It was rare that anyone would call on her because she had no real purpose within the herd. She was not a leader any longer, that time had since passed with Isilme, and she was no healer. She was nothing more than a mare living within the safety of a herd. So when she heard her name being called she was curious as to who it was and what they wanted. The voice, however, she thought was familiar but she could not quite place it. It was shameful that she knew so few of the members of the Edge herd, but she had not put herself out to make friends. Evangeline found that when she tried to get close to anyone she ended up hurt. She was better off being alone with only Tallis to talk to and Ruske when he wasn't being a butthead.

Tallis took to the sky and began searching for the mare that had called for his bonded. "Kahlua." He said when he saw her below. The dragon trilled to make his presence known then swooped down and settled himself on a tree branch and waited for Eva to come. The mare, upon knowing who was calling for her, frowned and wondered what Kahlua could possibly want with her. The last time she'd even spoken directly to the newly appointed queen had been when she'd been nudged toward racism by Lace's ignorance. She snorted quietly in distaste as she remembered the occasion.

Finally, Evangeline began to walk in the direction Tallis told her the queen was, still wondering why she was wanted. Did Kahlua finally have enough nerve to tell her that she had been out of line? Eva snorted again, thinking that if that were the case she would have to remind Kahlua how out of line she had been. "You called for me?" She asked as the Sunshower came into view. When Evangeline came to a standstill Tallis flew down from the branch and landed on her back, looking intently at the queen. "What can I do for you?"

"."

She took in the way Kahlua's smile faltered when she made her presence known and wondered what, exactly, she had been called upon for. "Looks scared." Tallis said and Evangeline had to agree with him. "Silly. Eva not scary." The dragon rolled his eyes, but Evangeline continued to watch Kahlua. The queen began to build herself back up before her very eyes and that left her wondering what was going on in her head. What kind of internal war was she waging with herself. The thought that Kahlua was going to ask her to leave crossed her mind briefly, but then it was cast aside as ridiculous.

"I wanted to talk to you about... an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."

"What about it?" Eva asked with a frown. She thought it was pretty self explanatory. Revenge on someone who hurt you was pointless and would only cause an endless cycle of violence. What was so difficult about understanding that? The orange mare glanced up at the dragon who shrugged as he looked down at his bonded. "Silly queen." Eva suspected that Tallis wanted to say 'dumb' but went with 'silly' out of respect for her position even though she couldn't hear his thoughts.

"What does that mean to you, exactly?"

"It means that revenge is pointless." She said simply enough. "It means that responding with violence to violence only will end up hurting you more in the end." She wanted to ask if she understood then, but held her tongue. "It becomes an endless circle of violence and hatred and where there is violence and hatred there can never be peace. I lived in a land that was plagued with battle after battle. I've seen more dead bodies in my life than I thought would ever be possible. I've seen unicorns slaughter equines mercilessly because of a piece of land, and I've seen equines slaughter unicorns in retaliation." Eva cut herself off abruptly, realizing that she had begun to shake as she remembered the things that had traumatized her in her youth. "The way that stallion, Torleik, was treated that day was appalling and you should all be ashamed of yourselves." Her normally kind voice had taken on a hard edge as she spoke to Kahlua.

"What did he do to deserve such treatment? The herd he was welcomed into attacked and killed Edge members after Mirage's group attacked and invaded their home." Did she see what she was getting at? "They retaliated with violence because of what happened to them. And your group reacted with the same threat of violence when one of theirs marveled at a wall." She paused for a moment and stared. "Do you understand? Its endless. Violence breeds violence."

"."

Evangeline did not want to be touched and she was prepared to step back, away from Kahlua's touch had the queen continued. Thankfully her mention of Torleik made her stop and withdraw. But then the excuses came and Evangeline snorted and stamped a hoof. "Stop making excuses and take responsibility for your actions." She was exasperated with her. "You did wrong and because of that could have brought violence to your own doorstep. Do you realize that?" Maybe she was being a little too hard on the other mare, but Eva had been holding her opinions of the situation in for so long and Kahlua had made it boil over. 'Calm, Eva.' Tallis murmured in a soothing way. 'Queen is young and silly.' "That may be." Evangeline responded as she looked up at the dragon. "But silliness has no place in leadership."

"I've been meaning to find him, to apologize..."

"I've already apologized to him for what took place." Eva said as her gaze fell back to the queen. "But I'm sure he would like to hear it coming from you. From what I understand he has no intention of coming back here and I can't say that I blame him. If you want to find him I'd begin by looking north toward the Basin." The orange mare nodded her head in agreement when Kahlua admitted that they had treated him terribly. There was so much more she could say, but the queen looked beaten down enough. What good would it do to continue making her feel guilty for what she had done?

“You said there were wars in your home. Did anyone ever try to stop them? What did they do? Where did they go wrong?”

