The animal towered over all of them, with large paws that could easily swat a pony aside with a single swipe, its large star shaped mane surrounding its head, at the end of its long tail was a small tuft of fuzz, its pure white eyes stared at them, not once even showing a sign of blinking. It started to move forward, and more details could be picked out. It was fully pink, except for its hear shaped nose which was a dark brown, while its body matched that of Pinkie's fur, its mane matched Fluttershy's almost exactly, when it fully stepped out of the shadows its eyes ceased to glow, revealing black pupils, but no other discernible eye colors. It let out a loud yawn, stretching and revealing several large sharp teeth with its open mouth, but then as quickly as it opened, it closed, leaving the ponies stunned. It quickly lied down, and stared at them for what felt like several moments, before Twilight found her voice.
"A lion...? Here...? A pink... Fluffy... Lion...?" Twilight asked, before Steven and Connie rushed forward, wrapping their arms around the animal's sides they both shouted something.
"LION!" Their voices seemed to cheer, and Lion let out another yawn, this one softer than the first.
"You know what this thing is?" Rainbow Dash asked, flying near Lion's head, she quickly began to poke at his mane, while Steven climbed onto the animal's back.
"Yeah! He's my pet lion! Well... Not really a pet... More like... A magic animal companion." Steven said, giving a large grin.
Fluttershy looked up at the large beast with a look of bewilderment, she slowly began to smile and trotted up to it. "Hello. My name is Fluttershy. May I ask what your name is?" She asked, and the animal let out a quick growl. "Lion? That's your name?" Fluttershy gently began to run the top of Lion's head, and he showed no sign of joy, or discomfort.
"Really? The lion is named... Lion?" Twilight asked, before saying "That would be like naming a dog Dog, or naming a cat Cat, it would be like naming a pony Pony!" Twilight said, and she let out a loud sigh as Steven pulled Connie onto Lion's back, where they sat and stared at each other for another moment. Suddenly something came to Twilight's mind and before she could scream in shock, Applejack began to talk.
"It's like it shows no emotions... It ain't happy, it ain't angry, it don't even look bored... Just... A blank face..." Applejack muttered, but noticed Lion stand.
"It was nice meeting all of you, but we should really get home now..." Steven said, waving, while Connie revealed a pair of glasses, before placing them onto her face.
"Huh!? Y-Y-You only just got here! You're not really going to leave before Pinkie's party are you?" Twilight asked, hoping to find some reason for them to stay, if only for a small amount of time. She had a lot of questions to ask, but the real reason was something much more important than that.
"Sorry. When you help protect an entire city from evil monsters that want to blow up the planet, you've really got to prioritize." Steven said, and Connie gave a quick nod.
"Besides... I doubt my parents would like the fact that I'm in another dimension... They aren't really even comfortable with me hanging around Steven..." Connie added, which only seemed to add more weight to the situation.
Twilight sighed and said "All right... I guess we won't keep you waiting... But... I have one request..." Steven and Connie both looked at her in confusion. "We all get to ask you a question each, before you leave..." The two humans nodded, and Twilight gave a bright smile, before revealing a scroll and a large feather. "Question One: If these 'Gems' do not need to eat or sleep, do you?"
"Yep, cause I'm half human. I used to really love eating these things called 'Cookie Cats'. They were ice cream sandwiches, and they were two chocolate cookies in the shape of cat heads, and the ice cream between them was half vanilla, half strawberry, and when you ate it, the three flavors combined to make a brand new flavor! It's like... It's like... Choco... Strawber... Nilla!" Steven shouted, and they swore that his eyes literally became stars.
"That's... Nice..." Rarity began, before facing Connie. "All right, I'll go next. Connie?" Rarity asked, getting her attention. "Why are your glasses lacking... Lenses?" This seemed to catch Connie off guard, for she suddenly looked nervous.
"Steven had... Healed my eyes..." Connie said nervously, but this only confused Rainbow Dash.
"So he spit in your eyes?" Rainbow Dash asked, before realizing something. "That didn't count as my question did it? That better not have counted!" Rainbow yelled, and Connie quickly shook her head.
"N-No! He didn't spit in my eyes! It was... He just... I... I really wouldn't like to talk about it at the moment..." Connie said, blushing madly, and an idea came to Rarity's mind.
"Does Connie...? Oh... My... Celestia..." Rarity thought before Rainbow Dash interrupted her thoughts.
"My turn! You said you fight monsters? What kind of monsters? Are they awesome monsters!?" Rainbow Dash asked, flying closer and closer to Steven's face as she asked.
"Rainbow, that's three questions. Yah can only ask one." Applejack said, and Rainbow groaned.
