Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows

-10-

“I’m sorry, but you seem a little… off… for a SNUGGLES member that is. I wanted you for psychological help and possibly your massage skill, plus I don’t know if I can actually afford to pay you.” If Rarity were to be honest, the distraught Vera she was holding needed help more than she did.

“Doesn’t matter, my sisters are usually the ones that end up paying me since I’m usually forgotten by that point… this is actually a rare thing for me. Can you imagine how horrible my life is? I can’t cross a road safely, advanced technology ignores me when I try to use it and automatic doors don’t open as I walk up to them.” Vera slowly pulled away from the first pony to pay attention to her in a while and then she continued. She reached into her saddlebags with a hoof and pulled out a photo album, she had a whole page devoted to each situation. “Heck I even have pictures of how bad the ignore effect I have is. This is when I graduated from school, this one is when I was able to just walk by Celestia’s guards to get a meeting with her and then there’s this time when I tried being crazy to get noticed.”

“Did you really do all that?” Rarity’s eyes widened at each subsequent picture, because it seemed that Vera escalated the things she did to get noticed.

“Yes, aside from my family Celestia was the only one to notice me at a distance out of my entire album. She said she was sorry that she couldn’t help me with whatever was causing me to be universally ignored, only that what was going on with me was beyond even her to fix. At least she could look directly at me. Besides someone else got blamed and arrested for the third incident even though that was all me.” Vera Blossom sounded both irate and sad at this moment; Rarity gave her an understanding look and a few pats on the back. “Yeah, this is just a part of my life.”

“There there, it’ll be okay.” It felt a bit silly for Rarity to be soothing the soother.

“I’m sorry to ask this, but did Aloe or Lotus reference me to you? My sisters have tried to find someone other than an alicorn or family that can actually notice me and you’re the first I’ve seen that can do so.” This was a question that Vera looked rather interested in learning the answer to.

“Actually it was a mare named Tree Hugger, she referenced me to you. Do you know her?” Having the idea to look at her friends, Rarity could see Sassy and Coco still talking as if Vera had never entered the room. She turned back to Vera who looked at her worriedly and Rarity tilted her head at her while raising a brow. “What? I’m not ignoring you, I was curious as to what my friends were talking about.”

“Thank goodness, for a second there I thought that you were going to start ignoring me. Anyway, yes, I do know of Tree Hugger, but I’ve never met her personally. She’s said to be one of the craziest mares of SNUGGLES that spends a lot of time chasing after some griffon in an affectionate manner.” Vera looked at the ceiling. “My sisters said that the griffon was rumored to have even attacked her once, but after that the griffon was just seen as being plain terrified of her and she wasn’t afraid of the griffon at all. Don’t know much more than that, though it is interesting that another pony can acknowledge that I exist long enough to have me meet another pony that can see me. Anyway I’ll show you what I can do for free, if you’ll let me stay onboard your ship for a while. I was especially surprised that it even opened up for me.”

“It wasn’t easy you know! My sensors are actively trying to slide right off of you!” Opal yelled as she had been trying to keep her attention solely focused on the mare that walked aboard the ship, if she were to look away for even an instant, she’d lose Vera on the sensors. Rarity’s safety and security mattered to her. “It’s rather aggravating really.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time an AI has had problems around me.” Vera spoke blandly as she turned to the album Rarity was levitating. “Page eighteen in my album.”

Flipping over to the page it showed Vera trying to talk to an AI and the avatar on the screen looking horribly confused. Rarity looked through all the other pictures and she began to sputter in disbelief at what she was seeing, she just couldn’t put any of the other incidents into words.

“Anyway, I’ll help melt all your cares away quite easily. Tell me what’s wrong, that’s what you called my sisters and asked for me personally for isn’t it?” Vera sounded slightly bitter about life at this moment. “The call went to my sisters, I can’t own a data pad because it would ignore my inputs. Again I can’t work technology that is not overly simplified for my use, but at least I’m the best damn masseuse you’ll ever meet.”

