The Call

"My Diamond?" Asked Pearlis. White Diamond sighed.

"How embarrassing. To be defeated by a normal Lapis Gem - a cracked Lapis Gem no less ... And where's Starlight?"

"She left during the mayhem ... Shall I notify the science chamber yet?"

"No need. Onyx, go to Homeworld. Try and see how much has changed within Homeworld," ordered White Diamond Onyx nodded and went on her way, leaving just WD and Pearlis.

"B-But, that planet. Isn't that the same one?"

"It is. Consider this another test. If they can, somehow, manage to solve this problem ... Then perhaps they do deserve to stay after all."

.......

"... Why didn't you tell me about that, Garnet? That mom shattered Pink Diamond?" Steven finally asked. Garnet knew there was no hiding now.

"Rose did a lot of things that she wasn't proud of. But it was all for the Earth. For Amethyst to be herself. For Pearl to be free. For me to be together. And for you to exist. She did what she had to."

"Even if it meant shattering someone?"

"... Yes."

Steven took a moment to place his hand on his own gemstone. One can't change the past, can one? Steven only had one thing to say, as they all went home ...

"Thanks for telling me."

~~~~~~

The months came and went. Winter had lasted for quite a while really, but eventually, it began to loosen its grip on the world around it. Snow began to melt, flowers began to bloom, the air began to warm up. Grass turned green, and flowers bloom. Yes, spring time had finally come around, and for some, not a moment too soon. Winter had been a little bit of a roller coaster for some, and now with warmer weather, some relaxation away from the cold would suit many good. For those out in the countryside, namely pass the barnhouse, springtime woken up plenty of animals from their hibernation: squirrels, rabbits, and stuff of that nature. Over at the Beach City beach, the springtime weather had begun to take its grip on the land. Still, while many a resident was getting the spring fever, some were still on the more prominent edge of things. Along the shores, one kid, Steven, was sitting on a seaside rock, waiting a bit for a friend to come back around. His view was facing the ocean, his feet going back and forth as he was waiting it out. As far as many of the residents go, Steven would probably had the biggest life changer over winter ever. His mind had a lot on it: Pink Diamond being the biggest candidate, along with the human zoo, and White Diamond's science chamber. As he was sitting there, someone began to come towards him on his mail route.

"Morning, Jamie," said Steven. Jamie tipped his hat to him.

"Morning, Steven. Nice spring day," said Jamie, stopping for a moment.

"Nice day. Is that for us?" Steven asked, once he saw the bag. Inside it, Steven could see that there was a small package inside it, small and actually gift-wrapped. Jamie followed his eyes down to the package, and pulled it out of his mailbag.

"This little thing? Oh, yeah, it's for Lapis actually. Uh, Steven? Do you mind giving this to her when you see her?" Jamie asked, slightly shy about the subject. Steven though was more quiet than usual once the name was said. Before Steven could answer though, the ocean surface began to ripple oddly. Steven and Jamie heard the splashing, and when looking out, the two began to see someone starting to come in. Unaffected by the water, and walking in casually from the surf, a tall Gem Garnet started to come in. Steven jumped off his rock to see her, as a simple flex removed any water from her body.

"Garnet, you're back!" Steven said.

"Steven, Jamie."

"Any news?" Steven asked, hopefully. Garnet just shook her head.

"No, Steven, not a thing," Garnet said. Steven's moment of hope was dashed, and he just sat back down in a slump on the sand. Jamie saw that Steven was a bit sadder than usual on that matter.

"What we're you doing?" Asked Jamie. Garnet adjusted her shades before answering.

"I've been out in the ocean, looking for Lapis and Jasper," replied Garnet. Ever since Lapis and Jasper had left during winter, different Gems and their friends had been going around trying to find the two. So far though, they had found no sign of either one, and this investigation was no different. Things just hadn't been quite the same since they had left the picture, and if they can find out where they were, it'll be all the difference. Jamie didn't realize that Lapis had actually gone missing though. Sure, she had been a bit quiet for the last couple of months, but missing?

"What happened?"

"Don't worry about it, Jamie. They've been on a mission together, and hadn't come back yet," said Garnet. This wasn't exactly true, but Garnet didn't want Jamie to end up as troubled as some of Lapis's friends were. Jamie sighed.

"Ok then. For a second, I thought she was missing or something. Well, can you give it to her when she comes back?" Jamie asked.

"I'll be glad to," replied Garnet. Jamie nodded, and after giving the package to Garnet, he tipped his hat to them, and went off on his route. Steven waited until Jamie was far enough away until he got up and looked to Garnet.

"But, Lapis is missing. Why did you tell him that?"

"I didn't want his life to be tainted while she is away," said Garnet. When the fusion looked to Steven, she saw that the boy was looking out to the ocean, climbing back onto his rock and sitting back down.

"Steven, don't worry about Lapis and Jasper. We'll find her, I promise you," Garnet assured him.

"I know ... I just hope she and Jasper are okay. Is it dangerous being fused like that?" Steven asked, worried sick over both Gems in question. Garnet took a moment to look out to the ocean again, before looking back to him ...

"Here, why don't you go and play in Equestria? You hadn't been there in a while."

Did ... did she just dodged the question? Steven knew Garnet, and he knew she would be more honest with him, so why did she dodge it now? She was right though - he hadn't been in Equestria in a while. Steven got off his rock.

"Ok. Hey, maybe Pinkie Pie made some new cupcakes today," Steven figured. Such a sweet loving mare would be the type of pony to make such things on her own time.

"She just might," Garnet agreed. Steven, now more interested in something else, went off on his way, as Garnet looked on. She knew well that Steven had a lot on his mind, but just isn't willing to show it yet. He didn't want to trouble anyone, same as anybody or anypony. Either way, Garnet just turned and began walking back to the temple.

.......

Garnet herself didn't take very long until the fusion was back at the temple, dry and tired from the searching. Once inside the Beachhouse, a few other Crystal Gems were there. In the room were only about five including Garnet: Pearl, Star Quartz, Emerald, and Peridot. With Jasper and Lapis gone, there was a total of twelve Crystal Gems, seven of them out of the temple at the moment.

"Ah, Garnet you're back. Any news?" Asked Pearl. Garnet just sighed.

"I looked within a hundred miles out to sea, even around the Galaxy Warp. There's no sign of them anywhere," reported Garnet.

"Dang it! You clod cheater," Peridot griped, who was playing a game with Emerald, who pretty much cheated as far as Peridot was concern. Emerald was simply sitting there full of pride.

"You just don't got it, P, admit it," said Emerald, fluffing her hair. Peridot was just simply bugged with him, as they all heard the Warp Pad go off from just down the room. From there, they then saw more of the Crystal Gems arrive: Flint, Bismuth, Diopside, Jade, and Fulgurite. Flint moved up to Garnet once he saw her.

"Hey, Garnet. Anything from you?"

"No. Any luck from your group?" asked Garnet

"We tried all sorts of places: the Battlefield, communication tower, the geode, that Blue Diamond ruins, the galaxy warp, nothing. How can such a big fusion just go missing that fast?" wondered Fulgurite.

"I just hope they're ok. Being in a fusion is one thing, but being fused with a cracked Gem? You're just asking for damage," Flint said, as he sat down, hand to his head. Star Quartz scooted over to let him sit down next to her.

"... What's so dangerous? You've fused before. Right?" Star asked, curiously. Flint just sighed and turned to her.

"Star, it's more complicated than that. Being in a fusion is hard enough for some Gems, but this is a normal quartz Gem and a unstable Lazuli. It makes for a disaster waiting to happen."

"He's right, Star," agreed Garnet, "A fusion is a strong connection between two Gems. Some would call it a simple strength advantage, but others would call it a powerful bond between eachother. showing how much you care for eachother. If one becomes unstable, it can affect both sides. Hard to say what happened between them both, even now."

"THANK YOU, Garnet," Flint said. It was a rare moment that Garnet and Flint agree on anything on such situations, so it was nice that he and Garnet came to terms on something like this without hours of bickering. Still, Garnet and Flint were not wrong about the situation at hand for Jasper and Lapis to be stuck together this way. They weren't sure if they were even alive, let alone still fused, and even if they were down on Earth, where would they go?

"Speaking of missing Gems, where's Amethyst? Haven't seen her since we left this morning," asked Bismuth.

"She went to Equestria. I tried to get her going, and she decided to look there ... Least that's what she told me," Pearl simply said. If they know Amethyst though, she probably just said that to play around with her ponies.

"Are you serious? Alright, who wants to get her?"

"Hey, dude, leave her be. She's been running around for days, you know that," said Bismuth.

"It's about time we all had a rest for a bit. We'll look some more later," agreed Garnet. Normally, flint would blow off again, but instead, Flint just stood up.

"Well, you all do that then, I'm gonna keep looking," decided Flint. Amongst the group, Flint was doing the hardest in trying to find them both, not spending much time to rest.

"You sure, Flint? You've been searching for days and nights on end," Diopside said, she and Jade going up to him.

"Don't worry, Jade, Dio, I'm fine. You all just rest up and do what you wish, I won't be long," Flint replied, walking over to the front door. The Gems were going to protest, and have him relax for a while, but Flint was not going to stand there and hear that. Flint got the door open, but just before he could go, the Gem only took a few steps forward then his foot hit something down on the floor of their porch. Flint stopped and looked down to his foot, only to find something was dropped off at their front step. The small object appeared to be a disk of sorts, marked with the tri-diamond insignia. It was about as big as a plate, and the same shape, pure silver in color of metals, and the Yellow Diamond symbol blinking. Odd to see out of nowhere like this. Flint went on and picked it up, turning back into the Beachhouse for the others to see.

"Any of you expecting a delivery from the diamonds?" asked Flint, as Garnet took the disk. It appeared to be very new, and up to date unlike the usual message machines they had to gather up before. Both times it was from before the Gem war even started, and it was a surprise that they'd get this, especially after White Diamond before ...

"Ready, everyone?" Garnet asked. Everyone was about as ready as they could ever be. Garnet got the disk to activate after a bit, clicking on the blinking symbol on it. She placed it over in the center of the room, and as Garnet expected, a large hologram appeared. This was a pure yellow figure of Yellow Diamond herself! So this was a message directly from the Diamond Authority itself then. Yellow Diamond seemed to look as serious as she usually is, though many of them wondered exactly what the message actually is, especially if it's coming from Yellow Diamond herself. All of them were just sitting there and ready to hear what she had to say.

"Greetings, Crystal Gems. You may be a bit ... stressed, about recent events with the leading Diamond of the Diamond Authority. While word hadn't gone around on what particular events had happened there, White Diamond herself was generous enough, to lend me a information just before departure. Since you are on more reasonable terms with Homeworld, even after the event, you should be forewarned of the event coming. There is a object hidden within the planet that I believe you should be aware of, since you are so bent on protecting Earth. A weapon. A giant, Gem weapon deep within Earth, that will destroy your planet once activated. When exactly is unclear, but Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG should be able to elaborate on it for you. Good day."

The message came to an end, the hologram had disappeared, and the disk became inactive. Everyone in the room was silent about this supposed doomsday device now being told to them. A Gem weapon, buried in the earth, that will destroy the entirety of the planet the minute it activates. THAT is a scary thought, and if this was true, this weapon was given all the time in the world to go off and they would've never known about it at all. Most of the reactions within the Crystal Gems was absolute shock, especially for the original Crystal Gems. Pearl was visually shaken up, Garnet just stood there speechless, and Bismuth was actually feeling deceived. Homeworld was on better terms, and they pull something like this at them? Bismuth's fist clenched up.

"A weapon that could destroy everything ..." Bismuth simply said.

"Well, that's new," commented Fulgurite. As they were talking, Peridot began to slowly creep to the door ...

"We've been running around for months with our friends probably getting corrupted, just to hear there's a doomsday time bomb! DANG, can't we catch a break?" Added Emerald. Pearl stated to think.

"Peridot facet 2F5L. cut 5XG ... WAIT A MINUTE."

Suddenly Pearl turned around, and everyone then saw their proof: Peridot standing outside, looking at them like some scared cat, her hand on the door as if just quietly shutting it. If that doesn't scream guilty, nothing else would. Peridot just stared like a deer in a headlight for the next five seconds before ...

"AAAAHHHH!"

"PERIDOT!!!"

And off she went.

The beach would normally be quiet as a mouse aside from the waves, but now a faint sound of Peridot's screaming echoed around the beach. Peridot had a head start in this sudden foot race she was doing, the green Gem in complete panic, arms out in front and everything. Of course, being on the small side, the other Gems didn't had to worry too much about speed. Flint and Bismuth were the ones going after her first, and the two soon caught up with her. Flint grabbed her, and gripping her arms back.

"AH! No no no, wait wait, please, I-if you just let me explain -"

"Explain what?! You knew about this doomsday device all along, and you didn't tell us once!" Bellowed Bismuth. Peridot gulped, sweat pouring from her worried face.

"O-ok, maybe it kinda ... slipped my mind? - OWowowowow!" Peridot's response only got Flint pulling her arms back more.

"Slipped your mind?! How can an apocalypse just 'slip your mind'?!"

"B-but there's so much I had to handle while I was here, and there's Equestria, I-I didn't think it would be too bad, maybe you wouldn't mind."

Wrong answer.

"Wouldn't mind?! Being exploded!?!" Screamed Flint. Ok, her mind was not helping her, so Peridot went for broke.

"... I'm. S-Sorry?"

"No you're not. Not yet." Bismuth turned her hand into a pick axe, and once that came up, it was clear what was going to happen. At this point, the others began to arrive, as Peridot scrambled and struggled in panic, Bismuth ready to cut that Gemstone right off her head. As she thrashed and kicked, she finally whacked Flint in the knee, making him loosen his grip just enough so the green Gem got free. She didn't get too far though before Bismuth and Flint got to her again. Before either Gem could finish Peridot off, the small Gem suddenly was inside a bubble, and pulled away by Garnet. Peridot breathed a sigh of relief.

"Garnet, thank you so much. I would've been shattered if you -"

Peridot only needed to see Garnet's ticked off eyes after she removed her shades to shut her mouth. She wasn't out of the woods yet.

"Eep!"

"Peridot, how could you not tell us anything about this weapon? It could've gone off at anytime, and you've been with us for over a year and a half!" Garnet yelled, the sheer power in her voice humbling the green Gem into huddling in her bubble. Seemed all the Gems were out to get her. All but one.

"... Excuse me?"

"Yes. Star?" Asked Flint.

"... Yellow Diamond said she knows about it. She is the only one who knows out of all of us. Right? Yellow Diamond said herself. Didn't she?" Star pointed out. Peridot stayed quiet in her bubble, praying and hoping that Star Quartz can somehow get her out of this. It was a long shot. Garnet looked over to Peridot for a minute or two. Star Quartz had a point there, even if she may not understand the situation entirely ...

"... We'll get back to you. Peridot."

With one tap of the finger, Peridot and the bubble suddenly disappeared! Star was spooked at first, but Pearl then addressed the others.

"Yellow Diamond said the weapon is buried within the Earth. So a good place to start is to make a method to get us there. There's plenty to use back at the barn, and we can spare a bit of metal from the Galactic Ray if we have to," explained Pearl. The weapon isn't something that they can walk to, they're gonna have to dig down deep to even get to it.

"Should I get Steven and Amethyst for this, or no?" Asked Fulgurite to Garnet.

"Leave him be. He's got enough on his mind already ..."

"... Why not?"

"Guys, look. Steven's been going through a lot through these past few months already. Rose, Pink Diamond, Lapis going missing. Telling him about this would just make things worse for him ..." No more reminders were needed there. Steven had a lot to think about already, and as Garnet said, he was indeed having a lot on his plate. It wouldn't be well to add the dangers of a doomsday device would just make him more paranoid about things. Even Flint couldn't argue with that logic.

"And if he finds out before we tell him?" Flint asked.

"Then we'll tell him straight."

"What if he ends up at the barn during our project? He's bound to see our work if he gets there."

Garnet took a moment to think, but then Bismuth got an idea.

"I know! How about we give Steven some more missions to do? It can easily keep him busy til were done, and hey, maybe he'll even find Lapis and Jasper while gone. It'll be ... what was that saying again?"

"Killing two birds with one stone, we gotcha," Emerald finished.

"... Well, that sounds pretty good actually. He hasn't gone out on missions much, so this could get him back in the game. You know what, we'll do that."

.......

And in such thoughts on the matter, they were not alone. As the group started to go to the barn, two snakes peered out from behind some mountain rubble, undetected by anyone there. After they've completely gone, the two snakes suddenly slithered out. They both looked the same overall, but with some slight differences. both snakes were fairly large, five feet long altogether from head to tip of tail, both bodies covered in green scales. One of the snakes was light green, while the other dark green, and while the light green snake had two black stripes down her back, the other had a row of black diamonds. Both snakes looked like vipers in shape as well.

"Did you understand all that, Acid?" asked the lighter snake.

"I don't know how, Cyanide, but yes," replied the darker one.

"So did I. Shame on the Gems, isn't it?"

"Oh yes. You do realize what this means?" Acid quizzed, as she slithered along the beach a little bit alongside Cyanide.

"Indeed. Those Crystal Gems and ponies will be so occupied, they won't have any time to watch over their little home. Be a shame if they are to come back to even more trouble, won't it?" Cyanide figured, giggling and hissing.

"Such a deep shame. And they have O so much stress as it is. Just as well: they're the only ones who have knowledge about this creature," said Acid.

"True, true. And if they fail, Equestria will have two more residents," Cyanide hissed.

"Meantime, maybe we should help things along. Keep the humans busy. What do ya say?" suggested Acid. Cyanide giggled on hearing that.

"I'd be glad to. Lead the way, my dear fellow serpent."

~~~~~~

Winter Wrap-Up, Winter Wrap-Up, let's finish our holiday cheer.
Winter Wrap-Up, Winter Wrap-Up, cuz tomorrow spring is here.~

As Earth was in springtime, Equestria too was going through the seasonal shift. As one would've guessed though, Equestria had it's differences: as the Alicorns changed day to night, winter here had to be manually handled by the Pegesi and Earth Ponies of Ponyville: the Pegesi up in the sky, moving the clouds to add more heat down to the ground, and the Earth Ponies themselves working down on the ground, plowing away the snow and adding new seeds into the dirt. With the busy town just outside, one of the resident Alicorns, Twilight Sparkle, was going around with a checklist levitated with her magic, and going over what needed to be done over the course of Winter Wrap-Up.

"Ok, let's see. Animal Team?"

Twilight looked over to one part of the groups, which had some various ponies waking up some hibernating animals with some soothing bells. Fluttershy was amongst them, waking up a family of ferrets. Twilight nodded and checked them off her list.

"Right on schedule. And the weather team ..."

Twilight looked up above her head, seeing the pegesus moving away the clouds to let Celestia's sunshine beam down to help melt the snow below, with Rainbow Dash leading the team herself, and getting plenty of clouds cleared up. Twilight marked them off as well.

"Alright, going well. And the plant team is ..."

Twilight trotted over to a nearby field, seeing the plant team in question going to work. Different Earth ponies were working the fields, some pulling carts full of seeds while others planted them down in place. They had it easier actually, Amethyst actually helping them out by digging and putting in the seeds her own way. Twilight was glad to see everything was going just as planned, and marked them all down on the list in front of her. Animal, Plant, and Weather teams were all doing well this year. As the Alicorn was going through the list, suddenly, she heard someone familiar coming her way.

"Hey, Twilight!" Steven called, coming over to her. However, Steven wasn't exactly aware that Equestria was still cold and full of snow, so he was not dressed properly for the situation, right down to sandals on his feet.

"Steven, hey Steven! What's up, dude?" Amethyst called, as she took a break and went over to Steven. Twilight took a moment to see him too, but rather than a simple hello, Twilight went right up to the little issue Steven was in.

"Steven, aren't you cold?" Twilight asked. Steven looked down to his feet for a quick second, his toes and feet having just a little bit of snow on them.

"I thought spring got here already," Steven admitted, embarrassed, and only now feeling a bit chilly. As he was standing there, suddenly a scarf was wrapped around his neck, and boots were put on his feet, coming from a white unicorn, Rarity.

"There you go, darling, you'll catch a cold if you come in like that," Rarity advised.

"Oh, thank you, Rarity. So, what's going on? Wanna hang out?" Steven asked, seeing everypony going around and handling the cleanup of spring.

"Oh, you don't know yet do you? Sorry, but we're in the middle of Winter Wrap-Up right now," Twilight said, hoof out as if presenting the event to him. Steven saw a pair of Pegasus pushing away clouds as five Earth Ponies were getting the snow piles together, away from the trees so they could melt faster.

"Winter Wrap-Up? Is that another Equestria holiday?" Steven asked.

"Not exactly a holiday, Steven: everypony comes together and helps clean up winter. Wake up the animals from hibernation, clearing the clouds, planting seeds. It's a Ponyville yearly tradition," Twilight explained.

"Yeah, another gig to get spring here a little quicker. They got me working with the planters over there," Amethyst said, thumb aimed to the Plant team. Amethyst was casual with it, but Steven looked over to the lake, and saw that some ponies were still skating along it.

"What're they doing?"

"They're skating to break the ice up. Why, you wanna lend a hoof?"

"YES," Steven simply said. Amethyst, playfully agreeing to the idea, lifted Steven right up for him to end up sitting on her shoulders. Skating about on ice was probably a better, more exciting thing to do than dealing with seeds.

"Now we're talking. Come on, kiddo, the ice awaits," Amethyst said. She was just about to head right on down to the lake when ...

"HEY GUYS!"

All of a sudden, a yellow blur rushed by, Twilight, Rarity, Amethyst and Steven caught completely by surprise. Amethyst and Steven ended up in a cartoonic tail spin, until the two were on the ground side by side, completely dizzy, as the figure skidded to a halt after a U-turn. The figure, as it turned out, was Fulgurite. However, skidding to a stop kinda tossed up a ton of snow at the group too, burying them in it.

"Oh. Sorry gang. Been looking for you two," Fulgurite said, as the group got themselvers out of the snow.

"Perhaps not so sudden of a stop next time, darling?" Rarity suggested, wiping off snow from her fur. Amethyst shook her head to get rid of the snow like a dog before looking to Fulgurite.

"Sup with you?" Amethyst asked.

"Amethyst, Steven, got something for ya," Fulgurite said, getting out a unique list from her pocket to give to them. The list on the paper was written by Pearl, and made up of various tasks and locations listed down in a very neat pattern only Pearl would bother herself to do. It was a rather short notice list to make, but easy to understand as Twilight, Steven, and Amethyst looked it over.

"What do we have here?"

"It's a list of missions Garnet wanted you guys to do. Both of you hadn't been given very much lately, and Since the others are so busy with their own missions as of late, you guys can go around and handle these for us," Fulgurite explained. Of course, this wasn't entirely true, but Garnet still wanted to get them away for a while until this weapon problem is over and done.

"All of them?" Asked Amethyst in a groan.

"All of them," insisted Fulgurite. The list had quite a number of targets to catch, and a number of places to wander off from, some they had never even been to before. Be that as it may, however, Garnet probably knew a lot more about this, and knew well what she was doing.

"But what're the rest of you doing?"

"Don't worry about that, Steven, you just keep to your little list, take all the time you need, and go from there. So, eh, good luck."

Before either Amethyst or Steven could stop her, Fulgurite was suddenly gone like a light, leaving them with their list. Well, looking at the list, Steven and Amethyst had a bit more to take care of than they thought.

~~~~~~

For Steven and Amethyst, things had kicked off rather quickly with their own little task at hand. With the list in hand, both Gems had to return right away, straight back to the Temple. With every other Gem out and busy, and with the Mane Six still doing Winter Wrap-Up, Amethyst and Steven had the place to themselves. The two were sitting on the couch, and had the list out on the table. With them looking it over, the list had a bit of direction and specifics, which included a picture of the targets, and the exact locations where they would be at. Looking at the order they were in and the locations, they already got a basic order on where they should go to first. Although it was a bit out of nowhere for Steven and Amethyst, the two were pretty excited about doing this. This is the first HUGE mission that both Crystal Gems were given, and they couldn't wait to get rolling.

"So, Garnet wants us to deal with all of these monsters by ourselves?" Amethyst summed up, admittedly excited, and looking over what they got going for them. Each monster looked different, freaky, and strong by the looks of things, except for a few. In fact, the first one they see looked like just a simple insect of all things.

"Wonder what they're doing that's got them so busy," wondered Steven.

"Beats me, but DANG, look what we got here! We gotta be higher up on the team level than we thought to get all these," amethyst replied, pointing to all the monsters they got to face and handle. Amethyst may be right about that, seeing what kind of strange creatures and what places they had to go to. Steven continued packing things up in his cheeseburger backpack, which included plenty of snacks, and a number of extra survival things: compass, water bottle, and so on. As they were busy doing that, they both heard someone come up to the door.

"Hey, Steven, Amethyst!"

"Oh, Connie, hi," Amethyst said. Sure enough, Connie was here for a visit, and Connie was quick to see that Steven and Amethyst was packing up for something.

"What's going on here?" Connie asked. Steven simply answered her by showing her the list they were given.

"Garnet is having me and Amethyst on a monster scavenger hunt!" Steven revealed. Connie looked over the list up and down for a little bit, seeing what they got to handle.

"Wow, Steven. You have to get ALL of them? That's quite a lot," Connie noted.

"Yeah, we know. Garnet's got us on a BIG time mission now!" Amethyst said, coming in between the two. Amethyst was about as psyched about getting things started as anybody else would be.

"How long are you going to be gone for?" Connie asked.

"Oh. Actually, I dunno. Could take a while to get all of these guys, but we'll be sure to stop by during our trip, right Amethyst?"

"You bet. Come on, let's go catch us some beasts!" Amethyst said, already heading out the door to begin their big hunt. Steven and Connie had a short moment together, before Steven started walking out himself. Connie was a little bummed out, but not too undeterred, as she watched Steven and Amethyst go off to start their big mission.

"Good luck!"

Gang's All Here

View Online

The Beach House, at this point anyway, was completely barren for the moment when Garnet stepped in. For the moment, it was probably a good thing that it actually was. That just simply told her that Amethyst and Steven had been and gone to complete their task given to them already. For the fusion though, it was hard to grasp what had happened over the last few months, and how much of a nosedive they've got hit with. They now had this giant weapon to deal with to top off what they already been doing, AND with two of their own missing as well. Obviously, this was something big, and despite the fact that she had just hid this away from them one way or another, Garnet knew that she was the only one with some proper knowledge about what this weapon actually is.

Probably good she came alone for this.

Garnet kept her own anger to her in the back of her mind, as she walked over to the back of the room, to the Gem Temple door. Heading in, the fusion was soon within the Gem basement. After venturing into the Gem chamber, Garnet started to look around at the various bubbled Gems around her. While many of them were still bubbled up, one of the bubbles still had a full bodied Gem in it. She was huddled up, her knees up to her forehead.

"Peridot."

Peridot turned around fast, still stuck in Garnet's bubble. She couldn't move the bubble around, or exactly move the bubble in anyway.

"Is it my one hour in the yard, as humans call it?" Peridot asked. She did feel like she was basically being locked up. At least if she was bubbled, she won't remember exactly what was going on around her, and time would fly faster, but her just sitting in a dark room, floating amongst other corrupted Gems, did make her feel a bit worse. Rather than say right away, Garnet simply hopped up, and grabbed the bubble gently to bring Peridot down to ground level. To make sure Peridot could understand her more clearly, Garnet took off her shades so she could see her eye-to-eye. The expression in her eyes showed that a grudge was still there, but not as deadly as earlier when she first bubbled her.

"Peridot, listen to me carefully. None of us had forgiven you, not yet. However, you're the only one who actually knows more about the weapon."

"I've been told a bit about it, yeah."

"Good. Better tell us exactly what you know Peridot. Or would you rather stay in here?"

.......

"Since it appears I have no further options, I've decided that it would be best to share some vital information to you Crystal Gems," Peridot said. She may feel powerful for the moment, but Garnet made sure to keep the girl up on a child leash she found in the barn. Silly, but hey, it works for her, and it's leather rather than metal. All the other Gems out at the barn stood and listened, as Peridot began with her presentation. Star Quartz, the only one willing to help out, came in with a cardboard box, with a number of pictures on it which Peridot took the time to draw out. It was no screen, but it had to do. Peridot also had a fly swatter as her 'pointer' to present the matter at hand. The first picture on the box simply showed the Earth on it, as Peridot swatted at it with her fly swatter.

"this is the Earth. Deep within the confines of the Earth's core lies , the Cluster! Rotate," began Peridot. Well, at least they got a name for this Geo-Weapon they're dealing with. Star Quartz did as she was told, and simply turned the box around to showed what seemed to be some spiked, multi-colored ball now inside a circle.

"This is the Cluster: A gigantic artificial fusion consisting of millions of Gem shards! It has laid dormant for thousands of years within the Earth's crust. Once it activates and regains its form, the result will be catastrophic. Now!" Peridot then swatted at the box again, getting Star Quartz to put her hand within the box, do take something from within the box and shoot out from the box, 'destroying' the Earth, and getting the main idea across. Garnet shuttered on the idea of millions of Gem shards being forced to fuse together. But when Peridot saw the thing Star got in mind ...

"What is that?!"

The puppet was a simple green puppet, buttons for eyes, and fake teeth.

"The Cluster," Star simply responded. Annoyed, Peridot looked away, swatting at it with her fly swatter.

"It does not look like that. But it is deadly, and it can activate at any moment!" Peridot concluded. So far though, the information wasn't exactly helping them all out too much on what to do.

"Yeah, ok, but how about some information that can help stop the Cluster? All you did was repeat what YD said," Bismuth pointed out. Peridot, trying not to get into even more trouble than she already had gotten because of this, Peridot cleared her throat.

"During its incubation state, it is left very vulnerable to outside forces, so our best cause of action is ... IS!"

Star rotated the box one more time, and the picture showed ...

"DRILL IT! We make a drill down, and crack it at it's source!" Peridot concluded. Garnet took a bit to think on the subject as the others took the idea into their heads. However, the idea that Peridot was in power kinda got to her at this point.

"Now, if you all follow me, we can -"

"Not so fast," Garnet finished, pulling back on the leash, reminding Peridot on what position she was in. None of them were willing to have her go off THAT easily. Next thing Peridot knew, the leash was tied up to the nearby fence, basically keeping Peridot still.

"What'd I say?!" Peridot asked, trying to get the leather straps off, but to no avail. Guess the green Gem was stuck ...

"Alright, Gems. Let's get to work."

~~~~~~

Steven and Amethyst were already out of Beach City by this point, continuing on their big hunt down. It really didn't take too long until the usual landscape turned from city, to countryside, and eventually to the forest. Trees were tall, green with life of spring, and many birds with their chicks were singing happily in the trees. Steven had the list up in front, and was walking over in front as Amethyst casually followed behind him with her hands behind her head.

"OK, let's see now. The first one should be around here somewhere," Steven said, looking around.

"It better be. This trip's got nothing but boring all over it," Amethyst commented, looking around. It was a nice sort of walk, but they came to fight monsters, not sightseeing. Amethyst walked up closer to Steven to check out the first creature, which didn't look very crazy as some further down.

"Wait, I think I see something up ahead," Steven said, pointing forward. As they continued going along, they soon began to get to a clearing in the forest. Nothing really seemed too spectacular about it: just a old tree with a stump next to it, amongst the tons of foliage. Honestly, nothing bad about it.

"Cool, we found a spot to chillax in. Come on, Steven, where's the surprise here?" Amethyst asked, bored out of her mind.

"Amethyst, this is our first monster - Garnet's not going to give us the hardest one first. Think it uh, like a video game."

"Yeah, well this gamer wants something to happen, soon. I'm just hoping Garnet didn't give us a ripoff," Amethyst said, as she sat down on the stump. Last thing she wanted was a mission worth nothing in the long run.

"Come on, ame -"

*whistle*

As if on cue, a long, single toned whistle rang out through the forest. It lasted for about five seconds, and from what they could see, they can't find any exact source to speak of. Amethyst got to her feet on hearing that whistle, trying to see where that whistle came from. After a while more, then came the sounds of rustling bushes close by. Soon, someone suddenly jumped out to confront them, wearing a plate mask with a green "jack-o-lantern" face. It was enough to make Steven jump back towards Amethyst, anyway. Unsure what to do, the two backed up until their backs touched a nearby log, where a hand suddenly grabbed Amethyst's arm. Amethyst yelped when she turned and saw another person there, this time with red face paint, and showing a smiley face with a tongue sticking out. The two were quick to go away from the log, Amethyst getting out her whip at the ready.

"I think you started something, Amethyst," Steven said, nervously. Before they could think of anything else, Steven looked up and saw someone was up in a tree, looking down at them, also with a plate mask, though hers seemed to be of a blue sad face. She jumped right down from the branch, landing right in front of them both. Amethyst was ready to fight, but Steven stumbled back into her, knocking them both over onto their backs. Looking at them, they were slightly shorter than they were, younger probably, but this was a bit out of nowhere for them.

"Hold up, you all. You wanna come at me, well then BRING IT ON," Amethyst challenged, getting to her feet, ready for a fight ...

Just to have them remove their masks, and showing actual smiling faces. No, they weren't here to fight exactly, but just to scare them apparently, and it worked.

After things had calmed down, Amethyst and Steven got a better look at who they were dealing with. For one thing, these all were kids. The first kid had a backpack, much like Steven, with a pink stripped short, green pants, and brown shoes. Pretty basic, expect for the fact that there actually was a little baby riding in the same backpack, with a bow on the baby's head.

The second kid, the one that came out of the log, had darker skin with brown, poofy hair under a yellow cap, with blue overalls over a green shirt, and rust red shoes. He also had a red scarf around his neck too.

The third kid, who jumped from the tree, had on a blue shirt with the collar folded down, with dark violet pants and a pair of brown shoes with yellow socks. With brown hair over her ears, she had a slingshot in hand, and a soup pot on her head. These weren't kids they recognized back in Beach City, Steven included.

"Oh. Uh, hi. Sorry for crashing in on your party, hehe," Steven said, a little embarrassed. Soon, they began to hear someone else coming over, someone they both had seen before a number of times in the past. It was actually Onion, and he seemed surprised, but happy, to see Steven and Amethyst come by.

"Hey, Onion. Do you, uh ..." Steven had his answer pretty much given to him when Onion himself went over to them, arms around two of the three kids. It didn't take much for Steven and Amethyst to realize who they were altogether.

"Oh, Onion! They're your friends," Steven realized. Steven and Amethyst never knew that Onion had a gang of friends of his own.

"Well what do you know? Onion's got himself a gang," Amethyst commented, nudging Steven.

"Garbanzo!" Said one of the kids. Guess it was time for some introduction.

"I guess you're Garbanzo. And judging by the baby looking like you, I say you're ... Pinto!" Steven said.

Baby Pinto smiled, telling the two that they got it right. Garbanzo and Pinto were good, now for the next two. Amethyst gave her shot at naming now.

"Ok, so there's Garbanzo, Pinto, and you're ..."

To help Amethyst out, one of the kids simply lifted his hat, showing a particular vegetable sitting on his head that had his name.

"Squash!" said Amethyst. Squash winked to her, Amethyst getting that correct. And now for the last girl. She simply banged her slingshot onto her pot helmet for her clue. However ...

"Slingshot!"

She banged her helmet again.

"Pot? Hat?"

She kept banging, getting more frustrated.

"Ok hold on, hold on." Amethyst tried to think, her hand spinning, and trying to think of a name. All that came out was "... Soup?"

She smiled, and blew a kiss to her. So they got the group fully identified: Soup, Pinto, Garbanzo, Onion, and Squash. The full Onion gang. For Onion himself, he was glad to see Steven. Onion, Garbanzo, and Squash went over to Steven first.

"Oh, you wanna hang out?" Asked Steven. Onion nodded yes, but Amethyst wasn't sure yet.

"Wait, wait, Steven we gotta monster to catch! What about our BIG mission?" Amethyst asked.

"We've been walking around all day, Amethyst. Besides you said this is a good place to chillax, let's enjoy it," Steven said. Amethyst didn't need very much convincing to really go along with Steven's plan.

"Alright," Amethyst said casually, shrugging. They were walking around for a while, and Garnet never said it had to be done immediately ...

~~~~~~

Back in Beach City itself, things seemed to be going along as normal as ever for some of the residents. With spring now around, and warmer weather coming about again, some of the stores along the boardwalk are getting a bit better business now. In the case of the Beach Citywalk Fries, business was going on up and up for different people ordering their share of the stuff. All morning, their breakfast specials had been doing good for a while now, with Peedee working the orders here and there as different customers came and went ...

"Boy, spring time's a rush this year," thought Peedee. Still, it was good business not just for them, but for the other eateries around town, including Fish Stew Pizza next door...

Why was that important? Well, as Peedee was working the orders, eventually only one customer was left standing over at the front, waiting to place her order. She looked average enough by the looks of it, brown boring hair, simple green clothes, that sort of thing.

"What can I get you?" Peedee asked.

"Well. What do you serve?" she asked, sounding innocent enough.

"Well, this is Beach Citywalk Fries. Our menu's right there," said Peedee, but he didn't go any further than that. However, the girl thought for a little moment before answering Peedee. He expected that she would order a hash brown, or something fry related, but she didn't look in the mood for either one of those things.

"Is there anything ... off-menu?"

Off-menu? That seemed like a rather odd question to ask, especially for a typical customer to a fry shack. Still, Peedee knew business is business, and one thing for a fact: the customer's always right. Peedee sighed.

"Well, give me a second, I'll see what I can do," Peedee said, going back into the shack. For the girl, she was in no hurry for her food, and waited patiently for Peedee to come back around. It did take a bit of time, but after a few more minutes, Peedee came back with something different: Mozzarella Sticks with dipping sauce.

"You want off-menu? Well, this is really off-menu. Good to fry something else for a change," said Peedee, as the girl took her tray of food.

"Thank you very much, sir," she said. The girl wasn't given a price, but she simply gave Peedee a ten before going away with her food. A decent pay for the Citywalk Fries. The girl took her tray, and walked down the boardwalk with it, but she didn't try to eat any of it just yet. She actually looked over to Fish Stew Pizza for a minute before she walked over in the direction. She took one of the sticks, dunked it in the sauce, and took just one bite of it when ...

"What is this?!" A man suddenly yelled. The girl stopped quick, and soon saw that someone was out to confront her. The man looked fairly old, dark skinned with brown eyes and dark brown hair, put up in a hairnet. The outfit was rather simple enough: sea foam shirt, brown shorts, white socks and tan shoes. By the look on his face, he looked pretty angry with her.

"Cheese ... bread ... sauce ... those are the main ingredients for a pizza! Where'd you get that from?" The man demanded. All the girl did, swallowing her piece, pointed over to Citywalk Fries. The man, for some reason, looked deeply suspicious.

"Infringing on my business ... I've been waiting for this day," the man noted, just before he raced on inside Fish Stew Pizza. Only for the man to put up a sign on the window simply saying: now selling Fries. It didn't take long until someone else came out. This person was a lot bigger than the first guy, strongly built in a manor almost like Bismuth. His hair was in bands, modeled to actually look like fries, with a visor holding them up. With rosewood eyebrows, a short dijon beard, and an outfit for a fry worker, it was clear on which side of the spectrum he was on. The other man quickly saw him as well.

"So ... it begins anew. Eh, Kofi?"

"Just like old times, Fryman."

"Kofi!"

"Fryman!"

The girl in between them was quick to sneak away as the two were pretty much ready for a fight to break out at any moment. While Peedee looked on from Citywalk Fries, Kiki over in Fish Stew Pizza saw the confrontation from inside the restaurant. Both sides hoped they wouldn't say it, but Mr. Fryman and Kofi were ready for it.

"RESTUARANT WARS!!!"

They said it, and they started it. As this was going on, that same girl hid herself off in a nearby alleyway so they wouldn't suspect it was her who actually did anything wrong. At this point though, it wasn't a human girl standing there. In a quick shift in energy, a particularly eerie snake was now hidden there! The snake couldn't help but snicker at the rivalry she had just started, as another snake slithered over to her.

"Oh, Acid, you were right. That should keep them plenty busy," said Cyanide, Acid also snickering as she watched the two men storm back to their establishments to kick off their war.

"If it's this easy to kick start a war here, then the rest of the town should be a cinch. Wouldn't you think so?"

"Of course. Care for a snack?" offered Cyanide, referring to the meal she got. Acid was happy to oblige, and took a single bite of one of the sticks, swallowing it easy. Her forked tongue licked her lips as they finished up the meal.

"Delicious."

"Tastes better after a job well done," said Cyanide. Acid and Cyanide both then simply slithered away, snickering to one another, as they left the Frymans and the Pizzas to their squabbling.

~~~~~~

With Amethyst and Steven, their time spent with Onion and his friends was a rather casual one. It may not get them closer to their first monster at the moment, but at least it can give them time to feel better with themselves, and rest up in case it does come around. As for what they were doing, most of their stuff was basically hanging out in the forest, Soup taking some practice shots at some placed cans set up by squash, shooting them with stones with some decent accuracy. Garbanzo and Pinto were gone for the moment, leaving Steven and Amethyst chilling out over at the stump with, well, nothing to do.

"Good shot, soup," Steven said, clapping alongside Squash. Soup smiled, and actually gave it to Steven to give it a try. Steven could get the idea right away, and went over to give it a try. Steven took a few steps back, over to where Soup was standing, and picked up a stone off the ground to use. Steven was not used to using slingshots, but Soup mimicked how she did it nearby so Steven could copy her. Steven took a bit to figure it out, and pulled back the slingshot, readying it to fire.

"Okay. Pull back, aim, and ..."

one shot, and the stone whacked on the log, hit up into the tree, and spooked a nearby bird. Steven didn't mean to, but Soup and Squash clapped for him anyway, to them the attempt being a good trickshot. Steven laughed a little more nervously, and only then did Garbanzu, Pinto, and Onion came back. Instead of a simple walk, the three came back driving what looked like a soap-box derby car, one that they fixed up to work properly, Pinto actually wearing a metal face shield, and holding a handheld cutting torch.

"Is that safe?" whispered Steven. Amethyst just shrugged, as Soup and Squash got their seats on the cart.

"Garbanzo!" said Garbanzo, as if presenting the car to them. It was neat for a bunch of kids to make with just some extra items they had on hand. Soup patted down next to her as an invitation for the two.

"Oh ... is there enough room?" Steven asked. Squash nodded, and Steven got up on the back of the derby cart. Amethyst just stood aside.

"You wanna ride, Amethyst?" Steven asked.

"Eh, nah, I'm good. I'll just check out here," Amethyst said simply. Onion and his group started to get the cart going, Steven sitting happily behind them.

After they left, Amethyst was simply alone by the tree, and now she officially had nothing to do. Why did she not take their ride? While they were off doing who knows what, Amethyst took a bit to check around the forest area for a few minutes: looking under rocks, climbing up trees, checking the bushes, but she found nothing except for the occasional bird in the tree. No Gem beast around from what she could find, and eventually she just stopped and laid down on the stump, looking up into the sky past the treeline.

"Oh, come on already. How hard is it to find this thing?"

As Amethyst just laid there for a while longer, keeping her gaze up at the sky, waiting for Steven and company to come back, or something like that to just happen. The purple Gem stayed that way for a bit until she began to catch something off in the brush. Some distant rustling caught her attention, but she figured whatever was there was probably some sort of squirrel, or rabbit or something, so she didn't bother all that much.

Then came the odd noise.

"Huh?"

The noise that came up sound like some sort of screeching insect, mixed with a high-pitched parrot caw. Obviously not a normal animal nearby. This got Amethyst interested now, as she sat up and looked off to that direction the sound was coming from.

"Ah yeah," Amethyst said, as she heard the rustling come closer and closer. The closer she heard it, the more excited she got, her smile bigger, and getting her whip out at the ready. Each rustle was a little closer, and the similar screeching ringing out time and again. Oh, the purple Gem was psyched and ready to go!

"Finally! COME AT ME, BRO!"

Soon, as if waiting to present itself, Amethyst's adversary came on out to confront her. Clearly not a normal creature by any means, the body completed in a indigo light, and in the shape of a scorpion! It had four stubby legs, a large set of arms and a curved scorpion tail. Its body had numerous crystal-like stones on it, which included one for a large eye, one for each pincer, and one on the end of the tail. There wasn't any specific gemstone to speak of, and unlike usual corrupted Gems, this creature had multiple gemstones on its body, though none that would specify the type of Gem it is. While imposing for a creature, as it gave a screech to Amethyst, there was one tiny problem ...

It was the size of an actual adult scorpion.

A.K.A., it was small.

"... No way," Amethyst dryly commented, as the tiny Gem scorpion moved up to her, hitting her leg with its tail and claws. No, they didn't hurt her at all, and it felt like a poke. Amethyst checked the list, as she picked up the creature like it was a dirty rag, and checked the picture that came with it.

Unfortunately, this was it.

"You gotta be kidding me," Amethyst groaned. The Gem scorpion wiggled a bit, trying to get loose, just to have Amethyst drop the thing down on the ground. The Gem scorpion crawled up onto the same tree stump, trying to look imposing to the purple Gem, but it wasn't working. Amethyst felt Completely shanghaied about the task now if THIS was what they had to face.

"What a rip," Amethyst just said.

~~~~~~

"Okay, here we go."

Meanwhile, further away from the forest, and unaware of the danger, Twilight Sparkle and Spike stood up at the front doors of the library. She tried up and down in Equestria's knowledge racks for some creature clues, but she hadn't yet tried any of Earth's literatures. Seeing a pony walk through the doors of a Human library was a little bit off, but it wasn't enough to stop anypony going in. The librarian chilled out to the service desk.

"Excuse me?" Twilight said. The librarian in charge glanced up, just to find that no one was there at first. The librarian glanced back and forth, until she looked down and saw the pony in question.

"... An Equestrian pony, right?"

"Yes, that's right," Twilight said, as she brought her frontal hooves onto the desk counter. Spike got off of Twilight's back so he wouldn't tumble off. The librarian looked down to see Spike as well.

"And he's a uh ..."

"I'm a Dragon," Spike said. The librarian thought for a tiny bit. There was a dragon poster up on one of the book shelves, and she used that to compare to Spike. She looked at the poster and to Spike, and back again. The dragon on the poster was a lot more fierce, realistic and fully grown, in a fire breathing pose ...

"Eh, yeah, ok," she simply said.

"Anyway, I was wondering if you might have some books in regards to any magical or mythical creatures, perhaps?" Twilight asked.

"Ninth row to your right, in the fantasy section," she said. The Alicorn nodded, and trotted over to the place as instructed, Spike following her. Before he could go, he too saw the dragon poster on the wall. He took a moment to look it over.

"Not bad," commented Spike, before going off to join Twilight. The librarian just went on as if nothing had happened.

Twilight and Spike soon got busy. Twilight's magic got to work and soon got some good stacks of books without knocking anything over off the other shelves. Spike got a good stack of books balanced up within his claws, bringing them over to a nearby table. The stack of books were about five books tall, and about four stacks each, so there was plenty of books to start looking through. For the next five to ten minutes, it was book after book, after book, and so far it honestly wasn't getting anywhere fast for them. Each book, for one thing, wasn't exactly the type of books Twilight and Spike had in mind. For type, either the books were purely fantasy stories, or were far too childish to be considered knowledge learners. Twilight went through about fifteen more books before she began to realize how much less things were actually going with this. It was as helpful as Equestria's books were, and that meant none at all.

"Here Spike, can you take some of these back?" Twilight asked. Spike, being the helper that he is, was happy to oblige.

"Sure, Twilight," Spike said. The baby dragon was given a decent sized stack of about twelve books, which was well over his head in height. It really wasn't anything new for Spike, as he started to walk over to the fantasy section, each step taken with some precaution. It was hard for him to see, so, it was expected. What wasn't expected was a wheel step stool right in his way.

You can guess what happens next ...

"Spike!" Twilight said, upon hearing the crash. The librarian was startled as well, and she quickly went over, just to see the baby dragon poke his head out of the book pile.

"You okay?" Asked the librarian.

"It happens all the time," sighed Spike. As he was getting himself out, another book, off the shelf this time, fell down and bounced off of his head. This book was a bit more interesting than the other books were, not seemingly childish or silly in appearance. It appeared to be a brown book, and rather thick in pages as well. The main picture on the cover of said book showed a unique display of some sort of chimera animal: head of a dragon, a horn of a rhino, front legs of a lion, back legs of a falcon, tail of a snake, and body of a lizard. The animal was in the sitting position, facing forward apart from the side facing head. Outta many of the books, this one was a eye catcher. The Alicorn levitated the book up to her viewing level, and as the librarian and Spike got the other books back on the shelf, she started reading through it. Each page of this book was more on point: informative narrative, various field notes, detailed anatomy pictures, and all sort of fantastic beasts and where to find them. This was EXACTLY the kind of book Twilight Sparkle was looking for! She kept looking through a number of pages, and she even found the very same insect beast that they faced during the Blue Moon, which the book had described as a "Remorhaz".

"Perfect! This is perfect! I'd like to check this out, please," Twilight said to the librarian. The librarian herself though looked at the book with more confusion.

"Eh ... actually, I don't remember stacking that one. Or having it in our library for that matter," the librarian revealed.

"So, can I just take this one then?"

"I guess so." There might be plenty of books, but if a book was not apart of the library, there wasn't a penalty for just keeping the book. Twilight was happy to hear that. With the number of nutty monsters they had been meeting, this could help out a TON! The happy Alicorn held the book up with her magic, as she began to go off until ...

"Eh, Twilight? You forgetting something?" Asked Spike, still putting books away on the shelves. Twilight blushed.

"Heh, oh yeah. Right."

She'll have to wait on reading the book for now.

~~~~~~

It took a while, yes, but Steven did eventually return with Onion and his friends to the forest. The ride around in the box derby car was pretty fun to do, and they came back to find Amethyst sitting at the stump, resting her head in her head, as the other one held a stick, poking at the Gem insect for the last twenty minutes, to have the bug just hiss and sting the stick with its tail. Bored as ever, this girl. Amethyst didn't take much time until she saw the group return, Steven the first to go over.

"Hey Amethyst. Who's your friend?" Steven asked, looking to the little Gem bug.

"Apparently, our target," Amethyst sighed, showing the list to Steven, just for the human to see the same Gem bug as the one on the ground. Steven couldn't see this as their target of monsters at all. Steven picked up the insect, letting it stand in the palm of his hand, as Amethyst had her hand over her eyes.

"I knew it was too good to be true. WHY would they even bother?"

"Come on, Amethyst. Here look, maybe it's not the same thing. The pictures not exactly the same," Steven said, showing the picture again. The picture exactly showed a similar Gem scorpion, but with some extra tails on the back. Before they could go any further about the subject, suddenly Soup was standing in between them, her pot off her head. Inside the pot, there was actually a number of different bugs crawling around inside. Steven seemingly had his bug, so Soup didn't bother him about it.

"You a bug collector, Soup?" Amethyst asked. Soup shook her head, though, and pointed over to others. Onion took a stick and was drawing out a box in the dirt, lining it up to make out a sort of racing path. Onion, Squash, Garbanzo and Soup had their bugs.

"A bug race!" Steven concluded. Soup nodded to confirm it. Not having anything better to do, Amethyst took a beetle from the pot, and they went over to the starting line. The bugs on the starting line included a beetle, a millipede, a ant, a ladybug, a centipede, and Steven's Gem scorpion. The race started just as the bugs were released, though many of the insects weren't exactly following the path laid out in front of them. The centipede and Steven's scorpion were at a close pace, leaving the other racers behind rather far. The scorpion though kept going forward, as the centipede took a u-turn, the Gem bug winning. Steven was happy for it.

"Yay, you won," Steven beamed, picking up the little guy. Amethyst was a little bit unamused by the concept, but seeing Steven happy was good enough. After the race was done, Onion started bringing Steven over to the stump with his little insect, placing the Gem bug down onto it.

"So what now?" Amethyst asked.

"Garbanzo," Garbanzo said, giving Steven what looked like a mallet. Rather confusing.

"Wait. What's this for?"

Soup looked down to the Gem insect, and she banged her fist into the palm of her hand, mimicking a hammer.

"W-wait. You all want me to -..."

Onion, Squash, Garbanzo, and even Pinto made the similar gesture.

They want him to smash the winning insect!

"But he won!" Steven retorted in shock. They kept giving the same gesture to him, Steven looking down to the Gem bug. On one hand, breaking someone because they won something was not only nonsensical, but a bit cruel. On the other hand, it WAS a target they had to handle, even if it was this weak. The Gem hybrid tried to get his reasons together, the Gem bug trying to look threatening by spreading its pincers and raising its tail at Steven. It just didn't feel fair. Amethyst though was more on the Onion side when it came to this.

"Come on, Steven, just hit it and we can move on," Amethyst insisted. Steven looked back to the Gem bug again, holding the mallet firmly in hand. The tiny bug still didn't seem to waver from its stance, Steven lifting up the mallet to hover it over the bug. Steven still felt a little bad for this, especially on such a tiny Gem, but as he was about to finish off the thing, Steven took a glance over to the others, and while at first their expressions were on him, and waiting for them to finish off the creature, Onion's gang began to calm down after a little bit, stopping their 'smashing' gesture. While many of their expressions were a bit unchanged overall, Squash actually had a slight look of worry in his face as they began to back away just a tiny bit. Steven and Amethyst were facing them, not the direction they were, so they didn't really had a clue what their deal was.

"Sorry, I-I can't. I gotta go - oof!"

Steven turned to go, but suddenly he ended up walking right into something. Something BIG. The second that happened, Amethyst and Steven saw what they were seeing. The creature Steven walked into, for one thing, was ginormous! One giant crystal eye staring right at him, three long tail stingers jutting out behind its round body, a set of large pincers with dagger-shaped crystals on each end, similar indigo light to the tiny Gem bug Amethyst found. The size was FAR more of a challenging, and imposing animal.

"OH yeah, now we're talking," Amethyst said, getting out her whip. Steven quickly backed away as fast as he could. This, he had no trouble with, as the little bug went over to the giant Gem beast. As it climbed up the beast's leg, it actually fused into the much larger Gem beast. All of the kids got together, as the giant Gem confronted them all, pincers raised and giving a similar bug roar, much more bellowing than the tiny bug's screeching. It was obviously ready for a fight, and Amethyst was more than willing to give it one.

Amethyst made her strike first with her whip, striking right at the Gem insect's back. The bug twitched on feeling the pain, but its attempts to attack Amethyst was a little hard to do. Amethyst's whips made attacking the Gem hard for the insect, since she kept herself too far away. Steven stayed with Onion and his friends just in case the scorpion tried to attack them. The scorpion kept trying to snatch Amethyst with its pincers, for strike her with its stingers, but Amethyst was moving a little quick for it.

"Boom!" Amethyst shouted, whacking the scorpion in the gem eye. The scorpion had enough with Amethyst. It finally got one pincer to grip the whips, and finally getting Amethyst still for a moment. One of the tail began to glow a little bit, and Amethyst made a barrel roll to dodge an oncoming laser beam! The beam struck the old tree nearby, leaving a scorch mark on it. A few more stray shots almost struck the others, Steven bringing up his shield to protect Onion's gang. However, Onion and his friends saw what happened to their tree, and they didn't like that at all. As for Amethyst, she tried another whip again, actually strong enough to whip off one of the scorpion's tails! The scorpion finally got a good grab of the cocky Gem, swinging her away into the bushes. This time, the tail that was struck and torn off actually grew back, back to full strength.

"Amethyst!" Steven gasped, running over to her. Amethyst was dazed, but she was alright over all. However, the large Gem insect was still flaming hot, and at the ready. However, that moment did end up giving Onion's group time to run off, but they weren't hiding for cover. They were finding a sneak attack.

Suddenly, the scorpion ended up pelted with Soup's slingshot action, a bunch of stones and pebbles banging and bouncing off of it. Not very painful, but still got the scorpion's attention focused away from Steven and Amethyst. Soup hid off back in a bush, as the scorpion slammed both pincers down into it like hammers, just to find that Soup was gone. As Amethyst and Steven looked, Onion and Garbanzo suddenly grabbed them both, and pulled them into the bushes, covering their mouths so they could be quiet. Onion brought his finger to his own mouth, as a quieting gesture so both can get the idea. The scorpion was still trying to find Soup in the bushes, but Soup was already far gone, showing up behind the tree alongside Squash. As the monster was looking, Squash lifted his cap, giving Soup the large squash under his cap. Stones were fine, but a squash would have some after effects with the shot. Soup loaded up the squash ammo to her slingshot, and Squash himself went off behind the tree as Soup gave a good whistle. The scorpion turned to the sound, just to be pelted by a squash, which smashed up and covered the Gem eye in squashed squash. The scorpion screeched, trying to get the stuff off of it, as Soup and Squash bolted away from the tree, Squash diving into a log, as Soup dove down behind it. In a panic, the Gem scorpion charged up the stingers and began shooting like crazy, beams of indigo light being shot anywhere and everywhere. Trees were being cut of branches, being weakened at the trunks, and birds were flying like mad away to avoid getting hit. The scorpion stopped finally, and the front claws got the squash off of its face, giving it some better vision. For the others, they stayed over in the bushes, but the scorpion could see where they were, and got a proper aim this time, aiming one beam at them! The beam went a little too quick, and aimed at Soup, but she made a rather gutsy, and fast reaction: using her pot as her reflector. Turned out, it was enough to shoot back the beam, and while it missed the scorpion, it did strike a rather weakened tree nearby. That one shot was strong enough to go right through it, the tree weak enough to finally topple! The scorpion moved in at them again, but just before it could do anything, the same tree fell right on down, and made that million dollar lucky strike: right down on all three of the scorpion's tails! That one strike severed all three tails at once ...

One screech later, the scorpion's entire body began to glow white for a moment, crystals and body disappearing from sight. While any normal supposed Gem beast would just explode in a cloud of smoke, reverting to their Gemstone, this one was a bit different. Instead of an explosion, it was an implosion: the light fusing up into a tiny ball, and only left a tiny crystal on the ground, not in a typical shape to a gemstone, and not looking like any crystal stone on the scorpion's body. This one was tiny, small enough for Steven to hold in one hand, colorless, and even transparent like glass.

"Well ... dang. OK then," Amethyst simply concluded. Steven picked it up, and bubbled it easily. One simple tap of his finger, and the bubble was gone and away back to the Temple. Course they had Onion and his friends to thank, since they got the thing handled basically.

"Onion, you and your gang are alright in my book," Amethyst complimented, playfully punching Garbanzo's shoulder.

"Garbanzo," Garbanzo said, smiling and returning the punch himself. As they were going on with this, Steven found the list on the ground nearby, unharmed on the stump, and he picked it up. Looks like that was one monster down, and plenty more to go. Soon though, the derby car was brought out again, and Steven and amethyst found a Deja Vu moment with the gang inviting them for a ride. This time though, Pinto drew a little picture for them, showing an ice cream cone with a metal on it. A little victory treat.

"You know what? alright then," Amethyst said, she and Steven going up and taking a seat on the derby car. Amethyst got Steven up on her shoulders, and soon, Garbanzo got the derby car on its way.

Next stop: ice cream victory break.

Band Night

View Online

Back at the barn, things had been pretty busy for the Crystal Gems. The cluster time-bomb was ticking, and the group had been wasting no time in building their drill. So far though, the drill making was a little slow: Twilight and Peridot weren't available to aid Pearl and Fulgurite in their technology for the drill, Jasper wasn't there to help in the heavy lifting with Bismuth and Garnet, Lapis wasn't there to help them either, and that was just naming a few. That didn't mean that progress was stopped altogether, as they already got a basics of the drill already modeled. For the moment, it was Fulgurite, Flint, Pearl, Bismuth, and Garnet working on the drill, and the only one who actually wasn't working with anybody was Peridot, still stuck on her harness and leash, and watching from afar, unable to assist them in building the drill in anyway. She may not be in any bubble, but this was just as effective in terms of keeping her in place. Poor Peridot hadn't felt this useless since the early days after losing her limb enhancers. She may have worked through that thanks to some aid of her fellow Gems, but nobody was going to help her here. All Peridot could do was just sit there and wait for whatever would come at her ...

She hated it.

"Hey, hey, can I -"

"No," Flint immediately said.

"But maybe if I -"

"NO," Flint repeated. Peridot clammed up after that, and they continued their work. It had gone up and down with that since they started making this drill: Peridot was forced to sit there and act useless as everyone else was making progress. Not only was Peridot feeling useless, she was BORED! She didn't care what she would do, she needed to do SOMETHING!

"Come on! I said I was sorry!" Peridot insisted. Garnet stopped for a moment to address her.

"And for the last three hundred and forty two times you said that, what did I say?" Garnet quizzed, arms crossed. Peridot slumped, and sat down on the ground like a child.

"I have to learn there's consequences to my actions," Peridot pouted.

"And what action did you do?"

"I forgot to tell you about the cluster ... that could destroy the Earth," Peridot grumbled, guilt in her tone.

"That's right. This is too big to just be ignored, Peridot, and you have to deal with the consequences."

"... so ... can I help?"

Garnet didn't answer. She just stood there for a few seconds, and then she just turned back and lifted up the drill so Pearl and Fulgurite could work under it. Peridot groaned, and all she could do was just sit there and let them work on their way. As Garnet kept the drill up, Pearl and Fulgurite opened up the hatch to the drill to work the electrical connections. The wires were a starter up, and they had a lot to work with. Still, both Gems had to get the connections on correctly for this drill to work. As Pearl and Fulgurite were looking within the connections, Fulgurite glanced over to Peridot, and saw just how glum she was. Pearl paid her no mind, but Fulgurite got an idea in her head. Garnet looked down to Fulgurite, shaking her head, but Fulgurite did it anyway.

"Yo, Peri!" Fulgurite called. Peridot jumped to her feet, a big and eager smile lit up on her face.

"Yes?" Peridot asked excitedly. Using one of her hair locks, Fulgurite grabbed a nearby toolbox, and moved it over to the green Gem. Peridot immediately went to grab a tool just for Fulgurite to tossed the whole box over to her. Peridot felt empowered and motivated, holding the box above her head in victory.

"Hold onto this box, will ya? Thanks," Fulgurite said.

AND the hype was gone. Peridot's smile disappeared from her face, and she just sat down again, the toolbox on her lap this time. Poor Peridot. Garnet nodded in approval this time, and continued their work for a while more. Peridot didn't feel any better doing this. She opened up the toolbox, and fiddled around with a wrench, making it float around in the air with a wiggle of her finger. Why did she had to forget about the Cluster? ...

"HI!"

Enter Pinkie Pie. The introduction got some reactions from the others: Peridot jumping behind the fence, Pearl banging her head on the drill in a startle, and even Flint getting a little jump outta it. With the pink mare here, was Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. For Twilight, she had a bag hung around her back, something inside she wanted to show. Garnet kept her cool, but didn't want anypony worried anymore about this than she wanted Steven to worry.

"Oh, hey. What're you girls doing?" Peridot asked.

"Just stopping by. You seem welcoming, Peridot," Rarity noted.

"I've never been so bored," Peridot sighed. It didn't take long for them to see the drill, and Pinkie and Rainbow were quick to check it out.

"Wow, neat. What's with the drill, you guys?" Rainbow asked. Garnet, Flint, and Pearl didn't had time to figure out what to say, but quick-witted Fulgurite got her idea right away.

"A Gem monster mission: we found this Gem mole, or gopher, or something like that a while back, and we're making this baby to go down after it. None of us can dig after it, you know?"

"Oh. Need a helping hoof?" Twilight offered.

"Nah, we got this. We deal with monsters all the time, we'll get this done in no time at all once we get this drill built up right."

"Why is Peridot on a collar and leash?" Pinkie squeaked from the top of the drill. Fulgurite had to adapt to this one.

"She and Emerald did a bet over a video game match. She kinda lost, and is now stuck that way," Fulgurite informed. When thinking it over, that would be something that Emerald would really agree to do.

"How long?"

"I dunno, til Emerald decides to, I guess. He hooked her up to the fence just this morning."

"K then. Sorry bout that, Peridot," Rainbow said. Peridot knew that only half of it was true, so she just slump in her spot.

"Don't mention it. To anypony," Peridot made clear. After that was figured out, Twilight was next to speak, looking to Garnet.

"Right. Well, anyway, Garnet, I think I found something that I think you should see. Here," Twilight informed, walking over to her. Twilight Sparkle got her magic started, and opened up her bag to show the monster book she got from the library. She made sure to keep the book in safe hooves since getting it, and she wanted to get the others on the level with what monsters the book had in store. It can't be a coincidence that she would find a Remorhaz BEFORE getting the book. Garnet placed the drill down gently, and took the book from a Twilight to see. The fusion found it interesting, and even more so when she looked through the pages just to find, to her surprise, the Thunderbird that they found during the storm.

"Where's you get this?" Garnet asked, as she looked amongst the information on that page, and a few others monsters as well.

"I found it at the library. The librarian said I could just keep it, since it wasn't apart of the library to begin with," Twilight explained. As Garnet kept her views on the other monsters within the book, which were intriguing all the same, the others looked around the barn for a bit, but seeing that some weren't there. Pinkie, hopping off of the drill, was the one to address the fact.

"Where's Steven? He and me got a VERY important play date!" Pinkie Pie said, slightly more serious in tone about it like it was actually important.

"He and Amethyst are off on a monster hunt - busy as bees those two. Dunno when they'll be done with it," Fulgurite informed, shrugging.

"Monster hunt, you say?" Inquired Rarity.

"They went off on that without telling me? Hay, no fair! Where're they?" Rainbow asked, ready to fight a monster at any time.

"Beats me. Somewhere outta Beach City, probably," Fulgurite shrugged.

"Say no more. Come on girls, let's catch up!" Rainbow said.

"Rainbow, hold on -"

Soon, Rainbow was in the air, and flying off to find the others to join in on the monster hunting. Well, that was one gone, but the others were still there.

"Thank you for showing me this, Twilight. Though, you better go after her," Garnet suggested.

"Yeah, you're probably right. Rarity, Pinkie, let's go," Twilight advised, already trotting off to go get Rainbow. They better go grab her before the Pegasus could end up into trouble. Well, that was handled fairly well.

"Good going, Fulgurite," Flint simply said. Leave it to the quick wit of Fulgurite to weasel around the issue quick.

~~~~~~

Amethyst and Steven were feeling pretty good about things. With their first monster in the bag, the two were quickly off to the next location on their list for what other beast they had to find. Their previous monster encounter was a bit out of nowhere, but thanks to Onion and his pals, not only was it an easy fix, but they also got themselves a good snack of ice cream as well. It may had been days since, but Amethyst and Steven were still hyped as ever. And given that their next location was a ways away, Steven and Amethyst made tracks. Normally, Amethyst would shapeshift into something for them both, but Steven felt like evening out the work, so he and Amethyst got themselves some bikes, and were zooming down the seaside road, wind at their back, and in high spirits. Cars were lacking on the road, so, they had the right a way.

"Aw yeah, I see the finish line! See ya in the dust, Steven!" Amethyst said, pulling ahead. They decided to do this a while back, to make things interesting, and now, their finish line was up ahead for Bayburgh, namely the welcome sign. Steven put the peddle to the metal, and tried to catch up with Amethyst. It wasn't entirely easy, but they were at pretty close quarters, as they rounded the bend, right past the sign. Just as the two zoomed past, it was actually Steven who just managed to beat Amethyst in peddling, just by a foot, and the hardest he could do.

"WOO!" Steven beamed. Amethyst went on with it, and allowed the winner to keep the lead, as they rode right on into town. Steven had came by Bayburgh once before with Peridot, Sapphire, and Ruby, when they wanted to check what Emerald was up to. Bayburgh hadn't changed too much since then, and this can give Amethyst a bit of time to check the place out.

"So, this is where you gone off to before?" Amethyst asked, as they rode down the sidewalk.

"Yep, that's right. Now let's see," Steven said. He and Amethyst went to a stop eventually, parking their bikes on a rack, over by the seaside Boardwalk, and went on to check the list. They had already checked off the Scorpion Gem they've done, along with two others they had gotten over from yesterday and onward. They still had a ton more in their sights. They looked for a bit, and seeing all sorts of monsters and Gem beasts. The monsters varied in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and it was hard to pick out which one to go to next.

"You know, it's crazy how many types of Gem monsters there is," Steven commented.

"I know, I love it. Which one next, dude? That skull bird looks cool, but I'm leaning towards that lion look-alike right there," Amethyst said, pointing to the beast in question. Steven looked more on the location than the beast itself.

"Maybe we can try the Gem tortoise next. If we're lucky, we can get that, and this ..."two-leg runner", in one shot. They're close to the same place anyway, and we can jump there by Warp Pad," Steven pointed out.

"True dat," agreed Amethyst. They will get to them all at some point, though it really depends on which ones were where first. The two were a bit preoccupied with what to do, so much so they didn't hear that someone was heading over their way, seeing the list in their grasp. He snuck up in between them, and quietly looked over the list until he then pointed out one.

"Eh, I'm more for the "bear", myself."

Amethyst and Steven jumped back on their sudden visitor. Standing casually just behind them was Emerald.

"Sup?"

"Oh, Emerald, it's you. How's it going?" Amethyst asked.

"Eh, it's going. So, heard you two are on a monster hunt?" Emerald inquired. Amethyst and Steven looked to eachother before answering him.

"That's right: a big monster hunt! Check it," Amethyst said, showing Emerald the whole list in better detail. Emerald looked up and down the list for about a minute, seeing the pictures all over, and getting more interested in this idea they got going for them.

"Dang, what an order. How long do you two think you'll get this done? Two months? Three?"

"Eh ... Didn't think of that," Steven realized, rubbing the back of his head, as Emerald chuckled and hopped over the bike rack. Emerald had nothing better to do, despite the bigger issue with the CG and the Cluster, so Emerald decided to give them a small hand with this. Emerald thought it over for a little more, but then he got an idea in his own head.

"Hey, think I got somethin for you two."

"You do?" Steven asked. Emerald nodded.

"You two wanna look around for some other Gems, right? I think I might know a group of them you can handle nearby, Just outta town a ways," Emerald offered.

"Which ones are they?" Steven asked, looking over at the list himself. Emerald though tossed the list over to the two, Amethyst catching it.

"I'll show ya when we get there. Bet you'll figure it out when we see em. Come on, night's just starting up," Emerald promised, already starting to head off on his way, gesturing the two to follow him. Exactly what the green Gem had in mind was anyone's guess, but Amethyst and Steven figured if he knew where some of these things were, then they can give it a shot. Even if these weren't on the list, it could be good to handle them, whatever they are.

.......

Emerald wasn't exactly lying when he said the place was outside of Bayburgh. With Emerald hovering on his hexagon platforms, and with Amethyst and Steven on their bikes, time travel was fairly fast all things considered. In fact, with some extra power from Amethyst on the harder hills - she pulled Steven up them, using her whip as a rope - they only took about twenty minutes to get from Bayburgh over to the spot Emerald was talking about. Looking ahead on the road, they could see a sort of old building. Seeing the boarded-up windows mainly meant that this place had been closed up for a while. It looked like an 50's diner, which included a worn out mascot sign, the mascot looking like a polar bear with a blue cloth round its neck, and it was holding what looked like a ice cream parfait on a plate next to it with one paw, like a waiter. Wear and tear, but, it was standing still anyway, as the trio went over, and peered inside through one of the windows. with the dim light, however, vision was hardly any.

"So this is the spot?" Amethyst asked. Emerald only nodded.

"OH yeah, they're in there alright. Urban explorers had been all the rage in this place!" Emerald said, peering inside the place himself. Steven looked up to the welcome sign just outside, stepping back a bit to read it. He couldn't seem to make out the sign exactly, it being kinda worn away.

"I don't know about this," Steven said.

"Where's your sense of adventure, Steven? Besides, don't you wanna get your Gemies?" Emerald asked, nudging Steven. Steven took another look at the monster list, and looking at it, one of them did look like a bear in a way. Amethyst went over to Steven, as Emerald tried to find a way in properly.

"I'm sure Emerald just wants us to do an urban explorer act," Amethyst whispered to Steven.

"Let's just go in and check, anyway. Maybe we'll find an extra monster in here," Steven insisted.

"I'm not complaining, just saying," Amethyst stated. Emerald kept looking around a little more, until he finally got an opening by a loose board by one of the Windows. A simple yoink, and the board popped off from the hinges, making a gap just big enough for them to slip in. Emerald couldn't wait to get rolling.

"Alright, sweeeet! Come on, let's go," Emerald said, getting himself inside quick. Amethyst and Steven nodded, and got themselves in as well. Whatever was going to happen, well, the duo were right in it now.

~~~~~~

Night came to Beach City. With the Crystal Gems working on the drill, the ponies looking for Steven, and the humans sleeping at this point, this just left the gates wide open for two sly serpents to go right in. They already put some blood in the water when it came to the Frymens and the Pizzas, so with them handled, Cyanide and Acid were moving on to the other residents of Beach City. The night was lovely too: warmer, clearer night, and the moon bright in the sky. The perfect night for these two to move on. Over into town, Cyanide and Acid slithered over alongside a wooden fence, til they reached over to the back door.

"So, which one of us should handle this one?" Asked Cyanide.

"I'll take care of this plump lady. A lift, if you please," Acid offered. Cyanide simply answered with a nod of the head. Cyanide curled her body in a spiral, and Acid hopped up onto her, getting launched over the fence like a spring.

Acid was in.

Acid slithered fast through the yard, and went straight up the house's drainpipe until she got right up to the house's upper window. Inside the house, Acid saw a decent bedroom, and with her target fast asleep on her bed. The target this time? Sadie! Sadie was fast asleep, not suspecting a thing, and Acid gently got her tail under the window sill, opening it up just enough for the sly serpent to slide her way in. The snake made little to no sound as she went along the floor, and slowly over to Sadie's bed. Each slither from the snake was completely silent, and she kept to the shadows for the longest time. However, the snake didn't go straight for her that fast. Acid coiled up on one of the bed legs, slowly crawling up bit by bit. A devilish grin stretched across Acid's face, her fangs gleaming in the moonlight, Sadie none-the-wiser. It would be a perfect opportunity for a quick bite to the girl, and go on her way, but Acid wasn't going to jump the gun like that. Words can easily be as powerful as any venom, if you know how ...

"Hello, Sadie," Acid slowly hissed. A groan came out of Sadie, as the girl was trying to sleep. Acid slithered over to Sadie's ear, and hissed loudly, her forked tongue tickling Sadie's face.

"H-huh? Wha? Who?" Sadie mumbled, very groggy. Acid coiled up comfortably on Sadie's bed, as Sadie slowly began to wake up, realizing what was going on. Sadie, of course, was a bit freaked out to see a venomous viper just chilling in her room, but before she could scream, Acid brought her tail up to her lips.

"W-what are you?" Sadie shivered.

"Don't be afraid, sweetheart. I am a Equestrian Snake," Acid hissed. Sadie was only a bit familiar with the Equestrian world, so it didn't help too much ...

"W-What're you doing here?"

"Just want to talk as all. The better question is: how are you feeling?"

"I'm. Fine," Sadie said, slightly confused. Acid slithered closer to her.

"Oh, let's not try and lie to eachother, sweet, sweet Sadie. I can tell when I'm lied to," Acid joked, the snake coiling up right beside Sadie, enough for the girl to jump outta bed. Acid ended up under the covers for a bit before poking her head out.

"I'm fine, really," Sadie insisted. Acid still wasn't convinced.

"Oh? Fine with what? Your ambitions? Your friends? Your family?"

"What're you talking about?" Sadie finally asked, still not getting where this snake was coming from. Acid could tell that sly talk was just not gonna work here, so she slithered outta the covers, and gave it to her straight.

"I'm talking about your mother, my dear. Quite a obsessive parent, isn't she? Don't pretend you don't know. A simple interest from you, blown too far out of proportion. Is that right?" Acid hissed. Sadie realized now what Acid meant, and the girl felt withdrawn about the subject. However, the obvious concept still needed answers.

"Wait, how'd you know that?" Sadie asked, almost bluntly.

"Word gets around, you know. Especially with a mother like yours, wouldn't you say?"

Sadie sighed, and sat down on the bed, next to Acid, slumped over.

"Ok, so you know," Sadie groaned. Acid gently slithered over Sadie's lap, coiling around her shoulders like a scarf.

"There, there, don't fret. The answer is very simple: your mother just LOVES your little hobbies. Why not be interested in something she can't enjoy? You'll be at your own pace, and she will be off your back." It was a rather odd suggestion to give for Sadie, but the distraught girl felt more defiant to the snake than confused.

"She loves anything I find interested in, what can I do that she won't force me into?"

"I'm sure there's someone in this little town of yours that can help you with that, eh? Someone you've known for a long time. ... The local bad boy, perhaps?" Acid suggested through a forked tongue. Sadie wasn't sure how to respond to that, but Sadie did know who Acid was referring to. Or probably referring to, anyway. Acid slithered off towards the window after that, Sadie left to think more on what Acid had just said. The snake snuck out the window, but not before leaving one more word to Sadie to seal the deal.

"I'm sure anyone would love to be free."

~~~~~~

*click*

"Yo, everybody and everypony. Emerald here, coming to you live from Brittle Bear Bakery: a little corner for us urban explorers. We got some pals joining with me tonight. say hello to the little people out there."

"Sup?"

"Hey there."

With some levitation work on his portable, fully charged phone, Emerald introduced Amethyst and Steven in a camera video. Light wasn't very much, but his IPhone had a light to use, so light inside wasn't an issue for the filming process. The trio were walking through one of the halls to the back, as they checked the place out and filmed what they were doing.

"So this is what you do on your free time?" Steven asked. Emerald looked back to him, catching his IPhone mid air before it could fall down to the floor.

"Sorta. I've been checking out TubeTube and urban exploration vids been going all out. I was gonna go out solo tonight in this place, but you two are checking things out around here anyway, so why miss the chance?" Emerald explained. They continued going along, heading to one of the old doors which was labeled "Parts and Service".

"But what's actually here? I'm up for exploring freaky places as much as the next girl, but -"

"OH! ohohohohohoh, would you look at that? LOOK at THIS!" Emerald beamed, cutting off Amethyst.

Suddenly, Emerald was going off ahead, and straight into the Parts and Service room, especially excited. Steven and Amethyst peeked into the room, just to see Emerald checking out the stuff inside. In this room, while a number of props were around that would fit into this sort of place, the main thing that Emerald was going over was a trio of large robotic figures. These looked rotted away, broken, and simply laying there. One of these looked like a large white robotic bear, a mic in hand and blue metal cloth around his neck that reached down over the chest, like the advertisement outside. The cloth had a blue button on the center of the chest region on the cloth. Another of these animatronics, which was sitting down over by the door, looked like a pink penguin in a tuxedo (go figure). This little guy, about as big as Amethyst, had a larger round button over the bellybutton, as apart of the suit. The third one, laying down on the floor, looked like a white arctic fox, with what looked like a violin in one hand. It was odd to see, but Emerald seemed psyched about it anyway.

"It's just some robots, dude, chill out," Amethyst said, not getting the idea as Emerald was taking some pictures with the animatronics.

"DUDE, these are the mascots for the bakery right here! Peppermint Penguin, Frosty Fox, and Mr. Brittle Bear himself right here," Emerald introduced, in a similar manor to how Pinkie Pie might've introduced them. Steven was checking out Peppermint Penguin for a little bit, but Amethyst didn't seem to get it.

"So?" Amethyst questioned.

"Let me fill you both in," Emerald said, quickly fiddling with his phone to show up a picture amongst his photo gallery. The picture on the phone looked like some sort of news article. Amethyst read through the article as Emerald explained.

"Brittle Bear Bakery: the sweetest place for every good girl and boy in the world to enjoy a yummy treat with your favorite frozen pals, Brittle Bear and friends!"

Emerald took a moment to pick up Peppermint Penguin, playing around with the robotic arms as if PP was performing.

"They had good business for years, but just as it was getting hyped up ... BOOM! The robots go completely on the fritz! glitching up, spazzing out, didn't take long before the kids freaked out."

To show what he meant, Emerald had Peppermint Penguin moving erratically, as if glitching out on stage (head spinning, fins flapping around, etc.) this happened for a few more minutes before PP finally stopped, and Emerald placed it down.

"Days this went on, each performance, until it was too much: closing it down for good ..."

Emerald starts to smile devilishly, much like how it looked while his gemstone was cracked before.

"Rumors went around from there. Some say they could hear music play within the abandoned halls. lights a blazing in here ... even the souls of these animatronics. Coming alive ... stalking whoever dares wander into their world ... BOO!" Suddenly, Emerald finished his story by sneaking behind Steven, and grabbing him by his shoulders fast, making Steven yelp and jump back. Emerald chuckled, but the idea that a ghost was probably haunting the place was a bit spooky. Amethyst though wasn't so easily freaked out.

"... And, you're telling us this, because ..."

"Because WE are gonna get some legit footage tonight!" Emerald announced, big smile on his face, and even starry eyed. So THAT was Emerald's big plan, and he decided to include Steven and Amethyst in it.

"Wait a minute here. So you dragged me and Steven away from our monster hunt so YOU can have company to join you in a Ronaldo-inspired fiasco to get some fancy vids of haunted robots in a kid's bakery," Amethyst summed up.

"Yeah, pretty much," Emerald bluntly stated.

"... I'm down with that."

"Sweeeeet! come on, let's get to the camera room. Oh, we're gonna make this happen!" Emerald beamed, going off outta the parts and service room. Amethyst casually followed behind, though Steven took a moment to look back at the other animatronics. To anyone else, it would just be a bunch of old scrape metal, but as Steven looked to them, he began to feel ... well, a little indifferent. Frosty Fox's eyes were actually looking right at him in her position, and both Steven and frosty fox just stared at eachother for a bit ...

"YO, Steven, come on," Emerald called. Steven took one more glance to the fox before he went off to join the others.

~~~~~~

Night continued on, and Amethyst, Steven, and Emerald were still checking things out around the place of Brittle Bear Bakery. While Amethyst and Emerald were alright as they casually strolled along, Steven suddenly felt a more unsteady feeling wash over him ever since he saw those animatronics. Not exactly the same unsteady feeling one would have in a haunted house, per say, but an unsteady feeling that something just felt wrong here. Something that just seemed ... sad, almost. It was ironic since this place was a kid's place, and Emerald brought it on to be a happy place to be in. As they ventured around, they got a good layout of what the place was about. The whole place itself interior wise was about as similar of design as outside in terms of age: many 50's sorts of furniture around the place. The main room for example had plenty of booths and tables around, about twenty full, with an empty stage where Brittle Bear and friends supposedly performed on. While it looked nice, where Emerald did want to get to was down a double set of hallways.

"HA, here we are, gang!" Emerald announced. Where Emerald had gotten them to was the main office (or camera room as Emerlad kept calling it). It was rather simple, and all the stuff seemed there already: a number of camera screens to the front, an old fan on the desk with a little plushie of Peppermint Penguin, a desk wheelie chair, and a old poster of Brittle Bear up on the wall. Emerald, not wasting any time, hopped right onto the chair, which spun around about four times before aiming right at the camera screens.

"So this is the office?" Steven asked.

"Yep, that's right. Let's see if I can get some power into these screens here," Emerald said, trying to see what he could do. However, as one could imagine, power in this sort of place was little to none, so Emerald just could get this sort of connection to work right. As Emerald was busy, Amethyst turned around and saw Steven standing over by the plushie, though Steven didn't look too happy.

"Hey, Steven, something eating ya?" Amethyst asked. Steven got himself back to reality, a hand reaching and holding the plushie.

"Something doesn't feel right about this place," Steven simply stated. Amethyst just shrugged though.

"Eh, figured you'd say that. This place is haunted apparently."

"No, no. Well, ok yeah, but ... why though?"

"Why? Why how?" Amethyst asked, not sure where Steven was going with this.

"Why are there ghosts haunting this place? What's keeping them here? Ghosts stay around somewhere if they have something unfinished," Steven wondered, as emerald still tried to fiddle around with what he can work with. Amethyst wasn't too impressed with it.

"Did you get that stuff from Ronaldo?" she asked bluntly.

As Emerald kept trying nearby, he finally realized that it just wasn't getting anywhere fast. Angry, he went on to kick the desk, just to have the screens just turn on themselves! It was a bit odd, but either way, Emerald was happy about it.

"AHA! Finally we're in business!" Emerald beamed. Many of the screens that did show up showed different places and angles of the bakery. Amongst these included the performance stage, the main dining room, the parts and service room where the animatronics were laying in, four areas of both hallways leading to the office, one near the bathrooms, and even one over where the kitchen would be. However, not all of them were working correctly; screens were slightly static, moved slowly in their swaying, and some of the cameras didn't show anything at all. All the same, Emerald was psyched about this, and quickly got out his IPhone camera.

"Yo, look at this! few fancy tricks, and we got the cameras working," Emerald summed up for the camera, showing it to the audience. Well, the cameras were on, but Amethyst and Steven weren't paying too much attention to that. Or at least, Steven wasn't much, anyway. Looking to the screens, his eyes kept to the Parts and Service screen, where the animatronics were. Amethyst, for the heck of it, stepped out into the hallway, and soon she was seen on one of the hallway cameras, waving her arms, and making a silly face up to it.

"Hey, Amethyst!"

"YO, check me out!" Amethyst said. It seemed okay and innocent at first.

Then the cameras started to glitch ...

"What the? Hey!" Emerald griped, trying to fix it. The glitch was only for about a few long seconds, but in that time, the cameras fixed themselves, and it looked as good as it would get. Each camera looked okay, but there was one tiny little detail when looking in the Parts and Service camera. They saw Frosty Fox and Brittle Bear, but as for Peppermint Penguin, they looked mad through the cameras, and found that the penguin had suddenly ended up over near the stage, standing upright, and according to the camera, looking away from them.

"D-Did you move that, Emerald?" Steven asked.

"No, not really. My powers are good, but not that good," Emerald replied. Suddenly the screens glitched out again, and when they came back on this time, Peppermint Penguin was gone from the stage. Before either one could figure out where it went to ...

"YOUCH!"

*CRACK!*

"Amethyst!" Steven gasped, quickly racing outside of the office. Steven almost stumbled in his step, but he did catch up to where Amethyst was standing. Rather than finding a purple gemstone on the ground like he thought, he found Amethyst with her whip out, and a decapitated Peppermint Penguin down on the ground, flippers still flailing around, a few sparks shooting out from the metal circuits.

"Amethyst, you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm cool, but this pink penguin jumped me," Amethyst said, thumb aimed to the body on the floor. Peppermint Penguin flickered a little more, actually getting on its feet, until the body finally took a moment to stop moving. Amethyst walked casually over to the penguin, picking it up, and looking it over for a bit, checking inside. Amethyst saw metal, wiring, and an endoskeleton too. To her, it was dead basically.

"Eeyup, dead. Teach you to jump me," Amethyst commented, setting the body down. Amethyst started to walk back to Emerald, leaving Steven with what was left of Peppermint Penguin. That strange feeling of sadness overwhelmed Steven again, but this time he tried to keep himself and his mind straight. It was just a animatronic - a robot. He'd seen robots break down before, so, why was this one so troubling? ...

