Chapter 38 – A Messy Business
The rest of the day went smoothly, Blade and Writch doing maintenance on the Rainbow Trail Mk.2 as everyone else did their part as well. Rarity waking early thanks to her own devices, and took in a long breath of morning air as she stepped out of her room, "Ah!" she said, "Another beautiful day." She made her way towards the garage, eager to find the breakfast cart. Using her magic, she picked up a plate and picked a few of the smaller pancakes before taking some apple slices and some cookies with a cup of tea before making her way to her station.
"Rarity…" she heard Pinkie Pie say as she finished the last of her food and began sipping her tea, "…you know that Meltackian gentleman you and Spike met yesterday?"
"Yes?" Rarity said, knowing it was going somewhere. She made her way to the door of the garage, where the pink party pony and Piks stood, each trying to make some kind of sense of what they were seeing. Image was there, his back mainly turned to them, but his hands animated as if he were having a conversation with himself. He wore something different today, this time it was a red silk shirt that hung loosely around his neck with its sleeves rolled halfway up his arms and white pants that were held up by a silver belt. He also wore shoes, shiny black shoes even though he never touched the ground with them. She could see the panic on him, his skin shifting colors wildly as they made the greens and yellows more dominant as he animatedly argued with no words to anyone. "Image?" she asked, and caused him to flinch before turning around, "What are you doing here dahling?"
The Meltackian seemed to shift a bit, his colors now shifting from mainly green and yellow to allow the blue and purples to show more, "I uh…" he said nervously, "I was wondering, would you enjoy some…"
"Image?" they all heard Spike say from behind them. The group parted to unveil the baby dragon, "Wait, are you here to join our team?"
"Um…" Image said with a nervous chuckle, "…yes?"
"Great!" Pinkie nearly shouted, "Rarity could use some help with cleaning and quality checking parts from the yard."
Image looked to the pink pony in surprise, "I didn't know I'd accidentally communed with you pink one." he said.
When the pink pony didn't respond, Rarity turned to her friend, "Can you hear him?" she asked.
"Nope." Pinkie said, "I could just tell that he said 'yes' when he acted so nervous." Pinkie smiled brightly, "I don't think he has many friends." she whispered to the white mare, causing Rarity to smile, but roll her eyes happily.
"Actually, I could use the help." she admitted, "Twiggs and Applejack are finding all kinds of parts in the yard, and I don't think Applejack is going to go near the cleaning solution for a while."
Image smiled a bit, then turned to her, "I was actually thinking about helping you with the uniforms." he admitted.
"Oh, yes." Rarity said as she let her smile brighten, "I was actually thinking of designs for them last night."
"I do hope I may assist in them." Image said, the tone of voice he used was very different this time, it held not worry, but rather excitement, a great passion that burned deep within him.
"Can you sew?" she asked.
"I can." he told her, "Much better than any you've ever seen might I add."
"We'll see." Spike said and folded his arms.
"I can prove it." Image said suddenly, a fire lit inside his soul, "It is my passion to create and spread an image of perfection, and fashion is a much bigger part of that than you'd think."
"Passion huh?" Spike said, his eyes narrowed in distrust.
"Oh yes." the Meltackian said, "A Passion is a very important thing for our kind to find."
"You'll have to tell us all about it dahling." Rarity said, "But I say we get you introduced to the team first."
"It would be my pleasure." Image said and watched as the ponies turned around, making their way back into the garage.
Spike stayed outside the door, glaring at the alien and trying to look as big as he could despite his small frame, "I'm keeping my eye on you." he nearly growled, and turned around to usher Image into the building.
"Everypony, this is Image." Rarity announced as the two finally made it to the group, "He has graciously asked that he join our team as quality control and apprentice fashion designer."
"I promise not to let you down." the Meltackian said.
Tusks looked at him, eyeing the aurora skinned being up and down before smiling, "Let's see what you can do {snort}." he said, "Go ahead and clean a few parts from the pile. {snort} I'll give you thirty minutes to find as many quality {snort} parts as you can."
Image looked nervous, "I…uh." he began and looked to Rarity. The confidence she portrayed seemed to embolden him, he could feel how sure she was of him simply through her smile, "I'll give it my best." he said suddenly.
And it was his best he gave, after studying the same magazines Rarity had, he quickly set forth cleaning the parts, he inspected each part as he cleaned, eyeing each individual inch of them, finding flaws that would interfere with the overall Racer or even signs of forgery, he was even surprised to find a part that had been broken not once, but three times after someone had welded it back together.
His time flew by, and with a nervous shake of his arms awaited Tusks' decision as he spoke with both Rarity and Twilight. "What do you two think?" he asked.
"He's thrown away over eighty percent of the parts he inspected." the purple alicorn informed them.
"So have I." Rarity said, "It's not uncommon to find broken or counterfeit parts."
"Hmm. So {snort} his throwing parts away is a good thing?" Tusks asked.
"I've inspected the parts myself; he was very thorough and was able to identify the counterfeit parts with little help from me." Rarity informed them, "A bit of refining and I think we could have a top-notch Quality Inspector on our hooves."
"Well, if Rarity says he's good, he's got my vote." Twilight said.
"Then I guess he's part of the team." the large Treeopon said, "Welcome aboard!" This last part he said to Image, and everypony could see the tension in his shoulders disappear as he smiled and exhaled.
"Congratulations!" Pinkie said as the other ponies patted him on the back and cheered. Spike sat back, a small smile on his face but he still held those untrusting eyes as well.
"I promise not to let you all down." Image said, his voice now echoing through all their heads.
Tusks let the group enjoy the happiness a bit, the smile on his face echoing the gladness he felt, "Ok everypony back to work." he suddenly said, "Now I'm {snort} going to have to register you to the team." He then chuckled a bit, "Good thing we {snort} got that console connected to the {snort} Tower Terra Site."
Spike stood back a bit, eyeing the team as they dispersed to do their duties only himself and Twilight Sparkle staying to watch as they all went to work, "I don't trust him." he said softly.
"You mean Image?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah." Spike said to her, his tone dark and untrusting.
"Why not?" the alicorn asked in genuine curiosity.
"We only met him yesterday, and he read Rarity's mind." the baby dragon stated, "I'm gonna keep my eye on him."
"I don't see what's so bad about him, maybe you're jealous that he's going to spend more time with Rarity?" Twilight asked.
"It's not that, I just have this feeling…you know?" he tried to explain.
"Well, I don't suppose it would hurt to keep Rarity company from time to time." Twilight thought to herself, "Do you think you can document the parts they add to our shelves and keep everything organized?"
Spike turned to her, a smile on his face and thankfulness in his eyes as he gazed at her, "You mean it?" he asked.
"Absolutely, also ask Image what he meant when he said 'it was his passion to create and spread the image of perfection' if you get the chance. I'd like to know more about Meltackian culture." she told him. Spike barely registered her commands, instead, he gleefully giggled a bit and took off to go towards where Rarity would be, "DON'T FORGET TO ASK HIM!" she called out.
"I won't!" was all he said as he waved back at her. Twilight rolled her eyes in her head, smiling at the silliness of the baby dragon as she turned to attend to her own duties.
