The dark of night descended quickly by the time Collar and Cloudy made their plans known and where they’d be with the palace guard, a necessary state with the conflict apparently ramping up again.

Front and center on Priceless’s recent reports were sightings of shadows moving oddly in the night, a sure sign of Roseate’s daughters on the prowl for guards or unattached nobility. They avoided the citizenry for the time being aside from scares and mist faerie spells in windows to startle them and drive down the confidence they had in Lace and her Reformation.

Something that Primfeather Wing banged on and on about whenever he managed to get Collar or Lace alone for a few minutes.

Collar responded in the only way he could: by going out personally.

Tonight, after the visit to the prison, he would do so with Cloudy and have a talk with her while patrolling quietly under an invisibility spell and silence spell.

“Prim Collar to see Rosethorn Glory,” he said at the gate to the prison. “On a matter of the treaty.”

Both guards saluted and the one on the right opened the gate and waved them through. Inside, Prim Plum sat at bored attention behind the warden’s desk, and off to the right in the regular cells, a pony watched him from the bars, his eyes red-rimmed and clearly drunk. Probably he had started a fight and got thrown in to sober up before being fined.

Just another night.

“Visiting Glory on a matter related to the treaty,” Collar said, stopping briefly beside the desk to nod at Plum before continuing on without waiting.

“Aye, sir. Logged.”

Collar made his way up the stairs, pondering when Poppy was due to have his next visitation, and stopped as soon as he got to the top of the stairs and turned the corner. Poppy was on his back, hilted inside Glory riding atop him as she slowly rose and fell, her mouth moving, her ears back as she spoke.

The silence spell on the gate kept both their activity and her words private. They were in the ‘bedroom’ portion of the Rose Cage, but since it was a prison cell, there was no door and no privacy. Not that either of them seemed to be worried at the moment, even as Glory looked up and winked at him.

“I guess visitation is tonight,” Collar groaned as he turned back around and stopped, staring down the stairs at Plum still playing cards behind the desk. If he went down, he’d know something was up, but he couldn’t just…

Cloudy hooked a leg around his and dragged him back to the cage door. “Silence,” she whispered.

He obeyed her command, casting a quarter dome to keep them quiet. “What do we do?”

“Go in, of course,” Cloudy hissed. “We can’t let the guard downstairs know anything is amiss. I don’t want Poppy’s relationship with her to get out.”

“Not yet,” he agreed with a sigh.

He opened the cage door without another word and stepped through into the smell of sex and rutting ponies. This is not how I wanted to see him. Or her. Cloudy closed it behind him and coughed loudly.

Poppy squeaked and thrust up at the same moment, his eyes closing as the look of an orgasm cross his features even as he covered his eyes and muzzle with his forelegs.

“Oh dear,” Glory purred. “Poppy popped. I must say, my lord, you chose an odd time to come visit.”

“It was not by my choice,” Collar growled, turning around and facing out. “Your mother—”

“Bah.” Glory growled, and a wet sound drew a blush to Collar’s ears and cheeks. He could imagine what she was doing to make that sound, and after a moment Cloudy joined him, grinning instead of flushed. “Thank you for ruining the mood, my lord.”

“G-Glory!” Poppy whined, his voice still muffled. “What are you doing?”

“Cleaning, love. If my mother is involved in a visit this late at night, she’s either done some atrocity or demanded something last-minute per the treaty.” Glory’s voice was gentle and gently teasing. “Clean yourself, too, and nevermind what they saw. I daresay they’ve done it together before.”

Collar’s cheeks should have caught fire, but a nip from Cloudy on his neck drew him back. “Let me know when you’re decent, please. This is a matter of the treaty, and I’ve no idea when your mother will demand a letter from me.”

“That game?” Glory sighed and the sound of hooves came behind him. “She waited until the last minute to ask for something, yes?”

“I take it she’s done that to you?”

“Many times.” Rustling sounded, and the cushions on the lounging couch sighed as Glory settled in. “Thank you for attempting to spare my love some embarrassment and from being found out as my lover. I fear his fellows would not treat him as gently if they knew.”

