When the name five and Smokescreen arrived back from the Everfree Forest, Applejack went to her farm to think. She sat under an apple tree and sighed, ashamed of herself.
"Ah already apologized," she said to herself, "and Pinkie Pie forgave me." She looked up at the sky. "Why can't I forgive myself?" She waited, almost expecting a reply from the huge blue expanse. When no reply came, she bowed her head and pulled her hat over eyes.
"Oh, Ah just feel awful. Pinkie was telling us over and over again that the book wasn't in there, but Ah didn't believe it. Ah let my worries get in the way of me seeing that my friend was telling the truth. Me, the element of honesty!" Applejack huffed. "It took Fluttershy to show me that I was wrong and Pinkie was right. And she's the element of kindness, not honesty!"
Applejack rolled over and hit the ground with her hoof, then rolled back, rubbing it. "This is just awful!"
She slumped over, resting her head in her hooves. She sat there in silence and her guilt as the sun slowly set.
"Uh, I'm not much of a talker, but, if it would help you, I could do my best to talk with you." A gruff voice said, interrupting the silence.
Applejack's head shot up at the sound of the voice. Her eyes darted around trying to find the bearer. She whipped her head around the tree to find the dark green Autobot, who threw his hands up in defence of her glare.
"Were you eavesdropping on me?" She asked accusingly.
"No no! I was sitting up here already when you came up, and I didn't want to scare you, cause you seemed pretty upset, so I decided to stay still. And, I wanted to see if there was a way I could help you after you said that about not seeing the truth, even though you're the emerald of honesty or something like that."
His response piqued Applejack's interest. She looked at him thoughtfully.
"You're... Bulkhead, right?" she inquired, turning the rest of herself around and moving out from behind the tree.
"Uh huh, the one and only. And you're Applejack, that I know. Who could forget a name like that?"
Applejack nodded slowly, wondering if that was why she never really had to tell ponies her name more than once. They sat there awkwardly for a couple seconds.
"It's element of honesty, not emerald." Applejack cleared up, hoping for a conversation starter.
"Oh, yeah, the elements. Optimus told us a bit about them." Bulkhead shifted to look up at they sky. "There's honesty, kindness... uh, loyalty..." he looked to Applejack for answers.
"Generosity, laughter, and magic, or friendship." she concluded, sitting down across from Bulkhead.
"And each of your friends represents an element, right?" Bulkhead inquired.
"Yup. Really, any group of ponies could represent the elements, as long as they are friends." Applejack rubbed her chin with her hoof, "Heck, I bet they don't even have to be ponies. It could be griffins, yaks," her face turned sour, "Changelings?" she asked herself. She shook her head, realizing she was getting off-topic.
"You get the idea." Applejack finished, leaning back and closing her eyes.
Bulkhead looked at her. She was obviously upset, while she was doing her best to hide it. He found his courage and spoke up.
"You're the element of honesty, right?" Bulkhead asked. Applejack looked to the side.
"Yea, but, I don't feel worthy of that title right now." she admitted.
Bulkhead furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to think of why this could be. "You said that you couldn't see that Pinkie Pie was telling the truth. Is that why you don't feel worthy?" he asked, hoping he wasn't going into dangerous territory.
She looked back down at her front hooves as she pushed them against each other. She gave a little nod.
So far, so good, Bulkhead thought to himself as he racked his brain for something to say. His eyes literally lit up as a line came to mind.
"Everyone makes mistakes." he said. Applejack's eyes darted up to him, as if expecting him to continue, to give strength to his point.
"Uh, I mean, I'm sure that you have lied before. In fact, I bet each of your freinds have done things that contradict the element they represent."
Applejack huffed. "Yes, Ah have lied before. But this wasn't lying. I knew Pinkie was telling the truth. I just... didn't want it to be true."
She's over-reacting, Bulkead thought to himself. But I can' trust say that. I get the feeling she won't take that very well.
