Like a Diamond

Chapters

An Uncomfortable Awakening
Reflecting on New Facts
Defragmentation
A Tempest Foreshadowed
Badlands Noire
Gems Out of Space
Reformation and Deformation
An Eye-Opening Experience
It's Raining Death
Between A Rock And A Hard Place Part 2
Come As You Are
Between A Rock And A Hard Place Part 1

An Uncomfortable Awakening

The sun shone high, lending its warmth to an otherwise chilly autumn afternoon. Ponyville hustled and bustled as it always did, its residents enjoying the current lull in strange activity. The perfect kind of day to stay curled up in a nice warm bed, or lap. Tempest seemed perfectly content to use mine as a resting place while I gently massaged along her spine to search for that one sore spot she was complaining about yesterday, and I was happy to indulge her a bit rather than just heal it away.

She let out a disgruntled grumble as the doorbell rang, and twisted her head to the side to look up at me. “Why is it always my day off that gets interrupted, David?”

“You know damn well there are two other people here who can answer that door today. You wanted a massage, so you get a nice massage.” I replied while continuing to seek out that knot of muscle. “And I’ll even shrink down so it takes longer if you want.”

Her look softened, but a pout remained. "Don't stop for a second. I don't care what questions they ask."

“Have you been fusing with Delphi without me again?” I teased while one hand slipped down to tickle the space behind her knee briefly. Only my smallest finger could get in there, but it never failed to get at least a few laughs for the attempt.

Her guess turned out to be correct as the door to my den slid open to admit an unstable tower of pebbles and what looked like an entire class of fillies and colts.

“Shall we start getting refreshments ready as usual for guests, David?” The top pebble in the tower asked in her squeaky voice, the sound clear to me despite the din of hooves on hardwood flooring. Only one of the children reacted, a colt with a circular ruby for an eye.

"Please," I said with a smile and nod. "We should still have some lemonade and cookies. Just make sure to save some for yourselves."

“Miss David, who are you talking to?” One of the fillies asked while raising her hand. Tempest snorted softly at the ‘miss’ part while I simply smiled and pointed to the pebbles, who were now climbing down from atop each other and funnelling into a tiny hole in the baseboard of the wall that hadn’t been there before.

“Just the pebbles. They help out around the house," I explained, gesturing for them to sit.

Our home was huge, it had to be. The living room alone could have fit their classroom. We had prepared in advance, laying out an exact number of pillows. Future sight never stops being useful.

A fireplace dominated the back wall, its mantle decorated in artifacts of a lifetime. Most of them were well out of reach, or sight, of anyone smaller than myself. Despite its size, our house was as normal as we could make it.

Bookshelves lined one wall of the room we were all in, and a couple of the newer faces in this cluster of young ponies scanned the titles on the spines until I cleared my throat. “So, it looks like an entire class from Ponyville Elementary is here. I know I have a general policy of being available for questions any of you may have about gems and gem-related things, but why are all of you here at once, exactly?”

“Oh! Oh! Princess Twilight was at school today to talk about the Storm King’s failed invasion of Equestria and mentioned that we should talk to you if we wanted to know how you arrived in time to stop it, and how you got all your soldiers there without anypony knowing.” The ruby-eyed colt perked up and nearly jumped off his pillow as he responded immediately. “Also, why couldn’t anypony else hear the pebble ask you that question?”

His enthusiasm was infectious, spreading amongst his classmates. I adjusted my posture, gesturing to the pebbles as they carried in a few plates of cookies. "Pebbles are kind of like breezies. They have a way of going unnoticed."

My eyes shifted from the exuberant colt to the Storm Soldier mask hanging above the door. "That was a really long time ago, but lucky for you." I winked and tapped my temple. "A gem never forgets."

“Oh good, looks like it’s storytime. Pebbles, I’d like a few hay and granola bars along with a pitcher of iced tea as quickly as you can make them, please.” Tempest spoke up, then nudged my abdomen with her elbow to remind me about the massage.

Rolling my eyes, I resumed my ministrations. "Once there was a hole in a wall, and out came a diamond..."

My return to consciousness was an explosion of sensation. A million thoughts jolted me out of sleep, overwhelming my drowsy mind. I’m not sure how long it took me to reign in my thoughts, it might have been hours, perhaps even a day. When I finally managed to clear my head, I found myself laying in a patch of dirt.

Pulling myself into a sitting position, I looked around and saw dusty canyon walls on either side of me that went on towards the horizon. Unsurprisingly, I had no idea how I had gotten to a gorge in the middle of nowhere. Upon further inspection, I noted the human shaped holes lining the rock face.

“This way, and hurry up. You dropping the package has made us late.” A calm voice echoed from somewhere in the distance shortly before I started hearing footsteps.

“I’m sorry, Your Clarity! It won’t happen again!” a deeper, more agitated voice replied.

“That is true, though I wish I had foreseen the dropping the same way I’d seen that your trip was inevitable.”

Frowning, I turned my head towards the voices. They sounded so familiar, just at the edge of recognition. “Hello?” I tentatively asked, my voice foreign and strange. It wasn’t... mine. Bringing my hands to my throat, I caught sight of pink gloves covering them.

“Your Clarity, did you hear that?!” the deeper voice asked in what seemed to be an attempt at a whisper. “Someone is here!”

“There’s no need to worry, Topaz, that is the voice of the one we’ve been waiting for all this time. We must get to her side now, before she panics and makes a mistake.” The calm voice made no effort to be quiet, and I soon saw a small, blue figure wearing what looked like a dress walk around a nearby corner.

A taller, though still bulky and stout, yellow being followed close behind, wearing what looked like a tight bodysuit of some kind.

I stared at the pair, eyes wide and hands trembling. I had to be mad, it wasn’t possible. Cartoon characters didn’t come to life; unless one was to do copious amounts of drugs, or experience a complete mental break. I tried blinking to get rid of them, but they persisted. I was watching a Sapphire and a Topaz walking towards me, looking slightly less realistic than the best cosplays ever made of them and just a bit more like they’d emerged into the real world, Roger Rabbit-style.

“S-stay away from me!” I snapped, scrambling backwards. “I’m not crazy goddammit! Leave me alone!” Patting around, I grabbed a rock and hurled it at the Sapphire.

The Topaz stepped in front of the smaller gem, and the rock harmlessly bounced off her chest. Moments later she brought her arms in and around her chest in an odd way, only opening one hand to manage most of a salute I’d seen a few times before. “I’m sorry for defying your will, My Diamond, but this Sapphire is under my protection and I will not let even one such as you harm her.”

“Topaz, it’s alright,” the Sapphire spoke, moving out from behind cover. “Our Diamond is merely overwhelmed by the situation.” Moving to a halfway point, Sapphire copied Topaz’s salute. “My Diamond, I am Sapphire cut 9823. Please allow us to assist you.”

I merely stared at her, my back to the stone wall of the ravine. “This isn’t real,” I told myself, squeezing my eyes shut. “Just a really vivid dream. That’s it. That’s all it is."

“If you wish, we can stay here until you are feeling more like yourself? We were told that you’d likely not react well to the situation you found yourself in one way or another.” I heard the loose stone near me shift slightly before Sapphire spoke up again. “I’m also supposed to ask if you were Steven or David before you woke up... do you remember?”

“Of course I remember,” I snapped, an edge to my voice. “I know who I am, and it is not a crazy person.”

“Your Clarity, is it wise to get so close?” Topaz asked, closer but not as close as Sapphire. “I can’t protect you if you’re so close.”

“Her eyes are closed, Topaz, and she can’t shatter me if she can’t see where my gem is. If she attacks me, I trust that you will be able to grab that to defend me, and being forced into a resting state is no great hardship.” Sapphire sounded calm and confident. “How could we prove that this is no hallucination, My Diamond?”

I grit my teeth, sucking in a breath. “Slap me. Hard as you can. Right now.”

“As hard as we can? Well, I know that any blow I attempt would be utterly ineffective for proving a point to you.” I heard the rocks shift again, presumably the Sapphire moving away from my side. “Topaz, give me the package and carry out our diamond’s order, please.”

“I... you... uh… “ She hesitated before I felt her heavier steps approach. There was the soft sound of paper crumpling slightly as she handed over whatever this ‘package’ was. “This is the weirdest day of my life, being ordered to slap a Diamond by that Diamond herself…”

Half a second later I heard two things at the same time, a sudden rush of air accompanied by “Wait, not a backhand,” from the Sapphire. These were immediately followed by a hard impact against my nose and cheek, and then the back of my head smacking into the stone right behind me.

Opening my eyes, I stared up at the sky. My cheek stung, the back of my head throbbing for a moment. “Okay... that.. That hurt...” Touching my cheek, I winced slightly. “Probably shouldn’t have said so hard...”

“I-i-if it appeases you, My Diamond, my hand hurts too. Your head is... very hard. I think it might have cracked my gem if I’d used my other hand.”

Shaking my head, I turned to Topaz. “Sorry, I probably shouldn’t have asked you to do that...” Bracing myself against the ravine wall, I pushed myself to my feet. “Okay... okay. This is real. Real as I am.”

Sapphire stepped forwards and held a small package up to me. She barely came up to my knee, and looked so small. Even Topaz only came up to just below my waist. “The others left this with us, for you to open when you woke up.”

Reaching down, I gently plucked it from her hands. “What exactly is it?” I asked, doing my best to open it.

Sapphire waited a few seconds before responding right as I managed to tear the paper open and brush the surface of the gem that had been contained and protected from contact inside for so long. “Your personal Pearl, of course. Every diamond needs an assistant for the more mundane matters that don’t deserve their full attention.”

I nearly dropped the box, watching as the pearl floated up in front of me. “What? You couldn’t have said that sooner? Slavery is wrong.”

“Please identify yourself.” The voice came from the floating pearl as a ghostly blue shell formed around it.

It held my gaze for a few beats before I sighed. “David,” I spoke, crossing my arms.

“Greetings, David. Please state preferred customization options.” The voice stayed flat and emotionless while the shell pulsed briefly.

Clicking my tongue, I had no idea what that actually meant. I merely replied with, “Default.”

“Default setting selected. Please stand by.”

The pearl floated to the ground, the ‘shell’ opening up. Starting with a head, a body rose from the construct, solidifying once it had fully emerged. Stepping off the shell, which dissipated into numerous fading lights, the new person opened their eyes.

Her eyes immediately locked onto my form, face split by a smile. Taking another step, she took my hand. “How do you do, my David-”

“Uh, no, no singing please, and it’s just David, not ‘my David.’” I squatted slightly with my hand over this Pearl’s mouth in an attempt to stop all the stomach-turning servile bits of what was to come if all Pearls shared the exact same initial formation routine. I also looked to the Sapphire and Topaz. “That goes for you two as well. Who I am is more important than what character I look or sound like, so no saluting and enough with the ‘My Diamond’ crap, okay?”

“As you wish,” Sapphire acquiesced, bowing her head.

Pearl blinked slightly, though didn’t seem put off by my request. Stepping back, she kept her smile. “Whatever you wish, David.” Getting a good look at her now, she appeared to have the same hairstyle as Pink Pearl, and the same style to her multicolored clothing, though she lacked the broken eye. “I am at your eternal service.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. ‘Welcome to my new pearl…’” I sighed and rolled my eyes as I stood back up. “Look, can we just... go somewhere else. I’m starting to feel like I don’t want to stay here in this desolate valley.”

“We’re not far from the enclave,” Sapphire informed, turning to the direction she and Topaz had come from. “If you will follow me, David. Come along, Topaz.” Pulling her skirts up slightly, Sapphire glided across the rough ground with serene grace.

“Oh um, yes, Your Clarity.” Sneaking a look back at me, Topaz hustled to catch up with Sapphire.

Watching them head off, I used the brief moment to center myself. Either I had fallen into a deep coma or... I didn’t know. None of it made sense. Still, I didn’t want to hang around a ravine. “Come on, we’re not staying,” I told Pearl, beginning to follow the other two gems.

Pearl simply nodded before moving to keep pace with me. I found myself having to take somewhat shorter steps than my legs allowed for in order to be able to follow Sapphire and Topaz back to this enclave they came from.

“We have arrived, David,” Sapphire spoke, looking up at me. “I predict that your gems will come running when they see your stature.”

I shuddered slightly as I looked around at the surroundings I had been led to. We were still in the ravine, but an offshoot area from where I’d awoken, and one that wasn’t covered in idol-shaped holes. My eyes took a moment to adjust to the change in lighting, and I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a low whistle.

Several buildings had been carved into the walls of the ravine, each sporting a crystal embellishment of some kind. Many doorways had writing on them to tell what they were for, including a library that clearly had physical books that I could see through a clear wall that was effectively a window due to the perfect finish. I also noticed that there seemed to be a tendency towards colors that seemed like they would be related to the diamond associated to the general function of the building. One labelled as a weapon and tool repair workshop had a mix of yellow crystals and fine metal outlines for each letter. One oddity was that there were no red crystals anywhere, and the only red I could see was a blotch of paint near a large doorway marked as ‘Functionality Examination.’

All in all, it kinda looked like a jewel-bedecked version of a dwarven city. “Nice set up you got here,” I commented, eyes moving from building to building. “I’m very glad it’s not all pink. That would just be tacky.”

“The other diamonds left us instructions to not do that, and your bismuths have had difficulty making shades of red with materials from this area anyways.” Sapphire began walking again, heading directly towards that doorway with the pink blotch. “With you having finally emerged, we may be able to rectify that soon. I believe your head peridot will want to see you to make sure that you match all known expectations, if you don’t mind?”

“I suppose not...” I followed after her, noting the growing crowd of gems. Great, that's just what I needed. A vast horde that would hang off my every word like it was the gospel. “How many gems are here, Sapphire?”

The majority of the crowd consisted of clones of Topaz with various gem placements, and these all began to perform that strange crossed-arms salute to a diamond that sent shivers down my spine.

“Right now there are a hundred gems that are not currently on-duty. I believe the total number of gems here is around two hundred, as we are only a small force that was awaiting your emergence. Your aquamarine will have more details for you in your quarters.”

To hear people being referred to as mine never sat right to me. Just imaging them working away in that ravine, waiting for the one that would lead them. Waiting for me. I shook my head, chasing away the moral quandary. It wouldn’t help to bog myself down. Not yet anyway.

“What can you tell me about the head Peridot?” I asked, noting that the entrance, and most likely all the others, were tailored to a bit over my height. “Is she at least pleasant?”

“She’s much like the other two that are here to oversee and prepare the rest of the kindergarten areas where any of the gems you may make will emerge from. Slightly detached and clinical at best with every other gem she’s had to examine, but fascinated with the few plants that continue to grow in the local area.”

“I can speak for myself.” A familiar nasally voice made its presence known, drawing my attention. I could only guess I was looking at an Era 1 Peridot, which really just meant she was the height an Era 2 reached with limb enhancers. “Your Clarity,” was added as an afterthought as she walked up to me and saluted before suddenly poking my thigh.

I glared at her, lightly slapping at her wrist. “Ya know, you usually ask first before just touching people. It’s common courtesy.”

“Apologies, My Diamond.” Her voice changed a bit, as she quickly straightened up, and she let out a nervous half-laugh-half-whine sound. “I just... it’s been centuries and you’re finally real. I had to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating out of sheer boredom.”

Eyeing her closely, I let my expression soften. “It’s alright. Just ask first. You can do whatever tests you have to do.”

“Whatever tests I have to do…” She repeated with a bit of awe in her voice, and then began to pull various tools and implements out of the triangular gem on her right shoulder. “Let’s see. Limb measurements, flexibility testing, physical inspection of gem for visible flaws or inclusions, though you appear to match the description we were given to work with in general…”

I turned my head slightly to Sapphire, who was making her way outside. “I will return in a few minutes, with your Aquamarine.”

That was... exactly what I was going to ask her to do. Future vision was going to take some getting used to, on top of everything else. Giving her an affirmative nod, I let Peridot subject me to whatever tests she had in mind.

“So...” I watched as Peridot moved about, searching for a topic of conversation. “What’s your name?”

“Peridot Facet-4G9A Cut-6RQ. And you are Pink Diamond, no facet, no cut, just My Diamond.” Her name was quickly spit out without any real emotion or inflection, though a hint of awe crept back into her voice as she began to take careful measurements of my arms and legs. “I wish I knew how the other diamonds knew you’d be so...compact.”

I pursed my lips, watching as she worked. “I doubt I’ll be able to remember that. Would it be alright if I gave you a name?” My expression changed, turning into a mischievous smile. “I have one in mind, too.”

Peridot looked up at me with a confused expression before gently poking at the gem embedded in my lower abdomen. “You don’t think you’ll be able to remember? I think I’ll skip the rest of the measurements for the moment and go right to inspecting for defects in your crystal lattice structure in that case. Memory failure would be a massive defect and something the other diamonds would need to know ASAP.”

“It’s not a memory failure, it’s just...” I gesticulated for a moment before continuing. “Your name is very impersonal. It’s just a barcode, a string of gibberish that doesn’t really mean anything.” Reaching out, I poked her nose. “I think you’re a sure fit for ‘Bones’.”

“But I don’t have any bones. I’m a gem, not some simple organic creature.” Peridot objected before standing up stiff and straight. “I-uh... I mean, y-yes, of course. W-whatever you wish to call me is absolutely fine, My Diamond!” Her features were stuck somewhere between trying to force themselves into a happy smile and absolute terror.

I pat her head gently, like one would a child. ‘It’s okay. If you don’t like Bones, we can always go with something else. How does Bashir sound?”

“Basher? I know you’ve only just emerged, My Diamond, but I’m not a fighter like a topaz, and I’m definitely no quartz soldier. ‘Bashing’ is just not something I do.”

“No, Ba-Shir,” I pronounce, my smile returning. “It’s a name, it means ‘bringer of good news’. I certainly think you’ll bring good news.” Nodding at her, I straightened up. “Please, continue your tests. I didn’t mean to derail you.”

“Oh, so it is true. You’ve finally woken up. Not that I would doubt the word of a sapphire without significant reasons in her previous performance.” A childish voice speaks from behind me before a small figure flutters around and hovers a few feet in front of my face. “It’s been so long that I simply had to see you for myself, but the other diamonds were absolutely delighted to hear that our long-awaited fourth leader had finally emerged.”

I stared at the pixie like gem for a moment before speaking. “Yeah. I’m just gonna call you Navi. So... Navi, what’s this about the other diamonds?”

“White, Blue, and Yellow Diamonds, of course. Standing orders were to contact them as soon as it was confirmed that you had finished maturing and broken free from the local stone. I will admit that you seem a few centuries overcooked, but you’re also the right height. It’s such a confusing situation, really. Blue will be sending a ship to collect you for a happy reunion any minute now.”

Again, I stared at her for a moment. If I had a facial tick, I imagine it would have gone off at that little tidbit. “No. I think I’m quite alright here.”

“I’m afraid she’s insisted that you go, something about missing whoever you turn out to be after so long... despite the fact that she’s never actually met you before. She was so overcome with emotion that she completely stopped making sense, but orders are orders.”

Narrowing my eyes, I jabbed a finger at her tiny chest. “I’m sorry, are you assigned to me or them? I’m not going anywhere and that’s final.” Turning my head, I spoke with a bit more venom then I should have. “Are you done, Peridot?”

“I serve you at Blue Diamond’s pleasure, and the same is true for every gem here, although the other diamond may vary for others. You don’t have your own court yet, so you only have gems with borrowed loyalty.”

“Speak for yourself, Aquamarine. I’m loyal to whoever is going to allow me to continue my work and studies.”

Aquamarine waved a hand dismissively at Peridot. “Yes, yes, your report on that bumbleweed last week was soooo fascinating that it put me to sleep by page three.”

Turning back to Aquamarine, I leaned in close. Putting on my sternest look, I pointed at Peridot. “Don’t ever talk to anyone else here like that. Do you understand me? I will not tolerate disrespect in my presence, regardless of who its directed at. Am I clear?”

“Clear as water.”

“We can stop for the time being, if you like. I have enough information to make a preliminary evaluation of healthy and functional. There’s no need for the other diamonds to try and cook a second pink diamond... not that they have the materials.”

“State secrets, Peridot!”

“She’s one of the Diamonds, you flying blue annoyance, she IS the state!”

I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Right. Yes, I’d like to resume this at another time.” Turning on my heel, I realized that Pearl had just been standing there quietly. Her sincere smile hadn’t left her face. “Come on, Pearl. I need to get out of here.”

“Would you like me to set a time for your return meeting with the peridot that you have designated as ‘Bashir,’ David?” Pearl’s head turned towards the green and blue gems in the room as she spoke, and I noticed that she held her hands almost directly in front of her abdomen, over her pearl, with her thumb and index fingers forming a diamond the way she was holding them.

“Remind me in uh... three hours,” I responded. “I want to find a mirror. Something I can get a good look at myself with.”

“You, pearl, did you call her ‘David’ just now?” Aquamarine interjected sharply, with a wide smile forming. “Blue Diamond mentioned hours of hugging and crying if Pink turned out to be David, and hours of kissing if she was Steven...whatever that means.”

That little tidbit just made me less willing to meet the other diamonds. “Right... I’m going to go now. And, Navi, I’m not a ‘her’.” Nodding at Pearl, I walked out of Bashir’s lab and into the expanse of the enclave.

Reflecting on New Facts

A deep sigh escaped my lips, thankful to be away from that annoying little pixie. I ran my hands down my face, wondering if the ‘gloves’ covering my hands could come off. It was such an odd thought; one that made me laugh.

“Is something wrong, my Diam...David?” Pearl spoke up after a few seconds, reminding me that she was following at my side. “You seem...conflicted?”

“Hm? Oh, uh, no. I’m fine.” Cutting my laugh short, I gave her a smile. “I just had a random thought that amused me. Nothing to worry about.”

“Okay, I’ll make a note not to worry about random laughter in the future, even so soon after being upset.” She smiled up at me for a moment and then looked around. “Did you plan on going anywhere in particular, or were you planning to wander around to get to know where things are? We could do either easily enough, but the peridot you named ‘Bashir’ did say you should come back in a couple hours.”

“Well, I need to find a mirror first,” I replied, turning my gaze out towards the rest of the encampment.

“We don’t have too many mirrors here, since most gems already know what they look like, but we do have a small public pool where gems can clean their exposed facets since dirt and dust is inescapable. I can see about putting in a request for a bismuth to add one to your...well it’s not really a palace.” Sapphire’s voice came from my other side.

Blinking, I turned my attention to my blue colored aide. “That would be very helpful, thanks.” I watched her for a moment before turning back to Pearl. If I was going to start giving names out like candy, I might as well give them ones now. “So... tell me. How do you two feel about names?”

“If it would help you remember us, or differentiate me from the other sapphires in some way, I wouldn’t refuse a name.”

“Anything that you would wish me to have is a most gracious gift, m-David…” Pearl smiled widely as she said this, and she seemed to be having an easier time avoiding honorifics already.

“It’s not that I wouldn’t remember you guys, it just sits better in my mind to give everyone something unique to call them,” I explained, settling my sights on Sapphire. “Way back when, there used to be a place called Delphi, said to be the home of oracles; those that could see the future. How do you like the name ‘Delphi’?”

“Huh... I don’t recall anything like that from the history that I’ve read, but the name sounds...I want to say cute?” She shifted her head up slightly, seemingly looking at me though her bangs before nodding. “I like the sound of it in my mind though.”

“Delphi it is.” I nodded, turning my attention back to Pearl. She had held her gaze, still smiling brightly. It turned my stomach a little, seeing someone so utterly devoted to me without really even knowing me. “I have just the name for you: Watson. An ever-faithful companion to a flawed individual.”

“I... I fail to see how that is fitting… you don’t have any flaws that can be seen, David. You’re a Diamond, after all, and that means you’re perfect.” She frowned briefly, and then looked down. “B-but if you w-want to demean yourself in this way it isn’t really my place to argue with you.”

Coming to a stop, I took another breath. In that moment, I felt like a deprogrammer; desperately trying to break a cultists programming. Kneeling down, I gently touched Pearl’s face. “Listen to me, alright? No matter what anyone tells you, no matter what your head is telling you; no one is perfect. The only thing we can do is try and be better than what we were the day before.”

“Be careful, David. The aquamarine aside, most gems have a deeply-held respect for any Diamond. Some of them might not be able to accept a Diamond not being perfect as something that is even possible.”

“N-no one is p-perfect. O-of course, I will remember that, as you have said it.” Pearl twitched a little, and seemed to shiver in place for a moment before wrapping her arms around herself. “I’m s-sorry for making such a fuss over it.”

Frowning, I reached my arms out and pulled her into a hug. “Don’t worry about it, alright? Let’s find that mirror and then you can help me pick out a new look?” Pulling away, I hid my frown with another smile. “How does that sound?”

“Oh, did you plan on shapeshifting, David? You are aware that for most gems that’s only a temporary thing, right? I...I actually can’t recall having even heard of a diamond making use of it before.” Delphi gasped, and then giggled. “Oh, my, this is going to be interesting having someone as unpredictable as you around.”

Letting go of Pearl, I rose back to full height. “You know, what I wouldn’t have given for you back home, Delphi. Woulda saved me a ton of trouble in bootcamp.” Thinking more on it, I don’t actually know if having someone seeing the future would have helped. It might’ve just pissed off Sargent Mcdowell more.

“Back home?” Delphi touched my leg for a moment before drawing her hand back as if she’d just been stung. “But... you only just emerged. This is your home, as it has been our home for centuries. You... you shouldn’t have memories from before you emerged.” She sounded confused in a way that she truly never had before now.

“That’s the thing, I remember a whole life before this,” I explained, getting rather agitated. I wasn’t trying to ‘break’ them. A fear that I had damaged them psychologically entered my mind. “That’s why I was so freaked out when we first met. Before then, I wasn’t Pink Diamond. Hell, I wasn’t even a gem.”

A few seconds passed before Pearl suddenly spoke up. “So, is this old, non-Gem life where you’re drawing the names you wish us to have from? It seems so impossible, but it must be true if you have only recently emerged.”

“It should be utterly impossible...but then the aquamarine did mention one of the other Diamonds reacting to your name...and there’s no way they could have even known about that unless there truly was something before you were a Diamond which they remembered.” Delphi mused before beginning to walk again. “We should get going if you want the light to be good enough for a clear image in the water, but this is something I will need to look into. A non-gem becoming a gem…”

Following after her, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. Delphi seemed to be taking things relatively fine but... My gaze and my mind kept going back to Watson. Poor thing, I should never have tried to be that blunt that quickly.

Delphi turned right and led us through an archway decorated with the Diamond Authority emblem, and after a minute the somewhat-cramped walls began to widen out a little. At the same time, the sound of a bunch of voices cheering and shouting encouragement started to be able to be heard. At first it seemed like it might be the two topaz guard that were standing on the other side of that archway, but they were as still as statues when I turned my head to look back. Interestingly, on this side of the archway there was an engraving declaring that the area beyond was for waste and maintenance, with no mention of anything else.

After a few more minutes of walking the walls swept out wide and the canyon we were in opened up into more of a valley, with some kind of transparent crystal structure allowing light in from above. A crowd of topaz soldiers stood around what had to be the pool Delphi had spoken about, but it seemed to be...in use at the moment.

Two figures made of water stood head and shoulders above any gem in the crowd around the pool, and even from here I could make out the distinctive dual-peaked ‘helmet’ of Yellow Diamond on one of them while the other appeared to have a long horn on a misshapen head with a huge mass of hair as well as two huge wings. The fact that it also had three pairs of arms told me this had to be a fusion, but I couldn’t even begin to guess what gems might make something that looked like this.

The fact that they were made of water and moving also told me that there was at least one lapis around here somewhere.

“Go Yellow Diamond!”

“Zap ‘em! Stomp those hybrids like the mud they are!”

“Come on, I’ve got five to one odds on the hybrid fusion winning. That’s five shifts of boring guard duty you don’t have to do if she w-”

“You should know nobody’s going to bet on a memory of a fight that we all know the outcome of, you twit.” This came from what almost looked like a golden version of a normal-sized amethyst, one of only a few in the crowd of gems that weren’t a topaz.

“Oh dear... that lapis always clouds my sight.” Delphi’s voice was almost overwhelmed by the crowd, but I could still just barely hear her.

My mood lifted, my face bearing mischief. “Ah, I get it. She get your ice box shakin’ huh?” I teased, lightly poking at the back of Delphi’s head. “I can see it.”

The sound of my voice carried a bit more than I thought it would, it seems, and, even as I felt a bit of a chill begin around Delphi, I also heard a few gasps followed by a shout. “Red gem? Diamond on the field! Attention!” The result was immediate and predictable, with the cheering crowd quickly going silent as the soldiers scrambled to get into some semblance of order. All of them were also performing that awkward salute while the watery figures continued to move and fight.

Stepping forward, I threw out my arms. “Don’t stop on my account. Enjoy yourselves! You got the leave, enjoy it. If any agates try and tell you otherwise, point em my way.”

Leadership was natural, for me anyway. Even when I was in bootcamp, people turned to me. Got me officer rank pretty quickly. Things were different here, so very different.

“No agates here right now, boss!” One of those few quartz’s shouted in response before quickly turning their attention back to the watery show with a laugh. “You heard her, girls, off-duty is off-duty!”

Most of the crowd relaxed much slower than that soldier, but most of them smiled and nodded at me before turning their attention back to the show. Everything seemed much more subdued right up to the point where what looked like lightning flashed out from the watery version of Yellow Diamond to strike the strange fusion that was her opponent. This was followed by a loud cheer as the opponent froze for a second, and then splashed apart to dissolve into the pool.

“Aw! Crud!” the topaz from before groaned. “That hybrid cost me five shifts!!”

“Wait, you mean you were serious about that bet? If I’d known you were serious I’d have made it ten.”

“Don’t be too hard on her. It’s not like everyone’s seen this play out before, or could recognize that this was the first time that fusion appeared from the way the fight went.”

“Sounds like someone took advantage of a rookie mistake on a sucker’s bet.”

The fact that all of their voices were identical made it difficult to tell one topaz apart from the rest, but the sulking expression made it easy to identify the ‘victim’ of this bet gone wrong. The crowd parted as I moved closer to the pool while the watery figure of Yellow Diamond struck a triumphant pose. One fist raised into the air while her other hand seemed to point right at me.

“This is a record?” I ask, gazing up at the remaining construct. “How long ago was it taken?”

“A little over a millennium a-” Delphi started to respond, only for a different voice to cut her off.

“One thousand two hundred and sixty years ago, your pinkness.” Another blue figure stood up from behind the rim of the pool, water running down her arms and streaming from her hair for a few seconds before being flung back from her to splash against the slowly-dissolving form of Yellow Diamond as the lapis took a step towards me. “And it’s how I remember seeing the fight rather than a recording. That strange fusion attacking a project I was working on, and Yellow Diamond fending her off because she happened to be there to check on the progress that day…”

“It was pretty good,” I compliment, holding my hand out towards her. “But just call me David, that’s what I would like to be called.”

She looked up at me while brushing her hair back behind her ears, and squinted for a few seconds. “David, right. So, are there any new projects to work on that are going to involve my abilities, or am I going to be stuck waiting for the other Diamonds to come rescue us for another thousand years while doing nothing productive because we have to keep a low profile?”

“I think I got something.” Turning my head, I gestured for Pearl to join me. “Think you can work with Lapis here and help me pick a new look?” I didn’t mind the pink, pink was just a color. But I wasn’t going to stay with the ballerina look.

“But you already look splendid, David. You may not be as imposing as Yellow Diamond, but you are your own cut and color.” Pearl smiled as she spoke, and didn’t hesitate in the least this time in her contrary statement.

“You want an opinion on your form? I’m a terraformer, not a peridot.” The lapis shrugged as she brushed idly at her gown-like attire. “I’m also not exactly an expert on clothing if that’s what you meant.”

“I’m just... not feeling the tutu look.” I gestured to myself. “I look like a sci-fi barbie doll. It’s really not my kinda thing.”

“So you’ll be wanting a mirrored surface then. I suppose it’s the least I can do to help out our newest, and smallest, leader.” She smirked before a wall of water rose up from the pool. It seemed to solidify without freezing, and then more water rose up to surround it and take on three distinct forms without obscuring the viewing surface. Above the wall was what could only be the head and hair of White Diamond, with a pair of outstretched arms soon taking form above the heads of Yellow and Blue Diamond to the left and right of the wall respectively.

As the watery sculptures became more solid and stopped flowing, a few oddities stood out to me about the figures of Yellow and Blue. Blue seemed to be wearing an evening gown rather than the all-covering cloak I was used to seeing her wearing, one that looked like it was tailored to allow the weird hair-monoboob she had to look like it was part of a decorative effect rather than definitely just being her hair. Yellow Diamond seemed to have ditched the ‘combat skirt’ and filed down her pointy shoulder pads so that she looked a bit more like an executive in a suit instead of the outdated armored look the character in the show had.

“I-is Yellow Diamond wearing a pantsuit?” I questioned, staring at the image. “Well, that just tells me that they changed their forms as well. See? Nothing to worry about, Watson.”

“What’s a ‘pantsuit’, David?” Watson inquired, seeming to accept the name. “Is that what you wish your form to contain?”

“Yeah, Yellow Diamond changed her form after her fourth fight with the fusion, when her skirt was used as gripping point and she got thrown around a bunch of times.” This came from one of the quartz soldiers that had stuck around after the big show was over, and she shrugged as I looked at her. “Officially she managed to beat the fusion back, but I remember hearing rumors back then that she was forcibly de-manifested and it took a week for her to reform.”

“She definitely changed her appearance at some point. This is how I remember her and Blue Diamond looking the last time they were here.” The lapis nodded solemnly.

Turning back to the wall, I stepped closer. Something tugged at my mind, a handful of puzzle pieces without clear connections. “Thanks, Lapis.” Leaning closer, my eyes gazed over my reflection.

Much like the other gems, my body had that ‘not quite real’ look, like I was a cartoon character projected onto a mannequin. The various shades of pink that made up my form seemed much more vibrant than the small screen had presented them. I never hated Pink Diamond’s design, even if it was a little too ‘little girl fantasy’ for me.

Turning my head back, I gestured at Watson. “You have a spear, right?”

She stared up at me, then took a step back as if I’d just slapped her, meanwhile the quartz started cackling with laughter at the expressions on everyone else’s faces. “Wait, are you serious? You’re fresh from the ground and you want to make changes that would require that one of us attack you, the Diamond that we’re sworn to protect and wait for? And you put that weight on your own pearl to boot?”

Clicking my tongue, I turned to look at said quartz. She was a mix of white and yellow, with her gem on her cheek and a yellow diamond centered on the chest of her uniform. “Yeah, you know what? It is a little crazy. Maybe it’s a little soon, but I don’t like this look. Watson, don’t worry about it. I didn’t mean to upset you and I apologize.”

“She’s not the only one shocked by your request, David. It’s extremely unusual for a gem, of any status, to ask to be de-manifested.” Delphi’s voice was soft and thoughtful.

“No kidding. I’ve even seen a cracked quartz struggle to maintain her form and refuse the mercy of a quick stab so she could be brought to an amber without having to be awake for it, all because we had restless natives bearing down on us.”

“I’m sorry, whats an amber?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, I know what ‘amber’ is, but, are you telling me there's an amber gem?”

“Battlefield support and construction aides. They can seal cracks in another gem to stabilize their form and prevent further degradation, and they also help bismuths turn raw stone into the crystal we use to build with here. Something about how their gems interact with the strange local energies while they form enables this, but the specifics aren’t fully known.” Watson responded quickly, then gasped and giggled. “Oh, I didn’t know that I knew that until you asked. That was fun.”

