Diamond Journals Issue 2: A Battle of the Bands

Week 1:

ElectroGem, with the Rainbooms at his side, were performing all over the place. Even Crystal Prep got a taste of Diamond's music. He was hitting areas about as fast as his opposition, and everywhere he went got him some REALLY positive vibes, charging his crystal in the process. At this rate, he'd have enough power to take out Adagio within the first couple days. In the middle of one of his shows, however, Diamond's visor detected a bit of danger in the immediate area. He scheduled an intermission period quickly, then was able to attend to it.

"Another opponent. Alright then, no problem here," he said.

"-DIAMOND, YOU HAVE A NEW ARMOUR TO MEGANIZE INTO. SHALL WE GIVE IT A GO?-" his automated assistant stated.

"Let's do it. MEGANIZE ME!" he yelled.

[Transformation Scene]:

Diamond, powered by the Magic of Friendship, jumped up and was coated in rainbow light. He span through the air as his clothes disappeared from his body, to be replaced by nano-armour.

Next, armoured boots and pants appeared, closely followed by a chest and back plate. His armoured gloves appeared, closely followed by a crystallised helmet. He reached out, his right arm turning into a crystallised arm cannon, then readied his battle stance as his eyes became robotic blue.

[End Transformation]:

Diamond, now fully geared up, noticed a couple changes in his armour upon touchdown. It wasn't it's usual sapphire and aquamarine, but rather golden and pearl, and it was all crystallised. The Crystal of the Day was embedded into his chest, and his Mega Buster had once again become the Harmony Buster, due to there being a small hole in the centre where the buttons should be. His backplate had once again grown wings, and in his helmet was a unicorn horn. It was like the Equestrian Crystal Armour mixed with...the Diamond Angel, as the wings were not Equestrian, but angelic.

-Diamond Angel Armour Acquired!
-This armour combines your Crystal Armour with the power of the Crystal of the Day. It has all the same abilities, plus a few extra.
-The armour utilises power from the Crystal of the Day to keep it online. It eats away power from the crystal slowly, but won't consume enough power to completely drain it as a safety protocol.
-If the Crystal of the Day is almost out of power, the armour will deactivate automatically. It's default weapon is the Harmony Buster, and you already know what that does.

Diamond dismissed his notifications, then activated his comm link with his Equestrian friends for the first time. He had to establish a secure connection, which took a few seconds, but once he was connected, Twilight was the first to answer.

"Alright, Diamond. What's the situation on your end?" she asked.

"I've discovered an artefact originally from my world which is now in the hands of evil. I've got it's counter on me now."

"What sort of artefact are we talking about here?"

"It's called the Crystal of the Night. Try Otherworldly Artefacts Vol. 3 for more information. And get the other Elements on the line, if you will." A little bit of thudding could be heard from the other end, followed by pages flicking past. A few seconds after the sounds stopped, the other Elements had initiated their comm links and had joined the active call.

"Found it! Crystal of the Night: An artefact said to hold the spirit of a great sorcerer imprisoned for tens of thousands of years. Whomever wears it will be slowly corrupted, if they weren't already, and gain some incredible dark powers," Twilight read. "It's one and only counter is the Crystal of the Day, which can only be held by one pure of heart."

"I know all of that already. You didn't need to read it," Diamond said. "Anyway, I got you all online because my new armour requires magic from the Crystal to run properly, but I think I can run it from Elements of Harmony."

"DIAMOND, NO!" the Elements yelled in unison.

"Bringing an Element of Harmony into that world would have some INCREDIBLY dangerous consequences!" Twilight said.

"I should know all too well..." Sunset said. "That would be an INCREDIBLY bad idea."

"I remember that. Which is why YOU'RE going to help me!" Diamond explained. "I'm gonna need you nearby to keep them in check. Things'll probably get confusing, but I have a solution for that one as well."

"OOH! Tell me more, Diamond!" Pinkie yelled from her end. Her comm had been turned WAY down so as to not break everyone's ears.

"Well, I know a little magic that can cancel out the properties of this world. Bring me the Elements and yourselves to me, and I'll do the rest. But first, I gotta cut you guys off. I've got a few enemies inbound," he said before tapping off the link, but NOT disconnecting from the call. At that moment, a few of Eggman's robots burst in, captained by the man himself.

