"QUICK! Over there, Glittermind!" the husky voice of Puzzlebum called from the air. "There's a red crystal over here!"
The teal unicorn raced over to the area under the hovering pegasus. She hoofed at the ground; carefully uncovering the jutting red spike that was half buried under the dirt.
"Hurry Spike! Over here." The teal unicorn cried out. The on-loan purple protégé skittered over to the unicorn and gauged just how much of his strength he needed to exhume the red crystal from its earthy tome.
"I'm on it!" Spike announced and immediately set to digging out the fine, ruby-red crystal. The dragon was an excellent digger and had the crystal exhumed in seconds. "Wow, Glittermind, this is a rare fire-red ruby." Spike held the three-spiked gemstone to his eyes, admiring the high-quality of the treasure.
It was a month after Glittermind's birthday; and everyday found the teal unicorn in the Wonderbolt's company. Today was no different. It was the day after Heart and Hooves day, which had been absolutely terrible for Glittermind. Fate decreed that the unicorn would get the day-long flu; and thus ruining her friends' plans for her. Glittermind spent the whole romantic-based Equestria day in the hospital, sleeping and being fed mediocre hospital food.
The only ponies Glittermind could really remember being there were Fairydust, Color Jam and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash, being in the hospital earlier, had read books to a half-awake Glittermind. Fairy Dust and Color Jam were there because the three were absolute friends. The rest of the Elemental Holders had stopped by during the day; but Glittermind really didn't remember what each of them did.
But today was a new day and Glittermind was removed from hospital care. Being reported as 130% better by Doctor Esto, the teal and turquoise unicorn was now out and about. Since missing the romance yesterday, Fairy Dust had plotted to take Glittermind and Puzzlebum gemstone hunting.
So that was what they were doing now. Fairydust, Sweetie-Belle, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Spike, Glittermind, Puzzlebum and Color Jam were in the rocky hills next to Ponyville, hunting for crystals and gemstones. Spike was an expert gemstone hunter, and Fairy Dust had asked Twilight Sparkle to allow the dragon to accompany them on the adventure. The Cutie-Mark Crusaders had the day off from school and wanted to hang out with their older CMC friend. Color Jam had joined them later, after seeing their expedition travel out of Ponyville.
"Look-it here, Glittermind, it's a teal rock!" Applebloom jumped up and down ten yards away.
"Coming!" Color Jam flew over to the yellow, red-headed pony and giggled. "Applebloom, that's just a pebble, not a gemstone; but impressive nonetheless." The smooth, teal rock was half in the dirt, with the other half dusty from the dirt.
"Oh, well it's still pretty!" the young filly smiled.
"Indeed it is! Wow, it sparkles." Glittermind was at Applebloom's side the next instant, and lowered herself down to view the pebble. "It's like a bunch of tiny glittery stones. I love it, SCORE! Good job, Applebloom!"
"Awh, shucks, it wasn't nothing." The blushing earth filly smiled up at the older Cutie-Mark Crusader.
Using a brush to clear the dirt off the pebble, Glittermind dug around the stone and was surprised to see how deep in the ground it was.
"Wow, that is one big pebble, isn't it, Glittermind." Sweetie-Belle joined the unicorn as Glittermind continued digging out the pony-head sized 'pebble'.
"Here let me help." Spike offered and the teal unicorn nodded to the dragon. Spike set immediately to digging up the boulder. Within two minutes the dragon had uncovered the smooth, teal stone and stepped back to let the group of ponies view the treasure.
Fairydust, Glittermind, Applebloom, Sweetie-Belle, Scootaloo, Puzzlebum and Color Jam all looked at the sparkling stone. The naturally colored stone wasn't like the other crystalline jewels they had put in the small, red wagon; nor was it like a normal boulder. The aquamarine stone was oval in shape, pony-head in size and as sparkly as the CMC's Heart & Hooves day card to Glittermind. (there was at least five containers of teal, blue and green glitter on Glittermind's card; which was hoof-delivered the evening of yesterday.)
"Wow, that is one big rock." Puzzlebum whistled.
"It's not a rock, Puzzlebum, it's a treasure, look." Spike poked the oval stone with his claw, and produced a melodic 'ting' from the stone.
"Oh my gosh!" Scootaloo gasped. "It's a rare music stone, a Tone Stone."
"No way!" Sweetie-Belle gaped at her friend. "My sister LOVES Tone Stones."
"A what?" Glittermind politely wriggled in between the filly trio and lowered herself to look at the sparkling stone.
"A Tone Stone." Sweetie-Belle informed the unknowing unicorn. "It's a hollow, oval-oid stone that produces notes of music when tapped the right way."
"MINE!" Fairydust shouted suddenly, causing Glittermind to yelp and throw teal self forward over the Tone Stone.
"NO! ITS MINE!" Glittermind hissed back to the white alicorn. "YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!"
Color Jam and Fairydust were too busy laughing against each other to further agitate the cutie-marked unicorn.
"WHOA!" Fairydust gasped dramatically and tried to stop herself from laughing her guts out. "Glittermind! Look at your butt!"
"What? What!" the turquoise-colored unicorn blinked in confusion.
"Oh my gosh! It's there! It's there!" Applebloom looked so very surprised. She crowded around the left flank of Glittermind, which was currently in the air as the unicorn's frontal body was covering the Tone Stone from being stolen by Fairydust. Sweetie-Belle and Scootaloo joined their young friend, and became excited.