“I guess it couldn’t hurt, come on I’ll take you up on your offer in the living area so I can talk out my issues. Oh… right excuse me for a moment. Sassy can I get to work on your kimono after I’m done getting a massage?” She earned both the mares attention and they didn’t even glance at Vera standing right next to here.

“Oh, so you’re going to the spa, can we join you?” Sassy asked nonchalantly as if Vera wasn’t standing right next to her clearly in plain view.

“No I was going to have Vera here…” As soon as Rarity pointed out Vera the reaction was immediate.

“Ah, where did she come from?” Coco asked before cowering behind Sassy who looked just as spooked.

“What the, where in the hell did that pony come from! She wasn’t there a second ago, who sent you!” That was an odd reaction to have upon noticing Vera was in the room, considering she walked by both of them to meet Rarity.

“She’s the member of SNUGGLES me and Coco wanted to hire for a session or two.” Rarity smiled at the fact that Coco and Sassy finally noticed she was there.

“Oh neat… wait a minute, where did that mare go!” Now Sassy was looking all around the room and Vera hadn’t even moved a single inch, making Rarity worry about her eyesight.

“Don’t worry about it Rarity, this happens to me all the time. I can be pointed out to others, but the second they look away or blink they ignore that I exist again.” The dry tone did not hide the sorrow in Vera’s voice.

“Don’t worry about that, she’s right there.” Rarity pointing out Vera again made both Coco and Sassy jump as if they had seen a ghost. “Really now, is this seriously happening? She’s a new acquaintance and I was hoping we could all be friends.”

“Holy crap what kind of stealth technology are you using! I know for a fact that…” There was something suspicious in the way Sassy worded that last bit and she quickly said something else, she wasn’t blinking and was trying to keep Vera in sight. “Er, I mean how did you turn invisible like that?”

“I don’t turn invisible, I get ignored. Why the very second you blink I’ll be impossible for you to pay attention to anyway.” Rolling her eyes, Vera sighed loudly and turned around towards the door but stayed where she was. “Just follow Rarity to the living area and I’ll see to it that all of you are treated to the best of my abilities.”

Blinking Sassy could no longer see Vera like she said and she even knew that the mare was still standing right next to Rarity; it was causing her to freak out slightly.

“Rarity I don’t want to alarm you, but I think you’re ship might be haunted.” Even then Sassy followed a huffing Rarity towards the living quarters.

“Honestly is what you have really that bad Vera?” Asked Rarity as they entered the living space, she couldn’t believe that her friends couldn’t see Vera who was quite a striking mare to look at. The pictures in the album told her a million words though; this affliction was quite real and very much a serious matter for Vera. She wondered how many times Vera almost got run over considering she had various pictures of traffic accidents in the album which she passed back to the earth pony masseuse.

“Yes, it’s that bad and I don’t even know what I have or what it is. I just know what it does, unless I’m making strong physical contact with someone or I’m being pointed out, I’m completely and utterly ignored by almost anything. The one bright side to all this is that flying insects never bother me.” Vera pointed to the mat and Rarity nodded. Rarity moved to start lying on it as she pointed a hoof at Vera making Coco and Sassy jump again. “Aside from making contact, accidentally pointing to me surprisingly works in making me appear to others.”

“So pointing at you or making contact with you is the only ways to make you visible to others? That’s… I can’t even find the right words for it; I almost lost the ability to even remember who you are!” Sassy pointed a hoof at Vera to make sure she stayed visible. “You have no idea how freaky it is to not even see or hear you until Rarity pointed at you.”

“Eh, I got used to this curse… or is it a double edged boon? In either case it has it has its own particular ups and downs, since you two don’t know, I’m easily ignored by almost everyone and everything I meet.” Vera moved to start pushing down on Rarity’s back. “Doesn’t explain how Rarity could pay attention to me.”

“She can see the beauty in things and has a keen eye for detail, she also has a really nifty gem and crystal finding spell that she used on Desserzon a lot.” Coco was a little scared of a mare that could disappear from sight at the drop of a hat like that, mostly because if the hat distracted you then you’d lose sight of her.

