Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows

-6-

The Derringer left jump at the edge of Quia System and flew inwards towards Ewesen. Given that she was in system Rarity decided to make a call to apologize to her good friend, she wondered if she had gone to pieces yet.

Ewesen was a planet covered in large amounts of water, yet it had no oceans. It had really big lakes everywhere though and was almost completely green where it wasn’t covered in water. The planet had a tropical climate and had a nice legal trade industry going. Rarity wanted to start up her business here with her friend who was already on the planet setting things up for her arrival so they could start selling stuff together; quite frankly they were going to need the money soon if ownership of Derringer actually ends up in Rarity’s hooves.

“Opal, can you open a channel to Ewesen please? You know who I want to call and apologize to for being so late.” Rarity sat in the captain’s chair on the Caravel Boutique looking at the screen, completely unperturbed by the sound of two griffons shuffling about nearby. She had recently finished adding some decals to Greta’s EVA suit; it had Rarity’s cutie mark proudly emblazoned on the chest now.

“Of course I can Meowstress Rarity, calling our good friend Coco Pommel.” Opal popped up on the screen with her hair up in pigtails and a smile on her face and in her eyes, her ears flicked a bit and she pawed at them slightly. “Okay, connecting to her personal data pad and… we’re live!”

A worried looking mare popped up on screen, she was freaked out and not looking at the screen. Coco otherwise known as Miss Pommel was always so skittish and adorable in her mannerisms, she was an earth pony with an off-white colored fur and her hair was two tones of lighter blues. Her mane in particular looked like a cute bob with blunt cut bangs and some of her hair was held in position with a tasteful three colored hairclip that looked like a flower.

“Please tell me you’re the police and that you’re coming soon because… Rarity where have you been, I’m in need of some serious help right now!” Coco had finally looked at the screen and saw Rarity giving her a concerned look. Miss Pommel had a hat shaped cutie mark and was currently wearing a large backpack full of stuff on her back; her eyes were darting about warily.

“I got held up by space pirates. Oh don’t look so worried! As a lady with my charm and wit, it was nothing I couldn’t handle.” Now if only Rarity hadn’t had to kill a monster at point blank range with an energy pistol, she still cringed at the fact that she took its life. In the background on the screen she could hear weapons discharging and the sound of things breaking, it sounded like a bar brawl was going on. “Enough about me as I’m perfectly okay now. What’s happening Coco, what kind of trouble are you in?”

“You can say that things around here are a little more violent than they should be. Hey, did you test out the impulse saddle? I know I’m not exactly safe at the moment, but a little good news might cheer me up.” Coco ducked down behind a counter and the body of a four legged brown shelled being that looked like the shape of half a banana flew sideways through the air behind her missing one of its two arms the other of which ended in a claw with a three fingered hand. It was followed by a violent burst of sound that a material rifle would make and several screeches. The earth pony seemed to be in the lobby of the hotel she was staying at and her current position seemed to be taking cover behind what looked like a free breakfast bar. “I really have no idea why ‘Sea and Tears’ are after me, well maybe they’re not, but it would be helpful if they weren’t currently shooting at everyone!”

‘Sea and tears’ was the general term or the ideal pronunciation for the Ceantir race, in terms it was apt to call them this for the ‘sea of blood’ and ‘tears to follow’ motto most species have about them. They were noted for two things, being really hard to harm and being involved in highly violent or volatile situations. Most likely if they weren’t in a job involving heavy combat then they were artists, prosecutors and exterminators. It was a truth that they were really good artists, ones who painted the walls with the blood of their enemies quite literally into enjoyable works of art until you found out where they got their paint from. They were good prosecutors, when you wanted someone completely dead as they liked shotgun diplomacy. As for exterminators… surprisingly they could do a good job that didn’t involve killing other sentient species. Not to say they couldn’t be friendly or have merchants, but nine times out of ten they were going to be fighting for someone in some way and you better not be the one that they were currently directed at.

Ceantirs were a crab like race, as far as their limbs were concerned. Their bodies came in a dull brown or rusty red colors, sometimes pink or yellow which was rare. Cut a banana in half then add armored plating layered onto it, then put four crab legs on it and two arms ending large claws with three fingered hands inside of them and you might have an idea as to what one of these guys looked like. Females looked like one half of the banana and the males looked like the other with slightly spikier horns reminiscent of rhinoceros beetles. Their heads were square shape near the top of their armored hoods. They had round eyes that were one solid color that came in any color of the rainbow and were usually glowing, as for their mouths they had lips and small razor sharp teeth which was very underwhelming considering how dangerous the rest of their bodies were.

