Episode Ten: “Prism and the Photograph”

A quieter, deeper episode. Prism tells the girls everything about Dion — how they met in the Crystal Meadow when she was a foal, how he laughed at himself when a cloud-bird took his hat, how he taught her to navigate the crystal pathways, how he told her about his daughters before they were born. She reveals his specific words: *"When the time comes, Prism, they'll be ready. They'll be more ready than they know."* Dion's voice comes through Root — a full, clear, structured message for the first time. He tells them he is well, that he has been teaching the cloud-birds something (almost certainly their song), that what they are doing is the bravest thing not because the worlds need it but because they do. The episode closes with Nibbler saying: *"It feels like a sentence that is finding its ending."* And Fern's clipboard alarming with news: the gate is beginning to close. They have five days.