//------------------------------//
// Questions 
// Story: Harmony Gems 
// by Nova Arc 
//------------------------------//

On the outskirts of Ponyville, there was a fairly large house overlooking the town. Not a lot of people noticed, but the house seemed to have been built into a mountain. Only, this wasn't a mountain; it was a Gem Temple!

Inside the house were two figures: one pinkish red skin, long purple hair and blue eyes. His one-piece suit was dark red with pink stars on the knees and elbows. He sat on the kitchen counter, munching on a bag of chips. In the living room opposite and adjoined to the kitchen, sat another figure with ashy fair skin, jet black hair, and bright orange eyes. This one wore a grey one-piece suit with black accents and orange lines running through the armor on his torso like magma flows. On his shoulders and lower arms was black armor with an orange star on the chest and forearms respectively, and he had a black gem in the shape of a diamond on the back of each of his hands. He sat down, cross-legged as he meditated, scented candles around him in a circle of zen.

"So, how long do you intend to do this for?" asked the pinkish figure. The other did not reply. "Dude, we've been playing this game for a pretty long time. You can only ignore me for so long." Still no reply. The figure smiled devilishly as he crumpled the chips pack noisily, folding and unfolding it, making as much noise as possible. The meditating figure was losing patience fast, his eye twitching in annoyance. In one swift motion, he shot out his arm and an orange wave flew towards the source of the noise. The figure dropped the now burning pack sharply so as not to get burned. "Ha! Broke your focus! Now you have to talk! I told you, Obsidian. I'm experienced."

Obsidian sighed. "Tourmaline, you're skill for annoying every living thing that comes your way knows no bounds."

"I know," Tourmaline replied proudly. At that moment, someone walked through the door. He was a young boy of about 11 or 12 with peachy skin and bright pink eyes and red hair. He wore a pair of jeans, a white shirt with a pink eight-point star, a red hooded vest with a similar pattern on the back, and sneakers. On his back was a backpack with the picture of some ponies and a rainbow behind them with the words "FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC" printed beneath them.

"Hi guys," he greeted.

"Hey, Dawn," Tourmaline replied.

"Hello Dawn," replied Obsidian. "How was your day?"

"It was great! There was this super cool girl who threw a party for me just because I came into the town to see a friend!" Dawn Beryl was one of the most excitable kids you could ever meet. Occasionally, it overwhelmed everyone around him, but his heart was always in the right place and everyone loved him for it.

"Interesting."

"Oh, did you bring back some cake for me?" Tourmaline asked. "There was cake, right?"

"Yes," Dawn said, reaching into his bag, "And yes," he said again, pulling out a piece of cake wrapped in foil.

"WOOHOO! Cake!" Tourmaline reached out for the cake and took it from Dawn. As he did, there was a light from the back of the house where it ceased to be wooden floors and walls and was suddenly all solid crystal. The warp pad had been activated. Dawn watched excitedly as the figure materialized in place. It was fairly tall, the tallest in the room, standing at a solid 6'2". It had long back-length white hair which was spiked up five ways in front and pale golden eyes and skin and wore a fitted bodysuit with a pale yellow sleeveless top, red bottoms, and yellow boots. A pair of black fingerless gloves adorned its hands and a large eight-point star was cut into the lower part of the torso, revealing a yellow gemstone shaped like a bullet.

"Pyrite!" Dawn ran towards the massive figure who picked him up effortlessly and spun him around.

"Hello, Dawny," said Pyrite, holding him out. "How was your trip into town?"

"It was great! There was a party!"

Pyrite pulled him him for a bear hug. "So I’m guessing you had fun?"

"I did. In fact," he said as he hopped out of her arms and pulled out a piece of paper from his backpack. "The girl who set everything up even invited me to come back whenever! Look, she drew me a map!" Pyrite took the map and smiled. She was always happy when Dawn was happy.

"Wait, what do you need a map for?" asked Tourmaline. "The town isn't very far from here and you already know the place-" He was silenced by Obsidian stuffing the cake into his mouth.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," said Obsidian.

"Speaking of which," Pyrite said, stretching, "I'm heading in. If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room." She walked over to the large door in the wall behind them. Her gem lit up, as did a corresponding light on the door before it opened for her and closed behind her.

"Aw. I wanna go to my room too." Dawn walked over to the door, which did not respond to his presence.





Meanwhile, in Ponyville...

