Original air date: October 23rd, 1992
One night, a mysterious sparkling object appears in the sky above Pony Point. The girls are reading about it the next day, and Patch suggests going up there later to see if the UFO comes back. That night, the girls gather at Pony Point and head up, only to find police officers who won't let them through.
The next day, Miss Hackney takes the class outside to meet Mr. Kiddoo, who intends to give them a lesson in aerodynamics using his hot air balloon. However, he and Miss Hackney are quite enamored with one another, and he decides to have tea with her before he starts the lesson. With neither of the grown-ups looking, Patch gets inside the balloon, which Bon Bon witnesses. Patch makes off with the balloon, and Bon Bon tries to hold it down, only to get pulled away with it.
Patch witnesses many sights, but Bon Bon is feeling sick and is uninterested in anything other than getting down. But the fuel supply runs out, and a bird flies around the balloon. Scared, Bon Bon chucks the instruction manual at it, but this fails to scare it away. The bird then pokes a hole in the balloon, which slowly descends to the sea below. It gets worse; a circling group of sharks lie directly beneath them. While Bon Bon fears for her very life, Patch tries in vain to figure out how to save them.
Fortunately, a winged unicorn and three pegasi appear to repair the hole in the balloon and relight its burner. Patch is amazed by the sight, but Bon Bon is too scared to come out from under her blanket and see. One of the pegasi introduces herself as Brightglow and bids Patch farewell.
When Patch and Bon Bon bring the hot air balloon back to school, Miss Hackney is pleased to them safe and sound, but angry with their actions. Just then, Patch sees the glowing in the sky again, and points it out to everyone else.
That night, Patch returns to Pony Point, this time sneaking past the officers who are currently distracted by the glowing in the sky. Patch reaches the top, and the alicorn and pegasi reveal themselves. They tell Patch that the future is filled with possibilities, and take their leave, after which Patch vows to someday find them again.
"Up, Up, and Away" provides examples of:
- Acquainted with Emergency Services: For some reason, the police chief Patch encounters on Pony Point knows her by name.
- Adults Are Useless: Mr. Kiddoo is more interested in having tea with Miss Hackney than teaching the class. Not to mention that in order to do this, he leaves his hot air balloon in the schoolyard, leading to Patch and Bon Bon going for a ride in it.
- Anger Born of Worry: Although Miss Hackney is angry with Patch and Bon Bon for their excursion in the hot air balloon, she's happy they're safe and sound.
- Asleep in Class: Patch falls asleep in class for a split second, but then wakes up.
- Balloon-Bursting Bird: The hot air balloon containing Patch and Bon Bon goes down this way.
- Cassandra Truth:Patch: Bon Bon, look! It's glowing magical ponies!Bon Bon: Sure, what happened to the UFO?!
- Cyclops: The giant in Patch's song only has one eye.
- Deus ex Machina: Patch and Bon Bon are saved from becoming shark food by pegasi and a winged unicorn.
- Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: Bon Bon attempts to dissuade Patch from doing anything with the hot air balloon. This being Patch, it goes about as well as you'd expect.
- Free-Range Children: The main cast are allowed to go all alone to the observation point on the top of a tall hill after dark.
- From Bad to Worse: The episode starts innocently, with the girls trying to go search for a UFO. Then halfway through the episode, Patch steals a hot-air balloon and Bon Bon ends up aboard while trying to stop it. Then the wind blows them over the ocean. Then a bird pokes a hole in the balloon, and they lose the instruction manual when Bon Bon tries to throw it at it. Then the flame in the burner goes out. Then they start falling into the waters below that are full of sharks. If it wasn't for the UFO from the beginning (which turned out to be a group of flying magical ponies), it wouldn't end well for those two...
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: The police officers are, at the beginning, doing their job properly and preventing anyone from going to the top of Pony Point, but Patch successfully sneaks past them the following night.
- How Unscientific!: The episode features a UFO, which turns out to actually be pegasi and an alicorn hidden by the light shining from their travel.
- Idiot Ball: Miss Hackney doesn't display anywhere near as much incompetence in any other episode as she does here, wherein she and Mr. Kiddoo ditch class to have tea together, which leads to Patch taking the hot air balloon for a ride.
- Idiotic Partner Confession:Police Chief: Sorry, Patch, you can't go up there.Patch: Er, why's that, chief?Police Chief: Ma'am, didn't you hear about the UFO?Clover: No, uh-uh, not us, we just wanted to see the flying saucer.Patch: Clover...
- Inevitable Waterfall: Patch encounters on during her song's Fantasy Sequence.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Mr. Kiddoo says there's nothing wrong with leaving his hot air balloon in the schoolyard since none of the kids are qualified to fly it. Cue Patch flying over them and saying hi to them with Bon Bon in tow.
- Non-Answer: When Patch meets Brightglow and her posse on Pony Point, she asks if she can one day visit them. Brightglow responds, "The future is filled with possibilities!", then they bid Patch farewell.
- One-Shot Character: The only appearance of Mr. Kiddoo.
- Only Sane Woman: Bon Bon is the closest thing this episode has to one. Miss Hackney and Mr. Kiddoo abandon the students to have tea together when they should have been teaching, Patch takes the opportunity to try out the hot air balloon, and Bon Bon is the only one of the other present students to take note of what Patch is doing and try to get her to evacuate the balloon. During the flight, however, Bon Bon throws the instruction book for the hot air balloon at a bird. To a lesser extent, there's Starlight who attempts to chase after them and asks if they're okay when they return.
- Out-of-Genre Experience: We go from plots like "Bon Bon feigns illness for attention" or "the girls and the boys run competing lemonade stands" to "There's a UFO... oh, wait, it's just three pegasi and a winged unicorn flying around the world in the form of a blinding light nobody can see through unless they want to reveal themselves". It's even kicked off by Patch wanting to do something adventurous and picking something significantly more dangerous than what your average kid could stumble into doing.
- Paranormal Episode: Notable for being the only episode featuring non-earth ponies, who were otherwise absent from the show as this iteration had removed most fantastic elements.
- Pegasus: All of the magical ponies except for Brightglow.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The police officers who block the girls from going up to see the UFO only do so because the area is potentially dangerous for completely different reasons (reasons that nearly got Bon Bon killed earlier in the series).
- Skipping School: When she sees the familair glowing in the sky again, Patch declares, "See ya later!" and runs off while school is apparently still in session.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The girls try to go to the top of Pony Point to look out for a UFO, but the police have blocked the area off and won't let them through.
- Tap on the Head: Patch's song sees her knock out a giant by hitting it in the forehead with a rock fired from a slingshot.
- Tempting Fate: Happens twice:
- When a bird pokes a hole in the hot-air balloon, Patch says "At least the flame is still burning". Sure enough, it goes off afterwards.
- After the flame does go out, obviously, they start falling down to the waters below, and Bon Bon asks "What else could possibly go wrong?" Cue the sharks.
- Threatening Shark: A group of circling sharks are below the hot air balloon Patch and Bon Bon are in as it slowly descends.
- Too Dumb to Live: Bon Bon tries to scare off a bird by throwing the hot air balloon's instruction manual at it.
- Wanderlust Song: "The Adventure" concerns Patch's desire for, well, adventure.
- Wasn't That Fun?: Patch when she and Bon Bon return from their hot air balloon ride where they would have been eaten by sharks if not for Brightglow:Starlight: Are you okay?Patch: It was the adventure of adventures!
- Watch Out for That Tree!: Patch is paraseiling during her Fantasy Sequence only to fly straight into the mast of a pirate ship.
- Winged Unicorn: The leader of the magical ponies, Brightglow, is one.
