My Little Universe: Season 7

by EquestrianKirin

Play-by-Play

"Slow down, Lapis!"

Enjoying a good little race, Jamie and Lapis got themselves up along Brooding Hill. I was a pretty nice day, chilly but pretty clear as both Gem and human raced eachother to the top. Jamie ran, but Lapis kept ahead with some water wing flying, and in no time at all she had got herself at the top, enjoying the victory with her fist in the air and a smile on her face. Jamie caught up, a bit winded and needing to get his breath together.

"No fare, you flew up here," Jamie said. Lapis still felt pretty good with herself.

"I know," Lapis simply said. Jamie smirked and pushed at Lapis, both of them eventually going into a playful scuffle with eachother until they both ended up on the ground side by side, all smiles. Boy they needed this after their adventure beforehand. They had a good view of Beach city they got their breath, and Lapis Lazuli took a moment to see it herself. Pretty good and all, but being up here also got her thinking a little bit.

"Good ol' Beach City. Nice to be back to our home, but so much has changed lately. Nanefua becoming mayor of Beach City, the Crystal Temple being empty. It's quite a bit to take in," Lapis admitted.

"I know it is. I mean, we're at White Diamond's Space Station one moment, flying off to the Jungle Moon next, and suddenly come back home and find Barbara Miller working my routes for me," Jamie explained. It was pretty quick how someone would work your job after just a few days of space exploration.

"Sure's nice of her to do that for you," Lapis said, as she laid back down and took a look up at the clouds. Pretty soon their game turned into a simple time for cloud-watching, seeing the clouds go by and working out what they can see. At first many of the clouds didn't look like much, but eventually Jamie started to see something begin to appear within the mess of white.

"Hey look, I think I see your diamond up there." Jamie pointed out. Looking to where Jamie had said, the clouds surely did look a lot like Blue Diamond.

"Oh yeah. ... And hey, look at that, it's Daring Do," Lapis said, pointing off to a particular cloud that looked like that particular Pegasus.

"Daring Do?"

"Oh, she's a pony from Equestria we've met some time ago. We helped her in handling a creature called Ahuizotl from turning the world into a thousand years of blistering heat."

"Wow, cool! When'd this happen? Last week? a month or two ago?" Jamie asked. Lapis sat up and started to count it out on her fingers. One ... two ... three. How long had it been?

"What's the date?"

"September 6th. Why, counting weeks?" Jamie asked. Lapis started to ponder on it a little bit.

"No. Let's see ... it was a few days after I was released from the mirror, and that was on the first day of summer. And it's a few days after autumn, so ... it was three years, and uh ... twelve weeks I think?"

Jamie thought his eyes would pop out on that answer.

"WHOA, that far back? You're talking about it like it just happened! I can only remember at least three months ago before it starts to get testy. That Elephant-levels of memory," Jamie said in amazement. Lapis rubbed the back of her head, smiling sheepishly.

"Well when your the messenger AND terraformer to Blue Diamond, a very good memory helps."

"Very good? Lapis, that's beyond just good, that's Exceptional memory! Hyperthymesia!"

"Hyper-what?"

"Oh nevermind. How far back can you remember?" Jamie asked. Lapis paused and began to recall back the farthest she could properly get.

"Eh well I dunno, it starts getting a bit vague after about seven thousand years. There was Pink Diamond that happened about 5,000 years or so ago, but that's only because White Diamond messed with my memory so I thought differently. Oh, and then there's my time as Malachite for a few months, and after that when I stayed inside the barn, and that's because my gemstone was damaged and I kept away from everyone afterwards. Sorry again that you had to wait for our get-together at the Crab Shack that following Friday."

She even remembered the date for the Crab Shack?! Jamie thought his jaw would smash through the ground at that point. Seven thousand years of that kind of memory? He didn't remember what place it was until after Lapis brought it up on her return, and even then it was just good enough.

"I wanna test this: what exactly was the package I delivered when we first met?"

"That's easy: it was Emerald's collector's edition set of Sinful Servant he ordered from Japan. Volumes three through seven."

"... That's scary ... but intriguing," Jamie said, very humbled by this kind of memory. When was that package delivered? Jamie couldn't remember that well but Lapis got it down pact no problem.

"How can I not remember? It's the first time you and I ever met," Lapis said, playfully fluffing Jamie's hair. Jamie chuckled.

"Yeah. If only humans can have that kind of memory like you do, then we can stop making the same mistakes," Jamie sighed.

"Why would you make the same mistake twice?" Lapis questioned, laying down next to him as Jamie looked to the sky.

"Because we forget to remember, it happens to the best of us. Sometimes I go to the library and I think there's some details missing from whoever wrote them. We even have a saying about it: those who don't remember their history are doomed to repeat it ... and I don't want a repeat of what just happened, don't know about you."

"Yeah. Me too. If only we can get everyone to remember what happened over the years. ..."

There was some silence, the little space adventure clear in both of their minds. This was something neither of them will forget anytime soon, and something neither of them really wanted to happen either. ... All of a sudden, Jamie sat up fast.

"A stage show."

"Huh?" Lapis looked to him and she could see that he had the similar starry-eyed expression someone with a struck of inspiration would get. He got up to his feet, feeling very inspired as he pictured it out in his own head.

"A stage show: a play recalling the adventures we all had on the Space Station - no. ALL of our adventures since the very start. The day Equestria and Earth first connected, and every adventure that followed! The chronicles of Earth and Equus!" Looked like Jamie's drama zone had come up again, but Lapis was starting to get intrigued herself.

