Our rest was too short, and the ground not nearly as comfortable as the bed I had wanted to sleep in.

My legs hurt, my eyes had crusts in them I didn't dare try to wipe from them with either hooves or magic, and the rain outside had not let up in the least bit.

Rainbow and Turkey were the only two out of the five of us who had more sleep than a few hours, and they were eager to get into the air.

I followed behind Spritelight as we filed up the stairs to get onto the roof again, my hooves feeling heavy as I moved them from step to step.

"At least we don't have to fly," Spritelight grumbled. "Might as well try to get a bit of extra rest in once we're in the basket."

"If it's more comfortable than the ground, I'm all for it," I agreed. "I don't think I should be learning more about magic while too tired to focus."

"No, you shouldn't," the other unicorn replied.

"Fortunately you have Equestria's Number One Flyer Rainbow Dash to get you safely to your destination," Rainbow Dash spoke, in much too excited a tone for my weary ears.

She paused on the landing before the last flight of stairs, letting Josey and Turkey head up to the roof before her.

"You two okay back there?" the blue pegasus with her rainbow mane and tail wondered as she watched us pull up the rear. "I could crawl faster than you two."

Spritelight snorted at her. "Why don't you focus that hot air on blowing up the balloon so we get airborne?"

"We only had two hours of sleep," I told Rainbow as I got up to her level. "I spent most of last night looking for a map with my mouth until I found out how my magic worked."

"So?" Rainbow asked curiously. "I frequently pick things up with my mouth as well."

"You probably learned not to lick random things when you were still a filly," Spritelight chuckled weakly while looking back in my direction.

I winced as I recalled some of the more... interesting of tastes from the various handles and items I had interacted with the other day.

"Yeah, make fun of the new pony," I snorted defiantly. "Not like there wasn't enough already to keep my brain occupied."

"Oh, well, you Earthians learn fast enough. I'm sure you'll be doing magic tricks like you were born that way soon enough," Rainbow trusted to me, a broad smile on her face.

"I appreciate the sentiment," I returned with a smile as I passed by her on the landing.

Rainbow followed after me as I trailed Spritelight onto the rooftop where Turkey and Josey were already preparing the balloon in the pouring rain.

The balloon was mostly just a big cloth bladder with a net around it which connected to the basket which usually dangled underneath it.

It was your typical hot air balloon with one change; there was no burner in the basket.

Instead of a gas-powered burner being used to put hot air into the bladder, Josey was using her magic to inflate the balloon.

Turkey's job was to make sure the ropes wouldn't get tangled into one another by fluttering around and pulling them into position.

Rainbow soon joined the effort, speeding past me and Spritelight again as she took flight, and I noticed that her control in the air was much smoother than that of the other pegasus.

I recalled hearing that Turkey and Josey both were in my position; former humans, but Turkey clearly had more trouble with her pony form than Josey did.

The princess had that royal air around her even if she kept being embarrassed when it was brought up. All of her movements were of a kind of grace which the other four of us sorely missed.

I could swear her green mane danced like a patch of long grass moving in the wind when she moved her head this way or that. It was almost magical to see.

Spritelight bumped my right shoulder with her own, having doubled back when she noticed I stood staring.

"Hey. Focus. We need to get that balloon filled, so I need you to listen and follow my instructions," she demanded as she looked at me from under her bright blue mane.

It was flattening against her skull now it was rained down upon again, much the same as my red mane, although hers showed the effects of the rain more.

I looked into her yellow eyes and perked my ears up. "What do you need me to do?"

Spritelight turned and motioned her head in the direction of the balloon, sending some moisture flying off the tip of her horn from the motion.

"You see how Josey is heating up the air as she forces it into the balloon?" she pointed out, "It's a good exercise to get you in control of your magic while on the rooftop. If you can muster the focus to help out, we'll be in the air sooner rather than later."

"I think I could try, if nothing else?" I suggested as a reply, following her as she cantered off to where Josey stood.

"If you think you're losing control of your magic for any reason, aim your horn away from anything important. Just look up at that damn sky and the eyes in it. Better to pop one or two of those than anything else," Spritelight warned.

"Right," I answered, trying not to slip on the wet rooftop. "Look up at the sky if I think I'm losing control."

"Now, just remember how you found that map. Put focus on what you want your magic to do and send it out through your horn. In this case; we want it to fill up with air which is warmer than the air surrounding it," the unicorn explained.

