“Everything ready?”
“One hundred percent!” Jebediah said, saluting. “Rocket fuelled and ready to-”
Then there was a bang.
When Twilight’s hearing returned it was raining bits of rocket, Kerbals in extremely tough space suits, and even large amounts of dirt washed up in the blast.
“Oh, come on!” she shouted, as a Kerbal bounced past – he’d be fine, he landed on his head. “What even caused that?”
Jebediah shrugged. “Just happens sometimes. Well known fact, one in five fuel reserves just randomly explode if looked at funny.” The Kerbal clapped Twilight on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, it’s just how the world works. Hell, it doesn’t even matter if they’re full or not – I once saw a rocket run out of fuel on the launchpad, then explode hard enough to send the Kerbalnaut into orbit anyway.”
“Right.” Twilight shook her head sadly. “Oh, well, back to the drawing board.”
“You could always just build a plane with five hundred ailerons,” Jebediah suggested. “Flap them to take off.”
“Would that even work?” At his nod, Twilight’s expression turned thoughtful. “I don’t know what you have for physics here, but it seems exploitable…”
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/98568/22/mlp-time-loops/mlp-loops-22