The following month was a strange period in Rainbow Dash's life. She didn't fly as much as she used to. Opting to spend her time on the cloud with her mother or Fluttershy. Even when she flew, it was never too high above the cloud line (Not that Fluttershy minded). Dash even made several trips to the ground with Fluttershy, to see the animals that she cared for.

Dash's Mother welcomed her with open arms and treated her as if she had never left. She would spend much of her free time with Dash, as if she was afraid to loose her. Fluttershy visited almost everyday, only leaving to take care of her animal friends. She begun staying at the house several nights in a row every week. Dash never minded, Fluttershy helped keep her mind away from her father.

As for Dash's father, he ignored her. At first she was outraged, but while she was alone, the anger passed and a confusing longing surfaced. She soon realized she would do anything to gain his attention. It started with begging and pleading, but swiftly moved into a destructive phase. She started partying with an old friend she made in flight school (Although, she didn't much care for that... griffin at the moment...) That part of her life didn't last long, as her behavior had no effect on her father and only hurt her mother and Fluttershy. As the idea that he wanted nothing to do with her sunk in, she decided to try one last desperate act. She went back to the sky.

Dash woke before sunrise, careful not to wake the sleeping Fluttershy that was sharing her bed. She packed enough oats for the day and left before any other pony in her home woke. She flew until the sun began to warm the sky.When she reached a nearly nearly empty field, she glided to the ground to drop her supplies before flying back into the sky. As she flew upwards and passed through the clouds, her faux confidence began to fade and was quickly replaced by fear, but she powered through the clouds and into the upper atmosphere on sheer stubbornness... If this is what she had to do to get his approval... then she wouldn't back down.

As the familiar tingling of ice began to from on the tips of her wings she stopped. Each cold breath she took hurt her lungs and froze her chest. “Now or never. Now or Never. NOW!” She yelled as she folded her wings in and closed her eyes and tumbled downwards through the sky.

After falling several hundred feet she opened her wings slightly to control her fall. The sharp instincts that she had acquired no more then a six months ago were as strong as ever. As the fall began to feel like a routine she had practiced, her confidence began to return. She began to pump her wings, propelling herself at an even faster speed towards the ground. As the wind began to sting her face, she started to laugh. She could now see the ground clearly, and it was coming up fast. She flared her wings to slow herself, then suddenly shifted her body in a way that her momentum propelled her forward, skimming just over the tops of the trees that were scattered across the field she was flying over. She had been laughing the entire time and couldn't stop, even after she had landed.

It took almost half an hour before she could calm herself down. While she tried to catch her breath, she tried to figure out why she started laughing and why she couldn't stop. She watched the clouds for several minutes before she realized her answer, she was happy. The sky, one of her oldest and dearest friends, had welcomed her back with open arms. It was at that moment she understood that she could never truly leave the sky.

Rainbow Dash picked up her training where Ray had left off. Although she looked for ponies to mentor her(mostly ex-wonderbolts), most would not respond and several were brash enough to wave the accident in her face. So she decided that there was only one pony cool enough to train her, and that was herself. Every morning she would leave for a small forest about an hour south of Cloudsdale. There Dash would meet up with Fluttershy, shortly before she began her daily care of her animals, and they would share a breakfast. Dash would spend the day exercising and practicing, while pretending to ignore the quiet cheering of her only fan. In less then three months Rainbow Dash was at the top of her game; she was faster, stronger and had much more energy then she even knew what to do with.

On a whim, she decided to compete in an amateur race. On the day of the race, she wasn't nervous, she wasn't cocky, she was ready. Although she was competing with ponys with greater wingspans or larger muscles, she had no fear. As soon as the race started she left her competition in a rainbow colored contrail. Her only real competition was the course record, which she nearly halved. This was only the first of many victories to come.

Rainbow Dash soon became semi famous in the amateur race circuits, she was known for her speed and reckless style. Every victorious race built her confidence, and soon the only thing that surpassed her accomplishments was her ego. She even received a invite to one of Cloudsdale's most prestigious flying events; the Best Young Fliers Competition, but when she replied with interest she was disqualified due to her age.

Although she started flying to regain her father's admiration, but she began to forget about her original purpose as racing seemed to fill the void her father left in her life, but soon this was going to change.

Rainbow Dash had woken up early as per her usual schedule while training. She was expecting to head down to a quiet breakfast, her father hadn't uttered more then a hello to her in the last couple months and her mother had been unusually distant after she had started racing. As she walked into the dining room, the smell of apple oatmeal flooded her nose. She hadn't eaten apple oatmeal since she was a filly. As she approached the table, she noticed her father was snout deep in a news paper. As she took her place, he set down the paper and looked directly at her, she froze.

“Good morning Dashie.” He said with a hint of cheerfulness. Dash was shocked, she hadn't heard him sound happy in months, and it had been even longer still since he called her by the nick name given to her as a filly.

“Morning...” She stuttered, but before she could say anymore he turned his attention back to the paper as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.

“Rainbow Dash! Good morning!” Her mother said after setting a bowl in-front of her. Dash slowly nodded, still recovering from her fathers greeting. She watched as her mother moved next to her father. He set his paper down again and looked up at his wife and then to Dash. “We have wonderful news. We're pregnant!”

Suddenly as if somepony had flipped a switch, Rainbow Dash's life had changed again. Dash once again grew close to her mother. She began to spend most of her days at home, racing less and less, eventually stopping all together as her mother's pregnancy began to show. Dash quickly took her mothers place in their home, but as she quickly learned, through many accidents, she wasn't made for the home life. So with Fluttershy's help (well, mostly due to Fluttershy's help), Dash was able to keep her home in pristine condition.

For Dash the best part of her new life was a renewed relationship with her father. It started with cheerful greetings and small conversations and lead back into a full talking relationship. She felt closer to him , then she had in years, even before the accident. It was as if the void she tried to fill with racing had suddenly been filled and she felt a large pressure lift from her shoulders. For those few months everything seemed perfect, but as with most of life, perfection never lasts forever.