There they were. The Diamond Authority, the royalty of Equestria AND the Harmony Gems all looking to what kind of apocalypse Grogar released onto the entire world. The people inside the city in absolute panic over what just happened to the city itself, and vines and vegetation growing all over the place, attacking anyone and anything that they could get close to. The titanic beast itself stood above the entire bay, hardly even aware of the chaos it was causing far below it. Apart from the earth-shattering roars it was creating, the group could only hear Grogar's laughter nearby.

"I have no idea. Grogar, what did you do?! Speak!" demanded Starswirl the Bearded. Grogar laughed some more.

"Since you made it this far, I'll tell you. Not like you can do anything now anyway," Grogar decided. Call it their reward for somehow surviving the dead at this point. "While on my way to Homeworld from your little trick at that den, I took a sidestop over back at home to see my dearest little Sumu."

"She is now. I got enough of my own troops ready to take over whatever is left by the time she's done playing around, and don't even THINK about jumping in and splitting up because Sumu's spreading all over your worlds. Every single one of them. Go ahead, take a look if you want to!"

That's exactly what they did next, Twilight immediately grabbing her own Portal Keys and quickly throwing it wherever to see what happened to Equestria. She swung the door open as quickly as an Alicorn could do it, almost breaking the door itself, but that didn't mean that the portal was offering anything promising.
What Twilight saw made her heart almost stop: Canterlot COMPLETELY invaded by Plunder Vines! The exact same ones that were invading Empire City at the moment, and causing just as much havoc onto it as it had before: wrapping around the buildings, and terrorizing the ponies all over the place by either attacking them or trapping them in its horrid branches. One of the flytraps actually saw her and Twilight had to slam it shut before it could bite her.
They also made extra portals and checked other areas but got the exact same problem: a portal to Homeworld showed the entire Diamond City being invaded by the horrid vines, all of the Gem guards trying their hardest to fight them off but to no avail; A portal showing Ponyville showed all of its residence trying their best to handle the Plunder Vine invasion; one to Little Homeworld showed Gems all over having the buildings begin to get wrapped tight in the vines and forced to fight off the creatures invading their new home.

"YOU MANIAC!" screamed Starswirl, actually charging at him and tackling him to the sand. "Stop that monster at once!"
Grogar allowed Starswirl to jump him actually, not making any actual effort to resist at all this time, but giving the old Unicorn the knowing grin he always gave his enemies. The demand only made Grogar scoff at him.

"I can't stop that thing, I have no magic remember? You drained it out of me, so good luck dealing with your monster without it!" Grogar reminded, bringing his back hooves up and kicking Starswirl off of him.

"Oh is that all? Well, it's time to be the MVP for today," Discord said, cracking his knuckles for a short bit. He went right ahead and snapped his fingers ... but the thing was still there.

"Huh?" Discord tried several more times to snap the titan out of existence but for some weird reason his "Deus ex Machina" trick wasn't working. At first he thought his magic might've worn off, but a quick snap elsewhere and making the sand dance the jig proved otherwise.

"Don't even try your Chaos tricks, Discord, Sumu's created out of YOUR magic, and combining that with pure magic means I wrote the reality's rules so you can't just "magic" her away," Grogar revealed. Discord paused in a blank stare.

"Well it's working, isn't it? The world wanted me dead, and if I can't live, I'm taking all of you with me!" Grogar exclaimed. The Ram then let out a victorious laugh to the skies above. The entire group was about ready to run him, but it turned out none of them actually needed to do anything to him. His laughing was just too loud, and it caught Sumu's attention far up there. The colossus slowly moved her head to see the Ram far below her. The one that took her away from her cozy home next to the fountain, and abused all of her knowledge without anything in return. If she remembered that. One of the numerous flytraps rushed out from the clusters of vines and targeted directly for the Ram. All Grogar did was continued laughing as the large flytrap launched itself down like a harpoon, and in one bite, Grogar was swallowed alive. One guttural gulp and Grogar was gone, nothing left but hoofprints on the ground, and the flytrap hissed an alien roar at all of them.

"Discord, can't you talk to her?! she's your daughter, do something!" said Peridot.

"Not by choice! I already tried snapping her away, what more do you want from me?!" Discord replied in panic. The titanic creature gave a large guttural rumble of a roar again, scent of rotting flowers covering the entire city. Vines started to creep out towards the beach, slamming into the saltwater of the Empire City sea, with several of them taking notice of the whole group nearby.

"AAHHH! Stand back!" Pearl demanded, but the plant matter refused to listen and went for them in a literal wave. Starswirl the Bearded sent out a forcefield all around them to protect them from the plants, each plant slamming into the shield getting electrocuted by the Unicorn's shield. At first things calmed down, but what part of this wave that didn't get fried just immediately began growing again, and in fact added even more flytraps!

Then came even more trouble. In the city, one of the nearby buildings started to crumble under the vines' weight, and started to slowly tip away and collapse on them. The buildings' shaking was accompanied by screaming citizens, who were trying their absolute best to get out of the city as soon as possible.

"Diamonds, quickly!" Blue Diamond instructed, actually the first to rush over to the collapsing building. Just before the huge building could collapse onto the Humans below, the building slammed onto Blue Diamond's hands, the immense weight already extremely hard on the single Diamond. Yellow Diamond, and later White Diamond, joined in on the rescue and with their combined strength somehow pushed the building up back to standing. As for the people down there, Fulgurite and Rainbow Dash bolted around and quickly got them grabbed and moving towards the beach to avoid any more buildings. The vines around the building did not like that and hissed at the three Diamonds, wrapping their vines around their arms fast like snakes. Yellow Diamond quickly fried the vines on them all before all three rushed away, vines re-growing like lightning.

"There's so much of the world we need to evacuate, and if we don't get them out now, Sumu gets them all," Garnet said.

"Then you all go! Spread out to wherever Sumu's taken root and get everyone out of there! We'll work here and get the city to safety however we can," Luna instructed.

"Just go now! We all believe in you, you'll come up with something! We'll all meet with you later!" Cadance said. They hardly had any more time to discuss this, as the vines began to close in on the beach. Discord got rid of this batch not by snapping them away, but instead bringing out a firework barricade and blasted it at the vines, making them move back away from them.

"They'll be fine, they got Discord with them!" shouted Jasper. All of the Portal Keys were quickly brought out this time, and qithout hesitation, they got right off to try and save whoever they can, with Twilight, Spinel, Connie, and Steven joining up in one group for this launch and being the last to go. Sumu was expanding.

The first stop for them was back in Equestria: Canterlot and Ponyville. On their arrival, they already could see that so much of the world was completely covered by the vines when they got there. The portal they took brought them to the outskirts of Canterlot first, just on the edge of the invading plants all over the place. Smaller vines were deeply rooted into the ground and slowly expanding out but at a much slower pace than the other vines back in Empire City. They all could hear just inside all of the ponies in there in panic trying to get out.

"Don't panic in there, we're going to break you all out! Everybody stand clear!" called Steven. Steven summoned bubbles over his fists and tried to force his way in there, alongside Connie with her sword slicing away at the vines, but both weren't making that much progress and were only attracting flytraps their way. Steven gasped in surprise, but Connie was quicker to react and her sword managed to slice the head in two before it could do anything.

"Of course," Connie replied. More flytraps began to appear, but Spinel quickly got them covered and wrapped them up in knots to keep them busy for a while.

"None of you are getting my big brother, you hear me?!" Spinel warned the plants, as she tightened their knots. Steven and Connie moved back towards Twilight, the Alicorn trying to get a way in there. However she started to remember a ability of Steven's and quickly looked to him.

"Steven, time to bowl up," Twilight said. Steven knew exactly what she meant by that, and he felt himself become levitated off of the ground. Steven was brought back as far as Twilight could make him, as the Diamond hybrid summoned up not a bubble, but a spiked pink ball around himself. If they were going to get in there fast they needed a one-strike. Twilight swung her head forward and Steven rocketed right for the plant wall. It was a good thing Steven told the others inside the stand clear, because he barreled right through the plant wall in no time at all, leaving a big tunnel through the vines. Steven skidded to a stop as the other three got their way inside, Twilight having to use her aura to keep the vines from re-growing and sealing off the tunnel.

