"Jasper! JASPER! Where are ya?"
Fulgurite and Emerald's search for their Orange Quartz was surprisingly not going so well, at least not as well as people would think. As everyone else was at least making progress, these two couldn't even start as they couldn't even find where Jasper had gone to. Their wandering brought them from Beach City to the nearby wood, tall pine trees standing good and high around the fallen snow, which there actually wasn't too much of it on the ground thanks to the trees. Fulgurite was doing much of the walking, with Emerald actually riding her shoulders (because why the heck not at this point?)
"JASPER!" called Emerald for, probably the fortieth time, and still nothing.
"Geesh, you'd think finding an angry Orange Quartz would be easier," Emerald said.
"I know. Where do you think she could've gone to? Training somewhere, getting that pent up anger out?" Fulgurite wondered as they walked along.
"No doubt here, but where's that? Come on Ful, you gotta work with me here, she could be destroying some town somewhere for all we know," Emerald replied. That actually got Fulgurite to stop walking for a moment, glancing up at him.
"This could be easier if you didn't keep checking your iPhone every five minutes," Fulgurite said.
"Hey, it's ten minutes. I'm on the clock!" Emerald insisted, holding out his iPhone. In fact, just after she said that he actually went on to check the phone anyway, only to just find that signal out in the wilderness just wasn't a thing.
"I'm on the clock too, but I think finding a renegade soldier's a bit more important than finding your comments section. By the way, feel up for a sky view again? I think three hours is long enough for another one."
"Eh sure. Lift me up," Emerald decided.
It was something the two worked out after a few more hours of walking around, especially once they got to the wilder part of the world. Focusing on her hair, Fulgurite stretched it up good and high, and basically lifted up Emerald as high as her hair would allow her to do, which was a good twenty feet high. Emerald stood on the hair like a small platform and tried checking around the place as best a green little Gem could do. Even with such height, she couldn't get passed the tree line.
"Anything going on up there?" Fulgurite called.
"Nah but HEY I got a signal up here! Just keep me up for the next ten, fifteen minutes -" Emerald was cut short before he could finished, being pulled down to ground level by Fulgurite
"Not happening," Fulgurite stated.
"Ok, fine," Emerald replied, picking himself up off the ground before he and Fulgurite started walking onward again through the forest.
"Soooo … what's it like working with Hessonite?" Fulgurite asked at a point. Emerald groaned.
"Terrible. One word: terrible. I mean, yeah you get benefits of being popular for being with her, but seriously she's relentless. You remember that Spirit we tango'd with few weeks ago? Like that," Emerald explained. At least he can even say these things without Hessonite over his head to judge him. Fulgurite, for the heck of it, strolled backwards with her hands behind her head as she kept on talking.
"I thought you were one of those guys who loves attention. Or is it only from you?"
"I'll get famous on my own thanks. "Hey look, it's one of Hessonite's Emeralds!" I'm not gonna get known for someone else's fame, I'm putting in the work myself!"
"Hence that lame iPhone account?" Fulgurite said. suddenly Emerald stopped and looked Fulgurite right in the eyes, floating on one of his hexagons to do so.
"I've seen people make millions of moolah just for posting puppy videos, CLEARLY they're doing something right. … Though seriously, that's shortcutting it," Emerald made perfectly clear, even showing Fulgurite a picture he took off his iPhone with some guy holding his cute puppy beside his face.
"Major clickbait … my stars, that's so cute."
"See, that's how they get you! They pull you in with all the kawaii and don't let you go," Emerald said, sounding like it was some conspiracy scandal or something.
"... And that's a bad thing?"
"No, not really, it's too cute to be mad at," Emerald said casually.
After that answer, the two went on walking for some more, calling for Jasper every minute or two, still not having that much luck in finding where she went. With so much time to themselves though, and it being so quiet out in the snow-covered wood, sometimes they just couldn't help but talk to eachother. After all, the only other sound was the sound of their feet going through the thin layer of snow and the thick snow-covered limbs of the trees occasionally swaying in the breeze. Eventually these conversations turned into more casual games. Such as a game of "Would you do it?" they started about twenty minute after the Hessonite chat.
"Ok, for every good thing people say about ya, you get one dollar, but every bad thing they say about you, you lose two dollars. Would you take it?" Fulgurite asked. Emerald thought a bit much about this.
"Hmm ……. Nah, because I'm sure you guys say A LOT of bad things about me, so whatever money I do get's probably gone anyway," Emerald shrugged. Not that it bothered him at this point anyway. Emerald strolled a little further ahead, finding a small hardened snow pile to stand up on before he did his turn.
"K, let's see … alright, try this one: you have the authority of a Diamond for a day, BUT then you get the authority of a Pearl for the next day. Would you take it?" Emerald asked. Fulgurite found that scenario kinda tricky to think about, especially with how Pearls and Diamonds are SO far apart from eachother. Still, in her usual fashion she gave her answer right away.
"You know what: I'll take it Emerald."
"Really?"
"Yeah! I mean, think: you're a diamond for a day, so you can put whatever rules you want. So by the end of the day I can say "All Pearls are now the highest rank under Diamonds" or whatever, so when I end up treated like a Pearl, it's not gonna be that different, get what I'm saying?"
"You know, I didn't think of that and it's not as bad as I thought it would be, DANG IT!" Emerald said, Fulgurite just laughing at the response as the green Gem slid down his little mound of snow.
"Ok, laughs-a-lot, you're turn," Emerald said. Fulgurite smirked.
"I got you covered: You will be able to command an entire Homeworld fleet of your choice, this includes all the captains and pilots, but you can never leave the main mothership for as long as you exist," Fulgurite shot back.
"So you're basically White Diamond then. I guess that depends on my home situation," Emerald replied.
"... does your life suck at home?" Fulgurite inquired.
"Well no, not enough that makes me wanna fly around in space for all eternity, so … nnnnooooo? Maybe? Eh, I'm 50/50 on it," Emerald admitted.
"It's a yes or no answer, dude, no maybe's in this game," Fulgurite reminded. A rule Emerald had to put in himself when Fulgurite couldn't think of answers fast enough for them. Emerald actually was caught up in this just enough to not pay attention to where he was going. Fulgurite had a bit more attention than he did though and did abruptly stop in the walk. Emerald kept going though, and how predictable this all looked one can probably guess what happened next.
"Well, you guys got a good gig still, plus there's a lot of manga orders I've been meaning too - WHOA!"
Of course Emerald would fall into a ditch. With so much of the area covered in snow and trees, this sudden pitfall was pretty out of place as Fulgurite and Emerald checked it out. They weren't any terraforming experts, or experts on the Earth in general, but they could tell right off the bat that this was forcefully made, circular almost like a VERY LONG skateboard halfpipe, going down a good five feet and stretching into the forest about twenty feet until abruptly halting thanks to a fallen tree. Fulgurite got to the edge of the ditch as Emerald was actually chilling out at the bottom of it.
"You ok, Emerald?"
"Yeah, and I got an idea on where Jasper is," Emerald replied.
He wasn't lying about that either. After Emerald picked himself up off of the ground, he and Fulgurite started following along the ditch towards what looked to be some sort of clearing in the forest. The two Gems walked over to the edge of the clearing, and just the same as the ditch Emerald fell into, the area they stumbled down into was completely cleared up of ANY plants. Trees were now small stumps left on the ground all over the place, each tree torn out from the stumps out of sheer force. Very little snow remained anywhere in the area, either melted away by the sun or actually wiped away from the ground in places. Amongst much of this lack of plant life, there was plenty of dirt, stone, and rock around. In fact there was a good bunch of it few feet in front of them which looked like a cave, with what looked like a pyramid of round boulders just alongside the cave entrance. The only actual "man-made" thing here was some blue curtains.
Fulgurite and Emerald didn't know how long this area was like this, nor just how much Jasper actually did to the place over what was already here, but regardless of the matter the two Gems were a little shaken up on seeing the land turn into one big bruise.
"Remember when I said Jasper was angry? … yeeeaaahhh," Emerald gulped.
"Well, come on," Fulgurite said, getting over her worry and starting to stroll on over to the structure.
"Hold up what? You can't just waltz up in there, she'll tear you to bits," Emerald warned.
"She can't tear what she can't catch. Besides, we're supposed to watch her anyway, make sure she doesn't get into trouble," Fulgurite reminded. Emerald though got in Fulgurite's way.
"Whoawhoawhoawhoa, you wanna just run in? We need a game plan here, or we're gonna be pancakes when she's done with us. Here, why don't we work out who's playin who? I figured we can do good cop, bad cop!"
The idea was just enough to stop Fulgurite from going any further along.
"Come on, let's just get this over with. Besides, I'm the good cop. I'm always the good cop," Fulgurite said. Emerald always liked being the good cop, but whatever.
"Oh geez, FINE. I'm worried more about everyone else anyway," Emerald replied before he ended up joining her as well, but rather than walk or run he floated on his hexagon, giving him a quick getaway just in case their Orange Quartz wanted to jump at them. For all her strength she can't fly. Fulgurite moved in first, yet she only got another one step in when -
*SMASH*
It was almost like a land mine gone off right next to them, Fulgurite and Emerald quickly bolting off away from whatever landed there, Emerald only barely getting out of the way as Fulgurite was already right next to the cave by the time things settled down again. Fulgurite and Emerald were the ones being found, and by Jasper no less.
"What do you want now?" groaned Jasper.
And they haven't even decided their approach either. After they did calm down though and replayed what just happened in their heads, the question had to be asked.
"The heck did you come from?!" Fulgurite exclaimed. Jasper didn't answer with a response, but she did point upwards into the nearby tree, which by the way looked a bit torn up itself with a lot of branches torn away in clean slices. Jasper began walking over back to the cave nearby as the other two gathered their senses. Maybe she ran out of stream, maybe she didn't, the two still had to at least watch her either way.
"... Right. … Soooo is this … your place?" Emerald began.
"Yeah, and let's keep it that way. I'm not looking for anyone to join me," Jasper answered. Neither of them were gonna ask that, so the statement was a little bit outta nowhere.
