“So, how is he doing, exactly?” Tempest stared at the slimmed-down and sleeping form of her assistant.
“Oh, he’ll be fine after a long sleep and a bunch of fluids, maybe some food. I’m sure we have some powdered slave-feed we can give him as an emergency ration when he wakes up, but he was thirsty even before he passed out.” Bashir cringed, a nervous whine emitting from her throat. “D-did I say slave-feed? I-I meant food! Yes that’s the word.”
“It is what it is, and I don’t really care what you call it now.” Tempest brushed off the correction while leaning over and brushing Grubber’s mohawk away from his face. “As long as he recovers and is able to be more mobile, then this was all a good thing.”
“Has he been asleep this whole time?” I asked, vaguely wondering if he had the sleep schedule of a normal hedgehog.
“Well, to be fair, it looks like he pooped enough to build a spare of himself at this size.” Tempest snarked as she stood back up. “But he’s smiling and probably dreaming of food.”
“It did take him nearly an hour to stop evacuating his spare mass. That was frankly disgusting to observe.” Bashir sneered, sending a glare to Grubber. “Organic bodies are so inefficient.”
I cleared my throat, catching her attention. “Organic faults aside, we have to talk about gem production. I will make this very clear to you, Bashir. You are to never, ever, ever extract my essence without my permission.”
“Standing orders were to extract as early as possible. No orders were given to extract ever again, therefore your new stance is noted and shall be followed. Shall I also put a moratorium on use of the existing red essence stockpile until further notice?”
Rubbing my head, I sighed. “How much of it is left? Are there even enough nutrients in the soil for more than what’s already in the ground?”
“Let me see…” Bashir moved over to a desk with a stack of notes on it and began flipping back through them. “Six batches each of red-and-blue and yellow-and-red quartzes, four of a pure red quartz, four more of a mix of red and white. Six canisters of concentrate have been labelled as reserved for transport to the other diamonds for their use. That leaves us with enough for...one full injector of rubies or one batch of pure red quartz soldiers. The more complex a gem is, the more of your essence we have to use. Oh, wait...two individual gems labelled as experimentals. Complex, but slightly less essence used than an emerald. One pure red, the other a mix of red and yellow.”
I peered over her shoulder, frowning at the strange scribble that was gem script. “Does it say any names? I probably know what they are.” I made a mental note to have someone teach me what it actually meant.
“Non-fusion garnet-class is the only other information for those two, they are labelled as experimental after all.”
“That’s extremely unhelpful,” I muttered, sighing. “How exactly were you supposed to send my essence off when we don’t have any working ships?”
Watson spoke up. “If you recall, David, Navi did say Blue Diamond had sent someone to retreive you. They were most likely also going to transport your essence as well.”
“Your pearl is correct, Your Brilliance,” Bashir said, looking up from her notes. “I would assume the other diamonds would have dispatched their fastest ship. I doubt it will take long from them to arrive.”
Tempest chuckled softly and looked up at me. “Hey, David, how much do you think it would aggravate your sisters to have to wait after they get here for you to get back? If we were to head out now and march towards Canterlot without any vehicles we could get there in about a day or so of hard travel. That would give us time to figure out a stealthy infiltration plan to set up for a counterattack once the Storm King’s forces arrive if they stick to the timetable I had.”
I clicked my tongue, putting my hands in my pockets. “That’s a sound strategy. Tireless soldiers are a hell of a boon. However, there has to be a way for us to get there sooner.”
“Well, we could try commandeering a Storm King shipping vessel using my old position? It’d get us there sooner, but the closest one I know of is way to the south in Klugetown. Just getting there would take more time than heading directly to Canterlot.”
“Watson? Would you mind going and grabbing the emeralds? Tell them it’s important.”
“Of course, David.” Watson smiled and dipped her head quickly before turning towards the door and walking out.
Leaning against the wall, I mulled over my options. With a few minutes to spare, I thought to learn a bit more about gems. “Bashir.”
“Yes, your Brilliance?”
“How do you design new gem types?” I asked, my eyes going to several tubes full of red liquid. My very essence, extracted for some strange form of reproduction. “Walk me through it.”
Bashir froze for a few seconds before shaking her head and immediately beginning to sketch out some kind of schematic diagram on the wall. “No time to take you to an injector and show you every single setting. Forgive me for the crude nature of this, but I don’t have much skill with drawing.”
