The return to town was a quiet and soul crushing one, at least for Starlight. Most of the town itself was empty, probably due to everyone still being at the stadium. Starlight barely spoke, obviously downtrodden that something she was so excited about was ripped away from her hooves.
“Starlight, are you sure you’re ok? You barely said anything.” You asked her, knowing damn well she wasn’t. But you didn’t know what to say, as nothing you could do could bring the jet back. Not unless you could be precise with a spell without it mucking something up.
“I-uh, yeah… I just want to get back to the stadium, let everypony know the whole thing is just… I dunno, it just wasn’t worth it.” Starlight was defeated, for sure. She looked down at you, she actually had tears in her eyes.
“Starlight… Hey, come on!” You rushed up to her, leaning upwards to give her a hug. “It’s fine, alright? We’ll get another chance!”
Starlight backed off from you, and let out a heavy sigh, seemingly annoyed by your comment. “Yeah? Well, I don’t think so. That prototype was already super expensive as is. Sunburst was the one who convinced Princess Cadance to help us get what we needed. As for me? What did I really do? Ideas? Conversions? Piloting and testing? Ugh, Sunburst was right, you were right, even Discord was right! I should have just let you come up with something instead of making yet another stupid suggestion!” Starlight then stomped her hoof on the ground, enraged, and began to yell out loud. “I should have just stuck to the original plan! I’m stupid, ok?! I screwed up! Is that what you want to hear?! Well, there it is!”
S-shit, she really had fallen into despair over this. “Starlight… Come on now, I… Er, I mean, I sort of goaded you on. And y’know, there was Rainb-” But she cut you off right there, stomping right up to you, further annoyed.
“And what?! What does it matter?! I could have gotten us seriously hurt! All because I wanted to show off, all because I got excited over something that nopony should even be dabbling in! I screwed up the moment I took interest in those blueprints!” Suddenly, as if she lost all her energy from that outburst, she falls to her side, and points towards the train station. “Just leave me here. Go tell Twilight and Sunburst that I messed everything up, ok?”
All you could do was stand there. Watching her. It was weird, you could feel your heart shattering from this, but there was also this feeling of helplessness. Why? Dammit! This feeling, this feeling of fucking things up, you’ve felt it so many times before. Seeing Starlight like this, feeling like you know how she’s feeling. You just… You couldn’t let it go on any further. “Starlight, what in the fuck are you talking about? You didn’t screw up at all!”
“Oh yeah?” She said, still on her side, with a saddened stoic expression “Then where is the jet?”
“Fuck the jet! Who cares about the damn jet?!” You yell at her.
“I dunno, probably everypony at the stadium.” Starlight said.
“And?! You know what?! You know what…?!” Do you even know?! The jet was important, it was the centerpiece of the entire operation. You had to think, Anon. What would Fluttershy say? She’d say… Well, she’d say something dumb about looking at what you managed to accomplish within messing up or some shit like that. And what did Starlight accomplish? Actually, the deeper you thought about it, she actually did a lot. Hell, this entire situation is kinda sorta similar to a certain bony pumpkin king. “Well, you did your damned best, Starlight! I mean, think about it! You piloted a jet with little to no training whatsoever, while real pilots take years to be able to fly one. You made Rainbow Dash scared enough to actually take the head start. And about that, even with that head start, we not only caught up to her, we blew her away! We reached Manehatten in record time, faster than any pegasi. And you managed to prove that a jet could very well work in Equestria. So what if we didn’t finish the race? So what if the jet is lost? We know, deep down inside, that we could have kicked the shit out of Rainbow Dash and broken any speed record a pegasus pony ever set. Doesn’t that count for something?”
Starlight laid there still, silent.
“Starlight?” Dammit, come on!
She then slowly shifted her eyes towards you “So you really think I was that good a pilot?”
“Starlight, you took that thing further than Sunburst estimated.” You assured her.
Starlight slowly began to smile as she lifted herself off the ground. “So, I took things into overdrive? I took it to the limit?”
