It was a beautiful day outside once again, the uneventful day only marked by the Princess declaring Phos' new job to the other gems and asking them officially to aid Phos as he tried to make reports of everyone.

Phos decided to use his first day "on the job" to rest inside the common room of the Great Oak, watching Goshenite and Morganite clean and organize the thousands of scrolls and other homemade book that contained all of the gems' knowledge since the time of the first gem. Older books and scrolls were kept by the Princess herself, but Phos never bothered to ask what they contained.

As Morganite placed a row of scrolls on a now clean shelf. He looked at Phos and asked "So, how’re the reports coming along? I can see that you're hard at work, as always."

"I'm thinking about it. I still don't have a cutie mark, and I wonder how a cutie mark about making reports would look like."

Another silence.

A gentle, almost feminine voice suddenly said behind Morganite "I'm sure it would be lovely regardless, Phosphophyllite." It was Diamond, one of the nicest gems according to Phos, he was like a big mom for everyone, always gentle and encouraging. His appearance reflected his attitude too: short hair so brilliant he could illuminate a room by himself with its gentle light. He was a fighter, too. His partner - the cold Bort - was the strongest fighter of the island.

Diamond also didn’t have a horn. Instead, he had great wings that unfortunately couldn’t carry his dense body. They made for great protection, however. Phos had heard the stories of Diamond’s fight against the lunarians with Bort - how the two of them were unstoppable.

Phos turned his attention to the new speaker and responded “How I love your kind words, Dia, but I just wish I could get a fighting cutie mark like you all.” He pointed vaguely to the flanks of Morganite, Goshenite and finally Diamond. Respectively, a pair of crossed black swords, a club, and a damaged shield. “I’m sure all of you got yours doing some awesome fighting.” Pouted Phos.

“Phos my dear…” Said Diamond, while curling next to Phos in the main room. “Would you like to come with me and Bort to take a look at us fighting? Maybe you’ll change your mind then.” Proposed Diamond in his sweet voice. He could have asked Phos to go inside the ocean and never come back, and that voice would have persuaded Phos to do it.

“Yeah, why not,” simply responded Phos. He really didn’t want to go and actually do anything but it has been a while since he’s seen an actual fight. Had he ever even seen one? He couldn’t remember for now and didn’t care that much.

After a few minutes of waiting in front of the main entrance of the Great Oak, Diamond and an irritated Bort arrived. Bort had a very long dark mane, which seemed to flow behind him as he walked. He too had useless wings.

With heavy step, Bort passed in front of Phos and started galloping through the field to the east of the Great Oak. Diamond stayed behind with Phos and stated in a dull voice: “I’m sorry about Bort, he’s not that happy that I decided to bring you with us. I’m sure you’ll get to learn a lot; Onyx spotted a sunspot over the eastern part of the ravine.” With this, Phosphophyllite and Diamond took to the east themselves. Although it was more of Phos giving his utter best as if his life depended on it, while Dia was forced to canter to match poor Phos’ speed.

The roughly ten minutes long run felt like an eternity to the green unicorn, before they finally arrived in front of the eastern ravine. Starting near the south shore, it ended abruptly midway through the moon-shaped island the gems lived on, as if nature was told to stop there. Phos knew the place as the Princess kept telling the gem not to go there.

Right near the northern end of the ravine, a small sunspot seemed to slowly grow larger and larger, forming a strange shape akin to a pitch-black mandala folded in on itself. The terrifying music of the Lunarians started to come through, as what appeared to be a white vessel emerged from the sunspot. The Lunarians were just the same as last time: three rows of unicorns. The first was playing several types of instrument, producing an enchanting tune, while the second immediately started firing magical beams at Diamond and Phos.

Phosphophyllite was enthralled by the spectacle the Lunarians were giving and didn’t notice the first magical arrow coming straight at him. Fortunately, Diamond extended his left wing which endured the magical arrow and deflected it, producing an earsplitting sound as it deflected onto the hard surface. “Please be careful, Phos. I’ll deal with them.” Dia said, pulling out his black sword from under his wing.