“You could not make love to him when he visits,” Collar said, and knew as soon as the words left his lips they were the wrong thing to say.

“I love him, my lord. I have been in love with him, and for him I have eschewed other males. It makes him nervous, you see, if I lay with stallions, the poor dear.” Glory clucked her tongue. “But I digress. We were careful to keep a lookout, and I am not without my illusions even here.”

“You could have used one!” Poppy groused, his hoofsteps coming out of the bedroom. “My lord, I—”

“No need to apologize, Poppy,” Collar said, his tongue feeling thick in his mouth. “I… suppose having it shoved in my face makes me believe it more. You love her.”

“Deeply. It’s because of her that I’ve avoided capture several times, my lord. Her teaching and training has helped me overcome some of my anxieties.” Poppy swallowed loudly. “We’re, um, decent… my lord.”

Collar turned around to find Poppy sitting with a towel around his hips and covering his loins while Glory was much more relaxed, her tail dancing as she watched him with amusement shining in her eyes.

“I didn’t know that. One day, I would like to hear the full accounting of your relationship with her, Poppy. For now… I’m happy for you.”

“Thank you, my lord,” Poppy said, bowing from a sitting position, his magic still firmly clinging to the whole of the towel. “She makes me happy.”

“And he, me,” Glory said, smiling. “He was so sweetly polite the first time he ‘caught’ me that I nearly lost my heart then and there.” She chuckled and flirted her tail against his back. “Please, Lady Rose, don’t resist. And how could I resist such sweet politeness? Before I knew it, I was finding excuses to pop over for a quick kiss—clandestine kisses are such a novelty, my lord—and later more.”

“Glory,” Poppy groaned, edging forward and nipping her shoulder. “Please don’t. We could be here all night talking about our courtship. My Lord Collar came here with a purpose.”

“Right, right,” Glory said and sighed. “Fine. What purpose has you jumping at my mother’s beck and call? It had better be important or I may just defect to stick it up her craw.”

“She wanted a letter on the morrow from you ensuring you were treated well and that your injury was tended to.” Collar held out a scroll and an ink set, complete with three extra quills of the finest crow-feather.

“My lord splurges on quality,” Glory mused as she examined one of the implements and inspected the tip. “Magically hardened, still flexible enough for broad flourishes… can I keep them? And have a steady supply of scrolls?”

“As a good behavior allowance, yes,” Collar said. “I presume you know what your mother wants to hear?”

“She wants to hear that I’ve been so poorly mistreated that I cry myself to sleep nightly,” Glory growled. She considered the scroll for a moment before dipping the quill and writing quickly. “Dear mother, I have been treated exceptionally well, and have received the best care for my shoulder. I am, in fact, already healed and more fit than I was when I was captured. I am granted twice-daily the run of the exercise yard, and I use it judiciously. The Primlines have granted me, too, the use of their library, although I must request broad genres rather than books, but I have not been bored to tears with their selection.”

She spoke as she wrote, dipping the quill for every fourth or fifth word to maintain a solid line, her ears flat, her teeth bared.

“I hate her,” Glory said at last, her sweetling voice fading to a tired tone. “Please, please don’t let her take my Poppy.”

“You could marry him,” Collar said gently. “Then—”

“Then my other lovers would be in peril, my lord. They’re both sweet mares, my lord, and I couldn’t bear to see them torn away from the city they love so much.” Glory’s eyes brimmed with tears as she thrust the letter at him. “Don’t let her take him. Promise me.”

Torn between two cities, loves on either side of the river. Collar closed his eyes and flattened the scroll to let the ink dry. Just like Cloudy was, but she couldn’t even have the luxury of meeting Rosemary in clandestine quiet. The young mare was awful at veiling according to her, and a glance at Cloudy said she was thinking the same thing.

“He’ll be safe, Glory. He’s on palace rotation right now, and I wish I could make it permanent, but…”

Poppy cleared his throat. “But showing favorites might cause resentment.”

