Spitfire's brow rose as Shining checked the burner to find a weak flame. "Foals?" Then she donned a smile, directing it straight at Lance. "You didn't seem the type to babysit."

The door of the balloon's basket opened, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders tumbled out with awe-struck faces. They turned to the line of ponies as one flew up to the apparatus, and they smiled as it started spinning again. "Release!" a masculine voice called seconds later. As if compelled by the utterance, the device ceased spinning instantly and launched the pony who flew up to it in the sky.

Spitfire turned to the trio and her smile fell. She spoke before any of them could get one word out of their opening mouths, "Tell me, why are you with the grouchy general?"

"Because we wanted to get our cutie marks," Scootaloo answered, a grin forming on her face.

"No," Lance objected, trotting out of the basket with his nostrils flaring. "You already tried that once this morning, and I think that's enough!" He turned to Spitfire and saw that her brow rose and sighed before elaborating, "Paraglider. Stray cloud that made thunder and hail." He gestured to Scootaloo's singe-marks. "May or may not have been her idea." He ignored the glare Scootaloo sent his way after he finished speaking.

Spitfire shook her head. She turned to Rainbow Dash. "Are you ready for your overdue session?" she asked.

Dash nodded. "Give me all you've got," she replied in a level voice. "But before you do… I'll need to know if you'll head to your office once the other cadets are done with their rounds," she added.

Spitfire turned to Lance, who turned back to her with a small, tight frown on his face. "Are the foals coming to my office, or what?" she asked in a flat voice, a tight frown forming on her face.

Lance shook his head and turned to Shining. "You think you can babysit for a few?" he asked.

Shining smiled at Lance before nodding. He turned to Spitfire. "Can we keep Dash for a while longer, since foals are present?" he queried.

Spitfire turned to regard the Crusaders for a bit, and sighed as Maria bumbled out of the basket before trotting behind them. "You're mean-looking," Maria remarked, flinching and scooting a little closer to Lance as she spoke.

Spitfire sighed and shook her head before turning back to Shining. "Considering one of the kids doesn't like me, I'll let you keep Dash a while longer," she answered. "But I don't know how I am gonna get the general to my office, considering he informed me of his current flightlessness." She lifted a hoof and waved it before turning to the apparatus, finding that another pony of the line started flying up to it. She spread her wings and waved them like feathered hands, before the pony operating the levers saw it and responded by blowing an ear-piercing whistle.

"Mess hall, on the double!" the pony who blew the whistle cried, his voice as firm as he could muster. The lined-up ponies, plus the one who flew towards the apparatus before the whistle blew exchanged glances and murmurs before shrugging. They took flight with the already-airborne one leading them, heading towards one of the smaller buildings perched on the clouds.

Spitfire closed her wings and turned back to face Lance. Then she looked at Maria. "I'm only mean-looking around my cadets, particularly if they mess up or skip training." Her expression eased a little after she gave Dash a sidelong glance, and she added, "And only one cadet is present, but I'll let her have her dues later. For now…" She turned to Rainbow Dash again. "Help Mr. Flightless to my office, on the double."

Rainbow Dash saluted Spitfire with a hoof. "Yes ma'am," she answered before dropping the hoof and trotting to Lance. She eyed the saddlebag for a few seconds, but shrugged and asked him, "Would you like a ride on my back, or on the balloon again?"

"I'd rather not take any chances," Lance replied, promptly turning tail and trotting straight back to the balloon. Shining and Maria followed him, and so did the Crusaders. He lifted a hoof and closed the basket's door with it before adding, "That, and this is my first time being here. I don't know where the office is at."

Dash rolled her eyes at him and trotted over before taking the rope in her mouth. She used a wing to gesture to Lance as she turned to Spitfire, who donned a smile and nodded. Shining let his horn glow and magically took hold of the burner, fumbling for a bit before letting the flame consume more fuel to subsequently expand.

Then the balloon lifted about an inch from the runway, and then another shortly after. It languidly climbed up until the rope that Dash had in her teeth pulled taut, letting it stray no farther than ten feet. Dash shot another glance at Spitfire and received a curt nod and flared her wings, donning a grin as she prepared to start dragging the balloon to its next destination.

Spitfire started flapping her wings, lifting her hooves as she became airborne. "What are you waiting for, Dash? Take him to my office, on the double," she commanded in a firm voice.

