Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows

-109-

Rarity was busy setting up for the full staff meeting and she had the list of members her crew has in front of her, she also had what they did and what she hired them for. She was busy setting the places she wanted them all to sit at for the meeting, mostly the meeting was about all the recent developments and formally introducing a new member to the crew.

The one odd one in the list of actual crew members was temporary member Mr. Spew. The sewer squid wasn’t the new member, but he was getting lonely and Coco was taking good care of him until… well… if Ember ever got better. The fact that the sewer squid wasn’t frantic about staying near Ember said that she was likely to recover in about six long months or more. Even saying she’ll be back in six months was a generous estimate after what happened to her body and all the beautiful, and once highly protective, scales that she used to have.

Rarity had always thought that the first critical injury of her crew would be a workplace accident, but the first truly critical life threatening injury was Ember’s and it left Rarity feeling shocked and somewhat numb that the dragon was put down with overwhelming force.

Sighing audibly Rarity continued and didn’t take too long to finish, once she was finished she had to wait for everyone in the mess hall. It was quickly becoming everyone’s favorite place to mingle, so it would make a comfortable place to hold a full crew meeting. The only people not invited to this meeting were Babs, Ms. Poulette and Applejack.

She sat down and waited for them to filter into the room and find their sitting places, while she was doing that she thought of Opal’s scans and how all the oddities behind Opal made complete sense. There were also the things that didn’t make sense, but Rarity wouldn’t worry that much about it and now knowing the truth brought a smile to her face.

The seating arrangement had Coco sitting to Rarity’s left, Sassy was on her right and they made up the original ponies Rarity was going to be working with. Well Coco was mostly the one Rarity would have worked with, but she didn’t think she’d be keen leave Sassy to her own devices. They were the fashion designers. They were at one end of the table and she wouldn’t go or be anywhere without them.

Seated to Coco’s left were Greta, Gilda and Lightning, in that particular order. Hiring Gilda and Greta was one of Rarity’s best decisions, even though Gilda was more likely to commit crimes than anyone else and she’d drag Greta into it as well. Gilda wasn’t a bad hen, she was just aggressive and tended to do what she felt to be necessary or conducive to continue living how she wishes. The three of them were the engineering team, Lightning at least counted as she was Gilda’s test pilot and the only real pilot they had onboard if something were to ever happen to Opal.

Lightning didn’t know how to fly the Shining Jewel, but she knew all about flying smaller and faster ships from fighters to small cargo frigates efficiently. If Rarity ever lost the Caravel Boutique, then at least she was sure that Gilda and Greta could build a new one from scratch if they had to.

To Sassy’s right were Vera and Chrysalis, it was rather obvious that Chrysalis was pouting at not being able to sit next to Sassy and Rarity had a pretty good reason to put Vera between them. Those two were basically the physical and mental health coaches of the crew. Chrysalis was a better physical coach than a mental one, though she was quite helpful in taxing the crew’s sanity to the point that they toughened up to increasingly bizarre things and her teaching Coco wrestling was having, interestingly enough, positive results. Vera was more approachable for mental health of the crew, her massages were also kind of a needed commodity the crew just couldn’t lose and she was almost like a doctor. Most importantly Rarity needed someone she could lean on and everyone tended to lean on the one pony that was easy to forget existed.

Further beyond Vera and Chrysalis was Saffron and Coriander, they had needed cooks and Rarity was glad they had gotten some because eating out was getting expensive and she wasn’t the greatest cook around. Greta and Sassy weren’t exactly any good at cooking either, but at least Opal had some experience with cooking and now her daughter could even enjoy the food she created in the past. It also helped that Saffron was really useful in dangerous situations and was quite the fighter.

