All characters belong to the people who own Steven Universe. The series is awesome.

Ronaldo and the Giant Pink Sneeple

By Marie Nomad

It was early morning at the lighthouse as Ronaldo Fryman was adjusting his equipment. Things have been quiet so far, but something just felt off. He could almost feel it. His family just think that he was missing the excitement of chasing after monsters, but that wasn't it. He enjoyed interviewing the various gems and getting their stories about their times as monsters. He was gathering a following to his blog and tubetube channel. No, something else.

All of a sudden, his instruments started going off. "What the heck!" He screamed when there was a massive shake.

The man fell to the floor and caught his camera. "Got you." He muttered as the shaking kept going. He struggled to get up and put the camera onto the window, and anchored it. Before there was another quake.

He sat on the floor under the table. What was going on? Was it another invasion? Was it a monster? His phone rang. Ronaldo answered it, "Jane?"

"Ronny! Where are you?"

"I'm at the lighthouse."

"Oh, carp! Didn't you see it? There was a huge monster right by the lighthouse! Get out of there!" Jane screamed.

Ronaldo's jaw dropped when the shaking stopped briefly, and he peeked out of the massive windows to see a giant pink sneeple right on top of the lighthouse. "Jane, I love you. Tell my family that I love them too. I have to stay." He hung up. He braced himself as he turned on the equipment. The Internet connection was down, but he could still record stuff.

Roaring filled the air. Ronaldo held his ears. "Steven! Come on! Save the day!" He pleaded. Finally, the shaking stopped being so bad. He went to the windows and watched as the monster was in the ocean being held by chains. "Woo hoo!" He cheered. He looked down at the beach. There were his fellow Crystal Gems, Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst, Connie, Bismuth, Peridot, and Lapis, using her water bending powers on the creature. Even Mr. Universe was there for some reason. Ronaldo looked around, confused. "Where's Steven?"

His heart pounded as he zoomed in on the creature. It was giant, pink, more prominent than the temple. Corruptions are not usually this large. Another thing that bothered him was that the gems were just standing around. Why aren't they attacking? If it was a corrupted gem, even a large one, they should be summoning their magic weapons and attack the monster. He looked for the creature's gem and saw it on the monster's bellybutton.

"He's pink, huge, powerful, the Gems aren't fighting, he has a gem on his bellybutton, and… Steven's not here." Ronaldo muttered to himself. "No. No. No way! There's no way that he could be the monster! Steven!"

Out of nowhere, he heard a loud scream of 'Steven.' His jaw dropped as he saw the Diamonds' ship landing on the beach. "It's like the grand finale." He gasped as he aimed the camera.

He couldn't hear much, but the Diamonds looked shocked. Yellow shot some ray at the beast. The giant sneeple's head shrunk, but it grew back to normal. Blue floated a blue cloud at the creature. The creature roared it back. Finally, White turned different colors and raised her arms. She was the color pink, and she screamed in pain and collapse. "That's not Steven!" She screamed so loud that even he could hear it.

Ronaldo's heart plummeted. Steven had actually become a giant pink sneeple? Why? How did he become corrupted? He thought that only diamonds could corrupt gems and that Steven should be able to heal corruption. Steven Sneeple started to glow, and Ronaldo tensed. He looked like he was charging up for an attack. Ronaldo hid under the table.

There was a massive shockwave. Everything rattled, but thankfully, nothing was damaged. Ronaldo took deep breaths as he curled up. A portal opened up, and Connie on her trusty lion appeared.

"Ronaldo! Are you here?" Connie asked.

"I'm here." Ronaldo crawled out from under the table. "Tell me, that's not Steven! Tell me that's just a monster who happened to be pink! Or maybe some sort of creator of the Gem Race." He pleaded.

Connie and Lion just looked down. "He… Steven just broke down. He had some kind of meltdown, and now he's like this."

Ronaldo's eyes watered up. He remembered the little boy that he befriended. The magical boy who had dressed up as a sneeple to make him happy. What happened to him? Why did he turn to the dark side? Then, it dawned on him. He and Steven had been drifting apart. Steven depended on friendship to get him through. "Connie? You're a fellow Crystal Gem. Do you think that if I had been a better friend, I could have prevented this?"

