//------------------------------// // A World All Its Own // Story: My Little Universe: Season 7 // by EquestrianKirin //------------------------------// "... Where are we? ..." A slow start on one world, as the sun broke the darkness of the night. This world, well, many of them can't fully make out right away. It wasn't Earth that was for sure, or even Equus for that matter. The morning sun of the twilight hours revealed a world as alien as one could be. While to some this was a minor problem, one group has already faced a bit of a brush with death, and now that they've landed, albeit a bit roughly, Team Harmony and the Mane six slowly went out to see just where they've all ended up. Pony, Human, and Gem alike had no idea what this place is, how far they were away, or what exactly could be here. "What kind of place is this? Are we in Equestria?" wondered Jamie, looking around at the strange world. Unfortunately the more they looked, the more foreign things became. "Nah, I don't think so. I've been workin with plants for years, and I've never seen anything like this before," Applejack noted. sure, she may be a farm pony, but no plant on any farm or otherwise matched any of these oddities. As they looked around though, they couldn't really see passed too much of the vegetation from there. "Lapis, Rainbow, Twilight, think you three can fly up and see where we are?" asked Fulgurite. "Already on it," Rainbow replied, as she, Lapis, and Twilight started to fly skyward. The first one to start shooting out complaints though was one of the Rubies, Eyeball. And boy was she upset with what had happened. "I can't believe it! There goes my chance of getting home! what am I going to report back home? How will I even make my report?! ... And it's all your fault," Eyeball accused, looking to a particular unicorn and kid. "What?! W-Wait, what'd I do?" Starlight gasped. "You shut off the power in the White Diamond Space Station. YOU released that Gem monster that sent our ship flying into space!!" "How was I supposed to know that?!" retorted Starlight. Before a fight could break out though, Garnet went in between them both. Eyeball groaned, but before a fight could start, Garnet went over and in between them. "Ok, we don't need to play the blame game. Everyone makes mistakes. ... Even when you can see the future," Garnet said, looking off to the jungle nearby. Not even her future vision could've stopped that thing from ramming them off of the Space Station, and it all just went a little too fast for her to fully comprehend. Eyeball, annoyed, did calm down a bit, and as this was going on, some of the others went on over to the Sun Incinerator spaceship, which some of the technicians were looking over. "Can't you make this fly again?" Fluttershy asked, as Peridot was checking the thrusters on the ship. Unfortunately it wasn't looking so good. "Unfortunately the corrupted Gem rammed the back end of the ship and as such the thrusters were out during the warpspeed, thus causing the malfunction to tear apart the thrusters from the inside out and using up what power we have in order to get this ship a proper restart," Peridot explained, trying to get it to begin, only to be met with an electrical zap from what thrusters they got left. "So ... in other words. We're stuck," Tiger's Eye concluded. "Unfortunately, yes." Now THAT was rough news to hear. "Hey, Peridot!" called Amethyst. Peridot turned and saw Amethyst with some of the Humans and Gems as she went over to her. "Hey, you said before you've been traveling around planets, right?" "I've been known for that." "Great, you know what this planet is?" Steven then asked. It was an old little detail back when she had her limb enhancers still in tact, and with three hundred potential planets still in her known data bank that was her memory, she went over and began to take a look around. "Hmm ... Ah!" "Yeah?" gasped Amethyst. "Nah. ..." "Oh." "... Ah, maybe -" "Yeah?" "Eh ... no." "Yeah, that'd probably be stretching it," agreed Steven. This was gonna be a little bit harder than they thought, and with little idea to where they actually were that was a bit of a problem. Zircon, Flint, and Garnet looked around the group of humans, Gems, and ponies, seeing what kind of situation they've all ended up. To think, that they've just figured everything out for Pink Diamond's true murder, just to get tossed out of there and onto who knows where. "Rainbow! Lapis! Twilight! What do you see up there?!" called Flint. If anyone did see anything beyond the forest, it would be those three, but what they really were seeing wasn't anything they were familiar with. The flora all around them was simply a mixed bag of sorts: some mirroring trees, some looking like circular coral, and some even looking like some hybrid of a giant flower and a pinecone. Part from that, the rest of the world looked pretty unknown as of now. After getting the full area, they flew on down to the group. But before they did, they did spot something interesting further off into the sky ... "Nothing but Alien jungle. But ... I think this could be a Gem colony." "How so?" "Look at that!" Rainbow answered, pointing a hoof straight up. The whole group looked on up, and sure enough they soon began to notice something just showing up in the gloom. It was hard to tell, but as Peridot and Diopside, with their enhanced vision, took a look themselves, it looked like a large planet. One that almost looked ready to split apart at any moment: grey, cut in several places, and debris floating around it like stone clouds from what they could see. As Peridot looked over the ship and tried to get it running, looking at the interior. Peridot needed a little bit before something clicked in her head. "Aha! Sector 7!" "Sector 7?" asked Fluttershy. "Yeah! That was an old Gem colony from thousands of years back. My diamond mentioned Gems being created here, but due to the lack of need for this planet it was abandoned mid-completion. And if that planet's there, then -" "Then this moon could have a Gem base on it!" realized Jasper in a gasp. "Exactly!" Peridot agreed. "Eh, Flint?" Fulgurite then called. Flint and the others took a look her way, and Fulgurite then pulled out something from the compartment. It looked a little bit dented for the moment, but still operating as it was supposed to be. It was about the size of a small disk, and thick as a donut with a brownish tint to it. However, a small antenna poked out from it, aiming upward and the tip having as green color, as it blinked every two seconds. Flint felt himself grit his teeth, but a part of him knew straight that White Diamond would do this. ... A small tracker. "I knew it was too easy," Connie II sighed, upon seeing it. "A Gem tracker. Why does that not surprise me?" Flint groaned, before grabbing