It was a rather slow day back at the beach house, since the Mane Six had gone back to their home thanks to Discord. He was alone for the moment, the other Gems not exactly in the beach house. It had only been a few days, yet, the ponies departure had dulled things down, even if their stay was only for one whole day. For the moment, Steven was chilling out on the couch in the living room, looking over his new key, staring at his own face within the key handle, the one left behind soon after Twilight and company left. Can it really make a gateway back to them? Well, as far as he knew, it had a 50/50 chance of it actually working. Even if it can work, he wasn't sure if just running off on Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet, would be such a good idea. While he was laying there, Key in one hand above him, suddenly he got an idea on what to do. With the thought, he went and got his phone, and quickly dialed up a number. After a ring or two, the person on the other line spoke.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Connie! Wanna hang out today?" Steven asked. Connie is one of Steven's human friends back within Beach City, and a close girl he got to know quite a while ago. After the question, Connie gave a quick sigh.

"Sorry, Steven, but I can't hang out today."

"What? Why not?" Steven asked, disappointed.

"I have tennis practice, and then Mom wants to go out for a family dinner. But she said I could hang out all day tomorrow, and I can come over all the time now that it's summer vacation," Connie explained. Steven looked legitimately confused upon the final two words.

"What's summer vacation?"

"You know, when school gets out for the summer?" It didn't help him too much, as he lazily rolled over onto his back, his head upside down.

"I've never been to this, how do you say, "school". How does it work?" Steven wondered, a bit interested on the subject. Connie began to explain, in her own way, on what a school was.

"Its a place where you go to learn. It's full of desks, chalkboards, books, maps ..."

About a minute later after their chat, Steven ended up with the items in question. These items included a globe, a chalkboard, a potted plant, a map, a TV, a basketball, a small stack of books, an atlas, a locker, a desk, a microscope, and a manikin of the human body (torso upward). However, they were all just in some odd pile in the middle of the room, with the help of Pearl.

Not the best way to start a school.

"So, how do we begin our "school"?" Pearl asked after they were finished. Steven suddenly realized his little mess up on that part.

"Ugh...I... I don't know! This is everything Connie told me. Why do I never ask follow-up questions?! Who will teach little Stevie now!?" Steven asked, feeling completely stupid for not asking another question, as Pearl sat down on the book stack. Upon the word 'Teach', Pearl suddenly got excited, a smile on her face.

"Teach you?! Steven! If only I had known that's what you really wanted!" Pearl beamed. Soon, Pearl got up, and began to focus her energy on the gem on her forehead. After a little bit, her gem started to glow, as something started to float out. What ended up floating out was a small hand mirror, with a deep blue, cracked gemstone on the back of it. It rotated in midair towards Steven as Pearl spoke again.

"We found this gem-powered mirror at the Galaxy Warp. It can capture and display any event it's witnessed in all of Gem history. It'll offer you everything you've ever wanted to know about your fellow Gems and our culture." Pearl explained, as Steven was given the mirror. Steven looked to his reflection with a smile on his face.

"I must be incredibly important to Gem culture," Steven said, checking himself out in the mirror itself. Pearl just scoffed, looking in the reflection herself.

"It's just you in there. It hasn't even been activated. *Clears throat* Show us the Galaxy Warp," Pearl ordered. Steven and Pearl look into the mirror. What'll normally happen was that history will play out within the mirror. However, the mirror didn't really display anything. No picture, no movement, just the same reflection at that moment.

"Show us the Galaxy Warp," Pearl repeated. Still nothing. Pearl then tugged on the mirror, holding it herself.

"Oh, come on, I know you've seen it!" Still nothing. Pearl just sighed, and gave the mirror back to Steven again. "It is in pretty rough shape. It must finally be broken. What a shame."

"Doesn't seem broken to me," Steven replied, still liking the reflection within the mirror. Pearl started to go over the pile itself, looking it over.

"Oh well. I guess that's the end of our school," Pearl sighed.

"Whoa. Wha... So you could say...School's out for summer?" Steven asked, the mirror facing Pearl as Steven smiled.

"Yes. Good, Steven. There are many ways to say the same thing."

