//------------------------------// // Home Away From Home // Story: Universe and Sparkle // by King Xeno //------------------------------// "All right Lion! Take us home!" Steven shouted, but noticed that Lion hadn't moved. "Uh... Lion? You there?" Steven asked, gently tapping the animal's forehead. This did not inspire Lion to create a new portal, but rather travel through the one that had just been opened, he burst into a run towards the large portal. Before jumping inside, quickly disappearing. The ponies let out gasps and jumped in after them, landing with loud thuds. "What was with that?" Rainbow Dash asked, flying into the air. "I don't think he wants to leave..." Steven muttered, hopping off Lion's back to help the ponies onto their hooves. "He usually listens when I tell him to do stuff like that... I wonder what's wrong..." Steven muttered. He had just helped Twilight back onto her hooves when Connie moved next to him. "If Lion won't leave... Then how are we going to get home?" Connie asked, and Steven shrugged in response. "When Lion does this... It typically means that there's something important to do here..." Steven narrowed his eyes and began to scan around, but stopped at a small purple creature that was dozing off. "Maybe something to do with that?" Steven asked, and Twilight began to giggle. Steven turned to face her with a confused expression. "What?" Steven asked. "That's just Spike. My assistant. He helps me with everything, from cooking, to cleaning, to cleaning, to just being my friend." Twilight explained. "Well what is he?" Connie asked. "Some kind of dragon?" Connie and Steven began to laugh at this remark, until they saw the looks that the Mane Six were giving them. "Is he actually a dragon?" Connie asked, serious this time. "Yes. Spike is a dragon. A very young dragon." Twilight explained, she gently began to lift the dragon using her magic intending to take him inside, before noticing something. Both Steven and Connie were covered in dirt and grime, their clothing had several stains, and they each had a few bumps and bruises. "Would you two like to come inside and clean up a bit?" Twilight asked, and she saw both of their eyes light up. Twilight giggled again, knowing that these two would be a bit of a hoof-full. It hadn't been long after Steven had finished showering that Rarity began to let her personality more obvious. "You really have several of that... Outfit...?" Rarity asked, partly intrigued, partly horrified at the lack of diversity in his clothing. "Yep, I really like the design... I think it's because we all have stars somewhere on our outfits... Pearl's is on her shirt, Amethyst has two on her knees, and Garnet's are on her gauntlets." Steven explained, and Rainbow Dash flew in front of his face. "Gauntlets? What are gauntlets?" She asked, and Steven pressed a hand to his chin. "Well they're like big metal gloves, only most of them are used as armor. Garnet uses hers as weapons. They're really big, and really heavy." Steven replied, and Rainbow Dash nodded. "So do the other Gems have these 'gauntlets'?" Twilight asked, and Steven shook his head. "No, each Gem has a unique weapon. Pearl uses a spear, Amethyst uses a whip, and I use my Mom's shield." Steven answered, but noticed the curiosity on their faces. "Here, let me show you." Steven said as he rose onto his feet. Just above his waist, a red circle began to glow, the bottom of his shirt started to billow, revealing a rose quartz and around his left arm, a pink shield formed, the pattern on it seemed to match that of a rose. "Wow..." The six ponies muttered almost simultaneously. Steven grinned and quickly caused the shield to disappear, much to Rainbow and Pinkie's disappointment. "Aw... Come one, do it again!" Rainbow Dash shouted, but Steven shook his head. "If I do it too many times, it makes me tired..." Steven said, grinning. They heard footsteps and saw Connie had returned from her shower, with her hair still damp. She had her empty glasses on, along with a white and mint green dress with a mint green bow at the top, and yellow knee high socks with peach boots. Rarity gasped before rushing over and letting out compliments, utterly gushing over the adorableness of her outfit, and how it really suited her. Connie gave a nervous smile and moved over with the rest of the group. "Don't let me interrupt your conversation." Connie said, taking a seat. "Actually, Steven was just telling us about the Gems' weapons, but I think we should get into a more serious topic. How are we going to get you two home?" Twilight asked, and they all turned to face Lion. "So Lion thinks that there's something here that you need to do? What would that normally be?" Twilight asked, while Steven and Connie began to brainstorm. "Maybe there's some ancient Gem artifact here, and he wants us to get it!" Steven shouted. "Maybe a Home-World Gem made its way here?" Connie suggested. "Or maybe a