//------------------------------//
// Rearmament 
// Story: Gems of Power 
// by WezzaHD 
//------------------------------//

"...That damn psycho!" Jasper roared, breaking the stupor the others had found themselves in. "He actually tried to make gems?!" She slammed her fist into the wall near her. Lapis and Amethyst attempted to calm her down, while Garnet, Pearl and Peridot were still in shock.

“Jas, ple-”

“No! Screw the traps, we are putting an end to this, to everything that Sombra stands for!” She was about to rush into the darkness, but found herself stuck in Peridot’s tractor beam. “Let. Me. Go.”

“Not until you calm down.” She had a stern expression on her face.

“You don’t think the rest of us want to leave Sombra in the past where he belongs? Of course we do, but running guns blazing won’t help anyone.” Pearl continued.

“Yeah dude. Just chill.” Amethyst added. After staring at them for a moment, Jasper sighed.

“Fine.” They nodded at Peridot, who deactivated her tractor beam. “Let’s just go.” She walked forward, the gems and ponies following suit, unaware of the silver gas, leaking above them.





“Good god, there are a lot of these.” Jasper looked around at all the holes. “It’s small compared to a regular Kindergarten, but still, it’s troubling to think of how many he created.”

“Say Lapis, what does that journal say?” Peridot asked, taking a break from looking at all of the dozens upon dozens of holes in the walls.

“Uh let’s see.” She opened up another page.

“Entry 41: I’ve done it; I’ve made what the gems call ‘Kindergarten’. I believe that is the name for where gems are made. I already have a ready supply of crystals and have injected the gems into the ground, now I simply wait for the results.”

“Which were hopefully unsuccessful.” Just as she spoke, she heard a roar come from deep in the darkness. “Well there goes that hope.” Suddenly, they heard three sets of stubby legs coming their way. As they got ready to fight, the legs stopped. Suddenly, a stinger rose up from the ground and slammed into all of them, quickly returning back under the ground before they could even think to retaliate. It appeared again from their side, and just as they were ready to run at it, another from behind them tripped them up. Lapis flew up with her wings, while Amethyst followed suit by shapeshifting into a hawk. Lapis’s arms stretched down and grabbed Garnet, pulling her up. Amethyst doing the same with Peridot.

“Those stupid tails can come up from anywhere.” Amethyst grunted.

“Garnet, use your future vision to tell us where they’ll most likely show up.” Lapis said. The perma- fusion nodded, pausing for a moment. “Throw me into the wall.” Lapis obliged, hurling her towards the wall to her left. As a tail burst through to try and catch the flying gems, Garnet grabbed it, just stopping short of the stinger. It lashed around, trying to stab her but she held strong.

“Right behind me!” Garnet grunted. Amethyst threw Peridot to the wall, and her limb- enhanced feet connected with the wall, sticking to it. As another stinger lashed out at the fusion, she caught it in her tractor beam, holding it still.

“We’ve got one!” They looked to the ground to see Jasper, Pearl, Solid and Mercury had subdued another of the claws.

“There.” Mercury shot a ball of light down the hall, illuminating to see a giant grey scorpion with a gem on its left claw. It appeared to be struggling with pulling its three stingers up. Lapis and Amethyst flew towards it, the latter shifting back into her true form when she was above the beast. The only difference was her giant fist as she slammed it down on the creature. Meanwhile, it tried to clamp its claws down on Lapis, who spun away through the air. She turned her arms into needles to try and stab the claws, but it didn’t appear to do any damage. Her eyes widened as one of the claws rammed into her.

“Okay.” She grunted, steadying herself and flying to the ground. As the claws lunged at her, she turned both her arms into a giant shield. She winced as the claws tried to get through the barrier, since it wasn’t an actual weapon and she wasn’t a Bismuth. It was about to give the shield a blow with all its power, when it suddenly felt a pain in its abdomen.

“Let’s see you get a taste of your own medicine.” There were two water needles in lodged in the scorpion’s stomach. Her wings had dug into the ground while corrupted gem was hitting her. Then, as Amethyst tied its claws up with her whip in one hand, she forced it down with her other giant hand. It disappeared in a puff of smoke, the gem falling to the ground. Lapis, panting, bubbled the gem and sent it to the designated “bubble room”, the same place Granite was being held.

