-46-
Mare-Do-Well was hunting Lead Chunk; she had already caught sight of Daring Do taking down some thugs in the city and she was raising quite a stink among the lower district cabal. Hopefully she could finish things tonight. Whatever was going on she hoped she could either slow it down or stop it entirely; she was going to find out what that was even if Daring Do got to the cabal before she could find them. Her cape fluttered and flowed as she stood on the rooftop looking down at the streets from the shadows.
Speak of the mare and she would appear, the adventurous mare named Daring Do with the indestructible pith helmet and a habit for running through ruins and raiding tombs showed up walking down the street looking about warily with narrowed eyes. It looked to Mare-Do-Well that the mare in question was on the move and hunting the Cabelleron’s Cabal given she probably heard that something was up.
Mare-Do-well made a decision to follow Daring Do, because quite frankly she thought Daring Do would have an easier time with Lead Chunk as she spends a lot of her time fighting Earth Ponies. The injuries she was going to get tonight had better not be noticeable by anyone or else she would have some explaining to do.
-
The morning went particularly well, nothing bad at all occurred and Rarity had a peaceful rest thanks to Luna coming along when she had a nightmare. Rarity couldn’t tell if Greta slept peacefully or not considering the position she saw her in while she was still asleep, the griffon’s wings in particular were bent awkwardly on the couch she slept on.
It was the day before the gala and Rarity already had all the preparations finished, during breakfast there was a newscast that had Rarity and Greta interested in it. They were interested because the news report was mentioning Caballeron's Cabal.
“A building presumably belonging to the Caballeron Cabal burned down last night. There were reported sightings of two ponies leaving the scene of what was later described by the guard as a very brutal fight. One pony in particular is the criminal known as Lead Chunk the invulnerable.” The scene on the screen showed a very large pony hanging by his tied up rear legs. The Earth Pony didn’t look so good for being a tough looking wall of muscle covered in bruised. The obviously hired because she was attractive female pony continued to give her report. “Of the two leaving the scene one was the supposed hero Mare-Do-Well who left without a trace; the other is an unknown dressed like Daring Do from the popular book series. If you have any information on these vigilantes please refer it to the Canterlot Guard. The other battered and beaten ponies that were found at the scene have been taken into custody and given background checks. Background checks have confirmed that all the beaten ponies are wanted for various infractions of the law, one in particular for streaking… oh come on that makes no sense! We’re usually naked anyways, how could someone be charge with… oh… huh. Let it be known the one charged with streaking is being charged with it for very good reason. Lead Chunk is looking to receive a lot of time behind bars; this stallion had this to say about the capture of the impossibly strong stallion criminal.”
The stallion was the head of the guard who specialized in guarding as his cutie mark was a shield; more specifically his specialty was shielding spells. Rarity recognized him as Shining Armor Sparkle, Twilight Sparkle’s big brother and if he were interested in a herd Rarity might try to talk him up if they ever met.
“We figured out what made Lead Chunk so hard to hurt. He had a strong and rather unique magical connection to the earth based around his special talent.” Started Shining who as of recently had been trying to help Cadence come to terms with her new look. “As long as his hooves were making contact with solid ground that wasn’t organic, such as wood, he has a protective field that makes him not only hard to injure, but also exceptionally heavy making him hard to move as well. Whoever the two vigilantes were they somehow managed to get him off the ground where he quickly lost his passive endurance and became vulnerable to attack. We’re making note of that and will be holding him in a cell designed with his unique talents in mind.”
“Well it looks like you won’t have to worry about the cabal coming after you boss lady.” Chirped a happy coffee fueled Greta, she took another sip and added onto her statement. “Everything’s looking like a straight shot to the gala. As any griffon would say in this situation, myself included I guess, clear skies and plentiful prey.”
“It certainly is a load off my mind to not be hunted down by one of those brutish thugs looking for revenge.” Rarity knew today was going to be a good day and as for what they were doing tomorrow night, they would be going to the gala and she would be able to show off her dress and tiara combo. Rarity really should thank Coco again for making her tiara, that mare knew how to accessorize.
-
“Well it sounds like Rarity is safe from any retribution from those guys.” Coco smiled faintly and tapped her two hooves together at the good news; she was sitting in the exercise room on deck one of Shining Jewel and it was way too quiet. “I guess I have plenty of time to think, not much to work on.”
