Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows

-79-

The sweet creamy goodness of a nicely baked dessert, there was nothing finer than sharing food with friends. The cream cheese pastry was delicious; Gilda did know baked goods despite it being a secondary skill. Sitting to her right Lightning was eating a baked apple dumpling, across from her Bernard was digging into a large slice of carrot cake. As for Rover, he was being a big problem to Pinkie for the things he can’t eat safely. Pinkie eventually found something for him and he was eating some cinnamon dipped, honey glazed and batter fried toast.

“Too much chocolate on menu, it is not very safe for Diamond Dog to be near such food. Yes, Rover knows ponies like sugary things; I prefer saltier or bland things personally.” Rover was probably the only crew member on Rarity’s ship that had a lot of nasty dietary land mines that could really harm him, in comparison the rest of the crew could eat and survive on almost anything. His dietary needs were the most specific and problematic around. “Sweet toast is good enough for Rover’s teeth, not willing to go much farther though.”

“So Rover, aside from training with Trapeze what do you do for a hobby?” It was something Rarity had thought about, the Diamond Dog was an oddball and he had nothing better to do when he wasn’t practicing a routine with Trapeze and Bernard.

“Rover is having time to play with ball, chew on a bone, get exercise and keep digging claws healthy.” As simple as he sounded, Rover was actually one of the healthiest members of the crew. “I am having plenty of time to myself, no need to worry about that.”

“Okay then, it’s nice to know you’re comfortable on the ship at least.” There was only one other person to turn to and Rarity didn’t speak Bernard’s language. “So, Lightning, how are you feeling?”

“Like I was bucked in the chest by the universe’s strongest Earth Pony and then welded back together with a plasma torch, but I’m kind of looking forward to the next dangerous thing we run into.” Lightning’s face was smeared with bits of syrup, crust and apple, she chewed loudly and she wasn’t the most elegant of ponies. Even then Rarity would still make an effort to be her friend, which she started off by wiping Lightning’s face off before she could talk again. “I’m up for any action when you need me and before you ask, I don’t exactly mind being Gilda’s personal crash test dummy. Didn’t think anyone would hire me to be honest, I can’t really complain about food, shelter… and having friends again.”

Maybe Rarity shouldn’t have asked, but she had to know about the well being of every single crew member. She turned to Bernard to ask him how his carrot cake was and saw an empty plate and he was squeaking to Pinkie, who nodded and wrote something down.

“Right, I’ll have another big carrot cake coming right up, one with extra carrots this time. Don’t frown like that around me or else I’ll have to make you smile and laugh… but I can’t tickle your ribs or hug you. This is quite the puzzle and… oh table three needs a refill on mango juice!” Pinkie blurred slightly and then solidified after a second, it was almost as if she never moved. The group could tell that she had indeed moved somewhere for a time, for she was now holding a silver platter with a large chunk of carrot cake on it. Rarity, Rover and Lightning didn’t say anything and didn’t want to as Bernard started to nibble at the cake with a bright smile. “You’re going to be a tough one to make smile Lightning, but be assured you’re not leaving here without a happy look on your face!”

Lightning frowned and leaned away from Pinkie as she started invading her personal space. Why did she feel like she did something very illegal around the pink pony? Rarity just shook her head sadly at Lightning, Pinkie really liked to make ponies smile.

-

“Okay we have an entire list of things we can do… where’s Chrysalis?” Ember paused noticing the Changeling Queen had vacated the room, she also noted that the resident filly was missing and shrugged. If Opal didn’t think anything bad was happening then that was alright with Ember. “Go over the list and tap out some options, we’ve set a weight limit, power to usage ratio and all that. So you can have whatever we can make within the limits of what the suit can be capable of given our current production abilties. I would like to thank Greta and Sassy for helping me finish my energy whip design. It too is a part of the list of all the things you could possibly imagine being on your armored suit Saffron, I’ve got to go install mine in my rifle and run a few tests.”

