After a night of lovemaking, of cards, laughs, perhaps a bit too much wine after the first hoof, the absence of anxiety felt like waking in a dream without truly being awake.

It was the warmth and weight of two bodies bracketing her instead of the chill of an empty bed that convinced her it wasn’t a dream, and the wing resting over her back, soft mane against her cheek, told her who was on her left.

“Morning,” Dazzle murmured against her other cheek.

“Early riser?” Rosewater whispered, coming awake fully in a moment, then settling back and rolling her cheek against Bliss’s, still fully asleep, or on the verge of waking. Here, the sounds of the countryside were more prominent than those of a city. Birds still sang as the sun crept over the eastern horizon, but they were sharper, clearer, closer.

Even the distant rattle of carts and the occasional morning greeting hollered from afar was crystalline compared to the muffled and dank way such sounds usually crawled into her life.

Even the glow from the morning sun wasn’t creeping into her windows and past her curtains. It didn’t need to creep through the wide open, unshuttered window bereft of dressing.

“I’ve seen where you live,” Dazzle murmured in her ear, a kiss settling in behind it as he breathed in slowly, then let it out in her mane. “I thought you might like a wide open waking for once.”

Her coat shivered once as the wind shifted and blew in through the open window, carrying with it the fragrance of breakfast cooking, and both tea and coffee brewing.

“I can close—”

“No.” Rosewater shook her head slightly. “No, it’s okay. Open windows… make me nervous. But I need to get past that.”

His look of genuine concern hurt.

“It’s not that bad,” she said, defensive.

“Except—” Bliss yawned loudly and rolled over on her side, stretching her hind and forelegs out.

“It is,” Dazzle finished for her. He nibbled her ear and ducked his head to intercept a kiss from Bliss, sharing it briefly before both of them pressed lips to either side of her muzzle.

There, caught between two warm bodies, with the achingly beautiful open day ahead of her, it was hard to deny the truth of their words. Memories of last night compounded the ache in her heart.

More than sex. More than intimacy.

She’d been open with them. Herself. A being she’d not felt since before Carnation’s last week. The laughter had been real. The joking and teasing had been in earnest, and her deep feeling of contentment as they all lay together after the final throes of intercourse ebbed into the slow-creeping exhaustion had been honest.

“You belong here, now,” Bliss murmured against her cheek. “And you’re invited to breakfast, of course.”

At that very moment, a knock and creak announced their morning concierge service.

Roselyn poked her head in, fiery mane aglow in the morning light streaming through the room. “Hey, so… breakfast is almost ready. Petal asked me to see if you were up.” Her eyes danced over them, her smile growing into a fierce, almost feral grin. “It looks and smells like you had a good reason to sleep in.”

Dazzle rolled his eyes. “Scamp. Go tell Petal we—” He glanced at Rosewater.

“We’ll be down after a quick trip to the baths,” Rosewater said evenly, smiling. “And thank you, Roselyn, for the warm candle-lit welcome last night.”

The younger mare beamed and pranced backwards, bobbing her head. “Of course! I, um…” She glanced left and right down the hallway. “I have a question for you when you’re more awake. About candles.”

“They make terrible dildos,” Dazzle offered with a sly grin.

Bliss rolled her eyes and rose to give the younger mare a kiss on the lips. “We’ll be along after a quick dip.”

“I really would like your help later,” Roselyn was saying as Rosewater chewed slowly on her last bite of Soufflish, as Prism jokingly called it. “I want to refine my approach to neutralizing scents. I set up a full sampling of my personal candle collection, and then set up my current best neutralizers in my room to keep what I let off, and what you and Dazzle both added fresh and unimpeded.”

“It was a great effect,” Rosewater said with a chuckle. “You’re talented, I’ll give you that.” The mare beamed up at her before Rosewater came in with the but. “But… there is an art to neutralizing scents. And a bit of science. Neutralizing one scent is best. It allows you to focus all the efforts in that one thing. There are powerful astringents that can neutralize all, but they’re caustic and will evaporate quickly. The best bet, with a candle, would be to choose one target for a batch of wax and build up that one thing. For example, a strong peppermint smell to fight off lust bound with a faint hint of vanilla to keep it from being too astringent.”

Roselyn pursed her lips and nodded. “And if I want to counter a specific somepony’s lust?”

“Then you have to get creative. I take it you mean a certain somepony we both know about?” Rosewater pursed her lips. “I’ve been working on that myself, but they’re also skilled at countering counters. It would never be the same scent every time, and their talent makes it hard to get around anyway.”

