//------------------------------//
// Odd Gem Out 
// Story: Disharmonious Synchronization 
// by Dilos1 
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	Within moments Peridot found herself swarmed on all sides by ponies, and screamed and shouted at the top of her voice as she flailed her arms and legs in an effort to free herself from the clutches of the dozens of pairs of hooves holding her up, her voice almost drowned out by the uproar of the crowd. Off to the side Shining Armor, Fluttershy and Spike were unable to do more than watch in confusion, each one of the baring expressions of surprise and confusion. At first they thought that the gem was about to be lynched or something like that, but the joyous expressions and shouts of praise coming from the crystal ponies told them otherwise.

"Um, Shining Armor sir?" Fluttershy said meekly as she sidled up to the stallion in question. "Is it just me, or do they seem happy to see Peridot?"

Shining Armor shook his, knowing full well what he was seeing but not quite believing it. The crystal ponies did indeed seem to be overjoyed to see Peridot, to the point where their crystalline coats had adopted a sheen that sparkled in the sunlight streaming through the windows of the throne room. While that was not in any way a bad thing, it gave them pause to know that it was due to their odd visitor that they were so happy. "No, it's not just you Fluttershy, I'm seeing it too." Deciding to try and find out what was going on, he trotted up to one of the crystal ponies and tapped him a few times on the shoulder. "Excuse me," he said, getting the pony's attention, "but can you please tell me what in Celestia's name is going on here?"

In response the pony, a light blue stallion with a mark of stalk of wheat grass, turned around and answered with a large smile, "Is it not obvious? We are saved!"

Shining, Fluttershy and Spike all glanced at each other in confusion upon hearing that. "Uh, what do you mean by that? Did somepony find the Crystal Heart?" Spike asked.

As soon as Spike asked that question the stallion gave all three of a look of disbelief as he said, "You mean you don't know?" They all shook their heads in unison, confirming that they had no idea what he was talking about. "How is that possible?"

Before anything else could be said, another chorus of cheers erupted from the crystal ponies. "Priase be to the Old Ones!" a mare called. "At last, a star has returned to liberate us!" another said.

While Shining Armor and everypony else could only wonder what they meant by that, Peridot's only response to all of it was, "Put me down right now you savages!" When it was obvious that the ponies would no such thing anytime soon, Peridot resorted to taking to the air, her fingers spinning rapidly, allowing her to finally escape their clutches as she ascended up to the ceiling, much to the disappointment as well as admiration of the crystal ponies below. 

Deciding that the matter with their odd visitor could wait, Shining Armor focused his attention on instead finding his wife. The moment he saw her standing by the throne, Shining Armor surged forward towards her, pushing past a number of the crystal ponies in his path to get to her. Spike had his arms wrapped around his neck to keep himself from falling off. When he finally reached her, Shining found that Cadance looking at him as though she were half asleep and ready to fall to the floor at a moments notice. Her eyelids drooped heavily, and she had the haggard appearance of a pony who had not slept in quite a long time. Shining could hardly blame her. Days without any adequate rest coupled with sustaining her shield over the Crystal Empire had taken its toll on her severely.

"Shining," she said, her voice laced heavily with obvious weariness. The pink alicorn tried to take step towards him, but stumbled a little as her hooves skidded on the hard floor. Shining quickly darted forward and caught his wife before she even came close to hitting the ground. He helped her up, making sure she was able to stand on her own properly before he reluctantly released her. He remained at the ready however just in case she needed him.

"Take it easy," he said to Cadance softly. "You've been through a lot already."

Cadance smiled warmly at him. "We all have," she replied. She looked around before adding, "Did you find Twilight yet? I would feel better if I knew she was safe."

Spike answered from his place on Shining's back, "No, not yet. Me and Fluttershy have been through the palace a couple times now, but we still haven't found any sign of her. It's like she's just suddenly disappeared for no reason."

Cadance's eyes widened slightly and she adopted a concerned expression when she heard this. "Oh dear," she said in a grave tone, "I just hope that she's safe."