Motioning Tempest to join us, I knelt down beside Bashir. “Alright. What are we looking at?”
Bashir pointed to the diagram’s first two rows, each one holding six circles with gem script encircling them. “Each injector has a dozen pre-set options for standard gem types, including the ‘minimum viable sample’ setting that creates simple gems of a single color. That setting would be what created your rubies, and would create iron craftsgems with white essence. Simple gems, lower intellectual capacity, minimum essence investment with a decent outcome.” She paused and looked at Tempest thoughtfully. “An iron is capable of turning raw materials like metal ores into usable ingots, basically a living refinery and worker all in one package, just in case you’ve never met one.”
“I’ve met one or two,” Tempest responded, standing on my other side. “It’s a shame we don’t have time to wait. It’d make a bold statement, rescuing Canterlot with a horde of red gems.” She eyed me with a side glance. “You do know this will put a target on your back, right?”
Bashir snorted. “Oh please, a diamond out in public anywhere on this planet is going to draw attention of all kinds. Now, in addition to the preset options for gems there are the custom settings for when we need to experiment. All aspects of a gem can be tuned and, assuming they don’t overcook, the result should come out according to plan. The main limitation is available essence. Maxing out every option for even a single injection site is impossible with a fully-loaded injector because the amount of essence required increases exponentially. In theory, we could create a gem the size of a mountain if we had an injector...three times the size of the planet.”
I filed that information away for later. Something to consider when building an actual country out of this place. “Right, now. Do we have what we need to make a batch of Rose Quartzes? An army without projectiles would do well to have some defenders.”
“Rose quartz, pinkish red, meaning a mixture of red and white essence...why is your essence red when you’re pink anyways? Nevermind! That’s something to think about later.” She moved back over to the list of predetermined, and already-performed, new gem injections. “Yellow and red will make orange jaspers, red and blue will be purple amethysts, we have both pure red and a mix of red and white quartz soldiers pending, either of which could turn out to make genuine Rose Quartz soldiers loyal to you, but my bet is on the mix of red and white for that. Should that mix NOT create the desired gem type we can fine-tune the color mixture to something other than a 1:1 ratio.”
“Pink’s just a lighter shade of red,” I commented, shrugging my shoulders. Peering at the tubes again, I sighed. “You have my permission to do as you will with the free canister. I want to know the moment you use it and what you think will come out of that. After that, there will be no more gem production without my express permission.”
“David,” Watson spoke, interrupting the conversation. “I’ve gathered your emeralds like you asked. They seem rather excited about the prospect.”
Standing up, I nodded at Bashir. “I’ll leave you to your work, Bashir. While I’m off leading the troops, I want you to take a look at Kryptonite. See what you can do for her.”
“I’ll consult with an amber or two to see what we can do, your multifaceted magnificence. Ohh, that’s a good one. I'll need to remember that.” Bashir actually giggled as she stepped aside and moved back over to what she’d been working on before we arrived to check on Grubber.
One of the emeralds spoke up from outside. “Keep your flattery short and simple, Peridot. Save the flowery devotion for times when speed isn’t of the essence.”
“Comments from the peanut gallery shall be filed circularly, along with any chances for promotion.” Tempest barked as she strode out through the doorway. “Which one of you said that? Confess or all of you end up on the shit list.”
“Please get the crowd away from here quickly, David. I’m not going to get much done with a shouting match going on outside, and it might wake up Sir Poopsalot.”
Stepping out after Tempest, it pleased me to see the emeralds, four in total, snapping to attention. “I already told this to Navi, but I will not tolerate disrespect towards anyone. Now, walk with me.” Strutting past Tempest, I found a disused workshop to occupy. “Here.”
Tempest quickly went over the plans that had been in place regarding Canterlot when she was working with the Storm King. Using a set of colored sketching sticks that Watson handed her, which seemed to be made of glow stick fluid based on how bright they were, she laid out as much of the plan on the table as she was able to do visually along with her description. She then switched to a different color from what she’d used for the first set of plans to mark a few new places on the makeshift map.
“Here, here, there, and over there are areas of minimum coverage due to airship troop deployment practices combined with keeping the airships a safe distance from each other to avoid collisions. If we could hide gems in these areas in gem form they would make great ambush positions, but I don’t know if gems have a way to reform on command, or if there is a way to restrain a gem to their dormant state so that a bunch of gems could effectively instantly appear.”