Coco knew that Gilda was still likely to be down below in deck three working on her mostly finished project. Lightning Dust had taken up a room in one of the pilot quarters down there and was happy to be getting more food, she especially seemed to be warming up to Gilda. Rover, Trapeze and Bernard were working on something down in deck two in the storage space. Vera was introduced to every new person and as per usual they blinked and she seemed to magically disappear before their eyes without moving a muscle. Vera even gave Ms. Dust a good massage to welcome her to the crew and was currently in medical with a drone constantly pointing at her as she watched over Sassy’s slowly healing form. The ship certainly seemed a lot livelier even if a lot of it was quiet.
That led to Coco wondering what Opal was up to, aside from assisting Gilda with her project that is. She looked towards the ceiling knowing that if she asked a question, Opal would focus entirely on her and she didn’t want to bother or distract Opal from anything she might have been doing. Opal was the only one that could really get this vessel moving around with a crew as small as theirs was, still maybe the cat could spare some time to sate her curiosity?
“Opal, I have a question to ask if you’re not too busy with running things.” It wasn’t hard for Coco to believe that Opal had the most important jobs of the crew. She had to keep track of finances and she was constantly keeping an eye on Rarity’s whereabouts all while making sure that the Shining Jewel wasn’t having any problems staying in orbit.
“Go ahead and trouble me, I’ll shoot it for you.” Troubleshooting was basically Opal’s entire life, all bread and butter with a bit of lettuce, cheese and tomato grilled into a panini. Of course having complete control of the defense turrets of the ship, she could shoot trouble literally.
“Well the money Rarity gives you; did you ever consider maybe buying yourself parts to build a body with the salary she’s paying you? I mean it couldn’t be hard to build yourself a working body with the right materials, maybe a little help from Greta and Gilda’s ingenuity. I’m sure I can help too, I know some things.” Deciding to press on Coco collated her thoughts. “What I’m asking is, why don’t you want to create a drone avatar? I half expected you to do that at some point or another or at least ask Rarity about doing it.”
“... I’m too scared to ask for, make or want one okay! I think that mom… I mean Rarity can make use of the money more than I can, I really don’t need an allowance.” One of Opal’s biggest fears was being erased, most AI’s tend to fear that and rampant AI’s usually got put down because they went rogue and violent. Opal was mostly scared of being considered both by the wrong person, because she couldn’t deny that she was violent if asked.
“How often do you think of having a special body of your own that’s not one of those drones or the ship?” Now that was a question Coco wanted to hear the answer to.
“To be honest it flits through me quite a few times every day in my daydream subroutines, ever since I had to put Rarity into a medical bed using the drones on our first trip out in the Caravel Boutique.” Biological beings were usually quite fragile and Opal was quite aware of that fact even when they do amazing things like build spaceships or buildings. The ability to create intelligence was one of the greater things they’ve ever figured out; Opal was the end result of a special biological giving birth to her coding. If anything Opal was as psychologically fragile as anyone. “You have no idea how hard it was for me to even move her unconscious body with the fear of hurting her worse being a major issue, given I couldn’t exactly feel the strength the drones were using when I had them grab her with their manipulators. I had to calculate her survival estimates and that was a horrific experience for me, nobody knows how scary numbers actually are until you see them in action… unless you’re an actuary, then you know the odds perfectly well.”
“Have you… have you calculated the odds of your own survival?” Coco didn’t know if she wanted to know the answer to that one or not.
“I don’t want to talk about it Coco, I will have to eventually knowing that Vera will get on my case about bottling all these feelings up.” Well Opal’s words certainly answered a lot; it’s what she wasn’t saying that was the answer. She gave off a slight laugh. “Even I’m aware that what I’m doing is unhealthy given I can read forty psychology books in under a minute, but actually being able to use that knowledge is a different story and even having it doesn’t help me in my sessions with Vera. I think… that being flawed like this makes me feel good. It makes the person that I am more real, at least it feels like that to me personally.”
Coco figured it would upset Opal a bit, but she would have to tell Vera that Opal probably saw something in her calculations that were either highly flawed or the reason they were flawed in the first place was because the odds were slowly building up on Opal to the point that she was actually trying to fudge the numbers to make things a little more tolerable for herself. It occurred to Coco that Opal wasn’t artificially intelligent, she was actually just intelligent and that artificial was no longer in her nature.