This race of crustaceous people were hard to harm for several reasons, first and foremost being was they had both a skeleton and an exoskeleton which made their bodies sturdy. The second reason was that they had an ability to regenerate both skeletal structures and almost anything else. Among the things you never did with a Ceantir was grapple with one or get too close them, their most famous method of literally disarming someone is to grab them with their hands and then close the crab claw violently on what they were grabbing. Their shells had sharp rigid points that you didn’t want to rub up against and the final fact is that hand to hand with them was just asking for pain and misery as their physical strength was not to be ignored.

The particular weaknesses of Ceantirs were as follows: incredible amounts blunt force trauma to damage their soft tissue enough that internal hemorrhaging might possibly stop them. Apply piercing force to do enough damage to either of their two brains or one of their three hearts again for internal injuries that might slow them down. Then finally the most common way to absolutely deal with one was to set them on fire.

Ceantirs were notoriously easy to set on fire and that was one major problem for them. Though it took them a while to die from it, heat was definitely their anathema as it slowed them down immensely and even stopped their regenerative abilities immediately. This was aside from being heavy seven to ten foot tall intelligent beings that were very slow to begin with and couldn’t even swim; they were actually much harder to kill underwater unless something big and lethal took them down. Otherwise they were slow moving walls of death when armed with projectile weaponry that on average weighed above five hundred pounds or more and can survive in outer space for approximately three hours without an EVA suit.

Despite all the nasty sounding stuff about them, they weren’t actually hostile to any other sentient race unless they were paid to be; otherwise they were strictly neutral in many things and thankfully cared very little about galactic conquest. As long as you didn’t invade their planet or they were paid to maul you, then you were perfectly safe from them. They were rather honorable beings about not shooting bystanders unless, again, they were paid extra to do just that by an unscrupulous individual.

“Coco, dear, the impulse saddle works perfectly, I ask that you please get to safety and wait for me to come pick you up. I might have to go through customs and a few other things before I’m allowed on the planet, do you think you can hold on for that long… also what’s throwing those Ceantirs around?” It was easy to say that ponies, especially Rarity, didn’t get along with Ceantirs and their ways. It was hard to even imagine that they could be thrown around considering how heavy they were.

Coco looked over the counter and then held up the data pad for Rarity to see what was going on; it was a three way fight. The two bigger groups were the Ceantirs and Macropussians, there was a third side of the fight that was one bounty hunter Rarity recognized fighting the other two sides at the same time by herself. Apparently the dragon known as Ember ‘flamethrower’ Mcflame somehow had made it to Ewesen before even Rarity could; it really had the fashion loving pony slightly peeved. The blue dragoness looked to be too embroiled in the fight to pay much attention to anything else.

Macropussians were basically intelligent and exceedingly strong kangaroos with incredible acrobatic skills; most of their species could bench press five hundred to seven hundred pounds and were all around good in a fight. They were generally friendly to any race they met including ponies. They could walk on all fours or on two legs. They often preferred to leap and jump to get around and were known for jumping from building to building and climbing all over stuff, they also had three times the jumping strength of a normal kangaroo. The fastest way to beat one in combat was to aim for their legs, because you weren’t going to be hitting much else of them if you didn’t as they were fast unless hampered. They were the size of a normal kangaroo if only slightly different in appearance, which were slightly pointier ears and fluffier tails and heads.

“I don’t really know where to go Rarity and it sounds like you’ve had as bad a time as I am right now; I have no place aside from my room here and I at least have all my stuff in my backpack before I left after all the windows were shot out.” It was easy to see the whimpering Coco was positively frightened to be near the firefight going on in the background as a few shots passed by her position causing her to curl up on the floor.

“Can’t you think of someone you could go to?” Even if Rarity was worried for Coco, she seemed to be safely out of the way of it if cornered near a violent three way with one side being highly outnumbered.

“Go to? Oh, well… yes… but you probably don’t want her to know where you are or that you’re coming here.” Coco flattened herself against the floor as a wave of fire swept over the counter she was sitting behind, said counter caught on fire. “Rarity, I’ll call you back if I’m still among the living. I’m sorry, but the only other pony I can go to that I know is around is… Sassy Saddles. I got to go; things are getting really unpleasant in here!”

