Author's Note
Should actually get around to watching the Rockeeter at some point, rather than just having it be one of those things I'm kind of aware of.
And, you know, Jennifer Connelly...
And away!
Cliff was tightening something up, but there was a distraction.
Every so often there would come a whoosh followed by a sudden gust in through the open window of his workshop. On a day as warm and dry and still as this one, this seemed odd, but every time he went to investigate he could see nothing. Just sunshine and ponies.
The sun shone and the ponies waved. Cliff waved back and returned to his tightening and tinkering only, some minute later, to be distracted again by yet another whoosh.
It was starting to damage his calm.
And it wasn’t as if he could close the window! It was hot! Sweltering, even, were he to shut off ventilation! It simply wasn’t an option. So he just had to grit his teeth and bear it.
Things wouldn’t tighten themselves, after all.
By about the fourth or fifth time it happened he really started to question his sanity and stormed over to the window, not sure what he was planning on doing but sure he had to do something.
“Now look here, you,” he said, addressing the world at large.
He got no further, however, as at that moment something blue appeared almost out of nowhere and came to such a sudden, screeching halt mere inches from his face that his immediate reaction was to leap backwards. Cliff was not built for leaping, and this resulted in him falling over.
“Good Lord!” Cliff exclaimed from the floor, which was where he’d ended up. Wafting on on the breeze and on her own laughter came Rainbow Dash, reclining in midir and wiping the tears of mirth from her eyes. She had got him good, this was undeniable.
Recovering, Cliff looked up to see what it was that startled him so, and when he saw that it was a who rather than a what, whatever irritation he might have had vanished immediately to be replaced with delight.
“Ah, Rainbow!” He said, leaping to his feet. “You and your japes - got me good! Come in, come in! I was rather hoping you’d show up, actually.”
Her ears pricked up.
“You were?”
“Yes! I’ve been meaning to show this to you - it rather made me think of you! Ta-da!”
This he said while practically skipping over to a bench on which sat some sort of assemblage of tubes and cylinders and other metal parts the function of which Rainbow could only guess at. She hovered in closer and peered at the thing, but got not nearer working out what it was.
“It doesn’t look like me,” she said, giving it a poke.
“It’s a rocket pack! Well, technically speaking it’s a jet - turbine here, see? - but rocket pack rolls off the tongue with a little more flair, I think. A touch more romantic - more dashing, heh! It runs on alcohol!”
This last detail wasn’t really what Rainbow thought was the interesting part, in contrast to Cliff who clearly thought it was best bit. She was passingly familiar with rockets in concept, though in her mind they existed to go from one place to explode in another, and while were therefore awesome in kind of an intrinsic way were not something she really felt comfortable seeing Cliff standing next to or for having poked. She hovered a bit further back.
“Rocket? Like fireworks?” Rainbow asked, giving the thing a sideways glance. It really was rather big.
“Uh, not quite,” Cliff said. She flinched when he gave it a slap, and rather hoped he didn’t notice. “This one’ll let me fly!”
She looked at him hard, trying to work out whether he was joking or not.
Rainbow wasn’t sure if all humans were as obtuse and difficult to read as Cliff was or whether it was just him, but there were times when he said something that she thought was just supposed to be funny but he was actually being serious, and vice versa.
Her eventually conclusion was that he was just kind of weird, which was okay, but it did make talking to him a bit confusing sometimes. Like now, when he looked terribly excited but also kind of looked like he might be about to deliver a punchline.
No punchline came, however, so she decided he must actually be being serious.
This wasn’t a whole lot better.
“I thought you were trying to invent something to get you home?”
The plans and components for that particular endeavour dominated most of the workshop, taking up almost all of the working space and almost all of the walls - most of which were thoroughly hidden behind scores of technical diagrams that made Rainbow’s eyes water if she looked at them for too long.
Cliff at least understood them. She hoped.