"School's out!" Steven beamed, rushing out of the house with the mirror in his hand, and the key left on the table. While he was gone, Pearl began looking over the pile in front of her some more.

"The asymmetry of this pile is really starting to bother me..."

While Steven ran around with his mirror back in Beach City, Equestria's pony group were doing their own little venture. After their drop off back in Equestria from Beach City, the pony group was basically doing their own thing, but hadn't forgotten about the Gems and Humans. Within Ponyville, there is a building made up of a full grown tree: the library of Ponyville as of were. Within it, the alicorn princess herself, Twilight, was busy looking through her own books. Book, after book, after book, she couldn't figure out any particular information within any book. While coming up the steps, with a feather duster, Spike was doing some cleaning around the library, when Twilight angerly threw the book back, hitting Spike's duster.

"What's wrong, Twilight?" Spike asked. Twilight groaned again.

"Ugh, I've gone through every book in Ponyville, Spike, and there isn't a single mention of the Gems that came from Beach City, nor anything about any human species! But something tells me they're pretty important. I hope Princess Celestia has some ideas. If the library in Canterlot doesn't have anything, I-I don't know where else to look!" Twilight explained, trying through another book before Spike ended up in a book avalanche! Spike got himself out, a bit dazed but okay, but soon he accidentally gave of a good loud burp. The burp came out as green flame, and soon a letter suddenly appeared within her vision afterward. Twilight got the note through her magic, unraveled it, and read it out.

"My dearest Twilight, while it would be perfectly lovely to have you in Canterlot once more, I have another option in mind much closer to Ponyville. As you know, the ancient castle that I once shared with Princess Luna lies mostly in ruins, deep in the Everfree Forest. But if you look carefully, you may find a book that could prove helpful to your research, hidden somewhere in what's left of the castle library. "

The information of the note got Twilight and Spike going right off out of Ponyville, following what the message had said. Twilight knew of where the objective was: going through the forest, and appearing within the area in question. The area in particular looked like older ruins of what was a spectacular Castle for Celestia. Centuries of wear and tear had made it look all worm away. Following the main sort of information, Twilight and Spike ended up heading right to the library within the castle itself! Unlike the Ponyville library, this one was by far a lot bigger, taller, and many more books! Twilight, mouth a gape in a huge smile, was extremely excited.

"Wow! Look at all these ancient books! It's a veritable goldmine of information! I can't believe it! Woo-hoo!" Twilight said in glee, flying around, looking at all of the books themselves. However, Spike wasn't enjoying it all that much, worried as he walked around. The little dragon accidentally walked right into a spider's webbing, immediately tumbling as he tried to get it off. Upon looking up, he was staring at a freaky horse stone head above him! Spike wasn't enjoying it at all.

"Uh, heh-heh. So, uh, Twilight. Uh, ready to head home?" Spike asked.

"Are you kidding? This place is perfect!" Twilight beamed. All Spike could do was just sit there, teeth chattering in his jaws, as the spiders crawled around him. So much for a calm trip.

Back in Beach City, Steven was having his own fun. With the mirror in hand, Steven was going about the city with a nice smile on his face. He was having his own fun with the mirror as he continued onward down the boardwalk. In fact, he was doing his own little dance.

"♪ Wo, Wo, Wo, Wo! ♪ Wo, Wo, Wo, Wo! ♪ Wo, Wo, Hee-Hee! ♪" Steven started to moonwalk backwards into the boardwalk, but as he was, something started to close in on him! The thing was a huge van (not Greg's van), with a large head on top of it as advertisement. A sound of "May-or Dew-ey" kept ringing out as well. Steven didn't pay attention to it, going right in the van's way! Suddenly, the mirror started to act up! A face suddenly appear of a teenaged boy, and a voice rang out saying "Er, watch where you're going, you little-!"

"huh?" Steven heard the mirror, and turned around to see the oncoming van coming right for him!

"Nooooo!"

The van came to a screeching hault, as Steven stood there for a bit. Soon, another man looked out from the main driver's seat. His skin was slightly pink, not much hair on his head, and he looked very formal. By all means, he must be the mayor of Beach City (Given the head on the van matched his own very well). He didn't look very happy either.

