Shining's shoulders slumped, and he opened his mouth to speak when Lance turned to Ivory and beat him to the punch, "We don't want to be the target of another mob-fueled riot, thank you."

Ivory turned to Lance, eyes still twitching. "Riot?" she queried.

"Yes. We're trying to stay out of sight, because a whole lot of ponies weaponized furniture against us in Canterlot, and we didn't do anything to earn their ire," Lance replied with a nod.

Ivory managed to get her eyes to stop twitching, and she lifted a hoof before tapping at her chin with it. She gave his remark some thought, then turned to Shining. "Is what he said true?" she asked.

Shining nodded. "I had to help in crowd control while Canterlot's populace erupted like a volcano," he replied, his tone glum. "At first, the rioters thought it was Cloudsdale's fault."

"And then someone got the brilliant idea of pinning it on us," Katie finished for Shining, snorting derisively.

Ivory Scroll took a few seconds to let what she heard sink in. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it and jerked her head up towards the root-laden ceiling when she heard the distinctive sound of a crash of thunder. "Now what was that about? There aren't any storms scheduled today, are there?" she queried.

"Not that I know of," Rainbow replied, wincing as she heard glass breaking seconds later. That was promptly followed by three thuds and then another of metal hitting wood. Everyone else turned upward as well, with Katie's ears standing to attention. Pumpkin and Pound burbled in unison, tilting their heads quizzically.

Then a voice broke the tranquility, a young and stubborn one at that. "Gosh dang it, Scoots! I knew we couldn't get our cutie marks in paragliding!"

Applejack's brow furrowed, and she looked about to find Fenrir on one side of her and Rarity and Rainbow on the other. "Again?" she hissed upon turning back to the ceiling. She stood up abruptly, dropping her hoof of cards in the process.

Another voice squeaked from above, "Hey, is that a flight of stairs?" This was followed by a rustling of something sounding like a flapping sheet of paper, albeit one mixed with another of groaning metal.

"I think it is, Sweetie Belle. Where do you think it leads?" another voice queried, one brash yet feminine in tone.

Rainbow Dash turned to Applejack and rolled her eyes. "Again," she stated. Then her eyes widened when three sets of hoofsteps repeatedly thumped from above, still tailed by flapping paper and groaning metal. "Here we go." She lifted her front hooves and plugged her ears with them.

Matt's horn started glowing, and his eyes zeroed in on Katie. "You know the drill by now." That was the only warning he gave before he zapped her with a beam of golden light from across the basement, hitting her squarely in the barrel before letting it dissipate as she took on her filly guise almost immediately after.

Ivory turned to Katie as the spell died off in a flurry of golden dust. "Now that's something I don't see every day, even by Ponyville standards," she remarked, her eyes going wide again. Her ears pinned back when the hoofsteps resounded, only to give way to a series of thuds, screams, and metal snapping like twigs that got closer and closer with each passing second.

Silence fell as three little blurred forms bowled into the room, dragging with them a poor paraglider that was beaten and singed beyond repair. They stopped just short of Matt, who lit his horn and used his magic to grapple them before they could crash into him. As soon as they stopped, he found that the blurred forms were a slightly-singed Scootaloo, a bruised Apple Bloom, and a muddied Sweetie Belle. All of them had bits of glass shards in their manes, yet nothing else was out of the ordinary with them.

He sighed and turned to the wrecked gliding equipment and found that the trio had gotten their tails snagged on one of the horrendously-bent rods, and so disentangled them by merely sliding the rod in question in the opposite direction. That done, he picked the whole contraption up and set it aside near a pile of books where nobody could trip over it.

Once the trio regained their senses, they shook their heads and turned up to look at Matt. He merely lifted a hoof and gestured to Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. "You do realize Twi's gonna need a new window, right?" Applejack hissed, eyes narrowing slightly, yet twitching as though she struggled to keep them from scrunching any further.

Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Sweetie Belle all flinched back with ears folding to rest against her heads. "B-but a stray thundercloud hit the glider and w-we lost control!" Sweetie exclaimed with widening eyes.

Rainbow sighed and exchanged glances with Rarity and Applejack. She opened her mouth to speak, only to close it as Apple Bloom turned to Natalie and asked, "Hey, why're you sparkling? You weren't last time you were here."

Natalie blushed with ears pinned back. "Uh… I'm a crystal unicorn, but I'd rather not talk about it," she replied before letting her eyes narrow a bit as she stared at Apple Bloom. "And are you sure a thundercloud hit your glider?" she asked, a note of disbelief in her voice.

