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// Part II: Chapter 1 
// Story: Emerald Chronicles 
// by Dandereshy 
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Part II: Elements of Disharmony

Chapter 1: The Box

Emerald woke up that morning feeling slightly under the weather. It was likely that he was getting sick again, as the job he worked required long outside hours, and it was late fall, so the much cooler temperatures had already crept into Ponyville. Emerald had landed a job as a contractor for a landlord in Ponyville a month ago, and he was enjoying it, besides the cold he got the first week and the one he might be getting again. He yawned and looked over at Fluttershy's side of the bed. It was empty, signaling that she was probably making breakfast. He smiled and hopped out of bed, his hooves thudding on the floor. He glanced out the window and noticed it was overcast, which meant snow was likely, as cold as it had been lately. He made his way downstairs and went into the kitchen. It was empty. "Hey, Flutters, where are you?" He called out to her. He stopped to listen and heard mild whimpering upstairs. He turned and went back up the stairs to the bathroom, muttering to himself along the way. When he approached it, the light was on but the door was shut, and he could hear the whimpering louder from within. He pushed the door open to see Fluttershy by the toilet, holding her stomach and making the whimpering noises he'd heard earlier. He rushed over to her. "Oh, sweetie… not again." He knelt down beside her and hugged her gently. She stopped whimpering and meekly smiled back at him.
"Yes, again…"
Emerald let go and looked into the toilet, which indeed held quite a bit of puke. He winced and looked back at her. "This is like, the fifth morning in the past two weeks I've awoke to find you in here. I'm getting worried about you. Maybe you've caught something."
She leaned over the toilet and puked, causing Emerald to wince again. "Oh, I'm sure it's nothing…"
Emerald shook his head. "It's definitely something. Look, I have to work in a little bit, but I want you to go to the doctor today while I'm gone, okay? Promise me you'll go."
She tried to stand up and Emerald put an arm around her to help her. "Oh, okay. If it'll make you feel better…"
"No, it'll make you feel better. Now I'm going to get ready. Try to feel better, okay gorgeous?" Emerald stood up and kissed her on the forehead, then he brushed his teeth, went and put on his uniform jacket and left for work.
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His boss was in his office when Emerald finally got there. The office was actually just an old barn modified to be for the landlords' purposes. The older stallion earth pony barely even gave Emerald the chance to come in before he blasted him with the day's job.
"Alright Emerald, we have somepony, one of our clients, that wants the home being built near the town hall to be built with a special tree wood, but unfortunately, that tree only exists in the Everfree forest, so getting it is the dilemma. Luckily I have you, so I'm going to need you to grab the cart in the back and the axe in the shed and go get me some trees, got it?"
Emerald just stood there, his mouth agape. He finally shook off the shock and replied, "You want me to go into the Everfree forest, alone… for trees?"
"Well, Filthy Rich is the buyer, and he's paying good money for it, so yes, you're going out there if you want that raise." He sipped his coffee nonchalantly.
Emerald sighed. "How about some danger pay, too?" He half joked.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll pay you 1.5 times the normal rate. Just get out there, I need that wood by sundown." He waved Emerald out of his office.
Emerald retrieved the cart and axe and headed out to the forest. The landlord provided him with a picture of the tree so he could find it, so he had a pretty good idea that it was likely deep within the forest. One look at the sky and anypony could tell that it was about to snow, and in fact, hardly anypony was out period. "Just fabulous. I'm out chopping down trees in the Everfree forest in this kind of weather. Just great…" He reached the edge of the forest and trudged in.
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Fluttershy cleaned up the bathroom later that morning after she started to feel better. Remembering what Emerald had asked her to do, she fed the animals, got her saddlebag, and headed off to the hospital. When she got there, it was actually quite empty, as it was cold outside, and spitting snowflakes, so clearly everypony was staying home if they could help it. She trotted up to the receptionist behind the desk. "Um, excuse me. I'd like to see a doctor, if that's okay…"
The unicorn smiled back at her. "Of course it's okay, sweetheart. Just sit down right over there, the doc will be with you in just a moment." She pointed over at the few chairs across from the desk, and Fluttershy sat in the one nearest the desk.
