For those who haven't read the Rainbow Dash comic called, "After The Rain Goes" there's a flashback refresher to get you up to speed on where this is coming from. And yes, I changed a few things. It's a fiction, everypony! For those who have, you can read it or not at your own consent. Enjoy!

~A long while back, while Rainbow Dash was a filly, Cloudsdale

Rainbow Dash's fondest memories of her fillyhood were about her mother. One of her favorite things to do was to try on her mother's hat, despite how much too big it was. It covered her eyes and her mother would snicker softly and lift the hat off her daughter's head and smile. Because of how much she stood out, Rainbow often hid from the bullies who tried to make her life miserable. Her mother would always stand up to the bullies and fend them off with this wonderful ability she seemed to have.

One day, they were taking a walk through the clouds when a terrible thunderstorm rolled in. Rainbow clung tightly to her mother but she couldn't hold on, the whipping wind was too fierce. She was separated from her mother, they were on separate clouds and neither could flap their wings hard enough to fly over to the other. Rainbow cried out, hoping her mother would find her again. But soon the storm became too much and she buried herself in a small cloud, only her tail peeping out, waiting the storm out. When the storm subsided, she walked around and yelled for her mother. She kept yelling until she nearly tripped over something. It was her mother's hat, it had a piece torn off and there were several burn-marks. Suddenly it hit the little pegasus filly what had happened, and she wept.

Soon the bullies found her again, they taunted her. Without her mother to give them the evil eye, she had to do something. Anything. As Rainbow Dash grew madder, her mane grew spikier and spikier. Then she screamed back at them. They flew off, she apparently had the same natural strength as her mother. She became the best flier in all of Cloudsdale and became friends with the coolest pony, or in Gilda's case, griffon, there. She was still teased, but she handled it by demonstrating that, clearly, she was better than they. And when she arrived home, Rainbow walked up to her own little corner in her house, snuggled up under her mother's hat, and she fell asleep there.

~Back in the present

"But you…" said Rainbow, tears in her eyes, "You were… in the storm…" "Not exactly," said the now transformed Aurora, her voice having shifted a little. Rainbow looked confused. "You probably require an explanation," said Aurora, "Well, here it is. You see, I had to leave. I had to leave quickly without a seven year old filly asking why." "Couldn't I have come with you?!" asked Rainbow. "No," said Aurora, "Would you like none of your friends to have gotten their cutie marks? Would you like your friend Twilight here to never even have passed her entrance exam? Because I was going to be trapped in stone on another universe for an indefinite amount of time, and that is what would have resulted had you come with." "Oh," said Rainbow, looking over at Twilight, "I don't think I'd want that to happen." "There's my little Element of Loyalty!" said Aurora. Rainbow couldn't help but smile. Then she said, "Go on."

"I created the storm so I'd be able to get back, but I left my hat…" said Aurora, "So you'd remember me." "I remember how sad I was when I lost it," said Rainbow, "How'd you get it back?" "Magic," said Aurora. "So… how you scared off those bullies was simply revealing your true self to them for a few moments?" asked Rainbow. Aurora nodded. "Then how'd I do the same?" asked Rainbow. "You may not be an alicorn, Rainbow Dash," said Aurora, "But you're one fearsome filly when you're pissed." "I have but one question," said Sundrops, finally speaking, "Where may I find my daughter?" "What's her name?" asked Twilight. "Mi Amore Cadenza," said Sundrops, "Although I liked to call her 'Cadence'." "I believe in the Crystal Empire," said Twilight, "In my world." "The Crystal Empire?" asked Sundrops, "I remember when that city was cut out of crystal. But what's my little pegasus filly doing there?" "She's not a pegasus anymore," said Twilight happily, "She's an alicorn. She rules there with her husband, my brother Shining Armor."

"My little pegasus," said Sundrops, reminiscing, "All grown up. Next thing you know it, Aurora, your daughter Rainbow is gonna be an alicorn." "An… alicorn?" asked Rainbow. "Well," said Sundrops, "I'll be going to visit my little filly now." Then the alicorn teleported. "Don't you have any children, Moondancer?" asked Twilight respectfully. "No," Moondancer said sadly, "Not anymore." "What do you mean?" asked Rainbow. "My only child was destroyed a while ago," said Moondancer, "Sombra turned to the dark side long before." "How about Celestia and Luna?" asked Twilight. "Tia and Lulu?" asked Moondancer, "They're still around?" "Yeah," said Twilight, "They're in Canterlot Castle, I think. My world, of course. And I think they'd be very happy to have a visit from their father."

Moondancer teleported away, leaving only Aurora. "Are you going anywhere?" asked Dash. "No," said Aurora, transforming back into her natural alicorn state, "I want to stay with my little one." "Beg your pardon," said Blitz, "But we need you ponies so we can kill the shadow creatures back in our world." "Those old things?" asked Aurora, "Oh, not again." "It's happened before?" asked Twilight. "Yeah," said Aurora, sighing, "A long, long time ago. As your Equestria was being created, a dark substance from another world spawned those creatures. Luckily, we united all the alicorns available at the time and destroyed them. But I'm afraid their leader got away." "That explains it," said Twilight. "How long have we got?" asked Dusk. "Two days," said Berry, popping out of nowhere then popping back again. "That… was random…" said Aurora. "You get used to it," said Blitz. Everypony nodded, having had their own experiences with one fourth-wall-breaking pony or another.

