//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: A Dragon's Selection 2: Follow Your Heart 
// by CartoonNerd12 
//------------------------------//

Over the next few days, word had gotten around to all of Spike and Applejack's friends about another Selection happening only this time Jewel would be the selector much to their surprise. Jewel's friends were equally as shocked, they had heard about the Selection but never once thought it would happen in their lifetime.

Screwball, Fire Spark, and Apple Jewel sat together at a table in Sugar Cube Corner as Screwy exclaimed.

"I can't believe they're making you do this!"

Jewel replied, "It was either me or Jam and you know why he can't do it."

Fire Spark mentioned, "Still, it's unfair that you have to this just because a treaty and a scepter said so."

Jewel made a tiny smirk, "You two really are the bestest friends I could ask for."

Screwball pointed, "Of course we are! You'll always have our support."

Fire said, "She's right, we're always there for you, Jewel, and we'll help you though this."

Screwy eyed him with a smirk, "Yeah, like maybe you should enter yourself into the Selection to see you can be a suitor."

Both Fire and Jewel proclaimed with flushing faces, "WHAT?!"

Screwy rolled her eyes in different directions as she said, "Oh come on, you two don't fool me for one bit. I've seen the way you look at each other ever since kindergarten!"

Their blushes got deeper as they stammered in protest, "No! That's- You got it all wrong!"

She rolled her eyes again making her think, They are so in denial…

By then Cotton Candy-Pinkie and Cheese's daughter- and Gemstone walked in and spotted the trio, with Gem waving her hoof, "Oh Jewel, darling!"

She groaned as her brother's marefriend walked over and she put on a force smile.

Gem started babbling out, "You don't know how positivity grateful I am that you're doing this! When Pear Jam said you were doing all this for our benefit, I just had to personally thank you!"

Apple Jewel muttered to the side, "It wasn't completely to your benefit…"

Screwball could see the discomfort her friend was displaying and quickly said, "So you two heard, uh?"

Cotton replied, "Yup! And it was such a shocker! I mean everyone practically thought the Selection was done for only for the Bloodstone Scepter to pull a fast one on us!"

Jewel mumbled, "Tell me about it…"

Hail Storm-Rainbow Dash and Soarin's son-whizzed in and exclaimed, "There you all are! Our parents are looking for us!"

That got them on their hooves and they rushed out with the pegasus taking the lead.




At the Castle of Friendship, Discord motioned in excitement, "You know, we never a female-run Selection before!"

Applejack glared at him, "You're enjoyin' this too much."

The draconequus shrugged with a cheesy grin, "Hey, it's not my fault that Dragon Lord Flamethrower was clever enough to bind the treaty to the scepter. Besides, I was kind of missing the days I was the Master of Ceremonies."

Twilight looked at her friends sitting in their thrones around the table with their husbands standing right behind them. She stated, "It's imperative that we follow the rules of the Selection so that the treaty gets fulfilled and the scepter will not have reason to force the dragons to go to war again."

Spike voiced, "But thankfully my daughter won't have to make a final decision if she can't find happiness the way her mother and I did." making a loving glance at his wife to which she returned.

Twilight continued, "Right. But we still have to send out forms, prepare rooms, meal selections, not to mention we need to make a public announcement of the Selection returning. Obviously the younger generation is not going to have any knowledge of it because parents were told that the Selection was no more so there was no need to prepare them of the possibility of a mare marrying a dragon prince. Though in this case it will be a stallion marrying a half pony-half dragon hybrid."

Discord shrugged, "First time for everything."

Rarity motioned, "So we'll need them to be aware but how?"

The spirit of chaos waved his paw excitedly, "Ooh! I know! When making the announcement I can broadcast it and then I can show highlights of past Selections!"

Everyone gawked at him with the Princess of Friendship slowly smiling, "That's… not a bad idea. That way it gives the younger generation an idea of what they're getting themselves into and of them truly wanting this or not."

Cheese asked, "Who were the past winners of every Selection?"

