//------------------------------// // A Pink Pony's Predicament // Story: Disharmonious Synchronization // by Dilos1 //------------------------------// Sugilite considered herself to be many things. And while she may be willing to concede the point that her undeniably great traits were the result of the combining of three other gems, two of which constituted a fusion like herself even though significantly smaller, she would be more than happy to argue, preferably with her fists, that there were very few things even more awesome than her. Especially when it came to demolishing things, unlike those runts, Sardonyx and Opal. In Sugilite's mind, she was everything they were not. She was strong, fearless, and above all, huge. Given these traits, it was hard for anyone not see why she was the greatest. But the one thing that Sugilite knew that she was not was patient. She could handle being shot in the face. She could handle having to chase an annoying Home World gem around. But what she could not handle was being caught in a malfunctioning Galaxy Warps' transportation beam and being whisked away to some alien world. Not even one with talking pink ponies. Said pink pony was currently being held in one of her massive hands, just a gentle squeeze away from becoming colorful paste in her palm. Despite this, the pink pony was either too dense to realize the situation she was in, or knew something that Sugilite did not, as she gave the fusion a reproachful glare and said while pointing a hoof, "Now hold on there missy! I can see you're in a hurry, but there's no need for you to be a big grump about it." Sugilite narrowed her eyes behind her visor, uttering a deep growl right in the pony's muzzle, who's expression had not changed. This only served to anger Sugilite further, and she felt the temptation to give the pony a little squeeze to show that meant business. She chose not to just yet however, deciding to hold off on that option. For the moment anyway. "Now listen here you little. . . whatever you are," Sugilite growled, her voice becoming deadly whisper, although to the pony it must have sounded more like someone shouting. "I've just had a very rough trip through the Galaxy Warp, and I don't have time to play around. Not as long as that little green dirt bomb is runnin' around makin' things harder for me. So if you would be so kind as to tell me where she went, I'll be on my way and no one gets squashed. Got it?" What Sugilite had hoped would happen was for the pony to become intimidated and tell her everything she needed to know so she could go find Peridot. But to her surprise and aggravation she simply narrowed her large blue eyes at the fusion, adopting a look that seemed uncharacteristic of her otherwise overly cheerful appearance. "Why do you wanna know?" she asked while arching an eyebrow. It sudenly became clear to Sugilite then that no amount of intimidation would work on this. . . thing. Truly, it was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid to be able to not give in to her demands. Sugilite would have been happy to just drop the pony on her head right then and there, but as far she knew, this pony was her only means to finding Peridot as soon as possible, not to mention the gems that brought her into being were keeping a very close eye on her, metaphorically speaking. They were just as confused and aggravated by the situation as she was, but they still would not allow her to cause unnecessary harm. This unfortunately required her to rely on a more delicate tactic that she seldom put any stock in whatsoever, being more inclined to use her fists as opposed to her diplomacy in situations such as these. "I'm glad you asked," Sugilite said while flashing a grin at the pony. Adopting a feigned expression of worry and concern, she began to explain herself. "You see, that little clo- . . . gem, is a friend of mine. A good friend. We were just hangin' out together, doin' absolutely nothin' at all, when all of sudden the Galaxy Warp," Sugilite motioned with her head to the structure she was standing on, or at least what was left of it after her fall, "got turned on somehow, and now here I am, lost and alone without my little buddy." Sugilite put one of her hands to her head in a display of despair, hoping she would not have to do this for much longer. She absolutely hated demeaning herself like this, especially when it was in front of puny little things like this pony. Still she kept up the act, struggling to ignore her growing frustration as she wailed in a despairing tone, "Oh woe is me. Will I ever see my little friend again?" The sound of sniffling drew Sugilite's attention to the pony in her hand. Her bottom lip protruded outward, and her large blue eyes appeared to be glistening with fresh tears. "Oh my gosh," she whimpered pitifully, wiping her muzzle with a hoof. "That is the saddest thing I have ever heard." Despite the method she had used to get the pony to finally comply, Sugilite nonetheless felt satisfied with herself. That is until she heard what the pony immediately said afterward, her expression suddenly changing from one of sadness to a deadpan stare. "If it weren't the biggest load of manure I've ever heard." "WHAT?!" Sugilite bellowed right in the pony's face, going from satisfied to furious in the blink of an eye upon the pony's statement. The sheer force of her outburst was enough to cause the pony's mane to be blown backwards. Curiously, it somehow remained straight behind