"Car wash kid, what are you doing?!"

"I don't know. Why were you driving down the boardwalk?" Steven asked.

"I'm the mayor—I'm not going to walk anywhere. Now, go get run over somewhere else. I'm late for a speech." Steven moved out of the way as the van drove off towards the area of speech. Steven simply was confused on the voice. Yeah, he knew who's voice it was, but, he wasn't around. So, where did it come from?

"What just happened?" Steven wondered. Suddenly the mirror blurred and glitches again, and that time showed Steven himself, but laughing. Steven was ecstatic upon figuring this out.

"You work! This is so cool! What's it like being a mirror?" Steven asked. The mirror whirred again, and repeated the 'You work!' part Steven just said.

"So you can repeat stuff?"

"Yeah!" The mirror replied, the yeah being repeated from earlier, showing Steven again. A quick idea came to his mind, as he looked over to the speech not too far away. Time for some fun. Steven went over as the mayor started to talk to the residents of Beach City.

"Hello, Beach City, my friends! It's great to be here to celebrate the coming season. A warm summer breeze wafts through the air." Suddenly, Steven inhaled, and made a good loud fart noise with his mouth, for the mirror to get a clear sound. The people who heard it snickered as the mayor continued.

"We all look forward to the sounds of the summer season -" *PBHT* "- the smells of the busy boardwalk -" *PBHT* "- The hot, wet ocean wind -" *PBHT* "- The time to take that pressure that's built up all year and just let it out." And one more *PBHT* for the road. All those perfectly timed fart noises made the crowd laugh, as Steven went off again, giggling to himself. The mirror copied the giggling and image, Steven smiling all the while.

"Wow, you picked that up fast," Steven said.

Back in Equestria, the ruined castle was still being looked over by Twilight and Spike in the library. Both of them were going over the library still, Twilight going through book after book for some sort of answer to her dilemma. A lot of candles were lit up in the room as well.

"I don't think I'll need all these candles, Twilight. I was really only scared for a second," Spike said.

"Oh, these aren't for you, Spike. We're gonna be studying late into the night, and we're gonna need all the light we can get," Twilight replied. Not the answer Spike wanted to hear.

"Oh. Great."

Despite them doing their own little bit of detective work, there was another pair of ponies that had entered the castle themselves. Both ponies were bickering among each other as they entered: Applejack and Rainbow Dash as it turned out. The ponies themselves, while one was expecting a good time, the other one seemed unimpressed.

"Well, here we are," Applejack said as they entered the main room.

" Uh, what's so daring about this place? This is where we got the Elements of Harmony," Rainbow Dash reminded. Those 'elements of harmony' were the necklaces and tiara they had before they ended up in Beach City. As for the daring bit, the ponies were trying out their own little contest earlier that day, most daring pony, and it was Applejack who decided upon the castle. Applejack smiled, and began walking up the main room steps, under a large tapestry of a alicorn, as she started to explain.

"When I was just a filly, Granny Smith told me of an ancient legend. When Nightmare Moon was banished, not every last bit of her dark magic went with her..." Rainbow was a bit confused, as Applejack continued. "Granny used to say, when night falls on the castle, that magic takes the form of...the pony of shadows!"

"You mean, like a ghost?" Rainbow Dash asked. The story was a bit textbook, but was enough to get a little bit of some worry from the Pegasus. Applejack came over to her again, trying to act spooky.

"Nopony knOoOoOoOows," Applejack replied. Well, those two were stuck there, and Rainbow Dash needed to get a grip on herself.

Back within Beach City, Steven and his mirror were still having their own fun. Throughout the day, and later on that night, Steven had hanged out with his little mirror for a pretty good while, the mirror enjoying the fun time as much as Steven. As night time rolled around, Steven went back to the Beach House. When he went in, Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl were in there. However, the pile of junk looked a bit different, a lot more professional and symmetrical than before.

"Yo! Ste-man!" Amethyst said.

"Hello, Steven," Pearl added.

"Howdy," Garnet finished, her finger mimicking a gun as she added "bang."