With that the connection just cut out as a vertically bisected flaming half of Ceantir flew into view with its insides cauterized and Rarity shivered at the sight that she last saw from her friends data pad. Sassy was a friend who was a little crazy. They were still great friends sure, but Sassy was obsessed with befriending females of any species and hated untrustworthy males with a burning passion. The mares she was mostly obsessed with snuggling up against were Coco, Rarity and a member of SNUGGLES called Fluttershy who was apparently her therapist that also a natural at taking care of dangerous animals that could be sifter drifter level threats.

“Oh dear, I hope Coco will be alright until I can pick her up.” She didn’t know how the situation got started, but Rarity hoped that her friend survived it until they could meet up.

“We’re being hailed Rarity, it’s coming from near Ewesen’s moon. I think it’s coming from Geoptis Station, should I patch it through?” Opal’s pigtails bounced as she tilted her head at Rarity on the screen and she looked both giddy and worried at the same time. She was giddy that Rarity was safely back on track to civilization and worried that Miss Pommel wasn’t safe where she was.

“Yes, please do, it could be important.” Rarity waited for a moment a on the screen popped a neon purple Plurt that looked to be female, sometimes she wondered why all Plurts had nice voices.

“Hello and welcome Quia System. This is Planetary Protection Patrol officer Lirutiy speaking, what is your business in this system? We are currently monitoring your approach. If you can hear me and given that your ears don’t have earplugs in them, please change your approach to dock with Geoptis Station on the approach vector we’re transmitting and answer my question if you are not hostile. Otherwise we will fire upon you; I am awaiting your response.” Lirutiy sounded serious and even looked it on the screen.

“Yes, we’ll change course for Geoptis following the vector given. My business is to sell clothing and EVA suits, I’m a designer of fashion and civilian level protective gear. I left Verpo system a while ago from the planet of Desserzon and things haven’t been easy for me since. I’ve been beset by pirates, they had three light cruisers ambush my little cargo freighter. The jump module of my ship the Caravel Boutique exploded and gave me a horrible case of whiplash that I can still somewhat feel, needed to be put in a med-bed with the help from my CATs. Then I had to board the larger ship Derringer which was infested with creatures known as Xouj, I found two survivors on that ship that have been stuck on it for a month and a half. I’m currently on Caravel Boutique using its navigations to direct the Derringer as it has taken quite a bit of damage. Do you need to know more than that?” After a pause Rarity decided to continue. “Now that I’m finally in the Quia System from what was supposed to be a two hour jump trip intercepted somehow with an interdiction field by pirates that knew my exact course, I just find out my business partner Miss Pommel is being beset by Ceantirs, Macropussians and someone I’m vaguely acquainted with. I just got off a call with my friend and I’m pretty sure her hotel has just been set on fire and she’s in danger. Also if you wouldn’t mind, I’m looking into claiming ownership of Derringer.”

“Wait, did you just say Ceantirs? What’s the name of that hotel?” Seeing Lirutiy take a sudden interest in something she had to say, Rarity quickly rattled out the location of the hotel.

“It’s in the city of Drixsto near Lake Terwa, on I believe… Pismo Street was it? It’s called the Galactic Gallop Hotel, it’s a pony owned chain of hotels on various friendly planets in the five systems we ponies are most common in.” There was a moment of silence as Rarity watched the Plurt gain a sudden look of panic, she turned away started talking excitedly about something on a different screen. After turning around and looking off to the side of the screen she looked back to Rarity and gave her a weak smile.

“Thank you for your help, please continue your course. After docking Derringer, we will question the two survivors and have two investigation teams go through the ship to make sure what you say is accurate. Also send us a copy of any data involving the assault on your ship as that will be of importance to us.” Here officer Lirutiy didn’t sound so sure of something that she mostly muttered to herself. It was a little odd considering the Planetary Protection Patrol were usually on top of budding problems, especially in their own sections in space where they happen to be prevalent and it seemed that some things might have gotten by them judging by the disturbed expression on the friendly slugs face. “We will have to give your ship a once over first of all. It’s to make sure there is nothing illegal on it, but otherwise you can go straight to Ewesen after we clear you. It’s not recommended as there is currently a problem going on that we were not previously aware of until now. As for Derringer, you’ll have to wait a while for us to get a full investigation of it before you can be considered for ownership.”

