The massive halls of the Crystal Castle seemed to extend on forever to Twilight Sparkle as she galloped by, her hooves creating lasting echoes in the corridors. Occasionally she would glance down a intersection, then continue on after finding nothing interesting down it. She knew what she was looking for, the question was where to find it in this virtual labrynth of a castle.
Come on, where is it? the unicorn thought frantically as she turned a corner, glancing in every open door and empty hallway in search, but was disappointed to find nothing even closely resembling the Crystal Heart of legend. After uncounted minutes of directionless running Twilight finally stopped to catch her breath and try to evaluate the current situation.
It had barely been more than a day since she and her friends had first arrived in the Crystal Empire, which had mysteriously reappeared after over a thousand years of absence. To tell the truth Twilight had until recently known next to nothing about the Crystal Empire until her mentor and friend, Princess Celestia, had informed her of its return. The Princess had tasked her and her friends with helping the Empire in any way they could. Twilight's brother and sister-in-law, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, were already there to receive them.
Upon arrival however, she had soon learned that the Empire was not the only thing that had returned after its thousand year absence. And that was the reason why Twilight was so desperate to find the Crystal Heart, the only thing capable of protecting them from the dark force assaulting the faltering shield. It was only a matter of time until it fell, and then there would be nothing stopping the ancient king from descending upon them like a predator in the night.
As Twilight regained her breath, she became aware of of little clawed feet padding against the hard floor and feathery wings flapping through the air. Soon enough a familiar cyan pegasus mare with a polychromatic mane and a little purple and green dragon came up beside her. Rainbow Dash didn't seem to be out of breath in the slightest while Spike was bent over with his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath.
"Can you. . . slow down. . . a little? . . That would be great," he said between breaths.
Twilight's ears drooped slightly as she said, "I'm sorry Spike, but there's just so little time left that we can't afford to slow down. We have to find the Crystal Heart as soon as possible if we want to keep Sombra away." Just saying the dreaded unicorn kings name sent an involuntary shiver down the lavender mares spine. Ever since she was a filly she had heard stories of a ruthless king that had made thousands of ponies his slaves, only recently learning that those stories were true. "And if we don't find it before Cadance's shield spell wears out, then it's over for all of us," she added, to which Rainbow Dash responded by crossing her forelimbs and fixing Twilight with an expression that, while full of bravado, belied the worry growing inside of her.
"Well what do you want us to then Twi?" she asked in a slightly scratchy and tomcoltish voice. "We can't just run around and hope we'll stumble on it. That would take way too long. And it's not like this guy would have even made it that easy to find anyway."
"I know Rainbow," Twilight responded, growing more frustrated with how hopeless the situation seemed. "But we don't enough time to thoroughly investigate the castle either. You saw how Cadance looked. She was about ready to collapse when I left her."
Rainbow heard the urgency in her friends voice, and her expression morphed into a look of concern as she regarded Twilight. She heaved a sigh and said, "Yeah, I get ya. But what you suggest we do then Twilight? It's like you said, any minute the shield's gonna go down, and then we're pretty much rutted."
Twilight ignored Rainbow's bad language, in front of Spike no less, in favor of pondering what to do. She glanced out the window at the crystalline buildings and at the pale dome surrounding the city. It stayed strong for the most part, but every once in a while Twilight would catch sight of it flickering like a light bulb, allowing brief but unsettling glimpses into the frozen land beyond and the monstrous cloud of shadowy smoke surround the shield like an ominous ring.
Finally, Twilight came to decision, and she turned to address the pegasus.
"Rainbow," she said, "I need you to find the others. Check up on the progress of the fair, make sure everything is okay. Our only hope right now is to keep the crystal ponies happy while I look for the Heart."
"Seriously?" Rainbow scowled. "Your sticking me with the job of manager? I don't think so Twi, you need my help."
"Rainbow," Twilight began to explain, "the only way the Crystal Heart will ever work is if the crystal ponies are happy, and right now the only thing keeping them that way is the fair. If they learn just how close they are to being enslaved again, it won't matter if we find the Heart or not. It won't work if it's not being fueled by them."
Rainbow's stern expression fell at her friends words, replaced by one of worry and concern. Eventually she drifted down to the floor as she said, "Alright, fine. I'll go and do that." She then thrust a hoof at Twilight and added, "But if you get into any trouble I'm comin' back for you, Sombra or not."
Twilight nodded at Rainbow's statement, admiring her devotion. She honestly would have been surprised if her friend had not said that.
With that, Rainbow took to the air again, gave Twilight a salute, and flew out of a nearby window at high speed, leaving a multicolored streak in her wake.
"What about me Twilight?" Spike asked her, pulling her attention back to him. "Do you want me to leave too?"
Twilight thought about his question for a brief moment before she replied, "I think it might be for the best Spike. If we run into any trouble I don't want to see you get hurt. You should be safe with the others. . . . And besides, this is something I have to do alone."