"Want to see something hilarious?" amethyst asked. Steven watched as Amethyst lifted a teddy bear towards the junk pile. Seconds before she placed it, suddenly a spear stabbed through the teddy bear, courtesy of Pearl.

"You don't understand. Symmetrical means both sides have to be the same!" Pearl snapped, as Amethyst chuckled. Pearl simply groaned, as she tossed the speared bear to a small pile of other speared stuff. Seemed Amethyst was busy with her own fun time with Pearl and her own pile. Steven had different news though.

"Okay, that's great. Anyway, I fixed the mirror!"

"Excellent work, Steven!" Pearl said.

"You didn't tell me it's, like, a person!"

Suddenly, the Gems looked a bit spooked.

"Wait. What?"

"Say "hey"," Steven said. However, the mirror didn't react that time.

"...Little buddy..."

Nothing.

"Uh...excuse us. *Turns around* Come on. You want to come out, don't you? You have so much to say and funny noises to share from across the ages. Are we not beach-summer-fun buddies?" After Steven explained that, a few seconds later, the mirror came alive again, replaying a good *PBHT!*, making Steven laugh again.

"Just couldn't help yourself, huh?" Steven chuckled. The mirror became alive again, and replayed other events from that day. What came out was "Just for you, Steven." Before it repeated Steven's laugh again. Even if it was sweet, the Gems themselves found this behavior very worrying.

"It's talking to him? It shouldn't be able to do that. I-it should just be following orders," Pearl said in worry. Amethyst nudged Garnet after she said that.

"Garnet, do something," Amethyst said. Garnet agreed, and got up, walking over. The mirror turned from laughing to the loud "Nooooo!" upon seeing Garnet. Steven turned around to face Garnet.

"You should just give us back the mirror. It will be safer where we can watch it," Garnet said, reaching for the mirror. Steven began to get a little worried at first, hearing the Mirror scream.

"Steven, don't make me have to take it from you."

"It doesn't want to go with you. Don't you hear it screaming?" Steven protested. As they argued, Pearl and Amethyst notice something else odd: on the table, that same key started to vibrate more and more, catching their attention.

"Steven, it's just a mirror, a tool. It can't want anything," Garnet stated firmly, her hand reaching for the mirror as it kept echoing out no, over and over again as Steven felt more worried for it. The key suddenly started to move on its own, its vibration to the point of bouncing around in place. Just before Garnet could grab the mirror, Steven suddenly looked angry.

"It wants to be with me!" Steven yelled. Before any of them could react, the key suddenly gone crazy, and flew off from its placement after a few hops, hitting Garnet square on the shoulder. The force was enough to make Garnet flinch, like getting hit with a thrown rock. Garnet turned, seeing the key flair around in the air until it landed back on the floor. Steven backed up while Garnet was distracted.

"Okay, who threw that?" Garnet asked firmly. She wasn't in any mood for games, especially now. Pearl and Amethyst were still on the part when the key got alive, and bounced around. Both of the Gems pulled the dumbfound card, not having a clue on what happened, or how it happened. In fact, they never noticed the stray key until now. Steven had his back to the screen door to outside, as the key again started to become active. Steven noticed the key, the mirror noticed, but the Gems were a bit pre-occupied. Steven and the mirror (which had steven's same expression) watched the key bounce around them both, before slipping out of the screen door holes. Steven, not wanting to loose his new friend, got out the door, and ran! Only then did they notice Steven had left.

"That little boy, is in big trouble."

Outside, Steven was quickly running around outside, the key practically leading him away from the beach house, heading away from Beach City. The trio rushed out as Steven kept running after the bouncing key, not having a clue where it was going.

"Fan out!" Garnet ordered, all three rushing out to find Steven. Steven ran off until he hid behind a large rock, the key bouncing in place on one end, the handle face looking towards Steven. The mirror kept glitching out on its reflection surface.

"What am I gonna do? What's their problem with you? Are you trying to say something?" Steven asked the mirror. It started to glitch out again, but the message was distorted.

"Away from home! Let - me - OOOUUUTT."