That was... new. My mind wheeled from the thought of my form to a very new topic. “Delphi, are there any injured gems in the camp? This is important, I really need to know.” Of course, this hinged on whether or not I could cry on command. That specific detail wasn’t too important, but I had to set the precedent.

“There are a dozen or so gems with small cracks or chips, only one of whom has refused to be treated by an amber for the injury; something about a missing finger not being a big deal. The ones who were treated have full and stable forms with some mild discoloration, even if they aren’t able to qualify for fully active duty aside from standing guard or close patrols.”

“Right, right.” I called upon all those days in bootcamp, all the screaming and yelling. All the insults and demeaning statements. Opening my mouth, my voice spoke with the sound of thunder. “Attention! This is your new diamond speaking! Any and all gems with cracks or chips, report to me at once!”

Immediately kneeling down, I dragged my little group into a huddle. “Alright, this is how it’s gonna work. I need one of you to make me cry.”

“Uh, no offense, but maybe you should get to where those gems would expect you to be after an announcement like that first? You didn’t exactly yell that you were at the community washing pool.”

“That’s very true but I can’t help them if I can’t cry,” I reply, giving them a flat look.

“If you feel pain, I guarantee I can make you cry.” The quartz soldier’s left hand glowed briefly, and was soon encased in a wicked-looking gauntlet covered in metallic yellow spikes and barbs. As she flexed her fingers and closed her hand into a fist, a toothed blade extended out from the back of her wrist. “You just have to promise not to hold it against me.”

I patted her on the shoulder, rising up. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Delphi, would you mind showing us the way to the gathering area?”

“Yes, of course. I would expect those who heard you to be heading for your quarters shortly. That would be back in the concealed area we came from, for your protection. Everything possible was done to make this place appear to be the lowest-possible priority of targets.”

Filing that little tidbit of knowledge away, I followed after Delphi. Something happened here, on whatever planet this was. Another version of Earth? I’d have to sit down with a few of my ‘entourage’ and figure it all out.

The walk wasn’t too long, even with my slowed stride. I was greeted by the sight of a small crowd of gems, mostly quartzes, standing outside of an elegant arched doorway painted in the lightest of pink paint. Murmuring to themselves, they snapped to attention when they caught sight of me.

Moving to the front of the crowd, I greeted them with a wave. “Hello, everyone. Sorry to call you in on short notice, but this is rather important. Now, I understand that each of you has had your gem damaged in some way. I’m here to fix that. Would one of you mind coming up first?”

“But... we’re all okay, your glorious pinkness.”

I held a hand up. “I know you feel that way, and I appreciate your dedication but we all know a crack or a chip can easily get worse. Now, I will pick one of you if it comes down to it.” Deciding not to let them wiggle out of this, I pointed at a random quartz. “How about you?”

“I-is this because you know something is going to go wrong with us if we only get patched up by an amber?”

“I’ve been fine for centuries. I think we’d have learned by now if there was anything actually wrong with us after an amber did her best to seal our cracks.”

“How about we show our new diamond the same respect we would show to Yellow or Blue Diamond and stop second-guessing her? Even if she is newly-emerged, she is still Our Diamond.” This came from the quartz at my side, and the others quickly stopped their renewed chatter.

The one I’d pointed at stepped forward slowly and looked up at me. Half of her face looked like it was covered in a clear brown mask that almost mirrored the shape of the crack in the upper left part of her eye-gem. “Forgive me for forcing you to look upon my off-coloredness, My Diamond.”

Kneeling to her height, I pat her head. “It’s alright. You’re just fine, I promise.” Turning my head to the other quartz, I nodded. “You can proceed. Don’t hold anything back.” I turned back to the quartz in front of me, leaning forward so my head was over hers. “I’m going to heaaaaAAARGH!”

Even though I had just ordered her to do it and not hold back, nothing I had even imagined had prepared me for just how much her attack was going to hurt. The strike was right at my lower back, and hit so hard I thought it would have easily broken my spine if I still had one, then came the pulling to the side and the further explosion of pain as those spikes and barbs were dug even further into me, and then straight back out. If I had been anything other than a gem; my back would surely be a bloody mess at this point.

Hot tears ran down my face, dropping onto the horrified quartz in front of me. Blinded by the pain, I didn’t see the outcome of this little demonstration for several minutes. Most of that time was me pawing at my screaming back in futility. When the pain finally faded, half of the crowd of gems were gathered close to me with their hands held close over their gems while the other half had backed off and were staring towards the ground.

Sucking air in through my teeth, I did my best to keep the tears flowing. “You just need a bit. Just a bit to heal you up. Delphi, c-could you send for a Bismuth or two? I have a p-project in mind.”

“O-of course, David. I’ll go now and fetch one so that you can tell her the details yourself.”

“It’s like I was never cracked…”

“The amber seal, it just popped right off and I’m not even flickering…”

“The itching...that maddening itch is finally gone!”

“No more ringing in my ears…”

Despite the lingering pain, a genuine smile spread across my face. The best part of my tours had been making people’s lives just a little bit better. Raising my head, I spoke to the gems that had moved off.

“Hey, guys come on. Free healing, no pledges or praises needed,” I promised, feeling the steady stream of tears flowing down my face. “Please don’t get all self-deprecating on me, you all need this.”

I felt a hand on my side. “David? Are you alright? Should I get Bashir?” Watson questioned, tone drenched in concern.

“No, I’m fine. It just... hurts a bit,” I waved her off. “I might need to do it again, to keep the tears flowing.”

The gems that had healed themselves backed off and to one side while the rest of the group that had gathered quickly walked forward, all except one topaz who hung back for the moment. Soon an even ten discarded amber fragments littered the ground at my feet that had popped off of the gems as they healed from their injuries.

Gazing at the topaz, I motioned them forward. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just get you a bit wet. You aren’t afraid of water, are you?”

She shook her head slowly and offered a salute. “I am uninjured, your glorious redness. I simply came to observe so that I could assure another topaz that this was genuine and not a diamond disposing of useless soldiers under a ruse.”

Suppressing a sniffle, I nodded my head. “I give you my word, I’m not like that. No one is getting shattered on my watch.” Standing up, I wiped at my face. “I’m glad I could help all of you.” I held back a further statement, deciding to wait for Delphi to return.

“So you want me to build a fountain that is full of your tears? Seems a little weird that the first thing you want to do after emerging is cry enough to fill a water system.” What seemed to be ‘my’ bismuth nodded after a few more seconds of thought. “We can start out small, though, like something a single gem at a time can use, and then make it bigger later if we need to. Make the reservoir taper down so that it only needs a tiny bit until we need to expand it.”

“I’m more interested in infusing normal water with my tears ability to heal,” I explained, sitting down by the ‘schematic’ she had etched into the canyon floor. “The fountain is just a way for gems to make use of said enchanted waters.”

“Hmmm. Well, I don’t know much about magic. I know that the other diamonds are able to do some interesting things, but I don’t really know anything about healing either. Do you think that we could try diluting your tears?”

I nodded my head, not eager for another crying session. “I think there’s still a damaged quartz in the enclave. We’ll get some water and see if a tear or two will give it the same healing properties.”

“Right, well, I’ll go make a few small containers so we can see about testing a bunch of concentrations at a time to see just how much we can dilute your tears without losing effectiveness. I’ll bring one of your ambers with me when I come back so we can give our emergency medical gems a personal display of your healing versus their sealing. That way they know that carrying around a couple containers of this tear water will make it that much easier to save gems that would otherwise shatter.”

I smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder. “That’s a great idea...” I stared at her for a moment, trying to recall her name. It took me a moment to realize she didn’t have one; and I could feel my face heating up. “Right, right. You don’t have a name yet. That’s embarrassing...”

“Oh, David, that’s a lovely shade of red,” Watson complimented, though, I’m still not sure if she hadn’t been screwing with me.

“Name? No offense, Your Pinkness, but I’m just a two-kilogram bismuth, not even artisan-grade, but I’m good at making small things and big things, so I’m the best one for this project of yours. I’m gonna go check our stockpile for some pure silica and see if we have some scraps of graphene to make the test vials a little sturdier for mixing and pouring.”

I nodded, kicking myself for flunking geology. "Alright then, I'll leave you to it. I'll get back to you on the name; make a list of them or something for you."

My thoughts jumped from the subject at hand to the concept of naming. Almost two hundred gems and I had only named four of them. Several solutions came to mind, ranging from hat pulls, to a big list to pick from. I didn't even realize I had zoned out until Watson spoke up.

“David, you’ve been staring at the rough diagram the bismuth made of your idea for fifteen minutes. The sapphire you named ‘Delphi’ earlier has already gone inside to make sure that everything is ready for you. Perhaps it’s time we went inside?”

"Huh?" I blinked, giving my head a shake. A haze had descended unto my thoughts, or perhaps it had already been there? I did my best to ignore it, regarding her with a slow nod. "Right, right. Sorry, I got caught up in my own thoughts."

“Whatever you wish to do is fine. I simply thought it best to mention that we were keeping her waiting inside, and it’s also that much less time until you had said you were going to meet that peridot as well... Bashir.” She smiled up at me as she said the name, as if she was happy to have remembered it for me.

Hiding a frown of my own, I smiled back. "Thank you, Watson. Just give me a bit of a poke if I do that again." Stepping by her, I took the first step into my quarters. Standing in the middle, I took a look around.

Everything was as pink as the gems could've managed. Most of it was painted, with pink crystal a rarity. A bureau sat in the corner, its top littered with hair care utensils. To my further befuddlement, a bed sat up against the back wall.

A picture of refinement, it bore silken curtains and sheets; just as pink as I was. Parting its shroud, I stared down at the massive mattress. A quick palm press confirmed it to be memory foam.

"I wasn't expecting a bed..." I muttered, watching as my palm print slowly faded. I took a step back and looked around once again, this time noticing a few doorways that led to other rooms deeper in as well as the fact that the walls of my room were... carved and decorated with various figures and images. Murals, really, for lack of a better term.

"Do you know what these are, Watson?" I stood before the first, eyes roving over its chiseled surface. I could pick out a gem standing over some indistinct smaller figures, but something seemed a bit off.

“Aside from the basic differences between types of gems and their general functions I am still learning, David. I would guess them to be artistic renditions of historic events, though.”

“Your pearl learns quickly, and is rather astute, David. Those murals are a symbolic history of gemkind on this world. That one specifically is of the diamonds first emerging and greeting the local organic life forms.”

"Humans, I assume?" The thought of seeing humans after my conversion was...strange. Best described as a reverse uncanny valley.

“The Diamonds called them minotaurs, and later met other creatures that walk upright like gems. Ponies, gryphons, and a species of intelligent underground canines who called themselves diamond dogs. There are larger creatures here too, ones which do not have a bipedal body, but I don’t know of anything called a ‘human.’”

As she spoke, my eyes lingered on the horned figures standing in White's presence. The alieness of it bore into my soul, turning the haze into a cyclone. "Please tell me you’re joking," I all but begged, letting out a stuttering laugh. "I-its a pretty funny joke."

“Ah, Pink Diamond? You are here?” I felt my eye twitch at that voice as Navi flew into one of the other doorways, a faint blue glow suffusing the room behind her briefly before it flickered and vanished. “I must apologize, Your Radiance. Had I but known of your special condition upon emerging I would have taken steps to have you brought here immediately.”

"What the hell are you talking about?" I snapped, focusing my distress into my dislike of the little pixie.

“I... I do foresee you making use of the bed, David. Perhaps the aquamarine has actually been trying to help this entire time?”

My glare lingered for a moment longer before I let a long sigh. "Yeah, I could use a nap." Patting Watson's head, I sat on the edge of my bed. "Could you let Bashir know we'll have to reschedule? In fact, after that, why don't you keep exploring the enclave?"

“I will tell Bashir that you will not be making contact at the appointed time due to...a medical suggestion? I’ll try to word it so she doesn’t worry, and then I will do as you ask and keep exploring and learning.” She nodded and looked up at me before turning and walking towards the door. “Should I also get a topaz to watch the door so you aren’t disturbed?”

“There’s no need for that. Now that our diamond has emerged the enclave will function a little more efficiently. It may look like simple stonework, but that doorway will shut itself to allow only specific gems through while Pink Diamond is in here and making use of her bed.” Navi flitted away from me and towards the doorway herself, and she stared Watson in the eye for a few seconds before speaking again. “You aren’t defective, at least, but you seem to not have had certain knowledge given to you... I wonder how old your model is? Anyways, I can guide you to the archive we have of basic history for new gems that need to know more details than can be fit into a modern injector sample.”

"Oh that would be lovely." Watson bowed her head to me before following Navi out.

"I shall prepare whatever you shall need upon awakening," Delphi said, performing a small curtsy. "I hope you rest well."

True to Navi's word, once I was alone a wall rose up in the threshold and sealed the passage with a loud thunk. Trapped with my thoughts, I laid down on the bed, letting myself sink into its softness. Thoughts chirped and names buzzed, bouncing from one idea or emotion to another in a cacophony of noise. I closed my eyes and brought my hands up to my ears in a futile attempt to drown out the noise, only to feel everything quickly slip away.

The tension bled out of my form, my breathing going still. The comforting ocean of sleep slipped over me as I submerged beneath its waves.

Defragmentation

“Um, Mister Diam-” the brown-coated colt with a ruby in place of one eye from before spoke up, but I cut him off.

“Please, everyone, just call me David and try to relax. I know I’m on the large side, but I’m not a dragon.”

“Oh, okay. David, my dad told me that my mom didn’t need to sleep, and that gems usually don’t bother sleeping so they can get more done in a day.”

“It isn't sleep, not really. It has the restful benefits of sleep but doesn't fulfill a biological need. It does, however, fulfill a mental need, and that first session in particular turned out to be the most important one for me. Think of a computer compiling and organizing data, and then making sure that all the little fragments of code are put into neat little packages so they don’t get lost.” I smiled down at him. “It’s something that diamonds need to do every so often just to make sure we don’t get overwhelmed with all of the things we oversee. Does anyone else have a question before I continue?”

A purple-coated filly raised her hand slowly. “You mentioned something called humans. What are humans?”

“Humans are like gems without gems. Flesh and blood instead of light projections, more like ponies but with no magic.”

A kirin’s hand shot up, waving frantically. "Are you from the mirror?" He blurted out, without prompt. "My mom goes there sometimes for work." His muzzle scrunched, wrinkling the scales on it. "It's weird. You lose all your fur, your hooves go away and when my mom took me, my horn vanished!"

“No, I’m not from the mirror, but I have been there once. It caused a small panic having a giant appear in front of the school there, but we got things smoothed over easily enough. Those do appear to be humans on the other side, even if they are more colorful than the ones I grew up around.”

"David likes to complain that he can't be the 'only human'," Tempest spoke up. "Being a diamond isn't special enough for him." She grinned, winking at the group. "He's just a big drama queen."

I lowered my voice to a whisper and quickly shrunk down to hiss in Tempest’s ear. “Says the size queen.”

The change in Tempest's muzzle color was barely perceptible. "I'm not the one bringing that kind of talk around kids. Kids with good hearing."

“You and I both know he only heard the pebbles because his gem picked it up. You never hear them when they forget to form a larynx and lungs.”

"Just get back to your story."

I gently booped her nose before expanding back to my normal size and clearing my throat. “Sorry, needed to just have a quick private chat up here with Tempest. So, yeah, those are humans over there but I used to be a different kind of human entirely. Any other questions for the moment?”

After a few seconds of silence, I decided it was safe to continue my tale.

I found myself reliving my life, from my earliest memory, in crystal clarity. Given the flaws of human memory, I can't say if the process gave me perfect recall of everything exactly as it happened, or if I just have perfect recall of how I remember those events. I suppose it doesn't matter.

Childhood, adolescence, military life. All of it came and went, so fast and yet moving at a crawl. Playing a few Pokemon games with my younger sisters as the three of us grew up together, then introducing our youngest sibling to the series once she was old enough to handle a DS and reading... that stuck out to me as important. At the end of my second tour came an opportunity to unwind and patch up a few strained relationships.

ConnectiCon had been our pick, a little bit of something for all of us and close enough to an hour’s drive away. Cons had never been my thing, too many people with no standards, tryhards and weirdos. On that subject, I already had a sore hand. Some jackass copped a feel on one of the costumed ladies and I rewarded him with a fist to the jaw. He was lucky it wasn’t any of my sisters.

“You know, Dave, that guy could report you to security. It’d be his word against ours, so kinda dumb, but they might throw us all out just to save time.” Steven Spinelli, my oldest friend, best buddies from kindergarten on, spoke up. He pulled the blue-costumed form of my oldest sister, Stacy tight against his side for a moment. “Then we’d just be four weirdos in the middle of Hartford wearing Halloween costumes in the middle of June.”

I shrugged. “Your costume just looks like normal clothes at least, Steve, even if the pink jacket is a bit strange for a guy to wear.”

“I think he looks great in pink.” Stacy stood slightly taller than Steven did, her normal complexion hidden under blue makeup. “It’s a very flattering color.”

Everyone’s costumes had been hand made by her, down to the smallest obsessive detail. If she hadn’t gotten the right color of makeup, I’m convinced she’d have gone without sleep long enough to actually get Blue Diamond’s bags under her eyes.

“Alright, so it looks like we picked the right costumes to wear this year girls, and Steven.” Erica’s voice cut through the chatter of the other congoers around us as she rejoined the three of us. “There’s almost a dozen other Steven Universe cosplayers here already signed up for the Cosplay Chess event. One other Steven specifically, so there might be a bit of a squabble over who gets to be what. The big problem, though, is rehearsal time before the event.”

“What she’s trying to say is that we have about half an hour of free time before we need to get our asses with the others, figure out who’s been assigned what piece, and then go over the script with the other team. Maximum team size is four though, David, so even if we had had time to make you a costume you’d have had to sign yourself up separately.” Jennifer spoke in her usual clipped manner as she rubbed a smudge off of her yellow shoulderpads. “And Erica might need to turn off the LED’s in her cape. Active electrical current could be hazardous in case a wire comes loose.”

My sisters had decided to come as the Diamonds from Steven Universe, and Steven naturally decided to just come as the titular character he shared first names with. I was fine with not having a costume, since I didn’t really personally identify with any of the characters despite enjoying the show and discussing it with them when I had time to communicate. They had spent the last couple days binge-re-watching the series with me as a ‘welcome home’ party before this trip.

“I’ll leave the dress-up to you guys. I’m just here to hang out.” I wouldn’t be caught dead in a costume. It was too strange, and too risky to do something like that with the current political climate as well.

“Mommy, look, it’s da diamonds, an’ dey gots Steven! We gots ta wescue him!” A young voice yelled from behind me suddenly, and a small figure in a large white wig, dragging a purple jump rope, ran past me.

“Oh, Sally, no. I-uh… oh drat, no...” A woman’s voice came from close behind me as I heard a number of things drop to the floor. I started to turn around and step aside to look only to feel someone bump into me at the same time. The only thing I saw clearly was a large pair of visor-style sunglasses skittering towards Erica before I grabbed onto the woman’s arm to help her steady herself after the impact.

“Whoa, hey, it’s okay there little Amethyst.” Steven knelt down and quickly moved to scoop the young girl away from the three diamonds. “Remember the end of ‘Change Your Mind?’ They’re in the middle of working things out with me. We’re all good here.”

“S-sorry for grabbing you like that. Instinct, didn’t want you to fall over. I’m pretty solid and..all…” I trailed off and chuckled softly as I let go of the woman’s arm. “Garnet, right? You’re going for a Garnet look?” The squared afro wig meant either Garnet or a tall Ruby, and the purple leggings she was wearing meant Garnet was more likely.

“It’s alright,” ‘Garnet’ assured, taking a moment to ensure her footing. “Yeah, its Garnet. Just wish the glasses were easier to see through.”

“You should try using computer eye-strain lenses for the parts you actually would be seeing through next time, if you use the costume again. Yellow tint, but easy to see through.” Stacy approached, holding out the three-pronged shades.

Taking the glasses with a smile, ‘Garnet’ slipped them back on. “I’ll have to look into that. Come on, Sally. We don’t want to hold anyone up.”

“Picture? C-can we get a picture, pwease?” Sally smiled at her mother and my sisters. “My fwiend’s gonna fweak.”

Stacy smiled, motioning for Erica and Jennifer to get closer. “Of course you can get a picture sweetie. We’ll make it the best picture ever.”

“Are you sure it's not a bother?” ‘Garnet’ asked, gingerly reaching into a hidden pocket. “We aren’t keeping you from anything are we?”

“They’ve got a bit of time to kill anyways before an event they signed up for. How about you get in there too, and I’ll take the picture for you?” I held my hand out, wearing an easy smile.

“Okay, that sounds like a better way to capture the moment to me.” She quickly unlocked the phone and handed it over to me, followed by all of my sisters taking theirs out of where they’d been hidden away and handing them over as well.

Waiting for everyone to get close, I snapped away; cycling through each and every phone. “And done.” Passing ‘Garnet’ her phone back, I gave her a wink. “Picture perfect. You two have a great con.”

‘Garnet’ graced me with a smile, scooping her daughter up so they could both look at the picture together. “Thank you, and I hope we run into each other again later. Not literally this time.”

"I'll be around," I responded. "Nice little dive bar a block over, if I remember correctly. I'd be free of these guys ‘round nineteen hundred."

"He means seven pm," Steve piped up over a snicker from Stacey.

“I’ll have to take a rain check on that. My lovely little handful here means I can’t exactly go to bars much.”

“Whoa, what’s... holy crap, how did we not see that sooner?”

I blinked, having to look at Sally for a moment. "Right, right. Sorry, for a moment there I kinda forgot kids exist." Ignoring the commotion from behind me, I motioned towards the convention center’s entrance. "We're only an hour away, so we don't have a hotel room. Meet up in the convention lobby, seven-ish?"

“I think I can manage a general meetup. I’m pretty sure I saw a sign for a Subway nearby. How’s Subway sound, pumpkin?”

“Yeah! I wanna ham and cheese with chips!” Sally threw her arms up in excitement, nearly smacking her mother in the face in the process.

“Okay, okay, calm down. We’re not going yet. We have a whole afternoon to enjoy the convention and find a couple neat things to bring home, okay?”

My attention was diverted away from ‘Garnet’ and Sally by a white-painted hand tugging at my shoulder. “David, come on, we found something and it’s a bit out of my price range alone. You caught it in your pictures!”

Excusing myself, I let Erica lead me along. "And what exactly do you need me for?"

“Cost splitting efficiency and a gift to your sisters after years apart?” She gave me ‘the look.’ An unholy combination of puppy-dog eyes and a trembling lip that was only marred slightly by the fact that she was dressed as the white tyrant herself.

Unfortunately for her, I wasn't our father. "Nothing over fifty and whatever it is, I get a fourth of it."

“Is that fifty from you or fifty in total?” Erica asked as she led me over to a small merch stall that had a wide variety of what I assumed to be customized pieces.

"Fifty from me." Scanning over the table, I gave a non-comm motion. "What were you looking at?"

Erica stepped aside, pointing over to where Stacy, Jennifer, and Steven were clustered in front of a rather large, and offensively pink, display case in the shape of a familiar faceted heart design. “They’re perfect display replicas of the four diamond gems.”

"How do you know that? The thing isn't even open," I questioned, rather unconvinced of their find.

“It was open until little loudmouth tried to haggle with the stall girl over the price and she refused to lower it.” Jennifer snapped while tapping her foot. “Not like we can’t see them through the case anyways if you look from the front.”

Not that I didn't believe her, but I had to see for myself. Leaning closer, I did make out the blurred forms of the diamonds through the translucent case. "And how much?"

"Two fifty and not a cent lower, Choco!" The woman behind the stall said. Her outfit was the most bizarre I had seen so far, a red and yellow carnival-esque bird costume that might as well not even be there. She had to be wearing moleskin, or some other kind of nude-looking bodysuit material, because bodypaint alone wouldn’t fly at an all-ages event like this. "A girl has to pay the bills, bokko."

Steven was already taking his wallet out. "That's not too bad; just fifty from each of us. No biggie."

"You can even have the pink one, David," Stacey teased, sliding a small pocketbook from out of her robes.

“Oh please, like David wants some pink trinket. Steven’s the one dressed as the owner of that gem anyways.” Jennifer simply reached down the front of her armor and pulled out a plastic cash clip. “I’m only really chipping in so Erica doesn’t complain for the rest of the day. He can have the yellow one if he wants.”

"I already claimed a fourth of it," I explained, fishing out my wallet. "If Steven wanted one, he should've called dibs."

"We're all getting a matching gem." Erica's tone carried a layer of finality as she produced her own contribution from a small wrist purse. "David made his claim, so he gets the pink one. Steven can have the case."

“I’m fine with the case. It means that Stacy and I get to figure out how to fill the empty spots with something just as good as the original pieces to do it justice.” Steven reached for the case while handing over his own fifty-dollar bill to the vendor.

I'm still amazed the vendor could even pick up anything with those wing sleeves. Regardless, she took the offered bills. "It's all yours, choco-bokko!" Twirling in place, she struck a pose. "Enjoy~ Oh but do remember, all sales are final!"

Silence descended around us so suddenly that I thought I’d gone deaf; a notion that was rapidly dispelled by a rattling from my right accompanied by a flash of light.

Steven grunted as the case in his hands lurched, and then gasped in pain as the doors were blown open by four lights shooting out. They somehow moved too fast to react, and at the same time the scene was agonizingly slow. I watched Steven collapse to the ground with a hand clutching at the case is if trying to pull it away while Stacy and Jennifer both grabbed at the yellow and blue missiles that had slammed into their own torsos.

Erica dropped in front of me as the white light smacked into her skull with a crunch that made me cringe, and that’s when I felt my own impact. I instantly recalled the one time I dared mouth off to our father as a child, and that’s the closest thing I felt to the punch in my gut as the pink light made contact.

“Two hundred fifty dollars, and, in exchange, the quarter you... diamonded.”

The world faded out as the light bore into my abdomen, all sensation falling away until there was nothing but wearying pain.

Waking up, I found my head clear, crystal clear if you'll forgive the pun. My thoughts made sense, no strange tangents or wanderings. Just me in the present. For all the good that was.

I quickly shifted my weight along with my legs and rolled myself up into a sitting position at the edge of my new bed. One hand went down to brush against the gem seemingly embedded in my navel, and I realized I could feel the facets of it as if I didn’t even have gloves on. “Okay, that makes sense now. I look like I’m wearing gloves and clothes, but it’s all just light. I really wish that light didn’t involve somehow feeling pain.”

But that gem wasn't just a gem was it? It wasn't even my gem. It was me. Everything I was and am, contained in a visibly flawless chunk of carbon. I ran a finger along a facet, vaguely wondering if it could feel said contact.

A small discoloration caught my eye, drawing it to my forearm. Standing out against my dark forearm was a thin, pale pink line. A ginger touch revealed it to be liquid, almost water like, and if gems could bleed I would have had a sudden rush of panic instead of pushing the thought of having cut myself aside. “Must be a leak somewhere that picked up some dye.”

Wiping my arm off, I rose from my bed, truly registering how tall I had become. I easily dwarf my old self, along with even the tallest human I could recall. Some quick testing showed I had slightly more than the normal range of motion, with the addition of double joints. That was without the use of shapeshifting.

I still knew how to move my body the way I needed to. I'd have to test to see if my muscle memory remained. I'd have to adapt to my new stature anyway; learn my limits.

My thoughts and hand wandered back to my gem, it's smooth colored surface hooking my gaze. For all intents and purposes, this was me now. Hard carbon and light. I won't lie and say it didn't send me reeling. My existence itself had been warped into something else, something inhuman.

But wrestling an existential dilemma wouldn't solve anything. Self-pity never helped anyone do anything and I had nothing to gain from starting the 'woe is me' club. I had to stay in the moment, I could grieve my losses later.

“That little flying pest mentioned Stacy, and that Stacy was wondering if it was me or Steven that would emerge down here. That means they don’t remember as clearly for some reason...probably due to not having been trained for debriefing, and Erica was hit in the head if all four of us got sent wherever here is…”

“David? Were you trying to speak with someone specifically?” Watson’s voice came from just outside the door to my quarters, which was still shut. “I can tell you’re talking, but I can’t make it out.”

"Gimme a moment, Watson," I called while walking to the door. Spotting a handprint device nearby, I placed my hand on it. The door slid open with a loud hiss, and Watson greeted me with a smile. "Sorry, did I make you wait long?"

“Oh, no, not very long at all. In fact, I don’t think I was standing here for more than an hour before I heard you start talking.” She shifted in place for a moment, a strange look crossing her face. “David, the archive is... it made me worry about things. Why would gems need so many mirrors?”

"You're worried about mirrors?" I asked, kneeling down to her level. "What kind of mirrors are we talking about?"

“She calls them ‘mirrors of memory.’” Watson shook her head for a moment before pulling her hands out from behind her back, holding a, to me, miniscule mirror in them. “But I think they’re more than just mirrors, David. Mirrors don’t need gems.”

Gently taking the mirror from her, I almost mistook it for a toddler's toy. Delicate designs ran over its handle, its pristine surface reflecting my face. Turning it over, it carried on the designs from the handle. A green gem set into the back, roughly square, with a crack nearly splitting it in half.

Passing it back to her, I hardened my features. "Can you pull the gem from its socket? My fingers are too big to get a good grip on it."

“There’s enough of a lip, I should be able to get my fingers behind the gem, but that crack…”

"I know, but I don't think it would be a good idea to heal it while they're still in the mirror." Glancing up, I shouted at the first quartz I could see. "Hey, you! I need you for a second."

Despite the look of confusion, the quartz approached and quickly saluted. "How may I serve, My Diamond?"

"I need you to hit me, hard as you can," I instructed, turning back to Watson. "Soon as the tears start flowing, pop the gem out and make sure it gets a drop, alright?"

“David, if you hold the mirror I can get a better grip on both halves of the gem. It would mean I’d be able to pull both sides at the same time, and a smaller risk of the crack spreading, or the gem breaking completely.”

“Wait, mirror? You’re gonna try to revive one of the pre-amber fallen?” The quartz seemed to perk up and drew closer.

I nodded, pinching the mirror between my thumb and forefinger. "If it works, we're going to get the others back. Now, if you don't mind-"

“Hold on... there’s a thing you need to know about the mirrors and the gems. Any that have a flower in the designs are traitors, confirmed. They were tried and convicted, no assumptions made. Some weren’t even cracked to begin with, just poofed and constrained. A traitor might attack you on sight just for being a diamond.”

I regarded the mirror before looking back at her. "Then consider this my first decree: anyone previously convicted of treason is hereby pardoned. Now, ready your weapon. On the count of three, you'll strike me as many times as you need to draw tears. That's when you pull the gem out, Watson. Got it?"

“Understood, David.”

“Of course, My Diamond.” The green-tinted quartz summoned what looked like a heavy warhammer at first, then a small dagger as well. “Which would you prefer I use? One might poof you with a couple swings, but the other might only tickle a gem such as you.”

"Hit me with the first," I instructed, staring intently at the mirror. "One. Two. Three." I kept my eyes on the mirror, my focus on keeping a delicate grasp on the mirror. I didn't need a spasm making me break the thing. I didn't get a second before I felt the weapon connect.

Three swings was all it took before I started feeling pain, and I briefly wondered if this quartz had actually dared to initially disobey a direct order. The fifth blow managed to drive a hot lance of agony up my back, and I couldn’t help tightening my grip slightly.

"Watson!" I spoke through gritted teeth, squeezing an eye shut. "Get that gem out before I end up crushing it!"

“It’s fine right now, David, you’re actually bending the fittings away so I can work the gem loose without pulling too hard. You’d have to crush my hands before you crush the gem.”

"That's good... That's good..." I muttered, feeling strikes six and seven draw hot tears. "Okay now you just have to get it out."

I felt the tiniest of tugs at first as Watson began to gingerly free the damaged gem from its setting. I couldn’t quite hold back a small gasp of pain at the next strikes, and I could feel the tears run down my face to drip, unhindered, towards the ground.

“I almost have it, David,” Watson assured, her tugs becoming more confident. “I just don’t want to damage it further, and whoever made these mirror settings made sure the gems were secure.”

“Do your... best...” I muttered through gritted teeth. The pain built, spiking through my body with each strike.

The sharp squeal of metal bending reached my ears as the mirror buckled under the dual assault of my fingers and Watson’s pulling, and I couldn’t quite stop myself from thinking about the old superstition of a broken mirror bringing bad luck. Within seconds, Watson yelled in triumph moments before my fingers pinched together completely. “Oh stars, she’s really broken. I hope your tears work on a gem that hasn’t manifested in centuries, David.”

The blows stopped almost immediately, though my tears continued to flow for a time. “We need to work out a better way to do this in the future, that took too many swings for you to even start crying.” The quartz soldier complained and dropped her warhammer with a heavy thud.

Taking the gem from Watson, I bowed my head and allowed the healing liquid to drop onto it. "It should. I know for certain that it will." I blinked my eyes a few times, enraptured as the gem in my hands glowed.

The crack filled in, replaced by smooth, shiny surface. An odd, squealing sound came from it for a few seconds after the visible flaws had vanished, and then it began to heat up before emitting the familiar bloom of white light that heralded a gem reforming.

The emerging gem made me stumble, nearly dropping it. I settled for cradling the emerging gem to my chest, mesmerized by the act of emergence. To see it happen in front of me was incredible. I only vaguely noted that the bright light didn't bother my eyes.

“Uhhhh...red, and pink...and larger than me.” A new and oddly calm voice came from this gem as the light faded into a green and black uniformed gem with paler green skin. “You must be the ‘Pink Diamond’ that pearl mentioned she was going to bring me to.”

"Just call me David," I responded, setting the revived Emerald down. "That's what I would prefer anyway. And yes, unnamed quartz, we're not going through this song and dance again." I was immensely glad that her strikes wouldn’t leave any damage.

“I had to give her a term that would be recognizable for a gem that hasn’t met you, David. Every gem knows they should be respectful of a diamond, and would know that being brought to a diamond must be a good thing if they are loyal.”

The emerald seemed to flinch against me at the mention of loyalty. “I had nothing to do with them abandoning me and our cause. I was ambushed and all but one deserted on the spot, siding with the resources instead of their own kind.”

I put a hand up, the other bracing the emerald’s back. “No one is blaming you for anything, alright? I’m certainly not. Shit happens.”

“Forgive me, My David,” the emerald shifted a little and took a tentative step away from the hand at her back. “But it is difficult adjusting to a different time entirely, never mind trying to remember what actually happened versus things I’ve only had to imagine from descriptions of events I’ve overheard for centuries. Being affixed to a mirror certainly prevented me from shattering, but it is not a comfortable experience.

Standing up, I wiped the remaining tears from my eyes. “Whatever happened, you did your best.” The entire experience hadn’t been pleasant, and I dreaded the idea of doing this for every gem in the archive. “I’ll need your help though. It’ll be some time before we can restore the other mirror gems. I’d like to count on you to help them adapt, when they return.”

She instantly snapped into that awkward-looking salute. “As you command, My Diamond!”

Delphi walked into sight, coming from the direction of my quarters. “Ah, David, I foresee that we will have an unexpected visitor arrive in about five minutes, but before that happens, you will have a mild panic attack.”

“What? Why would I have a panic attack?” I questioned, disbelief manifesting on my face.

“Oh, David, the ground. It’s... crawling?” Watson spoke up after looking around briefly. Sure enough, the ground where my tears had fallen before we managed to free the emerald from her setting seemed to be squirming or pulsing.