"Sorry about that," Steven simply said, before going off to join Amethyst ...

~~~~~~

Time ticked on through the night, and so far nothing too crazy had happened just yet aside from the Peppermint Penguin attack. Brittle Bear and Frosty Fox hadn't budged from where they were yet, and since Emerald was the one who actually messed around with Peppermint Penguin by his presentation earlier, Amethyst and Steven just considered that as Emerald messing with the wiring, intentional or not. Steven and Amethyst wondered if this is actually worth it or not. Emerald checked on the cameras over and over, and for a while, the animatronics hadn't moved much, if at all. Steven for one was getting very tired at this point, not really used to staying up THIS long.

"Any of those robots moved yet, Emerald?" Amethyst asked.

"I dunno, I can't find them anywhere here. They all disappeared since you KO'd Peppermint," Emerald said, and sure enough it was the case. Amethyst and emerald looked around every single working camera, and they didn't see any animatronic, including Peppermint Penguin.

"Where'd they go?" Amethyst wondered. Before either Amethyst or Emerald could come up with anything, the two heard a rather notable yawn coming from Steven. Steven wasn't as sad as before, but that was just because he was just too tired to really think about it.

"Getting tired, buddy?" Amethyst asked.

"So soon?" Emerald added in.

""Sleep is a curse, and yet a curse I need to live." -Steven Universe," Steven quoted, very tired and not thinking straight as a yawn escaped his lips again.

"Eh, ok kid, you get yourself some sleep, we'll keep an eye -"

*thud*

Amethyst stopped her sentence when she heard Steven falling onto his back, out like a light. Poor kid couldn't stay up a minute longer by the looks of things. Still, it didn't look rather comfortable for Steven laying on the floor, so amethyst gave Steven some convenience by shapeshifting into a pillow for his head. At least his head will be comfy for the night.

"Eh, goodnight you two," emerald simply said, going back to the cameras ...

.......

Steven's mind had begun to wander not too long after he fell asleep, going right on to dreamland in just a few short minutes. Steven began to stir a little bit, eventually opening his eyes. The half Gem in question wasn't sure where he was, being left in the dark for a moment, staring up into the dark sky for a bit. Steven sat up slowly, and once he did, the entire area began to change and shift into something entirely different. Steven found himself in a party room. He was sitting at a small chair along the table, and looking around, he found himself in the Brittle Bear bakery again. The main room though didn't look as wrecked as before, but instead it all looked up to date: the tables clean, the lights shining bright, the stage all set up, and the trio of animatronics all performing on stage. Strange though, that while they looked to be singing, Steven couldn't hear any lyrics coming from them. Brittle Bear, Frosty Fox, and Peppermint Penguin all looked clean, up-to-date, and in working order. Once more, a number of other kids were also there, though they looked a bit blurred, and hard to make out.

"What's going on? Is this ... Brittle Bear bakery?" Steven wondered.

Steven couldn't exactly move correctly (dream logic and all), so Steven stayed in his seat and looked at what was going on. Steven could see four kids over by the animatronics, happily watching the animatronics perform on the stage. At first Steven thought it was an ok sort of situation, but during this, the kids stopped and turned to their right. Steven did the same, and he soon saw someone else nearby, looking like some other animatronic, this one looking like a sort of robotic seal. The kids, which seconds ago were by the stage, suddenly were walking into another room with the seal guy holding the door open. Steven didn't know why, but he began to feel more and more scared. It didn't help that the seal's face looked a little more freaky and scary when Steven saw it. One by one, the kids disappeared into the dark room, Steven feeling his heart pounding, and his mind racing. All of a sudden, he got an overwhelming urge to go in, and soon he found himself running into the room after the kids! Steven was left in the dark again, unable to see or hear anything. And then ...

"AAHHH!!"

*Slice* *Slice*

"AAHHH -"

Silence ...

"... I'm so sorry ..."

Next thing Steven knew, he was suddenly sitting in a chair. He felt rather stiff as he was sitting, and unable to get up off the chair. He was in the spotlight of some unknown light, and the chair he was sitting on was a wooden stool. He couldn't move, or budge off of it, and he couldn't see very far from it either. So, Steven heard screaming, slashing, and now ...

Steven saw his own hand. It didn't look like his normal, flesh human hand at all, but instead a robotic, whitish one. Steven was sure he didn't remember this happening to him seconds earlier, and when he looked up again, the seal was missing. In its place, a mirror showed Steven what happened to him.

He really WAS Frosty Fox!

"Help."

.......

Steven woke up quickly after that, eyes shooting open, and back to reality. Steven hoped to be back in his bedroom, but he was just in the Brittle Bear Bakery office. The first thing he saw aside from the ceiling were Amethyst and Emerald, who were looking down at him. Steven eventually sat up.

"Whoa, dude, you ok?" Amethyst asked. Steven took a moment or two, feeling that his throat was a little bit dry, but fine. Though, the dryness was more from that feeling after crying, only more evident by the slightly moist streams on his face. Steven wasn't sleepy anymore. The kid got up to his feet, but just before he could answer, he noticed something else: something was outside in the hallway, looking at the camera. Emerald and Amethyst followed Steven's eyes back to the cameras, seeing a figure indeed standing there, but not moving any further from there.

"Who's that?" Steven asked.

"Hmm ... Frosty Fox I think. Don't worry, she won't da -"

Steven, before Emerald could finish his sentence, suddenly took off running out the door, not taking long at all before Steven saw the fox. Soon as Frosty saw him, it turned and moved away.

"Steven, where're you going?"

"Hold on, I'll be right back," Steven promised, before going after Frosty. At a moment alone, Steven was at the mercy of whatever was within the dark corners of Brittle Bear Bakery. That dream he had could NOT be any coincidence in a place like this. The human followed Frosty Fox for a good five minutes, going all over the bakery. Eventually though, Steven found himself looped around over to another room, where he saw Frosty fox slip into. As he stood there, Steven began to hear some sort of noise going on from within the room. What it exactly was, mainly was unclear overall, but Steven began to creep over to investigate anyway. As he crept closer to the door, the sound of footsteps, screws, and robotic noises could be heard. It was a bit troubling, but Steven felt that something deeper was going on that he needed to help with. The door was creaked ever so slightly, and Steven peered in, trying to see what was going on.

What he saw inside left him quiet: Frosty Fox and Brittle Bear, trying to repair Peppermint Penguin. That would explain not only where they were, but what happened to Peppermint Penguin's body. Frosty seemed to be the assistant to Brittle Bear, as they tried to get Peppermint Penguin working again. They seemed to get the head on, but they didn't get the penguin working right though. Peppermint Penguin was laid down on a metal table, with Brittle Bear and Frosty Fox standing around it. Steven continued watching for a little bit more, the swell of guilt returning to him on seeing this. The other two seemed trying their hardest to get their friend back ...

Then Brittle Bear itself saw him!

Steven would normally run, but his view on these animatronics was a bit questionable throughout this whole thing, and when they noticed him, he didn't move. Eventually, Steven plucked up courage, and opened the door completely, exposing himself to Brittle Bear and Frosty Fox.

"Uh. Hi. Eh, sorry my friend did that to your friend," Steven said, with a nervous smile on his face. Neither animatronic could talk, so no exact response was made. But, they didn't attack him, so that was good. Steven looked over to Peppermint Penguin on the table, the little guy not even making a twitch. Steven remembered the dream he had just minutes ago, and with that in mind and looking here, he had to get on with it.

"... I uh ... I know what happened to you. A-And that seal ... I'm so sorry ..."

The two animatronics didn't react much to that, not in anger nor remorse. Either they didn't knew that Steven was talking about, or they needed a moment to take it in.

"Here, let me see it," Steven said, looking to Peppermint Penguin. He wasn't sure if this will work on Peppermint Penguin, but he didn't know much on electronics aside from how to work a TV or VG remote. With that said, he still felt that he might as well try to work it out. Steven got up onto the table in question, up to Peppermint Penguin's level. The bird did indeed look dead, even for a robotic penguin. Steven, again, wasn't sure if this was going to work, but he needed to at least try. He saw where Amethyst had whacked the penguin hard, so Steven got some good spit down onto his hand, and placed it down onto Peppermint's neck ...

Precious seconds ticked by, but nothing seemed to happen to the penguin. Steven tried again, and waited some more, but nothing seemed to happen again. Steven had to try something to help them out here ...

Then a twitch.

Then the eyes turned to see Steven.

Steven gave a sigh of relief, but the same penguin didn't get up. Steven helped Peppermint Penguin up to its feet, but something just seemed off with him.

"Hey, you ok buddy?" Steven asked, trying to see if Peppermint Penguin was alright. Soon, Peppermint Penguin began to work out its moving parts but by bit, and it turned out ok. As ok as ok could get anyway. Peppermint grabbed its head, adjusting it just right before it turned to Steven, and hugged him for what he did. The gesture was cute, and Steven was happy to return the hug to the penguin. Well, it was the least he could do, yet ...

"You're welcome ..."

Steven began to feel a little less guilt within himself after this was done. However, after a while, something else started to happen. Brittle Bear gently picked up Peppermint Penguin, and began to leave the room. Frosty Fox and Steven Universe were alone for a moment, Steven hopping down from the table and soon at her eye level. Frosty stood there, but her robotic face turned into a smile (the best a robot grin could do), before she walked off to join Brittle Bear. Steven peaked out from the room, seeing the trio of animatronics return to the Parts and Service room ...

Then light came in from the Windows.

.......

"Well, that was a night, eh Amethyst?" Emerald said, next morning.

"Eh, it was so-so. Didn't expect an attack from Peppermint," Amethyst admitted.

"Well, that's that. Gotta get going, I'll see you two later," Emerald said, and he went off on his way. Amethyst and Steven were soon alone in front of Brittle Bear Bakery. As Amethyst and Steven went to their bikes, Steven took a look at the bakery. Amethyst didn't take long until she noticed him.

"Hey Amethyst? You think there's something we can do for them?" Steven asked. Amethyst shrugged.

"I dunno, but stranger things had happened. Maybe you'll figure something out later, but for now -"

"Uh, actually, maybe we can wait on the other monsters a little bit. I'm very tired," Steven said, still feeling tired from last night.

"I was gonna say: let's go chill at the beach."

"Oh. Sure," Steven said. Amethyst began to ride away, and Steven looked back to the bakery itself. Those three animatronics were still in there, and Steven didn't had a clue what to do for them. Just like his thoughts back to the human zoo ...

"I promise I'll help you," Steven said.

And with that, he left to join Amethyst.

Runt of the Cluster

View Online

"AHA! We ROCKED out there!" Amethyst beamed.

Late at night, and Amethyst and Steven were just arriving off back home. It had been quite a day; not too long after leaving Brittle Bear Bakery, they've been quite busy all day with their Gem beast collecting, going through one monster after another. According to the list they were given, they've plowed through about five already, and while Amethyst was having a blast and empowerment, Steven was getting exhausted, but happy they were making this much progress with it all.

"Yep. We sure did," Steven yawned, as he and Amethyst were heading on inside. No one else was there at the moment: the Crystal Gems busy with the drill, and the Mane Six busy ... well, looking for them. Either way, they had a moment of down time, and with Steven so tired, they might as well chill out before going right back to it. Steven, almost immediately went right to his room, got his PJs, and went off to the bathroom to change as Amethyst crashed down on the couch. She wasn't tired, she enjoyed sleeping same as anybody. It took a minute, but Steven got his PJs on, and went right off to bed, falling right onto it.

"Night, dude. See ya in the morning," Amethyst said.

"Night," Steven simply said. He wasted no time. He got himself right onto bed, got the covers over him, and soon was right off to sleep. Been a while since he got himself sleeping in his own bed ...

.......

*Ring-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling*

"Huh?"

From one moment to another, Steven Universe suddenly found himself away from the Temple, and instead in some sort of overly dark room. He was sitting on a little stool, and he couldn't see anything, or even move an inch off of it no matter what he did. Where he was, or why he was there, he had no clue. One thing was for sure: Steven was not budging by any means. As he was sitting there, he began to hear some footsteps nearby. While unable to move himself off, he was able to move his head around, and he turned it to see this newcomer coming over. The figure looked like, much to his surprise, Jasper! However, Steven wasn't sure if this was Jasper fully or not, because her hue was more yellow than normal. That, and her shield cutie mark was replaced with a Tri-Star face paint.

"Jasper! You're alive!" Steven gasped in shock.

"Hi," Jasper simply said. A rather odd response, but Steven didn't question that right away.

"Hi. Jasper, I was so -"

"Hi Rosie."

"... Excuse me?" Steven asked.

"Rosie. Rosie the Quart-see," Jasper said, a bit casually. Steven didn't take very long to figure out what she meant.

"Rosie the - oh Rose! But, Jasper, you know I'm not Rose -"

"HI ROSIE. ROSIE THE QUART-SEE," Jasper insisted. Her voice was a bit more forceful this time, and when Steven looked, her head, hands, and feet looked a bit bigger, and her face looked more menacing.

"But, Jasper, I'm not -"

"ROSIE! ROSE-E THE QUART-SEE!" Jasper yelled, her head, hands, and feet even bigger this time, with her face now with diamond eyes, and teeth sharp like those of a shark.

"B-But I -"

Jasper's head and hands were extremely big the next second Steven looked to her, eyes huge with the diamond symbol much bigger this time, teeth like the blade of a saw. Both hands and head were so big, it was beyond cartoony, and in that second -

"HIII ROSIE!!!!"

... Steven looked once more, his nerves trembling, goosebumps all over him. However, Jasper looked normal at this point, although still colored yellow over her usual orange. After that scream, Steven then began to hear more footsteps nearby. Jasper moved away after a bit, but the next figure waltz right out into sight. This time, it was Pearl, wearing a tuxedo of multiple colors. She had a pink top hat, a yellow overcoat, white undershirt, and blue fancy pants. Steven couldn't see Pearl's eyes, but a glimpse he did see saw Pearl didn't really had irises: two white bulbs for eyes. Around her neck looked like a big slide whistle, which Pearl proceeded to lift up, and give a good blow.

"MUSIC MISTRO!" Pearl called, walking out of sight. Steven, still stuck in his seat, started to hear some odd music. Something like a music organ, playing a sort of tune much like those you'd hear in a circus or something along those lines. Multi colored lights started to dance around him, shades of red, blue, and yellow. The music was clear, but loud, and Steven had to cover his ears of the screeching notes. The odd music kept up for about thirty seconds before Pearl popped up again nearby.

"TAKE FIVE!" Pearl announced, before the lights and music stopped altogether, and Pearl going away. Steven didn't have the foggiest idea on what was going on, as he began to hear more footsteps again, this time to his right. This time it wasn't a Gem, but a pony: Fluttershy. As Jasper was yellow, Fluttershy's colors were a hue of blue, and her eyes having a diamond-symbol in then again. Her cutie mark was missing altogether, and she had a performer horse's saddle on her, with a jack-in-the-box on her back, her pet bunny Angel popping up and down along with the jack-in-the-box music like a real one would do - over and over again. The pony looked unfazed by the constant popping, and looked to Steven.

"Hi," Fluttershy simply said, in her usual shy tone.

"... Hi," Steven said, though it was hard to get a word in due to the Jack-in-the-box going off time and again.

"Hi, Rosie."

Rose, again?

"Fluttershy, I -" Steven was cut off by the loud jack-in-the-box. Fluttershy flicked her ear before she spoke.

"She's going to check in on you, soon," Fluttershy stated.

"Who? Who's coming?"

Fluttershy didn't answer this time, just staring at Steven with a innocent looking smile. Steven decided to go for broke ...

"... Rosie?"

"YOU'RE ROSIE! ROSIE! ROSIE THE QUART-SEE!" This screech came with Fluttershy's head and neck stretched to terrifying proportions, enough that her head was right above him, her mouth opening wide like a pelican's beak.

"Nononononono! I-I don't know!" Steven shivered, hands in between him and the pony. Who knew Fluttershy could be so scary? When he looked again, Fluttershy was normal again (or as normal as she would get), and the jack-in-the-box slowing down a little bit. After that, Fluttershy glanced over away from Steven, Steven following her eyes to another figure passing by. This time it looked like Ronaldo and Peedee, though the two had colors similar to Bismuth or Rainbow Dash in hair, skin, and clothes. Peedee was holding up a GIGANTIC axe, looking about a literal ton, and Ronaldo tossed something to Steven before the two went away. The object, by the looks of it, looked like some sort of wig. A brown, curly wig. And then ...

"MUSIC MISTRO!"

Well, Pearl announced it again. Suddenly, the wig was on Steven's head, Fluttershy was gone, and the music played again. It was just as horridly loud as before, but through the organ playing, it started to sound with a hint of moaning to the music. Steven couldn't make out the moans too well since he had to cover his ears to make the music more reasonable. This time it lasted longer, and the light showed a more elaborate display, this time with Steven looking like he was at the Galaxy warp, the warp pads like stages. On each one, Steven saw either a pony figure, or a human figure dancing to the music. Steven obviously had no clue what to do at this point, extremely confused and scared at the situation.

"TAKE FIVE!"

And like that, music stopped, and the figures disappeared, again leaving him alone. Steven just didn't really know what was going to happen next until the spotlight shined again. Steven was a bit worried to look again, but his eyes showed him what was what anyway. Over next to him ... well, not a pony, nor a Gem. In fact, it was discord, but he looked completely grey, black, and white. He was inside a snake-charmer's basket, in a position to look like a cobra, but with multiple arms like a centipede.

"Hey, Rosie.~" Discord cooed, his body swaying around side to side like a cobra.

"I-I'm not rose. I'm -"

"ARE YOU LOOKING AT MY WAR BOOK?!" Discord screamed, his eyes glowing white, his mouth opening wider than normal. Steven was gonna protest that there was no book, until he suddenly found that Discord was holding a sort of odd book in one of his many talon hands saying: history of Rose and her diamond ...

Pink Diamond ...

Oh boy ...

"NONONONONONONONO!" Steven said in fear, freaked out as he could ever be.

"Gooooood ... you want to?~" Discord asked, flipping through the many pages of it. Steven was completely skeptical at first, but then ...

"I-I don't know, I ... I ... y-yes. Yes, idoidoidoidoido I really do!"

This was a bit out of sorts, even for Steven himself - he wasn't usually this finicky, and this was close to Pinkie Pie levels of speed talk. After saying that, Steven then heard something else go by nearby: Onion, Squash, Soup, Garbanzo and Pinto riding by in a clown wagon. Pinto tossed down something to Steven, and this time it looked like some white costume. Discord had a big, toothy grin on his face, as a snake tongue slipped out.

"You're one GOOOOOD little Quart-see ... aren't you?!" Discord said, hissing loudly again. The question was more of a statement, but Steven was a lot more skeptical this time.

"NONONO! I-I don't ... I don't think so ..."

Now not even Steven was thinking much correction after all. Discord slipped away out of the basket into the dark, only to have Pearl pop out, giving a good blow of her slide whistle again.

"MUSIC MISTRO!"

"Not again," Steven groaned, covering his ears earlier this time. But, instead of loud, banging music shaking his head, the music was a lot calmer, and WAY quieter than before. Steven removed his hands, relaxing a bit, but his mind was still racing. Jasper, Fluttershy, Discord, they all were thinking he isn't Steven at all. Steven would keep to his own opinions on this sort of manor, but this odd turn of events had messed with him far enough, especially now that the outfit found its way onto him ...

"... Maybe I am Rose ..."

"Hello."

Steven turned once more, this time seeing Lapis. Though, this Lapis was not the cheery, happy Gem Steven knew. Her eyes were missing, and she had a spear through her head! She was sitting casually on a chair, which had a stand lamp right next to it, with her hands together and legs laying on her other knee.

"Rosie?" Lapis asked.

"... Yes ..."

"Rosie the Quart-see?" Lapis asked, now more of a calm, casual question.

Then Steven apparently lost it.

"Yes! Yes that's me! Rose! Rosie the Quart-see, that's me!"

It wasn't until here that Steven finally was able to get up off the stool he was on, which disappeared behind him. Lapis disappeared as the stage lit up, Steven dancing to some more music being played nearby, though this sounded less like music, and more like actual lyrical moaning, but Steven was a bit too freaked to care about that ...

Then a mirror appeared in front of him.

He was in Rose's body, the gemstone shattered, eyes nothing but black spots, and with the breaking point in hand, and signs of pink shards still staining the drill ...

.......

"AH!"

Back in reality again. It was late at night at this point, moon nice and high in the sky. Nobody and nopony was around still, but with the exception of Amethyst. By his bed, he also found Blue sitting there, ears folded back in concern. whatever that freaky dream had done to him, Blue apparently saw some sort of physical reaction in the real world, enough for Blue to notice and trouble over. Steven relaxed himself, but that dream just reminded of the big fact that had been hanging over his head for a while.

"It's ok, Blue. Just a bad dream," Steven said, rubbing Blue's head. The dog responded with a lick of Steven's hand, as Steven got back up out of bed. Amethyst, while sleepy, eventually got up to find that Steven was up and about himself, going to the fridge. That would be normal for Amethyst, honestly.

"Hey, Steven. Up for a midnight snack?" Amethyst asked, yawning. Steven turned around to her, his hand grabbing a carton of milk from the fridge.

"Guess so," sighed Steven, as he got a glass and poured some milk for himself. Amethyst, feeling puckish herself, went over to the fridge to get a snack for herself. As she was grabbing some chaps from the cabinet, she quickly saw that Steven just wasn't happy.

"Had a bad dream?" Amethyst asked, getting out some dip for her chips. Steven put the milk away before picking up his glass. Now that his dream played out the way it did, the concepts were stuck on his brain ...

"Yeah ..."

"You ... care to talk about it?" The purple Gem asked. Steven didn't answer at first, going over to the window by the door. He sat down comfy, glass of milk in hand, and looking outside, moon shining through the night into the room ...

"... Why didn't you tell me? ..."

Tell him? Amethyst wasn't sure what dream Steven had, but it didn't take much for the purple Gem to really know what Steven meant. Amethyst sat down next to Steven, placing her chips down nearby.

"It's about Rose, is it?"

"Yeah ... I don't know why you, Pearl, and Garnet didn't tell me. I knew you probably did a lot in the war, but ... to shatter a Diamond ... Amethyst? Do you think she would ever do that? ..."

Amethyst was quiet at first, sitting down, and looking outside to the night sky. Steven wanted to get another opinion on the matter, and that wasn't bad, but why did it had to be her? She may not be the oldest Gem in the group, but Amethyst would know Rose better than Steven ever could.

"... I don't know, Steven ... Look. I know it's hard for you. Believe me, I know how it feels to have things kept quiet from you."

Steven turned to Amethyst. Did she really mean that, or was she just saying that to make him feel better?

"You do?" Steven asked, quietly. Amethyst sighed, resting her head in her palm

"Eeyup. I haven't been out in the field as long as Pearl, Garnet, or Rose had ... Heh, heck. There was a time when I never even heard of the Gem war before."

Amethyst stayed quiet for a moment, Steven taking a sip of his milk. The purple Gem would not lie to Steven, being more casual about plenty of subject matters. Amethyst looked over to Steven after a bit, seeing him more curious than sad at this point.

"You up for a midnight story?" Amethyst asked. Steven didn't reply in words, but instead he simply nodded. Steven got comfortable on his seat, getting a pillow from his bed, and sitting down comfy. Amethyst also got herself comfy too, looking out to the open sky, only a few clouds blocking the stars.

"Well, here it goes ..."

~~~~~~

it was a rather long time ago Steven, before you and Greg came around. I still had my work cut out for me, being a young cut of a Gem. Still checking out Earth, still new to things. Still new to the Crystal Gems.

"Amethyst, where'd you go?!"

Out over in the countryside, two figures were roaming around, trying to find their Amethyst: Pearl and Garnet. At this time though, both Gems in questions were not only younger, but appeared a little different from before. Pearl, for one, had a transparent silk flair around her shoulders, her orange socks a bit more baggy, her hair downward at the back tip, and no evidence of a Crystal Gem star anywhere. Garnet didn't look too different herself, yet her Afro was a lot more profound in its square shape. Her outfit wasn't too different apart from more pronounced shoulders. At the moment, Garnet casually walked along, while Pearl was looking frantically for Amethyst.

"Garnet, I told you to watch her," Pearl said crossly.

"Rose asked you to watch her, Pearl. I came to help you. Calm down," Garnet corrected. Pearl groaned.

"I don't know how you're so calm! We just recruited her into our team, and we already lost her!"

"She's been with us for seventy years now."

"... What's you're point?"

Before their scuffling could continue, a set of eyes was watching them, hidden just inside a hole dug out in the earth. Like a little kitty cat waiting to pounce on a unsuspecting bird. Pearl and Garnet kept going, but while Garnet stopped herself, Pearl kept going until ...

"BONZAI!"

"AHH!"

One jump, and Pearl was grabbed and pinned down by their Gem in question - Amethyst. As with Pearl and Garnet, Amethyst looked a lot different from her current look: her hair short and scruffy, and her clothes had a number of differences; black sweat pants, lavender skirt, with dark purple shoulder pads. Behavior surely showed her age, as Pearl struggled under playful Amethyst. Garnet didn't help, but she couldn't help but smile a little, before she simply picked Amethyst up.

"Amethyst, you shouldn't go wandering off like that. Where were you?" Garnet asked.

"I found this thing, and followed it out here. It was small, fluffy, had big ears, and - there it is!" Amethyst said, excitedly pointing ahead. Pearl and Garnet looked over, and saw a wild rabbit poke out of its hole, ears up and listening to them. Amethyst wriggled herself free, and started chasing the rabbit again, the rabbit darting around left and right. Amethyst chased it around for a little bit before the rabbit suddenly hopped up, and bounced off of Amethyst's head, before bolting away. Amethyst was in a slight daze, but quickly shook it off.

"What have I told you about running after random earth creatures? You could've got hurt, or completely lost!" Pearl asked firmly.

"It's okay, Pearl," a motherly voice said. Looking over, the trio then saw that someone else was coming over to them. This time, it was Rose Quartz herself! Looking to her, Amethyst saw that Rose actually had the rabbit cradled in her hands, the rabbit looking rather content in her arms.

"R-Rose! I-I'm so sorry this happened, I told Amethyst time and time again to -"

"There there Pearl, it's alright. She's okay, and you found her," Rose said, smiling a sweet smile to her. Pearl blushed slightly, as Rose went over to Amethyst.

"Is this what you wanted, Amethyst?" Rose asked. Amethyst brought out her arms to hold the rabbit, but when she did, it was a little rough for the bunny, and it started to squirm a little bit.

"Be more gentle. It has feelings too, just like we do," Rose advised.

Amethyst took Rose's words to heart, and loosened her grip, cuddling the rabbit instead. This time, the rabbit didn't struggle, and instead sniffed Amethyst's face, and cuddled back. Garnet gave a thumbs up to Amethyst, at a job well done.

Yeah, it started off good enough. I learned what a rabbit was that day, and how fluffy they were. Pearl kept telling me to keep it away though. After that though ...

Amethyst had just finished up a, more or less, rough time in the bath. Water was all over the temple cave, Pearl soaked as ever, and just glad it was over as much as Amethyst was. Pearl dried Amethyst up, brushing a blue cloth around her head like a towel.

"And there, all done," Pearl said, Amethyst shaking her head like a dog afterwards.

"But I was clean, really!" Amethyst protested.

"You didn't know where that rodent has been, can't be too sure," Pearl advised, though mainly it was for herself. Amethyst just pouted, though it did feel nice with her hair so soft.

"NOW can I go and play?" Amethyst asked. Pearl wasn't too sure, out on her own, but Pearl knew that arose would at least let her do so.

"Fine," Pearl said. Amethyst beamed, and soon she was running out along the beach to explore. Pearl looked on, but as she was, Rose came over to Pearl, with a reassuring smile.

"Pearl. You don't have to worry about her."

"But Amethyst, she's so rambunctious."

"She's from Earth, you know. A pure Earth Gem. She's just enjoying life, that's all," Rose assured Pearl.

There was SO many things around the beach, let me tell ya. Funny looking shells, white birds, crashing waves. MAN, I remember it all like it was yesterday.

Amethyst happily went along the shore for a good while. At the time, she ran along the waves, feeling the cool seawater underfoot. The waves were rather rough, so Amethyst played a wave chasing game: she chased after the waves as they receded, and as they came in she'd run back up shore again. The waves caught her a few times, but she was having fun anyway. After another wave hit her, Amethyst laughed up a bit, shaking her head of the water. As she was, she then heard a seagull nearby squawk at her. She'd run after it, but then she saw what the bird was on: a wire fence. The bird flew away as Amethyst looked at the fence.

Now, Pearl and Garnet kept telling me to stay behind the fence since they put the thing up, but I always wondered what goes on over there. I saw Beach City every day, and it was driving me CRAZY! So that day, I just had to check it out.

"OOF!"

Soon, as she tumbled over the fence, she was on the other side, and at sight of Beach City. She got sand in her hair, and in her clothes, but she was quick to get herself rolling, and running right off towards the city after a flying seagull. Beach City at the time was a bit different, and more in times. The boardwalk looked a lot newer, and people amongst the area weren't the same as today. Amethyst didn't pay them too much mind just yet, still trying to get the seagull. However, as she missed a jumping lunge for the bird, it was then that she began to check out the rest of the city.

She saw different humans go about their day, doing all sorts of different things, all of which looked unique to do. The young cut of a Gem went around for a bit, looking around at the humans with a lot of fascination, until her ears picked up some sort of beat. It took the curious little Gem some time to follow the beat, until she discovered the source of it: a kid listening to some catchy pop music. The beat was very catchy, and the teen listening to it was dancing along with it, a sort of freestyle walking dance. Amethyst watched him go by, and after a bit she began to dance around with the music too, trying to act hip like he was. She seemed to be doing alright at first, but it was quick to stop when she slipped on her own feet, falling to the floor. she wasn't hurt too badly, but it was a little embarrassing, to say the least. That's when Amethyst looked on ahead of her, and saw something else: a girl with her mother, sitting at a bench. The girl had a unique looking book with her, the picture a little interesting. The curious little Gem started to sneak over to her, wanting to check out the book. The girl was distracted by her mother at the moment, so sneaking off right behind the bench, Amethyst slyly reached her hand around, and snatched the book fast. Amethyst quickly found that the book was a history book, talking about some things that Amethyst was not aware of ...

War.

I had no idea about this thing at the time. The others obviously didn't tell me anything about any War, and here was a book going on and on about it. So then I thought "Maybe the others would know what this was about".

Amethyst was quick to come back to the Temple, with the book in hand, and some questions. When she got back, Garnet was the first there, probably figuring out what Amethyst did already.

"Hi Garnet. Hey, can I ask you -"

"You really should return that book Amethyst. You're going to keep getting in trouble if you keep stealing," Garnet cut in.

"How do you know I stole this?" Amethyst asked. All Garnet did was push her glasses down to show her three eyes.

"Oh. Right."

"Here, I'll return the book," Garnet decided.

Garnet was trying to distract me from the book, but I knew I had questions that needed answers! So, I just went for broke.

"What is a War?" Amethyst asked.

"War? It's a human thing," Garnet simply said, taking the book from her.

"Were we involved in any War?"

Garnet felt a little tense on THAT question. Amethyst had no idea about a war the Gems were involved in, but Garnet had clear memory of one particular war they were strongly involved in, but the fusion felt a little uneasy on trying to answer Amethyst and her question. Before Garnet could answer, the Warp Pad activated, and Pearl and Rose returned to the Temple after another mission. Garnet sighed when they returned.

"Hey Amethyst. Did you have fun today?" Rose Quartz asked.

"Yeah. Rose? Were we involved in any war?"

And Garnet tensed up again. Rose and Pearl both felt taken aback by the question.

"A war, Amethyst? Don't be ridiculous! Where'd this come from?" Pearl joked, trying to sound legitimate. Amethyst quickly grabbed the book from Garnet (much to the fusion's trouble), and opened the page to the part talking about a human war, a finger pointing to it. Instead of answering though, Pearl took the book away again.

"Amethyst! We told you to stay within the fence," Pearl snapped.

"But did we do a war?" Amethyst asked.

"NO we did not. Amethyst, this is such rough battle humans do, there's no reason for us proper Gems to do such things," Pearl explained. Amethyst was a little confused, taking the book and skimming a few pages. Suddenly, there was a picture of a few familiar figures amongst a human battlefield.

"But why're you guys in here then? See, there's you, and Rose right there helping a guy," Amethyst said. Pearl froze up on seeing this, but before things could go any further, Rose decided to step in. She kneeled down to Amethyst's level.

"Ok, Amethyst. We were involved in a few human situations time and again. But we only fight for the right side. The good side," Rose said. If there's anyone Amethyst can trust, it would be Rose.

"You didn't tell me before though. What was that about?" Amethyst then asked. A rather odd question, and a bit troubling to answer for the trio of Gems.

"Eh ..."

"Rose, Pearl, I think we have another mission to do," Garnet suddenly cut in. Amethyst felt a bit more troubled.

"Oh yes! I forgot about that, come on Garnet let's go," Pearl said in agreement.

"But wait, what about -"

Garnet and Pearl were suddenly gone on the Warp Pad, leaving Amethyst dumbfounded. The only other Gem there was Rose, who tried a more comfortable approach.

"It's not something you should worry over Amethyst."

"But, why were they so worried like that? They're not normally like that ... Well, expect for Pearl when she left my seashell at the beach," Amethyst figured.

"Honestly Amethyst, we didn't think it was too important. How about you go and return your friend's book here? I'm sure they would like to have it back," Rose suggested.

Ok, THAT was too weird. Pearl, maybe, but something was very off. Rose had me calmed down for a little bit, but THIS purple Gem wanted some more answers - straight answers. And if there was something that Rose, Pearl, and Garnet knew, there was only one place to scope out ...

Without her book, Amethyst had gone off into hiding, staying small and out of sight over by the Temple main cave. The purple tyke stayed put until she heard the Warp Pad going off, seeing Rose just coming back. PERFECT. Amongst the rocks, Amethyst crawled and skittered from one to another, trying to keep out of sight from Rose, waiting until Rose would do that one thing she was hoping she'll do. For Rose Quartz, she was wondering if telling Amethyst was such a good idea. She hadn't seen her all day, and the other Gems hadn't seen her either. Rose started heading over to the door, Amethyst more and more excited, until ...

"Oh, Garnet there you are."

"Dang, Garnet," Amethyst growled. Garnet was suddenly walking in from the beach, a green Gem with red splotches on it, inside a bubble from another mission.

"Garnet, I need to ask a favor of you ... did you think telling Amethyst about earlier was alright?" Rose asked. Garnet took a short moment.

"I think it's alright."

"Are you sure? I didn't see her all day."

"Don't worry. She'll fall out when I tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"That I'm letting her sneak around inside the Temple without her knowing."

"COME ON!" Amethyst griped. Next thing they knew, Amethyst fell out of her spot, pride bruised and emotion bemused. No point in continuing her attempt after THAT statement, ESPECIALLY from Garnet. Rose and Garnet went over to Amethyst, the purple Gem embarrassed more than most.

"Amethyst?"

"Why can't you tell me straight? At least you're honest with me," Amethyst said, up on her feet. Rose felt uneasy about this.

"I am, I am. I-It's just -"

"What? I'm a big Gem, I can take it!" Amethyst promised. This wasn't exactly a guarantee, and Garnet knew that no doubt. Before Rose could continue, Garnet decided to step in.

"Amethyst? Why don't you give us some privacy?" Garnet suggested. Amethyst crossed her arms and pouted.

"NO! I'm not going anywhere!"

I was not going to just leave. But, Garnet was VERY persuasive. I mean VERY, VERY, persuasive! ... I didn't take her as seriously as I should've.

Garnet held out a bag of pop-pops, shaking them a little to get Amethyst's attention. Amethyst locked eyes with the bag of treats, and soon, Garnet stepped outside, and threw it down the beach as far as she could, Amethyst chasing out after it.

.......

AND she just walked right on back.

"There's nothing in here but seashells," Amethyst stated, just to find Garnet and Rose were already away. What a sucker, but Amethyst was NOT waiting around.

The door was left open. This was my only chance!

And chance it she did. When Amethyst raced in, the door opened up to Rose's room within the Temple. Unlike Amethyst's room, Rose's room looked more like an open plain of pink clouds that seemed endless, from the floor to wherever the ceiling would be. Amongst the room, Amethyst saw Garnet and Rose ahead of her, seemingly looking at something in Rose's hands, but Amethyst couldn't make out what exactly.

"Rose. I don't think we should keep this up much longer. Amethyst's from the Kindergarten, and will have to know eventually," Garnet said at one point. As she did, Amethyst had to hide away from sight, using the only thing available: clouds. Took less than five seconds before Amethyst was completely covered in pink clouds.

"But she's so happy on Earth, Garnet. We saw how much joy she had while she was with us. I'd hate to take that away from her," Rose said.

"What's she talking about?" Amethyst thought. Taking her joy away from her? ...

"We won't take anything away from anyone. But the longer we wait, the harder it's going to feel for her when she does find out."

"I know, I know ... I promise, we will tell her eventually. When the time is right."

"You said that the last thirty times, Rose."

"They weren't the right times, I swear! ... Garnet, please, let's just let Amethyst enjoy her experience for a while more. Five more years."

"Two."

"Four."

"Three."

"... Alright. Three years," Rose decided.

AND they left me alone about it after that. So there I was, still confused, laying down at the beach, everyone else busy. I could say I was getting closer.

And she was laying down at the beach. Pearl, Garnet, and Rose were off at the moment, leaving Amethyst with nothing to do but think about things. They didn't tell her about involvement in any war, and apparently whatever this thing was, it was something to do with the Kindergarten. Amethyst wondered more and more on the situation, tossing and turning on the sand, until she accidentally slammed her face into the water. A quick wake-up call for the purple Gem. When that was done, she took a moment and looked to the water, seeing her own reflection in the water. Amethyst still wanted to figure out some answers, but she couldn't figure out what way to do so ...

Thats when it hit me. If the other Gems weren't going to tell me, then I knew what will.

"I know it's here somewhere," Amethyst wondered.

The little Purple Gem was going about in her room, going through her stuff trying to find a specific item that could help her out. Her piles were smaller, and much of it was Gem stuff rather than a mix of human items. Digging through her pile, Amethyst was tossing a number of things over her head time and again. As she kept looking, she finally fished out the item she was looking for, though it did take a bit before she pulled it out. After a few more pulls, she got it free, tumbling back with item in hand: The Lapis Lazuli mirror!

"Hello, mirror. It's me," Amethyst said, looking into her own reflection. The mirror though didn't seem to activate, react, or anything really. Amethyst laid down on the ground, the mirror in front of her.

"Can I ask you something?" Amethyst asked, waiting for a response. The mirror still didn't respond, but Amethyst went on anyway.

"Can you tell me something about ... the Kindergarten? Pearl, Garnet, and Rose won't tell me anything exactly. They're acting a little ... a lot, weird about it. And when I brought up a War to them, they were a little weird with that too ... so maybe you can help me?"

Still nothing. The mirror showed nothing but the reflection it was seeing. Amethyst's face turned from a hopeful smile to a disappointed frown. It seemed this wasn't getting anything done either. Amethyst was about to just put it away when the mirror started to flicker, the mirror reflection looking like some distorted TV screen.

Seemed Lapis was going to show her after all.

Sitting there, Amethyst watched the screen, and began to view what the mirror had in store for her. It took a little while, but the reflection started to show a similar canyon, with varying Quartz soldiers being released amongst the holes, kept tracks by what appeared to be Peridots, or some similar type anyway. At first it seemed alright, but the reflection shifted off to a different area close by, where what looked like a tree and some bushes, started to wither away. That was when Amethyst started to see the mood shift a bit. During this, one Gem which she did know - Rose - soon appeared and saw what happened. While it was mainly silhouettes, Amethyst knew who was who overall. The mirror began to show Amethyst what Rose was doing, which began to show her, Pearl, and Garnet, rebelling against other Quartz soldiers, poofing them even! Amethyst felt slightly unsettled, but continued watching. The screen kept showing them fighting soldiers left and right, and then showed a rather detailed look of the Gem war itself before abruptly cutting short. The purple Gem was stunned.

"... T-They fought other Gems? But why?"

The mirror replayed the production of the quartzes, and the dying of the plants again, but this time, it moved back until it showed a planet ... a planet being sucked away of life, and becoming a Gem colony. Earth. Turning into a Gem colony because Gems were being made ...

Gems like herself.

.......

Amethyst walked out of her room after that, only to find Rose, Pearl, and Garnet standing there, possibly still discussing about Amethyst. They were going to act it off, but when they saw her with the mirror, they knew something was up.

"Amethyst, where'd you get that? I had that -"

Pearl was silenced when Amethyst turned the mirror to face them. The mirror replayed the exact events to them, exactly how it showed Amethyst. not that Amethyst didn't ask it to, but it did get the point across rather well. The purple Gem looked away for a moment ...

"What is this all about?" Amethyst finally asked.

While all three did not expect this to happen, Pearl looked the most visibly troubled.

"I know this has something to do with me! And this other war - I know you three were in it, and fighting other Gems! So what happened? What did those other Gems do to end up poofed? What does this have to do with me?!"

The room was silent. Pearl was about to talk, but Garnet placed her hand on her shoulder, steadily shaking her head. Rose needed to be the bigger Gem now. Rose kneeled down to Amethyst's level.

"... Amethyst ... We ... We were involved in a War, but not with just humans. You see, our kind wanted to do ... bad things to this planet, thousands of years ago. Me, Pearl, Garnet, and others like us felt it was unfair on all life that already was here ... We had to fight them, to keep the life on Earth safe. To keep you safe ..."

"... What were they trying to do?" Amethyst asked weakly. Rose took a deep breath before continuing.

"... They were ... They were trying to make a Gem colony. To make Gems here. They were taking life away from the Earth ... and we, the Crystal Gems, stopped them from continuing."

Amethyst stayed quiet to comprehend this. The truth was out, and now they all were waiting on how Amethyst will respond to this news. The Gem war, what Homeworld wanted to do, and their involvement within it, were all in the open now ...

She took off running.

"Amethyst!" Rose called.

Amethyst didn't stop ...

I never felt so ... angry! To think they kept this from me for so long. I've been with Pearl, Garnet, and Rose for years, and they never mentioned this at ALL to me. I felt mad at them, I felt mad at Homeworld ... I felt mad at me ...

"Amethyst! Amethyst!" Rose called.

Rose couldn't dare leave Amethyst alone after that. Amethyst simply disappeared, and they tried their best to find her. They couldn't find her anywhere in the Temple, not in Beach City, not in the countryside, nowhere around. Rose went around as best she could manage, worth it to make things right with her. It was getting to be late, and Rose was growing more worried about the purple Gem ...

Then she found her.

On the highest cliff looking down to the Temple, Amethyst was isolating herself, only the mirror for company, hugging it in a huddle, and facing the horizon.

"Amethyst, there you are. It's been a week now. Everything okay?" Rose asked.

Amethyst didn't answer.

"Amethyst, this is my fault, I should've told you -"

"I'm bad. You shouldn't be around me," Amethyst gravely cut in.

"No, no, Amethyst. It isn't you're fault at all!"

Amethyst slowly turned to Rose, Rose seeing tears on her face.

"... Why didn't you tell me? All this time?"

Rose walked over to her, sitting down next to her.

"Listen Amethyst. I should've told you sooner. You were having so much fun being yourself, and enjoying living on Earth without worrying. I didn't want to take that happy life away from you ... I'm so sorry Amethyst ..."

Amethyst stayed rather quiet, looking up to Rose Quartz, and seeing just how concern Rose actually looked. Not often did Rose looked this worried over her, and Amethyst, while feeling miserable, still could tell that Rose wasn't lying to her. She wouldn't lie to her if she could help it ...

"Rose ... I ..."

Amethyst found herself resting her head on Rose's knee, Rose stroking Amethyst's hair.

"I'm sorry ... I didn't had to run away like that, I-i just -"

"Sshhh ... At least you're safe. That's the important thing. ... Ready to come back home?"

"... Can I wait here for a little longer?"

"Ok."

Amethyst held onto her mirror, starting to slowly fall asleep as Rose stroke Amethyst's hair, and she began to sing a lullaby.

"Sweet dreams, Amethyst"

.......

Now, is the hour
when frogs, and crickets
praise the world,
for the stars, and comets.
Sleep, my love.
Sleep, my O-only
Deep in the dark.

~~~~~~

"So, after that I went back home with Rose. She, Garnet, and Pearl promised to be more open to me, and things went on well from there since."

Steven was silent throughout the whole story, and by the time Amethyst had finally finished, Steven had took each of the details more to heart. Mainly, Amethyst had to figure out the issues for herself, and the others waited until too late to finally break it to her. The detail he took in the most was that Rose kept this quiet for Amethyst's benefit, and to let her live a life a bit more happily without knowing these things. While it wasn't exactly the correct and trusting way, the motivation was still there, and not a bad one. Steven thought over Pink Diamond again, thinking a bit better on why the others wouldn't tell him for this long ...

"Thank you, Amethyst ... It helped me," Steven finally said. Amethyst just nodded, as Steven went over back to bed, putting his now empty milk glass in the sink first. Steven got himself over to bed, with Blue already fast asleep at the foot of it. Amethyst watched him go, but before she could go to sleep, Steven had another question.

"Hey, Amethyst? You think you can sing that lullaby?" Steven asked, wanting to hear how it went for himself. Amethyst rubbed the back of her head.

"Eh, I don't think I can do it," Amethyst said bashfully.

"Please? Just once?" Steven insisted. Amethyst took a moment a little bit, until she decided to give it a try, nodding in agreement. Steven got himself comfy as Amethyst started to clear her throat. Amethyst did not have the pure singing voice like Rose had by any means, but Amethyst knew the words better than the others since Rose sang it to her in particular.

Now, is the hour
when frogs, and crickets
praise the world,
for the stars, and comets.
Sleep, my love.
Sleep, my O-only
Deep in the dark.

Amethyst looked down, and saw Steven was already asleep. Well, it wasn't Amethyst's best song, but it worked anyway. After that was taken cared of, Amethyst went down onto the couch, and soon was right off to sleep herself. They had a big day tomorrow, and needed the rest.

It's right back to monster hunting in the morning.

Creature Quest

View Online

At the drill, Pearl was still taking her time in working on the parts alongside Jade. When it came to the process on the drill itself, it was going on a rather steady pace, and at this point the main construct of the drill was in proper shape. Metals were lined up, and the model was practically done. Function, and control were two different matters though, and only now did they begin to work that out. Pearl was working on the circuitry, Jade sitting up at the controls, working on those a little bit. Peridot, still practically chained up to her fence, looking simply miserable. She tried in vain to reach a nearby microwave to give her something to help out, but the leash didn't give her enough radius to even get close to it. Jade and Pearl didn't spoke to her at all during their work, and they still weren't when Star and Emerald came back, Star Quartz holding some metal plates.

"Oh good ... No. No, no, no, no, I said I needed tungsten. Tungsten?" Pearl corrected.

"... What's Tungsten?" Star asked. Emerald nudged Star after that.

"Tungsten," Emerald said, but instead of showing the real thing, he just stuck his tongue out. It had been kinda up and down when it came to Star and figuring things out from the others.

"Nevermind, I'll just get it," Pearl groaned, before going off to get it herself. Emerald shrugged, and both he and Star looked over to Peridot, especially after hearing a notable sniff from the green Gem.

"Hey, P. So you really are stuck on a short leash, aren't you?" Emerald commented, casually walking over. The last person Peridot wanted to see was Emerald, and she expected the worst. Jade, after Pearl left, came down too, and went over to Peridot.

"What's you're first clue?" Peridot simply groaned.

"... Are you crying?"

"NO! T-That's the rain!" Peridot snapped, though it didn't help that her eyes were still tear-stained. That, and no cloud was in the sky above her...

"Peridot. Come here," Jade said, moving closer to her, arms open. sometimes that's all someone would need. Peridot really didn't want to break out into tears, but she couldn't help herself. She began to wail and sob, hugging Jade rather tightly.

"Why did I have to forget the cluster?!" Peridot cried. Jade hugged back.

"Come on, Peridot. So you've made one goof that could end up destroying the planet. No big deal, right? We've been there haven't we?" Emerald said. Not the right thing to say, unfortunately.

"I don't think you're helping, Emerald," Jade quietly said. Peridot sobbed a little more, making them all feel a little troubled over her.

"Peridot. I know they're mad now, but .. maybe you can do something in return. Something you can do that they'll thank you for," Jade finally suggested. So far, Peridot hadn't done anything worth while, since the other Gems didn't give her the chance to. It was the least Jade could do to suggest the idea to her fellow short green Gem. Peridot was quiet aside from quiet sobbing, as she tried to get herself together.

"Yeah. Maybe you're right. Except that I'm TRAPPED BY THIS DREADED TORTURE DEVICE!" Peridot snapped, referring to the harness.

"Torture device?" Emerald questioned.

"YES. Look at me, I can't go anywhere with this constricting my abdomen! How am I supposed to -"

"You mean this?"

Emerald, Jade, and Peridot turned and saw Star Quartz holding the other end of the leash, which easily slipped out of the post in the wooden fence. Well, that was solved, but Peridot still needed to do something now ...

"Wow. Thanks."

"You're welcome. What now?"

"I'll show you, Star ..."

~~~~~~

"STEVEN!"

One quick scream, and Steven jumped clear off the bed. Honestly not the perfect wake-up call for him, or anyone. It had been a while since Steven and Amethyst had come across the ponies, but now the Mane Six had finally found them after days of searching. Pinkie was the one who got her voice to work on her scream, which was enough to wake everyone up.

"Morning," Amethyst said, picking her ringing ears to hear a little clearer.

"Where have you guys been? We've been looking for you!" Rainbow said, the Pegasus tired.

"We've been busy fighting off our share of monsters. Show em' Steven," Amethyst said. Steven was still getting his own ears clear, but he got down to the couch, and got the list - which was sitting by Steven's bed - out to show them. They may had crossed off a bit, but they'd got a LOT more to go according to it all.

"HOO-we, y'all got a lot done," Applejack commented.

"Thank you. And we're bout to get more done! Come on Steven, let's go," Amethyst said, ready to head out. However, Steven gave a yawn, and headed down the stairs.

"Let me get me up and ready," Steven yawned, heading over to the bathroom. He needed to get his body awake along with his mind. As Steven was doing that, Twilight turned to Amethyst.

"So, what kind of monsters did you have to get?" Twilight asked.

"Oh all sorts! Just on our first day, we bagged up a giant scorpion, and THEN it was one Gem beast after another for days, it was awesome," Amethyst bragged. She felt proud over what they had done so far, and at the rate they were going, they could get this stuff done by the end of the month!

"That sounds awesome! Hey, we can beat down a few monsters for ya!" Rainbow offered, hoof aimed down at the list. Steven stepped out at this point, fully clothed and drying his hair with a towel.

"What're you girls talking about?" Steven asked.

"Hey Steven, we were wondering if you wanted some help with these Gem monsters," Twilight said, levitating the list over to Steven so he could see. Steven took it into account, and then smiled.

"Oh sure, if you want to. It'll be fun," Steven decided. The Mane Six were glad, but Amethyst was slightly taken aback.

"Steven, this is our mission to do," Amethyst whispered.

"It'll be fine, and we can breeze through more of these in no time at all," Steven explained, which was true. Amethyst realized Steven was right, though she still felt it was their mission to complete. As they were talking, Fluttershy looked outside, and began to see someone else coming in from along the beach.

"I think Connie's coming," Fluttershy said, looking outside. Sure enough, the others opened the door, and saw Connie coming up to them, backpack on her, and a big smile on her face, waving to them. Steven was the first to go up to her, meeting her at the beach.

"Hey, Steven," Connie said.

"Connie, hi! How's it going? Been keeping well?" Steven asked, as the others came down to see her.

"Yeah, pretty well. Guess what? My parents are letting me go on Gem missions now!" Connie announced.

"They did? Congratulations," Twilight said.

"I know right? I really think I'm making a breakthrough with them," Connie replied.

"I can't believe they're letting you do that, Connie. They must really trust you now," Rarity said.

"Especially after you flew into space, meet a White Diamond, fused with a Gem and a Gem human, beat her up, and went through a human zoo," Pinkie added. Not exactly the mission all too well, but Connie still kept a good face.

"Yeah, I know," Connie simply said. You'd think her parents would go a bit further after THAT performance with the highest Diamond authority figure, but they were willing to give her a chance at the least. Soon, Steven got an idea in mind.

"Wait here," Steven said, racing off back into the Beach House. Short time later, Steven went right back outside, but this time with -

"Rose's Scabbard!" Pinkie beamed.

"Steven?"

"Well, you've been training really hard on being a swordsman, and since you're allowed to go on missions, you can use this," Steven concluded, smiling, and presenting the sword to her. Connie took a moment, but she eventually took the sword with pride.

"Thanks, Steven. I could use this in case a monster pops up," Connie said, equipping it to herself. The sword was a lot bigger than herself, but she managed to equip her scabbard so it hung onto her back, just enough so she could move freely while carrying it.

"Hey, speaking of which, are you doing well on those monsters? It's been a while since I last heard from you," Connie asked.

"Oh, we're doing great! Say, you want to join us? The Mane Six already said they'll help out, you can come with us," Steven offered. Connie felt psyched about the situation, and she had plenty of time on her hands.

"I'd love to!"

"Steven," Amethyst quietly sighed. Oh well, it won't be that bad, she could figure.

"SWEET! Go shorty squad!" Pinkie beamed.

"Shorty squad?" Steven asked.

"Yeah, we're all together, and we're all short, but strong. Shorty squad!"

"Eh, sounds about right," Amethyst shrugged.

~~~~~~

Farther away on the beach, Peridot and Star were alone along the beach, the cliff alongside them. Jade and Emerald didn't follow them to this point, and Star wasn't sure exactly what Peridot was up to.

"... What're we doing, Peridot? Are we finding more tungsten?" Star Quartz asked. Peridot kept walking until she was standing at about a foot away.

"Ok, Star. Do it."

"Do it? ... Do what?"

Peridot stood there, and pointed up the clifface. Star looked up, and she saw that some of the rocks were a little bit unstable, one of which was a bit large.

"See that boulder? Go get that, push it over down onto me."

"Onto you?" Star asked, hesitant ever so slightly. Peridot sighed and looked to Star.

"Do it fast."

With that said, Peridot then laid down on the sand, as Star then moved off out of sight. Peridot just stared off into the sky for a few more minutes, just waiting for that boulder to be tossed down from the cliff face to slam into her gem. It may be a bit far, and even a little silly, but she had already caused enough trouble and the Crystal Gems hate her for not telling them about the Cluster in the first place, so she felt like she was saving them the trouble. As she was laying there, she started to hear some more footsteps close by. When she looked, it wasn't the Crystal Gems who came out to bubble her again ... or at least, not the same Crystal Gems: The Mane Six, Connie, Amethyst, and Steven.

"Peridot, there you are. What're you doing?" Amethyst asked.

"Go away, you clods! Can't you see I'm trying to get crushed? Or better yet, maybe you can just punch my Gem, you think you can do that for me?"

Well, that was extreme.

"You kidding me?! What for?" Rainbow said, not believing her own ears. Even if Peridot was in a bubble, she still knew that the others didn't want these characters knowing about this and worry more, so, Peridot at least took that in mind with her answer.

"I forget to tell the Crystal Gems something, and they all hate me now," Peridot simply said. Not detailed, but it's the main concept of it.

"Peridot, no, no, that's a terrible idea! Come on, let's just talk to them," Steven insisted. Bad enough Lapis and Jasper are gone, he didn't need to see Peridot go missing too. Peridot didn't really move though.

"They won't listen ... haven't I caused you enough trouble?" asked Peridot.

"I dunno, but it's not worth getting shattered over. Here, I got it," Connie decided, getting a quick idea in her mind. Getting the same idea, AJ gave Connie the list given to them, and showed it to Peridot. Peridot saw a number of beasts crossed off the list already, so, they were doing fairly well on it.

"How about you help take care of one of these beasts with us? You can still help out, and they might even forgive you for it. Besides, I don't think you've had a personal mission yet, so what do you say? You in?" Connie offered. Peridot looked over how much they were actually getting done, surprised at how much success they were actually getting done with this.

"You think so?" Peridot asked.

"Of course! It would be even Stevens with you with us, a full ten team Shorty Squad!" Pinkie Pie said. Peridot looked down to the list, and saw that some of these actually looked very tough to do. If she were to actually go and do this, then maybe, just maybe, that the other Gems would give her some admiration on it. A little scenario played out in her head with her being practically admired by the rest of the Crystal Gems, with Peridot herself standing tall and proud. She was sold.

"You're right! I'm in! Come on, Shorty Squad, time to get ourselves some beasts to -"

*BAM*

AND then came the boulder. Peridot was alright under the boulder, even if the big rock did make a good dent on the beach. Of course, everypony and everybody jumped on the sudden assault on them, as they all looked up to see Star Quartz on the cliff. The white Gem hovered down gently, landing over on a outcrop on the cliff.

"Did it work, Peridot?" Star Quartz called.

"... ow ..."

~~~~~~

After that little venture, and some explaining to Star Quartz about what was up, the group was off and away again. A quick teleportation on the Warp Pad got them to their next spot. They've been to a number of spots, and this one was the most arid one so far. The place in question looked rather arid and dry, in a red stone desert. The skies were clear, and judging by some plants growing around them, the rainy season had been and gone. For the plants, there was your average cactus here and there, a tumbleweed or two, but desert flowers were still blooming around as well. The exact location where the Warp Pad was though was actually in a canyon, lined with desert rock, sandstone, and red minerals. Heat was pretty high here, as it would've guessed, and the ground was smooth like stone, but not completely rocky. In this area, the walls appeared to be covered in holes, and when the group saw the signature Gem injectors, it was clear that this was a Gem location, or rather was one.

"Welcome to the Beta Kindergarten, everyone. Still rather mundane," Peridot commented, as they all began to look around. The canyon where the Beta Kindergarten was in wasn't exactly as large, or as strictly one direction; the walls a bit wavy and pathways not as straight and sharp. For the holes themselves, they weren't exactly as exact either: some were sideways, some thinner, some bigger, and overall, none of them really seemed to match.

"What happened with the holes here? No offense, but, I thought Homeworld was a bit more organized than this," asked Rarity, who was a sucker for pattern and accuracy.

"The Beta was more of a rush job. Many Jaspers, Carnelians, and so on, didn't had the proper conditions as the Prime did," explained Peridot, as they were going through. Amethyst herself was the one who mainly was observing the place up and down. Considering she thought that she was a bit defective herself, seeing all of these supposed mishaps made Amethyst question a little bit on how many variations were actually around ...

"Amethyst, you coming?" Steven suddenly called. Amethyst was quick to comply, and rushed down to catch up with the others. When she did catch up, they stopped and looked over at Steven's list, finding the part of the list they had in mind.

"Here it is. OK, so it looks like we're looking for another corrupted Gem, by the looks of it, so ..."

*BLAWRK!*

"What the hay?" Rainbow said. The odd noise seemed to come from nowhere, and as everyone was looking around, something suddenly zoomed by at a speed that Fulgurite would probably match. They tried to see it, but it moved just a little too fast for them to catch sight of it. The apparent corrupted Gem zoomed by again, this time knocking Steven and Connie off their feet before it finally slowed down enough for them to see what they were dealing with. As far as corrupted Gems go, this one was rather small actually, just larger than they were by a foot or two. Her skin was a sea blue, and the main design was rather basic: a body, mouth, and a set of bird legs with sharp claws at the end of each foot. The gemstone was square, and right on her nose, with six eyes on each side, putting the gem between them. Even with the mouth closed, they could see the three tips to her large tongue. She gave another loud *BLAWRK!* at them, opening her mouth to showed small sharp teeth. The group looked at the picture that accompanied the list, and sure enough, it was a pure match.

"That's it," Connie said.

"We're getting good at this. I got it!" Rainbow said. The fastest flier of the group made a B-line right to the Gem, but soon the Gem beast bolted for it, both the corrupted Gem and the flying Pegasus moving fast. Even with Rainbow flying, she was just a hoof away from the beast, as the Gem raced around the Beta. She turned back to see Rainbow still after her, and she suddenly made a dime stop, and ducked. Rainbow flew right over her, and right into one of the many holes in the Beta kindergarten, a loud bang being heard by the others. Rainbow stumbled out in a daze before the corrupted Gem rushed off out of sight, with the others going over and helping her up.

"OK. Flighty. Right," Rainbow said, still in a daze, as they all heard one more distant *BLAWRK!* before the Gem was out of sight completely. Peridot couldn't help but laugh.

"Hahahaha, you think it's going to just stand still for you, Ha!"

"What're you laughing at? you weren't dealing with these things," retorted Rainbow, as she got to her hooves.

"Yeah, but I don't just run at it and expect to grab it," retorted back Peridot. Rainbow was about to protest, but, she was right. It was then that Fluttershy asked the question that would pretty much be a day of trouble ...

"Well, what would you do?"

"Me? I'll show you what I'll do," Peridot simply said, as she started going off down where the Gem raced off. Of course, the others felt a little bit concern with Peridot just running blindly after the Gem beast, not sure what it can actually do to her.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Rainbow asked.

"Way ahead of you," Connie simply said, already going on after her.

While not planned for it, the group then split off into two: Connie, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Rarity going after Peridot. Amethyst, Steven, Applejack, Twilight, and Fluttershy went off after their own monster.

Here we go.

~~~~~~

It didn't take very long until Peridot had found the Gem beast, and just as well, the others catching up with Peridot. They all were in another part of the canyon, with Peridot, Rainbow, Rarity, Connie, and Pinkie hidden behind some canyon rock, and the Gem beast over in the open, sniffing around nonchalantly. It was clear that this Gem beast didn't notice them just yet, which was what Peridot especially wanted, as she snickered and grinned.

"Time to employ my flawless Peri-plan: take note of the dormant injector, positioned right above the obviously oblivious creature. With an assist of gravity and some weakening of the injector's Gravity connectors, and we'll have our little Gem nicely done," Peridot explained. Everything did seem in place for a basic trap when the group saw what Peridot was talking about.

"It could work. But, suppose -"

Peridot suddenly shushed Rarity as the Gem beast moved right under the injector in question, standing just under the shadow. Perfect! Peridot raised her arms out, focusing her energy on the metal legs, one of which started to shutter a bit. The Gem beast didn't seem to notice anything, but as soon as the leg fell, it startled her enough to make her jump. However ...

"It's not falling," Connie said.

"Another leg has to go," Peridot concluded, trying for another leg. The leg in question shivered until it popped right off, and landed right down in front of the gem beast this time, her actually moving off away this time. Still, the injector didn't fall down ...

"WHAT?! Come on!"

Peridot was a bit upset, and she went right on out of the hiding place, straight to the wall that was holding the injector up. How could the Injector still be stuck there with ONE LEG?! Annoyed, she started kicking the rock wall, trying to dislodge it. Pinkie went up to help too, running up the wall and hopping up and down on the injector. Despite their efforts, for some odd reason, it wasn't making the injector budge an inch. When looking, Rarity began to look concern, especially since Peridot was right under it.

"Wait, Peridot, move over!" Rarity warned, a hoof pointing up to injector.

"Good thinking," commented Peridot, moving over just a little bit. Pinkie Pie didn't stop her jumping though, but with one kick of Peridot's foot to the wall and ...

"OW!"

Down came a ton of rocks, right down on Peridot. Honestly, it was weird. Once that was done, the Gem beast soon confronted the others nearby. She just stared at them at first, tongue flickering in and out of her mouth. The others weren't sure what to do, but the Gem beast though was quick to attack this time! The gem beast leaped off the ground right at them, Rarity bringing out a shield to protect them. The Gem beast screeched as the bird claws scratched up the shield all over! Peridot pulled herself out of the rubble, just to see the beast attacking the others head on.

"KEEP DISTRACTING IT, I'LL FINISH IT OFF!!" Peridot yelled, getting herself out ...

Just to have the injector FINALLY fall down on her! The crash panicked the Gem beast, and she raced off out of sight soon after that. The others just cringed on seeing that, going over to her. Peridot was alright, albeit hurt, with only one arm sticking out from under the injector. Pinkie, still standing on the injector, looked down eagerly with her tail wagging. Pinkie didn't realize what actually happened, and she couldn't see what it landed on.

"YES! Did I miss?" Pinkie asked, eagerly. Rainbow Dash was less amused about it, as she went right over next to the green Gem.

"No, Pinkie. You got her, alright," Rainbow sighed, rolling her eyes, and then looking down to Peridot. Peridot lifted her arm, pointing her finger to the sky.

"I think ... we should ... rethink our strategy ..." Peridot groaned. They'll get the beast eventually, but first they got to get Peridot out of the heap ...

~~~~~~

Out on the open plains, Steven, Amethyst, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Applejack were still trying to find their own beast. As they had been, Steven kept his list out in front, with the main monster's picture as their main source of identification. However, they were not seeing anything. The open plains had rocky terrain, cactus scattered around here and there, along with plenty of arid rock formations, and boulders for sure, but no Crystal animal anywhere.

"Anypony see that thing anywhere round here?" Applejack asked.

"Not a thing. You sure it's around here Steven?" Twilight questioned.

"Says here on the list, look," Steven said, showing the instructions down on the list. On the list though, it simply said 'Beta K desert', but nothing exactly particular about the desert in the Beta Kindergarten. The heat wasn't exactly helping them much either.

"Well, I vote we rest a little bit. If that's ok," Fluttershy suggested. It did seem like a good idea, but before they could bother to rest, something up ahead of them started to move. Amongst the shrubs and cactus, one hanging shrub started to move, as if being pulled down on one side. All on its own, it wasn't anything exciting, but as they moved closer, it was what was pulling it that got their attention. The creature looked as large as an elephant, but it looked more like a tortoise. Its skin was bright orange to match the desert, and a number of crystals. The back of the animal was all one, huge, crystal casing to make up the shell, and one large crystal made up the eye. It stood on four sturdy legs, the front pair having crystals on the knees. It didn't seem to take notice of the others at all, and it continued to eat the shrub it was browsing off of.

"Is that it? That's gotta be it?" Amethyst asked quietly. Steven got out the picture, and by the looks of it, it seemed to be right.

"Yes, that's it!" Steven answered.

"I got this," Amethyst said, jumping out into the battlefield straight away. The turtle, however, continued browsing on the scrub as if Amethyst wasn't even there, even after she landing a powerhouse hit onto its back! Amethyst tried her best to do some sort of damage to the animal, only getting nothing out of it. Steven, Twilight, AJ, and Fluttershy were surprised how little reaction this creature was getting from her hits. Amethyst punched, whipped, and kicked it up and down, only coming up empty.

"HEY, I'M RIGHT HERE! HELLO?!" Amethyst yelled, coming up with nothing.

"I don't think it's working," Fluttershy said, not liking how rough she was being with it. Amethyst eventually climbed up onto the Gem tortoise's back, stomping on it to try and get some damage. Might as well be spitting at it at this point. It felt Amethyst on its back, and began to shake. The shaking along with the gleam on the shell made Amethyst tumble off easily.

"You ok, sugarcube?" Applejack asked. Amethyst got herself up easily thanks to some help from Twilight and Steven.

"Did I do anything to it?" Amethyst asked. Looking at the shell, there wasn't even a scratch on it.

"Not a thing. Let me try at it," Applejack offered. The orange pony trotted over to the Gem tortoise, which had just finished eating up its fill on the bush. Applejack turned away, lining up her back hooves to the creature's side. Everypony got the idea, and AJ laid a full-forced Earth Pony kick right onto it ... nothing! The creature's main response?

*burp*

The tortoise began to move away casually after that, Applejack rubbing her now sore back hooves.

"This'll be harder than I thought."

.......

Out in the desert, the tortoise Gem was quenching its thirst over at a desert pool. Amethyst, Steven, Twilight, AJ, and Fluttershy caught up with it, peering in from a nearby, large cactus. Even if the tortoise noticed them, it wasn't paying them much mind. It was a bit strange how it was behaving so much like a normal animal, despite the fact Gems don't need to eat or drink to live.

"Ok, Twilight, you know what to do?" Amethyst asked.

"Right. Just be ready with the spike and I'll get it onto you," Twilight replied, beginning to quietly start flying. The tortoise continued drinking a little bit, as Amethyst dove into the water. The dive got the tortoise to look, but not to worry. Steven and Fluttershy, both unsure, watched as they got to work. Amethyst stuck herself to the bottom of the pool, shapeshifting her head into a sharp spike. Twilight flew off as much as she could, and after gaining enough distance, she began to dive towards the tortoise. Since it was so heavy anyway, it didn't had time to get out of the way, and Twilight managed to shoot a magic beam strong enough to knock it forward into the water. The tortoise landed right on top of Amethyst, as the purple Gem was hoping for, but ...

Nothing happened. No poof, no damage, just an upside-down tortoise.

"Amethyst?" Fluttershy asked, worried.

"I got it," AJ said, galloping into sight. The orange pony leaped up into the air, and doing a divebomb kick right to the tortoise's stomach. However, instead of a hit to poof the animal, it was a hit to launch Applejack off of it like a trampoline. Twilight was struck by the pony, and both crashed to the ground, making Steven and Fluttershy cringe a little. At this point, the tortoise had swung itself onto its feet. It didn't move at first, but then it dipped its head into the water, and pulled a dazed Amethyst back to land, dropping her to Twilight and AJ. The Gem tortoise looked over to Fluttershy and Steven, some grunts coming out of it. Fluttershy, much to her own surprise as to anypony else, understood every bit of it, just before the tortoise turned and walked away.

"What'd it say?" Steven asked.

"I ... It thanked you for fixing a knot in its back," Fluttershy responded timidly. So, it didn't see it as a kill attempt, and more of a little service. NOT the response they expected.

~~~~~~

As for Connie's side of the coin, she, Peridot, Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie were still trying to get their speedster of a Gem. After their first shot in the canyon, Peridot had concocted another idea.

"Alright, the last Peri-plan was too close in radius to the opposing target. But this time, I've employed one of the injector's into our own personal Gem cannon! Observe," Peridot explained, adjusting the giant cannon in one direction, and she shot a rock sky high! Rather impressive considering the cannon was made from scratch in just a few minutes.

"Nice!" Pinkie beamed.

"I know. Now we can take down that dumb beast from a distance. It's more flawless than the last Peri-plan!" Peridot beamed.

"Eh, darling, I don't think it would be considered -"

"There it is!" Pinkie said, cutting Rarity off as the Gem monster soon appeared, scurrying along the desert floor. It didn't seem to notice the other group standing twenty feet away, as it gave a few loud calls, tongue flapping around. Peridot, seeing her chance, adjusting her personal cannon at the ready, hand on the lever, and locked onto target. Connie and Rarity, sensing more trouble, started to back away a little.

"You clod," Peridot chuckled deviously, as she slammed the lever on ...

"Huh? COME ON, STUPID -"

BAM. The cannon went off, but nothing came out. Instead, it rocketed herself, Pinkie, and Rainbow back into a nearby rock formation, causing a ton of rocks to fall on them. Yeah, that happened ... AND the monster showed up.

"Oh, hey. You win this round, hehe," Connie said nervously.

The Gem beast just jumped them, clawed them, and went on its way.

Oh joy.

.......

"You ready for the next great Peri-plan?"

"The last two weren't so great," Rainbow groaned.

"YES. NOTED, DASH. After analyzing the last two Peri-plans, I've realized a common factor - working with the injectors introduced too many complicating variables. NOW, we only have to rely on simple physics!"

After gathering from Peridot's last attempt, the group had gathered up over at the top of the Beta canyon for this next plan ... which was a boulder on top of the cliff. They knew at this point Peridot was getting a little desperate, and judging by the bruises, scrapes, on most of them, it wasn't doing any good either way.

"Alright, I'll bite. What's this one?" Rainbow asked.

"We'll wait up here until the monster is right underneath us, not suspecting a thing, because it's so dumb. And then we'll drop this rock on it's STUPID HEAD! It's even more flawless! And at this height, NOTHING CAN FALL ON US!"

"AND, if the rock doesn't go where we want it to?"

"I'M DOING THE BEST I CAN, PINKIE!!"

No, it didn't sound any better. Peridot eagerly waited right at the cliff, giggling deviously as she waited for the Gem beast to come up. The others obviously were concern over her. To think they just found her this morning ready to shatter herself, and now she was very bent on doing this job. As Peridot stood there, she began to hear some scuffling, and when she turned around, they were gone ... only to show up on the otherside of the canyon.

"... Is there something you're trying to tell me?"

*Blawrk*

Then come in the monster in question, right behind Peridot. Before she could react, The Gem monster lunged at her, making Peridot stumble back, and fall right down the cliff!

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

*thud*

When the others managed to get down to investigate, all the way at the bottom of the cliff, Peridot laid in a heap, the impact hard enough to crack the ground under her.

"I -"

THEN came that boulder! Unable to get out of the way in time, Peridot got slammed by it easy, sticking to it as it rolled off! Rainbow Dash accidentally ended up caught in it too, and they both ended up out of control, as Pinkie, Connie, and Rarity tried to go after it. Peridot and Rainbow Dash rolled, and rolled, and rolled, until the boulder ended at a rock formation, shaped like an O. Peridot and Rainbow spun round and round around the inside of the rock formation a good seven spins until the boulder finally stopped near the top, only to drop down to the ground completely dazed.

"I-I think - UGH!"

AND the boulder fell back on Peridot, leaving only her legs out.

"You don't poof easy, huh?" Rainbow commented.

"Us Peridots are tougher than we look."

~~~~~~

Night came. The group all came back together, most of the group bruised up in some way with their own troubles. Neither side got their Gem beast, and all they got was some battered bodies and battered pride. The group was around a fire for the night, easily put together after some effort, and by the looks on their faces, they could already tell which side was unsuccessful in their endeavors. At least the fire was warm for the night, and Pinkie was generous enough to provide marshmallows for the group. Nearby though, Peridot seemed very excited.

"Oh yes, this is perfect! It's flawless! It's ..."

Peridot's attempt at another trap set-up didn't even come close: an injector leaning against a standing Injector leg, just to have it collapse in front of her.

"A waste of my time."

Peridot, grumbling in defeat, just slumped back over to the others, sitting in between Fluttershy and Steven. Seemed rather obvious her plan wasn't going to go anywhere, anytime soon.

"So ... Y'all didn't have much luck either, huh?" AJ said.

"Nope. And you don't have yours either, huh?" Rainbow said. AJ simply shook her head. Peridot seemed a bit more rough on the whole thing.

"I don't get it. I'm smarter than your average Peridot. How did I fail against this. This. Stupid, cloddy, dumb-dumb?!" Peridot yelled.

"Hey, hey, they're not dumb, not at all. They just think a little different," Fluttershy suddenly said. Peridot wasn't really buying that from her.

"Just to make sure my Earth vocabulary is correct: Let's say, I'm a monster. I spend all my time slamming my face into hard objects, and throwing my tongues in the air for fun. How am I not dumb?" It was clear that Peridot just wasn't getting it.

"Well, it has to be doing something right. It never fell for any of your Peri-plans," Connie pointed out. That didn't make Peridot feel any better.

"It's just luck! NOTHING NOTHING DOES MAKES ANY SENSE!" Peridot yelled, kicking a stray stone off the ground. The green Gem was in a rut now. It was only a matter of time until the others would figure out she had run off, and so far she had nothing to show for it. What was going wrong with her approach?

"Hey, P, relax. It's not like you're the only one that got a little scuffed up today," Amethyst said, remembering what happened to her earlier. Peridot didn't really answer her, just sitting there staring at the flickering fire. The others tried to think of something, but then Steven looked to the marshmallow bag.

He chucked one at Peridot.

"Hey."

He threw another one at her.

*grr*

He chucked a bunch of them at her.

"Why're you assaulting me with your puff rocks?!" Peridot griped, asking what the others were thinking. But Steven knew what he was doing.

"To show you what it's like to be a monster! Pretend I'm a person screaming at you in fear! Pretend I'm a Changeling driving you away from your first hiding spot! Pretend I'm an angry green Gem trying to POOF you! This is your life now: END.LESS. SUFFERING!"

"Uh, Steven?" Fluttershy asked, hoof poking his shoulder. But Steven winked to her, as he continued to pelt Peridot with marshmallows, until ...

"AAAAAAHHHH!"

Peridot suddenly grabbed the bag, gripped it in her teeth, and shook it like crazy like some rabid dog. That's when the others finally got what Steven was trying to do, as Peridot took a moment to catch her breath.

"See, Peridot, you get it! What you did made total sense," Twilight said, as Peridot spat out the bag.

"How?" Peridot asked, now legitimately confused.

"How? Peridot, you were frustrated by what you're going through, and so is that monster. You think she enjoys being corrupted?" Twilight explained.

"She's right. Maybe you can try thinking about things from her point-of-view," agreed Connie. That was something worth thinking about.

"Hmm ..."

~~~~~~

The next day, and the Gem monster on Peridot's target list was roaming around on the desert rock, flicking out her tongue in the air good and loud. It didn't take very long for Peridot and company to find her. Steven and his side had decided to stick around this time to help Peridot out if she needed.

"Hold on ... maybe if I -"

"Peridot, I swear if you say you have another Peri-plan, I'm coming over there and poofing you," Rainbow quickly, and firmly said.

That shut her up.

The Gem beast turned to Peridot, but it didn't bolt off straight away. Peridot though wasn't so easily impressed with seeing her.

"UGH. I can't take this tongue-flapper seriously," Peridot stated. Pinkie popped up further away, her hooves aimed at her own head.

"Think. Like. A monster," Pinkie whispered. Peridot simply had to take their word for it this time, and if she was to get this thing, she had to improvise from her usual Peri-plans. So, she began her approach by squatting on the ground, keeping her eyes wide like those of a frog.

"Bleagh! Bleagh!" Peridot said, sticking out her tongue to mimic the Gem monster in behavior. Peridot felt like a complete idiot, but the method was actually working itself out. As she hopped closer, the beast did the same behavior as Peridot did, not running away. Peridot continued her act more and more, able to go right up to the creature without getting herself hurt. During one *BLAWRK* from the Gem beast, Peridot got a little gutsy, and kicked it in the leg.

Bad move.

Suddenly, the Gem beast was on top of her, clawing at her!

"Peridot!" Connie gasped, she and the ponies rushing out to help her. During the scuffle, Peridot got a firm grip on the Gem beast's gemstone, making the beast panic, and head for the hills with Peridot on her back.

"Oh no you don't!" Rainbow yelled, taking off after her. Everyone else was left in the dust, but Rainbow kept good pace with the Gem beast, as she scurried across the desert, trying everything to get Peridot off of her. Peridot tried her best to pull the Gemstone off, but it was no use. She didn't have the strength like Bismuth or Jasper in order to do so, and even if she did, she needed to keep herself on her back more so at the speed they were going. Rainbow kept trying her best as well, but as she can keep up with her easy, it was the turning that kept throwing her off, as this Gem monster kept making turns on a dime. The Gem monster kept ramming herself into rocks, and the occasional castus as desperate means, but it wasn't enough to get the stubborn green Gem to let go.

"Come on! Just let me!" Peridot groaned, but of course the beast was not having it. The beast shrieked, growled, and yelped as she raced along the desert rock and stone. With the green Gem in front of her face, she couldn't make out exactly where she was going all too well. It almost seemed like it would never stop ...

*SLAM*

Something stopped the Gem monster dead in her tracks. She and Peridot ended up slamming right into it hard, slowly peeling off of whatever it was in a daze. Rainbow cringed on seeing that, and as for what they raced into - that same Gem tortoise Steven was trying to get! Rainbow accidentally flew right past them, and she had to hit the brakes hard to slow down. As for the tortoise, the hit wasn't very effective, but it was getting a bit peeved at this point. Enough it had to deal with Amethyst, Steven and their ponies, it didn't need Peridot as well. So its response? All it did was lean to the side, and ...

"AAHH -"

BAM. Both Peridot and the Gem monster ended up crushed underneath the tortoise's weight, the Gem tortoise just large enough to cover them completely. What freaked out Rainbow was a prominent poof cloud just seconds afterwards!

"Peridot!" Rainbow gasped, rushing down to see. The large tortoise didn't budge, and actually seemed to fall asleep. Or at least, it didn't move.

"Hey you, off my friend!" Rainbow warned, trying to move the tortoise herself. At this point, the others soon arrived to the scene, seeing what happened.

"What happened? Peridot, you ok?!" Steven said, helping Rainbow alongside Amethyst and Applejack to move the tortoise. It took a lot of effort, but they moved the tortoise just enough to get it off of them. Peridot laid there, still in one piece, if not comically flattened. However, her Gem monster appeared to be missing.

"Peridot? Peridot!" AJ said, waiting for a reaction outta her. Eventually, the green Gem finally managed to get up, but she suddenly got in a victory pose, with the poofed Gem monster proudly presented.

"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" Peridot said in joy. Well, half of it was done, anyway, they still had the tortoise standing there.

.......

"PERIDOT!"

Oh no. Voices of the other Gems were further away, and Peridot quickly hid behind the Gem tortoise. Lucky for her, the Gems that came to look for her were Jade, Emerald, and Star.

"Oh, guys, there you are! Had any of you seen -"

Emerald cut himself short when they saw the worrying Peridot just behind the tortoise.

"Are the others with you?" Peridot squeaked.

"No. Peridot," Jade simply said. Peridot looked around to be sure, but the tortoise grabbed her and moved her out into view rather than letting her wait. Before any of them could get up to Peridot, Steven, Amethyst and Connie got in their way.

"Hey, why don't you lay off?! She's going through enough trouble right now without you," Amethyst snapped.

"We know, we know, calm down will ya?"

"I don't think you do! We found Peridot trying to shatter herself yesterday! I dunno what Peridot went through exactly, but it has to stop RIGHT now!" Applejack demanded. Jade looked completely shocked on hearing what she really was trying to do.

"Oh my goodness. I-Is that true?" Jade asked.

"... It wasn't my best ideas," Peridot said. Star went over to check out the tortoise, as Jade went straight to Peridot.

"I-I'm so sorry. Listen, the others told us to find you. When we go back we can try to make things better, I promise," Jade said sincerely.

"I don't know if there's much ... but I, appreciate the offer," Peridot said. A grunt from the tortoise reminded them of what was there, the tortoise being rubbed by Star.

"Oh, right. We'll help out, just let us beat this Gem beast and be on our way," Connie said, Amethyst readying her whip. However, during a series of grunts, Fluttershy suddenly moved in between them.

"What's up, flutters?"

"I ... I don't think we should take him out," Fluttershy said.

"What? Why? Its one of the Gem monsters on our list," Amethyst reminded. A few more grunts later from the tortoise, and Fluttershy responded.

"He's saying he's ... not a Gem beast. He's a Light creature."

A light creature? That surely sounded new to them. The tortoise continued explaining through its grunts to Fluttershy, who translated as she heard it. It was a little harder and slower to understand, but Fluttershy understood the same way as if a real turtle would talk to her.

"He says light creatures ... are from Earth, and ... and as such ... Gems shouldn't have uh ... have to worry over his kind ... Oh, uh, that's why he helped with the Gem beast for Peridot."

"Wait, that's not true. We've only seen one thing that looks like you, and that's a Gem beast. And our mission is to get them all bubbled up," Amethyst retorted. The tortoise, suddenly, moved over to Steven and snatched the list they had so it could see, much to them trying to get it back. Eventually, a few more grunts came out of it, which Fluttershy took a moment to look at the picture herself.

"Oh, you're right."

"Right what?" Connie asked

"The picture doesn't match him," Fluttershy pointed out.

"What're you talking about, course it does! Look, there's the Gem shell, the single Gem eye -" The tortoise snorted suddenly to cut Amethyst off, poking the paper with one of its feet. Steven and Amethyst looked at the picture a little more closely, but than they noticed that the shell pattern was actually a bit different. Amethyst didn't seem to buy it. Even if different, it was probably just something to leave it alone.

"... Maybe we should leave him alone."

"Why? There's no light creature, and Garnet assigned him on the chopping block," Amethyst retorted.

"He's not on a block, is he?" Star asked.

A loud bellow from the tortoise got their attention again, along with a few more grunts for Fluttershy to translate. She didn't say right away, feeling a bit unsure.

"You sure about that?" Fluttershy asked meekly. The tortoise nodded, and gently moved her and Star to the others.

"He said he'll let you bubble him, but after you go through the others on your list," Fluttershy said, though she felt uneasy about the idea of it giving himself up so easily. At least he had plenty of time to do what he wanted if they do agree to it. With how little damage their moves were doing to the tortoise in the first place, and how many they still had to go out and get ... surely one monster left alone won't be too bad, right?

"Eh ... Ok, deal," Amethyst agreed. With a nod of the head, the tortoise turned, and began to move away. Amethyst felt silly leaving it alone, but there's plenty of other monsters to make up for it anyway.

~~~~~~

"There they are," Bismuth said. At the drill, Bismuth, Garnet, and Pearl were now at the drill working, when Bismuth saw Emerald, Jade, and Star return with Peridot, who was carrying the gemstone of the Gem beast with her.

"Hey, gang, how's it going on the drill?" Emerald said.

"Stopped for now, but nevermind that. Peridot, who said you can run off? We made it clear you're to stay here at the barn," Pearl scolded.

"No, wait, wait! Look what I got! Handled a Gem beast problem for you all by myself," Peridot said, hoping it'll work as she held the gemstone in front of Pearl and Garnet. A little silence hung in the air for a minute. Garnet quickly took it, bubbled it, and sent it off.

"Peridot, there's a cluster in the Earth that can destroy everything. You really thought this is going to fix it?" Garnet asked.

"... I'm ... tempted to say no ... but -"

"BUT, that was just a distraction that she so happened to handle," Emerald suddenly cut in. This was going bad by what he was seeing, and he got a good plan ready for it.

"Oh yeah?" Garnet questioned. Emerald nodded.

"Yeah, sure she did. Besides, the gal did a lot more than that for us."

"None of us ordered her to leave the barn, Emerald," Pearl asked, eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"So? You were griping about a lil somethin yesterday, and by the sound of it ... eh, not much luck on it, I see."

"What're you talking about?"

"What are you talking about?" Peridot thought.

"Star, if you please," Emerald said. Star understood what he meant, and her Gemstone started to glow slightly. Emerald moved outta the way, as something started to be removed from Star's gemstone, which once fully appearing, turned out to be a bag. A rather full bag, and as big as Star was. Star gave a sigh of relief, as Bismuth opened it up to find it was full of a number of things.

"You sure had been busy, huh?" Bismuth commented. Pearl looked in as well, as Emerald stood there smiling.

"Yep, check it out: Tungsten, Titanium, and even a few drill power cells from some leftover injectors," Emerald said, as Pearl pulled out one of the injector power cells, which while slightly worn out, had a good amount of juice in them still.

"Uh ... this ... this is wonderful! These will be perfect for the drill, power source AND durability. How on Earth did you manage?" Pearl asked. Emerald started walking to the barn, passing by Peridot ...

"Eh, thank the green dorito for that one. She got the stuff just as we got her," Emerald commented, giving Peridot a sly wink before casually going to the drill. Pearl and Bismuth began to bring the stuff over to the drill, but Garnet took a moment to look to Peridot, who just stood there meekly.

"... Thank you, Peridot."

Without another word, she went over to the drill with Jade and Star. Peridot could tell that Garnet still hadn't forgiven her, but it was the first "thank you" she heard from Garnet in quite a while.

Well, it's a start.

Renegade Pearl

View Online

"Come on, Flint, one shot at me! Or you scared?"

"I told you over five hundred times Bismuth, We got to get this handled."

With work still going on at the barn, Flint had gotten his head fully focused down on making this drill work. Flint was working on that, while Bismuth relaxed a bit away, and Peridot sitting all by her lonesome. With the items brought back a while ago, it sped up the drill making process. With the extra addition of injector power cells, they had an extra step handled right away upon Peridot's return. It still wasn't enough to get Flint on any better term with Peridot, but it still made the job of finding some resources easier. Bismuth though may had been a good helper in getting the drill working out, but with Jasper gone for the time being, and Garnet too busy more often than not, didn't had a muscle buddy to mess around with. Flint was a proper candidate, but Flint had his mind right on point with the project.

"Just one try, you and me, right now!"

"Bismuth, stop it. Look, if you want to go and test your strength, then see if you can find a Gem monster to beat up," Flint suggested, getting a metal plate welded in place on the drill. Bismuth wasn't exactly having any fun with Flint. She first knew Flint as just quiet, and unwilling to put himself into any trouble, but now he wasn't taking time to relax when it came to this project. Either he's not willing to do anything, or pushes too hard on one thing.

Before Bismuth could go any further, she and Flint both heard Garnet coming over to them, holding a large circular ring for the drill end in one arm, and Pearl coming in alongside with some extra power tools.

"Hey, Flint. We got it from here, you can stop if you want to," Garnet said, placing her drill piece down on the ground.

"You sure? I'm fine, if that's what you're worried about," Flint insisted, finishing his piece on the drill.

"You've been working very hard, and don't lie to me and say you're not exhausted from it all. Besides, Jade is starting to worry over you," Garnet responded. Flint just sighed.

"Well, the main drill is complete pretty much. ... Alright, have at it," Flint decided, walking away from the drill to let Garnet and Pearl handle things. As he did, Bismuth saw her opportunity and got into position for her little game she wanted to do. With Flint no longer doing the drill, he was open this time ...

"Just this once," Flint decided. Flint sat down across from Bismuth, who was looking a bit cocky and confident, and Flint brought his hand out. Yes: Arm wrestling. Bismuth and Flint got themselves ready, and Garnet saw what was going on. After putting the ring on, she smiled, and went over and placed her hands on their clenched fists.

"Ready? ... Go."

*slam!*

After a quick two seconds, Bismuth slammed Flint's hand down hard, winning the challenge easily. Flint didn't seem to care that he lost though, yet the victory felt a little too easy ...

"K, Bismuth, there you go," Flint said.

"You even try, Flint?" Bismuth asked in a judging tone.

"Never said I would," Flint simply said. Bismuth felt a little silly, and she knew Flint just let her win. At least Jasper would give it her all when she tried with her. Flint paused and looked back to her, getting an idea to pass the time and still aid the group out.

"Here, I'm gonna look for Jasper and Lapis some more. See you guys tonight," Flint decided, walking away. Been a while since he went off to look for them either way, but Pearl turned over to him.

"Oh, you don't have to do that, Flint, Garnet and I already looked around this morning."

"Then I will look through the afternoon," Flint stated. With that, he went off without another word. Still troubling, but Garnet still figured he was helping the team out more than before, at least ...

~~~~~~

Time ticked on, and work on the drill kept going on from there. Honestly, it had been a rather fair afternoon, and when sunset had drawn near, Pearl took some down time to head back to the Temple. As for the situation going on, she hadn't seen Steven all too much, and Pearl wondered how he'd been holding up with these tasks. She had freaked out before, but Steven had Amethyst, and the Mane Six according to a few days ago, so Pearl didn't had much worried about. As she entered the Beach House, she found no one inside, but there was, in fact, something left on the table. It was put in a woven bag, and a note was right next to it, whatever it was. Pearl went over, and picked up the letter first.

Here's another corrupted Gem we caught. Side note: bubble it the second you open it.

"Bubble it after you open it?" Pearl repeated. There were all sorts of corrupted Gems, so this should be a proper warning for her to listen to. Pearl wondered what could actually be in the bag, and she readied to open it up. If she had to bubble it straight away, then she got her hands ready. She quickly got it open, and her hands got a grip on whatever was inside. A quick second later, and whatever item was in there was bubbled up, only then did Pearl see it.

The object itself was not a Gemstone, but instead a Gem artifact. The object looked rather strange for a start, like some sort of mask. The mask looked big enough to fit a normal creature's face, shaped like a pair of falcon wings, the patterns and colors matching those of a monarch butterfly. A fair line of blue pearls lined the bottom rim of the mask that almost seemed to glow in front of her. It did had a charm to it, to say the least. Still, Pearl had the mask bubbled up and seemed safe enough now handled.

"Alright ... that's that," Pearl said. She began to walk over into the next room, but just before she could past the Warp Pad ...

It's my pleasure to make your acquaintance, mistress

Pearl stopped herself, looking around, but not seeing any source of any voice anywhere. A strange, yet charming female voice that was ...

here? The mask?

"OH!"

The voice was indeed coming from the mask! Might explain why they wanted it locked up right away. Not often do they get Gem objects that actually speak. Pearl quickly composed herself though, and continued going into the burning room.

"So you can talk?"

"It's a little gift. You're looking lovely today."

Pearl wasn't sure how to respond to this. While it is a nice gesture, it still was coming from a odd mask.

"Uh ... thank you."

"You know, I am surprised. I can tell you are a very talented being, and yet you still put yourself down on such a low level."

"Low level?"

"Yes. I've known about Pearls: the butlers and serpents for home, right? Your friends were saying how excited you'd be when they'll show me to you. Might I assume you're in charge of them? A interesting position for a fine Pearl like you."

"How did you know about how Pearls work?"

"Look at me. I'm a mask lined with blue Pearl stones. In a way, I'm about the same as you are."

Pearl can tell this talking mask knew a thing or two, but rather than give it more of her mind, and went straight into the burning room with the other bubbled gems.

"No, no, I'm not playing this. You're just a mask, that's all it is," Pearl concluded, releasing the bubble to have it float among the other bubbles.

"And you're just a Pearl, compared to Homeworld standards. Am I right?"

Pearl stopped, and turned to face the mask.

"I'm not stupid! You're just trying to manipulate me so I can let you out, but it's not going to happen," Pearl firmly cleared up. The mask giggled.

"We are clever, aren't we. But I'm not just manipulating you to get out of here. Even if I got out, I'm not exactly useful by myself, you see. I have magic, but only used by someone else and not my own ... sound familiar?"

Pearl recoiled. She knew this mask was just wanting out, though it was making some valid points when it comes to how it's treated, and how it mirrors a actual Pearl, like the pearls lining its rim. Still, Pearl kept herself away from the desires it wanted, and looked away.

"You're just saying that for sympathy. You couldn't want anything. You're just a mask."

"Lapis was just a mirror to you before, but not only did she helped your friend, but she's free now. Is there a difference between her and me?"

"How'd you know about that?!"

"I heard something about it," the mask responded. Pearl was very suspicious, but she got her mind straight rather quick.

"Oh no no no no, I'm not being tricked. You're staying in there, and that's final," Pearl said, starting to walk out of the burning room. The mask wasn't going to give up so easily.

"Oh, don't get upset. I'm willing to make a deal with you, if you're willing to listen," the mask offered.

"A deal?"

"Yes. Tell you what: you can at least try me out, just for today. I'll make it worth your while, but if you still don't like what I have for you, then you can poof me completely, and put me right back here. No harm in trying out something just for a day, is there?"

Pearl took this offer into consideration. For a corrupted Gem, this one seemed VERY understandable and considerate of her ...

"What kind of benefit can you give me anyway?" Pearl asked, arms crossed.

"Quite a number of things. I am a Gem artifact, after all."

"Like ..."

"Oh, enhanced physics, some magical abilities, enhanced poise and charm, that sort of thing. Quite a benefit, wouldn't you agree?"

Pearl knew the risk, but this mask seemed less and less troubling the more she talked to it. either that was an affect of the mask, or it was actually telling Pearl the truth. Pearl wondered more and more on what kind of powers this mask was indeed telling her. Eventually, Pearl jumped up, and grabbed the bubble, popping it, and letting the mask out. Still in her hands, the mask didn't move, or try to get away from her.

"So. One day ..."

"And if you don't like it, put me back," the mask finished.

"Wait. The others are obviously going to ask about this," Pearl said, starting to walk out of the burning room. Lucky for her, no one was around in the Temple still, leaving her alone with the mask.

"Needn't you worry about that. Put me on, and I'll take care of the rest," the mask promised. Pearl slipped off into the bathroom, and soon found herself in front of the bathroom mirror with the mask. It took Pearl a bit to consider things, but the mask seemed to not be messing around with her. Gently, and steadily, Pearl managed to place the mask over her eyes, and place it perfectly down on the bridge of her nose. Not only was it a perfect fit, but it almost felt like it wasn't there. As it promised, the Mask started to turn itself almost invisible to the naked eye, right in front of Pearl! After two short seconds, it looked as if she didn't have a mask on to begin with.

"Wow."

"See? Now you can roam as you will. Now, I do believe you have a drill to prepare?"

~~~~~~

Pretty soon, it was straight back to the drill for the other Gems. For Pearl, she wasn't seeing exactly how much change was going on. She didn't feel any different by any means as time progressed, and Pearl wondered if the mask actually did tell the truth or not. On the bright side, no one seemed to exactly notice anything wrong with her, or any mask on her face during the drill making. Bismuth and Garnet both were doing heavy lifting, as they were steadily moving the drill itself into a different position. Laying it on its side wasn't a good idea, so to keep it more stable, they needed to get the drill in a more upright position.

"Steady, steady ... and there," Bismuth concluded, as they put the drill completely upright, the drill piece facing downward to the ground. This way they can properly work on the controls without it being upside down. They had to put it balancing on some metal beams in order to keep it suspended. When they were done, they both heard a notable clapping, coming from Peridot nearby. Neither side really acknowledged her, and the little green Gem stopped herself.

"Ok, now we can work out the drill's functions from here," Garnet concluded. Pearl was hoisted up by Bismuth easily, and soon she was right up to what controls were put into the machine. Pearl looked it over carefully, standing up and looking around at the rim. The drill's mainframe was in tact, but the controls were needed.

"Can one of you pass me some tools?" Pearl asked. A took box was brought right up to her, but before she could even remotely start, the mask started to come alive on her again.

is that all you want from them? How about you try that charm of yours for some extra?

Pearl wondered a little bit on that, but she didn't know exactly what it is she would want otherwise. During the drill construction, The others under her took a moment to relax, as Pearl began progress on the drill control pad. It was a quiet and steady progress, yet the mask was disappointed that Pearl wasn't willing to try her charm on anybody. Up on top of the drill, the Gem had a slightly better view of the landscape compared to the others, and as she took a moment to get her barring together, she looked out over past the barn and over to the land around them when ...

*hisssss*

That was one way to make an appearance. From Pearl's POV, she had a clearer view on what was outside the barn boundaries. Garnet, Peridot, and Bismuth heard the hissing too, but needed an extra second before they got to notice. Farther off from the barn, the Gems begin to see something moving nearby the barn, just close enough for discomfort. The animal looked fairly big, about as big as lion, though the body itself resembled a rhino, or hippo, and the head was sturdy and compact. While it had no mouth, it did had a large plate on its head that resembled a block of stone. The body was grayish in color like a rhino, though its body had a almost reflective quality to it over the usual rough skin. Strange to hear something like that hiss, and this bruiser began to move in closer to the others.

"Oh no, not now. Bismuth, Pearl, keep that thing away from the drill!" Garnet ordered.

"About time we got some action around here," Bismuth commented, her hand turning into a pick axe as Pearl summoned her spear.

Pearl, wait a minute. This is the perfect time to show your enhanced strength.

"You sure?" Pearl quietly asked through closed teeth.

trust me, you'll like it.

The monster started to sense the other Gem's presence, and it was enough to trigger an aggressive response. Bismuth was the first one to take her charge right at the creature, and the Gem beast did the same. Its small yet muscular legs launch it forward with surprising speed, meeting Bismuth head on. Bismuth and the beast had an equal power that met directly at the center. Two forces equally matched in the strong ram. Garnet kept herself standing strong near the drill just in case, Pearl leaping off of the drill to join in the fray. The Gem beast wheezed and hissed time and again, its feet digging hard into the Earth, as Bismuth tried to keep it from racing into the drill.

"Oh yeah, come on! That all you got?" Bismuth said cockily. The beast's response was a rough one: it dipped its head lower, shoving its brick horn into Bismuth's legs, just enough to make her fall forward. Once the heavy Gem landed on it, all it had to do was swing its head upward to send Bismuth flying. The hit was minor, and Bismuth landed on her back with little injury, but the charging beast was rushing straight towards Garnet, Peridot, and the drill. For Pearl, it was now or never. The agile Gem raced right in the beast's way, confronting the creature head on.

That's when the mask lend its aid.

Pearl felt something strong suddenly overcome her, and the Gem beast lowered its head to slam her with its horn, but Pearl's response was a well aimed punch, square at the center of the animal's head ...

*poof*

Silence. The Gem beast was suddenly poofed right then and there, destroyed in one single Pearl punch! Even Pearl was amazed by what just happened. Bismuth and Peridot didn't know what to say at first, as Garnet picked up the Gemstone off the ground, bubbled it, and sent it off.

"Holy smokes," Peridot simple said.

"Whoa, DANG Pearl, where were you hiding that?!" Bismuth praised.

"Uh ... yeah, thank you. I'll just be over here," Pearl said meekly, walking off to another part of the barn. Garnet was unsure on what happened entirely, as Pearl moved herself over to the other side of the barn. Only then did Pearl try to contemplate what just happened to her. She had plenty of strength, but never enough to obliterate a Gem that easily. The mask began to react again.

see? Didn't I say I'd make it worth your while?