“None that I know of,” the first emerald said, studying the map. “We could have them shapeshift, but they’d only be able to hold those forms for a short time.”
Another scoffed. “We don’t need to hide. Organics are already used to gems. We’ll hide in plain sight.”
“Two problems with that assertion, although it is a decent suggestion if we have no alternative. One: few gems, if any, wear the Diamond Authority emblem anymore. All of your gems here have at least one diamond’s color on their uniforms in a diamond shape, and some of them, like the ambers, have all four diamond colors despite having been waiting for Pink for some time. Two: A massive influx of gems into Canterlot, almost all quartzes and a few emeralds, and especially RED GEMS is going to raise a ton of suspicion. Everypony knows only one red gem exists, so that means we either use stealth or leave the rubies behind and give up the element of the unexpectable surprise entirely.” Tempest looked the second emerald right in the eyes and spoke respectfully while knocking her suggestion to the ground.
“And there’s no way to bring that ship to us?” I questioned, crossing my arms. “It might be the best option. Pack it to the brim with gems and explode out like an angry ant hive.” I pinched my nose, wishing for just one radio. “We also have to account for the city being on a mountain.”
“If it were a military vessel I could potentially send a message for pickup to the captain, but it’s effectively a merchant vessel under the Storm King’s banner. The sending stone I have will only connect to military commanders and any attempt to use a military vessel will only result in all of us being ground to a fine paste or powder by the entire army.” Tempest sighed. “And that is actually my fault. I pointed out that his navy was vulnerable to one vessel being infiltrated and turned against him, so orders were put in place that any airship that breaks formation during a mission is to be shot down if the deviation isn’t corrected within a few minutes.”
“So what you’re saying is you need a supply-line sending stone?” Grubber’s voice came from the doorway, where the odd hedgehog-like creature was leaning against the stonework with a worried Bashir standing next to him. In his hand was a simple, round, grey stone with the insignia of the Storm King on it and a runic ‘S’ shape between the upper halves of it. “Remind me, Tempest, who was in charge of logistics under you?”
Tempest stared at Grubber with her jaw hanging open for a few seconds, then sheepishly looked at me. “Ummm, problem solved? All I need to do is contact the captain at Klugetown and we’ll have a ride. Grubber, thank you for being a reliable assistant.”
Grubber beamed at this bit of praise from Tempest and tossed the enchanted stone onto the table before turning to look at Bashir. “You said something about oatmeal, right? After all that I’m starving and thirsty.”
With the issue of getting to Canterlot seemingly solved, I was struck with a bit of inspiration myself. “Hey, we have a way to get a bunch of gems together in a really small space without shapeshifting. If they agree to it, we can temporarily put them in a bubble.”
Tempest looked up at me and blinked a couple times. “Bubble?”
“Oh, you’re talking about a cracked rescue and temporary detention field? This would be an unorthodox use, but that’d be perfectly harmless to our troops.” One of the emeralds that hadn’t said anything yet nodded as she said this, followed by smiling up at me. “Compact, stealthy transport with ambush potential. The perfect solution to our problem.”
“Then it’s settled. I’ll place the call for ‘rescue’ while you figure out how to get a bunch of soldiers bubbled.” Tempest reached for the enchanted lump of stone. “This is almost going too smoothly.”
The airship looked like something out of a video game; a wooden ship hanging below a massive balloon. “And this is a supply ship?” I questioned, standing at the edge of the camouflage barrier. I looked down at my hands once again, as if to reassure myself that I hadn’t accidentally crushed the canteen Tempest had given me, filled with water and with some of my tears added.
“Technically it’s a merchant ship. It’s considered to be on the supply side of the army communications because the option is always there for us to reclassify it as a direct supply runner. This ship is also a custom model, very fast when running at full speed, which is why getting this captain under his control was once a high priority for the Storm King.” Tempest responded quickly while brushing her old armor off in an attempt to get it to look as nice as possible despite the damage it had sustained.
“Best get this over with then.” I stepped out of the barrier, feeling a strange warble pass over me. Brushing it off, I took my first steps into the wider world. “Hello up there!” I called. “Drop a line, would ya?”