Immediately and with no other warning than that, a number of eyes opened and stared up at all of us while tiny bodies and limbs began to peel away from the surrounding stony mass.

Slowly dropping back to my knees, I gathered them in my hands. Yes, it was certainly something to have a panic attack over. Bringing rocks to life from something as banal as tears isn’t normal.

“Well, congratulations. If you were organic, that’d make you a mother.” The quartz chimed in with a short laugh.

That little comment stung, a blow to both ego and self image. Breathing deeply, the urge to reprimand her bled out of my mind. I really should have seen this coming; it was bound to happen eventually. I had already... oh. Turning my head, I held the pebbles out to the quartz. “Take these little guys to a safe place until I can see to them. Have a few other quartzes look around for any that might have spawned during the group healing.”

“Safe place, got it. I’ll put them in the safest place there is here.” The quartz nodded towards me since her arms were full of the pebbles I had inadvertently created, and quickly moved away to deposit them wherever it was that she thought of as ‘safe.’

With a sigh, I turned to face Delphi and smiled. “Okay now, what was that about having an unexpected visitor?”

A Tempest Foreshadowed

“We’ll be arriving just as the quartzes detain the intruder,” Delphi informed as she led our little group along. Besides myself and Watson, a pair of topaz guards had fallen in with us. The emerald had taken it upon herself to get better acquainted with the time period. “For the fifth time. She is quite tenacious.”

“Fifth time, huh? I knew a few guys like that; too dumb or stubborn to stay down.” I flexed my hands, wondering if shield generating was at my beck and call. I wasn’t Steven, and as far as I knew, I didn’t have any gem knowledge imprinted in my mind.

One of the topaz thumped her chest. “Not to worry, My Diamond. No matter how tenacious, we won’t let this intruder harm you.”

“If anything happens, I want you to protect Delphi and Watson,” I instructed firmly. “I can take care of myself.”

The sight of a quartz soldier surrounded by what looked like multicolored lightning impacting the wall in front of me immediately after that was slightly troubling, however, especially the way her form seemed to visibly glitch and distort right before she vanished in a puff of smoke. Her gem fell to the floor and rolled towards us as the sound of fighting grew more intense.

“Stay here, Watson, Delphi. One of you topaz stay here and watch them. The other one, come with me.” Breaking into a run, I didn’t bother to make sure the topaz followed. Leaning an arm down, I scooped up the fallen quartz. “Watson, catch!” I drew my arm back, tossing it to her.

The scene that greeted me was one of absolute insanity. A dozen quartz soldiers of varying hues were punching and grabbing at a much smaller reddish figure wearing black armor who was, in turn, firing off what looked like balls of lightning from her horn in addition to punching and kicking back. Despite being a good foot and a half shorter and far less bulky than the quartzes, they outfought all of them and dodged almost every attack with what looked like no effort.

Most of the soldiers struck by their hand or hoof barely flinched, but the ones caught in the lightning balls staggered back every time, with their projected form distorting for a few seconds before becoming stable. One blue-tinted quartz stood almost twice as tall as the others, and had what looked like a large black mole with a white streak in the middle poking up from her right shoulder.

Pushing aside the quartzes, I thrust my palm into the equine’s chest. The impact sent her tumbling, allowing the quartzes to dogpile. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll give up.”

“Interesting. I’ve only ever heard of one red gem. You’re clearly not her and you lack the features of a fusion.” The mare’s voice was serious and only slightly shaken as she continued to struggle against the grip of the four soldiers holding her limbs. “Tell you what, you let me go and I’ll stop zapping your little play soldiers.”

Stepping closer; my eyes lingered on her struggling form and took in the shattered stump of her horn. “I don’t appreciate people picking fights with those under my command. You’re going to surrender yourself into our custody and if I like what you have to say, we’ll see about that horn of yours.”

Her teal eyes narrowed at the word ‘surrender,’ and her features twisted into a sneer as sparks cascaded out of her horn to streak down the outside of her armor. “I will not surrender as long as I can see the enemy and draw breath. I represent the Storm King, and he will send an army to find me if I don’t return to him what he sent me to retrieve.”

The magic sparks and lightning had enough of an effect on one quartz, causing her fingers to loosen as they phased out for a moment, freeing a leg. This was immediately taken advantage of, with the mare twisting herself to bring that freed hoof around and kick the soldier holding her other leg across the face.

It was at this point that I paused both my narration and massage to lift Tempest up off my lap. She squirmed for a few seconds before I wrapped everything below her neck in a form-fitting shield that forced her to mimic the action I had just described. With just a little more concentration I formed additional shields above and below her to spell out two simple things: Tempest Shadow. Self-trained, Diamond refined

“David! Put me down!” she snapped, her features morphing into a glare.

“What? It’s not like I’m going to drop you or anything, and you’d just fall back into my lap anyways if I did.” Much to the amusement of those in attendance, I placed her back in my lap. My hand went to her sore spots, putting a little extra effort in to smooth out her anger.

"Where was I again? Ah, right, an escaping prisoner."

A sharp snort escaped me, closing the distance between myself and the mare. "I don't really care who sent you, you will stand down." Drawing my arm back, my open palm came down on her chest. I put as much pressure as I thought was safe, pinning her. "Give. Up."

The sound of air rushing out of her lungs reminded me of both a bellows, and the fact that gems were usually stronger than they looked. Easing up my hand allowed her to take in a sharp gasp of air.

“You done?” I questioned, looking down at her. “Or do we have to keep doing this?” I didn’t need to eat, I didn’t need to sleep. We both knew this. The only thing she didn’t know was how much punishment I could endure.

My other hand stayed in the air, palm vertical. The quartz soldiers seemed to understand, standing at the ready. It spoke to their restraint that they didn’t just beat her into paste. A point towards diamond devotion, as terrible as it was.

After nearly a minute of labored-sounding breathing, she looked up at me with a pained expression on her face. “As much as I’d... like to discuss the terms of your immediate surrender... I think you crushed my armor a bit.” Her eyes darted left and right, followed by a wince as she took a deep breath. “So, let’s call this a draw so I can stop feeling like I’m wearing something made for a teenager. I’m going to need my arms free for that.”

Slowly raising my hand from her chest, I lowered the other. “Let her go. Slowly. If she tries anything, give her a solid punch to the head.”

As if they were taking the pettiest form of revenge possible, the two green soldiers holding the mare’s arms both let go at the same time. The one holding her leg dropped that limb a couple seconds after her head and back made contact with the ground again, followed by a sheepish grin in my direction. “I didn’t know they were going to do that.”

The mare simply groaned and stood up slowly with one hand grabbing at the side of her armor while the other rubbed along the back of her skull. “If the big one could free my subordinate, he can help me unseal this a bit quicker, make it easier to talk.”

“You heard her, let the other guy go.” Rising to my full height, I gestured for the other guy’s release. “Just keep an eye on the two of them.”

Hearing his freedom was approaching, the unidentified accomplice began thrashing the parts that weren’t embedded in the gem. He earned said freedom when the fusion holding him together came undone; with the two gems involved being revealed as a blue lace agate and a white quartz.

“Tempest!” Scrambling to whatever passed for lower appendages, the pudgy little creature scampered over to the equine. “You okay boss lady? That big one laid the smackdown like pow!” he punched one fist into his other palm, sounding like an excited child.

Glancing at her side, the little creature sucked in a breath. “Ooo! That’s a bad dent! We gotta get you outta that.”

“Just work on unlocking the other side for me, Grubber. I really don’t need you to try and tell me it hurts when I can feel that for myself.” Tempest snarled that last part out through gritted teeth while closing her eyes tightly. “The quicker the better.”

“We could just take her to a bismuth and have the armor cut off...” The lone agate offered as a suggestion.

“Yeah, but organics don’t really like having sharp things next to their... whassname... skin?” her former fusion partner responded while idly brushing at her cheek-placed gem as if she could feel dirt clinging to it. “My Diamond, requesting permission to have a peridot examine my gem for light pollution from color mixing.”

Watching the little gremlin fiddle with the undamaged side of Tempest’s armor, I responded. “You’ll be fine, there’s no such thing as light pollution.”

It took me a couple seconds after saying that to realize that the only sound in the immediate area was now Grubber and Tempest working together to free her from her damaged armor. A quick glance up revealed that all of the soldiers were staring at me as if I had just told them I was lime green instead of pink. The agate raised one finger and opened her mouth briefly before looking down with a thoughtful expression.

Cocking an eyebrow, I focused on the agate. “What exactly is ‘light pollution?’”

“You healed a bunch of gems with amber patches yesterday, right? You saw how they were discolored? Light pollution is like that but it comes from fusing with gems that aren’t the same as you. It’s additive, and it weakens the structure of your gem; making you easier to crack or shatter. The other color begins to creep into your projection and taint it, and the weakening happens after that taint reaches your gem. There are a few in the archive who were so severely polluted their very gems were stained.”

I stared long and hard at her, my mind going through everything I knew. Dismissing the possibility outright would be foolish, this wasn’t the world I left or one I was familiar with. Light pollution could be a very real thing here.

“As far as I know, the only thing that can cause discoloration is corruption; something that can only be inflicted by the diamonds. Corruption causes severe trauma to a gem’s mind, causing them to become monsters,” I explained, not really looking at her anymore. “Even when healed it leaves discoloration and physical scars.”

“Well, the diamonds, other than you, of course, were the ones to tell us about light pollution in the first place. They don’t have any reason to lie to us, though.”

My mood soured, from whatever it had been from our little cease fire. My sisters had gotten here first, far in advance of myself. And what did they do with that time? Become dictators. Swatting the thought away, I resolved to get the story from their lips. My mind had to stay here.

A soft clattering brought my attention back to the pony and the odd creature at her side, as the breastplate and back of her armor released at last and was dropped on the ground beside her. She let out a loud snort and clutched at her side before looking up at me. “Could we, perhaps, get to a room where I can have some privacy to check for open wounds? I know gems are different, but I don’t feel like stripping in front of a bunch of strangers.”

“We can head to my quarters.” Turning, I made my way back to my entourage. “Watson, could you help me out with something?”

She seemed to perk up immediately. “Of course I can, David. That’s exactly what I was made to do, after all.”

“Right. Could you help our new guest? I’m sure she can walk fine on her own but you’re the perfect size to help her if she needs it.” Motioning towards Tempest, I stepped around Watson. “Just brace her if she stumbles and... Right... you wouldn’t know what a shoulder carry is...”

Watson stared at Tempest for a few seconds, then giggled softly before moving over to her side. “Would you like me to contact a silver to see if there are any appearance modifiers available for your new pet, David? I’m sure we have some that would be compatible with non-gems.”

“How ironic, that a pearl would assume I’m someone’s pet.”

“Ohh, do you have any pet food? I wonder what gem pet food tastes like. You can always tell how nice people are by how tasty they make their food for their pets!”

My finger pressed gently against Watson’s lips. “She’s not a pet, Watson. We don’t own creatures that are sapient, alright? She’s a guest, treat her like any other gem.”

Delphi took my attention, already mid curtsy. “I’ll fetch an amber, David. We’ll arrive shortly after you settle in.”

I couldn’t help but size up the odd orange-brown gem that walked into my quarters while I was waiting for Tempest to finish checking herself for wounds in one of the side-chambers of my designated residence. Her legs and torso were concealed by loose white clothing with the diamond authority symbol in the center of her chest. Her shoulders and upper torso were concealed by a short oval shield-like garment that hung from a collar around her neck, and most of her face was covered by what looked like a medical mask while her gem was nowhere that I could immediately discern. Her arms were oddly-proportioned to the rest of her body, with oversized hands. Her arms also seemed to be made of liquid.

It took most of Tempest’s little self-exam to get a good look at Amber’s body. She spent most of it gushing over me like a preteen, plying me with ‘dreamy’ praise and hyper compliments on my healing ability.

“-lmost nothing left!” Amber babbled, having gone back to my big healing. “None of us ever dreamed of having that kind of power!”

“...Right, so, other than stroking my ego with endless compliments, why exactly did you think I was going to need an amber here, Delphi?” I forced a smile on my face and tried not to think about how gems were forced to almost worship diamonds.

“To heal the unicorn’s horn, David,” Delphi replied, standing beside my bed with Watson.
“I foresee you offering when the situation allows."

“Well, I actually already offered it, but my tears should be enough to heal any wounds by themselves.”

The amber switched tracks, her motormouth shifting back a gear. “No disrespect, My Diamond, but have you ever healed an organic? Your tears might have unintended side effects.”

I paused and thought for a second. It was true, actually, that I had no idea if Pink Diamond could heal organics or not since I had only ever seen Steven do that on the show, but all of Steven’s powers came from his gem, which was his mother’s gem. The general fan consensus was that Steven had no powers of his own that Pink herself didn’t have, and that the only reason he could fuse with Connie was because he himself was half human, but that could also be wrong. “Okay, and how do you propose we test this?”

“If you have any tears left over, we could test them on the hedgehog. It does seem to be missing some mass from its ears,” the amber suggested, pointing to the little blob that was snoring in the corner.

“He’s a hedgehog?” I questioned, looking to Watson for confirmation.”I thought he was some kind of badger?”

“He doesn’t appear to have any spikes or spines on his back other than that stripe of spiky white hair, but he’s clearly not a skunk. Maybe he’s just some kind of organic hybrid creature with many compatible families mixed together?”

“Either way, it would allow for a benchmark,” the amber pressed. “It doesn’t even have to be awake for it.”

“But the missing portions of its ears are the same on both sides, so a test result where nothing happens would be inconclusive. Perhaps we could cause a small injury, purely superficial, so that we know for sure that there is an injury to be healed?” Watson responded quickly.

Listening to their little back and forth bemused me. To treat a living breathing, thinking person like they didn’t have a say in the matter. To set an example, I went to the corner and nudged the little guy. “Hey, I need to bother you for a second.”

“Huhwha?” He mumbled in response, shifting and rolling over to face the wrong direction at first before shaking his head and looking around. “Tempus?” His voice was groggy from interrupted sleep, much like some lazier soldiers I’d seen early on in boot.

“Just me.” I greeted him with a slight wave. “We need your help with something. I think we can fix your boss’s horn, but we need to make sure it works on people with flesh first. You got anything that would need healing?”

“Well, I...uhh.” He turned himself around slowly and reached down to scratch at his stomach. “I can’t swim?”

“I’m sorry, what? That’s not something that needs to be healed, you just need to be taught-”

“No, I mean, like, I sink like a rock in water and I get tired really fast so it’s hard for me to exercise. It’s a bone thing, I was told, like I have actual big bones despite being so short. I even weigh more than my parents, and they’re a few inches taller than I am with just as much chub.”

Clicking my tongue, I nodded my head. It wasn’t exactly a ‘wound’, yet it was comparable. “I can’t promise it’ll work. You might feel a ting-”

“Hold on, a bone density issue is going to need an impartial measurement of the subject’s mass to properly assess progress since his own perception of things could be subject to alteration by a side-effect of your tears.” The amber stretched out her arm towards Grubber and rested it on top of his head while playfully ruffling his mohawk. “I’ll just see how much effort it takes to lif-by the stars he’s heavy!”

She didn’t even visibly move her arm before suddenly exclaiming that, but that didn’t stop me from giving the extended limb a quick swat. “You were going to lift him by the top of his skull? What kind of doc... gem, right, nevermind that criticism, just let him go now. Put your hands under his armpits and lift that way.”

Amber nodded and quickly shifted her grip as well as moving closer so that her other arm could be brought into use without stretching both limbs across the entirety of the room. “Let’s see if I can get a measurement other than ‘shouldn’t be possible’ this time.”

“You know, you aren’t exactly being quiet out here.” Tempest’s voice carried a hint of amusement as she pulled the curtain aside and leaned against the doorway’s frame to observe. She had removed all of her armor and most of the padded clothing beneath it, and had a bandage wrapped around her right bicep as well as one across her stomach with what looked like an ice pack of some kind pressing against her left side. Tight shorts and a sporty-looking shirt kept her from being completely nude.

“I didn’t know we should have been,” I replied, giving her a once over. “I thought you didn’t want to strip around strangers. You look pretty stripped to me.”

“There’s a difference between having a dozen soldiers watching you disrobe and having a small handful of people see you in what you consider to be minimally presentable attire. I would have kept my arm and leg armor on if they didn’t need to be connected to the breastplate to keep some parts from flopping loosely and annoyingly. It’s not like I’m standing here in lingerie and a silk gown like a wh-”

The creaking of a door intruded on my recollection. Delphi’s short strides brought her from deeper in the cottage. “You really need to remember who your audience is, David. We don’t want angry parents visiting again.”

“Oh good, someone more my size is here. Hop on up, Delphi, I stepped on something sharp the other day and my right frog still hurts.” Tempest smiled up at me as a soft blush crept over my face. “Our Diamond is simply too big and clumsy to properly care for an area so small.”

“Tempest, you’re almost as bad as he is.” A chorus of sound erupted from the young ponies as Delphi walked around from behind my chair and came into view, with one filly jumping to her hooves and running right up to the blue gem.

“Oh wow! Your dress is so shimmery.” She tried to stop, and is only saved from slipping and falling on her tail by a perfectly-timed catch by Delphi. “Is that a Rarity original? My mommy has one and they tend to be shiny like that.”

Delphi smiled, setting the filly back on her hooves. “The design is, but the dress itself is a part of my form. Yes, I paid her for making the design for me.”

The filly blinked, tilting her head. “How did you know I was gonna ask that?”

“Sapphires, like my dear Delphi here, are gifted with the ability of limited foresight. It’s how she knew to walk in and interrupt me before I could finish saying a word that most of your parents wouldn’t want you to know while I was a bit too caught-up in remembering old times to stop myself.” I responded while looking down at the two of them over the arm of my chair. “And Rarity rarely actually finishes assembling her creations these days according to Princess Twilight. She has a pair of Silver and Gold assistants that help her realize her visions.”

Clicking my tongue, I moved Delphi into my lap before the filly could ask any more questions. “The real reason she came in is to make sure a special someone can share their bit of the story,” I said, putting my free hand on Delphi’s head.

So, altogether it took about another hour of talking things over amongst ourselves to figure out the best course of action. During that time the bismuth from earlier came back with a selection of containers for collecting my tears and carefully measuring dilution concentrations. Some of these vials were so small and the glass so thin it looked like a stern glance might break them, and at the time I wondered how they had even been made. Now I know that some of the pebbles I’d made by accident were already at work making small things as they were needed.

A further hour passed just getting the tears needed for said vials. I made sure to switch out the quartzes as it went. It wasn’t really a comfortable process for any involved, and Tempest and Grubber both seemed shocked at what I was willing to endure to heal the many cracked gems in the archives. We’d even managed to fill up a container that looked like it’d make a good coffee mug for me with tears while the bismuth was busy fetching a stone barrel full of water.

After a few more minutes of careful measurements and dilution, followed by dropping a cracked gem extracted from an archive mirror into a container full of water and adding drops of tears until the crack sealed, we found out that my tears were effective on gems starting at around a 400-to-1 volumetric ratio. “Okay.” I pointed to Grubber. “Now, if you please, we need to test these on organics and you’re the only other one here.” I motioned him over. “Don’t worry too much, you shouldn’t get hurt.”

Hesitantly, Grubber closed the distance between us. “I-I ain’t scared,” he dismissed, a hand moving through his hair. “I just ate something that’s got me all wired up.” A squeal tore out of him as Amber lifted him up again. “T-totally not scared!”

“Well,” she began, with the strain of lifting him clear on her face within moments, “I can certainly say that this would be much easier if we had a scale handy. One with a digital readout would be nice, but I don’t think we have anything that measures more than a few pounds at a time without errors.”

Giving Grubber no chance to back out, I tipped one of the more concentrated vials over. Pink water trickled down onto his head, making his ‘mane’ stick to his body. Deciding a quarter was enough, I righted the vessel. “Feel anything?”

“Does hungry count?”

“You’re always hungry, Grubber.”

“I am not, I just...oh. OH! Put me down.” The odd creature began to squirm in the amber’s grasp as a strange gurgle emanated from his gut. “Put me down now, I gotta go!”

“You heard him, put him down,” I ordered, taking a step back.

“But nothing’s happened to him yet, My Diamond.” She sounded absolutely baffled by the order.

“Just put him down,” I insisted. “Obviously something has happened.”

Confused, but complying, the amber placed Grubber on his feet. He moved faster than I thought his pudgy body could; almost leaving a cartoon dust cloud in his wake as he scrambled to exit my chambers. “I need a bathroom! Bathroom!”

“Well, that makes sense. Unless your tears were going to just straight-up erase all the extra material his weight wasn’t going to change unless something came out of his body.” The magenta mare remarked in a tone that suggested she was holding back any expression of amusement. “But, if it doesn’t add or remove material, how do you intend to fix my horn?”

I gestured to the Amber. “That’s why I brought her here. Plus, I know for a fact that my tears can encourage bone growth.”

“So you’re effectively a sapient source of actual healing potions that can kick the ass of anyone who’d try to capture you and exploit you for that. Someone like you would have made revolution impossible if all the tales of the time of gem overlords are true.”

“Well, she’s here now and showing you considerable mercy.” The amber commented smugly before looking up at me. “Permission to examine the damaged area and ensure there’s nothing foreign there that could cause complications in the healing process or subsequent infections for your new pet, my diamond?”

I merely nodded at Tempest. “I’m not the one you need to ask, but do remember, she’s not a pet. She’s a guest.”

Amber nodded and turned to face Tempest. She stayed silent for a few seconds, simply looking at the unicorn before sighing. “Right, organics...would you mind if I examined your old injury before treatment begins? The last thing I want is for our new diamond to have to deal with an imperfect use of her abilities scarring her for life...and the pain you’d have to endure, with the accompanying screaming, would also be unbearable for me.”

Sighing, Tempest lowered her head. “Just get it over with. I don’t like people touching my horn.”

“I would imagine not. Old medical records show that few slaves or pets enjoyed having their wounds touched.” Amber subtly stretched her legs to make sure she stood just a little taller to get a better look at all areas of the jagged stump, and her right hand quickly changed shape to form a bunch of small medical tools. “This may hurt a little, but if you punch me I’m going to glue your arms to the wall. Understood? Any pain is only because I’m cleaning something that would hurt far worse if it wasn’t cleaned.”

Tempest nodded, and I watched her flinch slightly a few times as Amber began to meticulously clean the broken horn. Small chips of bone fell to the floor and were quickly swept up by a pair of pebbles that darted out of a hole in the wall that didn’t exist before they came out of it.

I made a note to talk with the pebbles when we were done. It didn’t sit right with me that my tears brought things to life pre programmed to serve. “See any complications?” I asked.

“I see multiple potential complications with this, my diamond, mostly because organics are messy creatures with all the bones and the fluids involved. That odd little gremlin-thing did prove that your power obeys the basic conservation of mass principle inherent in the core concepts of physics, though, which means that in order to fully repair her horn it is going to need to rebuild the basic structure of her horn by pulling bone and whatever tissue it is that unicorns use to channel their magic.”

She sighed and inhaled to gently blow against the slightly-less-jagged stump of Tempest’s horn, sending a puff of powdered bone from her cleaning into the air. “I think it would be best for her if I did something to mitigate the loss of matter and tissue elsewhere while your power works to heal, that way we don’t have the problem of an organic body trying to expel the patch that I make to heal someone. Pets aren’t gems, and her new horn trying to push a replacement aside might do even more damage to her.”

“Okay, I get that you have a few dozen centuries of tradition about the proper relationship between gems and all of the other intelligent species on the planet, but she just told you not even an hour ago that I’m not a pet.” Tempest narrowed her eyes and straightened herself up to her full height. She somehow managed to look down her muzzle at the taller gem, as if she was berating a lower-ranked soldier for a mistake. “I am a battalion commander in the army of the Storm King, and I will be treated with no less respect than you would give to any high-ranking quartz soldier, understood, civilian?”

“I expect you to comply,” I added, my disappointment bleeding into my tone. “Unless you want to clean all the murals with just your hands, or be assigned as an assistant to a bismuth on all of my non-medical projects.”

“You’d treat me like a pearl?” Her eyes widened a bit as she looked up at me, then she shuddered in response before actually offering Tempest that dorky arms-crossed salute. “Forgive me, unicorn-”

“Tempest.”

“Forgive me, Tempest, for forgetting your place and station as well as the orders of my diamond. What I think would be best is if I created a prosthetic replacement for the missing majority of your horn while my diamond’s healing power is used on you. That way her power could potentially convert the matter of the prosthetic into what your horn should be made of instead of drawing all of the mass from elsewhere in your body. This may be aided by you actively trying to use magic while we do this so that you do not end up handicapped by having to re-learn how to do anything after so many years without a fully-functional appendage. My kind of gem is a mineralized form of ancient organic matter, which will likely enhance compatibility if we do it this way.”

Tempest actually paused and blinked a couple times before looking up at me. “This is really happening, right? I’m not lying out in the badlands dying from heat stroke? I have a diamond offering to heal me for nothing, and one of the elusive gem medics actually trying to make sure I can still zap things while learning basic spells all over again? This is like some sappy children’s story where even the villain ends up with a happy ending... I’ve done some... some really underhanded things to get to this point, and I was hurting your soldiers. Why would you even bother to help me?”

Putting a hand on her shoulder, I gave it the softest squeeze I could. “Why not? If I’m going to be the leader of these gems, I need to lead by example. If it helps, I’ve done things I’m not proud of either.”

Tempest nodded after a few more seconds, then looked to the amber. “Alright, your apology is accepted, and your plan seems sound. I say we get this treatment done so that I can complete my last mission from the Storm King before I resign from his service, so I can begin repaying you for this act of kindness. I think I could start by being your personal bodyguard for a few months? Keep away some of the more annoying things that can hurt gems but magic utterly nullifies?”

Mulling it over, I slowly nodded my head. “Alright, I think I can accept that.” I didn’t ask about her mission, it wasn’t important. What was important was the wealth of knowledge she held. By the grace of god, it seemed, a native had fallen right into my lap. Whatever I needed to do to get her to open up, so that I could learn things from two different perspectives, would be done.

“Very well. Let’s get started right now so that my cleaning isn’t wasted.” Amber waited only to see if Tempest nodded or not before seemingly pulling a small glob of material off of her arm and beginning to mold it into a rough cone shape in her hands. “The average unicorn horn is approximately twenty centimeters long, your stump projects about five centimeters from your skull. Would you prefer a sharp point with a slight curve as one subspecies has been documented to have, or the more normal blunt tip?”

The healing process proceeded quickly from there, with Amber’s work and Tempest’s responses creating an orange-brown cone that fit perfectly on top of the shattered stump after only a couple minor adjustments. Once Amber was satisfied that she’d gotten the shape as close to natural as possible she gave Tempest a nod, and small sparks began to emit from the area between the horn and the replacement.

I took that as my cue and poured the last of the small vial of tears over Tempest’s head, which immediately resulted in a discoloration of the amber section of horn as the channeled magic began to shoot to the edges and turn the substance red where it passed. Amber’s hypothesis turned out to be correct, as we could see sections of bone and other tissues consume the ‘prosthetic’ as they grew, and Tempest even groaned a couple times, as if this entire process was soothing a giant muscle cramp.

The horn only had an inch or so of Amber’s material left to consume when a quartz soldier from before walked in through the door Grubber had left open in his rapid escape. In her left hand was a misshapen cluster of glowing green crystals. “My Diamond, this gem is starting to make my arm feel funny, and she hasn’t stopped glowing despite not even showing any signs of reforming this entire time.”

Tempest’s eyes widened, and she staggered back a step as the teal corona around her horn began to destabilize and the entire spire was surrounded in the electricity-like sparks from earlier. “The Malachite of Misfortune, no, get it out of th-”

A ball of lightning shot out of her horn towards the ceiling before she could finish her sentence, and she let out a sharp cry of pain as this happened. I couldn’t help but look up despite my concern for Tempest, as the ball exploded in a fireworks-like display against the ceiling, which was followed by a sharp
from the crystal chandelier above us.

I heard Delphi shout my name, but all I could think to do as the massive decoration started to fall was grab both Tempest and Amber and shove them both towards the other doorway.

Badlands Noire

Time seemed to slow down for me as the fixture fell, and I registered two facts at the exact same time: One; this thing is going to land right on top of me, Two; someone has decided that now is a good time to hug my leg. The next thing I knew, my entire body started to glow and feel warmer as I tried to push away whoever it was.

At the same time, I felt a wave of almost minty coolness spread up into me from my thigh as the other person began to glow as well, and then our light merged. I could feel the barrier between us shift, then crumble as my gem’s red-tinted light began to embrace the soothing blue light of the other gem, and time flat-out stopped as our colors formed a gradient, and then shifted to fully entwine as lavender with other purple tints. Her gem moved up while mine stayed in almost the same position, taking its place in our shared forehead as our combined projection began to solidify and assert itself into reality.

What I hadn’t expected to feel until then was the only real surprise in the process of fusing with Delphi, and that was the sudden opening of a connection between our gems and then a connection to our unified body as our thoughts intermingled and we began to see through each other’s eyes.

I paused and looked down at Delphi with a smile while lifting Tempest out of my lap to place her on the arm of my chair. “What do you say, dear, should we give them a taste of Tanzanite and allow her to narrate her own birth, or should I absolutely butcher her metaphors?”

Delphi stood up from her place on the other arm of my chair and smiled up at me in response. “I don’t see any other way to properly introduce her than doing just that.”

I looked back to the gathering of schoolfoals with my smile widening briefly. “You’re all in for a treat as long as you don’t try to think about the metaphors she uses too much. Tanzanite’s a little eccentric.”

Tempest snorted. “She better keep the massage going. In fact, I expect all four hands to be used.”

“With foals watching you’ll get three and no more. One hand needs to be reserved for gesticulations after all.” Moving a hand over to Delphi, I extended a finger. “Care to dance?”

Delphi looked down at the crowd of fillies and colts on the floor as she took hold of my finger. “It’s a little crowded for anything elaborate, perhaps just a couple twirls and a kiss instead?”

“That works just fine for me.” A hum built in my throat as I danced my finger around, years of practice synching our movements. It wasn’t strictly needed, but it felt so nice to have the time for a little preamble like this. Delphi gave a little hop as she completed the last twirl, allowing me to slip my hand underneath her so I could lift her up for a quick kiss. Our projections merged quickly, and soon we were ready to continue the story properly.

Three arms reached for Tempest, snatching her up like the tentacles of a hungry cephalopod around a particularly tasty morsel while my fourth hand scrawled an introduction into the air with purple planes of power: ‘Lady Tanzanite: The Femme Fatale Foreteller.’

I raised two hands quickly, with my mind racing faster than a greyhound being chased by a cheetah. I’m not sure how I knew what to do, but I was able to shape a shield by making a few gestures, and I caught the falling chandelier much like one might catch a person falling out of a burning building.

It barely weighed a thing in my hands, like a pillow of fine goose feathers. “Everyone alright?” I asked, peering around it towards Amber and Tempest.

Tempest nodded with sparks dancing up and down her horn and through her mane like a string of LED christmas lights, though the expression on her face looked like someone had just shoved a whole lemon into her mouth.

Amber, meanwhile, looked utterly terrified, and for a moment her expression reminded me of a certain scene at the end of a great movie about a guy fighting nazis, but I’m not going to describe that to a bunch of foals. Every single one of your parents would be lining up to tapdance on my backside if I planted that kind of imagery in your minds.

“My diamond! Light pollution! You need to break the fusion, now!”

Stepping around her, I placed the chandelier on David’s bed. “I’m perfectly fine, Doc. Just need a moment to figure myself out.”

Every fusion goes through it, at least those of the cross-gem kind. That moment of self-actualization. That time where they get to stand up and shout at the world that they are here and nothing is going to stop them. Lucky me, I had a mirror to look into so I could examine myself, though it had been made for a slightly-smaller projection that was now half of me. That meant I needed to lean over a little bit to get my head in frame.

“My Diamond, I must insist!” Amber stared after me, her arms quivering like gelatin on a fat man's plate. “You could be rendered permanently off-color!”

I had to reach up and take off my hat, that was the very first thing I noticed. The style of it was quite fashionable, and the purple lace veil brought a smile to my lips, but the hat itself was an ugly mess of pink and blue blotches with a few areas of overlap that resulted in some purple tones. I tossed the hat onto David’s bed with a sigh and began to brush my hair away from my face so I could see clearer. The lavender skin was easy enough to have guessed from when I formed, but I hadn’t been expecting the subtle blue eyeshadow or crimson lipstick that accented my features. My longer arms stopped gathering up my hair while the shorter ones, which just barely reached up to my head, began to braid my absolutely massive mane.

“Your diamond’s not exactly in charge at the moment, doc, so stop begging her to do something while I have a minute to breathe for the first time. You’re basically telling a newborn that she shouldn’t exist.”

“You!” Amber snapped, pointing at the quartz. “Go get the chief Peridot! Tell her our Diamond is in danger of light pollution!”

“And take that damn rock with you!” Tempest shouted while the quartz gave a mute nod in response to Amber’s order. The crimson mare then walked up to look in the mirror beside me, barely coming up to the middle of my thigh now. “So, diamonds can fuse. That’s not something anypony ever knew for sure. Nice dress.”

‘I can’t believe I’m in a dress.’ ‘It looks good on us, David.’

“I’m not a diamond,” I said, shaking the thoughts of my constituents. They filter in periodically, like the soft whispers of the wind through shutters. It’s a conversation with yourself, even if you're not the one speaking.

“That is technically true, but my diamond IS in there, and she needs to be let out right now! She already considers herself a lesser cut if you’re serious about not considering yourself a diamond. The sapphire is already polluting her mind!”

“Crazy doctor needs to go nag someone else, I think, before she pisses off the fusion that includes her precious diamond.” Tempest stated with such a thick layer of snark that it could have adequately covered a dozen bagels if it had been cream cheese. “I’ve met a couple perma-fusions, and all of them were still their own color whenever they decided they needed some time apart. There’s no way this is hurting David.”

“Tanzanite.” The word passed my lips, hanging in the air like a lead balloon. “I’m not a diamond because I’m not David. I’m not Delphi either. I’m Tanzanite.” I turned my attention back to my reflection and smiled as I straightened up to get a look at the dress that Tempest had commented on without all the wrinkles that came from compressing myself like that.

It was mostly blue, with a long red scarf that was nearly transparent. The dress itself featured embroidery that looked like pink wheat stalks and butterflies coming down from the neck and up from the hem, with a random cluster also bursting from a pink dot just below the hint of a swell on my chest. “And you’re right, this is a lovely dress, my dear Tempest.” The only imperfections were the red stains around the embroidery, making it look like the dyes had not properly set in the materials used, except I’m made of light…

‘Garnet’s first fusion was messy too. If we do this again, she’ll probably look more coherent.’ ‘You know of a fusion named Garnet? Wait, again?!’

They yapped at each other like a pair of chihuahuas. If I could, I’d muzzle them both. Instead, I turned my head towards the door. “Now you mentioned something about a malachite. That wouldn’t be prime accessory material, would it?”

“The Malachite of Misfortune. It’s an artifact of the old world, from the time of the Diamond Authority’s rule. The Storm King loaned it to a crazy changeling queen a couple years ago and I was sent to tell her that he needed it back. As you saw, or your parts saw, it causes problems in an area where magic is actively being used, usually causing accidents or making spells go absolutely crazy...thus the name.” Tempest looked down at the floor for a few seconds before speaking again. “An invaluable tool for an invasion of an entire city of unicorns.”

