> Gems of Power
>  by WezzaHD
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Can you please walk faster, Lily?" My mum called out. It was true, I was dawdling and mum and dad were a couple of metres ahead of me. Honestly, I was in no rush to go where we were going. Not to mention the rain that was falling down. Maybe I was just looking for more things to hate that day. Regardless, I dragged my feet on the wet ground while my parents were well- ahead. They were just opening the gate while I was almost there.

"Hey." I jumped slightly when I saw a man by a stall. I didn't see him there before, it was like he had appeared out of nowhere, from thin air. He was wearing a wet black raincoat which covered his face. "Anything I can interest you in, young lady?" He appeared to be selling jewellery. He had at least six different types, but I couldn't worry about that right now. "I'll come back later." I said as I dragged my shoes through the soaked floor and went through the cemetery gate.

"Come on Lily!" I groaned as my mum rushed me forward again. We walked across the paths, going through two more sets of gates before we finally made it to the right tombstone; the one that belonged to my brother

I never wanted to come here, my parents made me. I hated visiting his grave; all it did was remind me that he was dead, and that I'd never see him again. I couldn't even take thinking about it, which is why everytime I went to see his grave; I could just never take it. I would usually end up storming off, out of sadness and anger which is why I didn't visit his grave often. This was one of those times.

It was his birthday, so I would usually at least try to make an effort to stay, but I could never look at that tombstone for more than a few moments. He had been dead for at least three years now, and Will's death still hurt. I couldn't hold back the tears anymore, and the rain wasn't exactly helping my vision either. I made it to the exit where I crashed into the stall, causing both me and the table to topple the ground. Meanwhile, the guy in charge of the small stand stand sat there calmly.

"I'm sorry." I blubbered. "I really am. How much will this be?"

"Nothing seems to be broken." He said. "I was just about to pack up anyway. You go do whatever you want."

"Oh, well thank you I guess." I tried to wipe the tears from my eyes, but it was replaced by more rain. He stayed put as I walked off. I just wanted to go home and forget about everything. While I was walking, I noticed my pocket lighting up. I looked and found one of that guy's gems. It must've fallen into my pocket when I fell. I turned around to give it back to him when I began to feel incredibly dizzy, and I wasn't able to feel anything except the rain splashing all over me before I passed out.





I slammed my fist into her face. She went down quickly, but got back up just as fast with a grin on his face. If this jackass thinks that's all I've got, he's got a couple more blows coming. I went in for a left hook, but he blocked it and threw another punch back at him. I was in the finals of a boxing tournament. Not to mention that my opponent wasn't someone that I exactly liked. However, as annoying as she was to me I could still respect her, especially how surprisingly durable she was. That was outside of the field however. On the field, I would not hold back. I gave her several punches before a final uppercut and one more left hook while she went down. I had won.

"Yeah!" I punched my gloved fist up in the air in happiness. The crowd clapped for me. I looked to see my family, as well as Natalie. I could her smiling at me, and I smiled back. I got my trophy, and left the ring to see my family and best friend. I panted like a dog as I walked towards them. I was exhausted from the fight.

"We're so proud of you Kassandra." My mum and dad hugged me.

"You did it Kass!" Natalie high- fived me.

"Thanks everyone." I found the energy to crack a smile.

"I got you a gift." My mum held out a necklace. I was never really big on jewellery, but my mum did buy it for me so I guessed it didn't hurt. I smiled and thanked them. They walked me to the changing room and left me to change. I changed into my normal clothes the surprisingly. I also put on the necklace as well to make mum happy. I was about to go when I let out a yawn. I still had a bit of time, so I closed my eyes and took a small nap.





I tapped on my keyboard angrily. I had got myself caught in a flame war with someone.

"I shouldn't have gotten myself into this." She grumbled. "But I'm in this now, and I'm not going to let some hater tell me how to live." I grumbled. Soon, a reply popped up while she was watching a funny video. "Maybe mum's right, maybe I am too competitive." 

Speaking of my mum, it was her birthday tomorrow. Of course, I had panicked earlier when I realised that I still hadn't gotten her anything. It wasn't my fault though, I had been spending most of my time... thinking about what to get her. Yeah most of the things I could think of had already been bought by me, dad or some other family member. Luckily, I had found a guy who was selling jewellery for a real cheap price. It didn't seem to be fake or broken or anything, so yeah. I would've questioned it more, but I was very desperate and had little time left, so I just bought something and left. Mum liked collecting diamonds and gems and all that; it was her hobby since she was a geologist.

I had nearly everything, even a card signed "by Matilda". The guy even gave it to me in a small box, which I still needed to wrap. There was still some leftover wrapping paper from dad's gift, so it was easy to get. Before I did that, I wanted to open the lid of the box and got one last look at it. What did the guy say it was called? Perry- dots? I know I had heard the name of the gem before somewhere. It didn't matter, my mum would probably know. My vision began to blur for some reason, so I picked it up to get a closer look at it. My eyesight suddenly got worse as I fell to the ground. The last thing I remember was the gem painfully landing on my head.




(3rd person POV).

"Is this where the Princess said she might be?"

"Well she was last sighted around here that is what Princess Celestia said."

"Come on, we've been searching for hours, I don't think that this thing is here."

"And we still have not yet searched the whole area."  Shining Armour said. "I don't want to be out here either, but the sooner we find it, then the sooner we can leave."

"I still don't believe that it's here."

"Do you doubt the princesses, soldier?"

"Well it doesn't help that her entire hunch is based off of a book captain."

"Regardless, we'll spilt up once again and search the remainder of the area. If she's not here, then we'll leave." They kept searching through the stone quarry, trying to find her. Their efforts so far had been fruitless. They had been looking around for several hours, with not one trace of anypony else being there. Shining was with another unicorn and a pegasus. They all looked around, and couldn't find a thing. They had already searched the area where she was sighted, now they were checking in neighbouring areas. This was one of the last areas that they were checking before they were to return. Shining looked around, but all he could see were two stone walls. He stopped when he heard something. It was a small tapping, as if something small was walking. The sound was faint, but Shining could definitely hear it.

"Storm Streak, fly up." Shining pointed upwards. "See if there's anything up there." Storm Streak was a light grey pegasus with a cyan mane. He flew up to see if there was anything up. "Nothing so far, I d- hold on." He stopped as he eyed a rather peculiar rock. It was light green with four circles on the bottom. It was also very shiny. Storm stared at it curiously.

"Hey, I found this odd rock." He called out to the others. "Actually it looks more like a metal on the other hoof."

"Bring it down here." Shining replied. Storm nodded and grabbed the spherical object. When he was bringing it down, a compartment opened up and blasted a liquid at him.

"Argh!" It went straight in his eyes, causing him to drop the sphere. While it was falling, legs came out of the circular marks and it landed on all four of them. It then crawled away.

"What is that thing?" Ember Spark thought aloud. Her red eyes were blinking repeatedly.

"I have no idea." Shining responded. "We need to follow it to see where it goes." They all tailed it. They stopped when it went under another small hole. Shining blasted the hole to create a space for them to walk through. When they went they saw more and more of them.

"What do you think they are?" Storm questioned. "Some kind of undiscovered species?"

"I think it's more like an insect." Ember commented.

"Hold on" Shining whispered. "I think I see some sort of light." They kept walking until they were in a room of sorts. It was a small room with only two items. One was a shiny platform, and the other was a chair.

"It's clear that something lives here." Shining said. "This is definitely a clue." Before he could think even further, he heard something and saw a light. They all shot around to see a bunch of rocks, with one that looked very peculiar. It had a multitude of green colours on it.

"This one is especially odd." It's similar to the description, meaning it was probably also made by our target so we should bring it back." Just as he said that, they were blinded by a light and the rock fell out of is magic. Once the light stopped, the rock was nowhere to be found, and they could hear hoofsteps.

"Follow that sound." Shining ordered. They ran through the huge hole they had created and saw something running away, and it was exactly like what Celestia had described. "Stop!" Shining made a barrier out of magic and saw it clearly, and she stared back at them with her light green eyes, covered by her visor. She was bipedal appeared to be wearing a lot of clothing. Her mane was pale green with a tint of yellow and done up in a vaguely triangular shape. However, the strangest thing about this creature was that she had five appendages floating around both forehooves.

"By order of Princess Celestia, we will need you to come with us." He said.

"Ugh, I thought she gave up on searching for us thousands of years ago. Why resume it now?" She rolled her eyes.

"What's your name?" Storm asked.

"What's yours?"

"I'm Shining Armour; these two are Storm Streak and Ember Spark."

"I guess you can call me Peridot."

"Okay, so what exactly are you Peridot?" Ember asked, causing the creature to grin.

"What I am is escaping!" Her fingers moved to form some sort of projectile- firer, which fired an energy beam at Shining. He jumped out of the way but he lost his concentration on the barrier and the area became filled with smoke. When it cleared it showed Peridot running away.

"After her!" Shining commanded and they all made chase. They were slowly gaining on her, and Storm grinned when he saw her nearing a dead end.

"Unless she has wings, she's cornered." He said as he slowed his flying down. However, Peridot did not slow down at all. They thought she was cornered, but she ran up the wall. They were surprised for a small moment, before Storm flew up to try and tackle her. He tackled her, causing her to trip and fall face- first into the wall. As soon as he tried to pull her down he felt an electrical shock making him immediately pull away. Peridot then tried to run up once again, but was tackled downwards once again by Storm Streak. They both landed on the ground. Peridot was surrounded with no walls to run up. She sighed.

"Well crap. I guess she caught me after all." She said. They eventually reunited with the other guards as she was escorted back with them.

"Why? Why search for me after all this time?" Peridot asked.

"Because Princess Celestia needs your help."
> YOU need MY help??
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peridot stared at them for a moment, before bursting out in laughter.

"Ohohohoh!" She chortled. "You really got me there! Celestia needs my help? How dumb to you clods think I am?" She asked before inwardly groaning at finally using the word 'clod'.

"I don't know the details, all I know is that she's asking for your help."

"She's an alicorn who hates me. What could she possibly need my help with?"

"I'm afraid that I wasn't given the details." Shining lied. Soon, the guards all gathered in one place and got their train back. It was going considerably faster than the other trains.

"So..." Ember spoke up. "What are you? You didn't exactly give me a clear answer before."

"I'm a hu- Gem." She replied.

"What we're those ball- things from before? They seemed to be around you a lot." Storm asked before Ember could ask more questions about gems.

"Those." Peridot sighed. "Are Robonoids. I use them to repair things. They aren't very good with defending though. I really need to fix that." Her fingers formed a screen to show them all an image of one of the Robonoids. They all nodded, satisfied with the answer.

"Now if you don't mind, it's rude to stare." They all turned their heads after she said that part. She then proceeded to send two messages.





Celestia and Luna flew through the window in their armour, shattering it into shards. They landed and looked around, but there was nopony except them in the throne room.

"Sombra isn't here." Luna frowned.

"And soon, you won't be either." They looked around to try and pinpoint the source of the voice, when a screen appeared in front of them, showing Peridot laughing while the windows became blocked off.

"Peridot!" Celestia glared at her. "Where is Sombra?!"

"Oh, he's somewhere." Peridot grinned. "You'll be somewhere too. Somewhere here, somewhere there, somewhere everywhere." As she spoke, lasers in the corners of the walls activated and shot at the two sisters, who both made a magic shield to protect themselves from them. They thought they were safe before the huge spikes popped up from the ground forcing them to fly up to the middle of the room. They stayed alert and blocked the energy blasts with both their magic and their swords. They shot their magic at the blasters, destroying a couple.

"You insult us if you think this is all it takes to stop us, Peridot!" Luna roared "Now where is So-" She was cut off as a giant green mechanical hand appeared and smacked her across the room.

"Luna!" Celestia gasped, before immediately flying to help her sister, not noticing the other hand that slammed her into the ground. Meanwhile, her sister struggled against the left hand, before eventually letting out a magical surge that blew it away. When it came back as a fist, she dashed up and impaled the hand with her sword as she came down before sending magic through the sword causing an explosion. Luna was satisfied with her work before the hand shot back up and grabbed her.

"You really should put more effort into your stabbing technique, Lulu." Peridot grinned before throwing her at the other hand who smacked her down next to Celestia. They both quickly got up and hovered above the ground with looks of defiance on their faces. When they tried to hit the screen metal spheres dropped from the ceiling. The princess of the sun shot at them all with her magic and they exploded above them. Celestia was satisfied until she got hit by a large green laser. When she looked to see where it came from she saw one of the hands pointing at her like a gun. When it fired again, the white alicorn shot her own magic at it while Luna knocked it down. She would've returned to her sister had it not been for the mechanical backhand she received. She hit the wall but made sure to stay in the air, as the spikes were still waiting for them on the ground. They had barely avoided them the last time they were on the floor.

"I will not fall to you Peridot." Luna growled as she thrust her sword at the left hand, and slashed diagonally at it twice through the palm before it retaliated by flicking her in the head which temporarily threw her off balance giving Peridot time to slam her into the wall again with her fist. Celestia saw this and tried to rush to help her sister when she was grabbed by the right hand.

"This is all you've got?" Peridot laughed. "What's wrong? Were you not expecting any of this? Well it doesn't matter anyway, you'll be out of our hair and King Sombra will enjoy the excellent news." She prepared to deliver them to King Sombra, when she heard a banging outside the windows. She wanted to see what it was, but there were more important matters to be dealt with. However, soon the sealed- off window broke revealing a tall figure standing above them.

"Who-" Before she could finish, the figure jumped down and slammed her fist into the left hand, destroying it and breaking Luna free. Soon, blast hit the right hand and Celestia was free. Two more people jumped in through the window. The tallest broke through the door, while the shortest destroyed the screen.

"Come on." The tallest said to Celestia

"Thank you." Celestia said. "But who are you?"

"We are the Crystal Gems."





They finally arrived at Canterlot. The special train that Celestia had sent slowed down at the station. Peridot peered out of the window. Celestia had made a city on a mountain. This made Peridot curious. If Celestia lived here, then what happened to the castle in the Everfree? Was it still there?

"So Celestia lives here now?"

"Yes." Shining replied.

"What happened to the castle in the Everfree?"

"It's abandoned; nopony lives there." The train stopped. "It's time to get off now. There's a quiet route we're taking to avoid stares. We better get a move on, it is the longer route after all."

"No." Peridot said firmly. "Let's just make this quicker and take the short route."

"But too many ponies will stare, and it'll just be more hassle."

"Didn't Celestia tell you clods anything about me?" She grumbled. "No wonder she needs my help. Hold on a moment." Her body was enveloped in a bright light, causing most of the guards to cover their eyes. When the light cleared, the same Peridot was no longer there. Instead, there was a lime- coloured pony about Twilight's size. Her mane was triangular with a horn pointing out of it. She was wearing the same outfit. Her tail had three small points on the end.

"Will this do?" She asked bluntly.

"... Yeah." Shining was still confused as to what had just happened, but went along with it. Princess Celestia had said that time was of the utmost importance. They took the main path. Aside from a few stares at her outfit, no pony batted an eye as many were too immersed in their own actions. When they made it, they walked through the Canterlot Gardens.

Peridot looked around and saw many different statues. Of course, there was also the 'statue' of Discord. Peridot wondered if there were any statues of her here. However, she was distracted from her thoughts as she heard a door open causing her to jump slightly. She had been too engulfed in her own thoughts that she hadn't noticed where she was walking. Once she entered, she saw how large the castle was on the inside. The halls were filled with guards, maids, butlers and the occasional noble. After walking up a couple of flights of stairs, they made it to the throne room, where she saw Celestia and Luna waiting for her. She groaned as she stepped through the door.

"Hello Peridot." Celestia greeted the gem.

"Hello Celestia." She replied as she changed back into her regular form. The guards visibly tensed up at the transformation. She stared at the two sisters with her calm demeanour, while they stared back with theirs.

"How was your trip here?"

"While it was exceptional, I would prefer to cut the pleasantries and ask why I'm here. Why did you continue searching for us after all this time?"

"Yes. Why have you suddenly made such an effort to search for us?" A voice came from the door, which opened to reveal two figures surrounded by guards. One had a sky- blue skin colour wearing a skirt and top of a darker blue as well as a gem on her back shaped like a rain drop, while the other was much bigger, with light- tangerine skin but also dark orange markings and long orange- tinted hair that went all the way past her back.

"So you're all here?" Celestia commented.

"We would've escaped had Peridot not called for help." Lapis replied.

"Regardless, you are all here and we have something to ask of you." This time, Luna spoke.

"Which is?" Jasper asked impatiently.

"The Crystal Empire has returned." Their eyes all widened at what Celestia had just said. They were all afraid at what would be said next.

"We need you to go back there."
> Returning to the Empire and more
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They all stood there in utter silence. Celestia was asking them to return to the Crystal Empire. They all had looks of anger, sadness but the strongest emotion they felt, was fear.

"I know that you may not want to return, but this is a matter of the utmost impor-"

"You're crazy!" Peridot cut her off. "You're crazy if you think we'll set foot anywhere near that place! All it is is a lost cause!" The three were all immediately agitated.

"Hold o-"

"No!" Jasper screamed. "We'll never go back there!" She turned to Lapis and Peridot. "Let's get out of here!" The two nodded as she spin- dashed through the door, with Lapis and Peridot following. As they flew through the halls, they found their exit blocked off by regular guards. Jasper formed her helmet and knocked them all out of their way. As more came from behind, Lapis gathered water form the plumbing in the house and made an ice wall between them and the guards. They shot down the stairs and knocked through more guards. Lapis made an ice shield and knocked through all of the guards. Just before they exited, they turned into ponies and bolted out. Once out, they turned a corner and hid.

"That was close." Peridot sighed.

"Yeah, but we'd never go back there, not when there's a chance that he might be back." Lapis said. Meanwhile, Jasper was considering something.

"You okay Jasper?"

"... Maybe we should go."

What?!" Peridot nearly yelled "That's a horrible idea; Sombra would probably be waiting for us."

"Yeah." She agreed at first. "But the Crystal Gems are here somewhere, and we owe it to them to help the Empire. They saved us, so we have to save them. What do you think Lapis?"

"I think that we're in over our heads, but Jasper is still right."

"Ugh, I hate it when Jasper's right." Peridot groaned. "Let's just get this over with so we never have to see King Sombra again."





"You wanted to see me? To give me a test?" Twilight trotted past Princess Luna with her bag full of quills and notes. "I brought my own quills and plenty of paper to show my work." As she spoke, she dropped an extremely long rolled- up sheet of paper that unrolled in front of Celestia.

"Sorry, sorry." She sheepishly smiled as Celestia, who smiled back.

"This is a different kind of test." the alicorn said as she rolled the paper back up and returned it to Twilight's bag with her magic. "The Crystal Empire has returned."

"The Crystal Empire?" Twilight gained a worried look on her face and went through her books. "I'm sorry, I- I thought I'd studied. Ooh, I don't think there's anything in any of my books th–"

"There wouldn't be." Celestia levitated the books away before turning around. "Few remember it ever existed at all. Even my knowledge of the Empire is limited. But what I do know is that it contains a powerful magic." She used a crystal to make a projection of the Crystal Empire. "One thousand years ago, King Sombra, a unicorn whose heart was black as night, took over the Crystal Empire." At the top of the tower in the middle of the empire, the head of a dark grey unicorn with a flowing mane as well as red eyes appeared. The next image showed Sombra standing on a balcony on top of the tower looking down on the crystal ponies, all of which were walking in chains.

"He was also able to find three enforcers." The image shifted to three bipedal beings with Sombra looking over them. "There was Peridot." She highlighted the green figure with her magic. "Jasper." The muscular orange one was highlighted this time. "And Lapis Lazuli." Finally, she showed the blue one that was the smallest of the three. "They were three powerful beings who would assist Sombra in enforcing his regime." A new image showed them all glaring down at the crystal ponies. "We had tried many times to defeat them and free the Crystal Empire. However, we would always fail, and the Empire would remain under Sombra's rule. This continued on for years. We could not defeat Sombra when he had the help of the gems on his side. They would usually weaken us before we could get to Sombra or they would beat us with their combined efforts until we found help of our own or rather... it found us." The projection changed to Celestia and Luna as well as three other beings.

"These are the Crystal Gems: Garnet." It showed a tall being with a square- shaped afro whose eyes were covered by sunglasses. She wore a red and black bodysuit. "Amethyst." After someone really tall, Twilight saw someone considerably shorter. She had purple skin and long white hair like Jasper's but without the orange tint. "And Pearl." The final figure was in the middle of the two height- wise with skin that was tinted blue and looked like she was dressed for ballet.

"These three evened the playing field for us, and we had more of a chance against Sombra and his enforcers." Images showed the two forces clashing in the empire. "Until finally, we were able to stop Sombra and end his reign. He was overthrown, turned to shadow and banished to the ice of the Arctic north. But not before he was able to put a curse upon the Empire. A curse that caused it to vanish into thin air... they, and the Crystal Gems were both gone, but Sombra's gems were able to escape. They've been in hiding ever since, but we've recently found them. If the Empire is filled with hope and love, those things are reflected across all of Equestria. If hatred and fear take hold... This is why I need your help finding a way to protect it." Once she finished, Twilight was left staring in awe.





Jasper, Peridot and Lapis anxiously got off the train.Their eyes each darted from left to right as they walked off of the platform. Peridot was in her pony form, as well as Lapis and Jasper. While Peridot had taken the form of a unicorn, Jasper had become an earth pony while Lapis was a pegasus. They shivered as they felt the familiar strong wind push against them, but not because of the cold.

They slowly made their way off of the platform, before stopping at the last step. They took it all together and immediately regretted it. When they each placed their hooves in the snow, they saw his face all too clearly. His face, mane, fangs and those... eyes. They stared at them, but the eyes stared right back at them. When the vision disappeared, they were simply standing there like statues in the Canterlot Gardens. They shifted back into their true forms.

"Are you three okay? Come on, we need to get moving." Shining tried to urge them along, but they didn't budge.

"He's here." Jasper's voice was barely above a whisper.

"He knows we're here." Peridot continued.

"And he's coming." Lapis finished, before looking at Shining. "We need to move."

"Finally" Shining sighed. "Let's go."

"We know the way to the empire." Jasper informed him, and they began walking.





"Ugh, I hate the cold." Peridot groaned.

"Why? You can barely feel it." Jasper was right; they had all transformed their clothing into thick coats and trousers.

"We can also barely see." Peridot retorted. "Stupid blizzards..."

"Ugh, who cares?" Lapis rolled her eyes.

"I do!" Peridot yelled. "What if we never find anything? What if we're stuck out here forever?"

"Peridot, I'm almost certain that we won't find anything here, and I see little to no point in going on." Lapis explained. "Regardless, the ponies didn't exactly respond well to us, so we have no other choice. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to keep the blizzard away from all of you." She continued using her powers to shield them from the blizzard, but could not do anything about the wind blowing against them. They continued their aimless walking for another few hours or so, before Jasper stopped them.

"Do you girls see that?" She narrowed her eyes to try and get a closer look at what was in front of them.

"What is it, Jasper?"

I see something in the distance, can't you?"

"Jasper, are sure the cold isn't getting to you?" Peridot asked.

"Peri's right, it might just be your mind." Lapis added.

"Shut up you two, and look closer." Peridot sighed at Jasper's request, and morphed her eyes into binoculars. She was prepared to dismiss what her friend was saying, but she was right, there were buildings and streets and a gate.

"Hurry Lapis, let's go." Peridot changed her eyes back and ran with Jasper. Lapis sighed and activated her wings to keep up with them. They got closer and closer and went past the pony guards stationed outside They had put all of their energy into that dash, and were nearly unconscious. Once they were in the city, they fell to the ground. They each panted heavily as if timberwolves had been nipping at their heels, not that timberwolves would be an actual threat to them. When they got up, they found themselves surrounded by guards; every spear and sword was pointed in their direction.

"What's going on here?" They heard a deep voice and the guards immediately moved to make a path. They saw a pony walk past them. He was taller than the average pony, and had fur that was a dark shade of grey, while his mane was pitch black. While he was walking, no one dared move unless they were ordered to do so. He turned to the nearest guard on his right, expecting his answer.

"They showed up here and collapsed on the ground together, my king." The guard stated. He raised his eyebrow at the explanation, before setting his gaze back on the three gems. He could sense the great power within each of them; a power that he had never felt in the likes of Equestria.

"And who are you three?"

"This is Jasper, that's Peridot and I'm Lapis Lazuli." Sombra stared at them once again.

"Come with me." Sombra began to lead them to his throne room. While he did, they looked around. Nearly everything was made out of crystal. The buildings, the floor, the seats, they were all crystal. It looked quite beautiful, but Lapis got a feeling that was quite familiar to her.

They made it to his throne room where he cleared all the other ponies out. He was very curious about these three.

"I know your names so allow me to tell you mine. I am King Sombra and I rule this land. What are you three?" He asked. "You've told me who you all are, but not what you are." The three looked at each other anxiously, before replying.

"We're Gems." Peridot spoke for them.

"That's not a species that I've heard of." Sombra began before clearing this throat. "Alright, before I ask more about gems, I would like to know what you are all doing here."

"We're lost, we were looking for a home." Peridot continued. "We don't know how long we've been wandering in the blizzards, but we thought that we'd maybe like to live here in the..."

"Crystal Empire."

"The Crystal Empire." Sombra stared at them. He could still feel that power within them.

"Well, I would like to, but I'm afraid that I do not know what 'Gems' would be able to offer. Tell me, what can your species do?"

"We can... make our own weapons." Jasper stood up and summoned her crash helmet. "Our bodies are very durable and we can also shapeshift." Jasper once again demonstrated by changing her form into that of a cat. Sombra watched them with eyes of analysis and deduction, while inside he was amazed at these mysterious creatures.

"Very well, you may reside in the Crystal Empire." Sombra smiled. "I also have the perfect jobs for you all. As you can tell, the Crystal Empire is not in the best of shapes; I feel that the best jobs for you all would be the jobs of guards. You will be tested personally by me tomorrow. Now come, allow me to get rooms arranged for you." The Gems smiled widely at what the King was offering them. They had more questions for him, but were currently more concerned with getting rooms, all the while Sombra smiled as he led the way."





They walked with Shining Armour. Their eyes were still darting everywhere. Every little movement around them made them alert. The snow felt exactly as it did before, and Lapis used her powers to shield them from the snow like before.

