Blue paced back-and-forth in the hospital waiting room. He had never flown as fast as he did to the ambulance yard when Shimmer passed out, and he probably would never fly that fast again. They wouldn't tell him what was wrong with her, but it had been obvious enough to the unicorn paramedic that he had actually transported her straight to the medical centre, along with the young one. He gulped; he hadn't even been able to get a decent look at it before it was whisked away with its mother. Was it a boy or a girl? He was considering going to the desk to complain when he heard the loudspeaker above the big doors to the treatment rooms sound on, the cheap electronic gadget distorting the voice of the pony who was speaking into the microphone.
"Can Mr Blue Bolt please go on to room 3, please? That's Blue Bolt to room 3, thank you."
Finally! He trotted through the doors and past two nearly-identical green doors, reaching the one with the big 3 on it. Before going through, he took a moment to compose himself he didn't want to worry her, after all. Satisfied that he was calm and collected, he slowly pushed the door open with his nose.
The first thing he saw was his wife lying in a bed, covered in tubing and electrodes. The second thing he saw was a grim-faced doctor standing by the side of the bed, looking decidedly uncomfortable.
"Mr Bolt, I'm Medic Emerald, I treated your wife today. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but she'd lost a lot of blood when she came in and... "
The rest of the doctor's words faded into static and mumbling as Blue's mind filled with cotton wool. A loud whistle filled Blue's ears as he lost his sense of balance and dropped to his knees. It was an otherworldly, pained, horrible sound, a sound which he soon realised he was making himself. The doctor, unaccustomed to death in such a small and new community, put a hoof on Blue's shoulder and mumbled apologies, but Blue didn't hear them. He didn't hear anything for a while. It would be almost sunrise before he looked anywhere but her face.
A laughing split the silence. Blue looked up towards a cot he hadn't before noticed, tucked away in the corner. Ah, his daughter. Shimmer's last gift to him. Blinking the tears out of his eyes, Blue stumbled over to the cot and looked over the top.
Rose-coloured eyes stared back. Blue drank in the sight of his daughter, who looked almost exactly like her mother, except for one thing.
"You have a rainbow-coloured mane?"
The baby cooed back as if to say "Yep, sure I do. You like it?"
He found himself smiling as he looked at it. Multi-coloured hair was a rare enough thing amongst pegasus ponies, but 6 different colours? Nopony had ever heard of such a thing. She was beautiful. There was only one thing to do now. A while ago, when he and Shimmer were choosing a name, they had decided to name the child after its colours and our hopes for its future. Everypony else in the family had a special talent for athletics, so they decided the second name should be 'Dash'. A fast name. A name fitting the most athletic pony in Equestria. She had hoped for 'Aqua Dash', whilst he found himself hoping for 'Lemon Dash' at the time.
"Hello, Rainbow Dash. I'm your daddy!"
This blew both of them out of the water.