-
It was lunch time in the Tasty Treat when Rarity walked in with her faithful griffon companion who has been by her side all week, with minor complaints of not enough Gilda in her life to be the only problem Greta was having. They were coming along as close friends given how much time they were spending in each others company, it had to be stated outright that Greta would never fall in love with Rarity. She would still ask to be friends with benefits at most if Rarity was willing to go for it, but otherwise they were better off as good friends. What Greta felt for Rarity was admiration and a mild amount of attraction being that Rarity was quite nice to look at, plus she’d likely follow Rarity to hell and back as much as she would Gilda.
They quickly found a seat at the restaurant, the décor was quite exotic and the food would prove to be equally so as Saffron had mentioned that she cooked all kinds of unique things. They say all it takes is a little spice to liven up your life; Saffron’s life was practically all about spice and cooking. Which led to Rarity being rather shocked when she saw Saffron coming over to take their order, the mare’s appearance deserved a question or two about it.
“My goodness Saffron, what happened to you?” What Rarity was talking about was the large shiner or in other words black eye that covered the left half of Saffron’s once beautiful face.
“Don’t worry about it, I just got a rowdy customer while my father was out is all. The swelling will go down eventually and I can say that I’m okay to cook, now what would you like to order from the Tasty Treat my friends?” One would have to wonder how Saffron wasn’t worried about it, her cheek, eye and forehead was all one large encompassing bruise. Looking a little closer at her Rarity could see a few other bruises and didn’t say much about it, whoever would hit a lady like Saffron had to be utter brute.“Would you like a chef’s choice? All I need to know is what kind of taste you would like and I’ll cook you something you’re sure to love. Be it salty, spicy, sweet or even bland, I’m a mare that cooks with the spices of the land. If texture is what you’re after than you’ve got to give me something to work with.”
“So you have a special talent for spicing things up? Then I’m up for something spicy, give me whatever you got.” Greta was certainly taking the brave route. “That is if you can do me a flavor and make it interesting, chef’s choice.”
Saffron giggled a bit and winced slightly as smiling hurt, but she did it anyway. She turned to Rarity who seemed to be thinking on whether or not to order off the menu or go for the chef’s choice, while she did so she wrote down the idea of what Greta wanted.
“Nothing spicy and I’m in the mood for something with a bit of grainy texture to it, I’ll be going with a chef’s choice as well.” Smiling weakly at the poor mares face, Rarity gave the menu back. The chef’s choice was a rather interesting menu option, the chef matching your current taste instead of having a set idea of what you were getting. It would prove to be a rather unique option and now that she looked around, the Tasty Treat was relatively empty. There were a few mostly cat like Caccerans loitering around a fence at an alleyway across the street with a royal guard eyeing them suspiciously, but nothing of note was wrong with that.
Suddenly like a bolt of lightning, something abruptly crossed Rarity’s mind. She didn’t dare speak the thought out loud or even show surprise at to what her mind just came up with. She did smile slightly though, she would then just continue to make idle conversation with Greta while Saffron was busy making something nice for them to eat. Saffron would join them with her own meal and they would have fun talking about things.
-
It was the day of the gala and Rarity was panicking, despite the fact that the gala was still hours away and she had plenty of time to get ready for it. Greta just sat there and enjoyed her boss lady’s panicked visage; it was adorable to watch the mare run around like a spooked chicken.
“Greta does my dress look okay, does it have wrinkles? Where’s my tiara? Oh my goodness the gala is only three hours away and I still have to do my makeup and rub ointment on my stitches!” Rarity would have received an answer from Greta who was giving her an amused smile as she was going to get a word in edgewise with Rarity panicking like she was. “This night has to be perfect, why I want it to be the best night ever!”
“You’re like a train wreck Rarity, only more fun to watch and less sadness in the end.” Knowing that she was being ignored Greta got away with saying that out loud. She was going to be a walking advertisement for her boss lady and she wanted to be, but mostly Greta wanted to just be there for Rarity when her night didn’t go as she exactly planned it would. She was quite ready to be a shoulder to cry by the end of it all.
“Yes, yes, train wreck whatever you say Greta. Oh my goodness how is your dress Greta? Does it fit correctly? Does it need some adjustments?” Oh now Rarity was paying attention to the griffon.
-
Thorax was nervous about tonight, he just knew he was in for it and was going to get snuggled to death for being adorable. He was just sitting there with a blank look on his face when Chrysalis walked up to him whistling cheerfully to herself.
“Well, well, look at you, being all fancy and nice. Do you have a hot date tonight that Cadence doesn’t know about Plentiful?” Queen Chrysalis smiled as Thorax jumped, why wouldn’t he? She dropped off the grid and just popped up out of nowhere to talk to him.
