Rosemary stood stock still while Rosewater paced around her, plucking at this or that item in her cloak’s pockets and nodding or tying it tighter. She winced at each of the latter and tried not to react to the former.

“Veil and prance in place,” Rosewater commanded, the familiar friendly tone gone. She was a taskmare, hard-eyed and serious. It wasn’t quite the face and tone she used in public with her mother, but it was close.

She felt silly drumming her hooves in place on the hardwood, focusing on both her veil and Silent Hooves spells, but she began smiling as Rosewater continued her pacing, nodding now and then as her eyes flicked from bulge to bulge, tugged at a knot, and then a vial. Nothing rattled or clattered, and her cloak stayed in place over her cutie mark and head. Nothing fell out at Rosewater’s gentle tugs.

“Very good. Now keep doing that and draw out Bluebell’s Bliss. And keep your veil up, your hooves silent.” Her cousin didn’t stop her pacing, a constant distraction she had to filter out.

The vial of sparkling blue liquid slipped free at a sharp tug, and the stopper came free with a twist.

“Good. Put it back.” Rosewater tugged at her tail just when it was about in. “Caught,” she said sharply as Rosemary’s Veil dropped. “No matter what, Rosemary. The Veil is your life in the night. The Veil will keep the rest of you hidden even if they grab your cloak or your tail or your mane.”

It was the same lesson as always, almost the same words. “I’ve been practicing.”

“You have. I’ve noticed the improvement.” Rosewater offered a precious smile, so rare during training. “Have you found a pegasus to chase you?”

“I’ve been looking. But none of them are… well.” Rosemary shook her head. “They’re… not like Cloudy.”

Her cousin’s expression flickered briefly, a tightening of the brow, a thinning of the lips then resumed their steady demeanor. “I know. Try to find somepony to train with. I promise it will help.”

Rosemary sighed, not looking forward to the interview process. She wasn’t looking for a lover. She’d never had to look for a lover, in any case. She stumbled into them. It was just so awkward trying to ask a pegasus to chase her.

She could go to the Garden of Love, but they would ask her about Rosewater, and Rosewater stayed away because of the stupid, however factual, notion that Roseate would target them.

“I’ll keep looking.”

“Please do.”

Rosewater paced away, head lowered, ears ticking as the mask of Taskmare started to falter. She could only keep it for so long before it started to hurt her. So her solution was… ‘don’t look at me.’

“Listen to me, Rosemary.” She stopped at one of the few paintings of them as a family that Carnation had not painted, commissioned years ago, it showed Rosewater, white coat captured perfectly with the faint creases and shading that made her look more real, her gold-flecked pink eyes and pink mane floating in the breeze, and Carnation, her bright smile and blond mane shining in the sun.

Between them, Rosemary sat impatiently facing forward, the river and Primrose Bridge as a backdrop. They could have been any other Merrier family in that portrait, two wives and their daughter.

The reality had been so very different. And also closer than any looking in from the outside would guess.

Rosewater’s hoof touched the wall by Carnation’s image, and her jaw moved slowly, whispering words Rosemary couldn’t hear. Words that Rosewater meant for Carnation alone.

When she turned around, the taskmaster was gone, and the mare in the painting looked back at her, a touch sadder, more tired, and still just as determined to be a good parent.

“Your first night, you don’t have to do anything.” Rosewater shook her head as Rosemary shifted. “I would prefer you not to even open any of those vials in your cloak unless you absolutely need to. Get used to wearing it. Familiarize yourself with the shadows and how they move in Damme. Get to know the guard patrol routes, and…”

“And?” Rosemary asked, voice trembling.

“If you get caught, don’t fight, Rosemary. Don’t let them hurt you.” Tears shimmered in Rosewater’s eyes. “There’s so much that can go wrong in a chase. I can’t lose you. I won’t.”

Tension shivered in the air for a moment.

“You won’t.”