“Of course officer Lirutiy, we’ll continue course to dock Derringer with Geoptis. We’ll need a little help with that.” At that Rarity watched the slug on gain a thoughtful look before nodding; the screen went back to normal as the call ended. Now Rarity was looking at Opal licking at her armpit and she stopped and smiled in embarrassment. “Now what could possibly be going on down there on the planet that has her so worried? It’s none of my business; I’ll let the patrol do their jobs. I’m so glad I’m not some kind of action hero that would run off risking life and limb. Although I wouldn’t mind if a dashing stallion were to come and sweep me off my hooves in that kind of situation.”

Getting up from her chair she trotted from the bridge of the Caravel Boutique to address the two eagle lions in the living area about the situation. She was a little worried how the griffons would take this news of impending incarceration. She walked into the room and found Greta lounging on her back on the floor with her wings spread out and Gilda was exercising. Considering how much time they spent in a zero gravity situation, the exercise Gilda was doing is probably highly warranted. Hearing a door open they both immediately looked to Rarity.

“Okay, we’re not going to Ewesen; well that is to say you two aren’t going to Ewesen. Derringer will be docking at Geoptis Station and the local Planetary Protection Patrol will board it with two investigation teams and will have to take you in for questioning… are you two okay with that?” The mood Rarity received was something hopeful from Greta and Gilda looked slightly rebellious. “Once I get the go ahead, I’m still going to Ewesen to meet up with my friend. My friend somehow ended up near a firefight involving Ceantirs, Macropussians and a Dragon that I’m barely acquainted with.”

“I’m sure things will be just fine with us, we’ve done nothing wrong and I’m sure we’ll be okay right Gilda? Besides we weren’t the ones that brought those dangerous monsters on board.” Greta flexed her wings slightly and looked a little nervous. “I’m more worried about Gilda since she’s never been good with authority figures. In any case when they give you the go ahead, just go. Don’t worry about us, we’ll be fine. We’ve been through worse than questioning by the Planetary Protection Patrol.”

“There’s obviously got to be some corruption mongst their ranks, there’s always a little of it somewhere and if someone is abusing their authority then you better believe I’m going to call them out on it Greta.” Going back to her exercises, Gild continued on with her thoughts. “At least I know I can trust you Rarity, because your way to squeamish about violence and way too generous with your intentions. As I said before, don’t get us killed if it’s your fault we’re in danger. Otherwise this is something we just have to do and we’ll be put into custody until then, hopefully no one will get any dumb ideas.”

“So anything else we can do for you Captain Belle?” It was here that Greta received an unpleasant look from Gilda, most likely it was for her always positive upbeat attitude and willingness to assist. “Hey, don’t be like that Sky Child.”

“Don’t call me that Greta, goodness knows she’s probably already on the station and waiting for me to appear. How does she even know where I’ll always end up?” After a moment Gilda realized she wasn’t alone with Greta and gave Rarity a panicked look. “Don’t tell her about that Greta!”

“Tell me about what, who is she talking about Greta? I’ve not much more to talk about really aside from fashion, new ideas for suit designs with more various modifications and possibly places to sell my wares, but I believe that would just bore Gilda to tears.” For the short time she’s known them Rarity got along with Greta just fine, but she didn’t know much about Gilda who seemed to be a bit cynical about the Planetary Protection Patrol that were basically the space bound version of police.

“Without saying her name, I can tell you she’s a member of the SNUGGLES organization and she somehow always ends up where Gilda does and she always calls her Sky Child. I think it’s cute that Gilda has an adorable stalker like that, but she won’t likely be on the station. There’s no possible way she could know we’d be there in the first place.” Gaining a smile on her beak, Greta giggled at the thought of Gilda’s stalker making an appearance. “Yeah what was I thinking, there’s no possible way she could have tracked us out here or be on the station even we didn’t even know we were going to end up at. We weren’t even heading towards the Quia System the last she probably heard from us… gee it has been a while since we were docked anywhere, this’ll be a good time to relax and enjoy the finer things in life. Like gravity for instance or a luxury like ice cream.”

“She’ll be there, I just know it. She’ll be there and she’ll aggravate me to no end with her peaceful blessings and stuff like that. Why can’t she take a hint and just leave me alone?!” After yelling Gilda let out horribly loud eagle screech and went back to continuing her workout.

Greta and Rarity had flinched slightly; they looked to each other and shrugged before Rarity took up a relaxing position in a chair to read an especially trashy romance novel. Rarity read it because it was like watching a train jumping its track and subsequently ramming its way through several buildings. The book was so bad; she just had to see how it ended for the pure sake of curiosity. Greta just stretched out and continued to lie on her back and stare at the ceiling.