Things fell into place. Her violent arrival, her mistrust, her mission. I didn’t need David’s input to come to a conclusion. “Your preparing for war, are you? That’s dangerous business.” All in service to this Storm King. Now there was a name about as ominous as Lord Verminaard, and obviously not the name of a guy interested in making sure the weather was nice.

“He is. I no longer have any stake in his conquest since you already did what he promised me. Now I owe you the fealty I promised to him. My horn was broken when I was a filly, and you finally took that pain away. He can find someone else to help him take over Equestria.”

David had been right, Tempest was a wellspring of knowledge. Only a small nudge got her singing like a canary. “You owe David, Tempest. I don’t expect you to do anything for me.”

The strangled cry of a Peridot stabbed into our conversation. Bashir charged into view, her arms waving like a car lot mascot. “My Diamond! What are you doing!? Your color’s going to be stained!” Her emotions turned, coming to bear on Amber. “You! You let this happen!”

“Me?! I didn’t do anything here. The sapphire ran at her after she pushed me and that unicorn out from under the chandelier. I’ve begged her three times to break the fusion, but she won’t listen to reason.” She stopped talking and just stared in my direction for a few seconds, her eyes twitching like an owl on meth. “How many sapphires do we have here? Is there a chance the one that was here for the last few days has been a spy from the rebellion, and that she’s doing this to intentionally corrupt the new diamond?”

A flick of a wrist put a wall between them as I walked over to the side of David’s bed. “If the two of you don’t calm down, I’ll put you both in the corner,” I said, my other arms replacing my hat.
“Unless one of you wants to show me evidence of this whole ‘light pollution’ phenomenon actually happening when Tempest claims to have known some fusion gems that stay that way almost all of the time and show no signs of discoloration when they separate. This propaganda you’ve been subjected to has no basis in anything I can recall knowing or being informed about aside from three gems since I woke up.”

"Of course it has a basis!" Bashir argued, taken aback by the shield. "You have to break the fusion!"

“Alright, ladies, I think it’s time for you to present some evidence to the diamond that is currently not a diamond.” Tempest stated calmly, with her tone shifting into one that suggested she expected the order to be followed immediately. “If there is a factual basis for your claim, then surely you have supporting evidence?”

Bashir sneered, shuddering in aggravation. “I don’t have time to break down a highly complicated topic for your organic mind to process! Our diamond only has a few minutes at most before it sets in. I’ll call in the quartz if I have to to break it apart.”

“So don’t break it down for my ‘organic mind.’ Present your evidence to your diamond in terms other than ‘it exists’ and ‘because we say so.’”

“This is nonsense!” Bashir declared, marching towards the door. “I’m coming back with a handful of quartz and we’re freeing our diamond from that sapphire’s corrosive effects.”

I felt a deep upwelling of unease from David, Bashir’s rapid adherence to dogma unsettling him. “Gems are hardwired to obey,” I commented softly to Tempest. “If a diamond tells them something long enough, they’ll cling to it like a possum on its mothers back.”

“In other words they’re more gullible than your average pony...interesting. The ones I’ve met always seemed so independent.”

“And what are they like?” I asked, crossing my legs. “You know so much more about this world than David does. Care to do a bit of sharing?”

“Well, for one there’s the fusion that trained me to fight off gem soldiers. She calls herself a ‘Griffonstone diamond’ but she’s just a citrine and a clear quartz when she comes apart. She works for the Storm King, and seems happy to be given orders at times, but I’ve also heard her tell him where he can shove it a few times when he says something stupid.”

“Citrines are too pale to tell if their color is being altered by a clear quartz.” Amber snapped almost immediately. “You can’t expect me to believe one example outweighs all prior knowledge on a subject, especially one as flawed as that!”

Eyeing the doorway, I realized I had completely forgotten someone. Standing there like a dutiful canine, Watson regarded me with a bright smile. "Terribly sorry about that, darling. You just slipped my mind.”

“Oh, please don’t worry about me. I’m simply waiting for David to come back since you say that you aren’t him. I’m bound to serve him, not you,” She replied swiftly; her expression unchanging.

I reached a hand down, poking the tip of her spike-like nose. “I’m not David but he is a part of me. Not that I demand that you serve me. Just a bit of clarity, dear.”

“I fail to see how that has any impact on my reasoning, Tanzanite. David is part of you, but you are not him, therefore I shall wait for him to return just as I waited for him when he was using the bed that was made for him to reorganize his thoughts.”

Her dedication to David was impressive, reminding me of that famous Japanese dog. “Well then, how about it, Tempest? Still willing to give that history lesson? Preferably before the doctor gets back with her goons.”

“Technically they’re your goons that she’s ordering around under false pretenses. What more information do you want?” Tempest simply grinned as she watched the doorway interaction. “Also, how do you want to be trained? I know gems work differently from ponies and other living things, but you’re going to need training on using your body and powers to their fullest.”

I waved her off. “That’s David’s concern. What I need is a sitrep on the world. Major players, major historical events. That sort of thing.” I laid down along the bed, resting my head on a hand. “You can do that, can’t you?”

“Oh I certainly can, but it would be much easier to do that with a map of some kind since I haven’t exactly had a functioning horn in years and don’t trust myself to create even a basic illusion without having it explode into gem-disrupting fireworks.” She turned to look at Amber with a cheeky grin. “Does this place have a strategic map of some kind we could use? Preferably one with at least some kind of representation of the various units available to the old kingdoms?”

Amber grunted, sticking her nose in the air. “Do I look like an emerald to you? I’m a healer, not a tactician. Why don’t you ask the pearl? She can project things.”

“Well, excuse me for thinking that a medical gem would be able to answer a basic question about the kind of things that can be found here. You know, maybe having had to check on inventory at some point in the thousand years since the diamonds were banished?”

“I will not be talked down to by an organi-”

One of my smaller hands clamped over Amber’s mouth, my disapproving look silencing her. “I don’t think you’ll be getting that map, Tempest. Unless Watson wishes to help?” I turned to the pearl in question, peering out from my veil. “How about it?”

“I’m sure there’s a map somewhere. This place is the original kindergarten for all gems, and even the diamonds emerged here, but I don’t know where that map is or if it matches the planet as it exists now. It would be silly indeed to not have any way to plan expansions.”

Clicking my tongue, a giddy laugh passed my lips. “How could I forget what blue makes up half of me.” Following a few inlaid instincts my eyes shimmered, my veil almost becoming all consuming from my perspective.

Several visions came to me, some merging and some splitting. In one, I had to restrain a handful of quartz that tried to poof me. In another, Tempest came to blows with Amber. The third came in slowly, us standing around a map marked with a strange mixture of English and Cyrillic letters Cyrillic text was always accompanied by a name in English that was either carefully crossed out or had angry scribbles obscuring it.

I felt David stir a bit, my thoughts shifting to more of his. Brushing it off, I tuned my senses to this probable me’s. Sights and sounds wafted in, the musky smell of old parchment causing my nose to crinkle.

“-ooks like there's still some battlelines marked on the map,” Tempest said, her voice carrying a warble. “Must have been one of the final lines outside of the main diamond camp. Looks like the only allies the diamonds had when this map was last used were... yaks and changelings.”

“Must not have worked too well for them,” ‘I’ said, looking over the map once more. “Who exactly were they fighting?”

“Everyone else.” Tempest stated with a snort, followed by pointing to a number of areas on the map. “Diamond dogs, dragons, buffalo, minotaurs, griffons, ponies, crystal ponies, hippogriffs, kirin, deer. Every race I know about came together under Rose Quartz to give the diamonds the shoe.”

My being pulled apart, the name cutting me along the seams. Awareness crumbled, the pieces returning to the present. Rocked back to the present, I split back into my component gems.

“There’s a second pink diamond?!” I blurted out, picking myself off the floor. My being settled back into itself, reasserting that I was me. I suppose I should have asked Tempest sooner, what she meant by ‘other red gem’. In those early days, my situational awareness was spotty at best.

“Uh, what? No, you’re the only pink diamond I know of.” Tempest walked over and knelt down at my side to offer me a small bit of assistance in regaining my feet.

“Pink Diamond is Rose Quartz,” I said, putting what I thought was a comfortable amount of weight on her shoulder to push myself up.

“The pink anomaly.” Amber hissed through gritted teeth. “The impossible rebel. The only red gem to ever emerge before you did despite not having been seeded by an injector and there being no red essence available to create her.”

Brushing myself off, I gazed at my gem. “That’s because she’s a pink diamond. ‘Rose Quartz’ is just a disguise.” A frown grew as I ran a hand across my stomach. “If I knew how to shapeshift, I’d show you.”

“There’s no way she’s a diamond. She had to fuse with other gems AND a pair of hybrids to hold her own against Yellow Diamond.”

“Probably because she didn’t want them to know what she was,” I countered, turning my gaze to her. “That’s why it’s called a disguise. On top of that, fusion makes a gem stronger than its components.”

“If she was a diamond, why have there been no more red gems since she helped kick the other diamonds off-planet?”

I had to remind myself that Amber didn’t have knowledge of a tv show. An exasperated snort still vented my frustration. “Because making gems damages the planet and she obviously cares too much about it to allow it to continue.”

“Ponies have actually managed to reclaim most areas affected by gemblight. The badlands are slowly getting smaller, according to what I’ve read.” Tempest shifted her jaw for a few seconds before speaking again. “Also, she can’t be another you.”

“And why is that?” I asked.

“Because her healing power only works on gems and hybrids, and it only works on hybrids because they have gems.” Tempest took a seat on the edge of my bed. “I was just a filly, but I remember my parents dragging me to see her to try and fix my horn, only for all three of us to walk out with crushed hope.”

Centering myself, I slowly nodded. “Right. We’ll just have to deal with her when the time comes.”

“And like I said,” Tempest spoke again, smirking at Amber. “Your precious diamond didn't lose a single bit of pink, did she?”

“She doesn’t appear to have gained any blue, and the sapphire appears to have no hint of red or pink pollution either. One incidence of a clean fusion break does not make a clean set of data.”

Watson spoke, her smile bleeding into her words. “How was your fusion, David? Tanzanite seemed quite lovely.” I was pleasantly surprised, she wasn’t at all bothered by my brief absence from the world.

“Right in here. I need you to split them up before our diamond hurts herself, then shatter the sapphire.” Bashir’s voice came through the doorway accompanied by the sound of multiple sets of footsteps.

One green quartz stepped into the room first, and immediately froze in place before looking around the room. “Uhhh, no fusion here.”

Reaching over, I lifted Delphi into my arms. “I’m going to say this once, and I want every gem to know this by sundown. As long as I am in charge, there will be no shatterings. Full stop.” Looking past her, I barked out “Bashir! Get your Dorito-looking ass in here!”

The quartz backed up, visibly shoving others out of the way to leave an opening in the doorway. A few other quartzes peeked around the frame as the named peridot meekly walked through the opening. “Uhhh, yes, My Diamond? Orders about shattering heard loud and clear.”

My glare stayed on her, watching her squirm. “We’re going to have a nice long talk about taking the hippocratic oath. You, the rest of the peridots, and all of the ambers. Watson, please make a note, Tempest and I need to restructure the chain of command.”

“That’s not the only thing we need to do.”

“Of course, David. I shall obtain a copy of the current command structure so that revisions that make sense can be made.”

”Sorry, Delphi. Our... Tanzanite’s Rose Quartz revelation caught me off guard. How are you feeling?” I set her back down on my bed, kneeling down in front of her.

“L-like I need to go sit in the sun for six hours to recharge.” She sounded slightly dazed. “Sapphires don’t fuse often, I do hope this won’t feel the same the next time it happens.”

I pat her head gently, motioning Bashir over. “Keep an eye on her, will you?” I put a finger on her lips. “No, light pollution isn’t a thing. Just make sure she recovers in a safe place? Understand?”

She simply nodded and reached out for Delphi, taking the hand of the smaller gem and tugging as gently as possible. “Okay, let’s go find you a spot with plenty of sunshine. Sudden exhaustion like this is not common, so an amber should check over your gem for any new flaws that may have been stress-induced from the sudden fusion.” She swallowed nervously and looked up at me. “W-with your permission of course.”

“By all means,” I said, motioning her out. The amber went with her, leaving just myself, Watson and Tempest. “Should have expected the need for an overhaul.” Jennifer was a good cop, no question about that. Her command structure, however, was a sloppy mess.

“Eh, I’ve seen worse things happen with a command breakdown over standing orders versus new information.” Tempest shrugged before turning to me with a harsh expression on her face. “So, get a new command structure established and evaluate your power, two things we need to do in order to get things moving smoothly here. Evaluating your relative power should be easy enough if there’s a part of the enclave with no real purpose.”

Clicking my tongue, I stepped to the door. “Might as well go looking. Come on, Watson. Let’s go find some rocks to smash.”

“Oh, we should find a Bismuth for easy cleanup, and to let us know that it’s safe to use a given area.” Watson chimed in as she moved to follow the two of us.

Gems Out of Space

Author's Note

A crossover with Wezzahd's Gems of Power Not the best crossover but don't expect another one for a while.

Gems Out of Space

I barely felt it as my fist impacted the cliff wall. The stone fractured, falling away against my increased strength. My eyes locked on the small indentation that formed around my fist. Bringing my hand up, I marveled at how little evidence showed on it.

“Ohhh, that’s impressive... for an adolescent earth pony.” Tempest’s response was loaded with just the right amount of snark as she approached from outside the ‘potential shrapnel’ area. “I have to wonder how much of your strength you were using, though, because that would take all that the pony could give.”

“I wasn’t trying to shatter the whole wall,” I responded, glancing back at her. “Even if it would probably feel like styrofoam, I’d rather not get showered in boulders.”

She nodded in response while looking up, as if that thought hadn’t even crossed her mind yet. “But we still have to learn what you can do, how far you can push yourself without feeling pain. If you hold yourself back because of the expectations you remember having about what would hurt you, you’ll be a hindrance on the battlefield instead of an asset.”

Sighing, I clenched my fist again. “Right, Right. You should move back then. Minimum safe distance.” Reminding myself that I didn’t need to stretch my limbs, I drew my arm back. “Doubled from the last one.”

Tempest retreated back behind a bismuth she’d convinced to observe so they had a more accurate idea of how to make things specifically for me to use. Her horn sparkled with lightning for a moment before releasing a tiny ball of lightning that shot a few feet into the air before exploding like a string of firecrackers, the signal to me that she was safe from immediate danger.

Focusing only on my next action, I drove my fist into the wall. Rock exploded around me, the entire structure collapsing. Large, small, even a few person-sized rock chunks rained down on me. A muscle previously flexed by Tanzanite twitched, forming a plane shield above me. It vanished as quickly as it appeared, leaving me standing in a lake of rubble.

“Can an adolescent earth pony do that?” I asked, wiping some of the dust from my face.

“I’m pretty sure there aren’t any ponies who aren’t alicorns that can do that without hurting themselves. You’re sure that was only double?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s hard to quantify without any baseline. Maybe triple?” I guessed, brushing a few stones out of my hair. “Not like I have any of this programmed into me.”

The bismuth moved in and started to clear up the rocks that had fallen around me, most of them common stones with a few natural quartz formations shattered by my blow. Tempest, meanwhile, waited for the cloud of stone dust in the air to dissipate so she could get a clear look at just how much damage had actually been done to the face of the ravine.

“You certainly pack a wallop, Your Brilliance,” the Bismuth complimented, her arms full of material. “I don’t even think a charging quartz could do that.”

“I certainly try,” I said, making a note to visit the lapises for a rinse. With the dust settling, I got the first taste of how strong I had become. Five feet of the wall in front of me had been obliterated, much of it laying at my feet or pulverized by the impact.

Tempest whistled, appraising the destruction. “Now that’s something. I don’t think even an alicorn could do that. At least not physically. Maybe the other diamonds made you short to condense all that pow… what is that?” She pointed to an oddly-shaped chunk of stone that rested in the rubble at the base of the crater I’d made.

It was oddly-shaped in that it had an actual shape rather than being just a random lump of stone. It was a star of pure white stone almost the same size as Tempest’s head, and it took no effort whatsoever for me to lift it up and take a closer look.

"I have no idea what this is," I stated simply, turning it over in my hands. "You got any ideas?" I asked, looking at the Bismuth. "Some abandoned art project maybe?"

She looked up and shrugged after a couple seconds. “Maybe try wiping the dust off of it and see if it makes any more sense? We don’t generally use stars for decorations though.”

I heeded her suggestion, taking a gulp of air. Most of the dust and dirt came off in one or two tries, revealing more of the surface. I felt it then, the strange power thrumming through it. Gems embedded at the star points began to glow, showering us in multihued light.

During the brightness, several thuds were heard, some louder than others. Once the light died down, there were a bunch of new gems in view, each of them different. A Lapis, Jasper, Peridot, Amethyst, Pearl and even a Garnet fusion. Each of them had expressions that varied in minor details, but each had confusion, surprise, tension and fear in common. Mostly, though, they looked tired. They only stayed on the ground for a moment, but they quickly got up soon after looking around, trying to get a feel for their surroundings, but going immediately on guard.

My world came to a grinding halt, the forms of these new arrivals burning into my mind. Much like myself, they were the spitting images of the characters I had spent hours watching. I bit my lip, trying to re-engage my thoughts. I didn't need another defragging nap. Not so soon.

Tempest stepped in front of my still form, magic crackling around her horn. "And who are you supposed to be? Emissaries of the Diamonds?"

“That’s the Pearl that instigated the first rebellion! TRAITOR IN THE ENCLAVE! SOUND THE ALARMS!” The bismuth that had been with us outright panicked and turned to run away almost immediately.

Soon, more confusion came, the Peridot wincing from the screaming, which prompted a scream of her own. “AhhstaybackSombraI’marmed!” she yelled, which did nothing to help them relax.

The Lapis’ wide eyes darted around, before they looked right back at me, sparking confusion, but other than that they didn’t say anything else.

Putting a hand on Tempest's shoulder, I stepped past her. The words passed my lips even as the question formed in my head. "Were you human too?"

Now, all of their eyes were on me. It looked like I’d said the right thing, because they seemed to relax a little after that. The Lapis let out a sigh. “Right, we’re in another… you know.” She spoke to the others, and they would either hunch over, sigh or do both.

“How do we turn that thing off again?” the Jasper asked.

“Beats me, we should try it sometime.” The Pearl rubbed her face.

"Tell me!" I demanded, desperate for just one sliver of humanity. To have it dangled in my face was too much. I had to know. At the time, I didn’t notice the fact that my ill-tempered shout caused the various pebbles and larger stones around me to jostle and move a good foot or so away from where they were.

The group didn’t move away, but looked a little taken aback.

“Okay okay fucking… What do you want to know?” the Lapis asked.

“David,” a voice nearly identical to Pearl’s came from around a bend in the canyon as Watson approached from where she had been posted. “Why did the bismuth with you claim there were... oh, hello there. I didn’t know you could manage to make new gems so quickly.”

It took a long moment for Watson's voice to pierce the cloud of anger that had descended on my mind. I pinched the bridge of my nose, steadying my breath. That was... concerning. I could be a hardass but fits of anger? "Watson, please remind me to see Bashir. I need to talk to her about something. As for them, I think I brought them here."

“New gems are always a good thing. Shall I make appointments for Bashir to check them for defects as well? The purple one seems to be on the small side for a quartz.”

Tempest chimed in, a certain edge to her voice. "I've never even seen an orange or purple gem before. Doesn't seem natural."

“None of us are natural,” the Lapis commented, taking a step forward.

Tempest responded to her movement with a magic bolt. It struck the ground at the Lapis's feet, scorching it black. "No one told you to approach the diamond. I'd suggest you start answering her questions before the local quartzes arrive. They can be quite vicious."

“Whoa! Clearly we were told to be here since we’re, well, here!” The Lapis arched her leg back from the blackened ground.

“If we aren’t wanted then just say something about contracts being finished and we’ll be on our way. Works just fine for us,” the Jasper pointed out, folding her arms with an impatient look on her face.

I put a hand up, having collected myself enough for the task at hand. "Tempest, please. I'm not sure how I brought you here but I would very much like to talk with you all. I'm Lt. Colonel David Kolya, formerly of the Marine Corps. As you can see, I'm now Pink Diamond."

“Shall I return to my post, then, and assure anyone who arrives that this is not the same pearl and there is no need to worry about your safety? If they are your guests, it would be improper to have your soldiers discorporate them.”

"That sounds like a good idea," I said, nodding my head. "If she's not already on her way, could you send for Delphi? Afterwards, I'd like you to come back, alright?" Turning back to my guests I motioned them closer. "I'd offer you a tour but, as Tempest said the quartz are bored and rowdy."

“Doesn’t matter to me. Not like we’ll be spending too long here, Lieutenant. First time I ever heard of a marine in pink,” the Jasper commented, before she was elbowed by the Garnet.

“Look, it seems like this is your first time meeting others like… Well, you,” the Lapis made a gesture to me. “Can we just answer your questions now?”

I nodded my head, kneeling down to better match their eye level. "Please. I take it you all used to be human, like myself?"

Tempest took a few steps away from my side as I did this, moving to interpose herself in the main path to the rest of the enclave so that her back would be the first thing anyone saw coming from that direction.

“That’s true, we all came from Earth before being transported here inexplicably,” the Pearl explained.

“It’s happened to a lot of people, actually. Chances are, we’re not even from the same earth you’re from. This phenomenon is that common and that widespread,” the Peridot explained.

"Right." That was comforting, in a sense. At least in the knowledge that I wasn't alone in this. "Have any of you had any character bleed through? I'm positive my sisters became the other diamonds and from this place, I think they inherited some character traits."

I could say it was about my sisters, but that was only a half truth. After that outburst, I was more afraid I had gained some portion of Pink Diamond's brattiness.

“Have we?” the Amethyst wondered absently, and they all took a glance at each other. “Yeah I’d say… Good chance of that happening.”

“Personally, I don’t feel much different,” the Jasper shrugged.

“That’s because usually you’ll end up sharing at least a few traits with the character you’ll become anyway. I don’t think it’s, like, an absolute thing but you were a marine lieutenant and now you’re in another, albeit much larger, leadership role,” the Peridot explained.

A leader with a budding anger problem, I scoffed. "How did I bring you here exactly? That star didn't look like anything special."

“It’s just a token. If you find one, you can summon others like you to your Equestria. They can do the same for you, if you choose to make one,” the Lapis said.

Something to consider for later. I looked back, a thought occurring to me. An opportunity I didn't think I'd get so soon. "Do I have to be the one to send you back, or can it be someone else?"

“Pretty sure it has to be you,” Lapis explained.

Clicking my tongue, I considered for a moment. "I know this is a lot to ask but, do you think you could try and poof me?" I asked with a straight face. "I've tried talking a few gems here onto doing it but, they freak out at the idea of harming their diamond."

“Sure.” Jasper stepped forward, her helmet being summoned as she leapt forward, helmet-first, straight for him, not bothering to ask if he was ready.

I braced myself, ignoring the instinct to retaliate. The impact sprawled me on my back, form still intact. "You're going to have to get creative," I said with a wince. "I can take a lot of punishment."

She seemed to be just fine with that, since without replying she picked him up and headbutted him several more times. He could see a smile on her face as she assaulted him over and over, seeming more like she was taking her anger out on him.

The others, meanwhile, watched silently until Amethyst spoke up, worried.

“Hey… uh, you don’t think the other gems here will get the wrong idea… do you?”

“That’s more likely than you think since one of you does have the exact same color scheme, hairstyle, and gem position as the pearl that stood alongside the legendary Rose Quartz, the only pink or red gem to ever exist before David here.” Tempest spoke up from her position as she observed the ongoing attacks. One of her eyes twitched slightly, and her horn glowed with a crackle of lightning-like energy briefly as she kept herself from interfering. “That’s why the bismuth ran off screaming, and why I’m standing here to block the direct path somewhat.”

“Thanks… For, like, not arresting us, then,” the purple gem muttered, still worried and standing next to the unicorn. The thought either didn’t occur to Jasper, or she didn’t care at all, putting so much energy into pummelling him she almost didn’t want him to poof just so she could keep going, punches, headbutts, spin dashes, they half expected her to summon an assist character.

“I wasn’t even working for him until a few days ago. Now I just need to remind myself that he asked for this for whatever reason.” Tempest looked down at Amethyst with a smirk. “Hard to protect someone from their own stupidity.”

I growled, rising to a knee and catching Jasper when she collided with me again. "The spindash gimmick clearly isn't working. Thanks anyway." Shifting my weight, I hurled her into the side of the canyon.

She looked angry. “I wasn’t done yet!”

“It was getting nowhere,” Lapis commented, before glancing to Tempest as Jasper jumped down with a grumble. “Maybe instead of blunt damage, we should try stabbing him, or something? Should be quicker,” she suggested.

“I know being hit with lightning makes gems here glitch, but only four living beings know how much it takes to damage a diamond to the point of vanishing in a puff of smoke.”

I brushed myself off, sighing. "Why couldn't one of you have Rose's sword? I'm just so done with this Barbie look."

“Why don’t you just shapeshift?” Peri questioned. “Just make your poofy clothes into a marine jacket or whatever you like wearing.”

"I would but I don't know how to do that. And even if I could, I'd rather the change be permanent than what the original Pink Diamond did with Rose Quartz."

“I… Wait that was a thing?”

I looked at her strangely. "Yeah, Pink Diamond was Rose Quartz. It was all a hoax to get the other diamonds to leave."

All the gems looked at each other, some in mild surprise and others not reacting.

“Wait…” Tempest spoke up at that. “Are you talking about here or something from before, because I already told you why you and her can’t be the same gem.”

"Why do you think I made such a big deal out of finding out there was a Rose Quartz here?" I questioned. "I don't know what's going on anymore than you do, but I know Pink Diamond used Rose Quartz as a way to escape her life as a diamond."

“I mean, I guess it’s just…” Pearl began.

“None of us ever really got to watch the show long enough to know that.” Peri explained. “We ended up here. Well, in a place similar to here, but without… This.” She gestured to the area. “Or her.” She pointed to Tempest. “Well I’ve never really seen you before so I don’t know what your deal is where we come from.”

“So Rose was a liar,” Garnet commented, surprised.

“Damn.” Lapis looked sad.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling another onslaught of tangents."We're getting off-topic here."

“You’re right.” Peri agreed. “At this point, it looks like shapeshifting might be your only option, unless you wanna cycle through us trying to kill you in a ton of ways, but that would just be a waste of our time.” The green gem explained. “Is that everything, then? We done here?”

I nodded slowly. "Yeah we're done here. Thanks for your time."

“Stop right there, criminal scum!” A triple-sized topaz rounded the corner at a run, her face bearing a furious expression. “You dare infiltrate the enclave and threaten our diamond?”

“Oh buck me with a rake.” Tempest turned and held up a hand to try and get the attention of the huge yellow gem. “No, there’s been a misunderstanding. David is in no real danger right now.”

Ignoring my growing headache, I snapped the group a salute. "Thank you again for your time. Our contract is complete."

Like that, they all vanished in a flash of light.

“Fusing! They’re fusing!” The giant topaz shouted before rocking back and throwing her three-pronged weapon like a giant ninja star directly at the blinding light.

“No! Stop!” Tempest shouted at her and reached out with the magic of her repaired horn to try and catch the weapon in her telekinesis just in case there was a chance for it to actually impact one of the departing gems. “More muscle than brain, you gems, I swear…”

The impact caused me to stumble, a lance of pain that dug in and then faded to a dull ache. With a surreal detachment, my hands wrapped around the point sticking out of my chest. “I have a spear in my chest,” I said, rather dumbly.

“I don’t take orders from cattle!” Topaz shouted at Tempest, only for her face to freeze in an open-mouthed, horrified expression as the burst of light faded and she saw what her rash action had done. Her diamond, impaled on her weapon.

A wave of pain burned through my non-existent nerves, my senses screaming in agony. The world was there, and then it wasn’t, vanished in a burst of pink smoke.

Maybe we should have worked out the chain of command issues first.

Reformation and Deformation

“SIR! The captain needs to see you immediately as soon as you are in uniform, SIR!” I jolted awake at the rough voice of... what looked like a full-sized amethyst wearing a marine private’s uniform. The voice was all wrong though, far too masculine and gruff. I waved a hand in her direction, only for her expression to harden into an outright scowl. “Orders are orders, I am to get, and I quote, your lazy ass up and moving now before shit goes completely FUBAR.”

“Alright, alright... I’m awake.” I wave again and push myself up off of the thin mattress, only to stare down at my arms and hands in complete confusion for a full minute. Neon pink, and completely featureless aside from my fingers. I was nothing but uniformly glowing pink light, and the second I stopped focusing on my hands the fingers seemed to melt together so that my arms just...ended. “What the hell?”

“Uniform’s in your locker, sir, as always. Get yourself put together.”

A quick look at a mirror on the wall next to my bunk revealed the rest of my body was much the same. In fact, if I just stood still I looked like nothing more than a bright pink pillar. Most disconcerting was my face: perfectly flat and smooth. Nothing marred its surface, not even eyes.

“Sir, time isn’t something you can waste,” my unwelcome alarm clock urged.

“Right, right.” I looked around the room I found myself in and found it to be an odd mix of all of the one-room apartments I’d had, with my barracks bunk from basic, and a gym locker on the far wall. I moved over to that locker and opened it immediately since there wasn’t a lock keeping it sealed.

Instead of a small contained space offering almost no room to hold anything, the locker opened to reveal a glowing white room with rows and rows of clothing shelves, with the ones immediately in front of me offering a variety of tights and leotards. All of them pink, all of them fairly close to Pink Diamond’s canon appearance with slight variations. I hated each and every one of them on sight.

“No, no I need something I can feel comfortable in.” I started to close the locker and look elsewhere, only to pause as the shelves blurred and revealed a variety of casual clothes of all kinds, including dresses and pants. They were all still either red or pink, but this was nevertheless an improvement. “Huh...voice-operated options? I want the clothes I was wearing before I became Pink Diamond and I want to fit in them.”

The racks shifted again, replaced by a single pile of said clothing in reds with some pink highlights. It seemed there was no escaping that facet of my new existence. “Okay, at least now we’re getting somewhere.” Swiping them off the shelf, I stepped over to the mirror. Gazing at my reflection, I studied myself.

Focusing my thoughts, I thought of myself. The old me. My form shifted, flickering like static. For a fleeting moment, my face stared back at me. Cast in pink, but still me. It held for a moment before my body fizzled and reverted to a blank slate.

I sighed and took the plunge by forcing myself to put on the replicas of my old clothing before trying that again. I held my eyes closed... eyes that I didn’t have, but I tried not to think about that too much, for a few seconds before looking at the mirror again. This time I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t see myself at all despite the clothing I’d chosen. Instead, I was reminded of the few times I’d had a girlfriend wear my clothes the next morning. The pleasant memories brought a smile to my face.

The smile faded almost immediately as I watched my body shift and change in the mirror, and I couldn’t stop myself from tearing off the clothes as my light-pillar body became utterly feminine with hips and a visible bust. “NO! Absolutely not, you will NOT use my happy dick memories to emasculate me!” I shouted at whatever force was in control of this odd state of reality, and I felt my body shift back into its unformed state.

Growling, I resisted the urge to put a fist through the offending glass. I returned to the locker, staring inside of it. Military garb was out of the question, if I couldn’t look like me there wasn’t a point in dressing like me.

Slowly, agonizingly, an outfit formed in my head. “Combat boots, jeans, leather jacket and a Blind Guardian shirt; Nightfall in Middle Earth cover.” The items appeared on the shelves inside the impossibly-spacious locker with a blur of motion, accompanied by three articles I had not asked for but made sense from a human perspective: a pair of blood-red socks, what looked like a pair of skintight crimson boxers, and what could only be a matching sports bra.

Did I really need underwear as a gem? Sure, the socks would at least be a bit of a familiar feeling, but I doubted the other two were really necessary, all things considered. Then again, an exercise outfit of some kind for training with Tempest wouldn’t be bad. I brushed a hand over my body, trying to see if there was some sensitivity issue that would make these necessary.

If I could’ve frowned, I would’ve. Touch revealed itself to be worthless, merely giving me the sensation of contact without context. I could tell I was touching myself, but other than that I was completely numb no matter where I moved my hand.

My exasperation growing, I snarled a “Fuck it.” Snatching the selection of clothing, I stomped back to the mirror. “If I ever find that bitch that sent me here, I’m making her eat that stupid costume.”

It didn’t matter if nobody was really there to listen, the ranting did, in fact, improve my mood. Getting dressed didn’t take all that long, just a long moment filled with the most creative threats and profanities I could conjure up. Oddly, I began to feel more real and more myself as I got dressed. I took one last look in the mirror and nodded at the more casual appearance I now had. Casual, but far more like myself than the body I was forced to have. Sure, I looked like a teenage metalhead, but that was better than looking like a pink princess. My hands still looked oddly flat, and I turned back to the locker as an impulse struck me. “Mixed martial arts gloves. I need something to protect any gems from my fists if I can break rock as easily as that bit of practice showed.”

I reached in and grabbed the gloves off the shelf before quickly putting them on and pulling them tight. One more quick glance in the mirror had me running my fingers through my hair to try and get the poofy curls under control more. “Ugh, my head looks like a rejected Sonic design, or that sister from the bad show, what was it called?” Seeing my face start to actually shift in the mirror I quickly shook my head and felt the unwanted alterations revert. “No, no...no errant thoughts in here or I’ll look like a freak when I reform.”

“Focus on what I want. Focus.” I breathed slowly, letting my eyes close. I focused on the new image of myself, willing for that to be my default. Holding this image of myself firmly in my mind, I stepped through the doorway I had been presented with as my ‘destination.’

For just a moment I could see everything around me, and I realized that I was seeing out of all the facets of my gem at once. I couldn’t move, and it took a few seconds before I started feeling the air brush over me as Tempest raised me up. It was a lot like the one time I experienced sleep paralysis, with my mind waking up before my body could move.

After floating above her hand for a few seconds, I finally managed to stretch myself out. First one arm, then the opposite leg as a pink nimbus of light formed around my gem. It was like uncurling from ducking a grenade blast, with light instead of muscle not quite wanting to move, but my will to exist again overcame the resistance to reform that something was exerting on me. I gave one final push to stretch all my limbs out and with a pulse of energy I managed to bring my new body back into the world.

A moment passed, and then another. Each bringing back a sense to my perception. My hearing returned last, catching a word or two from Tempest. I didn’t register her comment, putting a hand on my chest. I expected a rush of adrenaline, a quickened pulse, but there was no heartbeat under my palm.

“I’m sorry, you were saying something, Tempest?” I asked, glancing down at her. “I was a bit distracted.” My hands roved over my front, making sure my form had adapted to my specifications. I’d be damned if I was going to spend another second in that tutu form. My fears subsided as my hands found their way into my new pockets.

“I-uh…” She trailed off while looking up at me, seemingly rendered speechless at the drastic change in my appearance before she quickly shook her head and reached up to rub at the base of her restored horn. “Right, well, at least you still have the same stature so they’ll recognize you. I was saying that it’s a good thing you’re back so those three topaz can stop feeling guilty about hurting a diamond and the other gems will stop trying to take you away from me.”

We hadn’t left the canyon, only now more than a few gems had arrived onto the scene. “My Diamond!” Bashir pushed through the crowd, snapping me a salute. “I heard your form had destabilized. While I’m pleased to see you have reestablished your form, I fear doing so so quickly might be detrimental to your continued stability.”

“We can’t have our precious new diamond compromised so quickly,” Navi chimed in while flying over and getting far too close to poke at my chest. “Although, your choice in attire raises many questions about your mental state. None of the others ever altered themselves this much outside of special occasions.”

