Fog covered the streets of Merrie and Damme both, making it hard to tell where other ponies were, and the mist carried scents far longer than open air would have, leading Rosewater down false trails as she tried to find where Collar was having his patrol go that night.

She had no doubt that he was Roseate’s target. Rosewater’s own interest in Collar said that much, and while she might have the right of free association, Roseate had nipped that off by forbidding contact with the palace.

It wasn’t her way to leave things half-done. Roseate obsessed until something was all the way done.

Which meant Roseate would take Collar. She would use him as leverage to bring Damme down and ‘win’ the war through conquest. Or try to. Rosewater suspected that Lace was made of sterner stuff than Roseate was prepared to deal with.

Still.

Rosewater sniffed the air, letting the fragrance of ponies recently passed through the mist call to her. Collar was there, as was Cloudy, and at least half a dozen other scents, most of them also exuding the astringent fragrance of their scent masks. That lay heaviest on the air, letting any Rosethorn who also followed them know what they would contend with.

Any other night, Rosewater was certain that would be deterrent enough to a raider, but her sisters were taking odd hours, just as she was. All of her sisters were, some less obviously than others.

The whispers on the street in previous days had grown nervous whenever she picked her way through unveiled, and the ones she heard as Rosetide were similarly disturbing. Roseate had been issuing threats and making deals behind the scenes, but somepony had been leaking rumor and information to the common pony.

Roseate was on the move, and as far as she could tell, not one of her sisters were going to be spared going out. A few of Roseate’s personal guards would likely be along as well, far more than Rosewater could handle on her own, but bluff and bluster would go far against siblings she was almost certain didn’t want to be there.

It took her some time to discern which way the force had gone, but she followed them until she found a swirling vortex rising like a miniature twin tornado up out of the mist.

Cloudy’s scent, and the airy, warm air smell of them, was strongest there. They must have suspected something was up ahead, and a quick orientation of her mental map told her they were approaching the open field of the duelling grounds.

It was the place Rosewater had taken Collar on that first night treating with him amicably.

Why would you go there?

The reasoning caught up a moment later.

Whatever enticement Roseate had sent was related to her somehow, perhaps even trying to trick Collar into thinking it was her, though she couldn’t know just how much of an open line to the Prim Palace Rosewater had been able to cultivate in such a short time.

He wasn’t foolish enough to believe anything sent by her was trustworthy, and if he was trying to spring a trap on her, she could only hope he’d brought enough ponies to handle all of her siblings.

That was a small comfort… though he could also be walking into a trap laid by Roseate.

It was the last thought that gave her steps speed even as she caught the telltale sound of downsweeping wings as a pegasus came in for an uncertain landing.

In the mist and fog, she would need to be cautious.

Silence descended on the mist, and Rosewater crept forward, drawing forth her fears into a scented fog that drifted with her, using the fog to bolster it. Unknown in the dark, fear and adrenaline mixed with an inability to see would be her advantage.

“Nothing,” Cloudy reported as she landed, ears ticking as she heard the other ponies around them shifting, relaxing as they heard her voice before Collar dropped a silence around them. “No stirring in the mist. It’s just flat foggy. We’ve got some of our patrols watching other areas, and the signal whistle elicited the proper call and responses.”

“Another night of nothing,” Collar muttered.

“Seems like it, but I don’t like how quiet it is. Something feels… off.” Cloudy glanced around, wishing she could see the ten or so guards arrayed around them in staggered positions. It would make her feel safer to see their shadows and know they were still there instead of the ghostly rustling of armor in the night.

Even the sound felt off, the mist drinking in the faint whisper of padding against straps, the fainter thudding of hooves against sodden grass-covered soil. Even the counter-whistle signs had sounded off when she’d made the rounds to the other patrols, tinnier and farther away than they should have been.

“Nothing feels right about tonight,” she said at last, looking up. “At least above the fog, I could see the Mare and make out the tops of buildings.”

Collar cursed under his breath. “Autumn fog be damned,” he growled at last and sighed. “You did what you could. I think—”

His lips kept moving, but no sound came out. Surprise widened his eyes a moment before the first flashes of light in the mist announced they were under attack, and he dropped his spell to call out.