"I'll be hoodwinked, you finally got your Cutie-Mark, G.M." the black pegasus looked at her friend, a huge smile on her blue muzzle.
"I WHAT!" Glittermind jumped up in surprise, whirling in circles in attempts to view her flank.
"Hold still, would ya, Glittermind!" Applebloom ordered the older unicorn as the CMCs moved closer to look at the mark.
XXX
Elsewhere, in the pastry store of Mr. & Mrs. Cake, the Mane 6 were busy talking to each other. Pinkie Pie abruptly sprung up from her cupcake, and gasped. Her 'Pinkie-Sense' was activated: her two pink ears flopping downward in her eyes, the skin under her trio-balloon Cutie-mark tingling and her left leg suddenly giving out, lurching the party-pony off-balance.
"Oh my gosh; Pinkie, are you ok?" Rainbow Dash hovered over to her friend. "I've never seen that combo-sense before. Is it good or bad?"
Twilight Sparkle, being startled by the bodily triggers of Pinkie Pie, ran and hid behind Fluttershy, looking leerily at the pink pony. "What is going to happen, Pinkie Pie? Please don't tell me something is going to fall from the sky?"
"I don't know; I've never had this happen before! But I think it's good. It feels good." Pinkie Pie looked perplexed. Her Cutie-mark continued to twitch. "Maybe…let's go girls! Glittermind is into something big, and I wanna see what it is!"
The other five ponies looked at each other in confusion, but followed their pink friend as she raced out the door in joy. Whatever triggered the Pinkie Sense this time was enough to send the pink-party pony into one happy tizzy.
XXX
"I'll give anypony ten bits if you can tell me what it means…" Glittermind had finally viewed – was the last to view – her newly appeared Cutie-Mark. It was a brown box holding a set of teal, lavender and aqua spiky crystals. A few chips of crystals also appeared to be spilling out of the cardboard-looking box, giving a glitter-effect.
"I…don't know, Glittermind." The black pegasus leaned in again to view the newly gained mark. "If it was the Tone Stone, wouldn't the crystals be smooth, instead of pointy?"
"Spike! Stop drooling on her flank, you silly head." Fairy Dust giggled at the purple dragon, who was currently gazing at the mark with love-misted eyes.
"Oh Glittermind, you are even prettier than before! Those crystals look good enough to eat." The green-spiked reptile was tracing a finger along the box's outline.
"Hehehehehe, well, it's not for eats, Spike." Glittermind smiled back to the love-struck dragon. Was it just in her mind that Spike was absolutely taken with not only Rarity's beauty, but now Glittermind too? Was it the fact that both unicorns were unicorns, and had jewels as flank-marks? Probably.
"Puzzlebum, what do you think?" Glittermind looked up over the CMC's heads and looked for the pegasus stallion. He was nowhere in sight. "Puzzlebum?"
The pony group looked up from staring at the new Cutie-mark to look for Puzzlebum. The Wonderbolt was no longer in the vicinity, and no pony knew where he was.
"OH NO!" Glittermind shouted in horror as her eyes viewed the half-full wagon of crystals. It had been pushed on its side and a few of the crystals broken, shattered or missing. "NOOO! My collection!"
"!" Spike rushed over to the upset wagon; feeling the distress of Glittermind in his own heart. He had hoped to gain a few of the delicious gems for snacking on later, but now that most of them were broken (mostly the delicate quartz spikes and fluorite pyramids) it appeared that wouldn't happen. The only crystal to survive the apparent wagon spill were the blue and red sapphire and ruby spikes.
"Oh Glittermind, I'm so sorry. I wasn't watching the wagon." Spike moaned in loss. "Your treasures are ruined."
"It looks like they were intentionally ruined, Spike. Look." Color Jam pointed to the hoof marks around the shattered crystals. "Some pony/brony came over here and stomped on them after pushing the wagon over."
"Indeed," Fairy Dust sounded upset. "I'm so sorry your collection is ruined."
"That bums me out." Glittermind pouted, poking at the ruined shards of the ten or so jewels they had collected this morning. "You can eat the shards, can't you, Spike?"
"Well, yes I can, but are you sure?" The purple dragon looked up at the unicorn, his face showing a mixture of hope and sadness.
"Sure, go for it."
"YAY!" The mini-dragon set to making a pile of the broken jewels and popped a green fluorite shard into his mouth, savoring it.
Suddenly, the world flipped into crazy mode: Several shadows appeared across the sky, startling the gemstone hunting pony group. The Mane 6 came running in via opposite direction from the flying shadows, shouting unintelligible things. The shadows focused on the Cutie-Mark Crusaders, both young and old, and that's when the frantic screaming started.
Glittermind's mind barely processed the pain of something sharp and pointy digging into her pony body, lifting her up into the air. Around her, Applebloom, Sweetie-Belle and Scootaloo were screaming in terror. The last thing the teal unicorn remembered before blacking out was seeing Twilight Sparkle staring up at her, the magic-user's wide eyes and radiating fear.
Scroll 23: DisasterIn which the dronies (dragon ponies) capture Ponyville's blank flanks and take them away.
(Glittermind, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie-Belle, Dinky Doo, Foal-Mouth, Cloud-Color, and a few others)