It had been this stream where everything had always happened. Taika had seen fairies, Jetta had been lost in daydreams, she had been with her family. This was the place where their fantasies had allowed them to run free. This was a place where Adelheid’s hopes had so often been crushed. As she looked again at the slowly trickling water, she tried to feel soothed by the subtle laughter and once again hear the whispered her friends had sworn had been there. As always, she felt the sinking disappointment of nothing in her heart. Nothing but the heartbreak of the realization.

Her white lips brushed against the chilled clear water without drinking. She merely wanted to breathe in the fresh scent. The memories settled on her, and she tried to remember them fondly. She did not hate her family. Far from it. No, right now she missed them. She did not blame them for taking everything away from her, she blamed herself for failing to believe. It had been her who looked at her mother in the face and hissed venomous words. It had been her who looked at her sister and chose not to listen to what she said. Adelheid was starting to understand maybe there was something else at play here. Her ears flattened at the hard reflection that consistently looked back at her. Lips curled back in what would have been a snarl. Her own reflection was sometimes the hardest to see. Anger started to heat her blood. Alone, she shrieked her rage and plunged her hooves into the water, crushing out her own reflection under violent blows until her body was soaked up to her shoulders and water tricked from her forelock into her eyes. Something needed to give, and something needed to change. She was sure it was her.

Shaking herself out, but still wet, she moved upstream, deeper into the territory of The Peak. She had been here long enough to get a strange sense of lawlessness here now that made her uncomfortable. Or perhaps it was the lack of familiar faces. Everyone who had held the stability of The Peak in their hooves were gone. From Adelheid’s understanding there was no Prime Minister, no one led the warriors or the thinkers. No one defended the Peak. Adelheid’s lips curled back again, sapphire eyes blazing. The Vulcans had fallen.

Ears perked forward at the sound of voiced and her head cocked. There had been few voices echoing in the Peak as of late, and this seemed like a small gathering. Curious and on edge, Adelheid picked up her pace to a trot in order to catch up to the party. What she saw stopped her in her tracks. At least one face tickled the back of her memory. But the last… the last face she knew just as well as she knew her own and not just because they were nearly mirrors.

Jetta?

Stunned and losing herself, Adelheid bolted forward, ears pressed forward and excitement in her veins for the first time she could remember. But she stopped short, halting so fast cold dirt flew around her feet. She could not remember the last time she had seen her sister. She knew the last words she had said to their mother, any farewell to Jetta could have been just as harsh. Never one who was good with words, and tending to speak harshly, she opened her mouth to silence before shutting it again, her heartbreaking still further. I… I am happy to see you. Which was about as much of a confession of love as anyone would get from the mare.