Eventually, it began to get darker. Yet it wasn't night. They couldn't see the familiar gleam of the Empire yet. Soon, a dark most surrounded them. They heard a bellowing howl, before all the dark mist gathered into one large cloud, with eyes that glared down at them. They were too scared to move as Sombra advanced. They got out of their daze as Jasper activated her helmet, Peridot formed her blaster, Lapis spread her wings and Shining flared his horn. Sombra laughed at them, and floated back a couple of metres. Three figures could be seen walking out from underneath him. As soon as they got closer, all their eyes widened as they saw the rivals that had saved them 1,000 years ago stood before them once again. They saw the Crystal Gems.
> They are the Crystal Gems
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They stood staring at each other for what felt like an eternity. Sombra could see this and laughed. They all looked the same as their original forms in Steven Universe, but their eyes were without their pupils. They each also had a black mist coming from their gems. They also had their weapons out and pointed at the Homeworld Gems.

"What are they doing?" Shining asked. "Why are they with Sombra? I thought that the Crystal Gems helped to save the empire?"

"He's controlling them." Lapis informed the royal guard with her fist clenched. "He did the same thing with us, and he'll have most likely enhanced their abilities with his dark magic."

"Come on you guys, snap out of it!" Jasper yelled. "Don't let him control you!"

"When has saying that ever helped?" Peridot turned to Jasper.

"Well I have to do something! None of us exactly want to fight them!"

"I think fighting them is the only thing we can do." Lapis spoke up as she flared her wings once more.

"Fine." Jasper sighed before turning back to the Crystal Gems. "I'm sorry about th- Argh!" As quickly as she spoke, Garnet had shot forward and landed a punch on Jasper, sending her flying. Lapis tried to fly and catch her, but found herself ensnared by Amethyst's whip. She tried to fly away, but Amethyst cracked her whip, sending energy through it and hitting Lapis. Peridot aimed her blasted at Pearl, who was suddenly right in front of her, but she found that she had multiple targets as she was surrounded by multiple holograms, and her vision was limited in the blizzard. They all ran circles around her, each looking ready to strike. She had enough and fired one in front of her. She picked wrong and was hit by the real one, who was right behind her.

Meanwhile, Jasper was landed on the ground with a loud slam. She quickly got up and saw Garnet running for her again. The Homeworld Gem quickly activated her helmet and lowered her head to block. The impact caused the ground Jasper held to crack and break. She jumped back and charged at Garnet, who ducked and sent an uppercut to her stomach. Jasper was in the air once again, but began doing multiple flips which got faster and faster until she went back down with a spin dash. Unfortunately, Garnet blocked it and gave her opponent a precisely- timed kick. After taking another blow to the stomach, Jasper landed on her feet this time. Garnet shot forward once again, but Jasper ducked and when Garnet was right above her, she straightened her body and shot up, this time being the one to launch her opponent. While she was still in the air, Jasper went up for another headbutt, but Garnet launched her gauntlets at Jasper, causing them to explode just below her. Jasper was caught right in the blast and fell to the ground.

Peridot was angry. She tried to blast Pearl again, but it turned out to be a hologram. She true again, but hit another hologram. She felt a huge heat on her back as the real Pearl had shot a blast from her spear at her. She spun around and shot a large blast behind her, but Pearl had already gone. Her large blaster wasn't working, so she tried a different approach. Large shots weren't working, so she needed small ones. All of her fingers floated near her hand, before they spun and she fired dozens of small electron blasts. She was using her fingers as a machine gun. She shot at each of the Pearls, not hitting the real one so far but she kept going until she saw one of them jump. "Gotcha!" She shot with her other arm and Pearl fell to the ground. She fired another round but Pearl had already gotten up and moved. Pearl went on the offensive and ran directly towards Peridot, who shifted her fingers to become floating buzzsaws and when Pearl was close, she swung her left arm to strike, but she ducked and slashed Peridot across the torso. When Peridot tried again repeatedly, Pearl gracefully dodged each and every one before kicking the green gem in the face. She staggered a little, but shook it off and ran for Pearl again. She tried a slash with her right hand but Pearl ducked once again, slipped behind her and smacked her down with the blunt end of her spear.

Lapis was free of Amethyst's whip, but dodged a large snake trying to bite her. As she dodged the serpent it split into two and slammed into her, but she used her wings to block. However, two more came from behind and sank their teeth into her legs. While Lapis was in pain, Amethyst walked up with her snake- arms and held Lapis even tighter. She was about to crush the water gem when a water arm grabbed her face and slammed her into the ground, causing her to let go of Lapis. Once she was free, she flew into Amethyst and kicked her in the face. Once Amethyst was on the floor, her opponent formed a hammer out of ice and swung it down at the small gem, who rolled backwards and summoned her whip. However, a hand made out of snow emerged from behind and grabbed her before she could do anything and hardened into ice before she could escape. Soon, several more hands appeared and did the same thing. She thought Amethyst had successfully been subdued, but she didn't count on the dark magic breaking the ice and breaking her out. Lapis frowned and she shot towards Amethyst once again with her wings but she was caught by the whip and slammed into the ground. She tried to get up but before she could, the whip was cracked once again and she was caught in an explosion. The areas around Lapis was filled with smoke, so Amethyst waited for her to fly out and try to hit her again, but some snow flew up into her eyes so she couldn't see making her unable to avoid the two water fists that came at her from both her left and right. The right ha d threw her the other way making the punch from the left hand more powerful. Lapis walks out of the smoke, with her water wings morphed into the huge fists that had hit Amethyst.

Lapis almost proofed her when she felt a dark aura around her and was thrown back giving Amethyst time to get up and, much to Lapis's surprise, run away. All of the Crystal Gems regrouped with the giant shadow that was King Sombra. With the evil tyrant's most covering them, all they could see was a light. When the light disappeared, Garnet launched her fists at them, which they all dodged but they soon saw a hug barrage of arrows coming their way. They each held their arms up as the arrows made their mark and then disappeared. They rubbed their arms in pain but had to get moving when they saw the next wave. Opal stepped out of the darkness with her bow ready and shot more arrows.





Meanwhile, Shining was preparing to get Twilight and her friends to the Empire, but he had to avoid Sombra and the gems, or hope that they could defeat Sombra somehow. However, his hopes went down as he saw them struggling to fight against Sombra and the Crystal Gems. He was watching the fight, giving the Gems more magic and increasing their power. However, he turned around and noticed the group.

He advanced towards them in his shadow form, but Shining shot a magical blast causing him to disappear. Unfortunately, he reformed a moment later and shot towards Shining while the mane 6 ran. The Homeworld Gems noticed that Shining was about to be finished off. Jasper and Peridot kept the Crystal Gems at bay while Lapis grabbed Shining before the shadow could do anything else. The three ran through the snow with Jasper and Peridot's feet letting out a low crunch at every step.

They made their way through the force field safely but found that Shining's horn had been covered in black crystals, preventing him from using any magic. They eventually went up to meet with Cadence, who was deprived of sleep and had barely eaten. Her magic was what was keeping Sombra out, and she had had the force field up non- stop.

"We need to find a way to protect the empire without Cadence's magic; she can't keep the field up for much longer." Shining said. Twilight thought for a moment.

"Why don't we ask some of the citizens? Maybe they'll have some information. And the Gems can help us get around." The six trotted out, with the Homeworld Gems following. They walked out of the castle and knocked on a door, which was opened momentarily after. The crystal pony walked out, but she was nothing like what they had described. Her coat and mane were not shining at all, But instead looked dull and depressing, which actually matched her body language, which was hunched over and sad.

"Are you able to tell us anything about Sombra or where the empire in general?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't seem to remember anything before Sombra came into power and I don't want to remember anything during his rule." She cringed at the thought of the tyrant.

"Have we really been gone for 1,000 years?" She asked.

"Yes."

"It feels like it was just yesterday."

"Well let me know if you remember anything." Twilight said.

"Of course." She sighed as she closed the door. They didn't get much luck with any of the other Crystal Ponies either. It had turned out that none of them had remembered anything, courtesy of Sombra's curse; no matter who they questioned. The Homeworld Gems often hid when they questioned a pony as when they were with the mane six, the crystal ponies would run away at the sight of them. Their vision often found the ground more appealing than the faces of frightened ponies. The one they had just questioned in fact, quickly pulled her curtains when she caught a blimps of them from the inside of her house.

"Wait a minute..." She had a moment of realisation before turning to the Homeworld Gems.

"You three were Sombra's enforcers right?" She asked, causing them to stare at the floor and nod. "That means that you all know the Crystal Empire." She gained a huge smile. "Do any of you know how we might be able to protect the empire?"

"I'm sorry." Peridot stepped forward. "We arrived here during Sombra's rule. But I do remember a book. It talked about some sort of fair that Sombra banned when he came power. It's probably in the library."





Twilight had thrown a "Crystal Faire".  It appeared to be working too; the Gems had never seen the crystal ponies like this. They were happy, energetic, cheerful and enjoying their time. They were watching from afar. They smiled, but still felt sad. They had been stopping this from happening the whole time. Everytime they had kept Celestia and Luna away, had only meant that they were keeping the crystal ponies miserable.

They would've continued their thoughts but they saw the force field go down. Their eyes widened as they saw the black mist advancing everywhere. Lapis used her power to create spikes around the empire's border. The mist stopped for a moment, before they saw something smashing them one by one.

They each got there as fast as they could and saw a spike shoot down at them, which they dodged. The mist cleared and showed Sardonyx destroying the spikes, holding her war hammer in her lower two arms. Jasper tried to hit her with a spin- dash but she quickly spun her arms 360 degrees and slammed the hammer into Jasper, sending her flying and crashing into one of the spikes. Lapis made a mirrored version of her out of water. The two slammed their hammers into each other, causing the one the belonged to the real Sardonyx to get caught in the water Sardonyx. The Homeworld gems grinned before Amethyst threw Peridot into Lapis, causing her to lose focus. The Sardonyx duplicate turned back into water and fell to the ground. She thrust her hammer down at Lapis and Peridot, but found herself frozen in Peridot's tractor beam where she was then thrown into Amethyst. They tried to run to Sombra but Sardonyx threw them into the air, jumped up slammed them all back into the ground with her hammer.

Lapis made chains around her and Amethyst, and pulled them back. She then also made a water wall between Sombra and the empire. They shot past the gate while Lapis kept the wall up. The shadow pony tried to go over the wall but he found himself being pushed back. His horn glowed and for a moment nothing happened, but then Lapis's gem darkened, causing the gem to writhe out in pain. She fell to her knees and the water wall disappeared. He laughed as he advanced towards the three, but the shield reappeared causing the king to lose the tip of his horn while the three looked at him with pure fear. They all ran back to the castle, not noticing the fallen piece of his horn sinking into the ground.

"This is not fast enough." He thought to himself. They were getting too close to the Crystal Heart; he could feel it. He was lucky that his spell over the other gems was still there, but only barely. His connection with them had withered and nearly disappeared. Soon, his mindless crystal soldiers came towards, him, their expressions blank as ever.

"I'm going to need to get rid of that force field. I'll need something... huge."





Cadence had woken up, but her magic was fading faster than ever. The gems had returned to the castle. Twilight was trying to find the Heart, but to no avail.

"Do you three know anything; anything at all that might help me know where the heart is?" Twilight asked.

"... If memory serves, King Sombra spent a lot of time in his castle, there are bound to be some secret rooms, I'd try his throne room." Peridot brought her finger to her chin.

"The throne room... of course!" Twilight got an idea and ran off with Spike. The homeworld gems went with her. She used her magic to reveal a secret staircase in the middle of his throne room. They were about to go down when they heard a huge smashing sound, which was heard at the same time that the ground shook. Looked out of the window and saw holes in the force field. They appeared to be experiencing tremors, but everyone knew better than to think that these were just mere tremors. The sound was heard again, and on closer inspection it sounded like something was slamming into the field. It eventually proved too much for Cadence, who fainted once again and lost her control. 

The magic dome disappeared and the red sky was revealed. Everyone's eyes widened as they saw something huge walk into the empire, with a large grin plastered onto its face.

"...Oh no." Peridot whimpered.

"Is that..?" Lapis asked.

"It is." The green gem replied as they all backed away slightly.

"What?" Twilight asked. "What in the name of Equestria is that?!"

"That is Sugilite."
> Giant Woman
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

They all stood wide- eyed at the sight of Sugilite. All the while, she stomped towards the castle, getting closer and closer. The Homeworld Gems saw that her colour scheme had changed as well. Instead of having burgundy skin, it had been turned into a dull grey. Her clothes were also red and black as she glared at them with red and black eyes.

"Twilight." Jasper began, never taking her eyes off of Sugilite. "Find the Crystal Heart and get it to the city centre and do it quickly."

"But what about that thing?" The lavender unicorn asked.

"We'll handle it." Lapis added. "Peridot." She turned to face the green gem. "Go with Twilight, we still don't know where Pearl is." Peridot nodded as she walked over to Twilight.

"Sombra isn't just giving them more power anymore." Jasper said. "He's became part of the fusion. This isn't going to be easy."





Sombra grinned in Sugilite's body. He had become extremely powerful, and now he would take back control of the Crystal Empire, and the other gems. However, he was drawn from his thoughts as a light appeared below him.

At first, six hands emerged from it, then a body and a face.

"Malachite." He growled, while the green fusion responded with a glare from all four of its eyes. "Alright then, let us fight."

Sugilite slammed her right fist into Malachite's face then summoned the gauntlet in her right hand to deliver a more powerful blow. Malachite however, summoned her helmet and blocked the strike before grabbing Sugilite by the shoulders and giving her three huge headbutts. Sugilite broke from the grasp and gave Malachite a powerful punch in the face with her gauntlet. Before she could retaliate, she found a mace hit her in the face. She then used the water to create shackles around Sugilite's legs, tripping her. Before she could slam her arms down, a shield made from dark magic protected Sugilite, who got up and gave Malachite an uppercut with her dark gauntlet, hitting with three times as much power as before. Malachite tried to block but she was grabbed by Sugilite’s lower arms and thrown across the street after the punch. The mace was swung once again, but this time the block was successful. Malachite grabbed ahold of the weapon and gave it a yank, pulling Sugilite towards her. The controlled fusion stumbled and once it was and closes enough, the four- eyed gem jumped forward with her helmet and made a blow on Sugilite’s chest. A large beam of dark magic was shot from her middle eye, which she was forced to take so the buildings and citizens inside them wouldn't be destroyed.

"Damn." She growled, getting ready for another blow.





Peridot was waiting at the top of the stairs; she looked around to see if anyone was coming when she heard footsteps. She turned and saw Pearl standing at the door. She readied her blaster while Pearl just stood there. Her opponent's gem lit up as Peridot was blinded by the light.

When it died down, the green gem was completely surrounded by dozens upon dozens of hologram Pearls. They all immediately charged at her as she fired smaller shots. However, many dodged and she was forced on the defensive as she tried to dodge many of their attacks. She was cut numerous times as well as bruised and bumped. Her attacks only got a few as they all kept dodging and then relentlessly slashing at her with their spears. This went on for ages as began to get sluggish. She was backed up against a window she panted, one of the hologram Pearls shot a blast from their spear blowing her out of the window where she fell to the ground.

She landed on her back so as to not crack her gem but it still took everything she had to keep her physical form intact. She rolled onto her front just in time to see Malachite disappear back into Lapis and Jasper while Sugilite released a monstrous cackle. She was surrounded by crystal debris and cracks in the path. She saw two small items in front of her that the found herself drawn to. She dragged herself towards them with her arms to get a closer look. One was a corkscrew-shaped draconic trinket made of a blue metal, an odd gemstone embedded in the dragon’s head, and the other was a small, sky blue pendant shaped like a small oval, wrapped in a silver band. The pendant seemed to have an inscribing on the back, and Peridot took a moment to scan the words.

“I raise my blade in honour of you, the Displaced of the Multiverse. Place this amulet around your neck and call for Ace, and my blade will pierce the hearts of your foes!”

She held it in her hand, she would’ve dismissed it as some family heirloom that some crystal pony had lost while they were running away but she could feel a certain energy radiating off of it. The other trinket seemed to somehow speak directly into her mind when she grabbed it, the voice sounding distinctly female.

“For those of you in need, whether it’s in a fight or you just need some advice, I am here. Merely hold this trinket and call my name and I will be there. I am Zinnia. I am a Draconid. I am the Delta Guardian!”

She was still struggling to keep her form together; she didn’t have time to question what was going on.

“Help us… please…”

Two portals opened in the air in front of the wounded Gem, completely black save for the small stars she could see within. From these portals, two people appeared a man and a woman.

The man fell from his portal as though hopping off a ledge, dropping to one knee when he landed with a short sword strapped to his belt. Snow clung to his simple crimson chestpiece,the only armour he wore, as well as his simple, dark blue jeans and black hiking boots. He glanced up for a moment before pulling out a golden visor, placing it on his face to protect his slate-grey eyes from the powerful winds that caused his shoulder-length black hair to whip about chaotically, three vertical white streaks still clear.

The woman, on the other hand, fell out of the portal as though she had just pulled herself out of bed, shown by the fact that she wore nothing but a silken purple bra with dark blue lace and matching panties. She flopped to the snow-covered floor, not even bothering to stand up as she began to pull the rest of her clothes on - a pair of black hot pants and a red sleeveless shirt with black markings forming a large, hollow triangle, with a smaller, solid triangle splitting the larger one’s base, both pointing upwards. A pair of red sneakers were pulled on after simple white socks, and a beige-coloured cloak covered everything else once pinned around her neck. She too had black hair, though hers had no highlights and was cut shorter, reaching just past her ears. Crimson eyes found Peridot’s prone form, their owner quickly rushing over with the aid of her purple wings to check on the Gem.

“Oh my God, are you okay!?” the woman cried, gaining the man’s attention. He promptly rushed to Peridot’s other side, searching the surrounding area for her attacker.

“I’m fi- argh!” She found that her right leg didn’t seem to be working properly. “I have... to get… back up there.” She looked up at the window she had fallen from high up from the castle. She also noticed Sombra- Sugilite getting closer to said castle.

“Oh, no,” the man snapped, glaring down at Peridot. “You’re not going back into a fight when you've been hurt this bad. Hold on.” He closed his eyes for a moment, one hand on his sword, before a golden light encompassed the blade, transforming it into a pair of fingerless white gloves with golden lines running over them, meeting in a small circle on each palm.

“There’s no time, dammit!” She protested. “The condition of my physical form is irrelevant right now. He’s already getting closer to the tower!”

“Hold still,” the man ordered, placing his palms on either side of Peridot’s head. The golden light appeared in both of his hands before seeming to flow over the Gem, her eyes going wide as she felt her injuries healing themselves, if only a little bit.

“Woah,” the woman breathed, staring wide-eyed at the man. “That was pretty cool.” She paused, squinting at him slightly. “Y’know, you look familiar…” She was interrupted from her thoughts as the huge footsteps got closer. Looking up, her face paled as she caught first sight of the mace-wielding behemoth moving towards them. “What the hell is that!?”

“It’s Sugilite!” Peridot glared at the giant. “And if either of you have anything that can defeat her that’d be great since our last defence just split back into two!”

“I need weaknesses, now!” the man barked, eyes fixed on Sugilite. “What’s she from, how did they stop her before, that sort of thing!”

“Well I’d say try to get both of her halves out of sync, but they’re currently both being controlled.”

“Wait, controlled?” the woman asked, gritting her teeth as Peridot nodded. “Damnit, more mind control! I’ll tear the bastard out myself!” she added, flaring her wings and rocketing off towards Sugilite.

“Damn,” the man muttered, looking up and seeing a hologram Pearl stood in the opening she had blasted Peridot through. “Friend of yours?” he asked, helping the green gem to her feet.

“She’s just one of them.” Peridot sighed. She activated her helicopter fingers and flew up. The man held his hands together, a sky blue light covering his gloved, pulling them together and lengthening them to form a katana, following after her by simply walking up what appeared to be an invisible staircase, sweeping the air in front of him as he went.

“I’m Ace by the way.”

“My name is Peridot.”

“What can we expect from her?” He pointed at the holo- Pearl.

“You can expect more of her; lots more.” As they reached the top of the window, they saw fifty or so more with their spears pointed out the shattered window.

“Unregistered combatant detected.” The one in front of the window said.

“Looks like fun,” the man said with a grin, lifting his sword. “Right buddy?”

“Right, Ace. We shall bring them a swift end!” a voice cried, echoing in Peridot’s ears.

“Who said that?” Peridot looked around.

“Oh, right. Peridot, meet my sword of multiple names. Right now, he’s Kaze no Ran’na. There’s a spirit bound to it.”

“... Not even gonna ask.” She rubbed her temple with her floating fingers. “You wanted weaknesses? Fine, these holograms are fragile as hell but very agile and expert sword fighters.” They jumped through the window and hit the Pearl in front, knocking her down. She nearly faded away, and was about to get up when Ace impaled her with his sword, quickly spinning around and flinging her into the remaining holograms, sending a small cyclone after her. The rest rushed the two. One jumped off of the wall and tried to get Ace from above, but he merely ducked, swinging his sword up and behind and slicing the hologram’s head off, causing it to disappear.

“That’s just creepy,” he said, turning to the remaining copies. “How many did you say there were?”

“Around fifty.”

“Fantastic.”





Zinnia slowed to a stop as she approached the massive, red and grey fusion above. She glared at it for a moment before closing her eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Okay,” she muttered. “Need to be careful. She’s probably a Displaced of some kind, so I can’t hurt her too much.” Zinnia sighed, bringing her hands together. “Focus Energy.”

“And who might you be? I’ve never seen anything quite like you before.” She could hear a deep male voice, but also hints of a female one that sounded oddly like Nicki Minaj. Zinnia looked up, recoiling when she saw the massive grey face of the possessed Sugilite.

“Oh, I’m just a visitor,” she replied calmly, going so far as to yawn. “Gotta say, it’s been pretty boring so far.”

“Well, if you don’t move out of my way I can make things… exciting. Although, I don’t think you want the type of exciting that I possess.”

“Well that depends,” Zinnia flew a little closer, looking the Sombra-Gem in the eye with a lidded gaze. “Are you talking about the type of exciting that happens in the bedroom? ‘Cuz I wouldn’t mind exploring all of you.” She paused, flying back a bit. “Then again, you’ve been destroying this pretty little place, and I don’t think that’s very nice.” She smirked at the monolith, crossing her arms. “So no, I won’t move. Instead, I’ll do this. Dragon Wall!!!!”

With that, Zinnia created hundreds of clones using Double Team before having them all use Dragon Breath at once, the wall of draconic flames engulfing Sugilite in a cloud of purple fury. The fusion didn’t even have time to block as she was bombarded with nothing but pure destructive energy. She stumbled back a considerable distance before regaining her composure.

“Do you really think that will stop me?!” She roared, with the female voice sounding slightly louder than before. “Nothing can! Not Lapis or Jasper and certainly not you!” She gestured towards the two gems lying on the ground behind her. Her one visible eye lit up, causing Zinnia to become trapped in a levitation spell. She was thrown into a building, which Sugilite then brought her fist down on.

“Ha! Nopony can stand against me now!” the Gem bellowed, beginning to walk away while laughing.

Zinnia crouched down, having brought up a Protect just before Sugilite had collapsed the building on her.

“Okay, gotta stay positive…” she muttered, even as she ground her teeth together. “He thinks I’m out now, so I’ve got some surprise.... dammit!” She cried, punching the nearest piece of debris, which shattered instantly. “Well, may as well get back out there.” Zinnia shot out of what remained of the building’s ceiling before calling out to Sugilite.

“Hey ugly!” she cried, reaching into her pocket with one hand. When Sugilite turned around, staring at her in shock, she smirked and pulled out her iPod. “Get a load ‘a my Swagger!” With a tap of the screen, electronic music started playing, with a man simply stating how frequently he shuffled. Zinnia began to walk in place to the music, sometimes moonwalking, sometimes full-on breakdancing.

“... What are you doing?” Sombra- Sugilite asked as the music continued while Zinnia kept dancing. “... Stop it.” She ignored the giant and kept dancing. “Is that music? It annoys me, stop that infernal device!” Once again, the gem was ignored. “I said STOP IT!” The Nicki Minaj voice roared, while the male voice went quieter. She stomped on the ground in anger and annoyance before aimlessly walking around with no clear intent of where she was going. “Where the hell am I?! Where’s that piece of shit Sombra?! What’s all this junk?!”

“Sugilite!” Zinnia cried, gaining the gem’s attention. “I don’t know how long we’ve got, but Sombra’s in your head! You need to fight him!” She flew closer to Sugilite’s face, her hand glowing orange. “I’m sorry about this!” she yelled before swinging her fist, punching Sugilite in the nose and knocking her over.

“What, you want some? Sombra can wait, I’ll destroy you you little brat!” She bellowed as she got up.

Lapis and Jasper woke up, clenching their heads as they tried to remember what had just happened.

“Sombra… Sugilite… The Heart!!” Jasper’s eyes widened. They saw Sugilite in the distance, she appeared to be yelling at someone. They quickly rushed towards the scene and got a full view of what was happening. Sugilite was advancing over what appeared to be… a human! They went faster and Lapis grabbed her, saving her from the impending fist that slammed into the ground where she once stood.



“How are you here? How is this even possible?” Jasper was just a confused as Lapis.

“Not now!” Zinnia cried, quickly erecting a Protect as Sugilite threw another punch at them. “Peridot said something about splitting Sugilite up, How do we do that!?”

“We need to get Her two halves to disagree about something, and it needs to be something big enough to make Sugilite come undone.” They looked back at her, she was about to swing her mace but she threw her head back and cringed, Sombra’s voice was becoming more present once again.

“Whatever you did, it’s wearing off!” Jasper warned.

“Look, I can get Sombra to back down for a bit,” Zinnia said, flaring her wings. “But you two need to figure out how to get her split! And don’t watch!” With that, Zinnia shot into the air, gaining Sugilite’s attention as she played another song, dancing erratically along to it. Sombra-Sugilite stared at her for a moment before roaring in confused rage.

“Stop playing those dumb songs before I smash you into pieces!” She ran towards Zinnia.

“... So, you got anything?” Jasper asked.

“Absolutely nothing.” Lapis tapped her chin.

“... Wait.” Jasper got an idea. “What was strong enough to poof Sugilite in the show?”

“What?”

“Her own mace!” Jasper pointed to the object the burgundy gem was pulling towards Zinnia. Lapis grabbed the mace while Jasper ran in front of Sugilite below Zinnia.