"That back there. That was you?" Pearl gasped.

that's right. Wasn't that fun to do?

Pearl looked to her own hands, and seeing just the kind of power she now has within them. If she could poof a Gem with one punch, she could only wonder how much other powers she had stored in her thanks to the mask. After a bit, a smile started to form on her face.

"Yes. That felt so ... exhilarating."

Oh, I'm so glad you feel that way, Pearl. You have the power of a fusion now.

THAT was a lovely fact Pearl wanted to hear. Still, maybe she could try and work with this some more. Such a strong, and powerful ability and it was at her control now. Even so, there was one thing that came across her mind ...

"... Do you think you -"

"Pearl, you alright?" Garnet suddenly asked, who just popped up by the barn wall after a bit to check on Pearl. The Gem relaxed a bit, and she decided to try another little trick that the mask said would be available: charm.

"I'm alright. You don't need to worry about little ol me," Pearl cooed, her fingers running through her hair. Combined with the light, she almost seemed to sparkle. Garnet may be the embodiment of love, but even she was taken aback a bit.

"Uh ... right. Well, come back, we're waiting for you," Garnet said, moving back to the others.

I got an idea ...

~~~~~~

"Dang, another drag with nothing to show for it. Why do I even bother?" Flint sighed, as he walked out of the sea, soaked and unsuccessful. He lost track of time, and instead of returning sunset yesterday as he said he would, he ended up coming back during midday two days later than he should. Finding Lapis and Jasper was honestly becoming more and more degrading, and with many extra hooves and hands all but gone, locating the fused duo was hard to accomplish already. He got himself back on the beach, shaking the water out of his hair, before he began to head to the Beach City boardwalk. He wouldn't normally head this way, but since it was the nearest shoreline he found convenient enough he had to pass by the city before going to the Warp Pad at the temple.

It was during his walk down the boardwalk when he began to see what the humans were up to at this point. Looking off just ahead, he began to see a few different people around the place, but it didn't look too correct. For one thing; pizza slices, ketchup packets, and French fries were scattered all over the boardwalk. He saw a number of humans, which look a bit down on what's going on. One of them even was on the ground, holding a pizza in hand, and another inside a T-shirt shop was cowering away by hiding behind one of the shirts. Flint was obviously confused on the situation, but the temple was across the way, so he just had to go through. The only ones seemingly getting a proper benefit are the seagulls, who pecked and picked up the fries and pizza crusts that were scattered everywhere. Amongst the crowds, one kid stood shamefully in a full body pizza suit - Peedee. He really didn't feel happy when standing on the boardwalk as a pizza, and while Flint didn't know too much about these people, they do in fact live by the sea. THAT'S when something crossed his mind, and he decided to go for broke.

"Hey, kid?"

"Hello. Welcome to Beach City fries," he said, though he did not sound too enthused by it. Flint looked over the kid up and down, and seeing the fries on their sign ...

"I may not be familiar with food as much as the next human ... but, I think you got yours confused," Flint pointed out. His main source of food knowledge was from Amethyst, the purple Gem constantly bringing food home one way or another, and he didn't recall her calling a triangle food with pepperoni and cheese on it as a "fries".

"We sell Pizza now ... unfortunately ..." Peedee simply said, feeling sad and guilty.

"Right ... well, anyway, did you by chance see -"

"Hey, a new customer!" Mr. Fryman suddenly said, catching Flint off guard along with Peedee. Since he had to pass by anyway, Flint went over to the stand, as Mr. Fryman began to get a new order.

"Since you're new here, I'd like to lend you our newest edition for a Beach City welcome: Deep fried Pizza," Mr. Fryman said, as he pulled out a pizza slice, covered completely in fried up skin ...

"... I'm not a fan of food. But, can I ask you something?" Flint asked, pushing the pizza option away. Mr. Fryman felt a little insulted, as business was a top priority at this point in time. Before he could even bother to though, another person ended up interrupting him.

"Aww, I can't connect to fish Stew Pizza's wifi," Ronaldo groaned, who was sitting in the back.

"We don't want time for your interneting - you're on deliveries now," Mr. Fryman ordered, removing the laptop, and replacing it with a Pizza order.

"I don't even have a car!"

"You have those wheelie shoes don't ya?"

Ronaldo just sighed, and as he got up, he made a simple kick with his feet to bring out a set of wheels on his shoes, before rolling off. Flint realized he was not getting anywhere here, as they won't even give him the time of day. Mr. Fryman went back to Flint, presenting the pizza again, but Flint ignored it this time.

"ANYWAY, did you happen to -"

"HA! Your pizza is not selling, is it Fryman?!" another voice mocked. Flint and Fryman turned to see Kofi standing boldly outside, looking very satisfied with seeing the loss of customer.

"What about your fries?" Mr. Fryman snapped back. Flint couldn't even get a word in edge wise, Kofi and Fryman suddenly in a arguing fit, as Kofi presented his own product to flint.

"How about you try our newest, better product: French-fried Pizza!" He announced ... which looked exactly the same, except more "fry-like".

"That doesn't even look like a fry. Embarrassed much?" Mr. Fryman mocked, only getting Kofi more ticked off at him. With Flint stuck in the middle just for showing up, he was losing patience fast. Pretty soon, Kofi and Mr. Fryman were just arguing and yelling at eachother to no end, annoying Flint even more ...

*BAM!*

*CRUSH*

Flint swung his fist right down in between Kofi and Fryman, not only crushing their food products, but Fryman's counter! Everyone in earshot, and in sight looked on in absolute shock and were completely speechless. Fryman and Kofi both were stunned, eyes locked on Flint without a single word said. Both their food products were crushed into nothing but paste, and the counter was cracked open like a broken glass. Flint wasn't going to waste his time letting these two bozos finish their squabbling.

"NOW that I have your attention," Flint began, his tone firm yet frustrated, "I would like to ask you two if you've seen either one of my friends. Happen to see anyone with large scruffy hair, orange skin, enough muscle to crush a car like a tin can?"

Both of them shook their head.

"Well, then how about a girl with blue skin, in a princess dress, and water wings that pop out her back?"

Again, they shook their head. All Flint could do was groan.

"Well, thanks anyway," Flint groaned, shaking off the debris of the crushed food on his hand. Without another word, Flint began to walk off away towards the Temple. The only sound was Ronaldo taking a picture of the damage. Take material as it comes.

.......

"Still nothing Flint?" Asked Garnet upon his return to the barn.

"Nothing. No one at Beach City was any help either," Flint replied, although he only tried Fryman and Kofi. Process still continued on the drill, but at this point, Pearl was mainly using the improvements of the mask to pull it off rather than fully relying on the others. A bit odd for Flint to see.

"Aren't you working on the drill?" Flint questioned.

"I'm doing alright, Flint, don't worry about it," Pearl insisted, looking down to him. Flint saw the progress, but when he saw Pearl's eyes, something just seemed ... different with her. He couldn't figure out what that exactly was, but something just felt off when he saw Pearl in the face ...

*hissssss!*

"Again?" Garnet said, worryingly.

"What do you mean again?" questioned Flint.

Flint didn't need too much time to really figure it out, as a strangely familiar creature began to appear close by, confronting them head on once again. This was no stranger, but the Gem's latest Gem beast, the one that came by the barn already and was defeated by Pearl! Flint looked startled and, worried over the drill, summoned his pistols to deal with the creature ...

only to have Pearl leap off the drill, and beat it for him.

Yes, it was THAT fast. Just like that, it was in a stone again, down at Pearl's feet.

"... O.K. ..." Flint simply said, as the cocky Pearl picked up the Gemstone in her hand.

"Thank you, Pearl," Garnet said. Pearl smiled, but she didn't give it to her straight away.

"Uh, Garnet, why don't I return it to the Temple this time? It won't be too bad, would it?" Pearl offered, the Gem working her charm again. Garnet troubled to collect herself, and just nodded her head, as Pearl went on her way.

"I ... I don't even know where to start here," Flint commented. Looking at who was there, he decided to ask the only Gem who'd easily cooperate with him - Peridot. Being in custody meant being in easy access to any information.

"Peridot, what was that all about?"

"You mean how Pearl beat that Gem beast for the seventh time?"

"SEVENTH time?! You guys never bubbled the thing?!" Flint yelled, not believing his own ears. Peridot quickly corrected herself.

"No, no, no, no, no, we did! Er, well, Garnet did, but it keeps getting out somehow. Garnet says it keeps passing her future vision too," Peridot explained. Flint still was skeptical about the whole thing, as he turned to watch Pearl walk off to the nearest Warp Pad.

"Oh, has it now? ..."

~~~~~~

Oh, this is enjoyable, no? the mask said, Pearl having to agree as she went over into the burning room with the poofed Gemstone bubbled up.

"I feel so. So empowered," Pearl had to admit. Having such power was really starting to get to Pearl's head, and she was no longer getting any sort of regret in putting on the mask in the first place. She gently released the bubble up to the rest of the bubbles up in the room. However, she didn't walk out right away, and instead looked over the gemstones for a little bit. She, and by extent the mask too, checked over each and every single stone for about a minute, until Pearl reached up and brought down another sort of Gemstone, holding it into her hands.

"... Can I please try it this time? Please? ..." Pearl asked the mask.

I don't see why you would need to, dear. You have so much power already, right? You don't need them.

Pearl ended up wrapping herself in her arms. The mask new what she was talking about, and Pearl REALLY wanted to do this.

... Oh, if you so insist. Better pick out a tough little pebble though to pull that off,

"I know EXACTLY who to pick," Pearl said, as she went up a little bit, grabbing one particular Gem, which was pink and green. Pearl was really confident with this little trinket, and the mask didn't exactly protest with the choice, so Pearl took the gemstone out of its bubble, and walked right on out with this gemstone hidden away ...

Then again, when Pearl left the Beach house ala Warp Pad, it wasn't just the gemstone hidden away here. Soon after she left, Flint removed his camouflage cloak. He looked ready to explode, his teeth grinding together, and fists clenched ...

"YOU ... YOU. TRAITOROUS. CREATURE."

.......

"Pearl, there you are," Bismuth said, seeing Pearl casually walk to them from the direction of the Warp Pad. Pearl was feeling ready to fight some lonesome beast, and she knew one will come around very soon. For the time being, some work on the drill will be just fine.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Pearl said, her fingers running through her hair (which became a habit for her after a while). The Gem went right over to the drill, jumping right to the top to start work on the controls. Pearl though was still looking forward to her extra fight, more than most.

"PEARL!"

And look who caught up. The yell caught practically everyone by surprise, Peridot jumping where she was, and Garnet and Bismuth turning fast. Flint stood there, extremely angry, with weapons drawn out and at the ready. Flint knew what he saw, and he knew who was to blame for causing so much trouble. Both pistols were aimed directly at Pearl, which made Pearl a little troubled at the most.

"WHOA, WHOA, what're you doing?!" Peridot gasped, more freaked out than she should be. Flint though stayed firm.

"Flint, put that away! What's the problem?" Pearl asked.

"You know well what the problem is, now get down here," Flint demanded.

"Flint, stop it. This is Pearl you're talking to," Garnet instructed, yet Flint did not waver in the slightest. His mind was locked on target, and he wasn't going to change now. And even with that warning in mind, Pearl hopped down to Flint's level.

"I know who I'm talking to, Garnet!"

"Flint, please calm down. Why are you making such a fuss?" Pearl asked, only for Flint to aim his Gem pistols directly at her face!

"Oh, don't you stand there and play innocent on ME, Pearl!"

"Play innocent? Flint, she's with us!" Bismuth said.

"Oh, is she?"

"Excuse me?!" Pearl said, appalled at the idea.

"WATCH IT, YOU," Flint warned. Suddenly, Bismuth grabbed Flint, and pulled him away.

"Why don't you watch it, Flint. One strike at her, and you'll regret it," Bismuth warned back.

"You'll be making a big mistake," Pearl added.

"I'll make a mistake?! Which one of us has been releasing corrupted Gems onto the barn?! Answer me THAT with a straight face," Flint revealed. That was when everyone stopped, Pearl especially. Was he there when he saw that?! Pearl was completely worried now, even with the mask's power on her.

"Wha?! That would be ridiculous! Yes, theoretically, it's not a stretch, but -"

*AROOOOOOOOOOO*

Well, it happened. They all turned around, and something started to lift itself off the ground, just forming up from where Pearl had hid it away. This Gem beast wasn't the rhino Gem the last few times, but instead this Gem was completely spherical in shape, spikes all over its boy, with a pink underbelly and a green back. Her face showed a angry expression, cheeks poofed out at if it inhaled in air, with prominent lips. The size of it exceeded the rhino pretty good, making it as big as a Ruby spaceship - bigger even! Pearl's original plan was now a complete bust, and they had this giant thing to deal with now. Pearl could just feel the anger the others had against her ...

"Gems. Move," Garnet ordered.

The first attack was quick, and brutal, as the pufferfish inhaled strong, and blew a powerful wind blast straight at them. Bismuth got right in the way, using all her strength just to stay still against the blast of wind. When there was a break in the wind, Garnet jumped right up and straight at it, punching it right between the eyes. It stunned the Gem beast, but it didn't take it out - not even close. Despite the situation, Pearl began to come in. One strong hit from Pearl and her enhanced power would easily finish it off, if she could land one. The difference between the rhino Gem, and the pufferfish Gem, was that THIS Gem had a projectile. Seeing Pearl flying in, the pufferfish aimed high, and blasted Pearl with her wind breath. Even with all the power to surpass everybody, Pearl's lighter body quickly succumbed to the wind, and she blasted straight back, landing her through the wall of the barn, dangerously close to the drill! The hit, and wind was strong enough to rip off Pearl's hidden mask, and it was blown off out of sight. Pearl saw that, and felt it all taken from her ...

And things are about to get worse for the group.

The pufferfish found itself being gripped by Flint and Bismuth, but as a response, it quickly spun itself both horizontally and vertically, swinging them off. Flint landed hard on the drill, but as he did, he ended up whacking a switch on the drill, causing it to start! With nothing to stabilize it, the drill began to rush around like crazy, like an out of control top!

"Flint!" Peridot shrieked, trying to save him. The leash was hard to handle, holding her back, but seeing Flint in such a predicament was something she won't stand. She strained, yanked, and pulled hard, until her leash finally snapped in two. Desperate, she lunged forward fast, and tackled Flint away, just before the drill could tear him apart. This was especially chaotic. A dangerous Gem beast, AND an outta control drill running amok on the barn. All Pearl did was stand there and watch in both horror and disbelief.

"Garnet, give me a boost," Bismuth said, turning her hand into a pickaxe. Garnet nodded and got into position. The pufferfish readied another blow, and Garnet threw Bismuth high in the air just before another air blast launched at her. In a warrior scream, Bismuth made the final blow, and her pickaxe dug deep into the Gem beast's back. Like a knife to a balloon, the Pufferfish popped, and all that remained was the Gemstone.

However, it was an attack done too late. The final air blast from the Gem monster had struck the moving drill, not only deactivating it, but destroying it! The drill was found through the barn's side, and the impact gave a lot of damage on it: the drill bit bent, the controls blown completely off, and stray metal being flung off during the accidental activation. In short, they had a major setback. Garnet, Bismuth, Flint, and Peridot all looked at the drill quietly. Pearl slowly took a few steps to try and collect some of the scrap metal when ...

"PEARL."

Pearl froze, and turned around only to see not Flint, but Garnet, standing right in front of her, angry as ever.

"Uh, G-Garnet, I uh -"

Garnet raised her hand to silence Pearl, as Garnet herself was trying to comprehend what had actually happened herself, her anger building ...

"... For the last two days, the same Gem had been supposedly escaping its own bubble, only after you told us you found a Gem object, and kept it in the burning room. And now, when YOU decided to go back and put away that same Gem yourself, what did we happen to find? ... Not only ANOTHER Gem beast released, that I KNOW didn't get out on it's own, but also the drill that ended up destroyed! THAT drill's wrecked, and we were all put in danger BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Garnet's bellow took everyone by surprise, and Pearl felt more horrible than she had ever been. Why did she have to listen to that mask in the first place?

"Wait! I-I'm sure she didn't mean to have the drill destroyed," Peridot suddenly said. However, it was hardly any help, and one glare from Garnet silenced her as well.

"It doesn't matter what she meant to do! We're trying to save the Earth, and Pearl's been distracting us with ... NOTHING!"

"B-But, Garnet -"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Garnet yelled, that alone, making the humbled Pearl step back. While Bismuth and Peridot watched on, rather mixed on the situation, but Flint knew exactly what to do now. He began moving in, but Garnet saw him first.

"Don't even try to defend her, Flint -"

Then he did it. Lifting his pistol, he pulled the trigger, and Pearl toppled back. What she saw next shocked her to her core ...

her cracked Gem!

The crack did not shatter it, but the crack was a prominent one, and one that Pearl was simply horrified with. Peridot jumped on seeing it, and while Garnet would normally protest, her anger at the situation kept her quiet, as Flint marched right up to the humbled, and now weakened Pearl.

"Listen. Closely. ... From now on, you are going to tow the line. You'll keep yourself where you can be seen. All hours of the day, and night. You'll speak only when spoken to. and you'll obey our orders. Right?"

Each sentence Flint got out was said crystal clear, nice and slow so not a single word was missed. Pearl was frozen in fear at her superior's harsh nature, and she couldn't bring herself to say anything. It was her fault this happened, and now she was paying the price for her own selfishness ...

"... R-Right ..."

"Good. ... Come on, let's start repairs," Flint finished, withdrawing his weapons, and starting to gather back the metal. Pearl was about to do the same, but Garnet grabbed her.

"You stand over there," Garnet instructed, pointing over by the barn door. Pearl only nodded, and walked over there as instructed. She stood there, hands together, and gaze down, as the others got to work. Peridot, outta the current group, felt the most sorrowful for Pearl, even if what she did was more deliberate than what Peridot was being punished for. For Pearl, she had lost the trust in her friends, she sabotaged the mission ...

And now she was living her Gem species status, all over again ...

.......

"Heeheehee. Quite an interesting turn of events, is it not? A simple mask and a few kind words are enough to send her off the deep end."

"Yes. About as easy as those humans. And we didn't even had to show our faces this time. I'd hate to reveal our presence right now - too inconvenient."

"True, true. Still, that Amethyst and Steven had been most elusive as of late. It'll only be a matter of time before those troublemakers realize something's astray."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, let's dispose of that mask before someone amongst the Crystal Gem group wise up."

"Agreed."

Prey for the Beasts

View Online

"And you found this at OUR library, Twilight?"

"Yeah, I did. None of those creatures are from Equestria, far as I'm aware."

Just about ready to set off again, Steven, Amethyst, Connie, and the Mane Six were all at the Temple, just returning with two other gemstones in hand. During their little pit stop, Twilight took the moment to show Steven that monster guide she had found during her library trip. Despite things, some of the others of this group still had better things to do. For Amethyst, that's figuring out which monster was next on the list. She crossed off the two Gems they just got, and by the looks of things, they were on a roll.

"Ok, so that's ten down, and sixteen to go. Anypony wanna pick next?" Amethyst asked. Pinkie was quick to jump at the list at the many fancy options all over the picture.

"Oh, oh, oh, I wanna pick! Do me, do me!"

"Alright, knock yourself out," Amethyst said, giving Pinkie Pie the list. The pink mare was very excited to actually pick something off the list for the first time since joining up. She caught the list in her mouth, and hopped over to the kitchen to look it over. Applejack hopped up onto one of the stools alongside Pinkie to check it out herself, but the only one who seemed a little bit rough on this subject was Fluttershy.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Fluttershy got out.

"What do you mean?" Connie asked, who was sitting next to her.

"This monster hunt. I ... don't know if we're doing the right thing."

"Why? You saw them and us fight these Gem monsters before, and you didn't have a problem with them then," Rainbow pointed out, which was true, really, but the situation was different this time for the nature-loving Pegasus.

"Well, that's different: they came here and were attacking us. But, now, we're running after them ..."

Overhearing the Pegasus, AJ went right over to her.

"Look, Fluttershy, it's better for everypony overall. Just think fer a minute if we just left those pests run loose. Somepony was bound to get hurt, if they come across one of them," Applejack explained. Compared to Fluttershy, Applejack was seeing no problem with this, though that's mainly because her job as a farmer involved dealing with pests anyway. Gem beasts may not be the usual pest, but still a similar challenge to the norm far as Applejack was concern. Fluttershy took her side into consideration, but Amethyst was a bit too hyped to worry about it, ready to head out.

"Well, ok, we got the Gemstones here, can we go now? Pinkie already decided," Amethyst said.

"Yeah! Let's go after mr. frog!" Pinkie agreed, pointing to the picture of a frog on the paper with her hoof.

"Be right with you, Amethyst," Steven said, getting a few other necessities ready, along with everybody else. However.

"Well, I'll get a headstart on it! And we're - oof!"

Suddenly, amethyst opened the door, and walked right into someone, standing right at the door. Amethyst needed a moment to figure out who it was, and the second she did recognize the figure at the door, she suddenly stumbled back as the figure made himself known. The white, pony-like body, long tail, and notable scarred leg made this Draconian unmistakable ...

Kyra.

"Very pleasant."

"Wait. Kyra?" questioned Twilight, as he invited himself in.

"How had you been, dear? We hadn't seen you since our last visit to Darastrix," Rarity said.

"Questions for later. Where's Garnet? Is she in?"

"Nope - she and company are busy building this huge fancy drill to go after a mean mole Gem that they've been doing for months," Pinkie suddenly said. The draconian didn't seem to follow on Pinkie's explanation, but then again, it was hard to understand Pinkie sometimes.

"They're too busy to bother right now, sorry," Fluttershy cleared up.

"Oh. Then, maybe you perhaps can -"

Before they could continue, suddenly the Warp Pad activated from the back of the room. It wasn't Garnet exactly, but actually Bismuth standing there. Kyra knew many Gems for a while amongst the group, but this one was brand new to him. By the look on Bismuth's face, she looked a bit stressed about something, but hard to tell exactly what. It really didn't take long for Bismuth to see Kyra either. The Draconian moved up a few steps towards her, as Bismuth stepped off the Warp Pad.

"Hey gang. Who's this?" Bismuth asked. Twilight moved over, and landed in between them.

"That's right. This is Kyra; a friend of ours before we went to Homeworld. Kyra, this is Bismuth; our -"

"She's our Crystal Gem blacksmith!" Pinkie suddenly cut in. While uncalled for, Bismuth was the blacksmith of the group, and the only one making the weapons for the Crystal Gems anyway, so Bismuth took it in stride with a smile on her face, though Kyra was a little skeptical.

"Crystal Gem blacksmith, huh? A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Bismuth," Kyra said, nodding his head.

"You got a Draconian in your group too? You Gems REALLY gone out places, huh? Neat to meet ya too," Bismuth responded. While a nice gesture, it was especially odd to hear Bismuth know what a Draconian is. Sure, the idea of her knowing "somepony", and "equestrian" upon returning the first day was strange itself and easily overlooked, yet this was even more peculiar. Kyra too was a bit surprised to hear this from a new Crystal Gem. Kyra, as much as he wanted to know that, had to get his mind straight.

"Likewise. But, anyway, are you available right now? It's important," Kyra asked, hoping for a better answer. Bismuth would say no, but concerning recent events as of late, Bismuth just wasn't up for rushing straight back just yet. It was why she was at the Temple in the first place. After a bit, Bismuth nodded.

"Thank goodness for that. My apologies for coming in on short notice, but there's something urgent back at home that I need help in handling. I need you to come with me," Kyra summed up, looking ready to head out himself already.

"Urgent how?" Connie asked.

"I'll explain on the way. It took too much time just getting here already, so if you're willing to help -"

"Wait a minute. I thought last time we helped you, you kept refusing it. What's so big that you need our help now?" Rainbow suddenly pointed out. Rude, but it was true either way. Kyra knew she was right, and spoke before anyone could set her straight, stopping over at the door.

"I wouldn't be here if I knew I could handle it myself. This is entirely new to me, amongst other ponies. But anyway, are you going to come?" Kyra asked again. Hearing this out of Kyra was interesting to note, and it would be very urgent for Kyra to ask for their help in a Draconian issue, despite their previous visit to Darastrix. In the end, it was Twilight who spoke for them.

"We'll be glad to help you," Twilight decided. Kyra was grateful to hear that.

"Excellent. Best we get going then. Do any of you have your magic keys still?" Kyra asked.

"I got it!" Pinkie said, her hoof fishing through her mane until she pulled out her magic key. Much of the group didn't have much use for these keys thanks to the Warp Pad, but Pinkie was sure to keep hers on hoof just in case something like this would happen. Quickly, the mare got the key into the door lock, and soon the door opened up to the portal. Kyra peeked in first to be sure that the portal lead to the right place, and confirmed it with a nod of the head. Pinkie was happy to help, as Kyra turned to the others.

"Looks about right. Ok, we better get going then. Sooner, the better," Kyra concluded.

"Ok, but what is the problem?" Steven asked again, curious himself.

"Believe me. You'll know when you get there," Kyra simply said. Amethyst took a moment to look at her list, and rather than take it with her, placed it down on the table. They just got two Gem monsters after all, so she can afford some extra time to help Kyra with whatever this trouble is. As they began to go, Bismuth stopped for a short moment.

"Are you coming, Bismuth?" Steven asked.

"Of course I am! I'll catch up with ya, just wanna get a little something first," Bismuth said, heading over to the Warp Pad. Kyra was hoping to go off right away, but he just hoped that wherever Bismuth was going, or whatever she was hoping to grab wouldn't be taking long.

"Will this take much time, Bismuth?"

"It'll only take a few minutes. Hey, Rar, mind lending a hoof?" Bismuth offered.

"Me? Well, if you insist," Rarity said, trotting over to her. Bismuth kneeled down, and rather than saying it allowed, she wanted it to be a surprise, and whispered the idea to Rarity. The others didn't exactly catch it, but Rarity liked the idea. So, the unicorn and Gem went off to the Warp Pad. Kyra sighed, and began to step through the portal. Whatever it is, he couldn't wait much longer for it.

"See you soon," Twilight said, as she and the rest entered the portal as well. Rarity had her key, and that's all she'll need to get herself and Bismuth to the next location.

~~~~~~

For Kyra's side, it didn't take very long for Steven, Amethyst, and company to get themselves off from their world, and over to Equestria, or in this case the land of the Draconian. It had been a very long time since any of them had really been in this place, aside from Kyra, so seeing the area was a sight for sore eyes. The portal itself took them right to Darastrix itself, right at the entrance, since it was the only main place within the land that they knew of. Kyra didn't mind that TOO much, though he hoped that they were at a better location ...

But as he said, the problem was quick to show up.

"What the? Snow? In summer?"

Rather obvious indeed. While they do recognize the number of areas around Darastrix, but at this point, many of it was covered in white, thick snow. Though, this isn't your typical fluffy snow, more of one would describe it as 'packing' snow: thick, deep, and the snow through the main road reaching past their feet and hooves.

"Cool!" Steven said. For any kid, snow in summer was like a dream, but Kyra did not think so in the slightest.

"Not cool, Steven. In fact, this is exactly the problem," Kyra quickly corrected. Steven's moment of happiness was quickly dashed at the reality of the situation. Kyra moved a bit, but his scarred hoof was, again, giving him a sort of limp as they began to move in themselves. This thick, heavy snow, combined with the much colder wind, was quite a shock for many of them. Steven and Connie were the coldest of the whole group, since they didn't have any winter clothes, nor any fur like the others do, nor are they exactly Gem like Amethyst was.

"Is weather normally like this over here?" Fluttershy asked.

"I'm afraid not. Our weather is a natural cycle, same as Steven's world. This snowfall is NOT a normal one," Kyra cleared up, keeping his scarred hoof off the snow as much as he could. The others looked around the place, taking into account what Kyra had said. Thick snow laid down wherever the surface met the sky: the road, the roofs, whatever was left outside and in the open, all covered in snow. One other odd detail about the place that they noticed, was the lack of hoof prints in the snow. You'd think in a main place like this, hoof prints would be common, but now there wasn't much of any. Any Draconian they did manage to see was either indoors, or hidden away.

"The Draconians sure looked freaked out here," Rainbow commented to Applejack, who had to agree.

"Right, but why? Sure snow won't be enough to rustle up these folks," Applejack wondered. Before they could go any further, another portal opened up, this time showing Rarity and Bismuth coming through. But this time, they had a little something with them, that Rarity was holding with her levitation magic.

"Oh, Bismuth, Rarity. you two were quick," Connie said.

"Right. Here you go, Kyra. Pleasure doing Bismuth with you," Bismuth said, as Rarity gave the gift to Kyra. The object looked like a sort of metal boot, silver in coloring, and one that resembled a regular pony hoof. Kyra slipped his scarred hoof into the boot, which while it felt a little restricted, did help conceal the scarred hoof from the snow.

"Ah. Well, thank you, Bismuth," Kyra said, resting both hooves down in the snow.

"Looks like this place got an early Hearth's Warming," Bismuth commented, reminding Kyra more on the situation, as he tested the metal hoof covering.

"This 'early Hearth's Warming' is apart of the problem. We don't get weather like this so early on ... and ..."

"And?" questioned Amethyst. Kyra groaned.

"... Well, this snow is not the only thing showing up ... Look, I'll explain everything in just a bit, but for now. Steven, Connie? May I ask that you get some more ... durable clothing?"

Steven and Connie were actually hoping he'd say that, and the two were quickly off back through Steven's portal in order to get their winter clothes. Not a good idea to catch a cold.

"I bet there's some evil monster behind it," Rainbow Dash suggested.

"What for?" Asked

"Because fighting a evil monster will be so awesome! Plus I'm in the zone for monster fighting," Rainbow said, doing some hoof punches in the air. Bismuth laughed.

"You and me both! Just point me to that troublemaker," Bismuth suggested, about as psyched about the action as Rainbow Dash was being. Kyra was at least glad his friends were up to the challenge, and he looked on from Darastrix, and looking towards some Very distant highlands farther away. From Darastrix, it looked very tiny in perspective.

"Right over there."

~~~~~~

Moving down the path, the weather began to show just how much affected the land of the Draconian. The Mane Six and Crystal Gems followed Kyra as they went on the trail towards the mountains. While Darastrix was a bit heavy in snow, the wilderness was even more so, with much of the snow reaching the ponies knees. Kyra and Bismuth were going through fairly well, and Rainbow and Twilight had no problem at all because of their hovering, but the rest had some effort going through the thick snow. The tall pine were also thick with snow on the limbs of the trees. Many birds, which would stay during spring, were especially confused with the sudden cold weather shift. As for the sky, it had gotten clouded up, small snowflakes falling down around them. Steven and Connie both were up on Bismuth's shoulders, getting a free ride through the thicket. Both kids had gotten their winter clothes at this point, and Connie had a iPhone with her, camera mode on.

"Thanks again for the ride, Bismuth," Connie said.

"Eh, it's nothing," Bismuth said with a smile, as Steven stuck out his tongue and got a snowflake in his mouth.

"Smile," Connie said, iPhone camera aimed at Bismuth and Steven. Both of them smiled big as Connie took a good picture. After she did, she turned the camera to Kyra, who turned back to them for a brief moment.

"If you don't mind me asking, Connie, why are you taking so many pictures? You took about ten now since we left," Kyra asked.

"My mom and dad want me to keep pictures to track my progress," Connie replied. A basic answer. As they continued going on, Twilight moved over to Kyra.

"You said there's something else out here, but we're not seeing anything," Twilight said.

"All we're finding are trees, and snow at our hooves. You sure there's something else we should be lookin for?" agreed Applejack. Kyra looked up to the sky for a moment, a few snowflakes landing on his snout.

"We'll find it, I'm sure," Kyra said.

"But what's it?" Amethyst wondered.

Even with Kyra's assurance, it didn't seem like they were really getting anywhere with this. They saw trees, snow, and a few birds time and again, but that seemed to be all they were getting to for a while. They know something weird happened to make the snow fall, that was for sure, but this other thing Kyra was talking about was not something they were really seeing. Kyra turned back, and he was seeing these doubts on their faces ...

*KAAAAWWW* *KAAAAWWW*

"EEK! I-It's one of the things is it?" Fluttershy whimpered, freaked out by the ghostly cawing. Everyone there looked around, trying to find the source, but they weren't seeing anything. They heard the echoing caws, and soon the sound of wing beats. Kyra knew exactly what that was.

"Everypony, out of sight, now," Kyra ordered, as both sounds grew closer and closer. While some of them listened and raced under the cover of the trees, Amethyst, Rainbow, and Bismuth both armed up instead, Amethyst summing her whip, and Bismuth turning her hands into hammers.

"Get down here, you three!"

"Don't worry, we got this," assured Bismuth ...

And there it was.

*KAAAAWWW* *KAAAAWWW*

Their opponent soared right above the tree line, but the first thing they all noticed was just how GIGANTIC it was compared to them! Even to Bismuth, who was a large Gem, she looked like an ant compared to it. A set of gigantic, fur-covered wings stretched open to cast down its huge shadow, each one as long as a semi truck. A long tail stretched out behind it, ending in a sharp point much like Kyra's tail. Its head, attached to a rather thin neck, looked like that of a heron, or a pterodactyl; a long beak out and ahead, small eyes, and nothing on the head covering the yellowish-brown skin. The body and legs were covered in short, yet thick, dark greyish-blue fur. Its feet consisted of a set of large eagle talons.

And the talons were out, and open, ready to grab them!

"Hit the deck!" Rainbow yelled. She, Amethyst, and Bismuth ducked down, the giant creature's talons barely grazing Bismuth's back. The others were almost hit by the large wings, the wings whacking the trees, and knocking almost all the snow off of them with one sweep. The giant behemoth slowly flew upwards after the failed hit in slow, yet powerful wing beats, as the others were covered up to their heads in snow.

"And, that's the 'something' showing up?" Rainbow said, jumping to her hooves.

"OH yeah. Now get under the trees before it comes back around, we can't fight it while it's flying," Kyra ordered. But as he was saying this, the flier managed to turn itself around, and was aiming down at them again. Bismuth, again not listening, readied her hammers and charged forward. The first charge was off guard, but now she was ready.

"BISMUTH!" Twilight yelled. The giant bird, instead of just another charge, suddenly spun its body straight, and its wing beats kicked up a ton of snow as a blinding method. Bismuth still jumped forward through the wind and snow, both hands in front of her. The others couldn't see her, and even if they could, they ended up blown back by the wind gusts. A loud screech echoed from the blinding snow, but rather than seeing the creature succumb to Bismuth, it was Bismuth who was thrown back, the Gem landing down hard into the snow. She was alright overall, but the giant aerial creature was all but hurt, flying above the blinding snow. What's worse, was that they all were blown out into the open, and all out for grabs. Twilight took action at this point, and blasted a good magic beam at the creature's face, and landing a direct hit. The creature bellowed, but damage wasn't very much. The animal rushed down at her in a single flap of the wing, and Twilight was nearly taken on the spot, only saved by Kyra grabbing her, and pulling her out of the way.

"YAAHH!" Rainbow cried, charging straight at the bird with lightning speed. Again, this was right at the head, but the giant bird snapped its beak at her during her bombing attacks. Bismuth and Amethyst joined in on the fray, and while the bird was distracted, Bismuth grabbed it by the neck as Amethyst got her whip around one of its legs. At first, they alone seemed to be doing some damage, but then the bird surprised them all: It grabbed Bismuth by the foot, threw her AND Amethyst into the air, and swung its tail to hit both Gems and Rainbow Dash all at once!

"GUYS!" Steven gasped, as the three landed hard into some trees. The hit was so violent, and so brutal, their impact made the tree crumble! Bismuth was shaken up, Amethyst almost getting her gemstone cracked, but Rainbow had it worse due to a broken wing in the fall! Bismuth got herself up, angry, and charged back in, as Steven and Fluttershy rushed to the other two.

"She's gonna shatter herself at this rate. BISMUTH, COME ON!" Kyra demanded. He needed their help, but now was not a good time for the fight, with the bird having the advantage.

"I'm fine, you go!" Bismuth yelled back. This sort of stubbornness sounded familiar to the draconian. The bird only cut her short with a whack of its wing, sending the large fighter flying!

"This is BAD, what do we do?" Connie asked, helping Amethyst up to her feet. She shook off the hit, but this beast was a lot harder than she anticipated, or any of them anticipated for that matter. The giant bird shook off Bismuth again, slamming the hardy Gem into the earth. Suddenly, in the situation, Amethyst got her idea, and went right to Steven.

"Steven? Wanna show this bruiser our friend?" Amethyst asked with a wink, hand extended ...

Back with Bismuth, she was getting more beat up than she'd like, but she was still flaming hot as the bird hovered in the air. As it did, it changed its target to Twilight instead, the alicorn ready to fight. In a screech, the bird dove right towards her when ...

"HEY, BIRDBRAIN!"

BAM! A signature giant Yo-Yo slammed the bird off course, flying past Twilight Sparkle! Everyone soon saw the fusion Quartz standing there, battle ready, and Yo-Yo swinging in her hand.

"SMOKY!" Pinkie beamed.

"About time I came out to play. I got this giant turkey," Smoky said, as they heard the bird starting to shift course again. The others moved off, as Smoky began swinging her Yo-Yo fast.

"Time for my own Smoky-screen!" Smoky joked, her own wind gusts from her Yo-Yos tossing up a ton of snow to blind the bird. With the bird temporarily blinded, Smoky went right to work on it, tossing Yo-Yo after Yo-Yo, right at the bird. This kept up for a good while, until the bird suddenly struck the ground, grounding itself in a crash. Smoky was quick to get one more useful Yo-Yo on another tree to yank herself out of the way. The crash toppled trees, and launched snow high into the sky, everyone else unable to see it through the snowy haze. Smoky landed down by the others, proud of herself.

"Well ... That was impressive," Kyra said, still surprised himself.

"ALRIGHT, SMOKY!" Bismuth cheered, joined by Pinkie Pie. Smoky felt happy for taking down the problem, but as Twilight looked, something felt ... off ...

*KAAAAWWW*

Suddenly, a giant, long talon shot out of the snow, wide open, and directly at Smoky Quartz! What happened next was almost slow motion: panicked for them both, Twilight shot off as fast as she could, and slammed Smoky out of the way, the giant talon slamming down onto her! With the alicorn in its grasp, the bird took flight with its catch.

"TWILIGHT!" Kyra gasped.

"I'm on it!" Smoky said, charging up her Yo-Yo, and throwing forward. It was a purely lucky shot, but the Yo-Yo wrapped around the same leg, and Smoky pulled on tight. Bismuth, Connie, and everyone else grabbed her, but this bird had one advantage against them: its size. Even with a firm grip, the giant bird shook its foot in a way that made the entire group lift off the ground for a moment in a whiplash. When they landed, the grip was lost, and Smoky flew off, still holding onto the Yo-Yo string! Smoky began to reel herself in, as Twilight tried to get herself out of the bird's crushing grip.

"Twilight, We're coming!" Smoky called, getting closer and closer. With the others far below, Smoky was on her own. Smoky's reeling got her just at the foot, with two hands gripping the Bird's foot, as one more tried to reach for Twilight. However, the bird felt Smoky's weight, and wasn't having any of it. The leg started to shake, making Smoky lose some of her grip, but not enough to shake her off completely. Twilight tried to reach Smoky Quartz, and it looked like Smoky just might. A few more inches, and she can pull Twilight free -

*KAAAAWWW*

The bird did the final move: wings beating hard, it started to fly in a full 360, horizontal spin, the shift in gravity AND shaking making it harder for Smoky Quartz to stay on. Finally, with one strong, final shake, Smoky Quartz lost her grip! Twilight and Smoky locked eyes for one more moment, before the bird spun upright, and its tail slamming Smoky on the way down. Smoky slammed into the ground at very high speed, causing a snow explosion.

"Oh no, Smoky!" Rainbow gasped. Everyone else raced off to where Smoky had landed, but as the snow cloud cleared, a crater was left, with Steven and Amethyst inside. By the time they got to them, Twilight, and the giant bird, were far out of sight ...

"It's getting away!" Bismuth exclaimed.

"We'll have to get it later, they need our help," Connie insisted, helping Steven up off the ground, as AJ and Rarity helped Amethyst. It was clear they weren't going to catch that bird today ...

~~~~~~

Night came. It was troubling for them at this point over what had happened to their friend, but for the case, they had to wait until morning to go and look again - something they were hoping not to do. A nice, warm campfire was quickly put together, providing them with some warmth against the night winter wind, and after some work, Steven and Rainbow were bandaged up. That, and the night was fairly clear so no risk of more snow, yet full moon nights like these are the coldest. Some of those amongst the group felt simply discouraged over what happened, and they could tell as they were sitting around the fire.

"Owowowowowow," Steven said, as the final bandage was wrapped around his arm thanks to Rarity.

"There, that should do it," Rarity said at last.

"Man, I don't get it. How'd we get crumbled by some random giant bird? Smoky could've finished it off easy," Amethyst wondered in a huff, poking a stick at the fire.

"Come on, Amethyst, you, Bismuth, and Steven were great out there," Applejack said, trying to comfort her. Amethyst pulled her stick out, blowing off some of the fire, before she started to bite and chew it, like a carrot.

"But it still took Twilight. ... I think I'm getting outta practice," sighed Bismuth.

"You? Ah ponyfeathers, you're stronger than a dragon at it's primetime," Applejack retorted. Bismuth though didn't seem to think so now. She did beat up the pufferfish Gem a while ago, but that wasn't very much compared to this thing. To prove her point, Bismuth flexed one of her arms to try and show her muscle.

"Here, feel this," Bismuth said. AJ did so, and although her hoof did push in ever so slightly, it was enough to rival Bulk Biceps.

"Still feel hard to me, Bismuth," AJ insisted. Bismuth lowered her arm.

"Not as hard as stone. I hadn't been practicing lately, and it's catching up with me. ... I miss Jasper. Training had always been fun with her," Bismuth sighed, laying down in the snow. The mention of Jasper brought some rather rough memories back to everyone else there, remembering the orange Quartz fighter on their team. Jasper had done quite a lot for them, one way or another, and it just wasn't the same since she and Lapis ended up gone. However, amongst the down faces, Kyra was the only one not up to speed. What better time than at a campfire to do so?

"Uh, hope you don't mind me asking, but ..."

Kyra didn't need to finish his question for the others to start answering him.

"Jasper's gone. Her and Lapis. ... They've been missing for months now, and we've been trying to find them," Steven said, not looking to the Draconian. Perhaps what he asked next was inevitable.

"What happened to them?"

There was some silence at first among the crowd, but in the end, Bismuth was the one who got onto say it.

"Well, Sapphire was taken away by White Diamond, so we and the other Gems went off to try and get her back off her station, but -"

"White Diamond? THE White Diamond?" Kyra gasped.

"Well yeah. Anyway, we got her back, but Lapis and Jasper were ... thrown out of the ship ..."

Kyra needed a moment to take this in, looking at everyone else. Seeing the looks on their faces told him, no doubt, that they were not lying to him. To think that they would go this way against White Diamond, of all Gems. Kyra looked down to the flames of their campfire to contemplate the idea, but before he could fully process it, Bismuth had more questions for him.

"Wait a minute. how do you know who White Diamond is? I KNOW they didn't tell you before I showed up," Bismuth said. Kyra glanced to Bismuth again before looking back into the fire. It was hard for Kyra to really forget his encounters with the Diamonds, especially evident on the scar on his leg.

"... I had an encounter with them before."

"Them? so you met all the diamonds?"

"Twice in fact. ... And, while we're on the subject, what about you? You seem to have some knowledge about what I am when you met me. How?" Kyra asked, changing the subject off of him, and onto her. This was something the others were more curious about too. Some of them, like Pinkie and Amethyst, got a bit more comfortable, as if sensing that Bismuth had a story to tell.

"Well, I did stumble onto Equestria before."

"I KNEW IT!" Pinkie suddenly shouted. Amethyst and Steven's suspicions were confirmed on that statement.

"When did this happen?" Amethyst asked.

And so, Bismuth started her little story.

"Let's see now. I was out in the cosmos with my group: me, pair of Quartz soldiers, and a few others, flying around through space, when we found this funny little planet on our star map. It looked new, and rather interesting to us, plus Yellow D wanted some info on it, so we decided to go in to investigate. You know, see if it can work out for Gemkind, and all that. So here we are, going about this "colorful, pebble world", and just keep getting into trouble, one after another. I swear, It had just been an asteroid belt of craziness being pelted wherever we go: Yakyakastan, Griffinstone, The Kirin Empire - it was hilarious. Oh, I wish I knew what a camera was back then. You should've seen her face whenever we made some of our reports! Anyway, we stayed here for a while, and Yellow Diamond just gave up on it. To be honest, I bet she just got too weirded out by this planet."

With Equestria having all the strange creatures, magic, and what not, it made sense why Yellow Diamond would be weirded out about the planet. However, after a little bit, they all paused when they heard a familiar, albeit long distant call from the giant bird, reminding them of the situation.

"Well, anyway, we all better get some sleep. We need all our energy for tomorrow," Kyra decided, laying down by the warmth of the fire.

"But it'll be miles away. Can't we just send a scout after it or something?"

"Don't bother, I know exactly where it's going. My last attempt to subdue it brought me to its lair. We can fight it better while it's at rest rather than it flying around above our heads," Kyra explained.

"Well ... I hope Twilight's alright up there," Steven said, glancing up to the sky.

"Don't worry, Steven. We're talking about the Alicorn princess of friendship here! I bet she's already making her way back to us," Connie said.

.......

If only that were the case. Farther off, the giant bird was still having the now tired Alicorn gripped in its talon. Twilight had tried many a spell, but for some reason it just wasn't working. In the night winter air, Twilight tried to look around, to see where she was going to end up. Eventually, she felt herself land on some sort of rocky platform, only then being released. The ground was made up of cobble stone under her hooves, and when looking around, it looked mainly like the top of some sort of old building. The giant bird, soon after tossing her, landed down on a perch, and settled down for the night. She felt weak, shaken up, and no idea how far she was from the others.

"Where am I?" Twilight wondered ...

*SHING*

"AH!"

Next thing she knew, she found herself surrounded! Out of nowhere, crystals were suddenly appearing around her, dark and sharp at the points. This situation was eerily familiar for her, and she wanted to get herself out. ASAP! She tried to fly, but the crystals just came together enough so there was no room for her to fly. she tried magic, but each spell had no affect on it. She tried teleporting, but just popped back in there.

"Hello, princess."

Twilight looked out her prison, and saw somepony beginning to move herself out from the shadows. At first, Twilight wasn't able to recognize her since she was wearing a winter cloak, but the second she removed her hood to show her smirking, triumphant face ...

"Starlight!"

"Yes, you know me. Princess Twilight," Starlight mocked, Twilight unable to get herself out. The cocky unicorn went right up to her, the giant bird not seemingly noticing her at any point. Starlight Glimmer sat there, watching Twilight with a satisfied smile.

"What're you doing?! Get me out of here!" Twilight said, trying to get herself free. Starlight had her trapped.

"No way. I've had it with you going around and messing everything up for me! You were off lucky before, but I'm NOT letting you slip this time!" Starlight yelled.

"Starlight, don't do this. If you just -"

Starlight slammed her hoof on Twilight's muzzle to shut her up.

"You just stand there and look pretty. Once those Gems come here to find you, they'll be right to see how great my method truly is!"

"Your method isn't right, you can't force a friend by removing their talent!" Twilight yelled.

"Maybe not to YOU, but you'll see. You'll ALL see! Once they're out of the way, all of Equestria will see the true harmony!" Starlight announced.

"You're making a huge mistake!"

"NO I'M NOT! I know they'll come for you, and the second they do, they're right for the rehabilitation! HAHAHAHAHAHA -" Starlight suddenly broke her laughing, turning into a coughing fit. Starlight was quick to recover, but was slightly embarrassed ...

"I gotta work on that," Starlight told herself, as she trotted off to get into position. While the laugh was simply stupid, Twilight still knew the powerful unicorn had her stuck on the castle, one way or another ...

~~~~~~

The next day, and the group was immediately going off and on their way to locate Twilight, Kyra leading them right on their way. The weather was starting to get a little worse, with clouds gathering up with more snow falling down into a flurry. Winds were picking up, and the cold was beginning to bite at them. However, one good thing: the group began to see the destination ahead of them. In the snow flurry, the destination was blurred up and hard to see clearly. What they could see was that it was VERY tall, almost like a narrow mountain without a point to it.

"So let me get this straight, Kyra. You want us to climb up there?" Rainbow asked.

"That's the roost. It'll not be easy, but she's up there, I'm sure," replied Kyra, starting to move on again. Rainbow would be fine with this, if her wing wasn't jacked up.

"Man, it'll take all day!" Amethyst groaned. Steven walked over to the wall itself., and he began to put his thinking cap to work. Eventually, thinking on who he had with him, he smiled, and got an idea.

"No it won't."

.......

It really didn't take much time to figure it out. Rather than Bismuth using the whip to thrash around or anything like that, she began to work with it, and extend it. Soon, Bismuth was scaling the wall, her pickaxe hands digging into the cobble, and pulling the others up as she did. With a quick thinking, she got Amethyst's whip turned into a safety line for everyone else, which was the best idea they got all day. Bismuth, being as strong as she was, made all of it look easy.

"Nice thinking, Steven," Connie said.

"Yeah, this is great. We'll be up there in no time," agreed Bismuth.

And as true to Bismuth's word, they didn't take very long until they were just about at the top. Once there, Bismuth pulled everyone else up, and soon there they all were, all at the top of the great structure. Lucky for them, the giant bird wasn't anywhere around, but they soon saw Twilight not too far away, still encased in her crystalline prison. She tried all night to get herself out, but it just wasn't able to be done with her inside, so all she could do was lay there.

"Twilight!" Steven called, waking the alicorn up. She was extremely cold, sitting in that prison of hers, but she had the energy to get herself up on her hooves.

"Guys? Is that you out there?" Twilight asked, hearing the others rush in to go get her.

"Don't worry, we'll have you out of there in a jiff," Bismuth said, her hands turning from pickaxes to hammers, already starting to slam on the crystals. Rainbow and Applejack helped in chipping away at the crystals as well, slamming hoof and hammer into the sturdy stone.

"No, guys get out -"

Before Twilight could finish, a magic beam was suddenly shot right at them! A majority of them were struck, with the exception of Kyra, Connie, and Steven. The spell didn't have any exact effects aside from impact damage, as their next contender, Starlight, stepped out into sight, her horn smoking a little from the concentrated spell. A simple blow was enough to remove the smoke, but they knew the instant she showed up what was happening with Twilight.

"About time you showed up," Starlight mocked.

"Let her go!" Amethyst demanded.

"I will, I will. After I put you all in the right perspective," Starlight said. Kyra growled on seeing the unicorn come out, and it didn't take long until Starlight saw him as well.

"Starlight Glimmer," Kyra growled.

"You know her?" Connie asked.

"She passed by Darastrix sometime ago, and went on about her anti-friendship propaganda. I personally sent her on her way," Kyra said, his tail whipping behind him as a threat.

"Yeah, you did, but I'm getting even with these jokers, not you," Starlight snapped, her horn charging up for another blast. Before anyone could get a word in edge wise, Starlight blasted another power beam at them, but this time they all got out of the way. Starlight wasn't going to let them all get the best of her so easily, and did a wide-ranged spell on almost all of them. Suddenly, many of the ponies and Gems had the same crystals stuck down on their feet. Therefore, stopping them from moving.

"There. Now this."

Oddly, instead of a finishing spell, Starlight brought her hoof up, and gave a loud whistle. ...

*KAAAAWWW*

The bird was back. Appearing from the skies below, it flew right up, and landing over on the platform. When they saw this, everything else seemed to fall into place. ...

"Wait. You control that bird ... and the winter - ..."

It suddenly clicked in Kyra's mind.

"YOU BROUGHT THE WINTER ONTO US!" Kyra accused. Starlight though rolled her eyes.

"How else was I supposed to drag them over here? Outside Equestria, AND Earth, they're too far away for any of them to help. Soon as I'm done here, then you'll get your own weather back," Starlight said, as she moved over right towards those trapped under the spell. Her horn glowed again, and suddenly the bird flew down towards the Gems, and the bird kept them busy as Starlight marched proudly towards the ponies, her horn glowing and ready to handle them once and for all. Bismuth and Amethyst were caught in it's sights, as Starlight wished it to do, though Kyra was going in to help them out. Both Gems and Draconian gave it some strong hits, but it wasn't enough against the magic beast, but during the short fight, the bird's large beak reaches towards Bismuth, but in a sudden turn, Amethyst was caught in the bite, and ...

*Poof* ...

"Come on!" Steven said, grabbing an equally worried Connie, as they both raced over towards Starlight. ...

"Trust me, you'll be thanking me later," Starlight promised, just about to cast her spell. However, just before she could, someone gave the unicorn a strong kick to the side of the head. Starlight tumbled head over hooves for about ten feet, only to see ...

"What the?! You fused?!"

"Oh. I-I guess I did," Stevonnie stated, standing in between Starlight and the others. This attack made the others stop for a short moment, Stevonnie picking up Amethyst's Gemstone from the ground in dismay.

"No, not again! Why couldn't you just LEAVE ME ALONE?!" Starlight yelled.

"I don't wanna hear anything you say ... unless, it's "sorry"."

*KAAAAWWW*

Seeing the shift in the situation, Starlight tried her luck against Stevonnie instead. She seen fusion - she knows how their strength. Kyra was given the Gemstone, as Stevonnie wielded her sword. Starlight, galloping towards her, started firing her magic beams her direction. Stevonnie started running at her too, and her swordsmanship skills clearly shined here: dodging the beams, and even slicing one in two with a swipe of her sword. Kyra, seeing the moment, held the Gemstone in his mouth as he galloped over to the other Mane Six, trying to get them out, and Bismuth was busy distracting the giant bird so it wouldn't attack the others. Starlight needed some distance between herself and Stevonnie with the sword, so she summoned her own sword through a magic spell. Make it what you will, but despite the even odds, Stevonnie had the upper hand. Starlight was still backing up, only succeeding in blocking Stevonnie's swings. Any thrust she tried was a clear miss that didn't need a block by Stevonnie. Fir the giant bird, it stopped trying to hurt Bismuth after a while when it saw Stevonnie and Starlight fighting, and swung around, Bismuth just narrowly dodging the long tail. Stevonnie halted her assault for a tiny moment, and this gave Starlight an extremely desperate opening, causing Starlight to take it and blast a magic beam.

Stevonnie dodged it, but the bird was struck hard with it.

*KAAAAAAAAWWWWWW!*

Everyone immediately stopped, the screeching call echoing all over the land, as the bird just stood there, dazed. Looking closely, the bird's eyes began to blink, as if snapped back to reality, and it shook its head to bring itself back around. Starlight's desperate attempt to discipline Stevonnie, now freed the beast from her own spell. Lucky for them though, it was not going to stick around, and launched off the edge of the cliff.

"NO, COME BACK!" Starlight yelled, racing after it, but it was too late for her to do much, and soon the giant bird was off and out of sight. The powerful flap of its wings blasted Starlight back, and strong enough to pull many of the ponies out of Starlight's crystal bind (except Twilight, of course), and blew off many of the snow clouds as it did. Now, Starlight was alone, left with SO much disadvantage compared to the others. Twilight may still be stuck, but Starlight knew it wouldn't be long until either she was beaten, or Twilight was free. Further away, Amethyst's Gemstone started to come back around, flashing up a storm, until Amethyst brought herself back. She looked the same, but her shirt was all white this time, the colors between the pants, and the stars on her knees swapped, and her shoes matched the color of said stars.

"Don't worry guys, I -"

Amethyst stopped herself when she realized what was going on. The bird disappeared, the others were out, and Stevonnie was there, in between her and Starlight. ...

"You're outnumbered, Starlight. Get rid of the winter, now! It's over!" Kyra demanded. Starlight backed up, but she did not look willing to comply to it, or anything.

"Oh no, it's not over. This is only the beginning! ... OF MY ESCAPE!"

Suddenly, she flung herself off the cliff before anyone could go in. They all thought Starlight just finished herself off, but Starlight was then seen ... flying away. A green aura around her, making her fly, as she flew off right away ...

"Huh. So she can fly now," Stevonnie said.

"What happened?" Amethyst asked, getting their attention.

"Amethyst, you're back!" Pinkie beamed, hugging her strongly. As the others went back to free twilight, the others checked in with her, Stevonnie turning back to Steven and Connie.

"We did it! We beat Starlight!" Connie beamed

"Yes, but now she left this winter all alone," Kyra pointed out, looking back to the clouds. Starlight left the biggest problem all alone for them to handle. Suddenly the victory was more bittersweet than needed to be. Starlight was the only one who figured it out, and she already flew off!

"OH COME ON!" Amethyst shrieked, slamming her head to the floor.

"Calm down, everypony. That big bird handled the problem already, I mean look at it," Rainbow suddenly pointed out.

"There's still storm clouds, Rainbow."

"Not enough to keep the winter going. I'd give it oh ... a week, before the sun gets rid of them. ... I worked with the weather team, I know these things," Rainbow said, the last part to avoid any confusion. Rainbow Dash may not always keep track of the weather team, but she still knew the basics of it. When looking, they do see the clouds, but sun was still going through them well, and not too many of the clouds were left to drop snow, so, Rainbow had a point there.

"I think you're right. ... Come on, I think it's time we get down from here," Kyra decided.

not too far away, amethyst was simply standing there, and while she was happy the problem was handled, she took the moment to reflect on what happened during all this. She tried Smoky, and that didn't work, she barely did much, and she got poofed in the process of it, only to wake up and see they already handled it all without her. ...

"... You didn't need me at all ..."

Study

View Online

The world on Earth may be a busy time, but back on Homeworld, everything seemed to have stopped. Inside the Blue Diamond palace, Yellow Diamond was pacing back and forth, over and over again. It was really becoming a true bother for her at this point, as she was expecting someone to show up, and yet to see her. The longer she had to wait, the more aggravated she was getting. Yellow Pearl simply stood aside, quietly, and watching Yellow Diamond in her pacing. She continued going along her way back and forth, until she finally began to hear someone come in from the front. Today, the visitor was somepony Yellow Diamond was hoping would help her out. Landing after a short flight from the Warp Pad, Celestia and Luna were now in front of Yellow Diamond.

"It's about time you showed up. I've been waiting all day," Yellow Diamond said, aggravated from the wait.

"Sorry for that, we had to handle preparations for the royal summit. What might be the trouble?" Celestia asked.

Yellow Diamond waited for a second before she gestured Celestia and Luna to follow her. Celestia, Luna, and by extent Yellow Pearl, followed Yellow Diamond through some of the palace hallways, until she stopped over by another room. Although they were just outside of the room, they began to hear someone moving around. Yellow diamond knocked on the door, and the noise was quiet for a little moment, until Blue Pearl quietly answered. Blue Pearl just needed to look once before she looked back inside the room.

"My Diamond. The Alicorn princesses are here to see you," Blue Pearl said. Blue diamond didn't seem to respond, and Yellow Diamond walked in anyway, with Celestia and Luna behind. The room lead out to the upper balcony of the palace, Blue Diamond sitting over at the edge, and staring off into the cosmos. This had been Blue Diamond's pastime for months now - literally. It was rather clear that Blue Diamond hadn't coped well since the White Diamond affair. ...

"She's been miserable for months now. ... Well, do something. Talk to her, make her feel better," Yellow Diamond insisted, looking to Celestia. Celestia and Luna both looked to eachother, before they started flying over to Blue Diamond's side. On her face, the two alicorns could see that Blue Diamond had tears in her eyes, some dripping down on the ground.

"... Blue? ... Blue ..." Celestia asked.

Blue Diamond didn't answer them.

"... Yellow said you've been feeling down for a while. ... Care to share why?" Luna asked.

Again, Blue Diamond was a little quiet about it, the only response they were getting was her pulling herself together, her head to her knees.

"Blue. ..."

"... She's gone. ..."

Her voice was barely audible, but Luna just managed to catch the words in her own ears.

"Gone? Who's gone?" Luna asked. But, just before she could answer ...

*knock**knock**knock**knock*

This time it was Yellow Pearl who went over to the door to see who it was this time. Yellow Diamond wasn't expecting any extra guests, but the second Yellow Pearl peeked outside, she immediately grew almost frantic.

"Who is it?" Yellow Diamond asked.

"I-It - s-she." Yellow Pearl couldn't get her words out right, so instead she gave a sudden diamond symbol salute with her hands. After showing that, she pointed to the door, equally frantic and troubled. It took a little bit, but Yellow diamond did manage to figure out what her Pearl was trying to say, and she immediately turned to Celestia and Luna.

"Celestia, Luna, get out of sight," Yellow Diamond said, quiet and urgent. The alicorns, not sure exactly what was going on, decided to comply and flew over just outside the window, above the balcony sill. And not a moment too soon, as the door fully opened to reveal the other Diamond showing up, her White Diamond gemstone for all to see. Rather than a hello, she took one look at Blue, and ...

"You must be joking."

"W-White Diamond," Yellow Diamond said, as White Diamond, accompanied by two of her White Pearls, walked inside. The duo Pearls stood over by Yellow and Blue Pearl, Yellow Pearl glaring at them for a moment. Celestia and Luna heard about what happened with the others and White Diamond, and knew of the danger just as well. Blue Diamond didn't seem to react much on hearing White Diamond's stern voice. White Diamond stood there for a little bit at first, before turning to Yellow Diamond.

"Yellow, what is she doing?" White asked, almost bored in tone.

"She's been like this since you told us about -" Yellow Diamond quickly paused herself as she glanced at Blue, before leaning in towards White. "- ... You-know-who."

"Still?" White Diamond sighed. The superior Diamond went right up to Blue Diamond, who was still grieving.

"Blue, it's been months now, and you still can't get over this common fact?" White said, not remotely caring much for her sympathy. Blue Diamond couldn't even look at her.

"But ... she's -"

"I know she is, but moping all eternity will not help in any way. You got a race to lead!" White Diamond cut off, stepping to her side, only to have Blue turn away.

"Why can't you just let me grieve?"

"You can't act this way forever!" Snapped White.

"Why not?!" Snapped back Blue. Blue and Yellow Pearl exchanged glances, and Celestia and Luna couldn't help but do the same. White Diamond was losing patience with Blue, but she had a better idea on why she was acting this way. She gave a bit of a rough groan, but it would be at least a try.

"Pearls. Start your chorus in five tone, if you may," White Diamond instructed.

"Yes, my Diamond. Ahem ... AHEM!"

The two White Pearls got the other Pearl's attention.

"Ok, ok, ok," Yellow said.

"Oh ... uh, aha," Blue Pearl added.

So they began.

(What's the Use of Feeling, Blue parody)
Pearls: Aah haa haa, aah haa haa
Aah ha aah ha, aah haa haa
Aah haa haa, aah haa haa
Aah haa haa haa haa haa haa haa haaaaa

As they did that, White Diamond then began her singing, eyes directly on Blue Diamond.

White Diamond: Why would you want to be here?
Why act this way, my dear?
Does it make you better when you do?
And tell me, what's the use of feeling, Blue?

As the Pearls joined chorus, White diamond walked over to Blue Diamond's side, still trying to convince her. Blue stayed staring outside as she did.

Why would you want to trust her
crystals that destroyed her?
Why keep up your silly truce?
Oh, tell me what's the use of feeling, Blue?

An attempt at mistrust, obviously, and one that got both the alicorns, and Blue, and Yellow Pearl a little worried. Blue Diamond was still not answering her questions, and she began to get up and move away from her, as White continued.

A Jasper has her use - she can help you win a war.
A Sapphire has her use - she can tell you what it's for.
An Agate terrifies, a Lapis terraforms,
Where's their Diamond when they need her, Blue?
You got to be a leader, Blue!

Blue Diamond still was not ailing to anything, so instead, White Diamond tried something else, as she calmed herself down, walking over to Yellow for a brief moment during her singing.

Yes, of course we still love her
and we're always thinking of her.
But now there's nothing we can do for her so
What's the use of feeling -

White Pearls: What's the use of feeling?

WD+Pearls: What's the use of feeling, Blue?

Next, White Diamond brought her hand down, and both of her Pearls stood on it to join in the song, Yellow and Blue Pearl staying where they are.

White Diamond: Ohh
How can you stand to dwell with it all?

White Pearls: Dwell with it all?

White Diamond: Drowning in all this regret.
Wouldn't you rather forget her?

White Diamond's Pearls starting to dance to the song on White's hand as they continued.

White Diamond: Ohh
Won't it be grand to get rid of it all?

White Pearls: Rid of it all?

White Diamond: Let's make a plan of attack!
Think of the future, and not of the past.

White Diamond placed her Pearls down, as she went down to Blue's eye level, eye-to-eye with her.

White Diamond: YES, of course we still love her
and we're always thinking of her
But there is nothing we can do. for her, Blue.

White Diamond stood back up to finish it off, thinking she might've got something to Blue. ...

White Diamond: What's the use of feeling
what's the use of feeling
What's the use of feeling, blue?

And there, the song was over. White Diamond thought she was actually getting through to Blue in some way, but when she glanced over in her direction, Blue diamond didn't look like she was even listening to her. If anything, she looked even more depressed and distraught about the whole thing. White was more agitated now.

"Really, Blue! I spent two minutes singing a song, and THAT didn't work?" White groaned.

"... Just leave me alone ..."

Silence hung up in the air for a bit longer, White diamond looking like she was about to blow a gasket. Blue Pearl walked over to Blue Diamond, standing right by her side, as Yellow Pearl stayed put in her position. Yellow diamond thought it would be helpful to her, though just taken aback by Blue's reaction. It was then that White Diamond came to her decision.

"Obviously Earth is on your mind too much, to the point of emotional investment. So, you are not allowed to step a foot on that planet until further notice."

"W-What?!" Blue gasped, eyes wide open, and tears flowing. White Diamond rolled her eyes.

"You've been thinking about Pink Diamond far too much since we last met. Time away from that planet will hopefully snap you out of this."

"But White -"

"Don't you start that, Blue," White snapped.

"She's correct, Blue. Perhaps some time away from that planet can be good for you," Yellow suddenly agreed. Blue was left quiet for a moment or two, before talking again. Blue Diamond knew she couldn't talk out of it, and all she did was stay quiet, as White Diamond turned away, and looked over to Yellow Diamond.

"Yellow, may I have a word with you? I didn't come back here just to talk to her," White informed. Yellow Diamond was unsure if she should leave Blue Diamond on this note, but orders are orders.

"I won't be long," Yellow finally decided, before she went out with White Diamond. Their Pearls left with them too, and soon leaving Blue Diamond, Blue Pearl, Celestia, and Luna alone. Only when White diamond left that both alicorn princesses flew back into sight, trying again to comfort Blue. Now, Blue Diamond was depressed AND punished. ...

"... Intriguing ..."

~~~~~~

"Thanks for the returning the book, Garnet," Twilight said, as Garnet returned the book over at her library. Garnet had gave it a lookover for a while, but since it was Twilight's book technically, she had to return it at some point. After retrieving back her monster guide, Twilight trotted back into her library with the book back in her possession. She hoped it helped out the other Gems, and now that she had it back, she wanted to look it over again, especially after coming across that giant bird a while back.

"Let's see ... where is it? Where is it?"

Twilight skimmed through the pages of her book, trying to figure out what this beast was. It took her some time to actually skim through the pages, but eventually one of the beasts stopped her dead cold, and it got her interested the second she saw it. On the page, right in front of her muzzle, was the exact same bird that she had faced! The same bird from the land of the Draconian! Twilight couldn't believe her eyes to the book. She was for sure this book was from Earth, since it already have the Thunderbird in it, which was indeed from Earth, but how could it have that AND the giant bird from the Equestria world? Not too long after that, Spike soon showed up, seeing that Twilight had the very book.

"Hey, Twilight. What's up with you?" Spike asked, walking over to her.

"It's this book. Look here - that's the same bird that I faced over near Darastrix," Twilight said, pointing to the bird with her hoof.

"Yeah, so?"

"SO? This book also has the Thunderbird here," Twilight said, flipping back a few pages to show the Thunderbird to Spike. "And that bird is from Steven's world. Who could've gathered this information from BOTH worlds into one book?"

"Calm down, weirder things had happened. It's not like that answer will just pop up by the door, and -"

*knock**knock**knock*

Well, Spike had to open his big mouth. Spike and Twilight both turned to the front door, wondering who that could really be. Garnet had just visited not too long ago, so it would be odd to just see her loop back and knock on her door. Spike, who was nearest to the door, decided to go and answer it himself, Twilight walking up behind him as he did so. Spike opened the door up, and ... well, the sight of what it was is ... surprising, to say the least.

The figure standing right at Twilight's front step was by no means any pony, human, or Gem. It stood just a foot taller than a human being, although rather long, about the length of an alligator. The body of this creature was quite a mix match, almost something like discord would be. Its body was covered in amber scales, with the front furred legs and fur-tipped tail of a lion, and the thin back legs of a sparrow. Its head, on a long neck, belonged to that of a lizard, with one set of ram horns, and a single unicorn horn at the center of its muzzle. Its eyes aimed forward, matching those of Spike's eyes just as well. On its person, a handbag was wrapped around its midsection. It was sitting down casually, looking to them both as they simply stared at it.

"... I couldn't had called it any better," Spike commented.

"Hello there, alicorn," he started. Twilight and Spike weren't sure what was going on exactly, not seeing Garnet around, nor anypony that would be responsible.

"Oh. Uh, hello. And you are ...?"

"Mushussu. May I?" he answered.

"Oh, yeah, sure," Twilight said, moving herself aside as Mushussu stepped into her library. He had to hunker down a little bit, but room wasn't much of a problem for this creature, as it looked around a bit.

"So ... I don't think I've seen you before," Twilight asked, feeling awkward about things. Mushussu turned to her.

"I just arrived into town. A nice one, might I add. Now, I know I'm sort of jumping to things here, but you wouldn't happen to have a particular book of mine, do you?" Mushussu asked. considering they were in Twilight's library, that question was a bit ambiguous. Didn't help the awkwardness either, but soon, Mushussu looked and noticed one particular book left open nearby, still open to the Thunderbird page.

"OH, there it is. Been looking for this for days now," Mushussu said, gently lifting the literary guide in his lion paws.

"Wait, that's your book?" Spike asked.

"Sure. I did write it, after all."

"You wrote it?!" Twilight gasped. Looks like spike's assumption was on point after all, as Mushussu looked through the pages of his guide. Twilight now found her author to this strange book, but she still had a number of questions for him (of course). She practically flew at him, skidding to a stop just a foot away, as Mushussu closed it, and bookmarked it.

"Of course. I had it left in another library for safekeeping, but apparently somepony got a hold of it," Mushussu said. Twilight now felt a little embarrassed, face blushing, and ears tucked back. Mushussu couldn't blame a curious pony for borrowing a book from a library.

"Eh, sorry. The librarian said nopony owned that book," Twilight admitted, hoof rubbing the back of her head.

"Ok then. Well, it doesn't look damaged. ... Yeah, you're okay, mis ..."

"Twilight Sparkle," Twilight introduced. Mushussu wondered a little bit on the name, scratching his reptilian chin as he tried to think.

"Twilight. Sparkle. ... sounds familiar ... you happen to know the Gems, by chance?"

Twilight was even more surprised now.

"You know them too?"

"I'm aware of their species, yes. Rumors are a buzz, too. But anyway, thanks for not ruining my book, Twilight. Now, I need to be on my way," Mushussu said, as he began to exit Twilight home. Such a quick exit so soon was not going to go by this alicorn without her curios mind getting the answers she needs about this. The alicorn flew out in front of him.

"Wait, wait. I wanna ask you something, still," Twilight quickly said. Mushussu stopped himself before he could walk into her.

"And what would that be?"

"Those animals, they're not just Equestrian creatures. How'd you even manage?" Twilight asked. Even if he's aware of Gems, he couldn't had figured out these other animals so easily, and so quickly. Mushussu glanced to his book, and then to Twilight.

"Well, I get around. It's fun to go out, seeking and studying the wildlife out in their element," Mushussu said with a grin, and a bit of enthusiasm in his work. Twilight though was still curious about him.

"But how'd you get these Earth creatures? Things like the Thunderbird didn't exist for the longest time until recently," Twilight advised, as Mushussu quickly looked down through the pages over to the Thunderbird in question. The creature took a sec to read it over before addressing her again.

"You know, I got more of these books back at my own library. And seeing how you're a fan of good literature, I can lend you another one if you'd like," Mushussu offered. Twilight didn't need more than two seconds to make up her choice, now VERY intrigued about Mushussu's library.

"Wonderful!" Twilight beamed.

"Ok then, sounds good. Here's the directions, and you can stop by when you want to," Mushussu said, pulling out a note book from his bag, and writing down the information to his library. Soon, Twilight was given the information she needed, and while a bit lengthy, was still straightforward enough. With a nod of his head, Mushussu turned and began heading off on his way back, leaving Twilight excited as ever to find a new library to visit. If the monster guide was anything to go by, then this library was especially something worth looking over for both Equestria AND Earth.

"Oh my Celestia, a new extradimensional library!" Twilight said, zooming off so fast, it left Spike in a tail spin. Spike quickly corrected himself, as he watched Twilight go.

"Here we go."

~~~~~~

Meanwhile, monster hunting had to be put down on hold for a bit when it came to Steven and Amethyst. Their last excursion over in Draconian country left them rather worn out, not to mention giving Amethyst a new outlook. It did plenty of help when handling the unexpected winter at Darastrix, but while they were at home, amethyst just didn't appear to be upbeat. As Steven was starting up a video game, Amethyst was sitting by the sink, with an dozen of eggs next to her. Amethyst was dropping them down into the sink's grinder, and grinding them up one by one.

"Hey, Amethyst, you wanna play?" Steven asked. Amethyst didn't answer him at first, continuing to drop eggs and grinding them in the sink.

"No thanks. Making egg salad," Amethyst sighed. Steven could tell right away that his friend wasn't feeling too good, and he thought he knew why.

"Come on, Amethyst. One round, you and me. It'll be quick," Steven promised. Amethyst, unchanged in her depressed tone, just sighed and walked up next to Steven. The Game Steven got up and running looked like a sort of car racing game, and he already set it up to who'll be who. It wasn't the first time Amethyst played this game, and she would usually be the same character, so Steven planned ahead, and even got the race course picked already. He did promise it'll be quick. Amethyst and Steven were soon starting the race, and around the first lap, it seemed to be doing well. Both sides seemed fine, and around the second lap, Steven began to take the lead. He felt good at first, but then remembered Amethyst's troubles. Amethyst still had a depressed, and now bothersome look in her face, and when the third lap happened up, Steven decided to choke. He swerved the wrong way, and Amethyst won the race fairly well.

"OH, you beat me. You did a great job, Amethyst," Steven complimented.

"... Steven, I know you let me win." Amethyst finally said.

"What?! No, I did my best, you, uh ... nooooooooo?"

Not very convincing. Amethyst just went over to the console, and turned off the game.

"Don't try and cheer me up, Steven. I know I sucked back there ... Now I'm the runt of the Crystal Gems ..."

"What?" Steven asked. Amethyst cringed.

"You know what I meant, Steven. I completely suck," Amethyst sighed.

"Amethyst, you don't suck."

"Yes I do. What'd I just say?"

"No you're not! If anything, I'm the runt of the Crystal Gems, not you."

"Now I know that's a lie."

Now Steven was starting to get a little upset with her and her doubting. He hated to think that Amethyst would think herself this way.

"Amethyst, are you kidding? you have two whips - TWO whips! And that rolling move? you're a ton better than me!" Steven insisted. Amethyst though still had her own doubts at Steven's claims.

"Yeah right! Steven, you have Rose's shield, you have that protective bubble, you can heal people with your spit for crying out loud! YOU blow me out of the water!"

"My healing spit? I forget to even use that half the time! And the rest of my powers aren't guaranteed to work!"

"They've been working fine for a long time!"

"Coincidence! Besides, you helped stopped that Osicone while I was stuck behind in Blue Diamond's city!"

"I barely could do ANYTHING there, everyone else did the heavy lifting!"

"I didn't do ANY lifting!"

This was a rather odd argument, but one both sides were set on winning in ... or losing in, whichever. As Amethyst and Steven continued their squabbling, their argument was cut short when they both heard a knock over at their door. Before Amethyst could go and answer it, Steven was already walking down.

"I'll get the door - something a runt's only good for," Steven said, still trying to drive the point home. Amethyst looked down at Steven crossly, as Steven went on to open the door. He expected one of the Beach City residents, or perhaps the mailman Jamie. However, when they saw their new guest, it was enough to make them both stop cold.

Two White Diamond Pearls, and Pearlis!

"... Uh. ..."

"Afternoon. My Diamond requested for you to come to Homeworld for a bit. She wants to see you," Pearlis informed. The news was out of nowhere to Steven and Amethyst, enough of a surprise to make Amethyst accidentally tumble off the second floor, down onto the couch with a loud thud.

"White Diamond? NOW?" Amethyst asked, lifting herself up.

"She's not still mad at us ... is she?" Steven asked, nervously. Pearlis looked to one of the White Pearls, which shook her head.

"No. Don't know why she wouldn't be," Pearlis answered. Still, both Crystal Gems gave a sigh of relief.

"Anyway, she wants you two to see her for a test royale at the latest convenience. Preferably when you don't have any of your own work to handle."

"We can go, sure! Thanks to STEVEN, he got SO MUCH done! Right Steven? You're so good at missions," Amethyst said, trying to still prove to Steven who was the worse Gem of the two. Steven glared slightly, but Pearlis went along with it.

"Then this should be fairly easy for you," Pearlis stated, before beginning to walk away, the other two Pearls waiting for Amethyst and Steven. It wasn't a monster match, but it was still something worth doing. The two glanced to eachother, when Steven finally decided.

"I ... I'll challenge you! I'll show you how bad I am!"

"YES! Let's do it!" Amethyst agreed, equally upset.

What they both said next only sealed it.

"MAY THE WORST GEM LOSE!!"

.......

"Did you hear that?" A sly voice asked from the nearby rocks. Soon, two snake heads of Acid and Cyanide popped out to see the situation, just seeing Amethyst and Steven go out to join Pearlis for this royale.

"A battle to prove who's the worst? Humans and Gems are such stupid creatures."

"Just as well. This could make our job a whole. Lot. Easier. Shall we?"

"We shall."

~~~~~~

"So, why're we going out to a boring library again?"

It didn't take long until Twilight got her friends together, and soon she, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, AJ, Spike, and Rainbow were following her along towards their destination. In this case, the group had just stopped at the next train station, as the destination seemed to require it. The place they stopped at, according to the sign, is the train station at Hollow Shades. The town was more secluded than others like Ponyville, and not as populated, but it still was a nice stop anyway.

"Rainbow, we should be able to get some sort of answer this way. If Mushussu really made that monster guide, then he must know what's going on back in Steven's world with these new creatures showing up," Twilight explained, trotting on ahead, looking at the directions to the library as she did.

"Well, hopefully we will find that library soon," Rarity said, trying her best not to get her hooves dirty from the moist ground under her. Hollow Shades, since it was so secluded most of the time, wasn't exactly the most sanitary of places. It didn't help they were in a thick forest town either. However, Pinkie Pie, being happy as she was to be there, hopped on ahead, getting some dirt splattered on Rarity's hooves.

"Pinkie Pie!" Rarity gasped, trying to clean her hooves of the excess mud.

"Oops," Pinkie said, using her tail to clean up the mud a lot faster, in a sort of feather duster-like fashion. Not called for, but it got the job done fairly fast.

"You two coming?" AJ called from further away. Rarity and Pinkie caught up with them, and Twilight and Spike were quite a bit ahead of the group.

"Hey, Twilight, you sure this Mushussu is even here?"

"That's what the directions say, Spike. Let's see now. ..."

Twilight stopped for a moment, and as the others caught up with her, Twilight looked around Hollow Shades for a bit more. Around her were a number of shacks, but not much to resemble a library that she would know about. She looked around a bit more, even hovering in the air to get a better view, but most of the places looked rather dull for the most part. She took one more look at the directions again, and another look around the town, until something managed to catch her eye that could be where she was looking for. Soon, the others were at the spot in question, which took them over to the far eastern end of Hollow Shades, almost out of town altogether. The place didn't appear like a building in particular, but more like a sort of giant caravan, wheels included on the sides, and looking at the draconic symbol at the top of the door it once belongs to dragons. However, the wheels looked too worn out to move the thing, and they could assume it was made into a library after it was left. Twilight looked it over one more time.

"This looks like the place," Twilight concluded. With that in mind, Twilight was the first to step up to the door, opening it up with a simple push of her hoof. Inside, the interior of the caravan had been strongly altered to suit the library and its owner. The size of the caravan left plenty of room for floors to be made, about three floors up, each one with plenty of books to read, different floors with different genres.

"Mushussu? You in here? I'm here!" Twilight called. If Mushussu was going to be anywhere, it would be here. However, suddenly, a loud thud echoed in the room, followed by a loud yelp. The Mane Six were quick to rush over towards the source of the noise. They got over to the back, and around the corner, they all suddenly saw a pile of books on the ground, and a lion tail sticking out of it. Looked like it just happened too, and soon a head popped out of the pile, a book being lifted up on his unicorn horn, eyes spinning in a daze.

"I thought I'm the only one," Spike commented, as Twilight helped with moving the books with her magic, moving them off of Mushussu. Not the most graceful way to make an introduction, but the sight of Mushussu made the others a little curious over him.

"Are you Mushussu?" Fluttershy asked.

"That's right. Nice of you all to come by. Interested in my guides, I presume?" Mushussu asked.

"Well, yeah, that. I do want to ask you a few questions though, if that's alright," Twilight said.

"Sure, sure. Right this way, I'll take you right to it," Mushussu said, starting to walk past them, and towards the stairs.

With that, the group then went off and followed Mushussu around the library. Following the librarian just reminded them just how much was actually in it. So much for a single librarian to handle. As they followed Mushussu, the ponies still had a bit of questions for him. The first one to start was Rarity, who trotted up to his side.

"I do have to say, Mushussu, you have quite a collection here. how did you manage?"

"Oh, traveling around a bit, some donations here and there. It's not easy getting the collection together," Mushussu explained, starting to reach another part of the library. Eventually, one part of the library shelves, one the third floor precisely, Mushussu stopped, lifted himself back on his hind legs, and began to pick out a few of the books for Twilight and company. He got about five different books down, each one slightly similar to the one he took back from Twilight's house.

"You wrote all these?"

"One of my personal favorite literary works. I'm still working on another one, but please, help yourselves to those. Just be careful with those pages, I've worked for years on those things," Mushussu advised.

"Will do, thank you," Twilight said. Mushussu went on to another part of the library, leaving the Mane six to their own.

~~~~~~

"Greetings, my Diamond. Your requested party has arrived," Pearlis announced.

After about half an hour, Amethyst and Steven both left Earth, and now were over on Homeworld. With some navigation, instead of being on White Diamond's station, Amethyst and Steven were brought to Yellow Diamond's throne room. Considering the latest events the Crystal Gems had with White Diamond, the two were a bit hesitant to actually face White Diamond by themselves, as they were guided to the center of the room by the two Pearls. Yellow Pearl was standing nearby, waving her hand to Steven with a small grin on her face. She only stopped that when the other Pearls stood beside her. Pearlis casually moved over by her diamond, as Yellow and White Diamond looked them both down. However, this was White Diamond's main idea, so she was the one who stepped forward to confront them both.

"Quartzes. Glad you two could make it," White Diamond began. Amethyst and Steven stayed quiet, but ready for whatever challenge White Diamond would have.

"Pearlis said you have something for us?"

"My test royale. Yes. ... Had either one of you considered yourselves special? Considering after your transformation between both of you, and a full human being, last time we met?" Like the two needed a reminder about THAT event again. As nice as it felt, it was the same time Jasper and Lapis basically went missing, so they were fifty-fifty on it.

"It's about time we see how "special" you two are," White decided. As she said that, she summoned her Gem halberd. For a moment, Amethyst and Steven freaked out. they barely managed to survive her before, and only then it was because of Lapis, so they don't stand a chance. However, White Diamond instead stabbed the ground in front of her, and made a full circle around the throne room. Yellow Diamond cringed on seeing her throne room getting this kind of treatment, as White Diamond finished up the barrier. Once that was done, White Diamond removed her halberd. As this was going on though, without anyone else seeing, two familiar adders slithered to a good, yet hidden perch to watch the fight.

"What're you doing to my throne room? I thought we're settling this outside," Yellow griped.

"I'm free to change my mind, same as you," White simply said, as she stepped outside of the ring. Not much Yellow Diamond could do now. Soon, Amethyst and Steven found themselves in a make-shift fighting ring. Not entirely complicated, but it would still prove their own points fairly well. Both sides got the idea.

"No holding back?" Amethyst asked, putting her hair back in a ponytail.

"No holding back!" Steven replied.

Angry, Amethyst went on to make the first move, starting off strong with a rapid roll attack straight for Steven. For Steven, all he did was do side-steps to avoid her. Amethyst tried over and over again to hit him, but it wasn't working. During the dash around though, Amethyst actually managed to tie Steven up in her whip, and soon Steven was on the ground in a tangled heap.

"Whoa. I did not see that coming! THAT WAS AMAZING!" Steven called.

"NO, IT'S NOT! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING AMAZING!" Amethyst called back, before sending a fiery whiplash straight towards Steven. In panic, Steven summoned up his bubble, not only getting himself out of it, but making Amethyst's whip disintegrate!

"That was amazing," Amethyst commented, summoning more whips. Amethyst got her whips around Steven's bubble shield, and began to swing him around to try and break it up. Steven kept it up for a bit, even after he was getting knocked into the ground, and even some of Yellow Diamond's walls. Suddenly, Steven stopped himself, when his shield ended up turning into a spiked ball!

"WHAT?! IS THAT NEW?! Because it's awesome," Amethyst growled.

"This is an accident! ACCIDENTS! AREN'T! AWESOME!" Steven shouted.

At this point, some of the crowd watching was getting a little confused. Fighters don't usually compliment eachother like it's a bad thing to say.

"Uh, I think they got it backwards," commented Pearlis. While White Diamond studied the fighting patterns more than what needed to be said, Yellow looked a little more into what they were arguing over than White was. ...

Soon, Amethyst pulled him out of the wall. Steven got the bubble shield off, and slammed Amethyst square in the back with a well placed kick. However, that pull also pulled out a part of the wall, which would've crushed Steven if Amethyst didn't whip it in two.

"INCREDIBLE!" Steven yelled.

"Wrong! ANYONE CAN DO THAT!" Amethyst screamed, charging back at Steven again. Steven had to jump back again, but this time Amethyst caught him in her whip mid air, swung him up high, and slammed him down hard! The impact crushed the floor, and Steven was left under a rubble. However, Steven had the strength still to break out, a stray giant rock almost crushing Amethyst.

"YOU SEE?! I threw you from the sky and you almost won, USEING A ROCK!" Amethyst screamed. This backwards argument was starting to get too off for the others, but the snakes saw this as a good opportunity. With a nod from Acid's head, Cyanide slithered away. ...

Steven managed to pull himself out of the hole, tired and bruised up but still trying to prove his point to Amethyst in some way.

"You ... you can totally beat me. You're not even trying," Steven groaned through strained breath, as he got himself out.

"I. Am. Too," Amethyst groaned, as she tried to lift the large piece of YD's wall to throw back. However, both sides were getting rather winded, and while Steven failed to get some bit of floor to throw back, Amethyst couldn't lift her ammo at all. During this, Cyanide slithered into position, just inches away from a quick bite. ...

"I guess we're too good to be bad fighters," Steven finally admitted, exhausted.

"That's what you think." Amethyst said, also exhausted.

"What does that even mean?"

"I don't even know!"

Yellow Diamond had enough. Without White's order, she rushed in, and her sword cut down right in between the two rebellious fighters, stopping the fight right then and there. It was enough to stop them both right away, and for Cyanide to cower behind the rubble to avoid getting spotted. as they both looked up to Yellow.

"Yellow Diamond, no one told you to intervene."

"THEY'RE WRECKING MY PALACE, WHITE!" Yellow yelled, cross as ever. White Diamond looked around the wrecked throne room. The walls were cracked, the floor dented, and rubble laid everywhere.

"So they did," White sighed. Snapping her fingers, her Pearls immediately began to repair the throne room, as White Diamond herself went over to them. She got enough of her information from the fight anyway, even if it was rather unorthodox. Rather than answering them, White Diamond turned to Pearlis.

"Pearlis. Did you happen to hear anything in particular on your route back?" White asked.

"Well, the Rose Quartz and Amethyst did proclaim ... may the worst Gem lose. Apparently neither can decide who's better than the other," Seemed at least one of them got what was actually going on. Yellow Diamond removed her sword so Amethyst and Steven weren't split up.

"What is exactly going on here? Apparently you two don't know how to insult correctly," Yellow Diamond asked, obviously upset over the damage in her palace. Steven decided to just let it out. Not a good idea to lie in front of Homeworld's Diamond.

"I'm not insulting her, I'm trying to help her!" Steven said.

"Help me with what? It's clear I'm the worst Gem, stop trying to make me feel better!" Amethyst yelled. Steven wand Amethyst readied for one more punch, just to have both sides miss, and fall to the floor. Yellow Diamond decided to get it through their heads first, with permission from White Diamond of course.

"That is indeed true. When it comes to comparing both quartzes, Rose Quartz are considered more superior than Amethysts."

"But that's not -"

Yellow quieted Steven with a snap of her fingers in Steven's face. This allowed her to speak again.

"Let's look at the facts for a bit. Rose Quartzes, as a race of Gems, are part of the healing group of Gems. They can heal Gems in various ways, have a strong sense of protection, have varying abilities to reflect as you've seen, and before particular events, were in charge of Zoo maintenance. And as for Amethysts, they're in the barbarian group. Gems that are released in the field to simply run wild without exact orders given to them. Tell me which one is "better"," Yellow Diamond explained. It obvious wasn't helping, and apparently she wasn't trying to.

"... So, my kind's worse? It's not just me? ..."

"Correct. If you have anything though, you at least have a Gem weapon. Amethysts aren't significant enough to have any at all, let alone a whip," Yellow Diamond admitted, though it honestly didn't help all too much, in fact Amethyst felt worse. Bad enough she sucks as an individual, but the fact she sucks as a species? If that was the case, what did that make her - a runt of an Amethyst soldier? Then again, this was just comparing her to Steven, but still. ...

"... You could've buttered it up a little ..."

"Pardon?" Yellow questioned.