For a moment Spike looked like he was at war with himself. It was obvious that he wanted nothing more than to help her in any way he could. But deep down he knew Twilight was right. Sombra could have placed all sorts of traps and such to deal with any intruders looking for the Crystal Heart. If it really came down to it, Twilight would be the only one capable of overcoming whatever challenges she was presented with. He also knew what Twilight meant when she said it was something she had to do it on her own. Celestia herself had made it clear that she alone must be the one to safeguard the Empire. Whether or not it was part of some sort of test, neither of them really knew. But what Spike did know was that whenever Twilight received specific instructions from the Princess, then the unicorn would do everything to follow those instructions to the letter.
Sighing in defeat, Spike nodded his head. He then rushed at Twilight and gripped her neck in a hug. Twilight responded in kind, and wrapped a foreleg around him as she pulled him close. For a moment the two stayed like that, nether one willing to break the contact. Eventually Spike loosened his grip, and Twilight released him from her hold. Spike regarded her with glistening eyes as he said, "You stay safe okay Twilight?"
Twilight nodded, feeling her own emotions about to burst like dam. She then thought of something that she hoped would make him feel better.
Following the motions of the ever sacred Pinkie Promise, Twilight said, "Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my-"
Unfortunately Twilight had forgotten to close her left eye as he went through the motions, and ended up accidentally jabbing herself in the cornea with a hoof. "Agh!" she said.
Despite the mishap, Spike found himself grinning as Twilight completed the promise. "There," she said. "I Pinkie Promised. And everypony knows that you have to keep a Pinkie Promise, or you lose your friends trust."
Just then both pony and dragon heard a distance high pitched voice yell from somewhere down below amid the festivities, "Forever!"
Twilight and Spike chuckled slightly when they heard their friends outburst. Their laughter eventually fell away as they realized that now was there they would have to part ways. They lingered, both of them not wanting to be the first one to leave. Finally it was Spike who broke the silence.
"Well, I guess I should be going now," he said quietly. He then turned around and began to make his way down a flight of stairs, casting one last worried glance at her before he disappeared from sight. When he left Twilight felt as though her heart had suddenly turned into lead as she fought back a wave of tears. Steeling herself, Twilight turned away and resumed her search for the Crystal Heart.
"Finally", Peridot muttered as she fitted the last piece of the warp pad into place. "Now I can get off this cruddy rock."
It had many weeks of labor and hard work for her to complete her project, and the Galaxy Warp had taken no small amount of retrofitting and cross wiring to get it in a state that at least resembled something that was fully functioning, not to mention how much she had to scavenge from other unusable warp pads that had long since fallen into a state of ruin and disrepair. The fact that the Home World gem had even considered falling back to such methods was a testament to how desperate she was to leave.
And her efforts were certainly not aided by those Crystal Gems, whom Peridot had oh so affectionately dubbed as the Crystal Clods. Why they simply could not understand that all she wanted was to leave the planet before the deadline was up, she did not know, but as long as she was away from them she did not care. Better to leave them to their eventual fate and let them figure just how screwed they were when the cluster emerged. Peridot figured they had at best a few short months before then, which was why she was so dead set on getting back to Home-World. She knew that if she stuck around too long. . . well it was not something she particularly wanted to think about.
Thankfully she didn't have to think about it, because finally after so much time and effort spent trying to repair the Galaxy Warp, it was ready for use. Or at least she hoped it was.
Raising her arm, Peridot's artificial fingers floated independently of her limb as four of them formed into a view screen while the fifth acted as a stylus. For what felt like the hundredth time since she began her project the technician went over her notes and video logs, double checking and triple checking everything to make sure that nothing would go wrong when she tried to activate the Galaxy Warp.
Her conclusion upon finishing her review. . . most likely the Galaxy Warp would do absolutely nothing in spite of all her hard work, maybe even explode violently from all of the excess tampering she had performed just to get it working, resulting in her being launched halfway to the next landmass. Her task would have been so much less difficult if she still had any flask robonoids left, but of course those had all been destroyed by the Crystal Gems.
"Crystal Clods", Peridot corrected herself as her fingers returned to their original position. Whether or not the Galaxy Warp worked, at least she wouldn't have to put up with them and their self righteous antics anymore. If the Galaxy Warp did explode, the inverted triangular gem on her forehead would most likely be shattered. Either way, she was leaving, and Peridot felt it was worth the risk of being shattered, and given what was going to become of the planet, it was only a matter of time until that happened anyway.
It was shame though. Some parts of the planet were actually not so much an eyesore as others, as Peridot had discovered. She found the sights created when another planetary cycle was completed to be especially pleasing to the eye. So many hues and colors reaching across the sky like great strokes of paint. Cavernous underground networks with hundreds of tons of nonliving gems that would light up in greenish hues when she cast a search beam on them. It really was a shame to know that it was all going to waste because of the cluster experiment.