Rosewater nodded sharply, her jaw tight, and made herself relax, another mask taking the place of the raw emotional pain shivering just behind the ‘guardian’ mask. “Most importantly, don’t attempt a taking tonight.”

“I can do that? I don’t have to bring anypony back?”

“No. You don’t. Not every raid is successful.” Rosewater turned her head to the side, towards the front door and the river, and Damme past it. “Mine, last night, was almost a disaster.”

Uncertainly, Rosemary took a step forward and pressed her cheek to her cousin’s. “Are you okay? You didn’t say much last night.”

“Yes.” Rosewater’s eyes closed, and she bobbed her head, pressing closer. “I will recover. I’m feeling much better today than I was yesterday.” She took a deep breath and pulled back, her eyes flicking between Rosemary’s before steadying.

Rosemary’s heart fluttered. She really was worried. “I promise. I’ll come back. I’m not going to leave you.”

Rosewater’s head bobbed once in a curt nod. “I know. Stay to the west side of Damme. I fear the east side will be under a tighter watch for my incursion. And be wary when crossing the bridge. I would recommend the Primrose, but it’s far too well lit, though less guarded because of that. The Dockbridge will be barely guarded, and may—”

Rosemary stopped her with a tweak of the ear. “I know my route. I’ve spent all day researching it and talking to some of my trader friends. I’m crossing the Rosewine. There’s an alley there that I can teleport to if I need to, and the bridge is barely lit at night.”

“Okay.” Rosewater opened her mouth to say more, then shook her head. The taskmare descended again and backed away. “Veil, Rosemary. Again.”

Testing continued. She had only an hour before sundown to practice more. To make sure her gear was set. To make sure she was in the proper mindset. To make sure she would return.

Cloudy Rose sat on a cloud far above the river, her wings barely stirring to keep the cloud drifting slowly in a circle. It was lucky the night was so calm, or a single cloud drifting slowly might draw attention if anypony bothered to notice that it never seemed to leave the general vicinity of the river.

She could have sat on one of the rooftop eyries, but she would have been far more visible there, and if she needed to take off, her wings would give her away with the launch and alert her.

The stoop was swamped with shade, no street lamp being near it, as every noble house preferred on the in Merrie. But it was easy enough to tell when something started to happen.

Just past sundown, with the moon still edging above the horizon, the front door opened, and Rosewater stepped out, unveiled. That was a surprise on it’s own, and the mare’s face in the scope was drawn and tired, but a tender smile played over her lips for a moment as she looked east towards the moon.

Then she turned, drew power into her horn, and turned off all the lights in the house, and started off down the river walk, heading east, drawing eyes in that direction, towards the side of Damme that she’d caused a fuss in during the past day.

The spies on the buildings watching the various noble houses would certainly be focusing on her. Rosewater gave her cloud a cursory glance as she passed by a street lamp, and saw a flicker of shadow swing just wrongly enough that it drew her attention.

It was a classic maneuver, false shadowing. And, sure enough, a few steps later…

Cloudy stifled a curse. Rosewater vanished entirely in the full light of a streetlamp. No flash of light for a teleport, nothing but a brief flare of her horn. Another thing Rosewater could do that she hadn’t been aware of. True invisibility.

A moment spent looking for her to reappear somewhere else proved fruitless and distracted her from her real purpose for being up here. No doubt the other watchers were intent on finding the most dangerous mare in two cities, quietly starting to panic and wondering if they should send out notices to bring up reserves.

She swiveled the scope back to the place where the shadow had wavered, pulling the scope back a bit to get a wider view, focusing on the span of the river walk between the Primrose and the Highline Bridges. Then shifting further down to the space between the latter and the Rosewine, the last bridge before the Dockbridge and the bay.

Just when she was about to swivel and search for other places Rosemary might have gotten off to, and cursing herself for taking Rosewater’s offered bait, a shadow moved just slightly wrong.

If it hadn’t been such a calm night, if she hadn’t been looking for just that kind of change, she would have missed it.

