Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows

-61-

It started when the first of the Dusks formed in front of them; surprisingly they weren’t being attacked all at once by the entire station immediately. The first thing to form was a hippogriff, thankfully one without the ability of flight. The thing to not be so thankful for was that it was lacking feathers and skin, leaving its smiling face and exposed muscles to appear in front of Lightning. She didn’t particularly like it getting up close and personal with her.

The thing took a total of three seconds to form, two to coalesce into a physical shape and the third to drop to the floor where it could make a lunge for them. The fourth second it had a knife in its eye thanks to Saffron as she was close enough to telekinetically slam it there with her magic.

Then more shapes started to form into various beings, Pony, Griffon, Minotaur and Human being predominate Dusks to appear. Then there were the children of said beings starting to form out of thin air and that was the more psychologically horrifying on a number of levels. Ember put a shot into one of the forming children and it notably didn’t connect. The next time she fired when it started charging them, it lunged and this time the shot Ember fired connected and ripped through the three Dusks behind it before striking a piece of machinery. They weren’t tough but they were starting to build in numbers.

“They’re only solid when they fully form, so save your ammo for when you can take out a line of them in one shot! Chrysalis, please tell me you can take us to where the people are being held.” Ember and Chrysalis hadn’t spoken to one another much or at all, so Ember was going the route of being amiable to the Changeling Queen even if she had once been the leader that invaded a friendly nation. To Ember Chrysalis didn’t seem much like a leader at this time. “I would also like some reassurance that you know where the being that’s behind all this is.”

“Don’t talk to me about behinds. I do of course and both are in the same location assuredly, but you wouldn’t believe me if told you where. I’ll have to show it to you personally. We need to get me to one of the entrances to the city and I can take it from there.” So far the trickle of Dusks hadn’t been overwhelming and they stayed near the light of the activated central communications hub. “Why aren’t there more of them forming here? There should be hundreds popping into existence right on top of us.”

“Unless the ones you’re talking about are already formed, as such they still need time to physically travel up here to get to us.” Saffron telekinetically swung two knives in a wide arc in front of her causing the silent creatures to explode into clouds of dissipating dust. “I would like to suggest that we move before this situation becomes untenable and I know a thing or two about untenable situations! A stallion named Lead Chunk is still fresh in my mind and he was scarier than these things.”

“What would you know about untenable, I’ve been in ships full of sifter drifters like this before!” A knife sunk into the neck of a skinless filly and then lashed out and jammed into the brain of another that was glistening with muscle and sinew in the lights of the helmet that Lightning was wearing. She was making a good show of skill with one knife and not overextending her blows given that her targets immediately dissipated when hit. “This just happens to be the worst case I’ve ever seen in my life and we’re wasting energy here on things that are shadows of their former selves. We need a plan of action and to get moving before they tire us out with numbers, which according to your bounty bashing friend is limitless.”

Lightning, Saffron and even Coco who was constantly cowering were forming a melee defensive line whereas Chrysalis, Ember and Rarity were shooting into the mass of Dusks starting to fill the room.

“Ember I think Chrysalis just told us that you need to take the lead dear, you’re the one with the map on your head up display.” Rarity fired several rounds of material into the mass coming at them from her position on the right.

“I want to be the one to watch our backs though! I’m the best suited for handling multiple opponents on my own.” Ember quickly bashed the skull in on a flightless Pegasus and with the end of her rifle and was partly thankful that the Dusks of what were once flying creatures couldn’t fly.

“Oh for the love of, I’m done cowering!” Coco leapt forward and threw her right hoof into a Minotaur’s solar plexus and everyone watched as it bodily destroyed several dozen other Dusks before collapsing into a pile of dust itself. Apparently Coco had hit a level of fear that she went full circle and made her snap; she was now overcoming that fear with rage at herself for not being more helpful at a time like this. She reached to her belt to pull out a sunlight grenade. “Test firing a grenade right now, I believe and can trust that Chrysalis can cover our backsides Ember! Ember, your taking lead and you’ll like it, Rarity you run between Lightning and Saffron who will cover our sides when you can’t get something with your pistols and I’ll be behind you ahead of Chrysalis! Now let’s get ready to go when this grenade goes off and so help me we are going!”