Glory nodded. “Leave me, please, with my love. We have some talking to do.”

Collar glanced at the ink on the scroll and nodded, rolling it up and passing it to Cloudy to tuck under her wing. “I’ll tell the guard you’re helping her settle her shoulder. That will give you another half hour, Poppy.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

Collar padded along the road bordering Primline Park under veil of darkness and dome of invisibility, his thoughts on Glory’s situation, his eyes on the darkness around him, and wondered how he could find out not only who Glory’s lovers were, but also whether or not he could coax them across.

Both of them were quiet, watching the watch patrol go about renewing the enchantments on the unicorn lanterns, strengthening the glow of light around it, making Damme just that much safer. He’d been that unicorn before, nervously taking attention away from the surroundings while his partner kept watch, and then continuing on to the next in a cycle that took them through areas that needed the reassurance of a guard presence.

Their goal was the watch posts, to bolster the watch and receive any new intel about what had gone on since the last round from Priceless. Roseate might be trying to draw attention away from the border with that ploy, focus their intelligence efforts elsewhere, and they needed to know if there was any change in the pattern of slinking or conversations in the dark.

Somewhere out there, maybe, was Rosemary too. He’d need to decide on a regular watchpony to keep tabs on her when she inevitably made her nighttime excursions again, and alert him personally if she did anything, but…

Cloudy’s mind was clearly in the same space, she doubtless wishing it were her, and that she might reunite. But also scared of it at the same time. It would make things doubtless harder on both of them if they were to meet, regardless of what happened.

They made their way quietly down the road until a unicorn lantern flickering caught their attention. It happened sometimes when too many bugs died in the glass globe and clogged the etchings with their legs and wings, and all it needed was a quick shake to get them cleaned up enough to work properly.

As they approached it, Cloudy’s wings flared and she jerked her hoof up to her mouth, whistle at the ready in the instant before a mass of green smacked against her chest and exploded into vines and roots, the latter digging in between the cobbles and the former snapping around her barrel, forelegs, and wings.

“Collar!” Cloudy screamed, the sound not echoing as it should have.

Collar blew his whistle in the next instant, the piercing shrill tone dying without echo, and in the distance the pair of guards continuing their rounds didn’t react one bit to the distress call.

“Rosewater, you bitch!” Collar roared.

“Oh, dear me… she is going after you, isn’t she?” Roseate’s older, cultured voice purred from the darkness before she stepped into view even as a mist-shroud grew about them, jewelry on her neck and ankles glowing bright with stored power being released. Silver and gold, expensive sapphires in intricate spell-worked latices. “My dear—”

Collar slammed a dome over her, blocking her from his sight before she could use her talent, and hopefully—

Searing pain crashed through his head as a jagged spike of power lanced his dome, shattering it into silver shards that evaporated as they fell.

“My dear Collar,” Roseate continued, her tone chiding as she began to glow, her figure limned with rapturous beauty, her eyes shading to the same pink as Cloudy’s… and he couldn’t look away from her. She was beautiful, stunning, worthy of his adoration, and the insidious thought began to claim she was worthy of setting aside the feud for a night. “Do play nice. My daughter might not know your weaknesses, but I do.”

“Don’t look, Collar!” Cloudy cried out, her voice straining as she strained against the vines.

He snapped his eyes closed and snapped the shield over himself this time, his mind reeling from the shock of power and the still throbbing ache of a spell imploding. At once, he tried to snap the vines from around Cloudy’s wings and barrel and give her a chance to flee, but as soon as he did, the lance of power pressed against his shield, and he had to let it go before she snapped it once more.

“Do look, Collar,” Roseate purred, prancing about to stand between him and Cloudy, her tail raised and bobbing, her marehood exposed as she glowed once more, the slickness of her marehood shining and calling to his reeling mind. “Do more than look. Do what your stallionhood asks.”

“Rut you, Roseate,” Collar growled, closing his eyes and calling on the calm of training to remember. He needed to cut Cloudy free without hurting her, difficult with the rootbeds holding her hooves firmly to the pavers of the street and snapping new tendrils around her legs each time he cut one.