There! A shadow moved without the tree that had made it moving. Then the shadow of the tree next to it shivered. It was a good veil, but whomever was casting it wasn’t used to moving from shadow to shadow.

It had to be Rosemary, and she was headed for the Rosewine.

For long minutes, she followed the inexpert shifting, noting how the pattern moved, slowly becoming more comfortable with moving from deepest shadow to deepest shadow. She always had been a fast learner, but she’d apparently fallen out of practice hiding from pegasi.

An earth pony or unicorn likely wouldn’t have noticed anything from their angle, just a shadow moving along more shadows. But from above, all the shadows acted as a web, and changes to one drew the eye more readily.

Rosemary’s darker part of the night paused at the shallow rise of the Rosewine, and the Merrieguard stationed there. The made a point of not noticing the shadow that passed between them up on to the barely lighted span, then stopped.

The Damme side of the bridge was brightly lit enough to foil any veiling but invisibility, and unless Rosemary had the talent for it… and if she didn’t, it would likely cost her.

What will you do about that?

The shadow hesitated, drifting back and forth at the edge of the light. She would have to be careful, or she’d be spotted against the backdrop of Merrie by the Dammeguard watching the span. But, instead of passing, the shadow edge back down into a hedge and disappeared. Even from above, she couldn’t see through that thick growth.

But she did catch the bright flash, and a faint pop that echoed up from the city just a few dozen yards from the river.

Both Dammeguard flinched, familiar with the sound of a teleport, and aware it meant a powerful unicorn, but their eyes turned to the river, then towards the source of the sound, both glancing at each other and clearly wondering if they wanted to face the Rose Terror.

Not so powerful as you think, fellas, but still stronger than most of the Roses. It was still an impressive, and gutsy move, and showed the tutelage of Rosewater. A year ago, she wouldn’t have said Rosemary could have teleported.

Even as she thought, she launched from her cloud and dove towards the sound as the two guards crept forward, one of them having the brilliant idea that it might not be a departure.

One of them spotted her mid-dive and waved silently.

She halted her dive long enough to give the sign of ‘observation only’ and flashed her whistle.

They conferred briefly, then returned to their posts. Collar had asked her not to let any guards confront Rosemary—including herself—and only to observe and see what she did unless she broke a law. An order that couldn’t very well be passed around openly lest it enter the gossip mill.

Cloudy finished her descent more stealthily, spreading the magic from her wings to still the turbulence of her passage and cupping them in long, slow beats before settling down with little more than a tap on the rooftop overlooking the alleyway.

Rosemary stood there, unveiled, shaking and darting looks left and right as she hid between two piles of crates, curled up to be almost invisible should somepony casually glance down the narrow corridor. She was cloaked, and while it hid most of her, even her blond forelock, there was no mistaking the bit of muzzle that peeked out or the dappling on her single visible hind leg bracing her against the wall.

But she never looked up. She never turned her eyes to the sky. Never let Cloudy see those beautiful pink eyes or the surprise when their eyes met again.

Her eyes! Let me see her eyes! Let her see me, please! Let this charade end.

Almost, she abandoned her promise and threw herself off the edge. Almost. She restrained a whimper and chewed at her lip until the urge faded, even if her chest ached with longing to hear her voice again, to hear her laugh again that happy bright laugh that brightened a room with only the sound of it.

For her. She’d always felt more alive around Rosemary.

Stop. Stop thinking. The past might not live still in her. This might not be the Rosemary she remembered.

She’d promised Collar she would only watch unless Rosemary broke the law. She wouldn’t interfere with this test.

Rosemary recovered and veiled slowly, her horn’s golden glow fading into the darkness of shadow as she pulled them about her until she became little more than a flicker of movement in the dark alley.

And she never looked up to see where the soft patter of falling water came from or from where came the stifled gasps.

Just to see her and not through a spyglass, to be close enough to talk to her.