“Oh, I am, but I’m waiting on some bits and pieces I ordered and they were supposed to show up today and they haven’t and so I thought, well, why not do a little more on this? A fun side project of mine!”
“Is that why Twilight’s here?” Rainbow asked, flicking her head over to the corner of the room where sat Twilight, reading. Twilight, on hearing her name, glanced up briefly to smile and wave before immediately returning to her book, flicking a page and cooing in delight at what fresh marvels were revealed to her.
Rainbow was well aware that Cliff had been working closely with Twilight on his project to get back home, so her being there wasn’t a huge surprise. Her continuing to be there despite there being nothing to do that day owing to the lack of parts was a bit odd, but stranger things had happened.
“It is, yes. She was willing to render assistance, lovely girl that she is!” Cliff said, before lowering his voice and leaning in to Rainbow to whisper: “She told me she’s read that book before but every time she turns a page it’s like she’s seen it for the first time.”
They shared a grin, but it wasn’t long before Rainbow’s attention returned to the rocket. There really was something about it that put her on edge. Possibly the straps on it, which suggested that Cliff was of a mind to put the thing on, an idea Rainbow opposed for reasons she would not really want to explain to anyone.
Hovering in close again she eyed the thing suspiciously, but did not poke it a second time.
“I don’t see how this can get you to fly.”
“Well I’ll admit it doesn’t look like much when it’s just sitting there but trust me, it’s got some go on it! Most of the kinks have been smoothed out, too. This is just a side project, you see, as I said - I fiddle when I have the time.”
They both laughed at this and engaged in a jolly hoof-fist bump.
“Innuendo,” Cliff said, unnecessarily.
“I’ll, uh,” Rainbow said, but stopped short of using the ‘in-your-endo’ line as she remembered having used it only yesterday. Bereft, she ended on a rather feeble: “Uh, yeah. Heh.”
An awkward pause.
“So, just, explain this thing to me - top to bottom it, how is it meant to work?” She asked, rushing things along again. Cliff was more than happy to oblige her, taking hold of the pack and standing it upright.
“It’s quite simple, at least in theory. I don my safety gear,” he waved a hand over to a crude mannequin of his own construction stood in the corner wearing a ridiculous outfit. “And once that’s done I put the pack on and, well, fly. I could break it down further for you, if you’d like?”
Rainbow frowned.
“Kinda seems like a bit of a risky thing for you to be doing,” she said.
Risk was relative. When she did things that others might have seen as risky, they weren’t risky because she was the one doing them and she was awesome and could handle it. These were facts.
When rather adorable, dorky aliens who she did not want to see hurt started talking about doing things involving rockets then risk became actually risky, and Rainbow got unhappy.
Cliff was not picking up on this.
“Nothing wrong with risk! I’ve learnt that from you. Besides, this is such fun! And not the sort of thing I’d get away with back home,” he said, beaming as brightly as anything.
“Oh?”
“Not at all! This place runs on slightly different rules than I’m used to, you see? So while back home this sort of thing would be an, um, questionable idea, here I can rather see it working! And me surviving on the off-chance that it doesn’t work.”
A very poor choice of words on his part.
“You’re not really selling me on this idea, Cliff,” Rainbow said.
“No, really! It’ll be fine! I’ll show you! We’ll go out and give this a test, it’s overdue for one anyway, come on,” he said, moving at once over to his mannequin. Rainbow was caught completely off-guard.
“What? Now?”
“No time like the present, Rainbow! No time like the present. The kinks are smoothed, the pack is fuelled - why waste a moment?”
“That thing is fuelled right now?” Rainbow asked, warily. Even she could see some of the safety issues with that, given that when she’d first spied on him fiddling with the thing he had been, well, fiddling with the thing.
This must have come across in her tone as Cliff paused halfway through pulling on the jacket part of his ridiculous safety garments.
“Uh, yes. Now you mention it maybe that was a bit premature. Must have got carried away. Still, no matter - just saves us time now! Give me a moment, I’ll be dressed in a flash! Or a dash! Aha!”