Pinkie pointed, "Applejack of course! And before her it was…" she trailed off realizing she didn't know the other past winners, "Gosh, I don't know."

Spike mentioned, "That makes sense because you weren't born when the other winners were chosen. Before it was my turn for the Selection it was my Uncle Poker and he chose my Aunt Rosemary. Before them it was Uncle Soot and Aunt Tiger Lily, Uncle Clinker and Aunt Ambrosia, Uncle Fume and Aunt Catnip, Uncle Cinder and Aunt Periwinkle, Uncle Brand and Aunt Sugar Plum, Uncle Charcoal and Aunt Angelica Root, Uncle Flicker and Aunt Morning Glory, Uncle Kindle and Aunt Brie, Uncle Smother and Aunt Peppercorn, Uncle Burn and Aunt Tulip, Uncle Wildfire and Aunt Éclair, and finally Uncle Firestorm and Aunt Ginger. They were the very first couple to have a Selection right after Uncle Matchstick and Aunt Brambleberry had established the treaty with their marriage."

Everyone gawked at him for his extensive knowledge.

Spike merely shrugged and explained, "I was going to be the next prince that had to pick a pony for a wife. I had to learn about the Selection process in order to fulfill my duty."

Apple Jewel's voice suddenly carried out, "Does that mean I'll have to do the same thing?"

The parents turned to see their kids coming into the room with Spike telling his daughter, "No, sweetheart. That was something I had to do during my time, I won't make you do the same."

She sighed in relief, "Oh, thank goodness!"

Rainbow complimented her son, "Good work, kiddo, you found them all."

Pear Jam wrapped an arm around his special some pony as he inquired, "What is it you needed us for?"

Twilight answered, "We want your opinion regarding how we're going make the Selection work this time around. Now Discord is going to resume his old role as Master of Ceremonies and when we make the public announcement of it coming back he's going to show some old highlights from previous Selections."

The kids muttered in approval.

The Princess of Friendship asked, "Now how do you think we should handle the choosing once we get the forms back?"

Cotton went, "Ooh! We should have a random drawing!"

They lit up at the suggestion with Hail going, "Yeah!"

The other kids agreed especially Jewel as she voiced, "All the more likely of me finding a soul mate."

Her parents smiled at her words and agreed with her.

Twilight wrote the suggestion down with a grin, "Excellent idea. I couldn't agree more. And now comes the tricky part, where should we hold the Selection? Traditionally it's held in Canterlot but given how we're bending a lot of rules here, we might as well think of a different location."

Fire pointed out, "Well why not here? It's Jewel's home after all and anyone entering into this will have to stay here with her in the end." he looked at his friend with a smile.

A small blush crept on her face and it did not escape her family, Fire's parents', and Screwball's notice.

Twilight nodded, "That is very true, Fire Spark." then directly asked Jewel, "Apple Jewel, since this is your Selection, is there anything you want to add in to make this experience as comfortable as possible for you?"

Jewel thought it over as everyone stared at her. She then spoke, "Well, can we change some of the rules of the Selection like forcing the contestants to stay without my dismissal? I want the contestants to be able to leave of their own freewill in case they don't feel they have any sort of future with me."

There were murmurs of approval just as Twilight said with a smile, "We can do that."

Gemstone asked, "Is that all you need us for?"

Twilight replied, "Yes. But it was important that all of you knew what was going on. Because you have no idea how huge the Selection was in Equestria. As of this moment things are going to change greatly."

Cotton scoffed in amusement, "Oh, how can they change that much?"

Pinkie pointed out to her daughter, "Oh, you'd be surprised… You forget I was in Spike's Selection too!"

Rarity mentioned, "We all were, Pinkie dear."

Rainbow proudly blurted out, "Not me!"

The unicorn rolled her eyes, "Yes, Rainbow, we know… The point is…" she addressed the children, "When one gets chosen in a Selection your life changes forever. Take us for example," she pointed to herself, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Twilight, "We may have lost Spike to Applejack, but we had also we met our true loves in the process."

