The next morning,
Aboard the Equestrian Airlines Flight from Canterlot to New York City, awaiting permission to take off

Rarity sat in her seat, reading the latest edition of Equestrian Style, patiently awaiting the take off of the plane they were on, a DC-5. The air plane had been delayed by an unexpected storm. Normally, the Pegasi had been able to avoid such unplanned whether events. However, the clouds and the weather that was found naturally in the human world were entirely out of the control of the weather ponies. And when that weather came to Equestria, there was nothing for Ponykind to do except toughen through it.

Looking over at Rainbow Dash, who was seated on her left by the window, she could tell that her friend was clearly nervous of flying.

“Are you afraid of flying,” asked Rarity teasingly.

“What! No!” responded the blue pegasus, defensively. “The air is like, my natural environment!”

“I’m just saying, you look jittery about something.”

Rainbow Dash paused, uncertain about whether or not she should tell the truth to Rarity. Eventually she gave in.

“I’m just nervous about flying aboard this rust bucket,” said Rainbow Dash.

“I can assure you, Rainbow, flying is the safest means of transportation in existence. You have nothing to fear.”

“It just doesn’t feel normal to be flying while sitting. I don’t know. Perhaps I’m just uneasy about not being in control.”

“What do you mean?” asked Rarity.

“The reason I love flying so much is that no matter what else happens in your life, you can always control where you fly and where you go. When you’re a thousand feet up, all of the problems of the world just don’t seem so close and pressing.”

Rainbow Dash looked over to Rarity and only received a puzzled look from her flightless unicorn friend. “You wouldn’t understand. I guess it’s just a pegasus thing.”

“Well I’m glad to be able to enjoy flying. Other than that one time when Twilight cast a spell giving me temporary flight on our trip to Cloudsdale, I’ve never been able to view the world from up high. Perhaps the aeroplane will give us unicorns and earth ponies a chance to enjoy the world like you pegasi do,” said Rarity.

“I suppose so,” said Rainbow as she tightened the seat belt around her waist. “Let’s just say that I’ll be glad when we land in New York.”

“It’s a marvelous city I’ve heard.”

“Yeah, supposedly it’s a clone of Manehattan,” said Rainbow Dash, showing off her knowledge about America’s biggest city.

“Yeah. Instead of the Statue of Friendship, they apparently have a Statue of Liberty. I’ve also heard that their ‘baseball’ teams are really good. Of course I have no idea what that is, but I’m guessing it's a sport,” said Rarity, hoping to raise Rainbow Dash’s spirits with talk about sports, something that the fashion loving mare normally found boring and mind numbing.

“I’ve heard some things about it from some of the American tourists who came and watched us Wonderbolts perform during our spring tour of Equestria. If we have time, could we go to a match?” asked Dashie.

“Certainly. My fashion show isn’t until the third day of the trip, so we will have plenty of time to tour the city.”

“This is your captain speaking, we are officially cleared for takeoff,” boomed a large voice over the intercom.

Rainbow Dash suddenly tensed up as the airplane began to roll towards the runway. Rarity reached over and held her hoof in hers.

Looking her multi-colored friend in the eyes, she said, “I’ll always be here for you Dashie.”

“Thanks,” said Rainbow Dash, blushing.