Chapter 5: Copycats
"And, so what I'm hearing is that you just happened to have the same idea as me and Rainbow Dash? Ugh, this is weird." Emerald was complaining when he discovered Fluttershy wearing her stone around her neck. They were just getting ready to head on into town for a few errands when he'd come into the bathroom and seen her putting it on.
"Oh, did she really? I mean, are we copying off of you? I'm sorry."
Emerald face palmed. "Fluttershy, don't apologize. I think we should go see Twilight about this." He said, fiddling with his own necklace. "I swear, if I see one more pony with a necklace of their stone on I'm gonna lose my marbles."
"What's so bad about everypony wearing their stone? I think it's lovely." She said, now toying with hers and smiling.
"It's not that they aren't good accessories, although, I don't do accessories like that anyway, but the point being, it's the fact that one by one, my friends are having the same idea about how to accessorize their stone. Doesn't that seem even just a little strange to you?" He asked worriedly.
She shook her head and walked out of the bathroom with Emerald on her tail. "You really can't do anything else with them. But if you really think we should go talk to Twilight, then I agree with you."
"Well, it's not a priority, but we should definitely drop by and tell her about it. Maybe it's just a new fashion trend. And if that's the case, we should see Rarity, too." Emerald was saying as they headed out the front door. It was a bright and sunny day, again, warmer than the day before.
"Sure. Whatever you believe to be necessary."
"Fluttershy, I'm not saying it's a necessity, I'm saying that it just seems a little odd that everypony has started copying me." He said walking up beside her as they made their way downtown.
"I know. But I was planning on doing this with my necklace before you did that with yours." She revealed to him.
"So? It's still weird that Rainbow Dash did it, too. So we'll go see Twilight later. First, we get those ingredients you needed." Emerald said, pulling out her list from her saddlebag and opening it. "Wow. Discord really did clean you out, didn't he? That's a lot of stuff."
"I know. I knew it'd be like that, though. I made this list the day before he came over."
"Good anticipation." Emerald complimented her. He ran into somepony while he was reading the list. "Oops, sorry."
But lo and behold, it was Rainbow Dash, getting something from the sweets stand. She turned and blushed when she seen him. "Oh… hi, Emerald…"
He immediately scowled at her. "Rainbow Dash."
"Hey, Rainbow Dash. What are you doing today?" Fluttershy asked her with a friendly, high-pitched voice. She gently retrieved the list from Emerald and bought something from the stand as well.
Her eyes never left Emerald and he continued to give her an evil look. "Well, I was stocking up on some food for Tank, since, you know…"
"Uh huh. Cool story. Let's go Fluttershy. We're very busy today and don't have time to chat." Emerald grabbed Fluttershy and began steering her away.
"Wwwait! But aren't we going to talk to Twi – "
"Shh. Our daily plans are classified, Shy." He gave Rainbow a curt nod and kept pushing Fluttershy in the opposite direction.
Rainbow Dash sighed sadly. "Yeah. Cool… see ya later…"
"What was that about?" Fluttershy asked him when he finally stopped pushing her.
"Nothing, we're just busy and can't chit chat right now." He said simply.
"But all we're doing is shopping. We can stop and talk for a few moments. It's barely noon."
"Not the point. I don't feel like talking about it right now." He said, growing agitated as thoughts of yesterday flooded his mind.
Fluttershy didn't take the hint. "But the way you looked at her seemed pretty – "
"Look, nothing happened okay? Get off my back!" He raised his voice, startling her. They kept walking, but Fluttershy began slowing down as her eyes fell to the ground.
"Okay…"
As they continued walking, Fluttershy was silent, and Emerald immediately began feeling guilty. He put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her as they kept walking. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. It's just… yesterday, the trip with her didn't go so well, as I figured. I'm still upset about it and I guess I unintentionally took it out on you. Can you forgive me?"
She smiled up at him through her mane. "Of course." She hugged him back. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened that made you so upset?"
He frowned. "Don't push it, girl." Then he smiled brightly and kissed her on the forehead.
"Oh… my… well, since you have the list again, what's next?" She asked, peeking over his shoulder as he opened it up and looked.
"Apples… that's gonna be a hard one, grapes, wheat, flour, salt, oats, tea, eggs, milk, butter, lettuce, tomatoes, good gracious, you do need a lot of stuff. Did we even bring enough bits? I mean, I have close to a hundred, but still, will that be enough for all this?" Emerald folded the list up and looked fretfully back at her.
"I think we'll be fine, actually." She got the list from him and began trotting to the next item on the list. "Um, are we going to stop and eat when we're done? I don't know how long we'll be shopping, but I'm a little bit hungry." She blushed when her stomach rumbled.
Emerald scratched his chin. "We should probably eat first, you know. It's better for you to shop for food while you're full so you don't spend money on the food you don't need. But, once again, do we have enough bits?"