"Hurry!" Twilight shouted. A large group of Unicorns saw the chance and stampeded through the tunnel they've created as Twilight struggled to keep all the weight from caving in on them. A good total of fifty ponies managed to get out of Canterlot's increasing plant binding!
The four found some of their group already present in the city; Peridot, Diopside, Rainbow Dash and Rarity going around and fighting off the Plundervines as best as they could.

"Get out of this city, you invading green vines!" Diopside shouted, using her acid to force off a Plundervine from one of the buildings so a family of ponies could get out. Rainbow Dash handled as best she could from the air, flying around like lightning and hitting any Plundervines that got in her way. She even grabbed one Plundervine and with tricks learned from Applejack, got it lassoed around several others and tied down still.

"Twilight! You four got an escape route handy? We keep busting through these walls, but these vines aren't giving up!" Rainbow Dash asked, before having to buck off another Plundervine flytrap.

"Get everyone out through there! Twilight can't hold it any longer," Steven called.

"You all heard him! OUT!" called Rainbow Dash. She and the others with her got the residence of Canterlot moving towards the tunnel, and charged through as fast as their hooves could carry them. The Plundervines were brutally crushing her, and they could tell she can't hold it up long enough for them all to make it out of there, Spinel and Steven helping others along with Diopside and Rarity as best they can. Connie was seeing the result faster though.

Twilight gave up the fight moments after he spoke, the Alicorn only able to release her magic and bolt back inside before all the vines slammed down over the tunnel. They all would've been crushed if they continued through there like they were doing.

"I got your girl!" Spinel said. Without even thinking, Spinel stretched her arms right through what opening they can make out in the mess of vines, leaving her arms stretching between them and Canterlot boundaries. It did take Spinel a little bit to find out where Connie actually was after some feeling around, but once she found her and the other ponies left there, she expanded her hands huge and then proceeded to grab them all. Covered safely by her own hands, Spinel tried to pull them out, but that was when she was having some trouble.

"Grrr! A little help here!" Spinel grunted, her feet on the wall as she pulled as hard as she could. Steven and Twilight quickly grabbed hold of her and pulled back hard, making the vine wall strain but unable to break. It only took the combine effort of both teams taking hold to finally have enough strength to make the vine wall give, sending them all back and what remaining ponies and Connie out of the city.

The vines did NOT like that, and went on the attack, making the Unicorns run like mad as far away as they could from the dangerous vines. Nothing worse than panicking ponies.

"Steven, Connie, Spinel, you three go on to Little Homeworld, I'll stay here and make sure everyone's safe. We'll join you back at base when we're done here, now go!"

"Good luck you guys," Steven said. Twilight went back towards Canterlot as the three ran off downhill.

With a quick jump from their Portal Keys, they got right from Canterlot to near the Everfree Forest, already finding that Equestria's Little Homeworld wasn't doing any better. In fact, one could say it was actually worse since the vines hid in with the forest so it had a constant spot to retreat to if needed. In a ways, it was already surrounded. And IMMEDIATELY the vines were attacking them. Spinel yelped and ducked to dodge one of the Plundervines stretching for her, only for Steven to block its bite with his shield briefly before taking Spinel away from the creature with an arm wrapped around her. Connie added some extra protection with a quick few slices to keep it back before running with them.

"How'd they get to Little Homeworld so fast?! Sumu's never even been over here!" Steven had to ask, not remembering Sumu ever actually visiting Little Homeworld before on this side.

"They're Plunder Vines, Steven, they came from this world! AND this forest!" Connie reminded, just before Steven had to bring up his shield to block another Plundervine from biting into them all. Connie swung her sword to slice the head off the plant. However, this time the regrowing head turned HUGE, big enough to swallow all three of them whole if it wanted to. Steven instinctively brought out a bubble for protection, and the three were stuck in the large jaws of this large plant. Steven strained and struggled, and had enough energy to release a pulse of energy, forcing the Plundervine back.

"Lead the way!" Spinel said, all three of them running for it just to avoid a large bite from the plant. Numerous other Plundervines started chasing them down as they made their run towards the Warp Pad, too frantic to notice they were the only ones on this side of Little Homeworld.

"Lead the way faster!" Spinel yelled, picking the two up and going almost sonic-style running speed to reach the Warp Pad. Spinel's boost was just enough to get them to the Warp Pad in time, a full swarm of flytrap heads ready to swallow them whole.

They quickly got the Warp Pad working just in time, but the warpstream almost seemed to bring some of the Plundervines with them through the Warp Pad's mainstream, all three of them trying to keep them back away from themselves. None of them were attached to anything after checking, but they sliced them up to be absolutely sure by the time they got to Earth's Little Homeworld.
Wouldn't you know it, THIS side was just as bad as Equestria's Little Homeworld, vines wrapped everywhere and unlike before actual Gems in danger. And what was even worse was an extra surprise for them when they got off the warp pad. The Plundervines they chopped up in there included a severed head of one, which on landing on the ground, re-rooted and grew into a full plant right then and there!

"They regrow bodies too!" exclaimed Spinel in disbelief. The large plant opened its mouth wide to bite down on all of them, but before it could even manage to bite into them, something flew in the air and slam down hard onto the creature, a huge boulder slamming into the mouth to keep its bite to itself.

"Guys!" shouted a voice nearby. They turned and saw Bismuth there, alongside Applejack and Jasper fighting off the Plundervines near Bismuth's forge.

"Twilight's helping in Canterlot right now, how're you guys doing over here?" asked Steven.

"They're putting up a heck of a fight, but we're holding them off: the Quartzes living here are fighting them too. We got them armed up and everything," Bismuth explained, the group seeing at least four of them fighting the vines off with weapons crafted from the Forge, including swords and axes, whatever was sharp enough to cut through them. A bit barbaric in the fighting but that was just quartzes for you, as long as it was helping.

"Good job, but make sure they get evacuated too, we're not trying to just fight Sumu right now," reminded Connie.

"GRAH! GET BACK!" shouted Jasper, punching one of the plants square in the face and almost snapping it in two just for four vines to sneak up on her and grab her by each limb.

"Hold on, Jasper!" Applejack shouted, galloping over as quick as she could, dodging at least three more vines before reaching her. She jumped onto one, bucked away another, and grabbed one by her teeth and yanked it off of Jasper as the orange Quartz stomped on the fourth the make the Plundervine let go. Little Homeworld was in good protection here, and Spinel, Connie, and Steven went off out of there. They'll meet up soon enough.

Lucky for the three, Beach City was already well evacuated by the time they got to the borders of the place, not a single person up and anywhere in the town by the looks of it. As expected though, vines were everywhere there, wrapping around houses and buildings and leaving hardly anything left, even including Funland! A group of Beach City inhabitants were standing well clear of the borders, Nanefua looking on in concerned as the trio arrived to them.

"Not everybody," said Bill Dewey in fear, "One of your moms won't come out of the city. you know, the big one with the square head?"

"Big one with - GARNET!" Steven gasped, "Thanks Bill Dewey. Spinel, Connie, come on!" Steven said. Who knows how long Garnet's been in there?!

As the plants were still active and looking for more people in the town, the trio made their way from the borders right into the center of town to try and find Garnet. The Boardwalk, which just yesterday was clear and full of activity was now nothing more than a walkway for the vines to creep around the place. The three had to watch themselves from tripping on the vines while fending off any flytraps that showed up for them. Not even any seabirds were nearby the town with all these plants around, and any that flew close were just snapped away by the flytraps. These in particular were fairly aggressive and on their tails through much of the way.

