Phosphophyllite was laying in the grass, somewhere near the shore, listening to the familiar sound of the waves in the middle of the afternoon. His short mint-green mane reflected and refractedthe sun‘s light^, his white coat was more like a couch of paint on his natural gem body, unlike the crystal ponies of old. As always, Phosphophyllite didn’t have anything planned for the day; maybe he should train his magic so the princess will let him fight one day? However, in 150 years of training he still hadn’t made any progress and was simply too weak to hold a sword in his magic.

His thinking was interrupted by the sound of four sets of hooves passing by, swords clattering on their backs. One of them, Morganite was about to walk past Phosphophyllite, when he stopped and simply shouted “Phos! I know you’re somewhere, the princess is looking for you!”

Phosphophyllite simply looked up at the red-crystal-maned pony and asked “I’m here, do you know what she wants?”

“Dunno.” Replied the busy looking unicorn.

“Maybe she’ll let me fight by your side then.”

“No way. Shouldn’t you have a job yet? How did the princess let you spend this much time without doing anything is beyond me…”

“Morga!” A new voice shouted “Stop playing around, there’s a sunspot in the south, it’s small but you should tell the princess.” The new figure had a short silver mane, Goshenite, the partner of Morganite, he had a small katana, which he levitated in front of him.

“Small you said? Well, no need to bother the princess while she’s studying, let’s take care of it ourselves!” Morganite proclaimed as they started heading south.

“You people and your busy lives…” Sighed Phos as he started trotting to the only building of their island, school and home of the twenty-eight gem ponies. A single Great Oak roughly one hundred meters wide.

Once inside and on the sixth floor, Phos entered the princess’ office. “Princess Twilight. You were looking for me?” He asked the majestic purple alicorn, who was sitting at an imposing desk, reading some scrolls.

“My dear Phosphophyllite, I have finally found you a job,” calmly stated the princess.

“Oh yeah also Morga and Goshe went to take care of a sunspot and they wanted me to tell you I think,” interrupted Phos.

The princess’ eye twitched. “They went to fight alone?” She asked, but before receiving an answer, she declared: “Follow me. Do you remember the story of our world Phosphophyllite?”

Twilight and Phosphophyllite headed out to the direction of the fight as the alarm was activated. Bells were ringing everywhere inside the Great Oak so loudly that the rest of the island probably noticed too.

“Well...” started the small gem “Uh, this world was named Equestria and there was this war and the gods left you with the power to raise the sun and the moon”

As they walked south, several pairs of gem ponies - mostly unicorns and a few pegasi - galloped past them. Far away they could see a bright white shape in the sky, shooting arrows and spells at two figures. Suddenly, the figures seem to be broken in half by a rather powerful bolt of magic from a giant pony-like figure in the middle of the white shape.

“And then six meteors came and visited the planet leaving five more moons, which you now have to move everyday. It made the planet a shadow of what it used to be, and destroyed all life, save for you. Right?”

“Correct,” acknowledged the princess. “And what about after that? Not all life was gone, was it?”

“Well there was the strange swimming creature you told us about, that took refuge in the ocean after all the land disappeared. Well, except this island of course.” He remembered. “And then some very tiny creatures that eat sunlight used magic to create bodies and you helped them and they were the first of us?”

“Exactly. I’m proud of you for remembering it 200 years after I’ve told you this story.” Twilight said as they approached the fight. “And of course there are the invaders from the moons that are jealous of your beauty. Those strong enough form pairs of two, one who watches and one who fights. The twenty-eight of us have to stick together and help each other as much as we possibly can with our special talent,” explained Twilight.

“However, I had trouble finding a role for you, given that you still have to get your cutie mark, even after trying out all the jobs we have.” She continued as she materialised a clipboard with her magic before floating it to Phos’ face.

“And what about fighting ? I’ve never tried that-”

“No,” cut off the Princess, then added: “You really have to give up that idea”.

Before they knew it, they’d arrived where the battle was taking place, except that none of the reinforcements were fighting. They all stared at the broken bodies lying on the ground, being picked up by completely white unicorns wearing golden jewellery. Lunarians.

