"...so then we go over to the lakes and it's frozen over, right?" She said happily, recanting the tale to Kingsfoil. "And I say to Baro, wait, wait, there's pirates there! And he turns around and then he slips! And he just goes spinning, and I'm scared he's gonna cry, because spinning on the ice is really scary. Have you ever been on ice before? I should tell you, hooves are not meant to be on slippery ice at all." She sighed with the newfound wisdom of a child, of one finding it out the hard way.

"And then I get onto the ice and my legs go just everywhere!" She mimicked the memory, splaying her legs out, her eyes wide, laughing a little, "And it's all I could do to keep my balance, and Baro's just spinning like crazy and is probably feeling really sick by now, and I tell him to stop himself and he does, and we just look at each other, and we just laugh!" She looked at King and grinned and got back up to resume walking. "I think you'll really like Baro when you meet him, he's really so kind and sweet! You have to be gentle with him though, he's very sensitive."

She was beaming as she walked, glad to be going back home, glad to have met a nice new friend. Kingsfoil was really nice and polite and honestly very pretty, and she liked looking at him and seeing that lovely crown match with his golden eyes. He really was a prince! I mean, how lucky was she to be escorted home by a real prince?

Baroque couldn't take it anymore. Remedy had left, and his sisters were still just as busy with everything else as ever. Now that Cadence had a friend who went on adventures with her, Pisces was a sad, lonely mess that the grizzly lion couldn't take.

He had to go find Thistle. No one replaced her, though Thorne had provided a quiet, gentle distraction for a little while. It just wasn't the same at home without her-- she had always been there, and it just wasn't like her to stay away for so long. What if Nova showed up and was all, where's Thistle? He'd die. He'd die because Nova would kill him.

He didn't kick up a big fuss about it though, and he only quietly thought about where she could be, not where he was going. He didn't want to alert his father to his wanderings, not this time. It was a secret mission, and the boy didn't want anyone to know about it if he failed in the end.

The caves were scary, but Baroque had walked this tunnel before, with Thistle. As he went, he summoned his magic subconsciously, his paws tugging at memories. At first, they were his own, and not from his magic. The struggle of climbing the underground mountains, all while This' told him of the dangers of being up so high. It didn't really feel very high, he remembered, until he got to the top crest of one of the hills and he could stare down at the sharp, sloping tunnel bellow.

As he remembered, blindness cut through him again. He stopped, claws deep in the tunnel's cold, jagged floor. For a long moment he could see nothing, but the feeling of dropping from a great height crashed through him. He hit something hard, and the earth shattered around him like glass-- then water. Freezing, cold water, rushed through his pelt and smashed into him, gorging down his throat even though his eyes were closed. It only took seconds before his vision returned and he collapsed on to solid stone, gasping and panting.

Whatever that was, he didn't want to see it ever again. Sometimes his magic was like that, though, and he knew from experience that it wasn't real. Perhaps it happened a long time ago, or would happen in the future-- but not now. He was safe now. His heart racing, he caught his breath and struggled to his shaking feet.

His blurry cerulean gaze caught sight of Thistle only a moment before he heard her beautiful, wonderful voice. He could have cried, but he wasn't, not even as the wetness stained his cheeks and dropped on to his paws bellow. He wouldn't cry this time-- Thistle was here, he thought, smiling through the stinging blur across his eyes.

He opened his mouth to speak, but his voice snagged on a lump in his throat. He wasn't scared. He was brave-- his best friend in the whole world was back-- he should say hi. He should... He should... Why was he crying, still?

She smiled happily at King, glad that he said he would be nice to Baro. That was good! Baro needed more friends, needed to become more confident with himself. She looked towards the path, thinking. If she was honest with herself, she was looking forward to waking up with him in his family den, soft and comfortable and warm, with the soft snowfall outside, where it couldn't touch them. Those memories of just...being with him, just being content to stay with him, made her heart warm.

"Yeah! We can all play together on the ice - I actually don't know if it's still snowing, but that won't stop us, I'm sure!" She replied, happily yet softly absent.

The she spied who she was looking for, her best friend in all the world, and she gasped and ran to him, in her hurry disregarding the uneven snow, stumbling, catching herself, and not caring at all. "Baro!" She said, seeing his upset expression and the tears down his face. No! Why was he sad? What happened? "Baro, are you okay?" She said, and when she made it there, she was out of breath, and she fell to her knees and nuzzled him, kissing his cheeks.

There she was, Thistle, rushing in to make sure he was okay. The tears fell from his face and he didn't even bother to try and shove them away, even though This' had found yet another friend. One that looked just like her, but white and tougher, broader through the chest with a shining crown on his head. A prince, a king. Thistle had all sorts of stories about those kind of people. Sometimes they were kind, sometimes they were cruel, but if he was with Thistle-- Baroque was sure he was nice enough. As soon as the buck opened his mouths and stammered out a barely held back complaint-- just what was wrong with being a carnivore? Did he have fish friends? Eeya didn't ever seem upset that he ate fish, and his daddy...

Baroque shoved the thoughts away, afraid of summoning his father. "I-I just... The blackness came back," he whispered to his friend, sniffling slightly. He turned away from Kingsfoil, tail limp behind him, afraid that Thistle's new friend hated him too. "I'm okay... It's just like a bad dream. Not real... But This', This'-- I... I missed you! Are you okay? Where have you been? I thought I'd never see you again..." He fretted louder, raising a paw to place on her shoulder and meet her eyes despite the blur of tears. For now, the grizzly lion was so much more concerned about Thistle than her friend who undoubtedly hated him.

She made distressed sounds and kissed Baro's face, his cheeks, his forehead, and she said, "Of course I'd be back, I love you Baro, and I always will. I was just...away on a quest I was given, a secret quest, and I got sidetracked and had to save this horse and King here helped and I went back to the star room and it was interesting and kind of scary with out you, but I'm back now! I'm back and I promise I won't leave you again."

"I'm sorry you had a bad dream, Baro," She said softly, her forehead against his.

And she looked back with King now with the brightest grin now that she'd been reunited with her best friend and said, "King, come and meet Baro! Baro, this is King!"