Chapter 6: wherein Glue is observed being Manufactured

Big Macintosh waited. Standing, staring into the window unmoving and patient, he peered out of the glass, watching the night pass and day arrive, and once the sun had long since rose, he finally considered moving. He turned and looked at the four other sleeping ponies on their bedspreads, and Spike lying near the rock-form hearth of the fireplace which had long since gone out.

Carefully manoeuvring his large hooves, he stepped over to Spike and gave him a nudge. Being a brother, Applejack would have been easy to wake in a personable manner, but Macintosh didn't quite know how to wake the rest of the mares apart from yelling (which would surely awake Yukon and his wife, who had been such gracious hosts) or nudging them in a rather impolite and discomforting manner -inappropriate regarding how he thought himself at the most of times only an acquaintance to them. Friend only by proxy through his sister, and waking them as if they were his sister was too innocuous compared to, perhaps waking a small dragon.

"Huh-wha?" mumbled Spike drearily, a hoof poking him in the back. He looked up and saw Macintosh, calmly looking down at him. "Is it morning already?"

"Eeyup." In that moment, Macintosh confided his admitting of a lack of foreknowledge in a whispering voice, "Spike, how do Ah wake 'em up?" he made a small sweeping motion from Rarity to Pinkie Pie across the smallish space of the living room floor.

Spike sat for an instant, thinking. Then he had an idea, which delighted him.

"Stand back." he said with a smile. Macintosh carefully moved backwards a short distance. Spike seemed to be trying to chew something, then, puffing out his cheeks, he let forth a loud guttural "POOF!" followed by a large bright lime-colored flame which flashed light everywhere. Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie all jerked upwards in surprise at the anomaly, bright eyed and Fluttershy scared half out of her wits.

Spike burst out laughing, rolling backwards on the floor.

Big Macintosh gave Spike a disapproving frown. At the same time, Rainbow Dash dove at the baby dragon, tackling him.

"Why you little-!" she said, in some part-joking, part-offended yelp. Pinkie Pie began to laugh at her reaction. Rarity looked to the window. She stretched her legs at the earliness of the morn.

"What time is it?" she said, yawning as she got up.

"'Bout an hour past dawn." said Macintosh. He sounded neutral, but it was well-masking a rather deep exhaustion.

The group disassembled their sleeping things while Spike and Pinkie Pie wandered into the kitchen. Pinkie jumped up to the table, spotting a breakfast prepared for them.

"Lookie lookie! Food's already ready!" she said, bouncing excitedly. Rarity and Rainbow Dash joined her, spotting a large bowl filled with nutty and fruity trail-mix.

"There's a note." observed Rarity, picking up a small piece of paper.

"My dearest new friends,

I have departed early for

work: as usual.

Please enjoy this as

Personal thanks for

concluding your stay.

I hope you find your

missing associates.

Warmest wishes,

-Y"

"That's nice of him." said Rainbow Dash, taking some of the mix into a small bag.

Rarity began to think about their day's itinerary.

"So Yukon's help was to find 'A great behemoth named Aurora'… What's a behemoth?"

"A behemoth is like a really, really big bull monster." said Fluttershy as she entered the kitchen, ever-so-partially nervous at the mention. "They're not very nice."

"Well that doesn't help us."

"A behemoth is just a name for something that's really big." replied Spike. "I think I've heard Twilight say 'Aurora' before but I don't remember where or why."

"Hwh do you shupposh wo'll fnd out?" asked Rainbow Dash, her cheeks puffed round with food from the bowl, Pinkie Pie matching her funny appearance like a squirrel stuffed out with nuts.

"Hmm.." thought Spike. "What would Twilight do?"

With much greater ease in navigation than the day before, the group navigated their way back into the city, into the downtown region and in front of a tall colonnaded building. They looked up at the large entrance marked with carved stone. The structure's design made it evident that the Library long out-aged most of the city around it.