I gently swatted away her hand. “The others didn’t get stuck looking like a ballerina. Alright everyone, I’m fine. Please return to whatever you were doing beforehand.”

Bashirr walked around me, waving a small tube like object over my legs. “Hmm, well. She seems stable. I can’t recommend doing that again, however. Such quick reformations can lead to deviations in your light structure.”

“Deviations like the swollen chest? It’s only a few millimeters, but I can still see details like that, and it’s not because of the baggy shirt either!” Navi snapped at Bashir before shrinking back from me and shaking her head. “Right, right, no angry orders. I remember, it’s just hard.”

Fighting off a groan, I clicked my tongue. “Obviously, I let my thoughts slip ever so slightly. As long as I’m not sporting a bust like Tempest, I’m perfectly content with my form. If it’s alright with all of you, I’d like to visit wherever my sisters used as a headquarters.”

Tempest looked down briefly before chuckling and shaking her head. “Yeah, as if a gem’s going to get anywhere close without shapeshifting.” She stepped up to Bashir and put a hand on the shorter gem’s shoulder. “You said all the readings you’re getting are healthy for David as far as you can tell?”

Bashir seemed uneasy about the touch, shifting her weight away from Tempest. “Yes, Her Brilliance is perfectly stable. I still need to finish her full exam, however. I request that you put some time aside for that, My Diamond.”

“Okay, that means everyone needs to clear out except for those who wish to lead us to the location David has just requested: headquarters, or the command center, or the war room, or whatever other name they might have used at the time.” Tempest was firm and commanding in tone without being harsh or overbearing, and she withdrew her hand from Bashir’s shoulder after the gem flinched. “Rubbernecking is not a benefit at this time.”

Navi glanced between myself and Tempest, the disdain clear in her expression. “This way then, Your Brilliance.” Fluttering her wings, she soared ahead of us. “The other diamonds ordered it sealed until your emergence. You’ll be the first gem in ages to step inside.”

I retrieved Watson from her post, getting a flurry of compliments over my new outfit. My look turned heads, starting many a hushed conversation as we passed. A small smirk grew on my face, quite pleased with my choice.

“So,” Tempest interrupted my train of thought as we followed Navi through a tall tunnel heading down into the ground. “You’d be happy as long as you’re not as developed as I am? Not that I’ve ever seen a gem come close in a permanent form, but does that mean you considered trying out something closer to a true female body shape?”

“No that’s...” I gazed down at myself, unable to see the small change Navi could. “I couldn’t change into my old self, and an errant thought made me more feminine than I wanted to look. This is as neutral as I can think to make it.”

“Oh. Well, if it makes you feel any better, I think I like the punk look you have going. It’s not something many ponies would bother with and it makes you look quite different from any of the other diamonds.” She waved a hand in the air idly. “I suppose that might have been a bit much to anyone who’d already gone through such a fundamental change anyways, push it to see how far things could go. It might be a good idea to find out your limits there too, though, how much you can push this form without causing undue strain. I know gem strength doesn’t really depend upon their size and all, but you are short for a diamond if the height of this tunnel is anything to judge by.”

“I think David looks wonderful,” Watson said, keeping pace with me. “I’m not sure what ‘punk’ means but David really shines with it. Should I change my look to match, David?”

Tempest stared at Watson for a few seconds. “Do you have any settings other than ‘perky?’ It’s actually starting to get on my nerves how cheerful you are.”

“Don’t be too hard on her,” I cut in, patting Watson on the head. “She can’t really help herself. She was created to serve, as horrible as that is. I’m hoping she’ll grow out of it over time, given enough encouragement.”

“Sorry. I’m just not used to being around people who are so utterly upbeat is all.” She extended her hand towards Watson with a strained smile. “I shouldn’t have snapped at a gem who can’t help herself.”

Watson shook the offered hand with a smile, but didn’t respond otherwise, and our journey continued for another few minutes in complete silence as we headed further down underground. We had to be at least a couple dozen feet down before the tunnel ended in a massive door with a glowing blue panel in the middle. Navi motioned for me to step up. “The lock will only open for diamonds, Your Brilliance.”

Stepping up, I placed my hand on the panel. A deep rumble shook the ground, four multicolored lines coming to life on the door. Each line flowed into a section of a Diamond Authority emblem carved into the door. White lit up first, followed by blue and yellow, with pink coming last. The rumble turned into a grind as the door slid into the ground.

Inside the room was a huge table, reaching roughly to my shoulder height, with a bench-like ledge about halfway up that height as well as several sets of ladders and stairs sized for normal gems to help them get up to the top as well. An orb hung over the table, glowing with pure white light to illuminate the room as well as the surface of the table.

“Cozy,” I commented, stepping inside. “Tanzanite saw a map around here somewhere. We’ll look at that first. Navi, see if you can’t find it from the air. Tempest, this might be a little dicey for you. Sealed places like this tend to have some weird mold or disease inside.”

“Even molds need something to feed on to grow, David. This is a gem stronghold, so there’s likely nothing in there for mold to live off of for any length of time.” Tempest did hold back, though, with her nostrils flaring every so often. “Though, without proper ventilation I’m more concerned with stale air and not enough oxygen.”

“There’s no mystery about the map, Your Brilliance. You’ll need to climb on the seat to see it, but the only thing hiding it is your height.”

I almost shot a barb back at the height remark. Almost. Climbing onto the bench, I couldn’t help but feel like a child again. It was a strange mixture of nostalgia and embarrassment. “You wouldn’t happen to have a map for comparison would you, Tempest?”

“Grubber had the map we were using,” she responded quickly while taking a cautious step forward. “I could take a look at it myself to see if anything is ridiculously incorrect, though.”

Bending down, I grabbed her around the waist and hefted her onto the table. “It’s like you're weightless,” I muttered to myself, retracting my hands. “Sorry. I caught a bit of the map from Tanz, but the Rose Quartz thing made us split.”

“Weightless, eh? I guess that means I don’t have to worry about being a burden if I get knocked out or something.” Tempest quipped before turning in place to get a look at the map on top of the table. “Okay, let’s see here...none of the southern desert or coast is even on this map...lots of crossed-out gibberish and...no those must be names.”

“It’s Russian,” I said, tracing my fingers over one such line of characters. “Lemme see... this one says ‘Чешуйчатый ублюдок устроил засаду четвертому цитрулиновому легиону. Смонтирует его на стене’.” It made no sense to them, but the almost-terrified look on Tempest’s face made it worth it. “‘Scaly bastard ambushed fourth citrine legion. Will mount him on the wall.”

“So, that means not all of these are the names of places, then.” Tempest mused while looking over the diamond-scale map and pointing out a few key places. “Canterlot is missing, as is Ponyville. Fillydelphia is just a village, the Crystal Empire is in place...and there’s a huge collection of forces in the middle of the Everfree Forest.”

I helped Watson onto the table, my gaze staying on the map. “It looks like they were at the end of their rope. Their main force must have gone with some kind of dramatic retreat, if their enemies didn’t think to look for this place.”

“Pffft. You have insane camouflage out here in the badlands. Looking up out there where it seems like open sky? That’s a huge plane of clear crystal you’re looking out through, and the other side looks like the same packed earth as everywhere else. I didn’t even see the quartzes before they ambushed me when I was captured. Ancient, but effective.”

“Alright then.” Giving her an appraising glance, I went for broke. “I want to know why you came here in the first place, Tempest. If I’m going to trust and rely on you, I need you to be honest with me.”

“I was on a mission to recover an artifact that the Storm King loaned to the old changeling queen before she got deposed. That’s the green rock your soldiers took off of me. The Malachite of Misfortune. Legend says it brings bad luck to all who look upon it, but it had some amplification effect with changeling magic.”

Navi hovered above my shoulder, tapping her wand in her palm. “Yes, the failed gem. Blue Diamond called it ‘kryptonite’. She never managed to form a projection. She must have been snatched up by an organic during the exodus.”

“...My sisters made kryptonite?” I shouldn’t have been surprised, Stacy was the biggest nerd of us all. It only got worse when she met Steven. “Nevermind, that’s not why we’re here. So, the Storm King wanted it. Did he happen to say why?”

“He wanted to see if he could draw the energy off of it to amplify a petrification grenade before the invasion of Canterlot.” She blinked and reached up to run her hand along the length of her horn. “He wants the power of the four alicorn princesses of Equestria so he can have magic of his own.”

An invasion? Now that was something I could work with. Depending on the size of the invasion force, nearly two hundred quartzs could shift the outcome. “When and where? Does this map show where Canterlot is now?”

She shot me a look before moving over to stand next to an unmarked mountain near the middle of the map. “I already mentioned that it was missing. Sometime within the next few days. I had a week to finish my mission, then maybe a few days of testing the effects before the invasion. The week’s almost up and he doesn’t have the stone, so there’s nothing to test. That’ll move the timetable up a bit, maybe?”

I nodded my head, climbing onto the table. “It’ll take us more than a few days on foot to reach the mountain...” Walking the distance, I stood next to Tempest. “Navi, how many flight worthy ships do we have?”

“None.” She answered immediately, and fluttered up above the map. “My, my, it’s almost like old times again. Diamonds wanting troops moved. Taking advantage of a distraction we know will happen.” Rising to my height, her features betrayed her concern. “However, I would recommend caution, Your Brilliance. Our current forces might not be enough and your own court has yet to emerge from the kindergarten. However, the rubies should emerge in the next few days, as per Yellow’s predictions.”

If I still had blood, it would be running cold. A deep, burning anger welled forth and before I even registered it I had Navi grasped in my hand. “What?” I squeezed, conveying my displeasure. “What did you just say, Navi?”

“I said your court is still maturing, but there should be a batch of rubies emerging within the next few days if they grow in scale according to the predictions Yellow made regarding your essence and the resulting gems.”

“How?” I demanded, bringing her nose to nose. “How exactly did you pull that off? I never said you could make more fucking gems!”

“Three extraction cycles, run rapidly and using increased pressure to make as much essence as possible in as short a time as possible, on Blue Diamond’s orders.” She remained deadpan as she responded, showing no emotion at all. “You woke up as the last one was finishing. We didn’t manage to get all of what we’d pulled out hidden and contained in time with just the bed.”

My anger boiled into rage. I squeezed and squeezed until Navi popped like a balloon. Nothing intelligible passed my lips, everything bleeding into a red haze. Thank god for whatever shred of my mind remained lucid. I might have crushed her to dust, if not for military discipline.

“-vid?” Watson’s voice trickled in, saving Navi from my attention. “-the table.”

“Fuck the table, what about my arm?” Tempest hissed in pain from where she’d fallen at Watson’s side, both of them a good four feet from where I’d last seen them, and at the edge of a shallow crater that centered about a foot under my feet.

Loosening my grip on Navi’s gem, I found myself disconnected from the moment. “I don’t...” I sat down, staring at the teardrop gem in my hand. “I was so angry... I’ve never...” My fingers passed over Navi’s gem, frantically searching for any cracks. To my infinite relief, she had escaped harm.

“I believe a correction is in order. ‘Never before today.’” Watson spoke up while carefully lifting Tempest off of the deformed table. “David, what are the things in organic bodies that keep their shape called? Tempest might need a new one.”

“Bones. Organics have bones.” I held out my hand, offering her Navi’s gem. “Take Navi. I’ll get Tempest fixed.” Watson complied, switching dependents with me. “I’m sorry, Tempest.” Cradling her like a baby, I eased myself off the table and back onto the floor.

“Just the arm, everything else is fine, and keep that little blue bitch as far away from me as possible in the future if she’s so loyal to the other diamonds that she’d risk angering you.”

I didn’t meet her eyes, overcome with a smothering blanket of shame. “That shouldn’t have happened. Nothing’s ever made me that angry.” I’d been in combat before, seen my squadmates die in horrific ways. Nothing had ever sent me into a homicidal rage. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised that she’d... nevermind.”

“Loyalty can make you blind sometimes.”

“You know, these secluded, diamond-serving gems don’t respect me at all except for the quartzes I fought. If you want me to be an effective bodyguard and advisor, we’re going to need to have some kind of public declaration where my standing is firmly placed in the ‘not a pet or toy’ category.” Tempest carefully flexed her arm after having a drop of tear-infused water placed on it. “Still slightly sore, but I’ll take that over shattered to pieces.”

I sighed in relief, watching her arm closely. “That’s good. There shouldn’t be any lasting damage. At least, I don’t think so.” A bit of guilt lifted from my shoulders, though I wasn’t pleased to see our supply used. “I’ll call for a general assembly then.”

“We’re also going to have to work on a way to either harness or disable that shattering field you projected. An aura of complete destruction would be a potent threat to hold in our pocket if we had a way to make it something you could actually use as a weapon.”

“I could call the gathering with your authority if you wish, David.” Watson chimed in from the doorway as she watched Tempest move her arm as well as attempt a few quick strikes at the air. “Then you and Tempest could focus on what and how you want to say what you’re going to say.”

Turning my head, I gave Watson a smile. “That would be very helpful, thank you, Watson.” Nodding at her, I turned back to Tempest. “How well do you know military structure?”

“Well enough to know that any person in the role of the ultimate leader and decider needs good advisors they can trust as well as people who intercept the annoying little things and deal with them as they’re able. Technically I had the rank of ‘commander’ in the Storm King’s forces, but... the guy’s a little on the goofy side.”

“Then you’ll be getting the same lessons the gems will.” A good portion of the walk to the plaza was taken up by said lesson. I broke down a simplified marine command structure, from private to general. For our purposes, I left out the inbetween ranks. They didn’t need to exist, not just yet anyway.

“So you’ve got some gems here that have command experience, and I’ve got some decent combat experience. That’d put me, most likely, at major, just so the gems that already have command positions and respect aren’t completely insulted, but with a caveat that I only answer to you?”

“Exactly. Those with the most experience will be colonels and we’ll work down from there.” Taking a breath, I slipped back into my hardass voice. Walking in pace with Tempest, I made a show of walking past the line of gathered gems.

I came to a stop at the head of the crowd, Tempest by my side. As we discussed, she projected her voice outward. “Attention!”

All of the quartzes in attendance looked up and stopped chatting with their neighbors at this, and a few of them laughed softly at the fact that it was Tempest speaking until they saw the serious expression on my face. “It has become clear that there is a need for an overhaul of the command structure, as well as making a few things perfectly clear. Tempest Shadow here is not a pet, or a toy, she is my bodyguard and a major in the new command structure we are instituting right now.”

“My sister’s organization was sloppy, mine will not be,” I continued, my voice loud and my expression firm. “No longer will gem type be the deciding factor in what you do in the military sense. I respect natural ability and experience. If a zircon shows she can lead better than an agate or emerald, then she will. Is that understood!?”

A few gems bore expressions of confusion, but most of them were nodding and saluting. The confusion was not limited to any one type of gem, and a couple quartzes were smiling wide at this new information. One emerald raised her hand after saluting.

“Yes?” I asked, my eyes snapping to her.

“So does this mean a long evaluation of our abilities before we can resume normal operations, or will you be assuming some basic familiarity with command as accorded to type and evaluating our capabilities according to that baseline?”

“We’ll be going with the second until we have the time for the first,” I explained. “We’ll be deploying in a day or two. I want all of you ready and prepared for that.”

“Deploying for what?”

“Wait, we’re actually going to do something other than patrol?”

“Finally, a chance to do something!”

Chaos and chatter broke out among the quartz ranks at this news, and more than a few started punching shoulders or slapping backs. Two green quartzes even fused and began cheering as one larger quartz.

Tempest rolled her eyes briefly before looking up at me. Her horn sparked with her magic aura as she began to gather energy. “Shall we calm them down with an explosion or two?”

“By all means, Major Tempest.” I gave a slight, fleeting smile before it dropped into a hardline scowl as over a dozen short, red gems started pushing their way to the front of the crowd.

Presenting themselves with the traditional salute, the newborn rubies fell in line behind a particularly hardass looking ruby. “My diamond,” she began, peering up at me with determined eyes. “We are at your service.”

“New gems!” A cheer began to start amongst all of the gems present now as they started to celebrate the arrival of the rubies en masse. A gathering about order had quickly devolved into complete chaos with one bit of news and one new event. Tempest wasted no time in firing off a bunch of magical fireworks from her horn at the unseen roof of the enclave.

“Alright, fragments, listen up and stop chattering like a bunch of gossiping fillies! We have a fight to prepare for and a bunch of training and coordination to perform afterwards! Your performance in the upcoming fight shall serve as a form of field test and evaluation of your basic abilities. Does anyone have any questions so far?”

One of the rubies spoke up immediately. “Yes! Why are we taking orders from a native?”

“Okay, right, let’s get this out of the way right now for the newcomers. Direct from your diamond through my lips.” Tempest grinned at the offending newborn gem in a way that would probably have scared something smarter than a ruby. “This is the pecking order: you, the dirt, the worms inside the dirt, Grubber’s stool, Grubber, me, and then David, who is also known as Pink Diamond. Any questions?”

The same ruby responded again, but seemed otherwise accepting of this information. “Yes. What’s a grubber?”

An Eye-Opening Experience

“So, how is he doing, exactly?” Tempest stared at the slimmed-down and sleeping form of her assistant.

“Oh, he’ll be fine after a long sleep and a bunch of fluids, maybe some food. I’m sure we have some powdered slave-feed we can give him as an emergency ration when he wakes up, but he was thirsty even before he passed out.” Bashir cringed, a nervous whine emitting from her throat. “D-did I say slave-feed? I-I meant food! Yes that’s the word.”

“It is what it is, and I don’t really care what you call it now.” Tempest brushed off the correction while leaning over and brushing Grubber’s mohawk away from his face. “As long as he recovers and is able to be more mobile, then this was all a good thing.”

“Has he been asleep this whole time?” I asked, vaguely wondering if he had the sleep schedule of a normal hedgehog.

“Well, to be fair, it looks like he pooped enough to build a spare of himself at this size.” Tempest snarked as she stood back up. “But he’s smiling and probably dreaming of food.”

“It did take him nearly an hour to stop evacuating his spare mass. That was frankly disgusting to observe.” Bashir sneered, sending a glare to Grubber. “Organic bodies are so inefficient.”

I cleared my throat, catching her attention. “Organic faults aside, we have to talk about gem production. I will make this very clear to you, Bashir. You are to never, ever, ever extract my essence without my permission.”

“Standing orders were to extract as early as possible. No orders were given to extract ever again, therefore your new stance is noted and shall be followed. Shall I also put a moratorium on use of the existing red essence stockpile until further notice?”

Rubbing my head, I sighed. “How much of it is left? Are there even enough nutrients in the soil for more than what’s already in the ground?”

“Let me see…” Bashir moved over to a desk with a stack of notes on it and began flipping back through them. “Six batches each of red-and-blue and yellow-and-red quartzes, four of a pure red quartz, four more of a mix of red and white. Six canisters of concentrate have been labelled as reserved for transport to the other diamonds for their use. That leaves us with enough for...one full injector of rubies or one batch of pure red quartz soldiers. The more complex a gem is, the more of your essence we have to use. Oh, wait...two individual gems labelled as experimentals. Complex, but slightly less essence used than an emerald. One pure red, the other a mix of red and yellow.”

I peered over her shoulder, frowning at the strange scribble that was gem script. “Does it say any names? I probably know what they are.” I made a mental note to have someone teach me what it actually meant.

“Non-fusion garnet-class is the only other information for those two, they are labelled as experimental after all.”

“That’s extremely unhelpful,” I muttered, sighing. “How exactly were you supposed to send my essence off when we don’t have any working ships?”

Watson spoke up. “If you recall, David, Navi did say Blue Diamond had sent someone to retreive you. They were most likely also going to transport your essence as well.”

“Your pearl is correct, Your Brilliance,” Bashir said, looking up from her notes. “I would assume the other diamonds would have dispatched their fastest ship. I doubt it will take long from them to arrive.”

Tempest chuckled softly and looked up at me. “Hey, David, how much do you think it would aggravate your sisters to have to wait after they get here for you to get back? If we were to head out now and march towards Canterlot without any vehicles we could get there in about a day or so of hard travel. That would give us time to figure out a stealthy infiltration plan to set up for a counterattack once the Storm King’s forces arrive if they stick to the timetable I had.”

I clicked my tongue, putting my hands in my pockets. “That’s a sound strategy. Tireless soldiers are a hell of a boon. However, there has to be a way for us to get there sooner.”

“Well, we could try commandeering a Storm King shipping vessel using my old position? It’d get us there sooner, but the closest one I know of is way to the south in Klugetown. Just getting there would take more time than heading directly to Canterlot.”

“Watson? Would you mind going and grabbing the emeralds? Tell them it’s important.”

“Of course, David.” Watson smiled and dipped her head quickly before turning towards the door and walking out.

Leaning against the wall, I mulled over my options. With a few minutes to spare, I thought to learn a bit more about gems. “Bashir.”

“Yes, your Brilliance?”

“How do you design new gem types?” I asked, my eyes going to several tubes full of red liquid. My very essence, extracted for some strange form of reproduction. “Walk me through it.”

Bashir froze for a few seconds before shaking her head and immediately beginning to sketch out some kind of schematic diagram on the wall. “No time to take you to an injector and show you every single setting. Forgive me for the crude nature of this, but I don’t have much skill with drawing.”

Motioning Tempest to join us, I knelt down beside Bashir. “Alright. What are we looking at?”

Bashir pointed to the diagram’s first two rows, each one holding six circles with gem script encircling them. “Each injector has a dozen pre-set options for standard gem types, including the ‘minimum viable sample’ setting that creates simple gems of a single color. That setting would be what created your rubies, and would create iron craftsgems with white essence. Simple gems, lower intellectual capacity, minimum essence investment with a decent outcome.” She paused and looked at Tempest thoughtfully. “An iron is capable of turning raw materials like metal ores into usable ingots, basically a living refinery and worker all in one package, just in case you’ve never met one.”

“I’ve met one or two,” Tempest responded, standing on my other side. “It’s a shame we don’t have time to wait. It’d make a bold statement, rescuing Canterlot with a horde of red gems.” She eyed me with a side glance. “You do know this will put a target on your back, right?”

Bashir snorted. “Oh please, a diamond out in public anywhere on this planet is going to draw attention of all kinds. Now, in addition to the preset options for gems there are the custom settings for when we need to experiment. All aspects of a gem can be tuned and, assuming they don’t overcook, the result should come out according to plan. The main limitation is available essence. Maxing out every option for even a single injection site is impossible with a fully-loaded injector because the amount of essence required increases exponentially. In theory, we could create a gem the size of a mountain if we had an injector...three times the size of the planet.”

I filed that information away for later. Something to consider when building an actual country out of this place. “Right, now. Do we have what we need to make a batch of Rose Quartzes? An army without projectiles would do well to have some defenders.”

“Rose quartz, pinkish red, meaning a mixture of red and white essence...why is your essence red when you’re pink anyways? Nevermind! That’s something to think about later.” She moved back over to the list of predetermined, and already-performed, new gem injections. “Yellow and red will make orange jaspers, red and blue will be purple amethysts, we have both pure red and a mix of red and white quartz soldiers pending, either of which could turn out to make genuine Rose Quartz soldiers loyal to you, but my bet is on the mix of red and white for that. Should that mix NOT create the desired gem type we can fine-tune the color mixture to something other than a 1:1 ratio.”

“Pink’s just a lighter shade of red,” I commented, shrugging my shoulders. Peering at the tubes again, I sighed. “You have my permission to do as you will with the free canister. I want to know the moment you use it and what you think will come out of that. After that, there will be no more gem production without my express permission.”

“David,” Watson spoke, interrupting the conversation. “I’ve gathered your emeralds like you asked. They seem rather excited about the prospect.”

Standing up, I nodded at Bashir. “I’ll leave you to your work, Bashir. While I’m off leading the troops, I want you to take a look at Kryptonite. See what you can do for her.”

“I’ll consult with an amber or two to see what we can do, your multifaceted magnificence. Ohh, that’s a good one. I'll need to remember that.” Bashir actually giggled as she stepped aside and moved back over to what she’d been working on before we arrived to check on Grubber.

One of the emeralds spoke up from outside. “Keep your flattery short and simple, Peridot. Save the flowery devotion for times when speed isn’t of the essence.”

“Comments from the peanut gallery shall be filed circularly, along with any chances for promotion.” Tempest barked as she strode out through the doorway. “Which one of you said that? Confess or all of you end up on the shit list.”

“Please get the crowd away from here quickly, David. I’m not going to get much done with a shouting match going on outside, and it might wake up Sir Poopsalot.”

Stepping out after Tempest, it pleased me to see the emeralds, four in total, snapping to attention. “I already told this to Navi, but I will not tolerate disrespect towards anyone. Now, walk with me.” Strutting past Tempest, I found a disused workshop to occupy. “Here.”

Tempest quickly went over the plans that had been in place regarding Canterlot when she was working with the Storm King. Using a set of colored sketching sticks that Watson handed her, which seemed to be made of glow stick fluid based on how bright they were, she laid out as much of the plan on the table as she was able to do visually along with her description. She then switched to a different color from what she’d used for the first set of plans to mark a few new places on the makeshift map.

“Here, here, there, and over there are areas of minimum coverage due to airship troop deployment practices combined with keeping the airships a safe distance from each other to avoid collisions. If we could hide gems in these areas in gem form they would make great ambush positions, but I don’t know if gems have a way to reform on command, or if there is a way to restrain a gem to their dormant state so that a bunch of gems could effectively instantly appear.”

“None that I know of,” the first emerald said, studying the map. “We could have them shapeshift, but they’d only be able to hold those forms for a short time.”

Another scoffed. “We don’t need to hide. Organics are already used to gems. We’ll hide in plain sight.”

“Two problems with that assertion, although it is a decent suggestion if we have no alternative. One: few gems, if any, wear the Diamond Authority emblem anymore. All of your gems here have at least one diamond’s color on their uniforms in a diamond shape, and some of them, like the ambers, have all four diamond colors despite having been waiting for Pink for some time. Two: A massive influx of gems into Canterlot, almost all quartzes and a few emeralds, and especially RED GEMS is going to raise a ton of suspicion. Everypony knows only one red gem exists, so that means we either use stealth or leave the rubies behind and give up the element of the unexpectable surprise entirely.” Tempest looked the second emerald right in the eyes and spoke respectfully while knocking her suggestion to the ground.

“And there’s no way to bring that ship to us?” I questioned, crossing my arms. “It might be the best option. Pack it to the brim with gems and explode out like an angry ant hive.” I pinched my nose, wishing for just one radio. “We also have to account for the city being on a mountain.”

“If it were a military vessel I could potentially send a message for pickup to the captain, but it’s effectively a merchant vessel under the Storm King’s banner. The sending stone I have will only connect to military commanders and any attempt to use a military vessel will only result in all of us being ground to a fine paste or powder by the entire army.” Tempest sighed. “And that is actually my fault. I pointed out that his navy was vulnerable to one vessel being infiltrated and turned against him, so orders were put in place that any airship that breaks formation during a mission is to be shot down if the deviation isn’t corrected within a few minutes.”

“So what you’re saying is you need a supply-line sending stone?” Grubber’s voice came from the doorway, where the odd hedgehog-like creature was leaning against the stonework with a worried Bashir standing next to him. In his hand was a simple, round, grey stone with the insignia of the Storm King on it and a runic ‘S’ shape between the upper halves of it. “Remind me, Tempest, who was in charge of logistics under you?”

Tempest stared at Grubber with her jaw hanging open for a few seconds, then sheepishly looked at me. “Ummm, problem solved? All I need to do is contact the captain at Klugetown and we’ll have a ride. Grubber, thank you for being a reliable assistant.”

Grubber beamed at this bit of praise from Tempest and tossed the enchanted stone onto the table before turning to look at Bashir. “You said something about oatmeal, right? After all that I’m starving and thirsty.”

With the issue of getting to Canterlot seemingly solved, I was struck with a bit of inspiration myself. “Hey, we have a way to get a bunch of gems together in a really small space without shapeshifting. If they agree to it, we can temporarily put them in a bubble.”

Tempest looked up at me and blinked a couple times. “Bubble?”

“Oh, you’re talking about a cracked rescue and temporary detention field? This would be an unorthodox use, but that’d be perfectly harmless to our troops.” One of the emeralds that hadn’t said anything yet nodded as she said this, followed by smiling up at me. “Compact, stealthy transport with ambush potential. The perfect solution to our problem.”

“Then it’s settled. I’ll place the call for ‘rescue’ while you figure out how to get a bunch of soldiers bubbled.” Tempest reached for the enchanted lump of stone. “This is almost going too smoothly.”

The airship looked like something out of a video game; a wooden ship hanging below a massive balloon. “And this is a supply ship?” I questioned, standing at the edge of the camouflage barrier. I looked down at my hands once again, as if to reassure myself that I hadn’t accidentally crushed the canteen Tempest had given me, filled with water and with some of my tears added.

“Technically it’s a merchant ship. It’s considered to be on the supply side of the army communications because the option is always there for us to reclassify it as a direct supply runner. This ship is also a custom model, very fast when running at full speed, which is why getting this captain under his control was once a high priority for the Storm King.” Tempest responded quickly while brushing her old armor off in an attempt to get it to look as nice as possible despite the damage it had sustained.

“Best get this over with then.” I stepped out of the barrier, feeling a strange warble pass over me. Brushing it off, I took my first steps into the wider world. “Hello up there!” I called. “Drop a line, would ya?”

A green-feathered bird head looked out and down a few seconds after I called out. A gruff voice called down that I could only assume was male. “You don’t look like a Storm King operative.”

“No, that’d be me.” Tempest called out as she walked out to stand beside me. “Commander Tempest Shadow, leader of the Canterlot Invasion Task Force. I was delayed by an unexpected injury in the middle of a secret mission to pick up a platoon of gem soldiers and require emergency transport to the fleet.”

A different bird, this one with primarily cream-colored feathers looked over the side and down at the two of us. “I’m only going to be able to take maybe six gems...three if they’re all her size. This ship’s for hauling merchandise, not troops. I don’t have the room.” This one’s tone was far softer, and that combined with what looked like green eyeshadow hinted at it being female.

“Toss it,” Tempest said, shaking her head. “This is more important than cargo. We need to get to Canterlot ASAP.”

“Toss it?” The cream bird laughed for a couple seconds. “Listen, filly, I’m no fan of posters and bobble-heads of the Storm King, but I’m not saying I don’t have the room because of what I’m hauling, and I’ll happily dump this crap into the nearest jackalope den. I don’t have the room to transport living bodies on this vessel, and I know gems can’t maintain a shrunken shapeshift for long.” She jabbed a taloned finger towards me before continuing: “And that one alone is going to get in the way on deck just by being as tall as she is. Un-fuse, you pink monstrosity.”

I merely stared up at her. “I’m a diamond. I’m sort of always this tall.” Closing my eyes, I tried to replicate my previous shapeshifting, willing myself to match Tempest’s height. Cracking an eye open, I peered directly into Tempest’s eyes. “Well, we know that works,” I muttered.

Tempest stared back, her eyes wider than I’d ever seen them and visibly shifting up and down as the fur on her cheeks somehow darkened. “You really need to work on your subconscious leaking out but, wow, if that’s how I look to you... if I were a stallion I’d be in so much pain right now.”

I blinked and reached up to my face and head, then swallowed nervously as I felt a horn and poofy mohawk. “Not looking down, so not looking down. Normal shape, just smaller, please…”

“Can we focus on why I’m still here and flirt later, ladies? You claim to be a diamond, but everyone knows they were exiled thousands of years ago. You got any proof, or should I just go back to work and leave the two of you here in the badlands?”

Clearing my throat, I said. “Look, just throw us a ladder down. The proof is sticking out of my stomach.” Sighing, I turned to Tempest. “There wouldn’t happen to be a teleport spell, would there?”

“Uh, there is but you only fixed my horn a couple days ago so I’m still working on re-learning basic telekinesis, nevermind something that advanced.” Tempest replied while watching a rope ladder unfurl and fall to the ground. “I have a backup plan to convince them in case just talking fails, first time I’ve felt like doing it in a long time.”

“Right..” Climbing up the rope, I quickly found myself on deck. “Nice ship,” I commented, doing a quick scan of my surroundings. Acknowledging the parrot people, I tapped on my gem. “See? Diamond.”

Tempest climbed up behind me and cleared her throat. “I can verify this is, indeed, a diamond. More than that, there’s a reason I called upon your ship specifically, Caelano. You’ve got one of the fastest ships in the fleet, fast enough to get a support deployment to Canterlot to stop the Storm King.”

“All I see is a gem with a ton of facets and an interesting cut, miss. Wait...stop the Storm King?”

“Yes. David, the Pink Diamond, wants to stop the Storm King’s invasion of Canterlot, at the very least.” Tempest stepped forward and pointed to Caelano’s leg and the odd forearm assembly on one of her crew’s right arm, this parrot had no hand. “And he can do even more for you, specifically.”

“David? He?” The cream parrot that was most likely the Caelano that Tempest had named, and had claimed this was her ship laughed softly. “Okay, the two of you have clearly had way too much sun. No male has hips like that. I’ll take the two of you to the nearest town for that laugh, though.”

A ruby peeked up over the railing of the ship after climbing the ladder. “My Diamond! The soldiers have all been packed up in the largest crate we had. Are we clear to load or not?”

“Uh…” Caelano and the other bird that had been dealing with us both froze with their mouths open while their eyes darted from me to the ruby. “Red...never been red gems before. Not deep red...oh crap, you really are a diamond. I’m dead… I am so dead.”

I pat the ruby’s head, beaming at her. “That depends on your actions, captain. What about it? You up for helping a diamond make themselves known? Think about it, you’d have a nation in your debt.”

Tempest stepped forward as the two birds hesitated, holding her hands out with her palms facing up. I could hear it as something happened and the sound of the wind changed. One moment it was blowing hard, with a slight whistling sound around the ship, and the next I was hearing cellos and other string instruments.

“Oh, oh, was she experiencing a heartsong moment?” a baby-blue pegasus colt asked, smiling.

“Yes she was. I didn’t know what the word for it was until much later, and to me it felt weird to get caught up in a moment out of a Broadway musical. Weird, but also compelling because I wanted to see where it went. The best part is, I can even play it back for you.” I tapped my gem and brought out a small gadget I’d come up with to make it less weird to literally broadcast a memory to others, and hovered my thumb over the play/pause button while focusing. “She reached out for the captain…

“This gem’s taught me a lesson.” Her other hand swept back to indicate me while the one reaching out for the captain brushed at the drab, official Storm King garments the parrot was wearing. “It’s one that you’ll understand. Sometimes you just need somebody else to offer you a helping hand.” She hung her head briefly and chuckled for a moment while that same hand came back to touch the poorly-repaired armor she herself wore. “I once hoped for power, to place myself above my kind, but those were the pain-filled wishes of someone who’d been blind.”

“Open up your eyes; see the world from where I stand.” I felt compelled to walk up next to Tempest while relaxing the shapeshifting to slowly slide back to my normal, more imposing size. One hand went to gently pat her shoulder as she reached out towards the captain once more and simply pointed at her. “Me beside a Diamond, your future in her hand. Open up your eyes, you all should soar over this land! It’s time to look up, grab the skies. Come now little ones, open up your eyes.”

She moved forward to the captain quickly, almost aggressively as her horn started sparking once more. Other birds came up on deck at this point, one of them wielding a sword that was dropped the moment they saw me standing there. “We are all taught the same, some wounds just never heal.” She reached out and grabbed the green bird’s metal-covered forearm and easily pulled him, and it, right in front of the captain’s face. “Magic that can regrow limbs, that stuff’s simply not real.”