"Ok, ok. … So how's it been? It's been a while since we last uh … talked," Fulgurite asked. That question Jasper didn't bother to answer, or if she did she wouldn't have time to say much. Because shortly after Fulgurite had finished talking, the three Gems began hearing the sound of a nearby red cardinal, looking around on the ground for whatever food was available. None of them bothered with it, but the second the bird hopped just a little too close -
*BAM!*
"... WHY'D YOU DO THAT FOR?! That's just a bird," exclaimed Fulgurite. Luckily Jasper missed her strike, and the freaked out bird fluttered well out of reach. No, that didn't faze Jasper at all, it was more annoying to her that she was questioning her about it.
"I don't care what it is: any Earthling that invades my space gets crushed," Jasper explained, as she walked over to one of the boulders nearby, "It took me forever to yank all those green earthlings out of the ground."
"You mean grass?" Emerald remarked.
"I don't know their names!" snapped Jasper. Emerald actually got right down to the ground and sure enough, he couldn't see any signs of grass anywhere. Not even any signs of roots. Attentive to detail this quartz, but it still referenced the real problem. While the grass was seemingly taken care of, there was still a matter of the snow.
"Again? I thought I drove you out!" Jasper snapped at … the snowflakes. It wasn't even that heavy of snowfall, just a very light flurry. Still, Jasper tried fighting off the snow anyway, punching the air to make the snow stop invading her space. Her thrashing kept up easily as long as the flurry came down (which was at least ten minutes straight) as Fulgurite and Emerald just waited for her to finish. Jasper even took her time to stomp down on any snowflakes that managed to touch ground, leaving the cold earth cracked.
"You finished?" asked Fulgurite at one point. Jasper swiped her foot along the ground, kicking up and away any snow that remained … well, where she was standing anyway.
"Those puny white Earthlings are too stupid to give up. Every time they try, and there's nothing left when I'm done with them," Jasper scoffed, these constant invasions starting to just be annoying at this point. The snow wasn't giving her anything new to work with, so each time was literally a repeat.
"Snow. It's called "Snow", Jasper. NOT actually living," Fulgurite stated, only to get a rough huff from the orange quartz.
"Who cares what they're called?" Jasper questioned. The tiny flurry did stop afterwards though, so no more snow-fighting for this Gem for a while. With that weird moment of fighting over, if they could call that a fight, Emerald and Fulgurite then brought their attention towards the pyramid of boulders.
"So, what's with the rocks?" Emerald asked.
"Training," Jasper replied. As if it was no big deal, she single-handed grabbed hold of a stray boulder (again cracking it), lifted it up, and tossed it under-handed right to the pyramid, the boulder landing right at the very top. Easily a ton boulder and Jasper tossed it like it was nothing, even if the impact from the boulder onto the pyramid caused yet another tiny tremor, making the two Gems step back from the pyramid.
"Oh. I thought you were -" Fulgurite was briefly cut short as Jasper bumped into her walking by, "- You were maybe getting into art?"
"Into what?" Jasper asked, unamused.
"You know, sculpting, painting - er wait. You don't remember. Uh, ok - think of what Bismuths do," Fulgurite explained, quickly remembering that this Jasper didn't remember what that even was like the Jasper before Spinel's arrival. Jasper, for a brief moment, did actually start getting the idea …
Which made her knock the whole pile over. All it took was a "gentle" sidekick from the orange Quartz to send the boulders rolling away, some of which nearly rolling over Emerald and Fulgurite. The two buddy cops looked to one another.
"Or wreck the pile, that works. … What're you even training for?" Fulgurite questioned.
"For a fight, what do you think?" Jasper replied, leaning her back against the walls of her cave "home".
"Fight what? There's no one around for miles, and even if there was they wouldn't want to tango with you," Fulgurite remarked. Jasper snorted.
"There's always someone to fight, you pebble. There's just no one here worth fighting," Jasper stated firmly, and somewhat harshly as if she was gonna just fight Fulgurite head on right there and then. Jasper actually sounded a bit disappointed that no one was around to give her a challenge, the bird from earlier being the largest thing that came across her since she showed up. Fulgurite then got an idea.
"Hey, if you're lookin for a fight, maybe we can all hop back over to Little Homeworld? Hessonite's looking for someone to spar with again. Eh? eh?" Fulgurite said. Just the mention of that name was enough to make Jasper grind her teeth, slamming her fist against the rock wall of the cave.
"Don't EVER mention that cheap-tactic boulder again! If she wants to fight me again, she can come out here herself instead of sending you weaklings as her messengers!" Jasper firmly said.
"For stars sake, we didn't get sent by her!" Fulgurite insisted. Fulgurite would go even if Hessonite wanted her to.
"So THAT'S the part you deny," the quartz said coldly. Fulgurite was beginning to lose her patience with Jasper now (if she wasn't already).
"Let's try this again: can you start by NOT sounding you're gonna shatter us?"
"NO," Jasper simply answered, sounding even colder.
Fulgurite actually paused. "... Okay, that's just rude."
"One moment please," Emerald said. Jasper snorted again, not giving very much care about what Fulgurite had to say. As Jasper simply stood there as Fulgurite and emerald were going off to a safer distance in their little huddle. They got themselves just far enough so they were safe, right behind some snow-covered bushes.
"See what I mean by needing a game plan? This is harder than usual," Emerald said.
"Ok, you're right. Alright, we just got to make her come back to Little Homeworld. Let's face it, it's going to be a fight," Fulgurite said, glancing over back at Jasper. While true, Emerald didn't feel like getting shattered today.
"Fulgurite, are you mad?! We're talking about rejuvenated Jasper here, she's not nice like me," Emerald said.
"... Umm. ……."
"My point." Ignoring the obvious insult, the two Gems checked in with Jasper again, though this time Jasper was handling some training again with the knocked over boulder, getting them stacked up into a pile once again single-handedly.
"If it makes you feel better, I'll do the talking," Fulgurite said.
"Just make sure you tell her it's me who's saying it, otherwise you won't get anywhere," Emerald advised. So, as emerald decided to float above em with his hexagon, Fulgurite went back over towards Jasper. She got a plan already working in her head.
"Jasper, you done throwing rocks for a second?"
"I am now. what is it now?" Jasper huffed. Fulgurite got her words together.
"Now, Jay, your superior Emerald up there's given me strict orders to tell you to come back to Little Homeworld -"
"He's making YOU tell me," Jasper questioned.
"Because he's busy," Fulgurite answered, pointing to him high in the sky. Jasper looked up to him too, seeing him on watch for whatever, but the orange Quartz wasn't looking so willing as she would normally.
"You're not the boss of me."
… So much for that card.
"Okay, look, we're just here making sure you didn't make the end of the world happen out here, so if you're gonna keep tearing everything open, you're coming right back!" Fulgurite made clear, pointing a finger at Jasper's chest. That was when Jasper made a little bit of a mistake, and felt like grabbing her hand and crushing it was a good idea.
*ZAP*
It wasn't: Fulgurite did clam up just as Jasper wanted her to do, but just like setting off a bomb, the electrified Gem was suddenly set off. Her hair stood on end, sharpening out like tons of spikes just behind her head, but this was also joined by TONS of electricity shooting out of her head, making her flash and zap everything around her! Lightning bolts shot out every which way, zapping trees, snow, and whatever else unlucky enough to be near her. Emerald could only use his own hexagon to deflect any stray lightning strikes, but seeing this display was actually enough to make Jasper bolt back, her back slamming into the rock wall of her cave. As for Fulgurite, this kept up for another five seconds until slowly the light from her electrical explosion started to calm down, her hair smoothing out and laying back down again.
Fulgurite was silent still, just taking the time to look at her now crushed hand.
"...…. OOOWWW!" Fulgurite eventually shrieked. As she wrapped her hand up in her own hair for a cast, Fulgurite then brought her gaze up to the sky to see Emerald still up there, looking around the area at what he could see from up so high.
"Emerald, get off your hexagon and help me out down here! She'll listen to you!"
"You got this good cop, I'm staying out of the firing line," Emerald said. He wasn't gonna be put under fire by Fulgurite's electricity, no matter what the case may be.
"That isn't my fault, Jasper just crushed my hand - … uhh, Jasper?" Fulgurite's shout was cut short when she glanced over towards Jasper again. The quartz was still right by the wall, her eyes locked onto this seemingly frail Gem. All matter of her being kept saying this Gem shouldn't scare her, that this Gem shouldn't be THAT scary! Right? …
Right? …
"Hey, Jasper, you still with us or what?" Fulgurite asked, snapping her fingers in Jasper's face. She was a bit quicker with it that time though, not wanting her good hand to get crushed by Jasper, yet it was good enough to get Jasper to come back to her senses.
"Get lost!" Jasper demanded, roughly shoving Fulgurite away before another electrical explosion could happen. Fulgurite kept herself steady, just enough to keep from falling over but not enough to avoid being shoved away a good five feet.
"K, you looking to start something girl? Because I'm the rock to start with ya if you're gonna start something," Fulgurite warned.
"Listen here, you scrawny pebble!" yelled Jasper, "I didn't walk all the way out here to be ordered around by some renegade split Gem like you. I'M the ultimate quartz here!"
"Finally."
That didn't come from Fulgurite … or Emerald … or Jasper for that matter.
Then came the oncoming shadow. Invading Jasper's own personal abode beginning from the top of her cave, the newcomer didn't even bother waiting for an answer from the Orange Quartz before she targeted them. Leaped off of the very top of the cave, she gained a lot of height before plummeting down to Earth directly towards them, using as much gravity as she could with her own strength. Fulgurite immediately bolted out of the way, and Jasper was thrown back by the sheer force of the impact, slamming her against the rock wall again. There was so much force in that strike, it might as well be a meteor landing in between them! Cold stone was scattered from the hit, landing every which way as Fulgurite dodged and Jasper blocked. The dust cloud cleared shortly afterwards, and the two Gems took a good look at what decided to come by for the party, standing tall in the middle of her own make-shift crater.
A Gem that (if Jasper had her memory back) would be recognized right on the spot. As for Fulgurite ...
"WHAT THE HECK?! EMERALD!" shouted Fulgurite, bolting her eyes straight up to the green Gem sitting all the way up there on his hexagon still.