“Sugilite!” The gem looked down.

“What?”

“Uuh, let’s think.” Jasper tapped her chin like Lapis did before getting an idea. “I’ve got it! What’s your favourite hobby?”

“Seriously!?” Zinnia cried. “This is your plan!? You’re hitting on her!?”

“That’s a dumb question; it’s obviously relaxing/ fighting monsters.” Two more voices spoke. “I mean, uh, it’s…” Sugilite began to shudder. Soon, a giant water hand made from the snow emerged from the snow behind her holding the mace and slammed it on her head. She erupted into smoke and disappeared, two other gems in her place were falling to the ground.





Ace grunted, pushing back against a strike from a holo-Pearl with his katana. He quickly dropped to his knees, slashing through the hologram’s abdomen and watching it dissolve. The final three ran towards them, but Peridot let out a large blast catching one while Ace slashed the other two. There were no more holograms left. They panted as they were alone in the room.

“... Twilight!” Peridot gasped. “The original has to be with Twilight! She’s down those stairs!” She pointed at the stairs in the centre of the room.

“Right!” Ace replied, racing for the stairs as his sword glowed green, morphing into a forest green whip with red thorns. He flicked his wrist, causing the whip to wrap around a rail in the lowering stairwell, which he then used to swing all the way down.

Meanwhile, Twilight and Spike were at the top of the castle. They backed away from the real Pearl who was towering over them. There were also four lasers pointed at her while Pearl advanced. Twilight backed away, her hooves touching the area around the Heart which she tried to grab. Pearl stopped for a moment as she gasped. Her colour scheme changed like Sugilite’s had done so her skin was now shades of grey with black hair along with red clothes. Sombra had lost Sugilite, he couldn’t lose Pearl. He had to grab the Crystal Heart and go.

“The Heart, now!” Sombra- Pearl snapped.

When Twilight failed to comply, Sombra-Pearl growled in annoyance, raising her spear to strike the mare down. When she tried to do so, however, she found her spear torn from her grip, turning to find it clatter to the ground at Ace’s feet.

“I don’t think so, missy,” the man said, placing his foot on the blade of the spear. With a powerful yank, the spear’s handle split in two.

“There’s plenty more where that came from.” She pulled out another spear from her gem as she dashed towards Twilight, but was smacked away quickly by Ace. She growled as Ace stood between her and the Heart.

“The other one already did enough, I’m not going to let you ruin all of my hard work!” She yelled as she ran up to Ace, attempting to slash at him. Ace grabbed further down his whip with the other hand, raising it and pulling it tight to block the attack before wrapping what he could around Sombra-Pearl’s wrist and leaping away. The gem just stared at her wrist for a moment before crying out, Ace having swung her into the nearest pillar. She emerged with a jump attack, throwing Ace on the defensive as he dodged a flurry of strikes. However, one of them got him as the spear made its mark on his stomach. He jumped back and didn’t notice the shadow engulf him before it was too late. Sombra- Pearl went to deliver the final blow but found herself immobilized.

“I got you!” Peridot grinned as she held the gem in her tractor beam.

“Keep her there!” Ace cried, abandoning the whip for the gloves, using their golden light to free himself from the shadows ensnaring him. When he saw the shadows retreat as if they were afraid of the light, a hopeful smile rose on his face. “I have an idea!”

“Well do it quick!” Peridot grunted, straining against Sombra-Pearl’s attempts to free herself.

Ace moved towards the trapped gem, golden light shining from his gloves, growing brighter and brighter as he approached before, eventually, he reached out, placing a hand on the back of Pearl’s head and the other over her gem, keeping her still. The light seemed to spread through her body as she let out an agonised scream, shining from her eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and causing her skin to brighten once more, her clothes returning to their normal colours.

Sombra emerged, but Spike had the heart and he was escaping. Peridot was frozen in fear as she was in the presence of the king once again. He glared back at her as he summoned a bunch of black crystals to follow. Shining Armour and Cadence noticed Spike and Shining threw Cadence to catch him. Spike landed safely on the floor while Cadence guided the Crystal Heart back to its original place.

“It’s over, Sombra!” Ace shouted, taking the shadow king’s attention away from Peridot. “The Heart is in place, and soon enough you’ll be ejected from the empire, probably destroyed by the goodness within.” It was true; the Crystal Ponies were getting happier at the return of the true Crystal Heart.

“I won’t go, not now, not ever!” He growled. He tried to lash out at the two, but found cracks on his body.

“I told you. The Heart’s powering up, and you’re right in the epicentre of the blast.”

"Grrr." He turned his attention back to Peridot.

"I'll see you soon, Peri." His body finally broke into pieces, leaving only a mist that dissolved in the air. The crystal ponies down below were happier than they had been in years. They didn't care about the broken buildings right now, they were just happy that they no longer had to deal with Sombra. Peridot sank to her knees as she took a deep breath and laughed. She was free, Lapis was free, Jasper was free, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl were free. Speaking of which, Pearl was currently groaning on the floor. Peridot and Ace picked her up.

"We should probably regroup with our friends."

"Yeah." Ace replied. “Say, who was that other girl you summoned?”

“I don’t know.” Peridot shrugged. “She looked like Zinnia from the Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire remakes. Why do you ask?”

“She just…” he paused, running a hand through his hair. “She seemed… familiar.”

“Well we can get back and ask them.”





Lapis, Jasper and Zinnia were resting under a crashed building while the rest of the crystal ponies were admiring the heart. Ruby, Sapphire and Amethyst were placed carefully on the ground while the three displaced waited for either the remaining gems to wake up or for Ace and Peridot to return.

“So…” Lapis began. “Uuh, how did you get here?”

Zinnia looked up from the slice of Crystal Berry Pie she had somehow gotten her hands on, the juices staining her mouth blue. “Green dorito head summoned me. She was dying, or something, and asked for help.”

“You mean Peridot?” Jasper asked. “Wait, dying? Was her gem cracked?!”

“Gem?” She paused, shoving what remained of her pie in her mouth before swallowing. “What gem?”

“Like this.” Jasper pointed to her crystalline nose while Lapis turned around and showed her back. “Gems are the core of our beings; they allow us to shape our physical form, which is our bodies. They’re like holograms… with mass.”

“And what a mass it is…” the woman muttered, her eyes roaming over both Jasper and Lapis before she realised something. “Wait, was hers in her forehead?”

“Yeah, it was.” Lapis piped up. “If our gems are broken, then we’ll die. It’s pretty much the only thing that can kill us, though I think we can still be poisoned, I can’t remember the details. If our physical forms are damaged, they revert back into our gems and it can take weeks to properly reform. We’re completely vulnerable when that happens. If we wanted to keep our form together when it was damaged, it’d take a huge effort.”

“That explained why she seemed so tired…” Zinnia frowned, staring at the cave wall in thought. “I’m… pretty sure her gem was okay. Seemed smooth enough.”

“That’s a huge relief.” Jasper sighed. “Considering we don’t exactly have any healing tears or spit with us.”

“I’m… not going to ask… but she did summon another guy. He had some kind of shape-changing sword that he used to heal her, so… yeah.”

“He sounds like a nice guy, I’d love to meet him.” Lapis commented as she looked up into the sky. The blizzards were no more and were instead replaced with lush grass as well as a shining sun. “This’ll take a lot of effort to rebuild.” She sighed. “Which means we’ll probably be here longer, which is annoying since the crystal ponies can’t stand us… not that I blame them though.”

“Hey, far as I can tell you guys are sorry for whatever you did. And with how scared you seemed to be of that Sombra guy - yeah, I noticed that,” she added, eyeing Jasper as she fidgeted. “I’d wager he used his mind control on you at one point or another. Just apologise and take it slow, I’m sure they’ll warm up to you.”

“He had seemed so kind when we first met him.” Lapis let out another sigh. “He took us in when no one else would, he even gave us jobs. We were ‘protecting’ the Empire. Soon, we began to see through it. That’s when he used full- on manipulation. I don’t know what we did at that time, but we’re grateful for these guys saving us from it.” She looked down at the three gems.

“Yeah, about that…” Zinnia glanced at each of the gemstones that had been placed around the area. “This whole thing seems familiar, so I need to ask. Does the name ‘Steven’ mean anything to you?”

“Yeah, it’s the name of the show our forms are based off of; ‘Steven Universe’.” Jasper explained.

“Well, where I came from, I was in a mental asylum - don’t ask,” she said quickly, holding up a hand to stop any questions. “One of the others was this tubby guy who was thrown in because… well, he thought his mom and sisters were sentient gemstones from space.” She gave the two gems a pointed look, leaning forward.

“I bet his name was Ronaldo.” Jasper snickered under her breath before clearing her throat. “Well, ‘sentient gemstones from space’ does sum up the main cast of that show. It was about a little kid who was a half- human and half ‘sentient gemstone’. We somehow got turned into the villains from that show. And then there are these guys.” She gestured to the gems on the ground “They became the heroes from the show. I’m pretty sure they all used to be human like us as well.” 

“Well, long story short, you’re Displaced.” All three turned to see Peridot and Ace walking up to them. “You probably bought something from some shady guy, or were gifted something bought from a shady guy, or something like that, and were sent to Equestria.”

“Well, Jasper got her gem as a present from her parents, Peri got hers for her mum’s birthday and I bought mine on a bad day.” Lapis gave a brief description of how they got their items. “Something just made us drawn to the items he was selling.”

“Yeah… Mine was different.” Everyone turned to see Zinnia staring into space with a dopey grin on her face.

“Not… going to ask,” Ace sighed. “Look, I know this’ll seem weird, but you seem really familiar.” He held out a hand, and Zinnia took it hers, shaking. “I’m Ace, have we met before?”

Zinnia stared at him for a moment, awestruck. “...Ace?” she asked, tears forming in her eyes. “Ace… it’s me… Zoey…”

They stood there, staring at each other for a time, before Ace pulled Zinnia in a tight hug, knocking his visor off as tears streamed down his face.

“Quick question…” Peridot walked up in front of them. “What’s going on? Do you two know each other, or something?” 

Ace looked up at the green gem, a massive smile on his face. “Peridot,” he said before turning to the other two. “Other… people, this,” he grasped Zinnia’s shoulder, giving it a little shake, making her giggle. “This is my sister.”

“And he,” Zinnia added, giving Ace a playful punch. “Is the reason I was in the asylum I told you about.”

“Wait, you two are siblings?” Lapis asked and the two nodded happily. “Oh my god, I’m so happy for you two! Get closer together right now!” She pushed them closer together with her wings.

“You might want to let go of them, Lapis.” Peridot said with concern in her voice.

“Right, sorry.” She smiled it off as she let the two go, allowing them to catch their breath.

“Not…” Zinnia wheezed with a hand on her chest. “Not a problem.”

“Wait,” Ace shouted suddenly, causing the others to jump. “We live in different universes now!” He added, starting to panic. “And what are the chances that we get each other’s tokens! Oh, sweet Luna! I can’t lose you again!”

“I can actually fix that,” the woman said with a smirk, turning to the Gems. “Who has our tokens? The anklet and… what was yours?”

“An amulet.”

“You mean these?” Peridot asked, holding the two trinkets up. Zinnia thanked the gem, taking them and standing in the centre of their little camp.

“Now, don’t freak out,” she said before closing her eyes, a white glow enveloping her. “Double Team!”

At her words, Zinnia created a single copy of herself, the copy walking calmly walking over to Ace and handing him the two token copies before fading away. The original Zinnia then swapped then took the copy of Ace’s token, handing the originals back to Peridot.

“...Well,” Ace breathed, a small smile on his face. “That’s certainly something for the reunions.”

“Tokens?” Peridot cocked her head at the man holding the ankle bracelet.





Zinnia picked it up once more. “You send it out into the Void, and some special energy makes an infinite number of copies and throws them randomly across the Displaced section of the Multiverse.”

“Okay.” Peridot, Lapis and Jasper gathered around. They each poured their energy into one spot and created their token. It resembled the triforce, but the triangles were light green, tangerine and indigo. There was also a yellow triangle placed in the middle of the other three. It was the same size as Peridot’s wrist (if she had one, that is).

“To those who fight for power!

For knowledge!

For freedom!

The Homeworld Gems will come to your aid! Call upon us so we can fight or we can chat, it’s up to you.” 

The symbol shot off into the multiverse, two of them landing in the hands of Zinnia and Ace.

“Wow, so… What now?” Peridot asked, before the gems behind them began to glow, Pearl groaning from her position on the floor.

“Wha… where are we?” She looked around, seeing Zinnia, Ace and the homeworld gems. Behind her, there were two gasps as Ruby and Sapphire saw that they were exactly that; Ruby and Sapphire. They calmed down when they saw each other on opposite ends of the room. Jasper snickered once again as they ran towards each other. Sapphire running reminded them about a song about another small blue character going fast. 

“Huh,” Zinnia stated, watching as the tiny red and blue gems smashed into each other, performing a rushed dance before turning into a white light and merging together, becoming a single, much taller gem with deep burgundy skin and a large, boxed afro wearing a red-and-black jumpsuit. “Neat.”

“Yeah.” The box- head replied. “Get up, Amethyst.”

“Ugh, do we have to? She’s probably listening to that dumb music again.”

“Would you have prefered Nicki Minaj?”

“If we were fused, I might say yes.”

“Uh, sorry about all that back there,” Zinnia said, slightly ashamed. “I was trying to use a Pokemon move, Swagger, and that’s just how my instincts told me to.” She paused, fishing the iPod out of her pocket. “I can access anything that’s on YouTube, though. I could give you something else to say sorry.”

“Wait, how can you get YouTube?” Ace asked.

“Interdimensional WiFi, a gift from... “ Zinnia paused, blushing furiously. “A friend…”

Meanwhile, Peridot was letting the word ‘WiFi’ sink in as she stood completely still for a few moments. “...WiFi.” At that moment, she could only think of three words to describe how she currently felt. “Gimme, gimme, gimme!” She lunged for the device.

“Woah there!” Zinnia cried, leaping away. “What’s up with her?” she asked, looking to Jasper and Lapis for answer as she took to the air.

“Peri used to love going on the internet…” Lapis paused for a moment. “And she hasn’t been near it for over 1,000 years.”

“To be honest,” Ace said with a sigh. “I’d probably be the same way.”

“You’re not helping, y’know!” Zinnia shrieked as she dodged Peridot’s now-airborne attempts to grab the device in her hand. “How do I get her to stop!?”

“We’ll tell you once we have an answer.” Jasper rubbed the back of her head sheepishly while Lapis averted her eyes snickering.

“You won’t escape me, floating iPod!”

Zinnia growled in frustration, narrowing her eyes at the green gem. “Enough!” she Roared, throwing the gem back with her voice. “Look! Do you have any kind of computer, and I will give you the God damn password!!!”

“Yeah, couldn’t you do that one thing with your fingers?” Jasper questioned, having had her fun watching Peridot’s struggle, but decided to elaborate when Zinnia eyed her curiously. “Yeah, you could make a screen with your fingers or something. There were lots of things that Peridot could do with her fingers.” She inwardly slapped herself at the wording of the last part of the sentence.

“Amazingly,” Zinnia deadpanned. “I’m too upset to make a dirty joke. Hodgepodge is probably slapping himself stupid right now.” She sighed, bringing the iPod up and swiping the screen repeatedly. “Just do the finger thing and I’ll find the password for you. It should work for you.”

While Jasper sighed in relief, Peridot, having composed herself, made a screen with four of the fingers on her left hand while the remaining finger was used to operate the screen. She looked up as Zinnia snorted, seeing the draconid with a hand over her mouth, trying to hold back her laughter.

“That cheered me up.” At the confused looks she received, she chuckled again, putting the device in her pocket. “The person who gave me the iPod set the password herself,” she giggled before leaning closer to Peridot, whispering in her ear. After a moment, Peridot’s mint-green cheeks turned a bright crimson, and she quickly tapped the password into her screen.

“Well I guess it doesn’t matter.” Peridot cleared her throat and tried to clear her mind. “She’s getting one hell of an internet bill. Even more so now for that password.”

“She told me I could share if I wanted,” Zinnia said with a smile. “So it shouldn’t be too big of a deal. I mean, she’s an inter-dimensional being with God-like powers, so she probably has, like, unlimited free WiFi or something.”

“Well, let it be known that I tried.” The gem declared before opening a bunch of tabs, “How does this work anyway? What’s the internet like 1,000 years into the future? I wonder what Youtube’s design is like… Oh God no.” She closed the tab quickly.

“What’s up?” Ace asked, raising a brow at the gem’s reaction.

“What has been seen cannot be unseen.” Peridot whispered.

“The hell did you open?” Zinnia muttered, leaning round to try and see the screen. “Some kinda super kinky porn?”

“She probably just saw Youtube with a new design or some crap like that.” Jasper rolled her eyes. “Whatever it is, I bet it’s not that…” Moments later, Jasper was repeatedly banging her head on a wall nearby.

“Dammit, you’re gonna have to get used to it sooner or later!” Zinnia shouted, Ace just stood shaking his head at the gems.



“You don’t understand!” Peridot grabbed him by the shirt and shook him with her one free hand. “Right now, I’m just glad that gems don’t need to sleep!”

“I agree with Ace; it can’t be that bad.” Pearl spoke behind them. She had been up for a while and was just watching them bicker. “I’ll even take a look myself, I’m sure you two are just…” She stood there; her eyes were locked on the screen for a while, with no movement.

She poofed.

Her gem fell to the ground before Lapis picked it up and stared at the screen.

“Wait no!” Jasper warned. “Don’t look at it dire-”

“Neat.” Lapis shrugged and sat down.

“Finally! “ Zinnia sighed. “Someone who’s not afraid of a new design!” She pointed at the pearl in Lapis’ hands. “And she is a wuss.”

“Who’s in charge of Youtube now?” Jasper stopped baging her head to ask a question.

“Google, I think,” Ace said, placing a hand on his chin in thought. “They ripped off Facebook, too.”

“Whatever you do,” Zinnia chimed in, looking Jasper directly in the eye. “Don’t let Peridot go on GooglePlus.”

“You will all submit to your new God!” A voice from the screen roared.

“Uuh, who’s in charge of Google at his point?”

“I never really cared enough to find out,” Ace said.

“Me neither,” Zinnia agreed, nodding sagely. “But now to the matter at hand, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?!?!”

“I’m guessing that’s whose in charge of Google now.” Lapis speculated. “If not, I have no idea.”

Zinnia stared at the floating, green-tinted screen. “That’s never happened to mine...”

“You will all rue the day you defied Goo-” The voice was cut off as Peridot fooled around with the coding.

“Well I shouldn’t be hearing that voice anymore.” Peridot sighed happily.

“And with that,” Ace said, stretching. “Is there anything else you guys need any help with? I wouldn’t mind a little more time away from home. I’m dealing with both Rarity and Twilight trying to make me some armour.” He paused, knocking on the breastplate he wore. “It took three days to design this thing, then another week to make it. Not to mention the enchantments!”

“I’d be okay with staying too, but not for too long,” Zinnia agreed. “I was in the middle of something when you summoned me and I’d very much like to get back to it.”

“Uuh, I don’t think so, unless you want to help clear everything up.” Peridot reasoned.

“Although.” Garnet appeared behind them. “Perhaps you could tell us a bit about ‘displaced’.”

20 minutes later, Garnet, Amethyst and the forcibly reformed Pearl were in the process of making their token. They made a white star with gems on all points except the top.

“We are the Crystal Gems. Call upon us to fight beside you!” With that, their token shot off into the multiverse.

“I think that’s about it.” Lapis shrugged, as she finished moving the piece of debris out of the street. “So how do we make you two go back to your own universes?”

“You just need to say ‘our contract is complete’,” Zinnia said, bending down and grabbing the copies of the Crystal Gem’s that had fallen in front of her and handing one to Ace. “That’s what’s worked for me so far.”

“Me too,” Ace added. “We’ll have to keep in touch, I’d love to get to know you guys more.”

“Yeah,” Zinnia sighed, “These weren't exactly the best conditions to meet. And I’d love to find out what else Peri’s fingers can do…” She looked to the green gem with half-lidded eyes, waggling her eyebrows at her and causing her to blush.

“Theeere it is.” Jasper commented.

“Well, I do hope that we meet again.” Lapis added. “And… I’m glad that you found your brother.” She smiled sadly.

“Yeah…” Zinnia replied as Ace wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Me too.”

“Okay, here we go…” Peridot took a deep breath. ”Thank you so much for everything you two have done and our contract is complete.”

Ace and Zinnia turned to each other, smiling sadly. Below Zinnia, a black dragon head rose, stars dotting it’s scales as it closed its jaws around her before bursting into a pile of pink stardust. Ace, however, seemed to collapse in on himself, the air around him distorting as he condensed into a multi-hued light that then shot skywards, disappearing into the atmosphere.

Now, it was just the Crystal Gems and the Homeworld Gems. They stood together in the still much wrecked city. They had won, Sombra had lost, and they had a lot of catching up to do… After they met up with Princess Cadence and helped clean up, of course. With that, they left for the castle.
> It's a Springtrap!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cleaning up the empire was going by very quickly for the gems, especially with the return of Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. Lapis was using her wings to pick up the larger pieces of debris with Jasper and Garnet while Pearl got help from her holograms, Amethyst transformed into a forklift and Peridot moved rocks out of the way with her tractor beam. She also used her robonoids to fix the cracks on the roads.

Though the crystal ponies were wary of them, it was easier having the Crystal Gems with them so the ponies would be slightly more comfortable with their heroes around.

"So Sombra's gone?" Garnet asked.

"It would appear so." Peridot replied with a smile; the reminder of that memory brightening her day and distracting her from the fact that she was on cleanup duty. Right now, she just wanted to use the Internet that Zinnia gave her all day. She also wanted to make that escape pod from the episode 'Joy Ride'. With it, she would be able to use it to walk anywhere, fly anywhere and even shoot lasers. In other words, she wanted to find more creative ways to do nothing. She had the blueprints hardwired into her brain; courtesy of the original Peridot.

Twilight had been left, despite wanting to stay with them and learn more about gems she had said something about a test, not to mention those two ponies who were now ruling the empire. It had taken all of Peridot’s effort not to burst out in laughter when she heard the stallion’s name was ‘Shining Armor’.

“How long has it been?” Pearl was the one who asked the question this time.

“About 1,000 years I think.” Lapis responded. "Maybe 1,200. I wasn't really counting."

“What have you guys been doing that whole time?”

“Mostly running, running and hiding. Celestia and Luna were pretty mad that you three got banished along with Sombra and the empire. They blamed us for it and tried to banish us then and there. Needless to say, we escaped before going into hiding. They sent search parties after us for quite a few decades… I think it was 6 or seven. Eventually, they just gave up and we all travelled together for a while before going our separate ways, though we would somehow always keep meeting back up. I guess we just had a connection.”

“We’d still be hiding if not for that damned pegasus.” Peridot grumbled.

“I’m just glad we didn’t get turned into statues or get sent to tartarus or something like that.” Jasper chuckled. “Celestia probably would’ve done one of those if she had the chance.”

“We nearly done with this cleaning? This is so boring.” Amethyst groaned.

“It may be going quicker than expected, but there’s still a lot more to do.” Pearl informed. 

As they spoke, a low humming began to echo behind them, slowly rising in decibel. They turned to where the sound was coming from in time to see five points flickering in the air, extending out into a claw of some sort. It moved in a diagonal motion, leaving a glowing clawmark gashed into the air. In a final jerking motion it ripped downward, leaving a rift in the air. Out of it stepped a tall figure, being taller than even Jasper at a height of about nine feet, slowly becoming fully visible as the rift behind him sealed. He looked to be a mechanoid of some sort, having a metal costuming covered in a golden/green glowing growth of some sort, bonded to it. Over his body was costuming of some sort, making him resemble an anthropomorphic rabbit with a coloration of gold tinted with green and looking as if it were partially rotted off of him. He grinned with a set of jagged and sharpened teeth and waved at them, showing that he had two arms on his right side though he only had one on the other. He spoke in a rough, scratchy voice as he looked over them with a pair of cold blue eyes.

“Why hello there ladies! Name’s Springtrap nice ta meet ya!” The six gems, who were currently ready for battle, eased up slightly at the greeting.

“Uh, hi?” Amethyst slowly waved back with a confused look on her face.

“Are you another displaced?” Pearl questioned. “Did one of us summon you?”

He kept his grin and made a ‘so-so’ gesture with one of his hands. “You could say that. You could say a lot of other things too but that much works for now. And to answer the second part of that, nope! I don’t get by with the whole token thing, I’m like a housecat. I come and go as I please…”

“Uuh, sure.” Amethyst was still confused, as was everyone else.

“So… what brings you to our Equestria Springtrap?” Peridot stepped forward. “You kinda remind me of that one game I played once. Five Nights at Freddy’s, yeah that was it. Though I’m pretty sure Springtrap didn’t have three arms.”

“Mmhmm well I’m just… Travelling, let’s say. And as for the arms well… That’s just a little something-something I put together for myself. So, what’s the story behind the piles of rubble?”

“Well this empire was recently resurrected and the tyrant who ruled here was overthrown and probably dead.” Lapis wasn’t really sure how the Crystal Heart worked. “The guy controlled manipulated us 1,000 years ago when he sealed the empire away, give or take a couple hundred. There was a huge fight against him, we won but he destroyed a bunch of buildings so we volunteered to help with cleanup. Anything we can get you?”

“Hmm I’m alright. I might take a little peek around though…” 

“Well there’s not much to really see aside from more rubble.” Jasper grunted.

“I wasn’t aware that a displaced could travel without a token.” Garnet admitted.

Springtrap chuckled, looking at her. “Most of you Displaced can’t. Of course I don’t exactly follow the rules…”

“You mean ‘of us’?” Peridot cocked her head.

He chuckled, nodding. “Yes yes, my bad. Still, might as well have a look. Never seen this place so I might as well have a gander...”

With that he started strolling away, leaving them all with an odd feeling.

“Well he was… weird.” Amethyst stared at the animatronic.

“I agree.” Garnet folded her arms.

“Should we go with him?” Lapis asked. “He might get himself into trouble, plus the crystal ponies are still probably quite tense after Sombra returned.”

“Well we might want to make it quick.” Amethyst pointed at the spot where he used to be.

“Okay, Lapis, Peridot and I will try to find him before he gets into any trouble.” Garnet began walking with the two aforementioned gems following her.





