//------------------------------//
// A Wake of Disaster 
// Story: Star-Crossed Lovers 
// by ShootingStar81 
//------------------------------//

      "Ok, why am I here again?"

The words were spoken by a familiar, rainbow-maned pegasus as she hovered a few feet off of the ground, wings beating in even measure to hold her place.  Not far from her, Shooting Star was busily working on what could only be finishing touches to an invention.  Well, it seemed like one, anyway.  It looked a lot like a hang-glider, but it had a reinforced upper frame upon either side of which was mounted a large rocket, the pair likely capable of a great deal of propulsion.

Finally acknowledging her query, Star nodded up at the pegasus, fishing through his saddlebag for a wrench before he replied.  "I'll need your help if something goes wrong, Raindbow Dash."  Tightening the bolts securing each rocket, he finally nodded in satisfaction.  Setting the wrench back in his pack, he began to investigate the attachments that would hold his body to the frame.  "You know, frame could break, the wing could tear, rockets misfire...too much for me to risk doing this without some kinda help, right?"

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow emitted a long, low sigh of annoyance and boredom.  Not only was she stuck here babysitting a wannabe inventor, but he thought he was actually going to fly.  This was almost an insult in itself, at least to a pegasus as proud as she was, but she had also promised Twilight she'd not only help him out, but be on her best behavior.  She didn't know what had concerned her brainy friend so much as to ask such a favor, but if it bothered her so much, she'd at least humor the mare.  "Oh no, can't see THAT happening..." she muttered under her breath in regard to his comments of possible malfunctions.

Given his cheery demeanor, he either didn't hear her comment, or didn't care.  Pulling a rag from his bag, he wiped down his face and fore-hooves before putting it back, nodding in satisfaction at his work.  "That should do it!  Now I just need some help getting this thing on, and we'll see if we can get it off the ground!"  As he said this, he removed his saddlebag, knowing it would just get in the way of the securing straps for his glider.  With another annoyed sigh, Rainbow dropped to the ground, setting to helping him attach the somewhat bulky contraption.

"So, tell me again, what is the point of this?"  she asked as she pulled the waist strap tight with her teeth.

"Well, y'see, I found out that Autumn Breeze is livin' here, too," he began, a cross of excitement and nervousness in his voice as he secured the two foreleg straps that afforded him control of steering.  "An' I knew her in Manehattan.  Well, sorta knew her, but that's not the point.  The point is I uh...well, I kinda...ya know..."

Rainbow just gave him a somewhat blank stare as he appeared to struggle with the words.  She was a bit slower to pick up than Rarity had been, but eventually that light-bulb was lit, and it showed on her face as she leapt up into the air, throwing her hooves out in an exaggerated gesture.  "Wait, lemme get this straight.  You like her, which I kinda get now, but then, why are you here and not asking her to be like, your special somepony or whatever?  Hearts and Hooves day is tomorrow, you know."

Testing the controls attached to his forelegs, he made sure the rudder would respond as he tugged at each.  Of course, he continued to talk as he did so, the activity taking the edge off of his mind so that he could.   "Well, y'see, she's a pegasus like you, an' I'm just a plain old earth pony.  So, I kinda figured I could, you know..."

Rainbow crossed her forelegs over her chest, narrowing her eyes at the darker-hued stallion.  "What, you thought you'd just up and fly?  Seriously?"  She scoffed out loud at the idea, unable to repress her irritation at the notion.  "It's not that simple, you know.  Flying's all about skill and speed, reflex and endurance.  Gliders are simple enough, but what you're trying?  It's nuts!  I mean, you're gonna what, launch yourself like a firework with those rockets?  Don't they explode?  And how do you plan on even stopping that thing?"