"U-Uhh, someone's coming!" shouted Emerald.
Fulgurite threw a rock at his hexagon, making it spin like crazy before he ended upside-down, falling down to join them whether he wanted to or not. Now to address the actual newcomer herself. Her focus had nothing to do with Fulgurite and Emerald, and kept it directly onto Jasper.
"There you are, Jasper. I've been waiting a long time for this comeback," said the figure, a look to kill written all over her grin. Jasper didn't know what to make of this new figure, but if she was looking for a fight, Jasper was willing to oblige. Too bad Fulgurite and Emerald got in the way.
"Not another fight, the forest's wrecked enough! What's your problem, whoever-you-are?" Fulgurite quickly said.
"This is between me and the runt, so Stay outta this," the other women said, swatting both Fulgurite and Emerald away like flies with a single back-handed swing.
"Runt? Who're you calling a -" Jasper was quieted right away when the figure pushed Jasper back with her own bulk, the Gem standing taller than Jasper and seemingly having more muscle. It's clear who she was calling a runt here. The figure also made it a point she wasn't here to play by grabbing Jasper and slamming her into the wall.
"You're the runt," answered the powerhouse, "And I'm not going to make it easy for you."
"What're you even talking about?" spat Jasper. That response just made the fighter tighten her grip.
"You know what I'm talking about," the figure snapped. Jasper brought her legs up and kicked the large brute off of her, sending the larger Gem skidding off only five feet. Funny thing though, seeing this Gem was starting to give Jasper a bit of a rough headache again, just like with Hessonite.
"I don't know who you are, and I don't care," Jasper growled, "Get lost before I decide to crush you!"
"YOU'RE the one that's gonna be crushed when I'm through with you. You've bested me before, and by my Diamond I'm NOT gonna get beaten again! Especially by you!" the figure bellowed -
"STOP! … Who even are you?!" shouted Emerald. He and Fulgurite were used to sudden butt-ins, but at the very least they needed to catch up to speed with whoever this was. The brute never saw Fulgurite or Emerald herself, but she really didn't care.
"The one that's gonna wipe the floor with you if you keep bothering me," warned the figure.
"Watch your mouth around my leader!" warned Jasper, giving a rough punch to the figure's side. As for their fighter, she looked to Jasper with a bit of disgust, but was more on her about being given orders by her. In fact, that punch Jasper gave just got the orange quartz one right back at her.
"I can talk however I want! And if you think you're hard enough to tell ME what to do, then fight me and prove it," warned the fighter.
Uh oh.
"Heyheyhey, no fighting please! Why don't we all just sit down, have some snacks, maybe talk a little -"
"With pleasure!" Jasper said, sounding … a little too happy for someone to challenge her.
"HEH. Well then, why don't you throw the first punch?" mocked the fighter, gesturing for the quartz to give her first blow on her. So much for keeping the peace, but emerald actually got a bit freaked out. He got an idea.
"WAIT! WAIT!"
… He pulled out his iPhone, and hit record.
"Ok, have at it ladies!"
"Are you flippin serious?!" Fulgurite questioned.
"Oh, just let me have this, it's not like they'll stop," Emerald remarked. He was gonna get a video today no matter what. Emerald and Fulgurite could only move out of the way on a nearby rock, as Jasper rallied up her fist, and whacked the other fighter good and hard. All that strength did make her skid back again, but it hardly made much of a dent. It didn't take long until the maniacal laughing from the other fighter rang out in the air as she gladly returned the gesture.
"I guess we're doing this," sighed Fulgurite.
What were the two expecting? They got a newcomer coming in, looking for a fight, with an Orange Quartz who was already ticked off thanks to Hessonite. Why WOULDN'T a fight start? As Fulgurite and Emerald kept a safer distance, Jasper and the fighter basically were all over eachother, throwing punches, kicks, and throwing literally whatever they could at one another in their fight.
"Hey, random question to you Emerald, since you've apparently dealt with angry Jaspers before. How long do fights like this last?" Fulgurite asked, both pausing briefly as a huge boulder was thrown by them, landing in the forest somewhere as it toppled down a tree. A tree which Jasper was more than willing to grab and use as a weapon.
"I dunno, but I'm placing good bets over here, wanna weigh in?" Emerald asked, recording the fight from only the best of angles with his telekinesis working his iPhone recording. Fulgurite couldn't believe he was turning this fight into some game
"Dude. Really. The fight's not gonna last that long anyway."
…….
*BAM!* "Is that all you got?! You're losing your edge since the last time we fought," shouted the fighter, just after quickly recovering from another boulder thrown at her. Both she and Jasper looked pretty battered and bruised slightly, but neither of them were remotely willing to back down away from this fight, even if the area around them looked more wrecked than it should. Tree stumps were pulled out of the ground, boulders were now rubble at this point, and it's a miracle the cave was even standing up by now. The fighter got herself some cold hard rock and chucked it directly at Jasper, only for it to crumble with one swing of Jasper's fist. Jasper straightened up, a single turn of her head enough to knock some stray rocks outta her hair.
"Not bad. I almost felt that one," Jasper mocked. This fight was a much better setup compared to the Hessonite battle, though that didn't mean she was gonna let her just pummel her so easily. Both fighters rushed forward, locking fists with one another. It was a stalemate.
"You're actually giving me a good fight! It'll make it even better when I crush you," said the fighter.
"You're gonna be nothing but rubble when I'm through with you -"
… both fighters literally stopped when they saw Fulgurite and Emerald nearby. To put it simply: Fulgurite took a try at the whole "sleeping" thing, and was passed out on a rock as Emerald was using what using what was left of his iPhone battery to watch some TubeTube videos. NEITHER of them cared anymore.
"HEY!"
THAT woke them up. Fulgurite sprung to life, suddenly on her feet ready to fight as her hair sparked with energy, as Emerald was more concerned where his iPhone ended up in the snow after he got startled.
"BRING IT - … oh it's just you," Fulgurite said, realizing and remembering where she was. She did get a rough punch from the fighter as the titan was right in her face.
"You idiots aren't even paying attention! I didn't leave you two in one piece so you can mess around," the fighter yelled, insulted beyond belief that these two were more interested in their eyelids than their fight. Emerald found his iPhone fully intact by that point, and walked back as Fulgurite spoke again.
"It's not our fault your fight's taking forever. I didn't even want a fight in the first place, you're the ones jumping on the idea," Fulgurite retorted.
"Why else do you think I'm here?! It barely lasted long anyway," the fighter said.
"You two were literally fighting for five hours straight, and I lost all heck in caring since hour one," Fulgurite said, not even caring anymore, deadpan as ever.
"Yeah right," Jasper remarked. Fulgurite snatched Emerald's iPhone, and showed them just what evidence they needed right on his iPhone screen. After some tweaking with it, she got the video showing their fight, showing an hour plus long video.
"I thought you were studying the fight, what even is this?" questioned Jasper. Emerald took the iPhone back before either of them could crush it.
"Getting views, that's what. Thanks again for the tussle, my fanbase is gonna get a kick outta this," Emerald concluded. Not the best answer.
"You're using me?! You're supposed to be supporting me, you clod!" Jasper snapped, looking ready to kill him for that (nothing new for Emerald). Not that she would do that, but stars she was mad! Here she thought he was gonna support her in the fight, not exploit her. Fulgurite got in between them before yet ANOTHER fight can start.
"STOOOOP! Obviously this is gonna get nowhere, so can we do ANYTHING else? There're other ways to settle things besides pummeling eachother."
"Such as …?" questioned Jasper. Fulgurite's mind quickly started getting to work, the ideas in her head going as fast as her foot was tapping the ground (AKA jackhammer speed). Eventually one idea did spring up in Emerald's head and he jumped on it before Fulgurite could try anything else.
"I got it! You wanna beat Jasper, right?"
"That's why I'm here," the fighter stated.
"Ok great, then this is gonna work fine: let's make a contest out of it!" Emerald ultimately decided.
"A … contest?" questioned Jasper.
"Huh?" Fulgurite asked.
"A contest is like -"
"I know what a contest is!" Jasper quickly snapped before they could say anything further. Well good, because Fulgurite didn't want to spend anymore time on this than they have to.
"Good on ya, anyway, you two are focused on power. So, We're gonna set up challenges, fights, and whatever, and whoever wins the most of them will decide once and for all who's the better stronger Gem. It's gonna be great: not so boring, more than one thing, and nobody potentially will get hurt."
"Sounds dumb," the fighter scoffed.
"Do you want two to beat eachother or not?" Emerald firmly questioned. Jasper and her opponent looked over to one another. At least the fighter had her priorities straight, and Jasper just wanted a battle worth her time. Fulgurite then butted in and went for the card.
"We'll include giant monster fights."
"We're in," both quartzes said.
Well that was quick. Just the way Fulgurite liked it. Fulgurite smiled and giving a gentleman's gesture to allow them to walk away from the battlefield. They can hold off their fighting anger for just a bit longer, if it meant to show who was the more powerful being here.
"And, you're welcome. going the safer route today," Emerald said, looking over towards the Good Cop in their cop duo.
"Fine … it's more interesting anyway," shrugged Fulgurite.
It starts.
~~~~~~
…….
*click*
"What's up everybody, your boy Emerald here back and I am here with my buddy Fulgurite, Fulgurite say hi to everyone," Emerald said into his iPhone camera. He got his camera to show Fulgurite standing over not too far away, just finishing up … eh something. The screen didn't show what she was working on, but according to how much she was pulling on the rope, it was big whatever it is.
"Who're you - … what? You talking to somebody?"
"Camera's rolling, sister, we're live right now," Emerald simply answered, a thumbs up towards her as Emerald held the camera mid air. Fulgurite got startled, but got the rope tied.
"Wait, now?! U-Uh hi everybody, Fulgurite here too! I totally didn't forget you're doing an intro," Fulgurite said, though she couldn't help but fluster on her mistake. But that wasn't important anyway, as Emerald went into frame of the shot alongside his "professional", laughing.
"Alright, now before we get into this, let me give you all a brief idea on what the clod's about to happen." Emerald brought out the iPhone and kept it on him as he floated up skyward.
