Obsidian, Tourmaline, and Pyrite warped back to the house. Tourmaline went straight to the fridge, while Pyrite sat down on the couch. She looked around and said, “I guess Dawn isn't back yet.” She felt an unusual heat over her and immediately knew what was happening. “So, what's got you steamed?” she asked, looking at an angry Obsidian.
“You shouldn't have done that,” said Obsidian. “The less these people know about us, the better.”
“What did you expect me to do?” Pyrite responded. “Kill her? Imprison her?”
“You should have at least made it to where she won't come looking for us again. Scare her, intimidate her, threaten her; anything it takes to keep her and the others away.”
“Oh yeah, great idea,” Pyrite mocked. “And when a whole mob of angry Equestrians come looking for the scary Gem monsters who threatened a girl, what do you propose we do?”
“That may happen regardless! Now that you've told her about us, she'll tell others. And how do you expect them to react to learning about powerful aliens living on their planet? You've put all of us at risk, especially Dawn!”
Pyrite processed his last statement, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“If they learn what he is, they'll see him as an abomination. They’ll hunt him. And if that happens, I can't guarantee that I won't tear apart anyone who comes near him.”
“Okay, first off, I doubt Equestrians are the ‘Pure bloods only; no hybrid anything allowed’ type,” Pyrite said.
“It doesn't matter. Amber and Fulgurite said the girls followed them into the ship and saw the golem. One of them just saw us take on a smoke monster that could've possessed anything it came in contact with. What more do you need to conclude that the mysterious people living on your planet are dangerous?”
Pyrite took a deep breath. Obsidian had a point, but Pyrite was never the type to consider negative outcomes. “Look, it's not like I'm going to invite them here and tell them everything about us. What happened was a matter of circumstance. Nothing else. Besides, Dawn seems to get along just fine with the people in the town.”
“Yeah. You need to chill,” Tourmaline said, walking out of the kitchen.
“Tourmaline, please,” Obsidian said. “You're hardly the one to argue in this case.”
“Oh, sure. Maybe I shouldn't be the voice of reason and explain why you're overreacting,” Tourmaline replied sarcastically.
“That sounds nice.”
“GAH! Sarcasm, dude! You've been here over a thousand years and you still don't get it!”
“That's not the point! The point is your nonchalant attitudes are putting us all at risk! It took us decades to find a good place to live without arousing suspicion! You want to compromise all that to satisfy some girl’s curiosity?!”
“Nonchalant?” Pyrite looked shocked and a bit upset. “Excuse me, but who activated this temple and put up the fence? And I remember two other underappreciated Gems worked their gems to cracking point trying to salvage as much as possible from the wreckage and make sure no one stumbled on some dangerous Gem tech.”
“And let's certainly not forget the guy who actually spoke on your behalf to let you join the Crystal Gems in the first place after everything you did,” Tourmaline added. Obsidian’s ears perked up as he heard this and instantly summoned his sword, pointing it at Tourmaline.
“I joined of my own free will,” he said.
“Obsidian, put away the sword,” said Pyrite. Obsidian groaned and complied as he stormed off toward the warp pad.
“You're all crazy. Apparently, I'm the only one that cares about our safety.” He stepped up onto the pad and turned to face his comrades. “I'm going to check out the crash site in case anyone else decided to waltz by.” With that, he teleported.
“The guy can be such a jerk,” said Tourmaline.
“He's just angry at a lot of things,” Pyrite replied.
“We're all angry at something. You don't see me blowing up at everyone.”
Pyrite sighed. Then the door opened and she smiled. “Well, there's at least one major source of positivity in this house.” She turned around and she saw Dawn. Her smile shrank when she saw what he was holding. “H-Hey, Dawn. What's… that?”
Dawn put down the cube he was holding. It looked similar to the cube Amber had accidentally brought back from the ship. “Oh. I found this on my way back,” said Dawn. “It was floating in a pond close by.”
Pyrite and Tourmaline stared at each other. “Ha! Obsidian wouldn't let us hear the end of it if he was still here,” said Tourmaline.
“Where'd he go?” asked Dawn.
“Er… Personal mission,” said Pyrite. “Just checking up on something.”
“Oh, yeah. I went into the forest with some of the other kids in the town today,” said Dawn.
“Really? Dawn! You do know how dangerous that is, right?”
“Well, we followed a pretty empty path. It was like something had cleared out a lot of the trees.” Pyrite almost went pale as Obsidian’s words echoed in her mind. “But don't worry. I didn't tell them anything about us,” he added with a wink.
