Gilda felt those hooves on her neck, and the warmth of a body pressing against hers, and for a moment everything stopped.

"I'm glad you kept the pin," Dash muttered.

The words hit her all at once. Gilda gasped as though she'd been punched in the stomach. Her claws reached, grasped, squeezed, as if Dash would disappear if she let go. It wasn't long until she felt wetness on her cheeks. Trembling, she didn't resist it — couldn't resist it. And so she sobbed, in the hooves of her best friend of forever, for everything that had happened since they'd last held each other — all the fear, the doubts, the anger, the pain of long years of suffering. Dash was back.