Cloudy dashed the tears from her eyes and launched to circle the block, easily spotting Rosemary’s shadow as she passed into the open space of a boulevard, adjusting the surround of her veil, but not above. Amateurish.

It was her first time. Cloudy shook her head and refocused on just following her.

Thank the stars she’s not good at moving while Veiled.

She only caught a barest flicker of another shadow as a cat darted across the way, chasing a rat.

The shadow they’d cast had been too large to be either, but so smoothly did it vanish into the darkness again after crossing the street that Cloudy would have dismissed it any other night.

Not that night.

Somepony was stalking the stalker. Stalking her lover.

Rosewater. Sudden fear spiked her stomach as she banked to follow Rosemary’s less subtle passage. Rosewater was a threat of an entirely different scale. The chance that she hadn’t been spotted in her moment of weakness was practically nonexistent.

She could have used her distraction, used Rosemary, as a foil to capture her cleanly and without anypony else being the wiser until morning.

And Rosewater still hadn’t gone after her. The capture order hadn’t been rescinded. She knew that much wouldn’t happen in one night, which meant Rosewater should have taken the first clean opportunity to take her.

If she was still following orders.

What kind of game are you playing?

Damme at night was vastly different from her few daytime excursions as a guest years ago. The city hadn’t changed much from her memories of walking with Carnation and Rosewater through the broad boulevards, dressed in their festival finest for the annual gala.

The magnolia trees were still carefully tended so their broad, waxy leaves spread a canopy of cooling shade and channeled the cooling sea air through the hot days of summer and kept the streets freer of snow during winter than in Merrie.

How the citizens of Damme kept such tropical trees alive through the decades since they’d been planted was a guarded secret, but rumor among the Rose families was that a clan of earth ponies from far southern Saddle Arabia had settled in, living their reclusive lives and tending to the trees that reminded them so much of their varied homeland.

All myth, of course. Rosemary had it on good authority from an absolutely delightful Dammeguard that it was the breeding of the trees, crossed with some form of crystal-infused bush from farther north that gave the trees their hardiness.

The poor dear had been so flustered by her proposition that she’d felt obligated to treat the young mare to dinner at a cafe to make up for her faux pas, one sweet Rose, barely of age to drink, her Rosethorn marks not dark or light enough to be seen amid her coat and aided by judicious use of a little makeup.

And afterwards, she’d accepted one night of bliss, so sweetly ignorant of the pleasures of the flesh until Rosemary enlightened her. And such a sweet waking up, the mare had squeaked and squirmed, laughing her delight as tongue and teeth teased her teats until she’d sat up and pounced Rosemary and enthusiastically, if amateurishly, tried out everything Rosemary had taught her.

Sadly, she’d yet to run into the mare again, and the night had gone by so swiftly, and the morning so turbulently, with her rushing Rosemary across the bridge before her superiors caught up to her, that she’d forgotten to ask after her name.

No matter. She knew the mare’s face and her cutie mark.

Mayhap she’d spend a little time trying to spy her out. If she was still in the Dammeguard.

She shook her head sharply and drew herself farther into the shadows along the middle of the boulevard as a patrol passed by ahead of her, looking neither left nor right as they chattered and laughed, their voices muffled by distance and the wind blowing the wrong way.

It was a reminder of the danger she was in. She was in a city that she’d be kicked out of, at best, if she were caught in it without a proper invitation. And Rosewater would be disappointed that she’d let herself fall into a daydream.

The patrol passed on, the mare and stallion raising a raucous noise marking their position easily enough.

She drew up the mental map she’d memorized of Damme and frowned as she focused on it. She was heading north towards the Prim Palace. Probably best to avoid that area, as the patrols there would be thick and numerous, and likely more than skilled enough to spot her beginner’s veil.

To the west was the docks. Mostly filled with visitors and non-Damme ponies. It would probably be best not to antagonize another city by working on a citizen they weren’t technically at war with. Not that she intended to, but a little sweet fragrance here and there to liven a party would do wonders to hide her presence.

