//------------------------------//
// Part II: Chapter 11 
// Story: Emerald Chronicles 
// by Dandereshy 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 11: Believe

Breakfast the next morning was cold and quiet.
Fluttershy made her own breakfast, leaving Emerald to his own. She’d also been silent the whole morning, which concerned Emerald, who had hoped she’d forgiven him, or at least let him off with a warning.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. They sat across from each other at the table, only the sounds of their eating audible besides the birds chirping outside.
Nearly done with his food, he pushed the plate away and sighed deeply. “Fluttershy, you can’t keep this silence up. Sooner or later you’re just going to have to either believe me or hate me, whether you want to or not. I’m not guilty, and I know that. Convincing you didn’t work, so now it’s really just up to you.”
She stopped chewing and swallowed, closing her eyes. “I know. I’m just so disappointed in you.”
Emerald rested his head on his hoof, putting that arm’s elbow on the table. “Seriously, you have to let this go. I can’t begin to describe how pointless yesterday’s events were. How immature ponies acted, and how it literally got us nowhere. I’m sorry, but I didn’t do anything, and I refuse to be held accountable for anything. Except maybe holding back information, of which you would have found out anyway, despite Rainbow Dash’s twisted story.”
“I don’t want to believe her, Emerald, but your story just seems…like it was fabricated to save yourself. It sounds like you have more to tell about this incident,” Fluttershy said quietly, putting her fork on her plate.
“What needed to be said has been said, Fluttershy,” Emerald said flatly. “Enough of this nonsense, please. I love you, I want you, and I need you. Only you. Nopony else – you got that?” He reached across the table and took her hooves, but she didn’t look up at him, she just stared at her plate with a morose look on her face. Emerald could see that he was not getting the point across. “Okay, what do I have to do, huh?”
She finally glanced up at him, her expression unchanged. “What do you mean? 
“Exactly what it says. What can I do to prove I love you and only you? What do I have to do to prove I’m worthy of your love? I’ll do anything, just name it,” he said, growing anxious. This was his last resort. If she didn’t want him to prove his love, or didn’t know what to have him do, he would be at a loss.
She sighed, seeing that there was no way out. “I can think of only one thing.”
Emerald leaned forward with interest. “Yes? What is it? Name it.”
She hesitated. “Tell me the truth. About what happened at the Wonderbolts show. I don’t want to hear any lies, Emerald. Just tell me and we can move on. I promise I’ll forgive you.”
Emerald dropped his head in disappointment. “Of course…but remember - you asked.”
She nodded. “Okay. I’m listening.”
Emerald took a deep breath. “What happened is exactly what I’ve been telling you happened. I’m not changing my story. I’m sorry, but I won’t lie to make you feel like I’m telling the truth, Fluttershy. You’re just going to have to pick. Me, or Rainbow Dash. Who do you believe?”
Fluttershy sighed sadly and closed her eyes. “I knew you were going to say that…but, I’m sorry. Rainbow Dash has never lied to me, and I don’t see any reason for her to start now.” She stood up from the table, her chair sliding across the floor as she pushed it out, making a low-pitched screeching noise. “I’ll be upstairs crying if you need me.” She turned and trudged up the stairs and out of site.
Emerald buried his hooves in his arms and sobbed softly.



Later that day, Emerald was downtown, walking around and thinking again of what he could do to save his relationship.
He knew, back when he’d first begun this journey called love, that there was hurt along the way. But he wasn’t expecting something like this. This wasn’t hurt – it was straight heartbreak. He loved Fluttershy, with a fiery passion, but he was still losing her. He was losing her to this petty lie from somepony he thought he could trust. Rainbow Dash must have let her jealously get the best of her.
Or was it the stones? He held the stone up to his face, at eye level. It looked innocent, but was still glowing like the night before.
Could it be that these stones were the culprit? The reason he everypony was acting so strange? Were they somehow linked to the outlandish attitudes and emotions that were running rampant through his friends?
Really, so far, it was only Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy that were so out of line, but he still had a hunch that the others weren’t far behind. However, he determined that bringing up this situation with anyone of them probably wouldn’t do him any harm, considering what had already happened.
Applejack was always willing to listen to a pony in need, and offered bluntly honest opinions and advice. So, he turned away from town and in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. It was there that he hoped he could get some valuable insight from a pony who hadn’t done him any wrong yet.
When he got there, Applejack and Big Mac were outside in the orchard, gathering apples, of course. Emerald approached Applejack from the side as she headed toward the barn with a bushel of apples on her back. “Hey, Applejack? Can I please talk to you? If you’re not too busy?"
She stopped and sighed, looking down at the ground in front of her. “I figured you’d be comin’ here sometime. Yeah, gimme a moment to put these apples up. Wait fer me out here.”
Emerald stood there and glanced around at the farm and orchard as he waited for her to return. They were clearing out the apples again, getting ready for some kind of country folk contest coming up in Appleloosa, he presumed. Applejack and her family were always participating in some crazy contest or event, sponsored and held by the Apple family.