“Seriously you guys are beginning to trigger me with all this talk of rear ends.” Commented Chrysalis in an absolutely dry tone as she gunned down several Dusks and slapped one into a desk and monitor a good twenty feet away.

They were too busy fighting for their lives to take in the shock of Coco of all people being the one to get them in gear or the fact that she became more aggressive than anyone would ever credit her as being given how sweet and innocent she usually was. She pulled a grenade from the right side of her suit and used her left hoof to flick the pin off. She pulled back her right hoof as if she were going to throw a baseball. When she let the grenade fly it went through four Dusks on momentum alone and it hit the ground and bounced up into the chest of a Unicorn Dusk and then a quickly building light filled the room. The impact with the floor set it off, but the impact with that specific Dusk is when the grenade really exploded.

The forms of all the Dusks outside the range of the grenade wavered in the shock-wave of the massive explosion that almost knocked the six suited figures to the floor, it only sent them staggering. The explosion took up a large portion of the communications room and the entire room was lit up like all the lights had been turned on and after a second it wasn’t very blinding, the Dusks outside the direct blast appeared to be stunned by the light. Parts of computers, monitors and empty chairs were sent flying causing a large swath of destruction expanding outwards from the blast radius; even the smallest bits of debris were enough to destroy any of the surrounding Dusks.

Ember immediately peeled away from the group and charge for the nearest door while taking hold of her rifle in a different manner. She swung her rifle around several times and the blade of fire shooting out of the second barrel started creating a large hole in the stunned swarm of Dusks. Rarity was right on Ember’s heels being followed by Lightning and Saffron, which had Coco moving with Chrysalis taking up the rear and bashing the slowly recovering Dusks away with her rifle as they punched a hole out of the room and towards one the doors.

“Why are the Dusks reacting to the sunlight grenade like this?” The only one who seemed morbidly curious at the moment was Saffron as she stopped to analyze the phenomenon of all the Dusks wavering in the incredible light and had stopped attacking entirely.

“Don’t question it, just run!” Ember yelled back as she made it to the door while turning off the flame bayonet spouting out from her rifle and slung it onto her back to start working the controls of the door leading out the right side of the room from where they had previously entered it. The door started to slide open and there was a swarm of Dusks on the other side of it ready to leap at Ember, she simply grabbed the Kanabo and got her second hand on it after lifting it off her back. She swung it in a wide arc horizontally dispatching the small crowd at the door that leapt at her all at once. “Let’s get our butts out of here!”

“Hey, that statement is very triggering I’ll have you know!” The only other sound left from the room as Chrysalis backed her way towards the door was when the materials of her rifle hit something like the floor or wall, her rifle was interestingly enough firing Changeling manufactured spherical caltrops. Even if the shot didn’t hit the target it could still mess the target up if they didn’t watch their step and it was proving useful as the recovering Dusks immediately dispatched themselves stepping on them.

“Now’s not the time Chrysalis!” Rarity was now watching the corridor and the light flooding from the room behind them showed that it was a strange bipedal monster, it didn’t look like something that previously existed and it had only a single left arm to use which looked like a bladed scythe. It had no head and two legs end in three toed claws, in the center of its twisted mass of a torso was an unblinking eye that might have had once belonged to a pony.

Chrysalis cleared the door and Coco got it shut before the Dusks could get through, only for the creature down the corridor from them to let loose its deafening shriek proving it to be a screamer as it raised its blade like arm and started to charge forward at an incredible speed. Not bothering to question how it made that noise without even having a mouth to do it with, Ember met it and blocked its scythe like arm with the Kanabo and grunted as she slid back an inch from the force of the blow.

