Harmony Gems

by Nova Arc

Accusations

Author's Note:

Holy cow! Nova updated something!

So, things have been a bit slow. Getting ready for Uni is a lot tougher than I thought. But we'll soon be wrapping up the Nox Arc and moving on to more interesting things. Let me know what you think in the comments below. It really helps.

Anyway, enjoy.

Amber sat on the ground outside the door to the temple, waiting. She had hoped Fulgurite would have come out by now, but wishful thinking for three days was really pushing it for her.

Finally, the star on the door glowed and Amber looked up, but was disappointed to see a black glow with an orange outline. Obsidian stood at the door, staring down at Amber.

“Why don’t you just go in and talk to her?” Obsidian asked.

“She needs space,” Amber replied. “Besides, I’m pretty sure she’s still mad at me for being so dumb and ignorant.”

Obsidian sighed. “You always do this. Every time something goes wrong with her, you blame yourself.”

“Who else should I blame? The Gem that beat her? Look,” Amber said, getting up, “I know emotions aside from rage are not something Obsidians usually understand, so my advice is either learn or stop trying to understand.” Amber walked passed him, shifting her gem back over her stomach and opening the temple door back to her room.

Obsidian looked around, confused. “Have you seen Tourmaline?” he asked.

“No, why?”

“Am I the only one who’s noticed he’s been a bit... docile over the last few weeks?”

Amber sighed. “What? You want to blame it on the fact that Equestrians now know we exist?”

“No… but you may be onto something,” Obsidian said. “When Tourmaline is around, it usually isn’t this quiet. Can you locate him?”

Amber was confused at why Obsidian was suddenly so interested in Tourmaline’s whereabouts, but tapped the ring around her wrist, bringing up a screen. She scanned for any familiar Gem presence in the area.

“That’s you, me, Ful, Dawn, and…” Amber stopped, confused. There were only four dots on the map, representing four Gems. “Weird. Maybe he warped somewhere.” The screen changed, showing various warp waypoints she had mapped out. “Huh… really weird. He’s not in any location I’ve uploaded. Maybe it’s a bug from the recent recalibration. I’ll do some tweaking and try again.”

She went into her room, Obsidian going into his just after. He walked down the path to the central platform, where he stood in front of the bubbled Emerald Quartz. He held out his hand and popped the bubble, causing the gemstone to glow and the Quartz to take form. Obsidian quickly bubbled the Gem before his form solidified.

“Finally ready to talk?” Obsidian asked.

Emerald Quartz shook his head, trying to clear it. “I’ve said it a thousand times already, but clearly, you have a short memory span, so I’ll say it again: you destroyed my physical form, trapped me in a bubble, and now, you ask me questions as if we’re chums having a friendly conversation? Get lost!”

“Well, you forgot how you irradiated an area close to an inhabited town, went on a rampage, tried to use our warp pad for… whatever reason-”

“Wait, ‘Whatever reason,’? You serious?”

Obsidian was confused. “Well, you never really explained what you were planning.”

Emerald just stared, but slowly, a smile began to crawl across his face. “You ignorant pebbles! You have no idea, do you?”

“I really hate vague statements,” Obsidian said.

“Oh, this is rich!” He soon stopped as Obsidian’s blade passed through the bubble. “Wait, you think Gems are just randomly popping up? You think we’re here to do bad things to your planet?”

“If something big is happening, you do realize that the Gems in this temple are probably your best shot at surviving,” Obsidian stated. “And what do you mean ‘we’?”

“Just like an Obsidian. You could hear that the world is about to be blown up from the inside out and still keep a straight face!”

“Wait… that’s not-”

“No, no one is trying to blow up your planet… I think… not yet, anyway.”

“Then what?” Obsidian was getting impatient. “Because a Homeworld Gem was at our front door a while ago and what you’re talking about may be related to that.”

“Wait, THEY’RE HERE?!”

Obsidian just stared. “You know them?”

“Not personally, but I sure as shards don’t want to! Why do you think I was looking for a warp pad?”

“Well, why ours?”

Well, for starters, it was the closest one here.”

“How did you find it?”

“I can sense changes in electromagnetic radiation. You guy’s were pinging your warp pad like you were lost! What, did you forget where you lived?”

“Wait, what?” Obsidian asked, confused. “Nobody here pings anything. This was formerly Homeworld-occupied territory. If we pinged anything here then…” When it finally clicked, Obsidian went from confused to concerned. “Wait, how long ago did you find this place?”

“Uh… dunno. About a month now, I guess.”

“One month,” Obsidian thought. “But that’s when… no. It couldn’t have been a coincidence.”

