It was a week after Discord's defeat and Glittermind was fitting in like a natural unicorn. Having accepted Twilight Sparkle and Rarity as teachers of sorts, Glittermind learned how to use her horn's magic. In exchange, Glittermind offered her fresh points of view on the simple lives of her new pony friends.
Occupying a tree-house next to the Ponyville Library, Glittermind was slowly getting used to being a unicorn. The attitude/view of unicorns in the Equestria dimension was startlingly simple and different. Since there had been no such thing as 'humans' here; the mythical legends of virgin maidens and magically coveted horns of the unicorn were never brought into life. No hunters to hunt the 'magical' properties of the unicorn horn; no fear of being hunted down and killed.
Having promised Princess Celestia, and with the aid of Fairydust and her sister, Dragonfly; Glittermind slowly wrote down her story so that it could be recorded for future reference. That was what she was doing now; standing in an empty spot in the Twilight-maintained Ponyville Library.
"Darn It! This is so frustrating!" Glittermind hissed through her pony teeth. "This is taking FOREVER!"
She gave the half-blank journal page the stink eye, glaring meanly at her lack of speed/progress on her day's entry: which explained the various parts of the 'human' body.
"What is, Glittermind?" the ever close-by Spike rushed over to the teal-colored unicorn.
"Well, writing with no hands or fingers is difficult for me…you're lucky Spike-chan…" Glittermind used the Japanese honorific label of 'chan.' The purple and green dragon turned to jell-o and giggled his love-struck laugh. "You have digits similar to humans."
"Spiiii-iike!" She looked at him in annoyance when he didn't answer. "Snap out of it. Here, you write the rest of the paragraph for me."
"Uh, right!" the lizardy dragon snapped to attention and pulled up his boost-stool. Grabbing the white avian quill Glittermind was using to slowly, held-by-horn-magic, write with. "Ready!"
"Ok: this is what I wanted to write: 'The human legs end in the body part called feet; one foot per leg. The singular for feet is foot. More than one foot is called feet. Each foot has five toes, which is similar to human fingers; only toes are less flexible.'"
"Uh, Spike?" Glittermind had gone into her 'Twilight dictation mode' and had let her eyes wander as she spoke. Now, after turning them back to the dragon, she viewed the youngling leaning heavily on the journal, quill in draconic hand; with that hand holding up his head as he gazed at her like a lovesick puppy.
"Yea, Glittermind?" Spike answered vaguely.
"…"
"You're so pretty, Glittermind. But Rarity's prettier."
"…"
"Wanna go dig for gemstones?"
"Sure, why not?" Glittermind smirked in spite of herself. Dealing with young dragonling and his crush was silly and amusing. "I mean, after you finish writing what I said. You did write down what I asked you to write down, right?"
"!"
"Oh sillyhead, you got distracted again." The teal and mint-green unicorn sighed gustily. "How does Twilight deal with it?"
"Hay, Glittermind, what are boogers?" Spike interrupted her amusement fest with a question. The word made her freeze with stunned surprise. Spike must have read an earlier entry in her journal. She had sketched out the human nose and labeled the various parts and stuff.
"Uh…" the human-mind in the unicorn body zapped its neurons at insane speeds. "Boogers are…a process of the human nose in which dust, dirt and foreign debris are trapped within the nose and covered in mucus." It was amazing how her mind worked at times. Still being human in mind and soul, Glittermind wasn't quite used to being in a world without 'humans'. "Yea…the word booger is slang for snot or mucus."
"Oh, I didn't know that." Spike shrugged casually. The impact the slang word produced no results of giggles or crude laughter. It was all in her mind; here on this world of Equestria. It was surprisingly refreshing; not dealing with slanderous words and their immature results. She was thankful that no one called her Guttermind…
"Anyway…did you write down what I said about the feet?"
"Yes, I sure did, Glittermind!" Spike finished quilling a cursive letter with a flare; his draconic wrist flipping the quill's tip into the air.
"Awesome!"
"AWESOMER!" Pinkie Pie's voice shouted from behind the unicorn and dragonling; causing them both to leap into the air in fright.
"Oh SWEET Celestia, Pinkie Pie!" Glittermind cursed. "DON'T DO THAT!"
"Do what?"
"Scream something from behind us when we have no clue you were there." The unicorn sat down on her equine rump and put a hoof over her heart. "You're going to kill a pony by doing that."
"Oh, well, you said awesome, and I wanted to agree, so I said; 'AWESOMER!'" the pink earth pony shouted again, causing her friends to twitch at her voice's volume.
"Ah, Pinkie Pie, I thought I heard you come in." Twilight joined the trio. The lilac unicorn had come from the second level of the tree-library. "What are you doing here?"
"Being random and scaring the grass out of ponies." Glittermind answered for the party-pony.