Diamond started galloping, this time at full speed, in the direction of the Lunarians, whose ship was still flying about twenty meters above the ground. He had their attention. Phosphophyllite watched as Diamond either dodged or deflected the incoming arrows, his body weathering the damage like it was nothing. The only indication of the bolts even hitting were the high-pitched sounds, as they didn’t even slow him down. At an incredible speed, Diamond jumped, and with the aid of his wings, reached the lunarian platform. With expert precision, he cut the biggest Lunarian at the center in half. Everything above the lunarian’s neck disappeared into thin air, but instead of disappearing too, the rest of the body shot a hard arrow with a red tip straight at Diamond.

This new arrow didn’t get deflected. Instead, it pierced through Diamond’s right wing, shattering it in the process and making him lose balance. The broken wing fell on the platform, and some of the white figures started picking up the pieces with their magic, and hugging them close to their bodies. Dia let himself fall down back to the edge of the ravine, where a scared Phos had been watching the fight. He’d never seen anything like that… Lunarians were a pain in the neck, but still relatively easy to destroy. Dia was supposed to be one of the best, right? He’s a 10 after all...

Phosphophyllite was lost in thought at the worst possible moment as the invaders started shooting again, and this time at him! Once more, Diamond’s remaining wing came and blocked the arrows coming at Phos.

“It’s okay Phos, I got this.” He reassured.

Another wave of red-tipped arrow came but this time, a long sword came into view and stopped them, deflecting them to their senders. An angry-looking, black-maned pegasus held it with his mouth. Bort.

Shooting dagger from his eyes, he looked at Phos and Dia and simply frowned before facing the Lunarians and moving towards them. The arrows he’d deflected back at them seemed to have taken care of most of the lunarians casters. With ease, he jumped to the lunarians platform, which then came down just a few meters above the ground. He then proceeded to cut the main Lunarian and the whole platform in two vertically. The entire platform and all of its occupants promptly disappeared into steam.

“He seems to get stronger every fight. I guess I should just accept it. He’s just a better diamond than me,” sighed Diamond.

The pieces of diamond wing fell just at the edge of the ravine, just in time for Bort to gracefully catch them on his back. He trotted back to two impressed gem, watching in awe at his strength. He spat an angry shout as well as his sword: “You!” He pointed a hoof at Diamond. “Why are you fighting like that again! Lunarians learn from us. We must do better than this! It’s too risky to use your own body like that!” He loudly berated. “You’ll get taken one day if you continue like this! Look, you already lost your wing because of it!” He put down Diamond’s wing near him.

“Hey!” Phos shouted, hiding behind Dia. “Stop that, he saved me and he could have totally kick them off without you!”

“Shh Phos. It’s alright, he’s right.” Declared a saddened Diamond. “Look, Bort, Phos wanted to see what it’s like to fight so I showed him. He wants to get a fighting cutie mark one day!”

“I’ll help you, then,” Bort said, grinning angrily. “I’ll turn you to dust and maybe you’ll get your broken cutie mark, after all it’s all you’re good with your measly three point-”

He stopped mid-sentence staring at the sky behind Phos and Diamond. As they turned to face it, they saw another sunspot. This time, its shape formed a full mandala in the sky and grew way faster than any other sunspot any of them had ever seen. A giant black ship came thought it, but before any lunarians came through, the platform started flying towards the Great Oak.

“It went right by us.” Bort declared, dumbfounded. “Even though there’s two diamonds and a useless here.”

The three of them watched as the vessel floated in direction of the Tree.

“I think it’s okay. The Princess should see them coming and she’ll take care of them easily, I’m sure.” Diamond commented.

“Isn’t she studying something in the basement though? I don’t know if she’ll notice, since no one is allowed down there.”

Phosphophyllite’s comment sent Bort and Diamond into panic. No one was indeed allowed to bother the Princess while she studied in the basement. She couldn’t possibly see the lunarians arrive. And because every fighter except Morganite and Goshenite was outside, the gems incapable of battle were at the mercy of the Lunarians.

“That’s not good… Right?” Phos whimpered, looking at the panicked Diamond while Bort was already rushing to the school.

Name: Diamond

Mane color: Light Rainbow Colors that shines when exposed to light.

Age: More than 600 years old. Less than Rutile.

Hardness: 10

Cutie mark: A damaged blue shield

Personality: Want to be more like Bort, is pretty and nice and loves cute things.

Author's Note

Fighting! Phos learn what it's like to be a diamond.

Next chapter's gonna be a long and interesting one.

Alternative title: Fight.