Roses And Gems

“Umm… dad?” Marcus heard a voice from behind him. He looks to see another alicorn in the same age range as he is. She was Flurry Heart. He then turns to Shining.

“Is that your daughter?” he nods “Didn’t take you for a guy to have kids. Nevertheless, greetings.” He bows and she blushes.

“H-Hi. My name is Flurry. Not to be mean, but what are you?” He just shrugged. He knew about him being a diamond, but right now, he doesn’t really want to tell them yet.

“A hybrid.” He says as he raises up his shirt, revealing his pink gem. She touched it, as he giggled. It turns out he’s quite ticklish near his gem.

“Hehe. Ok I’m kinda ticklish near my gem.” she laughs a bit as Shining Armor had an unreadable expression on his face. He then remembers something that he can do.

“Hey, wanna see something cool?” She nods. He closed his eyes as a circle on his head was glowing. Marcus possesses some level of the natural shapeshifting abilities typical of Gems. Then, a horn emerged from the glowing circle, shocking Shining Armor.

“How in the world…” He muttered under his breath as the horn disappeared. Flurry clapped and giggled as Marcus just smiled.

So half of Marcus’ day was playing around with Flurry and trying to summon his shield, but ultimately failed. He was a bit disappointed by this, but Flurry told him that he’ll get the hang of it in no time. He smiled at her. Now when it was dinner time, Lion tried sneaking food off of Marcus’ plate, in response, he told him that if he didn’t cut it out, he would not give him any, period. Some guards came barging into the dining hall. Marcus was concerned, knowing something is going down is sweat dripping down their eyebrows, and both of their spears were snapped off. Shining Armor got up as the guards started to pant. Twilight was shocked.

“Hey, what’s going on here?!” Shining asked.

“M-M-MONSTER!” They shouted all at once. Marcus looked concerned. As Shining Armor was about to ask what it looked like, Marcus stepped up and asked what it looked like.

“What did the thing look like?”

“It looked like a bunch of body parts attached to it. For a head, it had fingers. And last, hands were for walking on!” A guard said. Marcus drew out his sword suddenly. Lion was just asleep in a corner.

“Did it have a Gem like I do?” The other guard nods. “Gem mutant! I’ll be right back!” He ran out into the halls. And sure enough, there the thing was, ready to tear some guards apart. He ran and casted his shield. Because Marcus’ powers are maternal, he is required to feel a strong need to protect and help others to call his shield out. At that point the guards ran away as Marcus pushed the mutant gem back. He did, but it charged at him as he made a bubble shield as the thing tried to crush it. Flurry ran out of the dining hall, with her father after her.

“FLURRY! GET BACK HERE! IT'S NOT SAFE!” Shining shouted as Marcus’ bubbled her. He then pops the bubble shield as he draws his sword out of its sheath. He slashed the thing in the middle. It then puffed into smoke. Flurry was mortified. Did… he just kill that thing? He walked to the Gem and bubbled it. he then taps the top, sending it into Lion's mane.

“Oh and before you say anything, no, it's not dead, just bubbled.”

“Can’t you help them?” Flurry asked. He sighs.

“There is no helping them, they're too broken. The beings who used to be in those shards are so shattered, they don't know who they are or what's happening around them. They just seek out other Gems, looking for the missing pieces of themselves, trying to make themselves whole.” Shining Armor was about to speak, but was cut off.

“No, I didn’t do this. That would be the diamonds.” He said as he just went up to Flurry.

“I know this is kinda scarring, but there is a way to help them, but… I can't do it right now.” He said.