“I suppose that was inevitable.” Pearl laughed.

“Indeed.” Mercury nodded. “Now come. And don’t forget the journal.” She lead the way, whilst the others paused for a moment before nodding.

Entry 47:

After some tries, I’ve made it, a gem. Although it appears to be rather… monstrous. It is what my enforcers have referred to as “corrupted gems”. It can reform, but is incapable of full thought and creating a weapon. Whilst this could hold its advantages I shall also experiment with gems that can think. My Empire will not be ruled by savages. I shall see if my assistant has found a way to give them some level of intelligence.





The group was following Mercury, who had suddenly gone ahead. Going after her, they turned a corner when they heard glass shatter. They ran towards found themselves in a small faction of the Kindergarten that appeared to be a sort of lab. They saw the grey- maned unicorn standing next a canister on the floor, the glass top shattered.

“Figures you’d lead us to a lab, Pierce.” Solid rolled his eyes.

“This will give us more information on what we’re dealing with.” She said matter- of- factly. “We cannot assume that those entries hold all our answers.” She continued looking through the cupboards, but Amethyst saw a mound of earth behind one of the counters, arched forward, as if leaning towards them. Unfortunately, it sank into the ground the moment it came into her field of vision.

“Anything more from the entri-” Peridot stopped as a strange, orange sludge dripped from the ceiling. “What the..?” She looked up, and some more was leaking out from the cracks in the stone.

“It’s everywhere.” Jasper shook her hand to get rid of the translucent sludge that covered it. Despite that, the mess was coming from everywhere in the room. From the corners of the walls to the tiles on the ceiling. It appeared to be covering nearly everypony. The only exceptions were Mercury and Lapis, the latter of which was flying in the middle of the room. 

“Crap.” Lapis frowned. The others followed suit and tried to run out the door, but found it stuck in place thanks to the orange sludge. Soon, the sludge began to take form, generating needles to try and stab those who occupied the room. It stabbed and stabbed and stabbed, but they all dodged best they could. Unfortunately, the ponies were getting tired and Mercury just stood there.

“I’ve had enough of this.” She growled. “Come with me shorty!” She grabbed Amethyst. “Let’s break this thing down.” The both of them spin- dashed at the hardened sludge, now completely covering the door. The two gems didn’t stop as the hardened goo covering the door cracked. Eventually, it gave and they fell out. The others quickly ran out the door before it could be sealed again.

“What the hell?” The goo didn’t stop filling the room. Instead, it all gathered in one place. It began to take form with a gem in its centre. Its head was facing the ground. As it looked up, it didn’t appear to have and facial feature. Slowly, it walked out of the room, stumbling slightly. Once it laid its non-existent eyes on them, it stopped. As it loomed over even Jasper, its height reminded them somewhat of Springtrap.

“Mrrrg!” It roared before clambering towards the group, arms raised. They scattered as it brought its fists down on the spot where they stood. Its arm grew and stretched before them. It tried to grab Peridot, but she flew up with her limb enhancers.

Garnet jumped forward to punch the beast with her gauntlets. As it fell to the ground, Garnet tried to jump away but found herself stuck. She looked to the floor and found her feet stuck to the gem’s goo, which appeared to have hardened. Before she could punch her way out it grabbed her, not letting go even as she punched it. It reached for her hands, consuming them. Before she could do anything else, she poofed, her gems stuck in the goo. It let out another roar as it suddenly increased in size. He went from 9ft from 12ft.

“What the..?” Before she could do anything else, be brought his arm down, forcing Amethyst to jump up and come back down with a spin dash, that the creature blocked with its left arm and swatted away like a fly.

“Are you okay Amethyst?” Lapis asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine but… That thing just ate Garnet.”

“And now it’s bigger and more powerful.” Peridot rubbed her chin, but finds herself dodging several projectiles launched from the creature’s back, shaped like gauntlets. “What the?!” She frantically dodged more of them. Lapis gathered as much water as she could, blasting the creature back in a makeshift Hydro Pump. It then ran at Lapis, but fell to the ground as it was tripped by Amethyst’s whip.