The calculation passed through him in an instant as he tore and cut the vines from her.

She fell still, her ears flat back, her head turned as she looked straight at Roseate. “No… p-please…”

“She asks so nicely,” Roseate purred, raising a hoof to touch Cloudy’s chin, then dancing back when Cloudy snapped at it. “Feisty. Strong-willed… oh, I can see what you like her, little Collar. I’ll let you keep her if you come with me willingly.”

Collar tried to teleport both he and Cloudy away, but the spell wouldn’t accept it, not while she was still bound to the earth so tightly. He might as well try to move the sun and the moon. Instead, he snapped another dome around them and poured his will into it, making it strong as steel, and settled in while he tried frantically to release Cloudy from her entrapment.

“Tsk. Very well, imp.” The musky fragrance of sex and mare filled his nostrils before he could think, filling his mind with thoughts of sex. Mounting Cloudy right there, rutting in the streets and…

Collar broke free again, snapping a filter around his and Cloudy’s muzzles. “You won’t get us that easily, Roseate.”

“Mmm. All I need to do is—” Another lance of power jabbed at his shield, drawing more strength to resist the point-pressure of a unicorn as powerful as Roseate, but letting the shield flex instead of resisting entirely. The air filter fuzzed out and the smell of sex poured in again. “—get you in the right mood. It’s been a while since I’ve had a challenge, and nopony has ever resisted me for long, dear Collar.”

He knew she was right, and he had no idea how many tricks she’d brought with her. All it would take was a moment of weakness.

“Save yourself,” Cloudy panted, her tail flagging, then snapping flat to her rump. “Get help, Collar. Don’t let her take you.”

“Mmm… but you won’t, will you, dear Collar?” Roseate’s gleeful harangue stiffened his resolve not to leave Cloudy to her. “Love is powerful leverage, is it not?” Another lance jabbed against his shield as she stood just on the other side of it, her hoof caressing the surface, then brushing her flank against it, her tail trailing over it. Trying to tempt him into lustful thoughts.

Then, in an instant, the scent vanished.

“You will step away from my mate,” Rosewater’s voice called out in the clarion silence of the dome. “Or I will face you in a duel again, mother.”

“My traitor daughter, come to protect the enemy?” Roseate sneered, stepping away from the dome. “I’ll have you exiled for this, daughter or no, heir or no.”

“That was your plan?” Rosewater laughed.

Collar dropped the sight and physical shield to watch, his mind numb from the shocks of lance and shield meeting. He couldn’t have held it for much longer, and he needed to use the time Rosewater had granted him with the distraction to recover his reserves enough to call for help somehow.

“Dear mother,” Rosewater said in an equally sneering tone, “protecting one’s mate is not treasonous, and I will fight you again in the arena to claim my right of free association.”

“Your mark is not on him, daughter. He’s open season for any. Not even the pegasus has laid claim to him in our way.”

“He is hardy against your way, Roseate,” Rosewater shot back, her expression flickering, her ears setting back, the only sign of apprehension or fear he could see in her. “I have opened courtship with him, and I will protect him from you.”

“Like you protected your other lovers?”

Rosewater flinched, but stayed firm. “I’m done bowing before your demands and your threats. You can’t take him, can’t threaten him, can’t threaten me with sending them away. I will not give!”

“Then I will see you beaten now,” Roseate hissed. “Did you think I was unprepared for you?” She stood straighter, her voice crackling with authority. “Attend to this, Lord Primline Collar and the traitor Cloudy Rosewing, I accept the duel my daughter has issued, and as my prerogative as the challenged, I demand immediate satisfaction. Here. Now.”

Rosewater’s stance grew firmer before Collar had the chance to answer. “Accepted!”

It was the only chance Collar had at the moment. To trust in Rosewater’s ability to defeat, or at least weaken, her mother. “Witnessed,” he said weakly, slowly regaining his magic and shaking off the effects of Roseate’s spells. He would wait for the right moment to strike, let them weaken each other first.