"Yesh ma'aw," Dash replied through the rope in her mouth, likewise spreading her wings to prepare for takeoff.

"But daaaaaddy! I wanna try the spinny thing!" Maria complained, followed by the sound of a hoof stomping on the bottom of the basket.

Lance groaned and lifted a hoof before letting it connect with his face. "No, and that's final," he grumbled. "It looks like it could catapult you straight through a wall, and I'd rather not have to deal with the particular fallout of such an aftermath."

Spitfire sent Lance another grin as she, Dash, and the balloon rose higher into the air. Then she flew to the balloon before leaning over the basket's rim to look squarely at Maria. "No, kid, you're not tall enough to take a ride on the Dizzitron yet. And besides, it's reserved for Wonderbolt cadets only," she stated.

Maria's wings flared and her chest puffed, but a glare from Lance had her deflating and closing her wings seconds later. Her ears pinned back and her head dropped a little. "Okay…" she said glumly.

Spitfire smiled. "But, if you practice your flying and get really good, then once you're big enough, I'll let you tackle the Dizzitron one day," she chirped. Her tone took on a stern note as she added, "But only if you get good at flying. Got it?"

Maria nodded. "Okay," she replied, the slightest hint of a smile budding on her muzzle.

Spitfire nodded back and relinquished her hold on the basket's rim before turning tail and flying towards one of the nearby cloud structures. Dash followed after her, making the balloon jerk behind her before it re-oriented itself a second later. It took a minute or so to reach a particular cloud structure that was oddly shorter than the others, and the balloon settled on a nearby perch for it as though it were nothing. Again, Lance clambered out as soon as the vessel stilled, though he took a few seconds to prod at the clouds beneath his hooves after.

"These things are sturdy as concrete. Where do you get these clouds? Do you mug ectoplasms or something?" Lance asked sincerely, garnering an immediate wide-eyed stare from Spitfire. "What?"

Spitfire turned to Dash. "From what I've seen of Fantasia, ma'am, there are no weather pegasi," Dash stated flatly, shaking her head. "None. At. All. Lance was the only non-hippogryph pegasus I found during a three-day stay."

Spitfire's jaw dropped, though only for a second before it reeled back up and her face hardened. Then she turned back to Lance. "Hrm... " She considered his 'mugging ectoplasms' remark for a few seconds and sighed. "I take it there are some thorns in the side in Fantasia?"

"A lot," Lance replied tersely, nodding only once as he spoke. His wings shifted, briefly jostling both the cloak and his saddlebag as he added, "I have some measures of dealing with ectoplasms that involve a flute, but said measures keep them away only temporarily."

Spitfire eyed Lance critically, with the only movement on her face being that of a brow raising a meager inch above her sunglasses. Then she cracked a smile—a very small smile that looked more like a set of tightened lips, but a smile nonetheless. "So you came here seeking a more… permanent solution?" she guessed.

Lance nodded. "As soon as you came and told me you were Dash's instructor of sorts, I thought 'why not hit two birds with one stone?'" he replied. "I've been wondering how weather was managed in these parts for a while anyway."

Spitfire's smirk grew. "Luckily for you, Dash is also a weather pony around these parts. But I've a feeling she wouldn't get anywhere by herself, if she were to return to Fantasia…" Then she turned to Dash. "Mr. Flightless got anything to curb the ectoplasm problem?" she whispered.

That time, Dash nodded. She trotted up to Spitfire and leaned in to whisper into her ear, "Gryphons and changelings at his beck and call, ma'am."

"And one of those things can walk on clouds…" Spitfire's grin grew as she whispered back to Dash. "Tell ya what, forget making up for training… you're gonna be part of a little project…" She turned her attention to Lance yet again, her smile widening just a smidgen more. "What're you standing around for?" She turned around towards the building, spreading a wing and using it to gesture to the others in the balloon instead of a hoof. "Come. We have much to discuss."

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

Soarin paced around a small office, sporting a full-body blue-and-yellow jumpsuit and goggles covering his eyes. As he made circles, his eyes were repeatedly met with nothing more than a desk, a circular rug, a filing cabinet opposite to one side, and some posters tacked to the walls.

His wings spread, flapped, and twisted each and every way they could, and his brow slanted as sweat started to bead down the bridge of his muzzle through the fabric of his uniform. Yet more formed when he spotted the three windows behind the desk, with blinds partially drawn.