Tempest released her grip after saying that, allowing the poor guy to find his own footing and rub at the area behind the metal as if the move had hurt. Caelano’s eyes refocused on Tempest, and her eyes widened as the sparking of Tempest’s magic turned into a stable glow. “Ah, there, I see you’ve noticed, the simple truth, plain on my face. This gem that stands behind me, she’s restored my magic’s grace.”

Tempest took a long, slow breath and seemed to calm down as she looked towards the captain’s peg leg. She straightened herself back up and looked into the captain’s eyes before offering her hand in a calmer manner. “And as you take that first sip from the canteen held in her hand…” She led the captain towards me, and shot a glance at the other obviously-injured bird as well. “You’ll feel it all so clearly as every scar heals and you just feel grand.”

The captain stared at me, then looked at the canteen I still held, which I quickly offered to her. Interestingly, she held it out to the green bird first after opening it and taking a sniff. Tempest, meanwhile, moved on to the rest of the crew and pulled one with what looked like an armored beak over as well. “Open up your eyes, and see the world from where I stand. I’m allies with a Diamond, your future’s in her hand.”

A gasp came from the rest of the crew as they watched the metal cuff around the green bird’s forearm get pushed off by the force of bone, sinew, and flesh regrowing. Tempest all-but shoved another one with an eyepatch towards the three at the canteen while continuing to sing. “Open up your eyes and behold the truth I’ve found! It’s time to team up, find allies. Come now little ones, open up your eyes.”

The canteen was passed around quickly at that point, with the two crew members taking a drink before Caelano herself accepted it back. I was treated to the sight of an eye regrowing as the eyepatch was ripped off of the third bird, while it took a little longer for the regrowing beak to push the armored replacement off on the googly-eyed crewmember. Tempest, in a moment of disturbing irony, ended her singing in time with the regrowing eye blinking for the first time in who knows how many years and the captain finally taking her own sip. “Open up your eyes!”

Caelano shuddered and fell to her knees in front of me, then reached down and undid the bindings holding the peg leg in place. Tears rolled down her face as she looked up at me while her lower leg regrew. “You... for you, anything. My Diamond.”

It's Raining Death

A few hours into our flight it came to my attention that, much as their injuries had suggested, our new avian allies had once been pirates. They each took their turns changing out of the drab black and grey Storm King uniforms, and coming out looking much happier in more colorful attire. Each one then threw their old uniform over the side before giving me a simple salute.

The few gems that stayed unbubbled bonded with our new crew, making a game out of tossing the ship's former cargo overboard. A crate of crummy merch went over, and in its place sat a container of gems. I took a few turns at it, a quartz or two cheering me on as I hurled crates into the distance.

“This one is going to splash down in the river,” Delphi commented, peering over the railing. Her head tracked the crate as I heaved it out into the open air.

“Yeah? Will it land on any fish or just sink?” I joked, watching the object vanish into the distance. It hadn’t occurred to me how used to brown I had been getting. I almost found myself excited to see trees. Trees!

Delphi paused, tilting her head up. “It’ll hit a cragodile, knocking lose a plate that had been giving it trouble.”

“Cragodile?”

“A monstrous lizard that grows to be up to thirty feet long. Stumpy legs and with a bunch of armor plates as hard as rocks along the spine. The older they get the thicker the plates get.” Tempest chimed in from the nearby railing. “They’re found all over the place, except Flame Geyser Swamp.”

Of course, there would be weird monsters in a world of pony and parrot people. “How do you see this going, Delphi?” I asked, watching a town move beneath us. It looked like a frontier town; vast orchards surrounding it. “Do we win or end up in a million pieces?”

Celaeno barked out a laugh, taking a spot next to me. “Don’t tell me you're having second thoughts. After an introduction like that, you better put us to good use.”

“I see... difficulty. More difficulty. David, if we had done nothing I feel that things would have worked out in the end. Us being there is going to make things complicated.” She turned away for a moment and sighed. “I’m also nervous about leaving the safety of the enclave, which isn’t helping me focus. The unimportant things are so clear but the important thing has so much uncertainty...”

Placing a hand on her shoulder, I gave my best reassurance. “The future changes. Sapphires can only see the most likely outcome.” Gently turning her head, I pointed at an overserious ruby. “There was a sapphire who fused with a ruby, her future vision was expanded by the ruby’s impulsiveness. We saw a bit of that when we were Tanz.”

“I liked that, but I don’t want to fuse with a ruby.” She looked back towards me before shaking her head. “What if we fused to get a clearer picture only to find out that there’s no way to win? Gems are strong, David, but they have gems too. Tempest mentioned a permanent fusion, a living war machine...”

Squeezing her shoulder gently, I tried to meet her gaze. “You can’t think like that, Delphi. If you go in thinking you won’t win, you really won’t.”

“Optimism is fine, David, but there’s a small chance of this being an easy fight. Ponies have a number of gem hybrids, but few of them are trained fighters. It all hinges on the aim of whoever replaces me,” Tempest interjected.

“I didn’t know you had guns,” I responded, looking at her expectantly.

“Petrification gas in a glass or salt vessel. Miniaturized cannons tend to explode in the hands of the user.”

I snorted, holding in a laugh. “You guys just aren’t trying hard enough. But then, humans had thousands of years of practice killing each other.”

“Anyways, the plan is simple: Identify and incapacitate the four princesses of Equestria. Celestia, the princess of the sun; Luna, the princess of the moon; Cadance, the princess of love; and Twilight Sparkle, the new princess of friendship. All four of them are hybrids, capable of fusion, and have a high level of both power and prowess with magic even when not fused.” Tempest sighed as she turned around to lean back against the railing rather than over it looking out. “Luna and Celestia have been known to fuse in the past into an entity that calls itself Eclipse, or that’s what I believe has happened based on what I’ve read of historic battles where both Celestia and Luna were present.”

“I take it that's where the petrification gas comes in? Take out the head, the body dies.”

“Immobilization to make it easy to drain their magic. The Storm King has a staff that will give him the power to control weather if given a strong enough infusion of magic. Drain the magic from two ponies who literally move the sun and the moon and you have definitely surpassed that level... the other two are to make sure the staff stays powered forever.” Tempest shook her head and sighed loudly. “And I signed on to help him with this all for my horn. Potentially handing over control of day and night itself to a power-hungry yeti because he said he’d restore my horn. I feel like a foal.”

Celaeno trilled, her feathers ruffling. “If you’re throwing a pity party, send me an invite. We were just looking to save our hides hauling that moron’s junk.” She rubbed her neck uneasily. “Nearly keelhauled me.”

“Not a pity party to call myself out for not really caring about how self-centered my motivation was. I was an idiot. I’m still an idiot for having done it, but at least I know that now and I can do something about it.”

Tipping her hat, Celaeno chuckled. “If we win this, I’ll buy you a bottle of the strongest drink Canterlot has. The both of ya.” Her head tilted to the side. “But I ain’t paying for a cask, so, ya better be a few heads shorter for that trip.”

“Speaking of being a few heads shorter, David, I think it’d be best if you tried shapeshifting into something smaller to help hide and make the counter-ambush we have planned easier to pull off.” Tempest tilted her head in thought and then grinned. “Maybe you could try turning into a copy of me again? It wasn’t a bad look for you, really, just took me by surprise.”

“Sounds a little narcissistic, if you ask me.” I poked her horn, smirking as she jerked her head back. “I can try it but don’t get mad at me if you start seeing flaws in your look.”

“My look, right, that reminds me.” Tempest paused and turned to look at Celaeno. “Captain, I notice your crew retained their old attire somewhere. Do you have any other old trophies or attire? I’m looking for something that wouldn’t paint a target on my flank like this damaged Storm Guard armor will once he invades Canterlot.”

“We don’t really have much in the way of clothing that would fit a pony, no offense. I could offer you a blouse and maybe an old skirt, but other than that you’re out of luck.” Celaeno looked Tempest up and down for a few seconds before nodding. “Yeah, some of my old clothes could work on you, but they’d be big. We could see if Lix can spare some time to make a few quick alterations.”

“So I’m out of luck as far as armor goes then?”

“Yeah, unless you can find something enchanted in our little section of keepsakes and treasures from the old days.”

Delphi injected herself, putting a hand on Tempest’s leg. “There’s a necklace in the cabin. It’s magical. I foresee you using it to great effect.”

Tempest blinked for a moment, then smiled at the captain. “One makeshift set of attire and one magic necklace, then?”

“I suppose that’s only fair, the least compensation I can give to the pony that helped my crew and I regain a few things we’ve been missing for years.” Celaeno clicked her beak before nodding and pointing to the door her crew had been coming out of in more colorful attire. “Head in there and I’ll send in Lix to fix you up with whatever you choose. You and her will have plenty of privacy in there aside from maybe a gem wandering in out of curiosity, unless our diamond wants to issue an order preventing that?”

I gave a thumbs up. “Alright, none of you flakes are allowed into the captain’s cabin until Tempest comes out, understood?! If any of you decides to play peeping tom, I’ll have you interning under a pearl.”

“What’s an intern?” A ruby popped up from a nearby hatch holding one last crate of bobbleheads.

“Someone who gets less respect than a slave and more work,” Tempest responded while heading towards the indicated door.

“So, do things like this happen often with ponies?” I asked while trying not to think too hard about what we’d just been through as I walked back over to the tent stall we’d found for our needs. I’d assumed a shape as close to Tempest’s as I could get while still feeling okay looking in a mirror, but I could feel the strain starting to build up from holding such a different shape. Two hours was my absolute limit, we’d found out on the flight here, and rest-and-reset time was creeping up on us again.

“What, the times when one or more of us break out in song and sometimes dance? It’s not uncommon, and it’s been known to sweep entire towns up at times. It’s one of the most primal forces of magic we know of, and it’s not just ponies.” Tempest smiled while she held one of Delphi’s hands in her own.

The small blue gem had simply shapeshifted her head to look like a filly, reducing the strain slightly since her dress already covered her body. Altogether, the three of us looked like a family that had made the trip to Canterlot, and nobody gave us a second glance despite the fancy gemstone in my abdomen.

“It’s bizarre. I feel like I’m one second away from being in an episode of Glee.” I had taken a precaution on the flight in. A simple handkerchief, as to remove my sweat without it getting on the ground. We didn’t need any pebbles showing up. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up, Tempest.” I said while wiping it along my forehead and down my muzzle.

“We don’t have long to wait, David. Actually, now would be a good time for us to head over towards where that cake landed after that cannon shot it in the air. Tempest should stay here and get ready to start popping bubbles. She’ll know when.” Delphi spoke up quickly, and looked up at the sky as a distant peal of thunder sounded off.

Reaching down, I scooped Delphi into my arms. “Semper Fi, Tempest.” I snapped her a salute, holding for a moment before relaxing. Putting fire under my ass, I pushed my way through the crowds. “I almost miss the combat high,” I remarked to Delphi, edging my way closer and closer.

“Are you referring to some hormonal thing or just the pleasure of combat that some of the quartzes partake in in their regular skirmishes?” Delphi responded, which caused a few of the ponies around us to look down at her from where they’d been looking up at a swiftly-moving giant black cloud. It had already moved over the lower districts and was rapidly approaching the ring of columns that surrounded the giant festival plaza.

“Combat isn’t fun, Delphi. At least not when you're organic.” Noting the growing storm. “Looks like our cue.”

“We should wait a little longer. Fusing with no obvious threat present would only draw attention to us; potentially distracting people who should not be distracted.”

A previously sunny day became choked with clouds. Hushed murmurs spread amongst the revelers, panic beginning to set in. Out of the stormfront emerged a black airship, proudly bearing the blue markings of the Storm King. Insanely, I actually heard one mare shout that this must be the clowns she ordered.

I worried for a moment as it came in for a landing, fearful that the overhanging city might not handle the extra weight. The pillars it broke as it lowered certainly showed that there wasn’t much thought put towards internal reinforcements of structures. My body tensed, watching the gangplank lower.

“Brian, nooooo!!”

A slender figure descended moments later; a grey-toned pearl carrying a black and silver cube that started unfolding into some kind of megaphone-like device as she set it on the ground. An odd, dissonant bit of feedback sounded as the metal parts moved past each other, but she showed no emotion as she waited for it to finish, then cleared her throat directly into the microphone, causing the more familiar form of feedback for a moment.

“Ponies and gems of Equestria, we are here on behalf of the... almighty Storm King.” A set of banners and tapestries unfurled as she spoke, one of them a massive image of the being himself. “And now, to deliver the rest of the message, I present to you the new commander of his armies, Griffonstone Diamond, and her lieutenants, Lightning Dust and Queen Chrysalis.”

Most of the ponies around us gasped at that last name, and the few gems I could see nearby seemed to be bristling at the mere mention of a diamond. I realized one reason why they might be gasping at the name as three figures emerged at the top of the metal ‘plank’ in the opening left in the ship. One was a normal-looking pegasus while another was a slightly-taller pony-like figure that looked like a fusion between a pony, a xenomorph, and a block of swiss cheese.

“Whassa xenomorph?” a cream-coated filly with a chocolate mane asked.

“Uhhh, a big alien thing twice the size of your mother with an ugly black carapace?” I replied after thinking as quickly as possible.

“You could have just said ant or bug and saved yourself the trouble of explaining it, David.” Tempest snarked.

“Hey, even after a few decades I still think in terms of what I know from where I grew up. Everyone knows what a xenomorph is back there.”

“You’re getting sidetracked, David. Please continue. One of my favorite parts of the story is about to happen.” Delphi patted my thigh reassuringly.

The third almost matched my normal height, a prime specimen of quartz fusion. Her form was pale white, a slight shade of yellow zigzagging across her body. What I could only call a tabard covered her torso, emblazoned with the Storm King's emblem. Pushing the pearl aside, she snatched the megaphone.

“I’m not wasting any more time than I have to.” Her voice sounded like she had chainsmoked from the moment she emerged. “Either turn over your glorified masters, ugly meat sacks, or I’ll put you all back in your cages!”

A collective gasp went up from the crowd of ponies at this declaration, with more than a few becoming visibly angry. One large red stallion actually started rolling up his sleeves before a slightly smaller, but still visibly muscular, orange mare put her hand on his chest. Moments later, three mares landed in the festival plaza, ones with both wings and horns, and the nearly-white one stepped forward and spoke first.

“Let me guess, Griffonstone Diamond? You share their arrogance, but why should we bow to you when we broke the shackles your betters put on us centuries ago?”

‘Griffonstone Diamond’ scoffed, tossing the microphone away. “Where’s that pink freak?” She ignored the mare, scanning the crowd. “I know you’re here, pink stain!” A purposeful step forward, a knuckle cracked. “If I don’t see your face well... the boss only needs three princesses.”

The smallest of the three new mares, the one with pink fur and purple-tipped wings stepped forward. “Are you referring to me? Nobody has ever called me a ‘stain’ before, but I-”

“Pffft, no. I’m not challenging some uppity hybrid who thinks she can stand up to a gem. I want Rose Quartz, NOW!”

Taking a breath, I pushed my way through the rest of the crowd. I’d have to drop my disguise anyway, might as well go for a bit of shock and awe. “Why settle for a quartz?” I called out, seperating from the crowd.

The fusion turned to look at me and sneered, then actually spit on the ground. “I just said I’m not interested in some pathetic hybrid, but I suppose you want to be an example of what happens when dirt tries to pretend it’s something more? Drop your grub at least. No sense in smearing two bodies full of blood around when one will do.”

Glaring back at her, I began to relax my form. “There’s only one diamond here, Gri-”

Several screaming voices overpowered my own. Startled ponies parted the crowd, short red forms charging towards us. “For Pink Diamond!!!” one of the rubies shouted, leaping and tucking into a roll. Springing into a pose, she held up several other rubies before their bodies blended together into a ruby the size of a cave troll.

“Pink Diamond?!”

“Red gems?!”

Letting out an unintelligible warcry, the mega-ruby barrelled towards Griffonstone Diamond. Drawing their leg back, they gave a world-champion attempt to punt her out of the city. Despite being caught like a deer in headlights, Griffonstone managed to cling to the super fusion’s leg.

“I didn’t see that happening,” Delphi commented, more than a little disturbed by the sudden arrival.

“Rubies, they’re hotheaded. Tempest must have started popping bubbles before the ship emerged,” I mused while looking around carefully and continuing to revert from my shapeshifted state. “Feel up to fusing to stand alongside the rubies?”

“I’d like that, David.” Delphi responded, and hugged tight as our forms dissolved into light and began to combine once more.

***

I came back into the world like a butterfly coming out of her cocoon. I fixed my hat, my smaller arms tossing my boa over my shoulder. “It seems like the dog’s off the leash,” I said, looking at the princesses. “You dames look a little bamboozled. Anything I can do for you?”

“I... uh... errr, such a vibrant purple...” The midnight-blue mare stammered and blushed for a few seconds before shaking her head and pointing towards the fiercely fighting fusions while flinging the fuschia from her face. “Intercede, please. The red ones are obviously new and inexperienced. We shall join you shortly.”

Giving a bow, I sashayed towards the battle. “When the diamond’s away, Tanzanite will play.” The world slowed, possibilities streaming across my sight. Throwing a hand out, I summoned a purple shield wall behind Mega-Ruby. The bug collided into it like a bird against a flawless window on a clear day.

“Ha! Maybe watch where you’re going next time, Crissy!” The teal pegasus snarked while speeding away from the ship and moving far faster than I’d thought possible. “Oh Rainbow Dash, where are you? We’ve got a score to settle!”

As she entered my thoughts, she was already leaving them. I didn’t have time to play traffic cop. Movement in the clouds drew my attention, and Chrysalis sat up with an expression of absolute anger on the cracked carapace of her face. Her horn glowed, and the sound of a fog horn bellowed forth from the magic she was using like a war cry from the throats of Cerberus. A horde of primate-structured beings wearing black armor and masks, with white fur showing on the exposed areas, dropped from above as half a dozen more ships moved into assault range and vision from the dark cloud that obscured the sky.

“Right on cue.” I mused, and raised my voice to carry the authority of one of my components. “Diamond-loyal gems! Counter-ambush the yetis NOW!”

By this time, the crowd had scattered, taking to whatever shelter they could find. The battle cry of the quartzes was deafening as it rang out across the nearly-empty plaza. Gems sprang out of hiding everywhere, with most coming out of random tents or stalls set up.

Across the plaza, a pillar of light formed for a moment before it resolved into a figure with alarmingly-familiar poofy hair. It moved with fluid grace to uppercut a descending white-furred aggressor like a custom fighter in a Mortal Kombat game, the baby-blue gi jacket flapping like a flag in the breeze as she turned to glare at me. What could only be Rainbow Quartz arrived on-scene with, well, the thud of a limp body collapsing.

I greeted her with a pout. “You got a hard stare, Ms. Rainbow. Makes a girl think she’s not welcome.”

“My components are going to have words with yours later, Diamond-spawned fusion. Right now I only need to know if you are my enemy or if you are here for peaceful reasons. Talk fast, for we have little time to spare.” As she spoke she turned, revealing what looked like yellow-and-pink-striped shorts and a tank top that left the octagonal navel-gem of Rose Quartz exposed. The four-eyed visage was slightly odd, what with both sets of eyes being narrowed in suspicion as Rainbow Quartz drew Rose’s sword from that lower gem.

A brief flash of insight allowed me to duck while forming a deflecting plane of purple force as Griffonstone Diamond tried to blind-side me with a hook. “You’re fast, purple. Pity I’m gonna have to leave you to the elites so I can take out the real threats here. Storm Guard! Rumble in on tall, dark, and fashionable!”

And then she stormed off, charging in Rainbow Quartz’s direction while laughing. Drawing an arm back, my focus became razor sharp. A sly smile grew, as did the sharp-edged shield plane hovering below my hand. “You really shouldn’t judge by the cover. Some books can kill.” Hurling the improvised weapon, a smaller arm reached back to sucker punch a yeti.

I muttered a short curse as my attack veered off-course, and I started to move to follow the ‘diamond’ only to be halted by a strong grip on my shoulder. I looked back and down, ready to snap at a gem that was disobeying the established combat strategy, only to have words utterly fail me as my mouth hung open like a loose nutcracker.

The being that had so easily stopped me was a winged, horned pony almost a foot shorter than me, who had a mostly-black coat and pale pink stripes. One eye was cyan, and the other magenta, and her mane was a billowing orange and red corona with a sharp line of yellow dividing the two colors and forming a sort of border around the edges of her dark head. “We are Queen Eclipse. If you hold no enmity towards ponies, please assist our adopted niece and leave fighting the aggressive fusion to ourself and Rainbow Quartz. Cadance has no partner to fuse with, as her husband is half a continent away watching their daughter.”

“I, uh, okay. Which one is Cadance?” I fully turned to look back towards the small crowd of ponies that remained, noting that there were three ponies and a small, pudgy, bipedal lizard.

“The pink one with the blue, heart-shaped gem on her left hip,” ‘Eclipse’ stated simply before running off so fast her legs seemed to blur, as if someone had pointed a spotlight directly into my eyes. “Old friend, we are coming to your aid!”

Adjusting my hat, I waded through battle. My hands weaved through the air, sending shields where they were needed. Possibilities streamed across my vision, all but the best pruned by my expert touch. A shield sprung over the group, shattering a cannonball. “Hello there, darlings. Looks like we have a bit of hot hail.”

The three mares looked up at me, and the yellow-coated one with pink hair immediately moved to hide behind the other two. One was obviously Cadance, who was simply staring up at me in shock while the other, a white-coated mare with a mane so curly it looked like it had been folded over on itself a dozen times to get that perfect wave, was actually looking me up and down while her face slowly collapsed into an expression like a month-old jack-o-lantern. “Why must gem clothes put my designs to shame so easily?!”

I simply smiled, giving a slight bow. “A pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Princess Cadance. You can call me Tanzanite. Queen Eclipse asked me to come to your aid, and I’m not the type of lady to deny an honest favor.”

“Ah, yes, thank you. Your shield is... impressively fast.” Cadance cleared her throat and smiled nervously while offering a handshake. “You’re the first purple gem fusion I’ve ever seen...and the second pink gem ever if what I caught out of the corner of my eye is correct.” Her wings twitched a few times while her ears swivelled around to track some sounds.

“There there, Rarity. You really shouldn’t compare what a gem’s imagination forms out of light to what you have to use fabric to make.” The yellow mare hugged the white one while staying behind her, and gave me another name to work with.

A smaller arm took Cadance’s hand, a longer one lifting my veil. “You certainly know how to make a woman feel welcome. I certainly look forward to being a trendsetter.”

I didn’t think I had such an inflated view of myself David muttered from somewhere in my mind.

Stifling a giggle, I winked my third eye. “I suggest you all stay close. Makes it easier to peruse the possibilities.”

“Peruse the possibilities?” the timid mare asked.

“Oh, your blue gem must be a sapphire. There aren’t many of those that haven’t given up their forms to a child,” Cadance chimed in before quickly frowning. “I hadn’t actually thought about that much. An entire gem type slowly vanishing because of a show of love. You...no, nevermind. Now’s not the time for that. Tanzanite, four of our friends are fighting, and one of them is my sister-in-law...wait, you might not know what that means...”

Straightening up, I smoothed my dress out. “You’d be surprised what I know, Princess. More than you’d think.” An arm shot out; a wall flickering into existence behind the timid mare. Another mare, a light purple unicorn smacked into it. “For example, that one’s a bug.”

“Curse you gems and your unknowable abilities!” Green flames flickered around the mare as she peeled herself off of the barrier, leaving a few smears of a thick yellowish fluid on it. “You will not catch me so easily again!”

“Did you know orange sapphires are called Padparadscha?” I asked, gently moving the pegasus three inches to the left. “They see things that have happened in the recent past, granting perfect hindsight.” The mare jumped, a piece of a building falling onto where she had been standing.

“T-thanks...” the frightened mare sputtered out, her wings having flared out in terror.

“Must not hold grudges. Not ladylike...” Rarity took a deep breath and leaned in to briefly hug me. “Thank you for saving Fluttershy. What do you need us to do other than stick close to you?”

I opened my mouth to answer, only to be blinded by a flash of light as another mare suddenly appeared between all of us. “Ack, too close together, no time to bother. I have Lightning Dust distracted and need someone to watch for falling airship parts. I’m going to use her and my axe and speed against these bozos.” Another flash of light went off as she vanished, leaving my vision blurred with an afterimage of a mane made of only the darker Crayola colors.

“I’ll need help with debris.” The hornet's nest had been kicked, frantic battle waging all around us. Even with future sight, I wasn’t fully confident in doing it by myself. “I’ll direct you as best I can. I’ll call an initial and an action, you’ll have to do the rest.”

“I won’t be able to handle anything big, dear.” Rarity spoke up immediately while turning her attention towards the sky. “I do have an eye for details, and I can lift lots of little things at the same time though.”

“I can make some shields and know how to cast a fair number of other useful spells, but I’m not as strong as Shining Armor defensively.” Cadance reached down to her hip and pulled a bright pink warhammer out of her gem. “I can use this against anything that gets close, though.”

An explosion ripped the sky, an airship becoming a brief sun. “F, get the filly behind that stall.” I pointed towards an overturned market stall while forming several shields under the ship. Some caught debris, others endured gouts of flame or smaller explosions. A second set of shields, these rounded and blue-tinted, caught smaller bits that spilled off of their initial landing areas.

“R-right.” Fluttershy moved faster than I thought she could, extracting a small filly from under the fallen stall. Bolting into the sky like a startled bird, she very narrowly missed being crushed under a falling Mega-Ruby. “Eeep!”

“C, slug the next yeti in the shin. R, keep the shower of glass off the pegasus guard.” My shields shifted, taking the brunt of another airship's detonation.

“Slug?” Cadance lit her horn and fired off a bolt of pure magic at the yeti instead. “While I do have some earth pony strength, I’d rather keep the enemy at range when it is possible. The hammer is for things you don’t see that get close.”

I clicked my tongue but kept silent. If the outcome smelled like roses, it didn’t really matter. Time lost meaning to me, just a flash of experiences. Emeralds barked orders. Quartzes carried them out with reckless glee. Rubies rushed in with nothing but enthusiasm and determination. It wasn’t until my sight stopped showing me explosions that I acknowledged the slowing pace.

“‘Scuse us, comin’ through!” A tall, peach-coated mare with muscles that would make a bodybuilder back on earth shake their head in disbelief ran past us with half a dozen yetis dragged behind her, each one hogtied. “Throw ya a birthday party later, David!”

My head jerked to the side, looking anywhere that wasn’t that mare. Even the barest glimpse I had gotten made my head throb. It felt like a thousand years worth of possible branches washed over my mind in half a second. My form flickered, Delphi recoiling in fear from that ocean of potential futures. “Gah! Who... what... why?”

“Oh dear...are you alright, miss Tanzanite? I didn’t know a gem could go that pale.” Fluttershy nudged against my legs for a moment while still holding the filly she’d rescued.

“Either Apple Pie or Pink Lady Apple, depending on their mood, a fusion of our two friends Pinkie Pie and Applejack, and because Pinkie Pie is a creature of absolute randomness,” Rarity responded while patting my other leg and answering each question in turn. “I still can’t believe you and Pinkie have the same type of gem, Princess. You two are just so different.”

“She’s much more in-tune with her gem, and I have responsibilities that require me to keep my more playful nature in check. You’ve seen the silly dance I do with Twilight, though. I’m not that different, just more disciplined in how I show it.”

My senses calmed, the overgrowth falling away. A hand summoned a shield, a flick of the wrist sending it slamming onto a peridot. “It’ll take a lot to get past this dame, Ms. Locust.”

“Oh, my squeedlyspooch! How could you tell it was me, I wasn’t even looking your way?!” The ‘peridot’ whined while her form and colors shifted. The black-carapaced swiss-cheese-mare groaned as she tried to squeeze out from under the hexagonal barrier. “Can purple gems just smell changelings?”

“No. Small one eyed gems just happen to have a certain intuition, and I didn’t bring any kindergarten supervisors along into a battle.” Shaking off whatever affliction that fusion had bestowed on me, I cocked a hip. “I’d be worried if I were you, this battle won’t last more than ten minutes or so.”

“All I need is one minute and the right disguise to get that...buffet away from you!” She snarled and then laughed as if she weren’t being pressed against the ground hard enough to crack wood. “Oh, right, I almost forgot I could do this!” A circle of green flame suddenly spread out along the ground, and she quickly sank into it as my shield pressed up flat against the stonework.

Turning my head, I caught Cadance giving me a nervous grin. “Uh, yeah, looks like she’s desperate and insane now. She’s a changeling, old type. She...consumes love. I’m the Princess of Love and basically a walking grocery store to her.”

“Eh, more like a taco truck.” That abominable fusion passed by again, I could tell from the voice, but I didn’t catch a single glimpse of her this time. I was thankful for that, but didn’t know if I should be worried about her being both invisible and overwhelming to my prescience at the same time.

“My diamond!” An emerald approached, my sight too distracted to have seen her arrival. “The quartzes have contained most of the hostile forces. Two dozen form disruptions have been reported but we haven’t received any shattering reports.”

“How many of the form disruptions were just fusions being split apart?” I asked quickly, still getting used to the terms of my new reality.

“At least eight,” the emerald responded, her arms crossed in salute. “We’ve detained the hostiles for the other organics, as per your orders.”

“Good, good. I want any spare troops to fuse up so they can start clearing away debris on the ground or catch some as it falls. We need to disable those airships as quickly as possible without damaging them too much. I’m sure the ponies would like to study them as well.”

Another airship detonated above us immediately after I said that, and this one had a dark, foreboding rainbow ring spreading outward from it. The lower, boatlike section started falling almost intact while the airbag above it started to rise. “Ah hell! R, C, help me out here!”

Cadance threw up a shield, her body tensing as it caught the falling airship. “I-I don’t know how long I can hold this!”

Rarity’s ears pinned back, eyes as pinpricks. “I-I can’t. I’m not that skilled with magic!”

“You just need to help!” I nudged her as I started throwing up my own shields with a series of hand gestures, trying my best to bleed out as much momentum as possible as the ship fell by changing the angle as often as possible. “Slow it down a bit, keep it from falling towards houses!”

“R-right!” Rarity added her magic to the effort, digging her hooves into the ground. It was a fine effort, but I doubted she’d last all that long. A whine built in her throat, her horn glowing furiously.

“Mybad! Mybad!” That voice from the blinding flashes earlier cried out as a light purple blur flew by, raising a wall of ice between us and the falling airship. “Igotthis! Stay frosty!” The ice was clear enough to act as a window, so I was at least able to watch what happened while still forming new shields to catch stuff that started falling off the deck of the ship.

A glow soon surrounded the ship, and I could feel the weight on my shields, and thus the strain they were putting on me, rapidly reduced. As this was happening, I saw Cadance relax almost completely, and Rarity smiled as her eyes darted back and forth, as if following something even I couldn’t track. Huge pillars of ice erupted from the ground to brace against opposite sides of the ship, holding it securely in place.

Lowering my arms, the tension bled out of my limbs. “I think that takes care of that, ladies.” It was certainly a bombastic introduction. Something I don’t think David would have excelled at nearly as well. Giving a deep bow, I began to loosen my form. “I think that’s curtains for now. Dasvidaniya.”

“Princess Cadance!” A royal guard member ran towards us. “I’ve been looking all over for you. Come with me, I’ll get you to a safe room.” I smirked to myself, deciding to throw David a bone.

***

Coming back to myself, my legs were already moving. Clutching Delphi close, an open palm struck the guard in the breastplate. “You really need a new strategy.” I pulled my hand back, watching the disguise fall away.

“Pain...everything hurts...” A crack spread across her carapace as Chrysalis staggered from the blow. Two actual guards approached, but recoiled as she shot rays that left scorch marks on the flagstones of the plaza. A noise like the chirping of a million crickets sounded out as she took off into the air and flew away, leaving a trail of yellow-green drops.

“Didn’t think I hit her that hard,” I muttered, flexing my hand. “You doing okay, Delphi? I think I still have a headache.”

“Make the mare with a million equally-likely futures stay away from me, David. She scares me.”

I pat a hand on her head, rubbing it gently. “It’s alright, I’ll keep her away.” Letting her relax, I turned back to the group. “I’m David, by the way. Lt. Colonel David Kolya.” Gesturing slightly, I continued. “And this is Delphi.”

Rarity simply stared at me with her mouth hanging open as her head kept moving up and down. A high, strangled-sounding whine was the only sound that she seemed to be able to make, and her horn sparked ominously for a few seconds. Fluttershy moved to hug the white unicorn quickly, hiding me from her sight behind a wing. “You’ll have to excuse her. Your fusion had such an elegant dress that, um, well...”

“HOW DOES THAT CRIME AGAINST FASHION TURN INTO SOMETHING SO LOVELY?!”

Raising an eyebrow, I looked down at Cadance. “I take it you don’t have the punk look here, do you?”

“Ironically, Rarity herself started a look a bit like yours briefly. I found out later that it was-”

“Princess, don’t you dare...”

“Because she took the wrong remedy from a zebra, and went bald. It hasn’t really taken off since most ponies can’t pull off a mane with more than five colors.”

Nodding, my attention went back to Rarity. “I’m sorry I don’t match your expectations. This is what I’m comfortable with, so I’d appreciate it if you kept your comments to yourself.”

“Ahem, yes, well, I’ll do my best, darling, but you are simply not what your other form led me to believe. Err, your fused form?” She paused and looked at Cadance. “Is..is it rude that I still don’t know the right term despite knowing Twilight for so long now? Most gems won’t even talk to me because of my cutie mark.”

“Fusion,” I responded. “Tanzanite is my fusion with Delphi. She’s more or less a separate person from us.”

“Hello down there.” Delphi waved down at Rarity from my arms. “Before you ask, David is newly-emerged and has existed for less than a week, that is one reason you haven’t heard of him before. The other reason is that David is the long-missing fourth diamond, but he wants us to work with the other people of the world rather than subjugate them.”

Rarity and Fluttershy both seemed to freeze up at this news while Cadance simply nodded and looked down. “That would be why I have this nagging urge to listen to you the same way I do to Celestia, Luna, and Rose. It’s a good thing I know how to ignore that urge when I need to.”

“I’m glad you did,” I said, setting Delphi down. “It’ll make it easier to smooth things out.” Sliding my hands into my jacket, I watched the quartzes mop up the few remaining stragglers. “I might need a nap before we do any talking.”

Delphi looked up at Rarity and took a few steps closer. “Just for the record, I would love to have you design some clothes for me. I have displayed the same configuration for centuries now, and I don’t have much artistic talent myself. You wouldn’t even have to make it as long as I can memorize the template.”

“...I must say, Lady Delphi, your insight into the future is both enticing and disconcerting,” Rarity said, her face unable to decide upon an emotion. “I have a few ideas I can sketch out for you after we’re done with all this unpleasantness.”

“Yes, this has been quite unpleasant, even if it has been nice to fuse and go for a good, long flight.” A tall, light-purple mare descended and dropped the black-armor-clad form of an unconscious pegasus on the ground. She ran one hand through her tousled, dark-shaded rainbow-colored mane and looked up at me. “Hello, I’m Rainlight. The battle’s waning, and the invading forces of the Storm King are on the run. Am I going to have to freeze you in a block of ice to stop your gems from turning on us afterwards, or are you on our side already?”

Between A Rock And A Hard Place Part 2

Author's Note

This was the last chapter of this story Voldine and I had worked on before her untimely passing. I do hope you enjoy it. The story will continue, with my new co-author, Thunderclap.