Ember left the room with a happy smile and both Greta and Sassy had saved the energy whip information to their pads. Sassy was quite surprised by the idea Ember got from her Pinpoint Puller, it was a little unsettling to see Ember in action when it came to inventing weapons and it seemed like she was really quite enthused by the idea of inventing things to do harm. It was somewhat understandable from Sassy’s point of view given she liked swords, but she didn’t like making them or the long drawn out and completely necessary process to make a nearly unbreakable sword like her chokuto.

“So that’s it, nobody is insisting on putting anything into the suit?” Saffron was a little confused; she thought everyone would be busy trying to force options on her.

“Of course not, we were just coming up with a list of things we could feasibly put into the suit and still be safe, relatively speaking of course, for the wearer.” Shrugging a bit, Gilda reclined against the table while holding her out talons to Saffron and flicked them in a ‘go on’ motion. “It’s entirely up to you to as to what you want in it, the Boss Lady said you’d be the first and we agreed that you’re the first pick for this armored crew project.”

“Quite frankly dear, they need you to make those decisions before they start working on it. Less waste of materials that way and no need to modify anything afterwards. It’s like making a dress. You measure the fabric twice, cut once and save on the material and time that isn’t wasted by hasty decisions.” It wasn’t Sassy’s personal suit so she didn’t think she should have a say in it and she was sure the others agreed that they didn’t either, it was clearly up to Saffron as to what was made for her. The color scheme of dark blue and purple was already locked in and Saffron certainly didn’t seem to be contesting that. Sassy thought highly of Saffron for saving Rarity and a hero was anyone willing to do the right thing no matter how difficult the situation. “They have the ability to manufacture such a thing; they just need to know what they are manufacturing first. You’re the hero here Saffron, what do you want it to do?”

“Give me a minute…” Saffron looked down at the screen and started pouring over her options and limitations, she eventually chose her first option, then several others and when she got to last one she looked up from the screen. A good ten minutes of choosing options had passed and everyone seemed to be staring at her, when she looked up and at a nearby clock. “Guess it took ten, anyway who do I give this to?”

“Me, hoof it over and show me what we need to get together.” Having the device placed firmly in her talons, Gilda looked it over; she hummed at a few of the options and then nodded. “Yeah we can do this easily enough, I thought you’d want something a little more complicated. First off you need to suit up; we’re going to need you in your EVA suit for this. Coco, could you go grab one of your battery loaded impulse saddles? We’re going to need one.”

“What, did you expect me to go crazy army knife on this? These options are exactly what I want in my personal powered armor and it isn’t exactly as simple as you’d think.” It wasn’t from easy from Saffron’s point of view, there was a lot going into this and she wasn’t sure how they were going to get the armor on and off. “Speaking of crazy, how am I supposed to get the armor on and how quickly can we get it off if I have to use the bathroom? This sounds far more involved than you make it out to be.”

“Trust me, it’s not as involved as you’d think with me and Gilda working on it.” There wasn’t an ounce of worry in Greta’s voice as she put a calming talon on Saffron’s shoulder. “Just let us Garage Griffons handle the more worrisome details okay? We promise you an effective armored suit and we’re going to do just that, we won’t miss the minor details either. This will be like building a small vehicle for us.”

-

“That’s how you calculate the flight speed of a Swallow burdened with a small bowl of banana pudding.” Chrysalis finished her lecture with a friendly smile and Babs looked amazed, she was a good teacher and knew how to keep a lesson interesting. “It also gives us an idea of how far it can fly with said bowl, but I’ll save that for the next lesson.”

“That’s amazing… wait… why would a Swallow even be burdened with a bowl of banana pudding in the first place?” There was also something else that Babs was curious about, the ache of missing her parents kind of flies out the door when she was in Chrysalis’s distracting and rather childish presence. “Also why would I even need to know this at all?”