"So Fulgurite and I, earlier this morning, were basically sent out on guard duty. Guard duty to watch over my friend ms. Cheesepuff AKA Jasper Quartz. But turned out, she has this buddy of hers who's got some beef from her for … heck if I know, heh. SO, one thing lead to another, and BOOM!"
He spun the camera so the audience could see just what Fulgurite had done for this contest of hers. Jasper and her opponent were trying not to just get this started already, but the wait will be worth it with what they got here. They were a bit away from the forest, and now out in what looked to be the Strawberry Battlefield (appropriate), with both the Quartzes standing on one of the large floating islands. Fulgurite was standing on what looked to be a treadmill of sorts, with the rope itself wrapping around the island that Jasper and her opponent were standing right at the center.
"Welcome to the mess that is: QUARTZ POWERHOUSE CHALLENGE! Place your bets down below, we're gonna start any second here, who do you think's gonna win this mess? We got several challenges, first one here, and it's Jasper against - … uh …"
Emerald turned away from the camera and, keeping it in place with telekinesis, floated down closer to the opponent.
"What's your name again?"
"Grrr … Rupee. It's Rupee," Rupee said.
Emerald flew back up the camera, him and it floating down over by Fulgurite.
"Jasper against Rupee! It's gonna go down for challenge one, and Fulgurite, tell everyone what you got here because I know absolute jack about it," Emerald said. Now that Fulgurite finished up, she got to explaining herself, presenting the first challenge to not just Emerald's audience, but to Jasper and Rupee as well.
"Okay, here's the first challenge: Jasper, Rupee, you two are gonna stand there and I'm gonna spin the platform. All you two gotta do is stay on it, last one standing wins!"
"Just start it!" shouted Rupee.
"Okay, okay! Emerald, keep that thing running," Fulgurite instructed, as if this was her own idea to broadcast this. Emerald got the camera up to a good view of the entire arena. Fulgurite stepped on the treadmill, her legs ready to run as the other two on the island readied for the challenge to commence.
"I'll show you who's the stronger Gem, runt," Jasper said.
"Don't try me, pebble. START THE CHALLENGE!" Ordered Rupee.
"Alright keep your Gem on. Ready … set … SPIN CYCLE ON!"
And Fulgurite started running. She couldn't do it (nor did she want to do it) standing on the actual platform so the safer bet was to use the rope and treadmill like starting up a top. As it was expected the spinning started off slow, both Gems staring eye-to-eye with eachother. Emerald kept a good angle on the entire platform, and the whole thing spun faster, and faster, and faster, to the point when the whole thing looked like a blur! Fulgurite ran out of rope at that point, and hopped off it to see what the end result was gonna be.
Just the very spin itself was kicking up a good blowback of wind onto both Emerald and Fulgurite as the two were watching the challenge unfold. Emerald could probably already feel the votes start piling up in this live-recorded challenge, making sure to keep it where it is as best he could manage. As for Jasper and Rupee, while the two were standing firmly in place with their hair whipping around in the wind, neither of them were actually budging an inch despite so much G-Forces pulling them HARD. One slip of the foot, and either one of them was gonna start sliding on the floor and neither was doing THAT.
"Looking weak there," groaned Rupee through gritted teeth.
"Speak for yourself," groaned back Jasper through gritted teeth. They would go into a tussle, but the forces weren't gonna let them go in any closer. For the first minute or two, the whole platform kept spinning at lightning speed. But after about a minute and twenty -
*crack*
"Huh?"
All this G-force on even the platform could only handle so much. And now, as Fulgurite and Emerald saw a good chunk of floating island break off and succumb to gravity, the platform was beginning to break.
"It's breaking, it's breaking, Fulgurite it's breaking on us!" Emerald pointed out.
"I know, that's the point: they can't stand there forever," Fulgurite casually replied.
"Oh. … Well, nevermind," Emerald shrugged.
Jasper and Rupee both knew the platform was breaking up on them, getting smaller and smaller with each chunk tearing away but neither of them wanted to give into the other. Even when the very ground was cracking at their feet from all the friction and force. Rupee and Jasper kept their focus on eachother, sensing the ground breaking more and more, more chunks tearing away and breaking off in the fight like some crazy game of chicken. And NONE of em wanted to be chickens!
Emerald actually had to maneuver the camera a bit more to avoid it getting hit by flying debris, but the flying rocks did give some 3D effects he didn't need to add. The cracks slipped out under their feet more and more, until finally … The ground broke completely! At the same time, and both Gems fell right down to the ground! Fulgurite and Emerald freaked out briefly, but looking down from their own platform, they found Jasper and Rupee again.
Still standing. Still in the same spot.
"HA! That victory's mine!" exclaimed Rupee.
"YOURS?! You mean mine!" shouted Jasper.
"If you know what's good for you, you'll give that to me you -"
"OKAY, IT'S A TIE!" shouted Fulgurite, as she floated down with Emerald, both standing on his hexagon, "It's just challenge one, let's just continue onto the next one."
"What next one?"
"IIIIII'll let you know when we get there. Emerald?"
"I got this. Clap transition!"
"What're you talking about?" Jasper asked.
*CLAP*
"And just like that here we are!"
One screen jump later, and the group was in a completely different area according to the camera screen scenery. After basically destroying a landmark, they took their case away from the Strawberry Battlefield, and brought it more closer to the magical side of their universe. The camera saw Emerald standing there, but now they got themselves in a more rocky area of Equestria, looking like a sort of barren area. In contrast to the battlefield of snow and plants, now it was mostly rock and heated smoke. Although snow was falling ever so slightly, it was too warm to actually have any snow on the ground.
"What do you mean "just like that", we've been here for half an hour now," Jasper questioned, only to be shushed by Emerald.
"Suspend your disbelief for about five minutes, okay? Now, the general's got some setting up to do, you two will like this one," Emerald promised.
"I'd better. I'd better care," growled Rupee. Emerald was hoping she would care about this too.
"Just stand here, you'll know when it starts Ruby," Emerald simply instructed.
"Ruby? My name is Rupee! Get it right," Rupee said. Emerald kept calling her Ruby at least ten times now, and Rupee really was getting sick of it. Emerald just ignored her and floated over by Fulgurite, who took her refuge over a safe distance away. Emerald got the camera ready, and Fulgurite was finding a comfortable spot to chill out.
"So Fulgurite, did you get the greenlight from the lord for this run?" Emerald asked.
"Eh, kind of. Had to do a arm-wrestling match to make it work and apparently they REALLY wanted to eat me, so …"
"Yeah, close enough. We'll just wait here and wait for the action to show up," Emerald reassured. An easy plan for round two, but Fulgurite wasn't as keen about it, looking to Emerald.
"Is this gonna be as long as the fight you made happen this morning?" Fulgurite questioned. She was NOT gonna sit there for hours again if she could help it.
"First of all, I didn't start anything, I just encouraged it with my camera," Emerald said, showing the iPhone, "Second, NO WAY can those two stand there without getting someone to come over -"
"Well, well, well, what do we got here?"
"Told ya. Here we go," Emerald said. Fulgurite and Emerald ducked down so they wouldn't be spotted, Emerald keeping the iPhone just high enough to see what was gonna happen next. As for Rupee and Jasper, the two then started to hear something coming their way.
"This time I'm not making it easy for you," warned Rupee, readying her muscle.
"Just the way I want it," Jasper replied, already summoning her gem weapon and ready for battle. They both could use a good battle right now, and the locals were just the ones to give it to them. Well, if they wanted to anyway. The Gems at least had the decency to wait for the opponents to show up. As for said opponents, there was a good five of them that were coming by to see what was going on, and all of em looked ready for a good tussle. They've heard of the Gems, but that didn't mean these dragons were gonna give any of them any respect. Why give respect to food after all?
One Dragon in particular was eerie similar.
"Well looks like we got ourselves a few guests. You two a little far from home, aren't ya?" mocked Garble the dragons.
"Yeah, why don't you crawl back to your hole in the ground?" another one mocked.
"Stars, they're not letting up at all," Fulgurite quietly remarked. Emerald only nodded, and that mockery only reminded Fulgurite and emerald not to get involved in the Dragon fray.
"I'd watch your mouth if I were you, Earthlings. We came here to fight!" warned Rupee. That word just made the Dragons slightly confused, but laugh anyway.
"You wanna fight huh? Sounds good, but I'd rather have some dinner. And that gemstone's looking pretty ripe," said one of the Dragons, licking his muzzle seeing Jasper's nose gem. Despite being fighters, Rupee and Jasper felt a shiver run through them. Rupee got over it first, cracking her knuckles.
"You think you're gonna make a meal out of this Homeworld Gem, then you this fist coming to you. This victory's MINE," Rupee said. The fighter made the first strike at the group of Dragons, but her fist didn't hit anyone at first as they flew up out of the way of the hit.
"Wait a minute. They're Gems! Like, talking Gems," realized one of the Dragons.
"That's right! And I happen to be the ultimate quartz, so whoever wants to get crushed, bring it," Jasper warned.
"Still think you're tougher than me do you? I'M made to be the ultimate quartz, you loudmouth boulder!" Rupee reminded. Jasper and Rupee looked ready to just fight again ... but suddenly the Dragons started to laugh at them.
"Oh yeah! We've heard of you: You're those talking rock friends with those puny ponies," mocked Garble.
"I'M NOT FRIENDS WITH ANY PONY, EARTHLING!" snapped Rupee, getting right up in Garble's face and basically towering over him. She barely heard of the ponies, but if they were friends with the Harmony Gems then she wanted no part of it.
"Ooooo, look guys, we made the pony-loving rocky mad haha!" another Dragon laughed. And suddenly Garble made an extremely gutsy move with what happened next.
He swiped away Rupee's eyepatch! Rupee, strangely, covered her other eye immediately after that as the orange Dragon checked out the dark red eyepatch with the white diamond insignia.
"Awww, how sweet. Did your pony friends make it for you with friendship and gumdrops?" Garble asked teasingly.
"MY DIAMOND made that, give it to me!" Rupee snapped. That wasn't the only thing they decided to swipe, as another Dragon actually grabbed Jasper's Gem weapon right off her head, and started to eat it right then and there.