No sound. Not even a whisper.

Rose hues mixed with the blues of the Dammeguard unicorns, even a few attempted strobes into the night were cut off, the flashes like lightning on the underside of a cloud.

All in silence.

Cloudy’s gorge rose as she realized what had just happened, what was still happening. An aural mage was silencing the entire area, and the piercing whistle blasts that should have come were kept quiet.

In the next instant, Collar beamed a pulse of light into the night sky, but without a cloud to target, the light would just scatter, and unless a pegasus were looking right at the duelling grounds, there’d be nopony to see the warning.

Cloudy snapped her wings into an emergency takeoff, but two of the cursed tanglevines slapped against her wings, fouling her escape before a sachet of powder exploded against her chest, the bag and powder clawing at her wakefulness immediately.

As she slumped, she saw another sachet catch Collar right in the throat and explode, wreathing his head is rosy light. He’d given them a perfect target to aim for, and in the split second before his thoughts had turned to defense, they’d gotten him.

Still, even as Cloudy slumped to the ground, her vision growing hazy with sleep, she saw him shake his head and cast it off, a small bubble of clean air surrounding his muzzle as he tried to pull the vines free of Cloudy’s wings.

They’d already taken root, and a new light glowed in the mist that forced Cloudy’s eyes toward it. Tantalizing, scintillating light surrounding a pony who glowed with vigor and beauty, who’s eyes were half-lidded, a triumphant smile crossing her lips.

Roseate.

Cloudy closed her eyes to keep from falling under the sway of her glamour… and lost to the sleeping powder filling her mind with fog.

Collar set his shield around himself and Cloudy, the fringes of sleep dulling his reflexes as he ducked another thrown powder packet before he fought to put the shield in place and forced his mind to respond. It was nothing but magic. Strong magic, but Roseate’s smile told him there were more where that came from.

The flashing lights of the fight around him grew slower and slower, more sporadic as the fight seemed to be over almost before it had begun.

All of a sudden, sound returned with a rush that thundered in his ears. Cries for help and a belated, strained whistle rose up from the fog to his right, the whistle quickly silenced as its very presence alerted the attackers where it was.

But it had gone out.

“Tch.” Roseate clucked her tongue and glanced to the side, her Rosethorn markings glowing. “Tail, darling, keep watch on the perimeter with Hip, and see what happened to Crown. I want that silence ready to go again.”

The fog of drowsiness started to part again as he realized just what had happened. Rose Crown had silenced the area. Their reports had her as an aural mage, but that would be something Note could pull off only for a minute at best before it drained him, if he could pull off the spell at all.

“I-If you’d had that four months ago,” Collar growled, “You needn’t have worried about reinforcements.”

“Strong will,” Roseate murmured, her horn glowing brighter as she stepped closer and set her hoof against his shield. “But not strong enough.”

His shield popped like a bubble as she pierced it with her horn and a stream of magic, and he staggered to the ground again, trying to fall to protect Cloudy.

“Oh, you needn’t worry about—”

Another whistle rose up out of the fog behind her.

“Powder, Well, see to it the rest of them are subdued,” Roseate snapped to her left. “Rosary, help me truss them up. We’ll need to concentrate for a mass teleport.”

“Mother, I’m not as strong as Rosewater, I can’t—”

“Shut up. I gave you the candy, use it. It will give you the strength you need for a few moments at least.” Roseate pulled out a faintly glowing amber jewel and crunched down on it, her breath becoming sunlight. “Quickly, before he can recover.”

Taken. The word resounded around his head and thoughts. He was going to be taken. And there was…

He only had the one chance. An untried spell, uncertain of its effects, could be disastrous, but right then, with sleep clawing at him again, with Rosary and Roseate preparing a teleportation spell, the second-eldest daughter’s breath also glowing with sunlight, he couldn’t see anything worse than being taken.

He stopped trying to reform the shield and closed his eyes, focusing on what he needed to do, whom he needed to protect.

Cloudy, himself, the future of Damme.