As Twilight and her friends sat in Sugarcube Corner, the former couldn't help but worry about the "Gems" she, Rainbow, and Applejack ran into earlier. Who were they, really? Where did they come from? What were they doing there? How did they have such advanced technology? Her head was swimming with questions.

"I'm still not buying the whole "sentient rock" thing," said Rainbow.

"Ah'm just surprised at how strong they were," said Applejack. "And it looked ta me like one of 'em could control her hair."

"What?!" Pinkie burst out of the kitchen in surprise, holding a variety of kitchen utensils in the curly locks of her cotton-candy hair.

"Er... Never mind." Applejack looked at Twilight. "Before Ah even start tryin' to grasp this, is any of it possible? Livin' rocks?"

"Well, we have golems," said Twilight. "Speaking of which, that golem they fought; it didn’t look like any golem I've ever seen before."

"You mean aside from the weird noise it made and the fact that it turned into dust when the red one beat it?" Rainbow pointed out.

"There are a lot of things wrong." Twilight reached into her pocket and pulled out a round chunk of blue stone. "For one thing, the stone it's made of is... unusual."

"Whoa! Where'd you get that?" Rainbow asked, leaning in to get a closer look. "I thought they took the pieces."

"This isn't from that golem. My guess is there was another one inside the ship when it blew up. The force of the blast must've knocked it out of the yellow girl’s radius when she made the fence." She turned it around in her hand. "The crystalline structure is way more durable than any ordinary stone and there seems to be some kind of unnatural energy flowing through the grains."

"Uh-huh," Rainbow said. "Yeah, I just wanna see it." She reached for it, but Twilight pulled it closer to herself and out of Rainbow's reach.

"No! We don't know anything about this thing!"

"I just want to hold it, Twi, not shoot lightning at it. Sheesh."

Twilight was uncomfortable, but handed the stone over to Rainbow. As she observed the stone, a young woman entered the bakery. She had long purple hair tied into an elegant curl and blue eyes. She wore a white shirt with purple capris and black shoes. "Hello, girls."

"Hiya, Rarity," Applejack greeted.

"Hey Rarity," said Twilight.

"How're you all doing today?" she asked as she sat down with them.

"Well, that depends."

"On what?" As she asked, her attention was drawn to the jewel in Rainbow's hand. "My word! Where on Gaia did you find that marvelous sapphire?"

"Huh?" Rainbow was drawn away from the gem. "Oh, long story." She noticed the look in Rarity's eye. "Don't bother. You can't use it for any of your clothes."

"What? But why not?" Rarity asked.

"Because it could be dangerous," Twilight said, levitating the stone from Rainbow's hand and putting into her bag. "I need to run some tests to see exactly what it is we found."

"Oh, come now," said Rarity. "How dangerous could it be?"

"We got it from a golem from the Everfree Forest with several properties that made it different from any other golem that walks this land."

Rarity backed up. In that single sentence, there were three solid point why she should probably trust Twilight's judgement. "Very well. But if and when it's cleared your tests, I get to use it?"

Twilight groaned. "Fine."





Dawn sat down on his bed, waiting. Amber and Fulgurite had said they were going to get him something he might like the next time they went out. Impatiently, he got up and went down. He saw Tourmaline sleeping on the couch. "I thought Gems don't need sleep," Dawn said, tapping Tourmaline.

"We don't," he responded sleepily. "But it feels nice. Now leave me!" He gently lifted Dawn and moved him over.

Dawn groaned. He was about to head outside when the warp pad started to glow and a white light shot up. Amber and Fulgurite materialized on the platform. "Okay, I'm just saying," Fulgurite said, stepping off the platform, "We don't need to worry. I doubt they'll be going back there. No one in their right minds wou-"

"Ahem." The two Gems saw Dawn tapping his foot, a look of feigned impatience on his face.

"Oh, Dawn. Sorry, we got held up," Amber explained as she stepped of the warp pad, but she slipped on the edge. As she was prepared to hit the ground, she felt something catch her. She opened her eyes and saw Fulgurite standing over her, holding her. The two stared into each other's eyes and laughed.

"Yeesh. Good in a fight, but two left feet every other time," Fulgurite teased as she helped Amber to her feet.

"Hey, get off my back," Amber said. "It's not like I trip over a chips bag every..." Amber realized it. There was an empty chips bag on the warp pad.

Fulgurite's eye twitched. "Are... Are those from my stash?" She turned to stare at a, now awake, Tourmaline, who stared back. Fulgurite's stare became a glare and her hair started to rise as electricity arced around her. "TOURMALINE!!!"

