Placing the fragile, mini-mountain looking geode piece on the high shelf of the oak-made bookshelf, Glittermind stepped back to admire her work. The geode shard, white and brown, like diet coke, was just the latest in her collection. On the six-shelved furniture, she had various collections on display. Books, knick-knacks, crystals and other things sat on the shelves. Wooden carved toys sat in random places on the eight-shelf high stand; and those figures weren't at all like what she had back in her original world. Those were made of plastic, or paraffin. Here, in Ponyville, all toys were handmade and not mass-produced in a factory.
Five months had whizzed by since Discord had pulled her into the Equestria dimension, and instead of being a Homosapien, she was a unicorn pony: Equus unius caballus. Since having all five-month's time to adjust to being a pony-unicorn, Glittermind still was learning new things every day. There was one day where her new pony friends allowed her to do nothing but be a pony. All the basic building blocks of knowledge that all young humans learned while growing up were completely different – yet similarly – the same.
The level of culture the ponies, unicorns and pegasi had here was simple and nature-friendly. A houseful of ponies in a week had less trash than a single human back on earth produced in a day. The things they did discard went to compost or traded to other ponies, who would use the unwanted material to make other things. There was a noticeable lack of litter and plastic wrappings that seemed to make up the scenery on Earth. It all was spiritually refreshing.
Today, ten days after the turn of the new-year, was her other-worldly birthday, and Glittermind couldn't – for the life of herself – remember if any pony knew this fact. Turning around to face the wide woody floor of the tree house of which Princess Celestia had housed her in, Glittermind smiled and trotted over to the round front door.
Opening the door to the day, she gasped as B-Pond and Fairy Dust stood there; poised in the 'about to knock' position – their hooves mere inches away from the wood.
"Oh, hi there, G.M." Fairy Dust smiled brightly. "Great timing, we were just about to knock!"
"I see that, what's going on now?" Glittermind asked, as she allowed the two ponies to enter into the tree hovel.
"Ooooh nothing, we just were coming over to tell you the Cakes had their foals yesterday." B-Pond snooped around Glittermind's domain; being drawn over to the wood shelf. "We wanted to come tell you."
"Uhm, ok." Glittermind blinked. "They came to ask me if I could baby-…erm…foal-sit for them. But Pinkie Pie was in the background, telling me to say no. I think she wanted to ba-foal sit for the Cakes."
"Oh." Fairy Dust nodded. "Well that was random."
The silence between the three friends sailed along. Butterpond hummed to herself as she raided Glittermind's refrigerator for the butter-cookies the teal unicorn had made two days earlier.
Glittermind had accompanied the Cutie-Mark Crusaders to try and see if baking was Glittermind's special talent. It turned out it wasn't Glittermind's special talent, but the unicorn had made some delicious cookies anyway. When trying to enlighten the young fillies of Cutie-Mark qualifications – a pony would have to do something more than once to really see if that something was their special talent – her lecture was constantly interrupted by Ponyville ponies coming and sampling Glittermind's baking. It amazed the Mane Six that Glittermind's cooking was that good.
So now Butterpond was stealing the last of the butter-cookies from Glittermind's counter.
"I'm sorry, I spaced out." Glittermind snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Fairy Dust. "I forgot to tell any pony that my birthday is today."
"OH HAYSEED!" Butterpond cursed and stomped out the door.
"Where are you going in such a hurry? Did I say something wrong?" Glittermind looked imploringly at Fairy Dust.
"AH, uh, no…not no…I just remembered my sister needed my, uuhh….BYE!" The yellow pony dashed off before she could finish a coherent statement.
Sighing, Glittermind only shook her head. "You think B-Pond is going to go tell Pinkie Pie, and Pinkie Pie is going to end up throwing me a last-minute surprise party?"
Across the floor, the closer-every-day-friend, Fairy Dust laughed her knowing-something-you-don't-laughter. "I'm not telling." Her voice sang. "You'll never know if B-Pond if going to do that, or if she really has to help her sister or she is having a Butter episode or if she forgot to help the others set up for your surprise birthday party in an undisclosed location."
The obviously fake innocent look on Fairy Dust's face was only too funny, so Glittermind chuckled. "Faaaiii! You are telling me right now!"