Apple Bloom and her companions frantically nodded. "Yeah! It came from the Everfree, too!" she added.

Pinkie's eyes bulged to the size of saucers, and she stood up on her back legs abruptly. "Wait, the Everfree?!" she cried. When the trio nodded, her pupils shrank to pinpricks. "That's not good," she murmured.

Fluttershy sighed, and then put her cards down before shifting to stand up on all fours. She turned to Rainbow, flaring her wings as wide as they could spread. "I think we might have to look into this again," she stated with her brow slanting.

Dash nodded, and likewise dropped her cards before bolting up. She rushed to Apple Bloom and her friends before giving them a quick once-over, though other than singe-marks and bruises and mud and small glass shards, she found that they looked more or less alright. Turning her attention to the wrecked paraglider, she spotted a clear object stuck between the rods, and it would have been otherwise unnoticeable had there not also been a forming puddle directly beneath it.

Dash trotted over to inspect the anomaly and dipped a hoof into the liquid before feeling a slushy coldness, as though she'd found a pile of melting snow. Then she turned back to Fluttershy. "They're not kidding. A stray hail cloud might also have joined in," she reported. "Besides that and a much-needed bath for the Crusaders, I don't see anything else."

Fluttershy's wings gave the slightest twitch. She nodded and turned to Lance, whom she immediately noticed to have been looking at the newest arrivals with a slightly-furrowed brow and a tight frown, complete with concern glimmering in his eyes. "You might want to be careful on the hot-air balloon today," she warned, garnering little more than a quick-second look and a nod in response.

Scootaloo noticed Lance's staring and turned to him with a snort. "Why're you giving us the stink-eye? What'd we do?" she asked.

"Aside from the obvious, I feel the need to ask: how the hell did you manage to crash into a stray cloud?" Lance asked in a very sincere, slightly miffed, and heavily-concerned tone that was only betrayed by the sparks in his eyes.

"Uh… we found out we weren't good at paragliding. And Scoots thought it was a good idea for all of us to try and control it at once," Sweetie Belle answered in a sincere voice, immediately garnering an indignant glare from Scootaloo.

"At least it was worth a try, and nothing like trying to get our cooking cutie marks that one time!" Scootaloo seethed.

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, and punctuated it with a snort. "Or that one time I got cutie pox," she added, causing the other two to turn to her with shudders running down their spines.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

About another hour and a half ticked by after that, and as the sun reached its apex the group trotted out of the library, a few of them sporting cloaks and a saddlebag or two. They stood in front of the library before Twilight gathered Shining, a bandaged Apple Bloom, and a now-clean Sweetie Belle before her.

"You sure you want to go with Lance?" Twilight questioned, looking at the foals in particular. When they nodded, she sighed. "Alright then. Let me cast a quick spell on you three."

"Why?" Sweetie questioned, a brow raised.

Twilight turned to Sweetie and answered, "Lance wants to go to Cloudsdale. On you three, I'll have to cast a special spell on you that'll let you walk on clouds." With that, her horn glowed and her magic embraced the trio in front of her, lingering for a few seconds before fading with a pop and a fizz. "There, that should do it."

"How long will it last?" Shining piped up once the spell faded.

Twilight turned to him and smiled. "A good twenty-four hours should have you and Sweetie and Apple Bloom covered," she answered.

Then the two fillies rushed to join Scootaloo, and after that they rushed to Lance as though of one mind, with all three sporting wide eyes and grins to match. "Can we come with you, mister Lance?" they pleaded in unison.

"No," Lance replied flatly, shaking his head at the trio.

"Please?" they pressed, their grins widening. "We'll be good, honest."

"No," Lance replied, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Pretty please? Sprinkles on top?" they asked again, their grins widening to the point their cheeks started twitching just to maintain them.

Lance stared into the collective eyes of the Crusaders and saw sparks of pleading. A niggling feeling started to claw at the back of his mind, and as a result a small frown formed on his face. "No," he replied, but in a warbling voice that was less firm than he'd have liked.

"Please?" the Crusaders begged yet again, grins somehow widening just a smidgen more.

Lance's shoulders sagged, and the niggling feeling got that much stronger. He stared at them for some five minutes in silence, and it grew and grew until his head began to hurt a little. "Fine, but be good," he relented.

"Yay!" the Crusaders cheered in unison, jumping up and down in place for a few seconds before ceasing, still maintaining their grins for some seconds after.