“Past the point of no return.” You nodded to her
“Right into the…” Starlight took a step back, then jumped into the air with a cheer. “DANGER ZONE!” But when she landed, she looked at you with heavy disappointment. “Aw, Anon, you were supposed to jump up and say it with me.”
“Oh, er… I guess I wasn’t expecting to cheer you up so fast.” Geez, how embarrassing. “Are you really feeling better already?”
“Yeah! You’re right, Anon. Actually…” Starlight shivered “It’s really scary how right you are, but still, right is right. So what if I lost the jet? Who cares!” She shrugged “I still have the blueprints, and if I ever want to try again, I can use the blueprints I made for that jet and just figure something out for the engine. No problem, I’m good.” Starlight says as she gives you a grin.
“Cool! Cool, awesome. Ok, I guess we can just head back to the stadium and let everypony know what happened.” You say, delighted to see her so cheered up, as you head back towards the train station where the stadium waits beyond.
“The stadium? Oh… Oh no, everypony… Everypony is still there, waiting, for… Er, the jet. Oh boy…” Starlight gulped. “I’m suddenly not so sure and-WOAH!” You weren’t gonna hear it. You immediately get behind Starlight and start pushing her from behind with your head. Somehow, you weren’t turned on from where you were. You had a goal in mind, and you will achieve it.
“Forget about it, Starlight. They saw the damn thing take off, they should have been amazed by just that. Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out.” You tell her as you push her forward.
“Er, um…” She muttered as she just let herself get pushed forward while nervous. “Can’t we, actually, yes. Can’t you make a new jet with your chaos magic? So we can have something to show off?”
“I’m not making a jet with my magic, Starlight. A car? Sure, despite the fact the one I made for Chrysalis works waaaay
too well. Like, to the point I'm afraid I made a real murder machine. I’m somehow afraid a jet made from chaos magic would just explode in an instant or become an instrument of death. I dunno, I’m not risking it.” You could probably successfully make a jet, but you also knew a single mistake could lead to more than just an explosion. It could lead to something much worse.
“Ok... Ok!” Starlight said as she hopped to the side as you tripped forward, fumbling from losing your footing while you were pushing her. She uses her magic to gently catch you, put you down, and pet you a bit. “Alright, you win. I just want an explanation to tell the crowd. Just, something, so they don’t get angry about sitting around for nothing.”
“We’ll say the jet went so fast that it went into another dimension, how does that sound?” You ask her.
“But… That didn’t happen.” Starlight tells you, but then she thought about it. “Then again, we did technically go super fast. And the jet did end up in another dimension, or whatever was in that bag.”
Thank god, if it was any other pony, they’d have just not wanted to lie at all. “Exactly, it’ll be fine.” You tell her with a wink. “Danger zone, Starlight, danger zone”
“I… think we should downplay the whole ‘Danger Zone’ thing. It might give the wrong impression, like, we purposely pushed it to the limit despite the danger… zone. I mean, ugh, first human words, now this. Eh, at least the song was good.” Starlight said with a groan.
And with that, you both returned to the stadium to an already inpatient audience. Indeed, you had both decided to just peek out from the home team stadium entrance to see them just moaning and groaning. It seemed Trixie was doing her best to entertain the crowd, though not being prepared, she wasn’t doing too good a job of that. Twilight herself seemed very unnerved as she spoke to Sunburst and Fluttershy. Speaking of Fluttershy…
“...He could WHAT?!” Fluttershy said, in an almost uncharacteristic burst of rage, as she hovered upwards, holding Sunburst up by the collar of his cape.
“Erm, u-um. W-well, we don’t actudsfadss!” But then Fluttershy started to shake him violently, with her eyes burning red with fury.
“Exploded! You said ‘exploded’! Are you telling my little Anon exploded?!” Fluttershy said as she brought her head onto Sunburst’s, her eyes practically touching his.
Sunburst gulped as his life began to flash before his eyes. “We-e-e don’t actu-GYAAAH!” Suddenly, Fluttershy began to shake him even more violently.
