//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Peridot // Story: A Princess’s New Playmate: A MLP/Steven Universe Crossover // by Lord Shadow Eclipse //------------------------------// Back in the Human World When Amy came out of the bathroom, Jessica was nowhere to be seen. She looked to the left and right of the immediate vicinity, but she could not see her best friend anywhere. What happened? Where did she go? Amy was starting to panic. "Where is she? Did she get herself kidnapped? No, there's too many witnesses around for that.", Amy thought while still trying to come up with some excuse as to why Jessica might have disappeared. She decided that the best thing for her to do was to ask around to see if anyone dressed like Spinel was seen. The first one she asked was a rather peculiar-looking vendor. The vendor she went up to looked odd, to say the least. He had a long black coat, a black hat, Coke-bottle glasses that covered his eyes, and a creepy grin on his face. His booth was a mashup of different cosplay paraphernalia. Still, Amy saw that his booth was within sight of the women's restroom, so she knew he had to have seen her. "Hey, have you seen my friend? Looks like Spinel from 'Steven Universe'?", Amy asked the creepy vendor. He just continued to grin. "First of all, people call me 'The Merchant'. Second of all, I did see Spinel. Just a short time ago, in fact. She had purchased one of my special gemstones.", the "Merchant" said, producing a case of beautiful and real-looking gems. The beauty and quality of these gems caught Amy off-guard. She had to admit that they were indeed beautiful. These stones looked way to good to be fakes. Amy mentally slapped herself in the face. "Focus, you clod! You are supposed to be looking for Jessica! Not gawking at possibly-real gemstones like a magpie!" "You said that you saw my friend. Do you know where she went?", Amy asked hopefully. The Merchant put his finger to his chin in thought. "I'd say she's having an out-of-this-world experience.", the Merchant replied. Amy was quickly getting annoyed with this Merchant. "Do you know where she is or not, you clod?!", Amy shouted. The Merchant kept his cool. Then he leaned in closer to Amy. "Look, I'll tell you where she is. But, you have to buy one of my gems, first." Amy was rightfully confused. "What is this? Some weird extortion thing?" "Alright, fine! What do you recommend?", Amy asked, wanting to get this over with. "Well, since you are dressed up as Peridot, how about I give you this lovely peridot for the astonishingly low price of fifty bucks?", the Merchant offered. Amy was indeed astonished. Fifty bucks? She didn't know much about gems, but she figured that peridots had to go for more than that. Still, fifty bucks would be worth it if he could tell her where Jessica was. She reached into her wallet, pulled out the money, and handed it to the Merchant. The Merchant then gave Amy her peridot. Now that Amy was looking at it, she noticed that it was even the same shape and cut as Peridot's peridot. She finished admiring the beautiful gemstone and looked back at the Merchant. "Okay, I bought your peridot. Can you please tell me where my friend is, now?" The Merchant just gave an even bigger smile, if that was possible. "Oh, she's in the same place you are going." Amy wasn't sure what to make of that response until her peridot suddenly emitted a blinding light. Amy fell to the ground from the shock of being blinded by the gem. She suddenly started to feel sick and light-headed. She felt a combination of sleepiness and an urge to throw up. She felt odd sensations all over her body, too. It was like she wasn't solid mass, but instead being transformed into something else. Next came the feeling that her whole being was being drawn into something. The next thing Amy knew, everything went black. In the Whietail Woods, Equestria The new green Gem born from the Equestrian Kindergarten opened her eyes and instinctively did the Diamond salute. Standing at attention like a soldier, the new Gem exclaimed, "Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG, reporting for duty!" After a short while, Peridot noticed that she was the only Gem in the immediate area. In fact, there didn't seem to be any sign of Gem activity in this area. She looked around for any Gem to come out and give her her first orders. On Homeworld, Peridots were mainly used as scientists or engineers, designing the advanced technology the Empire used for expansion, managing the various Kindergartens to mass-produce more Gems, and generally coming up with new ways to make the Gem Empire function for the Diamonds. But as Peridot looked around, there was no other Gem in sight. She face-palmed in annoyance. "Why are there no Amethyst or Jasper soldiers to escort me to my new station? Are they all useless clods?", Peridot thought to herself. As she turned to walk away, she noticed that there was another Gem hole right next to hers. Peridot was happy that there was at least another Gem born here. But how long ago was this one born? Peridot looked closely at the hole, she noticed that this Gem was born just a few minutes before she was. And judging from the shape of the hole, this new Gem was a Spinel, the entertainers of the Gem elite. "I have to find this Spinel and see what my duties on this glorified mudball of planet are.", Peridot said to herself. With her special visor, Peridot noticed that there were two sets of footprints near her. One set was obviously the Spinel's footprints, while the others were unknown to her. Perhaps it was one of the native creatures on this planet if the abundance of organic life was anything to go by. Peridot knew that the Spinel would be safe, since Gems are really tough to hurt. Even if the Spinel was damaged enough to poof, she'd still recover with time. Not wanting to waste any more time, Peridot left in the direction of the footprints.