"Spinel!" Steven and Connie skidded to a stop seeing Spinel stuck in the wrapping vines on her foot, the horde of flytraps looming in closer still. Steven pulled her as much as he could, but her foot was wrapped up tight and not letting her go. Connie thought fast, and pulled out her sword and got the vine sliced off of her foot, but the screeching Plundervines were already right on top of them, starting with a bite onto Spinel's foot!

"It's gonna take you too!" yelped Spinel, more scared of seeing Steven die over her, "J-Just go without me!"

"We're not leaving you behind Spinel, I promise you that's not going to happen," Steven said, bringing up his shield. As the plant tried to regain its bite, Steven shoved the shield in between its jaws to give Spinel just enough room to wriggle her foot free. Connie even pried the shield up with her sword for extra measure. Steven however had to re-summon the bubble to counter the rest of the horde and keep the others safe as a whole wave of the vines surrounded the bubble around them. All they could see was slithering vines all around them, with the occasional mouth trying to bite into it and break the shield.

"This is it. They're gonna eat us! They're gonna destroy us and leave us alone forever!" Spinel whimpered, wrapping her arms tightly around Steven in fear like a small child.

"Just keep it together! There's got to be an opening somewhere," Steven said in a strained voice. They tried finding some way out, but the Plundervines refused to let any of them go. Little by little, the Plundervines started to overwhelm the trio, making the bubble smaller and smaller. It seemed the Plundervines had found their next meal ...

Luck was on their side today! As soon as it seemed like their fate was sealed, an outside explosion forced the Plundervines off of the three just as the bubble would've given way. Spinel was covering her head as Steven was catching his breath and Connie was on her knees. The three needed a moment to realize that they were free to move again, and as the smoke began to slowly clear up they soon found the one who saved their lives from being Sumu's targets.

"This way. Now," Garnet instructed urgently, rushing over in a single motion, and grabbing all three of them: Connie and Steven under her arms as Spinel held onto her back. Garnet bolted off out of there just as the Plundervines came back to and began their chase again after them. Garnet's quicker speed though left the Plundervines further behind, and good thing too as Garnet made her way right to the Beach House (which was almost being invaded itself by Plundervines on the cliffside). Garnet went through so quick she practically flew through Steven's room and right to the Warp Pad in the cave, as the Plundervines began to try and make their way into the house.

"Every single one of them. Now's the time to get back to our base. We'll work out a game plan there, and you'll be safe from Sumu," Garnet said.

The Plundervines were tearing apart the Beach House, right down to the floorboards! Every single thing inside that beach house was being eaten alive and torn to pieces by this invading horde, no appliance or materials left unturned in the slightest. If they were gonna go, they had to go NOW, and one stomp got the Warp Pad moving.

The Warp Pad got them in the warpstream fine, but their quickness to leave made some of the Plundervines get teleported with them too, and this time they weren't going to get them get away, the "floor" under them filled with at least five mouths. Garnet had to make a dire call here.

Steven, Spinel, and Connie held on as tight as they could to Garnet, the warping plants stretching up from below. Garnet brought out one gauntlet glove, but she didn't aim for the plants, but instead shot in front of her. The propulsion launched herself, Steven, Spinel, and Connie, out of the Warpstream and out into Warp Space. The plants refused to follow them outside of the Warpstream, for it was far too cold and too low in oxygen for them to even remotely attempt to follow them through. One overly eager vine did try, but it got way too cold and got frostbitten almost immediately, and bolted back into the warmth of the Warpstream. Steven and Connie held their breath, but Garnet knew they wouldn't last for too long out here. Lucky for them, they had something planned for this.
Steven and Connie were then propelled by another one of Garnet's gauntlet launches, moving them away from the Warpstream, and over towards what looked like a Warping orb. It had similar coloration to the Warpstream, only this one didn't connect to the Warpstreams coming in and out. Garnet managed to fish out her own Portal Key and threw it through Warp Space right to the warping orb, creating their own Warpstream from it to connect to the four, sucking them into it. The four fazed through, landing inside with a bit of a fall but no true damage comparatively speaking. Both humans could finally breathe again, and they were greeted by a welcoming sight.

The orb was much larger inside than outside, and showed what appeared to be a sort of base. In fact, this area was indeed Earth's Moon Base, and most of the Harmony Gems, and numerous others from Sniper's Realm fight that filled up the base. This included the three other Diamonds and Pillars of Equestria, telling them that Empire City was successfully evacuated. Among them even included Tempest Shadow and some of her storm creatures left in the realm by Grogar, requested by White Diamond

"A well-calculated idea choosing the Moon Base, Twilight. That monster won't be able to access here without a Warp Pad," White admitted.

"Exactly why we thought of this place. Now we can finally come up with a plan without anything peering in on us," Garnet agreed. That would be the best thing they could do right now. As everyone finally took time to calm down in there, Steven began seeing Hessonite sitting nearby, her gemstone still causing her some trouble.

"Here Connie, Spinel, you two relax for a bit I'll be right back," Steven said. Spinel needed some encouragement to actually let Garnet go, but a few tugs from Garnet herself got her to relax her grip and rest on the floor as Steven tended to Hessonite. There still was a bit to talk about however, and they had to figure something out before their worlds become a complete greenhouse, which at the rate it was going wasn't that far away.
Steven kneeled down by Hessonite and he got his healing spit to work on her gemstone, the Gem herself cringing a little.

Best to just let him do his magic, even if it was a little gross. Besides, they got a lot more problems to worry about now. Nearby, Spike already had a quill and list to check off some things.

"So that's Canterlot handled, Ponyville's gone into hiding before we got there, Diamond City's on lockdown, Empire City, Little Homeworld, and Beach City's evacuated ... okay, looks like everything on our end," said Spike, concluding the checklist. Twilight was sure glad to hear that.

"Well that's all fine and good," said a stressed Yellow Diamond, "And I know you have your priorities like the rest of the ponies, but we need to keep focus or all three worlds will be all trapped in this overgrowth of organic matter!"

"Regardless on the count," Garnet concluded, "The longer we wait, the stronger she gets. We need some form of attack to remotely stand a chance against her."

"And how do you propose we're gonna do that?" Aquamarine questioned, "You tell me something we can use that out beats a DOOMSDAY DEVICE!"
That logic did make this look very grim for many of them. They tried thinking of something against Sumu but for all the knowledge Sumu had on them all they barely knew enough against her to figure out a prominent answer outside of the obvious. Hardly many answers came up at first.

"This is a riddle we have to unravel," said Somnambula. "This creature's knowledge is as vast as its own flora."

"Well let's work off what we know: Sumu was once a bunch of Plunder Vines planted by Discord a thousand years ago to get them to attack the Tree of Harmony, and it's gained sentience thanks to magic coming in from Steven's world. It can grow and regrow any part of itself just like a plant can do, only a lot faster and has invaded everywhere we've known. ....... Do any of you have any ideas to stop this thing?" Twilight concluded.

"As fun as that would be, it's one of the few things I don't have. I gave up on that thing eons ago, so I stopped watching it," Discord said. Rare for him to say, but this is indeed a rare-case scenario.

"Okay, is there anything you can tell us about it?" corrected Blue Diamond. Discord wasn't enjoying any of this anymore than anyone else, so he had to try this again. Anything to get back at that monster for destroying his favorite pony's home.

"When you put it that way ..." Discord did some snapping work and got out a red sofa, and one of those chapter books, the Draconequus dressed up in casual tux and reading glasses. Might as well look the part if he was gonna tell his story. He opened the book, showing pictures of his explanation with the plant as we spoke. "Well, back during my not-so-happy days as your original tyrant chaos spirit, I had my plunderseeds planted that should have stolen the magic from the Tree of Harmony and captured Princess Celestia and Princess Luna thousands of moons ago. Alas, it seems the tree had enough magic to keep the seeds from growing up big and strong. Until a few years ago that is."

"That doesn't explain how it got into Earth and Homeworld in the first place," Jasper said. Discord sighed.