the tracker, and smashing it onto the ground. Unfortunately, they didn't know how long that was going for. "Let them come. I'm not going down without a fight," Bismuth said, her hands turning into hammers. "Bismuth, we're not fighting anyone," Flint said. "Why not?! They tried to shatter us, they took away everything, they have our Pearl! No way am I going to run away from them, I can fight them for months on end!" Bismuth yelled, not believing her ears. "Yeah, you can. May I remind you we have a group of humans and ponies, one of which is crippled from the waist down! So unless you want to add more on White Diamond's death row, I suggest you buckle down and try to figure out how to get off this planet without them throwing us in her hybrid machine!" Flint yelled back. Bismuth felt a shiver in her back when she saw how scary Flint looked when intimidating someone. Flint was NOT in the mood to keep this sort of thing up. "...uh, sorry, I'm just a bit on edge right now." "I don't blame you," Bismuth sighed. Garnet got up on top of the Sun Incinerator. A strong whistle got everyone's attention to her. Getting all the facts, they had no more time to mess around. "Ok, everyone listen up! We don't have enough time to get this ship flying again before White diamond's associates show up, so we have to start walking. If that planet is a Gem colony, there's got to be a Diamond Base somewhere on this planet, and odds are if we can find that, then we can message back to Homeworld, and figure out what to do from there. Keep in mind however, that not all of us are Gems: there's a group of both humans and ponies with us, and they require food and water, so we're going to have to help them survive just as well. Is that understood, everyone?" Garnet informed. "Can't we fix up the ship?" Peridot asked. "Yeah, we can whip it back into shape in no time!" added Fulgurite. "They're looking for us, Gems, they'll find us if we stay here. Come on, we got to put as much distance between them and us as we can," Flint instructed, getting a head start himself. "Besides," added Zircon, "The odds of them finding the signature energy left by the Sun Incinerator after we start flying are exceptionally high, if they are indeed trying to find us. With their advance technology on their own ships, it won't be too long at all the second we start flying." "Oh, thank you Zircon," Flint noted. "Well, where do we even go?" Lars asked. "Anywhere that's not here. Come on, one of you get Connie, and let's go," Flint instructed. The group started to head off, but ... "Wait, where is Connie?" "Come on, already? Connie, where're you?!" called Flint, trying to find her, but the group had nothing to go on. Connie was missing, and after looking, so was Steven! They haven't been here for five minutes and already they were in - "It's ok, it's ok, we're here!" called a voice from inside the Sun Incinerator, just for one figure to come out. And it wasn't Connie nor Steven, but instead Stevonnie! The fusion took everyone by surprise somewhat as she came out, a bit wobbly in the knees, but still standing on her own two feet. "Stevonnie? You feeling okay doing this, you two?" Twilight asked, going right up to her. "Well, I thought it will help Connie come with us this way, you know?" Stevonnie admitted. normally this would be a bit of trouble, but with the situation, Flint nodded. "If you two can stay that way, then fine. Ok, everyone, we're moving out!" ~~~~~~ The whole group began to head off away from the crash site, leaving the Sun Incinerator behind them, and into the alien world of the Jungle Moon. The sun from Sector 7 grew higher, and eventually the group did start to get a better look around the area. As probably expected, the whole area was mainly forest and jungle, though of course it wasn't the same as a jungle down on Earth or Equus. None of these plants they truly knew about, although they did resemble some of the plants back home somewhat, yet that wasn't comforting. Strange, odd calls and noises echoed all around them in this weird landscape, sounding in a way that was familiar ... yet wasn't. Of course, that was the least of their problems. As they went along through the undergrowth, the Gems of the team stuck along the outside, with the ponies and humans moving along in the center, much like how a herd would protect their young from predators, which they all could agree on was somewhere on this moon. Fluorite took the liberty of giving some of the weaker individuals a ride. Jasper, Bismuth, Garnet, Flint and Topaz kept their eyes out especially, ready to fight at the slightest provocation at whatever was coming, though Tiger's Eye and Fulgurite were more eager to explore this big new world, taking lead. Tiger's Eye stopped and turned to Peridot. "So, you've been here before Peridot? You must've had a blast while exploring this place," Tiger's Eye commented as she looked around before going off again. "Well, it was only once during an exploration mission. Though I don't understand how the moon of this sector is still habitable." "What makes you say that?" "Because approximately 4,750 years ago, this planet was far drier and arid, life barely evident on the surface. In fact, one of the Sapphires at the time predicted that life would go extinct on the moon in the following five hundred years. ... Seemingly," Peridot explained. "Well, that's life for you: always bouncing back," Stevonnie said. Whoever that Sapphire was, clearly she wasn't right, and life was more than abundant all over the place. "You wouldn't happen to have made any fast food joints around here, do you?" Lars asked, them hearing a notable growl coming from one of their stomachs. "Gems don't eat. And the food would've spoiled by now, anyway," replied Emerald, much to their dismay. What kind of food would be found around here anyway? As they continued going, one plant began to swell up at the stem, making Rhodonite, Fluttershy and Jamie jump. However, all it was doing was blooming, and a flower popped out. nothing too dangerous there. "Well, we're alright. Look at how many plants there is around here," Starlight said, trotting over to one of the bushes. Humans aren't exactly horses, so the feeling was a bit more one-sided. Starlight Glimmer was joined by Applejack, checking out the plant in question. The exact plant was nothing more than an alien bush, but - *HISSSS* "AAHH!" And it was time to meet the locals. Suddenly, and almost before they realized it, something charged out of the bushes, and leaped right onto Applejack, teeth sinking into her head! A quick and agile creature, AJ couldn't connect, and before she could hit it, it suddenly jumped off and landed ten feet away. The creature that found their group was small, about the size of the ponies, but looked more like a beetle in