"What's a chronicle?"

"It's a factual detailed documentation of all the big events that happened over the years. Only here, we're performing it in front of an audience on stage. Actors, inspirers, narrators, musicians, it's the dramatization of the duel-world chronicle!" Jamie explained, still psyched on the idea. Lapis Lazuli was sold, and she too got to her feet.

"That's a great idea! And I've heard humans and ponies alike always enjoyed a play more than reading a documentation. This is perfect!" Lapis said, starting to get excited about the whole thing.

"It's settled then! Come on Lapis, let's spread the word and get this started!" Jamie said. Lapis didn't need to be told twice, and getting out her water wings, she picked up Jamie and went straight off towards Beach City.

.......

"A play, Lapis?" asked Jasper. It didn't take much time until Jamie and Lapis got to the other Gems and told them what the deal even was. While a bit odd to not have the Beach House present, they met them up over by the temple anyway, which was where much of the Crystal Gems would be at. The only one not there was Garnet, but they're sure they can tell her when they get to her, that and Steven and Connie were present too.

"Yeah! A full chronicle of all of our adventures together! We've gone through so much, why not show it on stage for everyone to see and learn from? You know, like that Heart's Warming Eve play we saw," Lapis figured.

"Oh, yeah. But this is years worth of stuff here, sure we can get it all in?" Steven asked.

"I think we got everything we need: Lapis Lazuli has the most developed memory of anyone I've ever met. Just today she recalled the exact date of my Crab Shack invitation from last year!" Jamie insisted.

"You can remember that, Lapis?" Steven asked, a bit surprised.

"Clear as day."

"That's just one thing though. Here try this: you were with me on a lunch get-together just three days ago, what did I eat?" Amethyst said, seeing how good this actually was. Lapis decided to play around with her memory, and brought her hands up to her head in a manor Garnet would do.

"We went to the Crab Shack and you stuffed yourself silly on approximately ten fried lobsters, fifteen crab legs and topped it off with a frosted crab cake with extra lemon." Lapis paused and shivered on that sort of memory, but Amethyst was a bit impressed.

"Not bad, Lazuli," Peridot said.

"I don't think I can forget such carnage even if I tried," Lapis shuttered. The images of ravenous Amethyst just going all out on those poor crustaceans like some beast. Amethyst simply smirked, still tasting the crab and lobsters.

"Well, that actually sounds kinda fun. I mean, it's years of work we did here, the least we can do is commemorate it," Connie figured.

"And you ALL can be apart of the play," revealed Jamie.

"Can we, Jasper, please?" Steven asked, hands clasped together and starry eyed. Jasper tried to keep herself out of such influences, but even such a strong Gem like her found it somewhat difficult. Jasper groaned, and kept her gaze away. Jamie tried to work his dramatic charm.

"You know, if one doesn't learn from their history, they're doomed to repeat it. Soooo ..."

"Talk to Garnet first, ok?" Jasper decided. Best answer, but that statement did get them thinking.

"Speaking of which, where is Garnet? Did anyone see her?" asked Connie.

"We can tell her when we find her. For now, let's find ourselves a stage to get this play off the ground. Somewhere wide open, like a cinema. Plenty of space to reenact and become apart of the moment. A play has to have the room and life to breathe," Jamie explained, hands up in front like a camera lens, and going around the room from character to character. This stopped when he got to Steven, his smiling face filling up his screen.

"Steven has an idea."

~~~~~~

With Peridot's key, one warp jump later and it was from the Temple, and back into Ponyville. Peridot needed some aid in figuring out where to go for this one. As for where they ended up, they were in front of a pretty large building, much materials similar to the other cottages around Ponyville. The difference here though is that not only was it much bigger, but a welcoming arch stood before the door, presenting what looked like two opera masks, one smiling, one frowning, both ponified.

"The Ponyville Theatre?" Peridot questioned.

"Yeah! This has just what we need! That, and it'll be much easier getting the Mane Six together because, well, they're right here!" Steven explained. Well that was true. That, and they don't remember exactly that many shows going on as of late, but as the group were heading closer to the front door, there actually was a sign up at front: "stage currently setting up"
And they sure can hear it going on from outside, Jamie pressing his ear onto the door to hear a number of stuff being moved and put in place. Despite that though, the doors weren't really locked, and when Jamie took a look inside ...

*GASP!*

"Alright, everypony, good work. Be sure all the lights are checked before we begin figuring out what we'll be performing."

GARNET?! Standing over by the stage with a megaphone in hand, and dressed up as a vintage Hollywood movie director, Garnet was actually calling the shots to make sure everything was in tip-top shape for the theatre.

"Garnet?! Is that you?" gasped Steven.

"Just a minute, Steven," Garnet said before bringing up her megaphone again. "Watch where those clouds go Night Glider, Derpy. We don't want a thunderstorm to go off pre-maturely," Garnet instructed. The two Pegasus started moving the clouds, just for Derpy to bump it a bit hardly, making a lightning bolt shoot out. Derpy simply blushed as she and Night Glider flew the cloud out of the way, Jasper feeling a shiver run through her in seeing that.

"So, Garnet. Care to tell the class what you're doing here?" Connie asked, intrigued as everyone else

"Setting things up for the next play," Garnet replied with a smile. Lapis and Jamie both were VERY impressed.

"WHOOOOA. Your future vision's right on point today! We were just ready to get a play going ourselves - this is magnificent!" Jamie beamed. Garnet paused for a moment, but then she smiled.

"Good thing I got everything set then."

"I know right?! OH we're gonna make this happen!" Lapis said, she, Jamie, and the others going off to the stage to get this show on the road. Steven stuck on behind for a moment though.

"I didn't expect you to be working here. Have we fallen on hard times? Because I can be just fine with my dad in the van."

"Oh Steven. This isn't about making men's meat. This is about being random."

"... Are you serious?"

"Oh YES," Garnet stated with enthusiasm. Steven still found this a little bit odd, but before they could continue, a whistle from Lapis caught his attention.

"Come on Steven, we need your muscle with Jasper's to get the stage set!"

Well that was something he can get some other time. for now, it's time to get this play off the ground, and into the sky.

