Starlight’s sleep was quickly disturbed in the morning by Owen’s screams of terror about flying. She’d be annoyed but Noah had told her about his flying phobia so she kept her cool.

"I'm too young to die." Owen screamed.

"Stop screaming, lunchbox. Air travel is like the fifteenth safest mode of transportation. Unless you're in a death trap." Noah stated to try and calm his friend down but just as he said that, part of the plane wall fell apart, causing a hole to form and nearly began sucking out the others.

“This one for example!” Noah cried out fearfully as everyone soon began screaming in terror. Starlight was quick to latch onto Alejandro before she could get sucked out of the plane but Leshawna was struggling to keep hold of the bench. She nearly began to fly out but Alejandro immediately caught her and pulled her close.

“Such beauty will not be falling out of giant airplane holes on my watch.” Alejandro smirked at the girl.

Eventually, Owen began getting sucked towards the hole but thanks to his weight, he was able to keep the hole plugged in so that no one else got sucked out.

Starlight quickly let go of Alejandro and began fixing her mane when she overheard Harold speak.

“I could’ve done that y’know. I just prefer to leave the ladies wanting more.” Harold boasted.

“She wants more, alright. More Alejandro.” DJ smiled teasingly.

“Ha! DJ, you know nothing about women.” Harold laughed in disbelief.

“You can put me down now.” Leshawna told Alejandro blissfully, “I mean if you want to. Your choice, but this is nice.”

Harold looked shocked at seeing this and Starlight honestly couldn’t help but feel bad for him.

“Not that this isn’t fascinating and all…” Owen’s voice was heard before he cried out, “but HELP! MY BUTT IS BEING SUCKED OUT OF A PLANE!”

Starlight and Noah cringed at this. Looks like they’d need to find something to plug in the hole.

After finding a crate big enough to plug in the hole, Starlight and the rest of the contestants were called to the dining hall to prepare for the next challenge.

"Welcome to today's challenge it's-" Chris began before Harold interrupted him.

"Is it a reward or an elimination challenge?" Harold asked the host.

"Good question Harold and like I'm gonna tell ya." Chris said angrily.

“Duncan already got booted yesterday but we already had a reward challenge so today is definitely an elimination.” Noah whispered to Owen and Starlight.

“Then I really hope we win this one.” Starlight admitted nervously.

"And I hope you all brought your giant radioactive monster repellent,” Chris announced, seemingly overhearing what Starlight said, “because we are about to land in... Japan!"

After saying that, Chef was quick to enter the room wearing a Chinese outfit and had a katana in his mouth.

"Gosh you guys, that's totally a Chinese outfit." Harold exclaimed angrily.

"Thank you Harold now whoever doesn't sing is-" Chris said before Harold interrupted him again.

"It's just you think you'd work harder to get it right." Harold ranted.

"Harold. Anyone who doesn't sing is immediately disqualified." Chris continues in annoyance which worried Starlight a bit.

"Your cultural insensitivity is just gosh I mean gosh." Harold kept ranting but Chris and Chef shared a look before Chef opened the plane door nearby, causing Starlight and the rest of the contestants to fly out of the plane and into the open skies causing all of them to scream.

Starlight tried using her horn to try and levitate herself and the others but it kept flickering when she tried to perform the spell which made her grunt in annoyance. She groaned even more when she heard that musical bell in the sky.

“Seriously?! I mean seriously?!” Noah cried out furiously.

“Sing, and I might think about saving your musical buttocks! Maybe you'll try harder this time! Eh?" Chris said through the megaphone.

(Song begins)

https://youtu.be/hwE1J2MDT94?si=Uc4EFiGebuPvU3uj

"We're singing as we're falling!" Courtney sang angrily.

"While some are cannonballing." Heather sang along with equal amounts of fury and as she sang that lyric, Izzy was indeed doing a cannonball.

“Our lives begin to flash before our eyyyyyyyyyes." Alejandro harmonized.

“We might just go kablooey.” Starlight, Owen, and Noah sang together.

“Get smushed and become chewy." Harold and Tyler held each other as they continued to fall downwards.

"Except there's tons we wanna do before we die." Everyone sang together.

"Millionaires." Leshawna sang happily.