appearance. It stood on long armored legs, the entire body in an exoskeleton shaped in such a way that made it look like it had a rhino horn on its head. four eyes stared straight to the group, obviously this thing not afraid of any of them, no matter how big they were, or how many was there. "An alien!" gasped Stevonnie. The alien hunter charged forward at lightning speed again, but Bismuth proved just fast enough to cut it's course, and turning her hand into an axe, sliced the creature in two! both halves landed not too far away, much of the group stunned but alright overall. ... Until the head became alive again and sprouted four new legs. These were smaller and not covered in armor, but it was enough to get the animal moving again. The animal went over back to the bush, and they all thought it was going to jump at em again, but all it did was turn around and hissed loudly, before jumping back into the bushes and out of sight. "... Right. That happened," Tiger's Eye said. "Yes, that indeed happened," Emerald replied, Twilight poking the other end of it, finding it was already dead, and will be dead. "Anypony know what that was? Peridot?" Twilight asked. "I didn't take much time to classify these creatures. But I think that one in particular is a type of Foracnid. but it's weird: they didn't look like that when I was here, nor reform so quickly. Must be to adapt to the drier climate," Peridot noted, thinking as Stevonnie picked up the remains. "A few thousand years can make any animal evolve, Peridot. Life's interesting like that," Garnet said. "How would you - ... wait, no, dumb question," Peridot corrected, remembering that this was a Gem who'd been on Earth for over five thousand years, some form of evolution would end up happening one way or another, convergent or otherwise. Either way, Stevonnie took a few sniffs of the raw meat, but it was rancid already, so she didn't bother with it. "Well, if much of the life's like that, then maybe we better watch it. That thing didn't look scared of any of us," Rhodonite noted. "Gems had not been here for thousands of years, they have no reason to be scared of us." "Well that Foracnid does now," Bismuth said, her hand turning back to normal. Well, they just needed to be a little bit more careful in this place. ....... From there, they continued on into the jungle, now a bit more vigilant, if not a bit more hungry. None of them were so willing to have a meal of that thing, whatever that was, and without too much knowledge on what can actually be edible around, they had little idea on what they could actually eat. Eventually in their little stroll, they began to come across something familiar to anyone: a small, shallow stream, flowing on through the jungle. Tired, and wary, the humans and ponies went over to the stream and began to have their drink. Well, at least the water tastes the same. Like deer, some of them occasionally looked around the area to be sure nothing was going to jump out at them. "Does anyone know where we're going?" Lars wondered. "Not really, but we'll be alright. Just try to hold in there, ok?" Stevonnie reassured, smiling to Lars. Lars flustered a little bit and went back to his drink. Sure it wasn't any pop or soda from the vending machine, but it was good enough. "Oh, I do hope we find help soon. I only wonder what must be going on back at home. Poor Angel," Fluttershy wondered. She wasn't the only one wondering about what was going on at home, or what will happen once they do get home. "Oh crud, what're my parents gonna think of me?" Lars realized. "It'll be ok, Lars, really," Sadie tried to reassure him. "How do you know; I leave Beach City and their son comes home looking like some cotton candy!" Lars said. "You say that like it's a bad thing," Pinkie commented, who herself looked very much like cotton candy. "Oh. Eh, no offense," Lars simply replied. Still, thoughts like this were scattered around the place, either with them going home to Earth or to Homeworld. If even half of what they knew was truly going on back home, then one thing was for sure, they had A LOT to handle, especially for the Crystal Gems. Steven, without a Beach House to call home, and the Gems who basically need to start from the ground up again, Warp Pad and all. "What are we gonna do when we get back?" asked Jade. "I have no idea: Pearl's still gone and so's our home. ... Eh, Off-Colors, you don't think you have room for a few more Gems at the barn, do you?" Amethyst asked. "Don't think we do," Tiger's Eye admitted. It was then some attention went over to Garnet. "So, uh, Garnet, you've been known to predict the future. Do you have a possible idea?" Zircon asked. Admittedly though Garnet was a bit too ticked off at the moment to think properly, steam being visible seeping off her head despite her seemingly monotone expression. "I swear, White Diamond. You're gonna pay for all of this," she muttered, Ruby coming up in her voice. Even the most level-headed of the group had her problems with the situation. The Rutile Twins went over to her, both concerned a little bit, and they could actually see a mixture of hot and cold coming from her, one side burning hot while the other freezing cold. "Garnet?" they both asked. Garnet snapped out of it and turned to them. "Eh, sorry. ... We'll be fine. Let's just find a connection back to Homeworld and we'll be okay," Garnet instructed, which didn't exactly answer Zircon's question. As the others were drinking nearby though, they were enjoying it just a little too much, and something actually came up from the otherside of the stream to join them in the drink. The first one to notice was Sadie, who looked across the stream to see the new creature also drinking. This animal looked a lot different from the Foracnid, and actually looked more like a hoofed animal. The animal was a bit bigger than the Foracnid, about as big as a human being would naturally be, though that was only from the huge hump on its back. Its skin was a turquoise color, and had messy yellowish stripes along its huge, camel-like hump. It stood on four stubby legs, each ending in pig-like hooves, and the small head on its thicker neck ended in a bird-like beak. This odd animal was a lot less aggressive though, and didn't feel too threatened by them either. "Uh oh," Sadie gulped. Some of the others saw this, and were ready to attack in case it thought of having some meat for lunch. The odd animal finished its drink, seeing them looking ready to fight, but all it did was lift up its head and squirt water at their faces before moving away from the river. Clearly, it wasn't too spooked by them, and moved off to some nearby foliage, where it proved its herbivorous diet by eating some low-growing tubers. "Huh. Ok, we're fine. I'm fine," said Stevonnie, a little wet but not