Silver light filled his mind as he formed the complicated construct, and he felt himself starting to detach from his baser self, the part that knew that the sleep, the come-hither glamour, and everything else was nothing more than a trick. What was left was a stallion that needed to protect his mate, needed not to harm his foes, and needed to keep them prisoner.

When Collar’s eyes opened again, he wasn’t looking through them, but seemingly above them as the world slowed, as action and reaction happened simultaneously.

Rosary, closer, went down first with silver bindings wrapping her from tail to muzzle, her cry rising above the din of his heart thundering in his ears.

Roseate, stronger, more aware, managed to side-step his first assault, her eyes wide with fear and confusion as spell after spell tugged at him only to be torn away. Even the vines that flew at him exploded into plant matter as he met them with counteracting force and tore them apart.

Powder packets pelted him all of a sudden, the greatest danger from them the powder clogging his throat and lungs, and then Rosary was free behind him, another mare, Rose Well, breaking his bindings with her elder sister’s help.

He took a moment to clear his vision, noting distantly that so much powder was turning to sludge in the mist and coating his muzzle in rose-colored, highly fragrant sleeping draught.

Even as deep into the spell as he was, he could feel the clawing tendrils of sleep dragging at his waking mind.

Dreading what it would mean if he lost control, and dreading even more what would happen if he fell, Collar poured more magic into Resolute Heart.

Self faded as he became his purpose.

Protect Cloudy.

If she hadn’t been close to the fighting, Rosewater never would have heard the whistle that washed through the fog, the sound seeming to drown in the mists.

There was almost no chance anypony else had been close enough to hear it, or to see the dim flashes of light that briefly, and more and more sporadically lit the darkness unless they were as close as she was.

She doubted it. Collar’s patrol had crossed several others, but they had all been moving in straight lines along Damme’s straight streets, criss-crossing in a pattern that would have found any other trouble beside what lay ahead.

The lights had first caught her attention, the silence convincing her for a brief moment that one of her sisters had been caught unawares by Collar’s silence… until the rose hues took over, soon becoming the only hue.

Rosewater drew her fog more closely about her, a deeper darkness in the mist, and crept forward, ears straining, nose working and Rosethorn marks glowing intermittently as she sought out the telltale scents of her sisters at work.

Just as she found the first of them, Rosetail by the sound of her low whisper, a silvery light crept through the mist, growing steadier even as shouts of alarm from farther into the duelling grounds rose from Roseate’s and Rosary’s throats.

She came upon Rosetail glowing in a circle of light, her ears flicking frantically from sound to sound, her eyes wide with terror as she stared at the source. She was still afraid of the dark, but was managing not to hide behind one of her elder sisters’ flanks.

“Go home, Rosetail,” Rosewater whispered. “This isn’t your fight.”

Movement to her right announced Vine throwing tanglevines at her voice, the magical constructs of plant and creeping vine encountering the shell of purple mist and falling apart before they landed with wet, messy plops at Rosewater’s hooves.

In that moment, Rosetail rushed her, eyes wide, teeth bared, and spun at the last moment to whip her braided tail at Rosewater’s muzzle.

Rather than dodge, Rosewater snagged the tail in midair and held it as Rosetail came to a stumbling stop. “Go. I don’t want to fight you, Rosetail.”

“Too bad, I want to fight you!” Rosetail snarled, edging towards her, then whimpering when her tail refused to move with her. “Let go!”

“Give it up,” Silk’s voice growled from the mist to her right. “Go home Rosetail, we’ve lost tonight. You don’t have to spend the night in jail.”

To her left, Vine cleared away the mist in an area around her, a small bubble opening that gave her an opening to Rosewater’s flank, and three bundles of tanglevine glowing faintly around her.

“My quarrel isn’t with you,” Rosewater said softly, glancing left, then right and dropping her hold over the protective shell of fear-infused mist to dart ahead.

Tanglevines whipped past her, diverted with a last-second spell to aim for where Silk’s voice had come from, only for a third voice to sound out in surprise as the bundle made contact with a pony.

“Crown!” Vine cried, darting through the shredding fear mist towards the sound, her eyes and nose closed as she traversed the contamination. “Stars, I didn’t mean to hit you.”