They walked down the street looking for the green bunny. He seemed to have disappeared completely, without any clue of even what street he went down. Even Garnet’s future vision couldn’t seem to find him, only showing a painful static.

“Where do you think he went?” Lapis looked around.

“No idea.” Peridot shrugged. “We haven’t heard any screaming or anything though, so that’s a good sign.”

“Maybe…” Garnet began. “We’d have better luck finding him if we split up.”

“Because that always works out so well.” Peridot mumbled.

“Well how would you suggest finding him Peridot?”

“... Shut up.”

“Then it’s settled, we’ll split up.” Garnet smiled, as they went in separate directions. The green gem grumbled to herself as she walked through the empty street.She looked around for any sign of Springtrap, but got absolutely none. All she could hear was her footsteps making noise on the ground. She turned her head slightly to the left and saw a rabbit’s shadow walking into another street. “Huh.” She thought. “I found him, now I just have to get him back to the gems before he causes a scene.” She followed him onto another street she saw his back turned to her. She approached him slowly, seeing him standing stock-still.

“Springtrap?” She tapped his shoulder. “Maybe we should get back with the others.”

No sooner than as she had finished speaking, his form flickered briefly, dissolving into light. A hand lashed out from behind her, covering her mouth and pulling her back, and a ripping pain exploded from her abdomen as something tore through her back. She glanced down to see the tip of a blade of some sort, and heard Springtrap speak slowly as she realized he was the one attacking her.

“Oh boy… You hero types are so easily fooled. Now, you gems are an unknown factor in the scheme of things, so I’m just gonna get a bit of...data, and I’ll be on my way. Okay?”

He didn’t wait for an answer before ramming a claw onto her gem, sending out a wave of pain…








Garnet looked around, she couldn’t find any trace of Springtrap. Somehow, her future vision was useless, which didn’t make it any easier and only left her with more questions surrounding this mysterious robot who was apparently able to hop from universe to universe. It all seemed very odd, she just hoped that someone would find him quickly.

She was cut off from her ponderings by a sound just like the one Springtrap’s arrival had made. She walked forward and found the source, seeing something tear an ‘X’ into the air  which grew into a portal of its own. Out of the portal dashed out a new figure, one standing at a height of about ten feet. His appearance was obscured by a ragged cloak drawn over him, and only a gauntlet-covered hand holding a sword of black metal  was visible. The being turned to look at her and she saw a pair of glowing, completely yellow eyes staring at her. He seemed to be inspecting her, figuring her out. A voice called out behind him, drawing Garnet’s attention.

“Jack? Oh fuck Jack stop running so fast!”

Out of the portal behind ‘Jack’ came another odd sight. A massive timberwolf, one as large as even Princess Celestia and seeming to be made of different patterns of wood, dashed out, carrying on its back a woman in odd armor. She seemed to be injured, judging by the bandages scattered across her form, and was most likely riding the wolf because of that. Her helmet’s light seemed to shift to green as she saw Garnet. She pointed at her and seemed to become excited.

“Holy shit a Garnet Displaced!”

Jack turned to Garnet and pulled back the hood with an eyeroll. His skin was black, looking like ink, as was the mess of hair running down to his shoulders. 

“Hey there. I’m Jack, that’s Elizabeth, and the wolf is my dog Fefnir. And you are?”

“I’m Garnet.” She said simply. “Though if you want my former names you’ll have to ask Ruby and Sapphire. Why are you two here?”

Jack answered quickly, wasting no time. “I’m looking around the multiverse for my family, and Elizabeth’s chosen to come with me for now, rather than staying in her own Equestria.

“As if I’m gonna stay in that shithole!”

Jack rolled his eyes again and continued.

“And as I said already , Fefnir’s my dog so he’s coming with me. First of all though, you are a Displaced correct?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Can you tell me if you’ve met a Displaced Golden Freddy, Jenny XJ9 Wakeman, or Vanitas Remnant?”

“I’m afraid not.”

Jack nodded, as if expecting her to give that answer.

“Okay, more important question, have you ran into someone by the name of Springtrap? Possibly hopping worlds similarly to how I arrived?”

“... Yes.” Garnet replied carefully. “Why do you ask?”

“He knows something about where my family members are, and is hunting for them, not to mention that he’s looking for possible ways to strengthen himself. Elizabeth there was attacked by him a short while ago and I’m looking to stop him before he harms anyone else, and to find out how much he knows about where my family is.”

“... How dangerous is he?”

“Unknown. I’ve only seen him a few times, and he’s not exactly forthcoming with straight answers. But I do know that he’s got some powerful materials on him from my world and many others. Not to mention the fact that from what I’ve seen his body is built to be near unbreakable. Why, have you seen him?”

“My friends are searching for him. He arrived not too long ago then disappeared. We have to find them!”

Jack nodded, waving Garnet to follow as he dashed into the city, a holographic display opening in front of him to show a scanner of some sort. The two found themselves arriving to the opening of an alleyway in time to see Peridot burst apart into dust in Springtrap’s grip. One of his claws extended to grab her gem from the air, calling up a glowing bubble went over the gem, as if scanning it. Jack roared as he leaped into action, his cloak opening to show the fact that he had four arms, all four of which were now armed with blasters of some sort which he locked onto Springtrap.

“Drop the gem scrapheap!”

Springtrap turned to face them, raising an eyebrow. 

“You again? Don’t you have a ditch to get back to being dead in?”

Jack glared, his aim unwavering. “I said drop it!”

Elizabeth called out behind them. “Jack get the gem! If that’s what I think it is, then that sucker contains everything Peridot is and ever has been!”

Garnet activated her gauntlets before shooting forward to try and hit Springtrap, only to find her fists caught by Springtrap’s free claws.

“Nope! No dice bitc-”

He was cut off by Jack ramming an armored heel into his jaw from above Garnet. Jack landed next to her and stowed his blasters, dropping into a hand-to-hand combat stance. He surged forward and rammed into Springtrap, sending both of them to the ground. Springtrap rolled away and flipped to his feet, summoning a black blade covered in green markings to one of his claws and charging green lightning along it. He held the tip of it to Peridot’s gem with a grin.

“Ah-ah-aahhh! Nobody moves or the gem gets turned to dust!”

Jack stood up slowly with a grin, his arms reverting to their original form.

“What gem?”

Springtrap glanced to his hand to find it holding a normal rock, and glared as he saw Jack holding Peridot’s gem as he moved back towards Garnet, holding it out to her.

“Get your friend out of here and group up with whoever else is here with you.”

Jack cracked his neck, magic sparking around his gauntlets as he began to charge for magic of some sort. Meanwhile, Garnet went to regroup while Springtrap and Jack faced off, before the sound of wings flapping was heard. Lapis landed on the ground between them holding each back with her water wings.

“Hey there, I was just flying around, looking for Springtrap when I find said animatronic fighting with this mystery guy and his friends while Garnet is running away. Yeah… what’s going on?”

Springtrap grabbed her by the shoulders, gaining a panicked and terrified look as he turned her to face him.

“I’m so sorry Lapis, I didn’t think he’d be able to follow me but but h- He nearly fucking killed Peridot! I managed to give Garnet her gem to get her to safety right before you showed up, and now I’m finally gonna put this bastard’s streak of destruction to an END!”

He turned back to face Jack, gaining a grin the second Lapis couldn’t see his face. He readied his glaive and surged forward before he could get a word in, forcing him to focus on the fight.

“Wait, that guy poofed Peridot?” She looked at the taller guy with the ragged cloak as well as the timberwolf and the woman in the armour. “Ugh, we just dealt with Sombra, you three got me at a bad time!” Her water wings turned into fists. The left fist shot towards Jack, hitting him in the side while the next one grabbed him by the cloak. Jack twisted in the air, drawing a sword from within his cloak and bringing it to bear, blasting the wing apart in a torrent of wind. He dropped to the ground, moving into a defensive stance.

“Look I’m n-”

He was cut off by Springtrap blasting him with a wave of lightning. He rolled to his feet, cracking his neck. Lapis gathered water from the surrounding area and Jack saw a water variant of himself standing in front of him bearing a sword made out of ice. Jack drew another sword, this one an almost serrated blade made of dragon fangs and an unknown metal. Between the two blades he held the copy as well as Springtrap back, finally bringing the swords across the copy, splitting it four ways. As the copy regenerated into four entire copies of him, Jack rolled his shoulders, sheathing both of his swords. He undid the cloak and dropped it to the side, cracking his knuckles. Jack dodged back and forth as the four copies lunged for him, slowly seeming to collect magic in his hands. Jack struck out at them each with pulses of purple magic, seeming to disrupt them from maintaining their forms. Jack brought a fist through them and they finally fell to the ground as they dissolved. Jack drew a set of blasters and took aim, firing on Springtrap and yelling at Lapis.

“He’s got you played for a fool, ask Garn-”

He was cut off by Springtrap’s glaive ramming into him, sending him back. The glaive flashed back into Springtrap’s grip, and he planted it into the ground, sending a surge of electricity through the remains of the copies. Lapis gathered rest of the water and immediately froze it, turning it into small but durable blocks of ice. She launched them at Jack who jumped in the air to dodge when Lapis flew up and gave him a kick, colliding against his gauntlets as he blocked but forcing him back to the ground. He landed on his feet, putting him back in front of his friends.

“Lapis?” Jasper jumped down from one of the buildings, followed by Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m fighting this guy... whoever he is. He poofed Peridot!”

“Garnet told us Springtrap was the bad guy.” She gestured to the fusion behind her.

“What?” She turned round to the green rabbit who was now laughing behind her. he turned to flash a grin at her. Before she could react a wave of green lightning rammed into her, throwing her against a wall.

“Like I said to the green space dorito, you heroes are such gullible little shitheads! It never gets old! Anyway…”

He brought his glaive around in a lazy twirl as he looked across all of them. He offered a toothy grin to all of them as they all got ready for his next move. However, the gems played theirs first. Jasper saw Pearl and Garnet getting ready and shot towards the rabbit with a spin dash, which he easily blocked and knocked her to the side next to Lapis. Unfortunately, he didn’t see the hammer swing at him from the side, but unlike Jasper and Lapis he stopped himself midair from going into the wall. He glanced up at the new figure that wielded the hammer.

“Hmm… Who’re you then?”

“Well I’m glad you asked, hun.” Her hair was similar to Peridot’s. except it was a bright orange. The tails of her suit flapped in the wind as she stood above Springtrap, resting her hammer on her shoulders. “Who I am is the lovely Sardonyx who’s about to disassemble the green- skinned monster. How’re you doing on this fine day?” She grinned as she lifted the hammer from her shoulders with her two upper arms. Springtrap simply kept his grin.

“Fairly well, as I’m the guy that’s about to kick you back down a notch.”

His glaive glowed and hovered in front of him along with an orange lightsaber. He held up a claw to the others. 

“Ah-ah now, 1v1 y’all. How’s about I give you some entertainment in the mean time?”

His third claw erupted into light and brought up a crude chunk of crystal from one of the ruined buildings.

“Now, normally I wouldn’t experiment with new intel so very soon after collecting it but this is interesting enough to make an exception. Now let’s see what I can do with this…”

The chunk erupted into light, shaping into a crude humanoid skull but lacking a jaw. Light poured out of it, slowly shaping itself into the shape of a human about Jasper’s height, but looking as if it were halfway between flesh and stone in a gray color. It bore male features, but was lacking in facial details other than a pair of glowing eyes. In terms of outfitting it simply wore a crude plated armor of some sort. ‘He’ stared at them unknowingly, but after a wave of energy sent into it by Springtrap it turned into a glare.

“Folks meet Synthesized Gem Number One, Granite!” Everyone’s eyes widened as Granite stepped forward slowly in a zombie- like fashion, at first struggling to not fall over and stumbling quite a few times but unfortunately for them was learning quickly. “Keep them busy while I deal with the big one.”

The false gem nodded slowly, eyes shifting between Lapis and Amethyst where the stood in front of him. Jack rolled his shoulders as he moved to place himself next to them, and the sight of him alone seemed to enrage Granite.

While they engaged the false gem, Springtrap and Sardonyx dashed at each other. Sardonyx swung her hammer, only for Springtrap to duck and and counter with a strike from his glaive. Sardonyx twisted to avoid the attack, bringing up a hand to strike but finding it blocked by Springtrap’s claw. The fusion attempted to remove her hand but found herself shocked by lightning from the glaive. The sudden shock stunned her for a moment despite that she rotated her lower arms and nailed him with her war hammer, not doing as much as it had before but enough to stop him from shocking her. She charged forward as her hammer began spinning, turning into a drill aimed at Springtrap. He mirrored the motion with his glaive, driving it to spin in the reverse of her warhammer. The two clashed, waves of energy tearing away from the point at which the two met. Both combatants stood firm for a moment as energy collected, until finally it erupted and both were blasted apart. Springtrap surged forward, bringing down his glaive against the staff of her hammer. Both weapons ground against each other as their eyes met, Springtrap’s manic grin never falling for a second.

Sparks could be seen dancing and crackling off of the two weapons as they both fought over power. Just as Sardonyx began to move her hammer forwards, more lightning coursed through her body. She fell to the ground with the animatronic advancing on her with his glaive raised, but she jumped up at him with her hammer, which he blocked before readying his lightsaber, but didn’t count on a second hammer striking, but while he was able to also block that as well, giving the two some distance. They both began running down the broken streets, with the rabbit dodging a swing from both hammers and slashing at her chest with his claw, she same claw which he then used to grab her leg and throw her into the air. He shot up to try and finish the job but was met with another hammer blow before he could land. Springtrap rolled to his feet and prepared to make another move, only to halt, his eyes falling shut. 

“Hmm. It seems your friends have already beaten that little entertainment I set up for them, and my boss wants me to get a move on so here’s the deal…”

Sardonyx saw his eyes flash open for a split-second before being sent back by a wave of raw force, her hammer shattering apart in her hands. She slammed into a wall and looked up to see Springtrap standing over her.

“I win.”

He twirled and in a single move cut a rift with his glaive and passed through, sticking his head back through.

“Bye-bye!”

He waved at her with his claw, which held an odd golden glow as the rift shut, the last thing of him seen being the pinpricks of blue light in his eyes…


	


	




Granite blocked another spin dash from Amethyst with a raised arm, turning to face a blast of ice from Lapis. While he was distracted Jack dove in and brought his swords around into multiple strikes. He attempted to dodge most of them, but found cuts gouged into his sides after the assault was finished. He turned, only to find himself facing Jasper as she formed her helmet and charged at him, ramming into his forehead. He slid back a few feet, cracks spiderwebbed across his head but not fazing him. He blinked at her for a moment, seeming to be fixated on her helmet. As he stared his eye erupted with light, a helmet of his own appearing around his head, resembling a dragon’s skull with the teeth to go with, the jaws of it going where a normal mouth would’ve gone on his face.He surged forward in a clumsy mirror of Jasper, holding all of the brute force but none of the actual skill. Jasper watched him and sidestepped with ease, sending him crashing through a wall. Jack signaled to Jasper and the other gems.

“You guys think you can handle the goliath there? I’m gonna go make sure that ‘Sardonyx’ is alright.”

“Go ahead.” Jasper grinned. “This is pretty easy.” She slammed her helmet into Granite while Amethyst grabbed onto him with her whip and threw him into the ground. He got up however, ready for another round as he charged for Jasper, only for her to move and backhand him without breaking eye contact with Jack.

“Yeah you three should probably go.” Amethyst sighed. “Just beat that Springy guy or whatever.”

Jack nodded and turned to Elizabeth and Fefnir, speaking to the wolf. “Fef, keep Elizabeth back here.”

        “Say what!? You’re just leaving me?!”

        “Your leg is busted. From what I’ve seen, Springtrap wouldn’t hesitate to try and make a hostage of you and you’re in no condition to fight him.”

        Elizabeth seemed to look for a response, only to sigh and nod. Jack turned and dashed towards where Sardonyx and Springtrap had went.

As he ran off, Granite picked himself up, looking at Amethyst with a narrowed glare. He moved a hand over his forehead and then to his side, lashing out as a whip extended from his palm. The whip in his hand matched Amethyst’s own, but with blunt stone rather than gems along it, making it seem like a shoddier version of it. He lashed out with it, shattering a stone a few feet from Amethyst. He jumped up and cracked the whip at the group to release a grey energy from it. They all jumped away, Fefnir bounding away from the attack and keeping Elizabeth a good distance from Granite. Jasper spin dashed him, but she was thrown up into the air by the whip. She summoned her helmet and let gravity do the rest. Granite jumped away, avoiding most but not all of the attack. He slammed into a wall from the attack, standing up with visible, glowing cracks across one of his shoulders. He locked eyes onto Jasper, summoning another whip into his free hand. He lashed out to either side with each whip, snaring a boulder in each of them. Granite crouched slightly before entering a spindash himself, drawing in the boulders as he rocketed towards Jasper. She dodged out of the way easily, only to be caught off guard as he stopped his dash and used the momentum to launch both stones directly into her. Jasper was hit by one but was able to raise her arms and block the other. She charged at him, hitting him head- on and slammed him into a wall. His whips disappeared and all that remained was the helmet made of stone on his head. He pushed her away with his legs and rammed into her stomach  He looked at Lapis and then with a flash wings appeared on his back as he clumsily flew up and away.He held himself in the air for a moment, summoning whips back into his hands. He let out a grunt of pain as he did so, and all the gems noticed glowing cracks appearing around his eyes as he summoned more copies of their weapons, growing larger for every new one called. Regardless, he kept going and tried to jump Lapis, but was hit in the face by one of her fist- turned wings. Granite ensnared Lapis with his whip, but was hit by a spin dash from Amethyst. He jumped up and threw her to the ground with his whip. Jasper then shot at him, but he defended with his own helm. Their helmets clashed, Granite’s holding against Jaspers for a moment before they both bounced away. Granite landed in a tumble and looked up at Jasper as she landed on her feet, skidding to a stop. He rolled to his feet a stood, cracks erupting across his helmet as it fell apart. He seemed to focus and attempt to call a new helmet, only to flinch as the cracks around his eyes grew a bit from the effort of reconstructing it. Granite glared at her, only to freeze, his eyes going completely dark. His arms went limp at his sides as he held a blank expression. The wings on his back and the whips in his hands glowed briefly before dissolving. He blinked and his eyes began to glow in a teal color as he looked around in confusion.

He could feel it. His creator was gone, left without him. His thoughts were none. He was surrounded, but he knew not what to do. His one command had been to attack, and he no longer had that command. The only thing he knew to do was sit there and stare at his attackers. His left arm twitched slightly as it lay on the ground along with the rest of him. He saw that they all had their weapons pointed at him. He got up and looked across them, attempting to determine his actions. He did not know what he was, he was like they were but... different. He felt pain run through him right down to his...gem. That was the word. His skull was a...gem. He felt pain in it as he attempted to force his thoughts to align themselves. The pain only continued and increased, but he did not relent until it grew to a peak. The gems around him simply stared as the cracks around his eyes erupted across his face as he looked at them. He spoke in a low, quiet voice as the cracks began to spread across his form.

“I… Am… Granite.”

With this the cracks finally connected and his form shuddered for a moment before falling apart and disintegrating into smoke as he finally poofed, leaving behind only the carved gem of his skull. They all slowly walked up to it as Lapis picked it up, but didn’t know what to do as she had never bubbled anything before. Since she was unable to do so she improvised. She gathered more water and imprisoned Granite in a large cube of ice, doing her best not to be unnerved by the flickerings of light in the eyes of the skull...





Jack ran quickly towards where Sardonyx and Springtrap had been facing off, hopping and dodging around rubble in his path until he found the two. She was lying on the ground while the green rabbit was taking his leave into a rift. Jack roared and lunged for the rift, only for it to close before he could grab him. Jack yelled in anger and rammed his right fists into his left palms before letting out a breath and turning to Sardonyx. His form shuddered and twisted, reshaping until he stood at a height equal to Sardonyx, though looking less human. His joints seemed twisted and his hands were more like claws, and his armor had shifted to resemble an Ursa Major’s coat as he changed. He held out a claw to help her up, which she took after a moment of hesitation. He spoke in a deeper, rougher sounding voice as she stood. 

“You alright?”

“Umm… yes, quite.” She nodded, unnerved by the sudden change of his form and voice. “I must admit, he was rather strong, stronger than yours truly even. A simple ‘smash’ was not enough to defeat him.”

Jack nodded, looking over the area. “Yeah. I still don’t know how much he’s capable of, but either way I’m gonna put a stop to it, no matter how long it takes.”

“If part of me remembers the games correctly, he should not even be capable of that much.” The gem fusion tapped her chin. “Not to mention his mention of an employer, there is one possibly stronger than he?”

“Yeah. I don’t think he’s a Displaced. He’s something else entirely… Either way though, I’m gonna keep pursuing him until he’s taken down. And along the way I can take care of my actual reason for crossing universes.”

“Hm? Ah yes, finding your friends and family. I may not know much about this universe, but I can infer that the chances of finding anyone you knew from your time as a human are incredibly scarce.” She looked up into the sky. Jack nodded, a resolute expression on his face.

“From what I know, my blade works on a level similar to a token. The rifts it produces should take me to the worlds of different Displaced, though I can head to my own universe if I need/want to. And it doesn’t matter how long it takes. I’m biologically immortal, so unless I get myself killed then I have all the time in the world, or multiverse rather.”

“Well then, Jack.” Sardonyx’s physical form began to shine brightly. “You now have six new friends to call upon if you are ever in need.” The light fully took her over and soon Pearl and Garnet were standing where she was. The gem in Garnet’s gem in her left hand started to shine and soon her token appeared. A small white palm- sized star with gems on all points except the top one.

“The Homeworld Gems should give your friends their token as well.” Pearl informed him. Jack nodded and after a moment his form returned to normal, and he reached out for the token, pocketing it and drawing one of his own. He handed it to Garnet, who inspected it for a moment. It was a disc made of a dark red metal, with a symbol to two spires curved around each other with a sword breaking them both. 

“There’s my token. Call me if you need backup or some such. Well, let’s head back to see how the others have done against that thing Springtrap made.”

“He was able to make a gem.” Garnet frowned. “I hope Peridot is doing alright. Who knows how long it’ll take her to reform.”

“Yeah. Hope she turns out alright. And the fact that with a short scan he was able to figure out enough about your kind to produce such an advanced copy out of scraps is worrisome. Makes me dread what he has planned for the Marker fragments he grabbed from my world…”

“I doubt it’ll be anything small, as much as we’d like to believe it is.”

Jack simply nodded.

“So… ummm…” Pearl began. “Why did you… change forms? It’s quite interesting that you can do that in the first place.”

“‘Wasn’t sure how long you two were gonna be fused, so I figured I’d help you up. It was the polite thing to do and all. And as to how I can do that, I’m technically a Necromorph. I have full control of my form down to the smallest biological function, and so I can reconstruct myself as needed.” Pearl accepted this answer and the three ran back to see their friends. They got to the slightly wrecked area and when they arrived they saw the three gems as well as Jack’s friends waiting for them with Granite’s gem frozen in a block of ice held by Lapis.

“Please tell me you guys got him.” Amethyst questioned, with a combination of hope and annoyance in her voice. However, Garnet looked down.

“He was able to escape.” She said plainly, while Jack clenched his fists. 

“The bastard managed to get through a rift before I could grab him.”

“Well… at least we caught this guy.” Amethyst chuckled as she gestured to the ice holding the synthesized gem.

“Yeah.” Lapis smiled. “At least there’s that.” She let out a small chuckle of her own before directing her gaze to the ground.

Jack let out a small nod, then turned to look over their surroundings. 

“I didn’t get a chance to ask earlier, but what exactly happened here before Elizabeth and I arrived? Something about Sombra?”

“Oh you have no idea.” Jasper grunted.

“Yeah, Sombra got sealed away after we unknowingly helped him enforce his tyrannical regime, and we ran from the princesses once he gave the empire its curse. 1,000 years later they found us and we freed the Empire from Sombra and the Crystal Gems under his control. We also met two other displaced called Ace and Zinnia. They helped us defeat an evil Sugilite.” Lapis explained.

Jack nodded slowly, considering all this. “Sealed away huh? I suppose that explains why this place looks the way it did a thousand years ago. And it’s good to hear that Sombra got put down here as well.”

“What did he do in your world?” Pearl asked curiously.

“In my world the bastard seized control of the Old Crystal Empire, and had full control of all those living there. He was a zealot for the Church of Unitology, and with their help he constructed an artifact known as the Black Heart from the Crystal Heart’s designs. It had the power to kill anything its magic struck, though it was destroyed before it could be determined what else it was capable of. In the battle that night we lost half of the forces we brought to bear…” Jack’s eyes lost focus for a moment, but he shook his head and looked back at them. “Regardless, the bastard had it coming and I have no doubts that most versions of him do as well.”

“Geez.” Amethyst grimaced. “I hope he didn’t do anything like that here.”

“He mostly kept to himself, he probably had the odd secret room. I wouldn’t rule a Black Heart out.” Lapis shrugged. “Who knows whether our Sombra did anything like that here. Even when he wasn’t on his own, he’d be forcing the Crystal Ponies to dig holes. I don’t know, maybe he was mining for more of those crystals he loved so much.”

Jack shook his head. “I doubt there’s a black Marker here. If there was, he most likely would’ve put it to use against you or worse yet Celestia and Luna. With luck, mine will be one of the few worlds to have to deal with the Church… Gods help you if they’re here, though if they show up then you’ll have me and my own forces here to back you up.”

“Our Sombra was an expert in mind control, though maybe that’s because of our gems.” Pearl pondered. “If he was digging for crystals then maybe he was but… It doesn’t matter. He’s gone. I’m pretty sure he died or something, right? Was that canon? It’s hard to remember.”

“...Canon?”

Elizabeth spoke up behind Jack. “I think I get what she means. I’ll explain later.”

Jack glanced at her before turning back to the gems. “Alright then… Well I’m afraid I don’t know then.”

“I guess there’s no telling what’ll happen.” Pearl sighed.

Ugh, that make things so much easier.” Amethyst groaned as she stooda behind her friend.

Jack nodded uncertainly. “I’m afraid so. Your world seems to heavily differ from my own so I can’t help with that. Still, if you’d like I could help you with a bit of clean up before I head out again with Fefnir and Elizabeth.”

“Really?” Amethyst beamed. “We’ve been doing so much work!”

“No, we’ve been doing work.” Garnet gestured to the other gems. “You’ve been running off.”

