Diamond in the Rough

The B...Boogie P...Pony is R...Realll!

A Diamond Tiara in the Vogonverse

Diamond sat up and breathed out a sigh as she took in the sight of the home she shared with Fredrick. He was safe, and he had recovered from the bronchopneumonia. She had been his nursemaid, and in that time she was becoming all too aware of something. She liked him. She maybe even liked, liked him. She pushed that thought away.

“No, remember what happened when you tried to like, like someone before. It turned out wrong. Besides, he treats me like somepony would treat their sister,” she thought.

Seeing him doing better she got up, looked at the cabinets and realized that a grocery trip was in order. The closest grocery store was the one he had taken her to before. She touched his cheek and he opened his eyes.

“Hey,” he said.

“I’m going to go get something for us to eat,” she replied.

“It’s not dark right?” he asked.

“No, it’s about noon,” she said.

“Be careful. There’s still some danger, but most of the folks that would try something should either be gone or too busy to mess with you. If you want to give me a few minutes I can get dressed and come with you,” he said sitting up.

She could see how tired he was. He was healing up, over the illness, but it had weakened him.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll go, you stay and rest,” she said getting up.

She watched as he laid back down. There was an obvious bit of concern on his face, but they needed something to eat. She already knew the grocery store, grabbed a few of the bags they had saved, and started to leave.

“If it even sort of feels bad don’t hesitate, just come straight back,” he said.

“I will,” she replied.

The truth was that she was going to get them food first. They were almost completely out of everything, and she knew that the both of them would be needing more than what meger supplies they had. She took a breath, opened the door as far as it would open, and stepped out. She closed the door on the home she shared with Fredrick and moved through the collection of carriages until she finally came out of the pile.

The air was cold, but it was expected. GLaDOS had said this was October, and she knew that Nightmare Night was around the corner. It struck her funny for a moment that she was thinking about that foalish holiday. It was a night of free candy and trying to scare each other. For a moment she wondered if this place had a similar night, and then she quickly pushed that thought out of her head. She wouldn’t walk out here in the dark, and surely anypony with any sense at all wouldn’t let their foals walk out here after dark.

She made it past the two tall stacks of the mobile homes, Fredrick had told her that was what they were called, that made up the front of the Stacks, and headed out on the street. She walked toward the grocery store and once inside she began looking through what there was. The first obvious choice was SpagettiOs. She liked them, they didn’t taste too bad, and a can of it was surprisingly easy to fix. She walked toward the machine holding the canned pasta and selected six cans of original SpagettiOs. She pressed her thumb to the reader and a moment later it dropped the number of cans she wanted into the collector.

She took those cans, placed them in one of her sacks, and then moved on to the other things they needed. She got a loaf of bread, two jars of Peanut Butter, and then she looked at something they didn’t need. It was a package of cookies. Nabisco/McDonalds Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, and they were only two credits. She started to select them, and then stopped herself.

There was a time that spending that amount of money wouldn’t have mattered to her, but things had changed. Two credits could mean the difference between eating a meal or starving. She breathed out, walked away from the vending machine, and looked at the breakfast foods. She selected the off brand, because of how much cheaper it was, and was rewarded with a bag of Super Sugar Rocks Fruity Stones Cereal!™, and she wondered what it was that Fredrick saw in them.

She then looked at the milk. Like anything that wasn’t dry goods or canned goods perishables were the most expensive. A quart of milk, barely enough for four breakfasts, costed ten credits. A half gallon costed fifteen, and a full gallon had went up to thirty-one credits. Fresh meat was overly expensive, and she didn’t care since she didn’t eat it. She looked at the milk, knowing that she needed it, and selected one quart. She pressed her thumb against the reader, it dropped the container, and she slipped it into a bag along with some of the can goods. Feeling good about her purchases, and seeing that they had food for at least a week, she walked out of the grocery store and headed toward their home.

The day seemed to be fairly clear. There wasn’t any real danger, none of the stallions that had chased her before was here, and instead it was just a quiet walk back home. She weaved her way through the carriages, finding the back of the one carriage with double metal doors, opened it, stepped through, and then walked on to the small clearing before the door of their home. She stepped inside, put the groceries up, and looked at the bags. She checked again and finally it dawned on her. She had forgotten something.

She had forgotten to get a few packages of instant ramen noodles. It was something they would occasionally eat, and sometimes it was a last resort food. There had been a week when they had nothing except for ramen noodles, and its broth, to live off of. Seeing that Fredrick was sleeping she walked out, with a bag, and headed back to the grocery store. Once again she found herself inside of the building, once again she faced the machines, and once more she made her purchases.