"Not one of my better choices. Some ponies were having trouble, I was relaxing with a cool drink, so when Twilight showed I kinda just snapped them away from existence. Which seemingly ended up in your world Steven. So uhh ... my bad."

"So you just decided to throw it on another world and made it their problem? That's very irresponsible of you, I do hope you're aware of this," Starswirl said.

"Says the unicorn who banished three sirens onto planet Earth to get them out of Equestria," reminded Steven. Starswirl recoiled on the memory, bringing his hat down so it covered his gaze.

"Well it's not like I meant to have to get THIS out of hand," Discord insisted guiltily, "I only meant to teleport it away, not for it to get stronger on me."

"Well that's the thing about magic," noted Starlight, "it isn't truly something one could just "study". I mean, yes, you can learn it, and use it, but to truly predict what magic can do is just too complex."

"Well yeah, even in my years of working with magic, I've suffered quite my own hiccups. ... Like almost destroying Equus for meddling with the space-time continuum," Starlight replied, the last part a bit embarrassed to say as she turned her gaze to her hooves.

"So traveling back in time's out of the question, I assume," concluded Yellow Diamond. How easy of a fix that would be if they could just jump back in time to fix this little mishap, yet Starlight was completely against that idea and just nodded her head. If removing the sonic rainboom could result in a apocalyptical war, who knows what removing the Plunderseeds from the timeline could do to the worlds? Forbid Homeworld from reconciling with Earth? Make the Barn pop up on the moon!? It's anyone's guess, and with so many options they were not willing to risk that kind of thing with this.
Starswirl made the opening, and all it really did was make the wall transparent for a brief moment of time. And they began to see the Earth itself turn a dark green all over the place. North America was turning into the rainforest with this beast's vines, and it was still expanding. Lion gave a snarl on sight of all of this.

"Our monster is spreading fast. If we don't act now, all of the worlds will be consumed," Starswirl confirmed.

"Yes, but how? We can't hurt her apparently, and whatever we try she just regrows back," Flint reminded. As if they needed to say it again.

"Maybe we can uhh ... burn her down? She is a plant, and plants burn a lot in fire," Spinel thought.

"Not a chance: that'll burn wherever else she's in. Plus we don't have enough fire to make that happen," Garnet made clear. Well it was a good thought anyway. But there was someone that might have an answer for them, looking over towards two figures amongst the big crowd: Tempest Shadow and Star Quartz.
The Unicorn remained laying there by the wall of the Moon Base, tired from all of the emotional battling she'd been stuck with already.

"I'm just tired. Breaking my horn was emotionally exhausting," Tempest admitted, rubbing her broken horn a bit more as she stayed put.

"Let's just say I woke up. For years I thought I'd be fine once if I can get my horn back, but ... if that also means following such a madman like Grogar, it's not worth it. There's nothing to gain -"

"Alright, you're sorry, we get it, now can you tell us about Sumu before the world ends?" Aquamarine quickly cutted in.

"Aquamarine, manners! ... But really, it wouldn't hurt," added Hessonite. Tempest got the point across either way, so she got up onto her hooves, her head still ironically heavy even without the horn.

"I would if I could. Grogar's always limited everyone's contact with that plant ever since he found her. All I know is that she talks to plants and that's it. My guess for stopping her now is as good as anyone else. I barely ever spoke with her about anything," Tempest said.
That didn't sit very well for them. With the images of Grogar getting eaten by Sumu flashing in their heads again, it was painfully clear that whatever weakness Sumu had was Grogar's knowledge, and that Ram took it with him. Before anyone could say anything though, Star Quartz started to perk up.

"I think something like an apple core? She said she has one deep inside of her and she hurts if someone tries to take it from her. Or something," Star Quartz revealed. tar Quartz didn't think that much of it as anything too special, but everyone else in the room found this to be their only real lead to anything. It was something they had to take.

"So all we have to do is get in there, and get that core out. Simple enough. We just need to figure out a way to get inside her," concluded Applejack. A rather disturbing thought to actually work with, but by now it was all they got left. Though, the matter of HOW to do it was very important.

"Well, what can we do? I'm guessing getting eaten is not really the best option," said Diopside.

"Can it even digest rocks?" Starlight asked. NOT something they wanna think about ...

NOW the odd suggestions were coming from young Padparadscha, who hadn't even uttered much of a word up until this point.

"I don't know if you'd notice, Sapphire, but Sumu's already the size of a continent - almost literally. How's it gonna help if we shrink?" Aquamarine pointed out.

"Aquamarine is a pain in the neck, but for once she's got a point," Emerald agreed.

"Wait a minute," Flint then said, thinking a bit more intently about this subject. "... Perhaps we are already small enough to venture inside of her, but with high risk of her seeing us. ... But what if we were small enough to go inside her undetected? If we were small enough compared to Sumu, it could be possible to go inside of her without him being even aware of our presence."

"And while we're inside, he would be vulnerable to our attacks! Good thinking Padparadscha!" said Starlight. Padparadscha took a minute before she actually looked alarmed, but blushed a bit too. nice to receive a compliment from a good mind. In fact, this idea was even enough for the Diamonds to consider.

"While normally I'd take such suggestions with a grain of stardust ... if it's what we have to do to defeat Sumu before our worlds become his garden. Then so be it," White Diamond concluded.

"As do we," Starswirl agreed, the Pillars of Equestria in agreement too. "Though we still need a way to even reach Sumu that close without provoking her forces."
SO CLOSE. Luckily for them though, this part was a bit easier to work out with, and Twilight began to work out the details first.

"And have her swat us away and kill us on site, like every other air attack. Twilight, we need a different approach," Sniper said.

"No, no, hear me out. This vessel we'd be in will be full of a smokescreen attachment, so when it makes contact with Sumu it will explode into a blinding steam. It will give us enough time to go into her body as she's distracted with that. Even if she hits us beforehand, we'd be small enough to ride the cloud into her and it'll have the same effect!"
Since when were Twilight's plans this risky? The bigger minds considered this kind of approach, imagining the scenario playing out in their mind. Sumu basically had eyes all over the place, be it ground or air, so any sort of approach otherwise would either be pointless, or take way too long to do. Garnet was checking her Future Vision on this plan in particular, looking at every single scenario with this plan involved, seeing if this would work at all.

"... It's crazy enough to work. Flash, call your Pegasus for an airstrike. Make sure our vessel is the last one dropped."

"But we don't have any vessels," said Blue Diamond. There was, however, only one look Discord needed to see one in the group that made him work something else out in his head. Something that didn't really need to involve shrinking.

"I'll take care of this," Discord said. The Draconequus did a few stretches, cracking his knuckles for some ultra focus. The chaos spirit got to work immediately, and he lined a perfect spot for the vessel to be dropped. It'd been a while so the few focused snaps actually were taking a bit of effort, but soon they all were armed up with just one vessel. One with a porthole in the top, built like a rocket.

"What would we do without you?" Garnet said. They started to make their way in there, but as Pinkie hopped inside, she quickly started discovering a little something about this vessel.

"I'm noticing a little flaw in your rocket: it's a little too tiny for everybody," Pinkie pointed out, which was true. Looking down into the vessel, Discord only made about three seats, compared to the twenty or so they all thought were going in there. Discord though didn't seem that worried about it, checking into the vessel himself first.

"Discord, there's over twenty of us, we can't all fit in there," said Rainbow Dash. Discord relaxed on the vessel for a bit, as if waiting for someone else to speak for him.

"Seriously, we don't have time for any of your jokes right now! Sumu's down there destroying the planet!" insisted Jasper.

"He knows what he did. Because he knows what I'm about to say," said Steven at last. The entire crowd looked over to him as he started walking over to the vessel.

"Steven, what're you -" the look on Steven's face was more than enough to say the words for him. "... No. No no nonono Steven, you can't go in there by yourself!"

"Guys, I'm not going to let any of you get hurt because of me. Red Diamond wants me to finish what Grogar started, remember? I've been running from this for too long."