Rainbow groaned into a hoof as Cliff zipped and buckled himself up. It did only take him a moment before he was standing in front of her, fully suited and booted.
Her respect for him had never been higher than it was at that exact moment.
“You look real safe,” she said.
“Why thank you,” Cliff said, neatly sidestepping her sarcasm. “Leather wasn’t an option for several obvious reasons but this is - apparently - some sort of heat-resistant material that Rarity was happy to lend to the cause! Something to do with it being out of style this season. What a stroke of luck for me!”
Rainbow knew better than to comment on the part about leather. They’d had that conversation. Instead, she honed in on the part about heat.
“It important, resisting heat?”
“Well I’d hardly like singed buttocks, would I? Now, just need my helmet…” he said, moving to another bench and picking up what Rainbow had at first dismissed for a bucket. IT was not a bucket. It had little dark windows for eyes and some sort of grille-like apparatus over the mouth and also a big, flat fin running right over to the top.
It was the fin that really caught Rainbow’s eye.
“What’s with the, uh, fin-thing?” She asked, pointing a hoof and looking about as doubtful as it was possible to look. Perplexed, he turned the helmet over his hands.
“The rudder? It’s for steering.”
“Right…”
He gave her an odd look before popping the helmet on over his head and spending a second or so adjusting it. Once that was done he gave it an appreciative slap and when next he spoke his voice came out a little clipped and rough:
“I’m picking up some subtle clues here that kind of make me think you aren’t as confident in this as I am,” he said.
“What? No! I don’t know about any of this egghead stuff. I know about flying, though. Just kind of doesn’t seem like the sort of thing you should be doing. I mean, this is a rocket, right?”
“Jet, technically, like I say.”
“Whatever. It’s going to explode, right?”
“Hopefully not. If it does then I’ve done something wrong!”
Again the contrasting nature of risk rose up in Rainbow’s mind. Now if she was messing around with things that might explode that’d be a different story. And it wasn’t that she didn’t trust Cliff - she did, he was a clever guy, if weird - but she just didn’t trust terrible things not to happen to cliff.
“Maybe humans are meant to stay on the ground...” She said, rubbing the back of her neck.
“Oh ye of little faith! Trust me, this is going to work,” Cliff said, hands on hips.
“Based on what?”
“Optimism! It’s what science is based on!”
“I heard someone say science,” Twilight said, lowering her book and looking up eagerly.
“We’re testing the rocket pack!”
“Ooh!” She said, hurriedly marking her spot and hopping off her seat.
“See? Twilight’s excited!” Cliff said, but this did little to convince Rainbow.
“Twilight was excited to test your going-back-home-machine last week to see if it’d work!” She pointed out. This, indeed, had been a thing that had happened, though Cliff did not really appreciate her bringing it up.
“And it did! Mostly,” he said, doing his best not to sound defensive. His best wasn’t really good enough. Rainbow pressed her advantage.
“The only reason you pushed a table through to try it out and didn’t go yourself was because I said maybe you should test it first! What happened to the table?” She asked.
“Most of it survived,” Cliff said, feeling he was focusing on the positives.
“Most! I - “ she grunted and slumped, finally landing on her hooves. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” She asked, somewhat plaintively.
Such was her obvious despondency that Cliff took a knee to be closer to her level, tipping the helmet up so he could speak to her more directly, lowering his voice.
“You’re not worried, are you?” He asked.
In defiance of the direction the conversation was obviously running in, Rainbow took offence to that.
“Me? No! Pshaw, like I’d be worried about anything. But, uh, you know, I’m not the one doing this, you are. And I’m just saying - like with last week - your track record on safety isn’t the best.”
“So you’re worried for me?”
“No! Yes? I mean - urgh! I just don’t want you getting hurt. Not because I care but just because I, uh, care about anypony getting hurt! This is just - this flying stuff isn’t your thing, you know? It’s my thing! You do thinking stuff and science stuff, not this.”