Oh well, she thought. I'm not the one in charge.
Readjusting her visor, Peridot began the process of activating the Galaxy Warp. Her boots clanking on the Galaxy Warps surface as she walked, the technician went over to the pad in the middle of the the structure, with smaller pads ringed it in a circular pattern. Linking the smaller warp pads to the one in the center, many pieces of old gem technology had been fitted together almost haphazardly, most of which had not been used for over a millennia. Peridot would have liked to go with something more reliable, but time and resources were severely limited.
Stooping down next to the main pad Peridot removed a hidden panel on its base. With her artificial digits working at speeds stationary fingers could never match, Peridot was soon rewarded with a slight hum coming from the pad. She felt her mood lighten at the prospect that finally, after weeks of being stranded, she was going back Home-World.
"Come on. . . come on," She said in a slightly nasally voice as she waited in anticipation.
And then something happened. And to her confusion it was not the Galaxy Warp either activating or exploding. It was the sound of a localized warp pad flaring to life as a beam of light shot straight into the air. Peridot whirled around, dreading what was coming next. Within seconds, they had appeared.
The Crystal Clods.
"There she is!" yelled the shortest one, the amethyst, as a gem studded whip materialized in her hands. Behind her the pearl and the perma-fusion known as Garnet summoned their own weapons, a spear and a pair of formidable gauntlets. They were a sight that Peridot found to be somehow both tacky and intimidating in appearance. At least they had not brought the steven with them, but still she wondered how they found her in the first place.
That would have wait until later though, as Peridot had more pressing concerns than figuring out how they managed to track her down.
"Yah!" she yelped as she turned to run. The amethyst gave chase while the pearl threw her spear at the fleeing gem. Peridot just barely managed to avoid being skewered by the projectile by diving to the side, but the action unfortunately allowed the amethyst to cover the rest of the distance between them. Almost desperate, Peridot's fingers formed into a small cannon which she pointed at the approaching adversary.
"Get away from me you clod!" she shouted as a ball of erratic green energy formed in front of her before rocketing towards the amethyst. In her haste Peridot did not prepare herself for the recoil and was sent sprawling backwards while the amethyst expertly dodged the projectile. The gem swung her whip in a wide arc, and it wrapped around Peridot like a vice.
"Gotcha!" she exclaimed with no small amount of snark. Peridot groaned at how many times this had already happened before one of her digits touched the whip and a current of electricity was sent coursing through the weapon. The amethyst was unable to let go of it time before she felt hundreds of volts running through her physical form. Her mane of white hair stood on end, and she fell to the ground with a pained groan, and the whip vanished.
"Amethyst!" the perma-fusion shouted before charging at Peridot with her armored fists raised. Peridot yelped in fright, knowing that there was no way she could take on the perma-fusion by any stretch of the imagination. She hated the fact that she had to do so, but Peridot had no choice but to flee. Running away from the fusion as fast as her limb enhancers could carry her, Peridot made a dash for one of the warp pads ringing the edge of the structure. Before she got there however the pearl interposed herself between her and her escape. Peridot skidded to a halt and promptly changed direction, only to find that the amethyst had recovered and was now charging at her. And behind her the fusion was rapidly approaching.
Peridot was cornered, and there was now only one way for her get away. Raising her right arm into the air Peridot's finger began to whirl around at high speed, and in moments she began to ascend vertically. The clods rushed into action as the pearl threw another spear, the amethyst swung her whip, and the fusion even jumped to try and grab her by the legs. And somehow, by sheer dumb luck or something else, Peridot somehow was able to avoid all three of them as she rose ever higher into the sky.
"Nyah hah hah hah!" she laughed in triumph. "Sorry to spoil your fun you clods! But I'm afraid that I'm just too much for you to handle, and your attempts to capture me are just plain pathetic to watch!"
"Get back here you twerp!" the pearl shouted after her, to which Peridot responded with a rude hand gesture, eliciting a groan of annoyance from the gem. Peridot just laughed as she flew off until she was far enough away that the Galaxy Warp was little more than a dot on the horizon, feeling satisfied that she had gotten away from them yet again. It of course meant that she had to temporarily abandon the Galaxy Warp until later, but it would still be there when she came back, provided that those Crystal Clods didn't-
Peridot's smug pride was immediately cut short when she realized a very small oversight on her part.
She had left the repaired Galaxy Warp still active! The clods would find out what she was up to! They were going to destroy weeks worth of work, and then Peridot would be stranded for good, doomed to live out the rest of her days until the cluster emerged, and then. . .
Peridot could not allow it. She would not allow it.
Redirecting her course, Peridot began to fly back to the Galaxy Warp, mind set on getting off this planet no matter what. Hopefully if she was able to get there before they destroyed it there would be no further complications.