"Come on, hurry up! Lapis will catch up!" Amethyst shouts as the four friends run down the beach.
"Should we really be doing this?" Connie asks, "Pearl really is just concerned for our safety!"
"Yeah, and there's just going to be another lecture when we get back!" Steven adds.
"Oh, come on, let Peri have a bit of fun," Amethyst insists. "You know Pearl's just going to make it boring with all her 'safety precautions'."
"Yes, we'll conduct our own experiments without her first," Peridot continues, "it'll be much more enjoyable!"
"I guess…" Steven replies, thinking for a moment before continuing. Peridot's been trying so hard to summon her weapon. She should be able to enjoy it on her own terms, at least for a while.
"Alright, yeah!" Steven agrees, "let's have fun!"
"That's the spirit!" Amethyst grins, "Now, who wants to destroy something?"
"Now this definitely isn't reflective," Amethyst says, hands on hips, looking up at the pinata hanging from a tree just outside town.
"I really hope you're not going to include the blindfold in this," Connie admits.
"Nope, but maybe after a bit of practice, eh Peri?" Amethyst replies, putting an arm around Peridot, "now go for it, Peridactyl!"
Slightly confused as to why Amethyst keeps calling her that, Peridot summons and raises her weapon as the purple quartz resumes the chant of "PERI! PERI! PERI!", quickly joined by Steven and Connie. The first few shots fly past the paper donkey, but soon more and more begin to hit as Peridot picks up the pace. Eventually the rope breaks and it falls to the ground, splitting in half.
"Whoa, whoa, you can stop now!" Steven exclaims, grabbing Peridot by the shoulder to stop her from totally decemating the thing. The four friends stand still for a moment and watch the last few bullets wink out of existence.
"Not gonna lie, that was really cool," Connie admits.
"Yeah, you did great!" Steven adds as they sit down to dig into the pinata's contents.
"Hey, P-Dot, I thought you couldn't shapeshift," Amethyst points out, "how are you eating?"
"Oh, I simply reformed with a digestive system. Genius, I know."
"So how come I've never seen you eat before?" Steven asks.
"I haven't had a reason to."
"Bruh, you don't need a reason," Amethyst says, shoving a handful of sweets into her mouth with the wrappers still on.
"Hey, look at this!" Steven exclaims, holding out a pink chew to Peridot. She takes it with her usual "wow, thanks," and holds it up to examine the perfectly centred bullet hole in it. Looking at it, she can't help thinking about the last thing she put a bullet hole in.
"I wonder what's keeping Lapis?"
Lapis has been trapped before. What's different about this time, she's decided, is that she is going to be the one to get herself out of it. She had hoped that Pearl would pursue the others and leave her alone, but she had annoyingly insisted on staying to 'look after her' while Bismuth and Garnet look for them. So for ten minutes Lapis has been lying on the sofa like Pearl told her to, pretending to be asleep, waiting for her to put down the book she's reading and walk away. Lapis' first few attempts to get up and leave just resulted in being pushed back down, and in all honesty she couldn't be bothered to fight back. Physical fighting isn't really her thing, and there isn't much water in the house. So she decided to try a new technique.
Finally - after fifteen minutes - she hears Pearl walk towards the kitchen. In one swift motion her wings sprout from her gem and give a powerful sweep, sending her straight over Pearl's head to the rafters. From above she watches Pearl spin round at the sound and look up at her.
"Lapis! What have I said about flying in the house?!"
All she gets in reply is a fart noise.
"Oh, really mature."
With her wings held out for balance, the blue gem strolls along the wooden beam to the windows above the kitchen. She reaches up to examine the handles. They aren't locked, but she has no idea how to open them. This might be a flaw in her plan.
Back on the edge of town, the pinata's innards have been entirely consumed.
"So what next?" Peridot asks eagerly, "what else is there to destroy?!"
She jumps to her feet, firing a shot into the air in excitement.
"It seems like that thing has infinite bullets," Connie observes. Peridot lowers the gun to inspect it again, unconcerned about the danger of peering straight down the barrel.
"Maybe it's like Opal's arrows," Steven suggests, "She doesn't have a quiver or anything, they just... appear."
He looks over at Amethyst, who continues, "yeah, it's like… 'We wanna shoot an arrow now,' and boom, there it is."
Peridot holds the weapon to her ear and shakes it, listening for anything inside, then holds it out to Amethyst.
"You try. See if anything happens."
"Huh?" Amethyst says, slightly taken aback. She's never heard of a gem using another's weapon before.
"If it doesn't work, we can assume that it is empty and me pulling the trigger is causing me to subconsciously summon the bullets," she explains.
Amethyst shrugs. "Alright, if you insist."
She stands up, takes the pistol from Peridot in both hands and points it at the ground a few feet away from them.
"Geez, Peri, how small are your fingers? Okay, here goes!"
She pulls the trigger, but nothing but a faint clicking noise comes from it. She takes one hand off and tries twice more, a lot less excited then she had been the first time.
"Theory confirmed!" Peridot shouts in jubilation, "only I can operate it!"
Amethyst peers down the barrel herself, not even bothering to take her finger off the trigger, knowing that it won't go off. In fact, she pulls the trigger with it pointed right at her face, just because she can. Then she pauses, an idea for another experiment forming in her mind.
"Hey guys," she says, "I know exactly what we're going to do next."