//------------------------------// // Looking Back // Story: Stars Dashing // by RobotFox //------------------------------// Chapter 7 Looking Back Starscream and Twilight for the next few hours merely talked about all the things that she wanted to know and occasionally Starscream would ask his own questions here and there and Twilight respectfully answered them the best she could. Their conversation covered essentially everything about the attack as well the Cybertronian Civil War with the Autobots back on Cybertron. Twilight also returned the favor by explaining a lot how their planet worked, such as how the sun and moon was raised and so forth. Starscream rose from his position and started to look around the apple orchard “This planet…is so different from all the others I went to.” “How many planets have you’ve been to?” Twilight asked also standing. “I don’t even know anymore. Back when I was an explorer and a scientist I went to many planets, and even my time with the Decepticons I’ve been to a number of planets.” The pegasus answered. “Well it’s lunch time, how about we get something to eat?” Starscream raised a brow, “Will that cure the pain, and weaken state I feel now?” which was a major overstatement but he did feel a little weak and he imagined it was from the organic need of nutrition. “It should. When you’re hungry often your stomach will hurt and weakness. Other symptoms many be part of it as well like headaches and things like that.” So with no delay they went back to the farm house and were ready to get something to eat with Rainbow Dash trying to stay in hiding as well as get back to the farm house before they did and she had to pretend she was sleeping all day. Of course, the lack of flight made this a little harder for the mare but like everything else, she over came it. After she climbed through the window she went to Applebloom’s bed, rested her head on the pillow and started to think about the entire conversation that Starscream had with Twilight. One thing that really interested her was the whole story about the war. Starscream went in great detail explain the Cybertronian Civil War. Talked about the Autobots and their views as well as the Decepticons and their ‘mission’. Starscream mostly focused on himself and Megatron, explaining how much of a fool Megatron was and/or how much he felt he was a terrible leader. But that was one thing that bothered her the most. The entire time he talked about him, he often stopped and would either change the subject or just stop and continue the question some other way. It was clear that he was trying to hide something. She couldn’t tell if Twilight noticed this but she didn’t seem to press on about them. She figured that she was being her ‘respectful’ self or she was completely oblivious to it, which is pretty hard to sallow even for Twilight. The only other thing that came up that she wanted to know more about what when Starscream joined the Decepticons. When Twilight asked it, he merely said that he needed work and felt that his talents had a use with them. She remember him saying something about corrupt government then and that was what he was fighting for, which was suddenly botched with him saying how he was planning on being leader of the Decepticons. “Rainbow Dash?” Twilight said opening the door and peeked in. “Are you feeling okay?” Really she felt fine. If she needed rest, she got it listening to them since she was just lying on the grass. “Fine, how’s ‘Screamer’?” she said his name with venom, if anything to cover up the fact she was spying on them. “Surprisingly, co-operative.” Twilight answered “He actually seemed pretty glad to talk about all these things. Kinda reminds me when Pinkie Pie has something on her mind and finally lets it out…although not as um…” “Excited?” “Yeah, let’s go with that.” She giggled lightly “Honestly, I think you’ll like talking to him. He told me about how he used to be an Air Commander.” “Really?” again trying to hide the fact she was spying on them “Hmm…wait, I though we were trying to learn from him, not befriend!” “We’re not befriending him Rainbow. But we can’t just treat him like a prisoner either. Even though my magic may work on him now, I think its best we let him tell us not force him.” She stopped and thought for a moment “Although, it seems that he…despite his act, he seems to be well, content. Anyway, we’re about to have lunch, you hungry?” At that point she noticed her stomach rumble to which she only grinned weakly “Um actually, I’d like that.” With that she followed Twilight as she herself had a little chuckle at Rainbow’s reaction to which she rolled her eyes at. When they returned to the kitchen they found the ex-seeker just standing around stretching his legs but mostly trying to kill time. “Having fun?” Rainbow asked with a smirk. “Oh yes, I enjoy the great discomfort of having to learn a new way of survival as well as my wings restricted, I couldn’t of asked for better treatment at an Autobot Brig!” Starscream spat with heavy sarcasm. “Well I guess I can