Life as a gem was without a doubt even more dangerous than anything a pony could live. It was true that gems could live basically forever thanks to the way their true body worked, allowing them to simply wave away time and not only shrug most damage that will rend a living completely death. You were stabbed? No problem, you only retract to your gem and heal away the damage; if the gem was the one struck? Well, tough luck kiddo, nice to meet you. It was this point that set Sunset and Steven apart from the gems. Sure, Sunset couldn’t be killed in the normal way if you stabbed her or crushed her or something similar. It was way messier and if you were unlucky enough to see her regeneration, I hope you don’t have anything in your stomach because you will soon taste your dinner for a second time.
It was a tough live in a way too, having to battle a ton of monsters and creatures that once were gems like them… well, gems like Garnet and the rest since she was a species all by herself. Even now, after half a century gone by since her transformation, many things were still a mystery about Sunset and her new biology; or would that be geology? Sunset’s brain right now was not firing all cylinders and was starting to make puns like Steven. That one was one of the worst parts of being a gem; there were so many unknowns and strange effects of having a carbon based form that didn’t know if it was organic or inorganic. Sunset had lost count of the times she had blacked out and woke up with a tremendous headache.
First time was when she woke up to find a hole where her heart used to be; that was only the beginning because it happened too many times to count through the years. After missions where she had been hurt, every time she tried to learn how to completely shape shift like Amethyst; safe to say she never tried in recent years.
This time she had been affected so much worse than usual considering the splitting headache. If Amethyst was the one that got hurt all the time due to how incredibly stupid she could be; Sunset had the bad luck of being the recipient of life altering effects. It was basically a running gag amongst the family now and they were already prepared when something similar happened.
She could feel Pearl’s hand over her head, brushing aside her long hair and that was the anchor Sunset needed to get out of the darkness that was imprisoning her. Long ago it had been Rose the one that brought her back from those moments, but the thin gem had grown into the role, showing how motherly she could be, sometimes too motherly with the way she smothered Sunset and Steven.
“How many times has it been?” She asked, not really expecting an answer, but of course, since Garnet was present that meant there was always the chance of a witty answer thrown her way.
“Lost count after sixty,” the afro wearing gem’s voice made Sunset smile as it was what she needed to come back from the mountain of data that had been introduced into her brain. Slowly opening her eyes, Sunset saw the starry night and put the pieces back together.
Sunset and her friends had arrived just at the right time to save the tower, probably from becoming an undersea attraction to fishes of every color. It had been rather simple to ascend considering that she had all the tools needed and her friends were fairly athletic, but what happened later still brought pangs of pain across her skull.
“Oh god, did someone write the number of the truck that ran over me?” the usually raspy voice of Rainbow Dash was now even stronger due to the way in which the teenage girl felt. She had come out of training sessions with less pain than today and that included the day she thought she would be able to bench press even more than Big Mac. That had been a huge mistake.
“Ah don’t think it was a truck, felt more like a meteorite in mah opinion,” finally opening her eye, Sunset got up with some effort, being basically carried by Garnet due to how weak she still felt on the knees.
“Is the tower still in place?” she asked softly as Amethyst simply pointed at the center of the summit and the statue floating gently as a pillar of light still was in effect around it “well, I guess that was a dumb question.”
“Guess you found out the statue, I put Mr. Queasy by mistake in my new bag,” a slightly chagrined Steven said, looking worried after what had happened.
“It was just a small mistake Steven; everything is fine… isn’t it?” Pearl asked as she helped Sunset’s human friends up as she looked at Garnet for confirmation, but the leader of the Crystal Gems was as quiet as usual, with no one knowing what she was thinking due to her eyes being hidden behind her special glasses.
“I’m not sure; this tower have never acted this way before, besides, seems like Sunset and her friends received a gift.”
“Wait, you mean those images? Were those a vision?”
“Probably, even after all this time we are not quite sure of what was the true purpose of the tower,” Garnet said as she helped Sunset recover some balance and soon, the redhead was up by her own forces “we know that it was a social hub, but beyond that most its purpose isn’t quite clear,” with Garnet’s explanation, even more questions were forming on their minds.
“I have no idea what this place is for, I wasn’t even born yet when this dumb thing was build.”
“Well, considering how old this tower is, that’s no surprise Amethyst. The only thing I knew about this tower was that many gems loved to spend time in here and talk. Oh, if only you could have seen how beautiful this place was in the past.”
“How long was that? A millennia or something?” Rainbow asked, truly excited about the story of the place; it was clear that reading Daring Do ignited a flame of history in her.
“Humans haven’t been born yet.”
“Okay, that’s old indeed, so what was that doohickey that Sunset brought with her, because Ah don’t know about ya, but this whole thing smells rotten. Ah mean, a tower that is capable of granting visions or something similar? Ah’m not sure who yer boss was, but whoever it was, it didn’t quite tell ya the truth.”
“Indeed, there is something hidden in the tower, so it was good that you could save it; do you remember what you saw?”
“Garnet, it was not like your future vision, it was wilder, just a bunch of info; something about gems in a forest, or something like that. It is vague for now and I will need your help to make any sense of it.”
“Future vision? What’s that?”
“It is something important that we cannot explain for now Steven,” as the young boy continued to pester Pearl for more info, Sunset and Garnet had the same idea and the same question. If the tower was only a place to socialize for the gems, then why put it all the way out here? Sure, they had warp pads, but it was ludicrous to create something so massive in the middle of an ocean. This was something that had been hidden from them for so long.
Just as the two gems were about to discuss it, there was a peculiar sound emanating from Sunset’s gem. A light began to flash and soon, an object was summoned from the inside of Sunset’s gem, like many other things that had been safeguarded there. It was her cellphone and to her surprise, the number of the caller was… her home?
“Hello?”
“Hey love.”
“Lapis?!” next thing everyone saw, was Sunset jump from the summit just so she could reach the warp pad sooner.