"NYAHAHAHAHA! So, you defeated Metal. And-wh-SONIC?!" Eggman started.

"Doesn't take a genius to figure THAT out, genius," Sonic taunted. He jumped into the Egg Mobile a couple times, but a Buzzbomber shot him out of the air during the third jump. Diamond caught him pretty quickly, then fired a few shots from his Buster...well, tried to, anyway.

"Computer, why isn't my Buster firing?" Diamond asked, before needing to double-flip backwards.

"-LOOKS LIKE YOUR HARMONY BUSTER ACTUALLY REQUIRES AN ELEMENT OF HARMONY TO FIRE NOW. WE COULD ALWAYS SWITCH TO ANOTHER WEAPON.-" Rosette stated.

"Alright then. What we got today?" he said.

"-METAL BLADE, ROLLING CUTTER, QUICK BOOMERANG, FLASH STOPPER, OIL SLIDER, CRASH BOMBER, THUNDER BEAM AND FLAME BLAST.-" she explained.

"Engage Flash Stopper!" he yelled, his armour becoming akin to Flash Man's. He released a HUGE flash of light from his right hand [eye protection was required] which completely froze time around him. He then unloaded with an inaccurate, but effective gatling gun from his left arm, which would supposedly cause enough pressure to launch Eggman away as soon as time restarted. When time DID finally restart, though, he only went, like, three feet. "Guess I forgot how ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC this thing is," he said to himself.

"Weapons malfunctioning, huh? Lemme see if I can fix that," a mysterious voice said from above. The gang looked up, seeing a plane soaring through the sky. This plane, the Tornado II, was piloted by a dual-tailed fox, Miles "Tails" Prower. Riding with Tails was a purple cat princess, a pink hedgehog figure carrying a large hammer and a red anthropomorphic echidna with huge knuckles. Flying around it was a small cream-coloured rabbit, accompanied by a cyan creature known as a Chao, a white and tan bat with some...strange getup...and a strange robot carrying a large crate. Tails drove the Tornado over to the fight, firing down a few laser pellets before swooping upwards.

"Take it easy on the ascents, Tails. Don't want anyone falling off," the cat princess told him.

"Trying my best, Blaze!" Tails said. "Omega, drop that crate on our next swoop."

"Drop the crate? Do you realise what's inside that thing, Tails?" the echidna rumbled.

"Knuckles, there's only a human-sized adaptation of Diamond's Mega Armour in there. It'll be fine," Tails assured his friend before swooping again. As directed, the robot aptly named Omega dropped the crate he was carrying, followed by himself. When the crate impacted the ground, only it's contents remained. Diamond slid over to it and touched it, which auto-equipped it. He now wore a set of cyan hedgehog armour, with red stripes down the metal quills. He also acquired a brand-new Buster and a set of weapons unique to this new armour. His belly, muzzle, arms and part of his tail was a navy blue, and his shoes were a mixture of red, yellow, grey and black.

-MOBIAN TACTICAL ARMOUR ACQUIRED!
-The Mobian Tactical Armour, better known as the Chaos Assault Armour, has a staggering, but even, attack/defence ratio and cancels out the effects of Planet Mobius's atmosphere.
-This set of armour runs on Chaos Energy which is supplied by Chaos Emeralds. More Emeralds equates to more attack and defensive power, and will even upgrade the armour for each one.
-If you don't have any Chaos Emeralds assigned to the armour, you can still function, but the experience is similar to not having any armour at all and you slowly lose Power.
-When equipping this armour, all weapons will be offloaded, save for the Chaos Buster. Instead, the Chaos Buster gets upgrades from the Emeralds.

-YOU GOT A NEW WEAPON: Chaos Buster
-The Chaos Buster is the default weapon applied to the Mobian Tactical Armour. It runs on Chaos Energy, like the armour itself, but it acts a little different when it comes to sub weapons.
-In the default stage of the Mobian Tactical Armour, this weapon fires small, ineffective pellets that drain your Power for every shot. For every Chaos Emerald you get, the pellets increase in power, but just one prevents you from losing Power.
-Further information is unavailable until you collect at least 1 Chaos Emerald(s).