"LIBLIOTHECA FILIDELPAEA"

"Spike, we can't just spend all day reading about what Aurora is." said Dash as they approached the door.

"We don't have any other options." he defended his stance. *Gasp!* He stopped abruptly and Rainbow Dash tripped over him, followed by Fluttershy crumbling on top of her, and Macintosh's walk lead him to landing on them both. Pinkie Pie jumped on top of the sudden ponypile for good measure, giggling merrily.

"Gah! Get off me you big red lug!" exclaimed Dash.

"I'm sorry." uttered Macintosh and Fluttershy bashfully, immediately clearing themselves self off, Pinkie Pie still lying on Macintosh's back laughing. Fluttershy shied away at the accident. -Certainly a moment which she did not like, being so nearly squashed so. Dash thought about the moment, considering where to put the blame. For some unconsidered subconscious reason, her eye lingered longer than she intended at Macintosh's apologetic expression.

"Spike, what was that for?" asked Dash. Spike picked himself up, greatly frustrated more by what he saw.

"Look." he pointed to the large glass doors just inside the colonnade, bearing a sign leaning against the door from the inside.

"Closed for cleaning.

please come back tomorrow :)"

"Shucks! Now what do we do?" storming away from the door, he flung his arms upwards in exasperation. Fluttershy looked up at his gesture, and noticed something across the street in Spike's direction above their normal line of sight. Without looking back down, she poked Rarity, who looked up also, followed by Rainbow Dash. Spike stopped and saw them all looking.

"What?"

Macintosh and Pinkie Pie looked up as well, making Spike finally turn around to see their realization. An enormous poster draped from the ledge of the building across the street displayed an equally gigantic illustration of a silvery-white airship with a beautifully arranged title.

"AURORA

Cruise Today!

AT THE FILLYDELPHIA AERODROME"

They all looked at each other. The momentary lull of simplicity that the answer had presented itself made Pinkie Pie burst out giggling all over again.

"Aurora's a blimp?" exclaimed Rarity in delight.

"Zeppelin." corrected Rainbow Dash. "But it's at the Aerodrome!" she finished, equally excited. "Let's go!"

Rainbow Dash lead the way, barely able to hold herself back from flying all the way there, as the rest struggled to keep her pace either in a brisk walk or having to run occasionally. It was about noon when they finally arrived near a wide gray building that sat near a humungous green field, on which sat a graceful leviathan of a white shiny ellipsoid structure with four flat fins on it. It was taller than even spires in Canterlot, and so long it looked like all of Ponyville could fit inside. The top-most fin bore a splendid marking of the Royal Coat-of-Arms in a black and yellow stencil and below that, a registry of letters and numbers starting with 'EQ' and ending with 'DA'.

"C'mon slowpokes!" she yelled, as she neared the entrance to the grand hall of the Aerodrome terminal. Rarity seemed very annoyed at the exertion, but said nothing.

"It's aright Rarity. Soon enough you'll be resting onboard a giant luxurious airship. Just keep up." she thought to herself.

Inside the terminal ponies of a variety of sorts traveled this way and that. Not as dense or crowded as the train station had been, but busy notwithstanding. Clear signs above their heads directed them from local travel to the Airship Dock, where they came to a partition held by thick felt ropes and a small kiosk, with a few richer-looking ponies on either side. A stallion near the partition unhooked one of the ropes and a large swarm of bustling, rambunctious and excited ponies pushed through and past, before he replaced the hook as if that sort of thing was common.

"Who was that?" asked Rarity.

"The Aurora has live performers during most of its trips. People seemed to like her," the porter directed his hoof at the commotion of the group that continued moving away. "Some story-teller or something called The Great and Powerful Trixie. I think management'll want her back aboard some time.*"

The ponies all exchanged looks.

"Do you have reservations?" said the polite mare in the kiosk.

