Fate is a cruel mistress, one whose fingers have been meddling in Hotaru’s life for the entirety she’d been alive. Born of odd coloring to two beautiful palomino princesses, awkward and submissive beneath the flair of her twin’s personality, and then finally her family firmly colored her the black sheep and drifted away from her, leaving her to stand alone in her youth as her cherished friends were ripped away from her without a word of explanation. Her Auntie had been busy, and the drawn look on her face when she’d finally found Hotaru worried the pale pink fae extensively. But she’d rejoiced in the company, the love offered to her, and she’d been crushed when she’d awoken in the ever-dark world she was growing used to and found that the dark woman was not at her side. Yet, curiously, Aodaun had stayed. He was her guardian while Lakota was gone, her playmate and bodyguard. As time wore on the two were still unable to recreate or sustain the cheer and joviality from the day prior, for with every day the sapphire and obsidian Poisoner was gone they missed her twice as much. So when one night Ru was awakened by a cold, wet nose pressed to her cheek and the soft snuffles of her friend, she sleepily blinked her eyes at the snow bear and, after much urgent poking and prodding, got to her hooves to follow him in a half-blind daze wherever he wished to take her.

So imagine her surprise when she finally looked up to find her Auntie walking calmly right towards her, mulberry eyes tired but loving. Their muzzles met, soft words exchanged, and Ru looked up through a veil of silvery blonde locks at her worn guardian. A giggle, a soft kiss of muzzle to tiny cheek, and Lakota was gone like a shadow dissolving into the darkened environment she hid so well within. Watching her go with a confused but loving smile, Taru didn’t turn her crowned head back for a few moments, and when she did, her eyes were blown wide. The last time she’d seen the october painted stallion, she’d been half the age she was standing before him now. What felt like years in the wait of reaction was truly only a few seconds, and like a battle cry his name tumbled from her lips in an exalted profession of adoration and surprise.

Spindly legs moved as fast as they possibly could, crumbling into his chest, and he allowed it. She sobbed in a mixture of shock and joy into his soft canvas, reveling in the solid warmth emanating from his body, a comfort. His smell was like rosewood and pine, cinnamon and ginger, and it was so familiar it only made her even weaker with happiness. His neck fell against her shoulders and spine, wrapping around her and holding her close in a bittersweet embrace, both shedding tears in their emotional reunion. She quaked in his hold, still tiny in comparison to his large frame despite how much she’d grown. ”I missed you too,” she gasped out softly between her slowing tears, pressing her face into his shoulder to hide from the world around them. Finally she had someone she loved back in her life, she wasn’t as alone anymore, she didn’t have to stand alone against the tidal wave bearing down on her.

Lifting her neck, she pressed her cheek against Tingal’s familiar frame and drew it higher to press it beneath his jaw, ever careful of her sharp ivory tiara. ”Where did you go?” Taru whispered softly, lyrics tremulous and wounded. He’d disappeared without a trace, leaving her doubting their friendship, wondering if he’d just toyed with her sensitive emotions and insecurities when she’d been that age. He promised her everything, swearing he wouldn’t leave her again, and she wanted to believe him. ”Don’t go, don’t ever go again, I thought you hated me,” she squeaked pitifully into the fur beneath his jaw, where he was soft and vulnerable, but Taru would not dare to harm such a precious companion. Never.