“Well it’s like this kid. I have a set up where some Changelings are taking care of a trained flock of Swallows, with very specific instructions to give said flock a bunch of small bowls of pudding on a particular day. The ingredients for said banana pudding were bought with at least a few days separating the purchase of each particular ingredient so as to be really hard to trace back to the one who purchased the stuff to make the pudding. The math behind this is a bit complicated and could be thrown off by unforeseen variables.” A small smile made its way onto Chrysalis’s face, Celestia and Luna had to have been missing her by now. Playful time delayed pranks were always interesting, especially when you weren’t there to see them going off. “It’s all part of a really elaborate and hopefully well timed prank. I obviously hope that none of the swallows get sick, but it will be glorious once I hear about what happened when my guys eventually do carry out those particular instructions aside from tending to the flock of course. So you see, math is quite useful and you can use it in even the most ridiculous of circumstances.”

“I don’t know whether to find this situation cute or disturbing.” The filly did need an education, Opal couldn’t deny that much. It was just that the teacher was a deranged Changeling Queen and it was a little worrisome that she was teaching Babs without supervision. Wouldn’t Opal technically be supervising them right now by watching this? Yeah, she was definitely responsible for them. “She’s right you know. Math can be helpful as it is dangerous Babs.”

“Can’t you or another machine do the math for me though?” The filly hadn’t known that math could be interesting until Chrysalis decided to start teaching her.

“You do realize that you’d be handicapped in any situation where I or any other machine would be completely unavailable right?” At least Opal knew there would be situations where math was needed, but could not be calculated by a machine. “Imagine a situation where you had to do math to survive and you didn’t have any help except for the knowledge in your own brain. You certainly wouldn’t be able to survive without math then now would you?”

“When would something like that happen?” There was now an expectant filly waiting to hear that answer, not that Babs understood the likelihood of something going horribly wrong on a spaceship being more likely because of children.

“Anywhere between never to within the next five seconds…” Something sounded off with Opal’s voice, it sounded ominous. “I am now locking you in the room with Chrysalis, unless you can solve a math problem I come up with on your own then you’re not leaving the room to use the toilet or eat. You are allowed to sleep as much as you want, Chrysalis may not assist you in the answering of the question. Any attempt to get assistance from her will result in a harder question. I will give you a few seconds to come to terms with this.”

“Chrysalis, can she really do that to us?” The doors around the room made a clunking sound and the filly looked to the Changeling Queen who didn’t seem worried.

“Why are you asking me? She just did it and if I remember right she’s the complicated pony hive mind that controls this ship.” Tapping her chin with a hoof Chrysalis shrugged after a moment. “So we’re probably screwed if you can’t answer the math question.”

“That’s long enough to come to terms with this! Now for the math question… Pete and Repeat had five apples; Pete ate one, who has the most left?” There was a hint of amusement in Opal’s voice, but she kept herself in check.

“That’s an easy one; Repeat!” Babs was quite sure of herself, this had to be the answer.

“That’s long enough to come to terms with this! Now for the math question… Pete and Repeat had five apples; Pete ate one, who has the most left?” There was an even greater hint of amusement in Opal’s voice as she repeated everything right down to the exact inflection she first said everything in.

Chrysalis eyes widened at the implications of this situation. They both shared five apples; they would both have the most left. Unfortunately if she tried to tell Babs this fact, that she was caught in what was essentially an answer loop, then Opal would make a harder math problem. The current problem was so simple a foal could figure it out, which was the entire point of the mental exercise really.

“My answer is Repeat!” It would take Babs a few more minutes to figure out what she was doing wrong and proceeded to say ‘Repeat’ several more times until she actually took a moment to think about it. Chrysalis was just lying on her side and smiling at the filly with a knowing grin the entire time. Pony fillies were a lot like Changeling Nymphs, they were both stupid and adorable.