"Fine, fine, fine... How about... What are the coolest, and scariest monsters you've fought?" Rainbow asked, and Steven placed his hand to his chin.
"The coolest...? The coolest was probably the Centipeetle Mother. It was this big centipede monster, with an eye in its mouth, and it could shoot acid, and it had this big ol' white mane! I... Accidentally released it a second time, and I was able to make it my friend... For a few hours... It got scared when the other Crystal Gems summoned their weapons... Then... It saved my life... I was told later that it's a Corrupted Gem... It was like Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl at one point... What I don't know is what happened to make it so... Mean..." Steven explained, and the ponies seemed shocked at this.
"Really? A Corrupted Gem? So... What's the scariest?" Rainbow Dash asked, hoping to get the second half of her question answered.
"Probably the Gem Mutants... They were at one point regular Gems, but they were forced to do something... Well, Gems have the ability to fuse together and make a bigger Gem, a stronger Gem! These Gems were forced to... Fuse... Making them these... Horrible... Monsters... Just limbs and more limbs, hands, legs, arms, mouths, eyes..." Steven said, suddenly giving a sad expression, and this had left many of the ponies silent, far to horrified and surprised to say anything. "Don't let that stop you, ask away." Steven said, giving a weak smile.
"Well... How did you meet Lion?" Fluttershy asked, and Steven let out a chuckle.
"I met him on a mission. We were searching for something called the 'Desert Glass' although it was more like a pillow with a large lens on it. Lion was there, and he followed me home... At the time I thought he wanted to be friends, but found out he was after the Desert Glass, and once it was properly taken care of, he just stayed around." Steven answered, and Fluttershy gave a smile.
"All right. Now it's mah turn. What's this 'Beach City' like?" Applejack asked, and both Steven and Connie smiled.
"Well, Beach City's a great vacation spot! Right next to the ocean, miles and miles of beaches, lots of shops, restaurants, and hotels and things for tourists. Although... It seems a little big considering only about twenty people live there year round. You've got the Beach City Funland, Beach Citywalk Fries, Fish Stew Pizza, the Big Donut..." Steven began to list off, and Pinkie quickly let out a gasp.
"How big is it? How big is the donut!?" Pinkie asked, grabbing Steven's shoulders.
"It's not an actual donut, it's the name of the shop. They sell donuts there." Steven explained, but this didn't satisfy the hyperactive mare.
"Well... Then where do you get all your fudge? And your CUPCAKES!?" Pinkie practically shouted, shaking Steven.
"The Big Donut sells a lot of that stuff too, for the rest you go to Danny's! The candy shop!" Steven yelled, and Pinkie stopped shaking him. "I guess you can ask your question now Pinkie." Steven said, but the mare simple giggled.
"I already did silly!" She said, and Steven frowned.
"You used your question on 'How big is the donut'?" Steven asked, and she nodded.
"Well, it was nice meeting you all, but I really think we should get going now... Pearl's probably having a panic attack right now..." Steven said, muttering the last part.
"Well, I've been hoping not to tell you this but... I don't know a spell to send you back!" Twilight yelled, mentally kicking herself for her stupidity. "GAH! I'm such an idiot sometimes! I don't even know why I didn't think of that before!" Twilight yelled, as her head began to hang low.
"H-Hey, don't feel bad! You were just excited... And... And... You didn't know that we'd be hurt! You were just trying to make sure we were okay! And we really appreciate that!" Steven said, trying his best to make Twilight feel better, but he found that no matter what he did, she just stood there. "D-Don't worry, we're not stuck here! We have a way to get home!" Steven yelled, and Twilight lifted her head.
"You do?" She asked, her eyes starting to fill with hope.
"Yeah, Lion can take us home." Steven said, and Twilight looked at him confused.
"What do you mean? Your home is in another dimension! So unless Lion can make portals to different locations, then I don't see how..." Twilight began, but Lion turned away from them and let out a loud roar, causing pink waves to shoot from his mouth. They stopped a few feet away and formed a pink portal, and through it they could see Twilight's castle. "Really!? He can actually do that!?" Twilight asked, and the other ponies began to cheer, mostly from excitement.
"What else can he do!?" Rainbow asked, and Steven smiled.
"Well, he can do this roar, that's like a sonic boom or something, it breaks things with his voice! He can walk on water, he has what Pearl called a 'Pocket Dimension' in his mane, he can all sorts of cool things!" Steven yelled.
"What?" Pinkie asked, before grinning and saying "You'd better not be... Lion... To us!" Much to her surprise there was no laughing.
"Well... If you must go, then go. It was nice meeting you both." Rarity said, not wanting to hold them from any responsibilities that they may have.
Steven closed his eyes and inhaled before shouting "All right Lion! Take us home!"