With that, the group turned and then started trotting away from Golden Oaks. As they went on, Maria opted to hitch a ride on Lance's back again by jumping onto it. She found that she now had to contend with his saddlebag and his gunblade, both of which rattled like a million shards of glass as he took the lead. Getting situated, she kept her wings closed and her claws on his withers.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders trotted after Lance like a mother duck leading her ducklings. They weaved around a few roads in a trot lasting for a few minutes in silence before the lot split in two at a fork in the road; the Crusaders still tailed Lance, as did Shining, Anna, and Sarah. The others simply went in the opposite direction, intent on heading elsewhere for the day.

Scootaloo in particular eyed the gunblade with brows raised and a tight frown forming on her face. "Mister, why would you need that… sword in Ponyville?" she asked.

Lance sighed and shook his head. "It's not necessarily for just Ponyville, but put it like this: I'd rather err on caution than end up in something I didn't prepare for," he replied.

"But Ponyville's full of nice ponies. I don't see why you'd need a big sword like that," Apple Bloom remarked, frowning.

Lance shook his head again. "Canterlot gave me serious doubts, and the Crystal Empire only solidified them. I'm just being careful," he retorted in a firm voice.

Apple Bloom exchanged looks with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, both of whom shrugged to her as soon as their eyes locked for the barest of instants. She sighed and turned back to Lance with her brow slanting and her frown deepening. "Alright then," she stated in glum resignation.

Sweetie Belle turned to her companions and flashed them a grin. "Maybe we could get him to open up more," she suggested, momentarily lifting a front hoof higher than normal to gesture to Lance with it.

Scootaloo turned to her with a tight frown and slightly-narrowed eyes. "Are you kidding? Sweetie, you might as well try to grow wings," she spat. "He has a sword in public, and Celestia knows what in his saddlebags! I wouldn't put it past him to seriously hurt somepony with it! For all we know, he's probably done something that'd get him stoned by the Elements faster than you can say 'caught in a landslide!'"

"I heard that," Lance growled without turning to give the Crusaders so much as a split-second look. "Every. Last. Word." He snorted before adding, "If you were my kids, I'd be reading you the riot act here and now!"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes and shook her head, spreading a wing to point at Lance before mouthing, "Case in point."

"Daddy, what's a riot act?" Maria queried, her utterance causing Lance to sigh.

"Basically, a form of punishment, kinda like being grounded. Except your ears get yelled off in the process," Lance answered, shaking his head. "Ergo, something I wouldn't do to you unless you really, really goofed up and outdid Armin in one go."

Maria nodded and craned her neck to look at the Crusaders. "Are you bad foals?" she asked, causing the three to jump at the question and gawk at her with widening eyes, ears folding all the way back, and jaws instantly going slack.

"N-no, we're not!" Sweetie exclaimed defensively.

Apple Bloom shook her head. "No. We don't mean anypony any harm," she replied.

Scootaloo's wings flared and flapped indignantly. "Worst we've done is try doing other things to get our cutie marks…" Her wings snapped shut, and she lowered her head a bit. "And so far, we got no luck."

Maria's ears twitched. She opened her mouth to speak, but shut it as Anna trotted straight up to Lance before turning to look at her. "Don't even think about it. You're still grounded, and given what we've seen of a rather disastrous paraglider attempt, I don't want you jumping in that sort of danger," Anna stated firmly.

Maria's ears fell back. "Okay," she murmured, wings twitching as a frown formed on her face. Her ears perked up when Anna smiled at her.

"You'll get your cutie mark in time. Don't worry about it too much," Anna chirped. "I didn't get mine until about six months ago." She craned her neck when she heard the Crusaders gasp in unison, and she lifted a brow at them. "What?"

"It took you until you were already grown up just to get your cutie mark?" Sweetie queried, her pupils approximately the size of a nail's head and her jaw hanging open as soon as she finished speaking.

Anna nodded. "To cut a long story short… and this is going to sound bizarre, but Lance actually helped me earn my mark," she stated. That utterance caused Sarah to jostle until she was next to her sister, who turned to look at her to discover that she donned a look similar to that of Sweetie Belle's.

"Y-you serious?" Sarah asked, her voice going no higher than a squeak. When Anna nodded, her good wing flared instantly, and she draped it upon her sibling's back. "A-and how long w-were you in the army?"

