Chapter 3: Seven Elements
Emerald woke up late that morning. He guessed that getting up the night before after tossing and turning had something to do with it. He yawned loudly and looked over to see that Fluttershy was once again not present. "That poor girl's probably in the bathroom filling the toilet again." He told himself as he got out of bed. He went down the hall to the bathroom, but to his surprise, she wasn't in it as he'd expected. He curiously crept down the stairs, trying to see into the kitchen, seeing that the lights were on. When he got to the bottom and poked his head around the corner into the kitchen, he saw Fluttershy standing in the middle, the chest open, and she was fiddling with one as far as he could see. "Caught your interest, didn't it?"
She jumped, nearly dropping the stone on the floor. She looked down at him, hovering over the table and smiling innocently. "Oh, hey Emerald. I was just… seeing what was in here."
He nodded. "I knew you'd want to see what was inside." He noticed that the stone in her hooves was the butterfly shaped one. "Any particular reason you picked out the butterfly?"
She flew down and landed in front of him. "Well, for one, it resembles my element, and for some reason, I felt a strange feeling when I picked it up, but not with the others. They all look like the Elements of Harmony, actually."
Emerald peered down into the chest and silently agreed with her. They did indeed resemble the elements – but then what was the one he had under his pillow upstairs? He suddenly flew upstairs and retrieved the stone and returned to an interested Fluttershy. "If these stones are meant to resemble the Elements of Harmony, then what is this?" He held it up so she could see it better.
She gave it a hard stare and shrugged. "Why don't we take these to Twilight, maybe she could help us figure out what these things are."
"Good idea." He shut the chest and grabbed it, leading Fluttershy out the front door. Overnight the snow had clearly picked up, and now the snow was rump-level, inciting them to fly instead of walk. Twilight was busy with something when they got there, but when she seen the chest was now open, she immediately redirected her attention to it.
"So you got it open? What was in it?" She asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.
Emerald allowed her to look inside. "Whatever these are, they are very close to being the old Elements of Harmony. Except one thing, literally," He held up the polygon-shaped stone. "If these are meant to represent the Elements of Harmony, then what's this one for?"
"I have not the slightest clue, but I'm going to try to find out." Twilight spun around and began digging around through her books. "Spike? Come help me find a book about Ponyville relics." She called out to him.
He rushed in a few moments later. "Again? But I thought you found them all last night after Emerald – oh. You came back with the chest opened, huh?" He started climbing the bookcase, looking for what Twilight requested.
"If these truly are Elements of Harmony, or copies, maybe this one's a long lost or forgotten Element. Know anypony with a cutie mark shaped like this?" Emerald pointed at the polygon.
Twilight leapt off the ladder with a book in front of her. "I'm going to say no, but my brother's cutie mark is a shield, but not that exact shape. Who knows?" She set the book down on the nearest table and opened it, flipping through the pages for something about the stones. "So I found something, but it's heavily worn, the page. I can't read it and I can hardly see what the picture shows but I can tell by what I can see that it's them."
"But we need to find out what exactly they're for. I don't think they have a purpose from the looks of it, but I could be wrong." Emerald noted his own past mistakes in his mind. He held up the polygon-shaped stone and tried to read what was written on it in the light. It was like watermarks, only visible when he tilted it and light glimmered off the writing, but he didn't know the language, so he gave up. "Maybe we should let everyone have the stone that matches their cutie mark."
Twilight scratched her chin thoughtfully, looking down at the chest with a doubtful gaze. "I don't know, we have no idea what these stones do, or what they're for, so we should be careful."
"I thought about that too, but you said you don't sense any magic from them, right?" Emerald pointed out.
"True… okay, fine, but if weird stuff starts happening, they go back into the chest and we get rid of it." Twilight gave in, taking the star-shaped stone out and staring at it.
The doors to the room swung open and Rainbow Dash came flying in. "Hey, Twilight, can you – what the heck are those?" She immediately flew over and stuck her head nosily down into the chest, coming back out with the lightning bolt one. "Why do these look like the Elements of Harmony?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out." Twilight replied, turning the stone she had over and over in the light. "I wonder what this writing means… Spike? Find that book on ancient languages!"
He immediately went back to the shelf and mumbled, "If I have to dig for that thing… oh look, here it is." He pulled it off the shelf and brought it to Twilight, who promptly opened it, searching for a matching language, but was apparently unsuccessful, as she slammed the book shut and gave Emerald an exhausted sigh. "Why do you always find things that I can't identify? It's like it's on purpose." She groused.
The other three came in a few minutes later, arguing about something until they saw the others standing near the chest, staring awkwardly at them.
"Uh… are we interrupting something?" Rarity asked, noticing them holding the stones in their hooves. "Oh my… what are those drab pieces of dirt you're holding? They're oddly shaped like the Elements of Harmony."
"Ooh, it looks like they're having a meeting about something super important!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, hopping up and down gleefully.
"Well, it is in a sense, but not like, that important. Why don't you guys come over and get the stones for your cutie marks. Everypony else has." Emerald offered, looking back down into the box with interest.
The others came over and were given the stones that matched their cutie marks. Curiosity was lost as they discovered that the stones did nothing. They were grey, ugly but well carved stones, replicas that did nothing at all. After a few minutes, they all seemed to lose interest and started several separate conversations. Twilight and Fluttershy approached Emerald with concerned looks on their faces.
"Emerald, I just don't feel anything good about this. These things are so strange…I've never seen anything like them." Twilight said, clutching hers tightly with one hoof. "If these do something, what will we do? What will they do? Everypony needs to stay in touch now. I just have the weirdest feeling about these."