"Come on, I want to help you! What can I do?"

Suddenly the mirror started to act up again. Instead of repeating any lines, the mirror then showed something else. It showed a silhouette of Steven pulling the gem free from the mirror. Steven turned the mirror around, and saw the gem in question. It didn't take much to know what he had to do, but, he was still a bit unsure on what to exactly do. He took a glance at the key on the ground, standing upright on the ground. As he did, he noticed a rainbow shimmer from it... It went over his eyes after that.

He knew what he must do.

He got his hand onto the gemstone on the mirror, but as he did, the key made one more jump into the air, spinning like a drill in midair. However, the sight of it got the group's attention from further away, and they immediately moved as fast as they could go towards them! Steven was too busy trying to get the gemstone free to notice what the key was doing. As Steven pulled hard, with one final pull, the gemstone was free! The mirror shattered afterwards, and the gem levitated a bit above him, and shined for him, and the Gems to see.

The physical shape soon began to appear towards the beach: the form of what appeared to be that of a girl. Her hair was close to Pearl's, but a bit bigger. She had a flowing dress, with a ribbon by around her upper back, and flowing past her knees. Her skin was dark blue, her hair even darker. She turned to him, and Steven noticed that her eyes were lacking any irises, and even gave off a reflection!

"Thank you... You didn't-" She ended up falling forward a bit, quickly being caught by Steven himself. The new Gem looked up to him. "You actually talked to me. You helped me! It's Steven, right?"

Steven calmly took a breath, before nodding. After that, she got up to her feet, and smiled to him.

"I'm Lapis. Lapis Lazuli. Are you really a Crystal Gem?"

"Yeah!"

"But, you set me free."

"But- Wha..." After a bit, Steven noticed the key reacting once more. Lapis and Steven turned to the key, which quickly hopped to between them both, and sunk into the sand until the handle was remaining out. The key twisted, the sound of an unlocked door echoing out. After, the part of the sand began to open out, almost like the sand was one door-sized block, opening inward to see a spiral hue of magical essence, the colors varying from sky blue to midnight blue, which glimmered and shined to them both outside.

"STEVEN!"

The Crystal Gems had found them! Lapis and Steven were a bit startled by the sudden call, Lapis taking one small, false step and suddenly slipped to the portal! Steven rushed over, and grabbed Lapis's hand - the only one holding onto her. But, the sand itself was making him slip, and suddenly he found himself hanging on by his own feet! Garnet immediately ran as fast as she could to Steven, but, Steven suddenly lost his grip! Garnet was extremely close to catch Steven, when the boy slipped and fell in! Lapis and Steven yelled as Garnet watched. The lead Gem was ready to jump in herself, but suddenly the door slammed shut, the key shooting outward into the air. The swing from the door made Garnet fall back onto the sand, and the key landed right into her hands, as the door disappeared.

"Steven!" Amethyst gasped. she took the key, and tried to get it back into the sand, to reopen the door. However, no matter how many times she tried, nothing seemed to happen. All that did happen was sand being knocked around from the force. Garnet and Pearl still weren't too sure, but, jabbing the key into the ground wasn't helping.

"Amethyst, stop that, that's not helping!" Pearl said eventually.

"You got a better idea?!" snapped Amethyst. Garnet was still a bit unsure on what just happened. Yeah, a group of magical ponies were around at the time, but, they didn't give Steven any fancy key. As for Discord, Garnet didn't notice him give anyone any key. Garnet knew Steven was in big trouble for not listening to her.

She didn't think of it THAT big.

Back in the main room of the castle, Rainbow Dash and Applejack both were still in the room, bickering over one another about the 'most daring pony' thing. Rainbow was still on about the whole Shadow Pony legend bit.

"I don't see what's so daring about an old legend. Plus, I don't believe in ghosts," Rainbow Dash said. However, unaware to them both, one of the tapestries was right in the way of the opening portal. The light from the portal emitted from behind the tapestry, Applejack able to see it.

