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

The dark mare's heart sank when the tobiano stallion's name seeped from Nekharat's lips. She breathed a big and dramatic sigh, her shoulders rolling softly as the air was expelled from her lips. Wasp's jaws clenched next, but her gaze remained fixed on the red mare as she listened to her explanation. Her story was a far cry from what she expected. The mare's heavy head came to rise higher over her shoulders and she listened to Nekharat's tale about Shaydowfax... Wasp certainly remembered the name, but the buckskin leader seemed to have disappeared, at least from Tinuvel.

"Let me tell you about Solomon." Wasp interjected with the flick of her dark, wavy tail. "A young mare showed up here unannounced one day, looking for help. She was trying to leave Solomon's herd. She had been claimed and forced to the Cove." Wasp said, taking a long pause before continuing. "He followed her here, hoping to claw her back to Tinuvel. Adelheid and I offered to help the girl, if she wanted our assistance. Solomon did not take kindly to that." She said next. "Later I traveled to the Cove, to see what Solomon's herd was like for myself. There I met a mere 2-year-old - still just a filly - who was swollen in pregnancy, carrying his child. She was still just a kid." Her amber gaze narrowed now in disgust, recalling the memory. "Solomon has no respect for any mares in a position of power. His alliances to stallions like Warsaw show as much. You should be careful around him."

"As for his criticism of the Peak... well," She snorted once before tossing her head, trying to rid some wispy strands of forelock from her view. "I'm pretty sure his opinion of us would be the same, with or without my charming personality."

She offered the lean mare a simper of a smile then.

"But you are right, as far as who abuses their positions of power here." Wasp said. "I think it's important for us to make in-roads with some of these mare-led territories. Find out what their values are. Maybe you can help me with that."

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