Rosewater stopped where she was, staring towards the sound. Rather than continue and possibly subdue her, Vine had abandoned the attack and gone to her sister.

As she did, Silk slipped through the mist, white cloth dropping and wrapping around Rosewater’s muzzle before she could react, and another two twists wrapped around her ankles. “Don’t resist,” she hissed.

Roseate’s shouting rose in the mist again, “Help me subdue him! All of you!” Panic tinged her words, and Rosewater gave Silk a meaningful look.

“This was none of my doing,” Rosewater whispered, holding her breath against the compulsion scent Silk usually doused her silk bindings in.

“But it would have been,” Silk growled.

“Nay.” Rosewater edged backwards, keeping her movements slow and deliberate as she pulled one leg free, then the other of Silk’s binding. When her sister didn’t retaliate, she removed the binding around her muzzle, loose though it was. “I court him. She attacks him because I do. I’m only here because I want my future mate safe.”

Silk’s eyes met hers, and some of the heat went out of them before she looked away towards the silver glow. “He’s strong. Mother is having difficulty handling him.”

“He is. It’s part of why I chose to court him.” Rosewater stepped towards the silver glow, ears perked. “But he’s not invincible.”

Before she could move away, Vine called out, “Silk! I need help getting Crown away.”

Rosewater hesitated, closed her eyes, and drew three enchanted candies free. Her entire stock. “Give her one of these. Are there any others?”

“Hip’s out there somewhere,” Silk said softly, taking the candies and unwrapping one to inspect it. “Mother wouldn’t trust us with these, much less how to make them.”

“She stole the idea from Carnation.” Rosewater tossed her head. “Get Hip out here, if you can find her. She’s too young to be involved in this mess.”

Silk gave her one last look, smiled faintly, and nodded before disappearing into the mist.

Rosewater drew out her fears again, touching them to the mist and gathering three dense pockets of it she infused with sickly purple light. The eldest trio of her younger sisters were still out there, and they were close followers of her mother’s.

Rosary and her scented, pressed beads of petals were less potent than most, but combined with complimentary oils from Well, they were a dangerous combination, and Well herself was no slouch with burning scented oils, most often in lanterns and oil lamps, and her twin Powder supplied dried components for her as well as used them herself.

The mists were their home, and made their aromatics far more potent and dangerous.

That Well hadn’t started burning any of her oils yet was a sign she wasn’t ready to make herself known… or it was too dangerous to do so.

Of them all, Powder was the most dangerous in the mist, her powders clinging with damp and becoming more aromatic. It was Powder she needed to take care of, and hope that she hadn’t given much of her supply to her sisters, otherwise she might be in trouble.

The silver glow pulsed slowly as she approached it, casting shadows back through the fog of the three mares who circled the source, making an odd pirouette of light and darkness, and backlighting her targets readily.

You asked for this, Rosewater thought as she waited for the nearest to come just a hair closer, to turn and present her head with the—

Movement in the fog to her right startled her into a dodge just before a powder sachet sailed through the space her head had just been, and she danced back and out of the way.

“You speak too loudly,” Rosary growled, sending two more sachets darting after her.

Rosewater hissed, not wasting words, and dissolved the bindings on the packets of mist and shoving it all in the voice’s direction, pushing more of her instant terror at being caught into the spell-woven mist and sending cracklings of purple light flashing through the air, a hideous counterpoint to the steady silver.

Rosary had time only to draw a breath before she started screaming, pitch ratcheting up as the Rose Terror enveloped her.

“Rosary!” Powder’s cried as another of the shadows peeled away from the silver light towards the purplish glow. “We have to help her!”

“You have to help me get free!”

Another shadow slipped free, a twin to Powders, both apparently in defiance of their mother. “We’ll need her help to get you free,” Rose Well growled. “That’s Rosewater out there, and unless you fancy a stay in prison…”

Even forewarned, the two were still unprepared when Rosewater decided it was time to drag the fight into the open.

With an effort of will, she wove her telekinetic spiderweb with broader bands of force and pushed it out, getting a mental map of the area and clearing the battlefield of obscuring fog. Ponies were down everywhere, some still struggling against the tanglevines, others laying complacently. The fog of fear dissipated slowly, dissolving the tanglevines and wakening those lying complacent.