"Tee-hee! I wasn't trying to scare you, really I wasn't!" the bubbly, cupcake-eating party-master interjected. "Glittermind was talking to Spike and she said 'Awesome' which made me want to say; 'AWESOMER!' So I did!"
"Heh, nice." Twilight smiled at the pony's antics.
"Uhhh, you ponies are so innocent." Glittermind rolled her pale amethyst eyes in sarcasm. "No wonder magic is thick in this world."
"What's that supposed to mean?" The native ponies and dragon looked at the turquoise unicorn.
"Oh, nothing bad, it's just I've never been in a dimension with as much saturation of magic as this one. It's really cool."
"Oh, you're so silly, Glittermind." Pinkie Pie laughed. "Still talking about that scientific nonsense. You'd better be careful, you might turn into a bookworm like Twilight here!"
Pinkie Pie draped an equine leg over her other unicorn friend.
"Hay, I'm not that bad, am I?" Twilight looked slightly concerned.
"Nope!" Pinkie Pie answered. "I like you the way you are; but I also like Glittermind the way SHE is; and if we had TWO Twilight Sparkles, we'd have NO Glitterminds, so it'd be bad if Glittermind started acting like a Twilight Sparkle."
Spike, Glittermind and Twilight Sparkle all looked at the bubbly pony in confusion. The sugar-pony's logic was difficult to follow.
"Uhhhh, oookay." Glittermind broke the silence. "Whatever you say, Pie-chan."
"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Pinkie Pie glomped on the teal unicorn and squee-ed. "I knew you'd understand!"
"You say this like it's a good thing?" Glittermind's pony brow rose in sarcasm; which caused the pink pony to laugh even more.
"Oh Hayseeds, I love your sarcastic humor, Glittermind!" Pinkie chuckled.
"I'm sure you do."
"I do!"
"I believe you." Glittermind gave her custom smirk – which wasn't quite a full, cheerful smile, nor a spiteful, better-than-you lip curl. "So, what you are in the library for, Pinkie-chan?"
"Oooooooh, nothing." Pinkie lied, purposely looking at the ceiling as she lied.
"Oh come on, you're here for something, you always go places to share the World of Pinkie Pie." G.M. poked the pink pony with a hoof. "Let me guess; it's to drive me crazy or offer me a cake."
"Nope…" Pinkie Pie stated truthfully. If Glittermind wanted to play guessing games, Pinkie Pie was all for it; and rose to the challenge. "I'll give you a hint, it's a party that's going to happen a week from now."
"Don't you mean Ni-…" Spike's statement was stifled as Pinkie Pie rushed over to cover his mouth.
"SPIKE! Shush! Don't say it. I want Glittermind to guess!"
Now the teal unicorn was focused. If Pinkie Pie was serious enough to interrupt others from speaking, the subject was to be taken seriously.
"Oh, a party that happens in a week…hm…" Glittermind sat down again on her rump and pondered. "Geez, I don't know how your days work here; they seem to be almost the same as my world; twenty-four hour days and seven days a week."
Twilight nodded in agreement. Her unicorn student, both peer and friend; was learning the fundamentals of Equestria at a rapid pace. After just plain accepting that Glittermind came from another world, Twilight Sparkle began teaching the unicorn the basics of this world, the planet Equestria. It helped immensely when Celestia's student found out that Glittermind's world was very similar in mechanics and physics. Twilight was thrilled to have a friend who was mentally on the same academic level as herself. Their debates, already counting 5, always left them with broader horizons.
"A birthday party for somepony?" Glittermind asked. "You've already thrown parties for me, Fairydust, Dragonfly, Glimmer-It, B-Pond, Color Jam and Shly…so it's gotta be a pony from Ponyville."
"NOPE!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "I'm going to take you COSTUME Shopping for Nightmare Night!"
"Nightmare Night?" Glittermind asked. "What's that?"
"Nightmare Night is like, only the SCARIEST Night of the year!" Pinkie Pie laughed in explanation.
"Like Halloween?"
"Hallow-whatsis?" Spike asked.
"Oh, I guess you ponies here use another name for it. In my world, we celebrate a night of the dead; on October 31st. Well, it has since been taken over by candy-profiteering greedy companies, but it used to be a night where 'kids' and 'people' dressed up to scare off ghosts, evil spirits, ghouls, zombies and the such."
Pinkie Pie and Spike sat in rapt attention at Glittermind's story; hugging each other in fear.
"The point of dressing up like things like witches, vampires, ghosts, scarecrows, princesses, pirates, ninjas and mummies is to scare away the spirits and ghosts that would haunt you."
"Tha-at sou-sounds sca-ry!" Pinkie Pie and Spike stammered out in fright. Glittermind's humanistic stories always made for entertainment.