Beside him, Cloudy trembled and pressed against him. “Shield your mind, if you can.”

Rosewater swallowed back bile as she danced across the bridge in shade and silence, barely bothering to distract the guards with a splash in the river below, hoping they didn’t think it was a pony and waste time and effort searching for whomever had just fallen in.

But she didn’t have time to think about that, and melted into the shadows of an alleyway, relying more on her cloak than her veil to keep her hidden, but keeping it up as she crossed street-after-street. Keeping as much magic in reserve was going to be a necessity of facing Roseate. She’d only won her duel with her mother because of the unexpected nature of the perfumes she’d used, and the mental state she’d kept herself in for the duration.

It was the only way to effectively guard against emotional manipulation through scent-magic or otherwise.

She let her fear build, welcoming the worry that Roseate might take Collar, embracing that idea, and sent her thoughts down darker paths still, waking the old despair of losing Rosemary that she’d poured into a bottle and distilled into liquid loss. By the time she crossed the street leading to Primline Park, the most open place for her mother to play her tricks, she was reliving Carnation being taken away, grief and anguish burning her eyes with unshed tears as she funneled it all into the fore of her mind.

Her legs trembled by the time she found the telltale signs of a mastercrafted mist veil, and her ears wanted to droop, but she needed to stay strong and endure the ache of everything that had happened to her.

Roseate hadn’t spelled the border against intrusion, only sound and sight, and as she stepped through, the knot of magic at the base of her horn had started to leak out as sickly purple sparks that faded into shadow before they fell past her forelock.

In the center of the dome of silence, a smaller silver dome sat, almost too small for one pony. Magic sparked against the surface, and the silver dimmed and flared as Collar fought it off.

Surprise attack. That was the only explanation. This had been a carefully orchestrated plan, and Collar had at least listened to her, it seemed, and wasn’t looking at the shining figure of Roseate, the magic to draw the eye washing against Rosewater like a muddy stream rushing around a boulder. It could touch her, but it would not drown her.

A quick spell drawn from the grass and flowers around her, their neutral scent to counter the carnal one she could smell even from outside the dome of illusion.

“You will step away from my mate,” Rosewater ground out, halting the quaver with force of will, and stepped all the way in, dropping her veil and holding the magic at bay. If Roseate suspected, she would flee, and she needed to teach her mother a lesson in surprise attacks. “Or I will face you in a duel again, mother.”

Roseate startled only a little, then her smile broadened as she stepped away from the dome, her glamour sharpening into an angry aura that tried to tell her to bow down, to not provoke her further.

It was a broadcasted glamour, weak compared to the boiling surge of despair Rosewater welcomed, taking the glamour and using it to further fuel each of the components of her spell despite her heart aching.

“My traitor daughter,” Roseate crooned, her smile turning to a sneer, the anger billowing into rage, “come to protect the enemy? I’ll have you exiled for this. Daughter or no. Heir or no.”

“Was that your plan all along?” Rosewater forced a cold laugh free. It made too much sense. Of course Roseate would do that, then take that pony away… perhaps even use that pony as leverage. Then call her traitor and disown her, exile her, and be free of a nuisance. She took that and fed it into the cold fire burning in her heart. Exiled from the city she loved, from the friends she hoped would still be there at the end of all of the mess, never to see them again.

Collar dropped his shield and slumped against an entangled Cloudy. That explained why he hadn’t left, why he hadn’t even tried. Even as long as it took him to exit the veil, find help, and come back would be too long away from Cloudy.

“Dear mother,” Rosewater said, pushing back the ache long enough to sneer back, “protecting one’s mate is not treasonous, and I will fight you again in the arena to claim my right of free association.”

“Your mark is not on him, daughter. He’s open season for any. Not even the pegasus has laid claim to him in our way.”