“Nope!” She grinned, but the creature took one look at Amethyst and its foot shot at her, turning into the upper body of a fanged beast with sharp teeth and claws taking her by surprise, biting off one of her arms. She winced as light formed and she jumped back and got another arm, letting her whip fade away.

“You okay there?” Peridot asked, and she nodded, but as the beast turned back into the foot and that… whatever it was got back up it turned to her, sending more fist projectiles at her, in which she turned into a hawk and flew up, darting away from all of them before turning into a large crab and coming down on it, but soon, appendages spawned from its back and grabbed her, squeezing her body until she popped, absorbing her gem as it fell onto its body. It grew even more, letting out another roar.

“Mrrrg!” It cried, before stomping towards the other gems. Pearl tried shooting it with laser blasts from her spear and Peridot used her electron cannon, firing several of her own attacks. It looked like it was slowing down, but nearly faltering, they had to think fast or it would take in all of them, and who’s to say it wouldn’t stop at the gems? They looked at the guards, who were currently also hitting it with magical beams and weapons.

“But maybe…” Pearl looked at its hands, which had Ruby and Sapphire’s gem in them. Her spear lit up, radiating with energy. She let it stay like that for a moment, as the energy built up more and more before running at the beast and ducking under its feet while it was distracted with the other gems and guards, leaping up behind it and slashing its right arm off while it was still soft enough. Before it had any chance to harden itself, the blob’s arm was cut clean off.

“You’re not taking anyone else!” She roared. It regenerated its arm, but it was smaller. “Go after its other arm!” She yelled, and they obliged, focusing their attacks on its left shoulder, but it hardened its body and withstood the blasts.

“Okay, how abou-” Before Jasper could finish something stabbed her, a translucent orange sword. She fell to her knees, desperately trying to hold her physical form together. Behind them, the arm they had severed was still there, one of its fingers sharpened from having pierced Jasper’s form.

“You okay Kass?” Peridot asked.

“I’ll be fine.” She laughed.  She stumbled back up, before spin dashing the separated part of the monster, which had turned into a large crab. “Focus on the big one!” She yelled, and they nodded, attacking it more and more, cracks slowly forming while Jasper fought the smaller beast. They eventually wore it out, the gem crumbling until it was forced to soften its body to avoid being poofed, but as it did, they all took their time to quickly extract the gems from their gooey prison, when they all launched an all- out attack on the now- smaller gem, forcing it to split a part of itself off, and it retreats into the darkness while the group catches their breath.

“What the hell was that?!” Jasper growled.

“Another corrupted gem.” Peridot stated matter- of- factly. “It appears to absorb other gems to become stronger.”

“But… this place is meant to be filled with other gems.” Pearl looked worried.

“Well this is just GREAT!” Jasper roared. “Add that that to the list of other problems! What’s that, number 35?!”

“Are we really doing this again Jasper?!” Peri yelled.

“Might as well!” She shot back. “Nothing better to do!”

“You mean nothing other than bubble all of these gems?! Because there’s a whole lot of that we need to do!” Peridot retorted, resulting in Jasper going face to face with her.

“You wanna start something, runt? I will not hesitate to shatter you into a million pieces!” She growled, but Peridot did not back down. They both saw red.

“Whoa whoa!” Lapis separated them with her wings. “Look, can we just remember who our enemy is?”

“She’s right mate.” Amethyst said, still panting at reforming her arm.

“You two stay out of this!” Jasper and Peridot shoved the two away. Normally, they would’ve just glared at them, but they were also partly surprised. With whom she turned into, it was normal for her to pick fights as Jasper, picking up the gem’s characteristics, but Peridot? She was snarky, but her being antagonistic didn’t usually go past mockery. Here, she was picking a fight, very quickly at that. But, they just couldn’t deal with this. Not today. They brought out their weapons, Jasper doing the same and Peridot readying her blaster. Jasper and Amethyst collided with spin dashes, whilst Peridot tried to blast Lapis, who was in the sky flying around.

