Before long, Celestia’s sun had risen once again, bringing light to a new day.

Sunlight shone down through your window, illuminating your room with a soft glow. It felt warm and cozy, and for once you didn’t want to get up.

Your dreams hadn’t returned, giving you the opportunity to get a full night of uninterrupted sleep. You had never felt so well rested since you arrived here on Tuesday.

Today was Sunday, meaning you didn’t have to go to work at Sweet Apple Acres.

Making the best of the opportunity given to you, you rolled over so that you faced the oak wall beside your bed, your grey legs sprawling out across the mattress.

Your eyes close as you basked in the soothing warmth of the sunlight, and felt yourself slowly drifting back into sleep.

Crash!

”Spike! What did I tell you about being careful on the ladder?” You heard Twilight’s voice resonate quietly through the floorboards, responding to the crashing sound.

The abrupt sound awoke you from your partial slumber, putting you into a state of awareness instantly.

Deciding that you weren’t gonna get back to sleep anytime soon, you hopped groggily out of bed. Funny how more sleep ended up with you being more tired. Nevertheless, you felt more refreshed.

Entering the now familiar bathroom, you stepped into the shower and turn it on. Warm water flowed down your body, and it felt amazing and calming all at once.

Instantly, you felt yourself waking up from your case of the morning blues.

After about 10 minutes, you turned off the shower and climbed out, drying yourself off with the same blue towel you used everyday. By now, it was essentially your towel. Twilight and Spike had plenty others to use, and they never seemed to use this one.

At last, you decided to make your way down the stairs and investigate the cause of the loud sound, as well as greet Twilight and Spike.

Upon reaching the base of the stairs, you saw a mess of books scattered across the flooring, as well as a ladder placed horizontally on the floor.

“Um... Morning, guys?” you greeted them, confused as to what was going on.

Twilight was busy picking up and stacking the fallen books with her magic, while Spike was moving the stacked books onto the nearest bookshelf he could find. It was like a conveyor belt, and you had to admit, it was kinda cool.

“Oh, good morning, Storm!“ Twilight responded, happily, looking up from the pile of books.

“Hey, Storm!” Spike also added, but not looking away from his shelving duty.

“What happened?” you asked, staring at the somewhat large sprawl of books.

Before Twilight could begin to explain, Spike decided he would give his own depiction of what happened.

“Basically, I was on top of that ladder,” he began, pointing towards the wooden ladder that was now on the floor, “And then out of nowhere I get this allergic reaction. Then I sneezed and fell off the ladder, scattering those books everywhere!”

You looked to Twilight, who had an unimpressed look on her face.

“You did not sneeze! You just fell!” she corrected him.

“Maybe, but at least half of it was true!” Spike retorted, pointing an accusing claw at Twilight.

Looking down at the pile of books, you decided that it would be a lot more efficient if you helped out too.

“Do you need any help?” you asked them, leaving it as their choice as to wether you help or not. You did want today to be your laid back day, but if they needed your help, you would gladly give it to them.

It was the least you could do, considering what they had done for you.

“Actually, I don’t mean to be a burden, but...” Twilight began to explain, a look of slight guilt about her, “Me and Spike have to go down to the Carousel Boutique to help Rarity.”

You could see where this was going, but you didn’t mind sitting out one adventure. You could always get to know Rarity a little better some other time.

“So if it’s not any trouble, can you stay here and tidy up a bit?” Twilight asked in a apologetic tone, feeling guilty for what Spike’s accident had caused.

“Sure!” you answered with a reassuring smile on your face. Truthfully, you didn’t mind it. It had been a while since you had some time to yourself.

"You don't mind having to stay here all by yourself?" she replied, still feeling a little guilty.

"I'm sure." you answered, adamant with your answer.

You were pretty sure you could get this cleaned up relatively fast. The pile was a lot smaller than it was when you first came down the stairs, now reduced to only a dozen or so books.

"Thank you," Twilight said, smiling at you, "Come on Spike! We're going to see Rarity!"

Instantly, Spike dropped what he was doing and turned to Twilight, following her through the open front door. It kind of looked like he was floating.

Deciding not to question it, you turned to the largish pile of books Spike had created on the floor. All of the books seemed to be information books, which didn't interest you to greatly.
It didn't really come as a surprise to you, as even on Earth libraries kept their shelves organised to a certain theme.

You began stacking the books into neat piles, each four or five books in height, until none were left in the pile.

A wave of worry suddenly hit you as you thought about how you were going to carry the books to their shelves. You could pick up each pile and take it over to the shelf, but that would mean you'd have to walk on your hind legs, something you had not attempted since your first few minutes in Equestria.