remove the rope.” Twilight mussed. “Are you sure? I mean yeah he’s co-operating but how do we know that this is all not a way to escape?” Rainbow added. “And where do I have to go!?” Starscream defended, startling both the blue pegasus and purple unicorn. “In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t really have a place to go! Megatron and the other Decepticons abandoned me and I can’t necessarily return to them in this…form! he huffed loudly “Besides, how do you think I can fly with these wings!” “Um…sorry…” she was being ligament with her apology but didn’t mean she was thinking less of the attack he was part of. “Whatever…” Starscream at this point didn’t even think about what made him go on his mini tangent but merely turned his attention away from them. Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash for a second to which she just shrugged, showing that she was no longer going to argue about releasing his wings. With that she used a spell to release the rope that was tightly around his wings. Starscream looked back at her, with a neutral expression, but later made a relieved groan as he stretched his wings for well…the first time. Shortly after, all of them had a simple lunch, some clean hay as well as a daises sandwich, a very quiet lunch at first. Starscream didn’t really seem to be in the mood for talking anymore, perhaps because of the presence of Rainbow from her reaction. He growled at the though, once again this blue pegasus was on his mind. Despite everything she’s said to him, every punch she gave, and every glare she gave him. He couldn’t help but feel a fondness, not in just physical appearance but also in his now-heart, something he has never felt before. Sure he’d seen many femme transformers he felt were attractive but he has never had the same feeling as this. “Um…so Star um tell Rainbow Dash about um…being an Air Commander.” Twilight asked hoping to break the silence. Starscream couldn’t help but smirk once again “Ah yes, my expertise in the sky! I Starscream was that-” Rainbow heard all of it before so she tuned it out but was transfixed on his figure himself. It was true, for a mildly built stallion, Starscream was fairly attractive. His silver coat was still a little dirty but still had a shine to it; his silver, white, and red feathers were all blended together beautifully. Starscream had yet to fully open his wings but she was curious about their look. Also there was something to him, both in his personality and his character. Starscream gloats a lot and this was just something of his defining character. She chuckled at the thought, she wasn’t much better on that score, although she felt that Starscream was probably more so than her. Their probably most common ground however was flight. Even though she place almost any amount of bits that Starscream was exaggerating his accomplishments, she did believe that Starscream was actually an excellent flier and if/when he learns how to fly as a pegasus, she could see him mastering the skies. The conversation at lunch was nothing more than Starscream’s glory speech and then it went back to silence. But surprisingly, the day went by fairly quick after that. Rainbow Dash actually rested on a bed this time while contemplating her thoughts on Starscream, Twilight was going over her notes while keeping an eye on Starscream and Starscream himself was left with own devices around the farm house. Within a few hours the others returned to the farm house with the news that Ponyville’s repairs were coming together well and all the ponies that were injured have been tended to. Most of the town was at least in the stages of some kind of repair. It was joint effort, but all them combined made the recovery faster than many would have thought. All the others had performed their nightly duties, while Starscream kept to himself the entire time, feeling that while he had more liberty than he would anywhere else, he was still a prisoner. Not like it mattered, he no place to go, and surviving of the land was not something that was very appealing at the moment. It was evening and most of them were sleeping in there place they slept the previous night. The only different was that Rainbow was actually on the bed this time. But was not sleeping, her thoughts were still going on about the ex-seeker. She now knew some of his past and what he was able to do, but what was holding back? She could easily tell that he was holding back something major. And within time she found her thoughts being collided with the idea of how he was having trouble sleeping last night. He was shaking uncontrollably…he was scared. She shook her head; she was going to find out what this stallion’s problem was. Wait, why did she care? … She scrapped her hoof on the mattress and got off. She didn’t have a reason, or at least a reason she could interrupt. She lifted her head and looked around the room only to notice that Starscream wasn’t there. ‘Oh no he better not of!’ she thought angrily getting on off the bed and getting out of the room