“Oh, thank heavens.”
“We would NOT hear the end of that for the next century,” added Tourmaline.
Back in her study, Twilight studied the aquamarine she had found earlier. She realized they obviously didn't want to talk to her and probably would've just taken the gemstone without explaining what it was. She fell onto her bed with a groan. She heard a knock on the door and answered to find Applejack and Rarity standing outside. “I told you guys, I'm fine,” she said automatically.
“We know, dear,” Rarity said. “It's just…”
“Did they give you a straight answer on anything?” asked Applejack.
“Well, they're aliens, apparently. So there's that.”
“Anything else?”
“They're hiding something.”
“Ya think?”
“They seemed unwilling to answer any questions. Plus, one of them didn't seem to like me very much.”
“He didn't hurt you did he?” asked a concerned Rarity.
“No. But he didn't like the fact that I was there with them.”
“At the spire place?” asked Applejack.
“Or around in general. Wait, why so curious?”
“Well…” Rarity shuffled through her pocket and pulled out a dark blue stone with curved ends like a cloud. “I found this while looking for gemstones for my new designs.”
“And?”
“And it's…odd. Every time I light it up with my magic, it's like I can see images on the surface.”
Twilight picked it up with her magic and held it close to her eyes. She didn't see it for a moment, but then saw what looked like images moving quickly through the stone. Some looked like things she recognized. Others looked unfamiliar.
“Well, I'll take a look at it,” she said. “And don't start,” she added, noticing Rarity about to do the “pleading face”.
Later that night, Twilight struggled to stay awake, studying the two stones. She had a large mug of coffee on her desk and sipped at it every so often to stay up. “They've got to be connected somehow.” She tapped the dark blue stone with a tuning fork and listened. Her vision began to blur. “Urgh. Maybe I could use a nap,” she concluded. She put her head down on the desk and shut her eyes. As if it were waiting, the gemstone began to vibrate, a dark blue mist seeping from it and flooding the room. Then castle. Then, the town.
Pyrite felt an unusual surge and jolted up from her sitting position on a cloud. She was in her room, which was filled with several golden pillars and orange clouds. She got up and headed for the door, a few clouds away. Once she got out, she used the warp pad to teleport to the Everfree. She gasped in slight terror. “Uh-oh.”
Tourmaline felt himself get thrown across the room and woke up to find himself upside down against the wall. “Hey!”
“Sorry,” said Pyrite. “But I've been shaking you for like five minutes and you didn't wake up.”
“Urgh. What is it? Butts need kicking?”
“Something like that.”
“The Night Stone is active.” They both turned to see Obsidian standing in front of the temple door. “You see? This is what happens when lower intelligence life forms try to meddle with forces they don't understand!”
“Not now, Obsidian. We need to take care of this first.”
“Huh. What's going on?” They looked and saw Dawn standing at the top of the stairs.
“Oh. Sorry for waking you, Dawn. It's nothing. Just a quick errand we need to run.”
“Can I come?”
Pyrite looked hesitant. “Er… Don't worry. We won't be long.”
Dawn nodded and went back to sleep as the Gems teleported to the Everfree and made their way to the town.
“So, how do you intend to fight something you can't hit on the material plane?” asked Obsidian.
“Easy. We just need to get close enough,” Pyrite replied. As they reached the town, its presence got stronger. It was obvious on account that the Gems were starting to feel what most would call sleepy.
“Haven't felt this in a while,” said Tourmaline.
“Wish we didn't have to.” said Pyrite. “First, two transmitters. Then, a Night Stone. Could this day get any more unlucky?”
“I found the source,” Obsidian said, pointing at a crystalline castle not too far from the town.
“Me and my big mouth. So now, we have to break into a princess’s castle?”
“At least it's not Celestia’s,” said Tourmaline.
“Fair point.” Once they got inside, it didn't take long to find a girl asleep at her desk. On the desk were two stones, both of which they recognized. “Another one? She didn't say anything about having any gemstones with her, let alone two.”
“See, this is how it starts.”
“Not now, Obsidian.” As the three approached the desk, they felt a wave of magic wash past them, then, they collapsed.
“Great.” Obsidian now found himself in a pitch black room with no walls and no end. He looked around and saw no one. “It's been a while, Nox. But I can still beat you.”
“That was a millennium ago,” said an ominous voice, which sounded like multiple voices speaking simultaneously. “A lot has changed since then.” As Obsidian was thrown into a light, his eyes shrunk as he saw something; something he wished he would never have to see again.