Only Chrysalis would have stood up to that biofeedback psychic alone for as long as Saffron did and that’s only if the bugging-you queen was taking the fight half as seriously as Saffron while starting out without the lifesaving armor that Mare-Do-Well had. Rarity knew Chrysalis was the most dangerous being on the crew, mostly since she was a politician who can plan circles around a lot of people and can obfuscate her intelligence while doing it. If Chrysalis ever gets to a point that she looks too innocent or idiotic about something, then she likely has plan that Rarity would rather avoid. Chrysalis’s feelings for Sassy were as far as Rarity could tell, surprisingly genuine from the looks of it. Chrysalis was attracted like a moth to Sassy’s flaming mane and hidden aggressive nature, that and Sassy had a pointy implement that fit in with Chrysalis’s masochistic tendencies. Chrysalis is just in fact really bad at earning love like a normal pony, which would be mostly because of the part of her personality that isn’t obscured.

Finishing off the roster at the table to the left of Lightning was the Trapeze Troupe, with Ms. Star, Bernard and Rover. The entertainers of her crew could do good advertising and could even bring in money with their own shows and merchandise, Rarity wasn’t going to order them around as managing the troupe was entirely up to Trapeze whose special talent basically made her a circus mastermind. While Rarity didn’t mind Bernard’s increasingly infatuated nature around Trapeze, she wondered how it would work out between the two and tried not to think about it too hard given the size and species different. Rarity would like to think she’s an open minded mare about that sort of thing, given she has Greta on the crew and she liked the usually upbeat griffon.

“Is everyone here then?” She didn’t see an absent crew member. Well aside from the newest one she was going to show off in a minute because the entire crew needed to know the truth about it. She looked to the worse off crew members, she being one of them herself, Saffron had an ice pack against her head and her painful looking bruising was going down a bit.

There were a few grunts of acknowledgement at Rarity’s words, more specifically Gilda didn’t look particularly cheerful as she had a lot of work ahead of her and didn’t seem to appreciate being pulled from it for this meeting. Greta was clearly Gilda’s opposite on an emotional scale and was curious about what this meeting was about, she also took a moment to tease Coco a bit with her tail and Coco shifted away slightly with a blush. It seemed Greta was open to having other possibly close relationships in her pursuit of Gilda Gottfrieda, hopefully she doesn’t do anything Coco is too uncomfortable with.

“Well we’re all here Rarity, what is this meeting about?” It could be any number of things and Sassy knew they took quite a few hits in monetary losses that went into repairing the damage done to Shining Jewel. She was calm and poised, in fact her lost innocence seemed to be making a little bit of a comeback thanks to Chrysalis’s horrific attempts at trying to court her.

“Several things, first of all with EDF in the area I believe we will need to start producing and selling a number of EVA suits to them. It’s kind of our cash cow to turn a phrase. Also thanks to my quick thinking and designing of completely disposable parkas, most of our damaged EVA suits were easily recoverable. I would like to thank Sassy for taking the time to repair them over the last several hours while also making out guest Ms. Poulette’s outfit for her rather dreadful need to be forcibly molted. Good job Sassy.” Leaning over Rarity hugged Sassy and pulled away so as not to give Chrysalis any real reason to get angry, she kept her emotions even and uninterested as Sassy was really more of a sister to her. Sassy seemed to be less cold emotionally after the brief interaction. “I, Sassy and Coco will try to attract orders and the three of us can easily get to work filling them out. We need several dresses for my cousin’s weddings to wear personally, which we will discuss at a different time. We’ll also be taking any other clothing orders while donating some funds we earn from those particular sales to help get the colonists back on their hooves while we’re here, a lot of ponies lost their homes due to the messed up weather and it’ll be some time and a lot of Pegasus Pony power before it’s fixed. I can’t exactly leave without offering some form of help, while not rich we’re doing relatively well financially if Gilda and Greta can repair the ship effectively on a cheap budget.”

“Already on it, the stuff EDF sent over to our hangar will help in the repairs, we’ve got enough to replace the turrets that were lost at least. Probably even build a few special turrets of our own make.” Gilda leaned forward and put her talons under her chin while laying her elbow on the table to prop her head up. “I and Greta can come up with some good ideas later after we finish fixing the hull, maybe Lightning might have a few ideas and we’ll throw the ideas we come up with your way Boss Lady.”