With him in this room, sporting a shirt with some badges, a hat, and goggles, a mustachioed, grey-coated pegasus stallion stood next to a door at rapt attention. Said stallion lifted a hoof to rub at his prominent cleft chin, and huffed in a sort of refined accent, "Is something the matter?"

Soarin immediately ceased on the spot, jerking his head to the stallion with flared wings and wide eyes stationed behind the goggles. He attempted a smile, but it warbled dangerously before faltering into a shaking frown. He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a short-lived whicker.

The mustachioed stallion raised a brow so slowly Soarin could've sworn he heard it raising. "I don't see what you're getting your feathers ruffled over," he stated in a smooth voice. "What. Is. Wrong?"

Soarin whickered again, but he forced himself to take some deep breaths of air as sweat continued to dot his brow through his suit. "Th-the cadets… o-or some of them," he stammered, his voice raspy and almost choked.

The mustachioed stallion lifted his raised brow slightly higher. "They'll be fine. This batch is the toughest the Academy's had yet. I don't see what you're prancing and panicking over," he replied, his voice still smooth as butter.

"But some of them just got over the feather flu, Whiplash! What if—" Soarin stopped when Whiplash dropped his front hoof and perked an ear up, along with his other brow.

"Feather flu doesn't spread that easily, and besides, the cadets looked like they were in tip-top shape. I really don't see what the problem is," Whiplash stated, face and voice hardening a little. His ear twitched and he lifted his hoof again, letting it stray to hover in front of his muzzle. "Shush. I hear something," he whispered, just loud enough for Soarin to hear him.

Soarin nodded and closed his wings slowly, taking in another wave of deep breaths before sitting on his haunches. His ears twitched, straining to hear whatever it was that Whiplash caught. His pupils shrunk when he heard a young and rather faint voice pipe up, "Daddy, what's a loop-de-loop?"

Another voice answered, slightly louder and masculine, "A flying trick. Which you're not going to perform in a few years. It's for hardcore flyers, which you aren't." A few seconds passed before the owner added, "But, once I can fly again, I could teach it to you."

Another feminine voice snorted with a hint of amusement, "Lance, you're gonna need flying lessons yourself before that can happen. Your wings look like limp noodles attached with glue."

"Yours would too, if they were plucked and magically steel-bound for three years straight, Rainbow!" Lance barked in response.

Soarin's ears folded back a little, and he swallowed a lump that started forming in his throat. "Be glad Scootaloo wasn't around to hear that, along with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle! You wouldn't hear the end of it otherwise!" Rainbow shot back.

"Both of you, can it. We're almost to my office," a third feminine voice cut in, making Soarin's ears fold the rest of the way back.

"What's an office?" the young voice asked again, this time a lot louder. A second after the question was uttered, the door flung open, and Soarin found Spitfire trotting in with a cadet and two guests behind her.

"This," Spitfire began, turning to Maria and making a wide gesture with a raised hoof, "is an office." She dropped her hoof and turned to Soarin, and a brow quirked when she noticed his harried look. "You need a glass of water?" she asked.

Soarin opened his mouth to speak, but closed it when air wafted into his mouth and prickled his senses in a way that made it feel as though he'd eaten sand. He nodded apprehensively. Spitfire turned to Whiplash and sent him a single nod. "Get Soarin a glass. After that, head to the mess hall," she stated.

Now it was Whiplash's turn to let his eyes widen. "W-why the mess hall?" he asked.

Spitfire rolled her eyes. "Got some guests there, three of which are fillies. I don't want any accidents to happen while I chat with…" She spread a wing and gestured to Lance with it. Whiplash nodded and trotted out of the room, spreading a wing and using it to close the door behind himself as he went out.

Spitfire trotted around Soarin, behind the desk, and to the windows. She spread a wing and used it to pull the blinds fully over the windows, one at a time, prior to circling around the desk a second time and stopping to sit behind it. She lifted a hoof and made a wide gesture with it, eyes falling on Lance specifically as she sparked up a conversation, "So, how would you like it if Dash trained some of your gryphon troops?"

Lance's eyes bulged and a choked gasp came out of his mouth almost immediately. "G-guh?" he managed, his inflection a solid octave higher.

