Blue light lashed out, and a segment of cave wall two hooves square, made of a milky reddish substance shaped vaguely like a waterfall, peeled away and floated over to where the unicorn and dragon stood.

“Why are you cutting that?” Fireball asked. “There’s a lot more good crystal than that agate. Agate tastes like mush.”

“It’s not for you to eat,” Starlight Glimmer said, using her hoof to draw precise geometrical shapes in the dirt floor of the cave. “I’m making dice. Those computer dice give us nothing but bad numbers. So I want my own.”

“Really?” Fireball asked. “Aren’t you the one who always says our supply of magic is too small to use on anything that isn’t absolutely necessary?”

“This is necessary,” Starlight insisted. “It’s totally necessary to kick Mark’s flank after the humiliation he put us to last night!”

“Really?” Fireball’s eyeridges went up in mock surprise. “So, how did Mark make you preach the glory of Rocks all night? Or maybe the great god Rocks isn’t so good at boosting dice rolls?”

“That was role-playing,” Starlight grumbled. “It’s a thing you do playing O&O. Some of us, anyway.”

“Hey, I did plenty of role-playing last night,” Fireball insisted.

“I don’t think shouting ‘Who brought the marshmallows?’ every combat counts as much of a character,” Starlight pointed out.

“At least mine’s original,” Fireball said. “You just imitated that rock-hound friend of yours. Can’t you do a character that isn’t one of your pony friends?”

Starlight flinched. “Yeah,” she said. “I can do ‘Starlight Glimmer the Cult Leader and Insanely Vengeful Sorceress.’ But the hard part with that one is quitting the role.”

Fireball cocked his head, giving the unicorn a most peculiar look. “With anyone else that would be a threat,” he said. “But you say it like it’s an apology.”

“Maybe,” Starlight admitted. “So… wanna hear more about the glory and wonder of Rocks?”

“No,” Fireball said bluntly. “I wanna hear about when we’re going to cut my rocks. For my next month’s meals. Like we’re supposed to be doing.”

Grumbling, Starlight stamped a hoof on the pattern she’d drawn, and it flared to life. The sheet of agate she’d harvested split into fragments, large chunks falling away to reveal a cluster of about a dozen smaller crystals. With a flash of light Starlight carved little numbers into each of them, then scooped them together with a forehoof, separating them from the rubble.

Fireball picked up the double handful of crystal chunks in his claws and looked them over. “Huh,” he said. “You know what?”

“What?”

“All these funny shapes you made, and I think each side of ‘em is exactly the same as the others.”

“That was the point.”

“Yeah, but, y’know, that’s really fascinating,” Fireball said. “Lots of triangles, but there’s this one made out of pentagons. And of course a cube. I wonder if you can get more sides than this one on a shape.”

“Yes and no,” Starlight said grumpily, even as her inner Twilight rose to the surface. “Five of those are regular polyhedrons. That means all the sides, all the faces, and all the angles are the same. The ten-sider is a cheat- the sides are the same, but they’re offset to make it roll better. Anything larger than the isocahedron there,” she pointed to the twenty-sider, “requires the angles to be different, or the faces, or the sides. And you can’t get a shape like that where the faces have more than five sides without mixing and matching different shapes.”

“Really?’ Fireball looked at the newly made dice again. “It seems like you could make anything with triangles.”

“Nopony ever taught you geometry, did they?” Starlight asked.

“Nope. I had to learn some trigonometry for space navigation- crash course- but nothing about all these shapes.”

“When we get home I’ll get you a book. Right now, please give me my dice.”

“Fine. I just thought it was neat.” Fireball dumped the dice into an old food pack pouch Starlight had brought for the purpose. “Now can we get something for me? I’m almost out of smoky quartz for my seasoning…”

“ARGH!”

Two ponies and a dragon were surprised to see how quickly Mark scooted back from the table.

“These dice HATE me!” Starlight shouted. “I shouldn’t be surprised, since I made them from Mars rock, but STILL!”

“But they made from rocks,” Spitfire said in her slow-to-improve English. “They touched by your god’s hand. They a part of him, right?”

“I’m seriously considering the benefits of agnosticism,” Starlight muttered, reaching for her computer and pulling up the dice-rolling app.

The blood-red agate dice sat in the middle of the table, untouched, for the rest of the session. Starlight fancied the little chunks of crystal were sneering at her.

Author's Notes:

For the first time since I began attending A-Kon, I've seen and will see NOTHING of the convention aside from my booth. I haven't even had time to see the other booths. It's work, come back to hotel, eat, struggle to write 800 words, post, collapse.

I ought to try for a second one now, since I'll have very little writing time tomorrow, but I'm too damn tired.

And yet more of an example that Fireball's education doesn't much deserve the name.