"Ah get the feeling that I might be over-reacting, if that's what you're thinking." Applejack said, looking back at Bulkhead, who let out an internal sigh of relief. "But this has happened before, and it had serious consequences," she buried her head in her hooves.
"It was almost a year ago now, but it has stuck with me all this time." Her eyes loathed. "Discord, he manipulated all of us to do the opposite of our elements. He showed me a vision of what would happen if we were to do this, But Ah wouldn't believe it. It showed us breaking our friendship. Ah wouldn't accept the truth, so I decided that it was a lie, which then lead us to breaking our friendship in the end."
Bulkhead looked at her, sympathizing with her. "You got back together, though, right?"
Applejack nodded. "Of course. Twilight was able to bring us back by helping us remember our friendship with her magic, but she had almost given up hope. Imagine what would have happened if-"
"Hey!" Bulkead interuppted. Applejack looked up at him, eyes filled with horror as her mind went on imagining a future without her friends.
"Snap out of it!" Bulkhead reached over and rested a finger on her hooves, which were frantically rubbing each other. "Calm down. That didn't happen. Your friendship is very strong, I can see that." Applejack lowered her head in shame. "You said Pinkie Pie forgave you. You have to forgive yourself." Applejack lifted her head slightly and peeked at him though her hat. Uhhh... Bulkhead said to himself, stressed that he now had her attention and nothing left to say.
Once again, Applejack came to his rescue by speaking. "Ah guess you're right." She admitted. "If Ah don't, it puts our friendship more at risk than if Ah just... forgive myself," she sighed.
"It's okay to take small steps," he assured her, thinking of the time he had to relearn how to walk.
Applejack looked at him right in the eye. "Okay." She stood up and smiled warmly at him. "Thanks, Bulkhead."
Bulkhead gave a small laugh. "I didn't know I had it in me," he admitted. He looked with worry at the receding sun. "This Discord character doesn't sound so good."
"But he really isn't," Applejack explained, "We don’t why he's acting like this."
Bulkhead turned around and raised an eyebrow.
"He was reformed," she explained, "by Fluttershy. And just about two weeks ago, we went through a very life-changing experience where he realized how special our friendship was to him."
"So why did he send Twilight Sparkle away?"
Applejack pawed the ground nervously. "That's the thing. We don't know."
-----
Megatron looked up as Discord reappeared in the cavern. He had arrived wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses and was reclining in a hammock.
"Well," he asked, waiting for an update on the mission.
A glass of chocolate milk appeared in Discord's hand and he took a sip of the glass.
"What did you do?!" Megatron said, his voice raising.
"Hmm?" Discord asked lazily with a glance to Megatron, "Oh, right, the mission to hinder the ponies."
"The Autobots." Megatron corrected with a glare.
"Oh, you wanted me weaken the Autobots? Oh dear," Discord sighed, lowering his sunglasses, "I just replaced the leader of the elements of harmony, the alicorn, for those three kids from your world," he said as raised his sunglasses and took another sip of the glass.
"WHAT!?" Megatron roared, "I thought I made it very clear that you were to weaken the Autobots!!! THEY are the strongest threat!"
Discord flinched, then regained himself. "You might to re-think that," he said confidentially.
"But you said that we didn't have to worry about them!" Megatron shouted, throwing his arms in the air in frustration.
"I didn't want to worry you," Discord explained as stood up and snapped his claw, causing his hammock and sunglasses to disappear.
"WORRY ME!?! What makes you think I'm not worried!?!" Megatron said furiously.
"Well, you certainly weren't worried then," Discord pointed out.
Uh, how do I put up with him? Megatron wondered.
"I heard that," Discord called. Megatron frowned at him. "What? he asked innocently, "and you have no reason to worry about the elements of harmony."
"And why is that?" Megatron asked, rolling his eyes.
"Without the leader, they are useless." Discord explained.
Hmm, Megatron thought to himself, he didn't do have bad, then.
"I heard that!"