The Primrose War

“’’Ey! Cloudy,” the bartender, Bridgewater, called as soon as she came in. “Thought it was gonna be a slow night for once.”

“You wish,” Cloudy shot back, holding open the door for a few more ponies to wander in. Mostly those that had cared for Rosemary or been her conversational companions over the last weeks. “We’re gonna take a corner booth. Rounds on me.”

Bridgewater eyed her for a moment, squinted, and called to the back, “Silver, honey, Cloudy’s here with company.”

Silver Tap, a mare with a smile worth as much as her name, poked her head out and clucked her tongue. “You’re late, Cloudy. Curfew’s about to begin.”

“It’s not mandatory tonight,” Cloudy said, waving a hoof at the larger corner table as she hiked her way up to the bar. “’Sides, we’re guards. Curfew doesn’t really apply to us.”

Silver gave her a longer look, then glanced at her husband and sighed. “Alright. Rounds on you, I heard.” When Cloudy nodded, she sighed again and ducked back into the back, calling over her shoulder, “Be a few. Haveta clean some glasses.”

Cloudy wandered back to where her small cadre was settling in around the table and drew in a deep breath. She knew these ponies. She’d worked with them for two years, and they liked and trusted her. Else, they wouldn’t have included her in the first bar-run to the Bilge more than a year ago. They believed her story, and looked to Collar for guidance just as she had.

Poppy pushed out a seat for her. “Come on, LT. You dragged us out here for something, right?”

“I bet she’s sweet on Rosemary,” Platinum stage-whispered, “and she’s about to tell us that.”

“As a matter of fact,” Cloudy growled mock-severely, and took the offered seat. “I am. She was my closest lover in Merrie before I had to flee. But this isn’t about that. I’ve received word from Collar that Rosewater will be entering the city, under treaty-flag and without escort, tomorrow. It’s the ‘without escort’ part I want to talk to you about.”

Wary looks met her from all corners. Poppy, it seemed, was trying to look as wary as the rest, but a subtle shift of his eyes followed by a tightening of his lips betrayed the acting. Curious, but she knew, and the rumor mill was flying, that he was involved somehow with Rose Glory, despite his official orders being treatment of an injury sustained during capture.

It had been a bruise that was already well past the time it should have been healed.

“Why?” Prim Shine asked, accompanied by several nods around the table. “That’s not going to stop rotten tomatoes from flying. I didn’t think she was stupid.”

“She’s not,” Cloudy shot back. “She’s trying to… I don’t know.” She did know, but… “What would you do if you had a terrible reputation in Merrie, and wanted to visit somepony who meant a lot to you without needing to go through a complicated process to see them?”

Again, Poppy’s eyes darted about before he settled down in discontented silence. The faces around the table weren’t exactly welcoming to the idea, as much as they all liked Rosemary and agreed she was an exception to the usual Rosethorn aggressive ‘love.’ That was a far cry from saying that Rosewater, one of the most terrifying and effective infiltrators that Merrie had ever produced, was really just a misunderstood mare trying her best in a bad situation.

Platinum coughed and raised a hoof, then pressed her lips tightly closed as Silver came out with a platter of mugs hovering over her horn.

“Top shelf ale,” Silver said as the seven mugs got passed around. “Not watered down or anything.”

Cloudy winced and started counting out bits from her pouch. “That’s, what? Seven bits?”

“Eight. Prices went up from the distillery.” Silver waited on the last mug before the last bit hit the table. “There you go, sweetie. Enjoy!”

Platinum started right back up again, “Rosemary’s tried to get me to look at her cousin in a different light when…” She swallowed. “When we had our little talks on the bridge. She told me some of the ways she fights Roseate in little ways that won’t get her exiled. And that claiming Collar as her mate… well, that was just to keep Roseate from going after him.” She shot Cloudy a look. “You’ve been doing the whole ‘I’m Collar’s mate’ thing for a while now, why haven’t you, or he, popped the question?”

Cloudy stared at her, along with everypony else at the table.

She shrugged. “It just seems like the question to ask. You get married, problem over. Roseate can’t go after you without violating the treaty. It seems like Lady Lace accepts you, too.”

“We have…” Cloudy coughed and looked aside. “There are personal considerations.” Before Rosewater, it had been Collar’s insistence on not chaining her to him by Damme law. As much as she had appreciated that at the time, it had made their relationship draw more than a few eyes.

Now, Rosewater’s gambit was making things even more complicated. Especially when it came to explaining things.

None of the Dammers around the table questioned that. It was the way of Damme to leave each others’ love lives alone. At least in polite Damme society. There were more than enough gossip-mongers to make the gap between Merrie and Damme seem less like a canyon and more like a shallow stream.