Pyrite, on the other hand, took the situation quite well. “Okay. First things first. Got to find Nox. Side mission, locate the girl and ask her what in the name of all that is golden was she doing with two dangerous gemstones.” As she ran, it didn't take her long to bump into Tourmaline.
“Hey, Py. Enjoying the scenery?” he said, gesturing to the apparent endless darkness.
“We need to find the girl.” It didn't take long for them to hear the screams of a girl in danger. It's easily distinguishable. They followed the sound to a pin of light, which grew as the came close until they found themselves back at the castle.
“Well, this makes no sense,” said Tourmaline.
Suddenly, the purple-haired girl burst out of one of the doors and hid behind the massive table in the middle of the room. She turned and saw the two Gems standing behind her. “Great. Now I know this is a nightmare,” she said.
“What gave it away?” Tourmaline asked sarcastically.
“The fact that the thing I'm terrified of happens to appear right in my castle out of thin air.”
“Oh. Yeah. That sounds right.”
“Now care to explain why I'm having this nightmare in the first place and why I can't wake up?”
“Well, for starters, maybe you should've brought us the stones instead of experimenting on them,” said Pyrite. “To answer your question, you've been affected by the Night Stone, also called Nox.”
“Okay. What is Nox?”
“An… experiment from our planet. It emits a magic aura that traps its victims in their worst nightmare.”
“That sounds about right.”
“Then feeds on their life force as they sleep,” added Tourmaline.
“WHAT?!” Twilight’s yell got the monster’s attention. They peeked over the table to get a better view.
“So, what is it?” asked Tourmaline. “The golem we fought? A chimera?”
“Worse,” Twilight said, shaking in terror. She looked up and saw the beast. A long, cylindrical beast standing like a cobra. It was a mash of yellow and red and as it roared, splats of red and yellow sprayed across the room.
“Is that…”
“A quesadilla.” Just saying the word sent a shiver up Twilight’s spine.
Pyrite looked confused, as did Tourmaline. “... I… I don't even… This is what you're scared of?” asked Pyrite.
“They're just… so… Cheesy…” Twilight said.
Pyrite sighed as she ran around the table, with Tourmaline going around the other side. Pyrite summoned her gauntlets and punched the creature towards Tourmaline, who brought down his mighty hammer and crushed the dish’s head.
“Okay. Moving on.”
Twilight came out from behind her hiding spot. “So, this is more of your stuff?”
Pyrite could hear Obsidian saying, “I told you so,” right about now. “Better question: why do you have it?” They were distracted by the sound of more cheesy monsters heading their way. “To be continued. For now, we need to leave.”
“How?” Twilight asked. “This is a dream.”
“Hey, someone's gotta learn to resist this thing.” Pyrite closed her eyes in concentration and her gem began to glow. The light got ever brighter until it completely enveloped them.
Twilight jolted awake, magic spiraling around her hand as she prepared herself, just in case the quesadillas somehow followed her out. Instead, she saw Pyrite and Tourmaline standing in front of her.
“O… kay,” Twilight said, still overwhelmed.
“No,” Obsidian groaned as he woke up. “Not okay.”
“What were you doing with these?” Pyrite asked, pointing at the stones. Then she changed her mind. “You know what? I don't care.” She placed both hands over each stone. But nothing happened. “What the… Oh no…” The dark blue stone began to shake, black mist surrounding it. “EVERYONE GET BACK!!!” Pyrite tackled Twilight away from the table as a blast of black was blown from the stone. There was an ominous noise, like a horrifying scream, as the cloud began to take shape around the stone until it looked like a bipedal body of mist. It seemed to be looking at them for a while. Then, finally, it flew around the room, then through the hall, and finally out the window.
Pyrite ran her hands through her hair in panic. “Nononononononononono…”
“Um, Py?” Tourmaline called, trying to wake her from her daze.
“We have to get that thing back,” she said. “We can't afford to let it do any more damage!”
“Twilight?” a familiar voice called in a country drawl.
“Oh no,” said Pyrite, facepalming. “Why now?”
Just as she feared, Rainbow, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy all dashed into the room. They all stopped in their tracks when they saw Twilight pointing her magic-covered hand at the Gems.
“Ah knew they were no good,” said Applejack.
“Okay, can we all calm down and talk about this?” suggested Pyrite.
“I'd like that,” Fluttershy said quietly.
“Give us one good reason why we should even listen to anything you have to say,” said Rainbow, ready to attack.