The Rosethorn Way. Take whatever a pony wanted, and damn everypony else. The corrupted Rosethorn way. “He is hardy against your way, Roseate,” Rosewater shot back, shivering with the fear that she would win and take her one chance at happiness away. That, too, went into the fire, leaving her again cold and empty, each belief building on the others, her words bravado against the maelstrom. “I have opened courtship with him, and I will protect him from you.”

“Like you protected your other lovers?”

Too close to reality, her hold over the calm coldness faltered and the maelstrom almost consumed her. One look at Collar, his determined resistance, and Cloudy’s defiant snarl, fed her resolve. “I’m done bowing before your demands and your threats. You can’t take him, can’t threaten him, can’t threaten me with sending them away. I will not give!”

“Then I will see you beaten now,” Roseate hissed. “Did you think I was unprepared for you?” She stood straighter, her voice crackling with authority. “Attend to this, Lord Primline Collar and the traitor Cloudy Rosewing, I accept the duel my daughter has issued, and as my prerogative as the challenged, I demand immediate satisfaction. Here. Now.”

Perfect. “Accepted!”

“Witnessed,” Collar croaked, raising his head and letting it fall, either acting or recovering. His eyes on Rosewater, sharp and clear, told her he was playing weak for his chance to break Cloudy free.

Please don’t look, Collar, she thought as she circled wide, letting purple light spill along her horn, releasing the torrent of fear, anguish, and despair into her magic and casting a purple light around her, sparks bursting into shadowy mist as they fell from the tip.

Roseate opened with a tanglevine, her magenta magic empowering the living core of vines to explode into a writhing mass before it was halfway to her. A touch of the emotionally charged magic uncoiled the enchantment binding the vines to life and they rotted away in seconds, leaving behind foul magical matter that dissipated slowly in a green fog.

She didn’t waste words as she advanced on Roseate, through the mists of perfume that broke apart on a shield of purple light, another tanglevine that disintegrated before it had even been activated.

“You will be exiled!” Roseate roared, giving up the slow retreat around the inner wall of mist and breaking out into the wider parkland. “Across the sea, never to see your precious Rosemary again!”

Rosewater followed, cutting apart the veil even as whistles flared and screamed around them. This won’t stop me, mother. Neither could she let the fight last longer. It was a risk, but Rosewater teleported in close, taking Roseate by surprise, and locked horns with her, magic spilling free to almost freeze her in place, purple flickers of lightning crossing beaten back by Roseate’s will.

No Rosary, Roseate grunted and pushed back. “Insolent child! You will not beat me this way!”

Fear surged in her, that Roseate had found a way to beat her even here. For long seconds, she struggled against Roseate’s will, resisting.

“You’re weak,” Roseate growled. “Weak, daughter. Submit.”

“Never.” She held fast as Rosate’s hatred boiled against her fear, sapping her strength more the longer it went on, will against will. Rosemary. She’ll take her from you if you lose.

She’ll take Collar. Cloudy. She’ll win.

She embraced it, believed it, and forced it against the surging tide of hate, standing straighter and snorting as she drew from her core and beat down hatred with fear. Like she always had. It had been her strongest emotion, the fear of loss, the fear of another being taken from her. The fear of seeing another pony she cared so dearly about dying in front of her again.

It could be Rosemary.

Roseate cried out, screaming her terror as Rosewater’s magic surged through her, then faded back to a trickle of purple flaring around the tip of her horn, that final image of Rosemary’s still form keeping her upright, keeping the power of the spell flowing, dangerous still as she watched Roseate recover, shaking, tears in her eyes that had never been there for a personal reason.

“Submit, mother, and I’ll make sure they’re gentle.”

Roseate shifted her jaw and crunched down, sunlight and citrus spilling from her lips as she snarled wordless rage and vanished with a flash and pop.

Rosewater stood still, shaking, as whistles redoubled and the wings of pegasi overhead alerted her to the danger she was in. Unveiled, in the middle of a park, with dozens of new witnesses to the end of her duel with Roseate. To hear the vitriol between mother and daughter and add to the Rose Terror rumors and tales of how dangerous she was.

