She meant to leave it only at a glance and a polite word or two, but Applejack couldn’t help but feel drawn down towards what Inkie indicated as Pinkie’s collection. It only held five items. A gem cluster with more colours than Applejack could name, a clear, almost transparent gem, a smooth rose gem, a dark round orb, and a curious, bright pink gem that demanded Applejack’s attention. The last and pinkest of the gemstones was unpolished and raw, given only a vague heart shape, but its every surface shone. The collection seemed deliberate in the extreme, precise compared even to Blinkie’s well-ordered items.

“That’s a curious set of gems, ain’t it?” Applejack asked, though she wasn’t sure who she was asking, exactly.

Inkie licked her lips. She gave Applejack a long look. Perhaps she thought as Applejack did, that maybe they were intruding on Pinkie’s privacy, but where she hesitated, Blinkie did not.

“She didn’t have a collection of her own, not until a few years ago. She wasn’t very interested in the idea of owning gems or rocks of her own, she said, but she changed her mind.” Blinkie shrugged. “She picked six gems off the shelves a while back, and that’s all she ever did.”