Repairing His Broken Heart

Regret

It was the night after the meet-and-greet. Ripslinger was in his hangar, alone with his thoughts, as he is every night. He was going over the mistakes he made over the last few years. He had a lot of regrets deep down inside. He just never admitted to them.

He spent the last four years bullying Dusty Crophopper almost to death. While he has never apologized for it, he spent a lot of time regretting his actions. And it was one of the worst feelings in the world for him.

From the time Ripslinger was just a tiny plane, he had been neglected and abused. He wasn't a son to his parents, he was a mistake. And he was treated like one. They never bothered to kiss him, or hug him, or even tell him that they love him. The attention Ripslinger got from his parents was all negative. At school, he wasn't treated any better. He would always get made fun of and teased for being poor and abused, which made him even more hurt. And he had no one to help him through it.

Being abused by his family and bullied by the other kids at school, it caused Ripslinger to become the cold and mean plane he is today. Instead of be hugged on a regular basis, he got hit on a regular basis. He hasn't had the chance to call another plane his friend. The only planes who were even remotely nice to him were Ned and Zed. Then again, they were only in it for the money.
When he got into air-racing in 2003, things things got better for him, but something was still missing. He was financially successful. He had a great career. And he had fans who looked up to him. But he still didn't have a family to care for him and love him unconditionally. He was still on his own and he only had money and fame to be his outlet. While he felt fulfilled with the victories he achieved through his career, it just wasn't enough. He still had those those feelings of emptiness and unfulfillment that kept him from being truly happy.

When Dusty went into the industry in 2013, things got even worse for Ripslinger. At first he thought the little orange plane didn't have a chance because Dusty had zero racing experience and simply because Ripslinger believed in no one but himself. Within one race, Dusty stole, from Ripslinger, the only thing that helped him come out of the hangar every morning--his success.
Dusty stole Ripslinger's title as Champion and he also stole a great portion of his fans. Because of this and because he felt superior to Dusty, Ripslinger bullied him and picked on him every chance he got, hoping it would make Ripslinger feel better about himself. Well, it didn't. He may have acted like it in front of everyone, but deep down inside, he spent a lot of time regretting his actions and his decisions that he made throughout his 28 years. Even to the point were he cried himself to sleep on some nights.

Fame, fortune, and power weren't what he needed. Friends, love, and affection were what he actually needed. And he was just now figuring this out. Yes, Ripslinger made a lot of bad choices in his life, but this doesn't not mean he spent some time regretting those decisions and it certainly doesn't mean that he didn't want to make things right. He just needed someone to free him from his regret and his emptiness, but he had no one...