"Oh, uh…" started Rainbow Dash. "We were told-"

"Tickets will be needed before boarding." replied the mare, her voice quickly starting to sound stern, with the expectation that the six were some sort of freeloaders.

"Where can they be bought?" asked Rarity.

"The main Destinations Counter at the other end of-" she drifted off as she spotted Pinkie Pie, doing some sort of hop-skip-and-jump action on the checkerboard tiled floor. She noticed the key-shaped lapel that Yukon had given her, which she had stuck into her hair. "Very good then." she suddenly said. "Have a nice trip." and she opened the turnaround gate beside the kiosk. Rarity, suspicious of the welcome, nonetheless was eager to be going aboard and continued through the turnstyle. The rest followed behind her, carrying into the dock reception area, which for some reason seemed quite empty of passengers or ponies readying to depart. A large set of doors near the far wall opened, and in walked a stallion with a bright yellow sash and matching cap. He looked nervous at seeing the group standing there, his eyes wide.

"You're not passengers, are you?" he said, not blinking.

"Yes… is that a problem?" asked Rarity.

The stallion instantly turned around,

"C'mon, hurry, they're about to leave, you're gonna be late!" he shouted, and ran out. Rainbow Dash sped after him, and the rest of the group charged to keep up. Outside the door brought them onto the enormous wide green grassy field that seemed so small compared to the Aurora, as if it were a coin that a baseball was trying to rest on. The stallion did not lead for very long before Rainbow Dash caught up to him as they started to run the length of the airship just underneath its keel.

"Will we make it?"

"I don't know, they're supposed to depart right now! You should have arrived earlier!" he replied. He sounded like his protesting comment shared their plight rather than complaining at it. As they passed one of the large pods mounted outside the zeppelin's body, its gigantic propeller roared to life with a violent growl, spewing a puff of thick gray smoke. Rainbow Dash shot ahead up to the gondola where a gangway was being pulled away. She landed on the stoop of the door where a similar porter was standing just inside.

"We're late passengers, stop the takeoff!"

"I'm sorry ma'am, no can do. We've got to get off the ground and into a holding pattern, some tough wind is expected soon."

"But we've got ponies still getting aboard!" she said, speaking over the air starting to push past the doorway as they started to fly upwards.

"We'll still be over Fillydelphia for another hour before we set off, but we must get off the ground now. I'm sorry." replied the stewardess. Rainbow Dash frowned and in a huff jumped back out the door. She flew back to the galloping group as they watched the enormous gleaming construct take to the sky much in the way a brick doesn't. Rarity was the first to stop running, followed by the other ponies. Spike jumped off Macintosh's back and watched as the Aurora slowly and gracefully slipped upwards and ever-so-gently forwards.

"They're not leaving yet." said Rainbow Dash, hovering in front of them. "They're going into a holding pattern because of the weather, so we've got a little time to find our own way up."

"A little time? Time for a party!" harked Pinkie Pie. The others heard her, and then ignored the suggestion to take other considerations seriously. Spike slapped a fist onto his other open paw, exclaiming.

"It's easy! You and Fluttershy can just fly us up!" he said, pointing to Rainbow Dash.

Fluttershy seemed contented at the suggestion but didn't smile. Rarity agreed,

"Will it be that simple?"

"Party!" bounded Pinkie Pie behind her.

Rainbow Dash eyed their situation, and fixed her gaze on Big Macintosh, who returned her look of consternation. Dash flew over and grabbed the knobs of his collar and pulled.

"Hrg-" uttered Macintosh, the collar tightening on his neck. Rainbow pulled and beat her wings harder and faster, unable to budge the stallion. She let down and tried to grab him around his body, but her grasp wasn't wide enough. She tried to pull him by the head, her hooves wrapped around his jaw and skull and gave him another equally strenuous tug, straining upwards to no avail. "Ghkckht!" Macintosh choked. Nothing doing, Dash let go and flapped, standing on his back.

