The words left his muzzle in a whisper. "The engine don't seem to cause any problem, I can say the same for the G-Diffusers. Nothing abnormal with the temperature and the cooling system is actually working at 3% of its capacity. The launching rail for the smarts bombs is also OK. All the other systems are intact."
Fox moved his head to the left, looking in direction of the leader of the scientist's team.
"I just made a quick check-up and everything seems to be fine."
"That's good to he—"
"But," he interrupted. "We can't be completely sure if we don't test it. You should back away, I don't want to put someone on his back with the wind created by the ship when I'll take off."
"B-b-but, what if something go wrong?"
"I'll take care of it and I'll protect Fox McCloud in the case if there's a problem with his ship."
All the ponies and vulpine present on the landing area for the Arwing turned their heads towards the origin of the voice. It was no other than Princess Luna.
"The day is setting, there's no need to keep you away from your homes and families any longer."
Fox pressed a few buttons on the panel and the moment after, his engine glowed more brightly. Seeing this, the others ponies made a few steps back. In answer to Fox's action, Luna opened her wings and smiled at him, ready to fly in the cloudless sky.
"Ladies, first."
"As you wish, Mr. McCloud."
The blue Alicorn quickly left the ground, flapping her wings to gain altitude and speed. The mercenary smirked and closed his light-blue cockpit.
[Arwing primed and ready to go]
The engine roared more vigorously than before and he took off. Fox quickly catch up with the Princess and flew by her side. Luna looked at him and smiled, he moved his head in her direction before smiling back.
Despite the fact it only have been one week since he couldn't fly anymore, he'd missed it. He missed the feeling of freedom it gave him when he was in his seat, in the company of the clouds and the stars.
His three holographic screens were actually displaying all the information he needed to keep flying without a hitch. A knock on the left part of his cockpit cut off his train of thoughts. He pushed one button and said cockpit separated itself in two before retreating inside both sides of the seat. It was a new feature Fox asked to add. He said it was still better than lower or raises it with the two small electric motors installed in the back of the cockpit.
"Everything's good so far?" asked the Princess of the Night, raising her voice to be heard above the sound of the wind.
"There's no problem with the cooling system for now."
She rolled her eyes.
"No. I mean, I'm confident in our scientists' work but what about you? You look like a foal who received his birthday's gift."
The orange vulpine grinned again and raised a hand to touch the only cloud present in the area. He could feel the water contained in it wetting the fur on his fingers.
"I'm… happy. This is like a reunion with a friend I haven't seen for a long time."
"I think I understand what you mean. Would you like to test it to its maximum speed? To see if there's no problem with it?"
"Maybe…" He looked thoughtful for a few seconds, stroking his chin, before nodding. "Yeah, I'll do it and at the same time, I test the ship to be sure it can go through the atmosphere."
She looked at him confused, an eyebrow raised.
"And how do you plan to do this?"
"Simple." Fox smiled. "I fly to the moon."
Luna looked shocked for a moment before shaking her head and blushing.
"Unfortunately, there's no air in space so, it'll be silent for most of the time."
"Well, I could still use a telepathic spell to communicate with you."
The orange anthropomorphic creature cringed and felt a pang of guilt and sadness. It also gave him a lot of flashbacks, all of them about a certain blue vixen.
"Okay, let's do it."
Fox pushed a button and his cockpit reappeared again before sealing him from the outside world. He brutally pulled the stick to him and began to gain altitude. The Princess flapped her wings harder to keep up with him. Seeing this, the fox decided to not go any faster. An idea popped in his mind to accelerate the process but he didn't know how to contact the princess with his mind to say it.
The mercenary decided to fly closer to her. When she saw this, Luna looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He pointed to his head with his left index. Her horn began to glow a soft blue.
"Something's wrong, Mr. McCloud?"
Her voice echoed in his head, just like Krystal's each time she was doing it.
"No but I've found a way to reach the space faster and without straining you. Hang on the wing."
She nodded and flew to his left wing.