"You might wanna rethink your position on that," Applejack said, pointing behind Rainbow with her hoof. They both saw the tapestry start to move, the light making it look deeply ominous! It didn't help that a simultaneous scream was being heard as well, sounding like a mix of female and male. Suddenly, something hit the tapestry, and a second hit made it fall off the hinges! A huge wall of cloth suddenly rushed right at Applejack and Rainbow Dash. The thud itself was enough to get Twilight's attention from the library, along with the extra screams.

"What in the world is that?!" Twilight gasped.

"Oh, you know. Probably just more strange sounds of this old castle falling apart!"

"No one likes sarcasm, Spike."

Soon, Twilight and Spike went back out to the main room, only to see a huge tapestry with a number of things struggling inside. Soon, Applejack and Rainbow Dash got out, and rushed off as fast as they could away from it. After a bit, Applejack saw Twilight and Spike.

"Twilight?" Applejack asked.

"What's going on?" Twilight asked. Before anypony could say anything, the tapestry was still moving, two other people still within the cloth. After some more struggle (and fear growing in Rainbow and Applejack), the tapestry was finally moved off of whoever was left under the thing: Steven and Lapis! Steven and Lapis needed a minute to figure out what happened to them, but when Steven saw Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack, the reaction was a bit mixed. There was a mix of surprise and happiness on seeing his pony pals again.

"Steven?!" all the ponies gasped. How could he end up back after their fiasco? Once more, he had a new Gem with him, who was trying to figure out where she ended up.

"Where ... What happened? Where are we?! ... what are those?" Lapis asked, looking to the multi-colored ponies. They didn't seem to be Gems, though were just as colorful as Gems are. Twilight went down herself, flying right down to them. Steven smiled, but Lapis still was a bit wary of the Alicorn.

"OK, this is weird," Rainbow bluntly said.

"How'd you get here?" Twilight asked, almost immediately after landing.

"It was so cool! - a magic key came to life and opened up a portal for us! Wait ... Oh no!" Steven beamed, still psyched about the portal itself. However, he then remembered that the key was no longer with him! The key was stuck back in Beach City - back in his own world. Without that key, he's pretty much stuck there, along with Lapis!

"Steven, you can bring us back, right?" Lapis asked, looking down to him with her hands on his shoulder.

"Uh ... No ..."

That was worrying: a random portal opening up thanks to some magic key, and now they don't even have the key, and are stuck in a different world all together! Lapis tried to remain calm, but, the thing was a bit hard not to worry over. The ponies nearby also thought over for a little bit before Twilight went over again. Course, Spike was completely dumbfounded by everything in general: he didn't know who the Gems were, how the ponies knew about Steven, or what exactly he was seeing in front of him.

"Uh, somepony tell me what's going on?" Spike asked.

"Oh right, these are the Gems I told you about. Steven, this is Spike," Twilight introduced. Spike was still a bit unsure on who was in front of him. Compared to Steven, he was at about just up to Steven's chest at head size (without the head scales). As Steven and Spike looked each other over, Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash looked over to Lapis Lazuli.

"And who might you be?" Applejack asked. Lapis didn't answer at first, but eventually, the blue Gem girl relaxed. Last thing she wanted to do is start any trouble with these sort.

"Well ... I'm Lapis. Who - or, what, are you?" Lapis asked.

"Name's Applejack, partner. That there's Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle," Applejack introduced. However, by that point Rainbow Dash noticed Lapis's mirror eyes. They didn't get to know much about Gems, but, none of the Gems back at Beach City had reflection-eyes like hers. Come to think of it, nopony even saw Lapis while they were there, nor even mentioned. As for Lapis, she didn't expect them to already know what Gems were, even if small.

"You are familiar with Gems?" Lapis asked.

"We came across you Gems before, few days ago in fact. But one question: what's with the eyes?" Rainbow blurted out.

"Oh, my eyes. Is it that noticeable?"

"Anypony can see that, really." the glares from Twilight and Applejack got her to shut up. While they were busy, Spike and Steven were doing a sort of "mimic" bit (copying eachother). Soon, Spike notice something poke out from under Steven's shirt. Soon as he lifted it up, the Gemstone Steven had on his stomach was shown right in Spike's face. The immediate sight of it made Spike smile, but licking his chops.

