Smoking Trails and The Maze of Deceit.

Blimps. Big flying balloons that use a highly combustible gas to rise and fall.

Smoking Trails hated blimps.

Which was odd, because Smoking Trails hated hardly anything. She didn't hate mean ponies, she didn't hate bedtime, she just hated blimps and flying in general. The captain of the blimp shot her a happy glance, before turning back to the wheel. Smokey smiled back. If it wasn't for the fact that she had been offered survival lessons and a real dungeon to explore in the Griffon Kingdom, she wouldn't even be in a blimp, soaring over Las Pegasus. Smokey looked at the flyer again and blew some of her long brown hair out of her face. "Why the Griffon Kingdom." she muttered, "The one place they have training for my cutie mark isn't even in Equestria.". The pilot took his hands off the controls and trotted over to her.

"Don't worry young mare, we'll have you there in a jiffy" he said, patting her on the back.

Smokey shuddered, the blimp captain was nice, but weird. She trotted towards the window but backed away, if she saw how high up she was, she would probably freak out. Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her and she peeped out the plastic window and looked over the landscape.

She stood back, slightly in awe. From up here, she could see nearly all of Equestria, from Neigh York to the Everfree Forest. She could also see her reflection in the window. She looked older than she was, ponies always told her that, but seeing herself really proved it. Her brown and cream coat had a jacket thrown over it and she focused her eyes on her cutie mark. A red compass. She remembered how she got it, she was exploring and found a little abandoned theme park with one ride a broken red ferris wheel. She searched all over that park, eventually finding missing pieces, then her cutie mark appeared, which was very curious, because she hadn't done anything big. Her brother got his for going really fast and doing a trick, but she got hers for finding spare parts? Smokey had to earn her cutie mark. That was why she was headed the the Griffon Kingdom. That was why she wanted lessons. She smiled at the memory and looked out as Canterlot got smaller and smaller. Then something covered her view. White cloud. As the blimp rose above the fluffy white clouds, fear set in and Smoking Trails quickly turned away. The sight was beautiful, but scary. Smokey looked at the captains controls. "Where could he be?" she thought, slightly shaking, "What if we crash?". There was a loud clunk and the blimp shook violently. Smokey yelped and grabbed onto the nearest object, but something touched her back. She screamed and jumped, clinging onto a roof hatch for dear life. The captain laughed. "It's only me, don't worry." he chuckled.

Smokey still clung onto the roof hatch. "W-what was all the bumping and shaking?" she asked, but with all the shivering, she sounded like a robot.

"We're having a bit of turbulence, but don't worry about it." he replied as he went back to the controls.

Smokey dropped down onto the floor and sighed. This was why she hated flying. All the bumping and shaking, not to mention one little accident up here and there was no chance of survival. She knew that no blimp has ever crashed due to turbulence, but she was feeling unlucky and out of her comfort zone. It wasn't like she could do anything anyway, if it took her half and hour to charge a Ponyville-to-Everfree teleportation spell, how long would it take for an above the clouds-to-land spell. She probably couldn't even do a feather falling spell. She was stuck up here. Smokey sighed and walked into the kitchen area, of course, because it was only her, the Captain and three other ponies, the chef wasn't on the flight, but Smokey walked in anyway to calm down. The kitchen was clean and was the only part of the blimp carriage that didn't look like it was part of, well, a blimp carriage. The blimp shook violently again and Smokey freaked. After calming down, she searched the kitchen. In the corner was a metal box. She had seen them in horror plays, they would often stash bodies in them. Smokey gulped. Her thoughts weren't exactly helping her calm down. The blimp shook again and Smokey hopped into the box. It was surprisingly comfortable and quiet. Before she knew it, her eyes were drifting shut.

Smokey awoke to violent shaking and put her hooves on her ears. Turbulence sucked. When the shaking stopped, she heard a strange sound. It sounded like somepony was ripping a shirt in half, but much louder. There was chatter from the main room, but the kitchen door muffled it out. "What is happening out there?" she thought. The blimp shook again and fear took over her mind. The ripping sound grew louder and immediately she thought the worst. What if the blimp was ripping open? What if the passengers were becoming zombies! Smoking quivered and shook with fear. What kind of adventurer gets scared of a little noise? Then came the boom. It was loud and shook the entire kitchen. Cutlery and pots flew everywhere and made an orchestra of clanking sounds. Smoking's ears were ringing. She heard screams and felt like fear was stabbing her everywhere. There was loud whistling and a few pops. Then more booms and one final explosion.  She peeped out of the box. Everything seemed to be fine. Then she saw the window, clouds rushed upwards and the horizon did too. Smokey shut the lid and shook with fear as she realised...

The blimp was falling. Fast.