“Grrr… Are none of you even concerned with this?!” Jasper roared.

“We’ve been over this, yet you constantly insist on getting angry about it!” Peridot retorted, looking her in the eye.

“Get away from me!” Jasper shoved Peri away, causing her to retaliate with her electron blaster, hitting Jasper in the face. “You little runt!” She roared, spin- dashing at the green gem, who trapped Jasper in a tractor beam before throwing her into Lapis. The water gem displaced followed suit with the violence by blocking and throwing her back at Peridot, hitting her full- on. But what she didn’t notice was a whip twirl around her leg until she went face- first into a building.

“I’ll turn you all into statues!” She yelled, summoning water, turning it into appendages and slamming them all away, but Amethyst shapeshifted into an eagle, flying through all of the tentacles right into Lapis, sharpening her talons and slashing the gem in her abdomen.

“What are they doing?!” Solid stared shocked at the fight. “We can’t fight against each other now!” Garnet merely stayed silent and Mercury was gone again.

Something definitely isn’t right.” Garnet thought. Lapis wasn’t one to suddenly get angry like this. The powers she gained as a displaced were sometimes difficult to control so she always tried to keep cool. Even the laid back Amethyst was taking part in an all- out brawl. It was very much possible that the thoughts and implications of this Kindergarten were getting to everyone, but she didn’t feel like that was it. She pulled Pearl away.

“Look around.” She said.

“Since when do you give me orders..?!” She clenched her teeth, but held her head immediately after. “Nnnggh…”

“I said stop fighting!” Solid was getting angry as well.

“Are you two okay?!” Garnet was becoming worried now. She put her hand on Pearl’s shoulder.

“Don’t touch me!” She quickly shook Garnet off and summoned her spear. “Get away from me or I’ll cut off your hands!” She stopped and fell to her knees. “What’s… Happening…”

“Pearl, I need you to stay here and try to keep control of yourself.”

“I am in control!” She nearly slashed at Garnet, but stopped herself.

“Whatever this is, it’s only a matter of time before it gets to me as well. I’ll find out what it is.”

“O… Kay...” Pearl looked up at her, resisting her anger. Garnet nodded and ran off.





She wasn’t too far from her allies, but she had to hurry and find the cause of this before they destroyed each other.

“So it is true.” She heard a voice, echoing through the caverns. “I had heard that your heightened senses would make things difficult.”

“Who are you?” Garnet asked. Instead of getting a verbal answer, she dodged a blue rapier that was thrust her way. An azure gem in a fencing outfit, even with a mesh mark covering his face. He picked up the rapier and pointed it at Garnet.

“I see.” She said, activating her gauntlets. She ran at him and he jumped up, slashing at her whilst in the air. He very nearly got her, but she ducked. He then thrust his rapier at her, and she parried, before trying her fists at an uppercut, but he merely leaned back and countered with a lunge, striking her side. She winced and elbowed him to the ground, but he tried to trip her up she jumped back.

“I’m afraid that won’t work.” She smiled.

“But this will.” He ran at her, before jumping up as she tried to swing and slash her several times. She growled and knelt down for a moment before jumping back up and bringing her fist down, only for him to step to the right and slash her again before going in for a stab. Unfortunately, she caught his rapier and snapped it in two. The gem stepped back, before summoning another rapier.

“You really want to go through with this?” She asked. He simply pointed his sword at her again and she shrugged. He lunged at her once more, and she was prepared to give him a punch strong enough to poof him, but she felt a twinge of fear all of a sudden and hesitated, leaving her open to several slashes from the sword. She quickly jumped back as he advanced on her. Shaking her head, she launched her fists at him, only for him to leap up in the air and slash down at her. Again, and again, and again he slashed. She kept hesitating, the fear coming over her everytime she thought about making a move. She jumped back once again, trying to get ahold of herself. She heard a laugh from the gem as he ran at her once more, but she was able to just dodge the swings from his sword. She launched her gauntlets once again, except they turned when he was about to dodge. The fists hit a ledge above, causing rocks to fall down on him.