Roselyn sighed and leaned forward to slip her tongue under a slice of egg and fish and chewed thoughtfully. “Candles,” she said around her mouthful of food, “can be more potent than perfumes for certain warm scents. Perfumes, I think, are better for cooler scents like peppermint. I’d like your help, specifically, with some mulling wine spices, not the wine. I want to isolate the aromatics. They’re heartwarming, not lusty.”

The younger mare wasn’t wrong about perfumes being better for cooler scents. Rosewater nodded along and dabbed her lips before she nibbled thoughtfully at the edge of a tart.

“That might work. Lust is a heart-bound emotion. Warming the heart might work against the fiery lust, but it might also make a pony more susceptible unless…” She suckled the tip of the ear. “You need to activate the scents before they’re added to the wax.”

Roselyn grunted and flicked her ear. “That was my thinking, too. But that really limits their shelf life. Like, down to a week.”

“I can look into stabilizing spells. They’re hard for perfumes because they dissipate so rapidly, but for a candle, having the matrix of the wax… and maybe…” Rosewater would have to talk to a smith about making silver and gold inlaid candlestick embrasures. They could be reused, and used to lay down an enchantment to hold the scent ready to be activated with heat. “Silver Drop might be able to make some silver candlestick holders that can hold a charm. But she’s one pony.”

Several ponies shot her curious looks, apparently unaware that she knew Silver Drop.

Petal nodded and met the eyes of several ponies who looked to her for confirmation. “If you can get me a design, I can see about having the Garden finance the creation. We can’t be unprotected if we’re infiltrated.”

Silence descended over the room for several moments.

“It won’t come to that, will it?” White Rose asked, her mane and coat both a pure white, her eyes more darkly pink than most, the Rosethorn marks on her muzzle and cheeks darker by contrast than they would have been elsewise as a fairly distant relation. “We’re a community of families, not partisans.”

“It won’t,” Seed said, leaning against Petal before she could answer into the worried quiet that settled in. “We’re taking no action, and no side but our own, as it has always been. Rosewine Hill stands tall and proud.”

Petal’s uncertain glance at Rosewater didn’t do much to allay her fears that she was bringing undue attention to the community of vintners and craftsponies.

“I—”

“We will also brook no interference in the way we’ve run our home for nearly two centuries,” Petal said firmly over Rosewater, jaw firming and ears straight. “Friends and family will always be welcome in the Garden of Love.”

“I’ll chip in,” Dazzle said, leaning over to nuzzle Rosewater’s cheek, and drew back too slowly to avoid a kiss on the cheek. “Imp. If Petal can let me work more on the vats, we can start bottling more wine. I can help out in the furnaces, too, if we have a need of extra magic to handle the glass. The Gala’s in just two weeks. If we make out well there…”

Rosewater cast a silence spell to cover the entire breakfast area, getting everypony’s attention. “It’s actually a month and a half out, now,” she said, and told them about the missive she’d seen.

Petal closed her eyes. “We rely on the contacts we make at the galas. Now, more than ever,” she said with a groan. “I hope Roseate sits on a hot poker.”

“It gives us more time,” Seed said laconically. That seemed to be his default mode most of the time, as odd in her memory as he’d been one of the chiefest of troublemakers when she’d been a too-serious teenager trying to live up to Budding’s example.

But there was a glint of eagerness in his eyes that belied that notion. “I’ve been wanting to try some new strains of carnations. I’ve got enough rosehips from them now to make a unique additive to our wines.”

“I’d love to taste it when you have it ready,” Rosewater said, then looked around. “Does anypony have any questions?” When none came, she added, “I don’t need to say this is privileged information. I was not asked to keep it secret, because it will be coming out soon, but until then, don’t let anyone outside this room know that you knew it was coming.”

That did get her a few questioning looks, especially from the Prims, but a few of the Roses, too.

“Let me put it this way: my showing favor to anypony, or especially a group of ponies, would draw her ire. I don’t want to draw any more—”

“Let us worry about Roseate’s reaction,” Petal said firmly, standing up and raising her head high. “We accepted you. You’re one of us, now, Rosewater, and that means we take care of you, and you take care of us. Telling us about the delay will let us plan around it.” She tapped a hoof on the table. “You’re taking care of us.”

Seed smiled and nuzzled his mate. “Yep! Now I can play around with Petal… and have more sex, too.” He chuckled and stuck his tongue out.

“He hasn’t gotten any less predictable with his jokes, has he?” Rosewater asked, grinning.

“Oh no.” Petal licked his tongue, then kissed him. “And I hope he doesn’t. It’s charming.”