Diamond dismissed these notifications, but found he could hardly move. Apparently, there was NO Chaos Energy travelling through it yet, but Sonic tossed Diamond the one and ONLY Chaos Emerald he had in his possession. Diamond grabbed it, then opened the armour's chest to reveal seven slots. These were obviously meant for the Chaos Emeralds, so he inserted it into one of the seven slots and closed the chest. The Emerald remained visible, but Diamond got a decent upgrade. He not only acquired Shadow's Chaos Spear attack, but his buster increased in strength and his armour no longer wore him down or drained Power. He was free to fight, and he took advantage of the new armour set.

"Chaos SPEAR!" Diamond yelled, releasing a few yellow-green spears from god knows where. He aimed these spears at the incoming Badniks, with a single spear destroying each. He then aimed a couple at Eggman, launching him into a portal and back to Mobius. Badniks continued to surround him, however, and Diamond had no area-splash attacks in his Chaos Assault Armour, meaning he was easily stuck. Shadow was about to jump to Diamond's aid, but a formerly-mentioned beat him to the punch. Metal Sonic, who owed Diamond back for saving him a couple weeks ago, was able to wipe the floor with every robot with one electric charge.

"Don't think we're friends, Diamond. But I've repaid the favour, so I'm going to let you live," Metal beeped into Diamond's translator, which read his dialogue back to the squad.

"Anytime, Metal," Diamond replied before the robotic blue hedgehog flew through the same portal Eggman had. This string of dialogue earned Diamond a few dirty looks from his allies, which he replied to: "What? He was being controlled by an external force!"

"Yeah, keep talking, Diamond," Shadow said. "How would someone ever get inside him?"

"By using Dark Crystals, that's how."

"It is true, guys. We were there when it happened," Sunset confirmed. "Ask any of us."

"You guys have a point. Lay off him, guys!" Sonic commanded. Everyone backed off from Diamond on his command, as he picked up another Chaos Emerald that Metal had left behind, inserting it into his armour.

-YOU GOT A NEW WEAPON: Chaos Sword
-This weapon, when used, will create a ring of swords made from Chaos energy around the user to launch upon command.
-A minimum of five swords must be created in order to fire. An initial maximum of 20 can surround you at a time before automatically shooting.
-The more Chaos Emeralds that are collected, the more swords you can summon and the more powerful they get for each Emerald you acquire.

Diamond dismissed his notifications, later noticing that his armour had undergone a couple changes. It had gotten slightly lighter in colour, had more and sharper quills, and had acquired a bit of metallic chest and nose bush.

-Mobian Tactical Armour Upgraded to: LEVEL II
-The Mobian Tactical Armour II grants you temporary flight and increased strength and speed. You now run at 1/8 of Sonic's speed and can be toggled at will.
-You can also summon 5 extra Chaos Spears per use of the attack, which adds to your initial 15.

No sooner had he finished reading this new information, he opened a portal between the two worlds which headed straight to Twilight's castle and flew right through, coming back a few minutes later with the Mane 6 still in their Equine forms. By using another portal, the properties of the human world were cancelled out and the forms of the Mane 6 were unchanged. The Elements of Harmony also showed up in a VERY strong storage container, and Diamond assimilated all of them at once into his Mega Armour. In a flash of light, the Alicorn Battle Armour was created once again, ready for use if it were ever needed.

"Alright, so Elements: check. Now, let's see if I can run my Diamond Angel Armour on these..." he muttered to himself, meganizing into that quickly. The Elements stuck out of this suit, radiating their positive energy to prove that he could indeed power this armour from them. He then switched off his armour entirely, since his radar was no longer picking up any hostiles in the nearby area. "Now, if you guys will excuse me, I have a show to finish."

Week 2:

Week 1 passed like a charm, leaving Week 2 for preparations on song choice and rehearsals for both sides.

The Dazzlings:

Adagio, already knowing what she and the other Sirens were going to sing for the finale and having experience doing so, didn't see much of a reason to rehearse. However, Sonata and Aria were able to talk her into the process, and even let her become Obsidian Dazzle mid-song for the best effect. She gave her commands to the Obsidian Fury inside the gem, but he said to meet her inside as soon as she could. She decided to sneak inside that night, where the Obsidian Fury now had a red aura, pure red eyes and his armour now had spikes pretty much everywhere.