"Woof!" she exclaimed. "Macintosh, what do you eat in the morning, rocks?" her wings relaxing from exhaustion and her bending forward from tiredness. Macintosh coughed and shook his head and neck to regain comfort of the maladjusted collar.

"You weigh like a million tons! Me and Fluttershy'll never be able to carry you." Macintosh's uncomfortable expression turned into a solemn sadness.

"Maybe we could leave you behind, Mac?" suggested Rarity, with a hesitant quietness to her words. Macintosh shot her a look of refusal.

"No way, no how." he said, just short of viciously; Rarity's hesitation justified. "Applejack's mah sister, Ah'm not just gonna stay here when a kidnapper needs findin'."

"A party!" leaped Pinkie Pie again.

"Now what'll we do?" asked Rainbow.

"Party!"

"Pinkie Pie, this is serious!"

"Well duh! That's why we should have a party!"

"How can a party help us?"

"Balloons!" she perked happily, pointing her hooves to the opposite side of the airfield. The zeppelin that had been sitting there earlier, had prevented viewing of what they saw that explained Pinkie Pie's momentary excitement: a factory with a big bold painting on the side, a black lineart picture of what appeared to be Pinkie Pie, bearing the name just above "B&W PARTY INDUSTRIES".

"That… might work." Rarity said.

Venturing to the entrance and through the factory office's doors, there was an open entrance hall that bore white walls, which were the only details that could be seen that were not covered with all sorts of toys, balloons and fun-favours upholstering every surface from floor mould to light fixture. In the middle of the room was a round desk with a secretary, but Pinkie seemed distracted away from her, to a small statue to the left side of the room. Following Pinkie's lead, the group walked closer to get a better look.

"What's up, Pinkie?" asked Dash. Pinkie Pie was eyeing the bronze statue very closely; two ponies wearing a rather fancy suits and one of them (what Rarity noticed to be) a very very rather fancy bow tie. The plaque below it read

"Our Founders

Bow & Wealth"

Pinkie Pie gestured towards the one with the bow tie.

"This guy looks a lot like my dad!" she said happily. Behind them, a mare and stallion in formal business-looking suits walked by. The mare stopped, taking notice of the assembly before the statue. She spoke to get their attention.

"Hello. Welcome t-"

As soon as she had spoke the first word, Pinkie Pie spun around to see who spoke, and froze upon seeing her. The others turned as well, and they stopped as well.

There stood Pinkie Pie and the mare, looking at each other with identical expressions, writ upon their identical faces, bore by their identical forms and framed by their identical manes. The only differences between them were the mare wearing her shirt and vest, and that her coat and mane were a complimentary blue to Pinkie Pie's pink. All present were so surprised that it seemed a long time before anyone said anything.

"Can we help you?" said the stallion behind the apparent blue Pinkie Pie, adjusting his glasses on his faded yellow face.

"You look just like me I don't believe it, are we identical twins, huh? Because that would be amazing and incredible I already know I have two sisters but having a third, that would be the best don't you think so I mean c'mon this is amazing!" expounded Pinkie Pie rapidly, jumping this way and that.

The blue Pinkie Pie simply watched her bounce around in amazement.

"I'm Tinkie Tie-" introduced the blue mare, delighted but still confused by the presence.

"Ohmigosh I'm Pinkie Pie!" she shouted, grabbing Tinkie's hoof and giving a vigorous shake.

"I'm Wealth Goodcents, is there something we can help you with?" said the stallion.

"We need balloons!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, amongst her diving and leaping around and thorough confusing of Tinkie.

"Who are you?" asked Rarity to the stallion.

"I'm the chief manager and Tinkie is our CEO after her father, we run this company. –Uncanny, how similar your friend looks." said Wealth.

"What? No way!" said Pinkie. "Her eyes are too close together!" she said, pointing directly at Tinkie's face. Tinkie and the others laughed.

"We missed our flight and were wondering if we could have some balloons." said Rarity, countering Pinkie's excitedness.