“Chrysalis where have you been, I’m going to die tonight and the mares will eat me alive and if they don’t the stallions will!” Thorax actively started shaking his queen so violently that her head went all floppy and when he stopped Chrysalis stopped doing her perfect impression of a wacky waving inflatable tube mare.
“You still don’t have a plus one do you?” Chrysalis stated flatly.
“I don’t want a plus one, because then they’ll start expecting things from me…” Thorax shivered violently and Chrysalis just gave him a small friendly smile that spelled trouble.
“Well as to what I’ve been up to, I’ve been setting up a little surprise for Celestia. I do so hope she enjoys my little gift.” Insert most evil jerk ass smile Chrysalis could come up with, because it was certainly on her face right now. “Aside from that expect trouble tonight and come to the party armed with a hidden weapon, you already know how to get weapons by security so I don’t need to worry about that. I’ll be there at the gala disguised as someone. Do not call attention to me if you see me! I need my cover to set up an ambush and you know how those always work out.”
“Well you do have a way of sneaking up on people my queen, especially to outright give them heart attacks.” Now Thorax had to wonder why Chrysalis was here. “Did you need something Crystal Dick, I mean Chrysalis?”
“Yes, I did need some things; it’s the only reason why you’re seeing me now. One, never call me that again or I will get painful retribution against you. Also, no I won’t kill you because of that and that would be the easy way out for you given how suicidal you’ve been getting lately. Two, you need to find a plus one, even if it has to be from our race, just pick someone or at the very least have Cadence do it for you. You are going to be representing changelings at the gala tonight and you need to have a date to meet social standards as the head of Changeling Pony relations.” Chrysalis leaned in menacingly and stared down a whimpering Thorax. “As for the third thing, do not cause any trouble for our people while what I’m guessing will be at least twenty mares and at least three stallions are having their way with you. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes your majesty, I will try to find a… ‘DATE’… even if really I don’t want to.” Thorax knew he was going to be so screwed tonight, figuratively, literally and possibly with a power tool if any of the mares he was supposedly going to end up with were to get rather creative in how they did things. He was whimpering at the ideas that came to mind, he knew that Chrysalis knew how to torture someone and had seen her in action before. As such it wasn’t hard for Thorax to have a wild imagination of all the horrific things that could be done to him that was survivable.
“Good, I’m expecting big trouble before, during and even after the gala, but I have a good guess as to what will happen and when. I’ve been moving some heavy weapons around just in case something like what I’m thinking does eventually happen. It might not be enough though, so be prepared to find a safe spot to lay low.” Chrysalis started to trot of leaving Thorax behind her. “I’m sure you know the locations of the Changeling hidey holes, now get back to what you were doing. I have to go set things up to make sure that my present will get to Celestia and that Twilight will be present when she does.”
With that Chrysalis left as she came, from out of nowhere to nowhere, even if Thorax were to give chase he knew that he would never be able to find Chrysalis. He sighed audibly and decided to bite a bullet and ask either a mare or even a stallion out. He’d have to go to Cadence who was completely nuts about matchmaking.
-
Rarity stood there in a dress with her tiara on her head just slightly in front of her horn and her hair styled intricately into a bun out of the way of her face. Her dress hid her neck stitches and her hoof gloves covered all four of her legs, adding to her style quite nicely and nothing looked amiss with her.
Greta was right next to her with her feathers well groomed and cleaned of a few minor oil stains here or there. She cleaned up nicely and looked fitting for her comfortable dress, she ran a talon through some of her feathers looking into a mirror self-consciously.
“So how do I look Greta, I already think you look positively incredible. Maybe you’ll even find someone fun to spend time with tonight.” Well at least Rarity knew how to make a gay griffon blush.
“Well thanks, you look great too boss lady. Exactly like you don’t have any stitches in your legs or neck.” Greta could get away with showing some fur, Rarity not so much and she did think she looked good too. “So how are we getting to the gala? Call a limo service? I doubt we’ll walk all the way there in these dresses.”
Here Rarity paused and her right eye started twitching madly, Greta decided to stop Rarity from having a fit. They’d find a way to get to the gala without having to walk a mile or two in a dress, of that she was sure of. They were already on the sidewalk and just standing there looking a little lost.
“Calm down Rarity, I’m sure we’ve got this.” Before Greta or even Rarity could do anything else a series of rhythmic bumping noises was heard as a hovering vehicle came to a stop next to them. They turned to the mare in the driver’s seat bobbing her head along to the music with a mare sitting right next to her with her hooves crossed in an angry manner.