"Pretty sweet, huh?" Obsidian said, showing himself off proudly.

"Pretty AWESOME, I'll say that much," Adagio replied.

"Are you ready to show off your new look?"

"Why, of course. Make me look like you as much as you can." On command, Obsidian concentrated his magic on her, creating a bright flash. When it cleared, Adagio had COMPLETELY changed. She now looked similar to Obsidian, with a few feminine changes. She wore the same armour and had the same eye colour, her hair was black and red, her eyelashes were longer, her bust was a bit bigger and her new cape was amber with a purple stripe down it. The Crystal of the Night was now also embedded into her chest plate. She warped herself out of the Mana Zone, keeping her new appearance, and showed up for her rehearsal wowing Aria and Sonata.

"Didn't expect such a new look, Adagio. I mean, we aren't going to war or anything," Aria stated, addressing the armour. "And...did you get red contacts? Since when?"

"Aria, there's no time to talk about that," Adagio said, her voice slightly deeper and distorted. "Now, let's do this, shall we?"

"Let's do this thing, Adagio!" Sonata called, as air-headed as ever.

"Whatever..." Aria grumbled.

Diamond and the Rainbooms:

The vast majority of their second week was spent trying to figure out a song. Diamond was thinking that ElectroGem could use a song from the Rainbooms, but Rainbow Dash disagreed on that idea.

"Look, RD, it's MY band in the finals, so essentially I'M the one making the decisions," Diamond said.

"So what? It's our song, and you aren't borrowing it!" Rainbow argued. Both sides were being stubborn, up to a point that rivalled even Applejack. But before it could escalate any further, Fluttershy stepped in to try and break them up.

"Now, you two, no reason to argue over this. There's other ways to decide," she said. "How about-"

"No." Diamond said. "But I DO believe you're right. So, what do you say, Rainbow?"

"One-on-one. You choose the sport, whoever wins gets their way." Rainbow challenged.

"HAD to be sports, huh?" Diamond said to himself. "You're on, RD. And I'm up for a round of soccer. First to five points, no technological or magical assistance."

"Done and done. Let's do this thing!"

-A RATHER PAINFUL SOCCER MATCH LATER-

It was a close game, but Diamond was able to beat Rainbow Dash 5-4. As promised, she gave him the right to use one of their songs in the finale.

"Now...which song should we use to counter the enemy?" Diamond asked himself.

"It doesn't exactly matter which song we play, as long as we remember our friendship." Applejack stated.

"In that case, then, let's go for...uh..."

"You know, we could always try the one that I wrote," Fluttershy suggested. "That's what we did last time, and it resulted in the Dazzlings' defeat."

"Well, then the choice is pretty clear," Diamond stated. "So, everyone know how to play this?" he asked, earning a few nods, but most shook their heads.

"Well, we're only here to keep the Elements of Harmony safe, but I don't think that'll be necessary with you around, Diamond," Equine Twilight said.

"Oh, right," Diamond realised. He then opened another portal to Equestria, letting the Equines go home as they weren't needed any longer. He then activated his Diamond Angel Armour so he could practice a bit easier, then Pinkie gave them the introducing beat.

It took a while, but the song was finally back. And wouldn't you know it, they were only ready on the last day they had out of school, meaning they had almost NO time to spare.

"Well, this is it. Tomorrow night, ElectroGem will go down as either the ultimate champion or the ultimate failure," Diamond said. "There's a LOT of pressure on us, and we only get one shot at it."

"Not to burst your bubble, Diamond, but...have you noticed the time recently?" Sunset asked. This caused Diamond to look at his watch, which read 11:46 PM. "If we're going to beat the Dazzlings, we need energy to do it."

"You ain't kidding. Alright everyone, let's hit the sack," Diamond announced, earning some very puzzled looks. "It means we're going to bed."

"I think ya mean "hit the hay," Diamond," Applejack corrected.

"Whatever." he replied, snapping his fingers and disappearing in a flash of light. Everyone else headed through the bedroom door and collapsed on either the bed with Diamond or the floor.