He looked at the rocks and stared at her, simply muttering. “Ready now.” And letting them fall on him. Garnet smiled at this, she felt oddly happy at his defeat. But she brushed it off and was about to go towards the rocks, when a cloud of silver-ish gas flew past her, the others running towards it.

“Garnet!” Lapis shouted. “There you are!”

“Are you okay?” Pearl asked, frowning.

“Yes, I’m fine.” She said. “I just ran into another gem here. It wore a mask though, whoever it was. We need to identify them.”

“Okay, well we’re just choking a gas cloud that almost choked Solid.”

“I’m fine, really.” He said, even if he clearly wasn’t. “I’m a guard, I can take punishment. I was just trying to look for Mercury. The mare ran off again.”

“Well regardless, we need to keep chasing that cloud!” Peridot continued her running.

“Come on G!” Kass grabbed the fusion’s arm, pulling her along.

“But I need to…” She stopped as she felt that happiness again. She was with her team, and they would put the final nail on Sombra’s coffin.





“Run run run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me, I’m a Shadow Gem, man!” The cloud laughed, a female voice being heard.

“You’re not getting away!” Peridot yelled, flying after the assailant. Her tractor beam wouldn’t hold the gas cloud still, much to her disdain. Not to mention she really didn’t know how to make it stop.

She stopped when they came into a dark room, that lit up once they all entered. In the middle was a pedestal, holding a clear gemstone. There were engravings of Sombra everywhere, on the walls, the ceiling, the floor, even the pedestal.

The gas cloud began to shrink and take form, showing a red- skinned gem wearing a trench coat and boots. Long, straight black hair. She grinned at them.

“Hello, traitors!” She said, opening her arms up. “Thank you for daring to set foot down here! I mean, it’ll be the last thing you ever do, but it’s the thought that counts.”

“Sorry to disappoint you.” Jasper growled. “But none of us are dying!” She tried to jump forward, but suddenly fell over. She tried to get back up, but found her body stuck to the ground like her feet. She looked down to what was keeping her there, and an orange goo worked its way over her body. The other gems and guards tried to run to her help, but they were trapped just the same.

“I see you’ve met Amber.” She grinned. “A sweetheart, isn’t he?” She petted the goo as a body with a gem in its head rose up.

“Mrrrrgg…”

“If you think a little goo is going to keep anyone down then…” Amethyst and all the others were about to try and shapeshift, when they suddenly felt a great fear looming over them and quickly stopped.

“Yeah, you see, I know you’re trying to shapeshift but we don’t want that so…” Cinnabar laughed. “It ain’t happening.”

“Cease your babbling Cinnabar.” Garnet recognised the voice as the gem she fought earlier. When he walked out of the darkness, he appeared to be wearing a long blue old- fashioned jacket want stopped just above the knees, looking like it was from the 16th century. Under the jacket was a buttoned cyan shirt and a scarf behind the coat’s collar. His indigo hair hung above his shoulders as he smiled at the captives.

“Come on Azurite, our creator is about to return to us. I’m allowed to have some fun with watching the traitors squirm.” Cinnabar laughed.

“The gem’s got a point.” Another voice rang out. “I mean; we’ve waited this long haven’t we? It ain’t just another day of prepping or sitting around. Now get on with it already!”

“That’s exactly what we’re going to do.” Another voice, more familiar spoke out. Mercury walked inbetween the gems with a smile on her face.

“Mercury?” Solid frowned.

“What are you doing.” Amethyst asked.

“Bringing back King Sombra, of course.” She said, flaring her horn out.

“You’ve been working for him?”

“As his faithful lab assistant actually.”

“You actually helped him make gems?!” Kass growled.

“Shadow Gems, actually.” Mercury smiled. “You are not of this world, but they are. Gems with Equestrian magic, stronger than you could all hope to be. That’s already been evidenced by Cinnabar, Amber and Azurite. And why don’t I introduce you to some of the others?” At her word, several other gems stepped out.