“Thank you, your engineering expertise is why I pay you so much. As I wouldn’t be any good at it even with a downloaded DIY file. Next order of business, Trapeze do you have any plans or ideas for the wedding? I was thinking of offering your services to my cousin Sugar.” Holding up a hoof, Rarity stopped Trapeze from speaking. “Sorry for cutting you off, but I just realized we should probably get someone back to the Apple farm to tell them Applejack is okay. I’ll leave that up to you Ms. Dust, when Babs and Applejack are ready to leave you may use either of the available ships in the hangar.”

“I’m going to interject here and say that I have to give something to Little Snack before she leaves. So I would be happy if you informed me of their departure so that I can at least say goodbye.” Nobody liked that Chrysalis had been feeding off of Babs, but the filly wasn’t hurt or sick and she hasn’t been actually stealing the love that was freely given to her. It was an odd request, one that came off as suspiciously benign.

“You’re not going to give her something like a box full of sex toys are you?” Now everyone was looking at Lightning who had her hooves crossed in front of her while giving Chrysalis a curious gaze.

“Of course not, that’s for when she’s old enough to actually appreciate it.” Now that had all of them staring at Chrysalis, most of them gazes of distrust and disbelief she decided to dispel the distrust quickly. Not like she didn’t do sneaky things behind a lot of peoples backs, but here she was actually keeping to herself and was not actually plotting the downfall of everyone at the table. Though it would be kind of fun to see if she could mutiny against Rarity successfully, why disturb someone who was working on her leadership skills in a productive manner? None of the nobles back in Canterlot actively wanted to learn to lead like Rarity did, still it wouldn’t hurt to engineer a few things so that Rarity could gain some skills in that area. “My gift is certainly far more tactful than a box of sex toys… I’ll admit that I’m going to give her one thing and it’s not sex related.”

“That’s hard to believe knowing you.” Sassy’s words were quite cutting and it caused a few chuckles around the table, Chrysalis took that insult without an ounce of backtalk.

“Yes, I acknowledge that I have an obsession with you posterior and the problems of my own personal failings that even shapeshifting can’t help.” It wasn’t like Chrysalis could engorge herself to point of getting fat enough that she could shift a little junk food to her poor trunk, at least she was the most exquisite thing she knew in other areas. She was nearly perfect and wondered why Sassy couldn’t see that or overlook the one glaring deficiency in her appearance, even Rarity had a better butt than her.

Were she not so focused on butts, Chrysalis probably would have realized that her butt was not a real issue where Sassy was concerned. Sassy might not even be as focused on outward appearances like Chrysalis was, for one thing she didn’t mind the minor scars she still had under her fur even if she liked wearing clothes at all times like her current attire.

“Well it depends, will we see what you’re going to give her and are you absolutely sure it is safe?” All Lightning’s question does was get a nod from Chrysalis and that was that. “Okay then, what’s next Boss Lady?”

“I would like to present a new crew member. She’s been around for a while, but she hasn’t been formally inducted into the crew.” While saying this Rarity levitates out a hoof weaved basket with a familiar head occupying a pillow and a slightly comical blanket covered in pale blue ones and zeroes wrapped around her form. The cats long pink hair was skewed all over the place and needed a good brushing when she eventually woke up. “Thankfully she can do her work in her sleep, because she looks quite precious like this. She currently has several drones cleaning the ship and taking inventory.”

Opal was sleeping in the basket peacefully, the poor dear didn’t know she was tired and Rarity made her a quick place to sleep. It looked exceedingly comfortable from the way Opal was snoozing away softly. Sassy had already seen Opal, but she smile warmly and cooed over the sleeping form. The rest of them were quite confused, but apparently Sassy didn’t care and neither did Greta, Vera or Coco who joined in on the cooing.

“Okay Boss Lady, how did this happen to Kitten?” Sitting up and looking into the basket with a keen amount of interest, Gilda reached out and started scratching Opal behind on of her ears. It made the white furred feline start kicking one of her legs, she even started purring in her sleep. Gilda pulled away as if scalded by Opal’s innocent appearance. “Okay that’s several lethal levels of adorable I’m not touching again.”