Shining chose that moment to rest a forehoof on his wife's shoulders to comfort her. "I'm sure she's alright," he said in an attempt to comfort her, although truthfully he was a great amount of difficulty believing his own words. He knew that is probably pointless to worry about her, as she had been through other situations that were just as grave. It seemed that nothing, from Nightmare Moon to Discord could stop her and her friends from pulling through. But even then, Shining Armor still felt the need to look out for his little Twily. How could he not, especially with the knowledge that his little sister might possibly be in some sort of danger.

Cadance took notice of the worried expression that had found its way to Shining's face. And despite his insistence otherwise she could tell that he was having as much a difficult time dealing with the situation as she was. Putting a forehoof onto  his shoulder, Cadance said softly, "Don't worry. This is Twilight we're talking about here. If anypony can pull through, it's her."

Shining regarded his wife for a moment, before his concerned look lifted slightly and he gave her a gentle smile. 

The moment the two were having was subsequently ruined when Spike made a gagging sound and said, "Look, I like dramatic moments as much as the next dragon, but don't we have other issues to worry about? Like our guest?"

"Guest?" Cadance asked as she craned her head to look behind the pony and dragon. "Oh my," she said, her eyebrows raised as she looked. "Um, honey?" she said with obvious concern in her voice. "Who is that behind you?"

Shining Armor could not help but let out a heavy sigh as he turned around, following his wife's gaze to the strange sight before them, where they found Fluttershy gently coaxing Peridot to return to the ground. A few moments passed in this fashion until she finally relented, and slowly lowered herself down to the floor, eyeing the crystal ponies warily as she nervously glanced around with wide eyes at the crowd gathered around her, obviously feeling very uncomfortable with all of the attention she was receiving. Fluttershy settled down beside the bipedal being, and appeared to ask her a question that Shining could not quite hear from this distance.

"That would be Peridot," Shining answered. "At least that's what she says her name is." Leaning in to whisper in Cadance's ear he added in a low tone, "If I'm being completely honest here, I don't really trust her."

"Why? Did she do something?"

"She tried to blast me with some sort of combat spell from those things on her arms earlier. Now, I don't know about you, but to me Sombra's return and her just suddenly showing up out of nowhere just seems to be too unlikely a coincidence."

Cadance once again regarded Peridot with a more critical gaze, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "So you think she might be affiliated with Sombra in some way." It was not a question, but Shining nodded anyway. "Did she say anything about where she came from?" she asked while keeping her sight locked on the gem. "Or perhaps why she's here?"

Spike answered the question for her, adopting a similarly hushed tone. "She said she's from outer space," he said, and Cadance could detect a hint of giddiness in his voice at the prospect. He then glanced around, searching for something. "Hey, where did Rarity go? She was just here wasn't she?" he asked. Cadance motioned with her head to show that the mare in question had stepped away to assist a young colt with what one could assume was his grandmother. Unlike everypony else, she seemed to be the only pony who had not taken notice of Peridot. Quickly thanking her, Spike jumped down off of Shining's back to go see if she needed any help leaving the two ponies to discuss amongst themselves. Cadance herself was just as surprised by the claim Spike just made, and she looked to Shining Armor for confirmation. He did so with a nod of his head as he once again turned his gaze to look at the gem, who was now taking cautious steps into the throne room with her strange green screen formed from her appendages hovering in front of her. As she walked she kept glancing nervously at the crystal ponies, who continued to study her. Cadance was not sure, but there was something strange about the way they looked at Peridot, like they were not truly afraid of her. Rather, they seemed be studying her with equal amounts of wonder and awe.

"She also said she was looking for some sort of power source in the palace." Shining added. "We don't know exactly what she means by that." 

"If she is working for Sombra, then that is a strange cover story to have," Cadance observed as she watched Peridot weave her way through the crowd, making a conscious effort to avoid touching the ponies. However this did not keep a few of the ponies from reaching to brush their hooves on her boots as he walked past. Peridot visibly shivered from the contact, but was apparently doing her best to ignore it as she kept her focus on her screen. "Is there anything else that she told you?"

Shining nodded. "Not much much really, aside from from what I just said looking for a power source. Now, we don't know what she means by that, but I think it would be safe to assume that she's talking about the Crystal Heart. And so far, it seems like she has a better idea about where it is than us at the moment."