While her tirade might prove a bit cutting to most, he was struck more by the logistical approach she had applied as well.  Of all the things he had or hadn't considered, he couldn't help but wonder why stopping wasn't a foremost concern in his mind.  "Huh," was all he could manage, idly shifting in place as he began to give it more thought.  "You know Rainbow, may—"  

His words were abruptly cut off as his movements had caused his hindquarters to bump the ignition rod to his rockets, which triggered the respective sparks needed to set them off.  Without warning, he was sent rather forcefully into the air, a delayed echo of a shout of surprise being all that followed in his wake.  His goggles were left behind by the force of acceleration, floating in the air for a moment before they fell to the ground.  It was then that Rainbow Dash let out a long, low sigh, drooping at the shoulders for a moment.  "Yeah.  Just like that," she muttered to herself before she shot off into the air in hot pursuit.  Without her intervention, this was only going to have one outcome, after all.

With not one but two rockets, Star's glider tore through the air at speeds that would put most pegasi to shame.  Speed enough to peel back his lips and eyelids against his will, leaving him rather at the mercy of the rockets themselves as they spent their fuel.  Rainbow's point was becoming painfully obvious; he had CLEARLY not thought this through, and he was going to pay for it, hopefully just metaphorically.  He found himself praying to Celestia that Rainbow was every bit as fast as everyone claimed she was.  No other pony could have hoped to keep up.

Of course, his mind didn't get much of a chance to wander as the rockets rapidly spent their fuel.  With a few shudders and sputters, they spent the last of it, leaving him suspended a remarkably long way up above Ponyville.  For a moment, his breath caught in his throat before he realized that this contraption of his, at it's core, was still a glider.  "At least I can glide down," he commented to himself, just before the entire thing was suddenly consumed in a burst of flame from one of the rockets, burning it to cinders in less than a second.  Hovering in the air for but an instant, the look on his face said it all.  

Oh, somepony out there doesn't like me...

Gravity then took hold, sending him plummeting to the ground below with ever increasing speed.  He began to flail wildly, as if that would do any good, but it was about all he COULD do in light of his current predicament.  Looked like Rainbow hadn't been able to keep up, and that was bad bad bad news for the poor stallion as the ground drew close a lot faster than he would have liked.

Looks like I'm outta luck!

"Gotcha!" shouted Rainbow Dash as she caught the falling pony from behind, a hoof under each of his foreleg pits, hoisting him up from his fall with a small grunt of effort, but no real strain on her part.  "Toldja this was a bad idea, Star.  Looks like you were lucky to have me around to save your hide, eh?"

"Oh, am I so, SO glad to see you, Rainbow!" he exclaimed, relief written all over his face as he looked up at her.  "Didn't think I was gonna make it there for a moment.."

For her part, Rainbow was stone faced as she descended what would have been the remainder of a bad fall, dropping him the last few feet or so to the ground, which happened to be one of the orchards on Sweet Apple Acres.  She remained airborne, hovering in place as she often did.

Hitting the ground on all fours, Star grunted with the force of his landing, although it could have been a lot worse.  "Wow, thanks again for the save Rainbow!  I don't know where I'd be if—"

"What in the name of Celestia were you thinking?!" she demanded, throwing her forelegs out wildly both in exclamation and protest of his actions.  "You could have been seriously hurt!  Killed even!  And for what?  To prove you can fly with some crazy invention you cooked up in a night?  Even Pinkie was better prepared than that!"  Rainbow continued to huff after she spoke, a mix of anger, frustration, and though she wouldn't admit it, worry.  "Was all of that risk worth it?"

Star bowed his head like a scolded foal, offering no immediate response as he took the berating she offered.  He really had no place to object; she was right on all counts.  Well, all save for one.  "She'll always be worth it," he murmured softly under his breath. 

"What was that?" she asked, leaning in a bit closer to hear him.

"N-nothing.  Just...you're right.  It was kind of a bad idea.  I should have been more prepared, at the least, and I'm very grateful you were willing to come out here.  If you hadn't, well, I'd be a whole lot worse for wear, I think."  It was then that he lifted his head back up, offering the pegasus a sheepish smile, which at least managed to soften her demeanor a bit.