“Auntie,” Seed rolled his eyes and laughed when several ponies perked up and stared at him, then Rosewater. “Oops! That’s a secret, too. Sorta. If you’re blind. Of course ponies know you and Carnation looked after me. Stop worrying so much, Aunt Rosewater.”

Easy for you to say, Rosewater thought as she dropped the aural shield and nuzzled Bliss between the ears. “I’d like to visit again soon, and help with fragrances and talk shop.”

“Among other things,” Dazzle whispered, leaning over to nibble at the base of her jaw. “I hope.”

“I don’t want to monopolize you, lovely stallion,” Rosewater murmured, kissing his cheek. “You’re still courting Bliss and Roselyn, right?”

That earned her a small blush and glance at the two mares. “I mean, yes, but—”

“But I’m also courting another.” Another light kiss to the cheek, and a lighter one to his lips. “We both are courting others, Dazzle.” And one of them is a Dammer.

“I… I know.” Dazzle’s ears fell briefly. He sighed after a moment and smiled sadly. “I know you’ve been pursuing him, it’s the talk of the market when it’s not Roseate. He’s a good pony, but steadfastly a Dammer, as much as he accepts Merrier ways as valid.”

“I know. That’s…” It wasn’t shame, exactly, that stopped her from saying more, but a knowledge of what constituted Dammer mores. Accepting Dazzle’s invitation, and Bliss’s, was verboten to a Dammer courtship. And yet, in Merrie, and from Cloudy, she would expect no less than to be encouraged to find companionship if her lover weren’t able to be there for her. Denial of sexual drives was… foreign to most Merriers, even if they managed them well enough.

“You’re a Merrier,” he reminded her gently. “He knows that, and if he ever does turn to you, he’ll know that.”

“It will make it harder for him to accept.” Rosewater smiled all the same and nuzzled his cheek. “Still, I wouldn’t give up the fun we had last night. Any of it.”

Dazzle smiled and bobbed his head. “Likewise. I understand your reluctance, but will it really be love if he doesn’t accept you for all of you?”

Rosewater sighed and let the matter drop with a twitch of her ears. “Maybe not.”

Collar found Prim Coat a goodly distance from the door he was supposed to be guarding when he arrived for his morning visit, trailed by a servant carrying breakfast while he chivyed the mornings’ reports into his day pouch. “Coat, shouldn’t you be closer to the door?”

His guard gave him a long side eye, then sidestepped three steps towards the door. “Of course, my lord, you are correct.” He eyed the servant and levitated the breakfast tray free. “I’ll take over that.”

The servant took his cue and backed away with a bow before turning and making a hasty retreat back down the stairs.

“Coat, it couldn’t have been that bad last night.” He glanced at the door. “Could it? She’s been so well behaved.”

“Yes. Well.” Coat coughed. “Around you, yes.” He cleared his throat and looked around, then sidled up closer. “I had to cast a sound damping spell on the door after the first ten minutes. They were… energetic. For about an hour. Then they settled in to talk.”

“Cloudy has a good deal of stamina,” Collar said with a weak smile. “It seems Rosemary has the same?”

Coat eyed him quietly, his ears slowly folding back. “This doesn’t bother you?”

“No. I know everypony she’s had as a lover before. We can still look each other in the eye.” He made a point of looking into Coat’s eyes steadily for the space of a few breaths before setting his hoof to the door. “Its been almost a year and a half for me, Coat. I’ve had time to accept who she is and what the Principes means to her.”

“Come in, Lord Collar, Prim Coat,” Rosemary called through the door.

Collar raised a brow at Coat and opened the door, steeling himself to find Rosemary and Cloudy locked in a quiet carnal embrace. Thus, he was moderately surprised to find Rosemary combing Cloudy’s mane into something resembling orderly, the usual messy bob already resembling something more noble. “Good morning,” he said, cocking his head to the side at Cloudy.

“She insisted,” his lover said. “She said my mane got rather mussed last night.”

“Well, that will happen when you make love on your back,” Rosemary murmured loudly enough to make Coat look away with his cheeks coloring as he settled the table into the open space by the door. “It’s better if it doesn’t tangle. Plus, this looks more sleek.” She tugged Cloudy’s chin up and pressed her cheek in close as they both looked at him. “Doesn’t she just look lovely?”

“Doesn’t she?” Cloudy asked, her lips impishly perked as she tipped her head and flicked her ear against Rosemary’s.

He coughed instead of answering, hiding his flush at being effectively propositioned by his lover to accept her lover.

