The wind beat against you as you flew forward at a high speed. You weren't flying any faster than your normally would, but the wind seemed stronger today than it had been before.

It made flying a lot more difficult, as your wings sought to maintain your altitude while also battling the strong winds. Despite this, it felt quite nice.

The way the wind weaved through your mane felt somewhat relaxing, not to mention it looked incredibly cool.

Since your mane was yellow, it almost looked like a lightning bolt as it streaked across the sky, like a streamer. Where were you flying? You were once again visiting Fluttershy's house, to check on the ill Rainbow Dash.

While she seemed a lot better yesterday, you didn't quite know what this illness was capable of. For all you knew, it could hide its symptoms before striking again.

At last, you could make out Fluttershy's small cottage in the distance, dwarfed by the familiar trees of the Everfree Forest.

At this point, you were confident enough in yourself to not let her know about your adventure in the forest. You honestly regretted the choice of entering the forest, as it almost costed you and Rainbow Dash your lives.

You landed gently at the front door of Fluttershy's house, and gave it a few soft knocks.

There was no answer.

There was always the possibility that she wasn't in, but then again, maybe she just hadn't heard you.

You knocked again, but still there was no answer.

You were considering leaving and coming back later, but then you decided to knock one last time. You slammed your hoof onto the door, making as much noise as possible.

You could only just hear the knock over the sound of the howling wind, but at least you could actually hear this one.

Before long, Fluttershy opened the door. Almost instantly, her own pink mane began blowing in the wind, seeming almost like a kite.

"O-Oh, hi, Storm!" the yellow Pegasus greeted you, not smiling, but not frowning either.

"Hi, Fluttershy! I'm here to see Rainbow again." you explained, the wind calming down ever so slightly.

"Oh, she's gone back home!" Fluttershy exclaimed. You weren't really surprised, as she did seem almost better yesterday. You just didn't expect her to regain her flight this quickly.

"Ah, I'll just fly up to her house then!" you said, as the wind once again began to pick up, "See ya, Fluttershy!"

You began to flap your wings, but it seemed a lot more difficult to gain height due to the wind.

"It might be kinda hard getting up there..." she said, remorsefully. You knew what she was talking about. These high winds where nothing but trouble for Pegasi, even if they were the ones that created it.

"You're telling me," you sighed, hovering a few feet above the ground, "But I can try, right?"

Now putting double effort into your wing flaps, you felt yourself begin to hover normally. You had full control over your flight, even if it exhausted you more.

You looked back down to Fluttershy's house once you where somewhat high up, and saw her waving to you, happily. You waved back, before taking off towards Rainbow's cloudomonium.

Now that you had adapted to the strong winds, it seemed not too much different from normal flying. Since your wings were naturally aerodynamic, you only had to put in a little more effort to cut trough the added pressure.

Rainbow Dash's large cloud house had begun to appear in the distance, and you begun putting even more effort into your flying. You remembered that on Earth, Olympic sprinters would use more energy towards the end of a race, in order to go faster. And that was exactly what you were trying to do here.

It worked surprisingly well, as in less than 2 minutes you had practically arrived at the Cloudomonium. You landed on the very edge of the cloud platform, stopping for a few seconds to catch your breath.

Your wings felt pretty tired now, but the more you used them the more they'd get used to added pressure such as the wind.

You walked up to Rainbow's front door and gave it a slam, trying not to let the sound be drowned out by the howling of the wind.

The door opened up pretty quickly, and Rainbow was stood ready to greet you.

"Hey, Storm!" she said, a smile on her face. It was almost as if she knew it was you.

"I see you can fly now!" you said happily.

"Yeah! Pretty cool, right!" she replied, fanning out her wings so she could get a look at them.

Suddenly, the cold chill of the wind began to start having an effect on you. You shuddered slightly as you felt your yellow mane being whipped in all directions by the strong gale.

"You know you can come in, right?" she said, looking at you with concern.

"Are you sure?" you asked. You did feel quite cold, but you also didn't want to intrude.