Unprepared, unexpected combat had left her nearly drained. She hadn’t expected Roseate to be so skilled at mental resistance, nor so ready to pool her hatred. She’d felt all of it, every reason her mother hated her, and it sickened her to think of half of them.

The pegasi coming in for landings in a circle around her could take her easily if she didn’t use her Citrus Circus and put herself out for at least as long as Roseate would be. She needed to be at the Treaty Office tomorrow, however, to be there when Collar attested to the duel and its outcome.

“Collar,” she said aloud, shaking herself from the numbness that came over her thoughts. It’d been like that after the arena duel as well. Worse, since the source of her fear had been so recent. She staggered to Collar and Cloudy, reaching without dark magic to crush the heart of the vines holding her in place into gelatin and fiber, releasing her. “Are—”

“Stay back!” Cloudy cried, leaping forward to put herself between Collar and Rosewater, wings wide, crouching and ready to rush her. “I won’t let you take him, Rosewater!”

The thought was laughable. In her state? She snorted and looked around at the pegasi landing all around her, staying back despite their overwhelming number, and she couldn’t blame them for their caution.

“I’m hardly in a state to be taking anything, let alone Collar,” Rosewater murmured, drawing free her own Citrus Circus candy and hesitating, looking around her at the ponies gathered.

Rumors would spring from tonight, from both sides of the river. What, she didn’t know. She wasn’t yet exhausted enough to need a candy to return home, but if she had to fight her way out…

How much can I salvage? What was the plan for tonight? Did I have one? She was still acting on her old plans, the ones where she kept Roseate in the dark about whom she was courting. Now Roseate knew she was at least pursuing Collar and had won her right to try and court him.

Collar rose to his feet smoothly, shaking his head free of whatever state Roseate had put him in, and said, “Stay back. All of you. Let me deal with this.”

Rosewater swallowed and turned, the candy half-unwrapped and to her mouth before a silver dome descended over her. She didn’t think he had enough strength to keep her in place, nor even to fight her with anything meaningful. She could simply teleport away, but there was still fuzz in her horn from abusing her own emotions like that, a lingering ache deep inside that would stay with her for days, if not weeks. Taking the candy would worsen it.

She’d known there would be consequences for using her talent to distill her darker emotions into pure magical essence, but she accepted it just as she had to protect Rosemary.

But he hadn’t shackled her and told them to take her. That fact alone kept her from attempting to break free and bluffing her way back to Merrie or at least until the fuzziness cleared and she could cast something other than simple spells through her horn without any lingering side-effects.

Getting caught is a major lingering side-effect.

She was about to risk it when Collar stepped through the barrier and pulled the candy from her grasp. He didn’t let the barrier drop, though, and merely glowered at her.

“What were you doing in Damme tonight?” A moment later, his expression softened, and he relaxed. “Not that I’m ungrateful, understand, but what’s your motive here?”

“Hoping I could see you,” Rosewater tried, offering a half smile along with the lie.

He sighed and unwrapped the candy the rest of the way. “You’re usually so good at lying,” he said with a sigh and sniffed the candy. “This is one of the enchanted candies you gave to Cloudy?”

“When she demanded one, yes.” Rosewater pulled it from his grasp again and rewrapped it, the urgent need for it seemingly passed.. “You’re not going to take me in?”

“I should.”

“But you’re not going to.” Again.

“No.” Collar glanced to the side as Cloudy rushed in, wings half-arched and ready to downsweep and clear out the air. He restrained the charging mare with a hoof firmly against her breast and shook his head. “Tomorrow at the Treaty Office? To register the duel? You have plenty of witnesses to your victory.”

“Tomorrow,” Rosewater said firmly, shifting her attention from Collar to Cloudy. “Take care of him for us.”

The haunted look in Rosewater’s eyes lingered in Collar’s mind as he let the shields of sight and sound remain, a look of deeper pain than he’d thought she’d been capable of. And that magic, unlike anything he’d ever seen, had pulled against his horn, feeling like a whirlpool of negativity, drawing his mind to fear and doubt.