Applejack came back, passing him and jerking her head in a way that said, “Follow me”.
They began walking through the rows of trees in the orchard, side by side.
“So, what’s on yer mind? If I don’t already know, that is,” she asked, chewing a piece of hay in her mouth.
Emerald lowered his head. “Same thing that’s always on my mind – Fluttershy,” he replied, with unmistakable solemnity.
Applejack nodded. “Mmhm…just as I suspected. Feelin’ guilty?
Emerald was appalled. “No! I feel…lost. I can’t think, not without thoughts of her running through and trampling anything else on my mind. I want her to believe me, that I wouldn’t do something like that to her. I couldn’t cheat on her. But she won’t believe me…”
They turned onto another path. “Obviously she don’t believe ya, but I’m not gonna say everypony else doesn’t,” Applejack told him.
Emerald’s ears, which were folded previously, perked up as he did. “What do you mean? Are you saying…you believe me?”
Applejack sighed heavily. “I’m not sayin’ I believe either of ya. Rainbow Dash does seem like the pony to act out of jealousy, but you also been a liar yerself…I’m not sure who to believe, honestly.” 
“But if it came down to choice, you’d believe me, right? I mean, Fluttershy is having our foals. Would anypony abandon their own kin over something so – irrefutably insignificant? Like Rainbow Dash is so much better than Fluttershy…She can’t even understand the love that me and Fluttershy share,” he pouted again. “Or at least, did share…”
“Darlin’, it’s not that Fluttershy doesn’t love ya anymore. She told us last night she still loves ya so much…but she can’t deal with stuff like this. Her feelin’s are easily hurt, ya oughta know that by now. Anything that even seems like it’s against her makes her cry. I’ve seen it too many times,” Applejack explained, leading him onto another path.
Emerald shook his head, trying to rid himself of the miserable sorrow that was attempting to overtake him. “But it’s not like that. I wouldn’t do anything on purpose to hurt her. In fact, usually, when she cries, I cry. Be honest, Applejack, do you really believe that I would hurt her like this intentionally?”
She shrugged. “I already done told ya, can’t pick one 'cuz I don’t want to think either of ya are lyin’.”
Emerald turned away, unsure what to say next, when he remembered the stones. “These stones,” he held his up for her to see, “you think they might have something to do with all this? I mean, think about it. All this drama didn’t start until after I found these stones. And ever since everypony put theirs on their body, things have gotten worse.”
She stopped in the middle of the path, deep in thought, prompting Emerald to stop as well. “I know what you mean, but there’s jus’ not enough evidence to really blame it all on ‘em. If it were the stones, why ain’t you, Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, and I actin’ up?”
“That’s a good point, but maybe they just haven’t affected us yet…?” He suggested as they continued walking again.
“It seems like that might be the case. I suggest ya talk to Twilight. Maybe she’ll have an answer. She does go to the Castle of the Two Sisters pretty often. Maybe there’s a book there that’ll have an answer fer ya,” Applejack suggested, leading him onto a path that led back to the farm.
He nodded. “Yeah, that seems like a reasonable idea.” But then he thought of Fluttershy not wanting to talk to him. “What about Fluttershy? I really want her to stop crying, it hurts me so bad to hear and see it…do you think you could talk to her? Tell her that you agree with me about these stones?”
She hesitated before answering, “Yeah, I’ll help ya out. Only cuz I think ya deserve it, seein’ how much Fluttershy means to ya. I’ll go talk to her now, you go see Twilight, ya hear?”
Emerald collapsed on his face at her hooves, kissing them repeatedly, and saying, “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you…”
Applejack stepped out of his reach. “Stop that, no need fer it. I’m jus’ a friend helpin’ a friend. Go on, now, shoo.”
Emerald hopped up and scrambled away to Twilight’s castle, hoping that she’d be able to help him out. It was a reach, knowing how Twilight had already admitted not knowing anything about the stones, but maybe the Castle of the Two Sisters contained the knowledge he sought.
Luckily for him, Twilight was not at the castle, but heading down the path to the farm.
“Emerald?” She asked, surprised to see him. “Why are you here at the Apple farm?”
Emerald put his hooves on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes, frantic. “We must go to the Castle of the Two Sisters. I believe we might find out more about these innocent little stones that seem, to me, to be causing so much trouble.”
“And I’m goin’ to talk with Fluttershy,” Applejack called out from behind Emerald as she approached him and Twilight. “Maybe I can convince her to have an open mind about these stones.”
“I see,” Twilight replied, looking back and forth at the two of them. “In that case, we should go now, because it’s not a short trip. I was going to stop by here for a bit to talk to Applejack about something, but since the castle is pretty far into the forest, we need to be there and back before sundown.”
“I can imagine. But I’d walk a thousand miles for Fluttershy. I’m not doing this for myself – I’m doing it for her,” Emerald said, feeling a pang of grief as he thought of Fluttershy at home, still upstairs and crying, most likely.
“Alright, let’s go.” Twilight turned and flew off with Emerald not far behind.
“Oh, I hope this helps…” He said out loud to himself.