The Screamer was sent staggering backwards when it received several rounds from Rarity’s material pistols that blew off its deadly arm that took several consecutive hits to the shoulder to sever. It then took a shot that destroyed its one solitary eye in a burst of pus and fluids that staggered it, the eye started to grow back but its stumpy arm wouldn’t since it was no longer connected to the monster. Ember took the opportunity to heave the one hundred pound kanabo overhead for a downward swing that crushed the monsters torso inwards in a fountain of flesh, blood and bone splattering in all directions with a sickening noise to accompany it. Said noise made all the ponies there flinch; Chrysalis just callously shrugged the gruesome sight off with a roll of her eyes.

“I’m going to need to reload soon.” Material pistols could only hold so many shots at a time and Rarity had a few pouches full of partially shaped chunks of conical copper. Chrysalis and Ember could go longer between reloads because they had larger rifles. “It’s a good thing that Dusks aren’t smart enough to open doors, doesn’t stop them from forming around us or coming at us from the other corridors.”

“No, but the Screamers might be, that that one in particular can even begin to regenerate a destroyed eye tells me that dealing with them just got a little bit harder.” Ember stepped over the corpse and moved forward, the others quickly took up positions. “We definitely cannot backtrack and we won’t survive being in a bottleneck or corner, we have to keep moving. Intersections are going to be hell if we run into anything on the way to the city.”

“Bright side, they can’t regenerate torn off parts of their body and if they’re dead they are not getting back up from it.” Speaking up from the back Chrysalis followed everyone in front of her as they took a right turn at an intersection and were quickly approaching another one, she idly glanced at all the vents and pips lining the roof and sometimes the walls. They were passing by many doors that led to rooms such as closets, small residences for those who kept the station in working order and the occasional public bathroom. “The body stopped regenerating after you hit it hard enough to pulp it, say if you survive this can I get a feel of that weapon on my spine?”

“I wonder who dropped the ball on this one, because the infestation didn’t get on this station without help!” If a vessel was even slightly suspected of carrying any kind of sifter drifter infestation it would have been noticed rather quickly, which led Lightning to wonder how the infestation got onto Antilur Station in the first place and when did it become powerful enough to warp flesh into ugly meat puppets.

They came up to another intersection and Ember barely ducked having head taken off by another scythe armed torso Screamer that was letting loose a scream in her face that caused her to have a headache. Ember had missed it because it had been standing on the ceiling and it dropped down right on top of her after having missed. The dragon was now on her back and pinned trying to keep the Kanabo between her and the point of the blade trying to approach the her helmet.

Saffron leapt on to the creature, and jammed her knife into its one shoulder with both hooves and pulled as hard as she could in an attempt to damage its tendons enough to get it off of Ember. The creature lashed out at Saffron who rolled away and successfully managed to avoid her suit being breached though a splash of breach gel fell to the floor, the shallow cut was at the base of her suits neck. The Screamer was distracted long enough to be kicked onto its back by Ember, who swiftly leapt forward and brought down the Kanabo smashing the life out of the Screamer.

“Are you okay Saffron?” Coco still flinched at the grisly display Ember caused, but no one else did as they were too busy watching the other corridors at the intersection and the very air around them.

“It’s only minor suit breach; it’s not bad since it didn’t get my helmet.” Saffron was panicking slightly having felt differently, she was thinking of what would have happened if it had been able to get a cleaner hit on her or Ember. Any damage to their helmets would expose them to getting dragged away by the Miasma.

They were already up and moving with Ember in the lead, having taken a left this time. They were only about ten feet away when vent broke and child sized Dusks start falling out and went for Coco, a griffon chick managed to get on her back to try and claw a hole in her suit. Chrysalis was swiftly on top of them and stomping them into the floor and smashing them into the walls, Coco had managed to rear up and destroy the one on her back by slamming herself against the wall. They quickly caught up with the group since they came back and assisted them.

