The Distant Princess

by GMSeskii

XXIII - Of Loot and the Lost

The Crystal Gem Temple was one of the wonders of the world that few people knew about before the race became common knowledge. Earth was of the mind that it was alone in the universe given how it saw no signs of extraterrestrial life in the stars. It never occurred to them until later that this was all Mars purposefully obfuscating their transmissions to maintain secrecy.

But that secrecy was broken, and the ridiculous notion that ancient wizards had built all the Gem structures were tossed out the window. The publicity of the Gems had the ironic twist of both validating the “ancient wizard” theorists while also making their claims significantly lesser and insignificant. They would not gain a true understanding of magic before the Mushroom War.

Amidst this joke of a theory, the Crystal Gem Temple remained, the center of Gem society for Earth. Many structures were built around it, paying tribute to the events that brought the Gem Empire to the discussion table and the Gems and humans that made it happen. It is a rich, wondrous history that has mostly been lost to time.

Events closest to the Mushroom War were often completely erased by the cataclysm.

~~~

Finn sat down on the broken crystal platform, pressing his chin into the palms of his hands. “Well… this was all bunk.”

Jake transformed himself back into the form of a raft, drifting onto the shimmering water of the cave. “Yeah, I know man. No monsters to beat up, no loot…”

“Yeah, no l—” Finn stopped talking. Slowly, he removed his backpack and unzipped it, pulling out the statue holding the diamond.

“Sweet!” Jake called from the water. “We got something from this!”

“This is hers,” Finn said, shaking his head. “I’m giving it back.”

“Dude, she’s sealed up the doorway, we can’t get back in!”

“She’ll have to come out sometime.” Finn stood up and deposited the statue in the sand before the open doorway. “So, uh, just leaving this here, Lapis! It’s yours! Okay?”

The only sound was that of water lapping the sand behind him.

“We’re leaving now,” Finn called, taking a few steps away from the doorway. “You can pick it up whenever, right?” His heel hit the base of the crystal platform, flipping him onto his back. “I’m fine! Still leaving! Leaving!” He scrambled to his feet and ran to the Jake boat, where Jack was already sitting.

Rainbow continued flying just overtop of Jake as they set off from the beach.

“Is she appearing?” Finn asked her.

“No. Door’s still gone.” Rainbow frowned. “...We should come back later. Twilight could figure out the door and if we could get Fluttershy here, I’m sure…”

“Your spirit is admirable,” Jack said, keeping his gaze away from the temple. “But we are not welcome.”

“She’s sad! Sad people say things they regret later all the time!” Rainbow folded her hooves. “She doesn’t know what she’s missing.”

“Perhaps not, but we should still respect her wishes.”

Rainbow scrunched her muzzle and bit her lip. “Uuuugh, you’re right. Why are you so right all the time?”

“I have traveled far and wide, seen much of the world…” He clenched his fists, looking to the ceiling of the cave. “I learned much the hard way.”

Rainbow gulped. “Oh…”

The rest of the boat trip was made in silence. Upon arrival at the other shore, Jake folded back into the form of a dog and everyone crawled up the long hallway, this time taking a little longer to examine the shapes on the walls. Gems. That’s what they were, Lapis’ people. There was an exceptionally large variation of shapes and sizes to their bodies, tall and short, large and small. The one unifying feature was the colored shape. The gemstone, glowing softly.

They returned to the main room. All four walked right to the main picture, focused on the shorter, plumper pink Gem. It was surrounded by many others… white, purple, maroon, green, and blue. The blue one had a softly glowing teardrop depicted on the figure’s back.

“That’s her,” Finn said, tracing the teardrop shape with his hand. “So close to… everything.”

“She must have been important,” Jack agreed.

“Maybe she really was a Gem Princess,” Rainbow wondered, placing her hoof next to Finn’s hand. “Without a people…”

“I’m asking Peebles if she’s seen any of them. At all.” Finn began to move around the edges of the chamber, examining every last one of the Gems, trying to find anything that looked familiar. Nothing reminded him of anything. Jake and Rainbow had similar luck.

Jack, on the other hand...

“I’ve seen her…” he said, almost haunted. He approached a section of the wall opposite the small pink Gem, finding a much larger pink one. Unlike the others, this one’s shape was clearly feminine, and large at that. There were few details in her features aside from the gemstone in her stomach, but it was easy to make out curls in her hair and a large dress.

“Where? When?” Finn asked.

“Back… home.” Jack clenched his fist. “A home that doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Oh…” Finn drooped, backing away.

“Sorry man,” Jake said, stretching an arm up to Jack’s shoulder.

“I had forgotten her… she was an exquisite being. I knew not what she was, then. I just thought she was… large.”

Rainbow snorted. “Jack, shame on you, calling a lady large.”

“She was eight feet tall.”

“Geez,” Finn whistled.

“You musta had some fun times!” Jake laughed.

The samurai shook his head. “The meeting was brief. It was in my desert wanderings. She kept company with lions. Regal animals, lions.”

“She sounds awesome,” Rainbow said, struggling not to squee.

“Perhaps…” Jack said. He turned away from the image and looked to the hole in the ceiling. “Jake, I believe you have the skills necessary for escape?”

The rubbery dog stretched his legs, picking all three of them up and shooting through the hole. It was a bit of a tight fit, but they popped out the top without incident.

“Huh. Sun’s getting a little low,” Jake observed. “We should probably head back before we have to camp out!”

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, as much as I like camping, my hooves hurt like nothing else.” She examined one of the cracks with a disgusted grimace. “Egh, Twilight you better know the spell for this.”

“Then I will take my leave from you,” Jack said, bowing to the three of them. “It has been an honor.”

Despite himself, Finn broke out into a grin. “Nonono, the honor is ours, Jack! You’re a legend!”

“I have little doubt you will be worthy of the title yourself, in time.” He crossed his arms behind his back. “I will return, Finn. My journeys take me all over, but as humans, we should never leave each other for long.”

Finn beamed. “I’ll hold you to that, Jack.”

“I would expect nothing less.” He turned to leave, but stopped after having taken one step.

“Jack…?” Rainbow asked.

“Get down!” Jack shouted, pulling out one of his blades.

A pastel-pink unicorn teleported in front of him and blasted him in the chest with a blue-green laser brimming with arcane power. Jack flew back, armor embedding into a nearby tree.

The unicorn tossed her straight, streaked mane back, revealing a menacing scowl and soft purple eyes. Her cutie mark was that of a falling magic spark, one Rainbow Dash recognized instantly.

“Starlight Glimmer!?”

Starlight ignored Rainbow, jumping for Samurai Jack with a horn shining like a star.

Comments

[BestinDworld]

well shit

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, that escalated suddenly. Though it does make some sense that Starlight "Timebreaker" Glimmer would target Jack.

There's also the question of why Mars was isolating Earth back before the Mushroom War, but that's a lot less urgent.

[Crack-Fic Casey]

Well that raises questions. I'm sure Starlight arrived at this conclusion after careful thought and didn't jump the gun at all.