That, she couldn’t help, and if they managed to get their whistles out, there’d be reinforcements coming soon.

One pony, a pegasus lying a short distance behind Rosary, stirred and then leapt, his hoarse cry sending a stab of guilt through Rosewater. She hadn't meant for it to touch anypony while it was still so potent, but she couldn’t do anything about it now.

Collar stood beside Cloudy, his horn glowing a steady silver, but it was his eyes that were pulsing with light, as if he’d enchanted himself to resist Roseate—who was bound to the ground, shackles and bindings around her legs and barrel, with only her head and neck free.

What did you do?

Collar looked around steadily, taking in the suddenly clear area and the slow-creeping fog as it began to move back in, and then settled a shield over his love and sat down, complacent as if he’d been at a dinner table.

“We came prepared,” Rosary growled as she shook her head free of the lingering effects of induced terror. “Mother will see you exiled for this.”

“Stop talking and get her!” Roseate screamed.

Powder didn’t hesitate and flung three packets of powder at her.

Rosewater spared her retort as she deflected one of the guided sachets towards Roseate, snapping Powder’s control with an effort of will. The other two she sent to smack into the ground and called mists to smother the resultant explosion of glowing dust..

Roseate, unable to dodge, screeched as she deflected it up and into the night. Collar didn’t react at all, other than to place a shield over Cloudy, perhaps sensing that there was something about to happen.

In the moment of distraction, Rosary had thrown her strings of beads, glowing rose in the night, to catch around Rosewater’s upper neck with a snap and click of beads circling just where Rosewater had knocked her with a foreleg.

Flickering light heralded the next attack from Rosewell as droplets of enchanted and scented oils pattered down around her and caught fire, igniting fragrances that began to swim Rosewater’s vision as she took them in.

“Suffer,” Rosary hissed as she sauntered up, drawing more lines of beads from her saddlebags, their surfaces oiled with more scents, her namesake and her weapon of choice. “Traitor.”

The beads around her neck tightened as Rosewater set her magic against them. She couldn’t use heat, that might ignite the oiled length, and she couldn’t set a cutting force between the beads. Powder recovered one of the sachets and approached.

There wasn’t any other choice. I’m sorry, Collar, she thought as she pulled free the vial of Rose Terror. She still had most of it, and it glowed faintly as she started to pour magic into it. She had to take in the fear of loss, so close, and let it into her heart before she could finish activating the magic.

“Fools!” Roseate cried. “Don’t—”

Roseate never got to finish her warning. Purple mist exploded from the vial as she removed the stopper and let out her fear of losing Rosemary, the fear of losing to her sisters and being dragged off to suffer the consequences of her rebellions. Of losing to Roseate.

Rosemary.

Rosewell screamed first, her eyes widening as her pupils shrank to pinpricks at the images the fragrance of fear woke in her mind, devouring rational thought in the madness of elemental terror.

Rosemary. For Rosemary.

The light flared brighter, sending flickering tremors of luminance through the cloud as it expanded to take in Powder and Rosary, who’d started back as soon as Roseate called out to them.

Rosary held her breath and tightened the noose around Rosewater’s neck, gritting her teeth as her horn flared against the counterforce Rosewater applied against the beads. “You. Will. Not—” she managed to grind out, her horn flaring brighter before the beads’ strong core snapped finally under the opposing forces, sending oiled balls of polished, calcified rose petals scattering into the night.

Powder flung her sachet at Rosewater in a last-ditch attempt to fell her, but the magic around it faded to nothing as it entered the purplish cloud and, leached of its power, it puffed against Rosewater’s shoulder and fell to the ground, leaving behind only an inert scent of honeysuckle and wine.

Rosary staggered forward, her eyes wide, her mouth foaming as she fought against the fear far more effectively than Roseate ever had. Hatred burned in her eyes, wild and berzerker.

“Don’t, Rosary,” Rosewater said sternly. “What will I tell Rose Quill when his mother doesn’t come back from tonight? What will I tell Rose Moon?”