"Thanks for bringing us some lunch, this ain't half bad," the Dragon said.
"You think you're all funny do you?! I didn't come out here to be made fun of by some organic scum like you! Now give that back and fight me before I crush you!" Jasper demanded.
"Oh how precious, you want your toy back?" The Dragon did return it, only AFTER he was done eating it … and by giving it back, that meant chucking it at her face. As for Rupee, she was still trying to get her eyepatch back from Garble In fact, the cocky Dragon actually turned this into basically a game of keep away, as they tossed the eyepatch back and forth to eachother.
"Give that back, or so help me I'll end all of you!"
"Well come and get it, pony girl," Garble mocked, the other Dragons laughing with him, so much so that fire spewed out of their mouths. One Dragon actually (probably accidentally) scorched Jasper and Rupee's faces while laughing.
"OKAY. … OKAY!"
Rupee and Jasper barreled into the Dragons. Pretty soon the area turned into the next battleground as the brutes fought the Draconic opponents full force. Fulgurite and Emerald kept themselves well out of the way from the potential onslaught, Emerald keeping his iPhone rolling to show his audience the fighting that was going on. Surprisingly, the Gems were holding up very well, and in fact the Dragons themselves weren't holding their own as good as any of them thought. They blasted fire at them a number of times, but that didn't stop either of them.
Jasper was the one dealing more hits though compared to Rupee, but mainly because the larger Gem was more focused on getting her eyepatch back over actually fighting them. Not saying she didn't want to fight them, and she did have her own fair share of hits on the other Dragons but priorities come first. Punching and kicks were raining all over, but Jasper's main attack was her fiery charge, making her almost pinball around the area, wrecking rocks and cracking the ground with each ram. As for Rupee, most of her strikes were done single handedly as her other hand was kept over her other eye.
"Stop flying above my head and fight me coward!" shouted Rupee.
"Hey! I'm no coward!" Garble said, now his turn to get angry. Garble did a good fire blast right at Rupee's face, just for her to use both arms to block off the fire. Garble collided with her head on, though by pure reflex Rupee released the hand from her face, blocking both claws from Garble.
"Whoa."
That was all Garble really said, before Rupee started to swing the Dragon around. Rupee got her eyepatch back from the Dragon, and with the free hand started slamming him down over and over again. Garble implants were left all over the place, before Rupee grabbed the Dragon by the tail and swung him around fast, letting him go just for him to slam head first into the nearest rock wall.
Which just so happened to be right above Emerald and Fulgurite. Good timing too, because Jasper was just about done with her Dragons, and threw them right by Garble in the same way. It was just a dart board was on the rock wall. Jasper looked ruffled up, but she was smiling anyway.
"Now THAT felt good. You all held out longer than I thought," Rupee said. Probably the best compliment the Dragons were going to get, and they all suddenly weren't that hungry.
"I don't care who won that, this is a far better challenge than earlier," Jasper said. First time today the two were agreeing on something (which was weird, but whatever). Emerald and Fulgurite only then got out of hiding, seeing not only the knocked out Dragons but how much Rupee and Jasper actually enjoyed that.
"Well look at that. They're … not trying to kill eachother," said Fulgurite.
"Yeah, one might even say they're actually getting along …" Emerald noted.
The two then smiled big as they looked to eachother.
"General! Who won the challenge?" Jasper asked, getting their attention back to the task at hand.
"The challenge - OH YEAH right! All that violence I almost forgot, uh okay since Jasper fought off three Dragons compared to Rupee's one, safe to say Jasper gets the first point," said Emerald, sharing it with the video as well for the audience. Ruppe didn't take that without her two bits.
"I had to get my eyepatch back, I could've crushed all of those Earthlings if that one flapping thing didn't steal it," retorted Rupee.
"We know we know, we got more than one challenge," Fulgurite said.
"Good. This is the best action I've gotten since arriving in this place. Bring it on!"
"Awesome. You two meet us by the Quarry we passed sometime ago, and we'll see if the Quarray Eels will play some whack-a-mole with us. … I'll explain when we're there," said Emerald. Rupee and Jasper, rivals in this game, went off on their way to this Quarry. They couldn't do much with it earlier when they passed it by, but now it was time to make some mincemeat out of the Eels living there. Fulgurite and Emerald watched them both go on freely before looking to eachother. They got the full game plan.
"YEAH!"
…….
"Hmm?" Garnet wondered. Very brief, but Garnet just got done relaxing by the Forge, the others nearby her dealing with some of the Little Homeworld Forge weaponry.
"What is it, Garnet?" asked Fluttershy.
Garnet took off her glasses, and looked off with suspicion in her eyes.
"I got a bad feeling all of a sudden. …"
~~~~~~
Garnet wasn't wrong.
Since leaving the Dragon Lands, it basically turned into a mix of "crazy rampage" and "challenge extravaganza" as Fulgurite, Emerald, Rupee, and Jasper continued going around Equestria and Earth on occasion to handle more of the cops' challenges, most of which involved beating something up:
As they've previously mentioned, the first stop in this runaround was the Quarry Eel pit. The main challenge: tossing boulders at the giant Quarray Eels, and whoever got the most in their throws wins. Rupee and Jasper got well into it themselves, though Jasper personally felt this was too close to home when it came to her training. The only difference was that she was throwing boulders at something, so there was a plus. The extra strength on Rupee gave her just enough of a boost to keep ahead of Jasper though, and just BARELY got ahead at the end. That's one point for Rupee.
Another challenge they tried afterwards more involved a heads-on approach near the Badlands, taking initiative and fighting face-to-face with a large animal called a Malwurf: half-bear, half-mole, half-raging-pile-of-claws! The Maulwurf mostly resembled a giant star-nosed mole basically with blue fur, large forearms, and multiple light-blue appendages around its snout. Despite the dumb look, it gave Rupee and Jasper a rough time in their fight, most of their punches only vaguely stunning the animal (plus the whole digging underground thing didn't help either). This challenge was more in Jasper's favor for her speed, and whenever the Maulwurf got distracted by Rupee's fighting or coming up from the ground, Jasper struck it good and hard in the head. It took a lot of strong strikes, but eventually the beast was knocked out and back underground. One point for Jasper.
This pattern kept up into the night, Jasper and Rupee getting one point after another, one way or another, with some other monster beaten to a pulp in the wake of this contest of theirs. They fought all sorts of animals in their challenges: A Manticore, a Bugbear or two, some Timberwolves, whatever it may be they were cleaning through them all, leaving knocked out and slightly broken monsters and animals everywhere they went.
Sucks for the losers, but for the Gems it was going spiffily.
"Don't have a clue if you're all still there, but DAYNG we're going all in! To recap, we got Jasper at nine points, and Rupee at nine points, and somehow we're still at a tie. Still have a chance to place your bets bellow, folks, it all comes down to this. Hashtag final round, Hashtag to the limit! I'll get the final round in just a few minutes so stay tune, grab some popcorn or whatever it is you like to do, and catch you in a bit," Emerald said to the iPhone, showing the results all the while to everyone. After the catching up, Emerald stopped recording again and, as Jasper and Rupee were training nearby for the "final challenge", they two took a minute to take a breather.
"They're actually placing bets on this?" Fulgurite remarked, finding it amusing at this point.
"You'd be amazed at how gullible the internet is," Emerald said. Good thing the iPhone was turned off for the moment otherwise the stream would be a bit less popular by now. Fulgurite stretched and smirked.
"You know, this is going great. And by tomorrow we can all go back to Little Homeworld and get back to business," Fulgurite said, looking forward to it.
"Right? And not only that, this is some sick footage we got from all our fights today," Emerald added, actually checking out some of the fights they've recorded today, in particular the first fight with Garble and the Dragons. Some sick angles always made any fight look awesome, and this fight was no exception to the rule.
"I should thank you for the idea, Fulgurite," Emerald said, "I gotta admit, for being an on-the-spot idea, this is a great one."
"Don't sweat it: Jasper's not hurting anybody, they're both having fun and getting everything out of their systems, and heck we might actually get a friend out of this Rupee. This beats a simple steakout any day," Fulgurite concluded, relaxing a bit. Emerald heard her loud and clear, but his eyes were focused on the video. There was something … strange. Something standing out just enough to catch his eye.
"You even listening?"
"Yeah yeah I heard ya but … eh, c'mere, let me know if I'm seeing things," Emerald said. Fulgurite could tell that depending on what he saw, but all he was seeing was his iPhone movie. Having nothing better to do, she walked over to him.
"What's up, E?"
"Ok, I'm going over the footage here, got some angles throughout that Dragon fight, and just … just tell me if you see this too," Emerald said. He then got the footage to a specific spot in the run, and simply clicked play. This was a focus over by Rupee and Garble, and at first it seemed to go along well, ending with Garble getting thrown right over the camera.
"... OK … what am I supposed to see?"
"Here here, look again. This time at Rupee," Emerald said, sounding oddly unnerved somewhat.
Fulgurite did again as Emerald rewound the footage to that part again. Fulgurite studied it a bit more closely, and once she caught it, the yellow Gem actually quickly paused it and enhanced the image to see it more clearly. What the two saw gave them both chills.
Rupee's exposed gemstone. The gemstone that normally would be hidden underneath her eyepatch. The gemstone looked a bit off as the two kept looking at it, it vaguely looking like Jasper's gemstone in a way with a reddish color same as last time (if Emerald could remember that far back). The gemstone though wasn't the actual thing that made them disturbed, although it did look like someone cut off a good chunk of it already.
No, the real factor came with the cracks they were seeing along the face. The big, long cracks.
"Holy stars, that's just nasty," said Fulgurite with a disturbed expression.
"So I'm not seeing some PTSD stuff again. Seriously though, what happened to her? Did those Dragons crack her gemstone in their fight, or what?" Emerald asked, legitimately concerned if not curious. As much as she didn't want to though, Fulgurite started to study on the cracks going along Rupee's face.
"Ehh … I don't think so. Her gemstone looks messed up, but those cracks aren't on her gem. They look like they're apart of her her," Fulgurite said.