“Well it’s not my fault work is dumb.” Amethyst groaned.

“We’re just lucky that this area is wrecked and blocked from the crystal ponies or someone might’ve gotten hurt.” Garnet replied. “I suppose we can thank Sugilite for that.”

Jack looked between them and shrugged. “So, you guys want help or not?”

“Yeah of course we do.” The purple gem grinned. Garnet simply nodded.

“Only if you have the time.” She said. Jack shrugged again.

“I’m travelling between universes. Time doesn’t really function that well as a constant, so I’ve got as long as I prefer.”

“Alright then.” Garnet nodded once again, and they all set to work on repairing the damaged city. jack took notes on the differences between worlds as he worked, as well as gaining a scan of Garnet in case Springtrap had used the data from Peridot for anything dangerous when they next clashed. When most of the debris was cleared and the actual repairs began, Jack took his leave along with his companions, bading goodbye to the gems and wishing them luck in the future as he opened a rift of his own, leaving with his friends while the gems wished him good luck in beating Springtrap. He’d need it and so would the gems.
> What now?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

How could Peridot describe being in her gem? One thing to say is that everything is green and basically the colour of her gem. There was a floor she was standing on that was a lighter shade of green, she supposed that it was a lime green platform while everything else was the same colour as grass. She really didn’t have any other option than to walk along it, so she did. She didn’t look like how she did before, right now her physical form was at its simplist.

As she walked further, she could see illuminated spheres hovering on the sides of the paths. As she got closer she could see all the people she had known. People like Lapis, Jasper, her mum… whom she would never see again. She never did get to give her that present, which was essentially her entire reason for being here in Equestria. There were other people (or ponies, she supposed) she knew like Celestia and Luna. As she looked into the spheres she could even see some of the times they had faced each other. She also saw some recent ponies like Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. With all of these familiar faces, it was inevitable that she would see the one that she hated the most.

King Sombra.

His image was as clear as the others, if not clearer. He had a smile on his face and hate in his eyes. She held such disgust for those burning eyes that appeared to see right through her soul. She shivered and walked on, with no sound being made other than the tapping of her feet. She walked hastily until she was sure that she was out of his sight. The gem let out a large sigh of relief as continued to reach the end. She felt like the space she was in was infinite, though she supposed that it was essentially her mind, so it could be as big as she wanted it to be.

She remembered looking for Springtrap with Garnet and Lapis after he appeared. He had stabbed her with his own claw, and she had retreated back into her gem. She thought about how much she wanted to get him back for that, or at least hoped that her friends had done something to him.

Right now however, Peridot just wanted to reach the end of this path and get out of her gem. She wondered what type of outfit she’d have. Her prayers were answered as she finally found herself at the end. She walked towards it, but hit her head as she bumped into another image of Sombra, casting a particularly large shadow. She backed away, never taking her eyes off of the image or its shadow. The gem felt herself getting lighter as she recognised the feeling of leaving her gem, she rose into the ‘air’ while getting brighter and brighter.





She opened her eyes and found herself standing on a pillow with a maid staring at her with wide eyes, half in awe and the other half in fear. It wasn’t surprising, seeing as how it was a crystal pony. She mare backed away slowly and briskly walked away once she was out the door.

“What was that about?” She heard a voice in the halls; a voice that she knew. When Jasper walked through the doorway, she her eyes became similar to that of the crystal maid but without the fear. “Peri?”

“Jasper?” They both smiled at each other.

“Looks like you’ve finally reformed.” Jasper chuckled.

“Yeah, how long has it been?”

“Not as long as you’d think. It’s only been about two days really. The only news we have is that Celestia and Luna will be visiting sometime soon.”

“What about Springtrap? Did you guys defeat him and throw him in jail or something?”

“Well we came across this guy named Jack who had been looking for the guy, along with his friend and a timberwolf. That damned bunny was tough, he tricked Lapis, beat Sardonyx and was somehow able to create his own gems. He made one to distract us and ran away. We have that gem with us right now; he was in a block of ice but now he's in a bubble. We haven't let him out yet." The orange gem explained. Peridot nodded on until she realised she wasn't wearing her limb enhancers. She frantically looked around for them for a moment before finding them on the bed before her. She quickly put them on and shook herself off to get used to them once again.

"There we go." She smiled as she moved into a sitting position. "Where's Lapis?"

"In the throne room with the others, talking with the new princess and prince about what happens now."

"Yeah... what will happen to us?"

"I don't really know." Jasper shrugged. "The Crystal Gems are pretty much guaranteed a good position. Us on the other hand... I have no idea. We haven't exactly been the best of people in our time here.” She stared down at her large hands. “We've hurt innocent peo- I mean ponies. We've tortured those who didn't obey Sombra. We've enforced his disgusting regime and kept the ones who could help them away. We’re criminals who've spent 1,000 years running from what we did. Maybe the sisters will cut us a break, but I'm not getting my hopes up.”

“So what if they decide to finally apprehend us?” Peridot asked. “Do we keep running?”

“Probably.” Jasper sighed. “Back to the same old, eh?”

"I suppose." Peridot nodded. "So, You said the others are still with them?" Jasper nodded. "Let's join them then."





"So where exactly were you guys if you were in hiding the whole time?" Cadence asked Lapis.

"Well we just sort of moved around a lot really, we hardly ever went back to Equestria so we mostly stopped at places like Griffonstone, Minotropolis, Zebrica and so on. After a while we split up and went our separate ways, just doing doing our own stuff."

"And then some stupid Pegasus author comes along looking for adventure." They all turned to see Peridot standing at the doorway in a sulk.

"Oh, you're back Peri." Lapis smiled.

"Hmph, yes. I'm up to speed anyway, no need to explain anything."

"Well either way." Pearl spoke. "The question that we're all thinking of still remains; what now? What happens now that Sombra is gone?"

"Well... The princesses are visiting tomorrow." Shining informed them. "There are some things that she'd like to say and discuss with you three." He turned to the Crystal Gems. "And possibly reconcile with you three." He then looked at the Homeworld Gems, who seemed to be a bit worried.

"Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine." Cadence smiled at them. "In the meantime just relax a bit, take your mind off of it."

"Yeah... Sure." Lapis rolled her eyes as they all left.
> Set in Scales
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Bound by Scales/ Gems of Power- Set in Scales





Point of View: Ken





        Spike was stunned. I can tell just by looking at the young drake. On the trip back to the temple, he had been saying about how curious he was to discover his ancestors. Now, his father was right in front of him, greeting him warmly and holding him close. Not wanting to let go at all like a parent who did not want to lose their only child. Personally, I did not have any experience regarding such feelings. But I could tell that their reunion was emotional.





        Applejack was quite surprised herself. So, off to the side while Revaan was explaining everything to his son, I began to answer any questions she might have based on the information the Onyx Dragon told me. Soon, I walked with the earth pony here into another room to give the two family members some space. In the grand hall though, she told me that this temple reminded her of Canterlot Castle or someplace like they while we continued our conversation. However, at one stage, she asked something that really threw me off guard.





        “Doesn’t it get lonely in here? Ah mean… living here with just yourself… Revaan… and the rest of the town?”





        Now I felt like I was pushed into a corner. If I told her no, then she might suspect about some other things. If I told her yes, then she may persist on a separate subject related to that. God I felt like I was stuck between a rock and a really hard place that can tell if you are being truthful or not. “Well… That’s… complicated.” 





        “Complicated?” Applejack retorted. “Ah asked a simple yes or no, question Ken. Ah don’t think answering that is complicated.”





        “I know. Revaan and I live here, but there are going to be more people like me living here in due time.” From there, I told her about how I found out about the Displaced from Zinnia and about her offering for Revaan and I to join the herd she was forming, or in dragonspeak, Hoard. I told her how she was telling me about how she wanted it to be like family to her and how Revaan offered this temple to be the home of the Kazoku family. 





        “Wow… that’s… quite something,” The mare told me, once she had fully taken in everything I had to say at that moment in time. But what she said back to me was something that I was really surprised by. “So… are you looking for any members right now?”





        “Wait, you want to-?”





        “Ah’m not gonna lie Ken, the first time I saw ya earlier today, you looked pretty cute despite you being very clumsy.” Applejack told me, looking back at me with those emerald orbs she had for eyes. “But now that I have gotten the chance to get to know you a little better, I already see you as a very good friend. Heck, I bet even Twilight does as well.” I wasn’t too sure on that last part given the numerous amount of times that they called me a complex human being… Meh, roll with it.





        Around then though was when I felt a strong pull occur from behind me. I knew what it was and springed out the door to the Onyx Dragon that was my partner. “Revaan, we’re getting summoned!!”





        “Now? Geez, it’s almost been two days and we have attracted a lot of attention already.” Revaan turned to Spike and Applejack while Twilight was coming up with Rainbow Dash and Maple Leaf.





        “Revaan and I are being summoned right now. We will be back by morning,” I told them as the pulling sensation increased. “You’re welcome to stay here tonight. We can provide a ride for you in the morning.” With that though, the energy of what was pulling the two of us through got stronger as we disappeared into the void.





Meanwhile





        Celestia did her best to pretend not to be bored during day court. It was nearly over and she honestly had better things to do; one of those things being to head to the resurfaced Crystal Empire with Luna after she heard from Twilight that her old friends the Crystal Gems had returned with it. Luna was probably ready by now and waiting impatiently for her.





        This was the last noble for the day and he appeared to be nearly done. She thanked him for coming and rushed out to where the chariot was waiting with her sister waiting as impatiently as she predicted.





        “There you are sister!” Luna sighed in relief. “I was beginning to think that you wouldn’t be here.”





        “You know I have day court sister, but that is not important right now.” The sun princess shook her head and nuzzled her sister before facing the pegasi flying the chariot. She was about to give the order to head to the empire but something landed on Luna’s head.





        “Ouch!” She rubbed her head before levitating the item in front of her. “How odd.” She inspected the item. “It’s a… dragon scale.” She looked up to see if she could spot the shedding dragon that dropped it, but the sky was as clear as ever. The scale was fairly light for its size, with a dark onyx colouring. Suddenly as she was inspecting it, an unknown voice spoke in Luna’s head.





        “I am Ken Ahkrin, The Scalebound. Call upon me if you need some help, advice or want to tip the scales in your favor.”





        Suddenly, there was a bright light and they saw something large pop up above them.











        The six (or seven) Gems were relaxing in the palace, or rather on top of it. They had been very busy over the past few weeks and at the moment just wanted some peace and quiet. They had finished cleaning up all the damage Sombra left and had been excused by Cadence and Shining Armor.





        “It feels strange yet… pleasurable to have a break.” Peridot admitted as she was working on building her escape pod.





        “I suppose so.” Pearl agreed. “Though I do have this urge to fold laundry.”





	“How did you guys get displaced anyway?” Lapis asked, gesturing to the Crystal Gems.


	


	“We were just getting ready for a convention putting the finishing touches on our costumes.” Garnet began.


	


        “Then we found out we had the actual gems missing.” Amethyst continued.





        “Who was meant to write down what we needed again?” Pearl asked, setting her gaze on the shortest member of their team.





        “Anyway.” The purple gem waved her hand dismissively. “We met this jeweler guy on the street and he was selling stones really cheap so we decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and bought them. Next thing you know… Equestria! What about you guys?”





        “Ours aren’t exactly like that… at all.” Jasper replied. “My gem was a gift from my mum for winning a boxing match. I’m not one for jewelry but it meant a lot so I took it.”





        “Mine was a birthday gift for my mother. She’s a geologist so I thought she likes this sort of thing.” Peridot explained.





        “Mine just fell into my pocket after I bumped into some guy selling the gems.” They all thought about it for a moment before Garnet suddenly sat up.





        “We need to go to Canterlot.” She said plainly, catching the attention of all the other gems.





        “What? Why?” Peridot questioned.





        “There’s a dragon rampaging, now let’s go.” She got up and bolted off, leaving the others to scramble up and follow.








Point of View: Ken






        The moment Revaan and I were thrown out of the vortex that called us, trouble just seemed to follow. First off, we were flung forward into some… chariot thingy with actual passengers on board. Revaan and I did out best to dodge them, but the same thing couldn’t be said for the wall that we collided into.





        “You okay, big guy?” I asked, slowly trying to get up after plummeting from who knows how many feet.





        “Y-yeah… Nothing too serious… I don’t think the same can be said for the ponies above us.” Raising an eyebrow, I looked up to notice two of them casting spells.





        “Aw crap. Revaan, Run!!” I yelled to him, barely avoiding the blast that was fired at me. Until Revaan point out to me something that I had not noticed previously.





        “Ken, if I tried to run, it’ll just cause the walls to break!”





        “Then stay in the air and don’t hurt any of them!!” I shouted back. “This is all a big misunderstanding and until we find a way to fix it, we’ll be sitting ducks if we don’t move!” The dragon nodded, taking into the air while I continued to run along the walls. One of the spellcasters that fired at us went after me in pursuit while the other one went after Revaan. I just hope he doesn’t cause any mass panic because of all of this.









        “Halt!” Celestia snapped as she glared at the human. “Why do you threaten my little ponies?” Her horn was alight and pointed at him, while Luna was chasing the dragon. “Answer and your sentence will be less severe!”





        “What the hell are you talking about!? I’m not threatening anyone!! You’re the one that summoned me!!!” He snapped back, still trying to outrun a few guards. He was juking left and right like a running back during a football game before using his dragon arm to grapple onto a rooftop and continue running.





        Celestia flew up after him and shot a blast of magic right next to him, almost clipping his leg. “That was a warning shot, and you will not run from me, nor will you yell!” She demanded, despite being on the verge of shouting herself.





        “I’m running, because you’re trying to kill someone that didn’t do anything wrong!” He said, now approaching the rooftop of the castle in the background. “Now that I think of it, that sounds kind of hypocritical-.” Another shot of magic was fired, but this time, Ken had to use his dragon arm to block the blast. “Okay, that was uncalled for!”





        “You speak to me of hypocrisy when when come here and endanger our ponies lives?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “That is what’s uncalled for!”





        “With all due respect, I haven’t even attacked you or have even drawn my sword. I’ve even told Revaan to not hurt anyone either because this entire thing is a misunderstanding!” While they were talking, the guards were attempting to subdue Revaan but he knocked them away, being careful not to break the wall and endure the blasts of magic from Princess Luna.





        “Can’t you just listen to me for ten seconds!? I know that you care for your subjects and believe that Revaan would harm them, but don’t hurt him!!” The aforementioned dragon knocked Luna away after having enough magic being cast on him. After seeing her sister get hurt all warning shots were out the window and she sent a larger blast towards the Scalebound.





        “Ken, NO!”





        Revaan’s plea was too late as the teen was forced to take the blast head on. His dragon arm had taken most of the hit, but he had obtained some pain in the chest. At that time, Celestia had also noticed the scaled beast roar in pain and seemed to be placing its paw in the same place as it landed in the fields below. 





        The white alicorn flew towards where Ken had landed and carefully stepped forward to see if he was down, with her horn lit up just in case. The smoke concealed a lot of her vision while she heard the dragon roar. She turned around to see it headed towards her, with Luna flying after it.





        “Revaan! Stay back!!” She heard Ken say, barely standing. “I told you not to hurt him. Hurting me won’t change a thing. If I get hurt, he gets hurt. If I die, he dies. Our souls are linked.” Calming down, he tried to not do anything that would impose the pony in front of her to attack. “Now, can we please for the love of all things holy just talk this out-?” A spear landed in front of the two. They were both wide- eyed, both equally surprised as it disappeared just as quickly as is arrived, vanishing into thin air. A tall humanoid landed in front of them and summoned another spear from her forehead, while the others jumped in as well with their weapons ready.





        “Seriously!? One mistake leads to a group of people trying to kill us? I was just responding to getting summoned for god sake’s!!”





        “You were right about the dragon Garnet.” Amethyst commented. “I did not expect to see Canterlot in chaos.” She chuckled lightly while the others stayed as they were.





        “Hey, It’s not my freaking fault!!” Ken told her, “She was trying to kill me!! I was telling Revaan not to hurt anyone-... Wait a second… who are you people?”





        “We are the Crystal Gems!” Pearl yelled, valiantly raising her spear while Amethyst’s hand met her face.





        “Okay…… Never heard of you guys before… then again, I’m not sure if you heard of a Scalebound either so I’m not one to judge.” Ken sighed. Garnet stared at him and eased up a bit. Soon water began encircling him, and it grabbed his arm, soon covering his nearly whole body and freezing over.





        “Hey there, I’m Lapis Lazuli, quick question…” She began. “What it going on?!” Asking no one in particular.





        “You tell me,” Ken sighed. “My partner Revaan and I were answering someone summoning us and the next thing we know, he and I are getting attacked by these two because they thought we were endangering lives. We didn’t even attack them, but they attacked me and hurt my pal because of it.” Lapis looked back at Celestia, who had a blush on her face but shook her head.





        “You appeared out of nowhere and landed in the middle of Canterlot!” She shot back. “What was I supposed to do? And I haven’t even mentioned your dragon friend yet!”





        “We can’t appear out of nowhere! We’re only brought here when someone finds our summoning token!! Did you or your friend see an Onyx Dragon Scale at all?” he asked, holding up one that he kept on his person to show as an example. The blush returned to the sun princess’s face as she remembered the scale her sister held that was almost identical to the one Ken was holding.





        “Can you let me out of the ice now?” He asked and Lapis nodded.





        “You may want to shower when you get back to your Equestria; that water was from nearby toilets.” The gem focused and the ice instantly melted.





        “And just when I thought things were settling down…” Revaan mumbled. Ken looked back at him, rolling his eyes a little as he looked back at the gems.





        “And just when I thought that the time Zinnia was in our universe was crazy enough.” The Scalebound sighed, facepalming himself with his dragon arm. To his surprise though, the name had seemed to surprise the gems. 





        "Zinnia?" Jasper asked. "As in Pokemon displaced, bisexual, loves making sex jokes at every opportunity Zinnia?"





        “Yes her. She even had us be part of her… hoard. Don’t even get me started when things got…”





        “Out of hand.” Revaan finished.





        "Dear god." Pearl put her hand on her face. "Please don't expand, we don't want to hear anymore."





        “I’m not going to say anymore…” the Scalebound sighed. “Not only that, she helped me get my token out and has Mega Evolution.”





        "She help us make our tokens as well." This time, Peridot spoke. "After she assisted us in taking back the Crystal Empire from King Sombra."





        “ … I’m not familiar with the Empire or this Sombra guy, but he sounds a lot like a Raditz.” Ken sighed. “So, should we talk about this in someplace that might not crumble on top of our heads?”





        "Indeed." The green gem agreed as Celestia and Luna simply stood slack- jawed at the conversation before regaining their composure. They all soon moved into a clearing down below Canterlot Castle at the base of the mountain it was on. That way, there was enough space for Revaan to stretch out his wings without knocking anything over accidently. This was when the Gems could also see the Displaced human fully. And also see his right arm.





        “Okay… do you have any questions for me?”





        “Uuh what’s with your arm?” Amethyst pointed at draconic appendage in curiosity.





        “Well, that’s the thing,” He explained. “I’m a Scalebound. Revaan and I have a pact in place where we are partners. Basically, our souls are linked and my arm represents that link. So if I get hurt, he gets hurt and if I die… he dies.”





        “... Huh.” She nodded.





        “But this also means that I have some abilities as well. For one thing, the energy that I have can be used by my arm like a grappling hook. Pull myself towards something or pull something to me.” He said. “What about you guys?”





        “Well, we’re Gems.” Pearl explained. “Our bodies are just physical projections made by our gemstones, like the one on my forehead.” She pointed to her gem before continuing. “They are the core of our being and the only ‘real’ part of us. The rest… well I’ve already told you that. Because of this, we can shapeshift and summon weapons.” Once again, she used herself as an example and brought out her spear.





        “Is this gonna be on the test?” Amethyst asked jokingly. Pearl shook her head and continued.





        “Anyway, If our physical forms get too damaged then we revert back into our gems to recover. The time can range from hours to weeks for us to properly reform. If, on the other hand, our gems get damaged then it can cause our form to become… impaired.”





        “Interesting.” Ken replied, a bit amused by the capabilities the gems had. “That reminds me of one… other thing that I can do when in combat and the situation calls for it. My dragon armor form.” Within a few seconds, the human was soon covered in a scaly armor that was hard as steel and looked intimidating upon first glance. After a short while, he soon returned to normal. “What do you think?”





        “I don’t know about the others, but I think that’s awesome.” Jasper complimented.





        “The feeling is not exclusive to her.” Peridot nodded.





        “Yeah, and I guess we should show you ours as well.” Lapis stepped forward and two wings made of water sprouted from the gem on her back. “It may not look like it, but I can actually fly with these.” She smiled.





        “I’m up next.” Jasper’s gem glowed and a crash helmet appeared on her head. Amethyst pulled her whip out while Garnet brought out her gauntlets.





        “I prefer to use my limb enhancers.” Peridot mumbled.





        “Very nice,” Ken complimented them. “I’m actually quite jealous of Lapis’ wings actually. As a kid, I always wondered what it felt like to fly.”





        “It really is an amazing feeling.” Lapis sighed. “Even now, It’s still kind of hard to believe that I have wings in the first place. Peridot can also fly with her fingers.”





        “Same can be said about my arm. Even though Revaan taught me how to fight with a sword.” Ken told her, pointing to the blade’s hilt. He still hadn’t unsheathed it yet as he placed his headphones on. “I’m guessing that you would like to see it?”





        “It’d be nice, yeah.” Garnet admitted. Ken smirked, taking out the blade from the sheath that was on his back, showing it to them. It was just as long as his arm and he seemed to be quite capable and quick with using it too. 





        “Normally, I would wield two blades, but I’m still trying to be familiar with all the weapons back at the temple armory in my world. Seriously, there are a LOT of weapons from what I was told.” He told them. “So… back to something I said earlier… did any of you happen to find an Onyx Dragon scale earlier? Because that’s my token.” The gems looked at each other and shrugged.





        “That would be me.” Luna raised her hoof. “It landed on my head as we were preparing to visit old friends.” She looked at the Crystal Gems. Ken himself looked to be surprised.





        “I’m sorry that it hit you on the head. Even though it’s my token, I don’t have control over how it gets to other people’s worlds.” The Scalebound sighed. Even Revaan himself was about to apologize. That was, until Luna interjected before the dragon had the chance to speak to the princess.





        “If you cannot control it, then there is no need to apologize so profusely.” She shook her head.





        “Well to be fair, you two have been known to act without thinking.” Jasper smirked.





        “Would that explain her trying to kill me and cause me to run for my life?” The Scalebound soon asked.





        “Why, yes it would.” Peridot nodded.





        “Well, that makes a lot of sense. It also might explain how Luna tried to take on Revaan all by herself. He is an Onyx dragon after all and the last of his kind. He has a son to get back to for god’s sake.”





        “In all my years, I have never heard of such a dragon.” Celestia piped up.





        “Back in our world, they’re the only kind of dragon that wanted to get along with the neighboring species,” Revaan informed her. “They’re also capable of using many kinds of magic. I’m just thankful to see my son again. I haven’t seen Spike since he was still in his egg.”





        “Yeah, none of us have really seen our families in over 1,000 years, but we have each other, and we’re the best we’ve got.”





        “That’s the most important thing-.”





        “Pardon?” Celestia interjected with a frown. “Who did you say your son was?”





        “Spike.” Revaan said the name again.





        “But that can’t be right, you two look nothing alike..”





        “His scales are the same as my mate, Coryena. However… she was killed in battle when he was still in his egg. I used the last of my magic on that night to sent his egg to someplace where it would be safe from harm.” Revaan told her, recalling the events of what happened. “For you though, the circumstances might be different. But in the world where I’m from, my magic was the reason why his egg showed up on my Celestia’s doorstep. He is still a child, but in time, he will grow as he ages.” 





        “Different universe, different rules Celly.” Lapis piped up.





        “Still, I must look into this.”





        “If you are, I must warn you on something. Do not let Spike eat any gems until he is at least two years old to where his brain and body is developed enough beforehand. Gems, except for you guys,” he told Peridot and the gang briefly. “cause there bodies to evolve and grow. But too many gems at a young age may affect him to where his greed might drive him overboard and cause him to go on a rampage to have whatever he desires.” 





        “Alright, I will make sure that that does not happen because I know it has not already.”





        “ …… You’re bad with lying.” Revaan sighed, facepawing himself as he looked back at them. “Ken, I think we should go back to the temple soon… unless of course there’s something else that you need to take care of.”





        “Oh yeah, that’s right. Tokens…” Ken remembered. “Do you guys have a token or tokens by any chance?”





        “Um yes, here.” Lapis stepped forward and handed them the symbol of the Homeworld Gems, that was very similar to the triforce from Legend of Zelda, except all of the triangles were different colour. One was green, one was orange and the other was blue. The Crystal Gems then handed them a small star with gems on each point except the top. Ken smiled, handing them another one of his tokens to the Crystal Gems while he let Luna hand the scale she found to the Homeworld Gems.





        “Alright, seems like we’re done here. I guess you know how to send us back?”





        “Sure… Hey, is there anything you want or need, by the way?”





        Ken raised an eyebrow, unsure of what they meant. “What do you mean by that?”





        “I don’t know, we had this huge misunderstanding with Canterlot and now we’re here, so yeah.”





        “How about if I need something, I’ll summon you to my world and we can talk it out there?” The Scalebound suggested. “I might not need anything now, but maybe later on I might so I’ll let you guys know then.”





        “Alright, I guess we’ll see you guys.” Lapis, as well as the others, waved them goodbye.





        “...... You know, we only go back once the one who summoned us says our contract is complete right?” He told them, looking at the Princesses. “Luna?”





        “We were just being polite.” Peridot rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.





        “I understand that. I’ll miss you guys.” The Scalebound told her, waving his arm goodbye. For a moment, Peridot even thought that he winked at her for a brief second.





        “Very well, young Ken.” Luna nodded. “I deeply apologize for the misunderstanding.”





        “I am also sorry.” Celestia added.





        “Now our contract is complete.” With that, Ken and Revaan disappeared into the tear in the void that had formed behind them.





        “We need to make sure nopony in Canterlot got hurt.” Celestia turned around, aiming to fly away with Luna to the area of the battle. “Then we must explain what happened and after that… the eight of us will have much to discuss.”