To the east were all the residential areas and lower end shops and services that Damme had to offer, but would also likely be heavily patrolled—for the sake of the citizenry’s comfort if nothing else. No Rose raider would be so silly as to strike the same area twice in two nights, but the populace was easily spooked.

Which left the center of the city, a place of four and five story dark stone buildings with dark windows and firmly closed doors. Apartments, offices, and government buildings. Some were craft shops of course, but none of them were open this late at night. A safer place to practice her shadow craft.

Guards were the obvious targets, but they operated in pairs most often, and finding one patrolling around a building was probably her best bet to actually try enticing somepony. Just a quick distraction to slip by and make sure she got the motion of draw, atomize, and activate down without veiling.

Rosewater had drilled her, but… as she was finding out, field work was much different from the shaded sitting room or even the obstacle course of Rosewater’s laboratory

She let out a short huff and considered the map again, eyes closed and ears alert. Close to the courtyard grounds of the palace was the prison and, while it was technically in the central district of the city, going anywhere near the Prison was an idea on par with running up to Cloudy and kissing her right there in the open.

If I see her.

Still, the idea of even trying to get a glimpse of Rose Glory through one of the windows of the Gilded Cage was tempting… Glory had been one of the few of her cousins aside from Rosewater who wasn’t openly antagonistic towards her.

That she’d been captured and was being held in Prim Prison was the talk of the town. It was… not exactly a coup, but it was big news for the war and put it back into everypony’s minds again.

Yes sir jailer, I’m here to free my cousin. Oh, what? You’re putting me into that cell? What do you mean I can’t leave?

She huffed a laugh and covered it quickly, shifting around in a circle to see if anypony was around.

Nopony but us shadows. She giggled nervously and stifled her muzzle. Idiot girl. I wasn’t ready. Stars, I wasn’t ready. She lay down behind one of the bushes to consider her next move, ears twitching as she listened for anything that might indicate she’d been heard or seen.

There, she relaxed her veiling, trusting in her dark cloak to hide her from casual observation and settled in to recover a little more magic before continuing on, and considered whether or not she should pop one of the stamina candies now or wait.

Cloudy stayed high, watching both Rosemary’s pattern of movement, learning how the mare worked in the shadows—not well—and Rosewater’s increasingly familiar pattern of movement.

It was the latter mare that she had to spend more time watching and even simply looking for. She was damnably good at making sure her veil matched her surroundings, and only when she moved to keep up with Rosemary was Cloudy able to spot her again, even if she knew where to look.

Meanwhile, Cloudy at least hadn’t had to intervene on Rosemary’s behalf with any guards or wonder what might have happened did she. A part of that, when she risked landing in an alleyway behind and peeking out around a corner, was due to the face that the mare was very good at veiling from street level.

Makes sense… Rosewater, unless she stood on a chair and stared down at the mare, could hardly comment on what things looked like from above.

She took off again before Rosewater could reposition herself, grateful for the hood and cloak to hide her cutie mark and face.

But even with all the noise she made flapping it about above and both taking off and landing, Rosemary still didn’t look up. She looked side-to-side, yes, but not up except maybe once every few minutes, as if she’d had to remind herself to do so.

You need to look up, dear heart. But she couldn’t just go up to her and smack her flank, as much as she wanted to.

So far, her presence in the air was keeping away other patrolling pegasi, but that wouldn’t be true forever. She was already tiring from the exertion of staying airborne for an extended period, and she’d have to go back to the palace soon and report.

Before she did, she might have to scare Rosemary back across the river. Another of the Dammeguard would not be interested in observation, and she didn’t want to think what might happen if Rosemary was forced into a confrontation.

First… she needed to do something about her seeming inability to remember to look up.

Another intersection.

Another four directions to go.

North and south led to the palace and the river, two of the most heavily guarded place in Damme.