"And look what he left behind!" Steven reminded back, pointing through the "window" and down to Earth, "Even when he's gone, he's still making everyone miserable right now, and now Sumu's rampaging out there. I have to put an end to this, and if things go really bad, I don't want any of you going down with me, okay?"
Steven tried getting himself into the vessel, pulling him up to the opening, but before he could go in there he felt a hand pull him back down.

"We're not going to let you go in there by yourself. I'm going with you," Connie said.

"What about YOU, Steven?" Connie cut in, "You already know how it feels losing someone you love, how do you think we'll all feel if you lose in there? If you have to face this, then we're all for it, but I'm not going to let you face it alone. I'll always be by your side, Steven. You're my Jam bud."

Steven looked ready to cry. A tear did manage to get out of his eye before he got himself together. Steven just simply nodded to her. Connie and Steven then remembered the third seat, and they already knew who that belonged to when they both looked over to Spinel. She wanted to go, she really did, but was it a good idea if Steven didn't want her to get hurt either?

"Eehh I want to, but you said you didn't want anyone gettin messed up in there, so ..."

"And we also promised we won't leave you behind," reminded Steven. Spinel didn't need any big long speech to change her mind on it, and already she was getting a bit emotional about it.
They don't have anymore time to talk about this now. Discord stood right by the vessel, and now that the main trio was ready to go off on their way, it was time to get the vessel filled up. But of course, they did not go in there without one more final goodbye to everyone in the Moon Base. The Crystal Gems and Mane Six went over to them and they all gave the three brave warriors a few goodbye hugs, and all three were ready to go on their way. Discord then provided the three with a set of devices.

"Some walkie-talkies. Just say the word, and I'll get you back growing to normal. I'm one snap away," Discord said. They won't defeat anyone being the size of ants. Spinel and Connie went inside first, and Steven gave one last look to everyone in the base with a smile, before settling down and closing the door. They all were going to be safe up on the moon while all this was going on. Flash Magnus was trotting over to get the vessel, but again Discord had a different idea, and lifted it up himself.

"You all heard him, he doesn't want anymore people hurt, so I'll get em down there. This chaos spirit has a debt to repay," Discord decided. They knew he meant that jokingly but still worth the time anyway just to be on the safe side. Unlike the others they couldn't really argue with the Draconequus.

"Remember Discord, you only got one shot at this. You HAVE to get them in there," Twilight said.

"Please be careful, Discord," Fluttershy said. Discord saluted his bestest friend in the universe like a real trooper, and with a snap from his tail, a flash covered the vessel and everyone inside, and now it was as small as an orange. Better safe than sorry. Discord looked to the vessel one more time before flying off on his way, disappearing in a flash of light.

Back on Earth in the city, Sumu was honestly not moving an inch. Her vines had deeply rooted into the now abandoned city, many buildings no longer being recognizable in the mass of vines and roots. The actual body of Sumu was left sitting there and in almost a bit of hibernation, the head lowered closer to her body as if sleeping, absorbing the essence from the world. Some stray helicopters were checking out the event, so this wasn't just some event going unnoticed by the population of the world. While nothing seemed to be around the area aside from Sumu's flora, Discord just appeared in a flash by a pile of rubble, dangerously close to the main core of Sumu. Discord felt humbled being in presence of this giant beast, but he knew he had a mission to do. He looked to the vessel one more time, before taking a breath.

"For Fluttershy. For Equestria," Discord told himself. It took the Draconequus some more effort to get moving, but soon he got himself off of the ground and flying into the air. Flytraps did start to notice him as he was flying up, some trying to snap at him but none of them really got close to him. The closest one got to was near the end of his tail, which Discord simply yanked away as he was flying up to Sumu's face. Aside from the wind, the sounds of low-booming breaths echoed from her. Discord simply had to knock on her head to get Sumu's attention, the huge corrupted plant's eyes opening up to see her "father" standing there in mid air.

"Hi honey. You've sure grown haven't you?" Discord started. Sumu no longer even recognized him, and growled viciously. Her growl alone was enough to make his body shutter, but Discord had to build this up.

"Now now, I know I haven't been the best dad ever, but it's time you and I had a daddy-daughter chat about your behavior. Has anyone told you how far you can stretch your vines before it becomes difficult?"

"Don't you snort at me, little lady! Do that again and I'll take away your growing privilege. Have some respect for your discount dad," Discord warned like an upset father. Sumu started to sneer at Discord, her mouth opened wide as horrid rotton flora breath seeped out and right onto the Draconequus. It was enough to make him coil up.

"And WHEN is the last time you brushed, sweetie?! Alright, that's it, I'm going to put you under stricter rules. You are to brush your teeth every morning until you at least smell like the daisy I know you can grow to be, then we're gonna talk about -"

*RAAAAAAHHHHHHH* Sumu roared, sending Discord flying off a bit. He almost dropped the vessel actually, but luckily he kept that from happening and now Discord was just upset with his "daughter".

"Well if you think you can do a better job, be my guest!" Discord yelled. And he chuckled the vessel right down in Sumu's nose, joined by a smoke bomb discord chucked at her face!

"GAH!" In a roar, the missile landed its mark, exploding in a mess of dust, smoke, and cloud fluff. Once the cloud cleared, Sumu found her face covered in white dust, namely over her muzzle. It was a bit of an odd move, but she thought little of it, as she focused her efforts more towards Discord. She wasted no time in roaring at the Draconequus, forcing Discord to move back quick. Once he was gone, she checked the stuff on her muzzle, accidentally giving a quick sniff. Annoyed, she gave her head a quick shake to get rid of whatever remained on her skin, before coiling back up to sleep. Discord got himself in a safer distance, but he knew that he did all he could do for now.

Now they were in. Spinel, Connie, and Steven tried to keep themselves steady inside their vessel. Going right down through Sumu's body was a very bumpy ride, the small vessel bouncing off of the interior walls of the plant. The interior of the actual vessel didn't allow them to see anything outside except for some small lights in it (Discord's idea), so they could only keep themselves down as they were thrashed around deeper and deeper into the body. Spinel provided the extra safety by wrapping her arms around Connie and Steven like a safety jacket, her getting banged around in the vessel and keeping the two from getting hurt before they could land anywhere. It took them forever before they could feel like the vessel had actually landed somewhere, the vessel rolling and landing down on what seemed to be some solid ground.

"I ... I think we made it. Get ready, I have no idea what's going to happen when we walk out of this," replied Steven, feeling just a bit dizzy from being banged around so much. Connie raised her sword and Spinel got into a boxer stance just before Steven went right over towards the opening in the vessel. One push open though, and suddenly the three were met with an almost blinding green light at first. Steven moved back, blocking some of the light before venturing out of the vessel into the unknown area.
The first thing they noticed was how banged up the Vessel actually was, numerous bumps and dents all over the Vessel from such a rough ride down. The second thing they noticed though easily out-weighed the actual damage done to any vessel. The area they landed in was colossal in size, only being matched comparatively by the Tindalos den they were in earlier, only here it was completely covered in foliage. Every inch was covered in either a vine, a leaf, or whatever else Plundervines were made of, leaving no source of view from the outside world able to enter. The whole "room" as it were was illuminated by what looked like a large orb on the wall, shaped like a sunflower seed and glowing a bright green. Inside the core was a very faint shape of a wilted plant, vaguely red and weak, connected down to the floor of Sumu's core. As if the core itself wasn't even apart of Sumu, the core also had a number of leeching vines wrapped around the wall, rooted in deep and making it impossible to budge. A low hum could be heard from the core, water flowing through its roots like pipes to the rest of the plant.

"Sumu's Core. Discord, we made it to the core, you can grow us back to normal now, over," Connie instructed through the walkie-talkie.

"You got it," discord said. They all heard a loud snap from the walkie-talkie, and sure enough, all of them (including the vessel) grew back to normal size. But even if no longer tiny ants the room was still extremely huge compared to them. The first thing any of them did was Steven going over to the core to get a better look at the plant within it. The wilted plant was drooping, leaves dead and hardly able to even straighten up. Connie and Spinel joined him up there.