"Whoops! Look at the time," Tourmaline said, looking at his wrist. "I just remembered I have that... thing... back at... the place... BYE!" He bolted out the door as a bolt of lightning flew past him and singed the wall behind the sofa.

Fulgurite walked to the door and called out, "I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!!!"

"Ful," Amber called. Fulgurite calmed down and walked back. Amber looked back to Dawn. "We got something for you."

Dawn's face stretched into an anxious smile.

Amber reached into her hair for something, but then looked confused. "What the..."

"What?" asked Fulgurite.

"I can't find it."

"What do you mean you can't find it?"

"Hold on." Amber flipped her back-length mop of hair over her face and sifted through it. "Hold on. I think... Nope. Wait... Yes!" She flipped her hair back and revealed a cube in her hand.

"WHOOAAA!!!" Dawn was excited, obviously, even though he had no idea what it was. Which he soon realized. "What is it?!"

Amber handed him the cube. "Press the top and find out," she said. "It's very... special." Dawn had a huge smile on his face as he stared at the cube. He tapped the top of the cube and held his breathe.

Nothing happened. "Huh?" He looked confused, but then smiled. "Is this a prank? Was this supposed to distract me while you got the real "thing" you brought back for me?"

Amber raised an eyebrow. "Huh. That's odd." She leaned in to look at the cube. "Try hitting it harder." He did. Still nothing. He tried hammering it with his fist again. As his hand hit it, several lines appeared on the block. Suddenly, there was a dim flash and a shockwave that blew their hair back.

"Whoa!" Fulgurite stared wide eyed at the box, then sharply snatched it from Dawn's hand. "Okay. That wasn't supposed to happen."

"Wait, what was supposed to happen?" Dawn asked.

"It was supposed to be a video log from..." Amber started, but lost her train of thought. "Don't worry. We'll get you two things next time we go out. Ful, can we talk?" The two made their way to the door. Amber's gem glowed and the door opened for them. Once again, Dawn stood, confused. He heard a creak and looked back to see Tourmaline at the door.

"So, is she gone?"





Back in Ponyville, Twilight sat in her castle study, observing the cryptic blue stone. The formation, the structure, its resonance; it was like nothing she had ever seen, and she'd seen a lot!

"Hmmm." She stared at the stone through a microscope. "Hey, Spike? Could you pass me the tuning fork?"

A young boy of about twelve years of age with green eyes and green hair  wearing a purple hoodie and green shorts brought the tuning fork to Twilight. The odd thing about him? His skin was rather scaley and purple.

"I can't believe you're making me do this," he said.

"Spike, I couldn’t let you eat this even if I wanted to," Twilight replied, taking the tuning fork. "We don't know what it is or what it'll do to you if you ate it."

"It's a gem and it'll help get rid of my hunger," he deadpanned. Twilight tapped the stone with the fork and listened in to the sound. "Hear that? That's the sound of ripe aquamarine that should be going into my belly right about now!”

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Spike, this is a sapphire."

"Nope. That's an aquamarine," he insisted. "A hundred years in the ground, treated with some serious sunlight under 5000 feet of seawater. Trust me Twi, I know these things."

Twilight couldn't doubt that. Being a dragon, Spike had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of every gem he has ever seen, tasted, and heard of! She looked for a while, then flipped it over. Her eyes widened in amazement. "SPIKE! YOU'RE RIGHT!"

"I know I am," he said, his proud statement going unnoticed as Twilight scrambled through a book, looking between it and the stone.

"There's an inconsistency in the structure. Almost as if it was forcefully turned into an aquamarine!"

“Wait, how do mean forcefully?”

“It's like the stone was something else, possibly an emerald, but its structure was modified to look like an aquamarine. But why? And how?” Twilight groaned in frustration. Then, she had an idea. “Wait…” She packed up her equipment and grabbed a bag, tossing the stone inside, and headed out.

“Where're you going?” asked Spike.

“To go look for the only people that can give me answers.”





“You wanna WHAT?!” Applejack was not seeing the sense in Twilight’s idea. “Twi, Ah get yer curious ‘n’ all, but they warned us ta stay away. And Ah’m pretty sure they also meant, ‘No snoopin’ around.’”

“Come on, Applejack,” Twilight pleaded. “You're not even a little bit curious?”

“Eenope.”

Twilight sighed. “Fine. You don't have to come, but you're not stopping me from going.” With that, she walked off the farm and towards the forest.