Rainbow simply looked at you and snickered as if you had just told a horrible joke.

"Of course I'm sure, duh!" she said, waving a hoof at you with a joking grin on her face, "It's not like you've never been in here before! And besides, you're my friend!"

You opened your mouth to reply, but she was way ahead of you. She somehow grabbed you with her left hoof and pulled you into the house, slamming the door shut behind you.

"So what brings you all the way up to my awesome cloud house?" Rainbow asked, turning towards a large fridge that seemed to be made of clouds.

You casually walked over to the cloud couch and flung yourself lazily onto it, before answering the question.

"Originally to see how you were doing, but since you're all better now how about we just hang out?" you suggested as Rainbow pulled a single carrot out of the somehow operational fridge.

"What've you got in mind?" she asked, placing the carrot in a bowl that was sitting on the floor. The bowl, much like everything else, was also made of clouds.

"I actually don't know. I mean, it's pretty windy outside. Seems pretty dangerous." you explained, recalling your difficulty when you attempted to take off from Fluttershy's house.

Rainbow didn't seem to be fully focused on you, but was instead watching a familiar green tortoise walk slowly around the corner. Tank saw you and instantly smiled, sweetly, before beginning his gradual march towards the carrot.

You waved in response, before Rainbow finally turned her full attention to you.

"What were you saying?" she asked.

"The wind is dangerous." you said, a dead-pan expression on your face. Rainbow once again waved a hoof into your face, a smirk on her own.

"Pffft! Danger's my middle name!" she boasted, proudly. A feeling of worry overcame you, as last time she had an 'adventurous' idea it almost ended with you both being crushed by a stone golem's boulders, "How about we do some cloud surfing!"

To be honest, that didn't sound all that bad. Especially when compared to a flightless expedition into the dreaded Everfree Forest. Even then, however, you didn't really know what it even was. You didn't recall hearing about it in the show back on Earth.

"Cloud surfing?" you asked. You were confused, for sure, but your voice was full of intrigue.

"You know, cloud surfing?" Rainbow asked, a puzzled look on her face. You didn't respond, but instead sat still in silence, "Geez, you did lose a lot of your memory."

You weren't sure wether to be offended by that, as even though you really did have all your memories, you couldn't recall what cloud surfing was.

Rainbow Dash scratched her head as she hovered above the floor, thinking of the best way to explain cloud surfing to you. Of course, actual surfing wasn't really a thing in Equestria. Or, at least, it was very rare. It definitely was doable, but as far as you knew, Rainbow had never attempted surfing the waves.

"Ok, it's just like standing on a cloud, and riding it as the wind carries it along. Yeah! Just like that!" she explained, the excited smile returning to her face.

Honestly, that did kinda sound like fun.

"Sounds cool!" you said, hopping up from the couch and immediately taking flight.

"You bet it is! Let's go find a cloud!" she suggested, as you hovered alongside her. You nodded in agreement as she began moving towards the door.

"See ya, Tank!" you both said as you waved at the eating tortoise. Tank sluggishly lifted his head, and nodded farewell with a smile, before continuing to much on his carrot. He was just as slow of an eater than he was a walker.

As soon as you where outside, you immediately noticed plentiful amounts of smaller clouds that had gathered in the sky above Rainbow's Cloudomonium.

"How about that one?" you suggested, pointing towards a relatively small cloud that was floating not far above you.

"That could work!" Rainbow said as she begun flying up to it. She pulled the cloud down to you, catching it as it blew in the wind. As soon as she released her grip on the fluffy cloud, it instantly began making a hasty getaway.

Thankfully, Rainbow grabbed the cloud before the wind could carry it too far. She pushed the cloud towards you, as if hinting for you to get onto it.

"How exactly do I do it?" you asked, not wanting to attempt it if you didn't even know how to do it. Rainbow's excited expression shifted slightly as she pulled back the cloud.

"Ha! Watch and learn, rookie!" she boasted, a cocky grin on her face. You watched as Rainbow hovered onto the loose cloud, putting as much pressure onto the cloud as possible to maintain her balance, "You need to fan out your wings so you become more aerodynamic!"