“That’s long enough to come to terms with this! Now for the math question… Pete and Repeat had five apples; Pete ate one, who has the most left?” Now Opal was smiling up a storm and trying to hold back her laughter, the answer was obviously they both had the most left or they both had four apples.

“Wait a minute… are you making fun of me? I can hear you snickering!” Babs realized the problem here; all she was saying was ‘repeat’. Opal would then repeat exactly what she said until the sentence got stuck in her head. It was still a math problem, but it didn’t necessarily need a mathematical answer. They both had five apples so wouldn’t that mean… wait… there weren’t ten apples, there were only five between them. Opal never said they each had five apples, just that there were five total and now Babs felt pretty dumb about all this. “There are four apples left and they are sharing them, so they both have the most left.”

“It took you long enough to figure that out. As you can see math is quite important, as is problem solving skills. It’s why Chrysalis is bothering to see how your education is doing, considering you’re not in the most stable environment by being on this ship.” The doors unlocked and Opal appeared on a nearby screen smiling. “It is important that you use your head. Muscles are all well and good for an Earth Pony, but you can’t forget the most important one to flex is the one that sits between your ears. Also I have to ask Chrysalis, how can you create plans that are that complicated, but you can’t use a computer to save your life?”

Chrysalis just shrugged nonchalantly. Plans were easy; using complicated technology just wasn’t her strong point and corrupting the filly was taking longer than the initial hour she thought it would require. She was getting a lot of love out of ‘Little Snack’ though and for some reason love tasted sweeter than she remembered it being.

-

“Seriously, do you have to go these kinds of lengths just to cheer me up?” Lightning found it hard to smile, especially because this mare was trying to force her to. She just wasn’t in the mood to smile, what was so wrong with that? There were so many thoughts of things she could have done or should have done swirling in her head. On top of that there was the heavy thought that some people would care if she died, well aside from that nice barkeep and his Changeling that looked out for her every now and then. She should really send them a gift to thank them for a recommending her as an unaffiliated pony that needed a job. What would her life be like had she not caused that incident that got her kicked out of the Wonder Bolts? Well she wasn’t that Lightning Dust who would never have been humbled by living in a box like the one currently thinking these thoughts; she was the Lightning Dust that knew what was more important in life. What she had now, she didn’t want to mess it up and she was being welcomed by a bunch of friendly strangers. “I just don’t feel like it at the moment, can we do this another time?”

“Come on, not even a giggle?” Pinkie was sparking with static electricity and had multiple balloons stuck to her, she looked completely ridiculous. Rarity, Rover and Bernard were giggling, laughing and smiling respectively, Lightning didn’t even crack a smile. Not even when one of the balloons popped and Pinkie fell over with a squeaking noise out of shock.

“Pinkie, please, I need to finish up some orders and begin preparations to continue on to the Applon System. We can’t stay here all week waiting for you to make Lightning smile.” Even Rarity didn’t think Pinkie could keep a perfect record of making everyone smile, no matter how silly she got. “Sometimes you have to give people space Pinkie.”

“But we’re already in space and there’s plenty of it outside the space station!” The logic of Pinkie’s brain at work, clearly she wasn’t going to take no for an answer or take a hint. “What kind of hint should I be getting though? Am I supposed to steal the hint?”

“If there’s a hint you think you might be missing here, maybe it’s that I don’t want to smile at the moment.” Lightning answered blandly, Pinkie looked horrified at the thought that someone didn’t want to smile. “I can’t drink, I can’t fly and I can’t do anything that I would find relatively fun with my current injury. So I’m supposed to smile why?”

“Well you could look on the positive side, at least your alive to enjoy some tasty baked goods with your friends!” Declared Pinkie in an over the top manner, she proudly thrust her hoof into the air and gave a cheerful grin.

