//------------------------------//
// First Contact 
// Story: Sealing the Gem 
// by BCS 
//------------------------------//

Pupa Shard's body laid bloodied and bruised on the ground. The shy purple pony approached the body laying there. A cracked gem was centered in his chest and energy or something kind of magic was pulsing out of it. This was like another time and place, with Starlight Glimmer, but Gemmery couldn't know that. He pushed his black hair over his face and crept closer.

A changeling... a royal changeling too, with a crown. Bleeding copiously. Almost half-dead. A pastel mint green coat and burgundy purplish hair and a horn with holes in it. The crown looked torn in half and the equine creature... wait, were those moth wings? How odd. Gemmery had never heard of a changeling with moth wings. That was certainly different.

But he did know a broken crystal when he saw one. His cutie mark was gems and his special talent was fixing gems and minerals and crystals. He worked as a jeweler in Ponyville. He leaned closer to the dying hybrid, terrified. Something in his heart moved him to compassion rather then let this creature die. He remembered a moth dying on his windowsill as a child. A Luna moth, somewhat like this. His mother told him they only live for a few days then they die.

He let that moth chill there and would later pin its corpse to a mounting board with lovely pink paper and frame it in his bedroom. He was a sensitive colt like that. He loved beautiful things. Pupa was maybe one of the most beautiful and terrifying things he had ever seen in his life.

Gemmery opened his bag of jeweler's tools and took out a sealant. He was just feet away from Gemmery's body, dying slowly. He slowly pushed the sealant out of the tube, rolling it up with his hooves, applying it to the Miralis gem in Pupa's chest. One by one, the cracks were closed. This was Gemmery's talent, after all, and there could be no one better in Ponyville. 

In fact, it was the actions of the Miralisi within the crystal dimension that ensured that the purple stallion would be right there, at that moment in time, to save their guardian, Pupa, because Pupa was the elected individual to connect the two dimensions together. The Miralisi were a race of mysterious crystal beings that fed through their hooves and possessed no mouths and communicated mainly through telepathy. For centuries, they have tried to come to Equestria. Now, as their technology advanced, they are closing that gap piece-by-piece. Pupa and Gemmery are just some of many pawns they manipulated, both now and in the past. But our heroes don't know that yet.

Suddenly, breath hitched back into Pupa's lungs. His eyes flew open and there were a startling shade of red, incredibly shiny. His green moth wings began buzzing and he flew into the air, screaming. Gemmery also screamed and leapt backwards. 

"P-please, don't hurt me!" Gemmery cried out. "I just wanted to save you!"

Pupa Shard stared at his hooves in confusion. Then comprehension finally dawned. "I'm not dead. And you saved me?"

"Y-yes?"

Pupa settled onto the ground, cutting quite the imposing figure. He was tall and his legs were cut through with holes, like so much cheese or rotten wood. Even his gigantic green moth wings was ragged. The purple mane and fluff around the chest were full and bushy. Gemmery was instantly reminded of pictures he had seen in books of Queen Chrysalis but this changeling royal was male so ... a Lord maybe? Prince? King? He didn't know. The orange Miralis crystal in the center of Pupa's chest glowed brightly, pulsing with a throbbing slow sort of flash. It was pretty distracting.

The moth changeling was suddenly embracing the purple pony. Gemmery gasped and the hug was so sudden, his glasses were knocked right off his face. 

"Thank you! Thank you so much! Without you, I'd be dead right now. As you can see, I am part changeling. I need love to survive. Please, will you be my friend?"

"I-I won't leave you alone now," Gemmery stammered. "I saved you so I'm kind of responsible, right? I thought... I thought you were beautiful and I didn't want to leave you die. I saw a moth die once, when I was just a little colt. It was heart-wrenching. I was thinking, no one deserves death. What happened to you?"

Pupa grimaced deeply. "A story for another day. I don't want to crush your entire faith in the system of your monarchy right now. It's going to take me months to get back to the Zarcian Tundra, so we should head to the train station that goes to the Crystal Empire as soon as possible. Past there is largely uncharted wilderness. Will you accompany me?"

Gemmery blushed brightly. "O-of course!"

Pupa Shard was still holding him. His body was warm against his. It felt good.

"That's good," Pupa whispered. His voice dropped into a throaty tone. "I'd like to get to know my rescuer better. You're pretty cute."

Gemmery blushed more and broke the embrace to bend down to pick up his glasses. He brushed them off, licked the lenses when breathing on them didn't work, wiped them off again on his purple hoofbands and put them back on. He smiled brightly.

"We have plenty of time, right? I can tell you all about myself."

"Thanks. I'd really like that. So what's your name?"

"It's Gemmery. Gemmery Ironhoof."

"My name is Pupa, but it used to be Cryptic. You can call me either name for now, but I don't much care for the name Cryptic anymore."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Any reason why?"

"Yeah, a lot of them. I'll tell you later."

The two ponies began walking down the cobblestone path, talking. They talked about what they would eat on the trip and about their favorite kinds of animals, mostly. This was the start of their friendship and the rest of their lives.

(to be to continued)