her head, but that was the furthest thing from her mind at the moment. "Well yeah," the pony began as her pink mane suddenly poofed back into its original position. "I may be Equestria's premier part pony, but I'm not dumb. Anypony with half a brain could see that you're fibbing about Peridot being your friend. Seriously, even Applejack could tell a better lie than that." A brief and very tense silence settled between the two, during which Sugilite's face morphed into a truly terrifying expression of hatred. She was visibly shaking as she stared at the pony in her hand, seconds away from just crushing her or throwing her all the way to the next continent. Somehow though she was able to keep herself from doing anything too drastic as she removed her visor and brought the pony uncomfortably close to her face. All five of her eyes were focused on the pony in an enraged glare that would have made any lesser creature run for the nearest hole in the ground and hide for the rest of their short lives. The pony however seemed to be more confused by the sight. "Whoa," she said. "You should really see a doctor about that." Sugilite chose to ignore that comment and put it of her mind for the moment as she addressed the pony. "Alright then, let's try this a different way," she said in a dangerously low tone. "How about if you tell me where that nerdy excuse for a gem is at, then I won't feel inclined to start breaking stuff around here. I'll just grab what I came for, and be on my merry way. Capisce?" The pink pony continued to infuriate her however as she crossed her forelimbs and said, "Sorry, but no. As a party pony I cannot in good conscience allow party poopers of any kind to. . ." The pony faltered as she suddenly seemed to realize something, and she began glancing around in search of something. "Huh. That's weird ." "What?" Sugilite demanded, losing her patience at an alarming rate. The pony proceeded to rub her head with a hoof and asked aloud, "Where did he go? He was just right here." Sugilite followed the pony's gaze to see what she was looking for, but there was nothing. Just those odd crystalline buildings. Granted some of them looked like they had seen better days, as a number of them appeared to have been completely demolished, but other than than that, there was nothing to see. Just weird houses and blue skies. "That's it! I've had enough of this!" Sugilite growled as she raised her arm, preparing to fling the pony as far as possible. "Whaaaah!" she shrieked from the sudden movement. But just as Sugilite was about to throw her, her arm froze in place. It was as though all of a sudden she had lost all control of her limb, and was unable to do anything more than growl and mutter in frustration, knowing perfectly well who was keeping her from following through with the act. That only served to make her even angrier, and the fact that she presently could not do anything about it was all the more infuriating. Visibly shaking from the rage she felt but was unable to act on, Sugilite lowered her arm and glared at the pony. "Now listen here cotton ball," she said while jabbing a finger at her. But before she could say another word a shout of "Hey you!" cut her off, accompanied by the feeling of something small and insignificant hitting her. Looking down she saw another pony, a blue one with wings and a mane consisting of all the colors of the rainbow, repeatedly ramming into the joint where her two arms were conjoined. "Let. . . her. . . go!" she said between impacts. Sugilite also noticed that behind it stood yet another pony, although she was purple and had a blunt looking horn sprouting from her forehead, which the fusion noticed was giving off a magenta aura. Curiously the pink pony was also encased in a similar aura, and her palm tingled from the sensation. "Hi Rainbow! Hi Twilight!" the pink pony shouted with far too much cheery enthusiasm than the situation she was in probably called for. "Say Twilight, where did you go earlier? Did you stick it to Sombra? Is that why he's gone? Gosh, I wish I could've been there to see that." "Not now Pinkie!" the pony that Sugilite assumed was Twilight shouted back. "Can't you see we're trying to save you?!" she said, punctuating her question with a a grunt. "Hey!" the rainbow pony shouted at Sugilite. "Didn't you hear me?! I said let her go!" Sugilite simply glared at the pony with narrowed eyes, deciding that she'd had enough of whatever nonsense these ponies were probably going to drag her into. Turning to face the pony identified as Rainbow, Sugilite sucked in a great breath of air before roaring right in her face. The force of the bellow was like a sudden hurricane that sent the pony tumbling backward until she eventually collided with Twilight before settling in a tangled heap. "I'm outta here," Sugilite muttered as she lowered her arm to about ten feet above the ground before loosening her grip. Pinkie landed squarely on her hooves, a little shaken up but appearing no worse for wear. Hoping that they were at least smart to not follow her, Sugilite stomped off, every footstep creating a small tremor in her wake. Hopefully Peridot had not ran too far off or flew away somewhere. Sugilite's patience was already stretched to its limits. She did not need to test those limits even further with a game of hide and seek. Behind her, she heard the pink pony say, "Well that was rude. And I didn't even get her name either." Peridot walked briskly along through the halls of