“How about the fact that we're the only ones who know what's going on here and how to solve it,” Obsidian stated bluntly.
“Sounds like reason enough to me,” said Pinkie.
“Thank you,” said Tourmaline.
“GAH!” Pyrite yelled in frustration. “See! This is why we told you to stay away! You have no idea what this stuff is! But you still thought it was a good idea to run tests on it?”
“If you would have given me a straight answer, we may not have had to deal with this in the first place,” said Twilight. “In fact, we could've helped each other.”
“You?” asked a skeptical Obsidian. “Help us? How?”
“Forget it,” said Pyrite. “We don't have time for this. Let's go.” Before the girls could react, the Gems stormed out of the castle.
“Are you alright, Twilight?” asked Fluttershy.
“They didn't hurt you, did they?” asked Rarity.
“No. I'm fine,” said Twilight.
“Okay, that settles it,” said Rainbow. “They have to go!”
“Now, now, Rainbow Dash,” said Rarity, “I believe we should give them a chance to explain themselves.”
“We've given them plenty of those! It's like they aren't even trying!”
“Well, judging by all the secrecy, mah guess is that they weren't planning on anyone finding out about ‘em and they wanna keep it that way,” said Applejack.
“Well, until we know for sure,” said Twilight, “we all need to keep our eyes peeled.”
“You're leaving?” Dawn sounded like he was ready to break down as Amber and Fulgurite stood next to the warp pad.
“It's only for about a week,” said Amber.
“But we'll try to write… Or something,” added Fulgurite.
“Better yet…” Amber reached into her hair and pulled out a round white crystal about the size of a tennis ball and handed it to Dawn. “This is the thing we meant to bring you before.”
As soon as Dawn touched it, it turned pink. “Cool… Um, what is it?”
“It's a visual and auditory two-way transmission and…” She soon stopped herself when she noticed Dawn’s confused expression.
“It's a communication crystal,” Fulgurite said. “You can see us, talk to us, yadda yadda yadda.”
“Oh. How does it work?” asked Dawn.
Amber leaned towards the crystal and cleared her throat. “Call Fulgurite.”
Immediately, there was a buzzing sound. Fulgurite summoned a similar yellow orb and tapped it. Each of them could see the other’s face in their respective crystals. “Whuddup?”
“Whoa!” Dawn looked at Fulgurite through the crystal.
“Also, if we don't answer, you can record a message and we'll get back to you when we see it,” said Fulgurite.
“I'm gonna miss you guys,” Dawn said as he hugged them, not wanting to let go.
Once they had gone, Dawn packed a bag and headed outside. It didn't take long to reach Ponyville, where he found the people he went there to meet. Three girls sat on a bench next to a flower shop. One had red hair with a pink ribbon in it and wore a yellow shirt and blue jeans. Another had messy purple hair and wore a gray-blue shirt and green shorts. The last one had hair of light purple and pink and wore a white shirt and a purple skirt.
“Hi,” he said to them.
“Heya, Dawn,” the redhead replied. “Glad ya could make it.”
“But let's see if you can handle what we have planned,” said the other.
“Quit it, Scootaloo,” said the last. “The last thing we need is you scaring off someone else! This is the third person we've asked!”
“Relax, Sweetie Belle. I'm just messing with him,” said Scootaloo. “Applebloom, back me up here.”
Applebloom rolled her eyes and looked back at Dawn, who asked, “So, where exactly are we going?”
“Well, as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, we've made it our job to discover our true calling,” Applebloom explained. “This means we go on different quests and try out different things to see what our real destiny is.”
“So, you just try out different thing till you get one of these?” Dawn asked. As he did, he pulled down the neck of his shirt to reveal his cutie mark on the right side of his collarbone: a pentagonal gemstone with a heart in the middle.
The girls gawked. “Wait a minute, you have yours?!” Applebloom asked in surprise.
“Well, yeah,” Dawn replied, fixing his shirt.
“Well… That changes things,” said Scootaloo, earning her an elbow from Sweetie Belle.
“Not to me, it don't,” said Applebloom. “Let's go!”
It didn't take long for the four to get deep into the Everfree Forest. Dawn recognized the place, mostly because of the number of times he'd been in there with the Gems and how many times they had told him never to go in alone.
“So, what're we looking for again?” Dawn asked.
“That,” Scootaloo said as they reached their destination. Just pass the trees ahead was what looked like a massive square platform, big enough to fit ten or more warp pads! But it was chipped and cracked in several places on its metallic blue surface.