Obsidian’s blade vanished as he turned around and paced.

“So… what do I get for this?” asked the Quartz.

Obsidian just glared. “You get to not have your physical form destroyed,” he said as he walked out of the room. “Enjoy it while you can.”

---

Late that night. Amber sat on the couch, waiting with Obsidian.

“You know, you could just tell me what this is about while we wait, right?” said Amber.

“I’d rather say this in front of everyone,” Obsidian replied.

“Look, Dawn’s asleep and Ful and Tour are probably going to be a while.”

Obsidian was unmoved. However, in a few moments, Tourmaline arrived on the warp pad.

“Hey, guys!”

“Tourmaline! Where the karat have you been?!” Amber asked. “Your signature didn’t register on my scanners. I couldn’t even get a signal off the warp pads.”

“Oh, I was checking out that old wreck under the ocean,” Tourmaline explained. “Figured Nox would hit anything with a major power source.”

As he explained, Obsidian knocked on the temple door.

“Fulgurite, we need to talk.” There was no response from the other side for a while, but soon enough, the yellow Gem on the door glowed and the door opened. Fulgurite walked out and went straight to the living room without a word.

Obsidian finally begun.

“So, I’ll get right to it,” he started. “I told you so.”

There was silence.

“Wow,” said Tourmaline with all the sarcasm he could muster. “This is a whole new low for you, Sid. Have you gotten so tired of being wrong that you just need to say that for no reason?”

Obsidian raised an eyebrow at the nickname. “I’m not messing around. Emerald Quartz said-”

“Who?” asked Tourmaline.

“Our green guest,” Obsidian explained. “He said he only discovered the temple about a month ago. That’s when we first decided to start interacting with the Equestrians.”

“Yeah, and?” Amber asked, not quite catching what Obsidian was throwing.

“And I don’t believe in coincidence.”

“So, what? You think one of them sent out signals from the warp pad? Organics can’t even use them,” Amber argued.

“They can’t teleport with them, but if their magic is anything like it was two thousand years ago, I’m pretty sure they can do something with them.”

“They’re smart, but operating a warp pad is way outside their skillset.”

“Same way hacking isn’t part of Fulgurite’s, but she’s good at it anyway.”

“Hey!” Fulgurite exclaimed, a bit insulted. “But what makes you think the Equestrians had anything to do with this?”

“It’s common sense,” said Obsidian. “The older ones tampered with the Nightstone, the little ones got Dawn dragged into the whole mess with Nox. See this,” he said, now looking at Amber. “This is what happens when you don’t take my advice.”

All eyes turned to Amber.

“This is not the time, Obsidian.” asked the now glowing Gem. “You really want to go there?”

“I’m simply making a point.”

“That you’re an untrusting jerk?”

“That maybe the actions of someone had unintended consequences. I mean, you say it yourself every other day: accidents happen.”

“Watch it, Obsidian.”

“Okay, guys, cut it out,” Fulgurite said finally. “Obsidian, if an Equestrian really did set off a ping, maybe we should look for whoever is to blame instead of pointing fingers.”

“Oh, but I am looking,” he said, still looking at Amber.

“Obsidian,” Amber growled, a heatwave radiating off her. “You’d better watch who you’re accusing or I swear to the stars, I’ll-”

“You’ll what?” Obsidian asked, stepping forward. Amber got up sharply to face him. The wall she was leaning on was singed. “Go on. Make a move. At least you can’t say I was wrong to be paranoid.”

“Don’t do this, Obsidian,” Fulgurite warned. “Dawn is upstairs.”

“Well, Amber, you take partial blame. You’re job was to monitor all Gem tech anywhere in this atmosphere. And it looks like you’ve been slacking.”

Amber’s eyes flashed. “What?!”

“Take it down a notch, Sid,” said Tourmaline.

“Of course you’d say that,” said Obsidian. “I’d call you out for this too if I hadn’t already accepted what a lazy sandstone you are.”

“Wait, wha- … actually, I’m cool with not being called out.”

“Of course. What else should I expect from you-”

“Enough!” Fulgurite stepped in front of Obsidian. “Obsidian, that’s enough. It’s too late for this and Dawn does not need to be disturbed because your mind is not at rest. When he goes to school tomorrow, we can have this discussion more seriously. Last thing any of us needs is Dawn worried about us. He has his own life to live. If you want to point fingers and shout down Equestrians, you can do that in the morning.”

Obsidian stared right into Fulgurite’s eyes. He wanted to settle this now, but she was right; he didn’t want Dawn to worry about this.

“The moment he leaves, we’re dealing with this,” Obsidian said. He turned around and headed for the temple. Tourmaline followed suit while Fulgurite looked back to calm a, still glowing, Amber.