“Come on, through the door!” Lightning was motioning for the two; Saffron and Ember were already watching the path forward. Rarity took a position next to the door and was reloading her material pistols by pouring ammo into the handles of both the pistols she was wielding in her magic.

“Give us a second as there’s just so many of them, what are they, Changelings?” Chrysalis was not amused with this situation and managed to keep them from piling on top of Coco as they made for the door, the Dusks silent movements were still very unnerving. They both went through the door and it slammed shut on a skinless griffon chick that turned into a cloud of dust. “I’m kind of wishing I signed on to a science vessel with Twilight Sparkle just outside the atmosphere of the planet now, then again I wouldn’t be in the presence of so many beautiful ladies and I’d be stuck with a nerd that just got her wings.”

“Technically Greta is a nerd; Twilight is a dweeb, so get your terminology right!” The upmost in authority on Nerd, Dweebs, Dorks and Geeks spoke to those in the stations; it just had to be Gilda who was making a clanging noise as she opened up communications. “Sounds like you’re having a heck of a time in there; Opal says that it’s probably thanks to your very distracting presences that the infestation hasn’t drained the activated communications array yet. Heard you used one of the grenades, how was it.”

“It’s a little powerful, but given the situation it’s very helpful in that regard!” They were taking a minute to catch their breaths and they were still quite alert to their surroundings, Coco was glad to expound the wonders of the grenades that both devastated and stunned. “Seriously though, what did you put in them?”

“I’d like to know that personally, phosphorus seems like a key ingredient given how they light up rooms like Celestia lights up our home world when she moves the sun in our system.” Most would forget that, despite her bounty hunting career which made her feel like a tough thug from an outsiders perspective if they didn’t know her, Ember was actually quite intelligent and dabbled in making weapons and modifying them. She had a history of improvising weapons out of her surroundings, which was usually a fire extinguisher used as a blunt instrument or with a slight modification a dangerous chemical spewing weapon.

“Not exactly, we use something a little stronger than phosphorus despite us naming the previous grenades that, it is actually based on propulsion fuel technology. I and Gilda probably could have gone into demolitions together.” Greta cheerfully chirped in and then continued on to add. “As for what we recently added to them. There’s a reason we started calling them sunlight grenades now, we didn’t have much time to test them and it’s great to know they’re at least not exploding on you. We managed to synthesize something between napalm, nitroglycerin and a very slight amount of intradexatun that’s used in devastator rounds on some Plurt based vessels. Would make for an explosively powerful rocket fuel, you needed impressive explosives from your favorite griffon R and D specialists. We just delivered as needed.”

“Well the intradexatun explains it, how did you manage to fuse it without causing problems of instant detonation? Nitroglycerin is also as problematic.” Ember shook her head as she started moving forward with group following her. “For that matter how did you even get intradexatun?! It’s not exactly a civilian market item.”

“Well the lab on Shining Jewel has a few fun features, some water and some food put through a bit of entropy and mixed with a varying amount of volatile chemicals. Intradexatun is complicated sure, but you’re talking to two geniuses even if our passion is mostly vehicular work and it wasn’t that different from making variable fuel. Speaking of, I can probably get a variable fuel factory going for a cheap investment if you’re willing, but that requires you to survive this event.” Gilda huffed audibly over their communications in their helmets, it was a good thing that they weren’t under attack at the moment or else they would be having more problems listening to this conversation. “The reason why the grenades explode on impact is because the pins are holding the intradexatun in place and after it mixes with the other chemicals it primes almost immediately. Why are you even talking to us, don’t you have a thing to do in there? I thought you were under attack a minute ago.”

-

“Well we’re putting plenty of doors between us and them on our way to the city. In fact we’re shutting a door right now, it’s also very dark in here and I’m not exactly afraid of the dark. I’m more afraid of what’s prowling in it.” The shrill shriek of a Screamer could be heard hitting a solid wall, Coco sighed loudly in relief until some clanging could be heard. The sound of dented metal could be heard. “Guys, I think Ember was right in stating that the doors aren’t going to stop the Screamers.”