Anna chewed her lower lip and hummed simultaneously, though she managed to keep her grin nonetheless. After a few seconds, she ceased chewing and answered, "Last… three years, actually. Had to work my way up the ranks, and busted my flank off ten ways to Sunday in the process."

Sarah's eyes grew until they were the size of small plates. Her jaw worked, but no matter what she did, she could not utter so much as a syllable. Her eyes flashed, though whether in concern or awe, Anna couldn't tell.

Then Shining piped up from behind them, "You were a late bloomer? I'd have thought you'd earn your mark sooner."

Anna whipped her head around to frown at Shining. "Uh… extenuating circumstances got in my way," she stated uneasily.

Shining nodded. "Understandable," he replied.

He turned his attention to a peculiar porch-like object up ahead, and one with a sparkling pink hot-air balloon centered in it and tied down to a surrounding fence-post very firmly, further weighed down by brown burlap and heavy-looking sacks. Next to it, carrying a rather large receptacle of some kind on her back, paced a pink-coated mare with a blond mane and a flying helmet strapped to her head. The sisters turned to Lance and nodded in unison, and he turned to them and did likewise before they turned tail and trotted away to attend to other things.

The sextet approached the pacing mare, almost instantly garnering her attention when they came closer. They stopped five feet away, and Lance nodded to the mare. "Are you Cherry Berry?" he asked. "I heard a pony by that name managed the hot-air balloon around these parts."

The mare regarded Lance for some seconds, taking in the query and the fact that he had his gunblade out in the open. "Yes, I am. Why do you ask?" she replied, a brow shooting up as she spoke.

Lance nodded and craned his neck to look at Maria. "Think you can fish out the bag of bits from my saddlebags?" he asked.

Maria turned to look at the gunblade, still frowning. She gulped before outstretching a claw and leaning a little before sticking her limb under the flap and started pawing around. Amidst small, metallic objects, she felt a rather large and rounded form that had the feel of cloth. Fumbling around a little more and feeling strings attached to the bundle in question, she grasped it and pulled it out to reveal a satchel as big as both of her hooves.

Only when it was pulled out did Lance turn back to Cherry Berry. "We'd like to use your hot-air balloon. How much does a ride cost?" he asked.

Cherry Berry's eyes swept over the sextet before her, with a small frown forming on her face when she briefly saw the gunblade again. "Two bits per foal, and five per adult. You, mister…" She turned to Lance and sighed. "Lemme see the saddlebag."

Lance's brows shot straight up to the base of his forelock. "Why?" he queried.

"You're carrying a weapon, and I need to make sure you don't have anything dangerous on you, that strange sword notwithstanding," Cherry replied, her frown tightening. "Not many ponies have the gall to trot in broad daylight with such a thing in plain sight." She lifted a hoof and made a sweeping gesture with it as she added, "Even balloons have regulations, after all."

Lance sighed, his brows falling back. He regarded Cherry with a flat look. "If you do, just mind the sword. Don't need you hurting yourself with it," he stated. Cherry nodded and trotted to him before lifting a hoof to grapple the flap, lifting it whilst being mindful of the weapon in the holster. She blinked upon finding a motherload of bullets, mostly steel and copper with a few golden and dark grey ones here and there.

Lowering the flap, she turned to Lance. "What're those?" Cherry asked, lifting her other hoof to gesture to the bullet-laden satchel.

Lance pursed his lips, their corners twitching for a few seconds. "Pieces of random ore," he replied after some seconds. "I smelt them to make swords like what's on my saddlebag."

Cherry Berry nodded and backed away to give Lance some space. "A smelter, huh? Alright then. Fork over the bits and you can use my balloon," she said, her frown turning into a smile. Shining's horn flared to life and his magic took the satchel Maria had, and he opened it before he plucked out the amount of bits needed. He counted twice to be sure he had the right amount before depositing them in the receptacle.

Before Berry had the chance to turn away, the Crusaders broke into a gallop with grins on their faces, whizzing around Lance in a collective blur and straight to the hot-air balloon. "Are we heading to the weather factory?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Or maybe the Wonderbolts Academy?" Scootaloo added, wings flared and buzzing.

"Or the Cloudsdale Arena?" Sweetie finished, her horn fizzing with light green magic that flickered like a lightbulb about to go out. "Maybe we'll get our cutie marks soon!"

Lance's shoulders sagged, and he groaned. "Now I'm babysitting three hyperactive foals…" he bemoaned, ears falling flat against his head. "Godcat, have mercy on me…" he mumbled as he started trotting to the balloon. But as he got close, he heard a flapping of wings and turned his head upward to find Rainbow Dash heading towards him, blinking as she banked smoothly and landed safely on all four hooves.