"So is that really Sumu, or is that just a part of Sumu stuck in that core?" Connie wondered.

"I don't know, but the more we wait the more trouble our home's in. We got to get in there and fix this before we're too late. Now how do we get in this thing?" Steven said, feeling the exterior of the transparent core. The surface felt cool, see-through but hard like glass. As they were trying to work this out, Spinel then began to felt a small piece of vine drop onto her shoulder, making her look up ...

Steven, Connie, and Spinel rushed back when they realized who else was inside Sumu with them, weapons drawn and shock written all over their faces. The final player was standing on top of Sumu's core, standing there as the final defiance and a final stand against them after everything that happened.

"How're you alive?! We saw Sumu swallow you!" Spinel asked in disbelief. Grogar didn't answer at first, and instead made a leap off of the top of Sumu's core, landing down in between them and their only way to stop the monster from destroying the planet. Deciding not to give Spinel satisfaction, he simply didn't answer her question and focused his time on Steven.

"So. ... It's come down to this, hmm? One final fight for the fate of the world, YET AGAIN. This time with the higher steaks."

"Grogar, I know you hate doing this but, please listen. We don't need to fight eachother, this is NOT the answer, it doesn't matter what reasons you got! If you let this happen, it will destroy everything, even you! There will be nothing left when you get your army back together. Just let us save Sumu."

"You've destroyed everything I've worked for, taken a lot from me ever since we met last year, and this is the only thing I have left to make the world pay for what it's done to me. If you want to fix this, you're going to have to kill me first. You pathetic creature, you."

"Spinel!" Steven got his hand in front of her before she could jump in to beat Grogar up. "... This is between me and him."
Spinel stopped but, reluctantly, she stepped back alongside Connie. Steven took a few steps forward towards the Ram, this time not seeing the dictator god or even the undead monster. Just a Ram defying his final chance to save the world. He was not able to step away from it this time. Grogar snorted when Steven showed his shield to him.

"You can't ever fight without your weapons can you? You're too weak against me, and you know it."

"What's really important to you? Actually giving creatures like you a chance, or just the fact that you're stronger than everyone else? If you can't stand being weaker than anyone in the world, then you're no better than the dragon that destroyed your home."
Normally a comment like that would send Grogar over the edge, but strangely Grogar no longer felt as offended by the statement.

"Your Spirit tried that same thing, and I pushed her away too. What makes YOU think you can do it? ... What can you really do?"

Steven was just the person to tell him.

I can make a promise,
I can make a plan.

A song? Grogar was not a fan of them, but he allowed Steven what he thought was to be his last musical number. Steven meanwhile brought his hand up into a clenched fist. He had no choice. If it was either the world or him, then Steven had to make this fight count. Everyone's lives depended on it.

I can make a difference,
I can take a stand.

Steven took a step forward, this time in defiance towards Grogar. While Grogar's stomp was intimidating, Steven's stomp shook the ground underneath them, a aura and light of pink now filling up the room instead of Sumu's green, making Grogar step back looking around him.

I can make an effort,
If I only understand,
That I,

Grogar charged.

I can make a change!

The fight began. Grogar's charge right for him was met with a bubbled fist right between his horns, making the Ram stop dead in his tracks. Steven was on the ball this time, and each swing Grogar tried to strike him with was met with another bubble fist to block it fast. Grogar tried slamming both hooves on him, but Steven brought out his shield that time and forced Grogar back with a strong shove.
Grogar with his magic wouldn't be shoved around so easy, but now without any of it he had to put in the extra effort, and immediately after skidding back ten feet he raced right back at Steven at full speed, his jaws wide open. Steven actually took the bite onto his arm, feeling Grogar sink his teeth into his jacket but not his skin. This bite got Steven to swing Grogar around in a circle at least twice before Grogar had to let go. He landed on his hooves, but the spinning left him unsteady on his feet, actually slipping for a second before stabilizing himself.

"I understand Grogar. After everything you've been through, you must be in a lot of pain. More pain than anyone else in the world!" Steven said. Grogar felt his teeth clench by that correct sentence, but he tried not to let him get to him AGAIN, even scratching his own face.

"No! NO! Stop messing with my head, kid! You cannot control how I feel!" Grogar snapped, before charging right back at him again. Steven actually grabbed Grogar by the horns this time, and without Grogar's magic to electrify those horns of his that was enough to make Steven gain one-up on him, the Ram trying to push him to the wall.

"That's right! Only you can."

That didn't make Grogar any better, and in a swift grab he got hold of Steven's arm. This time he spun Steven around as fast and as brutal as he could before throwing Steven right towards the core, making him slam into it and making it crack. The hit though didn't knock Steven out, and he took it like a champ, landing on his feet.

You can make it different,
You can make it right.

As Steven kept singing this verse, Sumu's core began to continue to break open, the cracks expanding and actually adding some sparkle to Steven's own light. Grogar jumped for him again and Steven just jumped.

You can make it better,
We don't have to fight!

Almost as if in tune to his song, Sumu's Core behind him suddenly exploded open, the transparent shell like featherweight glass. Steven's pink light now covered the whole room, sparkling off of the featherweight glass as it gently landed on the ground around them. Spinel and Connie were amazed, and seeing this also was getting to Grogar again, but now his look was that of unsureness.

You can make an effort,
Starting with tonight!
'Cuz you,

Grogar jumped forward, smashing the glass on the ground.

You can make a... change.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP WILL YA?!" Grogar roared. That was when the fight itself took a severe turn, and Grogar grabbed the shattered glass and began throwing it at him, including a giant piece. Steven blocked off many of the fglying glass pieces, but Grogar snuck up on him in a mad run and just got a hold of Steven's foot, swinging him and slamming him into the ground! Grogar was going right for the throat. Or stomach to be exact.

"Steven!" Spinel and Connie yelled. Grogar got Steven's shirt up and saw Steven's gemstone right in front of him. There was only one way left ...

The world was silent. Quiet. No more fighting. No more war cries or screams. Steven's eyes could barely see the world around him, but they did ever so slowly start to come to. Connie was right there by his side, looked very scared for Steven and almost in tears at what was happening to him, whatever it was. Steven couldn't tell what that thing is though. Some time must've passed because from what little he could remember something must've left their mark on her, her already having a reddened face, one eye closed shut from her injury. Spinel was also right by him, the unknown attack leaving her bruised and battered. Steven couldn't make out anyone else, but distant murmurs told him just that much.

Ever so slowly, Steven began to remember what was going on. They all were still trapped encased inside Sumu's core. The Vessel they brought in there wasn't seen anywhere, instead shards and wrecks of it scattered all over the chamber. The core itself was no longer glowing at all, the shattered glass leaving the light more dim in the room, and the water bring seeped out of the core into the chamber as if Sumu herself didn't realize what was happening inside of her. And that wasn't the only scar he had left …

Steven's gemstone was missing. Not cracked. Not damaged. But missing. His gemstone was torn off of his own body, leaving nothing but a silent, gaping hole within him, both metaphorically and literally. No blood came out, but who knows how long Steven was even out for. Weak, and now terrified, Steven didn't know where to even look for it.

And there stood Grogar, with Steven's gemstone locked in his teeth. Instinctively Steven tried to reach for it, but Steven could barely even move, collapsing almost the second he took a step forward.

"N-No … please ...…. I need - .... I need it." Steven could barely even utter his plea to Grogar, but all that did was send a smile to the ram's face.

"Need what? This?" Connie, Spinel, and Steven watched in horror, as the ram made a simple swing of the head, and threw the missing core of Steven's being away out of sight, hidden in the darkness of the chamber's corners out of reach from him. Steven was barely able to comprehend too much, hardly even able to speak, but there was nothing Steven could do to stop him now.

"Have you figured it out yet, boy? As I've said at the start: In the real world, might is what keeps you on top. I'm among the mighty, YOU'RE caged, and at my command. And now it's all gonna be gone soon."