“Well we can be loosely termed as friends, I’ve barely been with the Boss Lady’s crew for almost month and I joined them while somewhat out of shape and slightly malnourished. The injury and medical bed time certainly didn’t help me all too much either, except to give me a swift kick in the flank to start gliding straight.” Thanks to the baths and other things, Lightning was at least looking a lot better. She was getting some shine back in her fur and she wasn’t unkempt anymore at least. She rubbed at her chest gently with a hoof and winced. “I may not be smiling, but I am happy to be alive at least. I thought I was going to die at the last space station we were at. A sharp pain erupted in my chest, I find myself falling to my death and everything was fading in and out. I was surprised to even be rescued from that, I was even welcoming death as a friend at that moment. So don’t tell me I’m not happy to be alive, I just don’t feel like smiling about it.”

“You’re freaking me out on a number of levels… I mean is it really feasible for there to be a pony who won’t smile when they are happy? When has that ever happened?” To Pinkie a pony who doesn’t smile wasn’t a happy pony at all and Lightning seemed to be mostly content, but wouldn’t smile. “I don’t even know how to react to this!”

“Let it go Pinkie.” Maud walked up to Pinkie and gave her a tight hug. “You can’t help everyone and some people don’t need your help. She’s doing fine as is… if she isn’t fine, then what does that say about me?”

“Well… I… you…” Pinkie was about to make a statement, but then retracted from saying something so horrible considering it would reflect on Maud. She was instead considering Maud’s general emotional disposition; sure Maud could smile, but it was very rare that Pinkie ever saw the edges of her lips go up on the rare occasions when Maud was exceedingly ecstatic. Nothing was wrong with Maud for not showing the proper amount of emotional response and Pinkie never thought anything was wrong with her at all. This led Pinkie to immediately realizing that she would be a hypocrite if she tried to force another pony to smile when she wouldn’t do the same to her beloved sister. Forcing a smile was never a good thing unless you were in a really bad situation and she would be the bad situation this time. “That’s why you’re the best biggest sister mediator of Streusel Station Maud!”

“It’s okay to feel sad or have an off day sometimes Pinkie.” Despite the bland tone she spoke in, Maud still patted Pinkie on the back and held her affectionately with the same constant flat look on her face.

“I’m sorry Lightning. I can’t make you smile and I should be alright with that.” Pinkie’s positive outlook would have meshed well with Greta’s, the pink pony wiggled out of hugging her sister and then ran off and came back with a large box. “Smiles should be naturally occurring, because that’s when they are at their best! Sorry about holding you up Rarity, here take this box of cupcakes and share them with the rest of your crew that didn’t get a chance to get some baked goods made by me and the Cakes.”

“Why thank you Pinkie, you’re as lovely and generous as I remember you being. It’s been fun and I know how you hate saying…” A hoof slammed into Rarity’s mouth and she felt something enter it. She chewed it and began humming loudly as the flavor of a double chocolate fudge marshmallow cookie washed over her tongue.

“I still don’t like saying those words Rarity, even to the other me. How about we just say hello when we see each other again?” The group stood up ready to leave with Pinkie showing them the door. “It’s been a lot of fun seeing you again Rarity, get me a signed autograph from Trapeze the next time you see her.”

Bernard looked positively insulted at Pinkie’s insinuation, he quickly whipped his hat off and pulled a tiny magicians wand out of it to circle around the opening. He tapped the edge of the hole twice and then reached in and pulled out a confused looking Trapeze, she looked a lot smaller coming out of Bernard’s hat.

“I was kind of in the middle of something Bernard, what is it?” Bernard pointed to Pinkie Pie who looked completely mystified and even Maud seemed a little surprised. The blushing Lagotorphin squeaked something to the towel wearing Trapeze who had strands of wet mane dangling from her makeshift turban and she nodded to him in a serious manner. “Yes, this is definitely important enough to interrupt my shower, hold on a second and I’ll get one right away!”