“Chill, Amber.”

Slowly, the glow faded. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. He pushed you and-”

“Not that! About before, with the cupcake. I know you were still down. I was just playing around. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad I-”

“Hey! It’s not you,” said Fulgurite. “I just really needed some time to come to terms with it. It’s not the first fight I’ve lost, cosmos knows it probably won’t be the last. I was worried you wouldn’t see me the same way again.”

“You? The only person who can actually hit me in me when I’m not solid? Come on!” Amber looked down. “So… you forgive me?”

“Hard to forgive when you’ve done nothing wrong,” Fulgurite said with a smile. That was all Amber wanted to hear.

---

“Bye, guys!” Dawn waved to the Gems as he and his friends headed off to school.

Amber and Fulgurite waved back while Tourmaline just gave a thumbs up. Dawn figured Obsidian’s dull look was pretty typical.

Once he was out of sight, Obsidian went back in.

“So,” he started, “where were we?”

“You were accusing everyone being the cause of something none of us had any idea was happening,” said Amber, still a bit upset.

“You may not like it, but these are the facts. Someone here is at least partially to blame for what’s happened. Either the Equestrians did this, or a certain Gem did.”

“Obsidian, attack me one more time,” Amber warned.

“You’re the only one who has sufficient knowledge of Gem technology. That makes you a prime suspect.”

“Why would I send out a signal that alerts Gems to the temple?” Amber asked. “In case you forgot, no one here is friends with Homeworld. Why would I make it any kind of easy for them to track us?”

“Past experiences.”

Amber forced herself to remain as calm as possible, but her flaming hair proved it was no easy task.

“Maybe it’s not you,” Obsidian continued. “But you’re the only one of us who really understands the inner workings of the warp pad.”

“Fulgurite saw a Gem with some pretty advanced tech.”

“But they don’t know about the warp pad here.”

“That’s… a pretty good point,” said Tourmaline.

“Tour, can it,” snapped Amber.

“Hey, I’m just saying,” Tourmaline continued, “even if you didn’t send out the pings, it doesn’t stop your tech from being hacked.”

“Excuse me, are you questioning my competence in technology?”

“Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

Amber felt insulted. “Well, with the way you keep smashing them, it’s hard to tell if you didn’t send out a wave for whoever to pick up.”

“Hey don’t drag me into this! I try to stay away from all your crazy inventions!”

“Enough! All of you!” Fulgurite yelled. “Look, let’s stop blaming each other and start looking for a way to deal with this! For all we know, Emerald Quartz could be wrong or is just trying to rile us up.”

“Well, he’s doing a good job at the latter,” said Tourmaline.

“So we’ll do this: Tour, you keep a close eye on any and everything near the temple. Obsidian, you stay back here and check seismic activity. Maybe there’s something around here we’re missing. Amber and I are going to check all Gem tech nearby. When we’ve exhausted all our options, then we can go see the Equestrians. Good?” A thumbs up from Tourmaline and a grumble from Obsidian was all she needed to hear. “Good. Let’s go.”

---

“Hey, Dawn? You okay?” asked Applebloom. It was hard to not notice the worried expression he wore. “You’ve been lookin’ all gloomy since this mornin’.”

Dawn broke away from his thoughts. “Oh. It’s nothing.”

“Can’t be nothin’ if it’s buggin’ ya this much.”

“Well… the Gems don’t know this, but I heard them arguing last night. And it’s not the first time.”

“They were arguing?” asked Sweetie Belle. “About what?”

“I don’t know, but I heard Amber and Obsidian yelling.”

“I take it that that’s a good thing?” asked Scootaloo.

“Last time they argued, I had to camp outside while they rebuilt the house.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah. I just wish they’d get along, but they’re so… different, I guess.”

“Applejack and Rarity are as different as different gets, but they’re really good friends. I’m sure things will work out for them too.”

“I hope so. It sounded bad.” Dawn looked at his watch. “Well, I need to start going back,” he said.

“Me too,” said Applebloom. “I want to catch my sister at the train station. Apparently, they went to some new town and she said she’d bring me back something.”

“Same here,” said Sweetie Belle.

Dawn waved goodbye as he headed back to the temple. But the thought kept bouncing around in his head.

“What were they fighting about? Was it Nox? Whenever Amber and Obsidian fight, it’s usually something big and important. But I can’t stand to see them fighting, no matter what the reason. But they’ll just tell me to ‘not worry about it’. Ugh! I hate this!”

---

“Uh! He’s just so… ARGH!”

