Upon arriving back at the Golden Oak Library, the sun had already set.

You went straight to bed, not saying too much to Twilight or Spike. Both expressed concern over your downtrodden state, but you didn’t want to talk about your near death experience just yet.

You just hoped the day wouldn’t rub off on your relationship with Rainbow Dash too drastically. It was only the first time you’d hung out with her.

Lying in your bed, you went over the events in your head, eventually coming to rationalise every thing that happened. You couldn’t help but remember the last thing you said to her, even though she saved your life.

You couldn’t get to sleep. Various different explanations as to why you couldn’t fly continued to pop up in your head.

Jumping off that cliff was intended to trigger your Pegasus instincts, which would cause you to fly. But you aren’t naturally a Pegasus, you were a human. This meant that your human instincts took over your Pegasus ones.

That explanation flashed into your mind as you were dozing off to sleep, as if you had just become a science book. Maybe living with Twilight was having an effect on you.

It wasn’t proven, but you strongly believed your new found explanation. With renewed courage, you felt yourself succumb to sleep. You just hoped she wasn’t mad at you.

The next morning you awoke, but something was off.

You were in your apartment.

Not this again.

The dream that had been absent from your life for a while had returned, a lot more vivid than it used to be. It played out just like last time, the sky and clouds all rotting away into their dark colours, but something was new.

The muffled voice was clearer.

It was familiar, but you didn’t know where you had heard it.

Suddenly it hit you.

“Is that all you care about? The race? Just so you can brag about it when you win? I just nearly died, Rainbow. Again.”

It was your voice. The voice of you clawing into Rainbow Dash after she had just saved your life.

Guilt had begun welling up inside of you. How could you treat her like that? She just wanted you to fly as soon as possible. She saved your life.

The guilt continued building up until it hurt. It physically hurt.

You screamed with agony as your insides burnt up, as if every ounce of guilt inside you was being replaced with molten lava. You saw your hands and arms reach out as they burst into flames. Your human arms.

The flames spread down your arms until they reached your body, the heat burning your flesh down to the bone.

And then it stopped. The pain stopped.

Your human arms morphed into their grey pony counterparts, and they fell down onto your equally grey chest. You just hoped Twilight and Spike hadn’t heard your screams.

Climbing out of bed, you followed your usual routine. But today it didn’t feel as relaxing.

The only thing on your mind was Rainbow Dash.

You wanted to see her again as soon as possible, and you wanted to apologise for being so insensitive.

Wow. Apologising to Rainbow Dash for being insensitive. You never thought you would have to do that.

But why were you so worried about her? You had your fair share of fights with friends on Earth, but none had worried you like this.

But then, something else interrupted your thoughts. You were climbing out of the shower when you remembered. It’s Monday.

You had to go to work at Sweet Apple Acres.

“Oh, crap!” you exclaimed out loud, hurriedly drying yourself off. You sprinted down the stairs, whizzing past both Twilight and Spike.

“Sorry guys, gonna be late!” you said to them as you reached for the door.

“Hold it!” you heard Twilight shout as she held the door shut with her unicorn magic, “Todays an off-day, so you don’t have to go in.”

Relieved, you walked over to your usual couch and slumped down onto it.

“So now will you tell us what was wrong with you last night?” she asked, a concerned look on her face.

“Yeah, dude. We’ve never seen you so upset before.” Spike added, taking a seat next to you.

You looked at both of them solemnly, and decided that venting to them might take away some of your stress. It was what they wanted anyway.

“Basically, Rainbow Dash came by, and I told her how I can’t fly, so she offered to teach me,” you begun. You looked at them again to make sure they were listening, and sure enough, they were both looking at you contently.

“She said I should jump off this huge cliff at Neighagra Falls, so I did, and I couldn’t fly. Then Rainbow caught me, and I flipped out at her because I nearly died. Now I’m really worried she’s gonna hate me for lashing out at her like that.” you explained. That was as short as you could make it, even if it made you sound like Pinkie Pie.

Distracting you from your own worries, you felt Twilight place a comforting hoof around you.

“Rainbow Dash is a lot of things. She’s cocky. She’s egotistical. But she’s loyal. She won’t give up on you because you got mad at her, trust me. If Rainbow is willing to go with you all the way up to Neighagra Falls and instantly put you up to a test like that, then she sees a lot in you.” Twilight informed you, consoling you.

You had to admit, it made you feel a lot better. But you still had to wonder wether she was mad.

Interrupting you from your meaningful conversation, you heard a faint yet somewhat aggressive knock on the door.

“I’ll get it!” Spike shouted, instantly jumping up and running over to the door. You couldn’t see who it was, but Spike seemed pretty deep in conversation with them. Maybe it was Rarity?