“Yes. But I wished to talk to you about volume control. I know this is the first time you’ve had sex,” he said, inducing a coughing fit in Coat, “in a long while with each other, but this is Prim Palace. I would rather you didn’t traumatize the staff.”

Rosemary had the sense to look abashed as she looked down, but that may have had more to do with her status as a prisoner than it did with any kind of embarrassment. “I did put a ward in the room… but the magic ran out before we were done.” Her ears flushed as she glanced at Cloudy. “I was too far gone to think about checking it until after.”

He sighed, glancing at Cloudy and spending a moment studying her. Her eyes were clearer, her smile steady and her ears perked forward under his regard. The faint melancholy that he’d felt about her since Rosemary’s capture seemed to be in abeyance. At least for the time being. Something he hadn’t been able to do for her.

“Thank you, Rosemary, for taking care of her.” He said, repeating the Rose phrase of one lover to another, and glanced back at Coat. “But please keep in mind that this is a place where propriety is important. I would appreciate it very much if you kept the volume down.”

Cloudy dropped her eyes to the floor and nodded. “I’m sorry, Coat. I was excited to be with my love again.” Her eyes met Collar’s, steady and with the plea that she loved him too still there. “I… I don’t think I could have had it be spontaneous. I needed to schedule it. I needed time, Collar, Rosemary, to settle my worries.”

“The Tussen Twee?” Rosemary asked quietly.

“In part. More…” She met Collar’s eyes again. “I was worried about you.”

“Why? Cloudy, I’ve told you over and over—”

“You’ve told me, but you haven’t shown me that it wouldn’t hurt you.” Cloudy looked up, ears folding back. “I needed to tell you I was going to make love to her, like I make love to you. I needed to look you in the eyes when I told you and see that it didn’t hurt you.”

He took his time thinking and examining his emotions. Rosemary and Cloudy were in love. In Damme, they would easily be looking at marriage. Just as he had been looking at with Cloudy. But a year and a half of dating, of making love to her, and a two of being her friend had acclimated him to her ways.

When it came to love, sex, and romance, she was direct and to the point, as most Merriers were he was finding out, in social settings. She had been his window into the wider Rose world, a personal guide to the ways of the city across the river, and his initiation into love.

It just wasn’t something he could talk to his father about, as much as he would have been happy to talk to Collar, and likely at length. Philosophical study of the difference between Merrie and Damme was one of his past-times, and application of his learning yet another.

But Cloudy was asking if he could still love her when she loved someone else, too.

Looking into her eyes, he saw the same determination he had when she’d professed her interest with her caveat. She was the same mare. “It doesn’t,” Collar said, stepping over to her and licking her chin, then her lips, and drawing her into a shallow kiss. “I love you the same, Cloudy. And I thank you, Rosemary, for taking care of her.”

It was the Merrier way. Lovers took care of each other, and thanking a lover’s lover was polite. That much, he’d learned from his parents in their diplomatic training for dealing with Merriers.

He’d never said it before, except in his head when she came back from a night with another guard. When he said it this time, aloud, his heart hitched, and he smiled at both of them. Something that had been missing in Cloudy’s life was back, and it showed in the way she glowed this morning.

He hadn’t lost anything by her loving Rosemary save a night in her embrace. One of tens of dozens he’d already shared with her, and if he accepted this, one of hundreds yet to come.

Coat, behind him, coughed. “If you’re quite done making up with your lover… or is it lovers now?” He laughed when Collar jerked around and stared at him. “Breakfast is served, Collar.”

“Lover,” Collar said firmly as he sat and poured himself a glass of juice. “Cloudy is my only lover, and I love her.” He raised a brow as Rosemary settled in across from him instead of Cloudy while Cloudy and Coat took up opposite positions. “But that doesn’t mean I am closed to the idea of adopting the Principes van Vrije for myself. If I find the right ponies.”

“And you don’t know me well enough,” Rosemary said before she took a bite of oatmeal and berries, and she glanced at Cloudy, sipping from her mug of coffee.

“I wouldn’t ask you to bond her without knowing her, just as I wouldn’t want to without knowing Rosewater better.” Cloudy grinned as she bent to take a bite from her toast.

Coat choked on his coffee and covered his mouth with a napkin until he got his coughing under control. “Cloudy, you can’t just make jokes like that!”

Cloudy chewed slowly, brow raised as she studied Coat, then swallowed and shook her head. “It’s not a joke,” she said, smiling. “She’s not who you think she is. Get to know her, Coat. Trust me, she’s… she’s much more open than you might think. Let her talk to you in a silence spell, and I promise she’ll want to get to know you.”