~~~~~~

"Ok, now what we'd like is a word from the audience," Jamie said.

"Steven!" shouted Rarity.

"We did one about Steven ten times already," Peridot griped.

"But I thought those scenes were good."

With the decision made for the theme of the theater, much of the group had been busy bees in trying to make this work. Jamie of course was the grand actor for the play (He'd be director, but acting was more his passion than directing), and he was joined by Amethyst, Peridot, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. They were more of a prop group, which made sense for what they needed, and they all had their brown sweaters on as a main theme of clothes. Not too bad. In the seating arrangements, Rarity, Steven, Twilight and Lapis were present in watch. Learning who'd be doing what was one thing, but knowing where the play would actually go was something else. As they were handling that, Emerald and Fulgurite arrived to check up on things.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Hey Emerald, Fulgurite. We're just trying to work out our play," Steven answered. Emerald looked over to the crowd on the stage.

"Oh, an improv group. Always like spontanious entertainment."

"We have a planned play, Emerald. Good thing you arrived too, dearie, we need your involvment too," Rarity said, going over to him.

"Someone needs me? Pull the other leg, it's got bells on it," Emerald joked. Emerald suddenly felt himself lifted from Twilight's magic, and placed down in a seat.

"Emerald, this play's going to be about all our adventures together, and you've been involved in them too," Twilight explained, Lapis showing Emerald a written script she and Twilight had done for it. The script looked ... well, big. Big enough to fill an encyclopedia.

"Geesh, look at you guys. And you got all of it in here?"

"Impressive, huh? Lapis helped with most of it," Amethyst said, coming over to him. Lapis smiled humbly, but Emerald went through page by page and after a bit, he began to see a problem.

"WHOA, wait a minute. It's all fun and good, but no one's going to sit through a day-long play. You gotta cut some of this out, don't you? I mean really, you can't have "Rainbow tryouts for Equestrian Games" and make that last for five scenes," Emerald said. Talk about a buzzkill.

"We're not, but it helps to have a play-by-play. If we're working off memory, we need details so everypony can get it. Still trying to work it out though: we already did the Plunder Vines starting point, then work over to Steven's corruption by Sombra, and then Jasper and Tirek arrival for the first end scene."

"Sure you wanna include all of it? I mean, Nightmare Moon, Tirek, Jasper AND Sombra? That's a lot to juggle for the first end scene, ain't it?" Fulgurite pointed out. Well she had a point - four villains for the end scene was a lot to fit in, even if it did happen. Heck, that was enough for one play right there.

"Eh ... maybe we can just go with Jasper and Sombra then, how's that?" Twilight figured. Amethyst took a skim through the pages after that.

"Ok, ok. Let's see: go to Prime Kindergarten blah blah blah start Galactic Ray blah blah meet Kyra. Eh, no offense, but maybe skip the prime kindergarten and get to the Galactic Ray part," Amethyst suggested.

"There, now we're getting somewhere. Maybe have Kyra tag along for the trip instead of leaving him behind and THEN him showing up?"

"But he didn't come up with us, he was left down on Earth until Discord showed up and made a portal for him," Lapis answered, mainly working off her memory off what she was told.

"We don't have to make it point by point. That and it doesn't flow as good. For a play to do something like this it needs to flow scene by scene, otherwise you're gonna leave your audience in the dark."

"How the hay do you know that? Worked on a play before?" asked Twilight.

"No, but I've seen plenty of movies, and it's the same concept."

"He's got a point," Fulgurite said.

"Darn right I do." Jamie took a look through the script himself next, thinking it over. If anyone would know about playwight it would be him.

"You know ... you're right. Yeah, we'll do that, and then it can add more suspense for the upcoming battle with the Osicone for the second end scene. A ally turned opponent just before the grand fight, torn between right and wrong in the face of doom," Jamie said. It sure sounded like a good roll, and last thing they wanted were to add bumps in this ride.

"It sure does. But the third, hmm ... there's not much we got there. Any ideas?" Lapis asked. That was probably the shortest one they got so far, and much of it was just casual scenes after looking it over. Pinkie Pie hopped up to them, as excited as always.

"Oh! OH! ME ME!"

"Yes uh ... Pinkie," Jamie said, acting like he was picking out of the crowd, just to point to the pink mare.

"We can show us returning to planet earth, and with Celestia and Blue Diamond presenting those warp pads for us! They did make it as a sweet gift."

"That's perfect! After our grand fight with the Osicone, the play will end on us building our friendship between Homeworld, Equus, and Earth! That's a perfect ending right there," Twilight concluded. Three main events didn't sound too bad at all, and the third one was a good sum-up to wrap up the play in.

