//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: A Dragon's Selection 2: Follow Your Heart 
// by CartoonNerd12 
//------------------------------//

Apple Jewel blinked in bewilderment. She wasn't sure if she heard her father right and asked him just to be sure, "Did… you just say I have to take part in the Selection?"

Her parents nodded their heads.

"But… but… you said that the Selection was over after you two got married?" She was having trouble processing this information.

Spike replied, "We thought so too, until your Aunt Ember discovered a terrible connection. Do you remember those stories I told you about the Bloodstone Scepter?"

She nodded, "Uh-huh."

"Well… apparently Dragon Lord Flamethrower wanted to insure that the peace treaty was kept up even after he was gone… So he magically combined the treaty to the scepter making sure the dragons would do as it says."

Jewel shouted, "That's terrible!" then she furrowed her brow, "But what does this have to do with me? Isn't the youngest dragon prince of Dragonia supposed to do this?"

Spike stated, "Traditionally, yes. But… there are some setbacks to this… As you know, Aunt Ember only has one child and that's your cousin Asher but as the heir to Dragonia's throne, it's his job to continue the royal line and as you know, you have a cousin that's banished so his line is no good, which brings us to our family…" he gave a sad glance to his daughter.

She shouted again, "Well why does it have to be me?! Why can't Pear Jam do it?!"

Applejack spoke up, "Uh, I think it's pretty obvious that your brother is taken in this case."

Jewel fumed, "Oh! So just because he has a girlfriend already that means he can get off scot-free while I in the meantime am single and therefore must automatically be put on display?!"

Spike shook his head, "It's not fair, I know… but it's unfair for your brother to lose the love of his life just because he's force to choose someone else…"

Jewel suggested, "Well why can't we just sneak Gemstone in the choosing and then Pear can just declare her the winner!"

Spike's eyes lit up in excitement, "Hey, that's…!" Applejack glared at him and cleared her throat making him stop and released a cheesy grin before saying, "That's not a good idea."

Jewel inquired, "Well why not? The dragons get a Selection and Pear Jam gets the mare he wants, everyone wins."

Applejack shook her head and addressed her daughter, "No, sugar cube, then the Selection ends up becoming a farce and it would be very unfair for the ponies that are hoping for a chance to win. Don't forget I was on the receiving end of being one of the Selected and I've seen many young mares being upset about losing. If there's one thing I can respect about the Selection was that there was always a fighting chance to win."

Spike somewhat smiled, "As much as I hate to admit it, but your mother's right."

Applejack gave him a slight glare but ended up smiling.

Apple Jewel watched them carefully seeing how well they interacted with each other. Making her somewhat think, The Selection may have been used to bring peace between two kingdoms but it also brought them together… Mom and Dad wouldn't have met were not for this thing… Would it be so bad if you went through it too? Maybe you could have what they have… But then that brings up the question of being able to get out of it if I can't find someone after all…

She questioned out loud, "What if I don't choose from any of the thirty-five suitors that comes my way?"

Her parents looked at her in surprise with Spike asking, "Wait… does this mean…?"

Jewel held a hoof up, "I just want to make sure that I can choose someone that's gonna be there for me… I don't want to marry someone if I can't love them."

"Out of thirty-five choices, that shouldn't be too hard." Spike grinned and playfully nudged his wife, "Look at what I got out of my choices."

AJ rolled her eyes at him.

Apple Jewel however felt doubtful, "I don't know… I think it was a lucky chance you two met."

Applejack chuckled, "I think you're right, sugar cube. Looking back, it really did seem unlikely at the time for us to meet without the Selection."

"But again I ask, if I don't find a husband among them, what then? Will I be force to choose?"

Her parents exchanged uncertain looks. With AJ asking her husband, "Is it a rule, Spike? She is force to choose? Were you?"

"I… I can't remember. At the time, I was pressured greatly to make a choice so I assumed that it was a rule. But maybe… all this time… maybe it wasn't…" he started for the door.

His wife inquired, "Where are you goin'?"

Spike replied, "To see Ember and to get a closer look at that treaty." he went out and closed the door behind him.




Twilight was magically holding a magnify glass to the treaty as she went through it with Spike, Ember, Luna, and Celestia standing on the side. The purple alicorn went, "Hm-mm… uh-huh…" while pacing back and fore.

Spike whispered to his sister, "She's been looking over it for almost thirty minutes do you think that's good or bad?"

Ember uttered back, "One can hope it's a good sign…"

Suddenly Twilight shouted out, "I got it!" making them nearly jump from their scales, then they looked on in eagerness with her saying, "Okay, it is decreed that the Selection has to happen but… it never states that the chooser must make a choice among their assortment."

Luna smiled, "I think that's because it was heavily implied that the dragon prince had to take a bride."

Celestia added with a grin, "But because we never put it into writing…"

Ember was beaming as she said, "Which means, we got ourselves a loophole…"

Spike was brimming happy tears feeling so relieved to hear that. He commented, "Applejack is going to be so happy to know that."




"Hee-haw!" Applejack cheered when her husband gave her the news, "Jewel really doesn't have to make a choice?!"