Rainbow tried to come at the issue from as many angles as possible, because she really hadn’t thought her position through other than a vague, general feeling that seeing Cliff hurt would make her upset and so she would like that to not happen. How to explain that to him - to his face - was a mystery she needed time to solve, and she had none available.
Cliff, for whatever reason, smiled at what she said and clapped a hand to her shoulder.
“Exactly! I wanted something you and I could do together.”
That threw her.
“...you did?”
“Of course. Truth be told, Rainbow, I’ve always rather admired the way you fly - it just looks so much fun! So I wanted to try it out myself. I thought maybe if it worked I could fly with you! And like I say, the rules are a little different here than I’m used to. I may never get another chance.”
“Y-you wanted to fly with me?” She asked, astounded.
“Well, who else would I want to fly with?”
“Me?” Twilight suggested, having joined the conversation and also having failed to read the mood. Rainbow gave her a dirty look that Twilight failed to notice because she wasn’t looking at her at the time, and Cliff just blinked at her.
“Sure, why not. But Rainbow first,” he said, knocking the helmet back into place and standing again. “Come on, science to be done - up, up and away!”
Rainbow made a few more mumbled, half-hearted protests but they really didn’t amount to much. She was still trying to get over hearing that Cliff had wanted - and still wanted - to fly specifically to fly with her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Good, obviously, but what kind of good? It was new and difficult to define, and while she was trying to wrangle it out in her head Cliff strapped on his rocket pack and led both her and Twilight out of his workshop, out of town and into a field.
“A perfect spot, don’t you think? And perfect weather, too! Still as anything. Couldn’t have asked for better,” He said, hands on his hips again a moment as he stared at the sky. He then started busying himself with his gloves, which seemed to be hooked up to the pack somehow.
Twilight was sitting in the shade of the single tree in the field, watching from afar, while Rainbow was standing next to cliff, brimming with mixed emotions.
“Are you totally sure about this?” She asked.
“I am adamant! And excited. So very excited. I’ll get to fly, Rainbow! I can be up there with you! We can point and laugh at the groundwalkers! It’ll be brilliant.”
He made a compelling case, but still Rainbow’s head filled with firey, horribly images she did her best to shake loose.
“And you’d never get a chance to try this at home?” She asked.
“Nope. Well, I mean, technically there are similar devices back home but they lack a certain-”
Cliff was aware of actual jet pack-style devices being developed back on Earth but they were all rather cumbersome, in his opinion, and lacked the simplistic fun and flair of just slapping on a bomber jacket, strapping a big engine to your back and expecting it to work out fine.
Here, he could live that dream. And that had been sort of his point.
Rainbow did not want to wait around for a rambling monologue explaining this, though, and she could sense one coming and so cut it off as soon as possible. She’d made up her mind. She’d swallowed her doubts.
Or rather, she’d sworn to herself that she would personally stop anything bad from happening, which helped the doubts quiet down to a nice, background murmur. After all, she was reliably awesome, and this was known.
“Less talking, more testing! I’ll meet you up there!” She said, giving him a shove.
“Alright alright alright! Now let’s see, this button here, that button there, let’s get things started…”
Rainbow took some steps back and watched as Cliff squatted, checked his balance, got into position and then ignited the rocket pack. A flame shot from the bottom and quickly narrowed to a fierce blue point and moment after this he shot straight up into the air. It happened so quickly - and so perfectly - that Rainbow was stunned.
She followed him up.
It actually took her a few seconds to catch up, which was a surprise. The rocket had a slight edge in ascending and also a head start, but there was no way it could keep her at bay for good and she was flying beside Cliff in moments.
“Fancy seeing your here!” He yelled over the roar of the wind, tilting his head and body to level off and go shooting off over the field, Rainbow laughing as she effortlessly followed-suit.
“I can’t believe it works!” She shouted.
“Ye of little faith!”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means I can still surprise you!”