Between A Rock And A Hard Place Part 2

Tempest glared at Rainbow Dash with an expression that suggested she was a few syllables away from doing more than punching the pegasus in the stomach again. “You really expect me to just accept that? ‘I’m sorry.’ You want to make up with me like you didn’t make me look like a fool in front of my new boss? Let’s go spar somewhere when we land. I know there’s some training areas in the enclave.”

Wings flaring out, Dash’s chest puffed out. “You wanna fight me? I’ll knock your flank into next week!” Her bravado belied someone who hadn’t gotten their shit kicked in before. It was charming in that punk sort of way I suppose.

“Do you think we should step in and stop them from hurting each other, David?” Twilight looked up at me with a nervous expression and tone in her voice. Her two index fingers were held tip to tip against each other as she sat in a simple chair. “I’ve never seen Rainbow so agitated before.”

“Delphi would let us know if it was going to get bad,” I said, looking down at her. “But if you're worried about it... Tempest!” I called from across the deck. “Go check on the rubies. Make sure they’re drilling right.”

Tempest stiffened up at the sound of my voice, snapped off a sharp salute of some kind, and then wordlessly poked Rainbow on the snout before storming off to find and supervise the rubies as ordered. I couldn’t help but chuckle at how easily that situation had been defused.

“Any other worries, Princess?”

“Where do I start? Your little group of gems have been sequestered from society for centuries, David. There’s all sorts of potential cultural conflicts, including how receptive they’ll be to change and integrating with ponykind or other organic species after viewing us as inferior for so long.” Twilight huffed loudly,and shot Rainbow a brief glare as the other mare walked back towards us. “Though I suppose some hostility is going to be mutual no matter what.”

I shrugged, eyeing a few of the pegasus guards. “That’s what happens when your sisters turn into dictators.” Celaeno had opted to stay in Canterlot, declaring that her crew deserved some shore leave. I wasn’t going to order her otherwise, which left us taking an Equestria airship on our return trip.

“So, you going to let that unicorn go after you’re settled in or am I going to have to fight you for her freedom?” Rainbow Dash asked with the cockiest expression on her face as she looked up at me.

“Tempest is here of her own free will,” I said, glancing back at her. “When I can pay her I will. It’s just hard to do that with no economy.” Teaching economics to the gems was a looming nightmare of unimaginable depths.

“Pay her? Wow, you really aren’t like the old diamonds then.” Rainbow’s entire tone shifted as she stepped back to lean against the railing nearby. “That’s weird. To hear Twilight talk about them they were just ruthless.”

The transformation had to have shifted their personality. It was the only way I could wrap my mind around someone like Stacy becoming a tyrant. “They didn’t used to be. My sisters were good people. Jen was even a cop. It’s... hard to reconcile.”

“You said that you discovered that you had a newfound temper problem yourself, correct? Maybe it was something similar to that but in a more overwhelming capacity? Maybe you’re more resistant to the changes because you’re comparitively so small?”

“That doesn’t excuse their actions. At least not until I hear it from them.”

“Oh, I wasn’t saying that as an excuse. I was saying it might be the reason they changed so much from what you remember. Things can have reasons they happened without those reasons excusing the results. Like in Ponyville there was a construction project that just started collapsing a few months ago and nobody really knows what went wrong with it. That doesn’t mean that someone wasn’t responsible.”

At least we had similar views of personal accountability. It went like that for the next few days; getting more acquainted with Twilight and Dash. Stacy would’ve liked the princess; probably chatter into the night about books. Dash was too much like a younger me. Full of bluster and bravado.

It was the last day of our flight back when I overheard a couple of hybrids talking as they pulled some equipment out of a crate. One of them was a stocky earth pony with a teardrop lapis on her palm while the other was a lithe one with a slightly odd-shaped peridot on her forehead.

“Okay, we need the nutrient spectrograph and the seismograph to assess the stability of the drained areas to avoid an unexpected total collapse…”

“Got both of them... should we leave the hydration assessment survey equipment behind? It’s the middle of a desert after all.”

“Planning something fun?” I asked, kneeling beside them. “I’ll tell the lapis at the enclave to help you out as needed.”

“Hmm?” The bulkier of the two looked up at me and quickly shook her head. “Oh, no, that won’t be needed. We’re just doing a standard gemblight survey. There’s a chance that we could reclaim the area, get it nice and green if it’s not too bad. It’ll take years no matter what, but if it’s bad that could become centuries.”

Frowning slightly, I took a gander at the equipment. The only thing I really recognized was the seismograph. "This won't disturb the incubating gems?"

“Well,since we’re just doing a passive scan it shouldn’t do anything, really. Gems tend to completely ignore the low-frequency wavelengths that magical scans use, and it’s not like we’re going to send shockwaves into the ground in an area that may be completely hollowed out from gems sucking away materials to grow.” The one with the peridot waved a hand over the equipment, then shrugged. “But, you are a new variable, so we’re using the lowest settings of everything just in case your essence renders your gems fragile.”

"Even still," I said, rising back up. "I'll have Bashirr, the head peridot assist you." I left out an apology; Bashirr was not going to be happy about that. "Carry on."

I heralded our arrival with a stunt. Hefting Tempest and Delphi into my grasp, I leapt over the side of the airship. Thoughts of feathers and paper were my focus; turning a plummet into a gentle descent. Upon touching the ground, I couldn't keep the smile off my face.

Tempest was simply gasping for breath with a hand on her chest, and her eyes seemed to be almost nothing but white and pupil for a few seconds. “A little warning would have been nice. I haven’t quite gotten the whole teleportation thing memorized yet, and jumping off an airship without knowing what’s going on usually has a messy end if you don’t have wings.”

Delphi, on the other hand, was giggling softly as she looked around the area above the enclave. “To your left by fifty steps, David, that is the nearest entrance below the camouflage crystal.”

Sharing a laugh of my own, I walked into camp full of cheer. "Prepare for dignitaries," I instructed the first gems I saw. "I want all of you to treat our guests with the utmost respect." Singling out a quartz, I sent them off to collect Navi, Bashirr and Watson.

"Hey!" Grubber sprinted up and snapped a salute. "Welcome back, Your um... Hardness! It's been all quiet here. A lotta talk 'bout what might come out of the ground next."

“Grubber... never use ‘Hardness’ as a title again, please.” Tempest groaned while rubbing at the base of her horn. “Unless you’re talking to a porn star.”

“Oh, let him be, Tempest. It’s not like he’s intentionally being awkward.” Delphi waved at the somewhat more slender creature. “By the way, running some laps will help you build up endurance now that you can actually run.”

Smiling, he slapped Delphi on the back. "Imma do that! Thanks!" Giving another salute, he hustled off with little fanfare.

"Tempest," I said, looking towards the sky. "I want you to wait for Princess Twilight and escort her to the war room. I'll see if it's been repaired enough to actually use." I could only hope the bismuths had erased my lapse of control.

My relief was clear on my face. The map itself was beyond repair, with only two quarters still in place on the table. The crater had been filled in seamlessly, earning the repair team my highest praise, and the rest of the surface had been made ready to be filled in with fresh information. My entourage filed in, and I found that I had missed Watson's presence.

"Thank you all for coming so quickly," I began, choosing to stand on one of the chairs. "We have a monarch here on a diplomatic mission and a survey team tasked with examining the kindergarten. Bashirr, you are to assist them in whatever capacity and ensure the safety of the incubating gems. Navi, you'll resume your duties as my aide. Treat the Princess as you would me." I felt it purtanient to add, "If the rainbow one misbehaves, trap her in a topaz fusion."

“Rainbow one? Y-you want us to treat...ponies like a diamond?” Navi stared at me with her mouth hung open in a way that almost made me want to quote an MST3K sketch, “It’s bad enough you left that one’s pet with us, now you want us to-”

"No, you treat the Princess like you would me," I corrected. "Treat her with the utmost respect. However, do not follow her orders if she tries to give them. Use your best judgement when it comes to any requests she makes. If you think it's something unreasonable, politely decline and inform either myself or Tempest. Are we clear?"

“Clear as glass, your eminence.” Navi slipped into a salute out of reflex at being given a direct order, though she did twitch a little bit. “The ponies are to be treated as kindly as possible, though the Rainbow one is to be monitored closely with a pair of topaz for swift restraint.”

“Well, what do you know, the pixie has a brain after all.” Tempest snickered while taking a look at the mostly-destroyed map. “This is going to take some time to recreate, David. It would be best to get a complete modern map to work from.”

“A new map would give us information on new towns nearby, among other things.”

Twilight walked into the room a few seconds later, looking just a bit awestruck as three books hovered next to her with another three quills racing along the pages to note everything down she could see. “Wow, this place is almost like living history. It’s so exciting to see everything so well-preserved here.”

“Oh of course it’s another mutant... I mean, welcome to the diamond enclave my... poniness?”

Quirking a brow, Twilight managed a smile nonetheless. "The correct address for someone of my rank is Your Highness. Though, if that bothers you, you can simply call me Twilight."

"Welcome, Your Highness," I greeted with a bow. "Please make yourself comfortable. I know the proportions are... Off. This is the only presentable meeting room." Motioning for her to pick a seat, I continued. "This is Navi, my aide, Bashirr, the head kindergartener, and Watson, my companion."

Twilight’s eyes narrowed as I introduced Watson, and she walked up to her slowly while rubbing at her temples. “Of course they would have had a pearl ready for you when you emerged. Hello... you said you named her ‘Watson?’ Anyways, hello Watson, I am Princess Twilight of Equestria... do you understand the benefits of being free of any pre-programmed duty to serve David and make your own choices? Certain gems have a hard time coming to terms with freedom when offered.”

“I am made to serve David,” Watson said with a smile. “His wishes are my command, for as long as he has use of me.”

“I’ve been doing my best with her,” I explained. “She’s doing better than she was when I first met her.”

“I suppose it’s as good as we can expect with both of you being so young, as far as gems go anyways.” Twilight mused while walking over to the table. “Sometimes it’s better to just take things like this slowly. You’re sure you don’t have a problem with the surveying teams?”

“As long as they’re not going to be setting off explosions, they shouldn’t disturb any of the amethysts,” Bashirr responded after a moment or two of thought, then nodded. “There are a few other quartz types that were implanted alongside them that are pure red essence rather than mixed, and I believe a couple batches of jaspers were planned before your ban on new gem injections was given. A couple of samples might have been implanted after the amethysts were done, but I’d have to double-check the records to be sure.”

A beat of her wings took Twilight to the top of the table. “...Yes. We’re going to have to talk about all those new gem types.” Looking across at me, she put on a smile. “But that’s only partially why we’re here.”

“Why don’t we get to that?” Navi asked, fluttering between us. “What are you here for... Your Highness?” She added the last part with a scowl. “We still have preparations to make regarding the new court.”

“Well, for starters there’s the matter of evaluating the mental health of the gems here so they can freely enter society if they so choose. There’s the land survey to see if the gemblight is something that can be removed over time or if it’s too severe to restore.” Twilight counted the items off on her fingers while holding her hand up towards Navi. “Then there’s making sure that the tentative peace treaty is maintained with nobody sending off alerts to the other diamonds. Teaching the inquisitive-minded among you about the various changes over the last thousand or so years at least. I believe David mentioned something about a bunch of cracked and nearly-shattered gems that need to be restored and have their stability assessed after being imprisoned for so long…”

Navi huffed, placing her hands on her hips. “Her Brilliance has already put an injunction on further contact with the other diamonds.”

“Wait, further contact? You mean you already spoke with them?”

“Of course we did. Standing orders were to inform them immediately upon verification of Pink Diamond’s emergence, Then, during her first resting period we confirmed the order of what to do with her first essence harvest.” Bashirr responded in a bored tone. “A diamond must have a court, and it would reflect poorly on us to disobey a direct order.”

I rubbed my temples, wondering if my growing headache was real or just something I imposed upon myself. “I assure you, Princess, I had no say in this. It wasn’t my intention to hide this from you.”

“You can hardly be blamed for hiding something that you didn’t know about, David.” Twilight sagged, her feathers ruffling. “I’m afraid this will complicate things. What exactly did the other diamonds say?”

“Harvest essence as planned. Reserve two-thirds for future injections. Create minor injections to determine baseline red gems, and make both pure and mixed quartz injections.” Bashiir responded in a monotone, then looked up at me with a shrug. “Await further orders and obey your Diamond.”

Glancing at Navi, I took the initiative for her. “My sisters sent a ship for me. It doesn’t seem to have arrived yet. I don’t intend to go with them.”

“As if they’re going to give you a choice?” Navi smirked and floated back out of arm’s reach. “Your sisters want to meet you and they deserve to have that desire fulfilled after so long.”

Crossing my arms, my glance became a glare. “Then they can come see me. I’m perfectly content to stay here.” Turning to Twilight, I said “We’ll have to prepare for the ship's arrival.”

Twilight nodded slowly while keeping an eye on Navi. “I think we may need to take measures to contain a mole in the midst of your advisors, David. It might be true that she doesn’t really know any better, but Aquamarines do tend to be fanatically loyal to those they were made to serve. She was made long before your emergence, so that loyalty isn’t to you.”

“I suppose you're right.” Hopping onto the table, I stared the little pixie down. “Are you going to turn yourself over, or do you feel like giving me trouble?” I hadn’t had much chance to practice with shield generation. Tensing my body, I committed to snatching her out of the sky.

Navi squeaked as my hands clamped down on her, and her eyes popped wide open as she tried in vain to squirm out of my grip. “David, my Diamond, please understand that I did this for your own good. The Diamonds are supposed to rule together. You’re supposed to be with them!”

“I respect that, I do. I just refuse to be a tyrant.” Slipping off the table, I stepped over to Tempest. “We’re considering her a POW. Make sure she’s treated well. Have one of the Bismuths make a cell. And keep her wand under lock and key.”

“Shall I pacify her and make her easier to transport?” Tempest asked immediately while allowing her misfiring magic to spark along her horn for a moment. “It would make an incident while waiting for the prison to be constructed far less likely.”

“I’ll show you ‘pacified’ you stupid fat pony. I don’t deserve this kind of treatment just for doing what I was told to do! It’s not like I killed any ponies, I just don’t care about keeping them safe because they aren’t gems!”

“Nice job there trying to make me angry, midget, but I know I’m far from overweight. You need to pick your insults a little better.”

“We don’t abuse POWs,” came my stern reply. “You’re being detained, Navi, because of politics. I’m sorry for that but I’m not ready to see them again. Now, please behave.”

“It’s not abuse, it’s a sensible precaution.” Tempest sighed before reaching up and grabbing the ribbon-like wand device Navi had weaved through her hair. “Even without this, gems are stronger than an average pony because they don’t have to worry about breaking bones by exerting themselves at full strength.”

Twilight’s horn shimmered to life, grabbing Navi in her magic. “I think I could restrain her for now. And then we’ll figure out what to do about this ship.”

On the third day, Twilight asked to see the kindergarten site personally. Seeing no reason to deny her, I accompanied her on the inspection. Gazing at stone silhouettes, my eyes lingered on my own. What had chosen the spot of my emergence? Pure chance or intelligent design? I suppose it doesn’t really matter.

Bashirr was there as well to help explain various things to Twilight as well as do her own surveying of the site during the tour. A small, handheld device was being waved across the stone ravine face, and she was reading off the information gained from it into a log. Most of this seemed to consist of just five words repeated constantly: resources depleted, unsuitable for re-seeding.

“As you can tell, we’re actually running quite short on room to actually implant new gems. A diamond growing here left much of this section unusable, barren stone. No offense, David.”

“If I may ask, how did you incubate David?” Twilight asked, standing by my emergence hole. “Or was it spontaneous?”

“Diamonds generate the essence used to make gems. As far as we know, Diamonds can only form naturally. Essence extractors are able to drain and distill the energy that Diamonds generate into a liquid form, or a Diamond may choose to willingly enhance their natural production and force it out into a saline solution. We only knew that David was going to be here when he emerged because of Sapphire Precognition. The other Diamonds emerged in this same ravine system, though some believe that it was White Diamond’s emergence that formed this fracture in the first place. Obviously none of us were around to witness that.”

I chuckled, imagining the view of that from space. “I think it's safe to rule out any more of us showing up. At least not until you can reclaim the area.”

As we approached the most recent injection sites, I was drawn to the rubies section. The birth site of my children. It still didn’t feel real. Passing along the rows, I found myself coming to a halt. Along the top row, a space broke the chain, a spot in the uniform distribution of holes that was still solid.

“Bashirr, over here.”

“Hmmm? What did you see, David?” Bashirr walked up to my side and tried to follow my gaze, then almost growled in frustration as she noticed the same thing. “Well, that’s going to lead to an interesting off-color. Rubies are already pretty small, and you’ve got one overcooking. Wish it wasn’t the highest point…”

“We’ll post someone to wait for them. I want you on standby to document their attributes and abilities.” Kneeling down, I offered my hand. “Want to take a closer look?”

Twilight and Bashirr both nodded and stepped forward, though Bashirr did so with a few seconds of hesitation at first. “I can at least scan and see what’s going on so we have some hint of what we might deal with in the future with this one.”

Getting them comfy in my arms, I stood back up. “Can you get me a rough estimate of emergence?”

“Emergence time can vary wildly for off-colors, so it could be anywhere from three seconds to three years.” She paused for a moment, then shrugged. “So, not three seconds then. Let’s see if I can get some kind of basic mineral reading. Standard micro-gem injection site, minimal surface damage, minute fractures in the cliff face show an accurate delivery of essence into geological substrate.”

She continued a visual examination for a few more seconds before finally bringing up the scanner and directing the device at the pinprick-sized hole in the stone. Twilight gazed over her shoulder and couldn’t help but giggle softly as she read off the screen, proving that ponies, or at least hybrids could read gem runes. “Minute intrusions of natural quartz in the immediate area of the injection are not interfering with development, but the red essence was injected directly into a natural formation of zoisite.”

“If someone would rephrase it for those who haven’t spent their life looking at rocks all day?” It was nice to see Bashirr making a friend. I just didn’t want to be left out of a conversation I was present for.

“Oh, sorry, zoisite is a green gemstone, so a bit of your essence was injected into an existing crystal formation.”

“So we’re likely to end up with a mixed-color Amber situation. A new gem type with two distinct colors because of improper pre-injection scanning. A hopefully happy accident that gives us a new type of viable gem that can be made repeatedly. I’m not sure how we would be able to do that with a red-green mix... maybe two essence canisters to keep the green and red separate until they are injected.” Bashir went from explaining to devising the procedures to do this intentionally with no time in between, then shook her head. “Right, no more gem injections for the immediate future.”

“You won’t be out of a job,” I assured Bashirr, setting them both back down. “We should check the other sites, in case something similar happened to the quartzes.”

“Quartz injections have to be spaced further apart, so they’re far less likely to inject into an existing mineral deposit.”

“Less likely doesn’t mean impossible though.” Twilight chimed in while looking up at me with a smile. “And new gem types are going to be exciting no matter what.”

Security was lacking in those days. Halting the invasion had narrowed my focus a little too much. Being hidden made the enclave complacent. This was only punctuated when we found the quartz section unguarded. A long talk with the agates was needed.

“I think this is the Rose Quartz wall.”

“David’s projection and gem might be pink, but his essence is red,” Bashirr began, approaching the wall. “A 1:9 white:red mix ratio is required for vibrant pink gems.”

Twilight considered me for a moment. “Did you find a specific reason for that? I know pink is a shade of red, but it’s a bit odd that he wouldn’t be red himself.”

“He also emerged nearly a thousand years after Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond, and is less than half their size. His projection color was known by the other Diamonds though, so that’s not an accident. My current hypothesis is that he’s vastly overcooked, no offense, David, and he’s off-color by design...for some unfathomable reason.”

Shrugging, I walked along the wall, running my hand along it. Meeting the unique Rose Quartz was surreal. One person sharing my voice was unsettling enough. Now there would be dozens. At least Rose would share in my discomfort.

Bashiir nodded as she scanned the wall, a small smile creasing her mouth before she turned to me and offered a brief salute. “David, I am proud to report that these quartz soldiers are developing according to the proper schedule and should emerge within the next few days. The pure red cherry quartz batch was injected at the same time, so you should have two varieties emerging on the same day.”

My own little army. Made up of essentially child soldiers. My own children. "What about the other batch? The hematoid quartzes." It was that thought that made me realize that you didn't need grey matter to develop a migraine.

“Ah, the experimental mix using the metallic-refined white essence and a double concentration of red essence to counteract the color dilution. That took an extra day to formulate and they may take longer than standard to develop, or they could take less time due to the higher concentration of essence in their injection. New mix types are, by their nature, unstable and unpredictable in their emergence.”

Our tour drew to a close at a small canyon offshoot. Only two injection sites marred the walls, opposite each other. Both held some kind of new higher function gem.

"Unless Navi hid another batch, this is the end of the line." I looked down at Bashirr, motioning her forward. "Any thoughts or concerns, Twilight?"

“Well, I’m wondering if you’re really ready to deal with the sudden increase in population here. Granted they’re all gems, and therefore predisposed to follow your orders, but quartzes can be a bit, heh, rowdy at times.”

Bashirr stepped up to the two injection points and began scanning, but her face quickly twisted into a look of concern. “David, one of these is a dedicated combat commander. A troop overseer with... it looks like authority second only to you in our current command structure. I wasn’t consulted on this, and it looks like there might be some flaws in the ratio of red to yellow essence.”

Frowning, I placed my hand on the site. "How flawed are we talking? Deformed or just some off colorness?"

“More red essence than was planned for this kind of garnet. I don’t have a baseline yet to know what that will mean exactly, but considering she was supposed to be a military commander there might be a bit of tactical deficiency with less yellow essence in her matrix.”

I barked in laughter. "Jen's a cop. I wouldn't be surprised if her gems are hard programmed for traffic stops."

“Yellow and white gems, and mixes of those colors, make up the majority of quartz-grade soldiers. Blues are a bit too...emotional and need yellow tempering to make decent quartzes. Your essence is still an unknown factor.” Bashirr simply shrugged before looking back at the readout. “I can only make assumptions based upon what variables are known, David.”

Composing myself, I glanced over her shoulder. The lines and squiggles that made up gem language made perfect sense, I found, but I couldn't make heads or tails of the information they conveyed.

"I suppose we have our work cut out for us," I said, taking another look at the canyon. "Do you want another look around, Princess?"

“I think I’ve seen what I need to see. I’ve also placed beacons for our surveyors to use to assess the damage at the most recent emergence areas. It’s just a little magic energy that says ‘look over here’ and it shouldn’t have any other effects... but it’s been so long since pure gems have been created that we’re not a hundred percent sure about that, so I made sure to not do that for the areas of active gestation...germination? Crystallization?”

“Crystallization or formation both work just fine, Princess. We aren’t plants or ponies.” Bashiir responded with a soft grin. “I’ll have a bismuth or an amber get a physical marker set up near the active areas so your surveyors have something for them.”

We returned to the main compound, leaving the unborn to grow. The days came and went, not that the gems noticed. Night and day hadn't meant anything to them, at least not before I implemented shifts throughout the staff. Finally having something to do after a few centuries and then being told they had to spend a few hours a day not working confused the vast majority of my subjects.

Bashirr especially didn't like it. She made that very clear as we made our way to the archives.

"What can you tell me about the Lonely Pearl?" I asked Watson between Bashirr's complaints.

“What would you like to know, David? She’s a pearl that exists to serve the miniscule needs of the cracked archive.”

“I’m asking for specifics, Watson. Why is it a pearl instead of another gem type? What are her duties? Things like that.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand part of your line of inquiry, David. She’s a pearl because she’s a pearl, just like I’m a pearl. We are what we are because that’s what we are…”

I pinched my nose, putting a hand on her head. “I meant, why is a pearl in charge of the library and not a more specialized type of gem. Sorry, I should’ve been more specific.”

“Oh. She’s being punished. Solitude without confinement except to the general area of the library. She’s supposed to not socialize except with the broken gems to keep their minds somewhat active and stop them from going mad.”

Twilight’s ear twitched, a hand coming up to her chin. “What sort of crime warrants that sort of punishment? I don’t think I’ve heard of that particular ancient punishment.”

“The diamonds managed to capture Rose Quartz, the red anomaly, and that pearl set her free after one day because ‘only injured gems get put in objects.’” Bashirr replied quickly while shaking her head. “She wasn’t wrong but her action warranted a unique punishment because it took all three diamonds to bring the anomaly to an inert state without damaging her gem.”

A fitting punishment, it would seem. It also seemed that they didn’t plan, or have time, to lift it. What would such solitude even have on a gem that was made for personal interaction? Pushing open the library doors, I lead the small group inside.

It was a library in concept, if not trappings. Shelves lined the walls, bearing cubbies full of trinkets. Fantastical chandeliers hung from the ceiling, scattering light through the rooms. A strange blend of minimalist and extravagance. Most of the trinkets had some form of large empty clasping setting that once held a gem, but here and there were a few items holding onto what looked like shards of a gem or gems with large rents in their structures.

A pale pearl was sitting on the floor by the items holding the nearly-shattered gems, clutching a hairbrush holding a nearly-transparent green tourmaline with a crack running down the middle. “So many gone, so many gone. Nobody’s said I can leave, but there’s only a handful of you left to keep company. What am I going to do when you’re taken away too?”

A few steps took me to her, looking down at her pitiable state. “Do you mind if I sit with you?” I asked, kneeling down beside her.

She looked up, as if she hadn’t heard my approach until I was right there. Almost immediately the brush was placed on the shelf beside her as she stood up and clumsily crossed her arms, the left arm briefly glitching out as she formed the diamond salute. “P-pink diamond, it is an honor to finally meet you. I-I-I hope you judge me gently for my... crimes. P-p-please don’t shatter me for my past insolence.”

“It’s David,” I said, wrapping my arms around her. “I’m sorry they left you here. You are pardoned.” Holding her close, I placed a hand on her head. “I’m also sorry I didn’t do so sooner. If I had known you had been given such a sentence, I would’ve ordered your freedom when those in your care were being healed.”

She stiffened as if alarmed by the contact while taking her time in allowing my words to sink in. “I’m...n-n-not going to be shattered?”

“Of course not.” I pulled back to smile at her. “You're all my nieces. I’m not going to hurt my family.”

“I have a small c-c-chip in my pearl, my diamond. Until y-y-yesterday it wasn’t doing anything other than a minor inconvenience with my hand occasionally, but losing all of my charges has m-m-made it worse.”

Releasing her, I ruffled her hair. “It’s alright. We’ll get you fixed up, okay?” Turning my head, I spotted an amber removing one of the few remaining cracked gems. “Could I have your assistance for a moment?”

“Of course, David. What is it that you need me for? From what I hear us ambers are going to be relegated to pure combat triage in the future due to your special true healing power.” She smiles despite her words, her near-gelatinous hands cradling the damaged gem like a lightbulb.

“Our friend here has a chip in her gem.” I pulled away, keeping a hand on the pearl’s back. “Would you mind seeing to it?”

“Oh, of course your brilliance.” She gave a genuine smile before turning to the lonely pearl and giving her an intense inspection. Upon seeing the minute glitching of her projection she nodded and reached out to rub a finger over her pearl itself. “A couple microscopic scratches as well, normal with a chipping injury. Easy to soothe, hard to fix completely since it’s a surface injury.”

Twilight stood at my side, scribbling away at a scroll. “I’ve never really had the chance to see an amber at work. You can tell all of that from a simple touch?”

“I can feel the areas where there’s damage to the gem, yes. I can also tell what parts will be easy to fix versus what are going to be difficult. Most gems end up with some discoloration as a result of our healing. This pearl, with the way her chip is presenting, is likely to have a yellow-brown elbow and maybe some tint up the arm. The stutter may be irreparable, or it could clear up after a few weeks.” She spoke calmly as a thin layer of resin surrounded the pearl’s pearl and carefully gathered at the area around the minor injury.

It only took a few more seconds, but most of the tension seemed to vanish from the pearl as the amber’s resin crept into the tiniest areas of her chip, bonding with the structure of her gem on the microscopic level to give her the best healing available aside from what I could do.

“How does that feel?” I asked, kneeling down to the pearl’s level.

“L-l-like I imagine a m-massage must feel. A little uncomfortable, b-b-but also relaxing.”

Nodding, I squeezed her shoulder. “Would you be up for helping us? We’re looking for information on a city called ‘Umberfoal.’”

“Prison. Umberfoal was a prison for war criminals... criminal, really. There was a gem, a general, n-n-nobody’s allowed to talk about her. She slaughtered and shattered so many rebels… Anything else was there to make sure she didn’t escape.”

Turning my head, I addressed Twilight. “Did you know about that? This is the first time I’m hearing it was a prison.”

“No, all we know is that it exists and it’s somewhere in the Badlands... we think? There’s almost nothing to go on, other than that the name suggests it might be either underground or in a dark place.” Twilight shrugged and then started to flip through her notebook to a free page. “I’d love to get any information she’s willing to share though.”

“Once the new gems emerge, we’ll begin searching.” A gem prison? It fit my sisters’ emerging MO, given that I hadn’t actually heard of them shattering anyone. For a single gem, however? Just what kind of monster had they created?

The pale pearl simply nodded in my direction before turning to Twilight and offering the princess a smile. “What would you like to know, organic?”

Come As You Are

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Between A Rock And A Hard Place Part 1

“And that is how we thwarted the Storm King's invasion,” I said softly, gazing out into the sea of faces. “Does anyone have any questions before I send you back to class? There’s no wrong or stupid questions here.”

“Back to class? We came here after school.” One of the fillies spoke up, drawing my attention to the small windows and how little natural light was coming in.

“Can we come back tomorrow and hear more stories? I wanna know what happens next.” The ruby-eyed colt asked.

I pursed my lips for a moment before nodding. “I have one condition, though. Your name, please.”

“OH, uhh, it’s D-david Hothoof. My mom wanted me named after her mother. It never made sense before, really.” He reached up and brushed a hand over the gemstone that replaced one of his eyes as he mentioned his mother.

Pausing, I regarded him softly. Reaching out, I touched his cheek. “I want to hear all about her, okay?”

“David, adopting is a group decision.” Tempest elbowed me teasingly as she slipped down onto the floor with a soft grunt. “All fillies and colts not directly descended from David need to get on their hooves and go home before we’re accused of a mass foalnapping plot.”

“Uh, okay, but for that you’re going to need to talk to my dad and…” he trailed off.

“He’s not replacing your mother with another mare, Young David, he’s just trying to give you a good female influence in your life.” Delphi chimed in without moving closer.

I pouted, shaking my head. “I wasn’t talking about adoption, I just want to get to know a grandchild.” Smiling at my namesake, I said “Your family can come as well, if they’d like.”

“David, I was joking. You know damn well we have plans in place for that.” Tempest facepalmed.

“I was talking about the mare his father is dating.” Delphi finally approached as the other children funnelled out of the room. “A good, stable upbringing is necessary for ponies, after all. His father is more concerned about what might happen if he gets injured and there’s no adult around to care for his son.”

Young David blinked, rising to his hooves. “Seeing the future is weird.” He shuffled for a moment, sneaking a glance at me. “I’ll um... ask my dad and his girlfriend if they want to come... Um... c-can I call you grandma?”

“You know what, yes. Yes you can.” I smiled and pulled him into a short hug before releasing him in case it made him uncomfortable. “I think if I’d been asked a couple decades ago it still would have made me uncomfortable, but I’m better now.”

The little guy smiled at me. “Awesome! I can’t want to see you tomorrow!” Bouncing on his hooves, he called after his friends. Departing with a wave, he left us in a much quieter house.

Making sure the door was closed, I watched the children through the window for a moment. “How many of them do you think passed their gems on?” I asked, closing the blinds. “At some point, everything’s going to be half-gem.”

“Or undead.”

“I doubt that, David, and you aren’t undead, Tempest.” Delphi brushed her bangs aside while rushing over to Tempest’s side and giving the mare a tender kiss. “We’ve been over this before; you were healed, and you’re alive even if everything feels a little strange.”

Clicking my tongue, I strode past Tempest. “You're just a bit pinker. It’s not like I use that little dimension your mane leads to.” Our kitchen was a bit of a hodgepodge, trying and somewhat succeeding in catering to three different heights. I didn’t eat often myself, but something about the food I made always cheered Tempest right up.

“I could use a shot of vodka,” I muttered, turning the oven on. The pebbles made their presence known, opening cabinets and bringing out ingredients. Cooking was a bit of a ritual with us, a perfect bonding experience given their inclination towards helpfulness. Three of them worked together to push a diamond-sized coffee mug over while another two rolled a barrel out of cold storage for me to pour out a couple mouthfuls of the stuff.

“Thank you~” Pouring up to the brim, I slammed the sweet, burning substance down my throat. It had long lost its intended effect, but that burn never left. “Spasibo,” I muttered, resuming my cooking. “Do you feel like eating, Delphi?”

“Well, I do foresee myself eating along with Tempest as a show of comfort and support. I can’t tell if you’re watching or eating as well though...odd.” Delphi mused quietly for a few seconds while stroking Tempest’s back. “Oh, extra cheese on my portion please.”

Delphi only asked for extra cheese on one thing, which meant I was going to be making some kind of pasta for dinner. I looked through the cabinets and refrigerator to see what was available, and decided on pelmeni. Sectioning off Delphi’s portion, I sprinkled some cheese on the meat before enclosing it in dough.

“Do you want any wine, Tempest? Or are you craving something harder?” Slipping the tray into the oven, I turned back to the pair. “We still got that 57’ vintage.”

“I’m craving something hard alright, David, but it doesn’t have anything to do with dinner.” Tempest winked and grinned, then started squirming a bit. “Actually, hang on a second…” She reached down and carefully adjusted her clothes, then scowled and looked down while peeling the waistband of her sweatpants out. “Discord, get out of my underwear!”

The serpentine chimera scoffed, slithering out of Tempest’s pants. “My dear Fizzlepop, I was on them not in. There is a difference you know. Besides I thought I was welcome to do so?”

Tempest blushed and stammered for a second. “Not without warning, and only with David...or Twilight. I thought that was clear. I also felt you moving, so how was I supposed to tell you were on the outside?”

Discord clicked his tongue. “I only showed up because I felt you getting all... hot and bothered.” His eyebrows wiggled, almost like caterpillars. “I thought you might be needing my services, or might have decided to take me up on that offer to make my services needed less often to...facilitate things.”

Delphi blushed at that, causing a sheen of ice to coat the entire floor around her as well as causing a dip in temperature, while Tempest took a step back and bit at her lower lip. “Look, that’s still a big change for someone like me who can’t just alter herself at will. It’s enticing, and I know Delphi likes the idea of there being more to me than you can tell, but it still freaks me out. How would I control it?”

“You’d figure it out.” Discord wrapped himself around my neck like a living scarf. “I imagine the same way Big Red here overcome those nasty little hissy fits he used to throw.” He pat my cheek with his paw. “It can’t be any worse than all that collateral destruction.”

Tempest blinked and shook her head at that comparison. “I’m sorry, what? What does adding a dick to me have to do with David’s old temper issues? I’m talking about practical issues here, like, would I have to replace my entire wardrobe, and just where everything would fit and, I mean, if it’s not going to just be there all the time how I’d control when it shows up…”

Grabbing his arm, I pulled him off my shoulders. “You need to respect personal space. Unless you’d rather we start inviting your cousin instead.” Dropping him, I grabbed up Tempest and carried her to the kitchen. “He’s just being obnoxious, Fizz. If we ignore him, he’ll start behaving.”