"You mean like what Pink Pearl had while stuck as White's puppet?" Emerald asked, remembering the others mentioning something about that. Fulgurite shrugged.
"Maybe? I dunno, but something must've happened to make her look THAT bad," Fulgurite concluded. "... Has she been fighting with that all day?"
The two paused on that idea. Here was a Gem fighting any and all monsters, with a gemstone that at any moment could crumble and shatter on her with one wrong hit. … Suddenly, Fulgurite shook her head.
"WAIT, WAIT, nope. Not gonna do it. If she's been going this long and NOT say anything about it, clearly she's not looking for any pity," she concluded, turning off the video and getting the idea out of her head.
"Fulgurite, she's a Quartz, and a generic one at that of course she's not gonna ask for help," Emerald pointed out.
"Which is WHY we're not giving it to her. She already threatened to kill us this morning, fought Jasper for hours, and didn't let up once with -" Fulgurite got her mouth shut when Emerald got his hand over it.
"Okay, okay, okay. recap given we're good," Emerald said, "Now what're we gonna do for the final challenge? I don't wanna give a challenge just to kill them for the sake of a video."
Fulgurite and Emerald needed to work out something soon, because not look after he said that the two were hearing the crashing from Rupee and Jasper's training off nearby. When the two looked, it mainly was the two rough-housing and wrestling but they still manage to dislodge at least one tree in the tussle. It was basic fighting, but still brutal with some good wrestling moves, grapples, and throws.
"Well at least they're happy," remarked Emerald.
"More or less," Fulgurite agreed, though not too fond really. But as they kept on handling their rough-housing, Emerald suddenly saw signs that Jasper was rallying up for a head hit in the form of a double-handed downward swing. Given the picture, he felt a little … jumpy.
"Hold it -" *WHACK*
"General!" Jasper said, backing up just to find her "boss" headfirst in the dirt. Rupee didn't know what that was about, but it was amusing to see a pebble get slammed like that anyway. Fulgurite decided not to comment, and instead pulled the green Gem out of the ground by his foot, Emerald spitting out some cold snow and dirt once he got pulled free.
"THIS is why I said no head hits," Emerald said.
"Why'd you even jump in like that? We're just having a little fun," Rupee huffed.
"Because that's a cheap move and I said no to that before Challenge one! Save your energy for the ACTUAL final challenge okay, and bring your A game because this is gonna decide all the marbles," Emerald said, still being held upside down by Fulgurite.
"What're marbles?"
"He means you're gonna lose," Fulgurite bluntly said, before dropping Emerald onto the ground. Rupee looked over to Jasper.
"If I knew he'd be your superior, I'd put you out of your misery years ago," Rupee said, knowing well that'll tick Jasper off apparently, which it did.
"Remind me to crush you again when this is over," Jasper growled, "MY captain may be different, but I stand behind him."
"Until you get your memory back," commented Fulgurite.
"Hmm?"
"Nothing, nothing."
"You mean he stands behind you," Rupee said, "Did he ever actually fight, or did he keep using you like a shield?"
Emerald cut in before Jasper could start thinking about it.
"Enough with the savagery guys," but in Emerald, "we got a final challenge to do! You're all tied point-for-point, so let's bury the hatchet and decide this already! … which means "stop acting bitter" in case you ask."
Jasper and Rupee both were ready to go, so ready to show the other up in this endgame when either of them win. Fists clenched, they were ready. All they needed now was a direction.
"What's the final test?" asked Jasper.
……. uh oh.
"Eeeeehhhh … uuhhh … Fulgurite will happily tell you both, I need to go do some finishing touches on it," Emerald said, which did NOT look convincing at all. Fulgurite snatched him with her hair.
"Don't put me on the spot, help me with this," Fulgurite quickly demanded.
"With what, I got nothing! We fought every monster in Equestria, and it's the ONLY thing that'll keep these two from killing eachother, what else is there to do?" Emerald retorted, also quiet.
"Something besides monster-fighting? That's a thing that exists too, you know, don't limit to one thing."
"It's not easy when they only TAKE one thing!"
"You do have a final challenge. Don't you?" Jasper questioned. Fulgurite and Emerald stood at attention to Rupee, Emerald worried but Fulgurite not letting him get away from the scene. Didn't help neither of them could think of what else to fight next.
"We got details to finalize, quit freaking out," Fulgurite said quickly.
"Well what is it?"
"EASY! For stars sake, it's uhh -"
*SNORE*
Sometimes the universe can give you a free B. Before Fulgurite could talk anymore, they all then begin to hear a distant snoring off not too far away, just enough for them to hear it beyond the winter wind of the forest. So what if they didn't know what the sound came from, it's good enough for them.
"... Right over that way!" Fulgurite said smiling. Emerald breathed a sigh of relief, and given how deep the snoring sounded it sounded BIG. Rupee and Jasper looked satisfied at least.
"Ready to settle this once and for all?" Rupee asked.
"I was made ready," replied Jasper.
The quartzes went right off towards the noise from there, Fulgurite and Emerald feeling like they avoided a big danger there.
"... So, what do you think's over there?"
"I dunno but this better be good."
…….
A lone, yet large cave. That was what the four Gems ended up finding after following the snoring sound for the next five minutes or so. Everfree Forest always had it's fair share of creatures, so hopefully it wouldn't disappoint any of them this time. The area ended up looking like a cave entrance into the mountainside, the rumbling of the snoring telling them all something big was inside.
"Alright you two, the final challenge: defeat whatever the heck's in that cave," Emerald announced. Seemed simple enough for a final challenge but best they could do on short notice. Whoever's in there, whatever's in there, they better be ready for a good ol' tussle tonight.
"Let's get started," Jasper said, being the first one to walk right up to the entrance of the cave. She and Rupee were ready for it, standing bold at the front of the cave as Fulgurite and Emerald stood aside as they've been doing since this started. Before Jasper did anything though, she took a second and glanced back towards the others, seeing her superior basically sitting out of the way instead of standing by her.
Was Rupee correct about him being a wimp?
… She'll figure that out after beating up whatever's here. Getting the thought out of her head, all she had to do was bring up her fist, and slam it in a sideways swing onto the wall of the cave. That alone was enough to crack the rock, and shake the ground.
The snoring stopped almost immediately.
They all began to hear a grunt escape from the cave, something just waking up from what sounded like a deep sleep. Little by little, the four Gems daring to tackle this thing started to see the figure begin to move out into the moon light of the winter forest. Typically a monster would be hidden in the darkness, but this one actually seemed to glow almost, not casting a shadow and the light of the sky shining through its body. A colossal, bear-like animal emerged from its den. In fact its whole body was transparent, a tint of blue with sparkling lights that resembled the stars of the night. The forehead showed a magic symbol resembling Twilight Sparkle's own Cutie Mark. The only actual "solid" part of this animal were the weapons in it's arsenal: it's sharp teeth, and its sharp claws.
And side note: it's REALLY ticked off.
*ROOOAAAARRR*
"Alright. Bring it."
Final challenge started. As Emerald got out his iPhone for the final fight of the night club, Rupee and Jasper wasted to time in fighting this behemoth head on. This giant animal towered over most of the threats they've faced already just by rearing up on its back legs and attempting the first strike to take a good swing at them. Its right claw raised good and high, it tried a powerful side swipe at either of them, but these fighters got out of the way quick. They weren't going to be taken down that easily, not after this long. Jasper's jump went to the side as Rupee went whole hog, jumping right at the giant bear's face and giving it a straight punch to the head.
A strong punch to be sure, making the bear move back a bit as it thrashed to try and get Rupee off of its face, its large front claws swinging around and striking down trees like they were sticks. It accidentally chopped down a good five trees before it brought both paws up, and shoved Rupee off of it straight down, slamming her into the ground. It roared good and loud in Rupee's face, its claws dangerously close to her face, and to her already damaged stone. She got enough strength to push the weight upward and off of her, Rupee bolting to the side to let the giant bear's weight hit dirt instead of her. The bear readied for another try, but Jasper saw her chance and rocketed at the animal, ramming it in the side and slamming it into a few more trees.
"This victory's mine!" Jasper exclaimed, swinging the bear by its back leg almost like it was nothing, but then Rupee suddenly rushed in and tackled Jasper half way into her swing, making her lose grip and dropping the animal.
"NO YOU DON'T! You're NOT showing me up again!" Rupee snapped, throwing Jasper aside so she can fight this giant animal. Jasper snarled and tried going for Rupee instead, but the bear already got her covered and swiped Rupee clean in the face from a surprisingly fast slash of the claw, cutting off the eyepatch into shreds. Now her injuries were on full display, as much as she tried to keep it covered up now. The giant bear didn't really seem to care though, it just wanted them to go away, giving another warning roar. This roar was cut short though by a fast uppercut by Rupee, followed by a head-on ram by Jasper shortly after that. The bear swung at Jasper good and hard, making the orange quartz fly into the air for a bit until she landed in the trees. No way was she done and out though, and with a quick rapid spin, Jasper launched herself right back at the cosmic bear again.
The bear raised its paw, and stopped Jasper half way, making Jasper launch off into the night sky. And in that same swing attempted to crush Rupee underneath it, its front weight pushing down right on top of the fighting quartz.
"I'm! NOT! LOSING!" Rupee snarled, using what strength she had to force the bear off of her. Good time too, because Jasper was rearing up with a rapid spin for yet another charge.
The bear got struck, RIGHT ON THE HEAD. At the same time. The giant bear got its head slammed into the dirt by both Rupee's downward double-fisted swing, and Jasper's skyward-falling ram.
"... Whoa." That was all thoughts that could come out of Fulgurite and Emerald. The cosmic bear was left on the ground, both the quartzes making contact to finish off this animal. Did it feel good to finish it off, absolutely … but this meant one thing though …
"And we uh … sweet cheese and crackers, we got a tie everybody, we got a tie!"
"WHAT?!" the quartzes snapped.
"Sweet cheese and - do you hear yourself when you talk?" Fulgurite asked, not believing her ears.
"In a minute - We uh, kinda didn't expect this to happen everybody so um … here, you've been leavin your votes down below, so for the next … however long we're doing this, I'll leave the vote count to you. Who did you think won today: Rupee the barbarian or Jasper the veteran! Sorry for the not-so-straightforward results, I'll see you all in the follow-up video coming up … probably tomorrow morning? Your boy needs his sleep. Catch you all later!"