“You know I feel kind of bad for leaving Rarity high and dry about this.” Not that Greta wanted to go, she was too afraid to. Post traumatic stress disorder might become a problem if they didn’t want to deal with sifter drifters, put a known quantity before her and she’ll gladly join a firefight even if she isn’t very well trained in a particular weapon.

“Eh, the Boss Lady will survive, because so help me I’ll find a way to revive her if she does bite it.” Gilda looked up from the structure she was busy with. “Also we didn’t leave her high and dry, we gave her the grenades we made didn’t we? They are finding them useful and that is enough for me, pass me a wrench and Mr. Welder would you Greta?”

“Just so you know Rarity has a no cybernetic enhancements to keep her alive policy, though upsetting I will have to agree to not letting anyone do that to her. No matter how much I would prefer it if it would save her life, I stand by the fact that making her live a half life would be horrible to her sensibilities and the memory of who she is currently.” Opal was worried and listening to their breathing and the conversations going in the station. That they were panicking was putting it lightly given what little information she had to go on. She just didn’t have much to say and there wasn’t much she could do but hope Rarity would be okay. “She has nightmares about me going rogue and replacing all her limbs with mechanical prostheses and remote controlling her body while she’s completely aware of what I’m doing. In her nightmares I chop off her limbs and laugh at her pain because I do it while she’s completely aware and without anesthetics. I’m aware and thankful that Luna has helped her several times about it as her brain activity alters when Luna is around in her dreams. The nightmares don’t happen often, but when they do they are quite bad. It’s actually something I could be capable of, though I’m not actually currently able to do something like that with what we have on Shining Jewel.”

“Then it’s a good thing you’re a person and not a mindless and heartless machine that follows everything to a logical conclusion Kitten.” Gilda couldn’t see it, but she was pretty sure Opal was blushing now. “I was thinking more along the lines of time travel anyway, could take a few years of research to invent a time machine as it’s completely outside our areas of expertise.”

-

“We’re almost there.” Ember stopped as several more Dusks formed in their path, they were quickly dispatched with a punch and a few blows from several hooves and bodies ramming through them without stopping.

“Then you’re almost ready to learn the location of the creature.” Chrysalis saw at least twelve Dusks round the corner of the intersections they left behind and she fired over her shoulder, some shots went wide and others went into the floor leaving the caltrops to take them out when they stepped on them. “It’s not going to be pretty, like Rarity who thinks she needs makeup to actually look good and she’s trying to hard because she’s already quite the looker. I’m an all natural beauty myself and I was wondering if anyone here wanted to take all of this to a bank and cash me in?”

“No.” Was the flat chorus of voices that were focusing on the situation at hand whereas Chrysalis continued to be a bit weird about all the danger they just happened to be in. Even Ember spoke up and she hasn’t been around Chrysalis long enough to hold a conversation with her that wasn’t in the middle of a dangerous situation; she was also kind of uncomfortable with the queen’s fixation of posteriors and got the feeling that the Changeling gave her a few interested glances.

“Well you guys are no fun… I’m a single Changeling Queen who can become anyone’s dream girl… or guy if you prefer. I can be either gender even if I prefer all kinds of feminine activities.” Nobody was going to comment on Chrysalis having the capacity for being a top quality model of Rarity’s wares and or transforming to be someone they’d like for appearances alone. “Is this about my butt? It’s my butt isn’t it; it’s always my butt that nobody wants to appreciate!”

“It’s not about your looks Chrysalis, I think it’s more the fact that you are not our type. Someone who can love you for who you are and not the illusion you would try to present to us as being real. Would you want to build a relationship based on an illusion?” Something crossed Rarity’s mind as she spoke. “I’m quite sure we can like you as a friend and we seem to be making inroads into that with you. What I think is really wrong here is that you’re afraid and you’re distracting yourself from feeling the fear among our group.”