> The discussion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trying their best to ignore what had just happened with Ken and Revaan, they headed back to the Crystal Empire in what was the most awkward two hours ever and met up with Shining and Cadence. They made their way to the castle, entering a lovely room through two black doors standing tall above them, a quarter- circle window pane on each. The room had a dozen crystal pillars surrounding them as well as a window stretching as far up as the ceiling letting in the light. Lovely bright lavender curtains were carefully placed on each, flapping like wings in the mild wind. The room would've been completely empty had it not been for the round dark turquoise table in the middle, planting its legs a big red rug which all the poniestook their seats on, while most of the gems chose to stand.

"Okay, now that we are all here we can begin." Celestia stated. ""Alright. Now Twilight has told us about what happened but I'd also like to hear it from you, so what exactly happened at the Crystal Empire?" The gems each took turns explaining what happened, from being controlled by Sombra, to resurfacing with the empire. They spoke of the battle, and how the Crystal Gems only remembered bits and pieces of it.

"And none of you remember anything crucial about the Empire or Sombra? At all?" Celestia frowned.

"I'm sorry, Sombra sealed our memories like all the others." Jasper crossed her arms and shook her head. "Anything we might've known is locked away somewhere in our minds. The princesses turned to their old friends in hope of having something, anything about the secrets of the empire of the former King Sombra.

"And Sombra didn't mention anything around you three?"

"If he did, then I'm afraid we don't remember dude. Hey Garnet, why don't we get something to eat after this? I'd ask you too P, but I don't think you'd be comfortable with eating anymore."

"Now just because I became Pearl it doesn't mean I can't still enjoy food." The tall skinny gem retorted.

"Anyway." Luna cleared her throat, getting the attention of the gems. "You said that there was nothing you knew about Sombra?"

"Sorry but no." Garnet shook her head, keeping a stoic face.

"Then it appears that we're still very much in the dark about all of this." Celestia said. "We still know next to nothing about Sombra or how a unicorn like that got so powerful, even Hope didn't know."

"Did anypony else help you defeat him besides the the ones I know of?" Luna questioned.

"Yes." Garnet said. "Two new friends of ours known as Zinnia and Ace."

"Could the six of you leave the room for a moment? We would like to discuss this with Cadence and Shining Armour." Luna said, and they all left the room momentarily. Once they closed the door, Celestia and Luna turned back to the new rulers of the Empire.

"I don't know what to do." Celestia sighed. "They're an enigma; I know next to nothing about Gems and I've just learned about these 'Displaced'."

"The Crystal Gems were, and still are, our friends who helped us when we, and more so the empire, needed it most. However, Sombra's gems were part of the reason we needed that help in the first place. We might've been able to stop Sombra sooner and maybe even save he empire before it got cursed and sealed away."

"Perhaps Princess Luna, but-"

"You do not need to refer to us with our titles, Cadence." Luna interrupted.

"Very well Luna, but who knows how long it might've really taken, or if the Crystal Empire could've been saved from its fate early on. We may never truly know and we can hardly blame them as much when under Sombra's manipulation."

"True, but there was a time when they weren't under the control of his spell, with their free will intact. It was even intact when we first met the Crystal Gems. All that slavery and abuse was happening right next to them and they didn't even notice."

"We can't be sure of that either, maybe there's still more to them." Lulu wand Celestia paused for a moment, before giving the other co- rulers there preposition.

"We had planned to take them back to Canterlot for study, or possibly to Ponyville for Twilight to research, but based on what you two have seen, what do you propose we do with them?" Cadence and Shining looked at each other with a momentary silence, before the former finally spoke.

"We thought that they would be able to stay here, and we could make them guards for the Crystal Empire." Cadence explained. "They are all used to it after all."

"And we could keep an eye on them, since they would be close." Shining continued.

"I see." Luna nodded. "And do you believe that they are trustworthy?"

"They could've left anytime after Sombra was defeated, but they chose to stay and help clean up. Heck, they didn't even try to escape during the actual attack."

"Hmmm... Bring them in here." Celestia said, with a nod.





"Okay, you three can come in now." The gems raised their heads to see Cadence smiling with the door open. They each looked at each other with clear uncertainty on their face before walking in to see the three alicorns and one unicorn looking at them.

"We have come to a decision. We have all decided that you will all be appointed as guards for the Crystal Empire, or at the very least honorary guards." Luna began.

"You will be given a guard schedule soon and I will oversee any training you might need." Shining continued. "But we must inform you that some of you will be under watch."

"For now, you each may have the rest of the day to yourselves, but Luna and I would like to catch up with our old friends." Celestia smiled. As the Crystal Gems left with Celestia and Luna, the Homeworld Gems stood there with Cadence and Shining Armour.

"Thank you for your time, but we'll be retreating to our rooms for now." Peridot said, rubbing her right arm in discomfort and the married couple simply nodded in response.





Jasper opened the door to their room and they each stepped in. Lapis lay down on her bed, Jasper leaned against the wall next to hers, while Peridot simply say on the side, scrolling through the Internet.

"We're guards now, huh?"

"I suppose we are, Peri." Jasper said, staring at the ceiling.

"Do you think we'll be able to do it?"

"No real way of saying, I'm not smart like you."

"I'm worried, Jasper. Essentially, we're doing the same job as we were over 1,000 years ago. Don't you think the Crystal Ponies will be a little... Unhappy to say the least that we'll be in the same position?"

"Shit, yeah." Jasper sighed.

"They won't trust us Jasper, and what if we can't protect them in the first place? We couldn't beat Sombra without the help of Zinnia and Ace."

"Peri, we've held our own against both Celestia and Luna, and we've been able to hide for a millennium. Besides, Zinnia said to just give them time to warm up to us, so let's be patient." Peridot stared at Jasper for a moment, before letting out a chuckle.

"When did Jasper suddenly become the positive one?" She started laughing a bit louder while the orange gem just stood there for a moment before beginning to laugh herself. Even Lapis joined in. All three of them simply sat in their room and laughed.
> Dragons, Dragons and more Dragons
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Whoa."

"Look at this place; it's entirely made of crystal."

"It's like an all- you- can- eat buffet!" The dragons all stood amazed at the sight.

"Now now." A larger dragon stood above them. "Let me... take all of this in. Appreciate what a feast this will be!" After a moment's pause, he grinned. "Now we eat."





Lapis, Peridot and jasper entered the training field. They were sure that this was the area that Shining said. Here, he appeared to be observing the training of he Royal guards of the crystal empire. When he saw them all coming he gave a smile.

"Oh hey you six. I was just getting ready to look over the training these guards have recieved. They've been gone for over 1,000 years, so I might want to oversee what they do to make sure it's up to current standards. I used to be captain of the Royal guards in Canterlot before I came here with Cadence, actually." Shining smiled, turning around to see the guards staring at the gems.

"Did I say you could stop?!" With that, they each resumed their training.

"Sword fighting huh?" Lapis whistled while Pearl's eyes gleamed.

"Yeah, they're quite decent with swords."

"Prince Shining!" One of the guards ran towards them.

"I'll never get used to that." Shining muttered. "What's the problem Silver Gleam?"

"There's been an incident in the town central and we need some of the guards to investigate it."

"Why don't I send some of the gems there? They're not doing anything so maybe they could check it out?"

"Hmm. I see. Alright then, come with me. I'll show you six what happened."





How could this have happened?" Emerald Sculpt wailed like she had for the last hour. "Everything was right here!"

"Yikes." Amethyst said regarding to the huge hole in the crystal pony's wall. Civilians outside were whispering to each other, some looking worriedly, suspiciously or in one case, intriguely at the gems.

"What happened here?" Jasper wondered.

"That's what we're here to figure out you clo- idiot."

"Nopony's really sure at the moment, we're looking now."

"We'll see for ourselves." Pearl said. They walked over towards Shimmer's house straight through the hole.

"All of my jewels were stolen and as you can clearly see, there's a huge hole in my wall!" The Pony continued to wail.

"It's not just them either, nearly every house in the area has been broken and ransacked of all their valuables." Rock Solid said.

"Well they certainly weren't elegant about it." Lapis whistled, looking around.

"It's not just this house either." Solid gestured to the other houses on the street; nearly everything was ransacked.

"What do think did all this?"

"It looks like something broke through it. Look around; everything was knocked over with nothing but brute force."

"Hey, are these claw marks?" Lapis looked behind one of the chests.

"Yeah, and it looks like something bit into this wall."

"Something what?" Silver frowned. "Why would someone bite the wall?"

"This place is made almost entirely out of crystals and jewels, and there are only a select few species like... Dragons." Pearl's eyes widened slightly at the realisation. "Yes that makes perfect sense; the claw marks, the jaw marks, the huge hole."

"I'm pretty sure there are some caves near here."





"So these are the caves?" Jasper asked.

"Indeed." Rock Solid said, keeping his attention forward.

"Be quiet you two, they could be anywhere." Peridot said as her gem began to light up, making it easier for them all to see.

"This place is pretty warm." Pearl commented. "For a cave that's in the north, no less."

"Wait, do you hear something?" Jasper stopped and listened. "Yeah, it kinda sounds like someone's moving metal around?" She began walking as quietly as her large stature would allow. They turned a corner, to see about a dozen dragons messing around, swimming in gold and eating remnants of the floors and walls in the Crystal Empire. One notable object was the chest of jewels; the same chest Shimmer had described.

"Um, before we attack." Peridot interjected as the others got into their battle stances. "The thought occurs to me that dragons eat gems. We are gems."

"I'm sure it'll be fine. We have our weapons and everything, right Garnet?" Pearl turned to her stoic friend. "Uh, Garnet?"

"Huh? Oh I zoned out for a second there. What were you guys saying?"

"Okay, let's just hope this goes well." Pearl sighed. They all stepped into the dragons' field of vision.

"Halt, Dragons!" The Crystal Guards pointed their spheres in the fire- breathing reptile's direction. "Return the jewels that you stole!" There was a pause as the band of dragons processed what they were saying, before one of them grinned.

"Oh? Let me run that by the boss." One of them grinned before turning around. "Hey boss!" She called out. Soon, they heard the sound of coins moving and falling over as their leader stepped up. a large beast, looming over even Jasper came into light, his indigo scales shining in the darkness. He opened his yellow eyes and stared at the opposing guards.

"Flamedra, for what purpose did you awaken me?" The dragon asked.

"Well, they say that we have to give back the stuff we took." The scarlet red dragon, now known as Flamedra, gestured to the gems and crystal ponies. The head dragon began to laugh.

"Hehehe... Hahahaha! They want us to give back the jewels!" The other dragons followed suit and laughed at all of them.

"We're not joking around!" Pearl pointed her spear at them. "Return what you stole!"

"Oh? You're serious?" His chortling ceased as he stared at them all, sniffing a few times.

"What is it Boss Medreth?" Flamedra asked.

"Something smells delicious." He kept on sniffing, trying to pinpoint the scent until he looked down at the gems. "It's you, you strange creatures have an intoxicating scent. You have gems."

"W- What?" Peridot shivered.

"Don't try to hide it from me, I can see you wearing them right now." He growled, and all the other dragons began to advance in on them once they took time to notice. They came from the darkness of the cave, and it was suddenly evident that there were far more than they expected. Dozens upon dozens of scaly fire- breathers were in the cave. They came in from all around, the ponies and gems suddenly finding themselves surrounded. "Give them to me."

"Well, um, you see the thing is,  the gems are a part of us. They're not something that can just be taken on and off." Pearl said.

"I see. Well then I'll just have to rip them from you! You come to my cave, attempt to condemn my dragons and I, and force us to return parts of our hoard?! You will not leave here! None of you will!" He and the other dragons began to advance in on them more, until Pearl drew out her spear and stabbed the rock hard floor with it. She held onto it as the weapon built up energy and fired while it was still buried, shattering the ground beneath them like glass and causing the gems to fall while the pony guards took flight.





As the dragons followed them down, they all dashed in separate directions. Pearl with Lapis, Peridot with Garnet and Amethyst with Jasper.

Garnet and Peridot ran through the holes darting left and right randomly to confuse the dragons. After a while, when they were sure that there weren't any still following them they stopped to process what had just happened.

"Okay... So they just tried to eat us, and now we're lost in these tunnels, separated from the rest. Any plans?" Peridot groaned. Garnet on the other hand simply stayed quiet, looking around. The ground there was soft, and various tunnels that went everywhere. A broken minecart lay still in the middle of the room.

"What's all this?" Peridot looked around the area. "This place looks pretty untouched. I don't think the dragons have been down here."

"Which means they weren't the first ones to occupy this place."

"They don't exactly seem like the type that makes things as much as they take them, do they?" The green gem chuckled. Garnet simply stayed silent. For a spun around, thinking she heard hoofsteps, before suddenly rugby tackling Peridot. "What the?!" She looked over Garnet's shoulder, seeing some of the dragons crash down onto the spot where they had once stood. Fortunately they had lost the element of surprise, and she disposed of them easily. Unfortunately, there were more where they came from. Garnet punched through most of them as the kept coming. As she slammed her fists down onto a bunch, her friend was open.





Lapis slammed her wings into one of the dragon's heads, throwing it back. Behind her, Pearl shot a blast from her spear, blasting another bunch away into the tunnels. The two water gems stood back to back, protecting the other from the side they were facing.

"Jesus, how many dragons does this guy have under him?"

"Mostly dumb lackeys, but there are a few good ones in there." They heard a familiar voice echoing through the tunnels. "Take me for example." A flaming ball shot down from above the two, coming between them. Once the smoke cleared, a bright red dragon with a grin was between them.

"Gotta admit, you're all tougher than I took you for." She said.

"Hey, you were the one who woke up the big blue dragon. Your name was Flamedra, right?" Lapis asked.

"That's right, and the 'big blue dragon' you're referring to has a name; it's Medreth."

"Well whatever his name is, we're not letting him eat us!" Pearl yelled.

"It's funny how you think you have a choice in the matter." Flamedra chuckled. "Even escaping into these tunnels was just delaying the inevitable. We'll find you and your friends eventually, you'll all pay dearly for trying to arrest us, and the boss will be happy. End of story. Now stay still while I beat the living daylights out of the both of you!" Her body became completely engulfed in flames and she turned to Pearl, knocking her her as she had just gotten up. She bounced off of the walls laughing before doing the same thing to Lapis. She laughed at their futile attempts to try and hit her.

"What, is that all you've got? I don't know why the others had such trouble with the both o-" She was cut off as Lapis's water wing slammed her into a wall. She shot out of the crater in an attempt to get vengeance on the gem, but was blocked by the large shield Lapis had made from both of her wings. She flipped back over only to take flight so she could narrowly avoid a slash from Pearl's spear. She landed behind both of them on all fours.

"Okay, now I get it." She said before spiralling towards them while simultaneously shooting fireballs, keeping them both on their feet and unprepared for when she hit them head- on.

"I've had enough of this." Lapis growled, as her arms shapeshifted into needles and she dashed towards Flamedra, who merely grinned as she easily dodged each strike that Lapis dished out, stepping to the side, ducking, and jumping up into the air. Eventually, she retaliated with a fiery blow of her own, knocking her away.

"I won't let you get lucky again." The dragon grinned.

"Impressive." Flamedra turned around to see Pearl, who simply stood there. "You're no Sans, but still impressive."

"I'm the fastest, strongest dragon you'll ever meet. I have speed and power beyond your wildest dreams."

"It's pretty difficult to top what I've seen."

"Allow me to try then." Her body once again became one with her flames and she spun while shooting forward, giving her fire the impression of a large drill. Pearl stepped to the right while twirling, causing Flamedra to miss. Lapis merely watched in amazement of the grace of her fellow displaced.

"You don't need to worry about this Lapis, I'll handle it. Just find the others and I'll meet up with you all later." She grinned. Lapis looked hesitant but nonetheless nodded and flew away.

"Fine by me." Flamedra said. "Get them all in the same place; it makes things easier for me. I'll just find them after I deal with you." She launched herself at the gem once again, but who leapt out of the way and shot a blast from her spear in the dragon's direction. Unfortunately, Flamedra moved before it could hit her and began bouncing off the walls once again to disorient Pearl, but she narrowed her eyes and kept her focus on the living fireball, despite how difficult it got as she increased speed, some of the hits she could barely even dodge them all.

"Are things getting difficult for you?" She cackled. "It seems like you're getting tired!" Pearl gritted her teeth and got out a second spear. She ran towards Flamedra and thrust her left spear at her, while the dragon ducked but was tripped up by the right spear and before she could get up, she felt a blast from the spear hit her, sending her further away into the darkness. Soon, she flew out lunging for Pearl, claws- first. She flew around the gem constantly slashing and attacking like an angry team of hornets all in one. She kept close, but just out of reach whenever she wasn't attacking. This went on until Pearl retaliated with an upward slash from one of her spears. Once Flamedra was in the air, Pearl quickly charged up both her spears and fired  them both, causing a small explosion, which the dragon fell out of, unconscious. Pearl paused from a moment, then picked her up and placed her against a wall for her to lean on. Pearl began to search for Lapis afterwards.





"Eat spin dash, losers!" That was what they all heard before two spinning gems crashed into them.

"These guys just won't stay down, will they?"

"Ah well, it just means I get to beat 'em up over and over again." Jasper grinned, even if she wasn't sure how long either of them could keep this up.

"We had heard stories of of your home; a city made entirely of gems and crystal." A green dragon lashed out at them, but was headbutted to the ground. He quickly jumped back to avoid another.

"Is that right?" Jasper stared down at him, but he dodged as she punched the ground. Eeyup. Of course, going through the cold of the north is no easy task, but Medreth was determined and has lead us to a great bounty. I knew sticking with him would be a stroke of genius."

"Well you can tell you boss that there's only one thing you're getting for all your troubles; pure pain!" She knocked him away into the caves and panted.

"Ow!"

"Hey!" They looked up as they heard two voices from the darkness above. A couple of dragons were thrown to the ground by a pair of familiar wings.

"Lapis!" The two gems said in unison.

"Oh thank God you two are are alright!" Lapis sighed.

"You know it sucka!" Amethyst grinned.

"Yeah, we made short work of these guys." Jasper said.

"Do either of you know where Garnet and Peridot are?"

"Sorry, no clue. We've been fighting off dragons and now we're lost."

"Crap. Well, Pearl should be here soo-" Several more dragons burst out of a hole above them. "Crap."  She jumped away, just avoiding the blast from the dragons. "Crap. They just won't stop will they?"

"Any luck with water?" Jasper asked.

"I'd need to concentrate, and these dragons don't seem to be giving me the chance to do that." Just as she spoke, the tunnels rumbled. "What was that?"

"He's getting impatient." One of the dragons said.

"We need to make this quick." Another turned their attention back to the gems before shooting forward. The other two followed suit. They were easily dispatched by the three gems. Unfortunately, more started coming through the holes, looking both angry, hungry and frantic.

"For every one of these guys we beat, two more replace them." Amethyst grunted, spin- dashing through half a dozen of them, but more flew into the holes.

"I can smell them!" They heard a voice boom; the voice of Medreth. What followed was more tremors with what sounded like thunder.

"Jesus, what's with that guy?" Amethyst grunted.

"Medreth isn't known for his patience." Another one of them grunted, lunging at the gem with his claws. Unfortunately, a whip wrapped around his snout and he was brought down. What she didn't notice was another dragon behind her that would've gotten the drop on her had a blast of energy not knocked it into the wall. Amethyst and the others looked forward to see the tall white gem they all knew.

"You made it!" Lapis smiled.

"Yes, but I fear none of us will make it if we don't get out of here soon." She ran towards the group and took a look at the walls. "That brute of a dragon will collapse these tunnels if he keeps stomping around like he is." She slashed a few dragons who came her way. "We need to find Garnet and Peridot, then make a fusion and beat that guy." The others nodded and they cut through the dragons, making a path to run into another tunnel.





The four ran through the tunnel, fairly sure that they had lost the faction of dragons. Their search for Garnet and Peridot had so far been fruitless. The dragon had kept stomping and the tunnels kept trembling. Time was of the essence and they still had no luck. Until, that is, they saw Garnet running through the tunnels.

"Garnet!" They all screamed, running towards her. She appeared to be holding something in her hands.

"Do you know where Peridot i..." Pearl stopped when she took a look at Garnet's arms. She was holding Peridot's limb enhancers. They all paused for a moment.

"We need to find her. Hurry." Was all Garnet said as she continued running again, and the others followed suit. They kept going, fighting all the dragons who got in their way before they finally made it back up, to see a small dragon presenting Medreth with a green, triangular gem.

"Ah yes, how exquisite." He admired his prize. "Such a small gem, containing such an amazing flavour." He could barely hold himself back from eating it then and there, not that he would've had the chance when two gauntlets crashed into his head, exploding.. After the smoke cleared, he glared down at the gems.

"I suppose I should be angrier, but you've all brought yourselves to me on a silver platter. Speaking of which, I should probably get some more silver for my horde after I eat all of you. I wonder if that city of yours has any silver..."

"Yeah, none of that is happening." Amethyst glared at the dragon.

"Oh? And you're going to stop my dragons and I? Very well." He grinned. "I'll indulge you." Sparks gathered around Medreth's jaws and he shot a bolt of lightning at the gems, who all scattered. Pearl tried to jump at him, but he batted her away. Headed for a wall, she landed on her feet and jumped back towards him, making a slash with her spear. Next, Lapis gathered water, turning it into chains around Medreth and freezing them. While he tried to break free, he was shot at by Pearl.

"I see." He growled. "Let me get serious!" He broke through the ice chains and let out some more lightning breath, electrocuting a good portion of the gems. He then shot a breath of lightning at the ground, shocking them all. He swiped his tail, hitting Pearl and Lapis. Just when they were about to retaliate more dragons appeared out of the holes.

"Do those guys ever quit?" Lapis stared incredulously at them all. While her back was turned, she felt a bolt of lightning hit her, throwing her back. She made a water bubble around some of the dragons, and threw it away. Pearl spun and slashed away more dragons, but got blasted away by the fire of several others before she could react.

"Pearl!" Lapis cried out, distracted by the damage her friend had taken she didn't notice the large bolt of lightning hit her.

"Crap!" Jasper growled. She spin- dashed over to the dragon, Amethyst following suit. Whey crashed into the dragon, making him topple over. Electricity danced around him as he gave both of them a massive shock. Garnet launched her gauntlets at him as he tried to stand up but he blasted more lightning out and made them explode before they could reach him. He suddenly felt a large pain in his leg as Jasper headbutted him. He would've gone down to stomp her but he nearly lost his balance as Amethyst wrapped her whip around his other leg. He had had enough, he gave them both a blast of incredibly strong lightning, sending them flying into a wall, sending cracks through it and smoke filled the large cave. However, a light began to build up in near the cracked wall, getting larger and larger.

The smoke began to clear, and in its place stood a tall, muscular woman about the same height as Medreth. Her hair was long and flowing, split down the middle into two colours; purple and orange. Her body was orange with purple stripes and she wore a crimson gi with the sleeves torn off, along with black trousers that had also been torn halfway to go down to her knees. She stretched out her four arms and cracked a grin of sharp teeth.

"Whoa..." The woman grinned. "This is new." She blocked just in time when Medreth suddenly shot a breath of lightning at her. "Get down!" She summoned a whip that latched onto his snout and pulled him back down to the ground. As he got up, have everything he had into a breath of lightning and let it all out at the fusion. However, she summoned a helmet and pointed her head at the blast, the weapon taking all of it while the rest of her was unscratched.

"What?" The dragon's eyes widened.

"Oh yeah, I'm pumped now!" The fusion smiled even wider, taking off her helmet. "You all keep the small dragons occupied. I wanna face this guy myself!" She smiled. The other gems, still slightly confused, nodded with grins and kept the others at bay. "Now let's see what happens when..." She threw her helmet into the air. When it came back down, she had her whip wrap around it and the weapons were both enveloped in a light. What resulted, was a hammer held in one hand, far smaller than the one wielded by Sardonyx. The swinging end of the hammer was orange and covered in purple spikes. The handle, similar to the one on Amethyst's whip, was grey with a crystal on the end.

"Hmm, all that's missing is my name." She heard Medreth roar at her as she pondered. "Yeah yeah, in a minute. Wait, I know, I'm Ametrine! Now I'm ready." She grinned. She rammed her hammer into the dragon's snout as it lunged forward. Then she kicked him away when he started to get back up. "Wooo yeah!" Ametrine cheered, punching all her fists in the air. As she was distracted, Medreth jumped at her, wings spread and mouth shining with teeth. He bit into her neck, knocking her onto the stone ground. She was about to pull him off when he gave her a shock, both figuratively and literally. She then slammed her hammer into his stomach, winding him enough to be pushed off.

"I am Medreth the Thunder Beast, and I will not be beaten by my own food!" He bellowed.

"That's kinda what it looks like buddy." Ametrine grinned. "'Cause you got nothin' on me!" They ran at each other, Ametrine with her hammer and Medreth with the lightning building in his mouth. They clashed, and a bright light flooded the cave, blinding both gems and dragons alike. Once it finally died down, Medreth was seen lying on the ground, unconscious. All the dragons that were still standing gaped in awe.

"I... I don't believe it."

"These... who ever they are just beat Medreth."

"Run for it!" Soon, all the dragons quickly fled, flying out of the cave and into the blizzard.

"Get back here you cowards!" Flamedra yelled. "Wait for the boss!"

"Whoa." Ametrine panted. "Not bad for my first run, eh?" She stumbled, separating just before she fell. No, the role of falling to the ground was saved for Jasper and Amethyst, who did just that. The others ran to hold them.

"That's a new one." Garnet smiled.

"That was awesome." Amethyst smiled, chuckling slightly. "Ametrine is awesome."

"Grrrr..." Medreth growled, getting up."

"B- Boss!" Flamedra was shocked.

"You gems, this isn't over." He spat. "I'm still here. You won't, beat me."

"Seems over to me." Lapis shrugged.

"I cannot be defeated. I am the lightning dragon Medreth, and I will not fall to the likes of you." Just as he spoke, he heard the clopping of hooves.

"Reinforcements are here Medreth." Pearl looked him straight in the eye. "Even if you could've beaten them before, you can't now. You're bruised, beaten, and you barely have a quarter of your forces left at your disposal. We'll be taking everything back." She laughed inwardly as she saw Medreth scowl at her.

"I'm going to enjoy feasting on you when we meet again." He spread his wings and flew out of the cave, Flamedra and his remaining lackeys following suit. As the guards drew closer Jasper simply grinned.

"Welcome to the team, Ametrine."