Twilight soon found herself back where she, Rainbow, and Applejack had first met the Gems. She made her way to the odd crystal platform they had used to teleport. “So, how does this work?” she wondered as she stepped onto the platform. “Hm… Take me so the last known location this was used to go to.” She waited, but the platform didn't respond to her command. “Of course it wouldn't be that easy.” She stepped off and looked closely at it. She walked around it, hoping to find something that could give her an idea of how to use it. She took a step back to inspect it from a distance, but suddenly, it activated. Pyrite materialized as the light vanished and looked down to see Twilight.

“Huh? Wait, are you the girl Amber and Fulgurite saw before? What are you doing back here?” she asked.

Twilight stared in awe at the figure. The only other person taller than she was was probably Big Mac; this Gem was actually a bit taller than Applejack. Shaking herself out of her dazed, she said, “Well, I got curious about everything that happened and wanted to come get some answers.”

Pyrite looked at her and sighed. “Look, you seem pretty smart. So you should know that we are not something you want to be involved with. And right now, I'm a bit too busy to explain the million and one reasons why.” With that, she darted of towards the wreckage of the ship. Twilight teleported to the said location and watched as the Gem rummaged through the wreckage. “Where is it? Where is it?!” She tossed a chunk of whatever the ship was made off out of the way, revealing a blue cylinder. She tipped it over and a blank, dark purple scroll that looked like it had been scorched slipped out and into her hand. She ran back to the warp pad, with Twilight in pursuit.

“Wait,” called Twilight, chasing after the Gem.

“Look, I don't have time for this. Just go back home!” The Gem landed on the warp pad and activated it. As the Gem was teleported, Twilight ran towards the portal and jumped, slipping into the stream before it vanished.





“So she ran off back ta the forest,” Applejack finished, explaining to Rainbow Dash and Rarity what Twilight had decided to do.

“Well, that's just great,” said Rainbow. “And she didn't even take Spike?”

“He wasn't with ‘er when she left.”

“Honestly, for someone who seems to plan everything before doing anything, she really didn't think this through, did she?” Rarity said.

“Nope.”

“Wait,” Rainbow said, realizing something. “How is she going to find them? I doubt she can use whatever that teleporter thingy is. Or does she plan on sitting in the bush until one of those… whatever they are, decides to go there again?”

“Ah don't even think that'll work,” said Applejack. “They blew up their ship, remember? Ah doubt there's anything they're goin’ back for there.”

“So, should we follow her?” asked Rainbow.

“Well, we can't just leave her roaming the Everfree Forest by herself, now can we?” Rarity said in response.

“Okay, fine,” Applejack said, begrudgingly agreed.





Twilight had teleported many times, but this was different. It felt more like being thrown across space at lightspeed than actually just zipping from Point A to Point B. As she materialized, she slammed onto the cold, hard surface of the warp pad and groaned.

“Are you kidding me?” Pyrite said in disbelief, seeing the girl next to her.

“What… Where…?” Twilight looked around. They appeared to be in some kind of room… with no walls. The floor and ceiling where made of some kind of pale blue stone and several pillars made of a similar material surrounded the room, supporting the ceiling… Or they would be. One side of the room seemed to have collapsed and a lot of the pillars were either chipped, cracked, broken, or otherwise damaged, some completely broken and not at all supporting the structure. It was a wonder the whole thing was still standing. “Where are we?”

“Somewhere you shouldn't-” Pyrite was cut off by an unnatural shriek. She and Twilight turned and saw two other Gems fighting what looked like a giant mass of smoke. One Gem with pinkish red skin and a dark red bodysuit swung his hammer, knocking the smoke creature back. The other swung the swords attached to the back of his hands and knocked it further back against a pillar. He turned around and spotted his comrade.

“Pyrite! Did you get it?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she called back, holding up the blank scroll. “Can you and Tour lure it over here?”

“Wait, back?” Tourmaline asked. “We've been trying to keep it as far away from the warp pad as possible!”

She looked down at Twilight and sighed. “I'll take you back once this is over. For now, could you hold this?” She handed Twilight the scroll.

Twilight looked for a moment. She could help and hope they thank her by giving her some answers, or… “Sure. IF you agree to answer my questions when this is over.”

Pyrite looked in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?”

“Well, you need my help, right?”

“I just need you to hold this scroll while I-”

“So you do need my help.”

Pyrite groaned. “Good grief, girl. You're worse than… Fine. You get three questions.” Twilight smiled and took the scroll from her and stepping away from the pad.