“Oh, control and such would be so easy, my dear unicorn. You see, if you have it out all you’d have to do is fizz until you pop, then give your berries a twist.” Discord smirked while grabbing a mortified Delphi and ferrying her into the kitchen as well. “Or, if you don’t want something quite so pun-based, I’m sure we could discuss that at some other time.”

Sighing, I set Tempest into her chair. “Discord, don’t be a jackass. Just give Tempest a straight answer or go bother someone else.”

“That was a straight answer. The easiest way for me to make a change like that to someone you’ve altered is for it to be based on a pun. If she has it and wants to get rid of it for fashion or whatever, she needs to get off then twist until it hurts, then it’ll vanish until she wants it again.” Discord tucked Delphi into her own chair, then looked right into Tempest’s eyes. “I can give you an instruction manual if you need more clarity.”

Tempest leaned back, snorting. “I want the manual before you do anything. And a promise you won’t bring it up again until I bring it up.”

“My dear, how can I bring it up again when I haven’t managed to get a rise out of you once yet?” Discord wiggled his eyebrows and smirked before darting back away from the table. “Then again I suppose I am a bit on the dull side. Maybe I should pink myself up a bit first?”

“Discord, I predict you will leave before David and I finish fusing if you know what’s good for you. That and you will leave the requested manual so Tempest doesn’t have to spend the next week figuring out if you did anything to her without her permission.”

“You know very well that David can’t do anything to me directly.”

“Just as well as you know that him fusing with me gets around that little loophole of yours.” Delphi spoke calmly, but her threat was clear enough. “Now, before I lose my temper, or I’ll tell Twilight you were being unreasonable too.”

Discord pouted, reaching over the table. A colorful book passed into Tempest’s hands, bearing his smiling likeness. “Alright, alright. You don’t have to get scary. I’ll leave you all to a nice evening.” Sticking his nose up, he vanished in a spray of confetti.

“He just had to make work for the pebbles,” I muttered, watching the little gems scurry about the room. “We need to put a shock collar on that frankenstein jackass.” Taking my own seat, I shifted the topic of conversation. “I’m considering writing a book.”

“Memoir, novel, or biography?” Tempest asked simply as she set the book from Discord off to the side for the moment.

“Is there a difference between a memoir and a biography?” I questioned.

“Yes. A memoir is explicitly about your own experiences while a biography can be about someone else. A biography about the author is a separate type of book.”

“That would be an autobiography, right Tempest?” Delphi fussed with her hair for a few seconds as she moved her bangs aside. Tempest merely gave her a smile and a nod in response.

“A memoir, I suppose.” My eyes focused on the table, watching the pebbles place down plates and pass out portions. “I know a lot of people would love to hear about our reclaiming of a lost Umberfoal for example. How many times have we had a class come in for a history lesson?”

“You really want to write about your biggest mistake? I mean, I know you’ve made up for it, but most people don’t know you’re the one responsible for freeing that monster, no matter how good your intentions were.”

“Tempest, she fooled me too. I don’t know how, but that thing utterly twisted my foresight.”

Sipping at a pebble-provided mug, I let the burning liquid linger on my tongue. “Because I want people to know. Everyone looking for a history lesson comes to us, we might as well write it down.”

“They come to you for gem stuff. They go to Twilight for most pony-related stuff. Sometimes they find me if I’m out shopping or off-duty.” Tempest lifted her own mug full of orange juice and took a sip.

“I think it’s a lovely idea, David.” Delphi lifted her small wine glass, swirling the amber liquid. “Yours is a unique perspective. And it would give those like Tanzanite a way to make their voices heard.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t a good idea,” Tempest said, holding off a pout. “Do you think you can put all those experiences to paper? It’ll be controversial for sure.” Tossing a piece of pelmeni into her mouth, she tapped her fingers on the table. “I think you should talk to a few people. Make sure you don’t burn any bridges.”

“Or spill any state secrets. Equestrian or gem-related. That would go poorly, even with how well you’ve cooperated with the princesses all this time.”

I put a hand up. “Alright. Alright. I’ll do some talking.” Reaching across the table, I cupped Tempest’s chin. “But first, eat your dinner. We can take care of your other appetite afterwards.”

“Ohhh, don’t make promises like that if you don’t intend to keep them, David.” Tempest charged her horn to the point where it sparked briefly. “Once we’re done with dinner, you have an hour to talk with the others, then I’m going to tackle you no matter who you’re speaking with.”

Raising my glass, I smirked. “It’s a date then.”

My second foray into sleep was met with exasperation. After impressing upon my gracious hosts how useless I’d be without it, they allowed me to nap in one of their larger rooms. I won’t lie, the part of me that had begun to overthink distrusted the process. I ignored it, wanting nothing more than the sweet kiss of sleep.

“-ke up!”

“-old you to let him sleep!”

My consciousness stirred, dragged from my defragmenting slumber. Suppressing a sigh, I cracked an eye open. Tempest barred the door, her dark fur contrasting with the brightly colored mare trying to enter my temporary abode.

“I will break your jaw if you don’t shut it!” Tempest hissed, shoving the mare back. “David needs to sleep, get that through your pinhead, featherbrain!”

The mare shoved back, her shrill voice almost making me think her voice was cracking. “That baby dictator can sleep on her own time. I’m sick of waiting! Get her flank up, now!” She made to push past Tempest, only to drop as Tempest gut punched her.

Tempest snorted, her equine nature coming through. “Next, I’m breaking your damn jaw. David will be ready when he’s ready. Not when a cocky little pissant says he is.”

“Who are you calling a peasant?” The blue mare groaned as she struggled to stand back up.

“I said ‘pissant’, not peasant, which-”

The intruding mare shot back up to her feet suddenly, then slammed her head forward into Tempest’s muzzle with a resounding crack. What happened next was so fast I wasn’t quite sure what happened, exactly, but it left Tempest clutching herself high on her abdomen while gasping for breath. “Aim for the sternum, it’s too easy to brace for a punch in the gut.”

“Enough!.” I sat up, getting a better view of the intrusive mare. Her skittles hair marked her as half of Rainlight. “Touch Tempest again and I’ll turn you into glue.” Sliding off the bed, I moved to Tempest’s side. Digging through her pouches, I retrieved a vial of tear-water.

“You’d have to catch me first, and I don’t like to brag but I’m pretty fast.”

“Rainbow Dash, half of what you do is brag.” A calmer voice spoke from the doorway. A shadow-shrouded figure stood there, but what was exposed to the light seemed to be a pale lavender.

I chose to ignore Rainbow Dash, focusing on the ailing unicorn in my grap. I sprinkled water on her nose, applying a few selective splashes to her abdomen. “Just look at me and take a breath, alright. Slow and easy.”

“How is her head so hard? That felt like getting kicked in the face.” Tempest groaned while her breathing steadied.

“That would be the result of years of stunt-flying and crashing.” That calm voice responded.

“Hey!”

“Rainbow, you know it’s true.” The other mare cleared her throat softly. “Sorry. David, right? I’d like to come in, please, with your permission.”

Transferring Tempest to the bed, I turned back to the door. “You can come in. Skittles stays outside, if she knows what’s good for her.”

“I’m fine with those terms. Rainbow, please leave the room of the Gem Ambassador. Now.”

“But Twilight, you-”

“Rainbow, you already made her angry by assaulting her guard and waking her up. I was asking as your friend; please don’t make me order you as a princess.”

“I...ugh, FINE.” Rainbow Dash growled as she walked out of the room, allowing the other mare to step inside.

She was dressed plainly, wearing what might pass for a teacher’s outfit if not for the fact that one leg was exposed almost from hip to knee to display a starburst-patterned mark. One of the white stars had a few prongs sticking out from her flesh and coat as well, most likely some kind of gem.

Standing by Tempest, I nodded my head. “I’m Lt. Colonel David Kolya, now otherwise known as Pink Diamond.” I snapped a salute. “To whom am I speaking?”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, Snowflake Obsidian hybrid.” She smiled and held out her hand at an upward angle. “You already met my teacher, her sister, their fusion, and my sister-in-law.”

My hand eclipsed hers, shaking it gently. “A pleasure to meet you, Princess. I’m sorry I made you wait so long. Sleep’s a habit that stuck with me, I’m afraid. I should be good to go for a while.”

“That’s good to hear. I do want to apologise for sounding so confrontational earlier when I was fused, but Rainbow has always been obsessively loyal to Equestria and a bit of a hothead. That part of her tends to bleed through a lot when we’re fused since I’m the same way towards Celestia.”

Releasing her hand, I gazed towards the door. “I take it you’re here to escort me to the other princesses? Or, are you here to make sure I’m not a danger to anyone?”

“I’m actually here to try and stop Rainbow from waking you up before you were ready, but she’s just too fast for me to keep up. If you feel like you’re up to it, though, I’ll be happy to bring you to speak with Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Rose.”

“I’m coming with you if you go, David. Just need a few seconds.”

Bending down, I merely scooped Tempest into my arms. “It’ll just be easier to carry you, at least until you're ready to walk.” Nodding at Twilight, I stepped into the hall. “After you, Princess.” It would just be another debriefing, I told myself. Just with more magic and talking gemstones.

“I should warn you, Cadance is the only one that seems ready to give you a fair chance other than me.” Twilight spoke as she led the way through halls far taller than even I was. “I didn’t even know Celestia had armor, but I saw her and Luna helping each other into it before Rainbow started acting like she had ants biting her wings.”

“Hey! I’m right here.”

“I’m flattered they think I’m dangerous enough to require armor.” A few hallways passed before I set Tempest onto her hooves. “I’d do the same, honestly.”

“To be fair, Diamonds are said to have required the efforts of a number of fusions all attacking at once to push back in the past. I mean, it’s ancient history, but they’re treating this like you’re a potential imminent threat to their rule and the freedom of ponykind.”

I bit my tongue, noting the growing number of guards, pony and gem alike, that began to fall in behind us. I respected that. They took a potential threat seriously. That meant, while talks were tense, I wouldn’t be disregarded.

“Do I need to know anything?” I asked, looking at Twilight. “Any subjects off limits? People to appeal to?”

“I’d just say be respectful and if things seem to be turning sour maybe lean on Cadance for support? She seems to have a high opinion of you for how you were handling everything, and how you managed to completely shut down Chrysalis. The fact that you kept her and two friends of mine safe has me on your side as well, even if Rainbow’s suspicious of your motives. Pinkie’s just happy to have someone new around and Applejack doesn’t care as long as you don’t hurt her or her family’s orchards.”

As our journey wound down, we were greeted by a rather stuffy looking stallion with a trumpet. “Greetings, your majesties.” Taking his hat off, he gave a sweeping bow. “The other princesses are awaiting your arrival. Shall I announce you?”

“Yes, you may.” Twilight nodded her head. “Please introduce our guest as Lt. Colonel David Kolya.”

Replacing his hat, the stallion motioned for the standing guards to open the throne room. With practiced measure, his blaring trumpet resounded into the cavernous room. “Now announcing her royal highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle! And Lt.Colonel David Kolya!”

The throne room was vast and well-lit with sunlight pouring in through stained-glass windows. The windows closest to the royal dais, however, were clear to allow light to shine unfiltered upon whoever was seated there. Two thrones topped this raised portion of the floor; one golden and cushioned with red pillows while the other was silver and cushioned with blue. Seated on the gold throne was a white figure wearing golden, sun-themed armor, and on the silver throne was a blue-coated person wearing silver armor decorated with depictions of constellations.

Seated in two chairs lower down were another two figures. One was Cadance, wearing what looked like an elegant gown. The other chair held a figure that would have made my blood run cold if I still had any, recognizable despite the fact that she was wearing a black-skirted suit instead of the white dress from the show, Rose Quartz. Pearl was even standing there next to her, looking slightly tense and holding onto the upper shaft of her spear while wearing what looked like a blue leather jacket, a yellow t-shirt, and plain jeans.

Following in Twilight’s footsteps, my eyes lingered on Rose. Specifically her gem. It nagged at me, its facets almost mocking. Pragmatism moved my eyes back to the wider group, observing all the details that stood out.

“Hail, Twilight Sparkle,” the blue mare said, rising from her throne. “It is good to see the battle hasn’t lingered on you.” Her demeanor shifted, regarding me with a critical eye. “And you, David was it not? Canterlot owes much to your sudden arrival.”

“You’re welcome,” I responded. “Tempest had knowledge of the invasion and we had the opportunity to act.” Glancing back at Rose, I continued. “However, before we begin any talks, I want assurances that I am in fact the only diamond in the room.”

Looks of confusion circled the room, followed by a glare from the greaser-looking Pearl. “Everyone knows that gems cannot alter their colors when shapeshifting. If any of us were diamonds, we would have only one color. White, yellow, blue, or you. Luna comes the closest to that, no offense princess, but her gem is clearly a moonstone.”

“Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond.” My voice was curt, staring at Rose’s gem.

“What?”

“You LIE!”

“You dare make such an accusation?”

“No I’m not.”

“Wait, I thought...what?”

Recalling an image to my mind, I pictured my gem turning up and in, rotating the bottom facet to face outwards. My form shifted quickly, becoming an amorphous blob of pinkish-white light. Turning my gem was new, though eclicted no strange sensations. “As I said, Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond. Our voices are the same, we have the same healing tears, the exact same facets.” As I finished rotating the upper point inward, my body coalesced and condensed down into the shape of a standard quartz gem soldier, with the associated uniform.

“YOU GET OUT OF THAT BODY RIGHT NOW!” Pearl screamed as her face contorted into something between rage and fear, and she lifted her spear to brandish it. The only thing that stopped her was the immediate motion of two royal guards to stand in front of me. “That...that is not your body. Two lies already, and you want us to trust you?”

“Hey, ease up on the volume there.” Tempest shook her head and rubbed under her ear as she moved to stand in front of the royal guard to address Pearl. “And if you threaten David again I’m going to have to zap you. I learned that my magic can destabilize gem bodies if I put enough power into it, so that’ll be fun for you.”

“Enough threats. Enough with the anger. Pearl, old friend, please calm down.” The white figure in gold armor sighed loudly and lifted her helmet off to place it in her lap, releasing a billowing cloud of multicolored hair that flowed in a nonexistent breeze. “Rotating your gem to a different face and gaining a different form is a new trick to the rest of us. Please explain yourself, Pink Diamond.”

My form reverted, irritation plain on my features. “If you didn’t hear, my name is David.”

“Right, David. Sorry, old habits die a hard death. Millenia later and I still think of Diamond as a title rather than a name.” She shook her head and looked at me with eyes far older than she appeared to be. “Names it is, then. I am Celestia, my sister here is Luna. You have already met us, however briefly and without a proper introduction.” She swept one hand out to indicate the blue mare, who waved. “You walked in with my former student, Twilight Sparkle, and the other pony-gem hybrid here is my adopted niece, Cadance. You seem to be quite familiar with the only other pink gem known to exist until yesterday, Rose Quartz.”

“We also met you while fused, as Solar Eclipse.” Luna chimed in. “Thank you for protecting Cadance as we requested.”

“Only as familiar as a person can be with a fictional character.”

“Wait...David...fict… What did you buy from a mysterious gift stall?” Rose stood up from her chair and put her hand on Pearl’s shoulder. “And why are you only showing up now?”

I traced a finger along a facet, never looking away. “A case of diamonds. Mine burned a goddamn hole in my stomach. The white one must’ve cracked my sister’s skull with how fast it was going.” As to her last question, I just shrugged. “I popped out of a wall a few days ago.”

“A case of diamonds.”

“White...your sister...oh no.”

“Yeah, I figured that out rather quickly.” I withheld Navi’s little communique. They didn’t need to know that just yet. There were a lot of things they didn’t need to know yet. “As far as I know, they got kicked off the planet and left a small force to wait for me.”

“Yes, well, your sapphire companion has told us as much as she felt you would be comfortable with us knowing. She says you named her ‘Delphi.’”

“It’s a fitting name,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “I wasn’t going to call her ‘sapphire # 34201’”

“The old legends of the Greek oracles, yes.” Rose smiled and sat back down. “Charlie used to be a mythology buff.” Pearl stiffened a bit, and blushed visibly.

“The diamonds of old were somewhat impersonal about the vast majority of gems, though there are a few yellow ones who were given unique names. Most of those have passed themselves on to their sons or daughters at this point, however.”

Cadance raised her hand, almost sheepishly. “I’m sorry, I think we’ve gotten a little off topic here. It might not be my place, however, I think we should save the informal talk for when we’re not having a diplomatic meeting... That and I’m more than a little lost...”

“Oh, that’s my fault. I’m sorry, I was just surprised to learn that Pi...David here is like Charlie and myself.” Rose spoke up while pulling Pearl, who I assumed to be Charlie, against her side. “The bit about Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond being the same is still news to us, though, and I can’t do that rotation thing. I’ve been poofed a couple times, and my gem’s just like Amethyst’s. A faceted hockey puck.”

“Rose, please, I’m supposed to be keeping you safe, not hugged against you.”

Clearing her throat, Celestia couldn’t hide that ghostly little smile. “Cadance is right. We have official matters to deal with. I would ask that we reign in any idle chatter.”

“I told you the conversation would veer away from business for a time.” I heard Delphi’s voice before she walked into sight from behind the golden throne. Gracing the collected royalty with a curtsy, she hurried down the stairs and took a spot by my side.

Celestia waited a moment, daring anyone else to speak. “If we can move on, I would like to extend a formal welcome to Equestria. An honor your... sisters did not earn.”

Our talks were awkward. Leadership is a handy trait. Suddenly moving from solely military leadership to leading what was for all intents and purposes was a micronation is something else entirely. My frustration grew, finding myself talking to them like they were my CO.

I didn’t hide my relief when Celestia called for lunch, leaving me to breathe. I used the time to check in on my gems. The had been given a disused guard barracks, somewhere out of the way and easily kept track of. Emeralds gave reports and ambers passed out healing water.

Out of all the gems, the rubies sought my praise the most. Their eager faces beamed, more than a few smiles leaking through. I gave it to them of course, more than I would for any other soldier under me.

I knelt down in front of one, a ruby with a gem for an eye. “You were a part of the fusion, weren’t you?”

“It was a situation that demanded more power than any one ruby could deliver. It was my honor to be part of it.” She saluted me after another few seconds.

Placing a hand on her head, I studied her face. As much as what was left of my ape brain wanted, it found no physical resemblance to myself. Regardless, it did nothing to smother the strange connection I felt for them.

“Perhaps a little more caution would help? If you rush in, you might alter the plan in a way we can’t work with.”

“But...that’s what we’re supposed to do. Rush in, get in the way, keep the enemy from getting any solid hits on high-value targets. Be a living wall.”

“What you can do is be smart. Use that brain of yours and stay on your toes. That’s what I’d like for you to do.” Smiling, I gave her a gentle jab on the shoulder. “Still, you all did great. I’m proud of you.”

“Aw shucks, I’d need to be trained how to think tactically.” The ruby kicked at the ground a couple times. “I mean, the only thought I really had was to smash and maybe stop if I poofed her. You think maybe I could train with an emerald?”

I nod, finding her increasingly adorable. “I’ll have one be a mentor to your squad. Think you can keep them in line for me? We might be here for a while.”

“I’ll do my best, mom.” The ruby froze and quickly saluted. “I mean, David. David.” She repeated a couple more times, standing as stiff as a board.

“Mom huh?” I asked, poking her nose. “And where’d you hear that kind of thing?”

“Er, uh, one of the pony soldiers said that us being created by you made you like our mother?” She responded immediately while taking a single step back. “I asked him about it a little and he called my curiosity cute.”

Patting her head, I chuckled. “Ah well, I’m your parent either way. Why don’t you run off back to your siblings? I’ll stop by when I’ve talked to one of the emeralds.”

“Okay. I’ll go tell them the good news about the special training!” She ran off without any hesitation and was quickly lost from sight in a group of half a dozen exact copies except for gem placement.

I watched the group chatter amongst themselves, memorizing what made them stand out. Me? A parent? A mom for that matter? Having children had never crossed my mind before. Perhaps I had one back on Earth; given a few drunken nights of leave. The hell was I supposed to do? Being a leader was one thing. Being a parent was another.

“Excuse me, Pink Diamond?” A gruff voice called from behind me. “Princess Luna wishes to know if you would like a glass of juice or water during the continued talks.” He cleared his throat softly before continuing. “Normally a seat at the royal table for the meal would be offered, but we are well aware that gems need little more than sunlight and the occasional washing to stay healthy.”

“Juice is fine.” It hadn’t really occurred to me that I hadn’t eaten or drank anything since my arrival. I breathed, still do actually. Some small, leftover part of my human brain. An automatic function I can’t quite turn off. “How long until we resume?”

“You have another twenty minutes before I should guide you back to the throne room.” The guard responded while writing down my response and sending the paper off with a small spark of green light that turned into a flame that consumed it in a second. “And that’s the kitchen being told to ready a small barrel of good juice.”

Well, that left me with twenty minutes to kill. “Why don’t we take the scenic route then? I’m done here for now.” Stepping by him, I stood at the doorway. “You got a name?” I asked, looking over my shoulder.

He halted and pointed out away from the barracks and the castle, towards what looked like some kind of garden. “My name’s Flash, but if you want the scenic route you’re going to want to go through the gardens.”

Turning around, I shrugged my shoulders. “Gardens it is.” Motioning him forward, I adjusted my stride to match him. “Been a guard long, Flash?”

“Long enough to know when I’m dealing with someone way beyond my general pay grade, but an assignment is an assignment.” He quipped while leading the way through the tall hedges and into the interior of the gardens. “Just so you’re aware, the commemorative gardens are also known as the correctional gardens here in Canterlot.”

“What, you lock up plants? Got a meat eating plant that calls you ‘Seymour’?”

“Heh, no.” His tone flattened almost immediately as he pointed to a statue of a pony in a cloak holding up a lengthy scroll. A bed of roses and tulips surrounded the pillar it was standing on. “That statue is a madmare who developed a spell that could shatter every gem within about thirty feet of her. She killed ten hybrids and an unknown number of gems were shattered by the spell before she was petrified for her crimes.” He pointed to another statue nearby, this one of a burly stallion holding up an acoustic guitar with his wings spread behind him. “This statue is a pegasus who once found a way to turn music into a weapon. He managed to brainwash dozens of ponies into throwing themselves at the defenses of an underground city that houses some of the worst gem criminals and captured diamond loyalists.”

Ah, it seemed they didn’t have the death penalty here. I wasn’t surprised, they were pastel colored equines. Of course, being aware as a statue for centuries is an arguably worse punishment. My gaze focused on a third statue. What I thought at the time was some frankenstein monster. “And what about that one?”

“Ah, yes, the star prisoner of ponykind, or it used to be. That is a replica of Discord. A creature of chaos energy that, despite not being a gem, can fuse with gems against their will and who is a living mirror against diamond powers and some gem powers below diamond tier as well."

Standing in front of the statue, I savored the quiet moment. No gems at my beck and call, no impending invasion, and no personal slave. Just the thought disgusted me. Not that it was Watson’s fault.

“He does strike quite the figure, doesn’t he?” Flash asked from my right side. “I was still in training when he broke out. Heard he turned Ponyville into his personal toy box.”

“Oh please, you exaggerate. Ponyville was merely a playroom. My personal toybox is far less overly joyful and more intimidating to mortals.” The voice of Q came from my left side as a furred paw brushed against my arm, then quickly moved up to my shoulder. “Well well, aren’t you the interesting model. Is that an organic healing ability I smell on you, darling?”

Grabbing the paw, I jerked it back. My reaction time caught me by surprise. A blink brought me from standing to kneeling; my knee pressing down between someone’s shoulder blades. “I don’t recall giving you permission to touch me.”

“Ohhh, feisty like your yellow sister! I like it.” The serpentine body under my leg squirmed for a few seconds, and I heard something snap. The next thing I knew, I was frozen in place and the demented-looking amalgamation was standing up in front of me. “And you smell like strawberries.”

“Discord, please, this isn’t a good time to piss off another diamond at first sight. The princesses actually have a chance at a peaceful relationship with this one.” Flash had a small whistle in one hand and was slowly twirling it around. “And weren’t you being kept occupied by one of Princess Twilight’s friends?”

Discord pouted, curling his tail behind him. “I just wanted to say hello. Shy told me it was someone important and then I felt someone talking about me.” Looking down at me, he stroked a poor excuse for facial hair. “I didn’t realize she was so hostile.”

“You’d be hostile too if you’d just finished defending Canterlot from an invasion only a few hours ago and some random person was acting all creepy about touching you suddenly.” Poofing his chest out, Flash squared up to the creature. “Now please release her. You’re going to make us late.”

“Oh, fine.” He lifted both hands and snapped the left one first, producing what looked like a business card. Slipping it into the back pocket of my pants, he took two long steps back and snapped the other hand. “I’ll be in touch. I can think of so many things that being exposed to your light would allow me to do!”

Rising up, I cracked my neck. “I’d sooner have you shot,” I retorted, taking a deep breath. No one wanted to see the effects of an outburst on someone who was still made of meat. Myself least of all. “Get lost.”

“Oh no, I’m being threatened by something that can’t touch me with their superpowers!” Discord overdramatically raised a taloned hand to his head while grinning and nearly leering at me. “I guess I’ll leave you alone for a couple days. See you later, pinkie.”

Clenching my fist, I drove it into his statues face. My body shook, anger bubbling under the surface. Breathing heavily, I let it bleed away. “I think I need a shower.”

“And I think I’ll tell the Princesses they need a replacement statue.” Flash commented as the marble began to crack and a few flakes fell away from the surface. “No need to worry. It’s not like you did that to one of those still imprisoned. Then again, the prisoners might consider that a mercy.” He thought for a moment, then nodded to himself. “I’ll lead you to a dignitary suite with a bathroom for you, and I’ll explain the reason for any delay it causes to the princesses.”

I shock my head, blowing the dust off my knuckles. “No, that would just lead to rocks coming to life or some over nonsense.” The less essence I gave off, the better. “Let’s just head to the dining hall. That is where we’re going, right?”

“I was actually going to bring you to the throne room again, but if you wanted to pick up some kind of snack we could head there. Perhaps you might enjoy one of the delicacies that Lady Rose and Pearl prefer?”

“And what do the pair of them eat?” I asked, falling in line behind him again. “I’m going to guess cheesecake.”

“Well, since the return of the Crystal Empire they’ve been known to favor a fruit salad made with crystal berries as a simple dessert, but I suppose you could turn that into a cheesecake topping if you wanted to.”

A moment of debate passed before I declined the offer. I wasn’t going to eat or drink until I could cut out the worst parts of doing either. It was something to talk to Rose and Pearl about, when we weren’t negotiating peace. Delphi met us at the door, at which point trumpet-guy announced my arrival.

“Yes, yes, We are well aware of who is here today, what with the guards keeping out all of the so-called nobles.” Luna responded with a bit of obvious disdain in her voice. “Please take a seat. We were able to procure a minotaur ambassador chair and lengthen the legs a bit to suit your stature, David.”

“Thanks,” I said, taking the indicated seat. “So, what’s next on the agenda? Hopefully, it won’t be anything that makes the room erupt in outrage again.”

“I want to ask you a few simple questions, if I may?” Cadance looked up towards the two older mares, each of which nodded in turn. “First, what do you intend to do with the gems that follow your orders? Will they be offered the opportunity to join society at large and associate with free gems, ponies, and hybrids?”

Leaning my head back, I gazed up at the vaulted arches that held up the roof. “I have a family-bred disdain for dictatorships. They can leave if they want, but the fact of the matter is, they probably wouldn’t understand the concept. What I plan on doing is incorporating a micronation.”

Cadance nodded and looked over to Twilight, then up at the royal sisters. “I think we can all agree that as long as a sincere offer is made, the obligations for freedom of choice have been met. With that in mind, and with what you just said, I think we could work on drafting up some kind of charter or other document going over the laws you wish to create for your land. My next question is a bit more complicated.”

“And what would that be, Princess?” I asked, lowering my head to meet her gaze.

“There is an old town that became a sort of penal colony for some of the worst war criminals, but the hybrids in charge there are still loyal to the diamonds. We would politely ask if you would be willing to at least visit them and evaluate the gems that are being held there to see if any of them were unjustly convicted.”

“It is known that the diamonds tried to shatter as few gems as possible, and we don’t know what the prisoners were ‘guilty’ of aside from potentially daring to defy their will.” Rose cut in with an odd expression on her face. “We honestly don’t know who is imprisoned there though, so there could be some that are actual monsters.”

Delphi’s response cut off my own question. “Umberfoal. That’s what blue diamond called it. Yellow diamond ordered it sealed during the last days of the war, but I don’t know any details about that. The Lonely Pearl might know, however.”

“Umberfoal is correct, yes. Once a town of pony slaves that the diamonds sent certain gems to that had expressed a desire to know more about the ‘primitive’ organics.” Celestia clenched her teeth and took a long breath while tapping her fingers against the armrest of her throne. “Forgive me, but there are some old family wounds tied to that town. It would be good to be able to visit once again.”

Luna reached over and gently brushed Celestia’s forearm. “You want to visit father’s grave?”

“I would prefer to exhume him and bring him here, to a place more deserving of his remains.”

“Aunties, please. I know there are ancient issues with this, but we need to focus.” Cadance smiled sweetly and then looked back at me. “My last question is quite simple. Will you allow ponies and hybrids to visit your enclave in order to assess the damage that your kindergarten has done to the surrounding land, and to do what they may in order to restore what is able to be restored?”

I let out a long breath, considering my options. I had planned on keeping the incubating gems close to my chest. One of those things I didn’t think they needed to know. On the other hand, it would just end up causing issues later.

“I’ll allow it. After the current batches have emerged.”

“The masculine pearl is going to shove her foot in her mouth unless she bites her tongue,” Delphi proclaimed while keeping her voice as serene as possible. A quick look over at ‘Charlie’ showed me an expression like she’d just had a chunk of raw durian shoved in her mouth.

“Alright, fine. I suppose there’s a reason you already have gems in the ground.” Celestia narrowed her eyes after a few more seconds. “Wait, I know how Charlie tends to react, and Delphi...you didn’t even do it yourself, did you? I’ll bet there were standing orders for all kinds of things to be done when you emerged.”

I felt compelled to stand up and pace. Hands firmly planted in my jacket pockets, I strode back and forth. “That little fucking pixie extracted my essence without my permission. Had the peridots start a few batches.”

Delphi put herself in my path, gazing up at me. “David, if you keep going down that train of thought, you’ll bring the room down.”

Bending down, I scooped Delphi up and returned to my seat. “Sorry. Since I’ve arrived, I’ve discovered that I’ve acquired a rather explosive anger problem.”

“Small personality changes, yes. Shortly after we arrived we discovered that Charlie had developed what could charitably be called a mild case of OCD-”

“I was organizing rocks by size, shape, and color without even noticing I was doing it. Rose just got slightly more bubbly and prone to laughing outright instead of hiding it. Lucky.”

“I don’t think I’m getting across the problem. Explosive as in, I nearly shattered Watson, broke Tempest’s arm and put a crater in a table from a scream of fury.”

“So you’re a walking bomb then? No wonder the show never actually depicted you doing anything. Shattering just because of an anger outburst?”

“Tempest is the mare that was with you earlier, correct? The castle medics wanted to examine her horn, or she would be here right now.”

Settling Delphi on my lap, I shot a glare at Charlie. “I’m restrained enough to not kill people by accident. As for your little quip, Pink Diamond faked her shattering to become Rose Quartz. If I knew she needed anger management, I wouldn’t have been caught off guard.”

“If you wouldn’t mind, I could ask my brother about making something that can contain a shield spell that would activate upon one of these outbursts happening.” Twilight smiled while idly sketching something on a sheet of paper. “You could think of it like training wheels if it helps?”

“More like training pants.”

“Charlie...you need to leave. You’re deliberately provoking her...him.” Rose cringed for a few seconds before looking at me. “Sorry. The whole ‘all gems are female’ thing, I’m so used to Charlie being the only male gem.”

Charlie scoffed. “I’m not leaving you in here with a diamond, Rose. Especially not one that might as well be a hand grenade.”

“Charlie,” Rose’s tone was actually full of anger at the moment. “Just because you miss having a dick doesn’t mean you need to be one and jeopardize the first chance we’ve had for any kind of peaceful contact with a diamond. Please leave the room so we can talk like adults, or I’ll ask Celestia to have the guards remove you.”

“Consider that so ordered, guards. If Charlie will not leave, he is to be removed. Preferably without confining him to his gem for a time.” Celestia spoke up immediately. “Enough time has been wasted with his incessant barbs, and I will not have him single handedly destroy an uncertain peace.”

I had seen the look that crossed Charlie’s face many times before. Always a cock-sure officer getting told their shit stinks. Our eyes locked as he quietly left the room; both of us making sure the other understood our current standing.

It took a few more hours and a lot of back and forth questions about laws and such before we were able to come to an agreement about how my new gem micronation was going to be structured. Twilight had been working on the first draft of the document, which was quickly passed around to the other three princesses before it was given to me for review.

Reading it over, I suddenly realized just how much of a headache this was going to be. Writing reports and giving orders was one thing. This, this was worse. I’d take writing a report in the dead of night, in the hot as balls desert over this kind of paperwork any day of the week.

“So, I suppose we just need a name then?” I asked, peering up from the laughably small papers.

“That’s not entirely necessary just yet if you want to speak with some others about it. We can easily fill in that detail at a later date.” Twilight stretched her wings and legs out as she spoke, and groaned as a couple joints popped. “Also I’d like to be able to stand up and stretch a little bit after sitting still for so long.”

“Right... I forgot about that...” I muttered, watching her for a moment. “I don’t see anything objectionable, but I will say this. I won’t enforce laws I don’t agree with.”

“Well, I will admit I haven’t gone over all of the oldest law books in a number of years to see what outdated trash is still in there, but I think we can all agree that objections to laws on a personal level should be communicated and evaluated here. We should see about assigning a scribe to work with you for ease of communication.” Celestia mused before turning to look at Luna. “I think we can call it a day, sister. Time to put the sun to bed and give the moon her nightly alarm.”

Rising to her hooves, Luna cracked her neck. “Aye, our duties call for us. If you wish David, you may observe our daily ritual.” Moving behind the thrones, she pushed open a pair of well hidden doors. “This way, please.”

“You’ll find it wondrous, David,” Delphi said, slipping off my lap. Wrapping a hand around one of my fingers, she coaxed me to my feet. “This way.”

“Right. What exactly are your rituals?” I questioned, moving around the thrones.

“Oh, you haven’t been informed by the unicorn that was with you? Celestia and Luna took over a duty that used to take the effort of anywhere between dozens and hundreds of unicorns.” Twilight practically bounced on her hooves for a few seconds, showing more excitement over this bit of trivia than she had over anything else so far today. “With their magical strength, and their connection to their gems, they keep the sun and moon moving in their proper orbits instead of leaving things to chance and chaos.”

“Do they get eaten by wolves at the end of the world?” I cracked, stepping onto a wide balcony. “Rather enjoyed that myth.”

“We have no idea if that would or wouldn’t happen, as the world hasn’t ended yet.” Luna quipped in response before closing her eyes and taking up what looked like some kind of standing meditative pose. Her horn began to glow a soft purple light, and a few strands of energy trailed down to her left hip where they circled around a crescent moon made of some white stone.

My eyes moved from her horn to her sister. Celestia took the same pose, her horn swirling in magic. Shifting my gaze to the sky, words died in my throat. The sun lowered from the sky, passing the moon as it dipped past the horizon.

“Oh, wow, I am so not in Kansas anymore…”