“This is about Rosewater,” Cloudy said after a long draw on her ale. It was top-shelf. The bitter and sweet notes combined on her tongue and in her nose, drawing her deeper into it. And it wasn’t even watered down a little. “I’ve been in the negotiation process because I need to learn the diplomatic side of things. I’ve talked with her, worked with her to try and get a suitable agreement in place. She’s not the monster that she seems to us. Even to me, when I lived in Merrie. She’s intelligent, and she truly loves Rosemary, and Rosemary loves her.”

Poppy nodded slowly, and Platinum joined a second later after giving the diminutive medic a curious look. The rest of them, Shine, Drop, Quill, and Note, shared looks with each other.

Note was the first to speak up, “I admit that there are some Roses across the river, even some Rosethorns, that seem to be fascinating in their lives and mores. They’re not all monsters, and not all aligned with Roseate. Not even a significant percentage of them. But… Rosewater?”

Quill coughed and glanced pointedly at Poppy, then leaned against the table. “I’m not even sure why I’m here. I mean, sure, Glory isn’t a terrible mare. I’ve talked to her often enough that I know she was caught in a bad situation against her will, but she doesn’t say much about Rosewater. The others in the Jail Corps don’t talk with her much. She scares them, I think.”

“That’s why you’re here,” Cloudy said before anypony else could say anything. “You’re not steeped in your prejudices, Quill. You’ve seen the Roses, and the Rosethorn branch especially as not a unified lot of ponies with a single purpose. They’re fractious, contentious, and they all work for their mother because of various reasons, most of them unwillingly. Rosewater is the only one who actively opposes her.”

“Why is that?” Drop asked, raising a brow and glancing around the table. “Am I missing something?”

Prim Note hesitated with his hoof half raised, looking to Cloudy for permission, then lowering it and leaning forward. “Because of the treaty. I’ve done a lot of digging into the history of Merrie and Damme and the treaty. Roseate can’t disown her or exile her unless she crosses several lines. I have a feeling that Rosewater trying to find a mate isn’t going to be a good enough reason.”

“I’ve always wondered why Celestia didn’t just force the war to end,” Shine grumbled, brows furrowed, thinking. “Where might we be if that had happened?”

“Which philosophy would come out on top?” Cloudy asked. “There’s no doubt they could have done it. The Equestrian Army at the time numbered large enough to subdue the entire region, but that has never been Princess Celestia’s preferred method of encouraging unity.”

“The army was also occupied at the time, and even more occupied now,” Note said in a low voice, grinning. “Merrie and Damme became a low simmer kind of worry once the fighting stopped. The Everfree’s growing still, and it’s a breeding ground for monsters; even back then it was a worrying, if minor threat. Dealing with our little border dispute has always been a lesser concern for her.”

Thoughtful faces nodded slowly.

Poppy raised a hoof and cleared his throat. “Is that why you’re talking to us about Rosewater, Cloudy? Because you think this might be an opportunity to… what?”

“Make a friend out of an enemy,” Cloudy said softly, leaning in close and thanking Poppy for the open invitation to get to the point. “I don’t think Rosewater is who we thought. Even I was scared of her when I lived in Merrie and did my best to stay out of her way. Ponies that got close to her got hurt was all I really knew. But, having talked to her, I think it’s more because of her mother than her own actions.”

“And why us?” Shine asked. “Why talk to us about it? What are we going to do? Of us all, only Drop is high enough of a rank to do much about it.” He nodded to Cloudy’s former commander, now a left-hoof of Pink’s and only nominally in the chain of command. Now, with Cloudy the apparent heir-consort, even that apparent dotted-line superior status was in question. “You have the most power of all of us to influence Collar, Lace, and…”

“Dapper?” Cloudy asked, raising a brow and smiling first at Shine and then winking at Drop. “I’m talking to you because… I’m trying to say that I was wrong about Rosewater. She’s not who we thought. I’m talking to you because I want your help. I think this is our best bet to actually pull off what Corsage and Ascot tried, and I don’t want rumor and supposition to be the downfall.”

Note raised a hoof, lowered it, and sighed.

“What is it, Note?”

“You realize that Ascot and Corsage were lovers, right? They weren’t involved in negotiations. They saw each other without the baggage their families carried, and they were never…” Note frowned and cocked his head to the side. “There are some accounts that say they were enemies at first. Did you go reading histories, Cloudy?”

“Yes, but not for that.” Cloudy forced her face to impassivity. “Corsage and Ascot wanted to end the war so they could be together, yes, but also so their friends and children could live without worrying about what the war would do to them on either side.”