"So we're leaving out all those other scenes then? I mean, a LOT more happened afterwards: Stevonnie, the Ruby Squad arriving, Steven's first solo mission, and do I even need to mention White Diamond? We're just skimming over that?"

"Ok, ok, we get it. Hmm ..." Well, they found another dilemma here, but Amethyst got an idea with a snap of her fingers.

"Who says we have to do one?"

"Huh?"

"It's easy: first play's going to be about these three scenes up to us getting the Warp Pad, and the second one will catch everyone up from there. You know, White Diamond, the Cluster, G Slang, all that jazz."

"Oh yeah, and we can have an intermission like they do in the theaters," Steven realized. They thought it over, and turned out that was a very easy fix to make. No one's made to stay the entire time, yet there's time for people to stretch their legs during both plays too. Jamie and Lapis both nodded to eachother.

"Excellent suggestion. Now we won't have to skip all the bigger details," Lapis realized. Good as that was, there was one more tiny thing left here ...

"And ... wait. What about the others? Flint, Bismuth, Diopside, Pearl, none of them are here, how're we gonna do that?" Emerald wondered, scratching his head. Soon they began to hear someone start to transform herself, and next thing they knew they found Amethyst standing confidently as a purple Bismuth. Not an exact copy, but a pretty good second.

"Eh ... just get some body paint, and you'll be fine."

.......

"So where're the other actors, Ms. Sparkle?"
As they were handling that, Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and Starlight Glimmer were going along backstage to check in on the other actors. Took some time to get them all together to actually get this right. Bill Dewey and Tiger's Eye also tagged along, one wanting to see how one of the actors in particular was doing, and the other out of plain curiosity over all of this.

"They're just down here, Dewey. So, this is your first time in Equestria, how does it feel?" Starlight asked.

"Well it's more uh ... colorful. Colorful and small. Eh, n-no offense by any means, it's a big. Small. Town."

"Comparatively speaking. I mean, your town's a bit bigger and not made out of straw ... yeah," Starlight simply said. It wasn't the best conversation, but Twilight could see that it was a step in the right direction for both of them.

"Anyway, my son has a strong role in this movie of yours, right?" Bill asked.

"He's playing "Flint" in the play, so I'd say so," Twilight answered. "He should be practicing with Jamie now."

It took little time until they did find them off by their respected areas, off by the clothes rack and practicing their lines. Flint was basically painted grey, had some Canterlot armor on, and had his shades removed while Jamie had a full wardrobe change, even including a party hat for the pointed nose. When they found them though, well ...

"F-Flint, please. I-I know it looks rather bad, but if you let me explain -"

"There's no time for explanations," Buck said.

...

"He sounds like a robot," the others thought, and indeed he did. Jamie seemed to get the lines down pact, but there was a difference between reading lines and acting out lines. And Buck seemed less thrilled about it more than anything, even by Flint's standards.

"Ok, even as his father, I have to say he needs to put more into it than that!" Bill said.

"Someone please make him stop," groaned Tiger's Eye, covering her ears. Rarity was a bit more subtle, and walked in to see the actors in question.

"Well done, everypony, well done. You captured the mood nicely, Jamie, and Buck, you did pretty well. Though it was uh ..."

"Deadpan?" Spike and Tiger's Eye stated. Rarity whacked them both with her tail.

"Now, there's no need to be blunt ... but perhaps some more flair in your performance would be appreciated, Buck. No offense to your current performance, of course," Rarity said, trying to not sound so mean about it. Buck simply shrugged.

"Sure."

"Oh. ... Well, very good," Rarity said, going back to her list of characters for the secondary play. Seemed they got the Cluster Arc down pact so far, but that was just one side-plot performance as Rarity read over the upcoming Cluster scene itself.

"Thank you. So, know where we'll come in?" Tiger's Eye asked, looking down into the actual list itself.

"Oh ... uh, actually uh ..."

"Wait. Where're we?!"

"Well, we had to try and cut down a few scenes or two to actually get the play to work properly, so ..."

"So you cut us out?! Give me that," Tiger's Eye suddenly snatched the script from the unicorn, and quickly rushed through the script to see where the Off-Colors would actually fit in here. Tiger's Eye barely found anything, if at all.