A green-feathered bird head looked out and down a few seconds after I called out. A gruff voice called down that I could only assume was male. “You don’t look like a Storm King operative.”
“No, that’d be me.” Tempest called out as she walked out to stand beside me. “Commander Tempest Shadow, leader of the Canterlot Invasion Task Force. I was delayed by an unexpected injury in the middle of a secret mission to pick up a platoon of gem soldiers and require emergency transport to the fleet.”
A different bird, this one with primarily cream-colored feathers looked over the side and down at the two of us. “I’m only going to be able to take maybe six gems...three if they’re all her size. This ship’s for hauling merchandise, not troops. I don’t have the room.” This one’s tone was far softer, and that combined with what looked like green eyeshadow hinted at it being female.
“Toss it,” Tempest said, shaking her head. “This is more important than cargo. We need to get to Canterlot ASAP.”
“Toss it?” The cream bird laughed for a couple seconds. “Listen, filly, I’m no fan of posters and bobble-heads of the Storm King, but I’m not saying I don’t have the room because of what I’m hauling, and I’ll happily dump this crap into the nearest jackalope den. I don’t have the room to transport living bodies on this vessel, and I know gems can’t maintain a shrunken shapeshift for long.” She jabbed a taloned finger towards me before continuing: “And that one alone is going to get in the way on deck just by being as tall as she is. Un-fuse, you pink monstrosity.”
I merely stared up at her. “I’m a diamond. I’m sort of always this tall.” Closing my eyes, I tried to replicate my previous shapeshifting, willing myself to match Tempest’s height. Cracking an eye open, I peered directly into Tempest’s eyes. “Well, we know that works,” I muttered.
Tempest stared back, her eyes wider than I’d ever seen them and visibly shifting up and down as the fur on her cheeks somehow darkened. “You really need to work on your subconscious leaking out but, wow, if that’s how I look to you... if I were a stallion I’d be in so much pain right now.”
I blinked and reached up to my face and head, then swallowed nervously as I felt a horn and poofy mohawk. “Not looking down, so not looking down. Normal shape, just smaller, please…”
“Can we focus on why I’m still here and flirt later, ladies? You claim to be a diamond, but everyone knows they were exiled thousands of years ago. You got any proof, or should I just go back to work and leave the two of you here in the badlands?”
Clearing my throat, I said. “Look, just throw us a ladder down. The proof is sticking out of my stomach.” Sighing, I turned to Tempest. “There wouldn’t happen to be a teleport spell, would there?”
“Uh, there is but you only fixed my horn a couple days ago so I’m still working on re-learning basic telekinesis, nevermind something that advanced.” Tempest replied while watching a rope ladder unfurl and fall to the ground. “I have a backup plan to convince them in case just talking fails, first time I’ve felt like doing it in a long time.”
“Right..” Climbing up the rope, I quickly found myself on deck. “Nice ship,” I commented, doing a quick scan of my surroundings. Acknowledging the parrot people, I tapped on my gem. “See? Diamond.”
Tempest climbed up behind me and cleared her throat. “I can verify this is, indeed, a diamond. More than that, there’s a reason I called upon your ship specifically, Caelano. You’ve got one of the fastest ships in the fleet, fast enough to get a support deployment to Canterlot to stop the Storm King.”
“All I see is a gem with a ton of facets and an interesting cut, miss. Wait...stop the Storm King?”
“Yes. David, the Pink Diamond, wants to stop the Storm King’s invasion of Canterlot, at the very least.” Tempest stepped forward and pointed to Caelano’s leg and the odd forearm assembly on one of her crew’s right arm, this parrot had no hand. “And he can do even more for you, specifically.”
“David? He?” The cream parrot that was most likely the Caelano that Tempest had named, and had claimed this was her ship laughed softly. “Okay, the two of you have clearly had way too much sun. No male has hips like that. I’ll take the two of you to the nearest town for that laugh, though.”
A ruby peeked up over the railing of the ship after climbing the ladder. “My Diamond! The soldiers have all been packed up in the largest crate we had. Are we clear to load or not?”
“Uh…” Caelano and the other bird that had been dealing with us both froze with their mouths open while their eyes darted from me to the ruby. “Red...never been red gems before. Not deep red...oh crap, you really are a diamond. I’m dead… I am so dead.”