with a look of determination. She went around the house quietly trying to find where Starscream was. Eventually, she came to the conclusion that he must have been outside. “Hmph, must of got up to escape…maybe I can still get him. He can’t fly after all.” She said silently before gunning out the door. Despite her recovering condition, didn’t mean she couldn’t run at all. She searched the farm and the mediate area but just couldn’t find him, and while it wasn’t completely pitch black outside, it was still hard to see from a far distance. After a few moments of searching around she took a breath before looking toward orchard to where she found the very stallion she was looking for all in his shinning silver fur. He was merely lying there with his head into the ground. “What do you think you’re doing here Starscream?” Rainbow asked smugly while coming from behind him. Starscream took his head of the ground and turned to the rainbow mane pegasus “I expected you to prefer that I would be out in the cold of night. Isn’t that what you organics do when you wish to dispose of an unwanted being?” “What are you talking about? Get back inside.” She didn’t yell at him but it was a firm command. “No.” “No?” Rainbow questioned “Starscream, you’ll freeze out here.” She voice became sincere when she noticed him just putting his head back down “Come on, Screamer…get back inside. Just because we’re not on the same page doesn’t mean I want anything bad to happen.” “Since when did you care? Didn’t you want my wings clipped to prevent me from flying even though I can’t fly already?” “Oh come on!” she said getting annoyed “You can’t blame me, you attacked my town!” “Hmph, you’re lucky.” Rainbow got closer to the pegasus as he raised his head back up and turned to face her “Megatron was being easy on you because we’re trying to conserve energy. Otherwise he would’ve decimated your town.” Rainbow wasn’t entirely convinced “Oh what you did was so much lighter!” He growled and he glared at her directly, she could have sworn his eyes glowed like they did when he was a machine “You really think I was so hard!” he got up and walked closer to her as she nervously backed away “You should be happy that it was me you attacked! If you’d attacked Megatron or any of the others, they would’ve blasted you into oblivion!” Eventually back off and started to walk back to where he was resting before, leaving a petrified Rainbow Dash “Believe me...I know.” Rainbow eventually got back to normal and got close to him again but this time lying next to him with about half a foot or so apart “What is all this with Megatron anyway? I mean I he was you’re leader but, you always seem to have some kind of…vendetta against him.” “It’s not even a vendetta, it’s more like…father and sparkling.” “What are you mean?” Starscream seemed to hesitate looking at the ground for the moment. He didn’t even share this with Twilight when she was asking all the questions, and so far he didn’t know if he wanted to talk to someone about this. However, this was something he used to deal with almost daily. Something that he just kinda took mostly because everyone on the Decepticons were aware of it. ‘They think I’m dead…and I’ve transformed into an organic…and it still haunts me…’ he thought looking at the ground. “Rainbow Dash…” She was caught of guard. He said her name will no venom but with one on conflict and sadness “Yes…” “For the last several steller cycles, I’ve been used as a toy in some sort. Megatron haunts me…” “Um…” “I’ve been Megatron’s Second-in-Command for millions of years…and let me tell you…those years were not easy. Every mission, every failure, no matter how small, I was to blame. I was his release of anger.” “What did he do?” “He beat me into submission. And I was the only one. Rarely raised a servo on them unless he felt it was absolutely necessary, but I always had it coming. It’s true I wasn’t exactly the most…co-operative of the group, but he didn’t much incentive to be so. Even when I tried it was all for naught…” “He abused you.” “…that’s putting it lightly…” “How-” “If ripping of you’re wings and being blown away often is just standard for you ponies then I may have something to worry about after all.” “No we don’t do that it’s…I’m sorry I-” “Don’t worry about it pony. I didn’t expect you to know…” “Starscream…” he turned his attention to her “Please come inside, I” she was going to say she didn’t trust him but couldn’t bring her self to say it after learning more about him “I…come back and sleep…you’ll freeze out here you know…” Starscream turned to the Rainbow Dash with an attempted neutral expression but she could see his clear sadness from the memory “I can’t…as an organic the…dreams…come clearer.” “Dreams…” She thought back to when she saw him sleeping and he looked afraid. “They are of him aren’t they?” Starscream chuckled darkly “I guess it was pretty obvious wasn’t it?” He signed and then got up “Alright…” Rainbow only shook her head and started to walk back to the farm house making sure Starscream followed her.