It had been two weeks since the defeat of Lord Tirek. And Princess Twilight Sparkle was dangling from the edge of a cloud. She glanced at Whitetail Wood far below, and sighed. These were supposed to be flying lessons, not hang from a cloud lessons! With annoyance in her voice, she asked, “Rainbow Dash, why are you doing this?”

Rainbow responded with a grin, “Because I want to see you pull off a sonic rainboom, and it’s funny.”

Twilight had lost her patience at that. “I already did a sonic rainboom once! Remember, at the Summer Sun Celebration?!”

The cyan Pegasus shook her head with mocking sadness. “That wasn’t a sonic rainboom.” She began to let go of Twilight’s leg, leaving her flailing through the sky until she regained her balance, flying back up to the cloud Rainbow was on.

“That wasn’t funny, Rainbow Dash,” scolded Twilight.

“Well, I thought it was funny,” – Rainbow fell over laughing – “Twilight, you need to have a sense of humor.”

“I actually do have a sense of humor, thank you very much.” The Princess of Friendship rolled her eyes. She then gestured the pegasus to follow her, gliding over the treeline below. Twilight was surprised by a particularly large live oak tree, branches spreading over the grove it was in.

Twilight looked around Whitetail Wood, the sounds of birds filling the air and butterflies flew by. Rainbow interjected, saying she was bored. As a response, she levitated Dash and shook her around to keep her quiet. “A word of advice, Rainbow. Don’t make comments like that when somepony’s relaxing.”

“Point taken.”

“Omigosh omigosh omigosh!” shouted Rainbow Dash. “The Best Young Flyer’s Competition is coming up in a few days!”

“Why is that so exciting? You’ve won before, so why enter again?” Rarity asked.

“Because I want to set a record!” Rainbow replied with a smirk. “Nopony’s ever won two times in a row. Or there’s another idea…” She looked at Twilight.

“Don’t tell me…” began the princess.

“Yep! You can enter! With those flying lessons, you’re sure not to mess up,” Rainbow encouraged. “Besides, we haven’t had anything big since Tirek!”

“No way!”

“C’mon, Twilight! Remember our adventure in the Everfree Forest to find the Elements to stop Nightmare Moon?” asked Rainbow.

“Or when we went to rescue the Cutie Mark Crusaders after they were foalnapped by the changelings?” added Rarity.

“What about the time we climbed that big mountain to make that sleepy dragon move so he doesn’t cover Equestria in smoke?” Pinkie pointed out.

“An’ when we went to th’ moon ta save Rarity after she was taken by th’ Nightmare Forces,” finished Applejack. “If you’ve been ta a changeling hive an’ th’ moon, ya can do one competition!”

“C’mon Twi, just do it for us,” Rainbow said.

“Fine,” Twilight said with mock anger, ready for another adventure in the magical land of Equestria. “I guess we should get going?”

“Wait!” Fluttershy called. “Shouldn’t we at least renew the seal keeping evil ponies away from the Tree of Harmony?”

The other five ponies (and dragon) nodded as the seven of them left the Friendship Rainbow Castle.

In the cave containing the Tree of Harmony, Twilight observed the current seal over the Tree that had been created the day after Tirek’s defeat. “The seal’s getting weaker,” she said, looking over the Tree. “Girls, get ready.”

The six mares began to glow, then they activated their Rainbow Power. A rainbow circled around the Tree, renewing the seal for now. “That should do it for a month or so.” Twilight looked at the crystalline tree, the natural light of the cave entrance shining in.

“I guess we should go get the town balloon,” Rarity said, changing the subject.

They went to Cherry Berry’s house next. “Hey, Cherry!” Rainbow called. “We need to borrow the town balloon so we can get to Cloudsdale!”

“OK, it’s in the lot where it usually is!” Cherry shouted back. They soon went over to the lot, getting into the town hot air balloon. Spike held onto Twilight as Pinkie lit the fire that allowed the balloon to float. Rainbow and Fluttershy got out, getting the wind so it heads towards Cloudsdale.

The sun’s radiant light shone down as the balloon floated over Equestria, the passengers conversing during the ride as they headed towards Cloudsdale. However, they were unaware that they were being watched, as in being spied on. When a cloud blocked the view, the mysterious watcher just found another angle to look at the ponies.

“So, get ready for a cloud-walking spell,” he heard. Watching the Princess of Friendship cast cloud-walking spells on Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike, he observed every last detail. Eventually, they were behind a large amount of clouds, and the watcher decided that was enough. But then he noticed something even more interesting.

Two platoons of guards were respectively pulling the chariots of Princesses Celestia and Luna, while Captain Flash Sentry blew away clouds for them, keeping their route cloud-free. The watcher grinned, knowing that the main problems were all going to be at Cloudsdale.

The watcher then reported back to his leader, keeping himself concealed from most. He eventually reached an expanse of ruins, where he reappeared in front of his leader. “My lord, I am unfortunate to say that the Bearers of the Elements and the Princesses are on the move towards Cloudsdale.”

“You let that get in your way? You sicken me.”

“I apologize, my lord. But there is a slight problem… the Bearers renewed the seal over the Tree of Harmony earlier today. Should we wait until it wears off?”

“That is an idiotic decision. It could take decades with their new power supporting it. For now, we wait until they have to visit the Tree again. When they temporarily take down the seal, we will strike.”

“But then again, they’ll be unprotected at the Best Young Flyer’s Competition today. Perhaps we can go for the Princesses then?”

“The Bearers would overpower me in an instant. We can’t risk that.”

“So what do we do?”

“We wait.”

“As you wish… Lord Grogar.”

Author's Note

Well, after The Freezing Night flopped, I thought I would try writing romance! This'll have adventure, as seen already, but it'll be better later in the story!