"There were two groups." Eva answered. "One group called themselves the Crusaders or Crusaders for Peace. Something like that. Their goal was peace but they were hypocrites. You cannot acquire peace by going to war and they intended to go to war with every racist individual in Isilme." She shook her head as she thought about them and how much she had disliked them and their cause. Her own home had been in their sights because they thought monsters had lived among the trees when there were individuals like Ruske and herself that made their homes there. "Walk with me." She said as she turned and began to walk through the Edge's sparse forest. Tallis trilled softly as he flew from his branch to keep watch over Eva and the Queen from the sky above.

"Their ultimate goal was genocide." She said as she picked up where she left off. "The genocide of an entire group that did not see eye to eye with them and their beliefs. As much as I dislike racism I would not and could not condone what they sought to do." Eva cast a sideways glance at the queen. "Their failure was their violent way of trying to find peace. Their violence was answered with violence from those that they sought to eliminate. Thankfully their leader disappeared and the group disbanded. There was another group that was called the Peaceful Pony Group. No one knows who originally brought the group together, some horses suspect that it was Isilme's true gods that wanted peace in their land. Our job was to quell any violence that started. Unfortunately it was too late." She frowned again, knowing that she was going to be diving back into her own personal nightmare.

"Do you remember what else I told you? Answering racism with racism and hatred with more hatred will only lead to death." Evangeline looked at Kahlua again, letting her words sink in. "My birth home is a wasteland riddled with bodies and ghosts because no one could get along. All we could do was fight amongst ourselves over which species was superior. Who was stronger. Who was the rightful owners of a certain piece of land. The ones that were killed came back from the dead and began to kill the living. Another example of that endless circle of violence. We called them 'shades'." She said as she cast another glance at Kahlua. "They were shadows of what they had been when they were alive, all bent on the destruction of anyone still living. The Peaceful Pony Group did what we could to help as many escape from Isilme as possible. I served as their shield. Anyone that was attacked by the shades was okay because I took the attack instead of them."

Finally Evangeline stopped and turned to the queen. "The only way that you can eliminate racism is to change a racist's views. Show them the error of their beliefs. Of course many of them will be open to what you're trying to do because they were taught as children that their own kind was superior. Most will react with violence. Some will seek to destroy you and your ideals to save their own way of life. How you react to the situation will tell if your goal is true or if you're just another hypocrite hiding behind false views of peace."

"."

Kahlua interjected comments at the appropriate times as she spoke and even though it was only a couple of words here and there she could hear the sincerity in her voice. As they came to a stop Kahlua turned to look at her and the eagerness shining in her eyes was almost unnerving. No one had ever wanted to hear what she had to say as much as Kahlua did. In Isilme her words had fallen on deaf ears countless times. How often had she spoken out against stereotypes? Her own home had been the target of rumors, lies, and nearly everyone assuming that the trees harbored monsters. The monsters had been in the Oasis, on the Beaches, in the Cliffs. All of them fighting and killing one another because of the differences in their appearance. Her own herd had kept to themselves and had watched as they all destroyed one another.

Evangeline was drawn from the depth of her memories as Kahlua asked more questions, the first of which being what she had been taught as a child. She blinked at the queen and the corners of her mouth fell toward the ground as she frowned. "I was an orphan." She said, her voice falling flat. "What I know has come from experience." She hadn't had the guidance of a mother or a father. She had only spent enough time with her mother to be weaned and even then she had been far too young to be alone. Eva could barely remember what her mother looked like and knew nothing of her father. Not a name. Not a face. Not even a color to associate with him. Absolutely nothing. He had been a ghost that she'd chased for most of her childhood until she'd finally accepted defeat and raised herself.

"You cannot fight racism." Eva answered Kahlua's next question. "You can only educate those simple minded enough to fall into its trap." She looked up toward the sky and sighed, wishing that Kahlua hadn't dredged up memories that she'd kept locked away deep in her mind. "I've seen too many murdered for no other reason than their physical features. It is senseless killing." She was not a mare of science, but she had seen blood from all different species and it was red. So why the hatred? Didn't they all have the same desires in life? To live, laugh, love, and pass on their genetics? So if they were all innately the same why was there the need to make others suffer?

"What made you want to take the attacks of the shades when you could have been running with your friends?”

"Because that's what a leader does." Eva answered simply enough. She was quiet for some time, her eyes distant as she relived the escape from Isilme. It had been complete chaos. "I loved my herd." Most of them, anyway. Giselle had been less than desirable but she hadn't been able to convince Roanne of the mare's twisted nature. "Anyone can pretend to be a leader, but when it comes down to it only those who are truly invested in their herd and value their herd's safety above their own will sacrifice themselves to protect their herd." She looked at Kahlua again. "How much do you love your herd?"

"."