Just as she said that, her cyan wings fanned out beside her. Just like that, the cloud began moving slightly faster. Despite this, however, it was still barely moving.

"Is it supposed to be this slow?" you asked, watching the cloud sluggishly make its way a few inches forward.

"No..." Rainbow said in defeat, her ears drooped down beside her head. She looked down at the cloud, examining it to see if there was any extra weight attached to it.

Suddenly, a huge gale of wind surged past you, forcing the cloud forward at breakneck speed.

"Woah!" Rainbow cried in excitement as she rode her cloud through the air. You kinda figured this was what cloud surfing was, but you were really interested in how you control the cloud.

Seemingly answering your prayers, Rainbow's left wing lifted slightly. Responding to her wing movement, the cloud began to turn to the left, maintaining its momentum from the wind.

You watched, a huge smile on your face, as Rainbow's cloud cut through the air at a high speed. Her wing lowered after doing a full 180 turn, and she was now heading back towards the house.

"Hey, Storm!" she called, both of her wings tensing up simultaneously, "Watch this!"

Both of her wings raised up, still tensed, and it seemingly gave her full control over the cloud. She weaved through the air as the strong wind maintained the clouds steady pace.

You saw a look of concentration on her face as the cloud began lifting upwards. It curved up towards the sky, and just like that she did a full roll in midair, somehow still standing on the cloud even while upside down.

After finishing the loop, she rode the cloud down to where you stood, magically coming too a stop.

"What do ya think?" she asked, leaping off of the cloud with a proud grin on her face.

"Cool!" you exclaimed, excited to get your own turn on the cloud.

"Heck yeah, it's cool! Now get on, it's your turn!" Rainbow said, patting the top of the cloud as if gesturing for you to get on. She held the cloud with her hooves to prevent it from being carried away as you boarded it.

Your own wings carried you up to the cloud. As soon as you felt your hooves make contact with its cushiony surface, your wings fanned out in order to become more streamlined and keep balanced.

"Ready?" Rainbow asked, a smile on her face as she prepared to loosen her grip on the cloud.

"Yep!" you answered, your eyes on the skies ahead of you.

Just like that, Rainbow had released the cloud, and immediately you were being carried away by the wind. Keep balanced was hard, but it was nowhere near as difficult as you expected it to be.

Just like Rainbow, your left wing raised, and the cloud began gradually turning to the left. Now that you had changed your direction, you levelled out your wings in order to maximise your speed.

You rocketed through the air, barely noticing a proud Rainbow Dash watching you with a smile on her face. You were about to attempt the loop that she had performed, but before you could, something went wrong.

An abnormally strong gust of wind came surging through the air, sending your cloud spinning and throwing your balance off. Quickly, you lost all control of the cloud and began to spin out like a car drifting on ice. Out of the corner of your eye, you got a quick glance of Rainbow Dash, who's expression had shifted from pride to panic.

She hastily flew over to your crashing cloud, but even she wasn't faster than clouds themselves. Well, unless she did a Sonic Rainboom, but unfortunately for you, she had neither the time or the resources to perform one.

Finally losing your balance, you fell from the cloud platform. Still dazed from the spinning, your wings refused to function. Terminal velocity had come quickly as you blazed through the air at a high speed.

All seemed lost as the green grassland of the ground below grew closer and closer. Flashbacks of when you jumped from Lover's Landing appeared before you, as the situation reminded you greatly of the scenario.

Not a great final thought, you thought as you braced for the inevitable impact. Who knows, maybe it's only break your wings again?

Mere moments before you would have hit the floor, you felt something grab you. Rainbow's fore hoofs wrapped around you and gently lowered you the remaining distance to the ground.

Releasing her hold on you, you fell to the floor, exhausted after that long fall.

"What happened? Are you ok?" Rainbow asked, her eyes seemingly to shine with worry.

"Yeah, just a really, really strong gust of wind..." you panted. Now that you thought about it, you seemed to be cursed when it came to falling.