It was a risk, stabbing into the dark and hoping Rosary had some love for her son and daughter, something she promised them before leaving. It was also cheap, but it hit home. The first spark of fear flickered through Rosary’s eyes, and she gasped and started screaming as tears came down her cheeks.

Powder’s eyes were wide, fear and confusion spreading across her features. Her own son, barely a year older than Rosary’s youngest, must have been home as well.

Now you know what I felt, Rosewater thought as she shook herself, exhaustion bordering on collapse bleeding into her thoughts.

Rosewell lay on the ground in the aftermath, her sides heaving and spittle flecked her lips. Powder breathed fast, her eyes wide as she stared at Rosewater, then at Rosary. A hidden schism had just been revealed in the family, a weakness.

The flickering flames burning fitfully cast an eerie light over the tableau, washed out by the steady silver light from Collar’s enchantments. That was new from them, the oils and oiled bindings. Dangerous as a combination, but they must have been desperate to use things they hadn’t had a chance to work together with.

Collar looked on without any interest, merely shifting to watch all of them and keep himself between them all and Cloudy.

“You will leave my future mate alone,” Rosewater said flatly as she stalked forward towards Roseate and Powder, the latter huddled a goodly distance from Roseate. “You will return to the Rose Palace, you will not retaliate. You will not do anything but adhere to the treaty bonded duel. In return, I will let you take my sisters back to safety. If not…” Rosewater looked pointedly towards the Prim Palace.

“I did not try to claim him,” Roseate spat. “This is a legitimate action, and you are a traitor if—”

“Oh, well, in that case…” Rosewater turned away from her mother. “That pegasus will bring the rest of the guard down on you, leaving me to rule.” It was a tempting idea, to let her be taken, to let them all be taken, and to take the reins by fiat. Except Roseate could cripple Merrie for her own release and continue the war, and brand Rosewater a traitor, exiling her and guaranteeing the war would continue. “I’m acting in your interest, mother. And mine, I admit.”

“What are the terms?” Roseate hissed, looking to Powder, then to Collar. The latter paid her no more attention than a stone would, and said nothing.

“Never try to take Collar again. I will entice him in my own way, and bind him to the Rose Way. If you agree, I will let you free and face his immediate wraith.” Her magical reserves should be enough to break all four bonds at once at the least, and if Collar turned his blank ire on her… then so be it.

“You surprise me, daughter,” Roseate murmured, her eyes glinting in the silver light. “Fine. It is agreed. Powder, gather your sisters.”

“And don’t think of lying to the Royal Guard,” Rosewater hissed. “I will agree to a truth-telling if I must.” A painful, invasive magical procedure that would draw the absolute truth out of a pony. Due to its bordering on dark magic, Celestia’s decree mandated it as a voluntary procedure, and that it only be performed in her presence.

Roseate flinched back. “Fine. Free me, girl. And quickly!”

A deep breath, and another, and Rosewater stepped towards Collar, her magic worming its way between Roseate’s legs and the shackles. It wasn’t easy. His magic enfolded her ankles with an elastic power, but Roseate helped her by shifting her legs minutely. His attention shifted immediately as the distance between himself and her shortened to less than that of Roseate. “Collar?”

Nothing flickered in his eyes and his ears stayed steady, one trained on Cloudy constantly. He didn’t seem to pay attention at all to the way her magic slowly conformed to Roseate’s ankle size and shape, the consistency of hairs and the warmth of body.

“Collar,” Rosewater whispered again, taking careful steps towards him, ready to bolt at the first sign of aggression. His attention on Roseate waned as she came closer and closer, and he shifted again to keep himself between her and Cloudy. “I’m not here for her. I’m here for you.”

He reacted much as a stone would to an ant crawling up to it. If a stone could look her in the eyes and see through her as if she didn’t exist. She poured more magic into the spells around Roseate’s ankles, expanding the seeming of pony flesh and forcing the bindings open. His magic adjusted with resistance, but it changed.

His eyes were gray-lit from within, a heartbeat-slow pulsing the shade of a foggy morning haze clouding his usually brilliant blue eyes, and they did not react at all as she stepped to within a pace of him.