Or, at least, that was what you thought until Spike turned around and said it was for you.

Approaching the door, you saw nobody in the doorway. Exiting the house, you closed the front door behind you and looked around. Nopony in sight.

“Hey!” you heard a scratchy voice call out to you.

Instinctively, you looked in the one direction you didn’t check. Up.

And there she was, the mare you so desperately wanted to see, Rainbow Dash, hovering above you.

“Oh, uh... Hey, Rainbow Dash.” you said, weakly, as she lowered down to you. As much as you wanted to see her, you couldn’t help but feel nervous after recalling yesterday’s events.

“Gee, don’t look happy to see me or anything!” she joked, a somewhat sly smirk on her face.

The next few seconds were quite as you were almost hoping for Spike to come out and interrupt, but eventually you decided that now would be the best time for apologies.

“I’m... sorry, Rainbow. I shouldn’t have flipped out at you like that. I know you just wanted to help.” you said, apologetically while rubbing one foreleg with the other.

“Ya know what? I’m sorry too, Storm,” Rainbow admitted, surprising you slightly, “I should’ve taught you properly, instead of getting ahead of myself.”

You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. Rainbow Dash? Admitting her flaws? Nevertheless, she noticed your surprised silence and attempted to lighten the mood again.

“I’m so glad Twilights not here. She’d probably turn this into a letter for Princess Celestia.” she joked, causing you to laugh. Rainbow smiled proudly at getting you to laugh, before being interrupted by Twilight herself.

“I was here the whole time. And that’s not a bad idea! Spike!” you heard her shouting from the balcony you had jumped from the previous day.

“You are such an egghead, Twilight!” Rainbow replied, still a little surprised by the Alicorns sudden intervention.

“So... Can you still teach me to fly?” you finally asked, getting a slight smile from her in return.

“Do you want me to?” The cyan Pegasus asked, clearly self conscious of her ability to teach you. You simply nodded, causing her confident smirk to return, “Then I pinkie promise that I will be the best flight teacher ever!”

You giggled at her egotism, before she suddenly soared away with a trail of rainbows behind her. Quickly, she returned just as fast as she left.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” she apologised, before landing next to you to walk alongside you, “Follow me.”

Maybe this was her way of making amends after practically almost killing you and all, but instead of hovering beside you she was actually walking with you.

After a while of walking, you eventually found yourself in a large field. It seemed perfect for flight practice, even if you had no idea where it was.

After a single glance up, however, you knew instantly where you were.

You were below Rainbow Dash's Cloudominium.

"Here we are!" Rainbow stated as she quickly flew up and pulled down a cloud to sit on.

"Is that your house?" you asked, looking up at the structure in awe. It looked even better in real life than in the show.

"Yep! Pretty cool, right?" she boasted, laying back on the cloud and looking up at her home.

"Yeah..." you said, taken aback by the beautiful structure.

"Anyway," Rainbow sat up on the cloud, awakening you from your partial trance, "I'm gonna teach you properly this time. You already know how to hover, so how about gaining height?"

Although it seemed pretty obvious how to hover, you had no idea how to get any higher.

"Try putting more effort into lowering your wings. That might help." she suggested upon seeing your hesitation.

Following what she had instructed, you flapped your wings with equal effort in order to begin hovering. Once you felt your hooves leave the ground, you began focusing more on lowering your wings.

Instantly, you felt yourself beginning to get higher. And higher. And higher.

"Great, Storm! You're flying!" Rainbow congratulated you as she flew up beside you.

You continued ascending to the point that Rainbow’s house actually seemed reachable. The view was outstanding, but you were too worried by something that had just crossed your mind to bother taking it in.

"Um... Rainbow?" you asked, looking at her with concern in your eyes, "How do I get down?"

Upon hearing your question, she snickered slightly, but stopped it by placing a hoof over her mouth.

"What?" you asked, now in a stationery hover.

"Just do the same thing but put more effort into raising them, duh!" she laughed, making you feel slightly stupid.

Following what she said, you did the exact same thing again, but put more effort into raising your wings. Much to your relief, you felt yourself slowly descending.
This would've been useful to know when I jumped off that cliff, you thought as you rolled your eyes.

You felt yourself touch the ground a lot sooner than you though, but it felt more fluffy than it once did. Looking down, you saw you were still quite high in the air. At least a few dozen feet.

"Now for your next lesson, gliding!" you heard Rainbow say excitedly from below you. Looking down again, there was a large crash mat of clouds that Rainbow had quickly made in case you fell, "Don't worry, if you fall you'll be fine."

While you had trouble believing her, the clouds did feel soft enough to catch your fall.