Amber was still burning from the meeting with Obsidian. Even the calm silence of the plains they were walking through couldn’t put her mind at rest.

“I know you two don’t get along,” said Fulgurite, “but you should know what he’s like. He’s not a psycho warrior, but he’s still a soldier.”

“Doesn’t mean he has to be a jerk too.”

“I know. We there yet?”

Amber looked at her wrist and a holographic map came up. “It’s just up ahead,” Amber said. “Get the key.”

The key, which Fulgurite summoned from her gem, was a blue cylinder the size of a water bottle. In a matter of seconds, they reached a massive yellow dome that looked like a massive, curved honeycomb. Fulgurite let the cylinder float towards one of the cells. It changed shape to fit the cavity as it drew closer.

“So, any reason you decided to come back here of all places?” asked a worried Fulgurite.

“It’s the one place with some of the most advanced tracking equipment left behind after the war. If anything can tell us about any recent signal bursts, it’s the scanners in this spire.”

“I don’t like it here. Bad things happen when this place is involved.” Fulgurites worries were proven when the “key” turned from blue to red and stopped halfway through. Five of the panels popped out, but didn’t land on the ground. Eventually, the three rearranged themselves to form the body and the other two the arms of a very advanced golem that reminded them of a hornet, energy stinger and wings included. A pair of beady black “eyes” popped open and began to scan the trespassers.

“See!” said Fulgurite. “This is what I mean!”

Amber, however, was unfazed as she got into attack position. Her augments glowed and shifted into cannon form and she wasted no time in firing a relentless salvo at the enemy. The golem bobbed and weaved, avoiding every shot before returning fire with a continuous beam from its stinger. Amber shut down the cannons and instead called up a shield to protect Fulgurite and herself.

“Anytime you want to help,” Amber said.

Fulgurite summoned her boots and bolted around the shield. She ran straight for the stone automaton, which failed miserably in its attempts to hit her. She jumped to strike it, but flew through the gap in it’s frame. The golem caught her and flung her back to Amber, who was knocked down by her ally.

“So, still think this was a good idea?” Fulgurite asked as the enemy loomed over them.

“I… may be rethinking my decision,” Amber replied, sheepishly.

---

Tourmaline sat at the top of the temple on lookout duty, polishing his hammer.

“Lookout duty,” he said to himself. “Who comes here? … Well, except for Mr. Radioactive.” He wasn’t very worried until the ground beneath him began to shake. He shrugged it off, thinking it was one of Amber’s inventions blowing up again. But he got more worried when the structure shook enough to knock him off the edge he was sitting on. Luckily, he landed on his feet.

“Okay… that’s definitely less normal.” He rushed into the house to find out what had happened. He saw Obsidian standing in front of the temple door. “What was that?”

“We’re about to find out,” Obsidian replied. He soon regretted his decision to open the door when he and Tourmaline were both knocked back by a powerful shockwave. Obsidian looked up to see a glowing green figure standing at the threshold.

“You know, you really need to work on your bubbles,” said Emerald Quartz. “They pop way too easily.”

“How-”

“They can only take so much. And considering you weren’t exactly made for defense or self preservation, it didn’t take much to fill up with enough energy to break out.”

Obsidian summoned his swords and got up, running towards the Quartz, who countered his swing with his claws before kicking him back and bolting for the warp pad. Tourmaline swung and missed and took a hit as well.

Obsidian got back up, but Emerald Quartz was already standing on the warp pad.

“If you were any kind of smart,” he said, “you’d bug out of here too. Trust me.” And with that, he warped out.

Furious was not the word used to describe Obsidian; not even close.

“Well, that happened,” said Tourmaline, casually putting his hammer away. Obsidian simply glared at him before heading back into his room to assess the damage. Luckily, the blast was contained, so his room was a mess, but it didn’t seem to have reached the other rooms. Well, that’s what he thought until her heard a shrill shriek.

Tourmaline looked through the door. “Need any help?”

Obsidian didn’t answer. He just summoned his sword and shut the door.

Comments

[EquestrianKirin]

great to see this continuing ^^ I see emerald Quartz is a bit more casual and actually sticking around. I wonder what he's gonna do with them at this point

[Nova Arc]

7540557 He's going to run for dear life like any sensible Gem that knew what was coming!

[EquestrianKirin]

7540987 oh boy

[Nova Arc]

7583868 Expecting something more cutesy?

Noted.

[Nova Arc]

7589001 Changed. It was supposed to be yellow. When I first posted, we didn't have confirmation of the Diamond Authority.

[Professor Tacitus]

7655532 No worries, I was just curious. I kinda have a vested interest in this story, being co-author, so any thoughts and critiques are welcome