Among the floating group of about twenty lunarians, the first row seemed to play golden instruments; Banjos, Acordeon, Tambourine, Trombone and others. Together they played a pleasant tune to help the second row of Lunarian to cast magic at the gems on the ground. The second group was split in two, picking up the pieces of Morganite and Goshite from the ground.

The princess raise her horn and a bright purple light illuminated the entire island. When everyone could open their eyes again, the lunarians were gone and the pieces of Morga and Gosh looked up to Twilight and said in unison “Princess…”

The princess’ eye twitched again “Don’t need help, right?” She said softly.

A voice from the crowd of gem suddenly shouted “It’s coming! Careful!”

With a thundering voice Twilight exclaimed “YOU FOOL, WHEN WILL YOU LEARN?” The air trembled with her voice, and Phos tried to take cover, but the sheer power of Twilight’s voice proved too much for him.

crack

Phosphophyllite broke into dozens of fragments on the ground beside the princess, his chest in three shards revealed the same green as his mane under the white coat. One of his eyes rolled to the princess’ forehooves. “Oh my. See what I mean Phosphophyllite? You aren’t fit for most jobs, especially fighting, as you’re one of the weakest gems, with your three point five,” explained Twilight. “If you really want to fight, then you must become more skilled than any other gems here, even better than me. Only then will I let you fight.”

The other gems brought bags to hold their broken comrade, and one started to pick Phos off the ground. The Princess helped with her magic, the shattered pieces of the gems all floating in light purple magic as they were lifted from the ground and placed in their respective saddlebags.

The alicorn added the aforementioned clipboard to the remains of the broken green gem. “The job I have for you is to create a historical record of the gems of our island. The twenty-eight of us might disappear in lunarian attack any day, and unfortunately the older gems have started to forget about our past friends. You shall learn and write about all the current and future gems, hopefully even the past ones.”

“Let’s just hope you don’t forget to add yourself too,” teased Twilight as the gems carrying Phos were already on their way back to the Great Oak.

Rutile’s workshop was a wide area on the first floor of the Great Oak, the shelves here held diverse plants, potions and several bottles of white powder. Two large tables stood at the center of the room, used as a workstation to reassemble gems. On the left, a hoof-less Morga was still being rebuilt by Rutile.

“I swear the day I break will be the end of you three,” said Rutile, assembling four pink hooves in the air with his magic. “There. This should hold, the last cracks will heal with some sunlight.”

With a slight click, the hooves were attached to Morganite who jumped from the table and started to walk almost immediately. “Go ask Phos to help you apply some powder while I rebuild his hooves.”

Phos was standing on his hindquarters, looking at Rutile from the other table. “Why should I help him, he’s nothing but trouble anyway.”

“Hey look who’s talking, three-hundred years of doing nothing. You could at least help with simple tasks. I mean, it’s not like you have better things to do anyway.” Morganite talked back to the other gem.

“Hey! Look! Now I got a job from the Princess herself!” Phos said waving a blank notepad with his magic. “I have to… to…” Wait what did the princess ask me again? He thought to himself. With a click, Rutile attached one of Phos' hooves. "Here, maybe it'll help you remember" Oh yeah, the historical record! “I have to make a record of every gem that lived here for future generations! So better be careful Morga, I have the power to choose how you will be remembered,” half-joked Phos.

“I give him before winter before he forgets and start lazing around again,” snarked a not-so-quiet Rutile. “Here’s your last three hooves, you lost about 0.3% of your body unfortunately. The good news is that it probably isn’t enough to lose any memory.”

Finally, Rutile added in a joking tone, while waving chirurgical tools “Maybe you’ll lose that laziness of yours, should I remove more just in case?”

“Nope-nope-nope! Here I’m gonna start it now my first report: Rutile; old and senile; wants to kill the gems and is never nice to anyone!” Said Phos while writing with his magic on the first page of the notepad.

With laughter in the room, they finished assembling Phos, who went on to continue not doing anything...

Name: Rutile

Mane color: Red and Yellow

Age: Old goat (about 800 years old)

Hardness: 6.5

Personality: Senile, Wants to kill the gems, Never nice to anyone.

Author's Note

Well that's maybe the first time I write something and actually post it. Comments are welcome.

Note: The gems are genderless. I use "He" because it is easier to read.

Alternative Title: Of gems.