"No I'm not. Maybe The Mane Six opted not to give you a birthday party, since you were 'born' only five months ago."
"You're not making any sense, Fai-dust." Glittermind sighed and reached over to pluck a tissue from the tissue box to blow her nose with. It had been discovered that Glittermind had an allergy to dust mites. Without modern Earth medicine, it was more difficult to keep her sinuses in check.
"By the way, my little magical farm died on me." Fairy Dust looked sad.
"Awwwhhh, that's so sad." Glittermind responded.
"Yea, Shly ruined all the crops by rolling around on them."
As a jointed project, Fairy Dust had gotten Glittermind to help her make a magical garden. Since the study of magic and innovative ideas, Fairy Dust and Dragonfly had created a little, size-diminished mini garden. The crops grown there were a fraction of the real size, and were so cute and adorably miniature. Growing different crops at different time settings proved to be both hard work and repetitive fun. Having been successful with their first harvest – the magical carrots, lettuce and corn all tasting magically delicious and fresh – the alicorn twins introduced the idea to Princess Celestia; giving it more of a hobby-iquse appeal to the snooty society of Canterlot. Like any new idea, the Mini-Magic Garden was met with both open hooves and wary distain. The market for the Mini-Magic Garden was now wide open; as the space-reducing idea was the newest fashion rage.
"Come on, I'll treat you to B-day lunch, Glittermind." Fairy Dust nodded and got up from the pony couch. "Nice shelf, by the way."
The alicorn stepped over to Glittermind's book shelf and viewed the numerous things on display. Books were among the most dominant, along with gemstones, statuettes, carvings and hand-produced figurines.
"Thanks!" Glittermind smiled and giggled. "I find the stuff in this dimension very awesome."
"Yea, well we – Dragonfly and I – are still trying to find a way to solve your problem of your missing diamond shard."
The alicorn and unicorn looked at each other with understanding. They both weren't natives to Equestria, and although being in the dimension wasn't harmful; the two pony-ized humans knew there would come a time when they would have to take their leave and move onward – searching for a way back to their native dimensions.
For Glittermind, who was once a human with the name of Jiru Setchi, the only known way to return to the place she was exiled from was to find and collect her broken talisman, the Silver Star Diamond. Rarity still had the Diamond's brooch, holding the sixty or so shards which had been found already. Glittermind had explained the glaring importance of the broken diamond jewelry and allowed the fashion-deva to take good care of it. The triangular brooch seemed to be Rarity's inspirational muse, helping clear her ideas and creating more beautiful fashion apparel.
For Fairy Dust, a human from the same dimension as Jiru, came from another planet similar to Earth. However, unlike Jiru, Fairy Dust had the power of the Mystic Isle, and its natural ability to slide between dimensions. Having met Jiru when the star warrior claimed her twenty-fifth diamond shard, Fairy Dust opted to use the Mystic Isle power to follow Jiru around in the dimensions. It took the forty-two guardians of the Mystic Isle to use the Isle's power.
The two had become great friends during their travels, and often helped each other out in times of need.
"Come on, let's go eat lunch!" Fairy Dust flittered her translucent cicada-like wings and clopped, audibly, out the door.
"Ok, coming." Glittermind snapped out of her reverie and slipped on her saddlebag.
Outside, the long-waiting Shly yowled a samurai battle yowl and dropped onto Glittermind's back, turning to a cragony ooze spot.
"AAAAAAA!" Glittermind shouted in surprise and danced about. The cragon on her back hung on.
"Aaaaaaaaaa! Pony back, it is most relaxing to sleep on." Shly purred deeply. "I have just ambushed a unicorn. Go me."
Fairy Dust and Dragonfly were on the dirt road, rolling around in laughter at their cragon's antics.
"AHAHAHAHAH! We so pranked you good, Glittermind. The look on your face! PRICELESS!" Fairy Dust pointed at her friend with a hoof.
"WHAT! I'LL SHOW YOU A PRANK! COME HERE, YOU IDIOT!"
"CATCH ME FIRST!" Fairy Dust teased back and ran off. "SLOW POKE!"
"I AM NOT!"
"NYAH!"