"Y-You heard me! Do you have any sense of tact?!" Amethyst snapped. Yellow Diamond summoned her sword, and almost poofed Amethyst on the spot with one swing! White Diamond was admittedly pleased to see Yellow Diamond come to senses (or at least, her senses)

"... White Diamond has her information. You can go now," Yellow finished. Not under command, but White Diamond allowed her this time. Amethyst, feeling defeated and ashamed about it, then went off to leave with Steven. ...

~~~~~~

Reading through the books, Twilight Sparkle and company were doing a pretty good job in learning about these monsters through many of Mushussu's guides. Twilight alone had gone through about five of them, each one speaking about all sorts of creatures, nine times outta ten about creatures not found in Equestria. For Twilight, this was pure gold! After seeing plenty of these odd creatures, including a thunderbird, a arctic worm beast, and the recent giant bird near Darastrix, this could help them A TON! Although Twilight was pretty deep in the books, not all of them were exactly as interested in it as she was.

"Can't we do something else now?" Rainbow asked.

"You don't have to stay if you don't want to," Twilight said. But Rainbow didn't leave. She's still her friend, and she might as well stick around with her ... as much as she was bored. As they were waiting, some of the ponies did decide to wander around a bit. They didn't go too far, and checked out different parts of the library and what each books had to offer. Fluttershy stuck around with Twilight and reading through the monster observation guides, AJ went off to check some cookbooks alongside Pinkie, and Rarity went around to see if any stylish books were around for some inspiration. During her wandering around, Rarity and Pinkie Pie caught sight of something hanging off the wall, something they missed when stepping in from the entrance. Much like how Steven had a Rose Quartz picture above his front door, this place had a sort of snake-like creature, wings curled around the frame, and staring down with reptilian eyes. The color of the wings was what enticed Rarity to observe, feeling inspired just from seeing that alone.

"See you like the artwork."

Rarity turned her head to see Mushussu walking back out from one of the sections.

"It is quite marvelous. The contrast in colors, the way the feathers almost glow in the painting, the lighting off the eyes. Really brings out the mystical nature," Rarity said, bringing out her sort of fashionista nature to speak of the painting. Mushussu felt pretty happy about it.

"Know what you mean. Took the painter five hours just to get the wings right," Mushussu said.

"I'd imagine. I'd love to know what artist made this. I could give her credit for such design when I cooperate it to my own fashion line-up, and give her a dress for her troubles," Rarity said, imagining the designs that could come from this, as any fashion designer would. Mushussu sat down, glancing at the painting first before turning to Rarity.

"Well, I could. But, I dunno if you'll believe me," Mushussu said, a little sheepishly like what Fluttershy would act like.

"How so? I've done long-distance customers before."

"Well ... they're not exactly of this world ..."

"Oh, is that all?" Rarity asked. Now it was Mushussu who looked puzzled.

"You're not confused, miss?"

"Not exactly. Some of my close friends aren't of this world either, so, me and my friends had some experience with it," Rarity explained, referring to the Germs and Humans back on Earth and Homeworld. Mushussu didn't expect as such, but wasn't as surprised as one would normally be.

"I see. Well -"

"Oh! Wait, I'll be right back," Pinkie said, bolting off. Suddenly, she raced back with Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Spike, and Fluttershy. Any revelations might as well have a crowd.

"Warning next time, Pinkie Pie," AJ commented. Mushussu was a little quiet, but got his mind on the right path.

"... Well, you were saying something about your friends?" Rarity said, getting herself together. Mushussu looked back to the portrait on the wall, which the others did notice.

"Eh, yeah, right. You know how you know otherworldly beings, like the Gems, Twilight?" Mushussu started.

"That's right. Do you have any Gems as friends too?"

"No. No. I mean that ... I'm ... kind of from another dimension ... heh ..."

Silence. Mushussu stayed a little quiet, embarrassed slightly, but thankfully the silence was broken by the pink mare.

"GASP! ANOTHER DIMENSION?! Which world? Where? what's it like? how'd you get here? IS THERE CHOCOLATE RAIN CLOUDS AND OR GIANT BUNNIES?!"

"Pinkie, calm down," AJ said, pulling the curious pink mare back.

"What? It could be anything where he's from!" Retorted Pinkie Pie.

"It's ok, it's ok. But, to tell you the truth, I don't visit my homeworld all too often. Most of the time I'm going around place to place to study and add to my books. Equestria's just one of them," Mushussu explained, a little more comfortable about the subject now that he's more aware of the crowd he's with.

"So you don't remember your own world?" questioned Rainbow.

"No, I do I do. Just a bit hazy that's all. I still know the main details of it."

"Including the picture," Rarity figured, a hoof aimed to the portrait. All Mushussu did was nod.

"That picture represents Quetzalcoatl."

"Quetzal-what-now?" Pinkie questioned, head tilted.

"Well, this world has the Alicorns. The Gem's Homeworld has the Diamonds. Mine has the feathered serpents like Quetzalcoatl," Mushussu summed up, which got the point across well enough for them. This Quetzalcoatl seemed rather interesting, but Twilight decided to get to the point she tried to get to all day, as she levitated the book to show Mushussu.

"Ok, look. I want to ask you about the guides here - why I wanted to come in the first place."

"Oh? What's that?"

"These monsters, look. I've seen these - we've seen these in the Earth Gems are on. But, none of these showed up until recently. So, how did you write THIS much down about them? Do you know where they're coming from?" Twilight asked. During her talk, Twilight opened the pages to the monsters they've come across: the Thunderbird, the Remorhaz, and the giant bird from Darastrix. Mushussu looked to the creatures in question, and thinking about what she was saying before connecting the dots.

"OOHHH ... So you're world's matching too, huh?"

"Matching? Matching what?" Spike asked.

"Dimension rules!" Mushussu revealed.

"... Dimension rules?"

"See, I came across one dimension where not only did Earth and Equestria met, but also when these creatures came around WAY LONG before this one did. Not saying this world's an exact copy of it, but it's worth mentioning since it looks like it's following a similar direction according to these animal sightings here. You know, following similar dimensional rules. It's how I got these beasts so early on, not to mention all the other stuff. I'm a dimensional jumping studier!" Mushussu said, full of pride. This news excited some of the ponies a little more. The idea there's a dimension that their worlds met long before theirs did already.

"Did their Gem homeworld get reunited as this did?"

"Well, I don't know, I don't think so. I didn't see the similar Warp Pad, or anything like that, so I think yours had more luck than theirs did. ... It's funny like that - you don't know what you'll truly come across," Mushussu explained, as best he could really. Twilight Sparkle wondered a bit as she looked down to the book again.

"Mushussu? You wouldn't mind if we kept this, would you?"

"That one in particular? Good option for your scenario, but no. I can give you a copy for ten bits though," Mushussu offered.

"... You prefer an I.O.U.?"

"Rainbow," Rarity hissed, before trotting out. She had a few bits, but just shy of two. Mushussu tested the bits with the old 'bite' technique, and found them genuine.

"Hmm ... Alright, close enough. I appreciate your business, I'll be right back," Mushussu said, running off for a bit. It took only a short minute, but he soon came right on back with another copy of the genuine book. Nice copy, good in condition, and something that can help them out in future. This could work out wonderfully for everyone.

"Thank you very much, Mushussu. Come on everypony, we're good here," Twilight decided.

"About time," Rainbow spat out, flying right out the door. She wasn't sticking around any longer, and the others, including Mushussu, understood why for a pony like her. The others began to head off on their way, as Mushussu grabbed the authentic book. The mane six have their monster guide for the future, and now get the idea on what's going on here. Great news for them, really.

"Thank you, come again."

Lion of the Jungle

View Online

Late at night. The Temple. It was a rather clear night over along the night beach, full moon brightening up the night sky and sea, and just out on the porch of the Beach House, Lion was already fast asleep. He'd been doing his own thing for pretty much a long while, ever since Steven and Amethyst had went off on their way since their last visit back to the Temple, and he'd been handling himself fairly well. Without the ponies, Gems, and humans to come around lately, it'd just been him and his own mind ... well, him and Blue anyway. Blue had been hanging out with Lion for quite a while, being the other animal the Gem dog can hang about with when Steven wasn't around, and Lion really didn't mind that too much out of him. Here, Blue was asleep himself, just across from Lion on the porch as well. While Blue was sleeping soundly, Lion was actually beginning to stir just a little bit, shifting his position over and over again as growls escaped his closed mouth. At first, it wasn't really bad, and it wasn't loud enough to really wake anyone up, but as time went by, the growls turned to snarls, and Lion's paws started to move a little bit. It was here when Lion eventually pushed himself along the floor, his laws occasionally pulling against the fence to move him along until Lion ended up tumbling down the porch stairs. It wasn't enough to wake Blue, but Lion did bolt up to his paws after that, looking around and seeing where he was. He was still at the Beach House, still with Blue.

Still safe.

Lion looked back over to the Beach House, seeing Blue still fast asleep, the dog laying on his back, and not even remotely waking up from Lion's tumble. The pink cat looked off out to the open ocean for a moment, seeing the calm waters along the coastline. There wasn't very much sound apart from the waves scraping the shore by Lion's paws, giving the big cat some time to think a little bit. As the cat continued to stare off to the ocean, his eyes narrowed into a determined, almost angry glare, as Lion's paws tensed up. With a growl escaping his muzzle, he suddenly started running off over the water. Lion's own magical properties had him stay above water, and running over water like it was land. As he continued running, he gave a mighty roar to summon up a portal for him. That roar was enough to finally wake up Blue with a startle, and the Gem dog looked out just enough to see Lion jump through the portal, and disappear. Blue got up onto his own paws on seeing this, wondering why, or where Lion was actually going. It wasn't exactly anything new for Lion to just wander off this way, and Blue just simply settled down to sleep again, not thinking too much on what Lion was up to. ...

.......

Lion's fly through his own portal didn't last for too long, but longer than your typical teleportation Warp Pad. This great cat kept up his flying until he landed down on the end of the road, skidding to a stop. The land he ended up now was WAY far away from any sort of human activity. His paws scraped the fresh, life-filled earth from under him, and he was surrounded by strong, healthy trees, bushes, and all sorts of flora. It was still night time, the moonlight making the shadows dance around him in the night breeze. It may be a lovely sight, for sure, but Lion was more focused on something else rather than just sightseeing the land he arrived in. Instead, after getting his barring together, he began to run.

Run he did.

His mind was on point, and he knew exactly where he was going that night. Each stride he made was one closer to his destination. None of the flora, rocks, or hills even slowed him down, anything too big knocked out of the way with a well-aimed roar. He wasn't going to stop, not now. The roars echoed all over the jungle, some of the local animals waking up to see the pink feline race by. Some saw him from the trees, some from burrows in the ground. Regardless of where, the jungle became more and more aware of the feline running through. It didn't take too long until the thick jungle began to break away until more opened plains and savannah, the grass swaying in the breeze. It was at this point that Lion began to slow down to a trot, and then stopped altogether, looking around the plains. The open savannah may be mostly grass, but a Baobab tree grew up from the ground, much like a lone tower. to the west of there, from what Lion could see, appeared to be a sort of outcrop, and hills. Lion's teeth began to slowly bare, a low growl admitting from within him.

This was it. This is the place.

Now finding the location, Lion started to march on towards the outcrop. This driving force kept him moving forward, a look of anger on his muzzle and eyes as he moved in. Each step closed the large gap between targets, and Lion could feel the wind brush against his back. During this march of his, he began to get a few sniffs from the air. The scent is a strong one, mixing of the grass plains and some herbivores, but one smell amongst it was too familiar to his own to ignore.

And it was closing in on him.

*ROAR*

Then it arrived. Lion's claws dug into the earth, ready to face the opponent coming in from the north. As some clouds moved away from the moonlight, it revealed another creature to challenge Lion. In fact, this was in fact another wild cat, and one that looked just as threatening as Lion. To be exact, it was actually another large Lion. Its silver coat almost glowed in the darkness, triple claw mark scars on his head, aiming towards his left eye. This was a warrior, and one of strong battles in the past no doubt. For Lion, this one did not relent on the sight of the large cat, and even gave a roar of his own. Lion made sure to give a power-filled roar, aiming upwards just above the other Lion to show he meant business, but this brave feline did not waver either. In fact, the roar just triggered it to bring out its surprisingly large claws, large even for his kind to have.

The silver lion, and pink lion both began their dance, circling eachother, and not taking their eyes off one another. Lion showed no fear, teeth barred, and claws out. This circling kept up for about a minute, each one not willing to back down by the look of things. Lion kept trying to look for an opening, but it was the silver lion who went first, and charged at him. Lion met the competitor head on, and the two collided with great force. The strike immediately came with claws, the pink feline getting his claws into him time and again. Each hit both felines made was strong, and full of power, and weakening them more and more as time went on. For Lion, he began to feel tired continuing on, and the silver lion was quick to notice this. All that running from his previous location did not help in his energy. It was here the tables began to turn on Lion, the silver warrior making a good ram, and making Lion topple over. The silver lion jumped on top of him, and he gave Lion a good bite right on his stomach. Lion wailed in pain, and managed to whack the silver lion off of him. Once he got enough distance, the pink Lion roared directly at his opponent, but the silver lion hunkered down from the strong blasts, therefore staying put. This cat knew what was up with the pink cat. This roar, once finished, left Lion wide open, and the silver Lion charged him, whacking him right in the face! The momentum did aid Lion a bit, his front paw given more of a swing, and knocking the silver lion too the ground. Now it was time for Lion to deliver his own bite, but the silver Lion was prepared for it, and made a very strong back kick, sending Lion flying! Lion fell down hard on the ground, and before he could even shake himself off, the silver lion rushed him, landing right on Lion's head with all his weight in his front paws. That hit did its toll, and the fight made Lion grow hard to just stay standing.

A bad time to turn fragile.

Both lions roared to eachother once more, before they both began running at one another. However, Lion moved just a little slower, and the silver lion rammed just hard enough to send Lion falling onto his back hard. This time, the head ram done Lion in, and it was just strong enough to keep Lion down. Lion got himself onto his stomach, but he was too tired to keep up the fight for much longer. The silver lion marched right up to his opponent, Lion growling up a storm as he neared him. Lion knew he couldn't keep this fight up, so he gave a roar once more, and just managed to make a portal wide open. Before he could get himself in, the silver lion grabbed him by the flank, lifted him up, and thrashed him around for a bit before the silver beast tossed Lion's weak body right through the portal like trash.

Lion tumbled and tossed around inside his own portal, not even getting himself straightened out. He can't! All he could do was brace for impact, as the portal opened itself up again at the end. Lion didn't exactly specify where the end was going to be, so it was anyone's guess on where the portal would lead him. Soon, Lion did hit ground. But rather than his graceful skid on his paws, it was a head-over-heels spin around for a good twenty feet, before his body crashed into a sort of side wall. Not enough to break it, but enough to cause even more damage to the cat. Where he ended up, he couldn't figure out in time, before he passed out. ...

~~~~~~

"Hey. ... Lion? ... Lion, you ok? ..."

Lion took a while to get himself together, but he did eventually figure out what had happened to him. He found himself inside somewhere, his body bandaged up from his beat up. It took a bit, but while his eyes took a while, his sense of smell made him realize who was with him first: Fluttershy! Strange to see, but, apparently his desperate portal made him end up stuck in Fluttershy's cottage, the large cat laying on Fluttershy's sofa. He could barely recall much after the crash, but he was for sure it was not exactly inside somewhere. Fluttershy must've brought him in after finding him outside. Lion groaned a little bit, gnawing on his bandages when Fluttershy stopped him.

"No, no, don't do that. You won't get better that way. Here, you hungry?" Fluttershy said, flying over to her pantry, and pulling out some catfood. It wasn't very much, nor is it any actual prey, but food is food, after all. Lion managed to lean down, and ate up his breakfast, Fluttershy looking on with a smile. The Pegasus began to go around, and check in on the other pets. The sight of a giant lion inside Fluttershy's cottage was a bit too much for some of them, and they went off into hiding a little bit, especially for the birds in the birdhouses. Seeing Fluttershy though helped them out with that. As Fluttershy was tending to the other pets, they heard the sound of her mailbox opening and closing. After a quick feeding of her birds, Fluttershy trotted on outside to check her mailbox, just to see Derpy Hooves mail mare wave to her before flying off on her route. For the letter, it wasn't too much apart from usual things, until she found a letter that seemed to be from Twilight Sparkle. A quick read over, and fluttershy realized what was going on.

"Oh dear. Right now? ... Oh. Angel?"

Soon, a white rabbit woke up from his bed, and hopped over to Fluttershy again.

"I'm going to be out for a while. You think you can watch Lion for me? Pretty please?" Fluttershy asked, politely. Angel looked over to Lion, who was still trying to get the bandages off with his teeth. Angel figured he had a big job, so he hopped away, and hopped back with a large metal spoon, giving a salute to Fluttershy as confirming. After that, Fluttershy thanked Angel, and flew off on her way. Lion still kept trying to get the bandages off, but only to have Angel hop up to him, and whack his head with his metal spoon. It got him to stop, but Lion did not want to stay around here. He had a fight to win, and he can't win it if he's just going to stay stuck here like this. It may be nice for Fluttershy to bandage him up, but still. Angel bunny wasn't having it though, and stayed guarded at the door, as if on some sort of mini guard.

He wasn't serious?

Lion started to stumble up to his paws, a bit limply on one, but still on all paws. The Lion began heading for the door, but Angel got his spoon ready, and tried to keep Lion from getting out. Each step Lion tried for the door, Angel would whack him with his spoon. Not too painful, but still annoying. Lion tried another ten times, but angel still kept at it for a while longer. Eventually, Lion was no longer having it with this stubborn, and be it, annoying rabbit. So, after the constant interruptions, Lion grabbed the rabbit by his ears, lifting the struggling creature out of the way. Angel tried his best to get himself loose, but Lion dropped him down inside a nearby jar. Belived that he handled Angel (as if), Lion then went right on out the door, and over outside. Angel popped out of the jar just in time to see Lion leave, and tumbled out of the jar to reach him. He fell down with the jar, but he was quick to hop off after Lion. Not a moment too soon: Lion was making a portal again! Keeping one paw hovering up a little bit, Lion began to run at the portal, Angel racing off after the big crazy cat.

Angel bolted at Lion, and got a hold of Lion's tail just before Lion made his jump through.

.......

It was straight back to the savannah now, and while it was less graceful than before, Lion got there with little effort. It was daytime now, and many animals were more active at this point. Angel needed a minute to get himself together, falling down onto the ground, only then Lion noticing his little hitchhiker with him. He did NOT want anyone else to get dragged along into his business, and gave a quick growl snap at Angel for following him. Angel didn't know what to do now, but he still tried to get Lion to turn around somehow, gripping back at him. All Lion did was snort at the rabbit, before he tried to tear off his bandages again. This time, he succeeded in tearing off the bandages around his paw, and he even stomped on it! It hurt, of course, but Lion was getting it out now before going off on his way. Angel was ticked off, but being alone out in Earth's savannah made the bunny a little antsy, and it didn't want long until Angel was up and running up to Lion again. He didn't know where in Equestria he was at, if it even was Equestria. Lion stopped when he felt Angel touch his back leg, and he knew right there that this rabbit wasn't going anywhere, anytime soon.

*ROAARR*

Lion bellowed his roar to signify his presence to all who lived in the plains, Angel jumping in surprise on the pure sound alone. The roar was good enough to send some birds scattering from the trees, and some nearby Deer stop and turn their heads at the noise. When that was done, they began to hear another creature come in towards them, and when looking, they both saw a familiar lion catch sight of them. The prime feline wasn't paying much attention to them at first, having already finishing a hunt earlier today. Judging by the feathers around its mouth, the hunt was of ostrich. Lion growled a little bit, and began heading up right to the white lion. It wasn't until Lion was about five feet away that the feline noticed Lion. Angel kept by Lion, but not too close in case the lion were to notice him. Then Silver Lion growled at Lion, mainly to keep him away from its food, but Lion was more focused on the lion more than the ostrich. Seeing Lion and his injuries though, Silver Lion wasn't taking Lion as seriously as last night, and took another bite of its bird meat.

Lion will not be denied!

In a fit of rage, Lion smashed right into Silver Lion, and soon it was a horrifying scuffle between the two. Lion had the upper advantage here, not only with his opponent on the ground, but most of Silver Lion's scratches just scraping his thick mane. Angel hid away behind the grass during the entire scuffle, only hearing growls, roars, scratching and biting from the fight going on just a foot away. The lion kicked Lion back, and then did it jump at him, claws digging into Lion's hide. Angel had just enough nerve to at least look at the results, and suddenly Lion was down on the ground again. Strange though - a portal was suddenly made already, but this one wasn't the usual pink color Lion had made. where'd it come from? ...

Silver Lion, not wanting any chances this time, finished off Lion with a powerful slam of its paw. It didn't kill Lion, but it was enough to knock the big cat out on the spot. Angel watched from the grass, but he had to come out when the tiger began to drag Lion towards the portal, much like earlier except without the struggle. Angel was supposed to watch over Lion, not let him get beat up like this. Soon, the bunny began to pluck up courage, and marched right out to confront Silver Lion. Angel yanked on Silver Lion's tail, and when the cat turned around, all it got was a battle-ready bunny standing there. Of course, the lion was not interested in this little scrap, since meat was already on the ground for it. Angel got into a boxer-stance, ready to beat the tiger out, but all the lion did was grab Angel, and tossed him into the portal along with Lion! Angel was tossed about in the portal for a bit, but Lion ended up running right into him. Luckily the rabbit gripped hard on Lion's mane, as they both tumbled through the warp.

Didn't take long until they landed. As for where they landed. ...

Right at the barn! The crash was just hard enough to smash a hole in the side of the barn, and this obvious crash did not go unnoticed.

"What the?! Lion!"

The Crystal Gems. They were still working on the drill, and working very close to finishing it up, but when Lion crashed in, everything on their side seemed to stop on a dime. The Gems there for the moment were Garnet, Bismuth, Flint, and Jade. Angel, dazed by the tumble, ended up stumbling out of Lion's mane, landing just at Jade's feet.

"Oh dear," Jade gasped, holding Angel in her arms, as the others looked to Lion. His bandages were all torn away, and whatever was left was just white rags. Seeing how Lion was knocked out, and his injuries all over him, it was clear Lion was fighting something before he landed down at their feet.

"He's looking beat up," Bismuth said, kneeling down by Lion's head. Unlike before, Lion began to come to a lot quicker. Angel got himself up straight, and hopped out of Jade's arms, going right to Lion. The big cat, for one, was not waking up, and he won't be for a while yet.

"Don't worry, he's just unconscious. Better keep him here," Garnet decided.

~~~~~~

Lion was left quiet, humbled, and not moving for a while after. The big cat didn't see much of anything for a while at first, but he eventually began to slowly come back to. He would've stayed out a bit longer if his face wasn't getting licked by a familiar pup. The scent and sound was easily identified by the large cat, and once his eyes came around, Blue was standing there, ears folded back, and whimpering. Blue found out what had happened while Lion was at the barn thanks to Angel bunny, and it didn't take the Gem dog long before he got there. Lion lifted his head, and saw that while Angel and Blue were with him, the other Gems were working on the drill, which was close to completion at this point despite the setback. Lion was humiliated - AGAIN! By the same cat! A low growl emitted from the cat on reality of the situation, which was caught by some of the nearby Gems.

"Nice you came back," Garnet said, catching Lion's attention. Course, Garnet knew he'll come back around eventually. The only one who didn't stop was Flint, deep into fixing up the drill for the attack on the Cluster. He didn't have any time to check on some cat. For Lion, this was getting annoying on his mission, but this time he knew he wasn't going to be getting away from anyone. He got away earlier from Angel, but he can't lift and move large Gems like this, especially in his rough state.

"You better stay put, Lion." Garnet said, but Lion just wasn't listening to her. He at least tried to get himself up, but all Garnet did was place a firm hand on Lion to keep him down.

"Not a good idea. You may want to settle things, but it's best for you to just stay here and heal," Garnet said, rubbing him gently before she went to join the others. Lion just laid there after that, though he knew that Tiger was still roaming out there, and he wanted to settle the score with that feline one way or another. He couldn't do that now though, his body just not ready for that just yet. so, with the sound of workshop nearby, and with Angel and Blue now watching over him, Lion settled down by the barn fence, and just started to sleep. ...

*grrrrr*

No. No, not Silver Lion, not now!

Lion was up and awake again, barely even a minute of sleep for the feline fighter. That growl was all too familiar to not just him, but to Angel as well, whos ears were up and at attention, twitching at the slightest sound. Blue heard it too, but was more curious about the growling. Eventually, Lion managed to pinpoint the source thanks to the smell. Suddenly, Angel was standing in between them and Lion, trying to tell them something. Non of them seemed to pay him much mind, which was flat out annoying to the white rabbit. He made sure to make his appearance known though with a good whistle. The other Gems turned to the frantic rabbit, who was hopping in place, and pointing like mad to the direction of the source.

"What's with the rabbit?" Bismuth questioned.

"Something wrong?" Jade asked. Angel nodded fast, pointing again. When they were looking though, the other Gems didn't really see anything amidst. Suddenly it was a game of charades: Angel bent his ears in small circles on the side of his head, straightened his whiskers evenly, and put his arms like sharp fangs on each side of his mouth. He then did a few good hisses (good as a rabbit can do), before pointing again.

"We don't have time for this. Come on, we're so close, let's finish this up," Flint instructed, not wanting to waste any time with this. But they didn't had time to finish up, according to Angel. Blue began to sense the danger too, and hid behind Lion, who stayed put. Angel's ears fell back, the rabbit bemused about the response. After he brought his front paw to his forehead, Angel had the nerve to hop right up to Flint, jump on his head, and tried to force him to see.

"HEY, get off!" Flint yelled, grabbing the rabbit, and tossing him. Angel tumbled back to the ground, a little further away from the others. Yeah, obviously some Gems were not going to listen to him just from charade alone, so angel went for a more direct approach. Finding a good sized rock on the ground, angel got their attention with a strong whistle again. Soon after Angel was sure they were looking, he chucked the rock, and ...

*bonk* *ROAR!*

Not safe, but blunt. They all knew Lion didn't roar, as he was laying in plain sight just a foot away. What Angel didn't count for was Silver Lion charging out of its hiding place! Angel, freaked out, turned and bolted towards the others. If waited for a few more seconds, and Silver Lion would've crushed him under paw. But now, the large white feline was exposed, and stood aggressively at attention to the rest of the group. Looks like this cat was not going to wait for Lion to show up this time. Lion growled, but Silver Lion knew just by looking at him how weak he got to being, and a good roar his way silenced the big cat.

"So that's it," Garnet finally thought, before stepping in between Lion and Silver Lion. The other cat though had just one target, and Lion knew exactly who that was. It charged forward at Garnet, the fusion ready to fight the angry feline. Silver Lion tried to slip by, but Garnet grabbed it by the flank, and threw it away. The feline was easily sent flying in the air, but surprisingly it got landing on all four paws. A bit rough on landing, but it still was not willing to back off even after the toss. Lion got up to his paws after a bit, as Silver Lion began to walk over, its claws digging into the dirt in front of it.

"Lion, stay down. Let me handle this," Garnet said, sensing Lion getting up. The feline though was not going to let her fight his battle for him, so rather than comply, he moved up to Garnet's side. Silver Lion saw this, and gave a few good, quick roars that almost sounded like a mock-filled laugh. Lion wasn't REALLY going to fight him after getting beaten down twice now. Garnet and Silver Lion met head on, and soon it was fusion vs. nature. ...

The fight between them didn't last too long.

Silver Lion got some good claw strikes, but each punch Garnet made onto him sent the cat flying. Honestly, it wasn't as bad as Garnet first thought it would be but at least it kept Lion out of trouble. Silver Lion did not expect such a powerful adversary to protect Lion, but it began to see this as Lion hiding, rather than a dangerous threat to it. Lion had just about enough of this: he went right up, and managed to shove Garnet aside to confront Silver Lion. He wasn't going to let some other Gem win his fight for him - not this one. However, another figure soon ran in between Lion and Silver Lion: Blue! Much like a dog, Blue barked and yelped like mad, hoping to drive it away, but the big cat wasn't so easily spooked. In fact, the feline began to march ahead, right to Lion, and ignoring blue almost completely. Blue rushed in front, but Silver Lion didn't even flinch, and continued walking. Blue was humbled now, and started to back up until his tail touched Lion. The big cat grabbed Blue and threw him aside, the dog landing on Garnet. They prepared to go in, but Lion growled loudly, and glared at them ... slowly shaking his head ...

It was not their fight.

Unfortunately for Lion, Silver Lion was easily on top of him. Both lions went at eachother like mad for a full minute, scratching, biting, hissing, and roaring ringing out in the tussle. However, while Garnet did indeed weaken Silver Lion, Lion was still very much weaker than his opponent, and Silver Lion quickly got him down on the ground. The fight got the Gem's attention, even Flint after a while, and even with Lion not wanting them to get involved in the fight, Bismuth charged in anyway. Her hand turning into a hammer, she swung it straight for Silver Lion, just for the white feline to dodge it in a quick duck. Lion roared angrily, but Silver Lion rushed back at Bismuth before Lion could do anything. Bismuth wasn't too hurt by the strike, and Silver Lion ended up being thrown straight into the barn house. Lion had finally had enough of the Gems constantly interfering, even if it was helping him out.

*ROOOOAAAARRR!*

A roar that shook the ground, everyone around him stopped, even Silver Tiger. If growls and roars weren't going to get to them, then a physical one might. It was a basic one, but Lion locked eyes with Tiger, who was still in the barn. So, Lion went straight inside the barn, and slammed the door shut behind him. He had enough knowledge to even lock the door from inside, so they wouldn't come in. A weak way to do it, but it got the point across a lot clearer this time. Now it was Lion and Silver Lion inside the barn. Silver Lion growled harshly, the hit taking a bit of a toll on its back leg by the way it was standing. Considering Lion was a bit beat up himself, things finally seemed more evened out. Lion and Silver Lion stood still for a bit more at first, staring eachother down for weaknesses on them. Lion was weak in the back, but now Silver Lion was a bit feeble in the back legs - bad in battle. both sides passed growls and roars to eachother, as if talking to one another, until eventually both nodded.

Then their fight started up again.

Both cats moved right in for eachother, but in more of a trot rather than a run, immediately getting a grip on eachother. Both Lion and Silver Lion got eachother biting down hard by their snouts, swatting at eachother with their front paws, as they spun around back and forth. The fight wasn't as tense or crazy as the last two times, but damage was still being dealt onto them with each bite and swipe. It was all about who was going to give in first. All the roars were being heard from outside, the crowd wondering if they should get involved or not after that act earlier. Blue and Angel tried to open up the door, but Garnet suddenly moved them both away. She figured out what Lion was really wanting to do. ...

After a while, the fighting began to quiet down. ...

"... Lion?" Jade quietly said.

Suddenly, the door unlocked, and swung open, just to reveal Lion tossing Silver Lion outside. He was still alive, but beaten down to a pulp. Didn't mean Lion wasn't beaten up himself, but he still had just enough energy to stand on the contrary to Silver Lion. The victor went over to Lion, a notable limp in his front paw. Silver Lion barely got itself up to its own paws, but Lion towered over it, staring it down. Silver Lion growled at Lion, but it was clear that it was hurting, and unlike Lion, wasn't given too much time to heal up from past wounds. Silver Lion still gave a swipe at Lion, but stumbled over its injured leg. Lion didn't even waver, and allowed the reality of the situation to sink in. ...

Soon, Lion turned, and with a good roar, opened another portal. But instead of jumping in himself, he waited for Silver Lion to get up to leave. It growled a little bit, but didn't try to attack this time, and soon the big cat limped through the portal.

To the victor.

.......

"This was interesting. A little bit anti-climatic for my tastes. Intriguing, that silver cat - sure got Lion's fur in knots after his little sleep scare."

"True, true. Wish we could say it was our trick, but, sometimes the universe gives you a pass, doesn't it? ... Still, I'm curious as to that Pearl and Peridot. Not seen them ever since that mask excursion."

"Your guess is as good as mine, but I'd guess the Pearl's gone into hiding by now. Such a delightfully shocked face after Flint's own brand of 'discipline'."

"Yes. Now, shall we go check in on the local residents. I think we're ready for some higher authority, don't you think?"

"Let's do that."

The Old Warrior

View Online

"Are we there yet?"

"The last ten times you said that, it was no. but this time, it's actually yes."

It took a while for the group to actually get to their next destination, but with some effort, Steven, Connie, Amethyst and the Mane Six had reached their next stop according to their monster hunting list. Their hunting had slowed down just a little bit, but they were back in action. The area they were in now looked more like an open plain, not too far from Beach City according to this one. However, by the time they did get there, it was just too late for them to do too much, so the group had to set up camp for the night. Many of the group were up for this task here, but as they were getting things settled, Amethyst just didn't seem up for ... anything, honestly. Her visit with White diamond obviously didn't help her AT ALL. As Amethyst sulked, the rest began to unravel some sleeping bags they brought along for their trip, and it was during this, that one of the ponies saw Amethyst bummed out.

"You ok, sugarcube?" AJ asked, sitting down next to her.

"I'm fine," Amethyst simply said, not looking at her, as she rolled out her own sleeping bag. Applejack knew Amethyst long enough to know that it wasn't true.

"Come on, Ame, it's me."

"Yeah, so?" Amethyst groaned. The others were beginning to notice Amethyst and her griping. Steven knew exactly what was the problem here, but the others weren't too sure.

"Here, Amethyst. Turn that grumpy frown upside-down," Pinkie insisted, bringing her hooves up to Amethyst's face, and trying to bring her frown 'upside-down' like she said. All that got was Amethyst slapping the hooves away.

"Cut it out! I'm ... I'm ... oh, forget it," Amethyst said. The purple Gem fell back, and laid down onto the ground, not even bothering to get into her sleeping bag, as she stared off into space. Amethyst knew her friends long enough to know they wouldn't just drop this.

"Amethyst?" Connie asked.

"I'm pathetic ok? There, I said it."

"What? no, Amethyst, you're not -"

"Don't even try to cheer me up, Twilight. I try, I really do, but White Diamond already talked me down. I'm just a runt."

"White Diamond? What happened there?"

"She wanted to see me and Steven, and basically confirmed that I'm the worst Crystal Gem ever. You guys keep saying 'You can be anything you wanna be'. NO! No I can't! Ugh ... I can't even be that thing I'm supposed to be, you know?" For most of the group, this was more out of nowhere.

"Supposed to be, Amethyst?"

"Look at me, I'm not supposed to be this small. And everyone talks about it like it's no big deal."

"There's nothing wrong with being tiny. You're just all the Amethyst in a small package," Pinkie said.

"See what I mean?" she groaned. The comment didn't make her feel any better, and the purple Gem just got into her sleeping bag.

"Amethyst, listen, I know you're not feeling the best right now, but -"

"No, don't start that. I told you what's wrong, and that's that. Just leave me alone to figure it out ..." Amethyst finished, curling up in her sleeping bag for the night. The others tried to get to her, but Amethyst stayed awfully quiet in her sleeping bag, now regretting even telling them about her problems. ...

As time past on into the night, the group eventually decided to stop pestering Amethyst about the issue. If Amethyst won't get up now, then they'll pick up on it tomorrow morning. If they can say one thing about their night, it at least was a clear one. It was an easy night, and everyone was fast asleep at this point, nearby eachother. The only one who actually wasn't sleeping fully was Amethyst, her mind too wrapped up in her thoughts for her to even go to sleep. Rare for Amethyst. Still, the thoughts and depressed reality of her not being what she was supposed to (according to Homeworld anyway) was just enough to keep this sleep-bound Gem awake. She didn't really say a word about anything, not wanting to wake anyone up just yet. ...

.......

It wasn't anything too complicated. The vision was a short and seemingly peaceful one. A gentle breeze blew through the air. Fresh, green grass down under foot. Distant, grassy mountains loomed far away. Silver clouds hover under each peak to cover the valley. Small, pink flowers bloom. Hills of bushes blossomed. Skies light blue. ... A large, pink object obscured by flora.

The light that woke Steven up from his dream. And with tears coming down his face.

"Huh?"

"Steven, you feeling ok?" connie asked. Apparently he wasn't the only one who noticed, as Connie was the only one awake.

"I think so. ... What a weird dream."

"Dream, Steven?"

"I don't know. It showed this strange place, pink flowers everywhere, and this uh ... Palequin?"

"I think it's pronounced palanquin," Connie noted. Before they could go any further, the others began to stir, and Steven quickly wiped away the tears. Just as they woke up, the tears stopped flowing. Maybe they can figure it out later.

~~~~~~

"Finally. Took long enough, but I think we just about got it."

At the barn, the other Crystal Gems; Garnet, Bismuth, Fulgurite, Flint and Jade all looked on to their finished drill. The project in creating, all and all, was a success in the end, despite their own little set back. The drill stood there in all its glory, aimed down and ready to drill at any moment, and the control center at the top. The only ones who weren't really looking at the moment were Pearl, Star, and Peridot, who were sitting quietly on the sidelines over by the fence. Both Peridot and Pearl had their own set of leashes, Pearl having a choke collar on her. A bit harsh, but not too much damage on the sad (if not bored) Pearl.

"Alright then, let get to digging!" Bismuth said. As Bismuth started to head over to the drill, suddenly, something went through Flint's head and he stepped out in the way.

"Wait a minute. We got the coordinates in, don't we?" Flint asked.

"Coordinates? It's in the center of the Earth, what coordinates do we need other than down, down, and down?" Fulgurite asked, pointing down to their feet. It seemed pretty straight forward.

"Just give me a second," Flint said, as he climbed up to the main control panel. As Flint went on to check the final piece to this operation, Garnet couldn't help but glance over back at Pearl and Peridot. They both had been rather quiet for a while, and seeing Pearl's cracked Gem reminded Garnet about just how badly things were going for her. Garnet stayed quiet, and took a look down at her own hand, in particular the one with Sapphire's gem. ...

"What?! There's no coordinates to this thing! We can't drill to the Cluster without that," Flint yelled, before jumping down to the ground. They got the tools, the drill was all set, but without knowing where to go, how can it be done?

"Why not?"

"BECAUSE we can't waste any time when drilling! Every second counts, now anyone have any ideas?" Flint quizzed, waiting impatiently for an answer. However, the amount of silence was not exactly a pleasing one. However, someone did end up talking after a bit.

"Oh, We know!" Peridot said, raising her hand to get their attention.

"You would know, would you?" Flint said, unamused.

"We do, really!"

Flint wasn't buying it, after what they both did, but Garnet decided to give it a try anyway, only giving them a hand gesture to continue. Pearl got up.

"There's a Diamond base that may hold that information. If information on its location would be anywhere, it would be there!" Pearl said, hoping that it'll help them out. Flint still wasn't buying this.

"And where's there?"

"The moon," Pearl and Peridot said.

"... The moon?"

"Yes: An old Diamond base built on the moon to observe the Earth Colony during their production. We can even take the Galactic Ray to get there!" Peridot said.

"AAND, may I also say it's the only way to get there. It's not accessible by Warp Pad," Pearl added, before Flint had a chance to ask. Flint snapped his finger on the remark, his answer catching him faster than he could ask. Jade tried to comfort him, as the others took it in consideration.

"Maybe they got a point. A quick check can work out," Fulgurite said.

"And not many Gems remember that moon base. K, who's up for a moon trip?" Bismuth said, getting her memory going. Her experience as a builder for Homeworld did leave some useful information on her.

"Is this even a place, Bismuth?" Flint questioned.

"Sure it is, it's the Diamond's big Earth house. If the Diamonds know about the Cluster, where else would it be?" Bismuth replied. Flint would still have his doubts if it was just Pearl and Peridot who knew about this place, but apparently Fulgurite and Bismuth are on form with it, so he had to accept it. What else can they do?

"Alright then, let's get the ship ready," Garnet decided. With the destination in sight, they began to go off to the Galactic Ray, but as they began to go, Garnet went over to Flint for a moment.

"Flint? ..."

"What is it, Garnet?" Flint sighed, as the others went off, leaving them alone for a bit. Garnet took a look over at Pearl, and just caught Pearl's arm glitch slightly, worrying Pearl a bit.

"... I would like your opinion on Pearl's punishment."

Flint groaned.

"I thought you were fine with this. Especially after what she did to us."

"I know, I know, but it's lasted a while."

"This isn't forever, you know that and I know that. Let's just get this job done before the Earth explodes at our feet," Flint said, finishing their conversation and going off to join the others. Garnet silently went on after them.

~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Steven and company still continued looking for their next gem monster. Steven's tears had been gone since finding them last night, so no one was stuck questioning anything, including Amethyst. Traveling had been pretty good here, the open plains out in front with little to no real trouble in their way. They tried all morning, but they couldn't really try to get Amethyst to feel better.

"Where is that thing? Come on, it can't hide forever," Rainbow groaned, trying to find it, but finding nothing.

"Maybe it's in Equestria," suggested Connie. Not the first time they actually gone through this malarkey in Equestria. Still, Steven looked to the list, and according to instruction, it seemed like they should be at the right place. As they went, some of them looked back to Amethyst, who simply trailed them in the back.

"Come on, let's split up. We can cover the ground better that way," decided Applejack.

With not much trouble, they did so. And, since there was about nine of them, groups of three were made up: Twilight, Rarity, and Steven for team one; Connie, Fluttershy, and Pinkie for team two, and Rainbow, AJ, and Amethyst for team three. Even then, the group went out slightly further from eachother, in order to check the area a bit better, but not too far from eachother. For the teams, the only one who didn't feel up for it was Amethyst, who just sat over farther away from the others nearby some small shrubs as Rainbow and AJ continued to search for this next monster. AJ and Rainbow both decided to just leave Amethyst alone after their attempts earlier, and how little it actually did. ...

*hisssss*

"Hello, Amethyst."

Time for one pair of creatures to make their appearance on the Gem. Amethyst heard the odd hissing for a bit, but didn't consider it until she heard the voice following it. When she heard that, Amethyst looked around, and began to see a sort of rope-shaped animal to slither out right next to her. Amethyst had seen weirder creatures coming out, and she was a bit down anyway.

"Here we go, what do you want?" Amethyst asked, less than enthused by the whole thing.

"Just to talk, as all. ... You seem down on yourself lately. True?"

"OH, really? I didn't notice!" Amethyst growled, not in the mood. The snake bent back a little, but slithered out a bit more this time.

"My, we are touchy, aren't we? Of course who wouldn't be after your little talk with the great Diamond."

Amethyst got up to her feet, and looked right at the viper.

"How'd you know about that?" Amethyst demanded. The snake stayed calm, and outmatched Amethyst's glare, rearing back to look her right in the eye.

"Word gets around. Just as well, I hear your Gem species is down on your kind's respect," the snake simply said. After a bit, another snake slithered out, and soon Amethyst was in between both snakes.

"Yes. Such a shame you are also so low yourself," the other snake hissed. Amethyst was starting to get concern with them, her emotions getting beat down already as it was. Both snakes circled around Amethyst, one of them checking to make sure AJ and Rainbow don't see them.

"How is it just one to judge one over the full matter? I mean, after all, you've never seen the war yourself," one snake hissed.

"You can do whatever you please. And with no true reason to stay in line, who's to even stop you?" hissed the other. A rather odd shift in tone. first they were just drilling Amethyst down, and now they were saying how she can do whatever she wishes without anyone else's imput. As the snakes wanted, Amethyst was taking in what they were saying, and begin to realize a few things. They did have a point there. ...

"Wait a minute ... That's right. What am I to wonder what others think of me?"

"YES," they both said.

"I'll show them I got what it takes. That monster's going down!" Amethyst decided. The snakes stopped feeling enjoyed, and Amethyst, now motivated, went right off to go and search for her next monster.

"Not the reaction I was hoping for," said the first snake.

"Me neither. ... All the same, Cyanide, they won't get back in time anyway."

"How?"

"Just you sit back and watch," Acid said, patting her sibling on the back before she slithered away towards the others. Even with Amethyst knowing where they are, both snakes slipped off into hiding within the shrubs. Acid had her own scheme in her head, and she wanted to get this show underway. Acid took her position over at one of the shrubs, making sure she was right in the middle of the spread out group. She kept poking her head out to make sure they were in earshot. Looking around, each one of the split groups were just in range of the particular shrub, and Acid began to get to work. Stiffening her tail as if it were a staff, she started to engrave something into the ground under her. The symbol wasn't too big, just large enough to cover the dirt within the shrub, but just enough to keep it concealed.

"Bye-bye.~" Acid quietly hissed, as she drew out her fangs, and bit down into it, both fangs digging into the soil. Seconds after she removed them, the symbol started to glow and activate, Acid high-tailing out of there, and over to Cyanide as the glow began to be picked up by the others around them.

"There you are. I'm going in!" Amethyst said, bringing out her whip. With her determination now sky rocketed, the purple Gem went right in on this supposed Gem beast.

"Careful, Amethyst!" AJ called. The purple Gem just got her whip launched right into the shrub before AJ grabbed her by the hair with her teeth, but the whip ended up stuck in something. Amethyst tried to pull back, but it felt like something was pulling Amethyst and AJ towards the shrub. The Gem struggled and pulled back as hard as she could, but it wasn't working even with AJ's help.

"Come! ON! WHOA!" One power surge in, and Amethyst was off her feet! AJ tumbled over her hooves, and everyone else tried to grab them to pull them back. But it seemed that every pony or human who grabbed hold was just sucked in too! Acid and Cyanide hid just out of sight until all the noise was over, and when they looked, both snakes gave sly grins and 'high-tailed' eachother before slithering away.

They were gone alright.

~~~~~~

With the roar of the engine, the Galactic Ray started to take its leave off of planet Earth with the Crystal Gems on board. Jade took in charge of flying the ship towards their destination, as the others stayed in the main control room. Pearl and Peridot, both navigators, sat up front but not without Flint holding onto their respected leashes just in case. He wasn't going to take any chances in case they both decide to pull a fast one on them again. As for the straight on flight, the Galactic Ray went through with flying colors as they neared the moon. When it came into sight, the moon looked fairly normal at first, but as they neared it, a sight of a building started to come to shape. This building looked much like a leaning tower with a rounded top, the very top of it completely made up of see-through glass, with the entrance all the way at the bottom. The coloration of it matched the moon itself, and the Galactic Ray docked ship right on inside. As with other Homeworld buildings, this one was automated, and the door opened up right away upon sensing the approaching ship.

For the interior, it was rather quiet and lackluster. Not a soul had been in the place for centuries, and it showed with just how stuffy it was in there (like it'd mattered in space, anyway). The bottom floor where they docked ship was wide open, not much furniture or anything of the sort. Four different-colored diamond symbols on the floor, and four different murals drawn out on the wall, one for each of the four Diamonds. Any doubt now was dashed, as they all ventured out of the ship to investigate.

"What a sight for sore eyes. I still remember when it was just on its first couple building plates," Bismuth commented as she looked around.

"We're not here to sight-see. Where would they keep their information?" Flint wondered, trying to look around. Before any of them could answer, suddenly they heard something activate. Along the walls, a set of stairs was suddenly beginning to spiral upwards along the spire wall until it reached through the ceiling to the next level. When they looked, turned out Pearl was the one who activated the stairs, her foot on the starting platform.

"Ta-da!" Peridot said meekly, trying to support her. Not amusing, but at least they got the proper tracks.

"So, this is the Diamond's base for Earth? I'd thought it would be on earth itself, not on this small stone," Flint wondered aloud.

"Well, since the Earth's moon is in constant rotation of the planet, it deemed to be a reliable location for the Diamond's observation as the colony was being created. Only the most elite Gems can even enter this place," Peridot said, though personally she felt a little excited about being there. How often can a little Peridot like her remotely visit such a high-ranking place such as this?

Anyway, as they went up, it took them a few minutes before they began to reach to the ceiling opening to the next floor. They all went right on up, but when they did, this floor looked ... rather dark. Just the large floor and a single floating orb at the center of it all. Apart from the blue orb, there wasn't any other light source to show what else was in it. Jade stopped slightly and looked around just a little bit.

"... What's this room?"

"It's not what we came for," Flint simply replied, continuing up the stairs. As he said, they didn't come hyere to just sight-see the moon base, they had some information to gather up. They needed to get it before the Cluster decides when to come alive. Jade took a moment to look into the room once more before going off after the others.

It was then that the spiral stairs brought them all the way to the top of the tower. As they expected, this part was completely lined with windows, and the view of space was seen all around them. In the middle was a large chair, presumably for the diamonds to sit in, and with a control pad in front to work with. If it was going to be anywhere, that's where it would be.

"Oh my goodness! This looks like it could be brand new! I mean it's a relic by today's standards, but, golly! It's so elegant, so simple, so perfect!" Peridot beamed.

"So how do you turn it on?" Flint asked.

"I have no idea."

"Here, let' me have a look at it," Fulgurite said, going over to the controls. She only needed to see one look at these controls to figure out how it could work. Fulgurite pushed Flint and Peridot aside, and she got her hands to work on the control pad. It took some quick trial and error, but a screen finally managed to show up, giving off details about Earth. Or at least what Earth would be according to the blueprints.

"Alright! Come on, babe, show me that cluster," Fulgurite said, as she began to go through the files on this base's database. Files here were incredible out of date over the last thousands of years, detailed descriptions and blueprints over various Gem areas on Earth. These included the Lunar Sea Spire, the Prime Kindergarten, and the Tunguska Gem Facility to name a few. Nice diagrams, but the real answer had to be found somewhere. Fulgurite kept going through more and more files until she finally got it! The picture showed a blueprint of some sort of round sphere, all sparkled and likes crisscrossing all over the place to show the actual density of the cluster.

"Bingo!"

"Right. Pearl, Peridot. You two did your job, go back downstairs, and wait for us at the ship will ya?" Flint ordered, though he didn't sound too grateful towards them, even with this.

"But, maybe we can -"

"NO. Downstairs. Ship. Now."

Pearl and Peridot were humbled by Flint and his serious expression. Most of them ignored what was going on to some extent, distracted by the Cluster, but Star Quartz did glance back to the two humbled Gems, as both Pearl and Peridot just agreed and went downstairs. Flint was not going to risk them messing with what information they had here. Star though wasn't getting too much on why they were being this harsh to them. Pearl, debatable, but why so much on Peridot?
As the others were busy with trying to figure things out, Star just managed to go and slip away quietly downstairs as well. Eventually, she found Pearl and Peridot once again, both of which were right down at the Galactic Ray. Peridot just sat down at the Galactic Ray entrence, as Pearl paced around back and forth in front of Peridot. Obviously they weren't dealing with this very well, Pearl feeling worst about it.

"So ... How're you feeling?" Peridot asked, trying to break the ice. Pearl just needed to glare at Peridot to keep her quiet. Rather than make a comment, Pearl just sat down next to her. and just in time, because she began to feel her cracked Gemstone take effect on her, her hand glitching up slightly. It had been like this ever since Flint cracked her stone, and it was just another reminder how much trouble she was in.

"There has to be something we can do. I don't want to be cracked forever. ..." Pearl sighed, hand rubbing her gemstone. Peridot didn't have any idea, but that didn't mean she wasn't trying to figure something out. This crazy turn of events all started off from this blasted Cluster, and it was just drama bomb for everyone. Steven and Amethyst were running around bagging monsters, the ponies doing ... whatever they do, and them building that drill. It didn't seem like it, but Peridot had her mind wrapped around the Cluster more than anyone else. This is her mission to Earth, after all ...

Her mission to Earth ...

"I'll do it."

Pearl turned to Peridot, the Gem getting up to her feet.

"I'll stop the Cluster," Peridot decided. Peridot had enough with letting everyone else falter over a mission she was supposed to do.

"Peridot, you can't!"

"I have to! Pearl, my mission from Yellow Diamond herself, to come to Earth on the first day was to check and handle the Cluster. I'm not going to sit and make you guys do it for me!" Peridot yelled. Where did this side come from? This was pure, selfless determination here, and Pearl didn't see that part of Peridot in a long time.

"It's what I was supposed to do. Besides, I think my neglect has caused enough trouble," Peridot said, referring to Pearl's broken gemstone. Peridot began to walk back into the Galactic Ray, leaving Pearl rather quiet about the whole thing. Pearl wanted to try and talk to her, but she wasn't given the chance.

"We got the location, time to get back."

~~~~~~

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - OW!"

And their tumble came to an end with a rather rough thud onto the ground. Where'd they end up is anyone's guess at this point. They weren't hurt too badly, but the group didn't had any idea where they ended up in that jump. The portal that jumped them there disappeared already, so they had that problem already going on for them. What they did find themselves in was no farmland, or open plain, but instead a forest. And a rather thick one at that. The heat was warmer too, and the plants unfamiliar to those found in Beach City.

"What the hay happened?" Rainbow groaned, shaking her head to get her senses up.

"We've been teleported by some magic trickster! Slipping a tiny spell in mister bush and sucking us all away like dust in a vacuum cleaner!" Pinkie said, already up onto her hooves, and running in circles around the group. It really didn't take long before they realize that Pinkie was right. As they tried to get themselves together, Twilight looked over towards Steven, and suddenly noticed that something was wrong: tears were pouring right down his face.

"Steven! Oh my Celestia, are you hurt? Say something!" Twilight gasped, rushing over to him.

"I'm fine, really," Steven insisted, but eventually he began to notice the tears streaming down his face.

"Steven? ..."

"I ... I'm crying again. ..."

"Uh ... g-girls? ..." Fluttershy whimpered.

Then they saw it. Looking down the path a little bit more, Steven, Twilight, and everyone else suddenly saw the palanquin that Steven had seen ... well, sort of. The palanquin Steven saw was pink and basically wrecked, but this one was light crystal blue, and in peak condition no less.

"Steven? Is that ..." Connie asked.

"Nah, nah. This isn't what I saw, it's not the same -"

Crying. The whole group then heard crying. They tried looking around a bit, but could find nobody or Nopony around to actually make the crying, and for sure it wasn't any of them. They all started to pinpoint the noise after a good while, and it was Connie who got herself over through some bushes, and signaled the rest to follow. Looking through the foliage, they found the source.

Blue Diamond!

The diamond was cloaked, back to them, and facing the same pink palanquin Steven saw in his dream, and with Blue Pearl standing beside her.

"I'm so sorry ... I should've done more ... Yellow says it'll be all over soon ... But I still wonder what you'd think. This is your planet, after all ... at least I still think it is ..."

Every word whispered out of Blue Diamond was full of sorrow and guilt, the others seeing Steven's eyes swell up in tears again, almost filling his eyes completely.

"Whoa, dude, calm down," Amethyst said, ducking down with him.

"No, it's not me. My dream saw through her eyes! I'm crying her tears!" Steven realized. The coincidence made far too much sense. Looking over, one of the ponies looked a bit more closely to Blue herself ...

"Y'all wait here."

Soon, Applejack got up, and moved out from the bushes into view. At first, Blue Diamond didn't seem to notice the orange pony walking out, but she did eventually started to hear hoofsteps. It was Blue Pearl though who saw her first.

"My diamond? Somepony is here with us," informed Blue Pearl. Blue Diamond just barely turned back to see AJ, before looking back down again. Applejack gathered her courage, and moved over, sitting down practically next to her.

"How curious. I didn't think it much before. But now, I'm impressed by your kind's ability to survive in the wild. ... That a fragile being as a human, live. While something as powerful as a Diamond. Perish. ... This is where it happened. Where she ... was broken ..."

As seen on Steven's face, a swell of emotion came back around again. It was painfully clear that Blue Diamond was grieving, and Applejack took a bit before she could actually say something correct towards the Diamond in question.

"Were you close?"

"... very ..."

Applejack looked down to her hooves, going as far as to take off her hat for a moment, her ears drooping.

"I'm sorry. I know how hard it is to lose someone you're very close to," AJ said. Blue Diamond was quiet, but she turned her head fully to see Applejack with her own eyes, one which had a tear fall down. Was she true to her word?

"You do?" Blue Diamond asked, softly. Applejack gave a long sigh, feeling some slight emotion coming up herself.

"Yeah. I lost two actually. I miss em every day, and I think about them all the time ... but I know it's not gonna bring em back. It's hard to live with something like that, and it can be even harder to be OK with," Applejack took a moment to wipe a small stray tear from her own eye, only reminding herself of her own loss in her own family, as large and diverse as it is. As for Blue Diamond, she wasn't sure what to actually say. She knew well that the ponies had some interesting similarities to Gems one way or another, but she didn't expect somepony to have this kind of similar connection with a Diamond like herself. As she was looking back though, she began to sense that there's probably more than just her there. Blue Diamond just turned away again ...

"Are there others with you?" Blue Diamond asked. Being the element of honesty had its perks but downfalls too, and lying wasn't Applejack's strong suit. Instead of using words, Applejack just nodded.

"... bring them here."

AJ wasn't sure at first, but their bond with the Diamonds was a bit damaged as it was, so perhaps it would be better to just handle it. Applejack turned and went over to the others. Naturally, they were a little hesitant, but Applejack trusted that nothing would go wrong, so they began to head out. Amongst them though, Steven was the last to go out, staying in the back of the group. Blue Diamond though first saw Steven within the group despite that ...

"... Steven ..."

"I'm awfully sorry, Blue." What else could Steven really actually say aside from that? It wasn't his fault personally that Pink Diamond was dead, but he wanted to apologize for his mother's behalf, at the very least of the trouble. Blue Diamond felt a tear come down her face again, and she saw Steven's tear drop from his face.

"Steven ... It's not your fault this happened to her ... I'd hate it more if I knew you'd go on thinking that ... I blame only myself."

"No, no, Blue don't say that. Listen, it's hard not to miss someone close to you that you lost, it happens to everyone at least once in their lives. But, when it does, it's best to remember the good times you two had together, not think on the bad," Connie said.

Blue was silent at first ...

"... I never realized there is beings that understand how I feel ... It's a shame."

Blue Diamond quietly rose up to her feet, still having her back turned to them.

"There is a geo-weapon, buried deep within your planet, that will destroy everything shortly ..." Blue Diamond turned back to them again, still sad, but this time with a smile on her face. "... But, you don't deserve that. Do you?"

The whole group was left stunned on that 'geo-weapon' part more than most. Not a single person, Gem, or pony remotely mentioned any geo-weapon to them before this! Was this why Garnet sent them on their way in the first place? To not figure out about the geo-weapon? They didn't forget the situation right now though.

"Geo-Weapon, huh?" Pinkie asked. Blue Diamond kneeled down to them, so she was at a more comfortable level with them all.

"You know, I really shouldn't be here. But I'm glad I came back one, last, time ..."

Never before had they seen Blue Diamond look so defeated. As for the Diamond, she got back up to her feet, and slowly began to move away. Blue Pearl looked to the others before she too started to go off with her, both Diamond and Pearl heading back to Homeworld. Well, their list was done at this point, and now with what they were told ...

"Come on, we got some catching up to do," concluded Amethyst.

20,000 Leagues into the Earth PT1

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"Come on, there's got to be a Warp Pad somewhere around here," Amethyst said.

The group still roaming around the pink flower hills into the night, and so far Steven and his friends had not even remotely found any sort of Warp Pad, or any way to get back. At this point, they practically ignored their little list, and were just more focused on getting to the rest of the Gems back home. How can they just hide the fact their Earth could just blow up at any moment?! Seriously?! The second they get back, they got some serious explaining to do. The rest of the day went by much faster than they'd like, and sure enough, the group ended up going through close to night time.

"Still nothing. It must be hidden somewhere," Twilight said, sitting down, getting a little tired from the wandering. Going around all day, and they've got to nothing.

"Say no more. Pinkie AWAY!!" Pinkie exclaimed, suddenly bolting off fast and out of sight. Well, none of the group really did try to stop her (who could?). Steven, who actually was trailing behind them a bit, just caught up with the rest at this point. He honestly was just beside himself after what they found out earlier, and just wasn't sure what to really take. It got to the point when he was getting a bit beat himself, as he gave a yawn.

"Getting tired, sport?" Rainbow asked.

"No, no, I'm ... fine ..." Steven said. They've been walking all day, almost non-stop, trying to find the next Warp Pad. Who wouldn't get tired? The kid kept walking for a bit more, but he gave out another yawn.

"Maybe we've been going a little too much. Let's try and relax for a - *thud* ... bit." Before Fluttershy could finish, Steven took a headstart, and was on the ground sleeping away. Well, that was decided for them, that's for sure.

.......

There he stood. Steven woke up after a bit, and he found himself sitting in some sort of odd room. The room had no windows, no doors, not even any exact walls. It was like Steven woke up inside some odd dome, and it surely shows: pitch black emptiness circling around the large area, the floor having an inch of consistent water, not going anywhere deeper or shallower. The floor itself looked more like mixed paint, with shades of light and dark sea green twisted and twirled into eachother. The floor itself seemed to be the only main source of light, the floor illuminating a greenish color, but it wasn't enough to remove the darkness everywhere else.

"Where am I? ... Hello?!"

Nothing. Steven's voice just trailed off into a sort of echo. Steven looked around some more, and waited for a little bit. Each step he took covered his feet in water, though Steven didn't need to take very many steps until he began to see something from the distance. Steven found the figure unmistakable, and quickly raced over to her. Her thick hair, muscular body, and shield cutie mark made it very much so.

"Jasper!" Steven called. As he got closer though, Steven began to realize that Jasper was not all the same. She was down on her knees, hunched over, and her hands were apparently cuffed by some sort of strange water chains, Steven unable to see Jasper's hands in them. These could be from Lapis's own doing, or a result of being in the fusion, but Steven knew that either way, it was not a nice sight to see Jasper in. Jasper herself turned her head, and the expression alone told Steven that Jasper was not the strong powerhouse she once was. NO, this Gem was tired, and struggling.

"S-Steven! Wha - but - h-how're you here?" Jasper managed to say through her tired, wheezing breath. Of course, Steven wanted to help her out, and he went closer to her.

"Where is here? Jasper, what happened to you?!" Steven asked, urgently. He only got more scared when Jasper felt her chains pull her down, and all Jasper could do was pull back on them to keep herself upright.

"I ... I've been trying to - ACK! ... T-To keep her down. Lapis. S-She's - OOF! ... She's powerful. S-So strong ..." Jasper's own sentence was cut off time to time as she tried to pull the chains on her end.

"Tell us where you are! We've been searching for you for months - we're worried sick over you and Lapis," Steven pleaded.

"S-Steven, back away. Have - to - concen - AAH!"

"Jasper!" Steven gasped, trying to get her.

Suddenly, in a swift pull of her chains, Jasper was pulled under the floor, out of sight. Steven was alone for a moment, seeing the floor ripple under him like waves in a pond, only to hear someone else yelp from behind him, and fall to the ground. Turning around, Steven soon caught sight of the other Gem in question, down on her knees, and breathing heavily. This time, it was Lapis Lazuli herself. Her gemstone was still deeply damaged, and by the sound of her breathing, she wasn't fairing any better than Jasper was, if not worse. The second she noticed Steven, she stared back at Steven with her reflecting eyes, though she didn't do anything at first, her body glitching time to time.

"Lapis," Steven quietly said. Lapis hunched over, like a cat arching its back in a threatening response. Immediately, Steven had to make things right: he licked his hand of his life-giving saliva, and he began to move closer to Lapis, hand extended. However, as Steven grew closer, Lapis began to hiss at him! Steven tried, but Lapis gave him a huge shocker, and actually clawed him! Her hands were sharp like claws, and Steven was forced to quickly leap back before he could get any damage. Luckily for him, the only damage he got was to a cut on his shirt, but no harm on his body or gem.

"Lapis, please! It's me. Steven. Remember?" Steven asked. Lapis was still growling at him, though her back wasn't arched at this point. Looking at her though, she didn't really seem to remember much of anything anymore, her cracked Gemstone messing with her mind and body. Steven's heart sank. One of his closest friends doesn't even recognize him anymore. Lapis felt her own cuffed hands pull her down, and she tried to stop them from doing so.

"Lapis. I-It's me. Your Beach Summer Fun Buddy? ... Lapis? ..." Steven tried to keep a smile on his face, but he still felt tears come down from his face. Lapis's growls began to, ever so slowly, go away. However, they just came back, and turned into screeching when she ended up being pulled under again, just for Jasper to surge out of the floor again. Steven saw that Jasper was dwindling away, and if this was what Jasper had been doing for months now, then the half Gem would NOT take this lying down. Steven went straight over to Jasper, not wasting any time.

"S-Steven."

"Jasper, please, tell us where you and Lapis are. You're not going to last much longer this way," Steven said, urgent and rather firm for him to do. Jasper knew he was probably right, and if they hadn't found them yet, she had to. Jasper tried to say, but she felt the struggle Lapis was holding on to her own chains.

"Mask Island! W-We're at Mask Island!" Jasper choked out. FINALLY, Steven had gotten some decent tracks on where to go.

And not a moment too soon: soon after Jasper said that, Steven's vision began to blur, as the room started to slowly disappear around him. The thing that didn't disappear though was a bright light over in front of him, which grew and grew until that was all he could see.

.......

Steven woke up with a startle, back with the others seconds after that, still with his caterpillar sleeping bag, still on Earth, and seeing it was the dawn of a new day. Steven's startling jump did wake up some of the others amongst the group, Connie being the first to wake up.

"Steven! What's wrong, are you okay?" Connie asked, almost instinctively. Steven needed to calm down a bit, but the others had their own questions still.

"Did you have a nightmare, sugarcube?" AJ asked.

"No, no, it's Malachite!" Steven exclaimed.

"Malachite?!" Everyone else gasped. Steven felt in his heart that, fake or not, that the dream was indeed some sort of calling card for him. No way would he remember a dream THAT clearly, to the point where every single word and action was remembered. Normal dreams can't do it that well in memory.

"... Do we know Malachite?" Fluttershy asked.

"It's Lapis and Jasper's fusion! They spoke to me, I swear they did!" Steven insisted. Twilight and Applejack went over to Steven, trying to calm him down.

"Ok, calm down. What did you see?" Twilight asked.

"Let's see. I was in some dark room, and I saw Jasper and Lapis both in chains, still fused. I think they're both trying to take control of Malachite. Jasper is in control now, but I don't know for how long," Steven explained, worrying the others a little bit more.

"What else did they tell you?" Connie asked.

"I know where they are now! Jasper told me they were at Mask Island. We have to get them before they leave again!" Steven concluded, getting himself out of his sleeping bag. He had been worried over Lapis and Jasper for far too long, and now that they know where they are, best to go get them now before they could wander away and lose them. The name of the location got Amethyst thinking as the others spoke.

"Wait, but what about the Cluster? That can go off at any time," Connie pointed out.

"The other Gems are working on fixing that, remember? We have to go and get Malachite, and if we are, I say we do it now. Who knows how much damage that kind of fusion could cause for anypony else, and to themselves. Such a unstable combination," Rarity explained.

"That, and the Cluster isn't going anywhere - Malachite is!" Added Steven.

"Agreed. But, where's Mask Island from here? Sounds like it's off coast to me," Twilight wondered.

"FOUND IT!" A voice suddenly rang out, as a familiar pink blur raced right over to them. She looked extremely excited, hopping in place and a huge smile.

"Found the Warp Pad - right over there! Somepony hid it with funny leaves!" Pinkie yelled. Good ol Pinkie. Suddenly, Amethyst got it, snapping her fingers in realization.

"Let's go gang! To the nearest Warp Pad!" Amethyst announced.

"To the nearest Warp Pad!" Everyone else repeated, equally determined. Amethyst took the lead, as everyone else followed her. It did not take very long until the group had found the Warp Pad that got them there in the first place, and soon everybody and everypony got straight onto it. Amethyst took the honor in activating the Warp Pad. Cluster or no Cluster, their friends are out there trapped as Malachite for far too long.

And it's time to save them from this tyranny.

~~~~~~

Back at the drill, things were rather quiet for anyone over in the location. Being very early in the day, any Gem wouldn't exactly be there for the moment ... well, all but one. Hidden off away behind some of the foliage near the barn, Peridot snuck out into sight after checking to be sure she was alone. Finally motivated for the first time in weeks, Peridot knew exactly what she must do now to help save not just her friends, but Earth altogether. It was a long shot, but she had made up her mind, and it was too late to turn back now as far as she knew. There wasn't any ladder to climb up, so Peridot put her leash to good used, and used it like a hiking rope, getting it lasso'd at the opened hatch, and pulling herself up right into it. She did stumbled on getting in, but it was a perfect fit as seating goes. Peridot got into position, pulling the leash inside before she studied the controls. Peridot did not had one chance to look at these though, so she needed a little bit to figure out what did what.

"Okay, you got this, Peridot ... just get this drill working," Peridot told herself. Looking down at the controls, Peridot started to try and work out what did what. At first, nothing seemed to happen apart from some simple twitches of the drill's legs, and some accidental activations of the drill itself. It wasn't enough to get any attention though, so, Peridot kept going.

"Come on, you can do this Peri. Eh, maybe this one?" Peridot tapped another button down a few more times, but suddenly the drill fell right onto the ground under her, the little green Gem stumbling forward, but not enough to fall out. Before Peridot could try again. ...

"... Peridot?"

The green Gem froze on the voice, hiding within the drill, only to find Star Quartz standing there in confusion. Peridot did calm down once she realized who it was.

"Oh, Star, it's only you. Hey ... are the others with you?" Peridot asked nervously. Star took a moment to look around, turning back and forth, side to side, and eventually shook her head. Peridot sighed in relief as she scrambled into the drill properly, and tried the controls again.

"... What are you doing?" Star Quartz asked.

"Saving the world, Star. This green Gem is going where no era 2 Gem had gone before ... as soon as I figure out how this works."

Star watched as Peridot tried to figure things out, but it wasn't exactly working out for her. The white Gem moved over to Peridot's side.

"... But. Why? The others wanted to do it."

Peridot sighed.

"Star, I was the one who was tasked a mission for the Cluster in the first place. And over a year now, I had yet to even finish that. If anyone is to confront the Cluster, it might as well be me. There's no reason for somebody, or somepony for that matter, to do a mission you were assigned to do yourself ... I have to do this, Star." Star Quartz stayed quiet for a moment or two, as Peridot tried some more to get the drill moving. She had to at least get the drill mobile, but it just didn't seem to be that kind of function available on the ship anywhere.

"... Here. Let me help you," Star said, reaching into the controls, and flipping three of the switches. Suddenly, just like that, the drill started to alter in shape and structure. The legs straightened, and lifted up the drill, and the drill piece suddenly turned, and aimed to the sky, making the drill look more like a robotic hermit crab. Peridot was more than happy to finally get somewhere with this, the main pod itself in the forward facing position, like a head.

"Thanks," Peridot simply said. ...

"Peridot, wait."

So much for being alone. Peridot and Star Quartz turned away from the barn, and found another Gem that snuck out to meet up with them: Pearl.

Pearl?"

"Peridot, let me come with you," Pearl said, getting right to the point. Peridot tensed up.

"I can't let -"

"Peridot. I want to save this planet as much as you do, and I've caused enough damage to the mission as it is. I want to make it up to everyone, whatever it takes. Please, Peridot, let's save the world together." Peridot took a bit to think on what Pearl said, but seeing the broken Gemstone was more than enough proof she wasn't lying to her. This little green Gem could leave her behind, but the look on Pearl's determined face was making this Gem waver. ...

"Get in," Peridot said.

After Pearl got into the drill. Peridot began to work out the legs of the drill, showing surprisingly sturdy movement as one leg moved in front of the other. Peridot tested out the legs a little bit more before she turned to Star one more time.

"We're heading to the Beta Kindergarten now. If the others ask where We are, tell them - ... Tell them ... that they will be taking one for the team."

Star simply nodded to reassure Peridot that she would give the message. After that was all said and done, Peridot got the drill working, and moved away, out of sight as she moved through the hills. Star may not had been alive for as long as the other Gems had been, but for a moment, Star was beginning to piece together what the green Gem was truly meaning ...

"... Goodbye. Mom ..."

~~~~~~

A flash of the Warp Pad pierced through the nighttime air, with Steven, Twilight, and friends arriving off to the location where Steven had the information for. Without the light of the Warp Pad, the main source of light was the moon and stars on Mask Island. The location they ended up in suggested a tropical island, with many sorts of plants, trees, and bushes all growing sky high. The moonlight danced through the trees, giving them a sort of proper direction on the island. Good thing for them, the Warp Pad met with a decent sized trail, and since it was the only one, they got to going.

"Did they say exactly where on this island?" Rarity asked.

"Eh ... no, Jasper didn't. I got cut off before she could say," Steven admitted. It would've helped if she could say where they were before being taken away, but being on an island, it couldn't be too hard to find either one of them.

"Then how will we know when we find her?" Pinkie wondered, scratching her head with her hoof. ...

Well, Pinkie said the magic words: as they kept walking, they all began to hear something amongst the night wind. At first, they were only hearing the wind, but soon low groans and moans started to come up from the darkness of the island landscape. Being in such a dark place, none of them could exactly see what was what, the group trying to figure out where the sounds were coming from. The moaning and groaning turned into shivers of the earth, whatever the figure was beginning to move. They continued looking around, but it began to seem that this figure was finding them. They all heard a much louder groan, and they all finally found their opposition standing tall, staring them all down with a feral look in her eyes, the more prominent ones mirrored. Obviously the fall did not make things any better for Lapis or Jasper, and this unstable fusion was still rampaging.

Malachite found her latest prey.

"Oh. I think we'll know," Rainbow finished.

Malachite was quick to show her feral anger with a loud roar, her front arms swinging down towards them. All of them could only bolt out of the way before Malachite could crush them both. This giant fusion wasn't going to let them even come close to her, and the whole group quickly got out of sight from the fusion's eyes thanks to the foliage around the area, but Malachite still tried her luck in finding them.

"K, we found her, anypony have any ideas?" AJ asked.

"OK, this fusion's only half-cracked. If I remember right, Lapis was the one who got her gemstone cracked, so maybe if we managed to heal her, maybe they'll come back around," Twilight figured, working her memory as best she could. None of them could forget about their last encounter with these two, and how it got to being that way in the first place. Malachite stood up tall, trying to find them and the moonlight revealed the currently broken stone in the fusion's body. As if to hammer the point in further, Malachite's body glitched slightly.

"Easier said than done, Twilight. She'll clobber us all into the dirt the second she - ... sees ... us. ..."

And what do you know, after Amethyst made that comment, Malachite found them again! The unstable fusion stared them all down, raising one of her feet to stomp on them. Panicking, Steven got his shield out to block, just strong enough to avoid getting crushed on sight. Malachite snarled at them trying to use her weight to crush them both and bringing her other foot down onto the shield. The others took the chance to bolt for it, Connie just grabbing Steven and pulling them out just in time before the shield would crumble under Malachite. Clear that the raging Lapis Lazuli was in full control of this fusion beast. Malachite gave chase after the group, but all of them raced off in different directions, giving Malachite a lot more targets to try and focus on. Malachite managed to get her target down to Rainbow Dash and rushed her in a roar. The fast Pegasus just dodged her, but not without a few strands from her tail being sliced off by Malachite's claws. After that, this confusion at least left the fusion stuck and a bit disoriented on where to. After some quick sneaking around, they all got together again farther away, out of sight from the angry fusion. None of them can stand in front of Malachite without getting flattened.

"That's it, I'm taking her out," Rainbow decided, ready to fly. AJ was quick to grab Rainbow by the tail, and pulled her back in.

"Rainbow stop, they're still our friends. If we try to fight her, you might crack Lapis's stone again," Applejack made clear. A straight attack on Malachite was just a risk on cracking apart Malachite further, but at the same time, Malachite was simply too big to be met up with.

"Look, our main problem is that cracked gemstone. Heal that, and maybe we'll get back the Jasper and Lapis we all know and love," Connie figured.

"How? Not to point out the obvious, but, I don't think she's willing to listen," Rarity asked, glancing to Malachite as she tore apart a tree looking for them. Enough to make them gulp, at the least. Malachite turned to their direction, the whole group trying to keep out of sight as best they could, Malachite starting to move in closer, sniffing the air like a hungry predator. They had limited options here, and they needed to figure something out.

"OK, it may not be perfect, but I think I got a plan." Steven decided.

"Well, lay it out because we're running out of time," Applejack said.

With just enough time to explain the plan, Malachite loomed over them all, and tried another large attack. The group all rushed away, this time in groups rather than just one alone to pick off. Malachite tried to track them, but she suddenly found herself a bit alone about the point. The fusion tried to locate them one way or another, a blood-curdling roar echoing all over the island. This fusion was not letting her prey get away from her this easily, and she tried to look through the trees and bushes to find them somewhere. While looking through one of the trees, Connie, Amethyst, and Steven slipped out of their hiding places, and met up much farther.

"Alright. Let's do this," Steven decided, Connie and Amethyst agreeing.

Malachite continued to tear apart a tree, but during mid-destruction, a prominent light made her stop, and quickly catch Malachite's attention. This light, coming up from the trio, soon reveal their full hybrid fusion standing to face Malachite! Compared to before, the only slight different since Amethyst's reformation was the shirt that resembled Amethyst's, but apart from that, that was about it. Everything else was the same as the last time she came across the sides that made up Malachite. Malachite locked eyes with the fusion, snarling at her new opponent that entered the ring, but Malachite didn't rush at this fusion right away, and the two were at a stand off with one another.

"EarthStone," Malachite growled.

"Malachite. We're only trying to help you," EarthStone said, calmly walking over to her with her hands up in submission. Malachite though was not going to give EarthStone the time of day for it, and the fusion already started to rush out at her with surprising speed, locking horns with her in just two seconds! EarthStone had to get all her strength together just to avoid being knocked back by Malachite's strength. EarthStone didn't have an extra set of legs like this centaur fusion, so traction was Malachite's advantage towards EarthStone, but the tri fusion still had an extra set of arms to push back against Malachite to keep her still. EarthStone didn't want to hurt Malachite, or damage her gemstone any further. Both fusions tried to hold their own against eachother, but Malachite finally knocked EarthStone right off her feet, and suddenly she was on top of her.

"Lapis. Jasper. I know you're in there. Please, we just want to heal you!" Earthstone insisted, though Malachite was just not listening to her, giving another roar. Malachite slashed at her, though EarthStone reacted fast enough to grab both of her arms, and finally pushed Malachite off of her with her second set of arms. The other fusion stumbled back, but avoided falling on her broken stone. EarthStone jumped to her feet, and suddenly gave a signal whistle, good and strong. Malachite tried to recover, but the ponies around got to work on the signal. The ponies had gotten some vines from the island jungle, and they quickly began to race around at Malachite's feet. It didn't take too long until Malachite's legs were completely covered up in vines, and keeping the unstable fusion immobile, at least for a moment so EarthStone can get to her.

"Ok. Ok, that's it ... that's it, there's a good girl," EarthStone said, slowly walking towards the fusion as she struggled with the vines. Malachite grabbed the vines, and started to snap each one off of her. EarthStone took a lick to one of her hands, and readied herself to healing. There was no other option to get to, and if they let her run off, who knew how long it'll take before they'll find her again? EarthStone got about a foot away when Malachite ripped off the last vines to her legs.

Now or never.

Malachite straightened up, and was just about to charge at EarthStone, but the tri fusion got to her first. EarthStone had Malachite in a grip, the upper arms hugging tight, and the lower arms meeting with the cracked gemstone to the back. time seemed to have stopped: Malachite and EarthStone both were in a hug, and the spit EarthStone got on her hand met the gemstone. The ponies nearby waited with fingers crossed (metaphorically), for a good result they all were hoping for. Malachite froze up as she felt the gemstone on her back start to fill in the cracks in a glimmer of light. EarthStone kept her still until she felt Malachite's gem become whole again, and only then did she released her.
Everything was silent, and EarthStone slowly backed away from Malachite. Malachite was fully healed, but she was not moving an inch anywhere. The other fusion shivered, twitched, and then ...

*poof*

Malachite was finally finished with. Lapis and Jasper, worn out completely, were both finally able to release eachother. EarthStone saw them both fall, and just managed to catch them both, and set them down gently. Jasper and Lapis's fusion time was murder on their energy, and the two were left unconscious on the ground. EarthStone split apart herself, a little tired, but at least awake. The fall of Malachite coincided with the rise of the sun, just morning by the time everything was over.

"Hey, Jasper, Lapis ... You alright?" Rainbow asked, as they went over to them. Neither side of them actually said anything, and just laid there unconscious. They may be weak as ever, but they both were at the least in one piece.

"Oh geez. They look pretty bad," Steven said in worry, looking down to the two Gems.

"All that time must've worn them out," AJ figured, Connie resting her hand on Jasper's head. Both such strong gems now laying in a heap. That just proves that they both were completely beyond exhausted.

"Whelp, all we can do is get them back home. Come on, let's get to it," Steven decided.

~~~~~~

"THE DRILL! WHERE'S THE DRILL?!" Flint bellowed, frantically trying to locate it somewhere around the barn.

Very early in the morning, and the Crystal Gems had arrived to the barn just to find nothing, and seeing the drill itself simply missing. Not a hint or clue anywhere on it being dragged off, apart from some tiny prints in the dirt. And, after a little bit, Garnet soon saw something else over nearby. Or rather, lack there of: Peridot and the leash. Once the others saw that, the reactions were quick.

"I knew it! That traitor stole our drill! Good-for-nothing clod," Bismuth accused, her fists clenched. She, alongside Flint, had the least amount of trust in Peridot since this charade started, so, assuming that she stole it wasn't too far off in their own mind. Garnet stood there for a minute to contemplate this, as Fulgurite, Jade, and Pearl went to open the barn itself. Once they did, the group found that the barn wasn't completely abandoned. Just inside, quietly weeping, and huddled up with her back to the door, was Star Quartz herself. The white Gem was completely quiet, and hadn't even moved from the barn since Peridot had left, and she had only stayed and wondered on the inevitable for the green Gem, and possibly the world. She was holding a small communication device in her hands as well - one that connected to the drill, but she hadn't even used it yet.

"Star? Is everything ok?" Fulgurite asked, the white Gem not reacting just yet. Star did eventually turn back to them, needing to keep her promise told to her, though tears still were on her face in streams. She walked outside quietly, and it didn't take long until the others saw her tears as well.

"Star?" Jade asked.

"... I ... I ..."

"Star. Where's Peridot?" Flint asked firmly. Star needed a minute ...

"... She ... she said she is taking one for the team. To complete her mission to Earth."

"Star what are you talking about? Where'd she go?" Bismuth asked, equally firm. Star took a minute to answer, but instead of words, she simply pointed off in the general direction of the drill, but nothing further than that.

"... She, Pearl, and the drill went that way."

"Both of them left? Where to, and why?"

"... I'm. Not entirely sure," Star said simply. As much as Flint was annoyed, he can't force it out of a Gem like her. All of a sudden though, Bismuth and Flint were moved aside by Garnet, the fusion feeling more troubled.

"Star Quartz, please. What did Peridot tell you, exactly? What is she trying to do?" Garnet asked, both her hands on Star's shoulders, looking her eye to eye without her shades. Star saw the fusion looking extremely concern, far more than normal. Star knew this wasn't exactly the message, yet she had to tell him. She must. Not something she normally would do, but she didn't want Peridot to go away like this. After all she's gone through ...

"Peridot and Pearl had gone after the Cluster ..."

The Crystal Gems had their share of reactions to this, though surprise was the overall feel to this. The most shocked out of all of them though was Garnet herself. Garnet though felt a swell of guilt strike her over her shock. These past few weeks, she and the others had been hard on Peridot over something that she forgot about, and they just hadn't been giving her the time of day to make up for it. Next thing they knew, Garnet turned and was suddenly running away from the barn, almost running over some of the other Gems just to get going.

"GEMS, COME ON!"

"Where're you going? We still don't know where they are!"

"They're going after the Cluster, where do you think?! MOVE!" Garnet ordered, and raced off fast to catch up to Peridot and Pearl. Not often does Garnet end up this panicked over anything, so they had to get themselves going. ...

*rumble*

Before any of them could, the tremors started shaking up the Earth! This earthquake lasted for a solid fifteen seconds, shaking the entire world apart. The barn itself threaten to collapse on them with nails and a few roof tiles shaking off it. The fence collapsed nearby, and flora everywhere was being shaken of their leaves. It was enough to get them into high gear, and take off running. As they ran, Flint got the communicator in hand, and trying to contact Peridot and/or Pearl as they made their way on the Warp Pad, and teleporting off.

.......

One quick warp later, and soon they were in the Beta Kindergarten. The Beta kindergarten, being in summer, was a lot hotter and drier than before. While the tremors didn't had too big of trouble in Beach City, the earthquakes here, caused by the Cluster, made the earth a bit more unsteady underfoot, the ground cracking open in several places as they were moving on their way through. Injectors had fallen over, and holes were split apart all over, probably explaining why the kindergarten was as disarrayed as it was. Lucky for them the earthquake already happened here, otherwise they would've been in the middle of a canyon-sized landslide. It wasn't the kindergarten itself though that Garnet wanted to get to, and she immediately got herself out into the arid desert, the others trying to keep up with her.

"GARNET, WAIT UP!" Diopside called. Garnet kept running like mad, until she finally skidded to a stop once she saw what was ahead, FINALLY having the others catch up. Just ahead, out in the middle of the desert itself, the others found a large, circular hole in the desert dirt. It was too big, and too even, to be of any similar animal, and as Diopside and Flint looked down in, it was obviously deep.

"Wonderful. They already started drilling," Flint groaned, as he went back to the communicator to try to reach her. Flint fiddled with it more and more, until finally he managed to get a connection. The screen showed Peridot and Pearl down into the earth, the lights on inside the drill pod, and the earth flowing upward outside the windows like a flowing river. Both Peridot and Pearl didn't even notice the screen turn on, a bit too focused on the mission at hand.

"Peridot!" Flint yelled, Peridot jumping in her seat. The green Gem quickly recovered though, and turned to the screen.

"GEMS, give back that drill this instant!"

"Flint, We're already drilling, just let us do this for you!"

"The only thing you can do is get your -" suddenly, Garnet had grabbed the communicator from him, her shades thrown off her head to show her worried eyes for Peridot and Pearl to see, both hands gripping the communicator.

"Peridot, Pearl! I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so hard on both of you! We all make mistakes, even I do! Please, just come back and we'll all go down there together," Garnet said, trying to get both Gems to change their minds on going down on their own.

"We can't do that, Garnet. The rest of you find a place safe until this is all over," Pearl advised. Garnet looked very troubled.

"We'll even heal you, just come back! You'll never make it by yourselves!" Garnet begged. Neither Gem ever saw Garnet beg for anything, but both Gems were already drilling, and they couldn't turn back now. Besides, both Gems had a straight mind on this one.

"Then it's been fun being with you."

"GEMS!"

Too late. The communicator went quiet, and so were their only chance to contact them.

20,000 Leagues into the Earth PT2

View Online

"Okay, steady, steady. Easy does it."

Back at the barn, the others had just managed to get themselves over back to the barn. The Mane Six, Steven, Connie, and Amethyst. The tremors didn't affect them back on the island, but they could see that something had happened around the barn one way or another, especially with the fallen boards and such. Even with that though, they were more focused on getting the now unconscious Jasper and Lapis over to the barn than much else. With no one else around to help from what they see, it was mainly up to them to move both Gems (which was easier said than done) over inside. It took plenty of Twilight's steady magic and the strength of AJ, Amethyst and Steven to get them inside, and they settled both gems down easy. Both Gems were placed down on their backs, side by side.

"I never seen Jay so worn out before. Hey, Pinkie, be a dear and -" before Rarity could finish, Pinkie was already standing there with pillows and blankets neatly balanced on her head.

"Thank you," Rarity said, as her levitation magic lifted both objects. In no time at all, Lapis and Jasper both were tucked in comfortably, heads resting on pillows and tucked in under their covers. Both Gems didn't react to much of anything, and they both did appear exhausted, if not dead. Pinkie hopped in and placed an ear onto Lapis's chest, trying to hear breathing or a pulse or something, but got neither.

"N-Nothing. No heartbeat ... NO!" Pinkie cried, streams of tears shooting out like fountains. Some were starting to get sad too on this shocking news, but Steven quickly tried to calm her down before her wailing would wake the other two up. As nice as it would be, it probably was best to let sleeping Gems lie.

"Uh, Pinkie, Gems don't have hearts."

"BUT YOU'RE ALL SO KIND," Pinkie wailed.

"No, no, Gems are lights with mass, you've all gone over it already, remember?" Steven reminded. That reminder made Pinkie Pie stop almost immediately.

"Oh yeah."

"Their gemstones look alright. They'll come back around eventually, but for now, let's figure out where the others went," Twilight decided.

"Yeah. They got some explaining to do!" Amethyst agreed. Some were already starting to head outside, but AJ and Connie were quick to get in their way, standing over by the open door.

"Slow down guys! Do we even know where they ran off to?"

"They went after that Cluster thing, where else?"

"I know, but where's that? It could be anywhere." Connie had a point there. The Cluster could be laying anywhere in the world, and who knows how long that'll take before they find it?

*rumble*

The tremors were back, and this time they were a lot rougher! Rainbow was alright since she was flying, but everyone else was shaken up on the ground. Everything in the barn shuttered, some falling down onto the floor. Panicking, Twilight rushed over to Jasper and Lapis, activating a shield spell just as a few items bounced off it. Steven provided the shield for the rest, and after ten more seconds of trembling, the world slowed to stillness. Everyone waited a few more seconds before lowering their shields.

"W-What was that?" Fluttershy squeaked.

"I dunno, but I think we'd better find the others, and fast," Steven said.

"But any idea where?" Connie reminded.

"... Lapis? Jasper?"

None of them even noticed until this point, but they eventually saw Star Quartz walk over from the corner of the barn. She was unharmed by the tremors, but a lamp shade falling from the upper level did end up falling over her head.

"Star, how long were you in here?"

"... Since last night. The whole group is gone now," Star said. That interested them, and Twilight galloped over to her.

"Star, where'd they go. Did they tell you?"

Star stayed quiet at first, but after taking a deep breath, Star looked towards the crowd.

"Beta Kindergarten. They went to the Beta Kindergarten. Garnet looked very scared," Star answered. The third sentence made everyone else worried a bit themselves. With Jasper and Lapis now safe at the barn, their work here's done. Good thing they already went by the Beta Kindergarten once before.

"Thank you, Star. Uh, maybe I should wait here and watch over them. Who knows what will happen while you're away," Fluttershy offered, sitting down by Jasper, a hoof stroking Jasper's hair.

"Good idea. We'll be back soon," Steven said, as he and the rest of the group exit the barn, and start to go off to the nearest Warp Pad from the barnhouse. Fluttershy and Star were left to watch over Jasper and Lapis from there.

.......

The Warp Pad got the group out straight away, and soon they were right at the Beta Kindergarten. The whole Kindergarten itself was more than crumbled up thanks to the tremors before, the recent one toppling down plenty of injectors and splitting up the uneven holes in the place one way or another. Without another thought, they immediately started looking around the Kindergarten for the others. If this was where they really were drilling, then it shouldn't be too hard to locate them if they didn't go down just yet. A pretty large group and a big drill was kinda hard to miss. And even so, it honestly didn't take more than a minute before they began to see the group standing further away. The tremors seemed to be affecting them too, as Garnet and Bismuth were moving a fallen injector away from the drilled hole in the ground, just in case if any debris would fall all the way down onto Peridot and Pearl. The others amongst the group were a bit worried over the fate of this world now.

"THERE YOU ARE!" Steven called, running over with the rest of the group. The other Crystal Gems did not expect any of them to show up, especially now. Even if Garnet had her future vision, she was too distracted to even remotely see it, and was just as blindsided as everyone else here.

"S-Steven?!"

"Yeah, it's Steven. him, me, and everyone else you left in the dark," Amethyst said, not pleased at all.

"Why didn't you say anything about the Cluster?" Connie added in. Not only were they surprised that they're confronting them like this, but the fact they somehow knew the Cluster by name already.

"What Cluster? I mean, this is just -"

"Fulgurite, don't," Flint said, stopping the speed talker. He remembered the deal they had when this all started, and he wasn't going to alter anything now about it, even with the drill gone at the moment. Flint cleared his throat to start the explanation.

"Ok, look. We received a message from Yellow Diamond a few months ago, informing us that a Cluster was buried in the Earth and would activate during the upcoming months, so me and the other members of the Crystal Gems had been busy creating a drill to deal with this geo-weapon. We thought since that little reveal back with White Diamond, we thought to give you and company a break from all this drama."

Well, all of that was out of the way, and rather quickly too.

"Blunt much?" Fulgurite commented.

"What's with the list then?" Amethyst questioned, showing the list they were given.

"Garnet's idea. Getting a few future missions finished, and to keep you guys busy until we were done here," Flint simply answered. Steven tried to think up of some sort of comeback, or response, or something that would make sense to this, but Flint pretty much covered everything in just two sentences.

"Sorry, Steven," Bismuth said.

"Wait a minute ... where's the drill?" Twilight asked. They saw everyone else around, but the drill was nowhere to be seen. All Flint had to do was point to the circular hole when the rest of the group got the idea.

"THE DRILL'S ALREADY GONE?!" Twilight gasped, the others rushing to the hole. Not a single bit of evidence that they could see inside the deepening abyss. Garnet had to hold Steven and Pinkie Pie back since they were peering in so far. Flint was just as worried over the situation, but he tried to keep it together.

"some Gems had a field day. ... It's up to them now."

~~~~~~

"How were you expecting everyone to fit in here?"

"I don't know, they shrink or something! You know there wasn't much time to plan."

In the drill, despite the situation, Pearl and Peridot both were actually given a break, and some bit of downtime. According to the time they had, which they installed inside the machine as a sort of clock, they still had about an hour or two before they'd even reach the Cluster, so this moment alone with just the Pearl and Peridot gave both some time to reflect on things. They only had the lights in the drill as their main source of true light going down, everything else completely blackness aside from rock layers.

"What was your original plan for this, exactly?" Pearl questioned. Pearl never really recalled the exact approach to this plan, but Peridot had the idea down pact enough.

"We have a drill. We're going to drill."

Yeah, not the most well-thought-out plan they've had. Really though, what other plan could they really do for something like this anyway? Facing against an object the size of the Earth's core of all things, options really were limited.
Conversation during their ride down was a rather small, and limited one, as they continued drilling downward at high speed. But even with speed to match a car, it took a long time to just get themselves going downward, the Cluster being so far into the Earth after all. Pearl only watched around in silence, occasionally feeling herself glitch ever so slightly. For being a cracked Gem, she held together surprisingly well, but that didn't mean she was completely all together. Peridot was in main control here, and it would only be a matter of time before they actually reach the Cluster.
During their dive down, the environment around them started to change completely. The rocks around them all began to soften and liquefy, turning varying shades of red as they began to enter away from the surface rock, and into the molten lava of the Earth's mantle. It provided some extra light in this drilling operation, mostly red lighting overpowering the small green lights.

"We've reached the lava mantle. Won't be long until we get to the Cluster," Pearl stated.

"Actually this is liquid Peridotite, but yes, we're indeed getting closer."

"Peridotite?"

"Yes. It's made from the same material as Peridots," Peridot said, watching what basically made her gemstone exist fly by her. Pearl knew plenty of things, but this Peridotite (the name unoriginal, sure), was something she didn't pick up on yet. It would still be a while before they'd reach the Cluster, so until that happened, Pearl decided to try some more small talk. What else can they do?

"... How did it feel anyway?"

"How'd what feel?"

"... being made on Homeworld."

"Pearl, you're a Gem, you know what it's like too."

"Sorry, sorry. Just wanted to talk for a bit before - ..." Pearl stopped herself there, but Peridot knew what she meant, and why she wanted to. Peridot sighed, and looked to the passing Peridotite.

"I didn't exist. Then I did. I don't have memories of it, just feelings. I know I can never go back to Homeworld, but it's hard. Not to have some feelings for where you came from." Peridot was quiet after that. Even with all they did, even with what they accomplished, Peridot still remembered the words Yellow Diamond said to her and Jasper during that core winter months away from Earth.

I want you both out of my city. Jasper, Peridot, I here by banish you both from my city.

Those words echoed in her head on memory. It'd been so long since she heard those words directly from the Diamond herself, but she still knew that she could never go back. At least she never heard any Diamond lifting the punishment yet, anyway. Regardless, Peridot glanced over to Pearl, only to reveal that a small tear managed to creep itself out from the corner of her eye. Pearl didn't know what else to say to her here, but Peridot filled in the gap after wiping the tear away.

"But it's fine. I have something else now," Peridot made clear.

"What's that?" Pearl asked, though she could probably guess what it actually was one way or another. Peridot needed a second to answer.

"You know. ... You. Guys."

The answer sounded a little awkward, but it still got the point home either way, and Pearl smiled to her fellow Gem. This Gem had come a long way from the moment she took her step down onto Earth from the main Warp Pad. ...

*beep**beep**beep*

And before they could even continue on it, the sensors within the drill started to go off. Pearl and Peridot took a look to the sensors, and it started to show that one small layer remained between them, and the giant orb that was the Cluster.

"We're going in!" Peridot said, just as they started to pass the Peridotite mantle, and into the deeper essence of the Earth.

For a moment, everything went dark. Not a inch of light from the mantle, or any natural light in general remotely revealed what was where, or where they were to begin with. Both Gems had their nerves locked and loaded, as they slowly descended down even further. The drill handled the darker rocks with a bit harder effort than the previous dirt, rock, and mantle, but it did eventually break through what felt like the very bottom of the trail. As if they broke through the ceiling of a house, or something. Being down so low though, it was still dark as ever, but the Gems did add a small light to the exterior of the drill for this situation. After a few minor adjustments, the small light - a robotic arm with a light orb at the end of it - started to give both Pearl and Peridot the needed light to see what they were dealing with. ...