“Everyone we’re almost to Geoptis Station, we will be docking in the next ten minutes. Please keep your limbs attached to your bodies and be prepared for the triple P to board.” With that announcement Opal started prepping docking procedures. “Hopefully they’ll get rid of all the corpses on the bridge of the Derringer; otherwise they’d be a macabre if authentic Nightmare Night decoration. No one would be able to say they aren’t realistic.”

“Opal, darling, that wasn’t in good taste.” At least Rarity had tried to keep her mind off such horrible things that happened to good people. Starting out she had no idea how dangerous space could get and now that she had a good taste of it in such a short amount of time, she wondered if it eventually got easier to get over taking a life.

-

Coco was running down a street and ducked into an alleyway; she pulled out her data pad and started a call to Sassy. Something was definitely wrong with this situation, why would anyone want to kill her? She did nothing worthy of attracting so much attention or scorn. She was just a mare with the special talent of creating accessories to already existing pieces of fashion; she had a specialty in making hats and was good at bringing designs made by others to life.

“Yes… who is this?” The voice sounded rather sleepy, it was definitely Sassy Saddles voice. She was a mare with bright red almost orange mane with a bit of yellowish orange streaks to it and her fur was a nice cyan color, her orange eyes were a bit of an exotic color. Her cutie mark consisted of several crossed metal pins and she had a special talent for clothing and something else that was not very well known about her. She was a lithe and tall unicorn and attractive to many ponies, it was rather unfortunate that a med-bed incident happened to her.

“Sassy, can you please tell me where you’re staying? I really need a place to stay for a while and I don’t know why, but I think I’m being hunted by mercenaries.” Hunted was the word for it, ever since she ran from the hotel the dragon, four super strong kangaroos with acrobatic abilities and a seemingly endless stream of Ceantirs have been rather close or positively on her tail ever since.

“What kind of mercenaries.” The sudden sharp change in tone from Sassy had caused Coco to flinch.

“Ceantirs, Macropussians and a Biped Dragon from Equus, please Sassy I’m scared. They set fire to the hotel I was in, then the blood, the screaming and severed body parts!” Poor Coco couldn’t handle the stress right now, she was practically blubbering. “I also recently learned that Rarity was attacked by pirates which is why she didn’t show up to an business appointment with me and everything’s really bad right now since she’s being held up by Planetary Protection Patrol.”

“What! Coco where are you? Head towards the waterfront of Lake Terwa, go to the plaza that’s there.” Sassy was instantly up and out of bed grabbing several things, such as her favorite elegant looking black dress and saddle combo. She strapped something to her back while stuffing a few things into her dresses skirt. “I’m near there, so keep moving and be safe until then.”

“O-Okay Sassy, please find me.” Hesitantly replied Coco who turned off her pad and darted out of the alleyway and dove behind a column as a bullet from a material rifle whizzed by her head and punctured a wall near her.

-

“Pirates attacked Rarity-sama and now mercenaries are trying to hurt Coco-chan. Well it is high time I stepped into the spotlight and let everyone see me on the catwalk of life!” Sassy looked at the column of smoke in the distance and hoped that Coco didn’t get hurt; she was swiftly out the front door of her place and on her way to the plaza to meet up with Miss Pommel.

Author's Note:

-Species-

Ceantir- Crab like in many ways,have hands inside of pincers and highly resilient to most forms of injury. Fire is a major weakness out of water. Violent and honorable mercenaries, they are not dangerous until paid a good price to be, otherwise neutral to all unless you are invading their home planet.

Macropussian- A race that looks like average kangaroos with incredible physical strength and acrobatic abilities, unique known for fluffy heads and tails. Generally friendly with most other races. (Macropus is the genus for kangaroos.)

Unicorn Pony- horned pony with incredible reality warping mystical abilities. Generally friendly, but with a rare tendency to be driven to madness by the power they wield.

Earth Pony- pony with connections to nature, great physical prowess under duress and high resilience to sickness. Known to be good at cooking. Friendly to most other races.

Plurt- Friendly slug species with great intelligence and leadership qualities. More friendly towards herbivorous beings like ponies.

Pendaxon- Large five limbed frog like beings, mostly carnivorous and unfriendly.

Comments

[Razzy]

Well, maybe someone really didn't like a dress Coco made for them?