Deciding it would be best to not risk recreating the mess you had just cleaned up, you settled with holding a single book in your hoof, while holding a second one in your mouth.

You began neatly placing the books on the bottom rows of the shelf, having no idea why Spike wasn't doing this to begin with. The bottom shelves were empty, so there was no need to reach the top ones.

After 15 minutes of organising books, you were finally done with your chore. Quite honestly, you had no idea how Twilight and Spike did this everyday. It was so boring.

Finally wanting to utilize your day off, you study the shelves for a book to read. Your brain instantly thought of Daring Do, but no matter how much you searched, you couldn't find any books from the series.

Disappointed, you settled with a book that seemed to be named after the pony that was taking care of you: Twilight. On the back of the book was some reviews, and one of them read 'The best love story of all time!'

This caused you to laugh, remembering a joke that was quite popular on Earth. However, maybe in Equestria it is actually a good book.

Opening the book, you saw the name of the first chapter.

It was the same book. Words had been altered here and there, but it was exactly the same book.
You continued reading nonetheless.

"Wow. This book is-"

Crash!

You had begun talking to yourself, in awe of how human texts had been rewritten in Equestria, but before you could finish your sentence, you were interrupted by a loud sound from upstairs.

Maybe Spike came home early and was causing more chaos?

No. It had only been half an hour. And this sound was a lot louder than the last.

Maybe it's a home invader, you thought, as you wings instinctively fanned out. You hadn't paid much attention to your wings today, but you could see them out of the corner of your eye.

There was no pain, you could move them freely, and the shape looked fine. They had healed.

You didn't have time to dwell on that now, however. The Golden Oak Library was potentially being broken in to.

Cautiously, you walked up the stares, aware of any hidden spots the invader could be hiding. You searched your room, the bathroom, and Twilight's room, which you hadn't been in up until this point.

Nopony was in any of them. That only left one door that you didn't know existed, probably because it was inside Twilight's room.

Opening the door, you noticed it led out to a balcony. You recognised it as the same one from the show, even if it was in a different location.

You didn't have time to take in the view though, as laying on the floor was Rainbow Dash.

She must have crashed down and landed here, you thought to yourself, wondering whether she was still conscious.

"Rainbow?" you said, cautiously, trying to get a response.

You didn't get one instantly, but after a few seconds, her eyes slowly crept open.

"W-Where-" she quietly questioned, looking around dizzily. Her question was cut off as soon as she saw you standing above her.

"Wah!" she screamed, flying up into the air. She didn't seem to recognise you, at first.

"O-Oh! Storm! I guess it worked!" Rainbow said, attempting to correct herself after being startled like that.

"You guess what worked?" you asked, curiously. As far as you could see, the only thing she had done was knock herself out on Twilight's balcony.

Rainbow Dash simply stared at you, a puzzled expression on her face.

"The Sonic Rainboom, duh! Did you not hear it?" she said, sounding a little insulted.

No, you did not hear the Sonic Rainboom, although now that she mentioned it, you were curious as to what it looked like. Judging from the fact that you didn't hear it, and she was knocked out on the balcony, it probably didn't work the way she planned.

"Are you sure it worked?" you asked her, trying to hint that it most likely didn't.

"Yep. I did a Sonic Rainboom to get all the way over here as fast as I could, and I got here, right?" she boasted, proudly crossing her front hooves.

"Right..." you replied, deciding not to try proving her wrong, "So what're you doing here?"

Rainbow flew down, landing next to you.

"I'm here for that race, dummy. You didn't forget, did you?" she laughed.

Ah. The race. The race you had been putting off for as long as you could.

You never told anypony, but you'd actually been sleeping in a position that caused your wings to heal slower. As much as you wanted to fly, your anxiety over this race had gotten the better of you.

Despite your best efforts, however, Rainbow just so happened to show up on the day that your wings healed.

"N-No... I never forget! How would I forget!" you laughed nervously.

Despite your fear being quite obvious, Rainbow seemed quite oblivious to it.

"How about we start the race from here. First one to the Everfree Forest!" she suggested, already getting in a position to make take off easier.

You had to figure out a way out of this. Fast.

"3..." you heard her say.

Looking down at her, her head was lowered down to the ground. She was putting all her pressure on her front hooves. It looked very similar to what Olympic runners would do at the start of a race.

"2..."

Her tongue was sticking out the side of her mouth, as if she was focusing on putting as much force into the take off as she could.

"1..."

This was it. You either come up with something now or you embarrass yourself. You would end up embarrassing yourself, either way, but you didn't want to lose your dignity like this.