“Yes maybe her special talent counteracts my problem; I’ll probably eventually end up married to a detective pony that can see through it at this rate.” Saying the word ‘detective’ caused Vera to thoughtfully pause as she began to knead Rarity’s back eliciting moans from the mare. “Wait… if I’ve never met this Tree Hugger mare, then how did she even know about me? Aloe and Lotus never said anything about knowing her personally. Wow, there’s a lot of tension in you Rarity, so how does it feel when I do something like this?”

-

A scream of pleasure erupted from the Caravel Boutique, Vera was an expert masseuse and Rarity was probably embarrassed that it took so little effort to get her to scream passionately like that.

“Sounds like someone’s having a lot of fun today, wish I could say the same if I weren’t dragging a nearly five hundred pound corpse full of holes around. I still have to find out where that earth pony went to after this.” Ember muttered as she continued to drag the larger dead body of the second Ceantir she found through the spaceport to dispose of it and collect the bounty posted on them. They were found to be on the planet illegally after all and receiving some payment from hunting her hunters was a way to make up for all the ammo she had been expending recently.

The first Ceantir she hunted down had violently exploded like a bomb, but she still got paid for it. That Ceantir exploded because she ended up heating it up way too much all at once. Ember ‘Flamethrower’ Mcflame the blue scaled dragon had learned her lesson about superheating Ceantirs and would never want to do so again, it was both messy and the smell wasn’t going to come out of her armor. Goodness knows she tried to get the smell off her armor with her fire breath and only a dip in lava would likely be able to do it now, but that would destroy her shoddily made protective gear that had gained something akin sentimental value even if it smelled like hell at the moment.

The last Ceantir out to assassinate her has still yet to be found, but after the taking out her second target having one left was making her somewhat happy to almost be done with them. She finished dragging the second Ceantir she hunted down the rest of the way to the bounty counter where she pointed at the corpse that took her forever to drag there.

“Right, I just had to be the closest counter for you to come to with that, one of the Ceantirs that snuck onto the planet I assume. You probably know the drill already given your general haggard appearance and roughed up and smelly armor. Name, occupation and bank account residence, also do you have permit for wielding such a nasty big looking weapon like that?” The short haired female brunette human at the counter hit a button to call a take away team for the corpse, she pinched her nose since the smell was as bad as Ember thought it was.

“Ember Mcflame, freelance bounty hunter, Equestrian Galactic Banking and yes my custom built material rifle has a permit. I have a hobby of developing weapons that I never build… except for the one I currently have on me.” Ember idly ran her right hand along the boxy rifle on her back that she could use to bludgeon, slice or shoot people to death with, it was her baby and it could survive just about anything. Her rifle had yet to fail her in combat and had never backfired on her like some material rifles might do on occasion.

“Oh, you’re Flamethrower aren’t you? Well if you were looking to set some buildings on fire, then you’re a bit too late as it seems like someone got to it before you did!” The human started laughing at her own joke and Ember sighed while rolling her eyes.

“Can you not call me that? Get on with transferring the funds into my account; I have bounties to seek. Oh and can you tell me how many Ceantirs are left? ” Getting a little snappy at this annoying bounty payout clerk was not going to make Embers business here any quicker; she knew she still had one Ceantir to bring down. If they didn’t know she was indirectly responsible for some of those fires starting, then it was best she didn’t correct anyone about it.

“Huh, and here I thought you’d see that title as a mark of pride being a dragon and all, guess not then. Alright, funds transferred, there’s one left and if you can get him to any bounty payoff point alive then you can get a bigger payout.” The human looked at Ember with something approaching amusement. “Though judging by the problem you had with just this one, I’m sure dead is preferable because they are pretty tough bastards.”

“Yeah, I’m going to go with dead, much easier than having them alive to possibly cause more damage or accidentally get more people caught in the crossfire.” Especially when they were trying to hunt you down personally, Ember had added that part silently as she turned and walked away from the counter.

It was about time Ember checked on her ammo situation. As she walked through the door and out into the night of this world, she found herself running low on all the good stuff to shoot at some really tough guys that refused to go down without a fight.