*click* …
"So after ALL OF THAT, and you still can't just say I won?" growled Rupee, fists clenched and teeth barred. "I wasted all day with you FOR NOTHING?!"
"NO, NO, not for nothing, you got to fight all those monsters! That's good … right?"
"You know what, forget you!" Rupee decided, grabbing Emerald and swung him good and hard out of the way, making sure both the grab and the throw hurt bad. THAT just got her a strong punch from Jasper.
"Stop fighting my general!" Jasper demanded.
"And what are you going to do about it, start another contest? Why can't you just admit that I'm the better Quartz than an old, worn-out pebble like you?" Rupee remarked.
"YOU'RE DEAD!" Jasper roared. Well didn't take long until Rupee and Jasper got into another fight, Jasper starting it off with a strong ram to Rupee's stomach, though this wasn't enough to make Rupee fall over. THIS time though, Fulgurite wasn't going to let another long fight happen.
"You little - that's it!"
"Fulgurite, we said no to that!" Emerald quickly said, picking himself up off the ground.
"No Emerald! If we'd just done it my way, we'd be done from the start," Fulgurite made clear, and before Emerald could go in and say something, Fulgurite rushed into the fray. Emerald was sitting alone now, as Fulgurite wasted no time in getting between Rupee and Jasper, and the electric Gem wasted NO TIME in spreading her hair and shooting out a ton of electricity to make them both stop! Jasper froze when she saw this display, eyes wide and almost locking in place as she skidded to a halt. Rupee however, just rushed for Fulgurite, only for the yellow Gem to shock her good and hard. It was like running head long into a powerplant generator.
"STAY OUT OF THIS!" both quartzes shouted.
"I've wasted all day with you two babies, and right now I'm NOT sitting and watching another pointless fight. Jasper, we're going home, and Rupee, just go away we want NOTHING to do with you," Fulgurite yelled.
"This is none of your business! If I'd wanted to fight a knock-kneed defect I'd crush you already, now out of my way before I make you move. Or do you got a death wish?" ordered Rupee.
"Just try it, and you'll see," Fulgurite said. Rupee happily obliged and suddenly the fight turned from two to three as Fulgurite kept fighting against Rupee. The lightning-fast speed of Fulgurite made it almost impossible for her to hit her however, Rupee getting electrocuted over and over again. Rupee slammed the ground at least five times before Fulgurite felt something whack her away. But this belonged to Jasper.
"Eh tu Jasper?!"
"I'm not asking for your help! I can handle this on my own!" Jasper ordered.
"Yeah, obviously," Fulgurite snapped. Now both quartzes were ticked off at her and both of them were trying to get her. All Emerald did was simply stand there and watch this all happen, but Emerald glanced over towards that giant Cosmic Bear … and it was now starting to come around again.
The bear was awake by that point, but instead of trying to get the three again, it just sat there and … started crying? It wasn't even threatening at all, it was like a baby bear crying, tears out of its eyes as it held its head, which now had a big purple bump on it.
The Cosmic Bear's cries weren't ignored for long … the ground was starting to shake. It started off very low, as if the source came miles under the ground, but soon something slowly was starting to appear from the entrance of the cave. Something big. How big? Well, its eye is almost as big as the Cosmic Bear's head for one thing!
"Oh boy. U-Umm, can I say something?" Emerald meekly asked.
"NO!" Rupee, Jasper, and Fulgurite shouted.
"OK. OK. You all deal with mama then! BYE!" Emerald quickly bolted for it.
"...…. Mama?" questioned Rupee.
*ggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr*
The following growl was so deep and so low, it could've come from the very center of the planet. The trio looked around, and not only did they now realize their giant bear was crying like a wimp, but they also saw the ominous creature looking out from within the cave. WAY too big for it to fit inside, whatever the eye belonged to. The Cosmic Bear looked to the giant eye and while crying, pointing an accused claw at Rupee, Jasper, and Fulgurite. And that was all it needed to know.
One would think that the cave entrance would crumble from this animal, but instead a very large hue of purple began to slowly illuminate from the mountain the cave was attached to. The ENTIRE MOUNTAIN was glowing purple. A creature beyond anything any of them had ever seen before slowly started to faze out from the caverns below, out into the night surface world like a ancient god. A colossal, otherworldly body of a polar bear emerged from the grottos of Equus itself, titanic arms stretching out from the ground before crushing the very stone under its paws. Each claw was the size of a fully-grown tree! Its muzzle jutted out pairs of sabers larger than any Gem alive or dead, each paw having the power to cover an entire cottage, and any and all trees underneath its paws are destroyed instantly. She pulled her entire body out of the mountain, manifesting, and all her weight meeting the surface of the unfortunate world, and then she slowly raised back on her legs. The very ground around the three turned a hue of purple, as the moonlight went through this titan and turned the world's color. Taller than any Dragon, taller than any Diamond.
No other animal even comes close.
"...…. T-That's it's cub … that blue bear you beaten up … was it's cub …" Fulgurite murmured, not sure what to think and feeling all shaky. Confirming her statement, the first cosmic bear went right over to the giant, and hid behind the titan's back leg like a scared child would. The mother bear gently moved the baby bear away towards the cave with a gentle push, telling the baby that she will handle them for it, the baby sitting just inside the entrance of the cave to watch.
... Jasper smiled wickedly.
"FINALLY the ultimate challenge! You, me, the first one to crush that monster will decide once and for all!" Jasper decided. Oh god no.
"NO YA DON'T! DON'T GET ANY IDEAS!" Fulgurite said, wrapping her hair around Jasper and holding her tight before she tried making a run for it. The colossal bear though didn't even give them the chance to run, one giant paw reaching a good thirty feet in their path.
"YAAAHAHAHAAA!" screamed a now distant Emerald. NONE of them are getting away from this mama bear. Its claws cut into the ground, carving miniature canyons with each claw as the claw scraped back to rake them all in. They only barely managed to survive that alone, slipping in between the raking tree claws of this cosmic bear, the entire landscape shaping and shifting into a valley of claw marks by the time the bear mother was done. A ton of trees and foliage were raked up as well, which the mother bear easily tossed over them all like someone would lazily toss a bunch of stones.
"Oh sssschnitzel!" gasped Fulgurite. The four were stuck in a literal rain of dirt, stone and trees, many of which Fulgurite was bolting like mad to avoid, and the Quartzes strong enough to forcefully fight off. Rupee even punched a tree in half in one of her swings, and she caught another giant tree to swing right back at the cosmic bear.
She might as well throw a twig at a brick wall. In fact, the monstrous Cosmic bear grabbed the tree mid-way, and crushed it with one flex of her mighty paw. All that was left were leaves, and broken timber. Not even a scratch on her paw.
"Rupee, Jasper, we gotta go! Amscray! NOW!" called Emerald.
"Not until I win!" Rupee called.
"Will you forget about the contest for a minute -"
A mighty roar escaped the cosmic mother again to silence the insects in front of her, sending her giant paws swinging downward like meteors from the sky. Emerald knew Rupee wasn't gonna move on her own, so he did something a bit crazy and without thinking: he got in front of Rupee, and launched his hexagon at Rupee to shove her away best he could, also launching him closer to the bear. The mother tried to attack Emerald as he did this, getting snatched by the collar at the very tip of the mother's deadly claw. Emerald thrashed to get himself free, only to quickly find the major threat staring him dead in the face.
"Get your greedy paws off him!" Fulgurite shouted. As annoying as he can be, she had to rescue him from this cosmic horror. Going lightning fast, she raced at the animal, bolting up its leg and neck, until she got right to her face and not hesitating to shock the animal right then and there! Emerald was thrown high in the sky as the mother roared in anger, rearing back and scratching her face to make Fulgurite let go of her. Emerald quickly returned the favor and got out his hexagon, flying down as quickly as he could and snatched Fulgurite up just before the cosmic bear could swat her like a fly.
"I never thought I'd say this but, thanks," said Fulgurite.
"No prob bob. Let's get outta here before mama bear make porridge out of us," Emerald decided, not having any fun with this game anymore. Fulgurite agreed more than ever, and the two Gems zoomed down towards Jasper and Rupee, who while Rupee was trying to fight, Jasper was still kinda standing there. She saw the electricity fly again.
"OK, Jasper, we better go, and we better go now! … Jasper?" Emerald soon saw the orange Quartz staring off for some reason, her headache getting worse all of a sudden. They did NOT have time for this.
"For stars sake, she froze again - WAKE UP! Lookatme!" Fulgurite shouted, actually going as far as to slap Jasper across the face to wake her back up. Jasper shook herself back to reality, but that didn't mean she was any better, her head pounding all over again.
"How hard did you hit her?!"
"For Jasper, barely anything. Jay, what's wrong?"
"I-I don't know, I think I just need you to leave," Jasper managed to say while holding her head, trying not to look at Fulgurite.
"We're being attacked by a giant kaiju, I'm NOT leaving," retorted Fulgurite.
Before they could talk any further, the giant mother bear got their attention again when she flung Rupee towards them, making the already severely hurt Gem skid along the ground like some skipping stone, until she smashed into another set of trees. Fulgurite didn't have a problem with it, but Emerald sorta did He couldn't get near her though, the cosmic bear not letting any of them move after swinging her claws down again. Another swing went closer to the trio, which Fulgurite instinctively reacted by electrocuting the bear's mighty paw with everything she had. It was like stepping on a live wire, and just as painful, enough to make mama bear step back, holding her paw.
This kept giving Jasper a headache though, and she actually threw a rock at Fulgurite to make her stop.
"Who's side are you on, you idiot, quit trying to kill me!" shouted Fulgurite.
"Then STOP doing that!" ordered Jasper.
…
"STOP, URSA MAJOR!"
A whole new Canterlot voice rang out in the skies above them, catching the cosmic bear's attention as she looked up into the sky. This voice didn't come from any Gem however, but instead came from a few particular equine coming in from high above. Almost appearing to fly down from the moon itself, Fulgurite and Emerald quickly recognized her as Princess Luna herself! And not just her, but she was also joined by two other Ponies: Starswirl the Bearded coming in with a magic aura around his body to float, and (surprisingly) Fluttershy as well. Weird, but they didn't have time to question it.