Coat chewed his lip before he took a bite of oatmeal and considered his bowl quietly for several more bites before he nodded and glanced at Rosemary, then back to his bowl.

It was better, Collar thought, for the request to come from her rather than him. From him, it could too easily be an order, and something to be followed without fully accepting what the request meant. He would think about it more, and if he decided to, it would be something he walked into with the actual intent.

Rosemary leaned over and kissed Cloudy on the cheek, whispering quietly in her ear after. Her eyes met Collar’s briefly, a curious look he couldn’t quite decipher passed behind her eyes, then went to her oatmeal, plain white stained pink by her strawberries, a private little smile curling her lips as she stirred in a dollop of white, thick heavy whipping cream.

He sighed and tried not to think about the little tidbits he’d heard from Rosemary and Cloudy when she’d come back. The two mares talked about sex like a Dammer might talk about the day’s bread. Frank, unapologetic, and uncompromising.

That he’d been in earshot seemed to be the point rather than accidental.

Still, it made him happy to see that Cloudy was barely restraining a giggle as she whispered in Rosemary’s ear.

“Yes, dear mares, I know what that looks like,” he said, rolling his eyes and fighting back against the feeling of his cheeks flushing.

“Oatmeal and cream?” Rosemary asked, innocent smile back in place on her lips. “It’s quite tasty. Especially with fresh strawberries. The last for a while.”

Collar held back a sigh and poured a dollop of cream into his oatmeal. It did look refreshingly rich and tasty, now that she said it, and far be it from him to pass up a chance to play down the overt flirtatiousness.

The last time Rosewater had found occasion to visit the countryside outside of Merrie during the day had been before Carnation had been taken, when she’d been seriously considering a stallion a year or two older than her for a mate.

Pine Rosewood, the second son of House Rosewood and the manager of their timber operations, had been, and to all accounts still was, a kind stallion with a heart of gold. He’d been able to look past her mother’s increasingly vitriolic positions on everything in the wake of Roseline’s passage and had gone on several very public dates with her.

He’d taken her on one date, less public, out to his family’s small home in the woods. Not far from where the land she’d helped Petal pay for was, in fact.

She might catch sight of him, if he was out with his family.

A wife, a husband, and two sons now, both under six years of age. It hurt to think that might have been her, with a child each from two loving husbands.

But it hadn’t been in their cards. Pine, in the end, had been too different of a personality. Too focused on the minutiae of day-to-day life, while she’d always been a larger picture pony.

If only she’d been more focused on the daily life, she might not have planned so far out as to alienate her friends, making her plans years in advance.

“You seem distracted,” Rose Petal said quietly. “We can always do this later. The land will be here tomorrow.”

“Thinking,” Rosewater said with a sigh. “I’ve rarely had reason to come out to the countryside during the day. It’s…” She looked around, making herself focus on the present instead of the past. The stubble of wheat stalks and bundles of hay lay everywhere. They would be gone in the next few days as the farm ponies who still lived in the small farmhouse moved across the river.

Birds pecked and scratched at the bare dirt fields, seeking the carelessly dropped seeds before they would need to migrate south for the winter, singing and squawking in little shifting clusters. She could identify some of them, the corvids especially were distinctive black spots that fed on everything, and the sparrows and starlings that avoided the clusters of crows and blackbirds.

Here and there, a rabbit or a slender ferret would appear, look around, and hop or scurry off in search of their food. They were barely audible as a rustle among the stalks.

The wind added its song to the mix, rising and falling through the forested hills to the south and carrying with them the smell of impending rain, a distant, cool smell that had a million different variations with it. It wouldn’t be a thunderstorm, and it wouldn’t come in from the sea.

It was going to rain during her and Cloudy’s date. Possibly into the morning. She pursed her lips and considered trying to get a message to her to call it off, then shook her head.

“It’s beautiful. Idyllic.” And the river flowed not a hundred yards to the north, low at this time of year, running rapid and rough over the rocky bottom. Its sound was more background noise than music. She lived not a hundred paces from its stone-bound banks. “I can see why you want a retreat here. Someplace for ponies to get away from the bustle. The river is going to rise soon, though.”

“It will. But the plot we’ve chosen is fertile, a good place for a garden once we’ve built up our own levee. With your investment, we can start on that.” A cover conversation for the Rose listeners surely among the traffic wandering the road along the river. She couldn’t risk silence, and she couldn’t not have a reason for being out in the countryside on the night of her next date. “Today, they should be laying out the basic foundation. Tomorrow, the levee foundation and drainage.”