"Now, alright, alright, maybe we can add something in here. ... What would you like?"

~~~~~~

"NO! WAY!"

Too bad Rhodonite was NOT willing to do this at all. Rarity and Tiger's Eye presented this to the other Off-Colors outside of town (Peridot getting them there of course), and they were a bit more humbled about this more than anything, Rhodonite caught off guard almost completely. Who could blame her though, being jumped at for a play she didn't even know about, let alone be apart of.

"Come on, Rhodonite."

"Why in the stars would I be apart of some ... human presentation?"

"First off, this is in Pony world, not Human world, and two; we need the whole group for this part. We're the Off-Colors, we can get this right, can't we? I mean here, look at this," Tiger's Eye showed the script to Rhodonite, the fusion looking a little bit preplexed.

"What's this? Us controling a galactic ship? A group of renegade Gems fighting Homeworld? Tiger's Eye, over half of this we didn't even do!" Rhodonite pointed out.

"I tried to give us something cool," Tiger's Eye said, just for Rhodonite to toss the script back at her, it landing on her head.

"No thanks, I'm staying right here. I'm not going anywhere after what happened!" Rhodonite proclaimed, even hugging one of the barn support beams as she said so. Rarity sighed.

"Alright, understood. I'm sure we can get some actors for these parts ... you think Garnet can fill in for Rhodonite?"

"Wait, actors?"

"We don't have all of the Crystal Gems here, somepony has to. And if we are including the Off-Colors, and they don't want to do it, then we need somepony else to fill in," Rarity explained, which explained Priyanka and Buck in the first place.

"Ok, Flint's party I get, but why replace us when we're right here?"

"Because not everyone actually wants to be in this," Rhodonite answered. The others were a little humbled themselves, Padparadscha staying by Fluorite, but eventually the Rutile Twins looked to eachother and went over to Rarity.

"Can we see the script?" right Rutile asked. Rarity levitated it to show her what they were going to do for this play, and both Rutiles did agree that much of it wasn't too accurate if that was what they were trying to do. Tiger's Eye waited for their response, but eventually they skimmed through to the more later pages where things began to look more recognizable. In particular with their involvment with White Diamond.

"... You're not planning to crack our gemstone again, are you?" left Rutile asked.

"Not planning to try and ... break us?" asked right Rutile.

"Oh, of course not! It's all just acting, honestly," Rarity insisted.

"... can we change a little bit of this?" the twins asked.

~~~~~~

Time ticked by as sunset started to draw near. The play took a while to work out naturally: getting the lines planned, the scripts written and memorized, the stages and scenes set up, all that jazz, and eventually the townsfolk of Ponyville began to gather up. Peridot got the word on out to the people of Beach City as well and some of them did take the time to come to Ponyville and get their own seats, and their own view on the show. As the crowds were gathering up, Twilight took a peak on out from the backstage curtains, seeing quite a crowd. A mixture of ponies and humans in this crowd, and all chatting amongst themselves as they waited for the show to start. Even the rest of the Off-colors were present in the crowd. The least they could do was watch this.

"Sure is packed out there. Alright, everyone ready?" Twilight asked, going over to the others.

"Ready as we'll ever be," Jasper replied. Jamie peeked out there himself, and then started to see that some more ... well, more important people were amongst this crowd: Bill Dewey, Nanefua Pizza, Mayor Mare. He didn't realize that this kind of crowd would be up this high.

"Are you nervous?" Lapis asked.

"Of course. This could either make or break my career..."

"You could lose your job at the post office?"

"This could either make or break my ... hobby." Jamie laughed a little nervously after that. Sure he expected a crowd, no denying that, but who's to say how they'll react with such big faces amongst the group too? The pressure was a little bit higher than he anticipated, but Garnet placed a hand on his shoulder, smiling to him. Guess some reassurance was probably the best thing they could give him this close to show time. Speaking of, one check on the clock and they could see just how close to showtime it was.