"But as the world evolved and became more technologically advanced, the true meaning of Halloween became glossed over as candy companies shoved their marketing campaign and stuck it with the All Hallow's Eve holiday or celebration." The teal Unicorn had slipped once again into her Twilight lecture mode. "Now its often viewed, world-wide, as a holiday where people hand out candy to kids who go door to door, saying 'Trick or Treat'. They still dress up and stuff, but the meaning behind the dressing up part isn't really the main point of Halloween."
"That's terrible!" Pinkie Pie gasped in horror. "Why would they not know why they dress up!"
"Halloween is known to clash with some religions in my world."
"Wow, that's amazing, Glittermind." Spike leaned on Twilight's flank and oogled at the blank-flanked unicorn. "It sounds like some things are the same in your world, right?"
"Huh, well, yea I guess so, Spike." Glittermind looked at the young dragon. She was impressed on how insightful the unicorn's number one assistant was. "If your Nightmare Night is like Halloween, then it is kind of the same."
"YES!" Pinkie Pie jumped in a cheer. "Did you hear that, Twilight! Glittermind isn't so different from us after all!"
"Yes, well…" the lilac unicorn nodded her head; the emotion behind her eyes very thoughtful. "That doesn't answer why the 'kids' still get candy? I mean, our Nightmare Night has the legend of Nightmare Moon; and the candy collected by young colts and fillies is offered up to Nightmare Moon so she won't eat you up."
"NIGHTMARE MOON IS COMING TO GOBBLE US ALL UP!" Pinkie Pie screamed in faux fright. "Quick! We gotta hide!"
"Pinkie!" Twilight rolled her eyes at the pink pony's act. "Relax, would you? She's not here anymore, remember?"
"Oh, right, yea, we defeated Nightmare Moon awhile ago, didn't we?" Spike said as he exhumed himself from under the front door's low-table. He had rushed under there when Pinkie had screamed in fright. "For a second there, I thought she was really coming to gobble us up."
"Well, that was random…" Glittermind still stared out the open door. Pinkie Pie had up and ran off; bolting out the front door after screaming. "I guess Pinkie-chan is done here…"
"Hehehe, sorry about that, Glittermind." Twilight Sparkle chuckled at the scene Pinkie left behind. "She's always been like that."
"Random? Yea, I can tell."
"Hello?" another voice came from outside. "I hope there isn't anypony about to run out and trample all over me."
"Oh! Fairydust, hi there!" Glittermind smiled as the alicorn poked her head into the library. "Pinkie Pie just left."
"Go figure…" the white alicorn giggled. "What'd you do to scare her THIS time?"
"ME? Scare a pony like her! Never!" Glittermind's voice drawled back in answer, thick with lying sarcasm.
"Tch, yea right." Fairydust laughed. "I though you might be here at the library, since you weren't home."
Fairydust was one of the Glitter-Clique; a group of ponies labeled as the secondary 'Mane Six'. She, along with Butterpond, Color Jam, Dragonfly, Glittermind and Glimmer-it were their own group. If ponies were to compare the Mane Six with the Glitter-Clique, Glittermind would be similar to Twilight Sparkle, Butterpond would be most like Pinkie Pie; Color Jam was most like Applejack and Fluttershy, Dragonfly was similar to Rainbow Dash, where her sister was sarcastic and friendly like Rarity. Glimmer-it was a mix between Applejack's sassiness and Pinkie Pie's bubbly personality. The young filly was currently at Canterlot, training under the tutors there.
Suddenly, Glittermind's stomach growled; causing the teal unicorn mare to look rather embarrassed.
"Hungry, much?" Fairydust looked askew at her unicorn friend.
"Ahhuhuh…uuhh… yea…" Came the reply. "I spent all morning writing in the journal Celestia-hime gave me."
"Well I order you to quit now and come with Shly and me to eat some pony food." Fairydust stamped a hoof, showing her resolution. "If Twilight has anything against my idea, she can go run up a tree."
"Uhm, ok, I wasn't going to reject that idea. If anything, Spike and I would love to join you!" The lilac pony smiled. "Wouldn't we, Spike?"
"No way, I'll stay here. If Shly is going, then I'm not going. Do you know what he'll do to me just to be funny!"
"Spike, I'm sure Shly isn't trying to be mean, he IS a cragon after all." Twilight spoke to her familiar as Glittermind closed her journal after making sure the ink was dry.
"Yea, a cragon who likes to torture me and then run away like nothing happened." Spike pouted.
"Oh Spike, don't be ridiculous. If that Shly does anything so much as look at you wrong, I'll wrestle him." Glittermind laughed. "Or maybe make him run away."
"My hero!" Spike laughed as he set Glittermind's book on the shelf. "I'm still not going. Shly is completely random…you never know what he's going to do to you."
"Ok, every pony! Let's go eat!" Fairydust stomped her hoof again and flung open the door using her horn magic. "Watch out, Ponyville, this pony's got bits to spend and she's gonna spend them!"