like Obi-Wan’s robes, and they fit her even as a pony. There is, however, a face cloth with large goggles that give her an adorably shy appearance.

I stuff my outfit into my satchel to put on before we get to the desert, my current getup more suited for the forested areas we’ll be travelling through before we reach the desert.

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Im happy with the diamonds, my first guess was a round hundred thou, game breaking because a few of those and you could purchase the bikes. Still annoying as one of the breakers. Would be nice to have a minature hovercraft for that price so you could do roads, marsh, non current water due to breaking waves, deserts not ramps, etc.

I forgot what class Gyrados was, type, apart from psychotic Flamethrower learner.

At least they shouldnt have cash problems, at least trading post wise. Can they do a general link to Pokemarts yet? Im thinking of Nintendo blocking the old item transfer method so you cant bulk move, or move at all all those Big Nuggets saved from previous games.

[Quantum_Shift]

6827878
6831530
I have no idea what you're trying to say. Can you please fix your comments so I can actually respond, please? I feel like there's something great just hidden in the atrocious grammar and spelling mistakes.

[Booster Spice]

6831735

Im very sorry, but modern natural language computer systems have already exceeded my capabilities, and noone knows how to reverse engineer the skills into the human brain yet.

[SilentMech]

6831530 Gyarados is actually water dragon, at least back in second gen. No clue about it after there, because I never played enough to get one. Because magikarp is useless, early game.

[Quantum_Shift]

6831769
What? I'm just asking you to use normal gramm and sentence structure.

[the-pieman]

6832842 Water/Flying now. It's Mega Evolution is Water/Dark.

[Quantum_Shift]

6832842
Actually, its always been water/flying.
It's just listed as a draconic pokemon, like Charizard.

[SilentMech]

6834224 Ah, then I am thinking of a completely different pokemon, or mixed up the creature type and the actual type. I wouldn't be surprised if it was either one.

[Quantum_Shift]

6835270
Yeah. A bunch of the pokemon in Ben 1 were called Legendary or Dragons, but that we lore, not their actual types.