“And the weather? I can smell it on the air. Storm front, it smells like, and a big one, from the intensity.” Rosewater glanced at her host, noting the nod as she raised her nose to the air. “We’ll need wind baffles to keep the rain out of the pavillion and common area, if it sticks around.”

“Seed knows how to make ponies comfortable, and he’ll have smelled it, too.” Petal leaned over and nipped Rosewater’s shoulder. “You worry too much. It’s still hours and hours away. They’ll have the foundation well settled by the time Seed gets here with the canvas material.” She took a deeper breath through her nose, lips slightly parted as she tasted the wind as well. “I can only smell it because you pointed it out.”

“I… trust is…” Rosewater shook her head. “I trust him to do a good job.” She didn’t, quite, but she would need to learn to trust again. If she wanted to court Cloudy and Collar, she had to trust they were giving her a fair chance to enter their hearts.

“It’s important to me this goes right. I’m putting my neck out, and so are you, by doing all this.” She waved a hoof at the spot already being tilled over by farm workers. “I need to trust they trampled enough earth and then pile more atop so that our campsite is above the surround. I need to trust that the food will be just right, the wine will be perfect, and the tents will all be waterprooofed and ready.”

“That’s a lot of trust,” Petal said genially, smiling up at her. “But I trust Seed. I trust Roselyn, and I trust Prism, and Dazzle, and Tremor. I trust all of our little family.” She pranced a step closer and pressed her cheek to Rosewater’s neck. “You’re a part of that family now, Rosewater. I trust you.”

So quick. “Why?”

“Because Seed knows you better than I ever did, but I still remember you, even if it’s a little more hazy. Because it’s more than just Seed. Budding loved you, trusted you. Because…” Petal looked to the ground. She shook her head, grimacing. “Because of things I can’t discuss out here in the open.”

There were too many of those to guess at. Rosewater chuckled. “You’re saying I have to trust that you have good reason.”

“And good reason to invite you out to dinner tomorrow with us.” Petal raised an eyebrow and grinned. “We’re going to Rosy Glow.”

Rosewater stiffened for a split second, then relaxed. Of course Petal had known. “I apologize for giving you the cold shoulder last time. I was still under quite a lot of misapprehensions.”

“Will you accept the invite? We’d love to have you.” Petal stopped at the edge of the square of dirt being trampled down with hoof and wooden bars. “I’d like to show Merrie that you’re not the Rose Terror,” she continued more quietly.

“I was wondering how I might start to approach that,” Rosewater admitted. “It’s been a long time since I’ve tried to be sociable.”

“Then you accept?” Petal nudged her ankle. “I can’t start planning Rosewater’s Return without the main star’s acceptance.”

“Fine, fine, I accept,” Rosewater laughed and bent to nuzzle Petal’s cheek. “By the Mare, I wish I’d come back sooner. Maybe—” Maybe things wouldn’t have had to happen the way they had. “Maybe I should pay attention.”

“Maybe you should. You might hear quite a lot you didn’t expect,” Petal said, looking at the group of workers taking a break while the rolling team flattened the eventual… it was too small to be a foundation for a building the size of the retreat would need to be. “Try smiling.”

She did, and even waved at the group of four earth ponies resting by a pile of dirt. They responded perhaps predictably, whispering among themselves and casting glances at her.

“Let’s go talk to them,” Petal said with an impish grin. “You need to get to know the common pony, Rosewater. You can’t hide at the garden forever, and you most definitely can’t hide in your house or business like you have.”

Let go of fear. Petal didn’t say it, didn’t know she might need to. It was something Collar or Cloudy would say to her. Something Rosemary would say to her. She needed to let go of the fear she used against Roseate. As much as it terrified her to lose such an important weapon, holding it hurt her more than it would ever hurt Roseate.

Rosewater hesitated for only a moment before she straightened and nodded. Roseate had been free to do as she wished for the past six years largely because Rosewater had been afraid of her retaliation against other ponies she showed a favor to, and especially against Rosemary.

She’s safe until Spring.

That was time to work. But it was much less time to work with than she’d have preferred.

To have a chance at her alternate plan working, she’d have to have the support of the ponies. She had one piece of that plan ready, thanks to Lace’s generosity, a kindness she would not let remain unpaid in kind.

“Good afternoon,” Rosewater said before Petal could introduce her. “I apologize for breaking into your breaktime, but I had a few questions about the project I hope you fine ponies could answer.” She hesitated, then bowed her head slightly. “I ask as a courtesy, not as an order.”