the crystalline palace, her eyes darting between the map on her screen directing her to the shortest route to the power source that did not involve going outside and the path in front of her. She was seconds away from outright panicking as she hurried along, trying to stay away from any open windows if she could help it so that she would not be spotted. She just had to keep her head down long enough for her to find the power source, use it to give a boost to the communication device built into her limb enhancers, and contact Home World to send a ship her way. As to how long it would be until they could come get her, Peridot could not even say. If she knew which world she was on she would be able to make an educated guess, but as it was she was left with just hoping that they would come quickly. And of course there was the small matter of what she was going to do about these ponies in the meantime. "Um, excuse me, miss Peridot," said the yellow pony from behind the gem, her tone so quiet that Peridot barely heard her at all. "What?" Peridot snapped, not even bothering to spare a glance away from her screen at the three creatures that walked behind her, the clicking of their hooves and claws on the hard floor having long since given her an excruciating headache in addition to her nervousness. It honestly felt like her gem was about to crack from the sheer annoyance of their presence, and it was difficult to concentrate on her holographic map. Why they chose to follow her was beyond her reasoning, although it was clear that they expected her to lead them to something called the Crystal Heart. Such a term was unfamiliar to her, but she did consider the possibility that it and the power source she detected during scan were the same thing. In all likelihood the dumb organic quadrupeds probably considered what was most likely a piece of gem technology to be some kind of a deity. She had heard of other such occurrences on worlds like this one from reports regarding scouting missions determining a planets viability for gem-forming. Peridot had decided a little while ago that this was most likely the case here, using the conundrum as a way to distract herself from the looming threat of death by shattering looking for her outside, and decided to put up with the organics for the moment, if only to not waste unnecessary energy on getting rid of them and draw attention to herself. "Well, um, I was just wondering a few things. That is, if you don't mind me asking." "I do mind," Peridot answered without taking her eyes off of her screen. "But I get the feeling that you were going to ask anyway, so go ahead." "Gee, someone sure is a grouch," muttered the reptile from his place on the larger pony's back, earning him a glare from Peridot and and a reprimanding look from the yellow pony identified as the fluttershy. "Now Spike," the yellow pony said, her voice only slightly sterner than before. "That's no way to talk around somepony you just met." "Are you sure Fluttershy," the pony known as the shining armor began, speaking up for the first time in a long while. "I mean, she did try to kill us earlier." Since their first encounter Peridot noticed he had been keeping a very close eye on her, not once letting her out of his suspicious gaze. It was plainly obvious that he did not trust her one bit, and that he was only following her to see if she would lead them to this Crystal Heart. Peridot honestly could not have cared less what the ponies thought of her, as she did not believe it to be an issue she needed to address unless it started to become a roadblock in her objective. When that happened, she would happily blast them all with her cannon, but until then she would tolerate their presence. "Well, yes," the fluttershy replied. "But we did just meet so she might have just been a little scared of us. So I don't think a misunderstanding is something to judge her off of right. After all, I don't believe she really meant to hurt us, she might have just been scared or frightened." Peridot had to suppress a chuckle at the fluttershy's statement. She could hardly believe that anything could be as trusting as her. She honestly had no idea who Peridot was and what she would do to complete her mission. Despite the claim being false, she did not necessarily feel the need to correct it. That would just make them more likely to get in her way, but in any case she was getting tired of listening to the two discuss whether or not she was friendly. "Didn't you have a question?" Peridot asked impatiently as she followed her map around a corner, coming into a large hallway with a tall arching ceiling and large doors at the end. "Oh!" the fluttershy exclaimed quietly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to keep you waiting." "Oh come on Fluttershy, you don't need to apologize to her. Just get on with it," the reptile said. As Peridot tromped down the hall, she heard the fluttershy take breath before speaking. "Well, Peridot, I was just wondering, if you don't mind me asking that is, if you could tell us what you are? I mean, I don't think any of us have ever seen anything like you before. You're certainly not like any critter I've seen before." "That's because I'm not a critter, I'm a gem," Peridot answered simply. A brief pause followed, and Peridot guessed that they were probably expecting her to elaborate a little further. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed this, as they appeared to be somewhat confused by her short reply. letting out a tired sigh Peridot added, "I am a member of a space faring race of polymorphic sentient lifeforms." Before she could explain any further she was interrupted by the purple reptile. "Whoa whoa whoa!" the reptile exclaimed suddenly. "Wait a minute. 'Space faring'? As in from outer space? As in you're a space alien?" The others seemed to be equally surprised as he was, their eyes widening in surprise and wonder. "If the term 'space alien' is what you would use to describe a being that is not native to your planet, then yes, I am a 'space alien'." "Oh my gosh!" the fluttershy said excitedly, apparently losing all of her timidity as she flew up beside Peridot. Despite the proximity, the gem actually preferred the gentle flapping of her avian like wings to the sound of her hooves. She had a large smile plastered on her face as she continued to gush, and was actually making Peridot somewhat uncomfortable "This is so exciting! I mean, I knew you were strange, no offense, but never in my life did I think you were so special. I never thought that I would meet somepony, or someone in this case, from outer space. The closest that I've ever gotten was those novels Twilight lent me, so until now it's always been thought of as a fantasy that life would exist out there." The fluttershy then looked away from Peridot, who noticed the dreamy look in her large eyes. "Oh, how my imagination would just wander, thinking about what kind of cute critters might exist beyond the stars." Looking at Peridot again she stated, "Oh you just have to tell me what kind of creatures there are where you're from. Do you keep them in zoos? Do you have any as pets?" Momentarily caught off guard by the yellows pony's sudden enthusiasm, Peridot cleared her throat and replied, "Well, actually there's no native animal species of any kind on Home World, but my race has encountered lifeforms on other planets." "Can you tell me of any?" Deciding to just humor the pony for the moment, Peridot began, "Well there is this one variety that is actually a little interesting. As polymorphic lifeforms, we do not need to worry about them too much, but they do pose a significant threat to anything organic. From what I understand, they gestate inside a host body for some time before they eventually burst out in-" A quiet beep cut her off mid-explanation, and Peridot looked to find that they had reached the doors at the end of the hall. "Hold that thought," she said as she made to push it open. She noticed that there was some kind of clamor going coming from the other side of it, making her hesitate. Peridot was not sure if she should go in, but her map had led her here, so she had no choice but to continue. Peridot grasped at the handles, and began to pull them open. Only they did not. Instead of opening the doors stubbornly remained shut despite her efforts. "Come on!" Peridot shouted, kicking the door in anger. The sound of a throat clearing caught her attention, and she looked back to see the shining armor seeming to make a pushing motion with his front legs. Glaring at him, Peridot humphed and once more grabbed the handles, and pushed inward. They were rather heavy, making her grunt from the effort, but eventually she was able to force them open. What she found on the other side made her groan in annoyance. "Oh my," the fluttershy whispered from behind her. More ponies, numbering somewhere in the upper dozens, milled about in what appeared to be rather spacious throne room. But unlike the ones she had seen so far these ones seemed to have some sort of dull sheen to their coats reminiscent of low quality gemstones. She also noticed that a great majority of them did not appear to be very happy for some reason. Standing in front of the throne and apparently trying their best to direct them to different places of the chamber was two other ponies, these ones looking more like the ones she had already seen. The first had a pristine white coat and a purple mane styled into large curls. The second was pink, and seemed to be a variety that she had not seen yet, possessing both wings and a horn. She was also noticeably larger than the majority of every other pony in the room. And Peridot was not sure, as she was no expert on organics like those crummy clods back on the earth, but this one looked like she had seen better days, as she swayed from side to side as though she were about to fall over at any moment. The white pony's voice rang, "Please do not panic everypony. Rest assured that we are doing everything possible to see to it that you are all safe." Despite her insistence, it appeared that it was having little to no effect on the gathering, as their coats curiously seemed to become even duller than before. Before she could say anything else, a loud shout from behind Peridot cut her off. "Cadence!" the shining armor exclaimed as he rushed inside past the gem, pushing past whatever happened to be in his way. The shout drew the sullen gazes of many ponies, but they did not stay on him for very long. In just a few moments Peridot found herself the center of attention in a room of at least a hundred or more ponies, each one looking at her with renewed expressions of curiosity and wonder. Peridot's eyes darted back and forth between them, and she felt herself begin to sweat a little underneath the sight. Unsure what else to do, she slowly raised one arm and gave a little wave with it. "Uh. . . hi?" And that was when the screaming started.