He noticed that she was decked out in a blue-and-yellow jumpsuit that started at the neck and ended a little past her wings, with a golden badge attached to the collar. In addition to that, she sported goggles that rested upon her forehead. "Oh, there you are. What took you?"

Dash flashed Lance a smile. "Just had to get my Wonderbolt cadet uniform," she answered. "Where we're going, if I don't show up in uniform, Spitfire'll chew me out worse than you do Alexander."

Lance nodded. "Alright then." He heard a door swinging, and turned to find that the Crusaders had opened the door to the balloon's basket before they rushed inside. He trotted after them, hearing Shining coming after him not long after. Once they were loaded, Maria hopped off of Lance's back as Cherry came up and closed the door.

"My advice: take the ride slow. Don't need to crash into clouds, do we?" Cherry asked, though it came out more like a statement. Six heads shook at once, and three of those heads had innocent smiles plastering their faces. With that, she untied the balloon and set about removing the weights.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The balloon took off lazily and ascended in the air for a good two hours without pause, going higher and higher at a rather comfortable speed. Dash was flying in a particular direction some ten feet ahead, and she had a rope tied to her middle, which was also attached to the balloon—effectively dragging it with her.

As it started going higher thanks to both heated air and Dash's tugging, Lance slipped out of his saddlebag's strap, letting his gunblade and bullets clatter noisily to the bottom of the basket. He lifted his front hooves and placed them on the rim of the basket before taking a deep breath and unfurling his wings from under his cloak, letting what few budding feathers he had get caressed by the wind as the vessel continued onward.

His ears barely twitched when he heard Scootaloo gasp. "What happened to your wings?" she queried.

"Had a bit of a rough time. I don't think you need to know the specifics, but my wings are getting better," Lance replied without even giving Scootaloo a split-second look. His eyes drifted closed, and he sighed deeply. "Maybe someday, I'll tell you. But not right yet."

Shining looked at Lance with a slight frown on his muzzle. "I take it you miss flying?" he guessed, garnering a slow nod in response.

"Haven't flown for as long as Anna's been in the army," Lance answered, his voice glum.

Shining's eyes widened. "F-for three y-years?" he stammered, his voice an octave higher. "T-that must've been a nightmare for you…"

"It was an annoyance at best, compared to some of the other things I've seen back home," Lance stated matter-of-factly, closing his wings and retracting his front hooves from the rim of the basket. He fell onto his haunches thereafter, eyes remaining shut and ears still twitching about.

"Don't be so down. You'll fly again; your newly-budding feathers are proof enough of that," Shining replied, smiling when Lance opened his eyes and looked at him. "Hay, you could teach Maria to fly, once your wings are as they should be again—laden with feathers," he added, his grin widening.

Lance gave Shining's remark a bit of thought before nodding, a smile of his own budding on his muzzle. "Point taken," he agreed. His smile dropped before it fully formed when his vision began to cloud, and he shook his head whilst blinking to confirm that it wasn't just his eyes playing tricks again.

Alas, it was in vain—the haze continued to build, and it was building up thickly. Not only that, but the others in the balloon mimicked his movements to find the same happening to them. Lance exchanged looks with everyone else before turning his attention to Rainbow Dash, who was a partially-greyed blot already. "What's with the mist?" he cried.

"It surrounds the place Spitfire's training grounds operate at 24/7! Trust me, it's natural!" Dash called back. "Hang tight everypony—I'm about to crank up the speed!"

Lance obliged, planting one hoof on the basket's rim and the other on his saddlebag to make sure it wouldn't get away. "Training grounds?" he yelled out, flinching when Maria wrapped her claws around his bag-pinning foreleg, followed in short order by the Crusaders doing likewise to her and then each other.

"You'll see shortly!" Dash shouted in reply, and true to her word the balloon started gaining momentum. In seconds, the manes of the entire lot were whipping in racing winds generated by their acceleration. Lance's cloak started whipping about as well, and shortly after he shuddered as needle-like gales assaulted his bare wings and back mercilessly.

Shining let his horn glow, and his aura embraced himself, the others, and the lone saddlebag-with-gunblade. The speed continued to climb, at this point stinging at his eyes with fierce air flying right at his face, and it also started trying its damnedest to make his cheeks fly off. Despite this, he could've sworn he saw the barest sliver of sunlight pierce through the haze, but now the balloon was moving too fast to let him discern whether or not it was an illusion.