An entire floor. Stretching miles on end. Gem shards all forcefully mashed together under a glassy surface, all delivering a rather faint glow of some lifeforce still somehow within them all. The very sight of so many Gems forced together like this made Pearl shiver, though Peridot was more dumb-founded than anything.

Then the lights started to brighten.

"Oh no. NO! I-It's emerging! PEARL, I-I'M SO SORRY FOR EVERYTHING! ANY LAST WORDS?!" Peridot shrieked in horror, as the lights and moans from the Cluster became more and more audible. The borders showed transparent arms reaching out, the moans of millions of Gems begging for a full form to be released free. Pearl and Peridot didn't even have time for that, the forces of the Cluster rocking and shaking their drill. Both Gems held eachother close, as a wave of light and energy swept over the drill fast, consuming them ... just to have them all starting to come back down. There was still time after all for any final actions, and Peridot was kicking it into high gear.

"YES, THERE'S STILL A CHANCE!" Peridot said, both Gems getting into high gear and getting action started. With the Cluster struggling to even form, the Gem drill was lowered, and ready to finish off this giant beast once and for all. The drill dropped itself from the ceiling, and landed on the smooth surface. With some quick activations on both of their parts, the drill came alive and jabbed the spinning drill right into the surface! For extra measure, two other smaller drill attachments, made out of some of the legs, also started drilling like crazy. The problem: they weren't working! The surface of the gemstone was FAR to durable for this measly drill.

"Come on, please work," Pearl managed to say. Unfortunately, that came with a horrid jinx. The drill only could take so much, and after a good twenty seconds, the smaller drills started to give and break off completely! Peridot and Pearl tried to keep the drill steady, but another drill then snapped off! It was too much for the single drill to even balance itself, and one lean was all it took for the whole drill to start breaking! Pearl and Peridot found themselves catapulted out, and landing on the Cluster itself (the only surface), just before the drill succumbed, and broken up completely, the final drill breaking off altogether. It spun around on the surface of the Cluster for a while more like a runaway top, until it finally came to rest down on the surface of the Cluster. Even with all that effort, not a single dent to show for it. no crack, no damage, only thing destroyed here was their only hopes of winning.

"NOOO! THIS HAS TO WORK!" Peridot screeched, trying to get the drill again, but with the main drill bit disconnected from the controls, there wasn't any time to even repair anything. Peridot tried to get her own metal-kinesis to fix the drill, but it just wasn't working. Peridot tried to lodge it back in place, but that seemed to damage it even more, to the point when it just crumbled down into metal. Peridot took a moment to stop, and realized something else too.

"... Pearl? Pearl, you okay?" Peridot asked. It slipped her mind for a moment when she fell out, but she had yet to hear a peep out of the Pearl. When she did eventually find her, the Gem was apparently unconscious. Amazing to say for any normal Gem, but the gemstone on her head was even more damaged now, and she wasn't going to be waking up anytime soon. Peridot was completely silent, and walked over to the Pearl, picking it up. The broken drill, the semi-active Cluster, the time they've all spent trying to fix this. ...

"... I'm going to die here. ..."

The little green Gem was gravely quiet, as the realization started to settle in. Her mouth started to laugh ever so slightly, but it wasn't any joy that came out of it. The broken Gem slowly collapsed to her knees, and then fell to her side as her laughs turned to weeping, huddling together. Peridot began to cry, her tears flowing down freely from her eyes and down onto the Cluster itself. There's nothing left she could do now, except for waiting for the end to come. ...

"... I'm sorry. I can't save you. ... I can't save anyone. ... OH, what was I thinking?! A tiny drill? REALLY?! This was doomed from the start. ... It's all my fault," Peridot wept, the only sound being her own voice echoing in the emptiness between the Cluster and Earth's inner core. Peridot turned onto her back, and looked over to Pearl.

"You'd tell me it's not if you're still here. ... But, if you can hear me in there. ... Even if we're about to die ... I'm. Kinda glad you're here? ... I really don't want to be alone right now. ... Aren't I awful?"

Peridot's eyes poured out tears of sorrow. She figured that Pearl probably couldn't hear Peridot anyway, but what else is she supposed to do? At least Peridot could say she got it out of herself. Still, what can a tiny Gem like her even do other than just sit there? Not a single trick she had gained while on Earth, or any knowledge she caught in any of her previous missions could save her now, or any of the Crystal Gems for that matter. That fact only became even more prominent when she began to hear the Cluster try to form again, arms reaching out around her. All Peridot could do was silently cry, and wait for the end to show up. The energy surged out again, lasting longer than earlier, but again, it wasn't enough to fully release the Cluster, and Earth still withheld for now. Peridot didn't feel hurt, or even if she did she was more worried over Pearl. After all, Peridot's stone was still whole anyway. The arms retreated back, and the cluster was quiet all over again. Peridot didn't feel as pleased about it as she was before, believing that the world was just prolonging the inevitable for a few more minutes. ...

Then something touched Peridot's forehead.

The green Gem didn't even realize it at the moment until she looked up, and the figure she saw made Peridot speechless. Peridot spun herself around so she was facing the figure, sitting on the Cluster and holding Pearl very close to her, as her eyes locked with the figure. This figure's body was small, humanoid, and vaguely transparent. No facial features, no complex details, just a simple humanoid body with a set of small arms and hands. It didn't even have any legs or feet, the bottom half merging into the surface underneath it. The figure didn't say a single word to her, and even when standing up straight, it matched Peridot in height so it wasn't very big, despite what this figure was supposed to represent. Despite no mouth, some sort of voice seemed to escape it, though it was a bit hard to tell what it was exactly saying.

"... You're the Cluster ..."

The figure didn't make a noise at first, but it did nod its head to Peridot's assumption. This was really the Cluster. Or at least, a representation so it can see Peridot face to face.

... Clu ... ster ...

The voice it did say wasn't a specific one, but rather than the voice of millions speaking at once, in a slow and echoed sort of manor. The figure moved a little closer, sliding on the surface, but Peridot retreated a little bit, holding Pearl close to her just in case.

"You're just here to watch us die, aren't you?" Peridot accused coldly, tears still going down her face. Still, the figure moved forward more until it was right in front of the terrified Gem. The small hand gently reached for Peridot's face, and wiped away her tears. Arguing just wasn't going to work, and Peridot quickly realized that it just wasn't going to do anything. More tears started to fall from the green Gem's face.

"What's wrong with me?! Arguing with the Geo-weapon, what good will that do? What good will anything do?! I mean, I'm just some measly little clod in way over her head. Yep! THAT'S ME. A little runt who can't save anyone for anything!" Peridot wailed.

... you ... hurt ...

"Hurt? ... Wait a minute."

Peridot then got it.

"Wait, listen, You can't reform! You'll take down the entire planet, and everyone else with it!"

... Have to ... Want to ... Need to ... Must!

The Cluster started to become active again in a fit, Peridot jumping at the rumbling and moans as it tried again, only to fail.

"Wait, wait, wait! Maybe you can work something out?" Peridot begged, but the Cluster wasn't listening to her. Suddenly, the whole Cluster lit up again.

FORM! FORM! FORM! FORM! FORM! FORM! FORM!

.......

"ARGH!"

Steven gripped his Gem, suddenly feeling a sharp sort of pressure run through him, sweeping over his whole body.

"Steven?! What's wrong?" Connie asked.

"I-I don't know!" Steven said, feeling sick to his stomach. Such a bad situation. Before anyone could catch him, Steven fell backwards onto his back, cringing from the pressure.

"Steven! STEVEN!" Garnet said, worried over him now, and rushing over to him. Steven's breath grew heavy, and strained when he looked again, appearing terrified. Everyone else didn't see it, but just past Garnet's head, Steven was seeing silhouettes flowing by, apparently going upward and scattering around. Steven could see one of these start to rush down at him, and then the lights went out.

"STEVEN!"

~~~~~~

Steven stayed quiet for the next minute, not sure where his mind had ended up, or what had just happened. The world around him was dark, and quiet. It took Steven a bit to wake himself up, but when he did, he was nowhere near anything familiar, or anywhere at all for that matter. At least it seemed that way at first. His body wasn't touching ground, and floating around in mid air. Around him, it seemed like nightfall, the space around him filled with sparkling lights from the smallest of shards suspended and floating around in the air around him.

"Where ... Where am I? Hello?!" Steven said. As he floated around with little effort, he did start to hear a number of voices but they seemed a little incoherent. At least it did at first, but after a bit a word did become easier to work out.

... Hi. ...

"Who's there?" Steven called, to no direction in particular.

... Clu ... ster ...

"Clu. Ster. ... Cluster. I'm inside the Cluster?!" Steven realized. Where else was he at? This realization was quite a shocker for the kid, as he continued to float around in space with these many little shards of life floating around him. He didn't even know he could do this, or how it was even possible right now, but he wasn't going to just sit there. The Cluster was still trying to emerge, and the world was on its threads. It took a little effort, but Steven started to swim through space, a sort of doggy paddle going on in his movements. As he tried to figure things out, the lights from the Cluster started to come to life once again.

FORM! MUST FORM! TO BE WHOLE.

Steven had to cover his ears since the Cluster's combined voices were so strong and loud. Even with covered ears, he heard every word crystal clear.

"To be whole? ... But you're already -" Steven stopped himself as another shard moved by him. This Cluster wasn't full, not exactly. And shards were just floating around in space for nothing. That's when it hit him.

"Wait. ... You're alone, aren't you? B-But forming won't work, you'll destroy everyone if you do!" Steven insisted. Suddenly the light show screeched again.

FORM! MUST FORM! NEED TO FORM!

"AH! Stop please!" Steven pleaded, feeling his body move around a bit. The lights and voices started to calm down a little bit once again, but when it came back around, Steven found himself in a different part of the Cluster. Looking around, he was seeing Gem after Gen all over the place, and an idea quickly got to him.

"You don't need to form! Look, you got hundreds of friends right in here. Look see? Shard meet shard," Steven explained. To prove the point even further, he brought two different shards together, and both glowed in a friendly hue. That simple act of introduction among new friends started a chain reaction from within the Cluster, different voices greeting eachother.

hi, hi. Hi! Hi.

"See? You can stay this way, and you'll never be alone."

... Want. ... To stay. ...

Then his back suddenly hit the very edge of it. What did he see when he turned himself around?

"Peridot?! Pearl?!"

"Steven?!"

There they were. Like looking up from transparent ice, Steven saw his friends standing above him on the impenetrable surface. Peridot and Pearl were just as shocked to seeing Steven as he was to the Gems. Seemed as well Pearl did wake up during Steven's time inside the Cluster, but all the same, the odds were uncanny at least.

"HOW DID YOU GET IN THERE?!" Pearl gasped, pan caking her face into the surface.

"I don't really know, but the Cluster, it doesn't want to form!" Steven revealed. That was an even bigger shocker to Peridot and Pearl than just seeing Steven in there at all.

"You serious?" Pearl gasped, excited. However, the joy was short lived as the Cluster suddenly became alive again, tremors shaking and lights shining.

CANT STOP! GOING TO FORN! CANT STOP! GOING TO FORM! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP!

Now they all were panicked. Thinking quickly, Steven went off and tried the only thing he could think of to do.

"I know, eh, here!" Steven went right to action, and his arms and hands began bubbling gem shards left and right. He knew the task was unorthodox but it was their best, and only chance. Steven managed to bubble up about five before realizing there's no time to get them all himself.

"Guys, you have to help me! We need to have it in a bubble!"

"Bubble THIS?! There's no way!" Peridot screeched.

Then, something started to happen.

It started out rather small, but soon they were starting to see the Cluster doing something no other Gem could really do. Little by little, bubbles were starting to show up, covering up shards around them. Steven could see the interior of the Cluster, and seeing a far faster result of bubbling, more Gems bubbling themselves and eachother. Steven, Peridot, and Pearl all saw their biggest chance ever since starting this whole thing. What have they got left to lose? So, with that in mind, they all brought their hands to the surface and focused as hard as they could.

"Come on, I got you. You got this," Steven said, they all doing their pure best. It was pure will now.

"WE ALL GOT EACHOTHER!" The three Gems proclaimed.

Then it happened.

It was hard to fully comprehend what happened next, but surely, a wave of lighted matter began to sweep across the cluster surface from where they all were. A mixture of lighting, hues matching Pearl, Peridot, and Steven in a valiant mix of stripes. Peridot and Pearl began to feel a shift at their feet, the Cluster itself working its own way of thanks. Using its endless arms, it picked up the main pod for the drill, and got Pearl and Peridot inside it. As for Steven, he began to feel his weight increase, and he started to sink down. He tried to reach back, but it wasn't any good. He couldn't see what was able to happen with Peridot and Pearl, before everything turned completely black.

~~~~~~

"Steven, wake up!" Connie begged.

Steven began to come to, finding himself back where he started: with the others back at the beta Kindergarten. The tremors didn't do any worse damage to the place, so that was a good thing. It didn't take much longer for Steven to get his mind together.

"IT DOESN'T WANT TO FORM!" Steven announced.

"What?" Asked Bismuth.

"The Cluster, it doesn't want to form, but it's okay, we -"

Before Steven could finish, a strange sound started to be heard from the hole they dug out, like a pressure of sort, or a jet engine starting up. Regardless of which case, it was increasing at an alarming rate until something blasted out in an extreme blur! Faint screams from two Gems came from the object as it rocketed out into the air a good mile, before it plummeted down to Earth. The object rushed down, and slammed down in a different area of the Beta Kindergarten, not too far away from the others. Amazingly, the object remained in tact, albeit a bit dented from the launch and landing. The thing turned out to be the main pod for the drill they made, and the hatch opened up, Peridot and Pearl stumbling out.
Dazed? Yes. Freaked out? Yes. Dead? Far from it.

"Oh. My. Stars. ... heeheehaHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

Peridot's shift in laughter proved they were alright, and both Peridot and Pearl hugged tight in joy. They had done it. They REALLY had done it!

"Peridot. Pearl. ... You CRAZY CLODS DID IT!" Garnet said, tears down her eyes, and she too gave her hug, amazed and relieved beyond belief that both Gems came out alive at all.

"What happened down there?" Flint asked urgently.

"The world should be saved now. It didn't want to form, so it should be happy. Now that we bubbled it," Pearl revealed.

Flint stayed absolutely quiet, eyes wide as dinner plates, and the most dumbfounded he's ever been since joining the team. There was a more immediate reaction out of the others though, cheers and joy abounding from everyone for what they've accomplished. Flint didn't react and stood aside as the trio got their appreciation.

"THIS IS SO PSYCHED!!! YOU SAVED THE WORLD FROM THE BIG BANG!" Pinkie beamed.

"Just wait til Lapis and Jasper hear about this, won't they be surprised," Rarity chimed in.

"Excuse me?" Asked Bismuth.

"Oh yeah, we forgot to tell ya: we fixed Lapis and Jasper on the way back, and they're chilling out in the barn," Amethyst revealed. Equal surprise spread to everyone around, and it was just a great feeling to figure out.

"ALRIGHT, two for one!" Fulgurite cheered.

As they were singing their praises, Garnet took a moment to turn to the most dumbfounded Gem there. Flint just stood there, trying to comprehend what he had just heard. Not only did two Gems they put in custody stopped the Cluster from emerging by bubbling it of all things, but also that their group they kept away from the Cluster had managed to save Lapis AND Jasper from their fusion Malachite. Two of their biggest problems they've had to get, and all handle under half a day. Flint would have his doubts of he knew that they weren't lying by their tone and mood about it. Some hint somewhere would say something to him if they were lying, but he didn't see anything with them that would say.

"... They ... they saved everyone ..." Flint recapped. All of a sudden, Flint started to sit down, a hand on his head, as he felt the most relieved in his entire existence. So much stressing over this, and now it was finally over.

"Flint? What do you say?" Garnet said, showing up right next to him. Flint knew what she meant, and knew what to do. The writing was up on the wall now. Flint moved over to Pearl in particular, the cracked gem looking up to him along with the others. At first, he was a bit quiet, but after a while he just gave a long sigh.

"I think it's time we fix you up, don't you agree?" Flint decided, a smile on his face. Pearl's eyes swelled up with tears of joy, and it wasn't long until Flint got his own hug from Pearl.

"Ok, no need to get that emotional," Flint said modestly. After all, he wasn't the one who saved the world.

"There's only one thing to do at a time like this. ... CELEBRATE!" Pinkie decided, pulling out a blower out of her mane and blowing it right away. That didn't sound like a bad idea, actually.

"You all can go on ahead. I'll stay here and try to fill in that hole," Flint decided.

"What hole?" Questioned Amethyst. Flint turned over to where the hole was, but it turned out a hole filler wasn't needed: the hole was already filled in!

"Oh. Well, nevermind then. Let's get Pearl healed first at least," Flint said.

"Say no more," Said Twilight.

Looks like their work here was finally done.

Hot Water

View Online

"It was so intense over there! We were only five minutes into looking around, WHEN SUDDENLY -- WA-PAMO! KA POWIE! Out charges mean ol Malachite, trees snapping like teenie bity twigs. EarthStone showed and was all "We're trying to help you!", but Malachite was all "RAWR, I DON'T LIKE YOU!" So, we got a ton of vines and wrapped her up like a present, gave her her medicine, and boom! Winner winner cookie dinner!"

For the first time in a long time, things had finally calmed down for the Crystal Gems and Mane Six ponies. Even if they were now back at the barn, rather than the constant work, the group finally took time to relax and listen to what eachother had been up to for the longest time, not hearing much of them since this whole Cluster thing even started in the first place. Much of the group, while not the entire group, settled down and listened to what they had to say. The one's who weren't present (aside from Jasper and Lapis of course) were Peridot, Emerald, Star and Pearl. While Pinkie's explanation for the fight they had with Malachite was childish, it got across fairly well. Even if that 'winner winner cookie dinner' thing got confusing for some.

"Well, something like that," Connie said.

"Connie, Amethyst, Steven. I'm so proud of you three! Perfect harmony in the face of danger, and in doing so, getting Lapis and Jasper back home. Now that was amazing." Garnet smiled proudly to the others. Amethyst, Steven, and Connie were acting a bit modest about it.

"Well we had a little help," Connie said, glancing to the ponies.

"We're just glad everypony's okay," said Twilight as she looked to the barn.

"Yeah, that was sweet. What about the Cluster though, what happened there?" asked Fulgurite. That got some of them hyped up.

"Yeah, come on Steven! Tell em what happened in there!" insisted Pinkie Pie, waiting for him to say something. However, Steven appeared a bit less focused on it than the others were, his eyes looking right over to the barn. Pinkie eventually followed his eyes to said barn.

"Steven?"

"Oh, yeah, give me a second," said Steven.

Soon after that, Steven went right over to the barn. He, alongside Applejack, went right over to the barn and opened up the door. Both pony and human quietly checked inside the barnhouse, and both of them saw Lapis and Jasper, still laying where they last left them. Both Gems hadn't got up since this event had past, and neither one of them tried to wake them up. Lapis made a small groan, but that was the best they got. AJ and Steven glanced to eachother in worry for a moment.

"Dang, they're still out of it," commented Applejack. Steven couldn't help but agree.

"They both went through so much as Malachite. Jasper tried so hard to keep Malachite from escaping, and Lapis with her cracked Gem. I hope they're okay. ..."

"Looks to me like they just need some more recovery time. Come on, sport. Everypony's still waiting to hear bout your underground visit," Applejack suggested. There was nothing else they could do right now anyway, and all they could do was wait it out until they both wake up. Steven could only agree to that and not much else, as he and Applejack went back to the others.

.......

*hisssss*

~~~~~~

The day lasted for quite a while longer, and onto the night. While the others tried to relax still from everything, it was Steven who still stuck around the barnhouse. For the longest time, everything just seemed quiet. Not a sound anywhere throughout the whole time there, and the longer nothing was happening, the longer Steven had to wonder if they'll truly be alright or not. His memory of that dream just before the fight haunted him throughout the entire time: Jasper struggling to keep Lapis down, Lapis Lazuli so furious in a blind rage, it all just looked so harsh to both sides and everything. He wasn't going to leave either one of them here, not until he knows that they're alright.
Late into the night, Steven stayed right over by the closed doors of the barnhouse, already prepared with his little caterpillar sleeping bag and sleeping the night away. At least for him, it was a clearer night so something like a rain shower wasn't going to be an issue for him here. As he continued to lay there quietly, he felt the urge to make sure again, so he got up to his feet.

"Lapis? ... Jasper? ..." Steven quietly said. However, there wasn't any response from within the barn, though Steven just took this as the two still sleeping. Being gone for months in an unstable fusion would were even the toughest Gems out. Quietly, Steven went in and opened up the door, the moonlight gently moving into the room. However, then came a rather horrifying conclusion.

Both Gems were gone.

"Guys! Where'd you go?" Steven gasped, rushing in. The covers and pillows remained where they were, though one side appeared as if one of them moved it to get up. Steven tried looking around the barn as best he could, but he couldn't find any real sign of any Gem anywhere, anyhow. Sure, it was dark and Steven couldn't see too well, but any sign of a glowing Gemstone should be seen in the dark somewhere, but nothing.

"What the? Jasper! Lapis! They couldn't had left the barn, had they?" Steven wondered. Lapis was a maybe, but Jasper was just too big to go past him undetected like this. Steven went all around the barn, looking around every nook and cranny of the place, but found nothing. Not even a strand of orange hair, or a drop of Lapis's water wings. Not a single implication. That's when a thought hit him and he turned to the covers.

"I see. They were so tired, that they went into their Gemstones to heal up," Steven theorized. Well, there was one way to find that out, and he went straight to the covers. He grabbed them both, and cleared them off in one clean motion, expecting to see a blue and orange Gemstone side-by-side with eachother.
Unfortunately, the results revealed nothing. All he saw was just the floorboards of the barn and nothing else. Now he was getting discouraged.

"Uh oh. ... M-Maybe they got uncomfortable?"

*drip*

It was then that he felt the drop of water he'd been missing, which landed on his shoulder in a single drop. It may not be too much water, but it was just enough for Steven to notice touch him. The only direction it came from was right above him. ...

"...L-Lapis? ..."

There she was. Lapis Lazuli. However, it wasn't the same Lapis that he knew of, at least by first appearances alone. The moonlight gleaned off her water wings, but not only were they still out, but also they were wrapped around her body, much like the way a bat would fold its wings when roosting, going over her head included. Lapis was upside down in this position too, her feet held up on one of the barn's roof beams by some water ice 'talons', and her back was facing away from the door. It looked as though she was sleeping up there, though Steven couldn't tell. If she was sleeping, she surely was a sound sleeper after his yells and racket below her.

"Go away," Lapis simply said.

"What? But, Lapis -" before Steven could even finish, suddenly a water hand grabbed him, picked him up, and moved him right on outside the barn before closing the door shut. Just like that.

"Lapis, what's wrong?"

Not a response from her. Obviously something just wasn't right here. After so long of absence, one would think that Lapis would be overjoyed on seeing someone like Steven again, but this was the opposite of what he wanted to see from her. Why would she lock him out? Steven immediately got up and tried to open the barn doors again, but Lapis had locked them up tight already.

"Lapis Lazuli. ..."

~~~~~~

The next morning, news of Lapis's wake up spread around back home straight away, Steven rushing right back home soon after Lapis, to put it bluntly, kicked him out. Not the way he'd picture their reunion really. It took a little bit of time, but Steven did bring back a number of available friends to come back and try to figure this out. The friends Steven managed to get, at least for the moment, were Garnet, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Diopside, with the others busy with other things too really bother right now. It wasn't everyone, but it was the best he had at the moment, so that was to be said. Unfortunately for them, when they did get to the barn, things looked a little different: the barnhouse doors had a sky blue sheen on the cracks, suggested that Lapis Lazuli had sealed the barn doors shut tight as to not be disturbed. Whatever was bugging her here clearly was something big enough to isolate herself in there, and with everything else inside. Perhaps even Jasper if that were the case. Even before they got close, they could feel a tingle of cool air touch them, a slight chill if you will, suggesting it'd been like this for a while now. The sight of the barnhouse turning into a freezer was a bit troubling to see, especially after months of separation and only a little time of reunion.

"Lapis! Lapis Lapis LAPIS! You in there?" Pinkie called, her hooves banging on the barn door, only to be met with nothing. It was clear she didn't want to talk.

"So this is what you're talking about, Steven?" Diopside asked, worried. all Steven did was nod to confirm, as Pinkie tried to get her way inside. She tried to beat the door down, but any efforts on her part didn't really do anything apart from making her hooves sore.

"Pinkie, wait," Garnet said firmly. The pink pony's attempts at getting in just wasn't working, but all Garnet did was simply point up to the upper loft, a prominent hole opened up still compared to the door. At least there was one entrance into the place rather than the front door.
They really didn't need much time this time around to get up there. Fluttershy, being the flier out of them, got up there first and peeked into the barn at the situation. It may have only been one night, but Lapis Lazuli had really altered the place, and with the brighter light of daytime, the barn had a far easier view than last night. And even if it was nighttime, it would've been easier to notice either way. From their roost up on the loft, they could see that Lapis Lazuli had altered the interior of the barn from wood to ice. The place looked more like an ice cave than the interior of any barn, a good inch of ice covering the area very well. The ceiling was covered completely, the walls partially, and the cold floor having very small patches of ice. Frost covered many of the items inside to some degree, if it wasn't covered in any ice. Fluttershy stayed quiet as much as she could, feeling as if she stepped into a refrigerator, and she quietly landed down on the floor with her hooves already feeling the freezing temperature under her hooves. As for Lapis herself, she didn't freeze in her state, but she was still upside down in her bat-like position, including the water wings still being out and wrapped around her. If she did hear Fluttershy come in, she wasn't doing anything about it. Fluttershy herself moved quietly towards the back of the barn in order to get a better view of Lapis's face (as best as she could get anyway).

"Oh my," Fluttershy quietly said, worried as ever for poor Lapis. Back at the loft, Steven ended up on the loft after some help from Garnet outside, alongside Diopside as well, but they both stayed up on the loft rather than flutter around alongside Fluttershy.

"Lapis," Fluttershy said, a little louder to try and get her attention. Lapis opened her eyes from under her wings, but all that came out was a groan.

"What do you want?" Lapis asked grimly.

"We missed you so much. Don't you want to come out?"

"... No thanks," Lapis replied. Fluttershy was as confused as Steven was when he found out, and Fluttershy wondered what was going through her head. Lapis closed her eyes again, turning away from Fluttershy slightly.

"Is something wrong? W-We know that you've been gone for -"

"JUST GO," Lapis suddenly said, the water coming alive again. The water grabbed Fluttershy and, as it did with Steven earlier, moved her off outside. The flow of water caught Steven and Diopside as well, and all three of them ended up dumped outside of the barnhouse, though unlike earlier Lapis didn't seal the hole shut. The trio were left completely soaked, but alright overall. Garnet had overheard what had happened in there, and she took a moment to think over what should be done. It was clear that just straight conversation wasn't going to get through to her, at least not now.

"Come on, let's give her some time."

"But Garnet, she just got back," Steven retorted.

"Exactly. Lapis spent an unbearable amount of time fused with Jasper. The emotional and physical strain of that type of fusion; I can't imagine. She's gonna need a lot of time to recover, Jasper as well," Garnet explained, left to wonder herself on what kind of struggle they had to go through as Malachite. As much of reason that was, Steven suddenly remembered something from last night.

"Oh yeah, Jasper! I don't know what happened to her, I think she left," Steven revealed.

"We'll figure her out, but for now, let's give Lapis some recovery," Garnet instructed. While it may seem strange that Jasper just got up and left, Garnet knew they could figure her out eventually, but for now, it was one step at a time.

~~~~~~

Time ticked on by, days in fact, and while everything had finally chilled out one way or another, it just didn't seem all correct. Steven spent his time during this to try and help Lapis out and/or figure out Jasper's whereabouts. both of which resulted in nothing to show for it. As for the Lapis attempts, Steven had tried to at least get her out of her ice cocoon of the barnhouse, but he was lucky to even get into the barn without getting pushed out by Lapis herself. Whatever attempt to try so far had only resulted in 'go away' or 'get out' or something along those lines. At least that was the main response.
As for Jasper and finding her out, it wasn't doing any better. Sure, Lapis may have isolated herself, but they at least knew where she was, but Jasper left no trace behind. not a message, not any clues, and even if there was one of those things, Lapis wouldn't let them in the only place where there would be anything so that didn't help. It was a bit of a shame. Jasper was still missing, and Lapis just wasn't herself. With what both had gone through, one would think they'd be overjoyed to be free and seeing them again, but this was just hard to take.

At this moment, Steven had gone off outside of his own world, and over into Equestria for a little while. The fact this just seemed to happen only made him feel a bit depressed about the whole thing, so Steven decided to stop by and get some fresh cider to drink up. Who'd of thought? Steven just sat down at the table, a cup of cider in his hand and chin settled down on the surface. He would normally get cheered up by the faces of the ponies around town, but the kid just didn't feel up to it this time. Foreign for him, to be sure, and anypony who saw him like this got that idea completely. The waiter pony stepped over to him.

"May I give you a refill?" the waiter asked him.

"Keep it full," Steven said, voice muffled because his face was in the table, as she lifted the glass to him. The pony took the glass and went off to refill it. All Steven did was sit there, trying to think on what to do. It just felt missing with Lapis not around. ...

"Steven. Long time no see," said a familiar voice. Steven looked over nearby, and saw that Derpy Hooves had stopped by, seeing the sad kid on her flight through Ponyville.

"Hi," Steven just sighed. It was clear that the normally chirpy Steven wasn't up for much talking, much like Lapis but a little less. Derpy sat down across from him.

"Something wrong?" Derpy asked. Steven groaned.

"It's my friend, Lapis Lazuli."

"Lapis? ... OH, you mean your blue Gem friend!" Derpy realized. She remembered seeing her time to time around Ponyville, but like Steven, she'd been and gone for quite a while too.

"Yeah. She had disappeared for a very long time."

"Oh no, did you find her yet?" Derpy asked. The waiter came back, and gave Steven yet another cider, which Steven took before answering.

"I found her. But she's changed so much. She won't talk to any of us or anything, and she looks so sad," Steven sighed, as he started to chug down the cider. Derpy waited until Steven finished up, worried a little bit over him.

"Can I get you anything, mam?" the waiter asked.

"Eh, no thanks I'm good," Derpy replied. The waiter went off on his way from there, leaving Derpy and Steven alone at their table. Steven kept chugging it until every drop got down his throat, leaving him a little dazed. Steven slammed his cup down onto the table, making Derpy flinch. Even if it wasn't anything like beer, Steven surely was treating it like such. ...

"... How many of those did you have?" Derpy questioned, hoof pointing to the now empty cup. Steven didn't even bother to answer that. His mind was preoccupied anyway with the situation over drink intake.

"Poor Lapis. What am I gonna do?" Steven sighed, laying his head on the table miserably again. Derpy wanted to help him out, scratching her mane for some sort of idea that could help him. It took the wall-eyed mare some time, but Derpy only came up with one typical idea.

"I know. Why not make something? something nice, and something she'd like. That'll cheer her up," Derpy suggested. Steven thought it over for a little bit, and soon a smile ended up on his face.

Now to think up what to make.

.......

"Lapis! Hey Lapis!"

"What now?" Lapis quietly groaned from inside the barn. It wasn't the first time Steven and company tried to call her back outside. It took a while for Steven to figure something out, but he did eventually get something up and running, hopefully something Lapis would like and enjoy, maybe enough to get her out of this depression bunk. Lapis just sighed, and moved herself up to the upper loft, and looked down to the others down below. ...

"TA-DA!" Steven called, holding something out to show to her. The object was pretty small, and Steven managed to find it while going around on the beach. It turned out to be a sea necklace, lined with some pretty shells he picked up while he was in equestrian, thus giving it some more pretty colors.
Unfortunately, It didn't do the trick. Lapis quietly turned away, and disappeared back into the barn. However, a quick water arm grabbed it and pulled it inside with her, and in exchange something else flew out from the hole. Steven managed to catch it, and it turned out to be a little letter of sorts.

Thanks

...No more, no less. And still nothing to show.

~~~~~~

After that, Steven found himself back at the Beach house this time. Instead of being depressed, Steven was preoccupied in trying to figure out what present would make Lapis Lazuli happy. Steven had a number of ideas, but hadn't gone through on any of them just yet. He was sitting on the couch, a sketch pad in front of him, and a pencil drawing out ideas for gifts. As he was going through these, the Warp Pad to the back activated, and Bismuth came back.

"Eh, still nothing. come on, Jay, where are ya?" Bismuth commented, before seeing Steven nearby.

"Hey, Steven, how ya doing?" Bismuth asked, playfully fluffing Steven's hair. Bismuth soon saw the list that Steven had in hand, showing the items Steven drew out.

"I'm fine, but I can't figure out what to give Lapis," Steven said, showing the list to Bismuth a bit better. The items Steven drew out all revolved around the sea in some way: a pretty shell, a boat, and the necklace from earlier though that was crossed out.

"Oh, is that all?"

"What do you mean "all"? This is super important!" Steven retorted. Bismuth heard of this little issue just yesterday, so she may be fairly new of it but that didn't mean she didn't want to help. Bismuth took a little bit of thinking, but eventually with a snap of her fingers, something came to her.

"I got it!"

.......

"Oh. It's you," Lapis groaned, seeing Bismuth from her roost. If she wasn't happy seeing Steven, she was just out of it when she saw Bismuth of all Gems. She was questionable with the others, but her discomfort (lightly putting it by the way) towards Bismuth was more established. When she did see her, she was with Steven, and something on the ground appeared covered up. What the object was, she wasn't sure since it appeared too flat, and oddly moving for whatever reason. Also, Steven looked a little dirty too in the arms and face, also for some reason Lapis wasn't sure about.

"We got you something else, Lapis!" Steven called, who was sitting on Bismuth's shoulder calling up to her. Lapis didn't appear too excited about it.

"And what would that be?" On the question, Bismuth and Steven went over to the tarp covering the object, and in one clear swoop of the sheet, the two revealed exactly what they had in mind for her. Turned out, after work on both of their parts, which explains the dirt on Steven and why he looked a little tired over it. The water was fairly deep, crystal clear blue, and pretty cool as well, provided by the nearest barn hose.

"It's a gift for you! You know, 'cause water's your thing. Pretty good, right? The barn's out here in the country, but now you can get your moisture fix whenever. Talk about an advantage," Bismuth explained, feeling pretty confident in herself about it. To her, it was more of a tactical advantage over just a simple gift, and Lapis could see that as her reaction was more than less enthused.

"Water? Seriously?" Lapis questioned, a bit cross actually.

"Yeah!"

"You do realize that I spent the last few months trapped under the ocean, right?" Lapis reminded, again not too happy about it. They both didn't need another reminder of that, but Bismuth didn't get the idea just yet.

"Sure! ... but I thought -" All of a sudden, Bismuth was cut off by what Lapis did next. Opening her wings, Lapis quickly dove at Bismuth, her cross and almost dark expression locked with Bismuth's own. The lunge made both of them jump, and bismuth found herself staring into the eyed of a scorned creature.

"It was an endless, crushing darkness. Wet, and bleak, and suffocating. Water was the tomb I lived in for those months."

Each word Lapis said stuck to Bismuth and Steven like glue, and as effective as ever in getting the message across, in an almost poetic sort of way with her wording. Bismuth's confidence was shot down.

"T-Tomb, you say?"

"Yeah. I'm kinda taking a break from water right now. But thanks... for the lake," Lapis simply said, disdain unfortunately, as she flew back into the barn without another word. Well, that didn't work. If anything, Lapis just sounded more withdrawn and distant. And it was troubling Steven more and more.

"Sorry, Steven," Bismuth sighed.

"It's okay," Steven just said, though they both knew that it wasn't going so good. What was Steven supposed to do now?

~~~~~~

That night, and things had settled down slightly, as Steven readied himself for bed. The Gems were doing their own thing (Lapis as the exception of course), so Steven was only by himself with Blue the Gem dog for company. After the usual routine, Steven was right at bed, Blue sensing that his master wasn't doing so well.

"Hi, Blue," Steven said, gently rubbing Blue's head. Blue licked Steven in the face as his hello, and while Steven did chuckle, Blue saw that Steven wasn't feeling much better. Steven laid down quietly, staring up at the ceiling in some silence.

"Lapis. I wish you can tell me what's wrong with you. I don't want to see you so sad anymore ..." Steven trailed off in thought on this, remembering the fun times he and Lapis Lazuli had with eachother, and how much fun she had with the others too. The ponies, the Crystal Gems, she had it all but now she was acting like none of it even mattered anymore. What did that cracked Gem and fusion do to her? This lime of thought trailed on through the night, minute by minute, until Steven ended up drifting off to sleep.

.......

"OW! What the?"

his dreams were not done with this yet. While he was in his room a moment ago, Steven instead found himself on a lone fishing boat. The boat was small, just big enough for him to fit onto it comfortably, and he found himself out in the middle of the ocean, not a single wave moving him around. Skies were dull in weather, clouds covering every bit of it but not a drop of rain to suffice. Steven tried to look around, but all he could see was sea.

"Hey, I'm on a boat! ... But, that would mean -"

"Steven?"

There was that voice. Steven moved the boat around to face the voice, and soon he found his target. Lapis Lazuli. Sitting on a very small, all lone island in the middle of nowhere. Sitting, thinking, and looking over to him in disbelief.

"Lapis Lazuli!" Steven called, moving the tiny boat to dock at the island. Steven hopped out of his boat, and went straight over to her.

"Go away," Lapis simply said, turning away again.

"Lapis, please. I don't want to see you so miserable," Steven insisted. Lapis didn't respond to that, and kept her sight away from him. Steven thought for a moment, hand under his chin, but then he took a glance back at his little boat.

"Let's take a boat ride!" Steven decided, presenting his little boat. Lapis turned around on the offer, but still not looking enthused about it.

"No thank you."

"Come on! I named her lil. Lappie," Steven insisted. Suddenly, the name 'lil. Lappie' popped up on the side of the boat, presented in shiny neon-light colors for them to see easily.

... And she was on the boat. The island disappeared from sight, and soon it was just her and Steven on the boat, sailing around the endless ocean. The skies were slightly clearer, but still cloudy above them. At least Steven had Lapis with him this time rather than a lonely boat ride by himself. Lapis just stayed over at the back of the boat, staring at her reflection down into the water. Now that Steven had her with him, and with dream logic to help him out here, Steven decided to take the moment to talk to her. He hadn't gotten the chance over the last few days, and this was the best he was going to get.

"I don't want to talk about it," Lapis suddenly stated, before Steven could even ask her.

"Lapis. I just want to help you, I haven't seen you in months," Steven said, trying to connect. Lapis turned to her friend here, looking more withdrawn than upset with him.

"Steven, even if we're in a dream together, I want to be left alone."

"Wait. You know we're in a dream?" Steven asked.

"Steven, I was on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, and you arrived in a tiny boat conveniently called 'lil.Lappie'."

"... Point taken," Steven said. Lapis looked down to her feet. Still, Steven didn't want to leave her alone, and Lapis could see that. Besides, even if she were to go away, where could she go? There wasn't anywhere in sight to go to, and she would be leaving Steven all by his lonesome.

"... Malachite. ..."

"Malachite?"

"I was a monster back there, Steven. You and the rest of your friends saw that in Malachite. All that anger, that blind rage, the corrupted confusion, all of that was from me! ... You shouldn't be around me. I'm too dangerous."

"What? That's not true, Malachite was terrible, but -"

"I'M TERRIBLE! I attacked the Diamonds, I nearly killed the rest of you - twice in fact! GO ON, TELL ME I'M WRONG!!"

*boom!*

The dream took a dark turn here. The outburst and anger changed the area around a ton: the skies turned dark with rain, and the seas turning bleak and polluted almost like sludge. Steven and Lapis didn't have anytime to comprehend or say much of anything else before something exploded out of the sludge, like a huge pillar, sludge getting sprayed everywhere from the splash itself. A serpentine-like creature raised itself high in the air, its shadow covering the little boat with Lapis and Steven staring in shock.

"Q?" Steven thought. However, this wasn't Quetzalcoatl, as it had no wings. Instead, it had a set of fangs, thick as elephant-tusks as it opened its mouth, full of backwards-facing teeth.

"Wish we had a bigger boat," thought Steven.

Then it struck.

.......

"GAH!"

Steven woke up fast from the sheer shock of the dream. turned out, much like the dream, the skies in the night were also a bit gloomy. Blue was still awake, laying right next to him with a very worried expression across his muzzle, ears tucked back and everything. A dream or not, Steven at least got a better foothold on the issue. The effects from her cracked Gemstone and the primal rage it caused was still haunting her one way or another, and she won't tell anyone else about it.

Steven knew what he must do.

~~~~~~

Lapis stayed deeply quiet in her makeshift ice cell. It was dark. Cold. Isolated from the world, blocking it all out with the exception of that one little part at the upper loft. Even that light didn't touch her, leaving her in nothing but a dark space of the barn. Poor thing.

"Lapis? You in there?! Hello!"

It was Steven, and she knew it too well. Sure, she could hear him just fine from inside the barn, which included the knocking on the barn door to get her attention. However, even with that, Lapis decided to just ignore him until he goes away. What else could she do without yelling at him or forcing him again? The knocking continued over and over again, and Lapis just wasn't moving. Eventually, a water arm was sent outside with a simple message engraved: go away. After a minute, the knocking stopped, yet ...

"Lapis. ... Please come out."

"W-What? I-It couldn't be."

That intriguing voice finally brought Lapis Lazuli moving from her cell, and over to the upper loft. She saw Steven down below, holding a note in his hand as well, Blue by his side and sitting nearby, but he wasn't the only one there this time. Before he had Bismuth with him, and earlier the others were at the barn. But now. ...

"M-My ... my ... my Diamond. ..."

Blue Diamond, and Blue Pearl. Lapis was speechless, to put it lightly, and on the upper loft, Lapis Lazuli was at eye-level with Blue Diamond. Blue Pearl stood at attention over by Blue, and Steven waved up to her, the letter waving in her sight. Out of all the Gems in existence, Steven managed to get the one of highest authority to many. The very Gem she remembered defying, and remembered attacking before. How he managed to do so was anyone's guess, but Lapis didn't try to answer that question.

"Lapis Lazuli. It's good to see you again. I was very worried about you," Blue Diamond said with a warm smile. However, after getting herself together, Lapis turned away.

"Really? But why? I attacked you, I attacked them."

"I know you did. What happened back at White Diamond's space station, it wasn't your fault. You didn't mean to attack us, did you?" Blue Diamond asked. Steven sat down over by Blue Pearl, watching Lapis and Blue Diamond speak to one another.

"Well ... N-No. I don't know. I-I was so angry, I - ..." Lapis said meekly. Then again, she didn't really know what she meant to do back then. Blue Diamond gently lifted Lapis's chin. Lapis looked to her diamond's eyes, Blue Diamond showing a slight blue aura as tears came down her own face.

"There, there. I don't blame you, and never had. ... The only thing I feel bad about is seeing you suffer. ..."

Lapis stayed quiet, feeling some tears come down her face. She truly was a compassionate Diamond towards those of her court. Still, Lapis looked away after that, the tears landing down on the ground. This blue aura, while faint, affected the others nearby, Steven and Blue Pearl shedding a few tears as well when caught in it. Even Blue the Gem dog got some tears down his eyes, the dog trying to wipe them away the entire time.

"How can you say that? ... You saw how much power I had the last time we met, I nearly killed all of you," Lapis wept, wiping some tears. Blue Diamond looked Lapis right in the eyes.

"You may have extraordinary power, but you know enough to control it. You know when to you just what amount of power for when. That isn't enough to make you someone worth avoiding, Lapis. ... You're kind. Selfless. Compassionate. Willing to fight for those you care about. ... You're a wonderful Gem, Lazuli. And many others think so too. Don't ever forget that."

Lapis stayed quiet, the blue aura slowly moving away, as the saddened tears begun to dry up on everyone. Such wise, compassion-filled words, and even after the creature Blue Diamond had faced before and she stilled cared for her. And not just her, but everyone else too. She stayed quiet and thought back on it: the attempts Steven did to try and help her over these last few days. Him, the ponies, other Gems, they all tried to help her, even after that all were nearly killed by her. And the whole time, she was pushing them away, not truly able to see that in them during the whole time deep in depression. They all care for her.
Lapis Lazuli stayed very quiet, tears now falling out on their own power instead of Blue Diamond, as she slowly moved back into the barn. It was very quiet for a while after that, but something begun to happen as well. The ice which wads sealing the barn slowly begun to move away, thus removing the seal from the barn door, and warming it up as well. Taking the opportunity, Steven did the honors of opening the doors to see what was happening inside. What they saw inside wasn't Lapis herself. Well, not exactly. Instead, over in the back of the barn, there was what appeared to be a cocoon of sorts, as cool as ice and smooth as silver, as blue as the winter snow up in the sky. The faint glow coming from within told them all that Lapis Lazuli had concealed herself within it. Steven placed a hand onto it, and looked back to Blue Diamond.

"Blue Diamond?"

"She's alright. It'll take some time, but she'll be back," Blue Diamond reassured Steven, as all three looked to the cocoon Lapis made. Lapis was the humble caterpillar here, now awaiting for the moment of relevance to become the butterfly. It assured Steven, but he'd yet to give Lapis Lazuli the letter he had with him. The only downfall here. Blue Diamond and Blue Pearl begun to go, Blue the Gem dog moving over alongside Steven. He wasn't sure if Lapis could get this or not, but all Steven did was smile, opened up the note, and left it right in front of her. It was the best he could do for her right now. After that, he and Blue both left Lapis there for now.

The cocoon remained motionless for a little bit, until a small bit of water gently cradled the letter, and moved it in so Lapis could see it before her true rest could begin. Lapis held the letter with both hands, and all she could do was smile. ...

To Lapis:

When I see you rise like an ancient sea nymph, a white hot steel pierced the deepest artery of my being. You, you are a cardiac surgeon and I am your transplant patient, and you stand poised over my chest, holding my still beating heart. Hesitating, waiting, wondering. So I implore you to join me for dinner, or maybe lunch if you wanna keep it casual, next Friday at the Crab Shack! I await your response as the camellia awaits the rise of the moon! 'Cause, you know, it only blooms at night and stuff.

Dearest; Jamie

Press Start to Begin

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Back at the Temple, things did seem to be going down hill for another Gem and her troubles. Inside the Beach House, the only two Gems there were, for a lack of a better word, forsaken Gems of the CG: Pearl and Peridot. Both Gems had gone through a rather rough time since this 'Cluster' thing got started, but Pearl had gone through a bit worse of a time when compared to Peridot. Yes, Peridot's punishment was longer (and she was stuck with her collar and leash still), but Pearl still had her own dangerous trouble with her cracked Gem. Being punished that way was simply horrible for her, and it easily showed as she tried to just do some of the dishes. She would normally do this quick, but her cracked Gem deeply affected her accuracy and precision, even after it had healed up (effects lasting a little longer, you see). She was stuck doing them a lot slower than normal, and some of the dishes even kept slipping out of her hands, falling into the sink time and time again. Peridot tried to help a little bit, but her own efforts weren't helping the overall idea out. The one who wasn't forsaken here was Star Quartz, who was sitting comfortably on the couch nearby.

"Ok, gently, gently," Pearl quietly said, trying to get another plate from the dirty dishes to wash up. She got it, but as she tried to wash it with a sponge, her previously cracked stone made itself known again, and her grip started to slip! worried, Pearl tried to keep it from falling, and Peridot tried to catch it too, but eventually the plate ended up shattered on the floor. Judging from the floor, this wasn't the first time this happened. In fact, this was the twelfth dish that shattered at her feet.

"AH! I can't do this," Pearl finally said, walking away from the sink in frustrated defeat. Star saw the mess, and went over to clean it up, as Peridot went over to Pearl.

"Come on, Pearl, cheer up. The cluster's been bubbled, and the others ... tolerate. Us. Now," Peridot said, trying to be supportive. But even Peridot's own tone didn't seem to be making Pearl all convinced. Pearl looked down to her hand.

"I hope so," Pearl simply sighed. she wasn't in the mood for sharing the details of the problem. What detail other than the cracked Gem punishment needed to be said anyway? Just as Star finished up cleaning the broken glass ...

"ROAD TRIP!"

Emerald's back, and apparently happy with himself. Of course, this wasn't the best time for his cheery mood, and he was quick to notice the rather depressing state of everyone.

"Oh ... Uh, this a bad time?" Emerald asked.

"It kind of is, Emerald," Peridot sneered. Before Emerald could go off, Star took notice of something in his hand, which looked like a little brochure, or pamphlet.

"What's that?" Star asked, looking at the object. Emerald followed her starry eyes down to the pamphlet, and presented it right to Star Quartz's face.

"Oh, just a little place I thought on bringing some of you Gem pals over to. Seriously, you all had been working like mad on this cluster business, thought you should take a little break," Emerald said, ready to go off whenever they were. When he looked to Pearl though, it was quick she was not in the best condition to just run off.

"What's with you?" Emerald asked.

"If you must know, Pearl's still trying to get over her Gemstone being cracked," Peridot informed, getting it through Emerald's head.

"OH! Ooo, Pearl, ouch. Had a bad fall from a Gem beast, or what?" Emerald asked, cringing a bit on hearing it.

"... Well. One did show up," Pearl just said, but she didn't go any further than that.

"We don't need any of your jokes, Emerald," Peridot quickly warned.

"Hey, hey, trust me, you won't. You're not the only one in this room who knows what a cracked Gem feels like," Emerald said as he placed a hand on his own Gemstone. Emerald knew better than any of them did about what it was like, remembering his own experience running around with his own Gem with a crack in it, including when he first met the Crystal Gems. At the very least, they're spared of his teasing this time. Yet, the idea of a vacation might be better than it sounds. ...

"Where is this place? Emerald?" Pearl asked.

"Oh, just some time over in the country, but I don't think you -"

"No, no, no. Why don't we go there, with you?" Pearl decided.

There was a pause for a moment.

"You Pearl?" Emerald said, pointing to the Gemstone.

"I'll be alright. ... not like I can do much, anyway," Pearl sighed. It was probably for the best. Emerald took it into some consideration, and after a bit, he came to his conclusion.

"Well, you know what? Heck, let's do it. You better watch that little gem of yours though."

"I'll be fine."

~~~~~~

With the night looking bright, Pearl, Peridot, Star, and Emerald were off on their way to this place that Emerald had in mind for their vacation. As far as transportation went, Emerald had that prepared thanks to some bling he got from his job, just managing to get enough to earn them a car. Who knew? The car itself Emerald put together had the basic look to a green bentley convertible. A bit older and tacky, but functional enough to get the car going. It was some trial and error, but after some consideration, Peridot and Emerald both took turns in driving the car, since Pearl couldn't risk grabbing it while driving, and Star had no clue how to drive.
Their drive took them further out of town, and soon the summer weather started to come around with the heat. With the top down, it wasn't much of a bother for the Gems as they drove along. However, while the weather would be fine for them, Emerald still took time to stop to gas up their ride at a roadside gas station. With Star waiting inside the car, the others went on inside the gas station for a bit. As far as appearance goes, Pearl had to improvise over her outfit, and used her own ribbon to go over her stone like a headband. Just enough to hide it well, and may actually keep it safe. Soon, Peridot walked over to Pearl and Emerald with some candy bars and chips.

"OK, we got some snacks for the road, now for some human beverages," Peridot said, heading to the cooler.

"Since when were you so into food, P? I expect that from Amethyst," Emerald asked.

"My experience on Earth has given me time to experiment with some of their consumable substances," Peridot explained.

"Never paged you as a food connoisseur, but, whatever," Emerald shrugged, as he was given a chocolate bar. The options the gas station had were varied from alcohol drinks to kid juice bottles. Pearl would help, but she didn't want to break anything in here. Sure, her gemstone may be alright, but the effects were still hanging around a bit longer than she liked.

"Hey, Peridot, give me one of those juices. I feel like drinking tonight," Pearl said.

"You, Pearl? Oh, here you go," Peridot said, tossing an apple juice can to her. Pearl got it, just enough so it stayed in her hand rather than on the floor. As Pearl tried to open her can, Peridot looked over to Emerald.

"So, Emerald, what's this destination about?"

"Oh that. I found this sweet place over in Keystone. It's wide-open, a bit rough, but vacant lots are everywhere. Last time I was there I found some sick places for skateboarding," Emerald explained.

"None of us brought any of those things."

"You got the metal bending, I got the earth know-how, we can work something out."

At this point, Pearl finally got her can open, the scent of Apple hitting her pointed nose. It took Pearl a bit, but eventually she took a sip from her juice can. Pearl only got about two sips down before her eyes glanced over to the exit, hearing it automatically slide open. Emerald and Peridot didn't pay too much attention, but when Pearl saw who was there, her eyes shot open and enough for her to even spit out her juice.

They weren't the only ones who stopped by this gas station. She looked fairly tall, about as tall as Garnet, and her body was thick as well. Not fat like Greg, but still a bit of meat on her body. She had toned skin, and her long, scruffy hair was pink, hanging off the side of her head. As for outfit, she had a sort of street look going for her: a white sleeveless shirt, a camo sweat wrapped around her waist, and piercings on her cheek and lip. Her eyes had a cool look to it, and she walked past the trio, Pearl watching her the whole way in silence and awe. Her drink did end up slipping out of her hand, landing at her feet. Only then did the two green Gems see Pearl, the tall Gem not even noticing, and watching the eye candy. Emerald followed her eyes to the only other person in the place aside of the cashier.

"Oi, Pearl, you still with us?" Emerald asked, trying to get her attention. Pearl snapped back to reality after a few blinks.

"Oh, sorry. It's just I ... never knew humans came with pink hair," Pearl stated, looking back to the other girl. The other girl went to get some snacks of her own, and after a bit Emerald got it right away, confirming it with a nudge and a wink to Pearl.

"See something you like?" Emerald teased. Pearl blushed up.

"Uh ... I'm fine," Pearl stuttered out. Emerald knew she wasn't telling the truth.

"Come on, Pearl, you got love-bit, I know it. Why else are you getting so freaked out?"

"I-I'm not freaking out!" Pearl snapped, her face blushing blue. Emerald started getting smug with her, leaning against the wall next to her.

"K, then go talk to her. I mean, she's right there," Emerald decided. It was one way to prove if Pearl was shooting nonsense or not. But Pearl was a little reluctant to just go right up to her straight away. Still, maybe she would get a little lucky with her. Pearl looked down to her hand. So long as they didn't give her any trouble, she should be okay.

"Ok," Pearl simply said. With her nerves up, Pearl began walking over to her, Emerald and Peridot glancing to eachother as she left. Seems this Gem was going to give it a try.

It didn't take long until Pearl found herself right next to the girl, the human at the point checking her snacks before she would be taking off. Pearl tried to think of something to say, but she wasn't doing too well. Looking around, she did see a few stacked cups next to her, so her hand went and tried to get that. A casual drink to tie things over. However, her hesitance started to pull the stack out rather than just one cup, and it started to topple. Pearl tried to recover, but it was no use, one of the cups bouncing off of the other girl.

"I ... uh ..."

The girl didn't pay her much mind, and just simply walked out of the gas station. Well, so much for that shot. Pearl had her chance, and it didn't work out too much. The girl walked on outside with what she had, and Peridot and emerald moved back over to Pearl.

"Eh, well, better luck next time, P. Come on, let's get going," Emerald decided, having enough already to get going.

Pearl, Peridot, and Emerald went on outside from there, Pearl's little girl already up and gone, as the trio got to the car. Star Quartz simply sat there in her seat still, watching the others take their seats. At first, it was a bit awkward for Pearl, the Gem feeling stupid for her little act earlier. Before they could even go. ...

"... That human girl looked familiar. She looked like Rose Quartz," Star finally said. That just made Pearl blush up even more.

"Wait. OOHHH. So that's what that was about," Peridot concluded, Pearl feeling even more embarrassed as Emerald started to drive off and away.

"No no no. Look, I'm done thinking about the past. from here on out, I look to the future. I'm a new Gem who likes to socialize with humans."

"Is that what that was?" Emerald commented. Pearl felt a bit annoyed.

"You weren't over there by the cups! I could've talked to her, the timing was just wrong."

"That and you knocked all the cups over," Emerald teased. Pearl flustered and looked out the window after that.

"... What's wrong? That did happen. Didn't it?" Star asked, only making Pearl more flustered up. A reminder was not going to help her get through this embarrassment. Still, Peridot adjusted the car head mirror to see her.

"Pearl, don't worry about it. Let's just go and try to enjoy the vacation," Peridot decided. It'll still be a while yet until they reach Keystone, so Pearl might as well do so.

~~~~~~

So after that little encounter, they were all off on their way towards Keystone. It was a good thing neither one of them actually needed sleep, as they were driving literally the entire night. With the ride came time to just think, and Pearl honestly had her own mind in a bit of a wrap. This new girl just showed up from nowhere, and all of a sudden she found herself acting like nothing but a goof. Needless to say, she had never felt this strongly for someone before. Or at least, not in such a long time. The next morning showed that their vacation was slightly delayed: rain begun to come down. They drove down the road with the top up this time.

"Emerald, you wouldn't happen to have any shelter for this precipitation, do you?" Peridot asked, a hand feeling the rain coming down just outside her car window. Not a good thing to happen on any vacation.

"Don't sweat it. I think there's something up ahead," Emerald said, pointing ahead as he drove to it, and indeed there was. Up further ahead looked like a building of sorts, and one a bit out in the middle of nowhere too. They all just saw the sign for the border of Keystone, just what they hoped to see, but what they also saw was a two-storied building right next to it. Guess the place expected wary drivers from Delmarva like them. Just seeing the place alone said to them that they're heading for a motel, outdoor swimming pool included. Though with the rain, none of them really wanted to go swimming anyway. Just wasn't the right weather for it.

"A bit ... vague," Pearl said.

"I'm down for it, let's check in," Emerald said, parking in their lot and getting out of the car. With nowhere else to go, Pearl and Peridot got out of the car, though Star Quartz still stayed in the car despite the rain outside. In fact, Star Quartz felt very content in where she was over actually getting out and joining the others, much like the gas station.
Emerald, Pearl, and Peridot only needed a minute or two before they got to their room for the day. As any motel would, the room was your typical bedroom with bathroom within the same place, much like the hotel room Peridot stuck in back in Bayburgh with Ruby, Sapphire, and Steven. And as before, the room was only for a little while.

"OK, not too bad. We'll just hang out here until the rain stops and be off on our way. We don't have much further to go now," Emerald promised, already getting comfortable in one of the beds. They might as well.

"OK, so what now?"

.......

"Percy, how could you?! Pierre deserves better than that!"

Well, Peridot found something to pass the time, along with the others, and that was Camp Pining Hearts. Who'd of guessed that a marathon of Camp Pining Hearts leading up to the season finale would be going on right now. Peridot's eyes were locked onto the Television, holding a pillow from the bed in front of her as she peered over it. At least Peridot was enjoying it one way or another, but Emerald and Pearl were bored more than anything. In fact, Emerald looked ready to fall asleep.

"How many more episodes does this marathon have?" yawned Emerald. Pearl didn't have much clue why humans were so deep into these sorts of shows. Sure, some may like it bit by bit, but she could never get this level of devotion to something like this. Anyway, Pearl looked around the room for a bit, but only then did she begin to notice that they all weren't there. Emerald and Peridot were there, sure, but Star Quartz wasn't anywhere in the room.

"Anyone seen Star?" Pearl asked.

"She's right - ... wait, where is Star?" Emerald wondered, looking around and not finding Star anywhere. Peridot was a little too deep into her show to even pay attention to them, as both tried to find where Star had gone off to. None of them had noticed this for a while, and who knew what happened? Eventually, Pearl and Emerald both decided to look out back to the car. They never saw Star since they parked the car, so they both checked that out. However. ...

"Where'd she go?"

Yep. When they looked, turned out Star Quartz was no longer in there! At first, both Gems were a bit worried. Where could've Star gone to? No one really told her much about security, so who knows what could've happened to her? Emerald and Pearl went right to the car in the middle of the rain, going right to the doors and windows, but neither of them could really see Star Quartz inside anywhere. Not in the front seats, nor in the back seats. Both Gems didn't stay out too long to check any further and went straight back to their room, a little wet but still wondering where Star Quartz had ended up.

"Peridot we got a problem," Pearl said firmly.

"What do you mean, Corley? ... Does that mean anything to you? ..." Peridot said in a dazed voice, eyes glued to the show.

"PERIDOT!" Pearl yelled, making Peridot fall off the bed in a yelp.

"What?! Wha - what?" Peridot said, her head under a covers. She quickly got them off as the other two confronted her.

"Star Quartz wandered off on us, I thought you brought her in," Emerald said.

"I thought you brought her in!" retorted Peridot.

"Why me? You're her mother," Emerald pointed out.

"No I'm not! ... Oh. No, wait, uh ..."

*knock**knock**knock*

Their confrontation was cut short by the knock at their door. Lucky they got that before bickering could erupt between Peridot and Emerald. Then again though, who would be knocking at their door in this weather? It took a bit, but Pearl eventually got to the door to answer. With Peridot and Emerald looking on, Pearl herself only needed one look outside to suddenly fluster up. Standing just at the door was Star Quartz, the Gem quietly standing out there, slightly wet from the rain with a little glean as well. However, it wasn't exactly her that Pearl was surprised about, but rather the girl Star Quartz was with. This wasn't any staff worker, nor just any random girl just stopping by, but instead it was the girl. The girl from the gas station, the Rose Quartz humanized counterpart! A surprise naturally, but Pearl ... well ...

*SLAM*

Well, Pearl just slammed the door on them. Ok. Both girls outside looked a bit confused on Pearl's reaction. The mystery girl glanced to Star, who just shrugged. ... Yeah, not a good showing. Again. Seeing Pearl freak out coming in surely got Peridot and Emerald at attention.

"What're you doing? Is that Star?" Asked Peridot.

"Yes, but, I-It's that girl again, she's right outside," Pearl quietly said, having her back to the door and looking pretty freaked out, her hands gripping onto the door as her face remained blushing blue. What were the odds that the exact same girl from the gas station would just pop up in the same place as they were?! Pearl was not prepared for this, but then again who would be?

"What?! The same girl from the gas station?" Peridot realized, just for Pearl to nod her head.

"Then why'd you slam the door in her face?!" Emerald yelled.

"I don't know!" Pearl replied, sounding defeated. Emerald, hand to forehead, went over towards the door.

"Out of the way, P, I'll handle it." Emerald took control and basically pushed Pearl aside before she could cause anymore trouble. Pearl kept her mouth covered and sweating a storm as Emerald handled it. Honestly, Pearl wasn't paying too much attention to what was exactly going on, and the longer it went on, the more that Pearl was worrying. She didn't know what to do. Should she go back and try again, or just sit there and regret? It took Emerald a few minutes of chit-chat, but eventually Star Quartz came in with Emerald, and the mystery lady was off and walking away. Didn't matter either way apparently.

"... Hello, everyone."

"Ah. Hi Star. Well ... where were you?"

"In that lady's room. ... She's a nice lady. She mentioned something about another twig lady and how she toppled cups on her way up here. ..."

Twig lady? Is that was she called Pearl? And the fact she even brought up the cups just didn't help her out much, and Pearl just sat down in defeat. Her other chance to actually do something, and she couldn't even utter a single word. Oh brother.

"A twig lady. Well, so much for that second chance," Pearl sighed.

"Chill out, you'll get another chance when we get there," Emerald assured her, smiling, though that didn't make Pearl feel much better.

"How do you know?"

"Because get this: she's going to the same spot we are! Apparently there's a little shredding contest she's signed up for and it's going on there."

"W-WHAT?!" Pearl gasped. Did it make her feel better? No, but it did make her freak out. The odds of running into her the second time at all was a bit of a long shot, but to have both heading right off to the same location was a shot in a million! No doubt she really was going to get her third chance again, no matter if she wanted it or not.

"W-Well what do I do? She's going to be there, I'm going to be there. Oh, do I look okay? M-Maybe I should try and bulk up or something? Oh, what am I gonna tell her?!" Pearl tried to comprehend things, but Star Quartz stepped over to her, and for a moment she just stared into Pearl's eyes. It took just a little bit, but Pearl eventually started to relax a bit.

"Thanks, Star," Peridot said, as Emerald went over to Pearl.

"Okay, first off: 'twig girl' is not an insult, you're fine as you are. Secondly, it'll be a while before we even get there so you'll have time to work your stuff out."

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but he's right. Perhaps this human acquaintance is a more open-minded individual. She didn't seem like she was insulting your physical form with that statement, right Star?" Peridot added, Star just nodding. Perhaps the trio were correct about that. If she wasn't as open-minded, her first encounter probably would've gone worse than it did. Pearl took that in thought, and eventually a smile got onto her face. In fact, she may have an idea in mind.

"I think it's my turn to drive."

~~~~~~

Well, the ride over to their destination took pretty much the whole day from there, but eventually they did finally reach their next spot, where Emerald had planned and wanted to get to from the very start. The group of Gem vacationers arrived over in a more secluded area within Keystone, over in one of Keystone's towns. Them, and Pearl's mystery girl were off and parking on a gravel parking lot. According to the number of people there for the moment, especially with the amount of skateboards and roller blades on them, they were at the right spot. Speaking off, the place where this contest was going to be was at a skater park, though this one didn't seem to be too popular, with a number of cracks in the cement, and some having weeds growing. This didn't seem to be much of a bother for many of the competitors for the contest, most of these humans being rather punkish and/or gothic in appearance. Hardcore typical far as they know. Their parking spot placed them right in front of the skater park, seeing that their mystery girl had already arrived and lined up for the contest judging by her motorcycle parked already by the time they got there.

"Now, now, I didn't do that bad," Pearl insisted, as they all got out of the car.

"Pearl, I know you're trying to impress, but seriously, that was bad," Emerald made clear. He looked a bit frazzled with Pearl, along with Peridot, as Star remained slightly surprised more than anything.

"We did not do that terribly, Emerald, your car is still in tact and functional," Pearl made clear, which was true. As they began to go in, Star took a moment to tap Pearl on the shoulder, looking confused.

"That human was pretty friendly. I wonder if we can play again soon," Star commented, making Pearl a little more embarrassed.

"Eh, let's not."

"Why? Didn't you like showing how well balanced you were on that line he made in the road?"

"LET'S. JUST. GO," Pearl insisted, her face blushing more blue. nothing like a little police test to put even more embarrassment on herself and effect of her cracked gemstone recovery.
So, after that little reminder, they were all there and lined up inside the skater park. Even if the contest didn't start off yet, there was still some people practicing their skills before the contest would start, some people going around on their roller blades while others practiced their skills on their skateboards. The skater park basically had the main gist when it comes to skater parks and what one could do within them: half pipes, bowls, skater ramps, that sort of thing. And there was no shortage of any of them, giving many a trier plenty of time to practice with plenty of room to do it in. Pearl, Emerald, Peridot, and Star all saw a number of these people doing their own game around, Pearl observing this practice with some intrigue.

"So, what exactly are they doing?" Star asked, looking to Peridot.

"Well, I think the correct term is ... skateboarding."

"The street term is shredding it, but yeah. Check out those skills out there!" Emerald added in, as one of the skateboards did a pretty good flip between ramps right in front of them. Pearl took a look around herself, and soon enough she found the particular mystery girl over nearby, practicing her own skills on the contest with her set of roller blades. Seeing the girl perform her own bit of neat tricks with her roller blades was a pretty cool thing to see, at least for Pearl.
It was then she got to thinking. Each time so far, she'd been pretty much screwing up: first meeting the girl and she stumbled on the cups. Second time, she slammed the door in her face. And you know what they would say about the three strikes, but then again, if she could get it right this time ...

.......

"Whoa, whoa, what?!"

"I'm going to try this contest," Pearl repeated to them. And it was a little late to say no, since Pearl was holding her little ticket in hand to enter anyway. Pearl didn't exactly get their approval on the matter though.

"Look, Pearl, I don't have any doubt that you can probably ... maybe do this, but, maybe you might want to chill after 'you know what'," Peridot suggested, Pearl knowing well what she was referring to. Pearl's hand met her Gemstone, but she took one look to the mystery girl to fully make up her mind.

"I'll be fine, really."

"Well at least get some gear, you can't go out like that," Emerald suggested.

"Emerald, you know that our bodies are much more durable than these humans. A simple fall of one of these ... "skateboards", won't harm me very much."

"No, that's the rules," emerald pointed out, a thumb aimed at a sign nearby. The sign simply said 'Safety first', and showed a number of shoulder and knee pads, along with a helmet. Well, convenient really, and something Pearl didn't notice when she got her ticket.

"Oh."

~~~~~~

Time ticked on by and as the night drawed near, the contest was close to beginning as well. Star, Emerald, and Peridot took a seat over by the designated seating area, which was mainly made up of some bleachers that were set up earlier that day for the show to start. A number of people were already seated, and the trio all sat together over in the middoe of the crowd. That way to see the show a bit better. Lights were set up for maximum view of the show.

"Alright, dudes and dudets, welcome to the shredding contest you're all waiting for! You ready for some rad tricks?" the announcer said, the crowd ready to go. The trio of Gems only wondered if Pearl will be alright overall, actually able to see her in the line up. Pearl ... didn't look like she belonged, to be honest. All the punks and tomboys, and here she was not looking close to it. In fact, she looked stiff as a stick standing there, trying to look as natural as possible with her roller blades in hand, which she decided to do over the typical skateboard. She wasn't the only one with roller blades in this contest, but they had a disadvantage compared to skateboards, which Pearl's mystery girl had with her. Pearl looked to her, the girl not exactly paying attention to her at the moment, a few people between her and Pearl.
Pretty soon, the contest started, and people were showing off their stuff. First few were basic skateboards, and performed their tricks for the crowd. Each one was pretty basic: half-pipes, 360 spins, so on so forth. The roller bladders before Pearl did their luck in the contest and held their own in their turns, though not as well as the skateboards and their results. They each had their varying scores and skills, some better than others of course, and then it was the mystery girl's turn. Pearl peered around the others to see her go, and soon the girl went right off on her skateboard. This gal knew her stuff, and it didn't take long until she was going along the path and showing off her moves. She started with some basic moves before heading to the bowls, and then did she go all out in her moves. Her moves in order appeared to be a set of 360 spins, a japan air move, and her final move being a backflip and frontflip combo! Not too shabby.

"Dang, she's good," thought Pearl. Once she was finished, the crowd applauded her, and she moved off past the remaining contestants. Suddenly, the mystery girl took a glance to Pearl, giving a smile of her own as she passed. Pearl could only blush as her reaction to it, the mystery girl walking away and chilling out until the contest would be over. Pearl needed to amp up her game in order to get this girl impressed.

"Ok, Pearl. You may have ... a few troubles in the past, but this is your moment. You can do this. you have plenty of time to work out your strategy in this game," Pearl thought.

Then the line moved.

"OH MY! We're moving already! OK!"

Pearl took her step forward, not realizing how quick it was going. Pearl only had so much time to get herself all set and handled, and with only two people in front of her, she needed every second of it. Emerald, Peridot, and Star watched the show continue, though they were more wondering about what Pearl was going to do. Each one of the contestants went on and were off before Pearl could realize, and before she knew it, she was next. SO FAST!

"Ok, here we go," Pearl sighed, going onto the main field. Pearl took a moment to check her surroundings over what she had going for her.

"Good luck, Pearl!" called Emerald.

"Don't fall!" added Peridot.

All Star did was give Pearl a thumbs up. At least Pearl had an audience and some supporters. Pearl saw the top of a ramp, and moved into position, putting on her roller blades to start things up. Pearl had no idea what she was doing, but looking back at the girl again, she needed to give it all she had.
Pearl gave a deep breath, and looked over at the area. Well, it was now or never, and there was no turning back now.

"Off I go!" Pearl said, going down the ramp. On her roller blades, normally she'd be in full stride but the slight effect of her stone didn't make the moving any easier. Pearl got out of the bowl, but everyone could see that Pearl was having a little bit of trouble balancing, and not going anywhere fast. Pearl can't impress anyone at the rate she was going, so she tried to get herself moving faster.

"OH, please let me do this. ... Think, just image something different ..." Pearl told herself. Imagining herself on roller blades wasn't suiting her, and while she did gain speed, she had to think of something else. Pearl thought it over more and more, and finally she got the image right in her head. ...
Next thing the audience knew, Pearl went from rollerblading to ice-skating, and Pearl was gliding along the ground on her rollerblades.

"What is she doing?" Peridot wondered, scratching her head.

Those watching weren't sure what she was doing exactly, but whatever it is, it improved over what she had been doing. Many of Pearl's starting tricks seemed to mirror the famous Swan Lake ballerina dance, Pearl making good speed on her rollerblades as she did so. The first five moves went on without incident, Pearl imagining the iconic music playing in the background during her act.
After those moves she went on faster towards a railing nearby, and rather than grind on it, Pearl did a sort of balancing act on it, performing some more iconic moves from Swan Lake on. She even made a few backflips on it, landing perfectly before rolling off and gaining her speed. It seemed her gemstone was healing up nicely if she was pulling these moves off without a hitch.
That was just her second act too! The crowd surely wasn't expecting a act of ice skating when they arrived there. Anyway, Pearl set her targets a bit higher, and went to the largest ramp amongst the set there is. This part had to impress, and Pearl was in the zone. The Gem gained speed as much as she could towards the ramp, and she soon found herself skyward, straight up. Then came her final act: the second she got off the ground, she went straight into a spin: a high speed corkscrew with arms wide open. This made her look like a spinning top in the air, amazing the crowd. Pearl kept her eyes closed during this part so she wouldn't end up dizzy, and allowed pure instinct to take over. She continued her spinning in the air, and once she landed for a bit more. Even if she was on rollerblades, she looked like she was on ice and she didn't slow down in any moment. She finally made her finish with a standard ice-skating pose, arms up high over her head, and both feet aligned with one another.

Her act was complete.

Pretty soon, the crowd gave their applause to her, Gems included. Clearly, a good result came out of Pearl's attempt.

"HOLY SMOKES, Pearl, you did amazing out there!" Said Peridot, the Gems meeting up soon after the contest with Pearl holding the winning trophy. Any roller bladder who could do even half of what Pearl did deserved it. Things had chilled out from the contest (which was no contest thanks to Pearl), and the Gems met up over back at the parking lot.

"Yeah, you killed it out there! A rollerblading rebel!" added Emerald.

"I've been a rebel for six thousand years," Pearl remarked smugly, which was technically true. The others chuckled.

"Eh well anyway, looks like you got your gem fully healed up," said Emerald, leading to Peridot chuckling.

"No, no, you're confused: she got her gem fully healed AND won this human contest in the art of 'shredding'," Peridot correct, still making Pearl feel pretty good with herself.

"... There's that girl again," Star suddenly noted. Sure enough, when they all looked, there was that same mystery girl standing over by her motorcycle, fiddling with her phone for a little bit. They were going to head back, so if there was a time to finally talk to her, it would be now. Looking to her face, Emerald could see Pearl's intention from a mile away.

"OK, Pearl, we all know you're cool. Just ease into the whole socializing thing, ok?" Emerald advised, but Pearl felt more confident now than before.

"Hold this, Star," Pearl said, Star Quartz holding the trophy for Pearl as the Gem started walking right over to her.

"Wait, Pearl, you should start smaller! Talk to a nerd!"

"Emerald," Peridot groaned.

So, Pearl started her approach and went right over to the girl, starting off her little conversation with a basic handshake. She looked almost robotic with her presentation. On the surface, at least to Emerald and Peridot, it wasn't entirely a good start to a conversation like this.

"A handshake? You're starting with - oh wait. Wait, she shook it, ok," Emerald said, seeing how the girl shook Pearl's hand. Soon, the trio saw that the two started talking to eachother, and by the look on Pearl's face, it was a decent one. The girl then started to chuckle a little alongside Pearl.

"Is she laughing at her, or with her?" wondered Peridot.

"Wait, they're finished," Emerald said. The conversation lasted a little bit, but Pearl felt a bit better about it one way or another, as the trio if Gems caught up with her.

"So, how'd it go?" asked Peridot.

"I asked her about her hair, and then she asked how I colored mine. I told her, "My appearance is just a conscious manifestation of light." and she said, "I know how that is." although, heh, I highly doubt it. Oh! And then I added, "By the way, I saved your planet, and your species, and you're welcome."

"And did it go good, or ...?"

"Not very much. She rode off after giving me some sort of code," Pearl answered, presenting the code to them. However, this code presented a simple message: S. 301-555-0189. When Emerald saw this, he was amazed.

"Pearl, it went great! You just got her phone number!"

"But ... I don't have a phone."

"SO? We'll get you one! and anyway, you just went on about manifestation of light and got her number like nothing! You know how lucky that is? You rock, Pearl!"

And looking at the phone number there, Pearl felt that she did indeed rock.

Heat in the Kitchen

View Online

"Alright, y'all, this'll do."

Stopping over in Beach City for another sale, Applejack trotted on into town with her wagon of freshly plucked apples, courtesy of sweet apple acres. AJ didn't had much time to get some proper sales going for her home, so she was trying to make up for it with a good strong sale here in town. She got a good start back in Ponyville already, judging by the sack of bits she was carrying with her, but some dollars from this world couldn't hurt either. She wasn't alone in this little sale either: Rainbow Dash was riding in the wagon she was moving, and the second they stopped over by the boardwalk, the rainbow mare hopped out.

"Alright, here we go. Ten seconds, time me," Rainbow said, wings spread. Before Applejack could slow her friend down, the fast mare immediately started zooming around the wagon, the vision blurred by rainbows and dust as the mare started building the stand. AJ had to hold onto her own hat as she was zooming around and making up the stand, and when ten seconds past, Rainbow skidded to a halt and allowed the cloud to clear.

"HA! What'd I say?" Rainbow said in confidence.

"Eh, Rainbow?" AJ stated. All she needed was a point of her hoof to show Rainbow her little effort. Being speedy, the stand ended up looking a little less than impressive: the main sign upside down, some boards misplaced too. Rainbow took a moment to look, hearing a board drop off and fall to the ground. Well, Rainbow tried, but AJ just went over and made the repairs.

"So, AJ, when do I get my part of the deal?" Rainbow reminded. AJ remembered that pretty well, but it was a bit quick for this deal to be completed.

"In a minute, now hold up," Applejack said, the impatient Pegasus not up for that. Rainbow did a nice job, but she just was a bit too fast to be considered accurate in details like this. Applejack fixed up the upside down sign, and once that was finished, AJ's stand was open for business. Looked pretty good for the orange pony, if she would say so herself. The seller pony got her treats set up on the stand, along with a barrel of freshly made cider. Rainbow looked pretty excited when that barrel was brought out. Such sweet, apple-y goodness just within reach. AJ did the honor of pouring a mug of cider out, right for her friend.

"Cider. Finally, my first cup of the season!" Rainbow said, eagerly drinking up her apple cider. Applejack just chuckled and placed a sale sign on the stand, open for business for her Autumn Apples sale. AJ placed her preexisting bits over by the wagon, and then flipped the sign to open up the place for sure, Rainbow finishing up her glass of O so delicious cider. No way would she ever miss out a cider drink from her apple friend. Applejack did promise a first cider drink for the autumn sale for RD if she helped out a little bit. With AJ distracted with RD, and RD distracted by the drink, none of them were exactly watching the bit count close by. ...

"Rainbow, don't forget, you're payin still," AJ reminded. Rainbow paused, and looked to Applejack.

"Eh ... can I pay you Tuesday?"

"RAINBOW."

"Ok, ok!" Rainbow said. So much for that. Rainbow got out her money, and paid up for the two bit payment, which AJ happily took.

"Thank you for your pay," Applejack said. AJ went on to bring the bits over to the other piles of bits. However, before AJ could drop them, one look and she found that there was something different. No bits. In fact, no bags of bits! AJ dropped the two bits she had in her mouth, trying to see where the bits had gone. She looked over the wagon and ...

"HEY, THIEF!"

Yep, a thief grabbed the money she had earned, and one look down the street and both ponies saw the would-be thief right there. Whoever thought they would get lucky on this little heist wasn't getting the chance today, and the thief immediately took off. Applejack and Rainbow Dash immediately took off after the thief down the alleyway. Honestly, especially with speedy Rainbow Dash, the thief barely got far and was tackled down to the ground right away. Applejack grabbed the money as Rainbow grabbed the thief, getting a good look at who it was.

"What the?"

"Eh. Hey girls."

"What in tarnation - Sadie?! What in hogwash are you doing?!" Applejack asked, not believing who it actually was. Sadie? Who would expect her as a petty thief or all things? Rainbow Dash got off of Sadie to let her stand up.

"Eh, nothing?" Sadie said. She was obvious a bad liar, especially when caught.

"What's the idea stealing my bits for, that's something I'd expect from Onion," Applejack asked. Sadie honestly didn't know what to think for an answer.

"Uh ... I uh ... Hey, Onion's stealing your goods," Sadie said. Both ponies had to turn ...

"... She's gone isn't she?"

EEYUP, she left. And this time, there was no exact place to follow her. Seriously, how could they buy that kind of trick? Well, at least Sadie didn't steal their bits a second time with that apparent getaway, but the concept was still a rather odd one both ponies knew. Since when did Sadie do the pillaging around here?

"... OK. That was ... weird," noted Rainbow, as both ponies went back to the stand. Applejack nodded in agreement, but before they could even go any further than that, both ponies took a look down to boardwalk for the moment. Their chase after Sadie brought them further down the boardwalk, and found themselves near both Citywalk fries, and Fishstew Pizza. Things looked fairly better, but both ponies did end up noticing something a little different, the first being Fishstew Pizza. ... Or rather, "Fishstew Fry", as it was being advertised now.

"Wait. Isn't this place that pizza joint Steven told us about?" Rainbow asked.

"Maybe. They look busy as bees in there, too," Applejack said, and indeed it was. Not exactly in customers, but with the workers inside. Looking in from the front window, they could see the Pizzas going helter skelter with phone calls, cooking, and who knows what else they could get. Both ponies couldn't entirely guess what they were saying, or what was going on entirely, but it was a bit different to see. Why would they be so busy with not as many people inside? Once more, the people inside were just eating fries instead of its namesake.

"Funny. ..."

"Order up!" called a voice from Citywalk fries. AJ turned to the place, and found a customer just got what looked like a fried up pizza. Applejack nudged Rainbow so she could see the result as well. So, Citywalk Fries was selling pizza, while Fishstew Pizza was selling French fries.

"Is it just me, or are things going a little ... backwards?" Rainbow noted.

"Yeah, something's up. You check here, I'm goin for fries," Applejack insisted, trotting over to Citywalk Fries first to see the situation for herself.

.......

After the customer left, looking a bit confused more than most, AJ went over to the counter, her hooves up on the countertop to see what was going on. Mr. Fryman soon took notice.

"Hey, AJ, good to see ya! What can I do for ya?" Mr. Fryman asked, enthusiastic as usual. The orange pony could not Ronaldo and Peedee working their hearts out on the object. Peedee was reasonable, but Ronaldo was a bit of a new thing to see, him working hard on the shop really. Applejack could tell something was up, and rather than beat around the bush, decided to get to the point.

"Hey there. You mind catching me up on this buzz? You and your sons look like you're workin to the bone," Applejack asked. Well, ok, not right to the point, but maybe she'll get her answer anyway.

"Right on that, AJ. I'm making sure to win this war, and put Pizza head over there out of town," Mr. Fryman said confidently. Rather odd since AJ never seen him and Pizza really had a tiff before, last time they checked.

"Well, uh, good luck with that," AJ said simply.

"thanks. Hey, can I interest you in today's special? I call it the fried deep," said Mr. Fryman, basically presenting a friend deep dish pizza. AJ was in no mood to try that kind of food, fried or not, and she just waved her hoof.

"Nah, I'm good. thank y'all anyway," AJ said, starting to head off on her way.

.......

At fish stew pizza, Rainbow did her own little check in with the place. Over in the back of the building, one of the workers went on outside with an order of fries for delivery, even if the box was still pizza since that was all they had. Go figure. Out just behind the building, a tired Kiki Pizza was just about ready to head off on her way, when Rainbow trotted out in sight.

"HEY, RD, long time no see," said Kiki.

"Hey, Kiki. So, what's up? Looks like you and Fryman over there are going nuts," Rainbow pointed out. not entirely tactful, but it jumped to the point more bluntly. Kiki wiped some sweat off her forehead, and took a glance down the road to Fryman's place.

"Eh, yeah, both he and my dad are stuck in a restaurant war. My dad's got me and my sister working our butts off trying to outdo him. I haven't got a good night sleep IN WEEKS," Kiki explained.

"A restaurant war?" Rainbow repeated. However, the concept sounded just silly, and she ended up just laughing. "Come on, you're not the one to jump the shark like that. Seriously, what would spark up a war like that?" Clearly Rainbow wasn't taking it seriously. But before Kiki could answer, suddenly the back door swung open, and RD and Kiki both jump when Kofi Pizza stood there.

"Kiki! We got those orders to make, stop wasting time with that colored horse and go!" Kofi ordered.

"Ok, ok! catch ya later," Kiki said to Rainbow, before going off to do the delivery. Well, Rainbow didn't get her direct answer, but guess Kofi was more serious about this more than most. Kofi nodded, and went back in the restaurant.

"What a tightwad," Rainbow commented, as she moved off.

.......

"So, both places are at eachother's throats right now?" summed up Rainbow.

"Looks like it. Dunno why, both went so well before we left on our monster roundup," Applejack said. After their little venture with both places, they both met back up at AJ's stand, and apparently, both sides of the story were pretty much the same thing: both sides are trying to outdo eachother over some sort of 'Restaurant War'.

"Oh great! First Lapis is stuck in the barn, then Jasper takes off, and now Beach City's acting out of whack! Seriously, can't we catch a break, or what?" Rainbow griped. As if their previous troubles weren't enough to deal with, they got this piled up on them.

"Ok, don't get your tail in a knot. I'll finish up sellin, and then we'll try to fix this," Applejack decided. Though, it was going to be a little bit before they could end up getting things all settled. Work was work, and that had to be handled first.

~~~~~~

And cut to the next day, and the situation was now brought onto those involved. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both met up with Ronaldo, Kiki, Jenny, and Peedee. Mr. Fryman and Kofi Pizza were a bit too busy to really notice their absence, mainly because of the whole war thing going on. To make sure they were more secure, The group all met up at AJ's barn. They'd go to Lapis's barn, but it wasn't the best time to head over that way. So, the four humans and two ponies now had to try and figure things out in the long run.

"Thank y'all for coming Ronaldo, Jenny, Kiki, Peedee. Think we're all aware of why we got y'all here," Applejack started, walking back and forth past the four humans. Rainbow Dash sat over nearby on one of the hay bales.

"This war has to stop!" Rainbow said.

"How do you think we feel, RD? You know how many concerts I had to miss because of this war?" Jenny brought up.

"How many?" Kiki questioned.

"... One?"

"You know how much blogging I haven't been able to do?!" Ronaldo added, obviously angry himself. both ponies didn't know what blogging was exactly, but it still had the result in it one way or another.

"Calm down, everypony, we'll fix this I promise. First things first: anypony care to say what even started this scuffle?" AJ asked. It took a little bit for them to remember what triggered this, Peedee looking surprisingly guilty.

"Peedee, what's up?"

"A customer wanted something different from Citywalk Fries, and I gave her some mozzarella sticks and sauce. I broke our pact," Peedee said, feeling bad for even doing the order in the first place.

"Pact? What pact?"

"Years ago, our parents had signed a treaty to never try to steal eachother's business. When I made that order, all that did was ignite the boiling oil of war," explained Peedee. And by the sound of his voice, it seemed pretty important whatever this treaty was.

"OK, I'll just say it, you guys are WAY too deep into this," Rainbow pointed out. AJ quieted Rainbow down with a whack of her hoof to the back of her head. True as it may be, that's not a good thing to say, nor would it fix anything.

"While I dunno a thing about this sticks and sauce, I promise you we'll all work it out."

"How? There's no end in sight to our parent's fighting," pointed out Peedee. If this war lasted this long, it made a bit of sense to think so. They all tried to figure something out in this, AJ having basic experience when it came to this rival business stuff. Eventually, AJ then got a little idea of her own.

"I know, let's just fight fire with water," AJ decided.

"Don't you mean fire with fire?" asked Kiki.

"Nah, listen. Your folks only seem mad at eachother, but they like their own kids, right? I mean, y'all get along pretty good, don't ya? Get the folks to see that, and maybe it'll be enough to have em stop their little fight right there," Applejack explained. Not too bad of an idea in her eyes. Friendship worked wonders in Equestria, why won't it work in their world?

"It might work," Kiki concluded.

"Right. Now, here's what we'll do ..."

Unfortunately, at least for them, two scheming eavesdropping snakes slithered over to the barn, and stayed hidden just out of the way. Acid and Cyanide had been some rather busy bees for quite a while now, and hearing this starting to be touched upon by the friendship horses caught their interested.

"Shall we?" asked Cyanide.

"I think we shall." replied Acid.

.......

Their first plan went into action over that afternoon. And, even if the menus had been switched up, this was when Fish Stew Pizza was at its busiest, something Citywalk Fries had a more natural disadvantage over. Or at least that was the normal case, but since the food wars started, the customers coming in and out were a bit less than before. That didn't mean ol Kofi Pizza wasn't busy as ever with it. Rainbow peeked in and made sure that Kofi Pizza was indeed too busy to notice much. When that was confirmed she flew straight behind the building, and back to the others. Kiki, oddly, was underneath some nearby boxes, and quite a number of them and pretty heavy too.

"OK, run by the plan again?" Asked Kiki.

"We're playing the role of the hero and damsel: Ronaldo, you're going back to Citywalk Fries when you heard this crash from out front,. You come in and find Kiki trapped underneath these boxes. you come in, Kofi will see you get rescued, and hopefully that'll be enough to stop the war."

"Hopefully?" Peedee questioned.

"Well, it's worth a shot."

"I .. got a bad feeling about this," Ronaldo said.

"Shut up Ronaldo! Nothing bad is really going to happen, and you get to save the cutest girl in Beach City!" said Jenny, referring to her twin sister. While a nice compliment, being stuck underneath some heavy boxes was a bit of a different approach, but if it works, it'll be worth it. All Ronaldo had to do was save Kiki from this mess. As the ponies got into position, so did Acid and Cyanide, slipping in just behind the other boxes not too far away. Rainbow and Peedee moved just out of the way, Applejack moving into positon for this to get started.

"Get ready Ronaldo," said Peedee. Ronaldo got his act together, and then came the trigger: AJ brought her hooves up to the extra boxes, and shoved them all down, all crashing with a loud banging noise. Jenny made her move from there, and rushed inside to get Kofi. The ponies and Peedee hid off out of the way, and Ronaldo was ready to get moving. When Jenny raced in, Ronaldo got his breath to quicken, and then rushed to Kiki's supposed rescue. However, just before he could ...

Bam! All of a sudden, Ronaldo felt something whack his leg, and next thing they knew, Ronaldo stumbled onto the boxes! Bad time to be clumsy.

"Ronaldo, get off before -"

"HEY!"

Too late. Jenny got Kofi to the back, but unfortunately this supposed rescue didn't turn out like they hoped. Kofi moved straight over to Ronaldo, forced him off the boxes, and pulled his daughter out with ease. Kofi stared daggers at Ronaldo.

"You think you can cripple my business that easy?! You got another thing coming!" Kofi snapped. Well, Kofi's assumptions were far from what they wanted, and so Kofi brought Kiki straight into the restaurant alongside Jenny. Ronaldo didn't even get time to explain himself to Kofi before the door was slammed in his face. Once the twins left, Peedee, Rainbow, and AJ went out of hiding.

"What the hay was that, Ronaldo?!" Rainbow Dash snapped.

"That wasn't me, I swear. Something hit my leg," Ronaldo insisted.

"Ok, ok, so the first time didn't work. We'll meet up later and try again," AJ decided.

~~~~~~

So, their first attempt didn't work, and so they all went off again back to Equestria next day to try and think up what to do about this. Rather than the barn this time, they met up over by Sugarcube corner. There wasn't really much in terms of seating, Peedee being the only one who was actually comfortable in said seats while the other three were just a little too big for it. Well, at least not many ponies were going to bother them here. AJ and Rainbow also met them up there, ordering a round of milkshakes for them to try, and this gave them time to get plan B going. Whatever happened in plan A was a bit problematic, and AJ had the idea it may or may not work out anyway.

"OK, so the damsel in distress didn't work. Any other ideas?" asked Rainbow, as AJ sipped her milkshake.

"Well I'm up for anything, just to get this war to stop," said Kiki.

"We could try to get one of them to save another instead?" suggested Peedee.

"Don't think Kofi's willing to save Ronaldo or you after earlier," admitted Rainbow. Good points are good, and they had to agree on that. If anything, that might make the situation worse. As they tried to figure something out, one pink pony was suddenly right over in between Ronaldo and Jenny.

"HI!"

Jenny and Ronaldo jumped aside to let Pinkie Pie come in. What other pink pony would do that unprovoked like that?

"Oh, hey Pinkie," said Rainbow Dash. The pink mare was quick to hear about the situation, or at least what they were talking about over by the counter, and she just wasn't going to stand by and see their faces all down and pouty.

"Why the LOOOOONG Face?" Pinkie asked, her hooves on Jenny's face to emphasize the term.

"Their families are having a problem with eachother, and we're trying to fix it. Got any ideas?" Rainbow asked. If anypony were to know anything about making people happy, it would be the party pony Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie took some very deep thought about it, in a pose not dissimilar to the thinker. She stayed this way for a good three seconds, her gears working hard until she finally got the idea popped in her head.

"Pinkie Pie gots an idea!" Pinkie said, lightbulb lighting up over her head. ... and the lightbulb landing in Peedee's hands.

"Where'd this come from?"

"Best you don't ask," Rainbow quietly said. No way were any of them going to at least attempt to question Pinkie Pie's antics, or odd occurrences for the life of them, no reason to start now. But anyway, Pinkie Pie hopped up onto the table to get their attention, making sure to not knock over any of their milkshakes.