Corrupted Gem... For all we know, Lion just wants to stay here for a while..." Connie said, leaning on her elbows. She felt something press against her head and noticed that Lion had put his front right paw on her. "Maybe he just wants to spend some time with us...?" Connie suggested, and he took the paw off. "Or not." "You need to get the stone!" Pinkie shouted, which caused the rest of the group to stare at her in confusion. "You know the little orange stone..." Pinkie said, only raising more questions. "The one in his hair!" Pinkie shouted, pointing a hoof at Lion. "You mean in his pocket dimension?" Steven asked, and Pinkie started nodding like mad. Steven moved over and tapped Lion's head gently, which prompted the large animal to get closer to the ground. His mane began to glow, becoming a brilliant pink that shone with a truly beautiful light. Steven took a deep breath before jumping inside of Lion's mane, quickly disappearing. "So he really does have a pocket dimension in his mane!?" Twilight asked, astounded at this fact. It should be noted that at this time, a certain purple dragon had woken and entered the room. "Twilight...? What's with all the..." Spike began, before trailing off when he saw Connie and Lion. "I take it your spell worked fine...?" Spike asked, and Twilight slowly nodded. Spike went to say more, but was interrupted by Steven popping his head out of Lion's mane, gasping for breath. He had one hand raised above his head and in it he held a small orange gem. "I had no idea this was in here! I think I remember Pearl talking about these things once... She said something about them being an ancient Gem communication device or something like that..." Steven shouted, before noticing Spike. "Hello." Steven said with a big smile, and Spike waved to him. "Twilight. I think you'll need to explain what's going on." Spike muttered. It had taken a short amount of time to explain what had happened to Spike, who seemed to understand. "So... Steven has a what?" Spike asked, just hoping to get this story finished. "A gem... My Mom's gem to be more exact." Steven said, pulling his shirt up just high enough to expose the jewel. Steven swore he saw a drop of drool fall from Spike's mouth, and he began to get worried. "What was with that...?" Steven asked, releasing his shirt, allowing it to cover his gem once more. "Spike is a dragon. A dragon that eats..." Twilight began, before she realized why Steven had become so anxious. "...Gems." Twilight finished, and she saw Steven's eyes widen, before he inhaled sharply. Connie let out a gasp and quickly slapped one of her hands over Steven's mouth, blocking the scream. Steven yelled for what seemed to be several minutes, before he slowly stopped. "You done now?" Connie asked, pulling her hand away slightly. "Not quite..." Steven replied, and Connie's hand went back in place over his mouth for a few seconds. "Now I'm done." Steven said, before staring at Spike. "That... That's something you wouldn't want to tell the other Gems... They'll think that you're too dangerous for me to be around." Steven said, and Spike raised an eyebrow. "Why? Do you need those things to live?" Spike asked, and Twilight slapped a hoof onto her forehead. "Spike! Were you even listening?! We already said that, yes, they do need their gems to live." Twilight half shouted, half spoke. "Sorry, I kind of dozed off." Spike explained, giving a sheepish grin. "Well, I think it's about time we see if this thing even works..." Connie said, turning to face Steven. He nodded and tapped on the orange jewel twice, but nothing happened. "You don't know how to use this... Do you?" She asked and Steven shook his head. "Well, I'm sure that we can figure this out, and until you're able to find your way home, you three are more than welcome to stay here." Twilight said, giving a warm smile. "It'll be like a home away from home!" Steven grinned and noticed that his gem began to glow, along with the Communication Device. Pearl paced around in Steven's room, just as she had been doing for the past four hours, each foot hitting the same spot exactly, and this had started to create small indentations into the wooden floor. She was unaware of a small orange gem appearing on the floor a few feet away, that slowly floated into the air, and began to glow. "Where could they be? Where could they be?" She kept asking herself, trying to go over every possible result, but no matter how hard she tried not to go there, her mind always wandered to the horrible outcomes. They were both frozen in space, their faces trapped in an eternal scream. They were trapped somewhere on Earth, with no possible way to return, slowly starving to death. They were being chased by Corrupted Gems, or Home-World Gems, or possibly even the Cluster Gems. She stopped and grabbed at her own face, she could see it now, Steven and Connie both dead, having been killed by some horrible monstrosity, having