“Meet Fluorite.” A bright green gem with long, purple hair stepped out. A scarf loosely hung around her neck. “Cinnabar.” The familiar trenchcoated gem grinned at them, the back of her neck twinkling. “Azurite.” The gem in the old- fashioned clothing nodded. “Sodalite.” Another gem stepped out, adorned with a simple shirt and jacket. “Chalcanthite.” A pale cyan gem rose up, wearing a mask, along with a hooded jacket. “And here’s Bloodstone.” Another gem rose up, this one unlike the others. Its body was lizard- like, claws shining off its fingers and a grin on its jaws. A few red spots were present on its otherwise completely green body. The clothes it wore looked torn, similar to that of a non- corrupted Centipeedle.
“Mrrg.” The walking orange blob grunted.

“You said it Amber.” Cinnabar laughed.

“Of course, this isn’t counting all of them, not to mention the corrupted ones. With them and myself, King Sombra will rise again.”

“How? He’s dead. Not coming back. We made sure of that.”

“He is, and you’re all going to help him rise. Your last useful act before you’re all disposed off.”

“Quite fitting, isn’t it?” Chalcanthite mused.

“And how exactly are we going to help you bring someone back from the dead?”

“You’re not, because he’s not dead.”

“...What?”

“Yeah that’s right, he’s not dead. He did more than just control your minds with that control spell, he stored his magic and all of his memories inside the cores of your beings.” As she spoke, they all looked at their gems. “Our King lives on inside of all of you.” Their eyes widened at what she’d just said.

“You’re kidding me…” Peridot gritted her teeth.

“So that bastard has been using us as vessels?!”

“That is exactly it.” Mercury smiled. “But don’t worry, that time is up, as is yours.” Her horn began to glow, before an aura branched out from her horn, going into their gems, which suddenly all turned dark grey. They all writhed and cringed, as they felt something being ripped from their very being that had gone unnoticed until now. The shadows slowly seeped out, yet it felt like they were being torn from their very beings. They struggled, trying everything to break out, shapeshift, just…. Something that would allow them to escape. However, nothing worked. They were stuck there, as the dark magic in their gems was removed, and placed in another gem entirely.

“Hurts… So… Much…” Lapis struggled, trying to get out, but it was to no avail as Mercury kept the spell cast. Eventually, all the magic was transferred into one solitary stone, that began to radiate with darkness around it on the pedestal, until all the shadows gathered around and clustered inside the gem.

Suddenly, it rose in the air and began to glow. Their eyes widened as a body began to fall around the gem. Chest, legs, arms, all started to grow before their eyes. All, pure black. The empty form lowered to the ground and stood there, its back hunched over and its arms limp. Armour began to cover the body, a helmet completely covering the face and leaving it in darkness his curved red horn grew at the top of the helmet. Most of the armour was spiked and jagged, particularly the limb. The tops of his shoulderplates were gold- rimmed and arched upwards. Just above his wrists, black crystals protruded from the gauntlets, His red cape flared out before falling just below his knees. Smokey, spikey black hair ran wild from the back of his helmet. His gem stuck out in the middle of his chestplate.

The gems stared with shock and fear as he stood upright, and opened his eyes, as menacing as they were 1,000 years ago. Amber had let go of them all, bowing like the rest of the other gems and Mercury to their king. His eyes looked down at his kneeling subjects.

“My King.” Mercury said, still bowing. “We have waited long for your return. We are eternally grateful for it.” After looking at the unicorn, he stared at his armoured hand, his signature dark smoke emanating from the joints of the armour. He clenched his fist, satisfied with his appearance. Then, his gaze locked on to the gems that had betrayed him, he revelled in their expressions, looks of unmatched fear, complete and utter such, pure, unadulterated rage.

“I told you I’d see you soon, Peridot.”

“Sombra!”

“Jasper, wait!” Garnet’s cries went unheard, as Jasper was suddenly on his side, doing a spin dash into him. However, he blocked the attack with his hand, which glowed before tightening it slightly and stopping the spin dash altogether, his hand clenched on her helmet as her eyes widened.

“How curious, this new form is.” His hand became black as he knocked her away into a wall, forming a large crater. “Bipedal, odd, yet… Feels natural this was way.”

“Do you need a moment, my King?” Mercury asked.