"Right." he smiled as he was about to climb into bed. "This is how Ember and the princesses think we should do it, we keep the Selection going long enough for Jewel to go over her choices, and if she finds someone, great. If not, we can call off the entire Selection and we can go back to our lives."

Applejack slightly frowned and muttered, "Until the next Selection that is…"

He in turned frowned and sighed, "Yes, that is true… but thankfully, we don't need to pressure the selector to make a choice anymore."

"Still, it would be nice if we could get rid of the Selection forever like we once thought we did…"

Spike started relaxing in the bed as his wife joined him, "Yeah… it was a nice feeling wasn't it…? For almost twenty years we lived peacefully without fear of another Selection happening for the sake of peace."

"Why do you suppose we hate the Selection so much, Spike? It's what brought us together after all… Shouldn't we actually be glad it's coming back for the chance of our daughter finding happiness like we did?"

"That's a very good question, my love…" he sat up on the bed while wrapping his arms around her keeping her close. "But I think it's because we didn't want to participate in our Selection in the first place, we were both against it until we met but even when we were starting to get together so much was in our way of ever truly being with each other. We came so close to losing each other in more ways than one that it's a miracle we managed to end up here with our family at all."

"Hm. Good point…"

"But I'll never regret meeting you even though I hate how we met."

She made a slight chuckle, "I feel the same way."

They suddenly heard a door closing and hoofsteps coming up the stairs. Spike checked a clock on the wall, commenting, "Guess this means Pear Jam's home."

Applejack frowned when checking the clock too, mentioning, "Yeah, but with only a few minutes to spare…"

By then Pear was walking pass their room and Spike called out, "Cutting it awfully close to your curfew aren't you, son?"

Pear Jam faced them, "Aren't I too old for a curfew now? I'm eighteen after all."

Applejack pointed, "As long as you are still livin' under our roof and working on the farm, it's important to get a good night's sleep to finish the chores."

"Believe me, I know how important that is."

Spike inquired, "So, how did your day with Gemstone go?"

Pear's eyes went all dreamy, "As always… wonderful…"

His parents exchanged smirks before sadly frowning and Applejack said, "Sugar cube, there's somethin' you have to know…"

Pear Jam gave a concern look before his parents told him everything that's happen in the last twenty-four hours.




Apple Jewel was just getting ready for bed when a soft knock came at her door and she said, "Come in."

Her twin brother entered in with a sad look on his face before giving her a bone-crushing hug with him uttering, "Thank you… thank you so much…"

She asked in confusion, "For what?"

"For doing the Selection! I can't believe they're force to bring it back again!"

"I know. It was upsetting to me the first time I was told about it."

"Sis, I'm so sorry, if I wasn't with Gemstone right now…"

"It's okay, I understand. And… you do deserve to be with the one you love…"

"Well so should you."

"If I can't find someone I like in this competition, then that will most likely happen to me."

"Yeah, that was a lucky break for you. At least you won't have to choose if it came down to that."

"Exactly, and I'm really glad Dad told me that before going bed so I can sleep better knowing that I'm not forcing myself into an arranged marriage here. So don't feel bad about this, Jam."

"Still, I want to repay you for being so willing to do this."

She admitted with guilt, "It wasn't completely out of willingness. I tried to suggest having you do it with Gem being in the running so you would choose her in the end…"

Pear smiled, "That was a good idea, but it would have been completely unfair to the other girls."

"I know, Mom told me that."

"No, I mean it would have been unfair for them because they wouldn't be able to have a piece of this right here." he joked while flexing his muscles.

Jewel had to roll her eyes but ended up laughing, "Then it is a good thing I'm doing this instead or else you'd end up cheating on your marefriend!"

Jam gave off an intense stare making her stop, with him saying, "For the record, I would never do that to Gem not when she's my true love. My one and only… I could never love another the way I love her…"

Jewel was in utter bewilderment when hearing this, "You're really that serious for each other?"

"We are." he stated firmly.

"Have you told Mom and Dad yet?"

"No. Mainly because we're still figuring some things out like where we're going to live, if it's here or we're going to buy our own place… I don't know."

"The smartest thing for you two lovebirds would be to get your own place."

"Yeah, but you know Mom doesn't like breaking up the family."

"It's not breaking up if you're just going to live in town."

He bit his lip and was silent for a moment making her eye him in suspicion, slowly inquiring, "Uh… you are planning on living in town, aren't you?"

He sighed, "Look, we do plan on staying here so we can raise our family but it might take awhile."

"Why?"

"Well… Gem wants to get out and travel around the world. And… I want to go with her…" he had big eyes.

Jewel felt troubled by that, it was one thing to let her brother marry the love of his life it was another thing to let him go out into the world and not see him again for a very long time.

He asked, "You won't tell any of this to our parents, will you?"

She shook her head and with that he gave her a peck on the cheek with a smile and said, "We need to get to bed now, you know Mom and Uncle Mac will need us in the orchards."

"I know. Good night, Jam."

"Night, Jewel. And thanks again, it really means a lot to me and Gem…" he hugged her one last time before leaving the room.

Apple Jewel exhaled a deep sigh as she crawled into her bed, still feeling troubled by her twin's words.