//------------------------------//
// Meeting of The Gems 
// Story: Spinel's New Best Friend 
// by luckyboys121 
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As the group assembled around the map table Rarity was the first to speak up saying, "I still don't understand how Sombra could come back, with how his body cracked apart I thought he was..." she paused for a moment reluctant to say it directly as she simply said, "Gone." 

"Maybe he was, he is a master of dark magic after all and that would include Necromancy," said Twilight as she looked down trying not to think about how her family was being held captive by him.

"Shoot, if he can do something like that then how in the name of Equestria can we stop him?" said Applejack.

Spinel sat in thought at this as she said, "So you fought this Sombra guy before... so how did you beat him then?"

"We used the Crystal Heart, an artifact of the Crystal Empire," responded Fluttershy.

"But I'm sure Sombra has already taken control of it... who knows what that fiend plans to use it for," said Rarity.

Twilight gulped at the thought, struggling to figure out what to do. "So wait... you didn't use your Element things Pinkie told me about?" asked Spinel as she cocked her head in confusion.

In an instant Twilight blinked as her worries began to fade away as she smirked saying, "Of course why didn't I think of that!" She then stood up saying, "Come on girls, let's get to the Tree of Harmony!"

As she stood up though she was briefly puzzled to see Discord standing in her doorway as he said, "Hold on a moment there, are you sure the Elements are the right course of action here?"

"The heck do you mean?" asked Rainbow Dash as she flew up to him angry.

"Um well... maybe you should try friendship?" asked Discord with somewhat of a nervous sweat as he continued saying, "After all it worked on me and Luna."

"Well yeah, AFTER we hit both of yall with the Elements," said Applejack flatly.

"Yes well I..." said Discord, only to stop as he felt Fluttershy nuzzling him.

She looked up at him saying, "I get what you're saying and if King Sombra is willing to accept friendship you know we'd gladly do it, but right now he is holding Twilight's brother, Cadence, and even poor little Flurry hostage... so for now at least we need to fight back."

Discord stammered a bit before sighing in defeat as he looked down at Fluttershy saying, "You're absolutely right... I suppose I should leave this to you all like usual," before snapping his fingers and disappearing.

"Well he could have at least offered to help before he left," said Rainbow pouting.

"Never mind that, let's just get to the tree," said Twilight as she once again started towards the door as everyone followed after her... everyone except one.

Pinkie looked behind her as she raised her eyebrows in confusion saying, "Aren't you coming to Spinel?"

Spinel sat at the seat of the table as she blinked saying, "Huh... no I think I'll wait here for you all to get back with the Elements."

"Well OK... you know if you'd feel better at Sugar Cube Corner you can go back home, I think we all have this handled now," said Pinkie.

Spinel shook her head as she said, "No it's not that, I'm definitely going with you to deal with this Sombra guy, I just figured since I didn't have to go to the tree and all..." 

Pinkie nodded at that as she said, "Well OK, see you in a bit then," before she headed out the door.


As Spinel sat alone she breathed out a sigh of relief as she said to herself, "I probably could have told Pinkie what I was thinking about but I didn't want to interrupt her now that she doesn't look so scared." She then looked down at the table and said, "Discord had a point though... I mean if I can be redeemed after everything I did then whoever this Sombra guy can be too," as she mentally added "I just wish I knew why his name sounded so familiar." As she thought on this she briefly remembered the dream she had the night before as the words, "Only you can help him heal," echoed in her mind. She shook her head before looking up determined as she said, "I gotta try, just like how Steven tried for me."

Sometime later


Sombra continued typing away at his keyboard as he said, "Bunch of useless clods turned my fabrication room into a dance hall, the hangar into a dining room, and hung up Hearth's Warming Decorations on my Injector... two months early I might add!" 

At that point the muzzled Cadence gave Shining Armor a look that said, "I told you it was too early to hang those!" As Shining looked away somewhat sheepishly. 

Sombra sighed as he looked around at the soldiers now patrolling the throne room before glancing at the camera feeds saying, "Well at least they never made it into the circuity chambers, power reactor and incubators are untouched, and I finally got all these half formed mutants back under my control," he then looked to a feed of a cage containing several ponies as he said, "And what few non altered organics where near have already been captured... I wonder if I should even bother bringing them under my control or just leave them while I focus on more important issues."

Before he could think on this further he was suddenly greeted with a red warning from his security perimeter. He qued up the proper camera feed as he briefly glanced at the royal family saying, "So it looks like your 'rescuers' have finally arrived." He then looked down to the feed as he began saying, "Let's see how far they can get past-" suddenly he stopped as he caught sight of someone accompanying the ponies. "It... can't be," said Sombra as his eyes widened in disbelief before he closed them instantly feeling that familiar energy from before as he hurriedly opened them and opened a communication line to all his forces saying, "All forces stand down, allow them into the throne room unharmed!" As he watched his forces obey, much to the intruders surprise as they ran towards the castle he felt almost giddy as he said, "At last... at sweet last, they've come for me, granted I wasn't expecting someone from her court but Yellow was always good at delegation."

