They had taken her beloved away from her for the second time. She'd had to run, obeying the wishes of the only other soul she'd allowed herself to fall for without any restraints, as Ktulu was infected by the disease running rampant throughout Helovia. Locket had been by her side, fighting valiantly when she had last seen them, but she hadn't dared to look back since. Aodaun had seen Eytan, tracking Apollo through the wilderness, and together the two had swept the Foothills in his wake of alarm, trying to catch any possible stragglers. Something about Midas, or Fina, and a safe haven away from the wretched creature that had taken Ktulu away from her. Lakota refused to let herself cry, not since she'd first fled. She had to focus on getting the herd to safety, on finding Apollo. Her heart ached; she wanted to scream, wanted to charge back and find that mutant filly and either kill her in the worst ways she knew how, or beg her to turn Lakota into the same monster Ktulu would become. Hadn't she promised to always stay by Ktulu's side, not matter what? But that wasn't what Ktulu had wanted, nor wished, and Lakota knew she had to at least respect the last command her ex-Chieftess had ever given her.

By the time she'd made it to the Heart, it was approaching the second nightfall. Traversing Helovia was no simple nor easy feat, and Lakota had done it multiple times. She rested only when Aodaun begged and pleaded with her, even forcefully bullied and shoved her to the ground until she lay submissively beneath him. When she woke, her gaits were readied, and even in her exhausted state she never slept more than a few hours. Finding Apollo was the only mission left in her head. After completing it, she didn't know what she would do, how she would react, or what would happen. Didn't fancy imagining it either, once she contemplated the agony crawling at the edges of her will.

The path to the Sanctuary was clear, and well-traveled, likely in a hurry. Despite having conserved at least some energy in her flight to the Heart, she couldn't hold back the crazed need to find the only light she had left in her darkness. Alleo and Rasta were safe, she already knew that. But Apollo was the only one she had left, the only friend who had been there with her every step of the way, even when he'd feared her and probably never knew her name outside of whispered rumors. Perhaps she placed her faith too heavily, too quickly, but she wasn't going to change it now when he was her only beacon of hope in a world gone dead with Ktulu's absence.

She half-collapsed into the hole, blearily blinking her eyes and staggering to her feet like a crazed foal. Even the sound of her hooves clicking on the stone beneath her made her jump, forcing her forward and on, terror and sorrow clinging to her frame like a leeching disease. If only she knew how to cure ones such as those. Careening through the half-light of lava and the meager rays peeking through the hole she'd fallen through, her eyes sought out a thousand shapes, muzzle taking in a hundred smells. Foothills scent made her jump with a staccato burst of her heart, delirious hope nearly making her nauseous, only to be disappointed when it was not her Chief that appeared. Aodaun found them first, his heightened sense of smell leading him to Eytan, who he collapsed against without a sound aside from his body thumping against the floor. He was exhausted, having gotten even less rest than his bonded, despite her please not to keep watch during the pitifully few hours she slept.

Lakota swiveled to find him, and when she saw Apollo's familiar sea-green horn glinting in the darkness, inhaled his warm, comforting scent, she knew her task was finished. Uncaring of the pegasi before him- whom she dimly recognized as Midas- she tried her hardest not to slow down as her body realized it didn't have to fight anymore. Fruitless were her endeavors, for she stumbled and nearly fell, which would only have added to the gory multitude of scrapes, gashes, and bruises that decorated her once-beautiful frame. Nothing had barred her path on the way to the Sanctuary, but it hadn't been a comfortable ride either.

Staggering towards him, she couldn't look away from the worried glow of those tired honey eyes, and her mouth formed his name weakly. "A-Apollo," she managed to whimper, and then she began to cry. Lakota rarely cried, if ever, and it was never large, showy, or dramatic. But she stumbled to him and sought to press her head to his chest, or perhaps his shoulder, wanting only to hide from her troubles, her memories and thoughts that betrayed her at every turn. Soft hiccups shook her tiny frame, trying to keep her noise to a minimum, not wanting her brothers and sisters to see her so broken when they needed her so badly. "K-Ktulu," she choked, shuddering in an effort to continue only to begin crying anew. She just wanted to make a blanket of his scent, his warmth, and cocoon herself in it forever so that nobody could hurt her.

"S-She told me to run, and I didn't want to, Polly, I swear! But she was b-biting me and yelling, and that damn thing bit her, and Locket was fighting it and-!" apparently rushing to tell him didn't help either, for she only ended up with a convulsing throat, the words searing her insides like a flame. She nodded towards Eytan, eyes still shuttered to the outside world. "I didn't want to, Polly, I wanted to fight, I wanted to protect her...but she wouldn't let me stay..." the heart-broken whimper was meant only for his ears, her glass-like frame nearly coming apart at the seams with the quaking of her body. Grief was a powerful, vindictive emotion.

"I-I'll pull myself together, I just...I j-just needed you," she cried softly, the corners of her eyes tightening in pain she could feel more intimately on the inside. As harshly as her scrapes and cuts burned, they were nothing in comparison to her heart shredding itself to pieces on the insides of her ribcage. Let them stare, and judge her. Let them call her weak as she huddled in the shadow of her friend and leader. She couldn't care anymore. She'd just lost the best friend she'd ever had, the only mare who had managed to get her to love again, and she didn't know how she could possibly cope with the similarities all pointing to the torture and death of her previous lover.