“What is it?” asked Dawn.
“We think it may be some kind of secret room.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because this.” Scootaloo said as she picked up what might have been a piece of the surface and threw it at the platform. Immediately as the stone made contact, a crack appeared in the middle of the cube and opened to reveal an entrance.
“Whoa!”
“We wanted to go in yesterday, but we were... interrupted.”
“And bah that, she means we woulda been busted if anyone knew we were here,” Applebloom said.
“Oh. Well, no one’s here now,” Dawn said, walking towards the entrance with the girls following close behind. The inside was a massive corridor, with markings and symbols on the walls as they passed, which went down a few feet, then straight.
“It's pretty creepy in here,” said Sweetie Belle.
“What, you scared?” teased Scootaloo.
“No! I'm just… pointing something out.”
“Hey, what's that?” Everyone else stopped and saw what Applebloom meant. At the end of the path, there was a door, which led to a large room, which was empty save for the large octagonal console in the middle of the room, which seemed elevated slightly above the surface. The four walked inside and looked around.
“Well… This is underwhelming,” said Sweetie Belle.
“Ah was expecting more stuff,” said Applebloom.
“At least there's something,” said Scootaloo, as she made her way to the platform. As she climbed the stairs, they lit up beneath her feet. Once she got on the platform, the whole thing lit up and an assortment of crystals appeared from the console.
“Uh… I'm not sure we should touch anything,” Dawn said, worried.
“Relax,” said Scootaloo. “Look at this place! It must be a gazillion years old! The lights are probably the only things that work.” She pulled out one of the crystals and a holographic screen appeared in front of them. “Whoa! Never mind! What do the rest do?”
“Move over!” Sweetie Belle said, pushing Scootaloo aside and pulling another crystal. This time, the screen showed static. She pulled another and pushed another down and the static began changing direction, as if trying to form an image.
“Mah turn!” Applebloom jumped at the controls and shifted multiple crystals.
“Uh, guys… girls, I think we should… not touch this stuff anymore and head outside,”Dawn said, even more worried. “I'm pretty sure I saw a wierd looking tree outside.”
“It's the Everfree Forest,” said Scootaloo. “There's a lot of weird looking trees.” Finally, she pressed a button and an image appeared on the screen. It looked like a reference sheet of some kind. On it was the image of what they all recognized as a golem, although Dawn knew that these were the normal golems you found around the Forest. Around the figures were information bubbles linking to different parts of the golem.
“Whoa! Must be some kinda computer,” Applebloom said.
“It must have a lot of info, then,” said Sweetie Belle. “Meaning…”
“IT COULD TELL US HOW WE CAN GET OUR CUTIE MARKS!!!” The combined force of the three voices echoed through the room.
“I doubt that,” mumbled Dawn.
The girls continued to toy around with the console for a few moments, cycling through what seemed to be more golems with different shapes. Finally, they got bored.
“Urgh! Everything’s practically the same,” said Sweetie Belle.
“An’ there’s nothin’ in here that can tell us how we get our cutie marks,” added Applebloom.
“Unless having useless knowledge about the different types of golems in Equestria counts as a talent worthy of a cutie mark,” said Scootaloo. The girls looked around them for the glow that symbolized the appearance of their mark, but found none.
“Grrr! This was a waste of-” Scootaloo suddenly stopped. The others heard it as well; voices.
“Shoot! We are sooooo dead,” said a panicking Sweetie Belle.
“We can make a break for it,” Scootaloo suggested, pointing at the door. That was until she realized that it was also the way someone else was coming in.
“Hold on. Maybe they're friendly,” said Applebloom.
Soon, a shadow appeared on the hallway.
“Nope!” Dawn, in a display of strength, tackled the three girls off the platform. Instantly, every light went off and the screen vanished. Dawn hung onto the edge of the platform holding onto Applebloom with his free hand, who in turn held on to Scootaloo, who held Sweetie Belle.
There was a clanking sound flowing through the corridor. Dawn lowered the group down to the lower level, then jumped down himself as quietly as possible. He had mastered the art of sneaking for many reasons; ranging from escaping Tourmaline’s pranks to… well, that's mostly it.
The four crept up to the stair and looked over it. Coming through the entrance was a fairly tall figure, about six feet, maybe slightly less. It looked fairly normal, save for one thing: it seemed to be made of dark blue smoke with yellow glowing “eyes”. It floated up the stairs and towards the console, completely oblivious to any other presence. As she activated it Dawn and the Crusaders walked around to the front of the stairs, staying low, and peaked over to see the figure. It's “hands” moved fluidly over the crystals, which responded, rising and depressing as her hand moved over them, even without making contact.