"It'd be really rude to pull the other alicorns from what they're doing currently," pondered Twilight, "It can wait another day. Our army is still being trained, after all." "You raised an army?" asked Aurora, "I think I remember that happening last time… an alicorn princess named Varity did the same thing…" "Varity?" asked Twilight, "I read about her… She was killed in the Last Griffon War, correct?" Aurora nodded sadly. "You knew her?" asked Twilight. "Yeah," said Aurora in a tone very similar to Rainbow Dash's, "We were friends…" "And if you're anything like Rainbow," Twilight pondered sadly, "This was a big loss to you." "You know your friend well, Twilight Sparkle," said Aurora, still with a sad undertone but with a genuine smile on her face.

"How do you remember all this?" asked Dash. "A memory spell," said Aurora, "You're right, I normally couldn't have remembered all this stuff given how long I've lived so far. Since the universe was created, namely." "My mum is awesome," said Rainbow Dash with a smug grin. "Indeed she is," the Fluffle Puff Queen said as she walked in, "And I'd like to meet her." "Hello, old friend," said Aurora. "Queen Aurora?" asked the Fluffle Puff. "Hello, Fluffy," said Aurora, "Nice to see you again." "You two met?" asked Dusk, bewildered. "Although miss Fluffy here isn't an alicorn," explained Aurora, "She has lived about as long as my niece, Celestia."

"Your niece?" asked Twilight, "Who was the mother if Moondancer was the father?" "Sundrops, my older sister," said Aurora, "Moondancer began on the other end of the vortex and we found him when we were young mares. With their combined magic they created the universe… I was left with my only talent: rainbows. I tried to make things beautiful the best I could… despite the fact that I wasn't appreciated. I'm glad that Rainbow Dash here made them appreciated." "Can you do a sonic rainboom?" Dash asked, flying being one of the only things that mattered to her. "Where do you think they got the legend?" asked Aurora with brashness that was quite unworthy of an alicorn of her stature as she spread her wings. They were huge, her feathers were formed in spirals on the first and second layers. Only the outermost layer had normal pointed feathers and they were huge.

"Wanna take those impressive-looking wings out for a spin?" asked Dash. "Absolutely," said Aurora, "Some nice mother-daughter bonding after a couple decades in stone. Forgive me if I'm a little rusty, I was encased in stone after all." "No prob'," said Dash, "Let's go!" The two took off, running through the door and flying up the long spiraled staircase and into the sky. Twilight and Dusk rolled their eyes as they climbed the stairs with the Fluffle Puff Queen, Blitz hovering close by and flying up slowly.

Meanwhile, Aurora and Dash had already done a sonic rainboom apiece and were keeping going, flying fast for the heck of flying fast. Aurora had long since opened at telepathic thought exchange and was telepathically talking to Rainbow. "Nice job," thought Aurora, "Wanna go for a double rainboom?" "Why not?" thought Dash, speeding up. "You're on!" thought Aurora, speeding up as well to catch up to her daughter. They traded off being ahead but only by a couple of feet at a time. The rainbow crept up their back hooves and they turned upside down to stay inside the atmosphere.

"You're good!" thought Dash, "Not what I'd expect from somepony who spent several decades without a single workout, trapped in stone!" "Trust me, I feel younger already!" thought Aurora as the rainbow continued to creep up her back hooves, encompassing her tail. "How young?" Dash asked. "Two thousand or there abouts!" thought Aurora. Dash giggled, though nopony could hear her. The two closed their eyes completely and brought their forehooves in back of them as the rainbow encompassed their faces. They were over the ocean and extremely high up, so no damage would be done. And no damage was done as the double rainbooms were performed in synch.

"Wanna go faster?" asked Aurora. "It's possible?!" thought Dash, her eyes still tight shut. "I've broken the light barrier before," thought Aurora, "So I'd assume my daughter, the amazing Rainbow Dash, could do the same…" Her competitive instinct kicking in, Rainbow thought, "Bring it." "Then follow my lead," said Aurora, casting a spell real quick before zipping out of the atmosphere. Somehow, Rainbow could still breathe, despite being in space. She'd caught up with her mother and was nearing light speed. "I honestly didn't think this was physically possible," thought Rainbow as she opened her eyes cautiously to reveal a stunning sight of the planet below them, or… above them because they were flying upside down… "Technically, it's not," thought Aurora, "We're far out of the atmosphere. A normal pony wouldn't have been able to breathe. However, our awesomeness is too good for that. Plus, I happen to know a spell to compensate for it."

"You're really awesome, Aurora," thought Dash. "Please," thought Aurora, "Call me mum." Dash smiled and thought, "Okay, mum. Now, you ready to break the light barrier?" "I have to warn you," Aurora thought, "You won't be able to describe what you'll see next." "Watch me try, though," thought Dash. Aurora rolled her eyes and squinted. With a final flap of their wings, there were three rainbooms on top of each other. A triple rainboom broke the light barrier for each pony and suddenly Dash felt weightless. Gravity apparently doesn't apply to ponies going at tachyon-like speeds. And that was the only thing Dash could see: tachyons. A bright orange haze, it didn't feel as if she was going anywhere. But she looked down (or up?) and the entire planet was a blur. She looked for a specific patch of land and spotted the polar ice caps where the Eskimo ponies live. It seemed like a tiny white dot and she passed it seven times every second, roughly. "This is the speed of light," Aurora thought, "Welcome to the edge of the universe." "Meh," thought Rainbow, "Ever thought of going faster? Flying is almost effortless here!"

"True," thought Aurora, "Let's do it!" "It might be dangerous," Rainbow thought, mock-warning her own mother. "Danger is my middle name," thought Aurora. "And Aurora is mine," thought Rainbow, "Let's do this thing."