“Yeah, but I’ve noticed no one ever outright denies it’s my butt! Back to the topic at hoof, I’ve seen how powerful this creature is. Despite lacking a high level of intelligence and doing things so inefficiently, yes I’m terrified that it has managed to catch one hundred thousand beings and more by itself in what would be a short amount of time.” They eventually reached a doorway into Antilur City and Chrysalis moved forward while motioning for Coco to get the door. “Not even one of my best laid plans and all the Changelings on Equus could accomplish something on this scale; we Changelings are not assassins even though we do perform some assassinations with very good reasoning and that rarely happens at all. This thing doesn’t care what it kills and I don’t want it anywhere near my people or any other intelligent life that could be supportive of Changelings. Also yes your fear is causing me to feel it too.”

“You left out the words, ‘as a food source’, darling.” Rarity commented dryly as she waited for the door to cycle open.

“Hey, just because you’re a possible food source and I’m a parasite with relatively aggressive tendencies in attempting to get a mate or at least a date, it doesn’t mean that we can’t all be friends.” Everyone took notice that Chrysalis wasn’t in denial about the food source thing. As such Chrysalis thought they were all even in that respect. “Always a bride’s mare and never a bride…”

The doors open and they were seeing a similar set up to the previous entrance into the city a road curving around the entire city as an outer ring with several bridges leading inwards, only this time they were several layers up and in a more residential area of Antilur City.

“Okay where is it?” Ember might have been somewhat uncomfortable around Chrysalis, but she was their go to informant on where this creature was.

“Turn towards the nearest wall and try to grab something out of it.” Chrysalis stated simply, she just couldn’t win today and she thought life threatening situations were supposed to make people more likely to love each other through camaraderie. It was working, but only at a friendship level and she was able to feel emotions of the group and had been doing so since they started this trip into the station again. It amazed her how humongous this whole place was, but she’d never tell these people that while hiding beneath her lackadaisical veneer.

“You mean this wall next to the entrance covered in… this isn’t paint is it?” Ember claw dug into the shadows in the wall and she felt her claws come into contact with something; her lights weren’t even penetrating the wall of darkness before her and looking left to right it likely extended around the entire circumference of the city. Pulling her claw out holding onto something, she heard a squelching noise and was now horrified to find herself holding a half rotted corpse of a small foal by its spine. She immediately dropped it like it was made of acid and backed away from the wall feeling quite sick to her stomach. “Well you showed me where the people are being held and slowly being drained Chrysalis, but where is this infestation?”

“You wanted to know where the main cause of this problem is… well…” Chrysalis turned to the city and took a few steps past the others as she angled her lights to look at the lower and upper levels with a slight sweep before just focusing on the city itself. “As of right now… we’re inside it.”

Author's Note:

Going on hiatus to test the game Yookah-Laylee to see if it can possibly live up to it's hype of being a classic 3-D platformer.

Also the next season of MLP is coming up along with the next Samurai Jack, including the return of The Scotsman. Fifty years older and still kicking things around like a badass.

Comments

[Razzy]

Nuuuuuuu, right after hanging some cliffs.

All they need now is that armoured transport from Aliens.

Yay, they are growing closer. Somewhat.

Coco smash!

'another at much or at all' - another much or at all

'now she was now overcoming' - she was now overcoming

'I believe and can trust' - I believe we can trust

'Ember your taking lead and you’ll' - Ember, your taking the lead and you'll

'how sweat and' - how sweet and

'wavered in both the shockwave' - wavered in the shockwave

'the six suits figures' - the six suited figures

'around several and' - around several times and

'sound of a dent metal' - sound of dented metal

'she’s needs makeup' - she needs makeup

'and t does things so inefficiently' - and doing things so inefficiently

'yes you’re fear' - yes, your fear

'situations was supposed' - situations were supposed