hurt. Seeing it eating up some tubers though did leave them a bit hungry again, the group not finding much known food since they got here, maybe even longer. Garbonzo and Soup went over to investigate what it was eating, thinking it could be something they can have themselves. Their growling stomachs needed something, and it was not the time to be picky. Being a little impatient, Garbonzo tried his luck, but the alien wasn't willing to share and tried to push him away. He was a bit persistent, and actually tried to push the animal aside, ala cow-tip. However, this didn't suit the alien, and it gave a more forceful spit. Instead of water, it was saliva, and it spat hard right at Garbonzo's face like a Llama would. "Garbonzo!" Garbonzo gasped, jumping back and getting the sticky saliva off his face. Maybe his stomach could hold off for a while more. This animal decided that it wasn't gonna stay around, so it pulled off a decent sized tuber before strolling away. Well, at least they wouldn't be getting eaten by it, that was for sure. "Well, it's not a meat-eater," concluded Connie II. "That was Elefante Alienigena, one of the herbivores on the Jungle Moon. It's diet mainly consists of hard plant matter, so you should be fine. This one must've shrunk to adapt to the tropical environment ... either that or we just ran into a juvenile," Peridot noted. A larger animal in a jungle just wouldn't work so well, so shrinking down did make sense, yet they had to wonder how big it would normally be. "Wait a minute. If it can eat these, maybe we can too," Sadie assumed, pulling out another tuber from the same area. The tuber in particular felt pretty heavy, and full of a form of liquid, but she had no idea of what. However, she was up for anything at this point, and ready to bite down into it, but Jasper grabbed it from her. "Hey!" "Don't get desperate: we have no clue if this is even edible for your kind. ... Amethyst!" Jasper called. Amethyst went over to her, and was given the tuber. "Eat this, see if it's poisonous," Jasper instructed. "Eh, whatever. Bottom's up," Amethyst shrugged, before shoving the thing into her mouth. She chewed it for a bit, but the moment that liquid got onto her tongue ... "BLAH! ACK!" AND out came the tuber, now shriveled from all the liquid gone. Amethyst didn't mind eating up anything that others would find gross, but if she can't handle it, then maybe they might as well not bother. Thank the stars she was a Gem, otherwise they'd be in more trouble than it was worth. There wasn't too many tubers to feed them all anyway. ~~~~~~ And so they were on their way again, and after quenching their thirst, they continued off through this strange world. As they were walking, Lapis kept to the skies and served as a lookout for much of them as they kept going, the sky itself becoming a bit denser in clouds. With the jungle terrain however, it began to turn into a more hilly landscape, with the flattened land giving way to hills and valleys. "Look, some of the others are getting worn out, can't we stop?" asked Emerald in a groan. "What's wrong? Too much for a tough rock like you?" teased Peridot. Not too often she could turn the tables on him. Emerald could care less at this point, his fingers in his ears. "No, no, I'm just sick of hearing them whine," Emerald griped. And whining they were, in particular Rarity and Melanite. Rarity wasn't the type of pony to be on constant hikes through the wilderness, and Melanite was just not used to it herself. Many of their complaints weren't suiting well with some of the others too, as most of these were mainly petty at best. "Ignore em. Lazuli, can you see anything?!" Peridot called. "No luck, still don't see any base anywhere for miles. Nothing but jungle," Lapis answered, flying down to them. Not a good answer for them, but the organic members were getting pretty hungry now after such a long time. "Well we better find somewhere soon. Looks like someone's having a hard time keeping up," Jasper noted, looking back to the humans and ponies. Despite their previous set up, much of the group was getting a bit weak for continuing, and while they weren't thirty, starvation was a bit close behind them. "You all getting tired there?" asked Garnet. "I swear, I'm gonna start seeing things if I don't eat something soon," Jamie said, Lapis keeping him up. Much of the Gems didn't know how long a human or pony could go without food, but as it stood, they were pretty close to just dropping right there. "Can you all try to keep up? I'm sure we'll find something edible in this jungle at some point," Peridot said. However, many of them were staring at her kinda funny, wide eyed. "... Eh ... you're staring a little bit." "No I'm not ... just, just stand still for a minute," Stevonnie simply said, but her eyes were still as wide as disks, and she began to walk over to her. Peridot began to get a little nervous. "Uh, y-you ok? Why're you looking at me like that?" Peridot asked, backing up as they started to crowd her. All of a sudden, almost before they realized it ... *chomp* "AAHH! HELP HELP!" Onion got his first bite right into her head! Peridot raced around in a panic, arms flailing like crazy to get Onion to let go of her, many of the organic group seeing her as a running giant slice of key lime pie (beats a Dorito). Peridot got Onion off of her, but she ran off blindly into the jungle with them following. "Peridot, get back here!" called Rhodonite, but of course Peridot didn't stop. As scary (if not funny) the situation was, they couldn't risk them running off into danger like this. Peridot ran like a maniac, her screeching voice echoing throughout the jungle. The others rushed to catch up, just in time to see Peridot run head long into one of the local trees. Only then did Onion let go, hitting the tree himself. That wasn't the only thing that fell to the ground though, as something fell from the tree, and landed Peridot right in the head. "Peridot! You alright?" asked Jade, rushing over to her. "Keep that thing away from me!" Peridot demanded, rushing away from Onion and going right by Garnet, hiding behind her. They looked up and saw a lot more of that same object within the branches of this tree, all of which looked like purple eggplants, each one probably as big as one of the Onion gang kids. Garnet took a look over to Jasper, the orange Gem not needing a word before she went right up to the tree. The first actual sign of food anywhere that they could eat, and Jasper wasn't waiting any longer. She got out her Gem weapon, and without a second missed, slammed her head into the tree, making a ton of fruit fall to the ground. "FOOD!" gasped the ponies and humans. "Wait a minute, we don't know if - and you're already eating it." before Flint could finish, everyone was trying to get the fruit