"I'll give you a moment," Spitfire chirped, grinning at his flabbergasted reaction. She suppressed a snicker even as his jaw dropped open, but she could do little to keep her grin from going down the Cheshire route.

Lance wasn't the only one to be flabbergasted, but he was certainly the first. Soarin's reaction was delayed, but after a few seconds his eyes bugged out and his wings snapped straight open. "C-come again?" he stammered, his voice nothing more than a squeak.

Maria looked at Lance, then to Soarin, then at Spitfire and back again. After a solid minute of silence and repeatedly glancing at the three, she turned to Rainbow Dash. "What did you do?" she innocently queried, causing Dash to send her a grin accompanied by a barely-repressed laugh.

"I didn't do anything," Rainbow cooed, her own grin widening. "Honest."

"Yes you did," Maria shot back, her brow furrowing. She raised a talon with claws bared, but a burnt orange hoof shot to her and stopped just at her barrel, causing her to turn up to find Lance giving her a wide-eyed look.

"It… doesn't matter whether or not Rainbow did something," Lance stated in a subdued tone of voice. "Leave it alone." Only when Maria dropped her talon and sighed did he turn to Spitfire. "A…" He swallowed a lump. "Are you serious?"

Spitfire kept her grin as she slowly nodded. "That I am. But before we continue this discussion…" She leaned forward and her smile dropped. "Is it true that weather really is wild in Fantasia? With nopony to manage it?"

"All ruled by ectoplasms," Lance answered with a nod. "Only thing that can hold a candle to them are airships."

Spitfire leaned back, brow furrowing. "And that would explain how you even got here, yes?" she pressed, garnering another nod from Lance. She turned to Maria and softened her hardened look a little. "What do you know of ectoplasms, little one? Surely somepony taught you something back home." Her eyes widened when Maria shook her head.

"I don't know anything about ectomoplasms," Maria replied in a sincere voice. She deflated with ears folding back as she added, "Bad gryphs only taught me what a cock was…"

Spitfire's jaw dropped. "Say what?" she uttered, her voice several octaves higher.

"That part, sadly, is true," Rainbow interjected in a glum voice, causing Spitfire and Soarin to both jerk to her. The latter made a choking sound and the former could not stop her pupils from dilating. "I've seen how 'the bad gryphs' treated her with my own eyes. They came close to tearing off her face."

"I'm sorry…" Maria uttered, shuffling closer to Lance as her head dropped when Spitfire turned back to her.

Spitfire sighed and slanted her brow. "You did nothing wrong," she stated in as soothing a voice as she could manage. Then she turned to Lance again. "Do other foals go through what she did?"

Lance nodded. "I can't say that for certain, or any definitive numbers for that matter. But, what I can say is that it has happened before. Usually without an iota of knowledge on how to control the ectoplasms. Or how to do other things, like fly in Maria's case," he stated, lifting a foreleg and wrapping it around Maria. "Seen it first hoof."

Spitfire sighed and let her ears fold back slightly. She took a few seconds to compose herself before asking, "You know gryphons can cloud-walk, right?"

Lance shook his head. "Might as well ask me when my feline colonel is gonna find a kitty-friend to go to bed with," he said in a sincere voice.

Spitfire's ears folded back a little more. "Well this just got awkward," she murmured to herself, sighing once again. "How else would Maria be able to walk on clouds?" she asked.

The room fell dead silent. Lance stared at Spitfire, and she held her gaze; neither uttered so much as a puff of air laced with an inflection. Dash, Soarin, and Maria were likewise quiet, and they merely lingered in their places to let the query sink in.

After a few seconds, Maria spoke, "I don't know how I can walk on clouds…"

Spitfire turned to her and managed a small smile. "Kid, gryphons and pegasi share a few things in common, and one of them is cloud-walking magic," she stated. "Which means they could, theoretically, manipulate the weather."

"If the ectoplasms were dealt with," Lance interjected, garnering Spitfire's attention with his utterance. "But we're talking one pony teaching somepony else's troops here. I reckon most of said troops wouldn't want anything to do with it."

Spitfire's ears stood to rigid attention, and her brow furrowed again. "And that would leave a small hoofful of troops, right?" she asked.

Lance sighed. "Affirmative," he stated tersely. "Which brings us back to square one."

"How are you going to get Dash to train them, though?" Soarin interjected, causing all eyes to turn to him in the span of a second. "Wouldn't that be… a lost cause?"