Grogar started walking towards them, Connie and Spinel standing over Steven to try in a last ditch effort to protect him. Connie was hardly able to stay on her own feet, damaged, but she will fight til her last breath in the face of this evil.

And Grogar made his move. Spinel and Connie were shoved aside and Grogar was right on Steven, his teeth already holding onto him. Grogar then laid it down on him, starting to slam his body into the metal floor.

"AND! STAY! DOWN!" Grogar roared, each word accompanied by a strong slam of Steven's body. Even if he was dying, Grogar was going to make sure of it this time. This was it. THIS was the end of Steven Quartz Diamond Universe.

"Stop!" Connie pleaded, her and Spinel trying to hold Grogar down. All that did was make the ram buck them off, sending them both into the wall, as he continued slamming Steven down over and over again. Steven could only feel pain from each impact, his vision blurring with each and every hit given to him. One final slam of Steven sent him rolling head over heels. Steven HAD to be gone now, he had to be.

"S-Steven ......." They went closer to Steven, holding him gently. He was not moving. Grogar was satisfied for the first time in a long time, and he turned to reclaim his kingdom.

There was one final thing. It started off as a very dim light, off in the darkness from earlier. It continued from there as a small step, echoing in the silence of Sumu's core interior. With a slow almost automatic gape, someone else was walking out of the dark, and into the light itself was creating, a pink light beginning to appear from it. The figure looked small. glowing a pink light. A mirror replica of that same boy in their arms.

A long silence echoed across the room, this other Steven just standing there. emotionless. A blank stare towards the other Steven. They couldn't read what this Steven was thinking, nor what it was feeling on seeing itself laying there like that. But the silence was eventually broken when Connie and Spinel looked to their Steven, finding that even after everything. After getting his gem torn out of him and pummeled to near extinction. Steven stirred, and opened his eyes.

"H-Help ....... help," Steven managed to say, his breath so weak. He didn't know who this was, but something kept telling him that he needed it. He had to reach it. He struggled and struggled, but he couldn't make it by himself. Before he could fall again, Spinel and Connie worked together, lifting him by his arms with a strong yet gentle hand.

"Wait, what're you doing? But you - YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD! HOW'RE YOU STILL MOVING?!" Grogar roared. But none of them even listened to him.

Step by step, one at a time, both Stevens slowly began to come closer together. Tears streamed down Steven's tired eyes as he fought to hold on, as the Pink Steven slowly continued moving forward at equal speed. But there was just one thing standing in their way, as he moved right in between both Stevens. The three stopped moving, along with Pink Steven. Rather than talk to Steven, this final obstacle turned to the new Steven.

The Pink Steven didn't answer, looking as if it didn't realize Grogar was even there. Grogar snarled.

"Look, Pink Diamond, if that's what you are. I've torn him up, torn him down, several times already and SOMEHOW he's still here! I'm not going to let him live this time."

"....... I'm not Pink Diamond," the Pink Steven responded, his voice matching Steven but said nice and slow, monotone as well.

"Gone? What're you talking about?! ANSWER ME!" Grogar demanded. This time, Pink Steven didn't respond to him, much to his anger

The world itself shook. ONE yell from this Pink Steven make the entire room shutter, cracks sprouting everywhere and anywhere, even a crater itself spontaneously popping up from under Pink Steven's feet. Any glass near him almost disintegrated, it shattered so fast. Life's greatest mystery now was that Spinel didn't completely shatter on the spot. It was THIS power that made Grogar feel something he hadn't felt in a long time ...

Both Steven's locked eyes again, though this time the other Steven was feeling hurt, covering his ears and crying again. Pink Steven actually, very briefly, felt sorry he did that, but they could hardly tell. With that made clear, Pink Steven slowly began moving towards their Steven again. At first Grogar didn't budge, actually allowing Pink Steven to pass him. Connie, Spinel, and Steven went on again, slowly moving ever closer until Grogar came to his senses again.

"H-Hold it!" Grogar demanded, running in front of it again, despite the initial shock and still stuttering, "You take one more step, and I'll turn you into dust!"

Pink Steven didn't even break stride. Grogar was angry at this new Steven, but he was actually backing up as Pink Steven tried to reach his other half.

Still nothing. Angry again, Grogar, desperate, reared back on his hind legs for a roar to the sky before actually charging right for this Steven. Pink Steven just kept walking, and only briefly stopped when Grogar rammed him ... it was like running right into a platinum wall, and Pink Steven didn't even budge. Grogar gave another shot at this Pink Steven, but again he couldn't even move him, not even scratching Pink Steven. Whatever power this Steven had, it was far beyond anything Grogar could stand against, Pink Steven continuing to march forward some more.

"I SAID STOP!" Grogar screeched, sending one more ram right on Pink Steven. However, this did make Pink Steven stop briefly and turned its attention directly onto Grogar. All it had to do was gran Grogar by his own horns and throw him aside, the very force enough to send Grogar through Sumu's body, launching him outside! It was hardly even an effort for Pink Steven to do.
It was just Spinel, Connie, and both Stevens now. With Grogar out of the way, Spinel and Connie gently brought Steven over towards his pink self ever so gently, and soon, Steven felt Pink Steven's touch.

Steven was then cradled in Pink Steven's arms, his eyes watering up again as Connie and Spinel quietly moved back. Steven felt quiet at first, feeling the comfort and warmth in this other Steven's arms. With all the pain he'd been receiving, this sort of comfort was actually almost overwhelming. Steven started crying again, but what came out weren't tears of sorrow but tears of joy, as he started to laugh and hug the other Steven. Pink Steven began to feel the same emotions and hugged Steven's back, both laughing with pure happiness. After all the torment they both had gone through, it was such a nice feeling to be together again. Steven, during all of this and much to the joy of the others, slowly began to come more alive, spinning with Pink Steven and holding its hands, able to stand on his own feet. A light began to emit from both Stevens during their joy, both starting to spin faster and both starting to come together into the singular being.
In this process it was a gift to all of his friends, for as they were together, that same pinkish light started to come out to the others in waves, spreading in all directions, coating Steven's friends in both needed energy, comfort, and protection under a shade of pink for them all. They all began to look good as new, and FEEL good as gold as they began coming up to life again. Once that was done, Steven stopped spinning, a smile on his face, and tears in his eyes.

"STEVEN!" Connie and Spinel were the first to meet with Steven, hugging him tight and Connie even kissing him. That's the second time today that they almost lost him to Grogar. Steven felt more alive than ever before, along with his pink-shaded friends. He had to return their hug to them, to show them once and for all that they were still okay and still there.
All this activity inside of her began to make Sumu stir, the entire room starting to shift ever-so-slightly as a low moan emitted from within the massive creature. She made amends to her own body by covering up the hole with more Plundervines, blocking off any exit they could've been given to get out. These vines were also accompanied by a set of flytraps as a line of defense inside of her, hissing at them in protest to the pain they just gave her. All that time with Grogar and they almost forgot the reason they were here at all. But now with him out of the way and Steven alive again, it was time to deal with Sumu.

Connie and Spinel were all smiles as they let him walk over to the wilted plant in the middle of Sumu's core. So much activity inside of Sumu and the wilted plant itself was just left shivering almost, cold and maybe even scared of what Steven was going to do. The Half Hybrid Gem went down on his knees gently, and he only needed to do one thing. He went down to the plant, and gently placed his lips on top of it for a simple kiss. The plant shuttered feeling the magic start to flow in it, but this kind of magic was life-giving unlike the curse Grogar left on her. The dead leaves started to perk up back to life, the stem straightening up with new strength, and the bud? Well it began to blossom and open up into a small, pretty pink flower.