"Then what do suggest we do?" Cadance asked. "We can't just condemn her because of a suspicion."

Shining shook his head in response. "I know, but I don't want to just let her have free reign of the place either. I just don't want to have her find it for us, only to turn around give it to Sombra."

Cadance began to mull over the information she had just been given, attempting to decide on the best course to take. If it was true that this Peridot was indeed affiliated with the dark king as Shining suspected, then her very presence was a threat to their safety. In such a scenario, they would be obliged to do everything they could to keep her from finding the Crystal Heart. But on the other hoof, Peridot herself did not seem like the type to be associated with him. And never before had Cadance ever heard of Sombra having sercants quite like her, even in legend. And there was still the matter that they themselves had no clue where the Crystal Heart was, and ever since Twilight disappeared on them they were out of leads. But if this Peridot could somehow lead them to it, then it might best to just follow her and hope for the best. Her mind made up, Cadance relayed her thoughts to her husband.

Shining seemed to be against the idea, but kept his opinion to himself as he asked, "Are you sure that we can trust her?"

"No," Cadance replied as she began to walk towards Peridot. "But given the circumstances, do we really have much of a choice?"





Peridot was having an extremely difficult time ignoring her nervousness as she attempted to weave her way past the gathering quadripeds, doing her best to not get too close while also keeping an eye on her scanner, which continued to lead her forward. Despite her efforts the strange ponies still had the gall to violate her personal space every once in a while and touch her with their hooves. Peridot tried to shoo them away, but that only seemed to encourage them for some reason. If this did not stop soon Peridot knew she was going to have a panic attack and just shooting everything, regardless of what was currently outside looking for her.

"Don't touch," she hissed to a reddish pony as it reached out to touch her screen. It drew its hoof back thankfully, but the weird look it was giving her never once wavered. Once again, Peridot's lack of expertise on organics and their ways, these ones in particular, prevented her from determining what exactly their facial expressions meant. She was never exactly a face reader to begin with, even around other gems. The fact that these creatures had muzzles instead of regular faces only made reading them more difficult. 

But then, Peridot could have cared less what they were thinking anyway. All that mattered at the moment was completing her objective and getting out of this weird place and away from these creatures. She just hoped to the Diamonds that they would at least have the decency to stay out of her way until then, which at the moment did not seem like a very likely prospect.

And just when she thought her situation could not become any more irritating, Peridot now noticed that the shining armor was returning with the weird pony with the horn and wings in tow. The gem had to stifle a groan as they approached, not wanting to have to deal with them at the moment, or at any time for that matter. Maybe if she just pretended to not notice them they would leave her alone. Turning her gaze away from them Peridot began to fiddle with her screen, hoping they would see that she was too busy with randomly tapping her stylus on it to be bothered with them. She glanced out of the corner of her visor, and to her irritation they were still approaching. Peridot grimaced, and began to mutter the same phrase over and over again under her breath.

"Go away, go away, go away, go away, go away," she whispered repeatedly, wondering if she said it enough times her wish would come true.

This proved to be a futile hope, as the the two ponies, minus the reptile which was now absent, reached her position, after which the pink one cleared its throat and said, "Excuse me, uh, ma'am?"

Peridot grimaced, realizing then and there that she was forever doomed to an existence of annoyances and distractions that would never leave her alone. Such was her lot in life it seemed, and she let out a heavy sigh and resigned herself to her fate as she turned to address the pony.

"Yes?" Peridot replied, not even bothering to hide the aggravation in her voice as she gave the pink pony a glare. The pony raised an eyebrow at this, but apparently chose not to comment on it when it cleared its throat a second time and began to speak in a practiced manner suggesting that this was not the first time she had gone through a situation like this. 

"My name is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, a representative on the behalf of Princess Celestia of Equestria. And I welcome you, Peridot, to the Crystal Empire."

"Charmed," Peridot replied in a not at all friendly tone before returning her attention to her screen, hoping that these ponies would eventually get the message that she did not want to have anything to do with them and leave her alone. To her continued annoyance however, the pink pony merely seemed to shrug off the reply and continued to speak, making Peridot wonder if the thing even knew it had been given the cold shoulder, or if its brain was so primitive it even knew what that was. 