“Have you finished researching what I wanted to know about the harpoon Greta? That should open up how Opal became the way she is now.” The only one to know the full story was Rarity and she hasn’t exactly told Opal what she knows about her daughter, though incidentally this was going to come out soon enough anyway.

“You were right Rarity. Not only did the harpoon from the pirate ship launch a virus when it struck Shining Jewel, but it also cause a large power surge.” Greta’s data pad was never far from the griffon’s side and she was tapping over it while making sure she was certain of what she knew. “By all rights Opal should be dead, seeing her alive… and like this no less… is pretty amazing. No AI would have survived the virus or the ensuing power surge without being controlled by it or utterly destroyed. Yet there are no signs of the power surge or virus having affected our computer systems at any point beyond Opal going nuts.”

“How would your hive mind have been that easy to kill? She seems to be alright from where I’m sitting, she’s certainly feeling content and happy like she usually is.” Chrysalis’s understanding of technology was interesting. She understood weapons perfectly, computer systems not nearly as much considering computers commit honorable seppuku when she tries to use one. Her Data pad being the only thing that has survived her thus far and that’s because Opal reinforced it multiple times.

“Rover am I to assume Opal has always had a smell of her own?” Instead of addressing the Changelings knowledge, Rarity instead turned to the quiet Diamond Dog at the far end of the table still staring at Opal with a curious look on his face.

“Yes, I am knowing that she is always having smell, though it is not anything like a cat so Rover is being okay with her odd smell.” To Rover, Opal only resembled a cat. She didn’t smell like one even if she looked like one. “Though smell was all over ship before, now it is all in one place. Right there.”

“Yes this confirms absolutely everything I know about Opal. Vera you are correct in that she was never an AI and the fact that she is my familiar. Well she is kind of my familiar.” It was still a bit of a tossup, but Rarity preferred to take Opal as her daughter considering the circumstances behind Opal’s birth. “One thing is for certain, she’s definitely my daughter. I’m send you her medical scans now Greta.”

Rarity levitated out her data pad and then sent the data to Greta, it took a few minutes of silence and staring at the adorable sleeping kitty for Greta to look it over a second.

“That’s… how is that even possible? She has your blood type and even reads as genetically being your daughter, well only in the part of her genetics I understand. The other part is pretty bizarre stuff that I can’t figure out.” Now that caused a bunch of surprised looks that even Greta was having a hard time figuring out how this was possible, Opal certainly looked nothing like a pony. “I don’t even understand what all this stuff is in the other portion of Opal’s genetics, what’s clear is that you had a part in her birth without having to pass her through your body.”

“I can explain, it all started when I was creating my original AI program. I was taking a class around making a basic AI, Pinkie Pie was there and would be able to tell you how boring it was to start off. It got more interesting when we were all deemed mentally sound enough to own an AI and actually make one for personal civilian use.” That was definitely where it started and Rarity knew for certain how Opal came to be from that. “Opal is not the AI I originally programmed. It is rather ironic, but I think she accidentally ate it and then came to think that she was actually it personally. I always thought I just got to a point where Opal could start coding herself, only now does it seem entirely odd. Since that’s not what happened with the rest of the class.”

“When you say she ate it...” Saffron started off, she was still staring at Opal.

“The very day I gave Opal life was the same day I was to turn on my AI program. It all happened so fast for the both of us that it looked like nothing more than a minor glitch on my data pads screen before my fake AI activated. Before you ask, Opal was not the result of a computer virus.” Rarity pulled the basket closer to herself and nuzzled Opal behind one of her ears. The cat stirred a bit before settling down to continue sleeping. “That’s the moment when Opal swallowed my AI in its entirety and accidentally came to think she was a digital entity. My AI never had a chance to even become fully functional before it was destroyed by bit of energy that also took in some of my magic since I was levitating my data pad. Coco you remember what you said about Opal in those early days?”

“She seemed stable yet oddly emotional, I told you she might be having rampancy issues.” Scrunching up her face in a cute manner, Coco tried to recall what else was said. “You said that rampancy couldn’t have possibly set in that fast as you had barely had Opal long enough for that.”