Immediately after this, Fox pushed the engine to twenty percent of its capacity. A white cone was forming around the tip of his ship. Slowly but surely, the Arwing was reaching the sound wall. Looking a second time at the dark blue mare, the ex-leader nodded and she nodded back.
"Show me what you have in the guts buddy."
This time, he decided to fly at maximum velocity. A very powerful sound, like a thunderclap, echoed in the air around the ship and Canterlot.
[Engine working at full power
Actual speed: 4.2 Mach
Engine's temperature: 210°C
Cooling system: 17 % of its capacity]
Fox laughed. He could feel butterflies in his stomach and his head was slightly buzzing. After one week on the ground, he was again free to roam in the sky or in the space. The feeling of freedom it created was one of the best gifts life could give him.
The beautiful white moon was in front of him, gaining in size. His ship trembled a little when he left the exosphere. Now, he was in a place void of any sound, where he was on his own, where there was no problem, no consequences, no laws, no limits, only… space.
Luna let go of his wing, allowing him to do all sorts of maneuvers. He did a few barrels rolls followed by some loops. There was a sensation of euphoria during the whole time. If Fox could see himself in a mirror, he could have seen a grin plastered on his face. Equus' moon was slightly bigger than Corneria's, there's a clear difference between the two. Contrary to the latter, its surface wasn't smooth at all, there're holes and small mountains dispersed randomly on its whole surface.
His Arwing was flying very close to the ground and the vulpine was playing a very simple but interesting game: dodge anything made by the environment that could be considered dangerous; such as rocks, small mountains and stalagmites.
It was the way they were trained at the Corneria Flight Academy and it also was a good exercise to stay alert and in good shape.
Fox slowed down to not leave the blue Alicorn too far behind. Then, he typed on the touch screen of his P.D.A and run a scan of the glowing orb to see if there was any magical disturbance. Shortly after, the scan answered negatively.
"Princess Luna?" he asked in his mind.
"Yes?"
"I thought that while we're here, we could see if the 'disturbance' you told me about a week ago was still present. I did a quick analyze on my computer and there's nothing. My ship's systems are not used to do this kind of things so…could you confirm my conclusion?"
"Sure."
Her horn glowed for a few seconds before stopping.
"You're right. There's nothing wrong, like every other day since the night I felt the anomaly."
She stayed silent and talked again a moment later.
"But we should stay prudent. It could be a trap to lure us into false security."
"That's what Peppy would have said." whispered Fox to himself, smiling and shaking his head.
His green eyes widened when he thought of something rather shocking.
"Wait? How can you breathe in space? There's no air!"
"Magic, Mr.McCloud." she chuckled. "Remember?"
He blushed in embarrassment and looked away.
The two of them continued to fly in silence during one hour before deciding to call it a night and leave the lunar orb. Luna teleported to the landing area to wait for Fox. The latter arrived a few minutes later at full speed and suddenly braked before lowering to the ground. He jumped out of his seat and pushed a button on his P.D.A which closed the cockpit and locked it.
"I thank you for sharing for sharing this moment with me. It's not often I have the occasion to do it with somepony else, I really appreciate it."
The orange fox gave an awkward smile and scratched the back of his head.
"Nah, it's nothing. I'm glad to help."
"I have to go now, I must attend to the Night Court. Farewell, Fox McCloud."
She walked to him and gave a peck on his lips before quickly trotting away.
"Luna, wait!"
The Princess of the Night stopped to move but didn't say anything. Even if Fox couldn't see her face, he knew she was blushing. And, in all honesty, he was rather surprised by what she just did.
"I may not have lived a thousand year but I know what it feels to be alone, to have the world against you and live with regretting your past actions. There's always an ear to hear you if you have the need to talk about it... or anything else."
"Your support is duly noted."
Her horn began to glow and one second, she was here, the next, she wasn't. The vulpine put two fingers to his lips, sighed and thought: "Was it a kiss as a 'thank you' gesture or something else?"
He began to think about the reasons she did it for a few seconds but quickly abandoned.
"I shouldn't give it much thought after all, I'm sure it means nothing."