She walked back toward the stacks and she heard a scream and a cry. Everything inside of her told her to run. Her ears rotated toward the sound. She looked toward it, knowing that it was a bad idea to want to even see what was happening, but at the same time she couldn’t just leave. She moved, quietly as she could, until she walked to an old building near the stacks. The crying was coming from inside of it. She leaned against it to hear a muffled scream.

“Please, please don’t hurt her,” a mare’s voice rasped.

“NOOOOOOOOO!” a different mare screamed.

Diamond stepped back. She didn’t know what was happening but this was terrible. She heard the sounds of something moving outside. She ducked around the side of the building and hid from the sound outside. She moved and found herself in an old room. The wall on this side of the building had long since fell in and what was left of the room had been exposed to the weather. She looked at wall in front of her and she could see something. The window showed the other room and she started to duck down, but noticed that the older bearded stallion looking in the window wasn’t looking at her. Instead he was scratching his nose before turning back to the dragoness tied in the corner. In front of her was another mare. The mare was tied down in such a way that her flank was sticking up in the air.

Diamond shook as she watched the older stallion walk toward her. Deep red lines were etched across her flank, and the stallion grabbed a candle, lit it with a lighter, and held a knife over it.

“You know, the human body can stand all kinds of pain. There’s a little function we have that sort of shuts that pain off. Kind of makes you not feel anything at all. Hell, it set interrogations back hours, or it did before I learned a little trick," he said taking the now reddened blade to the mare’s flank and drawing a line in it.

“PLEASE LEAVE HER ALONE! I’LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!” the dragoness pleaded.

He shook his head, kicked the mare in the stomach, heard her cry and then looked around in the room.

“Boys, want a little fun with a girl who had enough money to buy such an expensive toy?” he asked.

She saw the stallion that had chased her before. She watched him walk up to the mare, and then she closed her eyes. She dropped down and could hear the mare screaming, pleading for him to stop, and she could hear the sounds of flesh slapping.

“No, no, no, no,” she said quietly.

“NO! Mirah!” the dragoness screamed, “I’LL KILL YOU!”

The sounds lasted for a few more minutes until it stopped again.

“You know, the buyer interested is only interested in you. Your owner, lover, fuck buddy, whatever you want to call her doesn’t matter to me. He did have one requirement. You needed to be broken. So, when I’m done with you, little girl, you’ll be a polite and willing little slave,” the bearded stallion said.

“If you hurt her… If you do anything else to her I’ll kill you,” she said.

“Step away boys,” he said.

“Please, please no more, please, I swear I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t hurt me anymore,” the mare’s voice pleaded, “Money right? You want money? I can give you all the credits you want! My… my father is a corporate banker, and he’ll wire you whatever you want!”

Diamond finally got up, looked through the window and saw the bearded stallion walk toward the mare. He grabbed her by her hair and lifted her head.

“Please don’t hurt me!” she cried.

“I’m going to get loose and I’m…” the dragoness stopped when the blade of his knife trailed down her side.

“Please…” the dragoness said.

“You know what you need?” he asked as the knife found the tip of the mare’s pinkie, “a reminder.”

He pushed hard against it, the mare screamed, and a moment later he dumped some wax over the place where he cut. The dragoness fought against her bonds until he brought the finger over, flipped it on her.

“I’m going to carve her up, and there’s not a fuckin’ thing you can do about it. Do you know why?” he asked before he kicked her, “Because here I’m fuckin’ GOD!”

Diamond shook her head, backing out, leaving, and before she got outside she threw up. Her stomach emptying on the old floor. She heard something against the door leaning into the room, and she took off, heading out, back to the street, to the Stacks, to the safety of her and Fredric’s home.

She couldn’t believe there was any stallion like that, and that’s when a thought occurred to her. He wasn’t a stallion. He was the Boogie Pony. The Boogie Pony was real, and he lived here.

She made it to the pile, through the carriages, and finally to their home. Once inside she began to shake, and she felt two arms around her. She wrapped her arms around Fredrick and cried as she thought about what she had seen.

“What is it?” he asked.

She didn’t say a word, not for a while, but he stayed with her. Finally, after several hours she finally told him what she saw, and he looked at the wall.

“The Commodore is back,” he muttered.

Author's Note

(And that’s where we’re stopping. Yeah, a new character, and an darker one at that. The Commodore is going to be somewhat famous, or I should say Infamous in the Vogonverse.

Thanks for reading,

LF)