“No, this is perfectly fine.” He stepped down the stairway. “Now rise, my creations.” At his beckoning, all the gems stood up. “You are the shadow gems, ageless, my eternal soldiers. Now do your King’s bidding. You get the opportunity to bring the traitors to me.” The displaced were already running at him, Lapis flew up but suddenly found herself falling as she got heavier as she suddenly fell down.

“You’re not going anywhere.” Fluorite grinned. Garnet shot her gauntlets at her, only for them to circle around the shadow gem and back to the fusion. She tried to jump but found herself getting heavier, not going far and getting hit by her own fists, knocking her into a wall as well. Amethyst and Peri ran at Sombra, but suddenly found their feet stuck.

“The hell is this?” Amethyst tried to move her feet but they were stuck, same with Peridot’s. They looked down to see their feet covered in orange goo, holding them tight. A wave of goo rose up and engulfed them, as well as the guards. Peridot, remembering what Pearl did, activated her blaster in the sea of slime, exploding it and freeing them long enough to get themselves out of there. They saw Amber rise up and stare at them again, so she shot several cannon blasts at him whilst Amethyst turned into a tiger and pounced at him. Suddenly, Sodalite got between them and hit the blasts with his bat, knocking them back at the two offending gems. Peridot got knocked back and Amethyst was disoriented momentarily, but just long enough to get hit facefirst by the bat. She was knocked into Peridot and they both were slammed into a wall.

Lapis summoned some water, turned it into needles and shot them at Cinnabar, but she grinned as they went right through her. Suddenly, she disappeared in a puff of smoke.

“It’s not that easy, I’m afraid.” A voice came from behind her, and her wings instinctively tried to grab something, but only found another puff of smoke. “Over here!” Once again above her, Cinnabar reformed, coming down for a kick, but disappeared again. A successful kick to her chin came from under her whilst her wings were still raised in the air.

As Sombra was watching the others, Jasper got up and charges at him once again, head- first. When he tried to knock her to the side again, she jumped and went down for a punch, but he grabbed her hand and threw her down onto the ground next to him.

“I have seen things through the eyes of all you traitorous gems, Jasper. I know your moves and your attacks. You cannot surprise me.”

“You-” She was cut off as he increased his grip on her hand, his familiar dark magic radiating off of his arm. She clenched her teeth as she held her form together. Her fingers grew and wrapped around Sombra like a net, whilst he stood there unfazed. “I’ve got you now you fucking psycho!” Even as he still didn’t let go, she jumped up, escaping and readying her helmet to come down on him like a hammer, but an armoured foot came her way and slammed her into the ceiling, only for her to land on her feet and jump back down at him, going even faster than before. She came crashing down like a meteor. Sombra looked at his hand, enlarging it to be twice the size of Jasper and blocking, the ground below him cracking as Jasper pushed against him. His knees bent more, and it almost seemed like she’d got him. Almost.

“Grah!” He grunted throwing her back into the ceiling before sending a blast of dark magic at her. “That damn heart… I’m going to end this quickly. Then destroy that thing once and for all.”

Garnet growled as she got up.

“Wow, you’re even better than I thought to resist that intense gravity.” Fluorite smiled and increased the gravity even more. Soon several holograms all jumped Fluorite, slashing at her relentlessly. She blocked with her scythe and slashed through them all when she saw an opening. Unfortunately, Garnet was already gone and when she tried to go after her, she was distracted by more holo- Pearls. The real Pearl grinned as she sent more at the scythe- wielder and went to attack Sombra with Garnet. Bloodstone jumped in her way and slashed her claws at Pearl, who blocked with her spear. She only just ducked when a glaive shot out of Bloodstone’s gem towards her. The aforementioned Shadow Gem jumped over her and grabbed it, smiling before lunging at Pearl, who blocked with her spear and pushed her back.





A solitary skull floated in its bubble, the unintentional centrepiece of an otherwise empty room that the gems had hoped would stay empty. Very recently, it had gotten another guest. The gem of a corrupted scorpion monster. Suddenly a mound of earth rose up in front of the bubble. Soon, the mound’s form began to gain more details. A square stone face, with a wide stone upper body and strong stone arms. In the right arm, a brown gem sank into the body.

