She is ashamed, mortified, crushed beneath the weight of her own stupidity. What has she done? Her mouth, her uncontrollable, runaway mouth, has landed her in a pit of shit deeper than anything she could have thought. There is no going back from this. Once, she commanded their respect; now, she has earnt their ridicule. There is no hope for her after this.

If only they knew what else she'd done in the past couple of years. If only they knew the extent of her shame.

They round on her. One by one, they turn on her; from her loyal soldiers to her former queen to her friend, even. Out of everybody who speaks, Mauja's words hurt the most. She looks to him with pain in her eyes and a dagger of ice in her heart that stings far more than the one he'd wielded during their battle - you as well, you follow the crowd so easily? - but it's not just the fact it's him saying the words that aches so much. It's because they're true, and because they're precisely why she put herself through hell on earth to cover up Oizys and Enyo's birth. She did not want the herd to think she couldn't do her job because of her seemingly eternal state of pregnancy, so that's why she lied. That's why she made the biggest mistake of her life.

And now he's saying it, and it's true, and her heart wants to beat out of her stupid, stupid chest. She wants to blurt that Oizys isn't hers, but what kind of mother would that make her? Even if her story was true and the girl was adopted, Nyx would never dream of announcing it in front of the whole herd. It would not be in her nature to shun the child - she would pretend that she was hers, to save the girl's blushes.

One of her soldiers, beaten up and bleeding, addresses her with disgust; the silver fixes the pegasus with her contemptous glare. Insubordination amongst warriors will not be tolerated. She files away Orithia's appearance and her insults, ready for revenge to be liberally handed out as soon as she is no longer pregnant. And revenge will be sweet.

But she has a defender; her daughter. This is not a good thing. The moment Oizys begins to speak, Nyx knows she's only going to make things worse. "Oizys, no....Oizys, shut up!" But it's no use. The scar-faced girl has inherited her mother's acid tongue, and her tirade holds far more venom than Nyx's herself. Shit. Shit. There is another who defends her; this one sensible, this one with a brain in his head, and the General looks to Alune with appreciation and thanks in her gaze. Oizys, however, still isn't done; her insults spew, and the silver soldier cringes. "Oizys, that's enough!" she commands, utilising the full power of her Stern Mother Voice to draw the girl's attention and shut her the hell up before she makes things ten times worse.

But it's too late. Elsa turns back to retort back to Oizys, and Nyx's instincts seize her as she places herself firmly in front of her daughter. A walking shield, as the girl had so aptly put it.

Elsa's tirade is....embarassing. To answer like that to a child? It baffles Nyx how the Moon Goddess thought this woman suitable to lead them, especially given how scarce she'd been just prior to her ascension. That decision still rankles with the General, and undoubtedly fuelled her earlier outburst. "If you feel the need to inform us all of your strengths, Elsa, then perhaps that's a clear sign that you did not show us them during your reign." This time, the grey's voice is absent of temper; it is quiet, cold, calm, deadly. She is shaking with suppressed rage, her sides quivering (there's a mild pain inside, but she assumes that's just the foal turning over, probably to have a nice long listen at what his mother's saying). She wishes more than anything that she wasn't pregnant, so she could put this loudmouthed ice-bitch to the sword.

With a final contemptous gaze to the fallen queen (who, if Nyx remembers correctly, spent a large portion of her own reign pregnant, so she can stick that piece of hypocrisy right up her pipe-hole) the grey looks to Merida, another one who spews insults. "You know nothing, girl. Hush, and do not interfere in things that do not concern you." Still she exudes calm, contained power, the oncoming storm; oh, she's seen a whole different side of her herdmates today. She once held a grudging respect for Elsa, but that's now faded away into something akin to pity. And Mauja? She's always liked him, got along well with him, and yet he turned on her as quickly as the rest of them.

And it's all your fault, comes the creeping little voice in the depths of her mind. If you'd only kept quiet... She smothers the voice and looks accusingly at Dominus with his mouth still full of glass equipment, but it's not him who has spoken. It's her own conscience.

Her sides throb again, more forcefully this time. She bats an ear as though she's been bitten by a fly, wishing the annoying pain would cease.

She looks to Tembovu as he begins to speak. Crippled with shame, the General looks anywhere but at his eyes; she's let him down, questioned him in front of his whole herd, doubted his authority. He deserved better. As she thought Mauja would defend her because of their friendship, she should have stood by Tembovu in any decision he made, because of their friendship. First, he punishes Oizys by condemning her to spend a season tutoring under a healer - she steps aside so she's no longer in front of her daughter, and presses a supportive muzzle to the girl's withers. I'm sorry, my love, I know you were only trying to help. "She will serve her punishment, my King. But please, do not hold her words against her. She has had a difficult start in life, as you well know." This is the first time she has hinted at Oizys' alternative heritage; the lie aches in her throat, but leaves her mouth with all of the assertion as though it were true. She can feel her daughter's disgusted gaze on her, but ignores it for now.

Then, the Elephant looks to her. She's never felt so small in her whole life; for all her herdmates' angry words and insults, nothing comes close to this in making her want to fall to her knees and apologise. How could she do this? Her hurt, her pain, her pregnancy hormones all conspired to make her doubt him, but she should have held her tongue...What has she done? "Tembovu, I....OUCH!" This time, the pain in her sides assaults her like a sledgehammer. It spreads through her whole body, wracking every muscle; she turns and nips at her sides, but she's experienced enough to know what this feeling is. Her child is coming.

Well, it gets a 10/10 for timing.