"Oh! just a minute to, ok chop-chop people!" Jamie said, hands clapping and everyone getting to position.

~~~~~~

The Chronicles of Earth and Equus.
Pt1: Mirror's First Connection

As the lights started to dim, the spotlight was up onto Spike, having his script in front of him for what he was supposed to say, much like how he did back in the Hearth's Warming Eve play. He even had on the same outfit.

"There's always something going on wherever you are: On one hand, the everyday life of a young Gem boy Steven Q. Universe, and on the other, the everyday life of a young Alicorn Twilight Sparkle. Neither side is aware though that this will set in motion an adventure even grander than any of them would've suspected."

The lights then were more focused up onto the stage, Spike stepping off aside so the focus was on the stage. The dragon pointed off to the chorus section, lead by Octavia, and after getting the right starting music going, then came the scene: the spotlight focused on Steven, Garnet, Amethyst, and Jamie. Using some well-worked effects she looked very much like how she did when her gemstone was cracked. The background showed Rose's Fountain on full display.

In the early life of a young Gem, one of his "moms" had gotten a terrible injury. So he and his guardians went to the sacred Gem areas in hopes to heal her.

"Oh, dearest Amethyst. What fate had befell upon you! Don't you worry about a thing: we, the Crystal Gems, will bring you back to your glory," Garnet stated, holding Amethyst gently. Even Amethyst herself was impressed how deep she was into that. Jamie hoped up to life next, pointing off forward.

"Ah yes the task at hand. Once we reach the sacred Rose Fountain, it will all be well again. And in the center of the garden- - the fountain itself, overflowing with your mother's healing, lacrimal essence!" the end of the line had Jamie a bit more dreamy in it, which was surprisingly accurate.

Meanwhile, in another world, Princess Twilight Sparkle was trying to solve the problem of Plunder Vines. A problem seeping from one world into another.

The scenes then shifted the spotlight away from them, and suddenly another scene started to show itself. This one showed Twilight Sparkle flying in as a number of tentacle-like vines came out. Lapis helped in this department with some water skills with water-proof puppets, making it almost seem like the Plunder Vines were alive again, trying to grab the young Alicorn for a bit. These same vines began to seep to the other side of the stage, beginning to surround the entire group. Steven was on display here, holding Amethyst as he backed up into Twilight, Steven and Twilight spinning around and acting surprised. This was supposed to be their first meeting after all. Both of them turned back to the vines, closing in on them from seemingly all sides. The audience gasped, worried what'll happen to them, but before any vine could get them, backstage Lapis got some more water out, and began to flow them through two slots in the back wall, flowing out of Rose's closed eyes. The vines, wet from the healing water, quickly began to retreat, and were replaced with tossed out pink roses. These were blown out to the audience to catch, several of them getting at least one of the roses. Some of the flowing water landed down on Amethyst, and while wet, "reformed" back to normal in a surprisingly graceful way. But something else ... also fell out.

A hand mirror. Released out in a bed of pink roses.

"Look at you two, saving my life and junk!" Amethyst said with a smile.

With a hug to Twilight and Steven, the scene ended there with a curtain cover. Just one scene so far and the crowd was getting pretty anticipated for what could be happening next.

.......

"Oh, dearie me, young Steven. You sure had gotten yourself in quite a situation, have you?"

The play continued on for a while, and with Lapis's return being firmly established, they've went on ahead a bit, already finishing the Daring Do and Ahuizotl plot in summery, and skipping the Equestria Games sub-plot altogether, they were now at the more suspenseful bit with Sombra's major return to the play's plot. Steven had himself in a similar pit with crystals surrounding him, "Sombra" up on a higher platform and looking down at him with a wicked grin. The part though was acted out instead by, in an ironic way, Rainbow Dash. She was in a robe, painted black and grey, and even had a fake horn on her for some sort of legitimacy.

"How could you? You lied to me!" Steven yelled. Rainbow laughed manically, like a crazed lunatic.

"Of course I did! And now, you will be all mine. You and ALL of the Gems and Ponies of the worlds!" Rainbow roared, laughing up a storm again as her front hooves raised up, a signal for the crystals to activate for her.

"A pony in control of crystals? O-Oh dear, I hope they did keep him locked up," Rhodonite shuttered, just imagining the very idea of somepony controlling gemstones.

"Good luck sleeping tonight," Tiger's Eye whispered. Then came the next scene: the lights started to dim, and the crystals started to flash and freak out, mist coming up from the side as Steven began to groan and growl a little bit. and then out came a mighty roar, Steven being replaced by a mighty beast in the form of Lion. his costume was simply him with roses in his mane, but the huge roar did its job, and made Rhodonite jump out of her boots, hiding behind Fluorite.

"S-Steven?! What did they do to him?!" Rhodonite gasped, freaking out.

"Chill, chill, it's just a play remember. none of this is real ... physically speaking," Tiger's Eye said, trying to chill Rhodonite out and keep her from running onto stage to save him, even grabbing her by the waist. Rainbow could actually see Rhodonite freaking out from the stage.

"Yeah, I gotta tone down on the evil," Rainbow Dash thought.

Lion's roar did a bit more too, and the crystals actually ended up bursting into a flash of glass, making the entire audience jump! Now, they did want to give the audience some worry, but they didn't intend that. The whole place was dark for a moment.

"Lion," groaned Rainbow. Lion simply huffed and moved off stage left. It was time for the next scene anyway, might as well leave em wanting more right?

.......

"You need to leave immediately, this is not a Gem-controlled planet!" Jamie demanded.

Onto the next scene, and it had shifted to Jasper's introduction. As Lapis was apart of this moment herself, this was a bit more spot on than the other scenes shown so far, even if Jasper was played less brutal and more devilish. Here though, Sombra and Jasper were working together, which while it didn't happen did make things a bit more intriguing when fully comparing. Much of the Gems, including Lapis, were on the ground at Jasper's feet, who here looked more like the tyrannical ruler than Sombra did. Even if reformed, Jasper still had her more devilish smile, and was used to deadly effect. She also seemingly had a "Gem Destabilizer" in hand, and Garnet was present this time.

"So this is all that's left, eh? Why don't you tell me before I shatter your sorry butts, why'd you kidnapped one of our Homeworld Gems?" Jasper asked in a growl, ready to beat them up.