She spun a pirouette, came down on silent hooves in a random direction and set off, orienting her map. Little chance of divining exactly where to go since she had no concrete mission, so she might as well just go somewhere.

West. To the sea, towards some of the larger parks in Damme that were visible even from Rosewine Hill in Merrie, though only in strips seen through the streets and buildings, and the meadow of blue flowers there that were some of the only flowering plants she knew of in the entire city.

Prim Prance Park.

She’d just barely started out on her new ‘mission’ to explore the park when a whisper of wind carried the beating of wings to her from somewhere high above.

Pegasus. A dim shadow flitted across the street to her right, then to her left as the guard, and it could only be a guard this late after Damme’s normal curfew.

Stay still. Absolutely still. Motion was far, far easier to spot than something which could be simply a pattern of shadows on the stone. The trick, as Rosewater had explained, was to make sure that the veiling shifted with movement, paying attention to shadows and light to adjust the spell on the fly.

That was the hardest part. She’d never been particularly good at maintaining a constant mist-weaving. Even when she was masturbating with one, it was hard, but she had a lot more practice doing that. And that, really, was just using telekinesis. This was mist-weaving on a different level entirely.

The shadow crossed the street again, larger and lower, and the beating of wings heavier. A courier. Not a soldier. That had to be a courier carrying a heavy package.

Rosemary relaxed minutely, but kept her eyes on the sky as she continued on.

Stars, filly, finally.

Cloudy staggered in midair and dove for a flat building along the route Rosemary was taking. She hadn’t intended to spend so much time flapping about like a grounded bird, using almost none of her magic to stay aloft, and her wings were dead tired. The rest of her hadn’t faired much better.

She landed, wobbled, and braced herself against the chimney, her legs wobbly, her sides aching, and a cramp already starting at the bases of her wings.

That was stupid.

But… down below, it was harder to make out Rosemary. She was still there, but even from the low angle of the rooftop, she could tell that Rosemary had started paying attention to the sky again from the way the dappled shadows of the trees moved with her. At a jerky, halting motion, but they moved instead of staying static from one moment to the next.

A whisper of wind drifted across her ears, carrying Rosewater’s voice so softly it almost wasn’t there.

“Thank you.”

Cloudy startled and looked over the side of the building to her right. Briefly, Rosewater’s face appeared in the murky gloom, then vanished again with a wink.

What in Tartarus?

Another whisper came, this time from her left, “Why?”

Rosemary was moving on to the next intersection, and if she did the same thing, that silly blind pirouette, Cloudy wasn’t sure she could keep up if she moved too far off course.

“Because your cousin is awful at this,” she whispered as she tested her wings, ready to leap across to the next rooftop. She trusted Rosewater was listening using some means. “And I still…”

Why am I telling her?

Cloudy stopped at the edge of the roof and looked down, then across the intersection. Rosemary had already kept on going straight west, and if she kept up, she’d hit…

Primline Park was ahead, visible in the nighttime gloom some five hundred tails down the road. Barely guarded, open, and covered with a scattering of blue flowers, of course that would be where Rosemary was drawn to, even if she did that silly ‘I don’t know which way I’m going’ dance.

Once more, Cloudy called on her magic to make the leap easier, her wings cut through the air, and she gained some altitude, but almost not quite enough to make the next building. Only a sudden bubble of pink magic stifled her landing, and a telekinetic shove got her fully onto the roof.

“You need to go home.”

“Why even help me?” Cloudy growled. Safe in the bubble of silence, she didn’t bother to hide her irritation. “You tried to capture me!”

“You helped my cousin learn a valuable lesson. I repay my debts.” Rosewater’s voice came more clearly, and she didn’t deny the accusation. The bubble faded, and sound resumed, bringing with it the sound of guards laughing it up just down the street.

Down below, Rosemary crouched slipped into the shadows of an alleyway, all but disappearing into it, then dropped her veil in the deepest part of the shadows. Or… not dropped. It sputtered and went out.

