done a lot of things wrong; loving you being one

Sometimes, Hollis thinks that this new life she has tumbled upon is a fever dream. Perhaps she drowned in the ocean when she flung herself from that cliff, or perhaps she washed back up on the shore of that godforsaken land and was killed for her disobedience. Whatever the reason, she doesn’t really think a place such as the Peak can be real. Oswin and Bane and Bagheera had warned her that some stallions resided here, that they offered safety for anyone and Hollis had accepted it as a necessary compromise. But the numbers must be slim, or perhaps they truly were the sort to mind their own business, because not a single one has bothered Hollis here.

Life in the Peak settled into a comfortable, if lonely, sort of rhythm. Hollis was allowed to just exist, to explore, to live life on her terms,. Who ever would have thought she would be permitted to make it through an Autumn as a mare grown without a child? It is unheard of, something she had never even dared to hope for herself, and the freedom is intoxicating. The landscape helps, the soaring vistas and the wide-open, lush meadows. As many craggy cliffs as she can ever hope to climb, standing above the world and looking out on it, knowing that here she is free

The warm Spring weather has her feeling like a filly again, and Hollis can’t help but launch into a joyful run out from under the tree she was resting in, hooves kicking up as she soars across the lush, soft green grass. She’s been so careful not to attract any attention, not to get attached or get her hopes up because…well, this is too good to be true, right? If someone finds out the life she is living here, how happy she is, how she never has to be some…some broodmare, only in a herd for her stallion’s pleasure, it will be ripped from her. She doesn’t think she could survive that. So she’s been so careful, to keep her head down, to not let it be known what she’s found. But the sun is out, the sky a brilliant, cloudless blue above her, and Hollis can’t resist the urge to let out an overjoyed laugh as she darts across the field and comes to a skidding halt just before she tumbles into a small, rocky creek. She lowers her head to drink, and wonders if, perhaps, it is finally time to seek out the other mares of the Peak.