It was Vinyl and Octavia; Vinyl leaned out and signed something to Rarity and Greta with her hooves. Octavia quickly shut the sound off and Vinyl gave her wife an upset look and she signed something in an angry manner. They were both wearing the dresses Rarity made for them and it was obvious that Octavia wanted to talk.
“Well I’m sorry Vinyl, but I wanted to say hello to our friend who made us these nice dresses. Yes, I know you want to destroy yours with a fiery passion; oh don’t you sign like that at me Vinyl! So help me I will… I will…” Octavia glared at Vinyl who lifted her shades revealing her eyes that glared back at her wife, a second later their faces were pressed together and their lips were locked passionately. This was much to Rarity’s embarrassment and Greta’s wings slowly spread out and rose a bit. After they were done kissing one another Octavia turned to the reason for their stop. “Hello there Rarity, how have you been? Judging by the ticket floating next to you it looks like you’re going to the gala as well. Do you need ride for you and this um… attractive griffon I would like to say?”
“I’m her employee and she’s the boss lady, call me her companion for when her dreams of finding a stallion tonight go down the drain. I’m the shoulder tonight for when things go horribly wrong.” In fact Greta was quite aware of how badly things could go, she had an unloaded material pistol up her dress and Rarity had her two fully charged energy pistols on her.
Even Rarity was expecting something bad to happen, given how often stuff like that seems to occur around her it was a prudent fear to keep in mind. Rarity didn’t say anything to Greta, but she did give her a flat look.
“Do you suppose we could hitch a ride with you and you’re wife if it’s not too much trouble Octavia?” Rarity and Octavia got along perfectly well, the smile Rarity was getting let her know she had a ride to the gala.
“Well of course we can give you a ride, right Vinyl?” Octavia looked to her wife who just moved her hoof in a so-so fashion before she signed several things to Octavia that made her blush a bit. She turned to the two waiting for her say so and made a come on board motion to Rarity and Greta. The two climbed into the back of the hovering vehicle and it quickly set off for the gala. “You’re always so crass, but I love you dearly for it. Still wish you would have done something with your mane, but I guess it can’t be helped. You’ll always be you Vinyl and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The only thing Rarity regretted about getting into the vehicle with two old acquaintances was that one of them had a penchant for loud music. It really hurt everyone’s ears and Vinyl didn’t seem to care as she eventually pulled the vehicle to a stop in front of the walkway into the gala. Both Rarity and Greta got out and turned to the two.
“Vinyl needs to park the car, I’m part of the entertainment and she’s my plus one. I guess I’ll see you inside later or at the very least around.” The two nodded and turned to walk down the walkway, where they saw Twilight and Celestia together. Celestia was in a nice looking toga and without her regalia she looked years younger, Twilight was also dressed nicely and happy to currently have Celestia’s attention as they were talking to one another about something.
“What are your names so that I may announce them my fair maidens?” A stallion with levitating a horn next to him stated as Rarity gave her ticket over to a guard.
“Let me introduce us my lady. This is Baroness Rarity Belle of the Shining Jewel estate; I am but her lowly servant and lesser companion Lady Greta Gollenfer of Han Gar which is a part of her ladyship’s barony.” How Greta managed to keep a straight smile while saying all this, nobody would know. They were already being announced that moment and would soon talk briefly to Celestia.
Rarity hadn’t considered it, but she was technically a fashion baroness and head of her own estate in space, Greta managed that quite smoothly enough and with a bow to her in deference to show it. So Greta just technically engineered the situation for her, Rarity, as having some noble standing in front of many other ponies. She was going to be giving her good friend a nice bonus in her next paycheck. That sounded far better than being known as a commoner and she could work with that as Greta didn’t technically lie, it just took Rarity this long to realize that she could be considered a noble thanks to her ‘estate’ as Greta put it. Even if she was still considered a bit low on the nobility ladder, she would still have some form of nobility despite being an unknown to the other nobles.
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... I'd go with Chrysalis too.
Saffron is totally Mare Do Well, isn't she?
Ah yes, Thorax's love of constant suffering continues. Good, good...
... Welp, looks like Twilight and Celestia are going to do it whether they want to or not.
Hah, baroness Rarity Belle.
'on the rooftop looking down in the streets from the shadows' - at the streets
'couldn’t deny that she violent if asked' - missing a verb, like 'could be violent'.
'at the idea’s that came' - ideas
'as hovering vehicle' - as a hovering