“Billiard’s Champion!” Cody smiled.

“Make it home to see my Momma!” DJ huddled into a ball.

“Marry Cody.” Sierra sang wistfully before embracing Cody.

“Catch a barrel.” Bridgette smiled as she made a surfing pose.

“Be an actress in a drama.” Lindsay sang as she clasped her hands together.

“Corporate lawyer.” Courtney smirked.

“Prom destroyer!” Gwen cried out happily.

"Be a ninja with throwing stars." Harold sang as he pulled out fake ninja stars.

"Lion tamer." Alejandro sang as he fell.

"New food namer." Owen sang licking his lips.

"Repairman for the parallel bars." Tyler sang before focusing on that he was falling.

"But first we must seize dropping, our goals here would be stopping." Noah sang unenthusiastically.

“Before we smash into the ground from the skyyyyyyy." Izzy smiled as she sang.

“Splat into little pieces.” DJ whimpered.

“Heads merged with our feetses.” Harold said as he held his legs up.

“That would be awful and here’s why.” Starlight looked down fearfully.

"We'd like to keep on living!" Bridgette began singing before Alejandro grabbed her hand.

"So Chris we hope you're giving…" Alejandro continued singing as everyone grabbed each other's hands.

“Some wings!” Sierra

“A jetpack!” Courtney

“A rift in time!” Gwen

“Parachutes!” Heather

“Waterbed!” Noah

“A trampoline!” Tyler

“Springy shoes!” Izzy

“Rocket boots!” Alejandro

“Flying squirrels!” Lindsay

“Bubble bath!” Leshawna

“I change to bubbles too!” Lindsay sang again.

“Momma!” DJ

“A pizza!” Owen smiled before Starlight interrupted.

“Guys! Anything soft to land on will doooooooooooo!” Starlight harmonized.

Soon they all were holding hands in a circle and began singing together.

"Cause there's still so much to do before we die!

Yeah, we said it!

There's still so much to do, there's still so much to do, there's still so much to do before we die! Yeah!" Everyone finished the song off.

(Song Ends)

After the song ended, Starlight and everyone else began screaming again but thankfully they were indeed saved by falling into… a giant bowl of rice.

Starlight then poked her head out from the rice and soon Owen, Noah, and Izzy followed. That’s when she decided to speak.

“Chris is much more insane than I thought.” Starlight groaned.

“Tell us something we don’t know.” Noah scoffed as Owen began scooping up a bunch of rice to eat.

After a while, they were all escorted out of the giant rice bowl and directed to their next challenge site. A giant pinball machine.

"Okay, your first challenge is inside a Japanese game show studio. Bow down before Super Human Mega Pinball Smash!" Chris began speaking before Harold and Tyler gasp in happiness and high-five.

"I love Japanese game shows! Woohoo!" Tyler said happily.

"Sweet! My favorite is Human Ichi My Car Go-Go, where you have to throw a banana into a car window using a-" Harold began before Tyler finished.

"Giant shrimp fork, awesome." Tyler said happily.

A gong is then heard revealing to be Chris, "Oh look my own personal geek gong , Okay I'm gonna need one volunteer from each team to climb into these giant hamster balls. Then, your teammates are gonna beat you around the game board scoring points by bouncing you off bumpers and pubs. Most points wins. And I have a special local panda for each of you to share your little ball-shaped paradise with. So teams, select a ball guy, or gal. Victory?" Chris said.

"We choose DJ." Leshawna said before the team could discuss.

“We do?” DJ whimpered.

“Wicked. Here’s your pinball buddy.” Chris smiled before holding up a panda.

“A panda?! No! Remember when I crumbled that mummy puppy in Egypt?” DJ asked in horror.

“I remember when you knocked a bird out of the sky.” Ezekiel admitted unhelpfully.

“Exactly. Terrible.” DJ said miserably, “I think that dog thing might’ve cursed me.”

Suddenly the panda began attacking DJ, Starlight was about to reach to help him but Noah held a hand out and gave look that said: ‘Don’t Bother’.

“Aw. Cute.” Chris smirked, “Team Chris."

"Uh I'm allergic to panda dander I get hives." Noah lies awkwardly which Starlight just rolls her eyes at for.