"How exactly do I glide?" you asked, not wanting to jump until you knew exactly what to do.

"Oh, just fan out your wings and hold them there. Don't move them or anything." she instructed, confidently. For someone who had never taught before, she was quite good at this. If only she was like this yesterday.

"Ok..." you answered as you braced to jump.

Finally you leapt form the cloud and spread your wings. You held them in place as still as you could, and could feel them slicing through the air like a knife. Looking down, you saw that you were gliding. You were actually gliding.

You softly landed on the cloud as Rainbow flew over to congratulate you.

"Nice job, Storm!" she said, hitting you on the back with a hoof, "Now there's just one more thing for you to learn. Your final lesson..."

Her eyes were squinted with suspense, as if she was trying to intimidate you.

"Stop trying to be intimidating and tell me what is." you replied, bluntly.

"Jeez, fine," she said, grunting, "Soaring."

"Soaring?" you questioned, a look of confusion on your face, "As in, the Wonderbolt, Soarin'?"

"What? No! Soaring, as in, flying!" she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Although, now that you thought about it, it was quite obvious.

"Ohhhh…" you responded rubbing the back of your head with embarrassment.

"Soaring is basically, actually flying. You can control your speed, you height, and all that," Rainbow explained, "I'm beginning to sound like Twilight."

That caused you both to laugh. While you couldn't imagine Twilight flying around at mach 40 speed, you could definitely imagine her ranting about the physics of flight.

"Oh, cool!" you exclaimed, no longer afraid of flight due to your new ability to glide, "When can we get started?"

Rainbow Dash's excited face quickly dissolved into a sad one. She landed next to you and sat on the cloudy surface.

"Actually, there was something I wanted to talk to you about first." she admitted, solemnly.

"Sure, Rainbow. What do you need to talk about?" you asked, sitting down next to her. You instantly figured it would be to do with yesterday, probably to do with the 'I-almost-died-again' line you accidently spurted out.

"You probably think I'm only teaching you to fly so I can beat you in the race, huh?" she asked, sadly.

"W-What? No?" you answered. That wasn't fully the truth, though. After she took you straight to the cliff and told you to jump off, you did have a suspicion that she was just trying to rush your lessons.

You were beginning to think that Rainbow put her own pride above her friends.

"Don't lie to yourself, Storm. I was trying to rush your lessons. I wanted to get to the race as fast as I could so I could beat you and make myself look good," she admitted, still as cocky as ever, "Because if there's one thing that makes me feel awesome, it's winning. But I can't win a race against a Pegasus who can't fly."

Your suspicions were being confirmed. Rainbow was just using you to add to her own ego.

"But when you nearly died after jumping off that cliff, I realised there's more to life than winning," she added, looking down at the clouds you both sat on, "What kind of element of loyalty would I be if I kept thinking like that?"

She definitely seemed different than she did yesterday. She still seemed like her usual self, but she seemed more caring and friendly. You saw it yesterday before you left too. She wasn't fighting back when you snapped at her, like she had a realisation.

"I forgive you."

As soon as those words left your mouth, Rainbow's ears perked up and she looked up at you.

"You do?" she asked, a little surprised.

"Sure! You realised that there's more to life than winning, and more to friendship than just competition. Sure, originally you were only friends with me because you wanted to beat me in a race to make yourself look good," that line caused Rainbow's ears to droop again as she realised how selfish that seemed, "But you realised that was wrong."

Rainbow smiled happily at you.

"Thanks, Storm." she said, quietly. This was like a whole other side of Rainbow you had never seen before. A quieter, less competitive side. Maybe your near death experience on the cliff unlocked this new side of her?

"Now let's finish your final lesson!" she exclaimed, back to her usual self.

You were glad you had everything cleared up with her. Even though you knew her true intentions were self-centred, her intentions had now changed. Now, she was gonna try to be the best friend she could possibly be.

Rainbow flew up into the air and hovered over to the edge of the cloudy platform you stood on.

"You're probably wondering how to soar, right?" she asked, looking back over to you.

"Nah. I think I got this." you answered confidently, remembering the line that popped into your head last night.
Don't let your human instincts override your Pegasus ones, you though as you approached the edge.

"Wait!" Rainbow almost shouted, holding a hoof out to prevent you from jumping, "Are you sure? I seriously don't want a repeat of yesterday."

"Trust me." you replied, confidently.

You were still slightly torn over whether she was genuinely worried about your safety, or was still only concerned about her ego.

Nevertheless, she moved a hoof away, a worried look on her face. The look she gave you alone persuaded you that she did care.

At last, you jumped from the cloudy platform. Instantly, Rainbow Dash braced for a quick take off in the event that yesterday repeated itself.