out of the tree, going in and digging into the fallen fruit. The Gems kept their distance as the humans and ponies (and Spike) were eating up the delicious fruit. only one fruit was out of their reach, and Amethyst took a bite of it. "Hmm ... tangy. It's okay, guys," Amethyst answered. Not that it mattered now anyway, since the first five fruits were already gone at this point. "We'll just wait until their finished." ....... *urp* And all the fruit sacrificed their lives that day from that tree, as there was not a single fruit left. Well, a very few at the very top of the tree still remained out of reach, but that was about it. The feeding frenzy lasted about twenty minutes straight, and each one of them, evident by their bloated stomach, had quite a bit each. They all laid by the tree, satisfied, and stuffed to the gills. "Eh ... you all good?" asked Fulgurite. "Plenty good, thank you," Stevonnie said with a smile, patting her bloated belly in satisfaction. "Please tell me Humans and Ponies aren't always that ... ravenous," Melanite said, standing over nearby and humbled by what they've witnessed. "Better than them eating us," Garnet said, mostly referring to Peridot in particular. ~~~~~~ "Does anyone know where we're going?" groaned Melanite. After their little binge of alien fruit, the group went off from there and after a while, the thick forests actually began to become more clear and open. They kept their guard up, but as they went on, some of the Gems were taking their time to relax and observe the world go by. Navy, Leggy, Padparadscha, Fluttershy and Jade relaxed on Fluorite's back, and looked up through the trees at the afternoon sky. They even noticed a flock of what looked like some rays flying by, looking similar to Cow Rays. One of these alien flyers flew closer to the tree tops and grazed on the top branches before flying off to join the flying flock, without even touching the tree or even stopping its flight. "This is such a lovely planet," Navy said. "There goes some more aliens," Padparadscha said, pointing up to the creatures. "You're not getting tired, are you Fluorite?" Fluttershy asked. "It's alright. It's pretty comfortable actually," Fluorite replied. The Gems on her back then noticed some familiar fruit up in some branches, the same fruit they just stuffed themselves with a while ago. Well, they couldn't risk another attack from the gang, so when she saw this, Fluttershy began to pull off some fruit for them to have later. She managed about ten fruit before getting back to the others. As she was doing that though, a much smaller animal began to flutter on by her. It looked small, only about the size of a lightbulb, and fluttered around on three sets of transparent wings. It looked like a mix of dragonfly, frog, and a hint of bird with a frog-like mouth, tipped with a bird beak and a round froggy body. The odd animal rested on Fluorite's back, Leggy growing very curious over it, crawling over and trying to catch it. Of course, the tiny animal didn't stick around, and flew out of range. Leggy tried to get it, climbing up onto Fluorite's head, but just missing the little creature, as it flew over towards Applejack and Connie II. "How will we know when we find this Jungle Moon Base?" AJ asked Bismuth. "It's hard to miss: just look for a Gem tower standing out in the open," Bismuth answered. "I don't know if it'll be that simple. I mean, how long has this place been abandoned?" "What's that got to do with anything?" "Nature will take back anything that isn't maintained. I mean, the Gem tower could be covered in vines, or tree roots, or -" "A Moss tower?" Padparadscha cut in. "Eh, yeah. And hey, you've caught up this time," Connie II said, just for her to walk into Amethyst. "I think we found it," Garnet stated. And find something they did. The Ray Aliens had flown to this same location, and were grazing on the moss covering the thing. The object itself was very tall, easily the size of any tower and the shape of one as well. But unfortunately, as Connie II had mentioned, the place looked like a wreck: moss growing around the top and the roots of this world coiling around the bottom, climbing up it like snakes. This object didn't look like any tree of the planet, not by a long shot, and they could even see the building structure within the vines and growing plants. This HAS to be the Jungle Moon Base! "YES! Our ticket home!" Tiger's Eye beamed, getting a head start in rushing right to it, alongside Fulgurite. "You really think anything works in there?" Stevonnie asked. "Well, for now it's the only shot we have. Come on, let's go in," Garnet instructed. And so they did. It took little time for the huge group to get over to the front door of this moon base, and after tearing some vines away, got the doors open to venture on in. If one would call Earth's Moon Base ancient, then this one didn't even look like a moon base and more like someone's flora project gone awry. The thick roots and vines going up to the base made navigation a little bit of a puzzler to work around, and the bottom floor made it a bit hard to take five steps without going over at least one vine or stepping in some kind of moss. At this bottom floor, there really wasn't any sort of light apart from the door, making view a little bit difficult to top it off with. On the bright side, the place didn't look like it was inhabited recently, Gem or alien, or otherwise, so there wasn't gonna be any surprise guests for this little visit. That didn't mean it made it any easier, none of them able to see very much in there at first. "Mane, can't see. Anypony got a light as one of their tricks?" Rainbow asked. "I got it," Peridot replied. With some focus, her gemstone began to glow a bit, and sure enough it ended up acting like a sort of greenish flashlight, but she wasn't alone: Eyeball doing the same thing with her own gemstone. It wasn't the best light, but the best off what they got. And what did they first see up on one of the walls? "A interesting piece of architecture. Who is that?" Navy asked. "Yeah, who?" added in Leggy. "Don't you know anything?! That's the mural for our lost Pink Diamond," Eyeball made clear, pointing to the mural. The mural didn't exactly match the one seen in the Earth Moon Base; the one on Earth showed her rising out of the ground with a single planet and moon in her grasp. This one was a little harder to make out thanks to the roots, but what they could make out was a Diamond in a sitting, crisscross position, her gaze seemingly looking upward with her arms spread, palms upward as if she was ready to receive something. If they did add whatever that was, it was too broken up and covered by flora to make out properly. "Pink Diamond was here?" wondered Stevonnie, going up to the mural and placing her hand on