"What the heck are you talking about?!" Amethyst asked, her whip ready to whack her.

"Don't try to fool me, I got the message already; I know she's here with you, now hand her over!"

"We don't know who you're talking about, you orange gorilla!" Amethyst insulted.

"Get off of Earth, we don't have any of your Gems!" Fulgurite added.

"Ugh, you're so difficult you clods," the Gem growled, getting out a message disk (for the play it was Twilight's projection), which made a hologram of the message Homeworld had gotten. The other Gems from Earth weren't too sure yet, but readied for any attack on her.

"I've tried my best to get back to you, but there had been some complications. I've been ambushed by these clods called the Crystal Gems. These traitors are still alive on Earth after all this time. still forbidding us from recolonizing Earth, still despising Homeworld the same as before, if not more so," she explained, swatting away the message as soon as it was done.

"We don't know what your talking about." insisted Sapphire. The Homeworld Gem was not convinced, cracking her knuckles before her Gem spawned up her helmet.

"What a waste of my time. Let's see how long you'll last now." The destabilizer was deployed, and that was when Garnet took action and rushed forward, only to have the villain rush at her, and stab her right through! The whole audience gasped on sight of this, and Garnet fell over, pretending to be defeated, or at least paralyzed in place. This similar trick was done on the other Gems, and Lion ended up trapped in Jasper's headlock during this fray.

"I don't know what your planning, but it won't work. That's your last stronghold. This is an example of what's left of your army. You had failed."

Now what would happen was that Jasper would tale them to her warship, and they would come back later on, but for the play's sake (and the fact they had no gem warship), Rainbow gave his ally a kick to the head, sending her toppling over her own feet. She grabbed the Gem Destabilizer and used it against Jasper. Not fully accurate, but accurate enough to be passible.

"Correction: You had failed. ALL OF YOU," Rainbow hissed, giving her sort of "Grinch" evil grin.

"What the?!" thought Jasper. The spotlights began to turn red at this point, and Rainbow jumped up to a higher platform, looking up to the sky.

"And this is just the beginning my dearies: After all, why conquer a kingdom when you can get a whole planet? Yellow, Blue, White, you all will be in my control! MUAHAHAHAHA!"

"You clod."

In entered Peridot. As Peridot didn't have her limb enhancers though, the parts she had on instead were a bit more carbon-copy: a few metallic arms and megs only to resemble Limb Enhancers. They didn't function as advanced as her original ... but heck it made her taller. The spotlight focused on her, and she was actually in a sort of gunner's pose: one arm looking like a laser pistol and aimed out in front of her. Gonna present yourself, might as well make it epic.

"And who do you think you are?" Rainbow yelled. Peridot smirked.

"I am the Great and Lovable Peridot: space traveler extraordinaire of countless worlds. And I can't help but notice you got my fellow Gems trapped in your questionable spells."

"Questionable?!"

Rainbow and Peridot then proceeded to go into a fight with eachother. Rainbow made sure to hold her own in a ground fight, not opening her wings as Peridot rushed about her for a bit. The shots Peridot made were actually paintballs, but still were effective when they got to the following moment when Peridot shot "Sombra" in the horn, knocking it off. Rainbow paused for a moment as the horn spun in the air before she froze up, falling over like a fainting goat. The light turned from red to blue, as if it was to heal, and much of the group on stage began to get to their feet. Lion was also replaced with Steven on stage in a quick teleportation trick. Peridot sure felt empowered and actually got into some action poses.

"Shing! Shing! Gwaaaaaaa! SHING, SHING!"

"That's not in the script," Buck whispered.

"She's just having fun," Lapis quietly replied.

With that part, so it ended the first part of this three-part play. The spotlight focused on Spike again for the tenth time now, as he walked outy onto stage as the curtains closed.

The Crystal Gems and Mane Six had defeated the evil unicorn Sombra AND war veteran Jasper. But were they all done? NOT by a long shot! With the combination of Garnet's Future Vision, and Jasper's pure determination to complete her mission, soon began the work on ...

Spike paused and gave a good whistle. That signal got not the curtains open, but a banner to roll down from the ceiling, presenting the plans for the Galactic Ray.

Pt2: Welcome Back Home

"This place is so colorful! did Earth evolve from last time?"

"It has, but this isn't Earth, it's Equus. Now, I want you to be on your best behavior. It might help you out a bit, if you'll watch this custom."

"But I want to explore some more!"

"Sshh. They're in the middle of their performance."

And what a good time for them both to look in too, as now they were going over what looked like Connie's training. Or at least what best they could do without Pearl present there. It appeared like the early days as well, as Connie acted like she first held a sword, standing in place with what looked like another actor to represent Pearl's holograms, though it actually was from Starlight and Twilight's focused magic to make a proper hologram.

"Alright. Now everything begins with your stance. Remember ..."

You do it for him
And you would do it again
You do it for her, that is to say
You'll do it for him.

At this point, the hologram was ready for the fight, and Jamie continued his training lessons as if it was the true deal: Connie following instructions as he continued singing. This sword fight felt more like a dance, sword clashing together with each end of the lyric, no lights on except for Connie and her practicing hologram in this sword dance.

Keep your stance wide,
Keep your body lowered,
As you're moving forward
Balance is the key

Right foot; left foot,
Now go even faster
And as you're moving backwards
Keep your eyes on me.

As the song continued, Connie started to grow a bit better with the practice, reenacting the lessons taught to her. It was just like the early days of her training at the very start all over again, and as before, she was working better into it as the song continued.

Keep my stance wide, (Good)
Keep my body lowered, (Right)
As I'm moving forward -

During the fight, the hologram suddenly jumped her, knocking her back.

Jamie; Concentrate! Don't you want him to live!?

Connie jumped to her feet and got back to the fight at hand.

Connie; Right foot; left foot
Jamie; Yes, but put your whole body into it!
Everything you have, everything you are
You've got to give–

Suddenly the once dark theater sprung back into light, with the background suddenly changing to that of a war zone: the sky red, weapons in the ground, mainly like the war within the Strawberry Battlefield. Connie and the hologram continued to fight, becoming more voracious in their approach.

On the battlefield
When everything is chaos,
And you have nothing but the way you feel, your strategy and a sword;
