"Mami! Tell me another story please! Pleeaaaase!" I beg, wagging my tail.

She looks at me and smiles. "Okay, Avery. Since you asked nicely, I think I'll have time for one more."

"Yay!" I say, prancing around the room. "Okay, are we gonna pick up from where we left off two days ago?"

My mom shrugs. "I guess so." she says. She closes her eyes and begins to speak. "So Verhamera and the other Terreskians fell into a palace. From it, they could see every dimension, spread out in a circle around them. However, the palace was cold and empty. Then, to their surprise, the newborn Verhamera's ribbon tails began making designs, and everything she made came to exist. She made a throne for herself, and the Terreskians made her the queen. They offered her two crowns- one that controls space, and one that controls time."

"Do you mean that they're still out there, too?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Destroying them would destroy space and time, and no one wants that. Continuing on, Verhamera, knowing they were too powerful, chose to give them both up and told her strongest Terreskians to hide them."

"Why would she give up all that power?!"

"Sometimes, a lot of power is a little too much."

I stare at her blankly. Isn't power a good thing? If I had enough power, I could make my mami and dadi happy. They wouldn't have to frown anymore whenever they talk about 'them'. I would teach 'them' to be nice to my mami and dadi. Even if I don't have it now, I will have that amount of power someday. I would use it for good, of course. I don't want to hurt anyone.

My mami continues, "Verhamera was restless. She moved on to making living things with beating hearts- the first Canii and Canira. She spread them across the dimensions, far across time and space, but one day she decided to bring them all together. However, they were spread so far apart that even she couldn't make a signal powerful enough to bring them all to one place. Even if she could, all the dimensions were populated and there was nowhere for her creations to live. She began spending time alone, absorbing energy, and a eon later she released it all, and from that immense amount of energy created a new dimension, Dreamland.

She was exhausted, and the dimension was just empty. It was just one big universe of nothingness, and just a single sun with a few planets that contained nothing more than rock. All her work had been for nothing. She had let herself down by chasing a ridiculous whim, and she was too tired to use any more energy. She couldn't bring her creatures to this new place. One night, a few months later, a light much like the one the Terreskians saw streaked across the sky of every planet of every solar system of every single dimension in existence. From that light, the Unknown Canira were born. They were sparkling, pure and powerful. They searched for Verhamera's creations and brought them to the biggest of the planets Verhamera had made. Doing so, they had to travel across the dimensions- they were the first to ever do it. The young Canii, Canira, and many other of the other animals she had invented in her spare time were very scared- there was no atmosphere, no life, no anything. But with every step the Unknown Canira made, life sprang up. Trees, rivers, and mountains appeared as they meandered across the world. Soon, it was perfect. However, the Unknown Canira had spent up so much life force that they vanished without a trace.Only one remained in existence.

Before they died, they made every soul on the planet promise that they would keep it beautiful forever. They did, and with that, the most powerful Canira in existence disappeared."

"What happened next, mami? That was a good story. You gotta give me more!"

She sighs and acts like she's suffering. "That took a lot out of me. I'll make it suspenseful- you get to hear the next part in two more weeks."

"TWO WEEKS?! Last time it was just two days!"

"Yes, but we're going to let our little bird leave the nest for a while. You need to go out and make friends. You've been cooped up in here and you haven't matured at all- you just need to go out into the world and find what you want to do."

"I know what I want to do! I want to stay here with you and listen to stories and be warm and safe and-"

She cuts me off, placing a gentle paw to my lips. Sadly, she says, "Sometimes I wish that too." She guides me with her wing towards the entrance. The sun shines bright on the cloud city. "Go." She pushes me out, and I roll forward and fall on my face in the clouds.

A confused Pegasus Canira helps pick me up. "Who are you?"

"I'm Avery. Daughter of Elloros and Aurora."

"I'm Shine, daughter of Nimbus and Myst. Nice to meetcha."

We frolic through the city, getting some sweetmelons and a few good white flowers.

We find a nice open spot with pillars of fluffy white rising all around us. We spit sweetmelon seeds and try to hit Canira flying overhead. We have to stop after we get yelled at by an official and nearly attacked by a Dragonfly Canira. As unthreatening as the name sounds, they're some of the most powerful, tough and nasty aerial fighters for hire, according to Shine.

Shine shows me how to take some of my longer fur around my head and braid it into one strand that falls in my face. She puts the tiny white flowers into it, making a beautiful white chain threaded through my fur.

"Thank you so much!" I say.

Shine blushes. "Aw, it's nothing. Maybe you can hang out with my friends tomorrow. They're super nice."

Then, we hear loud voices calling. A horde of Pegasus Canira rush past us to the edges of our cloud. "ALERT!" some scream, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

I prick my ears, confused. Attack? Shine pulls me away from the edge. "We should head back. You reaaally don't want to be in the crossfire."

"Crossfire? Crossfire of what?" I ask. "I'm kinda scared."

"Don't be so naive, it's no big deal. And for the crossfire... it's the crossfire of the war with the Unicorn Canira."