Lance pursed his lips, mentally going over Soarin's remark. Then he turned to Spitfire. "How about this: Dash trains me to deal with the ectoplasms once my wings are fully flighted again, and then I take it from there with my gryphon troops?"

Another palpable silence descended upon the room. It lingered for a full minute before the door swung open abruptly, causing the others to turn to the source as he strode in with a plate laden with glasses of water held up by folded-forward wings. "Not to sound callous, but what are the extra glasses of water for, Whiplash?" Spitfire asked.

"Well, I figured everyone else would want a glass, so I got extra," Whiplash replied smoothly, trotting past Lance and Maria to set the plate of glasses on the table. He took a few paces back once he slid his feathers out from beneath the plate, and for a few seconds longer everyone present still stared at him.

Spitfire donned a small grin. "I appreciate the gesture. Thanks," she chirped. Then she lifted a hoof and motioned for Whiplash to leave, but as slowly as she could manage due to the glasses now sitting directly before her.

"You're welcome," Whiplash replied, turning tail and trotting to the door. He paused before he left, and craned his neck to give Spitfire another look. "Oh, the foals in the mess hall are behaving admirably. And they told me to tell you they said 'don't keep Lance for too long.'"

Spitfire nodded. "Tell them I said 'duly noted,'" she stated. She watched as Whiplash left the room again, making sure to close the door as he went, before turning to Soarin. "You get first glass, but I'd advise you to drink slowly," she added.

Soarin nodded and stood up before trotting over with a wing extending outward, with which he tenderly plucked a glass of water from the plate. He returned to sit next to Lance, causing Dash to come up and take her glass, followed by Maria, and then finally Lance himself.

Spitfire plucked the last glass and the collective lot took a second to get a small sip of water into their mouths. Once she swallowed her mouthful, Spitfire leveled another look at Lance. "Dash training you, a general…" She let her grin widen a teensy bit at the mere notion. "What next, cotton candy clouds? Or Luna growing another pair of wings?" she joked. "Maybe another alicorn?"

Lance smiled back with ears twitching. "I'll eat a hat and some bullets if I ever see a cotton candy cloud," he stated sarcastically. "Ten, if Luna grows another pair of wings. Twenty, if we get another alicorn."

"Frankly, it sounds absurd," Soarin piped up with a snort.

"Why would daddy want training?" Maria agreed, nodding in assent.

Spitfire considered the rather bizarre idea carefully, also taking into account what Lance said about his gryphons. The longer she thought, the more her grin widened, and the more she found herself nodding almost subconsciously. "It's worth a shot, but…"

Lance lifted a brow and his glass of water. He took a sip and swallowed before asking, "'But' what?"

"Speaking strictly on a hunch here, but if there aren't any weather pegasi… or weather gryphons in Fantasia, there's just one teeny tiny problem that needs addressing. An elephant in the room, if you will," Spitfire began, pausing to take a sip of her own drink. She frowned as she added, "Namely, a severe lack of knowledge on how to manipulate the weather itself."

Lance took a few seconds to let it sink in, and as it did, his eyes widened yet again. Spitfire watched as his pupils shrank and his ears folded all the way back. "That look tells me all I need to know. But, there is a solution available to your particular ail, and I don't speak of a lack of feathers on your part."

That got Lance's ears perking straight up. "A solution?" he parroted, tone riddled with disbelief.

Spitfire slowly nodded. "Yes, though it'll require some books in your case." She turned to Dash. "And one of my cadets happens to know a librarian…"

Lance abruptly lifted the glass of water, downed it in one go, and promptly spit half of the contents straight back out when 'librarian' left Spitfire's mouth. Choking the rest of the water down before it could fight its way past his lips, he was left gawking in a manner that made it seem as though he'd been jabbed in the stomach. His wings twitched under his cloak as Spitfire turned back to him with another small grin on her face.

"T-Twilight?" he stammered, his voice once again several octaves higher.

"Bingo," Spitfire chirped with a nod. "That mare has books on almost everything. I'd reckon you'd get something out of her shelves easy-peasy." She turned to Maria and added, "Heck, she's probably got foals' books on weather manipulation."

Maria frowned and tilted her head. "Do I have to read a book?" she asked sincerely.

"Not if you don't want to. Just a tidbit if you ever wanted to control the weather yourself," Spitfire replied. "If anything, that should keep you and your daddy busy while he grows his feathers back."

