> What a strange and lovely crystal! > by Harbinger Of Mist > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Surely it would make for a nice accessory > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A dark cave with several different kinds of gems scattered throughout the walls went deep. An opening was being mined out. Rarity had just tossed aside the last bits of rubble and let a huge ray of light flood the caverns in front of her. She sighed in relief now that the hard part was done with. "What a beeeaaa-Utifal cave! Oh, the precious little stones never cease to please! Just look at them shimmer!" She trotted inside with her bags and wagon in tow. With a small pickaxe, hammer and chisel, and magnifying glass, she mined out and inspected every rock that held her attention. Normally she'd have Spike with her to do the dirty work, but he was busy with Twilight doing "royal" chores. As much as she did not necessarily enjoy the grunt work, she figured it would all be worth it once she was done. After all, it would feel all the more satisfying knowing she did it all alone. She chipped out as many gems as she could which had noticeably nice glimmers. There were rubies, sapphires, topazes, and amethysts aplenty. She was making great time, filling her wagon up with exquisite specimens like it was nopony's business. She made sure to keep her eyes open for quartz, even keeping them in a separate sack for easy inventory management. She had to traverse through some of the more dank tunnels, across shallow puddles and enduring some off-putting odors from moss and other decomposing matter she did not want to examine. For the sake of meeting a quota, she toughed out her journey and pushed deeper into the cave. Half an hour must have passed by before she called it a day. Her wagon was nearly overflowing with sacks of grade-A rocks and the sort. She was returning to the entrance when all of the sudden, she caught eye of a particularly shiny pink crystal jutting out of the roof of the cave. It's shimmer was rather remarkable, and it seemed to be of a long and thin shape. Rarity yanked it loose from the ceiling and admired its perfect shape. She was almost short of breath. "Oh, it would be a crime to break you off into smaller pieces. Without warning, she felt an impact on her hind-side which made her loosen her magical grip on the crystal. She immediately saw some orange, bipedal, rodent-like alien doing a fancy flip above her while snatching it out of mid-air. When it landed with the crystal in its claws, Rarity had only a moment to observe its strange appearance: Pointed ears and mouth, large green eyes, purple mohawk, some odd blue sort of fabric cover around its waist. It turned around to smirk and do a quick wave before dashing off. Rarity chased after the mysterious creature. "Come back here, fiend! I had my hooves on it first!" They turned a corner and reached a fairly dark tunnel. Rarity illuminated their path with her horn. "That crystal is coming home with me! I will make it into the most envied of amulets!" The creature didn't let up, it continued to sprint away while Rarity started to feel fatigued from her pursuit. "Your mane... is unkempt! And your foreign piece of cloth is... tacky!" She fell down exhausted and let her horn go dim. The strange animal took not two more steps forward before tripping and plummeting down a bottomless pit while letting out a yelp, dropping the crystal and leaving it to somehow hover erect and inches off the ground. Rarity noticed this scene from the marvelous natural shine the crystal itself was giving off. She also heard a faint *thud* noise and a couple of dark red and white shoe-like items spurting out the top of the pit, tumbling around in the air, then falling back down. Rarity didn't question the action in the slightest, what mattered to her was that she had her magnificent rock back. She retrieved it and put it in the wagon with the rest of her haul. After returning home, her mane was disheveled and her hooves and coat were all dusty and wet. She wanted nothing more than to retreat to her bedroom to put away her new collection and take a hot bath to clean herself and relax. She parked her wagon of goodies just off to the side of her front door and collapsed after closing it behind her. Sweetie Belle was curious when she saw her sister arrive home in such a weak state; she's normally not this tired. "Uh, Rarity? Are you okay? What happened?" She asked. Rarity raised a hoof and smiled. "Oh! Not important , Sweetie Belle." She rose back up and stood upright and strong. "What does is THIS!" She dug out her prime specimen to present it to her little sister, whom unfortunately was not able to get a good look at it. Rarity turned around, hopped into the air in a sort of "huzzah" pose, and tossed the crystal into the air; to which it made a "shtong" chime, hovered and rotated in suspension for a moment, then ascended and seemingly vanished into the aether. Sweetie Belle thought it somehow phased though the ceiling. Rarity was initially shocked at her involuntary action, then appalled by the disappearance of her new prized possession. She was standing on her hind legs from the prior pose with her jaw slacked completely open, staring blankly at the spot where she last saw the crystal. She was almost at a loss for words. Sweetie Belle spoke up, "ummm... Rarity? What was that?" She was, without a doubt, just as confused as her. Rarity returned to all fours and statically walked up to her room. "Nothing... Sweetie Belle." She was trying desperately to mask the extreme sadness in her face and voice. "I'm just going to... take a nice bath."