“If I don’t get my Anon back, I’ll make sure to do terrible and horrible things to you! Like tip over all your flower pots! I’LL TIP THEM ALL OVER! I SWEAR!... wait.” Fluttershy stopped herself for a moment there to think about what she said. “I don’t want to do that, I’d hurt the flowers.”
“S-so are you going to put me d-down nWQFDQWDFSA” And yet again, she began to shake him.
“I’LL DO SOMETHING! I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT SOMETHING IS! BUT I’LL DO IT!” She shouted back at him.
“Fluttershy, calm down, it’ll be ok.” Twilight gently put a hoof to her back, to try to calm her friend. But Fluttershy, dropping Sunburst’s ass on the floor, burst into crying as she hugged onto Twilight.
“But he’s up there, or maybe he got blown to pieces, or burnt to nothing! I can’t, I can’t think, Twilight. I can’t imagine all the horrible, terrible, and scary things he may have already gone through. What if he’s gone? What if he’s gone?!” She sobbed, crying tears all over Twilight’s back.
“I… I’m sure he’s alright. He’s got his horn, and he’s with Starlight. I’m sure everything is alright, and they just reached Manehatten now and are turning back as we speak.” Twilight said in a gentle tone, trying her best to console her friend.
“Ok, maybe things got a little worse than we thought. I didn’t know Aunt Fluttershy was going to freak out like that.” Yeah, fuck, she threatened to tip over flower pots. Probably one of the scariest threats she’s ever made in her lifetime… You know, without some weird influence.
“Yeah…” Starlight said with a bit of shakiness in her voice, a bit fearful Fluttershy was going to ‘attack’ her like that “Let’s just go say hi, and hopefully everything will be ok from there.”
“I noticed you two aren’t in the jet. Did you crash it into Canterlot without me? Huh, huh?” Said a voice from beside the both of you. Spooking you both as you and Starlight flop forward from fright. It was, of course, Scrappy, out of nowhere.
“Scrappy!” You both yell at him, making him jump back, then give a small growl.
“Hey! I just wanted to know. Actually, Rainbow Dash didn’t come back either. Did you crash it into her?! I don’t even know how to feel about that. She can be annoying, but if she was gone, Scootaloo would be upset. I don’t like it when Scootaloo is upset.” Scrappy then gave you both a death glare. “Is Scootaloo going to get upset?”
Starlight, having lost her patience with him, picks him up by the scruff with her magic as she stands, eyeing him close. “If you don’t want me to turn you into a toad, you’ll be quiet about the jet, ok? It's gone, and I don't want to be reminded of it in that way.” Starlight said, giving him her own death glare.
“You don’t scare me. I’m a captain! And a guard dog! I could be captain of the guard dogs, y’know!” Scrappy barks back at her.
“I’ll tell your master you went to the bathroom in my office, how does that sound?” Starlight asks him, her brow furrowing.
“What?! But I didn’t do that!” Scrappy said with a bark, utterly shocked. “You’d lie to Master Applebloom?!”
“Anon.” Starlight called to you, looking down at you with a nod. Wait, why did she call to… Oh. Well, ok, that’s fine, Scrappy was being a goober anyway.
“I mean, I can use my horn to turn into you, then take a dump in her office. Then it’d technically be true.” You say with a shrug.
“It would be, wouldn’t it?” Scrappy asked himself as he pondered on it. “Yeah, that’d be pretty evil. Ok, I’ll leave you both alone now, I have to scout the parameter anyway.” Scrappy said as Starlight lowered him to the ground, letting him walk off as he kept his nose close to the ground.
“Yeah, never gonna get over how creepy that guy can be. He seriously expected for me to crash the jet into something.” Starlight said, still irked by his words.
“Yeah, that’s really how he is. But forget about him, let's just go see the others before Aunt Fluttershy moves on to threatening to make Sunburst cry or something.” She practically was already close to that, considering how she was acting.