“Dad.”

Soleil continued to patch up the side of the house that had blown away with some extra cloud.

“Dad.”

He smoothed it out. The clouds were the same white Prism had been.

“Dad!”

Soleil started. “What, Dash?” he asked, still hovering and patting the cloud.

“Dad, can I build my own room?”

Soleil looked at Dash around the wall he was fixing. This was a daily chore- they had only been living there for a month, so most of the cloud hadn’t settled in yet. He was proud of the home, though. The two of them had built it from scratch, and since they could no longer visit Prism every day, they had a small memorial, a sort of garden, for her. It started at the top- rainbow creeks ran down the side of the fluffy, white clouds, and fell into a pool below. Instead of flowers, they just changed the design of it every day. Some days it was a million little rivers, and others it was a huge, gushing one. Once, Dash had even fallen in, getting covered from head to toe with the sticky rainbow.

“What? You have a room.”

Rainbow Dash glared at him from the yard of their home, floating not far from the outer reaches of Cloudsdale. “But, daaaaad,” she whined, “it’s not really mine if you built it.” Her tone told Soleil she’d already made up her mind and couldn’t be swayed. He chuckled a little at her logic, and how much he was reminded of Prism by her.

“Honey, you can’t even fly yet. How about it’s your first fly gift?”

It was the wrong thing to say. “Dad, that could be ages away, and besides, everyone in class says you get flying goggles as your first gift.” Dash had started school again, and Soleil had forgotten how different Pegasus customs were from the ones below. Dash gleefully reminded him though, delving eagerly into the culture, and apparently her school was teaching her new things every day. “You can help me get clouds, or whatever, and I’ll build it. Come on,” she added, when he didn’t look convinced, “my room barely fits my bed, which I’m growing out of, by the way. If I make my room I’ll make the floor super cloudy, and then I won’t even need a bed.”

Soleil smiled at her. “Fine, where would you want to build it?

“Next to the kitchen,” she deadpanned. “I’m a growing filly.”

Soleil laughed. “How about next to the porch? It’ll be like a clubhouse.”

Dash thought about it. “That’ll be fine,” she said, then quickly added, “for now.”

Dash trotted back home after school. Unlike the one in Whinnypeg, this one was more open, and not behind desks. It was hands-on, exactly how she liked it. The school was set up in a giant courtyard, with seats of cloud and pillars surrounding it, like the gazebo that had been in her friend’s yard on the ground, but bigger.

Nowadays, her schedule changed with her dad’s. Every morning, they would normally wake up and get ready for the day. They would take their breakfast to the rainbow pool and changed what it looked like. Dash’s favorites were the little rivers, that would twist and turn and weave in and out of each other before falling into the pool, and the dancing colors would mesmerize her. Then her dad would go to practice, or whatever he did during the day, and Dash would go to school. When she got home they would work on her room before going to bed.

Her room was her own pride. Sometimes she would get home and Soleil would have a cloud bank waiting for her to start building, and sometimes he would fly her around and let her grab her own clouds. It turned out that clouds needed to be touched a certain way, and a lot of Dash’s fell apart, but that was okay, too. Everything was okay when she was with her dad.

They had carved a little river of rainbow through her room, so she could see it every time she woke up. That was her favorite part- that, and the Wonderbolts poster her dad had given her, which was pinned above her bed. Every night, she would go to sleep with the poster above her. She could only hope she would learn how to fly someday, and she could join the team and soar alongside her dad.

Right now, though, her dad was away for a tour. He had been gone for two weeks, and each day she got a new letter from where he was. She got one from Manehattan, Canterlot, a little town called Ponyville, Hoofington, and even from Whinnypeg.

She puttered her wings some, scooting forward a few feet. She was almost home, and she sped up a little. She was excited to check the mailbox before heading over to her friend’s house, a friend from school, Green Tree. She was staying there until her daddy got back.

She got to the mailbox and ripped open the letter she found inside. Three things fell out. She picked them up and looked at them.

The first was just a postcard that said “SEADDLE” in big letters. Dash flipped it over, and on the back her dad had written, “Love you, be home soon.” The next was a letter that her dad always put in there. Dash skimmed the top, which just described the sights, and skipped straight to the very last paragraph.

“Love you so much, Dashie. We’ll finish your room when I get back, okay? Someday, it’ll be you here with me, and we’ll be performing together.

“Love always, see you soon, dad.”

Dash put the letter on top of the postcard. Those always came in the envelope, but she had never gotten a third thing.

It was a photograph.

Her dad was standing in front of a sign that announced, “WELCOME TO SEADDLE.” Next to him, though, was what confused her. There was a mare, silvery-gray, waving to the camera. She was a unicorn. Dash had no idea why she was in the picture.

She picked the letter up again and re-read it, slower. When she got to the part she had skipped, she paused.

“Dash, this is hard for me to say. Enclosed is a picture of me and my friend from school, Silver Heart. I saw her in Hoofington, and found out she was also coming to Seaddle. She has two kids, Golden Crown and Platinum.

Dash, your mother died years ago, and I miss her dearly, and even though you never met her, I know you wish you had. I was hoping you could meet Silver Heart sometime after I got back.”

The rest of the letter talked about some restaurant him and the mare had gone to, and the performance that the Wonderbolts had given. Dash put the letter down slowly, still confused. What did meeting Silver Heart have to do with her mother?

Dash gathered everything from the envelope and went inside, placing them on the table inside before grabbing her saddlebags. She tried to hover, but couldn’t get her mind off the letter, so she just headed back to the center of town where Green Tree lived.