“WHAT’S TAKING SO LONG?!” Tourmaline cried out, pushing the smoke monster back.

“Okay. It wants to get to the warp pad so much?” She punched her fists together and a light shined over them. It expanded and the light popped, revealing a pair of gauntlets. There were odd semi-cones over the knuckles and a pair coming out the back, the open ends of both pointing away from the glove. A rather small disk sat in the middle, the edges touching the tips of the semi-cones. She punch them together again. “Let him try to get it.”

With that, Obsidian and Tourmaline moved out of the way as the monster charged at Pyrite, who leaned back for a punch. The cones at the back pulled out. Once the monster was right in front of her, she threw her arm forward and the cones collapsed back in like pistons. The force of the blow completely scattered the creature, spreading its cloud form across the area. Twilight covered her eyes and nose, as she had no idea whether or not it was safe to breath.

“Hey! The scroll!” Twilight tossed the scroll over to her. Luckily, Pyrite had a long reach as Twilight was not a good thrower. She caught it and opened it as she took a step forward. As the smoke began to reconstitute, it was sucked into the scroll, painting a picture as it went. Once it was done, the once blank scroll now had the, fairly disturbing, image of a hand and multiple eyes on the layout. Twilight cringed when she saw the image. “Well, that takes care of it,” said Pyrite.

“What took you so long?” asked Obsidian.

“I got… held up.” She looked back to Twilight, drawing the others’ attention to her.

“An intruder?” asked Obsidian.

“More like ‘wanderer passing a restricted and dangerous area and then coming back again’,” Pyrite said.

“Possible spy?” Obsidian got into a fighting stance, the gems on the back of his hands glowed and projected a pair of black blades. Twilight jumped and ran behind a fallen pillar.

“Nah. Like I said, wrong place, wrong time, but still coming back.”

Obsidian narrowed his eyes and gave Twilight a look that said, “I'm watching you.”

“Huh. Where'd you find her?” asked Tourmaline.

“Amber and Fulgurite saw her at the ship yesterday, along with two others. She was back at the same place when I went back to get the scroll.”

“And where are the other two?” asked a still suspicious Obsidian.

“They're not here!” Twilight said. “They didn't come with me.”

“Uh-huh. Likely story.”

“Look, she's just curious,” said Pyrite.

“Curiosity has led to... many problems,” Obsidian replied.

“Obsidian, don't.” Pyrite looked back to Twilight. “Okay, you've got three questions. Choose wisely.”

Twilight pulled out a pen and notepad. “What exactly are you? You're not Equestrian. Your friend told us you were, um… aliens.”

“She's not too far off,” Pyrite replied. “We're from an entirely different planet of sentient creatures whose gemstone is pretty much the equivalent of a soul.”

“Okay. Where did you come from?”

“Homeworld. That's our native planet.”

“Homeworld? That's what it's called?”

“Are you sure that's what you want your last question to be?”

“Wait!” Twilight thought hard. She needed to be careful about what she asked next.It needed to be meaningful. It needed to give her insight on what they were… “Why are you here?”

Pyrite smiled at the question. “To help, of course.”

Twilight frowned. “That’s it, huh?”

“That was your last question, you don’t get another one,” Obsidian said, stepping forward.

“Chill, Obsidian,” Pyrite said, stopping him. She looked back to Twilight. “Look, um…”

“Twilight. Twilight Sparkle.”

“Twilight. Look, I get you're curious and everything, but there are some things that are best left unknown. We're not here to hurt anyone. Trust me.”

Those last words caught Twilight. Despite the innumerable number of questions she had, she somehow felt compelled to trust Pyrite. “O… Kay. Um…”

“Pyrite.”

“Pyrite. Thank you for answering. Now, um… I don't suppose you can give me a lift home, seeing as I have no idea where in the wide land of Equestria we are.”

“This used to be the Lunar Sea Spire,” Pyrite explained.

“Pyrite…” Obsidian said. He was not enjoying this.

“It was an oasis for Gems… Back when it wasn't falling apart.”

“What happened?”

“Long story short, the piece holding the whole place together went missing. It's only a matter of time before the whole thing comes down.”

“And that?” Twilight pointed to the scroll.

“Um… You don't want to know.”

Pyrite, Tourmaline, Obsidian, and Twilight stepped onto the warp pad and it activated. All the while, however, Obsidian glared at Twilight… and at Pyrite.