Connie frowned as she stared outside the lighthouse. "The Cluster is holding Steven back. Why aren't the gems doing anything?"

"I don't know." Ronaldo stood beside her.

"You should go on Lion and get back to Beach City. You'll be safer here."

"No way! I have to record what's going on! Besides… Steven might want to know what happened." Ronaldo looked down at the camera.

They watched as the gems and Greg were doing nothing. Garnet had split into Ruby and Sapphire. The diamonds started weeping and wailing how that it was their fault. Meanwhile, the Cluster was struggling to keep hold.

"Argh!" Connie growled as she gestured to Lion. "Let's go!"

Ronaldo watched as Lion and Connie portaled out, and he aimed the camera at the action. He couldn't hear her, but she looked compassionate, giving a speech. She looked like a general giving a rousing address to the weary masses. Whatever she said worked. Garnet pulled herself together and gave instructions.

Ronaldo's heart pounded. Yellow grew Garnet to diamond size, and everyone ran towards the charging Steven Sneeple. Ronaldo prepared for the battle that would happen. How could the Crystal Gems help Steven? How could they take him down without killing him? Then, he watched dumbfounded. It looked like the fusion was hugging him. One by one, the gems joined in the hug. Even the diamonds and the Cluster joined hugging him, and Steven Sneeple just seemed confused.

"The power of friendship..." Ronaldo whispered as tears ran down his face. It felt like something Steven would have done. He zoomed in to see Connie jumping onto Steven's nose and then kissing him between the eyes. "The power of love..." Steven started to cry, and his tears turned the ocean pink under his feet. There was a bright light. The creature was gone. All he saw was White gently catching Connie and an apparently naked Steven and lowering them on the Cluster.

"It's over." Ronaldo lowered his camera and turned it off. He called Jane. "Jane, it's Ronaldo. I'm fine..." He started to cry. "The… monster's gone… the town's safe. Yeah..." he sobbed. "I… I can't talk about it right now. I'm fine. Really. No one's hurt."

He sat there for what felt like hours or maybe minutes. He should post this online, but should he? Steven Universe is his friend, and he really didn't have many. Ronaldo flipped through the various pictures he had with Steven. Why didn't he see Steven breaking down? In anime, the hero wins and gets a happy ending or at least until the next series. Steven Universe had done so much for Beach City. If he posted it, then, Steven could be run out of town. What about the gems and humans living in peace? Even the new fragile new Era would be dismantled.

XXX

Several days passed, and Ronaldo didn't update the site other than that there was a giant monster sighting near Beach City. He didn't post the video or the pictures despite all the questions and demands. He didn't have the heart to do it.

Finally, he summoned courage and went to the Beach House. A worn-out Steven was sitting on the steps.

"Hey, Steven." Ronaldo greeted as he looked away. "How are you feeling?"

"I don't know," Steven confessed. "I'm sorry that I don't know anything about that giant monster."

Ronaldo closed his eyes. "Steven, I know you were the Giant Pink Sneeple. I was there."

"Wait?! You were in the lighthouse! I'm sorry! I could've… I could've..." Steven started to tremble.

"I'm fine." Ronaldo put both hands on his shoulders. "Really. I should apologize to you. Because I abandoned our friendship, you cracked. I pushed you down this dark path!" He put his hand to his chest and looked away.

"Well..." Steven struggled to speak.

"No, you had saved this world. I will not let the world see you as a villain." He reached into his pocket and gave Steven the file drive. "Here's the video, pictures, all the data. There are no backups. You can do whatever you want with it. Just get some therapy, Steven. You deserve your happy ending."

Steven smiled slightly as he accepted the drive. "Thank you. I know that it must have been a blow to your blog."

"Don't worry about my blog! Worry about you!" Ronaldo bellowed. "Tonight, we're going to be binge-watching the Mouse Chronicles. It's a cute anime about pet mice that will relax you. I will redeem myself for abandoning you!"

"You didn't abandon me, but the anime sounds like fun."

The end...