"Look," she began, landing nearby amid the flutter of her wings.  "I know you want to impress her, but you're going about it the wrong way.  If you prove yourself and she likes you for it, is it really worth forgetting who you really are?"  He bowed his head in reply at her words, as they carried a lot more weight than he wanted to be hearing at that moment.  He looked so sad just then that Rainbow simply sighed, heaving her shoulders as she looked up at the sky.  "Oh good grief, it's like scolding a foal."

A moment of silence fell as he lowered himself to the ground, laying down as he watched the pegasus intently.  She was proving a lot more insightful than he would have liked, which was also a mild contradiction to the brash personality she was know for.  In a way, it was surreal to be one to see it.  Maybe not the only one, but surreal all the same.  When he offered up no response, she sighed once more, closing the gap between them as she placed a hoof to his shoulder.

"Look, I may not know you as well as others in Ponyville, but I do know something about overstepping your limits.  You should really think this through before you do something that you can't walk away from, alright?"  She offered him a smile of assurance when she finished speaking, eliciting a small nod from the stallion before she stepped back.

"I'll be more careful, Rainbow," he finally replied, offering her a small nod.  "Promise," he continued when she offered him a doubtful look.  Though she continued to look as such, she spread her wings and launched herself up into the air once more.  He would at least have to walk back to his equipment, giving him time to think.  "You'd better be, Star.  I'd hate to have to hunt you down later!" she called back over her shoulder as she took flight, heading back into Ponyville.

As she disappeared into the distance, Star slowly began to rise back to his hooves, watching the skyline for a time as he lost himself in thought.  He had told the truth...mostly.  He would be a bit more considerate in his efforts, but he was not done trying to prove himself to her.  Not yet.  While her words had rung true, he had also not yet tried anything that fell outside of who he was, either.  An inventor!  A builder of things.  It only made sense to do so.

With that in mind, he took to a trotting pace, using his bearings to make his way back to the field where they'd started, at the least to recover his tools and goggle.  "Back to the drawing board," he murmured to himself as he pondered what he might try next.

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Later that evening, three little fillies were just on the outskirts of the same field that Shooting Star had tested his flying contraption in, looking perhaps rougher for wear.  All three had pinecones in their hair, and pine sap covering an unfortunate portion of their coats.  A white one and a yellow one each bore scowls on their faces, clearly directed at the orange one of the group, who offered a sheepish grin in reply.

"Well, how was I supposed to know it would work so well?  Or that all three of us were still strapped together?"  started the orange one, clearly making an attempt to defend herself.  "I mean, come on Apple Bloom, you built the catapult.  Why didn't you at least warn us before you fired it?"

"Cause I thought Sweetie Belle untied us after that trip up the tree," she replied, stamping a hoof.  "S'not mah fault y'all didn't bother t'check it first."

"Oh no, you're not pinning this one on me," Sweetie Belle retorted, before she pointed a hoof at Scootaloo.  "It was her idea, after all."

After a few moments spent glaring at one another, all three simply sighed, having yet another failed attempt for them to find their cutie marks.  "You'd think we could have gotten something, seeing as it actually worked,"  Scootaloo said while kicking a pebble, sending it skipping into the field.  "That's probably the furthest I've ever flown, after all."

"Ah'll say," Apple Bloom continued, perking up with a grin on her face.  "If it weren't fer the landin' that mighta been fun!"

All three of the friends giggled for a few moments before they heard an irritated moan from the field, which captured all of their attention.  At first, none of them could make out anything, but Sweetie Belle eventually saw it, or rather, the silhouette of a dark-hued pony.  Actually, were it not for his rather bright blonde mane, she might not have seen him at all.  'There's somepony out there," she commented as the other two followed her now pointing hoof.

"What would anypony be doing out there?" Apple Bloom asked, sporting a confused look.

"Beats me, but let's find out!" Scootaloo finished, motioning for the other two to follow her as she crouched down, inching closer to try to see what it was this pony was up to.