Lance trotted forward and placed his empty glass on the plate. "Something tells me I got a long few months ahead of me," he stated, frowning slightly.

"But I've a feeling you'll pull through those long months just fine," Spitfire cooed, still grinning. "Sorry that I couldn't be of much help, but I got an Academy to manage." She turned to Soarin. "Soarin, help him and Dash and the others get to the library, pronto."

Soarin nodded and downed the rest of his glass, prior to plodding forward and setting it on the desk itself. Maria and Dash followed suit, though the former had to rear up in order to put her glass on the desk. "Thanks for the intel, Spitfire. Much appreciated," Lance stated in a sincere voice before he turned around and trotted to the door.

"Thank you," Maria chirped, turning tail to follow Lance as he lifted a hoof and opened the door with it.

Dash looked at Spitfire with a big grin sprouting on her muzzle. "This is gonna get very interesting," she mouthed before following suit.

Spitfire nodded and turned to Soarin, clearing her throat as he made to turn around. "Oh, and before you go... " she began.

"Yes?" Soarin asked, turning back to her with a brow quirked.

"Tell Bulk Biceps I need to see him in my office," Spitfire stated, still grinning. Soarin nodded and turned around to trot to the opened door as Lance, Maria, and Rainbow all trotted out of it in a single-file line.

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

The three trotted out to the balloon, finding that Shining and the Crusaders had already beaten them to it, and the door of the basket was wide open. "What took you?" Shining asked with a grin. "Did Spitfire hit on you?"

Lance smiled back and shook his head with a twitching eye. "Spitfire didn't hit on me, but she did re-direct me back to your sister. Said something about weather control books," he replied.

Shining's grin widened. "Now that you mention it, I do recall seeing some books in her library like that before we headed to the Crystal Empire," he chirped. "What are we waiting for?" Lance trotted to the basket and climbed inside, followed by Maria. The door closed behind them, and Dash took the rope in her mouth again.

She turned to Soarin, who likewise donned a grin. Both flared their wings on some unspoken signal, which prompted Shining to let his horn glow and magically fiddle about with the burner until the flame expanded quite a bit. The balloon started lifting of its own accord as a result, and with it Soarin and Dash started beating their wings to likewise ascend a little. Once it started drifting further from the cloud, Dash tightened her grip on the rope and flew around the balloon, making it follow her once it pulled taut after ten feet.

The balloon was dragged back through the fog surrounding the Academy, though now the sun had risen higher, and as a result slivers of light didn't penetrate it at odd angles. Instead, the light bore straight down at a sharp 90 degrees, forcing the lot to squint their eyes in an attempt to keep from temporarily going blind. Soarin took the time to slow down his flying and let the balloon catch up to him, and he turned to Lance with a grin.

"So how's the ride so far?" Soarin asked.

"Makes me long for flying that much more!" Lance replied without returning the look. "But well worth it."

Soarin's grin did not budge, nor falter. "Good to hear," he said. The balloon started to get ahead of him, so he beat his wings a little harder to keep pace with it. Doing that as Lance lifted his front hooves to rest them on the basket's rim enabled him to see his cutie mark as the wind started picking up enough to lift part of the cloak. "Say, what's your cutie mark mean? I haven't seen one like that before."

Lance turned to Soarin with a brow raised. "If you want the short of it, long story!" he replied.

Soarin blinked. "A bit personal, I take it?" he queried.

Lance nodded. "Very," he stated tersely. He turned to Scootaloo as she giggled.

"That cutie mark is wicked, but not as wicked as Rainbow's," Scootaloo chirped with a grin on her face.

Lance rolled his eyes in response. "You make it sound like a contest," he snorted.

"Nah, it's just that Rainbow is awesome in every way," Scootaloo replied, sporting a Cheshire grin.

Lance raised a brow. "Oh, I get it… you're idolizing her?" he asked. When he got a nod, he sighed and turned to look ahead again. "I see."

Maria turned to Scootaloo and sent her a grin. "But Dash doesn't have daddy's gunblade," she chirped.

"Pfffb." Scootaloo's cheeks bulged as she tried and somewhat failed in containing her laughter at that. She leaned forward and giggled before stating matter-of-factly, "Dash doesn't need swords. She can kick plenty of flank without them."

Maria's grin widened. "Dash doesn't have daddy's tank," she retorted.