"Ronaldo, Kiki, you two are right next to eachother. You two should pretend to be in love! Families can't fight when planning for a wedding!"

... Wait, what? They just tried one stunt with the two earlier, now they had to make them in a wedding setting? Kiki was unsure slightly, but she did say she'll try anything to get the war to stop. As for Ronaldo, he was a bit more forceful with that.

"No way! We can do this," Ronaldo insisted.

"Why not?"

"Because I ... have a girlfriend!" Ronaldo announced.

"Where's she at, though?" asked Jenny.

"You said what I was thinking," replied Peedee.

"Don't pretend to be married, silly! Just be in love and your family will be happy for everypony!" Pinkie cleared up. She still had a job to do of her own, so Pinkie Pie hopped off to get some baked goods going for today. Well, with little plan for the moment, what else could they do? They might as well give it a shot if it meant to stop this war. ...

.......

Next thing they knew, they were back into the swing of things and back on the boardwalk. As they would expect, Fryman and Kofi were as busy as ever, trying to outdo eachother one way or another, the group out and ready to start. As they were busy, Ronaldo and Kiki were up and ready to act, both of them having bouquets of flowers in their hands.

"Oh, Kiki my darling,~" Ronaldo started, holding out the flowers in a sort of dramatic way to push the point forward. Kiki went over with the same type of flowers behind her back.

"Oh, Ronaldo my sweet,~" said Kiki, running towards him. It didn't take too long til both were right in front of eachother, all smiles. The others stayed off side and observing the situation not too far away, keeping themselves hidden away as best they could to see if this'll work. As they went to each other, Mr. Fryman and Kofi Pizza were quick to see them approach one another.

"My dear, sweet Kiki. I love you with all my blog,~" said Ronaldo. Mr. Fryman looked especially confused as Kiki giggled.

"Oh, Ronaldo, you're so sweet and quirky in a way I can tolerate,~" said Kiki. While Mr. Fryman was confused, Kofi was more than quick to run out the door to his daughter.

"What're you doing?! You're supposed to be a your shift!" Kofi yelled.

"you too Ronaldo, we got customers!" added in Mr. Fryman.

"But, Dad, ever since this war started, I've had to spend countless hours away from my beloved Kiki.~" said Ronaldo, acting dramatic to spice it up.

"What?!"

"It's true. The only way for us to be together is if we quit working! We have been together for some time now," said Kiki, sounding true and sincere, and even holding Ronaldo's hand for good measure. A rather convincing move, admittedly. Kofi though was a little suspicious, and looked to Ronaldo.

"Mm-hmmm! You two are only hugging, right?"

"Uh, yes, sir! Just hugs and longing looks," Ronaldo replied, a few nervous chuckles escaping him, though that could be from yesterday when Kofi accused him of hurting the same girl. Kofi had to think hard on this.

"Well, Kofi, love is a beautiful thing," Mr. Fryman admitted.

"Yes, love is beautiful. We must end this feud in order for this love to blossom!" agreed Kofi. Yes, this is looking good. Will it be enough to be sure?

Yeah! The restaurant war is officially -"

"R-Ronaldo?"

Oh no. They all looked on, and soon there was another person who saw this little endeavor go on. She had shoulder-length rosewood-brown hair with teal-green eyes and a matching hair clip. She also wore a red uniform with a white name tag, and freckles below her eyes. By the look on her face as well, she was appearing rather heartbroken by the sight, Ronaldo looking both shocked and blushing a ton. Oh, what're the odds?!

"Ronaldo? I come all this way to return your Koala Princess DVD's just to find you with another girl?" she asked, sounding shocked at the whole thing.

"Whaaaaaaaat?!" Jenny, RD, AJ, and Peedee said quietly. And here they thought Ronaldo was kidding!

"Jane! Jane, my sweet, I-It's not what you think! It's just a trick to get my dad to stop selling -"

"Save it for your blog: Keep Beach City Single!" AND with that, Jane turned, dropped the DVDs, and left a heartbroken Ronaldo on the boardwalk. Well, not only did Ronaldo lose a girlfriend, but they were exposed of this little game they were playing. Fryman and Kofi both crossed arms, and moved right back to their establishments, flames ignited again.

"The deal is off!" shouted Kofi.

"Fine by me!" replied Mr. Fryman. Well, back to the drawing board. ...

As they all were sighing and dealing with Ronaldo's crying, Jane raced down the boardwalk until she was out of sight. Once she was though ... well, let's just say they weren't the only ones acting here. Jane stopped, took one look back, and all of a sudden her body morphed and changed, until Acid remained back to normal! Yes, a devilish snake in disguise, and seeing Ronaldo crumble like that made her and Cyanide feel pretty giddy with themselves.

"That was way too easy," said Cyanide.

"Very much so. Creatures like that are so easy to crumble. Care for one more?" hissed Acid.

"I'd be glad to. Let's make this a collaboration this time. It's always fun working together."

~~~~~~

"Now what do we do?" groaned Rainbow.

Next day (again), and they got themselves altogether to try and work things out. So far their methods had gone to pot this time around. The meeting wasn't involving the four kids this time, only RD and AJ stuck with the situation on their shoulders. Both ponies met up over at Café Hay, though admittedly both ponies were just kinda stuck on what to do. Their idea didn't work, Pinkie's idea didn't work, so what to try now? They couldn't leave them alone like this.

"This is much harder than I thought. Peedee said somethin about a treaty, but how'd that start?" Applejack wondered, as the waiter went over to them with their orders. They weren't going to think on an empty stomach.

"Beats me. And they're not even trying: French-fried Pizza, fried up pizza, what's the difference?" Rainbow pointed out, as the waiter gave them both two hay sandwiches with a glass of water a piece. Applejack realized she was right about that one, considering what both tried to advertise in basically the same thing. Rainbow Dash took a bite of her hay sandwich, but after a few chews and a swallow, the rainbow mare stuck her tongue out.

"Ech, I keep telling them not to dry it up," Rainbow coughed, drinking up her water.

"It's called a hay sandwich fer a reason, Rainbow," Applejack reminded, taking a bite of hers as well.

"You eat what you like, I can make this myself without paying five bits," Rainbow complained. Applejack just sighed, and her mouth was just about to take a bite of her own sandwich when suddenly a thought struck her. Especially when Rainbow made that little comment. The gears started to turn in the farmer pony's head, and suddenly she got her own little lightbulb moment (not as literal as Pinkie, of course).

"Rainbow, you got it!"

"THANK YOU, everypony keeps telling me -"

"No, no, not the hay sandwich. Go fly by Pinkie's place, and meet at Beach City, I think I found our answer!" Applejack instructed. AJ left ten bits on the table, and both ponies took off on this supposed task. AJ had time later to explain.

.......

Cut to that night, and off over at the Temple, which was a bit of a different spot over the typical boardwalk. Some bit of work on the place left a small sign over above the door, much like a sign for a restaurant. Both the Pizzas and the Frymans all met up there, choice by their children mainly, and they all were waiting just outside. AJ, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash all were inside, and they were all set for this next plan. Each pony was dressed up as if they were working for a eatery: three waitresses and one main chef.

"Alright, everypony, let's do this," AJ announced, their next plan up in action. Raindow, the greeter, was the first one to head over and open up the door, trying her absolute best to look professional.

"Welcome, everypony, to the Crystal Cove Café. You may be seated now," said Rainbow Dash. On the word, the two families went on inside, Rainbow bringing them to their respected seats. Surprisingly, the temple had been pretty spruced up and made into quite the restaurant: two sets of table lined with red sheets, lots of star decoration lights running along the ceiling for show, and a few red curtains, accompanied by some candles on each table. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were standing not too far away, over in the kitchen. For just making the thing in one day, it looked rather snazzy.

"Not bad," commented Peedee, only getting a rather rough *ahem* from his dad.

"It's alright," said Mr. Fryman, but not as enthused as his kid was about it.

"There's not enough tables!" noted Kofi.

"There's just enough, daddy," sighed Kiki, and indeed their was. With only two tables to sit in, the Frymans sat over at one table while the Pizzas sat over at another. Jenny and Ronaldo both went on their phones, Jenny bored while Ronaldo heartbroken over yesterday, as Kofi and Mr. Fryman stared daggers at eachother. Rainbow gave them their menus, and went over to the others over in the kitchen. Seeing the situation, it wasn't going to be easy, but this might be the one to actually finish it. Before any of them could really get a word out to eachother, AJ went over to them as a waitress.

"Good evening, gentleman. May I take your order?" Applejack asked, sounding sophisticated, much like Rarity would normally. AJ was in a similar get up, and her hat had to be removed for the sake of presentation. Applejack started with Mr. Fryman, who was quick to make his order out.

"Your Fantastic Fries," Mr. Fryman said. Though, admittedly, the ponies would've guessed that. Still, Applejack took the order. When that order was made, AJ went over to the Pizzas next.

"And you?"

"I will have the Pizza Bagel!" ordered Kofi. AJ nodded her head, and moved over back to the kitchen. Applejack acted like she wasn't hearing them, but both restaurant owners had their own opinions on these options.

"I bet their fries aren't as fantastic as ours," whispered Mr. Fryman.

"I doubt a pizza bagel can beat pizza that isn't on a bagel," said Kofi, with a chuckle. Hearing them, they got their targets and they got their orders.

"Ok, everypony, the Gems allowed us to use the house for the night, let's make this work. Pinkie, an order of fry and pizza," AJ instructed.

And so, things got busy. AJ and Pinkie got right to it and started to create their orders for the Frymans and Pizzas. The pink pony was especially in charge of the special details to these orders, while Applejack worked on the basics. Pretty standard stuff, but with a little something special added into each and every single one. Even if both ponies hadn't made either item before, there was nothing like some special testing on what they had on retainer. The Frymans and Pizzas were waiting for what they were making, some a bit more impatient than others.
Unfortunately, as with the other two times, Acid and Cyanide were not too far away. Both vipers were hidden just out of sight up on one of the house roof beams, peering down at them, and seeing the little situation from their own roost. With the ponies baking, and the humans waiting, neither noticed them. Both snakes slithered silently along the beams until they were just above the cabinets, to which they snuck onto, and into. Both snakes looked down from a cracked open door, seeing that they were almost finished with their orders.

"Kabooya," Pinkie said, bro-hoofing AJ once they were finished. both meals were done and ready to go, and if there was a time for Acid and Cyanide to intervene, it had to be now.

"And here's the bait," said the sly Acid snake, before she slithered back, and pushed out a bag of chips from the cabinet. It would've landed on Rainbow if Pinkie didn't nudge her aside, the chips opened and spilling on the floor. A quicmk little distraction for the three ponies, and Cyanide did the little honor of heading down to the orders, and adding her own little ingredient to the mix, curtesy of a drop of chemical from Cyanide's own fang. A quick bite in Kofi's pizza and a few in the fries, and both snakes went out of sight again, deciding to observe the situation over just outside the front door, going just fast enough to not be seen or caught.

"Ok then? I got this," Rainbow said, getting the orders as AJ and Pinkie cleaned up. Rainbow Dash used her wings like arms, and she placed each one of the orders out onto each table. It was all the draw of the card now, and see if this'll worked. Kofi and Mr. Fryman took a minute to look at each order, each one looking a bit small and rather unimpressive compared to their own meals.

"Can I get some ketchup?" called Mr. Fryman.

"No additions and/or substitutions," said Applejack.

"HA! This place is all talk, how can you have fries without ketchup?" commented Mr. Fryman. Everyone waited for the main reaction from the two main fighting adults, as each one readied to take a bite of the food.

.......

"What is this?! These fries are nothing but raw potato!"

"There's nothing but molded cheese on my Pizza Bagel!"

What? Even with their best efforts, still something happened that none of them were prepared for. This time though it made no sense whatsoever: Pinkie and Applejack are pretty good cooks, they wouldn't leave anything raw or molded if they could help it, but according to Mr. Fryman and Kofi, both meals were only fit for the garbage can!

"What? now hold on a minute," Applejack said, going over and checking the stuff herself. She picked up a fry with her hoof, feeling it suddenly cold and drooping as if dunk and soaked in water. Not the best result for any chef to have. As for the Pizza Bagels, sure enough, the cheese on it looked a rather sickly green.

"What?"

"I knew this place was just talk. Come on, kids, we're going," Mr. Fryman decided.

"Same here! I'm not spending a dime on food poisoning!" said Kofi as well. Without a chance to even explain themselves, both adults stormed out, their children having to follow so. Jenny and Peedee stayed behind, and they weren't too pleased with the results themselves.

"What was that plan?! We're trying to stop them from fighting, not send them to the clinic!" Jenny yelled.

"We just made those meals, we swear. I don't use any raw or rotten ingredients in ANY MEAL," insisted Pinkie. However, this was all Rainbow Dash could take. After a yell in anger, and grabbed the dishes, and stomped them to nothing but rubble.

"ARGH! What the hay?! Everything we tried somehow screws up on us, what gives?! First we tried a damsel in distress - Kofi thinks Ronaldo's crushing his daughter. We tried a love interest - Ronaldo's real girlfriend just HAPPENS to show up! And now our cooked foods turned to nothing but garbage!" Rainbow included the last statements with a few angered kicks of the meals under her hooves. However, as this little temper explosion went on, the pair of snakes couldn't help but snicker at their own little accomplishment. Nothing better than seeing someone lose it after a good ol trolling, far as both snakes knew.

"Sorry, y'all, we're trying our best," Applejack said, as she went to pick up her hat from nearby on the counter. They've been trying their hearts out, but for some reason they couldn't get a grip on it.

"By giving our folks raw food?" Peedee asked.

"That food was not raw when we made it, I swear!" Applejack insisted.

The two snakes continued watching this little trouble escalate, and both snakes finally ended up laughing in loud hisses. They couldn't help themselves from doing so at the reactions of it all. Cyanide was on her back laughing as Acid laid on her side to the wall itself.

"Can you believe her? such a pathetic display of anger out on food," Cyanide chuckled. Both snakes calmed down after a little bit more, Acid wiping off a tear with her tail.

"And just as well, those two adults are still at eachother's throats with this lovely little war. Who's to say they won't try to take eachother out in an alley perhaps when we're done?" suggested Acid, the idea sounding pretty good to Cyanide, just imagining some sort of cage match between Mr. Fryman and Kofi Pizza just to prove the better food item.

"Perhaps we should help things along. What do ya say?" Cyanide snickered, starting to slither off towards Beach City.

"You don't need to tell me twice," Acid replied, slithering after her fellow serpent in crime.

......

One tiny thing they forgot to consider: Getting watched while laughing their heads off.

"... Y'all thinkin what I'm thinkin?" asked Applejack, fuming.

"OH YEAH," the other three replied, also fuming.

Here we go.

~~~~~~

The next day, and as expected, both restaurants were still trying to outdo eachother with their latest attempts. Ronaldo and Kiki both were a bit stuck with their dads to handle this little project, and for Ronaldo's case, the project this time appeared to be his own interpretation of a literal fry-sized pizza pack. A rather odd way to do it, but Mr. Fryman seemed confident in the little scheme to bring customers in.

"Ronaldo, have you seen your brother? He's supposed to be helping us?" asked Mr. Fryman at one point, but Ronaldo didn't really know for sure. He was a little too busy getting the orders prepared to even notice that Peedee was gone, which was surprisingly ironic.

"I don't know. Here," Ronaldo sighed, giving his father the next order of pizza fries for the customer there. Unlike the other days, this one was especially slow, so Ronaldo got that going for him. It doesn't help his broken heart over the loss of his girlfriend. As they were there, Acid and Cyanide both slithered in from the back of the building. both snakes were on a rather good role with their mischief, and both were more than ready to head in and cause more trouble. But, before they could even go in ...

"Weird, there's not a single customer out here," commented Mr. Fryman, figuring that out after his latest customer.

"STOP THE WAR!! COOK FOR GOOD!!" a number of voices chanted.

"What the?"

Mr. Fryman looked out the window down the boardwalk a little bit, finding the source of this supposed protest. Looking over, there was Jenny, Peedee, and Rainbow Dash all stomping around, basically on strike: picket signs and all. This protest was what's driving customers away from not only Mr. Fryman's restaurant, but Kofi Pizza's place too. The picket signs they were showing either had a heart with a pizza and fry on it, or a picture of a red X over battling swords. The combine protesting of all three of them was proof enough. This time, it was Mr. Fryman who went outside first, alongside Ronaldo who heard the protests going on.

"Peedee, what're you doing? We got customers to take care of!" Mr. Fryman said.

"I am not working!" Peedee insisted. Shocking to Mr. Fryman to hear, as kofi and Kiki came outside.

"Jenny, the phone's been ringing for ten minutes, what have you been doing?!"

"What does it look like we're doin?!" said Jenny, showing the sign in her father's face, bringing the point home. A rather bold move. Jenny and Peedee went back to their marching protest for about five more verses until Kofi got in the way. As this happened, Acid and Cyanide both slithered dangerously close by, hidden off just out of the way for this strike attempt, both snakes more than ready to get one more little strike at them. Both snakes peered over at them, ready to head in when ...

"No you don't."

AJ was not having it: suddenly, and with a lasso, Applejack found both snakes and just went to town on them. A quick grab, and quick tie up, and suddenly both snakes found themselves stuck in a tight mess of a knot. No snake could react fast enough, and Applejack was secure with this plan. Acid and Cyanide tried to move, but it didn't work too well.

.......

"Quit it! You're driving my customers off!"

"GOOD! We're not going to work until this war ends!" Peedee yelled.

"What?"

"What do you mean what?! All those attempts before? They're so you two overgrown foals can stop this stupid feud! ... Oh, no offense."

"Non taken," said Jenny and Peedee.

"This is nonsense! you're going to drive us out of business if you three keep this up," Mr. Fryman warned.

"Whatever! Its not like you two had been doing better! Seriously, fried pizza? Pizza fries? What's the difference?! You're just copying each other!" Peedee pointed out, though he tried to keep his composure over arguing with his own dad about it. Both were going to say something, but honestly they came up with nothing.

"Yeah! And me and my sis have no problem with Peedee and Ronaldo. We're all cool, why can't you be?" added in Jenny. Both kids pretty much had their share of points.

"Stop cooking out of hate, and cook for yourselves and for the boardwalk!" Both kids said. There was some silence between them for a little while more, and soon a smile appeared on both of their faces.

"Yes, let's do what we do best!" said Kofi.

"Agreed," said Mr. Fryman, both men hugging it out.

"YEAH!" the kids cheered. That was just what they wanted to hear. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were happy about it too, though it was just enough for Acid and Cyanide to slip away.

After months of trouble, the great restaurant war was finally over and done.

Objection!

View Online

"This is such a relief. Thank you. You may go now."

Homeworld. And in her palace, Blue Diamond was just getting the latest memo on Earth's current situation, in this case the Cluster. Much of the Crystal Gems or Ponies hadn't had time to exactly tell her, but this recent report to her from one of her court cohorts placed the diamond's mind at ease over that. Once that was taken care of, the court member went off on its way, leaving Blue Diamond alone with her Pearl for the time being.

"That is wonderful news, isn't it my Diamond?" Blue Pearl asked, thinking that the news could make Blue diamond feel better, but Blue Diamond stayed oddly quiet. Blue Pearl could see that after a little bit. Blue Diamond eventually got up from her throne. Blue Diamond had a lot on her mind, and not just the Cluster either. Lapis was still gone, far as she knew, and the overwhelming fact about Pink Diamond still hung over her head like a raincloud. A diamond she was especially close to, gone for the longest time without her even knowing about it.
After a little bit, the diamond started walking away from the throne room, Blue Pearl following in her step. The whole walk along the way was rather silent, Blue Diamond not having anything to really say to her Pearl. Eventually, Blue Diamond reached another room of the palace.

"Pearl? I don't wish to be disturbed right now ..."

"Understood, my Diamond," Blue Pearl said, bowing to her just before Blue Diamond went into the other room. Blue Pearl knew better than to disobey her own diamond on the matter, especially with her mind so troubled at the current moment. Blue Diamond quietly went into the room she had been going into, Blue Pearl having no other option but to just wait outside. What else could she do?
As for Blue Diamond, she took the time to just sit there in the other room, looking out from the balcony she walked out to. Her eyes just stared off into the Homeworld sky, Pink Diamond and her death all she could truly think about. What could she have done to prevent this from happening?

.......

*POOF*

"Huh?"

The odd sound was a bit curious for Blue Pearl, but Blue Diamond told Blue Pearl to remain put, and no one told her to enter. Hearing that particular sound though made Blue Pearl a little uneasy.

"My Diamond?" Blue Pearl asked. However, there wasn't a sound to be heard after that other one. Blue Pearl may have had her instructions to stay outside, but the Gem had her own worries over her Diamond to handle as well, something more important than a simple order. Blue Pearl needed to gather her own courage to do so, taking a deep breath, before actually opening the door.
Looking into the room, the Pearl stood there in complete shock and horror to what she saw next: just in the center of the room, there laid Blue Diamond's gemstone on the ground! It wasn't just that, but the gemstone also was cracked up to oblivion, threatening to shatter at any moment. Looking on the gemstone itself, Blue Pearl found what seemed to be a sort of calling card for someone to find: a pink rose. ...

Blue Pearl turned and could only run off. She had to tell what she just witnessed.

~~~~~~

"Steven. H-How could you?" shuttered Peridot.

"It had to be done, Peridot," replied Steven, oddly smiling at what diabolical act he just committed. The shock of what Steven just did was inexcusable, Peridot and Connie both shocked as ever at the very idea. Star sitting nearby raised her hand.

"Excuse me? ..."

"W-What is it?"

.......

"Why are you acting so emotional over a visual activity with controllers?" asked Star Quartz, pointing to the television and fighting game they were playing. Guess this was what they were doing today, and Peridot was more than upset about it. Connie, Steven, and Peridot were playing it out, and by the sound of it, Steven just won over Peridot again.

"I HAD IT! HE HAD TO FINISH ME OFF AGAIN!" Peridot complained, ready to throw the controller she was so upset. The old fashion rage quit, if they ever saw one.

"I told ya, no one could beat me and my Mr. Croak!" Steven joked. Peridot groaned and tossed the controller in the air anyway, only for Connie to catch it before it could break. It was all Peridot could take, and she just went down from the stairs. Peridot sat down at the couch, where Garnet was sitting and waiting as well, casually chilling out and hearing the game going on.

"Alright, it's just you and me. May the best player win," Steven said, shaking Connie's hand.

"Let's do this," Connie said, as they both were starting up the next round. As both of them were going at it with eachother, Amethyst took some time to head over to them and check up on the game.

"Hey, kiddos, enjoying your game?" asked Amethyst.

"Yeah, thanks mom - OH, uh I mean -"

"Too late!" Soon, after Connie's little slip on words, Amethyst went on her shapeshifting shenanigans, and soon enough Amethyst Priyanka was standing there.

"I'M YA MAMA NOW!" Amethyst said. Those watching couldn't help but smile, Steven barely able to contain his laughter as Amethyst went right up to Connie.

"Give mama some sugar!" Amethyst joked, trying to get a kiss out of Connie, Connie meanwhile laughing her head off.

"No, Amethyst stop, this is weird! I-I can't breathe!" Connie managed to get out between her laughs. Steven couldn't help but snicker himself at the situation, Peridot too, and Garnet simply smiled.

"It's nice to see everyone together again," Sapphire thought.

"First time in a while, you bet!" Ruby thought back. Both sides had to agree, and Garnet simply watched the gems all get along. With how much they've gone through already, it was nice to see them actually play around and relax for the first time in months. Garnet felt pretty complete, though she still felt there was a few pieces missing in their puzzle. Two in fact.

"Someone's coming over," Star suddenly said, looking out the window of their home. When the others took a look down the beach, their eyes soon spotted that someone was indeed coming their way, and coming fairly fast as well. A rather confusing sign, but not many of them even really took much notice of the newcomer all that much. Well, at least that was until this newcomer went and knocked on their door.

"Can you get that, Star?" asked Peridot, who was still snickering over Amethyst's little problem. Star Quartz nodded and walked over to the door. Star looked over the newcomer for a little bit, noticing that she was oddly familiar to her, though only a little bit. And another detail, there was two Gems rather than one.

Pearlis and Onyx!

"Hello?" asked Star.

"OK, you all are to come with me, any word will be used against you in -" Pearlis stopped what she was saying when she saw Amethyst still trying to get her sugar from Connie, though rather than being funny, it was more awkward. A rather odd pause stemmed between her and the other Gems for a moment.

"... I'm not gonna ask," Pearlis simply said, Amethyst changing back. The moment Garnet saw them though, it made her a little bit troubled, especially considering who Onyx and Pearlis worked under.

"You getting any?" Onyx teased, just to get whacked by Pearlis.

"What is it you want?" Garnet asked, standing up. Pearlis cleared her throat.

"On order of our most respected, unflawed, glorious, and most valued White Diamond herself, and by decision of her highest, most respected court of Homeworld. Due to suspicions and espionage against -"

"You're all on trial!" Onyx suddenly said, cutting to the point. Pearlis cringed on Onyx's sudden jump in the scenario, but the second they all heard that, it got across pretty quickly.

"What?!?!" Peridot asked, freaked out.

"As Onyx bluntly stated, yes," Pearlis announced. The shock of the moment made him drop his controller to the ground.

"For what? We didn't do anything," Steven insisted.

"Tell it to the Diamond, clod," Onyx said, grabbing him from behind and starting to carry him to the door above her head. Garnet was the first to react, but rather than being level headed, she just grabbed Steven off of Onyx fast. Onyx kept her grip on him, but she lost it half way, launching her to the ceiling. It took Onyx a minute before she fell down from the ceiling to the floor.

"Forceful?"

"Sorry. I panicked," said Garnet, as Onyx picked herself up off the ground. Garnet needed a minute to get her act together on the matter, worried on the very mention of the idea.

"What's a trial?" Star asked, scratching her head.

"Really? Your brought to the diamonds and you talk about the case for a while, and you either get released or -" Onyx finished her statement with a slashing motion across her throat.

"... You run your hand across your neck? That doesn't sound too bad."

"With all due respect, I can guarantee you we're innocent," Garnet stated.

"You can make your case with your designated Zircon once we get there. Or would you rather have your execution be made now?" Pearlis stated. That last option made most of them shiver, and with what they've gone through as it was, they didn't need to become apart of another fight, especially with White Diamond officials.

"... Very well. ..." Garnet said, reluctantly.

"Good. You and the rest of the Crystal Gems could come with us, and meet at Yellow Diamond's courtroom. I'm sure they'll be more than happy to see you," Pearlis said, though her tone was more of a salty remark than anything. With that decided, Pearlis turned and took her exit out the door Onyx following her for a little bit. Before Onyx left though, she turned around and did a little salute with her finger.

"Diamond court," Onyx said, in a hushed yet cool tone, walking backwards out of the house before catching up with Pearlis. When they were gone, the rest felt pretty much troubled all the same, Garnet included.

"Eh, Garnet, W-We're not really going to head to trial, are we?" Peridot asked, humbled and worried sick. Garnet adjusted her glasses.

"Not much choice. Everything will be alright," Garnet reassured them. However, they really didn't have a choice on the matter. It was a long time, yes, but now it was time to return to Homeworld once again.

Whether they want to or not.

~~~~~~

Later that day, and a group of Crystal Gems had managed to make it over to the Homeworld palace. Normally a walk like this wouldn't be too bad, though still a bit tense all the same, but now with the circumstances at hand it was even more so. Not every Crystal Gem was brought in though, despite a good margin: Jasper, Lapis, Flint, Jade, and Star being the only exceptions. Still, those who did end up coming along for the ride were left to really wonder what they did to deserve this as of recent events. As they went through Homeworld, the local residents treated them no different from previous visits. Guess they weren't aware of what was happening as of yet, or at least didn't want to get involved on the matter at hand. Besides, they were at Yellow Diamond's city rather than Blue Diamond's city so perhaps news there didn't reach over here yet.
Regardless of either case, Pearlis and Onyx reached over to the main palace in little time, and the group were teleported inside. However, they weren't teleported straight to the throne room though, but instead they all were put in a rather open room. Each Crystal Gem that showed up didn't go in altogether, but each Gem ended up in a pair, and in a different room for the subject. For Steven, that meant sharing with Diopside, and the room they were in didn't have any sort of window, door, or anything. In fact, the floors, walls and ceiling almost matched eachother completely, and with little shadow to help with, they didn't feel like they were in any actual room.

"Where are we?" Steven wondered.

"I think we're in the palace somewhere," Diopside noted, trying to look around a bit. Her Gem eye focused a bit and tried to get some details in from the current situation. "Eh ... yep, in one of the palace guest rooms."

"this is a guest room? There's not even a bed in here," Steven replied in disbelief. Diopside got to her senses and looked down to

"Steven, that's the least of your problems! Please tell me you didn't do anything wrong!"

"But I didn't. I beat Peridot in strong slam sisters, then Pearlis just shows up and says we're all arrest over ... something?"

"Something? What something?"

"She didn't say what it was," Steven admitted with a unsure shrug. How is he supposed to know what he supposedly did if no one told him what the actual problem was? Diopside wasn't so sure about what was going on, but she wasn't going to lose it on Steven because of it.

"Well, just know that I'll support you one hundred percent. I know you're no bad guy," Diopside reassured him.
And not a moment too soon: a sliding door opened up from not too far away, revealing another Gem had come in. Pearlis did mention that another type of Gem, a Zircon in exact details, was going to join in his discussion, though Diopside and Steven didn't recognize this one from their previous visits. Then again, they weren't on trial beforehand. This one was a human-sized Gem with a slim figure, indigo blue skin, eyelids of a darker blue, a long slim nose, and periwinkle-blue, crescent-pointed hair that resembles a surgical hood. Her uniform consisted of a pair of baby-blue pants, flats of the same blue color, a boxy, long sleeved baby-blue jacket with padded shoulders and darker blue trim along the bottom, and a pale blue cravat. She wore a monocle over her right eye, which can display multiple info screens. Her gem was located on her chest, where the knot of her tie would be. As with other Gems of Blue Diamond's court like Lapis, or Sapphire even, She maintains a rather looser style in her appearance. A rather odd statement though, since her behavior on the matter was far more on edge than usual.

"I can't believe this. Four thousand years to loyal service to my Diamond's court, and this is what I get?!" the blue Zircon noted, as she was going through the reports, old and new, of her defending party. Guess someone wasn't all confident in this case, whatever it was. Their Zircon paused and turned over to Diopside and Steven.

"You're ... Rose Quartz?" Zircon asked, obviously confused when comparing records. According to the picture she was portraying, it showed Steven's mother rather than Steven himself.

"Eh ... sort of. I'm her son," Steven said. That made Zircon a little confused, though more in disbelief than anything.

"A what?"

"A son. It's this human thing on Earth when -"

"Oh nevermind, I don't have time for it! We only have this short moment to prepare your case," Zircon suddenly said. If the question was going to jump into some story, Zircon couldn't risk it, especially when so close to the trial time. For Diopside and this whole scenario, she might as well get the next question out of the way.

"What's this case even about?" Diopside asked. Zircon froze.

"Wait. You don't even know?!" Zircon gasped, not believing her ears.

"Pearlis and Onyx didn't explain it very well."

"Why would they even need to?" Zircon asked, still in disbelief. If this was who she wads defending, she might have some trouble.

"I don't know, look, what's even going on?"

"What did you think was going to happen, Rose Quartz?! The second that door opens, you are gonna go on Trial!" Zircon made clear.

And sure enough, that door did open up.

~~~~~~

So, here they go. Lead out to the field by their defending Zircon, the courtroom awaited them all. The Crystal Gems all were presented there, one way or another, over in the middle of the large courtroom they were brought to. The room appeared similar to the Yellow Diamond's throne room, the surface below being a lot bigger and symbolizing the Homeworld emblem which covered the entire floor. Glass walls covered up the entire room, showing a good view of space around them. Course, they needed such room for the other Gems there aside from the Crystal Gems present. Seating arrangement was in a similar manor to a Earth courtroom, though instead of a typical judge's seat, it was the trio of thrones, though for the moment, only two of the three chairs were present: Yellow Diamond and White Diamond in particular, with Blue Diamond not there for the third to appear.
Other Gems toduely noted were also there: mainly those belonging to the royal courts of said Gems: White Diamond's court over by their respected diamond in their seats (Pearlis and Onyx being amongst them), with Yellow Diamond's court over in a similar pair of seats by her. Yellow Diamond's Pearl was also present with her Diamond, and only one of WD's Pearls was at attention too. Understanding too, there was more than one Zircon in this room: aside from the defense, there was a Yellow Zircon present too, this one presumably the prosecuting Gem of this court. The Crystal Gems got their own seats too, namely placed over to the front of the Diamond eyes and at the center of the room, with the main guilty party in particular being put right in the center where all triangles met. With the Diamonds, royal court, and guilty party all in place, there was nothing holding back for the group to begin.

"The Homeworld Diamond court is now in session. Prosecution and Defense, are you both prepared?" White Diamond instructed. Yellow Zircon nodded confidently, but Blue Zircon was a little behind, yet nodded anyway.

"Then let's begin. Prosecution, if you may begin." Despite White Diamond not being her Diamond in particular, Yellow Zircon went on to get the discussion started, clearing her throat while the others listened to the trouble at hand. The Pearls got out screens to record the event just before Yellow Zircon got started.

"My Diamonds. My brilliant, opulent, radiant, glimmering -"

""My Diamond" will suffice, or we'll never get through this," Yellow diamond said, getting impatient. Yellow Zircon corrected herself on that regard and went on her talk.

"O-Ok, ok. Now, as we're aware, the Crystal Gems had a rather unprecedented record amongst the Diamond authority in past years. While some may have guessed that the Diamonds and the Crystals are on more appropriate terms on recent events, their leader has done an act so uncalled for, one could only wonder "why?". Exhibit A!"
When Yellow Zircon made that signal, 'exhibit A' came in the form of a screening picture: the pic in particular showing both Pink Diamond, and Blue Diamond, both Gems supposedly shattered on the screen! Pink Diamond's shattering was enough of a shocker for the royal court of YD, but Blue Diamond's shattering shocked many a person there.

"WHOA, WHAT?" gasped Fulgurite.

"Blue Diamond's shattered?!" added in Pearl.

"I-It can't be!" gasped Garnet.

"ORDER!" yelled White Diamond, her bellowing voice silencing their shock. They didn't need any overreactions of the crowd to stall the session further.

"Two of our most respected leaders of our world. One. a prime and flawless diplomat of Homeworld, such a calming, and sympathetic mind set. The other: a valuable rarity of Diamondkind, such a successful start on her very first colony on Earth, and its moon. Now both gone! Now, one kind of Gem would throw such beings away from her life? I'll tell you: that kind!" Yellow Zircon accused, a finger aimed directly at Steven, making him gulp. Well, they know exactly what was what now, but that didn't help them any further, especially with a double killer case with this one!

"One may wonder if this is truly the Rose Quartz that truly was involved in such a case. After all, one could see this creature and easily think "nothing more than a loud, hideous, and useless human being.". May I present the answer in the following way."

All of a sudden, Yellow Zircon made a rather sudden move: a hand turned to a fist, and ready to hit Steven! Steven, almost instinctively, summons up his Gem shield to protect himself. It may have stopped Yellow Zircon from hurting Steven, but it did show that Steven was indeed the real Rose Quartz to many of the court members, White and Yellow. Steven looked to be sure, but soon realized his mistake.

"Eh, oops."

"A true Rose Quartz shield if I ever saw one. A normal human being of organic matter would never be able to summon up a weapon as prominently, and as effortlessly as this. Why else would a supposed "human" have the weapon of the rebellious arch enemy Rose Quartz?" Yellow Zircon said. Well, Steven didn't help the situation by his sudden reaction, if anything it had made it worse for them.

"Keep it together, Steven," Bismuth encouraged, who was right next to him and trying to calm him down.

"And would I even need to mention about Rose Quartz's track record? This is the very Gem responsible, and lead on the Gem War thousands of years ago, starting it all off with the untimely, and horrifying death of our beloved Pink Diamond. AND, as if shattering one diamond wasn't unprecedented enough, now she took the advantage of their alliance to grow just close enough to our holy Blue Diamond!"

That last part got Fulgurite active.

"Objection: she's drawing false conclusions!" Fulgurite accused. Yellow Zircon paused, and took offense to this.

"I am not! And on that note, it's not even your turn to speak," Yellow Zircon insisted. Fulgurite was going to say something else, but worried they'll cause more trouble Peridot got her hands over Fulgurite's mouth. Last thing they needed was a heated argument in front of the Diamond.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted, one could say that it was a possible jump, but with the situation, why wouldn't it be? She had the opportunity, the amount of freedom to do so, and all the time in the world to do so. And with the confirmed evidence, I can state that this is indeed Rose Quartz, and she indeed was put responsible to being the shatterer of our Diamonds. I rest my case."

"She's good," Blue Zircon noted, which wasn't a good thing to hear for the guilty party, especially from their own defense Zircon. Blue Zircon had to get her game going with what she had on hand, since it would be her turn next.

"That's good enough for me. Alright, time to execute," Yellow Diamond said, satisfied with the statement. White Diamond wasn't so forward.

"No Yellow, the defense still needs to speak. Blue would want that, at least," White made clear, though that only made Yellow a bit more annoyed on that than most. White Diamond then turned to Blue Zircon for her statement.

"Defense, you may proceed," White Diamond said. However, Blue Zircon didn't have anything together to proceed. They didn't exactly discuss anything, but as Blue Zircon tried to figure something out, she decided to work with what she got. So, after a bit, she went on to clear her throat and get this going.

"Alright. W-Well, be that as it may, uh ... well ..."

"Get on with it!" shouted Onyx.

"Onyx," Pearlis said in a hush, slapping her to shut her up. Something looked over, sure, but that didn't help Zircon out. She didn't know what to say to her. ... she didn't know ...

"There is one false piece here in relation to our 'criminal' intellect."

"Oh? How so? It's clear she would know something," questioned Yellow Diamond. Zircon had the idea, hopefully it'll work well.

"But that's just it: she doesn't. In fact, and take this as it stands, she and her group didn't even know why they were even here before the matter was brought up. She wasn't aware of either assaults, never mentioned either factor during our meeting. How could one commit an act they don't even know about?" Blue Zircon pointed out, which made a bit of sense, and something Zircon got out pretty well.

"Good recovery," whispered Emerald to Pearl, who couldn't help but agree on it. A rather interesting point to make as well. Yellow Diamond was just getting impatient about the whole thing, and it was rather evident by her dropping fingers on the armrest of her seat, White Diamond taking this into account fairly well. Still, there was plenty more to confirm on about.

"Interesting. ... Prosecution, response?"

"We're all aware of Rose Quartz's deception during the war. Take this as a theory of mine, but perhaps it was nothing more than a ruse to keep what innocence she has left. Why wouldn't the leader of the Crystal Gems lie in order to keep what's hers alive and well?" Yellow Zircon hypothesized. Fulgurite wanted to point it out again, but Peridot wasn't getting her speak again, at least not until this was over. Blue Zircon grew nervous again, her only true means of defense dashed by a theorized possibility. Now what is she supposed to say in response to this in their defense?

"... W-Well, she didn't appear to be a liar during our conversation. ... most of her responses seemed ... legitimate?"

Not a good showing. Not a good one at all. And this only got Fulgurite to finally toss Peridot off of her so she could speak.

"Hold it! Don't we have a say in this?!" Fulgurite yelled, making sure her voice was heard. Yellow was going to get up, but White's raise of her arm got her to stay still, albeit upset herself on the outburst.

"Well, go on then. ... What is it you have to say?"

"Aha, yeah ok first off: another objection for false conclusions for Yellow Zircon over there," Fulgurite said, though this time Yellow Zircon didn't have time to respond. "And secondly, are you all forgetting that we were the ones who saved your planet from Osicone?! You wouldn't have a Homeworld if they never showed up!"

"SILENCE!" White Diamond bellowed, her voice almost shaking the room (metaphorically anyway).

"Fulgurite, that is completely unrelated to the incident this court is under. You can't used unrelated matters like that as evidence to support you," White Diamond made clear.

"What?! Come on, I can!"

"EH, actually you can't," said Pearl. That didn't help either, but it was true all the same. That got Fulgurite to quiet down, arms crossed.

"Well, you're helpful," grumbled Fulgurite. Blue Zircon tried to think of something, but when she saw Pearl, she got an idea.

"What about the chief witness?" Zircon suddenly asked.

"And who might that be?"

"Blue Diamond's Pearl!"

Now things were getting interesting. Yes, a chief witness had to be called on, if any witness, and so far Blue Zircon had that advantage over the matter of Yellow Zircon and her statements. Thinking it over, and looking around for some, Blue Pearl actually wasn't there, and who would know better on the actual incident than the Blue Diamond side of the case.

"She's just a Pearl, Zircon," noted Yellow Diamond.

"True, but all the same, all witnesses must be addressed. The defense calls Blue Pearl to the stand!" Blue Zircon announced, feeling confident that she had the upper-hand over the prosecution. White Diamond nodded down to one of her pearls, and one of them activated a sort of door, Blue Pearl appearing moments laterand walking over to the stand. The Pearl, while keeping quiet as usual, looking a bit frazzled and still troubled over the incident as a whole. It was her Diamond, after all. Anyway, Blue Pearl stood in her stand, and it wasn't long until White Diamond spoke again.

"Pearl. Do you promise to this court you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"

"I do," Blue Pearl said quietly, well aware of the court system going on here. With a nod of her head, the Diamonds signaled the defending Zircon to begin her questions.

"Blue Pearl, as the Pearl who was closest to our beloved Blue Diamond, care to explain in detail what occurred before the discovery of her rather ... untimely demise," Blue Zircon asked. The last part indeed made Blue Pearl tremble a little, shocked still that it happened, well, at all. Still, being true to her word like any Pearl would, she went on to speak anyway, as the Pearls took note in their records.

"Well ... me and My Diamond, earlier today, were receiving our series of reports from our court members. I stood alongside her, and we both heard about eight precise reports, the final one ... being about earth. ... She looked so depressed. ... She and I then went to her private balcony, but she ... told me to wait outside, and make sure no one disturbed her. ... And then I heard a noise from inside. I-I know I'm supposed to follow orders, but ... I looked inside, and then ... then ..." Blue Pearl couldn't even finish it, but they all knew where she was going with it. Blue Pearl quietly started to cry, tears coming down her face as she remembered the details of what happened next.

"Thank you, no further questions," Blue Zircon said. Blue Pearl slowly walked away to the side, away from the stand and over to her exit. This take on the event didn't have it sound like a murder, but something far more personal. Something even White Diamond took some trouble over. Blue Zircon was hoping for some concrete evidence on the matter from Blue Diamond's Pearl, but it was as vague as any other report would be.

"Poor Pearl," said Diopside.

"AND poor Blue diamond, they're both in the rut right now," Emerald added. The Diamonds both had a sort of reaction to such a view on the matter, considering it was their only actual view of the incident they actually had.

"Prosecution, do you have any witnesses to call upon?" White Diamond asked, trying to keep her composure. Blue Zircon, for the first time in this session gave a bit of confidence towards Yellow Zircon, who notably didn't have much of anything when it came to prosecuting side. All Yellow Zircon did was shook her head. Score one for the defensive side. As White Diamond was thinking, Yellow Diamond got more impatient with the situation.

"Can't we just execute her and get it over with?" Yellow asked.

"... Rose. Step forward," White Diamond instructed. Steven gulped, and took a step forward. Suddenly, a platform was raised up, worrying the Crystal Gems a bit. Soon, Steven was up on the level of the Diamonds, and White Diamond stepped forward, staring Steven down.

"All records are hold and say of your act against Pink Diamond, marking her untimely death. ... Explain?"

"Huh?"

"How did you shatter her?"

What? Seemed they were shifting to the Pink Diamond situation, but Steven wasn't even aware of this thing until White Diamond herself said so. Much of those in the court were a little perplexed on it, though they didn't try to say much of anything. Steven was on his own, and in front of the most intimidating Gem there was, asking him a question he barely knew much of himself.

"Ok, Steven, calm down. just calm down, everything will be alright." Steven thought to himself, but White Diamond's intimidation wasn't making it easy for him. He had to say something, or they'll all be in trouble.

"Um...well. I did it on Earth, in front of Pink Diamond's palanquin. I was probably like, "Stop!" and she was all like "No!" So we fought-I think. And she probably did some cool moves. I probably did some cool moves too, some jump kicks and stuff. But I was most likely deeply conflicted about deciding to shatter her. Definitely crying. I probably had to use the Breaking Point to do it. ..."

"What's he doing?!" Amethyst quietly asked, panicked. Steven had to give her something, and since she was the solo Diamond to even know about such things, why lie to her about it? Suddenly though, and surprisingly, White Diamond started to cry. ...

"A sword. ... You shattered her with a sword!"

All of a sudden, White Diamond was sobbing up a storm, a flurry of emotions coming up from her own reminder. Yellow diamond went over to her, trying her best to comfort her, though she was surprised Pink Diamond's death would affect her this deeply. Yellow's own glare seemed to make Steven feel worse about it.

"That's quite enough testimony from you! We shall take a short recess."

And a short recess they did.

......

"I swear, how could this happen?"

Back on Earth, things weren't going any better. Flint, Jade, and Star Quartz all remained back at the barn, all unable to go in still since it was basically frozen at this point. With the Crystal Gems all in custody, it kinda left Flint in a bit of a tizzy. Just when he thought everything was handled with the whole Cluster incident, and suddenly they got stuck with White Diamond again.

"They did say something about that ... right?" Star asked.

"YES, they did, but I was hoping they weren't telling the truth. White Diamond's going to slaughter them," Flint said, thinking the worst about the situation. Jade got up from her seat, and walked over to him, looking up to Flint.

"Flint? ..."

"DON'T. SAY IT," Flint made clear.

"But Flint, they need help," Jade said. This was what Flint felt most conflicted about. One hand included White Diamond herself and the other concerned the Crystal Gems. He stayed silent for a minute.

"... But I swore never to go back."

"I know, but you were on your own before. That isn't the case anymore, Flint," Jade pointed out, which was true. Somehow they're involvement convinced him to return to White Diamond, despite his promise, and now they were stuck with her again. His heart felt torn. ...

"And what do you think will happen if I do go?"

"What will happen if you don't?" Star suddenly asked, out of nowhere. She didn't mean to sound so convincing, a lot more legitimate in her question than metaphorical, but it still had the same effect on Flint. So, without another word, Flint walked off out of sight over on the side of the barn, heading in the direction to the Warp Pad. ...

"Uh ... did I say the wrong thing?" Star asked.

"No, you didn't," Jade said.

~~~~~~

"WHAT WAS THAT?! 'maybe' this, 'probably' that, what're you trying to do?!" Zircon asked.

AND they did needed to figure something out. During the recess, the group got together with their Zircon to get together their act, but Steven's little speech on what could've happened with Pink Diamond did not help at all. They met up in the same room they arrived in, and judging by the voices things weren't going too well.

"Nevermind that, why'd you even say it?! Steven, we're trying to prove innocent, not get crushed!" Fulgurite added.

"I don't know! White Diamond, she intimidated me, ok?" Steven said, though he was just as troubled about it as the others were. He didn't know himself why he rambled on about it if he never saw it, and getting yelled at for it didn't help him either.

"Don't tumble my rocks! ALL our Gems are on the line here," Zircon made clear, yelling right in Steven's face. That response got Bismuth to intervene, her hand in between Zircon and Steven before a fight could break out or something.

"That is enough out of you!" Bismuth demanded, moving Zircon aside. She and Diopside went over to Steven to try and calm him down, Garnet going over to Zircon to help her up. Steven still saw the writing on the wall, and felt guilty for even listening to White Diamond.

"Ok, Steven, calm down, it's not your fault. Y-You're just following what she said, that's all, h-how were any of us supposed to know what she'll ask?" Diopside said, trying to keep her nerves together same as Steven. Fulgurite though was still fuming about the situation.

"Why even bother, this whole court's rigged! Fake conclusions, trick questions, White Diamond's just trying to throw us in the grinder," Fulgurite confirmed, Zircon making a dramatic gasp.

"How dare you say that about White Diamond?! She may make some ... interesting choices now and then, but she will not defy the law just to do what she pleases!" Zircon insisted.

"I'm not apart of Homeworld, I can say whatever I want!" retorted Fulgurite, that statement coming out of pure anger on the situation and nothing else. Zircon and Fulgurite both looked ready to duke it out in their anger, but Garnet silenced the entire room with a loud, single note whistle. It was loud enough to get everyone to quiet down, if not get ringing in their ears. At least the arguing all stopped so they all could think a little more clearly about the subject at hand.

"Now that is enough. Arguing with eachother is not going to solve anything," Garnet made clear, her voice reaching everyone there.

"Ugh, well did she really do it, or not?" Zircon asked, pointing to Steven.

"Ok, first of all that's a "he", not a "she". Secondly, nope," Amethyst finally got in.

"Thank you, you beat me to it," Emerald commented. However, Zircon looked a little more perplexed about it, looking Steven over from top to bottom with her gaze.

"Really," Zircon said.

"It's a long story ..." Steven said, probably the best answer he could come up with. Zircon still wasn't sure about it, taking a step forward. But, before she could do anything, Pearl got out her spear and got it between both her and Steven.

"Don't you dare."

"What? No, I wasn't going to do that, I swear!" Zircon corrected, rather quickly too. Even for a Pearl, she was a bit scary when she needed to be, and Zircon was not up for a fight with her. Pearl moved aside, and Zircon kneeled down to Steven, her hand reaching out and placing it on Steven's chest. It took Zircon a little bit, but the Gem started to feel Steven's heart beating up a storm, adrenaline up high over the yelling earlier. Zircon kept her hand there for a little bit, making sure it wasn't tricking her, before standing up straight, looking down at Steven with some astonishment. A heartbeat proved Steven's humanity aspect of him, and the Gemstone and its powers proved his existing Gem side.

"... A ... hybrid? ... Did you get involved with White Diamond before, Rose?"

"It's Steven, and -" Steven quickly stopped himself. He already blabbered on and got themselves into trouble, if he went on about that, it'll only make things worse for them. Garnet stepped over, placing a hand on Steven's shoulder to calm him.

"Yes, we were. He wasn't an experiment though," Garnet made clear. While it removed Zircon's previous hypothesis, it still left her very confused, looking at Steven like he had lobsters coming out of his ears or something.

"But, her stone."

"Heritage thing, Zircon. He's her son."

"A sun is a star, not a Gem," Zircon corrected.

"No, not that sun. It's son, spelled S-O-N: like offspring, or young, or kid. It's like a human pebble," Amethyst said, thinking the right words for it. Zircon took another look at Steven.

"So ... Rose - er. Steven, is half human, half Gem?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Emerald said. So, that was it huh? A hybrid, not Rose Quartz herself (not exactly anyway). Zircon needed to get this information down pact for when the recess was over and finished. This could prove useful for the case at hand. After that, Garnet went over tot he wall, and leaned over against it.

"... Looks like we have a guest."

A guest? What guest? Before any of them could ask, Garnet knocked on the wall, and sure enough someone opened the door on the otherside. Talk about accurate future vision! This Gem wasn't one of the court members coming to fetch them, no, but he still looked ready to go. Instead of his usual outfit of a knight, he had the exact same outfit as Zircon, though his was gray rather than blue.

"Flint! What're you doing here? I thought you wanted to stay back," Diopside said, happy to see him all the same. Flint was surprised he was still here himself, but his friends needed him as far as he knew, and by the looks of it, that was about right. Flint just sighed.

"I changed my mind. Now, catch me up on this case, will you guys?" Flint asked, adjusting his collar, and ready as ever. It took a bit, but Pearl got to it.

"The Diamonds are blaming Steven for Pink and Blue Diamond's shattering, and so far it's leaning towards ... neither. Their Zircon supported her case by proving Steven is Rose, while our Zircon proved Steven doesn't know a thing about it, including Blue Pearl as a witness," Pearl explained. He looked a little surprised on Blue Diamond being shattered, but he had a case to handle, though he could see Garnet recoil a little on the mention of it.

"And you're still in trouble, huh? ... Did anyone bring up the actual crime scene yet?" Flint asked, after some thought. Now that they thought about it, none of them actually did bring up the crime scene itself during the first session, and Flint immediately got an idea on the matter with a nod of the head. Flint looked over to Garnet, silently asking Garnet the situation, and Garnet's main reply to that was a nod of her head too.

.......

Next thing they knew, Flint immediately got to work. Zircon was by his side on permission, and Blue Pearl was found during the walk as a sort of guide. Flint hadn't been at Homeworld for a very long time, and as such his layout was pretty hazy, so it was a good thing Blue Pearl was willing to comply about it. After a little walk, Blue Pearl got Zircon and Flint over to the same room where Blue Pearl last saw her Diamond alive and breathing.

"This is where it happened. ..." Blue Pearl said, standing over next to the door. With a nod, Flint went right on in, much to Zircon's surprise.

"W-Wait, don't just walk in, this is Blue Diamond's personal quarters," Zircon insisted.

"Exactly, and if the attack indeed happened here, it'll hold the best evidence to support the case. Now let's have a look around, we got five minutes before the recess is over," Flint instructed, already starting to look around the room.
Zircon saw the logic behind it, and sure enough both Gems started to investigate the place. Without Blue Diamond, the room was exceptionally large and empty, the main resting platform especially large, and the balcony just as much. Blue Pearl just stood over by the door, watching them look around her room for any sort of clue to the case.
As they were looking around the large room, it was actually Zircon who discovered a little something over at the balcony, where Blue Diamond stood.

"What'd you find, Zircon?" Flint asked, seeing Zircon kneel down and pick up the object. The object was about as large as a plate, thin as cardboard but it glistened in the light a little bit, in a sort of circular shape, though a little sloppy in accuracy as if it was crudely cut. Both Zircon and Flint examined the piece, Blue Pearl quietly coming over.

"What is this? It doesn't feel like a part of a Gemstone at all, almost rugged," Zircon analyzed.

"Clearly not from Blue Diamond at all. ... Or any human, for that matter," noted Flint, holding the object in his hand as well. What would something like this even be doing here? Flint went out on the balcony a bit further, and looked around a bit, starting to work out his hypothesis on the situation. It took him a minute or two, but eventually he managed to get it.

"Pearl, did you mention anyone coming by the room, or anyone going in with her?"

"... N-No."

"OK, I think I got it then: Blue diamond was apparently attacked out on the balcony here," Flint started, standing in the exact spot where Blue Pearl saw the gemstone. Zircon took each word Flint said into consideration as he continued.

"So, looking out here, I can tell almost immediately that Steven couldn't be able to do it even if he wanted to: we're far too high up for a proper approach from the ground up, and according to her Pearl, he didn't invite himself into the palace at any point. I think we can reach one of two conclusions: the attacker could fly, or was already in the room beforehand, both things impossible for Steven," Flint explained. A surprising conclusion over just a simple piece of evidence and a little look around the room, but Zircon was more than impressed.

"Oh ... my ... THAT'S GENIUS!" Zircon said, amazed. Flint was a bit surprised over the reaction, but kept that to himself.

"Pearl, think you can find someone to analyze this for me?" Flint asked. Blue Pearl nodded, taking the object, and going off on her way, leaving Zircon and Flint to step out of the room.

"How on earth did you figure that out over just one piece of evidence?" asked Zircon. She just HAD to figure it out.

"What? It looked obvious, really," Flint shrugged. Zircon wasn't sure if it was an insult or a statement, but didn't go further on that. Still, this was a good thing to discover for both cases at hand. Before they could take another step though, someone else was catching up with them: Onyx.

"What's taking you so long?! Court's waiting on you, and they're getting testy," Onyx warned.

Well, no time for an extra plan, they got a case to handle.

~~~~~~

"What's taking her?" Yellow Diamond growled.

The tension being built up within the court room was not being let up much better either. With Onyx gone, and Zircon still absent, they had to keep everything on hold until they would come back, therefore elongating the recess. A number of the Gems within the room were trying to get their patience together, but some were a bit more troubled about it than others.

"Easy, Yellow. Getting worked up isn't going to make this go any faster," White advised, though she wasn't too thrilled by the wait either. The Crystal Gems didn't seem very thrilled with it much themselves, though the longer they waited, the more likely they'll just be slammed with a sentence before anymore proper evidence could come out.

"Where are they? Does he know our lives are on the line here?" Amethyst wondered while pacing.

"There's no way he'll just ditch us, just give him a minute," Diopside insisted.

"We won't even need that much time. Here they come," Garnet said, and this time she didn't even need her future vision to tell her that. The entrance to the courtroom opened, and the missing Gems finally showed up, Onyx heading back to the court while Zircon went over next to the Crystal Gems.

"Zircon, you're late. What kept you?" White growled. However, Zircon just looked back, and soon their new defensive Gem Flint moved in for all to see. The Crystal Gems may feel a bit better on seeing him, the gray Gem adjusting himself as he went to center stage, but the Homeworld Gems were mainly confused on him showing up. White Diamond stayed silent when Flint appeared, locking her gaze to him, and Flint doing the same to her.

"... And what do you call this?" Yellow asked.

"A extra attorney, that's what. Consider me as a substitute Zircon," Flint said, business-like towards the highest Diamond.

"Under who's orders?" Yellow asked sternly.

"Alright, then a surprise witness then. I believe I got information for us to proceed. Is it wrong for adding evidence to one's case?" Flint asked. White saw his point, and calmed down Yellow Diamond a little bit. White Diamond looked over to both Flint and Blue Zircon, back and forth a bit before she just nodded her head. If it was anything like earlier, they shouldn't have too much trouble. White Diamond gave them the signal with a motion of her hand for both to continue, interested to see what they had in mind this time. Blue Zircon and Flint looked to eachother, silently agreeing to the terms, and both went forward. Blue Zircon went first.

"Now then. As we all understand, shattering Pink Diamond would've given "Rose Quartz" all the gain she could ever need in her goal, And one could argue that Rose's act of shattering Blue Diamond would be another step as well to secure it. She wanted to, yes ... but the question though isn't of 'would she', but a matter of 'could she?'."

"Could she?" Pearlis silently repeated. Flint and Blue Zircon went forward a little bit, Blue Zircon took of her signature monocle, her monocle glowing a bit, and then started to project a large enough light for the whole court to see. At first, it didn't entirely show much of anything, just a light blue screen, but then Flint pulled something out of his outfit pocket as his next piece of evidence, and slid it over Zircon's monocle, showing the picture up for everyone to see. The picture showed Steven, and Peridot playing their game from earlier, this point both of them busily trying to beat the level. This was probably the most confusing moment of the case.

"How'd he get a picture of that?" whispered Steven.

"That's what I want to know," whispered back Peridot.
Both Yellow Diamond and White Diamond saw this with a bit of confusion ... ok, a lot of confusion. Still, Blue Zircon and Flint knew what they were doing, and it was Flint's turn to talk, the Gem clearing his throat.

"Now, I know what you're thinking: what does this have anything to do with the case? Not an inch of evidence seems to be located within this seemingly innocent picture. however ..." With a signal of his finger, Blue Zircon altered the projection to zoom in on the time set in the picture, giving them all more attention to that over the actual picture itself, time itself reading about eight in the morning (the game tournament was an early one).

"Now, according to Blue Diamond's Pearl, the apparent assassination of your beloved Diamond was taken place earlier this morning. However, take a good look over at the time of this photograph," Flint said, keeping the photo up long enough for them to imprint it in their heads.

"Ok, but what does this have to -" to the court surprise, Flint interrupted the Diamond with a snap of his finger. Worried on his boldness regardless of the case, Blue Zircon then brought out another photo ... this time with Steven asleep, and a Pearl watching over him. ...

"I thought you'd stop doing that," Steven said. All Pearl did was fluster up in embarrassment, not sure how a picture was taken of that. How embarrassing to have it shown to the entire court, and as before, this one was also timed: seven thirty in the morning. Surprisingly small gap between sleeping in the bed to doing a game tournament. It didn't help that they could hear some snickering from a few other Gems from the courts either. Flint also focused it on this time as well.

"Now take note of this time frame. Just a mere half an hour Earth time between then, and now. And as we can see, your quartz seems a bit ...exhausted."

"Objection: this has nothing to do with the case! false evidence!" Yellow Zircon suddenly shouted. Fulgurite looked ready to clock her, but Garnet shook her head and kept her quiet, focusing on the actual thing going on.

"Does it now?" Flint questioned. Then Flint started to present his own projection images from his own gemstone, this time showing both maps of Beach City, and one of Blue Diamond's City Homeworld, taking note of the length between Steven's house and Homeworld.

"The estimated time between going from the Gem temple here, all the way to the Homeworld Warp pad is about a half an hour. And even then, comparing time between going from the Warp Pad to Blue Diamond's palace here, it adds a half an hour to it all, not to mention the additional time of proper notification, additional talk time, AND the time spent to even reach said room. That's well over two hours to get there, and back. Now, I ask you: how in the name of the stars can a Gem do all of that within just a half an hour timespan? Literally impossible for a client like him to actually accomplish."

The valid points were especially made in the regard, Blue Zircon and Flint removing their projections and allowing them all to take in what they got. With these two simple photos, both of which seemed completely unrelated to eachother, managed to put an extremely huge hole in the Blue Diamond case. And even more so? Flint was not done yet.

"Exhibit 2."

"All of that was one?!" Pearlis gasped. Even she couldn't believe it. All of that, and he wasn't done yet?! The other court members looked to Pearlis, the Gem hybrid quietly sinking in her seat from the peering eyes, as Flint presented the object found at the crime scene, presenting it to both Diamonds as Blue Zircon continued.

"We've took the time to actually investigate the scene of the crime during the recess provided, and during said search, we've discovered this foreign object suspiciously near where Blue Diamond had fell. After some analysis, we can also confirm this is not a inorganic piece of Blue Diamond, despite the obvious resemblance to a Diamond shard. An organic origin, a sort of hardened skin texture. We can all agree this couldn't be from our suspect, can we not?" Blue Zircon explained, the suspect referring to Steven himself. Seeing Steven, and the object itself, they all saw her point.

"Diamonds, I request Blue Diamond's gemstone and palanquin for the upcoming points to the cases," Flint requested.

"What?! Is that even needed?" Yellow asked. Sure they had their points, but Yellow Diamond found this simply pointless. Still, White Diamond snapped her fingers, and one of the Pearls activated a nearby teleporter to bring in the items requested. The gemstone, punctured and split up on three pieces, laid inside the palanquin since they both were presented at one time. Both Zircon and Flint nodded and moved over to the Palanquin in questioned, Flint actually taking one part of the gemstone out with him.

"Put that back!" Yellow demanded, standing up at this point, but Flint just ignored her and continued with his case.

"OK, now. You say this is indeed the true remains of Blue Diamond's once lively gemstone, an I correct to say?"

"Naturally," said White.

"But is it truly though? Zircon, care to do the honors?"

"If you want," Zircon said, walking over to him. Soon, another object to test this theory out was brought over: two glasses of water. An odd sort of detail, but Zircon went on with his plan anyway. This was the part she was most unsure about, but Flint seemed firm about it, confident too. Anyway, Zircon gave him one of the waters, and Flint brought out the organic object he presented earlier. Both appeared to be extremely similar, but then Flint went on ahead and poured water on the foreign object. Looking closely, the Diamonds saw that the foreign object wasn't actually blue, but instead grey, blue paint dripping off along with the water in a smooth glean. This time, Flint didn't need to say anything for Zircon to do her part: and while she didn't have a clue either, she too poured the water on what they all thought was Blue Diamond's stone. ...

The paint was removed off of that too, and showed the exact same glean as Flint's object. That wasn't Blue Diamond! The Crystal Gems, courts, even the Zircons and Diamonds were surprised by this ultimate revelation. Though the only ones that weren't as visually surprised were White Diamond and Flint.

"So ... the Gem wasn't Blue Diamond after all. ..." White simply stated.

"Seems so. With that, I rest my case," Flint finished. All that evidence, and now this ultimate revelation to basically the whole court that Blue Diamond wasn't even there was a rather bittersweet moment. Yeah, she could still be alive, but now she wasn't even there to be sure. White Diamond needed to make a deep decision about this. ...

"... Alright then. ... We can indeed agree, that the Crystal Gems were not responsible for this morning's capture of Blue Diamond. There's no denying that."

"Woo!" some of the Crystal Gems cheered. Guess they were off the hook.

"But that still doesn't discount your case with Pink Diamond!" White Diamond corrected.

"Awww ..."

"... But, that's a matter for another day."

The Crystal Gems were unsure of that, but they found it was the best they'll get. Yellow Diamond would complain, but the revelation that Blue Diamond was missing over being dead was still trying to process through her head, the Gem staring over at the fake diamond.

"Prosecution, how do you respond to this?" White asked. However, Yellow Zircon was really drawing a blank on this. How could she make any sort of comeback to Flint and Blue Zircon's counterargument? All she did was shake her head, much to Yellow's dismay.

"In that case, with the absence of further evidence, the judge shall pronounce sentence," Yellow Diamond sighed. White Diamond nodded in agreement.

"Agreed. The sentence of this court. ..."

"Come on White. Jail time, maintenance, execution, anything but letting them off easy," Yellow Diamond thought, almost pleading even. The Crystal Gems had their fingers crossed for the exact opposite of Yellow Diamond's hope. White Diamond paused, and looked to the fake diamond in their midst before she made her conclusion, giving a smile to them. ...

"Banishment. None of you are to consort within Homeworld boundaries for any reason, and whichever of you is found within the limits of the Diamond cities shall be placed for harvesting on sight."

... Not as bad as they expected it to.

"Huh. Well, ok then."

"What?"

"Meeting adjourned."

Signal for the entire group to head off on their way. Well, that was surely a rather fair punishment for their case, a bit more fair than Yellow Diamond would like. Still, what could she say with White Diamond standing right there, especially after the sentence being passed. Anyway, the Crystal Gems took their leave, along with the court members of both Diamonds. Yellow Diamond just left on her way, and after a little more it was just White Diamond and Flint, Flint waiting until the rest of the Crystal Gems left before starting to go himself.

"As I would expect from my dear hybrid," White simply said.

Flint paused for a moment or two, but he just sighed and walked out. ...

New Chaos in Town

View Online

"Dun-di-du-du-du-I'm-humming-a-song-la-di-da-da-da."

In his own little corner of the world, Discord was casually taking his own little stroll around the neighborhood, dressed up in a little fancy tuxedo, cane and top hat included. At first, it seemed that he was going through ponyville, a nice little tune in his step and a few occasional swings of his cane as he did so, but after a bit the world suddenly stopped and Discord hopped off of it. Guess he had enough on his treadmill, and with a pull of his fancy handy window hook, the scene pulled away and he was soon back at his house, treadmill disappearing after a tap of his cane. Go figure from the being of chaos, right? Anyway, after his little stroll through pretty much nowhere, Discord went on over to his kitchen, after tossing his hat, coat and cane on a conveniently placed coat rack, and started to handle some of the dishes. Though, his way of handling them was taking a clean dish, scrubbing it in the sink, and making it dirty again before placing it aside.

"Oh, things sure had been rather dull lately," Discord commented, going through about fifteen dishes. As he kept on going, suddenly a lightbulb popped over his head.

"I'll give Fluttershy a call! That Pegasus sure'll be free to play with ... ooo, a snack," Discord said, taking the lightbulb and biting into it like an apple before tossing the rest out the kitchen window. Still, calling up on his little letter buddy would give him something else to do. He went over to his phone, which was hanging up on the wall, and he quickly got it out and gave it a quick dial up. Discord waited a moment or two before it began to ring up, or at least it felt like it did. Discord felt the phone vibrate, his eyes looking around a little. However, one of the eyes took a look down towards his tail, much like a chameleon would, and soon Discord found it wasn't the phone vibrating, but instead his tail. The vibrating traveled up his tail, through his legs, up his back, and soon Discord found himself shaking up a storm, dropping the phone to the floor he was shaking so much. This shaking lasted up to about twenty seconds until Discord finally stopped, sitting on the ground in a daze. Once discord came to his senses, a suspicious look then came up to his face.

"Oh. That can't be right," Discord wondered, stroking his goat beard. After a little bit, Discord reached into his ear and pulled out his own little magic key (clean as a whistle of course), and got it into the lock of his door. One portal open later, and the draconequus was off on his way to check the situation.

~~~~~~

"Sadie! Sadie!" called Lars from the front desk. A regular day at the big donut, but with customers not coming around too much, business had been rather slow. Regardless, Lars was getting pretty bugged with Sadie randomly going off on him (ironic really).

"Why am I left with all the work?" Lars groaned. Though, the teen wasn't doing very much to begin with, and instead was checking out a magazine and listening to some music off some headphones. A regular worker, him. As he just sat there, feet kicked up on the counter, the front door rang up, and his latest customer then walked in: Buck to be exact. Of course, with music blasting in his head, and eyes to the magazine he was reading, Lars didn't even notice him come in.

"Hey, donut kid," Buck said, but Lars didn't hear anything, or see anything off his magazine. Buck was patient though, and waited a little bit, for what he was sure will come around. After a minute though, Buck decided to play with him, and brought his finger up to turn the page for Lars, only then did Lars actually notice him.

"Buck Dewey!" Lars gasped, stumbling off his seat. Buck gave Lars a minute to correct himself, Lars quickly jumping to his feet, hiding the magazine and headphones for a moment and quickly getting himself.

"Hi Buck, how's it going, what'll it be?" Lars asked, trying to look cool but freaking out seeing him there. Buck took it in his stride.

"I wanna order ... you. To come to dinner. Me, Jenny, and Sour Cream are having a potluck. You know, like parents do, only we'll be doing it. You should bring some food too because that's what you do at a potluck. It's funny," Buck said.

Did Lars hear him right? Buck, the coolest kid in Beach City, just invited him out to hang with the rest of his gang? Lars was lucky to even think up what to say. Lars had to think.

"Yes, so funny! Sure, I-I'll be there!" Lars got out. Buck smiled.

"Cool." With that sinple statement, Buck then went off and left the big donut. Lars kept a cool smile on his face until he was sure that Buck was out of sight, and by then ...

"UGH! Why'd I say that?" Lars thought, his head meeting with the counter table. The moment was simply up and out of nowhere, and now Lars was caught up in it. Lars tried to think, specifically on something he could just drag along over to this potluck, ANYTHING that'll work.

"Oh wait, donuts! Maybe that'll - wait. Wait, no, that's not good enough. Oh come on. Sadie, think you ca - wait she's not here, UGH!" Lars went over into the back to try and figure something out. Well, he had to try something out, besides, what other chance would there be to hang with the cool kids in this kind of event anyway? Lars paced a little bit at first, trying to think, and soon he ended up opening the door to the back again, when -

*BAM*

Next thing he knew, Lars found himself getting slammed by something, big and fast, It all happened very fast, and Lars himself didn't have any remote time to react to any of it. What he ended up finding himself in was in the coils of discord, who he himself was slightly dazed by the sudden crash, and wrapped around Lars like stray rope. A rather rough landing, but he was there.

"Oh, do excuse me," said Discord.

"GET OFF!" yelled Lars, tossing the draconequus off of him. Discord landed over by the front desk, Discord bouncing back onto his feet like a spring.

"Oh NO, not another one! What're you doing here?" Lars asked, not wanting any magic biz going on in the big donut right now. Discord quickly got himself together, cleaning himself off of any dust.

"Oh, just dropping by. Eh, while I'm here, you didn't happen to notice anything chaotic, or overly-magical as of late, have you?" Discord asked.

"Aside from you, no," Lars said. Discord felt a bit disappointed on that answer, suddenly conjuring up a list from nowhere, and a quill, marking off a picture of Lars on his list of Beach City residents. Oh well, it was his first shot at it anyway, he shouldn't be discouraged yet.

"Oh poo. Well there's other fish in this big ocean, ta-ta," Discord said, opening up the front door to go. Though his way of doing that was to close the door, and just faze on through it. Lars could breath a sigh of relief he didn't have to deal with that magic today, and his mind returned back to the potluck. He wasn't sure what exactly to bring over to the potluck, but he knew one thing for sure.

"It must be perfect."

~~~~~~

As Discord was doing his little investigation, Lars had his mind wrapped around this whole potluck event. He basically said he'll go to Buck Dewey earlier, and now he was pretty much stuck with it. If he wanted to make a good impression on the coolest kids in Beach City, he had to get his act together before.

"MAN, why did I say that? I got nothing to bring. Come on, Lars, m-maybe that Pinkie Pie can make you something to bring," Lars figured. Buck never said he had to make the meal for the potluck himself, so that did sound a bit easier for him to do. His walk back to his house at least wasn't too stressful, to put the term lightly, and not many out to bug him on it either. The last thing he needed was some nosy kid breathing down his neck for his feeling sharing. During his walk around Beach City towards home though, he had to make a way past Greg's carwash to do so. For the carwash itself, it did appear to be a little bit busy with a few cars lined up for Greg to clean away at. As for Greg, he was a bit busy with his work, hose in hand and sponge in the other, wiping down the car of his latest customer. Normally, he'd not bother with it much and continue his stroll home, but as he started to near, He found one person was doing less car-washing, and more spying, hidden away just over by Greg's parked van. It's more on who it was that got Lars a bit confused: Buck.

"Buck?"

"Sshh," Buck quickly said, turning back to Lars, finger over his lips as he shushed him. Since when was Buck into spying on people? He quietly pointed over to the carwash, getting his attention to the scene. All he could see though was Greg finishing up Kofi Pizza's car.

"... Have you been with those moms, or ..."

"Over there," said Buck, hushed, and focusing Lars's head so he could see what Buck was seeing, a bit clearer at least. As Greg was finishing up this customer's cleaning, which turned out to be the last one, Greg was ready to go and clean up a little bit, putting the hose up over by the carwash wall. But, it wasn't exactly Greg himself that the two were looking at, but instead the focus was up to the 'It's a Wash' elephant sign. Or rather, whatever was slithering out from behind it, and watching Greg from it's perch until it knew for sure that they were alone.

"Oh, what a busy day. I earned my paycheck today," Greg told himself, wiping off some sweat off of his head.

"Yeah, I'd say so. Though your scrubbing's a little sloppy."

Not a voice Greg knew, and seeing the bigger shadow just over him got Greg to turn around to see who was talking to him. One thing Greg could say right away was that this was no ordinary customer. In fact, it wasn't even human for that matter: a huge, long, grey snake! Naturally this was no ordinary snake either: this one was actually a little classy, wearing what looked like a sort of voodoo hat, lined with bones including a small rat skull at the center. Fangs were evident on this snake, poking out just so slightly off the side of its jaws. And the size of this snake easily matched to the largest anaconda. Greg stayed silent, the sponge dropping out of his hand.

"OH! ... HI THERE," Greg said, eyes wide and fixated on this giant snake as he tipped his hat to Greg with his tail.

"Name's Slang. Grootslang. And see you had fun cleaning those cars, eh?" said Grootslang, slithering over to the hose on the wall as his tail flipped up the sponge, balancing it on his tail like a basketball player would for a basketball.

"Well, it is my job," said Greg, trying to get his sponge back, just for Grootslang to toss it over back to the hose, which was where Greg was going to put it in the first place.

"Sure it is, sure it is, and I suppose your kid's plenty proud of ya too, huh?" Grootslang noted, nudging him as he said so. Greg wasn't too sure about this thing, especially after that statement.

"Eh ... I'll just continue cleaning now," Greg simply said, backing up from the large snake. However, Grootslang slithered up behind him, and Greg ended up stuck in a slight coil.

"Don't be a stranger, Greg, your kid's told me lots about you already," Grootslang hissed, a sly grin on his face.

"Whoa, what? Really?" Greg asked, legitimately confused. Grootslang nodded his head.

"Oh yes, he sure had a lot to say about you: you being number one dad, you doing such a good job at your music hobby," said Grootslang, complimenting him on it. Greg felt a little flattered about it actually.

"Eh, I dabble a little when I was young," Greg said, rubbing the back of his head, but this just got Grootslang chuckling in his hiss.

"Oh, he also mentioned about your little lack for him lately? What pops, too busy to hang with him?" Grootslang hissed, changing the tone very quickly.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh you know, so much has happened to him over these last few months, and here you are chilling out with your sponge and hose. He's been running around here, Equestria, Homeworld, wherever and getting into all sorts of trouble. I mean, he just got into court for murder just two days back, for Celestia's sake! ... And where were you when this was going on?"

"N-Now wait a minute, the Gems don't want me involved in that kind of stuff!" Greg retorted, shaken up on what Grootslang told him, but then Grootslang started to act all dramatic, taking his hat off with his tail and placing it over his chest, looking forlorn.

"WOOOOW! So you'll abandon your kid for their sake? OY, what a pain on his heart if he heard you say that. Brings a tear to your eye."

"But they never told me that, really. How am I supposed to do anything for something I don't know?"

"DOUBLE WOOOOW! You're gonna have me baling any minute now," Grootslang wept, a tear even slithering down his face. Grootslang was surely antagonizing Greg, even if he never knew anything about anything. Now Greg was getting a mix of guilt and anger towards the snake.

"Now listen here, you -" Before Greg could get his word in, Grootslang gave a very loud hiss, opening his jaws and pulling out his large, sharp fangs as intimidation. The jumpscare factor was enough to make Greg stumble back, slipping over the soapy water on the pavement.

"Geesh, Greg, I'm only making a point. I mean, your the dad, you know what's best for your own son, do you? Or did you alienate your own kid that much? Just some food for thought. OH, and one more thing." Grootslang reached into his hat, and pulled out a toupee, putting it over Greg's bald spot. It didn't match his natural hair, but it still covered. Grootslang smiled, patted it down to be sure, and then slithered off on his way.

"There. Snazzy, no? Well, I'll leave you to your thoughts now, have a good day Greg." and with that final word, Grootslang slithered off out of sight, and left Greg to ponder and question about what Grootslang had just said.

"... Maybe I should visit Steven," Greg pondered.

Nearby, Lars and Buck had basically overheard everything, and once Grootslang had slithered far enough away, Buck started to walk back down the road, thinking about the situation they had just witnessed. Lars was still lost the moment the snake even showed up, his mind still trying to properly process things. Lars sat down by Greg's van, back to the vehicle.

"Eh ... So that happened."

"A lot of things happened lately. ... Lars, think you can tell the Gem moms of Steven's? This sounds much like their work," asked Buck. Lars hopped up to his feet on the request. As if getting invited to his potluck was crazy enough, now he was asking a big favor out of him! He needed to step up his game now.

"Oh, sure thing, be right there and back before you know it, eh Bingo bongo!" Lars said, point-and-shoot gesturing with his fingers. Buck nodded, and he started to walk on his way. Lars high-tailed it back the way he came to get to the Crystal Gems and tell them what was up.

""Bingo-Bongo"? What does that even mean?" Lars thought as he went.

~~~~~~

Speaking of, back at the temple, things had still calmed down a bit and had returned to normal. With their previous encounter with White Diamond, the Crystal Gems were pretty much left stuck on Earth, this time for good. Though, to be fair, since the Crystal Gems had been doing so for thousands of years anyway, it really didn't come across as anything too dangerous, and everything ended up back to how they were for the most part. In the Beach House in question, Steven, Connie, and Twilight were both taking time to check out Twilight's recent monster guide as Rarity and Jade were working on some inspiration designs for outfits. Seemed pretty normal enough, but they paused for a moment when the Warp Pad activated nearby, Garnet, Fluttershy, Pearl and Rainbow just coming back.

"Hello there, dears. How'd it go?" asked Rarity, placing down her sketchbook.

"Not too good. We've tried looking for Jasper at the typical Gem sites, but there's not a trace of her anywhere," Pearl informed, looking a bit disappointed about the search.

"Hope she's ok," said Steven.

"You and me both, sport. It's pretty dull around here without that orange fighter living things up," added in Rainbow, landing down over by them. Yeah, looking for Jasper had been just as troubling as their search for Malachite, as troubling as that was to even say. Just as they thought their troubles were over, no less, and Jasper was now missing again.

"Is Lapis out yet?" asked Twilight.

"No, she's still stuck there. Poor Gem," said Fluttershy, regrettably. The incident with Malachite was surely getting itself to Lapis, last time they checked, but despite Blue Diamond, she still didn't bring herself to come out. So, in a way, they only got one half of the original problems solved.

"Don't worry. They'll be alright," Garnet reassured. They only hoped so. ...

"*knock**knock*

"Hey, anyone there?!"

It was at this point that Lars finally showed up. He still was a bit frantic, not to mention tired from his backtrack to get to the temple. Being closest to the door, Pearl went over to the door, and it didn't take long for the group to see Lars standing there, the kid trying to catch his breath for the run back here, hunched over.

"Oh. Can I help you?" Pearl asked.

"Hold on. *huff**huff* I'll be with you *huff* in a minute," said Lars, trying his best to catch his breath first before he would say something. At least his memory was still in tact on him. To Steven, this was a rather interesting surprise.

"Lars! Welcome to my home! This is the first time you've been over, I think," Steven said, recalling little memory of Lars to actually. Lars though wasn't interested in that.

"OK, Gem moms, you here? Eh, you!" Lars then pointed to Garnet.

"Yes?" Garnet simply asked, looking down to him.

"OK, you may or may not believe me, I don't blame you really, but something freaky is going on in Beach City right now," Lars said, though he was still trying to come to terms with actually buying it himself. A giant, sentient, talking snake slithering around Beach City?

"Can't be: me and AJ already settled that feud between those Pizzas and Fries," Rainbow pointed out.

"The what - NO, forget that! K, look, there's this ... giant snake? I-I guess? That's going around town. I just saw it mess up your dad's mind pretty good," Lars said, though he didn't feel confident about it at all. He expected them to look at him like he was crazy, but the reactions were actually more humble on this report, Garnet, even with her visors, appearing just as humbled as well. She was right up to Lars, looking down at him.

"I need you to be honest. Are you telling us the truth?" Garnet asked, looking Lars in the eyes to be sure. Being so close, Lars could even see her three eyes through her visors, which didn't help his nerves.

"EYEEEEIIII'm pretty sure I am," Lars said, correcting himself from his surprise. Garnet straightened up and thought it over for a bit.

"WHOA, wait a minute, no! We found some snakes, but we clobbered them last time we saw them!" Rainbow insisted.

"Actually, you lost them," Pearl reminded as well, not something Rainbow wanted to remember either.

"No we didn't!"

"Enough," Garnet said, quieting them both. Bickering amongst eachother wasn't gonna fix anything. After that, Garnet started to walk out the door.

"I'll handle it," Garnet simply said, as she started to head off towards the city. The others went outside and watched her go. Well, sounded like that was taken care of, one way or another, and Lars breathed a sigh of relief. His favor to Buck was taken care of too, but there was another thing that came back in his head.

"What did he say to my dad?" Steven asked.

"I dunno, something about him being a bad father and how you chewed him out, er something," Lars replied, taking a rest on the fence of his porch. Steven couldn't believe it.

"What?!" Steven gasped.

"Steven never said anything like that, ever," added Connie.

"That lying coil of rope, come on!" Rainbow said, ready to fly off after the snake.

As if their pre-existing problems weren't enough.

~~~~~~

Back in town, Discord was still doing his own little investigation on the extra magic looming around in Beach City. So far though, even with all his magic and law-breaking skills, he wasn't having no more luck than the next guy. Going around town in his detective outfit, magnifying glass included over one of his eyes, Discord was sweeping over through Dewey Park, and around the nearby buildings for something, or some sort of clue. He popped up out of a street light bulb, crawling down the pole and moving along the ground like a snake, magnifying glass in front of him and keeping his head on the ground. Odd to see for any passersby, though none of them dared to ask what was even going on with Discord. As he was crawling around, he ended up sliding into a sewer manhole, only to reappear from a hole inside a tree (as Discord would do).

"Nothin," Discord groaned, shaking off a squirrel off his head. He slithered out of the tree and soon was up and standing again. So far, he wasn't getting much of anywhere, despite looking up plenty of Beach City up and down, and now he was starting to get impatient.

"Really, how hard can it be to find chaotic magic around here?"

"AAHH, SNAKE!"

"AND, nevermind."

Talk about timing. Discord zoomed over towards the source of the noise, keeping himself hidden behind a light pole, and only poking his head out while the rest of his body stayed completely hidden. A scream like that in a place like this was surely something worth checking out for this draconequus.
Down the road, some of the locals were either racing off past Discord, or moving to the otherside of the street in a hurry, slithery snake Grootslang actually casually slithering through town. One look on the snakes face said he didn't care how much his presence was freaking everyone out. As Discord watched, Grootslang slithered down the sidewalk for a bit until he stopped in front of one of the stores, giving a sly smirk before slithering on inside. The store in question, as it turned out was right next to the theater, entitled "Miroslaw's Jewelers". And indeed it lived to its name: displays of many a necklace, ring, and other forms of jewelry were in Grootslang's sight, plenty o delight for the snake. And lucky for him, a young male worker was working the front, wiping the counter and apparently too distracted in that to even notice Grootslang come in. Grootslang tapped the front bell to get his attention.

"Ah, hello sir welcome to Mirosla - aaaa?!"

"Hey there, kid. Miroslaw himself, right?" Grootslang asked, followed by a little hiss to the boy's face.

"Eh ... n-no, that's my dad," he stuttered, tugging at his collar a little bit as Grootslang started to look around at the variety.

"My oh my, the option! Let's see now ..." Grootslang slithered around and examined each and every jewel in the area. So many options peaked the snake's interest. However, he then took sight of one, particularly big one on display on the right wall, Grootslang's eyes widening and a big smile stretching across his face, his tongue flicking in and out.

"I'll take the biggest, shiniest jewelry you got!" Grootslang insisted, looking less threatening and more excited, though it didn't help the lad out in his situation. He tried to get his nerves together, trying to look professional for the snake, as he started to gathered up what he would consider the largest jewels they had, placing several pieces of jewelry on the front counter. Grootslang's eyes boggled as the lad made up the value of it.

"OK, so that about ten pieces so it'll be ... three hundred dollars and seventy cents," the boy confirmed.

"These will do LOVELY. OH, look how they sparkle," said Grootslang. However, he swept them up with his tail, and immediately started to head for the door. Despite the situation, business is business, so a whistle escaped the boy's mouth.

"Wait. Y-You forgot to pay for that," he said, Grootslang stopping.

"I forgot to what?"

"Uh. You forgot to pay," the boy repeated, causing Grootslang to slithered back.

"I forgot to what?"

"To pay. Y-Yes, you forgot to do that."

"... I forgot to pay?"

"YOU! FORGOT! TO -" Grootslang whipped his tail in the air to shut the boy up, the snake's ears ringing from the yelling.

"I heard what you said. I said I'll take the jewels, and I'm taking them."

"Eh, no, no, no, t-that's not how it works. I, uh ... uh ..." The boy trailed off in thought as Grootslang leaned in towards him, his eyes locked to him. The boy gulped, tugging at his collar again, as Grootslang slid the jewels into his hat, making them disappear inside. Grootslang stuck out his tongue, which flicked the boy's face a number of times.

"Think those fuzz will believe you if you tell em a giant snake stole your jewelry? Keep that in mind, fancy pants. See ya later," Grootslang hissed. And with that, the snake slithered out, leaving the young storekeep lucky to stay unharmed after all that. Grootslang snickered to himself as he went off on his way, putting the hat back on his head.

"AND WHERE'RE YOU GOING?"

Looking ahead, Grootslang found Discord standing right in front of him, dressed up as a police officer. Grootslang's face met right with Discord's, to the point of touching. Grootslang backed up a little bit.

"And who're you, stranga?"

"Excuse me?! I'm Discord: the ONE and ONLY spirit of chaos this side of the universe," Discord made clear, his own name showing up above Grootslang's head, the letters bouncing off of his hat after Discord finished talking. Grootslang shook his head, and readjusted his hat.

"Spirit of chaos? Then what's with the cop act?" Before Grootslang got an answer, Discord 'hand-cuffed' Grootslang's neck with his tail with a snap of his claw. A bit of a last minute decision, but it got him apprehended, anyway.

"Oh, call me reformed or whatever you want. Now you're comin with me before you cause anymore trouble."

"Not a chance, coppa." Grootslang stretched with the tip of his tail and tapped the icon on his hat, much like a button. After a little shaking, Grootslang suddenly ended up zipping into the hat, a poof of smoke blinding Discord for a moment or two. Nothing but hand cuffs and the hat left.

"Hey! Out of there!" Discord yelled.

"Come in and get me, overgrown jigsaw puzzle," Grootslang threatened, his tail shooting out and whipping his head back and forth. The final whack literally made his head spin around like a top. Discord grabbed his head and screwed it on correctly, his eyes needing a moment or two before they stopped too. After that, Discord dove into the hat right after Grootslang, but he only found himself in a dark void of sorts, though on the outside the hat remained still.

"K, rope, where're you?!" Discord shouted. Outside the hat, another figure wrapped his tail around the top of this hat, and tied it shut. The tail snapped off like a twig and grew back in little time at all, only to reveal Grootslang somehow slipped himself out and got Discord stuck in the hat. Also it turned out it was just a spare hat as well, Grootslang snickering and placing his real hat on his head and slithering away.

"Eh? Wha?! HEY! LEMME OUT! HELLOO?! ANYPONY THERE!" Discord yelled. The hat was getting knocked around due to Discord's attempts to bust out, the hat falling over to the side. What an embarrassing thing to be stuck in. Lucky for Discord, someone did eventually show up and got the hat to open, Discord shooting out like a rocket and landing on a nearby light post.

"You're after him too, huh," said a voice, Discord laying in a heap and looking up to whoever released him. Turned out, the figure was Buck Dewey, though this time he was joined by Garnet, Rainbow, and Rarity.

"Good day to you too," said Discord, picking himself up and getting himself together (metaphorically and literally). Garnet looked around alongside Rainbow for Grootslang, but the only thing remaining was a single scale on the ground not too far away. Investigating, Garnet started to go and follow what trail there was left, picking up the scale as she did so, seeing a bizarrely familiar color tint to it.

"How the hay did you end up in that hat?" Rainbow asked, getting the more obvious questions out of the way. Discord sprung up to his feet.

"Like I'm supposed to know the exact tricks Grootslang was even up to," Discord groaned.

"Actually ... yeah."

Yeah, that didn't make him feel any better. Garnet did eventually come back to the others with the odd scale in her hand, something many of them which got sight of fairly quickly.

"Grootslang. That's new ..."

.......

Sometime later, they were over back at the Beach House, with the scale placed down on the table as Twilight was busily going over the bestiary she had with her. A good time as any to check this over. The others got Discord back as well, taking the spare hat with them as well for some sort of extra evidence to see what they could figure out. The Alicorn skimmed through the pages of the bestiary, trying to find out this 'Grootslang' creature brought up to them by Discord.

"Grootslang, Grootslang, Grootslang ... AH, there it is!" Twilight said, finally finding it. The picture of a Grootslang met with their faces, matching their Grootslang almost exactly (minus the hat of course), and showing it in a threatening stance with jaws wide open, curled up on a pile of jewels, not too far off from what their Grootslang stole from the jeweler shop in town.

"What do we got?" Buck asked.

"Well, it describes it as a giant snake with fangs the size of elephant tusks. Extremely powerful, cunning, and has an extreme fascination towards various gemstones, especially Diamonds," explained Twilight. Well, considering their last encounter with the Diamonds, Grootslang's appearance made the culprit WAY too easy.

"That was easy," noted Garnet.

"What was?" asked Twilight, but Rainbow got in the way first.

"Does it say how to defeat one of those things?" Garnet questioned, Twilight looking back into her book.

"Eh ... Well, it does say a victim can bargain a Grootslang with gems, but that's about it," Twilight said. Disappointing to hear really, but it did get them thinking a little bit. Jasper was missing, Blue Diamond too, and conveniently a Grootslang showed up in town and robbed a jewelry store in broad daylight with little trouble at all.

"... When's the potluck, Buck?"

~~~~~~

"Come on, where is this place?"

Meanwhile, with his little favor done, Lars was off and on his way through Ponyville and heading over to what he thought would be his best bet on the potluck later on. He had a good feeling about this, though that was mainly because he didn't tell anyone back at Beach City where he went, he'd rather be caught dead than found here far as he was concern. Still, his knowledge about Ponyville altogether just wasn't good. He managed to find Ponyville itself, that was for sure, but the exact spot wasn't exactly in his head, leaving him walking around in circles. Well, he was at least, until he heard the sound of a door opening up and with a happy customer.

"Thank you, come again."

Sugarcube corner, just the thing Lars was looking for. Again, no one said he had to make the food for the potluck himself, so long as it was good enough for the cool kids to enjoy. However, when he got up to the door, he wasn't the only one who wanted a little something to go from here: about several ponies all lined up and awaited for their orders to be filled up by Mr. and Miss. Cake, though hearing a fast working chef in the back did say that they had some extra help. Guess Lars had to wait it out.

"This better not take long," Lars mumbled under his annoyed breath, as he was forced to wait in line. Being taller than everyone else, he got a clear view on the work being done by the workers at the desk. What he could say was that orders were coming out a lot faster than the Beach City restaurants could ever do. One, two, three customers were being handled very fast, and pretty good much to Lars's convenient need for an order. In no less than five minutes, the human was right up to the front counter. Mr. Cake was at the front counter to take his order, but the yellow pony did look a little surprised to see a human up to the front instead of a pony.

"Oh! Visiting from outta town?" Mr. Cake asked.

"Eh, yeah. Ok, look, I don't have too much time so just give me whatever is popular," Lars said, impatient already. Mr. Cake took a moment to check over the options they had for today. Looking through the orders, and thinking over the month they've got, Mr. Cake nodded his head.

"The Pumpkin Rolls are a pretty popular this time of year," suggested Mr. Cake.

"Yeah, sure, just how much would it be?" Lars asked, readying his money.

"Fifteen bits," Mr. Cake said, hoof out and ready. Lars wasn't sure if money was the same, so he just gave the chef human money: which is a five and a ten in dollars. At first, Mr. Cake paused and just looked at the money given to him, Lars resting his elbow on the counter and waiting for the order. Since he was in a rush, Mr. Cake didn't push Lars about it and decided to take it instead for pay. Mr. Cake wrote the order down and went back to the kitchen to put the order in. At first, Lars wondered how long this was going to be, but surprisingly the order was done and finished. By the look of it too, it appeared to be pre-made, and not too long ago either as it was levitated from the kitchen and to the front counter. Once more, when Lars took a look to who actually brought it out: a unicorn instead of the pink pony.