“Collar, talk to me.” She glanced at Cloudy, her wing retracting to rest against her side, her hooves moving feebly as the sleep charm fell away as its holder’s will faltered. “Was this to protect her?”

He stared at her, then at Cloudy, then back to her. Nothing else.

“What did she let you do,” Rosewater moaned as she stepped one pace closer and pressed her cheek to his neck. Even that drew less reaction than if she’d done it to a tree. He swayed, leaning away, then stopped and held still. Nothing more than an autonomic balancing of weight. “Collar, talk to me, please!”

Roseate laughed as she stepped out of her bonds with Powder’s help, using Collar’s focus on her to find the time to do it, the smaller mare already burdened with the weight of her two sisters. She staggered away as Roseate teleported to the other end of the field, far out of Collar’s range and sight, only the lightning flash and pop of her exit giving away where she’d gone. Powder put on a poor veil and staggered after her, the labored breathing more than loud enough to give away her position even in the obscuring mists.

Rosewater dismissed them all. “Please!” she cried, louder, and raised her head to look him in the eye. “Collar, where is the stallion that traded quips with me right here? Where is he?”

Nothing.

“Where’s the stallion that risked telling me—” She closed her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Where is the stallion that cared enough to tell me personally before…” She rose and cupped his cheeks in both hooves, balancing carefully as she lifted his head. He didn’t resist, and didn’t look away from her.

“Whatever you’ve done to yourself, please don’t let it be forever,” she whispered.

“Get away from him!” Cloudy gasped, staggering to her hooves, her eyes unfocused, her ears twitching.

Rosewater ignored her for the moment and kissed Collar on the lips softly. “I’m sorry. I wish I’d been here sooner.” She backed away when he showed her no inclination of returning it, or waking up.

Stupid fairy tales.

Ponies appeared at the edge of the mists, uncertainty written large in the way they halted at the edge of the glowing silver light, staring at him, at her, and at Cloudy recovering slowly, her breath heaving as she came to her full senses.

“I’m truly sorry, Cloudy,” Rosewater said as she pulled energy into her horn. “Keep him safe.”

“Wh-what happened? Why didn’t you step in sooner?” Cloudy demanded, staggering forward. “Did you want him like this?”

“I didn’t, Cloudy. I don’t know what happened tonight, but…” Rosewater bit her lip and backed away another step. “He’s protecting you,” Rosewater said as she drew the last power she needed. “He’s always protected you. He loves you.”

Cloudy eyed her for a long moment, then closed her eyes. “I’ll keep him safe. Go.”

Rosewater tried to teleport to her hidden space, but failed, and she staggered to the side, then stood straighter and veiled herself before dashing into the mist to try again before the organizing guard and Lace could get close enough to her to make a difference.

Shouts followed her into the mist, calls for her to stop, and above them all rose Lace’s voice.

“Let her go. We have incapacitated to take care of.”

She didn’t want to find out if that was a ruse and changed her target, hoping she had enough afterwards to open her front door. It wasn’t like Roseate wouldn’t know where she’d been.

With a pop and a flash, she reappeared on her porch, sagging against the door and sliding to her barrel as she expended the energy in a rush. Too much.

Hoofsteps sounded as she dragged her head up and stared at two veiled figures coming up to her from the street. Roseate would be coming this way soon.

“Clever,” Rosewater murmured. “Wait until I’m too weak to resist.”

Silk’s voice purred in her ear as the sounds of the night vanished, and the light dimmed as a veil and silence surrounded them all. “We won’t forget.”

Vine’s muzzle touched behind her ear. “You shouldn’t be alone tonight. Open the door. We waited for you. We wanted to talk.”

Rosewater closed her eyes. “So she can have it, too? No. I’d rather our home be sealed forever.”

“Stubborn fool,” Silk hissed and bent to touch her horn to Rosewater’s, and sent a torrent of undiluted magic into her, rivulets that crackled around the spiral at the edge of her sight. “Do it yourself and drag yourself in, then.”

“Why?” Rosewater asked as she began the process of undoing the wards on the door. She let the last ward tremble on the edge of parting, locking it in balance until she got an answer.