And surprise her he did, pressing another button and shooting off away from her with a roar.
Rainbow wasn’t standing for that, and caught up again casually.
“Nice try,” she said.
“Ah, well, I could never hope to match you, but still! This is wonderful! I can see why you like it up here! Let’s do a loop, shall we?”
And so they did. They did a loop - a rather gentle one, Cliff being a beginner - and then another one after that. Rainbow then made some suggestions, gentle ones, as they flew in circuits around and over the field. Some beginners maneuvers, just to see how he took to them.
He took them with the kind of rampant enthusiasm she could only have dreamed of.
All her doubts were forgotten. She could hardly believe such a thing was happening but she loved it. He was clumsy and ungainly but having him up there was just nothing she’d ever imagined - it was wonderful.
So wonderful it took her a while to notice something that had been fairly obvious.
Something red was blinking on the cuff of one of Cliff’s gloves. He did not appear to have noticed, but Rainbow had.
“Uh, what’s that?” She asked, pointing.
“Hmm, what’s what?” He asked right back, and then he looked. “Ah, oh, that. That’d be the fuel light.”
For a moment he just seemed to accept this, then he double-took.
“Drat.”
And with absolutely perfect timing the rocket pack cut off and Cliff dropped out of the air like a stone.
Rainbow swooped in to catch him but his and her angles were all off and the best she could do was nudge him, which - given the situation - wasn’t a whole lot of help. He kept falling, but now on a slightly different arc.
Had they been higher up - had she not been right by his side - she would have been able to catch him. Or of not catch him, slow him down. Or if not slow him down, then at least do something, anything!
But they’d been dipping fairly low, and she’d been right by his side, and he’d fallen so suddenly that her mind had simply blanked out at the sight, and she’d hesitated.
The ground rushed up, Cliff hit it, bounced and lost the rocket pack, bounced again and rolled, helmet flying loose at the last bounce as he came to a skidding, gravel-rattling, grass-thrashing halt.
He then sat up.
“Are you alright?!” Rainbow asked, coming to a screeching landing beside him.
“Oh my,” he said, giving the side of his head a slap and shaking it, his eyes wide. He coughed up an inexplicable handful of mud and grass and winced, hammering a fist on his chest.
“Are you alright?” Rainbow repeated, hopping around him frantically, trying to work out the quickest possible way she could get him to the hospital. That he was talking seemed a positive sign, but who knew how humans worked?
Maybe he was dying?!
“Hmm? Oh, totally fine, Rainbow, totally fine. A little bruised, but that’s the worst of it. See, this is why I could only do this sort of thing here. Normally, I’d be dead by now! This is brilliant, let’s go again.”
“What?! No! No no! Not again!”
“It was just a mistake! Honestly. I should have been paying more attention, yes, and maybe that gauge needs some attention so it warns me a with some more time to spare - and maybe a bell or something - but I’m alive, aren’t I? And haven’t we learnt something? And didn’t we have fun?”
That last part Rainbow couldn’t deny, and it did give her pause thinking of how they’d been up there together, soaring. It was almost enough to trip her up. Almost, but not quite.
“Yeah it was fun but I won’t fly with you again until you fix that thing, alright? You make it safe! Then we can do it.”
Cliff looked set to argue this but Rainbow’s thunderous expression defeated him before he even got going.
“Spoilsport…” He said, sulkily.
“Probably for the best anyway,” Twilight said, making both the others jump by suddenly just being there. She then pointed. They both looked.
The rocket pack - having torn itself free of Cliff during the crash - had embedded itself in the ground some distance away. It was also smoking quite heavily.
And while they were watching it, it then exploded. With a nice, solid PAMPH that rolled across the landscape and blew their hair back. It even made an inexplicably tiny mushroom cloud that lingered far longer than it should have, bits and pieces of the pack rattling down all around them.
The silence that followed this was like a vacuum that sucked up any possivble response.
Eventually, Cliff cleared his throat and said:
“...back to the drawing board.”