it. "This was an old base, so maybe," shrugged Flint. But they weren't there to figure out some artwork, and Flint got Peridot to aim her light upward, hoping to find some sort of route up. But all they could see was a ceiling with a diamond mural on it, this one showing all four diamonds much like the Sky Arena back home. No evidence to go upward though by what they could make out. "Come on, there has to be some way to get to the upper level. Some ladder, or some stairs, or something," Flint groaned. "Wait a minute, the Earth's Moon Base needed them activated, remember?" Peridot reminded, though it didn't help. "And where're we supposed to do that here? You see any starting point anywhere, because I don't," Flint stated. Sure, he was more observant, but he had his limits, and with the dim light and multitude of foreign flora obscuring everything, it surely made the task a bit hard to make out, even for him. "I'll get ya a way up. Here we go!" Rainbow said, her wings spread, and with a mighty jump, zoomed straight up to the ceiling. If there was some way upward, then some sort of opening had to be somewhere. Fluttershy joined her up there and took a look around a bit, both Pegasus feeling the top with their hooves for some hatch, but nothing seemed to be evident in here. Not even an outline of a door for them to feel. That didn't add up. They all saw how tall this thing was, they weren't even half way up and that seemingly was as tall as it would go? "Find anything up there?" called Sadie. "Nothing, just a ceiling!" Rainbow called. They really had to think hard on what to do here. "Isn't there something we can find here to call em or something?" Lars asked in annoyance. "Communication amongst any base is over near the top of the base, we have to get up there somehow. Sure you two can't find anything up there?" called up Doc. The pegasi tried to figure something out, but eventually Rainbow Dash tried a more forward approach, and gave the ceiling a good hit. The hit struck one of the diamond symbols, and then did something start to happen: when hitting the Blue Diamond symbol, a door appeared a floor up from them, along with a set of spiral stairs that hugged the circular wall. FINALLY they were getting somewhere! Twilight was the first to get there, and looked on inside, her head peering in, but all she could make out was just some star chart. Nothing to communicate in there by what she could see. "Just a star chart," Twilight answered, flying back down. Good thing she removed her head, because shortly afterwards, the stairs and door disappeared, making her dropped to the ground. "Oh great, it's a mind puzzle. The last thing we need right now," groaned Army. "We'll figure it out. Try the White Diamond symbol," Garnet instructed. Fluttershy did and pressed it, and sure enough, another door and stairs appeared, this one at the very top, but didn't completely connect to the ceiling, though a few steps did tell them that it should connect. Guess White Diamond would be placed at the top, given her status, but that didn't help them out. "That it? This should be simple," Rainbow said, flying over by Fluttershy, and hitting all four of them at once, one hoof per symbol. However, the room suddenly lit red and made a loud long beeping noise before calming down. Some game this was turning out to be. "Looks like it isn't that simple," shrugged Fluttershy. "It's one of those order puzzles. We just have to get them in the right order," concluded Twilight, flying up there herself to try and figure it out. She first tried the obvious one, which was the Diamond placement order: White, Blue, Yellow, Pink. But that didn't get them anywhere. Whoever left this place with this kind of puzzle didn't want any returning plunderers to ancient history. Each attempt did bring up some stairs and a door, but that didn't lead the full way to the top, and the other rooms they did check didn't lead to any communication room, much to their dismay. "This isn't getting us anywhere. Come on, Twilight, you're the smartest when it comes to these puzzles," Rainbow said. "I'm doing the best I can," Twilight said, but she was in an enigma on this one. Each diamond made a different set of stairs show up, but they didn't bring them all the way. White was first, that was obvious, but what came after that wasn't anything special, or as easy. She closed her eyes and thought it over, but as she was thinking about each diamond, something began to click in her head. "Alright, I think I got it, stand back," Twilight decided. White. Yellow. Blue. Pink. ... . Still getting red. "What?! But that has to be it," Twilight snapped. The others watched from below, observing this, but as they were, some of the Gems started to think back just a little bit. "Twilight, try it again! I think we got it!" Diopside called. "It doesn't work!" "Just do it!" called Flint. Well, Twilight did, but after hitting pink, Flint got out his pistol, and shot the White symbol again. White, Yellow, Blue, Pink, White. And sure enough, they got the greenlight! With that order figured out, all the stairs than began to appear, and this time they all stayed there. The only problem however was that not all of them showed, and the last ten steps didn't appear, but a door from the ceiling did show up. "Good job, you two," said Stevonnie. Good as it was, the missing stairs did prove to still be a problem. Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy flew on up into the top room. And sure enough, they found themselves at the upper level of the Jungle Moon Base. This one looked a bit out of date like the other areas of the base, but not too many vines to obscure their view. They soon saw a promising sign, and seeing what she could recognize as a communication system in a diamond communicator! Fluttershy looked down to everyone else. "We found them I think! Come on up, everypony," Fluttershy called. "What about the remaining stairs? Not all of us can fly," Tiger's Eye wondered. "Allow me," Fluorite said, already beginning to climb up the stairs. Fluorite just got herself fitting on said stairs as she moved upward. They were so close, and Fluorite wasn't going to give up so quickly. Fluorite got to the end of the stairs, and once she did that, she began to act like an actual caterpillar, trying to reach for the top floor. With such a large body and little room it wasn't the easiest task, but after some attempts, Fluorite finally got to the upper level, her front arms grabbing the top floor. They didn't need to wait much longer to figure out what she was doing when she stopped and waited for them. "Fluorite's using herself as a bridge," gasped Padparadscha in realization. Guess it did spell it out for the others in case some didn't get it right away. The others began to go up, and as the idea was, began