The golem stared at the bubble for a moment before tapping it, causing it to pop. As it did, the skull began to shine and float in the air, the body shone and Granite fell to the ground. He stared at his hand, covered by a dark grey glove. The synthesised gem stumbled up, looking around. His eyes quickly fell on the golem in front of him.

“So you are the one the King and Lady Mercury saw?” The stone gem asked.

“Who are you?” Granite asked.

“I am a Shadow Gem, a servant of King Sombra. My name is Gagate.”

“What is it you want?”

“Lady Mercury has seen you fight. And King Sombra has looked at you through the eyes of another. We know that you are not from this world. Or rather, this universe.”

“What is your point?” Granite glared at Gagate.

“Your master has abandoned you. He is never coming back.” At this, Granite stepped forward, decreasing the distance between himself and Gagate. “Your old master may be gone, but a new one is waiting for you. Join King Sombra and help us ta-” Gagate was cut off as Granite tried to punched him square in the face. However, the golem blocked him and slammed the synthesised gem into the ground“As I was saying, you will join King Sombra and help us take over Equestria from the two Princesses.”

“Go to hell.” Granite shapeshifted into a cat and jumped away, now being small enough to slip through the arm. He jumped back and summoned his skull helmet, ramming into Gagate, who blocked with his left arm, knocking Granite away. However, he made a stone whip as he fell, wrapping around Gagate’s forearm and pulling him to the ground. The whip dissipated and he quickly flew up with his wings to right above Gagate as high as the room would allow and jumped from the ceiling down on Gagate’s back as the golem got up, cracking both him and the floor. Gagate rubbed his back and frowned.

“Too close to the Heart… Must end this quickly.” He growled as Granite ran at him again, slamming his fist into the gems stomach, knocking him into a wall. The synthesised gem clenched his abdomen as cracks riddled across it. He dived to the left as stone spires began to erect and follow him. As he dodged, one pierced the other bubble in the area. Very quickly, a familiar scorpion gem came free in the room, quickly starting to destroy everything in its sight. Granite’s eyes widened. He could barely handle one and now another was here. He rammed his helmet through the spires and straight into Gagate’s chest, knocking them both through the door.

Outside, some guards had already gathered to see the commotion. They were shocked to see the two gems fighting, and even more shocked when the scorpion burst through the door. Albeit smaller than before, its size was still formidable.

“What’s going on?!”

“What are those things?!”

“The castle and our majesties are in danger!”





Before Amber could engulf them again, Peridot grinned and put him in a tractor beam.

“I have an idea.” She moved Amber towards Fluorite, getting her caught in the goo. Peri grinned as she did the same with the other shadow gems, too distracted with their fights to notice. Soon they were all struggling to get out of Amber’s goo. Peridot then threw them far away.

“Now! Go for Sombra!”

The remaining four ran at Sombra, who was still fending off Jasper and Garnet. He sent painful amounts of dark magic coursing through their bodies, but responded with punches and headbutts, making him stumble. When the others ran at him, they found magical shackles clamp onto their feet, leading back to Mercury’s horn. She threw them back, but Lapis soared back towards her, and soon the others followed. Lapis’s wings became hammers before she slammed them down on Mercury, who jumped up, making a large ball of magic and flinging it down on Lapis. However, she quickly reconstructed her wings and soared away whilst Peridot aimed her blaster at Mercury.

“I have waited and worked for this day for a long time.” Sombra stared at them. “None of you will ruin it.”

“Is that right?” Jasper glared back.

“It is.” He punched her in with an enlarged fist, but she held her ground with the help of Garnet.

“The heart. It’s sapping your power even down here.” Mercury growled. “The spell took more out of me than I initially thought. I believe for now; a retreat would be wise.”

“Indeed.” Sombra smacked Garnet and Jasper away at the remaining gems. “I may not kill you here as I’d like, but worry not. That will come soon enough. Goodbye for now, traitors.”

“Hey you’re not going any-” Jasper was cut off as Sombra shot a blast of dark magic at all of them, before teleporting themselves and the Shadow Gems out. All of the remaining gems stood up, regaining themselves and processing everything that had just happened.

“...He’s free…”