"Thank you, Velvet, just place it there," Mr. Cake instructed, Velvet Sugar placing the dessert in place.

"Wait. Do I know you from somewhere?" asked Lars, scratching his head. Velvet Sugar turned to Lars soon after placing the Pumpkin Roll down on the counter. The treat itself looked like a giant dessert roll, orange in color with white filling.

"Might have: I've visited Beach city time to time, but I got a job here now," Velvet said, remembering her latest visit to Beach city and selling her spiked desserts to the people.

"I thought that pink pony was the chef here," Lars commented. Velvet rubbed the back of her head.

"Pinkie? Yeah she still does, I'm just filling in until she gets back. I'm sous-chef of Sugarcube Corner," Velvet answered. At this point, Mr. Cake got the amount in correctly, despite taking a little bit to collect the right amount of change for human change to bits.

"OK, thank you for your business, have a nice day," said Mr. Cake as Lars took the Pumpkin Roll and began to head off for home. Well, he had what he needed, all he had to do was wait for the potluck itself.

~~~~~~

With everything pretty much set up, and with time closing in, Lars was off and on his way towards the Potluck location. With the large Pumpkin roll in hand, wrapped up and everything, Lars headed off towards Sour Cream's house, where the Potluck was going to be at. Lars couldn't be anymore nervous if he tried, though he was trying to help his nerves up and keep a good view for when he would get there. Still, Lars just was shaking in his shoes.

"Come on Lars, keep it together. I-It'll be fine," Lars told himself, getting closer and closer to the place in question. It's not that he didn't know the way, but more if this will even be good enough for the Potluck itself. Would this be good enough for them? Buck, Sour, Jenny, those three were the cool kids on the block, and he was just some low-grade far as he was compared. He took one hand and wiped off some of the sweat from his head, a little distracted where he was going. Unbeknownst to him, just ahead, one other little figure was waiting for him just along the sidewalk, behind one of the fences. All it took was a tail out, and ...

"Whoa!"

*Splat*

Well, that did it. Lars got up to his knees, only to find the Pumpkin Roll completely splattered on the pavement! If he wasn't nervous before, he surely got freaking out now. Lars scrambled over to whatever was left of the roll, now nothing more than a mess of bread, plastic wrap and white frosting. Now what was he supposed to do?!

"No, no no no, come on!" Lars gasped, trying to fix up the dessert, but only making even more of a mess out of it.

*hissssss*

And there was no time to even do that. Looking down at his foot, he found the one who messed up his treat: Acid! The snake slithered out into view, barring her teeth at him. Lars spun around, eyes locked onto one snake, only for another to slither up behind him and hiss in his ear, making him stumble back.

"Hello, Laramie," said Cyanide in a kiss. As if seeing a talking snake wasn't freaky enough, now he had two talking snakes to deal with. Smaller, sure, but still!

"AH, okay, y-you're talking. T-Two talking, deadly, snakes," Lars said, shuttering a little as the snakes slid up to eachother, Acid hissing in his face.

"Yes. Isn't it a little late for you to be out by yourself?"

"I-I uh, well, maybe?" Lars said, not sure what else to say. Cyanide took a look over to the ruined treat, shaking her head in disappointed.

"Oh dear, look at that. And just before your Potluck too," hissed Cyanide.

"C-Can you get off me? Please?" asked Lars, Acid coiled up on his chest at the moment. Acid did slither off of him, heading over to the creation. She gave the treat a little lick, though she was quick to show her disgust, spitting out what frosting was on her tongue.

"Disgusting. This is probably a favor," Acid stated.

"You think you'll impress anyone with this?" asked Cyanide. Lars didn't feel much better about it, but he did end up getting to his feet, now given the chance to.

"Yeah, no, I dunno, now if you just excuse me -"

"Excused.~"

Wouldn't you know it a third snake would show up? Acid and Cyanide looked back to the larger snake, and Lars found himself surrounded by Acid, Cyanide, and Grootslang himself! Lars jumped out of his own shoes the moment he saw Grootslang, almost tripping over Acid and Cyanide again. Trio of snakes, and they all were eyeing him down, even if one of them could only meet him eye-to-eye.

"Fancy." commented Acid and Cyanide.

"Hey, kid. Out for a walk?" asked Grootslang, his tongue flicking out and hitting his face. Lars whacked the tongue away, spitting a little bit.

"I'm out!" Lars finally said, ready to make a run for it the other way, but Grootslang moved in the way, making Lars bump right into him. The hit made Grootslang's hat fall onto his head, covering his head. Lars, with his head stuck, tried to get the hat off of him as the snakes snickered. Grootslang just gestured Acid and Cyanide to go off with a wink, both smaller snakes slithering away as Grootslang went over to Lars and popped off the hat.

"You think that's all you need to do?"

"Why, any normal human would!" Lars said, but got more uncomfortable when Grootslang slithered up right up to him.

"Right, right sure. Laramie, me boy, you wanna be hip with the kids do you? Why don't uncle G.Slang give you a few pointers, eh?" Grootslang offered, but Lars wasn't going to trust a forked tongue for a moment. Then again, he can't exactly go away either so, he was kinda stuck. ...

"Not a chance."

"HEY, the girl scout's here!"

Saved! Not too far away, Grootslang and Lars saw Garnet finally showing up, the Gem fusion leaning against the nearby light post, having some sort of package in her hand. Grootslang wasn't so easily taken aback by Garnet's arrival, but Lars took the distraction opportunity and made a bolt for it. Or at least, he tried to, just for Grootslang to wrap the tip of his tail around his foot. Lucky for him, Garnet wasn't having any of it and stomped on his tail, forcing him to let go. Lars scrambled to get away from the giant snake, letting Garnet handle the problem. No way was he going to stick around to see how this would end.

"Watch the tail!" Grootslang yelled, keeping his tail away as he saw Lars run off and hide. Garnet placed the package down by her feet before confronting the snake.

"Grootslang, you're coming with me," Garnet said, summoning her Gem weaponry.

"What for? Messing with a few people?"

"Kidnapping Blue Diamond," Garnet announced. Grootslang felt taken aback by that remark.

"What? Who?" Grootslang questioned, only for Garnet to present the grey scale to him.

"My Diamond went missing not too long ago, and we found this at the scene. You got the motive," Garnet informed. Grootslang felt insulted.

"Oh please that could be anyone's scale!" Grootslang retorted. Garnet simply grabbed him by the tail and compared the scale to the one on him. Albeit a bit bigger, it was a perfect match in smoothness and color.

"Don't lie to me. We know Grootslangs have a fondness for Gems."

"Oh what, just because I'm a Grootslang I stole Blue Diamond? Wow cool, species-iest," the large snake scolded, not amused by the accusation in the slightest. Garnet wasn't too thrilled about it either, nor with the supposed lying.

"OK, no point in lying Grootslang. We found your scale at the scene, and you've already robbed the jewelers earlier today," Garnet pointed out. Grootslang paused for a moment, his tail slowly reaching for his hat on the ground. With their eyes locked onto eachother, Garnet didn't really notice much of anything.

"Sign me up for some cinnamon strudels, will you sweetie?"

And wouldn't you know it, Grootslang got sucked into the hat again, disappearing out of sight! Garnet tried to grab him, but before she could get him, the hat this time disappeared in a flash of light. Not even Garnet's future vision could've stopped Grootslang ahead of time with how quick his exit was altogether. Disappointing to be sure, but at least she knew who the culprit was. Once that was all done with, Garnet looked off ahead, finding Lars hidden off behind one of the buildings. Garnet walked over to him, taking the package and presenting it to him.

"This is for you. I'm sure the potluck will work better for you now," Garnet said with a smile, before walking back the other way. Lars wasn't sure what was in the package, but he took a little look inside and he got his answer: a fresh pumpkin roll! It looked even better than the one he had before, the smell of pumpkin, frosting and bread hitting him pretty strongly. PERFECT!

All Lars did was smile slightly before heading off to the Potluck.

The Crazy Races

View Online

"They say, the road's not big enough for the universe. Well I say: the universe ... is my road."

A rather calm, and typical day at Beach City's carwash, and with time on their hands, Steven, Amethyst and Connie were off and helping Greg out a little bit with some of the washing. With the other Gems a bit busy with their own thing, the trio had the day for themselves, so they started it off with taking a visit over to Greg's carwash (something they've not done in quite a while now that they thought of it). For the moment, Steven was playing about inside Greg's van, pretending to drive it around with a few car noises and turning the steering wheel as little bit. Greg just got done finishing up another car at this point, aided by Amethyst and Connie. When done with that, Amethyst played around and brought the hose over to the van, jumping in the way of the van and her.

"Stick em up! This is the fuzz!" Amethyst shouted, spraying the window with the hose. Steven jumped on out once the windows had been sprayed, just to get sprayed himself. laughing, Steven decided to turn the tables and summon his shield, spinning it around, and giving Amethyst a good ol blowback. Amethyst got soaked by her own spray, and both raced over to Greg and Connie. Greg couldn't help but smile at seeing the kids play around, and eventually Connie put her sponge down and started to join in on the fun.

"Sneak attack!" Connie said, a bucket of water being poured and splashed at Amethyst. Amethyst tried to aim her hose at Connie, just for Connie to dodge it. Amethyst slipped over the water, and the kids all just ended up laughing when it was all done.

"Thanks again for the hand, kids. surely helped me out," Greg then said, as he was winding up the hose.

"Compared to what we did already, this is a holiday," Amethyst said, getting up along with the others.

"Oh yeah, that big monster hunt. You got a lot of those monsters, didn't you?"

"You bet we did, and our big man saved the world too," Amethyst said, giving Steven a playful punch to the shoulder. Steven just chuckled, happy all and all for it himself. It was a rough road, but saving the world was always a good thing. Of course they shared it with Greg a while back, how could they not? Still, Greg was starting to feel only a little good. As they were chatting on that, Connie took a glance over by the sponge she placed down ... just to see a hand reach out and grab it.

"Eh, Steven, don't you think you might be -"

"Onion!" Connie said, rushing over to get the sponge back. The thief was right behind the next wall of Greg's carwash, but when Connie looked over to the otherside, the thief in question took Connie completely off guard. The others were quick to catch up to the wannabe thief, only to find ...

"Sadie?"

Sadie jumped on her name being called, quickly turning around and holding the sponge behind her back, trying to look innocent. However, with one person flat out catching her swiping the sponge away, it was honestly not even worth trying.

"What are you doing?" asked Steven, very confused.

"Uh, I uh ... What?"

"Sadie, this is something I expect from Onion, not you. I don't page you as a thief," Amethyst said. Sadie just groaned and handed the sponge back to Greg.

"I suck at this," Sadie sighed.

"Why are you even doing this? You're not a thief," Greg pointed out, Sadie leaning onto the wall, sinking a little bit in shame.

"I don't know anymore, this is stupid," Sadie groaned. Bad enough she was doing this in the first place, it was worse to the fact that she was not good at it at all. Sadie just walked out and sat down nearby.

"What brought this on? Applejack and Rainbow said you tried to steal one of their apple tarts too, so what gives?" Steven asked. That didn't seem to help Sadie out too much either. She'd been trying and failing, but nothing really worked.

"I don't know, some odd dream got me going and I've just been stuck doing this."

"A ... dream?"

Before this little conversation could go any further, something else started to show itself. A loud screeching halt met with the carwash, some dust being launched their way and making them cough a little bit. Looked like they had another customer after all. As for the car, this was no ordinary passerby: a yellow, high-tech Himitsu X-12. One would need quite an amount of bling for that kind of car. That was pretty impressive, but then the window went down ...

"Give me a wash, old man." said the owner of the car.

"Eh, right away young man," said Greg, giving Steven the sponge as he grabbed the hose again. Amethyst and Sadie were a little bit unsure of this guy, but Steven and Connie knew especially well who this character was.

"Is that ...?"

"Kevin," Steven growled, twisting the sponge in his hand as he stared daggers at Kevin. Sadie, Amethyst, and Connie had never seen Steven look so angry at someone before, and it gave them shivers seeing him like that. At the car, Greg was washing it up as Kevin was on the phone with someone else.

"I didn't say ironed socks, I said I wanted them pressed," said Kevin, just before glancing back at Greg and adding in "Whoa, hold up, easy on the tires gramps. I got a big race today, and this car's gotta look as beautiful as me."
Kevin finished his remark with a wink, though his ego-filled remarks weren't making things any easier. Greg simply ignored him and continued cleaning up his car, but Steven wasn't having any of it.

"Back off! He's not a grandpa, he's just a regular pa!" Steven demanded, again surprising the others. Kevin wasn't really impressed or enthused by Steven's outburst, hanging up the phone.

"... Have we met? I'd known a twerp like you if I did," Kevin remarked, only making Steven even angrier with him. This was getting a bit out of hand, and Connie quickly went in and intervened before things could get out of hand.

"Eh, you just look like someone else," Connie insisted. Kevin though didn't take much kind to it.

"Impossible. There's only one person that looks like me: Kevin."

And with that final ego-filled statement, Kevin drove off fast and out of sight. He basically left the group in the dust, and worst off - he didn't pay a dime for the wash either. The only thing he paid with was insults, and there was no way they would catch up with him in that car. Amethyst was left mouth agape, but she got herself back to senses.

"WHAAAA?! What was that?!" Amethyst snapped.

"UGH, I hate Kevin!" Steven suddenly shouted.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, watch that four letters. Hate's a strong word," Greg advised, though Steven didn't feel any better.

"It's a strong emotion too. ..."

"Eh ... you know that guy, Steven?" asked Sadie. Then came a little bit of an odd moment. Sure, plenty of people knew about their Stevonnie fusion, but not this crowd (Amethyst excluded of course). Still, Steven was a little distracted, so Connie just spoke.

"Well, in a way. Steven and I went off to a party -"

"He's a creep!" shouted Steven.

"Steven!" Greg said.

"That's five letters!"

"Eh, anyway, we tried to have fun, but he ... well, let's just say it was uncomfortable," Connie finished.

"He didn't care about how we felt," Steven added in out of anger. Details were a little bit low, but the point was indeed put across when it came to how Kevin treated them, especially with what they got just from that little talk there.

"Dang dude," Amethyst said, though personally she'd knock his teeth out if he was still here.

"I didn't know that. Sorry. But look, that guy? That's what he wants. Don't give him the satisfaction by thinking about him," Greg advised. For anyone with an ego the size of Canterlot's castle, that would be one way to at least slow him down.

"Thanks Mr. Universe."

.......

That didn't mean they did stop. That was ALL Steven and Connie really could think about after that, namely how much of a jerk Kevin was to Stevonnie. The ego, the remarks, all that pushing just to make Stevonnie dance with him, it just left them with a hate-filled headache more than anything. After that, Amethyst, Steven and Connie went off to the beach to try and get their minds off the situation, though it didn't work too well for two thirds of the party. Steven and Connie just laid in the sand, drying off on a towel, Steven just staring up off into the clouds with a more than annoyed look on his face, Connie feeling more withdrawn about it than Steven was. Amethyst was drying off herself, but was distracted with catching a fish with her bare hands (or bear hands in this case).

"Come here fishy, come to Amethyst," Amethyst said, trying to catch a fish in the water. Soon, she grabbed the scamp, but even with bear claws, the fish wriggled free and slapped her in the face before getting away from her. Amethyst took a look back to the other two.

"Come on, why don't you try it?!" Amethyst called.

"We're good," called back Connie. All Steven did was sigh roughly, not wanting to say anything. Amethyst had about enough of this, and went back to shore, shaking off the water from her hair.

"You still stuck about Kevin?" Amethyst asked.

"Yes." Steven stated. Amethyst just wasn't used to this darker side of Steven.

"We both are."

"You, Connie? You're not showing it though," Steven pointed out, deciding to talk and sit up too.

"That doesn't mean I'm not thinking mad, Steven. While he was there, I felt like I really wanted to say something to him. Something to get through his head, to make him think like we're thinking, you know?" Connie explained. Steven knew exactly what she meant. Too bad they didn't know what to do ...

"Geesh, what did this Kevin guy do to get you so mad anyway? Yeah, he's a punk, but still," Amethyst wondered. This time it was Steven's turn to talk.

"Because we were Stevonnie during that whole party, trying to have a good time, and he kept on asking us to dance, WAY after we said no. He only cared about what he looked like on the dancefloor, and not a thing about us. ... Two angels in a group of garbage people," Steven explained, blood boiling on even remembering that particular line at all, let alone everything else. Amethyst just got more upset about it herself.

"You're kidding."

"No we're not."

"Seriously?! No one makes a fool out of my friends and gets away with it!" Amethyst said, rolling up her sleeves as if ready for a fight. Connie, more subtle, jumped in the way.

"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, we're not taking it that far! You're just making things worse," Connie quickly insisted. A brawl will not fix what anger they had on him, and Amethyst quickly saw what she was talking about.

"Well, what do we do then? You're not gonna let him get away with this, are ya?"

*wooosh!*
Before they could decide what, a yellow blur suddenly zoomed by them for a quick moment, enough to kick up dust and sand, though not as much as Kevin's car. The thing then came back around and skidded to a stop by them, revealing to be Fulgurite.

"Hey, sport. Nice fall day, isn't it? Gets the blood pumping during a good jog," Fulgurite said, running in place like a particular blue hedgehog.

"That was a jog? You looked ready to break the sound barrier," Connie questioned.

"O, I wish."

"It was a nice day." groaned Steven.

"WHOA, what's up with you, dude? Sleep wrong?"

"No. This human punk Kevin messed around with those two earlier today, he called him a twerp out of the blue and just drove off!" Amethyst said, now as angry at him as they were.

"So he gave him a little insult, how's that enough for Steven's anger?" Fulgurite asked, not exactly getting it.

"He messed with Stevonnie, that's what! We said no, but he kept pushing and pushing, he didn't care at all," Amethyst revealed, working off what Steven had said. That info got Fulgurite up to point, looking surprised.

"Yikes. Well, don't tell Garnet that, she'll be all over this Kevin dude faster than me," Fulgurite said, shivering at the very idea (real or not, doesn't matter).

"We're not, but ... Oh, I wish we could win that race he's going in, and rub that first prize ribbon in his smug face," Steven said. Satisfying as that was, that seemed to spark a lightbulb in Fulgurite's head, a literally spark flying out of her hair.

"Race? OH, the Autumn Country Drive you mean?"

"The what-now?" Connie asked. Fulgurite's hair then pulled out a flier from her pocket, and presented it to Steven, Amethyst, and Connie. The flier was a bit simple, showing two race cars on a country road at full speed, advertising the Autumn Country Drive, and the trophy for first prize. Now THAT was better than any blue ribbon, for sure.

"The Autumn Country Drive: apparently it's one of the Human customs around here. It's gonna start tonight, starting from just out of town all the way to Bayburgh. All the teens in town are showing up there, and so am I. Why not give that a try?" Fulgurite suggested. At first, it did sounded like a good idea, but Connie still saw the facts in front of them.

"But we're just kids, we can't drive. It's against the law," sighed Connie.

"Why don't you rebel. Isn't that, like, our thing?" Fulgurite asked, scratching her head. She didn't see no problem with it, but then again, she was still a Gem herself, so, not all customs were prone to her.

"Even if we could, we don't even have a car," Connie pointed out again.

"Uh, Hello?! Mechanic right here, and we still got Peridot and Pearl on retainer! We whipped up a super-high-tech-spaceship in just two months when it takes regular humans, what, years? We can whip you up a car in half an hour tops," Fulgurite pointed out.

"Yeah, you two are all set. Come on, you can show up that Kevin," Amethyst said, confident in them that they could do so. Well, that was half of the problem handled, but there was still the main factor of age rules in driving. Neither of them were old enough to drive yet ...

"... We weren't kids when we met Kevin," Steven said, smirking a knowing smirk. Connie was quick to catch on to the idea.

"I smell what you're stepping in."

"Eww."

"What?" Fulgurite asked.

"Oh nevermind that, get that car ready. We got a race to compete!" Amethyst instructed.

"Aye-aye gang. See you at the race!" Fulgurite said, bolting off out of sight to get thing started. THEY WERE GONNA MAKE THIS HAPPEN!

.......

Not too long, and Fulgurite was starting work on the car. The place of work was just outside the temple, using whatever mechanical parts they had on hand to work this out. They'd work at the barn if Lapis wasn't still stuck there in her ice cocoon. Fulgurite got a 101 guide to car building with her, and she even got Peridot into lending a hand with the matter. They got an engine working with a few wheels attached to it after ten minutes when Garnet and Bismuth took a look to them from the Beach House.

"Want to ask?" Garnet asked.

"Well if you don't, I'll spend all day wondering what this is about," Bismuth replied. So, Garnet and Bisnmuth both took a walk outside.

"Hey Garnet, Bismuth. How goes the search?" Fulgurite asked, wiping some oil off her head.

"Good news: we found who stole Blue Diamond. The bad news: we don't know where he went. Good news no.2: we might have an idea where Jasper had went too as well," Bismuth explained.

"Well, two good and one bad. Decent," said Peridot, just when Fulgurite jump-started the motor, and Peridot getting a face full of car engine smoke. Peridot shook off the smoke, spitting a bit out.

"And what're you two doing?" Garnet questioned. Fulgurite got the advertisement out from her pocket, and tossed it over to Garnet and Bismuth.

"Stevonnie's gonna be competing in that race later on, and we gotta make a car for them. Think one of you can fetch us some metal plates?" Fulgurite said. However, Garnet stayed oddly quiet.

"Wait, who?" Bismuth asked.

"Steven's fusion with Connie."

"Oh yeah! Never got to see her yet. Sure, I think I got some spare metal at the Forge if you need it," Bismuth offered.

"Awesome, thanks," Fulgurite replied. Bismuth went off to fetch it, but Garnet was simply staring at the flier for a bit more, thinking more and more about the race altogether. ...

"... Oh my. ..."

~~~~~~

As time ticked by, it was close to sunset. And at the moment, close to the actual race to begin. As Fulgurite had said, the race started on the road going out of town, many of the racers already there with their respected cars and vehicles for the race in question. Call it a drag race, if you will, and with plenty of countryside for the racers to use and work with for their race to Bayburgh. For those involved itself, they were all up and ready to go for the drive. As for the exact identity of the racers: Jenny Pizza, Sour Cream, Buck Dewey, Fulgurite, and of course, Kevin. Not all of them were there naturally, but it was a pretty good chunk of racers for the event.

"So, you're all racing? This'll be good for my cooldown lap," Kevin mocked, much of the racers not feeling to well about it.

"Oh, HAHAHA, just wait until we cream ya," Jenny snapped.

"You think you can cream me, cheeseball?" Kevin stated. Not a good choice of words, though it could be the fact Jenny worked for a pizza shop. ... Maybe. ...

"WHAT?"

"You're up against this beautiful speed demon: tons of horses, streamline, with rocket boost engines. You really think you stand a chance with that pizza slice on wheels?" Kevin mocked. Jenny just scoffed, and got her car ready. Kevin felt confident about it more than everyone else taking part, and he just leaned against his car and waited for the race itself to begin.

"They don't stand a chance. No one does," Kevin told himself, looking over their cars and comparing it to his own.

Though, he didn't count for one car.
As they were getting ready, one more car drove up to the starting line, and this one was, for the lack of a better word, impressive. It wasn't an exact copy of Kevin's car, by any means, but it still stood out compared to the others and it came pretty close. A light blue, silver car, built in a manor similar to a race car in shape, almost like a hybrid between a race car and regular: rounded front with a streamline shape, the paint gleaning in the sunset light, and even a star symbol on the wheels (guess what that represented). If compared to any car, a Mclaren F1 would fit it the best. The car came to a halt nearby Kevin's car, and out stepped the driver: Stevonnie. And once more, Stevonnie with a brown autumn coat on, and accompanied by Fulgurite.

"Remember me?" Stevonnie asked. BOY did Kevin remember her. He got off of his car, the smug grin on his face like before, and he checked Stevonnie out. Fulgurite kept an eye on Kevin, and waited to see what'll happen next.

"Hey babe, long time no see. Where've you been out of my life?" Kevin cooed. Of course, Stevonnie wasn't having any of it.

"Keeping clear of you for starters," Stevonnie stated, already feeling a bit angry at him. Kevin took it in stride though, much to Stevonnie's annoyance.

"You try, but I know you couldn't resist."

"What're you talking about?"

"You got a taste of Kevin, and now you've grown obsessed. Don't worry, I have that effect on people." Stevonnie's blood started to boil up, but Kevin took it all in his stride again, keeping a smug grin and giving her a wink. Guess this wasn't the first time he'd been chased after by someone. Fulgurite basically had enough of this, and stood in the way of Kevin and Stevonnie.

"Ok, about time you shut that mouth of yours," Fulgurite said sternly.

"You want some Kevin too, don't you?" Kevin said, leaning in with his smug grin. But all that got was Fulgurite pushing him back.

"Keep that smug grin after I leave you in the dust in this race," Fulgurite remarked.

"You think your car stands a chance against mine?"

"I don't need a car to run you over, pal," Fulgurite snapped back. At first, Kevin paused, but then he started laughing at her.

"A foot race? Seriously? You're lucky to outrun a golf cart," Kevin mocked, though this was less smug and more disbelief in Fulgurite's abilities. That got Fulgurite fuming a little bit, but instead of making a comeback on him, she flicked his forehead to get him to stop, the flick of her finger making a static shock on his head. It was Fulgurite's turn to smile smugly at him then. Before their conversation could go any further, a whistle from Onion standing nearby signaled the start of the race.

"We'll see, chump. Come on, let's get ready," Fulgurite suggested, turning to Stevonnie and both walking to their car to get ready. Kevin rubbed his head where Fulgurite shocked him, but Kevin still didn't take any of em seriously. Far as he was concerned, he got this in his pocket, no trouble.
It took a minute or so, but all the racers here got their cars all ready to go. Tanks filled up, each car into gear, all determination ready to go. Though comparing the cars to Fulgurite standing there, whom was doing stretches, bets weren't put on her to say the least, yet Fulgurite felt pretty good about it. As for little Onion, he was up on one of those lifeguard seats, in view of the racers with a red and green sign post (one of which was a legit stop sign. Make that what you will). Onion put out his signs for the countdown, each one he spray-painted himself for the race in particular. Each racers was ready to start the second the signal would be made. For Stevonnie, she even had a particular advantage: a GPS system to keep her eye on the track. Can't hurt to find any shortcuts along the way if they so would come up.

"Good luck, Stevonnie," said Fulgurite, getting some goggles over her eyes.

"You too. Let's show him what's what," said Stevonnie. At least two people were working together (technically three) against Kevin in particular.

Onion then pulled out an air horn, and with one call, the racers then went off down the road. Well, all except for Fulgurite that is. With screeching wheels and the smell of engine, the cars rushed off ahead down the road, each one determined to do their best in this race. The only one to take a glance back through his rear-view mirror was Kevin, just to see Fulgurite standing there casually. Kevin smirked, as he moved in ahead of the pack, neck and neck with Stevonnie at this point. Back at the finish line, Fulgurite continued doing a few more stretches, confusing Onion up on his chair. Did she not hear the call? Onion gave a loud whistle to get her attention.

"Oh, time to go already? Eh, whatever, see ya."

And with that, she gave a little salute and then bolted off ahead with blinding speed, Onion not realizing she left until moments afterwards. The other racers were pretty far ahead at this point, Stevonnie and Kevin up in front of them, and keeping neck and neck. As they were side by side, Stevonnie and Kevin glanced to one another, one angry, the other smugly.

"You could let me win, babe. We can share the trophy together," Kevin offered, but Stevonnie wasn't going to give him the chance.

"As if I'd share with you!" Stevonnie shouted.

"Yeah, you're right. I'd win anyway," Kevin openly mocked, just to pull out ahead of her.

"Oh, I hate the way he talks," Stevonnie growled through gritted teeth, trying to catch up with him. Lucky for her, a more friendly sight started to run up alongside her, waving to her as she was running - Fulgurite. Stevonnie got her smile back, and actually allowed Fulgurite to go off ahead. As much as she wanted to get even, one little trick by Fulgurite would be enjoyable to watch.
Back with Kevin, the smug racer, seeing the other racers behind him, decided to enjoy his little joy ride with some good music, tuning the radio for a moment to get some good beats. As determined as the other racers were, he wasn't giving them too much time of day.

"Ah, there we go," Kevin decided, getting some good music for him to listen to. This little change of POV gave Fulgurite enough time to run right up to the passenger door. Kevin took a look around, only to find Fulgurite running alongside him.

"Wait. What the?"

"Hey, Kevin. What was it you were saying earlier?" Fulgurite asked, acting smugly herself. Kevin snapped back to focus.

"Okay, so you weren't joshing, you'll still be left in my dust," Kevin remarked.

"Oh yeah?" Suddenly Fulgurite decided to show off a little bit: speeding up, she actually started to do laps around Kevin's own car as her maximum speed! It wasn't as blinding, but seeing Fulgurite show off her speed to Kevin was a joy, especially when it made Kevin slow down. He's egotistical, but he wasn't gonna run someone over. Stevonnie couldn't help but laugh, and took the lead as Buck followed close behind her. Fulgurite went back to the race and zoomed off after the leader. A handicap, and Kevin got it.

"You think you can top me?" Kevin remarked, before flooring it and regaining speed.

And there was still a lot of the race to go.

~~~~~~

Speaking of the race, miles away over into Bayburgh, the town was preparing for the end of the race, with their own finish line just past the bordering welcome sign of the town. Some of the people were also sitting not too far away either, seats all set up for the finish of the race. Amongst those waiting for the racers to come back, Amethyst was one of those waiting. she was dropped off at the finish line by Fulgurite earlier, and since then she was basically chilling out and waiting for the racers to come along at the end. Amethyst was crossing her fingers for Stevonnie's victory, but even so she was still getting bored for the lack of ... well, anything to do. At least the others had food to eat, or a way to watch the race from some sort of iPhone or whatever. They all were pretty patient with the racers, and waiting to see who'd win in the end of it all. Even with all this, not everything was there just for the race.
Popping out from the nearby bleachers, one extra little visitor (who took all day to just get there by the by), examined the crowd, and it didn't take very much longer until she saw Amethyst sitting over by herself. A prime target for this slithery serpent.

"Ah, Amethyst. Long time no see."

Amethyst looked over back from her seat, and found Acid slithering up towards her. She hadn't seen her and cyanide since their monster search, and then they basically helped her gain confidence so seeing Acid didn't worry Amethyst all too much. Acid slithered right up to her, getting herself settled right next to the purple Gem.

"Oh, you again."

"See you're waiting for that Stevonnie to return, are you," hissed Acid.

"Of course, they're gonna cream the competition when they get here, and I'm gonna be right there holding the trophy with em," Amethyst said, though mostly she wanted to see Kevin's defeated face once it was all done. Acid though didn't look too happy about it, even looking sad at Amethyst.

"But why aren't you in that race? You should be with them instead of over here."

"I tried to join up ... but Connie said Smoky was too big for the car," amethyst said , slightly disappointed. Seemingly Acid was understanding the situation going on. Time to turn on the gears in her brain.

"So they'd rather have Stevonnie rather than Smoky? Dearie me, how calamitous."

"Well, yeah, Smoky's too big for the car."

"Oh, I'm not talking about the race, I'm talking about fusion. It sounds to me like Connie would rather have Steven fuse with her rather than you. Getting a bit clingy," Acid hissed, pretending to be concerned for amethyst. The purple Gem though wasn't exactly getting it.

"What're you talking about?"

"Amethyst, Steven and Connie had been a bit fusion-happy, haven't they? Smoky Quartz is a very strong, very talented fusion, and yet they'd much rather stay as Stevonnie rather than Smoky. how many more times did Stevonnie come in over Smoky, and save the day because of it? This is just me guessing, but it sounds like Connie doesn't like your fusion time with Steven."
NOW Amethyst was starting to understand what Acid was getting at, and all of a sudden she wasn't so excited about the race after all.

"You don't mean ..."

"It oughta be from what's been going on. Doesn't sound very fair either. I mean, you've been with Steven since birth, and here comes this other girl taking him away with little effort in this fusion game," Acid finished, planting the seed on Amethyst's head, and the problem. With that done, Acid then slithered away to leave Amethyst to her thoughts. Stevonnie had been showing up more than Smoky, and once more Steven seemed more willing to fuse with Connie ...

Could Acid be right?

~~~~~~

Back in the race, everything was still going all strong on their end: many of the racers still going through fairly fast through the countryside. At this point, the racers were actually pretty close to one another. The order was: Sour Cream, Jenny, Fulgurite, Kevin, Stevonnie, and Buck. It may have been nice to see Kevin get a handicap, but Kevin caught up to speed so they still have him to deal with. Stevonnie may not be up in front, but at least she was in front of Kevin, which was what mattered for now ... until he drove up beside her.

"I know you wanted to be close, but this is a little clingy," Kevin mocked, only making Stevonnie even more upset. All she did though was stick her tongue out at him in disgust, before Kevin shifted gears and zoomed ahead of her. Buck Dewey noticed him coming up, and managed to move off out of the way just before he could get driven off the road, Kevin happy to be up in the lead. She gritted her teeth on seeing Kevin almost cause a crash right in front of them!

"KEVIN," Stevonnie growled, just about ready to go off ahead to catch up with him. However, just before she could, something started to blink red on the dash. Next to the GPS system, the warning said that she was actually running out of gas after such a drive. Guess gas mileage wasn't the best thing for Stevonnie's car. Well, lucky for her (sort of), a street sign past showing a gas station, so Stevonnie needed a gas refill to continue this race. Seeing her exit, Stevonnie went out of the raceway, observed by Kevin naturally, and after a while she went right up the gas station for a refill. She got the car there and figured out the gas tank fill up, but Fulgurite was quick to find her.

"Stevonnie, what're you doing, the race is that way," Fulgurite said, pointing back to the raceway route.

"I can't keep racing without any gas, Fulgurite," Stevonnie noted, though she knew it'll take forever to catch up to the racers, who by the looks of it had plenty more gas mileage than her new car was and only made her even more annoyed. How was she gonna show up Kevin if she couldn't catch up?

"Sorry, still new when it comes to this human-mechanics," Fulgurite replied. Eventually, their tank was filled up, but when Fulgurite and Stevonnie looked to the price when they were finished, and Stevonnie ... kinda didn't have much money.

"... You didn't bring any cash, did you?" Stevonnie asked humbly.

"Why would I bring money for a race I'm in?" Fulgurite asked, almost immediately as well. Stevonnie felt on the spot now: rough enough driving at all, but now she didn't bring any cash for payment. If she just drove off, then that would basically be stealing, and they were lucky to not be pull over by any cops as is.

"Oh no, now what do I do? Drain my car of gas?" Stevonnie wondered. If she couldn't pay for it, then what was she supposed to do? ...

"Stevonnie!"

Stevonnie and Fulgurite paused for a moment on the voice, it pretty distant and a bit urgent by the tone, even from so far away. Eventually though, both of them looked off away from the gas station, and something was actually rushing right towards them. At first, they couldn't entirely figure out what, but eventually a familiar form finally made itself clearer once it caught up with them. She skidded to a stop when she finally caught up, not as easily as Fulgurite would, but still pretty good altogether.

"Garnet! Never told me you were a speedster," Fulgurite noted once she showed up.

"Stevonnie. Good I found you," Garnet said.

"Did your future vision sent you? ... preferably with some money?" Stevonnie asked, slightly embarrassed.

"Yes," Garnet said, giving Stevonnie the right amount of money. Seemed pretty mundane enough for a mad dash.

"Sweet!"

"You're welcome, but that's not the only thing," Garnet made clear, as Stevonnie made the payment.

"What's up, chief?" Fulgurite asked.

"We need to get ahead of the other racers for a start," Garnet began.

"Well duh, that's the whole point of a race!"

"No, not what I meant," Garnet said, going to the car and looking to the GPS system. So far it had been guiding them down the road to Bayburgh, but since Stevonnie had to pull off track, it rerouted her back onto the main road. Better still, it seemed to be a shortcut right to Bayburgh at the rate they were going. Stevonnie returned not too long after, Garnet getting out of the car.

"K, gotta catch up," Stevonnie said, getting into the driver's seat and checking the GPS for the finish line.

"Stevonnie, I'm coming with you," Garnet suddenly said.

"What, why?"

"I'll explain on the way, now go," Garnet instructed, getting inside the car in the passenger seat. With the tank filled up, Stevonnie did just that and started to zoom off on her way, tires screeching, Fulgurite quickly following in toe. Stevonnie wasn't too sure what Garnet was exactly seeing, but if Garnet insisted to head off this way, it was worth listening to.

~~~~~~

Farther ahead of them, or at least farther down the road, the other racers were making good speed down the road, Kevin of course up at front. The cool kids were trying their hardest to keep up with him, but it was a lot easier said than done, especially with comparing the average speeds of each car present. With Stevonnie and Fulgurite basically gone, it was down to four racers, and as far as Kevin was concerned, it was a guarantee he would win, no doubt. Looking back in his mirror, he felt a swell of joy seeing them desperately trying to catch up one way or another. The closest to him at this point was Buck Dewey, whom Kevin was keeping a close eye on.

"Feeling a little desperate about the race, eh Buck?" Kevin remarked.

"You do know karma will get you one of these days, Kevin," Buck warned, though he wasn't as angry at his remarks as the others were.

"Karma's as far behind me as the rest of you. Just watch," Kevin remarked back. He then started to work a few buttons in his car and shifted a few gears, and soon another little addition to his car was revealed: jet booster engines. Not in the same vain as the Galactic Ray or a spaceship, but it still launched him further ahead of the rest, Kevin laughing as the engines roared and left buck Dewey off in the dust. Buck was only mildly peeved, but that was less about Kevin's remarks, and more on his ignorance.
As they continued going though, Buck took a look around at the scenery. At this point in the race, the countryside turned into a more hilly area, some hills more like rocky outcrops than hills. This was nice for scenery appearance in this race, but Kevin's roaring engine echoed around the area ... and something was listening up above the road. From Buck's view, he couldn't see any exact details, but, he could make out where it was looking at, namely the racers. Even more namely, Kevin.

"Karma's catching up with him," Buck commented. Buck slowed his speed a bit, and whatever was up there took off itself, heading straight for Kevin! For Kevin, he was a bit too busy with his speed and ego to even bother with any safety precautions. All he did see though was the racer slowing down.

"Giving up? I'm just too good -"

*KRAAAAA* *KRAAAAA*

Then it hit: the creature suddenly grabbed his car by the top, and tried to pull him over. Kevin tried to keep himself in the race, but the power of this thing was stronger than he anticipated. Sour Cream and Jenny saw the creature, and were trying to skid to a stop. As for Kevin the interference ended up swinging him into a tail spin. Kevin tried to regain control of his own car, but the high speed and spinning forced him into the hillside, his car screeching to a stop. The whole race seemed to make a complete stop at this point, the racers bundled together in a jam (excluding Buck that is). Kevin immediately got out to check his car, just to find the top scratched and punctured.

"My car!"

Enter the opposition, and enter it did with a loud thud on top of Kevin's car. Now closer and into the moonlight, Kevin, Sour Cream, Jenny, and Buck all witnessed the creature now confronting them. It stood tall enough to look them all in the eye, a large set of leathery wings on the forelimbs much like a pterodactyl. In fact, most of it looked like said creature: four legs, stubby tail, a leathery skinned body, a large beak and a set of large, black eyes, looking especially alien. A horn-like projection jutted out between the eyes, aimed directly at Kevin in particular. However, its focus was spent on Kevin's car, pecking and slashing at it much to Kevin's dismay. After it was done, it hopped off of it and then confronted the humans. Kevin honestly didn't know what to say: Fulgurite's speed was nothing compared to this thing.

"What the heck is that?!" cried Jenny. It was then buck walked right up to Kevin, hand on his shoulder, just sighing and shaking his head. Honestly, he didn't need any extra words for this.

"It was just a coincidence, man," Kevin groaned. Course, he wouldn't admit it himself due to his own pride (obviously). It was then that the alien pterosaur started to walk towards them, less angry and more curious over them. The first one it checked out was Buck and Kevin, giving a few sniffs. It then reared back on its hind legs, and opened its wings, head aimed skyward as intimidation. Course, none of them even knew what it was actually doing. It then started to give a few calls to the heavens, the cawing sounding like a seagull or pelican.

"Kevin, back up slowly," Buck warned, but instead of listening, Kevin went for his car. Unfortunately, the creature wasn't going to give him the change, and its beak darted for him. Lucky for Buck, it only grabbed his scarf, but Kevin wasn't going to stick around, so he started the car again, and actually zoomed away with a screeching roar. The creature was startled by the noise and gave a loud caw of its own, the extension on its head actually lighting up a bit. The cool kids couldn't doo much of anything, and the creature actually blasted a laser from its head, exploding one of Kevin's tires!

"He never listens," sighed Buck.

The explosion of the tires, and sound of the beam was overheard by other racers: Stevonnie, Garnet, and Fulgurite. They were a bit ahead, no doubt, but they did manage to catch up to the scene after a good while, seeing the creature themselves.

"It found them already," Garnet groaned.

"No sweat, I got this," Fulgurite said, readying her cleats in her shoes, and then charging off at the animal. It didn't take long for it to see her, but before Fulgurite could grab hold, the creature took off flying with a strong launch from its forelimbs off the ground, and a secondary flap of its wings. Not entirely what she had in mind, but it did give the drives some leeway to pass.

"Come on, let's get moving," Fulgurite said. The kids didn't need too much encouragement to get back in their cars, and start to drive off. Kevin had no car to use though, so Fulgurite had to grab him and move before the creature could grab them both. The animal readied to follow, but another sound of screeching tires from Stevonnie's car caught its attention, and it went after them instead.

"That the thing you were talking about, Garnet," Stevonnie noted.

"Yes. Just keep it from getting the others until we leave the area," Garnet instructed. Stevonnie nodded her head, and then floored it.

It took little time for Stevonnie to get back in their little race, but only now the creature flying off after them. They all knew better than to stop for this thing, and it actually was keeping up with them after a while. Stevonnie could easily see the creature in her rear-view mirror, its wings in a glide and homing in on them. She also could see Fulgurite, carrying Kevin above her head as she went to Stevonnie's car, side by side. Garnet opened up the back seat as they were driving.

"Don't you even -" before Kevin could say, Fulgurite actually threw him into the car! And just in time, as another beam was blasted right as her, Fulgurite missing it by a foot. Kevin needed to recooperate a little bit from the throw, as Garnet closed the door.

"You people are crazy," Kevin noted.

"You're welcome. Stevonnie, keep it steady," Garnet instructed, just for Garnet to punch a sunroof for their car! That just freaked Kevin out more, Garnet standing up and facing backwards to the flying creature. Garnet then got out her glove weaponry, and aimed both fists at the creature flying at them. The other cars were keeping close to them to be sure, and Garnet gave the beast her own can of wallop: both gloves rocketed off her arms like missiles, and each one made a good hit on the creature! It was just enough to slow it down, and after dealing with those hits, the giant flier then turned back and flew away. Just like that. Garnet just sighed in relief, and sat back down in the car, though her hands were currently missing.

"... I'm not gonna ask," Kevin stated, which was probably a good thing, and her hands soon ended up reformed back on her, good as new.

"Glad that's over. ... And hey, look ahead!"

And there it was: the finish line for the race! Everyone there was eagerly waiting for them, and now with Kevin out of the way all and all, Stevonnie was more than eager to finish things up here. All the racers kicked it into gear and went right for the finish line.

So close

.......

A flash of a nearby camera got them all pass the finish line, the race a pretty close one too. All cars finally slowed down to a halt, all waiting to see what the end result was for their endeavor. Stevonnie wasted no time in jumping out of the car and head to the cameraman to see the results, and that went for the other racers too. The picture showed a rather close shot with many of them, but who won in the end of it all? ...

"WOO! I WON!" Fulgurite beamed, fist of victory in the air at the revelation. The cars were close, but a good stretch by Fulgurite gave her the win in the end of it, literally by a head. One of the staff for the race gave Fulgurite the trophy, which she was more than happy to receive.

"Congrats, Fulgurite. And thank you for the help, Stevonnie," Garnet said, smiling to Stevonnie.

"Well, I didn't do too much, but you're welcome. And we beat Kevin, so, personal win," Stevonnie said with a smile. Speaking of which, Kevin was out of their car and not looking very pleased with them. Stevonnie soon spotted him.

"You okay, Kevin?" Stevonnie asked.

"Get away from me. Go and hang out with your group of freaks, girl," Kevin spat.

"You could at least thank her for saving your life, man!" Fulgurite snapped, hearing his freak remark.

"And cost me my car, and my trophy!" Kevin retorted. Fulgurite was fuming.

"WHAT?! Why you -"

"Easy you two. I'm sure he'll have plenty to explain to his parents later, not to mention the bill it'll cost," Garnet brought up, Kevin seeing the realization of the situation. Not only did he lose the race, but a good amount of cash too to pay for damages. Boy did karma grab him in the butt after everything.

"Man," sighed Kevin. After that, they all looked over at the trophy Fulgurite one, it glistening in the moonlight. The Cool Kids were happy for their victory, and basically for saving them from the creature.

As they were celebrating though, Amethyst stood farther away and watched everything going on, seeing many of them seemingly happy for Stevonnie. How Garnet got there didn't seem to matter in her head, but when seeing this, the weight of the situation seemingly confirmed what Acid said before. ...

Connie had Steven away from her. ...

And they were enjoying it.

Post Haste

View Online

"Lapis? ... Lapis! ..."

another visit to the barn, and it still didn't seem like Lapis Lazuli was willing to come outside just yet. This time, it was actually Applejack, Spike, and Twilight coming down for their own visit to the barn to try and work Lapis back outside, but so far there was little to no word coming from the barn's interior. The barn didn't look too frozen as it was before on the outside, but the doors and window were still locked up tight by the water Gem inside. Applejack knocked good on the door with her hooves, but nothing happened.

"Nothin. Locked up tighter than a rusted gate," AJ sighed.

"She must be going through a lot in there," Twilight figured, and she might as well be. So many months as a corrupted fusion would traumatize anypony.

"What happened with Lapis anyway?" asked Spike.

"I told you Spike, she and Jasper got stuck in a fusion for months on end. She's been stuck inside the barn since we got her back," Twilight reminded, walking up to the barn door and placing her hoof onto it. Spike noticed a tiny crack in the door, and actually climbed on Twilight's head to peer inside. All he could see was ice around the walls and not too much else. He could make out a sort of cocoon in there, but that was about the best he could manage before he lost his balance, and stumbled off Twilight's head.

"Steven mentioned she's recovering, so I hope she gets better soon," Twilight added in.

"We all are, Twi. come on, we tried, let's see what the other's are up to," Applejack suggested. Bothering her during this was probably not a good idea to begin with, so the two ponies and Spike then started trotting away. Lapis wouldn't let them in no matter how much they would bang on the door.
As AJ, Twilight, and Spike took their leave from there, Acid and Cyanide poke their heads out from a nearby bush, just out of sight from the trio of Equestrians. Cyanide gave a good hiss when they left, leaving them alone with Lapis Lazuli.

"Well, isn't this sweet? Poor Lapis Lazuli's left unguarded," Cyanide noted.

"And so distraught too," added Acid.

"Yes. Amethyst's is left thinking, let's see what we can plant in Lapis's head," Cyanide decided, beginning to slither over to the barn. Acid stayed behind a little bit, giving a little moment to think about what was going on. They can mess around with Lapis as well, surely, especially with how distraught she was already. Acid's smile started to go away though, and suddenly, she ended up slithering in Cyanide's way.

"Let's leave her be this time, dear."

"Excuse me? Since when we're you declining in something like this?" Cyanide questioned. Acid went right up to her fellow snake's ear, and gave a few quiet whispers and hisses. Once Acid was finished, Cyanide's eyes widened in realization, as if just remembering something important.

"OH YEAH. Where is my head? All our previous fun must've made me forget about that."

"Can't say I blame you for that. Come on, let's find somewhere cozy to rest. i'm sure Grootslang will be okay with that when this storm passes," Acid suggested, starting to slither away from the barn.

"Grootslang is fine with whatever we do if it means it's off his head," Cyanide chuckled, following her fellow serpent behind.

~~~~~~

It took Twilight, AJ, and Spike a good while, but eventually Twilight and Applejack got themselves back to the Beach House. By the time they arrived, things inside the Beach House were pretty mundane; Steven, Jade, and Connie were watching a cartoon on TV as Peridot and Amethyst were making some food.

"Howdy, everypony. How's it going?" Applejack announced, as she and Twilight walked on in.

"Hey girls. And Spike. Yes, things are going," Peridot said, adding some fruit to a smoothie mixer. While Peridot was doing fine, Amethyst just stayed quiet and added some sugar to the smoothie. Not many notice it just yet, and Spike hopped up over by Steven, Connie, and Jade.

"Hey guys. whatchu watching?" Spike asked, looking to the TV they had on.

"Peridot wanted to put on some Camp Pining Hearts for a while, so we're watching that with her. It's just commercials right now," Connie answered. Unaware to them, Amethyst took a little glance their way, feeling uncomfortable with herself. Still, she went on to add some more things to the mixer, when the Warp Pad sounded off to show Garnet, Pearl, and Flint coming back.

"We're back," said Flint.

"Hey guys," said Steven, waving to them. Flint, a bit tired, took a seat over on the couch over by Applejack. This search had lasted pretty long by the looks of it.

"Well, that was another day for nothing," groaned Flint.

"Nothing, huh?" Peridot said.

"Nothing. Even if we've figured out who actually got Blue Diamond, we can find scale nor fang of that snake anywhere. Seriously, how hard is it to find a giant serpent?" Flint said, not sounding enthused about it at all.

"At least we're on the right track," Garnet then stated.

Before their conversation could go any further, Connie, Steven, Spike, and Jade suddenly got a different program switched up on their TV. The commercials suddenly switched to a multi-colored screen, much like when a screen would break, or something similar. This was a surprise enough, but a long droning beep echoed in the room for a good ten seconds, but an extra message then appeared on the screen:

U.E.S.

"This is the United Emergency Signal. This is not a test: Hurricane Israel is to pass through the eastern coast over the next twelve hours. Local residents of the following are to evacuate inland: Beach City, Bayburgh, Empire City. This has been the United Emergency Signal."

"Uh oh." Connie gulped, immediately feeling nervous. Steven too felt a bit nervous on hearing this news, Spike as well since it was an emergency broadcast, but the others in the room were a bit more confused on it than anything, especially when they were looking outside and seeing ... well, no sign of any storm coming by them. In fact, no cloud was in the sky, period.

"Uh oh what?" asked Peridot, confused as many of the Gems were. However, rather than answer, Steven hopped down and suddenly started getting stuff out from his stair cabinet. This included some clothes, and some preserved snacks (chocolate bars, cereal, etc.).

"Steven, calm down, what's the problem?" Flint asked.

"Didn't you guys hear that? A hurricane's coming our way, we have to go," Steven made clear, getting all his stuff onto the table so he wouldn't leaver any behind, and then tried to locate a briefcase. As he was, Connie's phone began to ring off like crazy, Connie probably taking a guess as to what it was about due to the broadcast.

"Connie, you need to come back home this instant!" her mother shouted over the phone, freaked out about the situation.

"I know mom, I'll be home right away," Connie said, giving her mother reassurance before hanging up the phone. Clearly Connie had to get herself going too.

"What is this 'Hurricane'?" Peridot asked, asking the question the others wanted to know.

"The mother of all coastal storms: A tropical cyclone out at sea, and they can wipe out a town in just minutes. We need to get off inland before that storm comes!"

"I'm game," Spike said.

"No now, let's calm down. It sounds like nothing more than a regular autumn storm, there's no reason to go into all hysterics over it," Pearl noted. Steven then turned to Twilight

"Twilight? You should know how bad a hurricane is, do you?!" Steven said. However, Twilight and Applejack just looked at eachother unsurely.

"Steven, don't forget, our weather's controlled by the Pegesi. We don't get anything as crazy as this uh ... hurricane," Twilight reminded. Both kids realized that they were right, but all the same that didn't help their situation about it.

"Well, it is real, and it's very dangerous!" Connie said.

"It does sound dangerous," Spike added, shivering a little bit.

"Not really. You sure you're not exaggerating?" Peridot questioned.

"No we're not!" shouted Connie and Steven.

"Connie, Steven stop it. Even if it is that bad, it's not even coming! I mean, look, does that look anything like a storm to you?" Flint questioned, pointing off outside at the pretty clear sky.

"Then why would there be a emergency signal?" Connie pointed out.

"Maybe Grootslang knows how to send messages," wondered Pearl, though that idea was a pretty far stretch for even a voodoo snake to do. Connie and Steven knew they were just trying to make up reasons now, and they didn't have time for it. Then Steven got an idea.

"Garnet!" Steven called.

"I'm right here, Steven," Garnet stated.

"Your future vision! Use it, see when that hurricane will come!" Steven said urgently. Garnet hated to leave Steven completely freaked out like this, regardless of the case being true or false, so she stayed quiet, and brought her hands to her head and started to concentrate. She seemed okay with it at first ...

"Steven, Beach City had faced these natural weather patterns many times, why would this one be any different?" questioned Pearl.

"Because it's a hurricane! Imagine those storms but ten times crazier!"

"Literally impossible. Seriously, stop panicking over nothing," Flint insisted.

"You should talk, what about when you kept worrying over Stevonnie?" Connie retorted.

"Hey! There's a difference between a brand new fusion and a old occurring weather pattern! Stevonnie was entirely new and unheard of, storms are nothing new," Flint retorted back.

"AH, don't have time for this! Come on, Steven, we gotta go!" Connie said, rushing out the door to get home. And for once, Steven had to agree. A hurricane was no laughing matter, and he still had plenty to get together before taking off.

"Eh, yeah, can we go too? I'm not a fan of washing out to sea," Spike requested meekly.

"There's nothing to worry about Spike, we'll be home soon enough," Twilight promised. Suddenly though, Garnet gave a sigh, one rather sudden and enough to catch their attention. The normally calm Garnet was actually in a slightly cold sweat after her future vision about this little incident, but Garnet wiped it off and then addressed the others.

"Okay. It does sound a bit low, but the least we can do is help the humans prepare. Amethyst, Peridot, you two help Steven and Connie in whatever you can."

"We'll do our share too, sugarcube," Applejack said.

"Shouldn't we go home?" Spike suggested again.

All Twilight needed to do was give Spike a signature deadpan look.

"After we help them out."

"You can count on us!" Peridot announced proudly. Amethyst was still uneasy, but she agreed anyway.

"Flint, Pearl, try to find the other Gems and have the Temple and Beach House secured for the hurricane," Garnet instructed.

"Wait, aren't you coming?" asked Steven, feeling surprised about what they said. Garnet went over to him, down to his level and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry about us, Steven. I promise we'll meet up with you before the hurricane will arrive. You and the others just focus on getting your friends inland. You think you can do that for me?" Garnet asked. Steven knew Garnet would not lie to him about something like this, though Steven was still worried. All he did do was just nod.

"... Did your future vision say we'll all be okay?" Steven asked quietly. Garnet smiled.

"We'll all be together," Garnet promised. Steven felt some ease from it, but there was still the matter of getting out of there anyway. Then Garnet gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Good luck, Steven," Garnet said.

"You too," Steven replied, heading out with the others, leaving Pearl, Flint, Jade, and Garnet inside the Beach House alone. Flint and Pearl, basically being given instruction, went off to go, and leaving only Jade and Garnet behind. Garnet was quiet at first. Jade quietly went down and over to her, Garnet only giving a sigh about the situation.

"When will it end?" Garnet groaned.

~~~~~~

For Beach City, it was all on the clock, and it was all evacuation due to this little message left for them. Steven, Connie, Amethyst, Peridot, Twilight, AJ, and Spike were mainly getting the word out and trying their best to help whoever do whatever they needed to, be it either packing up to leave, or boarding up their homes for the oncoming hurricane. Each member of the group did their part to help one way or another: Twilight flew Connie off back home, Peridot and Amethyst went to help barricade some homes, and Applejack and Steven were getting a few final words out to be sure they were all set.
For Applejack and Steven, their stop went right over to the carwash to get Greg. Not much work to do here today, so Greg was actually resting inside his van. A pretty bad time to be dozing off on them. In little to no time at all, Steven went right up to the van and threw open the back of it.

"Dad! Dad, wake up!" Steven yelled. The loud demand startled Greg easily, the dad trying to grab something to use in case it was an intruder, but lucky he saw Steven before that could happen.

"Whoa, hey kiddo."

"Heyu. come on, dad, we gotta get moving. Let's go, go, go," Steven said, trying to get him up from out of the back. He did her him out of the van, but Greg stopped moving.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute kiddo, what's going on?" Greg asked, confused.

"Hurricane, HUGE, it's gonna flood all of Beach City when it gets here," Steven made clear.

"What?! Really?" Greg wondered, looking up to the sky. At this point, some clouds were forming up, but not enough to be considered worrying for him.

"The rest of the town's already high-tailed it outta town by now, so you and your sprout better catch up with em," Applejack suggested, even there seeing at least one of the locals getting themselves all set up to go. Greg needed a minute to take this in, now seeing the weight of the situation, especially considering the house next to them was boarded up too.

"Oh geez," Greg said, hand on head as he tried to process. Waking up to an emergency wasn't something he could actually prepare for, if at all.

"Well, good thing I live in my van. Let's head off to the barn, that should be good enough," Greg suggested. Steven found that a good idea, and he hopped right into the van to the passenger seat. Greg went over to the driver's seat, Applejack hopping up to the window as best a pony could.

"Be careful, Steven, see you after the storm," Applejack said. The van was soon to start off, and sure enough, Steven and Greg were off and on their way to meet up with the others leaving. At least Steven and Greg were off and safe. Applejack gave a sigh of relief, and took a look up to the sky, the clouds gathering a bit more.

.......

The time ticked on by, and soon, the whole town was simply left vacant. Anyone who would look around, and basically, they'd see the entire place turn into a ghost town: houses boarded up for the oncoming storm, not a single sound even remotely heard aside from the slight breeze of the ocean. No Gem, pony, or human anywhere to be soon. ...

*aroooo!*

Well, one was still there: after a day of roaming around together in the countryside, Blue and Lion both came back to Beach City to find that the whole place was simply empty. not a soul anywhere. considering none of them really got the motive behind this, so seeing it all empty was, for the lack of a better word, weird. Both Lion and Dog wandered around town, trying to find somebody somewhere, but so far there was nothing to really find other than the occasional bird flying around. During their strolling, Lion took note of a TV station nearby, revealing the same screen.

The message from the TV would be scary to hear for a human, but when Lion and Blue heard this, they both feel a little bit odd about this news. Blue tilted his head in confusion, Lion scratching his head with his paw in equal confusion. Both animals took a look at eachother, before Blue started to send his nose to work and give a few sniffs in the area. He started on the ground, and then up into the air for a bit, sniffing good and long. Lion took a look into the sky and gave a few sniffs himself, but both Dog and Lion came to the similar conclusion ...

*hiss*

Lion and Blue heard the hissing loud and clear, and not too far down their road either. Lion and Blue quietly moved over to the noise, peeking around one of the vacant buildings on the border of town, just to see two particular snakes slithering along the now empty road, snickering to themselves as Blue and Lion looked onward, listening closely to what they had to say.

"So, humans out of town?" started Cyanide.

"Check," Acid responded.

"Gems locking themselves in?"

"Check."

"The audience confused?"

"Check. ... I didn't expect to pull a Discord today."

"Why not? What can they do? They can't stop it, neither can the residents. ... Now they can't anyway," Both snakes snickered again, and while Lion and Blue had no clue about that last part, they both listened on anyway. Acid and Cyanide start slithering on up the road, Lion and Blue following as quietly as they could. Something was up, and these two were going to find out. Acid and cyanide slithered just out of town, and then ended up reaching the main beacon of Beach City: the Beach City Watertower. A huge, blue-tinted, oval tower, and a very HUGE one at that. Standing just outside of town, and possibly the largest structure in town apart from the temple across the way. Acid and Cyanide slithered just underneath, examining the Watertower pretty extensively, Lion and Blue still unsure what they were even doing. Both snakes slithered around in a circle for a bit, eyes looking to each and every detail of this Watertower as best a pair of snakes could do. both snakes gave a devilish, knowing grin to eachother, as both snakes went over to one of the Watertower legs, Acid deciding to extend her fangs and making a X mark on one angle of the leg. Acid only needed one little bite into the leg for it to take some effect. As if time passed it by for years, the leg began to weaken and strain to hold the Watertower up. Loud groans from the metal echoed around the place, scaring Blue and Lion nearby.

"Here comes the Hurricane,~" Cyanide snickered, almost in a sing-along sort of tone, just before Acid and Cyanide slithered off the opposite way of the tower's leaning, and off out of sight. As for Lion and Blue, all they could do was observe the gigantic tower of water starting to strain and lean dangerously, and worst yet, it was leaning downhill towards the city! Lion and Blue wasn't able to do anything to stop it, and both animals turned and made a run for it. The huge groans roared from behind them, and both big cat and dog got themselves out of the way just in time.
The huge Watertower, losing the equal weight of the legs, finally ended up collapsing down completely downhill, one of the other legs snapping in two and two of which pulled out of the ground. The main base finally lost its full build, and fell down onto the ground. The impact of the fall cracked the base wide open like an egg, all of the watery contents being poured out in a mighty explosion, all towards Beach City. The mighty wave of water blasted through the entire town, not taking long for the water to begin smashing into the buildings, and flooding the town. Lion and Blue could only watch the devastation occurring down through town: the residential area of Beach city was laid to waste with the wave of water, buildings collapsing in the water waves. close any building was to the Watertower, the more force they ended up getting slammed with, and unfortunately, many of the homes were placed right in the path of the water, most collapsing in little time at all. Interiors of the stores were quickly splashed with the psychowave, and even a few of the light posts fell like trees. The base of the Watertower itself rolled down and crushed the U Store, only adding more to the onslaught of water. The time it took to decimate the homes?

Two minutes.

Just two minutes, and over half the town was flooded and or destroyed. Lion and Blue couldn't believe what they were seeing, and with the problem finishing as quickly as it started. Blue whimpered quietly on seeing such devastation happening so quickly, but Lion got up and started to walk away. One roar got a portal opened for him and Blue to pass through, and both mammalian companions went straight through.
The portal jump was swift, and soon both Blue and Lion ended up reaching another area of the world, this part more inland. They found themselves in the countryside, and over nearby a main road, one that coincidentally the people of Beach City were actually taking to escape the "hurricane". What luck for Lion and Blue. Almost immediately, Lion started his run after the cars, leaving Blue off in the back. Steven and Greg were amongst the group of cars evacuating Beach City, and as they were driving along, Steven took a look outside and saw Lion running alongside the road, keeping up easy with the group of cars.

"Lion?" Steven wondered. Lion moved off as fast as a lion could go, until he found himself up at the front of the car line. Just what the big cat wanted. After gaining some more feet, Lion got on the road, spun around, and then roared good and loud. The roar itself was enough to make the first car stop to a halt, and in such making all the other cars stop too. The one leading the pack (the Frymens), took a look outside at the giant pink cat. Mr. Fryman honked the horn to get it out of the way, but Lion did not budge an inch. Steven and Greg got out of their car to investigate.

"Steven, is that your pet? Tell your cat to move out of the way will ya?" Mr. Fryman asked, pointing to Lion, who didn't feel too deterred by the car honking in the slightest. Lion simply walked up to Mr. Fryman and snorted at him, but he was still in the way

"Lion, move please. Here Lion," Steven said, moving over to the side of the road so Lion could move. Lion did technically complied, but instead of going to Steven, Lion grabbed Blue from the side of the road by the collar, and dropped him in front of the road. Blue simply sat there (annoyance levels rising), and only then did Lion move over to Steven.

"Ok, now Blue come here," Steven said, but Lion snorted at Blue to keep him still. Lion walked over past Steven and Greg, and sat down nearby, starting to draw out a picture in the dirt with his paw. Lion made the picture quick and simple: a circle with a few lines spiraling around it. Steven soon noticed the picture, and tried to think on what he was doing.

"Eh ... the universe?"

Lion growled.

"Ok, no uh ... Oh, the hurricane! Lion, we already -" suddenly, Lion scratched out the hurricane with his paw, showing the Hurricane wasn't what they were thinking. Lion kept their attention, and then drew out the next picture of the Watertower, and instead of scratching it out, Lion drew a circle around it. After that was done, Lion gave a quiet roar to the others, trying to get them on the right answer ...

"The. Watertower?" Greg asked.

.......

"You sure you felt something, Peridot?" Diopside asked.

"I know I did, why would I lie?!"

The Gems had an earlier wakeup call to the incident than the humans did, and freaked out Peridot was off and trying to get them to the right direction as well. She didn't get everyone, only grabbing: Fulgurite, Star Quartz, Amethyst, Diopside, and Garnet. While she didn't get everyone, she did get enough Gems to at least get things moving.

"You can't have felt something, this hurricane or whatever it is didn't even arrive yet. ... Did it?" Fulgurite wondered.

"Don't ask me, but I swear on my Diamond's name, something crashed in -"

That's when they saw it. Or at least a part of it. Looking to the boardwalk, flowing water was pouring off the boardwalk and off down to the open sea, enough water to fill up streams. The Gems, seeing that, ran over to the situation and saw more of the devastation Beach City just had gone through. Wooden boards, stray dirt, and other smaller objects floated down to the shore from inland at their feet, Garnet picking up a piece of broken board, silent. Fulgurite hopped up on the big Donut rooftop (the Big donut one of the buildings not knocked over), and up there she saw the other buildings further away in nothing but a wreck.

"Uh guys, you might wanna see this," Fulgurite called, going off towards the area.

In no time, the Gems were at the scene. Just that morning there was plenty of buildings all over, plenty of homes for the local residents, but now it only remained as a wasteland of broken up houses. Wood, tiles, and foundations were now in heaps with whatever remaining inside each house. To say that this was unexpected was an understatement really. Garnet, who'd normally feel calm and collected, couldn't help but end up with questions. One in particular ...

"But ... how did it happen?"

"Say something, Garnet?" asked Peridot.

"Uh, nothing. At least Steven's safe," Garnet said, correcting herself as the others looked at the damage.

"... Is this was that hurricane could do? It moved fairly fast," Star Quartz said, as Diopside studied the damage. She tried to pick up one seemingly attached wall, just for it to crumble up into a pile of wood.

"And brutal too," Diopside agreed. It was then they all heard yet another thud from farther away inland, and saw the remains of the Watertower as it laid in a heap. The group went off that direction, Fulgurite and Diopside reaching there first. At this point, the Watertower was completely empty, not much freshwater left inside, leaving nothing but an empty metal shell. Seeing such a large object toppled over like this surely was something different.

"Holy smokes," said Peridot.

"Yeah. That hurricane's stronger than I thought," Fulgurite said. However, as they were looking, Diopside started to look at it a bit more carefully. She walked over closer, and it was then she saw one of the legs, her Gem eye focusing more into detail on the leg that broke off.

"Wait ... something's wrong here. Garnet, does earth rain have any acid in it?" Diopside asked. Garnet soon walked over to her when she said that.

"Not exactly."

"Well then ... I think we've been tricked," Diopside concluded, pointing to the wrecked leg on the Watertower. Garnet looked to the leg with Diopside, studying it more closely. ...

"Oh dear ..."

.......

Well, it took a bit for the others to come back to inspect the damage done to their town, but all the Gems, the Mane six, and local humans eventually saw the wreckage left from the road by the destroyed Watertower. The sight, for a lack of a better word, was enough to make anyone's heart sink. This was something all of Beach City had been effected with, no matter who it was, or in what way. Sadie, Onion, Lars, The Frymans, the Pizzas, and plenty of others were left homeless, each one of their family's homes now in some sort of heap. Buck Dewey and Steven were probably the only ones in Beach city who still had a roof over their head, but that didn't make them feel any better on seeing their friends now without a roof of their own to keep. Some of the Gems too felt sorry for Beach City and what had happened, despite not being effected directly themselves.

"To think we were protecting Beach City just for this ..." sighed Pearl, tears coming down.

"The odds caught up with all of us, Pearl," Bismuth said, a tear or two passing down her own face as well. Bismuth felt someone hugging her leg then, only to look down and see quiet Onion there. Even he was tearing up over the situation, and Bismuth just placed a soft hand on his head.

"But, what happened?" asked Fluttershy, completely shocked about the whole thing herself.

"Guess that hurricane did a quicker number than we thought," Amethyst simply noted, looking to the Pegasus.

"The hurricane didn't do this, but there's nothing gonna be left when it does come," Jenny said.

"There's no hurricane coming!"

Everyone in the group turned over to Flint and Diopside, who were over near the tower again, in particular over by the acid-effected leg. Mayor Dewey was the first to react.

"WHAT?! But Empire City, Bayburgh AND us got the signal, how's it not coming?!"

"Ok, calm down," Peridot said, trying not to make things escalate.

"That was a fake signal. Something to drive us away from town long enough to drown it all out to sea without anyone keeling over." Flint concluded, though admitted he felt especially stressed with himself, considering he coined the idea in the first place! At least with an actual hurricane, nothing could be pointed to anything malicious, but this was worse. A fake signal, and now full scale sabotage on the entire city!

"I can't believe this; WHY did I have to listen to her?! I could've stopped this," Flint quietly groaned, just for Garnet to place a hand on his shoulder. flint was ready to criticize, but Garnet had her visor removed and showed how distraught she actually was, one of her eyes streaming a tear. She was hurting just as much as anyone else.

"... I'm so sorry. ..." Garnet didn't need to say much else for Flint to understand.

"But how did it happen? That leg was in perfect condition just before we all left, we all saw it right?" Twilight questioned, much of Beach City agreeing. After all, the main route out of town had to pass the watertower, so everyone got a look at it before leaving.

"This was clearly sabotage," Garnet concluded.

"Obvious," said Lars. Sadie nudged him to keep him quiet, but he was right on that anyway.

"It is obvious, but the question is who? I know Humans, and they can't melt metal that quickly. ... Unless you somehow invented some rapid-melting stuff over the last thousand years?" Emerald wondered, asking Sour Cream in particular, who just shrugged.

"Let's not point any fingers, Emerald," Rarity insisted. The last thing they needed was an argument on blame.

"OK, look. Let's get this well known here: clearly things had been going on for months now since this spring had started. Now, Fluttershy here translated Lion and Blue's warning over there, and those two had laid witness to the culprit," Flint began, Lion and Blue sitting quietly nearby and listening to everything. Naturally the animals would rely on Fluttershy for some translation after they found things out just to be sure it was clear.

"They have? Well, who is it?!" Mayor Dewey asked, really wanting an answer to it.

"Grootslang," Buck suddenly stated. The Gems turned to him.

"Grootslang?"

"That giant snake and his snake posse were slithering around the city a couple days ago. I already saw him trying to manipulate Greg," Buck explained, thumb aiming at Greg nearby.

"Wait, you saw that?" Greg asked, surprised.

"I had a hunch," Buck simply said.

"Eh, well, Lion and Blue said it was just two smaller snakes. It could be coincidental so -"

"NO IT'S NOT!" Lars suddenly shouted. That got a number of people to jump back, Lars not really meaning to give that kind of outburst. He recoiled a little bit before Garnet addressed him.

"So it wasn't just Grootslang who got you."

"Y-Yeah, him and two other vipers jumped me!" Lars revealed, his own parents not too far away surprised to hear that happen to him, looking with worry.

"Acid and Cyanide," Flint quietly pondered.

"They messed with you too?" Peedee asked, surprised himself.

"Why, what happened to you?"

"What happened to me? The Food Wars is what happened! Those two vipers started it in the first place," Peedee revealed, remembering the end of the food war himself. Kofi was especially angry.

"WHAT?! Those things messed with our businesses?! When I get my hands on those two, I'll -" Kofi was interrupted when Garnet raised her hand, mainly in his face to hush him.

"Everyone listen. I understand how you're all very upset about what just happen, and at those vipers." Garnet's hand clenched into a fist as she continued. "... Yet, this is a more unnatural problem, something not normal to humans. It's for the best if us Gems and Ponies handle that part of the issue. The best you all can do is rest, and try to amend the damage," Garnet instructed. It was the best option they could do for right now, and boy did they have plenty of work ahead of them.

~~~~~~

Well, the days ticked by slowly, and everyone in Beach City really had to get one word into their consideration: adapt. Adapt to the situation and try to make the amends as Garnet had said. It was far easier said than done one way or another, and much of the group was still left homeless all the same. Had they got their homes yet? Well no. In the end, their main home actually ended up being moved out of the area completely. In short, the city turned awfully quiet.
During one afternoon, Steven took some time out of the day to go and check in on the Dewey family, the only family who had a house still over everything.

"Hello? Mayor, Buck? You home?" Steven called, knocking onto the door. Soon though, it was buck Dewey who answered.

"Hey, Steven. Come in, man," Buck said, inviting Steven inside. The Dewey house was pretty basic for being the Mayor's house, but then again Steven just saw the "home" part of the place, and not the office of the mayor, so take that what you will. He and Steven took a seat on the couch together, Steven sitting normally as Buck reclined on it.

"Is your family doing okay?" Steven asked.

"Decently. Water's been a bit low though," Buck answered, bummed out over that. How could Steven really blame him for that, especially with the wrecked Watertower. Steven could even see it from their window, though at the moment plenty of police tape bordered the line so no one else could venture to the scene.

"You heard much from the rest of the Beach City gang?" Buck asked.

"They're trying. My dad and I are living over at our barn now, and Connie's letting Sadie and Lars stay with her. ... After a long rule talk," Steven admitted, remembering what Connie had told him. And as it turned out Connie wasn't the only one: soon, from the kitchen, Onion and Sour Cream actually walked in with some chips to watch some TV with Buck Dewey and Steven.

"Yo, Steven, good to see ya," said Sour Cream, as Onion sat down on the ground.

"So you're guys are staying here?" Steven asked.

"Until we get our house's together. Thanks for letting us hang out, Buck," Sour Cream replied.

"Least I can do," Buck replied. As they were talking, Onion finished up his bag of chaps, and crumbled up the bag. Soon, his eyes eyed on a rubbish bin over by the clothes rack. Remembering something before, he focused on the bin a little bit, and then tossed the bag into it with little effort.

"Good shot," Steven said, smiling. Onion gave a sigh of relief before turning back to the TV, Steven unsure what that was about, but Sour Cream was quick to fill him in.

"Onion's got this gimmick going since we started living here: he makes a shot to a rubbish bin to make sure mom and pops come back fine," Sour Cream explained. It's not too much, but it did help Onion's nerves anyway after the incident.

"Oh. Hey Buck, how's your dad going?" Steven then asked.

.......

"Ok, look, you said this is a magic problem, you got to help amend the town! We can't - ... What, no, no listen to me, our town's on a thread here. If resources go down, so does the town ... I don't care what caveman did, I, Bill Dewey, AM NOT A CAVEMAN. ... Well, yes, humans can, in fact, build houses, but we can only do - hello? Hello?! Seriously!"

Not too good. Buck and Steven peeked into Mayor Dewey's office, just to see him completely stressed out over everything these last few days. After his latest phone call, Bill just sat there in complete distress, rubbing his temples to calm himself down. After the phone call, Buck Dewey knocked on the wall to get Bill's attention.

"Ah, Steven, it's you. Can't you convince your sisters to actually help us out or something?" Bill asked.

"... My sisters?" Steven asked, obviously confused.

"You know, the tall one, the huge one, the purple one, the nerdy one, the hot one, you know what I mean," buck insisted, referring to Garnet, Bismuth, Amethyst, Peridot, and Pearl.

"... My. Sisters?"

"UGH, this isn't working," Bill groaned, head laying on the table. Obviously asking Steven to get his "sisters" to help wasn't going to work out so easily.

"He's been like this for days," Buck simply said.

"And none of those days were any helpful! No one found the culprits, no one started building yet, no donations arrived! Don't tell anyone this Steven, but ... I'm at my wits end!" Buck admitted, strained at the last part to even admit such things.

"Don't worry, Mayor Dewey, I promise I'll help you clean up this mess," Steven proposed, hand in a official's promise. At least one person was willing to help him out.

"Thanks, kid. First thing you can do is reassure the residents that everything's going to be okay," Bill advised.

"Do you want their help?" Steven wondered. Bill got up from his seat.

"Steven. you can't control everything that happens, but you can control how others feel about it. I'd be wrecked if they find out the Mayor doesn't even know what to do. You can reassure them of that, can't you?" Bill explained. Steven felt a little unsure about this white lie, but he could see the point he was getting across.

"Well ... ok," Steven said reluctantly. Still, Bill gave a huge sigh of relief.

"I knew I could count on you."

~~~~~~

First stop: Connie's house. To be honest, Steven was more or less impressed that Priyanka and Doug with allow Sadie and Lars's parents to actually stick around their house as things were being build, considering their previous interactions between one another were more or less weak, but it wasn't a bad surprise for Steven to know about to say the least. A short ride on Lion was more than enough to get to the place in due time, and as Lion stayed over by the garage, Steven went and knocked onto the door. First one to answer was Priyanka.

"Hello there," Steven said. Unfortunately, like Bill Dewey, she looked a little bit bothered herself.

"Oh, Steven hi," Priyanka said, sounding tired.

"Uh, everything okay?"

"Oh, no, I'm fine. I guess you want to see the others?" Priyanka assumed, Steven nodding his head.
So, in he went with Priyanka, up to Connie's room. At the moment, it was where the others were hanging out, so if Steven did want to check in on them, it would be there. When they got there, Priyanka gave a knock on Connie's door.

"Connie, your friend Steven's here to see you."

"Oh, Steven?!" Connie gasped, opening the door. Suddenly, before Steven could even realize what happened, Connie hugged him tightly. Guess she was more than relieved to hear from him. When he looked in, he saw Sadie inside as well, but Lars didn't seem to be anywhere around.

"Thank goodness you're alright, Steven, I was worried sick about you," Connie said, sounding very relieved. Priyanka was glad to see her daughter happy for this, but then a phone call pulled the mother away.

"Oh boy, again. You three have fun now, let me know if you need anything," Priyanka said, just before walking downstairs to answer the phone.

"Hey, Steven. Good to hear from you," Sadie said, as Steven and Connie went inside her room.

"Just wanted to see how you and Lars were doing. Where is Lars anyway?" Steven wondered, looking around the room for him. One would think Lars would be hanging around after what happened.

"Lars got into working with my mom for a bit to get enough money for the trouble," Sadie explained. Steven took a seat on Connie's bed as they chatted, finding this a bit interesting.

"What about his job at the big donut? Last the Gems checked that place was still up and standing."

"Yeah but didn't mean the water didn't get in. Sorry Steven, but you're not going to see a fresh doughnut from there for a while," Sadie revealed, sounding a bit disappointed herself. Steven slumped, now laying on Connie's bed and feeling very sad about that. He loved Sadie's fresh doughnuts, so learning he had to stay away from them for a while would be a bit troubling to do.

"Oh man! No more donuts?" Steven groaned.

"Don't worry, just be glad we're all here. It could be a lot worse right?" Connie said. Even with that setback, Steven couldn't help but agree.

"Yeah, you're right. Oh, I'll avenge those donuts when I find those two snakes," Steven proclaimed, feeling upset. Yeah, he was just as mad at those serpents as anyone else would be.

"Sadie said something about the snakes? They were the ones who flooded the town?"

"AND manipulated me, AND caused a food war, AND ruined Lars's gift for a potluck, AND stole from the jewelers!" Sadie went on, listing them off with a count of her fingers, and remembering what was said over the last three days.

"And to think we were supposed to protect the city from this. I'm very sorry, guys," Steven admitted, feeling bad for everyone. Though really, how could one not feel bad for them? Still, Sadie and Connie didn't want him thinking that.

"No, Steven, it's not your fault the Watertower toppled over. Everything will be back to normal before you know it," Connie reassured him.

"You think so?"

"Sure, Steven. It's not the first time some town's gone through a disaster like this. I mean, look at Ocean Town: no longer on fire," Sadie reminded. Steven realized she had a point on that, remembering the opening welcome sign saying just that. If Ocean Town can go through a wildfire, then surely Beach City can handle a flooding like this. Eventually though, they each heard something from downstairs.

"Steven Universe, Flint wants to talk to you."

"Flint? Oh boy, I'll be right back," Steven said, as he started to head downstairs. Connie and Sadie followed him down, and Steven went right over to the phone. With what's been happening, Flint was obviously stressed about things. At least he figured such.

"Flint wants me?" Steven asked.

"Yeah here. I swear, that's not his real name," Priyanka commented, giving Steven the phone.

"Hello?"

"Ok, one two, one two, Steven can you hear me?" asked Flint over the phone. Sounded like he was just trying it out.

"Yeah, I can hear you fine, what's up?" Steven asked.

"Ok, first of all where are you? Garnet checked on you and found you were gone, you had her worried sick. I was fine, Flint. Garnet not now."

"Sorry, Flint, I just wanted to check on my friends that's all," Steven reassured him. Flint groaned.

"Well, next time tell us before you do that, especially with Acid, Cyanide, and Grootslang still going around. ... You didn't find them again, did you?"

"No, not really. Though they'd have to be very brave to come around here again after what they did," Steven noted.

"Let me see the phone Flint. Alright. Steven?"

"Yeah Garnet?"

"I can guess you might be at Connie's home by now. If you and your friends are able to find a clue to where they are, that'd be great. Oh, and try stopping by Peedee when you can. He'll need some help."

"OMG I was just thinking that," Steven gasped. Garnet just giggled.

"Be sure to be home by dinner, Steven. I love you."

"You too, Garnet."

~~~~~~

Late afternoon, and following the advice not too long after being told, Steven went off towards where the Frymens would be staying at. While a number of residents were living with friends, the Frymans decided to have Greg give them a hand and having them stay around at the barn with him. It wasn't the best home, but it was a home nonetheless.

"Come on, son, think of it as like a vacation," said Mr. Fryman at a point, though he didn't get a good response. As he was trying, Steven got caught up, and Peedee soon saw him.

"Steven, there you are. Good thing you showed up," Peedee said, going up to him.

"Hi, Peedee. Everything going well with my dad?" Steven asked.

"Well ... sorta. It's kinda hard to get used to sleeping in a car. We tried the barn, but ... well, did you lock it or something? And why is it so freezing?" Peedee asked. Any reminder of Lapis's situation seemed a bit expected if they were going to stick around the barn.

"It's uh, kinda complicated," Steven admitted. It was then Steven and Peedee both heard a sad-filled groan coming from Greg's van. When Steven and Peedee walked over to Mr. Fryman, they soon saw Ronaldo inside, laying down on the floor of the van. If one word could say Ronaldo's feelings over the situation, it would be miserable.

"Ronaldo?"

"I lost my girlfriend. Now my internet. ... What am I gonna do now?" Ronaldo groaned. Guess Acid and Cyanide's trick was still effecting him on that in some way, and without his access to his 'keep beach city weird' blog, he had literally nothing to do over these three days.

"Cheer up Ronaldo, things could be worse," Steven said, trying to cheer him up.

"How could this be any worse? ..." Ronaldo wept. Guess that wasn't going to fix much of anything for Ronaldo, who was actually crying over it. Three days without word of either girlfriend nor access to the net surely dulled him down of his spirit.

"He's been stuck like this for three days," Peedee whispered. Steven tried to think of something to cheer Ronaldo up from his little funk he ended up in.

"Ronaldo, you can't stay like this forever," Mr. Fryman said, trying to get his son out of it himself.

"I got nothing right now. Everything's grown quiet. Normal ..."

That final word got Steven's attention, and with that lightbulb popping up in his head, he got his idea, which he detailed by whispering it with Peedee, who was more than happy to agree.

"But Ronaldo, don't you realize how big this could be?"

"Yeah. Two seemingly innocent snakes capable of dealing so much damage? Perhaps it's a small piece to a far bigger puzzle. A conspiracy waiting to be revealed," Peedee added in. Steven then started to think.

"Hmm, now who do we know who's an expert in conspiracies?" Steven wondered aloud.

"Oh, I think I know one ..." Peedee added in.

.......

"You're right. You're RIGHT! What am I doing just moping around when there's such a big conspiracy going on?! I need to get this down before it goes away! Look out world, here I come!"

Soon, Ronaldo, now amped up, started going right off to get his take on this conspiracy down in his notes. A bit quick, but Peedee was more than glad to see his big brother now getting his confidence back. Mr. Fryman ruffled Steven's hair.

"Thanks, Steven."

~~~~~~

"Such a pathetic bother. Now the whole town's after our heads," hissed Cyanide in annoyance. Both snakes didn't take too much time to figure out that they found em out (sort of), so the two serpents had to hightail it out of there before they could be found out. Their retreat had left them far off from any regular town, and hidden off in the forest. Not their first option during autumn, especially for two reptiles like them, but all the same at least no one was around to find them out here.

"All the same, at least they were too busy with their "hurricane" to bother with us yet. Those humans, anyway," Acid commented.

"True. Too bad, I was having a lot of fun with those hairless apes. Should've bit those two pets before we did that."

"Like we're supposed to know they had a animal translator with them. Don't get your tail in a knot, we just have to change our targets that's all."

"Such convenience too. ... Still, my dear, winter's coming. And we got two other worlds we can easily have fun in as well."

"Assuredly.~"

Griffonstone

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BOY, did things really change because of those pathetic snakes. To think that those two tiny snakes managed to collapse the watertower to flood and remove the homes of so many people with the only reason being pure enjoyment! The joy of seeing the horrified and down faces of everyone involved was what drove those snakes to do it, and the very thought was what drove the Crystal Gems in trying their best to find them and make them pay for what they've done. If even half of what the claims said were true, then these serpents had to be stopped one way or another. The more time they left them alone, the more trouble they could cause not just for them, but for anyone else around them. Someone like Acid, Cyanide, or Grootslang could cause all sorts of problems for them to fix up, and disharmony for many a person they would come across.
Unfortunately though, ever since the watertower incident, all three basically had gone missing, not a sign of a scale, fang, or tail anywhere. For days on end, they've been trying, but it was difficult to try and relocate some lost snakes, especially sentient magical ones such as these.

Outside the Beach House, it was only Pearl, Amethyst, Steven, and Connie. As Pearl and Stevonnie took some time for some much needed swordsmanship lessons (yes, they were trying that), Amethyst just quietly watched on and munched away with a rough feeling in her gut. Even if the snakes were nothing but liars, Amethyst still couldn't help but wonder about what Acid had said about the fusion thing with Steven and her, and seeing them so happy together at the end of that race only further proved it far as she knew. Amethyst tried for days to get her mind off of it, but whenever Steven and Connie were together when she was around, the thought just reoccurred in her head and left her feeling ... well, rough. It's not that she despised Connie, but the thought still lingered for a more negative opinion about Stevonnie altogether. Speaking of, it didn't help that Pearl wanted to try training with Stevonnie over Smoky Quartz. Stevonnie was doing very good against the Pearl clones drawn out, her sword finishing off one clone after another until all of them were gone and finished.

"Bravo, Stevonnie! Oh, you two worked so well together," Pearl beamed. No, that didn't help Amethyst much, looking less than enthused about the whole thing itself, and gave a rough sigh.

"Yippee," Amethyst groaned, but none of them really noticed her.

"Thanks Pearl. It's a lot easier working this sword at this size," Stevonnie admitted with a smile, doing some practice slices at the air.

"We all saw that, right Amethyst? ... Amethyst?" Pearl asked. Amethyst didn't really pay much attention at first, but she got back to it on the second call.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, good, right."

"You ok? You've been a bit down lately," Stevonnie asked. Normally, Amethyst would just say she was fine and be done with it, but she knew well that'll only make them go on further, so she had her own alibi.

"Eh, I'm just thinking about those pathetic coils of rope," Amethyst admitted, trying to make it sound convincing.

"Oh them. The others had been looking for days, I'm sure they'll find them," Stevonnie encouraged. It wasn't true, but at least they got off Amethyst's back about her behavior as of late. Steven and Connie, after hearing of the news, didn't take kindly to the venomous snakes either, as much as they got a grudge to Kevin, maybe even more.
Pretty soon, the sound of the Warp Pad echoed from the Beach House, the signs of the Gems' return. As for which Gem exactly, it turned out to be Garnet herself, joined by Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

"Hey, you three! Any news?!" called Pearl, as they headed down.

"Stevonnie!" Pinkie beamed, hopping over and hugging her. It had been a while since she had seen Stevonnie, the fusion laughing and fluffing the mare's mane. Boy, did the universe seemingly helped Acid in her point towards Amethyst though, the purple Gem feeling bugged more than anything.

"No we didn't. UGH, come on, how hard can this be?!" Rainbow groaned.

"They would hide after what they did," Stevonnie agreed.

"Yyep," added in Amethyst.

"Did Discord find something?" Stevonnie then asked. Pinkie quickly shook her head.

"Nope nope nope. Mr. chaos got the sneezes after going through Rose's fountain, and took a break. He found nothing," Pinkie told them. Hard to believe that not even Discord could figure anything out. As they were discussing, Garnet took a look over to Amethyst and saw how she was sulking about something. She sensed too that they already tried asking, so Garnet just took on thinking a little bit.

"Well, I'm tired of searching, and tired period. If it's all the same to you, I'm gonna call it a day," Rainbow decided, hovering a little bit and starting to head off on her way. Before she could go though, Garnet grabbed her by the tail with her thumb and index finger.

"Not just yet."

"Why? We've been looking all day, Garnet, and we found nothing!"

"Rainbow, Connie, Steven, Amethyst, and Pinkie, I'd like you all to go and check one more spot for me. I got a good feeling about it," Garnet instructed, Stevonnie unfuseing. Pinkie tumbled forward when they did that and fell onto the sand, but they were interested anyway.

"Where to, Garnet?" asked Connie. Garnet adjusted her shades for just a moment, readying her answer. ...

"Griffonstone."

Wait, what? Griffonstone? That sounded fairly new for many of them, but Rainbow recoiled a little bit on that.

"Griffonstone?" questioned Amethyst.

"OOOOOO, home of the Griffin!" Pinkie said.

"Yes, and it's there I want you to check for me," Garnet concluded.

"Eh, I don't think that's one of your better ideas, Garnet. Mind if I take a pass?" Rainbow asked, reluctantly. The element of loyalty asking to pass on a favor? Now that DID surprise Garnet.

"Rainbow! I'm surprised at you!" Garnet gasped.

"What? What?! I can take a break from loyalty for a bit, can't I?" Rainbow shrugged, not seeing the harm of it. Rather than continuing, Garnet cleared her throat, and adjusted her shades again, her shades glistening in the light. It was then that Rainbow Dash got the idea, her front hooves rubbing together and a smirk on her face.

"OH, I get ya. Come on, everypony, let's go!" Rainbow said, getting a headstart.

"WOOHOO, road trip!" Pinkie beamed, bolting after her too.

"Come on, Amethyst," said Steven, as he and Connie went off after them. Amethyst felt uneasy, but if they could get those snakes there, she might as well head off after them too. Soon, only Pearl and Garnet remained.

"Oh, I do hope they get stopped soon," Pearl said.

"Yes. Maybe even more. ..."

~~~~~~

Upon arriving in Griffon Gorge, be sure to pause and cast your eyes northerly, up the Hyperborean Mountains, taking in the breathtaking beauty of Griffonstone. Once in Griffonstone proper, go immediately to the palace and introduce yourself to the king. "Bygone Griffons of Greatness" was written a long time ago, and it ends with the coronation of the fourteenth king of the griffons, King Guto. I have no idea who's in charge now. Tell the king you've been sent by the Princess of Friendship, and you're there to help with relocation of our wanted criminals. If for some reason the king can't help, I'd try the Griffonstone library next. It's a little known secret that if you befriend a librarian, you can usually find out anything. Plus, as a bonus, there's a statue of King Grover outside! Photo op! And don't forget to sample some famous griffon scones. They're supposed to be the best.

The main advice Twilight gave them on this Griffonstone place before they left for it, and it gave them basically the sum-up on the matter, though it did sounded like Twilight wanted to go there herself. It did take them all a pretty good while to get to Griffonstone, but eventually they did end up getting to the entrance of the place after a hearty climb up a mountain face. Amethyst trailed behind the whole group, and Pinkie stayed over in front.

"Oh, this is so exciting! You guys are gonna be the first human Gem people to see Griffonstone in person!" Pinkie said excitedly as she hopped along.

"Yeah. first Unicorns, then Pegasus, and now Griffons. What magical creatures don't you have here?" Connie figured.

"Well whatever creatures keep popping up in your world," Rainbow answered casually, flying alongside them.

"Well, anyway, sure sounded like Twilight wanted us to go on a fieldtrip for her huh?" Amethyst commented.

"She just didn't want us to get in trouble," Steven figured.

"I know but, really." Amethyst then shapeshifted into Twilight Sparkle as an imitation factor, and added in "Be sure to have plenty of bits. Griffons are generous as long as you share the wealth." Amethyst shapeshifted back soon afterwards.

"What's wrong with that?" Connie asked. Amethyst sulked slightly, but answered anyway.

"That basically translates to: give them money or they won't do jack for you."

"Oh come on, You'll all love it when you see that Griffonstone is -"

The sight of Griffonstone the second they arrived made them all stop in surprise. For one word: the place looked HORRIBLE! Many of the houses amongst Griffonstone looked less like houses and more almost incomplete. Stray straw and stick jutted out the rooftops and walls, only held together by ropes, and some had huge holes in them they were so ill repaired. Even the ground was all covered in dried grass and hay, and stray barrel tops, sticks and sheets laid in heaps everywhere. Dried up trees stood like skeletons with houses on their branches like nests, and just as messed up as the houses down on the ground. Other houses were made of wood, but they looked less like homes and more like old chicken coops.

"A total dump," finished Pinkie, just before they heard another branch fall off another house.

"Looks worse like my room," Amethyst admitted.

