Chapter 100 – Trouble We Caused
"WHERE WERE YOU?" Twilight asked in a shout. Spike and the others were brought into the main garage room, the entire team surrounding them as the alicorn princess scolded her assistant. Sselekk's mother had been moved to the healing room so that she could get treated, and Image was nearly forced to stand right next to the baby dragon while Applejack, Twilight and Rarity voiced their concerns. "No." Twilight said calmly as she lifted a hoof, quickly cutting off the baby dragon, "I already know where you were!"
"You do?" Spike asked.
"YES!" she once again yelled, though her volume had drastically decreased.
"Ain't it obvious?" Applejack asked in anger, "I told yah to ask somepony else! Not waltz inta a heavily armed fortress to rescue his sister!"
"And you!" Rarity said as she pointed her anger at the Meltackian, "You just had to drag poor Spiky Wikky into this? Why didn't you say anything? Do you not trust us?"
"I do." Image quickly said, "It's just…"
"May I interject?" Serenity asked calmly.
"NO!" the three mares said angrily.
"That is extremely illogical." she said as she folded her arms, "…and rude."
"It's not all Image's fault." Spike quickly said, "He was scared for his sister!"
"But he could have come to us!" Twilight countered, "We could have easily come up with a plan!"
"No offense Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said with a deadpan expression, "But you always overthink your plans."
"Ok…but still." the alicorn said.
"I didn't want you to hate me!" Image said quickly and loudly. The arguing stopped, and the confusion began, unknowing looks and raised eyebrows all turned to him, "I was forced by Sselekk's superiors to become a spy for them. They would have hurt my sister or even killed her if I hadn't." The words all started to make sense, and even Applejack's anger began to fade, "I was afraid that if I was found out, if I told anypony; then all the friends I've made, all the wonderful connections here in this garage, on this team…" he continued, tears actually welling in his eyes at the mere thought, "…I was afraid that I'd break them. That, none of you would want to be my friend." he shook his head, "I couldn't bear that. It would break me just as much as losing my sister. I was afraid, that…" Spike walked up next to him, placing a clawed hand on the Meltackian's pant leg.
"I know going by ourselves was dangerous, and we should have asked for help other than Sselekk." Spike said calmly, "We just, didn't know what else to do. I'd promised that I wouldn't say anything, Twilight. And I'm sorry we worried you."
Twilight looked into both of their eyes, the Meltackian turned his own down to the ground in sorrow, "Oh dahling!" Rarity said as she walked up next to the alicorn, "I'm really sorry for not knowing. I hadn't even entertained the thought of your sister being held hostage. But what made you think that we'd ever hate you?"
"Do you not?" he asked, "I spied on you and gave away our secrets."
"So?" Applejack asked, "Yer our friend, and yah needed help. I'm kinda ashamed that we weren't able to let yah know that you could trust us."
"I am too." Rarity agreed, "I don't imagine you've ever made a connection quite like this in a long time. I suppose I should have been more forward."
Twilight sighed, her anger disappearing completely, "Tell me Image?" she asked, "Did you learn anything from this?"
"I believe I did Princess Twilight." he responded.
"Then how about this?" she said, and focused her magic, causing a rather large book to appear. The edges were trimmed in what looked to be gold while the cover was of blue silk, a small mirror mounted to the front of it with a lock to hold it all together, "I was going to write a novel about this place when I got home, but I think a memoir is just what the doctor ordered. What do you girls think?" She got a resounding vote of approval from the five other element bearers, and turned the book to Image, who now had a confused look on his face, "Tell you what, write down your lesson so your other friends can read it."
Image was speechless as he used his magic to grip the book as it was passed to him, "The six of us did the same thing while we were learning about friendship." Rarity said.
"We had a lot to learn about it too." Applejack said with a gentle smile, "You wouldn't believe how many mistakes we all made along the way."
"But our journal helped us when we were at our lowest points!" Rainbow Dash added, "And now, yours can do the same for you."
"Yeah!" Pinkie agreed while Fluttershy nodded once.
"What do you say Image?" Twilight asked, "Care to share your thoughts?"
Image turned his eyes towards the mirror on the book, seeing his own reflection as he did, and turned back to the alicorn princess, "Wait?" he asked, "Does this mean you all forgive me?" He was instantly swarmed, his body squeezed by Pilit as she rushed in and wrapped him in a large hug. Hulon and Lau both came forward while Piks simply plopped a hand on his shoulder.
Twilight chuckled again, and held up what she knew to be a pen from this planet, "I think we can do that." she joked, and pulled the pen away from him just before he could grab it, "Just don't do anything like this again!" she said, and then handed him the pen as he grinned nervously.
Journal entry #1.
While it's a frightening thing to think you might lose your friends, it is also important to ask for help. My fear led me to leave my good friends out of a bit of trouble I was in, and in the process, I upset them and even put one of those dear friends in danger. It wasn't until I actually spoke to them that they forgave me and I understood just how important to me they were, and how important I was to them. You shouldn't be afraid to talk to your friends, no matter what the problem is. In the end, they may just be able to help, and a true friend will be there in the end.
Your Meltackian Friend,
Image
After he was done writing, he placed the pen down beside the journal, now mounted on a lectern. He sighed, placing his hand on his chest, "Perhaps I should tell Rarity." he said to himself, "The rage I exuded was…unpleasant." He thought, placing a hand to his chin, "Perhaps she has had a similar experience…without the inferno skin of course." his thoughts swam through his mind as he exited the room, entered the hall, and turned to enter the garage and placing himself at his station.
Sselekk and the rest of them stood at the console screen, as the large Sunik and his girlfriend watched in surprise. "That didn't take them long." Kkimira said and glanced back to the screen where she saw all of the friends they had made as well as the news, a roster change for the pilot of the Sunik team. The picture they saw was of the Law Keeper, a new scar and all, the name that appeared was Kkelmar.
"Oh Egas, no." Sselekk said.
"It's not like he can use it, right?" Pilit asked.
"He'll learn." the large sunik said and leaned his body onto the console, "He always learns."
"Luckily we decided to scramble the channels." Tris said.
"No kidding." Syls added in.
"If only we'd had a Guardian Spirit." Sselekk groaned.
Honor looked down at his console, and when he looked up, the text of what he wanted to say appeared near his video. "Honor's asking what a Guardian Spirit is." Pinkie said in response to the text.
"It's an old Sunik folk tale, 'If you see a guardian spirit, speak not and it will pass you by'." Kkimira said in response.
"Basically, if you notice someone has a guardian spirit nearby, don't say anything and don't cause trouble, otherwise you become the target of its aggression." Sselekk groaned out, "And we could really use some aggression on this guy."
"Looks like Spike got him good." Twilight said as she noticed the burn mark. It had healed for the most part, but it still looked almost fresh.
"How come the healing lamps did heal it?" Hulon asked.
"Maybe because Spike is a dragon?" Twilight guessed, "His fire is MUCH hotter than regular fire."
At the back of the garage, Applejack and Twiggs made their way back outside to continue their job, "So…" Applejack asked as the happy Treeopon stopped to take a drink of water, "Where were you all day yesterday?" she asked.
He thought, and she could have sworn she could nearly see the story going through his mind, "Guess you could say I was somepony's [snort] Guardian Spirit." and took a large swig of water to cool himself off, only to look at his partner's confused facial expression.