The first one to react to the Ursa Major was Starswirl the Bearded and Princess Luna, who landed over by the remaining Gems, bringing out their magical forcefields just before the Ursa Major could crush any of them under her paw. It was just strong enough to keep them all from getting crushed, but while they have the magical power to keep the giant bear away, that wasn't why they were here.
"Luna, Starswirl, Flutters! What the heck're you doing here?!" asked Emerald.
"In a moment. Ursa Major! We mean you no harm! We're here to aid you!" called Starswirl the Bearded. Ursa Major didn't look so willing just yet, not after what their friends just did to both her and her cub.
"Fluttershy, think you can consort with her?" Luna asked. Fluttershy looked over to the gigantic bear, the animal snarling at them all. While it did scare Fluttershy a little bit (as it would any pony), Fluttershy took a breath and nodded. Her friends were in danger after all.
"You think she can defeat that bear?" questioned Jasper.
"We're NOT fighting her tonight," said Luna, which of course confused the rejuvenated quartz.
"U-Umm, excuse me? Ms. Ursa Major? Can I talk to you for a second? We just wanna ask why you're -"
*RRRRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR* responded Ursa Major, her roar powerful enough to crack the ground, and almost level the entire forest. Fluttershy had to gather all her strength just to keep herself still. Fluttershy had to relax again with a few deep breaths before talking again.
"W-We don't want to fight you. W-We just want to know why you're so angry," Fluttershy asked. Jasper didn't know what she was trying to do - she can't talk to a monster! Or so it seemed.
Ursa Major, despite her anger, did begin to "speak" in the form of low growls and grumbles, unknown by most normal Pony ears. Fluttershy listen to each so-called word that Ursa Major had to say, eventually looking a bit surprised as she looked to the injured Ursa Minor over in the cave, looking hurt.
"Oh, that's terrible! I'm so sorry," Fluttershy said, "We can help make him feel a lot better if you'd like. It'll only be a minute."
They all kept hearing low growls again, the mother not entirely sure if she should.
"No no no no, I promise I won't hurt him," Fluttershy said. "Starswirl the Bearded knows a very great healing spell."
… For a moment or two, Ursa Major looked to Starswirl the Bearded, and then to her injured cub. And, to their shock, Ursa Major actually moved aside.
"SERIOUSLY?!" exclaimed Fulgurite. Ursa Major snarled at the Gems to keep them all quiet, as the Ponies began to cautiously move over towards the cub. The Ursa Minor felt uneasy, moving back slightly as they got closer to it, but Starswirl's horn glowed anyway as he got closer, and gently placed it on the bump on the cub's head. It stung a little at first, but after a few short moments, the bump started to go away. And in just under a minute, the bump was completely gone.
The Ursa Minor felt its head, no longer feeling hurt and it actually smiled to the small Ponies … and gave them a friendly lick.
"U-Uhh … you're welcome," Starswirl simply said, feeling a bit soaked actually from that.
So yeah, that was all it took to stop the fight it seemed. Ursa Major looked to her cub, seeing it all better now, and gently nuzzled her cub, who replied by giving its mom a friendly lick. It was a bit cute, and a much better ending over what could've happened. Once that was over, Ursa Minor simply walked back into the cave, and Ursa Major, smiling to the ponies, fazed back into the mountain herself.
"Sweet dreams," said Fluttershy.
"Well. That's that," said Starswirl.
Their attention then went back to the Gems.
"As for you, what in Equestria were you thinking? What made you believing awaking the Ursa Major was a good idea?" questioned Luna.
"It wasn't my idea, pony!" retorted Jasper, "What's the big idea driving away my prize anyway? I would've won this contest if you didn't show up!"
"... Prize? Contest? … Emerald? Fulgurite? Care to explain?" Luna asked, looking to the guilty Gems. Fulgurite and Emerald felt a lump in their throats, not entirely sure how to respond to this without messing eachother up.
"We have no idea what you're talking about," said Emerald.
… None of them bought it.
"Okay look, I just thought that doing a contest will keep Jasper and Rupee from killing eachother, and that bear just so happened to be the tiebreaker okay? I didn't know it turned into a kaiju fight, I swear!" Emerald revealed.
"We didn't even know that was in there, we just heard it snoring," added Fulgurite, "... Hey, speaking of which, where is Rupee?"
Uh oh. In all that confusion, they almost forgot about the other Quartz of this game. Lucky for them though, it didn't take very long until they found out where she ended up: stuck under a bunch of lumber. She didn't look like she was moving though, either knocked out or just not trying anymore.
"Oh jeez, Rupee! Hold on, I gotcha," Emerald said, going closer. But all that did was make Rupee slash at him.
"Go away, you pest … I want to die alone. I already lost to her," Rupee said.
"Geesh, losing isn't that bad, just let me get you out of here," Emerald said, using what power his telekinesis can do to try and remove the trees. He only got half way before Rupee tried to make him go away again.
"Stop treating me like I need help. Why do you care anyway?"
"Feel your face for a second, Rupee, and you'll work it out," Emerald said, getting back to removing the trees. Rupee felt her face, and felt the cuts along it along with the gemstone. But that only seemed to make her more frustrated.
"So what if my gem's cracked, that doesn't mean I'm helpless! Why does everyone think I need help whenever they see my gemstone?" Rupee questioned in annoyance.
"Because it looks like you're about to crumble at any second? Speaking as a cracked Gem for thousands of years, it's not fun walking around like that," Emerald said. Rupee could care less about what he went through, as he managed to move one more tree off of her (with help of Luna). … All Rupee did was make them all back away from her.
"Hey, that's not a nice way of saying thank you. He's just trying to help you out," said Fluttershy.
"So what if he is? And SO WHAT if I have a cracked stone?! I've had this ever since I was made, and I feel fine, so stop freaking out over it!" Rupee demanded … only after saying it realizing she blurted out her biggest secret to everyone. But while she expected them to now sound worried over her, the reaction seemed … somewhat mundane almost. Fluttershy then went closer to her, despite her warning.
"Hmm. Looks to me like the only one freaking out about it is you, Rupee. Why didn't you say you were hurt this whole time?" Fluttershy asked.
"I'M NOT! And you better not tell anyone about this, or you're dead meat!" Rupee insisted. Starswirl and Luna got in Rupee's way before she could try any attacks, but while Fulgurite and Emerald seemed to be a bit surprised with this new information, Jasper was still getting a rough pounding in her head hearing this random Pegasus talking to this angry animal. She had to walk away for a bit …
"But why? If I was hurting, I'd want to tell my friends right away," Fluttershy said.
"I just said I wasn't hurting!" Rupee snarled, getting right up into Fluttershy's face. But after she said that, they began to notice something with those same cuts on her face. Those cuts … were growing.
"Rupee, wait. Your cuts are stretching," gasped Fluttershy.
"Listen here you runt," Rupee warned, "As long as I can still punch, kick, and fight, I don't need any help from you or anybody else no matter HOW BAD this looks! I'm NOT weak."
"I'm not saying you're weak at all, Rupee, and there's nothing weak about asking for help especially when you're like this. Just talk to me," Fluttershy said. Rupee felt terrible: first she gets shown up by the other Gems, and NOW they're lecturing her?
"NO."
"You have to. How else are you gonna solve your problem?" asked Emerald.
Rupee gave that answer by grabbing a nearby tree, and using her strength crushed it in her grip.
"THAT'S HOW."
"... Crushing trees?"
"NO, crushing my enemies, and showing everyone that I'm the dominant one! There's nothing better than watching your opponents grovel in the dirt!" Rupee said, already feeling powerful. Though, they could easily disagree with that.
"Umm … okay, but, how do you think they feel?" asked Fluttershy.
"Humiliated! Ashamed! Sad, lonely, they probably wanna hide, find a hole to bury themselves in and ... never come out again," Rupee said angrily.
"That's because that kind of competition can divide you, and it doesn't get to the heart of the issue. Talking about your feelings and understanding others does," Fluttershy said. Normally Rupee would turn around and crush her for it, but that … wasn't far from the truth.
"Keeping up appearances? THAT'S what this is all about?" asked Fulgurite in disbelief.
"I am made by White Diamond herself to be the ultimate fighter, better than any Quartz, STRONGER than any Gem! … Well, besides the Diamonds of course. It's bad enough I got pummeled by that orange Quartz, no one's gonna take me seriously when I look like THIS. WHY ELSE would I keep a stupid modifier over my face all the time? … Grr, what am I doing?! I'm talking my problems to a organic runt. I'm just like you organic-loving Crystal Gems!"
"Hold on, what's wrong with organic life, let's be honest," asked Emerald.
"They're weak, they're fragile, soft! I mean, look at this one," Rupee said, referring to Fluttershy, "She's talking to me like she can control me, but I can literally crumble her with one flex of my wrist. What is it you love about them anyway?"
…
"I don't know. Their wit? Their charm? What about their good heart? What about the fact that she's noble enough to not slap you in the face which you clearly deserve?"
Jasper. Coming back out from wherever she came from, in front of everyone there. But there was something different about her now, after seeing everything that had happened.
Something on her face...
“Listen here, Rupee,” Jasper continued, her tone more controlled, “You are NOT to talk to me, or my friends like that ever again. What I see standing there is something that can change, adapt, and tolerate anything that can be thrown at them. I see friends that, no matter how messed up you are, won’t ever give up on you. I see something in them ... that I don’t see when I look at you. So the real question is: what’s there to love about you?”
Silence hung in the air for a bit more after all of that was said. This wasn’t the same Jasper they were dealing with all day. Not anymore. And her Cutie Mark proved it.
After getting all that through to Rupee’s head, Jasper turned away from her and she began to walk away. Not really caring what Rupee was thinking anymore, and wanting NOTHING to do with her.
“YEAH our Jasper’s back! This is awesome the others are gonna be psyched aaaand we’re still in trouble aren’t we?” Said Fulgurite.
“Big time,” Jasper simply answered.