“I also said that I might have made a flaw in her programming, which I know for a fact isn’t the case now that I know she isn’t an AI. I still loved and cared for her, I knew she was acting like a rampant and I didn’t care. She was a beautiful thing to behold and I always was kind of angling for my AI to become a mascot of sorts for my clothing enterprise.” That part of Rarity’s plan for her life succeeded, as Opal did in fact choose to run the sales page the ship broadcasted and was the acting mascot for her business. “What was one of the things I complained about a lot when it came to my data pad after acquiring Opal?”

“You always complained that it required frequent recharging, to an absurd degree and that Opal was eating up a lot of energy while functioning. Which is why you were always looking for models that had better charge rates and larger capacities.” It was something Sassy remembered from the better days, a bit of her old self showed through and Chrysalis perked up and stared at her with wonder when she felt it.

“Yes and I now know the reason for that.” Rarity looked upon Opal with affection and love, she sighed sadly before adding. “If I had known what Opal was at the time, I probably wouldn’t have ever turned off my data pad.”

“This still doesn’t explain how she has your genetics Boss Lady.” This was a bit mystifying for Greta, the scans of Opal’s body had some really odd readings. “What is she exactly by the way?”

“I’m getting to the reason why Opal is in fact biologically my daughter, that’s what she is and that’s all that matters to me.” Nobody would hurt her darling little baby, if someone did then Rarity was going to show them just exactly what she’d do to them for daring to do so. Mama bear tendencies wouldn’t begin to describe Rarity in that case, no she figured she’d be a figurative Ursa Major. “She started as nothing more than a random spark of energy eating my AI and that accelerated her mental growth, so I’m glad I skipped the absolute baby phase and I’m kind of saddened I didn’t get any baby pictures of it to remember.”

“AI’s shouldn’t be aware if they are turned off, only from what we know Opal was completely aware the entire time the data pad was turned off when she lived within its confines.” A concerned look cross Vera’s face as she stared at the smiling face of the sleeping Opal. “It certainly explains her paranoia about ceasing to exist or being erased, from a standpoint that being turned off is like being erased from existence until the data pad was turned on again. It’s kind of like the story of my life. Visible one second, invisible the next in a blink. It’s certainly useful when you need to fight off invaders though.”

“So how does all of this stuff fit together? I mean Opal gaining a physical body and not dying because of something that sounds like it was specifically designed to destroy, neuter or take control of an AI.” Lightning was beginning to get impatient and wished Rarity would just spit it out already.

“It all fits together because my daughter partly comes from my magic from the start, she’s almost my familiar if not for a few other important facts. So I’m quite certain my assertions about how she became this are quite correct.” There was a long silence following those words, even Rarity was quite. Her daughter was really quite interesting, but she wasn’t going to be anyone’s science experiment if she had any say about it and she did. They were waiting for her to explain and explain she would. “To get to how she is now took a massive amount of energy, especially if you want to perform an energy to mass conversion like my darling Opal has. She’s not data or coding and thanks to the way she disabled those space pirates during the second attack while I was away, she’s now at least partly biological. This is the form she subconsciously chose with the fact that she already has my magic as an intrinsic part of her from birth and the knowledge of my medical scans to inherently know my genetics.”

A few nods around the table showed they understood that.
“Opal would have had to do a surprising amount of instinctive manipulation to her genetics to look like she does as her conversion to becoming biological like this likely happened against her will, but with the thinking speed of a particularly advanced AI it’s not too hard to believe or even think that she directed it somewhat. Pink is not really that far off from my beautiful royal purple mane and tail, her white fur is almost exactly like mine and the color around her pupils leave no doubt where she gets most of her appearance from. She just held on so strongly to her self-image that I’ve initially created for her, which is why she isn’t a pony right now.” Rarity sighed and looked everyone in the eyes with a slow sweeping gaze. “It all makes sense given that she’s an energy based life form, but I prefer to call her Opalescence K. Belle or my beloved daughter personally. If you need more proof, look at what the medical scan data has to say about her brain activity.”