"Anyway, Shining Armor here has told me a little bit about you, even some of the more. . . unsavory bits."

It did not take much guesswork on Peridot's part to piece together what the pony was implying. "It got in my way, and refused to get out of it. I responded accordingly," she huffed as she began to walk away from the pony, following the direction her scans were giving her. She heard the cadenza, or whatever the heck it was called, stutter a little bit, as though it were at a loss for words. Peridot hoped it would stay that way for the next few minutes as she recalculated her scans to do a more in depth survey of the area. It seemed that this room in particular was giving off some sort of energy signature that apparently had something to do with getting to the top floor. She could not quite identify what it was with the instruments she had on hand. She would have liked to have done some tests to figure out exactly what they were, but she was already pressed for time as it was, and could not afford to let herself become distracted. The cadenza was already handling that job very well as it seemed to have gotten through stuttering and began to speak to Peridot in a somewhat less mild tone.

"Excuse me," it said," but did you just call Shining Armor 'it'?" 

"Yeah," Peridot replied without even bothering to spare a glance behind her. "So?"

"So?" the cadenza replied in a way that Peridot knew meant it had for some reason taken offense at her explanation, as all measures of whatever passed for decorum on this backwater world left its manner of speech, replaced by clear anger, which caught Peridot's attention. She looked to see that both the cadenza and the shining armor were glaring at her fiercely, the former of which had its wings splayed out slightly in what the gem assumed was an organic reaction to frustration. How primitive were these things that they could not even control their own bodies? 

"Let me explain something to you, Peridot," the pink pony started to say, but Peridot had already begun to tune its ramblings out in favor of following her scanner, which seemed to be leading her to somewhere near the center of the room in front of the large crystalline throne.

"Excuse me!" the shining armor exclaimed from behind her. "Are you listening at all?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Peridot replied with a dismissive wave of her artificial hand as she came to a stop. Apparently she was standing exactly where the strange energy signature seemed to be emanating from. But that could not have been right. Peridot glanced around, but all that she see was a smooth floor with nothing to indicate an entrance or some other sort of clue to aid her. She checked her instruments a second time, but found that they were functioning at optimum performance. Peridot tilted her head in confusion, knowing that something was not quite right here.

A gentle tapping made itself known to her, distracting Peridot from her thoughts as she glanced to see that one of the ponies, a rather small green colored pony standing about as tall as her knee, was gently tapping on her boot and looking up at her with large sapphire blue eyes. Peridot quirked an eyebrow at what she guessed was a younger member of the species. Even though it was much smaller than her by quite a bit, the little pony curiously did not seem all that intimidated by her.

"What do you want?" Peridot questioned, wondering if it was even capable of speaking due to how young it appeared to be. For a few moments the little pony did not answer. All it did was silently gaze upward at her. And then it did something that Peridot did not expect in the slightest. Lunging forward, the little pony wrapped its forelimbs around Peridot's boot, and began to make strange hiccuping sounds that Peridot could not identify. Needless to say the gem was taken aback by what she assumed was an act of aggression. "H-hey! What are you doing?! Stop that!" Peridot exclaimed, trying to shake to pony off. She looked to the cadenza and the shining armor for assistance, but for some reason they seemed to be as surprised as she was. None of the other ponies around them seemed intent on helping her either, as they looked on with strange expressions.

Then the little pony said something that Peridot could not quite hear, as the things muzzle was pressed up against her leg.

"What was that?" she asked as she looked down at the pony. She was surprised to find that it now two streams of liquid running down from its clenched eyes, and Peridot realized that the little pony was not attacking her at all. It was crying, but for what reason Peridot could not even begin to guess, but it did help her to know that she was not in any immediate danger from it.

Finally letting go of her leg, the little pony wiped away a few stray tears with its forelimb before looking up at her with wide glistening eyes. 

And in that moment, Peridot felt something strange. Something she could not quite describe even if she tried. The closest thing she could hope to compare the feeling to was pity, but even that did not seem to do it any justice. What she was currently feeling was different, something she had never experienced before, like just looking at this pony and the state it was in made Peridot want to at least determine what was causing it to behave like this. 

