By noon, I and Twilight had already shown the girls what the layout of Ponyville is like. All of them were very eager to take a closer look at the town, and some wanted to try the local food as well. So when we reached the crystal tree house, I let them all go free, but only on two conditions. The first is to stick with their counterpart, the other is to make sure they all be back here before five o’clock.
In no time the five of them paired up with their copies. The Pinkies said something about Sugar Cube Corner; the Rarities were headed for Carousel Boutique; the two Rainbows took to the air for a contest about something; Fluttershy asked Shy to come to her cottage to check up on the animals over there; which leaves me, Twilight, the two Applejacks, and the Crusaders.
“Uh, Applejack?” AB asked.
“Yeah?” they both asked like one of those psychic twins.
“Ah mean mah, other sis,” she clarified. “So where does the other us go to this time of day?”
Applejack put a hoof to her chin: “Ah reckon that they might be at their clubhouse, other than that, Ah have no idea where they are.”
Three stomachs rumbled, “Or maybe they’re getting some lunch,” I mused. “Do you girls go somewhere for lunch on a Saturday?”
“Oh, that’s right!” Belle squeaked. “If we had enough from our allowances, the first place we would go to is-”
“Sugar Cube Corner,” both Scoots and AB finished.
“Sweetie Belle, you’re a genius!” AB added. The three of them started to head out, only to stop a few feet when they realized something.
“Uh, how do we get there from here again?” Scoots asked.
“I’ll lead the way,” Twilight told them, catching up to them before turning around to us. “Applejack, AJ, are you coming?”
“Nah, you go right ahead.” Applejack said, “Ah wanna show my other self the farm first.”
“Julius, are you coming along too?”
“Eh…” I thought for a moment before deciding to whistle for a unicycle. “Why not, I got nothing better to do. So lead on then – as soon as I figure out why this thing was invented in the first place.”
_*_
After several attempts to keep one's balance, getting my face flattened and a broken lamp post later, we made it to the gingerbread shop. Looking at this place again, I would say that there’s a few similarities, such as the counter, some of the desserts on display and the fact that one blue pony with pink hair that looks like the waitress from a few days ago is cowering in a corner with a yellow one because they acknowledge the fact that they’re two Pinkies in the same room.
Not to say that these two didn't go unnoticed, some of the other customers couldn't take their eyes off of them; including three familiar children.
“Princess Twilight!” the yellow pony broke free from the blue one and rushed over to the princess. “Thank Celestia you’re here, I think Pinkie’s got into the mirror pool again and…” He trailed off when he spotted me before adding: “Oh, you again?”
“Before you say anything further,” I told him. “I’m actually the other ‘Discord’ from a couple of weeks ago.”
“Julius?” I looked over to the young southern sounding pony.
“Hey Applebloom, and yes it’s me.” I lifted my tail that still has the ring I can’t take off.
“Julius! Welcome back!” she rushed over me to hug one of my legs. “Huh?” it was no secret of who she was looking at from that point.
“Applebloom, remember what I’ve said about the other you and your other friends? This is them.” The other Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo joined the other Applebloom, their jaws hitting the floor. “Crusaders, meet our Crusaders.”
“Now there’s two Crusaders?” the yellow pony asked with sweat pouring down his face. “I need to lie down.”
“Here, let me help with Pinkie,” Twilight left us with the yellow pony. Leaving me and two sets of Crusaders.
“Whoa,” Scoots said with the three of them stepping forward. “I-I’m mean just… whoa.”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo nodded. “You've pretty much taken those words out of my mouth.”
“Why is your mane down?” Sweetie Belle questioned AB.
“Ma mane? Ya mean ma hair? Oh Ah had to cut ma bow inta pieces,” AB lifted her leg with the ribbon still wrapped around. “So we can tell who’s who.”
“Okay, Ah guess that makes sense,” Applebloom nodded. “Guess Ah would have done tha same too.”
“Do you guys wanna help us?” Belle asked, that by now I've noticed that she still holding the camera in one of her legs. “We’re trying to make a movie-”
“Ah no way!” Scootaloo went up to Belle. “Really, you guys are making a movie?”
“I don’t think we've tried filmmaking have we?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Ah wanna be in it!” Applebloom said exactly. Then she looked over to the side. “Hey, ya guys don’t have cutie marks either huh?”
“Cutie what?” AB asked.
“Ya see how most ponies around here have a mark on their flanks?” Applebloom made her point to the other ponies in the restaurant. “If ya got a mark, it means you have a special talent. Somethin’ that makes ya unique. That’s what we’re doin’.”
“So that’s why everyone around here has a picture on their butts?” Scoots asked the three crusaders from our world looked up at me in confusion.
“Don’t look at me,” I told them. “I don’t really get it either.”
“So can we help?” Scootaloo asked. “It might help us get our cutie marks.”
“Of course you can,” Belle said with a smile. “The more help the better right.”
“Aw right!” Scottaloo said. And then, the three of them shouted out: “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS FILMMAKERS YEAH!!!”
My ears were still ringing before they took their lunches and ran out with their counterparts. I looked around to see that Twilight was chatting with the two Pinkies. So feeling a little hungry myself, I went up to the counter where the blue pony is at the register.
“An apple pie sounds good to me right now, how much is it?”
“Uh,” she looked at the board where the prices were listed. “That’ll be fifteen bits if you please.”
I reached down to feel for a pocket. I found one and reached for something valuable. I felt something and pulled out, to my confusion, a golden crown with a half a pound of jewels on it.
“Do you take possibly stolen crowns that may or may not be from a foreign country?” I asked politely as I put the crown down on the table. Her eyes widen at the crown in front of her. Somewhere in my subconscious, I'm giggling like a little kid.
“Well… I…”
“I’ll have the pie, with a fork, and I guess with the crown, keep the change.”
“Well…” she looked back and forth between me and the crown. “I’ll have it out in a moment dearie.”
And I have to say, that pie was worth every jewel on that crown.