Soon they were off and moving again, seeing the rather wrecked neighborhood as they went along. Roads were hardly any without something on the ground and making the place look a bit more messy. Griffons were pretty abundant too, and many of them had plenty of different combinations of different things: the heads being either eagle, falcon, hawk, or even owl, with the bottom half being tiger, lion, or some other type of feline. Regardless of what kind of mix match they had, the overall behavior of rudeness and roughness hung in the air with each and every Griffon they passed.

"OK, we got the whole place to search in, so why don't we go in teams and split up for a bit?" Connie suggested.

"Whatever will get this done quicker. So, who's going with who?" Rainbow asked. She wasn't as thrilled about being here either, so whatever could get it done she was willing to take.

"OK, so who wants to go see the king?"

"We don't have a king, losers."

The new voice caught them off guard a little bit, and one of the local Griffons got their attention. This particular Griffon was a more standard looking one: half eagle and half lion as Griffons usually are. Her head had creamy white feathers with purple tips hanging off her head, and lavender circles around her eyes. Her beak and front talons were yellow, and her wings, leonine tail and hind legs were brownish in color, the wings darker than her fur.

"Hello. Gilda," groaned Rainbow.

"Dash," added the Griffon.

"Pinkie!" beamed Pinkie. Connie, amethyst, and Steven already could sense some rough waters with these two.

"What're you doing here?" Rainbow asked, pointing a hoof at Gilda. Gilda found the question a little stupid.

"Uh, I'm a Griffon? what's your excuse, dweebs?"

"Hey! These 'dweebs' are on a criminal hunt," Steven made clear, disliking Gilda already.

"Hunt for what?" quizzed Gilda. Connie cleared her throat.

"We're trying to find three snakes: Grootslang, Acid, and Cyanide. Those three had messed with the minds of our home people, destroyed my friends -"

"Bored now!" Gilda cut in, rolling her eyes. Clearly this Griffon didn't give a hoot about their problem, and it wasn't sitting well with the three.

"Well, can't you at least tell us if you'd seen em?" Amethyst asked.

"If anyone seem em, they'd be supper right now, so go bother some other town," Gilda suggested, again not giving much of her care to them. Rainbow was probably enjoying this the least out of them all, her ears folded back and her eyes narrowing. However, with the idea Garnet said, they couldn't go: Acid and cyanide were here somewhere, and she wasn't going until she figured that out.

"OK, let's get this over with: Pinkie Pie, Steven, you're group one, Connie, Amethyst, you're group two. Anypony needs me, I'll be looking over there. Goodbye," Rainbow suddenly said, taking off and flying away before anyone could say anything. Gilda just strolled away from the situation. Whatever was going on here, she wanted no part in it. As for the group, they all started heading off their own way.

.......

"How in bloody - ugh. Cyanide, guess who found us?"

"That Garnet must've foreseen us here. No matter though, it'll take them forever in this town, and by the sound of it they'll by flying at eachother in no time at all."

"True, but suppose those Griffons rat us out?"

"Then we'll practice our biting. Come on, let's see what we can do."

~~~~~~

Pretty soon, Steven and Pinkie started heading off towards one of the places in Griffonstone, treated to the rough nature of the Griffons and the unpleasant place along the way. Their main destination was the library of Griffonstone, but by the time they got there ... well, it wasn't anymore pleasant: the entire building collapsed for a start!

"Maybe it's a good thing Twilight didn't come," Pinkie sighed, seeing the place. Steven couldn't help but agree, and seeing this, talking to a librarian was out of the question. Still, with this moment alone, Steven started to grow curious over what Rainbow's deal was with Gilda. Rainbow never mentioned the Griffon before, and by the sound of it they knew eachother at some point.

"Uh, Pinkie? Do you know Gilda?"

"Oh yeah, I meant the grouchy Griffon before. She was a hoot," Pinkie said, her head looking through some of the hay to find somepony.

"But does Rainbow know her? I mean, what happened with those two?" Steven then asked. Pinkie popped her head out of the hay, the hay making a hay mustache beard combo on her face with thick eyebrows, all which she shook off easily.

"Those two were besties before, but after a little party, they got nasty. Rainbow made funny pranks for the party, and Gilda set of each and every single one, and she just snapped, and left in a huff. We hadn't heard much of her since then. Well, until now," Pinkie explained, remembering her party for Gilda. It was a VERY long time ago, early day of Twilight the unicorn arriving to Ponyville to be exact, so it was a very long time since they last heard of the Griffon or anything to do with her. Closest they got was from the Griffon flying team for the Equestria Games, but no exact mention of Gilda. Steven felt sorry for Rainbow, losing her friend so easily like that.

"Oh no! That's terrible, and all because of a few party tricks. And the rest of the Griffons don't look too cheery either," Steven said, downhearted. There was a sad moment, but suddenly a light bulb went off in both of their heads, both looking to eachother.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Pinkie with a smirk on her face.

"I think you know what I think your thinking. Come on, let's find Gilda!" Steven announced, both Human and Pony going off on their way to find the Griffon. They got a friendship problem to fix!

.......

AND Gilda just happened to be standing right there. She had a cart behind her with some sort of product for sale, though they couldn't exactly get what it was. Possibly a Griffon scone, though it looked more like a rock than anything.

"You two about done yet?" Gilda asked in a scoff.

"Gilda, happy to see you!"

"That makes one of us. When're you five going to go?" Gilda asked, obviously not interested in whatever they're up to other than their leaving time.

"Until every Griffon in Griffonstone has a big smile!" Pinkie decided, showing off her own smile. That was just what Gilda was afraid of.

"I don't know if you'd noticed, but Griffonstone doesn't care about anything, and that's just the way we like it," Gilda made perfectly clear. Before they could go any further, a piece of wood ended up falling on Pinkie's head, giving Pinkie Pie an idea.

"I know what this place needs!"

"Fewer ponies and whatever you are?"

"A song! I got this super duper happy song that'll make even the grumpiest Griffon grin!" Pinkie said. Steven was excited for that the pink mare had in mind this time, and waited egerly for the mare to start singing. Pinkie readied herself and inhaled a deep breath ... just for Gilda to pinch her muzzle shut.

"Can't sing here," Gilda simply said, pointing to a conveniently placed sign, one showing a singing Griffon with a huge X over it. Well if that wasn't blunt, what was?

"But how can you break into uplifting musical numbers without singing?" asked Pinkie.

"Yeah, because that's our biggest problem - musical numbers," Gilda remarked sarcastically as she looked back to her scones. Then Steven got an idea.

"How about a party? If there's one way to cheer someone up it's a good party," Steven decided. Pinkie couldn't agree more.

"Right-o! where's the party store?"

Gilda didn't even bother them with an answer apart from a 'you-can't-be-serious' sort of look.

"... OK, how about cake?"

Gilda just groaned. Well, that did it.

"No singing, no parties, no cake?! WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS THIS?!"

"You're welcome to leave AT ANY TIME!" Gilda bellowed, the sheer force of her yelling enough to launch Steven and Pinkie back into a stone wall. A bit rough, but it was painfully clear that Griffonstone wasn't going to be as easy as it would be at Ponyville.

"Well that just takes the cake. No cake, no cupcakes, no scones -" Steven was cut short when Gilda cleared her throat.

"I have Griffon scones. They're my specialty," Gilda stated, showing them her wagon. The Griffon scones didn't look too appealing, but there was still plenty so running out was out of the question.

"We'll take one," said Steven, ready to grab one just for Gilda to swat his hand away with her wing.

"Bits first," Gilda firmly stated, talon up in front with a scone in her other. Pinkie was willing to oblige, and tossed a few bits, so Gilda took that and shoved the scone in Pinkie's mouth. The taste was ... probably as rough as the rest of the town, Pinkie taking a few crunches just to get a decent bite. If anything, Steven was spared.

"Well?" Gilda asked. Pinkie was a bit too busy chewing to even notice much. Like chewing down on a rock, though Gilda did notice that she didn't decide to spit it out or anything.

"Wait. you like it? It's my Grampa Gruff's secret recipe," said Gilda, smiling for the first time since they came to town. Pinkie continued chewing, Steven cringing when they both heard a something break in her mouth. Eventually, Pinkie stomached the thing and actually swallowed it. No, it wasn't good, but she still tried to keep a good face for Gilda's sake anyhow. Her best try though didn't seem to sit well.

"Whatever, no refunds. Doesn't matter to me anyway, I'm just trying to get enough bits to get out of here," Gilda groaned. That surely was interesting to hear out of a Griffon like her. Seemed the two got the same idea after a little bit.

"We can help with that!"

~~~~~~

Meanwhile, Connie and Amethyst were still trying to find out their own thing when looking for Acid and Cyanide, at this point along the edge of town, but so far they were getting nowhere with it. Griffons passed them by, and none of them wanted to talk to them, and any they tried just ignored. The one they tried this time just roared at them and flew off - not a good showing at all.

"Well, that's the seventh Griffon we tried, and got nowhere."

"Yeah," Amethyst simply said. Out of all the people, she had to be put up with Connie for this little venture of theirs, especially since her problems revolved her in the first place. Connie had easily noticed Amethyst's troubles, and turned back to her.

"Don't worry Amethyst, we're going to find those snakes," Connie reassured. But Amethyst knew darn well that wasn't exactly the case. sure she was mad at the snakes a little bit, but the fusion trouble was even more of a personal jab at her being than the snakes were. Connie looked to Amethyst and saw that it barely made her feel any better.

"What?" Amethyst asked, feeling annoyed.

"Eh, nothing, sorry. I'm just a little worried."

"About what?"

"Well, you. Amethyst, you've been down since Steven and I beat Kevin in that race. You sure everything's okay?"
Amethyst stopped moving. Was it really that noticeable? Connie was right though, ever since that race she had been feeling rough on herself and with the fusion with Steven and Connie.

"Amethyst," Connie stated again, more firmly. She really wanted to help her, but Amethyst felt more frustrated than ever.

"Amethyst, I can't help you if you don't tell me," Connie then stated. That did it.

"Ok, ok, you wanna know? You're the problem! YOU! Ok, there I said it!" Amethyst snapped. Naturally, Connie was taken aback by this.

"Me?! What'd I do?" Connie gasped, appalled. That only frustrated Amethyst even more so.

"You keep stealing Steven, that's what! That giant bird, the race, Pearl's training, the rock concert, Steven's been so giddy since he started fusing with you, it's like he forgot me! He and I were just fine until he started hanging out with you!" That accusation got Connie upset. Her stealing Steven? REALLY?! As this started, Acid and Cyanide slithered up behind a barrel and had a front row seat to the problem.

"Wha-what?! I'm not stealing him! And so what if he and I are fusing more, Smoky Quartz is just -"

"Is just what?! Useless?! Pathetic?! Not worth your time?! Go on, admit it, you like fusing with him more than him fusing with me!" Amethyst accused.

"That's not what I was going to say at all! It's just there's, uh, more times to use Stevonnie over Smoky, that's all," Connie made clear, but even with that she was getting mad herself.

"What do you mean all?! Steven's barely even bothering with Smoky anymore thanks to you!"

"It's not my fault Steven's thinking like that! He's the one who makes that call, not you!" Connie snapped.

"OH, OH, and what, you can? Just today you just said "Hey, let's fuse into Stevonnie" and that's all it took!" Amethyst yelled. At this point, Connie and Amethyst were inches away from eachother, the situation escalating greatly. At this point, Connie was losing her track of mind and was just flat out mad.

"OK, so I did, I wanted Stevonnie to practice swords over me, is that such a big problem?!"

"Actually YES! Smoky can handle those as good as Stevonnie ever could, if only you'd let me!"

"I would've if you'd said something!"

"Liar!"

"I'm the liar?! Well at least I say my feelings instead of bottling them up all the time! Who said they were upset about those snakes earlier anyway?!"

"I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO BUTT INTO MY LIFE, OKAY?! You think I like it when you force into my problems, huh?!"

"How's anyone supposed to help you if you just shut up all the time?! I'm smart enough to know -"

"What?! Smart? What's that supposed to mean?!"
Their argument continued going for a while more, and during the time, Cyanide slithered around closer and closer. Oh, the joy of broken friendships were good on their faces, but both snakes needed to weaken the ranks all the same. Since they were arguing so much, neither had noticed how close the snakes even were. ...

"If I had something on my mind, I try to say it and get help, all you do is sit there like a negative sponge and sulk all the time!"

"You really want to know what I'm thinking?" Amethyst asked, equally angry but quieter now.

"Out with it!" Connie demanded.

"Alright. I think you're - ACK!"

It happened. Cyanide took a strong bite at Amethyst's leg! Amethyst cringed on the sudden pain, and Cyanide made sure it effected by moving up and biting her gemstone too! It didn't crack from the bite, but the chemicals still got into it. Connie jumped back, but Acid made her trip, and Cyanide's extra bite got onto her arm as well. It wasn't venom, but the chemical Cyanide got into them made them stop moving and go numb and limp almost immediately (what a powerful tranquilizing power). Cyanide and Acid hissed to one another and looked to the two.

"Well, that went swimmingly, didn't it?"

"YOU," Amethyst said.

"Yes, remember me? The one who planted the idea in your head, my dear Amethyst? Worked like a charm, didn't it?" Acid hissed. Amethyst would try to get her if she could move, but for some reason she was simply stuck and unable to budge. Same thing could be said about Connie. Both snakes took a look around to be sure no one noticed, and while some Griffons did see, they honestly didn't care.

"Should we do something about the Griffons?" asked Acid.

"They're too greedy with their bits to bother themselves. Come," Cyanide hissed, starting to drag Connie with her tail. Acid followed suite and did the same thing to Amethyst. Since the two were on the literal edge of town (and being on a mountain too), the two snakes knew exactly what to do with their little catch of the day: throwing the trash away.

"Bye-bye," hissed Cyanide, before she and Acid tossed both of them right into the revenue! Being so limp, Amethyst and Connie couldn't do anything but tumble down the cliff until they were out of sight of the two snakes. They heard a good sounding thud on the way down, and both snakes snickered to eachother.

"So, that's that," Cyanide hissed in glee.

"Maybe. Even if they made it, it'll give the others something to do."

~~~~~~

Back with Pinkie and Steven, those two were still giving Gilda a hand with her little sales as everyone else was still going around town. Gilda had just finished up another batch of the Griffon Scones, but just as one got out, Steven actually had the nerve to take a bite out of it. It wasn't as bad as the other scones, but not as good either.

"The recipe's good, but it's missing one important ingredient."

"Don't tell me. Friendship?" Gilda remarked, jazz talons and all the lack of enthusiasm.

"... Uh, no, baking powder," answered Pinkie. "Lucky for you, I never leave home without it!" Pinkie answered, pulling out some baking powder from her mane. Only Pinkie would do that, but if it'll give Gilda a bit of a boost on her scones, then she'll just have to handle it.
Gilda followed what to do, and in little time at all some delicious looking scones were baking inside the oven. Not only did they look tasty, but they smelled pretty darn good too.

"Ah, Acorn Scones. That actually sounds pretty good," Steven said. Taking a few sniffs herself, Gilda actually had to agree on that. Her scones had been rather dull, so perhaps these new scones could give her some more bits for the trip of hers.

"Doesn't matter, as long as I get my bits worth."

"Trust us, Gilda, with these scones they'll be worth their weight in gold," Steven said with a grin. Gilda just sighed, but perhaps they had a point. The scones surely looked far better than how they did before. As they were baking the scones, a familiar blue Pegasus then flew off down towards, not looking very pleased with her results.

"Not a thing. Pinkie, Steven, please tell me you found something," Rainbow asked, hoping for a better answer.

"Yes-indeedie!" Pinkie said. That perked Rainbow's attention, the Pegasus airborne again.

"Sweet! Where are those snakes at? They'll be stuck in knots for weeks when I'm done with em," Rainbow said, eager to get a good serving pf payback.

"I didn't find any snakes."

"Wait what? But you just said you found something," Rainbow remarked, no longer airborne.

"I did find something: we found Gilda's sweet Scones and we wanna help her out," Steven said. Good for Pinkie, but Rainbow Dash was getting bugged about it. Did Garnet predict this right or not?

"You guys wanna help, ok, but we're here to find Acid and Cyanide, remember?" Rainbow reminded.

"I know we are, Rainbow, but look at this place. Can't we try to make this place just a little better?" Steven asked, starting to pull his puppy-dog eye trick on RD. Rainbow stayed quiet, and when Pinkie Pie joined in, RD had to let them do it. It was honestly hard to argue with them with those kinds of faces. She just rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Oh alright. So what did you have in mind?" Rainbow asked.

"I thought you'd never ask: may I present to you Gilda's Acron Scones!" Pinkie said, the oven finished and Pinkie pulling out the freshly baked Scones. Rainbow just needed a whiff of the smell to get her attention, Pinkie putting them up on the stand for Gilda.

"So there's two of them?" Gilda whispered to Rainbow.

"They're not bad people, Gilda, let's make that clear," Rainbow said sternly.

As they were busy doing this, it was here that Acid and Cyanide slithered up from behind the stand, just out of sight from the Ponies, Human, and Griffon. They've had a close call earlier, but they felt ready to cause some more trouble for this group. And with the fresh batch of Acorn Scones sitting there, it was a good time to act on them again. Cyanide stared at the Acorn Scones and then turned to her fellow snake.

"Go on then. Let's see what they end up as when we're done," Cyanide quietly hissed, Acid beginning to slowly climb up the stand towards the batch. She peered over the counter to make sure that the others weren't looking. Now was her chance. She got herself settled on the counter, her fangs at the ready to poison the treats. She opened her jaws good and wide, and was just about to bite it when -

"Fangs off!" Gilda shouted.

Caught! And for the first time too. Acid looked to them, startled, and she tried to high-tail it out of there, but Rainbow wasn't going to let them get away so easily. Acid and Cyanide slithered as fast as a snake could go, but in no time at all, Rainbow soon caught up with them, stomping on both of their tails with her hooves to keep them still.

"Off the tail," Cyanide hissed.

"No way! You think I'm gonna let you go like that?!" Rainbow yelled. Cyanide tried to bite her hooves, but Rainbow had to move back and let them go, otherwise get bit. They were free, but not out of trouble since they all found them. Cyanide gave a menacing hiss at them and tried for another bite, but Gilda pulled Steven back before Cyanide could.

"You bad snakes had caused enough trouble!" Steven yelled. Cyanide hissed again, but Acid nudged her as a reminder to keep her from going too violent.

"Well, it had to happen sooner or later, I suppose. Though would you want to?" Acid asked.

"Of course we want to: you've flooded Beach City!" Steven accused. The normally nice-hearted Steven wasn't gonna let the two snakes get away that easily.

"Oh please, we made sure you're all out of there first. you should be thanking us."

"THANK YOU?!" Pinkie gasped. The response made both snakes jump back.

"Get to the point, get to the point," Acid quickly hissed, both snakes collecting herself.

"Okay, fine, since we're feeling charitable how about a choice: either spend your time taking us in or save your little girlfriends?" Cyanide offered. It was quick for them to figure out who they meant by that.

"What did you do?" Steven asked.

"They're in the Abysmal Abyss. A little tiff and both went right off the edge. If they're still with us, it wouldn't be for long," Cyanide hissed with a evil snicker. However, Rainbow laughed.

"HA, I don't believe you," Rainbow said, not willing to listen to them for a second, and she took a step forward again, stepping on their tails as she did. Both snakes had it and then launched at Pinkie Pie, wrapping around her neck and holding on tight, constricting her. Pinkie freaked out, not able to get the snakes off of her neck as they constricted tight. They didn't bite her, but they sure looked willing to.
But however, one Griffon wasn't going to give them a chance to do anything. Gilda, not wanting to see somepony die in front of her (she had that much moral at least), chomped down on Acid's neck and yanked her off, the motion dislodging Cyanide too. Both snakes tried moving, but Gilda was already on top of them. Acid and Cyanide looked up to Gilda, just in time for the Griffon to release a huge, ear-splitting bellow of a roar right at the snakes! It was enough to break what confidence they had, and left them shivering for a moment.

"Want to try anything else, snakes?" Gilda growled. Cyanide snapped back first.

"Make all the threats you want, but it won't rescue your two girlfriends any faster," Cyanide said. As much as they hate the snakes, they had a point. If they were, off chance, telling the truth, the longer they deal with the snakes, the more danger Amethyst and Connie would end up in.

"Gilda, what're they talking about?"

"This abyss is just outside of town. It splits the mountain in two," Gilda simply said. Rainbow felt just angry, but ...

"We're not done here!" Rainbow said, already getting a headstart. After Rainbow flew off, Acid and Cyanide slithered away as fast as they could. Pinkie tried to catch them, but all she did was smash into a wall, the snakes escaping once again. What a problem, but at least they know who they are.

"Come on Gilda," Steven insisted.

"Why?" Gilda questioned. Steven skidded to a stop.

"They're stuck in the Abysmal Abyss, and Rainbow Dash need your help to save them!"

"Not my problem," Gilda groaned, going back to her Scones to see if they were still good. Steven decided to pull a Pinkie Pie, and pop up from the other side of the counter.

"Of course it's your problem! She's your friend!" Steven insisted.

"Used to be." Gilda corrected. Steven started to feel a bit more serious.

"Can't you remember when she was? You and Rainbow were the besties once upon a time, and you're going to let a little party stop that? Rainbow is an awesome pony to be friends with, and right now she's willing to give up the hunt just to save them. Are you saying you can't do the same for her? There has to be a time she helped you before."

Gilda stayed quiet for a moment, starting to work her memory over a time that she and Rainbow actually were friends once upon a time. A great friend, determined, one to stick up for her ... tears even started to show up.

"... UGH, fine, I'll help her. But that does not make me her friend," Gilda made clear.

"Noted," Steven said, as Gilda started walking pass to catch up with the others.

.......

"Except it does."

~~~~~~

While Connie and Amethyst did end up fallen down the abyss, but indeed the two were still alive, and for the moment down on a cliff face. Far too deep to climb up and too far high to climb down, the two were basically stuck there, and even if they could, the numbing effects of Cyanide's bite didn't wear off yet. Conveniently though, Connie and Amethyst both were laying on their backs, and facing each other feet first. It had been very quiet.

"Can you move yet?" asked Connie.

"No," sighed Amethyst. Strange how it was even effecting Amethyst, being a Gem rather than a human, but then again magic was always hard to explain. There was some silence for a bit, until eventually Amethyst finally broke the silence.

"Look, I ... I'm sorry I snapped like that. I know I shouldn't be mad at you for fusing with Steven. Heck, I should be happy for you like everybody and everypony else .... but, what Acid told me at that race, a-and what's been going on lately with this fusion thing we have, I ... I guess I just felt left out, you know? ... Maybe I am just jealous." Amethyst just laid there and waited for a response from Connie. Now that they weren't snapping at eachother, both Gem and Human could think a little more clearly.

"Amethyst, believe me, you shouldn't be jealous. Smoky may not be out as much, but, look: She's stronger, faster, has her own signature Gem weapon. And Stevonnie ... at the end of the day, she's just a good looking human with a few sword tricks. ..."

"Oh. OH, Connie," Amethyst said, slightly appalled herself at the revelation.

"Why do you think I wanted to train with her?" Connie asked. Amethyst chuckled meekly, now getting the idea, though she should slap herself for what she did anyway.

"Well, I feel kinda dumb for listening to Acid, huh?"

"I would've thought the same thing if she told me," Connie said.

"Heh. ... Well, I'd hug you right now, but my body won't let me."

"Same here," Connie chuckled.

"Connie! Amethyst! You down there?!"

Connie and Amethyst perked up on hearing the voices. It was very vague, but they could've sworn they heard those voices somewhere before.

"Did you hear that?"

"No way, I think it's them - HEY STEVEN!! PINKIE, RD!! WE'RE DOWN HERE!" Amethyst yelled.

They were indeed right: up on the cliff face, Rainbow, Gilda, Steven, and Pinkie were ready to go off down after them and get their friends back to safety. They got geared up with some suspenders and rope, and RD and Gilda look ready to go down after them.

"If either of you let go, I'll come back to haunt you," Gilda made clear.

"Noted," Pinkie and Steven said. Rainbow and Gilda then opened their wings, and in unison both of them made the jump. Steven and Pinkie kept their grip extra tight on the rope. Rainbow and Gilda dove down with wings spread open. The wind from the abyss made flying a bit of a challenge, but both fliers kept themselves close so they wouldn't crash into eachother on the flight down. The closer they got, the clearer Amethyst and Connie could hear them. Flying downward was easy, and soon they got right to them.

"Connie, amethyst! you two alright? anything broken?" asked Rainbow.

"Eh, we're fine, just kinda paralyzed by a snake bite," Amethyst joked, as both Griffon and Pony got both Connie and Amethyst handled. Gilda got Amethyst and Rainbow got Connie, but since neither could move right, they were mainly dead weight they had to carry up. both of them were willing to that though, and Rainbow pulled on her rope as a pull signal for the other two to begin aiding their flight back up.

"Come on, steady," Rainbow said as they were flying up. Flying down in the hard winds was a tough challenge, but flying up the whipping winds was a different story, not to mention the added weight too. Combined efforts for everyone involved needed to be an all time high, and Gilda had to get the extra weight. Even with that though, Rainbow had a harder time gripping onto Connie, having hooves instead of talons. Suddenly, the Pegasus lost her grip!

"CONNIE!" Rainbow quickly dove down to grab Connie again, but the harsh winds made the sudden drop a time hard to control. Gilda made a quick reaction: grabbing Rainbow's tail with her beak. Connie was saved, but Gilda had even more weight to carry now, but this Griffon was not a quitter!

"HURRY!" Gilda groaned, straining to keep the weight in tact. Pinkie and Steven worked like mad to pull the group up, using all their strength as best they could ever muster, and eventually, they finally got the group all up. tired, but triumphant. It wasn't until they were fully up when they saw Gilda in her situation. Once finally up on land, only then did the Griffon release them, and everyone laid there for a moment before Rainbow got up her hooves.

"ARGH! Those snakes!! First they mind-mess with us, then they steal Gems, then they flood Beach City, and now they tried to flat out take down Connie and Amethyst!! THOSE SNAKES ARE MINCEMEAT!" Rainbow screamed, losing whatever patience she had left.

"Rainbow, Rainbow, breathe, breathe," Steven pleaded, holding Rainbow back so she could calm down. Gilda got up next, shaking off some dust from her fur and feathers. Rainbow sucked up her rage, and gave a rough sigh. Those two serpents probably would've slipped away by now (again). It was then that the Pegasus turned over to Gilda.

"Thanks for the help back there."

"Yeah, don't sweat it. If a friend can't save you from falling down the abyss, then what kind of friend are they?" Gilda admitted.

"Friend?" Amethyst asked.

"Yeah. What kind of friend blows everything from one party anyway? Seriously, I think your friendship's worth more than that," Gilda admitted. Mission accomplished!

~~~~~~

After a little bit more, Rainbow, Pinkie, Steven, Connie, and Amethyst were off on their way. Pinkie and Steven were stuck carrying them out, but it could be a lot worse.

"Ok, so we didn't get those two snakes. But we still got a good amount of victory: Gilda likes Rainbow again, and Amethyst is feeling a lot better now," Steven said, trying to cheer them up.

"AND Griffonstone now has a new line of Acorn Scones," added Pinkie Pie.

"Yeah, but I hope this "not moving" thing doesn't last too long," Connie sighed.

"We'll have Twilight check you out. Come on, everypony, let's get going," Rainbow said. And so with that note, off they went back towards home.

Toothed Trouble

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"Oh, buck up Rarity, you can figure this sort of thing out."

Over in her boutique, fashionista unicorn Rarity was in quite a rough spot. Up in her room, and trying to figure out what to use, Rarity went through outfit after outfit, trying out the best options to do but so far she couldn't seem to figure out any exact outfit or style to actually get right. Many of her outfits would normally do the job but this was a bit important. Rarity stood still over at the mirror, outfits levitated to her by her magic. Rarity went through several outfits by this point, still not able to actually figure anything out amongst it all. Unfortunately, 'no trouble' was a complete lie, and Rarity just groaned and tossed the last outfit aside over to a pile of outfits. Judging by the tall outfit stack, it had been a good while. As she was doing such, Sweetie Belle came in, tired and apparently woken up from her sister's racket.

"Rarity, what're you doing?" Sweetie asked, yawning during her question. However, her tired eyes shot open when Rarity was in her face.

"What am I doing? Sweetie Belle, tomorrow I'm expected to go off to Homeworld, and I HAVE to figure out a better impression," Rarity explained, going through some more clothes to figure something out. It did sound urgent, even if Sweetie Belle had never visited Homeworld. In her look, Rarity tossed a dress over Sweetie's head, which to her looked pretty good already.

"Why not this one? It looked great over at the summer sun celebration," Sweetie suggested, showing Rarity the dress. Rarity's eyes examined the dress for a moment, but then she looked at the time she had, looking out the window at the late day.

"Thank you, Sweetie Belle," Rarity decided. Sweetie considered it a victory for her, and probably good enough for both sisters to go to sleep. Rarity got it all set up and good to go on a mannequin not too far away. Rarity altered it with her magic a little bit to make it look good for her scheduled visit, the dress looking perfect at the end.

"Now can we go to sleep?" Sweetie asked after another yawn escaped her mouth. Rarity didn't mean to wake Sweetie Belle up.

"Oh, of course. Have a good night, sister," Rarity said, as Sweetie Belle went off back to bed. Rarity took one more look to the outfit, and satisfied with the selection, she turned off the lights and went off to bed herself. She put on a sleep mask, tucked herself in, and with reassurance of tomorrow went right off to sleep.

*hisssss*

(next morning)

The whole night felt like the best sleep Rarity had, and such a good thing for her too. Hearing the morning birds chirping outside, Rarity gave a good yawn and got herself up. She gave a good stretch in bed, got the covers off of her and got out of bed after taking off her sleep mask.

"Ah, what a wonderful night. My mane sure feels light this morning ... Oh, no matter, it'll just make it easier," Rarity said to herself, as she got onto her outfit. She trotted over to the full length mirror, and got the outfit on with her eyes closed. But once she opened her eyes. ...

The scream heard from round Ponyville.

.......

Off out of Ponyville, and over by the Warp Pad, the rest of the ponies were waiting to head off. Most of the Mane six were there, Spike too, but Rarity for some reason wasn't anywhere around. Not exactly something Rarity would normally would do. They all had somewhere to be, and Rarity not showing up was not only weird, but a bit concerning at the same time.

"Come on, where is she? She couldn't be late," Rainbow groaned.

"We'll give her one more minute," Twilight decided.

"OK, EVERYPONY, I'M HERE!"

And not a moment too soon. Not a moment after Twilight said there, Rarity made it to the scene, tired but glad to be there. Well, sorta. Everypony there took one look at Rarity and found something was not right, the unicorn almost completely covered in a black cloak, covering up a whole lot of her with the exception of her face. Yeah, not the usual outfit Rarity would wear. Rarity looked frazzled, a little winded, but she was okay aside from that apparently.

"Uh ... Rarity? Is everything okay?" asked Fluttershy.

"Oh, uh this? I just thought of going uh ... incognito. You know, I mean how long has it been since we last seen Homeworld? All that unwanted attention," Rarity said, trying to pull it off as such. However, none of the group really bought that idea for a second. It was Pinkie Pie who popped up in front of her and swung off the hood so they could see what was going on.
One word: shocking. Her mane, which was once primped and put to perfection was left in nothing but sheds and strands! Her purple mane had been severely tampered with, patches of purple mane left in uneven cuts, and wherever the mane was missing was left in purple spots and nothing else. Clearly a horrid change in her mane. And when everyone saw this, a cringe was almost impossible not to show, Pinkie the most dramatic and jumping back in shock. Rarity knew it was bad, but really?

"Goodness everypony, you could at least pretend it's not that bad," Rarity groaned, her hoof pushing the longest strand of mane.

"Kinda hard to," Spike commented.

"Oh, I can't go to Homeworld like this! What in Equestria even happened to me?" Rarity mourned. Applejack went over to her.

"Alright, don't get your tail in a knot. I gotcha," AJ said. she moved some of the hair to the center, and she tossed her own hat over her head, trying to hide her mane. However, it just didn't seem to work, and some purple mane still stuck out from the bottom of it. Rarity shook off the hat in despair.

"I can't go to Homeworld in some hat, what would they think when I show up there like this?! And on the day they wanted us there too," Rarity cried. The odds this to be happening right on the spot may seem like a out of coincidence thing, but some of the Ponies didn't think so. Still, Rarity didn't feel any better from the main fact itself that was for all to see. It was then that Rarity suddenly got an idea, and threw herself at Twilight's hooves.

"Twilight, your magic! Can't you give back some semblence of my mane?!" Rarity asked. Twilight though was a bit concerned about the request.

"Rarity, uh ... I don't think that's such a good idea. Making a mane from the tip of a hat is especially tricky. Sorry," Twilight said. Rarity sobbed and laid on the ground.

"Look, we'd love to help you but this is very important. I promise we'll help you with your mane the minute we get back."

"I CAN'T GO! What do you think I've been saying?! It's not like somepony's gonna fill in for -" Suddenly, everypony got the exact same idea, and all eyes drew to the young dragon standing next to the Alicorn. Spike looked to everypony around him, and he too got the idea, but he got nervous when he did.

"Oh, maybe I should just -" Suddenly, Rarity threw herself at Spike next, tears streaming down her face.

"PLEASE, Spike! Somepony has to go, and you're the most trusting little dragon I know! PLEASE, for the love of Celestia, pleeeeease," Rarity cried. Spike had his troubles about the situation but he hated seeing Rarity sobbing and all broken up. If one pony ended up missing, and if he went maybe it could make things easier for the Mane six altogether. Maybe even the Crystal Gems too with how much they were dealing with. Soon, a confident smile beamed on his face.

"It'd be my pleasure," Spike decided, sounding brave like a knight. However, it was short-lived when Rarity suddenly had a very tight up on him. Well, Rarity was happy about it.

"OH, thank you, Spike, you're the absolute best! How can I ever repay you?"

"Not cut me in half," Spike choked.

"Deal." Rarity then released Spike and allowed him a chance to breathe. It was rare for Rarity to act like this, but Spike wasn't going to leave Rarity distraught over the whole thing. With that decided, Spike climbed up onto Twilight's back. He felt his back snap a few times from the hug, but he was okay all and all.

"I know you hadn't been in Homeworld before, Spike. It'll be okay, I promise," Twilight reassured him. For spike that was the reassurance he needed, and soon the group went over to the Warp Pad and readied to get themselves moving. Rarity felt especially grateful, but she still had her mane to sort out, and with her friends now on their way to Homeworld, she only had one other group of magical friends to possibly help sort things out for her. Soon, after the rest of the ponies teleported off to Homeworld, Rarity got onto the Warp Pad and then went right off to Steven's Earth.

And not a moment too soon, once again, as two familiar snakes slithered out as soon as they went away, snickering all the while.

"Did you see the shock on that muzzle? Honestly, the ways some creatures react to the simplest of things," Cyanide giggled.

"Especially childish, I agree. Now, which do you want to follow? Homeworld, or Earth?" asked Acid. Cyanide took a moment to think, scratching her head with her tail. However, both of which sounded pretty good, she wasn't too sure.

"Let's flip to see," Cyanide decided, Acid agreeing. Acid then got a stone off the ground, and bit into one side of it to leave a mark onto it. A simple game of heads or tails to see where they would end up. Acid flicked the stone up into the air, and soon it bounced off the ground a few times, and landed on the blank side.

"Homeworld it is," both hissed.

~~~~~~

Speaking of Homeworld, the Mane six were soon at the planet in question, and heading on their way towards the Yellow Diamond city. It had been a VERY long time since either pony had even entered Homeworld, and based off what the Crystal Gems had told them with Blue Diamond, it was probably a good thing. Yet, so there wouldn't be any trouble, they had to go here once they got the message. Still, as they went on through the main streets, they couldn't help but try to think about why they would be coming here.

"Who wants to bet that it's White Diamond who's calling us here?" Rainbow asked as they neared the center of the city.

"Beats me, but White Diamond's always got something planned for anypony, so it might be her," considered Applejack.

"Regardless on who it was, it's probably best we try and -" Twilight paused when she glanced over towards Spike on her back. Spike was feeling pretty feeble at the moment, his eyes darting back and forth at the many Gems going around the city. Regardless of which type of Gem, what any looked like, or whatever, their Gemstones were making Spike feel a bit ... well, puckish. And he knew straight that it was a bad thing for him, especially in a world full of gemstones.

"Spike!" Twilight said, catching his attention. The dragon shook his head and looked more focused, but Twilight knew that something was wrong with him.

"Eh, you girls go on ahead, I'll be with you in a minute," Twilight said. The others started going off and Twilight took Spike aside, placing him down away from the others.

"Everything, ok, Spike?" Twilight asked.

"No, I'm just peachy," Spike insisted, putting on a nervous smile. Twilight knew better than that though, looking at Spike with knowing eyes. Spike's eyes kept seeing other Gems and he kept getting distracted.

"I-It's these Gems. Dragons back at home eat gemstones, and I'm a dragon. How can I control myself with these walking Gems everywhere?" Spike asked, starting to freak out. Twilight suddenly realized how much of a danger that actually was, eyes widening and a hoof to her forehead.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot. Well, it's too late to go back now we're here."

"But what am I going to do? If I try to eat anyone, the Diamonds will be angry, a-and I can't explain anything, and they'll have me locked up or banished, or worse!"
Spike started to imagine the scenario playing out in his head, him sitting in some sort of chair in a restraining jacket and muzzle, sitting in front of the Diamonds as he was stuck in some heavily wired, electrified cage like a highly venomous animal. None the less, Spike was freaking out, his breath in heavy, short pants. Twilight went right over to him and placed a wing on his shoulder. The young dragon looked up to Twilight.

"I know you like snacking on gemstones, but those are Equestrian jewels, not Homeworld beings. And don't forget you promised Rarity to take her place while we're here. All you have to do is go through one meeting with the Diamonds, and you'll be right back home before you know it, ok?" Twilight reassured him. Spike climbed up onto her back again, feeling only slightly better.

"Okay, Twilight, hehehe heeeh ..." his smile with his laughing soon faded away. If he could just hold off his gem eating habits until after it's all over, then he should be home free. Still, he didn't know how many Gems would be there, nor how long it'll actually go, so that was going to be a bit of trouble for him.

What was a baby dragon to even do?

~~~~~~

"Are you feeling any better, Connie?"

Back at Earth, things had calmed down a little bit between Steven, Connie, and Amethyst after their last little venture in Griffinstone. At the moment in the Beach House, Steven was chatting on the phone with Connie, checking in on her current status. In the room too, some of the others: Diopside, Pearl, Amethyst, Blue and Star were basically relaxing a bit. Well, Diopside, Blue, and Amethyst were as Pearl took time to fold some clothes, something she enjoyed doing one way or another. Star Quartz was giving Pearl a hand with the laundry, following her example as best she could.

"I'm feeling great, Steven. Just a few bandages was all it needed. How's Amethyst?" Connie replied over the phone.

"Amethyst? Yeah, she's feeling better, aren't you Amethyst?" Steven asked. He looked to Amethyst, who gave a smile and a thumbs up to him. Steven added in "Yeah, she gave me the thumbs up. You want to come over?"

"I wish I could, Steven, but mom planned to give me another checkup. She's feeling worried about me again," Connie admitted.

"That's okay. After what happened with you and Amethyst, I'd be worried too. I hope we can meet up soon. You, me, and Amethyst," Steven hoped.

"Looking forward to it. See you later," Connie replied. With that, Steven hung up the phone, and placed it over by his bed.

"AH, this is much better, ain't it dude? Relaxation, chilling out with your best friends and without any -"

*BAM*

"- surprises."

Even before she could finish Amethyst ate her own words at the Beach House door swung open, Rarity standing there with her cloak still on her and covering her mane. No way was she going to go through town with such a shaggy mane job. Still, the door swinging open did startle a good amount of them, Blue jumping to his paws the second the door slammed.

"Oh, good, you're still here."

"What's up with you? You look like you saw a ghost or something," asked Amethyst. Rarity had to gather courage to just get it out.

"Well, let's just say whatever decided to practice wasn't the no#1 hairstylist," Rarity said humbly.
It was then she presented her mane to everyone there. Same as before, everyone there looked appalled and shocked, Blue even yipping and bolting to Steven's bed, as if he saw the scariest thing in his life.

"REALLY now, how hard is it to pretend it's not so bad?" Rarity asked sadly.

"Hard," admitted Amethyst.

"Is this something normal for Ponies?" asked Star Quartz.

"NO, it is not. And to think this was on the exact same day as our Diamond meeting too. Can't any of you use your own magic to bring my mane back from this baldness?" Rarity pleaded, hoping for some sort of good answer. Pearl though looked a little troubled.

"Eh ... I'm not entirely sure. making any sort of object come to pure existence from projection alone is -"

"TRICKY, I know, I don't care. Make with the tricks!" Rarity pleaded, looking ready to go crazy at any moment. None of them were willing to leave Rarity hanging in such a way, so Pearl got up and decided to give it a try. Pearl focused her energy into her Gemstone as much as she could muster, focusing a image projection right on Rarity's head. Pretty soon, Rarity found that she had a full head of hair, light blue and modeled up just like her hair was originally. At first Rarity was pleased with the result, but when she tried to stroke it, the mane glitched out like mad until it disappeared back into the current mane. So much for a simple fix of that.

"Here let me try," Diopside suggested. Time to show another little interesting power of hers: Her Gem eye started tp seep out what they first thought was more acid, but however this stuff appeared less acidic and more like gel or goo. Solidified basically. She got the gel into her hands and rubbed them together. Pretty soon, she started to work on Rarity's mane.

"Okay, let's see ... a little up here, just a bit off the top, uh ... maybe a little twist over there, and ... I think I did pretty good. Here, anyone have a mirror?"

Diopside was soon given a good hand mirror, and Rarity saw what Diopside had done. While it was a nice try, the hairdo Diopside tried on her just didn't really look like hair in anyway, and not just because of the gel itself. She was left with this hairdo-like green goo stuck on her head, only barely resembling the mane she once had. It didn't entirely help that some goo dripped off of it either. Rarity looked almost disgusted for a tiny but, but mostly troubled.

"This won't do. I need an actual mane!" Rarity cried.

"We can't make a mane out of nothing, Rarity. I don't know, but that sounds disastrous even for an alicorn to do," said Pearl.

"MORE DISASTROUS THAN THIS?!" Rarity made her point by slamming the goo off her head, her horrid mane shooting back out into the limelight.

She had a lot to do if it meant to get her mane back.

.......

The efforts to restore Rarity's grand mane had been ... well, bothersome. Since their first attempts, the results had not gone anywhere. Their efforts took them from the house and to the lighthouse. They'd try the barn, but they couldn't use that too much anyway until Lapis decides to come out, so anything useful inside the barn was out of the question. Not that there was anything good at the Lighthouse, but it was out of town anyway. Amethyst took some of her time to get through some stuff in her room and bring some wigs for Rarity to try out, but according to the pile nearby, most of them didn't really seem to fit all too well.

"Come on already, there's got to be one wig you'll take," amethyst groaned, giving Rarity one more to try. Rarity levitated it and got it over her mane remains. At first, the wig looked fairly decent on her, but unfortunately this mane, being old and ragged itself, just didn't seem to suit too well with that. She tried to stay cheerful but when a spider then crawled out of it -

"AAHHH!" Off that wig went. It looked good, but she wasn't gonna wear a wig with spiders in it.

"Oh, it's no use. This horrid presence will not go away anytime soon," Rarity said, laying down with ears tucked back in defeat. A bit of a problem indeed, and this unicorn just couldn't figure anything out with what to do. Diopside finally had enough with seeing Rarity so stressed over this.

"Rarity, listen, having a beautiful mane is a wonderful thing, but it's not the only thing," Diopside made clear. Rarity looked up to Diopside.

"But this -"

"Is nothing. Rarity, you're talking to a Gem who has been corrupted for thousands of years, you really think that someone like me: a monstrous centipeedle, is going to turn you away because your mane's slightly wrong?" Rarity realized that she was right: here she was crying over her mane and here was a Gem who's whole being was altered for centuries on end. Who's she to start complaining?

"That, and did you forget how much you've done already? The mare who helped save Equestria dozens of times, the mare who helped many of us feel beautiful with her touch, the mare who cut off her own tail for a sea serpent for stars' sake! Your mane had nothing to do with that ... we're all your friends, Rarity, mane or no mane." Diopside finished her little speech with a hug to the unicorn. Rarity looked to the others and they all agreed on that, nodding their heads. Rarity started to see the flaw in her mistake.

"My Celestia, you're right. Where was my head? Thinking my whole life's been stopped by some silly mane issue! It's not going to change the real me," Rarity realized, her hoof pushing a part of her mane again. Before this could continue on any further, they then started to hear someone coming over to them: Flint and Jade.

"There you are! We've been looking for you," Flint said. It was here though that both of them noticed Rarity's ... troubling situation. Rarity expected them to cringe or something, but they didn't even pay that much mind.

"Wait ... you're not bothered at all?"

"If you wanted that, don't get your hopes up," said Flint.

"See? told you so," Diopside whispered. That did make Rarity feel better, but Flint and Jade had some more pressing matters in mind.

"So what's up you two? Any luck in that snake hunt?" asked Amethyst.

"Actually, I think so," Jade said.

"Garnet got us over to Rarity's boutique after you ponies left town for that Diamond meeting, and look what we found up in Rarity's bedroom," Flint added in. Jade then pulled something out of her pocket, and then pulled out something that made them gasp in surprise. In Jade's hand, it turned out being a scale. And with a movement of her wrist, it made out two distinctive scales: one lighter green over the other. Rarity levitated the scales to her own eyes to examine them, putting two and two together in her own head.

"OH, they did not," Amethyst said. Steven nodded his head, agreeing with the common answer, as Rarity started to feel a flame inside of her grow. Her eyes narrowed, and her teeth grinded together.

"... Permission to go after them? ..."

"Permission grant - whoa!" Rarity didn't waste anytime, and before Flint could even finish, Rarity stormed off fast, Jade spinning in place she went so quickly.

"Eh ... should we stop her?" Flint asked.

"NOPE." was the overall response.

~~~~~~

With the teleportation activated, the Mane Six and spike were now from the streets of Homeworld and now inside the Diamond castle. What did the diamonds have in mind for them, they had no idea, but in the end they couldn't just ignore it either. When they got to the main palace room though, there wasn't any Diamond present. The only Gem there actually was both White, and Yellow Pearl.

"Ponies, there you are. Our glorious, wonderful Diamonds had been expecting you."

"Cool. ... where are they?" Rainbow asked. She didn't really see much of anything besides the two Pearls, so why would they be called in with the Diamonds not present.

"They'll be a moment, just go and get comfortable and ... do whatever you do," White Pearl said. Spike found himself looking directly at the Gemstones again. Spike was trying to keep himself under control, Twilight keeping close to him and bringing him off to the side in case something would happen. Twilight lifted spike up with her magic just to be sure he wouldn't get in any trouble.

"Spike, snap outta it, you'll be okay," Twilight said.

"B-But ... they smell so good," Spike said, his nose taking a few sniffs, as if he was smelling some delicious cookies. Being a dragon had its drawbacks, and being stuck in a room full of fresh, delicious looking Gems didn't help all that much at all. He didn't have anything to bring with him to calm his greedy gem-wanting belly.

"Calm down, squirt, you'll be fine. Just try to think of something else," suggested AJ. What else could Spike do?

And not a moment too soon either: as the Mane Six started to hear some other Gems come in. Pretty soon, White Diamond and Yellow Diamond both made their return, and went over to the center of the room, confronting the Mane Six. Spike had enough trouble with seeing the Gems outside, but the second he saw the Diamonds standing tall in front of him, he was simply stuck in a daze staring at their perfect Gemstones. It didn't help that White Diamond's fleet of Pearls followed them in. Yellow did not look very calm, and seemed rather stressed out over what had been going on, as White Diamond stayed her usual collected self. Spike had to keep himself hidden behind the ponies and keep his focus concentrated away from the rest of the Gems in the room.

"So. Twilight sparkle ... I notice one of your group is missing. I instructed you to bring all of your "Mane Six"," White Diamond started.

"She couldn't make it. So, she had us bring a representative," Twilight explained, the group stepping aside and showing them tiny Spike. Spike didn't even realize they moved out of the way until after a bit, and all he did was smile nervously and wave shyly at them.

"... That's her representative?" Yellow questioned, cringing slightly at seeing the troubled dragon.

"... Yep, that's me," Spike said quickly, trying to keep himself calm. He tried to focus on the diamonds themselves, though he couldn't help but feel conflicted with his dragon instinct to eat gems, and the sheer size of the Diamonds compared to him. He tried to look up to their faces, just for him to fall back on his rear, staring up at White Diamond and the gemstone on her forehead. If her wasn't troubled before he sure was now, and cold sweat went down his body staring at her. After a little bit of studying Spike, White Diamond got to the point and took a seat on Yellow Diamond's throne (not that Yellow Diamond didn't mind that, but said nothing).

"So. Has these weeks been beneficial to you?" asked White.

"Uh ... I guess? Beneficial how?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, just in events as of recent. Word has gone around that a few troublesome ... snakes, had been giving you and company a bit of a run, hmm?"

"Darn right they have!" Rainbow suddenly snapped. Yellow Pearl jumped on the yelling, but all the White Pearls remained quiet.

"I see ... and the Cluster had been taken care of. That true?"

"Right there, too. And just moments before the big bang," Applejack said. White Diamond continued on with her questions, seemingly impressed by that answer. She had heard of some of the rumors, but never really considered it fact.

"I see. ... An eventful year, I must say," White Diamond said, as one of her Pearls wrote it all down.

"You're telling us. And what have you been up to?" asked Rainbow. If it was just going to be a catch-up day, then they might as well check in on her too.

"Me? Oh, just going around the galaxy and handling colonies, nothing too special. Though one colony did give me a bit of complaints about some of her "prisoners" busting out during your winter," White diamond explained. The ponies felt humbled.

"You don't say," said Twilight. Lucky for them, White Diamond didn't bother with that too much. However, Yellow diamond finally spoke.

"Uh, sorry White for the interruption, but can one of you check on your friend there? Or is his kind known for excessive liquid secretions like that?"
Spike was stuck drooling a pool around himself, his eyes staring off right to the Gemstones of the Diamonds. He snapped out of it and quickly shook off the dog-like slobber from his jaws.

"Nope, nope, I'm good over here!" shouted Spike, freaking out a little bit. A bad impression now would end up making them all go into trouble!

"Pearl, keep a sharper eye on him. Bring him outside," Yellow diamond instructed. Yellow Pearl understood, and she took Spike and isolated him away from the others. Spike couldn't help but feel a little bit troubled, freaked out even, as Yellow Pearl pushed him out of the room and the doors closing behind them. Spike tried to go back to Twilight, but all he got was the door slamming in his face.

"It's your own fault with your ... secretions," Yellow Pearl said, disgusted in that to begin with, as she wiped some of the saliva off of her.

"Ok, ok ... sooooo ... how long am I gonna be out here?" Spike asked.

"Until further notice," said Yellow Pearl.

Oh goodie.

Things turned into a bit of a waiting game for Spike. The poor dragon was simply stuck outside as time ticked on by, with Yellow Pearl simply standing there and watching over him like a guard. The longer he waited alone, the more troubled he was feeling, especially with a potential snack standing right next to him.

"I have to get away from here," Spike thought. His eyes darted back and forth from Yellow Pearl and to the corner of the main hall, and he slowly started to sidestep bit by bit.

"AHEM!" Yellow Pearl suddenly said, catching him going off. Spike froze up on the spot with that single remark, spinning around.

"I-I wasn't moving!" Spike insisted. Yellow Pearl was in no mood for any of Spike's games.

"Oh please, I saw you sneaking away."

"Oh, uh well ... I just need to use the bathroom real quick." Spike was running out of ideas, and that seemed like the perfect excuse.

"... What's a bathroom?" Yellow Pearl questioned.

No. No it's not a good reason. Not good enough to get the dragon a pass and to leave. ...

*hisssss*

The troubles were not over here. Spike and Yellow Pearl looked around outside for the source of the noise, and eventually Spike looked too the corner and saw something peeking out from the corner. Yellow Pearl began to move to the door, just for one of these figures to suddenly pop up in her way. Spike and Yellow Pearl were the next targets for Acid and Cyanide to play around with.

"Dear, oh dear. Having a bit of trouble, Spike?" asked Acid. Spike stepped back and went behind Yellow Pearl.

"Who're you two? My Diamond didn't call you to come here," Yellow Pearl questioned.

"We don't need an invitation. We're all friends here," hissed Cyanide.

"I seriously doubt that," Yellow Pearl commented. Acid slithered around Yellow Pearl, and spooked Spike out into the open.

"Goodness, Spikey-Wikey, you surely do have trouble keeping it together, aren't you?" asked Acid.

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about," Spike insisted, but his nervousness made this all too easy.

"We both know well what I'm talking about: your need for Gems. Right?" Cyanide asked.

"What are you talking about?" Yellow Pearl asked, not amused at all. Spike was getting even more freaked out, and if Acid and Cyanide were going to spill this can of beans, then it could cost everything. Both snakes looked more than ready to say the details when ...

"YYYOOOOU!!"

Oh no. Looking off down the same hallway again, there stood what appeared to be the angriest unicorn on the face of Homeworld. Rarity stood there in a pant, as if she ran all the at there, and she still had her cloak covering her mane and tail. And LORD did she looked ticked off. Acid and Cyanide planned for many a caper, but not this one.

"And look who decided to join us, at last," Acid hissed, a little giggle escaping her. But Rarity wasn't in the mood for any games with these snakes.

"You two think this is funny?!" Rarity roared. Both snakes jump back.

"Dramatic, aren't we? Just because your mane's a little messed up."

"... Messed up. ... DOES THIS LOOK MESSED UP TO YOU?!" Rarity roared, removing the cloak to reveal her horrid mane. She didn't mind the mane after Diopside explained things to her, but that didn't mean she wasn't mad at Acid and Cyanide for their little joke. Both snakes backed up slowly, and Yellow Pearl cringed at the horrid sight of her mane. To make matters worse ...

"What is the noise? We're in the middle of our get-together."

The doors opened up wide, and soon Acid and Cyanide were in sight of not just the Mane Six, but also both Diamonds! Any fancy trick now wouldn't do them any good, and they all saw them well enough too.

"These two hooligans trespassed into your castle!" Yellow Pearl reported. No that didn't help the snakes out very well. White Diamond and Yellow diamond stared them both down, the snakes more humbled than they ever were.

"... Are these those snakes you all were mentioning?" White asked.

"You bet they are!!" Rainbow shouted. Acid and Cyanide had to cut this trip short, but Yellow Diamond was quick to grab them, gripping both snakes tight so they wouldn't get away. They had been caught and slithered out, but they weren't getting away this time. Yellow Diamond had the culprits, and she looked almost as angry as Rarity was.

"You got some nerve coming back here. ... Now you're going to tell me. ... Where. Is. Blue. Diamond?" Each word was a stab on their confidence, both snakes withdrawing and almost trembling. Like Gilda's roar times three. However, both snakes snapped out of it.

"Now, we could tell you. But what would really be the point? After all, with how much time she had -"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Yellow roared. And to make sure she meant business, she brought up her other hand and suddenly it began to charge up. Acid and Cyanide were suddenly zapped with lightning, both snakes screeching and fidgeting from the electricity. The attack made everyone cringe, with the exception of White Diamond herself. Acid and Cyanide went stiff like sticks after that, falling over onto Yellow Diamond's palm. This Diamond was in no mood to mess around.

"Let's try this again: WHERE IS BLUE DIAMOND? No tricks, no fancy lies, now tell me!" Yellow demanded. After getting themselves almost killed like that, both snakes were smart enough to know when enough was enough. They gave them enough trouble anyway, plus they were basically found out.

"Ok, ok, We'll tell ya. You wanna find your Diamond, go to the Wonder Hole," Acid instructed.

"... Don't joke with me."

"We're serious this time! It's Grootslang's cave: an elephant graveyard and Gem jackpot site in the middle of the African Desert," explained Acid.

"Go to the Warp Pad site in the desert and head south until you find the first river, then follow it opposite of the flow to the cave. you'll know when you see the hundreds of elephant bones by the entrance. It's like his calling card," Cyanide added. White Diamond looked them both in the eye just to be sure if they were telling the truth or not, but these singed snakes weren't going to risk another strike ala lightning bolt hand. White stayed quiet and eventually turned to the Mane Six.

"You heard them. Better fetch her," White Diamond instructed.

"What if this is another trick?" Rainbow growled.

"They just got zapped by hundreds of volts from Yellow Diamond, I'm sure they wouldn't want another hit. Have we any alternative anyway?" White Diamond asked. As usual, White had her points, and what better one did they have anyway? Finally with a place, the Mane Six turned and rushed off. The snakes were getting ready to go off, but White Diamond wasn't having that and grabbed them herself.

"White, can I deal with them, please? They took Blue away from us," Yellow asked. White stayed calm and looked them over.

"... I got an idea."

Both snakes couldn't help but gulp. What did White have in mind for them?

Corruptors

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"It's about time we got anywhere! Time to get our own back with that snake!"

"We'll get em', Rainbow, let's get the Gems on the level first. No way are we letting them pass on this!"

With this new information finally given to them, the ponies wasted no time in charging back to Earth and back to Beach City. With just how much they've done over this year, destroying Beach City just naming one, no way were they going to run off after Grootslang's cave without getting them at least involved in the matter. They're just as mad at the snakes as they were, it wouldn't really be fair. Besides, the more on their favor meant the easier it'll be for them to beat the snake to a pulp. Just going through Beach City to get to the Temple was more than enough proof to back them up, many buildings still down and not working at all. No help got there just yet, so who knew how long it'll be before they'll get Beach City all fixed up? Anyway, all the ponies went right through town and along the beach, straight for the Beach House, but by the time they did get there, something else seemed to be going on. For a starter, Ronaldo, and Connie's parents seemed to have arrived before they did, and was trying to talk to some of the Gems outside the house. Practically all of the Crystal Gems were outside with the exception of Amethyst and Steven, and by the looks on some of their faces, it seemed that things were a bit on edge about something.

"I'm telling you, I figured it out! Based off my studies and investigations, I'm sure they're underground!" Ronaldo insisted.

"Evidence off pure legend is not consider fact, Ronaldo," Garnet protested, seemingly going through a good amount of this by his stress. It was here that the ponies stopped nearby, and got their attention.

"Guys, there you are! Boy do we have the news for you!" Rainbow said. Suddenly, Priyanka was right up to Twilight, looking freaked out as ever.

"Thank goodness! PLEASE tell me you've seen Connie!" Priyanka pleaded, cold sweat down her face and hoping for a good answer. Twilight though didn't have a thought in her head at first.

"... nooooo?" Twilight meekly said.

"AUGH! I knew it, I knew it, why did I let that girl go off so freely?!" Priyanka yelled in dismay.

"For the last time, it's not our fault!" Peridot snapped.

"All the danger that goes on around here involves you somehow, why wouldn't it be?!" Priyanka snapped back. Easy to see the problem, Applejack quickly got in the way, her hooves to her side to push the others back.

"Can somepony tell me what's going on here before fists start flyin?" Applejack asked.

"It's Connie: she's gone missing! Doug and I left to check in on Beach City, just to return and find our Connie gone. We looked within a hundred miles, but not a sign anywhere," Doug explained.

"And not too long after she left with them too."

"If I have to say it for the fifth time today -"

"Let's not play the blame game! If Connie is missing, then arguing to eachother isn't going to help," Twilight cleared up.

"AND Steven and Amethyst," said Bismuth.

"What?!" the ponies gasped.

"Yeah, they're gone too! We gave them just a hour of alone time and next thing you know, not a thing of them left!" Bismuth explained. Before any of them could get anymore word in, Flint then came back outside with something else in hand. The object looked small, and appeared to be a note of sorts. Flint exiting the Beach House was enough to get their attention.

"Anything, Flint?" Pearl asked, sounding just as worried about them as Connie's parents were.

"Any proof?" added Ronaldo.

"Not to your theory, but I did find this hidden by Steven's bed. A ransom, no doubt," Flint said, Garnet seeing the letter and looking it over. Many of the others went over and made sure to have a look at the message themselves, Priyanka and Doug especially. The message itself wasn't really complicated, and the writer didn't make it such.

We got the kids, you got the Diamonds. One per kid. Give me the Diamonds, and you get your kids.

G. Slang

Honestly if that wasn't enough proof to back up the culprit, then nothing will prove it. It was brief, it was blunt, it was to the point, and that was all they needed to get at for any evidence.

"AHA, I KNEW IT! Those snakes are at it again!" Rainbow announced, stating the obvious result to it all.

"... Who's G. Slang? I thought they were named Acid and Cyanide," Star asked, scratching her head.

"Nevermind that, the snake has Connie, Amethyst, and Steven right now!" Peridot said.

"He has "the kids"," Star corrected.

"What others kids are there? How're we gonna get them back?!" Fulgurite asked. Garnet was quiet, but she eventually adjusted her shades, and then looked to the others.

"Rainbow. You just said there was news for us," Garnet stated, reminding the ponies of what they knew from their Diamond meeting.

"Oh yeah! Everypony, we figured out where Grootslang is!" Twilight revealed.

"Really? Where?!" asked Priyanka. If Connie was with Grootslang, this was especially important to know. Twilight cleared her throat.

"Go to the Warp Pad site in the desert and head south until you find the first river, then follow it opposite of the flow to the cave. ," Twilight instructed, reciting what Acid and Cyanide had told them earlier. True or not, it was the best they got to go on. The Gems felt a little unsure, but Ronaldo was quick to jump at it.

"There, see?! The Wonder Hole, I told you!"

"Wait, how'd you know that?" asked Fluttershy. In a sort of dramatic twist, Ronaldo pulled out a book from his coat, and showed them all a bit of evidence he had managed to locate. It appeared to be a picture of a history page, detailing the legend of the Grootslang. Pinkie grabbed the picture with her mane and held it in front of her like a lure.

"All legends of Grootslang point to the same place, exactly like I said. If they're anywhere, it's there," Ronaldo said, as Pinkie looked over details in the story.

"Then there's no time to waste. Peridot. You, Star, Emerald, and Fulgurite, keep watch at the barn. The rest of us will go and get them back," Garnet instructed.

"I'm going too," Doug said, Priyanka surprised a little bit.

"You better stay here, this is Gem business," Flint stated. Doug stepped right up to Flint and looked him dead in the eye.

"Now you listen here, our own daughter is kidnapped by this Grootslang for ransom, I will not stand by and let this happen. If anything happens to Connie, I'll never forgive myself, and for lord sake I'm not letting anything happen, you understand?" Doug stated firmly. It was enough to make Flint step back and take in what he said. His eyes drifted over to Jade for one moment, and then over to Garnet, who came to the same conclusion.

"... Go inside, there the warp pad in the back, we'll be with you in a bit," Flint said. Doug wasted no time in starting to go off, Priyanka freaking out.

"If you think I'm letting you go alone, Doug -"

"Honie, don't. I promise, I'll get Connie back here safe and sound. When have I ever lied before?" Doug asked. In just one sentence, Priyanka was halted in her tracks. She knew her husband wouldn't lie to her about something this important, so she stayed back and watched her husband go inside.

"You sure this is a good idea? He might be game, but he's still a human, you know," asked Emerald to Flint.

"He's putting himself in the line of fire for someone he cares deeply about. You think you can stop something like that?" Flint asked. Emerald saw his point, and didn't go any further as the rest then headed off into the Beach House to get to the Warp Pad. Those who stayed back for this mission watched them go inside from the windows, Priyanka seeing her husband's assuring face just before the Warp Pad activated. Pretty soon they were all gone. No pony, or gem, or human left on the Warp Pad.

~~~~~~

Quick activation later, and soon the Mane Six, Garnet, Flint, Bismuth, Pearl, Jade, and Diopside were off and in the area in question. As described by the snakes, the area they had in mind looked like a vast desert. Overcast clouds, miles of sand dunes, and the ruins where the Warp Pad remained were all telltale signs of the Gem location of the ultimate Sahara. Many of the Gems made it alright, but Doug ended up floating in mid air for a bit before gravity made him fall down to the ground on his back with a thud.

"Keep your body upright when in the warp stream," advised Bismuth.

"Noted," said Doug, getting himself off the ground. Upon arriving, Twilight and Rainbow Dash flew up high in the air to get a good look around the hot sand dunes.

"Can you see anything up there?"

"Nothing but sand. Hey, Diopside, feel up for a airlift?" called Rainbow. Diopside nodded her head and Twilight used her magic to lift Diopside up to their level. Diopside covered her normal eye so her Gem eye had full vision, and she concentrated on the world they were in. Twilight aimed Diopside to the south as Acid and Cyanide described. Diopside focused as much as she could in that direction, and she started to see a very slight slither of water in that direction.

"Hey they were right: I see a river about half a mile away, straight south," Diopside said.

"You heard her, everyone, let's go," Garnet said, already getting a headstart in heading to the river. The other Gems weren't as fast as Garnet was, so they had some catching up. Flint carried Jade so she wouldn't be left behind, and Bismuth actually decided to carry Doug. Not his first decision, but if it meant getting to Connie any faster, then he'll let it happen.
It took them a bit to get there, but they soon reached the river in question. Most of them stopped alright, right along the bank, but Pinkie went just a little too fast, and ended up stumbling into the water. She wasn't hurt, but they were on the right track with the river itself.

"Follow the river opposite of the flow. ... This way!" Garnet said, rushing off in the other direction of the river. Everyone else was quick to follow, Pinkie Pie actually taking the river itself to keep up with them. They had little time to actually talk and figure anything out - they got their pride and joy to save from this horrid snake!

With the run lasting a good ten minutes or so, it was here they all started to see their destination. It started off much like a sand dune, but the closer they got the sooner they notice that the dune turned out to be the opening mouth of the Wonder Hole. A cave opening aimed just a foot or two away from the river in question, appearing to dive down at a steep angle, and all smoothed out on all sides. They couldn't see much within the cave past about ten feet or so, and once more a prominent set of skeletons of the poor pachyderms lay around right by the cave. Grootslang's welcome mat to his front door. Not exactly hundreds as Acid and cyanide said, but still disturbing anyway. The group went right up to the cave entrance, and were more than willing.

"A elephant graveyard. ... Gems. Ponies. And Doug. Everyone ready?" Garnet asked. Suddenly they all heard a distinctive sound of a firearm being loaded up. They thought it was Flint's pistols, but they heard the sound over from Doug instead, who suddenly had a loaded police pistol in his hand, up and at the ready.

"More than ready."

"W-What the - where'd you get that thing?!" Rainbow asked.

"Did Flint give you that?" asked Fluttershy, feeling humbled from Fulgurite's surprised reaction.

"Rule number one in the police force: never leave the station without a firearm," Doug answered, his pistol aimed out in front of him as he started to go in along with the others.

"He's keen," Flint commented.

"Just be glad he's taking it seriously," said Twilight.

"Let's hope everyone is."

.......

"Connie! ... Steven! ..."

After a good half hour, the situation changed dramatically. One moment the were in a wide open, hot desert, but now the cave had turned from hot to cold in less than thirty minutes of descending. Pearl and Flint had the honor of providing the light from their gemstones, lighting up what would otherwise be a pitch black tunnel. Each call they occasionally made echoed for yards, each one meeting with the sounds of their own footsteps and nothing else. Farther down they went, the cooler the area became, and they all were on high alert in their search. Smoothed out rock lined under their feet.

"Here, Amethyst! Amethyst!" called Diopside, even throwing in a whistle for good measure.

"The hay are you doing, she's not a dog," Rainbow said.

"You have a better idea?" Diopside snapped back.

"Don't you start that, you two, this is serious. Steven, Amethyst, and Connie need us," Garnet firmly stated. They didn't need any bickering, especially now of all times. Not too far away, Pinkie was looking under practically every single rock and pebble they past, putting them back exactly where she found it time and time again. One of these rocks she actually tossed over her head, which hit Diopside in the back of the head.

"Hey!"

"Oops," Pinkie said, quickly putting that same rock back where she found it. Nothing much there on their locations.
The group continued quietly going through the cave some more, Jade keeping very close to Flint during their walk around, scared a bit.

"Just stay close, it'll be okay," Flint reassured Jade.

"You think so? ..."

"What kind of joke is this?!" Bismuth suddenly shouted from ahead. The rest of the group went on the catch up with Bismuth, finding an end to the tunnel. However, the end of the tunnel only reached what appeared to be a wide open, yet empty chamber. There didn't seem to be any other paths, any of their children, or any giant Grootslang snake for them to face either. Nothing but an empty chamber, nothing but rock walls and darkness outside the lights from Flint and Pearl.

"Wait. Grootslang, he should be here, where is he?!" said Twilight.

"He's not here, and those snakes tricked us - again!" Bismuth concluded. Why wouldn't they trick them at this point?

"No. No, they have to be here somewhere," Garnet insisted, though she was starting to feel a little bit troubled herself. There didn't seem to be any sign of this continuing anywhere, so they had to be here. If those snakes did lie to them again, who knows where they ended up with their loved ones? Garnet started to look around and study the walls a bit more as best she could, hoping to find some sort of extra path somewhere for them to take, but nothing. Pearl and Flint looked around themselves, but their lights didn't reveal too much either. Nothing but rock walls and floors, some bit of sand but that was about it.

"But this doesn't make any sense."

"What do mean no sense? Obviously those two worms gave you all some fake tracks to get us stuck down here. Come on, we're going back," Bismuth decided, getting frustrated more than most about the situation. She really wanted to find them, and this wild goose chase wasn't helping at all.

"Ok, ok, take it easy Bismuth, let's not get ahead of ourselves! Maybe we took a wrong turn?" Diopside insisted.

"There's only one tunnel, Dio. Ok, look, we'll just go back see if we missed anything," Flint decided. The others were starting to agree, but as some of them began to go, Rainbow paused and saw that Fluttershy didn't even budge an inch, her eyes pointed directly up. Her ears folded back, and her irises were shrunk.

"Fluttershy? ... Fluttershy, you ok?" Rainbow asked. But Fluttershy seemed too scared to move. Rainbow waved her hoof in front of her face, but that did little on anything.

"Wake up, we're leaving!" Rainbow shouted, but apparently that didn't work either. The others stopped after a bit, seeing the two having a bit of trouble. Rainbow looked to the Pegasus in the eyes, and then decided to follow them up to the ceiling. At first, Rainbow couldn't see much of anything, but the more she looked, the more visible something started to take shape. Some sort of small shape of someone feet started to show up ever so slightly. Hard to tell who, but seeing the figure all the way up there disturbed them enough, the feet being pulled up and disappeared ...

*hisssss*

"RAINBOW, FLUTTERSHY, MOVE!" Garnet ordered. But it was too late for them to do much. Fluttershy didn't move, but Rainbow tried to get both of them out as something huge launched itself down at them! In an explosion of hissing and crumbling, a giant serpent launched down with jaws wide open, and grabbing both Pegesi in one swoop! It all happened so fast, and Garnet tried to get them, but the serpent moved just too quick, and burrowed hard down into the ground, revealing another path just underneath them!

"AFTER HIM!" ordered Bismuth, immediately racing off after the snake. Even with no legs, the creature moved fairly fast through the tunnel, everyone running as fast as they could to catch him.

"Get back here you thieving varmint!" AJ demanded, going just fast enough to bite the snake in the tail, and pull back hard. The other ponies grabbed her and held her down, but the snake suddenly done downward and whipped them forward! The ponies yelped and flew through the air until they landed up on another wall, and landing down roughly in a pile of ...

Gemstones?

"WOO! DO THAT AGAIN!" Pinkie beamed.

"Pinkie, quiet," AJ insisted. Rarity, AJ, Twilight, and Pinkie hid in the pile of gemstones as the snake revealed itself in the room.
The room itself was a much larger part of the Wonder Hole, one this snake carved out himself. A large chamber made up of stalactites, stalagmites, and so on. However, this room shined and glistened with multiple amounts of stones, many sorts of gems all over in hordes and piles, multiple colors all around and multiple sizes. The smallest light came from a hole at the top of the room, making the other stones light up the room. As for the snake, Grootslang as it turned out, he took a moment to admire and beam around the room before his tail whipped the tunnel shut: knocking down enough rocks to block the hole so others wouldn't follow him in.

"That's that," Grootslang mumbled, his mouth still full as he spat up his catch. Rainbow and Fluttershy were alright, and he also spat up a set of stones with Steven's shoes on the end of them. The bait worked, but Grootslang was not pleased with the catch.

"What?! Just ponies? No wonder my mouth was so hairy," Grootslang said, spitting out a few more hairs as the other two got up.

"YOU, YOU'RE MINE!" Rainbow yelled, but Grootslang just had to whip her to keep her quiet, the whip so rough it damaged her wing! Fluttershy got back to reality after everything, Grootslang groaning.

"And I thought I had the perfect catch too! The perfect score, and all I got are two feathered mules."

"WHAT?!" Rainbow snapped.

"Oh shut up," Grootslang said, giving them both another whip and launching them into the pile right next to the other ponies. Whatever Rainbow and Fluttershy were ready to do, they weren't given the chance here, but at least the ponies were together. Grootslang sighed and slithered up to one particular Gemstone amongst the giant pile.

"That hit oughta knock em out. ... Besides, as long as you're safe, my sweet.~" He started to move a few more gemstones around, only to reveal his "sweet" hidden just underneath a few of his stolen goods. Once the light got onto it, a blue aura reflection spread around the room, the Mane six recognizing the color straight away.

"T-That's Blue Diamond!" they all thought, and it indeed was. Grootslang had the gemstone wrapped up in ribbon like a gift, and for some reason it wasn't letting Blue Diamond come back around after all this time gone. Grootslang hissed eagerly about the best gemstone he had gotten. Grootslang got it in position, and gently rested the thing on the back of his head like a pillow, placing his hat next to it.

"Where are those two snakes? Seriously, they're not normally late on me."

Speak of the devil: with a few hisses, two snakes suddenly appear out of nowhere, though the top hole and dropping down to their leader, actually landing in his hat. Tired, but fine.

"Did we miss anything?" Acid asked.

"Acid, Cyanide, I was just wondering where you two had gone to," Grootslang said.

"We had a bit of a rough time. Did those Gems get here yet, or no?"

"All I got was a face of feathers, so no. They'll come by eventually, and I can add them to my collection along with their Diamond and Jasper."

"JASPER?" The ponies thought. Acid and Cyanide slithered out of the hat and went right over to the boss snake.

"Why not a little jig? That'll pass the time til they get here, and it'll give our trio of guests something to do."

"Oh why not? Set up some music and get them out here," Grootslang said. Acid and Cyanide slithered off out of sight for a little moment, but eventually a few more figures were them moved on over to the center of the Gem room: Steven, Connie, and Amethyst! The trio were all dressed up as a bunch of belly dancers, and by the look of their dazed eyes, they were obviously out of it, hypnotized somehow. What didn't help much either was the Gemstones on Steven's necklace: one Jasper at the center of it, wrapped up like Blue Diamond, and the ponies could easily see it in the limelight. Acid and Cyanide actually pulled out what looked like a music box, one of those older music boxes on a stand with need el plus a yellow horn. One click on the music box, and a heavily beat music started to play, one of which made the trio start to sway a bit to the beat. It wasn't exactly dancing per say, more just them swaying back and forth, moving from one side to the other every two beats. The three were in perfect synch with eachother, and Grootslang settled down easy and watched them dance to the music.

"So, anypony have any ideas on what to do? We got a Diamond tied up, our Jasper tied up, and our friends snake-charmed," AJ asked quietly.

"It sounds like he's expecting the trade off. ... Here, hang on." Twilight's horn began to glow, and in a sudden burst of magic, all the ponies were teleported away from the situation. Grootslang ended up startled, but he didn't see much of anything. He was more concerned over his jewels rather than the ponies themselves.
After the teleport had been done, Twilight's accurate teleport got them just on the otherside of the blockade, and back with the rest of the group (who apparently had been trying to get through the blockage Grootslang had left for them).

"You okay?" Flint asked.

"We're fine, but they're all in there: Blue Diamond, Jasper, Steven, Connie, Amethyst, Grootslang's got them all in that room," Twilight reported.

"All of them? In there?" Pearl gasped.

"Well don't just stand there, help me break this wall through!" bismuth yelled, trying to pound her way through the wall. Some of the other Gems tried to help her out too.

"Seems he's expecting that trade off more than most," Fluttershy said to Garnet. The fusion thought a little bit more about the subject in question. ...

"Then let's give it to him."

"Wha?!"

~~~~~~

"UGH, what's taking that group?"

Few more minutes ticked by, and still no word from the Crystal Gems. Acid, Cyanide, and Grootslang were getting more bored by the minute, and the dancing the trio did nearby wasn't doing them much help either. In fact, at this point, Amethyst, Connie, and Steven had stopped moving and the music had grinded to a halt at this point.

"Perhaps they were lead astray," groaned Acid.

"I did leave the note vague. ... Oh wait, you two told them didn't you?" Grootslang questioned.

*BAM*

Suddenly, the rock wall they had left suddenly got blown up into oblivion. Naturally it spooked the snakes a little bit, startling them at most, some stray pebbles landing on the trio of hypnotized kids. When they looked over, coming out of the dust and rock, in came the Mane Six. To Grootslang's mixed surprise, the two seemingly had exactly what Grootslang wanted: the gemstones of Yellow Diamond and White Diamond! Obviously it was hard to move by the strain on the ponies faces.

"Okay, Grootslang, is it? We got your Diamonds right here. The legitimate White and Yellow Diamond from homeworld," announced Twilight Sparkle. The top snake slithered down and examined each one a little closer.

"Right, right. Wait a minute ... where're those other Germs of yours?"

"They're uh ... waiting outside," AJ answered.

"Outside? What for?"

"Does it matter, snake? You got your Diamonds, not your end of the deal," Rainbow made clear, flying in Grootslang's face. Grootslang rolled his eyes and then looked to Connie, Steven, and Amethyst. The way to snap them out of it was surprising easy: all it took was one flick of the tail to whip the air and ...

"Wha? Where are we? WHY'RE THE DIAMONDS HERE?!" Steven gasped.

"That's it?" Applejack asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, yeah, now you go and eat some grass or whatever you do. Acid, cyanide, see them out, will ya?" Grootslang said, moving the other two Diamonds over by Blue Diamond's gemstone.

"Guys, how could you?! Those're the Homeworld leaders you just gave to those vipers!" Amethyst yelled, shocked they were doing so.

"Just watch," Rarity whispered. Grootslang took a moment to admire all three Diamonds amongst the set, wiping White Diamond clean with his tail and seeing himself in the reflection. Each one of these Diamonds were simply beautiful and glistened in the light from the top of the cave. Such perfect, huge gemstones made Grootslang almost giddy for having three of the finest Diamonds this side of the world. His tongue flicked out and it actually hit the Yellow Diamond stone ... just for some of the color to fade onto his tongue.

"Huh? ... Wait a minute -"

"SURPRISE, CLOD!"

Suddenly the Yellow Diamond stone opened up and Grootslang was launched across the room thanks to a fist hitting his face. Soon, both "gemstones" opened right up, and the group exploded out to attack Grootslang, Acid, and Cyanide! Grootslang was suddenly assaulted by Bismuth, and Pearl, as Garnet had the honor of not only removing the ribbon from Blue Diamond, but carrying her out too. Doug, Jade, and Flint went straight to the kids nearby.

"Connie, there you are, you alright?" Doug asked.

"We're fine, but what's going on?!" Steven asked.

"We'll tell you later, now come on we have to go," Jade said, worried, as the loud hissing of a now angry Grootslang echoed throughout the room. They didn't have much time for a fight, and soon as they got the Gems they needed, it was straight off to the exit tunnel.

"GET BACK HERE!" Grootslang roared, slithering off after them, Acid and Cyanide going right off with him.
It didn't take very long until the rescue mission turned into a full-out chase, the trio of snakes racing after the Gem group. They barely had time to actually get their act together, all they knew was just get out of there, and the snakes chasing after them wasn't making it any easier either, especially since one of the Gems was holding the Gemstone of a Diamond above her head.

"Diopside, Pearl, get the others outside, I'll hold them off!" Flint instructed, stopping and turning back to face the snakes. However, Doug had the exact same idea, and even before flint could fire, Doug went on ahead and suddenly the sounds of his pistol rang in the air! Even if he was a human, Doug drew out his weapons faster than Flint, and with the bullets zooming through the air, the snakes actually started to freak out a little bit. One of the shots even managed to hit off Grootslang's hat!

"OH! OOHH! YOU DID NOT JUST BLAST OFF THE HAT! OK, no more playing nice!" Grootslang roared, suddenly digging down fast. Acid and Cyanide gripped on the end of his tail so they wouldn't be left behind. Grootslang suddenly reappeared right in front of the runaway group. In a mighty roar, Grootslang bolted forward, and recaptured Amethyst, Steven, and Connie in one lunge. Grootslang tried digging again, but Diopside grabbed him by the tail.

"You're not taking them again!" Diopside yelled. Grootslang tried to get himself loose, but more of them tried to get a grip on him. Acid and Cyanide weren't going to have it though, and both snakes took a bite towards them, actually biting Flint and Garnet! The lack of strength dislodged most of them, but Diopside ended up pulled along for the ride! The others tried to grab her, but the snake wasn't going to give them anymore chances, and covered up the hole as he went.
They were now stuck.

"NO, NO, NO! We were so close!" Cried out Bismuth.

"Well what do we do now?!" Doug demanded.

.......

"I know where they're going."

~~~~~~

just slipping away by the skins of their teeth, the trio of snakes managed to get to a much farther location, and one they were more than sure that they'd lose the trouble with the other Gems at. The chamber this time was more open, and one that actually opened up out to the shoreline (yes the wonder Hole was that long), and with little information on where it would be for others to follow, they felt safe enough. Grootslang, making sure trio cover their escape hole, only then released Steven, Amethyst, and Connie from his jaws, all three of the kids dropping to the ground in a thud. With them no longer hypnotized though, they had a bit more on their minds instead of just dancing the time away.

"Where're we now?" asked Amethyst, dazed from the flash ride. Acid and cyanide looked ready to bite again, but this time Grootslang didn't want to bother with it and got in their way.

"As for you kids, you're way more trouble than you're worth, so let's make this quick," Grootslang said in frustration.

"Make what quick, you coil of rope?" Amethyst asked, ready to pull out her whip. Grootslang hissed to Acid and Cyanide, and both snakes made a mad fast lunge at the two. Rather than biting them though, Grootslang bit off his own tail, and they simply tied them up with Grootslang's tail as rope. Surprisingly strong for a ripped off tail, both girls struggling to get themselves free.

"Connie, Amethyst!" Steven gasped. However, that was all he could do before Grootslang wrapped around him, and lifted him off the ground upside down. The position lifted his shirt up and revealed his gemstone to the snake, the serpent looking in intrigue, but with a bit of frustration too over what just happened. The Jasper stone had gone missing during the getaway, which annoyed the snake even more.

"Dang it, they got the Jasper. Oh well, I still got an Amethyst and Rose Quartz after that mess ... how the heck do you take this off?" Grootslang wondered. He looked Steven over up and down, but it was a lot harder than it sounded.

"No, don't take my Gem! ... Wait, what would happen to me?" Steven wondered. He began to feel very uneasy on such an idea, but with a hybrid like him it was a tough question at best. However, he barely had time to figure out any hypothesis as Grootslang's tongue gave the stone a flicker.

"Come on, it can't be that hard. Acid, Cyanide, a fang please?" Grootslang asked. Acid and Cyanide slithered up his tail, and up to Steven, looking over the stone themselves. First one to try was Acid, who drawed out her fangs and tried to pry it off! Steven yelled in pain in their attempts, but the snakes couldn't even budge it.

"Steven!" Connie and Amethyst gasped, trying even harder to get themselves loose.

"It's quite stuck," Acid noted.

"He is a Gem, you know," added Cyanide.

"No he's not, he's a human can't you taste it? That stupid piercing's got to come off somehow," Grootslang insisted, drawing out his even longer, sharper fangs for the job and he gave it a try. The long fang pushed down hard on Steven's stone, Steven groaning and struggling to make him stop but Grootslang couldn't budge it either, even if he was being more careful with it. He didn't want to shatter the thing for the sake of getting it out: a priceless gemstone that is!

"Put him down!" Connie yelled.

"You two shut up, I'm busy," Grootslang hissed, before trying to squeeze the Gemstone out of him. some good pressure should pop it out like a cork, but no matter how tightly he squeezed Steven, it remained in place. Steven now felt terrible physically, his whole body sore, and torso stinging in pain, and Grootslang still didn't have his prize.

"What's it being stuck with, cement glue? Dislodge already!" Grootslang yelled, going as far as to whack Steven around like a ragdoll to make it loose, but while it made Steven sick, it didn't work either. Seeing their close friend getting brutally beaten like this made it even more horrifying to watch. With all her strength, Amethyst finally made it break, and with a mighty snap, the rope keeping her down snapped off. Of course, she got Connie out of it quick, and then she tried to get to Steven, but the sound caught their attention.

"Bad move. Come on, Acid," Cyanide hissed, both snakes rushing towards them. Amethyst, being in the line of fire was the main target, and the snakes raced right towards her as fast as a snake could move.

"Amethyst, look out!" Connie yelled, lunging herself at Amethyst. The lunge got them both out of the way in time, Connie and Amethyst aside as Acid and Cyanide slammed into the wall.
With all of this happening: Steven with Grootslang, and the attacking two snakes, none of them could ever remotely prepare for what was about to happen next, as a light started to fill in the room ...

And no, it's not from outside.

"What. The. ..."

The light lasted for a short time, fifteen seconds exactly as the event occurred, and in the end that was all it really took for the transformation to transpire. When Steven and the snakes all looked, they found that both human girl and young Gem were ... well, were no longer there. Someone else was there, something else more rather. She had a number of resemblances to Smoky Quartz, but still had her own features to stand out: stood as tall as Garnet at full height, her hair flowing down her back like Fulgurite or Diopside, but a bit more smoothed out and the same color as Smoky's hair. Her body was thinner than Smoky's, but still appeared rather thick in curves, more like Jasper in a way but slimmer. Her skin was a lot darker than Smoky was, and since both Amethyst and Connie were in the same belly dancer outfit, this person had the same getup as well, though a Stevonnie-like outfit showed on this girl in a similar manor, but bigger to accommodate the body. Speaking of as well, there was another detail on her that stood out too from Smoky: on her cheek appeared to be some form of mark, the mark being a sort of comet, long tail of white with a purple star. One key detail proved who this was: a single Gemstone on her chest (same color as Amethyst), and three eyes on her face.
The world had just witnessed Connie and Amethyst's first fusion.

"W-Whoa. What - what happened? Did we just ..." the fusion couldn't even comprehend, as both sides were just as surprised on what just happened as everyone else was. Sure, Steven and Connie fused for Stevonnie. Sure, Steven and Amethyst fused for Smoky Quartz. But how could Amethyst and Connie do this, and what did they fuse into? However, a loud hiss got both sides to attention.

"COME ON, another one?! Forget this; Acid, Cyanide, get rid of her!" Grootslang ordered, both snakes going right to her. The fusion braced for impact, both snakes actually biting down on her arms! Both snakes waited, their fangs digging in, but oddly this fusion didn't seem to be reacting as much, if at all to their bites.

"Get off," the fusion said, whacking them off like flies, and just as easily. not even a mark to prove they actually bit her remained, proven to be too tough for the two snakes to handle. The fusion didn't give them a chance to move off this time, and grabbed them both by the tail and with as enough force as accuracy, tied their tails together. She made them extra tight too, so they wouldn't get out of their knot like they did before, just to be sure.

"If your done playing knots, get outta here! I don't have time to deal with you!" Grootslang roared.

"Says the lazy snake who sent his two little pieces of rope after his game," said the fusion, clever in remark, but still a bit know-it-all in tone. Grootslang was not pleased, and he even dropped Steven to focus on the fusion. As for the fusion in question, she actually had the snakes in a similar manor to a set of nunchucks, and used them in a similar way. Rather than just showing off the skills like other nunchuck users do, she went right to work on Grootslang. The snake tried to advance, but each step close just got him hit by the snake nunchuck, hurting both him and Acid and Cyanide in the attacks. Steven got himself up and watched on as the fusion went to town on Grootslang time and time again, actually whacking the hat off his head again, hitting the skull symbol on it. What actually happened next took her off guard: the skull began to glow, and Acid and Cyanide actually turned to green smoke! Both of them ended up sucked back into the hat, and soon it was just Grootslang himself left.

"So those snakes were just magic, huh?" the fusion concluded, picking up the hat off the ground.

"GIVE. THAT. BACK. That hat is my possession, more than any stone I've got and - ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING?!" Grootslang hissed, but instead the fusion started to look over what the hat could do, a bit too distracted to even listen to the snake. She seemed a little more interested in what the hat could do rather than the snake. As a little test, she actually clicked on the skull symbol again, and aimed it at Grootslang.

"No! NO, YOU IDIOT - RRRAAAHHH!" And with that mighty roar, the magic from Grootslang was sucked up into the skull as well. Grootslang tried to resist, but the skull hat was a little too tough for him to handle on his own, and soon enough, with all the magic and power sucked away, all that remained on the ground was a tiny little adder. No longer dangerous (on the same level anyway), no longer sentient like they were, just a regular African adder not coiled up and hissing on the ground. All that trouble, and that was all they had to do to get rid of him. ... well, sort of. The snake hissed when they came close, and then slithered off out to the shoreline, and out of sight.

"... OK, that happened. Well, that's done," the fusion sighed, using a bubble to send the hat off before it could do anymore harm.

Then they looked to Steven.

To be honest, Steven didn't have a clue how to react at first. Here was two girls he fused with before, on multiple occasions by the by, and now both girls were fused up together into this one Gem fusion he never knew could even happen, not to mention having a cutie mark too. At least with him there was at least one reason - him being a hybrid - but this just didn't make any sense on the surface. Steven felt rather humbled at the least.

"You okay, Steven?" the fusion asked, worried over his wellbeing.

"A little bruised up. But I'm okay. Are you okay? How do you feel?" Steven asked. The fusion just nodded, and a bit of an awkward silence drifted for a while.

"Well ... I'm mostly taken by surprise by this uh ... surprise."

"At least we're on the same page, then," Steven simply said. Kinda hard to think of anything else really.

"Steven! Connie, Amethyst!"

"Hold on, sport, we're coming!"

The voices were rather vague, but they do still show that the others were catching up with them, albeit outside rather than the tunnel. Hearing them, Steven and the fusion got the same idea.

"Maybe we should head back now." the fusion suggested.

Steven couldn't agree more.

~~~~~~

"You. Two. WHAT?!" Peridot gasped.

After everything it was straight back home, and straight back to the barn where the others were waiting. It was such a relief to not only hear that they were safe, but also the fact that Grootslang was stopped, along with Acid and Cyanide. It was so good to hear those three had been stopped, and it wasn't until when they got back that they started telling them what happened. When the whole fusion thing was brought up though, it was the biggest surprise they had all day. Oddly though, the barn didn't appear as frozen as before. ...

"Yeah, and look I even got a Cutie Mark out of it," Amethyst said, pointing to the shooting star Cutie Mark on her cheek.

"First Jasper, then Peridot, and now you. I think some of our rules are getting to you Gems," Applejack confirmed.

"Speaking of which, where's Jasper?" asked Bismuth. suddenly, Amethyst and Connie both looked freaked out after that, looking to eachother in the sudden realization, but luckily Steven got them covered, and pulled out her gemstone from his pocket.

"She's right here," he said. Connie and Amethyst gave a sigh of relief, as Steven gave Jasper to Garnet.

"Well, I dunno about y'all, but I'm glad all that's over. Grootslang and his group are finally done with," Applejack admitted.

"Too bad we didn't get to see it," said Fulgurite.

"Don't worry about it, we didn't either," Rainbow reassured, nudging Fulgurite.

"So first you uh ... "fuse" with Steven, and now her?" Priyanka asked, still freaked out herself about it.

"I feel great, I swear," Connie reassured them. She didn't want them freaking out on her, especially after what they just did. It'll still take some time for Jasper to come back around, but they were all there, all safe and sound after everything that had gone on. ...
Well, almost everyone. Steven quietly took a small moment to turn back to the barn, remembering one Gem that still, seemingly, hadn't come out yet. It didn't take too long until the others saw him do so, though it was Garnet who came over to him with a smile on her face.

"We have a surprise for you," Garnet then said. Steven wasn't sure what she was talking about, nor did Connie and Amethyst, but eventually their surprise came back after gently landing over on top of the barn.

"Up here, Steven!"

Then showed the best surprise of the day: Lapis Lazuli! After such a long time gone from the group, seeing their favorite water Gem was the greatest thing yet. Lapis didn't look exactly the same as before though: her dress shortened down to a skirt, and while the bottom half was still the same blue, the upper half was now a snow white. On her stomach, a blue ring with a yellow star showed itself as the official Lapis CG mark. Around her neck she had a air pilot's blue scarf, which replaced the ribbons she once had. Up on the roof she had her wings open, and her wings looked a lot more detailed to an albatross wings, smoothed and streamlined as they glistened in the sun.

"LAPIS!" Steven, Connie, and Amethyst said, as the blue water Gem flew down gently to see her old friends once again. They were quick to go right up to her and hug her tight.

"I missed you guys," Lapis said, smiling softly.

"Welcome back, Lapis! Boy we got some catching up to do," Steven said. A sweet little reunion, enough to wrap it up. Garnet looked over to them with a soft smile, and looked to the Jasper Gemstone in the palm of her hand.

"We're all here."

My Little Universe: Season 5

by EquestrianKirin

The Call

Gang's All Here

Band Night

Runt of the Cluster

Creature Quest

Renegade Pearl

Prey for the Beasts

Study

Lion of the Jungle

The Old Warrior

20,000 Leagues into the Earth PT1

20,000 Leagues into the Earth PT2

Hot Water

Press Start to Begin

Heat in the Kitchen

Objection!

New Chaos in Town

The Crazy Races

Post Haste

Griffonstone

Toothed Trouble

Corruptors