What did it cost you to cast that spell? He glanced at Cloudy, staring thoughtfully at the ground where a black wrapper had fallen, spilling out just a touch of sunlight where the folds of it had unraveled.

“Was the duel like that?” He asked finally, picking up the candy and pocketing it.

“Nothing like it.” Cloudy’s ears flattened as she looked up into his eyes. “The color, yes, but I thought that was the perfume she’d used, not…”

“Not the raw magical aura?”

She nodded and pawed at the grass, sniffing lightly. “There was no perfume, other than Roseate’s lust. It was raw magic, Collar.”

Distilled fear. He shivered. The ponies of the Crystal Empire had been able to crystalize Love, and then fallen to Fear and Despair. That had been the start of the fall, according to the histories, a mere few months before the Battle of Two Nights had sundered the sky, leaving Princess Celestia victorious over a broken land.

The Rose Terror. He had an inkling now, of how she’d earned the title, and it wasn’t merely hyperbole. It was literal.

And yet… Collar closed his eyes, sighed, and shook his head. “She is a complicated mare.”

Cloudy gave him a look that bordered on rolling her eyes. “As you say, sir.”

“I do say. Let’s…” Collar dropped the shields and straightened himself despite his exhaustion. All around the shield, a small army of ponies stood waiting for his word, some with nets ready to throw, some that even started to throw as soon as the shield vanished, then pulled them back hastily, looking sheepish.

“She got away?” somepony asked.

“Are you unharmed, my lord?” another called.

“I am unharmed. Thank you for your quick response, all of you. I am proud that all of you asleep remembered the new standing order. Tonight, you witnessed a sanctioned duel between Rosewater and Roseate. All of you saw the outcome, and I expect you to report it accurately should the Royal Guard question you.” Collar bowed his head briefly. “It is for that reason that I was compelled to let her go.”

“Because she was in a duel?”

“No. Because she started the duel over me. Roseate chose to try and pursue it now.” Collar glanced at Cloudy, took a breath, and let it out. “Because of that, I was able to talk Rosewater down afterwards rather than face off against her. I did not want a repeat of the same incident that happened here four months ago.”

Several ponies looked nervously askance at each other, but the general consensus seemed to be agreement that it had been the smarter course of action. He heard ‘Rose Terror’ whispered a few times.

What kind of madness are you playing with, Rosewater?

The darkness of exhaustion and the pull of the nightmares to come were already closing in about her as she worked the spells to open the door.

Before she was halfway done, Rosemary opened the door for her from the other side, letting her stagger in.

“What did you do?” There was concern, love, and a hearty mixture of exasperation and a touch of anger. “Stars, m—” Rosemary cut herself off, biting her lip, fear in her eyes as she darted looks about the hallway, as if one could see an eavesdropping spell.

Too close. “EIther ruined our future here or saved it,” Rosewater breathed, sinking to the hallway floor as the last of her energy drained away. “Time will tell.”

A few minutes, or moments, passed before a blanket settled atop her, and Rosemary settled in beside her. “It’s going to be cold tonight.”

“Why…” Rosewater sank down deeper into the well of sleep, towards the waiting nightmares belief always brang. Tomorrow… tomorrow after…

“I’m exhausted, too, idiot mare. I can’t carry you,” Rosemary murmured in her ear and settled down cheek-by-cheek. “And you can’t sleep out here alone. You’ll catch something.”

“You’re too kind to me,” Rosewater murmured, opening one eye to watch as Rosemary turned down all the lamps in the house. What did I do to deserve you in my life? She couldn’t shake the fear and doubt so easily, and tears came to her eyes, unbidden.

“Let me mother you for once.”

Warmth settled in beside her again, weighty, and acted as a faint ember in her thoughts as her dreams descended into the despair of true belief.

Author's Notes:

This chapter went through a few iterations. At first, it was a short, punchy battle between Roseate and Rosewater, with more words for sparring before the fight, but it made Roseate look weaker than I wanted to show her as. She is strong, and dangerous, and frothing mad that Rosewater beat her once.