Scootaloo threw her head back and started laughing. When she stopped seconds later, she leveled an amused look at Maria. "She has an awesome tortoise named Tank, who's probably stronger than your daddy," she replied.

That caused Lance to turn to her again, this time with both brows raised. "Excuse you?"

Scootaloo turned to Lance, still grinning. "Dash has a tortoise that's stronger than you," she repeated.

Lance's eyes widened. He turned ahead again and shouted, "Do you really have a tortoise? Because I'm getting smack-talked over here by a filly who think's you're the best thing since sliced bread!"

Dash shot a glance over her shoulder and lifted a hoof to grapple the rope with it. Letting the end in her mouth go, she replied, "I do have a tortoise! I left him with Fluttershy before going to get my uniform!"

Lance nodded and turned back to Scootaloo, eyes narrowing a little. "You mean physically stronger, or mentally?" he asked.

Scootaloo still smiled serenely at him. "Tank's as strong as Big Mac," she snarked.

Lance began smiling. "Physical strength isn't everything. It's useful, sure, but you don't see me showing off by trotting around and punching boulders, do you?" he retorted, his voice equal parts cold and amused.

Scootaloo's smile fell, and she lifted a hoof to her chin before rubbing it for a few seconds. "... no," she answered.

Lance's grin began widening. "Alright then. Besides, you don't know what I can do anyway. Don't run around assuming things, it's bad for your state of mind," he stated matter-of-factly.

"Why's that?" Scootaloo asked, a brow raising.

Lance sighed and shook his head. "Let's just say I assumed things once. That lead to my wings going bald," he replied, turning back to Dash once again. Seeing that the haze of grey was rapidly lifting again, he decided to peer down to the ground and found Ponyville and the Everfree Forest below, with the latter sporting thick grey clouds that crackled with scant traces of electricity. Then he turned to Dash again. "The forest is crawling with stormclouds today!"

Dash slowed down and turned to the Everfree Forest, and she too saw the buildup of clouds that formed and roiled below. "Great, just what we all needed," she hissed, stopping momentarily to fiddle with the rope in her hoof. She looped it once around itself and her hoof before she sent the end through the loop, forming a knot that she pulled tight. She tugged afterwards to make sure it was secured to her hoof before turning to the balloon. "Hang tight—we're going down!"

That was all the warning she gave before her body angled a solid 90 and she closed her wings, causing her to plummet steeply. This ended up dragging the balloon with her, slowly at first. For the first few minutes, the descent went at a sluggish pace, and Lance continued to eye the growing formation of darkened clouds warily. His brow furrowed the longer he stared at it, the more the balloon came closer and closer to it, and his lips began pulling into a frown as more and more violent sparks darted around and between them.

Then one bolt shot straight up from the clouds as the balloon came above several hundred meters of Ponyville, and it raced up and up to the vessel, causing Lance's eyes to widen. "Take cover!" he bellowed, immediately retracting from the rim before crouching at the bottom of the basket with his hooves over his head.

"Why's that?" Shining asked, and in seconds he got his answer as the bolt whizzed past Rainbow, burning the rope to cinders as it passed and forcing her to release it altogether to keep herself from getting scorched, and struck solidly at the balloon itself. This wasted no time grabbing his and everyone else's attention, eliciting a few shrieks of surprise from Maria and the Crusaders, as well as making it catch fire and deflate in one go. He turned to it with a whicker, and almost immediately after his horn started glowing again, grappled at the flames themselves as they ate away at the balloon, paying no heed to the even-faster burning ropes.

Yet he had no such luck in containing the blaze. In seconds, the flames died and took the balloon and ropes with, leaving just the basket behind. He and the foals grappled the basket's rim as it started plummeting much faster than before, and in seconds the air around them was filled with their screaming. Lance joined in the wailing too, with eyes shut tight as he kept crouching on the basket. He could barely hear Dash and Soarin flying after the basket, but part of him wasn't sure they'd catch the contraption in time.

It felt like an eternity, yet the basket raced to the ground in a matter of seconds. The air left Lance's lungs as he wailed, until he blacked out from the sheer stress and shallow breaths he took in between screams. The last thing he heard while he was still conscious that day was a voice screaming, but he couldn't make out the words as they were drowned out by a deafening boom, and for that very same moment he could've sworn he felt almost weightless.