"That, we might be able to help with." said Tinkie. "C'mon, I'll give you guys a tour on our way there."

She led them to wide doors on the other side of the hall, which lead down a walkway with doors on either side for a distance, until on both sides the doors ended and became windows. Through the windowpanes they could see a wide variety of large machines- big mills, moulders, conveyor belts of various kinds- some colourfully painted, and some dark, metallic and greasy.

"This is the manufacturing floor. All of our products that made here are the most popular and most successful of any in our lines." said Wealth. Tinkie pointed to one large one as they walked. It was a giant device with a variety of different coloured pipes leading into it, each labelled and with their own valve.

"That one is the Pièce-de-résistance, our Master Balloon-Maker." said Tinkie. The machine gurgled make a nominally loud "PLOP" sound, and out of a large open-ended pipe it spat hundreds of deflated balloons, all bright orange in color. "Invented by my dad Bow Tie, it's been in operation ever since the company started."

"Wow." Rainbow Dash took in all of the industry. It made the Weather Factory on Cloudsdale look like a kitchen-sized operation in comparison. "Several other companies all over Equestria have tried to replicate its balloon-crafting technology, but nopony has succeeded in making as high of quality balloons as we do." boasted Wealth. Pinkie Pie was ooing and aahing at every single device she could notice.

A giant shiny diveted metal press slammed down and held there for a second, and with a gust of steam opened again, showing dozens of sparkling pink popsicles with frost on them. A stallion with a vivid orange vest pushed them all off the plate of the press with a white push-broom, and then stepped off, resting the broom upside down against the railing near the machine. He raised a hoof to a different pony below him, and the two of them approached two different control panels on opposite sides of the machine, pressing a button each simultaneously and the press began again.

They continued down the hall past the wide reaching factory floor, and the hall came to an end with a door that looked similar to the one at the beginning of the hall. Through it, they began walking on a steel-grated catwalk above a wide open room filled with shelves from floor to ceiling, what must have been four or five stories high, all of them filled with giant crates. Each one of the crates probably could easily fit two of Big Macintosh inside. Rarity disliked the feeling of the metal floor, and then noticed the workers in the wide room. All of them were wearing garish bright yellow vests and matching hardhats, standing by vents that poured inflated balloons into nearby crates.

"All of our distribution is done within the walls of the factory, so as to keep other businesses spies out of the mix." said Tinkie casually. "We-"

"HEAD'S UP!" bellowed a voice from below. A few ponies dashed away from a largish crate sitting on the floor in the middle of an aisle, with a thick strap that snapped with a loud *Crack!* and lashed against the floor. The huge wooden box began to slowly and non-menacingly drift upwards. Two stallions with a red hardhats and vests trotted over, holding some ropes and a new strap.

"Oh dear…" said Wealth. "I'm sorry you had to see that. Accidents happen from time to time- but we pride ourselves on our safety record- we recently had the national record at 328 days without incident..."

The two party-company ponies lead the group on, down the catwalk and through another door into a new long hallway. As they passed through the door, a loud mulching noise came and went.

It sounded again, like an agonizing and violent buzz that faded to a lower pitch, then resumed to a high one.

"What's that noise?" asked Rarity.

"That would be our adhesive production. All of our product's adhesive is made in-house from local resources." said Tinkie amiably. They passed by a window which showed a very long grinding machine, with a series of pipes pouring into a large round vat filled with some kind of milky reddish-brown substance. A stallion overhead was using a large collar-bound paddle to move it around, his face obscured by a breathing mask. The loud buzz detestably rang out again. Passing the closest edge of the window they were given full view of the machine, attended to by two ponies in front of a big dumping wagon, filled with broken limbs and branches. The grinder sucked in what looked like the majority of a tree, emanating the disturbing noise again.

"We use local plant waste to make the finest natural-resin glue money can buy." said Wealth. Big Macintosh started thinking about a new use for the scrap wood he still had left back on the farm.