As the group burst into the throne room, Twilight stepped forward saying, "Alright Sombra it's time we-"

But before she could finish Sombra suddenly hopped from his throne as he looked over at Spinel in glee saying, "Oh how wonderful it is to see you again, oh representative of the great Pink Diamond's Court!"

The others stopped in confusion as Spinel stepped forward saying, "You um... know me?"

"Why of course I..." he then stopped as he looked down at himself saying, "Oh forgive my impermanence, I should have known even a high ranking official such as you wouldn't be able to recognize me like this." Suddenly Sombra's body began to glow as his horn, his gem, began to move and his body took on a buff bipedal shape as the assembled group watched.




Sombra then put his hands in the traditional Diamond salute as he said, "Synthetic Onyx Biological Military Replicant Attacker, designation Sombra." He then awkwardly moved his hands to do a small wave at her saying, "Hi."

And upon seeing this gesture and hearing the full name Spinel finally realized why it was so familiar.


8000 years ago

As Pink Diamond sat on the throne at the Ball she watched as countless gems came up to her and said, "Pink Diamond it's wonderful to be in your presence." 

She sighed slightly before saying, "Thank you very much."

The gems didn't seem to mind her lack of enthusiasm as they said, "Wow so radiant and sparkling," before taking their leave.

Her lack of enthusiasm was noticed by the little Gem to her left as she stretched up her hands to just above the armrests of Pink's throne as she moved one of them in a fake poss voice saying, "Pink Diamond it's wonderful to be in your presence." She then moved the other hand as she said, "Thanks... now watch me juggle," she then tossed around several small balls on that hand as the other said, "Wow such radiant and sparkling juggling!"

Pink snorted as she held back a laugh at that saying, "I'm so glad I brought you to this boring Ball Spinel." 

The gem on the right side of her throne though looked serious as she said, "My Diamond are you sure it's wise to bring this... play thing to such an important event."

Pink scoffed at that as she said, "It's not like I have anything to say here, since I don't even have my own colonies to report on," she then looked up at the two Diamonds above her as she said, "Besides Blue and White haven't even looked at me this whole time and Yellow's in back ready to unveil her new pet project."

"Of course my Diamond," said Pearl as she moved back to her proper place. 

Pink rolled her eyes as she thought, "When is she going to lighten up already" before briefly winching as she thought, "If only White had let me keep my old Pearl, so what if her form got banged up... it shows character... and it's not like I meant to do it."

As Pink thought on this though the dancing suddenly came to an end as White Diamond spoke up saying, "Now then, now that traditional dances and greetings have been completed, Yellow Diamond has an announcement to make."

As this was happening a transport bubble suddenly entered through the floor as Yellow Diamond stepped out of it. She looked over the assembled crowd before glancing up at the other Diamonds, briefly stifling a gulp at seeing White and her always perfect smile. She then cleared her throat as she said, "Thank you all for giving me your attention." She then stepped forward as she began saying, "As you know I pride myself on geo-weapon experimentation, looking at ways to improve existing gems so that they can better do their jobs as well as researching ways to make the next era of gems even more efficient. However not even this is enough as our latest breakthrough has yielded something unexpected." 

Yellow then reached into her pocket as she pulled out a small pointed cylindrical red Gem before tossing it next to her as it began to glow and take form. She began saying, "Behold an entirely new type of gem with abilities entirely unique to him, the Synthetic Onyx Biological Military Replicant Attacker or as I like to call him Sombra."

The gem fully took form as he flared his cape behind himself before giving a salute as he looked up at the Pink, Blue, and White saying, "My Diamonds, it has been an honor to be created to serve you all and I promise to give all I can to help spread your glorious Empire."

Yellow smiled at that as she looked towards White, and was simply greeted by silence. Spinel smiled as she waved down to the new gem mouthing "Hi."

Sombra looked at her somewhat awkwardly as he mimicked the gesture back at her as Spinel giggled.

Yellow cleared her throat as she said, "I've already sent you a list of his abilities and chemical makeup as well as plans to create an entire Kindergarden worth of them, plans that can be enacted at any time-"

White Diamond then interrupted her as she said, "That won't be necessary." 

"Why... what ever do you mean?" asked Yellow as she backed away slightly.

"You cannot mass produce this Gem," said White simply, her smile never leaving her face.

"Bu-but why?" asked Yellow.

"Firstly the amount of energy you put in his spark is simply too much, we are already beginning to feel the resource shortage due to lack of imperial expansion," said White.

"Which is why we need to take a risk and make such strong soldiers," said Yellow as she started to become angry.