Shooting Star was surrounded by parts and boxes, two of which were full of an array of completed fireworks.  Everything else was a smattering of components, from hollowed tube to colored powders, and a vast array of fuses.  In front of him, sitting upright, was a rather sizeable rocket, almost half the size of the stallion.  Using a hoof, he was gently tapping the top of the rocket in place, oblivious of the three friends that were sneaking up on him at that moment.

Muttering incoherently to himself, he began rummaging through a box of assorted fuses, a moment later pulling out about five of them and arraying them before him on the ground.  He spent some time hemming and hawing over choices before he selected an odd, spiral-like fuse, whereupon he began to attach it to the rocket's base. 

"Awright, time to see if I can get this to work," he mused to himself out loud.  While the Cutie Mark Crusaders had been sneaking up on him, there was another pony approaching that was anything but discreet.  She also all but failed to blend into the dark left by the fading light, even if she had wanted to. 

"Hiya Star!" came the all-too-cheery voice of Pinkie Pie, garnering a tooth-grinding look of horror from the stallion.  "Whatcha doin'?"

"Nothing!  Nothing at all!  Just...uh...sorting parts!  Yeah, making sure I have what I need for tomorrow's show," he began, sounding perhaps too nervous.  "Nothing fun here, nope, not at all.  Might as well go and see what one of your other friends is doing," he continued, shooing Pinky away as she drew closer.

This did little to deter the oft hyper and all curious mare.  "Oh Star, your still a hoot!  As if you'd do anything boring!"  This she said as she stopped alongside his large rocket, opposite of him.  "Ooooo....what's this one?  I've never seen you make one so big before!"

Snatching it up in his hooves, he hugged the rocket tightly to him, which spoke of the disasters Pinkie had caused for him.  He was more willing to hold a tube of explosives to his chest than let her touch it!  "It's for...uh, for something!"  He replied, almost saying more than he'd intended to.  Well, knowing Pinkie, he probably said too much as it is.  For all of her antics, that mare was rather perceptive, though few gave her credit for it.

As if to acknowledge this point, Pinky began to bounce in place.  "Oh!  Oh!  For your special somepony, right?  Right?!  Tellmetellmetellme!"  Oh, but she was incorrigible, which unfortunately had grown on the purple pony she was heckling, his expression softening despite his tense nature.

"Alright, yes, I was trying to test fuses again.  I was hoping to impress her with this tomorrow, but I needed to be sure it'd work, and YOU keep exploding them in my shop, so I came out here."  It was then that he gave her a wary gaze.  "Don't tell me your Pinkie sense brought you here?"

"Nope!" she replied all too cheerfully, beaming joyfully as she closed her eyes.  "They did!"  This she said while pointing, well, at him.  Or so he thought.

After a moment, he glanced back over his shoulder to see all three of the Crusaders standing not ten feet away.  "Hngh!" he managed in shock, emitting a sound more than a word as he fell over in a failed attempt to shield the rocket from the newcomers.  Of course, all three of them had their mouths wide open in excited grins.

"Fireworks?!"  Scootaloo was first to say, buzzing her wings excitedly, not unlike a humming bird.  "Oh boy, can we see?  Maybe we can help you!"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom gasped in unison as they shouted in much the same manner.  "Cutie marks in fireworks!"

"Why didn't we think of this before, girls?"  Apple Bloom added, squealing in delight.  All three fillies were suddenly hopping about with enthusiasm.

"Oh, oh!  What can we do to help, Star?"  Sweetie Belle chimed in, at which point she stopped prancing about, a puzzled look upon her face.  "Actually, how do you even make one of those things?"

Shooting Star opened his mouth as if to reply, but Pinkie began to prance excitedly, drawing his attention away from the trio.  "O-o-o-o, Staaaaarrr!  The fuse!"