Thankfully, you spread your wings and felt yourself transition from a fall into a glide. You focused on not allowing your human fight or flight response to take hold, and instead you felt something different. You felt your Pegasus instincts kicking in.

It felt like your wings had taken control of themselves. You simply had to think the word up and you would be carried up by your wings. You were flying incredibly fast. Not as fast as Rainbow, mind you, but if you were put up against Twilight or Fluttershy, you’d probably win in terms of speed.

Rainbow Dash relaxed as she watched you fly, until you eventually landed next to her.

"Storm, you did it!" she exclaimed excitedly. You couldn't really believe it yourself.

"I... I did." you replied in bewilderment. Recovering from your slight breathlessness over what you accomplished, the adrenaline rushing through you got the better of you, "So do you want that race now?"

Suddenly, you felt like you actually wanted a race. You knew you would lose, but you felt like you could put up a good fight.

"Nah." Rainbow replied, still smiling, "Maybe when you're as awesome as me!"

She really had changed. Instead of focusing on boosting her ego, she was putting you first. She knew how easily you would lose a race against her, so chose to decline it, and that you appreciated even if it surprised you.

"Um... What?" you said, still a little surprised by her answer, "But I thought all you wanted this whole time was a race you could easily win."

"Yeah, but remember what I said? I realised there's more to friendship than that. Even if I did beat you, it wouldn't mean anything since you're so new to flying!" she explained. You didn't know whether to take offence to that, but decided it would be best not too.

"Yeah, that's right actually," you admitted, glad Rainbow understood why your were so upset yesterday, "I should probably head back to the library, actually. I've got work tomorrow."

"Oh, ok! Say hi to the egghead for me," she joked, causing you both to laugh, “And good job by the way.”

You smiled at her, warmly, but didn’t have time to respond before her abnormal sappiness melted away into her usual demeanour.

"See ya, Storm!" she shouted as she flew off towards her cloudominium with a rainbow streak behind her.

“Bye, Rainbow!” you called after her, not knowing if she could even hear you.

Well that went well. You didn't know what, but something made you want to hang out with her more than the others. You just couldn't place your finger on what, though.

The sun wasn't setting quite yet, but the day had still gone by quite fast. Time went by even faster with Rainbow than with anypony else.

Spreading your wings, you took off from the ground and began flying towards the Golden Oaks Library.

————————————————————

Dear, Princess Celestia...

Today I learned something quite important, just from a few words. My new friend, Storm Strike, had a brief argument with Rainbow Dash. I never told you about him did I? Well, there’s a lot about him that makes him quite unusual. You are the princess, after all, so I guess I can tell you.

Storm is a pony from a different world. He came from a world named Earth, where he believe he died, and was brought to Equestria after death. I’ve been doing study on this matter, but I can’t find anything to do with ‘Earth’. Despite his unfamiliarity with Equestria, he seems to be fitting in quite well. He’s been living with me and Spike, and just today Rainbow Dash had taught him to fly!

Oh, right, back to the point. Today, Storm told me that Rainbow had admitted to only being friends with him as it was an easy victory in terms of speed. Many would call this being a fake friend. I never saw Rainbow as a pony who would do something so selfish, but I’m glad to inform you that she learned her lesson. Storm later told me that, after a near death experience he had yesterday, Rainbow had begun to see the error of her ways.

Today, Rainbow actually took the time to teach him how to fly, and genuinely showed concern over his well being. I’m sure she would be writing this to you herself if she had access to a magical baby dragon, like me, but I am aware of the lesson she has learned.

Putting your friends first should always be your priority. Whether it be your pride or any other reason, other’s well being should always take priority. And I believe, and so does Storm, that Rainbow realises that now.

Yours, Twilight Sparkle.

Author's Notes:

And thus concludes the first act of my story, The Race Ark!
Below is a quick summary of the ark incase it was hard to follow. The last chapter was pretty messy on my part, so if any of you are confused as to what ‘the race’ is, I will explain below.

The first ten chapters of this story were focused on a race that Rainbow Dash challenged Storm to in chapter 3. Rainbow knew she would win, and simply sought an easy victory to brag about. Rainbow also rushed Storm’s flight lessons in order to get to the race more quickly, as all she cared about at that time was her pride and ego.

After Storm‘s near death experience after jumping from the cliff, Rainbow realised that there was more to Friendship than winning, and decided to give him actual flight lessons. And that is how Rainbow and Storm’s friendship formed. It started out as just a fake friendship, but now it has morphed into genuine friendship.

The next chapters won’t be focused on the race as strongly, but it will show up again as I intend to make it a chapter. I can’t tell you the focus of the next act, but it’s gonna be good