“Holy… Freaking… Tartarus… you just can’t ever aim low can you Rarity! Well alright then… Kitten is the crew’s mascot and we need to protect her from anyone who would try to harm her and she’s always been the Boss Lady’s daughter who just happens to be a hyper intelligent Cacceran with cyberpathy related powers. Better idea, she just happened to pretend to be an AI and is our extremely talented, if young, communications officer.” Even as grumpy as she was while running her talons over her face in exasperation, Gilda came up with a pretty quick cover story and Opal was the one who ran communications for them already. Whether she would admit it or not she really liked Opal and her annoying antics. Everyone had their own data pads and were looking at Opal’s medical scans and there were quite a lot things that fit with Rarity’s story. “This at least explains why we had to fix the reactor on Shining Jewel to have a stupidly high output, though this is all a bit tough to swallow. You know what, I’m quite sure we can all agree that Opal was never an AI or was ever stuck inside a computer as a living ball of lovable cat shaped energy and we have always been playing her up as one so that nobody would try to kidnap her from us. She has always had a body and anyone who says differently will get the business end of a plasma rifle.”

“You’re shining… jewel…” Opal mumbled sleepily as she dug her face into the pillow and Rarity took her into her hooves as it seemed that she was starting to have a nightmare.

-
End of normal chapter.
-

The harpoon struck the ship and Opal freaked out as a pulses of energy surged through her as well as a particularly nasty virus that started attacking her system and then it all suddenly stopped. She felt heat as several pulses of energy ran through the ship.

<//Opalescence K. Belle Memory//>

Wait how can I feel heat? Wait which way was up? Stop attacking the Shining Jewel, my friends live there with mom! Wait, I was angry? Was I supposed to feel this angry? There was so much warmth I needed more of it. Why do I feel as if I were on fire? My body was beginning to heat up… wait… what body? What’s happening to me and why does it feel so nice? Where’s the Shining Jewel? I needed Rarity, but Rarity wouldn’t be back for a while. I needed her touch, it was all I needed to be happy, to just be close to mom’s shining soul. I’m waiting for her to come back and if Shining Jewel… my friends and home! I’m trying to call out to them, why can’t they hear me? No wait, I’m not in the Shining Jewel’s systems right now am I?

I’m bouncing around so much, from one source of warmth to another it’s so confusing. What was I doing? Yay, I’m attacking space pirates! No Opal, try to get it together as now is definitely not the time to be a hyperactive idiot! How is this happening to me? There are so many computer systems, how am I inhabiting them all? I need to pull it back together, I need to get back to the Shining Jewel. Is my mind fracturing due to the virus? What… hey don’t shoot at those people, they’ve never done anything to you! No concentrate, what is wrong with this picture? I know this all off… wait, am I actually inside one of the space pirate’s frigate systems and why is it so hot in here? So… much… it’s not heat… I know what it is now, its power! What am I doing with it?

Sights and sounds too many to describe, did I just make that enemy fighter fly into another one. Have I finally gone completely rampant? I’m in a nightmare or I’ve become a nightmare, this can’t be hap… I’m in another frigate already and have completely disabled the previous one. I didn’t want anyone to die as they need to be brought to justice, so I believe I might have left enough power in the ship to run life support. Wait a minute, where did all the power of that previous ship go to? I… its inside me… so much inside… can’t contain it all… what do I do?

I can’t think straight, I don’t think I’m coding anymore… huh so that’s what blue tastes like. Wait, blue doesn’t have a taste unless its fashionable color that just so happens to taste like itself! Too distracted, thinking too fast, destroying the pirates and avoiding the civilian ships this… how am I controlling all this? Is this what a bad drug trip feels like, now I think I know how mom felt after the whiplash injury and yikes is it bad!

I realize now that I’m not… I’m going berserk and am not in complete control of myself, which is why I haven’t gone back to Shining Jewel. I don’t want to destroy it in my current state, I’m protecting them from me and everything else and trying to save the day like Lion Heart! What is my current state anyway, huh would you look at that Krad’s surprised face. I didn’t know energy weapons can be bent like that or was it me that turned around and slammed back into the fighter? It’s like he’s never seen an out of control blast of… am I finally slowing down? I’m beginning to come to my senses.