At those excited words, the stallion looked down to see the elongated fuse burned down almost to the base of the rocket, hissing with progress as it threatened to ignite it.  Eyes wide in a mix of shock and horror, he realized he must have kicked off a spark when he fell over moments before.  "Gah!  FuseFUSEFUSE!!"  He shouted in increasing volume as he attempted to stamp out the fuse.  For their part, the Crusaders ducked back and crouched, being familiar with such outcomes in all of their misadventures.

Of course, luck proved to no avail in the matter, and with it's final hiss, the rocket didn't so much launch as explode in his face with a spectacular BOOM, throwing sparks of color and bits of cardboard in every direction.

Ducked back as they were, the crusaders were spared most of the effect, slowly rising to their hooves as they waited for the dust and smoke to settle, anxious to see the outcome.  As it began to clear, it was apparent that both Pinkie and Star had taken the brunt of it.  The latter simply sat there, a bit of a frown on his now blackened face, and pinprick eyes.  Pinkie stood there as only she could, looking unfazed save for her own blackened hide, and the frozen 'o' on her face.  "You two alright?"  Apple Bloom finally asked, at which Pinky finally stirred.

"That...was...AWESOME!" she screeched out in her usual manner, springing up into the air as she left a Pinkie-formed patch of ash behind, which promptly blew away before she landed again.  For his part, Star remained in shock.  This kind of mishap wasn't uncommon for him, especially not in Pinkie's presence, save for one thing.  It wasn't her fault this time!

"Well," he began, drawing the statement out as he looked from Pinkie to the three Crusaders.  "Suppose that could have gone better."  He let out a long, low sigh, looking dejectedly at the tiny crater the blast had created.  "There goes that idea..."

Of all people to speak up just then, it was Sweetie Belle, who stepped forward from her two friends to nudge his side with a hoof.  "Um, Star?  We couldn't help but overhear you talking to Pinky..."  As she said this, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom smiled as innocently as they could manage; they had sorta been spying on him, after all.  "Anyway, it looks like you might have the wrong idea here.  Maybe...maybe you should talk to Twilight."

Pinkie's eyes popped open at that suggestion, a blank expression momentarily on her face before she just smiled that smile of hers.  "That sounds like a great idea!  Better than exploding yourself so much."  This, of course, implied that she had heard about his glider mishap as well.  That really wasn't much of a surprise, given that Pinkie was one of Rainbow's closest friends.

Finally, the stallion simply let out a long, exasperated sigh.  He had been so nervous since he'd learned Autumn Breeze was living in Ponyville, and he'd let that cloud his judgment.  Everypony so far had been right; every attempt he made in an effort to prove himself had ended in catastrophic failure.  Maybe now it was time to listen.   "Alright everypony, I'll do it.  Let's go see Twilight."

"Alright!" Apple Bloom cried out, the trio perking up as he took to their suggestion.  After all, it wasn't often that an older pony took THEIR advice.  Pinkie simply squealed excitedly as she began to bounce her way toward the library, which was also Twilight's home.

"Last pony there's a toasty cupcake!"  she declared as she picked up her pace, leaving the Crusaders staring at each other for a moment.

"What?  No way!" Scootaloo cried before she tore off after Pinkie, Apple Bloom in hot pursuit.  Sweetie Belle, however, remained behind, turning her gaze on the humbled stallion.  

"You coming, Star?"  she asked, a hopeful look on her face.  He couldn't help but smile at the little filly's earnest demeanor, at which he simply nodded.

"Lead the way," he replied, at which Sweetie nodded and smiled, turning to lead him back into Ponyville, and to the tree that served as both the library and Twilight's home.  Star fell in step behind her, wondering just what would be waiting for him when they got there.  Twilight Sparkle was renown for her power of lecture, even to the newer pony, and that left him both dreading it...and perhaps looking forward to it.  "Not like it can get any worse now," he murmured softly to himself.

Just then, a flash of light streaked through the sky, lighting up the darkness for but an instant before it vanished.