Everything seemed to happen all at once. As soon as the flower came back to life, the green color inside of Sumu's chamber began to shift away and brighten up into a calmer pink hue, spreading all throughout the vines within Sumu, as if the essence of chaos and evil were being drained away from this creature's very blood. The trio moved closer together, Steven bringing up a bubble around themselves not really for protection against Sumu, but so they can watch it without getting hurt, as the pink essence moved across them. The flytraps hissing started to quiet down as the pink life seeped into them, transforming the flytraps into pink blossoms. Sumu herself began to feel something new grow within her, enough to stir her completely out of her sleep to find her entire body shifting color from dark green to light pink. She felt so confused, so conflicted, shaking her head over and over again as if getting a migraine as it consumed her mind ... but in a good way.

Once that color covered the main source, all of the vines that branched out from everywhere in the world suddenly started feeling the same effects. All Plundervines lost their spines and dark colors, replaced with the pink warm hue, and all vicious flytraps now being replaced by sweet-smelling flowers. All worlds effected by Sumu stood and watched this ultimate transformation: Equestria, Earth, Homeworld, and wherever worlds Sumu had sprouted her branches to undergone this same transformation, and the advancement of her roots all stopped altogether. Whatever fighting they were to defend themselves against Sumu also paused for a brief bit as they were wondering what was even happening. The moment of beauty from all of these plants though wasn't to last, as the vines all began to retreat away. Buildings once wrapped in the vines gently released and even mended somewhat by the vines in whatever they wrecked. It was a small repayment but it was worth something as the entire countryside was being freed of these plants. The monstrous center of Sumu began to shrink down, the horrifying look morphing and changing into the human-like face they knew for the longest time. The vines themselves began to disappear in a sea of petals as they retreated, giving North America and anywhere else the biggest blossom storm in history. Sumu was cured of her corruption.

And just like that, it was over. As if the signify this moment, the sun NOW started to rise to reveal the end result the next morning. Grogar himself could barely come to after the crazed attack, but the end came up to show that he was the loser in this invasion. Weak, worn out, and light-headed with what remained of his horns now scattered as clumps on the ground, Grogar saw nothing but ... well, nothing from his side, as he slowly picked himself up along the beach he was thrown onto. No troops, no creatures, no remaining ships left. Not a thing to tell others that he tried taking over in the first place. Grogar silently took everything in during this silence, until he then heard something land close by.

"I only make jokes when it's supposed to be funny," Steven reminded. Grogar paused for a moment, but then a smile came to his face. He had just one final trick. Desperate, but it was all he had left.

"… You still never answered me, by the way. What then, eh? When they're gone and you're still here? I asked you once before, and you never answered me. Well? ..."
Steven and Twilight of all people knew what that meant, and it was a question that had been stuck with them for a very long time, although never really admitting it. Twilight and Steven looked to one another, but this time they didn't have a look of utter shock or confusion as Grogar wanted. But they felt … quiet. Calm even. Twilight nodded to Steven, and she decided to answer for them.

"...…. What? …" Grogar's voice was barely loud enough for a mouse to hear with that question.

"I'm okay with that, Grogar. And I understand: There's no guarantee that everything's going to stay the same forever like we want it. But the time we spend together ... that will never disappear. And that's fine by me."

"I'm fine with it too, really. I know everything can't stay the same forever, but … well, that's life. It's supposed to change, and if I do end up alone, well … at least I have my memories of all the good times we had together."

"...…. You're serious? You ……. But. How? After everything I did to you. To them, I - … I corrupted your love. I shattered your friends. I took away your home. Everything. … I … I scarred you for life." Grogar's voice was full of pain of a different kind as he told them all this, more so when his words weren't effecting any of them at all. This pain was more on himself, not on them.

"I don't care what scars do," Grogar growled. Though, after everything, there indeed was something Grogar was caring for in his scars, mentally and all.

"You really should, Grogar," said Twilight. "... I won't deny that the past can effect someone as they grow up, and some things like Celestia's death would have a big effect. But just because it can change you, doesn't define who you are."

"I do," said Steven, "... My mom, Pink Diamond, was the leader of the Crystal Gems, and while I grew up I kept hearing just how much good she did. How much I had to live up to. I thought that, maybe if I was more … well, like her. Everything will be fine. … But no. No, I'm NOT her. And I never will be. I'm not Pink Diamond, OR Rose Quartz. I'm me. I'm Steven."

"... Listen. The past can hurt, but you gotta let it go because it just doesn't matter. … The only thing that matters is what you decide to do right now."

Grogar ... something in him broke, but not the same breaking as it would be when he would go ballistic on everyone trying to kill them. This break was to the eyes, as tears began to come out of them. He tried SO HARD, and he still couldn't do it. He lowered his head, his teeth barred in a weak attempt to make any of them scared, any of them recognize him as the strong ruler he always told himself he was ... but it wasn't working. Nor will it ever.

"You got me. I can't keep this up anymore. The worlds are yours, lad, congratulations. So ... Finish it. I won't stop ya," Grogar said, laying there in the sand and waiting for the Harmony Gems to finish him off once and for all. However, none of them were willing to go near him just yet except for Steven, concerning that they were beginning to hear something else start to come up along the beach towards him. Someone that only Steven ever had met and lived to tell the tale.

How. Fitting. After everything that happened, it wasn't until now that death herself began to manifest herself before them all. Grogar had avoided the Red Diamond for long enough. The rest of the Harmony Gems knew better than to even go near her as she made herself known from myth to flesh. Strangely too, the Harmony Gems didn't seem too scared of Red Diamond showing up. Cautious yes, but not enough to make them freak out. The only guess was they must've seen her while they were "shattered" for a time.

Red Diamond slowly moved over towards Grogar, a look of disappointment edged on the titan's face, but not one of threat. Grogar didn't feel needing to fight anymore, exhausted and not wanting to keep up this war game anymore. Red Diamond gently picked him up off of the sand, cradling him in her arms. Not a word was spoken between her and the others standing nearby, only focusing on her purpose and bringing Grogar back with her. They could see that she was talking to Grogar, but they couldn't hear her at all. Grogar grew tired, and closed his eyes while resting in her grip. It's what he would've wanted. Red Diamond took one look towards Steven one more time, before she slowly turned around, and walked away. Disappearing in the breeze alongside the ram himself.

"Hmm, so ... post-apocalyptic donuts. A rather unorthodox choice," said Peridot, as she took a bite from her donut.

"I know. But there's plenty of time for surprises, adventures, and challenges to come. For now, all I want is to spent a quiet time with the best group of friends I've ever had," replied Twilight, taking a bite from his.

"Well mostly quiet," Applejack chuckled, seeing Pinkie and Spinel gobble up theirs.

So much had happened over the course of a single day, it was only natural for everyone involve to finally relax and unwind some. For the Harmony Gems, nothing said unwind like a moment along the beach. All of the Harmony Gems were there enjoying themselves, either with donuts or just in the new warmth of the spring sun.

"What a day though. It's a war, a invasion, AND a doomsday all rolled into one. Who's of guessed huh?" said Amethyst as she gulped her donut.

"Who would indeed? And who would've guessed Sumu would actually mend some of her mistakes. Speaking of which, where is that plant anyway? Haven't seen her since this all stopped," asked Flint.

"She found her cozy spot back by Rose's Fountain," explained Lapis, "She's all worn out from being a huge monster for a night."

"Who could blame her?" said Diopside, remembering her own experiences as a corrupted.

"Well no matter the case, we got a LOT of time to get our dreams coming true until that "happily ever after" comes. Right Steven?" asked Garnet. Steven sighed and laid down, looking up at the sky.

"I'm not in any hurry for it to happen. Happily Ever After can come whenever it wants to. Until then, I'm just happy to be here, with all you guys. Besides, whatever will happen is going to work out just fine."

"How can you tell that? You get future vision while in pink form?" joked Spinel.

"So that aside, what'chu playing?" Pinkie asked, looking to Steven's guitar he had been stringing for the past twenty minutes.

"I bet it'll sound amazing," said Connie, gently bringing her hand to Steven's hand. Steven could only smile.

My Little Universe II

by EquestrianKirin

True Kind of Love PT3