"Easy enough in this cold rain," Josey remarked, her horn's green glow making the blood on her face look infected, shaking her wings a bit to get the wetness off them. "Just think of a warm summer's day or something."

"Not hot, but warm," Spritelight added as her own horn started to glow a light blue as she moved to stand next to the taller Josey.

I felt the wind pick up as Spritelight's magic joined Josey's and moved to stand next to them as well, focusing on my own magic.

"Warm air, move warm air into the balloon," I mumbled to myself, feeling that strange sensation of an almost electric force pour up out of my forehead and into my horn.

Nothing happened; there was just energy into my horn, charging it up, making this red glow come off it.

I wondered if I shouldn't feel it connect to something? Like the sensation of my magic grabbing hold of particles in the air or maybe the wind picking up more like with Spritelight, and turned to her to ask.

"Don't look at me with a charged horn," she warned quickly as she noticed me start to turn my head. "Aim it up in the air and discharge or pull that energy back in first!"

Josey peered sideways at me as I turned my head upward and tried to figure out how to release the energy from my horn while more was seeping into it.

"...how?" I finally gasped, the building pressure in my horn starting to feel uncomfortable to me.

"What do you mean 'how'?" Spritelight gasped in exasperation. "Just let go of it!"

Josey turned her head to face me and I noticed a gentle tug from an unseen hand at my horn.

"Turn it into a ball and set it on its way," she spoke over Spritelight's back. "I'll take the energy from you once you release it so it won't do harm."

That honestly felt comforting to know, and I just balled all the energy from my horn up and set it on its way like it was a ball I was throwing in PE class.

My red magic impacted with Josey's and this small red orb coming out of the tip of my horn was held in place as it grew... and grew...

Spritelight's own horn stopped glowing as she turned her head to look in my direction.

The red and green ball of energy just kept growing as my horn unloaded into the protected space created by Josey's magic, quickly going past the size of a tennis ball to that of a basket ball.

"What," Spritelight started, flatly.

"That's a little more magic than I thought you had in you," Josey coughed, intensifying her hold.

I just kept looking up at the tip of my horn and the small sun that grew out of it.

"Send it up, Josey," Spritelight suggested, her ears flattening against her head. "Need me to help out?"

"I got it, I got it," Josey threw back, her horn sparking as the green glow of her magic enveloped the red above my head.

I finally noticed the pressure dissipating from my horn and the ball of energy detached from the tip, now the size of four to five feet in diameter.

"Oof, I'm spent," I breathed, sitting down on my rear as the lightshow started to ascend upward.

Josey was obviously straining herself as she forced this mess of red and green energy up. "A little push, Sprite?"

Spritelight's blue glow hit the bottom of the orb not a moment after the question was uttered and it finally started to rise up properly, rising faster and faster until Josey let go of it.

"And go!" she exclaimed, to which the Unicorn between us also stopped pushing.

The three of us watched as the orb made from my magic ascended up to the flesh-covered heavens and the many eyes in it, all of them turning to look at it as it approached them.

It finally hit between two of the eyes, erupted in a bright flash, and then a pressure wave descended back down toward us.

"Turkey, Rainbow, land!" Spritelight called out, even as Josey's magic erected a dome-shaped shield over the rooftop.

The pressure wave hit the dome, and my ears popped from the sensation even as I fell to the roof proper, covering my head with my forelegs as best I could.

It was over as fast as it had begun, and I dared to look up again to spot Rainbow and Turkey having landed roughly in the same spot, holding onto one another for comfort.

Josey's green dome disappeared again as her horn stopped glowing, and I noticed her and Spritelight looking startled up at the sky.

I followed suit and found a sizeable hole in the fleshy firmament; several demonic eyes having disappeared to make way for sunbeams pouring in through the gap, the edge of which several miles across and singed as if the flesh had been cauterized.

"If that's the power of an untrained Earth-born Unicorn," Spritelight gasped, "...then what power does an Earth-born Alicorn hide?"

Josey shook her head at the thought. "I haven't used my full power yet, so don't ask me."

"And you're telling me you need to use a mana well to use even more energy to fix the damages between worlds?" the unicorn breathed out in full respect to the meaning of her words.

"Uh-huh," Josey agreed, finally looking down and toward me with her green eyes as small as they could be. "Now I'm starting to get an idea of how Celestia and Luna can control the sun and moon..."