Note studied her for a long time, taking a sip of his ale, and setting it down before he looked around the table. “I’m in. What do you want us to do?”

Startled noises came from around the table as ponies shifted their attention from her to Note.

Note, calmly, smile and raised a hoof. “My reasoning is simple. Even if Rosewater’s intent is to court Collar, and I don’t think it is, making a friend of the presumptive heir of Merrie can have only good future ramifications. If it is her intent, Collar is already spoken for by our comrade, and she’s unlikely to succeed.”

“And if she does?” Shine asked a second ahead of Drop.

“We gain nothing by making an enemy of her, and everything to gain by befriending her. If she does succeed in wooing Collar…” Note shrugged. “It would likely be for political reasons. Ending the war… it’s something all of us have dreamt of. Though, maybe not quite this way.” He grinned and took another sip of his ale. “That about the flavor of it, Cloudy?”

How much do you know, Note? How much do you listen to that you shouldn’t?

Aloud, she said, “That’s about it. I would prefer not to lose my lover, even for ending the war. I love Collar, have no doubt, and I won’t give him up without a fight.”

That settled most of the ones starting to agitate. For now, it would be safe to let them believe that it meant she would accept it only as a Damme marriage. None of them save Note seemed to think even close to lines along the reality of the situation.

“What I want you to do,” Cloudy said softly, leaning in closer and making the others lean in, “is get to know her. Don’t judge her by what you think you know. Judge her by what she does from now on. Counter any rumors you hear with what you know. And stop ponies from calling her the Rose Terror. That nonsense started in Merrie, probably by her mother, after the duel six years ago. You remember that?”

A few of the older ponies nodded, but the rest just looked confused.

“Rosewater dueled her mother in the Merrie Grounds. According to the reports, it wasn’t even a contest,” Drop said, glancing at Cloudy. “Rosewater won and walked out fifteen minutes later, uncontested. You were there, I heard, Cloudy.”

“I was. Rosewater didn’t even react to the spells Roseate threw at her.” The memory of that fight still haunted her. The screams from Roseate had started early, but still the spells from her flew in more and more inchoate patterns, wild and unpredictable and growing stronger and weaker with the rise and fall of the volume of her terror. “Rosewater… incapacitated her with a single spell.”

“You’re not exactly arguing for her favor,” Platinum noted, frowning. “That’s pretty damn scary if you ask me.”

“It’s the why,” Cloudy protested, tapping a hoof on the table. “She did it for Rosemary. I… don’t know the why yet, but she’s talked a little about it during breaks in negotiations. I think, though, that Roseate was arguing that Rosemary should go with her mother so they wouldn’t be separated. Tearing her from the city she’d known at such a young age. I think that’s why. Rosewater fought to keep her here, at Carnation’s request.”

She would have to ask Rosewater point blank, later. She didn’t know enough.

And she knew too much.

“I’m in,” Platinum said, tapping her hoof on the table. “I like Rosemary. Spunky mare. I’m glad she didn’t get exiled.”

“I’m in,” Poppy said, leaning forward and glancing between Note and Platinum. “I’ve helped the ponies that Rosewater abducted. The ones we know about. She never forced them to do anything, and let them go quickly and cleanly. Not like the other abductees. None of hers had to be hot boxed and detoxified. I think she was doing her best to keep them safe and still follow orders.”

Poppy endured the searching looks the rest of the bunch leveled at him and returned the looks with the surety of a medic who knew what he was talking about.

“Fine.” Shine drained his mug and tapped it on the table. “Count me in. Poppy’s right. I’ve seen the ones that Rosewater wasn’t responsible for. Sloppy work. The ones Rosewater was responsible for just acted like they were sleepy for a day or two and then they were fine.”

Drop sighed and shook his head. “I have to run this by the Captain. This sounds too much like unsanctioned action, Cloudy. None of you do anything until I get her okay. But… provisionally, you’ve all made good points. I’ll present it fairly to her as a clandestine internal op.”

“That’s all I can ask, Drop. That’s another reason I asked. Pink already has me on her short list, so…” Cloudy grinned as Drop rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve always been on her short list.”

“She expects a lot from you,” Drop said, shrugging. “Because Collar expected a lot from you. You haven’t let her down much.” He drained his mug and slid it to the center of the table. “Let’s call it a night. All of you get rest or go on shift.”

A chorus of assent and draining mugs sounded from around the table.

“Thank you all,” Cloudy said as she slid out of her chair and began following the rest to the door. “Don’t tell anyone else about this meeting yet. This is very much a delicate situation.”