Emerald sighed and watched the others talking for a moment before replying, "I understand. Okay, we'll keep in touch, but how? Do we just like, meet up every so often? I mean, what are we going to do in the event these stones, 'do something'?"
All three of them turned to the others. "Just come by the library every day by sundown, if you don't, I'll assume the worst. I'll have the others do the same." Twilight told him, walking toward the others and joining in the conversation.
Emerald held up the stone he had and studied it once more. If only he could read the language…
"So, um, what are we going to do if these are, well…bad? I mean, dangerous?" Fluttershy asked nervously, coming up beside him and looking at the stone in his hooves.
Emerald turned to her. "I don't think they'll be a problem. They haven't done anything yet, and I've had them for the past two days. If they would've done something, it would have happened by now."
Fluttershy didn't look so convinced. "Oh, I don't know…" She said, unsure.
Emerald told Twilight and the others that he and Fluttershy were heading out and led Fluttershy to the doors. "I don't think we'll have any problems," He repeated, opening the door for her. "But just to be on the safe side, we'll do what Twilight suggested. Not taking chances anymore."
They left the castle and headed off back to their cabin. "Oh, I know. I hope we don't, though."
"I think we're good. But now I'm curious as to what the writing on the side of the stones means. They all have it. Including this unknown stone." He looked back at his saddlebag and back at her. "I'm going to do my own research sometime, when I get the chance. But today 'm off of work, so we have to go to the park today. You promised me a picnic."
She smiled back at him. "I did, didn't I? Okay, let's get the stuff and go to our favorite spot. The one where we had our first one."
"Over there? Near the Everfree forest?" He asked, confused. "I thought you hated that spot."
"No, it was just a little bit scary when we started hearing those weird noises. Besides, it's really secluded back there…" She said in an alluring tone.
Emerald cocked an eyebrow at her. "This is going somewhere, and I think I might like it."
She simply smiled coyly at him, but said nothing.
When they got home, Emerald went straight into the kitchen to gather up the food. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me what you want to bring food wise?" He opened the fridge and peered in. There wasn't much to bring on a picnic, as far as he could see.
Fluttershy was in the other room, but she called out, "I made some sandwiches, they're in the fridge on the bottom shelf. I was actually planning on this, to be honest." She came back in the kitchen toting around a picnic blanket and basket.
Emerald took out the platter and realized that it was too big to fit in the basket. "Um, how exactly do we plan on bringing this?"
Fluttershy swiped all the wrapped sandwiches into the basket off the plate and smiled up at him.
"Oh." He spun around back to the fridge and got out the pitcher of tea Fluttershy made the other day and put it on the table. "Are we bringing those teacups?" He asked, looking in the cabinet.
She flew up to the top shelf and pulled them out. "Yes, of course. How else would we drink the tea?" She flew back down and put them in the basket.
Emerald got the silverware out of the drawer and put it in his saddleback, smiling to himself. "Right out of the pitcher."
"No, silly. Oh," She grabbed the fruits out of the little fruit basket in the middle of the table and stuck those in the basket as well. "We don't want to forget the healthy stuff." She closed the basket up and took it off the table. Emerald took his and her sunglasses off the table in the living room. Just before they got out the door, Emerald felt a very ominous feeling in the pit of his stomach, causing him to shiver violently.
"Ooh…that was weird." He murmured, stopping in the doorway. Fluttershy turned back to him as he handed her her sunglasses and she put them on.
"What's wrong?"
Emerald shook his head and gave her a quick smile. "Oh, sorry. Nothing, I just got cold there for a second. Let's go before it gets too late." He rushed her out the door and closed it.
"But it's only noon." She protested as he pushed her along. Not long later, they were setting up the picnic and preparing to eat, laying out in a field near the Everfree forest. It was much warmer today, even though it'd snowed the other day, it got much warmer and nearly all the snow was gone already, and it was above freezing and sunny, with a slight breeze. The animals seemed to know about Fluttershy's presence and swarmed the picnic.
"Not again!" Emerald cried, waving away the birds dive-bombing him.
Fluttershy giggled and got them to calm down, eventually getting them to leave them alone. "Sorry, it's been a while since I've been out here to be with them. They've missed me." She explained, flying back over and landing next to Emerald. "They should leave us be now."
Emerald rubbed his head where a bird had found its mark. "Yeah, really…" He got into the basket and got out a sandwich for the two of them and poured them some tea. "I think we're missing some sandwiches." He muttered.
She took the sandwich and tea from him. "Oh, don't be silly. They wont take food from me without asking first."
"You taught them manners? You have too much time on your hooves, darling." Emerald said, sipping his tea like Rarity.
Fluttershy laughed at his impersonation. "When you're not home, I have to tend to the animals. They need me. Also it keeps me from missing you so much."
Emerald set his tea down and put an arm around her shoulders, taking her cup from her and setting it next to his. He leaned back and they both fell on the blanket. "Aww, aren't you just the sweetest little thing…" He smooched her cheek a few times, making her giggle again.
"Stop, the animals can see us." She put her hooves up to block him, but he still managed to get around them.
He kept kissing her all the way to her mouth, giving her a final kiss on the lips and looking down at her amorously. "Let them." At the corner of his eye he noticed his tipped over saddlebag had spilled and the stone was the furthest out. He gave it a long, thoughtful stare before returning his attention to Fluttershy. But deep in his mind, he thought, something isn't right.