"What he said." Tyler added.

"I will do it for our team." Alejandro smiled encouragingly.

"Wicked. Incoming!" Chris said throwing the panda at Alejandro who caught it.

"Well, hello, handsome creature! May I scratch your ears or get you a tasty cookie?" Alejandro soothed the panda which caused Leshawna, Bridgette, Lindsay, and Izzy to gush at the scene.

Starlight had to admit, even Fluttershy didn’t tame animals that quickly.

"And Team Amazon?" Chris asked.

"Gwen's face could use some remodeling." Heather said angrily.

"Nice. I hate to tell you, but we're on the same team! So you might wanna flip the witch switch back to off." Gwen remarked.

"Would you girls like some leadership? I'd be glad to choose-" Courtney began before Cody interrupted her.

"Stop bickering! I'll do it!" Cody called out angrily.

“You might wanna bring a toothbrush Cody because the beast you’ll be sharing your space with is Sierra.” Chris said as Sierra squealed and tackled Cody. Oh, that poor boy.

As of now, all three pinballs for each team were basically bouncing across the board as Starlight watched nervously to see how many points each team was getting. So far, it looked good for Alejandro but DJ and Cody seemed to be catching up to his score as well. Starlight continued to stare worriedly at the scoreboard until Noah tapped her on the back.

“Hey, you were staring off.” Noah explained briefly.

“I’m sorry… I just really want our team to win.” Starlight admitted nervously to the bookworm.

“So do I, but you look almost desperate to win.” Noah raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“I’m not an idiot, Noah. I’m basically a whole other species compared to you guys and I don’t have the connections you all do. I know I’m on the chopping block if our team were to lose.” Starlight explained solemnly which made Noah laugh a bit much to Starlight’s confusion.

“What’s so funny?” Starlight raised an eyebrow.

“Starlight, you’ve been doing fine around here. Sure the whole extraterrestrial thing is a bit confusing to us but we’ve experienced so many weird things on this show that we’re kinda used to it and the others seem to like you just fine.” Noah smirked in reassurance, “Trust me, you’re probably gonna do fine.”

“Wow, I didn’t think about it like that.” Starlight admitted as she realized Noah’s words held some truth to them, “Thanks Noah, but… why are you helping me so much? You usually give off a cold demeanor to the others.”

Noah had to admit, Starlight did have a point. Why was he helping this creature as much as he was? And why was he being so friendly with her? Well, truth be told, he sympathized with her situation and from the short time he’s known Starlight, he’s grown to appreciate her positivity and snark.

“Well… I just happen to enjoy your company is all.” Noah shrugged, he didn’t like elaborating much on his emotions, it was best that he go into little detail as possible.

Though despite the brief answer, Starlight smiled.

Soon afterwards, the three pinballs finally stopped bouncing on the board and rolled downwards back to the starting point.

The first pinball to open was Cody’s and Sierra’s in which Cody immediately fell to the ground with a grunt with kiss marks all over his face.

“Ugh, if we got a point for every time she kissed me in there…” Cody grunted.

“We’d be millionaires.” Sierra smiled wistfully.

Starlight could only cringe at the display.

The next pinball to open was DJ’s and he had scratch marks all over him with an unconscious panda in his hands.

“Oh my gosh, is he okay?!” Starlight asked in concern as she ran over to the scene.

“No! Stay back! Please!” DJ cried out fearfully which confused Starlight but she decided to respect his wishes and back off.

After that, Alejandro’s pinball opened up and Alejandro triumphantly stood up with a conscious panda in his hands making Owen, Izzy, and Tyler cheer and when Starlight saw their team was in the lead on the scoreboard, so did she.

“With a score of 462,000 points. Team I Am Really Really Really Really Hot takes the first mega human pinball smash and wins a leg up in the next challenge. Team Victory is in second with a minor advantage and Team Amazon will have to settle for what they got.” Chris smirked.

Starlight couldn’t believe it. Her team actually had a chance at winning this time. She couldn’t believe she was saying this but she was looking forward to the next challenge.

Author's Note

So we got some insecurities Starlight has to go through, thankfully Noah was there to help her out and we get a bit of an explanation on his thoughts involving Starlight as well which was needed since it IS Noah after all.