using Fluorite as a make shift bridge to get to the upper level. "You sure you're alright with this?" asked Applejack. "I'm fine. Just don't wait too long," Fluorite simply answered, and this mostly implied to the larger Gems, who went over as quick as they could so Fluorite didn't end up buckling under their weight. Fluorite managed to hold herself out though, and once everyone was safely up on the upper level, Fluorite pulled herself up. The whole team was up on the upper level now, and once they saw the communication system, they wasted no time in getting there, with Garnet first. "This is Garnet calling in from the Jungle Moon Base, come in Homeworld. ... Homeworld, do you copy? ... they're not connecting," Garnet concluded, after her attempts. "Of course they're not connecting, it's out of power. Here, let me have a look at it," Fulgurite said, going over. Garnet stepped aside, and Fulgurite got the thing open, removing a metal plate under the communicator, just to find that the various wires looked like a complete mess: some kinked and others cut altogether in several places. If that didn't say it wasn't going to work, then what will? "Alright then. Peri, come here, help me with this will ya?" Fulgurite said, Peridot going over and checking out the wiring herself. So, the two technicians began to get to work on the wires. Everyone waited with some baited breath, as the two techies of the group messed around with the connections, mainly trying to work with the ones that had been cut. They heard a few sparks fly, but Fulgurite made sure they didn't zap Peridot as they worked. "How're we looking?" Amethyst asked. "All of the connections are worn out. hopefully when we got them reconnected we can make this work - OW!" Peridot was cut off when her hand got zapped by a stray wire. "Sorry," Fulgurite replied, getting one of her strands of hair over the wire so it wouldn't zap her again. As they were trying to handle this, Padparadscha and Eyeball looked over to one side of the communication display, and actually noticed a few stray wired that had been chewed away at, the two still shooting some sparks as Fulgurite and Peridot tried to work on their end. Both of them went over to the wires, looking to them a bit closely. They didn't look too bad, but their connections into the wall were still a bit worn away by passage of time. "You two find something?" Rarity asked, heading over to them. "Faulty wiring," Eyeball simply stated, and indeed it looked as such. Rarity may not know much on mechanics, but seeing this told her that it wasn't ever going to connect from there. Eyeball went over and looked the wires over, and soon got them picked up and tried to connect them to the wires in the wall. Rarity helped a bit with some of her magic tying the wires together, and once that was done, the communicator suddenly jumped to life. Fulgurite and Peridot backed up as the machine began to come back on, much to their delight. "We found the problem," stated Padparadscha, catching their attention. Jasper went over to the three, Eyeball looking up to the Gem. "Good job," she said. Eyeball flustered up and turned away. Now that they got the thing working, then came the task of actually making a connection. Just because a phone has batteries, doesn't mean it'll always have bars. So, with it running, they gave it another try. When they started it up, it tried to show a projection screen, but it seemed to show mainly static. "This is Garnet calling in Homeworld, come in Homeworld. ... Homeworld, do you copy, over?" And this time they got a response. It was a bit blurry at first, but eventually a connection finally got itself through, though the room they were seeing wasn't a standard Diamond room. In fact it didn't look much like any other room they've seen, and no one seemed to be around at the moment. At least, not at first, until the noise from the machine caught the attention from passing Blue Pearl. "Pearl, that you?" called Twilight. "Wha? ... Y-You're alright." "Where're the Diamonds?" asked Flint. Blue Pearl glanced off screen for a minute, before she moved away, seemingly going to get them. It didn't take more than a minute before one of the Diamonds showed up, Yellow Diamond in particular seeing the call. "Good to see you," said Garnet. "What are you doing calling the Diamond line? We thought you'd be arriving on Homeworld by now," Yellow Diamond asked, though not sounding too malicious in her tone. "S-Sorry to contact you this way, but we've had a little situation," informed Doc. Yellow Diamond studied the room a little bit. "Where are you all?" "Abandoned Gem Colony Sector 7, on the Jungle Moon Base. We've lost our course, and we're currently stranded here," answered Twilight. That news surprised Yellow a bit. "Sector 7? That's light years away from Homeworld, how'd you end up there?" "Let's just say there was a malfunction as we took off," Connie II said. It was probably the best way to sum up the situation, even if it wasn't exactly true. "Where's Blue Diamond?" asked Lapis. It was a bit odd for Blue Pearl to get Yellow Diamond instead of her own diamond. Yellow sighed. "She's in the next room, but now may not be a good time to talk to her." "How come?" Stevonnie asked. "Because she's trying to recuperate Pink right now. Pink Diamond's barely holding on in there," Yellow revealed. The Crystal Gems were especially shocked, though it sure sounded like White succeeded in her mission to revive her after all. "P-Pink's alive?!" gasped Eyeball. "Yes, but not as she was. White Diamond had been adding foreign shards into her in order to make her like Blue and me. We're trying to remove the shards to bring her back to normal," Yellow explained, though some with a keen eye could see the inner anger Yellow had in her for what White Diamond did. Adding shards to a already broken stone was as bad as force fusion, and Garnet felt herself shutter on the idea. Yellow then went back to the subject matter. "Anyway, we'll have our troops come and retrieve you, though it might -" before Yellow could finish, suddenly the signal began to lose itself, and the screen started to glitch out again. "Diamond, hold on, you're breaking up," Fulgurite said, trying to work it to make the connection again. However, it wasn't much use. Yellow tried on her end as well, but again, both sides lost eachother, and suddenly they got a new signal cutting them off altogether, and another Diamond standing there in what looked like some ship's bunker. White Diamond had made contact to them. "Of course, why not?" Peridot groaned, hand to forehead. "Oh clod, what in the stars do -" "This message is being recorded and broadcasted upon Gemship 7x3, as intriguing and confusing as that may be from someone as myself. As such, I'm not able to hear or see you as of this