“Whoa. Why couldn't we do that?” whispered Scootaloo.
“Maybe it knows what it is,” suggested Sweetie Belle.
As the figure worked the controls, it, which turned out to be a she based on the voice, groaned in frustration.
“I can't even get decent equipment on this lousy planet!” She became more aggressive with the controls, almost as if she were ready to rip them out herself. “Come one you lousy, worthless, sassafrassing, pile of garbage! WORK!” Finally, she swiped angrily over the console and the screen showed what looked like a maze. “Finally!” She worked the controls and soon, the rooms in the maze were being highlighted. “First, you lock me up,” she continued ranting as she worked, “then, when I finally get used to being asleep, you wake me up. THEN you try to imprison me again?!”
“We should probably leave now,” whispered Sweetie Belle.
“Now you’re making sense,” agreed Dawn. The four got up and backed away slowly out of the room. However, they bumped into a problem… literally. They didn't look. “Um…” They felt the solid mass blocking their exit. It was cold and hard, like stone… “Stone…”
Finally, they looked up and saw the upper body of a massive seven foot tall golem. It didn't seem to react, so they sidestepped around it as quietly as possible.
“Well, let's see how they like being trapped,” said the mist figure. Whatever it did, it had caused the room to start moving. The group looked back briefly and saw multiple capsules appear around the platform, leaving only the path of the stairway clear. Behind the figure was a platform Dawn recognized as a warp pad.
Sadly, he didn't have time to do any more than observe as from beneath the lower platform appeared multiple smaller creatures. They were white, and looked like big, short, fat worms with drill-like mouths.
“Great. These things again,” the mist remarked, swiping away the crystal shrimp that attempted to climb onto the console.
Dawn looked in horror as a flood of them appeared; some crawled up the platform, others headed for the exit.
“Okay… Run!” Dawn and the girls ran with all their might, trying to keep a safe distance from the shrimp.
“Wait, why are we running?” Scootaloo asked. “They're pretty small.” She looked back and saw a bunch of shrimp covering the golem. She got the idea when she noticed it was beginning to get shorter, and it wasn't because they were running away from it. As soon as they reached the top, Dawn said, “We have to cover up the entrance!”
“With what?” asked Applebloom.
Dawn looked around and found some more chunks of stone. He picked one up and walked over to the entrance. “You can open the door. Please tell me you can close it.” He dropped the stone onto the entrance. As soon as it reached the threshold, it stopped, suspended. Finally, it began to expand and seal off the exit. One of the shrimp managed to stick it's head out, but was caught by the closing surface.
“NOPE!” Scootaloo said as she stomped it back into the chamber, sealing off the entrance. The whole group was breathing heavily now, but relieved.
“Okay…” Sweetie Belle started. “Is it just me… or… did the Everfree Forest… just get.., wierder?” she said through long breaths.
“Okay. Ah have an idea,” Applebloom said. With the help of the others, she pushed a rather large stone over the entrance to the underground chamber. “Just fer safety.”
“Also for safety,” added Scootaloo, “let's all agree to not tell anyone about this!”
“Mah sister would never let me leave the house again,” said Applebloom.
“My sister would kill me,” said Sweetie Belle.
“I don't have a sister,” added Dawn, “But I'd still be in major trouble.”
“Good, then we all agree that this goes in the Vault,” declared Scootaloo.
“Hey Dawn,” Pyrite said as Dawn walked into the house. “How was your day?”
“It was… fine,” he replied.
Pyrite noticed his tone. “Dawn? What are you hiding?”
“Well…” As he tried to think of a way out, Obsidian teleported in through the warp pad. He glared at Pyrite before silently walking to the temple door. One of the stones glowed black and the door opened for him.
“Did… something happen,” asked Dawn, worried. He knew Obsidian could be moody, but this felt more like he was ready to hack the house in half!
“Don't worry about it, Dawn,” Pyrite replied. Then, she had a thought. “Hey, how'd you like to come with us tomorrow?” She asked. “We're going to see if we can get some more of those large strawberries we found!”
Dawn thought to himself, “No monsters, no smoke monsters, no rock monsters, no shimp monsters. If everything's the same as last time…” He looked up and smiled. “WOOHOO!!! I'm gonna make the biggest strawberry ice cream sundaes ever!!!”