Chapter 10
Emerald grew nauseous. "You're lying." But deep down he knew it was the truth.
"No, your father was a prince before you were born, but he renounced his royalty for your mothers love. And it was I who ended his life." Dark Storm paced back and forth in front of Emerald. The two others just stood and watched the scene unfold. And there was no telling where Fluttershy was.
Emerald regained his composure and faced Storm with a fixed glare. "You'll pay for this. For everything."
Storm laughed. "I'm waiting."
Emerald coiled up to pounce on Storm, but a spine-tingling voice rang out from behind him.
"Long time, no see, my old friend."
Emerald spun around to see Black Flame casually trotting up to them. He was grinning slightly, but his appearance was no less threatening.
"I should have known you'd be involved with this," Emerald snapped.
Black gave him a look of mock-innocence. "Who, me? I've done nothing wrong." He passed Emerald and got up in Storms face. "You damn fool! What were your orders?"
Storm hesitated. "We were to find Emerald and –"
"NOT apprehend him! I made the terms of the mission very clear, but once again, I'm let down. By my most trusted brethren, at that. My orders specifically emphasized not being seen by him. And what did you do? You acted out of your own pathetic arrogance and attacked him. Fools!"
"But he doesn't know anything yet, boss!" Blade protested.
Black gave him a glimmering death-look. "Shut your mouth, weasel. He shouldn't even know you're here in Ponyville, but you can't even follow simple, step by step instructions. I even wrote them out on paper, you worthless pieces of shit! I can see that once again I'm the one who must do everything himself."
Grudge stepped forward. "At least you have Tr-"
A ball of purple fire blasted him in the face before he could finish the word. Everypony looked at the seething Black.
"I don't know what you're problem is Black, but you have your suspects and motives way out of check. I don't know why you flew off the handle, but I had nothing to do with whatever happened that made you mad. So just stop this insanity before somepony gets hurt and you end up regretting it." Emerald said, looking over at Grudge, who was rolling around on the ground holding his face and yelling.
"Is that what you think?" Black asked turning to him. "Of course you must remember your past – activities, right? You know exactly what I'm talking about."
The bushes beside Emerald rustled and Emerald jumped back as Fluttershy came out, galloping up and hugging him..
Black smiled. "Ah, already trying to move on, huh?" He tsked a few times in disappointment. "Unfortunatley, you can't escape this past."
Emerald let go of Fluttershy and looked her in the eyes. "I promise nothing will happen today, okay? I'll protect you."
"There's nothing to protect her from, friend. I was hoping you'd just be a little more honest with your girl, here. That's all. Then I'll leave." Black said with a wicked grin.
Emerald knew what he was referring to. "There isn't anything to tell." He replied through gritted teeth.
"Oh? How about telling her who you really are. Who you were, that is, until you went AWOL."
Fluttershy made him look at her, in the eyes. "What's he talking about, Em?"
Emerald sighed in sadness. "I…I wasn't always the good guy I've been portraying myself to be."
Black laughed in anticipation. "Yes, that's it. Empty your mind."
"What do you mean?" Fluttershy asked, her eyes glittering from being moistened with tears.
Emerald grew teary-eyed too. "I, used to work…"
"Go on." Black encouraged, an evil grin spreading across his face.
Emeralds face fell. "I…worked for…him." He pointed at Black.
Fluttershy was stunned. "You were…a bad guy?"
He nodded but said nothing, ashamed.
"And there it is. The cat's out of the bag now. I'm so glad you decided to be an open book for your girl here. Maybe she'll forgive you. Or maybe she won't. Okay boys, let's leave these two to their - talk. I've got more important things to do right now. Farewell, Emerald. Enjoy." Black motioned for Blade, Storm and Grudge to follow.
"Eat shit." Emerald spat. He looked back at Fluttershy. The look on her face was of complete despair.
"I thought you said you didn't have a job, and that you were good? But you're…a criminal?"
Emerald sighed. "I wasn't lying. I just, I guess I didn't consider it a job. And I didn't hurt anypony, I just…you understand, right?"
Her expression changed to a mix of hurt and angry. "Oh, I understand…that you're a liar!" She turned away from him and began crying.
Emerald couldn't hold back his own tears anymore. "Please, Fluttershy…I've changed! I left because I didn't want anything to do with him anymore!"
She sniffled. "But that's not the point. You lied to me." She stopped crying. "I thought I could trust you. But now I don't know what you're lying about. I realize now that you're just a liar and a user." She flew away, crying again.
"Fluttershy, please come back! I didn't mean for this! I –" He dropped his head, fighting back his emotions. "I'm sorry." He looked up to the sky. Fluttershy was nowhere in sight. He turned back down the path to the waterfall and continued down, by himself.
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"There there, girl. It's okay." Applejack tried to comfort Fluttershy, but she wouldn't stop sobbing into the pillow on her bed. Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash found Fluttershy in her house crying, so they brought her to Applejacks house to try to help her. Rainbow Dash was flying around the house, saying all the things she was going to do to Emerald.
"I'm gonna tie him up, fly him high in the air and drop him. I'm gonna have my flying buddies tie rope to all his limbs and fly in opposite directions at the same time! I'm gonna put him in Carrot Cakes meat grinder! I'm gonna shove scissors down his throat! I'm gonna -"
"Rainbow, you're really not helping." Twilight said.
"I just knew he was a liar! I could smell it! When I get ahold of him…OHHHHH man it's all bad!"
"Okay Rainbow Dash, we all want answers from him, but doin' all that stuff is just gonna make matters worse. We've gotta do this gently and calmly." Applejack told her, patting Fluttershy on the back softly.
"What exactly do you have in mind?" Rainbow Dash asked with a dirty look.
Applejack sighed. "Well, I say we find him later when everyponies all calmed down and talk to him. Fluttershy said she was okay with that."
"No! Forget that! He's a traitor and a liar. I'll go deal with him." Rainbow Dash took off out the window.
"Don't do anything you'll regret!" Twilight called after her.
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Emerald walked slowly down the path, not even looking up or around. He was deep in thought and depression. "What have I done?" He whispered to himself. "I should've just told her in the first place that I used to be a villain. But I waited…" He stopped, cursed loudly and continued walking. The sun already fled below the horizon, and the moon was now taking its place.
Emerald came up shortly on the waterfall. It was beautiful, but he just didn't care at the moment. All his thoughts were on his stupidity.
He found a nice little flat rock by the water and sat on it. The river rushed down the precipice and crashed into the water below. It sent clouds of mist in all directions, some wandered by Emerald as he sat on the rock.
He sighed loudly and looked around at he falls and forest. "Can I change this? Could I right my wrongs? I just don't know anymore."
"I'll help you fix your wrongs." A blow from behind knocked him into the water with a splash. He came back up to the surface and gasped.
Rainbow Dash stood on the rock he was just on, glaring down at him.