“Yeah that figures, one thousand three hundred rounds into taking down nine Ceantirs and wounding multiple Macropussians and even I would start to running dry after all that, rocks it is then. Hmm… what’s this?” Ember pulled out a worn data pad as it vibrated slightly meaning she got an alert or a ping; it had to been constructed with her physiology in mind to be heat resistant. Didn’t entirely work, but it was still there being the epitome of data pads that had survived her rather warm body. Hitting the button to take the incoming message, Ember found out it was a call for all privateers, bounty hunters and or armed civilians to aid against a MOM class planet infester. Well now Ember had a time limit to finish her business with, she’d help out with something like that as she had the particular skills to deal with planet infesters. Which was fire and lot’s of it. “Thank goodness Equus is well protected from that kind of invasion, goodness knows Celestia is scary when she took one of them out with her sun when whatever they are tried to infest our planet.”

After reading the briefing over, she found that it would take several days to arrive and the triple P were already in the process getting ready to intercept it away from the planet two days out. Prime time for pirates to take opportunity of the Planetary Protection Patrol being away from the planet, at least Geoptis Station would still be around to provide protection but the space station was practically a well armed tortoise for all the speed it could move with.

“This is going to be a long night.” Ember lamented as she started looking around for some good rocks to load her gun with.

-

“This is going to be a long night. I wish you didn’t have that problem of yours so I could get to know you better.” Sassy intoned even as she gave off a sigh of pleasure, she wondered if Vera was dating anybody. Then again it would be rather hard to date a mare that was so easy to ignore when she was not in contact with your body or being pointed at by someone.

Rarity was already getting started on the kimono Sassy wanted, which Sassy knew was going to be a real top quality piece of beautiful work that she’d be okay with wearing at anytime. She’d be giving Rarity some good business because she actually already paid her without her knowing. Rarity was too nice sometimes with her penchant for giving away free stuff to her friends, Sassy was not having any of that and had already discreetly transferred the funds into Rarity’s account and told Opal to not mention it. The AI agreed with her on this, Rarity was too nice for her own good at times.

“Yeah well, as soon as I’m done touching you, you’re definitely going to forget that I even did it.” Vera stated calmly with a hint of frustration.

“Well for what it’s worth, you’re really very good at this and I’m enjoying it. At least it’s not a male touching me.” Levitating out her data pad Sassy transferred funds to Vera’s sister’s bank account along with a note that Vera personally was being paid for services rendered, which was still ongoing as Vera had her melting into the mat. “Opal can you please tell Rarity that I’m turning in for the night in one of her beds after I’m done here? I’m going to eat some of her food and I’m already going to pay for it, Rarity needs a lot of money right? She’s good at getting quality supplies of any kind and I’m sure the food is no different right?”

“Sassy, you’re a good friend to Rarity.” It was a fact that Opal liked Sassy, but she still had to warn her. “Please don’t repeat your past mistakes with my Meowstress.”

“I would never almost hurt her like that again! Oh, I’m sorry Vera.” Sassy’s movements had almost dislodged the forgettable masseuse that was impossibly good at her job at making you forget your worries or your cares.

“It’s okay; you’re going to ignore me soon anyway. A lot of ponies and people have already.” Vera would even pay Rarity to let her stay on with her, a mare that could see through the ignore effect that wasn’t family or a goddess was worth whatever price she could feasibly pay. Opal also seemed to be good at keeping her in sight as well, so that’d make two more beings of that could really pay attention to her.

-

Rarity worked on sewing the purple roses into the silky red kimono in the manner of which Sassy had asked of her, she was rather curious and worried about some of the things Coco told her about Sassy’s mannerisms and it was building up to this moment.

“So I think that maybe… Sassy might have been partially trained as an assassin at some point.” Coco flinched, but didn’t hear much more than a gasp from Rarity.

“Well that wouldn’t be too farfetched after what happened to her really, she would want to protect herself from ever letting something like that happen to her again. What better training than that of a noble assassin?” It would certainly explain the sword and the hard to notice weapons hidden up her armored skirt; Rarity’s keen eyes had picked up on that. “She’s still our friend Coco; I don’t think she’d ever want to hurt us intentionally. I’m more worried about anyone that intends us ill will. Sure she may have gone a little crazy with me, but she seems to be doing perfectly well in being civilized now.”

