Light In the Universe DX

Chapter 3: Emerald

Gamma Kindergarten, Colth-9
Over 40,000 years ago...

"Why does she look like...that?"

"She's far too skinny to be one of us. Clearly she belongs with the pearls."

"I say we should just shatter her, clearly she doesn't have any use."

"H-huh?" The new gem opened her eyes, shaking off the dust from her exit hole. "What's going on?"

The group of regal looking gems looked down on her disgusted, all of them decorated with gold and fur on their green forms. Their scissor cut gems gleaming perfectly in the planet's limited light. They towered over her, flawless forms that could terrify an agate with ease. Their eyes squinted at her, some looking away in disgust.

They were the "good" gems. The young Emerald looked down at her form. Her arms were skinny as they should be, but so were her legs. She stood shorter than the rest of the group and upon seeing her reflection in the meanest one's eye, could see her features were rounded, dainty, pearl-like. 

"What happened to me?" she asked distraught, looking up to the clearly superior gem.

"You came out wrong." The tallest one said, holding back a chuckle. "What do you think happened?"

"I-I don't know." She stumbled helplessly

"Clearly." The yellower one said "Honestly I if it were up to me I have just turned you to dust and start over."

Emerald flinched at the suggestion, visualizing her gem being plucked out of her before being ground to nothing. 

"But of course with the resource crisis and all that would be rather hard." The gem put a hand to her mouth.

"I think we can still get a bit of use out of her." The blueish one said, taking her arm. "She will serve under me as if she were a pearl, assisting me in finding new colonies." She declaimed, Emerald being ecstatic to be spared from shattering, or worse...

Emerald's excitation  was cut short however, remembering what exactly a pearl is supposed to do. For almost 800 straight years, she was treated as an accessory, a tool, a toy. She was treated much worse than most Pearls, as she lacked the ability to project holograms. It was especially humiliating hearing all the other gems, from Sapphires, Aquamarines, Agates, even Rubies, Amethysts, and Pearls gawk and laugh at her. Not only for her wrongful placement, but her deformity and short height made her the pariah of any gem aggregate  she would find herself in

Even her owner, supposedly so gracious and wise, would find any chance to insult her gangly form, even lovingly bestowing the nickname "Emerearl" to her. This constant harassment made Emerald think of shattering herself often, seeing her emerging as more and more of a lucky fluke as the days passed on. The breaking point came on one fateful gathering at the Prime Kindergarten, her owner putting her on display as if she was a sideshow attraction, the owner's peers laughing at her as she tried desperately to converse with them, with the responses always  being either laughter, an insult, or ignoration. 

Her owner and her peers were sent to Earth to get the Kindergartens running again. After the sixtieth failed conversation, she turned her attention to a group of humans walking far out in the distance. She wished she had a community like they did. A group that had her back. A group she could feel a sense of true belonging. Not as an accessory; but as a member of something much bigger. Little did she know her wish would come true...

Emerald felt a disturbance shortly after the human tribe walked away, as if hundreds of voices were to suddenly cry out in terror and to be suddenly silenced. She looked up to see the faint pink figure of Rose Quartz, a gem she feared more than any Diamond. Acting quickly, she jumped into a hole carved out by a previously formed Amethyst.