“Because there are some things which require repayment,” Vine said gently, her eyes going to Silk’s. “If you won’t let us care of you—”

“How would you explain it to mother?” Rosewater asked. “When you left here in the morning.”

“We’d lie our tails off about what we saw,” Silk said, a grin audible in her voice. “We snuck in, and snuck out while you were too exhausted to notice.”

“Why?” Comprehension struggled against instinctive wariness.

“We talked it over on the way here,” Vine said. “You don’t deserve what mother’s doing to you.”

“I… I can’t.” Rosewater said as she slipped the last ward and let the door swing open. “It’s been our home—our home—for too long.”

An understanding look passed between her two sisters, and both nodded.

“We understand,” Silk said softly.

“Far too well,” Vine added.

“Thank you for helping us rescue Crown. We won’t forget.”

Then they left her to finish opening the door and staggered inside, barely closing it before she collapsed into exhaustion and nightmare.

Lace was the first to reach them, her eyes fearful under the impassive outer shell she wore for her guardponies. “What happened?”

“Ambush, my lady,” Cloudy said distractedly, not letting her eyes leave Collar’s as she reared up and cupped his cheeks between her hooves, meeting him eye-to-eye even as he tried to look at the new ponies that were surrounding them.

“Why is he still…” Lace trailed off as Collar turned his head to look at her blankly. “What happened to my son? What did Roseate do?”

“I don’t think she did anything,” Cloudy murmured softly. “I think he did it to himself in response to her.”

“Then she as much as did it herself,” Lace said with a growl as her son continued to stare at her, blank eyes pulsing with the beat of a heart that wasn’t his. “Collar?”

He didn’t respond, but one ear stayed trained on Cloudy as she stayed reared up, supporting herself with a hoof to his shoulder.

“Rosewater said it was to protect me.”

“She did, did she?” Lace murmured, glancing in the direction the mare had left. “That one continues to confuse me.” After a moment, she turned back to Cloudy. “See to him, and see if your being safe will break him out of whatever spell he cast. I need to see to my ponies.”

“Send a pegasus for Stride,” Cloudy said, tipping her head toward the city proper. “Rosewater used fear again. Against her sisters this time. I… stars, it was terrifying.”

Lace smiled faintly. “Fear often is. I’ll see to it.” She raised her voice. “Captain Pink, perimeter watch around Collar and Cloudy, and get ready to escort them back to the palace. By force if necessary, if he resists.”

“Cloudy? Collar?” Pink asked, coming closer. Her voice had lost the parade ground snap and the carefully restrained rage of a drill instructor, gentler, kinder than she’d ever heard the captain speak. “Are you okay?”

“No,” Cloudy said bluntly, pressing her head against Collar’s neck again. His pulse still beat against her ear and forehead, proving he wasn’t an animate statue of unliving flesh. “He did something. He’s been working on a spell to counter Rosewater’s magic, but it wasn’t Rosewater.”

“Who then?”

“Roseate. It was a trap. That—” Cloudy pushed the thought from her mind and pushed herself back to find Collar looking down at her, the silver light in his eyes dimmer than it had been. Or it’s my imagination. “Collar? I’m safe. Come back to me.”

It wasn’t her imagination. The light dimmed perceptibly, his normal hazy purple eyes coming back slowly, the irises closing before he blinked, shook his head slowly, and slumped against her.

“Collar, don’t leave me,” she murmured, falling back under his weight as it settled against her, his fore and hind legs shaking. “You’re with me, love.”

“Cloudy,” he whispered, his voice cracking as though dry. “Cloudy Rose.”

“Yes,” she whimpered. “Yes, that’s me, Collar. You did it. You kept me safe.”

“Tired,” he said, and sagged to his barrel, then to his side. “Stay with me.”

“Always,” Cloudy said, lowering herself to rest her cheek on his, listening to his breathing as it slowed, deepened, and fell into the soothing rhythms of sleep. “Don’t ever do that again.”

Author's Notes:

This was an interesting chapter to write. Getting the fight in two locations kind of down, figuring out how Roseate and company react to Collar's new spell. Some repercussions from this fight will reverberate through a lot of the story upcoming.