“Rarity, I think you’ve read too many romance novels with well endowed hot roguish thieving stallions in them.” Flatly stated Coco, she was also helping to put rose designs on the kimono.

“Nonsense, they aren’t all well endowed roguish thieving stallions… some of them are sparkling vampires and others are chivalrous if highly unhygienic pirates.” Rarity received a rather dull look from Coco and she coughed into her hoof. “I must say that Vera does really good work, I think we’ve forgotten all about our recent troubles haven’t we?”

“Oh um… darn it, why can’t I remember what the best masseuse I’ve ever met looks like? All I know is that I still feel really good after a pair of hooves had full run of my body, that masseuse does wonderful work. Okay forgetting that train of thought, you read horribly written romance novels that spend more time defining the girth of the stallion instead of actually forming emotional attachments between characters like in the actually decent books I read.” The ignore effect was in full force and Coco was having a hard time remembering something so wonderfully extravagant. “They used scented oils on me at least, right?”

“Don’t worry about the masseuse too much darling. Also to each their own as I happen to enjoy trashy, poorly written romance novels and there is nothing you can say to stop me from liking them, though I do wish the stallions cleaned themselves off before they got together with the mare.” Cleanliness was still one of the things Rarity was looking for in a stallion, it was a rare commodity and she had all of space to find one that cared about it and appearances.

“Rarity, Sassy wanted you to know she was going eat some of your food and spend the night here.” At Opal’s voice Rarity looked to the ceiling.

“That’s alright; my home is a home to friends as well. She can use whatever she wants, except for the pasta. That’s mine.” The Caravel Boutique was beginning to feel rather cozy to Rarity after the last day or two.

“Still a lover of that particular type of cuisine huh?” Smiling as she continued to work Coco was a little more okay with Sassy possibly being an assassin, provided that she never killed anyone in front of her personally in a horribly graphic manner.

“It’s the most filling thing that nobles will eat in large portions, plus the taste is quite delectable and not entirely unhealthy so it’s going to be my midnight lunch. I do like my lasagna.” Since Rarity woke up in the evening, she was going to be up all night long prepping things for the next day. She’d try to get some sleep in the morning and then she’d meet with her various clients over what would be important business that would pay for her ships needs.

“Are you sure you want to brown nose with those guys Rarity, I mean from what I’ve heard Prince Blueblood is an utter… well the words were not very polite after that but you know what I mean.” Keeping a careful eye on her hooves as she worked Coco kept moving her needle up and down through the nice feeling fabric in a steady rhythm.

“Yes, there have been rumors, but at least he’s a clean stallion and I’m sure that most of them are entirely unfounded. I’ve been planning on how to get into the gala for quite a while, I’ll just contact Luna about it and guilt her into giving me a few tickets for the event. She should have finished testing my breach gel by now, it’s not that overly complicated to require such extensive looking into.” It left Rarity idly wondering if Vera could just waltz on into the event without being noticed by anyone and eat as much food as she wanted before waltzing on out. “Also I was planning to put in a good word for your impulse saddles and whether or not they were being tested as well. Luna seems to be quite the technologically forward mare, if a bit slow at testing things.”

-

“Luna, are you playing with that stuff again?” Celestia walked into a room to see hundreds of bouncing balls going everywhere, all of them made of breach gel. Her sister had the gall to look sheepish about being caught playing with the stuff she was supposed to be testing and signing off on. She used her magic to freeze all the bouncing balls in mid-air.

“Would you like to play with me sister?” Luna asked innocently of her white furred, blue, green and pink haired larger sister who was considered one of the most beautiful mares on the planet of Equus.

“I’d be delighted to!” It seemed as if Celestia couldn’t help but join her sister in her playfulness, the breach gel stuff was of genius make but to sign off on it would be to lose it for testing purposes which gave her an excellent excuse to spend at least three hours off each day with her little sister instead of listening to idiot nobles all day. Of course it would have to end eventually, but some fun and time off was needed with their busy schedules.

