a new world hangs outside the window
beautiful and strange
it must be I've fallen awake
I must be

The words were there, teetering on the tip of her tongue. She'd said it before by now. She just didn't want to say it again.

Oswin stared back at her, her eyes round with concern, waiting for the news she expected Wasp to drop. The heavy dark mare merely sighed then, shifting her weight uncomfortably across all fours and adverting her amber gaze to her fellow sister, the red mare who approached slowly but calmly.

"Macabre is dead." There. She said it. The familiar salty sheen of tears flooded her vision, threatening to spill from her eyelids. But Wasp clenched her jaw and snorted, blinking back the onslaught of tears as quickly as they came. The war had ended months ago, but the wounds from what the Peak had lost were still so fresh.

She snorted again, raising a forehoof and slamming it into the ground. "After you left, Macabre became our de facto leader. But she refused to take on the Prime Minister title." Wasp said weakly. "But she was, without a doubt, our leader. And when Cullen, of the Lagoon, launched a war over the islands against mares and their interest in leading their own territories, Macabre enlisted the Vulcans to help fight. And we did. We gave them everything we had." She said sternly, with her lips pursed. "Macabre was no warrior, but she fought with us until the very end."

Cullen killed her. She wanted to say, but couldn't bring herself to do it. "You'll see a smattering of Lagoon stallions here. They're our Trinkets, captured after the war." She explained.

There was so much more to say, but Wasp stopped, feeling exhausted just by the mountain of it. She let her gaze drift over to the other horses in Oswin's keep before falling steadfastly onto her again.

"We are... rebuilding."

W A S P