Cadence and Shining's mouths were agape. These 7 had not only retrieved all the stolen items, but defeated a horde of dragons on their own, with one of them being a lightning dragon no less.

"I didn't even know they could breathe anything other than fire." Rock Solid commented.

"They can, but it's considerably rare." Shining explained.

"There are lots of things a dragon can breathe, like lightning, ice, wind, even scalding water." Peridot added.

"Well it does sound like a lot." Cadence chuckled. "I think we can call your first mission as guards a success." They all nodded and saluted the prince and princess.

"We're glad to have been of service." Garnet said.

"Alright, you're all dismissed." Shining smiled. "We should be able to take things from here, go on and have a rest." They all nodded and left the room, proud of themselves.
> The 'Ling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The hallway was silent. dark and dank, guards were stationed at every corner, every door. It didn't matter who they were, what they did or when they had gotten there; they all hated their time there. They wanted nothing more than to leave the halls as quickly as possible. The green luminescent lights did nothing to ease their mood with the bleakness of what were most likely the darkest halls in Equestria. It didn't help that those same halls were never clean, always dripping with the same annoying goo. Yes, everyling there wanted to work anywhere else. However, the irritation was only an incredibly small reason why they wanted to move. Their complaints were only prominent to distract themselves from the real reason they were stationed there.

For changelings, the worst type of guard one can be is a prison guard. They were all stationed with some of the worse lawbenders, but they were right outside one particular cell, one that held one of the worst and most insane criminals of changeling kind.

"Why doesn't she just die already?" One of the guards grumbled. "I wish we could just execute her and be done with it."

"You think the queen went soft?" The second guard chuckled.

"Don't even joke about that. After the invasion I'd call her anything but soft." They didn't know why Queen Chrysalis even kept her alive. It was a mystery to everyling, but morso it was a pain. Even now, they could hear her laughing in that cell. Was she laughing at her own situation? Was she mocking them all at the death she knew they wanted to see her go through, but wasn't happening anytime soon? Either way, it still annoyed them. Of course, there were times when she was silent so they knew she at least slept. It didn't make it better, per se. The correct term would probably be 'less unbearable'. They heard banging on the door, which was also not uncommon for her.

"Q- Quiet down!" The first guard yelled, trying not to shake. He looked through a small window in the door, and his eyes widened. The shackles were empty.

"S- She's gone!"

"What did you say?" The others began shaking, frantically looking around for any sign of the deadly assassin that was supposed to be their prisoner. The door was quickly opened and three guards entered, looking for clues on where their prisoner might be. Suddenly, the door slammed shut on them. They quickly shot around, only to see the assassin herself smiling at them through the hatch. Her eyes and hole- filled mane were a dark purple. As she grinned t them, her incredibly pointy fangs shone brighter than the green lights that illuminated the room. There was even a rumour that her mere smile could give you a papercut. Of course, it couldn't do that but it could cause a changeling guard to wet himself.

"It's so easy to pull a fast one on a bunch a scaredy- lings." She gave off a light chuckle. "But I honestly thought that it would be far more difficult to trick you all. Ah well, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth as ponies say. Goodbye." She ran away, the guards shouting as she buzzed through the hallway.

"Stop her!" Several more guards ran at her as she neared the first door and her first step to leaving. She jumped up when one shot a magic blast, spun when another threw a spear at her then ducked once one final guard tried to ram her head- on. Once he was behind her, she bucked him with her hind legs, causing him to fall over, When another ran at her, she ducked and bit his legs. He cried in pain while spitting goo at the others to immobilise them.

"Wow, is this who miss Chryssi has trained while I was locked up? It's be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic." She paused for a moment. "Oh what the hell, I'll laugh anyway." She let loose an echoing chortle before reaching for another key with her magic. "I'll take this, thank you. Having different guards hold on to different keys was a pretty good move. If she had trained her guards more it might've worked better. Oh well." She shrugged and unlocked the second door.

"Get back here!"

"You won't escape!"

"I swear, once I get out of here I'll..."

"Blah blah blah." She rolled her eyes as she unlocked the door. More shouts of protest erupted as she closed it. She trotted up a flight of stairs humming to herself, kicking kicking down any guards that were dumb enough to try and stop her. She didn't mind, contrary to that fact it was more fun for her. She had barely moved in ages, this was her chance to stretch her exoskeleton. She opened the door and ran to the main hall. All eyes were quickly turned to her.

"This is the part where you all try to futilely attack me and try to bring me back to my cell, right?" An uproar broke out, and she gave them all a smirk. She dodged every spear thrown at her,  parrying perfectly as some tried to fence horns with her, as if they thought they could beat her in a group, let alone one- on- one combat. Once she had her fill, her wings buzzed as she flew for the door at the top. She was shocked when she suddenly fell.

"Crap." She thought. "I guess I'm rustier than I thought." She paused for a a moment. "Ah well, no matter. I can still beat these idiots with my eyes closed and I need to go now anyway." She  trotted happily along, ignoring the pleas and cries for help of the other prisoners.

"We're like you Wasp, please help us!"

"Like me?" She laughed. "Don't even try to flatter yourselves. If you're really like me, then you should have no problem getting out yourselves." The door creaked as it opened, but she was kicked in the face right before she could even make a step.

"Ah, I see." Wasp glared at her assailant.

"You're not going anywhere." Another changeling wearing a yellow armour stood in her way.

"Aw come on Switcheroo." She smiled her former colleague. "Don't be like that. You could save yourself a lot of pain and trouble if you just moved out of the way." When her former colleague showed no signs of budging, she shut her eyes and let out a sigh. "I guess my mercy means nothing do you, doesn't it?" Her eyes snapped open as she pounced at him, fangs pointed. He simply blocked with his armoured forehoof and smacked her away.

"You're insane Wasp, don't pretend your mercy means anything to you either." They both exchanged blows, locking horns before breaking away. She shot a blast of magic at him, but he simply stepped to the side.

"That was weak." He scoffed. Switcheroo then ran at her and she was prepared to bite his horn off had he not ducked when she snapped and flipped her over. She quickly rolled back on to her hooves and spat her goo at him, all of which he promptly dodged but didn't see the kick to his face coming. He fell to the ground and she ran for the door as he tried to get up.

"I'd truly love to continue this fight, but I have higher priorities right now. Goodbye," She waved her hoof at him and ran away, avoiding more goo shots. "I'm rusty." She thought. "And I've worked myself more than I thought. I could barely handle Switcheroo, bastard's actually gotten better. Now, onwards to Equestria. I will succeed where Miss Chrysalis failed. I will kill Princess Cadence."





Another patrol for the gems, though they didn't stick to the streets, rather they mostly flew in the skies and ran jumped on the walls. They didn't really feel like getting stares of fear and disdain from the crystal ponies at the moment. They had kept it up for a few hours, with nothing out of the ordinary so far. It didn't bother them, well, most of them anyway.

"Uuuugh, this is so boring." Amethyst groaned. "Why can't we be at home?"

"I agree. If it's been as uneventful as this all day I'd much rather be working on my robonoids. I've been neglecting them."

"You can just do that any other time Peri. Gems don't need to sleep, remember?"

"But I like to sleep." She whined.

"Yeah, but you, Lapis and I did take those hundred- year naps. You've slept for that long even though it should've been more than enough." Jasper grinned.

"I hate you both." She pouted.

"Aaw come on, you know you love us." The water gem flew next to her and brought the two closer. "Besides, our break should be coming up soon anyway so you can complain and build stuff all you want." Both she and Peridot sighed, before they went back down to the ground and headed for the castle. The six walked through the hallways passing the throne room when they heard the prince and princess discussing something. They sounded unsure. After a while, the two looked up with mild airtime to see the gems just outside the room. The two both stared at each other before Cadence finally said something.

"O- oh, come in, please."

"I feel like we're interrupting something." Peridot awkwardly rubbed the back of her back.

"Not at all, it's actually good that you're both here." She continued.

"Well what is it?" Lapis frowned. Shining levitated a note to them.

"This note is from a changeling hive; the hive of Queen Chrysalis."

"Chrysalis? You mean the same Queen Chrysalis who invaded Canterlot?" Jasper frowned.

"Yes." He was not getting any happier.

"And kidnapped your wife?"

"And mind controlled you?" Amethyst added.

"No, the other Queen Chrysalis that delivers pizza." Peridot rolled her eyes. "Honestly, it's like you do this on purpose."

"We're just processing this is all." Amethyst grinned and shrugged. "But now that that's out of the way, I gotta ask why?"

"Apparently, a criminal from their hive has escaped, an incredibly dangerous one according to the note. Read it for yourself to understand what I mean." At that, Pearl took the note and read it aloud.


"Dear Princesses of Equestria

I am sure you are surprised to hear from me after the Canterlot Wedding, but this is a letter of the utmost importance. A criminal of ours has escaped from our hive and is on the loose. I am sure you're wondering what it is you have to do with this, but we have reason to believe that this criminal is loose in Equestria. One changeling may not seem like much but she was trained by me personally, she is an assassin who knows how to find her way.

Good luck,

Queen Chrysalis"


Pearl handed Shining back the letter and frowned.

"Wait, so we just have to look out for a changeling that's on the loose?" Jasper tilted her head.

"Don't underestimate them." Shining warned. "Changelings are incredibly dangerous and deceptive. That being said, getting a letter from one isn't truly enough to make us trust her, but I'll have to keep an eye out just in case." He glared at the letter, and Cadence put her hoof on his back.

"Just be careful, okay?" After all of the gems nodded, he dismissed them.





"So, what do we even do now?" Amethyst asked, her hands behind her head. "Do we find this changeling and bring 'em in?" It had been a few days, and they had found no sign of the changeling they were talking about. Instead, they were in thought as a few guards, some maids and a stallion with a food cart passed by them.

"Well we don't even know if it's here, so we don't really have much chance outside of the Crystal Empire, it's be an awful long way to go, especially when she could be anywhere." Pearl replied.

"So you're saying it's best if we just hold down the fort and see what happens?" Jasper asked, frowning. She groaned after getting a nod from the spear- wielder. "So we finally get something exciting to do and we have to just wait and see what happens? And it might not even happen?"

"You mean exciting like with Medreth? Need I remind you that that was only a few weeks ago as well? Besides, we've waited over 1,000 years, I'm sure what will probably just be another few weeks is nothing. Right Garnet?" After getting no response, Lapis turned to see the perma- fusion was silent. It didn't seem like regular silence either, she appeared to be in thought.

"Follow me." She suddenly said as she took a left in the castle.

"Wait, what?" Amethyst looked at her waiting for them.

"Why?" Jasper folded her arms.

"I have a hunch." The orange gem sigh as she followed Garnet.





"What are we doing here?" Peridot asked, looking around the cookery room. All the ponies staring at them, some shaking slightly.

"I told you; a hunch and it's not one I can shake until I get this out of the way." She whispered before turning to the head chef. "Excuse me?"

"Um, y- yes?" He looked up at them, his eyes clearly showing fear.

"Has any food been taken to the prince or the princess recently? At all?" The urgent tone in her voice was evident.

"Yes m- miss. We've served them their breakfast and we just sent lunch off to them right now."

"Who's serving them?"

"Umm... I believe it was Apricot. Apricot Planter, wh-"

"Come on!" She ran outside quickly, and the gems followed suit. All that was left was the head chef standing there still frozen, his workers still staring at him.

"O- Okay then, back to work everyone."





"Your lunch, your highnesses." A peach- coloured crystal pony bowed before the princesses before presenting a tray of the most delicious- looking food in the empire, specially prepared by the best chefs in the empire. They did not make mere carnival food. No, only the best was made for the new prince and princess. They made their best assortment of crystal crepes, along with some specially brewed- shard soup to start.

"Thank you Apricot." Cadence smiled. "We'll certainly enjoy it."

"I'm glad to hear that, my liege." Apricot continued to bow. The couple levitated the plates closer. Their cutlery floated up, taking a piece of the crepes out.

"Wait!" Everyone froze as the gems ran into the throne room.

"What is the meaning of this?." One of the guards stated firmly.

"This is an emergency idiot, do you'd do yourself and the entire empire kind to shut up." Jasper growled at him, causing the guard to clamp his mouth shut and nod. Once that was done with, she turned to Shining and Cadence. "Now whatever you do, don't eat!"

"What?" Shining frowned.

"You heard me. Do not eat anything on that plate!"

"What are you babbling on about?" Rock Solid demanded.

"Check the food."

"What?"

"We think the food might be poisoned." Pearl exclaimed.

"Poisoned?" Apricot frowned. "Why would I poison my food?"

"That remains to be seen." Garnet went eye- to- eye with him, before standing back up and turning to the tray. She looked at it very closely. She looked at the dish, a hint of green catching her eye. "I may not understand crystal pony culture as much an an actual crystal pony, but..." She placed her hand on the pony's back. "I don't think changeling poison is part of the recipe." Apricot stood there, his expression blank.

"I suppose all that time in prison has made me rusty, to get caught by whatever it is you are. This is what happens when I rush, I suppose." He teleported to the other side of the room, despite his lack of horn, where a green fire began to cover his body revealing a violet- maned changeling, with eyes of the same colour and white sharp fangs. "I'm Wasp. It's a pleasure to meet you all." She took a bow before them. "So you managed to get past my poisoned food, I see. Shame the rest of the guards weren't so lucky."

"What?" Pearl glared at her.

"Well I'm just saying, if that same poison was served to the guards in the barracks, then it wouldn't end well for them." She grinned, as Rock Solid began to get weak in the knees. "Rusty, but not too rusty it seems. Goodbye." She teleported once again.

"Crap." Jasper growled. "I'll find her." She ran off into the castle hall.

"We should probably follow her." Peridot sighed.

"You guys check on the barracks. We'll help Jasper." Lapis said as she and the green gem flew off.





"Are they all here?" A cream unicorn asked, trotting hastily down the stairs as Pearl rushed the all three of them down.

"Yes, they are." Garnet nodded, keeping more of a cool head.

"All of them got poisoned?" A pink earth pony asked.

"All if not most." Amethyst said.

"Hm. I see." Another unicorn, bright green and wearing glasses, nodded. They entered the barracks to see almost all the guards sprawled on the ground, struggling to breathe and move. "Think you can do anything?"

"Well we'll certainly try." The cream unicorn, Bright smiled.

"Wow... There are a lot of them, Aren't there?" Tender's voice as filled with uncertainty.

"Ugh, don't be so worried Tender." Mercury, the green unicorn rolled her eyes before turning to the gems. "You have the changeling queen's note, do you not?" After receiving a nod from Garnet she adjusted her glasses. "We'll see what we can do."





"That was... more than I expected." Wasp sighed, thinking to herself as she walked through the alleyway. "Those things... I've never seen anything like them. They're certainly not minotaurs or dragons; they don't have scales or snouts."

"What are they?" She asked aloud.

"We're gems. I thought we got through that." Her eyes widened as she jumped away from Lapis.

"You're not getting away from us this time." Peridot hovered above her.

"You think so?" She grinned as she jumped up and flew in for a kick.

"Yeah, we do." Jasper stepped in and grabbed her hoof before it could touch anything. She threw the changeling down. Wasp rolled to the side as Jasper punched the ground where she was lying just a second ago. She was about to fly away but suddenly froze as she her wings began to flap. A green energy surrounded her. Lapis walked up to her and grabbed her with her wings. She didn't struggle and just stood there, glaring at the two.

"That was pretty easy." Peridot tilted her head. "Let's take her to Cadence and Shining." They stepped out of the alley onto the street, the convict in their grasp. The castle wasn't far by any means, since Wasp hadn't gotten too far.

"H- Help!" They stopped. The voice they heard wasn't one that belonged to a trained assassin, but a crystal filly. "Help me!"

"What's going on?" A pony walking the street noticed a scared filly in the hands of the gems. Soon a few more followed suit.

"It's a filly!"

"She looks scared."

"Those gems, it must be them." Lapis, Jasper and Peridot froze.

"A- Are they going back to their old ways?" None of them moved while the crystal ponies worried and feared. While they were still in shock, Wasp, still in her filly form, grinned and slipped away. After a moment, they all snapped out of it.

"Why that little..!" Jasper clenched her teeth, her fist closing. She immediately ran after the changeling, with the others following suit.





She flew through a window into a room back at the castle. Wasp stopped for a moment to gain her bearings. That had worked even better than she thought, and she was just thinking on her hooves. They didn't just get uncertain and defensive; they just... stopped. She had lost the element of surprise, but she just needed time.

Unfortunately, she didn't have it as Jasper burst through the wall, her face filled with rage. She lunged at Wasp, her fists swinging and slamming.

"Wow, I really touched a nerve with that trick, didn't I?" Wasp grinned. "How sad, such distrust."

"You're not going anywhere anymore!" Jasper charged at the changeling, but stopped when she saw what was in front of her. Princess Cadence, a look of fear in her eyes. With that hesitation in a split second, she kicked Jasper in the face and sunk her teeth into the gem's arm.

"Argh!" Jasper stumbled slightly before ripping Wasp off and throwing her into a wall. She went in for another punch, but Wasp became a filly again, causing the striped gem to stop before she could do any damage. She immediately changed back and shot a large amount of goo at Jasper's feet. "Hey, what is this?"

"That's changeling goo; incredibly sticky. You'll be hard pressed to get out of there, especially under all that." It went up to Jasper's knees, and using that much had cost Wasp a large amount of energy.

"And if you'd saved some, you might've had a chance at getting away." She turned around to see Lapis and Peridot, she latter shooting her electron blaster at the assassin. She jumped up, running on the walls while Lapis's wings extended into monster heads, snapping their teeth at her.  Once she saw an opening, Wasp, shot a blast  of magic at Lazuli, causing Peridot to lose focus and the changeling to clamp her teeth onto Peridot's forearm. Giving off a yelp of pain, she fell down onto Lapis.

"Don't worry, we'll meet again." Wasp brushed herself off, trotting out of the room. However, she didn't get far once she felt her body surrounded by a green energy once again. Peridot stood tall and walked towards the changeling.

"Hey Peri, your limb enhancers broken?" Lapis asked, frowning right next to Peridot.

"Nah, she just dented them. It's fine." She waved her dented hand dismissively. "As for you, we're sending you back to Queen Chrysalis. She'll decide what to do with you." At that, Wasp growled. "Oh, and you can forget about poisoning the guards. We've got ponies on that as well. It's over Wasp."

"It's not... over until Cadence is... dead, ugh!" She tried to muster up some more magic to teleport, but she was far too tired to do anything.

"Why do you even care? What do you have to gain from it?" Lapis frowned.

"I will succeed where my 'Queen' failed. She couldn't beat that mare! She couldn't take over Canterlot!"

"So that's what this is about? Proving that you're better than Chrysalis?"

"Ugh, it doesn't matter anyway. Just... Just take me away."





Wasp was captured. She made eye contact with no one and was silent throughout the whole ordeal, as were, for the most part, the gems. A changeling came to escort her, named Switcheroo. He walked past Wasp, glancing at her for a split second before turning to Shining and Cadence, the former trying not to glare at both of the changelings.

"I thank you for your help." He bowed before them. They were uneasy, but nodded back. Once he left with Wasp, the prince and princess let out a sigh.

"That was... very awkward." Jasper remarked.

"We're just supposed to talk to them like nothing happens." Shining rubbed his forehead. "Even after what they did, we're just not going to acknowledge the elephant in the room?" He sighed. "But I digress. We owe you gems our thanks once again. You very well saved our lives. But it's not just you that we're thankful for. Tender, Mercury and Bright. We owe our thanks to all of you." The three unicorns nodded, Tender and Bright smiling while Mercury let out a 'hm' and nodded.

"It was quite easy, actually. Given that we had instructions." Mercury stated.

"Regardless." Bright smiled. "We were still able to help, and we're glad we did so."

"Quite." Mercury adjusted her glasses, eyeing the gems.

"Who knows? Maybe this'll get changelings and ponies talking again. Not instantly, but it could start turning the gears." Pearl smiled.

"It's far too soon for anything like that Pearl. It really wasn't that long ago."

"Well... maybe."





Garnet sat in the dark room, staring at the bubble before her. There on the opposite side of the room inside the pink bubble, was a black skull floating in mid- air. She might've said she saw lights in the skull flicker at her, but she shook her head. Honestly, she had no idea what to do with the gem. He was made by Springtrap, and if her experiences with him as Sardonyx were anything to go by, then it was clear that wasn't a good thing. That being said...

The fusion stood up, staring at the gem before sighing and walking out of the room, another pair of eyes lighting up as she did.
> Disarmament
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Now finish this door."

Jasper opened her eyes, yawning as she did so. While they didn't need to sleep, they preferred to do it. It felt more... Familiar to them. Not now though, since something had apparently woken her up. It sounded eerily familiar to her, but she tried to ignore it and squeezed her eyes. Unfortunately, when she heard that sinister laugh she instinctively shot up out of her bed to find the source. To her surprise and relief, she was greeted with a green light coming from her friend's head. Peridot was dreaming. It was only a bad dream. Although, when they dreamt about the evil king they often got glimpses of the horrible things they did when they were under his control, but this appeared to be something different entirely. Peridot appeared to be building something. It looked like a trap. After all, Sombra had Peri install plenty of those around that throne room of his, but this appeared to be in a different area. Possibly somewhere under the throne room? 

Peridot was fixing the door while Sombra observed with a grin. After a few moments, it appeared that the green gem had finished her work, with the former king giving her a nod.

"That will be all Peridot, now resume your guarding schedule."

"Yes King Sombra." She replied monotonously, causing Jasper to grit her teeth. They both left the room and the door became hidden. The projection began to fade as Peridot opened her eyes. Her vision was drawn to the left where she saw Jasper staring down at her.

"Uuh, is there any reason why you're staring at me while I sleep?"

"You had a dream Peri." Jasper responded.

"What?! You looked at my dreams? That's an invasion of my privacy!" Peridot blushed with embarrassment.

"Do you remember what it was?"

"Hm. Be quiet and let me think for a moment..." Peridot tapped her chin for a few seconds. "I think it was... Me with Sombra?"

"What were you doing in the dream?"

"Setting traps... I think."

"But we haven't seen any of the traps you were setting, and the room didn't look one we've been in before, I think Hey, wouldn't some of those traps still be active?" Peridot stared at Jasper for a moment, before frowning and nodding.

"Hey you're right; we should probably tell Cadence and Shining Armour to make sure they're all disarmed.

"What are you two talking about?" They turned behind them to see Lapis sit up with a groan and face them.





"Well that does sound quite concerning." Cadence frowned. "What do you think Shining?"

"I agree. We should probably send some guards to disarm those traps with you, though I don't believe it'll be easy, with your memories being sealed and all." He had thought about trying to find a counter spell to unseal their memories, but he decided to scrap it.

"Do you know where they are?"

"I... Think I have a pretty good idea. Jasper told me it looked like it was around here, both in the throne room and the secret room below here." Peridot said.

"Do we have to? I mean, it is just a dream after all." Amethyst groaned.

"Well if there are traps there, they could be anywhere in the castle." Garnet exclaimed. "Not to mention if Sombra has another secret room, it could help us find out more about him. He could have something dangerous down there."

"Uuugh, fine, but I don't wanna have anything else to do with him after this."





"I think this is where it was." Peridot walked down the stairs. The gems as well as the other crystal guards frowned, whilst Mercury retained a stoic expression. The basement of the castle, going even lower than the secret stairway with the magic door Twilight and Spike had used to find the Crystal Heart. The guards trotted nervously as they looked around. Mercury scoffed at the two.

"For someone who insisted to come along, you don't seem to care that much." Solid remarked.

"Now where was it?" Peridot frowned, as she and Jasper searched the area. As she touched part of the wall, a magical door suddenly appeared.

"This must've been like the one Twilight and Spike told us about, which means we'll need a powerful magic to break it." Peridot paused for a moment. While it was like the door under the throne room, it appeared to be much larger. At that, Mercury stepped forward. Her horn began to flare, until it connected with the crystal on the door. Soon, it opened. After pausing for a moment, they stepped through the door, walking into a dark hallway. Torches on the walls suddenly lit up, and Mercury's horn dissipated. They looked around, seeing only grey floors, walls and ceiling and the straight line they all led through.

"Where do you think it leads to?" Rock Solid asked.

"Difficult to say." Peridot looked on. "Perhaps some sort of lab? Maybe a library with dark spellbooks? It could be anyth-" She stumbled to the left as a a green spike nearly impaled her.

"Whoa!" Jasper's eyes widened. More followed suit and they were forced to dodge every single on. The spikes had already blocked their exit, they could only keep going in their original direction.

"Did I do this?!" Peridot covered her head as more spikes sprouted from the ground. They all ran in the only direction they could.

"It would look like it!" Jasper grunted. They suddenly stopped as two walls clamped together, making a loud but contained noise.

"Oh come on!" Amethyst groaned, running. "What else did he have you do?"

"I don't know, I don't remember any of it!" Peridot raised her arms defensively.

"Well you might need to start, or else we're doomed." Flash sighed. They all ran into the darkness not knowing what awaited them, with only a few having a vague idea. Soon, smaller spikes began launching themselves at the group from the walls. Lapis mustered up all the water she could find to make a shield of ice, but she was forced to rely mostly on her wings. Just as they were nearing the end of the hallway, they could see three separate routes they could walk through.

"Which one do we go through?" Jasper frowned.

"Try that one!" Mercury pointed at the corridor on the left, and they all ran through.





"Wow, that was more than I thought." Peridot wheezed.

"Where are we now?" Amethyst looked around the room that appeared to be a dead end, with a wall . Mercury flared her horn to brighten the area. Noticing candles on the walls she lit them. It was still rather plain; an average- sized bookcase on the wall, long with an old table in the middle and a book lying on the ground next to it.

"What's this place?" Jasper asked.

"It appears to be a small study area." Merucry stared at the bookshelf. "And the majority of these appear to be spellbooks."

"What about that one on the ground?" Lapis picked the book up. "It doesn't appear to have a title." It also appeared to have a few pages missing. Nevertheless, she opened it up to a random page and read aloud.

"Entry 12

A peculiar event occured today. Three beings of an unknown species stumbled into the empire today. They call themselves 'gems' and it's a mystery of where they came from. From what I can tell, they appear to be well- versed in combat. It's is incredibly intriguing."

"This... must've been on the day we first came to the crystal empire." Jasper leaned forward. "What does the next page say?" Lapis turned the pages to view the next entry.