This intrigued the group.

Fluttershy nodded, "It's true. It never accorded to me that by going into the Selection I would end up finding and falling in love with my future husband." she lovingly glanced at Discord who returned the glance and said.

"So true, honey, so true." he floated up, "Why I have seen thousands of mares over the eons but none of them could ever hold a candle to you. When I first saw you during that interview, my heart just lost itself to you…" he conjured up a moving picture of the time he was interviewing the girls during Spike's Selection.

"So Miss Fluttershy, you're originally from Cloudsdale, correct?"

Fluttershy looked him and slightly nodded.

He proofed up the Selection form they all had to submit. Discord looked at it then said, "And you have a mother, a father, and a little brother, correct?"

Fluttershy felt a little more calm and nodded again while saying, "Uh-huh."

Screwball and the others were watching with fascination.

Discord then fast-forward it while saying with a mischievous grin, "But that wasn't the big thing that happen that night…" he stopped at the part of him starting to interview Applejack making the present day Applejack blush in embarrassment while watching.

"So, Miss Applejack, I understand from your resume that you were Ponyville's rodeo champion five years in a row!"

She smiled, "That's right!"

Discord slightly smirked, "It's not easy being a rodeo champion is it?"

"Sure as heck no! It takes a lot of practice if you want to win that blue ribbon!"

"Hmm… then would you say that you have to fight to keep the title: champion?"

She rolled her eyes, "I get what you're gettin' at… Yes, I'm the one who yelled at the prince."

There was a collective gasp and she could hear Trixie saying in a near whisper, "Trixie knew it!"

Discord exclaimed, "Ah-ha! Finally! Now we can get the whole story, what exactly happened that made you yell at our dearly beloved dragon prince." he batted some eyelashes he made.

Applejack sighed, "I was… feelin' constricted within the castle so I spotted the garden outside my window and decided to go there hoping it would calm me down but when I tried to get past the guards they wouldn't let me though, so I ended up struggling with them until Spi- uh, the prince gave a command to let me by."

Discord gushed, "Aww… How romantic!"

Applejack quickly glanced at Spike who was smiling. She smiled in return as she continued with the story, "So I ran into the garden and when the prince tried to ask if I was okay, I ended up yelling at him and accusing him for being shallow."

Discord let out a guffaw and many of the other girls who spent some time with Spike giggled as well.

Discord tried to catch his breath, "You… you thought he was… Oh, that's too priceless!"

Applejack quickly added, "But I soon realized I was judging him without getting to know him."

Discord turned back to the interview, asking with smirk, "And have you…?"

She beamed, "I have. He's not like anything I thought he would be."

Discord led her on, "Such as…?"

She could see the other girls particularly Sunset wanted to hear this answer, she glanced once more at Spike and he seemed anxious to hear it as well. Given she was on the spot she had no choice but to give out her most honest response. 

She took a deep breath, "Prince Spike the Dragon is the epitome of all things good… He's generous, kind, and noble. His selflessness knows no bounds as he only thinks of others before himself. Any mare he marries will be lucky to have him. I can only hope that he will be just as lucky with that same mare because he deserves a good one."

There were mutters around her and it seemed both Discord and Spike were stunned by her answer. Then the draconequus shook out of it and asked with sly grin, "And… are you that mare?"

She simply replied, "I can't say that. Only Spike has the decision of who he takes for a wife."

Discord stopped the picture and looked over to see Applejack was holding her hat down to cover her face. And for a good reason since the kids were gawking at her especially her own who were shocked to learn…

Apple Jewel started, "You yelled at Dad when you met him?"

Pear Jam inquired, "Why didn't you tell us?"

Thankfully, Spike came to her rescue as he answered, "Well, we didn't want you to look at your mother in a negative light when it really was a bout of homesickness that got to her."

Jewel slowly said, "But I thought… it was love at first sight for you two…"

Spike and AJ exchanged a cringe with him saying, "Well… not quite…"

Hail Storm whispered to the others, "Awk-ward…"