//------------------------------// // Gem Tracking // Story: Equestrian Gems // by Serenade Sketch //------------------------------// Chrome Diopside, Starlight, and Trixie continued to follow Rainbow Dash who was leading toward the corrupted gem's location. At a certain point, Chrome Diopside said, "Hold on, do you hear something?" Everyone stopped to listen and started to hear the sound of deep growling. They started to follow the sound more slowly and soon came across a smoke-like creature in the form of a roc with a black gem with white and brown spots on her back. "What kind of gem is that?" Starlight asked quietly. "Starry Night Obsidian, I haven't seen another one in decades," Chrome Diopside answered. "Well, if anypony has a plan, now would be a great time to tell us," Rainbow said. "Whenever there was a corrupted Starry Night Obsidian, Rainbow Hematite would use her aeromancy to make things less challenging," Chrome Diopside said thinking of a plan. "On it," Rainbow replied flying towards the gem. Chrome Diopside tried to stop Rainbow Dash from going, but it was too late. Rainbow tried to fly in circles around the gem, but she heard her flying towards her and turned herself into a cloud and surrounded herself around Rainbow who stated to cough. Starlight then fired a beam of magic at the gem which she saw and let it pass through her also causing her to drop Rainbow who started gasping for air. "Are you okay, Rainbow?" Starlight asked running towards her. "Yeah, *cough* I'm fine *cough*," she answered despite her still coughing. "Uh, maybe now would be a great time run," Trixie said nervously looking at the corrupted gem above them. "Hey, I can *cough* still fight," Rainbow Dash insisted. "Come on, we need to try and hide," Chrome Diopside yelled as she and Trixie stared to run. Rainbow then followed them with Starlight running with her and the corrupted gem following them while still flying above them. "As I was saying, Rainbow Hematite used her aeromancy on corrupted Starry Night Obsidians from a distance because these gems are known for being very alert to their surroundings," Chrome Diopside finished. "When her smoky form is clustered together, we're able to damage her physical form." "Heh... heh, sorry," Rainbow said awkwardly. "Everypony, get close. I'm going to try to teleport us away," Starlight said. As everyone got closer to Starlight who started to charge up a teleport spell, Starry Night Obsidian shot down one part of her smoky form which surrounded her head. She then started to lose concentration when she started to breath in the smoke and soon lost consciousness. The group then continued to run from the corrupted gem with Rainbow Dash carrying Starlight. "So, what's the new plan?" Rainbow asked. "The Warp Pad, corrupted gems are unable to use them," Chrome Diopside answered. The group continued to head towards the Warp Pad with Starry Night Obsidian firing more smoke shots at them. Chrome Diopside then summoned her lance to try to distract the gem following them and shot it at her. However, she instead took in the lance into her body and shot it back at Chrome Diopside who gasped when the lance pierced right through her body which disappeared into a puff of smoke leaving her gem behind. "Okay, so what do we do now?" Trixie asked. "Don't ask me, I got us into this mess," Rainbow replied. The two ponies looked up and saw Starry Night Obsidian hovering above them as if she was waiting for them to try and attack her. "Actually, there's one thing we can try," Rainbow said looking back at Trixie. "Wait, what? I didn't mean that kind of plan," Trixie replied. "Hey, we can't just wait for Starlight to wake up and Chrome Diopside to come back! What other choice do we even have right now?" The corrupted gem then shot a few clouds of smoke at the blue ponies which Rainbow saw and tried to knock Trixie out of the way which was followed by a small explosion of light which repelled the smoke shots. In their place was a slightly taller blue alicorn with a light blue mane with dark blue highlights, plum eyes, and a Cutie Mark of a wand emitting a rainbow colored light. The alicorn started to blink a few times before looking at her new form. 'Whoa, is this how Twilight and Pinkie felt?' 'So, what exactly was your plan here?' 'Well, you've got illusion power and I've got wind power and speed, I was thinking we should try to work together with our powers.' 'You know, for a pony who charges in before thinking, that is actually a good plan.' 'Hey! If we didn't have a gem monster made out of smoke to deal with right now, I'd be making sure you wish you never said that.' The corrupted gem let out a bird-like screech which made the new fusion focus on the her and start flying. The gem started to fire more smoke shot at the fusion who started to fly around the smoke shots a little clumsily. "Whoa, that was close," she said to herself. 'Okay, here's the actual plan: you handle the illusions and I'll focus avoiding the smoke shots.' 'Alright then, but do I really have a reason to object?' 'Gem monster first, argue later.' The alicorn then lit her horn up and concentrated on creating her illusions. Just then, multiple of illusions of herself appeared ,all of which started to quickly fly around Starry Night Obsidian with the real one mixed in with the crowd of illusions. The corrupted gem became confused trying to find the real fusion alicorn. She then started to fire smoke shots at random alicorn to get rid of the illusions to find the real one. Soon, only one alicorn remained with Starry Night Obsidian focusing on her. "Nice try, Smoky," she said to the gem. Right after she said that, a mini tornado started to appear under the gem that started to suck her in while she saw the illusion disappear. After a few seconds, Starry Night Obsidian's smoky form started to cluster together. The alicorn who started it with her magic flew towards it and gave it one final, powerful kick which caused her to lose her physical form leaving only her gem. Just then, Starlight started to regain consciousness and Chrome Diopside started to regenerate her physical form. "Ugh, what happened?" Starlight asked rubbing her head. "Rainbow, Trixie, Starlight, I'm back! Where's the gem?" Chrome Diopside said frantically. "You don't know how glad we are to see you guys are okay," a voice said .The unicorn and the gem then looked up with shocked expressions on their faces to see the fusion alicorn holding the corrupted gem. "Did you two just... fuse?" Starlight asked. "Well, there weren't that many options left," the fusion said while giving the gem to Chrome Diopside. "I'm just glad your both okay, especially against a gem such as an Obsidian," Chrome Diopside said while bubbling the gem and sending it to the temple. "Well, we wouldn't be in that situation if Rainbow Dash didn't charge in without thinking. I'm sorry, and who was the one who came up with the idea of fusing?" the alicorn argued with herself which caused her to unfuse back into Rainbow and Trixie. "So, uh, why don't we all head back to the temple so you two can tell everypony about your first fusion experience?" Starlight asked wanting to break them up a little. Everyone agreed and started to walk back to the Warp Pad. "Oh, by the way, what should we call your new fusion?" Chrome Diopside asked. "Well, considering their abilities, how about Mirage Bolt?" Starlight suggested. "Works for me," Rainbow said. "Me too," Trixie added. "And me," Chrome Diopside said. "I still kind of wish I could have seen your fusion in action, I'm sure Mirage Bolt would have reminded me so much of Blue Zoisite." "Do you mean Rainbow Hematite and Indicolite's fusion?" Starlight asked. Chrome Diopside nodded in response right before everyone stepped onto the Warp Pad and warped back to the temple.