Stars, she’s just as exhausted as I am.

As she watched, and tracked the guards as they turned down the street, Rosemary pulled something out, ate it, and a moment later breathed out a trail of green sparks. She veiled a second later and started south immediately, keeping to the deepest shadows.

“She returns home. You should, too.”

“Rut that.” Cloudy started to the edge, and stopped when a band snapped around her hind leg.

“You can’t fly in your condition.”

“Then give me one of those,” Cloudy growled, snapping the restraint with a sharp tug. “I know you have some.”

“Stubborn fool. At least now I know why she loves you.” Rosewater sent a puff of air to flash past her ear. “Go home.”

“I can blow my whistle and have you surrounded in seconds,” Cloudy growled. “Give me a damn candy.”

“Citrus Circus.” A dark cloth packet, twisted at both ends, rose up and hovered before her.

Cloudy let it drop into the cup of her hoof and leaned over the side to look down the narrow alley. Rosewater’s face looked back up at her, serious eyes studying Cloudy’s cloaked form.

Her lips moved, a soft pink glow covering her mouth, and another breeze touched her ear, whispering, “Go home, Cloudy Rosewing.”

As she watched, Rosewater faded into mist and shade, and the wrapper untwisted itself to reveal the candy nestled inside.

Cloudy knew Citrus Circus. She’d abused it often enough on watch to stay steady during late nights, but this… smelled different, and its core seemed to hold a fire in it that could only have come from a unicorn’s spell. One of Rosewater’s specially enchanted candies.

It was a risk, a huge risk, but she couldn’t let Rosemary be captured. She couldn’t see that free spirit dragged to prison, forced to endure monotony and loneliness.

Cloudy popped it into her mouth and chewed. Immediately, all of her senses exploded with information. The light from the moon blazed like the sun for a brief second, then faded as the edge wore off and the magic melted through her body, reinvigorating her legs until she felt like she could leap across the street without using her wings, and fly to the moon and back.

She could even see Rosewater below, crossing the street. Not clearly, but the outline of her through the mist wasn’t quite so fuzzy, the shadows not as deep.

Why don’t you use these all the time? They were so much more potent than the candies that she remembered, so much more useful.

Rosemary was even easier to find than Rosewater had been, almost completely visible to her enhanced senses, and it was so easy to keep up with her, not even needing to land, but circling high and low as she made her steady way, far too quickly for Cloudy’s tastes.

The reason why Rosewater didn’t use them became apparent not even five minutes after taking the candy, as all the energy started to leave her and the aches and pains of her earlier exertions piled back up again.

Panic surged through her as she started descending more and more rapidly, her bubble of calm air shredding itself to pieces the more and more frantically she tried to keep it together. She couldn’t even make herself glide very well, and only managed, barely, to keep from plummeting straight down into the middle of a building’s roof.

She at least managed to get her hooves under her again before—

Magic enfolded her in a shimmering web of fine lines of force, catching her and slowing her descent, guiding her away from buildings and walls to land in a heap at Rosewater’s hooves in the middle of an alleyway.

Unveiled, uncloaked, only a hundred paces from the river’s edge. She could easily teleport herself and Cloudy across, and that would be it. She’d never see Collar again, most likely, and she’d never see Rosemary.

A dim light played over her as Rosewater flipped back her cloak and checked her wings, then her legs, spells probing at muscle and bones, pausing at her cutie mark.

Cloudy tried in vain to keep her hood up when Rosewater tugged it back.

“So… we meet at last, Cloudy Rose,” Rosewater whispered. “If I’d known you were also Collar’s favorite pegasus…” She clucked her tongue and shook her head. “Fool.”

“Sorry, Collar,” Cloudy managed to whisper before darkness closed over her, leaving her helpless at the hooves of her greatest enemy.

Author's Notes:

This was almost a complete rewrite of some scenes. Good grief. Blahhh. Haha! It was also fun to get it working, and far easier than it was writing it the first time.