"On our right we'll be passing past Quality-Assurance testing."

They continued to walk in silence for a while, passing past the long room of the tree grinder. It hollered another buzz sound. Presently on one side another series of doors began, each accompanied by a tall window. In the first, there was a mare wearing a safety mask and hardhat, held partially up by a bungee on a mobile pulley, as she jumped up and down on a pogo stick. The next window showed a bright green pony winding some small, similarly-coloured jack-in-the-boxes. The first three had been sprung, he wound a fourth and it popped just as surprisingly as it should have, which he smiled at. The fifth he wound, popped, and frowned at how the door opened but no jack was inside.

"Excuse me Ms. Tie, but I'll be heading off now, I'll see to today's matters myself. Good day, fellows." said Wealth as he turned and left through one of the doors. Tinkie waved and continued.

"Our standards for fun and party-induced-stresses ensure our part favours have unparalleled quality. Subjecting them to the most rigorous testing of anything short of blowing them up." She described. They passed by a window which had a fluffy-stuffed lion toy sitting in the middle of a dark room with rave lights moving around above it. Beside it were two huge speakers, obviously blaring extremely loud music directly at the stuffy. Behind it was another soundproofed window with several ponies standing with clipboards and ear protectors and one with blue hair wearing only sunglasses. They continued to watch the toy being nudged by the vibrations of the heavy beats.

"And here is where we pass into Research & Development." indicated Tinkie, pointing at a green line on the floor just before another door. "Of course, what you see behind this door is a secret." she said with a smile, gesturing a zip-over-the-mouth. They entered through and the hallway was much as it was before, except the walls were painted a soft cyan color. Through the first window was a stallion wearing a white body-armour suit and thick padded helmet, behind him several cameras and another window that showed some ponies with clipboards.

"This quarter's R-and-D is Industrial-Strength Pranks, amongst other developments."

The stallion approached a black chair that was bolted to the floor, with a normal-sized whoopee-cushion on it, marked with black and yellow crash-test tracker markings. He slowly sat down and the tiny prank-bag rocketed him suddenly across the room with the sound of a tiny fart.

"YIIIIIEE!"*THUD* he slammed into the far wall outside the sight of the window. The ponies in the other window leaned down and began writing on their clipboards. Rarity gasped at the action.

"Prospects are promising and developments are regular, albeit a teensy bit slow. But I guarantee nopony has anything else like it." said Tinkie optimistically. They passed by another window which showed a metal arm slowly extending towards a foam pony dummy. The arm was wearing a yellow and red joy-buzzer, but immediately on contact the dummy burst into flames with a flash. Two other ponies ran up and doused the dummy in a clear blue fire retardant.

"Expect to see some new products on the shelves for the quarter after next, but don't tell any investors that." she said.. A stallion came out of a wide door pulling a pallet truck that carried an enormous version of a green jack-in-the-box and slowly moved past them. Spike jumped out of the way to avoid being run over, and the stallion with his enormous jack turned into a different door. Another window they passed by showed a dark pink pony carefully filling a small metal can with some gray liquid, fed by a hose. The pony carefully pulled the hose away and attempted to delicately place a cap upon the can, but it exploded with a loud *BANG!*, rendering the pony covered in bubbly suds.

"Ah, our most secret secret development. Fizzy Drinks, sold in a can. Anypony with a drink-bubbler can make a soda, but we hope to sell them on store shelves, pre-fizzed. Very hush-hush." Tinkie explained, with a wink.

Tinkie led them through one door that turned into a blank gray hall that extended a very long distance with nothing in it at all except one other door on one side, beside a fire extinguisher mounted on the wall. Inside, the room was black. Once they were all in, Tinkie closed the door and it resonated, echoing as if the empty blackness was a very wide open space. With rhythmic clacking, some far distance away, rainbow-like colors began to approach, soon indicating banks of lights on a very high up ceiling turning on in sequence, obscured by a thick layer of multi-coloured balloons hovering near the ceiling. All of them dangled a forest of thin strings below. Pinkie Pie ran off, dancing and prancing amongst the strings and singing a merry jingle.