You just think about the life you'll have together after the war!

And then you do it for her,
That's how you know you can win,
You do it for her, that is to say
You'll do it for him.

By the end of the verse, Connie had bested the hologram, and it disappeared after a flash. The scary appearing background disappeared, and changed back into the training grounds like earlier. Jamie came back out and went towards Connie, Connie the one continuing the song herself as four other holograms were created and ready to fight her.

Deep down I know
I'm not built for fighting,
But that doesn't mean
I'm not prepared to try.

All four holograms came towards her, and Connie began her own fight against them, holding up surprisingly well with four swordsman after her. She dodged slices, ducked under jabs, and her own sword did more damage than the holograms did.

What they don't know
Is my true advantage,
When you live for someone
You're prepared to die.

It didn't take her much time until only one hologram remained, the other three taken down during that verse of the song. Both sides squared eachother up.

Deep down I know
That I'm just a human (True)
But I know that I can draw my sword and fight (But you know that you can draw your sword and fight)

Connie and the final hologram rushed at eachother one on one, and it was very quick that Connie was overpowering this hologram in short time at all.

With my short existence, (Good)
I can make a difference, (Yes, excellent!)
I can be there for him
I can be his knight

Once the final hologram was defeated, both she and Jamie came out for the final verse of the song.

I can do it for him,
[Both] You'd do it for her
Okay, now do that again (Yes, ma'am.)
You do it for her, and now you say:
Connie; I'll do it for him.

.......

It took a while to get through, but eventually came to the main event of this play. They've befriended Kyra already, they've gone to Homeworld, and gone through those motions up to the final hit of the play: the Osicone. Much of this part was altered a bit: Kyra going with them on the Galactic Ray for a start, and it was a pony in costume instead of the real person. The actor was Big Macintosh, with plenty of paint job, a large tail prop, and his hair styled much like the Draconian. As for big Mac himself, he stood in firmness against the group he was facing.

"Kyra, please, don't do this! We know you're upset at the Diamonds, but please reconsider!"

"Hmm ... Nnope." Big Mac said, before raising his hoof and slamming it down onto the ground. This was the signal for Emerald hidden off just behind the curtains to the right of the stage, and using some well placed telekinesis, and some good lighting effects on the set, some metal plates started to be levitated out onto stage, forming a large, humanoid-like shape. For someone who vaguely even remembered what the Osicone looked like, it was surprisingly accurate.

"You traitor!" shouted Rainbow, ready to rush in, but big Mac, playing the role, aimed his hoof towards them and the so-called Osicone raised a mighty arm and slammed it down, blocking Rainbow's way. Whether this happened this way or not, if Kyra would do this he wouldn't let them off so easily. The Gems and Ponies together started to fight against this creature, but so far the Osicone wasn't letting up, much to Big Macintosh's glee. However, it didn't take long for him to realize that this Osicone had no leader, and the creature turned to him, knocking him to the otherside of the stage. Much of the crowd gasped on seeing this.

"I can't watch!" Rhodonite said in a shiver.

"I can. I'll let you know what happens," Tiger's Eye replied.

"Look out, Kyra!" shouted Padparadscha in worry. Big Macintosh was alright, the stallion was a bit tough you know. But now with Big Mac knocked away, the Osicone focused it's energy on the group in front of it. No ruler to hold it back, and nothing to keep it down.

"Gems! Together!" Garnet instructed.

This part was gonna be a little bit hard to do, but they've done pretty good so far in this play of theirs, let's see. The Gems of the group came together. The Mane Six then started to come together, and Twilight started using her own magic to create a glowing spell. It was really more of a light show, and a larger figure began to be created, mirroring the mega-fusion they've became when fighting the real Osicone. Twilight's spell also made it look very magical with the Mane Six seemingly presenting their Elements of Harmony during this situation, the Osicone becoming humbled by the sight of it. The "Mega-Fusion met with the Osicone head on and at first both sides were at a stand still, but with the Elements of Harmony aiding her, the Osicone quickly began to succumb to her power.

*POOF*

And soon, there ended the Osicone, and all that remained down below was a heap of metal. Big Mac got himself back up, and looked over to this Mega-Fusion. Big Mac closed his eyes, ready for what he thought was his final breath, but instead the Mega-Fusion gently lifted his chin and gave him a gentle smile.

Kyra may have had the wrong approach in his "best intentions", but they knew as well that the threat was no more. And so, in their honor, the legends that were, and still are, were rewarded as the heroes of their world. The heroes of Homeworld, Equestria, and Earth.

And as such signaled the end of their performance. The crowd gave them all their applause for the ending. A pretty good spot to end this play in particular, and after the curtains closed and re-opened, the whole cast for the play did the mass bow to the crowds as any play would do. It was as successful as some would figure.

And they've only done one of two plays so far!

Author's Note:

This chapter actually was more of a suggestion, but it still played out well for what I wanted to do. I mean, for a series that has gone on for over a year in real time now, there's always going to need an episode to help newcomers catch up on things. And for me, it's my take from ATLA's The Ember Island Players ... only better performance than what they did.

Well anyway, see just how many call-backs you can point out in this chapter. Hope I provided enough info without making it too obvious. I mean, this is a play, things are gonna be changed slightly, but not enough to make it completely unreal. As it is such, expect it to be a bit jumpy from scene to scene.

....... - these dots are gonna be exploited for all their worth. And yes, I only stopped after 3 seasons, because if we're gonna be doing the whole series we'd be here all day. So sue me

Comments

[LionelCorp315]

An intriguing chapter in deed. Can’t wait for the next chapter. Also sorry if I sound kinda different, I’m trying out different ways to state my opinion on things.

[EquestrianKirin]

8894719
Understood, dear chap ^^

[Base drop]

I might slightly be mad if Jamie and lapis don't get together. An I the only one who ships them?

[EquestrianKirin]

8904663
I like them together ^^

[st6nbones]

WHEN READING THIS I THOUGHT OF THE CRYSTAL JAMIES

[EquestrianKirin]

8980097
X3

[Cheshirek4t]

👏👏👏👏👏👏

[EquestrianKirin]

9120395
Thank you, you're too kind x3

[jen_lee_hattie]

simple time for cloud-watching wlep the nara are here now.