Your wings had been broken via a fall when you first arrived here.
You had almost died after jumping from Lover's Leap, and then got into an argument with Rainbow.
You had to save Applebloom from skewering herself after jumping from a cliff into a lake.
And most recently you had almost died falling from a cloud surfboard.

For a Pegasus, you sure seemed to have a track record when it came to falling.

"Well, even then I think you did pretty awesome!" Rainbow reassured you, giving you a comforting smile.

"Thanks, Rainbow." you replied as you smiled back at her.

You got up from your seated position after catching your breath, and stretched out your wings to check that they weren't injured. Sure enough, they both felt fine.

"But I think I'm gonna head home." you said, sadly. As much as you wanted to continue your 'surfing' with Rainbow, something had happened during that fall that was causing you some discomfort. It felt almost... sickly.

"What? Why?" Rainbow asked, sounding a little panic. The worry once again returned to her eyes as she stared into yours.

"I don't know, I'm just... not feeling so good." you said, the sickly pain you had recently been feeling advancing to your head.

"Well you can have as much time as you need. I'll still be here being awesome whenever you need me!" she joked, in an attempt to make you feel better. You appreciated it.

A slight snicker left your mouth, earning a quick smile from her.

"I'll see ya later, Storm!" she called as she turned away from you. Her wings fanned out once again as she braced for takeoff.

"Bye, Rainbow." you said back. A smile formed on her face as she quickly took off into the windy sky, the familiar trail of rainbow behind her.

Wanting to get back to the Golden Oak Library as soon as possible, you had already begun walking towards Ponyville. You didn't feel like flying, partly because of the wind, but mainly due to the sickly pain now doubling as a piercing headache.

The once blue sky was now a murky grey, explaining the strong winds. It also told you that rain was coming, further amplifying your craving to get home.

You slowly walked through the town of Ponyville, dragging your hooves as you went. You hurt all over, but you didn't know if it was from the fall or from something more.

The headache was now causing your eyes pain, as they burnt and ached every time an inch of light touched your retinas. Ponies seemed to notice this, as they stopped what they were doing and looked at you for a second with worry in their eyes.

You didn't care.

Finally, you saw the Golden Oak Library. It was only a few steps in front of you, a few painful steps. Every one of those steps you took, the strange pain increased in intensity.

You reached the doorstep of the library, the door within a legs reach. And then you collapsed.

Fuck, you thought as your vision began to be swallowed by a black aura.

A single drop of rain splashed onto your coat, and your vision went fully dark.

The sound of a door creaking open was the only sense you had left.

"Spike! A little help!"

Author's Notes:

Something I'm gonna clarify now, so it doesn't come up later.

In the Author's Notes of Chapter 10 - Final Lesson, I said that the first Act had concluded. I originally planned for this story to follow different Acts, each with their own subplot. Each Act would have 10 chapters, with the tenth always being the longest.

The subplot of the first Act was the race that Rainbow had planned.
The subplot of this Act so far is that Rainbow somehow contracted Tank's illness.
And all of these subplots would still tie in to the main overall plot.

From this point on however, I'm not using this basis. I'm still gonna use the same subplots, but I'm not gonna limit myself to 10 chapters per subplot. This gives me a lot more freedom when it comes to creating chapters, and the chapter I have planned next probably wouldn't exist if it wasn't for this change, as I wouldn't have space in the 10 chapter limit.

Hopefully, this will let me add more shorter lore based chapters like 'Nightmares' and 'Secrets', and will also let me add more character based chapters that don't add to the lore, like 'Overtime', 'Flown the Coop' and 'Crusadin'. Hell, it might also make the story longer, which is always a positive, right?

Speaking of next chapter, it's quite a heavy lore focused one. I doubt it'll be very long, as I have done 2 'long' chapters in a row, but lore based chapters are always interesting to write. Unfortunately, Rainbow herself won't appear, but she will show up in a different way, if you catch my drift.

And as always, thanks for reading! (Especially if you read this whole author's notes. It's a pretty long one this time)