"Wait!" you shouted suddenly, causing her to stand up and look at you with slight annoyance.

"What?" she said with an unimpressed tone.

"Twilight asked me to clean up the library. I can't possibly leave until I've done what she asked." you lied. You'd already done what Twilight asked, you just wanted to find a good time to tell Rainbow Dash you couldn't fly.

"Ugh! Seriously?" she whined as you opened the door to re-enter the library.

"We can always have the race after, right?" you asked, trying to keep the act up.

"Yeah, but don't think I'm going anywhere until we've had the race!" she added, following you into the library.

"Suit yourself!" you laughed in response.

Now that you had successfully evaded the race for the time being, you needed to find something to clean up. You and Rainbow Dash walked down the stairs, and she took a seat on the couch.
You jumped onto the couch opposite her, much like how you and Spike are usually positioned.

"So what's she want you to clean?" she asked, laying down with her fore-hooves behind her head. Her hind legs were crossed over, one of her hoofs hanging in mid-air.

"The whole place. I've only got my room left to do, though." you explained. Truth be told, it didn't seem like she was listening, as the next thing she asked completely changed the subject.

"Why are you still crashing at Twilight's place anyway?" she asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice.

Your original reason was that your wings were injured, but now that they were healed, you didn't really have one.

"Um..." you began, causing her to look at you suspiciously out the corner of her eyes, "I'll explain when I've cleaned my room."

Before she could reply, you got up from the couch opposite her and speed-walked up the stairs. You didn't hear her respond. She just simply lay there, probably bored.

You entered your room, slamming the door shut behind you.

How exactly were you supposed to tell her you couldn't fly? You should've thought about this in advance, but you didn't think the moment would have arrived so soon.

"How about... I forgot. Yeah! That could work! I lost some of my memory when I crashed here!" you say out loud. You congratulate yourself on that idea, then heard Rainbow shouting up to you.

"Storm! How long are you gonna be! This is soooo boring!" you heard her whine.

Without replying, you left your room and made your way down the stairs.

"I'm done." you said as you reached the base of the staircase.

"Great! Can we race now?" she asked, excitedly, now hovering above the couch.

You took a seat on the couch opposite her once again, going over your reasoning in your head.

"Actually, I have to tell you something first." you said with a serious expression on your face.

In any other situation, Rainbow likely would've responded with a groan of boredom, but seeing the seriousness on your face, she gently lowered back down to the couch.

"What's up?" she asked. The competitiveness in her eyes had been replaced almost completely with a caring shimmer.

You braced yourself for the coming conversation, and what her reaction may be. This was inevitable, after all.

"You asked me why I'm still crashing with Twilight?" you said as a start to the conversation.

"Oh yeah! But honestly I'm not too bothered. You've got your reasons, right?" she replied, laughing half heartedly to lighten the mood.

"I'm still staying here because when I crashed down and hurt my wings, I lost some of my memory too." you lied. Now that you said it out loud, it didn't sound as convincing, but she seemed to believe it.

"Where are you going with this?" she questioned, her eyes now full of concern.

"I think I forgot how to fly."

Rainbow Dash was silent for a while, as were you. Not a word was spoken for the next minute or two. You were half expecting her to ask why you accepted her challenge if you can't even fly, but to your surprise, she didn't.

Instead, she started laughing. All that care she had just shown dissolved in an instant as she fell onto her back, her legs writhing in the air as she laughed hysterically.

“Bahahaha! You’re a laugh, Storm!” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.

You looked down slightly out of shame, trying not to make any further eye contact. After a few more seconds of silence, Rainbow finally spoke up.

“Are you serious?” she asked, squinting with confusion. It wasn’t everyday somepony met a fully grown Pegasus who couldn’t fly.

You nodded your head weakly, still not making eye contact.

Rainbow Dash’s look of confusion quickly transformed back into the caring expression you had seen a few moments ago. Finally making eye contact, you saw a faint sparkle of light in her eyes.

“I...” she said, quietly, looking straight at you. Her eyes were squinted slightly, as if she was nervous about something. And then she said something to you that you never thought you would ever hear.

“I could... teach you. If you want.”

Author's Notes:

Finally a Rainbow Dash focused chapter.

I was originally gonna have this chapter and the next one as a single chapter, but I’m splitting them up to keep with the daily updates.
Also, this is an alternate timeline. In this timeline, Fluttershy taught Twilight to fly in secret, not Rainbow Dash. This means that in this story, Rainbow has had no previous experience teaching flight.
I didn’t think this story needed an alternate universe tag due to that, though, as it’s more a timeline difference rather than a whole AU.

More chapters coming soon