Behind her, Bridgewater muttered something about crazy Dammeguard and called on Silver to start closing down the tavern.

The flight home, and thinking of the Palace as home was a big change, with Drop accompanying her was short but tense. She could feel her superior bursting with questions and curiosity and why she’d apparently taken the initiative when she’d been the most ferociously protective of Collar from Rosewater’s attentions not even a month ago.

Things change fast, Drop, she thought at him, hoping he would hear it and knowing he wouldn’t. She focused on keeping pace with him instead of sweeping ahead. She hoped she could talk to him briefly, and alone, once they landed in the courtyard.

Instead, he gave her a salute as soon as they passed over the outer limit of the Prim Palace courtyard area and peeled off towards the tower at the edge that served as officer’s quarters for the Dammeguard.

Cloudy sighed and returned the salute belatedly and descended towards the steps where she could see Collar waiting for her with Dapper keeping an eye on the sky with him.

“My lord.” Cloudy bowed and immediately regretted her formality.

“Nope.” Dapper nipped her ear before she could raise her head. “Dapper, young lady. You’re my son’s mate. You call me Dapper.”

She’d learned that lesson the hard way when she’d first started having regular sex with Collar. Of course he’d smelled it on both of them. Lace had been oblivious until he brought it up. Or, supposedly oblivious. No doubt she noticed the difference in the way her son behaved but, in traditional Dammer fashion, had kept her nose out of her son’s love life.

“Dapper, Collar,” Cloudy said, sticking her tongue out at the elder baron and nuzzling Collar’s cheek.

“How’d it go?” Collar asked, then winced and cast a spell to silence the area around them, and another spell opaqued the wall, both of them weaving together easily. “How was the reception?”

Cloudy sighed and glanced at Dapper. “Lace keeps you informed on what goes on in negotiations?”

“And so does Rosemary.” Dapper winked and danced ahead of her gaping stare. “Come now, dear. You and Rosemary are the only Merriers I’ve had contact with that don’t look at me like a traitor for marrying Lace. I really should have approached you before, you know.”

“Dad,” Collar groaned, rolling his eyes. “You know that would have looked suspicious. You don’t just approach a Merrier and talk to her without it looking like you’re trying to start a tradition of marrying a Merrier.”

“Turns out I didn’t need to.”

“Yes, yes.” Collar chuckled and turned his attention back to Cloudy. “How’d it go, love? Did they listen?”

“Yes. Mostly. Drop was the only holdout, and he mostly because he thought it might look like circumventing Captain Pink.” Cloudy’s ears dropped as she considered the night’s conversations, Note and Poppy looking suspicious, Platinum being… Platinum and direct. “There was a lot of discussion about why I was trying to get them to fight. Corsage and Ascot came up in the discussion.”

Collar sucked in a breath. “One of our darker moments in history. Who brought that up?”

“Note.”

“He would… he’s as much of a bookworm as he is a musical enthusiast.” Collar mulled that over while Dapper chuckled to himself as they walked ahead, Collar’s path taking them towards Rosemary’s floor. “Did they make the connection to Rosewater’s ‘courting’?”

“It took them two seconds,” Cloudy groused.

“Of course it did.” Collar sighed and rubbed at his muzzle, then started up the stairs. “I’m still not sure about this plan, Cloudy. I don’t want her. I want you. And only you.”

And I want you and Rosemary. Cloudy almost blurted it, but hung onto it and the frustration came out as a growl.

“And Rosemary,” Dapper quipped from the landing ahead. “Don’t forget Rosemary, Collar. Cloudy wants to marry her still.”

“Dapper!” Cloudy hissed, prancing ahead to nip at his ear. “Don’t push him.”

He easily evaded her and nipped her ear in return. “Somepony needs to.”

“You two realize I can hear you, right?” Collar asked dryly. “I don’t suddenly turn incorporeal when you argue with each other.”

“Why not?” Dapper asked, grinning as Collar caught up to them. “It’s not polite to listen into private arguments.”

Collar rolled his eyes and nipped Dapper’s ear, then Cloudy’s. “I have been thinking about it. You won’t let me stop thinking about it. Forgive me for being considerate of the mores of my ponies and their expectations. Now, Cloudy, tell me what happened.”

She filled them in, repeating as much as she could remember of the exact wording and order of conversation, glad that she was doing it now while it was still fresh, and they slowed as both Dapper and Collar asked questions and dragged out more details, lingering halfway down the long walkway to the guest quarters.

They stopped in front of Rosemary’s door, and Collar shifted his attention between the two of them before he nuzzled his father’s cheek. “Get to bed, dad. Lace will come looking for you soon.”

