Dawn was speechless.

How in a million seasons could she have stumbled upon the one Cripp that happened to be her mother?

Before Dawn could produce any more complete thoughts, Alberta padded over to her and nuzzled her. "I've missed you so much..."

Summer's tail drooped as she padded over to the mother and daughter and joined the love, wrapping her butterfly wings around the pair in a warm embrace. Dawn felt overjoyed, but confusion still managed to overpower.

After a few minutes, they slowly broke apart from each other. "So..." Alberta asked. "How did you happen to find the Pack of the Shimmering Snow--"

"More like they found us..." Summer growled.

"Well... I guess a better question is... How do you even know about each others' existence?" Alberta said, looking back and forth at Summer and Dawn.

"Er... It's kind of a long story," Dawn smiled awkwardly.

"I've got time," Alberta chuckled. "It's not like we're going anywhere anytime soon." She motioned to the tree roots surrounding them.

"Thanks for the reminder, Grandma Alberta," Nova playfully growled.

"Wait... I have... grandchildren?" Alberta chirped, forgetting about her previous conversation. "Let me see the little darlings!"

Star came forward with her two pups. "This is Nova, and this is Jinx. Twilight is their father, but he's in the other cell with Riptide and Evan."

"Who's Evan?" Alberta asked.

"He's Dawn's boyfriend..." Raven had now shoved herself into the conversation.

"You have a boyfriend?" Alberta looked at Dawn. "Oh, I'm so proud of you, Dawn!"

Dawn was barely listening. All of these questions and conversations going at once were confusing her!

"Is this your pup?" Alberta asked, motioning toward Raven.

Dawn's ears perked up, feeling her face turn red. "N-No--"

"I've never seen a pup with black wings befo--"

"Please! One conversation at a time!" Star shouted, shutting everyone up. She seemed just as overwhelmed as Dawn was.

The white Quadruplet sighed in relief. "Thanks, Star."

Star gave Dawn a "no problem" wink as Alberta continued.

"Sorry," Alberta smiled. "There's just so much I need to catch up on. Where did we start again?"

"Er... right," Dawn lightly hit her forehead with her paw. "It started with me, one day, during the late days of spring. I was out hunting, and I stumbled upon Twilight. We began to talk, and over the next few days, I began to get to know him better. He soon decided to return to his home territory. Although, on that night, I had gone to sleep, but I was quickly awoken by a strange dream of Twilight fighting a mysterious butterfly-winged wolf. Evan took me on a night flight, and during it, I saw the same scene in my dream: Twilight fighting a Flutter wolf, which turned out to be named Summer."

Summer smiled at the bizarre memory of how she had met her sister.

"I defended Twilight, but Summer threw me off the top of the waterfall. I hit my head on a rock as I landed in the water, and I blacked out, but Riptide saved me and took me to his den. He told me I was in his helping paw and after I fell asleep again, I had another dream. It was of..." Dawn looked around. "All four of us as pups..." She looked at Alberta. "And you... I saw you in my dream..."

Alberta had a surprise look in her iceberg eyes. "What was I doing in your dream?"

"Rustle, my Pack's Head Elder-- Er, that's kinda like an Alpha... He was yelling at you to give us up, but you were continually refusing. And... Bramble attacked you and Rustle took us away--"

Alberta was frozen again, her eyes wide with fear. "Th-That can't be... You... You saw that?"

"For some strange reason, yes..." Dawn replied. She then proceeded to tell the rest of her entire ordeal. From Heather telling her about the Secret of the Elders to her murder by the Head Elder and being falsely accused of killing her to overthrowing Rustle in the Battle of the Four Packs, Dawn let everything over the last six months spill out of her muzzle. When it came time for Dawn to tell Alberta about Ash's death, she made sure that she told her quietly and Raven was out of earshot. Thankfully, she was on the opposite side of the cell, playing with Jinx and Nova.

"Good," Dawn thought. "She's still too naïve to know the truth."

---

"So, your Pack found us the day after we left the territories. We were put on trial with your Alpha, but he... got emotional, and we'll have to continue our case in a quarter-moon. Until then, we're stuck here," Dawn said, finishing her tale.

Alberta's expression unfroze from fearful to humorous. She chuckled softly, slowly getting louder.

"What's so funny?" Summer asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Dawn said 'my Pack,'" Alberta's muzzle was curled into her widest smile yet. It wasn't out of insanity, but more out of comedy.

"What's so funny about that?" Star then asked, also tilting her head to match Summer.

Alberta padded over to the tree roots holding all of the she-wolves captive. She peeked out to see Rita guarding the exit of the prison.

Quietly, she murmured, "This Pack is no longer mine."

"Now what do you mean by that?" Dawn asked. Her, Summer, and Star were all very puzzled at what Alberta was trying to convey.

"They disowned me... Therefore, I disowned them." She replied it simply.

"How did your Pack disown you?" Star questioned.

Alberta turned her head, only one of her shining ice eyes staring coldly at the she-wolves. Her muzzle opened up to say a single word.

"Love."