moment, though I do imagine that you all might have a few questions. I'm sure though that they would be answered by the completion of this broadcast," White suddenly cut in. This made them a little bit confused, but at least White wasn't actually seeing them or talking to them right now. White Diamond cleared her throat, standing proper, with her hands casually behind her back. "I'm sure some of you are aware of recent events in regards to a few ... peculiar facts being brought on by my fellow Diamonds. Amongst these would include my Hybrid project, and particularly, involving the more recent news of Pink Diamond. I'm not going to deny the fact that she was indeed killed, and yes, it was that act that began our Gem War down on Earth." As she was talking, she moved over to a ship window, the camera able to see just outside at what looked like an unknown planet not too far off. "Now, on that subject, I'm sure you've been informed by now that it was myself who had shattered her. ... And, you'd be right. Yes, I'm not afraid to admit that peculiar act, and in a way yes, it was truly myself that did end up triggering the Gem War in some capacity. Now with that said, I'm sure you're all a bit appalled by this, shocked even, and considering something rather hypocritical on my part. ... Eh, no. No, that's where I have to draw the line." White Diamond paused for a moment, and snapped her fingers, showing a screen behind her showing the anatomy of Pink Diamond compared to the other three, showing her as very small in comparison, and showing her gemstone as well, and comparing it to a typical diamond stone. "In our established rules over the thousands of years, we all are aware that any Gems that either fail to complete the tasks they're made for, or are considered defective when compared to the initial cut of the quarry, will have to be purged. Because we all know that Gems such as these hold little use towards Homeworld. Just because our dear Pink Diamond is a Diamond, doesn't exclude the rule. And I'm sure many who do remember her could agree that she is quite different from what a Diamond would be visualized as," White explained, presenting the diagram better so they all could see. The group watching this had mixed feelings about it. "So with that said, yes, it is a cruel act, but yes, it doesn't break any of the rules established. That, and I've been working to recreate her since her shattering in order to better suit her. So before any of you come to my ship's hatch and start pestering, I have taken steps to revive her. ... Well, up to more recent events that is." White Diamond removed the screen soon after by gently pushing it aside, the screen now facing towards the window of the ship. "Now, as for the hybrid project, the diamonds probably told you all about my plans to replace all gems with such things. Well, that was probably more my fault: a brush of power would end up saying things one would regret. You will begin see more of my Hybrid Gems come and begin their tasks on various colonies, but depending on you, it won't replace you all as a whole. Unfortunately, my project had a bit of a setback, and as of currently, my own space station had lost its core power due to some rebellious individuals. They may look familiar." And then a screen showed the Crystal Gems, the Mane six, Off-Colors, and the group of humans, much to the worry of everyone watching. "Now, I'm going to say what I've told Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond: just because they saved Homeworld from this "Osicone" doesn't exclude their crimes during the Gem War. Anyone who'd gone through the Gem War themselves would know why that is, regardless if they truly shattered Pink or not. They have rebelled already, and now they've did this again on my own station. A little desperation had cut off the power, and it has gone to the point when I had to evacuate my own ship. Disappointing, really." White paused, her eyes looking down and she actually did look a bit bummed out, before she gathered herself. "Anyway. I here by announced wanted status on all of these figures. They've refused to comply to me, they've fought my soldiers, and broke the trial I've placed on them. Do I even need to re-mention that I had to leave my own station because of that?" Before she continued, the screen behind her started to show numerous areas of the station, all having little to no power within them at the point. "I hope I've made the proper perspective on things. This is White Diamond, signing off." Or, she would've signed off of the screen on their end didn't suddenly glitch into another one. This one suddenly showed White Diamond in another part of the ship, her sitting down in a seat, and actually showing a picture behind her of the Space Station again, this time seemingly looking out of a window instead of a projection screen. "Well, my dear, dear Gems. Ponies. Humans. I'd imagine you all had a bit of fun," White stated. The others weren't sure if this was apart of the same broadcast or a new one altogether, but they've kept quiet as White glanced off outside. "I'm sure you've seen my broadcast by now while flying around in that Sun Incinerator of yours. That's been broadcasted to all of the other colonies, so I'm sure you all might be on the chopping block some time soon. I did give you all a word of warning, but it seems that the concept of Gem Hybrids and Diamond regeneration made you all jump away from me. Fair enough. Though, your jump is a little bit too quick, unfortunately." White then presented a few different screens next: one of a corrupted gem, one of a few notable Gems not with them, and a picture of a working camera inside the facility. Pearl. And Aquamarine. And a few notable Zooman too. "You all recognize these figures, surely. The same ones you've left behind in my station. I've got evacuation of my troops, though they weren't much of use to me. Plus, Pearl just couldn't follow my orders correctly. Guess my attempt to keep her mind in control didn't work with her. Then again, she is a rather peculiar Pearl, and always had been. Now, I'm not gonna stop you for trying to get them back, as I'm sure that's what you're planning to do. And I haven't called another war, not yet. Not much point in one, is there? Though I'll say one thing. You can try all the tricks you want. You can play your childish games, but rest assured ... I will break you." And then did the message stop. To say that they were unnerved by this was sugar-coating it. They've made an enemy out of White Diamond, Pearl, Aquamarine, and the Zoomans are trapped there, and at the moment, who knows what's gonna happen next? To say they were a bit shaken was a sugarcoat. "She's finally out for us. Now what do we do?" asked Stevonnie. "... We'll just have to wait." decided Garnet.