The four ponies, a mare and three stallions, all exchanged a look before the mare bobbed her head and rose, shaking herself briefly to clear the dirt from her belly. “Of course, m’lady Rosethorn. What did you want to know?”

“Rosewater, please. I’d prefer not to be so formal. I’m here with Petal, not as a Rosethorn.” She raised a hoof to cover the heart mark on her breast.

The mare’s ears flattened briefly as she looked to Petal, then back to Rosewater. “O-of course, Rosewater.” She tried a smile. “Ask away.”

“It’s going to rain, and possibly into the week,” she said briskly, then forced herself to slow, ears ticking an apology. “I was hoping you could set my mind at ease on how you’ll mitigate drainage issues. I’d rather not have the foundation float away.”

“Too,” Petal added, “we’d both rather not wake up with any wetness besides that which we bring with us.” She flirted her tail to emphasize the point.

The mare laughed, and the stallions behind her chuckled. “Oh, oh, of course. They’ve not arrived yet, but we ordered some wood planks from the Damme shipyard to lay across the ground after we get a few more layers built up, and a few foundation posts to sink into the ground. I expect we’ll get those later today.” She glanced at Rosewater, a sly look crossing her features. “I don’t suppose you could use that, hum, connection to ease their passage across?”

They knew. Rumors had traveled about her meetings with the leadership of Damme. About the way they trusted her enough to walk unescorted through the city. No doubt that was on more lips than not. It was an event that had rarely happened in the history of the conflict.

“I wish I could. Sadly, I wish not to cause my mother any reason to question my taking over of the negotiation for Rosemary’s return.” Rosewater looked to the west, and the palace tower looming above the city. “I want her back safely. I miss her.”

“Forget I asked,” the mare said, and glanced down at her dirt-covered foreleg. “I’m Rosebay Heart. I’d offer you a hoof, but…”

Rosewater offered hers. “But nothing, Rosebay. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Would you introduce me to your…” She bobbed her head at the three stallions as Rosebay took the offered hoof gingerly.

“Husbands. We’re the Hearts, of Heartstone Construction.” She stepped back to introduce her husbands. “They’re Gypsum, Granite, and Quarry. From Canterlot and Los Pegasus for the first two, Quarry was a Rosaria, but he liked Quarry Heart better.”

“Lady Rosewater,” they murmured in near unison, and she offered her hoof to each, putting out of mind the dirt on theirs. She was used to getting her hooves dirty in a metaphorical sense. Getting them dirty literally seemed cleaner.

“It’s a pleasure to meet all of you. I hope I can get to know you better as this project continues.” Rosewater touched her hoof to her breast and bowed her head. “Thank you for accepting the project on Petal’s behalf.”

“Sure thing. Work’s slow this time of year,” Quarry said, taking a place beside his wife. “And… just between us...” He looked around and lowered his voice from a rumble to a whisper. “None of us liked what Roseate tried to do. I dunno the full story, but thanks for stoppin’ her, whatever yer reasoning. Mate, or because of something else…” he glanced at his wife. “Lord Collar seems a right kind of folk, and he’s matin’ with a Rose, so he can’t be all bad, right?”

“No. No he’s not all bad.” Rosewater shook her head and glanced at Petal. “Neither he, nor his mother, want to stop us from having our loves, Quarry. I’ve spoken to both of them, I’ve studied him. The Prims are not our enemies anymore, and they don’t want to make us like them.”

Rosebay and her husbands studied her for a long moment before she nodded. “I’ll take your word for it.” She pursed her lips. “But down to business. By tonight, we’ll have a frame up for the eventual entryway. We’ll brace it with ropes and stakes.” She pointed a hoof and drew a line down from a point Rosewater thought must have been ten feet off the ground. “That’ll be sturdy enough to make a weatherproof tent frame for you, and big enough to have a few rooms if you want.”

From the pile of dirt and gravel they were leaning against and the square almost done being flattened and smoothed, it would be twenty feet to a side. She’d been expecting, before she entered the deal with Petal, a tent no more than six feet high and maybe five feet square. A camping tent, not a campaign pavilion.

“You didn’t think we’d let this first night out be in anything less than luxury, did you?” Rose Petal asked, giggling as she followed Rosewater’s gaze. “We’ve had the plans ready to go for months now, with only a little seed money not tied up in the vineyards to get started. Thank you for that, by the way, Rosewater.”

That got Rosebay’s attention more firmly. “You’re the reason Petal finally stopped nibbling around the shrub. Huh. I suppose you’re kinda our boss now, huh?”

“She is a half-boss,” Petal said with a snicker. “I’m the other half. But you should still thank me for arranging everything.”