Fluttershy seemed to be thinking for a moment before she suddenly perked up. "Oh, I bet we can go to Sweet Apple Acres and get some food for free as well as the apples we needed."
Emerald nodded. "Great idea. Let's go now before we end up spending on what we don't need." He was giving the special fruit cakes on the stand to his left a hungry stare.
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They went off to the farm, where surprisingly, Twilight was there talking to Applejack and helping her find an old cookbook for Granny Smith for an old apple recipe. "Oh, hey you two. What are you guys doing today?" Twilight asked them.
"We thought we'd stop by and grab a bite to eat with the Apples for a bit before we finished restocking. I guess you're helping Applejack with something?" He returned a question upon seeing all the older cookbooks on the counters.
"Yup. And yer welcome to stay an' help if ya want. I'll fix y'all something' up real quick after me an' Twilight finish sortin' these cookbooks out. Whew! There's a ton of 'em." Applejack offered and continued taking books from one counter to the other. Many of the books were heavily worn or very dusty, which definitely proved them to be old.
"I guess we can help, if it'll help move you along a little faster. Me and Flutters are kinda in a hurry." Emerald said, picking up a book and blowing the dust off the cover to reveal its identity.
"Oh, there's no rush," Fluttershy gave Emerald a disproving look and he smiled innocently. "Emerald just likes getting stuff done quickly. But we'd be more than happy to help."
"Great. The sooner we get done, the sooner she can cook one of those old recipes she's looking for. Maybe for you guys." Twilight said to them as they joined.
"So, uh… what exactly are we doing?" Emerald asked, holding a different book up now and squinting to read the title.
Applejack walked by balancing a few books on her snout. She set them on the counter that now had the most books on it. "Well, it's a book Granny Smith used to use for her cookin' in her younger days. Guess she wants to break it out fer some stuff."
Emerald turned to her. "Alright then. I guess we can – " He froze mid-sentence when a mark on the front of her hat caught his attention. It was her apple stone, somehow woven into the fabric. His jaw dropped.
Applejack frowned. "Uh, somethin' wrong?"
Emerald shook his head and snapped out of hit. "When did you do that?" He pointed at her hat.
"What? Put the stone on it? Had Rarity do it this mornin'. Why do ya ask?" She replied, pulling her hat off and looking at it.
Emerald fell on the floor, covering his face. "Oh… this is bad. So, so bad…"
Fluttershy came up to him and put a hoof on his shoulder, giving the others concerned looks, in which they returned. "He's been pointing this out all day. First Rainbow Dash, himself, me, and now you." She said, looking at Applejack.
Applejack was clearly lost. "But what 'bout this is bad?"
"Everything! Don't you see? Everypony that got a stone that I've talked to today and yesterday is wearing their stone. They're hideous! Why would anypony want to wear them?" Emerald bellyached, getting back up and looking back and forth between Applejack and Twilight. He stared at Twilights' crown in disbelief. "What… the…HELL?! What is going on around here? Am I in crazy town?"
"Emerald please calm down." Fluttershy pleaded.
Twilight turned pink with embarrassment and took her crown off, which was a replica of her real crown, only the grey stone was in its place. "Haha… about this…"
"Well, if they're so ugly, why in Equestria are ya wearin' yers?" Applejack asked, interested now.
He froze. "Oh… well… for some reason, I just felt obligated and intrigued to keep it on me. Nothing wrong with that."
"Well, so did I." Fluttershy added.
Applejack nodded. "Same here."
They all turned to Twilight expectantly.
"Okay, so maybe this is a bit on the peculiar side. But it doesn't seem to be causing any problems, so I see no reason to ask everypony to take them off. And Pinkie Pie and Rarity might not be wearing theirs, so not everypony is doing this. But on the safe side, we all need to be on high alert for any signs of abnormality. Something evil could be brewing."
"Actually, Rarity was wearing hers as a ring when I went over this mornin'…" Applejack informed her.
"Nonetheless, this is a little strange, so keep an eye and ear out." Twilight replied.
Emerald sighed and turned to Fluttershy in surrender. "I guess you were right after all, these thing are turning out to be trouble."
"Let's not be hasty, they haven't actually caused anything yet." Twilight reminded him. "But like I said, something could, so now we have to be on the tips of our hooves."
"Great… as if I wasn't already easily paranoid, now this…" Emerald crouched, folding his arms across his chest.
"Well, it seems we're good fer now, but Twilight's right. We gotta keep an eye out fer trouble." Applejack reiterated what they'd already discussed to soothe Emeralds' extreme anxiety.
"I know… but still. I have this feeling, and it's telling this isn't over."
Twilight agreed. "Let's just hope it is."
I do… Emerald thought. But I feel it's not…