Ducking back into the hat, Trapeze’s yellow furred hoof popped up holding a personally signed poster of the Trapeze Troupe and waved it about. Bernard snatched it and the hoof disappeared back into the small hat, which he then reached into to pull a pen out of. After he signed his own name he handed it to Rover who signed his as well. Bernard threw both the pen and wand into the hat and then slapped it back on his head, before crossing his paws with a smug look on his face.

“Wow, here I was thinking I was the only one that did crazy stuff like this.” Pinkie giggled and clutched the poster to her chest and she waved the group off. “Thanks for the poster Mr. Magic Bunny!”

Coco most assuredly had made Bernard’s hat and it was quite ordinary to anyone else. Not many would figure out that it wasn’t the hat or the wand that was magic… it was the magician who wielded them that was truly magical. It was Trapeze that showed Bernard how to do magic and he came along with Rarity to get her a present, now he had to somehow get Rarity to understand his need for keeping it a secret. You try to keep something secret from an incredibly talented and beautiful magician who you might be in love with, now that would be the real magic trick on Bernard’s part.

-

It was hours later and they were almost to the Applon System where they would stop at their next destination, planet Applin five. Applin Five unsurprisingly had a major population of earth ponies and the planet itself was a completely green world. It was an ever green planet in so much as it was green plains as far as the eye could see aside from the calm ocean which had three large continents sitting in it.

Applin Five was a good fruit producing planet and the planet had very little in the way of natural danger on it. It was a perfectly nice planet for being the fifth from its sun, gravity was barely a percentage higher than normal, water was fresh and most plants took to the soil of the planet really well and most the lands were flat with very few mountainous regions, the size of the planet was only slightly bigger than Equus.

It was, to no one’s surprise, the planet that hosted a large portion of the Apple family which had named the system and planet. The names were not very imaginative, but it’s what stuck to the system and the two inhabitable planets within it. So far colonization has only been done to Applin Five as Applin Three was still under surveillance, Applin Four was an uninhabitable gas giant.

Shining Jewel came out of jump at the edge of the system. As it coasted towards the fifth of the seven planets in this system, there was a noticeable problem that you would have to be blind to miss seeing even from this distance. Opal didn’t even need seconds after coming out of jump to notice the issue.

“Rarity, I think we might have a bit of a problem.” Opal had absolutely no trouble getting Shining Jewel out of the asteroid field, aside from having to pop some small stupidly aggressive asteroid eaters with a few shots on the way out. Limestone thanked them for helping, if minutely at that, with the problem she was dealing with. It was only now that they arrived at Applin Five that a really bad problem came up and it was quite a visible one. At least the supply depot in orbit looked fine given there were still ships coming and going.

“What is it… oh dear. Please tell me that Babs relatives don’t live anywhere on that half of the planet. Who am I kidding? She has tons of cousins that live here!” If only Rarity were so lucky. From looking at it, Applin Five seemed to be experiencing the oddest of weather patterns for an ever green planet. The weather was mostly likely not natural given how localized it looked. “Get us in contact with supply depot and ask about the situation, also connect me to the hangar. Gilda, that new vehicle you were working on, how soon can you finish it?”

The weather problem in question was a heavily and quite unusually localized blizzard. Said blizzard covered less than half the planet, but more than a quarter of it. It was as if hell were slowly freezing the planet over without a cause for the bizarre effect Rarity was seeing on the screen that was quite visible from orbit. It didn’t even take her three guesses as to figure out where Babs relatives might be found if she looked in a particular area of the planet, hopefully she was wrong and most of the Apple family was safely ensconced on the naturally greener side of the planet.

Comments

[Razzy]

... Why am I certain that Chryssie scheduled a good few centuries of pranks to pull on the Alicorns while she's away?

Yessssssss, Chryssie is preparing a mini - her.

... Okay, who left their a/c on and window open?

'and it isn’t exactly simply as you’d think' - as simple as

'Maud still pats Pinkie' - patted

'had a major population earth ponies' - population of