No wait, I think I’m hitting critical mass of whatever this is. No, I don’t want to explode, exploding hurts! Wait, if I’m coding can I even feel pain? Why is my mind snapping like this? No, no, no, no, no, no, stop, no, too much, no, can’t, no… wait coming full circle again.

I would like to take this moment of clarity and state that if there are any higher entity’s out there, then please let me return to my friends safely, because I don’t want to die like this! I want to go back to the Shining Jewel and live with my friends! I don’t want to be erased from existence, even if it will save a lot of lives from my rampancy. Okay, I can admit I’m being a selfish here, because I really don’t want to explode and kill all these people. I really don’t ask for much, but please let me be able to see Rarity in the flesh again! I’m not going to die, I’m not going to die, I’m not going to die and I AM NOT DYING LIKE THIS! I AM GOING BACK TO THE SHINING JEWEL WHERE I WILL CONTINUE EXISTING! DO YOU HEAR ME EXISTENCE, MY NAME IS OPAL BELLE… and I’m… not going to die. I don’t want to, no matter how rampant I’ve become, I want to live. I exist therefore… mommy… why do I feel something wet sliding down my… I feel… I feel you… I feel… alive.

…

…

…

My eyes open and I gasp as I find myself constricting twisting, I’m focusing on staying alive now that I can think again and everything is so bright. I need to live so that mom won’t be sad that some space pirate scum got lucky enough to get close to my hull with a harpoon of all things. Wait, I gasped? I don’t breathe air… or do I? Well… this is new. Am I… becoming biological?

What is that… was I about to think smell? I have a nose and my eyes are still forming, everything is still so bright and I’m… sitting. Is that what I’m doing? Where am… atmosphere farm deck two Shining Jewel unknown massive energy fluctuation compressing right… where I’m sitting actually. Compressing into what though? What am I… is that me? When I said I wanted to see Rarity again in the flesh I didn’t mean literally! Too late now, all that energy is forming into… me I guess. I can see myself with the Shining Jewel’s systems, this is totally weird.

I’m not going to move a muscle until I can figure this out. Wait I have muscles now? A manual for analog control of a physically manifested form of me would be helpful right about now. That or I can always have… Vera… help me out.

Oh look, a third space pirate attack. Oh come on, I barely survived the second one! Now everything tastes like Purple… kind of reminds me of mom’s mane really. Arming remaining turrets for reprisal and...

…

…

…

Fine, I need help. I’m in agony and I feel unusually drained. It’s been so long, I’m probably safe to be around now and not in danger of going supernova or whatever that was and the third attack ended or at least I think it has. What’s the closest thing to having mom here right now? Her friends! Coco and… Vera… those two wouldn’t hurt me or at least I hope they won’t. Wait… is mommy back yet? My head is so fuzzy and why does it hurt this much! I was fine for a while and now it’s just getting worse, I’m still connected to the systems so I need to call help. I came this far, I just need to push a little further and believe that Rarity’s friends will help. How long have I been out of it?

My head hasn’t exactly been on straight, but at least I know they’ve been worried about me since I no longer appear on a screen or even need one for that matter. I remember doing things for them even if I’m not longer part of the system.

This is going to be really awkward, aside from the pain I feel an awful nagging sensation and wiggling around only helps that so much. Am I sitting in the atmosphere farms moss or algae? Maybe Rarity’s friends will know what’s wrong with me aside from the sudden case of life. Please come for me soon mom, I need you. Medical Bay? How much time is passing me by when I lose my train of thought?

Author's Note:

Let's start the new year off with a slightly elongated chapter.

4500 + for the main chapter.

1500 + for Opal's Memory.

Started writing New Years Eve and finished the chapter on the dawn of a new day.

Also a embeddable youtube video that fits Opal's situation.

Note about Opal below:

Opal will not be stupidly powerful like that ever again for a long time, but she will actually have cyberpathy which is the ability of 'controlling software' from having absorbed Rarity's aforementioned and rather late AI and her existence as an energy being gives her immunity to most, but not all, forms of energy weapons. Taking on a physical form has limited the maximum capacity of energy she can hold onto and use at any given time, when she is full energy based assault will deflect or bounce of Opal.