"These are all rejects and misprints. Every hundred-thousand or so, the balloon-maker switches colours and it often occurs that one or two will come out like these." she pulled a hoofful of strings down and showed them some of the illustrious balloons, some with thin lines and some with regular spots of a different colour. "You can have as many as you like of them, it's not like we can do anything with them."

"Why not sell them?" asked Rarity. Tinkie Tie looked at her sceptically.

"Sell them?"

"Instead of thinking of these as failed solid colours, you could market them as Striped or Polka-Dot. Not everpony just likes solid colours you know."

Tinkie Tie was dubious at the suggestion, thinking of a reason why she hadn't thought of it before.

"What makes you so sure that anypony would like it?"

"Darling, I design dresses, and everyone likes variety here and there. It's the spice of life!" said Rarity, pulling down a balloon with rather curiously well-done doyleys on it. Tinkie stood pondering for a moment. Pinkie had run back and started tying enormous bunches of balloons around Macintosh's barrel, much to his surprise. She carried on as Rarity and Tinkie finished their exchange.

"I suppose you're right. Thank you for the idea… may have to get on that… Anyways, take as many as wish. There's an exit over there," Tinkie pointed to a large hangar door on the side of the wall of the enormous room. She turned to leave through the door which they entered through. "Thank you again!"

"And thank you!" said Fluttershy, as she hovered above and started to get some balloons of her own. Rainbow Dash began hovering in front of Big Macintosh.

"Feeling lighter?"

"Sorta, Ah 'spose." he replied, looking behind him and lifting a leg.

"C'mon, let's go get that blimp." said Rarity eagerly.

"Zeppelin." reminded Dash.

They walked through the exit doors which opened onto the airfield, obscured only by a chain link fence and a small ditch. The two pegasi looked at their situation. Somehow Pinkie Pie had entangled herself in enough balloons that she simply hovered by her own volition at eye level with Spike, slowly approaching him. Spike stepped sideways and simply watched with a bizarre awe as Pinkie Pie continued drifting straight forwards. Pinkie Pie laughed, and began slowly travelling in an odd upward arc.

"Spike," Rainbow Dash began in a captainy voice. "Climb on Macintosh, Fluttershy will carry Rarity and push Pinkie Pie." In a most strange sensation, Macintosh found it difficult to bend lower but he did, and Spike clambered up. Fluttershy then hovered close to Rarity and grabbed her. "I'll push you, okay?" said Dash, looking at Macintosh. He looked up at the balloons, and how they were tied around his body. He looked like a technicolor hot-air balloon.

"Ah feel ridiculous."

A sudden gust of window pushed the balloons and he was forced to run forwards or else be dragged, and saw the ditch rapidly approaching. Spike screamed in surprise.

"Macinotosh! Jump!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, chasing after. Macintosh knew that even with his best effort, he wouldn't be able to go higher or farther than likely implanting his head into the fence, but jumped at the command in blind hope. He shut his eyes and a strange moment passed in his mind when nothing seemed to happen. He opened his eyes and they saw that he was still in the air, slowly drifting upwards, in a long parabolic arc, well clear of the fence and well onto the field. As the ground approached, Macintosh realized how fast he was still moving, and tried to match the pace of his feet, landing awkwardly but managing to skid to a stop. Rainbow Dash caught up, followed by the odd shape of Rarity sitting on top of Pinkie Pie's tangle, pushed along by Fluttershy.

Macintosh gave an excited look to Rainbow Dash. The stallion's mind was secretly rushing at the ecstasy of the moment: he flew! They looked up, and the Aurora still was slowly circling in a wide slow arc through the air over the city. Rainbow Dash's look returned to Macintosh.

"Let's fly."