“Princesses we’ve received word from a scout stationed in the Quia System, there’s a MOM class planet infester heading for Ewesen and you are to be on the lookout for any other possible incursions.” The guard didn’t question the rubbery bouncy balls; he had long since learned to not ask questions about the whimsical things the princesses or even the data pad loving Twilight Sparkle got up to.

“Send word to the Applon Systems Planetary Protection Patrol and report to me immediately if there is an incursion heading for our two systems; if any neighboring systems are in need of our help then we will gladly lend them aid to the best of our current capabilities. That is all, you may go.” After the moment of seriousness and the door closing, Celestia turned back to Luna and started playfully bouncing one of the breach gel balls off the walls. After they were done playing they’d focus more on this rather serious issue.

Author's Note:

Vera is easily the most ignored character ever.

Please note: I'm not shipping Ember with Spike.

Comments

[Razzy]

... They're never going to sign off on that gel, are they?

Ignore me!

*quietly hopes that we get to see Chryssie soon*

[Razzy]

7515752 They can also torn into rocks. And it's not just looks, but touch as well.

And it's not exactly the same for them all. Thorax, for example, has aura of a different colour, so they can differ. I imagine changelings could alter that to a degree. What makes them changelings can be their naturally malleable and compatible with shape changing bodies, so they would have done leeway with how exactly they transform. Or at least they would be able to alter the process a bit. And if not, the same technology could help them, just carry a device to emit a signature that alerts the spell signature of cancels it out entirely.

I at least hope that scanners that pick that up are expensive and rare, or that other races don't really have a reason to look for that frequency. Otherwise, it's kind of unfair that changelings have a vital ability completely negated, while there are no commonly used anti magic devices working on ponies that we know of.

Plus, there's always the possibility that they do change into their disguise at least partially. I mean, Chryssie changed her size when masquerading as Cadance. Who says it's not a deep seated effect that doesn't give of much of a trail unless mid-shift.

Anyway, yeah, just seems a bit unfair that changelings seem to have gotten singled out as being so negatively affected by the spread of technology.

[Darkonshadows]

7515900

Unless you have a good reason to actively look for them on scanners, then changelings can still get around in my story.

It's not really a negative thing, they aren't hiding in the shadows and they're well fed at least since they joined Equestria.

The aura can be different, but the spell is still cast the same way and in the same manner. All changelings erupt in a wall of flames and appear in a knew form, doesn't matter what their aura looks like.

Remember the Equestrian Games? You know those archways that disable unicorns at what is basically their form of The Olympics? Those are anti-magic devices that stop unicorns from casting spells and many stories does the horn ring thing. Your right though, they aren't commonly used. Changelings still require the use of their horns for magic, the ponies have long since had the ability to find them with runic technology that was capable of it long before the advanced space age this stories setting is placed in.

The only reason why Celestia hasn't bothered to use existing methods like that to stop changelings from sneaking into her society is because she's not trying to actively starve them, the one at Cranky's Wedding was certainly welcome there. Cadence and Shining likely didn't see the changeling at that wedding or if they did, they didn't freak out nearly as bad as they did at the crystal empire later on because they didn't have a child to protect at the time.

It's not meant to unfair to just changelings, there are other creatures than changelings that can possibly shape shift. Not magically mind you, but physically.

[Razzy]

7518612 Ah, that's good. And I suppose if they're accepted, it's not really needed. Sorry about overreacting about it, back when I was commenting I've just read another story where my other favourite race, griffins, got an extremely short end of the stick, so I guess I projected that onto this story. Also, can't wait to see some in this story, they're can cute little buggers.

As for the arches, that's a bit debatable since they had to resort to questions in the newest changeling episode despite that they should've had the equipment used at the games stored somewhere. Though it could also be too cumbersome to move around.

That's a Celestia I like, thinking about every being and looking for a middle ground.

Anyway, I like your story a lot, keep up the good work, good science fiction stories aren't very common in this fandom.