"Oh, I hope everything's okay." She murmured, looking at the stack of newspapers and magazines on the table beside her. The newspaper was the Ponyville Express announcing that, "Winter is Here". And the few magazines were on fashion and gardening. She was just about to grab the gardening magazine when the doctor came out through the double doors next to the front desk and called her back. She followed the friendly doctor to a small room, where he asked her to have a seat and explain what the problem was.
"Go ahead and tell me what's been bothering you, dear." He asked, smiling kindly at her.
"Oh, okay, well… you see, the past two weeks, I've been waking up feeling sick, sometimes I throw up. And I've been hungry late at night sometimes for no reason. I guess maybe I'm sick or something…" She explained, not making eye contact with him until she was done.
He scratched his chin thoughtfully for a moment before replying, "Oh, you're not sick. Let me run a few tests, just to be sure my diagnosis is correct. I'll be right back, young lady." He turned to leave the room in a hurry.
"Wait, what's your – " He'd already fled the room. She sighed. "Diagnosis…"
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Emerald stumbled through the overgrown brush that made traveling the path just as treacherous as going through the forest itself. "I can't believe I'm out here doing this! What was I thinking?" His back left hoof caught on a root and he face planted in some freezing cold mud. He groaned and picked himself up. "Last time I go on an adventure like this…" He wiped as much of the mud off his face as he could and pulled out the picture of the tree. It was a small, wide trunked tree with deep purple bark and dark green leaves shaped like arrowheads. He sighed and stuck the picture back in his saddlebag, and that's when he saw it. The corner of what appeared to be a small wooden chest just a few strides to his left, near a tree that looked just like the one in the picture. He went over and examined the box closer. It was mostly buried, with just what he guessed was about a third above the ground. It had definitely been there a while, as it was heavily weathered and worn. A glance at the tree near it confirmed that it was indeed the correct tree, but there was only one to his despair. He turned his attention back to the box. After a moment's hesitation, he decided to unbury it. As he dug around it with the axe, he joked, "Maybe it's buried treasure."
A snowflake fluttered down in front of his face and he gasped. "I knew it! It was only a matter of time." The box was fully exposed a moments later, and when Emerald pulled it out, he sat and stared at it for a few seconds, trying to make out the strange inscription on the side with a keyhole. "Hmm…" He picked up the box and set it down in the cart, then he got the axe and started chopping down the tree.
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The doctor came back into the room moments later… with a needle and syringe. Fluttershy's heart skipped a beat when her eyes fell upon the needle.
"Um…I-I don't like needles…" She stammered, not taking hers eyes off of it as the doctor approached her.
The doctor smiled reassuringly. "It will only hurt for a second, and I'll be all done. I'll take the sample back there and test it and be back with the results soon. Just hold still for one moment."
Fluttershy gulped. "Oh… okay." She stuck out her arm and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. She started shaking and clenched her teeth in an effort to suppress it.
The doctor stuck the needle in her arm gently and filled it. He took it out and gave her a Band-Aid, in which she promptly stuck on her needle mark. The doctor turned and left, saying, "I'll be right back. Just hang tight, young lady."
She sighed and glanced around the room, seeing all the medical information posters depicting different pony body systems – the heart, the brain, muscular system, and the like. She then noticed how cold it was and shivered violently. She rubbed the spot on her arm where the needle had been stuck tenderly. The poster to her left, on the wall near the door caught her eye. She curiously examined it. It was a diagram of the stages of pregnancy.
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Emerald had tracked several miles into the forest and found three more trees, but after that he could find no more, and now he was growing increasingly frustrated, as the picture demanded ten, not four. The snow started coming down harder, the flakes growing larger. It got colder, and at this point the suit Emerald wore offered little warmth. "This is stupid," He muttered unhappily as he pushed the cart over an area of fallen trees into a clearing. It was no more than twice the size of the cart, but he wanted some space away from all the trees. So far he'd come across nothing dangerous, but then again, it was daylight. From the looks of it, he thought, not for much longer. He sighed and scanned his surroundings carefully. To his surprise, a large cluster of the tree he needed were on the opposite end of the clearing. With a giddy grin on his face, he dropped the cart and snatched up the axe, plowing through the trees until he'd counted the other six he needed. After he loaded them up, he turned and followed the pink ribbon trail on the trees back to Ponyville as the snowflakes grew larger yet again.
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The doctor startled Fluttershy when he came back in about half an hour later. "Sorry for the wait. I got the results here for you. They were just as I expected." He handed the paper to her.
She took it from him and read the results. "Oh… my…"