Squatting down so that the pony would not have to strain itself by looking up at her, Peridot asked in a softer yet still impatient tone, "Hey, whats the matter with you?" She was not expecting the answer that she got.

"I'm sorry you're lost miss," the little pony said in a small voice, the sadness plainly evident in its tone. Peridot was of course caught off guard by this statement. This little pony was sorry for her? Because she had supposedly lost her way, when she clearly knew where her objective was at? This made absolutely no sense to Peridot as she gave the pony a confused expression, before looking to the cadenza and the shining armor in question. However they still seemed to be at as much a loss as her at the moment. Catching Peridot off guard once more, the pony came up to her again and wrapped its little forelegs around her torso, burying the side of its face into her chest. 

Peridot was unsure what to do. She of course wanted to get this organic creature off of her and locate the nearest source of disinfectant as possible. She wanted to tell it to back off and let her continue her work. But at the same time she could not. For some unfathomable reason that was currently beyond Peridot, she was hesitant to tell the pony off. She just did not have it in her to do so, which was immensely confusing for her. With the larger ponies, it was easier for her to see them as obstacles in her path, but not so with this thing. It just looked so tiny and fragile as it continued to hug Peridot for some inexplicable reason, and the gem simply could not help but feel a strange sense of disgust at the mere thought of being hostile towards it. So for the moment, Peridot remained where she was, unable to move.

Still nervous of the crowd of ponies around them, which continued to give Peridot strange looks that she could not recognize due to their species, Peridot gently patted the little pony on the back. This continued for a few moments until Peridot finally decided that this had gone for long enough, and she signaled this by clearing her throat and giving the pony a gentle nudge. Giving her one more squeeze, the pony removed itself from Peridot and regarded her for second before dashing back into the crowd, disappearing from sight in a veritable forest of legs. Still not quite sure what had just happened, Peridot stood up with a confused expression written on her face. 

"What was that all about?" a voice beside her said. Slightly startled, Peridot turned her head to see that the cadenza had sidled up beside her, looking at where the little pony had disappeared to. Judging from the way its head was tilted to the side, it was just as confused as she was by the unexpected turn of events. 

Shaking her head, Peridot merely simply said, "I have no idea. You organics are always a mystery to me." This statement earned Peridot a look which she guessed was some sort of glare. The look was ignored however as Peridot brought her screen up again and resumed her search for a route to the top of the palace, putting the odd event out of her mind for the moment. "Anyway, I've lost enough time already just dealing with you all as it is. Just leave me alone for a little bit and maybe I can get on with my business. Assuming of course nothing else comes along to distract me."

No sooner had Peridot said that however than did the sound of the doors to the throne room sliding open with a groan make itself known to all inside, and a shrill high pitched voice that the gem was all but too familiar with rang out, echoing through the throne room and making Peridot cringe. 

"There you are Peridot!" the pinkie pie exclaimed in an overly cheerful tone that instantly made Peridot cringe. "I was wondering where you went after you flew away! Come here, I want you to meet the rest of my friends!"

"Oh no. . ." Peridot groaned.





Sombra was starting to become disappointed at the lack of progress that had taken place lately. There seemed to be an unwanted lull that was dragging on for much longer than he had anticipated, preventing his plan from moving forward to completion, much to his displeasure. In any other situation, he would have already had the whole Empire in his hooves already. But as long as those Gems were present and running around, there was simply too much of a risk to do so. 

But Sombra was patient if nothing else, and knew the necessity of biding his time until the perfect moment to proceed with his conquest. One did not achieve victory by blindly rushing ahead after all. He would wait as long as he needed to if it meant total assurance of victory. And as long as the pawns kept going where they were supposed to, it would not matter how long it took.

So for the time being, Sombra simply waited and watched from his incredibly convenient vantage point, finding that he was immensely enjoying the fact that every single one of those fools had yet to realize his presence. It would prove to be an amusing pastime until they eventually stumbled across the Crystal Heart. And when he did finally reveal himself, he would take great pleasure in witnessing the faces of the group of mares when they what he had done to their precious Twilight.

After all, mind altering spells were difficult to perform, and even harder to maintain, but to Sombra there was little doubt that in the end they were an incredibly satisfying way of accomplishing his goals.