White then titled her head down slightly as she said, "I wasn't finished talking now was I."

"I..." began Yellow as she looked over to Blue and Pink for comfort only to see them shrink slightly into their thrones as her anger quickly was replaced by fear as said, "I am sorry White."

"As I was saying, he requires far too much energy to make, in addition this seems to have negatively affected the data you put into him. According to this he passed all the tests about how to make and operate heavy equipment but failed to answer basic questions about the gem hierarchy," said White.

"I... I can learn my Diamonds, whatever it takes, however long it takes I promise I can do something to make you proud," interrupted Sombra.

"Why, he even speaks when not spoken too, dare I say you might be trying to pass a defective Gem off as progress," said White.

"I... of course I would never," began Yellow but she began to sweat before sighing and saying, "I'm sorry for wasting your time White, and I respect your judgement." She then bowed as the travel bubble reformed around her and a now fearful looking Sombra before taking the two away.

White then looked at the assembled audience as she said, "Thank you all for being here to indulge Yellow's little hobby, this concludes this Diamond Ball." 


Spinel awkwardly looked at him as she said, "Sombra... hi, it's been a while."

"Indeed it has and... forgive me but... my knowledge of the hierarchy is limited, I understand that you are high ranking given how you are not a Pearl and yet you where permitted to stand so close to a Diamond but I do not know your designation," said Sombra as he cocked his head in confusion.

"I'm Spinel," she said awkwardly before winching as she worried that he might know what that means upon hearing it.

He didn't seem to as his smile didn't waver and he said, "Spinel it is an honor to have you here and I am pleased to announce that I am just about to resume my work on this colony and... oh, I failed to ask why do you have these organics accompanying you?"

Spinel turned around to see the ponies and dragon staring at all this with dropped jaws as Spinel stammered saying, "Oh um... well they are rather interesting unique specimens and I'm sure you've heard of Pink's fondness for organics," as she mouthed to them, "Go along with this."

Sombra blinked as he said, "Oh, of course I believe I remember Yellow mentioning that, I am not overly fond of them myself but I have seen how useful they can be, so Ido not question her judgement. Would she like them to accompany you on the tour?"

Spinel nodded as she began pushing them out the door saying, "Of course... would you mind if we talked in private I forgot to brief them on certain pieces of etiquette."

"Oh but of course, take all the time you need my Spinel," said Sombra as he gave her a salute and they headed out the door. 

"Thank you," she said as she went through the door thinking, "We're going to have a lot to talk about."

As Spinel made sure to close the door behind them she looked at the group ready to talk as she opened her mouth and began to speak.

But was quickly interrupted as Twilight pulled out a quill and paper saying, "An alien, this whole time Sombra was an alien and nocreature knew! The historical implications of this are just immersible!" 

"Um Twilight... you do realize he's still holding your family hostage right?" asked Applejack.

"Oh... of course," said Twilight as she teleported the paper away before clearing her throat.

"More importantly, why did you lie to him and say you still work for Pink Diamond?" asked Pinkie.

"Well it seemed to be the direction things were going, and this way we get a chance to talk to him," said Spinel with a smile.

"Well it's fine by me, I say if he thinks you're his boss make him let everycreature go and stop whatever the hay he's doing," said Rainbow Dash.

"Even if he'd agree to that, he'd find out the truth eventually and who knows what he'd do then," said Rarity.

Fluttershy thought for a moment before saying, "Well if he's willing to talk we could try friendship like Discord said."

"That's exactly what I was thinking," said Spinel as she jumped excitedly.

The others stood for a moment as Twilight said, "I need to get a message to the princesses about this, come on Spike." 

"Right," said the young dragon as he followed down the hall a bit.

"Well I guess this could work, but the minute he acts funny bam, it's Element time," said Rainbow as she gestured towards her necklace.

"I'm not sure about this but if you all think it's a good idea, then I guess it is," said Applejack with a sigh.

"Well, I suppose it's worth a shot, after all anyone with such good taste in capes can't be all bad," said Rarity.

Pinkie looked at Spinel worriedly saying, "I don't know, I mean it would be great to be his friend but basing friendship on a lie like this feels wrong."

"It will be fine," said Spinel as she thought, "After all Steven lied and let me think I was his new best friend."


"Do you got all that Spike?" asked Twilight

"Yeah," responded Spike.

"Good," said Twilight before glancing back at the others and speaking quietly to make sure they couldn't hear as she said, "And... do you remember that device Spinel had, the Rejuvinator she called it?"

"Um yeah, why?" asked Spike.

"Tell Celestia that it's in my lab at our castle, sitting on my desk and that she should send it to us with her reply," said Twilight.

"What, but aren't we gonna try and befriend him?" asked Spike.

"We are," said Twilight as she looked back at the throne room and remembered the brief image she saw of her family in chains as she said, "But I'm not taking any chances."