I pat the ruby’s head, beaming at her. “That depends on your actions, captain. What about it? You up for helping a diamond make themselves known? Think about it, you’d have a nation in your debt.”
Tempest stepped forward as the two birds hesitated, holding her hands out with her palms facing up. I could hear it as something happened and the sound of the wind changed. One moment it was blowing hard, with a slight whistling sound around the ship, and the next I was hearing cellos and other string instruments.
“Oh, oh, was she experiencing a heartsong moment?” a baby-blue pegasus colt asked, smiling.
“Yes she was. I didn’t know what the word for it was until much later, and to me it felt weird to get caught up in a moment out of a Broadway musical. Weird, but also compelling because I wanted to see where it went. The best part is, I can even play it back for you.” I tapped my gem and brought out a small gadget I’d come up with to make it less weird to literally broadcast a memory to others, and hovered my thumb over the play/pause button while focusing. “She reached out for the captain…
“This gem’s taught me a lesson.” Her other hand swept back to indicate me while the one reaching out for the captain brushed at the drab, official Storm King garments the parrot was wearing. “It’s one that you’ll understand. Sometimes you just need somebody else to offer you a helping hand.” She hung her head briefly and chuckled for a moment while that same hand came back to touch the poorly-repaired armor she herself wore. “I once hoped for power, to place myself above my kind, but those were the pain-filled wishes of someone who’d been blind.”
“Open up your eyes; see the world from where I stand.” I felt compelled to walk up next to Tempest while relaxing the shapeshifting to slowly slide back to my normal, more imposing size. One hand went to gently pat her shoulder as she reached out towards the captain once more and simply pointed at her. “Me beside a Diamond, your future in her hand. Open up your eyes, you all should soar over this land! It’s time to look up, grab the skies. Come now little ones, open up your eyes.”
She moved forward to the captain quickly, almost aggressively as her horn started sparking once more. Other birds came up on deck at this point, one of them wielding a sword that was dropped the moment they saw me standing there. “We are all taught the same, some wounds just never heal.” She reached out and grabbed the green bird’s metal-covered forearm and easily pulled him, and it, right in front of the captain’s face. “Magic that can regrow limbs, that stuff’s simply not real.”
Tempest released her grip after saying that, allowing the poor guy to find his own footing and rub at the area behind the metal as if the move had hurt. Caelano’s eyes refocused on Tempest, and her eyes widened as the sparking of Tempest’s magic turned into a stable glow. “Ah, there, I see you’ve noticed, the simple truth, plain on my face. This gem that stands behind me, she’s restored my magic’s grace.”
Tempest took a long, slow breath and seemed to calm down as she looked towards the captain’s peg leg. She straightened herself back up and looked into the captain’s eyes before offering her hand in a calmer manner. “And as you take that first sip from the canteen held in her hand…” She led the captain towards me, and shot a glance at the other obviously-injured bird as well. “You’ll feel it all so clearly as every scar heals and you just feel grand.”
The captain stared at me, then looked at the canteen I still held, which I quickly offered to her. Interestingly, she held it out to the green bird first after opening it and taking a sniff. Tempest, meanwhile, moved on to the rest of the crew and pulled one with what looked like an armored beak over as well. “Open up your eyes, and see the world from where I stand. I’m allies with a Diamond, your future’s in her hand.”
A gasp came from the rest of the crew as they watched the metal cuff around the green bird’s forearm get pushed off by the force of bone, sinew, and flesh regrowing. Tempest all-but shoved another one with an eyepatch towards the three at the canteen while continuing to sing. “Open up your eyes and behold the truth I’ve found! It’s time to team up, find allies. Come now little ones, open up your eyes.”
The canteen was passed around quickly at that point, with the two crew members taking a drink before Caelano herself accepted it back. I was treated to the sight of an eye regrowing as the eyepatch was ripped off of the third bird, while it took a little longer for the regrowing beak to push the armored replacement off on the googly-eyed crewmember. Tempest, in a moment of disturbing irony, ended her singing in time with the regrowing eye blinking for the first time in who knows how many years and the captain finally taking her own sip. “Open up your eyes!”
Caelano shuddered and fell to her knees in front of me, then reached down and undid the bindings holding the peg leg in place. Tears rolled down her face as she looked up at me while her lower leg regrew. “You... for you, anything. My Diamond.”