“Wouldn’t think otherwise, Petal,” Rosebay said with a laugh, then glanced up at the sun. “Alright sweets. I think breaktime is over unless the bosses have anything else?”

“Not from me. I’m satisfied, Rosebay,” Rosewater said. “Thank you for your hard work.”

“Nor me. We’ll keep out of the way. I want to give Rosewater the grand tour now that she’s actually out here.” She reared up to put a foreleg across Rosewater’s shoulders and nibbled at her ear, whispering so low she almost didn’t catch it, “We wouldn’t want your first date to be anything less than perfect.”

Rosewater glanced back at the ponies talking around one of the heavy wooden rollers. Rosebay was looking at her intermittently while talking to the other workers. Fear spiked through her.

Those words would reach Roseate. The words she’d said directly contradicting her mother’s propaganda campaigns would spread, and there would be little doubt about who had spoken them first.

Reason settled back in as Petal tugged her along, showing her the wheat-stubble strewn ground where the baths would be, drawing lines in the air with her magic to show heights and walls.

There was nothing else Roseate could take from her that Rosewater wouldn’t defend. There would be no more concessions to Roseate. No more ‘If I do this, then she’ll leave my friends, my daughter, my family alone.’

“It never worked, did it?” Rosewater asked Petal, earning a confused look from the Heiress on the Hill. “Appeasement.”

“Ah. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn’t.” Petal rolled one shoulder loosely. “It depends on your mother’s mood at the time the appeasement happens. It never lasts, however. There’s always another condition, another line.”

The urge to justify her actions rose… and then fell again. She couldn’t justify abandoning her friends. Instead, she said, “It was hard to see that when it was I and my friends she was encroaching on.”

“It was. And is. The merchants I deal with daily keep thinking the way you did. That if only they roll over this once, it will be the last time.” Petal’s voice took on a mocking tone, “But if we only accept this extra tax on cilantro… If only we let Roseling founder. If only.” The mare gave her a serious look out of the corner of her eye.

“Roseling… I… I only had one night with her.” It had been a night of passions, hardly unusual in Merrie, but unusual for her. She was usually more under control.

“Remember the good time you had.” Petal flicked an ear.

Rosewater shook her head slowly. “I was… lost with her. Either the wine, or the company, something about her… it captured my attention that night. Roseate must have seen me with her.”

“She did, but I’m glad you didn’t notice.” Petal nipped her shoulder “You needed to have fun. It made me worry for Roseling in the short term when Roseate turned loose the goons, but… she’s recovered. Mostly. She still complains about you when we have lunch.” Petal grinned suddenly. “It’s part of why I was so reluctant to let you in at first. I didn’t want you to run away again.”

“I’m not running.”

“Good. I’d hate to have Seed beat down your door and drag you back.” Petal showed her teeth in a predatory smile. “And now… you’re one of us. You won’t leave. I know that much about you.”

Rosewater snorted and tossed her head. “I’m not leaving. Not after having the error of my ways shoved in my nose. But… it could get hard, Petal.” She paused briefly to point at the rising spire of the Rose Palace. “She’ll make changes to processes, order the bureaucracy to slow down paperwork, or simply let some things sit on her desk. And those are the legal things she can do.”

Petal was silent for a time as the city grew closer and traffic to and from the closest farmhouses and barns swelled.

“That may be, but whatever legal or illegal things she may have planned, we’re not backing off from one of ours, and we expect the same from you.” Petal sidestepped and bumped against her shoulder. “Dazzle wouldn’t let you, anyway.”

A flush crept up Rosewater’s neck. “He’s a sweet stallion, and I don’t want to hurt him.”

“He’s embraced the Principes like few others. He knows what it means to have loves and lovers.” Petal’s side-eyed look suggested she’d somehow forgotten.

That settled slowly in her mind, warring with the need to also keep open the avenue for Collar, for Cloudy, whom she didn’t know hadn’t adopted much of the Tussen Twee in the meantime. Their one date almost a week ago was… vivid still, and she found herself drifting off and daydreaming of the chase in her workshop from time to time.

Maybe it was time to start reconnecting with others she’d left behind.

“Can I ask you to set up a smaller party at the Villa for tomorrow night, after Rosy Glow’s?” she asked after they’d passed the gate that marked the old entrance to Merrie proper. “I want to invite a few old friends.”

Petal smiled. “I think I can do that. Free of charge.”

Author's Note

Ahh... progress is being made. Slowly but surely, things are moving into place both for the gala, for romance, and for future events.

Also, I'm on vacation all next week, so have this one early! Love y'all.