been ripped apart limb by limb, with their intestines hanging out of... Her thoughts were interrupted by Garnet entering the room. "Garnet! Please tell me you found them! Tell me you at least found some kind of clue! Something, anything!" Pearl shouted, grabbing Garnet's shoulders. Pearl waited for a response, but when Garnet gave none, she knew that nothing had been found. "No... We... We can't stop searching. They're out there somewhere... Hopefully..." Pearl muttered, before looking over at the large couch that sat in the room, while Garnet quickly entered her room. Amethyst sat on it, with her knees pulled up to her chest, covering her gem. "I don't see how you can just sit there! Steven and Connie are lost somewhere, and they probably have no idea where they are!" Pearl shouted, but Amethyst ignored her. "Need I remind you that this is your fault!? If you had just listened to me, then this never would have happened, we wouldn't be running around, searching for them! If you had just listened to me, then they'd still be here! Steven would be out in town enjoying life, and now, it's possible he's dead. And what about Connie? We swore that we'd protect humans, not get them killed! Can you just tell me what we're going to tell her parents!? If we do manage to find them, and Connie's parents end up finding out about this... They'll never let her near this place again! I can already see how... how... devastated Steven will be!" Pearl shouted, but before she could continue Amethyst began to yell. "You think I don't know this is my fault!? Do you think I don't regret doing any of that!? If I could go back, I'd listen to you! Heck, I'd never do anything like that again, but I can't! You want to know why I didn't listen to you!? It's because you always tell me what to do, everything I do is never good enough for you! I could bring you the gem of every monster, every one of those freaky fusions, every single Home-World Gem on a silver platter, and you'd still find some reason to criticize me!" Amethyst yelled, but a third voice broke the conflict. "THAT'S ENOUGH!" Garnet yelled, startling both Gems. "Arguing isn't going to help us find Steven or Connie!" Pearl . "We're a team, and teams need to work together. So here's what we're gonna do. Pearl, you'll search the Battlefield. Amethyst, you check the Kindergarten. I'll look in the..." Garnet was interrupted by a bright orange flash of light, and soon a large hologram of Steven appeared in the middle of the room. No one spoke, until the hologram raised an eye brow and asked "Guys? You feeling all right?" The Crystal Gems remained silent for about thirty more seconds before they couldn't contain their happiness and shock anymore. "STEVEN!" The three shouted, quickly rushing to the hologram, all of them expressing their joy to see that he was safe. "Steven, thank the stars you're all right!" Pearl shouted, getting onto her knees to be eye level with him. "But... Where are you? Is Connie safe as well?" Pearl asked, and gave a relieved sigh when Steven nodded. "Steven, I am soooo sorry! I was just mad at Pearl, and I wasn't thinking, and I've never been so scared in my life!" Amethyst shouted, pushing Pearl out of the way. "We're glad to see you're not hurt, but Pearl's priorities were straight there. Where are you?" Garnet asked, looking down at the hologram. "Um... About that... We're sort of in another dimension..." Steven said, more nervously than anything. "You're WHAT!?" Pearl asked, rushing back into Steven's view. "You might want to sit down, this may take a bit of explaining... I guess I really should have gone into more detail about how I got here to you guys too." Steven said, looking away from the Gems for a moment. "Steven...? Who are you talking to...?" Amethyst asked, and Steven tensed up. "I'll show you, but you have to promise not to freak out!" Steven yelled, and Pearl began to grow worried again. "This isn't going to turn out to be like the Centipeetle Mother... Is it?" She asked, but received no response. "Twilight, the Gems want to meet you..." Steven said, scooting over to his right, allowing room for a horse like creature to step into view. The Gems' jaws dropped, even Garnet seemed shocked at the sight of this... Creature stepping into view. "Hello... I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, and Steven tells me that you're the Crystal Gems." Twilight said, trying her best to smile, but based on the shocked looks found herself nervous. "Um... Maybe we should start explaining... Steven start from the beginning." Twilight said, and Steven stepped back into the center. "Well, I woke up with a slight blueberry taste in my mouth, I went downstairs and..." Steven began, but was cut off by Amethyst. "Skip to the end." She said, crossing her arms. "No! Well, skip ahead to what happened after Amethyst pushed you out of the Warp." Pearl said, and Steven nodded before starting to explain.