"Sweet Gem!" Spike complimented.

"Thank you," replied Steven.

"Can I have it?" Spike asked, licking his lips again. Seeing Spike looking at it like a tasty rock candy made Steven a slight bit uneasy. Lucky, Twilight noticed Spike's reaction.

"Spike!" Twilight said. Spike immediately snapped out of it, and looked over to Twilight, a bit startled. Twilight went over, a wing in front of him so he wouldn't try anything.

"Not exactly the best idea, Spike. Sorry, Steven, he has a bit of a ..." Twilight tried to put the right words together. Since Gems from Steven's world are sapient, it was hard to put it correctly. What came out was "... Liking for gems."

"Liking?" Lapis asked, equally confused.

"Well ... as food."

... Lapis took a large step back away from Spike, not taking her reflected eyes off him. Immediately, Spike tried to redeem himself, moving Twilight's wing away from his face.

"Ok, don't freak out, I'm not eating you! Besides, Gems in Equestria aren't so much ... Alive," Spike said, which was true. At least HE never saw a living, breathing Gemstone before.

"Really? That's horrible!" Lapis gasped. Well, that didn't help too much. After a little bit, though, Twilight then notice Lapis's cracked Gemstone on the base of her back. Even if freed, her stone was still in bad shape, a large crack evident on her body. She only saw this once before: when she first arrived. By the looks of it, it didn't look good.

"Your Gem is cracked," Twilight stated in concern. Lapis knew that from the start, and gave a sigh.

"I know, I know. I'm powerless like this ..."

Then, the Ponies remembered what Pearl told them back at Steven's home ...

My gem is the center of my being: the source of my existence. If anything were to happen to my gem, it can deeply effect my being as a whole.

And now, that's what is happening to Lapis: her Gem became damaged, and she's suffering from it. However, Steven suddenly got an idea.

"I can fix your gem. I have healing powers," Steven made known.

"Wait, you have healing powers?" Lapis asked, turning to him.

"I know, right?" Steven replied with a smile. The other Ponies were well-unaware of this, watching as Steven walked over to Lapis's Gem.

"Oh, what should I..."

"Oh, uh, sorry. This might be a little weird."

"What?" Steven then proceeded to lick his own hand. A bit odd to start, but, whatever. After he did, with determination, slapped the saliva right onto Lapis's exposed gem. Lapis shuttered a little on feeling it, and they waited for a bit. After a little while, the Gem began to glow, as Lapis began to feel a bit different. Something soon shot out her back, spreading out alongside her: water. The water stretched out and stopped in midair, forming Lapis's spectacular water wings! Lapis felt something else come back to life: her own eyes returned to normal. They no longer were the reflection they once were, and became regular, navy-blue eyes. Speaking of blue, her body became much more prominent in color than before, the blues lighter and more colorful than before. Lapis waited for a second or so, until she suddenly started to fly around, happy as ever! Everybody, and everypony, knew that Lapis was healed, as the happy Gem flew around for pure joy. Soon, Lapis hovered in mid air, her new wings keeping her up.

"Steven, you did it! I'm healed! Thank you so much!" Lapis said, scooping up Steven in a great hug as she spun around in midair. Steven couldn't help but laugh himself, as Rainbow Dash and Twilight hovered alongside her.

"Whoa, you can fly now? Sweet!" Rainbow said.

"Lapis, Steven. I'm not sure how we'll be able to get you two back home, but if it makes you feel better, I'll be more than happy to help you with a temporary home," Twilight offered. Lapis and Steven looked to each other, and they both nodded. If they couldn't go home, they might as well try to handle something here.

"Hey, Twilight? This mean we're going back now?" Spike asked.

"Yes, Spike. Come on, everypony," Twilight said, letting Spike go on her back before starting to go. Her wings opened, as she began to fly as well. Lspis looked to Steven, still being held onto, and gave a smile.

"Want to go flying?"

"Yeah!" Steven said with a laugh. With that, They all headed off out of the castle. Lapis and Steven both were greatful that these Ponies offered to help them out. Especially Lapis Lazuli.

Maybe she'll grow to like this place.