Then he saw another sliver, and another whiz by after that. His eyes squinted as the battering winds kept up their onslaught, yet still he saw more slivers of light dart by at split-second rates. What's more, the slivers kept getting bigger and bigger, up until one struck him square in the eyes and momentarily blinded him.

Shining yelped and shook his head to recover from the slight mishap, and his eyes widened as he heard a crackle and a fizz coming right from his horn. He gulped and forced himself to calm down with breaths that were shallow thanks to the balloon's momentum.

Lance turned to him with a frown. "You okay?" he asked.

Shining nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine!" he replied, seeing his aura dim dangerously around the saddlebag. He immediately channeled more mana into his horn, re-asserting his telekinetic hold on the blasted thing to keep it in place. The aura brightened again, and he let himself relax just a little with another few breaths of coming-and-going air.

He noticed something shortly thereafter; the haze began to clear, and up ahead he could've sworn he saw a faint splash of greyed green. How big it was and other little details like that, though, he still couldn't discern yet thanks to the remaining fog that persistently lingered all around.

"Almost to the training grounds! Everypony still in the balloon?" Dash called out, causing Lance to turn to her yet again.

"Still in the basket in one piece!" Lance cried out. "Are we slowing down anytime soon?"

"Not yet!" Dash answered. "Still got some ways to go!"

"Alright!" Lance yelled. He and everyone else turned to the splash of greyed green up ahead, and as the fog grew weaker and weaker, they could make out darker shapes jutting out upon the entity here and there. One particular darker shape stretched upon the length of the whole splash sideways, oddly rectangular when the other shapes were more erratic in nature.

In a few minutes, the fog finally gave way altogether, giving the group a crystal clear view of a ring of clouds surrounding a raised, flat plateau that sported a runway, some trees, and rings affixed to meter-high poles anchored to the ground. Buildings crafted of clouds dotted the ring, and along with the runway and rings, the plateau sported colorful flags here and there. A stream coursed through it and under the runway, and half of it was rainbow that itself poured from a cloud-bound reservoir in a colorful waterfall.

A massive wheel on wooden legs was affixed on the runway, with a pony operating switches not too far from it. Another line of ponies was assembled before it, watching as it spun at stomach-churning speeds. Between the spinning machine and said line of ponies, a particular splash of orange caught Dash's eye, and she turned to slow her momentum in a decelerating circle.

The balloon began slowing as well, and for a few minutes that was all it and the pony dragging it by rope did. The occupants of the basket collected themselves as it slowed further still, and Maria took the time to eye the scenery. "Daddy, it's so pretty!" She turned to the spinning apparatus.

"Release!" a slightly-muted feminine voice cried out as it finally stopped abruptly and launched a pony that was on it sharply to the upper-left.

"Can I try that thing? It looks fun!" Maria asked, gesturing to the apparatus.

"Rainbow Dash, what took you! Get down here this instant!" the feminine voice from before called out as the balloon continued to slow, this time much louder and clearer. It was one that Lance instantly recognized as that of Spitfire's.

"Can't do that right now ma'am, got a few passengers on board. I'll land once the balloon is slow enough to safely land!" Dash called back. "I don't want another Lightning Dust recreation!"

"Fair point! Get your tail down as soon as you can!" Spitfire commanded.

"Roger!" With that, it took about a minute for the balloon to finally shed its excess momentum, and another for Dash to drop to the runway so the damn thing could land. As soon as it hit the runway and stayed put, Spitfire's galloping form came into view, eyes narrowed behind a pair of violet sunglasses.

"And what do we…" Spitfire began, but stopped when she saw Lance in the basket. He nodded to her and knelt to pick up his saddlebag and gunblade before affixing them to his middle, and only when both objects were securely on him did he turn back to her. "Aaaaah, so you brought me the general, huh? I see he's not in uniform."

"Long story regarding that, but Ponyville's in a fuss," Lance sighed, shaking his head as Dash turned her attention to the rope on her body. "Being in uniform would be like painting a target on my cutie mark."

Spitfire huffed, though she nodded nonetheless. "That town's residents usually find something to fuss over, from what Dash told me of it. For them, it's in never-ending supply." She paused, though only for a few seconds. "Is a certain pale being with you presently?"

Lance shook his head. "No, she isn't. She had other matters to attend to," he stated flatly. "I'm saddled with four extra foals at the moment, and last thing I need to do is give three of them a heart attack."