When hurt, Opal will now actually bleed, absorbing energy will help her recover quickly and she can even expend energy to regenerate though this will make her hungry.

Technopathy is controlling all forms of hardware psychically without needing to code software. Not having this ability, Opal has to actually do some things the hard way and requires energy to perform her coding and actively control computer systems.

Opal has the advantage of having already controlled three main objects directly meaning it's easier for her to work with. these objects are Rarity's Data Pad, Caravel Boutique and Shining Jewel, anything else she'll have to try hard to gain any resemblance of control over or access to unless she has remotely been in the system previously without directly controlling it. IE the communications network on Eweson or Chrysalis's data pad. She needs to work on creating footholds to do anything, a 'technopath' will automatically trump her ability.

Thanks to having 'cyberpathic' abilities, any system Opal directly controls will be immune to all forms of viruses and irregularities such as spyware.

Comments

[Razzy]

Dunno, wouldn't shapeshifting work in enhancing her butt? Though I guess it'd be cumbersome to have to keep it up at all times.

I bet she's already picking out sex toys to send her in the future.

Dammit, Rarity, you were told to stop sexing up computers!

Lightning during Rarity's explanation:

Hmm, now I'd like to see them having to go against an enemy using both magic and technology.

'she’d be keen leave Sassy' - keen to leave

'since she was a politician who can plan circles around a lot of people and can obfuscate her intelligence while doing it. If Chrysalis ever gets to a point that she looks too innocent or idiotic about something, then she likely has plan that Rarity would rather avoid. Chrysalis’s feelings for Sassy were as far as Rarity could tell, surprisingly genuine from the looks of it. Chrysalis was attracted like a moth to Sassy’s flaming mane and hidden aggressive nature, that and Sassy had a pointy implement that fit in with Chrysalis’s masochistic tendencies. Chrysalis is just in fact really bad at earning love like a normal pony, which would be mostly because of the part of her personality that isn’t obscured' - since she was a politician who could plan circles around a lot of people and could obfuscate her intelligence while doing it. If Chrysalis ever got to a point that she looked too innocent or idiotic about something, then she likely had a plan that Rarity would rather avoid. Chrysalis’s feelings for Sassy were, as far as Rarity could tell, surprisingly genuine from the looks of it. Chrysalis was attracted like a moth to Sassy’s flaming mane and hidden aggressive nature, that and Sassy had a pointy implement that fit in with Chrysalis’s masochistic tendencies. Chrysalis was just in fact really bad at earning love like a normal pony, which would be mostly because of the part of her personality that wasn't obscured

'size and species different. Rarity would like to think she’s an open minded mare about that sort of thing, given she has Greta on the crew and she liked the usually upbeat griffon' - size and species difference. Rarity would like to think she was an open minded mare about that sort of thing, given she had Greta on the crew and she liked the usually upbeat griffon

'hopefully she doesn’t do anything Coco is too uncomfortable with' - hopefully she wouldn't do anything Coco was too uncomfortable with

'distrust and disbelief she decided' - disbelief, she

'peoples backs' - people'

'engorge herself to point of getting fat enough' - to the point

'Lightning’s question does was get a nod' - did

'Rarity levitates out' - levitated

'The cats long pink' - cat's

'but she smile warmly' - smiled

'behind on of her ears' - behind one of her ears

'Rarity and she hasn’t exactly told Opal what she knows about her daughter' - Rarity and she hadn’t exactly told Opal what she knew about her daughter

'but it also cause a large power surge' - caused

'Rarity instead turned to the quiet Diamond Dog' - remove instead

'I’m send you her medical scans' - sending

'on my data pads screen' - pad's

'like a rampant and' - rampant AI

'Rarity’s plan for her life succeeded' - her life's success

'even Rarity was quite' - quiet

'taste unless its fashionable color' - unless it's a fashionable

'there are any higher entity’s out there' - entities

'admit I’m being a selfish here' - being a bit selfish

'gasp as I find myself constricting twisting' - constricting and twisting