"Entry 13

I have put the gems through guard training and they've exceeded with flying colours. It's quite amazing. They still appear to be uncertain around me. Gaining their trust might prove difficult, but they seem to be grateful for my offering of a home and an occupation. They don't appear to know about my conflict with the princesses or my works in the empire. I shall try to experiment with them once they feel more secure." Jasper's fist was clenched. Knowing what happened certainly didn't help one bit. If anything, it was only making her angrier. Peridot placed her hand on Jasper's shoulder, calming her down slightly.

"Keep reading." Lapis nodded and turned back to the book.

"Entry 16

Every piece of information I find out about these gems only makes me more intrigued. According to Peridot, gems do not need to sleep or eat, although they sometimes do both out of preference. I suppose they could be classified as some sort of golems; that is what they are closest to."

"Well now I feel offended." Jasper rolled her eyes. "Anyone found a way out of here yet?" After receiving a series of "No." She sighed.

"Entry 22

Celestia and Luna attempted to take the empire back. With the gem's help, I successfully drove the two out. When I heard they were coming, I had fully expected to lose. Perhaps I could hold my own against one, but I'm no match for the both of them. But with these gems, I have a chance. Perhaps my hold over the empire shall grow permanent after all.

"Do you have to keep reading that?" Jasper groaned.

"Well who knows? It might show us how to get out of here and disable those traps." Pearl shrugged. "Let's see if the other books have any clues..."

"Yeah, no matter how interesting the book is we need to keep looking." Solid said as he searched for any type of hint as how to get out.

"Entry 28

This may be my most useful finding yet. With my own magic, I can control these gems. Usually one would need an accessory to control a pony and they are incredibly difficult to make. With the gems, however, I can pour my dark magic into their cores, and make sure that my influence is strong. It's taken me quite some time to perfect a control spell, but I've done it. The gems now have enough dark magic in them to become my complete puppets. Such amazing warriors, and so easy for me to control. My research is not finished yet. Just as she finished, they heard the sound of something moving. They looked up and saw the bookcase shift to the right, revealing another room swallowed in the shadows their former king had once crept in.

"Huh. A secret bookcase passage." Lapis whistled.

"Come on." Garnet hurried them on. "There's no point going back now."

"Indeed." Rock Solid nodded in agreement with the fusion. "We must make haste, especially since our previous exit is blocked off."

"Exploring!" Amethyst pumped her fists in the air. They all went through, and the bookcase door closed behind them, leaving them in complete darkness.

"Crap." Jasper grunted.

"Don't worry, I'm sure there are more torches around here." Peridot made a dim light with her fingers.

"I've found some." Mercury flared her horn once again and lit a few. Once they got a few lights they found that the walls and ceiling were far larger than they thought. Nearly everything was made of stone. Not only that, but the walls were all covered in holes, large enough for the gems to fit through. However, they didn't try. They were too much in shock to do so.

"W- Wha..." Peridot's eyes were wide as she looked around.

"No... he didn't..." Was all Jasper said.

"What?" Solid frowned. Do you know this place?"

"You could say that." Pearl's 'breathing' was funny,

"He actually did it." Lapis looked through the caves.

"He made a kindergarten."
> Rearmament
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"...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…”
> Granite and Gagate
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shining ran as fast as he could. Word of a scorpion- like monster suddenly appearing in the middle of the castle was beyond surprising to him. He wouldn't let anything hurt the ponies, no matter what, so he immediately got his armour and rushed to the scene, where guards were struggling to deal with the beast and he finally saw it for himself. Three tails, large, a dark exoskeleton, coupled with pincers snapping at his guards. He glared at the beast and drew his sword, slashing at the scorpion's arm. It let out a shriek, before focusing its eyes on Shining, mercilessly snapping at him. He dodged twice, blocking one that came point blank with his sword before cutting back at the claw, earning another shriek from the scorpion. The guards started to cheer him on.

"He's stopped it!"

"Go Prince Armour!"

"Be quiet! We need to keep holding this thing off!" Shining growled.

"Yes Prince Armour!" They yelled before attacking different parts of the monster. Just as Shining was fighting, another guard knocked him down to the side.

"Apologies Prince Armour, but you need to be careful, it plunges its stingers into the floor for a surprise attack!" The guard gestured to the stinger that had shot up where Shining once stood. The prince nodded and got up, thanking the guard. He looked at the scorpion with a frown. Pony armours didn't protect the underside, so it was crucial that the guards stayed alert, as it swung its claws at more of the ponies, before digging its stingers back into the floor. 

"Stay alert, everypony, and keep moving!" He roared. The guards ran around the scorpion, and as its stinger show up it constantly missed. However, it started to catch the rhythm of the ponies as it stabbed several of them. Shining growled, and former a barrier around the scorpion. It rammed into the barrier with its body, its pincers and stingers, but it held strong. Whilst it was distracted, Shining teleported under it and rammed his sword into its underside. It suddenly stopped its assault as it felt the stab. The captain- turned Prince pushed his sword deeper, and the beast suddenly vanished in a puff of smoke.

Shining still held his sword in the air where the monster used to be, not quite sure what happened. Everyone was silent, until he heard something tap on the ground. He looked down, to see a gem. As he frowned, the guards cheered and congratulated him.





All Granite's thoughts were "run". That's exactly what he did. He dashed through the hallway as spires arose from the floor and stalagmites fell on him from the ceiling. All the while, a mount of earth trailed behind him. The only distance between the two covered by the spires, which either didn't affect Gagate or just went right past him. Not to mention the corrupted scorpion gem that was running amok. Right now, his only concern was getting away from the golem. He sprouted his wings again and propelled himself forward, managing to finally lose the shadow gem.

"The enemy is gone..." He thought. "Now I await my master's..." His train of thought slowed down. "Of course... My master... Is gone..." He looked down, but before he had time to contemplate more, a stone fist was brought down on Granite's face, knocking him into the ground.

"Crap!" The synthesised gem thought, before jumping back.

"You cannot escape me that easily." Gagate stated. "You will align yourself with King Sombra whether you like it or not."

"I won't allow that to happen." Granite landed, summoning a pair of stone whips, grabbing Gagate's arm, the golem pulling back when he was grabbed, but Granite held his ground albeit barely. He then cracked the whips, grey energy building up in them and crashing into Gagate. The golem was knocked back, but he refused to fall.

The synthesised growled, but was suddenly knocked over from a punch that came from his side. He rubbed his face and looked up to see another Gagate.

"How long do you think you can win?" The first Gagate asked as the two advanced on Granite, who spin dashed over them to the back, before trying to pull one away with the whip, only to end up getting pulled back by both of them. But as they went to punch him, he activated his skull helmet and shot into the chest of one, knocking it into a wall. The other ran at the grey gem, headbutting him away. He began to advance,  but a blast of powerful magic shot his right arm. His face was shocked and he snapped towards the source. He saw a pink alicorn glaring at him, her horn ablaze.

"Both of you stop where you are!" Both gems looked around to see that guards appeared in the halls blocking off all exits, spears pointed at them.

"It appears I've worn out my welcome." The golem said. "Goodbye to all of you."

"You're not going anywhere!" The guards and Cadence advanced on them, but Gagate's copy then ran at the princess, who attacked it another large blast of magic, while the copy was blasted to pieces, the original was gone, only leaving Granite. They warily approached the grey gem, who fought back none.

"We'll need you to come with us." One guard spoke to Granite, who did not respond.

"Hey, we need you to get up." Another poked him with the spear, but he did nothing.

"You caused a lot of damage here, I don't think you have much right to give anyone the silent treatment." Still, the gem stared into space, not acknowledging anyone. 

"Fine if you're going to be difficult then we'll levitate you." Some of the guards did exactly that, a few magical auras surrounding Granite and picking him up. Cadence looked at the gem with a frown, before giving him a small smile and looking back in front of her.





"Cadence!" Shining ran to where the guards said his wife was, giving her a hug. "Are you alright?"

"You don't need to worry about me Shining. I'm fine. I have gotten the hang of magic more." She smiled.

"I know, I just can't help but worry. A monster came in the castle out of nowhere and caused a storm, not to mention the other intruders." Shining sighed. "I just want to know how this happened so I can put my mind at ease, how our walls were so easily breached."

"I know, and we'll find out." Cadence nuzzled her husband. "You're worried, but don't let this get the best of you."

"But I'm meant to be a Prince now, yet something like this so easily happened under my watch. Some of my guards are heavily injured and I don't know if they'll be alright."

"The doctors will make sure they are. I'm sure of it."

"Cadence..." Shining said, pulling something out of his armour. "After we beat the monster, it disappeared in a puff of smoke. This was all that was left." He showed her the gem he found, wrapped in a forcefield.

"A... Gem?"

"Yes..."

"But aren't the only gems the ones that decided to guard the Empire?"

"I don't know... Apparently not... I guess Equestria is a big place. But it just up and appeared in the castle. There's no way it's a coincidence."

"Well seeing it gives me more of an idea on our prisoner."

"Prisoner? Weren't there two intruders where you were?"

"There were, but one managed to get away. I'm thinking, after your story, they booth were gems. They certainly looks like it and this all but confirms my suspicions."

"Now I'm worried how our gems are doing. You don't think they're in trouble do you? It's been a good number of hours."

"While the thought of Sombra's secrets makes me worry, the gems know how to handle themselves. If anything's too much for them they'll come back, asking for backup."

"Well in the meantime, I'd like to see this prisoner."

"Alright. Let's go to him." The two trotted to the prison block.





Granite sat alone in his cell, two guards planted on both parts of the outside. He hadn't made a move since Gagate went. There was no need to. Now that the arrogant gem was no longer there, he had no reason to fight. But he needed to stay there to find out more about what was happening, and where his master was. Then he looked as he heard trotting. Two ponies stopped in front of his cell, one of which being the pony who ambushed him after his fight.

"Hello." Cadence gave a small smile. Granite stayed silent, continuing to stare at the pair, so the princess continued. "I'm Princess Cadence, and this is my husband Shining Armour." The stallion in question eased up on his glare. "Do you have a name?"

"...Granite." He finally said.

"It's nice to meet you Granite." Cadence said, but got no response from him. "Yeah, I wish the circumstances could be nicer, but we need to clear some things up so we know what happened and why you're here. Is it okay if we ask you some questions?" Granite slowly nodded, so Cadence started. "Since we've goten your name, who was the one you were with?"

"I wasn't 'with' anyone. I have no allies at the moment."

"That doesn't answer the question. Do you know the name of the other gem or not?" Shining stepped forward.

"He called himself Gagate."

"I also fought a gem. Should I assume it was with this Gagate?" The prince asked.

"Most likely. He was the one who released it."

"Released? From where?"

"The same room I was in."

"What room would that be?"

"The room where I was trapped in a bubble like that one."

"Wait... Are you talking about where the gems keep the bubbles?" Cadence's brow furrowed, but Gagate merely shrugged.

"Gagate popped another bubble as well as mine. That was when the gem you're currently keeping in the barrier was released."

"Okay. Why were you two fighting?"

"He wanted me to join his master. But I already have a master I need to return to. He did not take my answer well so he attempted to forcefully take me."

"Oh... Who did he say his master was?"

"Someone called King Sombra." From the moment Granite said that name, the room went silent. The eyes of every pony there went to pinpricks.

"King... Sombra?" Cadence finally spoke up.

"That is what he said."

"That's impossible... King Sombra is dead. Killed by magic of the Crystal Heart. He's dead." Shining growled.

"Well I don't know. All I know is what Gagate told me."

"...Cadence..."

"...I know. But I really don't want to assume anything." The Alicorn threw out her worried expression and donned a calm face for the guards who were beyond worried at hearing this.

"Fine... We'll wait for the gems to come back."

"Well in the meantime, what are your intentions Granite?"

"Finding my master."

"Who is your master?" Shining frowned.

"That's not something you need to know."

"Alright. Do you plan to harm any of the ponies here?" Cadence asked.

"Right now I simply wish to find my master. Nothing else." Gagate stated. Cadence and Shining paused for a moment before trotting out of the room.

"Alright, what do you think?" Cadence asked.

"I don't know, he says he has no intention of hurting the ponies, but we still know next to nothing about him."

"He doesn't trust us Shining, he's not going to be willing to give too much away."

"Well I'm not sure I have much reason to trust him in the first place. For all we know he's the one working for Sombra, assuming that aspect is even true in the first place."

"Even if it's not, we have to take it into consideration."

"I know... But we also need to assume he might be lying. Quite frankly, I don't like the idea of him going free until we learn more about him."

"I'm not saying we should just let him go free, but I don't think he'll open up to us more if we don't offer our hoof first."

"Well... I suppose at the very least he hasn't tried to harm ponies. If he wanted to attack us outright, he'd have done it. But I still want an eye to be kept on him, in case he's planning anything."

"Yeah. I don't feel comfortable with leaving him alone either." The alicorn looked back at the room for a moment, before turning to her husband again. "I say we let him out of the cell, but we have someone watch him. We want him to trust us, so let's show him at least a little bit."

"Alright... But I never want him to be alone and unwatched until I know i can trust him."

"Alright." Cadence nodded as they both went back into the castle jail. Granite stared at them once again.

"I take it you've reached your decision?"

"We have." Shining replied.

"We've decided to let you go, but under supervision." Cadence said.

"I see." Granite nodded.

"And we have the right soldiers to supervise you, but until they get back, we have some other guards to watch you." Shining gestured for two crystal guards to stand by Granite.

"And these two are to accompany me until your chosen soldiers return?"

"That is correct." Cadence gave him a small smile, whilst Granite simply shifted his armour slightly.

"Though we'd like it if you stayed in the castle until they got back." Shining added.

"Very well." Granite replied. "I shall wait."





Various footsteps trailed along the snow, along with one set of hooves. The blizzard raged as a group walked through the frozen north.

"Damn... Could we really have not teleported farther?" Sodalite sighed.

"Yeah! The nature here sucks ass!" Fluorite bellowed, yelling over the blizzard.

"Stop making so much noise Fluorite. You're louder than the blizzard we're trying to get out of." Chalcanthite folded her arms.

"Mrrg..."

"Yeah but, come on, this place is a dump. Let's find a place to crash already. We need somewhere to live before we take back the Empire. I still kinda wish we'd just done that from the get- go." Cinnabar sighed.

"I hope you're not doubting our king Cinnabar." Azurite glared at the red gem.

"I wasn't saying that, so stop putting words in my mouth already. I'll shatter you if you call me a doubter again."  Cinnabar looked back at Azurite with her own glare.

"We should appreciate this place. It is where our king was made after all." Azurite suggested. Said king was ahead of them all, Mercury following. He didn't acknowledge any of them, just walking forward without any destination. Not one that the shadow gems could tell anyway. Perhaps there was one in his mind, or perhaps even he was as aimless as the rest of them. Just then, a mound rose up from the snowy path. Sombra stopped and looked at the rising mound expectantly. The snow cleared around the lump in the ground, showing the earthen gem himself.

"My king." He bowed before Sombra. "I beg your forgiveness, I was unable to recruit Granite to our efforts. The crystal princess interfered."

"...Her..." Sombra growled. "I'll deal with her later. Do you have a layout of the castle?"

"Yes my king." Gagate nodded.

"Are there any significant changes?"

"None, merely minor aspects so far, my King. I have also found a base of operations for us until we reclaim what is rightfully your's. It is quite farther north,  it I doubt they will venture into those mountains. May I bring us there?"

"You may." Sombra replied. At that, stone rose up from the snow, a floor and falls forming around them, shielding them from the blizzard. The stone room the golem created, then began to shift.

"It was quite an interesting place, and there is some civilisation quite close by as well. It seems very closed off from Equestria."

"Interesting. Investigate once we've arrived at this base of operations you've found."

"Yes my king." The stone barriers moved faster, towards a series of mountains far from the Empire.
> Beginnings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The door opened and the gems, still in shock from what happened, entered. The ponies were behind them, just as uncertain. When they were asked by the guards what happened, none answered. They all just kept heading to the throne room. Each face looked forlorn, turning heads as they passed.

They opened the door to the throne room, seeing an uncertain Shining Armour, and Cadence reassuring him. Both turned to see the gems and ponies.

"Oh hello." Shining smiled slightly. "Glad to see all of you are back."

"How... How was search?" Cadence asked. At that moment, the pair could've sworn they heard a pin drop. "Um..." The silence didn't bode well with Cadence. Little did she know how right she was.

"W-We saw... A private study room... With a Kindergarten..."

"Pardon?" Cadence frowned. "A... filly's school was there?"

"A Kindergarten means something different to a gem. It's where they're made. And he... Made one below the castle." They then began to explain everything to Cadence and Shining, who's expressions shifted from neutral to shock, then to morbid.

"So... You mean to tell me that somewhere... King Sombra is out there in Equestria..." Shining said, still processing the situation. The gems paused before all answering a collective. "Yes." Another long, silent pause made itself known.

"I see..." His horn glowed and a snowflake appeared. On it, was a letter with the contents just discussed. "Is there anyone else that knows who isn't here?"

"No Prince Armour." Lapis shook her head. "Only us."

"I see. We will think before deciding what to do. In the meantime, you gems are needed elsewhere."

"...We understand." Garnet said.

"What is our punishment?" Lapis asked.

"Punishment?" Cadence and Shining Armour frowned.

"Yeah. For everything that happened." Peridot said.

"Listen, nothing that happened was your fault." Cadence looked down at the group with a small smile. "Right now blame isn't something we can think about. What we do need to think about is what we do next."

“...Excuse me?” An aggravated voice said. They turned to one of the guards on the expedition. His coat, usually shining like other crystal ponies, had gone dull.

“Is there something wrong soldier?” Shining asked.

“Sir, I have respected many of your decisions and held my tongue, but, if I may...” He hesitated.

“Soldier you may.”

“This decision... It’s ludicrous! These gems were the ones responsible for bringing the fearful king back! They've been his enforcers and retainers, whose loyalty clearly has not" The gems stared at the stallion then looked down. Rock sighed.

"Alright cadet that's eno-."

"No sir! They are monsters that deserve to be punished!" He yelled at Rock before he turned back to Cadence and Armour. "My Prince... My Princess... Please... I implore you... You can't possibly let entities of evil like them go..." He pointed a hoof at the gems, who paused and slowly looked back at him.

"...Prince Armour, may we go?" Lapis asked.

"...You may. Head to the prison. There is someone there for you to see."

"Very well."

"What is your name cadet?" Shining asked.

"Silver Bolt, sir."

"Silver Bolt. You must understand the position the gems were in. They are not monsters. They were in a similar position to you. They were forced to do what they did. They didn't want to, but they had no other choice." Cadence explained.

"...I see." Silver said, looking away from his rulers.

"Do you understand?"

"I do." He said, however even after lowering his head to bow, a scowl on his face could still be seen, causing Cadence to frown. However, she currently had bigger things to worry about.

"Very well." Shining turned to the rest of the guards. "All of you. None of you are to speak a word of the Kindergarten or Sombra's freedom to anyone until further notice. We still need to notify Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Twily, too. Anyone who breathes a word of this without our permission will be severely punished for their actions. If such information was made clear to the public, it would cause a panic. Do we make ourselves clear?" The guards each nodded.

"You are each dismissed." Cadence said and each of the guards left, leaving the two on their own. They looked to each other with frowns. "Shining... What are we going to do?"

"I don't know yet Cadence... I don't know..." He looked down. "For now we need to make this situation clear to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. We all need to be alert. Along with this, increase the amount of guards around the Crystal Heart. It must be protected at all costs. Our defences need to be fortified before we can launch any kind of investigation..." He rubbed his horn in frustration as he began to think hard for the next dosen steps.

"Shining hold on there. One at a time. We'll get nowhere if we're the ones who panic."

"I should've seen this coming though! Of course he'd have a plan B even for death!"

"Shining..." She brought his face up to her's, showing him her smile. "Listen. We'll think about this together. We can stop this and catch him, but not if you panic."

Shining looked straight into Cadence's eyes and sighed before smiling back. "Okay. Thank you Cadence." The two nuzzles before looking at each other.

"I'll keep in contact with Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Twilight. I'll leave handling the guards to the Captain." She said.

"Alright."





Granite sat in prison, two guards stood next to his cell. He hadn't moved since he was placed in the cell, he simply sat on a bed on the wall opposite to the bars, staring off into space. The cell itself wasn't as dainty as most, on account of being made of crystal like the rest of the buildings in the Empire. However, Granite saw them differently. He had been made from these crystalline walls, given life by an entity of repressed insanity. It generated an odd feeling in Granite, looking at the walls. It was almost like  a pony staring at jars and jars of internal organs, yet not as unsettling. He scowled.

"Emotions are a pain." He thought.

He was drawn from his thoughts when he heard footsteps. He listened, but only turned his head up slightly to see who it was. He heard many different footsteps, so it meant that it was a group. Perhaps some guards putting another prisoner into a cell? Or perhaps it was the escorts that the prince had promised him. Now in front of his cell, his vision of the wall beyond the bars was obstructed by six gems.

"...It's you..." Lapis frowned. Granite looked between each of them.

"How did you get out?" Amethyst asked.

"I was freed by a gem of the earth." He answered.

"And he wanted you to join Sombra." Garnet concluded.

"Yes. I gather that name is of importance to you?"

"It's only the maniac who's now free." Peri folded her arms.

"I see." Granite looked down.

"Shining Armour wants us to supervise you. Essentially a parole."

"Does he wish to gain something from me? Locations? Power? I know nothing of this 'Sombra' other than the gem that preached his name."

"We wouldn't expect you to." Jasper glared at him and folded her arms. "But I guess this is one of those 'second chance' dealings."

"Personally I'd prefer it if you rotted in that bubble." Lapis said coldly, her finger tapping her arm in annoyance that stemmed from multiple causes. "But... Orders, I guess."

"What do you plan on doing once you're out?" Peri raised a brow.

"I wish to find my master. The masters of others don't interest me."

"Searching for that insane asshole huh?" Peri sighs.

"Hate to break it to you but... He won't be coming back." Lapis said, the aggression in her voice decreasing and almost gaining  softness.

"Do you mean to imply that he was defeated?" Granite asked, his fingers twitching.

"...She means he left you here." Jasper said.

"You do not go anywhere without us." Garnet said, a small hint of frustration being picked up in her voice. "Nowhere without at least 2 of us. If none of us are available then you go to the Prince and Princess or the nearest pair of guards and wait. When one of us tells you to do something, you do it. If we think we see you summoning a weapon we will not hesitate to attack. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." Granite replied. They all paused. Amethyst snickered slightly.

Garnet looked to the two guards beside the cell. "Open it." They looked to the fusion before unlocking and pulling the bars open.

"...Well whaddya waiting for? Stand up and get over here already." Jasper grunted. Granite slowly stood up and walked towards the group. They each looked to Granite cautiously as he looked back to each of them. No facial expressions could be made out, though that was mainly because he didn't have many facial features to express with.

"Come with us." Jasper said and walked out of the holding area. The rest followed. Granite looked around the castle. One might call it beautiful, but it didn't matter much to him. He was merely staying put until his creator returned. A spark of anger lit up in him when they said he was never coming back. He would spread chaos and insanity everywhere, this universe would be no different. He wondered what would happen to each of the six.





The group arrived to the gem's shared dorm. Granite looked around. There wasn't much difference between them overall, but he was able to tell which bed belonged to which gem by the contents of the beds, such as the level of mess, or pieces of copper wire. The only ones he couldn't tell were a few standard ones. Though by process of elimination, he guessed that they were Garnet's and Lapis's.

"This is where you'll be saying." Garnet said.

"I see." Granite nodded. "Why do you need beds? You do not sleep."

"We don't need to, but it's fun." Amethyst pointed out, looking out through the window.

"Would you like to try a bed?" Garnet asked.

"I would not. I do not need sleep, so I shall not sleep. Unlike the rest of you, turning off my external sensors for hours isn't a hobby of mine." Granite said. He almost pitied ponies and other organic lifeforms for sleep being a necessity to them.

"Suit yourself." Amethyst shrugged. "I'm not standing guard." She went over and crashed onto her own bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

"1 2 3 not it." Lapis walked away and sat down.

"I'm too big to fit on my bed anyway." Jasper shrugged. "I know I can shapeshift and stuff but... Screw it. I don't feel like sleeping after today. She sat down on her bed and watched Granite. She and Garnet stayed up whilst the others sat on their bed. No one spoke as the night drifted upon them.






In the Dragon Lands, on the hot stone earth and surrounded by several pools of magma and encircled even moreso by a group of mountains, a certain fight was going on.

“Ha!” A familiar female dragon laughed as she floored another. The fellow dragons watching the fight cheered and roared. The winning dragon, a bright red dragoness with flames surrounding her, grinned and strolled over to the gem pile. She picked up her new pile and walked over to a large blue dragon, who was currently lying down. He opened an eye when the smaller dragon came towards him.

“Got us some good eating, boss.” Flamedra said, plopping her gem pile down.

“Sure.” Medreth grunted, taking about half of the pile that barely covered half his claws and chewed on the gems. Flamedra sat down and chewed on a few gems.

“I knocked some dragons into the dirt so maybe they’ll join us too.”

“That right?” He pondered, scowling briefly at the thought of a good number of his own lackeys having run with their tails between their legs.

“Heh, is the Thunder Beast cranky?” Flamedra grinned.

“Oh shut up.” He stood up straight. “I’ve rested enough. Let’s get back to business.” He looked up and in the distance, dragons were flying around the Dragon Lord himself; Torch, sitting atop his giant mountain of a throne in all his pride and power.

“About time.” She chuckled.

“I’ll aim for that spot soon.” The dragon grinned.

Towards the clustered group of dragons, walked another figure. Scales and claws covering her green and red body were clear, but had a few differences. One being the gem that stuck to her body just below her neck, something that the dragons who saw her noticed.

“Well hey there.” One of the dragons grinned. “What’ve you got there little dragoness?”

“Hey that’s a nice- looking, great- smelling jewel you got there.” One of the larger ones grinned. “How about I take it off your claws.”

“...” She ignored them and looked off to the mountain Torch was sitting atop. She walked towards it but was blocked by the large dragon’s hand that slammed down in front of her.

“It wasn’t a request, whelp.” The Dragon said, a grin still on his face. “What’s a little whelp like yourself doing with a gem like that anyway? It smells delicious, yet seems familiar.” Medreth looked to them and sniffed the air for a moment.
“That’s…” The lightning dragon frowned. The figure looked up to them with a smile. Her gem began to glow and all the dragons were blinded.

“I am Bloodstone, and I claim this land in the name of my king.”