“I’ll talk to Captain Pink first and give the order to allow the operation,” Dapper said, his voice musing and his look a mix of excitement and relish. He didn’t share what he was so eager to do, and winked when Collar gave him a questioning look before dashing off.

“I have a feeling,” Collar muttered as he rubbed his muzzle and watched his father leap over the railing and snap his wings out to sail down towards the baronal quarters, “that he’s going to cause a mess that’s going to make it harder for me to avoid Rosewater.”

“Is that a bad thing? I told you about our chase. I told you about her, and my feeling about her. I want to see more of her, and if… well, I saw the reports this afternoon. She kept her promise.”

Collar closed his eyes and leaned his head against hers. “I don’t want to lose you, Cloudy. I don’t want any of this to take me on a path that takes me away from you.”

“You won’t,” she murmured. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Before Cloudy woke, her wings loose on her sides, Collar was preparing for the day. Today he would decide when his first ‘date’ with Rosewater was. Whatever else happened today, it seemed that nothing else was more likely to cause a bit of chaos in his life.

Whatever she did, whatever he did, or said, this was completely outside his intent when he’d first started seeing Cloudy.

By then, she’d already had several flings with some of her fellow guard-ponies, but they weren’t sexual, or not that he’d heard anyway. The need to keep them quiet in Damme was more pressing than it would have been in Merrie, and yet Cloudy had been determined from the start not to become only another Dammer.

It was part of what excited him about her, the defiance of norms.

Have I always been… The idea faded away as Cloudy shifted in her sleep, close to waking he knew, and flexed her wings minutely. She was beautiful, and strong, and opinionated. She knew what she wanted from the world and pursued it relentlessly.

Is Rosewater who you want to pursue next?

Her words from last night came back to him briefly as he settled his day back about his shoulders. She could sleep off the last of the Dammerale from last night without him.

Priceless was already in his workroom, the scrolls upon scrolls of reports from various grain merchants and haulers and the more orderly stack from the Farmer’s guild of Dammehollow scattered across the central desk as he translated them into tables and figures, marking the source off after each one.

“You’re here early,” Priceless grumbled, not pausing.

Collar silenced the room against intrusion and threw the bolt on the door. “I… have some questions. About Rosewater.”

That did stop the quick scratching of quill against parchment. “Your mother has informed me of the plan she came up with.”

“That makes this easier, then.” Collar pulled out one of his own scrolls from his day bag and lay it on the table. “I made a list of questions.”

A moment’s perusal sent both of Priceless’s eyebrows almost to his whitening mane. “This is all about her father.”

“At this point, he is the most unknown part of the equation regarding who she is.”

“You realize that most of the sources I could ask will have long-forgotten about him in the past two decades.” It wasn’t a question.

“Most. But not all. What about Prim Pantry? He would have had more chance to deal with Blue Star than most.” Collar highlighted the speculation on the scroll before Priceless found it. “He was always talking with the knights when the came into town. I think he said at one point that he wished he could have been one as a foal.”

“I do recall that.”

“You were good friends with him, weren’t you?” What little he could remember of the old seneschal, Rosemary’s target, had come from reviewing his own memories and asking his mother what he was like, and why he might be a target.

“Aye. He taught me a lot about managing trade. He dabbled in everything.” Priceless sat back and rubbed at his chin with a hoof. “I don’t recall him saying much about Blue Star, other than it being a shame such a good stallion met such an end.”

“What end?”

“Illness of the bones, I think. I don’t recall much, but us old ponies worry about what might take us. He had all the signs, you know. Far too young.” The older stallion shook his head slowly, sucking at his lip. “Always a shame. Alright. I’ll see who I can shuffle up who might know something. Might need to write to Canterlot, though. I’ve got a trade factor quill pal I trade letters with who might know, or be able to get, more.”

“Anything you can gather would be wonderful. I want to know what her early life was like, with him.”

“You can always ask her,” Priceless said with a huff. “She’d know more than anypony else alive, I’d wager.”

Collar winced and rubbed at his ankle. “I know. But Rosemary’s… she’s said it’s a sensitive subject with her, and even she doesn’t know much. Carnation might, but she’s all the way… who knows where.”

“You understand this will be mostly second or third-hoof information, right?” Priceless made a tick next to one of the questions as he read it more carefully. “And more than twenty years old.”

“I know. But… anything you can get me to find out what kind of pony Blue Star was would be helpful.” Who he’d been had to have been the reason Rosewater wasn’t more aligned with her mother, the reason Rosemary loved her and had turned out so well adjusted.

He wanted to surprise her.